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Faster Benchmarks With Slower Hardware

hardware

The Bus Pirate is a cheap, simple, Swiss army knife of electronic prototyping, capable of programming FPGAs, and writing to Flash memory. The uISP is possibly the most minimal way of programming Atmel chips over USB, using less than $5 in components. Although the uISP is using a slower chip and bit-banging the USB protocol, it turns out it’s actually faster when operating as a programmer for SPI Flash memories.

Most of [Necromancer]‘s work involves flashing routers and the like, and he found the Bus Pirate was far too slow for his liking – he was spending the better part of four minutes to write a 2 MiB SPI Flash. Figuring he couldn’t do much worse, he wrote two firmwares for the uISP to put some data on a Flash chip, one a serial programmer, the other a much more optimized version.

Although the ATMega in the uISP is running at about half the speed as the PIC in the Bus Pirate, [Necromancer] found the optimized firmware takes nearly half the time to write to an 8 MiB Flash chip than the Bus Pirate.

It’s an impressive accomplishment, considering the Bus Pirate has a dedicated USB to serial chip, the uISP is bitbanging its USB connection, and the BP is running with a much faster clock. [Necro] thinks the problem with the Bus Pirate is the fact the bandwidth is capped to 115200 bps, or a maximum throughput of 14 kiB/s. Getting rid of this handicap and optimizing the delay loop makes the cheaper device faster.

Filed under: hardware, tool hacks

Tempo Keeping Drummer Leaves Viking Ship, Now Inspires Pedallers

Bike Controlled Drum Machine

[Serdef] wrote in to tell us about a project he has recently created. It’s a drum beat generator that changes tempo depending on how fast you pedal your bike. This flies directly in the face of using music to keep your pedal timing consistent and up to speed.

The project started out with a tap-tempo drum rhythm pedal that [Serdef] had previously built. This device will generate a drum beat at a tempo corosponding with the time between 2 input signals. This type of device allows someone, say a guitarist, to quickly and easily specify the speed of the drumbeat that they are playing along with.

With the meat and potatoes of the project already figured out, the next part was to make the speed of the bike trigger the tempo of the drum beat. For the signal input, a magnet mounted on the wheel triggers a reed switch mounted on the bike fork once per wheel revolution. This is the same method of information gathering that a bicycle speedometer/odometer uses.

The business part of this project includes an Arduino that measures the speed of the wheel via the magnetic switch, adjusts the speed of the drum beat, and then sends the drum beat to a synthesizer via MIDI protocol. The synthesizer converts the MIDI signal into drum sounds amplified through a powered speaker that the rider can hear. The entire system is powered by a 9v battery and housed in a project box strapped to the bike’s handlebars.

All of the design files and Arduino code are available via [Serdef's] excellent write up on hackaday.io in case you’re interested in making one for yourself.

Filed under: musical hacks, transportation hacks

Funding Daily: Fishing for financing

Above: A person fly fishing in a river.

Image Credit: Annette Shaff / Shutterstock

A few tech startups reeled in some new funding today. We’ve got the details in this aquatic edition of Funding Daily.

VigLink helps monetize ad links, raises $18M more

Three years after its first round of funding, automated affiliate linking company VigLink has scored $18 million in series C funding. RRE Ventures led the round, with participation from existing investors Google Ventures, Emergence Capital, and First Round Capital and additional investment from Correlation Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank.

The company automates the affiliate linking process, making it easier for publishers to get paid when native links drive sales. In addition to monetizing links, the company offers an exchange where merchants can compete for prized publisher links — a great way for publishers to capitalize on sites with heavy traffic. At the moment, the exchange is a small portion of the company's profit.

Read the full story on VentureBeat: VigLink helps monetize ad links, raises $18M more

Fishidy pulls in $1.5M in first round

Local fishing information site Fishidy reeled in $1.5 million in series A funding. Chicago-based investment group Hyde Park Angels led the round. Other investors include Gannett Fleming, Inc., Wisconsin Super Angel Fund, The Gialamas Company, Inc., and Jeff Rusinow.

Fishidy uses fishing maps, real-time reports, and location-based technology to connect sportfishermen. The service has accrued 150,000 members over the past 15 months and is looking to expand further.

Read the full story on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

VigLink technology instantly and automatically captures the value of content that drives commerce. We monetize ordinary links to over 30,000 retailers, whether they're created by you or us. Our technology works across sites, apps, and ... read more »

Glympse grabs $12M to take real-time location sharing tech to the next level

Image Credit: Glympse/Twitter

Location sharing startup Glympse raised a fresh $12 million round of funding, the company announced today.

Glympse produces real-time location tracking/sharing technology that’s been integrated into cars, commercial airplanes, messaging applications, wearable gadgets and more. For example, Glympse’s tech was used to track the location of airplane passengers via a partnership with in-flight wi-fi company Gogo.

The startup said it plans to use the additional capital to hire more employees, further develop its technology, and go after new partnerships that will expand Glympse’s tech into new verticals.

The round, Glympse’s third, includes investments from new investors UMC Capital, Verizon Ventures, and others, as well as existing investors Ignition Partners, Menlo Ventures, and Naya Ventures.

Founded in 2008, the Seattle, Wash.-based startup currently has 21 employees and has raised a total of $20 million in funding to date.

Glympse is the pioneer of person-to-person location sharing in real-time, for a set amount of time. With an intuitive design and enhanced features, such as Glympse Groups, the company easily integrates location sharing into every day a... read more »

Google’s Street Art project turns its focus to sidewalk drawings and graffiti tags

Above: A street-artist collective created this fresco in Bayonne, France.

Image Credit: Google

Google started bringing pieces of museum art online in 2011, and now it’s moved on to street art.

Google Cultural Institute's latest venture, The Street Art Project, launched earlier this week. It’s like a digital museum of more than 5,000 works of art painted on walls, sidewalks, buildings, and other public surfaces.

The images were shot either by Google Street View cameras, or contributed by artists and cultural institutions. Google stores the images in a database, which can be searched by artist and by location.

The collection includes spray-painted murals that play tricks on the eye, politically charged installations, candy-colored art on highway underpasses, crochet-covered cars and sticker-covered windows. The exhibition also includes 100 graffiti-related exhibitions.

Google has been working on the project for the past few months, and got help from experts in the street art genre to pick the best works.

What would Banksy say?

Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major glob... read more »

A huge hit in New York City, Swift is now going to bootcamp

Above: Eager developers attending a Swift class in NYC Wednesday

Image Credit: Courtesy Turntotech

Swift is going to bootcamp in the Big Apple.

Apple unveiled Swift at the World Wide Developers Conference 2014 two weeks ago in San Francisco as a possible replacement for Objective-C. The unveiling drew shock and awe among the 6,000 developers and press seated inside Moscone Center West.

Turntotech, a New York City-based software development outfit, saw an opportunity and launched free classes which began Wednesday to keep up with interest from developers. The event attracted nearly 1,000, but with seating for 150, many were turned away.

Now, Swift is getting its own bootcamp. Turntotech is launching the camp next Wednesday. Because programmers are coming out in droves, the bootcamp is a logical way to keep up with the insane interest, said Turntotech’s marketing director Sean Moskowitz.

“The response has been unbelievable,” Moskowitz said.

Initially, Turntotech planned to offer its introductory Swift programming classes only until June 23. That date has since been pushed back, and a bootcamp format is now in its stead to keep up with the interest, Moskowitz said.

“We got tons of interest in our iOS swift bootcamp,” Moskowitz said. “More applications in a day than we typically get in a month.”

The eager to please Moskowitz said Turntotech is the first and only tech operator to offer a Swift bootcamp.

Moskowitz crowed about the diversity of the attendees Wednesday.

“Lots of diversity,” he said. “Men, women, [people of different] ethnicities.”

In fact, Turntotech is so smitten with Swift that it’s now developing apps in the language. Moskowitz said while the first class was way oversubscribed, many of Turntotech’s direct competitors in the app space showed up to Wednesday’s class and then hung around afterwards to talk shop.

Swift, it seems, is bringing people together.

If you’re interested in getting a seat, sign up through Turntotech’s website.

Apple did not return calls for comment, yet Swift is thought to be a long-term replacement for Objective-C.

Developer Sam Soffes told VentureBeat recently that he loved Swift and called the release a bold move by the Cupertino-based kingpins.

"Throwing out everything and learning something new is a tough thing to do. Objective-C is many developers' livelihoods. Messing with the tools we've been using for years to get our job done is hard to hear at first," Soffes said.

But change is good, even for developers who spend years honing their skills on a single language.

"Apple does a great job making a case that the new tools are the way to go."

Brand death: Microsoft will phase out iconic Nokia brand name

Image Credit: Thomas Kohler/Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/mecklenburg/5787483103/

Microsoft closed its deal to acquire the mobile and services division of Nokia last fall, and it now appears ready to put Nokia’s iconic mobile brand name out to pasture.

The Nokia name dominated a huge chunk of the early history of mobile phones, and its demise will take some getting used to.

The phase-out of the name is spelled out in the terms and conditions in Microsoft’s $7.2 billion deal to acquire Nokia, announced in September 2013. As we reported in late April, Microsoft’s mobile division will now be called Microsoft Mobile.

A leaked document sent to Nokia employees when the acquisition was formally announced sets a schedule for the mobile brand’s demise. A copy of the memorandum was recovered and posted by Evleaks .

Here are the highlights:

Microsoft can continue using the Nokia brand for Lumia devices for another 18 months. It can use the Nokia brand for Nokia X devices until the end of 2015. It can use the Nokia brand for another ten years for other Nokia phones (feature phones).

Microsoft says it intends to keep Nokia retail stores and “Care Centers” open for the time being.

Microsoft Corporation is a public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through ... read more »

Find out if Google’s driverless car is legal in your state

Image Credit: Mojo Motors

This map reveals where driverless cars are street-legal, and which states are stuck in legislative limbo.

In 2011, Nevada became the first state to legalize the testing of driverless cars. California later followed suit. As Mojo Motors’ map details, progress in this space continues: recently California announced plans to begin issuing licenses for autonomous cars this September.

Google’s recently released prototype — a car which forgoes a steering wheel, mirrors, and pedals — reignited excitement over driverless cars, although the company’s work in the space is far from new.

Google’s driverless cars have also faced criticism. The taxi and limousine industry does not appear happy with Uber’s interest in adopting driverless vehicles, and numerous competing firms, like Mobileye, believe they can do a better job.

For more on the state of driverless cars, head here.

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Fishidy pulls in $1.5M in first round