The units being made are all surface-mount. No insertion or drilling or clipping. There are already dozens of parts. The "real estate" is a non-issue, as there is PLENTY of room on the board. This device was already developed, and testing was being done on a few production prototypes, when the need for a brief delay was noticed.
In this application, there is absolutely no question that the 555 would be the MUCH better choice.
Reiterating - this is a mostly analog product. It does not already have or need an MCU.
They were thinking of throwing one in, *ONLY* to add a.5 sec power-on delay. There are other chips dedicated to this same function, but the 555 is universal. (Or, at least, it USED to be.) 3 parts; the IC, a cap and a resistor. No need to flash and test. Piece of cake for most assembly houses.
The MCU would require at least a crystal or some other clock. There is also the potential for some RFI being generated, or the MCU locking-up due to RF exposure. (This product is meant to be used in an RF-rich environment.)
Multiply it by thousands. Those chips all have to be flashed and tested. That's time & money. With the R and C, the 555 just works, out-of-box. Crash-proof, foolproof.
They were talking about *adding* a micro to a mostly analog product. A 555 with the C and two R's would actually be cheaper. It was not meant to add features or function, *only* a.5 sec delay.
Back then, a similar project used op amps to trigger a flash unit. It was an article in one of the electronics mags I saw back in the late 1970's, titled "Build the Thunderbolt". (I Googled it, but came up empty.)
You adjusted the timing of when the flash was triggered, by moving the microphone closer or farther from the sound source. You could also have added a 555 timer, if you needed a longer delay than was feasible with a longer distance.
It reminds me of a discussion at the Electronics firm I am consulting for. They needed to add a 1/2 second delay to the startup of a device in a new product. I suggested they add a 555 timer circuit. They looked at me like I had two heads. Their solution was to throw a microcontroller into the product. Come on, guys! It can be done with a 555, a cap, and two resistors. It's crash-proof, too. Whatever happened to K.I.S.S?
A static image. A basic block of text. These will not be blocked by me. Jumping things. Blinking things. Moving things. Things that BLOCK the site I'm trying to read... those will go into the bit-bucket EVERY time.
Static images and blocks of text have actually led me to click them. Score 1 for tasteful advertisements.
That is exactly what happened to me, several years ago, with anything associated with "X-10". Back in the prehistoric days (pre-Firefox, pre-Pentium 3) they were the WORST with those absolutely infuriating pop-under windows!
They poisoned me to their product pretty much for good... that's how badly that annoyed me. This forced-view of ads as Captcha will simply cause me to close the site and look elsewhere.
The venerable 6502 was also the heart of the VIC 20. A slightly modified/improved version was used in what was the most ubiquitous personal computer, the Commodore 64. Although running at only 1Mhz, most of its instructions executed in less than 3 clock cycles, making for some pretty efficient and fast ML code.
Jazz? On which station? There used to be one, but they dropped the Jazz format about a year ago. Unbelievably, they dropped it and became YET *ANOTHER* rock station... a real waste, because there are already about 20 of those on my radio! (I kid you not!) No jazz, anymore. None.
Internet "radio" certainly has its place, but with the hands of the Music MAFIAA reaching pretty deeply into so many pockets, it's not easy to make it FREE. Even Pandora cuts you off after a certain number of hours per month, now... DESPITE their annoying commercials. Terrestrial stations that are also streaming, shell out pretty big bux for those streams. Internet-only stations do, too, and have a bunch of draconian restrictions on how they can format their music! (No more than 4 songs by any one artist in a THREE HOUR time span, for example.) So much for 1'st Amendment Freedom?
...is called a "passive repeater". Essentially, it is two antennas, connected by low-loss coax. You install a Yagi beam antenna in a spot with good signals, and aim it at the tower. Run the coax into the area needing signal, and connect another antenna to it, there. There are no electronics to require power, so it will operate for as long as the antennas survive. Cost is minimal.
The Yagi beam will give gain for both, receive and transmit. This has been done with TV antennas on opposite sides of a hill, to bring signals down into a valley.
The article does explain it. I read about it the other day, that they commanded the craft to stop sending data, and only send a steady carrier. They will measure the very tiny variations in the doppler shift that the Phobos flyby caused, to determine the composition and distribution of its mass. (Is the core hollow, that kind of thing.)
I work for a small electronics manufacturing company, http://www.westmountainradio.com/ and we make a number of devices that use the serial port. In recent years, we had to start including USB-serial adapters with every device for the very reason mentioned: Many newer computers simply do not have RS232 ports anymore.
The RS232 port is a very convenient way to connect with a number of peripheral devices that don't need much bandwidth. In most cases, 9600 BPS is plenty. You also have the "handshake" lines which can be used to toggle an external device on or off. We use it to drive an LED and an opto-isolator to key a ham radio transmitter, among other things.
As long as there are low-bandwidth, human-interface devices, there will still be SOME use and purpose for the RS232 port.
Despite the fact that the school OWNS the machines, this is just so wrong on so many levels.
Now that this news is out, kids will stick tape over the cameras, shove gum into them, or worse. On MOST laptops, just plugging something in to the MIC jack disables the built-in mic.
I have not had to "unfriend" anyone. As "whatshisface" just said, I clicked the "HIDE" button. Once. No more farmville updates. When I got the first actual "invite", I clicked "block this application". No more invites. Did the same with those stupid mafia wars and all the others. Their ads still keep popping up, though, even when I have clicked "dislike" on all of them. They only seem to go away for a short time, then come back.
I did try to zoom in on a few things, in an effort to get SOMETHING into the Coral pipeline. About an hour later, there were some areas of the sky map that were zoomable all the way. Hey, a little success is better than none.
The real solution would have been for the person submitting the article to have used Coral *first*, to get the whole thing mirrored, THEN submit the article with the Coral link.
I've only submitted a handful of articles, none of which got published... but I used Coral before submitting them, to make sure others would have been able to see the site, AND to spare the actual site from the onslaught.
Slashdot Mirror
The units being made are all surface-mount. No insertion or drilling or clipping. There are already dozens of parts. The "real estate" is a non-issue, as there is PLENTY of room on the board. This device was already developed, and testing was being done on a few production prototypes, when the need for a brief delay was noticed.
In this application, there is absolutely no question that the 555 would be the MUCH better choice.
Reiterating - this is a mostly analog product. It does not already have or need an MCU.
They were thinking of throwing one in, *ONLY* to add a .5 sec power-on delay. There are other chips dedicated to this same function, but the 555 is universal. (Or, at least, it USED to be.) 3 parts; the IC, a cap and a resistor. No need to flash and test. Piece of cake for most assembly houses.
The MCU would require at least a crystal or some other clock. There is also the potential for some RFI being generated, or the MCU locking-up due to RF exposure. (This product is meant to be used in an RF-rich environment.)
Multiply it by thousands. Those chips all have to be flashed and tested. That's time & money. With the R and C, the 555 just works, out-of-box. Crash-proof, foolproof.
I'm surprised the piezo had enough output, without amplification, to trigger the chip.
They were talking about *adding* a micro to a mostly analog product. A 555 with the C and two R's would actually be cheaper. It was not meant to add features or function, *only* a .5 sec delay.
Back then, a similar project used op amps to trigger a flash unit. It was an article in one of the electronics mags I saw back in the late 1970's, titled "Build the Thunderbolt". (I Googled it, but came up empty.)
You adjusted the timing of when the flash was triggered, by moving the microphone closer or farther from the sound source. You could also have added a 555 timer, if you needed a longer delay than was feasible with a longer distance.
It reminds me of a discussion at the Electronics firm I am consulting for. They needed to add a 1/2 second delay to the startup of a device in a new product. I suggested they add a 555 timer circuit. They looked at me like I had two heads. Their solution was to throw a microcontroller into the product. Come on, guys! It can be done with a 555, a cap, and two resistors. It's crash-proof, too. Whatever happened to K.I.S.S?
A *SHORT* Advert, meaning what?
A static image. A basic block of text. These will not be blocked by me. Jumping things. Blinking things. Moving things. Things that BLOCK the site I'm trying to read... those will go into the bit-bucket EVERY time.
Static images and blocks of text have actually led me to click them. Score 1 for tasteful advertisements.
That is exactly what happened to me, several years ago, with anything associated with "X-10". Back in the prehistoric days (pre-Firefox, pre-Pentium 3) they were the WORST with those absolutely infuriating pop-under windows!
They poisoned me to their product pretty much for good... that's how badly that annoyed me. This forced-view of ads as Captcha will simply cause me to close the site and look elsewhere.
Remember the Starship Enterprise, NCC1701? (No bloody A, B, C, or D)
It's computer used relays! You could hear them every time someone told the computer to do something! ;)
The venerable 6502 was also the heart of the VIC 20. A slightly modified/improved version was used in what was the most ubiquitous personal computer, the Commodore 64. Although running at only 1Mhz, most of its instructions executed in less than 3 clock cycles, making for some pretty efficient and fast ML code.
I'm glad I got this just in time! Here is the CORAL link to this:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com.nyud.net/80beats/2010/10/04/first-marine-census-describes-the-wonders-and-troubles-of-the-seas/
RE: His statements... I have two words that are just as sincere, just as believable: "Wardrobe Malfunction"
Just tune an analog FM radio to an empty frequency, and turn up the volume. There's free white noise. Adjust volume & tone to suit.
...if you overcharge or short this out, will it smell like french fries?
We cannot hear WBGO in this area. Here is their coverage map:
http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WBGO&service=FM&status=L&hours=U
My workplace is in Norwalk, CT. The Jazz station that changed format used to reach well past Fairfield.
Jazz? On which station? There used to be one, but they dropped the Jazz format about a year ago. Unbelievably, they dropped it and became YET *ANOTHER* rock station... a real waste, because there are already about 20 of those on my radio! (I kid you not!) No jazz, anymore. None.
Internet "radio" certainly has its place, but with the hands of the Music MAFIAA reaching pretty deeply into so many pockets, it's not easy to make it FREE. Even Pandora cuts you off after a certain number of hours per month, now... DESPITE their annoying commercials. Terrestrial stations that are also streaming, shell out pretty big bux for those streams. Internet-only stations do, too, and have a bunch of draconian restrictions on how they can format their music! (No more than 4 songs by any one artist in a THREE HOUR time span, for example.) So much for 1'st Amendment Freedom?
...is called a "passive repeater". Essentially, it is two antennas, connected by low-loss coax. You install a Yagi beam antenna in a spot with good signals, and aim it at the tower. Run the coax into the area needing signal, and connect another antenna to it, there. There are no electronics to require power, so it will operate for as long as the antennas survive. Cost is minimal.
The Yagi beam will give gain for both, receive and transmit. This has been done with TV antennas on opposite sides of a hill, to bring signals down into a valley.
The article does explain it. I read about it the other day, that they commanded the craft to stop sending data, and only send a steady carrier. They will measure the very tiny variations in the doppler shift that the Phobos flyby caused, to determine the composition and distribution of its mass. (Is the core hollow, that kind of thing.)
First impressions... Why did XP default to the "Playskool" look?
Looks like the server's starting to buckle under the Slashdot Effect!
Here is the CORAL link to the page with screenshots:
http://www.jonobacon.org.nyud.net/2010/03/03/refreshing-the-ubuntu-brand/
I work for a small electronics manufacturing company, http://www.westmountainradio.com/
and we make a number of devices that use the serial port. In recent years, we had to start including USB-serial adapters with every device for the very reason mentioned: Many newer computers simply do not have RS232 ports anymore.
The RS232 port is a very convenient way to connect with a number of peripheral devices that don't need much bandwidth. In most cases, 9600 BPS is plenty. You also have the "handshake" lines which can be used to toggle an external device on or off. We use it to drive an LED and an opto-isolator to key a ham radio transmitter, among other things.
As long as there are low-bandwidth, human-interface devices, there will still be SOME use and purpose for the RS232 port.
I appreciated the guy's wry sense of humor. (Or should I spell that Humour?) Well done.
Despite the fact that the school OWNS the machines, this is just so wrong on so many levels.
Now that this news is out, kids will stick tape over the cameras, shove gum into them, or worse. On MOST laptops, just plugging something in to the MIC jack disables the built-in mic.
I have not had to "unfriend" anyone. As "whatshisface" just said, I clicked the "HIDE" button. Once. No more farmville updates. When I got the first actual "invite", I clicked "block this application". No more invites. Did the same with those stupid mafia wars and all the others. Their ads still keep popping up, though, even when I have clicked "dislike" on all of them. They only seem to go away for a short time, then come back.
I did try to zoom in on a few things, in an effort to get SOMETHING into the Coral pipeline. About an hour later, there were some areas of the sky map that were zoomable all the way. Hey, a little success is better than none.
The real solution would have been for the person submitting the article to have used Coral *first*, to get the whole thing mirrored, THEN submit the article with the Coral link.
I've only submitted a handful of articles, none of which got published... but I used Coral before submitting them, to make sure others would have been able to see the site, AND to spare the actual site from the onslaught.