Blog posts by peterjfrancis

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At this time of year we remember the fallen of all the wars both past and present , and traditionally this covers the soldiers, sailors and airmen , but perhaps we should also remember all the Engineers who worked long hours in dangerous situations to produce the equipment the servicemen so desperately needed.

Spitfire Mk2a -- Only flying example to have fought in the Battle of Britain

The following is just an example of the incredible design and manufacturing effort that took place during the Second World War and it’s a testament to their work that after 70 years lost in an Irish peat bog a Browning .303 machine gun from a Spitfire that crashed in the Irish Republic in 1941 was restored to working order and actually fired.

Browning .303 Machine Gun

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Those clever people behind the Arduino have opened the door on their latest venture Arduino Labs .

The purpose of the Lab is to allow the open Source community to contribute to the development of new products and tools. It will be the birthplace for their new developments both software and hardware.

Currently in the incubator at the Labs are the Mega ADK and Arduino GPRS/GSM Shield

The Mega ADK is Android’s Accessory Development Kit and the Arduino Mega ADK, which was designed to work with the Android OS.

The Mega ADK is a derivative of the Arduino Mega 2560 and includes a USB host chip not found on the 'standard' Mega 2560. This host chip allows any USB device to connect to the Arduino. In addition to the ADK there is a special version of the Processing IDE ( Processing 1.0 Beta ) that simplifies the programming task. 

The other new arrival is the Arduino GPRS/GSM Shield.

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There is a lot of discussion at the moment about budget cuts and the economy and we seem to be bombarded on a daily basis with figures and statistics from one group followed within hours by contradicting data from an opposing group.  Where does all this data come from and how can we use it ?

There is a phrase I'm sure we've all heard

"There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies, and statistics" Read more