One of the main gripes I have about the offerings from APC et al is that only their expensive, high-current supplies have the connector for expanding the batteries. This is unfortunate for those of us who care more about running time than wattage rating.
The other thing that's irritating it that they rate these things in "VA" (watts?), when watt-hours would be a more useful to know.
Anyway, it turns out that it's not too difficult or expensive to jury rig your own UPS with extended run times. Pick up some 12AWG power cable, a couple of marine/RV deep-cycle batteries (don't waste your money on sealed or gell cell). Then take apart the UPS, and wire two of the 14V batteries in series with the internal 28V supply. Oh, and use a fuse.:)
For about $500 in all, I was able to build a UPS like this that could power six servers for over 24 hours.
Maybe it's just me, but this employer seems to be extremely cooperative. I wonder how much convincing he had to do in order to get this project off the ground.
His employer has a wicked fast connection, presumably because he's in the same building as the ISP. From reading the article, I figured he's probably paying for a few megs of base usage that he isn't using right now. So his employee's project is "free".
This is not a problem with just the inkjet companies. I recently purchased a Lexmark C710 color laser, and inside was a little note saying that "by the way, we jipped you on toner, these cartridges are good for only 3000 pages, not 10000" (I forget the exact numbers).
Aside from that, it's been a great printer. But I was pretty pissed to find that note. It should have been clearly stated on the web site where I ordered it, on Lexmark's site, and on the outside of the package.
Considering that they are written in assembly, it does indeed come with source code
Repeat after me: machine language != assembler source. You can disassemble it, but you don't get the labels, comments, formatting, and macros back. Good luck trying to do anything with that...
Don't be such a puss. Did you look at the photos? This mod doesn't involve cutting tiny PCB traces and reworking fine pitch ICs. All the connections are to clearly marked vias which already have solder plating. Just press each wire to the board at the point shown in the photo, and heat it up. Takes a couple seconds to connect each point.
Don't be afraid - go to rat shack and pick up a $6.00 soldering iron. This is not hard, even for a beginner.
The hemp was split into a congealed gel substance which hardenned when dried, and raw fibres. The two were seperated and then mixed together again to create a toughened credit card. Unlike the rubber cards, the cards contained their own ink, which would seep through when light pressure was applied, drying instantly due to the vacuum effect when the pressure was released. The "ink", again, was hemp derived
This is some funny shit! Why don't you sign up for an account so we can find your other posts?
What cracks me up is the moderators, imagining this magical land of bangers, roundabouts, and spotted dick, thinking "gumbies" isn't too far fetched... lol.
Why, exactly, does a cash register need to be running a multi-user, preemptive multitasking, protected memory operating system? For these kind of embedded applications, is it not easier to start without the OS, both in terms of development and hardware cost?
Maybe these cash registers run sendmail and apache.... or I just missed/dev/cashdrawer and/dev/paintmixer in the latest Mandrake.
Wow, i wonder how many people actually got that joke... In case you're wondering, Hypercard was a program (it really defied classification) that started shipping with the Macintosh Plus. Think VB + HTML + a simple database.
Actually, the first edition of Myst was written in Hypercard. I don't know what kind of newfangled language they're using nowadays, but that was the shit back when all I had was a Mac II and a caddy-loading SCSI CDROM.:)
wireless engineer here - little under three years experience
Wireless engineer? I looked at your resume, and it appears that you've done some web page design and sysadmin work. I don't mean to belittle your accomplishments, but according your your resume, an RF engineer you are not.
Resume tip: web design buzzwords are OUT. They're actually big minuses on a resume. Start over and try to elaborate problems you've solved, money you've saved the company, and products you've developed. Remove the "co-" shit, and take credit for your work. Don't be bashful. Remove the stuff you did 5+ years ago, or at least exaggerate the hell of it to match your current experience. This isn't entirely disingenuous if you've got the goods to back it up.
Also, make a few different resumes. HR folks spend about 2 minutes per resume trying to find something that catches their eye. So make a half-dozen resumes, each for a very specific position that you can fill. Don't mess around with the job boards - do your research and contact specific companies. Broad resumes that cover every possible position will NOT catch their attention. Research as many companies as possible - find out what they're currently developing, how well they're doing, and where they're hurting. Address their needs directly, and you will get the job.
A well written article. His main point is that contrary to the VC's thinking, you can analyze and predict success. However, he gives a powerful counterpoint aswell:
What drove Sony's shift from a disruptive to a sustaining innovation strategy? Prior to 1980, all new product launch decisions were made by cofounder Akio Morita and a trusted team of associates. They never did market research, believing that if markets did not exist they could not be analyzed. Their process for assessing new opportunities relied on personal intuition.
Re:Why you shouldn't trade your ibook for a vaio
on
Sony PCG-U1
·
· Score: 2
utterly useless Sony proprietary memory stick port
How dare they! Adding a feature you don't use.
When you're making hardware, you have a certain allowance of weight, power, size, heat, r&d cost, and production cost. Why spend it on crap like jog dials and memory sticks in lieu of useful things (like an expansion bay that accepts your choice of CD-ROM or extra battery, or a full-size VGA connector, or an extra pcmcia slot, etc.). Those gimmicks are *BAD*, not merely useless.
simple stuff like subject-verb agreement, and the use of active voice instead of passive voice.
IANAL (I am not a linguist), so perhaps someone can enlighten me as to what is wrong with using the passive voice? The last grammar checker I used would complain about any use of the passive voice, even if the sentence was gramatically correct.
I know that it is often used inappropriately, for example in loaded statements such as "Because your computer was not shut down properly...", but why should a grammar checker care?
Why you shouldn't trade your ibook for a vaio
on
Sony PCG-U1
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
I have a powerbook and a VAIO (model 503GCX or something). Originally I bought the VAIO because I needed a good Unix laptop, and both LinuxPPC and OSX were not up to snuff at the time. Now I've switched to OSX for pretty much everything. Anyhoo, here's my experience with VAIO vs (i|power)book:
VAIOs have absolutely horrible keyboards. Why do most laptop makers feel that they're doing us a favor by rearranging all the keys from what we're used to on our desktop machines?
the Vaio is thin, which is nice, but you sacrifice batterly life, built-in CDROM, and built-in standard expansion ports - gotta use dongles.
utterly useless Sony proprietary memory stick port
poor mechanical design. To get to the hard drive it takes about 20 minutes of carefully removing snap-in panels, and about 12 screws on the underside of the thing. Once you get the thing open, there are all kinds of little wires strung everywhere for speakers, trackpad, jog dial, etc. These have to be carefully disconnected in order to get the case open and get to the disk. Same sort of BS for swapping memory.
clunky power cord. the new white ibook power supplies are very slick. I wish I could get one for my bronze powerbook, but they're a little different so I hear.
no built in 802.11 option. Gotta have that stupid antenna nub hanging off the side.
I don't know what kind of improvements Sony might have made since I bought my Vaio, but I can't imagine they're anywhere near up to speed with Apple yet. I'm comparing a powerbook and a Vaio that were bought around the same time.
These are all the reasons why I don't get excited about the ever smaller/flimsier/less expandable offerings from Sony. If you want the mother of all laptops, get yourself a Mac, and take your pick between Linux (haven't tried the new Mandrake PPc yet - looks sweet) or OSX (I'm a sworn Mac convert now).
Step 1: Make cool hardware Step 2: Open up the architecture and some/all software Step 3: PROFIT.
It worked for Apple in 1979... we're slowly coming full circle.
I have a Sony DVD changer at home. The unit looks nice and all, but the software absolutely SUCKS MONKEY NUTS. The UI is slower than molasses, it took me two days to enter all my titles, and it sometimes forgets them or just gets confused about which disc is where. Most of the buttons on the remote don't work as expected - it's a mess. I will never buy another piece of home AV equipment from them again. That changer was an utter piece of shit, and it was entirely due to bad software. What could they possibly have to lose by opening the firmware?
Except for video games, it seems that Japan Inc. simply doesn't get it (or doesn't care) when it comes to software. Keep making the great hardware, but let the folks who know best hack on the software.
Here's a similar project I did a couple years ago in case anyone's interested. It's a do-it-yourself backplane for those highly integrated full-length single board computers. I was able to make a pretty cost-effective high density cluser using a single case with nine PCs inside - eight single cpu celerons and a dual PII. There was even some room left over for laptop hard drives between the cards. Total rack space: 6U. You could also fit this in a deep 4U chassis.
Theory generation may be driven by observation or driven by the fantasies of a madman---it doesn't matter.
He was referring specifically to a scientist's method, not his motivation. Discarding hard evidence because it's incompatible with one's hopes/expectations is downright wrong.
I could well be wrong about this - it's been many years since I've used a ][... I seem to remember that very little of the early Apple software would work with ProDOS. All the little BASIC games were no problem, but most of the commercial titles would boot directly from the floppy (not the System Master disk with DOS 3.3 or whatever it was). I don't recall having a way to save them to my hard disk.
So anyway, if I get this card and put ProDos on the drive, is there some way I can just load all my floppies onto there as images, and run them after booting into ProDos?
Well, IIAMR (Motorcycle Rider), and yes, the gyroscopic action of the rotating components of the engine along with the gyroscopic action of the wheels do have an effect. Ask any motorcycle instructor.
I know. I'm just saying that this is not the effect that keeps the segway upright.
As you lean forward, the gyro senses then tilt, and both wheel turn forward. You're applying force at the top, and the wheels apply equal force in the same direction on the bottom - so you move forward.
the Segway pushes back, powered by the internal gyroscopes
This is wrong. It's the WHEELS that move the segway and keep it upright.
The gyroscopes are tiny little sensors that detect rotational accelleration. To understand this concept, imagine a toy gyroscope - the kind enclosed in with a wire frame. As you rotate the frame around the axle, the wheel inside continues to spin at the same speed. If you were to continually measure the speed of the wheel relative to the frame, you can determine which way the frame is turning and how fast.
It's not like the gyroscopic action of a motorcycle wheel keeping you upright. If that were the case, segway would have to be incredibly big, heavy, and power consuming.
The gyros in the segway are no doubt piezoelectric - I'm not sure exactly how those work, but it's the same basic idea. They're about 1 cubic inch in size.
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One of the main gripes I have about the offerings from APC et al is that only their expensive, high-current supplies have the connector for expanding the batteries. This is unfortunate for those of us who care more about running time than wattage rating.
:)
The other thing that's irritating it that they rate these things in "VA" (watts?), when watt-hours would be a more useful to know.
Anyway, it turns out that it's not too difficult or expensive to jury rig your own UPS with extended run times. Pick up some 12AWG power cable, a couple of marine/RV deep-cycle batteries (don't waste your money on sealed or gell cell). Then take apart the UPS, and wire two of the 14V batteries in series with the internal 28V supply. Oh, and use a fuse.
For about $500 in all, I was able to build a UPS like this that could power six servers for over 24 hours.
Maybe it's just me, but this employer seems to be extremely cooperative. I wonder how much convincing he had to do in order to get this project off the ground.
His employer has a wicked fast connection, presumably because he's in the same building as the ISP. From reading the article, I figured he's probably paying for a few megs of base usage that he isn't using right now. So his employee's project is "free".
This is not a problem with just the inkjet companies. I recently purchased a Lexmark C710 color laser, and inside was a little note saying that "by the way, we jipped you on toner, these cartridges are good for only 3000 pages, not 10000" (I forget the exact numbers).
Aside from that, it's been a great printer. But I was pretty pissed to find that note. It should have been clearly stated on the web site where I ordered it, on Lexmark's site, and on the outside of the package.
Considering that they are written in assembly, it does indeed come with source code
Repeat after me: machine language != assembler source. You can disassemble it, but you don't get the labels, comments, formatting, and macros back. Good luck trying to do anything with that...
You have to really like soldering to do this.
Don't be such a puss. Did you look at the photos? This mod doesn't involve cutting tiny PCB traces and reworking fine pitch ICs. All the connections are to clearly marked vias which already have solder plating. Just press each wire to the board at the point shown in the photo, and heat it up. Takes a couple seconds to connect each point.
Don't be afraid - go to rat shack and pick up a $6.00 soldering iron. This is not hard, even for a beginner.
The hemp was split into a congealed gel substance which hardenned when dried, and raw fibres. The two were seperated and then mixed together again to create a toughened credit card. Unlike the rubber cards, the cards contained their own ink, which would seep through when light pressure was applied, drying instantly due to the vacuum effect when the pressure was released. The "ink", again, was hemp derived
This is some funny shit! Why don't you sign up for an account so we can find your other posts?
What cracks me up is the moderators, imagining this magical land of bangers, roundabouts, and spotted dick, thinking "gumbies" isn't too far fetched... lol.
Why, exactly, does a cash register need to be running a multi-user, preemptive multitasking, protected memory operating system? For these kind of embedded applications, is it not easier to start without the OS, both in terms of development and hardware cost?
/dev/cashdrawer and /dev/paintmixer in the latest Mandrake.
Maybe these cash registers run sendmail and apache.... or I just missed
Wow, i wonder how many people actually got that joke... In case you're wondering, Hypercard was a program (it really defied classification) that started shipping with the Macintosh Plus. Think VB + HTML + a simple database.
:)
Actually, the first edition of Myst was written in Hypercard. I don't know what kind of newfangled language they're using nowadays, but that was the shit back when all I had was a Mac II and a caddy-loading SCSI CDROM.
Amazing what you can do with Hypercard nowadays!
Furthermore, 7% would pay $20M to go to the Space Station (if they had the money.)
If I "had the money", I'd pay $3B for my own private space shuttle. Duh.
wireless engineer here - little under three years experience
Wireless engineer? I looked at your resume, and it appears that you've done some web page design and sysadmin work. I don't mean to belittle your accomplishments, but according your your resume, an RF engineer you are not.
Resume tip: web design buzzwords are OUT. They're actually big minuses on a resume. Start over and try to elaborate problems you've solved, money you've saved the company, and products you've developed. Remove the "co-" shit, and take credit for your work. Don't be bashful. Remove the stuff you did 5+ years ago, or at least exaggerate the hell of it to match your current experience. This isn't entirely disingenuous if you've got the goods to back it up.
Also, make a few different resumes. HR folks spend about 2 minutes per resume trying to find something that catches their eye. So make a half-dozen resumes, each for a very specific position that you can fill. Don't mess around with the job boards - do your research and contact specific companies. Broad resumes that cover every possible position will NOT catch their attention. Research as many companies as possible - find out what they're currently developing, how well they're doing, and where they're hurting. Address their needs directly, and you will get the job.
A well written article. His main point is that contrary to the VC's thinking, you can analyze and predict success. However, he gives a powerful counterpoint aswell:
What drove Sony's shift from a disruptive to a sustaining innovation strategy? Prior to 1980, all new product launch decisions were made by cofounder Akio Morita and a trusted team of associates. They never did market research, believing that if markets did not exist they could not be analyzed. Their process for assessing new opportunities relied on personal intuition.
When you're making hardware, you have a certain allowance of weight, power, size, heat, r&d cost, and production cost. Why spend it on crap like jog dials and memory sticks in lieu of useful things (like an expansion bay that accepts your choice of CD-ROM or extra battery, or a full-size VGA connector, or an extra pcmcia slot, etc.). Those gimmicks are *BAD*, not merely useless.
simple stuff like subject-verb agreement, and the use of active voice instead of passive voice.
IANAL (I am not a linguist), so perhaps someone can enlighten me as to what is wrong with using the passive voice? The last grammar checker I used would complain about any use of the passive voice, even if the sentence was gramatically correct.
I know that it is often used inappropriately, for example in loaded statements such as "Because your computer was not shut down properly...", but why should a grammar checker care?
I don't know what kind of improvements Sony might have made since I bought my Vaio, but I can't imagine they're anywhere near up to speed with Apple yet. I'm comparing a powerbook and a Vaio that were bought around the same time.
These are all the reasons why I don't get excited about the ever smaller/flimsier/less expandable offerings from Sony. If you want the mother of all laptops, get yourself a Mac, and take your pick between Linux (haven't tried the new Mandrake PPc yet - looks sweet) or OSX (I'm a sworn Mac convert now).
Sony almost has a clue now:
Step 1: Make cool hardware
Step 2: Open up the architecture and some/all software
Step 3: PROFIT.
It worked for Apple in 1979... we're slowly coming full circle.
I have a Sony DVD changer at home. The unit looks nice and all, but the software absolutely SUCKS MONKEY NUTS. The UI is slower than molasses, it took me two days to enter all my titles, and it sometimes forgets them or just gets confused about which disc is where. Most of the buttons on the remote don't work as expected - it's a mess. I will never buy another piece of home AV equipment from them again. That changer was an utter piece of shit, and it was entirely due to bad software. What could they possibly have to lose by opening the firmware?
Except for video games, it seems that Japan Inc. simply doesn't get it (or doesn't care) when it comes to software. Keep making the great hardware, but let the folks who know best hack on the software.
Here's a similar project I did a couple years ago in case anyone's interested. It's a do-it-yourself backplane for those highly integrated full-length single board computers. I was able to make a pretty cost-effective high density cluser using a single case with nine PCs inside - eight single cpu celerons and a dual PII. There was even some room left over for laptop hard drives between the cards. Total rack space: 6U. You could also fit this in a deep 4U chassis.
Theory generation may be driven by observation or driven by the fantasies of a madman---it doesn't matter.
He was referring specifically to a scientist's method, not his motivation. Discarding hard evidence because it's incompatible with one's hopes/expectations is downright wrong.
I could well be wrong about this - it's been many years since I've used a ][... I seem to remember that very little of the early Apple software would work with ProDOS. All the little BASIC games were no problem, but most of the commercial titles would boot directly from the floppy (not the System Master disk with DOS 3.3 or whatever it was). I don't recall having a way to save them to my hard disk.
So anyway, if I get this card and put ProDos on the drive, is there some way I can just load all my floppies onto there as images, and run them after booting into ProDos?
Is he Anonymous, or Howard? You only get to pick one.
I know. I'm just saying that this is not the effect that keeps the segway upright.
As you lean forward, the gyro senses then tilt, and both wheel turn forward. You're applying force at the top, and the wheels apply equal force in the same direction on the bottom - so you move forward.
And for the few of us who don't have flash - would someone mind describing the animation?
Two words: MIIIIIISTAAAA SPAKAROOOO!
If people can make themselves look 30 years younger on TV, you can do it for a job interview
He's forty years old and he wants to code, not open a lemonade stand!
the Segway pushes back, powered by the internal gyroscopes
This is wrong. It's the WHEELS that move the segway and keep it upright.
The gyroscopes are tiny little sensors that detect rotational accelleration. To understand this concept, imagine a toy gyroscope - the kind enclosed in with a wire frame. As you rotate the frame around the axle, the wheel inside continues to spin at the same speed. If you were to continually measure the speed of the wheel relative to the frame, you can determine which way the frame is turning and how fast.
It's not like the gyroscopic action of a motorcycle wheel keeping you upright. If that were the case, segway would have to be incredibly big, heavy, and power consuming.
The gyros in the segway are no doubt piezoelectric - I'm not sure exactly how those work, but it's the same basic idea. They're about 1 cubic inch in size.