"Going over your testimony, you seem to blame Sprint for the loss of your business," Riley says, with mock bewilderment. "Is that correct?"
"They're providing a service to me, and they're not providing the security they should," Reubel replies. "So, yes."
If his argument holds up (which it most likely won't) this could mean interesting things for other telecom companies that provide less than spectacular security and maybe even the software industry (ahem... Microsoft anyone?).
I started out with Hotmail as my first real email address. For a while it was pretty unusable, the servers were slow and went down all the time. I hate to admit it, but the service actually improved after Microsoft bought them.
But, the downside to having the same email address for such a long amount of time is the fact that my address must be on every spam list known. I get at least 30-40 spams a day, and with the meager 2 MB of space Hotmail allows, if I don't delete all the spam every few days I stop receiving email altogether and get threatened with an account cancellation for exceeding the limit. And yes, in case you're wondering, I have the anti-spam feature on the second highest setting.
What I'm wondering is what is going to happen with this. If Microsoft starts giving my address to even more companies, and this is assuming they haven't done this already, my inbox will likely fill up faster than I can empty it. Looks like I may have to abandon the address altogether. My main issue is the fact that I registered for my Hotmail account using legit name and address info. This was before I realized what it would be used for, and as such I expect to receive a ton of junk mail via snail mail in the near future.
Why does the German government seem to be so inconsistent with censoring/banning games? Quite a while back when the game Carmageddon came out I remember I read in the news that the German version had zombies to replace the people that you could run over in the original. How is Counterstrike different?
Some people here seem to think it would be acceptable if they bought a system that did not work and the "solution" would be to run the computer at less than 1/2 its advertised speed. What if this applied to other parts of the computer?
Would it be acceptible if only the first 300 MB could be read by the CD-ROM drive?
Would it be acceptible if only the inner 6" of the LCD worked?
Would it be acceptible if only 64 MB of RAM was functional?
Speed is often a luxury, but in many cases it is a necessity. Sometimes increased speed can mean increased productivity, in which case the speed loss results in decreased productivity. Get Toshibas attention. Calculate the amount of time you spend waiting for processor limited activities and send Toshiba a bill for the time you would have saved had you used a faster processor. You most likely won't get the money, but you just might get an offer to return the product for a refund.
I would imagine it would be tough to tell anything at 81kbps. What's the resolution, like 100x100 (I refuse to install Realplayer, so I can't see for myself).
People seem to be alarmed that this will be used for malicious purposes, but the truth is in order for this to be indistinguishable from real life the "victim" will have to go through a complex semi-3D imaging process using all the possible range of motions of facial muscles. This could hardly be done discretely, at least with todays technology.
Patching together old footage of someone speaking and changing it into the desired context may work for lower resolutions, but at higher resolutions even sophisticated effects design firms can't do it effectively- think about those cheezy ads for dog food where the puppy dances around.
Ah, the wonderful memories of a childhood past. I spent many of my young years playing the Atari 2600 my brother bought. Probably the game I played the most was "Montezuma's Revenge" easily one of the most addictive games I can remember playing. I was only five or six at the time, so it is entirely possible that my memories are a bit hazy.
But, several years ago I found an Atari emulator and the roms to go with it. I was all set and ready to play Mousetrap, Montezuma's Revenge, River Raid, Pitfall, and all those other great games. It only took me a few minutes to realize that these games were nowhere near as fun as I had remembered them to be. Sure, in the 1980's they pushed the technological envelope to the limit, but their time has passed. Gameplay is not the sole factor in determining the value of a game, presentation is just as or even more important.
For me, the old Atari games will remain as the peak of video game entertainment in my mind, but to be perfectly honest, playing them only makes me realize how far technology has progressed.
This development of alternative fuels powering large areas is indeed quite encourageing, but given the difficulty of storing large amounts, I would think there would be materials more suited to the task.
For example, the May issue of Wired magazine had an article entitled Farming EU's Windy Coastlines about using wind turbines planted off the coast of Europe to generate power, some the size of the wing span of a 747. I'd like to see a self sufficient power grid built using this technology. Unlike many other renewable resources, this faces little opposition. Used effectively, it would be far cheaper than hydrogen.
This is a good step; any action that diminishes the powers of the evil oil empires is what I would call a good one. Perhaps it will even lead to more developement of hydrogen powered fuel cells and the like.
I used to be a hardcore gamer, but the past few years I've found myself less and less drawn to the console world. The last system I owned was a Nintendo64, which I sold two years ago, and since then I have played games exclusively on my PC. Mostly this is for the variety presented to me, but one of the main deterrents for me buying a console system is the initial cost. I already have a computer that can (reasonably) play most modern games, so why should I put out for some unecessary hardware?
GTA3 changed all that. Well, that and FFX. These two games have kept me up many a night pondering whether or not to indulge my fantasies and purchase a PS2. But, to be perfectly honest, $299 is not in my price range right now.
I'd have to say that if Sony even lowered the price of the PS2 to $199 to become more competitive with the Gamecube, I'd probably pick one up in a second. I've been waiting for GTA3 to come out to the PC for what seems like ages, and the opportunity for instant gratification would be irresistable. All I can say is, Sony, please lower the price and spare me the agony of waiting another month of agony waiting for GTA3!
I believe 802.11 and other similar forms of wireless will never be a viable last mile alternative. Similarly, very few people use cell phones exclusively. The inherent flakiness of wireless tech, real or imaginary, will keep most people from making the jump.
Major reasons why 802.11 and its variants will not solve the last mile problem (soon):
1. No agreement on standards (802.11, 802.11b, 802.11c, bluetooth, etc)
2. 2.4 GHz is already full and prone to interference
3. Security (though walking through a neighborhood and cracking the wireless encryption does sound appealing)
4. Whatever else I can't think of at the moment:)
It also has to do with the psychology of being connected to the "grid" so to speak. People feel so much more secure knowing they are connected to a tangible object- look at broadcast TV vs. cable, cell phones vs. lan line phones, etc.
A while back I got frustrated with the fact the LCD Projectors cost so much money to buy, and figured that it couldn't be so hard to build my own. So I took a 2 inch JVC active matrix LCD (no longer on the market, but the LCD's on the right work pretty well) which was the exact size of a slide, took it apart, and mounted it inside my slide projector. This sort of worked. The downside was that the heat from the bulb was too much for the LCD, and the image degraded into swirls of colour after 15 seconds or so. Later on I worked out a beam splitter-type arrangement, where the light from the slide projector was reflected at a right angle to the LCD, and a huge blower fan was cooling the works, and it turned out pretty well. The picture was kinda pixilated, but I didn't have all the perfect lenses. But not bad considering I only invested $150 USD in the whole project. I don't have pictures from those experiments, but I've gathered together a lot of different related resources, and made up this page, in hopes that you'll get some ideas and figure something out on your own. ( I'm going to put together another projector with the LCD on the right and take pictures of the whole process, and post the new article in the near future...)
Bill Saunders is one person who was building his own LCD projector. I previously had his email address listed with the others at the bottom of this page, and he was getting a lot of similar questions, so he wrote in with the following notes on his particular solution. This is one possibility, however there are many.
I cheated but here are the results I came up with: Components: 1) - LCD panel projector (ebay, $290 - Active Matrix a must!!! - 1024x768 Native (a lot scale up from 800x600) ) 2) - overhead projector (ebay, $40 - You want high lumens, long bulb life, cheap replacement bulbs, color balance wheel, (not absolutely required, only on high end overheads) 3) - TV card for PC (I got a cheap on ATI TV wonder, $40 ) 4) - Fast PC ( I've got a 400mhz celeron but will be going up to at least a 1.2ghz AMD ) 5) - Descaler ( Free software from the net - requires a lot of CPU ) 6) - Non existent "video level" plugin for descaler ( see below for description ) 7) - projection screen? ( I do mine on my "textured" wall and it looks a little blurry. - (oh yeah, a dark room makes the difference, not dark just dim)
Ok here's the plan... Buy the projector and LCD panel from ebay. Do your research. A lot of models on ebay are not that good. I got a Proxima Ovation+ 920 for $290. Its 1024x768 and active matrix. It takes NTSC video in (probably PAL too but cant be sure of that), S-Video in, and (S)VGA inputs. I don't use the NTSC or S-Video but you could if you wanted. Always lookup the manual online when you're evaluating a LCD panel. Also sometimes pixels burn out. They're not really noticeable in tv/video unless you have a white image like snow. Ask about the condition before hand. Get a return policy if possible. I actually got mine from a rental company called PC Rental. Everyone wants to dump the panels and go with the integrated projector. The Overhead projector should be good quality but that isn't required. I got a Dukane SunSplash 2200? for $40. Again do your research. I looked up the bulb prices for this model on http://www.bulb-source.com. My bulb type is $10.50 and last 75 hours (very approximate).
Now bulb life varies greatly according to your electrical supply. Poor line quality means poor bulb life. Even if I only got 1/2 the life $10.50 / 37.5 = 0.27 cents per hour. Good enough for me. One feature my projector doesn't have that I wish it did: automatic bulb switching. Some projectors have 2 bulbs and when one burns out you just turn a dial and the second bulb starts working. That'll be handy when you're in a movie or game and the bulb goes out. Anyway it all boils down to "do your research". I got a cheap TV card for my PC. I really want a HDTV card but I'm going to get the faster PC first. All of the magic happens inside the computer. The card I got cost $40 and works great. Fast PC - to make your video look great it has to be scaled up from 320x240(or whatever NTSC is - its low) to 1024x768 and deinterlaced. The faster the PC is, the faster this can be done, and the more "action" that can be reasonably viewed. Ie my 400mhz celeron does sitcoms and talk shows just great but watching fast sports gets jerky and gives me a headache. descaler is the magical part. These guys have produced software that replaces a really expensive video system. Try http://deinterlace.sourceforge.net. Oh did I mention fast PC above? Anyway their system deinterlaces and scales video. It looks great.
Biggest problem with the system above: white scenes get washed out to solid white and black scenes go to solid black. There is a VirtualDub plugin as well as a gimp plugin that are called "level" or "Levels" that adjusts the image accordingly. It dims the whites and brightens the darks. The affect is to reduce the color space. It appears to wash out the colors on a monitor but on the projector it lets you see the details in the dark areas and in the bright areas. When a plugin gets written for descaler to do this real-time, this system will be great. Not including the PC I got the whole system for less than $400. Works great as a large computer screen (quake III when the monsters are 5 feet tall), and works well as a video projector (even without the level adjustment).
That's about it...Good luck. Bill
Here are some other LCD projector plans recently mailed to me by somebody, I scanned them in for you:
By the time you are done going through all this information, you should be able to build a video projector that will work as well as any one of the brand name LCD video projectors that cost hundreds to thousands of dollars, for less than $300. To get started you need to know how these projectors work. It's quite simple really; the projector uses a different light source other than the LCD monitor. It magnifies the picture with one or more lenses and with the power of an alternate light source. It then projects it onto a screen for viewing.
Why use an LCD projector over a standard CRT/TV frensnel lens magnified projector? These types of projectors are large and heavy, and if you ever tried to make one, you will have found out that the picture quality is usually poor regardless of the type and size of lenses used. Even if the room is pitch black! The light source from a standard TV is just not strong enough to give you a clear, bright picture. If you try and use a different light source, you'll find that the glass screen of the TV causes enough of a glare to overshadow the picture and you wind up not seeing anything. You can get anti glare polarizing shields for a standard TV, but the cost is very high in comparison to an LCD. LCD's, or Liquid Crystal Display TV's are perfect for these types of projectors because the anti-glare screen comes with the TV, and it can be adjusted for different light conditions.
Choosing an LCD monitor for your projector: A decent LCD monitor which ranges in size from 2 to 5 inches diagonally, can be purchased via many internet or traditional vendors for under $100 USD. For $20 more, it's possible to find one that will accept NTSC, PAL and SECAM, so it will be more useful to people in areas other than North America. The LCD's will come with standard RCA video inputs, sometimes expanded from a 1/8th inch jack. Pixel count, and therefore resolution and picture quality is quite important. The better quality the LCD, the better the final projected image will be. If you're choosing this method of building a projector, you don't have to worry about taking your LCD monitor apart, because this projector uses a direct reflection method, rather than a pass through transmissive method that would require you to take the backlight off your LCD monitor.
Here you will find plans, wiring diagrams, and a complete list of all parts & materials needed, with step by step instructions to guide you through the construction process. After going through all of the information and plans, if you decide that you're not up to the challenge of building a projector similar to the one shown, there is information on where to buy a projector ready made, and explanations on how to set it up for use with your LCD monitor.
Where to buy pre-built projectors: You can buy these projectors pre-built. Go to your favorite search engine and search for "autograph projector" or "drawing" , "tracer" or "opaque projector". You'll find them on quite a few different websites, ranging in price from $30 to $400. You can also try looking at your local hobby, craft or art supply store.
I did a quick search and came up with the following. It's not exactly what you want for a video performance art environment, but it would suffice for at home in the basement TV and video watching: Go to www.leevalley.com and look in the gifts section. They sell low powered projectors, under which you can put an LCD monitor, and and use this configuration as a simple video projector.
Their 100-watt model costs $70 USD, and will magnify a 5 inch LCD monitor image to a 4 by 4 foot projected video image on your wall or screen. You can see a picture of their projectors here.
If you decide to buy one, all you will have to do to make the system work with your LCD monitor is to build a simple box to raise the projector high enough to have the LCD directly under the viewing area of the projector. Then hook up the LCD and do the adjustments as described in the setup section of the plans.
Er.. I thought the bulbs alone that powered the projectors cost several hundred dollars? Unless the manufacturers ridiculously over charge for the bulbs, I don't see how an entire system that costs several hundred dollars could compare to a system in which the bulb alone cost that much.
I've been reading the forums at DSLReports for a while now, and even found the software to do the uncapping myself. But, the stories about people who successfully uncapped their modems are always the same; the speeds were great for a couple days, and then BAM! No more internet connection.
It is awfully tempting to look at the benefits, but with cable being the only high speed connection in my area, I'm not willing to risk losing the service. Going back to 56k would just be torture. It doesn't matter how many people do this uncapping thing, as long as people realize that it could result in their broadband connection being terminated, their will never be enough to convince ISP's that maybe it shouldn't be a terminable offense.
I know ATTBI is planning on releasing a tiered pricing system for different speeds, so what I find more likely is that they will start charging you the rate for which you have uncapped yourself to. Could end up being pretty pricey if you've placed yourself in a business class service.
This reminds me of the Internet Weather Report, which I've only found to be useful when genius contruction crews disrupt a backbone with a backhoe.
I think the most useful aspect with for this could be a combination of the hack attack report and the internet weather report to see whether a server is simply suffering from technical issues or is being DOS'ed.
Okay, I think this would be obvious, but maybe it isn't to most people. Why would you compare the OS emulators to other emulators? Wouldn't it make more sense to compare the emulator to the actual OS in which it is attempting to emulate?
On the same day, in a separate case, U.S. District Judge Garrett Brown dismissed a case against the Recording Industry Association of America, saying that the association had not stifled academic research when it told Ed Felten, a Princeton professor, that his research into a music-encryption scheme violated the DMCA.
The government should have a friends/foes list like the one used in slashdot. Garrett Brown would surely be a welcome addition to my foes list.
One thing I don't understand about this case is the fact that Elcomsoft is based in Russia. What gives the US the authority to prosecute a foreign company under US law?
Well, not really, but the Simpsons episode, "Bart's Comet", where Bart discovers a comet was pretty funny. Skinner says something to the effect of: Location A at 04:45- No sighting. Location B at 04:47- No sighting. Location C at 04:48- No sighting. Location D at 04:49- No sighting. Location E at 04:50- No sighting. Location F at 04:51- No sighting. Location G at 04:52- No sighting. Location H at 04:53- No sighting. Location I at 04:54- No sighting. Location J at 04:55- No sighting. Location K at 04:56- No sighting. Location L at 04:57- No sighting. Location M at 04:58- No sighting. Location N at 04:59- No sighting.
If home astronomy is that exciting, who could resist?
Okay, I understood none of this summary, except MAPS is a corporation fighting Feyck over the DUL. But what is the DUL. And for that matter, what is MAPS- what do they do?
Yeah, I didn't catch the reference at first either. For those of you that didn't watch the show, the opening credits every week feature Bart writing a message repeatedly on the school chalk board, repetition style. Every week there is a new message. Last night, Bart wrote "I will never joke about cancelling the show again."
Sunshine in a bag is a new theme site specifically for Gnome-related themes (GTK, GTK2, sawfish, metathemes, etc.)
There is also kde-look.org for all of your KDE theme needs. For those who use non-KDE desktops, still check it out for an excellent collection of wallpapers, many of which are very penguin-centric.
IDE may be faster than SCSI in some benchmark tests, but in multiple drive machines where IDE drives share controllers, SCSI will always be faster. Plus, access times and transfer speeds aren't everything. The fact that SCSI supports multiple IO commands at the same time is a major contribitor to the feel of speed.
Most of the time the clerks can't run my credit cards through the scanner because the magnetic strip is screwed up, so they have to enter the numbers manually.
I've always thought it to be inconvenient, but if this is true maybe more people will purposely disable their cards in such a fashion.
While I think many of these precautions they would like to take are somewhat overly paranoid, I can't say that I disagree with them. With the possible implications running from no effect whatsever to a simple annoyance to a plague that wipes out all life on earth, I'd have to say that I too would prefer to lean on the side of caution.
But, if we take this much care in interplanetary travel, why not spend at least this much effort on intercontinental travel. Influenza accounts for thousands or more deaths across the globe each year, and by isolating the vectors it uses to spread across continents the various strains can be isolated and cause the flu shots to be much more effective.
I guess this is another upside to NASA- the public benefits from newly discovered technology some years down the line.
Slashdot Mirror
But, the downside to having the same email address for such a long amount of time is the fact that my address must be on every spam list known. I get at least 30-40 spams a day, and with the meager 2 MB of space Hotmail allows, if I don't delete all the spam every few days I stop receiving email altogether and get threatened with an account cancellation for exceeding the limit. And yes, in case you're wondering, I have the anti-spam feature on the second highest setting.
What I'm wondering is what is going to happen with this. If Microsoft starts giving my address to even more companies, and this is assuming they haven't done this already, my inbox will likely fill up faster than I can empty it. Looks like I may have to abandon the address altogether. My main issue is the fact that I registered for my Hotmail account using legit name and address info. This was before I realized what it would be used for, and as such I expect to receive a ton of junk mail via snail mail in the near future.
Would it be acceptible if only the first 300 MB could be read by the CD-ROM drive?
Would it be acceptible if only the inner 6" of the LCD worked?
Would it be acceptible if only 64 MB of RAM was functional?
Speed is often a luxury, but in many cases it is a necessity. Sometimes increased speed can mean increased productivity, in which case the speed loss results in decreased productivity. Get Toshibas attention. Calculate the amount of time you spend waiting for processor limited activities and send Toshiba a bill for the time you would have saved had you used a faster processor. You most likely won't get the money, but you just might get an offer to return the product for a refund.
People seem to be alarmed that this will be used for malicious purposes, but the truth is in order for this to be indistinguishable from real life the "victim" will have to go through a complex semi-3D imaging process using all the possible range of motions of facial muscles. This could hardly be done discretely, at least with todays technology.
Patching together old footage of someone speaking and changing it into the desired context may work for lower resolutions, but at higher resolutions even sophisticated effects design firms can't do it effectively- think about those cheezy ads for dog food where the puppy dances around.
But, several years ago I found an Atari emulator and the roms to go with it. I was all set and ready to play Mousetrap, Montezuma's Revenge, River Raid, Pitfall, and all those other great games. It only took me a few minutes to realize that these games were nowhere near as fun as I had remembered them to be. Sure, in the 1980's they pushed the technological envelope to the limit, but their time has passed. Gameplay is not the sole factor in determining the value of a game, presentation is just as or even more important.
For me, the old Atari games will remain as the peak of video game entertainment in my mind, but to be perfectly honest, playing them only makes me realize how far technology has progressed.
For example, the May issue of Wired magazine had an article entitled Farming EU's Windy Coastlines about using wind turbines planted off the coast of Europe to generate power, some the size of the wing span of a 747. I'd like to see a self sufficient power grid built using this technology. Unlike many other renewable resources, this faces little opposition. Used effectively, it would be far cheaper than hydrogen.
This is a good step; any action that diminishes the powers of the evil oil empires is what I would call a good one. Perhaps it will even lead to more developement of hydrogen powered fuel cells and the like.
GTA3 changed all that. Well, that and FFX. These two games have kept me up many a night pondering whether or not to indulge my fantasies and purchase a PS2. But, to be perfectly honest, $299 is not in my price range right now.
I'd have to say that if Sony even lowered the price of the PS2 to $199 to become more competitive with the Gamecube, I'd probably pick one up in a second. I've been waiting for GTA3 to come out to the PC for what seems like ages, and the opportunity for instant gratification would be irresistable. All I can say is, Sony, please lower the price and spare me the agony of waiting another month of agony waiting for GTA3!
Major reasons why 802.11 and its variants will not solve the last mile problem (soon):
1. No agreement on standards (802.11, 802.11b, 802.11c, bluetooth, etc) :)
2. 2.4 GHz is already full and prone to interference
3. Security (though walking through a neighborhood and cracking the wireless encryption does sound appealing)
4. Whatever else I can't think of at the moment
It also has to do with the psychology of being connected to the "grid" so to speak. People feel so much more secure knowing they are connected to a tangible object- look at broadcast TV vs. cable, cell phones vs. lan line phones, etc.
A while back I got frustrated with the fact the LCD Projectors cost so much money to buy, and figured that it couldn't be so hard to build my own. So I took a 2 inch JVC active matrix LCD (no longer on the market, but the LCD's on the right work pretty well) which was the exact size of a slide, took it apart, and mounted it inside my slide projector. This sort of worked. The downside was that the heat from the bulb was too much for the LCD, and the image degraded into swirls of colour after 15 seconds or so. Later on I worked out a beam splitter-type arrangement, where the light from the slide projector was reflected at a right angle to the LCD, and a huge blower fan was cooling the works, and it turned out pretty well. The picture was kinda pixilated, but I didn't have all the perfect lenses. But not bad considering I only invested $150 USD in the whole project. I don't have pictures from those experiments, but I've gathered together a lot of different related resources, and made up this page, in hopes that you'll get some ideas and figure something out on your own. ( I'm going to put together another projector with the LCD on the right and take pictures of the whole process, and post the new article in the near future...)
Bill Saunders is one person who was building his own LCD projector. I previously had his email address listed with the others at the bottom of this page, and he was getting a lot of similar questions, so he wrote in with the following notes on his particular solution. This is one possibility, however there are many.
I cheated but here are the results I came up with:
Components:
1) - LCD panel projector (ebay, $290 - Active Matrix a must!!! - 1024x768 Native (a lot scale up from 800x600) )
2) - overhead projector (ebay, $40 - You want high lumens, long bulb life, cheap replacement bulbs, color balance wheel, (not absolutely required, only on high end overheads)
3) - TV card for PC (I got a cheap on ATI TV wonder, $40 )
4) - Fast PC ( I've got a 400mhz celeron but will be going up to at least a 1.2ghz AMD )
5) - Descaler ( Free software from the net - requires a lot of CPU )
6) - Non existent "video level" plugin for descaler ( see below for description )
7) - projection screen? ( I do mine on my "textured" wall and it looks a little blurry. - (oh yeah, a dark room makes the difference, not dark just dim)
Ok here's the plan...
Buy the projector and LCD panel from ebay. Do your research. A lot of models on ebay are not that good. I got a Proxima Ovation+ 920 for $290. Its 1024x768 and active matrix. It takes NTSC video in (probably PAL too but
cant be sure of that), S-Video in, and (S)VGA inputs. I don't use the NTSC or S-Video but you could if you wanted. Always lookup the manual online when you're evaluating a LCD panel. Also sometimes pixels burn out. They're not
really noticeable in tv/video unless you have a white image like snow. Ask about the condition before hand. Get a return policy if possible. I actually got mine from a rental company called PC Rental. Everyone wants to dump the panels and go with the integrated projector. The Overhead projector should be good quality but that isn't required. I got a Dukane SunSplash 2200? for $40. Again do your research. I looked up the bulb prices for this model on http://www.bulb-source.com. My bulb type is $10.50 and last 75 hours (very approximate).
Now bulb life varies greatly according to your electrical supply. Poor line quality means poor bulb life. Even if I only got 1/2 the life $10.50 / 37.5 = 0.27 cents per hour. Good enough for me. One feature my projector doesn't have that I wish it did: automatic bulb switching. Some projectors have 2 bulbs and when one burns out you just turn a dial and the second bulb starts working. That'll be handy when you're in a movie or game and the bulb goes out. Anyway it all boils down to "do your research". I got a cheap TV card for my PC. I really want a HDTV card but I'm going to get the faster PC first. All of the magic happens inside the computer. The card I got cost $40 and works great. Fast PC - to make your video look great it has to be scaled up from 320x240(or whatever NTSC is - its low) to 1024x768 and deinterlaced. The
faster the PC is, the faster this can be done, and the more "action" that can be reasonably viewed. Ie my 400mhz celeron does sitcoms and talk shows just great but watching fast sports gets jerky and gives me a headache. descaler is the magical part. These guys have produced software that replaces a really expensive video system. Try http://deinterlace.sourceforge.net. Oh did I mention fast PC above? Anyway their system deinterlaces and scales video. It looks great.
Biggest problem with the system above: white scenes get washed out to solid white and black scenes go to solid black. There is a VirtualDub plugin as well as a gimp plugin that are called "level" or "Levels" that adjusts the image accordingly. It dims the whites and brightens the darks. The affect is to reduce the color space. It appears to wash out the colors on a monitor but on the projector it lets you see the details in the dark areas and in the bright areas. When a plugin gets written for descaler to do this real-time, this system will be great. Not including the PC I got the whole system for less than $400.
Works great as a large computer screen (quake III when the monsters are 5 feet tall), and works well as a video projector (even without the level adjustment).
That's about it...Good luck.
Bill
Here are some other LCD projector plans recently mailed to me by somebody, I scanned them in for you:
By the time you are done going through all this information, you should be able to build a video projector that will work as well as any one of the brand name LCD video projectors that cost hundreds to thousands of dollars, for less than $300. To get started you need to know how these projectors work. It's quite simple really; the projector uses a different light source other than the LCD monitor. It magnifies the picture with one or more lenses and with the power of an alternate light source. It then projects it onto a screen for viewing.
Why use an LCD projector over a standard CRT/TV frensnel lens magnified projector? These types of projectors are large and heavy, and if you ever tried to make one, you will have found out that the picture quality is usually poor regardless of the type and size of lenses used. Even if the room is pitch black! The light source from a standard TV is just not strong enough to give you a clear, bright picture. If you try and use a different light source, you'll find that the glass screen of the TV causes enough of a glare to overshadow the picture and you wind up not seeing anything. You can get anti glare polarizing shields for a standard TV, but the cost is very high in comparison to an LCD. LCD's, or Liquid Crystal Display TV's are perfect for these types of projectors because the anti-glare screen comes with the TV, and it can be adjusted for different light conditions.
Choosing an LCD monitor for your projector: A decent LCD monitor which ranges in size from 2 to 5 inches diagonally, can be purchased via many internet or traditional vendors for under $100 USD. For $20 more, it's possible to find one that will accept NTSC, PAL and SECAM, so it will be more useful to people in areas other than North America. The LCD's will come with standard RCA video inputs, sometimes expanded from a 1/8th inch jack. Pixel count, and therefore resolution and picture quality is quite important. The better quality the LCD, the better the final projected image will be. If you're choosing this method of building a projector, you don't have to worry about taking your LCD monitor apart, because this projector uses a direct reflection method, rather than a pass through transmissive method that would require you to take the backlight off your LCD monitor.
Here you will find plans, wiring diagrams, and a complete list of all parts & materials needed, with step by step instructions to guide you through the construction process. After going through all of the information and plans, if you decide that you're not up to the challenge of building a projector similar to the one shown, there is information on where to buy a projector ready made, and explanations on how to set it up for use with your LCD monitor.
Where to buy pre-built projectors: You can buy these projectors pre-built. Go to your favorite search engine and search for "autograph projector" or "drawing" , "tracer" or "opaque projector". You'll find them on quite a few different websites, ranging in price from $30 to $400. You can also try looking at your local hobby, craft or art supply store.
I did a quick search and came up with the following. It's not exactly what you want for a video performance art environment, but it would suffice for at home in the basement TV and video watching:
Go to www.leevalley.com and look in the gifts section. They sell low powered projectors, under which you can put an LCD monitor, and and use this configuration as a simple video projector.
Their 100-watt model costs $70 USD, and will magnify a 5 inch LCD monitor image to a 4 by 4 foot projected video image on your wall or screen. You can see a picture of their projectors here.
If you decide to buy one, all you will have to do to make the system work with your LCD monitor is to build a simple box to raise the projector high enough to have the LCD directly under the viewing area of the projector. Then hook up the LCD and do the adjustments as described in the setup section of the plans.
Er.. I thought the bulbs alone that powered the projectors cost several hundred dollars? Unless the manufacturers ridiculously over charge for the bulbs, I don't see how an entire system that costs several hundred dollars could compare to a system in which the bulb alone cost that much.
It is awfully tempting to look at the benefits, but with cable being the only high speed connection in my area, I'm not willing to risk losing the service. Going back to 56k would just be torture. It doesn't matter how many people do this uncapping thing, as long as people realize that it could result in their broadband connection being terminated, their will never be enough to convince ISP's that maybe it shouldn't be a terminable offense.
I know ATTBI is planning on releasing a tiered pricing system for different speeds, so what I find more likely is that they will start charging you the rate for which you have uncapped yourself to. Could end up being pretty pricey if you've placed yourself in a business class service.
I think the most useful aspect with for this could be a combination of the hack attack report and the internet weather report to see whether a server is simply suffering from technical issues or is being DOS'ed.
Okay, I think this would be obvious, but maybe it isn't to most people. Why would you compare the OS emulators to other emulators? Wouldn't it make more sense to compare the emulator to the actual OS in which it is attempting to emulate?
The government should have a friends/foes list like the one used in slashdot. Garrett Brown would surely be a welcome addition to my foes list.
One thing I don't understand about this case is the fact that Elcomsoft is based in Russia. What gives the US the authority to prosecute a foreign company under US law?
Well, not really, but the Simpsons episode, "Bart's Comet", where Bart discovers a comet was pretty funny. Skinner says something to the effect of:
Location A at 04:45- No sighting.
Location B at 04:47- No sighting.
Location C at 04:48- No sighting.
Location D at 04:49- No sighting.
Location E at 04:50- No sighting.
Location F at 04:51- No sighting.
Location G at 04:52- No sighting.
Location H at 04:53- No sighting.
Location I at 04:54- No sighting.
Location J at 04:55- No sighting.
Location K at 04:56- No sighting.
Location L at 04:57- No sighting.
Location M at 04:58- No sighting.
Location N at 04:59- No sighting.
If home astronomy is that exciting, who could resist?
Okay, I understood none of this summary, except MAPS is a corporation fighting Feyck over the DUL. But what is the DUL. And for that matter, what is MAPS- what do they do?
Yeah, I didn't catch the reference at first either. For those of you that didn't watch the show, the opening credits every week feature Bart writing a message repeatedly on the school chalk board, repetition style. Every week there is a new message. Last night, Bart wrote "I will never joke about cancelling the show again."
Wow, I should try to get a patent for that. I think I'll call it Divx. What's that you say? It's already been tried and was a colossal failure? Hm...
There is also kde-look.org for all of your KDE theme needs. For those who use non-KDE desktops, still check it out for an excellent collection of wallpapers, many of which are very penguin-centric.
IDE may be faster than SCSI in some benchmark tests, but in multiple drive machines where IDE drives share controllers, SCSI will always be faster. Plus, access times and transfer speeds aren't everything. The fact that SCSI supports multiple IO commands at the same time is a major contribitor to the feel of speed.
Of course, thanks to Bush and company, it's going to be illegal to do any research on them.
I've always thought it to be inconvenient, but if this is true maybe more people will purposely disable their cards in such a fashion.
But, if we take this much care in interplanetary travel, why not spend at least this much effort on intercontinental travel. Influenza accounts for thousands or more deaths across the globe each year, and by isolating the vectors it uses to spread across continents the various strains can be isolated and cause the flu shots to be much more effective.
I guess this is another upside to NASA- the public benefits from newly discovered technology some years down the line.