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What's New?
2/6/2010
Nokia cross-platform Qt SDK under LGPL. Qt is a powerful framework for creating applications with low latency user interfaces and "write once, compile anywhere" cross-platform compatibility. With the whole Qt SDK available under LGPL, you can write fully commercial applications with Qt for free.
The Qt Creator IDE provides a rapid user interface builder. It also has a good source code editor with code completion and function call following, two features that I used to enjoy in .NET development. The free Qt SDK includes the mingw gcc compiler for Windows. Why would anyone want to use .NET Express Edition now? You'd be doing yourself a disservice, as your end application won't be cross-platform compatible like it would be with Qt.
I've been working on a Qt project at work ever since Nokia LGPL'ed Qt back in March 2009. My project is about to ship and I feel it came out really nicely. If I had written this application in Java, the GUI probably would not have been as easy to create and would not be as pretty. The Java Swing API was not easy to use when I was in college, and it hasn't changed much during the years since. Qt maintains a very well thought out object oriented library that was easy to pick up. It is thorough too: I was able to use native Qt framework APIs to access my SQL database (sqlite), do file system watching, and even regular expressions without having to resort to questionable third party libraries.
The integrated help system is awfully good too. These Qt guys actually document big-O(n) complexity of library calls likely to affect application performance. How incredibly awesome is that? I don't remember ever seeing that level of detail in Java or .NET documentation.
My Qt application has no virtual machine JIT compilations or garbage collection events happening at inappropriate moments. As a result, the GUI is very responsive and lag-less. I actually enjoy using my application because it starts up instantly and has low memory footprint.
10/24/2009
SparkFun.com Gets a Cease and Desist from SPARC International. Ugh! A lot of people have commented that SparkFun should fight this. Personally, I think I would consider changing the name to side step the problem. I agree with SparkFun that there is little confusion among customers of SparkFun and SPARC International (the two companies produce vastly different products). However, fighting ultimately just wastes time and money that could be better spent on developing new products. The only people that actually benefit from fighting are the lawyers. I'm sure the customers frequenting SparkFun.com are smart enough to follow SparkFun.com through a name change.
It could also prevent future issues. As microcontrollers continue to improve, I think it would make a lot of sense to have small microcontroller based servers in the future. If SPARC products stagnate, maybe the two would actually be somewhat confusable someday, who knows!
04/18/2009
In the old days, CD players and MP3 players used spinning discs to store audio data, leading to high discharge rates. Old NiMH rechargeable batteries were fairly suitable for this, but these days we have solid state FLASH storage that drops power consumption considerably. At this point, low self discharge becomes a more important feature of NiMH rechargeable batteries. Stefanv.com has done some testing of various low self discharge NiMH batteries, which may help you decide which batteries to buy for your future power needs.
03/07/2009
As you probably know, old computer plastics have a tendency to turn a nasty yellow color over time, making them look dated and crappy. The Retr0bright Project shows how to make a gel that will turn yellowed plastics back to their original color. The results look fantastic, taking old crappy looking Commodore 64's, Amigas, and original Macintosh's back to being beautiful machines of their original color.
11/20/2008
Was doing a search for DIY microcontroller calculator projects when I came across the µWatch project. Wow! I remember getting a Casio CFX-40 scientific calculator watch as a present when I was a kid in elementary school. It was a totally awesome watch as a kid, but unfortunately the battery died a year or two later and I never could get it working again (guess I didn't know about the ground short trick). Who would have thought it would become a collector's item worth more than a Rolex?! Doh! Anyway, since scientific calculator watches are no longer commercially available for purchase, this guy made his own DIY scientific calculator watch using a PIC24FJ64GA004 microcontroller and a bunch of other small off the shelf parts. The result is a little more bulky than the CFX-40 I had back in the day, but still damn cool. The buttons actually look much easier to use than the CFX-40, and it even supports Reverse Polish Notation. Wow, awesome! It's open source, so any function you wanted to add to it could be done (I'd certainly want base conversions right away).
4/20/2008
Just noticed this weekend that Microchip has finally begun sampling and volume production of their initial PIC32 chips! While we have been enjoying the NXP LPC210X ARM7 microcontrollers previously, the new PIC32 chips look very tempting. An LPC2105 chip provides 32KB of RAM, but at a cost of $7.48 in 100 unit qty. The PIC32MX340F256H provides the same 32KB of RAM, but is quoted at only $5.22 in 100 unit qty. That alone is very tempting, but the PIC32 also goes beyond the LPC2105's capabilities in many other areas: 256KB of FLASH (vs. 128KB), 80MHz operation (vs. 60MHz), internal 1.8V core voltage regulator (vs. 1.8V external regulator required), internal RC oscillator (vs. external oscillator required), and hardware DMA (vs. no DMA). The only real downsides I can see at the moment is slightly fewer PWM pins, capture pins, lower FLASH endurance (1,000 vs 100,000 writes), and a larger footprint of 10mm squared (vs. 7mm squared). Then again, the larger footprint allows for more I/O pins (64 vs. 48), which some people may see as a plus.
I put my sample order in today. I will still need to design a PCB to pull the surface mount pins out to a breadboard compatible format though before I can play with them. Not sure when I'll have time to do that.
4/3/2008
The old web server finally died last night. Luckily, almost everything had already been moved over to a new server about a month ago. Unfortunately, the Wiki wasn't completely done being moved over, so we have lost all previously created Wiki accounts (you'll have to create a new one to edit pages again). We also don't have the main page any more, guess we'll have to start a new one!
