I signed up for a Dropbox account about a month ago and have steadily been more and more impressed with how well it works. Dropbox is a cloud storage service that integrates with your computer as if it were a simple folder/directory. I have been using it between the PC running XP at a client’s office, my laptop running Vista and a couple of other machines I use frequently. To date it has been seamless.

I run Planner Mode with Muse in Emacs extensivly for planning, note taking, scheduling, To Do List, writing this blog and a variety of other tasks and reports. The Planner-mode database (if you can call it that) stores all information as plain text files in a directory of your choosing so I decided to put that directory in the “My Dropbox” folder on all the machines I access.

That change has been great - I can now update all of my daily plans and the HTML output files from any machine and they are all synced automatically through “The cloud”. Nice. And since the files I am syncing are mostly small text files, the download/sync time is fast. I also keep copies of my .emacs, .bashrc and other config files that I need so they are always accessible. This is all stuff I used to do with a USB thumb drive but the trouble with that was that I would inevitably not have it when I really needed it. Of course If
I had no internet connection I’d be in trouble but I do still have my Thumb drive to cover that situation. Check out Dropbox - it’s cool.

LSF Design supports drive to fuel innovation and speed time-to-market for next-generation open source mobile and connected devices

Westford, MA – Nov. 17, 2009 – LSF Design, a design services and embedded product manufacturer, a member of the ARM® Connected Community™, today announced it is participating in the ARM Solution Center for Android, a collaborative resource for designers and developers of ARM technology-based products running on Android, the open source platform from the Open Handset Alliance^TM. The LSF Design CX-A102 is an ARM powered Com Express module that provides a low cost, low power compute platform based around an ARMv5TE core. The CX-A102 includes all of the standard Type 5 Com Express connections through the P1 & P2 connectors plus a customer definable FPGA connected between the processor and an additional connector. This approach allows the customer to add custom logic close to the processor while maintaining the specific IO requirements of their application.

As the market for smartphones, other connected mobile and home devices grows, so too do consumers’ expectations for these devices. The ARM Solution Center for Android provides designers and developers of Android-based devices, the assurance that the components used to develop these next-generation consumer electronic devices are up to the task.

“The combination of an ARM processor running the Android operating system and packaged on an industry standard Com Express module positions the CX-A102 as an ideal, open source embedded platform for industrial, medical, home automation and other embedded application needs” said Kevin McCluskey of LSF Design. “The ARM Connected Community is a tremendous resource for developers and together with the Android developer base there is growing pool of support and applications available to device manufacturers.

“Android was written for the ARM architecture, the leading processor architecture for internet everywhere applications from mobile to the connected home,” said Kevin Smith, vice president of Segment Marketing, ARM. “ARM is fortunate to be able to cultivate a Partner ecosystem that ensures device manufacturers have the best development solutions at their disposal.”

The Solution Center for Android is accessible immediately. For more information and a full list of participating Partners please visit:

http://www.arm.com/community/software-enablement/google/android-solution-center.php

About LSF Design

LSF Design provides its customers with hardware design and product development services.

We have the experience to understand the technical hurdles in any project, the skill to design and implement projects large and small and a commitment to quality that guides our project management and design decisions to help you deliver products that allow you to gain a competitive edge in your market

LSF Design Contacts

http://www.lsfdesign.com

info@lsfdesign.com

With the 40 year anniversary of the first moon landing this week, there has been a lot of articles and news about NASA and the Apollo program. One thing that struck me in a story on NPR last night was the fact that immediately after Apollo 11, a major exodus began at NASA. The best and brightest leaders moved on and were replaced by more cautious management centric people. Sound familiar? The goal had been achieved, they put man on the moon, they shipped their product and got the IPO. Time to find another challenge.

The Apollo program at NASA was effectively a high tech startup complete with defined goals, good funding, brilliant leaders with huge egos (von Braun, Faget et al..), great technology and a esprit des corps that made the work paramount to all else.

The remainder of the Apollo program was a success - carried on by inertia much like a company that follows up an initial product with a similar design with a few tweaks. The visionaries and risk takers were gone though and NASA settled into large corporation mode - still producing new technology, you can argue that the production of new and innovative products was greater post Apollo but the direction and focus was (is?) less precise.

It’s a natural cycle then that now with the X-Prize and other private space ventures coming to light, we see folks that have made money in high tech (or other endeavors) going back to fund and run space startups.

The entrepreneurial personality type is what is needed to drive significant progress in any space but maybe even more so in space itself.

Westford, MA – July 8, 2009 — LSF Design, LLC today announced it is a new member in the ARM® Connected Community, the industry’s largest ecosystem of ARM technology-based products and services. As part of the ARM Connected Community, LSF Design will gain access to a full range of resources to help it market and deploy innovative solutions that will enable developers to get their ARM Powered® products to market faster.

“LSF is extremely pleased to join the ARM Connected Community” Kevin McCluskey, President of LSF Design said. “We have been providing design services around embedded ARM products for some time now and find that more often then not; ARM processor solutions fit our customer’s needs from a price, performance and power point of view very nicely.

LSF Design provides hardware design services for current and emerging technology companies.

They specialize in FPGA, high speed digital design and verification, Board design & Schematic Capture, PCB layout and offer turnkey prototyping, parts acquisition and product production services. LSF specializes in embedded applications where sensors, processing and programmable interfaces are required.

The ARM Connected Community is a global network of companies aligned to provide a complete solution, from design to manufacture and end use, for products based on the ARM architecture. ARM offers a variety of resources to Community members, including promotional programs and peer-networking opportunities that enable a variety of ARM Partners to come together to provide end-to-end customer solutions. Visitors to the ARM Connected Community have the ability to contact members directly through the website.

“The Connected Community is all about companies working together to provide the most complete solutions in the shortest possible time. By joining the Community, which now comprises more than 600 companies, LSF Design increases the large portfolio of skills, products and services that are centered around the ARM architecture, and currently available to developers worldwide,” said Lori Kate Smith, partnership marketing manager for ARM.

For more information about the ARM Connected Community, please visit http://www.arm.com/community.

For more information on LSF Design, please visit

http://www.lsfdesign.com

PRESS RELEASE

Altera™ and LSF Design, LLC. Partner to Provide Design Services.

Westford, MA, March 30, 2009 — Altera Corporation (Nasdaq: ALTR) recently certified LSF Design, LLC., a Westford, MA based product development-consulting firm, as the newest member of the Altera Consultant Alliance Program (ACAP®). ACAP provides customers with easy access to a worldwide network of certified design consultants with expertise in Altera’s system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solutions including programmable logic devices (PLDs), design tools, and IP integration.

“LSF Design is dedicated to providing top tier product design services to established and emerging technology companies” said Kevin McCluskey President of LSF. “The Altera product line, tool set and support are key components to driving our success. We are proud to be certified as an ACAP partner and look forward to working with Altera in delivering product design services”.

About LSF Design:

LSF Design creates tremendous value and competitive advantages for clients seeking hardware design solutions. LSF produces verified solutions focused on leading edge technology, overall product cost reduction and fast time-to-market. For more information on LSF Design visit http://www.lsfdesign.com/