Introduce to appearance of Ewell case for CT
Mr. Xu and Mr. Zhang, friends of mine, are in charge of a small company named Ewell and focus on cottage phone enclosure mold design for others in ShenZhen China. Their works is too exact so that we can not distinguish it from the real. Sometimes, I go to visit them and always would have a joyful talk. Almost every time I arrived, they would give me two popular phones which are shutdown, and asked me to point out which one is the quality product. I played for a long time and failed finally. They were self-satisfied when I was in times of difficulty. Then asked tightly: “is it amazing?” I have to echo with “You are so great!” But I always felt that in my heart, “you guys have finished such an exact thing after working hard all day, but it certainly will be in the shadows of big brand. That is you want? ” .
This time is much different when I received their case design paper for cubietruck. It lighted my eyes.I was excited immediately, and then replied one sentence: “I’m proud of you!”
I would like to introduce the Ewell case to all the geeks. It’s an appearance design with some Chinese style. It adopts China Red as main color tone, this meets CubieTruck’s red route. It also takes into account 2.5-inch hard drive and li-po battery installation possibilities, supports all the interfaces of CubieTruck, even the Reset and FEL keys.
The overall shape of this case is simple and generous. It will be sprayed with rubber paint on all the surfaces in order to enhance touch feeling. At the top side, a Cubie mascot will be printed, a monkey tasting his finger. There is CubieTruck logo in the front side except all the native interfaces. The designer has made some cooling holes at the other shadow side to maintain long time stable running. It is necessary, actually, since the HDD will generate large amount of heat when long-term operation.
The bottom side of the case is black with 8 screw holes. The outer 4 screws are used to install CubieTruck PCB, and the middle 4 screws are used to fix the HDD. After installation, 4 rubber pads will be filled up, which can be used to prevent slippage.
There is a mysterious pattern in the middle of the bottom side, which is also can be used for heat dissipation. Now I would like to say a few words to introduce the pattern that all Chinese people most proud of.
The above pattern named double-fish eight-diagram Tai-Chi chart, is originated firstly by Fuxi who is the forefather of China nation about 8,000 years ago. It has affected Chinese astronomy, politics, economy, military affairs, culture and other fields for thousands of years, even now has a significant impact with the world’s aerospace, computer, weather, health system. Tai -Chi chart is a high abstract pattern which was created at no written record of the times. It is a high summary of universe, life and nature after Fuxi’s long period of observation and thinking.
There are many annotation versions made by later generation. Most of them were closed logically and not conflicting, so they already have became the theoretical foundation in each field, such as Divination, Astronomy, Ephemeris, Feng Shui science, Martial Art，Traditional Chinese Medicine etc… The most famous annotation version was made by West Marquess (King Wen of Zhou Dynasty ) , while he was in prison. There is a famous line “King Wen was arrested and then deducted ” in the《Records of the Historian》by Sima Qian. King Wen’s annotation is regarded as number 1 of all the scriptures in China. It was a required subject and must be tested courses in Chinese traditional education for thousands of years.
The key subject of King Wen’s version was to adopt the deductive logic thinking, and educed 64 x 64 = 4096 varieties. Each of them was given a certain meaning and interpretation, then used to explain the complex phenomenon. It’s very rare that none contradiction and loophole can be found in it.
Here to talk about my personal simple understanding of Tai Chi chart. The word Tai Chi here means thing. Maybe in modern times, Tai Chi can be replaced by the word “system”. Like a system, Tai Chi can be big, big to the universe, also can be very small, small to a cell or atom. It can be an individual, also can be a cohesive group. The chart used a circle to represent a Tai Chi. Even today it looks still reasonable and smart, since only circle is perfect. The Tai Chi chart shows each Tai Chi has pros and cons. A statement in : “Tai Chi promoting dual character.” Dual character refers to Yan and Yin. In the Chart, white fish represents Yan which means obverse side of things and black fish represents Yin which means reverse side of things. Tai Chi chart tells us each thing contains two aspects of positive and negative, and the two forces exist simultaneously. Look at the diagram, the two fishes are mutual occlusion, one is biting another’s tail, rolling and traveling ceaselessly, like going to be a cliffhanger. It tells us the Tai Chi always contains two forces, like a pair contradiction, they are always in the struggle, but no the final outcome. If have separated the final outcome, the Tai Chi is going to die. This is a very accurate philosophy thinking, just to name a few examples can demonstrate its correctness and profoundness. In physics, an object to balance need for action and reaction at the same time, the phenomenon of life need for the birth and death, appeared more men and fewer women or more women and fewer men in a family，both are not good phenomenon…… Without exception, all things can be explained with it.
Continue to look at the chart, you’ll find out white fish eyes are black, and black eyes is white. Why should draw it like this? Tai Chi chart wants to tell us: each thing contains two aspects of positive and negative, like a contradiction in constant struggle, it will never end. It just like “Contradiction is the unity of opposites”. However, positive aspects and negative aspect are not absolute, wherein the positive aspect include negative factors, and in the nagetive aspect include positive factors, just like “contradiction is always in motion and change”. Tai Chi tells us that we must look at a problem dialectically, things are not absolute, for example there is no absolute good man and thing, good in certain conditions will do bad things and bad people in certain circumstances also doing good. “Blessing in disguise, blessing in disguise,” is a good story, which tells us that good things come will become bad, bad things might have finally come good, also like “good fortune lies within bad fortune, and bad fortune lurks within good fortune”.
The above we have known “Tai Chi promoting dual character”, in the next sentences are “dual character promoting four images, four images promoting the eight diagrams”. Image in Chinese means phenomenon or attribute, diagram is the same with image. Four images is used to explain like east south west north of four directions, spring summer autumn winter in four seasons, heaven earth water fire four kinds of the most basic human living conditions……But it’s not precise enough, then four images promoting the eight diagrams. They are used to explain the eight basic directions, and heaven earth fire water wind thunder mountain swamp and any other things like that kind. Then puts eight diagrams two two permutations and combinations, deduce the 64 diagrams, and give it with the definition and interpretation, used Yao line to indicate all of them in the figure. Based on 64 diagrams, we can get 64*64=4096 diagrams by two two permutations and combinations. It can be used to predict complex universe and protean life phenomenon after giving it a decided definition. So i think is a huge deductive system full of materialism……
Now i have strayed from the point，can not continue in-depth. Cubieteam will open the mechanical design files soon. I’m sure Ewell case is just one design nowadays, and there will be more and better design come out later.
中文：CT的Ewell外壳的外观介绍
我的两个朋友许先生和章先生开了一家手机模具设计的小公司，公司名字叫做ewell，长期在深圳从事山寨手机模具设计外包工作，他们的作品基本上可以做到以假乱真的程度。我偶尔会去探望他们，看到我来，他们总会兴冲冲地拿着两个关着机的热门手机让我对比，问我哪个是真机，我把玩很久也分辨不出来，看着难倒了我他们很得意，会逼着我问，“厉害不？”我斩钉截铁的回答：“非常牛！”可是心里想着“哥们整天埋头苦干、呕心沥血徒手干出了这么精细的东西，也没有见过天日啊，总也是默默无闻，这是你们想要的吗？”
可是当我收到他们发的这张设计图纸的时候，我的眼前一亮，异常兴奋，我只给他们回复了三个字“我骄傲！”
我很乐意地向全世界的极客们来介绍ewell的作品，这是一个带着中国风格的设计，采用中国红作为外壳的主色调，符合cubietruck的红色调路线，考虑到了安装2.5寸硬盘和锂电池的可能性，cubietruck的每一个功能接口都提供出来了，甚至包括复位键和刷机键。
外壳整体造型简洁大方，全部的表面将会喷涂橡胶漆，以增强手感。正上方的顶面印有单色的cubie吉祥物，一只舔着手指的金丝猴，前面除了该有的接口还有cubietruck的logo。其它的四个隐藏面都开有散热孔，以保证机器长期稳定可靠地运行，特别是硬盘长期运转可能会产生较大的热量。
外壳的底面是黑色的，有8个螺丝孔，外围4个用于固定cubietruck电路板，内圈的4个用于固定硬盘，上完8颗螺丝之后塞上橡胶软垫可以防滑。底面的中间有一个神秘的开孔图案，也兼有散热功能，在这里我要多说几句来介绍一下中国人最引以为傲的神秘图案。
上面的图案叫做双鱼八卦太极图，是华夏民族的祖先伏羲氏在距今约8000年前首创，已经影响中国天文、政治、经济、军事、文化等领域几千年，如今对世界的航天、计算机、气象、医疗卫生系统等也产生了重大影响。太极图是一个高度抽象的图案，它产生于没有文字记录的时代，是伏羲氏经过长期观察思考对宇宙人生自然的高度总结。后人对太极图的文字解释有很多，但是不管哪种解释，它们做到了封闭和无矛盾，总会成为各个领域的理论基础，比如占卜，天文星历，风水，武术，中医….., 基本上都是以八卦太极图为基础理论。其中最为著名的一个解释是商朝末期西伯侯周文王的一个注解，这个注解是周文王在狱中所著，司马迁《史记》中有“文王拘而演周易”的说法，也就是称为群经之首的《周易》，是几千年来中国读书人必修和必考的功课之一。
《周易》基本的主题是采用演绎推理的逻辑思维方式，演绎出64×64=4096种变化，每种变化都赋予它一定的意义和解释，从而用它来解释纷繁复杂的现象，非常难得的是竟然没有一处矛盾和漏洞。
下面谈谈我个人对太极图的简单的理解。《易经》里面对一个事物称为一个“太极”，也许在现代我们可以用“系统”这个词来代替它。太极可以很大，大到整个宇宙，也可以很小，小到一个细胞或者原子，它可以是独立个体，也可以是有关联的集体。太极图用一个圆来表示一个“太极”，这种表示在现在看来也是合理且聪明的，因为只有圆形是完美的。图中显示在任何一个太极中都有着正反两面，易经的说法是“太极生两仪”，两仪是指阴阳两仪，白色的鱼代表阳，也就是事物正的方面，黑色的鱼代表阴，也就是事物阴的方面。太极图告诉我们，任何一个事物都包含了正反两个方面，这两种力量是同时存在的。你看太极图中的两条鱼相互咬合，一条咬着另外一条的尾巴，好像在不断的游动翻滚，永远也分不出胜负。它告诉我们事物中永远包含着两种力量，就是一对矛盾，它们永远在斗争，但是总也分不出最终的胜负。如果分出了最终的胜负，这个太极也即将会消亡了。这是一条非常朴素的哲学思想，随便举几个例子都能体现出它的正确性和精辟性。物理中讲一个物体要平衡需要作用力和反作用力同时作用，生命现象中有出生就会有死亡，一个家庭中要有男有女，出现了阴盛阳衰和阳盛阴衰都不是好现象……无一例外的，所有事物都可以用它来解释。
继续看图，你会发现白鱼的眼睛是黑色的，而黑鱼的眼睛是白色的。为什么要这样画图呢？太极图是想告诉我们：一个事物包含了正反两个方面，像一对矛盾在不断地斗争，永远不分胜负，也就是“矛盾是对立统一的”，但是正的方面和反方面都不是绝对的，其中正的一面中又有反的因素，反的一面中又有正的因素，也就是“矛盾是运动变化的”。太极图告诉我们，要辩证地去看问题，事情没有绝对的，比如没有绝对的好人好事，好人在一定的条件下会做坏事，坏人在一定的情况下也会做好事。“塞翁失马，焉知非福”就是一个很好的典故，它告诉我们好事来了会变成坏事，坏事末了也许就会来好事，正所谓“福兮祸之所伏，祸兮福之所倚”。
以上我们了解了“太极生两仪”，后面几句是“两仪生四象，四象生八卦”。象，是指现象或者属性，卦这个字来源于“挂”，意思是指挂在眼前的景象，和象的意思也基本类似，所谓卦象嘛，卦和象一回事。“两仪生四象”的扩展，是用来解释东南西北四种方向，春夏秋冬四个季节，天地水火四种最基本的人类的生活条件。太极图中也可以将太极圆通过圆心用两条垂直线分成四个部分，有老阳，少阳，少阴，老阴四个区域。拥有了四象的划分，还是不够细分，于是又有四象生八卦，用来解释八个基本方位，天地水火风雷山泽等，诸如此类，图中也有相应的标志，就用三条爻线排列组合表示。周易再把八种卦象两两做排列组合，推演出64卦，给予一定的定义和解释，用6条爻线排列组合表示。在64卦的基础上，再做排列组合，演变出4096种卦象并给予一定的卦辞解释，从而用于推理演绎预测纷繁复杂的大千世界和人生万象，所以我认为这是一个庞大的充满唯物主义思想的演绎系统。
在这里不能继续深入讲述了，再讲就跑题了。Cubieteam很快会把PCB板的机械设计文件公开出来，可以肯定Ewell外壳只是cubietruck的一个而已，后面将会有更多的更好的设计陆续出来。