The thing I like about payload-in-code formats, like QRCode, is that the information is actually out there in the world with you, albeit in a machine-readable format. The URL actually, you know, is sharing your space.
With a payload-on-server code, the thing in the code isn't meaningful, even in to a machine, unless the WHOLE chain is working -- internet connection, server, the whole nine yards.
If you've got an old Sony Sports Walkman, you can "stealth mode" the iPod inside it. Kit is twenty bucks, and the premade case is a (waaaay overpriced, I admit it) cool hundred dollars.
As a web developer and dilettante programmer, I'm interested in how RFID will extend the reach of our apps beyond the keyboard/mouse and out into the real world (well, several inches out into the real world, anyhow, given the limitations of RFID receivers.)
I've been playing with the RFID kid from Phidgets; it's about 100 bucks to get started with a reader and some chips of your own. Unfortunately for a newbie like me, it's not as easy as working with a barcode reader -- you've got to access the hardware using a VB object, do your own filtering and suppression for multiple reads, etc. If someone has written a package that will abstract this stuff, making the reader act like an easy-cheesy USB keyboard, I'd be glad to know about it.
While we're on the subject, anyone know of any other fun, entry-level RFID hardware, kits, or packages, so we can write our own Evil Supply-Chain-Management All-Seeing-Eye application?
Maybe the battery can be pulled along behind in a twenty-dollar rolly cart. For that matter, so could the 70-pound backpack in the first place!
A rich Texan in an airport sees a mad-scientist type puffing along under the weight of two huge and weighty suitcases. "Say, pardner, what time is it?" he asks. The fellow puts down his suitcases and refers to his watch, a humming black conglomeration of dials and lights with a miniature satellite dish spinning on top. "It's 10:28:32 here, precisely, and..." (the inventor's eyes flicker to a set of displays) "your flight is on time, your rental car is waiting in Dallas, and your wife is cooking ribs for dinner tonight!"
"Holy cow! Sell me that durn thing!" says the Texan, and after some intense negotiations the inventor lets him have it for several million in cash right then and there. The Texan straps the device to his arm and begins to walk away.
"Hold on!" shouts the inventor, pointing to the two colossal suitcases. "You forgot the batteries!"
"In the UC Berkeley experiments, the human pilot moved about a room wearing the 100-pound exoskeleton and a 70-pound backpack while feeling as if he were lugging a mere 5 pounds."
...Is that because the backpack contains a 75-pound battery?
After using a Timbuk2 laptop sleeve for years, I had to abandon it when I started using a Dell Inspiron 8600. Sadly, nobody I saw made a good bag, so I decided to make my own.
I did it with some 1/2" neoprene puchased from Canal Rubber in NYC.
I cut pieces of neoprene to make a box, super-glued it together, then (ahem) sewed up a canvas sleeve to keep it from falling apart -- the neoprene isn't very abrasion-resistant. I use a separate small cordura bag to carry the charger, mouse, and whisker antenna for wireless.
Works great. I ride a motorcycle to work when the weather's nice, and the whole shebang fits neatly into an Ortlieb Cross-Air pack. Um, this solution probably isn't for everybody, though.
Slashdot Mirror
The thing I like about payload-in-code formats, like QRCode, is that the information is actually out there in the world with you, albeit in a machine-readable format. The URL actually, you know, is sharing your space.
With a payload-on-server code, the thing in the code isn't meaningful, even in to a machine, unless the WHOLE chain is working -- internet connection, server, the whole nine yards.
QRcode just seems, I dunno, more "honest."
Sheesh, does Sir Richard Branson have a plan to deal with the Vermicious Knids?
If you've got an old Sony Sports Walkman, you can "stealth mode" the iPod inside it. Kit is twenty bucks, and the premade case is a (waaaay overpriced, I admit it) cool hundred dollars.
www.retropod.com
As a web developer and dilettante programmer, I'm interested in how RFID will extend the reach of our apps beyond the keyboard/mouse and out into the real world (well, several inches out into the real world, anyhow, given the limitations of RFID receivers.)
I've been playing with the RFID kid from Phidgets; it's about 100 bucks to get started with a reader and some chips of your own. Unfortunately for a newbie like me, it's not as easy as working with a barcode reader -- you've got to access the hardware using a VB object, do your own filtering and suppression for multiple reads, etc. If someone has written a package that will abstract this stuff, making the reader act like an easy-cheesy USB keyboard, I'd be glad to know about it.
While we're on the subject, anyone know of any other fun, entry-level RFID hardware, kits, or packages, so we can write our own Evil Supply-Chain-Management All-Seeing-Eye application?
Maybe the battery can be pulled along behind in a twenty-dollar rolly cart. For that matter, so could the 70-pound backpack in the first place!
A rich Texan in an airport sees a mad-scientist type puffing along under the weight of two huge and weighty suitcases. "Say, pardner, what time is it?" he asks. The fellow puts down his suitcases and refers to his watch, a humming black conglomeration of dials and lights with a miniature satellite dish spinning on top. "It's 10:28:32 here, precisely, and..." (the inventor's eyes flicker to a set of displays) "your flight is on time, your rental car is waiting in Dallas, and your wife is cooking ribs for dinner tonight!"
"Holy cow! Sell me that durn thing!" says the Texan, and after some intense negotiations the inventor lets him have it for several million in cash right then and there. The Texan straps the device to his arm and begins to walk away.
"Hold on!" shouts the inventor, pointing to the two colossal suitcases. "You forgot the batteries!"
- Picture 1
- Picture 2
I cut pieces of neoprene to make a box, super-glued it together, then (ahem) sewed up a canvas sleeve to keep it from falling apart -- the neoprene isn't very abrasion-resistant. I use a separate small cordura bag to carry the charger, mouse, and whisker antenna for wireless. Works great. I ride a motorcycle to work when the weather's nice, and the whole shebang fits neatly into an Ortlieb Cross-Air pack. Um, this solution probably isn't for everybody, though....are doomed to repeat them. Viz. this famous disaster at TBWA Chiat/Day.
Here's a way I'm working on to get your iPod to have a dual Sony headphone jack AND that plastick-y yellow color!
The mighty rePod