Just as unsustainable as Google cash back was back a few Christmas seasons ago, where I was awarded $20 for every purchase transaction for no apparent reason. I will enjoy my $280 and $320 dual-core, wide-screen laptops courtesy of Bing.com, too. *sniff*
And nothing of value was lost. The daunting task of actually getting XBMC onto an Xbox when it won't even get you HD is supremely disappointing. A cheap mini-ITX system for a few dollars more is easy and HD.
It's not a scam. They were overwhelmed with orders and as a result they lost orders and order records back in December. This is very common for small businesses, but since this is a too-good-to-be-true-sounding cheap laptop people naturally reported it as a scam to the credit card processors and the BBB.
Nobody lost any money, but those customers did get frustrated and did lose time, and for some people "time is money."
As for Cherrypal, they should have used Amazon Fulfillment or some other fulfillment service. Now everyone on Slashdot hates them because they heard that some people paid for orders and didn't get their laptops. What they didn't hear is the follow-up story: all those people eventually got the laptops or got their money back.
I ordered four times before I got my laptop but it was because of a couple of things. First there's very few people handling the orders. Second, there were supply problems from the original equipment manufacturers. Third, as a result of these, orders were delayed, and the sheer number of customers complaining to both Cherrypal and their credit card processor caused the credit card processor to drop the Cherrypal account. There was also some talk of hacking that also got another credit card processor to drop the account. They went through four of them since last December.
Yeah, I don't know what to tell you. My session ID (expired) is indeed in the original link. The Slashdot editors didn't seem to have any problems with it.
This bird is 22,236 miles away from the Earth. This is 21,836 miles higher than the Space Shuttle can go. These satellites are so high and so far away that we don't even have the technology to economically refuel them, let alone retrieve them. This isn't science fiction. This is hard truth. The best you can do is talk to it via radio communications, and if you can't do that, you're stuck in the situation we have today.
Still, since we have multi-hour satellite outages for several days twice per year during to the vernal equinox, you can do without your satellite-delivered television. Indeed, even now, contingencies are being arranged for HITS and the major satellite providers to provide alternate broadcast routes so that for your Home Shopping Channel is not interrupted too badly.
Please stop talking about shooting these birds down Star Wars style. They're just too far to do that. I'd like Slashdot to stop posting variants of this same, rather mundane story every day. Come August this will be permanently solved and we'll move on with our lives.
And, for people really worried about real life, that GPS WAAS signal outage will make your GPS ten feet less accurate. Relax. There are plenty of L-band satellite payloads to take over once this "crisis" has been averted.
The original article just completely changed to something else that doesn't even mention the Propellor. You have to love the journalistic integrity around here.
That's a great idea. I was a little concerned about the current draw and the fact that I don't know how to do SMT soldering, but that would be a great enhancement to the setup.
Oh, I just noticed the note you folks made about the speed going down. For surveillance purposes, you might be doing one frame per second. That is also how often the motion sensor polls the camera, so you're just taking super-high-resolution snapshots once per second, or whatever you set your frame rate to. My bandwidth math-fu is pretty rusty but once per second should be okay for one 12 megabit USB link.
Again, my goal is thinking how cheap can we keep it so that if things go horribly wrong we just shrug and try again. I have conventional NTSC Lorex and Q-see systems plus some NTSC camera cards but they're a pain in the neck. If you already know computers the UVC USB webcams give so much more picture resolution for so much less money and annoying CMOS camera headaches.
Also, you can install an infrared spotlight. These cameras will pick that light up in the darkness, too (most any camera will).
Not completely appropo, but sometimes you can find what you're looking for by trying out the not-so-obvious solution.
First, go to your local computer store and get a few generic UVC webcams.
While you're there get a few long USB extension cords. You can get an active one that will let you put your camera a few hundred yards away if you like, or a passive one that will get you to thirty or forty feet.
Now go home and plug in all your cameras, one at a time. You can plug in as many as you have USB ports, and, don't worry, no drivers needed.
For Windows, visit this site to download the "MJPEG Surveillance" program: http://www.brooksyounce.com/. Install it and run "MJPEG Recorder," click the right mouse button, and choose "Add New DirectX Camera." This program will let you adjust most of your camera's parameters including frame rate, and even motion detection and how long to record after motion stops. Jack up the resolution to the highest your camera will support since you're not going to want to record full-motion video in a surveillance situation. Be sure to set the JPEG quality to an acceptable level and put a time stamp in the corner, too, that you can read and won't get smudged by the JPEG compression.
A couple of gigabytes of free space is more than enough to record days of 1280x800 at 85% JPEG quality and 1 FPS. Experiment. The motion detection is key.
For example, at my local Micro Center, you can get a typical, generic UVC 1280x800 webcam for $25 or less. Try the WinBook WB-7144 HD Webcam 2-Pack for $40 or $25 for just one camera. In any case you should not pay more than $25 for a UVC webcam. These cheap units do 1280x800 at 30 frames per second and have autofocus, too, which is unbelievable at this price point. For discretion you may wish to disable the LEDs by disassembling the camera (they pop apart after unscrewing the base) and with a needle-nose pliers remove the two LEDs.
The quality is good for daylight, and rather grainy at nighttime. At these prices, experiment and have fun!!
You guys need to RFA. We're talking about tritium which is a necessary by-product of most US plants and is not adequately contained. Nothing at all to do with dry cask storage or high-level nuclear waste.
On top of all this, most plants are not designed to contain tritium, and those that can contain it must somehow transfer it to another containment vessel.
Often the cores that are disabled are disabled because of failed L2 cache.
What software tool can I use to test the L2 cache to ensure it's totally working? I'd hate to enable that core and find out that its L2 cache is faulty, something both of those benchmarks don't seem to test.
Slashdot Mirror
Just as unsustainable as Google cash back was back a few Christmas seasons ago, where I was awarded $20 for every purchase transaction for no apparent reason. I will enjoy my $280 and $320 dual-core, wide-screen laptops courtesy of Bing.com, too. *sniff*
And nothing of value was lost.
The daunting task of actually getting XBMC onto an Xbox when it won't even get you HD is supremely disappointing. A cheap mini-ITX system for a few dollars more is easy and HD.
It sure looks like my Zipit. http://www.zipitwireless.com/
When your boss quotes Joel Spolsky, it's probably time to move on.
It's not a scam. They were overwhelmed with orders and as a result they lost orders and order records back in December. This is very common for small businesses, but since this is a too-good-to-be-true-sounding cheap laptop people naturally reported it as a scam to the credit card processors and the BBB.
Nobody lost any money, but those customers did get frustrated and did lose time, and for some people "time is money."
As for Cherrypal, they should have used Amazon Fulfillment or some other fulfillment service.
Now everyone on Slashdot hates them because they heard that some people paid for orders and didn't get their laptops. What they didn't hear is the follow-up story: all those people eventually got the laptops or got their money back.
Kriston
I ordered four times before I got my laptop but it was because of a couple of things. First there's very few people handling the orders. Second, there were supply problems from the original equipment manufacturers. Third, as a result of these, orders were delayed, and the sheer number of customers complaining to both Cherrypal and their credit card processor caused the credit card processor to drop the Cherrypal account. There was also some talk of hacking that also got another credit card processor to drop the account. They went through four of them since last December.
By the way, I did get my laptop.
Kriston
Yeah, I don't know what to tell you. My session ID (expired) is indeed in the original link. The Slashdot editors didn't seem to have any problems with it.
Kriston
And, as a result, Farmville/Mafiawars updates on Facebook temporarily stop.
Nothing of value was lost.
This bird is 22,236 miles away from the Earth. This is 21,836 miles higher than the Space Shuttle can go. These satellites are so high and so far away that we don't even have the technology to economically refuel them, let alone retrieve them. This isn't science fiction. This is hard truth. The best you can do is talk to it via radio communications, and if you can't do that, you're stuck in the situation we have today.
Still, since we have multi-hour satellite outages for several days twice per year during to the vernal equinox, you can do without your satellite-delivered television. Indeed, even now, contingencies are being arranged for HITS and the major satellite providers to provide alternate broadcast routes so that for your Home Shopping Channel is not interrupted too badly.
Please stop talking about shooting these birds down Star Wars style. They're just too far to do that. I'd like Slashdot to stop posting variants of this same, rather mundane story every day. Come August this will be permanently solved and we'll move on with our lives.
And, for people really worried about real life, that GPS WAAS signal outage will make your GPS ten feet less accurate. Relax. There are plenty of L-band satellite payloads to take over once this "crisis" has been averted.
The original article just completely changed to something else that doesn't even mention the Propellor. You have to love the journalistic integrity around here.
This is a veiled slashvertisement for Parallax Propellor.
In related news, each of my WiFi internet radios cost under $150.
We're almost there already.
That's a great idea. I was a little concerned about the current draw and the fact that I don't know how to do SMT soldering, but that would be a great enhancement to the setup.
This is awesome!! Thanks for the tips, everyone!!
Oh, I just noticed the note you folks made about the speed going down. For surveillance purposes, you might be doing one frame per second. That is also how often the motion sensor polls the camera, so you're just taking super-high-resolution snapshots once per second, or whatever you set your frame rate to. My bandwidth math-fu is pretty rusty but once per second should be okay for one 12 megabit USB link.
We have active USB repeaters. These cameras draw very little power. Some of the power is used to run the repeater.
Here's a list of some cheap ones you can use to 16 more feet: http://www.cyberguys.com/product-search/?keyword=usb+extender&gps=60
And here's your 1000-foot USB extender: http://www.networktechinc.com/extenders-usb.html
Again, my goal is thinking how cheap can we keep it so that if things go horribly wrong we just shrug and try again. I have conventional NTSC Lorex and Q-see systems plus some NTSC camera cards but they're a pain in the neck. If you already know computers the UVC USB webcams give so much more picture resolution for so much less money and annoying CMOS camera headaches.
Also, you can install an infrared spotlight. These cameras will pick that light up in the darkness, too (most any camera will).
Have fun!!
Not completely appropo, but sometimes you can find what you're looking for by trying out the not-so-obvious solution.
First, go to your local computer store and get a few generic UVC webcams.
While you're there get a few long USB extension cords. You can get an active one that will let you put your camera a few hundred yards away if you like, or a passive one that will get you to thirty or forty feet.
Now go home and plug in all your cameras, one at a time. You can plug in as many as you have USB ports, and, don't worry, no drivers needed.
For Windows, visit this site to download the "MJPEG Surveillance" program: http://www.brooksyounce.com/. Install it and run "MJPEG Recorder," click the right mouse button, and choose "Add New DirectX Camera." This program will let you adjust most of your camera's parameters including frame rate, and even motion detection and how long to record after motion stops. Jack up the resolution to the highest your camera will support since you're not going to want to record full-motion video in a surveillance situation. Be sure to set the JPEG quality to an acceptable level and put a time stamp in the corner, too, that you can read and won't get smudged by the JPEG compression.
A couple of gigabytes of free space is more than enough to record days of 1280x800 at 85% JPEG quality and 1 FPS. Experiment. The motion detection is key.
For example, at my local Micro Center, you can get a typical, generic UVC 1280x800 webcam for $25 or less. Try the WinBook WB-7144 HD Webcam 2-Pack for $40 or $25 for just one camera. In any case you should not pay more than $25 for a UVC webcam. These cheap units do 1280x800 at 30 frames per second and have autofocus, too, which is unbelievable at this price point. For discretion you may wish to disable the LEDs by disassembling the camera (they pop apart after unscrewing the base) and with a needle-nose pliers remove the two LEDs.
The quality is good for daylight, and rather grainy at nighttime. At these prices, experiment and have fun!!
Whatever happened to Viewpoint Media Player? AOL used it to skin the AOL client for years.
Didn't even make it in Top 10 Technology Mistakes:
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/173067,top-10-technology-mistakes.aspx
Clearly you don't know that aquifers are underground.
New York City gets its water from surface reservoirs in upstate New York, not aquifers.
Double-duh!!
Dude, it comes from upstate New York, not from the aquifer under New York City that the poster was actually referring to.
"Stable, high quality aquifer?"
Do you really know *anything* about New York City?
And 3D anaglyph street images, too.
You guys need to RFA. We're talking about tritium which is a necessary by-product of most US plants and is not adequately contained. Nothing at all to do with dry cask storage or high-level nuclear waste.
On top of all this, most plants are not designed to contain tritium, and those that can contain it must somehow transfer it to another containment vessel.
Often the cores that are disabled are disabled because of failed L2 cache.
What software tool can I use to test the L2 cache to ensure it's totally working? I'd hate to enable that core and find out that its L2 cache is faulty, something both of those benchmarks don't seem to test.