highlighting the future's bizzare as it transforms into the present's mundane
Posts tagged electronics
Notion Ink Adam update
Jun 5th
I got my Notion Ink Adam tablet a few months ago.
Tablets have finally evolved to a level to be useful. I use my tablet mostly as an ebook, secondary display, and music/video player.
Notion Ink has been refining and improving their Android port over the last several months. I have been updating my tablet with the official OS as they are released. This time around I decided to try an unofficial Android port- boy was I glad that I did.
The unofficial OS I installed is called ‘Beast’ and it is one of the slickest, most useful, and most stable tablet interfaces I have used. I am absolutely delighted and I am now eagerly awaiting the release of Android Honeycomb for the Notion Ink Adam.
LPCXpresso success
Apr 23rd
Success at last …after 2 frustrating days trying to get the NXP LPCXpresso board working. In the end I figured out the issue myself with little / no help from NXP / Code Red Support
Issue:
Project building but debug not working (deployment to board failing)
Resolution:
I looked up the build log files in <workspace folder>\.metadata\.log and noticed the following error:
java.lang.Exception: Input Error: There is no script engine for file extension “.vbs”.
I changed the file association for .vbs to WScript but the error did not go away.
A quick google-ing turned up this 3 step process
http://www.nilpo.com/2009/07/windows…ile-extension/
Step 1: Set a default script host
Open a Command Prompt window. In Windows XP, click Start, Run…, and typecmd.exe. In Windows Vista and Windows 7, click Start and type cmd. Then selectcmd in the Instant Search results.
Type the following command and press Enter.
cscript.exe //H:WScript
Step 2: Registering the vbscript.dll module
Open a Command Prompt window. In Windows XP, click Start, Run…, and typecmd.exe. In Windows Vista and Windows 7, run an elevated Command Prompt.
Type the following command in the command prompt window and press Enter.
regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\vbscript.dll
You should see the following confirmation message.
DllRegisterServer in vbscript.dll succeeded.
Step 3: Restore the .vbs file associations
If the previous two solutions didn’t work, you should restore the file associations for the .vbs (VBScript) file type by downloading and running one of the registry files below.
FixVBSFileAssociationsVista.reg
Restart and ….
Voila ! the thing works now !
If neurons talk using RFID…are we zapping our brains with our phone yapping?? !!
Feb 6th
I stumbled across this article today about how neurons in brains do not rely just on physical connections to talk to each other. They interact with each other with their version of electro-magnetic coupling similar to Near Field Communication (NFC)or RFID.
NFC or RFID type technologies can be prone to interference from various gadgets or devices. This new discovery about neural communication may bring into focus how electronic devices affect our brains and cognitive abilities. Is it time to think about how our society designs and uses the billions of cell phones ?
Here is the article from Caltech:
The Story of Electronics
Nov 13th
The Story of Electronics employs the Story of Stuff style to explore the high-tech revolution’s collateral damage—25 million tons of e-waste and counting, poisoned workers and a public left holding the bill. Host Annie Leonard takes viewers from the mines and factories where our gadgets begin to the horrific backyard recycling shops in China where many end up. The film concludes with a call for a green “race to the top” where designers compete to make long-lasting, toxic-free products that are fully and easily recyclable
Home wireless overhaul successful !
Aug 7th
I had been struggling with the poor wi-fi at home for a while. After some looking around I got a refurbished Netgear WNDR3300 dual-radio 802.11a/b/g/n wireless router from www.newegg.com for about $30.
The stock firmware on the router is mediocre so flashed it with DD-WRT. Now I have super-fast connectivity to my computers and phones. Ya for awesome free open sourcey stuff !
Now for my geeky friends here is my setup: This router has 2 independent radios so after flashing the firmware to DD-WRT I configured a client bridge setup to the interweb on the 802.11g radio . On the other radio (802.11a/b/g/n) I setup a mixed 802.11g/n 2.4Ghz access point
Netgear WNDR3300
because my Android phone cannot do 5Ghz 802.11n
New Catalyst Paves The Path For Ethanol-powered Fuel Cells
Jan 31st
This could prove to be a breakthrough for bio-ethanol based fuel cells. Current fuel cells are mostly methanol based which is a toxic chemical and have low efficiency.
Here is the ScienceDaily (2009-01-29) article:
Scientists have developed a new catalyst that could make ethanol-powered fuel cells feasible. The highly efficient catalyst performs two crucial, and previously unreachable steps needed to oxidize ethanol and produce clean energy in fuel cell reactions.
Open source hardware
Oct 6th
Interesting conversation from the 2007 O’Reilly Open Source Convention between Phillip Torrone (Senior Editor, Make magazine) and Limor Fried (Owner, Adafruit Industries)
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