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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Project Eartha
article written by : elesueur released on : 13 February, 2000 | send elesueur a private message! elesueur's rating : ***** |
DeLorme has created the largest globe in the world (and called this project Eartha). It took two years to build and represent Earth as it is seen from space. Every continent is beautifully detailed, with vivid colors illustrating all levels of vegetation, major roadways and cities. Ocean depths are also completely represented. The globe, which is over 41 feet in diameter, rotates and revolves just like the real Earth.
Every aspect of Eartha was developed using computer technology. The mapping data, which took over a year to compile, is taken from a special composite database built from satellite imagery. It includes shaded relief, colored bathymetry (ocean depth data) and information from terrestrial sources, such as road networks and urban areas. The printed Eartha database is equivalent to about 140 gigabytes (or 214 CD-ROMs), making it one of the largest in the world! Its scale is 1:1,000,000, which works out to be one inch equaling nearly 16 miles. At this scale, California is three and a half feet tall!
This globe is located in DeLorme headquaters in Yarmouth, Maine.
The Quantum Mirage
article written by : elesueur released on : 13 February, 2000 | send elesueur a private message! elesueur's rating : ***** |
On atomic scale the behavior of electrons changes from being like particles described by classical physics to being like waves described by quantum mechanics. On such small scales tiny wires don't conduct electrons as well as classical theory predicts. At the same time computer industry is determined to produce smaller and smaller circuits. It's evident that someday they will reach some minimum size when their products simply won't work.
Scientists from IBM have discovered new way to to transport information on the atomic scale. The new phenomenon, called the "quantum mirage" effect, may enable data transfer within future nanoscale electronic circuits too small to use wires. I'll try to explain how it works without tiring details.
To create the quantum mirage, the scientists first moved several dozen cobalt atoms on a copper surface into an ellipse-shaped ring. Then they placed an atom of magnetic cobalt at one focus (inside this ring), and a mirage appeared at the other focus. The intensity of the mirage is about one-third of the intensity around the cobalt atom. If we take the atom out of the focus, the mirage will disappear. Yes, that's our magic "1" and "0".
There are no perfect technologies in the world, this one also has several drawbacks. The transmission speed is lower than in case of using electrons. Scientists predict that it will take 5 years to achieve the modern speed (but nobody knows it for sure). And another thing. Low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope, which was used during this experiment can't be named the cheapest thing in the world:-)
Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket
article written by : elesueur released on : 13 February, 2000 | send elesueur a private message! elesueur's rating : ***** |
Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory is developing a new type of space rocket, the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR or just plasma rocket). It is not powered by conventional chemical reactions as today?s rockets are. It is powered by the fourth state of matter (as some scientists call it) - plasma. Let's make small digression and talk about it.
A plasma state can be achieved when a substance in its gaseous state is heated to very high temperatures (tens of thousands to millions of degrees). At these temperatures, electrons are stripped, or lost, from the neutral atoms. The result is: electrons, which hold a negative charge, and ionized atoms, which hold a positive charge, mixed together making an electrically neutral "soup" of charged particles that is a plasma. This is a very common occurrence in nature. In fact, ninety-nine percent of the universe is in some form of a plasma state, including lightning, very hot flames, nebulas, the sun and other stars.
The plasmas at the extreme temperatures required of this rocket cannot be contained by any known material. Fortunately, plasmas can be controlled by a magnetic field. I have a scheme illustrating the work of plasma rocket. It's rather big (1200x731 - 80KB), so I've put it in separate htm file. Here. The description of the process is under the image.
The greatest benifit of this technology is the speed of rocket. For example a journey to Mars will take only 4 months (compare with years today). According to the the roadmap, they are going to send the first man to the red palnet in 2018.
Communicating via packet data networks has become a preferred strategy for both corporate and public network planners. Experts are predicting that data traffic will soon exceed telephone traffic, if it hasn't already. At the same time, more and more companies are seeing the value of transporting voice over IP networks to reduce telephone and facsimile costs and to set the stage for advanced multimedia applications. To learn more about Voice over IP (VoIP) read this week article (This article will be up soon).
PawSense for Windows 95/98
article written by : elesueur released on : 24 March, 2004 | send elesueur a private message! elesueur's rating : ***** |
I have already written about useless hardware in number 14. Now it's time for useless software. Bitboost Systems are trying to sell "PawSense for Windows 95/98" for 20$. This utility detects when your cat walks or climbs on your keyboardand and blocks most cat typing. The program can also make a sound that annoys cats and thus train your cat to stay off the computer keyboard. The program algorithm is simple. Practically all cat paws are significantly larger than a typical keyboard key, so the cat presses several buttons at once. If the program detects suspicious button combination it blocks the keyboard.
The author writes "Cats on your keybord can enter random commands and data, damage your files, and even crash your computer". Yes, I agree that it's possible, but do you really think that odd string in your text editor is a real harm? And the chance of crashing the computer is 1/1000000 (wanted to write 1/1000000000, but remembered about Windows 95/98 and decided to take 3 zeros back). Plus, I doubt that cats walk on the keyboard every day.
Issue Image!
A usual mexican cactus :-)