SolOrb is an abbreviation of Solar Orbit, we sell electronic kits with an emphasis on solar power devices under the CirKits brand name.

fun little solar powered circuits.

additional fun toys:
http://www.hobbyprojects.com/S/Solar_Cell_Circuits.html

MIT open courseware:
MIT 6.334

more stuff for my future toy:
a solar powered battery charger

--timball

SolOrb.com

Course Highlights This course features a Java applet in the tools section that simulates photovoltaic panel collection as well as handouts from the class in the lecture notes section and solar data in the study materials. Course Description This class will study the behavior of photovoltaic solar energy systems focusing on the behavior of "stand-alone" systems. The design of stand-alone photovoltaic systems will be covered. This will include estimation of costs and benefits taking into account any available government subsidies. Introduction to the hardware elements and their behavior will be included.

MIT Open Course ware stuff that I'll be needing to make my newest steam-punk plant.

--timball

MIT OpenCourseWare | Special Programs | SP.769 Photovoltaic Solar Energy Systems, Fall 2004 | Home

omfg the robot future has arrived! Sh0utZ to the typists at BD

Hillarious spoof at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXJZVZFRFJc

--timball

YouTube - Boston Dynamics Big Dog (new video March 2008)

It would be great if Google Maps and TomTom could cooperate:

* A TomTom device does not cooperate with Google Maps by itself.
* I wanted the possibility to point out my routes and some points of interest at home with my computer.
* If you buy a TomTom device, you can use the TomTom HOME software, but the possibilities of this application to plot a route are not really great.
* I did not want to push my finger onto the touch screen of my TomTom device every time: to add one waypoint to an itinerary, I had to crawl about three or four TomTom screens each time...

I own a tomtom OneXL and tyre is the single program that makes that device useful. It integrates w/ either google earth or google maps and allows you to plan our routes and itineraries quite nicely.

I just planned a road trip to boston w/ eight tasty places to eat along the way. Not just that but I get to use the tappan zee bridge! and hopefully avoid all the crap.

If this works out I'll be posting routes + maps of places to eat RSN.

--timball

Tyre

Here are some electronic circuits that I have designed and published. I have attempted to include a number of fairly unusual circuits, with an emphasis on useful applications instead of simple toy circuits. The majority of the circuits can be built with readily available discrete components. Only a few of the circuits rely on microprocessors. Micros can greatly enhance the power of a small circuit, but the specialized development tools can put the project out of reach of many hobbyists.

Other web pages have numerous circuits for LED blinkers, timers, miniature FM bugs and such, follow the links at the bottom of this page for examples.

Most of the circuits on this site have been drawn with an open-source circuit drawing program called xcircuit, xcircuit runs under both the Linux operating system and Windows. See below for links to the Xcircuit page and a review of the software.

Forrest Cook has some really neat circuit doodles on his webpage as well as awesome explanations of circuit implications and usages.

--timball

FC s Electronic Circuits

13-GHz Bandwidth, upgradeable to 13 GHz

* 4 analog channels
* Up to 40 GSa/s sample rate
* Standard 512 kpts memory with optional 2 Mpts memory (64 Mpts at 4 GSa/s) optional 2 Mpts memory
* XGA display with 256 levels of intensity grading

Industry Leading Signal Integrity

* Noise floor: 419 uV @5 mV/div
* Trigger jitter < 500 fs (rms)
* Lowest hardware vertical sensitivity: 5 mV/div
* Industry´s only noise reduction option (opt 005)

Largest Selection of Application Solutions

* Complete set of jitter analysis packages Complete set of jitter analysis
* Complete set of customization packages including User Defined Functions, link to MatLab� Complete set of customization packages
* Compliance solutions for many serial standards like FBD, Certified Wireless USB, PCI Express II and more Compliance solutions

InfiniiMax Probing Solutions (1.5 GHz - 12 GHz)

* Industry´s lowest noise floor probing system
* Highest signal fidelity InfiniiMax II probing system
* Interchangeable probe heads
* Industry´s only RoHS compliance solder-in probing solution

The canuck band the Bare Naked Ladies used to sing about what they would do w/ a million dollars... If I had a million dollars I'd buy 10 of these things (and kraft dinners).

--timball

Agilent | DSO81304B 80000B Series Infiniium High Performance Oscilloscope: 13 GHz

Friday March 21st in Atlanta.

Outerz0ne 4 | This might be habit forming...

AOYUE 968
Microprocessor Controlled ESD safe unit

* Three in One repairing station the combines Hot Air Rework Gun with a Soldering Iron and a Smoke Absorber for a health environment.

* Maintains a constant set temperature when the set and the value is reached.

* All Digital display of actual and set temperature with touch control on the front panel.

* Built in Air Flow gauge and knob adjustment for the air flow

* Programmed with error reporting function that detects any problem with the station and alerts the user.

* Soldering Iron has typical knob temperature adjustment for ease of use.

* Auto cool-off process that leaves the blower on until the nozzle is cool, this prolongs life of the heating element and to ensure safety.

* Built-in smoke extractor that absorbs fumes right at the source, eliminating the need for space consuming exhaust fans.
bullet Compatible with many nozzle types and soldering tips.

I just bought a new soldering station... No, it's not over the top. SRA is the US reseller. AOYUE's 968 webpage.

--timball

AOYUE 968

Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives right where you do your work — in the web browser itself.

zotero is the better bookmarking system for anyone doing research. If you're a grad student or academic you should install this plug-in now.

--timball

Zotero: The Next-Generation Research Tool

Ajax Security is out and the feedback I'm getting is incredible.

Andrew van der Stock The Executive Director of OWASP reviewed a draft of Ajax Security and here is what he had to say about it:

If you are writing or reviewing Ajax code, you need this book. Billy and Bryan have done a stellar job in a nascent area of our field, and deserve success. Go buy this book. I can’t wait for it to come out.

Is it just a re-hash of old presentations? No. The book breaks some new ground, and fills in a lot of the blanks in all of our presentations and demos. I hadn’t heard of some of these attacks in book form before. The examples improved my knowledge of DOM and other injections considerably, so there’s something there for the advanced folks as well as the newbies.

I really liked the easy, laid back writing style. Billy and Bryan’s text is straightforward and easy to understand. They get across the concepts in a relatively new area of our field.

The structure flows pretty well, building upon what you’ve already learnt ...
there is advanced stuff, but the authors have to bring the newbie audience along for the ride.

Billy and Bryan spend a bit of time repeating the old hoary “no new attacks in Ajax” meme which is big with the popular kids (mainly because their products can’t detect or scan Ajax code yet and still want money from you), and then spend the rest of the book debunking their own propaganda with a wonderful panache that beats the meme into a bloody pulp and buries it for all time.

Some choice quotes from web security guru dre:

The book, Ajax Security, covered a lot of new material that hadn’t been seen or talked about in the press or the security industry. The authors introduced Ajax security topics with ease and provided greater understanding of how to view Javascript malware, tricks, and the aberrant Javascript worms from a security perspective.

Here are some of the “new” concepts that I enjoyed most Hijacking Ajax apps, Attacking Offline Ajax apps, Ajax proxy exposure of third-party XML/JSON data.

I really enjoyed the suggested defenses against “mashup” attacks as well as JSON API Hijacking. Without going into detail (I don’t want to ruin the book and the authors’ hard work), I ca... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

Ajax Security Book Out! Awesome buzz!