ZZZ Online | Other Issues

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.

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Phraselator

On 12 January, 2005, by se99jmk

One step closer to the babelfish from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

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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.

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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.

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The Damascus Blade

This is a butterfly knife, the Philippinos call it a ballisong.

You can flick it around, RAWR look at you, you're lookin real badass now. Meh, it's been done before, there's countless of them around, they are made by the thousands. I am forever seeing them in movies, wasn't that kid in "pay it forward" stabbed by one of those knives by another kid? If a kid can do it, the whole aura of badassness kindof evaporates.

Call that a knife? This is a knife. *WHUMP!!!* Down crashes this huge mother of a weapon onto the table. Even unsharpened this thing could be simply used as a swung CLUB! This thing has +99 Badass ability with +50 ability to cause a pooping of the pants (geeky "w00t").

To be precise this is called the Damascus Blade. It's design is from Kishiro Yukito who incorporated it into his comic Gunnm (also called Battle Angel Alita). In the comic this blade is made of a special material know as "Damascus Steel" or "Wootz Steel" (yes "woot"). Now, would it blow your mind to know that this is an Actual metal alloy that we actually use today? That's right.

Did I mention this steel technology is named "Wootz Steel"?
Yes!! w00t w00t!! = w00tz

This particular "Damascus butterfly knife" is obviously not held like a traditional smaller butterfly knife, but is meant to be wielded like a LONG bladed instrument, much like a bow. It can be opened and closed, and when opened it has a latching mechanism that keeps it open (Batangas latched). To open the thing you really have to know what you're doing, because you don't want to crush your hand.

This particular real-life blade in the picture isn't made from Wootz steel like the fictional original blade is. It's made with tool steel and an aluminium handle. Even with the aluminium handle it's a hefty 9 - 12 kilos (20-25 lbs) which is extremely heavy for a bladed weapon, 2 handed heavy swords are generally around 3 kilos (6.5 lbs). So this thing would definitely take some wielding practice, and lots of skill in "underactuated movement" (from Issue 176).

The last I?ve heard there were only 3 of these custom made Mock Gunnm Damascus Blades in existence back in 2000. I wonder if anyone has made any more of them. Or I wonder if maybe 2 owners of them went at each other, and maybe one was destroyed, in which case I?d like video footage of the colossal fight pls, email it to me (yeah I?m dreaming).

Damascus Steel (or Wootz steel) used to be only made in one place on earth, a long time ago. The technology behind "Wootz Steel" originated in central India, but the technology is best known for the "Damascus Blades" that the Arabs manufactured with the unique metallurgy technology when the technology migrated to Arabia. There it was used to make their scimitars that they used to fight the invading crusaders, and it is rumoured this is how it got the name "Damascus Steel". Stories of this amazing Arabian (even thought it was actually Indian) alloy spread far and wide after this war, it's secrets giving it an aura of mysticism. You see, no-one knew how to make this alloy, it was a guarded secret. Everyone knew that all steel was made by mixing iron with carbon, yet no-one could reproduce the magnificence of these blades at the time except for the Arabian Damascus forgers.

The blades were extremely strong, and light. This is because the strength of the Wootz steel could allow for much thinner blades to be utilised. To fittingly add to the mystical aura: Wootz steel has this amazing visual quality to it, it's pervaded by fine lines of differing colour that look almost like the pattern of wood grain. This magnificent pattern goes completely through the metal of Wootz steel, and because of it's somewhat organic nature: every individual blade looks uniquely different.

There are a few types of Damascus steel, the most commonly seen type is not the True Wootz Damascus Steel, it's called "Layer Welded Damascus Steel". It is still a strong type of steel, but it doesn't hold ALL of the secrets of True Damascus W00tz Steel. The secrets of both Wootz and Layer Welded Damascus steel is hinted to by these strange organic looking swirls across it's surface. You see, when making a sword blade the iron is mixed with carbon to give it more elasticity because pure iron is quite brittle, it flakes, flaking swords would be stupid. This addition of carbon also gives steel the mirror finish that you can't achieve with pure iron. Every steel age civilisation had their own methods of making steel, but the Layer Welding Damascus Technique (one method that was used in Damascus) of making steel for the sword blades was quite original and strangely was quite a lot like making pasta. Some methods just used coal as the source of carbon, or they just weld together different types of steel, but some other methods would heat up the Iron and then while it was red hot they would rub it down with a source of carbon, this generally took the form of rubbing it down with an animal skin. This would burn a fine layer of carbon onto the outside of the iron, then they would bash it to death (the sword, not the animal skin, it's already dead) to kindof mix in the carbon and flatten the iron out somewhat, so they could then FOLD IT OVER. After folding it over and bashing it some more, they would reheat the iron again so it was red-hot, and then they would get it out and rub it down with the animal skin again, bash it till it was flat, then fold it over again and bash it some more. What this process did was create layers upon layers of welded and unevenly mixed iron and carbon (Steel), and as it was bashed flatter and flatter, it stretched the "mix lines" out further, thinner and finer until the blade (now with enough carbon mixed into it to be considered "Steel") had an extremely fine layering of lines of iron/carbon and steel. The hard/soft lines going through the steel formed an internal structure that works similar in process to the Steel reinforcing in reinforced concrete. The Stronger Steel lines provide strength to the Softer lines, and the Softer lines provide Elasticity to the Stronger lines. Making for a sword steel that was stronger than any uniform carbon/iron mixtured steel could attain. Then when shaped and sharpened the uneven lines are brought to the surface as the steel of the blade is gradually cut down during sharpening. Giving you the amazing organic swirls on a Layer Welded Damascus steel blade.

Later on other civilisations tried to copy this method but they could never manage to attain the same strength as the Damascus Steel blades for some unknown reason. There was a further secret, it turns out the magic hadn't been fully exposed and explained after all . The iron that made all the Damascus Blades came from India, was this the secret?

Yes, it was, the secret of True Wootz Damascus steel was also in the original Ingots of steel from the smelter. This is what separated true Damascus Wootz steel from the simpler and lower quality Layer Welded Damascus steel. Another secret of true Wootz steel was that it actually was not folded and welded like the lower quality Layer Welded Damascus steel. "Then how does it get those patterns on it's surface?" you may ask. The secret was in the cooling technique. When the blades were cooled a certain way, bands of certain types of steel, metals and impurities would clump together as they solidified and crystallized. These clumps of similar metals generally formed in bands and these bands would attract and influence other metals in the sword blade as it continued to cool, in essence building itself in a predictable layered pattern, on an almost molecular scale. So the cooling method ended up smashing together the rapidly forming metal crystals in a predictable pattern, that ended up favouring softer and more flexible metals in the core of the blade, while favouring harder metals on the outside of the blade, therefore making the perfect combination.

Relatively recently some studies have been done on ancient Wootz Damascus blades. They actually cut off segments of old blades to study the patterns and materials scientifically. It turned out that the local conditions around certain mines in India (the original source of the Wootz steel technology) were PERFECT for the forming of the strongest steels. The special Indian mines and smelters that mined the iron ore had the co-incidental property of leaving just the right amount of carbon and also other accidental impurities (such as sulphur, phosphor, vanadium, etc) in the iron before it was given to the forgers. Then the forgers had the method, passed down through generations (this too originating in central India), perfected to forge the steel in a certain way, using certain special cooling methods that only produced a Damascus Steel pattern IF these certain impurities were present in the steel during the cooling process. It was obviously a very practiced and possibly a guarded discipline. The end result of all these factors was the magnificent and superstition carrying Damascus Steel blades.

So this shows that the amazing Wootz Damascus Steel was a freak of nature. It just so happened that Steel made from the certain Indian mines and smeltered in the certain Indian smelters had the exact amount of certain specific NEEDED impurities to form a Wootz Damascus Steel Blade. This steel must have been used a lot in India (and was also subsequently exported to Arabia, with the technology) long ago, so the Indians used the Wootz steel so much that they eventually discovered it's special properties when forged a certain way, but they just assumed it was their forging technique to thank for it. So the Wootz technology was exported (following the steel) to Arabia where they made their Damascene Wootz Blades, cooled with the special technique to form the strength giving Damascus pattern, without knowing how important the Original Ingots of STEEL were to the process. So eventually the Indian Mines ran dry, and Steel for blades simply started coming from other more local sources, and suddenly in Arabia they noticed that they could no longer successfully produce the Damascus pattern on their blades. OH NO! They didn't know why. So the forgers didn't bother to pass on the knowledge to the next generations, because "for some reason it no longer worked". Therefore the Secret of Wootz Damascus Steel was lost until recently science has rediscovered it.

Now after we understand more fully the secrets of Wootz Damascus steel, most of the magic is gone. But because of the newfound knowledge, forgers (with the help of scientists) have been able to make Wootz Steel for themselves, very near to the original qualities of the steels of ancient Wootz Damascus. One metallurgy research group "QuesTek Innovations" has used "sophisticated computer thermodynamic models of metal transformations" to design and make a special new kindof metal: "Ferrium C69" which is 50% harder than other alloys with similar carbon content. Basically their computers can physically simulate the cooling process of the crystals in alloys, with varying impurities, therefore taking the luck and guesswork out of metallurgy.
QuesTek Innovations has decided to do the ultimate of mystical Blade forgery. The holy grail as it were. They have combined as many mythical ideals as they can and have actually harvested iron from a fallen Meteorite. You know, a rock from the sky. Then using this iron, made into the special Ferrium C69 alloy, and the scientific knowledge of Wootz Damascus Steel, they have forged what they have dubbed as the modern "DragonSlayer" blade.

The mysterious history of the previously spaceborn iron, with the peak of ancient Earth metallurgy technology, revived and computer simulated by modern science. If we ever have any aliens attack earth, I?d definitely like to see the hero carrying this thing into the hand-to-tentacle battle. Maybe it'd shoot lightning or something cool like that! Tests of the metal's strength showed that it will cut into ANY other sword that it is struck against (a common quality comparison test for sword blades, the victor sword is relatively unharmed but the loosing sword has a huge chunk taken out of it from the process).

The DragonSlayer blade, the ultimate item for any sword collector, has been sold at auction to a good home. I'm not sure how much, but I hope it was also payed for with the acid tears of a virgin of the new moon or something.

Wireless Virtual Sword

Anyway it was made for a new japanese samurai game. It got my hopes up temporarily, because ever since Jedi Knight 1 i have dreamed of having a Virtual Sword controller that would follow my movements. The closest thing i have to it is the P5 Virtual Reality glove, there have been some exciting developments in the P5 community lately, with Joystick emulation and Absolute Mode movement. Hopefully a good (possibly community made) sword swinging fighting P5 game will now be just around the corner.

Gish

If you don't know what GISH is. It's difficult to explain. It has the coolest implimentation of liquid physics i've ever seen in a game. It's a platformer game right, but normally i don't like platformers. But this game is WAY different.
You really have to see it in action to understand, but basically your character is a living blob of tar, it reacts very realisticly as a blob of tar to it's environment. The physics implimentation is 2nd to none as you use the laws of physics to swing, stick, plat and splurt your blob around to where you want it. The moves you can pull off can be so cool, almost ninja like, and the control is completely non-scripted, eg: when you jump you kindof "flex" your blob's muscles, and as per inertia and the laws of physics: this kindof pushes you off whatever you are currently touching. None of this "run scripted jump animation" crap. It's all completely controlled by physics.

The game rocks. You guys know how i like realistic physics in games? Well i LOVE this game. Watch that blob of tar giggle heh.
In the demo you can also play 2 player (on the same pc) SUMO MATCHES where you use your blob of tar to slam into, push, pull, smack, gouge, biff, and anything else you can manage with the physics model, as with really good physics in games it allows for almost endless possabilitys

This game is winning independant gaming awards for reasons ppl. Go try the demo

Here's some of my previous rantings about it when i had recently found the game, i'll just quote myself:

RAAAWR!
i am teh gish master. i am all powerful gishgod roid and no-one can beat me ...probabaly.
ph34r my ninja like ability to jump off cliffs, stick to the walls of my house, and my amazing tarlike body odor.
(i've only got the gish demo atm, and boy is it cool)

unfortunately, i don't know how good everyone, or in fact ANYONE else is at gish.

so.... how good is everyone?

download the demo and see if you can beat me (some ppl already have)

i wanna know how well you do at the 1st level of the collection mode, (the higher the time you have left the better, uh, yeah i don't need to say that). to get to this, start a new game and select collection mode. you have 1:30 to collect ALL of the coins in the room, the amount of time you have left when you get them all is your score.

my best score so far is 1:05.

afaik i rock and am the dog's nuts (this is a good thing i think).

can you knock the all powerful roid from the pedestal? try try try ... mmmmmhohahahahahahahahaa.

(no seriously, i wanna see if i'm good, or if i'm actually sucking compared to everyone else, i don't know)

would you believe one guy i asked said he got 1:10!!!! that's an amazing score.

So yeah, try it out. It's great.