#robotics Logs

Aug 02 2012

00:08 GuShH furrywolf: the only time it's cheaper than any other solution could be for an alarm system, perhaps.
00:08 GuShH where charging the minimum monthly amount would be cheaper than any other plans available.
00:09 GuShH the lines seem to die off a lot quicker now, they used to be "forever" now after about 6 months they assign the number to someone else.
00:10 GuShH also in my country you can't use CDMA anymore, I think at least one provider over there keeps their service... I'm a fan of old cellphones; you know, the type that won't go poof if it falls to the ground.
00:11 GuShH love cheap old nokias, too bad I couldn't ever crack them through their serial interface for free.
00:21 katsmeow-afk <cough>
00:22 furrywolf I have a prepaid cell... the minutes expire in 60 days, but the time is cumulative, and increases every time you add minutes. I think I have until 2016 or something now...
00:22 katsmeow-afk wow
00:23 furrywolf rather than individual minutes expiring in a certain amount of time, when you purchase minutes, you also add a certain amount of time (30, 60, 90, or 360 days) to the "must use by" date.
00:23 katsmeow-afk when AT&T was going to be sending my phone data to unkown people, i switched to Verison, and i have always hated them and they phones and service,, and their minutes don't accumulate or roll over either
00:25 GuShH oh minutes accumulate here, it's just that their promotions are only in effect -after- you've run through your paid minutes.
00:25 GuShH it used to be the other way around, making it interesting to use prepaid because they had days where you could charge 20 bucks and get 40 bucks worth.
00:26 GuShH then they added time limits and now they flipped their concept to sell more and annoy everyone who doesn't want to talk more.
00:26 furrywolf I'm not sure what to do about a long-term internet plan... I can probably get a phone landline strung out here (there's remains of one in the trees and blackberries), but I can't afford it.
00:26 furrywolf with the prepaid internet, there was no accumulation of either minutes nor data cap.
00:26 furrywolf complete ripoff.
00:27 GuShH recently they allegedly added a service that allows you to browse all day long for $1
00:27 GuShH but everyone claims it's bull.
00:27 GuShH (and have thus got huge bills to pay now)
00:28 GuShH no speed limit until a few MBs are hit, then it's crippled but still usable, not sure if applicable to 3G and others
00:30 furrywolf heh
00:30 furrywolf the worst are the contracts... who the hell would sign a contract saying they will keep paying even if they are unhappy with the service, or even if the service provider flakes or changes terms?
00:31 katsmeow-afk i did :-(
00:31 GuShH people being all happy about their brand new shiny phone upset me... it isn't their phone, not until it's basically obsolete!
00:31 GuShH and they are legally bound to pay for it on a monthly basis even if they aren't using the service.
00:31 GuShH and even if it gets stolen, in some cases.
00:32 katsmeow-afk att he end of the month, the send me a bill, they don't just shut the phone off and give my number away if i didn't goto Walmart and add more minutes the last day or every month
00:32 furrywolf when I installed satellite internet, we had a 2-year contract that most people agreed to in order to get free equipment... there was an early termination fee, equal to your monthly bill times the number of months remaining in your contract. that's right, if you cancelled after 1 month, you'd get a bill for the remaining 23 months of service.
00:32 ShH pokes katsmeow-afk with a cellp
00:33 GuShH furrywolf: who the hell can afford that?
00:33 furrywolf no one. that's the point. made sure no one cancelled, and kept the monthly payments...
00:33 GuShH isn't the whole reason you get such services because there aren't other options available and possibly because you live relatively away from any big city or whatever?
00:33 ShH twit
00:34 katsmeow-afk that's how i got nailed for 3 years of ADT
00:34 katsmeow-afk needed it in Fla, don't need it here
00:34 furrywolf and, of course, if you don't pay the termination fee (which is equal to the cost of keeping the service), they could send out the collection agencies.
00:35 furrywolf I don't sign contracts. heh. any contract where they have all the rights and I have all the responsibilities is not acceptable.
00:35 GuShH but, I've got a shiny new pen for you to sign with!
00:36 katsmeow-afk then you get nothing
00:37 furrywolf there's a reason I have a prepaid phone. heh.
00:44 rue_mohr I can use kats fiberglass compression trick with the head
00:44 rue_mohr if I put a lip on the tube
00:45 GuShH rue_mohr: you should join #geekstreams and put up your video stream
00:45 rue_mohr what video stream?
00:45 e_mohr looks around for cam
00:46 rue_mohr ooh
00:46 rue_mohr I know how to make capillary tubing flare out
00:46 rue_mohr hmmm
00:46 e_mohr remembers piles of glass blowing tr
00:47 rue_mohr quarts is interesting, when you heat it up, it glows white
00:48 GuShH rue_mohr: don't tell me you are the paranoid kind that likes to hide?
00:48 rrywolf hands rue anoth
00:48 e_mohr looks for somewhere to put t
00:48 rue_mohr quartsz
00:48 rue_mohr hmm
00:49 rue_mohr quarzt
00:49 rue_mohr hmm
00:49 rue_mohr quarts is inzeresting, when you heat it up, it glows white
00:49 rue_mohr quarts is interesting, whenz you heat it up, it glows white
00:49 rue_mohr quarts is interesting, when you heat it up, it glowz white
00:50 e_mohr burnt his mouth on su
00:53 katsmeow-afk zupper is too hot
00:53 rue_mohr if you burn the roof of your mouth too bad you swallow your brain, right?
00:53 GuShH would you pleaze stop it with this nonsense!
00:54 katsmeow-afk no, your nose caves in
00:55 rue_mohr oh
00:55 e_mohr holds his
00:56 rrywolf tucks katsmeow-afk in, then curls back up on her for bed
00:57 tsmeow-afk wonders if she can get the first ever [citation not needed] tag in wikipedia, by adding references for every word and phrase and sent
00:58 furrywolf I think there's a few policy guidelines about things like that... you know, making points... heh.
00:59 furrywolf I gave up on wikipedia. I used to edit there, but the politics and administration made it not worth doing.
00:59 furrywolf it's attracted people who like making and following policies, rather than who like making an encyclopedia.
00:59 katsmeow-afk i sometimes still do when there is obvious stupidity
01:00 furrywolf the types who ruin every project they're allowed to touch, by thinking that doing things by policies is more important than the final result.
01:00 furrywolf it doesn't matter what the result is, as long as we followed all the policies to get there.
01:00 tsmeow-afk
01:02 furrywolf and admins who think they are more important than everyone else. remember back when wikipedia started, adminship was supposed to be "no big deal"?
01:02 furrywolf I left when something was deleted even though the deletion discussion was something like 90% for keeping it, with the admin saying he was allowed to pick how much weight to give other people's opinions.
01:03 katsmeow-afk umm, you wrote the 1/2 megabyte page about dildoes, didn't you?
01:04 furrywolf which one? there's several; I only wrote one of them. :P
01:04 katsmeow-afk someone wrote a page about elecroshocking caths to get orgasm too, it also got deleted, dunno why
01:05 furrywolf hrmm, never tried that... :P
01:06 EnderWiggins I've stumbled into the most "interesting" robotics chat! O_o
01:06 furrywolf nothing I've written has been deleted, other than templates absorbed into others, so if the page you're thinking of got deleted, it wasn't mine.
01:06 katsmeow-afk lol
01:08 furrywolf "Fifty to 60 volunteers " first line of an article in the local paper... seriously, it's too much work to use the same form of number twice? lol
01:09 katsmeow-afk if you wanna be furious at the state of english, read abcnews.go.com (and wtf is it ".go"??)
01:09 furrywolf lol
01:15 rrywolf tucks kat back in, then curls back up on top of
01:15 furrywolf wolfy bedtime
01:17 katsmeow-afk zzzz
01:18 furrywolf :)
01:57 GuShH furrywolf: what's the pressure rating for regular propane tanks?
07:51 katsmeow-afk abcnews tv crawler right now saying poele flocked to chicken place to support THE PRESIDENT"S ban on gay marriage
07:51 katsmeow-afk i got it on .avi
07:52 katsmeow-afk uploading to http://designerthinking.com/AbcGotItWrong.avi , will take 5 minutes
07:53 archels hello, this is #robotics
07:54 katsmeow-afk i scored the video anyhow
07:54 katsmeow-afk no one was talking about robots
07:59 katsmeow-afk i have no youtube account, cannot upload there
08:52 rue_mohr not part of the role of government
08:52 rue_mohr shouldn't have any say in it
08:55 theBear marriage is administered by govt, it's a govt role.. and most western countries operate under the foolish notion that people aren't fit to make their own decisions and the govt. is anyway, that one more than most
08:55 rue_mohr it shouldn't be,
08:55 rue_mohr the role of government should be only those things that facilitate habitation
08:56 theBear that kinda screws the idea of marriage, which i'm not against
08:56 Skwint such as enforcing shia law, which would facilitate habitation by fundamentalist muslims?
08:56 rue_mohr katsmeow-afk, when a shipper sends you something with bad packaging and broken contents, send them some of those UPS videos, with the guys throwing the packages
08:56 rue_mohr or send it becore as part of the packing instructions
08:57 rue_mohr habitation: water, power, communication, transport..
08:58 Skwint defence. law.
08:58 Skwint enforcement of individual freedom by restriction of individual freedom
08:58 rue_mohr isn't law defence?
08:58 Skwint eventually you find a grey area
08:58 rue_mohr does it facilitate habitation?
08:59 rue_mohr its funny, a person is more free in canada than they are in the usa
08:59 Skwint if it discourages inhabitants from shooting each other I'd say yes, but I suppose it's arguable
09:00 Skwint I came into this conversation half way through so I'm shooting in the dark - was marriage law the start of it?
09:01 Skwint http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ysLRi8htdic/TUBYuI7aARI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/exmFmUAcb6U/s1600/CalvinContractBoy3.JPG
09:04 rue_mohr no youtube account eh kat?
09:18 rue_mohr no
09:18 rue_mohr katsmeow-afk, microsoft made it harder to just get an email address, so I couldn't create you a youtube account yet, I'll try again later
10:02 katsmeow-afk Skwint, no, not as i started it, what i was referring to was ABC saying the President has a stance *against* gay marriage, when in fact he's *for* it
10:03 katsmeow-afk and before anyone says that by "president" they meant the pres of the food company, Dan Cathy title is "CEO"
10:03 katsmeow-afk so either way, they got it wrong
10:05 katsmeow-afk it's already hot outside, i am dripping sweat from all over
10:45 Skwint I'm not sure I'm really in favour of marriage atall, it's a tricky one, but in so far as it exists in any form I don't care whether it is gay or not.
10:46 Skwint but, in so far as marriage provides stable family units as a framework within which to raise stable and well adjusted children, it DOES facilitate habitation :p
10:47 Skwint same argument, though - gay marriage isn't detrimental to habitation, so no problems yet
10:48 Skwint I think most of the arguments against it stem from the need of most organised religions to breed as fast as possible to gain power, and I have no patience with that atall
10:49 tsmeow-afk
11:12 katsmeow-afk i am being told by a seller on ebay that this is not a damaged unit : http://designerthinking.com/images/Tektronix/DSCF2884mp.jpg
11:12 katsmeow-afk http://designerthinking.com/images/Tektronix/DSCF2883mp.jpg
11:14 katsmeow-afk i am not even going to unwrap it till this is settled
11:14 katsmeow-afk i cannot use it, i'll haveto make a shaft for it first
11:22 rrywolf wakes up, still curled up on katsmeow-afk (care of not losing internet access overnight), and is h
11:44 tsmeow-afk pats the furry on his head and
12:05 katsmeow-afk ok, back outside to tie up more anti-god fence
17:08 Mahmoud hello, i'm trying to control my car's stearing via my computer (laptop running linux), wondering which kind of rotor is generally a viable candidate for me to consider?
17:27 GuShH Mahmoud: do I have to remind you that this is illegal in most countries?
17:27 Skwint I assumed he meant a toy car
17:27 GuShH and whether it's running linux or not it doesnt' change the fact that poor code could well and easily kill anyone on it or around it.
17:27 GuShH Skwint: let's hope so!
17:28 GuShH Skwint: in ##electronics the question would pop about once a week. ie. controlling a real car (either ignition or steering)
17:28 Skwint probably the most effective solution would be to glue the laptop to the steering wheel . . .
17:28 GuShH hahaha
17:28 GuShH kids these days, they watch too much mythbusters.
17:29 Skwint I'd rather they got impossible ideas from mythbusters than no idea atall from fox news :/
17:29 GuShH or all the wrong ideas from fox news :p
18:43 rue_mohr ok
18:43 Tom_L !ok
18:43 rue_mohr /ok
18:43 Tom_L i'm resurrecting a pc
18:43 rue_mohr (2B+/2B)
18:44 Tom_L it may come back as a cnc controller
18:45 rue_mohr (2B|!2B)
18:46 rue_mohr obviously the questions is always true
19:11 rue_mohr haha I just got called back to a job
19:11 rue_mohr *sigh*
19:18 katsmeow-afk another 100ft of fence up
20:53 zhanx so much laundry to wash :(
21:11 rrywolf flops back on katsmeow-afk, wishing it was possible to spend all day flopped on someone instead of having to go to w
21:13 furrywolf I need to figure out if I want to start a business.
21:14 furrywolf by next week.
21:14 furrywolf this is the thinking I had to do before...
21:14 furrywolf too much thinking for overworked wolfy brains. :(
21:29 GuShH furrywolf: what kind of business?
21:37 Tom_L what directory does ubuntu put the background screen images?
21:46 furrywolf hrmm. I can't find my digital camera. this is very odd...
22:00 furrywolf I've looked everywhere I can think of looking, and it's nowhere to be seen... I'm quite careful with it, and it always lives in the same place on my desk.
22:09 Tom_itx unexpected visitors?
22:13 furrywolf they would have gone for the dewalt tools sitting on the workbench.
22:13 furrywolf bright colors attract tweekers.
22:21 furrywolf I can't think of anywhere else to look... checked all reasonable places in the house, both cars,...
22:26 furrywolf wtf!
22:26 furrywolf I guess I'll give up looking... I've looked everywhere, now I'm just checking places twice.
22:26 furrywolf it seems to be gone. :(
22:26 furrywolf it was expensive!
22:27 furrywolf had a big card with lots of stuff on it, too.
22:29 Tom_itx it will show up when you least expect it
22:30 furrywolf I've looked pretty thouroughly... my best guess is it fell out of a pocket at some point.
22:30 furrywolf although I can't remember taking it out of the house any time recently.
22:32 furrywolf crap. a new camera is an expense I can not afford right now.
22:35 Tom_itx backtrack from when you last had it
22:36 furrywolf I last had it when I took a picture of the carb on my jeep, brought it inside, set it on my desk where it always lives, and connected its usb cable to download the picture.
22:36 furrywolf I don't tend to lose things... this is quite odd.
22:36 furrywolf I've had a few guests... I guess one of them could have walked out with it...
23:00 rue_mohr I been stuffing away gas recipts for years
23:00 rue_mohr and forgetting to write km on them
23:00 rue_mohr so after years of collecting data, I have 2 data points
23:00 furrywolf I have a mystery tool I want help IDing, and was going to take a picture of it...
23:00 rue_mohr I apparently get between 7.2 and 7.9km/litre
23:14 furrywolf plane crash at the local airport... "The Federal Aviation Administration has already interviewed the pilot, McFarland said, who is fairly new to flying and had just purchased the pre-owned plane about one month ago. He said the pilot was embarrassed when it was discovered that his engine quit due to a lack of fuel. "
23:27 rue_mohr GMC S10
23:27 rue_mohr do you think thats good or bad?
23:27 rue_mohr its got 304000 km on it
23:32 furrywolf sounds about right
23:32 furrywolf might get better with a tuneup and more careful driving, or maybe it's just old.
23:33 rue_mohr 91
23:33 rue_mohr (1991)
23:36 furrywolf meh, this camera thing is really pissing me off.
23:36 furrywolf if I lost it, that would be odd - I don't tend to lose things.
23:36 furrywolf if someone stole it, that's seriously fucked up.
23:39 rue_mohr "ones ability to make even a simple project beyond their ability to build"
23:39 GuShH furrywolf: look underneath your clothes!
23:46 rue_mohr or GuShH will...
23:46 GuShH haha
23:46 GuShH I'm not like that.
23:47 ShH takes rue_mohr's c
23:47 rue_mohr you set it up, not me
23:47 rue_mohr :)
23:47 GuShH I meant to look around the place, maybe it's under something.
23:47 rue_mohr shuuuure
23:47 GuShH meant to say *
23:47 GuShH ...sometimes I lose things and they end up on a pair of pants or under them.
23:48 GuShH not a camera though, that's something that goes inside it's case and onto a known location every time
23:48 GuShH gotta love ebay sellers
23:49 furrywolf heh, I already checked the laundry pile.
23:49 GuShH dude selling a used chainsaw, says "it never worked very well so I bought another one and left this one aside" but by the looks of it he used it until it went boom.
23:50 GuShH so I ask him whats the actual problem with it, he answers with "thanks for your message", asked again and got no reply so far.
23:50 furrywolf don't buy from him. heh.
23:50 GuShH if it's being sold "for parts" then a) the price is too high b) I must know what's wrong with it
23:50 GuShH I won't! for an extra few bucks you can get a new one, sadly these are chinese units.
23:52 GuShH then there's this shop selling sand blasting equipment with no safety instructions whatsoever, which got me quite pissed off. they literally tell their costumers to shove the hose into a bucket of plain sand and "blast away"
23:52 GuShH you gotta be shitting me.
23:52 furrywolf how roughly 99% of sandblasting is done.
23:52 GuShH for one wet sand wont work, and most importantly you'll get silicosis if you don't wear a respirator.
23:53 furrywolf I've never even considered buying a chainsaw on ebay... I just go to yard sales.
23:53 GuShH and probably everyone around you.
23:53 GuShH I got one on sale at the local home improvement store, it had a bad oil worm drive.
23:53 GuShH but, been looking for a bigger one
23:53 furrywolf because it's the seller's job to do your homework for you? are you one of those people who stabs yourself unless every knife you see has a "warning: blade is sharp" sticker on it?
23:53 GuShH no.
23:54 GuShH but post-sale is important with these things, also with things like chainsaws.
23:54 GuShH they have no such services on big chain stores and that's why they get so many returns all the time
23:54 GuShH safety and mainteinance training should be a must
23:54 GuShH are you the kind that thinks "darwin will do his thing" then?
23:55 GuShH sometimes ignorance is the key factor, specially with the sand blasting.
23:55 rrywolf strongly disagrees with the excessive use of safety warnings that's so prevalanent these days... unless your product has a danger not inherent with similar products, the user needs to do their own homew
23:56 GuShH I don't care for the warnings, I'm talking actual training and setting up the equipment for a fee, which only very few places do it, as far as I'm aware.
23:56 furrywolf dewalt's "warning: line voltage present on battery terminals" sticker is a good sticker, as it's a danger not present with similar products.
23:56 GuShH furrywolf: US and warning stickers, you pretty much got a warning sticker on toilets.
23:56 furrywolf ... I've never, ever, in my entire life, seen anything but huge expensive commercial products (usually called "solutions" at that point) have training offered, and certainly not small things like tools.
23:57 GuShH everything has at least two or three of them.
23:57 GuShH theres this hardware store about 20 blocks from here that will set you up the chainsaw with fluids and teach you the basics on how to use them, the dangers involved, how to keep it functional, etc. just to give you an example, but of course for a small fee.
23:57 furrywolf if you purchase a skid-steer loader, the dealer might be able to set you up with some training, maybe.
23:58 GuShH of course, big purchases often come with a couple engineers... say a massive water jet cnc...
23:58 GuShH you are paying big bucks and you often need certifications to run those things.
23:58 furrywolf heh, a friend's business purchased a large cnc plasma cutter... no training, and they wanted an extra $12,000 for the table to put it on.
23:58 GuShH hell you even get a hot line in case you need help.
23:59 GuShH depends on how much you are paying
23:59 GuShH jig type of table?
23:59 GuShH or just a steel frame with their logo on it