mtdev

They have a bunch of stuff on their eBay page that is not on the floor but is available for local pickup.

Anyone considering doing a raspberry pi project may want to look at the new beaglebone black. It is marginally more expensive, has better performance, is completely open and has a fairly good software support community.

http://beagleboard.org/Products/BeagleBone%20Black

More of the same here: http://microblog.routed.net/category/icf/ . Third post contains similar instructions on de-encapsulation.

http://i.imgur.com/HkdAeMJ.png in case tweet gets removed

Just buy a raspberry pi and ship it here: https://www.edis.at/en/server/colocation/austria/raspberrypi.... Supposedly free.

This article is a little misleading in that it seems to indicate that FB will trash Xeon servers and drop in ARM processors. Current ARM processors (SOC and standalone silicon) have poor data throughput. You can mask this using media accelerators, e.g. decode x264 video in the GPU so you have smooth playback while saving some data bandwidth. ARMv8 (allegedly sampling in 2014-2015) will double the AHB/CoreLink width and instruction size to 64 bits, but we are not there yet. What is much more likely is that they will incorporate specialized hardware using FPGA/ASIC and use ARM cores as supervisory modules. That way, they can use a general purpose OS and use ARM tools to develop for the supervisor module, and still get the data throughput of the custom controller. This is how data processing is already done on 1080/2k/4k video streams. Xilinx and likely Altera already provide FPGAs with hard ARM cores (in addition to IP for soft cores) which makes it very easy to roll your own data controller with an ARM core managing it. Makes a lot more sense for FB to go this route for custom NAS boxes, possibly network switch/router hardware to follow in Google's path.

Focusing on mainly on electronics, I will agree that hardware is having a glamour moment, but not because more funding is available. I am an embedded designer and I work closely with several hardware startups (in silicon valley and other places) ranging from novel LED lighting to data acquisition systems. Every one of those startups had to bootstrap themselves until they were financially viable from sales before they were able to get any outside investments. My sample size is small, however, the data agree five out of five times.

The article is dead on with respect to the falling costs of prototyping, I would also add the falling cost of integrated circuits in general. For example, I can get high quality PCB prototypes for about $30 shipped in one week (5cm x 5cm, two layer, 6/6/6 design rules). This was unheard of five years ago. Furthermore, you can now get a 32-bit ARM processor (which doesn't need many external components) in the same package as 8-bit microcontrollers for about the same cost. You can run a open-source IP/USB/BT stack on those without having to cobble together your own. Having the extra performance available, at the low cost/high integration factor, allows the designer similar agile capability as compared to lean software startups, where you can use available code to prototype first and then optimize after you have your feature set. This makes it easier to develop smarter devices that integrate with a broader software stack, e.g. cloud connected embedded devices.

You can add some functionality to limit scope and implement a caching system (which is also proposed here) to deal with M*N issues with a focus on keeping backwards compatibility. E.g. the caching is done automatically, the scope spamming control is a best effort solution based on static analysis (for example).

Moving from headers to modules is a fundamental change in how the language operates and is guaranteed to further break compatibility between compilers further. I worry that jumping to add these features to the language standard is premature and we should instead look further to optimizations within the preprocessor and linker to see if we can improve performance first.

You can maintain backwards compatibility while fixing bugs. It's equally a Big Deal to have discipline while working on language architecture to minimize feature creep/bloat.

Looks like the core issue is a poor preprocessor implication. It's a good idea in principle, however, we would be adding new features to address shortcomings in existing features instead of fixing the problems in the existing code.

I don't see any contact info in your profile, send me an email (contact in profile) and I can set something up.

The initial mobius.io device has 16 general purpose I/O lines, several serial ports, and analog in, so it is much more flexible than Nest. As for Android@Home, mobius also has its own cloud service, so you don't need to worry about infrastructure. What we would like to do is to have the same functionality of something like NI USB-6009 (http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/201987) without the computer. And we also have LabVIEW drivers for our device. So you can automate things in your business/home from anywhere using JS/LabVIEW/HTTP GET if you wanted to.

Thanks for the link. I figured YC knew the risk if PG asked for more hardware people to apply. It's true that it's very hard to have the same type of growth in a hardware startup as software, but someone has to make the gadgets. Additionally, while Kickstarter gives you funding, they don't provide the same type of mentorship that YC may offer.

Thanks for the tips. As for enterprise, we want to eat ni.com's lunch since a lot of threir lower end systems require a computer to operate. We're thinking of doing a kick starter to get 50 to 100 prototypes built and the case design finalized. The hardware is solid and the firmware/server side features are pretty much done.

Feel free (anyone else too) to contact me if interested in a demo. We're in Mountain View.

mobius.io here, we make hardware and were pretty excited when we read http://www.paulgraham.com/hw.html. Got rejected today and checked the server logs, saw nobody ever logged into our demo site. Is this typical or just means that our application was really, really bad?

For example, SGI C language reference using mipspro compilers:

http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/manuals/0000/007-0701-150/pd...

Send mail to the following address: Technical Publications SGI 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, M/S 535 Mountain View, California 94043–1351 • Send a fax to the attention of “Technical Publications” at +1 650 932 0801. SGI values your comments and will respond to them promptly

Great article, I am glad MSDS was touched on before machining cast parts. The only thing I would add is that users should check MSDS before machining ANY material. There are a few exotic metal alloys whose dust can cause severe respiratory trauma.

If they are referring to TI's OMAP processors, then they typically feature multiple ARM cores with various media accelerators (http://www.ti.com/lit/ml/swpt034b/swpt034b.pdf). These are like all-in-one chips designed for mobile platforms that are optimized for displaying media on a LCD-ish display at minimum power. The OMAP offerings are pretty similar to chips from Broadcom or Samsung, however, it makes sense for them to get integrated with their biggest customer. They already have NDAs in place and TI probably has field engineers that essentially work for Amazon, they would just be transferring financial stake different production processes.

Having said that, the reason that you probably don't want to run a EC2 instance on an OMAP, or any ARM for that matter, is because they are not 64bit compatible, they do not have good virtualization support, and you would not be taking advantage of various media/display capability.

I have a cubicle and a lab area at work where I do hardware/software development, which means a large portion of my work involves a computer. I decided to try a standing desk about two years ago, however, I didn't want to commit fully and we don't have desks that raise and lower automatically. I decided the best solution would be convert my lab workstation to standing. I built something to hold mouse and keyboard at proper height and raised my monitors/docking station to eye level. I also added a 3/4" textured mat to stand on and keep a set of comfortable shoes at work.

My findings are that I am more alert standing up, however, I focus better on documentation while sitting down, so I alternate between the two throughout the day. Having both standing and sitting desks seemed to be optimal since a proper sitting desk chair can be more comfortable than a tall chair at a standing desk.

Yep, I just looked at the pinouts on the larger one and its very likely that they kept the same out-of-spec spacing as the Arduino Uno.

PSoC5 is supported by GCC, the Cypress PSoC IDE just makes it easier for novices to get started. There is also a FreeRTOS port to PSoC5, so you can get into some pretty interesting stuff.

That aside, I am really glad they went with PSoC5 (ARM Cortex-M3 architecture) instead of the cheaper PSoC3 (8051 architecture). This makes it easy to prototype on the PSoC5 and then move to a more specialized Cortex when they hit performance limits.

Finally, I don't see mechanical drawings, however, I hope they spaced the parallel connectors on freeSOC n*0.1" apart. One of the frustrating things about Arduino is that the spacing on the shield connector is non-standard, so you can't simply plug it into a breadboard.

You are correct in your first sentence, I am not a lawyer but interpreted the agreement as they are able to use/sell your idea or any modification of your idea while you still technically own your idea.

Fine print is below, looks like Nissan will own the rights to anything you submit:

Grant of Usage Rights in Submissions:

By entering your Submission into the Innovation Garage, you grant to Nissan an irrevocable, perpetual, transferable, non-exclusive, fully-paid, worldwide, license (sub-licensable through multiple tiers) to (a) use, copy, transmit, distribute, reproduce, modify, create derivative works, adapt, combine with other ideas or works, publish, translate, publicly perform, and publicly display your Innovation Garage Submission (or any modification thereto), in whole or in part, in any format or medium now known or later developed and (b) use (and permit others to use) your Innovation Garage Submission in any manner and for any purpose (including, without limitation, commercial purposes) that Nissan deems appropriate in its sole discretion (including, without limitation, to incorporate your Innovation Garage Submission or any modification thereto, in whole or in part, into any vehicle, technology, product, or service).

Neat, however, software for base station are not provided and interested companies can contact the site owner. Pretty cool that this is allegedly running on a software defined radio kit which can be had for only ~$2000 (a bargain).

It is not so much about specialization as the 'throw-away' culture. I emigrated to the United States from Russia more than a decade ago and was amazed how quickly people went to throw away or completely replace things here that broke down even if there was a simple fix. Specialization is good, however, fixing things yourself is a matter of economics and sometimes a matter of pride. I do fix my own plumbing if it is an easy enough job, I can often save some money and may end up doing a better job by using higher quality materials. I still have the first car I bought, which is a Jeep with 250k miles on it and is in good shape (not my daily driver though). I have had glass shops cut me custom glass panes before to fix a windows. Judging by the growing popularity of the DIY movement in the USA (see make magazine, techshop, popularity of home made 3D printers) I would argue that fixing things yourself is on the rise.

Anyone else confused by the GPS sensor going into orbit?

The bigger issue here is if such a back door/debug mode was accidentally/intentionally left in any of the Actel FPGAs that use their anti-fuse technology. At present, anti-fuse seems to be the most robust technology for preventing read-out of configuration bit-stream as there is no serial data being pushed around each time the logic resets. ProASIC3 is a great platform for when you are on a very constrained power budget, however, I would not consider it one of their leading security-hardened chips. There is a lot of design reuse in complex semiconductor products so it is possible that this portion of the design was leaked to other devices.

You can run Linux just fine on cortex-M3 without MMU (see http://uclinux.org/).

You need an invite to use/see 80% of the site. Maybe the 20% was that bad!

Unless you know people up here then your best bet is look for temporary housing for a few weeks while you drive around and look for places via craigslist/similar. Areas are notorious for having very high housing prices for crappy places that just have a fresh coat of paint on them, so looking on internet only without site visits is not a great option. I spent one month looking for a place in Mountain View and found that renting a condo from an owner turned out to be better all around than trying to find a suitable apartment complex. Another problem is that decent housing is super competitive here, a reasonable rental purchase will get replies almost immediately, so owners will prefer to deal with local people than those farther away to close the deal.