These researchers are doing something similar, they are using a photo-resistor as a single pixel camera, and a video projector for illumination.
Take a look at the video (63M), it is a mind blowing demo of the technology.
First of all, a full Eagle license costs $1200, but it still is a bargain for a real PCB layout package. Eagle is quite capable, the ULP (user language programs) and "scripts" rocks for advanced users with programming background. Eagle is close to bug free, I can't remember the last time I encountered a bug in Eagle. Eagle have its fair share of weak points, the user interface is quirky, and the router is unusable for serious work. The router issue can be solved by purchasing the Electra Autorouter. Connecteda have promised a linux version this year:-) Library handling have improved a lot, and I think the workflow with always consistent schematics and pcb is brilliant. (I believe you can still use the old "forward-/backannotation" workflow if you don't agree, although I have not tried this in years).
I believe that if you want to create advanced PCBs on linux, Eagle is your best bet, although I would love be be proved wrong. The price ($1200) is comparable to what you will pay for a single prototype batch of boards, and if you are a productive PCB designer, you will spend 10-50 times that in a year in just prototypes.
Please fix linux support first
on
Skype 2.0 Adds Video
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I have been using skype on linux for a while now, but the Linux support is getting worse.
Skype does not support ALSA, causing all kindsofweirdproblems. There is a bug in skype that require a restart after any voice call (it does not close/dev/dsp after use). These problems should have been fixed a long time ago.
The European Broadcast Union have done lots of these tests, google for "ebu listening tests" to find them.
The results are very dependent on the encoding bit rate, and the selected codec. Another surprising result is that since the codcs depend on noise masking, it is easier to hear MPEG distortion with equipment with poor frequency response (e.g. a small transistor radio or a single speaker built in to a TV). The quantization noise is masked by sounds with similar (but not exactly the same) frequency content. If the sound system have a dip in the frequency response attenuating the wanted sounds, it is easier to detect the MPEG quantization noise in the same frequency range.
I don't want this to turn into a "Linx is better than Windows is better than Linux" discussion, no throwing of mud or Fud
and ends with:
Much has been written about the pitfalls of incorporating GPL software into a product. An often overlooked consideration, however, are the costs of having to even worry about these licensing issues.
It should have been female connectors with only one pinout (e.g DCE) on all equipment supporting RS232, and all RS232 cables should be crossed (null modems).
Instead we have a complete mess with male and female connectors, straight and crossed cables. Is pin 2 receive or transmit? Dohhh.
Why female connectors on boxes? Male connectors are more fragile. If the pins break, replace (or repair) the cable. The female connector on the box is OK.
Funny you should mention that, we were recently pondering how to do that. If you've got ideas or experience with annotation files, we could use the help;-)
That is the one thing that Eagle does right, and that most others does wrong. Download the eagle demo and try it. In Eagle you work in the schematics and the PCB layout at once. This makes it easy to update a PCB, make component changes and fix issues with the design afterwards. This works so well in Eagle, that I usually start with an existing design to make a new product. I just strip away most of the components, and keep a few useful parts (voltage regulators, reset network, and may be the microcontroller) and works from there. I don't need to reroute those parts. I also start with layout early (long before the schematics are finished), just to check that I have enough board space, route the timing critical stuff, etc. One you have used that work methodology, you don't want to go back to the akward forward/backward annotation stuff.
PS: Thank you for DJGPP, I used it a lot in the old DOS days. Thanks
A full blown RTOS is overkill for many RT applications.
Many RT tasks (like the one used in this article) can be described as:
Wait for IRQ. Do something *NOW*. Wait for IRQ
These tasks can be supported by the rtirq-patch. rt-irq is a very small patch that allows just that (and nothing more). It would be nice to add rtirq to the comparison.
Re:And now we are waiting for uclibc ver 1.0
on
BusyBox Goes 1.0.0
·
· Score: 2, Informative
jsveiga wrote:
...complete linux system (without kernel)......is that the sound of a long-haired, bearded, GNU guy clenching his teeth?
Very funny, smartass;-)
No, it's the sound of a development engineer making embedded systems with linux, uclibc and busybox. Our system uses an Intel PXA250 CPU, with 32MB RAM and 8MB flash. BusyBox gives us plenty space left, to run our own application on the system. We have tried to build the system with glibc and the standard GNU tools, but that used almost all available RAM and flash so the system was basically useless.
And now we are waiting for uclibc ver 1.0
on
BusyBox Goes 1.0.0
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
uclibc is a tiny libc which fits BusyBox very well. A complete linux system (without kernel) can be built using less than 500kbyte with busybox and uclibc.
Royalties to be paid by end product manufacturers for an encoder, a decoder or both ("unit") begin at US $0.20 per unit after the first 100,000 units each year. There are no royalties on the first 100,000 units each year. Above 5 million units per year, the royalty is US $0.10 per unit.
I don't think it is "outrageously expensive to license". But I agree that there should not be any licensing costs at all for a video codec. Redhat refuses to add MPEG codecs to their linux distribution because of this.
There have been a real attemt to build a versioning file system for linux: SnapFS. Think about upgrading a system from one version to the next (eg.redhat7.3 to redhat 9). If you don't like the result, you just roll back to ver 7.3 again. SnapFS does not put a version on every file, it creates "snapshots" of the whole system, on demand. I think this is a very good tradeoff between having the overhead of versioning every write, and no versioning at all. You get the additional benefit of getting a snapshot of the complete system status instead of just one file.
Slashdot Mirror
Google, please hire Cyanogen. He is clever!
This is going to change fast so it might be a good idea to download directly from the repository:
svn co https://switzerland.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/switzerland switzerland
Enjoy!
These researchers are doing something similar, they are using a photo-resistor as a single pixel camera, and a video projector for illumination. Take a look at the video (63M), it is a mind blowing demo of the technology.
First of all, a full Eagle license costs $1200, but it still is a bargain for a real PCB layout package. Eagle is quite capable, the ULP (user language programs) and "scripts" rocks for advanced users with programming background. Eagle is close to bug free, I can't remember the last time I encountered a bug in Eagle. Eagle have its fair share of weak points, the user interface is quirky, and the router is unusable for serious work. The router issue can be solved by purchasing the Electra Autorouter. Connecteda have promised a linux version this year :-) Library handling have improved a lot, and I think the workflow with always consistent schematics and pcb is brilliant. (I believe you can still use the old "forward-/backannotation" workflow if you don't agree, although I have not tried this in years).
I believe that if you want to create advanced PCBs on linux, Eagle is your best bet, although I would love be be proved wrong. The price ($1200) is comparable to what you will pay for a single prototype batch of boards, and if you are a productive PCB designer, you will spend 10-50 times that in a year in just prototypes.
Well, they are after all going to stick the Firefox RSS icon to MSRSS, a nonstandard version of RSS.
Well, you guessed right, Linux can do this!
A few links:
Linux 2.6 and mISDN HowTo
PBX4Linux
Have fun!
I have been using skype on linux for a while now, but the Linux support is getting worse.
Skype does not support ALSA, causing all kinds of weird problems. There is a bug in skype that require a restart after any voice call (it does not close /dev/dsp after use). These problems should have been fixed a long time ago.
I am actively searching for a better solution.
The European Broadcast Union have done lots of these tests, google for "ebu listening tests" to find them.
The results are very dependent on the encoding bit rate, and the selected codec. Another surprising result is that since the codcs depend on noise masking, it is easier to hear MPEG distortion with equipment with poor frequency response (e.g. a small transistor radio or a single speaker built in to a TV). The quantization noise is masked by sounds with similar (but not exactly the same) frequency content. If the sound system have a dip in the frequency response attenuating the wanted sounds, it is easier to detect the MPEG quantization noise in the same frequency range.
I think a phone (using a bluetooth headset) and a GPS whould be a nice addition to this (almost) perfect PDA. I want one.
>Imagine MS giving support for an open source project that they don't even own.
Imagine MS giving support.
MS wants Avalon to replace HTML+CSS
and ends with:
The Gigabit ethernet spec have fixed that mistake since all GigE equipment is auto MDI/MDIX
It should have been female connectors with only one pinout (e.g DCE) on all equipment supporting RS232, and all RS232 cables should be crossed (null modems).
Instead we have a complete mess with male and female connectors, straight and crossed cables. Is pin 2 receive or transmit? Dohhh.
Why female connectors on boxes? Male connectors are more fragile. If the pins break, replace (or repair) the cable. The female connector on the box is OK.
Luckily, RS232 are dying ;-)
That is the one thing that Eagle does right, and that most others does wrong. Download the eagle demo and try it. In Eagle you work in the schematics and the PCB layout at once. This makes it easy to update a PCB, make component changes and fix issues with the design afterwards. This works so well in Eagle, that I usually start with an existing design to make a new product. I just strip away most of the components, and keep a few useful parts (voltage regulators, reset network, and may be the microcontroller) and works from there. I don't need to reroute those parts. I also start with layout early (long before the schematics are finished), just to check that I have enough board space, route the timing critical stuff, etc. One you have used that work methodology, you don't want to go back to the akward forward/backward annotation stuff.
PS: Thank you for DJGPP, I used it a lot in the old DOS days. Thanks
A full blown RTOS is overkill for many RT applications.
Many RT tasks (like the one used in this article) can be described as:
Wait for IRQ. Do something *NOW*. Wait for IRQ
These tasks can be supported by the rtirq-patch. rt-irq is a very small patch that allows just that (and nothing more). It would be nice to add rtirq to the comparison.
Compile the provided example with:
gcc -D "EOF=((Input=(Input=='K')?'B':Input),-1)" vote.c -o vote
Obligatory Alan Cox quote
Very funny, smartass ;-)
No, it's the sound of a development engineer making embedded systems with linux, uclibc and busybox. Our system uses an Intel PXA250 CPU, with 32MB RAM and 8MB flash. BusyBox gives us plenty space left, to run our own application on the system. We have tried to build the system with glibc and the standard GNU tools, but that used almost all available RAM and flash so the system was basically useless.
No, I am not featured on the "Busybox hall of Shame".
uclibc is a tiny libc which fits BusyBox very well. A complete linux system (without kernel) can be built using less than 500kbyte with busybox and uclibc.
... outrageously expensive to license. Huh?
From: http://www.mpegla.com/news/n_03-11-17_avc.html
Royalties to be paid by end product manufacturers for an encoder, a decoder or both ("unit") begin at US $0.20 per unit after the first 100,000 units each year. There are no royalties on the first 100,000 units each year. Above 5 million units per year, the royalty is US $0.10 per unit.
I don't think it is "outrageously expensive to license". But I agree that there should not be any licensing costs at all for a video codec. Redhat refuses to add MPEG codecs to their linux distribution because of this.
More info
This isn't a problem if there exists a proper VC-9 specification/standard. I want a real specification, not a vc9.dll file.
That would be something unusual from Microsoft.
Java is a nice language, but it is difficult to attract open source developers. PHP or C would have been a better choice ...
35 miles = 56.32704 kilometers