Blog de Joe Freeman

Microsoft has a nice TFS Eclipse plugin that acts like any other Eclipse team provider.  It provides full TFS Source Control and Team view support inside of Eclipse. You can find information about the plugin on the the Microsoft MSDN site . Team Foundation Server supports TFS version control (TFS) projects and GIT version control (TFS) projects.  TFS uses the concept of a workspace to track changes.  A TFS Project Workspace can be managed as either a "Server Workspace" or "Local Workspace".  There are several good articles that describe how this works phkelly's blog  and MSDN documentation . Server Workspace : These were the default for all workspaces created prior to TFS 2012. Server Workspace follows an older convention where all files on the local machine are marked as "Read Only" until checked out for modification.  This means you cannot edit files outside of TFS or Eclipse unless they have already been checked out for modification. Server w...

Technicians think they understand how rapid technological advances affect our lives.  After all, everyone can see the impact of cell phones and the internet.  There are subtle changes that occur when a younger generation embeds technology as a foundation of what they do instead of as an supplement. What happens when a new generation makes that technique a standard part of their toolbox? Tools available for everyone... Billy Joel and Jimmy Fallon recorded their own  Doo Wop version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"  using an iPad App on TV in 2014. The two of them performed all six parts. Joel and Fallon first looped 4 backing tracks  live  and then sang two part harmony. I was blown a way that they were willing go do this "on their own" in front of a live studio audience. It is doubly amazing when you consider how many folks will lip sync a performance. Their act was a super example of how technology makes the complex simple, enabling new types of cre...

Someone asked how hard it would be to swap the NeoPixel shield in place of the LED strip in an earlier Arduino based Web LED control project.  The Embedded web server and LCD panel control chew up a lot of memory so I wasn't sure there was enough program space for the Adafruit NeoPixel library.  It turns out there is just enough space while still retaining some Bonjour functionality.   You can get the source code on GitHub Hardware and Software This project uses the following hardware Arduino Ethernet  I picked mine up at  Microcenter.  They describe this unit  as an Ethernet Shield but it is a full Arduino Ethernet for $49 (as of 2014/06). The Arduino IDE supports this board.  I used version 1.0.5. Adafruit   NeoPixel Shield  is a 5x8 matrix of individually controllable RGB LED.  The software library is available on GitHub .   A simple protoshield with pass-through connectors.  The Ethernet conne...

The answer is Yes you can use an SD card to host virtual machines.  The utility of that depends on the card you have and the speed of the card reader built into your machine. I've been using a Dell E7240 Ultrabook as my primary on-site machine. It only has a 128GB SSD so I've been debating on where I can put virtual machine disk images.  It has an internal MSATA and an SD card slot.  SD cards are easier to get around here so I purchased a couple 64GB SD cards to try out.   I get up to 17MB/s copying my VMDK files to the SD cards on the E7240 and up to 42MB/s copying VMDK files on the Macbook Pro 2011. I tested the following cards with CrystalDiskInfo and my MacBook running Windows 8.1 bootcamp. The Macbook Pro results imply that it may be a limit of the E7240s SD card slot interface, possibly some kind of USB. PNY StoreEdge 64GB.  This is a short card intended for Macbook and Macbook Air with short SD card slots.  There are no specs on the packa...

You can read where scientists, engineers and technicians write about how we need to excite more kids about science and engineering. Engineering and science companies, government agencies, universities and primary education institutions all understand that we need to excite more people about the science and engineering disciplines.  Some of these groups worked together to create the USA Science and Engineering Festival in DC  and associated events in other places.  This was a big (big big) trade show like event with hundreds of companies probably 50-100 universities and dozens of government agencies.  Several of the universities had multiple booths in different sections for their various colleges, programs and labs.  The event filled two floors of the Washington DC convention center.  Six stages ran presentations and talks continuously during the event. The kids and older folks who are still kids at heart had a great time. The USA Science & En...

Notes on using the IOIO with Windows 8 over Bluetooth This post describes the results of controlling various versions of the IOIO Firmware from Windows 8 over Bluetooth.  Initial content was extracted from  http://joe.blog.freemansoft.com/2014/04/ioio-v1-dealing-with-firmware-versions.html  and expanded with additional content. I used the HelloIOIOConsole.jar  sample program to test connectivity between Windows 8 and an IOIO V1 running different Application firmware.  I also tested Mac OS/X Mavericks. HelloIOIOConsole.jar results 4/2014 Java Application V1 3.03/3.23 V1 3.26/4.0 V1 ?.00/5.00 Windows 8.1 3.30 No Communication Constant reconnects Works Not Tested Windows 8.1 4.00 No Communication Constant reconnects Fails handshake without patch Works with patch described below Not Tested Windows 8.1 5.03 No Communication Constant reconnects Fails with Version Mismatch (as expected) Not Tested OS/X Mavericks 3.30 Wo...

My family told me that they don't know what I do for work.  This was kind of surprising since everyone tells me that I never shut up about what I'm working on. This post is an attempt to explain what I do/did as a "Pre-Sales Engineer".  I've played this part while working for software or hardware companies that sold "technical" products.  These ranged from Logic Analyzers and Embedded development tools to development and application platforms to Internet support products like web and mail servers. Note:  I'll probably use "Field Engineer", "Sales Engineer" and "Pre-sales Engineer" interchangeably throughout this document. You Got Mad Skills A Pre-Sales Engineer has the rare skill of being comfortable with technology and with people.   Pre-sales technical resources explain technology to techies, implement a solution, map the benefits of technology to business problems and interact with business users and manager...

Last updated 4/18/2013 IOIO programs run on Android devices, PCs or other types of computers. They communicate over USB or Bluetooth to firmware programmed  into the IOIO Pic chip.   Control programs are built using an IOIOlib library that knows the communication protocol between the program machine and the IOIO board.  Both sides of this communication must agree on the protocol and payload of this communication. Each version of the IOIO firmware comes with its own library that was built for that firmware. Host programs must  be linked to an IOIO library whose major version number is less than or equal to the major version of the your device's firmware. This works because Ytai tries to make sure that firmware is backwards compatible with previous versions. Programs compiled against any version 3.yy IOIOlib should be able to communicate with any 3.xx Firmware devices. EX: Programs built against 3.23 can talk with IOIO devices running Firmware 3.26. ...

Walmart sells an HP Chromebook 14 with T-Mobile 3G for $350.  The unit comes with 4GB of RAM and a 16GB SSD.  The SSD is way more than you need as an average Chromebook user.  Microcenter currently has the same Chromebook without the T-Mobile 3G for $250 with a 16GB SSD and $270 with a 32GB SSD.  Linux heads and other nerds, like me, always want to upgrade their devices. I recommend that you just a unit with the size SSD you think you can live with.  Upgrading a Chromebook 14 NGFF SSD is not for the faint of heart .  There are a bunch of small cables and at least  13 screws on the back and 3-5 inside that have to be removed. The keyboard is clipped into the base of the unit.  Those clips must all be worked loose.  The motherboard with the SSD on it is held in via 3-4 screws, the heat pipe linkage  to the CPU behind the fan and the USB port openings on the left hand side Of course I didn't listen to my own advice and bought the C...

The Intel Galileo is one of the more frustrating embedded / small system boards I've worked with.  I'm really not sure what Intel was thinking.  It feels like one of those "we need to get into this market" types of projects that is an off target response to ARMs penetration in the home hobbyist / small systems market. Intel has some work to do if they are serious about this board.  I suspect they will abandon it and try again with some other product. We've seen other projects from companies that have attempted to do the same thing.  The Microsoft .Net Micro Framework with the associated 2-3 board makers come to mind.  It was too small a market for Microsoft to commit any resources too. They open-sourced .NET MF and let it go fallow for at least two years. Pros Intel did a great job hacking the Arduino IDE to make it easy to build and run Arduino style sketches without any real knowledge of how the board works. There is 8MB of flash memory. It uses a po...