I do a lot of work with the gEDA tools (gschem for schematic capture, pcb for layout). Not quite as polished as the commercial packages, but free and open.

In particular, I like the fact that all the file formats are open as ASCII based. Very handy for tracking changes in designs.

http://www.geda-project.org/

I love it, a DC AC

I just think it's awesome that Bruce Schneier got a nod in the TSA dictionary:

Bruce Schneiered: (V, ints) When a passenger uses logic in order to confound and perplex an officer into submission. Ex: “A TSA officer took my Swiss army knife, but let my scissors go. I then asked him wouldn’t it be more dangerous if I were to make my scissors into two blades, or to go into the bathroom on the secure side and sharpen my grandmother’s walking stick with one of the scissor blades into a terror spear. Then after I pointed out that all of our bodies contain a lot more than 3.4 ounces of liquids, the TSA guy got all pissed and asked me if I wanted to fly today. I totally Schneirered his ass.”

I have a boom microscope that I use for electronics work which is very popular with my kids for looking at bugs, etc. I got mine from amscope.com for something like $350.

I also have a biological style microscope which is higher power and lit from below. My kids didn't seem to have as much interest in this. Generally, one cell looks pretty much like another unless you really know what you're looking for.

I've got a VPS running on interserver.net, and I'm happy with them. I'm not doing anything fancy, but do have a couple domains pointed at the server with simple static pages, and run my e-mail through them. I'm running Ubuntu on my vps which is one of their standard options.

Can you spare me one?

stephen . glow at gmail

Thanks

Just yesterday I was playing with this on my Nexus One which was recently upgraded to Gingerbread.

I signed up for an account with www.diamondcard.us (found them through the Ekiga web site). Pretty cheap (I had to put $15 down to setup the account), and I can confirm that it does work with the N1 on Gingerbread, at least over wifi.

I only tried one test call and there was noticeable latency over wifi. Certainly workable in a pinch, but not as good as normal cell service.

I received my update on the Nexus-one this morning also.

Actually, that's fairly common. Most camera's use a short pre-flash to adjust their light levels when you press the shutter button. This is followed a few milliseconds later by the actual flash used to take the picture. Some people with sensitive eyes will blink at the pre-flash and end up with their eyes closed in most flash pictures.

I used to have a Nikon DSLR camera that could be programmed to emit the pre-flash when a certain button was pressed. I'd hit the pre-flash button first, then take the actual picture (sans pre-flash) a few seconds later. Worked miracles for my wife who is a blinker.

My new camera (a newer Nikon DSLR) doesn't see to make people blink, so either it doesn't use a pre-flash, or it's so fast that there's no time for people to react.

Agreed. I have a relatively inexpensive Instek scope that I use at home (GDS-820C), and it's a great tool. I use Tektronic scopes at work which are certainly nicer because of the much higher sampling rates, but the cheap scope handles 95% of what I need.

One word of caution; Instek (and I'm sure this is true of other cheap scope manufacturers) make some wild claims about handling very high frequency signals with these inexpensive scopes. For example, my scope claims to have 150MHz bandwidth and "25Gsa/s Sampling Rate for Repetitive Waveforms" on the product page. This is just marketing hype, don't believe it!

When comparing scopes, look at the actual sampling rate of the signals. My scope samples at 100 MHz, the Tektronic I use at work samples 10 times that fast. It makes a big difference when working with fast waveforms.

I'm not putting down the cheap scopes, you can pick up the model that I'm using new for around $1000. Just be aware that these inexpensive scopes are not great for looking at very fast signals. If you need speed, you will need to spend significantly more.

I feel for you on the problem with compilers that are only available for Windows. I do embedded systems development and have the same problem (although fortunately the Windows only compilers will at least work with XP). I only run Linux on my laptop, but use VMware workstation for the rare occasion that I need to use one of those old compilers. Works great.

Actually, for the most part the compilers that I'm using have a command line mode which works fine under Wine, so I rarely even have to start VMware anymore.

I'm quite happy with my current laptop by the way. It's a Dell XPS M1530 which I bought pre-installed with Ubuntu. I loved the fact that I didn't need to pay the MS tax when I got it.

I use mencoder also, The following script has worked for virtually every DVD I've tried:

mencoder dvd://$1 -o "$2" -aid 128 -oac copy -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=msmpeg4:keyint=100:mbd=1:vbitrate=1800

The first parameter is the track number (use lsdvd and pick the longest track), the second parameter is the file name