You laugh, but the iPad makes an excellent clean room computer... The touchscreen works fine through gloves, and there is no fan+heatsink to spew dust everywhere.
The Gumstix would be the most robust option but that's a few hundred dollars.
You could consider the SitePlayer which is put together by a company that also does basic stamp clones, or a Parallax PINK.
These development kits run about $100. The SitePlayer would be a good option if you want to make more than 1 because the actual module is only $30, however if you are only going to build one of these tools I would suggest spending the extra $100-$200 and get a Gumstix because you can simply do so much more (and Bluetooth and WiFi over CF is are options as well, which could be useful later on).
Bus powered enclosures only come in 2.5" varieties, and even then, high rpm 12mm 2.5" HDs sometimes draw more power than the USB bus can deliver. The Firewire bus can deliver more power and should be able to power any 2.5" HD. No 3.5" HDs can be powered by a USB or Firewire bus to my knowledge.
I purchased a very inexpensive Vantec Nexstar USB2.0/Firewire enclosure, and have been very impressed. The plastic of the enclosure feels cheap, however it comes with rubber HD mounts so that you isolate any drive vibrations from the desk/ground.
For any enclosure, the two things to look for are: type of bridge i.e. Oxford900/911/922, and whether there is an integrated fan.
The Oxford900 is the legacy chip, do not buy one. The Oxford911 is compatible with large HDs and the 922 is Firewire800.
I use my enclosure for backup so heat was not an issue, however if you plan on using the drive full time, or as a boot drive, look into a more expensive enclosure that comes with a fan.
The question you have to ask is whether you actually want to use the data you'd gather from the clickers and how you want to use it. My statics class just switched from clickers back to a colored flash card system because the professor wanted a system to get responses from all the students in the class so he could get a feeling for students' understanding. The teacher projects a problem with multiple choice answers coded by color and can gage student response immediately without the technical hassle or cost.
This sounds like a perfect occasion to hack a tivo, at least depending on the size backup you are expecting. A series2 tivo accepts a USB WiFi dongle and a 120gb hd, running on a very low power computer. Much cheaper than buying some commercial solution if you don't mind getting into the guts of the box.
If you want to see some cool videos and read more about the actual design of the CMU entries (Sandstorm and H1ghlander) check out their website. The race log section is especially interesting.
I know two of the six members of the Princeton team, and their entry sounds quite promising despite lacking the infinite budget of my own school's entry (CMU). And while conquering basic controls problems including obstacle avoidance, I think the real problem as usual will be obstacle detection, not obstacle avoidance. As I was last informed the team uses only stereo cameras and image processing. It will be interesting to see how they can handle the low contrast environment of the desert as well as having no image stabilization hardware aside from the shocks on their truck. Anyway best of luck to the guys at Princeton.
Oh and as far as "the entire course" they mean a test course not the GC course which isn't released until 2 hours before the challenge itself.
I really don't think that's the issue here. The violence which is IMHO much much much worse than this sex mini game was previously advertised and people "knew" what they were buying their children. The scandal here arises from the fact that the irresponsible parent who bought the game for their child wasn't advised that in addition to beating up hookers their child could be exposed to slightly graphic depictions of sleeping with them too. Either way the priorities are way out of whack, but it's more a case of a 'feature' appearing without being advertised than a feature being objectionable compared to the rest of the game.
While this looks like a step in the right direction for tablet PCs, the docking style keyboard looks like a recipe for trouble, it looks like it's dangerously easy to break (snapping off because of the upright screen design) or at least damage the contacts from constant plugging and unplugging.
The burden then relies on XP Tablet edition to get good enough to rarely need a keyboard... something I don't think is likely to happen any time soon. So good in theory, but not quite the magic form needed to bring tablet PCs into the mainstream.
Sorry, I didn't mean my comment to be a correction, but rather to suggest a related idea. Although the HCII doesn't seem to have any current projects directly related to the headmouse situation, I'm sure there are several faculty members who are relatively well versed in alternate ways of interacting with computers restricted by disabilities. The Gestures Project seems most relevant in current research. If the project succeeds in being able to translate gestures into a computer representable form, then it is conceivable that the same technology can be applied to aiding the disabled in using their computers.
I don't believe that Carnegie Mellon has a medical school, however you might want to contact their Human Computer Interaction Institute. They can probably point you in the right direction.
While the bluetooth phone concept is good in theory, i find that the bluetooth bandwidth in practice with my phone, a Motorola v550 (i think,... don't remember the model #), is very low. I get peak transfer speeds of about 7k/sec in conjunction with the integrated bluetooth on my laptop. I don't know where the bottleneck is, but at this time it doesn't seem very practical.
Yeah, a network that I pay for in my tuition... it's not all paid by government grants you know. Undergrads subsidize portions of almost everything at research universities.
"2) Part of the 'problem' that has the RIAA/MPAA sniffing around a network they should stay the hell away from."
A private network is a private network. The sharing community on I2 is incredibly small compared to public p2p networks. It's not as though people discourage the MPAA from being worried about I2 when they measure speed records in seconds per full length DVD.
Finally, I didn't mod myself insightful. I don't think the tone of my first post really should have encouraged that kind of moderation.
Yes. I have one. The drivers are lacking for analog recording on low end machines. It hangs my 1ghz VIA C3, but the HDTV (viewing and recording) is flawless. This is only for terrestrial HDTV, however, not things like DirecTV
If you are really into tiny linux computers, you might want to check out Gumstix which are about the same size, in a different shape (like a stick of gum... get it?). It comes with USB (client not host), rs232, bluetooth, and a MMC/SD interface. Running the Intel Xscale, you can have a 200 mhz machine for a little over $100. Now if I could only justify buying one of these... maybe the tiniest wireless webserver?
Users of home information appliances and wireless LANs are currently exempt from paying spectrum user fees.
But the ministry plans to hit the users with these fees because such appliances use almost the same spectrum as mobile phones, whose users are required to pay the fees, they said.
Actually, if you had bothered to RTFA. They do tax cordless phones and anything that uses that spectrum. PLEASE,/., LEARN TO RTFA
Slashdot Mirror
You laugh, but the iPad makes an excellent clean room computer... The touchscreen works fine through gloves, and there is no fan+heatsink to spew dust everywhere.
You can use the chips for optical navigation too. I played around with one for an introductory robotics class, here.
Actually, you can make an appointment using a "Guest" account, just providing a name and phone number (which is not verified).
Why do you need or want lossless compression for spoken word? Just wondering....
The Gumstix would be the most robust option but that's a few hundred dollars.
You could consider the SitePlayer which is put together by a company that also does basic stamp clones, or a Parallax PINK.
These development kits run about $100. The SitePlayer would be a good option if you want to make more than 1 because the actual module is only $30, however if you are only going to build one of these tools I would suggest spending the extra $100-$200 and get a Gumstix because you can simply do so much more (and Bluetooth and WiFi over CF is are options as well, which could be useful later on).
Bus powered enclosures only come in 2.5" varieties, and even then, high rpm 12mm 2.5" HDs sometimes draw more power than the USB bus can deliver. The Firewire bus can deliver more power and should be able to power any 2.5" HD. No 3.5" HDs can be powered by a USB or Firewire bus to my knowledge.
I purchased a very inexpensive Vantec Nexstar USB2.0/Firewire enclosure, and have been very impressed. The plastic of the enclosure feels cheap, however it comes with rubber HD mounts so that you isolate any drive vibrations from the desk/ground.
s ures.html
m it=Go&DEPA=0&type=&description=nexstar&Category=0& minPrice=&maxPrice=&Go.x=0&Go.y=0
For any enclosure, the two things to look for are: type of bridge i.e. Oxford900/911/922, and whether there is an integrated fan.
The Oxford900 is the legacy chip, do not buy one. The Oxford911 is compatible with large HDs and the 922 is Firewire800. I use my enclosure for backup so heat was not an issue, however if you plan on using the drive full time, or as a boot drive, look into a more expensive enclosure that comes with a fan.
If you want to keep with the Mac Mini styling and have extra $$ to burn, consider these: http://www.123macmini.com/accessories/guide/enclo
otherwise the Vantecs are fine: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Sub
The question you have to ask is whether you actually want to use the data you'd gather from the clickers and how you want to use it. My statics class just switched from clickers back to a colored flash card system because the professor wanted a system to get responses from all the students in the class so he could get a feeling for students' understanding. The teacher projects a problem with multiple choice answers coded by color and can gage student response immediately without the technical hassle or cost.
This sounds like a perfect occasion to hack a tivo, at least depending on the size backup you are expecting. A series2 tivo accepts a USB WiFi dongle and a 120gb hd, running on a very low power computer. Much cheaper than buying some commercial solution if you don't mind getting into the guts of the box.
Check out the NPR Science Friday podcast off of iTunes... free and interesting.
If you want to see some cool videos and read more about the actual design of the CMU entries (Sandstorm and H1ghlander) check out their website. The race log section is especially interesting.
Oh and as far as "the entire course" they mean a test course not the GC course which isn't released until 2 hours before the challenge itself.
I really don't think that's the issue here. The violence which is IMHO much much much worse than this sex mini game was previously advertised and people "knew" what they were buying their children. The scandal here arises from the fact that the irresponsible parent who bought the game for their child wasn't advised that in addition to beating up hookers their child could be exposed to slightly graphic depictions of sleeping with them too. Either way the priorities are way out of whack, but it's more a case of a 'feature' appearing without being advertised than a feature being objectionable compared to the rest of the game.
Brew your own
While this looks like a step in the right direction for tablet PCs, the docking style keyboard looks like a recipe for trouble, it looks like it's dangerously easy to break (snapping off because of the upright screen design) or at least damage the contacts from constant plugging and unplugging.
The burden then relies on XP Tablet edition to get good enough to rarely need a keyboard... something I don't think is likely to happen any time soon. So good in theory, but not quite the magic form needed to bring tablet PCs into the mainstream.
Sorry, I didn't mean my comment to be a correction, but rather to suggest a related idea. Although the HCII doesn't seem to have any current projects directly related to the headmouse situation, I'm sure there are several faculty members who are relatively well versed in alternate ways of interacting with computers restricted by disabilities. The Gestures Project seems most relevant in current research. If the project succeeds in being able to translate gestures into a computer representable form, then it is conceivable that the same technology can be applied to aiding the disabled in using their computers.
I don't believe that Carnegie Mellon has a medical school, however you might want to contact their Human Computer Interaction Institute. They can probably point you in the right direction.
While the bluetooth phone concept is good in theory, i find that the bluetooth bandwidth in practice with my phone, a Motorola v550 (i think,... don't remember the model #), is very low. I get peak transfer speeds of about 7k/sec in conjunction with the integrated bluetooth on my laptop. I don't know where the bottleneck is, but at this time it doesn't seem very practical.
"1) An ass, and abusing a serious network."
Yeah, a network that I pay for in my tuition... it's not all paid by government grants you know. Undergrads subsidize portions of almost everything at research universities.
"2) Part of the 'problem' that has the RIAA/MPAA sniffing around a network they should stay the hell away from."
A private network is a private network. The sharing community on I2 is incredibly small compared to public p2p networks. It's not as though people discourage the MPAA from being worried about I2 when they measure speed records in seconds per full length DVD.
Finally, I didn't mod myself insightful. I don't think the tone of my first post really should have encouraged that kind of moderation.
I didn't say that they don't have a reason to be on I2. I just said I'm not pleased.
in saying "FUUUUUCK!" Internet2 is the best part of college. Streaming movies on demand at only the price of your conscience.
Yes. I have one. The drivers are lacking for analog recording on low end machines. It hangs my 1ghz VIA C3, but the HDTV (viewing and recording) is flawless. This is only for terrestrial HDTV, however, not things like DirecTV
If you are really into tiny linux computers, you might want to check out Gumstix which are about the same size, in a different shape (like a stick of gum... get it?). It comes with USB (client not host), rs232, bluetooth, and a MMC/SD interface. Running the Intel Xscale, you can have a 200 mhz machine for a little over $100. Now if I could only justify buying one of these... maybe the tiniest wireless webserver?
But the ministry plans to hit the users with these fees because such appliances use almost the same spectrum as mobile phones, whose users are required to pay the fees, they said.
Actually, if you had bothered to RTFA. They do tax cordless phones and anything that uses that spectrum. PLEASE, /., LEARN TO RTFA
In all fairness, the average machine is a WINDOWS machine. Mac/Linux/Unix desktops are just statistical outliers.