555 contest winners announcement live on uStream at 9 pm EDT

[Frank Buss]

Today the winners for the 555 contest will be announced at 9 pm EDT (New
Your local time http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=179 )
, live on uStream and IRC:

http://www.555contest.com/news/

Looks like I have to set the alarm to 3 am local time

 

[Frank Buss]

What's first prize? A Selectric typewriter? A 300 baud acoustic modem?

This would fit the contest There are mutliple prizes, at least one
for each category:

http://www.555contest.com/rules-and-categories/

You can get some modern electronics geek toys:

http://www.555contest.com/prizes-sponsors/

 

[Rich Webb]

What's first prize? A Selectric typewriter? A 300 baud acoustic modem?

A genuine Selectric would be so cool. I should have entered. ;-)

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

Did you ever interface one? They had bizarre codes, generally somewhat
different codes for the keyboard and the ball print mechanism. There
was one special set of codes, called "correspondent code" that used
the same codes for the keyboard and ball, but that had absolutely
nothing in common with ascii, ebcdic, or anything else.

The real Selectrics were entirely mechanical. I bought and installed
an 'interface' for one, way back when. It was a blue (IIRC) steel box
with solenoids that were mounted in improbably spots throughout the
mechanisms. It worked okay, if slowly to produce business letters.

They sure did print nice.

John

They had a much more expensive proportional printing version that was
REALLY nice- produced what we called "camera ready" copy. The sort of
thing you can do in Indesign (or even MS Word) these days.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[Rich Webb]

Did you ever interface one? They had bizarre codes, generally somewhat
different codes for the keyboard and the ball print mechanism. There
was one special set of codes, called "correspondent code" that used
the same codes for the keyboard and ball, but that had absolutely
nothing in common with ascii, ebcdic, or anything else.

Only ever interfaced to one manually, from the keyboard. Really don't
have a practical use for one, nowadays but

They sure did print nice.

They did indeed.

 

[[email protected]]

Thumb tack.

Did you ever interface one? They had bizarre codes, generally somewhat
different codes for the keyboard and the ball print mechanism. There
was one special set of codes, called "correspondent code" that used
the same codes for the keyboard and ball, but that had absolutely
nothing in common with ascii, ebcdic, or anything else.

It was called the T/R (Tilt/Rotate) code. IIRC, two bits for the tilt (row)
and three for rotate distance plus one for the rotate direction. The bits
were ordered such that the furthest distance (slowest operation) was the first
bit transmitted so the ball could be slewing while the other bits were in
transit ("Correspondence Code" uses the same idea).

They sure did print nice.

Not as nice as the Executives. ;-)

 

[petrus bitbyter]

Today the winners for the 555 contest will be announced at 9 pm EDT (New
Your local time http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=179 )
, live on uStream and IRC:

http://www.555contest.com/news/

Looks like I have to set the alarm to 3 am local time

Did not expect it to be interesting enough to wake up at 4.00 am over here.
Now in the afternoon of Thursday 21-4 I walked through the list picking some
designs at random to get an impression. So far I found a wealth of
interesting impractical and useless applications. Guess you cannot only fill
a book but a whole library with them though one or more DVDs might be more
practical these days. It would be a real pain (in some place) to select the
real usefull applications, if any.

Nevertheless the 555 will still have its use for a lot of people.

petrus bitbyter

 

[Martin Riddle]

Forgot to mention.... nice looking chick!

...Jim Thompson

Apparently she's no dummy. Came up with the Atari in a joystick thingy,
and the C-one, a reconfigurable computer based on FPGA's

Cheers

 

[Martin Riddle]

I haven't gone thru the list yet. Were there any outstanding entries?

A video Pong game and the Radio projects, most are novelty, but
interesting applications of the 555.

There was a nice list of sponsors too. Most prizes are Development
boards , DMM's and things of that nature.

Cheers

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

Today the winners for the 555 contest will be announced at 9 pm EDT
(New Your local time
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=179 ) , live on
uStream and IRC:

http://www.555contest.com/news/

Could those two please spend a few more hours on stupid banter before they
get to the point.

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

When you're cheering for 555's forced into service as op-amps for no
particular reason, stupid banter is unavoidable. Not that I have
anything against clever resourcefulness, but this competition should
have been held on a desert island where the contestants had to convert
a pile of electronic junk (left over from the plane crash) into a VHF
transceiver, while finding food and fending off predators. That would
have been worth the space on YouTube.

Yeah, and they should see who can make the best Eggs Benedict out of nothing
but 555s.

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

Find the 555's subtly hidden...

http://analog-innovations.com/SED/MyFirstEggsBenedict.jpg

Too much oil in the bearnaise, but excellent for a first attempt.

;-)

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

Yeah, and they should see who can make the best Eggs Benedict out of nothing
but 555s.

The better half's hollandaise sauce would make even 555s palatable.

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

Too much oil in the bearnaise, but excellent for a first attempt.

;-)

It shouldn't be made from bears, it should be made from hollanders!

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

It shouldn't be made from bears, it should be made from hollanders!

Oh, right.

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

"Oil" in Bernaise? Get a life! Us right wingers only use real butter
;-)

Well it looks a bit runny. A Top Chef finalist got eliminated for that.

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

I overdid the butter :-(

I'm sure it doesn't hurt the flavor though. I didn't know you could use
butter. Makes sense for a basic French sauce.

You'd still make the finals anyway.

BTW, if you ever BBQ beef, I've made this recipe several times and it's
excellent on beef. It's good on chicken and pork too. And you can't buy
anything like it off the shelf.

The site has at least 2 other recipes for balsamic BBQ but I never tried
them.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/...eak-with-balsamic-bbq-sauce-recipe/index.html

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

Giada is one of my wife's favorites for recipe sources.

I don't care for her show because she looks like she's always eating an
invisible corn on the cob, but maybe I'll try some of her other recipes.

 

[Rich Grise]

transceiver, while finding food and fending off predators. That would
have been worth the space on YouTube.

I always wonder, on those "survivor" shows, when they run out of water
and stuff, why don't they just ask the guy behind that camera if he
can get some?

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

Huh? She's a babe!

Yeah but the teeth put me off.