Comments for Donovan's Brain

Comment on Mmm—Raspberry Pi! by John Donovan

John Donovan — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 13:41:32 +0000

Hi Steve,
Sounds like fun! For help with any project post a question on one of the Raspberry Pi forums (http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/). Someone will be more than happy to help you out. The support community is very enthusiastic and helpful.

Comment on Mmm—Raspberry Pi! by Stevecrs

Stevecrs — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 08:57:43 +0000

Dear John,

when I saw the Rasberry PI I could hardle wait to get my hands on one. I demonstrated it at ICCM conference which we set up to help computer people in Christian missionary work and we had an attendance of 55. It was really a lot of fun. I want to see if I can set an IC2 but in work shop here as a temprature sensor in our walk in deep freeze. In the programing world I am just a little child at the age of 72!

Comment on Does Your Rice Cooker Have Its Head in the Clouds? by MSS

MSS — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 22:41:08 +0000

I’m sure that you have a $19.95 rice cooker from Target that cooks some rice adequately. I have a $200 or so “induction heating” unit (http://www.amazon.com/Zojirushi-NP-HBC10-Uncooked-Induction-Stainless/dp/B000MAKVLQ/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1359671687&sr=8-5&keywords=zojirushi+rice+cooker) with a digital timer that readily adapts to brown rice as well as white rice and also will cook steel cut oatmeal without any stirring. (Note Amazon has 163 reviews for this model.)

In Japan and Asia rice is more than just a starch that comes in smaller pieces than spaghetti. Now I must admit that I have trouble tasting the difference between good Japanese rice and very good Japanese rice, but to my Japanese friends the taste is readily recognizable.

But I must admit that if you want to reprogram a rice cooker, most are used in homes where the are computers and a Wi-Fi net. So why not just sell a Mac orPC program that let’s you program it by Wi-Fi or possibly Bluetooth?

So reprogramming an expensive rice cooker has a big market in Asia and a small market in the US. But Android use may be an answer looking for a problem.

Comment on Dual Core AMP for Embedded MCU Applications by pmokeefe

pmokeefe — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 16:08:44 +0000

The capability of the LPC4350 to power down SRAM blocks individually is interesting. Do you know if the SRAM blocks retain their state when individually powered down, or is the state lost?

Comment on Solar is only part of the solution by Nelsonb

Nelsonb — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 01:37:08 +0000

Your analysis is actually encouraging. Most of the requirement of 11.8% of the land area of Austin could probably be satisfied by rooftops and canopies in parking lots and driveways. In my opinion, solar “farms” are not the way to go. PV panels and thermal collectors are well-suited to being mounted on roofs, where they don’t take up land area that might be used for other purposes.
You are absolutely right that efficiency is a key part of our energy solution. So is energy storage. However, engineers can’t change the equation without funding, and politicians have a big influence on the funding. Think of what we could do with all the money currently being spent on political campaigns!

Comment on Solar is only part of the solution by erichard

erichard — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 15:03:00 +0000

A similar discussion was presented at a recent TED talk by David MacKay, looking at what amount of land would be needed to no longer depend on fossil fuels. “A reality check on renewables” is the title. Very interesting topic.

Comment on Storing Volts by Tim H

Tim H — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 18:37:26 +0000

Typo in 3rd paragraph:
“Considering that the energy density of ~~NiMH~~ is under 2x that of NiMH”
should say
“Considering that the energy density of lithium-ion is under 2x that of NiMH”

Comment on Mentor Graphics Acquires CodeSourcery by bempey

bempey — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 20:51:16 +0000

With all the acquisitions of Linux shops by HW companies, going way back to Motorola’s SW group buying Lineo, there are very few independent Linux distributions commercially supporting embedded platforms. And of those, Techsol’s Medallion Linux is the only one exclusively supporting ARM. With 10 years of continuous development and enhancements, its also one of the oldest and most stable embedded Linux platforms around.
We’re wondering how long till its the ONLY independent ARM/Linux disti available?

Comment on Defunding Innovation by Administrator

Administrator — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 14:00:07 +0000

I completely agree. But engineers are usually employed by private industry and therefore paid through the sales of their companies’ products and services. Scientists typically live from grant to grant and are thus dependent on funding sources that are currently under attack–an attack that I think is quite short-sighted.

Comment on Defunding Innovation by bempey

bempey — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 23:43:21 +0000

I don’t want to diminish the importance of spending on Scientific Research, but “fixing” today’s problems requires spending on engineering. Electric and hybrid vehicles, wind-power, even hydrogen fuel cells are over the scientific hurdles and the result of engineering effort. The EVs are still aching for the scientists to make a breakthrough in battery tech. But we need basic science coupled with smart applications to really make progress. Both are under-funded. But the scientists still seem to have a much higher profile than the people make it work!