tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42561051492114510422008-05-15T08:11:31.463-07:00Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-4000425914628955522008-05-12T06:00:00.000-07:002008-05-13T11:45:54.895-07:00

No doubt about it, people in developed countries are getting older and older. Case in point: The number of knee replacements in the U.S. grew from 257,000 in 1998 to 455,000 in 2004. Since doctors rarely perform knee replacements on patients under 50, those numbers can reflect only one thing: an aging and progressively nonambulatory population. Hip-replacement surgeries follow a similar trend.

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-79042755118011278802008-05-08T06:54:00.001-07:002008-05-12T06:41:25.145-07:00

In March, I posted photos of what Ottawa looked like after a major blizzard. It's now early May and the flowers are blooming like mad, so it's time to show you what Ottawa looks like sans snow. Let's start by walking out QNX's front door. As you can see, some of the tulips in the front garden are in full bloom: A closer look: When you walk across the street from QNX, you quickly reach a

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-79826935160416847092008-05-02T09:20:00.000-07:002008-05-06T08:23:15.306-07:00

Recently, companies like Intel and Harman have been using QNX technology to demonstrate the slick graphics capabilities of their new products. Take, for example, this 3D navigation system, which runs on the Intel Atom and which uses QNX’s implementation of the OpenGL ES 3D API: All of these graphics demos got me thinking, naturally enough, about user-interface design. And that got me thinking,

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-55225991262878783692008-05-01T09:33:00.000-07:002008-05-01T10:56:43.739-07:00

Pin a world map to your wall, put on a blindfold, and throw a dart at the map. Grab a shortwave radio and take a plane to wherever the dart landed. Switch on the radio and start twiddling with the tuner. Chances are, you’ll pick up China Radio International (CRI). CRI, a state-owned radio network of the People’s Republic of China, embodies the "think big" approach. Every day, its 50+ shortwave

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-44721093326375177402008-04-21T14:14:00.000-07:002008-04-22T11:23:05.618-07:00

Global warming? I’m still not convinced. Biofuels? Pure marketing hype. Organic foods? Healthy, especially for the companies who make money selling them. Don't get me wrong. I care deeply about the environment and I believe that we should do more — a lot more — to make it better. But, sometimes, I think people would rather embrace fashionable solutions than do the right thing. Like consume less.

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-43032274321713184502008-04-17T07:51:00.000-07:002008-04-17T09:38:16.299-07:00

QNX-based systems perform eye surgery, control air traffic, monitor nuclear power plants, and keep 9-1-1 systems running 24/7. Heck, they even control touchless car washes. But did you know that QNX can also play a wicked game of checkers? Check out the video here. (Hint: Skip the intro and fast-forward to the 00:40 mark.) I don't know about you, but any robotics project that can prove its point

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-78948632148686915252008-04-11T08:07:00.000-07:002008-04-11T08:17:27.154-07:00

Got 15 seconds? Then check out this video of a oil-rig blowout — the action starts at exactly 00:15: Fortunately, no one got hurt in the incident. And just as fortunately, real-time control devices called blowout preventers (BOPs) are making blowouts a thing of the past. This week, Control Engineering magazine profiled a BOP based on the QNX Neutrino RTOS and the McObject high availability

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-38955412583315606572008-04-03T07:10:00.000-07:002008-04-04T06:28:58.295-07:00

Want to see a cool example of real-time control? Check out this video of a QNX-based system controlling a Furuta pendulum: This isn't just a parlor trick. Furuta pendulums help engineering students learn the principles of controlling dynamic or unstable systems, such as walking robots. In this case, the pendulum was part of a student project at the Norwegian University of Science and

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-60776099089722004792008-03-25T10:09:00.000-07:002008-03-25T13:56:33.579-07:00

Is skill in parallel programming a cultural phenomenon? Do most real-world computing problems parallelize easily? For a heated discussion on these and other pressing multi-core issues, visit Slashdot and check out "More Interest In Parallel Programming Outside the US?" The thread started today in reaction to a blog post from Intel's James Reinders, who claims that developers in the U.S. and

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-66405974536555413092008-03-11T08:58:00.000-07:002008-03-11T09:39:43.350-07:00

This morning, at 2:28 a.m. EDT, the Space Shuttle Endeavour lifted off, carrying three technologies of note: 1) a Canadian-built robotics system that will enhance the International Space Station's robot arm; 2) the first section of Japan's new space-based laboratory; and 3) the Neptec LCS, a QNX-based 3D laser camera system that is mandatory equipment on every NASA shuttle mission. The LCS is

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-231704204797816832008-03-10T09:33:00.000-07:002008-03-11T06:59:57.747-07:00

What does 50+ centimetres of fresh snow look like? Well, here's what I could see of my cars when I woke up yesterday morning... And what does 50 centimetres of fresh snow look like when it's piled on top of 365 centimetres (12 feet) of existing snow? Well, here's what I could see of my two-storey house when I trudged out onto the street... So much snow has fallen on Ottawa this winter that,

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-23081772046903661682008-03-04T07:51:00.000-08:002008-04-11T08:18:05.190-07:00

Well, to be honest, 9 systems. Because I'd like you to fill in the 10th. A few years ago, a colleague of mine was manning a tradeshow booth that showcased a QNX-based blood collection system. A guy walked up to her and said, “If it weren’t for that device, my son would be dead today.” It’s pretty emotional when someone tells you something like that. But the fact is, QNX-based systems have been

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-84988671468035929022008-02-28T10:36:00.000-08:002008-02-28T18:30:26.873-08:00

This week, the hello kitty blog — formatted in shocking pink and festooned with pictures of its namesake — treated its readers to an informative entry on the QNX Neutrino RTOS. When I first stumbled upon this blog, I braced myself for a stream of dewey-eyed musings on love, laughter, and Siamese cats. But instead, it’s filled with posts that define concepts like OS kernel, system shell, and

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-30343714884017329972008-02-25T14:09:00.001-08:002008-02-25T14:36:44.588-08:00

Moving your code to a multi-core processor can yield a real performance boost, though the speedup is typically less than linear. For instance, moving a parallelizable algorithm from a single-core processor to a quad-core processor might give you a 3.95x performance increase, but not 4x. And it certainly couldn’t give you more than 4x. Or could it? In a recent edition of Dr. Dobb’s, Microsoft’s

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-16569889740786756012008-02-14T15:51:00.000-08:002008-02-19T07:20:08.577-08:00

The Goldenrod crab spider is a nasty piece of goods. A master of camouflage, it can mimic the color of its surroundings, rendering itself invisible to prey. Basically, it catches bugs by means of obscurity. Check out the accompanying photo, which I took in my front garden. It tells the whole story: a yellow flower, a yellow crab spider, and an unfortunate fly that couldn’t tell the difference.

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-91068418746169763862008-02-04T13:54:00.000-08:002008-02-05T06:46:57.001-08:00

I was tempted to buy a Roomba robovac last week, until my wife warned me of the pandemonium that would ensue when our schnauzers got a hold of it. So while I can’t entertain you with a cute video of my dogs attacking a robotic vacuum cleaner, how about the next best thing: a giant robotic leg powered by QNX. This week, Carnegie Mellon’s student newspaper posted a story on Jonathan Hurst, a grad

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-84281771277356953042008-01-28T08:32:00.000-08:002008-01-29T13:47:25.494-08:00

Quick: How big is a fox terrier? If you’re like most people, you probably have no idea. Yet, for almost a century, science textbooks stated that Hyracotherium, an extinct relative of the horse, was the size of one. Why would textbooks keep repeating this comparison, when nine out of ten people wouldn’t know a fox terrier if it bit them? For that matter, why would a science book even use such a

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-85626571704189249322008-01-18T14:18:00.000-08:002008-01-28T10:50:15.206-08:00

I’ve been enjoying QNX’s new Pocket Geek game and have come to a few conclusions about the diminutive coder: He’s a die-hard command-line user (never touches the mouse) He works in an extreme-programming environment (never codes more than 40 hours a week) He’s concerned about IP contamination of his code (if that isn’t why he kisses his black duck, I don’t want to know about it) He owns a

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-32080041100767830142008-01-11T12:05:00.000-08:002008-01-28T10:48:27.229-08:00

For as long as I can remember, the QNX corporate color has been blue — RGB 0,51,102, to be exact. Lately, however, things at QNX have been looking a bit greener. No, Spring isn’t coming early to Ottawa. Rather, QNX has been working hard to shrink its environmental footprint. We started with small things, like getting rid of coffee stir sticks and styrofoam cups. Next, we placed more recycling

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-6502334227728182362008-01-07T09:10:00.000-08:002008-05-13T11:48:03.125-07:00

Good news: Dr. Dobb's magazine has just announced that the QNX Momentics IDE is a finalist in the 18th annual Jolt awards. Momentics is up against five other IDEs in the Development Environments category, including Sun's Netbeans IDE 6 and ActiveState's Komodo IDE 4. Taking home this award would be a real coup, as the Jolt judges actually download and try out the shortlisted products. In many

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-40535737881639771122008-01-04T08:37:00.000-08:002008-01-28T10:44:49.980-08:00

Back in 2005, a press release described 25 ways in which people encounter QNX technology every day, whether they’re watching TV, washing their car, or surfing the web. Allow me to add item 26: Taking your medicine. This week, VisionSystems Design published a story on a new QNX-based vision system that can inspect up to 500 pharmaceutical blister packs a second. Developed by Scanware Electronic

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-59512288173568507532007-11-07T12:50:00.000-08:002008-01-28T10:42:17.771-08:00

I don’t know about you, but dragonflies creep me out. They’re the hawks of the insect world: fast, voracious, and capable of catching their dinner on the fly — literally. In fact, long before birds showed up on this planet, giant dragonflies ruled the skies, with wingspans of two-and-a-half feet. Imagine one of those suckers landing in your hair. I found this dragonfly basking out in the open,

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-33167570336694120292007-10-16T08:51:00.000-07:002008-01-28T10:40:58.564-08:00

In his poem, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, Michael Ondaatje tells us that Billy the Kid was a bad man with some good in him, and that Pat Garrett, Billy’s nemesis, was a good man with some bad in him. Like many people, you may equate proprietary software with Billy the Kid (bad, but not completely), and open-source software with Pat Garrett (good, but with drawbacks). Unless, of course,

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256105149211451042.post-9447006626769121932007-10-01T10:10:00.000-07:002007-10-01T13:19:54.475-07:00

Digital cameras, iPods, and cellphones are all cool examples of embedded technology. Unfortunately, these devices offer little value to the 2,000,000,000 people who still live without electrical power.Don't get me wrong, I love my tech toys. But I also love it when engineers devise elegant solutions for people with real problems — like poverty, hunger, and disease.CNET recently published a photo

Paul N. Lerouxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04731307090173101793noreply@blogger.com