I was pleasantly surprised at a commercial I recently heard on the radio while driving. It was a public service announcement laying down the basics of phishing (they even said "spelled with a 'ph'") and what kinds of warning signs to look for. I hope to see more announcements of this type, as computers begin to affect almost 100% of the people in our society.
I've used Litestep since the days of Win95. I had to run Windows because of some unique engineering software we used at school, but Litestep made it much more bearable. And Litestep had virtual desktops.
Actually, I still use Litestep on my XP box. After bootup I'm sitting with 150MB of RAM used.
I don't think you could ever actually "roll up" an issue of the old Computer Shopper. They were already almost as thick as they were wide. If you did succeed in rolling it up, it would be like a section of log.
But they were still useful for puppy discipline. Simply drop that thing flat on the floor next to where the puppy is doing whatever it shouldn't. The loud *THUNK* and shock wave were as startling as any physical tail-smacking.
I got curious one evening and took a short drive around my semi-rural neighborhood. I discovered 26 wireless networks, only 10 of which were secured. Almost all of the unsecured networks were using the default "linksys" configuration right out of the box. This means that anyone can connect to their network with full administrative control by logging in to 192.168.1.1 with no username and the password "admin" as published in the Linksys manuals. In fact, I can see two nodes like this from my own apartment. These people probably have no idea if they're even connecting to their own cable modem. And they're leaving their router open to full administrative control by anyone on the street; someone could even turn on the remote management and no longer have to be physically near the node.
It's ridiculous, and wireless router manufacturers should make it mandatory to choose passwords and security phrases. Simply resolve all internet access to the internal configuration page until the router has been successfully configured.
Any old laptop down to about 486DX/33 will be perfectly usable as a homebuilt CNC controller running TurboCNC in DOS. Laptops are actually ideal for this because they don't take up much space, they already have a flat-panel monitor, and they are usually slightly more resistant to accidental thumps and vibration. You do need to have at least a DX, since TurboCNC relies on the math coprocessor. And the parallel port needs to work; it also may require a little buffering since laptop parallel ports can be low-voltage.
We don't care about "people" or "viewers" here. We care about voters. When less than half of the population even cares enough to vote, an average score near 50% starts to look a lot better.
How about Reasoned Compromise: "May not agree with his every last item of policy, but in comparing the two likely candidates, he is at least closer to the preferred side of issues involving government spending, taxation, business incentives, and military functions."
I would wager that 90% of the voters in both camps fall into the above category. Despite what you might think, most Americans are actually normal people with decent intelligence levels. You should go out and actually meet people, instead of getting your opinion of America from the news, which by definition focuses on the negatives and deviants in our society. Major political candidates are never very far from the center these days, and the voting public reflects that.
Interesting side note, I was reading on one of those crazy whacko conspiracy sites about something called "TACMARS", which are basically tactical markings on signs and stuff that you wouldn't normally notice but could be used by people to organize movements in the absence of sophisiticated computerized mapping and logistics systems. They mentioned something about those bright reflective tags you sometimes see on the backs of road signs, and how you'd use a quadrant system (left corner, right corner, etc.) to make a code which gives someone directions covertly. Interesting ideas, even if it's nutty.
Hello, they're road signs. What about the information on the front of them?
That won't happen because despite what the cable companies whine, they make money on every account. The people who have cable modems and then just use it to check email are the ones giving the cable companies the most profit. If their bandwidth was billed like electricity, they'd pay almost nothing. That's not what cable companies want to see.
Good idea, I'm thinking of spaceship sections that look like an accordion. You could extend the length of the spaceship by putting a section in the middle of the ship, or sprout modules off the sides.
By an interesting coincidence, I was born near Mt. St. Helens during the first eruption. Yes...as I was delivered from the womb, the city was covered with ash and filled with the sounds of weeping and gnashing of teeth *cough* I mean, sweeping and washing of streets.
Maybe with this next eruption, instead of merely being born, I'll actually get a life.
Here ya go, http://www.meet-an-inmate.com/. Some of those chicks are cute! At least they were before they went in! Some are getting out in a few months, wait outside the gate with a bouquet of roses and she'll be yours forever. Or at least until your computer gets pawned for crack.
If you happen to have one, and some l337 kiddie is demolishing you in that one-on-one deathmatch, a clever tactic is sending her over to gently blow in his ear.
How do they know it's a camera? Were they browsing the spy-supply website and happened to see that clock radio and now assume that it's a camera? That's a real Sony clock radio, which you can purchase without a camera. Or did they somehow find the receiver module? That's a 2.4GHz transmitter and it's not like they could flip through channels on the TV and suddenly find video from the bathroom.
I think they need to take a screwdriver to that clock radio before making any serious mistakes.
You need to wake up. Carefully raise both hands and stare at them, flexing each finger in turn. Silently recite the alphabet forwards and backwards. Take another gulp of coffee...there ya go. Take a deep breath. Ahhh...much better!
No no no...the level does NOT take a full minute to load. That happens to be the default setting, but anyone who knows anything has already turned the "precache skins" setting off. Even if you have more than 512MB of RAM, it makes no sense to have that setting turned on. If someone joins the game, it takes almost instantly to load just that skin, rather than loading all of them and not using hardly any.
I don't mind Primeval actually, though I didn't like it at first. After playing it for a while, you start to see the strategy. It's the one map where the Hellbender plays a pivotal role. In order to win you must park the Hellbender far away from the central node, but close enough for line of sight. Then you float skymines over the node and opposing team's field and keep carpet-bombing the area. Perfect area denial, as long as everyone on your team understands what you're doing, and heals the Hellbender when possible and don't jump in a charge into the middle of a heated battle.
I tried EMC, I hate it. Plus, it requires either an expensive servo-driver card, or a fast PC (600MHz-1GHz) while TurboCNC runs fine on a 486.
TurboCNC is free as in beer, you only pay if you want the source code or want to support Dave. As far as I know, no other CNC program comes close in terms of performing on extremely inexpensive hardware with excellent results, and no one else offers the option of looking at the source code and making your own tweaks. Some regular users of TurboCNC have made hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years, due to his program...I think it's more than fair for him to let you use the program without paying. Plus, I've talked to Dave in person, which is more than I can say for the EMC developers. I'm not going to discount a program just because it doesn't have a Sourceforge page.
For electronic parts, you just can't possibly leave out the Electronic Goldmine. They've been around a long time, and in my experience offer the best surplus stuff you can find while charging the least they can get away with. Their bagged assortments are good, and their Electronic Surprise box is actually a good deal if you don't mind sorting through a box of jumbled parts. They also carry many standard components to round out whatever project you're doing.
If you ever want to build a CNC machine, check out TurboCNC. It's "shareware" in the sense that you are free to download and use the fully-functional, nagless program...and what a program it is. TurboCNC 3 has been used by thousands of hobby CNC'ers, and just recently TurboCNC 4 was released with lots of rewritten code, vastly improved user interface, and better stepping rates. This program will pulse stepper motors up to 30KHz on a junker 486 computer with parallel port, depending on the timer hardware. Version 4 adds Pentium timer support, resulting in pulse rates beyond 100,000Hz. The price rose from $20 to $60 with the release of the new version, but that price is if you feel like supporting Dave and his team, and will get you the full sourcecode to the program.
For cheap PCBs: nobody can beat Olimex. Yeah, they're based out of Bulgaria, and the first setup of payment can be a little tricky. But you'll get a double-sided board with plated holes, solder mask, and silkscreen...about $25 for 6" x 4" board. What's even better is that you can send them a number of files, then give them a sketch of how you want the boards arranged and repeated in the 6"x4" area...and they will panelize and cut them out for you, free. That's impressive if you've ever checked out the costs of doing something similar with other PCB houses. Many of them give the impression that it's like cheating to try to get more than one board out of the standard board size, even if your design only requires a few square inches. With Olimex I've gotten up to ten boards for that cheap price. It kind of makes you wonder what other ways you can use outsourcing, instead of whining about it and trying to make the government give your old job back.
By the way, this list has a long way to go before it's the most exhaustive I've seen. For the ultimate in DIY electronics articles and links, try ePanorama, it's been around a long time.
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I was pleasantly surprised at a commercial I recently heard on the radio while driving. It was a public service announcement laying down the basics of phishing (they even said "spelled with a 'ph'") and what kinds of warning signs to look for. I hope to see more announcements of this type, as computers begin to affect almost 100% of the people in our society.
I've used Litestep since the days of Win95. I had to run Windows because of some unique engineering software we used at school, but Litestep made it much more bearable. And Litestep had virtual desktops.
Actually, I still use Litestep on my XP box. After bootup I'm sitting with 150MB of RAM used.
I don't think you could ever actually "roll up" an issue of the old Computer Shopper. They were already almost as thick as they were wide. If you did succeed in rolling it up, it would be like a section of log.
But they were still useful for puppy discipline. Simply drop that thing flat on the floor next to where the puppy is doing whatever it shouldn't. The loud *THUNK* and shock wave were as startling as any physical tail-smacking.
Ah...I knew *something* bothered me about John Carmack's X-Prize vehicle.
I got curious one evening and took a short drive around my semi-rural neighborhood. I discovered 26 wireless networks, only 10 of which were secured. Almost all of the unsecured networks were using the default "linksys" configuration right out of the box. This means that anyone can connect to their network with full administrative control by logging in to 192.168.1.1 with no username and the password "admin" as published in the Linksys manuals. In fact, I can see two nodes like this from my own apartment. These people probably have no idea if they're even connecting to their own cable modem. And they're leaving their router open to full administrative control by anyone on the street; someone could even turn on the remote management and no longer have to be physically near the node.
It's ridiculous, and wireless router manufacturers should make it mandatory to choose passwords and security phrases. Simply resolve all internet access to the internal configuration page until the router has been successfully configured.
Any old laptop down to about 486DX/33 will be perfectly usable as a homebuilt CNC controller running TurboCNC in DOS. Laptops are actually ideal for this because they don't take up much space, they already have a flat-panel monitor, and they are usually slightly more resistant to accidental thumps and vibration. You do need to have at least a DX, since TurboCNC relies on the math coprocessor. And the parallel port needs to work; it also may require a little buffering since laptop parallel ports can be low-voltage.
XD1 would probably be a good emoticon for anyone who manages to get their hands on one of these babies.
We don't care about "people" or "viewers" here. We care about voters. When less than half of the population even cares enough to vote, an average score near 50% starts to look a lot better.
Damn. How arrogant.
How about Reasoned Compromise: "May not agree with his every last item of policy, but in comparing the two likely candidates, he is at least closer to the preferred side of issues involving government spending, taxation, business incentives, and military functions."
I would wager that 90% of the voters in both camps fall into the above category. Despite what you might think, most Americans are actually normal people with decent intelligence levels. You should go out and actually meet people, instead of getting your opinion of America from the news, which by definition focuses on the negatives and deviants in our society. Major political candidates are never very far from the center these days, and the voting public reflects that.
Interesting side note, I was reading on one of those crazy whacko conspiracy sites about something called "TACMARS", which are basically tactical markings on signs and stuff that you wouldn't normally notice but could be used by people to organize movements in the absence of sophisiticated computerized mapping and logistics systems. They mentioned something about those bright reflective tags you sometimes see on the backs of road signs, and how you'd use a quadrant system (left corner, right corner, etc.) to make a code which gives someone directions covertly. Interesting ideas, even if it's nutty.
Hello, they're road signs. What about the information on the front of them?
They should change the name from Syllable to KerryOS.
That won't happen because despite what the cable companies whine, they make money on every account. The people who have cable modems and then just use it to check email are the ones giving the cable companies the most profit. If their bandwidth was billed like electricity, they'd pay almost nothing. That's not what cable companies want to see.
Good idea, I'm thinking of spaceship sections that look like an accordion. You could extend the length of the spaceship by putting a section in the middle of the ship, or sprout modules off the sides.
By an interesting coincidence, I was born near Mt. St. Helens during the first eruption. Yes...as I was delivered from the womb, the city was covered with ash and filled with the sounds of weeping and gnashing of teeth *cough* I mean, sweeping and washing of streets.
Maybe with this next eruption, instead of merely being born, I'll actually get a life.
Here ya go, http://www.meet-an-inmate.com/. Some of those chicks are cute! At least they were before they went in! Some are getting out in a few months, wait outside the gate with a bouquet of roses and she'll be yours forever. Or at least until your computer gets pawned for crack.
If you happen to have one, and some l337 kiddie is demolishing you in that one-on-one deathmatch, a clever tactic is sending her over to gently blow in his ear.
How do they know it's a camera? Were they browsing the spy-supply website and happened to see that clock radio and now assume that it's a camera? That's a real Sony clock radio, which you can purchase without a camera. Or did they somehow find the receiver module? That's a 2.4GHz transmitter and it's not like they could flip through channels on the TV and suddenly find video from the bathroom.
I think they need to take a screwdriver to that clock radio before making any serious mistakes.
You need to wake up. Carefully raise both hands and stare at them, flexing each finger in turn. Silently recite the alphabet forwards and backwards. Take another gulp of coffee...there ya go. Take a deep breath. Ahhh...much better!
If we switched to Metric dollars, the conversion rate would erase the national debt in nothing flat.
No no no...the level does NOT take a full minute to load. That happens to be the default setting, but anyone who knows anything has already turned the "precache skins" setting off. Even if you have more than 512MB of RAM, it makes no sense to have that setting turned on. If someone joins the game, it takes almost instantly to load just that skin, rather than loading all of them and not using hardly any.
I don't mind Primeval actually, though I didn't like it at first. After playing it for a while, you start to see the strategy. It's the one map where the Hellbender plays a pivotal role. In order to win you must park the Hellbender far away from the central node, but close enough for line of sight. Then you float skymines over the node and opposing team's field and keep carpet-bombing the area. Perfect area denial, as long as everyone on your team understands what you're doing, and heals the Hellbender when possible and don't jump in a charge into the middle of a heated battle.
I tried EMC, I hate it. Plus, it requires either an expensive servo-driver card, or a fast PC (600MHz-1GHz) while TurboCNC runs fine on a 486.
TurboCNC is free as in beer, you only pay if you want the source code or want to support Dave. As far as I know, no other CNC program comes close in terms of performing on extremely inexpensive hardware with excellent results, and no one else offers the option of looking at the source code and making your own tweaks. Some regular users of TurboCNC have made hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years, due to his program...I think it's more than fair for him to let you use the program without paying. Plus, I've talked to Dave in person, which is more than I can say for the EMC developers. I'm not going to discount a program just because it doesn't have a Sourceforge page.
For electronic parts, you just can't possibly leave out the Electronic Goldmine. They've been around a long time, and in my experience offer the best surplus stuff you can find while charging the least they can get away with. Their bagged assortments are good, and their Electronic Surprise box is actually a good deal if you don't mind sorting through a box of jumbled parts. They also carry many standard components to round out whatever project you're doing.
If you ever want to build a CNC machine, check out TurboCNC. It's "shareware" in the sense that you are free to download and use the fully-functional, nagless program...and what a program it is. TurboCNC 3 has been used by thousands of hobby CNC'ers, and just recently TurboCNC 4 was released with lots of rewritten code, vastly improved user interface, and better stepping rates. This program will pulse stepper motors up to 30KHz on a junker 486 computer with parallel port, depending on the timer hardware. Version 4 adds Pentium timer support, resulting in pulse rates beyond 100,000Hz. The price rose from $20 to $60 with the release of the new version, but that price is if you feel like supporting Dave and his team, and will get you the full sourcecode to the program.
For cheap PCBs: nobody can beat Olimex. Yeah, they're based out of Bulgaria, and the first setup of payment can be a little tricky. But you'll get a double-sided board with plated holes, solder mask, and silkscreen...about $25 for 6" x 4" board. What's even better is that you can send them a number of files, then give them a sketch of how you want the boards arranged and repeated in the 6"x4" area...and they will panelize and cut them out for you, free. That's impressive if you've ever checked out the costs of doing something similar with other PCB houses. Many of them give the impression that it's like cheating to try to get more than one board out of the standard board size, even if your design only requires a few square inches. With Olimex I've gotten up to ten boards for that cheap price. It kind of makes you wonder what other ways you can use outsourcing, instead of whining about it and trying to make the government give your old job back.
By the way, this list has a long way to go before it's the most exhaustive I've seen. For the ultimate in DIY electronics articles and links, try ePanorama, it's been around a long time.
It will never happen, because, as CmdrTaco stated several years ago in the FAQ, it would require some thought.
This sounds like the "ablation gel" used in recent Gundam series...they'd pump a gel out through nozzles to cover the bottom surface of the ship.
What the hell do you do for a living? Whoever is putting up with you being so damned useless must either be an angel or the government.