Blog Archives

DNS DDoS, IDE and IoT

10/22/2016

Last Friday, a DDoS against one Domain Name System provider (namely, Dyn) resulted in many world-class websites being unreachable. Apart from services like Twitter and GitHub, development was impacted for some online IDEs and IoT clouds.

Offline Tools Not an Option

I wanted to work with the Particule Photon board, a nice piece of hardware. Particle provides the tools mostly online, but the online IDE was unreachable. Even if there is an offline IDE, the default configuration still relies on the cloud. A fully local build requires the installation of a container and does not provide the required reliability. The project has been in beta for a long time, and doesn't seem to be on the top priority list. Worse, the company doesn't understand the consequences of this online-mostly strategy. I'm no longer recommending this board because of its limited offline tools.

Similar case involves ARM with the online mbed IDE. Local build is operational for the previous version, mbed Classic, but suffers from incompatibilities with some of the libraries, such as Bluetooth. The new mbedOS offers an option for local build, but actually requires an internet connection to download the many files required for development

Arduino is well known for its Arduino IDE and offers as an option Arduino Create, the new online IDE. Should the online IDE be down, the offline IDE is still available.

Local Server Mandatory

For most of the use cases, data is produced, processed and dispatched on the same area, within the same LAN, so the cloud isn't required.

Blynk offers an interesting option with a local server. A BeagleBone or a Raspberry Pi can host the Blynk server locally, to acquire, process, store and dispatch data through WiFi.

Even for cases where cloud offers advanced algorithms, having a degraded mode with a local server ensures the continuity of operation.

0 Comments

Arduino and Arduino: Together Again

10/2/2016

0 Comments

The two Arduino.CC and Arduino.ORG have announced they're merging. This is excellent news.

What are the gains?

Arduino.ORG has been prolific with new exciting boards, like the released M0 / M0 Pro and Tian and the announced Primo and Otto, among other boards. But the development of the next generation IDE Arduino Studio was terminated, and the new Ciao library has taken more time than expected.
Arduino.CC has revamped the classic IDE with the Boards Manager and the Libraries Manager, and is exploring the next generation IDE with Arduino Create. But few if any new boards were launched, and the dual brand Arduino in the U.S. / Genuino elsewhere was really confusing.

What to expect?

Both complement themselves, and bring their own expertise. So the new entity reunites the best for hardware and software.
There's an urgency in clearing the Arduino and Genuino brand mess, merging the two incompatible IDEs into a single one, and make the next generation IDE Arduino Create available on a local web server like the Yun or Tian.
I hope the new entity will keep the recognition of Hernando Barragán's work.

Good luck to the new Arduino!

0 Comments

DNS DDoS, IDE and IoT

Arduino and Arduino: Together Again

Blog

Categories

Archives