Unusual Uses
Posted: Mon 24 Mar 2008, 13:16
In another thread, trobin asks what people would use a computer for, if they were blind, and it occurs to me that we are 'blind'
to each other's use of computers
Are we 'on top of it'?
Do we control computers, or will they end up controlling us?
So what do you use your PC for, that's maybe unusual?
Maybe the Hardware itself is unusual, not x86?
Maybe you have built an unusual project to control your house?
Tell us about it
Maybe you have yours in a cluster & do multi layer DNA sampling?
explain it
Maybe a central server in a huge business? [well some may do!]
Maybe someone built a milgram machine - ooh, evil
http://www.new-life.net/milgram.htm
Maybe you have a mobile rig?
post some pictures
Me, I have a real ragtag bunch of old PCs from 486s to P3s, haven't got as far as a P4 yet, and my 'fast machine' is 866Mhz
I've got a P3 smoothwall box, a P2 IPCOP box, a printserver box, a hardware experiment box, with no side panels, & with easy slide in hard drive trays & scsi hardware that gets different hard drives put in for all sorts of different uses, mainly testing/trying different combinations, including firewire external CDR & Laptop Hard drive in a firewire case
A 'regular' twinboot puppy214R/win2k surfing box, on a 100meg network to a 12 port switch to other projects,[including a mac g3] and for friends, to share puppy or other linux tinkerings, hardware mods, music downloads, & broadband
I've played with rs232 port control stuff, [ though got bored with it, as it wasn't like radio control] making my own 20mA current loop opto-isolated switching stuff & dedicated high current charger, with a dedicated 'basic program' battery charger monitor for charging/recovering forklift batteries for a solar/wind project, using a 486
I have several laptops,mainly old IBM, some in pieces
Future projects are trixbox, an asterisk type phone system, a low power mobile vehicle HTPC with touchscreen, if I can get it to work, cheaply, and a server, maybe dual processor, with large cache/ram, possibly an old HP/compaq or Sun, though I'm not sure if I need a dedicated fixed IP address for this [any answers would be useful] so that I can share files/blog/ and anything else that comes to mind, including even, to see if I can make some extra cash somehow
I'd also like to be involved with providing old PCs to disadvantaged kids, either at home or abroad, with/without puppy, but I fancy with, as I'm really frustrated by the number of old PCs thrown in landfill, still
You get the picture.... nothing clever, maybe not that unusual
Nothing I can control the world with, or hopefully, get controlled by
How about you?
Aitch
to each other's use of computers
Are we 'on top of it'?
Do we control computers, or will they end up controlling us?
So what do you use your PC for, that's maybe unusual?
Maybe the Hardware itself is unusual, not x86?
Maybe you have built an unusual project to control your house?
Tell us about it
Maybe you have yours in a cluster & do multi layer DNA sampling?
explain it
Maybe a central server in a huge business? [well some may do!]
Maybe someone built a milgram machine - ooh, evil
http://www.new-life.net/milgram.htm
Maybe you have a mobile rig?
post some pictures
Me, I have a real ragtag bunch of old PCs from 486s to P3s, haven't got as far as a P4 yet, and my 'fast machine' is 866Mhz
I've got a P3 smoothwall box, a P2 IPCOP box, a printserver box, a hardware experiment box, with no side panels, & with easy slide in hard drive trays & scsi hardware that gets different hard drives put in for all sorts of different uses, mainly testing/trying different combinations, including firewire external CDR & Laptop Hard drive in a firewire case
A 'regular' twinboot puppy214R/win2k surfing box, on a 100meg network to a 12 port switch to other projects,[including a mac g3] and for friends, to share puppy or other linux tinkerings, hardware mods, music downloads, & broadband
I've played with rs232 port control stuff, [ though got bored with it, as it wasn't like radio control] making my own 20mA current loop opto-isolated switching stuff & dedicated high current charger, with a dedicated 'basic program' battery charger monitor for charging/recovering forklift batteries for a solar/wind project, using a 486
I have several laptops,mainly old IBM, some in pieces
Future projects are trixbox, an asterisk type phone system, a low power mobile vehicle HTPC with touchscreen, if I can get it to work, cheaply, and a server, maybe dual processor, with large cache/ram, possibly an old HP/compaq or Sun, though I'm not sure if I need a dedicated fixed IP address for this [any answers would be useful] so that I can share files/blog/ and anything else that comes to mind, including even, to see if I can make some extra cash somehow
I'd also like to be involved with providing old PCs to disadvantaged kids, either at home or abroad, with/without puppy, but I fancy with, as I'm really frustrated by the number of old PCs thrown in landfill, still
You get the picture.... nothing clever, maybe not that unusual
Nothing I can control the world with, or hopefully, get controlled by
How about you?
Aitch