Foreseeable Anticipated Questions (FAQ) for the Spinneret Web Server design contest
David Carrier
Posts: 294
Here are the answers to some questions I thought you might asks. I'll update the list as I think of more or as people ask real questions.
Q: How do I enter the contest?
A: Start a thread in this forum with [Contest Entry] at the beginning of the title and include a general description of what your project will do. Then email us at spinneretcontest@parallax.com with a link to the thread and we will email you a project number. You do not need to publish your project number, but please use it to refer to your project if you have to email us directly.
Q: Can I change what my project does after I have received a project number.
A: Yes, you can change what your project will do after we have issued a number, but make sure it is not confusing when the contest closes, it could count against your professionalism.
Q: How can I score well for "community participation"?
A: Be an active member of this forum and share any code, objects, schematics, or layouts that could help other entrants. Be polite and help others when they are stuck. Work with other members of on the forum and use the work that other members have shared when it is appropriate.
Q: What actions will hurt my "community participation" score?
A: Only use the forum to post your entry and don't make any other posts, be impolite to others, do things your own way even though the community has standardized on something better.
Q: How can I score well for "capabilities & design appropriateness"?
A: Make us say "Wow". Do something we never expected to see the Spinneret Web Server or the Propeller do. Show off what can be done with $50 board that takes less than 1 watt of power. Connect external hardware to do something very creative.
Q: What actions will hurt my "capabilities & design appropriateness" score?
A: Using a $500 100 watt computer to perform a task that could have been done by the Spinneret Web Server. Using an extra microcontroller when another core, that you could have easily freed, could have done the same task.
Q: How can I score well for "usefulness"?
A: Make us want one. Make something so useful that it could its own product. Use the Spinneret Web Server to replace hardware that would cost several times more.
Q: What actions will hurt my "usefulness" score?
A: Basing your project around something that is already done by an inexpensive off-the-shelf product. Use hardware that is completely unnecessary.
Q: How can I score well for "professionalism"?
A: Produce concise well documented code. Create and link to enjoyable videos documenting your project and host them on a site like YouTube or Vimeo. Create a well written slideshow or report in an OpenDocument format and post it in its original format as well as PDF or HTML.
Q: What actions will hurt my "professionalism" score?
A: Writing sloppy, uunreadable code. Posting 100 MB files on external servers that only host them for 30 days and require a password you forgot to give us or force us to watch ads for 90 seconds before the download starts. Using a $500 program to create your report and not posting it in a format that anything else can read.
Q: Interesting site.
See our spicy food products!!!
A: That's not even a question, and it has nothing to do with this forum. Did you just post that so that we would click on your signature?
Q: Should I use the Spinneret Web Server by itself or with external hardware?
A: Whatever suits your project. Try to think off a cost to feature ratio. If adding hardware significantly adds new features then go for it. If expensive hardware makes your project easier to design, but doesn't add any useful features, then you should proboably do some work to design out the hardware.
David Carrier
Parallax Inc.
Q: How do I enter the contest?
A: Start a thread in this forum with [Contest Entry] at the beginning of the title and include a general description of what your project will do. Then email us at spinneretcontest@parallax.com with a link to the thread and we will email you a project number. You do not need to publish your project number, but please use it to refer to your project if you have to email us directly.
Q: Can I change what my project does after I have received a project number.
A: Yes, you can change what your project will do after we have issued a number, but make sure it is not confusing when the contest closes, it could count against your professionalism.
Q: How can I score well for "community participation"?
A: Be an active member of this forum and share any code, objects, schematics, or layouts that could help other entrants. Be polite and help others when they are stuck. Work with other members of on the forum and use the work that other members have shared when it is appropriate.
Q: What actions will hurt my "community participation" score?
A: Only use the forum to post your entry and don't make any other posts, be impolite to others, do things your own way even though the community has standardized on something better.
Q: How can I score well for "capabilities & design appropriateness"?
A: Make us say "Wow". Do something we never expected to see the Spinneret Web Server or the Propeller do. Show off what can be done with $50 board that takes less than 1 watt of power. Connect external hardware to do something very creative.
Q: What actions will hurt my "capabilities & design appropriateness" score?
A: Using a $500 100 watt computer to perform a task that could have been done by the Spinneret Web Server. Using an extra microcontroller when another core, that you could have easily freed, could have done the same task.
Q: How can I score well for "usefulness"?
A: Make us want one. Make something so useful that it could its own product. Use the Spinneret Web Server to replace hardware that would cost several times more.
Q: What actions will hurt my "usefulness" score?
A: Basing your project around something that is already done by an inexpensive off-the-shelf product. Use hardware that is completely unnecessary.
Q: How can I score well for "professionalism"?
A: Produce concise well documented code. Create and link to enjoyable videos documenting your project and host them on a site like YouTube or Vimeo. Create a well written slideshow or report in an OpenDocument format and post it in its original format as well as PDF or HTML.
Q: What actions will hurt my "professionalism" score?
A: Writing sloppy, uunreadable code. Posting 100 MB files on external servers that only host them for 30 days and require a password you forgot to give us or force us to watch ads for 90 seconds before the download starts. Using a $500 program to create your report and not posting it in a format that anything else can read.
Q: Interesting site.
See our spicy food products!!!
A: That's not even a question, and it has nothing to do with this forum. Did you just post that so that we would click on your signature?
Q: Should I use the Spinneret Web Server by itself or with external hardware?
A: Whatever suits your project. Try to think off a cost to feature ratio. If adding hardware significantly adds new features then go for it. If expensive hardware makes your project easier to design, but doesn't add any useful features, then you should proboably do some work to design out the hardware.
David Carrier
Parallax Inc.
Comments
I ask this because although my primary entry is a 100% software project with no hardware part beyond powering the Spinneret and possibly adding external memory that I will try to avoid.
I would also like to enter 1 or more hardware applications that utilize the completed software stack (in my case a network driven LED display board that gathers content periodically from the net)
A) I expect that I could add the hardware designs and use-cases as a section of the single entry.
Since this new type of project requires a lot of collaboration - I feel the need for the following resources
a) source control (versioning) - for checkin/checkout/backout and branching of parallel streams
b) change tracking (diffs - fisheye can package up an SVN repository)
c) wiki documentation (both end-user and development/analysis documentation would benefit from an online-editable page hierarchy - one that any forum member can edit)
d) Automated testing (both regression and continuous build - in concert with checking in the test suites to a) source control - we will know when we break the code and also whether a change affected performance or introduced memory leaks/crashes)
e) Enhancement/Bug tracking (ie: bugzilla) - we could track/status/defer/collaborate on individual design issues - and link changes to a) source control versions
A) The editable posts on the forum along with the OBEX could fill a portion of the needs above for now. I realize that adding these capabilities may require an onsite software person and will not be needed after july
If we need more infrastructure - we can use eclipselabs incubation site (does not have to be an official eclipse.org project) hosted by googlecode. The support most of the items above, have 2GB storage and support the MIT license. A google account/password is required, but the source is available to non-committers.
However, fragmenting the source/discussion among 2 different sites (Parallax-forum/OBEX googlecode) may not be a good idea.
Q3) Will the output of this project continue to be open-source?
A) I expect that the OBEX will receive all the code at the close around July and will be posted on the product page as is normally the case.
thank you
/ Michael O'Brien