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July 03, 2009
 Download and print to see the size of the Efika MXWe have opened a bounty for Port OpenSolaris to ARM and made a $5000 donation toward the port. Various distributions of GNU/Linux are already running on the ARM-based Efika MX Developer Edition. It is time to open up the ecosystem a bit further. The Efika MX Open Client will be the next target. The OpenSolaris Project needs to be fully defined before it is assigned ( and will be before it appears on the power2people Home page). This will be done before the Efika MX Open Client ships to the developers that have subscribed to the Project. You will be able to track the effort through the corresponding PowerDeveloper Project page: i.MX515 Project #772 ( Port OpenSolaris). Of course, we hope to be featured as an official target soon. We will be as supportive of this effort as we were for the Solaris PowerPC Port. The Pegasos/ODW and the EFIKA were the primary OpenSolaris PowerPC targets. We had a very positive experience with the OpenSolaris Community and we are quite excited about this new effort. On a grander scale, we believe the business of ' computing" is undergoing a fundamental transformation aimed at driving massive increases in scalability and efficiency. After roughly 20 years, the client-server model has reached its economic/functional obsolescence and we see a new generation of systems that can deliver quantum leaps in utilization improvements. Our Cloud City offering is not only running on Sun servers, but also leverages the Premier Google Apps offering and an ARM Citrix client. It could be quite interesting to see how this might all fit into a more tightly integrated Oracle-Sun environment as the future unfolds. In the meanwhile, we will be plugging away so we can offer the user as many potential options as possible. The Community is the Computer - Go Zig!R&B 
July 03, 2009 11:23
July 02, 2009
 The new case is much smaller and it features a logoThe word casework probably invokes a social meaning related to the problems and needs of a family or person. The objective of the caseworker is to assist with the diagnosis and treatment of the problems. Another definition associates to the computer industry and the process of aggregating all the assembled parts into an enclosure. Over the last few months, we have often been reminded of the former as much of the latter. In any case, progress is being made and things are moving along. We will keep you posted. The Community is the Computer - Go Zig!R&B
July 02, 2009 10:51
June 25, 2009
THIS IS AN IMPORTANT NOTICE AND SHOULD NOT BE IGNORED. THE COMPANY NAMED HAS APPLIED TO THE REGISTRAR TO BE STRUCK OFF THE REGISTER AND DISSOLVED. ON DISSOLUTION ANY REMAINING ASSETS WILL PASS TO THE CROWN. THE REGISTRAR WILL STRIKE THE COMPANY OFF THE REGISTER UNLESS HE HAS REASONABLE CAUSE NOT TO DO SO. GUIDANCE NOTES ARE AVAILABLE ON GROUNDS FOR OBJECTION. IF IN DOUBT, SEEK PROFESSIONAL ADVICE. Application for striking off. Filed on 18-06-2009This is the final step in the UK to close a company. Of course, the shareholders and Directors in the UK were as deceived as everyone else by the Cherrypal management. We are not quite sure what has happened with Cherrypal Inc. in the USA. They incorporated in Delaware in August of last year after they dumped their first investors and ran away from a stack of unpaid invoices, including a sizable amount owed to Genesi. It was not worth the aggravation or attorney's fees to escalate the matter. Unfortunately, we can trace the problems back a bit farther...  EFIKA Open Client with Limepc and keyboard, June 2008The Cherrypal C100 Desktop Computer was a Limepc. The lime was swapped for cherries, otherwise the products were identical. Before we completely walked away from the whole mess, we had a good laugh when the Freescale Product Manager suggested we call the next version a _kiwi_. He is gone, and we digress ( but, imagine a fibrous, dull brown-green case). In July 2007, we had an excited email from Jack Campbell, Vice President, Strategic Development, Product Design & Planning, Shenzhen Tongfang Multimedia Co., Ltd. Over the course of the next few months we developed a Marketing Requirements Document and finalized an agreement ( send us an email if you would like copies). The 5121Efika Advanced Development System was on the verge of shipping when we discovered a problematic deficiency. The 5121e did not ( does not) support cache-coherency, making the 5121e impractical for a consumer device that required the use of multiple applications simultaneously. We discovered this on our own. This major and unreported design change made most of the software developed for the 5200B based EFIKA/Open Client practically useless. The Product Manager for the 5121e ( and even some of his technical staff) never understood the implications. We wasted more than a year of resources on the 5121e. In conclusion, the e300 PowerPC core has a brighter past than future -- too bad! Nevertheless, the Limepc still made it to CES 2008. The handhelds displayed did not work and the desktop and HDTV versions were actually running on hidden Intel based machines. In the aftermath of CES 2008 and knowing we had been cheated by Limepc, we published Read All About It!In the Spring of 2008, the Limepc management and the Freescale 5121e Product Manager began to realize they had problems actually doing what they were promising. It is a wonder that Tsinghua Tongfang (THTF - Public, SHA:600100) based in Beijing and the parent company of Limepc never understood the level of the deception. The Limepc was actually featured in the Freescale CEO's Keynote at FTF 2008. All the way around, THTF and Freescale C-level management was bamboozled. It was at this moment that Cherrypal stepped into international acclaim, riding on the crest of a wave of false technology claims and hyped up marketing. The Cherrypal management took these distortions to a whole new level. The best word that comes to mind is fraud. You can google the articles from late summer 2008 until earlier this year. The corporate site is still online. The claims and hopes are knowingly lined with fiction. Incredibly, Limepc tried again at CES 2009. Their website is still online too. Thankfully, it seems both companies are drifting into the past. So, what is the big lesson learned? Stay away from crooks? Beware of mid-level managers with delusions of grandeur? If you want the job done right, do it yourself? All the above? Perhaps, but here is the Warning: if your only resource in life is time, spend it with people that you like and people that you trust. People make companies, technologies do not. The Community is the Computer - Go Zig!R&B
June 25, 2009 14:50
 Sven Luther at LinuxTag 2003 with the PegasosIn 2003 LinuxTag was held at the Karlsruhe Kongresszentrum. You can still read Nicholas Blachford's 2003 show report online ( Nicholas works for ARM Inc. now). At the time, we were just trying to get Debian running on the Pegasos. This year LinuxTag is being held this week in Berlin. It has been hosted in Berlin for a few years now: LinuxTag 2009.  FFmpeg Booth LinuxTag 2009What you see in the second picture is Big Buck Bunny ( itself an open source project) running in high definition mode on a beagleboard ( The Eagle has Landed). Luca Barbato and Måns Rullgård are manning the FFmpeg Booth at LinuxTag. Måns gets the credit for getting the beagleboard this far. That is the beagleboard on the desk in front of the display. On the software side MythTV is next. The next hardware target is the Efika MX Developer Edition. The GNU/Linux Community has changed quite a bit in the last six years, but at LinuxTag we are reminded of the essence of Community development and collaboration. Once LinuxTag is over we will look forward to more improvements and an update to i.MX51 Project #739. Great work folks! The Community is the Computer - Go Zig!R&B
June 25, 2009 14:47
June 22, 2009
CodeLite, yet another open source and cross platform C/C++ IDE.
Tupperware Arcade Controls, arcade controls built into Tupperware boxes along with instructions on how to build your own.
UNIX network analysis, an article on standard UNIX tools for network analysis.
ELPA, is the Emacs Lisp Package Archive, a package manager for emacs.
The Falcon programming language, is a multi paradigm programming language including conecpts such as object orientation and message passing.
Twittjr, a Twitter reader designed for and running on a PCjr.
Uniselector digital clock, a mysterious digital clock from the 1940’s.
Anatomy of Linux process management, yet another developerworks article, this time it’s about the inner workings of Linux processes.
Sumo Paint, a web 2.0 application for painting.
June 22, 2009 6:00
June 19, 2009
With the average selling price falling for computers, the major vendors are experiencing some pressure. According to Gartner, netbook shipments are expected to reach 21 million this year. Profits at many PC companies are already falling due to lower prices even as they ship more units. There is change afoot.  It is almost time to power upThe first batch of Efika MX Developer Kits have shipped. The next batch will ship in a couple of weeks. You can keep track of all the Projects on PowerDeveloper. The OpenSolaris ARM Port is now included. Perhaps, we can provide Larry Ellison with the Network Computer (NC)/New Internet Computer (NIC) he has always wanted - especially now with Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) closing the acquisition of Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:JAVA) in July. Our timing seems good. The Community is the Computer - Go Zig!R&B
June 19, 2009 10:20
A picture is worth a 1000 (licensed copies) of Word...  Please let us know if you would like to test the softwareThe first batch of Efika MX Developer Kits have shipped. We are and will share the results as the work progresses. We will have plenty of good news to report in the weeks ahead. Please keep track of the progress being made on PowerDeveloper. The Community is the Computer - Go Zig!R&B
June 19, 2009 9:53
June 18, 2009
The days of broadcast analog television are over in the USA. The conversion to digital transmission is complete. Retailers are hoping for a boost in sales of smaller TVs. Broadcasters spent $5 billion in infrastructure upgrades and another $1.2 billion on consumer education campaigns, according to the National Association of Broadcasters. We are not sure Broadcasters will ever recover their investment. hulu is better and more broadly attractive. You can take the television out of the display, but you can't take the display out of the television.  Out with the old, in with the new...In Q4 2007 the bill-of-materials (BOM) of an ASUS Eee PC 4G Surf was between $240-$245. That is what it cost to make such a netbook ( see chart below on the left). Looking ahead to Q4 2009 ( see chart below on the right), you will note the costs are smaller and distributed differently. Market forces will continuously and progressively squeeze more efficiency, performance and features into the products that define the computing and communication industry.  Please click through to enlarge the imageIn the meanwhile, as the market has grown ( and it has grown) and as the computing and communication markets have converged, technology is increasingly sold with a subscription. Many mobile network operators are selling computers as they sell mobile phones -- payable by month over a contracted period of time ( often for at least two years). Televisions, that would be displays, will soon sell in this way. Let's compare the cost of a netbook, desktop, mobile phone, wireless router, ADSL or Cable STB, video game console and/or DVD player with the cost of a display. Why wouldn't that all work nicely in one easy to choose and use - mix and match package. This would all work at home or on the road -- one number calling, video conferencing, unified messaging, one single bill, etc. It is bound to happen. One stop for the consumer, and on another scale, one stop for the network operator. Market forces will keep challenging any inefficiency. Can you see what is next? The Community is the Computer - Go Zig!R&B
June 18, 2009 7:53
June 12, 2009
This week Samsung launched a solar powered capable mobile phone, the Crest Solar. As Matt observed last week at SID 2009, what would it take to do this with a netbook? The phone has the capacity to provide around 5-10 minutes of talk time with one hour of solar charging. It will probably take a few more years to support normal netbook usage.  Or, perhaps we should say:
How about a solar *smartbook*?Also last week, Computek was held in Taiwan. Netbooks were probably the most discussed and most promoted at the Event. With more than a little marketing finesse, Qualcomm branded their low-power, high-performance netbook offering as a smartbook. Freescale quickly hopped on board. A smartbook would cost less than a netbook. A smartbook would be ARM based and have strong Linux support ( there will be a Microsoft option, but that will not include Windows 7). A netbook would feature an Intel chipset and a Microsoft offering. In fact, during the Show, the PC World, the UK's largest electronics retail chain pulled Linux netbooks off their shelves. It won't be easy going for any organization up against Intel and/or Microsoft. But, let's not write off Google and Android yet or for that matter the broader GNU/Linux community. Some time ago Akinori Tsuji of Japan, completed EFIKA Project #700, Solar-powered EFIKA measuring temperature and humidity using Embedded Linux. We thought it was a great Project.  Akinori Tsuji's Solar EFIKAThe $99 EFIKA gave rise to many exciting projects and a number of commercial products were successfully developed. However, in spite of our best efforts, the 5200B and for that matter PowerPC continued its slow drift off into the sunset. ARM Inc. gets high marks for the energy and resources they are moving into ecosystem building. We can see the same $99 EFIKA dynamic and a few solid years of experience being brought to bear on the launch of an even less expensive ARM-based developer platform and program. There are certainly more and more opportunities. We are looking forward to a new day in computing and communication technologies. The Community is the Computer - Go Zig!R&B
June 12, 2009 11:57
June 11, 2009
Most of the good work we have done with the Novell and openSUSE folks over the last few years can be attributed to Peter Czanik. Peter is an industrious, hard-working sort of guy. He is working on bringing up openSUSE support for ARM and the Efika MX now. He is also recently the proud Father of Son #2.  Peter Czanik is on the job!openSUSE is being ported to ARM. The infrastructure for this work is the openSUSE Build Service, which supports the ARM architecture using Qemu. The first prototype of a minimal openSUSE ARM environment is already available on build.opensuse.org in the repository Base:build:arm. You will find a set of packages that is capable of bootstrapping itself. It is still in an early stage, as it uses full emulation. It cannot yet be installed on a real machine because it lacks a kernel and other support packages, but the road ahead is clear. Using the full machine emulation is slow, so the current work is focused on speeding up the compilation process by using cross-compilers instead of Qemu. This will speed up the development considerably. ARM related patches are already being pushed to factory, the development branch of openSUSE, so it is no longer just a fork, but being fully integrated into openSUSE. The ARMopenSUSE release and the Efika MX should be ready to go at about the same time. Keep up the good work Peter! The Community is the Computer - Go Zig!R&B
June 11, 2009 11:05
June 08, 2009
As mentioned yesterday, things are developing quickly...  Wireless and networking are workingThe first batch of Efika MX Developer Kits have shipped. We are happy to share the results as the work gets underway. We will have plenty of good news to report in the weeks ahead. Please keep track of the progress being made on PowerDeveloper. The Community is the Computer - Go Zig!R&B
June 08, 2009 11:20
June 07, 2009
It did not take too long to start getting the first pictures...  Michal Schulz and Michael Grunditz are up and running!The first batch of Efika MX Developer Kits have shipped. We are happy to share the results as the work gets underway. We will have plenty of good news to report in the weeks ahead. Please keep track of the progress being made on PowerDeveloper. The Community is the Computer - Go Zig!R&B
June 07, 2009 14:47
June 05, 2009
In accounting, residual value is the value given an asset after it has been fully depreciated. The residual value is calculated after depreciation from a base price. The EFIKA Open Client was quietly retired last month ( discontinued products). The last three units were shipped to buyers in Italy, Japan and the Netherlands. The very last Open Client we shipped is now here. There may still be a few units available with resellers.  The last of the EFIKAnsTon de Kleer is a talented UNIX programmer. Nice work Ton! Ton is running Debian 5.0.1 - have a look to the System Information. In the meanwhile, across Europe in Poland, here is an older EFIKA working in the same capacity, but running Debian 4.0 ( and currently for the last 433 days). It will be interesting to see how many years this industrial-strength, low-power, low-temperature, high-reliable board will last. The EFIKA running in Poland was shipped in the winter of 2006. As the Pegasos before it, the EFIKA 5200B proved to be a great product. Priced at $99, the EFIKA was shipped to over 90 countries. Perhaps, the residual value is best calculated after all the appreciation the product has received! We will continue support for the EFIKA through PowerDeveloper and power2people. Many people are looking forward to the Port AROS to EFIKA release, and we are too. Thanks to all of you EFIKAns!The Community is the Computer - Go Zig!R&B
June 05, 2009 10:20
June 04, 2009
The display is the most expensive component in a netbook. SID Display Week has provided us with an interesting opportunity to see the latest and greatest in the field of display technology - multi-touch, larger, smaller, round, waterproof, etc. The 3M Multi-touch Developer Kit is an impressive offering at $999.  Matt & Raquel on the show floor at SID 2009Perhaps, the highlight of the show for us was seeing the new Pixel Qi display and meeting with Mary Lou Jepsen. Mary Lou was a Founder of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) and is now the CEO of Pixel Qi. We will be sampling a version of the EFIKA MX Netbook with a Pixel Qi display later this month. The epaper mode has three times the resolution of the fully saturated color mode. This allows for a high resolution reading experience without sacrificing super color fidelity for graphics. Additionally, these screens can be used in sunlight. This will be a compelling feature. In the meanwhile, it has been a busy week in Taiwan too, where Computex is underway. After years of struggling with the powers that be in PowerPC, we want to express our sincere gratitude to ARM Inc. (Public, LON:ARM) who understand what it means to be a Partner, to build an ecosystem and to create new markets - follow ARM at Computex. The Community is the Computer - Go Zig!R&B
June 04, 2009 9:16
June 01, 2009
A presentation on Google Wave which is Google’s next gen communications platform.
June 01, 2009 15:43
May 30, 2009
May 28, 2009
Amazing that a 45 year old modem is still capable of connecting to the Internet.
May 28, 2009 7:14
May 27, 2009
This video was posted on MOSIG’s mailing list by MC and is a documentary about the hardware hacking community in Montreal. Keep your eyes out for the old teletype in the beginning of the documentary.
May 27, 2009 7:35
May 25, 2009
Spinning vinyl – an ipod app, an application that uses the accelerometer to simulate a spinning vinyl record.
BeRTOS, a free real-time operating system.
![]() "Chip Dip" by Tara Kalwarski Solutions for tracing UNIX applications, if you ever have a bug in an application on your favorite Unix implementation these are some good tips on how you can find it.
CS 61C – Machine Structures, online lectures on machine architectures.
Ubuntu brings advanced Screen features to the masses, an application to simplify configuring GNU Screen on Ubuntu.
moot wins, Time Inc. loses, Time Inc was hacked by 4chan users.
X-Ray Funnies, various video game components x-rayed.
At the Nuclear Power Plant, a visit to a nuclear power plant located in Smolensk. There are lots of links to other interesting things at the bottom such as inflatable missiles designed to fool spy satellites.
'code'"> 'code'" href="http://refactormycode.com/">Refactor :my => ‘code’, help refactor other peoples code.
Wolfram|Alpha, a computational knowledge engine for searching through Wolfram’s knowledge base.
May 25, 2009 7:36
May 22, 2009
Eventually this...  i.MX515 Developer Kit (netbook)...is going to look like this:  efikaMX NetbookThey will be on sale later this year. We will begin to ship the Kits to Selected Developers next week. You will also be able to purchase them in the Genesi Online Store. The Community is the Computer - Go Zig!R&B
May 22, 2009 10:48
May 20, 2009
May 19, 2009
Late last week something fairly remarkable happened. A software developer from Poland named Krzysztof Śmiechowicz issued a pledge that he would match dollar for dollar any contributions made to the AROS Poseidon USB Stack Bounty hosted on power2people. Krzysztof's objective was to drive the Bounty to the level required by another developer that had agreed and been assigned to the Project, Chris Hodges.  The complete and final list of donors
can be found at the bottom of the pageIn less than a couple of days, over $2000 was donated and the Bounty was closed at $4170. Donations as small as $10 and as large as $500 ( thanks Roel!), all matched by promptly by Krzysztof, came streaming into the Bounty account from Norway, the Czech Republic, Belgium, the USA, Germany, Denmark, Italy, the UK, France and Finland. Krzysztof's call to action and commitment and the community's response were remarkable. This was truly the power of community at work. The Community is the Computer - Go Zig!R&B
May 19, 2009 7:40
May 13, 2009
Two weeks ago we had the opportunity to participate in the Annual Industry Coupon Conference. The Event was hosted by the Association of Coupon Professionals quite conveniently for us in San Antonio.  Transformation is the right word; when is the question...Last Fall we joined the ACP and posted The Cost of Living. Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) had also recently joined the organization. We continue to believe in the great potential of digital coupons. Digital coupons are not quite ready. You might be required to print them at home, load them onto a loyalty card or redeem them virtually with some sort of e-device. Nevertheless, with 10-15% of all media spending worldwide being spent online, we could say that vendors were prêt-à-dépenser even if consumers were not ( at least for coupons). The most simple rules to follow in a digital world are probably the same as they have always been: the wider the funnel the more successful the program, and, if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it. Coupons exist to turn prospects into customers. Awareness creates consideration, which yields selection and redemption. Selling more product is the objective. Keeping track of all that should be something we can manage. Digital coupons should lead to less fraud, greater accuracy and more possibilities of analysis. We can see all this coming together through Google. Coupons and the transactions they lead to are a logical extension of search and AdWords. Today, Google AdWords works with certain third-party providers to offer promotional coupons to new AdWords advertisers. If you signed up for AdWords through one of these third-party providers, you can receive a promotional code to enter in your AdWords account. Why not take this process one step further? What we need to do now is mash this up with Google Analytics, Google Apps and Google Checkout. Could we call it a Goopoun? We could, but a Coupoogle might sound a little better. In any case, if it is prêt-à-dépenser, it could be a winner!  The Community is the Computer - Go Zig!R&B
May 13, 2009 9:19
May 11, 2009
May 06, 2009
The competition is intensifying. Hardware profits are much less than profits in services and software. With the recent entry of Cisco into the server market and Oracle's acquisition of Sun, we pause to think where all this might be going. After all, none of today's big server vendors make most of their money from the hardware itself. IBM makes most of its profit from services. The big money maker at HP is the printer ( and the cartridges). Cisco profits from networking hardware. Oracle will likely remain primarily a software company.  What's inside?The key seems to be integration, and smart marketing. IBM has done well. IBM pulls the hardware through with the software and service out front. Certainly, it was with this in mind when HP bought EDS. Now, Cisco is bundling servers with routers and pushing VDI ( Cisco is a VMWare shareholder). Then, there is the telepresence initiative, which according to the Cisco website is now available in over 300 telepresence rooms in 135 cities and more than 40 countries -- welcome to the human network. It will be interesting to see what comes out of the oven when Oracle creates the first SPARC, Solaris/Linux, Java, database, PeopleSoft/Siebel, etc. offering...  Surprise!As the issues compound for these companies and the competition intensifies, much more than sixpence will be needed. Can they afford to be everything to everybody? Will the server become a loss-leader? With energy costs being considered over a life of use, the notions of grid and utility computing as carriers of metered services are becoming more defined and credible. Ultimately, applications drive adoption, so the real trick for these folks may actually be keeping the four and twenty blackbirds in the pie. We may see more vendor lock-in or we may not... The Community is the Computer - Go Zig!R&B
May 06, 2009 3:52
April 23, 2009
Earlier this week we proudly announced that Genesi had become an Authorized Google Apps™ Reseller. Next week, we will launch an alpha test for customers that leverages the Google offering. We call the pilot program Cloud City. Cloud City enables low-cost, low-power consumption, Internet connected devices to access Office and Productivity software. As you might suspect, these new devices we have also developed feature ARM processors. Of course, many other applications will be tested. In the meanwhile, if you have not registered your potential project in the i.MX515 Developer Program, please do so. There is change afoot! The Community is the Computer - Go Zig!R&B
April 23, 2009 3:48
April 20, 2009
April 19, 2009
You don't have to be a millionaire Space Tourist to venture into the universe. The Galileoscope will start shipping later this month. You can own one for $15 plus shipping. You can donate one anonymously for $12.50. What a great project! What Saturn may have looked like to Galileo in 1609In our lifetime a telescope that functions as well as the Galileoscope, was at least as expensive as a computer. These pictures were taken in 1981 with a telescope that cost more than $5000 ( not to mention what it cost Galileo to share his knowledge in his time).  Jupiter and moons
The purpose of the Project is to ensure the delivery of the best possible product at the lowest possible price to stimulate worldwide interest, especially among young people, in science. The Galileoscope is augmented with educational activities and related materials for use by self-learners and/or anyone else eager to share the wonders of the universe with others. What is even more remarkable is all the governmental, institutional/organizational and individual cooperation involved. Wow!
The Community is the Computer - Go Zig!
R&B
April 19, 2009 18:11
April 18, 2009
Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN) has done a very good job with the BeagleBoard ( beagleboard.org). They have released the design documentation, provided a Board Support Package, and encouraged the development of a Community around the hardware. Some folks have even started producing their own version of the board (e.g. EBVBeagle). Looking ahead to the OMAP4 release, TI should be proud of what they have accomplished. We would like to think they drew a few lessons from our successful EFIKA Developer Program. Thanks to Google Analytics, we know they have visited the site extensively over the years.  We are using the BeagleBoard in a Pilot ProjectWe are looking forward to working on a number of ARM related Projects, while we await the new i.MX515 development boards that we should have next week. If you have not registered your potential project in the i.MX515 Developer Program, please do so. The Community is the Computer - Go Zig!R&B
April 18, 2009 17:38
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