-------------------------Monitor------------------------ The Newsletter for PC-Based Data Acquisition and Control Issue 144 www.windmill.co.uk July 2010 --------------------ISSN 1472-0221---------------------- Welcome to Monitor, the data acquisition and control newsletter. I hope you find it useful, but should you wish to remove yourself from our mailing list please go to https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsletter.html CONTENTS ======== * Windmill Notes: Using Windmill with Unix * Excel Corner: Making a Live Picture of your Data * DAQ News Roundup ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Windmill Notes: Using Windmill with Unix ________________________________________________________ We've recently discussed under which versions of Windows Windmill will run (issues 140 and 141 - https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsletter.html). Readers have pointed out that Windmill will also run under Unix using Wine 1.2-rc2 or Virtual Box. Wine is an implementation of Windows on top of Unix. You could think of Wine as a Windows compatibility layer. Wine allows the Windmill software to run under Intel Unixes like Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris. Wine does not require Microsoft Windows: it is a completely alternative implementation consisting of 100% Microsoft-free code. For more information on Wine see http://www.icewalkers.com/Linux/Software/53560/Wine.html. You've also told us that Windmill 4.3 "runs fine in a Windows 98SE Guest operating system in VirtualBox running on Ubuntu 9.04". VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and OpenSolaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 10, 8, 7). Ubuntu is an operatating system based on Linux. If you have used Windmill with a Unix operating system setup please let us know. ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Excel Corner: Making a Live Picture of your Data ________________________________________________________ In Excel you can paste a live picture of some of your data in another workbook. When the data changes, the picture updates. The picture floats above the normal cells and columns, so you don't have to clear a space for it. This is very useful for reports and data summaries or dashboards. To create a live data picture you use the Camera tool. You may be unaware of this because it is not shown by default. To enable it you need to: 1. From the View menu select Toolbars and then Customize. 2. In the Commands tab select Tools. 3. Scroll down the Commands box until you see the Camera icon. 4. Drag the Camera onto your tool bar. Now all you need to do to use the Camera is: 1. Select the range you want to "photograph". 2. Click the camera icon. 3. Click whevever you want to place the picture. A live picture of the range appears. When the data changes in the original range, it changes in the picture. As it is a picture you can move it about and resize it at will, without affecting the underlying data. For more information on using Excel see https://www.windmill.co.uk/excel/ and https://www.windmill.co.uk/excel/excel-charting.html If you have a question about using Excel for data acquisition, please get in touch. Fill in the form at https://www.windmill.co.uk/excel/ . ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ DAQ News Roundup ________________________________________________________ Welcome to our roundup of the data acquisition and control news. If you would like to receive more timely DAQ news updates then grab our RSS newsfeed at https://www.windmillsoft.com/monitor.xml. Read https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsfeed.php for notes on how to display the live news on your own web site. Submarine robots learn teamwork Studying the deep ocean floor is cumbersome, expensive and dangerous. The majority of exploration efforts have to employ an autonomous unmanned vehicle (AUV). But many AUVs are specialised: they cannot travel far alone and they can only provide a narrow range of data. The work of one European project, however, has the potential to dramatically increase the range and functionality of the world's AUV fleet using networking technologies and software. Source: SCUBA News 3-legged dogs boost robot research Scientists are examining how three-legged dogs move to help design and develop robots that can adapt in the event of an "injury." The new research looked at walking and running techniques in dogs with fore- or hind-limb amputations. Source: Eureka Alert Share information to boost cellphone performance Software that allows cellphones to collaborate could help improve the quality of data collected by the handsets' sensors. Source: New Scientist NASA Demonstrates Tsunami Prediction System A NASA-led research team has successfully demonstrated for the first time elements of a prototype tsunami prediction system using GPS technology that quickly and accurately assesses large earthquakes and estimates the size of resulting tsunamis. Source: Nasa Automotive Electronics Gold Rush in China China will drive global automotive electronics growth over the next few years as production volumes increase and average content per vehicle rises. According to a recent IMS Research report, the Chinese market will more than double to reach $22 billion by 2017. Source: IMS Research ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ * Copyright Windmill Software Ltd * Reprinting permitted with this notice included * For more articles see https://www.windmill.co.uk We are happy for you to copy and distribute this newsletter, and use extracts from it on your own web site or publication, providing the above notice is included and a link back to our website is in place. An archive of previous issues is at https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsletter.html and an index of articles at https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsletter.html Windmill Software Ltd, PO Box 58, North District Office, Manchester, M8 8QR, UK Telephone: +44 (0)161 834 6688 Facsimile: +44 (0)161 833 2190 E-mail: monitor@windmillsoft.com https://www.windmill.co.uk/ https://www.windmillsoft.com/
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