Notes from May 2002 Meeting


Interesting websites:

Towel Day - 05/25/2002 - A tribute to Douglas Adams
http://www.towelday.org/

Department of Consumer Affairs
Bureau of Automotive Repair / Smog Check
http://www.smogcheck.ca.gov/stdhome.asp

Punch and Brodie (as in Leo Brodie of "Starting Forth" fame)
Puppets for company meetings, events, and videos
http://www.punchandbrodie.com/

Free-Energy Solutions
ElectroHydroDymanics
http://jnaudin.free.fr/

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Einstein
Gary F. Moring
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0028631803/ref=pd_sxp_f/104-5920748-2591944

Internet Programming (Book and Disk)
Kris A. Jamsa and Ken Cope
Publisher: Jamsa Press
ISBN: 1884133126
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1884133126/qid%3D1022696091/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F0%5F1/103-0899915-6694230

Advanced Circuits
$33 prototypes in 5 days
http://www.4pcb.com/

ProCAD PowerStation 32 - $99 version
AutoRoute in their Mainframe
http://www.icadsys.com/index.asp

AM Research
ForthStamp prototypes uses Cygnal Integrated Products:

C8051F300 - 8K flash, 256 RAM, 8bit ADC
http://www.cygnal.com/datasheets/C8051F301_short.pdf
C8051F017 - 32K flash, 2304, 10bit ADC
http://www.cygnal.com/datasheets/C8051F017_short.pdf

From Kevin Appert


Sites I ambled across in our morning jaunt through the Internet:

Leo Brodie's side business - providing quality puppetry to corporate environments.
http://www.punchandbrodie.com/

The internet Wayback machine (Mr. Jay Ward would be proud, I think)
http://www.archive.org/index.html

Interesting stuff, Getting at the Ports under Windows NT, uClinux - Linux for MicroControllers, USB Info and much more
http://www.beyondlogic.org/

Smog check test history for your own or any other license number. Buying a used car?
http://www.smogcheck.ca.gov/stdhome.asp


Bob Nash found a couple of interesting sites in his travels on the Information Superhighway

Build yourself a Glow Discharge Panel (from the folks at Advanced Reduced Drag Aircraft project"
http://jnaudin.free.fr/html/s_gdp1.htm

More on Advanced Reduced Drag Aircraft and Naudin's MHD-propelled aircraft
http://www.altavista.com/sites/search/web?q=%22Advanced+Reduced+Drag+Aircraf t%22&pg=q&avkw=tgz&kl=XX

Kite Altitude Record Attempt:
http://www.total.net/~kite/

A high voltage motor in 5 minutes
http://www.scitoys.com/scitoys/scitoys/electro/electro4.html


Looking around for plasma stuff, I found "Unwise Microwave Oven Experiments" at http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/weird/microexp.html#coffee which seems to have been de-linked from it's mother page at http://www.amasci.com/ (I wonder why? Liability?) The AMASCI site has a vast plethora of interesting stuff so if you're short of free time, don't even start!


Al's new favorite processor - also an exhibitor at Sensors (see below)
http://www.cygnal.com

Prototype Circuit Boards

Al Mitchell recommends for quickies:
http://www.pcb4u.com/p3.asp

Procad (this is the CAD software Al discussed):
http://www.icadsys.com/index.asp

Untested PCB houses

Sierra Proto Express
http://www.protoexpress.com

Douglas Electronics Inc. - (PC house and CAD software supplier)
http://www.douglas.com

Advanced Prototyping Inc.
http://www.rpquote.com

Gerland
http://www.gerland.com

PCBpro
http://www.pcbpro.com

Overnite Protos
http://www.pcborder.com

Lists at:
http://www.mentala.com/links.htm
http://www.altavista.com/sites/search/web?q=%2Bprototype+%2Blayers+%2Bprinted.circuit*&avkw=tgz&kl=XX


The SVFIG Contacts Page http://www.forth.org/svfig/contacts.html - participate now by sending your info to Kevin Appert.


Links from the Sensors Expo and Conference
http://www.sensorsexpo.com/

(A complete index to the exhibitors is available on the site. If they would have had a clue it would have been a list of links) There was a LOT of wireless stuff at the show. See Crossbow and MicroStrain below. Second biggest trend (in my opinion) was MEMS.

A few of the exhibitors of personal interest::

Head-worn heads-up single-color VGA display
http://www.microvision.com/

Data Acquisition Systems
http://www.datataker.com/

Wireless Web Sensor Networks
http://www.microstrain.com

Virtual Corset
http://www.microstrain.com/vcorset.htm

Wireless sensor motes and MEMS stuff, Accelerometers, Gyros, Inertial Sensors, Tilt, and so on.
http://www.xbow.com


Other meanderings:

PCI Extender to end all PCI Extenders
http://www.ultraviewcorp.com/

PCI Digital Oscilloscopes and More
http://www.linkinstruments.com/

RS232 to Ethernet to Dialup Modem
http://www.jkmicro.com/