I would like to cast my vote for a telephone interface shield.

It should have:
(a) ring detect circuit,
(b) the ability to connect disconnect from the line,
(c) encode and decode DTMF. 

The arduino is perfect for remote control but lacks any sort telephone interfacing with remote access.

I agree that the lines are in the wrong spot.  If you scroll down the page, it appears that the text belongs to the wrong board.

I have not visited all of the links (very few of them in fact) yet I have the lines between every board & text.

I am using Firefox 5 with Windows 7.

I would like to know if you can turn without tearing the wheels off.  4WD drive usually self-destructs as wheels try to rub sideways during a turn.

Are you sure it is a MKII or is it a v2 ?

Today I received from a HK company (via eBay) a STK500 USB clone.

It uses an USB serial chip to make it look like a com port.  It took me about an hour to figure out what was going on because it arrived with ZERO documentation.

I determined that I had to edit the boards.txt file and add these lines:

avrisp.name=HK-AVR ISPv2
avrisp.communication=serial
avrisp.protocol=stk500v2

Do an eBay search for "ATMEL STK500 Programmer for Arduino & Freeduino Board" to see what I got.

FYI:  Switch 1 should be off, Switch 2 should be ON.

Tonight a built a boarduio and programmed a bootloader on a new ATMEGA chip via the ISP plug.  I am now able to use the Arduino software ok on that newly bootloaded chip.

I am surprised it worked.  SMTP usually requires a blank line between the headers and the main body of the message.  Are you sure you didn't send a blank line after the subject and before your message text? The headers are also missing a FROM: line.  Most systems can deal with a missing DATE: line.

I understand the need for authentication for pop, or auth for smtp if you are not on your ISP's ip range but if auth is required for the arduino then it becomes a complex problem.  Authenticated SMTP is more than just sending a plain-text password.

do a wiki of auth-smtp for more details.

I have a completely different idea for you.  If you have access to a web server running PHP, sending email is very easy.  You can encode a message into an URL and have the arduino access the web page.  The web code reads data from the URL and sends a proper email based on that data.

check out this thread:   http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1235086700

In summary, if you know how to program the arduino to retrieve a webpage, the PHP code in my message sends an email and creates a single character webpage "0" or "1" as a return code.

This means no more send/receive SMTP protocol scripting.  Just a simple web request and out it goes.

I have tested it by having it send a message to my cell phone with the subject containing the value.  

no offense but it is not an "Acer Aspire One" problem. I have an AAO and it works aok.  One of you is using Linux and the other is using XP home, the problems can not be related just because of the fact you both have the same hardware.  I have found the AAO to be the same as any other Intel laptop.  Make sure you follow the required installation steps including any required additional software.

My only complaint with netbooks is the small screen size/resolution.  The '600' is limiting.

how about a digital watch with an alarm?

Take the back off the watch because the backing is usually a piezo-element speaker.

hookup the arduino to the watch (to where the piezo touched the circuit board) so that when the watch alarm goes off at 2pm, the arduino detects the voltage signal and does its daily duty.

I think dollar stores sell cheap digital watches.

I am curious, are you defining any pins at the top of your program?

I see examples like so:

setup()
int Servo1 = 3
pinMode(Servo1, OUTPUT);

The above code wastes ram.  
This seems to use much less:

setup()
#define Servo1 3
pinMode(Servo1, OUTPUT);


I only mention it because I have seen that method (using int instead of #define) in many of the sample programs.

This web page shows a nice picture on how to connect a LCD to a PIC chip.  Ignore the pic chip, look at the pins being used on the LCD panel.

http://www.rentron.com/PicBasic-LCD.htm

Thanks guys.  This is good news and I feel stupid.

Why?

I was trying to decide...  Do I use avr-gcc or arduino sketch?  Arduino seemed to be the fast way to get started even though the docs only showed a limited set of C stuff.

It now appears that I have been using gcc for the past 2 weeks and did not know it.  I like it when I make those types of mistakes!

I went nuts and ordered LOTS of various bits.  Some kits (built 3 already) and some bare boards, shields and boarduino things.  I also have a butterfly and ethernet shield coming in.  I could show in class how to construct an IP stack.  It seems the supplied library does not support DHCP.  Might be a good class project to add support for DHCP.

fascinating...  I tried this and it worked... This adds a whole new set of fun commands to play with!  

typedef struct mystruct
{
  int a;
  int b;
  int c;
};

mystruct mys;

void setup()
{

}

void loop()
 {
  
 mys.a = 1;
 mys.b = 2;
 mys.c = 3;
}


I have some AVR Butterflys coming in and I think I'll create a library to use the onboard features from within the Arduino enironment.

Thanks for the reply.  I think I was looking at a library when I saw what appeared to be non-Arduino stuff. I'll look closer at libraries.  I noted the page on the AVRC lib and its functions.  It seems I can get access to some fairly advanced stuff by calling those functions.

My subject looks stupid.  I have lots of C experience and I have played with many uChip environments.  I have 2 weeks experience with Arduino.

I see that it is very C-like which means I can pick it up instantly.  I would describe it as C-light, missing many things.

I have been reading as much as I can on this forum and something stands out as odd.  Occasionally I see references to commands, functions or syntax that is not in the arduino online guide.

Is the online guide out-dated or are you guys somehow passing code to the back-end GCC compiler via some sort of compiler define?

I am thinking timers, interrupts and direct pin I/O (for speed and accuracy).  I realize that the arduino is a safe environment and I am ok with that, I am simply trying to determine if I missed something.

ps: I purchased the Massimo book from Amazon.com, I hope he makes a few bucks off it because of this successful project!