We had some X-terminals with external power supplies. They had a habit of breaking, so we tried to source some new ones. 80 quid (thats over $100 in USA money). I was stunned. 80 quid for a black box transformer.
Anyway, the thing had the pinout of the connector printed on the bottom, so I hacked off the cables, soldered on some standard molex connectors, and wired three of them up to a standard PC power supply running in an empty case.
Back to the question. An Xterminal is a pretty low-power-usage device (no moving parts, and the monitor was on a mains cable) and that seemed to need an expensive PSU. A comparable unit to power a PC as well would be ridiculous...
Disposable cameras with flash normally have warnings on them, and for good reason. A friend and I took one apart and hacked out the circuitry that charges the flash. By poking the switches with a wooden spoon we could charge the flash up and then discharge it. Then my friend broke the flash bulb.
He then charged the circuit up. But because the flash was broken, there was no obvious way to discharge it. So he picked up someone's penknife and shorted across the flash terminals.
Nice bang. Nice flash. Nice shower of sparks. And two tiny notches taken out of the blade of the penknife. We didnt want to find out what it would do to soft wet flesh...
Subject: Important Information:.BIZ.INFO Domain Extensions
The new top level domain names with extensions.BIZ,.INFO,.PRO,
and.NAME have just been approved by global internet authorities
and will be released soon, but don't wait until then to register.
These domains are available NOW for pre-registration at:
http://www.[deleted].net on a first come, first serve
basis.
Yeah, so now I have a dilemma. Do I throw some money at these people and get a groovy.biz URL, or do I give it to this hippie guy who wants to heal the world with domain names? Or do I just think how lame and petty the net is getting and go back to publishing stuff on paper...
We just cleared half a dozen Tektronix X-terminals from our store cupboard. They were mono, 19" monitors, 4MB of RAM.
They came from a lab that now has ten colour Tektronix X-terminals, with 8MB of RAM and 17" monitors.
Tektronix no longer make X-terminals. However, you may find the ones by NCD useful, since thats what we'll probably end up buying to refit the lab next year. www.ncd.com
The only problem you may have with servers in your basement and an X-term in your loft is that its an awful long walk to put a CD or floppy in the drive. And if you want sound, you have to make sure your apps can talk whatever protocol the Xterm uses for sound. Not a problem in our lab where we dont want the students making noises!
If you want to spend less than $200 then thats really low budget. I can only think that you'll have to get a trackball and make sure its bolted down, or behind glass or something.
Or if you can find a broken laptop computer with a working touchpad you could rip that out and mount it on the machine somehow. Users might have trouble working out how to move the mouse pointer with it though.
How complex is the UI going to be? If its down to simple menu choices you might be able to wire up a keypad or some buttons to a serial port.
By the way, $200 for a touch-sensitive screen overlay seems pretty cheap!
Typical! got my mosix cluster going yesterday, and then Sun announce this!
Mosix involves kernel patches - does this Grid thing?
Mosix can migrate most processes, but there are some restrictions on threads, shared memory etc.
There's other queueing systems with process migration, checkpointing, etc etc. I'm sure a search on the new-look freshmeat.net will find them for you. As usual Open Source was there first...
The SidStation was used extensively on the single 'KernKraft 400' by Zombie Nation. I think it got to Number 1 in the UK, and pretty high all over Europe. A short extract from the Sound On Sound magazine's article:
Not only are the melody and the bass line both from the
same sound source: they're also the same SidStation patch.
"The bass sound is also a SidStation, it's the same thing
through a filter."
Sound on Sound is here but you need a subscriber account to read the latest articles. There's a SidStation article here
Zlibc is a read-only compressed file-system emulation. It allows executables to uncompress their data files on the fly. No kernel patch,
no re-compilation of the executables and the libraries is needed. Using gzip -9, a compression ratio of 1:3 can easily be achieved! (See
examples below). This program has (almost) the same effect as a (read-only) compressed file system.
When I moved into my house, I had to sign a contract with the gas, electric, and water companies. The contract probably lets them come in and play with their equipment whenever. Fine. But when I sell the house I dont have to enforce that contract on the new owners. They have to sign a new contract. If they don't want gas then the gas company will remove the gas meter and supply piping when my contract expires (which is when I move out).
Thats not how it works with this Sprint contract.
Consider what happens when you sell the Sprint-wireless house. You agree on a price, decide on a moving date, and then you let slip.
"Oh yeah, Sprint can come in here and play with this gear during workdays. I dont think they even have to give notice and if they turn up you can't stop them. I signed a contract, you see. Small print is on a website somewhere...".
It reminds me of all the old terms and restrictions on housing that can apply, and its the reasons we employ lawyers when moving house. They have to check up on all the old documents and stuff. Apparently I cant keep chickens in my yard. Perhaps in future the law guys will tell me about having to let Telcos in...
10.16 You grant to Sprint or any appointed subcontractors an irrevocable license to enter into or onto your Premises during normal
business hours, Monday through Saturday, in order to install, repair,
replace or remove Equipment. This license will survive termination
or cancellation of this Agreement and will run with the land and inure
to the parties' successors and assigns. (my bold)
Is that legal? You sign a contract that means
when you sell your house it still applies? They
can still bundle their heavies in to fiddle with
equipment even though you moved out four years ago
and Mr and Mrs Numbskull that moved in haven't a
clue what that funny wire in the wall is for?
I'm pretty sure that over here in the UK you can't
put terms and conditions like that on a contract.
Isn't there something in the US constitution?
Oh, I had to look up 'inure' on www.dictionary.com.
"To habituate to something undesirable, especially
by prolonged subjection; accustom"
A friend of mine has a daylight bulb in his home-office. Its a standard filament lightbulb but puts out a much bluer light than the standard type. Its not a halogen bulb either. He says its much better for reading and computer work.
Searching for 'Daylight bulb' on google gives me loads of links to reptile and amphibian sites, so I guess they are recommended for animals! See if your local pet store stocks them!
Take a piece of wood. Shape it into small sticks, square cross section at one end, round at the other, and patent it as a chinese food eating implement. Does that stop someone taking a piece of wood, shaping it much, much bigger, and patenting it as a skull-crushing device?
I would hope that a so-called 'gene patent' is only applicable to the area in which the patent is registered.
But I am not a lawyer, or at least I wasn't last time I checked.
Someone from one of the genetic research places was trying to explain this on BBC Radio 4 this morning. His argument was that they weren't patenting genes, but patenting medicines ('molecules') that used the genes as part of themselves. In other words, they take a chunk of DNA that makes a useful substance (say, insulin), then diddle around with it chemically to make it into a drug you can take orally.
They argue that if they can't stop other people using the gene in medicine then they cant afford to carry out the R+D.
So the media latch on to this and call it 'patenting life' and 'privatising genes'. The genetic sequence is not private, as far as I can tell, but the patents are designed to stop people making things from gene sequences.
Slashdot Mirror
We had some X-terminals with external power supplies. They had a habit of breaking, so we tried to source some new ones. 80 quid (thats over $100 in USA money). I was stunned. 80 quid for a black box transformer.
Anyway, the thing had the pinout of the connector printed on the bottom, so I hacked off the cables, soldered on some standard molex connectors, and wired three of them up to a standard PC power supply running in an empty case.
Back to the question. An Xterminal is a pretty low-power-usage device (no moving parts, and the monitor was on a mains cable) and that seemed to need an expensive PSU. A comparable unit to power a PC as well would be ridiculous...
Baz
Only one thing I can say to that...
Doh!
Its in the Springfield Mall - he's got left-handed versions of everything.
Disposable cameras with flash normally have warnings on them, and for good reason. A friend and I took one apart and hacked out the circuitry that charges the flash. By poking the switches with a wooden spoon we could charge the flash up and then discharge it. Then my friend broke the flash bulb.
He then charged the circuit up. But because the flash was broken, there was no obvious way to discharge it. So he picked up someone's penknife and shorted across the flash terminals.
Nice bang. Nice flash. Nice shower of sparks. And two tiny notches taken out of the blade of the penknife. We didnt want to find out what it would do to soft wet flesh...
Baz
Subject: Important Information: .BIZ .INFO Domain Extensions
The new top level domain names with extensions .BIZ, .INFO, .PRO,
and .NAME have just been approved by global internet authorities
and will be released soon, but don't wait until then to register.
These domains are available NOW for pre-registration at:
http://www.[deleted].net on a first come, first serve
basis.
Yeah, so now I have a dilemma. Do I throw some money at these people and get a groovy .biz URL, or do I give it to this hippie guy who wants to heal the world with domain names? Or do I just think how lame and petty the net is getting and go back to publishing stuff on paper...
Baz
Who's going to be the first to say the screenshots have been edited in Photoshop? (or gimp) :)
Baz
We just cleared half a dozen Tektronix X-terminals from our store cupboard. They were mono, 19" monitors, 4MB of RAM.
They came from a lab that now has ten colour Tektronix X-terminals, with 8MB of RAM and 17" monitors.
Tektronix no longer make X-terminals. However, you may find the ones by NCD useful, since thats what we'll probably end up buying to refit the lab next year. www.ncd.com
The only problem you may have with servers in your basement and an X-term in your loft is that its an awful long walk to put a CD or floppy in the drive. And if you want sound, you have to make sure your apps can talk whatever protocol the Xterm uses for sound. Not a problem in our lab where we dont want the students making noises!
Baz
If you want to spend less than $200 then thats really low budget. I can only think that you'll have to get a trackball and make sure its bolted down, or behind glass or something.
Or if you can find a broken laptop computer with a working touchpad you could rip that out and mount it on the machine somehow. Users might have trouble working out how to move the mouse pointer with it though.
How complex is the UI going to be? If its down to simple menu choices you might be able to wire up a keypad or some buttons to a serial port.
By the way, $200 for a touch-sensitive screen overlay seems pretty cheap!
Baz
So there's no proof that you can't trisect an angle, or square a circle, or find integer solutions of x^n+y^n=z^n for n > 2 (and x,y,z != 0)?
Baz
Typical! got my mosix cluster going yesterday, and then Sun announce this!
Mosix involves kernel patches - does this Grid thing?
Mosix can migrate most processes, but there are some restrictions on threads, shared memory etc.
There's other queueing systems with process migration, checkpointing, etc etc. I'm sure a search on the new-look freshmeat.net will find them for you. As usual Open Source was there first...
Baz
Not only are the melody and the bass line both from the same sound source: they're also the same SidStation patch. "The bass sound is also a SidStation, it's the same thing through a filter."
Sound on Sound is here but you need a subscriber account to read the latest articles. There's a SidStation article here
Baz
Zlibc is a read-only compressed file-system emulation. It allows executables to uncompress their data files on the fly. No kernel patch, no re-compilation of the executables and the libraries is needed. Using gzip -9, a compression ratio of 1:3 can easily be achieved! (See examples below). This program has (almost) the same effect as a (read-only) compressed file system.
See the web page for more.
Baz
But does it have the 1x4x9 proportions?
Baz
When I moved into my house, I had to sign a contract with the gas, electric, and water companies. The contract probably lets them come in and play with their equipment whenever. Fine. But when I sell the house I dont have to enforce that contract on the new owners. They have to sign a new contract. If they don't want gas then the gas company will remove the gas meter and supply piping when my contract expires (which is when I move out).
Thats not how it works with this Sprint contract.
Consider what happens when you sell the Sprint-wireless house. You agree on a price, decide on a moving date, and then you let slip.
"Oh yeah, Sprint can come in here and play with this gear during workdays. I dont think they even have to give notice and if they turn up you can't stop them. I signed a contract, you see. Small print is on a website somewhere...".
It reminds me of all the old terms and restrictions on housing that can apply, and its the reasons we employ lawyers when moving house. They have to check up on all the old documents and stuff. Apparently I cant keep chickens in my yard. Perhaps in future the law guys will tell me about having to let Telcos in...
Baz
10.16 You grant to Sprint or any appointed subcontractors an irrevocable license to enter into or onto your Premises during normal business hours, Monday through Saturday, in order to install, repair, replace or remove Equipment. This license will survive termination or cancellation of this Agreement and will run with the land and inure to the parties' successors and assigns. (my bold)
Is that legal? You sign a contract that means when you sell your house it still applies? They can still bundle their heavies in to fiddle with equipment even though you moved out four years ago and Mr and Mrs Numbskull that moved in haven't a clue what that funny wire in the wall is for?
I'm pretty sure that over here in the UK you can't put terms and conditions like that on a contract. Isn't there something in the US constitution?
Oh, I had to look up 'inure' on www.dictionary.com.
"To habituate to something undesirable, especially by prolonged subjection; accustom"
And it still didn't make much sense...
Baz
I imagine its because not only is it rendering the current frame, but also the six/seven frames of motion blur objects!
Baz
We're there already. But its not even a few lines of a song that people are singing.
Its... "Wazzzzzzzzzzzzuuuuuuuuuup?"
Baz
The wall is in the office of the appropriately named UK Mirror service.
Baz
This machine will have to change its name if it wants to sell in the UK where 'dulux' is a well-known name of household decorating paint!
Also, I'm slightly concerned about an anonymous coward posting this. It might well be someone from the company trying to get some publicity.
Surely mobile phone users need a WAP version of this site. Or would that be a CWAP version?
Baz
A friend of mine has a daylight bulb in his home-office. Its a standard filament lightbulb but puts out a much bluer light than the standard type. Its not a halogen bulb either. He says its much better for reading and computer work.
Searching for 'Daylight bulb' on google gives me loads of links to reptile and amphibian sites, so I guess they are recommended for animals! See if your local pet store stocks them!
Baz
Take a piece of wood. Shape it into small sticks, square cross section at one end, round at the other, and patent it as a chinese food eating implement. Does that stop someone taking a piece of wood, shaping it much, much bigger, and patenting it as a skull-crushing device?
I would hope that a so-called 'gene patent' is only applicable to the area in which the patent is registered.
But I am not a lawyer, or at least I wasn't last time I checked.
Baz
Someone from one of the genetic research places was trying to explain this on BBC Radio 4 this morning. His argument was that they weren't patenting genes, but patenting medicines ('molecules') that used the genes as part of themselves. In other words, they take a chunk of DNA that makes a useful substance (say, insulin), then diddle around with it chemically to make it into a drug you can take orally.
They argue that if they can't stop other people using the gene in medicine then they cant afford to carry out the R+D.
So the media latch on to this and call it 'patenting life' and 'privatising genes'. The genetic sequence is not private, as far as I can tell, but the patents are designed to stop people making things from gene sequences.
Baz
And we still drink in pints!