This tutorial provides a general description of updating Linux-based firmware and illustrates it with some specific implementations. First, consider the sections of the memory system (Figure 1) and parts of memory that should be updated while transferring software to a new version.

I have to give Kyle Rankin all the credit for my Raspberry Pi collection. I never really felt geeky enough to do anything with an Arduino, and for some reason I mentally lumped the RPi into the same world. Boy was I short-sighted! Thankfully Kyle showed me the light, and I managed to snag some of the new 512MB model B units.

I became aware of the Arduino Project from occasional media reports and a presentation at Atlanta LinuxFest 2009. I was impressed with what the Arduino community was doing, but at that time, I saw no personal use for it. It took a grandson who is heavily involved in a high-school competitive robotics program to change things for me.

This article should acquaint you with basic Arduino programming and show you how to write programs that interact with objects in the real world. (A mandatory disclaimer: the last time I really studied electronics was way back in high school, so this article focuses more on the programming aspects, rather than the electronic side of things.)

The votes are in! Read on to find out how your favorites fared in this year's awards.

GUI debuggers are the norm these days, however, I still feel the urge to do a little printf-debugging now and then. It might be wrong, it might be silly but it works. I like to develop the odd graphical application and I like use Qt. For Qt, the nice Norwegian Trolls have provided the qDebug function. You can use it right away just like your old trusted printf:

Qt 4.7 has not been released yet, but the curious can download the beta or even grab a snapshot from git. The big news in this point seven release is Qt Quick - a new approach to user interfaces.

Qt comes with a handy tool that lives a rather anonymous life in the tools/qvfb directory. This tool does wonders when it comes to demoing, training users and creating documentation.

Sys-V init has long been the standard solution for booting. It's kind of easy to work with, it kind of works and everybody kind of knows it. However, being open minded, let's look at an alternative approach.

Purple Labs, a company based in France with a multinational management team, is pushing Linux mobile phones outward in capabilities and downward in price.

If you're having trouble getting Linux to run on that 8-bit processor with 32KB of memory don't despair, there are open-source alternatives. FreeRTOS is an open source real time kernel that has been ported to a number of microprocessors. The website lists ports to over 40 different processor/compiler combinations.