March 4th, 2010
Moore’s Law observes that the number of transistors doubles for the same area every two years. Strange that this law has hold for a long time. This has made some people to predict that that 32-bit processors will replace 8-bit processors. The argument starts with the fact that the relative size difference between an 8- and a 32-bit-processor core approaches zero compared with the other resources on the chip as the transistor geometry continues to shrink. When the difference in the silicon area of 8- and 32-bit cores shrinks to nothing, 8-bit processors lose the price advantage that they once enjoyed.
How low can 32 bits processors go? article tells you this and the fact, but also that this is not the whole story. 8-bit controller have their advantages still in applications where their processing power is enough. It is true that 32-bit cores are pushing everywhere (more capabilities and easier to program), but there are still applications where there is good place for 8-bit processors.
Posted in Computers, Electronics Design | 3 Comments »
March 3rd, 2010
Live DOM Viewer is a nice JavaScript tool for playing with web page DOM (Document Object Model). This JavaScript powered web page shows you four boxes: HTML source editing box, document DOM view, rendered document view and log. The scrip comes with very simple example data, for better testing you can paste your HTML code in or use the code included in more complicated example. I have tested that this page works well in Firefox and Chrome browsers, and it also work with IE (DOM view does not look as good on IE). You can run this web page on the server or it work well from a local file (so you can save the web page on your PC and use it as tool when you need it).
Posted in WWW dev | 1 Comment »
March 2nd, 2010
Shocking news: 1 in 3 laptops fail in the first three years of ownership! So run, don’t walk, to purchase your warranty if you believe the figures! Generally extra warranty the on electronics the shops try to sell are virtually never worth the price (according to almost ever consumer organization). Could the situation be different on laptops? If it is then I would expect the prices of such extra warranties to go up if the laptops keep falling very often as the study says.
One in Three Laptops Fail Within 3 Years article also has nice graph of malfunction rates by computer manufacturer. It gives you nice idea how reliable different laptop brands are. If you are interested in more details read the full report. The study found that netbook malfunction rates to be trending 20% higher than more expensive laptops, the variance between manufacturer is far greater. Read the report if you plan to buy a laptop or netbook.
Image by Free-StockPhotos.com
Posted in Computers | 4 Comments »
February 28th, 2010
I visited yeasterday Mobile Dev Camp. Mobile Dev Camp is a one day event devoted to developing mobile applications on the latest mobile platforms such as iPhone, Android, Maemo. It is held in Helsinki Finland. The end result waht I got from the presentations I followed that web techniologies are coming more and more into use in mobile application development in the next few years.
Web applications are cheaper to make than native applications and can nowadays do many many things (and in the future more). Especially web applications are cheaper when you need the same application to work obn many devices (porting web application to different device is much much cheaper than porting native device, and many web applications work on many platform already without any extra porting work ).
HTML5 web applications are the way to go. Web technologies are nowadays integral part of modern communications devices and the web runtime is fully fledged application platform. Location based web applications are already possible with Android and iPhone. URL is an easy distribution model.
Mobile web application will be big in 5 years. Great growth of mobile web is not cannibalizing the traditional web but can affect the business models of today’s app shop centric mobile application world.
Apple crated downloadable mobile applications markets with marketing (lots of money spent). Now almost everybody seem to be following that model and device manufacturers are betting on at the moment very heavily. But is that limiting application shop model locked to single manufacturer the best for mobile application business? I think this model will face problems when open cross platform web applications will take on. Other possible future is that web applications will be in the future sold on those same shops in the same way as native applications nowadays, just some applications are web applications and some native applications, without end user knowing how the application is made. Let’s see what happens in few years.
Posted in Computers, Telecom and Networking | 2 Comments »
February 28th, 2010
Here is an interesting idea how you can walk and code at the same time. I just saw this at 8th light Walk and Code blog posting. The idea comes from WalkStation, an adjustable height desk with a treadmill underneath. The solution presented on the blog is cheaper is more DIY model based on treadmill and Ikea desk. Cool idea. I am just wondering how productive you can be on coding while you walk…
Image source: http://blog.8thlight.com/articles/2010/2/25/walk-and-code
Posted in Computers, diy | No Comments »
February 26th, 2010
According to cnet News article The Olympics run on Windows (XP) all the 6000 Acer PCs powering the Olympics are running Windows XP. Olympics tends to be conservative and they do not want to try out the latest in new technology. Technology to use should work and best if technology is kept out of the headlines.
XP is a proven platform. It runs well and its easy to tune so why wouldn’t you go with it if the newer features of Vista or Windows 7 are not critical. No enterprise in their right mind would make a complete shift to a new OS (Windows 7) in less than 6 months since its inception. There is too much testing involved. Too often in computer software products lots of (too much?) the testing is left to the end user…
In enterprise it’s a waste of time money and effort to fix something that isn’t broken. There are always more than enough things that are broken that need the focus. When XP can no longer do the job or the efficiency gain of an upgrade is more than the cost, then is it time to upgrade to something that works better in the given application. And that is not always a newer Windows version. For some people/applications that better solution could be Linux or Apple Mac OS X. Both of them are based on Unix technologies.
Posted in Computers, Entertainment Technology | 3 Comments »
February 25th, 2010
The 2010 CWE/SANS Top 25 Most Dangerous Programming Errors is a list of the most widespread and critical programming errors that can lead to serious software vulnerabilities. They are often easy to find, and easy to exploit. They are dangerous because they will frequently allow attackers to completely take over the software, steal data, or prevent the software from working at all.
The Top 25 list is a tool for education and awareness to help programmers to prevent the kinds of vulnerabilities that plague the software industry, by identifying and avoiding all-too-common mistakes that occur before software is even shipped. Software customers can use the same list to help them to ask for more secure software. The list is the result of collaboration between the SANS Institute, MITRE, and many top software security experts in the US and Europe.
Cross-site Scripting, ‘SQL Injection and Classic Buffer Overflow are still on the top of the list.
Image source: http://www.stevenbrown.ca/blog/archives/225
Posted in Computers, Telecom and Networking | 1 Comment »
February 23rd, 2010
Just about all professional equipment uses balanced audio lines, which, if properly executed, will eliminate the hum completely. They help especially with long interconnects where earth loops can be a real pain. Circuits driving balanced lines must themselves be balanced to maintain the benefits of balance. This may be achieved by differential signaling, transformer coupling or by merely balancing the impedance in each conductor. Typical professional audio sources, such as microphones, have three-pin XLR connectors. One is the ground or common, while the other two are signal connections.
Many consumer HIFI equipment and other audio signal sources offer only unbalanced outputs. Unbalanced interconnections pick up easily all kinds of noise (especially ground loop noise), so you might want to avoid them everywhere you can.
You can convert the simple unbalanced preamp output to balanced circuit with one of the following tricks:
- Use a DI box to convert unbalanced signal to balanced microphone level signal
- An audio transformer is a classic way to convert unbalanced to balanced
- Balanced opamp output circuit can convert unbalanced to balanced (more modern approach but more components)
In addition to those there is not so widely mentioned impedance-balanced output option:
1. Figure out the output impedance of your unbalanced signal source. Usually looking at the circuit diagram of the device will tell you that easily. If you don’t have that, you can always measure the output impedance.
2. Pick a resistor that has same resistance as the output impedance of your unbalanced output (as close as possible… preferably within 1% accuracy).
3. Wire the unbalanced output signal to XLR pin 2 (+).
4. Wire ground to XLR pin 1 (ground).
5. Wire that resistor you just selected between XLR pins3 (-) and pin 1 (ground).
Now you have a impedance-balanced output. It is not exactly as good as a real balanced output, but performs pretty close a real balanced output in normal applications. You can use the same idea also with 6.3 mm jacks: signal goes to tip and the resistor to ring. An impedance balanced output with 6.3 mm jacks works as well as an unbalanced output if that is what is needed (just plug in a cable with mono plug).
Impedance-balanced principle has been used some professional electret mics and on outputs of some “budget” mixers! Just by adding one resistor an unbalanced output is converted to impedance balanced output that works very well with all equipment that has balanced inputs.
More information on line balancing and theory can be found at great The Self Site Balanced Line Technology document.
Posted in Audio and Video, Electronics Design, Groundloop | 7 Comments »
February 22nd, 2010
Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are solid-state devices composed of thin films of organic molecules that create light with the application of electricity. OLEDs are a promising technology for flat panel displays. Compared to standard LCDs (including those with LED backlighting), OLED displays offer better contrast ratios (no trouble producing ‘true’ black’), require no backlighting at all, permit wider viewing angles, and don’t suffer from color shift. In short OLEDs can provide brighter, crisper displays on electronic devices and use less power than liquid crystal displays (LCDs) used today. In addition OLED diplays can be transparent, flexible, wearable, and theoretically printed by an inkjet printer (maybe not everything at the same time).
To display manufacturers, this new panel technology is expected to be the next big thing (in addition to 3D). Display manufacturers have been talking about OLED televisions and monitors as “a couple years away” for at least the last half-decade.
Unfortunately, it seems that everything hasn’t worked out too well for OLED. Sony Kills Next-Gen 11″ Display; Manufacturers Hedge on OLED TVs article tells that Sony announced it would halt sales of its 11″ XEL-1 OLED in Japan, where the panel first debuted. Sony’s decision to kill the unit in its home market and reduce the rate at which it’s investing in future OLED TV development has been perceived in some corners as a judgment on the long-term feasibility of OLED technology. In the wake of Sony’s announcement, far too many online pundits have rushed to declare OLED panels dead, dying, moribund, or otherwise abandoned.
I think this case does not yer prove that. Sony OLED case was just proven that people currently don’t want to spend kilobucks on technology that’s not even ready from prime time because LCD LED and Plasma TVs are “good enough” for everyone. Sony XEL-1 is a sub-HD resolution small 11 inch (28 cm) television that cost thousands of dollars and looked pretty ugly, no wonder that it failed. If you are into electronics and want to see what electronics is inside that display, take a look at inside XEL-1 OLED TV display picture.
After this incident we’ll probably see development focus shift at least in short term from large panel sizes to smaller ones, particularly since the smartphone/handheld OLED market. OLED technology will evolve there and maybe some day it will be more ready for the prime time in larger displays. After smartphones the next step would be netbooks/notebook, then laptops and then computer monitors.
Posted in Audio and Video, Electronics Design | 5 Comments »
February 21st, 2010
High-brightness LEDs for solid-state lighting can last 50,000 hours or more, but the components surrounding them generate heat that can cause early failures. The early failures can be seen on many LED products, especially the cheap ones. Lighting products have historically been reliable, but as electronics-rich CFLs (compact fluorescent lights) began to replace incandescent bulbs, consumers began seeing the products’ early failures. And the same is expected to happen with many LED designs.
Product lifetime and product reliability are different things. Lifetime refers to the length of time an end user can expect a product to work. Reliability refers to how many products per thousand a user can expect to fail in normal use during their expected lifetime. LED component manufacturers often quote lifetimes of 50,000 hours or more for the LED itself, LED because the lighting unit comprises of also many other parts (LED driver/power supply), the actual lifetime of the unit can easily be considerably shorter than the lifetime of the LED itself.
Burn out: Weak links affect HB-LED lifetime article tells that proper selection of capacitors and other components, along with thermal management, can help you save your LED lighting product from an early demise.
Posted in Electronics Design | 4 Comments »
