That's very surprising. 5mW is supposed to be somewhat safe, assuming your blink/aversion reflex is working. Regular laser pointers can be up to 5mW, and everyone and their mom has one of these nowadays, including dumbasses who point them at other people. I haven't seen many stories about people being blinded (or even damaged permantently to any degree) by a 5mW red beam.
Use an OS that doesn't have a dozen or so open ports by default, and that doesn't require dozens of system daemons to hang around waiting to be exploited.
Just like the report says, a very good way of making things secure is to make them simple. What are the chances of hacking into a box with zero open ports?
This is irrelevant for LCDs, because different LCDs use different twist states for white and black. The polarizers are what ultimately determines if light comes out or not. Thus, even assuming the state of the liquid crystal causes a non-negligible difference in power consumption, what state uses more power would depend on the make and model of the panel. About half of the LCDs I've come across are default-white, and the other half are default-black.
If you're so inclined, take the back cover off of your LCD and unplug the LVDS cable between the TFT panel and the processing board, then turn it on. Whatever color shows up is the color that probably uses the least amount of energy.
it wouldn't surprise me if much of the printer logic is in software at this point, for example
Say hi to the HP DeskJets that use PPA (the cheap ones). Their logic is basically composed of an MC68K CPU with enough RAM to hold one print sweep and control the motors. The protocol literally includes commands for advancing the paper a certain amount and sweeping the cartridge (with raw print dot data).
That very link confirms my comment. At 40% charge level, you lose 4% capacity per year. At 100% charge level, you lose 10% capacity per year (at room temperature).
Deep discharge is bad for li-ions, but keeping it topped off at all times is bad too. You're best off keeping your charge at around 40%. This is inconvenient in most cases, so an easier alternative is to just cycle the battery to about 40-30% charge each time you use it, not recharging until it reaches that level, instead of hovering around 90-100% because you barely need to use it.
The battery prefers a partial rather than a full discharge. Frequent full discharges should be avoided when possible. Instead, charge the battery more often or use a larger battery. There is no concern of memory when applying unscheduled charges.
Note: partial discharge. Both next to no discharge and full discharge are worse than a regular partial discharge.
Li-ion batteries degrade much faster when fully charged or near fully charged. By keeping it topped up every day, you're making it last less - one half to potentially one fourth of the time it would last if you kept it at 40%.
You can't use it period, at least so far. The DRM for this generation's consoles hasn't been effectively broken yet. It has been worked around from the piracy standpoint, but you still can't run unsigned code. Modchips don't help.
It's a shame that (almost) the entire console industry consists of closed systems (and this generation it looks increasingly complex to crack). I was hoping that this generation I'd be able to form part of the homebrew community, but it looks like it isn't going to happen anytime soon. Anyone willing to form an *open* team dedicated to opening up the Wii? I'm sure there are ways, but if either no one tries or those who do keep their findings to themselves, nothing gets done.
Use a tiny RAID1 DOS partition on every one of your redundant drives. GRUB will read that just fine, and it'll be able to boot from any one of them. Then, just use the rest of the space as a physical volume for LVM, md, or whatever the ZFS equivalent is.
It's a solder paste applying machine. They put a stencil over the board and drag a squeegee across the top to spread the paste through the holes in the stencil onto the board. You can see the silver-grey solder paste and the squeegee in the picture. Here's how you do the exact same thing at home: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/present.php?p=Ste nciling
Nowadays, SMT devices are soldered using a hot oven or hot air. Back in the day they just dipped the entire thing in solder or used wave soldering, which means the components had to be stuck on. This is no longer necessary, as the board is kept upright and the viscosity of the solder paste acts as a weak glue to keep the components in place until the entire thing is baked.
Guess what we use for copper etching to MAKE the things? Hydrogen peroxide + HCl. That's the fast etchant too - it'll only take a few minutes to eat through the entire layer of copper. Of course, when you make them, you have a bare board with the interesting areas protected by a photosensitive resin, which is all but gone when the keyboard gets to you (not to mention the number of copper parts that are attached to the board).
I ported Linux to a DSL router once. While loading the image, I noticed that the "before" ram hexdump produced by the bootloader was the same as the "after" hexdump. I thought at first that something had gone wrong. Turns out the data was correct - the "before" data was from last boot (yes, this included a physical turn off / on cycle, that lasted at least 5-10 seconds).
RAM does hold data for a while. There's a difference between holding ALL data perfectly (which is why RAM is refreshed many times per second), and being able to retrieve most data. It'll probably work within a few seconds using the RAM chip's internal reading machinery (for most of the data), and using special equipment you could recover it after a while. It won't last a day, but data in RAM isn't gone a split second after power-off.
Photons always travel at c. It's just that anywhere except in a vacuum, they bump into atoms, get absorbed, and reemitted shortly after. Macroscopically, light slows down through objects, but the photons themselves always travel at c.
RC causes trouble with RS232 if it isn't calibrated right. Forget about using USB with it, it won't work.
I2C, OTOH, is perfectly fine. RC oscillators are perfectly fine for synchronous comms, since they don't depend on a precise clock rate. And most newer PICs have I2C built-in, so no need to bitbang.
You must mean Sony used to make good hardware right? I surely have a few older sony TV sets that work great and have never had an issue.
The present, however, is quite different. Just look at the PS2. It doesn't even reliably read DVD-RW (usually not at all), and the lens in the Slim models used to die days after buying it (no, it was not because of modchips, but the media. Even some original games killed it, and anything recorded onto recordable media such as music or DVDs killed it half the time too). Newer models have a current limit, but it still has the problem (they just worked around it).
Lately, both sony software and hardware has been utter crap. Software first, and hardware is slowly following.
Yep. Sony used to be a good brand - I've always had Sony TVs, and they've worked great so far. An old Sony Hi-8 video camera also worked great for a while, and only recently did it develop recording problems (it's really old though, so it's to be expected). Our really old small Sony TV has been running great since it was bought, except that the remote eventually died (which was to be expected, since it withstood a lot of abuse), and a small problem with the on button (it started to misbehave, and for a while we simply used standby mode instead of using the button).
However, Sony has been screwing up with newer consumer electronics. The original PS2 had some problems, but the later few models (which were redesigned on the inside) lasted forever, even modded. However, Sony recently began using cheaper laser drivers and cheaper optics, and the last big PS2s were a fiasco (unless you modded it and patched it properly - something as simple as rigging the laser drivers to run at 5V instead of 12V fixed the problem!). The newer, slim models are even worse, the optics can actually catch on fire.
The proprietary format stuff is also pathetic. It just highly annoys me that I've got a friend who has a Sony HDD portable player, which proudly boasts MP3 support. Nice! Or not. You still have to use sony's proprietary software to load the songs, since it stores them in a very weird file structure and - get this - ENCRYPTED (or more like obfuscated - I hear the encryption is just a crappy variable table-based substitution where the table is derived from the volume ID or something equally stupid)
Exactly. In the PS2 you also had to do a voodooish thingy to get data from video ram to the EE, through one of the vector units. So what? AGP also has suboptimal read capacity. In the unlikely event that you need to do this, you've got an easy workaround (RSX to main RAM) which is probably better than what's available in other architectures.
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.lasikathome.com/
That's very surprising. 5mW is supposed to be somewhat safe, assuming your blink/aversion reflex is working. Regular laser pointers can be up to 5mW, and everyone and their mom has one of these nowadays, including dumbasses who point them at other people. I haven't seen many stories about people being blinded (or even damaged permantently to any degree) by a 5mW red beam.
Correction: that the uploaders have no legal right to share in certain countries.
Just because sharing is illegal in the US doesn't mean it's illegal in the rest of the world.
kakaroto from the amsn project somehow obtained the full censored regexp list. There are about 90 in total.
t =157&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30
http://www.amsn-project.net/forums/viewtopic.php?
Use an OS that doesn't have a dozen or so open ports by default, and that doesn't require dozens of system daemons to hang around waiting to be exploited.
Just like the report says, a very good way of making things secure is to make them simple. What are the chances of hacking into a box with zero open ports?
This is irrelevant for LCDs, because different LCDs use different twist states for white and black. The polarizers are what ultimately determines if light comes out or not. Thus, even assuming the state of the liquid crystal causes a non-negligible difference in power consumption, what state uses more power would depend on the make and model of the panel. About half of the LCDs I've come across are default-white, and the other half are default-black.
If you're so inclined, take the back cover off of your LCD and unplug the LVDS cable between the TFT panel and the processing board, then turn it on. Whatever color shows up is the color that probably uses the least amount of energy.
Say hi to the HP DeskJets that use PPA (the cheap ones). Their logic is basically composed of an MC68K CPU with enough RAM to hold one print sweep and control the motors. The protocol literally includes commands for advancing the paper a certain amount and sweeping the cartridge (with raw print dot data).
Deep discharge is bad for li-ions, but keeping it topped off at all times is bad too. You're best off keeping your charge at around 40%. This is inconvenient in most cases, so an easier alternative is to just cycle the battery to about 40-30% charge each time you use it, not recharging until it reaches that level, instead of hovering around 90-100% because you barely need to use it.
Note: partial discharge. Both next to no discharge and full discharge are worse than a regular partial discharge.
Li-ion batteries degrade much faster when fully charged or near fully charged. By keeping it topped up every day, you're making it last less - one half to potentially one fourth of the time it would last if you kept it at 40%.
You can't use it period, at least so far. The DRM for this generation's consoles hasn't been effectively broken yet. It has been worked around from the piracy standpoint, but you still can't run unsigned code. Modchips don't help.
It's a shame that (almost) the entire console industry consists of closed systems (and this generation it looks increasingly complex to crack). I was hoping that this generation I'd be able to form part of the homebrew community, but it looks like it isn't going to happen anytime soon. Anyone willing to form an *open* team dedicated to opening up the Wii? I'm sure there are ways, but if either no one tries or those who do keep their findings to themselves, nothing gets done.
Use a tiny RAID1 DOS partition on every one of your redundant drives. GRUB will read that just fine, and it'll be able to boot from any one of them. Then, just use the rest of the space as a physical volume for LVM, md, or whatever the ZFS equivalent is.
It's a solder paste applying machine. They put a stencil over the board and drag a squeegee across the top to spread the paste through the holes in the stencil onto the board. You can see the silver-grey solder paste and the squeegee in the picture. Here's how you do the exact same thing at home:e nciling
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/present.php?p=St
Nowadays, SMT devices are soldered using a hot oven or hot air. Back in the day they just dipped the entire thing in solder or used wave soldering, which means the components had to be stuck on. This is no longer necessary, as the board is kept upright and the viscosity of the solder paste acts as a weak glue to keep the components in place until the entire thing is baked.
Hydrogen peroxide + electronics = bad idea.
Guess what we use for copper etching to MAKE the things? Hydrogen peroxide + HCl. That's the fast etchant too - it'll only take a few minutes to eat through the entire layer of copper. Of course, when you make them, you have a bare board with the interesting areas protected by a photosensitive resin, which is all but gone when the keyboard gets to you (not to mention the number of copper parts that are attached to the board).
Alcohol is fine though.
I ported Linux to a DSL router once. While loading the image, I noticed that the "before" ram hexdump produced by the bootloader was the same as the "after" hexdump. I thought at first that something had gone wrong. Turns out the data was correct - the "before" data was from last boot (yes, this included a physical turn off / on cycle, that lasted at least 5-10 seconds).
RAM does hold data for a while. There's a difference between holding ALL data perfectly (which is why RAM is refreshed many times per second), and being able to retrieve most data. It'll probably work within a few seconds using the RAM chip's internal reading machinery (for most of the data), and using special equipment you could recover it after a while. It won't last a day, but data in RAM isn't gone a split second after power-off.
Photons always travel at c. It's just that anywhere except in a vacuum, they bump into atoms, get absorbed, and reemitted shortly after. Macroscopically, light slows down through objects, but the photons themselves always travel at c.
PING towel.blinkenlights.nl(towel.blinkenlights.nl) 56 data bytes
64 bytes from towel.blinkenlights.nl: icmp_seq=1 ttl=55 time=10.5 ms
--- towel.blinkenlights.nl ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 10.516/10.516/10.516/0.000 ms
# telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl
[...]
Well, the IPv6 version is exactly the same as the IPv4 one.
The difference is in the visitors...
Je bent een Stoere Bikkel, aka You Rock.
Except when your name is mendel.
Sorry dude, life's a bitch.
Crap. Life is indeed a bitch.
How exactly do they know what you voted for then? They can't require that you show them the receipts.
RC causes trouble with RS232 if it isn't calibrated right. Forget about using USB with it, it won't work.
I2C, OTOH, is perfectly fine. RC oscillators are perfectly fine for synchronous comms, since they don't depend on a precise clock rate. And most newer PICs have I2C built-in, so no need to bitbang.
You must mean Sony used to make good hardware right? I surely have a few older sony TV sets that work great and have never had an issue.
The present, however, is quite different. Just look at the PS2. It doesn't even reliably read DVD-RW (usually not at all), and the lens in the Slim models used to die days after buying it (no, it was not because of modchips, but the media. Even some original games killed it, and anything recorded onto recordable media such as music or DVDs killed it half the time too). Newer models have a current limit, but it still has the problem (they just worked around it).
Lately, both sony software and hardware has been utter crap. Software first, and hardware is slowly following.
Works perfectly fine. Have you enabled the proper extension for lyrics support?
Try tweaking the sensibility settings, and using a fast (1000Hz) USB poll rate. It IS very accurate.
Real easy to detect. Just play DDR/StepMania in keyboard mode. If you fail all songs, either you suck, or your keyboard has been bugged.
I'm waiting for the lighting stuff to come (CCFL tubes). After that, it should go smoothly to completion.
Yep. Sony used to be a good brand - I've always had Sony TVs, and they've worked great so far. An old Sony Hi-8 video camera also worked great for a while, and only recently did it develop recording problems (it's really old though, so it's to be expected). Our really old small Sony TV has been running great since it was bought, except that the remote eventually died (which was to be expected, since it withstood a lot of abuse), and a small problem with the on button (it started to misbehave, and for a while we simply used standby mode instead of using the button).
However, Sony has been screwing up with newer consumer electronics. The original PS2 had some problems, but the later few models (which were redesigned on the inside) lasted forever, even modded. However, Sony recently began using cheaper laser drivers and cheaper optics, and the last big PS2s were a fiasco (unless you modded it and patched it properly - something as simple as rigging the laser drivers to run at 5V instead of 12V fixed the problem!). The newer, slim models are even worse, the optics can actually catch on fire.
The proprietary format stuff is also pathetic. It just highly annoys me that I've got a friend who has a Sony HDD portable player, which proudly boasts MP3 support. Nice! Or not. You still have to use sony's proprietary software to load the songs, since it stores them in a very weird file structure and - get this - ENCRYPTED (or more like obfuscated - I hear the encryption is just a crappy variable table-based substitution where the table is derived from the volume ID or something equally stupid)
Exactly. In the PS2 you also had to do a voodooish thingy to get data from video ram to the EE, through one of the vector units. So what? AGP also has suboptimal read capacity. In the unlikely event that you need to do this, you've got an easy workaround (RSX to main RAM) which is probably better than what's available in other architectures.