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Messages - uberspire

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16
Other / Re: Let's learn OOP!
« on: March 15, 2011, 08:33:13 pm »
I see you used the Diamond operator there ^-^ a Java exclusive, so methinks.  I think I might as well explain that too :)
Java uses the diamond operator for generics, which came from C++'s usage of the diamond operator for templates. Perl also has a diamond operator, however it's used differently.

17
UberGraphX / Re: Project Paradise - Ubercalculator
« on: March 11, 2011, 03:41:57 pm »
Sorry, about that. If you're having trouble, try creating your account again. There was some problems with sending out emails. I disabled email confirmation for now so if you try registering again, everything should work out ok.

18
UberGraphX / Re: Project Paradise - Ubercalculator
« on: March 11, 2011, 01:12:34 am »
The screen is still a 4.3 inch display with 480x272 pixel resolution and 24-bit color. You can't get the HD experience on the LCD since the resolution is not high enough, but I'm planning on swapping out the TV RCA jack on the previous prototypes for an HDMI port. I'll have to look into the costs just to make sure before I can fully promise on that feature. Potential educational uses for HDMI is that it might make it easier for some teachers to plug it in to TVs or classroom projectors that have HD capability, so it can be pretty useful. So this actually might be the very first HD calculator.

@Eems, thanks. That's how I really feel about calc development and why companies shouldn't be crippling or prohibiting community development.

19
UberGraphX / Re: Project Paradise - Ubercalculator
« on: March 11, 2011, 01:01:06 am »
It would be nice if we managed to attract some people here with the device in the future, so it would be good to showcase it elsewhere maybe, in case other people might be interested.
Yeah, that's what I had in mind. :) I think this calculator can really bring a lot of interest into calc programming.

I was hoping to get a pandora, but this is cheaper! and it's essentially the same, looks like the same CPU, does it have 3D accelleration?
It's funny you should say that. I emailed my distributor for an order of parts to prepare the next prototype. Today, I got emailed back that they would like to offer an ARM Cortex A8 processor as a replacement, noting that it's pin compatible with the part I'm using and for the same price as the old part since they think the project is cool (I told them a little about it). It would be the third time I switched processors, but I couldn't say no to something faster, compatible and for the same price, so I ordered some for the next prototype.

So, if the next prototype works, you should be seeing a 800MHz Cortex A8 calculator coming soon this summer. :) I know it's totally over overkill, but I figured I should fit in as much power within the $150-$180 price range to really make it worth it. Who wouldn't want to play HD 720p movies on their calculator? :D The processor also uses the same graphics accelerator as OpenPandora (PowerVR SGX535), so Paradise will have the same graphical capabilities. So, the next prototype (and hopefully the last prototype of the board I have to make) should be really, really exciting. ;D

20
UberGraphX / Re: Project Paradise - Ubercalculator
« on: March 10, 2011, 02:55:08 am »
@graphmastur: I'm pretty sure others could help fund the project before summer starts. You can order one at the end of the year if you'd like then. Also, I read that part you quoted from their FAQ. That's why I kind of was thinking the site aims for art or film projects.

Anyways, I decided to postpone submitting my to Kickstarter. I don't think it would be fair to have you guys place money down to wait for something 2 or 3 months away. I think it would just be better if I focused in the next month or two on a full blown prototype (near to production model with casing and finalized hardware) and try to find a way to get it funded myself. I've been lucky getting the last two prototypes to work, but this time I need to shrink down the board which requires the PCB to be rerouted and add in the lithium-ion charging circuitry. This will require another prototype to be made.

In the meantime, we also need to discuss about the software, especially for the Standard Edition. For now temporary discussion about all the technical details (programming and software development) happening in the development of the ubercalculator will be concentrated here: http://uberspire.com/. The domain is temporary until an official name is given to Project Paradise and it gets trademarked.

I've also considered about getting other communities (besides just the calc communities) interested in the device. The Developers Edition is essentially a compact Linux computer. People can find many uses. Some I imagine:
  • Portable gaming
  • Portable media player
  • Portable web browsing
  • Note-taking device
  • Portable computing for various hobbies (programming PICs or AVRS, controlling robots, etc.)
  • Data logger and sensor interfacing
  • PDA (keep track of contacts, meetings, appointments, etc.)
  • Cheap and compact alternative to netbooks
  • All-in-one supercalculator (Emulate any other calculator on the market: HP-50g, TI-nSpire, TI-8x series, Casio Prizm, etc.)
  • On the fly text and speech translation for traveling
  • Much, much, more
So you might have a friend who's not interested in graphing calculators, but maybe something on this list might pique their interest.

21
UberGraphX / Re: Project Paradise - Ubercalculator
« on: March 08, 2011, 03:17:33 am »
Scintilla and SciTE seem like very good candidates. They would seem very good in writing software that needs syntax highlighting. Also, you can run gedit on the calculator if you want:

I think with all the plugins for gedit, you could get the same functionality as Notepad++.

About the GUI, yeah we should change it as I suppose it does look pretty boring, though it does have a serious look to it (all the demos I've been showing have been GNOME with GTK):


@DJ: I'll make sure the cases will be different and they'll be easy to identify, both by the color of the casing and markings on them.

@graphmastur: I'll take a look at Kickstarter. My first impression of the site however is that it seems like it's for art or film projects. They also seem to have some strict guidelines on what projects they accept: http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq#WhoCanFundTheiProjOnKick. But, I guess it wouldn't hurt though to try submitting this project. Also, the problem is I need pre-orders for a batch of at least 100 units to match the pricing you guys want. For developers edition, I would need 180*100 = $18,000. For standard, 150*100 = $15,000. I could probably do a mix in the first batch of standard and developers, so I would need $15,000 minimum, but more realistically maybe around $16,500. This is a lot of money and this needs to be dealt with seriously. So this is my proposal plan for Kickstarter:

Target for fundraising is $15,000 in 75 days, just in time before summer. During this time, I'll just be finalizing the case and motherboard designs. The rewards I can probably offer:

* $1 - One buck can help buy a dozen capacitors for prototyping. As a thank you, your name will be place on our site as a contributor.
* $5 - One buck can buy some caps, but what about resistors and diodes? As a thank you, your name will be placed on our site as a contributor.
* $40 - This helps with prototyping costs. As a thank you we will give you a T-Shirt and your name will be placed on our site as a contributor.
* $150 - Pre-order the Standard Edition of the Linux mathematical PDA suitable for school testing.
* $180 - Pre-order the Professional Edition of the Linux mathematical PDA. Comes with WiFi, audio jack, touchscreen and completely open to community development.
* $200 - Pre-order the Professional Edition and have a 120 byte message encoded into the bootup process. Every time you boot up the device, a message will be selected at random and displayed while the device boots up. :)
* $310 - Need one calculator for school, but want another to hack around with? Save $20 right now and get both the Standard and Professional.
* $4500 - You're the coolest teacher and you want to pre-order a classroom set of Standard Editions, because you're that cool.
* $5400 - You're cooler than the coolest teacher and you want to pre-order a classroom set of Professional Editions, because you're the coolest of the cool.

Nah, just kidding about the last two. ;D On a serious note, again since a lot of money needs to be raised to start manufacturing, preferably, I'd like to get some funds to help build a few more prototypes , just to be safe and make sure the manufacturing process is top notch by the time your pre-orders get made. So how does this sound? Would anyone here submit a pledge? Or perhaps know someone who  might be interested in doing this? If people are willing to make pledges, I'll submit in my proposal and we'll see if it gets accepted.

22
News / Re: Indie calculators at the horizon?
« on: March 06, 2011, 04:41:56 am »
Odd how they suddenly put a ton of processing power and graphical upgrades into calculators.
In my opinion, I think the TI-nSpire is overpriced for it's specs. Plus, they don't give you the freedom to do much programming and development. According the survey I gave out for Project Paradise, a lot of people share the same thought. I don't think the problem is whether a calculator is too powerful or not. I think everyone would like a powerful piece of hardware. As DJ said, the TI-nSpire is a good piece of hardware, but if you're gonna place a price on something, it should reflect the value of features the calculator has to offer. I do agree that Project Paradise might seem too much, but for the prices people pay for other calculators on the market, you should be getting something as powerful as Project Paradise with the manufacturing capabilities these companies have. Otherwise, they should lower down their prices. I strongly believe that Project Paradise will have the best features to price ratio out of anything on the market. I know this is an ambitious project, but hopefully people will see this an something more innovative than what Casio and TI have put out. Maybe when Project Paradise starts shipping out, it may finally make TI reconsider how they've been treating the community.

If I can convince them that uberspire's calc is better and train the math teachers on how to use it, then there will be an order for 1800 calcs.  :w00t:
Now that would be really awesome. :D By "out on time", do you mean by next school year? Gives more reason why I should get this calculator out there. :)

BTW, thanks DJ for making a news post about this. It's very much appreciated. :)

23
UberGraphX / Re: Project Paradise - Ubercalculator
« on: March 06, 2011, 04:08:05 am »
@ruler501: Depends on how fully developed you want the prototype to be. As of now, I've just got a working board. Case and keypad need to be worked on. Having 1 single board made is very expensive. I won't give out the exact pricing, but you could buy 2 NVidia GTX 580's for the price of one board. (This is why I'm really motivated to not give up on this project, as I've already invested a lot of my own money and time into it) Maybe if 10 people want to buy a prototype of the board I'm using, it'll probably cost $300 each, but you'll have to wait a couple of weeks for the parts and the boards to get manufactured. I don't know if anyone would be interested in doing this.

The hardware and parts have already been completely finalized. I don't really want to give out part numbers right now because it's still uncertain whether I'm able to get enough pre-orders to start shipping. If it turns out I can't get enough pre-orders, then I'll turn this project into my senior project, the University will own it and I'll have no control over it anymore. However, if there's enough pre-orders, when the first units of Paradise does get shipped out more information will be given to help software development. By the time Paradise ships out, kernel sources and instructions on how to create the OS image I'm using will be available guaranteed.

And yes, I would love to have help with the software. I think it would be best to create our own Linux distro for Paradise. We should start selecting and planning out what type of software we want to include in our package repository. I suggest you guys start looking at software that would seem reasonable to port to Paradise.

@Uberspire, actually the GUI size was pretty fine in the first page screenshots. Could you use that one instead?
I'm certain that with modifications to the software we could get the interface to be of the same proportions as the screens on the first page. However, the screenshots on the first page came from an emulator for the first prototype simulating a 640x480 LCD so it's a bit misleading in that there is a lot of space in the GUI (the first prototype had a 320x240 LCD). The screenshots were to show I had an emulator working for the first prototype, but now the hardware is way different so the emulator is irrelevant now.

If you guys want, we don't have to use the GUI I'm using. You can run Android or Ubuntu and use icewm, QT, MicroWindows, GNOME Mobile, etc. All the stuff I've shown is just to show the power and what the calculator is capable of doing.

The past week, I've been redesigning the casing (I'm sure you guys will like the new sophisticated, serious and high tech look) and have been trying to convince a friend to let me get in the manufacturing lab here at the University so I could just have a case made using the 3D printer, but it seems very unlikely I'll be given access, so as of now this is as far I can go now with the development of Project Paradise as I'm completely broke. I'm hoping to win the innovations contest here at University, which I may have a high probability of winning only if I can find a way to convince the judges that this product would do well in the market (the deadline for entry submission April 1). Or, I'm very lucky and find someone who's willing to invest in the project, probably very unlikely.

24
UberGraphX / Re: Project Paradise - Ubercalculator
« on: March 06, 2011, 12:59:42 am »
Holy... Is that thing running Crysis?  O.O

I wasn't actually planning on buying one, but since it could probably replace my computer...
Heh, sorry no. :) It's just a video of the intro to Crysis. It was just to demonstrate that this calculator has hardware accelerated video decoding.

The only suggestion would be to maybe redesign the GUI to offer more screen space for browsing and other stuff, else it kinda looks weird if the GUY takes over half of the screen. Other than that, great job so far.
Good point, I believe that can be done. Some of the apps need to be reworked (like Firefox and GIAC) to accommodate the screen.

I say go $155 on the standard. That way you a least make a little bit. :)
The diagram is showing how much it'll probably take to manufacture the first batch. After the first couple of batches get made and shipped off, the manufacturing costs should go done since there will be left over parts from the first batches. Also, the manufacturing costs for the TI-nSpire in that diagram are based on estimates and typical prices around in the industry assuming that TI built TI-nSpire's in batches of 1,000 units. That's probably unlikely and instead they probably build them in batches of 10,000 or even in the millions, meaning that it's very likely that they make much more profit than what my diagram shows and are ripping the students off. It is typical for products made by big companies to be sold at 3-5 times more than what it costs to make it.

Project Paradise can also be considerably way cheaper, but I'm aiming to build them in batches of maybe 100 (or by miracle and we're really lucky maybe 200). If I were to build a clone of TI-nSpire's and sell them myself, I'm certain they could be sold for $100 max and I'd still be making more profit than from Project Paradise. Someone else could try doing that if they wish since that's not the purpose of this project. Main goals for Project Paradise:
* Build a calculator that's technologically superior to anything TI, Casio and HP could make for the next 5-10 years
* Pack in 5-10 times more powerful hardware
* Be within the price ranges of other calculators on the market
* Be the ultimate electronic device for scientific and mathematical education - I believe Project Paradise can effectively engage students way better in education. Ironically, TI sees calculator only as a tool for computation and that's why they want to lock it down. However, computation is only a part of the solving process in mathematics. What's more important is the ability to set up, describe and model the problem. Computers will always be faster and more accurate at computation than humans, but they're not smart enough to set up the problem to get the solution. This is what separates Project Paradise from the other calculators on the market. With it's programming and hardware capabilities, students can write programs to model those problems and get quick solutions. This effectively makes Project Paradise more better for education than anything TI can put out, even though ironically they may claim otherwise. A good TedTalk video elaborates more on how programming and computers can teach mathematics better by Wolfram: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60OVlfAUPJg
* Be more free and open to community development - If you bought a car, shouldn't you be able to do whatever you want with it? Why should a calculator be any different?

Are the prices according to the batch assembly or one by one assembly?
Batch assembly in batches of 100 units.

That is awesome!  Although I'm still not sure about the name uberspire as it is kinda Nspire-ish, and people might think "oh, it's a TI calc".  also, the dev version comes with a keypad, right?
The name can be changed by the time the first units start shipping out. And yes, the Developers Edition comes with a keypad.

1. Are you going to have a repository like github for easy sharing of apps and programs?

and 2. Is there going to be an on calc IDE and compiler?
Yes, their will be a repository where you can download software packages. With the Developer's Edition, you should be able to download them through WiFi. With Standard Edition, you'll have to download them on your computer, save them to SD card and then manually installing each package one by one.

And an on calc IDE, you guys could put whatever you want. GCC and javac seem to run fine if you want to program in C or java, a bit slow, but it's totally possible. Lua and Python interpreters are there if you want that too. For Basic, I was thinking that as a community we could write a program that will interpret every other variant of Basic that exists for every calculator on the market. That way Project Paradise can run any Basic program written for a calculator. It'll be easy then for students to transition and get into Paradise.

Well I'd be more than happy to help start up a repo for the project paradise. Well the IDE can be any ide, and compiler just use like GCC or G++ and compile for ARM.
Do you mean a developer's repo or the package repository? If you could host the repo, that'll be cool.

I wonder if you can use something like netbeans as an IDE, if it is only bundled with the languages C/C++ and Java it's around 50 MB.  and it's cross platform and will work on linux.
On the calculator or for developing apps on the PC? I don't know if NetBeans would work on Paradise. There's a slight possibility it might run on Paradise (it's written in Java right?), but it'll be very slow, require a lot of memory and the interface of NetBeans would take up a lot of space on the screen.

The developer version was the only one supposed that came with the touchscreen. The other one was supposed to be acceptable for standardized test I thought.
Yes, Standard Edition won't have touchscreen and it'll be compatible with the ACT and SAT testing. I've gone over their calculator requirements and this is likely what's going to happen with Project Paradise: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Ak__vzlDSwNadHBQN25xSThlbklTMXhRcUphaEdyRkE&hl=en&authkey=CM2a3fEK

As you can see there is no more Professional Edition as it has been consolidated into the Developers Edition. Initially I thought the WiFi module and battery packs would be very expensive, but I think I have found good deals on pricing for those parts. The Standard Edition will come in two versions: one with CAS and another without. CAS is not allowed on the ACT. Standard Edition will have a modified bootloader that will only accept OS'es signed by me to enforce that and on the casing there will be distinctive markings behind the screen indicating what model. Both Standard and Developers will be in a clamshell case that will fit into your pocket like in the mock up (clamshells seem to be allowed on both ACT and SAT testing). I think it's best for it to be a clamshell, since the LCD alone is as wide as the widest length of the TI-nSpire. It would look kind of fat and chubby having it in the traditional calculator form since it would be 5 inches wide then (imagine 5-5.5 inch wide TI-nSpire).

Both ACT and the College Board explicitly state they don't want a QWERTY keyboard. So technically, I can bypass that by having the Standard version use a DVORAK keyboard.

Also, I mentioned before that I was trying to use the Blanview LCDs used in the Casio Prizm, the advantage of them being that they consume only 1/6 to 1/3 the power of the LCD I'm using right now, drastically improving the battery life (that's why the Prizm has a long battery life). I'd tried getting the 480x272 Blanview, but they seem to be generally $100 per screen, which would then make the calculator too expensive then.

25
UberGraphX / Re: Project Paradise - Ubercalculator
« on: March 05, 2011, 01:14:27 am »
I'm still working on it. :) I've already invested in a lot of time and resources to go back on this project. I was waiting for the board to arrive before I made my next post, which luckily arrived this week and.... it works!!!  ;D

A video of the prototype working demonstrating the hardware, browsing the web, playing video, OpenGL, word processing, etc. (looks and sounds better at 480p):

By the way, I'm using a USB mouse with the prototype (shows that you can connect USB devices - mice, keyboard, USB flash drives, etc.). The LCD is also a touchscreen, but I figured you don't want to see my hand in the way all the time.

Some stats from the survey:
* 70% said 10 hours battery life would be acceptable as long as it can be easily recharged via USB
* 51% said they would be interested in pre-ordering
* Rated 9.1 out of 10 based on what people have seen or heard about this project
* Max price people would pay for this calculator: $182.17 (>$200 was counted as a flat $200)
* Overall, free and open to programming and community development is utmost importance

Some selected one-word summaries of Project Paradise from the survey:


Here's a projected look at manufacturing cost distribution showing how Project Paradise Developer's Edition will accommodate the $180 target from the survey. Hopefully, it seems pretty fair (especially compared to TI's estimated manufacturing cost distribution):


So, the hardware is pretty much ready and finalized. The prototype, is to my opinion, of high functioning degree. What needs to be worked on now is the exterior casing and compact the prototype board and have a few more of them built to make sure they work. Projected deadline for when the first pre-orders can start shipping is by July this summer, just in time before next school year.

This is pretty much all I have to say for now. I'll keep you guys updated on the progress.

26
UberGraphX / Re: Project Paradise - Ubercalculator
« on: February 20, 2011, 03:22:00 pm »
Oh that could be an idea, but I thought a video of it in action would be even cooler, since it might interest people even more. Does he have a camera?
Ah ok. :) When the board comes, I'll show a demonstration of the hardware. It shouldn't be too hard to find someone here in college who has a camera.

Wow, I just read this thread and saw the awesome pics. Gave input on the survey, I would definitely pre order if it was around $200
Looking over the survey data (and again thanks for all of you guys input), the average price is $180, which I strongly believe I can hit on target. This calculator, looking at how much the parts currently cost, will definitely be under $200.

You work fast...  O.O
I had a good feeling TI might come out with something over the summer ->

Too bad TI might be releasing the Nspire CX. As you said, it might very well have been a ripoff of this :(
I'm not too worried:

Choose wisely! :D

(The TI-nSpire CX pricing comes from the pricing TI placed for their classroom set which they say is valued at $5400 and since a typical US classroom has 30 students, $5400/30 = $180)

27
News / Re: TI-Nspire CX - The Next Generation
« on: February 19, 2011, 10:20:04 pm »
It is exclusive, it is brand new, everything is beautiful, it's just TI.

http://levak.free.fr/ftp/nspire/Nspire-CX-CAS.jpg
The thing is, there's probably a 90% chance that's what it probably is considering the prices some sites have it to be. Except in a clamshell design. I believe most of the specs are gonna be the same as a regular TI-nSpire. The color screen is just a gimmick to get you to fork more money.

28
News / Re: TI-Nspire CX - The Next Generation
« on: February 19, 2011, 04:20:14 pm »
"The TI-Nspire handheld CX features a full-color, backlit screen, thin and sleek design includes TI-Nspire rechargeable battery. Use your own images Including photos. Explore real-world concepts Using The handheld's Notes, Graphs, Geometry, Data & Statistics and apps questions. TI-Nspire Teacher Sofware gold student TI-Nspire software IS required to add images Into TI-Nspire documents. Graph and rotate 3D functions. Change the color of wire gold surface your 3D graph. Clam shell."

Clamshell? Thin sleek design? WiFi? It sounds like they totally ripped off this: http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=5b6bf375350b7e6c85243e20f6cebcba&topic=6318.msg119800#msg119800. I should go sue them. ;)

Seeing that it's only $150, it seems it'll just be a Prizm clone then. We will see just how good this new Nspire really is...

I'm surprised though that the Datamath Museum doesn't have something to say about this, as they usually get a hold on a prototype before TI announces something.

29
Casio Calculators / Re: The origins of the Prizm
« on: February 16, 2011, 04:11:12 am »
Oh wow, that looks great. I wonder why they cancelled it? It also reminds me of the Casio ClassPad 300.
Good observation. :) That's because the ClassPad is actually based off this. Uses the same processor, stylus input, etc. In fact, the company that developed the software for the Xpander, Saltire, is the same company that developed the CAS for the Casio ClassPad, because when HP canceled the Xpander project, Casio immediately contracted Saltire. To make it easy to port the software from Xpander to the ClassPad, a lot of the hardware had to stay the same. IIRC, it was HP Australian R&D who developed the XPander hardware. However, they were laid off and the engineers went on to create another company and started on another project, called Project Qonos. However, they couldn't get enough pre-orders to start production so it never came to market. Hopefully, that won't happen with Project Paradise.

30
UberGraphX / Re: Project Paradise - Ubercalculator
« on: February 16, 2011, 01:46:04 am »
Thanks guys for input. It's very much appreciated. I'll be taking a look into the data over the weekend when I have the time.

Note, as soon as somebody gets a prototype and can show it in a video this is easily going to the news section.
I just found out z80man lives 2-3 miles away from my hometown. Right now I'm in college, but I'll be going back home sometime in late March. I can bring the prototype (provided that it works) with me and z80man can vouch that there indeed does exists an ubercalculator.

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