I posted about this elsewhere in this topic, but wanted to make sure you saw it. It's a 3'rd party utility that has, so far, (knock on silicon) prevented MS from forcing their malware onto any of my Internet-facing WIN7 machines.
There is an excellent 3'rd party utility that SO FAR, has successfully prevented MotherShip from forcing it's malice upon several Internet-facing WIN7 machines that are under my care. This utility is basically a watchdog to keep MS's fingers out of your Registry.
Because my former boss wanted to sell. He was ready to retire.
The products we made are very reliable, solid, and well-made. He always had high standards, and insisted that any 3'rd party suppliers met those standards before he would accept their products. The new owner is keeping up that tradition.
To answer another comment, the NEED for using analog was primarily for radio frequency energy issues.
This story is based on real life events. A small company I was working for was bought-out by another small, but out-of-state electronics company. The new owners were well versed in bit-banging and CPU. My former company was 99% analog. We used op amps and R/C circuits for timing/filtering. They used code on CPU's. The new owners flew me out to their facility on three different weeks, to help their staff incorporate this whole new product line into theirs.
One interesting discussion I had with them involved creating a 0.5 second power-on reset signal for a USB interface chip, to allow the rest of the unit to "settle" before bringing up the USB interface. One guy said he'd just use a little 8-pin CPU and some code. I suggested an op-amp, some resistors, and a cap. They looked at me like I had two heads.
I reminded them that because these devices were intended to be used in environments with high levels of radio frequency energy, and high sensitivity receivers, (transceivers) RFI ingress and egress were important! The op amp and R/C circuits were virtually RF immune, and generated NONE. A CPU generates some, and is sensitive to RF.
Case-in-point: They had a high-current, DC switching system (multiple DC power ports that could be controlled remotely) that was driving them completely bonkers, because of random resets or other unpredictable behavior when they switched loads on and off. When I tried to explain current loops and grounding, they again looked at me like I had two heads. One even said, "But isn't ground, just GROUND??" (Insert FACEPALM here!)
I had to briefly explain OHM'S LAW to them! Ground planes have a measurable (albeit small) resistance, and when you are passing a dozen amps or more, you start to see dozens of millivolts from the E=IR drops... sometimes, switching spikes were high enough to false-trigger CPU inputs or other circuits, because the CPU was "riding" up and down on those voltages! When I showed them one of our old ANALOG designs, with separated ground paths... and explained WHY those paths were separate... I think they finally "got it". Their next complete redesign didn't have the issues of the first.
I summed it up by saying, "It is an ANALOG WORLD, guys!";)
If we could replace this pathetic printer with something else, we'd be glad to. Unfortunately, it connects to a special piece of equipment that can only "talk to" a specific, limited set of USB printers. I am thinking about writing to the device manufacturer, asking them to add more printer support to the unit. I hope they respond in the affirmative!
As for the color ink drying out... we wouldn't care, as we *NEVER* use it in this printer. The irksome thing is that the printer simply stops working, altogether, when the unused/useless color ink runs out... it does NOT function as "Black Only" even when that option is set in the Printer Preferences.
BTW, the unit in question is used in a broadcast radio station, for the "Emergency Alert System", so it's not exactly something we can replace at will.
This kind of thing looks like it would be good for a law firm to put together a case, and file a Class-Action suit. I am angered by printers where we *NEVER* print in color (printing logs at work) but after so many months, the printer WILL NOT WORK until you feed it a NEW color ink cartridge (or ALL THREE)!
Yes, even with the defaults set to "Black Only", changing the black ink is not enough. The printer simply WILL NOT WORK until all 4 cartridges are replaced. The old color ones feel much heavier than the old black one, so it is quite obvious what's going on, here.
I think a more apt comparison would be to compare this to the entire process of getting a colonoscopy, from the preparation the day before, to the actual "exam".....
I have a page where I put up a bunch of info about my experiments and memories of my Commodore systems. In the years that page has existed, the ownership of the C= logo/name/etc changed hands FIVE TIMES! Just now, I Googled it, and got this page:
Looks like that server is already a smoldering pile of silicon...
Here's the CORAL link, which as of this writing, isn't working, yet... but in my experience, it usually does start working before the full Slashdot wave subsides.
OK, so I got the Java* terminology mixed up... with so many variants, it's an easy mistake, so cut me some slack. Why do so many people have to be so bloody vicious? Good grief.
If Java* is left disabled, my bank's WEBsite doesn't work. Facebook doesn't work. Youtube doesn't work. Some online retail sites don't work. The streaming audio from my workplace doesn't work. (We lease a server, it's not our code.) My Web-based e-mail doesn't work... a significant number of sites that I use often, don't work.
So I will still stand by what I originally said, but with some rather brutal public corrections applied.
The PROBLEM with disabling Java, is that a significant majority of sites use it heavily... so if you disable it, you cannot even see the content on many of them. THAT is a trend that should be changed! If a user visits a site, and they have their Java turned off, the LEAST they could do is provide a basic HTML version of the site, but no... you get that accursed "Please activate Java to view this site" message.
This goes back to the early 1980's. I used to hang out until the wee hours with some folks at a local 24 hour donut shop. The owner had rigged-up a stereo inside a locked box, in the back room. It was set to a local "Elevator Music" station, and everyone (even the employees) hated it... but there was nothing anyone could do... until I came along.:)
I used an "FM Converter" (remember those? You could listen to FM thru an AM-only car radio) which I modified for direct audio output from the detector. This fed into a basic amplifier system, and into a home made FM transmitter. I would be sitting in a booth with my friends, and could not only change the station to almost anything we wanted, but also adjust the volume, bass, and treble. They were suitably impressed.
So, each time I'd come in with my device, they'd say, "Here comes OVERRIDE!" (their new nickname for me). I would then proceed to knock out the elevator music, and tune in to the local rock station. Everyone loved it.
I also made a smaller version that I could connect to a Walkman cassette player, and play my music over any other FM radio in range. All it took was a few milliwatts of power. Fun times.
Now I am a Broadcast Engineer... and I get to play with real transmitters and control systems, etc.
This goes back to my late teens, in the EARLY 1980's. I created a gizmo using various parts and pieces, where I could use it to play any radio station I wanted through someone else's radio. It was most often used at a local 24 hour donut shop, where I hung around with a group of guys until the wee hours. The owner of that store had a radio in a locked box in the back, that piped a local "elevator music" station through the store's speakers. Since it was locked, nobody could change it... until I came along.:)
The idea was simple... I took apart an old "FM converter" (remember those? To listen to FM on an AM-only car radio) and fed the audio output into a homebrew FM transmitter. It was powered by a 7AH 12V gel cell, so it had plenty of power for all-nighters. The guys would really get a big kick out of the fact that I could adjust everything... volume, bass, treble, and what station we heard, from a booth in the lobby. Naturally, the local rock station was the music of choice.
In later years, I adapted that transmitter to work with a "walkman" cassette player, and if a restaurant was playing a radio, I could put my tape onto their speakers for the duration I was there.:)
Now, I'm a Broadcast Engineer, and also a ham radio operator. Hacks are a part of everyday life... but not like this, anymore. I could get away with it when I was a teen, not as a 50-something.
The first fan-fiction Star Trek I watched was "New Voyages" a number of years ago. As a fan of Trek since TOS was in syndication in the early 70's (I was only 4 in 1966!) I have to admit, I was quite pleasantly surprised! Then, along came Star Trek Continues, running in pretty much the same vein, and with similar quality to "New Voyages".
As others here have said, this really *IS* like watching "lost episodes" from TOS! Both my wife and I really enjoy this! It is like getting brand new Star Trek stories, again... just a LONG wait between each one.
It is also quite telling, when you see that both of these high-quality fan-fiction productions are actually getting the ORIGINAL actors and actresses to reprise their TOS roles in various ways... this is where "time-travel" stories are actually being used in an enjoyable and meaningful way. For example, "World Enough and Time" (By New Voyages) was only the 2'nd Star Trek story to bring tears to my eyes! (The first was "Inner Light" on TNG.) Yeah, it was THAT good!
I look forward to watching what BOTH of these top-notch fan-fiction production groups do in the days ahead! If the Powers That Be would REALLY PAY ATTENTION, they would see what the majority of the Star Trek fan base REALLY WANTS.
Those "new" movies don't even deserve more than this one-line mention. I only saw the 1'st one. That did it for me. No more.
Live Long and Prosper, New Voyages and Star Trek Continues!!
Yes, that tone sounds very much generated. In fact, on my 150-in-one kit that I had as a kid, I could recreate this very same tone with a 3-transistor circuit. One transistor works with the audio transformer and makes the raspy tone. (Just a narrow-width pulse.) The other two are a free-running flip-flop, at approx. a 1Hz rate to modulate the frequency of the other. A capacitor will "integrate" the squarewaves feeding the base of the audio/pulse oscillator, and this tone is born.
No, the one I am talking about sounded VERY MUCH like a recorded human voice. That is what made it so fascinating.
Perhaps it was unique to the Southern New England Telephone (SNET) system.
Going back to the old rotary-dial phone days... How about that "awahhhawwwahhhawwwahhhaww" weird sound that you got when you dialed a nonsensical number? It sounded like an old lady's voice... probably recorded onto a tape loop, because if you listened to it for a few seconds, it abruptly started again, and kept repeating for a while. If my memory serves, if you stayed on the line listening to the weird thing for too long, it cut off, and was replaced by a very LOUD "busy-signal" type sound.
I did something very similar, only I used the Radio Shack "Telephone Amplifier" kit, with some modifications.;) One of those mods was to install a NC pushbutton to use for dialing. When I held a "D" cell battery in my hand as a weight, it helped my timing. I used the bottom of the battery to press the button, and it's internal spring would push the battery back up. With just a little bit of practice, I was dialing actual phone numbers, and getting through.:) I amazed my friends by doing this several times as they watched.
I couldn't pass this one up... Remember when Mr Data played Kolrami, the galaxy's greatest Stratgema player... and how instead of seeking to win, sought to keep the game going indefinitely?:)
I could see lawsuits (class-action) if they try to outright ban homeowners from installing DC power systems in their homes. I doubt they could ever do that.
Making a direct back-feed connection to the Grid illegal? They can most likely pull that off... for a time. An act of Congress could be forthcoming to change that, too. (Remember the old Ma Bell, where you couldn't connect ANYTHING user-owned to their network?)
OK, how long will it take until the DRM running on the "cloud" OCR provider recognizes what's going on, and puts a stop to this? The Mac should be capable of running a local OCR. What happens at home stays at home... what happens "in the cloud" is everyone's business.
Overall, this would be a cool thing to set up... start it, go to work, then come home and have the whole book on your laptop. Just get rid of the "cloud middleman".
Slashdot Mirror
I posted about this elsewhere in this topic, but wanted to make sure you saw it. It's a 3'rd party utility that has, so far, (knock on silicon) prevented MS from forcing their malware onto any of my Internet-facing WIN7 machines.
http://blog.ultimateoutsider.c...
There is an excellent 3'rd party utility that SO FAR, has successfully prevented MotherShip from forcing it's malice upon several Internet-facing WIN7 machines that are under my care. This utility is basically a watchdog to keep MS's fingers out of your Registry.
Here is where you can find it:
http://blog.ultimateoutsider.c...
(I hope his server won't melt! Too bad the CORAL mirroring system is no more.)
You're welcome. ;)
Because my former boss wanted to sell. He was ready to retire.
The products we made are very reliable, solid, and well-made. He always had high standards, and insisted that any 3'rd party suppliers met those standards before he would accept their products. The new owner is keeping up that tradition.
To answer another comment, the NEED for using analog was primarily for radio frequency energy issues.
This story is based on real life events. A small company I was working for was bought-out by another small, but out-of-state electronics company. The new owners were well versed in bit-banging and CPU. My former company was 99% analog. We used op amps and R/C circuits for timing/filtering. They used code on CPU's. The new owners flew me out to their facility on three different weeks, to help their staff incorporate this whole new product line into theirs.
One interesting discussion I had with them involved creating a 0.5 second power-on reset signal for a USB interface chip, to allow the rest of the unit to "settle" before bringing up the USB interface. One guy said he'd just use a little 8-pin CPU and some code. I suggested an op-amp, some resistors, and a cap. They looked at me like I had two heads.
I reminded them that because these devices were intended to be used in environments with high levels of radio frequency energy, and high sensitivity receivers, (transceivers) RFI ingress and egress were important! The op amp and R/C circuits were virtually RF immune, and generated NONE. A CPU generates some, and is sensitive to RF.
Case-in-point: They had a high-current, DC switching system (multiple DC power ports that could be controlled remotely) that was driving them completely bonkers, because of random resets or other unpredictable behavior when they switched loads on and off. When I tried to explain current loops and grounding, they again looked at me like I had two heads. One even said, "But isn't ground, just GROUND??" (Insert FACEPALM here!)
I had to briefly explain OHM'S LAW to them! Ground planes have a measurable (albeit small) resistance, and when you are passing a dozen amps or more, you start to see dozens of millivolts from the E=IR drops... sometimes, switching spikes were high enough to false-trigger CPU inputs or other circuits, because the CPU was "riding" up and down on those voltages! When I showed them one of our old ANALOG designs, with separated ground paths... and explained WHY those paths were separate... I think they finally "got it". Their next complete redesign didn't have the issues of the first.
I summed it up by saying, "It is an ANALOG WORLD, guys!" ;)
If we could replace this pathetic printer with something else, we'd be glad to. Unfortunately, it connects to a special piece of equipment that can only "talk to" a specific, limited set of USB printers. I am thinking about writing to the device manufacturer, asking them to add more printer support to the unit. I hope they respond in the affirmative!
As for the color ink drying out... we wouldn't care, as we *NEVER* use it in this printer. The irksome thing is that the printer simply stops working, altogether, when the unused/useless color ink runs out... it does NOT function as "Black Only" even when that option is set in the Printer Preferences.
BTW, the unit in question is used in a broadcast radio station, for the "Emergency Alert System", so it's not exactly something we can replace at will.
This kind of thing looks like it would be good for a law firm to put together a case, and file a Class-Action suit. I am angered by printers where we *NEVER* print in color (printing logs at work) but after so many months, the printer WILL NOT WORK until you feed it a NEW color ink cartridge (or ALL THREE)!
Yes, even with the defaults set to "Black Only", changing the black ink is not enough. The printer simply WILL NOT WORK until all 4 cartridges are replaced. The old color ones feel much heavier than the old black one, so it is quite obvious what's going on, here.
FOLLOW THE $$!!
I think a more apt comparison would be to compare this to the entire process of getting a colonoscopy, from the preparation the day before, to the actual "exam".....
I noticed that, too... and yet, that company is suing someone for using a name they haven't bothered to do anything with since 2013?
I have a page where I put up a bunch of info about my experiments and memories of my Commodore systems. In the years that page has existed, the ownership of the C= logo/name/etc changed hands FIVE TIMES! Just now, I Googled it, and got this page:
http://www.commodorecorp.com/
It hasn't been updated since 2013.
My attempt at a disclaimer is at the bottom of this page:
http://webcache.googleusercont...
(Google cached, to prevent Slashdotting my Host's server.)
Looks like that server is already a smoldering pile of silicon...
Here's the CORAL link, which as of this writing, isn't working, yet... but in my experience, it usually does start working before the full Slashdot wave subsides.
http://www.phoronix.com.nyud.n...
OK, fine. From now on, I will just say Java*
Tell that to my bank.
OK, so I got the Java* terminology mixed up... with so many variants, it's an easy mistake, so cut me some slack. Why do so many people have to be so bloody vicious? Good grief.
If Java* is left disabled, my bank's WEBsite doesn't work. Facebook doesn't work. Youtube doesn't work. Some online retail sites don't work. The streaming audio from my workplace doesn't work. (We lease a server, it's not our code.) My Web-based e-mail doesn't work... a significant number of sites that I use often, don't work.
So I will still stand by what I originally said, but with some rather brutal public corrections applied.
The PROBLEM with disabling Java, is that a significant majority of sites use it heavily... so if you disable it, you cannot even see the content on many of them. THAT is a trend that should be changed! If a user visits a site, and they have their Java turned off, the LEAST they could do is provide a basic HTML version of the site, but no... you get that accursed "Please activate Java to view this site" message.
This goes back to the early 1980's. I used to hang out until the wee hours with some folks at a local 24 hour donut shop. The owner had rigged-up a stereo inside a locked box, in the back room. It was set to a local "Elevator Music" station, and everyone (even the employees) hated it... but there was nothing anyone could do... until I came along. :)
I used an "FM Converter" (remember those? You could listen to FM thru an AM-only car radio) which I modified for direct audio output from the detector. This fed into a basic amplifier system, and into a home made FM transmitter. I would be sitting in a booth with my friends, and could not only change the station to almost anything we wanted, but also adjust the volume, bass, and treble. They were suitably impressed.
So, each time I'd come in with my device, they'd say, "Here comes OVERRIDE!" (their new nickname for me). I would then proceed to knock out the elevator music, and tune in to the local rock station. Everyone loved it.
I also made a smaller version that I could connect to a Walkman cassette player, and play my music over any other FM radio in range. All it took was a few milliwatts of power. Fun times.
Now I am a Broadcast Engineer... and I get to play with real transmitters and control systems, etc.
This goes back to my late teens, in the EARLY 1980's. I created a gizmo using various parts and pieces, where I could use it to play any radio station I wanted through someone else's radio. It was most often used at a local 24 hour donut shop, where I hung around with a group of guys until the wee hours. The owner of that store had a radio in a locked box in the back, that piped a local "elevator music" station through the store's speakers. Since it was locked, nobody could change it... until I came along. :)
The idea was simple... I took apart an old "FM converter" (remember those? To listen to FM on an AM-only car radio) and fed the audio output into a homebrew FM transmitter. It was powered by a 7AH 12V gel cell, so it had plenty of power for all-nighters. The guys would really get a big kick out of the fact that I could adjust everything... volume, bass, treble, and what station we heard, from a booth in the lobby. Naturally, the local rock station was the music of choice.
In later years, I adapted that transmitter to work with a "walkman" cassette player, and if a restaurant was playing a radio, I could put my tape onto their speakers for the duration I was there. :)
Now, I'm a Broadcast Engineer, and also a ham radio operator. Hacks are a part of everyday life... but not like this, anymore. I could get away with it when I was a teen, not as a 50-something.
The first fan-fiction Star Trek I watched was "New Voyages" a number of years ago. As a fan of Trek since TOS was in syndication in the early 70's (I was only 4 in 1966!) I have to admit, I was quite pleasantly surprised! Then, along came Star Trek Continues, running in pretty much the same vein, and with similar quality to "New Voyages".
As others here have said, this really *IS* like watching "lost episodes" from TOS! Both my wife and I really enjoy this! It is like getting brand new Star Trek stories, again... just a LONG wait between each one.
It is also quite telling, when you see that both of these high-quality fan-fiction productions are actually getting the ORIGINAL actors and actresses to reprise their TOS roles in various ways... this is where "time-travel" stories are actually being used in an enjoyable and meaningful way. For example, "World Enough and Time" (By New Voyages) was only the 2'nd Star Trek story to bring tears to my eyes! (The first was "Inner Light" on TNG.) Yeah, it was THAT good!
I look forward to watching what BOTH of these top-notch fan-fiction production groups do in the days ahead! If the Powers That Be would REALLY PAY ATTENTION, they would see what the majority of the Star Trek fan base REALLY WANTS.
Those "new" movies don't even deserve more than this one-line mention. I only saw the 1'st one. That did it for me. No more.
Live Long and Prosper, New Voyages and Star Trek Continues!!
Yes, that tone sounds very much generated. In fact, on my 150-in-one kit that I had as a kid, I could recreate this very same tone with a 3-transistor circuit. One transistor works with the audio transformer and makes the raspy tone. (Just a narrow-width pulse.) The other two are a free-running flip-flop, at approx. a 1Hz rate to modulate the frequency of the other. A capacitor will "integrate" the squarewaves feeding the base of the audio/pulse oscillator, and this tone is born.
No, the one I am talking about sounded VERY MUCH like a recorded human voice. That is what made it so fascinating.
Perhaps it was unique to the Southern New England Telephone (SNET) system.
Going back to the old rotary-dial phone days... How about that "awahhhawwwahhhawwwahhhaww" weird sound that you got when you dialed a nonsensical number? It sounded like an old lady's voice... probably recorded onto a tape loop, because if you listened to it for a few seconds, it abruptly started again, and kept repeating for a while. If my memory serves, if you stayed on the line listening to the weird thing for too long, it cut off, and was replaced by a very LOUD "busy-signal" type sound.
I did something very similar, only I used the Radio Shack "Telephone Amplifier" kit, with some modifications. ;) One of those mods was to install a NC pushbutton to use for dialing. When I held a "D" cell battery in my hand as a weight, it helped my timing. I used the bottom of the battery to press the button, and it's internal spring would push the battery back up. With just a little bit of practice, I was dialing actual phone numbers, and getting through. :) I amazed my friends by doing this several times as they watched.
I couldn't pass this one up... Remember when Mr Data played Kolrami, the galaxy's greatest Stratgema player... and how instead of seeking to win, sought to keep the game going indefinitely? :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... (The game scene is at the halfway mark.)
"He busted him up!" ;)
I could see lawsuits (class-action) if they try to outright ban homeowners from installing DC power systems in their homes. I doubt they could ever do that.
Making a direct back-feed connection to the Grid illegal? They can most likely pull that off... for a time. An act of Congress could be forthcoming to change that, too. (Remember the old Ma Bell, where you couldn't connect ANYTHING user-owned to their network?)
Curious... how much does a "typical" home installation cost there? (Assuming a family of 4, average house around 2,000 SF)
It matters to the Utility, because of the watts are flowing OUT, then they have to PAY YOU for that power. They don't want to do this.
It all boils down to this simple axiom: "Follow the money."
OK, how long will it take until the DRM running on the "cloud" OCR provider recognizes what's going on, and puts a stop to this? The Mac should be capable of running a local OCR. What happens at home stays at home... what happens "in the cloud" is everyone's business.
Overall, this would be a cool thing to set up... start it, go to work, then come home and have the whole book on your laptop. Just get rid of the "cloud middleman".