10) "Get in there you big furry oaf, I don't care what you smell!"
9) "Luke, at that speed do you think you'll be able to pull out in time?"
8) "Put that thing away before you get us all killed."
7) "You've got something jammed in here real good."
6) "Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?"
5) "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought."
4) "Sorry about the mess..."
3) "Look at the size of that thing!"
2) "Curse my metal body, I wasn't fast enough!"
1) "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid."
Showing posts with label geekdom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label geekdom. Show all posts
Monday, April 5, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Problem solving
Just finished watching "Die Hard With a Vengeance" (the one with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson), and noticed that the director did a piss-poor job of showing how McCain and Zeus got the 4 gallons of water into a 5 gallon jug when the only other container was a 3 gallon jug. So for the benefit of any math- or logic-impaired out there, here's how it works:
- Fill 3-gallon container.
- Empty 3-gallon into 5-gallon
- Refill 3-gallon
- Pour into 5-gallon until it's full.
- [3-g now contains 1 gallon: filled twice with 3 gallons (steps 1 and 3), emptied of 3 gallons once (step 2), then emptied of 2 gallons (step 4)]
- Empty 5-gallon.
- Pour rest of 3-gallon into 5-gallon.
- Fill 3-gallon, empty into 5-gallon
- [5-g now contains 4 gallons: 1 gallon (step 7) + 3 gallons (step 8)]
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Why eBay sucks
I just finished cruising through eBay while checking on general prices for a few things I'm considering getting, and realized that some of what I was seeing didn't quite fit under their category (I didn't "search" for anything, that is).
In a lot (if not most) of the technology categories, there doesn't seem to be any restriction against (or correction of) people listing items in the wrong category. For example, I went looking for a Blu-ray drive for my main computer (specifically, I'm after a reader/writer); stuff that turned up in the listing included:
Followup:
Complained to eBay, they sent me a generic mealy-mouthed response. Aggravated me, so I went into a different category and reported every single violation I found on the first 20 (of 134) pages. Turned out to be over a hundred items. The last report I sent, I suggested that maybe they were getting the idea of what it was like for buyers...
In a lot (if not most) of the technology categories, there doesn't seem to be any restriction against (or correction of) people listing items in the wrong category. For example, I went looking for a Blu-ray drive for my main computer (specifically, I'm after a reader/writer); stuff that turned up in the listing included:
- A Sun blank panel filler
- External FLOPPY drive
- a number of DVD drives
- a computer case
Followup:
Complained to eBay, they sent me a generic mealy-mouthed response. Aggravated me, so I went into a different category and reported every single violation I found on the first 20 (of 134) pages. Turned out to be over a hundred items. The last report I sent, I suggested that maybe they were getting the idea of what it was like for buyers...
Friday, November 13, 2009
EDUP wireless lan PC card
Anyone running Linux and thinking about buying one of these cards ("popular" on eBay -- example HERE) should NOT do so -- they are Windows ONLY, and you'll only be wasting your money.
NONE of the potential work-arounds for Windows-specific wifi devices will work with these things.
Just so you know...
NONE of the potential work-arounds for Windows-specific wifi devices will work with these things.
Just so you know...
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Pleased with myself
A few weeks ago, the display went out on my laptop -- it's an old IBM Thinkpad, and the little fluorescent tube that makes the screen light up finally went out on it. Perfectly reasonable, and no big deal -- other than I had to order the part, disassemble the display subassembly, replace said part, and then put everything back together again.
I managed to do this (a task that involved no small number of miniscule screws of various sizes) not only successfully -- I'm using the laptop for this blog entry -- but ended up with the same number of parts as I started out with: I experienced neither a screw shortage, nor any mechanical amplification (having more parts when I finished than when I began).
Damn, I'm good.
And modest, too!
I managed to do this (a task that involved no small number of miniscule screws of various sizes) not only successfully -- I'm using the laptop for this blog entry -- but ended up with the same number of parts as I started out with: I experienced neither a screw shortage, nor any mechanical amplification (having more parts when I finished than when I began).
Damn, I'm good.
And modest, too!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Demonstrable Geekiness
While I'm nowhere near "professional grade" at programming, I have managed to finish my little learning-to-program-in-Java project.
It's a simple, basic little utility to let someone interested in building a small (home/cabin) solar panel (Photo-Voltaic) to generate and store some amount of electricity.
The program lets the user enter and adjust a variety of different loads (a fridge, TV, etc), how many of what sizes of solar panels and batteries, power inverters for those things that NEED regular "line" power, and a few other little helpful options. As the different user-input values change, the program recalculates everything. The user has the option to either print the information to a printer, or save it to a computer file that can be imported to a spreadsheet (where they can get serious about playing with the numbers, if they want). The program is called PVcalc, and is available for download from my website.
If you're interested, curious, or just like to watch trainwrecks, go on over and get yourself a copy and let me know how bad I suck at programming :-)
It's a simple, basic little utility to let someone interested in building a small (home/cabin) solar panel (Photo-Voltaic) to generate and store some amount of electricity.
The program lets the user enter and adjust a variety of different loads (a fridge, TV, etc), how many of what sizes of solar panels and batteries, power inverters for those things that NEED regular "line" power, and a few other little helpful options. As the different user-input values change, the program recalculates everything. The user has the option to either print the information to a printer, or save it to a computer file that can be imported to a spreadsheet (where they can get serious about playing with the numbers, if they want). The program is called PVcalc, and is available for download from my website.
If you're interested, curious, or just like to watch trainwrecks, go on over and get yourself a copy and let me know how bad I suck at programming :-)
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Not for mere mortals...
I've been teaching myself the Java programming language for the past couple of weeks. It has been something of an "adventure", but I've actually rather enjoyed it.
I wanted to learn Java, specifically, because it is widely touted as being a cross-platform programming environment: something written in Java is supposed to run on a Windows box, a Linux machine, an Apple, or damn near anything else that can handle Java.
The downside of that kind of power and flexibility (TANSTAAFL!) is that doing things the Java way is appreciably different than what I've been used to. Doing math stuff in Java, for example, leaves one with a thorough grounding in touch-typing as a consequence of the refusal/inability of Java to automagically convert between types of numbers (integer, real, etc).
I've got my learn-by-doing program almost finished, and have run into what I reluctantly have to consider a major weakness: the inability to EASILY print simple, basic text to a (default) printer. By way of illustration, if I were using another programming language, I could do something relatively simple, like
printer.print "This is some text that I want to print"
to whatever the default printer was, using whatever passed for a default font and size.
In Java, however, it isn't that straightforward -- almost every cotton-picking little detail has to be declared, defined, and described... regardless of whether I'm printing a short line of text or rendering a copy of the Mona Lisa. While I don't doubt that the capabilities of printing in Java are wonderful, at this point it's SO damn flexible to me that I can't get hold of it well enough to actually do anything simple and basic with it.
Further aggravating my situation is that all of the tutorials that I've looked at have been of the starting-from-scratch, all-by-themselves variety; there doesn't seem to be anything that explains or demonstrates how to include printing basic text from within an existing program -- or, at least, not that I've been able to find/understand. If, or when, I finally get my head around how to print from within a Java application such as I've written, I may have to have a try at writing a "Java Printing for Dummies" tutorial.
In the mean time, it's various permutations of headache remedies and alcoholic beverages for me...
I wanted to learn Java, specifically, because it is widely touted as being a cross-platform programming environment: something written in Java is supposed to run on a Windows box, a Linux machine, an Apple, or damn near anything else that can handle Java.
The downside of that kind of power and flexibility (TANSTAAFL!) is that doing things the Java way is appreciably different than what I've been used to. Doing math stuff in Java, for example, leaves one with a thorough grounding in touch-typing as a consequence of the refusal/inability of Java to automagically convert between types of numbers (integer, real, etc).
I've got my learn-by-doing program almost finished, and have run into what I reluctantly have to consider a major weakness: the inability to EASILY print simple, basic text to a (default) printer. By way of illustration, if I were using another programming language, I could do something relatively simple, like
printer.print "This is some text that I want to print"
to whatever the default printer was, using whatever passed for a default font and size.
In Java, however, it isn't that straightforward -- almost every cotton-picking little detail has to be declared, defined, and described... regardless of whether I'm printing a short line of text or rendering a copy of the Mona Lisa. While I don't doubt that the capabilities of printing in Java are wonderful, at this point it's SO damn flexible to me that I can't get hold of it well enough to actually do anything simple and basic with it.
Further aggravating my situation is that all of the tutorials that I've looked at have been of the starting-from-scratch, all-by-themselves variety; there doesn't seem to be anything that explains or demonstrates how to include printing basic text from within an existing program -- or, at least, not that I've been able to find/understand. If, or when, I finally get my head around how to print from within a Java application such as I've written, I may have to have a try at writing a "Java Printing for Dummies" tutorial.
In the mean time, it's various permutations of headache remedies and alcoholic beverages for me...
Monday, August 24, 2009
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
Blitzkrieg
As promised/threatened, this morning I made my call to Qwest to address the "issues" that came up over the weekend.
It took nearly 45 minutes and 3 phone calls, but Qwest and I have reached an understanding: Qwest will give me proper technical support; in return, I won't leave any more of their employees walking around with only 1 ass cheek and feeling like they could pass a watermelon without noticing.
I remained calm, polite, and courteous. I also remained obstinate, insistent, and adamant. Along the way, I gave a couple of Authority Figures the trouble ticket numbers that I'd been issued, so that they could see what all had transpired. I also offered a couple of genuinely helpful suggestions -- one of them being that if a caller says they're running Linux or MacOS, immediately bump them to level 2 tech support so that they aren't jerked around by the front-line script-reading dolts.
I just mentioned that I had to make three phone calls. The first got me some tech support weasel that was as willfully ignorant and unhelpful as the bundle of boobs I had to deal with this past weekend. The second phone finally got me someone with the willingness to actually address the underlying problem of Qwest's lack of support for Linux (and Macs, I expect) -- and resulted in me being forwarded to someone with the horsepower to actually issue me a replacement modem. Sadly, that person didn't quite grasp the concept that because I initially called the problem in on Saturday, I considered that to be the start of the promised 3rd day arrival of the modem. Since that person's supervisor hadn't arrived at work yet, I ended the conversation and made my third, and final, call. I was able to get the person on the other end to understand that I was not merely unhappy, but thoroughly disgusted with Qwest. I suspect that my comment that I was blogging about the process and perfectly willing to terminate any services through Qwest in favor of digital telephone and Internet with the local cable company (Bresnan) may have influenced them.
The bottom line is that I will (theoretically, anyway) have a replacement modem in hand tomorrow (it's supposed to be shipped Overnight), at no cost to me.
Why, yes, I can be an asshole -- but only for the forces of Good, I assure you.
It took nearly 45 minutes and 3 phone calls, but Qwest and I have reached an understanding: Qwest will give me proper technical support; in return, I won't leave any more of their employees walking around with only 1 ass cheek and feeling like they could pass a watermelon without noticing.
I remained calm, polite, and courteous. I also remained obstinate, insistent, and adamant. Along the way, I gave a couple of Authority Figures the trouble ticket numbers that I'd been issued, so that they could see what all had transpired. I also offered a couple of genuinely helpful suggestions -- one of them being that if a caller says they're running Linux or MacOS, immediately bump them to level 2 tech support so that they aren't jerked around by the front-line script-reading dolts.
I just mentioned that I had to make three phone calls. The first got me some tech support weasel that was as willfully ignorant and unhelpful as the bundle of boobs I had to deal with this past weekend. The second phone finally got me someone with the willingness to actually address the underlying problem of Qwest's lack of support for Linux (and Macs, I expect) -- and resulted in me being forwarded to someone with the horsepower to actually issue me a replacement modem. Sadly, that person didn't quite grasp the concept that because I initially called the problem in on Saturday, I considered that to be the start of the promised 3rd day arrival of the modem. Since that person's supervisor hadn't arrived at work yet, I ended the conversation and made my third, and final, call. I was able to get the person on the other end to understand that I was not merely unhappy, but thoroughly disgusted with Qwest. I suspect that my comment that I was blogging about the process and perfectly willing to terminate any services through Qwest in favor of digital telephone and Internet with the local cable company (Bresnan) may have influenced them.
The bottom line is that I will (theoretically, anyway) have a replacement modem in hand tomorrow (it's supposed to be shipped Overnight), at no cost to me.
Why, yes, I can be an asshole -- but only for the forces of Good, I assure you.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Artificial Stupidity
This one has been around for a while (at least 10 years, that I know of), but I thought I'd pass it along in the hope that it cheers folks up a little...
N.A.S.A.
Computer scientist Arthur Boran was ecstatic. A few minutes earlier, he had programmed a basic mathematical problem into his prototypical Akron I computer. His request was simply, "Give me the sum of every odd number between zero and ten." The computer's quick answer, 157, was unexpected, to say the least. With growing excitement, Boran requested an explanation of the computer's reasoning. The printout read as follows: THE TERM "ODD NUMBER" IS AMBIGUOUS. I THEREFORE CHOOSE TO INTERPRET IT AS MEANING "A NUMBER THAT IS FUNNY LOOKING." USING MY AESTHETIC JUDGEMENT, I PICKED THE NUMBERS 3, 8, AND 147, ADDED THEM UP, AND GOT 157.
A few moments later there was an addendum: I GUESS I MEANT 158.
Followed shortly thereafter by: 147 IS MORE THAN 10, ISN'T IT? SORRY.
Anyone doing conventional research would have undoubtedly consigned the hapless computer to the scrap heap. But for Boran, the Akron I's response represented a startling breakthrough in a little-known field: artificial stupidity.
Boran is the head of NASA, the National Artificial Stupidity Association ("Not to be confused with those space people," he is quick to point out), a loosely-knit band of computer-school dropouts currently occupying an abandoned fraternity house at the University of New Mexico.
"There's been a lot of attention given to developments in artificial intelligence," Boran explains, "but relatively little emphasis on stupidity. Dumbness is, in many ways, a far more difficult quality to synthesize than intelligence. Human beings has a remarkable capacity for fallacious reasoning, illogical conclusions, and plain ignorance -- traits that are unique to them and alien to conventionally programmed computers. My goal is to generate a program that can accurately simulate the full variety of human stupidities."
Those initial errors of the Akron I, involving the total inability to interpret or follow even simple directions, as well as a moronic level of mathematical competence, were a promising start. Since then, Boran and his staff have made numerous other significant breakthroughs, among them:
These developments are certainly a far cry from NASA's primitive early programs, in which computer responses were rarely more sophisticated than I GIVE UP, HOW MANY? or YOU TELL ME. Despite this impressive progress, a fundamental question hangs over the whole discipline of artificial stupidity, a question faced by all ground-breaking research projects: What's the point?
For an answer, NASA went to its own GLIB 5000, one of a series of smart-stupid models designed to present inanities in as sophisticated a manner as possible. GLIB's official assessment of artificial-stupidity science was as follows: ALL AVAILABLE EVIDENCE INDICATES THAT NOT ONLY IS A.S.S. OF DIRECT BENEFIT TO THE PARTIES INVOLVED IN CONDUCTING IT, IT IS IN NO WAY AN IMPEDIMENT TO LASTING PROGRAMS AIMED AT AIDING THE POOR AND ELDERLY, REDUCING GLOBAL TENSIONS, AND ULTIMATELY ACHIEVING A LASTING WORLD PEACE.
Arthur Boran's answer is more down-to-earth: "All of us, at one point or another, have received a phone bill for one million dollars or a lifetime supply of industrial-strength otter poison. What are these inevitably attributed to? 'Computer error,' of course. It's difficult for humans to really be sure when the computer is screwing up.
"At NASA we're trying to correct all that. By designing programs that accurately simulate human stupidity, we have made it a simple matter for scientists to perceive at once what their computer is doing wrong. Right now, World War III could be triggered because of some overload in a silicon chip controlling a NORAD missile silo. Wouldn't it be of some consolation to have a word of explanation from the computer, something like OOPS, I THOUGHT THAT SOVIET POTATO TRUCK WAS REALLY A DECOY. IT WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN, OKAY?
One might be tempted to call Boran's reasoning, well, stupid. But in all probability he'd take that as a compliment.
N.A.S.A.
Computer scientist Arthur Boran was ecstatic. A few minutes earlier, he had programmed a basic mathematical problem into his prototypical Akron I computer. His request was simply, "Give me the sum of every odd number between zero and ten." The computer's quick answer, 157, was unexpected, to say the least. With growing excitement, Boran requested an explanation of the computer's reasoning. The printout read as follows: THE TERM "ODD NUMBER" IS AMBIGUOUS. I THEREFORE CHOOSE TO INTERPRET IT AS MEANING "A NUMBER THAT IS FUNNY LOOKING." USING MY AESTHETIC JUDGEMENT, I PICKED THE NUMBERS 3, 8, AND 147, ADDED THEM UP, AND GOT 157.
A few moments later there was an addendum: I GUESS I MEANT 158.
Followed shortly thereafter by: 147 IS MORE THAN 10, ISN'T IT? SORRY.
Anyone doing conventional research would have undoubtedly consigned the hapless computer to the scrap heap. But for Boran, the Akron I's response represented a startling breakthrough in a little-known field: artificial stupidity.
Boran is the head of NASA, the National Artificial Stupidity Association ("Not to be confused with those space people," he is quick to point out), a loosely-knit band of computer-school dropouts currently occupying an abandoned fraternity house at the University of New Mexico.
"There's been a lot of attention given to developments in artificial intelligence," Boran explains, "but relatively little emphasis on stupidity. Dumbness is, in many ways, a far more difficult quality to synthesize than intelligence. Human beings has a remarkable capacity for fallacious reasoning, illogical conclusions, and plain ignorance -- traits that are unique to them and alien to conventionally programmed computers. My goal is to generate a program that can accurately simulate the full variety of human stupidities."
Those initial errors of the Akron I, involving the total inability to interpret or follow even simple directions, as well as a moronic level of mathematical competence, were a promising start. Since then, Boran and his staff have made numerous other significant breakthroughs, among them:
- A program known as IDMBH (an acronym for "I did my best, honest," the computer's most frequently heard lament). Not only has IDMBH thus far failed to solve a single problem or even retrieve one piece of data, it has also generated an impressive variety of inane excuses, ranging from I DIDN'T KNOW YOU WANTED IT TODAY to THE DOG ERASED IT.
- NON SEQUITUR B04, a particularly costly program to design, due to the vast amount of information that had been stored in it. Despite a wealth of accumulated data, the B04 fails to respond to any request in even a remotely organized fashion. Instead it answers with a speculative data response - a guess - made by sifting through and spitting out data in what amounts to a random process. For instance, when asked to provide a brief rundown on earthquake zones that might show activity in the next five years, the B04 supplied several hundred suggestions, including: ARIZONA? MARS? THE KREMLIN? DISNEYLAND? PIKE'S PEAK? THE BRONX ZOO? THE NABISCO FACTORY? THE ROSE BOWL?
- AGGREPOST PR, an aggressive-posture, pointless-rationalization program. AGGREPOST's unique "stupidity factor" is not based on its consistent fallibility but rather on the obnoxious extent to which the program will go to defend its erroneous conclusions. A typical exchange with AGGREPOST was one in which one of Boran's senior programmers challenges the computer's assertion that the city of Tijuana is militarily superior to the United States. Rather than back down, AGGREPOST proceeded to support its claim with a slew of fictitious "facts" and "evidence," including reports of troops massing at the border of Mexico, armed with cheap pottery.
These developments are certainly a far cry from NASA's primitive early programs, in which computer responses were rarely more sophisticated than I GIVE UP, HOW MANY? or YOU TELL ME. Despite this impressive progress, a fundamental question hangs over the whole discipline of artificial stupidity, a question faced by all ground-breaking research projects: What's the point?
For an answer, NASA went to its own GLIB 5000, one of a series of smart-stupid models designed to present inanities in as sophisticated a manner as possible. GLIB's official assessment of artificial-stupidity science was as follows: ALL AVAILABLE EVIDENCE INDICATES THAT NOT ONLY IS A.S.S. OF DIRECT BENEFIT TO THE PARTIES INVOLVED IN CONDUCTING IT, IT IS IN NO WAY AN IMPEDIMENT TO LASTING PROGRAMS AIMED AT AIDING THE POOR AND ELDERLY, REDUCING GLOBAL TENSIONS, AND ULTIMATELY ACHIEVING A LASTING WORLD PEACE.
Arthur Boran's answer is more down-to-earth: "All of us, at one point or another, have received a phone bill for one million dollars or a lifetime supply of industrial-strength otter poison. What are these inevitably attributed to? 'Computer error,' of course. It's difficult for humans to really be sure when the computer is screwing up.
"At NASA we're trying to correct all that. By designing programs that accurately simulate human stupidity, we have made it a simple matter for scientists to perceive at once what their computer is doing wrong. Right now, World War III could be triggered because of some overload in a silicon chip controlling a NORAD missile silo. Wouldn't it be of some consolation to have a word of explanation from the computer, something like OOPS, I THOUGHT THAT SOVIET POTATO TRUCK WAS REALLY A DECOY. IT WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN, OKAY?
One might be tempted to call Boran's reasoning, well, stupid. But in all probability he'd take that as a compliment.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
The patient survived...
Got the replacement cable for my laptop via eBay today, got it installed, and the patient has survived the surgery.
I could have bought the cable outright for something like $10, but figured it was worth seeing if I couldn't win it via an auction -- which I did, getting it for $0.99. Shipping, either way, was pretty close to the same, so I saved 9/10 the price by being willing to wait a couple of days.
Mr. Laptop is a happy camper once again - his display is bright, regardless of what angle it's set at, he fires up into Linux just like he's supposed to, and even as I'm typing this he's getting a few program updates (which, by the way, are free for Linux, and don't require the system to be rebooted except in rare cases).
The USB port in the back has been soldered back into place, and supplemented with a little extra mechanical fastening to help keep it from coming loose again, too.
Life Is Good! :-)
I could have bought the cable outright for something like $10, but figured it was worth seeing if I couldn't win it via an auction -- which I did, getting it for $0.99. Shipping, either way, was pretty close to the same, so I saved 9/10 the price by being willing to wait a couple of days.
Mr. Laptop is a happy camper once again - his display is bright, regardless of what angle it's set at, he fires up into Linux just like he's supposed to, and even as I'm typing this he's getting a few program updates (which, by the way, are free for Linux, and don't require the system to be rebooted except in rare cases).
The USB port in the back has been soldered back into place, and supplemented with a little extra mechanical fastening to help keep it from coming loose again, too.
Life Is Good! :-)
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
teh suXXor -- Geek Edition
Well, crud.
My laptop -- an IBM Thinkpad R40 (mine is 2GHz, with 768M of memory, 20G drive) -- has been having "issues" for a while now. Hey, at 5 years old, it still runs like a champ, and a replacement would be a little more than I'd want to spend right now.
First, the USB port in the back came loose; no big deal, there's another one on the side.
Then the display started getting flaky. Specifically, the backlight kept going out on it. I finally got around to taking the thing apart to see about fixing what ailed it.
The USB connector was a piece of cake: just solder the durn thing back into place.
The display was something else, entirely. There was a dinky little surface-mount connector that wasn't making good connection, and the farookin' thing is too damn tiny for me to futz with without (expensive!) specialized tools/equipment. I mean, the damn connector is roughly 5/16 of an inch long, barely an eigth-inch wide, and has 30 electrical connections on what looks like HALF-millimeter spacing. Even with my magnifying visor and the finest soldering tip I've got, that's still just too fine for me to mess with. On the plus side, a replacement for the whole cable (FRU08K4067) will run me less than $10, so I'll be back up and running before too long.
My laptop -- an IBM Thinkpad R40 (mine is 2GHz, with 768M of memory, 20G drive) -- has been having "issues" for a while now. Hey, at 5 years old, it still runs like a champ, and a replacement would be a little more than I'd want to spend right now.
First, the USB port in the back came loose; no big deal, there's another one on the side.
Then the display started getting flaky. Specifically, the backlight kept going out on it. I finally got around to taking the thing apart to see about fixing what ailed it.
The USB connector was a piece of cake: just solder the durn thing back into place.
The display was something else, entirely. There was a dinky little surface-mount connector that wasn't making good connection, and the farookin' thing is too damn tiny for me to futz with without (expensive!) specialized tools/equipment. I mean, the damn connector is roughly 5/16 of an inch long, barely an eigth-inch wide, and has 30 electrical connections on what looks like HALF-millimeter spacing. Even with my magnifying visor and the finest soldering tip I've got, that's still just too fine for me to mess with. On the plus side, a replacement for the whole cable (FRU08K4067) will run me less than $10, so I'll be back up and running before too long.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Oh, by the way...
I'm including some of the Blogsnot goodies that I think are (or at least could be) useful:
If you'll scroll down a little, you'll see that I have options to subscribe or follow ("Won't you be my friend?" [/Mr.Rogers]) this humble blog, or the option to be notified if/when I post something. The "follower" thing only seems to apply to other Blogsnot users, FWIW.
If you'll scroll down a little, you'll see that I have options to subscribe or follow ("Won't you be my friend?" [/Mr.Rogers]) this humble blog, or the option to be notified if/when I post something. The "follower" thing only seems to apply to other Blogsnot users, FWIW.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Arduino Abuse
As regular readers of my irregular posting know, I've been having fun abusing my Arduino microcontroller board. Arduino is a cheap ($35) way for those interested to get started on programming with the very easy to learn Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that runs on Mac - Linux - Windows. There is a LOT of free/easy demo programming, demos, tutorials, explanations, and other stuff for the n00b user, and it's actually pretty amazing what can be done with one of these little gizmos.
Anyway, I've put a page up on my Google website that not only talks about what I've been doing (in part), but gives back to other Arduino users things that will hopefully prove helpful to them.
Anyway, I've put a page up on my Google website that not only talks about what I've been doing (in part), but gives back to other Arduino users things that will hopefully prove helpful to them.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Catching up
Kind of had my hands full the last week, which is why I haven't posted anything. Not much of an excuse, I suppose, but there you go...
* Got more information on doing my own CNC system. My laser idea won't work for doing printed circuit boards -- not only is copper difficult to cut with a laser, anyway, but the way a laser cuts metal precludes using on a PCB. My emergency fallback position is to go ahead and build a 'regular' CNC that uses a rotating cutting bit to create my boards. An additional benefit is that I can also use it to drill the holes in the board, as well as engrave any panels and such that I might need.
* Watching McNeil/Lehrer last night, I saw a bunch of Congressweasels giving one of the big Financial weenies in Gummit a hard time -- seems the Congressweasels didn't understand that the $750B funding they voted for was not for bailing out people with bad mortgages, but simply to stabilize the financial system. The guy they were dishing shit to tried to explain to them (repeatedly) that there had been no mention of mortgage bailouts or anything else; that he (and others) had EXPLICITLY said that the money was for the financial system. Congressweasels simply couldn't get that concept to stick in their tiny little minds, and were all upset and offended that people were still losing their homes -- and wanted Something To Be Done about it, and right now. Morons. Pretty much all of the folks that have lost their homes did so because there was a "mismatch" between what they claimed their income was, and what they were really earning -- essentially, they lied to get themselves into a house they couldn't afford, and calmly proceeded to spend 101% of their income via MasterCard, Visa, Discover, and all the rest. My thought is: fuck 'em. Yeah, it's gonna hurt the economy for a while -- but when it's over, the financial system (and no, I don't mean just the banks and such) will be a hell of a lot more stable, and stronger.
* The U.S. automakers are now begging and grovelling for a handout, too, and there's no small controversy over whether or not they should get anything. On one side, if the automakers go tits-up, that throws a metric buttload (which is roughly 10% larger than a regular buttload) of people out of jobs, which seriously fucks economies all over the country. Opposing that is the fact that it's the automakers (and all the demands from the unions) dumbassery that got them to this point: there's no reason not to think that they'll just end up pissing the money away and cratering, anyway. Me, I don't think they should get anything until and unless the Autoworkers union is obliged to give up a goodly chunk of the assorted crap that they've demanded over the years, and the automakers trim a bunch out of their bloated administration and management (so they can respond to the market in a timely manner). Then give the bastards a ONE-TIME loan of about half what they're asking for before letting them sink or swim on their own.
* The news media has caught wind of the fact that people that already own guns are buying more of them -- but can't seem to figure out why. Dumbshits.
* The Obamessiah is promising to dismantle a lot of the "protection" bullshit (i.e. warrantless wiretaps, anti-terrorism measures, etc) that the Bush administration hosed us with. That only makes me worry that he's going to try to do even worse shit.
* Got more information on doing my own CNC system. My laser idea won't work for doing printed circuit boards -- not only is copper difficult to cut with a laser, anyway, but the way a laser cuts metal precludes using on a PCB. My emergency fallback position is to go ahead and build a 'regular' CNC that uses a rotating cutting bit to create my boards. An additional benefit is that I can also use it to drill the holes in the board, as well as engrave any panels and such that I might need.
* Watching McNeil/Lehrer last night, I saw a bunch of Congressweasels giving one of the big Financial weenies in Gummit a hard time -- seems the Congressweasels didn't understand that the $750B funding they voted for was not for bailing out people with bad mortgages, but simply to stabilize the financial system. The guy they were dishing shit to tried to explain to them (repeatedly) that there had been no mention of mortgage bailouts or anything else; that he (and others) had EXPLICITLY said that the money was for the financial system. Congressweasels simply couldn't get that concept to stick in their tiny little minds, and were all upset and offended that people were still losing their homes -- and wanted Something To Be Done about it, and right now. Morons. Pretty much all of the folks that have lost their homes did so because there was a "mismatch" between what they claimed their income was, and what they were really earning -- essentially, they lied to get themselves into a house they couldn't afford, and calmly proceeded to spend 101% of their income via MasterCard, Visa, Discover, and all the rest. My thought is: fuck 'em. Yeah, it's gonna hurt the economy for a while -- but when it's over, the financial system (and no, I don't mean just the banks and such) will be a hell of a lot more stable, and stronger.
* The U.S. automakers are now begging and grovelling for a handout, too, and there's no small controversy over whether or not they should get anything. On one side, if the automakers go tits-up, that throws a metric buttload (which is roughly 10% larger than a regular buttload) of people out of jobs, which seriously fucks economies all over the country. Opposing that is the fact that it's the automakers (and all the demands from the unions) dumbassery that got them to this point: there's no reason not to think that they'll just end up pissing the money away and cratering, anyway. Me, I don't think they should get anything until and unless the Autoworkers union is obliged to give up a goodly chunk of the assorted crap that they've demanded over the years, and the automakers trim a bunch out of their bloated administration and management (so they can respond to the market in a timely manner). Then give the bastards a ONE-TIME loan of about half what they're asking for before letting them sink or swim on their own.
* The news media has caught wind of the fact that people that already own guns are buying more of them -- but can't seem to figure out why. Dumbshits.
* The Obamessiah is promising to dismantle a lot of the "protection" bullshit (i.e. warrantless wiretaps, anti-terrorism measures, etc) that the Bush administration hosed us with. That only makes me worry that he's going to try to do even worse shit.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Piling on
I've been having trouble getting the accuracy and resolution needed for the circuit boards for my bot; neither of the two fabrication techniques I had available (laying the circuits out by hand, using a combination of rub-on patterns and hand-drawn lines, and thermal-transfer paper) was getting me the kind of results I wanted (and will need).
Searching for an alternative, I somehow ran across a reference to a DIY laser cutter; reading that article ultimately led me to CNC technology. From there, it was pretty fast and direct to a free Linux-based CNC controller. It didn't take me long to put the two together: using a slightly higher-powered laser to 'cut' the thin copper film on a circuit board to fabricate my circuits.
So, as a result, I've got a couple more projects pushed onto the stack: fabricating a computer-controllable CNC machine (actually surprisingly simple), and setting up a computer to drive it (I've already downloaded the Linux CNC software). Being a cheapskate scrounge, I've already got a bunch of parts that I've salvaged out of old/dead hardware -- including a couple dozen stepper motors (and gears, and sensors, and...) that will greatly simplify things. Conceptually, it isn't that big of a deal; even the reality of it isn't going to be all that tough -- a few dollars in parts that I don't already have, a bit of skull sweat, and a little labor, and I should be good to go.
Oh, if you're interested in getting into the laser hair removal gig, have a look at this eBay search! For point of reference, my research tells me that a laser of "just" a couple of watts (U.S. laser pointers are limited to 5 mW [.005 watts] or less) would be sufficient to (slowly) cut 1/16th-inch aluminum; 10 watts would do for steel.
Searching for an alternative, I somehow ran across a reference to a DIY laser cutter; reading that article ultimately led me to CNC technology. From there, it was pretty fast and direct to a free Linux-based CNC controller. It didn't take me long to put the two together: using a slightly higher-powered laser to 'cut' the thin copper film on a circuit board to fabricate my circuits.
So, as a result, I've got a couple more projects pushed onto the stack: fabricating a computer-controllable CNC machine (actually surprisingly simple), and setting up a computer to drive it (I've already downloaded the Linux CNC software). Being a cheapskate scrounge, I've already got a bunch of parts that I've salvaged out of old/dead hardware -- including a couple dozen stepper motors (and gears, and sensors, and...) that will greatly simplify things. Conceptually, it isn't that big of a deal; even the reality of it isn't going to be all that tough -- a few dollars in parts that I don't already have, a bit of skull sweat, and a little labor, and I should be good to go.
Oh, if you're interested in getting into the laser hair removal gig, have a look at this eBay search! For point of reference, my research tells me that a laser of "just" a couple of watts (U.S. laser pointers are limited to 5 mW [.005 watts] or less) would be sufficient to (slowly) cut 1/16th-inch aluminum; 10 watts would do for steel.
Friday, October 10, 2008
The (inde)Terminator
I'm continuing to make progress on my 'bot project.
I decided to make the circuitry for it modular, so I can incrementally improve on (or add to) each section without having to completely redesign everything with each upgrade. Toward that end, I've got the main control and (motor) drive boards; I plan to add a sensor board, and then perhaps an 'environment' board. The way I'm going to accomplish all that is to stack the boards one on top of the other, and use one of the built-in capabilities of the microcontroller to let each of the drive/sensor/other boards pretty much do it's own thing with oversight by the main logic by using what is called a 'two-wire interface' (an alternative to the trademarked Inter-IC [or I2C] system developed by Philips).
I've breadboarded the main controller, and verified that it does what I need/want, so I've gone ahead and laid out a printed circuit board for it:
The board is actually only 3-1/2 inches on a side; the four big dots are where the spacers will be between the boards, and "J2" there on the bottom left is the TWI connector that all the boards will share. The stuff along the righthand side is the power supply and regulation, while J3 and J4 along the top are the digital input/output lines. J5 is to let me add 3 additional analog signals, Just In Case :-)
If you're into this kind of thing, here's the schematic diagram:
When I go to a more advanced 'bot, I can swap out the circuit above with something with more computational horsepower; going to a larger platform means just changing out the motor drive board, and so on. It's a little more effort up front, but will simplify future updates or upgrades by limiting the number of ways I can shoot myself in the foot: I'll only have to figure out what's wrong with the 'new' section, instead of troubleshooting the whole 'bot...
I decided to make the circuitry for it modular, so I can incrementally improve on (or add to) each section without having to completely redesign everything with each upgrade. Toward that end, I've got the main control and (motor) drive boards; I plan to add a sensor board, and then perhaps an 'environment' board. The way I'm going to accomplish all that is to stack the boards one on top of the other, and use one of the built-in capabilities of the microcontroller to let each of the drive/sensor/other boards pretty much do it's own thing with oversight by the main logic by using what is called a 'two-wire interface' (an alternative to the trademarked Inter-IC [or I2C] system developed by Philips).
I've breadboarded the main controller, and verified that it does what I need/want, so I've gone ahead and laid out a printed circuit board for it:
(click to view 'full size')
The board is actually only 3-1/2 inches on a side; the four big dots are where the spacers will be between the boards, and "J2" there on the bottom left is the TWI connector that all the boards will share. The stuff along the righthand side is the power supply and regulation, while J3 and J4 along the top are the digital input/output lines. J5 is to let me add 3 additional analog signals, Just In Case :-)If you're into this kind of thing, here's the schematic diagram:
(click to view 'full size')
When I go to a more advanced 'bot, I can swap out the circuit above with something with more computational horsepower; going to a larger platform means just changing out the motor drive board, and so on. It's a little more effort up front, but will simplify future updates or upgrades by limiting the number of ways I can shoot myself in the foot: I'll only have to figure out what's wrong with the 'new' section, instead of troubleshooting the whole 'bot...
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