Eye Current

MOTODEV Studio for Android

noreply@blogger.com (Ray L.) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 10:27:00 +0000

Motorola has available for free their MOTODEV Studio for Android Runs on XP and on Mac OS X 10.5. This is a very proffesional looking Java Programming studio. and it is free. The IBM Developement package Eclipse is the heart of MOTODEV. MOTODEV provides extentions and a database of Motorola phones to test and develop on.

NSA to participate in U.S. cybersecurity

noreply@blogger.com (RGonzales) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:34:00 +0000

The Obama administration has given the National Security Agency powers to screen private Internet traffic going to and from government sites, and will use AT&T telecommunications as a likely test site. The Obama administration remains firm in this decision, which was put forth during the Bush administration.

The agency defends military networks with a classified system named Tutelag, which decides how to handle malware intrusions (for example, whether to block them or to investigate more closely). "We absolutely intend to use the technical resources, the substantial ones, that NSA has," said Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS's intrusion detection program, Einstein version 3, is in development as version 2 is being deployed. The program defends all U.S. government agencies and departments.

DHS spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said, "We are moving forward in a way that protects privacy and civil liberties."

AT&T, the chosen test site under Bush, sought assurance from the Obama administration to determine what elements of Einstein 3 to preserve. AT&T officials declined to comment.

In 2006 the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed the class action lawsuit Hepting v. AT&T—currently awaiting decision—against AT&T, which under the Bush administration permitted the NSA to look at domestic communications without a warrant. NSA's intelligence gathering is limited only to foreign communications.

"We came away saying they have a lot of work in front of them to get this done right," Ari Schwartz of the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) said. "We're looking forward to their next steps."

Schwartz authored a letter on Einstein to the Office of Management and Budget in December 2008 on behalf of the Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board.

NSA director Keith B. Alexander said in April 2009 that the NSA will help, but does not want to take charge. Several people—including Rod Beckstrom, who resigned over the issue as head of the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC); Bruce Schneier of BT Counterpane; Leslie Harris, president and CEO of CDT—and not Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence—have urged the Obama administration to keep the Department of Homeland Security in charge despite its low scores, because, they claim, the NSA is a spy agency.

Google Operating System

noreply@blogger.com (RGonzales) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:14:00 +0000

Google announced today that they are developing Google Chrome OS. The operating system, announced on their official blog, will be based on their Chrome browser, which is now nine months old.

Google said that at first it will be targeted toward netbooks, but in the future, will eventualy expand. The company said that it will continue to be developed alongside Android, their operating system currently being used on mobile devices.

The system will run in a windowing system atop a Linux kernel and will be fully open source. It is planned to be released in 2010. On their blog, Google said, "Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds," said the blog post written by Sundar Pichai, Vice President Product Management, and Google's engineering director, Linus Upson.

Both men said that "the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web" and that the new OS is "our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be".

Developing Wave

noreply@blogger.com (Ray L.) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:12:00 +0000

Google announced its newest product at the Google I/O conference in California this week, Google Wave. Wave is a new collaberative media concept and program. It is intended to be an all encompasing email, chat and social networking scheme. What strikes me as interesting is the process of creating this new product and how the Google corporate atmosphere effects how the product is developed. The idea for wave was originated not by corporate nor was it even customer driven. Rather it is the brainchild of two brothers who asked the question. "What would email look like it it were developed today?"

"Back in early 2004, Google took an interest in a tiny mapping startup called Where 2 Tech, founded by my brother Jens and me. We were excited to join Google and help create what would become Google Maps. But we also started thinking about what might come next for us after maps. As always, Jens came up with the answer: communication. He pointed out that two of the most spectacular successes in digital communication, email and instant messaging, were originally designed in the '60s to imitate analog formats — email mimicked snail mail, and IM mimicked phone calls. Since then, so many different forms of communication had been invented — blogs, wikis, collaborative documents, etc. — and computers and networks had dramatically improved. So Jens proposed a new communications model that presumed all these advances as a starting point; I was immediately sold," explains Lars Rasmussen.

So it seems that Lars and Jen Rasmussen came up with the idea, and sold it to their bosses at Google. These guys do have a track record, these are the guys that developed Google Maps. It seems to me a remarkable show of faith that American based Google would let this remote team in Australia run with this. Then again this is Google and they do things differently

When Lars Rasmussen first floated the idea, Google co-founder Sergey Brin wasn't impressed. "He came to me and he said 'This may sound kinda crazy, but we're going to reinvent communication and we just need a bunch of engineers to go of to Australia for a while and we'll get back to you after a couple of years,'" Brin remembers. "It was not a very compelling proposal."
But Brin greenlighted the project anyway. After Google acquired their Where 2 Tech startup in 2004, Lars Rasmussen and his brother Jens had spearheaded the Google Maps project, and in an extreme case of Google's much-lauded commitment to creative freedom, Brin gave the pair just what they asked for.

"Lars and Jens had previously redefined what mapping was like - they already had a success under their belt - and communications was one of those trigger topics," Brin told reporters yesterday afternoon at Google's I/O developer conference in downtown San Francisco. "We decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. It was also an interesting experiment. It was one of the most autonomous development groups we've had at Google."

The way Brin tells it, the decision allowed the Chocolate Factory to "innovate how we run things." But by all accounts, this amounted to letting the Rasmussens do whatever they wanted. The result - after two years of development - is Google Wave, the new-age communication and collaboration tool the company unveiled on Thursday to a standing ovation from hundreds of gathered developers.

Not only did they get a green light to go with a project that wasn't a "corporate" idea. No one seems to have given much thought to a marketing plan. The thought sems to be if the product is good enough someone will figure out a way for it to pay the bills.

As Vic Gundotra, Google's VP of engineering put it, "One of the luxuries about working at Google is that we get to focus on building the technology and making users happy, and once we've achieved a certain amount of success in terms of user happiness, only then do we start working about how to make money from it."

With engineering projects such as Wave, Gundotra later added, "We don't think about what competitors are doing... We believe that you build for the user and the rest will follow. Part of the excitement is rethinking the problem and coming up with a fresh approach."

When one reporter questioned whether he was telling the whole truth, Gundotra quickly repeated himself. And judging from Google's track record, we're inclined to believe him. At least for the moment, the company's top-secret search money machine is pulling in more than enough dough to fund such idealism.

No one can doubt that Google can make money, even in the days of a reccession. While the idiea of turning the designers and engineers loose, Worry about marketing and sales plan later. And turn the code and APIs to the open source world, seems contridictory, There can be no doubt that Google will make it work.

Robot Biologist

noreply@blogger.com (RGonzales) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:30:00 +0000

Adam is a robot developed by Welsh Aberystwyth University researchers which combines artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and automation to independently conduct and analyse biological laboratory research.

"What's new and exciting about Adam is [it is] the first time we've managed to show that a computer can not only think up new scientific ideas, but experimentally test them and decide whether they're true," said Ross King, a computer science professor and lead researcher at Aberystwyth University, "Adam makes up its own mind what to do. It decides what experiments to do, what to test." He says that for other lab experiments the hardware is already in place, the only step needed is to change the software.

The artificial intelligence alone spans three computers which holds the databases and analytical software to enable Adam to think. For the yeast experiment, Adam was loaded with databases which hold known information relating to yeasts and organisms. Adam compared all fields in the database to find the areas of missing information from which he devised 20 hypotheses.

Adam's AI is connected to robotic arms, sensors, incubators and cameras which enable Adam to start over 1,000 individual experiments every day and follow their progress over a week.

A part of the process is that Adam's AI can cycle and analyze the results of the experiments as well doing routine repetitious lab work. Following Adam's testing, King's team manually tested three of Adam's hypotheses and found that the robot's conclusions were correct, and each was a breakthrough to the scientific community.

Adam has spawned discussion amongst researchers. William Melek, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Ontario's University of Waterloo, has noted that to set up the AI needed for subsequent experiments involving new biological variables and criteria, the human expertise would be time consuming to customize it. The usefulness would be limited therefore to the allotment of human input needed to set up Adam.

David Waltz of Columbia University and Bruce Buchanan of the University of Pittsburgh say that "For the foreseeable future, the prospect of using automated systems as assistants holds vast promise as these assistants are becoming not only faster but much broader in their capabilities -- more knowledgeable, more creative, and more self-reflective," They note the potential of such lab assistants which may more efficiently process the research data.

It was reported that Adam cost about $1million in production costs and this was weighed against the costs of hiring lab techs. King said, We made many mistakes and learned from Adam. Eve is a much cleaner design."

Eve is the second AI computer under development by Professor King's research team. Eve's artificial intelligence will be enhanced to analyze compounds needed for medicinal drugs which may treat killer diseases such as malaria.

Mindreading Robots

noreply@blogger.com (RGonzales) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:54:00 +0000

At its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, Honda Motor Company demonstrated on Tuesday technology which links a person's thoughts with robots.

The operator wears a helmet which scans for electric currents stimulated by brain activity, but also uses infrared sensors to detect changes in blood flows in the head. The information is sent to a computer, which can then execute robotic movements such as opening the trunk of the vehicle or turning on the car's air conditioning. The commands usually take just seconds to reach the robot.

Honda also released a video where a humanoid robot named Asimo was operated by a person wearing the helmet. The employee was stated to be thinking about raising his right hand, after which Asimo moved its right arm.

Honda states that it could be quite some time before the technology is ready to go live due to difficulties such as the human brain's liability to become distracted, creating mixed thought patterns. A related problem is the amount of focus required by the operator.

"Practical uses are still way into the future." said Honda Research Institute Japan Co executive, Yasuhisa Arai. "I'm [just] talking about dreams today."

North Korea At It Again

noreply@blogger.com (RGonzales) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:39:00 +0000

In what has been interpreted as a thinly veiled threat, the North Korean government in Pyongyang has issued a statement saying that it could not guarantee the safety of airliners transiting its airspace.

The warning has led to Korean Air, Asiana Airlines and international carriers Air Canada and Singapore Airlines to reroute services that normally pass through North Korean airspace.

The statement has been widely condemned, with South Korean spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon saying "Threatening civilian airliners' normal operations under international aviation regulations is not only against the international rules but is an act against humanity..."

The latest interchange of words comes on the eve of two events. The first a launch of a North Korean satellite seen by the United States, Japan and South Korea as a test launch of North Korea's Taepodong-2 ballistic missile.

This satellite launch coincides with an annual joint United States, South Korean military exercise, which the North has condemned in the past as a dress rehearsal for an invasion. An expansion of this year's exercises in length and scale is being seen by Pyongyang as cover for preparations to shoot down its launch vehicle.

Pyongyang has threatened both Japan and the United States, the two nations in the region capable of shooting down its satellite with "...merciless retaliatory blows" and has placed its 1.2 million strong army on alert.

Kepler Goes to Space

noreply@blogger.com (RGonzales) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 21:28:00 +0000

The Kepler telescope

NASA's Kepler Telescope, which will search for planets orbiting other stars, was successfully launched by a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at approximately 10:51 p.m. (EST).

NASA regained the rocket's signal at 12:11 a.m. EDT Saturday, shortly after confirming the satellite's separation from the rocket.

According to the Kepler Mission page on NASA's website, the telescope "is specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone and determine how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such planets." The telescope is named after Johannes Kepler, an astronomer, astrologist and mathematician from Germany in the late 1500 and early 1600s.

The Kepler Telescope will use the 'Transit Method' of detecting planets. When planets pass in front of their parent star, a small black dot is cast over the star, called a transit. Transits by terrestrial planets produce a small change in a star's brightness of about one part in ten thousand (.01%), lasting for 2 to 16 hours.

Kepler's view is 105 square degrees and will be focused on one area all the time. It will orbit around our Sun, maintaining a constant distance from Earth of 950 miles. It will continuously and simultaneously monitor the brightnesses of more than 100,000 stars for the life of the mission, which is expected to be three and a half years.
The Milky Way Galaxy, showing Kepler's range of view.
Image: NASA.

"Even if we find no planets like Earth, that by itself would be profound. It would indicate that we are probably alone in the galaxy," said William Borucki, the mission's science principal investigator.

Although planets orbiting stars other than the Sun had been theorized for centuries, it was only in 1988 that a team of Canadian astronomers made the first detection of extrasolar planets orbiting the star Gamma Cephei. Now over 300 extrasolar planets are said to have been discovered.

The launch comes just weeks after NASA's failed launch of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, which crashed into the ocean off Antarctica's coast. It would have been the first spacecraft dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide, the most significant human-produced greenhouse gas and the principal human-produced driver of climate change. The cost of the project was US$273 million.

Discovery Ceases to Discover

noreply@blogger.com (RGonzales) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:13:00 +0000

NASA announced during a press conference on Friday night that that agency has decided to delay the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery, which was scheduled for takeoff on February 27. NASA cited the need for additional time to evaluate the shuttle's hydrogen fuel flow control valves. A new launch date has yet to be scheduled, though NASA is considering mid-March as an option. Another review of Discovery's flight readiness is scheduled for February 25.

Discovery had originally been scheduled for liftoff on February 12, but NASA wanted to perform additional tests on the valves which control the amount of hydrogen fuel pumped into the external tank when the shuttle is taking off. When Space Shuttle Endeavour went into space in November 2008, one of the valves broke. NASA fears that if one breaks off on this mission, then it could damage the outside of the shuttle.

"We need to complete more work to have a better understanding before flying," said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. who chaired Friday's Flight Readiness Review. "We were not driven by schedule pressure and did the right thing. When we fly, we want to do so with full confidence."

The current scheduled mission, STS-119, is set to fly the Integrated Truss Structure segment ("S" for starboard, the right side of the station, and "6" for its place at the very end of the starboard truss) and install the final set of power-generating solar arrays to the International Space Station. The arrays consist of two 115-foot-long arrays, for a total wing span of 240 feet, including the equipment that connects the two halves and allows them to twist as they track the sun. Altogether, the four sets of arrays can generate 84 to 120 kilowatts of electricity – enough to provide power for more than 40 average homes.

Commander Lee Archambault will lead Discovery's crew of seven, along with Pilot Tony Antonelli, and Mission Specialists Joseph Acaba, John Phillips, Steve Swanson, Richard Arnold, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata.

Plug Computer

noreply@blogger.com (Ray L.) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 02:42:00 +0000

I've been fascinated with the shrinking technology. Cheap powerful and small are the keys to success in todays market. Cell phones today not only hold address books but are expected to run apps, surf the net and do email. There is a device out there called a plug computer it looks pretty much like a wallwart but has SD , USB ports and a megabit Ethernet port. It runs a Linux OS and while it probably has more capabilities than as a thumb drive server. It looks like it might be admirably suited for that function. For either home or office capability this device has a lot of potential for sharing thumb drives or camera photos. The device is energy saving and runs on just a couple watts .

With the rise in broadband users, people continue to consume and share increasing amounts of digital content each year. The time and money invested in personal photos, home movies and in content purchased digitally is significant and continues to grow. Network connected consumer electronics devices, smart phones and social websites have emerged to help consumers share and access their personal content in the home and over the Internet. With the growth in digital content, there is a need for services to secure, manage and share content simply and reliably.

Today digital home services such as media servers, file sharing and backup software all need to be installed on a PC. A plug computer is a small, powerful computer that connects to an existing network using Gigabit Ethernet. This type of device eliminates the need for an always-on PC in the digital home to access these services.

Its a product worth watching, unfortunately, the only thing for sale is the development kit. Still if one is somewhat handy and has a $100 dollars in the budget it could well be worth checking out.

Email Automation

noreply@blogger.com (Ray L.) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:37:00 +0000

Email automation isn't about creating spam bots, but about an event causing emails to be sent to the right people. This works well for engineering people who want to be aware of how often certain events happen or to materials people that need to know that they need to order more material. By setting up an automated emailer companies can eliminate the middle man and ensure direct communication to those who need to react. One can then send an email back to the device, to clear an alarm shut it down or whatever.

This isn't anything new, sophisticated users have used alarms to trigger scripts in UNIX based systems for several years now. The problem with this is that requires an idepth knowledge of the operating system and connection whole DCS system with the plant network an exposure risk that many plants are not willing to risk.

There is a low cost hardware solution. KIBe-E is a device capable of featuring events and alerts notifications by sending and receiving e-mails, without the need for a PC.

You can connect a switch, sensor or alarm to your KIBe-E and quickly receive an e-mail notice of any unexpected situationoccurring within the system / machine / device you are monitoring. Because of its bi-directionality, KIBe-E can receive incoming e-mail messages and actively operate by enabling or disabling an output, such as a relay or any other device.

It is very easy to install and configure; it allows you to send up to 128 e-mail messages through an Ethernet network connected to the Internet through a Cable Modem, ADSL, wireless or telephone connection. All e-mail messages sent through KIBe-E can be configured according to the notice to be given. at about the size of a deck of cards it can be DIN rail mounted or screwed directly to a wall.

We at PCO are proudly selling these gems, and expect that they will find usage in the oil and chemical industrys, automated assembly lines and even in the car wash/vending machine bussiness. Contact us if you would like any further information.

MSFT Flight Simulator is Down for the Count

noreply@blogger.com (RGonzales) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:44:00 +0000

The future of Microsoft's Flight Simulator series is uncertain after the company fired all of Flight Simulator's developers this January. Microsoft still insists that it is "committed" to the series, although the ACES studio, which develops the simulator, was closed when the company shed 5000 jobs.

Nels Anderson, the founder of FlightSim.com, a MSFS enthusiast website, called it a "dark day" for the simulation market. "Microsoft have apparently cancelled a 27 year franchise. Flight sims were one of the few things about Microsoft people actually liked. It made them money and had an enormous following. To cancel something like that is an amazing thing to do," he said in an interview with the BBC.

Derek Davis, who is the editor of the PC Pilot Magazine, however, said that there could be a bright side to the news: "I don't know what the eventual fate of Microsoft's Flight Simulator series will be, but I think we're going to see a rise in sales and an increase in third-party development. There is now some stability to be had — we're all going to be using FSX for some time — and that is going to make it far easier for developers to produce new aircraft," he said. Flight Simulator X (FSX) is the current edition in the series.

The Flight Simulator series is possibly the longest-running computer game series ever, with the first version of the game released back in 1982. It is known, not only for its official releases, but also for its dedicated fan base, which has produced large amounts of third-party addons for the game.

Prior to the dissolution of the ACES studio, an eleventh version of Flight Simulator was planned for release in about a year and a half. Also in development at the studio at the time of its closure was Microsoft Train Simulator 2, which was expected to be released this year.

Bill Gates Spreads Malaria?

noreply@blogger.com (RGonzales) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:57:00 +0000

Bill Gates, the founder of computer software company Microsoft tried to bring attention to malaria while speaking at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference on Wednesday February 4 in Long Beach, California. He did so by releasing a "swarm" of mosquitoes from a jar, into the crowd.

"Malaria is spread by mosquitoes. I brought some. Here I'll let them roam around. There is no reason only poor people should be infected," said Gates as he opened the jar. After waiting a minute, Gates then stated that the mosquitoes were not infected with the disease.

"There is more money put into baldness drugs than into malaria. Now, baldness is a terrible thing and rich men are afflicted. That is why that priority has been set," said Gates jokingly.

The prank was first reported by Dave Morin, Facebook's manager, on the social networking and micro-blogging site Twitter. Morin stated that "Gates just released mosquito[e]s into the audience at TED and said: 'Not only poor people should experience this,'" followed by a smiley face.

Gates donated nearly US$170 million to the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative in September 2008 to fund research to fight malaria, and develop a vaccine.

The TED conference, held annually, features, among other things, the latest in technology, science, and politics. People who have previously spoken at the conference include former United States president Bill Clinton and former vice president Al Gore.

Search and Rescue Goes Digital

noreply@blogger.com (RGonzales) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:25:00 +0000

1st generation EPIRBs

Starting February 1st, Cospas-Sarsat will discontinue monitoring of the 121.5 & 243 MHz frequencies. These frequencies are used for analog based emergency position-indicating radio beacons (EPIRB). Search and rescue (SAR) groups world wide will only monitor the 406 MHz frequency, which is dedicated to digital locators. The 406 MHz digital band has many advantages over the older Analog systems.

Since the locators send data to the satellites, rather than just a continuous signal, much more will be known about the emergency before a SAR group arrives, such as the type of vehicle and owner. In addition, the accuracy will be greatly enhanced from a 20km initial fix to 100m if locator has a GPS fix. The most important reason for the switch is the reduction of false positives. With the older analog bands, only about 1 in every 50 alerts was real, whereas with the digital system that is reduced to about 1 in every 17 alerts being real.

With fewer false positives and greatly increased accuracy, SAR groups around the world will be better able and faster to respond to life threatening emergencies within the critical "golden day". They will also be able to do this with much less wasted resources.

The phase out of Analog transponders has been a long time coming. The first warnings were sent by the US Coast Guard out in 2000, and the Analog devices have not been manufactured in the last several years. For most large boats the cost of upgrading to the new system was negligible. The change February 1st is world wide and both the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization recommended the switch.

USB Drive Helps to Spread Virus

noreply@blogger.com (RGonzales) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:58:00 +0000

New reports indicate that the proliferation of the Conficker computer worm (also known as Kido or Downadup) has nearly quadrupled in the last four days. The worm has gone from just over 2 million Microsoft Windows computers infected to 8.9 million, according to estimates by anti-virus company F-Secure. Though Microsoft issued a patch with a severity rating of "critical" in mid-October 2008, just days after Conficker was first discovered, many business computers still have not applied the patch.

Most to all of the infected computers are on corporate networks; Conficker cannot spread through the Internet or e-mails. Instead, when an infected laptop connects to a corporate network, the worm searches for vulnerable computers and attempts to guess its password. Conficker also infects any network shares the user may be connected to. The worm has a list of about one hundred common passwords, including "password" and "qwerty". Conficker also infects USB sticks, which then infect any Microsoft Windows computer the stick is plugged in to.

After it gains access to the computer, Conficker adds itself to the Windows processes "services.exe", "explorer.exe" and "svchost.exe", then makes a copy of itself as a DLL file with a random five- to eight-character name. The worm also disables Windows services such as Windows Update and Windows Defender. Conficker also blocks access to most security-related sites, including Windows Update. The worm then checks several search engines for the current date, then generates a domain name based on that date and downloads infected files from that domain. This domain is believed to be in Ukraine. Conficker makes itself very hard to remove by registering the downloaded files as kernel drivers and the DLL copy of itself of a service.

Microsoft has advised users to install the patch (security bulletin MS08-067), then run the latest edition of the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool.

US Senators push for DTV delay

noreply@blogger.com (RGonzales) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:39:00 +0000

The February 17 scheduled transition from analog to digital television broadcast in the United States, members of the United States Senate have introduced a bill that would push back the transition three months later, to June 12. This is due to concerns raised about the government's subsidy program to upgrade to digital TV ran out of money, leaving over 1 million televisions in the United States still running on analog.

"In Minnesota, more than 21% of our households depend exclusively on over-the-air broadcast TV. While the digital TV transition should happen, this delay is necessary to make up for the lack of preparation on the part of the current administration. Unfortunately, after guarantees that the Bush administration would adequately prepare and protect consumers, only in the last few days have they revealed that funding has run out— just weeks before the plug is pulled on analog TV." said US Senator Amy Klobucha , from Minnesota and of the United States Democratic Party.

Senator John Rockefeller, also a Democrat and from the state of West Virginia, also led the charge for the bill to be passed. He said in a statement to the media, "Over 2 million Americans are waiting to receive a coupon to help them offset the cost of equipment that will help them manage the transition. Millions more don't have the proper information they need." He also had a concern that “...because this transition is going to hit our most vulnerable citizens — the poor, the elderly, the disabled, and those with language barriers — the hardest." This call by Senators has also earned the support of president-elect Barack Obama, who be inaugurated on Tuesday.

The government's subsidy program was set up to provide millions of $40 digital converter boxes to people who could not afford to buy a new television or upgrade to satellite or cable transmission. Many people complained that when they received their coupons, they were not able to use them as they had already expired. Currently, approximately 2 million Americans are on a waiting list to receive coupons for these digital converter boxes.

Although members in the Senate as well as the president-elect support this idea, many television stations do not. Nat Ostroff, part of the Sinclair Broadcast Group which owns nearly 60 television stations, says that many stations had used a large sum of money to prepare for the transition to digital broadcast and would lose funds if the delay was passed. "A delay would not be welcome for the broadcast stations themselves," he said, "The sooner we can turn one of them off, in these hard times, the happier everyone would be."

Carbon-Offset Cowboys Let Their Grass Grow: Scientific American

noreply@blogger.com (RawburtG.) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:29:00 +0000

Carbon-Offset Cowboys Let Their Grass Grow: Scientific American

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Imogolite

noreply@blogger.com (Ray L.) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:43:00 +0000

When think of the giant molecules and nano-technology materials we usually think of carbon based matereals made of Bucky balls and nanotubes. There is a new new kid on the block that might see some exposure in applications in the not to distant future. Imogolite

Imogolite is nano-sized tubular aluminum silicate (outer diameter: about 2.5 nm, inner diameter: about 1 nm, length: several tens of nm -- several µm). This material has large specific surface area due to its unique shape, a high affinity for water, and excellent adsorption capability. These qualities make the material applicable to several industrial areas as a heat-exchange medium for heat pumps, a fuel-storage medium, an anti-dewing agent, and as a fast-drying desiccating agent.

How to pick yourf DAQ.

noreply@blogger.com (Ray L.) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:09:00 +0000

Today their are many choices for DAQ boards and modules. USB and on board. Some of the parameters that we use to choose aren't as black and white as they used to. Embedded Technology has a nice article on how one might approach your DAQ solutions.

Today, you have a wider — and better — choice of interfaces for your DAQ system than ever before. External box systems based on 100Base-T and Gigabit Ethernet (including LXI), USB, GPIB, CAN, RS-232/485, as well as a variety of proprietary interfaces, are available. On the plug-in board side of the coil are interfaces for PCI, PXI, PCI Express, Cardbus and ExpressCard. Even boards for the original IBM PC’s ISA bus are still available. To further complicate matters, hybrid systems like UEI’s popular RACKTangle series offer the advantages of an external box with the flexibility and reconfigurability of a board system.

COMPUTERS AND ELECTRONICS AT NNEC

noreply@blogger.com (RGonzales) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:03:00 +0000

Register today for NASA Tech Briefs' National Nano Engineering Conference (NNEC), the premier event focused on current and future developments in engineering innovations at the nanoscale. The event returns to Boston this year on November 12-13 at the Boston Colonnade Hotel, featuring the fourth annual Nano 50 Awards, recognizing the top 50 technologies, innovators, and products that have significantly impacted the development of nanotechnology.

This year's NNEC will feature a session on Computers and Electronics to be held Thursday, November 13 at 9:00 am. The papers include: "Ballistic Electronics - Breaking the Barrier in Terahertz Speed Processing" by Martin Margala, UMASS Lowell; "Etch-A-Sketch Nanoelectronics " by Jeremy Levy, University of Pittsburgh; and "Use of Thin-Film Thermoelectrics for Cooling, Temperature Control and Power Generation" by Karl von Gunten, Nextreme Thermal Solutions.

To view the complete conference agenda and to register for the 2008 NNEC, click http://link.abpi.net/l.php?20081104A11.

New ACE Awards Catagory

noreply@blogger.com (Ray L.) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:45:00 +0000

Energy cost are taking us all on a wild ride. Oil futures are at less than half of what they were just a few months ago. There are fears that the lower prices will undercut progress and into the alternate fuel and energy saving fields. EETImes sees the issue as thus:

The drilling issue has receded somewhat as gasoline prices decline. Indeed, a spate of recent news stories speculate that steadily declining gas prices will undercut momentum for forging ahead with research and the development of new energy sources. The myopic authors of these articles assume that the internal combustion engine is the main--or only--component of the U.S. energy equation. Little or no mention is made of home heating costs (like the airlines, the suppliers of heating oil are locked into price contracts concluded before the global price of oil declined), electricity generation or the relatively high price of diesel fuel that underpins a large portion of the American transportation and distribution infrastructure.

Furthermore, the current U.S. power grid still requires a major overhaul on the scale of the U.S. interstate highway system in order to handle electricity generated by new energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal.

We must not delude ourselves. The energy imperative will not disappear just because pump prices drop below $3 a gallon. Energy independence is a paramount national security issue, and clean, renewable energy has become a real market that will generate jobs and profits for those wise enough to invest. Few other industries today can make such a claim.

We believe that many of the answers to our energy dilemma will come from a new generation of engineers who will create innovative ways to make renewable energy sources a viable economic alternative to fossil fuels. As one European expert put it at alternative energy technology conference earlier this year, the Earth's near-term energy future hinges on "fossil-assisted solar power," not the other way around.

We wish to recognize those companies and engineers who are working to develop the renewable energy sources of the future. To that end, we have added five new energy categories to our Annual Creativity in Electronics, or ACE, Awards. We will be recognizing innovative companies, individuals, investors and the technologies they have created over the last year.

Our new ACE Award categories include the most innovative photovoltaic and solar thermal technologies, along with the most promising new renewable energy source. We also will recognize the growing importance of "green engineering" through a "Best Enabler" award.

The new category for the ACE will give recognition to those who help explore this exiting field. best of luck to the entrants.

Google Chrome

noreply@blogger.com (Ray L.) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:35:00 +0000

Google announced their new browser today. The announcement is greeted by plentiful yawns. But on a closer look there might be something to be excited about. Although this is probably the first time that Google is taking on Microsoft in their own territory. While one may wonder whether the world really needs another web browser, or whether this is just another tool for targeted advertising. Regardless of their motives, they chose to present their introduction with a comic book format for some reason.

Google is taking Microsoft head on with this one. Chrome promises to be open and free, anyone can take their code and use all of it or bits and pieces. Google is staking a claim on making a performance browser faster tougher and stronger. Chrome will be based on Web Kit engine which is also free and open sourced. The code is promised to be threaded and robust. Google claims that starting from scratch gives them the benefit of starting fresh with code intended for complex web content right from the beginning. Internet Explorer and Mozilla FireFox have root code that is ancient by Internet standards. Chrome also promises to a new JavaScript engine that apparently compiles on the fly and should be much faster.

With the promised improved memory management, threading and new JavaScript Virtual machine, even if we shy away from Google Chrome we will benefit from the new open source code that will be likely used by other browsers down the road.

OLED, What's It To Me?

noreply@blogger.com (RawburtG.) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:17:00 +0000

The first OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) displays have hit the market. Sony is claiming that it's XEL-1 is the “next big thing”. I think they may be right. Don't get me wrong, I love my dual 21” wide screen LCD's, however their contrast ratios are a measly 2000:1 compared to the XEL-1's 1,000,000:1. That's right ONE MILLION TO ONE! In layman terms, that means that the whites are 1,000,000 times brighter than the blacks. That's another thing OLED displays have to offer: complete darkness. With an LCD display black is simply a dark combination of reds, greens, and blues. However, this is not the case with OLED's; when pixel is “off” it really is “off”, there is nothing to be displayed but total darkness. Along with total darkness comes an incredible array of colors that can be displayed with OLED's. It's not that any different colors are displayed with OLED's. It has more to do with the contrast ratio allowing for a greater difference in colors resulting in what is seen as a purer hue. Power consumption is another great feature of OLED's. LCD displays require a backlight, to be constantly on in order to make the display bright enough to see. With OLED technology the OLED molecule itself is the backlight. So going back to the total darkness, this means that when the pixel is off it consumes no power whatsoever. Given that there is no longer a need for a backlight the OLED displays are significantly thinner. In fact Sony's XEL-1 is only 3mm thick (or thin for that matter). To put that into perspective, two penny's stacked on top of each other are 3mm thick; really, really thin to say the least. Now, Sony's display is designed for consumers and has a nice cover on it and what not. However, without any plastic housing OLED displays are much thinner than that. There has been talk of developing HUDs (Heads Up Displays) for military vehicles using this technology. They would simply adhere the OLED to the windshield, plug into the appropriate interface, and go. Also, OLED's are incredibly flexible allowing for them to be rolled up and taken anywhere. One drawback with the current OLED technology is that the displays are pretty small at this point, for example Sony's XEL-1 is a whooping 11” measured diagonally. All of that will change as the technology matures and its market share increases. Until then, I will stick with my dual 21” wide screen LCD's.

iPhone 3G Released, Sales Skyrocket

noreply@blogger.com (James B.) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:30:00 +0000

Apple’s iPhone 3G launch didn’t go quite as expected. Customers across the globe had problems activating the beloved smart phone with the Apple network, and as many have probably guessed this did nothing to overall sales.

The problem started when consumers were told that stores would not activate the phone that they had go home and do it on their own due to overloaded servers and the long wait incurred with activating in-store. In weeks previous Apple made it clear that this generation would be different than the other iPhones and activation would only happen at retail locations. Along with this confusion came iTunes network problems. When customers tried activating at home, as they were told to do so, many faced network problems associated with a new release of iTunes. And the lines at the stores were only getting longer. As the day went on, those waiting at stores for their iPhone were welcomed to a few shows such as a boxing match at one AT&T store featuring customers who thought it would be a good idea to skip in line. Still though, Apple projects iPhone sales to top around 13 million this year and to come close to 45 million by next year.

In the days to come we will no longer hear about the problems that plagued the iPhone upon release but about the wonderful things you can accomplish with an iPhone at your side. “Pick one up when you’re heading out the door and see how many great opportunities come landing at your feet!” they’ll say; but I know I can go outside without an iPhone and still have a great time. Can you?

The Nanomachines are Coming!

noreply@blogger.com (James B.) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:49:00 +0000

Believe it or not there has been a push recently in the scientific community for more research into nanotechnology. Nanotechnology refers to the developments made by applied science and technology that are on the atomic or molecular scale and their ability to control these devices. Be advised that this is not a new science; we have been living with nanotechnology for quite some time such as carbon allotropes used to produce the silver in food packaging and some clothing. Although these are not very “techy” applications they are still reserved as “first generation” passive nanomaterials. Currently nanoparticles are being considered as a viable option for direct drug delivery to diseased cells, an answer to reducing the weight and power consumption of today’s electronics, cleaning and filtering water, and as chemical sensors that are able to detect trace amounts of chemical vapors. Another advancement in terms of nanotechnology is the famous Respirocytes.

These Respirocytes are an artificial red blood cell that is able to deliver 236 times more oxygen to body tissues than your homegrown red blood cells. It is also speculated that an adult filled with Respirocytes would be able to hold their breath underwater for four hours and sprint at top speed for at least 15 minutes without the need for a deep breath.

Of course with the good comes the bad. It has been proposed that nanomachines could be given the ability to self replicate, meaning a human would only need to make one of a type and then give the order for the machine to go to work building five million more of the same type. Could this be useful? For sure, it makes Joe Scientist’s job easier helping people, but I don’t think I need to explain the risk of self-replicating machines.

All in all, could this move to development in nanotechnology prove useful for the people of the world? Yes it can, but people like you and I will not determine the applications in the future.