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EDN Senior Technical Editor Brian Dipert exposes, analyzes and
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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Exchanging Mini-ITX Boards For Feedback: A Mid-Week (And One-Week-Duration) Competition

Nov 19 2008 10:40AM | Permalink |Comments (8) |

I've just wrapped up the data collection portion of the hands-on project which will, in less than two months' time, appear in print as a cover story on performance- and power consumption-benchmarking 'value' x86 CPUs such as Intel's single- and dual-core Atom and Via's C7 and Nano. Many of the hardware platforms I leveraged for my testing took the form of mini-ITX boards, a fact which initiated remembrances in my noggin of the last time I heavily leveraged that particular form factor...for a two-part article series in EDN's March 4 and April 29, 2004 issues. Being the packrat that I am, I still have two barely used and fully adorned (cables, software, I/O shields, documentation, etc) units of Via's EPIA M10000 board based on a 1 GHz C3 processor. While I wouldn't necessarily recommend trying to run Windows Vista Ultimate on them (or even claimed lighter-weight upcoming Windows 7, for that matter), they'd work great with a svelte Linux distro...Microsoft's Robotics Studio 2008 introduced just two days ago also comes to mind.

As such, I thought a contest might be appropriate, with potential benefit for both you and EDN. Some time in the next week (the contest will end at 11:59:59PM MST on Thanksgiving Eve, November 26), please respond to all of the following questions via this post's "Add your comments" link (post multiple comments, if necessary, in case you run into per-post character count limitations). Don't forget to include your (valid) email address so that I know how to get in touch with you. I'll pick the top two entries, email the winners for their shipping information, and send them an EPIA M10000 (just in time for Christmas!). Good luck, and thanks in advance for your interest!

What thing(s) do you like best (and/or dislike most) about EDN in print?
What thing(s) do you like best (and/or dislike most) about EDN online?
What thing(s) do you wish EDN would do (that it's not currently doing), and/or do more of, in print?
What thing(s) do you wish EDN would do (that it's not currently doing), and/or do more of, online?
Since headcount, time and money are finite resources, what thing(s) could EDN decrease and/or drop in print in order to encompass your suggestion(s) regarding question 3?
Similarly, what thing(s) could EDN decrease and/or drop online in order to encompass your suggestion(s) regarding question 4?
Do you primarily read EDN in print, online, or in roughly equivalent proportions of each?

p.s...emailed entries aren't acceptable, sorry.

p.p.s...and no, it's not necessary to say only nice things about EDN in order to win...;-)

Reader Comments

at 11/19/2008 1:22:37 PM, jm said:
1- I can take it with me and read it in the john or on an airplane. I like this about all print magazines.
2- Like: Huge variety of articles, regular updates, blogs, projects, reviews. Dislike: the way you separate the figures in the design ideas into separate pdf files rather than having them as in-line gif or png files.
3- Explore other applications and segments of the electronics industry, e.g. electronics in utility power distribution systems, performance (audio/lighting), etc.
4- Ditto for 3.
5- I stopped reading InfoWorld because they stopped printing a magazine. I read EWeek even though I don't like it as much as I did InfoWorld. My own narrow perspective says don't stop printing a magazine. Yet.
6- The online presentation is really readable and I like it. I cannot think of anything to drop.
7- I primarily read online, a colleague gets the print edition and I steal his rather than throwing away two copies at the end of the month. Saves paper.
8- There is no 8.
9- Great publications, I have been reading EDN for a very long time and missed it the times when I was not living in the US.
10- email address = purplejeep@gmx.net

at 11/19/2008 1:42:08 PM, Brian Dipert said:
Dear jm (and others), as an engineer I'm sure you already know well the non-infinite-resource-related saying that 'you can't get something for nothing'. As such, if you make suggestions about things to add (or augment) online and/or in print in response to questions 3 and 4, you also need to suggest things to throttle back or drop in response to questions 5 and 6. ;-) Also, to ease your mind regarding your answer 5, nobody here's suggesting completely killing print. Yet. ;-)

at 11/19/2008 1:48:21 PM, Larry M said:
1. Clear easy type. Easy to skip to an article or skip over one. Issues tend to build up and take a lot of space (and conscience) if I get behind.
2. The reader is awful. On my 22” CRT the type is much fuzzier than the same type size in Adobe Reader or MS Office applications. Page loading is sluggish, especially with animated ads that provide no added value. Click to zoom often invokes a hidden ad link for me, which never opens in a new window. This requires several steps to get back. The general design is wrong—just an image of the print edition. We all have landscape monitors. We don’t want to read a portrait page by scrolling top to bottom THREE times per page. I read more ads in the print edition than I do in the online edition because of the difficulty reading them online. Page numbering is messed up: I dare you to print the only article pages of the October 30 Microprocessor Report and no other pages in less than three tries.
3. No requirements.
4. A landscape edition, with readable type, promptly loading pages, rational page numbering.
5. No requirements.
6. Foolish interactive ads and hidden links which add no value.
7. Online exclusively: I wanted to stay with print, but your aggressive resubscription pages bullied me into accepting the online edition.
lmarks @ us.ibm.com

at 11/19/2008 2:21:51 PM, Brian Dipert said:
Dear Larry M (and others), a gentle suggestion; while critique of the PRESENTATION of the advertisements is certainly valid and appreciated, recommendations to DROP ads aren't practical. Given that print subscriptions are free to qualified recipients, the publication costs (including...umm...my salary...and running the website isn't free, either) need to be covered somehow, eh?

at 11/19/2008 2:46:02 PM, jm said:
Dear Brian,
If my choice is to drop some print content in order to add other content on-line, I would keep both the way they are. I think I can understand who EDN has as it's target market and you (collectively) focus on that very well. Since I have at least one foot in that market, I am addressed, even if I don't do chip design or use FPGAs. For the most part, that is. If I was going to add some on-line content, it would be at the expense of other on-line content -- a broadening of the types of articles offered. At the risk of oversimplification, the articles currently on-line are mostly computer/network/chips/hi-tech-gadget oriented. This is fine, I enjoy that, and it probably covers most of the people out there who call themselves electronics engineers/designers/technicians, etc. And I love the periodic consumer electronics coverage and the teardowns of stuff I'd like to pry open myself (iPhone). It would be interesting to see articles that show the challenges faced by those designing electronics to go inside circuit breakers, or theatrical lighting systems or protective relays used for HV power system protection. An occasional article like that might even expand the readership (market share) a bit.
Even if EDN made no changes, I'd keep on reading happily.
Still purplejeep @ gmx.net

at 11/19/2008 9:07:18 PM, S.Uy said:
1. EDN in print could easily be archived in our library. They could also be easily shared among students since internet access is limited.
2. Articles and related topics to a particular one are readily available and saves paper. What gives me trouble sometimes is when accessing the site using an old PC or PC with old linux in it. Probably, the java or flash apps crashes the browser. 3. Offer free subscription for libraries in developing nations. 4. Publish more articles in "Design ideas" using open source software. 5. I think the print version has sufficient and concise content. Maybe EDN could get the support of advertisers for the free subscriptions or burn several digital version issues into optical media and sent to the libraries every few or several months. 6. Maybe a wiki type of site could be setup within design ideas where open source-based designs could be posted by anyone who wish to contribute. Also, the inclusion of an option for the site to be viewed with the bells and whistles disabled would be good. 7. I read EDN online most of the time. - papachu @ observatory.ph

at 11/24/2008 10:48:17 AM, Fredrik said:
1. I'm old school and prefer reading on paper. The layout is good, and the article selection is good. And with the linear format of print, and my reading cover to cover, I read a lot of things I'd skip over online.
2. No limitations on article length, hyperlinks.
3. Keep doing: a theme to each issue, and feature articles. I like the design ideas a lot.
4. Offer the magazine in PDF format.
5. Drop the product news, keep them online only.
6. The videos - they just don't do anything for me.
7. Primarily (90%) print. I only go online for expanded coverage and to download things like design ideas.

at 12/2/2008 9:25:44 AM, jm said:
Are you going to post an update and a list of the winners? Curious readers want to know!

purplejeep @ gmx.net
(DFW area, TX)

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