This may work, but I should point out that my degree is in Computer Engineering and Design rather than Computer Science.
Think outside the box. Instead of thinking of a computer project that can occupy a couple of semesters think of a project that could use computing to improve its function.
By way of example, I wanted a PIC programming to control a ham radio transceiver using a program where I only had a rough flowchart. Rather than buy a programmer then struggle with the software I contacted a local university and they gave the task to one of their students. He got to work on cool hardware that had an actual purpose then write a paper on it and I got my programmed chip. Money also changed hands as (of course) all students are poor.
Also running a Mini-ITX server at home. With an 800MHz C3 CPU it's not the fastest machine on the planet but even with two hard drives in it consumes less than 100 watts @ 230v
As a fan of Walter (now Wendy) Carlos, Tangerine Dream, Tomita, Brian Eno and Stevie Wonder I bid you farewell sir and offer these few words of thanks.
The conventional door has one thing in its favor, reliability. The electronics controlling this beast had better be 100% reliable because a malfunction could take one of two possible forms:
1) Door fails to open. Having expected the door to open you then walk around with a nose like Mike Tyson for a few weeks.
2) Door closes early. Nasty, very nasty.
Call me old fashioned, but first thing tomorrow I want to see a real door on my office.
OK, this being Slashdot Everyone talks about the networking and forgets everything else. We've just had a quick brainstorming session here in the office and here's what we came up with:
1) Thermostats in every room, if possible linked to the HVAC to regulate temperature on an individual room basis.
2) Movement sensors and heat sensors in every room. Use these together and you can turn the lights on and off as someone enters and exits a room. They can also be used for burglar alarms and fire detection.
3) Motorized blinds on each window. You regulate the heat so why not regulate the light level?
4) Run a ring of 50-pair cable round the house with drop points in each room. This won't be good enough for computer networking but it can carry signals from sensors and commands to motors throughout the house.
5) Fit a whole-house UPS
6) Fit a whole-house vacuum system for cleaning. Just one big collection cylinder in the basement and nothing too heavy to carry around.
7) Panic buttons in each room
8) Numerical keypad instead of front door locks. Never lose your keys again.
When I navigate using a compass (yes, some of us still do) I need to know the difference between magnetic north and true north. This figure is either subtracted or added to my compass bearing so that I get to my destination.
All the astronomers need to do is know the difference between UTC and the true time then either add or subtract it. I'm sure that this could be done within the software that manages the positioning of the telescope.
I wrote NASA about this but no reply was received.
As we all know, cats always land on their feet when dropped. This task is achieved by rotating the tail in freefall and making use of Newton's third law, as the tail rotates in one direction the cat rotates in the other until its feet are pointing downwards.
How would a cat behave in a zero-g environment?
I suspect that the cat would spin its tail continuously in an effort to reach the right way up, but without access to either the space shuttle or an aircraft that can create zero-g I cannot prove this.
Three months ago we had a security audit carried out by an external company. The first thing they did was find a couple of unused offices and plug their laptops into the network points. I'm glad to say that there was no result.
If you want to take this further then use managed switches and assign each port in use to a specific MAC address. That way if a 'visitor' pulls the plug on one of your computers and plugs their machine there will still be a nil result.
No, he has NOT been twisted by the dark side, he has just been pissed off for the last time by Linux software which does not do the job.
We have a printer system that was developed for line printers and never matured.
We have a sound system that works most (but not all) of the time if you are lucky.
We have power management issues on laptops which Microsoft fixed in 1995.
And finally
I have a laptop running Red Hat 9 because Fedora 1, Fedora 2, Fedora 3 and SuSE 9.x all have so many major problems with their basic installation that the machine is unusable. My next laptop will be an Apple machine.
Instead of adding more features I for one would be grateful if the Linux software developers fixed existing software. Bug hunting is not sexy but it might avoid more incidents like this.
Given this supply chain there is therefore NO REASON why HP and Dell could not supply laptops with a blank hard drive so that the consumer can load their own OS. As the said laptop comes without an operating system (just a CDROM of drivers) it should therefore be cheaper.
I may only do tech support on a few servers and a bunch of desktop machines but my interest is in supercomputers and high-performance computing. There's a staggering amount of research out there including some fascinating papers by IBM which are available free on the internet.
The one caveat I would add is this, beware of the price of some journals. Some technical journals charge silly prices (like fifty USD per copy) for what is only a bunch of scientific papers. The supercomputer conferences also have steep fees. This will almost certainly keep a lot of the geeks away but it also strangles interest in the subject at birth.
1) Optimization of goods warehouse layout, use to ensure that the fastest moving stock is the easiest to get at.
2) Optimization of shipping times. If this is done right then you will get either the slowest trucks or the trucks with the greatest loads out the door first.
3) Work out the most efficient use of your loading bay(s). If movement space is limited in your loading yard then this could be a problem.
4) Examine stock levels with reference to as many external factors as you can. If it's always cold in May in your part of the world then you don't want to be stocking up on popsicles. Also, examine stock levels with reference to annual local or international events and festivals.
5) Report generation (the bean-counters always love their reports). If a report takes thirty minutes to generate on your existing system then consider re-optimizing the code for running on a cluster and see if you can get the time down.
This message posted from a bank server room with one 128 CPU Linux cluster and two 256 CPU Linux clusters.
So much for difficulties scaling. As for the number of security issues - zero. As a bank we tend to be worried about security which is why we dumped MS and SCO.
OK, we've had lots of clever answers about what can be done with this hard drive but so far I haven't seen the most important question being asked. So I'll ask if for you.
WHY WAS YOUR FRIEND BEING BUGGED?
Getting something done like this is not easy and whoever planted the listening device in your friends car went to a load of trouble just to hear her conversations. Government authorities do not bug people just for fun, so what is it that your friend has done to make the Feds (or whoever they are) notice her?
"Why haven't they jetisoned the foul beast from Redmond and migrated en mass to the Macintosh or even Linux?"
I have. This post was typed on a Powerbook, my server runs Fedora 3 and my wife has a machine for her use that is loaded with SUSE. We migrated all the computers away from MS Windows when XP came out and I haven't used a Windows system for months (the last time was at an Internet cafe on vacation).
Especially the braille buttons on a drive-through ATM. The day I see a blind guy using a drive-through ATM I'm giving up computers to make a living making childrens toys.
Slashdot Mirror
This may work, but I should point out that my degree is in Computer Engineering and Design rather than Computer Science.
Think outside the box. Instead of thinking of a computer project that can occupy a couple of semesters think of a project that could use computing to improve its function.
By way of example, I wanted a PIC programming to control a ham radio transceiver using a program where I only had a rough flowchart. Rather than buy a programmer then struggle with the software I contacted a local university and they gave the task to one of their students. He got to work on cool hardware that had an actual purpose then write a paper on it and I got my programmed chip. Money also changed hands as (of course) all students are poor.
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
Also running a Mini-ITX server at home. With an 800MHz C3 CPU it's not the fastest machine on the planet but even with two hard drives in it consumes less than 100 watts @ 230v
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
As a fan of Walter (now Wendy) Carlos, Tangerine Dream, Tomita, Brian Eno and Stevie Wonder I bid you farewell sir and offer these few words of thanks.
Regards
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
The conventional door has one thing in its favor, reliability. The electronics controlling this beast had better be 100% reliable because a malfunction could take one of two possible forms:
1) Door fails to open. Having expected the door to open you then walk around with a nose like Mike Tyson for a few weeks.
2) Door closes early. Nasty, very nasty.
Call me old fashioned, but first thing tomorrow I want to see a real door on my office.
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
OK, this being Slashdot Everyone talks about the networking and forgets everything else. We've just had a quick brainstorming session here in the office and here's what we came up with:
1) Thermostats in every room, if possible linked to the HVAC to regulate temperature on an individual room basis.
2) Movement sensors and heat sensors in every room. Use these together and you can turn the lights on and off as someone enters and exits a room. They can also be used for burglar alarms and fire detection.
3) Motorized blinds on each window. You regulate the heat so why not regulate the light level?
4) Run a ring of 50-pair cable round the house with drop points in each room. This won't be good enough for computer networking but it can carry signals from sensors and commands to motors throughout the house.
5) Fit a whole-house UPS
6) Fit a whole-house vacuum system for cleaning. Just one big collection cylinder in the basement and nothing too heavy to carry around.
7) Panic buttons in each room
8) Numerical keypad instead of front door locks. Never lose your keys again.
Discuss.....................
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
When I navigate using a compass (yes, some of us still do) I need to know the difference between magnetic north and true north. This figure is either subtracted or added to my compass bearing so that I get to my destination.
All the astronomers need to do is know the difference between UTC and the true time then either add or subtract it. I'm sure that this could be done within the software that manages the positioning of the telescope.
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
OK, one down but countless many left.
Who's next for the clue bat?
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
I wrote NASA about this but no reply was received.
As we all know, cats always land on their feet when dropped. This task is achieved by rotating the tail in freefall and making use of Newton's third law, as the tail rotates in one direction the cat rotates in the other until its feet are pointing downwards.
How would a cat behave in a zero-g environment?
I suspect that the cat would spin its tail continuously in an effort to reach the right way up, but without access to either the space shuttle or an aircraft that can create zero-g I cannot prove this.
Any takers?
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
Farewell sir and thanks from one engineer to another.
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
Unplug unused network points.
Three months ago we had a security audit carried out by an external company. The first thing they did was find a couple of unused offices and plug their laptops into the network points. I'm glad to say that there was no result.
If you want to take this further then use managed switches and assign each port in use to a specific MAC address. That way if a 'visitor' pulls the plug on one of your computers and plugs their machine there will still be a nil result.
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
No, he has NOT been twisted by the dark side, he has just been pissed off for the last time by Linux software which does not do the job.
We have a printer system that was developed for line printers and never matured.
We have a sound system that works most (but not all) of the time if you are lucky.
We have power management issues on laptops which Microsoft fixed in 1995.
And finally
I have a laptop running Red Hat 9 because Fedora 1, Fedora 2, Fedora 3 and SuSE 9.x all have so many major problems with their basic installation that the machine is unusable. My next laptop will be an Apple machine.
Instead of adding more features I for one would be grateful if the Linux software developers fixed existing software. Bug hunting is not sexy but it might avoid more incidents like this.
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
Given this supply chain there is therefore NO REASON why HP and Dell could not supply laptops with a blank hard drive so that the consumer can load their own OS. As the said laptop comes without an operating system (just a CDROM of drivers) it should therefore be cheaper.
Dell, HP, I'm waiting................
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
Well, the first thing we are going to do is add a firewall rule to ban all email to and from a .xxx domain and another rule to deny web access.
It may sound strange but our I.T. systems here are designed for work, not surfing porn.
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
Female reasoning, that should be random enough but you might have problems converting the actions of a woman into a series of 32 bit numbers.
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
I may only do tech support on a few servers and a bunch of desktop machines but my interest is in supercomputers and high-performance computing. There's a staggering amount of research out there including some fascinating papers by IBM which are available free on the internet.
The one caveat I would add is this, beware of the price of some journals. Some technical journals charge silly prices (like fifty USD per copy) for what is only a bunch of scientific papers. The supercomputer conferences also have steep fees. This will almost certainly keep a lot of the geeks away but it also strangles interest in the subject at birth.
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
1) Firewall/Router using BBI Agent software running on an old Pentium machine.
2) Server with VIA Mini-ITX motherboard and 4 x 120Gb hard disks running Fedora Core 3
3) Old Compaq laptop running Redhat 9
4) Mac Mini which has just been upgraded to Tiger
And not a Microsoft machine to be seen.
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
1) Optimization of goods warehouse layout, use to ensure that the fastest moving stock is the easiest to get at.
2) Optimization of shipping times. If this is done right then you will get either the slowest trucks or the trucks with the greatest loads out the door first.
3) Work out the most efficient use of your loading bay(s). If movement space is limited in your loading yard then this could be a problem.
4) Examine stock levels with reference to as many external factors as you can. If it's always cold in May in your part of the world then you don't want to be stocking up on popsicles. Also, examine stock levels with reference to annual local or international events and festivals.
5) Report generation (the bean-counters always love their reports). If a report takes thirty minutes to generate on your existing system then consider re-optimizing the code for running on a cluster and see if you can get the time down.
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
1) Feed all documents through a cross cut shredder, collecting the chaff into a garbage bag.
2) Take garbage bag to isolated corner of airfield.
3) Soak contents of garbage bag in jet fuel.
4) Set light to bag contents and report to commanding officer that task is complete.
If you don't have some jet fuel handy then a gallon of gas works just fine.
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
'The two-meter-(6-foot)-long orange glider with a four-foot wingspan'.
Last time I checked two meters was just over six and a half feet. What the hell, this is only Slashdot and who cares about a nine percent error !
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
This message posted from a bank server room with one 128 CPU Linux cluster and two 256 CPU Linux clusters.
So much for difficulties scaling. As for the number of security issues - zero. As a bank we tend to be worried about security which is why we dumped MS and SCO.
Next........
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
OK, we've had lots of clever answers about what can be done with this hard drive but so far I haven't seen the most important question being asked. So I'll ask if for you.
WHY WAS YOUR FRIEND BEING BUGGED?
Getting something done like this is not easy and whoever planted the listening device in your friends car went to a load of trouble just to hear her conversations. Government authorities do not bug people just for fun, so what is it that your friend has done to make the Feds (or whoever they are) notice her?
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
Farewell sir, and thanks.
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
"Why haven't they jetisoned the foul beast from Redmond and migrated en mass to the Macintosh or even Linux?"
I have. This post was typed on a Powerbook, my server runs Fedora 3 and my wife has a machine for her use that is loaded with SUSE. We migrated all the computers away from MS Windows when XP came out and I haven't used a Windows system for months (the last time was at an Internet cafe on vacation).
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
Especially the braille buttons on a drive-through ATM. The day I see a blind guy using a drive-through ATM I'm giving up computers to make a living making childrens toys.
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
and first post