Penguins invade the North Pole! -- Thanks to a project of the U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a webcam has for the first time been installed at the North Pole -- one which runs on Embedded Linux, no less! The device was installed on April 28, 2002 and is now logging four images a day, which are available on NOAA's publicly accessible website. This article describes the Linux-based webcam (called the NetCam), opens up the device to see what embedded hardware and software are inside, and explains why the NetCam's developers used Embedded Linux as the basis of their design. Includes cool (cold?) photos. Story

Device Profile: hippo Internet Phone -- This LinuxDevices.com "Device Profile" takes a look at hippo's Internet Phone, which uses Embedded Linux as its internal software platform. The hippo Internet Phone's embedded computer is based a 48MHz Motorola MPC850/823 PowerPC system-on-chip processor with 16MB of DRAM, running an Embedded Linux operating system that was derived from MontaVista Software's Hard Hat Linux. Story

Real-time Linux sub-kernels, benchmarks, and . . . contention -- In part three of an Embedded Linux Journal series of articles by Kevin Dankwardt on Real-time Linux, Dankwardt reviewed the sub-kernel approach as used in RTLinux and RTAI and provided some benchmark numbers. Following publication of Dankwardt's article, MontaVista Software's Kevin Morgan issued a "response" to Dankwardt's article in which he offered "a few clarifications (or points of view)". Next, Victor Yodaiken and Matt Sherer (of FSMLabs) reacted to Kevin Morgan's response to Dankwardt's article, taking exception to Morgan's assertion that RTLinux is "not appropriate for the placement of comprehensive applications". Here's the whole interesting trio of articles for your edification and reading pleasure. Story

WANDER: a Portable Linux Data-Collection System -- In this interesting technical article at ELJonline, Steve Roberts and Ned Konz describe their project to develop a portable data-collection system based on Linux. "WANDER" represents a commercialization of technology derived derived from Roberts' earlier "Microship" project, which Roberts and Konz describe as "a geeked-out, canoe-scale, Linux-based, amphibian pedal/solar/sail trimaran". The article describes how the Microship's computer systems come ashore, and morph into a rugged, portable, SBC-based data-collection unit. Story

Embedded Linux Consortium announces new membership structure -- The Embedded Linux Consortium is launching a new membership structure designed to propel the organization forward in its missions of evangelization, promotion, and standardization. Although the structure calls for higher dues to finance mission activities, members are being presented with certificated offers for substantial discounts on marketing (advertising), made available by several publishers. Story

LinuxDevices.com adds new headline feed format: rdf -- LinuxDevices.com is pleased to announce the addition of a third format for our continually updated news headline feed. The new format, an xml compatible rdf format file, is in addition to the two existing news feeds, which are in text and html formats. The new format was added in response to numerous requests from members of the LinuxDevices.com community. The LinuxDevices.com news headline feed makes it easy for you to offer Embedded Linux daily news headlines on your personal or corporate website. Story

Here are some additional news items and announcements of interest from the past week . . .

• Call for papers: Real-Time Linux Workshop 2002
  
• ARM to bundle BlueCat Linux with ARM920T porting platform
  
• CompactPCI vendor taps Carrier Grade Linux for telecom apps
  
• Linux-based High Availability seminar series announced
  
• MontaVista Linux Professional Edition 2.1 now shipping
  
• Better security needed for Internet appliances
  
• MontaVista supports IBM PowerNP Network Processors
  
• Zaurus SL-5000D owners: free Hancom Office upgrade
  
• Embedded Linux based 802.11b WLAN SDK expands options
  
• DemoLinux bootable CDROM for Zaurus development
  
• FSMLabs rolls out BSD version of RTLinux
  
• UK Linux Developers' Conference, 4-7 July 2002
  
• Alan Cox: What the future holds for Linux
  
• Red Hat 7.3 to ship May 15
  
• How to configure Samba as a primary domain controller
  

• Article talkbacks
  
• Linux on PDAs
  
• Embedded Linux Q&A
  
• Real-time Linux
  
• GPL issues & discussion
  
• Embedded Java+Linux
  
• Little Linux systems
  
• Defenestrating Windows
  
• General discussion
  

• Introduction & Overview ("start here")
  
• Embedded Linux Distributions
  
• Real-time Linux
  
• GUI/Windowing Software
  
• Java on Embedded Linux
  
• System-on-Chip Processors
  
• Single Board Computers
  
• Little Linux Systems
  
• Linux-Based "Cool Devices"
  
• Linux-PDAs and PDA-Linux
  
• Embedded Linux Market
  

Read them here:   Apr. 25, 2002,   Apr. 18, 2002,   Apr. 11, 2002,   Apr. 4, 2002,   Mar. 28, 2002,   Mar. 21, 2002,   Mar. 14, 2002,   Mar. 7, 2002,   Feb. 28, 2002,   Feb. 21, 2002,   Feb. 14, 2002,   Feb. 7, 2002,   Jan. 31, 2002,   Jan. 24, 2002,   Jan. 17, 2002,   Jan. 10, 2002,   Jan. 3, 2002

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Be sure to stop by LinuxDevices.com -- "the Embedded Linux Portal" -- for the latest news, articles, forums, products, companies, jobs, and buzz in the fast-moving "post-PC" world of Linux-based intelligent devices, Internet appliances, and embedded systems. You can contact us here.