PhoneSecure
On 12 January, 2005, by se99jmk
I'm not generally an insecure person. I'm perfectly happy with carrying in excess of ?1000 in electronics on my person... well, maybe I should get some protection after all, and I've found it, in the form of PhoneSecure.
Click here to read more...
Phraselator
On 12 January, 2005, by se99jmk
One step closer to the babelfish from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
Click here to read more...
Epson fabricates 20-layer PCB using InkJet tec
On 05 November, 2004, by Dreadnought
Epson has fabricated a 200micron thick 20 layer using their own InkJet technology with a conductive ink containing silver micro-particles measuring from several nanometers to several tens of nanometers in diameter, and a newly developed insulator ink.
Click here to read more...
PetaPixel displays, 100TB storage and more...
On 05 November, 2004, by Dreadnought
Colossal Storage is developing 14M dpi or 200Tpixels per square inch of near-non-volatile display. It is based on a ferroelectric material which gives each pixel a state retension of up to 12 hours. Display resolutions of up to 4Petapixel will be possible with this technology.
Colossal Storage is also developing a holographic media which can store 10TB on a single 3?" disc. The theory behind it can go up to 1.5Exabytes (1.5x10^1
.
They are currently looking for companies who are interresting in licensing the products.
Click here to read more...
Plastic Tank
article written by : roid released on : 06 April, 2004 | send roid a private message! roid's rating : ***** |
Not like the toys I used to play with!
This tank is armoured with plastic. WTF? hahahah hehe... heh
Ok, now that's that's over with, the idea seems to have merit. They even claim it's armour is BETTER than metal. But it's a plastic tank! It just sounds so stupid. GI-JOE had a plastic tank, and it melted under a magnifying glass. GI-JOE's tank also didn't fare too well in explosive resistance tests, sure, not many enemys would be equiped with giant firecrackers to strap onto the tanks like i was. But damnit, it's only a matter of time. WE MUST BE PREPARED FOR THE GIANT FIRECRACKER ARMYS OF PLANET X, OR ALL IS LOST.
Curse you GI Joe ... and your damnable firecrackers!
This real plastic tank that this article is about is called the "Advanced Composite Armoured Vehicle Platform" (ACAVP). It's being made in a joint research/development effort between the UK army's Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, Vickers Defence Systems, and QinetiQ.
"The Advanced Composite Armoured Vehicle Platform (ACAVP) is the first composite moncoque plastic AFV to have been made in the world. Vickers believe it could prove a tremendous asset; it's faster, lighter and therefore easier to transport by air than conventional vehicles, so it can be flown rapidly to war zones."
-QinetiQ
"Wow, can I pick it up just like tanks and boats in Battlefield: Vietnam?"
Plastic would be lighter!
The plastic doesn't suffer "spallation" when hit from cannon fire. This is a like a scab that forms near the surface of the metal in high-explosive detonations. A result of spallation is that the metal armour shatters a little and these shards of metal can hit the crew, with obvious detrimental results. Spallation makes the tank hurt, can't you feel their pain? 
. The tanks, they scream! Poor tanks.
The construction is unique with something called "composite monocoque plastic", a moulded E-glass fibre composite. This gives the tank construction a lot of advantages (and a boon to the polymer industry):
It doesn't rust. This makes it perfect for amphibious/all terrain vehicles, which the lightweight seems to lean towards.
It Incorporates stealth technology, the plastic is less visible to IR and Radar. This is good for dodging those homing firecrackers.
At 24 tons it weighs 4 tons less than it's aluminium counterpart (which is 28 tons) so it's faster and more fuel efficient. It doesn't seem like much of an improvement to me, but i guess you have to remember that the whole tank isn't made of plastic. They just used it for the ARMOUR, so when you compare the Armour weight of plastic vs metal, it's a vast improvement. Lighter tanks make it easier for aircraft to transport them quickly into war areas, i imaging the UN would be especially interested.
Of course the Vickers plastic tank isn't alone ... there seems to be some American competition by a company called United Defense:
United Defense's CAV-ATD
" Built by United Defense, the CAV-ATD is powered by a 552-cu.-in. diesel that gives it a 300-mile range, 30-mph cruising speed and 8-second 0-to-20-mph acceleration. A CAV-ATD armed with a 25mm Bushmaster gun is undergoing tests at the Aberdeen Testing Ground in Maryland. Plastic tanks could be fielded after 2005."
-Stratmag.com
Load your firecrackers, and get General Gi-Joe on line1.
- joint article by roid and Killdashnine
Spin Spin, Spin the Black Circle
article written by : killdashnine released on : 05 April, 2004 | send killdashnine a private message! killdashnine's rating : ***** |
You know, at some point in one's life there always seems to come a discussion of the Coriolis Effect. It's inevitable amongst geek youth culture ... Geek Friend #1 says, "Gee, did you know that the water spirals down the toilet the other way in one Hemisphere than it does the other?" Well sure, dumbass .. it's the corilois effect!
Well, that's one way of experimenting with the coriolis effect ... try to calm down a little
- Domodomo.com
Of course all that aside, there are more important matters for me to entertain my brain with, for instance why bubbles in my Guiness appear to float down rather than up ... or more importantly, cooling my beer as quickly as possible (Peltier Beer Cooler anyone?).
Spin the Bottle ... errr, well "can" maybe?
Who'da ever thunk that science could be so fun, eh? Say you're sitting out in the sun at a company picnic with a fresh (but ungodly warm) six-pack of your favorite beer. Those of you who don't live in the U.S. may have the good fortune to not have to drink beer that's been chilled to near freezing temps, but if you drink some "American Pilsner" like Bud Light which must be imbibed ice cold, or Busch ... >shudders< ... you'll really hope that the local store has it in stock and cold.
Enter the Beerchiller ...
Nice for something around $20 you can use physics to cool your beer! Well when compared to something like the Vacu Vin or the Peltier system above, I have to give these inventors some credit. One side of the device holds your ice, the other your can upside down in a water reservoir. The can spins about by battery power and, with the aid of a slight wobble, cools down your crappy warm beer to a palatable temperature (well, with Busch at least, that is never reached in reality ... it's still crappy) within about 2 minutes. Alas, it's even patented"!
The extra little spin is what pushes the layer of warm water away, preventing equilibrium.
For the power challenged, you can turn the hand crank .. my question to you would be, "Are you really that desperate?" (Again, methinks about warm Busch beer ... or worse yet something from my college years like Rhinelander). Furthermore, what about the bubbles? With the bubbles in Guiness going the other way, does that counteract the "no foaming" principle?Well perhaps the guy that invented the Jet-Engine Beer Cooler was ...
Ok, now this is getting ridiculous!
Spin the Black Circle
Well, perhaps it's not so black and it may not be a circle, but speaking of spinning things, what I really started out writing about was the latest information about Gravity Probe B.
"The experiment will check, very precisely, tiny changes in the direction of spin of four gyroscopes contained in an Earth satellite orbiting at 400-mile altitude directly over the poles. So free are the gyroscopes from disturbance that they will provide an almost perfect space-time reference system. They will measure how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth, and, more profoundly, how the Earth's rotation drags space-time around with it. These effects, though small for the Earth, have far-reaching implications for the nature of matter and the structure of the Universe."
Uhh, dude ... aren't you supposed to have that clean room stuff on around that?
Science has a way of getting put on the backburner, but this is ridiculous:
"Since 1959, Gravity Probe B has overcome a half-dozen attempts at cancellation, countless technical hurdles and several delayed launches. The NASA-funded, university-developed spacecraft is now scheduled to begin its mission following an April 17 liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif."
- Story on Yahoo
Why is it important? Well, for all of the test that have been done regarding Einstein's Theory of Relativity none can really be said to have been completely satisfying. In particular, the effects of "frame dragging" (the dragging of space and time around a massive object) and the "geodetic effect" (the tilting of a gyroscope's spin axis into the plane of the object's orbit) are going to be delicately analyzed by GPB.
Visual of the effects being measured.
- Courtesy www-glast.sonoma.com (click for bigger picture)
It may seem like it's taking a lot of time and money (700 Million US Dollars!) to squeeze every bit of accuracy out of these tests of Einstein's theories, but to our understanding of physics, it's crucial that we constantly push the limits of our understanding. In this case, what's on the line comes from the following comment: "If successful, it would assuredly join the ranks of the classical experiments of physics. By the same token, a confirmed result in disagreement with General Relativity would be revolutionary." 'Nuff said for all of you who didn't find your University Physics classes a waste of time and spent many hours reading Relativity in High School (guilty as charged!)
Whether the bubbles going downward in your Guiness, the effects of General Relativity, or the direction that water spirals down the toilet depending on your location in the world, some questions just have to be answered ...
- killdashnine
Issue Image!
This Blade is originally from the Gunnm (battle angel alita) comic. Some fan of the comic actually made it, to scale. It's gotta be the biggest Switchblade ever (yes it's a switchblade). Being a fan of the comic myself, i want one
-roid