First of the month, I received a BoA credit card statement. Problem is, I don't HAVE a BoA card! I immediatly called their customer service phone number. Woman on the line wanted to know all of my personal info - SSN, mother's maiden name, etc. Which I refused to give out; I've never had one of their cards, never applied - there is NO WAY they could verify this information. The woman refused to help, refused to allow me to speak to a supervisor, refused to give me contact info for their legal dept., and refused to identify herself. Immediatl upon hanging up on this useless individual, I wrote a letter to BoA and contacted my lawyer. This was over two weeks ago and I haven't heard anything yet. Tuesday, certified letter documenting all this go out to the Better Buisiness Bureaus and the State attorney generals of the related states, the credit bureaus, as well as one to BoA demanding followup.
There are several inexpensive (under $200) data loggers available. For example, the HOBO, or something from the Datalogger Store. Dataq also sells inexpensive A/D converters, but you would have to take a laptop along on the rowing shell to record the data, Their stand-alone data loggers are a bit more pricey ~$400), but use SD memory and have high resolution and high storage capacity. You can get free samples of accellerometers from Analog Devices .
Nahhh...let 'em rant. If they don't like what's on cable, the mainland would be *glad* to cut off their feeds. Just how many broadcast stations *are* there in that state?
I had a similar project. I built a media server from scrounged parts (533 Celeron mb, scrounged ps, built my own aluminum chassis and hard drive shock mount, etc.) Server software is Debian Sarge, including Glirnath and gnump3d. All the CDs were ripped onto their own partition on the hard drive (Lame-based encoder) The server is hooked up to the A/V unit and the TV in the living room. Using the web-based interface in Glirnath, I can play music on the main stereo. Using gnump3d I can play music at a local console (desktop or laptop). Since both software packages use a web interface, the "client" machine can be any machine with a browser.
I've been using donepezil (Aricept) for about the past year. I've definitly noticed an increase in mental function. It doesn't give a buzz or put me on edge like caffine or other stimulants. There was the study mentioned in the article. I took a copy of the study to my doctor, and, after some discussion, he has been giving me samples of the drug he gets for free. I haven't noticed any side effects, just increased memory and mental acuity. It's worth talking to your doctor about to see if he'll agree to let you try it out too.
" Can somebody tell me what nitrous oxide does in a car engine? It's not a flammable gas, is it?"
In a word, oxygen - nitrous contains more oxygen than air and is in a highly dense liquid form. In a car engine, nitrous, along with additional fuel is squirted into the intake. In the hybrid rocket engine, a large cylinder of rubber is the fuel; the nitrous is the oxidizer.
We used to program TI-58/59 calculators, run the program, and place them on an AM radio. The radio would pick up frequencies from different clocks and busses inside the calculator. OK, so it's barely a step above playing tunes on a touch-tone phone, but back then it had high geek factor. Hey, nobody ever played a tune on a slide rule!
Depending upon the ink used, many components could be simply drawn on the circuit board. Resistors, capicitors, and inductors would be trivial (within limited values of course). Semiconductor components could be surface mount types, attached with conductive glue.
Printed circuits...with a pencil
on
Circuits Everywhere
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I made printed circuits almost 20 years ago by drawing patterns with a lead (graphite) pencil. I made a resister network for a static charge meter this way. It used a calculator LCD display as a bar graph. India ink (carbon black in water with a little gum arabica) is also conductive and can be used to draw circuits. I've also had to threaten an engineer that was writing comments on prototype circuit boards. The ink from his marker was weakly conductive and making intermittant glitches. I hadn't thought about this in a long time - may be time to dust off some of those old circuit designs and re-create them on a paper circuit board with surface-mount components and conductive ink. There are plenty of conductive glues (and home brew compounds) that could be used as "solder". With appropriate insulating glues one could even do multi-layer "boards".
there were silicon wafers. I was working in the "front end" of an integrated circuit manufacturing site on a machine that develops the exposed photoresist on a silicon wafer. I had the guards removed. I put a wafer on the chuck, turned on chuck vacuum to hold it in place, and spun up the chuck (to about 3000rpm). Just as I turned away to get a tool, the chuck vacuum let go. Talk about "Spinning Buzzsaw of Death"! Fortunatly I had safety glasses on, and the wafer was down inside the machine. Besides not showing up well on X-rays, the wafers contain arsnic, boron, and phosphoric salts.
Don't know exactly how your computer room is set up, but here's what I did. There are two basic types of "filters" - mechanical and electrostatic. The mechanical filters work by trapping the dirt onto the filter. Throw away the filter, throw away the dirt. The electrostatic filters work by placing a charge on the dust particle. The particle is then attracted onto a nearby surface. This nearby surface may be part of the filter element (like with a permenantly-charged electret filter or a powered electrostatic filter), or it may get stuck to a nearby wall, ceiling, or piece of furniture. This is what happens with a lot of the "ionic" filters. The dust is out of the air, but it's not really removed from the environment. What I have on my central AC unit is a disposable pre-filter (like a conventional AC filter), a high-capacity HEPA filter (a cartridge that looks like a bunch of folded-up paper towels), and a powered electrostatic filter. I change the pre-filters monthly (they're cheap), change the HEPA filters once a year, and wash out the electrostatic element every 3-6 months. This keeps my computer and other electronics fairly clean, even with multiple cats. One way to tell is by the amount of stuff that gets attracted to the TV screen; not much. The only disadvantage to a powered electrostatic filter is the possibility of the creation of ozone.
Are they still "good"? Probably. Are they still safe? If they have been kept from any temperature and humidity extreems - probably. Are they legal to use in a sanctioned (NAR sponsored) launch? No, engines (and reload kits) have a specific expiration date. However they can still be used in a non-sanctioned just-for-fun type launch. Sunday I used an engine dating back to the mid-70's and it worked flawlessly. The engine (a Centauri B14-0) has not even been made for many years.
The restrictions are for *specific* chemicals - Ammonium Perchlorate Composite Propellant (APCP) and Black Powder. The propellants are combinations of fuel and oxidizers. The restrictions are limits for ONE engine. Engines may be clustered or staged for greater combined impulse. There are still alternatives such as hybrid systems (which use nitrous oxide and a solid material such as cellulose).
Just a small clarification...
on
Think And Click
·
· Score: 2, Informative
As the article states, the monkeys controlled a
screen cursor, not a mouse cursor. There was
no mechanical pointing device (mouse, trackball,
etc.) involved.
What sets this research apart from other work done
in this area is that electrodes were implanted
directly into a specific, targeted, area of the
brain. Other research had been done with either
generalized implanted electrodes or surface
electrodes (like are used on an EEG machine).
...Until I can snap my consumer-grade giga-pixel pocket
camera onto my backyard computer-tracking 12" Dobsonian and take pictures like this myself. Of course for concrete canyon dwellers we have the 60mm refractor w/camera for more "earthly" observations...
After contacting the Sandia lab, I learned that the robot does *not* have what I was calling a ROM processor. It has a PIC 16C77 microcontroller. Mea culpa. This should be an interesting project to follow!
/.ers must not know what ROM processor circuits are. There is NO CPU. There is only a counter, a one-shot, and the ROM (plus maybe some I/O conditioning stuff). ROM processor circuits are good for very simple, repetative tasks like driving a stepper motor, but NO GOOD for tasks where any sort of computation or branching decision is made. They have thier place, but I'd hardly call them "robots".
I think you're going about this exactly backwards. You're sticking a whole bunch of processing equipment out at the sensor. Why not just send the *raw* analog signal(s) in an rf modulated form back to a receiver at the main PC. Lower parts count, less power, higher reliability, easier to carry out. Analog modulation schemes that produce high fidelity are easy, and there are a lot of ways to do analog multiplexing for multiple channels. Another hint - don't bust your budget (money, time, brains) trying to get high power out of your transmitter; a sensitive receiver and proper antenna will benefit you more.
Themes: 1. Names from "Lord of the Rings" or "The Poetic Edda" 2. Norse/Roman/Greek gods 3. Diseases (two of mine are dementia and sanity) 4. Family/Class/Plylum (one is named rodent) 5. Ships (servers are aricraft cattiers, NT machines are destroyers, printers are navel missles, etc) 6. any other large group or list (food??)
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First of the month, I received a BoA credit card statement. Problem is, I don't HAVE a BoA card! I immediatly called their customer service phone number. Woman on the line wanted to know all of my personal info - SSN, mother's maiden name, etc. Which I refused to give out; I've never had one of their cards, never applied - there is NO WAY they could verify this information. The woman refused to help, refused to allow me to speak to a supervisor, refused to give me contact info for their legal dept., and refused to identify herself. Immediatl upon hanging up on this useless individual, I wrote a letter to BoA and contacted my lawyer. This was over two weeks ago and I haven't heard anything yet. Tuesday, certified letter documenting all this go out to the Better Buisiness Bureaus and the State attorney generals of the related states, the credit bureaus, as well as one to BoA demanding followup.
There are several inexpensive (under $200) data loggers available. For example, the HOBO, or something from the Datalogger Store. Dataq also sells inexpensive A/D converters, but you would have to take a laptop along on the rowing shell to record the data, Their stand-alone data loggers are a bit more pricey ~$400), but use SD memory and have high resolution and high storage capacity. You can get free samples of accellerometers from Analog Devices .
" Your lucky you even get a vote."
Nahhh...let 'em rant. If they don't like what's on cable, the mainland would be *glad* to cut off their feeds. Just how many broadcast stations *are* there in that state?
I had a similar project. I built a media server from scrounged parts (533 Celeron mb, scrounged ps, built my own aluminum chassis and hard drive shock mount, etc.) Server software is Debian Sarge, including Glirnath and gnump3d. All the CDs were ripped onto their own partition on the hard drive (Lame-based encoder) The server is hooked up to the A/V unit and the TV in the living room. Using the web-based interface in Glirnath, I can play music on the main stereo. Using gnump3d I can play music at a local console (desktop or laptop). Since both software packages use a web interface, the "client" machine can be any machine with a browser.
I've been using donepezil (Aricept) for about the past year. I've definitly noticed an increase in mental function. It doesn't give a buzz or put me on edge like caffine or other stimulants. There was the study mentioned in the article. I took a copy of the study to my doctor, and, after some discussion, he has been giving me samples of the drug he gets for free. I haven't noticed any side effects, just increased memory and mental acuity. It's worth talking to your doctor about to see if he'll agree to let you try it out too.
I want to build a *calutron*! BTW, made an ion seperation mass spectrometer my junior year in high school.
" Can somebody tell me what nitrous oxide does in a car engine? It's not a flammable gas, is it?"
In a word, oxygen - nitrous contains more oxygen than air and is in a highly dense liquid form. In a car engine, nitrous, along with additional fuel is squirted into the intake. In the hybrid rocket engine, a large cylinder of rubber is the fuel; the nitrous is the oxidizer.
We used to program TI-58/59 calculators, run the program, and place them on an AM radio. The radio would pick up frequencies from different clocks and busses inside the calculator. OK, so it's barely a step above playing tunes on a touch-tone phone, but back then it had high geek factor. Hey, nobody ever played a tune on a slide rule!
Depending upon the ink used, many components could be simply drawn on the circuit board. Resistors, capicitors, and inductors would be trivial (within limited values of course). Semiconductor components could be surface mount types, attached with conductive glue.
I made printed circuits almost 20 years ago by drawing patterns with a lead (graphite) pencil. I made a resister network for a static charge meter this way. It used a calculator LCD display as a bar graph. India ink (carbon black in water with a little gum arabica) is also conductive and can be used to draw circuits. I've also had to threaten an engineer that was writing comments on prototype circuit boards. The ink from his marker was weakly conductive and making intermittant glitches. I hadn't thought about this in a long time - may be time to dust off some of those old circuit designs and re-create them on a paper circuit board with surface-mount components and conductive ink. There are plenty of conductive glues (and home brew compounds) that could be used as "solder". With appropriate insulating glues one could even do multi-layer "boards".
there were silicon wafers. I was working in the "front end" of an integrated circuit manufacturing site on a machine that develops the exposed photoresist on a silicon wafer. I had the guards removed. I put a wafer on the chuck, turned on chuck vacuum to hold it in place, and spun up the chuck (to about 3000rpm). Just as I turned away to get a tool, the chuck vacuum let go. Talk about "Spinning Buzzsaw of Death"! Fortunatly I had safety glasses on, and the wafer was down inside the machine. Besides not showing up well on X-rays, the wafers contain arsnic, boron, and phosphoric salts.
Don't know exactly how your computer room is set up, but here's what I did. There are two basic types of "filters" - mechanical and electrostatic. The mechanical filters work by trapping the dirt onto the filter. Throw away the filter, throw away the dirt. The electrostatic filters work by placing a charge on the dust particle. The particle is then attracted onto a nearby surface. This nearby surface may be part of the filter element (like with a permenantly-charged electret filter or a powered electrostatic filter), or it may get stuck to a nearby wall, ceiling, or piece of furniture. This is what happens with a lot of the "ionic" filters. The dust is out of the air, but it's not really removed from the environment. What I have on my central AC unit is a disposable pre-filter (like a conventional AC filter), a high-capacity HEPA filter (a cartridge that looks like a bunch of folded-up paper towels), and a powered electrostatic filter. I change the pre-filters monthly (they're cheap), change the HEPA filters once a year, and wash out the electrostatic element every 3-6 months. This keeps my computer and other electronics fairly clean, even with multiple cats. One way to tell is by the amount of stuff that gets attracted to the TV screen; not much. The only disadvantage to a powered electrostatic filter is the possibility of the creation of ozone.
Are they still "good"? Probably. Are they still safe? If they have been kept from any temperature and humidity extreems - probably. Are they legal to use in a sanctioned (NAR sponsored) launch? No, engines (and reload kits) have a specific expiration date. However they can still be used in a non-sanctioned just-for-fun type launch. Sunday I used an engine dating back to the mid-70's and it worked flawlessly. The engine (a Centauri B14-0) has not even been made for many years.
The restrictions are for *specific* chemicals - Ammonium Perchlorate Composite Propellant (APCP) and Black Powder. The propellants are combinations of fuel and oxidizers. The restrictions are limits for ONE engine. Engines may be clustered or staged for greater combined impulse. There are still alternatives such as hybrid systems (which use nitrous oxide and a solid material such as cellulose).
Let me guess, built-in methane-powered UPS?
As the article states, the monkeys controlled a screen cursor, not a mouse cursor. There was no mechanical pointing device (mouse, trackball, etc.) involved. What sets this research apart from other work done in this area is that electrodes were implanted directly into a specific, targeted, area of the brain. Other research had been done with either generalized implanted electrodes or surface electrodes (like are used on an EEG machine).
...Until I can snap my consumer-grade giga-pixel pocket
camera onto my backyard computer-tracking 12" Dobsonian and take pictures like this myself. Of course for concrete canyon dwellers we have the 60mm refractor w/camera for more "earthly" observations...
After contacting the Sandia lab, I learned that the robot does *not* have what I was calling a ROM processor. It has a PIC 16C77 microcontroller. Mea culpa. This should be an interesting project to follow!
/.ers must not know what ROM processor circuits are. There is NO CPU. There is only a counter, a one-shot, and the ROM (plus maybe some I/O conditioning stuff). ROM processor circuits are good for very simple, repetative tasks like driving a stepper motor, but NO GOOD for tasks where any sort of computation or branching decision is made. They have thier place, but I'd hardly call them "robots".
I think you're going about this exactly backwards. You're sticking a whole bunch of processing equipment out at the sensor. Why not just send the *raw* analog signal(s) in an rf modulated form back to a receiver at the main PC. Lower parts count, less power, higher reliability, easier to carry out. Analog modulation schemes that produce high fidelity are easy, and there are a lot of ways to do analog multiplexing for multiple channels. Another hint - don't bust your budget (money, time, brains) trying to get high power out of your transmitter; a sensitive receiver and proper antenna will benefit you more.
Can't let them okies get a jump on ya (like OU's done for the past 4 years)
Themes: 1. Names from "Lord of the Rings" or "The Poetic Edda" 2. Norse/Roman/Greek gods 3. Diseases (two of mine are dementia and sanity) 4. Family/Class/Plylum (one is named rodent) 5. Ships (servers are aricraft cattiers, NT machines are destroyers, printers are navel missles, etc) 6. any other large group or list (food??)