What about dem there plantary scientists with them probes and such. I don't hold to it much, but I once here man by the name of Carl Sagan talkin bout how some of dem there other carbon dense planets are hotter than they should be, iffin only solar heating were taken into tha 'count. Seemed kinda like they-all had what some folks call consensus on that there point.
I agree absolutely. It's all about the culture. It has nothing to do with race, EXCEPT that people who see themselves as a certain race decide or are pressured to decide that they should be in a certain culture because of their race. Actually, I hesitate to even use the term race, because genetic studies are showing that every modern "race" is actually a composite of the earliest groups. Modern "races" have varying degrees of relation to each other, so for example a 'black person' who has ancestors who re-immigrated to Africa from the middle east might actually be ethnically closer to a 'white person' from Lebanon than to another 'black person'. Also that Lebanese 'white person' might have very little in common with a Swedish 'white person'. So as many people have known for a while, race is mostly an artificial social construct.
The very important super extra critical idea everyone needs to get somehow, is that you are free to join any culture you want.. Want to be an up-tight protestant disciplinarian but your skin is really dark? That's ok! Want to be cyberpunk?.. well that demographic is already open to anybody, though some ghetto people might not realize it because they are functionally illiterate. Etc..
Then, we can go one step further and criticize cultures for their failings, perhaps even combine the best aspects of different cultures. How about combining the work ethic, systematic approach of anglo-american culture with the care for your wife and family from mexican culture.. lose the isolation and lack of solidarity from anglo culture, lose machoism and the pressure for total conformity from mexican culture, compromise and just have 2 kids.. what do you get? A better outcome for all. I'd bet on it.
Multiculturalism is a dead-end street because it commits you to absurd ideas, for example you'd have to say that the ghetto gang culture of macho violence is as hunky-dory as anything else, because it's right for them, within their own culture, and follows the rules which the majority of their subgroup has effectively agreed to. Hey if you think that right and wrong are totally relative, and you think it's just fine and dandy if someone gets shot, or lives in fear of getting shot, then this view makes sense. To me, it's pretty nutty.
It also had an inherent contradiction. Everyone's culture is equally as good, so everyone is as likely to be successful. But, at the same time, multiculti advocates want to say that everyone's culture's way of life is just as healthy as anyone else's. So a culture that does not think it is important to read to or otherwise educate your kids (especially girls) is somehow as likely to produce a successful citizen and also can't be criticized for not reading to their kids? Am I missing something here? Or is the key that multiculti argues ultimately that a sub-literate person who lives on nothing but second-hand folk knowledge and knows little about anything outside their subgroup is just as good as anybody else? So in other words, an anti-social gangsta from the ghetto who looks after his peeps and is fairly likely to bust a cap in your ass for complaining about his nightclub-class radio playing 12 hours a day is someone you're just as happy living with as someone who has been training from day 1 to be quiet, thoughtful, and kind? Does that make any kind of sense?
No..... and it's the culture at fault. It's time to take culture off the holy dais where it sits, untouchable. Let's get religion down while we're at it and kick both balls around. We're not going good places otherwise.
His point being that in many areas $350,000 is the price of a home in a marginally unsafe, lower class, often lawless neighbourhood.
And the parent a few levels back set themself up pretty good with the statement about families with 4 kids living on minimum wage. In my experience, I'd argue that MOST families with 4 kids earn close to minimum wage, if they work at all.
The trouble with these discussions is that there really are at least 2 Americas, and middle class libertarian/republican/social darwinists do not understand the reality of the ghetto/barrio at all. I didn't either until after I had lived in one for 5 years.
And to answer previous poster, yeah, the cost of living has surely gone up substantially for lower income people. Lower income people pay a much larger portion of their income to housing and transportation so when those costs go up without wage increases, they get poorer.
Still want statistics? I can swear to these.
Typical low wage income in 1996: $4 - $9 per hour.
Typical low wage income in 2006: $5 - $10 per hour.
Price of a cheap new car in 1996? $6000-$9000.
Cheap new car in 2006? $10,000-$15,000.
Rent in a somewhat safe apartment in Houston, Texas in 1996? $300 per month.
That same place in 2006? $600 per month.
Electricity bill for said apartment in the summer of 1996? around $100
AC bill for a window unit in the same Texas apartment in 2006? around $300
Gas? I don't even have to tell you about that one.
Groceries? I don't have the numbers but I guarantee it's gone up more than income.
Wal-mart consumer goods? Well thank god the poor can afford DVD players.
Yeah I guess if you are in the top third that is still getting richer (and making everything get more expensive by throwing your weight around buying houses, etc) this must all seem like a joke. But for people caught in the reality of this situation, it's nothing but pure existential fear. As these price increases continue without significant wage increased, what are people supposed to do, pull them out of their asses? They're already working two jobs, already put both spouses to work, never travel anywhere, don't eat out, etc, etc. It just means more people will be living in a van- maybe in your neighbour's driveway!
I used to layout a semi-major golf magazine, and I can confirm that Advertorial is common practise now. It used to not be in the pre-baby boomer days, but every since the 80s ad salespeople have been using their dollars and leverage to take control of magazines and poison the content. The parent is right, look to see who has full page ads, back cover, inside back cover, etc before you read the magazine and the bias will be evident enough.
I imagine there are some magazines out there above all this. I'd like to think that includes Scientific American.. but then, I've never seen a negative article about Dewars in there yet have I?!!:)
As for Wikipedia, one only has to look to many other non-profits to see where good groups go bad. Again, I'm speaking from first hand experience. It's very simple. When the people working for the group put their personal interests above the mission(s) of the group, force out people who are really for the cause, and put on a sham-show for the donors about how self-sacrificing they all are, the goose is cooked. The more money floating around the more likely this outcome becomes. Just say no Wikipedia! You're showing how volunteers are the true life-spirit of non-profits. Always remember - You ARE a charity.
Meanwhile, arab and iraqi partisans think the only station that comes close to being accurate is Al-Jazeera. Who is right? I do believe there is an objective truth, but people with strong emotions and personal stakes on any side are not likely to see what it is at least until many years after the events.
We should be proud that our culture is willing to self criticize, that at least a portion of our population is willing to promote something other than their own self interest. Self criticism and guilt are a sign of strength, so long as the information that is found out is used productively (the hard part). Cultures who don't (on average) self criticize and who get an out from criticism from others are actually pretty weak and unevoliving- rappers for instance.
What's so terrible about cables anyway. The last time this was discussed on here, someone suggested mounting your powerstrips on the ceiling, so that the wires hang down to meet your work surface. That seems clever to me.. much reduced tangling, and you get the cyberpunk look on a budget..
This is not my idea, I saw it somewhere online (or was it in the magazine ReadyMade?), but it was pretty clever.
Someone took a good sized flower pot and ran a dollar store extension cord into it. Inside, they connected each of their AC-DC chargers. They cut a fairly opaque piece of lexan to the shape of the inside of the flowerpot. They drilled holes for each of the power supply plugs and ran them out 6 inches or so. Then, the gear you have to charge can all lay inside the pot on its lid, and be plugged in quickly. I thought it might be cool to get one of those $5 LED night lights that cycles through different colors and put it inside the pot too to light the lid..
With that sort of attitude, you don't have to sacrifice anything for justice. Scale the coporate ladder ruthlessly despite the times you make a difference for the worse for those you step on. Jockey your way through traffic, cut in at the last minute in front of backups, despite the people who don't get through the light because of you. Don't worry with helping raise young people in your community, they will do exactly the same without your influence. Hell don't even loan your neighbor any tools, because his extra work or extra expense leaves him exactly the same as where he was. Yep, one person can't make a difference at all. Lots of people working in concert or parallel won't either. All of the positive, self sacrificing changes in the past that benefit you were just a fluke. Live for the moment. Trash the future. Very sensible.
I'm out of my league when slashdotters start suggesting $200 pieces of gear, but I am an enthusiastic cheap hardware hacker and have some suggestions based on stuff I've tried. Please don't comment saying these approaches are ghetto. I know they are ghetto. That doesn't mean they won't have great results for cheap.
It sounds like you want a system originating from just one source- since you were willing to spit the headphone hack signal so many times. For starters, maybe poke around for a device called a 'video distribution amplifier'. You can buy one for something like $20-$50 bucks in the US that will split one set of signals five or six ways. If you just want to split audio right now, ignore the video. Later, you can use the video to send an (admittedly low quality) image of the computer screen to TVs and video monitors around the house if your video card supports this or if your scrounge up a VGA to composite adapter.
Watch thrift stores for old receivers from the 70s. I've had great luck with old Panasonic and Technics receivers- they're surprisingly high quality. You can use these receivers two ways- to distribute and/or to receive audio in each room. To distribute, wire the audio signal from your computer into the AUX or TAPE PLAY inputs. The outputs labeled TAPE REC (there might be two sets of these hopefully) can go to another room to input into gear there. My experience has been that you can safely split each of these TAPE PLAY outputs once without noticeable degradation- so you can go to as many as four sets of amplified speakers, or four more amplifiers, or four car stereos from here.
Since you're hacking, you can also use the headphone jack on your receiver as another output- preferably to amplified speakers which are designed for this sort of signal. Although, be warned, on some equipment the presence of a headphone plug automatically turns off the local speakers if you were planning to use them. By the way, some (maybe 5% of what I've seen) 70's gear prefers 16 ohm speakers- 8 ohm speakers on them will sound a little funny, especially after you blow them out.:)
The receiver will also have some other inputs too, for your CD player, etc which then can be easily distributed to the whole house. Keep in mind that the old PHONO inputs prefer a different kind of signal from what your computer and CD player puts out.
As for cabling.. the best cable I've snagged while dumpster diving was some Ma Bell cabled with 16 or so sets of twisted pair, maybe 16 gauge or so. This works beautifully. For very long runs, poke around for the cable ordinarly used for composite video. There are some semi-cheap options on ebay like this, but for stereo you'll need two. People say not to use coax, but I've used it for audio when I've had some excess laying around, and it worked great for me. You can solder standard RCA plugs on the ends and seal. I like to use a bit of clay epoxy because it not only insulates but also protects.:) Rat Shack and others sell 50 foot cables with headphone jacks on both ends. These are nice if you are terminating in an old set of computer-style self powered speakers. I've run three of them in series with no noticeable noise. If you are really hard up, the dollar store sells 100 foot phone cables. Don't bother trying to solder the fabric woven wires in them, use old phone sockets for breakout boxes. For line level signals this works well enough up to a few hundred feet.
Ok, now let's talk about how to actually play the audio you've very professionally sent to each room. I think the best bet in this kind of setup is the computer-style self powered speakers. They have volume and power switches on them, which is all the control you're going to have in that room anyway (unless you use VNC or some such like I do to control the media server). You can find old computer speakers in thrift stores pretty easily, but they always seem to be missing their power cables. This is where your lifetime spent not throwing away AC-DC power adapters
It shouldn't have to be this way though. It's only come to this point through our choices. In Tasmania you could carry around solid gold bag and feel safe.
I for one totally agree with the first part of your post, and I'd further suggest that ignoring cultural differences is dangerous. You simply can't say something like 'First generation hispanics are less kind to women because they are more patriarchal due to their roman heritage' without being called a racist. Nevermind any discussion of how true or false the proposition is.
As for the Separatist Business Journal I have to agree with the parent. Micorities are practicing the same thing they are arguing against when they help out other people of their ethnicity over others- whether the ethnicity be irish, jewish, black, or whatever the artificial and/or cultural divisions of the day ate. The only way they can justify themselves is to very clearly indicate that they are putting forth a very nuanced view that they are righting some long term wrong, and that they will cease when what they recognize as their crowd is no longer underprivledged. For example, I don't think Jewish people can help other Jews over all others at this point without admitting that they are behaving as racists. As Hispanics become the majority in Texas the same is true of them.. in fact from what I have seen very few hispanic people in Texas have accepted even the idea that racism is wrong.
I don't imagine you live in a hot climate. In a world more or less without air conditioning, a sod filled attic sounds like it would make for a relatively comfortable home in 90-100 degree weather!
You might be an exception, but most of the poor people I see having kids don't do much to raise them.. They run the streets, they scream and run and cut in line in stores and restaurants, and as teens they're utterly wild. I don't see the majority of those kids adding to our collective well being, I see them destroying it. They certainly annoy the crap out of me.
I installed steel roll doors behind the normal doors of my house. It looks normal from ourside, but sure as hell no one is coming in that way without considerable time and surprise.
Of course, home security is as safe as its weakest link. Do like me, and build a stud wall behind every window. I put curtains and lights in there so it looks normal from the outside. Everyone keeps mentioning using effecient windows, etc- why have windows at all? (other than code, fire escape yeah, yeah) Windows let criminals in. They let light in when you want to sleep during the day. They let in lots more noise than a nice solid, insulated stud wall.
Maybe you don't have to be as extreme as me, but we really need to start questioning our assumptions and have the balls to stand up to the social inertia behind doing thing the same old way. I know if you have an unelected city government watching you, otherwise known as a neighbourhood association, you may not have the option. Move into a super cheap abandoned home in the ghetto like me and you can do what you want. You'll need that roll door then for sure.
What's wrong with the cyberpunk/borg look? Screw 3-5 inch diameter hooks about a foot or so down from the ceiling. Put one into every other stud. When you encounter a door, drill a hole and install chrome computer grommets on both sides of the wall, if you must.
You can easily add any wiring you need. Removing wiring might get more difficult after a while, but I say just leave it there even if you don't need it as it adds to the look.
Don't be paranoid about electrical wiring. Run dollar store extension cords, preferably also chrome colored, up into the wire paths and extend them with additional extension cords as needed to run power around the home.\
You may want a second set of hooks for sensitive signals like the hidden video cameras coming from your bedroom, or the infared trip wire feeds coming from the perimeter of your yard.
When I was in college we did somethng sort of like this but we just used push pins to hold the speaker and phone wire to the sheetrock. The hooks is a step up to the professional.
Well, I mean the professional borg anyway.
I'm mostly serious.. why are people so afraid to stand out and let their wires be seen? It's like every house has to pretend like this is still 1837 with technological improvements discreetly tucked away.
Current FM in the US is 88-108 MHz... a mere 10 MHz.. Imagine how many stations we could have, including non profit public interest stations, unlicensed local low power stations, etc with another 29 MHz!?!?!
In medium sized to major cities the FM territory has been maxed out forever. There is clearly purpose, demand, and need to having more stations. The technological cost of extending FM receivers and setting up transmitters is relatively minimal.
Of course we'd have to fight broadcasters for the same reason we've fought them, and lost, on digital radio- more stations make their "property", the existing licensed stations less valuable.
Yes, I use and love internet radio, but FM radio is what the vast majority of people have easy access to. It's what you hear when you eat out and when people drive by with their radios cranked up. At least with massively more stations it wouldn't be the same old 'format'ed sh*t.
And the benefits to letting schools, community groups of every stripe, and pretty much anybody operate low power FM stations with a range of 1-5 miles would be enormous just in terms of the cultural development it would bring. Information wants to be free, but your average 'born in the ghetto' gangster, just to choose an example, doesn't know it because he grows up listening to Ninety-Whatever The Box where he's just a groomed product for the advertisers looking for the 16-29 urban male.
Come on.. auctioning everything off to the highest bidder just ensures that the highest bidder runs society.. and occasionally that turns out to be good, often is ok, but also frequently sucks bigtime.
Yeah! do a backlight mod that illuminates a photo of her behind plexiglas on the lid back. Wire up a series of LEDs that flash 'I HEART BEING HOT' beneath that. She'll be happy to keep it safe in her dorm room then maybe.:)
By the way, if sticker shock on those brand name wire locking devices is troubling you, another way to do it is to buy a length of vinyl coated steel cord at the hardware store.. get whatever diameter you can find or make a hole for on your computer.. then just loop it around a hole in the furniture and bolt the ends together with a series of u-bolts. Get the right size for your cord- too big and they will actually be looser. Tighten the hell out of them.
Sure the potential thief could take the time unbolt them, but it seems unlikely that they would, especially if they are in an awkward spot like under the table.
Of course bolt cutters defeat commercial and home made tie-downs.. graduate to steel chain with 2 inch links if this is an issue.:)..or move somewhere safe like Tasmania..
-p
After a few thefts at the non profit I was working for, this is how I did it.
Created a text file called log.html that had at the top <html> <body background="red"><font face="verdana" size="3">
When you append to the file, some browsers will still read the HTML even though you'll never close the html and body tags:) Ok, this isn't strictle needed, but it makes the output a little prettier.
A tracert is better than the current IP, because it reveals the location even from behind a firewall. It wouldn't help to know your computer was at 192.168.0.1 now would it?:)
the ftpscript.txt file should have a series of ftp commands, one per line like this
open www.yourdomain.com
username
password
put log.html
quit
Set the whole thing to run minimized on bootup and each morning at 5 am.
As someone already pointed out, ideally your machine should be set to autologin so the thiefs (or more likely the pawn shop purchaser:) ) don't just wipe the drive. in XP, try start-run- control userpasswords2
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What about dem there plantary scientists with them probes and such. I don't hold to it much, but I once here man by the name of Carl Sagan talkin bout how some of dem there other carbon dense planets are hotter than they should be, iffin only solar heating were taken into tha 'count. Seemed kinda like they-all had what some folks call consensus on that there point.
I agree absolutely. It's all about the culture. It has nothing to do with race, EXCEPT that people who see themselves as a certain race decide or are pressured to decide that they should be in a certain culture because of their race. Actually, I hesitate to even use the term race, because genetic studies are showing that every modern "race" is actually a composite of the earliest groups. Modern "races" have varying degrees of relation to each other, so for example a 'black person' who has ancestors who re-immigrated to Africa from the middle east might actually be ethnically closer to a 'white person' from Lebanon than to another 'black person'. Also that Lebanese 'white person' might have very little in common with a Swedish 'white person'. So as many people have known for a while, race is mostly an artificial social construct.
The very important super extra critical idea everyone needs to get somehow, is that you are free to join any culture you want.. Want to be an up-tight protestant disciplinarian but your skin is really dark? That's ok! Want to be cyberpunk?.. well that demographic is already open to anybody, though some ghetto people might not realize it because they are functionally illiterate. Etc..
Then, we can go one step further and criticize cultures for their failings, perhaps even combine the best aspects of different cultures. How about combining the work ethic, systematic approach of anglo-american culture with the care for your wife and family from mexican culture.. lose the isolation and lack of solidarity from anglo culture, lose machoism and the pressure for total conformity from mexican culture, compromise and just have 2 kids.. what do you get? A better outcome for all. I'd bet on it.
Multiculturalism is a dead-end street because it commits you to absurd ideas, for example you'd have to say that the ghetto gang culture of macho violence is as hunky-dory as anything else, because it's right for them, within their own culture, and follows the rules which the majority of their subgroup has effectively agreed to. Hey if you think that right and wrong are totally relative, and you think it's just fine and dandy if someone gets shot, or lives in fear of getting shot, then this view makes sense. To me, it's pretty nutty.
It also had an inherent contradiction. Everyone's culture is equally as good, so everyone is as likely to be successful. But, at the same time, multiculti advocates want to say that everyone's culture's way of life is just as healthy as anyone else's. So a culture that does not think it is important to read to or otherwise educate your kids (especially girls) is somehow as likely to produce a successful citizen and also can't be criticized for not reading to their kids? Am I missing something here? Or is the key that multiculti argues ultimately that a sub-literate person who lives on nothing but second-hand folk knowledge and knows little about anything outside their subgroup is just as good as anybody else? So in other words, an anti-social gangsta from the ghetto who looks after his peeps and is fairly likely to bust a cap in your ass for complaining about his nightclub-class radio playing 12 hours a day is someone you're just as happy living with as someone who has been training from day 1 to be quiet, thoughtful, and kind? Does that make any kind of sense?
No..... and it's the culture at fault. It's time to take culture off the holy dais where it sits, untouchable. Let's get religion down while we're at it and kick both balls around. We're not going good places otherwise.
-p
His point being that in many areas $350,000 is the price of a home in a marginally unsafe, lower class, often lawless neighbourhood. And the parent a few levels back set themself up pretty good with the statement about families with 4 kids living on minimum wage. In my experience, I'd argue that MOST families with 4 kids earn close to minimum wage, if they work at all. The trouble with these discussions is that there really are at least 2 Americas, and middle class libertarian/republican/social darwinists do not understand the reality of the ghetto/barrio at all. I didn't either until after I had lived in one for 5 years. And to answer previous poster, yeah, the cost of living has surely gone up substantially for lower income people. Lower income people pay a much larger portion of their income to housing and transportation so when those costs go up without wage increases, they get poorer. Still want statistics? I can swear to these. Typical low wage income in 1996: $4 - $9 per hour. Typical low wage income in 2006: $5 - $10 per hour. Price of a cheap new car in 1996? $6000-$9000. Cheap new car in 2006? $10,000-$15,000. Rent in a somewhat safe apartment in Houston, Texas in 1996? $300 per month. That same place in 2006? $600 per month. Electricity bill for said apartment in the summer of 1996? around $100 AC bill for a window unit in the same Texas apartment in 2006? around $300 Gas? I don't even have to tell you about that one. Groceries? I don't have the numbers but I guarantee it's gone up more than income. Wal-mart consumer goods? Well thank god the poor can afford DVD players. Yeah I guess if you are in the top third that is still getting richer (and making everything get more expensive by throwing your weight around buying houses, etc) this must all seem like a joke. But for people caught in the reality of this situation, it's nothing but pure existential fear. As these price increases continue without significant wage increased, what are people supposed to do, pull them out of their asses? They're already working two jobs, already put both spouses to work, never travel anywhere, don't eat out, etc, etc. It just means more people will be living in a van- maybe in your neighbour's driveway!
I used to layout a semi-major golf magazine, and I can confirm that Advertorial is common practise now. It used to not be in the pre-baby boomer days, but every since the 80s ad salespeople have been using their dollars and leverage to take control of magazines and poison the content. The parent is right, look to see who has full page ads, back cover, inside back cover, etc before you read the magazine and the bias will be evident enough.
:)
I imagine there are some magazines out there above all this. I'd like to think that includes Scientific American.. but then, I've never seen a negative article about Dewars in there yet have I?!!
As for Wikipedia, one only has to look to many other non-profits to see where good groups go bad. Again, I'm speaking from first hand experience. It's very simple. When the people working for the group put their personal interests above the mission(s) of the group, force out people who are really for the cause, and put on a sham-show for the donors about how self-sacrificing they all are, the goose is cooked. The more money floating around the more likely this outcome becomes. Just say no Wikipedia! You're showing how volunteers are the true life-spirit of non-profits. Always remember - You ARE a charity.
-virto
-virto
Meanwhile, arab and iraqi partisans think the only station that comes close to being accurate is Al-Jazeera. Who is right? I do believe there is an objective truth, but people with strong emotions and personal stakes on any side are not likely to see what it is at least until many years after the events.
We should be proud that our culture is willing to self criticize, that at least a portion of our population is willing to promote something other than their own self interest. Self criticism and guilt are a sign of strength, so long as the information that is found out is used productively (the hard part). Cultures who don't (on average) self criticize and who get an out from criticism from others are actually pretty weak and unevoliving- rappers for instance.
What's so terrible about cables anyway. The last time this was discussed on here, someone suggested mounting your powerstrips on the ceiling, so that the wires hang down to meet your work surface. That seems clever to me.. much reduced tangling, and you get the cyberpunk look on a budget..
This is not my idea, I saw it somewhere online (or was it in the magazine ReadyMade?), but it was pretty clever.
Someone took a good sized flower pot and ran a dollar store extension cord into it. Inside, they connected each of their AC-DC chargers. They cut a fairly opaque piece of lexan to the shape of the inside of the flowerpot. They drilled holes for each of the power supply plugs and ran them out 6 inches or so. Then, the gear you have to charge can all lay inside the pot on its lid, and be plugged in quickly. I thought it might be cool to get one of those $5 LED night lights that cycles through different colors and put it inside the pot too to light the lid..
I couldn't remember the colors. :) I'm going to try that combination voltage mixing trick.
-p
With that sort of attitude, you don't have to sacrifice anything for justice. Scale the coporate ladder ruthlessly despite the times you make a difference for the worse for those you step on. Jockey your way through traffic, cut in at the last minute in front of backups, despite the people who don't get through the light because of you. Don't worry with helping raise young people in your community, they will do exactly the same without your influence. Hell don't even loan your neighbor any tools, because his extra work or extra expense leaves him exactly the same as where he was. Yep, one person can't make a difference at all. Lots of people working in concert or parallel won't either. All of the positive, self sacrificing changes in the past that benefit you were just a fluke. Live for the moment. Trash the future. Very sensible.
I'm out of my league when slashdotters start suggesting $200 pieces of gear, but I am an enthusiastic cheap hardware hacker and have some suggestions based on stuff I've tried. Please don't comment saying these approaches are ghetto. I know they are ghetto. That doesn't mean they won't have great results for cheap.
:)
:) Rat Shack and others sell 50 foot cables with headphone jacks on both ends. These are nice if you are terminating in an old set of computer-style self powered speakers. I've run three of them in series with no noticeable noise. If you are really hard up, the dollar store sells 100 foot phone cables. Don't bother trying to solder the fabric woven wires in them, use old phone sockets for breakout boxes. For line level signals this works well enough up to a few hundred feet.
It sounds like you want a system originating from just one source- since you were willing to spit the headphone hack signal so many times. For starters, maybe poke around for a device called a 'video distribution amplifier'. You can buy one for something like $20-$50 bucks in the US that will split one set of signals five or six ways. If you just want to split audio right now, ignore the video. Later, you can use the video to send an (admittedly low quality) image of the computer screen to TVs and video monitors around the house if your video card supports this or if your scrounge up a VGA to composite adapter.
Watch thrift stores for old receivers from the 70s. I've had great luck with old Panasonic and Technics receivers- they're surprisingly high quality. You can use these receivers two ways- to distribute and/or to receive audio in each room. To distribute, wire the audio signal from your computer into the AUX or TAPE PLAY inputs. The outputs labeled TAPE REC (there might be two sets of these hopefully) can go to another room to input into gear there. My experience has been that you can safely split each of these TAPE PLAY outputs once without noticeable degradation- so you can go to as many as four sets of amplified speakers, or four more amplifiers, or four car stereos from here.
Since you're hacking, you can also use the headphone jack on your receiver as another output- preferably to amplified speakers which are designed for this sort of signal. Although, be warned, on some equipment the presence of a headphone plug automatically turns off the local speakers if you were planning to use them. By the way, some (maybe 5% of what I've seen) 70's gear prefers 16 ohm speakers- 8 ohm speakers on them will sound a little funny, especially after you blow them out.
The receiver will also have some other inputs too, for your CD player, etc which then can be easily distributed to the whole house. Keep in mind that the old PHONO inputs prefer a different kind of signal from what your computer and CD player puts out.
As for cabling.. the best cable I've snagged while dumpster diving was some Ma Bell cabled with 16 or so sets of twisted pair, maybe 16 gauge or so. This works beautifully. For very long runs, poke around for the cable ordinarly used for composite video. There are some semi-cheap options on ebay like this, but for stereo you'll need two. People say not to use coax, but I've used it for audio when I've had some excess laying around, and it worked great for me. You can solder standard RCA plugs on the ends and seal. I like to use a bit of clay epoxy because it not only insulates but also protects.
Ok, now let's talk about how to actually play the audio you've very professionally sent to each room. I think the best bet in this kind of setup is the computer-style self powered speakers. They have volume and power switches on them, which is all the control you're going to have in that room anyway (unless you use VNC or some such like I do to control the media server). You can find old computer speakers in thrift stores pretty easily, but they always seem to be missing their power cables. This is where your lifetime spent not throwing away AC-DC power adapters
It shouldn't have to be this way though. It's only come to this point through our choices. In Tasmania you could carry around solid gold bag and feel safe.
informative and clarifying
I for one totally agree with the first part of your post, and I'd further suggest that ignoring cultural differences is dangerous. You simply can't say something like 'First generation hispanics are less kind to women because they are more patriarchal due to their roman heritage' without being called a racist. Nevermind any discussion of how true or false the proposition is.
As for the Separatist Business Journal I have to agree with the parent. Micorities are practicing the same thing they are arguing against when they help out other people of their ethnicity over others- whether the ethnicity be irish, jewish, black, or whatever the artificial and/or cultural divisions of the day ate. The only way they can justify themselves is to very clearly indicate that they are putting forth a very nuanced view that they are righting some long term wrong, and that they will cease when what they recognize as their crowd is no longer underprivledged. For example, I don't think Jewish people can help other Jews over all others at this point without admitting that they are behaving as racists. As Hispanics become the majority in Texas the same is true of them.. in fact from what I have seen very few hispanic people in Texas have accepted even the idea that racism is wrong.
I don't imagine you live in a hot climate. In a world more or less without air conditioning, a sod filled attic sounds like it would make for a relatively comfortable home in 90-100 degree weather!
You might be an exception, but most of the poor people I see having kids don't do much to raise them.. They run the streets, they scream and run and cut in line in stores and restaurants, and as teens they're utterly wild. I don't see the majority of those kids adding to our collective well being, I see them destroying it. They certainly annoy the crap out of me.
Our government liberated Panama from Columbia so we could dig a big ditch.
I installed steel roll doors behind the normal doors of my house. It looks normal from ourside, but sure as hell no one is coming in that way without considerable time and surprise. Of course, home security is as safe as its weakest link. Do like me, and build a stud wall behind every window. I put curtains and lights in there so it looks normal from the outside. Everyone keeps mentioning using effecient windows, etc- why have windows at all? (other than code, fire escape yeah, yeah) Windows let criminals in. They let light in when you want to sleep during the day. They let in lots more noise than a nice solid, insulated stud wall. Maybe you don't have to be as extreme as me, but we really need to start questioning our assumptions and have the balls to stand up to the social inertia behind doing thing the same old way. I know if you have an unelected city government watching you, otherwise known as a neighbourhood association, you may not have the option. Move into a super cheap abandoned home in the ghetto like me and you can do what you want. You'll need that roll door then for sure.
What's wrong with the cyberpunk/borg look? Screw 3-5 inch diameter hooks about a foot or so down from the ceiling. Put one into every other stud. When you encounter a door, drill a hole and install chrome computer grommets on both sides of the wall, if you must.
You can easily add any wiring you need. Removing wiring might get more difficult after a while, but I say just leave it there even if you don't need it as it adds to the look.
Don't be paranoid about electrical wiring. Run dollar store extension cords, preferably also chrome colored, up into the wire paths and extend them with additional extension cords as needed to run power around the home.\
You may want a second set of hooks for sensitive signals like the hidden video cameras coming from your bedroom, or the infared trip wire feeds coming from the perimeter of your yard.
When I was in college we did somethng sort of like this but we just used push pins to hold the speaker and phone wire to the sheetrock. The hooks is a step up to the professional.
Well, I mean the professional borg anyway.
I'm mostly serious.. why are people so afraid to stand out and let their wires be seen? It's like every house has to pretend like this is still 1837 with technological improvements discreetly tucked away.
clearly the relavant title is this one: imdb.com
I know it kept me from putting my electric shaver under the control of my PC.
Just to clarify, here is a chart of the bandwidth we are talking about here
GENERAL TELEVISION FREQUENCIES
VHF Band - Ch. 2 - 13 54 - 216 Mhz
Low Band - VHF Ch. 2 - 6 59 - 88 Mhz
Mid Band - UHF Ch. 14 - 22 121 - 174 Mhz
UHF Ch. 95 - 99 91 - 120 Mhz
High Band - VHF Ch. 7 - 13 175 - 216 Mhz
UHF Band Ch.14 - 83 - - 158 70 - 1002 Mhz
Current FM in the US is 88-108 MHz... a mere 10 MHz.. Imagine how many stations we could have, including non profit public interest stations, unlicensed local low power stations, etc with another 29 MHz!?!?!
In medium sized to major cities the FM territory has been maxed out forever. There is clearly purpose, demand, and need to having more stations. The technological cost of extending FM receivers and setting up transmitters is relatively minimal.
Of course we'd have to fight broadcasters for the same reason we've fought them, and lost, on digital radio- more stations make their "property", the existing licensed stations less valuable.
Yes, I use and love internet radio, but FM radio is what the vast majority of people have easy access to. It's what you hear when you eat out and when people drive by with their radios cranked up. At least with massively more stations it wouldn't be the same old 'format'ed sh*t.
And the benefits to letting schools, community groups of every stripe, and pretty much anybody operate low power FM stations with a range of 1-5 miles would be enormous just in terms of the cultural development it would bring. Information wants to be free, but your average 'born in the ghetto' gangster, just to choose an example, doesn't know it because he grows up listening to Ninety-Whatever The Box where he's just a groomed product for the advertisers looking for the 16-29 urban male.
Come on.. auctioning everything off to the highest bidder just ensures that the highest bidder runs society.. and occasionally that turns out to be good, often is ok, but also frequently sucks bigtime.
-dj_virto
Yeah! do a backlight mod that illuminates a photo of her behind plexiglas on the lid back. Wire up a series of LEDs that flash 'I HEART BEING HOT' beneath that. She'll be happy to keep it safe in her dorm room then maybe. :)
By the way, if sticker shock on those brand name wire locking devices is troubling you, another way to do it is to buy a length of vinyl coated steel cord at the hardware store.. get whatever diameter you can find or make a hole for on your computer.. then just loop it around a hole in the furniture and bolt the ends together with a series of u-bolts. Get the right size for your cord- too big and they will actually be looser. Tighten the hell out of them. Sure the potential thief could take the time unbolt them, but it seems unlikely that they would, especially if they are in an awkward spot like under the table. Of course bolt cutters defeat commercial and home made tie-downs.. graduate to steel chain with 2 inch links if this is an issue. :) ..or move somewhere safe like Tasmania..
-p
After a few thefts at the non profit I was working for, this is how I did it.
:) Ok, this isn't strictle needed, but it makes the output a little prettier.
/t >log.html /t >log.html
:)
:) ) don't just wipe the drive. in XP, try start-run- control userpasswords2
Created a text file called log.html that had at the top <html> <body background="red"><font face="verdana" size="3">
When you append to the file, some browsers will still read the HTML even though you'll never close the html and body tags
Next, I wrote a batch file like this
date
time
tracert www.wired.com >log.html
ftp -s:ftpscript.txt
A tracert is better than the current IP, because it reveals the location even from behind a firewall. It wouldn't help to know your computer was at 192.168.0.1 now would it?
the ftpscript.txt file should have a series of ftp commands, one per line like this
open www.yourdomain.com
username
password
put log.html
quit
Set the whole thing to run minimized on bootup and each morning at 5 am.
As someone already pointed out, ideally your machine should be set to autologin so the thiefs (or more likely the pawn shop purchaser
Have phun! -p
Fry's has power strips like that..