Anton Olsen.com

FreeDOS | The FreeDOS Project

FreeDOS | The FreeDOS Project

FreeDOS 1.0 Yes, the FreeDOS Project has reached the “1.0″ milestone. Download FreeDOS - or buy it on CDROM. This is a very important day for FreeDOS. A lot of you have put in so much work over the years, helping to make everything perfect. Even if you didn’t contribute code, you helped out the FreeDOS Project by submitting comments and bug reports. Thank you!

For those who might care.  I haven’t booted DOS in a long time, but for those who need it this is a pretty cool thing.  Especially since MS-DOS is pretty near impossible to find these days.

25peeps.com

25peeps.com

see the 25 peeps above? click on someone you like and we’ll send you to his or her weblog. peeps are sorted by popularity, which is based on clicks and referals. when a new peep enters the roster, the least popular peep gets pushed off the site. with a bit of luck, though, it may end up in the big 25peeps.com hall of fame. go ahead and try it yourself!

I’m up on 25peeps.com. It’ll be interesting to see how much traffic it drives.

The picture was taken while I was working on my daughter’s and my kayaks.  More info on them can be found at KayakBytes.com.

It’s not just Linux: Open Source has arrived

It’s not just Linux: Open Source has arrived

Open-source true believers have been saying forever that open source is the way to develop software. It turns out they’ve convinced most programmers that they’re right. According to a newly released IDC study, open source isn’t just hype; it’s now the way most developers make software.The study, which analyzed IDC surveys from over 5,000 developers in 116 countries in the spring of 2006, found that developers worldwide are increasing their use of open source. IDC found that open source-software is being used by 71 percent of the developers in the world and is in production at 54 percent of their organizations. In addition, half of the global developers claim that the use of open source is increasing in their organizations.

Wintec WBT-200 Multi-Function GPS Data Logger

Wintec WBT-200 Multi-Function (3-in-1) GPS Receiver

Wintec WBT-200 is a mult-function Bluetooth GPS data logger in an ultra compact form factor. The stand-alone track recording function is independent from any host and can be operated with Bluetooth off. The recorded track can be configured and even uploaded to Google Earth automatically with the bundled GPS utility.

I’m tempted to pick one of these up soon to carry when I’m taking photographs. There are drivers available for Linux and OS-X that allow one to download the data. It’d be easy to write a script to match up the EXIF timestamp and the data log to geotag photos before sending them to Flickr.

Driver info is here.

Ubuntu Poised to Replace System V Init?

Upstart in Universe

upstart is a replacement for the init daemon, the process spawned by the kernel that is responsible for starting, supervising and stopping all other processes on the system.

The existing daemon is based on the one found in UNIX System V, and is thus known as sysvinit. It separates jobs into different “run levels” and can either run a job when particular run levels are entered (e.g. /etc/init.d/rc 2) or continually during a particular run level (e.g. /sbin/getty).

The /etc/init.d/rc script is also based on the System V one (and is in the sysv-rc package), it simply executes the stop then start scripts found in /etc/rcN.d (where N is the run level) in numerical order.

Semifluid.com - Home / Projects / PIC18F2550 KS0108 GLCD Oscilloscope

Semifluid.com - Home / Projects / PIC18F2550 KS0108 GLCD Oscilloscope

Using the PIC18F2550 GLCD Text Test as a basis for further experimentation, I put together a simple and accurate graphical oscilloscope using a PIC18F2550 microcontroller and a AGM1264F graphical LCD. The oscilloscope measures the average voltage, the maximum voltage, the minimum voltage, the peak-to-peak voltage, and the zero-crossing frequency for a DC signal over 100 samples. The oscilloscope has a built in edge trigger function that can be set to capture on rise or fall (or disabled altogether). The time scale for the display is variable and can be easily redefined using the changeTimeDivision function. Likewise, the voltage range can be change to 0-5V, 0-2.5V, and 0-1.25V. The main limitations of this oscilloscope include relatively slow acquisition time and sampling rate (~60kHz) and the fact that the inputs are limited by the constraints of the internal ADC. However, it is a very nice display and I highly suggest you view the videos to see it in action.

Another project added to my todo list.

YAN9VUSBC

YAN9VUSBC

The circuit design is from http://ipod.hackaday.com/entry/1234000270029372/ All I did was add an LED so I could see if the battery was good. He’s got nice diagrams of the USB and regulator to help you wire this together.

Very handy.  I’ll add this to the list of things to build when I get time.

Crazy Idea #1

I’m going to start posting my crazy ideas here.  If anyone actually does one or knows of prior art, let me know in the comments.

Idea #1: Ninja See and Say  (thanks Ed)

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories - How to make the simplest electric motor

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories - How to make the simplest electric motor

You have one drywall screw, one 1.5 V alkaline cell, six inches of plain copper wire, one small neodymium disk magnet, and no other tools or supplies. You have 30 seconds to make an electric motor running in excess of ten thousand RPM. Can you do it? Surprisingly enough, you can.

Ultimarc, the Ultimate in Arcade Controls.

Ultimarc, the Ultimate in Arcade Controls.

Connect your 15Khz arcade cabinet monitor to your PC with NO special configuration or special driver software in either DOS or Windows.
Now you can also connect an ordinary PC monitor and get all the resolutions of the 15Khz monitor plus conventional higher Windows resolutions.