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Comment My Experiences (Score 2) 228

I'll just share my experience since it's been such a blast...

I picked up an official Arduino board, but it wasn't long before I was building 'stand alone' arduinos on a breadboard.

This led to diving in to Cadsoft Eagle to learn the basics. I took one of the many schematics out there and put together an SMD arduino board. I sent it off to BatchPcb and waited the 20 days. When I got it back I got it all soldered up and IT WORKED! The first time!

Now I'm using my incredibly small boards to drive a RFID reader in my garage so I can use the same 'key' as I have for work to open the doors. I've run cat5 out there and using RS485 I can open/close doors, check the temp and turn xmas lights on or off through a webpage.

I'm sure the platform matters, but not as much as you think. I started with little or no electronics knowledge and with the Arduino/Atmega I've been able to both get things to work and learn a great deal in the process.

Comment Re:Man, that was stupid... (Score 1) 163

I am curious as to WTF these guys think when they start pulling stunts like this, however. I mean, if you're gonna flirt with PMITA Prison time, you'd best be damned smart about it, do at least some research, and get your shit planned in advance...

Agreed, I think it'd be fascinating to read some case studies on this. There have been several embezzlement cases locally and that's what I always say; "What the hell were they thinking"

Comment Asimov Short Story Franchise (Score 5, Interesting) 519

Plot summary

In the future, the United States has converted to an "electronic democracy" where the computer Multivac selects a single person to answer a number of questions. Multivac will then use the answers and other data to determine what the results of an election would be, avoiding the need for an actual election to be held.

The story centers around Norman Muller, the man chosen as "Voter of the Year" in 2008. Although the law requires him to accept the dubious honour, he is not sure that he wants the responsibility of representing the entire electorate, worrying that the result will be unfavorable and he will be blamed.

However, after 'voting', he is very proud that the citizens of the United States had, through him, "exercised once again their free, untrammeled franchise" - a statement that is somewhat ironic as the citizens didn't actually get to vote.

The idea of a computer predicting whom the electorate would vote for instead of actually holding an election was probably inspired by the UNIVAC I's correct prediction of the result of the 1952 election.

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