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DevelopmentThe SquidBee open sensor networkSquidBee is a project that uses an open hardware design as well as open-source software as a platform for remote control and sensing: "SquidBee is an Open Hardware and Source wireless sensor device. The goal of SquidBee is getting an "open mote" to create Sensor Networks." SquidBee uses the ZigBee self-organizing low power wireless mesh network protocol. ZigBee operates in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz, 915 MHz and 868 MHz ISM bands with data rates from 20-250 kbit/second, per channel. ZigBee is optimized for super low power operation so that the devices can be operated from battery power for long amounts of time. For long-running outdoor applications, powering the devices from photovoltaic panels would be an obvious technology choice. Using the 1mW XBee power level, the XBee maximum device-to-device range is 100 meters. At the 100mW XBee pro power level, the range is extended to 1KM. Each additional node can extend the range of the mesh network, since data passes through the nodes. ![[SquidBee]](/images/ns/squidbee.png)
ZigBee is supported by members of the ZigBee Alliance: "The ZigBee Alliance is an association of companies working together to enable reliable, cost-effective, low-power, wirelessly networked monitoring and control products based on an open global standard". The operation of SquidBee is described:
How does SquidBee work?
1. Acquires values from environment parameters: temperature, humidity,
lightness, presence, pressure or (almost!) whatever you can sense.
2. Operates with these values, when required.
3. Transmits these values using a low power consumption wireless technology (ZigBee).
4. Sleeps until next timeout and repeats from the first step.
Second step is not always necessary, depending of the calculations needed it may be better to make them in receiver computer to save nodes energy.
![[Zigbee]](/images/ns/zigbee.png)
SquidBee is built on top of the Arduino open-hardware prototyping platform: "The Arduino board is a cheap, robust i/o board based on the ATmega168. It has 13 digital pins (6 of which allow PWM output) and 6 analog inputs. There are USB, serial, bluetooth, and mini versions, which you can buy or build yourself. Note: The reference designs for arduino are distributed under a Creative Commons license ". An add-on MaxStream XBee Shield board and a power source are combined with the Arduino board to create the SquidBee node. See the SquidBee Data-Sheet [PDF] and the XBee Data-Sheet [PDF] for technical specifications. Communication between a Linux machine and a network of SquidBee nodes can be accomplished by turning a SquidBee module into a gateway node and connecting the gateway to a Linux machine over the USB bus. The example Receiving data with the Gateway in Linux software shows how to achieve basic communication with the mesh network. The recently launched Zigbuzz project is working on an in-Kernel device driver for USB-connected ZigBee devices, no software has been released yet since it is still in the design phase. A Libelium MeshLium Router box can be used to connect a ZigBee wireless network to an 802.11 WiFi network. The SquidBee software page includes a control program for the Arduino board, other utilities and some example programs. Some of the possible uses for the SquidBee technology include home automation, scientific data collection, remote control and security systems. The project has documentation (in some cases placeholders for documentation) on using a variety of I/O devices including: generic analog and digital sensors, light and temperature sensors, ultrasonic range finders, GPS modules, accelerometers, switches and LEDs, LCD displays and beepers. Although not listed, remote cameras, motion detectors and more weather sensors seem like obvious additions. If you are looking for a convenient way to extend the reach of your system''s peripherals, SquidBee looks like the right project for the job.
System Applications Database Software Firebird 1.5.5 release candidate 1 announcedVersion 1.5.5 release candidate 1 of the Firebird DBMS has been announced. "This sub-release introduces a few bug and security fixes backported from the Firebird 2.0.x branches."
PostgreSQL 8.4 Beta4 releasedVersion 8.4 Beta4 of the PostgreSQL DBMS has been announced. "Due to continued testing by our community we have found performance improvements, fixed bugs in PLperl and XML handling. We have also made many documentation improvements, particularly in the Partitioning section. We hope that this will be our last beta before release candidate so please download and continue testing. Testing is the only way to help ensure that any issues you find will be resolved. As always, our community is the first line of defense to help us find any "corner cases" of possible issues."
Postgres Weekly NewsThe December 2, 2007 edition of the Postgres Weekly News is online with the latest PostgreSQL DBMS articles and resources.
SQLite version 3.5.3 releasedVersion 3.5.3 of SQLite, a light weight DBMS, is out. "Version 3.5.3 of SQLite is stable and is recommended for all users."
SQuirreL SQL Client version 2.6.2 released (SourceForge)Version 2.6.2 of SQuirreL SQL Client has been announced, it features bug fixes. "SQuirreL SQL Client is a graphical SQL client written in Java that will allow you to view the structure of a JDBC compliant database, browse the data in tables, issue SQL commands etc."
Device Drivers The first ATI r5xx/6xx X11 driver releaseThe announcement has gone out for the release of xf86-video-radeonhd 1.0.0 - the first free X11 driver for ATI Radeon R5xx and R6xx chipsets. The developers have gotten full modesetting, multiple monitor support, RandR 1.2, and more working. Note, though, the small print at the bottom: "No 2D & 3D acceleration, no XVideo yet. No TV, Component, and HDMI yet." This is clearly a release for early adopters, but it is an important milestone in the development of free high-end video support for Linux.
libfreebob 1.0.7 releasedVersion 1.0.7 of libfreebob, a driver for the BeBoB FireWire-based breakout boxes devices, is out. "A fresh new release from the FreeBoB project is available. It is only a maintenance release. It fixes a few bugs which were reported. If you don't have problems with the your current version of libfreebob, there is no reason to update to this one."
Libraries radlib 2.7.1 released (SourceForge)Version 2.7.1 of radlib, the Rapid Application Dev Library, is out with various improvements. "radlib is a rapid application development library for unix multi-process applications. It uses SYS V IPC facilities and FIFOs to provide an RTOS-like, event-driven, distributed framework. Processes may be run as daemons or have a controlling terminal."
Mail Software qmail released into the public domainThe rumors have been circulating for a while, but now it's official: Daniel Bernstein has released qmail 1.03 (and a number of other packages) into the public domain.
Sendmail 8.14.2 announcedVersion 8.14.2 of the Sendmail MTA has been announced. "Sendmail, Inc., and the Sendmail Consortium announce the availability of sendmail 8.14.2 which fixes some problems, e.g., * an important bug in the milter function smfi_chgfrom() which could cause the loss of a message body. * the handling of queued messages with 8 bit characters in From: or To: header which could be "mistaken" for internal control characters during a queue run and trigger various consistency checks. * the handling of lines longer than MAXLINE-1 characters in certain cases."
Tellmatic 1.0.7 released (SourceForge)Version 1.0.7 of Tellmatic has been announced. "Tellmatic is a php and mysql based newsletter script to create, manage and send personalized newsletters or mass mails. uses wysiwyg and has a form editor. adresses and newsletter are stored in unlimited groups. handle bouncemails and failed adresses".
VPN Software SSL-Explorer 1.0.0_RC10 released (SourceForge)Version 1.0.0_RC10 of SSL-Explorer has been announced. "SSL-Explorer is a fully-featured, web-based SSL VPN server. This practicable remote access security solution includes SSL tunneling, intranet website proxying, access to multiple file systems and application launching/tunneling through a standard browser."
Desktop Applications Audio Applications Audacious 1.4.4 releasedVersion 1.4.4 of the Audacious media player has been released.
Desktop Environments GNOME 2.20.2 releasedVersion 2.20.2 of the GNOME desktop has been announced. "This is the second update to GNOME 2.20.0. The update fixes all known and unknown bugs and crashers. The next and last stable release for 2.20 branch will be 2.20.3."
GARNOME 2.20.2 releasedVersion 2.20.2 of GARNOME, the bleeding edge GNOME desktop distribution, is out. "This is the third release of the current stable GNOME branch, and the second bug-fixing release ironing out yet-more bugs, hopefully adding yet-more stability, and ships with the latest and greatest stable releases."
GNOME Software AnnouncementsThe following new GNOME software has been announced this week:
KDE 4.0 to be released in January (KDE.News)KDE.News reports that the KDE 4.0 release has been delayed until January, 2008. "The KDE Release Team has decided to release KDE 4.0 this coming January. The release was originally planned for mid-December. The KDE developers want to solve a couple of essential issues before releasing. Having solved some of those issues, among which were glitches in the visual appearance, and in Konqueror, the KDE community hopes to have a KDE 4.0 that will live up to the high expectations for it."
KDE Commit-Digest (KDE.News)The December 2, 2007 edition of the KDE Commit-Digest has been announced. The content summary says: "The beginnings of screen hotplug detection in Plasma, KRunner gets history support. Fifteen Pieces puzzle becomes the first Plasma applet in the game category. A block of bugfixing in KDevelop, with various other developments in areas such as a threaded debugger. Support for inequality constraints in Step, continued progress in the port of KEduca to KDE 4. Work on printing in okular. Work on Solid-based network management through NetworkManager. Various work towards Amarok 2. Milestones reached in the BitTorrent plugin for KGet. Subsystem rewrites (SSL, SFTP) in KFTP..."
KDE Software AnnouncementsThe following new KDE software has been announced this week:
Xfce 4.4.2 releasedVersion 4.4.2 of Xfce, a light weight desktop environment, has been announced. "Sorry for the delay, but Xfce 4.4.2 is now available. It's the second maintenance release in the 4.4 stable series, focusing on fixing bugs and updating translations."
Electronics kicad 2007-11-29-RC2 announcedVersion 2007-11-29-RC2 of Kicad, an electronic CAD system, is available with bug fixes and other enhancements.
gerbv 1.0.3 announcedVersion 1.0.3 of gerbv, a viewer for Gerber CAD files, has been announced. "This is to announce the fourth release in the stable branch of gerbv, 1.0.3. This release represents a point release incorporating a few patches made against the 1.0.X source over the last 1 1/2 years."
Financial Applications Adempiere Chart of Accounts Editor version 1.2 released (SourceForge)Version 1.2 of the Adempiere Chart of Accounts Editor has been announced. The editor is a: "Small application to manage Compiere/Adempiere Chart of Accounts file format. Creates and modifies Accounting import files needed for client setup. An updated version with contributions from the Adempiere community and some minor usability improvements have been released."
Compiere 3.0 now available (SourceForge)Version 3.0 of Compiere has been announced. "Compiere ERP+CRM is the leading open source ERP solution for Distribution, Retail, Manufacturing and Service industries. Compiere automates accounting, supply chain, inventory and sales orders. Compiere ERP is distributed under GPL V2 by Compiere, Inc."
Games PCGen 5.13.5 alpha released (SourceForge)Version 5.13.5 alpha of PCGen has been announced. "PCGen is a RPG character generator and maintenance program (d20 systems). All datafiles are ASCII so they can be modified by users for their own campaigns."
New WorldForge releasesThe WorldForge multiplayer online role playing game project has announced Eris 1.3.13: "Eris is the WorldForge client-side session layer, used by many existing clients. This is a development release, as the API may change prior to the final release of Eris 1.4.0. However, any changes should be minor and easy to incorporate into clients; testing is recommended and appreciated."WFMath 0.3.7 was also released this week: "WFMath, or the WorldForge Math librarys main focus is geometric objects, and it has classes for several shapes as well as the basic math objects, points, vectors, matrices and quaternions. It is required by all WorldForge components."
Interoperability Wine 0.9.50 releasedVersion 0.9.50 of Wine has been announced. "What's new in this release: Many copy protection fixes. GLSL is now the default for Direct3D.Lots of memory errors fixed thanks to Valgrind. Support for TOPMOST windows. Beginnings of an inetcomm dll implementation. Lots of bug fixes."
Music Applications klick 0.5 announcedVersion 0.5 of klick has been announced. "klick has been around for almost a year, but I figured no one will know about it if I don't tell anybody. So here's a new version, and the first official announcement. klick is an advanced command-line based metronome for JACK. It allows you to define complex tempo maps for entire songs or performances."
Office Suites OpenOffice.org 2.3.1 releasedOpenOffice 2.3.1 is out. This is a bugfix release with no new features; among other things it closes CVE-2007-4545, a code execution vulnerability associated with database documents.
OpenOffice.org NewsletterThe November, 2007 edition of the OpenOffice.org Newsletter is out with the latest OO.o office suite articles and events.
RSS Software DPNews 0.9 released (SourceForge)Version 0.9 of DPNews has been announced. "DPNews is a rss based news aggregator module for dotProject. It enables you to rapidly view project relevant news from several sources. 0.9 is the first public GPL release of dp-news. It is considered beta until proven stability by the community, however it should be already stable enough to be reasonably used."
Web Browsers Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.11 Fixes Canvas Regression (MozillaZine)MozillaZine has announced the release of Mozilla Firefox version 2.0.0.11. "The Mozilla Corporation today released Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.11, the second minor update to the browser delivered this week. This upgrade has been rushed out to fix a regression introduced in Firefox 2.0.0.10, which broke the drawImage method of the canvas element (bug 405584)."
Mozilla Links NewsletterThe November 29, 2007 edition of the Mozilla Links Newsletter is online, take a look for the latest news about the Mozilla browser and related projects.
SeaMonkey 1.1.7 released (MozillaZine)Version 1.1.7 of SeaMonkey has been announced. "A stability and security update to SeaMonkey, the community-driven continuation of the all-in-one Mozilla Application Suite, has been released. As detailed in the SeaMonkey 1.1.7 section of the Mozilla Foundation Security Advisories page, the upgrade includes the same security patches as Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.10, which was also made available this week. In addition to the security fixes, SeaMonkey 1.1.7 also includes several other small bug fixes".
Languages and Tools Caml Caml Weekly NewsThe December 4, 2007 edition of the Caml Weekly News is out with new articles about the Caml language.
Java Announcing IcePick, a build framework for compiling the langtoolsThe IcePick project has been announced. "The aim of the IcePick project is to allow the language tools (javac, javadoc, javah, javap, apt) from the OpenJDK project to be built separately using any 1.5 compliant Java compiler. This is primarily motivated by a desire to allow these tools to be used with virtual machines that make use of the GNU Classpath library rather than simply as part of the larger IcedTea or OpenJDK distribution with the HotSpot or CACAO virtual machines."
Lisp SBCL 1.0.12 has been releasedVersion 1.0.12 of Steel Bank Common Lisp has been released. "This version adds thread-safe hash tables, improves optimization of list subsequenses and string concatenations, and fixes many bugs. SBCL is a native compiling Common Lisp implementation, under MIT/Public Domain licence. It purports to conform to the ANSI Common Lisp standard, and features several non-standard extensions."
Perl Perl 6 Design Meeting Minutes for 21 November 2007The minutes from the November 21, 2007 Perl 6 Design Meeting have been posted. "The Perl 6 design team met by phone on 21 November 2007. Allison, Patrick, Will, Nicholas, Jesse, and chromatic attended."
Tcl/Tk Tcl-URL! - weekly Tcl news and linksThe December 1, 2007 edition of the Tcl-URL! is online with new Tcl/Tk articles and resources.
XML Introducing E4X (XML.com)Kurt Cagle introduces EAX on O'Reilly's XML.com. "ECMAscript for XML (more colloquially known as E4X) has had comparatively limited success of adoption in the face of the power of JSON, I suspect partially because of a general ambivalence that the JavaScript community has towards working with XML, but more so because there is comparatively little out there describing how best to take advantage of the features that E4X offers. E4X is an extension to JavaScript that is available to both Firefox and ActionScript developers that turns XML into a native data type on par with strings, arrays, objects, and regular expressions."
Cross Assemblers gputils 0.13.5 releasedVersion 0.13.5 of gputils, the GNU PIC (microprocessor) utilities, is out with the following changes: "Added support for many new processors in all families. Added support for CONFIG directive on 18F devices. Support for new COFF format (MPASM default) in gpvo. Fixed bugs."
Libraries Pantheios 1.0.1 beta 66 released (SourceForge)Version 1.0.1 beta 66 of Pantheios has been announced. "Pantheios is an Open Source C/C++ Logging API library, offering an optimal combination of 100% type-safety, efficiency, genericity and extensibility. It is simple to use and extend, highly-portable (platform and compiler-independent) and, best of all, it upholds the C tradition of you only pay for what you use."
Version Control GIT 1.5.3.7 announcedVersion 1.5.3.7 of the GIT distributed version control system has been announced. "What's cooking for upcoming feature release v1.5.4 has been stablizing, and hopefully this will be the last of v1.5.3 maintenance series."
Page editor: Forrest Cook |
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