Arduino, the open source hardware

Arduino is an open source hardware micro-controller board. The open source idea is from open source software. I know of this Arduino board first introduced by a friend from open source group.

The Arduino (website arduino.cc) board came with a 8 bit RISC micro-controller chips with build in flash memory, an usb socket to transfer program and supply the power.

You will be surprised what you can do with Arduino. There is a youtube video here showing how to use a Wii Nunchuck to control a robot, or Arduino-based Segway.

The Arduino came with a free software kit available on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X (Intel and PPC) platform. You can program the Arduino with C/C++ like language using this Arduino software kit.

The Arduino is popular because it is simple, cheap, open, and yet expandable. A pre-build Arduino board cost about 20-25 Euro (about RM100 to RM120, depends on exchange rate). You can program it easily with code similar with C/C++. There are some ready made expandable module available, which turn the Arduino into a robot controller, mini game console, LED display board and many other applications.

For the software part, to program the Arduino is easy, it has 2 functions:

1. setup()
2. loop()

The setup use to initialize setting, the loop function will repeat the job or action.

There is a good hardware and software introduction at youtube here.

An Arduino cheat sheet may be helpful, you can google for PDF version.

HTC Desire HD and Nexus S

Went to Digi shop to check out the availability of HTC Desire HD mobile phone with a friend, is out of stock.

The top range of Android phone available on the market now will be Samsung Galaxy S, HTC Desire HD and may be Nexus S.

HTC Desire HD use Snapdragon CPU, but Galaxy S and Nexus S is using ARM Cortex A8. Nexus S is manufactured by Samsung, the specification is quite close to Samsung Galaxy S.

I just check the specification of these 3 phones. I will prefer to own Nexus S, which is no sign that it will be available here anytime soon.

Why Nexus S? Super AMOLED, latest Android OS version 2.3 (Gingerbread), it even has gyroscope. It has a 1 GHz CPU which similar with iPhone 4. Both are ARM Cortex A8 base, with PowerVR GPU.

I have not much experience with Android smartphone, so don't take my preference on Nexus S seriously. I heard is available at US and UK only.

I don't really think that the hardware specs does matter, especially for software developer.

Viber free voice call on iPhone

For the pass few weeks, a few of my friends asking me that did I installed Viber.

Viber is a free iPhone application, to make free call from Viber to Viber. It will works on iPod Touch with newer OS version (iOS 4), but it was not officially supported, stated in Viber FAQ.

Viber is just like Skype and FaceTime. You can call your friends for free, through Wifi or 3G connection. More precisely you can refer Viber as a voice version of Whatsapp. Viber is on the top list of iTunes app.

Whatsapp is a paid application on iPhone, it has an Android and BlackBerry version too. User need to purchase the application (cost USD0.99 on iPhone now), but once installed it can send SMS to another Whatsapp application for free.

Whatsapp will scan your contact list on your iPhone (or iPod Touch), notify you those who have installed Whatsapp which is on your contact list. Viber do the same thing, it scans your contact list (identified by phone numbers), and tell you who has Viber.

There are good and bad about grabbing the contact list. The good thing is easy setup. Is zero setup like FaceTime, user don't have to add in their friends one by one.

The bad thing is about privacy. The application might assume that all the contact on my list are my friends, which is not true. Some of them are business partners, some could be my competitors, some could be just a strangers that I meet yesterday night.

Without approval and blocking features, others could spam me (with Viber, Whatsapp or similar application), which might cause security issues as well.

Personally I prefer Skype. These days, less people using Skype for communication. When I launch Skype, only 2 contacts appear online out of my 20 Skype contacts.

People prefer Viber, may be it is a trend now. Zero configuration (or dead simple) is a most wanted feature for most users who doesn't know how to configure or lazy to do so.

Viber software is still new, the stability of the software need to be improved, more functions like SMS will be available soon. More platform like Android and BlackBerry will be supported in the future.

Why Viber (and Whatsapp)? It still be a big question mark with me.

I install the Viber simply because my friend need to call me through Viber and ask me to do so. If Skype don't improve themselves, they will be taken over by new comers.

Further reading:

1M Viber download in 3 days
Viber with iOS devices
TechCrunch thinks that it will be a hit
Daringfireball on Viber
Viber is on a roll

Foursquare iPhone app 2.2 update

Foursquare just update the latest iPhone application with version 2.2. I have updated 2 days ago.

What so specially about a Foursquare iPhone app update? For a location base services, most users will be using the service through mobile devices.

The new Foursquare application added photo update function which absent for a long time compare with Gowalla. The new application seems execute faster (or they upgrade the backend service as well?)

Foursquare make themselves comparable to Gowalla, as Gowalla makes themselves comparable to Foursquare (Gowalla add in flag venue function earlier).

For Foursquare and Gowalla, mobile platform is their battle field. I believe the battle field can fit in more than 2 players.

Meebo problem at end of year 2010

I am a meebo fan. Meebo is a web IM service which allow you to connect to other IM services eg. MSN, Yahoo!, Facebook through a centralize web service. I am using meebo since year 2006 (or may be much earlier).

They have done a good job, especially on the software development part. The service is quite stable, the interface is nice and easy to use. The always have development like meebo badge, to embed chat box within web page. They even roll out mobile web version (for iPhone) and iPhone app at the very early stage.

For the pass few days, I was having connection problem quite often, especially when I try to connect from the mobile to the service, using a limited mobile broadband connection.

May be meebo didn't notice that there are people connect to the Internet through limited bandwidth, and didn't optimize the service for that. Or may be there are too many users using meebo service and the system can not handle that.

When my friend suggest me to use pingchat to replace the meebo service, since is more reliable. I know I am not the only one who are having problems with meebo.

OpenJDK announcement Oracle and Apple

Apple is not going to provide Java in their future OS. Java development is not Apple interest anymore.

Is not an end of Java on OS X, still too early make any conclusion yet.

Oracle and Apple Announce OpenJDK Project for OSX

Oracle and Apple just announced to work on Open JDK project for OS X, Apple will contribute most of the key components.

Is not good to make Objective-C the only development language on Mac OS X platform, at least in my developer point of view.

How long will Oracle put an effort on Java development, yet to be observed.

Digi prepaid super long life 365

I am tired of toping up my Digi prepaid phone every 90 (or 120) days, even I am not using it.

Digi once offer to top up RM100 and validate for a year time, but now no more.

There is a super long life 365 which will validate your Digi prepaid numbers for 365 days (which is 1 year), but you have to spend RM30 from your prepaid balance. The RM30 is the subscription fees, it will not convert to talk time.

The short cut will be:
*128*4*3*1*1# call

If you are not comfortable with the short cut, you use *128# call. Follow the instruction and select super long life.

It will validate your prepaid for a year time, less worried to top up every 3 months time.

Arduino, the open source hardware

Arduino is an open source hardware micro-controller board. The open source idea is from open source software. I know of this Arduino board first introduced by a friend from open source group.

The Arduino (website arduino.cc) board came with a 8 bit RISC micro-controller chips with build in flash memory, an usb socket to transfer program and supply the power.

You will be surprised what you can do with Arduino. There is a youtube video here showing how to use a Wii Nunchuck to control a robot.

The Arduino came with a free software kit available on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X platform. You can program the Arduino with C/C++ like language using this Arduino software kit.

The Arduino is popular because is simple, cheap, open, and yet expandable. A pre-build Arduino board cost about 20-25 Euro (about RM100 to RM150, depends on exchange rate). You can program it easily with code similar with C/C++. There are some ready made expandable module available, which turn the Arduino into a robot controller, mini game console, LED display board and many other applications.

For the software part, to program the Arduino is easy, it has 2 functions:

1. setup()
2. loop()

The setup use to initialize setting, the loop function will repeat the job or action.

There is a good hardware and software introduction at youtube here.

After The Social Network movie

In the movie "The Social Network", which of the following is not true about Facebook and Mark Zukerberg.

• Erica Albringt is Mark Zukerberg's ex-girlfriend, or they have dated at least once. 
• Mark Zukerberg co-founded Facebook with Eduardo Saverin. 
• The idea of Facebook partly came from facemash and harvardconnect. 
• After Mark Zukerberg agree to join harvardconnect as a developer, he started Facebook rather working on harvardconnect
• Mark Zukerberg did not use any code from harvardconnect in Facebook. 
• Mark Zukerberg has go through harvardconnect source code and feel that the coding is lame. 
• Napster founder Sean Parker has consulted Facebook for a period of time, he was given 7 percent share of Facebook. 
• Eduardo Saverin share in Facebook was once diluted from 30 percent to 0.03 percent. While Mark Zukerberg and Sean Parker share with Facebook remain unchanged. 

"You are not an asshole, you just trying so hard to be", Marylin Delpy say it to Mark.

If you want to read more about Mark Zukerberg and Facebook:

The face of Facebook, by The New Yorker.

Facebook, from wikipedia.

How Facebook was founded, Business Insider.

Google Chrome OS to be ready anytime soon

About 5 years ago, Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy and Oracle's Larry Ellison was on the stage together. Ellison comment on the Google PC rumors, "Let Google make the network computer now". Network computer, a vision that Sun and Oracle team up together, with Java and Internet technology to build an Internet thin PC client.

Now the rumors are almost to be true, but Google still not making any PC hardware but focus on the light weight Chrome OS. The CNet reported that Google shows new features on Chrome browser and Chrome OS may be ready at mid-next year.

Chrome OS which is a Linux-base operating system, but different from the Google Android (which is another Linux-base operating system too). Chrome OS is a light weight OS, which will be centralize on Chrome browser, using the browser connected to Internet cloud services.

You can take a quick tour of Chrome OS by PC Magazine. The Chrome browser will be integrated nicely into Chome OS, the browser will be the only application available and it runs fast on the OS. All application like email, messenger, office application, photo editing and management will be available as a web service.

I just name a few here, Google has build Gmail (email), Google Talk (messenger), Google Docs (office application), Picasaweb (photo management), Picnik (photo editing) as an replacement of the daily application that most users are using on the desktop.

Is too early to comment much about Chrome OS now. With Google services, Chrome OS and Chrome browser, Google make the network computer vision that Larry Ellison brought out 15 years ago becomes true.

Gowalla new iPhone application 2010

Gowalla just updated their iPhone application.

Gowalla is a location base community services like Foursquare. They made the location base service into a community game. Take a look at the zdnet post on the website gamification, Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges.

Gowalla is not that popular as Foursquare, but I always feel that Gowalla has a better look and feel user interface, be it the website, mobile site or iPhone version.

Gowalla is similar with Foursquare but differentiated by a few functionality, for example Gowalla has photo upload, but Foursquare does not. There are a few important functions in Foursquare but missing from Gowalla, and now it was updated with the new Gowalla iPhone application.

Flag venue. Is normal that a hot-spot was created with some mistake, for example a duplicate venue. Foursquare allows users to flag a duplicate venue. Other than duplication, users can flag for wrong venue information like name and address. Now Gowalla has a flag function for duplicate venue too.

Photo from library. Gowalla allows photos upload. On iPod Touch (before iPod Touch 4th generation), photos are selected from the photo gallery, since iPod Touch prior 4th generation doesn't came with camera. On iPhone, you can only upload photos by taking a new photos, upload from photo gallery is not allow with the earlier version of Gowalla. The new Gowalla application allows to upload from the photo gallery or new photos taken from the camera.

I just name the 2 small changes in Gowalla application, but A big improvement for Gowalla, and I expect Gowalla will continue to improve. Gowalla vs Foursquare is not to an end yet.