Archive for December 2012

Which way do non-polarized film capacitors go?

If you thought that capacitor orientation only matters for polarized varieties like electrolytic capacitors you should read one article to make you change your mind. In PCB Layout Tricks—striped capacitors and more article Bruce Trump looks at why some film capacitors have a stripe printed on one end and why their orientation can matter. Careful

HFR 3D digital movies

Movies have been shot and displayed at 24 frames per second for over 80 years (before that silent films were filmed in somewhat lower frame rate somewhere between 16 and 18 frames per second). In 1927, when sound came along, the industry needed to agree on a motor-driven, constant camera speed. 35mm film stock is

HTML5 specification published

W3C has published the full definitions of the HTML5 and Canvas 2D specifications and is now moving on to interoperability and performance testing. The W3C settling on a specification for HTML5 should mean that web browser developers can now provide support for a common set of functions rather than implementing parts of the specification. The

Old "Atari" joystick to USB

The most common joystick type in home computers in 1980′s and some time after that have been Atari-style digital joysticks. Atari 2600 joystick pinout”>Those joysticks are named after Atari, because this joystick type was first introduced in Atari 2600 videogame and then adopted to the home computers introduced on ever since (VIC 20, Commodore 64,

EDN Hot 100 products of 2012

Many thousands new electronics products were announced during the past year. EDN Hot 100 products of 2012 article lists the ones that especially caught the attention of EDN magazine editors and readers. They range from ICs and components, to software, test instruments, development tools and sensors, and more. Take a look at this list.

Transistor is 65 years old

Happy birthday, Transistor article tells that the first working version of transistor, the ubiquitous building block of all electronic circuits, was powered up 65 years ago today. The device is jointly credited to William Shockley (1910-1989), John Bardeen (1908-1991) and Walter Brattain (1902-1987), and it was Bardeen and Brattain who operated the first working point-contact

Christmas lights with Arduino

I have some years posted links to different Christmas lights project on the net. This year is no different. Here is the first one on this topic. Christmas light controller is its own percussion section article tells that Jason and his father took advantage of a week off of work over Thanksgiving to design and

Banking security and SMS authentication

After the recent incidents is seems that SMS is not very secure second factor for authentication. Australian Telcos Declare SMS Unsafe For Bank Transactions. Telcos declare SMS ‘unsafe’ for bank transactions article tells that the lobby group for Australian telcos has declared that SMS technology should no longer be considered a safe means of verifying