Write energy-efficient C code
Brian sent this along, something to consider if you’re working on small form factor devices…It’s good for the environment, good for your batteries, but it’s weird to think about an algorithm’s energy efficiency (it’s not just CPU cycles they look at, but memory access as well) “PowerEscape has added a new utility to its development toolsuite. “Insight” aims to reduce power consumption by improving the “data efficiency” of C-language code. The company says improving data efficiency in the initial stages of development yields higher performance for the same amount of power.” Link.
Formerly iPodder, here’s the latest version and information for this great open source podcatcher – “Juice has evolved from its basic beginnings as the world’s first podcasting software to a mature, fully featured application. Donation-supported Juice has been downloaded over 1 million times since its debut last year, making it the world’s most popular podcast receiver.” 
Paul writes “If there’s one word to describe my latest article, it’s comprehensive. Focused on using RSS as a means to save time in one’s daily routine, I take the reader through what RSS is, why it should be used and how to use it. I go through the installation, configuration and usage of RSS in Thunderbird, Google Desktop, RSSOwl as well as web-based feed readers with Google’s Personalized homepage, My Yahoo!, and Bloglines. As with all of my articles, there’s screenshots-a-plenty.” Good one to send to the non-RSSers, or if you’ve always wondered what those XML and RSS buttons are on MAKE. 
Greg sent in this great LED project that spells words or makes patterns when it spins “The way this works, is you have an EEprom (electronically eraseable programmable read only memory). This stores data on different lines. You retrieve this data by feeding it binary numbers, (ie. 1=0001, 2=0010, 3=0011, 4=0100, and so on). Each line of code has 8 bits of data, and directly corresponds to how the row of LEDs are lit up. If you put in 10000001, then the top and bottom led would be on. This is kind of tricky to figure out, but you have to make a grid. Since I am using a 4 bit counter, I have a possibility of 16 addresses. So to make a letter, you have to draw up a 16X8 grid, and color in the pixels you want.”