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Comment Re:Trying to google search to buy one of (Score 1) 112

by niew (#51271179) Attached to: ESP8266 Basic Interpreter Lowers IoT Entry Bar For Amateur Programmers

"only" one of the 2 available gpio's on the esp8266-01 controls the boot mode, and only at boot time, then it's available for regular use... The other pin is free for general use.

It's still kind of restrictive :-) , but what I've found these (the -01's) really useful for is with i2c modules... i2c needs 2 signal lines and uses pull up resistors, so normally (including @ boot time) the 'program mode' pin is high for normal boot up... Add a pushbutton switch or jumper on that pin to ground and if it's closed during bootup, it goes into programming mode instead.

There's a bunch of interesting i2c modules out there; realtime clock , demux, pwm, flash memory, light intensity, temp/humidity, barometric pressure and a bunch of other modules that can all be chained onto the same pair of wires for i2c... There are even i2c modules with extra gpio's to make up for using the only other 2 pins it has for i2c :-)

Add to all that support for MQTT publish/subscribe and you have a platform that can collect sensor data and publish it to a lightweight message queue via wifi... Pretty cool stuff...

I wouldn't use (IMHO) the delivered AT "modem" command firmware, or the nodemcu/lua stuff... The Arduino environment now has support for these modules and works really well. Going back to BASIC doesn't really appeal to me :-)
Earth

Endangered Species Condoms 61

Posted by samzenpus from the make-it-growl dept.
The Center for Biological Diversity wants to help put a polar bear in your pants with their endangered species condom campaign. They hope that giving away 100,000 free Endangered Species Condoms across the country will highlight how unsustainable human population growth is driving species to extinction, and instill the sexual prowess of the coquí guajón rock frog, nature's most passionate lover, in the condom users. From the article: "To help people understand the impact of overpopulation on other species, and to give them a chance to take action in their own lives, the Center is distributing free packets of Endangered Species Condoms depicting six separate species: the polar bear, snail darter, spotted owl, American burying beetle, jaguar, and coquí guajón rock frog."
Image

Company Invents Electronic Underpants 110

Posted by samzenpus from the batteries-not-included dept.
theodp writes "SIMsystem have created the world's first electric underpants that let you know that you've got issues by texting. Incontinence issues, to be more precise. The new-and-improved skivvies come equipped with a sensor strip that alerts caregivers to wetness via text message. From the technology summary: 'The SIMbox, when fitted into the individual resident's stretchpants (SIMpants), transmits sensor readings from the SIMstrip in the SIMpad® over a wireless network to the SIMserver. The SIMsystemManager software running on the SIMserver then detects key information about continence events and determines when to alert care staff about an event requiring attention.' So, who's going to start an open source project?"
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Supersizing the "Last Supper" 98

Posted by samzenpus from the a-meal-fit-for-a-king-of-kings dept.
gandhi_2 writes "A pair of sibling scholars compared 52 artists' renditions of 'The Last Supper', and found that the size of the meal painted had grown through the years. Over the last millennium they found that entrees had increased by 70%, bread by 23%, and plate size by 65.6%. Their findings were published in the International Journal of Obesity. From the article: 'The apostles depicted during the Middle Ages appear to be the ascetics they are said to have been. But by 1498, when Leonardo da Vinci completed his masterpiece, the party was more lavishly fed. Almost a century later, the Mannerist painter Jacobo Tintoretto piled the food on the apostles' plates still higher.'"

Comment Re:$1.4 Billion (Score 1) 467

by niew (#31511144) Attached to: The Death of the US-Mexico Virtual Fence

Run the numbers... If you are lucky enough to be in the top 1% of income earners you are likely to be paying more into the system than you are getting out of it.

Only if you neglect to account for the value you received from a system that allowed you to reach the top 1% of income earners...

Comment Re:US bullying and demanding other countries.. (Score 2, Insightful) 457

by niew (#30628226) Attached to: Canada's Airlines Face a Privacy Dilemma

Or is it totally different when your survival is on the line?

But that's just it... your or my survival is not "on the line".

The response is totally skewed to the risk and in many cases the measures taken are ineffective to boot.

Compare the number of passengers who travelled by commercial air last year to the number killed during a terrorist act's on commercial air flights. Even the comparison over the past decade should make clear how much more your survival is on the line during your drive to the airport, or your morning shave than on the fight itself.

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