Using Microcontrollers

In How Electronic Gates Work, you learned about 7400-series TTL devices, as well as where to buy them and how to assemble them. What you found is that it can often take many gates to implement simple devices. For example, in the digital clock article, the clock we designed might contain 15 or 20 chips. One of the big advantages of a microcontroller is that software -- a small program you write and execute on the controller -- can take the place of many gates. In this article, therefore, we will use a microcontroller to create a digital clock. This is going to be a rather expensive digital clock (almost $200!), but in the process you will accumulate everything you need to play with microcontrollers for years to come. Even if you don't actually create this digital clock, you will learn a great deal by reading about it.

How to Microcontrollers Work

A microcontroller is a computer. All computers -- whether we are talking about a personal desktop computer or a large mainframe computer or a microcontroller -- have several things in common:

• All computers have a CPU (central processing unit) that executes programs. If you are sitting at a desktop computer right now reading this article, the CPU in that machine is executing a program that implements the Web browser that is displaying this page.
• The CPU loads the program from somewhere. On your desktop machine, the browser program is loaded from the hard disk.
• The computer has some RAM (random-access memory) where it can store "variables."
• And the computer has some input and output devices so it can talk to people. On your desktop machine, the keyboard and mouse are input devices and the monitor and printer are output devices. A hard disk is an I/O device -- it handles both input and output.

About GOOGLE

Google Inc.

Larry and Sergey named the search engine they built “Google,” a play on the word “googol,” the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros. Google Inc. was born in 1998, when Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim wrote a check for $100,000 to that entity—which until then didn’t exist. 

Out of the office

The first “Google doodle” in 1998 was intended to let visitors to the homepage know that Google’s minders were offline at the Burning Man Festival in Nevada. There’s now a team of “doodlers” and we’ve posted more than 1,000 different doodles on homepages worldwide. 

GOogLe Image

iTunes Match

A match made in iCloud.

With iTunes in the Cloud, the music you buy from the iTunes Store automatically appears on all your devices.¹ And for music you haven’t purchased from iTunes, iTunes Match is the perfect solution. iTunes Match is built right into iTunes on your computer and the Music app on your iOS devices.² It lets you store your entire collection in iCloud, even music you’ve imported from CDs or purchased somewhere other than iTunes. When it’s in iCloud, it’s available on all your devices. So you can enjoy all your music anywhere, anytime — on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, PC, or Apple TV.

UK probes Apple iPad marketing over 4G access

Britain's advertising regulator is deciding whether to launch an inquiry into Apple Inc's marketing of its latest iPad following what some customers said were misleading claims about access to 4G, which is not available in the country.

Fourth-generation or 4G technology enables users to access faster Internet broadband services.

"We have received 24 complaints about claims on Apple's website about 4G on the iPad. We are assessing whether there are grounds for investigation," a spokesman for the Advertising Standards Authority said on Saturday.

US sues Apple in e-book price scheme

The US government sued Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and five publishers, saying they conspired to fix the prices of electronic books, and reached a settlement with three of the publishers that could lead to cheaper e-books for consumers.

The Justice Department accused Apple of colluding with the five publishers as the Silicon Valley giant was launching its iPad in early 2010 and was seeking to break up Amazon.com's low-cost dominance in the digital book market.

Because of the agreement, e-book prices went up an average of $2 to $3 in a three-day period in early 2010, according to the Justice Department lawsuit filed in US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday.

The settlement reached with three of the publishers will allow Amazon (AMZN.O) to resume discounting books, and will terminate the "most favored nation" contracts with Apple.

How to use Digital Multimeter

Description

Digital Multimeter DT830B, DC Voltage, AC Voltage, DC Current, Resistance, Diode & Transistor test functions
Function Range Accuracy
DC Voltage 200mV-500V ± (0.5%+2dgt)
AC Voltage 200-500V ± (1.2%+10dgt)
DC Current 200uA-10A ± (1%+2dgt)
Resistance 200Ω-2MΩ ± (0.8%+2dgt)
Diode Test Yes
Transistor Test Yes
Power Supply 9V Battery 6F22
Display Size 16× 48mm
Maximum Display 1999
Products Size 126× 70× 24mm
Product Net Weight 150g
Color available Yellow, Black
Standard Accessories Test Lead, Battery, Manual

AC voltage measurement

- Connect the red lead to "VΩmA" jack and the black test lead to the "COM" jack.

- Set the rotary switch at the desired V~ position.

- Connect the test leads across the source or load being you want to measure and read the voltage value on the LCD display.

Sony: Rolly Sound Entertainment Player

The Rolly™ Sound Entertainment Player is truly multi-faceted. It plays music. It dances. It's an expression of your personality and how you hear your music. At its core, the Rolly Sound Entertainment Player is a robotic device that plays back music and can be programmed to dance to any of the music uploaded to it. In addition, it is a fun device to discover. Rather than looking at a screen to play music, there are different motions that you use to change the song, raise the volume and make it dance.

AdSense account: About PIN

I've just received my PIN. What should I do with it?
You may disregard the PIN mailing you've recently received, since publishers disabled for invalid click activity do not receive any further payment. The earnings on your account will be properly returned to the affected advertisers.

AdSense account disabled for invalid activity

Why was my account disabled? Can you tell me more about the invalid click activity you detected?
Because we have a need to protect our proprietary detection system, we're unable to provide our publishers with any information about their account activity, including any web pages, users, or third-party services that might have been involved.