Yes, this is the way to go. Grab an older Android phone.
Fuck micro-controllers, just write an app. It's got wifi, bluetooth, ethernet (I assume that can be done over USB easily), haptic feedback...what else do you want on a hobby board?
Yes the high level of a standard smart phone is very useful. Especially for human interface. And WiFi/BT/ENet/USB for communication with other high level devices.
However, how many user programmable I/O pins does it have? How man AD converters? What if you want to read temperature probes or other analog devices? Or interface with other low level devices? Sure you could design a custom USB device to do that, but now you've defeated the convenience of using a smart phone.
The hardware depends on the application. If the project is primarily for human interface and network communication go for the smart phone. If the project is an electronics project you'll want a development board. Personally I like Teensy, but there are many good ones out there. Check out these neat projects.
My Sony Vaio F1 is a complete workstation replacement with full keyboard and full number pad. i7 quad core, 8GB ram, and 750GB HD. Near top of the line a year ago when I got it. The current F series still has the same keyboard. I highly recommend both the keyboard and the computer.
I've wanted to build one of these things for years. However my goals were a little higher. Complete motion tracking camera/servo system, and it would have fired paintballs or airsoft BBs... Too bad I never thought of the downgrade to common toy as a great selling point. Guess I'm and engineer and not a businessman.
I did the ultimate overcock hack to my old 386 16MHz. I auctually unsoldered the crystal oscillator from the motherboard and put in a socket so I could easily interchange oscillators for overclocking.
I managed to get it runing stably up to 25MHz w/o a heatsink (didn't need serious cooling back in the day). My max was 30Mhz, but that required a passive heatsink.
That's double clocks! I'd like to see someone do that with a modern processor! Too bad I never tried this till I had a P120, and my 386 was uber obselete.
You can get physics lectures on tape to listen to. I once borrowed lectures by Stephen Hawking, and Richard Fineman from a friend. The Fineman ones were great, but I can't find a link. The Hawking ones were good too, if you could stand the computer voice for hours on end.
Has anyone ever heard of cracking open NiMH laptop batteries and replacing the cells with standard of the shelf cells
I had a friend who tried this with his battery. And recently I tore apart an old NiCd laptop battery since I was junking it anyway. The cells are generally not common parts, and probably not labeled either. However they are often available through surplus companies.
I wouldn't recommend fixing your old laptop batteries this way as you could easily get it wrong and damage your laptop. And your laptop's worth a whole lot more than saving a few bucks on a battery. However if you want to try it just for the heck of it then you can probably find the parts someplace.
Also, most battery backs aren't designed to be disassembled. You'll probably damage it taking it apart, and have problems getting it back together.
I got a PalmV about 2 years ago. In college I find it extreamly useful tracking my schedule, homework, quick notes to myself, professor's contact info and office hours, etc. I seriously couldn't live withough it.
However durring the summer durring my internships I find it quite useless. I no longer have such a complex schedule and all the company info is already on my PC. So why bother with the PDA?
A PDA's usefulness depends really on what you need it for.
Slashdot Mirror
Need more TOR! https://guardianproject.info/apps/orbot/
Coincidentally today weather.com has a slideshow of the northern lights from a more terrestrial view.
Yes, this is the way to go. Grab an older Android phone.
Fuck micro-controllers, just write an app. It's got wifi, bluetooth, ethernet (I assume that can be done over USB easily), haptic feedback...what else do you want on a hobby board?
Yes the high level of a standard smart phone is very useful. Especially for human interface. And WiFi/BT/ENet/USB for communication with other high level devices.
However, how many user programmable I/O pins does it have? How man AD converters? What if you want to read temperature probes or other analog devices? Or interface with other low level devices? Sure you could design a custom USB device to do that, but now you've defeated the convenience of using a smart phone.
The hardware depends on the application. If the project is primarily for human interface and network communication go for the smart phone. If the project is an electronics project you'll want a development board. Personally I like Teensy, but there are many good ones out there. Check out these neat projects.
My Sony Vaio F1 is a complete workstation replacement with full keyboard and full number pad. i7 quad core, 8GB ram, and 750GB HD. Near top of the line a year ago when I got it. The current F series still has the same keyboard. I highly recommend both the keyboard and the computer.
I've wanted to build one of these things for years. However my goals were a little higher. Complete motion tracking camera/servo system, and it would have fired paintballs or airsoft BBs... Too bad I never thought of the downgrade to common toy as a great selling point. Guess I'm and engineer and not a businessman.
I did the ultimate overcock hack to my old 386 16MHz. I auctually unsoldered the crystal oscillator from the motherboard and put in a socket so I could easily interchange oscillators for overclocking.
I managed to get it runing stably up to 25MHz w/o a heatsink (didn't need serious cooling back in the day). My max was 30Mhz, but that required a passive heatsink.
That's double clocks! I'd like to see someone do that with a modern processor! Too bad I never tried this till I had a P120, and my 386 was uber obselete.
You can get physics lectures on tape to listen to. I once borrowed lectures by Stephen Hawking, and Richard Fineman from a friend. The Fineman ones were great, but I can't find a link. The Hawking ones were good too, if you could stand the computer voice for hours on end.
This is why I stick with slackware linux. It's still the cleanest smoothest runing linux distro I've ever used.
I was refering to the sparc 5's in the ECE building, but there are old sun machines all over campus.
What do you mean coming alive again? The ECE computer lab here at rutgers it still filled with them!
"I am also disappointed that you have chosen litigation rather than good faith discussions with SCO about the problems inherent in Linux."
I don't seem to remember SCO giving IBM much of a chance for "good faith discussions"
Has anyone ever heard of cracking open NiMH laptop batteries and replacing the cells with standard of the shelf cells
I had a friend who tried this with his battery. And recently I tore apart an old NiCd laptop battery since I was junking it anyway. The cells are generally not common parts, and probably not labeled either. However they are often available through surplus companies.
I wouldn't recommend fixing your old laptop batteries this way as you could easily get it wrong and damage your laptop. And your laptop's worth a whole lot more than saving a few bucks on a battery. However if you want to try it just for the heck of it then you can probably find the parts someplace.
Also, most battery backs aren't designed to be disassembled. You'll probably damage it taking it apart, and have problems getting it back together.
I got a PalmV about 2 years ago. In college I find it extreamly useful tracking my schedule, homework, quick notes to myself, professor's contact info and office hours, etc. I seriously couldn't live withough it. However durring the summer durring my internships I find it quite useless. I no longer have such a complex schedule and all the company info is already on my PC. So why bother with the PDA? A PDA's usefulness depends really on what you need it for.