Small Portable Brick Computer Without Display

Have been seeking a small personal or embedded computer. The market is getting close but is still not there.

Want "laptop" or "palmtop" with power to run full modern Linux/Windows, but no screen nor keyboard nor mouse. All entry I/O attached via USB.

- Ethernet (up to Gigabit speeds)
- USB 2.0+ (4 port)
- HDMI
- eSATA or microSD (maybe)
- 6hr+ battery. No fan.
- Form factor of small brick like book/tablet. Under one kg.
- Power over Ethernet (PoE) 802.3af, or power from a USB outlet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_over_Ethernet

No integrated display. One gets to choose the display. Most importantly one gets to choose to not to carry a display. Use with HMD or projector (mini LED projector) or display (like hotel LED/LCD TV, or desktop monitor).

No Wifi or other RF like 4G. RF is easy to attach via USB. The same attachment ease applies to external DVD/CD and other media and I/O. HDMI and eSATA can provide high bandwidth I/O.

Battery is for riding out glitches and outages, for portability, and for peaking when USB and PoE charging are insufficient in their continuous rating.

Distributed Systems, Small is Beautiful

Have been thinking about distributed "systems" lately... and how small components for such systems can be better, or how they are better. There are many systems in which resources can be distributed. This entry is about setting the stage for a series of entries on distributed ways of doing things, ways where small can be beautiful.

Here is a taste of the sort of systems meant:

• Computation or control.


• Storage.


• Housing or shelter.


• Workplace, office or shop.


• Transportation.


• Energy.

The question/issue might be about temporality of resources - permanent or transient, owned or leased/borrowed. Or maybe it is a question of scale and how big each element should be in the hierarchy.

Venus Brightness, Lunar Eclipse on Solstice

Early Saturday morning at about 6:00am December 18, 2010, happened to be out and see Venus very bright and high in the eastern sky. Had never seen Venus so unusually bright, especially here in Boston with all the light pollution.

Many things seemed to be "just so" for this.

• It was a cloud free and cold morning.
• Winter seeing tends to be better than summer - espcially near the ocean or other large bodies of water which generate humidity.

Venus is near greatest brilliancy the first week of December 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspects_of_Venus

Saturday morning probably had a greater number of city lights out around Boston.

Venus is very far above the eastern horizon (Its height in sky and phase are closely related.) in darker regions of the sky. And this is enhanced due to the earth's axis being maximally tilted due to closeness to winter solstice (first day of winter, longest day of year).

Maybe more significant, early morning December 21, 2010 was a total lunar eclipse on the winter solstice, which only happens every 372 years, and thus last happened in 1638... Galileo's time.

Elements for Small Business Success

Elements for Small Business Success:

1. Own space, assets.
2. Procure supplies and utilities on terms.
3. Hire good people.
4. Market.
5. Understand your industry.
6. See yourself as a professional service.

Own the longterm/permanent assets, and seek low cost rental/finance on short term assets/supplies, with a clear understanding of depreciation.

Own or have free the space/location for the business. Own the key tools of the business, even if they are computers, but be careful not to pay too much (buy trailing edge technology?). Rental on longterm assets is a leech. And for what? By definition 'longterm' assets have little or no maintanence costs.

Utilities, communication and supplies should be bought on terms. Be as self sufficient and efficient as you can and do not get locked into longterm contracts. Be Green and engender a spirit of eco-social-friendliness in employees.

Hire good pepole. If you cannot find good people, then WAIT. Reward your people financially and socially. Nothing is worse for morale and efficiency than human resource thrash. If you are running a sweat shop, or cattle farm, then one is not speaking to your business (you have other problems).

Establish a web (or media de jour) presence to get the word out - quickly.

Stick to knowledge-based, professional, relationship, special product/service business. Large scale commodity/services businesses are just that - large scale. One might grow to be that someday, but start with quality, attention and efficiency. Get to know others in your business and their stories of successes and failures. Attend industry meetings when you can. Get your people involved in the industry. Get to know the business zeitgeist.

Process improvements and innovation are for after you get established, but in the longterm can be the difference of whether you merely survive or thrive/grow.

Model Steam Locomotives, Asters, Live Steam

Here is an LGB Spreewald garden size locomotive from Wikimedia commons..

Have been interested in Live Steam lately... Asters.
Was trying to figure out value for Asters and the following resources help
http://www.southernsteamtrains.com/
http://www.southernsteamtrains.com/reference.htm
http://www.southernsteamtrains.com/roster.htm
http://www.southernsteamtrains.com/misc/JvR-Aster-Development.htm
http://www.asterhobbyusa.com/
http://asterhobbies.co.uk/collecting/

One would think ebay would be helpful, but any given Aster just does not come up that often.

When thinking about pricing/values, I always think of the following article on sociology of model railroading. There is much therein I cannot fully embrace, but there are gems of wisdom nonetheless. It is, if nothing else, thought provoking.
http://www.trainweb.org/lfnwfan/html/Sociology.htm
There are also larger live steam like they run at Washakum.
http://www.waushakumlivesteamers.org/

IWL.ME - I Write Like...

Just tried "I Write Like" http://iwl.me/.
I actually fed in about ten blog entries and work related text.

Snippets make me out to write like -
- Cory Doctorow http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Doctorow
- David Wallace Foster http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Foster_Wallace

I find these very interesting. I wonder if background has something to do with this? I grew up in Canada (like Doctorow), and am interested in his writing and blogging. I spent many years in Ithaca New York (like Wallace), and after reading about Wallace in Wikipedia, find many parallels in viewpoint - though I hope I do not have the depth of depression and pessimism he retained.

Embedded Systems Conference - Boston 2010

Was to ESC (Embedded Systems Conference) Boston 2010 in late September.
http://esc-boston.techinsightsevents.com/

Here are a few highlights:

The platform and OS (operating systems) wars/debates are largely over - so much so that no one even bothers to mention the issue of OS and processor anymore. It is "assumed".

When a generic OS is used, only a few generic interfaces are really supported in all cases - TCP/IP, and serial ports.

For 8bit and similar the continuing players are 8051, Atmel-AtMega and Microchip-PIC architectures. Again this is mostly implied and few speak of it.

Software houses and tool chains vendors are talking about the ways they go beyond simple TCP/IP to get information to "cloud services".

Companies who formerly only sold components or built PC boards are transforming into complete end-to-end design-build companies where they go all the way from design to delivering boxes of the required products ready for you to sell (even with labels and software installed and locked).

Other attendees included trade associations, magazine/book vendors, Flash/SSD providers, tool/environment vendors, logic/JTAG analyzers, emulator vendors and wireless vendors.