Minimig (short for Mini Amiga) is an open source re-implementation of an Amiga 500 using a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). The original Minimig prototype is based on the Xilinx Spartan-3 Starter Kit, the Original Amiga Chipset is synthesized in the FPGA. The prototype was shown at an Amiga meet and loads most Amiga programs although bugs do exist. On 09 Feb 2008 ACube Systems announced the availability of finished Minimig v1.1 boards. More information at Minimig Wikipedia page.
According to news around Internet Intel and Nokia are combining their respective Linux operating environments to power future smartphones and tablets. The Intel-Nokia collaboration began in earnest in June when the two companies announced the beginning of a “long-term relationship,” focusing on developing new chip architectures, software, and a new class of Intel-based mobile computing devices. The goal for MeeGo is to put more flesh on the bones of last year’s announcement. The MeeGo software is expected to be released in the second quarter of this year and products are slated to emerge in the second half.
MeeGo project combine two disparate, unwieldy operating environments under one roof. The combined operating systems are Maemo from Nokia and Moblin from Intel. MeeGo will support both Intel and ARM processors. This means that Intel will be now sponsoring a mobile Linux distro which will have ARM as one of it’s main supported processors. The MeeGo will be hosted by the Linux Foundation as an open source project.
At today’s smartphones the biggest players are Symbian, Apple’s iPhone OS, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, and Google’s Android. The market stress from iPhone OS and Android could have ben part of why Intel and Nokia felt it was necessary to team up. MeeGo is also targeted to devices beyond today’s mobile phones: netbooks, tablets, and televisions.
Both companies stressed that applications that run on Moblin and Maemo will run on top of MeeGo. MeeGo will use Nokia’s Qt application development environment. Using Qt, developers can write once to create applications for a variety of devices and platforms (including Symbian that Nokia also continues to use), and market them through Nokia’s Ovi Store and Intel’s AppUp Center.
MeeGo is supposed to be the result of merging Maemo and Moblin, bringing together the best pieces of those (already quite similar platforms). For example both Maemo and Moblin started off Gtk-based, using the Clutter toolkit on top of Gtk. Now both have switched over to Qt.
phpguru.org has a nice PCRE cheat sheet. Take a look at it if you work with PHP.
That cheat sheet is inspired by regex cheat sheet by ILoveJackDaniels.com that I used to use. Now that great site is known as and has a good collection of free Cheat Sheets, printable quick references for a variety of languages and web technologies.
This is a really neat trick I just read about. LackRack is the ultimate, low-cost, high shininess solution for your modular datacenter-in-the-living-room. Its low-cost and perfect fit are great for mounting up to 8 U of 19″ hardware, such as switches (see below), or perhaps other 19″ gear. Featuring the LACK (side table) from Ikea, the LackRack is an easy-to-implement, exact-fit datacenter building block. Installing hardware in your LackRack is easy! Screw all the screws that fit in the rack mount in the left and right leg. The table legs have just right dimensions for almost 9U of rack space for 19″ hardware.
Earlier some hifi people have built hi-fi stand made out of IKEA Lack side tables, but now the world is ready for 19″ networking equipment racks. Check LackRack home page for more information on how to build your own very cheap 19″ rack system. The page also tells that also Ikea LACK coffee table and Ikea ODDA night table have right dimensions and can be easily converted to cheap 19″ racks.
Image source: http://wiki.eth-0.nl/index.php/LackRack
A Brief History of the Computer is a picture report by TIME magazine. It is worth to look at. There are 17 photos that tell the history of computers starting from year 1946.
Luke’s Weblog shows how LEGO blocks can be used to build the case for a WRT54GL wireless router and a PC. Lot’s of normal LEGO blocks and lots of work is needed to build those projects. The postings are is filled with goof pictures and videos how those fun projects were built.
The days when you can fix your own car may be coming to an end. New vehicles have complex on-board computerized systems densely packed under the hood. Mechanics face an ever climbing learning curve to keep up with advancing automotive technology. We need some technology to solve this problem.
Columbia University’s Computer Graphics and User Interface Lab have created a system that guides you as you make repairs. ARMAR, or Augmented Reality for Maintenance and Repair, is a head mounted display unit that provides graphic overlays to assist you in making repairs. The system has been recently tested with the United States Marine Corps on an armored turret and information on it is published in IEEE. The system guides the user to the damaged area and displays 3D animations to demonstrate what to do. An Android phone provides an interface to control the graphics you view during the process.
I saw this mentioned first in Slashdot Technology: Augmented Reality To Help Mechanics Fix Vehicles. Augmented Reality To Help Military Mechanics Fix Vehicles (Video) article gives you more detailed information and video material.
GUIs are fine, but to unlock the real power of Linux®, there’s no substitute for the command line. Learn Linux, 101: The Linux command line article is about getting comfortable with GNU and UNIX commands if you are not already comfortable with them. In this article, Ian Shields introduces you to some of the major features of the bash shell. By the end of this article, you will be comfortable using basic Linux commands like echo and exit, setting environment variables, and gathering system information.
Lazy Linux: 10 essential tricks for admins tells you tricks how to be a more productive Linux systems administrator. Learn these 10 tricks and you’ll be a powerful Linux® systems administrator. You will need these tips to play in the big leagues. Learn about SSH tunnels, VNC, password recovery, console spying, and more.
10 important Linux developments everyone should know about celebrates the 10 years of Linux accomplishments. The Linux® technology, development model, and community have all been game-changing influences on the IT industry, and all we can really do is stand back and look at it all. The Linux zone team has put together this greatly abbreviated collection of things that stand out in our minds as having rocked the world of Linux in a significant way.
The end of physical formats for movie and TV shows could be called digital convergence, a happy, wonderfully singular, unified digital world. Content moves seamlessly from your multifunction portable device to your TV, between your computers, and to every monitor and audio system and random networked appliance in between. This would be theoretically and technically possible, but in real life it does not seem to happen any time soon.
The Infinite Video Format War is Coming tells that the end to physical video formats doesn’t mean an end to format wars. In fact, once film and television content are no longer bound by physical media, we’re in for the mother of all format wars. When the physical disk media is gone, there won’t be just two, or three formats even. We’re talking 10 or 20 disc-free formats at the minimum, all with their own subscriptions, fee rates, movie selections, file resolutions and formats, use restrictions, preferred content providers and sometimes even hardware. Without discs, we may very well be screwed. The online distribution landscape is messy, uncoordinated and fragmented, and it’s going to get worse.
Convergence is the consumer’s dream: one system that supports all. Currently there is no magical box or service that will deliver everything, and there will probably be no such thing anytime soon.
But companies are doing their own daydreaming. Companies are mostly thinking about their own “ecosystems” —vertically integrated offerings. Within these ecosystems, there is limited convergence. This does now serve the customers well. This will hurt the business development in the short and long run.
For the time being, neither Microsoft’s nor Apple’s ecosystems play nice with each other. And many other companies are pushing to the market with their own ecosystems. So we’re stuck with half-assed solutions. Many of them. You’ll definitely need a hardcore PC or Mac Pro to handle new video content, not to mention multiple client applications and some ingenious and possibly unlawful way of getting the stuff to your TV.
It would seem that the solution would be to choose a single distributor. But licensing on the content side makes this impossible.
Welcome to the N-format war.
The German and French governments have warned web users to find an alternative browser to Internet Explorer to protect security. Microsoft has admitted that IE was the weak link in recent attacks on Google’s systems. That Operation Aurora attack used Chinese malware. This broad attack exploits a new, not publicly known vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer. Once the malware is downloaded and installed, it opens a back door that allows the attacker to perform reconnaissance and gain complete control over the compromised system.
Microsoft says that the IE browsers’ increased security setting (security zone to “high”) would prevent any serious risk, but German authorities say that even this would not make IE fully safe. This is a vulnerability that was announced in the last couple of days. Microsoft said that all versions of Internet Explorer were affected and there is no patch yet and Microsoft has not given any details of how soon a fix will be released. The risk is lower with more recent releases of its browser, but it is still there. Google IE flaw issue was clearly a PR disaster for Microsoft. Microsoft is hoping that the knee-jerk reaction of France and Germany is not mirrored elsewhere.
So if you are still using IE 6, then it is finally time time to get rid of that very old insecure browser. Any IT professional who is still allowing IE6 to be used in a corporate setting is guilty of malpractice. If you use IE7 or IE8, you should consider to start using a safer web browser because independent research says that IE 7 and 8 can also be exploited.
When you do the change I would recommend to change to Firefox, Opera or Google Chrome. While every browser has its security issues, the alternatives I have given do not have this vulnerability and should be considerable safer alternatives to IE in many other ways as well.
