Hardware


19
jul 08

Mandriva is lost

“Lately it’s hard to avoid the buzz about netbooks — the small, cheap laptop systems that were popularized by the Asus Eee PC. Mandriva is providing the innovative operating system for the upcoming GDium netbook system, produced by Emtec. The first GDium will be a netbook with a 10″, 1024×600 resolution display and a battery life of four hours, weighing in at 1.1kg. The innovative G-Key system stores the Mandriva operating system and all the user data on a USB key — nothing is permanently stored inside the GDium. You can use your own desktop and data by plugging the G-Key into any GDium.”

From: http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/19/1750243&from=rss

It’s really sad for me to read this, Mandriva few years ago changed it’s name from Mandrake after buying the leader in Brazil, Conectiva, a company that made an impossible mission in an environment with deep complexities, showing strenght, leadership, innovation and positive will.

Mandriva is doing totally the opposite, clearly lost, nobody really knows what it’s doing and not even them when I read news like this, it should be working hard to do what they proposed, Linux. There are so many points to be improved that could make their market share increase, how it’s possible to see RedHat, OpenSuse far away and they doing nothing about it?

They have been still for a long time now and when you think they will do something innovative to shake the market, they present an OEM machine from Taiwan/China/Whatever and expect what? To be another Sun? valinux?


7
jun 08

Taipei – Computex

Computex is one huge event, all over Taipei you can see signs of it, everyone knows about it and looks everyone is going to it. We went there all days, we passed for every single booth, I gave so many business cards that I had to make more. If you or your company needs electronic equipment’s this is definitely a good way to start.

The event is divided in five sections:

  • Communications products
  • Peripherals
  • Mega trends
  • Media
  • Display and Digital Entertainment

I believe that most of the opportunities are for OEM, companies that know how to build very well, but don’t know or don’t want to sell directly to the end user. One famous company that passed through this is Asus, they have part of the company selling OEM for big companies, but they also have their brand Asus, which is getting so big and so strong that is making front with companies like HP, Dell, Samsung, …, so what they did? Spin off the company, because of course you can’t compete with your own client.

Taipei is a very interesting city, it’s very hot, but very cloudy, rain almost everyday, people are warm, they are always very friendly and when they understand English they are so kind trying to help you everywhere.

Food is singular, the first time we chose a restaurant we made a mistake, asking for the set, I’ve never seen so many weird things in my life, unfortunately I am not used to it and I couldn’t eat most of it, so I am more cautious with food now. 

Tomorrow heading to Amsterdam, I’ll definitely miss Taipei, Zàijiàn!


14
mai 08

Embedded Linux Conference 2008

Rafael Ugolini sent me these awesome links about Embedded Linux Conference 2008, all the videos and reports (from all years):

Videos like…

  • Keynote: The Relationship Between kernel.org Development and the Use of Linux for Embedded Applications, by Andrew Morton (Google)
  • UME – Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded, by David Mandala (Canonical)
  • Back-tracing in MIPS-based Linux Systems, by Jong-Sung Kim (LG Electronics)
  • Using a JTAG for Linux Driver Debugging, by Mike Anderson (PTR Group)
  • Go check:

    Videos: http://free-electrons.com/community/videos/conferences/
    Reports: http://free-electrons.com/articles/conferences/elc2008-report/


    16
    abr 08

    New baby

    Our new baby is about to born, look how beautiful:


    25
    fev 08

    Chip offers 5Gbps short-range wireless

    Gi-Fi Chip

    A new wireless technology has been developed that should serve as an extremely fast replacement for technologies such as Bluetooth and ultra-wideband (UWB), says Australian research group NICTA. Nicknamed GiFi, the process would use a chip (not pictured) that transmits at an extremely high 60GHz frequency versus the 5GHz used for the fastest forms of Wi-Fi. The sheer density of the signal would allow a chip to send as much as five gigabits per second. While the spectrum would limit the device to the same 33-foot range as Bluetooth or UWB, it could theoretically transfer an HD movie to a cellphone in seconds, the researchers claim.

    The technology could also be used for beaming full HD video in real-time and could be used by notebooks and other computers to wirelessly connect virtually all the expansion needed for a docking station, including a secondary display and storage. Mixing and signal filtering would keep the signal strong versus the longer-ranged but slower and more drop-prone Wi-Fi option of today.

    NICTA does not expect a production-grade chip to leave the development stage until early 2009 but notes that any future chip would likely cost about $10 or less to build. This and a small design would allow cellphones and other small devices to add the technology without significantly drive up the price, according to the company. The change opens the possibility of a successor to UWB and its related technology Wireless USB, which matches the same range but roughly the same 480Mbps peak speed of its wired equivalent.