Four short links: 21 October 2009

Battlefield Android, DIY Leukemia Hacking, Localisation, Bus Pirates

1. Raytheon Sends Android to Battlefield -- Google's OS sees deployment. Using Android software tools, Raytheon ( RTN - news - people ) engineers built a basic application for military personnel that combines maps with a buddy list. [...] Every part of RATS is tailored for use on a battlefield. A soldier could make an unmanned plane a "buddy," for instance, and track its progress on a map using his phone. He could then access streaming video from the plane, giving him a bird's eye view of the area. Soldiers could also use the buddy list to trace the locations of other members of their squad. (via Jim Stogdill)
2. The Kanzius Machine (CBS News, video) -- inventor lost the race against leukemia, but his DIY RF therapy device is being developed "for real". (via Jim Stogdill)
3. Lost in Translation -- Will Shipley shows how to handle internationalisation and localisation. In this post I'm going to explain to you what internationalization and localization are, how Apple's tools handle them by default, and the huge flaws in Apple's approach. Then I'm going to provide you with the code and tools to do localization in a much, much easier way. Then you're going to think, 'That will never work, because of blah!' and I'm going to respond, as if I can read your mind or I've already had this argument with a dozen developers, 'It already did - I used these tools in Delicious Library and Delicious Library 2 and they've won three Apple Design Awards between them. (via migurski on Delicious)
4. The Bus Pirate -- interfaces to a heap of embedded hardware. The ‘Bus Pirate’ is a universal bus interface that talks to most chips from a PC serial terminal, eliminating a ton of early prototyping effort when working with new or unknown chips (via joshua on Delicious)

How the Zeo sleep device works around the limitations of home monitoring

The Zeo is part of a trend toward using technology to monitor our own bodies. People have always been concerned about their health, of course, and have tried different things to see what works (including rather absurd superstitions). But now there are ways to bolster one's curiosity with real scientific data.

The Zeo makes this data available for people who may have sleep problems--and quite a lot do, judging from a 2005 National Sleep Foundation (NSF) poll (a recent poll covering a wide range of adults):

26% say they had "a good night's sleep" only a few nights a month or less. Another 24% report having "a good night's sleep" a few nights a week.

This blog is meant to be a technical discussion, not a consumer guide, so I took the opportunity to talk to Ben Rubin, CTO and cofounder of Zeo, just a couple weeks after the official release of the Zeo to get some information on two aspects:

• How it collects data during sleep
• How they analyze the data to help the customer sleep better

(continue reading)