|
Simon O'Riordan from UK wrote: Surely you are aware that the very word 'drive' is just a consequence of lazy scifi writing? Drives and blasters are terms designed to consign the essential boggling-ness of the technology required to the commonplace so that the 'actors' can get on with the job of telling the story, assisted by special effects.
I would not mind if FTL was invented, but I would hate it if they called it a 'drive'.
Anyway, micro rant over. Now off to work in my Petrol-Drive machine. D'Oh! | 
Simon O'Riordan from UK wrote: Please - don't call it a 'drive'. Call it Propulsion or Engine or Motor. Drive belongs with Blaster, to an era of seventies SciFi which was looking to make these mind-cracking inventions commonplace, so that the 'heroes' could get on with the real business of saving the universe while we techies were factored out.
Rant rant rant etc.
Now to drive to work using my Petrol Drive.
OK then, we got you. No more calling it a drive! 
|
|
|
|
|
Sorry about that. My first posting went into a .... a...... wormhole....damn. I said it.
|
|
|
|
|
Simon O'Riordan from UK wrote: Sorry about that. My first posting went into a .... a...... wormhole....damn. I said it. 
That seems infinitely improbable to me, are you sure you don't have access to an Infinite Improbability Drive Engine
|
|
|
|
|
Infinite Improbability Drive? But...but....Douglas Adams was on our side........that means my whole thesis is flawed....aagh! I'm melting....melllltinnnnng.... 
|
|
|
|
|
Seems to me you have travelled through a vortex using your FTL drive with anti-gravity blasters.
MVVM # - I did it My Way
___________________________________________
Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011
.\\axxx
(That's an 'M')
|
|
|
|
|
Sshhh...They'll all want them...why do you think I'm trying to poo-poo the idea?
Coming from the future was hard enough without trying to hide it from those Physics idiotsProfessors.
|
|
|
|
|
:snigger: you said poo-poo
MVVM # - I did it My Way
___________________________________________
Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011
.\\axxx
(That's an 'M')
|
|
|
|
|
Awesome good find.
Pretty soon we'll have GoogleExoplanet and can watch aliens walking around on there world. Well it may be a while NSA will want to tweak it first. 
|
|
|
|
|
So "We live in the future" because we are looking at an image that was sent 3 years before I was born? Doesn't that really mean we can look at the past? Because right now, assuming the planet still exists, it is 63 years older than it was when it sent the image. If that planet has an imager as well, doesn't mean we are living in the past?
If that planet has an imager, then I'll buy we live in the future because they have to wait 63 years to see what we are doing now.
|
|
|
|
|
...occasionally comes out with some great quotes delivered deadpan. After the Wallabies beat the Argies in the Rugby Championship last year:
"This win will have given them an injection and, as we all know, you don't have to give an Aussie too much of an injection for his confidence to start coming out of his mouth."
If your neighbours don't listen to The Ramones, turn it up real loud so they can.
“We didn't have a positive song until we wrote 'Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue!'” ― Dee Dee Ramone
"The Democrats want my guns and the Republicans want my porno mags and I ain't giving up either" - Joey Ramone
|
|
|
|
|
statement of the bleeding obvious isnt it?
bryce
MCAD
---
|
|
|
|
|
Well, if you can't win, better to lose with an attempt at humour, I suppose
Christian Graus
My new article series is all about SQL !!!
|
|
|
|
|
So I ordered a Beaglebone Black from Sparkfun 10 days or so ago and they were on back order and stated that they had a shipment coming in Jan. 5th so on Jan. 3rd they got a shipment of 240 of them and my order was place on BO Arrived status. I might add that they said on there BBB page that 240 were available!
So here it is 4 days later and they modified my order to New Order again and when I called they said I would have to wait for the next shipment on Feb. 19 because all the BO's head of me got them.
WTF?
If they were all ate up by BO's why did they put on the BBB page that there were 240 available for shipment.
This just seems like bad practice to me or am I just over reacting?
Either way I have cancelled my order and won't do business with them again!
|
|
|
|
|
They're actually really good. The problem is the website doesn't do a great job of relaying status. Those Beagles are selling like mad.
I've never had a problem with Sparkfun.
|
|
|
|
|
I guess I'm just overanxious and over sensitive?, and a little pissed!
I cancelled the order because I saw 2 other sites had them available but when I went back today they were also sold out so I'm thinking it was the same thing with them.
I've never had a problem with Sparkfun either but I emailed them this morning about status and they never answered me so am a little pissed about that.
C'est la vie
|
|
|
|
|
Just one of those things with items in demand. Sit tight and wait or look elsewhere.
The ones I have seen on Ebay are Feb shipping.
|
|
|
|
|
Yeah they rescheduled for Feb. 19, I guess I just don't agree with putting them out for sale when they are already promised. 
I'll reorder at a later date I've got plenty of other stuff to do right now anyway.
|
|
|
|
|
I have just placed an order for one through farnell and they have given me an estimated delivery date of 3/Feb.
I am backing the Logiboard[^] on Kickstarter and the pledge I have gone for includes boards for Raspi and Beagle, so thought I might as well get the beagleblack in time for when the logi is due to arrive in April.
(Kickstarter closes in 59hrs)
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks Dave I'll check it out.
I'm going to hold off for a while, I was really disappointed when this happened so I'll wait and get from another vendor later.
|
|
|
|
|
I've ordered thousands of dollars of stuff from SparkFun, and not a single problem. I've followed them since they were a couple college guys running it out of an apartment. Its really a stand-up company growing faster than they can keep up with. I'm sure this is just a problem with the inventory system, they recently changed the entire back-end.
Either way I wouldn't have a problem ordering anything from them, if you think it was wrong, email the sales people and they will bend over backwards to make it right.
|
|
|
|
|
Windows 7 at a low, low price. Coming from Germany(land of the lost parcel)(and chocolate)(mmmmmm....), supposed to arrive any time between 14th December and this Monday(!). Still not here. 
|
|
|
|
|
Has anyone had any experience with the Freescale K60 microcontrollers? I'm curious as to how nice they are to work with. It appears there may be some significant memory size limitations, but I'm not an expert (or I wouldn't be asking!).
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E.
Comport Computing
Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
|
|
|
|
|
uControllers generally are restricted in the amount of programmable and RAM memories but some allow expansion.
Also it seems that this brand relies on the Tower to expand which looks like that would be a major restriction, at least for me. I'm cheap and wouldn't want to pay extra for the tower.
Do you need the encryption?
If not why not check out the Raspberry Pi or Beagle Bone Black which has a wide user base and a plethora or expansion boards.
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks for the comments, Mike. The choice isn't mine, but a client wants some technical software written that will likely run on the microcontroller. I'm thinking that may be a major hurdle. We're talking about finite difference solutions to the non-linear wave equation using data from the ADC's as input, so the computations aren't trivial. I currently am using C# to do the calcs and it works fine. I can translate it to C, but my concern is whether it can be ported to a uCPU.
This application would take about 10 position and load readings per second, differentiate the position to get velocity, then use the velocity and load as boundary conditions. I need to store enough cycles of data (5 to 10 cycles per minute) to spot changes and estimate the nonlinear parameters. If the parameters are estimated correctly, then the calculated cycles should repeat. All in real-time. On a PC this would be a piece of cake, but on a uCPU with limited memory, I'm not sure.
I think it's likely beyond what the Raspberry Pi could handle, but maybe not. I'm not familiar with the other uCPU's - I generally haven't done much of that other than play with some of the Microchip PIC chips - that was a lot of fun, but nothing sophisticated.
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E.
Comport Computing
Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
|
|
|
|
|
Walt Fair, Jr. wrote: I generally haven't done much of that other than play with some of the Microchip PIC chips - that was a lot of fun, but nothing sophisticated.
I haven't done any real intensive or critical real time collection on a uController yet and have only worked with the 8-bit Atmel chips so I can't comment on much else.
Good luck!
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
