Amazon has dropped the price of the D200 body to $1700.

This would go nicely with the gps data logger I pointed at earlier.

Wintec WBT-200 Multi-Function (3-in-1) GPS Receiver

Wintec WBT-200 is a mult-function Bluetooth GPS data logger in an ultra compact form factor. The stand-alone track recording function is independent from any host and can be operated with Bluetooth off. The recorded track can be configured and even uploaded to Google Earth automatically with the bundled GPS utility.

I’m tempted to pick one of these up soon to carry when I’m taking photographs. There are drivers available for Linux and OS-X that allow one to download the data. It’d be easy to write a script to match up the EXIF timestamp and the data log to geotag photos before sending them to Flickr.

Driver info is here.

Upstart in Universe

upstart is a replacement for the init daemon, the process spawned by the kernel that is responsible for starting, supervising and stopping all other processes on the system.

The existing daemon is based on the one found in UNIX System V, and is thus known as sysvinit. It separates jobs into different “run levels” and can either run a job when particular run levels are entered (e.g. /etc/init.d/rc 2) or continually during a particular run level (e.g. /sbin/getty).

The /etc/init.d/rc script is also based on the System V one (and is in the sysv-rc package), it simply executes the stop then start scripts found in /etc/rcN.d (where N is the run level) in numerical order.

Semifluid.com - Home / Projects / PIC18F2550 KS0108 GLCD Oscilloscope

Using the PIC18F2550 GLCD Text Test as a basis for further experimentation, I put together a simple and accurate graphical oscilloscope using a PIC18F2550 microcontroller and a AGM1264F graphical LCD. The oscilloscope measures the average voltage, the maximum voltage, the minimum voltage, the peak-to-peak voltage, and the zero-crossing frequency for a DC signal over 100 samples. The oscilloscope has a built in edge trigger function that can be set to capture on rise or fall (or disabled altogether). The time scale for the display is variable and can be easily redefined using the changeTimeDivision function. Likewise, the voltage range can be change to 0-5V, 0-2.5V, and 0-1.25V. The main limitations of this oscilloscope include relatively slow acquisition time and sampling rate (~60kHz) and the fact that the inputs are limited by the constraints of the internal ADC. However, it is a very nice display and I highly suggest you view the videos to see it in action.

Another project added to my todo list.

YAN9VUSBC

The circuit design is from http://ipod.hackaday.com/entry/1234000270029372/ All I did was add an LED so I could see if the battery was good. He’s got nice diagrams of the USB and regulator to help you wire this together.

Very handy.  I’ll add this to the list of things to build when I get time.

I’m going to start posting my crazy ideas here.  If anyone actually does one or knows of prior art, let me know in the comments.

Idea #1: Ninja See and Say  (thanks Ed)

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories - How to make the simplest electric motor

You have one drywall screw, one 1.5 V alkaline cell, six inches of plain copper wire, one small neodymium disk magnet, and no other tools or supplies. You have 30 seconds to make an electric motor running in excess of ten thousand RPM. Can you do it? Surprisingly enough, you can.

Ultimarc, the Ultimate in Arcade Controls.

Connect your 15Khz arcade cabinet monitor to your PC with NO special configuration or special driver software in either DOS or Windows.
Now you can also connect an ordinary PC monitor and get all the resolutions of the 15Khz monitor plus conventional higher Windows resolutions.

A simple English to Ubby Dubby translator.

echo Can you understand this? |sed -e ’s/\([aeiouAEIOU]\{1,\}\)/ub\1/g’