DavidCary
Interested in electronics / firmware / software / embedded.
I'm building a data store. I want it to have these properties:
- No SinglePointOfFailure. If any single hard drive or other thing fails, users never even notice -- can still read and write files as always.
- "hot repair" -- a technician can fix any single failure without taking the system offline.
- "hot testing" -- I can confirm all the data is properly backed up, without risking overwriting the current "live" data with old "backup" data, and users can still read and write files as always during the test.
Surely I'm not the only person in the world that wants something like this.
A few of the people I mention this to claim "All businesses big enough to have an IT department already have something like this".
But when I ask "If such a system already really exists, where can I buy one (
BuyDontBuild)?", no one seems to know.
If such a system doesn't yet exist, perhaps I'll not only build one for me, but start selling it to other people ...
"making stuff smaller"
DavidCary has programmed several
EmbeddedSystems with little RAM, no hard drive, and anemic processors.
This leads to an interest in "making stuff smaller".
I am porting
ForthLanguage to a microcontroller with 256 Bytes (that would be 0.256 kiloBytes) of RAM.
I suppose
http://forthfreak.net/index.cgi?DavidCary
would be a more appropriate forum to discuss it.
smaller software
ForthValues
(
GoodTightCode versus
CodeBloat)
ProgramCompression
RefactorMercilessly
LanguageIdiomsEncouragingSmallMethods
JamesNoble (
SmallMemorySoftware)
With little RAM, it would be nice to have a "space-optimizing compiler".
Perhaps
CategoryDuplicationFindingTool could help?
smaller documentation (including Wiki):
RefactorByMerging
http:longs.cgi
GentleReductionism
MoreAboutExtraScripts
YouArentGonnaReadIt
CategoryWikiMaintenance
MeatBall:
LessRedundancy
(2004-08-14: I created
TimeToMakeItShort)
smaller development environment
ProgrammingOnHandHelds
CategoryForth
Other ways to make things smaller and simpler, in general:
DataCompression
RidiculousSimplicityGivesRidiculousResources
http://www.handhelds.org/z/wiki/Making%20stuff%20smaller
(I created the page
ProgrammingIsaSmallPart)
(I created the page
RealTimeTechniques)
ReduceUnimportantInformation
SimplifiedEnglish
TheSimplestPossibleCompiler
SmallIsBeautiful
LifesTooShort
keyboards
I wrote code for processor inside a (prototype) computer keyboard for Donald Allen.
(I created the page
HalfQwerty)
ErgonomicKeyboardWishList
.
programming languages
DavidCary has programmed in over two handfuls of computer "languages", and is trying to become fluent in 3 natural languages. This leads to an interest in
(
ProgrammingLanguagesShapeThoughts:
BlubParadox)
PickAnOkToolForTheJob LittleLanguage LowKeystrokeFormalLanguages
.
My Pascal teacher taught us to draw Nassi-Shneiderman flowcharts, and in another class I wrote a very crude prototype of piece of software to let users draw Nassi-Shneiderman flowcharts. Later I *almost* learned
LabView. This and my interest in learning new programming languages leads to an interest in
NassiShneidermanDiagrams
LiterateProgramming
VisualLanguage VisualProgramming VisualProgrammingLanguage GraphicalProgrammingLanguage
(
MentalShorthand?).
I even became the First Editor of the Visual Wiki
http://visual.wiki.taoriver.net/ .
I discovered
HyperCard and
UseNet in college, so I was already pre-primed to understand the WWW when it came out. (I suppose you can get a pretty good estimate of my age from that fact.)
I spend too much time thinking about building robots, and not enough time actually building robots.
LegoMindstorms
I list pages I'm interested in on
AutoPcn , even though it is (hopefully temporarily) disabled.
(I created
SelfReplication)
I enjoy building/discovering good names.
MeaningfulName
(2003-12-30: DAV created
CategoryNaming)
Other pages I found interesting that I should probably categorize:
(I created the page
WorldPeace, not realizing that we already have
HowToAchieveWorldPeace)
(Then I went and created the
RemoteStrangulationProtocol. Sigh.)
(I created the page
DatingIsEasierThanProgramming)
(I created the page
ThingsYouShouldNeverDo, but then someone else made it ever so much better)
(I created
BlindAlley)
(I created
LearningJava)
(2004-03-05 created
HardwareErrata)
(2003-01-14: created the page "
WhatIsInformation")
(2004-02-04:
DavidCary created
EmailHurdle)
(2004-08-05: created "
TestTheSystem")
(2004-11-24:
DavidCary: I created
LanguageOfChoice and
LanguagesOfChoice,
and removed spaces from those phrases on many other pages.)
The day after I read
IndexCard on Ward's Wiki, I bought a stack of 3x5
IndexCards.
ShopForIndexCards.
I find
BuckminsterFuller (the person, or rather, the books he's written, not the
WikiPage) very inspiring.
I've built a few Platonic solids out of
IndexCards.
And I've started carrying around a
HipTop as described on the
43 Folders wiki
http://wiki.43folders.com/
.
http://www.worldwidewiki.net/wiki/DavidCary
YouCanImproveMyEnglish
I am happy that other people (Thanks
MarkIrons !) fix the "space before the question mark" punctuation gaffe and my other typos.
To do
Todo: refactor
GeographyExample
HexGridIcosahedron
HexGridSphere
HexGridDisk
to put "non-intuitive / common mistakes" up front. There seems to be a lot of redundancy on these pages; should I combine them and then break them back apart? Perhaps
SphereTiling and squares_vs_triangles_vs_hexagons?
(2004-08-30: I created
WithoutCause)
Todo: run the test at
BetterForLoopConstruct on my machine.
Todo: read
ChangeYourOrganizationDiary
Todo:
compile the code at
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?LanguageLawyerRequired
and see what my GCC compiler produces.
Should I add:
GoalStatement?
Should I add something about copyright:
PrimarilyPublicDomain CopyRight CopyLeft OpenAuthor?
email d.cary+c2 at ieee.org or just stick comments here in this
WikiMailBox:
Replies:
(
WristCncMachine?)
wrist CNC machines
I just made that up on-the-spot for ProgrammableCalculators - I don't remember ever hearing that idea before. I extrapolated the idea of handheld devices having more and more ability. I interpolated between yesterday's refrigerator-sized ComputerNumericalControlled metal-cutting mills, today's table-top FlutterWhumpers, and EricDrexler's future thumb-sized Universal Assembler manufacturing plants. -- DavidCary
Mail
Dave,
...
Re: your job hunt, please have a look at
SoftwareCompaniesInBoston. You will find an excellent list of places you can send your resumé to. It would not be a bad idea to make a similar list for other cities: Austin for example.
...
-- ar
Thank you.
PS: An interesting PIM wiki written in VB: the one programmed by the amazing
DonaldNoyes our own inventor busybee: Nyswiki. If you leave your name on his homepage, he'll send you a copy.
You are welcome. Unfortunately, the EddiesWiki wiki -- which contained the entire source code for EddiesWiki -- seems to offline now. I wonder if any other wiki exist that allow people to comment on source code. Well, other than http://communitywiki.org/odd/SoftwareBazaar/HomePage . -- DavidCary
Good stuff you did on the
PowerTrip page, may I suggest adding
NotInventedHere as an example of "Behavioral aspects" section entry? I do not want to change it myself to take away the
QuickDiff credit that is yours.
One thing you scientists can help solve one of my queries. Years ago I saw lots of "solar powered" calculators, and decades ago we have watches that were "human motion powered". Do we not have enough energy to harness through these and other sources to keep a
SmartPhone running? Or is it the economics (energy still too cheap) that have prevented resurgence of such "alternate energy" solutions?
--
DavidLiu DeleteWhenRead
''Good question. Does this article answer your question?:
"On 'Dick Tracy' Time" by Junko Yoshida, 2004-11-01
http://www.eetimes.com/consumer/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=51200433
" A typical watch, which can run without interruption for three years, needs only 1 milliamp; a cell phone integrated with DSP and RF capabilities needs at least 150 mA."
I think this 150 mA is in the receiver, which must be constantly turned on (otherwise it wouldn't know to ring when someone called you).
3 years times (1 mA / 150 mA) is about 7 days.
Hey Dave!
My name is Marcus and I noticed that you were looking for a Hackerspace in Tulsa. I started an electronics club last year, but now we need a place to meet. So the time is nigh, that we pool together some resources and start a hackerspace!
The only internet safe way to give you my contact information (that I can think of at the moment) is facebook. You can find me there under my full name Marcus Gaskamp.
I hope to talk to you soon!
Hey Marcus.
I hope to talk to you soon.
Do Tulsa electronics enthusiasts have a web site like
http://geeksok.com/ ?
I would like to set up a wiki for Tulsa electronics enthusiasts, if you don't have one already.
My telephone number is on my resume at
http://david.carybros.com/html/resume.html .
-- David Cary
Hi Dave,
This is Robert Munafo. You wrote (in
WikiWordsConsideredHarmful):
-
- (How did Robert Munafo search for C for his programming language comparison http://www.mrob.com/pub/lang_srom.html ?)
I include the word
language as a mandated keyword (prefixed by +).
http://us.yhs4.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=altavista&itag=ody&q=%2B%22c+sucks%22+%2Blanguage&kgs=1&kls=0
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