---- START NEW MESSAGE --- Received: from cherry.ease.lsoft.com [209.119.0.109] by dpmail10.doteasy.com with ESMTP (SMTPD32-8.05) id A8ABB3018C; Thu, 29 Jan 2004 20:08:11 -0800 Received: from PEAR.EASE.LSOFT.COM (209.119.0.19) by cherry.ease.lsoft.com (LSMTP for Digital Unix v1.1b) with SMTP id <23.00CC3FB5@cherry.ease.lsoft.com>; Thu, 29 Jan 2004 23:07:59 -0500 Received: from MITVMA.MIT.EDU by MITVMA.MIT.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8e) with spool id 8804 for PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU; Thu, 29 Jan 2004 23:01:04 -0500 Received: from MITVMA (NJE origin SMTP@MITVMA) by MITVMA.MIT.EDU (LMail V1.2d/1.8d) with BSMTP id 3873; Thu, 29 Jan 2004 22:48:54 -0500 Received: from smtp2.globo.com [200.208.9.169] by mitvma.mit.edu (IBM VM SMTP Level 430) via TCP with ESMTP ; Thu, 29 Jan 2004 22:48:53 EST X-Warning: mitvma.mit.edu: Host smtp2.globo.com claimed to be mail.globo.com Received: from user88l53zxzyb (200.158.164.92) by mail.globo.com (6.0.053) id 40076DB000152936 for PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU; Fri, 30 Jan 2004 01:48:55 -0200 References: <2193429B07D9914D97216EBBAA6AB8BD1A0561@whitlam.corp.gli.com.au> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 Message-ID: <000f01c3e6ec$5915ff30$0301a8c0@user88l53zxzyb> Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 01:48:26 -0300 Reply-To: pic microcontroller discussion list Sender: pic microcontroller discussion list From: Pedro Drummond Subject: Challenge for keen minds To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU Precedence: list X-RCPT-TO: Status: U X-UIDL: 371856421 Hi, all. I have to implement a gate opening detector. It will log date and time each time the gate is open and for how long. Must be battery-driven, battery must last as much as possible, must be rugged and robust, and tamper-proof. People WILL try to defeat it. What I have already thought: 1) It will be all enclosed in a box with no openings, time of day programming will be done with an IR remote, data will be collected from it the same way. Aside from these operations, battery consumption must be minimum. Any ideas to improve this number 1 ? 2) How to detect gate openings ? Well, if I use a regular reed switch, people will defeat it inserting a flexible magnet close to the sensor before opening the gate. The same applies for metal (induction) sensors, proximity (capacitive) sensors. I thought of having a second device on the moving door sending IR data to the main device, but another battery consumption here is out of the question. Last idea was to have a sequence of magnetized and non-magnetized surfaces, similar to a bargraph, only much larger, that will match the reed (or HAL) sensors in the device. Much harder to fool, yet not the elegant solution we all pursue... Any ideas here ? Thanks a lot, Pedro ----- Original Message ----- From: "Liam O'Hagan" To: Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 11:57 PM Subject: Re: [OT:] Windows XP intermittent performance > yes, same for XP Pro, it's the task manager which may also be accessed via > right clicking on the taskbar > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: John Ferrell [SMTP:johnferrell@EARTHLINK.NET] > > Sent: Friday, January 30, 2004 12:35 PM > > To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU > > Subject: Re: [OT:] Windows XP intermittent performance > > > > The indexing goes on hot & heavy for a while and then slows down. > > Zone Alarm caused me considerable grief. When I removed it, all did not > > come > > out. > > Control-Alt-Del ONE TIME will bring up a panel that shows what processes > > are > > running. There are tabs at the top that bring up more performance related > > information. This may not apply if you are not using XP Pro. > > John Ferrell > > 6241 Phillippi Rd > > Julian NC 27283 > > Phone: (336)685-9606 > > johnferrell@earthlink.net > > http://DixieNC.US > > NSRCA 479 AMA 4190 W8CCW > > "My Competition is Not My Enemy" > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "James Nick Sears" > > To: > > Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 7:09 PM > > Subject: [OT:] Windows XP intermittent performance > > > > > > Hello, > > > > I have a Windows XP desktop that has been driving me crazy lately. > > Generally speaking, it runs fine for a few days and then will all at once > > (normally on a reboot) get into a slow motion state where it takes forever > > to boot, logon, open a folder, etc, sometimes to the point where it is > > completely useless. I then go through a regimen of defragging and running > > various Norton Systemworks tools, etc which typically will bring it back > > to > > life for a few days, in which it performs very well and then the cycle > > repeats itself. In this process I have also turned off the fancy display > > settings, disabled unnecessary services, set my paging file to one large > > constant file size, etc. > > > > Yesterday I had a major slowdown (couldn't even program a PIC with the > > damned thing), defragged my system drive and took a nap and all was well. > > I > > used it all evening into the night with no problems and shut it down > > before > > bed. I woke up this morning to work and BAM it's back running slowly > > again. > > Not as bad as sometimes, but very frustrating to use and I can't get it to > > program a PIC. I have defragged both partitions (several times actually) > > but this time the problem continues. > > > > As I said I have Norton Systemworks and run the virus scan and do the > > updates and everything so I think it's unlikely that a virus is to blame. > > I > > do have some processes running that I can't account for so I may have some > > spyware or something running, but killing them does no good. What is a > > good > > spyware/adware/etcware removal program (preferably free but I'd be willing > > to pay if it came with an excellent recommendation) to use. > > > > I'm starting to think it's time for a reinstall and always in the past I > > would have gone for it by now, but I would really rather not. Mainly I > > feel > > like MS has had sufficient time to get this stuff figured out that I > > SHOULDn't have to completely wipe my computer clean every few months and > > that there must be a better solution to keep a windows install going > > long-term. I wrote a software package for my full time job that manages > > their sales, reporting, etc and it is running on 2 XP systems that I built > > that are much lower end systems (all athlon XPs though) and it has been in > > place since 7/2002 with none of these problems. The point is that I use > > my > > computer pretty heavily and I'm sure that is largely to blame but what is > > the sense in having an 1.8GHz machine if you can only do with it what you > > would with a Pentium 100MHz without having it self-destruct. > > > > Anyway I am a pretty big fan really of MS stuff *when it works properly* > > so > > I hope I'm just missing something or have some adware leeching around. > > Any > > ideas would be appreciated. > > > > Thanks, > > Nick > > > > -- > > http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different > > ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details. > > > > -- > > http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different > > ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details. > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different > ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details. > -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details. .