Saturday, February 6, 2010

Wind of change

This blog has moved to a new home: http://redlogicgames.wordpress.com/blog/

Acest blog s-a mutat la o noua adresa: http://redlogicgames.wordpress.com/blog/

Ce blog a été déplacé à l'adresse : http://redlogicgames.wordpress.com/blog/

Pentru cei 5 din lume care poate urmaresc acest blog: Danke!

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Time to get serious once more...

It has been a long time since I wrote some serious s*** on this blog, mainly due to the lack of time caused by a Master's degree and the job I have in Strasbourg.

The embedded systems love I nurtured since the start of this blog is still with me, although now I have a more realistic vision of its real potential in a real life situation, my life to be more exact. Even though it is a very interesting domain, the fact that I don't have millions of euros to invest in new ideas, renders my impact in this domain to be limited to this blog, and the wacky contraptions that can be made using a PIC micro and some elbow grease. That is it! There is the option of working for a company that has the power to change something, but those are rare and far between, plus the feeling of accomplishment is truly not the same.

Next I thought that the next best thing is to work on devices that are already designed, and just try to take advantage of their hardware and public. Of course Iphone comes to mind, but it is not the only player in the market anymore, since Android, Symbian opened their SDK's to developers.

Unfortunately for the Iphone the ship has sailed a long time ago, meaning that there are already 140000 applications in the AppStore and counting. Next is the Android Market has around 60000 apps, but the trick with this is that for a developer to actually make some money he needs a bank account in a handful of European countries. Bummer! Apple just announced the iPad, which out of the box is just an oversized Ipod Touch, not bad to start with, but useless without real applications to take advantage of the untapped use case scenarios it presents.

For me, this year is all about web programming. and the subject of the next few posts will be Google's GWT and a project called VisualLinks. It is a school project I have to do with a few of my colleagues, in order to receive some credits.

I provided a link to the Google Projects page here

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Colmar my love

Postez de la servici!!

Acest servici imi mananca ficatii, in principal pentru ca s-a mutat locatia unde o sa invat cu spor Javascript. Ma aflu in pitorescul oras Colmar, aflat la 70 km de Strasbourg. Daca as fi turist as iubi orasul asta, cu cartierul Mica Venetie si casele de lemn aflate la tot pasul, dar nu sunt turist, sunt ucenic la o sucursala mica, cautatoare de suspans si trairi intense. Ma scol la 6:30, iau tramvaiul, apoi trenul si timp de juma de ora ascult muzica (asta cand imi aduc aminte sa imi iau Ipodul cu mine). Intr-un final ajung si ma pun pe invatat. Seara plec acasa iar cu trenul, iar cu tramvaiul...

Proiectul pe care lucrez este in colaborare cu Alcatel, noi trebuie sa construim interfata cu utilizatorul pentru 2 tipuri de telefoane de birou Bussiness Class ale lui Alcatel, utilizand controale Dojo si niste widgeturi facute de echipa pana acum. Nu am mai vazut amestecul asta de tehnologii in viata mea, este o adevarata aventura sa urmaresti procesul de apelare si afisare a unui widget pe ecran. It's murder I tell you!

Sper sa nu mai par asa inmarmurit in fata ecranului prea multa vreme si sa accept ca nu am ce face si ca trebuie sa invat cat mai bine tehnologiile astea, mai ales ca mai am un coleg cu mine care este coleg si de master. E mai simplu el asa, dar azi imi raspunse la cateva intrebari destul de avansate, si e doar de o luna aici, deci asta inseamna ca se poate si mai bine!!!!

Abia astept weekendul!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Punct si de la Capat

Bun. E timpul sa intorc o foaie din viata mea. S-au schimbat multe in ultima vreme, nici nu stiu de unde sa incep.

M-am casatorit, sunt fericit, am terminat facultatea, acum sunt la master in Strasbourg, lucrez pe programare web, dintre toate domeniile din lume, s-a gasit loc pentru mine numai pe programare web. Ma doare, dar nu am incotro. Mie dor sa imi ard degetele cu pistolul de lipit, sau sa programez un PIC.

Poate cand ma voi intoarce in tara, pana atunci trebuie sa invat niste tehnologii foarte bizare si inutile luate individual. Asta e parerea mea despre toata latura asta a programarii. Sunt 1001 tehnologii si limbaje care luate individual nu reusesc sa rezolve scopul proiectului, trebuie combinate cu altele ca sa se ajunga la un rezultat acceptabil. Aici in Franta se pune enorm de mult accent pe programarea WEB, WEB 2.0. Aproape toate conferintele, forumurile de studenti, sau ce e si mai grav, aproape toate firmele de programare din zona recruteaza personal special pentru programare web, aplicatii intranet si extranet, ERP.

Mai este Alcatel de exemplu care mai face un tip de embedded, dar este o firma atat de exclusivista, incat e foarte greu de ajuns in randul lor. Mai raman firmele care doresc "maimute" cu 10 degete daca este posibil, si firmele care fac bani din satisfacerea cerintelor firmelor mai mari. La asta din urma am ajuns eu, Actimage Consulting se numeste are traditie de 20 de ani, si a avut destula incredere in franceza mea minimala incat sa ma ia ca apprenti(ucenic). Sper sa incep lucrul peste o saptamana. Don't ask!!!! Stiu... sunt aici de o luna si abia peste o saptamana incep lucrul. Nu stiu cum avanseaza francezii astia, dar sunt mai lenesi ca noi!

Cat despre tehnologia embedded, nu ma dau batut, dar pentru o vreme trebuie sa ma conformez imprejurarilor. Intre timp mi-a venit alta idee, plimbandu-ma pe strada, am observat ca in urechile a 7 din 10 tineri sau bussiness-man stau casti de Ipod Touch sau Iphone. Pana la urma tot "embeddded applications" se numesc aplicatiile capabile sa ruleze pe IphoneOS. Ipod Touch am deja, imi mai trebuie un Mac. Eh aici e problema, costa cat un rinichi pe piata neagra.

Era sa uit, degeaba dau o caruta de bani pe hardware, imi mai trebuie o idee! Ceva care nu s-a mai facut, ceva tot pe interfatarea intre user si internet.

Am asistat recent la un forum al dezvoltatorilor, unde la un Keynote pe la mijlocul zilei, Pannel-ul format din 5 oameni de afaceri, ziaristi, profesori a fost intrebat cati din ei au un Iphone. In secunda urmatoare sincronizati perfect si-au scos toti Iphone-urile. Daaamn! Urmatoarea intrebare fireasca a fost daca considera Iphone-ul viitorul web-ului? Majoritatea din ei au raspuns mai pe langa subiect, dat fiind faptul ca si intebare era gresit formulata. Pana la un ziarist, care a corectat intrebarea si a spus clar ca Iphone-ul este doar o fereastra catre internet, si ca nu are cum sa intruchipeze viitorul internetului, poate doar sa prevesteasca implicarea din ce in ce mai mare a internetului in viata noastra.

Si da! imi e dor de tara, de parinti, de mancare, de mici, mamaliga, si gratarele improvizate te miri unde. Sper sa gasesc tara intr-o stare economica mai buna cand ma voi intoarce.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

From this day on I am an Engineer

Today was the day I showed my Project in front of a board of professors from my faculty. Everything went as planned, no problems, my Artificial Horizon managed to keep the board interested.

That concludes 5 years of Faculty. Not very much to say, just that I have some new ideas I want to put into practice.

Until next time, Happy Holiday!

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Finally a concrete result.

I finished the hands-on part of my licence Project, I will let the video speak for itself:



Because of the problems I had with the PC/104 System, I had to construct my own Data Acquisition board. It reads the 3 voltages for the 3 corresponding axis and adjusts the Horizontal Sphere on screen through a serial link with the computer. All is well when it ends well!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

One step forward, two steps back

As it turns out, the Directx Application i made is too powerful for the embedded computer at my Faculty (PC/104 system). It turns out that the module containing the microprocessor has an integrated video card with no true 3D capabilities. I am confused, because the Spec Sheets tell otherwise and I quote:

Display:
Chipset: VIA VT8606 Twister chip with Integrated S3 Savage4 2D/3D/Video Accelerator
Memory Size: 8/16/32 MB frame buffer using system memory
One thing is for sure, the DirectX function CreateDevice fails when trying to create a Direct3D device, it only works with an emulated device only suitable for small tests. It doesn't even work in software mode.

Tomorrow I will talk to my attending teacher to try to find a solution.