I had an micro-controller course in which the Prof. wanted the students to build their own development kits based on the PIC. The prof. designed his own kit and had a custom circuit board made and a set of parts put together which he had some TAs package into zip locks. He wanted to sell them directly to the students for the cost of the parts, however this is against university policy, so he HAD to sell them to the students through the university bookstore which is a non-profit. The bookstore tacked on a 20% handling fee for the packages! The prof. was not happy with the way the store gouged its students and decided that his course did NOT need a text book and instead wrote his own course work which he made free copies for the students.
Simple, cancel the credit card that the RFID is tied to. Or just cancel the link between the RFID and the credit card.
SpeedPass, ExPass and the likes are just tied to a credit card normally of your choosing. The system basically translate said RFID to an account that points to a credit card.
That is a digital TV decoder, it does not recieve DirectTV directly. It is for handling Digital TV signals which is different from recieving a Satalite signal from DirecTV or Dish.
I wish, that would require some kind of DirecTV reciever on a PCI card or other like device so that you can get the raw un-decoded data. I have never seen one.
Because with the DirecTivos, they dump the digital stream straight to the HD without decoding it. This greatly simplifies the process so adding a second DirecTV reciever unit is really not expenisive. It on has ONE decoder which means you can only watch ONE show at a time (like most humans). The standalone units have to encode the analog data before putting in on the HD, so they would need an encoder for each stream (note even with digital cable it enters the Tivo in analog form).
DirecTivos do NOT have encoders in them, they also can not adjust the quality level since they store all the shows at the same quailty they recieve the data from DirecTV. Makes for a much cleaner setup, and better picture quality.
Well lets see, rain fade happens. But not nearly as bad as most people make it out.
I live in VA, and lost signal for maybe a total of 15 minutes during the last Hurricane.
I do not suffer rain fade just from regularly showers, it usually has to be a WHOLE lot of dense clouds in the sky. I have had DirecTV for about a year now and have only noticed rain fade about 3 times, the longest occurense was 15 minutes.
Also DirecTivo is smart enough to NOT record if the signal is completely lost. It stops and picks the show back up when the signal returns.
Actually you probably can not get much cheaper than DirecTivo.
If you are a new sub. you can get the DirecTivo for about $50, and with a DirecTivo you only pay $4.99/month for the Tivo service (and that is for the account not the number of boxes). For me in my area DirecTV is MUCH cheaper than cable. Also the quality of a DirecTivo is far superior than any other option available for non-HDTV PVRs. It records the direct MPEG stream no encoded done on the box. Also the DirecTivo can record 2 shows at a time!
Course if you want to do it yourself you can and it would be fun, however it would most likely not be as stable, quality not as good. And you probably wont save much money if you already have cable or directv.
1) If you are indoors and you do not know where you are, you need more help than a GPS unit could give you.
2) What? The protocol for GPS has not and will not be changing, unless you are talking about selective availabilty. which changes the accuracy, yes the gov't could make it unusable. However with the number of private services that now use and rely on GPS I doubt that would happen.
$500 for it is not too bad, considering a dedicated color GPS unit meant for the car costs MORE. And I imagine the intended use of this device is for the guy who travels alot for work. You fly into a new city get in your rental and use your PDA to find the office you need to meet at.
Well the powerline is used because any device you want to control is probably connected via powerline, so why make it more complicated. You also do not need much BW, however the X10 protocol could use an update to allow for more reliablity. But going 802.11b would make it difficult to make small devices, signal inside a wall would be a problem. And 802.11b would add a lot of expense if each device you wanted to control (every light in the house) needed an 802.11b interface.
Yes the problem with the coffee pot has something to do with the way the "local on" part of the module works. Because you can turn an appliance module on via cycling the power switch on the coffee pot. However if the coffee pot varies its resistance somehow during the turnoff stage the appliance module will think it needs to turn back on.
Had this problem with fish tank flourence light. There is a pretty easy hack to diasble the "local on" feature to solve this problem
Well a Hydrogen Fuel cell is a Hybrid vehicle, only diff is instead of using Gas engine for the electric generator you use a Hydrogen Fuel cell. They are working on them, however the Fuel Cells are very very expensive. Storage of Hydrogen very difficult and the energy density of hydrogen is very very low. Most of the Fuel Cell cars can only store enough H2 for about 100 miles. Also the infrastructure for H2 is not there yet.
Well one reason I have discovered when trying to make a website 508 compliant (there is a law require federal agencies to be accessible to the blind). Is that a blind person interacts with a site differently than a seeing person. Yes the seeing person can interact the same way a blind person can, however there are certain features that the seeing person can take advantage of for navigation or other uses as shortcuts to make it easier for them. This does not give the seeing person more data or contact but simply a different interface. There is more to making a site accesible than just adding ALT tags. Tables and input fields can confuse screen readers. Sometime you have to put extra text within tables that seeing person does not need, however to make the screen reader make sense you need this extra text.
Ok RISC and CISC are very loose architecture definitions. They refer to the number of Instructions (opcodes) that are in a processor. Most people agree anything under say 60 opcodes is a RISC processor. That is all that is needed to define a processor as being RISC. However there are usually things different about a processor such as the Memory Arch. either Von Newman or Harvard. Most not all RISC machines use Harvard and most CISC use Von Newman. Like the debate between RISC and CISC both have there plusses and minus. One important point about RISC is that in the early benchmarks of processor to processor benchmarks they would measure Instructions per second. Well of course the RISC machine would most likely win this test. But what really matters is how much work is done in that cycle. Usually(not always) it takes several RISC opcodes to do what one CISC opcode can. Also remember it is much harder to write a complier for a RISC machine than it is for a CISC machine.
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I had an micro-controller course in which the Prof. wanted the students to build their own development kits based on the PIC. The prof. designed his own kit and had a custom circuit board made and a set of parts put together which he had some TAs package into zip locks. He wanted to sell them directly to the students for the cost of the parts, however this is against university policy, so he HAD to sell them to the students through the university bookstore which is a non-profit. The bookstore tacked on a 20% handling fee for the packages! The prof. was not happy with the way the store gouged its students and decided that his course did NOT need a text book and instead wrote his own course work which he made free copies for the students.
Simple, cancel the credit card that the RFID is tied to. Or just cancel the link between the RFID and the credit card.
SpeedPass, ExPass and the likes are just tied to a credit card normally of your choosing. The system basically translate said RFID to an account that points to a credit card.
That is a digital TV decoder, it does not recieve DirectTV directly. It is for handling Digital TV signals which is different from recieving a Satalite signal from DirecTV or Dish.
I wish, that would require some kind of DirecTV reciever on a PCI card or other like device so that you can get the raw un-decoded data. I have never seen one.
Because with the DirecTivos, they dump the digital stream straight to the HD without decoding it. This greatly simplifies the process so adding a second DirecTV reciever unit is really not expenisive. It on has ONE decoder which means you can only watch ONE show at a time (like most humans). The standalone units have to encode the analog data before putting in on the HD, so they would need an encoder for each stream (note even with digital cable it enters the Tivo in analog form).
DirecTivos do NOT have encoders in them, they also can not adjust the quality level since they store all the shows at the same quailty they recieve the data from DirecTV. Makes for a much cleaner setup, and better picture quality.
Well lets see, rain fade happens. But not nearly as bad as most people make it out.
I live in VA, and lost signal for maybe a total of 15 minutes during the last Hurricane.
I do not suffer rain fade just from regularly showers, it usually has to be a WHOLE lot of dense clouds in the sky. I have had DirecTV for about a year now and have only noticed rain fade about 3 times, the longest occurense was 15 minutes.
Also DirecTivo is smart enough to NOT record if the signal is completely lost. It stops and picks the show back up when the signal returns.
Actually you probably can not get much cheaper than DirecTivo.
If you are a new sub. you can get the DirecTivo for about $50, and with a DirecTivo you only pay $4.99/month for the Tivo service (and that is for the account not the number of boxes). For me in my area DirecTV is MUCH cheaper than cable. Also the quality of a DirecTivo is far superior than any other option available for non-HDTV PVRs. It records the direct MPEG stream no encoded done on the box. Also the DirecTivo can record 2 shows at a time!
Course if you want to do it yourself you can and it would be fun, however it would most likely not be as stable, quality not as good. And you probably wont save much money if you already have cable or directv.
Right but do you have a Gas pump in your garage, so that you have a full tank every morning?
Now for long trips yes stopping to refuel is more of a hassle, but for daily commutes and going shopping it works very well.
1) If you are indoors and you do not know where you are, you need more help than a GPS unit could give you.
2) What? The protocol for GPS has not and will not be changing, unless you are talking about selective availabilty. which changes the accuracy, yes the gov't could make it unusable. However with the number of private services that now use and rely on GPS I doubt that would happen.
$500 for it is not too bad, considering a dedicated color GPS unit meant for the car costs MORE. And I imagine the intended use of this device is for the guy who travels alot for work. You fly into a new city get in your rental and use your PDA to find the office you need to meet at.
Well the powerline is used because any device you want to control is probably connected via powerline, so why make it more complicated. You also do not need much BW, however the X10 protocol could use an update to allow for more reliablity. But going 802.11b would make it difficult to make small devices, signal inside a wall would be a problem. And 802.11b would add a lot of expense if each device you wanted to control (every light in the house) needed an 802.11b interface.
Yes the problem with the coffee pot has something to do with the way the "local on" part of the module works. Because you can turn an appliance module on via cycling the power switch on the coffee pot. However if the coffee pot varies its resistance somehow during the turnoff stage the appliance module will think it needs to turn back on.
Had this problem with fish tank flourence light. There is a pretty easy hack to diasble the "local on" feature to solve this problem
Systems Secretary is more accurate. Cause face it you jump the minute your damn server pages you. And if the server messes up who gets blamed, you do.
Well a Hydrogen Fuel cell is a Hybrid vehicle, only diff is instead of using Gas engine for the electric generator you use a Hydrogen Fuel cell. They are working on them, however the Fuel Cells are very very expensive. Storage of Hydrogen very difficult and the energy density of hydrogen is very very low. Most of the Fuel Cell cars can only store enough H2 for about 100 miles. Also the infrastructure for H2 is not there yet.
Well one reason I have discovered when trying to make a website 508 compliant (there is a law require federal agencies to be accessible to the blind). Is that a blind person interacts with a site differently than a seeing person. Yes the seeing person can interact the same way a blind person can, however there are certain features that the seeing person can take advantage of for navigation or other uses as shortcuts to make it easier for them. This does not give the seeing person more data or contact but simply a different interface. There is more to making a site accesible than just adding ALT tags. Tables and input fields can confuse screen readers. Sometime you have to put extra text within tables that seeing person does not need, however to make the screen reader make sense you need this extra text.
Ok RISC and CISC are very loose architecture definitions. They refer to the number of Instructions (opcodes) that are in a processor. Most people agree anything under say 60 opcodes is a RISC processor. That is all that is needed to define a processor as being RISC. However there are usually things different about a processor such as the Memory Arch. either Von Newman or Harvard. Most not all RISC machines use Harvard and most CISC use Von Newman. Like the debate between RISC and CISC both have there plusses and minus. One important point about RISC is that in the early benchmarks of processor to processor benchmarks they would measure Instructions per second. Well of course the RISC machine would most likely win this test. But what really matters is how much work is done in that cycle. Usually(not always) it takes several RISC opcodes to do what one CISC opcode can. Also remember it is much harder to write a complier for a RISC machine than it is for a CISC machine.