Hardware, Software, Gadgets, misc.

---

Fanboy definitions: Apple, Tesla, SteppIR and Flex Radio Systems :-) Boring: HP, Ford, Hygain and Ten-Tec.

---

Radio: So, SDR is here, eh? I don't think so! For ages, people have been saying that it is 'here'.
The problem is, for transceivers at the 100W level, it revolves around Flex Radio Systems (FRS [seems sorta apt]) in the USA (as the largest vendor here).
The latest release of SmartSDR (v3 and close to Dayton HamVention, no less) seems to be causing massive problems for new and old users alike. Much of the problems are pretty fundemental, so why on earth would FRS let this out the door? The choice of Windows as the client o/s is just plain crazy and highly unstable. Their website doesn't let you download the v2 s/w, only the broken v3 stuff!!! .... and charge you money for it. 'Their' amplifier (at $7000!), made offshore by a clearly third party, is finally shipping after one year and yet is being damaged by internal USA shipping (not cosmetically, but by the PSU coming loose internally). Most of the new owners have little clue how to use a screwdriver and resolve the issue, seemingly! Why, oh why, do Maestro 'front panels' still keep appearing for sale very shortly after being bought? Why has this particular product not succeeded after 3 years? Why does it take all the manufacturers at least a clear year from 'Dayton-to-Dayton' to go from announcement to actually shipping? Sometimes longer, Elecraft. HINT: Apache Labs SDR uses open source hardware and software.
PowerGenius XL amplifier 'from' Flex. Why on earth would anybody wait since April 2017 to get one of these, yet still be waiting???? Cancel the order and move on. Oh, don't think of ordering one now, just let them suffer. Technology is changing so fast that if you wait for one of these companies to deliver it will be out of date by the time it arrives.

---

A further problem with the future of radio; SDR and Linux: Manufacturers, the Linux kernel GNU licence applies to YOU!!!! That Flex Radio Systems and Elecraft [K4] are embedding Linux in their hardware ['radios'] and NOT releasing the source of their code BREAKS the licence granted to the Linux kernel. They are in breach of this until they release source!

---

Boeing has really been found out, at last, with their self qualifying testing [shame on you too FAA and US Government]. Well, now's the time to protest. YES YOU CAN CONTACT YOUR FAVOURITE AIRLINES AND TELL THEM WHAT YOU THINK OF THEM BUYING THE 737 MAX and 787 series 'planes. There are many signs that airlines are switching their orders (and tentative orders) from Boeing to Airbus. Make it happen and teach Boeing some tough lessons.......no matter how small a few hundred planes are out of tentative orders for 4000 airframes.
Why include the 787? Weeeeeeell, airlines are already cancelling 787 orders because of engine reliability/availability or because they have many 787s grounded for the 'long haul'. One of the current issues is the fire extinguishing system in the hold. The other is continuing engine flame-out and contained and uncontained engine failures. These include Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines and GEnx engines (parts made in Asheville).
Boeing also has problems with the 777X, which include the return to GE of the GE9X development engines and software 'issues' on the flightdeck. However, it has finally flown!
The airline industry problems don't stop at Boeing. There are ongoing problems with software and corrosion in Pratt and Whitney [PW1500G] engines on Airbus A220-100/300s, with multiple groundings and increased inspection. These have now been limited in thrust and altitude while redesign improves longevity........
Furthermore, A320neos that use the Pratt and Whitney 1100G are having major problems with vibration. Nearly 60% of these are fitted with CFM engines, so this affects only some airlines who chose the P&W engine option.
Cracking 'pickle forks' are being inspected for on 737NG [737-600/700/800/900] series aircraft with over 30,000 cycles. Quite a few have been found to have cracks. Some have less than 27,000 cycles. It's time for ALL of them to be inspected. Note: 1000 have been inspected and 50 are on the ground.

737 MAX flight cancellations now extend out to:
2020-07-04 - Icelandair
2020-08-10 - Southwest
2020-08-18 - American
2020-09-01 - AeroMexico
2020-09-04 - United
AA flight attendents have refused to board 737 MAX until further consultation is added.
The fix for the 787s with RR Trent 1000s is 'unknown'.

---

ICE is dead

The major problem with EVs? Getting power to them.
We have a new house and the circuit is from a dedicated power transformer on our own pole. The problem is that it's only a 200A circuit which can only supply 24kW. We have a whole house generator that can do 20kW. That's NOT a lot for an EV!!!! I assume that we would need to pay the power company to beef up the main circuit and transformer to the house. Sounds expensive.
 Level 1 charging: a standard 120 volt AC house outlet [typically 10A or 1.2kW]  
Level 2 charging: 240 volt AC charging [typically 32A or 7.6kW]
Level '3 or super' charging: 240volt AC charging [typically 60A or 14.4kW]
Out and about charging:
Initially, the Tesla Model 3 was able to charge at around 125 kW.
Upgraded  Supercharger V2 charges at 'up to' 150 kW.
Tesla Supercharger V3 will be able to charge at 'up to' 250 kW.
Where do you charge 'out there'? EVgo ChargePoint EV Connect Tesla   

---

InternalCombustionEngine 'fade out' deadlines

France and dependencies: 2040
Ireland: 2030
UK: 2040

---

If you're against vaccination, you're plain daft

---

Top requirements for an EV?
1) Mustn't look/be weird and goofy [That's you Tesla, you're weird]
2) Must do 300 miles, day in, day out, repeatibly.
3) Must hold a charge over many, many weeks.
4) Must have a good warranty.[That's you Tesla, see Hyundai]
5) Must be available nearby - VW e-Golf, Kia Niro EV and Hyundai Kona EV not in NC. Tesla too 'remote'.

---

Tesla, say hello to Jaguar I-PACE   and Audi e-tron SUV  and all the others following in their footsteps.
The Renault Zoe 50 and Peugeot e208 are stunningly good and the right price.

---

Tesla Y. This is NOT an SUV, look at the shape of SUVs here. Neither is it a hatchback. It is a liftback.
3rd row? There's no headroom because it isn't an SUV! Make an SUV and people might buy it........

---

Not a single car production line can run 3 shifts. Robots and everything else need maintenence. Example.
Not a single car production line uses robots to insert wiring looms, dashboards or seats. Tesla's failed attempt with the Model 3 now has humans on the production line.

---

Autonomous cars? Are they crazy? Why waste all the time and money on this? It won't save the planet.
People LOVE to drive cars, not sit inside a terrifying box driven by a computer [or twenty].
Just STOP and build EVs and develop battery technology and chargers!!!!

---

"One day, everything will have colour screens and laptops will dominate" - Paul, 1988

---

Where does my power come from (USA)?

---

Ford are hopelessly behind on EVs - seeking partnership with VAG (Volkswagen/Audi/Porsche). Ironically hit hard by Aluminium tarrifs and F-150 builds.
In desperation, they launch a Mustang SUV bolted to VW MEB platform (made in EU).
GM drops Bolt production in USA because of lack of demand.
[Later (2018/11/26) - scraps Volt, Cruze, Impala, Cadillac XTS, Cadillac CT6 {ALL of the Cadillac Sedans!} and Buick LaCrosse {Regal next?}]
Kia/Hyundai and Mazda scrap plans to launch diesel models in USA.
Hyundai Kona EV looks extremely promising. Delivery ramps up.
Subaru completely lacking signs of EVs, with missing welds, head gasket and PCV (engine replacement) issues to the fore.
Honda CR-Vs have oil/petrol problems and seizing engines.
Ford EcoSport engines have seizing engine and complete car fire problems.
Renault/Nissan/Mitsubishi and Peugeot/Citroen unveil SUV EV and very sexy 2 door EV.
German manufacturers drop most plug-in hybrid models after German Government incentives are removed. Hope they concentrate further on EV.
BMW and Mercedes-Benz need to get their feable act together (e.g. the BMW i3 & i8 are di$mal).

---

All Solid-State EV batteries coming:
Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen/Audi/Porsche and Fisker
NGK spark plug manufacturer diversifying into EV cells
Bosch went into SSEV and then aborted their move
Solid Power partnering with BMW (and Continental?)
Toyota may be jointly developing the batteries with Panasonic (will that include Tesla [Panasonic user] if they don't help to invest in the R&D costs?)
BMW and Porsche working together on very rapid charge station standard (450kWh)
The UK gets into the battery race

---

Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP) to delay some (IC) car builds in 2018 because emission testing facilities can't cope.

---

EU launches bug splatting effort on OSS projects:
Filezilla Apache Kafka Notepad++ PuTTY VLC Media Player FLUX TL KeePass 7-zip Digital Signature Services (DSS) Drupal GNU C Library (glibc) PHP Symfony
Apache Tomcat WSO2 midPoint

---

Did you know that IBM now owns The Weather Company which includes:
The Weather Channel (weather.com), Weather Underground (wunderground.com) and WSI (some products still branded as such)

---

---

Why you shouldn't rely on Apple, Google, Amazon AWS, Yahoo, Oracle (Sun), Facebook or Microsoft for your desktop/server-side functions:
Google Kills Desktop Search and Gadgets  Google To Shut Down 10 Products
Google To Rebrand Blogger & Picasa For Google+ Integration  Google Shuts Down more  
Microsoft Kills Windows Live Google kills iGoogle Apple kills iWork at short notice Apple kills MobileMe
Google kills more Posterous killed by Twitter Google kills RSS service! Yahoo kills Yahoo Maps(!!!!) and Yahoo Pipes
Google kills Picasa Google (finally) kills 5 search APIs Google kills Panoramio Microsoft kills CodePlex Google kills Google+
Google makes major changes to embedded Maps and charge$$$$$$$. Most pages migrate to OpenMaps
Google kills Allo Google kills Hangouts

Cloud proprietary systems are not to be trusted: PBS Newshour interview.

---

.....And remember, HP (HPQ), Dell (DELL), Yahoo (YHOO), RIM (RIMM) ain't doing so well.  Compare them here .

 HP (HPQ), Dell (DELL) are losing ground fast because of stronger, better competition in cameras, PCs and printers in the consumer market.
Samsung, Acer and Asus have better products and prices and have less reliance on PCs and a large tablet presence.
They are the only 2-3 who can compete with Apple and also provide components to them (i.e. they can't lose!).
In an ARM world, Intel/AMD based systems suppliers are a dying breed - except for Intel based rack server makers (HP/Dell) - who are going to lose it all to ARM anyway.

---

RISC-V Open Source processor under way
The Crowd and the Cloud projects
What's the most unreliable component of all time? CdS light sensitive resistors have to take that crown. Don't use them!!!
I suppose over-driven and under-cooled 'sweep tubes' in 70s/80s/90s 100W radio PAs have to be close. The envelopes used to creak and mica spacers would bulge the envelope. Yikes.

---

Some classic semiconductor videos: I II III IV V VI

---

ARM inks deals with GlobalFoundries... "AMD silicon line" to make 20nm ARM.
Google to design it's own ARM-based servers.....

---

If you rave about Apple products, then there's something you should know......
OS-X and iOS in all Apple products are based on ..... UNIX! In fact, a mashup of Darwin.
You pay lot$ of good money for a x86/amd64 (or ARM) platform with a "free" OS on it.
KHTML is the basis for Apple Safari and Google Chrome browsers - again based on OpenSource software.

---

Android is based on Linux, a flavour of UNIX, too.
Top programming languages (TIOBE) PYPL PopularitY of Programming Languages Top IDE index Top Database index
Python on the Raspberry Pi The interesting roots of "Hello, World!" [yes, it was in BCPL!]  

---

Social networks?
Facebook - how can ~2 billion people use this trash!? The stock (FB) is worth, at best, $5/share (not $185!). Market cap: $10b, not $530b.
Twitter - only marginally less crazy than Facebook. Neat, but worthless. Unless you want to start social unrest, that is......
GroupOn. A shameful way to rip-off vendors out front and make them regret it later.
LinkedIn. The only one worth anything. It's a thinking (wo)man's social network for networking and used by real professionals.

---

Fan boys of Apple in jury try to run over Samsung, etc. Biassed jury! Fight back Samsung, backed by the others!!!

---

THE FUTURE IS HERE!!!

---

Looking one year out.....in January 2018

The Most Frustrating to use Tech
iPad - 15 minutes enough to drive you completely mad
Motorola Xoom - 10 minutes enough to drive you completely mad (thankfully, a dead product)
Google Chrome - <30 minutes enough to really be really annoying and vast amounts of RAM used (100MB to start, 75MB per tab).
Ubuntu Linux with Unity GUI. Just about anything to do with KDE.
Windows Vista - the worst OS EVER!

---

The Best to use Tech!
Opera - Fast, small, good rendering. Facebook were rumoured to be buying it. Instead, it's now just a Chrome based fork.

---

ARM the Cambridge-based (UK) driver of the new tech
Shake-up in Semiconductor Manufacturing:
Microchip the 90's and 2000's workhorse in embedded systems - purchased  Atmel in 2016 and MicroSemi in 2018.
Qualcomm bid for NXP (2018).
(Texas Instruments or Analog Devices) buy (Cypress or Integrated Device Technology)
 (Renesas or Infineon or STMicroelectronics) buy (Maxim Integrated Products or ON Semiconductor or Semtech)

---

Open Hardware
Raspberry Pi - "educational" board
Openhardware.org
Arduino
Suppliers of Open Hardware/Software kits, etc.
Adafruit - SparkFun

---

Extensive list of microcontrollers and small motherboards from MAKE: (Makezine)
Extensive list of microcontrollers and small motherboards from Sparkfun

---

Other small boxes
  Futurlec Embedded Projects Dangerous Prototypes (PIC)
DD-WRT on Routers. I even got a WRT54Gv8 running decent code! ...and YES the 12V router can be run from 5V. Amazingly, I have it running on a USB port (by making a USB to 3.5mm barrel connector cable). The router stays powered in standby mode of the PC and is powered off when the PC is off! [I am using it in Client mode, so it simply runs as ethernet connected WiFi tx/rx and NOT an AP, Repeater or Bridge].  The v8 didn't used to be supported - here's more detail. I believe later versions are again easier to flash.

---

 Watch out for these guys at electric imp !

---

New data links: LoRa, (6)LoWPAN

---

 Make!

Home  | Who we are  | Capabilities  | Web Hosting & System News  | News  | Oil  | Exchanges  | Weather  | Online Payments  | Applications - Latest Versions
Open Source Applications  | Open Source OS/GUI  | Viruses, Spam & Security Alerts  | RSS News feed  | Hobbies  | Utilities  | WebCAM  | Politics  | Software