Não, não estou a falar de uma bonita e atraente rapariga mirandesa… que aposto que as há!

Falo de carne mirandesa, biológica, 100% certificada. Comprámos ontem (no Jumbo em Aveiro), hoje foi parte do nosso alomço, e ficámos ma-ra-vi-lha-dos!

Simplesmente grelhada na brasa, 2 minutos de cada lado e hop! Já está! Estava mesmo au point, levemente rosada. Acompanha um arrozinho branco e courgetes laminadas, salteadas com alho. Uma delícia!

O vinho era um Encosta da Estrela, um vinho muito agradável e fora do comum, mas talvez um pouco “forte” para mim. No entanto acompanhou divinalmente esta refeição!

Experimentem!

I’m studying the hardware and software for my Home Automation project, namely for the server and clients of the SCADA system. I won’t use Windows for these systems, because I need something that I can trust (and immune to viruses/trojans/attacks), and in the end it gets expensive. MacOS X and Linux comply (better at least) with that, and it’s relatively easy to find good, cheaper systems they run on.

But I’m studying how I can include Amiga-based systems on my project. The reasons for choosing an alternative system are simple:

* Lower power consumption, good for the environment.
* Supports smaller, innovative companies, good for the economy.
* Really small, efficient and fast operating systems.
* Secure (different from mainstream OSs, unexploited).
* Virus immune.
* Usually cheaper than a Windows system (the OS is payed separately, and usually needs better, more expensive hardware to perform well).

I won’t deny that the Amiga had a big impact on my life, during my childhood… a lot of what I know now was learned on an Amiga, and the Amiga community surely influenced many of my (good) choices in life. Including it’s spirit in my project can only bring good things!

As of now, my options boil down to this:

AmigaOS 4
Expensive system (~700€).
Dedicated hardware (ACube’s SAM440ep motherboard).
Hardware available commercially today.
Good performance.
Low power consumption.
Good operating system support of the hardware.
No JAVA.
Has SDL.
Good future perspective.
Developer: Hyperion.

MorphOS
Reasonable system cost (~300€).
Dedicated hardware (Genesi stuff), with support for some obsolete PowerPC G4 Macs (MacMini).
Hardware not really available, as of now only runs on obsolete systems (Efika/Pegasos/Radeon). Will certainly support the new Genesi Smarttop and Smartbook.
Good performance.
Low power consumption.
Good operating system support of the hardware (on the Efika/Pegasos at least).
No JAVA.
Has SDL.
Good future perspective.
Developer: the MorphOS team.

AROS (Icaros Desktop)
Cheaper system (iMica: ~250€).
Generic hardware.
Hardware available, but limited operating system support of the hardware (targets old x86 hardware), although the iMica is available, and can be used to give value to old computers with lower power consumption.
Good performance.
Low power consumption.
No JAVA.
Has SDL.
Uncertain future perspective, since it is developed by the community, with no commercial company backup (although this sometimes means nothing).
Developer: AROS community.

MacOS X
Normal system cost (MacMini Intel: ~500€).
Dedicated hardware (Apple stuff).
Hardware available commercially today.
Best performance.
Low power consumption (30W).
Good operating system support of the hardware.
Has JAVA.
Has SDL.
Good future perspective.
Developer: Apple.

Linux (DSL, Ubuntu, PuppyLinux, …)
Cheaper system (~300€).
Generic hardware.
Hardware available commercially today, and can also be used to give value to old hardware.
Good/Best performance.
Low power consumption (40W).
Good operating system support of the hardware.
Has JAVA.
Has SDL.
Good future perspective.
Developer: the Linux community.

Preliminary observations
It’s not easy to choose the OS by reading these facts. I took a look at AROS, but I’m yet to see AmigaOS 4.1 or MorphOS running, and using the OS is an important part for me. Also, I have to make a bit of development on the three and see wich one feels better.

My emotional side tells me AmigaOS might be the way to go, but it seems to cost more than a Mac or Linux system. From this simple comparison AROS is the best value and MorphOS (assuming it will run on the MX Open Client “Smarttop” from Genesi) is as strong a candidate… I’m eager to try them out, and I’m sure testing sessions will be lots of fun!

I’m into some retrogaming lately, mainly on the Amiga. This made me look at the Amiga scene, and I’m really happy about the recent events.

Another one of these is that apparentely, Hyperion is going to push Java onto AmigaOS 4.2! Even if not a complete/modern version, having a Java VM on AmigaOS is (IMHO) mandatory.

Things are looking good for this (seemingly?) dead platform!

Vou só deixar aqui uma nota de relevo para uma party que vai acontecer em França, nos dias 6, 7 e 8 de Novembro, e que me parece ser muito interessante (principalmente para antigos Amigans como eu). Chama-se Alchimie 2009.

O tema recorrente é, claro, os sistemas alternativos (Amiga, Ubuntu/Linux, Haiku, …). Este ano, os temas são a robótica e a computação ecológica (baixo consumo e eficiência). Parece ser tudo malta muito fixe e criativa, dentro do antigo espírito saudável do Amiga, e os assuntos abordados são também eles muito interessantes!

Tenho imensa pena de não poder ir (simplesmente não dá)… mas vou colocar a data na minha agenda e para a próxima vou lá estar!

It has finally happened! It’s great news to see AmigaOS free from it’s legal disputes! Hyperion seem to now have full rights to develop it for whatever hardware platform they desire.

I hope they give the OS a clear roadmap, even if it is primarily targeted to a niche market (like the embedded one, where I think it could have some following). And I also hope they realize that their most probable early adopter userbase will be us Amigans. We nerds that had Amigas 10-15 years ago, and that now have twice that age at least. I think they need to target us first.

Like I’ve seen the honorable Zetr0 say on EAB, the boing ball is on their side now. Let’s see what they do with it!

I’ve been using my company’s paper calendar (the ones they distribute) to mark my project’s research, development schedules, deployment phases, support events, appointments, personal events, holidays, whatever. I like to have a view of the whole year; visualising the months ahead is great to preview stuff, but looking back at the past months is great to see where you’re at.

Amazingly, I can’t get this view in Apple’s iCal, the further it goes is one month view. This means I’ve nerver used it. I’ll be looking at other software alternatives (as soon as I can find the time to do so) and see if I can move away from paper… any sugestions?

Bolas, não tenho tempo nem para me coçar… entre a construção da casa nova e o trabalho só me sobra um bocadinho de tempo para tratar da minha raposita… e mal chega.

Apreciem: tenho na cave dois Spectrum +2 e um Amiga 1200 que comprei no eBay. Ainda não os testei sequer! Isto não é normal…

I don’t think we’ll be driving full electric cars in the next 2 years (although I really hope so), simply because of the petrol lobby. At least, not with a decent range (500Km or more). So I think the closest we can get is to drive a plug-in hybrid, something we can charge overnight and run full electric on the commute to work (30 to 60 km), but still use on the long trip with the whole familly to your birthland.

Still, my ideal car is a full electric vehicule, with an optional, LPG-powered, combustion engine-based, range-extending module. This module, essentially a small box (containing the engine, gas tank and alternator) could easily be installed and removed from the car, and left in your garage.

The extension module simply charges the batteries, and keeps the car running for longer. Like this, we could have a 1000+ Km range for the long runs (with quick fill-ups on the gas station) but we wouldn’t spend needless energy transporting the extension module on small trips, when we clearly didn’t need it (wich should be most of the time).

If this car does not appear in 2 years time, I’ll build a prototype myself! After all, I am an Electronics and Telecommunications Engineer, my father is a Mechanical Engineer, and my father-in-law is a very skilled and experienced metal-worker. All I have to do now is to find the time to do it, lure my father to Portugal again, and persuade my father-in-law.

All it takes is a chassis, an electric motor, an electronic motor driver, a battery bank, some mechanical coupling, control electronics, and an on-board computer. And a lot of work.

This would be an amazing project for next year, but I already have 2 projects underway… that really must be finished first.

What happened to the “giant leap for mankind”? When I was a kid, I thought we would be much more advanced in space exploration by now. I checked the Lunar Exploration Timeline… 40 years have gone by, and I see no obvious evolution from that amazing Apollo 11 feat.

I used to dream about space exploration, watching stuff on TV like Space 1999, Il etait une fois l’espace, and Star Trek.

Heck, I thought that, by 2010, we would have one or more space stations orbiting Earth, the Moon, and possibly other planets. I thought that by now, the Moon was already colonized, a center for space study and exploration. Frequent spaceships would go to and from the Moon and the space stations, taking people and resources from place to place. I thought that, by now, energy-autonomous rover robots had already been deployed in the most interesting planets and moons of our solar system. I thought that, by now, we would already have a cheaper way of getting to space (gauss launchers, space elevators, etc).

Was I wrong.

I guess space exploration has no big motivation to drive it. Since it seems we are alone in this solar system, and we still haven’t stupidly stripped Earth of it’s natural resources (although this is not that far off), we don’t actually *need* to go anywhere else.

And, I think, the most important thing: it has no return on investment (or does it?). If no profit can be made from an activity (read real money, not mankind evolution, Universe awareness, etc), nobody will seem to do it.

But I hope to see a great evolution in the comming 10-20 years!

I’m baffled by this great documentary I say on TV last night, “HOME”. You should go see it, when you have some free time, it’s freely available on the internet (or, better yet, purchase it in high definition on Blueray). It talks about our collective home, planet Earth, and what we’ve done to our resources, nature and society in the past 60 years alone. The video footage is beautifull to behold. Although the ideias exposed are not pretty, they are definitely eye-opening.

If you think all this is nonsense, and that you alone cannot change the World, think about this: you are never alone. You have familly, friends, and/or co-workers. If you influence 5 people to think differently, those 5 people will influence 25 more, those will influence 125 more, those will influence 625, those will influence 3125, and so on.

I’m contributing already; my future house will be mostly powered by the sun.

It really is too late to be pessimist!