the life and times of endenizen » 2007 » March

But oh so nice…

Caught this on BoingBoing. Looks like Google Maps is more helpful than I previously thought. It’ll even tell you how to get to France from Boston in only one step. All you have to do is “Swim across the Atlantic Ocean”.

I guess I already knew that, but at least now I can incorporate it into the rest of my driving directions for a complete guide. I just hate having to keep multiple maps with multiple sets of directions. It’s too confusing. And in that case I’d also have to get reverse directions. Swimming across the Atlantic Ocean, while I wouldn’t recommend it, is quite trivial to reverse.

Oh, and don’t forget to bring a waterproof bag with a passport and a set of clean clothes. You’ll thank me later.

I’m building a projector based on the guide and forums at http://www.lumenlab.com . I’ve been visiting this website off and on for about a year now and never really had a complete desire (or money) to carry this project out. Now that I’ve got more of both (and some rather big white walls) I figured it was a good time to really start on my own projector.

What’s a Lumenlab projector?

To see for yourself, click here. Of course, that one is quite a bit more expensive than the one I’m gonna be building but then, that guy was building a theater in his basement. I’m just hooking up a projector in my studio apartment.

Lumenlab started as a DIY community website which offered some very active forums and detailed projector instructions. The instructions were $20 but the prospect of building a higher-quality projector for hundreds less than most projectors on the market was enough to draw quite a crowd. Nowadays, the instructions are free and the place makes money by selling lenses, lamps, kits, etc. They even sell a whole projector for $500 if you’re not up for building it yourself (and don’t mind a lower-quality picture).

A Lumenlab projector relies on two fresnel lenses, an inexpensive lamp, and a focusing lens in addition to an LCD monitor (stripped down to the glass itself). Most members build a 15″ monitor (for a resolution up to 1024×768) because these monitors tend to be lower in cost than ones both larger and smaller. Any LCD monitor will work, in theory, because we rely simply on taking the back off of an LCD and shining a much brighter light through it. In reality, many monitors have very complex arrangements under the hood. On the Lumenlab compatibility database (see below), there is a column to show you whether the monitor has “FFC Issues” or not. Here’s the description according to the website, “FFC issues are when components (most often controller boards) cannot be moved out of the light path and make the construction of your projector difficult. Sometimes these issues can be impossible to overcome.” Luckily, I found an LCD without these issues.

Searching for the monitor

I’ve been on ebay for the past few days and weeks trying to find an LCD monitor that would be perfect but they all seemed too expensive (for used 15″ LCDs on ebay) or too broken. I wandered around some other price-listing sites for regular-old online stores and found an Acer AL1516AB 15″ LCD monitor from TigerDirect for $150. I would have gone for one a little cheaper, but the specs on this one (600:1, 12ms) impressed me. Also, according to the lumenlab compatibility database, this monitor is “Easy to Strip”.

So, now I await my new monitor (3-7 for shipping days so, Saturday 3/24 at the earliest). I also need some lenses (along with every other part for the projector) so I’ll probably order those on the Lumenlab site within the next day or two.

I’ve always got some projects going. I’ll try to stay current on what I’ve been doing lately as well as post some older projects including source code, images, etc.

A service which automates the process of filing a bankruptcy (right down to the affidavit claiming you did all the research yourself) has been found to be “practicing law” according to the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Ninth Circuit Court (full document here).

The software did, indeed, go far beyond providing clerical services. It determined where (particularly, in which schedule) to place information provided by the debtor, selected exemptions for the debtor and supplied relevant legal citations. Providing such personalized guidance has been held to constitute the practice of law.

So if computers are capable of practicing law, it’s understandable that they’re able to do it without a license. However, they didn’t fine the computer for practicing without a license, they fined the guy running the company. But shouldn’t the computer be able to obtain a license? Or is this a simple matter of prejudice? If I program a computer to fight for its right to practice law, isn’t that really fighting for my right to program a computer that practices law?