Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Padfone-Like Tablet With iPhone Dock By ECS
Intellectual Ventures Strikes Patent-Licensing Deal With Micron
Patent-holding giant Intellectual Ventures has struck a deal with Micron Technology, one of the largest makers of memory chips for computers and smartphones. Micron?a company that has had a conflicted stance on patents in the past few years?is the latest company to pay up for patent rights to IV’s more than 30,000 patents.
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Apple Update Removes MacDefender Malware
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Cell Phone Evolution, Say Farewell to Voicemail
Read:
Voicemail, an ObituaryDo not leave me a voicemail. I will not listen to it. I'm going to press the corresponding number to delete your message as soon as the automated voice recording concludes. I'm going to press it with conviction, like a little boy who just won a raffle to implode an old baseball stadium.Eve Online: Audience With The King Of Space
The best analogy for Eve is this: 1% of the time, when you take part in a massive fleet fight, or take part in some epic espionage caper or something, it is the most fun game you will ever encounter. 99% of the time you're just waiting for something to happen. But it's that 1% that hooks people like crack cocaine. I mean, you don't get interviewed by the BBC when you win a WoW raid.
Watch:
Know:
Escape your own extinction in 'Dino Run,' playable online or via the Mac App Store. [From: Dino Run]Got a tip? Want to talk to us? In need of more choice links like these? Drop us a line on Twitter and check out our Tumblr blog.
Cell Phone Evolution, Say Farewell to Voicemail originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dinos and Trenches in '1916 - The War You Never Knew'
We're no history buffs, but we're fairly certain that World War I did not involve ferocious velociraptors stalking hapless soldiers through the trenches. (But who knows? Maybe we were absent the day it was covered in history class.) The creators of '1916 - The War You Never Knew' -- a first-person survival horror experience set in the dingy trenches of the Great War -- clearly took inspiration from indie sensation 'Amnesia: The Dark Descent.' Setting this type of game in this type of environment is brilliant; it allows for a claustrophobic world that doesn't feel artificially constrained, and makes for a genuinely scary experience, notwithstanding the addition of deadly dinosaurs.
Continue reading Dinos and Trenches in '1916 - The War You Never Knew'
Dinos and Trenches in '1916 - The War You Never Knew' originally appeared on Switched on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Cost Of Your Commute, Ctd
6 Signs Your Heartburn Needs Medical Attention
Intel Atom accelerates: Cedar Trail for netbooks, Medfield for sub-9mm gaming tablets
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HuffPo Tells Judge: Tasini Blogged For Fame, Not Cash?Throw Out His Lawsuit
Lawyers for The Huffington Post have moved to dismiss Jonathan Tasini’s novel lawsuit claiming that the popular internet newspaper actually owes money to its unpaid bloggers. Tasini got exactly what he was looking for from his free blogging, HuffPo lawyers argue?exposure?and his lawsuit insisting on payment must be thrown out.
Memorial Day Weekend: Regular Posting And Newsletter Resume May 31
We?ll be taking a three-day weekend in honor of Memorial Day. Regular posting and the newsletter will resume on Tuesday morning, May 31, but, as always, we?ll update the site for any breaking news.
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Intel Rapid Start and Smart Connect promise instant-resume & more
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4 Steps to a Smaller Waist
Although your shape is determined by genetics,[3] you can't blame your genes for not exercising or not eating well! A waist that measures between 32-35 inches (81-89cm) is considered overweight.[4] The good news is that it is possible to trim some weight from your waist, whatever your body shape.
AppFabric.tv - Troubleshooting WCF Performance (Part 1)
Dustin Metzgar works on our performance team and recently wrote a very cool blog post about a performance problem he was troubleshooting with WCF. In this episode, Dustin shares the problem and solution, as well as the tools and techniques he uses to figure these types of things out.
Ron Jacobs
http://blogs.msdn.com/rjacobs
Twitter: @ronljacobs http://twitter.com/ronljacobs
Faces Of The Day
Palin vs The Media
Students Create Smartphone App Capable of Detecting Malaria
The team, comprised of students from around the nation, developed the prototype using a Samsung Focus smartphone, running Windows 7. After adding a microscopic camera lens to the phone, the students developed software capable of analyzing and scanning blood for malaria parasites. With the app installed on the phone, doctors or nurses could theoretically take a photo of any blood sample, and instantly know whether or not a patient is infected with malaria, and how severe the case may be.
Continue reading Students Create Smartphone App Capable of Detecting Malaria
Students Create Smartphone App Capable of Detecting Malaria originally appeared on Switched on Sat, 09 Apr 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Clint Rutkas and "Where's My Car" on Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone has proven to be a popular platform for developing a wide variety of applications. Clint Rutkas joins us on this episode to explain what "Coding4Fun" is, and how they help provide cool tools, apps, and resources to aid people in their development projects.
In addition to talking in general about developing applications for Windows Phone, Clint also demonstrates "Where's My Car," a Windows Phone application that was developed as part of Coding4Fun. A new version of "Where's My Car" has now been uploaded to the Windows Phone Marketplace, fixing the little bug that we discussed in this episode, so if you have Windows Phone be sure to download the app, check it out, and then post your review.
Here are some additional links you might find useful:
- Windows Phone Development Tools
- Silverlight Toolkit
- Coding4Fun Tools
- Where's My Car (you need the Zune software installed for this link)
- Arian Kulp's website (Author of "Where's My Car")
Eyeshadow of the future uses LEDs not makeup
Monday, May 30, 2011
About Time! 'This American Life' Finally Goes iPad
Not to make gross generalizations, but it is pretty amazing that 'This American Life,' the NPR talk show hosted by hip geek Ira Glass, took this long to get to the iPad. NPR and iPads should have an intrinsic relationship, like Volkswagens and Macs, Starbucks and the New York Times. Once again, these are broad assumptions, but the Cult of Mac's reputation as NPR-listening, Toms-wearing folk isn't for naught. Too bad it's text only, but we certainly hope "Squirrel Cop" makes an appearance.Disclaimer: This author works on a Mac and listens to NPR, and this was written while sipping a soy chai latte in a Brooklyn coffee shop.
About Time! 'This American Life' Finally Goes iPad originally appeared on Switched on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Destroy the Planet by Watering a Plant
Gigabyte unveils new Booktop M2432 notebook at Computex
Jonathan Franzen's New Yorker Piece Hides Behind a Facebook Like Wall
Jonathan Franzen's New Yorker Piece Hides Behind a Facebook Like Wall originally appeared on Switched on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
"Never go anywhere without your towel." -Douglas Adams, creator of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Happy Towel Day
How to Make a Tomahawk Without a Forge
Yglesias Award Nominee
The View From Your Window Contest
DirectX Video Acceleration boosts Freemake Video Converter 2.2 performance by 50%
By Nick Peers
The freeware video conversion program can handle a wide variety of formats, plus download and convert video directly from over 40 sites.
Morbid Fascination
How to Prevent Carbon Monoxide Poisoning After an Emergency
Fortunately, you can take a number of preventive measures to minimize and remove the chances of any type of carbon monoxide poisoning after an emergency, as discussed in this article.
A Tweeting .NET Micro Framework breathalyzer
This project shows how you can use the Netduino Plus to make a tweeting breathalyzer?a standalone breathalyzer that can post messages about the detected alcohol level to Twitter, using an inexpensive alcohol gas sensor.
The Netduino is an open source electronics platform based on a 32-bit microcontroller running the .NET Micro Framework. The Netduino Plus is similar to the original Netduino, but adds a built-in Ethernet controller and MicroSD slot. Since the Netduino Plus can connect directly to a network, it can independently communicate with Twitter?s API without being connected to a computer.
Hardware Overview
The MakerShield is a simple prototyping shield that is compatible with the standard Arduino and Netduino boards.
In this configuration, the MQ-3 alcohol gas sensor will output an analog voltage between 0 and 3.3V to indicate the amount of alcohol detected. This output will be connected to one of the Netduino?s analog input pins and read by its ADC.
While it would possible to convert the sensor?s output to a numeric BAC level, this would require careful calibration and would be prone to error. For this project, I will use approximate value ranges to determine which of several messages should be posted to Twitter. An approximate reading will be displayed on an RGB LED.
RGB LED
The RGB LED is the primary status indicator. During normal operation, it shows the level of alcohol, represented by colors ranging from green to red.
Three transistors are used to provide power to the RGB LED. The microcontroller used on the Netduino has a relatively low current limit per IO pin (around 8 mA for most pins) so it is generally not advised to drive LEDs (which can require 20-30 mA) directly from these pins. Using a transistor (or another LED driver) helps ensure that enough power will be made available to each LED without damaging the Netduino.
This page shows some common transistor circuits, including a few "transistor as a switch" circuits. Since the RGB LED I am using has a common cathode (low side) lead, I am using PNP transistors to switch the anode (high side) of each color.
Alcohol Gas Sensor
The MQ-3 essentially has two components: a heater and an alcohol gas sensor. The heater literally applies heat to the sensor in order to provide more accurate measurements and requires a constant 5V power source. The alcohol sensor acts as a variable resistor, where the resistance decreases as the level of alcohol increases.
While the heating element requires 5V, the alcohol sensor can actually operate at a different voltage. Applying 3.3V to the sensor (VC in the above diagram) will ensure that the output voltage (VRL) doesn?t exceed the Netduino?s input limits.
The sensor and RL act as a voltage divider. The datasheet for this sensor shows that the resistance across the sensor is between 2K-20K ohms, so an RL value of 10K ohms will provide a wide voltage output range.
Other Components
The MakerShield has two LEDs that I am using to display some additional status information. The red LED indicates whether the device is ready to post to Twitter, and the Green LED indicates that a post is in progress.
I am also using the button on the MakerShield to trigger the Netduino to post a message on Twitter. You could also write code to automatically post based on level peak detection, but for simplicity I decided to just use the button as a trigger.
Code
Pin configuration, Twitter API keys, the NTP server address, and other settings are stored in a Config class (Config.cs in the project root). If you download the source code for this project from CodePlex, make sure you copy the Config.sample.cs to Config.cs and take a look through the file to confirm all the settings:
public static class Config { // NTP Server public const string NTPServer = "time-a.nist.gov"; public const int TimeOffset = -7; // MakerShield LEDs public const Cpu.Pin RedLEDPin = Pins.GPIO_PIN_A5; public const Cpu.Pin GreenLEDPin = Pins.GPIO_PIN_A4; // RGB LED public const Cpu.Pin RGBRedPin = Pins.GPIO_PIN_D10; public const Cpu.Pin RGBGreenPin = Pins.GPIO_PIN_D6; public const Cpu.Pin RGBBluePin = Pins.GPIO_PIN_D9; public const bool RGBInverted = true; // Button public const Cpu.Pin ButtonPin = Pins.GPIO_PIN_A3; // Alcohol Gas Sensor public const Cpu.Pin SensorPin = Pins.GPIO_PIN_A0; // The Netduino's 10-bit ADC has a maximum value of 1023, but the sensor may not reach the highest possible voltage. // Input values >= the SensorMaxValue will be treated as 100%. public const int SensorMaxValue = 900; // Twitter public const string ConsumerKey = "YourConsumerKey"; public const string ConsumerSecret = "YourConsumerSecret"; public const string UserToken = "YourUserToken"; public const string UserTokenSecret = "YourUserTokenSecret"; }In order to post messages on Twitter, it is necessary to register an application through Twitter?s developer portal. Instructions for this can be found on the MicroTweet CodePlex Page.
Startup
When the Netduino first powers on it will wait for a few moments to let the alcohol gas sensor heat up and establish a baseline reading. The sensor?s datasheet recommends a preheat time of 24-48 hours, but the readings typically stabilize after a few minutes. During this time the RGB LED will slowly fade from blue to red to indicate that the sensor is heating up.
RGB LED
A simple RGB LED helper class is included to help make controlling the color and output of the LED easier. The class must be instantiated with three Cpu.Pin addresses, one for each color:
protected static RGBLED rgbLed = new RGBLED(Config.RGBRedPin, Config.RGBGreenPin, Config.RGBBluePin, Config.RGBInverted);
In the sample code, these pins are pulled from the Config class. The last parameter for the RGBLED constructor, invertOutput, is used to determine whether a logical high output value turns the LED on or off.
NTP
Next, the Netduino will attempt to update the system time from an NTP server. This is necessary for communication with Twitter?s OAuth API because all requests must contain an accurate timestamp. If the NTP server is unreachable, the Twitter functionality will be disabled, but it will still be possible to see the alcohol level on the RGB LED.
The code to communicate with an NTP server is included with the MicroTweet library. The UpdateTimeFromNTPServer method will contact the specified NTP server and update the Netduino?s time:
NTP.UpdateTimeFromNTPServer(Config.NTPServer);
If the time is updated successfully, a new instance of the TwitterClient class is created:
twitterClient = new TwitterClient(Config.ConsumerKey, Config.ConsumerSecret, Config.UserToken, Config.UserTokenSecret);
Measurements
Measurements from the alcohol sensor are repeatedly taken within the main program loop. The 10-bit ADC will return a value between 0 and 1023, but these values don?t necessarily correspond to the minimum/maximum readings from the alcohol sensor so some calculations are performed to convert the ADC value to a number between 0 and 100:
protected static AnalogInput SensorInput = new AnalogInput(Config.SensorPin);// ...public static int GetSensorValue() { int rawValue; lock (SensorInput) { rawValue = SensorInput.Read(); } int adjustedValue = (rawValue - SensorMinValue) * 100; int result = adjustedValue / (Config.SensorMaxValue - SensorMinValue); return result; }SensorMinValue is the baseline measurement established when the program was starting up. Config.SensorMaxValue is the configured "maximum" value that indicates the highest detectable alcohol level. Depending on your sensor, this maximum value may need to be adjusted.
It?s also worth noting that it can take about 30 seconds for the sensor to return to its baseline value after a measurement. This screenshot shows the sensor?s output before and after taking a reading:
In this test, the baseline measurement (with no alcohol applied to the sensor) was about 1V. When alcohol was applied to the sensor the output quickly peaked at just under 3V, and then slowly decreased once the alcohol was removed.
Posting to Twitter
Sending a tweet from a TwitterClient instance is simple:
twitterClient.SendTweet("Hello, world!");In this project, the MakerShield?s button is used to trigger the Netduino to post a message on Twitter. This button is monitored by an instance of the InterruptPort class, which fires a C# event when the input changes on the selected pin:
protected static InterruptPort button = new InterruptPort(Config.ButtonPin, true, Port.ResistorMode.PullUp, Port.InterruptMode.InterruptEdgeLevelLow);// ...static void button_OnInterrupt(uint data1, uint data2, DateTime time) { if (twitterClient == null) return; greenLED.Write(true); int sensorValue = GetSensorValue(); string message; if (sensorValue < 20) message = "No alcohol detected"; else if (sensorValue < 40) message = "Tipsy"; else if (sensorValue < 60) message = "Drunk"; else if (sensorValue < 80) message = "Whoa! #WINNING"; else message = "x_x"; DateTime adjustedTime = DateTime.Now + new TimeSpan(Config.TimeOffset, 0, 0); message += " at " + adjustedTime.ToString("h:mm:ss tt"); try { twitterClient.SendTweet(message); } catch (Exception e) { Debug.Print(e.ToString()); } greenLED.Write(false); button.ClearInterrupt(); }The button event handler code in this project is relatively simple: the current level from the alcohol sensor is read, a message is generated, and it attempts to post the message to Twitter. The current time is appended to the end of the message to avoid issues with multiple identical tweets.
![twitter[2]](http://files.channel9.msdn.com/wlwimages/1932b237046e4743a4e79e6800c0220f/twitter%5B2%5D%5B3%5D.png "twitter[2]")
Conclusion
The code for this project is included in the Samples folder of the MicroTweet library. Be sure to check out the MicroTweet project page on CodePlex for the source code and more information.
MicroTweet is released under the Apache 2.0 license, so it can be freely used in your own projects with attribution.
About the Author
Matt Isenhower is a desktop and mobile application developer who primarily works with the .NET Framework. His company, Komodex Systems, is currently focused on building new and exciting apps for Windows Phone 7 and other platforms. He also has a blog and can be followed on Twitter at @mattisenhower.
Facebook Strikes Deal to Create New Social Network in China
Facebook Strikes Deal to Create New Social Network in China originally appeared on Switched on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Chinese prisoners forced into WoW "goldmining" scheme, says detainee
Prisoners in a labor camp in northeastern China have allegedly been forced to play MMORPG's like World of Warcraft in an elaborate scheme said to net prison bosses approximately $800 to $900 per day.
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Moving can be a nightmare. Here?s how to plan a move so it goes as smoothly as possible.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Why can you download Office for Mac 2011 from Amazon but not Apple?
By Joe Wilcox, Betanews
If you were Microsoft, would you want to compete with Apple products at Mac App Store and give up 30 percent of sales price? Amazon's new Mac Software Downloads store is pure retail.