Archive for October 2011

HackerThings

HackerThings web site is a list of products programmers and hardware hackers would want to own. HackerThings tries to aggregate the coolest products for the extremely tech-minded individual and discerning hacker. Products are posted to HackerThings on a purely is-this-awesome basis. Updates are posted daily. This is an interesting service to follow.

DRM just does not work

Eureka! Ditching DRM Decreases Piracy article tells that new paper to be published in the upcoming issue of Marketing Science shows that removing DRM from music leads to a decrease in piracy. Or phrased differently, DRM appears to be an incentive for people to pirate music instead of buying it. The researchers from Rice and

EMC basics: I/O

EMC Basics #5: I/O as critical circuits article gives some useful tips on the EMC issues related to inputs and outputs. Digital inputs/outputs — The key concern for digital interfaces is ESD. A secondary concern is radiated emissions. Radiated susceptibility is rare with digital I/O, although possible at very high RF levels. The solutions for

Replacing fluorescent lamp with LED

The idea if replacing fluorescent light bulbs with LEDs seems to become popular. There are different kind of products made for that purpose, some are good and some not so good. So I felt it was now good time to test this technology. LED technology promises to reduce power consumption about 50% of fluorescent bulbs

Bumps in the road ahead for solid-state lighting

LED retrofit lamps have started to show up on retail shelves. Many players in the LED industry are giddy about the anticipated growth over the next few years. Nevertheless, the road to success for LED lighting will not be completely smooth, as there are a number of pitfalls to navigate. Bumps in the road ahead

10GBase-T Technology

The growing importance of cloud computing along with the increasing utilization of unified data/storage connectivity and the advent of server virtualization have elevated the popularity of 10Gbps Ethernet.There are several connectivity options are available for 10Gbps Ethernet, both over optical fiber and copper cables. 10GBase-T Technology Revisited article tells that the lack of economical cabling

From Meego to Tizen

Meego will will be merged out of existence. MeeGo will become Tizen. Tizen is a software platform and a mobile and device operating system based on Linux and other popular upstream projects. According to Intel, Tizen will build upon the strengths of both LiMo and MeeGo and Intel will work with MeeGo partners to help

Wi-Fi for Video

Meeting the requirements for video-grade Wi-Fi Access Points article gives some interesting facts on transporting video over wireless LAN. Users are coming to expect a wireless video experience equivalent to video consumption over wires. Traditionally a Wi-Fi device was measured according to its receiver performance, using metrics such as receive sensitivity. With video delivery, transmitter

Replacing flashlight bulbs with LEDs

One day I had an old flashlight that had burned light bulb on it. It was a small cheap model powered with two AA batteries. I could fix it with new light bulb, but going through the trouble of trying to find exactly suitable replacement light bulb felt like more than the value of the