CFFire800 Pro Benchmarks and Performance Shootouts

The CFFire800 Pro FireWire 800 to UDMA CompactFlash reader made the arduous task off offloading photos from my Cannon S-70 somewhat of a joy. Synchrotech published a few documents verifying my experience.

CFFire800 Pro Benchmarks
I use an ATP ProMax II CF 300X UDMA CompactFlash Card and see numbers very close to the top cards on this list.

Modern UDMA CompactFlash Reader Benchmarks FireWire vs USB 2.0
I use the FireWire 800 based CFFire800 Pro in FireWire 400 mode with a 9→6 pin adapter and can say it outperforms any USB 2.0 based CompactFlash reader I've ever tested by orders of magnitude.

Why use Gambit Scheme for application development?

A discussion from jlongster on Gambit embedded in Objective-C. Some potentially cool stuff here. This discussion was a follow on to mikelevins Heresy article in which Scheme <-> Objective-C interface is also discussed. mikelevins' mention of prefix-dylan is a bonus as well.

Great FireWire 400 to FireWire 800 FAQ

Synchrotech FAQ deals with myriad questions regarding connecting between FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 and vice versa.

With Apple's bold transition to all FireWire 800 ports on their computers and USB 3.0's disappointing initial performance figures, this FAQ and HOWTO is right on time!

Of special note is their 6→9 FireWire 800 IEEE1394b 6pin (female) to 9pin (male) Converter Plug available at EverythingHerePlus.com for under $9 and shipped for only $5!

Jeff Cat Explains FireWire Port Identification

CES 2009: USB 3.0 slower than expected

Any wonder at all the latest incarnation of the prosaic USB standard with its outdated and awkward master-slave topology, underperforming NRZI encoding, and clumsy CPU cycle stealing bus mastering scheme doesn't live up to the hype?

Evidenced by the results of all the benchmarks I've ever run in the lab, USB 2.0 is crushed by Ultra Wide SCSI, an early 1990's technology. Let's ponder USB with its anemic power capabilities, frightfully short cable runs, and well over a decade old performance capabilities. What was USB's advantages other than ubiquity again?

I realize many USB otaku have bought into the Intel fanboi TV spot [1], but maybe people should be tossing rotten fruits and vegetables at Ajay Bhatt.

[1] Truth is, Intel was only one many firms with patents contributed to the original USB pool. Intel later bought many of them after the fact. So the whole "rock star inventor" thing is a little suspect no? In fact, Wikipedia cites him as one of the co-inventors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus#History