Electrical grid is said to be vulnerable to terrorist attack. I can agree that electrical power distribution network would be quite vulnerable if someone tries to sabotage it and knows what to do. I know this because I design software and hardware for control systems for electrical companies. Some days ago I saw in Finnish →
Why does not my tablet touch screen work when powered with third party mains power supply, but works with the original power supply? This happened to me. The power supplied I had were both for tablets (different tablets) and had similar basic characteristics (same current and voltage ratings). The reason why the other power supply →
In my previous posting Current sensor for multi core cable is talked about measuring AC current flowing on cable where you don’t get access to individual wires. In that posting I mentioned that I saw Modern Device blog article Current Sensor that seem to be doing exactly that. This sensor is designed for providing an →
Taking DRM further than it’s gone before. DRM (Digital Rights Management) is something that we often just have to put-up-with in software and digital media files. Obviously DRM is a great tool for companies point of view to make sure we only use software and data as they intended, but outside planned obsolescence, there isn’t →
Raspberry Pi has just reached two milestones: turned one year old and reached one million sold. During the first year Raspberry Pi Foundation were able to match the hype it generated. When you buy a Raspberry Pi, the $35 computer doesn’t come with an operating system. Loading your operating system of choice (there are several →
FemtoDuino is probably the smallest 328 based Arduino compatible board around. Those things are tiny: foot print is 20.7×15.2mm. They’re an Atmega328 that is arduino compatible. Hands on with the super tiny arudino: FemtoDuino article and this video give you an introduction to those interesting looking small boards. The downside of them is that they →
Sad trends news gain. Finnish electronics exports collapse continues. Finnish electronics exports shrank in the last quarter of 2012. This is largely due the fact that Nokia miracle seems to be in the end. When Nokia’s gold rush was booming phones and other communication devices were 20 per cent of all Finnish exports. They were →
Inductive amplifier is a type of test instrument that does not require electrical contact to detect an AC wire under voltage. The conventional use of the inductive amplifier is finding the location of hidden wires and breaks in them. Inductive amplifiers can also be used to find an individual cable pair in a telephone cross →
Any real-world security system is inherently complex. Making them safe and secure is hard. Controlgeek Blog has an interesting pointer and summary on on a very interesting white paper How Complex Systems Fail. I also found his paper, which is only a few pages long, a fascinating read (like John Huntington and Schneier on Security). →
I just saw news in several news sources (check the links on this article to get to them) that STMicroelectronics wants to lure more contracts from the world’s biggest phone-makers with a new trick: touchless screens. The new display is the touch screen, except that it does not touch, but fingers are several centimeters above →