The computer age

[Nesikep]

Darwinism is OK everywhere except for humans, There there must be a safety net so the dumbest can succeed. And I'm not talking about the people with a 55 or lower IQ or Downes syndrome, I'm talking about people who need warning labels to tell them coffee is hot. We aren't going to be the top of the food chain long if we keep this up!

 

[lavacarancher]

I suppose if it weren't for the fact I spent all of my working career in engineering (electrical) I probably would feel the same as some of you. Fact is metric number system is much more simple than our system. It's the conversion from one to another that screws things up. Forty years ago if we would have gone all metric like it was proposed we wouldn't be having this conversation today.

I can't say I was a straight A student in math but I did alright. Back then I could't understand where calculus, trig, algebra and geometry would be used in the real world but little did I know. Even now that I'm retired and piddle in woodworking I still have an occasion to use those maths almost daily.

This isn't math but it is another number system. The groups of eight bits in the first line decode into a greeting for you. The second line means the same thing but is arranged in Hexadecimal.

01101000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01111001 00100000 01101000 01101111 01101100 01101001 01100100 01100001 01111001 01110011 BIN

68 61 70 70 79 20 68 6F 6C 69 64 61 79 73 HEX

Happy (space) Holidays?
I have an ascii to hex chart in front of me at my desk.

DING, DING, DING …… Give this man a beer. Or take them away from him. Seriously, you have an ascii chart at your desk! You are one sick puppy! :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[shaz]

I'm sick alright! I'm working on a visual basic 6 project right now. If you think that's bad..... I own 2 oscilliscopes!

 

[Nesikep]

VB6 had a lot of things I like better than .net (start of an array can be non-zero and negative).. Sell me one of your scopes!

 

[shaz]

VB6 had a lot of things I like better than .net (start of an array can be non-zero and negative).. Sell me one of your scopes!

I have a tectronix 220 and one of the original Fluke scopmeters.

 

[Nesikep]

I had a really nice OTC handheld scope for automotive applications, unfortuntely it grew legs.. was really nice for troubleshooting ignition misfires and such, 4 inputs made it pretty versatile

 

[plumber_greg]

I didn't read all this, just wanted to reply.
Had an uncle tell me once, "The kids nowdays are just dumb. There isn't one of them that could add up a column of sums. They need a calculator to do everything."
My reply??? "I can't harness a horse to a wagon either. I don't need to to keep up with the world." gs

 

[Brute 23]

The calculator deal doesn't hold a lot of water with me. Most professional settings want accurate number not just stuff your doing in your head.

 

[Nesikep]

Lots of people mess up with a calculator too.

 

[herofan]

I didn't read all this, just wanted to reply.
Had an uncle tell me once, "The kids nowdays are just dumb. There isn't one of them that could add up a column of sums. They need a calculator to do everything."
My reply??? "I can't harness a horse to a wagon either. I don't need to to keep up with the world." gs

That's true too. There are a lot of things that people used to do that is no longer needed or just isn't done anymore, and that knowledge is leaving out; however, we don't really use it.

For example, my family used to make molasses when I was a kid. We haven't done it for years, and my kids wouldn't know a cane mill from anything else or how to cook molasses. But I don't suppose it will have a great impact on their life; it didn't mine, other than to say i knew how to do it.

 

[lavacarancher]

I'm sick alright! I'm working on a visual basic 6 project right now. If you think that's bad..... I own 2 oscilliscopes!

Yea, I have a 'scope as well so I can't hold that against you. :lol: They come in handy from time to time. Mine is a Fluke/Phillips dual beam storage 'scope (not a DSO). I've had several Tek's over the years, the Phillips is just the latest. I acquired this one as part of an environmental stress test my company did with Phillips. After taking the 'scope off the shake table it was given to me. And yes, it still works. Tough 'scope.

I don't do code, never did and never will. I just don't like writing code and most of the software folks I've met and worked with all these years would rather try to impress you with how smart they think they are rather than writing simple user code (front end) that is easy to use. And commented source code never comes with the project.

 

[Nesikep]

I'm the king of spaghetti code, I'm trying to fix that since after just a month even I am lost! I made a little program that will add and subtract dates, etc, as well as multiples of an interval, I use it for calculating my breeding times and calving times mostly, it's nice to be able to add multiples of 21 to today's date and see where it ends up. Also made a file renamer that was pretty powerful.. Used it for all my music to get rid of stupid names, add artist and album names to the filename, etc. I tested it to do about 50,000 files in a couple minutes.

 

[shaz]

I'm the king of spaghetti code, I'm trying to fix that since after just a month even I am lost! I made a little program that will add and subtract dates, etc, as well as multiples of an interval, I use it for calculating my breeding times and calving times mostly, it's nice to be able to add multiples of 21 to today's date and see where it ends up. Also made a file renamer that was pretty powerful.. Used it for all my music to get rid of stupid names, add artist and album names to the filename, etc. I tested it to do about 50,000 files in a couple minutes.

Ever try Labview?

 

[Nesikep]

Never even heard of it.. what is it?

 

[lavacarancher]

Nesi,

Labview started out as a way for National Instruments to create and monitor their control systems - and write control code using icons instead of hard coding. It has since grown to include a lot of neat features especially on the output side. It can control many smart pieces of hardware using IEEE488 (or HPIB/GPIB) buss. For example you can program it to tell you at 2xx days after inception to start watching your cow and if this cow has had trouble delivering before. You can put you tracking data in for BSE control and prove that the animal has never been in contact with it. ETC. And if I'm not mistaken it has the hooks for input of RFID.

It ain't cheap though.

 

[Nesikep]

I'm all about cheap! What I'd like to do is be able to 'speak' to my Allen Bradley Powerflex 40 motor drive through VB.net... (Modbus over DH485/RS485 I think).. I could make it do some interesting sequencing if I was able to do that. I will have to make an RJ45 serial cable though.

 

[lavacarancher]

Nesi, it's been years since I did anything with Labview or National Instruments but I'd be willing to bet the farm it can speak DV485 as well as RS232 just fine. The primary way of communicating is IEEE488 which, as you know, is a parallel buss architecture. I'll even bet they (or someone) makes a 488 to 485 convertor. 488 is going to be limited in buss length so if you do this you probably need to put your 485 interface close to your control system.

 

[shaz]

Nesi, it's been years since I did anything with Labview or National Instruments but I'd be willing to bet the farm it can speak DV485 as well as RS232 just fine. The primary way of communicating is IEEE488 which, as you know, is a parallel buss architecture. I'll even bet they (or someone) makes a 488 to 485 convertor. 488 is going to be limited in buss length so if you do this you probably need to put your 485 interface close to your control system.

Blackbox.com

 

[Nesikep]

I think I'm good for the hardware actually, my limitations it in the software though

I think I've done a great job of hijacking this thread.. Sorry :hide:

 

[CottageFarm]

I'm pretty sure you guys were speaking English because I did recognize several words that you used, but it might as well have been Greek for all that I understood of it! :help: :lol: