Light Peak in embedded systems

Light Peak is Intel's new optical interconnect system, using on-chip laser/receivers (up to 30x cheaper than existing laser technology, they say, and smaller). It's coming out at the end of the year (2010). It works.

Now, what is surprising is that there seems to be _absolutely_ no buzz about this in the embedded world. Why? Isn't this a perfect technology.

- optical so no ground loops and/or electromagnetic disturbance
- good latency (I believe, did not find figures)
- multiple protocols running simultaneously (and quality-of-service handling)
- up to 100m cabling distance without repeaters

We'll be using this for a PRT system's internal communications.


Here's a collection of the best links I found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfGevFIVKw4&feature=PlayList&p=AB0C057729CF58E0&playnext=1&index=45

http://www.osnews.com/story/23247/Intel_Shows_off_First_Light_Peak_Laptop

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2010/06/30/light-peaks-dazzling-potential/

http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/2010/20100727comp_sm.htm

http://techresearch.intel.com/UserFiles/en-us/File/OpticalIO/LightPeakInterestingFacts-v010710.pdf

OS X 10.7 UI idea: stacks on the desktop

I've sent some suggestions to Apple earlier, and they actually replied with "please don't send us suggestions" email. They are afraid of getting sued later, I guess.

Anyways, people should be able to give feedback and ideas of UI design. Hey, Microsoft proudly says they did this in making Windows 7 so good (which it is). SO, here goes Apple.

STACKS ON THE DESKTOP

The desktop is a perfect place to clutter your life. Position keeps different kinds of things apart - upper left corner for handy links etc. - left edge for to-be-done business things. Right edge for personals. Center for ASAP stuff.

Only, there's often more stuff than necessary when living this way. What is the way in OS X to hide such stuff, yet keep it "there". Stacks. :)

But stacks only exist in the Dock. So I'm supposed to place all my categories of stuff in different stacks in the same positional place. I'm losing something of the desktop arrangement, here.

So, make it possible to have stacks everywhere. Actually, make it possible to show a directory as a stack and that's it. This way, also command line usage would work fine.

Why not simply place folders on the desktop? It simply feels more elaborate. It opens new windows when the stuff is accessed. Don't like that.

If you know of an existing OS X tool that already provides "stack everywhere", pls. let me know.

Keeping a mouse alive...

Are you one of those people - like me - who just finds it irritating when things seize to work. This writing is about my Microsoft "Intellimouse Optical" (nothing much intelligent about it, though).

It's a good old wired mouse that I originally bought to my first Mac. Somewhere like 2002. It's still working, but the roll of it started getting stuck a year back or so. It's irritating; the symptoms are that the roll rolls.... then not... then again. Like there was some place alongside it that's sticky. This of course is quite an annoyance for using it on websites or anywhere.

Now. What's interesting about this is that *nothing's wrong*. I've analyzed the glitch and I suspect all Intellimice of this age would be affected. Here's what.

The roll is too close to the right edge. If one moves it slightly left (it has a gap of around 0.5mm) all is fine. So - I opened the mouse and made the case opening bigger. About 20 times. What's funky about this is that in order to feel if the cure is enough one has to put back the screws and all. :) Before that, it was always okay. After tightening the screws, not so. :)

So, here's the advice if your mouse has the same glitch:

- case opens by detaching the lower glued pads only. Below them are two screws.
- try scraping some off the right side of the mouse wheel first. Doing this would have no visual effect on the mouse, if this is enough, be happy.
- scrape the mouse opening from "outside in" to keep visual effects minimized. I had to remove rather much until it finally worked. But I wasn't having this guide. ;P
- once the cover is back on (but not the pads) try to "free wheel" the wheel. It should give a high pitch and roll a few rounds. It should feel light.
- don't tighten the screws too much. You can even leave them loose. Tightening makes the problem worse.

Naturally, instead of doing all this one could just go and get the latest Apple Magic Mouse. But it feels good to have old stuff working, and it feels good to be able to fix things.

p.s. If you know how to make the right extra button (mouse button 5) do "Exposé - show desktop" I'd be pleased. Running OS X 10.6, Microsoft Intellipoint 7.1.0. It just does not work (tried both assigning at Intellipoint and 'Handled by Mac OS'); used to about a year ago. Maybe an OS X update has killed that?