Headworx

Device maintenance is probably one of the lowest hanging fruits on the IoT tree. It is easy: if a device is connected, it potentially can inform about the state of its health.  Or even if it cannot, a loss of contact with it may just be a signal that it has just died and needs to be checked / replaced. This REACTIVE - but automated - maintenance is a huge improvement when compared to non-connected devices, which have to be periodically checked by humans if they work or not. The concept is very broadly applicable, from lights in hotel rooms to soil moisture sensors. Upping the game, the next step is PROACTIVE maintenance. We can track parameters like run-time hours and knowing a device is nearing its rated lifetime, send a service team over to replace it before it fails. Proactive, while better than reactive, is not ideal. Very often a device (or a part of it) is replaced too early and sometimes it is replaced too late, after it fails. Because rated lifetime is a projected avera...

USB Type-C is the revolutionary connector that will dominate computers, phones and peripherals for the next 20 years (or more). There are the usual growing pains , as with any advanced new technology that comes around. But once all the wrinkles are sorted out, there is this clear benefit of having just one socket, one plug, one connector, one cable to do it all: power, data, any direction. That unification brings with it one significant change: power is not power anymore. It is power AND DATA. Also Video Out is not just video nor out anymore. It is video AND DATA. In other words, plugging your phone or a laptop to a power source you consent to have a data connection with that power supply. And by plugging the same phone or a laptop to a projector in a conference room or on a presentation podium you consent to have a data connection with that other device. This was not a problem before: power was just power and video out was just video out. There was nothing to worry except you co...

Computer malware is no longer software - based. With the recent Bloomberg story on malware chips being implanted into otherwise legitimate hardware, the era of software - only virus attacks is officially over. It is almost like a poison injected into a grocery product. How do you protect yourself? Well, you cannot, on your own. In the end it all comes down to trust. Where do you buy your gear? Is the brand trusted? Do they have all supply chain processes and procedures in place? Apple is one of the companies that has started addressing this problem seriously. With the custom T2 chip introduced in the most recent lineup of MacBooks, they finally offer a secure boot option. That means the computer will only load a trusted operating system . And that also means (although they are not vocal about that), that the T2 is capable of verifying the components and subsystems inside the computer are trusted . This last option may not be popular among folks who would like to have freedom o...

The announcement of the L mount by Panasonic + Sigma + Leica was probably the most unexpected news from Photokina. And hours later Sigma confirmed what the Foveon fans were dreaming of for years: the full-frame Foveon body . I have been urging Sigma for that move for years . Citing the (discontinued) Fuji S5Pro as an example: open the Foveon opportunity by making it compatible with a wider array of lens (and bodies). Foveon is a great concept and it produces phenomenal results in good light. Unfortunately due to its multi-layered construction it has not been able to keep the pace with the sensitivity advances of bayer CMOS sensors. Frankly speaking, there is nothing that unleashes creativity better than a high ISO camera coupled with wide aperture lenses: the Nikon D850 coupled with the Sigma 14mm f/1.8 behaves almost like a black hole - sucks all the light in, making it possible to shoot Milky Way hand-held. But in a good light nothing comes close to the Foveon sensor - it p...

USB Type-C is a very complex connector. Attempting to be a jack of all trades and the master of all, it certainly has a potential to be the one. Apple manifested this potential by removing all other ports (but the 3.5mm phone jack) from MacBooks two years ago. But the potential is one thing and the reality of the transition and the learning curve is the other . I have been using the 2018 15" MacBook (with Windows 10 as the primary OS) for a couple of weeks now and the Type-C reality is still far from what it could / should be. I learned a while ago that the quality of cables mattered the most. The first surprise was that Type-C does not automatically mean USB 3 (or 3.1) in terms of speed. Majority of "ordinary" Type-C cables can only do USB 2 speeds (480Mbps), which is 10x slower than USB 3.0 (5Gbps) and 20x slower than USB 3.1. To get decent speed with a peripheral, buy only cables marked "SS" (SuperSpeed - 5Gbps) or SS10 (10Gbps). Everything else will c...

It's been almost a month since my vacation escape to - what is considered by some - one of the top trekking places on Earth - the Caucasus mountains of Georgian Tusheti. Looking at the equipment I took there was one surprising aspect: the mobile phone stayed at home. I took the iPad Mini and the Garmin inReach Mini instead. The inReach served as an emergency device and also allowed my close relatives to track me passively for their piece of mind. On my end it was completely silent and invisible except from providing (essential in mountains) weather forecast service. The device is almost perfect - waterproof, only slightly bigger than a watch, and lasting for 5 days on a charge (with location updates sent every 30 minutes over a satellite - that is really not bad!). The iPad served as a general mapping (Gaia) and communication device. It turns out, except for emergency, occasional email works better than a phone. And there is no signal up there, so why would one need a  phon...

With some hesitation I decided to upgrade my faithful Garmin watch. For the last two years I have been using the D2 Bravo - the "aviator" variant of the fēnix 3 platform . And I have to say it's been amazing what Garmin managed to add to the D2 Delta, which is based on fēnix 5 plus. The most notable new outdoor features (I have skipped one generation - the fēnix 5, so some of them are not exclusively the "5 plus" additions) are: The battery life has been increased significantly (this was BTW my key motivation for the upgrade) The satellite navigation receiver is now Galileo - capable There is the new blood oxygen saturation level sensor (I am still learning how to use it) The watch can connect to the inReach Mini, so the bi-directional satellite messaging and weather functions are now available on a wrist. Plus there are some "urban" features like Garmin Pay (NFC) and Music (the watch can now stream music directly to Bluetooth earbuds). And ...