| Barnes and Noble has two new e-readers that they will formally announce them in the next week. The first is a six inch device and the second has a much larger eight inch e-ink screen. Details are this point are sparse because the FCC report keeps most specs close to the vest. What we do know is the six inch variant is going to replace the existing Nook Glowlight that was released in 2013. The eight inch edition is much more compelling, it is the first time that Barnes and Noble has ever deviated from the six inch formula and will give readers a much larger screen to read e-books. Barnes and Noble has admitted to me on many occasions that they will likely be abandoning making tablets and will instead focus on software and e-readers. I am very exited that in the next week we will see a formal unveiling and Good e-Reader will be reviewing the two models ASAP. |
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Barnes and Noble has Two New Nook e-Readers
40,000 Audiobooks Now Available on TuneIn Premium
| If you have an Android or iOS device and listen to the radio, you are likely familiar with TuneIn. The company has been around since 2002 and has over 100,000 radio networks available. Recently the company has expanded to offer a Premium service for $8.99 per month that give you play-by-play from every MLB and Barclays Premier League game, all season long in addition to 40,000 audiobooks. Findaway, formally Findaway World is a major player in the audiobook industry. Their platform powers everyone from the 3M Cloud Library to Nook Audiobooks. Their latest contract with TuneIn signed last week will be a boon to anyone that wants an unlimited number of audiobooks to listen to on a monthly basis. TuneIn Premium might be the only game left in town with an extensive catalog of audiobook content. Recently Scribd axed their unlimited program, because customers were listening to so many audio editions that the company was losing money. |
Issue #37 of The MagPi, the official Rapsberry Pi magazine, is out now!
| The second print edition of The MagPi is here and this month our cover feature is all about digital home automation! Click to see the latest issue and download your Creative Commons PDF UK readers can buy it today in newsagents & WHSmiths and US readers can buy the previous issue in Barnes & Noble or MicroCenter. ORDER ONLINE SUBSCRIBE Click for a closer look at what’s inside this issue Highlights from #37:
Another new face! Rob has joined us in the role of Features Editor fresh from a long stint as a staffer on Linux User & Developer magazine. Rob Zwetsloot is The MagPi’s new Features Editor He’s got some great ideas for the magazine, though his mission right now is to find yet more writing talent hidden in the Raspberry Pi community. If you have an article or idea you’d like to see featured in the magazine you can reach him via rob.zwetsloot@raspberrypi.org. By the way, if you’re unsure how to pronounce his surname (it’s Dutch), just vocalise the sound that the TurboLift doors make in Star Trek: TNG (at least that’s what I do). The post Issue #37 of The MagPi, the official Rapsberry Pi magazine, is out now! appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Amazon Fires Engineers Responsible for the Fire Phone
| Amazon has fired dozens of employees at Lab126, the secretive hardware development center in silicon valley. The vast majority of them were from the engineering division that worked on the first Amazon branded smartphone, the Fire Phone. This was the first time in the companies 11 year history that key employees were let go from Lab126. According to the Wall Street Journal “The company also has scaled back or halted some of Lab126's more ambitious projects—including a large-screen tablet—and reorganized the division, combining two hardware units there into one, people familiar with the matter said.” It does not look like their will be a second generation Fire Phone, as many engineers months ago were told. It looks like all future phone plans are shelved. This may be a good thing, because it really looks like Amazon is branching off into two many directions and none of the products are really that good. The last calendar year Amazon developed a small cult following in the form of the Echo. They also released various models of the Dash shipping button, Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, not to mention 4 new tablets and two e-readers. Lab126 and Amazon have dozens of secretive things in development including a smart stylus internally called Nitro, which translates a users' scribblings into digital shopping lists; a device dubbed Shimmer for projecting images on walls and other surfaces; and a tablet code-named Project Cairo, with a 14-inch screen. I have heard that most employees who work on prototype projects at Lab126 want to make cool tech, but CEO Jeff Bezos wants to sell things at cost and turn them into gateways to buy more things from Amazon. This is causing some friction and many employees such as Jon McCormack, the chief technology officer are jumping ship to other companies. |
Barnes and Noble Bookstores at War with the Homeless
| Many Barnes and Noble bookstores in the US are starting to remove couches and comfy seating in order to combat the homeless problem. Apparently the bookstore chain has policies in place that make it problematic to deny patrons access to the bookstore itself, so many locations are removing couches so homeless people will pick another location to sleep for hours at a time. This story has been confirmed by the USA Today, where a journalist spoke with staff at their favorite B&N bookstore. The employees – albeit not overtly — said Barnes & Noble chose to get rid of its big, cozy chairs to prevent the homeless from loitering in its stores. While they never used the term "homeless," the employees instead referred to these loiterers as "undesirables," or even "smelly people." Not only are B&N bookstores all over the country removing reasons for homeless people to chill, but libraries are dealing with the exact same issue. Libraries are considered public spaces that are kept in business because of public funding. This prevents the libraries from acting as a gatekeeper or putting security in place to deny certain people entry. Unlike a bookstore, a library simply can’t remove chairs to solve the problem. I think Barnes and Noble needs to augment their internal policies to give stores more flexibility to freedom to deny entry to people who do not buy books but use the store as a bathroom and a bedroom. Sure this might ruffle a few feathers, but paying customers want chairs and couches to chill on while they are reading a book they intend to purchase. Screwing over legitimate patrons by removing couches to give homeless people the boot is doing nothing but punishing people with money to spend. |
Walking Dead and Other Image Comics Arrive at Hoopla
| If your library patrons are fans of the Walking Dead you might have another reason to deal with Hoopla. Image Comics and Hoopla have just come to terms on single issue and graphic novels. Starting today Libraries that have a contract with Hoopla will find hundreds of new comics available in their collection. Remember, with Hoopla you don’t pay a fee to host their content, Hoopla only gets paid if a patron checks out a title. |
Kindle for Kids Bundle Not Getting Much Attention
| About three months ago toward the end of May, Amazon started selling a new Kindle for Kids Bundle for $99. There’s nothing “new” about it really, but the idea is new as far as E Ink Kindles are concerned. The device itself is the exact same as the $79 Kindle that was released last October, […] |
My 10 deserted island books: Cindy Orr
| Recently Time Magazine has released a series of wonderful articles where they asked famous people their ten favorite books or the “ten books they’d take with them if they were marooned on a desert island.” We simply love this idea and wanted to share Team OverDrive’s deserted island reading selections. This first list comes from Cindy Orr, our Digital Collection Advisor. A note from Cindy: This was incredibly painful, and I'll change my mind tomorrow…
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard My desert island would most likely not be anything like the Roanoke Valley in Virginia, but Annie Dillard's book, which won the Pulitzer Prize, would help me to slow down, think deep thoughts, and really see the nature around me while contemplating God, the universe, and everything else. Oh, and did I mention that the whole thing is written in beautiful, poetic language?
Dune by Frank Herbert This is an epic story, and Herbert did an amazing job of world building, including inventing a language. Some would call it science fiction since it is set thousands of years in the future, but it's more than that. This book is even more relevant today than it was in 1965 when it was published, as several great powers are duking it out over which will gain control, and its many Middle Eastern references will resonate even more now. You'll recognize some features that have become iconic in the science fiction world (like sandworms and sand people), but Herbert did it first.
The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert This book is a sobering account of the five mass extinctions that have occurred on Earth so far, and why the sixth extinction is looming if we don't do something about it. An amazing overview that puts global warming in a very scary perspective, and if I'm on a desert island, I'll probably want to know if the water is rising.
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova Gotta have a mystery, I thought. But why not one that is also a gothic novel, an adventure novel, a thriller, a historical novel, all woven together with folklore and a dash of horror, since it's about Dracula. Even better, one of the themes is the love of books—all of the characters, including Dracula, love books.
Stalin: Vol. I Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 by Stephen Kotkin I know this seems like an odd choice, but three of my four grandparents got out of Russia just in time in the early 1900s. Those in their villages who didn't leave ended up dead or in Siberia. We're just beginning to understand how horrible Stalin was, and this book was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch I would need a really long book or two on my island, and this one is definitely long. I read it as quickly as I could once, and realized that I needed to read it again someday and go much more slowly. Everything you ever wanted to know about the history of Christianity in only 1,016 pages.
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry It's long, so that's good, but it's just an awesome story with characters who seem to live and breathe. If I were cheating, I'd add all the books in the series, but this one is the best. Yes, it's a western, but it's so much more than that. It will immerse you in the real life of the West in the 1870s.
He, She, and It by Marge Piercy Terrible title, and you'll think the first chapter is a cliché, but this book was written in 1993, and a world run by multinational corporations wasn't a cliché back then. Marge Piercy is a literary writer who some people have said wrote the first cyberpunk novel. (Her reaction: "What is cyberpunk?") This book has so much going on that you could read it many times and not absorb it all. Deep and layered, it compares the creation of the Golem in 1600s Prague with the creation of an android in the near future about fifty years from now when hackers can kill you through cyberspace.
The Sunbird by Wilbur Smith I'd need some fun reading on my island too, and The Sunbird is one of those books that stand out over my long career for the sheer number of unsolicited rave reviews from library patrons, so you know it's a winner. For nearly 2,000 years, a brilliant and unknown civilization has existed in Africa. Archaeology, mysticism, great plot and characters, and it's long too—perfect for the island.
A Room of One's by Virginia Woolf This small book has been a favorite of mine for decades now. I love it not just for its message that women need a room of their own and money of their own in order to have a hope of being creative, but also because its structure is fabulous and it's even funny at times.
Cindy Orr is a Digital Collection Advisor with OverDrive  |
Buy the Sense HAT – as seen in space*!
| *Not actually in space yet. Wait till December. Today we have a new product launch: the Sense HAT is now available from the Swag Store, and through our partners RS Components and Premier Farnell/CPC. Here’s a video from Matt Timmons-Brown, freshly released from GCSE exam hell, to show you around. The Sense HAT was originally developed around James Adams’ idea to make a cool toy-style board that showed off just how much you could do with your average modern MEMS gyroscope, 64 RGB LEDs and some Atmel microcontroller hackery. Somewhere between prototype and production, it seems to have attracted extra features like a pressure sensor, a humidity/temperature sensor and a teeny joystick. It also seems to have been comandeered and made an integral part of the Astro Pi mission, which will see two Raspberry Pis, two Sense HATs and a lot of code written by UK schoolkids hosted on the International Space Station – I guess I’m to blame for that. The board forms the basis for many of the experiment sequences that will be run on the ISS – many of the schools competition winners’ entries made good use of the HAT’s sensors to gather their experimental data. The LED matrix also provides a feedback mechanism and interactivity for Major Tim Peake when he’s tasked with deploying the Astro-Pi board on the ISS (he’ll be setting it up on-orbit to run the experiment sequences). One of the winning entries – Reaction Games – programmed a whole suite of joypad-operated games played via the LED matrix. Snake is hilarious on an 8×8 screen. The board itself has a suite of sensors, a “D-pad” style 5-button joystick and an 8×8 RGB LED matrix driven by a combination of an LED driver chip and an Atmel AVR microcontroller – an ATTiny88. For the terminally curious, here are the schematics of the board. The Sense HAT and its Pi tucked snugly into the Astro Pi flight case Here’s the hardware run-down: Sensing elements: Pressure / Temperature Humidity / Temperature Acceleration/Gyroscope/Magnetic field All of these sensors have features for periodic sampling of sensor values – complete with internal FIFO storage. The LPS25H and HTS221 have maximum sample rates of 25 per second, the LSM9DS1 has a maximum sample rate of 952Hz – we are already imagining the birth of a million Pi-controlled stunt quadcopters. LED Matrix Joystick All of the sensors (and the base firmware for the Atmel) are accessible from the Pi over I2C. As a fun bonus mode, the SPI peripheral on the Atmel has been hooked up to the Pi’s SPI interface – you can reprogram your HAT in the field! We use this method to get the firmware into the Atmel during production test – and we leave it unprotected so you can substitute the stock firmware to get it to do whatever you want. Seriously. First person to turn this sensor HAT into a quadcopter controller HAT wins a cookie from me. Software To access the magic, simply enter: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install sense-hat sudo pip-3.2 install pillow into a terminal window. Note you will have to reboot for the Sense HAT to be recognised. The API is well-documented (and tested extensively by schoolchildren as part of Astro-Pi) – get reading here. The LED matrix appears as a Linux framebuffer device – for fun you can compare the results of cat /dev/urandom > /dev/fb0 and cat /dev/urandom > /dev/fb1 to fill either your attached monitor or the LED matrix with random noise. The joypad appears as a standard input device – the “keys” map to Up/Down/Left/Right and Enter. The baseline price (excluding spacers and screws, and local taxes) is $30. You’ll be able to buy from all the usual suspects – the Swag Store (which is bundling spacers and screws for free), RS Components/Allied, Premier Farnell/Newark and all their subsidiaries have stock today. Secondary suppliers may take a couple of days to get their hands on stock. So, what are you waiting for? Get sensor hacking! The post Buy the Sense HAT – as seen in space*! appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Amazon is Developing a 12 Inch Fire Tablet
| Amazon is developing a 12 inch variant of the fire tablet that will be released in limited quantities. Unlike the Kindle e-reader that is produced in ungodly quantities Amazon has only placed an order for 100,000 units a month for the 12 inch tablet. The large-size tablet’s panel is supplied by a Taiwan-based touch panel maker, sources have said. Although Amazon is estimated to be able to ship 4-5 million tablets in a year, most of them are 7- to 8-inch models, with their panels being supplied by China-based touch panel makers. Apple has been rumored to be developing a 12 inch iPad Pro for a number of years, but it has not come to fruition yet. I think Amazon could make a go out of a large screen tablet in order to watch content from Amazon Instant Video. |
Tablet Keyboard Cover With an E Ink Screen (Video)
| Here’s something a bit different. The Microsoft Applied Sciences Group has built a prototype of a keyboard cover for tablets that includes a secondary E Ink display that offers some unique new ways to use a tablet and help make productivity easier. It’s called the DisplayCover. It’s a new take on the two displays experiment. […] |
There’s something for everyone in our Back to School sale!
 As August starts to sundown into September and the back to school season kicks into high gear, it's time for librarians and educators to turn our attention to the great mission before us: engaging young readers. The voracious readers are easy, but how do you encourage the more reluctant ones? Or how do you support the regular readers by fostering their love of the written word? One of the best ways to capture the attention of readers of all levels and interests is by continually providing them more new content. This isn't just a job of school librarians. The public library serves an equally important role in the development of the community's children. Of course, we here at OverDrive are aware that there are always budget concerns to keep in mind and for that reason we’re excited to share with you some of the awesome things happening in our Back to School sale, which runs through the end of September. If one of the obstacles you find is that the kids and teens you work with don't want to read a book, consider encouraging them to give audiobooks a try or even a comic or graphic novel. For younger audiences there is a fantastic collection of Narrated eBooks which mom and dad will surely appreciate as it means they won't have to be the one to read the same book over and over again each night before bed time. This is also a chance to build your collection to meet the needs of community language speaking kids and to that end we have a Spanish Language list as well as Asian Content titles. For school librarians, consider seeing this as an opportunity to support the faculty and staff at your school thanks to the Teacher Essentials list which is full of professional development tools. We've also curated lists of STEM titles as well as Classroom Essentials and Novel Sets. Our Back to School sale features over 30,000 titles across multiple platforms and publishers with savings up to 50% off. Also, don't let the Back to School moniker stop you from really digging into the deals as there is a collection of fiction and non-fiction Adult titles on sale and our Australian partners, currently in the middle of their winter season, can stock up on Kids & Teen titles. Happy shopping!
Jill Grunenwald is a Collection Development Analyst with OverDrive  |
Amazon Discontinues the Fire TV
| Amazon has just discontinued selling their Fire TV media streaming box. You can no longer place an order on their US website and many European countries are also showing it as unavailable. It is likely that Amazon is in the process of developing a second generation model that has more internal memory. |
Monday, August 24, 2015
Microsoft Unveils Keyboard Cover with e-Ink Touchscreen
| Microsoft has developed a new touchscreen e Ink touchscreen keyboard panel that might be built into your next laptop or keyboard accessory for a tablet PC. The Microsoft DisplayCover is a peripheral cover designed for compact touch-enabled laptops. A tactile keyboard affords users with the comfort and ease of use provided by physical keys. A thinfilm e-ink display with a resolution of 1280 x 305 pixels extends the available screen real estate of the slate device by up to 8% (based on a Microsoft Surface Pro 2 with a 10.6", 1080p, 208ppi screen). Microsoft basically selected e Ink due to the bistable nature of electrophoretic ink, reducing the secondary screen's impact on battery life.  Microsoft is hoping to add a series of widgets in order to be compatible with a stylus. They are also going to be implementing pinching and zooming alongside trackpad functionality. |
Amazon Technology Officer Jumps Ship to Google
| Jon McCormack, the chief technology officer at Amazon was responsible for overseeing the teams making software for the Kindle, Fire phone and Amazon TV. He has left Amazon to take up a job at Google's Advanced Technologies and Projects group. According to Re/Code McCormack first left Amazon late last year, but he returned in March after a two-month stint at Yahoo. At Amazon, McCormack most recently reported to David Limp, who runs the entire devices business and is one of only a handful of senior vice presidents at the company. With such a major executive leaving Amazon it certainly puts the future of hardware in jeopardy. I have been following Amazon products since 2007 and basically they are much akin to Apple, in the respect they constantly release small incremental updates. This is hardly a challenging environment and I am not surprised he has left. At Google, McCormack will build out an ecosystem of developers to contribute to Google's Advanced Technologies and Projects group, according to a spokesperson. ATAP is led by Regina Dugan, the former head of the Pentagon's research group, DARPA, who has described her group's mission as "trying to do epic shit." It is designed to tackle ambitious projects — like augmented reality and wearable tech. |
Should there be a e-Book VAT Exemption for Schools in Europe?
| Selling e-books in Europe is challenging, since the VAT rules keep changing. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google and Apple used to be based out of Luxembourg to sell their digital books, since they could get away with charging 3% VAT on e-books in every country in Europe. On January 1st 2015 the European Commission mandated that VAT will be payed based on where the buyer is located and not the seller. The United Kingdom, for example has a 20% VAT on e-books but does not charge any tax at all on print. Why is there such a price difference between digital and print? This is primarily because according to EU law, reduced VAT rates can apply only to goods, not e-services. Fundamentally e-books have no clear path of ownership because they are licensed to a particular user. When you “purchase” a title from Amazon, Apple, Google or Kobo you are entering into a complex agreement where the company acts as an agent on behalf of the publisher. Some countries, such as Poland, are not just sitting back and letting the gulf between print and digital widen further. A number of Polish judges have petitioned the European Court of Justice to look into making the e-Book VAT mirror print. Every European country has different rates of VAT that it charges for digital and print. This has become increasingly difficult for schools, colleges and universities to invest into e-textbooks and e-books in an meaningful way. Most institutions of learning cannot build an effective e-book library due to the exorbitant cost and this has resulted in massive print collections. In North America there are plenty of players in the $14 billion dollar e-textbook business such as Chegg, Coursesmart, Vitalsource and Yuzu. When it comes down to it, at least in North America it makes sense for schools to invest in digital. Apple, Aruba Networks, Chegg, Discovery Education, Idaho Department of Education, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Inkling, Intel, Knewton, Kno, the LEAD Commission, McGraw-Hill, News Corp, Pearson, Samsung, Sprint, and T-Mobile talked recently collaborated with the FCC for a meaningful report. They found that a traditional learning environment, including traditional textbooks, paper, technology and connectivity, costs an estimated $3,871 per student per year. Whereas a learning environment today, including digital learning content, devices, Meanwhile in Europe there are hardly anyone participating in digitized textbook arena. When countries such as Poland try and make sweeping changes they devote a paltry $1 million US to the entire educational system, which is just enough for 62 e-textbooks per school. Obviously this is not enough to be even a drop in the bucket. I think schools, colleges, universities and libraries should be exempt from VAT in order to encourage them to invest into digital and allow students to be able to buy and read them on their Android, iOS or e-reader. It would be far easier to coordinate on a government level some sort of VAT exemption then to try and reverse the decision that e-books are a service and not a product. Not only would this be good for the entire educational system but the European startup scene. |
Celebrate Read an eBook Day and win content credit from OverDrive!
| We are excited to share that OverDrive will once again be celebrating Read an eBook Day on September 18th. This year we’re giving away four separate content credits of $2,500 to libraries who are celebrating Read an eBook Day. Simply mention OverDrive in a social media post using the hashtag #eBookLove and to share how your library is celebrating. Throughout the day, OverDrive will randomly select four libraries as winners.*
To help spread the word and get your community excited about your digital library we have three quick promotional ideas for you to use:
We hope that you will join us in celebrating digital reading and help bring new users to your library!
*Official rules can be downloaded here.
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Astro Pi: Mission Update 5 – flight safety testing
| The road to space is long and winding, but the two Astro Pi flight units are almost there! The next thing for us after this is to hand over the final payload to the European Space Agency so it can be loaded onto the Soyuz-45S rocket for launch on December 15th with British ESA Astronaut Tim Peake. To be allowed on the rocket, you need a flight safety certificate for your device, and these can only be obtained by presenting a whole host of measurements and test results to a panel of experts at ESA ESTEC in Holland. The expertise and equipment to carry out many of these tests is well outside the capabilities of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and without the facilities and personnel available through our UK Space partners this would not have been possible – we’ve had to use facilities and partners all over Europe to get the work done. I’ll list below the tests that were done approximately in chronological order starting from March. Power integration testAIRBUS Defence and Space, Bremen, Germany >
Once in orbit, the Astro Pi will have two ways of getting power. It can use an AC inverter (above) that allows the crew to use all kinds of standard domestic appliances (like a normal USB power block); it’s also able to get power from any laptop USB port. It is likely that when the Astro Pi is deployed in the Columbus module we will run from an AC inverter, but when we’re in the Cupola module we’ll just draw power from one of the laptops which is also there. To gain permission to draw power from a laptop like this we needed to do a power integration test, to evaluate that the electrical load doesn’t have any adverse effect on the laptop. The most common laptop on the ISS is the IBM Thinkpad T61P (circa 2007 from before Lenovo acquired them – Eben also uses one of these). Pictured above is an identical ground laptop with a special USB current probe connected to an oscilloscope. Note that this was done before we had the aluminium flight case, so you’re just seeing the Sense HAT, Raspberry Pi and camera parts of the whole Astro Pi unit. The flight hardware was then powered up through the current probe so the oscilloscope could measure current inrush as well as maximum current when using the Astro Pi at max performance. Some diagnostic software was then used to check that there were no adverse affects experienced by the laptop. Coin Cell BatterySurrey Satellite Technology, Guildford, UK >Since the Astro Pi will not be connected to the LAN on the ISS the only means it has of keeping the correct time is with a Real Time Clock (RTC) and a backup battery. The flight stack up for Astro Pi is as follows:
Batteries on the ISS have a whole host of possible hazards associated with them, and so any battery flown is subject to a stringent set of batch tests. Astro Pi has a batch of eight Panasonic BR-1225 coin cells which were all tested together. Here is number 5, which is one of the ones that will fly: The test procedure involved visually inspecting the coin cells, measuring their width and size with callipers, testing their voltage output during open circuit and under load followed by exposing them to a vacuum of about 0.6 bar (~450 mmHg) for two hours. Afterwards the measurements were redone to see if the coin cells had leaked, deformed or become unable to provide power. Conformal CoatingSurrey Satellite Technology, Guildford, UK >One of the safety requirements for circuit boards in space flight is that they are coated in a protective layer, rather like nail varnish, called conformal coating. This is a space grade silicone-based liquid that dries to form a hard barrier. In microgravity a metallurgical phenomenon called tin whiskers occurs. These are tiny hairs of metal that grow spontaneously from any metallic surface, especially solder joints. The hazard here is that these little whiskers break off, float off and become lodged somewhere causing a short circuit. So the conformal coat has two purposes. One is to protect the PCB from any invading whiskers, and the other is to arrest any tin whiskers that may grow, and prevent them breaking free. For the Sense HAT (above) we needed to define a number of keep out zones for the coating so as not to compromise the pressure and humidity sensors. The surfaces of the LEDs were not coated to avoid dulling their light too. If you look closely you can see the shiny coating on the HAT; in particular, see the joystick bottom right. It’s much easier to see on two camera modules: VibrationAIRBUS Defence and Space, Portsmouth, UK >Vibe testing is not actually required for safety, but we undertook it anyway as insurance that the payload would survive the vibration environment of launch. The testing involved placing an Astro Pi into some flight equivalent packaging and strapping it down onto a vibe table. The vibe table is then programmed to simulate the severity of launch conditions on a Soyuz rocket.
The tests needed to be done in x, y and z axes. To accomplish this two different vibe tables were employed, one for up and down (z, see above) and one for back and forth (x and y, see below). After the vibration sequence the Astro Pi was tested to ensure the vibration had not caused any issues, the case was also opened and the interior was inspected to ensure no connections had become loose. Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC)AIRBUS Defence and Space, Portsmouth, UK >EMC is the study and measurement of unintended electromagnetic signals that could interfere with other electronics. Almost all electronic devices these days undergo EMC testing in order to get CE or FCC markings. The Raspberry Pi B+ and Sense HAT both carry these markings; however their test results were obtained in a home-user setup, with a keyboard, mouse, HDMI monitor and Ethernet all connected. The Astro Pi flight unit will be used without all of those. So these tests were required to ensure that, when used in this way, the Astro Pi doesn’t cause any problems to other systems on board the ISS (like life support).
The tests were conducted in a special EMC test chamber. The walls are lined with super-absorbent foam spikes that exclude all electromagnetic signals from coming into the room from the outside.
That way, any electromagnetic signal measured must have originated inside the room.
A test script was run on the Astro Pi to stress it to maximum performance while a series of antennae were used to examine different ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum.
A set of electromagnetic susceptibility tests was also conducted to evaluate how the Astro Pi would behave when experiencing strong magnetic fields.
No issues were found, and all tests passed. Off GassingESA ESTEC, Noordwijk, Holland >The off-gassing test is done to ensure the payload does not give off any dangerous fumes that might be harmful to the crew. The test involves placing the payload into a bell jar and pumping out all of the air. Synthetic air of known properties is then pumped in, and the whole jar is held at 50 degrees Celsius for 72 hours. Afterwards the synthetic air, plus any gasses released by the payload, are pumped out and analysed using a mass spectrometer. If you look closely, you can also see some Raspberry Pi SD cards in there. The test needed to be representative of the entire payload, so it’s one of the flight units plus five SD cards. The resulting measurements were then just doubled to account for two Astro Pi units with ten SD cards. Thermal CapacityRaspberry Pi, Cambridge, UKThis test needed to demonstrate that no touchable surface of the Astro Pi flight case would ever reach or exceed 45 degrees Celsius. In microgravity the process of convection doesn’t occur, so the case was designed with thermal conduction in mind. Each of the square pins on the base can dissipate about 0.1 watts of heat. We also wanted to avoid any fans as these cause EMC headaches and other problems for safety (moving parts).
We used five temperature probes connected to another Raspberry Pi for the data logging. Four of the probes were placed in contact with the surface of the aluminium case using small thermal pads and kapton tape (HDMI side, base by the camera, SD card slot side and top side). One was used to monitor ambient temperature some distance away. The Astro Pi was then placed inside a small box to simulate the reduced airflow on board the ISS and was then stressed to maximum performance for four days. The results showed that an equilibrium was reached fairly quickly where the only input into the system was the fluctuation of ambient temperature. Sharp edges inspectionESA ESTEC, Noordwijk, Holland >This test was almost a formality, but was done so ESA could verify there were no sharp edges that could cause harm to the crew. The test was done using a special piece of fabric that was dragged over the surface of the flight case. If it snags then the test is failed, but thankfully we passed without issue first time.
The test is important because a crew member with a cut or infected hand is a serious problem on orbit. Experiment Sequence TestESA-EAC, European Astronaut Centre, Cologne, Germany >The experiment sequence test is a full end-to-end reproduction of everything that Tim Peake will do on orbit. It was done in a replica of the ISS Columbus module on the ground. On orbit they have step by step procedures that the crew follow and these tests are an opportunity to improve and refine them. There is a procedure for deploying the Astro Pi, one for powering it from the ISS mains, and another for powering via laptop power. There is one for fault finding and diagnostics and also one for getting files off the Astro Pi for downlink to Earth.
The tests used a surrogate crew to play the role of Tim Peake. Each procedure was run, and any anomalies or problems that caused a deviation from the procedure were noted.
The Astro Pi will run a Python program called the MCP (master control program*) and this oversees the running of the competition winning code from the students. It is designed to monitor how long each has run for, and ensures that each receives the allotted run time, despite the Astro Pi being, potentially, rebooted multiple times from single event upsets due to the radiation environment on the ISS. There were a couple of minor issues found, and we’re required to repeat one of the tests again in September. But otherwise everything worked successfully. All the test reports are then combined into a Flight Safety Data Pack (FSDP). This also includes a flammability assessment which is an examination of all materials used in the payload and their risk of being a flame propagation path on the ISS. The main heavy lifting with the FSDP documentation was done by Surrey Satellite Technology, whom we’re eternally grateful to. Thanks for reading if you made it this far! Next mission update will be after we’ve handed over the final payload. The post Astro Pi: Mission Update 5 – flight safety testing appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |
e-Books and Audiobooks Subject to GST in Australia
| Australia has just passed a controversial new bill that would tax all online imports with a 10% GST starting in July 2017. In a few short years e-Books and audiobooks will increase in cost if purchased from major companies such as Amazon, Apple and Google. The new GST tax increase will not affect foreign businesses with a turnover of less than $75,000 and will be exempt, this falls in line with the current system in regards to small Australian businesses. “We are going to have taxation officials travel around the world visiting these companies asking them to register for GST purposes,” federal Treasurer Joe Hockey said. Mr Hockey said he had no idea of how much revenue the extra tax would bring, but it was certain to exceed the cost of collection because Australian officials would not be asked to open parcels to check whether tax had been paid. This is a delicate new framework because tax collectors will have to establish a working relationship with over 50 companies that account for the vast majority of digital and traditional content in Australia. |
Sunday, August 23, 2015
New York Times Publishes 17,000 Digital Recipes
| The New York Times has digitized over 17,000 recipes by diet, cuisine type, preparation method, meal type and more in a new iPhone app. You can save your favorite recipes to your own bookshelf or share them via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. I think this app is beautifully done, with recipe intros by Times contributors. One of the more interesting features are daily delights where there are themed categories such as 12 veggie pizza recipes. The app presumes you know where your kitchen is and how to turn on stove. Beginners will really appreciate this app, but there are a number of elements catered for more advanced culinary specialists. |
