For those discussing Ubiquiti, they probably also used Quanta as an OEM for some switch designs. There's some talk of the LB4M and LB6M firmware being very similar on a few forums.
I'm guessing the spoofed company is Quanta. There's a lot of surplus last-gen equipment on eBay (meaning companies would be upgrading), and I believe Facebook used them as an OEM for their Open Compute nodes (Quanta Mindmill). Not sure who else uses Quanta OEM in particular, but some of their switches appear to be reference designs for Dell, etc.
I met a marketing exec at the Freescale Technology Forum in Austin last May. Their take on things was the good 'ol way was still the best way. I need to find his business card since he said he'd buy me lunch if Bitcoin was still around a year later.
I get to deal with weird stuff like this at work all the time. Based on the behavior, I'd guess there's a clock and/or data running at a harmonic of the wifi data. Freezing seems to indicate it's coupling into the core of the LCD controller board, which again I would guess is a timing violation or data corruption. Where it's coupling in is a bit hard to determine without further testing. It could be the video cable, could be the power cable (not likely), could be the LCD panel itself acting as an antenna, or an interconnect cable that is poorly shielded or just the right length to couple in wifi. It could also be power supply ripple caused by a feedback loop getting energy coupled in, though if that's possible then there's not enough timing margin to begin with.
I suggest a number of tests to narrow down details of the source: - Test 2.4GHz and 5GHz independently. Test each wifi channel independently. - Try a different length cable. Try a different brand cable. Does this monitor remain on with nothing connected? If so then try it with no cable, or no PC at the end. - Try different antenna angles. Try different TX power levels (at what level does it start). https://tech.slashdot.org/stor... Based on those results I'd have more recommendations.
If someone wants the real root cause, feel free to send me one and I'll debug it (though it will probably require disassembly).
Reminds me of debugging errors related to digital logic race conditions. When you are on the edge of meeting timing, a slight shift in the wrong direction can cause the result to be incorrect, sometimes with an order of randomness. Until you violate that timing you have the feeling of security since everything is going smoothly. I'm sure there's a more mathematical way to explain this, but similarly I think much more testing could be done to understand what variables effect the outcome.
It would be interesting to see more details, such as how many pixels must be modified for a failure? To what magnitude do the pixels have to be changed by? Is there a tradeoff between # of pixels and magnitude of change per pixel? Are certain pixels more important than others (edge detection for example)?
National Instruments is providing information on how to get Government-paid NI training and certification. You have to complete a couple steps (depending on your state) to get assistance, but there is a good amount of information and assistance available here.
Given the flowcharts (not the shiny video that catches your attention first) it appears that instead of shutting down, they simply reboot the system and once it reaches the state where the OS has finished loaded it then goes to sleep or hibernate. Once you power it back on it just returns to the freshly loaded OS. So it appears that while it starts up faster, you should end up spending more time shutting down (actually rebooting and reloading the OS). You could also do this manually by rebooting Windows and once it gets to the desktop/login screen go into hibernate/sleep.
So the problem with digital is that it's digital. You either get the signal or you don't! With analog (like when growing up without cable) you could at least watch and still hear a fuzzy show from a distant station or if the over-the-air station was being attenuated by rain/interference/sunspots/etc. With digital you either get a great signal, or you get garbage and annoying audio blips and squeaks that make the show unwatchable. Those in low-lying areas without a proper antenna that could at least watch fuzzy TV will be in the dark since their fancy new digital converter box can't get enough data to buffer up the stream. Oh well, maybe we'll all get outside and do something besides being couch potatoes....
I agree it could be done for less than $300. Find a solar panel for less than $175 on ebay or something, and you don't really need the charger component if you build your own charger circuit. It's also fairly easily expandable. If you want something better that produces 120VAC you'll want to skip the cheap inverters though since they don't output a sine wave which introduces additional high-frequency noise into your power supplies (some won't care, some may over time). I've also considered modifying a Liebert 3kVA UPS which outputs a true sine wave to use as my inverter (you can find these used for ~$100 on ebay on a good day). Note you must REALLY know what you are doing to do this safely since you are dealing with more than enough power to kill yourself.
Ohio State also has a program (I was a student in '98) that uses the same controller with the same idea. Teams of 3-4 students get roughly 8 weeks to build and it also ends in a competition (with now over 50 teams). Design project page here. Video of this past year's competition or search youtube for "FEH robot" to find more.
Build your own for around $300: http://www.energyrefuge.com/how-to/solar_power_generator.htm This is essentially the same thing: a solar panel, battery charger, deep-cycle battery, and (optionally if you don't have a 12V laptop adaptor) a power inverter. The solar cell is what costs the most. The battery is what weighs the most.
$10 million ad campaign... 1 million preorders... so roughly $10 of your $60 preorder goes to advertise what you're already buying. They should have skipped the advertising and lowered the price.
My previous bad rebates include the one (and only) time I signed up for DSL (back in 2000). At the time I was supposed to receive a $250 rebate I had paid to purchase the DSL modem as part of signing up. The modem arrived and service was great, but the rebate never arrived after about 3 months. I started calling and was assured that it was being processed, and about a week later when I called again it was supposedly sent out. About 2 weeks later my DSL serive abruptly was cut off, and in calling the company I ended up reaching full voicemail boxes, and a couple days later a general message stating that the company was no longer in business. Needless to say I never received that rebate, and really had no recourse. One other rebate gone bad (actually two rebates) were for two separate PNY products I had purchased from TigerDirect. I had bought some PNY memory and a PNY video card. Both of them had completely separate rebates: one for the video card that in no way mentioned the memory rebate, and another for the memory that in no way mentioned the video card rebate. I sent them both in with the required documentation and instead of rebate checks, eventually I received two letters that explained that since I had submitted more than one rebate for a product that it would not be honored. I tried calling the number listed on the rebate, but it was only where you could check your rebate status or get instructions on how to submit a rebate, no way to talk to anyone, and the email address also did not ever result in a response. Since this happened I had begun to scan every piece of each rebate, including the envelope with the address I write on it. Finally, I have purchased two Syntax Olevia TVs in the last couple years, both from Microcenter. For the first one I was to receive a $200 rebate. This is one I scanned in, but for this one I had cut out the incorrect barcode. The rebate wanted the UPC, but it was hidden in a less obvious place on the box and instead I had sent in the product/serial number set of barcodes (which should have been more than adequate if not even better). Luckily, since I had scanned everything in and through multiple emails, phone calls, and faxes I was able to eventually receive my rebate (though it did take quite a bit of work). When I purchased my second Syntax TV as a Christmas gift, it also came with a $250 rebate that I sent in (I figured I messed up the first time, maybe it will go smoother the second time). About the time the rebate was to arrive I was getting ready to graduate, move, start a new job, etc. so I actually forgot about this one. This rebate I sent in November eventually showed up at my new address around October of the next year. Well that's been my rebate experience. Glad I could get that all off my chest! I wish there was more protection for the consumer and an easier process to get help or support when things aren't going quite so smoothly. I do suggest making a copy of EVERYTHING though so at least you have some physical proof of submission that you could use when fighting poor rebate fullfillment.
This is the same company that couldn't transfer my phone number across the street from one apartment to another. When it was time for them to switch my service they managed to cut off my old number, forward it to the wrong new number, and not even connect my new number at my new apartment.
I guess to their credit I later found out that they couldn't connect my new number because the previous tennants had never disconnected their old number, but those same people had also not paid their bill for nearly 6 months according to the rep I had talked to (which it was probably illegal to disclose to me, but whatever). 2 weeks later when 6 months had elapsed they did then finally disconnect their number and hook mine up.
If the newspapers don't publish it, then some people cry OMG CENSORSHIP. If they do publish it, then someone somewhere out there will be offended and cry OMG RACISM. It doesn't matter in the end though... since either way will draw more publicity and more people will probably read the comic than would have seen it in the first place anyways.
http://www.theaudeo.com/ - I've recently seen this in action (plus video on their website). They have managed to process the signals from nerves going to the vocal cords and convert the data to words or phrases (and also control a wheelchair for quadraplegics). From speaking with the devleopers I learned in untrained mode it allows the user to "say" roughly 200 phrases, and after training the vocabulary supposedly can go up. There is a try it link at the bottom left corner if you want to get in contact with them.
Remember those tests you would fill out with a bunch of random questions and then you would end up with a bunch of potential "best fit" jobs? If I remember right, my two top jobs were something like rocket scientist and garbage man. I'm glad I wasn't made to decide that day what my future was... I managed to take the middle road and become a EE.
Maybe if it also could be used as a 360 controller and a programmable remote (and maybe a portable DVR) I would buy it... otherwise I'll still with my Archos player which has most of the features described in the article, plus doesn't require specific software just to get a playlist created.
What are you trying to teach the students? If you get a bare microcontroller like a PIC then you quickly have to spend a lot of time teaching electronics so that the students know how to properly connect hardware to collect sensor data and drive motors. You end up explaining different communications protocols (what is this RS232-TTL chip for, what is SPI and I2C, etc.) which may or may not be the purpose of the class. If the purpose is to "build a robot that does task x" then you're better off getting a kit of some sort that has some built-in interfaces for sensor inputs and motor outputs. I've had many years of experience with the Handyboard and must suggest it has a good choice, though $200-250 may be a bit pricey to get started. Oregon State and Atmel have teamed up to produce a system for their EE curriculum that looks promising, though you would have to get in contact with them to see how you might be able to purchase their boards in bulk (they have a website you can order some parts from, base kit is $105).
If you want to teach "this is how you program a robot" then you can pick up any programmable robotics set and get going quickly. For younger students that haven't programmed before something more graphical may be better for them (Mindstorms for example, though you don't seem to want this sort of thing).
Any way you go you'll probably end up teaching teamwork skills (and you should probably throw in some documentation skills also). There is a freshman program developed around the Handyboard that teaches such skills at Ohio State (dislaimer: I was a TA for this program) which has quite a few materials you may find useful.
In summary, make sure you decide on your curriculm, then pick a controller that best fits into both that and your budget.
Hmmmm well guess I better fly Virgin Galactic instead. Seriously though I've already returned my iBook battery and received my new non-explodey one. Actually when I travel I typically have at least 6 lithium ion batteries in my carry-on: laptop, spare, camera, cellphone, PSP, and Archos MP3 player. The only other items I usually have are my bathroom items that aren't already banned. When they ban all lithium-ion batteries I'll have no need for a carry-on anymore.
Is this why steam crashed when I turned my computer on this evening? Something about wanting to access a blob file that was already in use... probably a random coincidence, right?
Slashdot Mirror
And I believe this is the company registration.
http://company.lursoft.lv/4150...
PROOF
http://www.lsm.lv/en/article/e...
For those discussing Ubiquiti, they probably also used Quanta as an OEM for some switch designs. There's some talk of the LB4M and LB6M firmware being very similar on a few forums.
I'm guessing the spoofed company is Quanta. There's a lot of surplus last-gen equipment on eBay (meaning companies would be upgrading), and I believe Facebook used them as an OEM for their Open Compute nodes (Quanta Mindmill). Not sure who else uses Quanta OEM in particular, but some of their switches appear to be reference designs for Dell, etc.
I met a marketing exec at the Freescale Technology Forum in Austin last May. Their take on things was the good 'ol way was still the best way. I need to find his business card since he said he'd buy me lunch if Bitcoin was still around a year later.
I get to deal with weird stuff like this at work all the time. Based on the behavior, I'd guess there's a clock and/or data running at a harmonic of the wifi data. Freezing seems to indicate it's coupling into the core of the LCD controller board, which again I would guess is a timing violation or data corruption. Where it's coupling in is a bit hard to determine without further testing. It could be the video cable, could be the power cable (not likely), could be the LCD panel itself acting as an antenna, or an interconnect cable that is poorly shielded or just the right length to couple in wifi. It could also be power supply ripple caused by a feedback loop getting energy coupled in, though if that's possible then there's not enough timing margin to begin with.
I suggest a number of tests to narrow down details of the source:
- Test 2.4GHz and 5GHz independently. Test each wifi channel independently.
- Try a different length cable. Try a different brand cable. Does this monitor remain on with nothing connected? If so then try it with no cable, or no PC at the end.
- Try different antenna angles. Try different TX power levels (at what level does it start).
https://tech.slashdot.org/stor...
Based on those results I'd have more recommendations.
If someone wants the real root cause, feel free to send me one and I'll debug it (though it will probably require disassembly).
They'll probably just raise prices for no improvement in service, making more of us commoners poorer. In the end they win, the public looses.
Reminds me of debugging errors related to digital logic race conditions. When you are on the edge of meeting timing, a slight shift in the wrong direction can cause the result to be incorrect, sometimes with an order of randomness. Until you violate that timing you have the feeling of security since everything is going smoothly. I'm sure there's a more mathematical way to explain this, but similarly I think much more testing could be done to understand what variables effect the outcome. It would be interesting to see more details, such as how many pixels must be modified for a failure? To what magnitude do the pixels have to be changed by? Is there a tradeoff between # of pixels and magnitude of change per pixel? Are certain pixels more important than others (edge detection for example)?
National Instruments is providing information on how to get Government-paid NI training and certification. You have to complete a couple steps (depending on your state) to get assistance, but there is a good amount of information and assistance available here.
Given the flowcharts (not the shiny video that catches your attention first) it appears that instead of shutting down, they simply reboot the system and once it reaches the state where the OS has finished loaded it then goes to sleep or hibernate. Once you power it back on it just returns to the freshly loaded OS.
So it appears that while it starts up faster, you should end up spending more time shutting down (actually rebooting and reloading the OS). You could also do this manually by rebooting Windows and once it gets to the desktop/login screen go into hibernate/sleep.
So the problem with digital is that it's digital. You either get the signal or you don't! With analog (like when growing up without cable) you could at least watch and still hear a fuzzy show from a distant station or if the over-the-air station was being attenuated by rain/interference/sunspots/etc. With digital you either get a great signal, or you get garbage and annoying audio blips and squeaks that make the show unwatchable. Those in low-lying areas without a proper antenna that could at least watch fuzzy TV will be in the dark since their fancy new digital converter box can't get enough data to buffer up the stream. Oh well, maybe we'll all get outside and do something besides being couch potatoes....
I agree it could be done for less than $300. Find a solar panel for less than $175 on ebay or something, and you don't really need the charger component if you build your own charger circuit. It's also fairly easily expandable. If you want something better that produces 120VAC you'll want to skip the cheap inverters though since they don't output a sine wave which introduces additional high-frequency noise into your power supplies (some won't care, some may over time). I've also considered modifying a Liebert 3kVA UPS which outputs a true sine wave to use as my inverter (you can find these used for ~$100 on ebay on a good day). Note you must REALLY know what you are doing to do this safely since you are dealing with more than enough power to kill yourself.
Ohio State also has a program (I was a student in '98) that uses the same controller with the same idea. Teams of 3-4 students get roughly 8 weeks to build and it also ends in a competition (with now over 50 teams). Design project page here. Video of this past year's competition or search youtube for "FEH robot" to find more.
Build your own for around $300: http://www.energyrefuge.com/how-to/solar_power_generator.htm
This is essentially the same thing: a solar panel, battery charger, deep-cycle battery, and (optionally if you don't have a 12V laptop adaptor) a power inverter. The solar cell is what costs the most. The battery is what weighs the most.
$10 million ad campaign... 1 million preorders... so roughly $10 of your $60 preorder goes to advertise what you're already buying. They should have skipped the advertising and lowered the price.
My previous bad rebates include the one (and only) time I signed up for DSL (back in 2000). At the time I was supposed to receive a $250 rebate I had paid to purchase the DSL modem as part of signing up. The modem arrived and service was great, but the rebate never arrived after about 3 months. I started calling and was assured that it was being processed, and about a week later when I called again it was supposedly sent out. About 2 weeks later my DSL serive abruptly was cut off, and in calling the company I ended up reaching full voicemail boxes, and a couple days later a general message stating that the company was no longer in business. Needless to say I never received that rebate, and really had no recourse.
One other rebate gone bad (actually two rebates) were for two separate PNY products I had purchased from TigerDirect. I had bought some PNY memory and a PNY video card. Both of them had completely separate rebates: one for the video card that in no way mentioned the memory rebate, and another for the memory that in no way mentioned the video card rebate. I sent them both in with the required documentation and instead of rebate checks, eventually I received two letters that explained that since I had submitted more than one rebate for a product that it would not be honored. I tried calling the number listed on the rebate, but it was only where you could check your rebate status or get instructions on how to submit a rebate, no way to talk to anyone, and the email address also did not ever result in a response.
Since this happened I had begun to scan every piece of each rebate, including the envelope with the address I write on it.
Finally, I have purchased two Syntax Olevia TVs in the last couple years, both from Microcenter. For the first one I was to receive a $200 rebate. This is one I scanned in, but for this one I had cut out the incorrect barcode. The rebate wanted the UPC, but it was hidden in a less obvious place on the box and instead I had sent in the product/serial number set of barcodes (which should have been more than adequate if not even better). Luckily, since I had scanned everything in and through multiple emails, phone calls, and faxes I was able to eventually receive my rebate (though it did take quite a bit of work).
When I purchased my second Syntax TV as a Christmas gift, it also came with a $250 rebate that I sent in (I figured I messed up the first time, maybe it will go smoother the second time). About the time the rebate was to arrive I was getting ready to graduate, move, start a new job, etc. so I actually forgot about this one. This rebate I sent in November eventually showed up at my new address around October of the next year.
Well that's been my rebate experience. Glad I could get that all off my chest! I wish there was more protection for the consumer and an easier process to get help or support when things aren't going quite so smoothly. I do suggest making a copy of EVERYTHING though so at least you have some physical proof of submission that you could use when fighting poor rebate fullfillment.
This is the same company that couldn't transfer my phone number across the street from one apartment to another. When it was time for them to switch my service they managed to cut off my old number, forward it to the wrong new number, and not even connect my new number at my new apartment. I guess to their credit I later found out that they couldn't connect my new number because the previous tennants had never disconnected their old number, but those same people had also not paid their bill for nearly 6 months according to the rep I had talked to (which it was probably illegal to disclose to me, but whatever). 2 weeks later when 6 months had elapsed they did then finally disconnect their number and hook mine up.
If the newspapers don't publish it, then some people cry OMG CENSORSHIP. If they do publish it, then someone somewhere out there will be offended and cry OMG RACISM. It doesn't matter in the end though... since either way will draw more publicity and more people will probably read the comic than would have seen it in the first place anyways.
http://www.theaudeo.com/ - I've recently seen this in action (plus video on their website). They have managed to process the signals from nerves going to the vocal cords and convert the data to words or phrases (and also control a wheelchair for quadraplegics). From speaking with the devleopers I learned in untrained mode it allows the user to "say" roughly 200 phrases, and after training the vocabulary supposedly can go up. There is a try it link at the bottom left corner if you want to get in contact with them.
Remember those tests you would fill out with a bunch of random questions and then you would end up with a bunch of potential "best fit" jobs? If I remember right, my two top jobs were something like rocket scientist and garbage man. I'm glad I wasn't made to decide that day what my future was... I managed to take the middle road and become a EE.
Maybe if it also could be used as a 360 controller and a programmable remote (and maybe a portable DVR) I would buy it... otherwise I'll still with my Archos player which has most of the features described in the article, plus doesn't require specific software just to get a playlist created.
What are you trying to teach the students? If you get a bare microcontroller like a PIC then you quickly have to spend a lot of time teaching electronics so that the students know how to properly connect hardware to collect sensor data and drive motors. You end up explaining different communications protocols (what is this RS232-TTL chip for, what is SPI and I2C, etc.) which may or may not be the purpose of the class. If the purpose is to "build a robot that does task x" then you're better off getting a kit of some sort that has some built-in interfaces for sensor inputs and motor outputs. I've had many years of experience with the Handyboard and must suggest it has a good choice, though $200-250 may be a bit pricey to get started. Oregon State and Atmel have teamed up to produce a system for their EE curriculum that looks promising, though you would have to get in contact with them to see how you might be able to purchase their boards in bulk (they have a website you can order some parts from, base kit is $105). If you want to teach "this is how you program a robot" then you can pick up any programmable robotics set and get going quickly. For younger students that haven't programmed before something more graphical may be better for them (Mindstorms for example, though you don't seem to want this sort of thing). Any way you go you'll probably end up teaching teamwork skills (and you should probably throw in some documentation skills also). There is a freshman program developed around the Handyboard that teaches such skills at Ohio State (dislaimer: I was a TA for this program) which has quite a few materials you may find useful. In summary, make sure you decide on your curriculm, then pick a controller that best fits into both that and your budget.
Hmmmm well guess I better fly Virgin Galactic instead. Seriously though I've already returned my iBook battery and received my new non-explodey one.
Actually when I travel I typically have at least 6 lithium ion batteries in my carry-on: laptop, spare, camera, cellphone, PSP, and Archos MP3 player. The only other items I usually have are my bathroom items that aren't already banned. When they ban all lithium-ion batteries I'll have no need for a carry-on anymore.
Is this why steam crashed when I turned my computer on this evening? Something about wanting to access a blob file that was already in use... probably a random coincidence, right?
Sony should be higher on the list now that they're recalling X million toxic battery bombs. At least they could get some good press for it somehow!