I was describing what I use IN LIEU OF markers on a *real* whiteboard in response to your: "pens are probably less environmentally friendly. Real chalk boards are noisy." comment. :>
Though I imagine there should be a way to push the image displayed on the projector (which, after all, is just connected where my
*monitor* would have been) to a conferencing service.
What I miss most is the chronological aspect of it all -- store a
*movie* instead of (one of more) "snapshots" to better document the process.
bit-rot in the wetware... :>
During *power* outages?? (i.e., surge and/or power appearing in spurts takes something out?)
You can share your screen. So whatever is on there will be visible. On GoTo you can share the whole screen or only a particular window.
There's print-screen storage programs and then you have an image file. Probably also live recording but I never saw a need for that, clogs up a lot of data space.
We all get that from time to time :-)
I guess it's the usual where they screwed up the POR/BOR. Or failed to think about it. Even our pellet stove turned itself on a couple of time in the middle of a hot summer so now I have to leave it unplugged when not in use. It's a simple 8051 design. Messing that up as an engineer is like driving a car through a 20ft wide entrance and hitting one of the pillars.
If it happens after the 1-year warranty I'll takle it apart and see if I can fix the engineering mess in there. It's always best to ruggedize the individual equipment.
Bars and restaurants. The noisier, the better. Only requirement is that they have paper napkins (most places get annoyed if you start scribbling on their *linens*!) The "away from work" issue makes it easier for folks to forget about "work" as "work" and deal with it as "entertainment" (shooting the proverbial shit)
A tool not designed with the "drawing" aspect in mind would be horribly inefficient. I.e., you *know* that changes are small and incremental so no need to "watch" the complete image -- just where the pen/eraser happens to be.
Turning on/off spontaneously wouldn't be the same as "needing replacement because of failure" (though admittedly not a desirable feature). I'm more concerned with things that *break* when power glitches, etc. E.g., my computers are all set to stay *off* when power fails -- out of fear that power will "flicker" when it comes back on (at least those that aren't on UPS's)
Make a buttload of noise and manufacturers tend to address the problem just to make you go away. If smart, they do this just to keep you from complainiing to your friends about the poor quality of their product! Granted, you will probably STILL complain, but will add, "but they fixed it for me, for free, even though it was out of warranty". IME, this last thought tends to stick in folks' minds more than your comment about the "failure": "A, XYZ seems like an ETHICAL company to do business with..."
How about a 42 inch to 55 inch HD display with a touch screen. Add voice/audio and keyboard/mouse/pointer commands for colors, snap modes, ortho/octoganal mode and a few other commands and voila, group public touch screen with cad like additions. Record the session and have the group edit it down a bit. Cheaper than fancified (portable scrollable) white boards and more flexible, kind of permanent installation like whiteboards.
GoToMeeting has that. It's just a very crummy implementation with cursor accelerator and such stuff that has been standard since at least two decades. They don't pay enough attention to this. Plus other people can't take the pen which is a real problem. Talking to such large companies about improvements of their service is like kicking a huge oak tree, not even a leaf will fall down. So I gave up on that.
I've seen cases where the uC decided to add some graffiti to its flash and then it would never wake up again. So it's not dead per se but needs a new bootload. Which of course can only be done by service personnel if at all. Which will incur mechanic's time at the union rate, travel costs and whatnot.
Oh, I am very good in making noises. It has once apparently resulted in a major retailer pulling the product line of a large carpet manufacturer. Shortly after my loud ruckus everything disappeared from their web site. My respect for domestic products has gotten a major ding during that time.
The topper so far was a toilet manufacturer. It took six (!) delivery attempts to furnish a toilet that was actually working.
I have seen white "boards" that were actually a continuous sheet that rolled around a loop.
Once filled, you pressed a button and it rolled to a new clean area BUT it copied the contents to an image file as it rolled.
Quite handy for documenting a session... as often happens with me... where you are hammering out a specification. ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: skypeanalog | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Tablets should make this a no-brainer. What's *on* the whiteboard appears everywhere. ANYONE should be able to add local ink and opt to "publish" it. I.e., so you can markup your own PRIVATE copy *or* contribute to the public presentation. Or, both (i.e., make markups and publish them when you're satisfied with them).
Erasers should be selective, as well. So, you can opt to erase a specific
*color*, a specific *author*, etc. (e.g., erase the stuff that you just wrote without risking erasing any of the stuff *others* had written before).
This ("drawing"), IMO, is the only useful role for tablets (and kiosks).
I don't think they reflash devices in the field. I suspect everything is board level swap. I would be much more tolerant of bugs, flaws and failures *if* vendors supported the customer in making those repairs (even if "at your own risk").
The problem is, they want to lock the customer out (fears of litigation?).
We purchased a washer-dryer pair about 2 years ago -- largely on the recommendation of a friend. 18 months later, latch for washer door (front loader) failed. Of course, it's not a trivial mechanism because the washer must be able to *lock* the door (unlike top-loaders where all the machine has to be able to do is stop any motion, quickly).
There's just the two of us, here. I.e., it's not like we're doing huge loads or washing EVERY day! (I can't recall the number of wash cycles that the washing machine had recorded at the time of the failure).
Some clever M.E. decided the heavy metal framed door should be "caught" in a 100% plastic mechanism. A mechanism that *snaps* together, no less! Only a matter of time for the mass of the door (even when closed GENTLY like responsible adults -- and not "wild" kids) pushes the back half of that snap together assembly clear off.
And, of course, no way to glue all those little plastic pieces back together again!
$40 part (no big deal). But, no way of determining (even from a "live operator") what the *current* replacement part number should be! Sure as hell don't want to use the *same* (flimsy) part if someone has realized the foolishness of this approach and revised it!
Escalate the issue and they'll send out a tech to do this 60 second repair. Sheesh, *sell* me the part and I'll do it myself -- just be damn sure you sell me the *right* part!
Amusingly, when we mentioned this to the friend who had initially recommended the product, her reply was, "Oh, we've already REPLACED (emphasis mine) our dryer..." (Grrrr... so, now we have dryer problems to look forward to as well?)
It took three attempts to get a garage door that wasn't defective! (think about how wide those -- double-wide -- panels are and how much effort it takes for the *vendor* to haul them to us! "Um, guys... why don't you look at the panels *before* you drive out here? You *know* I'm going to tell you to take any defective ones *back*..."
I'd be keen on tweeking most of the control algorithms in the appliances, here. But, nowhere near enough time in a life for all the interesting things available! :-(
--- One of the main reasons it's hard to brainstorm on Usenet is because people like you - who have a huge emotional investment in keeping up the facade of their infallibility - refuse to admit to error in public and, when one of their goofy ideas is rightly criticized, will do everything in their power to throw the messenger under the bus.
In the same vein, when someone outside of your circle makes a goofy mistake it's not enough for you to flag the error and provide data proving it wrong, instead you obsessively launch ad hominem attacks designed to paint you as being in charge and your targets as inept.
No, it was simply white film you used white-board markers on, then it copied to a file when rolled. ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: skypeanalog | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Most biz people do not have tablets or if they do are not allowed to connect them to their employer's LAN.
Do you have a name for a software that does this and also works in non-tablet or PC mouse mode?
They can have more uses. For example reviewing technical documents and drawings. if a pointing device is connected or virtually integrated you can even draw schematics. My dream would be a tablet that allows me to run Eagle, simple LTSpice sims and online conferencing. So far I am using a Samsung NC10 netbook for that. Not very powerful (and won't do GoToMeeting) but it can run a solid 8h on one charge. Very important on
Afraid you are right. That's how it is with cars. "It's just the electronics, no big deal. That'll be $1000 plus labor". Which is why I won't be in the market for a new car for many years to come, maybe never. In the unlikely event that my trusty old Mitsubishi gives up I'd probably be looking for something of same vintage, or maybe a 40-50 year old Land Rover from the days when they were robust. Or a Model A station wagon :-)
I have no tolerance for flimsy engineering.
Probably more the old ka-ching motivation.
The problem is you often can't get anything else. I do not want electronics in household equipment. But unlike cars where the really good ones hold up for decades that isn't true for appliances anymore. It used to, for example we still run my parent's first fridge, a Bosch from
1958. Not even the light bulb in there dared to burn out so far. Of course it does not contain any electronics.
Then you almost have to redesign the controller board. If I had my druthers I'd do that for our pellet stove but like you I have no time for that. If there is any free time I bow out and hop on a bike instead, much more healthy than designing electronics. Especially since I already do that all day long.
At Honeywell Sensor Division, everyone had a tablet WiFi'd to the network... they even let me log into their network with my Laptop... an exceedingly rare event... most companies are so paranoid... it's downright pathetic the way they act.
[snip] ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: skypeanalog | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Most photo-manipulation software will do this (Corel, PhotoShop, etc.). (though only based on color as it has no knowledge of *who* drew what.)
-----------^^^^ As I said, "drawing" :>
Get a DC adapter and plug it in under the seat. I have them for each of my laptops (though you aren't supposed to let them *charge* the battery in flight -- probably draws too much power from what is available at each tap?)
Dunno. I don't fly anymore so they are primarily used for the car.
Exactly. I cling to my 85 Monte Carlo because traditional ignition, rear wheel drive, no "brains", 5L, T-roof, respectable size (laughable that they now call *it* a "full size" car! Sheesh! It's *tiny*!!) With ~70K on the clock, I figure it's probably got another 20 years of life, left :-/
(no fear of "rusting out", here -- unlike back East!)
I've got a friend with a '31 roadster -- with a 502 CID in it! But, then again, that's his hobby/enjoyment. He's got another old-timer vehicle (I forget make/model... looks like a small "paneled" station wagon) with $50,000 under the hood! *Serious* hobby, that!)
You don't have a choice -- unless you want to roll your own (for everything). SWMBO is harping on me for a new TV. "Hey, you want a new TV? Go buy one! Whatever you want! But *I'm* not keen on researching quality, performance, reliability, service, features, etc. and then being disappointed 'next year' when it s**ts the bed! I'm happy with the 46" plasma..."
Don't know. The repairs are done by third parties -- unsure if there is a "commission" that they pay to the manufacturer or if it is all tied up in replacement parts' costs...
You *really* don't want to look at new frig's. Aside from the "blech stainless" appearance (we're not keen on things that have to be babied to keep them looking "clean"), everything is pricey and flimsy.
Not an issue for me. I've already "augmented" many of the larger appliances, here. And, trying to do things "from the outside" is considerably harder than it would be if I had access to everything available *inside*.
E.g., forgetting to fully latch the door -- only to discover an hour later that the washer has been sitting waiting for you to do so before starting the wash cycle. Or, washer signals an imbalance and stalls -- and you don't know this until you check up on it an hour later. Or, you head out the door without realizing the wash is still running, clothes in the dryer, etc.
Then, there are "capabilities" that are just plain missing. E.g., want to run *just* a rinse cycle? Or, the equivalent of a "soak" cycle (in a front loader)? Or, hot wash, warm rinse?
Anything *inside* the firewall scares IT folks -- rightly so. Most have no internal protections against hostile acts, infection, etc.
Wanna get someone fired? Put a "pwn plug" under his desk -- they are available to resemble outlet strips, wall warts, etc.
"Mr Bozeman, could you please join us in the HR office. Our security officer has some questions for you and we think Legal should probably be present for that meeting..."
I check my work when it matters, so I'm not too often dead wrong. I do not call people names, or comment on their intellectual or personality defects, because I disagree with them on technical issues.
This target wasn't hard to hit:
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John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc
picosecond timing precision measurement
jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com
http://www.highlandtechnology.com
I don't know. He is retired now, but he left the stage after his last lecture in proper form. I never saw a live lecture, but I get emotional watching him leave. Although this is not the final lecture, his leaving is at the end of this short video.
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Mikek
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