http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1078397/Disappearing-act-The-invisibility-cloak-ready-years.html
http://science.howstuffworks.com/invisibility-cloak.htm (extra research)
The invisibility cloak is what most of the world first learned about from Harry Potter that he used to creep out of Hogwarts, but really developing this invisibility cloak. Instead of using magic like Harry Potter researchers from Purdue University are using 'nanotechnology' and 'metamaterials' along with Einstein’s theory of general relativity. It now seems that this cloak is becoming a reality in five years. The way that the cloak will work it bends light around itself like the flow of water around a stone, which would make both the electromagnetic cloak and the object inside hidden. Professor Vladminr Shalaev is one of the researchers involve with the cloak and he said, " The whole idea behind metamaterials is to create materials designed and engineered out of artificial atoms, meta-atoms, which are smaller than the wavelengths of light itself." In the cloak they used an array of tiny needles radiating outward from a central spoke and that would bent the light around the object. With the light going around the object it pretty makes that object invisible to the naked eye. Also with this technology they can start developing super fast computer microchips and can allow DNA to be visible to the naked eye. I think that this is an awesome cloak. I think that everyone would want one, but if the researchers finish the cloak that it will probably be used only for the military. It is a very cool invention but if it got in the wrong hands it could be used for bad. I do like that with this development there are many other cool toys and other things that can use that technology.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Journal #7, October 12
http://www.pcworld.com/article/152173/.html?tk=rss_news
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL
On October 13, 2007 there was a train wreck near Duke, Texas that had 21,600 Xbox game consoles on it. Well since the train derailed all the Xboxes were lost and then Mirosoft is now suing the U.S. based cargo-delivery service DHL Express. In the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle a complaint was filed from Microsoft and is seeking 2 million dollars in damages from DHL for the damaged Xbox consoles after the derailment. The Xbox consoles were en route from a Microsoft office in McAllen, Texas to Long Beach, California then to Hong Kong. According to the court papers the Flextronics Industrial was suppose to receive the shipment of consoles. Also in the article it talked about controversy in Colorado, when a man was reselling Xbox consoles and returning inoperable consoles to retail and online. My thoughts are that I see the reasoning behind of suing DHL for their lost property. I do not know what the contact between the two companies, but it seems that DHL was liable for the accident. I the one thing I do not like that Microsoft is suing them for 2 million dollars, because that seems a little too much to "make-up" for their loses; I think that Microsoft has plenty of money for them to ask that much money.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL
On October 13, 2007 there was a train wreck near Duke, Texas that had 21,600 Xbox game consoles on it. Well since the train derailed all the Xboxes were lost and then Mirosoft is now suing the U.S. based cargo-delivery service DHL Express. In the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle a complaint was filed from Microsoft and is seeking 2 million dollars in damages from DHL for the damaged Xbox consoles after the derailment. The Xbox consoles were en route from a Microsoft office in McAllen, Texas to Long Beach, California then to Hong Kong. According to the court papers the Flextronics Industrial was suppose to receive the shipment of consoles. Also in the article it talked about controversy in Colorado, when a man was reselling Xbox consoles and returning inoperable consoles to retail and online. My thoughts are that I see the reasoning behind of suing DHL for their lost property. I do not know what the contact between the two companies, but it seems that DHL was liable for the accident. I the one thing I do not like that Microsoft is suing them for 2 million dollars, because that seems a little too much to "make-up" for their loses; I think that Microsoft has plenty of money for them to ask that much money.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Journal #6, October 5, 2008
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/151816/bad_things_happen_to_unlicensed_windows_users.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows (Extra Research)
Most likely everyone that owns a computer in America uses some sort of Windows program, well when we are using those programs ourselves they are mostly likely a licensed Windows program. There are Windows programs that are unlicensed that some companies rely on so they do not have to pay to use it. Well the Microsoft Corp. said that those unlicensed programs are more likely to experience system failures and lose certain type of data. According to the research done by the Microsoft Corp. they report that 43% of those that use the unlicensed one had a critical failure lasting more then 24 hours. Those companies were also 28% more likely to lose customers data and 73% more likely to lose their data. Also in their research they calculated that 56% of 1,600 companies are using the unlicensed Windows and that is a big risk for those companies to take. Whoever is sneaking the unlicensed can also be sneaking the risk for those companies, so Microsoft Corp. is saying that you are getting what they desire. But they are awaring companies about this risk to make the companies think before getting the unlicensed Windows. I think that Microsoft is doing a good job in awaring these companies about the risk. It is beneficial to them, because the companies now would buy the product instead of trying to be cheap and take a risk in downloading the unlicensed version. I know a couple people that have the unlicensed version so I do not know if they are risk of the same thing since they do not have a company. If it was me that owned a company and I was at risk I would go head and buy it legal and pay for it that way, then downloading it and paying for it buy losing important data. So this can have a very big impact to society according what companies have what.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows (Extra Research)
Most likely everyone that owns a computer in America uses some sort of Windows program, well when we are using those programs ourselves they are mostly likely a licensed Windows program. There are Windows programs that are unlicensed that some companies rely on so they do not have to pay to use it. Well the Microsoft Corp. said that those unlicensed programs are more likely to experience system failures and lose certain type of data. According to the research done by the Microsoft Corp. they report that 43% of those that use the unlicensed one had a critical failure lasting more then 24 hours. Those companies were also 28% more likely to lose customers data and 73% more likely to lose their data. Also in their research they calculated that 56% of 1,600 companies are using the unlicensed Windows and that is a big risk for those companies to take. Whoever is sneaking the unlicensed can also be sneaking the risk for those companies, so Microsoft Corp. is saying that you are getting what they desire. But they are awaring companies about this risk to make the companies think before getting the unlicensed Windows. I think that Microsoft is doing a good job in awaring these companies about the risk. It is beneficial to them, because the companies now would buy the product instead of trying to be cheap and take a risk in downloading the unlicensed version. I know a couple people that have the unlicensed version so I do not know if they are risk of the same thing since they do not have a company. If it was me that owned a company and I was at risk I would go head and buy it legal and pay for it that way, then downloading it and paying for it buy losing important data. So this can have a very big impact to society according what companies have what.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Journal #5, September 28
http://www.physorg.com/news141570427.html
http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/news/stories/2008/gesture_control/ (extra research)
About every household in America has a TV in it and it is seems to be a necessity in today's society. Well the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge has developed the technology control your home entertainment center and TV with just a wave of the hand. The way Toshiba TV works is when the viewer is in front of the display screen the TV will recognize the movement and then the control the display with the raise of a hand. “The gesture-control research is extremely exciting and is opening an array of possibilities for consumers, such as new interfaces for TVs and interactive displays in shop windows and information kiosks,” explains Professor Roberto Cipolla. Professor Cipolla and Dr Bjorn Stenger at Toshiba and Tom Woodley at the Department of Engineering have been working on the computer vision in human-machine interaction since 1992. The way the system works is there is single camera mounted on top of the display and is started with that wave of the hand. After that the software then tracks the person hand for certain cues and it will react to them. The system can even track movement in different lightning and rapid movement. Now the team is researching on how to deal with multiple users and how to track finer control. I think that this is a very cool invention and I think Americans will love it, but there are a couple things that I thought about that can hurt the system. What if some comes in the room and throw hands up, it could change the channel even if you do not want to change it then. Then if the person that can't use their hands, that is a downfall for them. But I also do not see the advantage of the hand control of the system; it might be the reason that it is just something new. If it comes into the market it might become popular but I do not think that it have too big of an impact on society.
http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/news/stories/2008/gesture_control/ (extra research)
About every household in America has a TV in it and it is seems to be a necessity in today's society. Well the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge has developed the technology control your home entertainment center and TV with just a wave of the hand. The way Toshiba TV works is when the viewer is in front of the display screen the TV will recognize the movement and then the control the display with the raise of a hand. “The gesture-control research is extremely exciting and is opening an array of possibilities for consumers, such as new interfaces for TVs and interactive displays in shop windows and information kiosks,” explains Professor Roberto Cipolla. Professor Cipolla and Dr Bjorn Stenger at Toshiba and Tom Woodley at the Department of Engineering have been working on the computer vision in human-machine interaction since 1992. The way the system works is there is single camera mounted on top of the display and is started with that wave of the hand. After that the software then tracks the person hand for certain cues and it will react to them. The system can even track movement in different lightning and rapid movement. Now the team is researching on how to deal with multiple users and how to track finer control. I think that this is a very cool invention and I think Americans will love it, but there are a couple things that I thought about that can hurt the system. What if some comes in the room and throw hands up, it could change the channel even if you do not want to change it then. Then if the person that can't use their hands, that is a downfall for them. But I also do not see the advantage of the hand control of the system; it might be the reason that it is just something new. If it comes into the market it might become popular but I do not think that it have too big of an impact on society.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Journal #4, September 21
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/wheelchair-0919.html
http://web.mit.edu/kvogt/www/wheelchair.html (extra research)
There are millions of Americans that use a wheelchair everyday, well MIT researchers developed a new type of autonomous wheelchair that can learn about locations in a building and then take the person to a certain place in the building in response to a verbal command. The robot wheelchair has a map of the building in it's memory and if the person gave the command to take me to my room or go to the living room the wheelchair will use the map and will drive itself to the room. The robot wheelchair will allow the person in the chair to relax and free from controlling the chair. To gain the maps or the computer system of the chair the person would first give a tour of the place and during the tour the person would identify an important stop or room. The robot wheelchair can even work outside, but when it is outside the chair can use GPS receivers to figure out where it is at. GPS does not work very well inside of a building so that is why the tour is needed for the chair. Right now the wheelchair uses a WiFi system to make maps and navigate through them. Nicholas Roy, the developer, said that the robot wheelchair still has a lot more stuff to put on it. He said that he would like to add a collision avoidance system using detectors to prevent bumping into any obstacles and he like to add a mechanical arm to aid the person by picking up any objects or opening doors.
I really like the idea and the sound of what Nicholas Roy has created. It is what I like to say that is technology that really helps society in a whole. There is a lot of people that are disabled and uses a wheelchair everyday and moving in a building or home can be difficult at times. Sometimes the people using a wheelchair cannot use the arms and legs so to have it to be verbal is awesome, along with after the command the chair goes on it own, so no assistance from a nurse, so I think that will allow the person to free more independent when using the wheelchair. I hope the people at MIT continue working on this project and hopefully it will be out soon.
http://web.mit.edu/kvogt/www/wheelchair.html (extra research)
There are millions of Americans that use a wheelchair everyday, well MIT researchers developed a new type of autonomous wheelchair that can learn about locations in a building and then take the person to a certain place in the building in response to a verbal command. The robot wheelchair has a map of the building in it's memory and if the person gave the command to take me to my room or go to the living room the wheelchair will use the map and will drive itself to the room. The robot wheelchair will allow the person in the chair to relax and free from controlling the chair. To gain the maps or the computer system of the chair the person would first give a tour of the place and during the tour the person would identify an important stop or room. The robot wheelchair can even work outside, but when it is outside the chair can use GPS receivers to figure out where it is at. GPS does not work very well inside of a building so that is why the tour is needed for the chair. Right now the wheelchair uses a WiFi system to make maps and navigate through them. Nicholas Roy, the developer, said that the robot wheelchair still has a lot more stuff to put on it. He said that he would like to add a collision avoidance system using detectors to prevent bumping into any obstacles and he like to add a mechanical arm to aid the person by picking up any objects or opening doors.
I really like the idea and the sound of what Nicholas Roy has created. It is what I like to say that is technology that really helps society in a whole. There is a lot of people that are disabled and uses a wheelchair everyday and moving in a building or home can be difficult at times. Sometimes the people using a wheelchair cannot use the arms and legs so to have it to be verbal is awesome, along with after the command the chair goes on it own, so no assistance from a nurse, so I think that will allow the person to free more independent when using the wheelchair. I hope the people at MIT continue working on this project and hopefully it will be out soon.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Journal #3, September 14
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g5nGPtmoUVIJDgehVJ_snD6vDA6gD9342FUG0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_accelerator (extra research)\
Massive particle collider passes its first key tests, that rights. The particle colliders that you see in movies and in video games has been made and is being tested. It is the world's largest and its first test was last Wednesday in a 17- mile underground ring near Geneva, Switzerland. Scientists fired the Large Hadron Collider around 10:30 a.m. and it did a complete lap. The collider cost around $3.8 billion and it was described as the biggest physics experiment in history and the purpose of this collider is to try to recreate the conditions just after the so-called Big Bang. The project leader Lyn Evans has been working on this project since its inception in 1984 and his team's work has final paid off. Now since they know that it works they will start experimenting with the collider to recreate the Big Bang in a few months. The collider is designed to sent a protons beam to the speed of light, which is close to 11,000 times a second around the 17 mile tunnel. The article said the project organized by the 20 European member nations of CERN has attracted researchers from 80 nations. Some 1,200 are from the United States, an observer country that contributed $531 million. Japan is also an observer and it is a major contributor. There are also a couple concerns about the collider when they do the main experiment, when the particles do collide there is a possible that it can create a thing we know as a black hole. A black hole sucks particles into it and its' gravity is so strong that it can pull in planets and stars or another possibility is that it makes a gateway to another dimension. This is an unknown experiment that they will be conducting and the possibilities of things that could go wrong are a lot, but they are trying to approach every step of the experiments very carefully. My thoughts on the article are they that crazy or that smart to do so. I have heard some things about particle accelerator but that has been in fiction stories and games. I would never have thought that scientist has actually created it. If they do pull the collider off, I believe that it will have a very big impact on society and science itself. The things that they are trying to pull off is in a feat itself, trying to recreate conditions from the Big Bang. But because of my beliefs I do not believe in the Big Bang, so I do not think that it will work the way they want it to. I am still curious to see what well happen when they do attempt the experiment and hopefully it does not create a black hole and probably not another dimension.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_accelerator (extra research)\
Massive particle collider passes its first key tests, that rights. The particle colliders that you see in movies and in video games has been made and is being tested. It is the world's largest and its first test was last Wednesday in a 17- mile underground ring near Geneva, Switzerland. Scientists fired the Large Hadron Collider around 10:30 a.m. and it did a complete lap. The collider cost around $3.8 billion and it was described as the biggest physics experiment in history and the purpose of this collider is to try to recreate the conditions just after the so-called Big Bang. The project leader Lyn Evans has been working on this project since its inception in 1984 and his team's work has final paid off. Now since they know that it works they will start experimenting with the collider to recreate the Big Bang in a few months. The collider is designed to sent a protons beam to the speed of light, which is close to 11,000 times a second around the 17 mile tunnel. The article said the project organized by the 20 European member nations of CERN has attracted researchers from 80 nations. Some 1,200 are from the United States, an observer country that contributed $531 million. Japan is also an observer and it is a major contributor. There are also a couple concerns about the collider when they do the main experiment, when the particles do collide there is a possible that it can create a thing we know as a black hole. A black hole sucks particles into it and its' gravity is so strong that it can pull in planets and stars or another possibility is that it makes a gateway to another dimension. This is an unknown experiment that they will be conducting and the possibilities of things that could go wrong are a lot, but they are trying to approach every step of the experiments very carefully. My thoughts on the article are they that crazy or that smart to do so. I have heard some things about particle accelerator but that has been in fiction stories and games. I would never have thought that scientist has actually created it. If they do pull the collider off, I believe that it will have a very big impact on society and science itself. The things that they are trying to pull off is in a feat itself, trying to recreate conditions from the Big Bang. But because of my beliefs I do not believe in the Big Bang, so I do not think that it will work the way they want it to. I am still curious to see what well happen when they do attempt the experiment and hopefully it does not create a black hole and probably not another dimension.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Journal #2, September 7
http://profy.com/2008/09/07/is-chrome-all-about-advertising/
Google brings out a new faster and more powerful web browser called Chrome and since it has been out for about a week, now its time to really look at it and its core. So what is Google, it is an advertising company and its' main field is business; the money that they got from ads from other companies they will use that money to make things such as Chrome. Since Google is an advertising company Chrome will probably turn in a advertising product for Google. The author gave a couple of reasons why he thinks that Chrome will influence the advertising industry. The first one is that everyone has some sort of pop up blocker and people are used to not having these ads pop up when searching for whatever they desire. With Chrome there is no pop up blocker and you would have no control to have one. Many people are content with the browsers that are out there now, so they will not change to Chrome just to search faster and more powerful, but would have to deal with all the pop ups. Google could make life a lot more easier when people are on Chrome and get rid of all those ads, but they will not; they will not make money advertising if they do not allow ads to pop up on their website. Another issue that people might have if they use Chrome is invasion of privacy. When someone searchs for something, Chrome will start sending every character that you type in to Google servers, the dangerous thing about that is Google is planning to keep 2% of that information you search for. The advertisers will notice what you have been looking for and then ads for those products will pop up and they will be trying to sell you that product, even if you do not need it. My thoughts on this is wow I can not believe you cannot block pop ups with Chrome. I cannot imagine me browsing the internet and pop ups come up about every page or more and more advertisements show up on the screen. I remember back in the day when a couple pop ups ads came up and I hated that, all they were to me was just a distraction to what I was doing; it did not push me into buying their product. It is a complete turn off to me if I do not have that option for a pop up blocker, so I would not install it. I understand that if Google also took away all the ads from their website then advertisers could lose their jobs, but I believe they can afford giving an opption for a pop up blocker for Chrome. I think that Google has enough money and probably will not suffer if they don't make money off the pop ups, in doing so they will most likely obtain more customers. The other issue about using what you type in for search and advertisers using that to help you find easier sounds good at first; but when I thought about it, they are just saving information about you that you might not want them to know even if Chrome is trying to help your search. I mean I like using Google and I use it about everyday, but what I have read from this article Chrome does not seem that appealing to me, so I think I will stick with what I have now.
Google brings out a new faster and more powerful web browser called Chrome and since it has been out for about a week, now its time to really look at it and its core. So what is Google, it is an advertising company and its' main field is business; the money that they got from ads from other companies they will use that money to make things such as Chrome. Since Google is an advertising company Chrome will probably turn in a advertising product for Google. The author gave a couple of reasons why he thinks that Chrome will influence the advertising industry. The first one is that everyone has some sort of pop up blocker and people are used to not having these ads pop up when searching for whatever they desire. With Chrome there is no pop up blocker and you would have no control to have one. Many people are content with the browsers that are out there now, so they will not change to Chrome just to search faster and more powerful, but would have to deal with all the pop ups. Google could make life a lot more easier when people are on Chrome and get rid of all those ads, but they will not; they will not make money advertising if they do not allow ads to pop up on their website. Another issue that people might have if they use Chrome is invasion of privacy. When someone searchs for something, Chrome will start sending every character that you type in to Google servers, the dangerous thing about that is Google is planning to keep 2% of that information you search for. The advertisers will notice what you have been looking for and then ads for those products will pop up and they will be trying to sell you that product, even if you do not need it. My thoughts on this is wow I can not believe you cannot block pop ups with Chrome. I cannot imagine me browsing the internet and pop ups come up about every page or more and more advertisements show up on the screen. I remember back in the day when a couple pop ups ads came up and I hated that, all they were to me was just a distraction to what I was doing; it did not push me into buying their product. It is a complete turn off to me if I do not have that option for a pop up blocker, so I would not install it. I understand that if Google also took away all the ads from their website then advertisers could lose their jobs, but I believe they can afford giving an opption for a pop up blocker for Chrome. I think that Google has enough money and probably will not suffer if they don't make money off the pop ups, in doing so they will most likely obtain more customers. The other issue about using what you type in for search and advertisers using that to help you find easier sounds good at first; but when I thought about it, they are just saving information about you that you might not want them to know even if Chrome is trying to help your search. I mean I like using Google and I use it about everyday, but what I have read from this article Chrome does not seem that appealing to me, so I think I will stick with what I have now.
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