Since a few weeks I’m noticing AdChoices on more websites every day. They are the for a longer time, but now I’m noticing them because they bore me. AdChoices is some kind of AdSense displaying ads based on your surfing behavior. It shows ads related to websites you visited before or search terms you used in Google search. Unfortunately for the AdSense publishers the ads are not relevant any more to the website content.

AdChoices

Why AdChoices doesn’t work (for me)

Although it might work for a certain public for me I don’t think it will ever work. Last week I ordered a GoPro HERO camera. A very nice and compact HD camera that can be used in ‘hard’ conditions. Under water, in the air, outer space,…

As I said, I ordered it, I bought one, I have one and I don’t need a second one. Every site with AdChoices is showing me ads for the GoPro HERO.

Beside the fact that I’m not interested in buying another camera, displaying 3 times the same ad isn’t pretty smart. I was downloading FileZilla, trying to sell me some web hosting would have been more appropriate.

Why we don’t like AdChoices

Not only it is displaying ads I’m not interested in it also violates our privacy. Imagine: you’re looking for a new job, you check your private mails from time to time at your office desk. The next day you’re searching some information related to your job (together with a college or your boss) and all you see is ads about new job opportunities, not relevant to the content of the page you’re visiting.

Giving a surprise party will become impossible with AdChoices!

Beside the privacy issue, the revenue of the publishers will lower. I’m not going to click on ads of a camera when I’m looking for a ftp client. These ads are irrelevant and at that time I’m not interested in them.

Update: Still bored by AdChoices

When the S7-1200 has an IP adress assigned on the local network it can be accessed trought that address. I don’t think people who are able to program the PLC will have difficulties with that.

When the PLC needs to be accessible over a router making it possible to browse to the web interface from everywhere on the internet there are some settings in the router and the PLC that need to be correct.

On the router a NAT row needs to be added to forward port 80 and 443 to the PLC address. Port 80 is for the http pages port 443 is needed to access secure pages over https.

In the PLC it is absolutely required to set the router IP address. When this isn’t set the webserver the  S7-1200 PLC will be accessible over the local network but not over the router.

Don’t forget to change the password of the PLC. Allowing access to the PLc over internet can be usefull but also very dangerous when not secure.

Also it’s not recommended to enable the webserver on a S7-1200 PLC if it’s not necessary. A DOS (Denial Of Service) attack can make the PLC crash!

The S7-1200 series are compact PLC’s from Siemens that can be directly connected to an Ethernet network. Being compact and affordable it perfectly suits for home automation projects.

A big drawback of the original firmware (V1) is the lack of an integrated webserver, certainly the fact that it’s impossible to download a program in run and that all data blocks return to the initial values after a download.

These problems are solved when upgrading the S7-1200 PLC firmware to V2.1.2. To do this update a 24MB Siemens memory card is required. Compared to the PLC this is an expensive little piece that will only be used for updating the firmware of the S7-1200 PLC. Unfortunately there is no way around this. You absolutely need this memory card to update the firmware!

Before updating the firmware be sure you update your installation of TIA portal to the latest version and Service Pack. You can find some updates on the Siemens support website:

http://support.automation.siemens.com/WW/view/en/28919804/

Download the latest Firmware for you PLC (for me it is the 1212C) from the Siemens website:

http://support.automation.siemens.com/WW/view/en/38710101/

After downloading the firmware execute the file to extract the firmware to the empty memory card. A folder “FWUPDATE.S7S” and a file “S7_JOB.S7S” are extracted to the root folder of the memory card.

Now we’re prepared for the actual firmware upgrade of the S7-1200 PLC. The following steps are required to perform this update:

1. Insert the memory card in the PLC. The status goes to stop. And the  maintenance LED blinks.
2. Power cycle the PLC. After this the firmware is copied to the internal memory. The RUN/STOP alternates between green and orange.
3. When the copying process is done the LEDS will look like this: RUN/STOP LED is orange, maintenance LED blinks.
4. Remove the Memory Card from the  PLC and again do a power cycle to load the new firmware.
5. With the upgrade to version 2.0.3 my PLC didn’t go to run by itself, use TIA portal to get the PLC back in RUN mode when necessary. After the upgrade the firmware version 2.1.2 the PLC went to RUN.
6. Enjoy the new features!

This would be the ideal world, of course some problems occurred during the upgrade:

The installation of TIA Portal V11 SP1 failed. This problem could not be solved by reinstalling TIA Portal V11 but only by reinstalling Windows! With a fresh image of Windows the installation of TIA Portal V11, SP1 and Update 2 succeeded.

After updating TIA Portal and the firmware I had some major issues with the PLC. The internal memory got corrupted giving an error “Internal load memory is corrupt (delete in TIA Portal or with program card)” and I got an error saying “Internal system error (error code: 0×800011210000008d) - Please contact SIMATIC customer support.“. A complete factory reset solved these problems (but downgraded the firmware back to V1.0). So upgrading again… Some research told me this problem could be related to the use of PID controllers (I’m using them for the heat control of my home). This problem should not occur when ‘all blocks’ are downloaded after a software change. An other source speaks about having the PID block only in run when the PLC itself is in RUN mode. In all the other cases the PID controlled should be in reset mode.

Before installing Firmware version 2.1.2 I upgraded to version 2.0.3. When I tried to create user webpages this error occurred:

Conslusion: The firmware update of the S7-1200 PLC introduces a lot of new features but also some issues. If you’re happy with your old firmware don’t upgrade. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

The Samsung Galaxy Note is a smartphone and tablet in one! With its 5.3-inch HD Super AMOLED screen the Galaxy Note isn’t invisible. The Galaxy Note is equipped with a a 1.4 GHz dual core processor and a 8.0 megapixel camera capable of recording Full HD 1080p video. All this power fits in your pocket!

Samsung Galaxy Note in action

Samsung Galaxy Note highlights

Large & immersive screen with smartphone portability
The Galaxy Note has a 5.3 inch screen, this is the largest screen with smartphone portability. A Super AMOLED display gives a premium viewing experience.

Full screen utilization for fast and effective tasking
The display size optimizes usability by minimizing scrolling and and effective screen transitions. S Planner is a powerful tool tom manage schedules in a intuitive way.

Samsung Galaxy Note Specifications

Network

• HSPA+ up to 21Mbps 850/900/1900/2100
• 4G LTE
• EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900

Processor

• 1.4GHz Dual Core Processor

Display

• 5.3” WXGA (1280 x 800) screen
• HD Super AMOLED

Platform

• Android™ 2.3(Gingerbread)

Camera

• Main(Rear) : 8 MP with LED Flash / Front : 2 MP
• Action Shot, Beauty, Panorama Shot, Smile Shot

Video

• 1080p Full HD video recording & playback
• Recording: 1080p@24~30fps/Playback: 1080p@30fps
• Codec: MPEG4/ H.263/ H.264/ DivX, Xvid, WMV, VC-1

Audio

• Codec : MP3, AAC, AMR, WMA, WAV, FLAC, OGG
• Music Player with SoundAlive
• 3.5mm Ear Jack, Stereo FM Radio with RDS

Multi Input

• Full touch + S Pen (Advanced smart pen)

Connectivity

• Bluetooth^® technology v 3.0 + HS
• USB 2.0 HOST
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct

Sensor

• Accelerometer, Digital compass, Proximity,
  Barometer,Light

Memory

• 16GB Internal memory
• microSD (up to 32GB)

Size

• 146.85 x 82.95 x 9.65 mm, 178g

Battery

• Standard battery, Li-on 2,500 mAh

Value-added Features

• Samsung Touchwiz/ Samsung Live Panel UX
• S Memo/ S Planner/ S Choice (Apps for GALAXY Note)
• Samsung Apps
• Samsung kies 2.0/ Samsung kies air
• Social Hub, Readers Hub, Music Hub
• Google™ Mobile Services : Gmail™, Google Talk™,
  Google Search™, YouTube™, Android™ Market,
  Google Maps™ with Google Places™ and Google- Latitude™
• A-GPS, Glonass

After wasting two evenings of trying to connect my Samsung Galaxy to my computer I finally got the USB connection with Samsung Kies working. The connection problem occurred out of the blue and only when trying to connect to Kies. Using the phone as mass storage device was no problem at all. When the cable is connected the phone says “connected” and Kies says “connecting…”. Waiting didn’t work…

After searching the internet and finding several solutions that worked for other people I succeeded in restoring the connection.

The solution that worked for me:

1. Take the SD card out of the Samsung Galaxy
2. Connect the phone using the USB cable
3. It will say something like can’t connect to Kies without SD card
4. Plug the SD card back into to Samsung Galaxy
5. Kies finds the phone…hooray!

After doing the above once my phone connects to my computer without a problem. If this procedure doesn’t work for you try something of the following:

Dial *#7284#. PhoneUtil will open. Set the USB mode to “MODEM” and back to “PDA”. Try to connect the phone…

Do a factory reset of the phone (you’ll find how to do this on http://www.google.com). Try to connect the phone…

Remove the phone using the “device manager” in windows. Disable the function to install drivers from windows update. Reinstall the Samsung drivers. Try to connect the phone…

Finally I can start developing applications for my phone again! The USB debugging didn’t work either…

Everyone who wants to make money online finds out that affiliate marketing is an easy way to earn some extra bucks. The problem most affiliate marketeers have to face is finding a good affiliate marketing niche. By focusing on a niche it is easier to optimize your website or blog for specific traffic from search engines. A good niche for affiliate marketing is a niche with a few competitors and a great revenue. If it’s possible to get 5 posts of your blog on the first page for a certain keyword in Google you’re on your way to earn some money.

How to find a good niche for affiliate marketing?

Finding a niche isn’t easy. You need to be able to write good articles on your blog. If you don’t know anything about the subject it will be very hard to write good content. Pick some subjects of your interest. Don’t pick one, but several subjects to get started. Begin with quantity, then select by quality. Starting with one topic could work but it’s a risk. After a month (at least) evaluate, adapt the sites, drop niches and experiment with new affiliate marketing niches.

That’s the best way to find profitable affiliate marketing niches!

Whoever worked with PCS7 knows that compiling a project can take a while. This is because PCS7 compilation is done in the database on the hard disk and not in the computer memory. This means a faster hard disk will decrease the compilation time of the PCS7 project.

A first possibility is the use a solid state disk in the engineering station. Read and write access to these disks is much faster than regular hard disks.

A second and even faster possibility is a RAM disk. A RAM disk is a virtual disk in the RAM memory of the engineering station. A part of the memory is reserved and formatted as a hard drive. When a PCS7 project is stored in the RAM memory it will be compiled in the RAM memory.

From now on you’ll only be able to drink 3 cups of coffee during compilation of your PCS7 project instead of 10!

Once upon a time it didn’t seem necessary to protect automation systems (PLCS’s) against hackers and people with bad intentions. They were connected to isolated networks and there was no link to the outer world. Nowdays engineers want to see how their machines are doing on the other side of the planet meaning that in some way there is a link between the automation system and the internet.

Whenever a computer that is connected to the plant bus and to the internet is infected with a trojan a hacker can gain access to the  plant bus from whereever he wants. Since the security on the plant bus is poor or unexistant the hacker will be able to connect to the PLC’s on the network.

During ‘Black Hat 2011′ Dillon Beresford reveald that he found ways to bypass the S7’s security measures and read and write data into the PLC memory, even when the system has password protection enabled. And on the S7-300 Beresford even found a command shell left in the firmware by Siemens engineers, that he can connect to and use to run commands on the system.

It’s a Unix-like shell where commands can be ran. Username: basisk; password: basisk. This shell is a “back door” to the system that can be used to gain access to automation controllers.

So, what can be hacked using this security issue? Every system that has a connection to the outer world! (network, usb stick,…)

Are we in danger? Let’s hope not. If the engineers of nuclear plants, water purification installation and other critical installations used their common sense while designing the plants. The controller of a critical plant should always be isolated from the outer world. Monitoring the plant can be done with separate sensors and controllers whenever necessary.

Automating a factory is fun (it’s my job) but when the factory is made of Lego bricks it’s even better. The Lego factories are mostly controlled by one or more Lego Mindstorms brain. Lego Technics has a huge amount of possibilities for the mechanical design.

Swarm bots or swarm robotics is the name for a multirobot system consisting of large number of mostly simple robots. The idea emerged on the field of artificial swarm intelligence, as well as the biological studies of insects and other fields in nature, where swarm behavior occurs.

It can be used to create a larger robot in places that are difficult to reach. The swarm bots can move individually and assemble a larger and more powerful robot depending on the task and location.

Swarm bots can become very useful for discovery and rescue operations.

Swarm bots videos

Swarm bots assembly

Swarm bots pulling a child