The Mac Robotics Blog

Papermaster gets office in Apple, finally

2009-01-27T23:43:00.004-05:00

And the scoreboard does a rare twist in crediting the creative and productive, while leaving the litigating parties in the dust. Horay for the ass kicking products that this talent move will undoubtedly bring in the future!

AAPL - 1

IBM - 0

Ridiculous lawyers - minus 1

Market Watch

Apple PR

Papermaster countersues. IBM to pay up 3 million bucks.

2008-11-17T19:28:00.007-05:00

What a dramatic tug-of-war of interstate proportions! If you have been following the misadventures of Mark Papermaster, PowerPC geek and super manager, you might have been feeling a bit uneasy about the repercussions to all technical professionals. If the injustice system rules for IBM, the precedent might make all technical professionals indentured property of the members of the board, a mere piece of furniture in their inventory. Luckily, the New York judges saw the light and had no other choice but to rule that you can't own a nerd, only rent it.

The guy deserves a ride on the iGulfstream V.

Yeah, here's the link.

No VoIP over 3G, but music streaming is a-OK

2008-07-24T22:11:00.013-04:00

Pandora and AOL Music are being trumpeted as if there's no tomorrow, and they are great... great suckers of 3G bandwidth. However, iPhone Apps like Truphone and Fring are not so hot yet. Truphone is 6 cents a minute: not as expensive as AT&T overage fees, but way more expensive than SIP voice carriers, which is the reason to use VoIP. Fring is sitting in the shadows, as their app is for jailbroken iPhones, waiting to see if the iPhone developer program becomes a little less draconian.

So, which way is it going to be, Steve? Are bandwidth sucking apps allowed, or forbidden?

BTW. G729 calls sound great at 8 kbits/s. I can't imagine Pandora and AOL Music are pushing less bits per second.

Don't waste your dollars on commercial office suites

2008-07-24T21:21:00.004-04:00

If you haven't tried Open Office and Neo Office for the Mac lately, ... well, you should. As some open source projects do, OO has very active communities and developers (paid by Sun, no less). You might be surprised are how much it has evolved since the time you tried it last. Neo Office is an OO's Cocoa/Aqua port, so you might want to check that out too.

If you don't have time to test the free software, Mr Christopher Dawson has a decent review of the four contenders: OO, N-O, iWork and MS Office. Link

However, if you are still writing your thesis in a commercial word processor, may I suggest you switch to LaTeX already?

New iPhone hot centerfold shots. Daddy Steve not proud at all.

2008-07-15T23:13:00.006-04:00

Still panting over the latest Apple hardware dissection photos? The pimptastic producers of Under The Hood/EETimes have outdone themselves again with another steamy dirty flick... of the new iPhone 3G.

"In this new, titillating video, the lovely 3G's bares all of its chips for us to gaze at. Meanwhile, narration by the stud-gineer makes us wish be there, right in front of those decapped ICs under the microscope. There will be no revirginizing for this particular unit." -Rod Dickens, Geek Pr0n Weekly.

If the tear-down videos don't get your nerd juices flowing, we don't know what will.

Eagle 5.0.0 for OSX. No X11 required!!

2008-07-01T02:12:00.005-04:00

O HAPPY DAY! The good guys at CadSoft have heard the clamor of the Mac-using hackers. The new 5.0 version of their excellent Eagle PCB design software not only runs in OSX, but it also runs Aqua style! To check out the droolworthy software, follow the link.

Note: there's an excellent Eagle tutorial in Sparkfun.com. Link.

EVDO+iPod Touch: faster and cheaper than 3G iPhone?

2008-07-01T01:08:00.006-04:00

If AT&T is joined by the hip to that somewhat cool piece of aluminum called an iPhone until 2012, do you really need a Blackberry to surf in the most ubiquitous 3G network in the United States? With this combo, you could mobile surf in style with your Touch, a with a cheaper monthly bill, at higher speeds, and in many more places than HSDPA can offer. The clinch is that you'll have to bring more hardware with you, possibly doubling the weight of the iPhone alone. Presiona el link vato.

Behold the Apple Mobile Lab

2008-07-01T00:54:00.005-04:00

OMG. Like, er, I have never seen this stuff before. You know, like, have you ever seen those things called Apple Mobile Labs. These products, as they exist only in the shadows of academia, are rarely seen by our consumerist eyes. Fear no more, mon cheri: a guy in the MacNN forums posted a set of photos of the rarely witnessed Apple product. Get your edumacation by clicking the link.

MacUpdate promo for the penny pincher in you

2008-04-16T06:23:00.003-04:00

Mac users are not known for going to 99-cent stores, but here's something that might pique your interest. MacUpdate has launched a promo, which may potentially get you Parallels+SoundStudio+other useful apps for less than retail price of Parallels alone. Remember, spread the word and you'll have more chances of netting the most value from your dollar.

Lame-duck CompUSA employees go nilly-willy on store's website

2008-01-08T20:18:00.000-05:00

It is a slow news day in the tech world, so I reach the bottom of the barrel to report...

Pretty audacious if you ask me. Get your mug shown all across a high traffic website and, if that's not enough, get your friends to do it too. Fun times, fun times.

Un-DRM your iTunes DRM tunes with Best Buy

2008-01-01T23:55:00.000-05:00

Got a few (or many) DRM'd songs in your library, with no way to load them into any PMP you'd ever want? It's time to stick it to the music labels; we've got a tip for you.

A habitual poster of decent credibility in the MacNN forums has recently shared his experience with a non-iPod PMP: the Insignia Pilot. The included software pulls some neat tricks to allow you rock those DRM tracks in the stereo-bluetooth enabled little bugg'r, not thanks to iTunes Plus.

Now, if I could get confirmation that the Pilot woul sync with my Mac, I'd be a-thousand times sold.

Is that utopian world that Uncle Stevie promised us finally coming in 2008?

See a pattern here? This Mac centric blog in no way drinks or serves Kool-aid of any flavor.

I love the smell of Entitlement in the morning

2007-09-19T13:12:00.000-04:00

Consumers being crybabies again.

First it was the iPhone early adopters, crying "It's not right to screw us over with this $200 price decrease". In response, Apple "makes it right" by "giving back" $100.

Now it is the iPod users, crying for their games in their G5.5 don't transfer to their G6 iPods. If you are one of them, then listen to this: the new iPod comes with a new OS. Porting the games to this new OS takes effort and expense, which _should_ be passed on to the consumer.

I am sure that consumer who buys a G5.5 iPod and G6 iPod a few months later have fat wallets. Fat wallets are fair game, anytime.

This just verifies once again that the Mac userbase is composed of way too many socialist pinkos.

*Logs off to check his AAPL stock*

Safari 3.0 brings the 'tardedness to the rest of them

2007-06-17T01:58:00.000-04:00

So, I am a tiny little bit too late to report that Apple has released Safari beta for Windows (v 3.0). Let's just say that this jet lag from my return trip from Korea is not helping keeping this blog as agile and responsive as its normal self (tongue-in-cheek).

My first reaction to Safari on Windows was that of pleasement, because of the easy and fast installation. Almost no questions were asked and I was there on the internet. Secondly, I felt the chills because the titlebar and toolbar were so shady and dark, sharply constrasting with the happy, bright colors of Firefox and Opera. What's this, Apple turning Emo?

I will completely understand the couple of crashes in a single day of light browsing (hey, I have a demanding job and I only reload engadget every 2 hours or so), because this is just a beta. If Apple keeps their stellar bug slaying record, I can bet you that it will be less crashy than IE and FF by 2008.

Toward the end of my browser test, however, I felt VERY VERY pleased about a new Safari feature that's going to make it my #1 Windows browser starting Monday. This is the Text Find feature. If you haven't tried it, it will blow your dirty socks away. While other browsers don't realize that Ctrl-F and Ctrl-G keep their users hunting for the highlighted text for longer than it takes to find Waldo, Safari uses a better, bolder and fatter word highlighting that truly calls your attention. A big three thumbs up!

Aleluya!

As we speak, IE and FF developers are copying this feature. Expect it in your non-Safari browser by September.

As for speed, Safari is at least as fast as FF and IE. Let's hope it keeps up :) After all, this incursion of Apple into the Windows world has no other purpose than to make PC web-dev's into iPhone developers. Don't let Steve fool you into believing that they want a bite of the IE merkeshare pie. More likely, it will drive down the number of active FF browsers running, as the IE marketshare (my grandma included) are people who are completely satisfied with IE.

VirtualBox for OSX beta available now

2007-05-07T12:39:00.000-04:00

In this large, gray industrial building, the Macrobotics staff is pretty pleased to see the virtualization market spread and catch up to demand. First was Parallels, then VMWare, and now Virtualbox is reaching to serve the enormous demand of Mac lovers trying to break the Wintel shackles.

Download the beta now!

I swear I am so glad that the Virtual PC monoculture is a thing of the long past (pre-2006).

Official OSX VirtualBox coming soon

2007-04-09T20:36:00.000-04:00

In a few weeks, according to the Linux.com article, you'll be able to get the GPL'd virtualizer from Innotek. Today, you can get the source code to compile yourself , or you you can get an unofficial binary that you can try on your own Intel Mac. Either way, the VM market is going to look great for us consumers :)

VBox binary and LaunchPad, brought to you by Mr. K. Seki.

Plethora of digital logic apps for OSX

2007-04-09T18:16:00.000-04:00

If you are starting your CpE, EE or CS degree, there's a big chance that you'll go through a course called Digital Logic Design (or some variant of the name). If so, the course may or may not contemplate the use of computer aided design, and you don't need to be at a disadvantage, just 'cause you use a Mac.

Sure, you can always use the Virtualizer (*poke* the answer to everything) to use the teach's recommended logic design application, but you can use a pretty Aqua interface app like the following:

LogicSim
This is a Java app with a simple interface. Because it supports module creation, it's more powerful than my favorite MSWin logic simulator: Multimedia Logic.

LogicSim in evil non-ISO logic notation mode

Logisim
My favorite logic simulator thus far. As powerful as LogicSim, in my experience, and a Java App as well, but it has a better Aqua feel. Supports module creation and a kickass feature: expression optimizer (Karnaugh Map analysis): great to beat the competition!

Instant optimized Sum of Products. Try it at home!

LogicWorks
This is the one true OSX application in these three, however it is pay-ware. If my memory serves me right, it's been in the simulation scene since the OS 8 years. Its unique feature is the Timing Analyzer. You can try the free demo and if you like it, order directly from Capilano Computing.

LogicWorks, the fastest of them all

What's going to be your favorite?

VMWare Beta 3: now available

2007-04-06T12:06:00.000-04:00

Parallels arch-nemesis VMWare Fusion is out for another stab. Computer news outlets are reporting that VMWare is offering the latest and greatest Fusion ever: Beta 3. Among the improvements is the removal of the much hated Debug Mode (YES!), and support for Bootcamp partitions (a humble imitation of the other VM), among others.

Just when you thought that the VM war had cooled down, it starts heating up again.

eWeek
MacDaily News
O'Grady's Powerpage
MacWorld

And if you are scratching your head about what direction this blog is taking, it is about electronics and technical creation with your Mac. Virtualization of Windows-capable hardware is an important issue, IMO.

Virtualization and Notebooks: Not all roses

2007-04-06T00:56:00.000-04:00

Personally, I've had nothing but great results with all virtualization solutions out there: VMWare, Parallels and VirtualBox. It feels like showing off the zen of computing would make any bystander Switch like *that*, but I am not an evangelist.

However, some people have sent comments at the MacWindows.com staff, complaining about a misterious problem with Parallels and MacBooks. Apparently, Build 3188 can cause some Mac lappies to grow amnesia about their battery and effectively render itself battery-less.

This is much, much more serious than the blog-whine on how Parallels can decrease your use time by over 50%. The blogger in question should rethink its choice of guest OS: it's been documented that Vista is a power hog. DUH!

Steve Jobs introduces the iRack

2007-03-12T20:45:00.000-04:00

Ok, is The Mac Robotics Blog jumping the shark in its 6th month already? I hope not, but lately I've not found stuff worthy of this blog. Can you people help a guy out?

In the mean time enjoy this stupid video from MADtv (which would be spelled MadTV if made by Apple).

YouTube - Apple presents the "iRack"

Orgasmic: VMWare Fusion to support 3D hardware acceleration

2007-02-09T12:14:00.000-05:00

Coherence is so January!

Sorry for the lack of posts in electronics software, but recently I've been very busy at work.

Anyways, I just got word of a Youtube video revealing that VMWare will support 3D acceleration through your own real 3D video card. Watch out Parallels!

YouTube Link

New challenger in the virtualization game: Virtual Box

2007-01-15T22:24:00.000-05:00

Back in 1997, there were plenty of Windows Emulation options for the Mac: Virtual PC, Soft PC, Soft Windows, Real PC, etc... And it was encouraging to see how they competed, taking stabs at each other with new features and performance improvements. But with time, only VPC remained as the only option for Windows-hungry Mac heads. And we all know how "innovative" VPC became the only dog in town . No updates in the last 2 years of the PowerPC era.

Fast forward to 2006, and Parallels offers a killer Virtualization product, and it is already putting nails in VMWare's Fusion coffin, even before it is hatched. Q, iEmulator, Wintel and Wine are also going for a piece of cake. Competition is good.

Now there is a new challenger with ambitions to woo the market. Virtual Box by Innotek. A few Slashdot posts suggest thatit is pretty zippy, and from the screenshots it looks pretty mature. And the best of all, Innotek just released its source code under the GPL, so it can go as far as our fellow programming geeks want to take it.

The only clinch is that their Intel Mac version is only at the Alpha stage, and you have to compile it yourself. Any of our favorite Mac developers up to the task of making a polished binary?

MPLAB IDE works under Crossover

2006-12-05T23:59:00.000-05:00

This curiosity hit me last week: while I am not very hopeful of the Wine and Crossover projects, it would be fun to see if certain program I constantly use under Bootcamp/Parallels works on the Wine layer. MPLAB IDE, the default Assembly/C way to program your Microchip PICs, is not an extremely intricate program (relative to those others Wine has bested like MS Office), but it is infinitely useful to me. So, I decided to try it.

The first install didn't work. It complained that I didn't have MS Internet Explorer. So I installed it, no prob. Then the MPLAB install went *almost* smoothly. I'd recommend others to uncheck the Programmer Drivers, and only leave the PIC Simulation option (I don't think CrossOver would relay USB streams, right?). I tested it with C code from the Pickit 1 and (Woohoo), it worked :D

I may have to change my position on CrossOver :)

CrossOver is currently under a temporary free/beta period, and can be downloaded from the Codeweavers website. The excellent MPLAB IDE is free of charge from Microchip.

The Birth of LabVIEW on the Mac

2006-12-05T22:58:00.000-05:00

National Instruments has not been quiet about it. On October 8th, LabVIEW turned 20 years old, a fifth of a century since it was first introduced in a 512K Macintosh (a high-end workhorse in its day). If you thought that this was yet another product that aboandoned the Mac, well, you are very wrong. In fact a Universal Binary of LabVIEW 8 is available, for you Intel Mac holders :). And while they need to iron out a few hardware driver kinks, they are pretty straightforward disclosing it and they are working on it.

For students: you can have both hardware and software, worth many times its price of $159 (apparently fully supported in OSX Intel). A full experimentation lab in your Mac :D

For a more focused view of LabVIEW on the Mac, check out this blog: http://themacview.blogspot.com

More historical info: http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/4617

An interview with an engineer who worked on the original LabVIEW

* Uncle Grandpa is (C) (R) (TM) Richard Stevens. Don't sue ;)

Free for students: MATLAB & Simulink for Intel Beta

2006-11-12T15:42:00.000-05:00

MathWorks Inc. the makers of that ubiquitous number crunching, signal processing, control modelling tool that we like to call MATLAB wants your feedback on their upcoming version. If you are an engineering student, shackled to doing computations with MATLAB, you should take advantage of this sneak preview of their next Mac release: R2007a. For free! High five!

Go!

Hopefully this new release won't be as slow as the current X11 based PPC MATLAB (and hopefully it won't be X11 based either).

MacSpice 3f5: circuit simulation for OSX

2006-11-10T12:31:00.000-05:00

If you are into analog electronics design, or if you are approaching your 2nd year EE or CpE, most likely you will need to simulate your designs before commiting them to the breadboard or printed circuit board. Fortunately, you won't need to fire up your PC just yet. MacSpice is an excellent implementation of Spice for OSX. This App is written in Xcode and supports Intel Macs, no less! Go to the developer's website, and download the App and read the instructions. Very deep thanks to the dinasty of developers RetoTischhauser, Anthony Wilson and Charles Williams for this very important contribution to the Mac as a developing platform.

iPod Robots?

2006-10-22T00:44:00.000-04:00

It ran through my mind when I discovered the iPodLinux project last year (a very personal discovery, but iPL has been going on at least since 2003), that the iPod would be a very powerful brain for an intelligent robot (and I wasn't alone in pondering this). With CPUs running at 80MHz, plenty of storage space for robot learning, and a serial I/O (Gens 1, 2 and 3), it would be possible to control a robot with the Apple music player. In fact, the Roomba is already electronically compatible with the iPod serial port (Gen 1, 2 and 3), and its hacking is officially backed by iRobot. Wouldn't it be fun to start experimenting iPod-brained robots?

Sparkfun, one of my favorite outlets for sensors and ICs, has a few related iPod and Roomba development items: iPod Console and Roomba RS232 adapter, but they wouldn't be necessary once the iPod communicates directly to the Roomba.

Old school tricks gone forever. Or not?

2006-10-14T19:37:00.000-04:00

In the days of yore, we had OS 8 on our Beige PowerPCs and we liked it. If you are too young to remember those glorious days of Mac tradition, when MS Windows was really, REALLY bad, and
when Napster was the bomb, then open your ears and listen up. If you are one of those old Mac users, maybe this will bring a tear to your eye, nostalgia for the long gone era of Classic.

Back in the age of Classic, the average electronics student/Mac user had a few tools to survive a day of hacking. If, like me, you had a classic EE/CpE course track, you may or may not have used these Apps, and then sadly see them fall in the void of non-support.

Logic Sim (Shareware) by Arnaud Masson
http://archives.math.utk.edu/software/mac/logic/LogicSim/
This software was awesome for the Intro to Logic and Computer Architecture class. It was possible to make logic functions, counters, memories, and user-defined modules. The only equivalent in the PC world was MultimediaLogic (another great app), and it was rather easy to design and test in real time.

As11/Sim68 (Free) by Motorla/Tomaso Paoletti
http://www.cs.uml.edu/~fredm//cher/projects/miniboard/mac/
Great for the Intro to Assembly and Computer Architecture courses. One program to assemble, one to simulate, in continuously or step-by-step. Catching instruction bugs was a breeze with Sim11, reducing those all nighters to 3 hour sleeps :)

However, with the coming of Intel Macs, Classic apps become completely unsupported by Apple. Could this be the end of these tools? It may not be, as much as Steve wants OS 9 gone forever. There is this little Classic replacement that has been lurking the Mac underworld since the days of BeOS: SheepShaver. This webpage shows how to get your Virtual Classic machine on your Intel Mac. Just be warned: it crashes a LOT, a lot more than OS 9 in old Apple hardware.

There must be many more resources that the two I used most heavily. Anyone else had a way to make Classic work in their engineering career?

Related links

Classic 68hc11 resources: http://frank.bol.ucla.edu/machc11.htm
More educational classic software: http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive/Archive/sci/

LogicSim screenshot taken from Dan Stone's webpage.

LEGO Mindstorms: the Super-Easy way to make robots. Part 1

2006-10-07T15:47:00.000-04:00

Ok, I will take a break from the long winded Microchip tutorials for now. No, don't worry, I won't leave the fact that you need C programming for your PICs. It is just that this blog needs to focus on lighter things and different topics too, like other micros and electronic stuff.

In this post I want to tell you that the LEGO Mindstorms IS supported by your Mac. And, although it is not supported officially by the LEGO Group, it may be a good thing that you don't use their super-easy graphical programming environment. If you have never seen it, here's how a code snippet would look like:

In this partial blog post, I will describe just one of them:

1. NQC (Not Quite C)

I used this excellent bytecode compiler (the code is interpreted by the RCX firmware, not run on the processor itself) during my undergrad junior year to program a line following robot. I used an iMac with OS 8.5 back in the time, but NQC has been ported to OSX in 2004. I recommend this package if you have just outgrown the LEGO Environment and know basic C syntax.

One advantage of using the LEGO firmware to run your bytecode is that you have all the firmware functions at your fingertips, like tone generation, power modulation (PWM), sensor conditioning (this is tricky business with the LEGO sensors), and LCD handling without even worrying about includes or libraries. The LEGO Group has taken care of all that for you. Another big advantage is multithreaded execution out-of-the-box. I guarantee you will really like this feature.

However, there are a few downsides such as a 32 variable limit, integers only, and no parameter passing. You really have to try it if you own a LEGO Mindstorms set. Here's a screenshot:

MacNQC handles your serial infrared tower (RIS 1.0) with the help of a USB-serial adapter, and USB Infrared tower (RIS 2.0) after installing the appropriate drivers.

MacNQC was created by Dave Baum, and is currently maintained by K. Robert Bate. Thanks to you both for this excellent application!

Two last details: while MacNQC is the friendly GUI application, but uses the older version 2.5r1 of the core compiler. The latest version (3.1r4) is available for OSX, but in command-line flavor only. Also, the new LEGO Mindstorms NXT officially supports OSX, through the magic of LabVIEW, no less!

The picture on top shows the Mushi Mushi 7 by Jin Sato.

Install the GNU PIC tools in your Mac

2006-10-07T08:41:00.000-04:00

The GNU Pic Utilities is the open source way to code your PIC chips. Most PIC varieties are supported, I think. At the very least, it supports my two preferred models: the 12F675 and the 16F688 (respectively the smallest and the largest PICs supported by the Pickit 1). These tools are just one of the many Unix tools that have been rapidly finding their way to aid our tasks in our OSX computers.

In order to install it, you need first to install Xcode. I had version 2.3 intalled, but 2.4 is out now (it shouldn't make a difference, but there's always a chance of some source code not being compatible with the latest GCC compiler). Download Xcode directly from Apple.

After installing Xcode, go to the GPUTILS website and download the source package gputils. Uncompress it and move the folder in your home directory. Open Terminal and type:

~/$ cd gputils-0.13.4
~/gputils-0.13.4$ ./configure
[returns a long output, should be very fast]
~/gputils-0.13.4$ make
[returns a long output, it takes a longish time]
~/gputils-0.13.4$ make install
[returns a long output, should be fast]

Hopefully, to this point, you will have no compiler errors, and ideally no warnings either. To check that the install went by correctly, check the /usr/local/bin directory and verify that the files gpasm and other gp-somethings exist in there.

Next you want to include that directory in your PATH. To do this, type in Terminal cd ~ to return to the home folder, next type pico .profile to bring up a text editor with the .profile file, or to create it if it doesn't exist. Add as the last line:

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin

Press CTRL-X, then Y to exit and save.

Now to finally test this install, I will refer you to another blog. Since I have not been successful yet, at personally assembling my own code, go to Micah Carrick's intro to GPUTILS in Linux.

Post your comments and share if you were successful at assembling your PIC ideas!

How to program Microchip PIC microcontrollers

2006-09-28T12:39:00.000-04:00

This is something I learned to do fairly recently (6 months ago) on my Mac, after looking for the correct tools for a long time (like a whole year before that). Granted, I have been able to program PICs with my PC for 2 years through the "official" methods, and with a little help from the existing virtualization options.

But today I want to describe how to do it in the Macintosh, 100% no emulation, no virtualization.

First, you will need is a Pickit-1 like mine. They are dirt cheap these days, like $36 direct from Microchip.

After ordering the Pickit, you can get free samples from the company's website. Be sure to check the PIC compatibity within the Pickit-1. I ordered a bunch of 16F675 because they are the only supported PICs with hardware UARTs in them.

Second, obtain a copy of Microchip OSX Pickit tool. It comes with no official support, but it is open source. Get a copy here: Intel, PPC. Use the OSX tool to test that you can download the .HEX files included in the CDROM.

Congratulations. Now you can program PIC microcontrollers!

Of course, you will need a compiled/assembled HEX file to flash your PIC now. There are many, many ways of achieving this, and the ways are more numerous with VPC/Parallels/Bootcamp, but I am working on another blog post that will describe how to code the PIC within OS X.

Related links:

Science Fare post on OSX Pickit support
Robrohan's post on OSX PIC programming
Team Mojo webpage on OSX Pickit support
Eric Behr's page
Orion's page
1710.co.uk's page
Another Science Fare page
It's getting better's page
Support for Pickit 2!

/me ducks in anticipation of the rotten tomatoes from those who wanted to learn how to code the PIC in OS X.

Quartz Extreme/Core Image: applicable in robot vision?

2006-09-26T12:45:00.000-04:00

I have been doing some experimentation with Quartz Compositor and Core Image, and it seemed to me like a big, big promise to the field of robotic vision. I am working on a Macbook 2GHz with 950GMA integrated graphics, not as good as the current Mac Pro, Macbook Pro and iMac offerings, but I am seeing very high levels of performance.

A Windows PC does not yet use the graphics card to accelerate video processing. While I know that some robot vision is developed in Matlab, I know that it takes the whole 100% of CPU time to extract relevant vision clues for robot control. An OSX machine may be able to take these tasks and only consume a fraction of CPU power (while the GPU heats up).

Anybody here working on robot vision? I'd like to grab some algorithms and test whether they would be significantly accelerated with Core Image? Any Core Image experts here?

Why do I keep doing electronics with my Mac.

2006-09-25T22:46:00.001-04:00

If you are into electronics, you have to use Windows in one way or another. You either go to your school's PC lab to fire up PSpice or Eagle, and you get your work done wishing you could be on your Mac. You may choose to use use a virtualization/emulation application to compile your code or simulate your circuit with a Windows-only app.

That was the way I used to do some of my work with my first Mac in 1998. My iMac 233MHz was loaded with 192MB of RAM for the purpose of using Virtual PC, which I used in occassions to finish my AutoCAD work.

However, I discovered some very unique, very useful Mac apps that gave me some edge in finishing my degree. Like Logic Sim and and hc11Sim, there are many little apps gave me some relief and some independence from VPC and that PC lab filled with 200MHz Pentiums on Windows NT :p

Today, the story is much different. I don't know how many of you readers have Intel Macs now, but if you did, you would be booting Bootcamp to use that external ROM programmer or Parallels to run your favorite FPGA synthesizer. YES, I DO TOO. And my life would actually be easier if I just dropped the effort and continued developing electronics the way the manufacturers envisioned: with a white cursor, a blue taskbar, a green Start button, and rocking out with Windows Media Player.

Why do I choose this path of doing engineering within OS X? Perhaps because I am crazy, or perhaps because I am very stubborn. I like to think that using a different tool will eventually lead to a different product, something that has been evading the mind of Windows purists. Perhaps I will end up with the same product, but with an easier way to upgrade it. Perhaps I can discover and leverage some crazy Apple technology and make my creation truly exceptional.

Or maybe I just want to travel the more stylish road, documenting everything in iMovie, and presenting everything with jaw-dropping Keynote sequences.

In future posts, I will describe how I moved some of my development out of VPC/Parallels, and how I am planning to move MOST of my development into OS X.

First off, an introduction

2006-09-23T23:51:00.000-04:00

So... my first blog. How exciting! :D

My name is Roberto, a MSEE graduate of the University of South Florida (Go Bulls!), a BSEE graduate from Gonzaga University (Go Zags!), and a citizen of Peru (Go Peru!). Not many years ago, when I arrived to the U.S. of A., I started developing a passion for hobby electronics and robotics, and Macintosh computers.

This blog, macrobotics.blogspot.com, is intended to be an outlet for:

strategies and tutorials to use your Macintosh in electronic and robotic design
developments in Macintosh technology that are relevant to robotics
leveraging the collective knowledge of members/posters to improve the Mac as a design platform
adopting open source in OS X, with the help of seasoned Unix users.

Welcome all!

This picture here Junkyard Mac, the blog's "mascot". It is a G4 iMac, since it is one of my favorite form factors that has come from Apple. He wears soldering goggles because he is ready to hack.

If you want to leave feedback, please leave your name and whether you are just lurking around, want to actively learn, or if you want to share your skills.