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Comment Bluetooth ones are costlier, but... (Score 1) 270

by mr_3ntropy (#32245928) Attached to: Any Open Source Solutions For DIY Auto Diagnostics?

The GP neglected to mention which bluetooth device he bought and for how much. This is a price gouging hole because of the lack of options in the market. I found that the OBDkey you linked to costs $160 for the bluetooth, and $350 for the WiFi version.

I had discovered this $50 alternative when I had been looking, but don't know if it will work as well as the more expensive ones. ~$50 is surely a much more decent and reasonable price though.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16921

You can read the reviews which are ok, and it even works with the open source scantool.net software, ScanXL, Scanmaster, etc. So it can't be all that bad.Several Free OBD2 software tools are listed on this page:
http://www.webpg.net/sc/pages.asp?pageid=60
More open source ones here:
http://www.geekmyride.org/wiki/index.php/Open_Source_OBD_software

I also noticed a similar one on ebay which is more like $25. Again, no idea how good these actually are.

I have also read that bluetooth may not support sufficient bandwidth for realtime monitoring of modern ECUs with a large number of sensors, data etc. Wifi is better, but I haven't found anything actually affordable.

My own goal was a laptop-less self contained logging device that can be handed to my friends to simply plug in and go. That would allow me to log sensor data and analyse it later to diagnose intermittent issues that we cannot reproduce on demand. I didn't quite succeed in this. The most obvious option is the "Carchip", which turns out to be pretty lame. It can only record about 10 or so parameters and that only at 5 sec intervals. Many intermittent issues only last a few seconds so this would be useless for diagnostics. Its more a fleet management solution.

There aren't many other affordable datalogging devices. I finally bought the very expensive Auterra dashdyno, which turned out to be a huge disappointment also. It can log several times a second but is also limited to 16 pids. This wouldn't be such a problem if the user interface was not an absolute horror to use. I will leave that review for another post. This precludes it being used as a plug and go tool. It is for geeks only and needs babysitting.

I guess the next best idea is that I will buy that bluetooth device next and see if any data logging software is available. Also need to upgrade my phone to Android I guess. At least a laptop is not required, but still not the plug-and-log that I want :/
Image

Head First Rails 57

Posted by samzenpus from the read-all-about-it dept.
Anita Kuno writes "I suggested Head First Rails to a friend before I even finished it. He was asking me questions that I didn't have time to answer, and I knew the book could explain better than I. My friend is impatient, and I was uncertain what his experience would be. At first he was frustrated, but I assured him the answers were in the book. The incremental style of Head First Rails includes some exercises that are designed to fail to reinforce the learning process. I was confident that his answer would be found in the pages and he trusted me enough to go back and continue the exercises. He later told me he is very happy with the book and grateful that I suggested it." Read on for the rest of Anita's review.
Privacy

Anonymous Network I2P 0.7.2 Released 231

Posted by timothy from the layers-and-layers dept.
Mathiasdm writes "The Invisible Internet Project, also known as I2P, has seen its 0.7.2 release (download). I2P uses multiple encryption layers, and routing through several other computers to hide both sender and receiver of messages. On top of the network, regular services such as mail, browsing, file sharing and chatting are supported. This release (and all of the releases since 0.7) is at the start of a new development period, in which the I2P developers wish to spread the word about the secure network. This new release includes performance improvements, a first edition of an experimental new desktop interface and security improvements (by limiting the number of tunnels a single peer can participate in)."
Space

Submission + - Stephen Hawking says universe created from nothing

Submitted by
mr_3ntropy
mr_3ntropy writes: "Speaking to a sold out crowd at the Berkeley Physics Oppenheimer Lecture, Hawking said yesterday that he now believes the universe spontaneously popped into existence from nothing. He said more work is needed to prove this but we have time because "Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end."
Webcast available here.(Realplayer or Real Alternative required)
This quote is at the very end of the lecture A transcript would have been helpful, but I couldn't find one available yet.
Very difficult to grasp and accept this idea, but interesting for those of us who constantly wonder about the origins of the universe."
Security

Submission + - User-Privilege Flaw Hits Vista

Submitted by
IT071872
IT071872 writes: "According to PC world, A security firm has discovered one of the first security flaws to directly affect Windows Vista, a bug that it claims allows local users to escalate their privileges.

The flaw involves Windows' system for managing user security levels, User Account Control (UAC), which was introduced with Vista. UAC is designed to limit the damage that can be caused by mass attacks such as worms by giving standard users limited privileges, a practice common with other operating systems."

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