(formerly)tangentmind.org

This is what robots should be made for.

So, Ive been thinking about building a robot. One of the caveats with robot building is the expense however, but some robots can be built out of scrap parts. Where do you get scrap? Well, one place is dumpsters.

There are some pointless, yet entertaining creations that can be made with pager motors..the same kind of motor found in cell phones. so I decided to check out a dumpster behind a cingular store near my house. I decided to do this around 3 or 3:30, just on a whim, because I know that this cingular stores dumpsters are hidden behind it out of view of the street, and hence if the police had any notions that dumpster diving is illegal here(Which I'm not sure about. Ill post the ordinance below), they couldn't even see me anyway.

This seemed like a harmless endeavor. So, I drove out there. This cingular store is on a strip mall that includes a video rental store, subway, 3 petes place, home decoration store and a bank, as well as at least one other store. There were, what I think is 4 dumpsters.

One was kind of smelly. Didn't pay much attention to this one.

One had some bags, a bunch of wreaths, and a cardboard box in it, as well as a styrofoam box. I took the box, because it seemed clean. I also found in the cardboard box, some opened dog buiscuts, a cat bed, an unopened bag of doggy treats and some other random stuff. I took the unopened dog biscuits, and I probably should have taken the cat bed but even though it looked clean, I didn't feel like pushing my luck. I also didn't take the opened dog biscuits because they were opened, even though I'm sure my dog would mind. Weird thing to find in here though, one bag contained random things which included a soldering iron, some solder, and digital tire gauge. I kid you not.

the next one was sealed shut on the sides. However, the top was accessible, but about 8 feet up, and with heavy rusty, big door.

The last one was promising. The view at what was inside was obstructed greatly by thse big cusions that were probably for outside lawn equipment. There were two computers inside. one was a crappy old gateway 2000 and one was a crappy old packard bell. The packard bell even had "Warning: this computer really sucks" and following that "no kidding" or something very similar to that, written with pencil on it. Though I already have too many crappy old computers, the temptation to take these was great, and I spent far too much time trying to decide whether to take them. There was also nice new boxes for nice new macintosh displays(friggin' huge ones!). You would think the displays these were replacing would be in there, but I didn't see them. Maybe the bin had already been hit. There was also a lot of bags full of shredded paper. This was probably sensitive documents that came from the bank. The bank needs a better paper shredder because this stuff looked like it was in big long strips. They could also be recycling it. I also found duct tape(yes, duct tape).

So, I grabbed the packard bell, because it had a big sturdy base and I used it as a step ladder to look into the 3rd dumpster, but the dumpster was mostly empty except for some big AC filters.

Some time during this I saw a big blue city waste truck. The bins they set out for recycling or blue, so I tought it could be a recycling truck...but it could be a waste truck. It was at the ABF building, which was across from this. I thought it would take a long time for them to get here even if they were and they would have to come from a very easy to see direction. However shortly after that they started barreling toward and exit that I hadn't seen that opened up on this property.

Sensing their impending descent I quickly grabbed the packard bell, tossed it into the dumpster from which it came, grabbed the gateway, ran to my car and tossed the computer inside.

The truck had stopped at the gate between the two properties, and it took them a while to get it open, but shortly afterwards, they were headed directly for me. I had difficulty getting the computer in the car, so by the time I got it into the seat, the truck was turning to face my jeep. I put the key in the ignition, ready to make quick get away, and the car wouldn't start. It has this issue where sometiems it just won't do anything. There is a problem with the neutral switch or something - it was like that when I got it. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. So I tried the usual tricks...switching it to neutral, that didn't work...running the gearshifter up and down and then switching to neutral, didn't work again...tried it again...finally it started. I had probably been muttering something like "you've got to be kidding me". All this time I was trying to start my car, they were sitting there in the enormous truck staring at me. There lights were too bright for me to see their faces. Though I'm not sure they would mind too much about the legality of it, I was still in the way of their job.

I started to back out, because that was just about the only thing I could do now that this enormous truck was in my way, and it was also the quickest way...and I didn't feel like showing the my license plate, just in case. So I just backed up all the way out. I probably nearly hit this big decorative boulder that was place out there.

I had forgotten a crucial component before I went out. I have the worst timing sometimes. I was a little shaken up by the ordeal. I mean, I wasn't fined $500 or anything, but I still wasn't expecting any of that. Worst of all, I never saw a single cell phone. They were probably in one of the bags in the stinky dumpster or something. The only explanation I can think of for all the random stuff that's in there is that someone dropped there. As I was backing up, I saw the truck begin to pick up one of the dumpsters. It's all gone now.

I may go back out again, but I'm not sure. I don't know where and when the dumpsters are getting picked up, and I don't want to have another incident. Also, if everything just got picked up there's no point in going out. Dang, I forgot to publish this, and i was reading and a few hours have passed. I'm definately too sleepy to go out now.

I want a digital video recorder.

Why? So I can record videos and then import them into my computer.

It really doesn't have to be digital, but I imagine the digital would probably have better quality when importing, but I could be wrong about that.

I just want to record videos and then import them into my computer and apply some of what I've learned to them.

A wacom tablet would be nice too...just for fun.

I just realised that my monitor can't display hdtv resolution. all this time I thought 480i(ntsc), 1080i and 780p(hdtv) were the width resolutions. But they're the heighth. the width resolution is 1920. My 25lb gargantuan 19" CRT Sony Trinitron monitor can only display 1600. Of course, it is a 4X3 screen, so there would be borders on top and bottom, so it might get scaled down or something.

The real amazing thing is that I didn't know what the ntsc resolution was(720x480). I know all about resolutions, I just never bothered to get it right. I think that, displaying or recording tv on a computer screen, it should be 640x480, because the 720x480 pixels are not square and the computer screen pixels are, though I'm not completely sure about this yet.

Regardless of whether or not I will have a proper display, I would still like an hdtv receiver(probably a computer card because my computer monitor is my best tv) because with hdtv the sound is better quality and the picture is either perfect or non-existant...and I hate fuzzy tv. Even when I had cable, I had fuzzy tv, so I've been putting up with fuzzy tv my whole life. I'm ready for it to end.

Not only that, some stations will actually multicast...meaning that one station may have both adult and children programming showing at the same time and you can switch between them. That's like having even more channels.

I think some hdtv cards are getting down to around $100, and the card made for linux pchdtv is around $160. That's getting closer to my budget. Some cards can also pick up hd radio too, which is pretty sweet. NPR is the only station around here that broadcasts in hd radio, but that's usually the only station I listen to. There's a nice hdtv "set top" receiver right here for $176 also.

Edit 05-04: I added some info about the ntsc resolutions.

Edit 05-22: The hdtv resolution 720p is 1280x720, which my monitor can do, just fine. I think 780p was a misprint on my part. So, though my monitor can't do 1080i, 720p is probably good enough for me.