Meganet

The Intel Edison is a small system-on-chip (SoC) that measures about 35.5 × 25.0 × 3.9 mm (on its carrier PCB) which has a connector on it allowing it to be plugged into other things (it is possible to get the SoC on just the PCB without the edge connector).

The SoC board can then be plugged on to various boards from Intel, one is a breakout board which exposes various pins and has some USB sockets, there's also an Arduino compatible PCB allowing Arduino shields to be used.

The Edison tries to be everything to everyone, but doesn't always succeed. It actually has two processors inside, a dual thread dual core Atom running at 500MHz and a Quark 32 bit micro-controller running at 100MHz. The Atom runs Yocto Linux and the Quark a Real-time Operating System (RTOS).

It has 1GB of RAM and 4GB of Flash, 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0

There's a total of 40 I/O pins that can be configured to be: -

• SD card - 1 interface
• UART - 2 controllers, 1 with full flow control
• I2C - 2 controllers
• SPI - 1 controller with 2 chip selects
• I2S - 1 controller
• GPIO - 12 with 4 capable of PWM
• USB 2.0 - 1 OTG controller
• Clock output - 32 kHz, 19.2 MHz

Intel provide multiple ways of programming the system: -

• Arduino IDE (v1.6+, no longer requires an Intel specific build)
• Eclipse supporting: C, C++, and Python
• Intel XDK supporting: Node.JS and HTML5

There are other environments that also support Edison (in Arduino or direct mode) such as the node.js Johnny-Five system. Node-red can also be installed directly on the Edison and accessed through its web server. Google's Brillo is also an option now.

Running Linux does have benefits if you're into Linux environments as there's lots of packages that can be downloaded for it or indeed built as required.

You'll either love or hate Intel's development environment (XDK).

Integrating Edison into your own projects does give you a lot of flexibility, though the power requirements aren't as low as some other Arduino types (but by the time shields have been added to give the same functionality, power requirements increase with them). In theory it is possible to put the Atom to sleep and have the Quark micro controller do background non CPU intensive tasks and then it can wake the Atom up to do some hard processing or data transfers through WiFi say, but it's not meant to be 'easy' to actually implement.

The basic Edison (just the board) is around £42, on the small breakout board it's about £72 and on the Arduino base it's £96 though on-line pricing varies.

Overall the Edison really does tries to be everything to everyone and it's a pretty powerful computer (well 2), but it may be too generic for lots of things and the variety of programming modes etc can be confusing.

Just like Fahrvergnugen and Drivers Wanted, the days of Volkswagen's "Das Auto" campaign slogan has reached its end. It is one of the first casualties of the Dieselgate scandal that rocked Volkswagen in the last half of 2015.

A VW spokesperson from Germany has said that "Das Auto" will no longer accompany the brand's logo and will be phased out across the world.

Simply meaning The Car, Das Auto showed up in 2007 under then VW boss Martin Winterkorn's plan to make Volkswagen Group the number one auto manufacturer in the world. It summed up the company at that time. Ambitious, focused on alternative powertrain development like diesel and hybrid-electric vehicles. Das Auto now seems "pretentious" in the shadow of an uncertain future for one of the worlds best know auto makers.

So what does the future hold?  A surge of management changes and PR hires have been on going at VW and it is said that at a recent group management meeting that the group's core focus is to now shift to all efforts of fixing Volkswagen.

Rumors have been flying for a while now that Buick might be bringing wagon variant to the market. According to AutoGuide magazine, a trademark filing on December 16th by General Motors the names "Regal Tourx" and "Tourx" were secured. Now what does this mean? Perhaps nothing, but perhaps it could mean that GM is looking at the prospect of bringing the Opel Insignia Sports Tourer to the U.S. market from Europe.

The Insignia is the European vehicle which the Buick Regal is based off of. And naturally a wagon version is sold across the pond. The Regal is also one of Buick's top nameplates in the U.S. so this would be a natural progression to expand the lineup.

Now if we could have one in GS trim...

Socksy held their relaunch party last night at the Groucho club in Soho.

Socksy is a socks as a service company (SaaS), you sign-up and then get 3 pairs of high quality socks (street, neat or chic) delivered to your door every three months. They come in an A4 box so it will fit through your letterbox and the box can then be used to file papers etc.

The socks are all high quality and though the preferred Socksy method is for the subscriptions, it's also possible to buy them individually.

Socksy Mens' socks are generally knee length which takes a bit of getting used to if your used to wearing ankle length socks, but they're meant to be the 'real deal' and they're not socks if not knee length. Who knew?

If anyone wants to use the service there a 25% discount off the normal £60 per month service, by using code "lucky feet" (without quotes) the subscription fee is reduced to £45 every 3 months, so that's 3 pairs of high quality socks i.e. £15 a pair.

Socksy are also on Twitter , Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr.

A while back I started what I knew would be the first of my articles on the cars that have shaped me as an automobile enthusiast over the years. For part two, we are taking a look at a car that still to this day resides in my memory as one of the most pivotal unicorns in my life. The year was 1993. I was eleven years old at the time and just going in to middle school. The car that many like myself were lusting after was the Chevrolet Corvette. My dad had recently had and sold his 1987 Corvette coupe when we first heard about the 40th Anniversary Edition Corvette for the 1993 model year on our recent trip to the Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky. This set my dad off on a search to find one for himself. I still remember the day. It was a Saturday not too far from Christmas when he found a 40th AE coupe at a dealer about an hour away from Pittsburgh.

There sitting on the showroom floor of Kenny Ross Chevrolet in Irwin, PA sat what would become his ruby red 40th AE coupe with a red bow on the hood. It was your pretty standard Corvette coupe. Equipped with preferred equipment group #1, the 40th AE appearance package, a bronze roof panel, Delco/Bose stereo and low tire pressure warning system. For a grand total of $39,304. My how times have changed in Corvette pricing. I do remember us driving the car home that following Monday and it spending much of the winter in the garage. When spring came the car saw lots of use for tours and just general fun drives and to go to a few car events. Being the 40th anniversary of the Corvette we collected as much memorabilia as we could find showcasing the the anniversary edition cars.




I don't remember why, but one day the paint on the corner of the rear bumper failed and started to flake off. Leading to the bumper being repaired by GM. This was the only fault with the car we ever had. My dad's best friend Lou even went and purchased a black Corvette coupe to go on drives with us. Even his car still sticks in my memory as it was the first Corvette I had ever seen with a cloth interior. Then tragedy hit the family. In the early spring of 1994 my father was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It was a whirlwind time that I don't remember a whole lot of. As the time for his operation came closer and he was getting everything in order for a worst case scenario. My father sold his Mercedes 300E sedan and the Corvette. Keeping just my mom's Mercedes and the 1972 Volkswagen that he shared with me. Wanting me to have "My" Beetle as a lasting memory (I will write of this car soon).

Again on a Saturday I remember riding in the Corvette one last time as we drove to Leopardi Auto Sales in Pittsburgh, a specialty used car dealer who agreed to purchase the Corvette. That was the last time I saw the car. I think maybe once we drove by and saw the car sitting on their showroom floor, but outside of that other 40th Anniversary Corvettes have come and gone. Occasionally seeing one or two at a show or on the street. The car always ingrained in my memory in sparkling Ruby Red. My dad survived the operation and the tumor was successfully removed. And other Corvettes have come and gone through the garage, but the 1993 40th Anniversary still lives in our memories as the one that got away that we still wish we had.

Why this car? What makes the 40th Anniversary Edition so special? Well obviously 1993 marked the 40th anniversary of Corvette production. To mark the occasion, Chevrolet produced 6,749 40th Anniversary Editions. An appearance package that cost $1,455. over the cost of a standard Corvette and was available on all trim levels. Coupe, convertible and ZR1. Each car was painted in Ruby Red Metallic with matching ruby red leather interiors, with convertibles receiving matching ruby red tops. The cars were then equipped with power passenger seats, sport bucket seat trim, special seat embroidery, Ruby Red inserts for the wheel center caps and chrome emblems. Each car could then be equipped with the line up of Corvette options. While many Corvettes today are called 40th Anniversary Editions by owners, only Ruby Red cars are the true special editions. This is, in part due to an error by GM's supplier where all Corvette seat upholstery had the special 40th Anniversary logo.  Otherwise, the cars were still powered by the 5.7 liter V8 (sans ZR1) and equipped to with either automatic or 6 speed manual transmissions.

Here's where you can help. I have been searching for my dad's 40th for several years now. We had retained the original window sticker for the car which now hangs in my office and has led me from time to time to search for it. I came close about 5 years ago when I googled the vin # and turned up an eBay auction that had been over for about two weeks. I made several attempts to contact the seller with no response. At the time the car was in Indiana and showed just over 30,000 miles. I know the car was sold to Michigan through my follow up searches. Last registrations show somewhere around Kalamazoo. I would love to surprise my dad by buying him back his pride and joy. I could got get just any 40th AE, but it's not the same. I am desperately trying to find 1993 Chevrolet Corvette vin # 1G1YY23P5P5119264. Please help me bring this car home. Below is the most recent picture I have of the car from the eBay auction. Please, if you can help track down the current owner of the car I would be extremely grateful.