If you're using Ubuntu, I have found that it can support the Logitech Orbit AF camera quite well, once you have the proper drivers installed and compiled. It is a fairly high-res web camera, and I was getting fairly good frame rates (I have never had good luck with Linux and web cameras; the Orbit AF seems like a fluke).

Another option that I have found to work well is to use a high-resolution IP camera as the video source. They tend to offer simple streaming feeds via a standard HTTP interface, usually MJPEG, sometimes something without artifacting.

Depending on your needs and ultimate end-use, though, you might consider such a system using a web-cam (whatever your application) to be a "beta testing" system; for serious work once you get things going on the beta-platform, look in firewire cameras (although maybe the next version of USB will be better?).

Epilogue: I managed to recover all of my data!

 

I'm also rethinking my backup strategy; I think I am going to go for a distributed backup on each workstation/server to an external hard drive to eliminate single-point-of-failure - I might also continue to keep the backup to the server as well, if I can rig the workstations to do the dual-backup scheme.

Where did my data go? Well, I think I actually caused the worst of it on the one drive that held all my media; I think at some point I performed an fsck on the web interface, and it was taking a while and I didn't know if anything was happening - in my haste, worry, fear, confusion, doubt, anger, etc - I probably reset the system, leaving the file system on that drive in a very weird state. Well, for S&G, I decided to run a full fsck (on both drive), be patient, and wait. At the console, a combo of ps and top proved that fsck was doing work, so I just let it sit. When it came back, all my files were sitting in lost+found. The other drive where the backups were stored didn't have any issues (fsck found no problems).

Since the drive that my backups were going to had a SMART failure on boot, I decided the other drive (where the media is stored) couldn't be too far behind. I had purchases a second set of 400 GB drives, with the intention of building a second server, but I never got around to it (which was a good thing). I copied all the data to the second pair of drives, installed them, and all was good.

In addition, I added heat-sink/fan combos to each drive, plus an extra case ventilation fan (a largish PCI slot fan). While testing fan output and drive temperature, I noticed that the PSU fan was not turning fast; I ended up pulling it out and re-lubing it - I'll probably end up replacing it in the near future (might replace the entire PSU). After that, the temperature of the drives seemed better than before; they're running now at about 37C, before (the old drives) they were around 45C.

I was pretty worried there; ultimately a night's sleep and some food made the next day clearer, and allowed me to see some mistakes I had made previously. One of the interesting ones were setting some jumpers on the new pair of drives - I had bought these drives fairly cheap from computergeeks.com ($40.00 for a 400 GB PATA drive), but they kept showing up as a 32 GB drive when I installed them. It turns out that there were two different settings for the jumpers, one set for "full drive capacity", and a separate set for "32 GB cutoff"; in my haste and worry, I had selected the wrong set (and thought that I had been ripped off!). I don't know what the "cutoff" set is for, but once I had some sleep and looked it over in the morning, I saw my mistake. I ended up taking back the Serial ATA interface and drive I had bought (saving me $100.00).

I am soooo glad that I won't have to re-upload all of that data back onto that media drive. In the meantime it was an interesting lesson all the way around, in a lot of areas that I hadn't thought about. The biggest two would have to be run fsck more often, and to keep an eye on the SMART status messages, neither of which I was doing as well as I should have.

Finally, I still recommend FreeNAS as a great way to build a NAS box on the cheap.

 

Today was supposed to be a good day, a day of a simple fix I had been meaning to apply, a day to relax afterward. Today though, has turned into the "day of hell" for me.

Many of you here know that I often expound on the need for backing up a system. Many of you know that employ an automated backup solution for the workstations in my home, all of which backup to a fileserver on-site.

I am about to tell you a tale of woe and bad luck.

You see, not too long ago I spent about 2 weeks or so going through my "archive o' crap" (which is what I call a large collection of CDs and DVDs of data I have), copying it all to my fileserver. In the process, I began to think "you know, if the drive this data is on takes a dump, I am going to be up the proverbial creek". In addition to the data I loaded, I also had a ton of other data, mainly MP3s and some videos.

I thought "no problem" - I'll buy an external USB drive to act as my backup for the fileserver, set it up, automate that backup, and all will be golden for the day when it was needed.

My fileserver is a custom FreeNAS install; its had been a while since it was last updated, but overall it worked fine. I served everything over samba (SMB), but was thinking about switching over to NFS at some point since I didn't have any Windows boxes on the network that needed samba. After reviewing some online documents, I figured that once I had my drive plugged it, it would be a simple matter of mounting it, formatting it, then setting up a "local rsync" to that drive, running once or twice a day.

Last night I finally got around to putting that drive together; I hooked it up to my Ubuntu workstation, and it seemed like it was recognized alright, so I went to bed anticipating what today would bring.

Today brought hell.

I plugged in the drive, and it was recognized by FreeNAS, but almost immediately I began to notice strange things. I won't go into much detail, as this post is already way to long, so let's just say this:

Hard drives suck, and they'll take a dump on you -exactly- when you don't want them to.

Long story short, I ended up losing about 250 gig of data on my "media" drive; it uses the UFS partition, and trying to mount it is weird; rather than a mount point in /mnt (which looks and acts like a directory), I get a 210 byte file that says something strange in it - and I don't know why. Nothing I have done has let me see the data on that drive since.

The other drive, which held my backups, was throwing some SMART errors, so it looked like it was on its way out. I ended up buying a new drive (and a PCI SATA adaptor, because this machine is a wee bit old), after many hours of trying this and that, and coming up empty. Still, I was able to mount that old drive, and I am copying the data off of it over to the new drive right now, and I am hoping to beat the reaper.

Here's the thing - the crazy conundrum I am in, especially after preaching the gospel for so long - I needed a backup for my backup solution; I thought the USB drive would work great (I think it will, actually, maybe?) - but my system died just as I was implementing it. So, maybe I should've implemented it when I built the system? However, do I now need a backup drive for that backup drive? Ad Infintum? Turtles all the way down?

I can't afford a tape backup solution for 1TB - who can? Why is it that the backup systems for the size of drives we have in our machines cost far more than what the machine and drives cost? What is a real solution?

Also - what do ordinary people do? Do they just lose all of their memories and data and such and "oh well"?

This is so frustrating; I know I am venting and ranting, and you shoulda seen me earlier (it wasn't pretty!) - I just want to know what a real solution is? Who's to say that had I actually implemented that backup for my backup earlier, that it wouldn't have died as well? I'd go with a RAID'ed system, but I honestly don't have the money to put into something like that, and that still wouldn't fix the ultimate problem.

Something else I wonder about - are these drives supposed to be running as hot as they are? I don't know the actual temperatures off-hand, but the old drives that were in my box were running fairly hot, and the USB drive (a 1TB 3.5 inch SATA drive in an enclosure) also would get quite warm. The new drive I just installed - let's see - well, its not as hot. I am just wondering if manufacturers -expect- you to put fans on hard drives nowadays (and if so, why aren't they included, damnit?).

So frustrated, so angry, so upset, so much time lost that I could use doing other things...

 :'(

Somebody should put this in the playground (with the macgyver theme added)...

 

It's nothing new.

I understand that, and so did those writers I mentioned. It isn't that it is new, its more that it is being "brought back" as "normal" within certain societies, and it is interesting to think whether it could "happen here" (ie, in western societies). I have no doubt that it can, since as both you and I have mentioned, its happened before in those self-same societies. However, the mindset now in those societies is different, but things change...

Interesting - live, work, eat, play, recreate, die - everything in a little "city" controlled by your employer (where I doubt you have any say in how things are run); I would say this sounds like something out of a cyber-dystopian novel from the 1980s, but the fact is those authors simply extrapolated from the trends that were happening then.

It doesn't really surprise me that multiple serial suicides could happen in that kind of controlled insular environment, depending on the conditions. So now they plan to offer people more money (I wonder if the money is in some form of "company store" cash/credits, like old-time southwestern American mining towns used to have/abuse?)...

I wonder how close we are to such a thing here (again, I suppose - like I mentioned before, it was around back in the day in mining towns) in the US (on the surface, it doesn't seem like anything like that exists here; but then again, people fear losing their health insurance because of job layoffs or such - hmm)? It probably can't happen on that great of scale because we have more freedom of travel and means within our borders - unless further "predictions" of those same authors come true, and the suburb enclaves that we are seeing become more like insular "burbclaves" as one writer (Stephenson? Gibson? Sterling? One of the three) coined - with everything inside, network links to the outside, armed guards and fortress walls, and of course, Uncle Enzo's pizza delivery...

 ;D

and I would love to tell my boss that, but the last time I did that I ended up living on a couch for 4 months, so you CAN, but its much like taking a dump in your car, its really not advised

Well - no, not literally - unless you are lucky and in the position of having "f-u" money (1-2 years of your current salary saved up). If you don't, then I advise that you do whatever you can to save that money until you do (and drop the credit cards and other unsecured debt like a hot rock). You don't know how liberating it can feel until you are there (getting there is another matter, though).

As far as the articles you have read, do you have any that were done undercover by a non-chinese source (and who have no connection with the company involved)? I would be more likely to trust such a source more than one who, if they wrote anything "bad" regarding working conditions at such a company, or anything against "the party", could be shut down immediately and the publishers/workers "disappeared" (or at least made very sorry they wrote such an article).

I don't really trust China's government; there's just this "hinkyness" about it that pegs my BS meter. Our government pegs that meter on occasion also, but at least I am fairly certain I won't disappear if I say something about it (although I suppose if I say too much my "plane" might crash mysteriously, with the investigation swept under the rug).

[Osgeld]

Osgeld:

Are you even reading the same article? I don't see any mention of lacking in material things being the cause of this man's suicide.

We are both fortunate to live in a country where, if we don't like the working conditions, we can our boss to f-off and go somewhere else, and we don't have to worry about the secret police showing up at our door because of it.

Now, while Shenzhen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhen) and more-so Hong Kong, are supposed to be "special" (as-in special economic zones - where China plays around with integrating capitalism with communism), the truth on the ground is likely far different. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if this man felt, for whatever reasons, that he didn't have a way out except for death. He was probably feeling depressed and had other issues long before this, but didn't have any support or anyone who cared (or maybe no place to go to seek help?).

I am not saying that all China-based companies are like this, but we really don't know, do we? Its a very strange business model they have, and it seems to be working fairly well for them, so much so that other countries and governments are looking to emulate it, which to me is a scary thing to think about. Capitalism as an economic engine to a strange blend of communism and totalitarianism seems be something that would be ultimately oppressive to the people under it, but seem to outsiders to an ok system (and to a certain segment, an alluring thing to emulate).

To me it seems this way, but I also have this strange feeling that it is all a scam in some manner, wool being pulled over the world's eyes just as long as the world can keep its cheap toy factory...

Lesson learnt: Don't plug cables without even watching.

The real lesson to learn is one of design - don't design your products so that power can (potentially) be plugged into signal, and vice-versa. Similarly, each connector that performs a particular function should be standardized to that function only; back in the day, DB-9 connectors were standard for a lot of functionality on a PC; CGA/EGA were female DB-9, while serial ports were male - then somebody got enterprising with M-M/F-F adapters - and sparks were born!

I'm looking at some of their robotics programs but somehow things look fishy...

Sometimes its best to trust your gut instincts, but for something like this, it should be fairly easy to check up on them, simply by sending a few emails and/or making a couple of calls.

They claim to have "training partners"; so call one of those training partners up and ask them if they have heard of them, that you were interested in the programs, and that you wanted to find out the legitimacy of the company.

Their main training partners are supposed to be Yaskawa Motoman Canada, and Panasonic, according to this page:

http://www.rcsa.ca/AboutUs/AboutUs.aspx

Contact these companies (a word of advice: sometimes these companies respond better to phone than email), and ask for a representative to speak to you about "Robotics Certification Standards Alliance Training and Certification". From there, depending on their answer, you may want to ask about references for people who have completed the program (they may or may not give out such information; most likely not, but it doesn't hurt to ask). Perhaps they might have some information about the program they can send you?

Good luck.

 

Sure it can be done, and the timing could in theory be done too, but I don't know if anyone's done it..

I thought the post was pretty strange myself, but it is "bar/sport"...

As far as running a gas engine off of producer gas (aka wood gas - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas) gained from pyrolysis; yes it can be done, has been done, and the tech is ancient.

The real question is can you get a Listeroid to run on wood gas? Maybe? Who knows - perhaps with an Arduino changing the spark timing? Maybe this is what the poster was getting at...

I did find a place that imports and sells Listeroid engines; they are fairly cheap for a small single-cylinder (about $12-1500.00 US) - but you have to do a lot of modifications/cleanup after you get your new engine (from India, generally), as the workmanship is very variable on them; generally fuel lines and tank need to be replaced, plus a lot of other stuff has to be cleaned and adjusted after doing a teardown. Definitely a real DIY project, and the engines aren't lightweight (better have an overhead hoist or an engine lift, and a fairly large shop, if you want to play around with such an engine/genset combo).

 

How about Yesterday an HP laserjet 4mp for 99p on ebay with 2 toner cartridges.

I once found a LaserJet 5mpv, complete with toner, < 30000 page count, a half-ream of paper in it, and the postscript SIMM - for $15.00 at a local Goodwill thrift store; fortunately for me, it was their "half-off" special day.

I've found wonderful things there; I tend to rescue the Polaroid instant cameras that have the ultrasound ranging modules - they usually sell for $3-4.00. I've also found plenty of radio control cars there suitable for robot chassis (they're part of my "junk" box). I once found an iCybie there as well (along with a few Robosapien V1s).

As Osgeld noted, a function generator would probably be the best thing to try it out with. If you really wanted to test it, there are special "calibration signal generators" out there, made for calibrating an oscilloscope. You would want to buy one of those "new", and not used, because you want to know that your calibrated signal generator is calibrated itself, see...

The only problem with one of those generators is that they will cost as much or more than the scope itself.

Relay-based computer, of course. Hope you have enough relays for the memory (seriously, most people who have made relay computers cheat and use regular IC-based memory).

if its not too awful you can send 10baseT half duplex over it with an acceptable packet loss

Man, that sounds almost as bad as the time (back in high school) a friend and I managed to send CATV signals down a piece of staple-gun-mounted CAT3 (phone line) spliced with some speaker cable (and further spliced with $DEITY-knows-what-else) in his mom's trailer, just so he could have cable TV in his bedroom.

It worked, tho. Probably didn't make the FCC too happy.

 ;D