Recent Posts

1001

Living Room / Re: Would a 41 megapixel camera get you to buy a Windows 8 phone?

« Last post by Edvard on January 23, 2013, 10:12 PM »

No.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Valve is looking for beta-testers for Steam Linux client

« Last post by Edvard on January 23, 2013, 03:02 PM »

Still haven't managed to hack it into my Debian box yet.  Mostly due to lack of time, but one of these days...

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Developer's Corner / Re: A way to look at software design

« Last post by Edvard on January 16, 2013, 12:55 PM »

Perhaps because they are not solutions so much as responses

Spot. On.

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Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by Edvard on January 15, 2013, 01:55 PM »

^ Awesome.  I was big into these guys in the early 90's.  The only band me and my shoegazer friends could agree on. So sad when Sandman passed on.

instrumental only, but check out the drummer!!
...
homepage is here http://compressorheadband.com/

-Target (January 06, 2013, 05:14 PM)

Dude, if I had time for a band, I would hire that drummer.  I've often wondered why people into electronic music didn't do that kind of thing more often, using trigger plungers to strike real drums instead of arguing about how 'live' the samples on any given drum machine sound...

Here's a forgotten favorite of mine from around the same time period.  Relatively unknown outside the Athens, GA scene but made some damn fine minimalist swamp-boogie tunes.  That board he's stomping and shuffling on is one of the instruments O_o

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Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by Edvard on January 13, 2013, 12:07 AM »

(see attachment in previous post)

-Renegade (January 11, 2013, 10:04 PM)

I remember that happening when Japanese 'Rising Sun' tshirts were all the rage in the 80's.  The kanji was most often gibberish poetry or random words.  Apparently, we've returned the favor since then:

1006

Living Room / Re: Lego goes Linux !

« Last post by Edvard on January 11, 2013, 01:08 PM »

I think GPL may be getting in the way since Lego probably doesn't want to open its kimono too much as far as the underlying Mindstorm controller goes.

I wasn't expecting it to be totally open (well, one can hope...), but at least I would have liked to see cross-platform software for programming the thing.  That's what stopped me from experimenting with it 5 years ago.  Besides the rather exorbitant pricing, that is...

24 student starter pack goes for $4700 USD. A single EV3 core set is $340 without software, which shows as being a separate purchase.

Oooookey-dokey then; I'll just stick with learning Arduino with my son.  He's taking a robotics class, maybe he can teach the old man something...

There are, however, funtional Raspberry Pi implementations already in the works or available as this project shows.

Nice project.  Now, if you could simply replace the NXT brick entirely...

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Living Room / Re: Lego goes Linux !

« Last post by Edvard on January 11, 2013, 12:29 AM »

Nice find, Carol 
I've been hoping somebody would come up with a Linux method for programming NXT Mindstorms, but all we ever got was a bare-bones library.  With this announcement, it's closer, but I still see no solid evidence of Lego supporting a client or SDK that would make it easy write Mindstorm programs with Linux.  The way he says "in a limited way" (verbatim, twice) doesn't offer a whole lot of optimism either.  Hopefully that situation will be rectified soon...

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General Software Discussion / Re: Rumors of Adobe releasing CS2 for free? (true or NOT true)

« Last post by Edvard on January 07, 2013, 07:44 PM »

However this shakes out, I agree it's a huge PR spectacle for Adobe, and they may even make sales (of the newer suite) from it.  I mean, they're not losing anything but bandwidth at this point, and folks who balked at the price previously can now get a taste of the forbidden fruit.  No, they probably didn't intend for this level of feeding frenzy, but I do find it curious that they are still allowing it to be downloaded at this point.

Downloading it anyways; My XP partition could use a visit...  

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Living Room / Re: The REAL reason Valve is developing Steam for Linux?

« Last post by Edvard on January 06, 2013, 08:55 PM »

It's official, from a Valve engineer, with picture:
http://www.gamechup....-linux-based-report/



They've been working on it since 2011... wow.

1010

Living Room / Re: How Much Do You Trust Wikipedia?

« Last post by Edvard on January 06, 2013, 12:35 PM »

For some reason, that strikes me as deplorable and completely awesome at the same time.

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Living Room / Re: Ubuntu Linux smarthphone coming this year?

« Last post by Edvard on January 06, 2013, 12:34 PM »

Apology in return; I kinda figured it was a joke, but just in case... 
Actually, I should have know better; this IS donationcoder, and we've covered that ground in many many threads before this one.  That said, I'm still tabbing up all the supplies my son and I need to rig up the Arduino for purposes of controlling lights.  He's always been in for a good light show, and the Arduino seems a good way to get him on the ground floor learning the mechanics.  Next year, motors and filters! 

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Living Room / Re: Probably the single best idea I've seen in a *very* long time.

« Last post by Edvard on January 05, 2013, 11:43 PM »

I would so win that game... I haven't got to the "obsessive phone checker" level yet, and am entirely comfortable leaving my phone at home when it's not necessary.

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Living Room / Re: Ubuntu Linux smarthphone coming this year?

« Last post by Edvard on January 05, 2013, 11:37 PM »

Agree. Ever hear of a Raspberry Pi? Or an Arduino or Pandaboard?

Wat? Dude, I seriously hope you're trolling there.    
I'm ordering an Arduino with a few goodies tomorrow and a Pi on the next paycheck (from Element14 of course...).  Pandaboard... maybe someday, though I had been eyeing the Beagleboard for a while.  Hmm... dual Cortex A9 but no bios or nonvolatile memory OR single Cortex A8... yeah, Pandaboard it is.
...And of course I'll be first in line to get a Parallella when that comes out, though I'm not coder enough to take real advantage of the 64-core co-processor.  Then again, maybe that'll be a good reason to start learning in earnest...

My point was going along with xtabber's comment about re-purposing old and unused phones.  Working in a call center for a big phone provider, I've suggested as much to many customers, and they seem to think it's pretty cool that the phones are still usable, just not as phones per se, unless with Google Voice or Skype over Wifi.  Installing a Linux, they could be used in a similar way, but it would be much more open for experimentation and possible innovation, and extend the possible useful life of the device.

Just sayin...

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Living Room / Re: Ubuntu Linux smarthphone coming this year?

« Last post by Edvard on January 05, 2013, 04:35 PM »

Hehe, not a kid either. 

I'd rather they put their efforts into a genuine open tablet PC and forget about the smartphone idea entirely.

Sure, that'd be nice, but I'd also like to see something akin to the Xbox Linux project to build a stripped-down kernel and system that can be installed on older or unused cell phones so they're not just gathering dust.  Sure, the stock Android would be enough for entertainment value, but I'd like the possibility for something different and conceivably more useful.

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Living Room / Re: Ubuntu Linux smarthphone coming this year?

« Last post by Edvard on January 05, 2013, 11:44 AM »

Now that I'd actually like to see... just as Linux is being touted as a way to "revitalize" older computers and hardware no longer usable by modern versions of windows, we could see older phones being re-purposed as the small-form wifi-capable computing devices they really are at heart.  Who knows, with a Ubuntu phone and home-brew gsm networks, something just might click.

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Living Room / Re: The Internets makes me laugh

« Last post by Edvard on January 04, 2013, 11:33 PM »

Glad I could give you a laugh.   

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Living Room / Another reminder to watch what you post to the internet

« Last post by Edvard on January 04, 2013, 10:41 PM »

http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=F7pYHN9iC9I

Indeed  

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General Software Discussion / Re: Android 3.2 to 4.0 Upgrade on Tab

« Last post by Edvard on January 04, 2013, 01:08 PM »

I hear the Jelly Bean update (4.1) is pretty smooth as well.  Due to the Project Butter, which locks all animations to the screen refresh rate.  Haven't convinced my son to update his Acer Iconia, but with a little encouragement...   

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Living Room / Re: Ubuntu Linux smarthphone coming this year?

« Last post by Edvard on January 03, 2013, 11:01 PM »

A capital idea. I'm doing much the same these days - except with music and guitar design.

-40hz (January 03, 2013, 06:01 PM)

Guitars? I LOVE guitars!!  
(we've spoke of this before, though, haven't we?)
 

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Living Room / Re: Ubuntu Linux smarthphone coming this year?

« Last post by Edvard on January 03, 2013, 05:59 PM »

Acer Iconia Tab a210.  Any suggestions?

1021

Living Room / Re: Parallella, the $99 supercomputer

« Last post by Edvard on January 03, 2013, 05:58 PM »

Ah, I see.  Yeah, I'm thinking that he's banking on the educational and experimenter angle rather than selling OEM stuff for the end-user; make it so affordable that students and hackers can't afford NOT to get a board and learn some parallel and multi-thread programming, and see what amazing things get done by the hardware geek community as well.  Yes, the "supercomputer" moniker may be a little overblown, but the architecture and framework are there.

I wonder how fast a system one could make with a cluster of these...

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Living Room / Re: Ubuntu Linux smarthphone coming this year?

« Last post by Edvard on January 03, 2013, 05:50 PM »

Cartoons? I LOVE cartoons!! 

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Living Room / Re: Ubuntu Linux smarthphone coming this year?

« Last post by Edvard on January 03, 2013, 01:46 PM »

My only wish for Android is if I could get root without having to have a custom rom.  DAMN annoying when I can't do a fool task like changing the fecking DNS without rooting it.  Bleah.

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Living Room / Re: Parallella, the $99 supercomputer

« Last post by Edvard on January 03, 2013, 01:42 PM »

You mean, not much profit margin?  The guy touting this is the founder and CEO of the company (Adapteva) who designed the co-processor.  He says the biggest hurdle is the initial mask for fabricating the chips.  After that, it's all silicon and overhead, and since the penny-sized coprocessor chip uses 1/10 the silicon of a standard CPU, it's naturally going to be less expensive to manufacture.  Also, consider the Raspberry PI and Arduino at less than $50 per unit, and those projects are doing rather well.  If Mr. Olofsson's idea works out like he plans, I think he'll do OK.

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Living Room / Re: Parallella, the $99 supercomputer

« Last post by Edvard on January 02, 2013, 03:13 PM »

Oblig: