You need to decide: will you go with dated (but doable) through-hole technology, or will you go surface mount (SMT) which is more modern, but more difficult to solder. That will impact what kind of programmer you need. Atmel AVRs can be programmed in-curcuit with a cheap dongle.
You can get samples of the AVR Microcontrollers from Atmel's distributors, or they are available at many resellers, including DigiKey. Search for "atmega" and limt yourself to DIP packages.
One issue you would have "venting" the energy of a volcano is that the magma can be hot enough to melt your gear. It is molten rock, but that does not mean it's just barely molten. It can be much hotter than the melting point of a rock. Water melts around 0 degrees Celsius, but that does not mean all water is 0 degrees celsius. It can easily be 95 degrees celius.
Another issue is that magma tends to clog pipes...when it hardens into rock.
There are various kinds of rock, that have different melting points. Making it flow through a pipe without melting the pipe or clogging would be difficult. Think of piping sewage, but with molten rock. You can have some magma hot enough to melt your fancy alloy pipe, while other bits of slag are coagulting to block off the pipe.
So, let's say to drop a heat exchanger into the center of a large magma chamber. Let's say it doesn't melt. Let's say it doesn't clog. How do you avoid the magma working its way up through the rock and coming out where you weakened it with your drill? Reinforcing rock is difficult.
If you do manage to get a heat exchanger working, you will quickly suck the heat out of that local area. Rocks do not conduct heat well, especially when they cool and fracuture.
You might be better off trying something a bit easier, like reflecting lots of sunlight on (purified) water so it boils, then runing that steam (which is now under pressure) through a fan (stem turbine) to turn a generator.
If you think you can tap magma, good luck. I'll stick to things that seem very simple.
> To beam energy to a vessel, you have to cross the atmosphere. Methinks > you're not just going to only heat up the vessel.
The current shuttle burns propellant and thereby heats the atmosphere.
All rocket propellants come out at high temperatures, and heat the atmosphere.
Even just sitting somewhere heats the atmosphere by your body heat!
So of course anything we do will heat the atmosphere a little, but even if the system is 5% efficient, it's going to (1) be cheaper (2) prove more useful, and (3) cause less atmospheric heating than anything we have at the moment.
I've been playing with the beta on a Dell Optiplex 755, and it's bad. I tried 2 different Dell LCDs, and it keeps setting the refresh rate out of the LCD's spec. Every time I reboot, I'm screwed. Every time I reset it, it forgets. ARGH!!
It will not activate with the included key, but works with another (free, for now) key. THIS IS NOT GOOD
IE8 can not play a video without locking up.
It uses Vista drivers, and only Vista drivers, so there's still not support for older HP plotters and wide-format inkjets, despite lies by Micro$soft and HP to the contrary.
Deepfreeze deletes any programs installed when the laptop reboots. I need something that only deletes them on the user's request to reset the laptop to a previous state. Also, deepfreeze disallows updates unless they are centrally managed. A teacher can not have a class install a copy of flash or shaockwave player after IT forgot it without deepfreeze deleting it when the machine reboots. That's annoying when you need the software TODAY and an automatic reboot is the last step of the installation.
> Awwww. That's almost cute. You think you've discovered > DRM that works.
I meant to make the laptop's software unbreakable. Students will install their own software. I say allow it, but when they break their Windows (or linux) install, have a way to revert back to factory specs. The data partition is there to keep their school assignments, with very little chance of a virus hanging around.
Create a restore point, and a data partition that survives the restore. Ensure the data partition can only store certain types of files. That way, they can never break their software.
One thing that G W Bush got right is at http://www.whitehouse.gov/rss you can download thousands of speeches by G W Bush.
I hope EVERY talk Obama gives will be posted. History deserves this record, and the noise media will do everything they can to prevent it. (recall the copyright suits over "The Prise.")
Slashdot Mirror
Every political web site I have ever set up was shut down through fony DMCA complaints.
I wonder if you could configure a boot disk to image the machine onto a NAS, and then wipe it? Do you care about verifying the image?
How configurable is a Symantec Ghost boot disk? Is there a FOSS alternative to Symantec Ghost?
How would you tell the images apart. It's inevitable...Mary will need a copy of her "My Documents" folder from 2 years ago.
> But it's more fun to rant and whine.
It's more honorable to make a stand against tyranny.
I recommend the slightly newer V7 over the older Q7.
Also SmartDevices has a number of even newer tablets, but they are single-boot. (R7, T7, Ten)
It's MY tablet. I will have root access. I will boycott companies who try to deny me that control.
The real story here is that Fed.Gov can take over control of any media outlet without the consent of the media outlet.
Controlling the media is 90% of any coup...so who else is thinking of skipping an occupy rally today to hack this system?
Forget the EEPROM. The concept of programming a ROM seperately from a chip is so 1970's.
Get a programmer that programs chips with on-chip flash.
I'm biased in favor of Atmel's AVR architecture. http://www.avrbeginners.net/ http://www.avrfreaks.net./
You need to decide: will you go with dated (but doable) through-hole technology, or will you go surface mount (SMT) which is more modern, but more difficult to solder. That will impact what kind of programmer you need. Atmel AVRs can be programmed in-curcuit with a cheap dongle.
I don't always design in-circuit programming, debugging, and emulation into my circuits, so I keep a few of Atmel's AVR boards around. The STK500 is awesome: http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/tools_card.asp?tool_id=2735
$82.16 at Digikey: http://search.digikey.com/us/en/cat/programmers-development-systems/general-embedded-dev-boards-and-kits-mcu-dsp-fpga-cpld/2621773?k=stk500
You can get samples of the AVR Microcontrollers from Atmel's distributors, or they are available at many resellers, including DigiKey. Search for "atmega" and limt yourself to DIP packages.
One issue you would have "venting" the energy of a volcano is that the magma can be hot enough to melt your gear. It is molten rock, but that does not mean it's just barely molten. It can be much hotter than the melting point of a rock. Water melts around 0 degrees Celsius, but that does not mean all water is 0 degrees celsius. It can easily be 95 degrees celius.
Another issue is that magma tends to clog pipes...when it hardens into rock.
There are various kinds of rock, that have different melting points. Making it flow through a pipe without melting the pipe or clogging would be difficult. Think of piping sewage, but with molten rock. You can have some magma hot enough to melt your fancy alloy pipe, while other bits of slag are coagulting to block off the pipe.
So, let's say to drop a heat exchanger into the center of a large magma chamber. Let's say it doesn't melt. Let's say it doesn't clog. How do you avoid the magma working its way up through the rock and coming out where you weakened it with your drill? Reinforcing rock is difficult.
If you do manage to get a heat exchanger working, you will quickly suck the heat out of that local area. Rocks do not conduct heat well, especially when they cool and fracuture.
You might be better off trying something a bit easier, like reflecting lots of sunlight on (purified) water so it boils, then runing that steam (which is now under pressure) through a fan (stem turbine) to turn a generator.
If you think you can tap magma, good luck. I'll stick to things that seem very simple.
RecycledElectrons
I'd love to see an electronic version of a dry erase board. It'd be useful in areas subject to direct sunlight.
I upgrade my ebook readers, my MP3 players, and my tablet computers.
Surely you can solder a few wires to a USB drive...right?
Surley you have replaced your tablet's Mini-PCI-Express 802.11B wi-fi card with one that supports 802.11G&B, as well as Bluetooth...right?
And you have surely patched a noise cancelling bluetooth headset into your 2 meter ham radio so you can talk at 90MPH with the windows down...right?
Everyone's upgraded an IPOD's flash disk and battery...right?
If not, go away.
I went to http://www.newhamstore.com/ and bought some antennas. They are a great company to deal with.
> To beam energy to a vessel, you have to cross the atmosphere. Methinks
> you're not just going to only heat up the vessel.
The current shuttle burns propellant and thereby heats the atmosphere.
All rocket propellants come out at high temperatures, and heat the atmosphere.
Even just sitting somewhere heats the atmosphere by your body heat!
So of course anything we do will heat the atmosphere a little, but even if the system is 5% efficient, it's going to (1) be cheaper (2) prove more useful, and (3) cause less atmospheric heating than anything we have at the moment.
Creating a list of companies & people, and then grabbing their assets is called a "Bill of Attainder"
This is illegal under Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution.
I can not say more or I would be subject to such a bill.
A: http://www.sons-of-liberty.net/
The answer to 1984 is 1776.
"Amending a definition" is changing a law. Imagine if I amended the definition of "seditious person" in the SC law to mean a legislator.
Andy
P.S. Try to spell my name right on the next sedition indictment.
I've been playing with the beta on a Dell Optiplex 755, and it's bad. I tried 2 different Dell LCDs, and it keeps setting the refresh rate out of the LCD's spec. Every time I reboot, I'm screwed. Every time I reset it, it forgets. ARGH!!
It will not activate with the included key, but works with another (free, for now) key. THIS IS NOT GOOD
IE8 can not play a video without locking up.
It uses Vista drivers, and only Vista drivers, so there's still not support for older HP plotters and wide-format inkjets, despite lies by Micro$soft and HP to the contrary.
Andy
http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/
Get over it. There will be no faster computers now that the US Govt has bailed out the DRAM industry. Innovation like this is illegal!
Deepfreeze deletes any programs installed when the laptop reboots. I need something that only deletes them on the user's request to reset the laptop to a previous state. Also, deepfreeze disallows updates unless they are centrally managed. A teacher can not have a class install a copy of flash or shaockwave player after IT forgot it without deepfreeze deleting it when the machine reboots. That's annoying when you need the software TODAY and an automatic reboot is the last step of the installation.
> Microsoft makes a program called SteadyState that does this;
> a company called Faronics makes an app called DeepFreeze
> as well.
I've used deep freeze - it's not what I'm talking about. It deletes all changes when the laptop boots. Re-read my original message.
> Awwww. That's almost cute. You think you've discovered
> DRM that works.
I meant to make the laptop's software unbreakable. Students will install their own software. I say allow it, but when they break their Windows (or linux) install, have a way to revert back to factory specs. The data partition is there to keep their school assignments, with very little chance of a virus hanging around.
Create a restore point, and a data partition that survives the restore. Ensure the data partition can only store certain types of files. That way, they can never break their software.
Once Fed.Gov involves itself in DRAM manufacture, the industry will find innovation illegal. Moore's Law died today, 12/15/2008.
Professor Allen
One thing that G W Bush got right is at http://www.whitehouse.gov/rss you can download thousands of speeches by G W Bush.
I hope EVERY talk Obama gives will be posted. History deserves this record, and the noise media will do everything they can to prevent it. (recall the copyright suits over "The Prise.")
Andy
Am I the only one who is scheduling trips to the firing range much more frequently?
Andy Out!