16x16 is no room for an amateur

So I'm by no means an artist, but I play a critic on the world wide web.

16x16 icons, which this article below talks about in the context of the little webpage tab/bookmark icons, are *really* difficult to get an idea across with.

Unfortunatly, WinXP uses them all over the place. You can't just take your 32x32 or 48x48 icon, shrink it to 16x16 and get something the same effect. Despite Vista's new 256x256 icon size, the issue will still remain.

Some well done 16x16 icons:
Inspire Yourself: 50 Remarkable Favicons | Smashing Magazine

semiconductor test

Two companies doing different facets of semiconductor test:

TestSpectrum: Vector Port


Saros - Solidify: Static Functional Verification for HDL Design and verification engineers

SW Methodology Choices

This presentation, Selecting a Development Process: Choosing Among the leading alternatives ,
serves a good intro.

I hadn't heard much about OpenUP, but it sounds like what RUP should be.

LM70 & LM35: nice little temp sensors

The LM35 high precision temp sensor looks like a great part, particularly if you get it in the metal case package. It outputs 10mV/deg celcius.

The LM70 has less precision, but is only $2.00 and has an SPI interface.

LM35CAZ on digikey
LM70CILD on digikey

Interesting Company: Semtech

Another semiconductor company. Offices in Camarillo, San Diego, Ralieh Duram

Semtech

Interesting Company: ITU Ventures

ITU Ventures

interesting company: Bioscale

BioScale - Actively Discovering Nanobiology

Amatuers talk tactics; professionals talk logistics.

While cleaning out my car I saw a random receipt with this unattributed quote, unsafely scrawled down while driving, which I heard from some military officer talking on NPR.

It instantly rang true to me with respect to writing software; it rang so true that I risked life and car to transcribe it rather than lose it along with all the other jokes and truisms I hear and promptly forget.

The quote gets at why I'm studying Software Engineering:
Logistics in the world of software is Software Engineering .

Any clever person with a reasonable grasp of boolean logic can code; that is tactics. To build a software system that does what users really need, that will last for years, and works for more than 100 users, then do it again on the next project, and again- this takes logistics.

software bug killed Mars Global Surveyor

I'm always interested to see what brings down these hundred million dollar babies.

In this case two bad addresses brought down a satellite that cost about $220 million to build and launch.

NASA Decides That A Software Error Doomed The Mars Global Surveyor Spacecraft | SpaceRef - Your Space Reference: "This software tried to synch up two flight processors. Two addresses were incorrect - two memory addresses were over written. As the geometry evolved, we drove the [solar] arrays against a hard stop and the spacecraft went into safe mode. The radiator for the battery pointed at the sun, the temperature went up, and battery failed. But this should be treated as preliminary."

Low temp, moldable plastic

This stuff is just screaming for a cool usage in my garage.


SHAPELOCK Uses

Low cost/weigth MEMs sensor based IMU

I think a MEMs (Micro-Electro-Mechanical) IMU (intertial measurement unit) is a really great application of Sensor Platforms technology.

Here's a college club with a good synopsis of the problem.

Untitled Document

security lifecycle

Security isn't something I like to think about, but for applications that have a large number of users it's a real consideration.

This artical talks about not just about the act of 'securing code', but about integrating it into your development process.


How Do They Do It? A Look Inside the Security Development Lifecycle at Microsoft -- MSDN Magazine, November 2005

good links:
application verifier
PreFast
SAL