I won the SAE's e-book download netbook giveaway contest, they sent me a
brand new HP Mini-110. It has everything, came loaded with windows 7
starter.
Seemed like a good candidate for a Linux trial.
I downloaded the latest Ubuntu 9.10 netboot remix, burned iso cds. Tried to
make USB live image with USB creator, in both windows and booting from the
live CD (standard edition) on my tower, but couldn't seem to get it to work.
Unetbootin from sourceforge was able to create a bootable thumb drive, then
I
created a bootable 4GB SD. They both boot just fine, but have yet to figure
out how to get the WiFi connection up and running. Webcam works fine in
ubuntu.


Everything seems straight forward, tho. I have to say maybe a bit boring
with
the NBRM gui.
I also stumbled on http://moblin.org/ this looks like a much better gui,
although it looks as though they are still developing. They have gotten
Intel
on board, supporting their Atom processor, so I expect a bright future. Also

have created a developer network similar to Apple's iPhone for application
development and distribution.
I'll try to make a bootable Moblin SD after work today.

As a side note, I just upgraded both my tower system and laptop from vista
to
windows 7, only problem noticed so far is my epson cx3200 needs another
driver, will have to sort that out with epson tech support.
It appears as though all installed programs came through except for iTunes,
the upgrade advisor informed me prior to upgrade this would need to be
reinstalled. That has been the smoothest windows system upgrade I can
recall.
System resource usage is way down, my tower now only uses 30% of installed
memory at the end of system loading, instead of the 45% it needed in Vista.
Everything is faster, rather pleased with the result.
C. Smith

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Here are some ideas for your new toy.
See if it will go into command mode or DOS mode. Don't laugh. Dos has some real time advantages. XP will go into DOS mode. If it goes into DOS mode it may be possible to do all sorts of real time  hardware stuff like fuel injection systems. Windows and Linux are multitasking which make them near useless for real time hardware stuff. Too much background house keeping going on.

If it will run DOS it will probably run Quick Basic Compiler that can access
the USB ports directly as serial ports in real time. I run QB in XP all the time.  Quick Basic has real time commands for directly controlling hard ware including serial ports. It is small enough that I can email it to you. It is very easy to learn. Many of us older computer users already know how to program in QB. I have tons of source code including a moving map program that takes in data from a GPS. UPS GPS receivers are available.   One can buy a USB to parallel adapter kit that will out put 8 bits at a time with hand shaking. Each bit could control an injector. The key is what is avaible in USB as most note books or net books no longer have parallel printer ports.

The other possibility is boot up DOS directly from a 3.5 inch floppy disk.

I have a VIA EPIA PC mother board at the hanger that cost less than $90 with the processor on board with floppy connector. It has a PCI connector so a 4 parallel port card can be bought at low cost and plugged in. The combination is way more powerful than you need but the price is far far cheaper than some embedded systems that are designed for hard ware control. A fuel injection program can be written in minutes. The only thing missing is an A to D.
Of course any old mother board will work too.

http://www.via.com.tw/en/initiatives/empowered/pc3500_mainboard/index.jsp

I'll get it up and running tomorrow with DOS and QB.


Paul Lamar