That's right. The HP ScanJet 4c's SCL (Scanner Control Language) command set includes an unofficial PLAY TUNE command. I stumbled across this after reading an article on the ScanJet 4c in the feb. 1997 issue of HP Journal (see the sidebar Sing to Me).

The PLAY TUNE command basically varies the stepping rate of the scanner motor to produce audible frequencies. All it needs is a series of note frequencies and durations previously written to its SCSI buffer. The ScanJetPlay utility resulted from my efforts in trying out this easter egg. Check dis shit out, babee! :^)

ScanJetPlay requires libsane and libsanei (for SCSI access) from the SANE backends package. Note that libsanei and its header files is not installed per default, and must be done manually.

Video here...

http://www.ghana-projects.de/scanjet-elise2.mpg

This just sounds so cool ... :)

Thats amusing... but nothing new actually. The old Commodore 64 had a program called "1541 music" that did essentially the same thing - slammed the read/write head mechanism of the 1541 floppy drive against the stop at different speeds. Was MURDER on the heads(the 1541 was notorious for going out of alignment and this certainly did nothing to help!) But it was mildly entertaining for a few seconds; a "WTF! Ha ha!" moment - until you realized what it was doing to your head alignment! LOL!

-LB

ScanJet Music

unmanaged wrote:

Well what gets me is that most of you think that all smokers are bad and have a carton a day habit. Some of us smokers do enjoy a pipe or a cig. every once and a while but that is we enjoy it.

No... we don't think you're bad (well, I don't). I grew up in a 6 person household, where 4 of the people in my family were heavy smokers (pack+ a day). Amazingly I never took so much as a drag off of a cig - I always viewed it as a stupid, grotesque addiction that I wanted nothing to do with. Growing up all around it, it was annoying then, its equally annoying now - possibly more so since I don't deal with it day in and day out (my wife quit years ago thank god).

For most of us non-smokers, smoking is a bizarre habit that we don't grasp or comprehend. Most people say they took up smoking because they felt it would improve their social acceptance. I.E. caving to peer pressure. Anything done out of peer pressure is bad; ill advised, done for all the wrong reasons.

I believe in people being free to do whatever they enjoy, so long as it doesn't impinge on another’s freedom. I should have the freedom to walk into a bar, enjoy a beer and not leave the place with my body and clothes reeking of smoke. Most of you don’t seem to have a problem with taking it outside. But some of you seem to think it’s your god given right to fill any enclosed public space that may or may NOT have adequate ventilation with fallout from your addiction. That’s the issue, and it’s NOT your right - no more so than it’s your right to blare your stereo at ear-splitting volume any time of the night you choose. Smokers have been up till now riding along for free because non-smokers just politely tolerated it. Finally someone had the balls to stand up and say “take it outside”. And they (we) are right.

Btw, ditch the pickup lines and just be yourself, and you might get some....

Amen to that. Words of wisdom kids.

-LB

RE: Got a Light? A Ritual Gone in a Puff of Smoke

What, then, if smoking disappears from the District's bars next January?

Then I can only hope similar legislation finds its way to Atlanta!

Sorry smokers... when I go to a bar, I go to DRINK – not to smoke… not to have my eyes burning from irritation of half a room of cigs going nonstop... and not to walk out having myself reek of smoke for days.

(Don't worry - I won't play the "2'nd hand smoke causes cancer!" card - that’s unproven by most studies.)

So while I might sympathize with the possible detrimental effects a bar ban on smoking could have on your sex life, I don’t think that argument will play well into the hands of lawmakers. :)

I can only advise you single folks to brush up on your pickup lines.

-LB

RE: Got a Light? A Ritual Gone in a Puff of Smoke

Fucking SWEET guys! Nice gig! Did you 2 get to keep the badge, and more importantly if so, how do you intend to share it? every other week or month? lol!

RE: Rattle and Decius at Alito Confirmation Hearing

TORONTO, Ontario (Reuters) -- Giving homeless alcoholics a regular supply of booze may improve their health and their behavior, the Canadian Medical Association Journal said in a study published on Tuesday.

Seventeen homeless adults, all with long and chronic histories of alcohol abuse, were allowed up to 15 glasses of wine or sherry a day -- a glass an hour from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. -- in the Ottawa-based program, which started in 2002 and is continuing.

After an average of 16 months, the number of times participants got in trouble with the law had fallen 51 percent from the three years before they joined the program, and hospital emergency room visits were down 36 percent.

"Once we give a 'small amount' of alcohol and stabilize the addiction, we are able to provide health services that lead to a reduction in the unnecessary health services they were getting before," said Dr. Jeff Turnbull, one of the authors of the report.

"The alcohol gets them in, builds the trust and then we have the opportunity to treat other medical diseases... It's about improving the quality of life."

Athorities stunned by massive homeless migration north. Film at 11

-LB

CNN - Study: Free booze benefits homeless alcoholics

Dover's much-maligned school policy of presenting "intelligent design" as an alternative to evolution was officially relegated to the history books Tuesday night.
On a voice vote, and with no discussion beforehand, the newly elected Dover Area School Board unanimously rescinded the policy. Two weeks earlier, a judge ruled the policy unconstitutional.

"This is it," new school board president Bernadette Reinking said Tuesday, indicating the vote was final and the case was closed.

Thank God!
-LB

Board rescinds 'intelligent design' policy

The wasps are trained with sugar water by using the classical conditioning techniques made famous by Pavlov's dogs. Rains says the wasps are sensitive to a host of chemical odors, including 2,4-DNT, a volatile compound used in dynamite.

To do their work, five wasps — each a half-inch long — are placed in a plastic cylinder that is 15 inches tall. This "Wasp Hound," which costs roughly $100 per unit, has a vent in one end and a camera that connects to a laptop computer.

When the wasps pick up an odor they've been trained to detect they gather by the vent — a response that can be measured by the computer or actually seen by observers.

Lewis says the wasps, when exposed to some chemicals, "can detect as low as four parts per billion, which is an incredibly small amount."

I love low-tech like this!

USAToday - Scientists recruit wasps for war on terror

After he discovered a false biography on Wikipedia that claims he was responsible for the death of JFK and his brother Bobby, John Seigenthaler wrote an op-ed piece in USA Today refuting those claims and rebuking Wiki admins and the ISPs that host them. Now, in light of Seigenthaler's outrage, the once open access Wikipedia now requires registration to submit new articles to the English language version of the site.

Seigenthaler spent a tonne of time and resources to track down the writer of the wikipedia article. He also considered filing a John Doe suit and kicked up a gigantic shitstorm with his Op-Ed.

Wikipedia is far from perfect, but instead of wasting what I assume to be days and weeks of his time, why didn't he just correct the entry?

Wikipedia: The Rules Have Changed | MetaFilter

President Bush has said the United States does not torture prisoners. However, he has threatened to veto the bill if it contains the McCain provision, saying it could limit U.S. counterterrorism tactics.

Oh, you mean torture of detainees? "Green light" torture tactics here, and what do you think the enemy is going to do to OUR troops or hostages?? The shrub is quite possibly THE single most dimwitted fuck in history. Speaks volumes about the idiot lemmings that vehemently defend him and his policies.

USAToday - Compromise on torture ban said to be close

Seems the latest analysis from core samples of Antarctic ice dated 650,000 years old "not good" for those still convinced the rise in atmospheric CO2 levels to be a "natural" trend...

"Levels of carbon dioxide have climbed from 280 parts per million two centuries ago to 380 ppm today.

Skeptics sometimes dismiss the rise in greenhouse gases as part of a naturally fluctuating cycle. The new study provides ever-more definitive evidence countering that view, however.

A previous ice-core sample had traced greenhouse gases back about 440,000 years. This new sample, from East Antarctica, goes 210,000 years further back in time.

Today's still rising level of carbon dioxide already is 27% higher than its peak during all those millennia, said lead researcher Thomas Stocker of the University of Bern, Switzerland.

'We are out of that natural range today,' he said."

Not good, but also not possible to tell everyone "stop burning fossil fuel NOW!" and no one is suggesting that. But the big corporations resisting change are running out of excuses.

-LB

Ancient air bubbles shed light on greenhouse gases