It's a FREE world...Atleast for Engineers

Hi All!

There are some really high quality free softwares which are flooding the Internet. I have come across a few of them and I wanted to share them with you.

Richard Stallman, who pioneered the Free Software movement will not be all that ecstatic though. The way he had envisaged the movement was that there will be some geek (it's not a insult in their community!) writing some software, others would like it, and of that some would  start contributing. The software would then continue to develop for eternity.

Successful software needs two things to be developed: Direction and Man hours.

You could have a bunch of trained sailors but you still need a captain to steer the ship. Same is the case with the software. The best example of this leadership, currently, of course is Steve Jobs. The Free software movement is guided by some very able captains no doubt. So this is not the problem for FSF.

But for a long sail you also need fuel. The man hours put in the right time in the right amount can lead to a fast software. A Fast software is one which is continuously being upgraded, is easy to upgrade and is conscientiously moving towards a fixed goal.

This unfortunately is not one of the very strong points of the FSF. It is not their fault it is the lacuna of human nature. You always need somebody to crack a whip or set a deadline. This makes you stop talking and start working.

 Here, I guess, Mr. Stallman will be disappointed. In the sense that what the new trend seems to be is that the large companies in very diverse fields are encouraging the free softwares. These companies may also have some associated commercial interests. If there are, then I am not yet aware of them. If you find any please feel free to inform.

The two softwares which fall in this category are both CAD softwares. One specifically for electronics and the other primarily for Mechanical drafting.

EAGLE:This software has been around for years. I had tried it out way back and had given up on it because it was not as intuitive as PADS. It still is not. But it is FREE! It is in its own respect a very good software no doubt. It has some features like error detection which were at a time way ahead of their time. The problem still persists with it that it is not that intuitive. I mean picking up ground symbol from part list is a horrifying thought for a PADS user. Now you can expect a lot more from this software because it has been taken under the wings of the behemoth Farnell. Check out their website and you will realize their size and might. If you have not tried this software out I suggest that you do (mostly applies to electronics engineers!!). Even if you have another software you have bought (or cracked!!!).

Draft Sight: This one is great! It is very much like Autocad. Now before you start believing every word I say, let me tell you that I am an electronics engineer. I have tried my hand on using Autocad from time to time and have always ended up in a cul-de-sac! This software is a LOT more user friendly than Autocad 2004. If you don't want to take my word for it ( and you should not!!!) then you should read Ricky Jordan's blog. I don't know this guy but he seems well informed! (and also he has put in more efforts to make his blog more interesting!) This software comes from Dassault Systemes, who well own the brands Solidworks and CATIA. They have the motto: " 3d for all!". So they have given the 2d software for free! Get the logic. I don't. I don't even understand the commercial angle behind it! But then I am dumb!

Another software which you can look at is Gnu Octave. Mr. Stallman will definitely have nothing to crib about here! It is a scripting language and is considered as an equivalent tool for Matlab. I have never used Matlab so you know how much to trust the previous statement.

Another thing is the GNU C compiler for MSP430. Commonly known as MSP-GCC. It also is an example of the FSF and MNC interaction. TI supports and promotes the software.

Now let me come to some more interesting things on the net:

First let me share a youtube video with you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&hl=en-GB&v=Gc4HGQHgeFE

And I am very sure that most of you will not come back after seeing that video, but is it not a pain in the you know what if you have to share the above mentioned link! Well tinyurl is to your rescue! I converted the long name above to just: http://tinyurl.com/inspirierenden (BTW:  inspirierenden means inspirational in German!). A word of caution here: if you get a mail from your bank who has the website address as tinurl.com/xxxxx, then please be ware that you could fall prey to phishing! 

Before I leave you I would like to change your homepage to the following site:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

More commonly known as APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day), this site has been running for more than a decade. It has an astronomy picture which is updated daily. One should visit their archive section to see some of their gems. This is also an example of government money being well spent!

Do also visit my site: www. indiaadityanetworks.com

I hope you like this blog. Dont forget to leave a message. I love hearing from people, especially if they are not asking for money!

 

 

Communication is Everything! Part 1: Keep Talking

... And everything is communication.

This blog has been in the blogger drafts section for eternity.  I decided to bring it out today and publish it.

I will keep it short and simple.
 Keep Talking: If you love somebody, if you value somebody, then talk to them. In many cases you will find that they were always ready to listen it was you who were switching them off. These are the common excuses that I find for not communicating:
a. I am tired: If this communication is with your spouse, kids, parents and you are too tired to talk to them then  first of all evaluate why you are tired. Is it because you are working too hard? Then ask why are you working too hard. There is a very very very good chance that you are too disorganized. Get a grip of your life and modify your lifestyle.
b. I am busy: Many people are there but they are not there. I am sometimes home but am thinking about some work in the office. Sometimes my wife is calling me but I am too engrossed in reading the newspaper, magazine or a book. When you want to communicate, you have to tell yourself that very thing a thousand times over in your head " I want to communicate!!!". This will help you realize that your loved one has opened a channel for communication and you should pick it up. It is not necessary that every communication should last a eternity or you should chat throughout the night and loose track of the time. The essential thing is that you should be able to understand what your loved one is thinking, what is going on in their mind, what are their current priorities. If  you are able to gauge them future communications will be easier to start.
c. I am in difficult situation elsewhere: I don't have time for this: Remember if you are in a difficult situation, your loved ones are the biggest asset. When everything is going against you they may be the only people there to support you. So do not be a wastrel and dump this asset. In the difficult times this communication may also lend you some mental comfort which may help you get out of the mess you are in faster.

Remember when you say that something else is more important for me and I can talk to you later, is received as "You are not important for me and I will talk to you when I get time." Would you like that kind of insult yourself?


Do visit my company website at www.indiaadityanetworks.com, if you have anything related to electronics or engineering.

The problem of Unique Records

Hi All!

with 40 visits in nearly one year, and to add insult to injury, most of them have been by me, there is very little one can say about 'All'.

We ran into a very different problem recently. We have an application on a vehicle from which we are extracting the data using a hand-held device. The hand-held device communicates with the truck mounted device using RS-485 communication protocol.

The hand-held device is then brought to the computer where it transfers the data to the computer using USB port. 

The hand-held device has some issues. In the sense that there is a chance that it can send the same data to the computer multiple times. 

The computer software is a VC++ application connecting to Access database using ODBC. We decided to remove the multiple records from the database by running the following queries on the database:

Step 1:

All the records reside in the table Consumption.

We created a table to hold some data temporarily by name of CMPNTMP2. 

We deleted all the records in the table using the query command:

DELETE * FROM CMPNTMP2

Step 2:

Next we selected all the distinct records from the main consumption database and copied them to the temporary CMPNTMP2 table using following query:

INSERT INTO CMPNTMP2 SELECT DISTINCT * FROM CONSUMPTION

Step 3:

Then we deleted all the records in the consumption table:

DELETE * FROM CONSUMPTION 

Step 4:

And finally we copied all the records in the CMPNTMP2 table to CONSUMPTION Table:

INSERT INTO CONSUMPTION SELECT * FROM CMPNTMP2

And Wallah! we had all the unique records!!!

Do visit our site: www.indiaadityanetworks.com to see what we do!

Do drop in a message or two, that will keep us going