Protein tougher than metal could be used to print out body armor
Printable body armor, better bulletproof glass, and tougher steel are just a few of the applications for a new materials technology developed by Israeli researchers. A team of scientists there have developed a transparent material made of self-assembling nanospheres that is the stiffest organic material ever created, surpassing the properties of stainless steel and even Kevlar.
Developed by researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science and Tel Aviv University, the nanospheres are similar to the beta-amyloid proteins that make up the plaques found in the brains of people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. But the new nanospheres are reinforced with an additional protective layer that makes them really, really strong.
And really, really small. They range in size from about 30 nanometers down to just two microns (by comparison, human hair averages something like 80 microns in diameter). But when assembled the material is extremely tough. In tests, only a diamond-tipped probe was able to dent the material, and then only by applying considerably more force that it takes to damage Kevlar.
Naturally, such a thin, strong material could lead to revolutionary improvements in body armor, and one of the researchers even told Discovery News that in principle you might be able to print custom body armor from the material. But it also could be used for a variety of other purposes, like strengthening existing metals and composites, creating medical implants, or improving the mechanical properties of ceramics and glasses. The researchers even think it might push forward technologically sci-fi projects like a space elevator.
But there’s still a lot of work to be done in the lab before the material sees mainstream usage. Patents are pending, but don’t expect to see printable, nanosphere body armor hitting the market anytime soon. Or diamond-tipped ammunition for that matter. For those who wish to comb through the nano-particulars, the paper is here.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Pirate Parties International
Pirate Parties International (abbreviated PPI) is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that exists to help establish, to support and promote, and to maintain communication and co-operation between pirate parties around the world. It was officially founded in 2010 during the Brussels conference from April 16th to 18th.
n 22 and 23 20:30 October in Munich in Muffathalle © oPirates a party will take place by Richard Siegal. ©oPirates is an artistic experiment that deals with issues of our society that touches the Pirate Parties as well:
In what way does the body inhabit the community? How does the body react to politics? Which language does the body create when it comes in contact with the others? How is the longing for community expressed in everyday life, and what form will it take in the mastered performances of physically highly sensitized dancers? What are the limits of exchange and sharing? Is it possible to be oneself and to share oneself at the same time?
http://www.pp-international.net/
n 22 and 23 20:30 October in Munich in Muffathalle © oPirates a party will take place by Richard Siegal. ©oPirates is an artistic experiment that deals with issues of our society that touches the Pirate Parties as well:
In what way does the body inhabit the community? How does the body react to politics? Which language does the body create when it comes in contact with the others? How is the longing for community expressed in everyday life, and what form will it take in the mastered performances of physically highly sensitized dancers? What are the limits of exchange and sharing? Is it possible to be oneself and to share oneself at the same time?
http://www.pp-international.net/
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
When Is A Yo-Yo Not A Yo-Yo? When It Costs $US5,000
That’s not even a joke. Not only will it set you back the price of a car, but you’ll have to wait six months for it to land on your doorstep, too. I guess they are hand-made in Japan, but still…Shinobu Konmoto is an ex-world champion yo-yo builder who’s made his name by winning many modding competitions, where he fashions his yo-yos out of unusual materials. In this case, the ‘Nostalgia’ yo-yo has been modeled after his winning 2007 design, so I guess if you have the requisite skillz but just need the right medium, then this is probably it.
Though really, in my eyes a yo-yo should be something that cost two bucks max, and came from a gas station. [Nostalgia via SPGRA via OhGizmo]
Fujifilm’s 3D W3 Gets An Australian Release
The 3D bandwagon keeps on keeping on, and now it has added hardware. Fujifilm has just announced an Aussie release of their 3D video shooting W3 camera.With an RRP of $599, the W3 isn’t the cheapest compact on the market, but it is one of the cheapest (if not only) 3D cameras on the market, so you don’t have too much of a choice there. But given its 3D, parallax barrier screen that allows you to see the third dimension effect, plus the ability to take 10MP 2D photos as well, it could be one of the best ways to actually create your own 3D content for viewing on that 3D-capable TV you just dumped thousands of dollars on…
Wearing An Invisible Airbag Helmet
She’s wearing an invisible airbag helmet which will keep her safe on bike rides. Don’t believe me? Watch this video.
The helmet design is dubbed Hövding and while consistently described as “invisible” is just really cleverly hidden:
Hövding is a discreet collar that the cyclist is wearing around his neck. The collar contains a folded airbag which is visible only at a collision. The airbag is designed as a hood that in case of an accident will enclose and protect the cyclist’s head. Release mechanism is controlled by sensors that register abnormal movements of the rider in an accident.
A device like this is certainly appealing and would keep helmet-hair away, but I do wonder whether it could cause injuries in the same manner as an airbag in a car.
A Prototype Greenhouse Demonstrates the Future of Farming on the Moon
A portable, collapsible greenhouse inspired in part by a crop-producing system at a South Pole research station could someday provide fresh vegetables and other foods in future manned lunar or Martian outposts. Working in conjunction with private industry, the University of Arizona’s Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (CEAC) has set up a demo lunar greenhouse to demonstrate how a hydroponic system could grow peanuts, potatoes, tomatoes and other crops for colonists on other planets. The 18-foot, membrane-sheathed system collapses into a 4-foot wide disk for easy packing on an interplanetary mission. When extended, it is fitted with water-cooled lamps and seed packets prepped to sprout without soil. They hydroponic system needs little oversight, relying on automated systems and control algorithms to analyze data gathered by embedded sensors that optimize the controlled ecosystem. The whole system takes just ten minutes to set up and produces vegetables within a month.
The design is similar to that of a greenhouse housed at the U.S. South Pole Station in Antarctica, which was built by the same company that is collaborating with the CEAC on the lunar greenhouse. But the lunar greenhouse would possess some interesting technical twists that would make it even more sustainable. Water for the system would be derived from the attending astronauts’ urine, CO2 produced by their breathing, and fiber optics could pipe sunlight into the chamber from outside, dispensing with the need for power for the sodium vapor lamps (ostensibly a future lunar base would be built underground to shield it and its inhabitants from solar weather, cosmic radiation, and small meteorites).
But while designed for use hundreds of thousands of miles away, the technology could also have applications here on the ground. Engineers working on the project think the tech could enhance urban farming techniques, bringing food production out of the fields and into population centers. The emphasis on self-contained, self-sustaining systems in space could also inform efforts to make agriculture as efficient and sustainable as possible.
Monday, October 18, 2010
In New Attempt to Build a Practical Military Laser Weapon, Lockheed Inverts a Prism
Lasers can be powerful weapons – they can take down an aircraft at long ranges and in unstable conditions, for instance. But they are hampered by power and size limits, so they’re not widely used by the military (yet). Lockheed Martin has a solution: a fiber laser that basically works like a backward prism.
Lockheed is among three firms recently awarded contracts to develop a laser for the military’s Robust Electric Laser Initiative, which seeks to improve the power of electric lasers. Fiber lasers are efficient and compact, but until now they have been weaker than other types, like chemical lasers. The RELI program seeks to improve laser strength while reducing power and cooling, so systems can be small enough to install on ships or airplanes.
A Lockheed subsidiary developed a first-of-its-kind high-powered fiber laser capable of producing 100 kilowatts or more, according to Lockheed. It uses fiber optics to produce near-perfect beams. The method also confines the laser light to the fiber’s glass structure without using mirrors or other optics.
John Wojnar, director of business development for the laser systems business, said in a September issue of Aviation Week that it works like a inverse prism: lasers with slightly different wavelengths enter a combiner, and the result is a single, focused beam. It’s called Spectral Beam Combining.
Lockheed won an initial $14 million contract from the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command to develop the system. Along with General Atomics and Raytheon, the firm must demonstrate a 25 kW system that can be scaled up to 100 kW within five years.
General Atomics will improve its Hellads distributed-gain laser approach to improve efficiency, while Raytheon will pursue a planar waveguide laser, according to Aviation Week.
Northrop Grumman is also expected to obtain a RELI contract.
http://www.popsci.com.au/2010/10/in-new-attempt-to-build-a-practical-military-laser-weapon-lockheed-inverts-a-prism/
Lockheed is among three firms recently awarded contracts to develop a laser for the military’s Robust Electric Laser Initiative, which seeks to improve the power of electric lasers. Fiber lasers are efficient and compact, but until now they have been weaker than other types, like chemical lasers. The RELI program seeks to improve laser strength while reducing power and cooling, so systems can be small enough to install on ships or airplanes.
A Lockheed subsidiary developed a first-of-its-kind high-powered fiber laser capable of producing 100 kilowatts or more, according to Lockheed. It uses fiber optics to produce near-perfect beams. The method also confines the laser light to the fiber’s glass structure without using mirrors or other optics.
John Wojnar, director of business development for the laser systems business, said in a September issue of Aviation Week that it works like a inverse prism: lasers with slightly different wavelengths enter a combiner, and the result is a single, focused beam. It’s called Spectral Beam Combining.
Lockheed won an initial $14 million contract from the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command to develop the system. Along with General Atomics and Raytheon, the firm must demonstrate a 25 kW system that can be scaled up to 100 kW within five years.
General Atomics will improve its Hellads distributed-gain laser approach to improve efficiency, while Raytheon will pursue a planar waveguide laser, according to Aviation Week.
Northrop Grumman is also expected to obtain a RELI contract.
http://www.popsci.com.au/2010/10/in-new-attempt-to-build-a-practical-military-laser-weapon-lockheed-inverts-a-prism/
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Grovetech.com : PC Maintenance & Repair Tutorial *
Finally a totally free computer website about
PC maintenance & repairs - period !
Over the last couple of decades, computers have become an integral, if not indispensable, part of our lives. We use them to create documents, play games and music, research topics of interest on the Internet, communicate with others via email or chat programs, develop a brochure or flyer, and much more.
However, like any other machine, computers need to be maintained, tuned-up, and repaired. For whatever reason – perhaps because we believe them to be more complicated than they really are – we tend not to provide the ongoing maintenance that our computers need. The result? Frustration with a system whose speed has slowed to a mere crawl, expensive repair bills, or the sometimes mistaken belief that the solution to the problem is to buy a new computer
http://www.grovetech.com/index.html
Quantum Hackers Use Lasers to Crack Commercial Quantum Encryption Without Leaving a Trace
Quantum cryptography is one of the most secure known means of transmitting data, due to the fact that even if a third party does intercept a quantum signal, that interference changes the encryption key, making the tampering apparent to parties at both ends. But a handful of quantum hackers at Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim recently performed successful hacks of two commercial quantum cryptographic systems — and they did so without leaving a trace.
Quantum encryption is based on the notion that you cannot take measurements of a quantum system without in some way disturbing it. A sender uses standard values of zeros and ones. That key is encoded into a beam of light using two different quantum states of photons. The receiver has a detector that measures the quantum states of the incoming photons. Anyone who messes with the signal in between will change it in some way, making it apparent to the sender and receiver that someone tampered with the signal.
The quantum hackers got around the rules of quantum physics by simply intercepting the incoming signal and generating a brand new one to send on to the receiver. To do so, they shined a continuous 1-milliwatt laser at the receiver’s detector, blinding it while they intercepted the sender’s signal.
But the trick is in how they blind the receiver’s detector. While blinded, it cannot act as a quantum detector, but it still functions as a classical light detector, reading a “one” if an extra bright pulse of light hits it, quantum properties of the light notwithstanding. So as the interceptor receives the sender’s signal, it pumps an extra bright pulse of light at the receivers’ detector every time it reads a “one” in the original signal.
In this way, the receiver still receives the correct signal from the interceptor even though it’s a forged signal. Since it’s a classical signal rather than a quantum one, quantum rules no longer apply and the sender and receiver aren’t made aware of the signal tampering.
The makers of the two quantum cryptographic schemes, Switzerland-based ID Quantique and Boston’s MagiQ Technologies, likely weren’t thrilled to find a hole in their systems but welcomed the news as it will help them to shore up weaknesses in their encryption schemes.
If quantum cryptography really gets your photons entangled, a PDF of the Nature Photonics paper published by the quantum hackers is available, or you can check out the hackers’ “how we did it” site.
Atami offers Love Plus characters as virtual girlfriends
Visitors to Atami are opting for photos with "augmented reality'' females / AFP Source: AFP
The images are created using a smartphone cameras and a tiny black and white square / AFP
A JAPANESE beach town is attracting male tourists by offering them a virtual girlfriend.
Visitors to Atami are ignoring the bikini-clad girls frolicking on the sand and instead heading straight for a bronze statue to have a photo with "augmented reality'' (AR) females.
The images are created by visitors pointing their smartphone cameras at a tiny black and white square, a two-dimensional barcode that brings to life the object of their desire.
"Look, it's like I'm in a snapshot with her,'' Shu Watanabe, 23, said as he showed off his iPhone display, featuring himself next to the image of a doe-eyed cartoon character named Rinko, a smiling high school girl.
Rinko may only be digital, but try telling that to Watanabe or the legions of other fans of Love Plus, a dating sim or simulation game that is played on handheld Nintendo DS consoles and also boasts AR applications for iPhones.
They have selected 13 romantic locations which can be overlaid with images of Rinko or her teenage friends Manaka and Nene, who have all swapped their usual sailor-style school uniforms for casual summer wear.
Local souvenir shops in the resort town have caught on and capitalised on the love-struck new clientele, selling Love Plus-themed souvenirs, from good-luck charms to steamed buns and fish sausages.
The local Ohnoya hotel even offers traditional rooms to the unusual couples, which feature two sets of futon beds and another barcode panel that allows the men to visualise their girlfriends in a flattering summer kimono.
The popularity of Love Plus has been a welcome shot in the arm for Atami, which has seen visitors decline some 40 percent since its 1970s heyday.
More than 200 Love Plus fans have stayed at the Ohnoya hotel alone, while well over 2000 have visited the resort town for the campaign, which kicked off on July 10 and runs until the end of August.
Atami's business association was at first hesitant and puzzled by the story line, in which a high school girl spends a night at a resort hotel with a man.
"Some people were opposed to taking part in this campaign, saying the game is immoral,'' association member Saiki Ota said.
Konami's Ishihara stressed that the game has no sexual content.
"The virtual girls can kiss you as a way of communication, but nothing happens when she sleeps next to you at the hotel,'' he said.
"We have no intention of trying to sell a product with pornographic elements.
"I think Love Plus fans would get offended if somebody tried to disrespect his girlfriend like that.''
First modchip for PS3
The first working "modchip" on sale in Australia can let PlayStation 3 owners store games on their hard drive and promises to be easy enough to be used by tech novices.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
GamesCom 2010: Cataclysm Press Q&A
GamesCom 2010: Cataclysm Press Q&A
Thanks to wow.battlenet.pl, an official Polish fansite, there's a video of the Cataclysm press Q&A that took place at GamesCom 2010. Since they didn't offer an embed option, I'm not going to hog their bandwidth by embedding the video here. I encourage everyone to go check it out! Below I've put together a summary of some of the interesting things discussed.
Patch 3.9 and preparing for Cataclysm's release
Cataclysm Raids & Dungeons
Other
Thanks to wow.battlenet.pl, an official Polish fansite, there's a video of the Cataclysm press Q&A that took place at GamesCom 2010. Since they didn't offer an embed option, I'm not going to hog their bandwidth by embedding the video here. I encourage everyone to go check it out! Below I've put together a summary of some of the interesting things discussed.
Patch 3.9 and preparing for Cataclysm's release
- Patch 3.9 will introduce the Cataclysm world event, which will begin taking place and culminate a few weeks before the expansion releases, with the Cataclysmic destruction actually taking place at that point.
- The new race / class combos and 1-60 content will be available before World of Warcraft: cataclysm launches.
- The servers will come down when the event culminates, and when they come back up you'll see the intro cinematic and all of the updated Azeroth will be available.
- Blizzard is still trying to decide whether Archaeology will come out before or when World of Warcraft: Cataclysm releases.
- 80-85 content and the Goblin and Worgen races will not be available until release day.
Cataclysm Raids & Dungeons
- The balance of high level content (heroics and raids especially) for Cataclysm is going to shift a bit more towards the "hardcore" crowd. Outdoor mob difficulty, heroic modes available immediately, etc.
- There's a bit more enforced progression so that most players don't skip immediately from normal dungeons to raids.
- Chilton wishes there could be more difficulty modes for raids than just normal and heroic. Maybe 3 or 4 modes to offer appropriate challenges. It's not something they can do right now, but he can imagine them doing it in the future.
- Blizzard will continue supporting 25-player raids for the people that like it. They're also going to make sure 25-player raids are appropriately rewarded. At least equivalently, and in most cases better rewarded.
Other
- The Battle for Gilneas was already significantly redesigned before even becoming available in the closed beta, based on internal testing feedback. Blizzard deemed the original design "unsalvageable."
- It will probably be a long time after Cataclysm that Blizzard revisits the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor again. Chilton could see them giving Outland and Northrend the same treatment as they fall behind in quality and lore.
- Sylvanas is trying to "ensure the future of the Forsaken". With the death of the Lich King and no plague to spread, she had to find alternate means to keep the Forsaken from becoming extinct.
- The Emerald Dream is still something Blizzard wants to do. It might end up being part of Caverns of Time if they want to revisit it in a past setting.
- Housing will be introduced to WoW some time right after "never".
- The release date is at midnight on the first Tuesday after it's done! (This was a joke but also seriously, obviously)
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Autonomous Swarming Robots Can Skim Sea Surface, Collecting Oil As A Team
Swarms of autonomous, solar-powered towel-bots, based on a nanowire mesh, could help those oil-eating microbes clean up the Gulf of Mexico. The “Seaswarm” robot moves like a tank in water, using a conveyor belt to roll over the ocean’s surface.
The belt is made of an ultra-light nanowire mesh, patented at MIT, that can absorb up to 20 times its weight in oil. Its hydrophobic properties deflect water while sucking up various forms of pollution. The nanowire’s inventors have compared it to a paper towel for oil spills.
The belt attaches to a yellow “head” covered in photovoltaic panels, according to its designers, based at MIT’s Senseable City Lab. As the robot moves head-first through the water, the conveyor belt sucks up oil, which is squeezed out into the head. As the clean part of the belt emerges from the head, the process starts over.
Seaswarm robots are intended to work as a fleet, hence the name. The robots would communicate via GPS and WiFi networks to coordinate clean-up, and they would not require human involvement, unlike current ocean skimmers. They are just 16 feet long by seven feet wide, so they would be able to access coastlines, marshes and estuaries, unlike current skimmers that attach to boats.
The design team tested their prototype in Boston’s Charles River this month and they say the conveyor belt easily adapted to the surface waves.
The robot works by detecting the edge of a spill and moving inward until it has removed the oil, the project’s Web site says. Because the robot’s head consumes the oil, the robot does not need to make repeated trips back to shore, making it a much more efficient cleaner.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Eternal-WoW
Eternal-WoW is a good PVP free WOW playing site :
http://eternal-wow.com/about/
Eternal-WoW Management
Server Specifications
Quick Facts
http://eternal-wow.com/about/
Eternal-WoW Management
Server Specifications
- OS: Linux
- RAM: 40GB
- Processor: Twin 6 Core Xeon x5680 (24 cores with hyper threading)
- Connection: Multiple 1000Mbps connections on diverse backbones
- Location: Dallas, Texas
Quick Facts
- Instant Account Setup
- All data is backed up daily to an offite location. This prevents character loss or rollbacks should a problem occur.
- 2 Realms for your gaming pleasure, Eternal (Instant 80 - Extreme PvP), and Redemption (10x Rate - PvE and PvP)
- Vote Rewards
- Vote rewards and donation purchases are delivered in-game through mailboxes.
- Custom player tools (revive and unstick a character)
- Days of uptime, extending into weeks.
- Upwards of 1000+ players at peak gaming hours and growing!
- Professionally managed with some of the most knowledgeable staff around!
- 24/7 of pure WoW!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Naruto Currency
Naruto event... in Naruto!
The city Naruto is celebrating the success of the manga... Naruto! Starting this July the city Naruto will start selling specially made Naruto 1000 yen gift certificates.
Example of the certificates
To commemorate Naruto selling 100 million volumes they will be printing out 100 million yen worth of them! These certificates can be used at around 250 shops located around the city until the end of the year. The goal is to try and get a lot of new faces into the old city and teach them a little bit about it.
From August 9th, through to the 11th, they will be handing out fans with Naruto characters on them at the Awa Odori festival as well as a special guest appearance by Takeuchi Junko, the voice actress of Naruto.
Poster promoting the event
When asked for a comment about the event, Kishimoto-sensei said, "I had always imagined that we'd do something like this with the city Naruto someday but I can't believe it's really happening!" (He actually phrases his Japanese to jokingly add "Naruto" into his statement but it doesn't translate over very well :p)
His original quote: 「昔からなんとなく鳴門市とこんな感じになるんじゃないかと予想してたが、本当にな・る・と・は！」
Source
images (c) http://www.yomiuri.co.jp
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Defense contractor's anti-gravity discovery disclosed
http://pesn.com/2005/11/16/9600203_New_Nazi_Bell/
A fabled top secret World War II technology, never fully developed by the Nazis, although many individuals were allegedly killed in the process of its testing, apparently has been replicated in part by a mainstream Californian defense contractor, SARA, showing anti-gravity and propulsion effects
A fabled top secret World War II technology, never fully developed by the Nazis, although many individuals were allegedly killed in the process of its testing, apparently has been replicated in part by a mainstream Californian defense contractor, SARA, showing anti-gravity and propulsion effects
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
Building iphone apps without coding.
While this post was by no means meant to be a definitive list, it's amazing the response it's received in both the comments and via email. So many people have asked "how could you forget.. this company or that?" OK, Appcelerator was an oversight, but as far as the others, they just weren't on my radar. Here's a few of the ones that received multiple mentions:
- TapLynx: A DIY solution for building apps without coding.
- MobileAppLoader: Another DIY solution for building iPhone apps without code.
- MobileStoreMaker: A DIY solution for making a mobile storefront for iPhone.
- Appcelerator: Like Rhomobile and PhoneGap, you do need to code, but you don't need to know Objective C. Instead, you can build iPhone apps with HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Python, PHP and Ruby instead.
- MobiOne: An iPhone emulator that lets you build iPhone apps by coding them using your web development skills.
- Appanda: A system that lets you build apps through RSS, links and manual uploads. Still in beta.
The True Story of An Immortal Woman
The True Story of An Immortal Woman
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 01:47AM ;)
Well, since I tend to forget what I've read three months after reading it, I'm going to jot down some notes on what is an unbelievable true story.
It's the story of Henrietta Lacks (1920-1951), a woman who died far too young from a vicious case of cervical cancer that blanketed her internal organs in very short order. After her treatments, her skin was left charred from the chemicals used by her doctors. When all was said and done, her primary physician said he has never seen anything like it--before or since. Both the tumors and condition of her skin were beyond imagination.
But that's where the story begins. Unknown to Henrietta and her family, the doctors took tissue samples during one of her check-ups to use in their experiments; namely, to try and grow her cells in the lab, something that hasn't been done before. It was expected to fail like all the previous attempts, but it didn't. In fact, these "immortal cells" are still alive today. If you took all of the HeLa (Henrietta Lacks) cells produced over the last 60 years, they would weight a combined 50 million metric tons.
Her cells were instrumental in many medical advancements, including cancer research, the research of various viruses, HIV research, the effects of the atom bomb, in vitro fertilization, cloning, gene mapping, and the development of the polio vaccine. Henrietta Lacks, who had to be tended to in the "colored" wing of the hospital, would--through her cells--save millions of lives, and one has to wonder how the racist people of that day would have grumbled about a non-white woman being the source of so much good.
The dilemma is this...her doctors took her cells without permission, replicated them without permission and sold them without permission. Millions have been made from her cells. And while the research Henrietta's cells enabled has benefited millions, it has not benefited her own family, who cannot even afford basic medical insurance. Henrietta's husband couldn't afford to fight his cancer with the medicines that were created through research that was largely thanks to his wife's cells. That's pretty screwed up.
Obviously, her cells went to help the greater good. But there are two primary concerns here; (1) why did she (and her family) get nothing in return while others have profited, and (2) why were they able to take something that was as personal as her own DNA and ship it out worldwide without consent? Both have a simple answer: Then, and now, doctors can do pretty much what they want with the tissues they extract during surgery, etc. While you can go after someone for copyright infringement for publishing one of your diary entries or photos without permission, you likely have no legal recourse if a physician shares your genetic material--which contains the DNA that tells everything about you, stuff you don't even know about yourself--across the globe.
What made her cells so special?
This is the question I kept asking as I read through the book. As it turns out, the cells taken from Henrietta were cancer cells from her cervix. Now, each time normal cells reproduce through mitosis, the DNA bits called the telomeres get shorter and shorter, eventually resulting in cell death; ie, they can't replicate anymore and eventually die off (the number of times a cell can divide is called the Hayflick limit). Cancer cells, on the other hand, have an enzyme called telomerase that rebuilds the telomeres, so unlike with regular cells that continually get shorter, cancer cells do not...they can be "immortal" because they are constantly regenerating instead of slowly disappearing. But other cancer cells were still not as aggressive as the HeLa cells...there's more to it...
Henrietta contracted HPV (apparently, 90% of all sexually active adults have become infected with at least one strain of HPV during their lifetimes). Long, complicated story short, the HPV virus turned off what is called her "P53 tumor suppressor" gene which allowed the cancer to flourish. The cancer AND the HPV AND Henrietta's genetics--the combination of those three things--are what makes HeLa cells so aggressive and easy to cultivate. They are so aggressive, in fact, that scientists have had a hard time keeping them isolated and millions of dollars have been lost through tainted results where the HeLa cells have spread to experiments that should've been HeLa free.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. To read more about it, I highly recommend the book, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Windows 7 to Run on iPad With Citrix Receiver
No doubt you have heard about the iPad by now and you may be already pondering whether or not you will be buying one. Chances are you have a Laptop or PC and a Smartphone already so you need to rationalize how you will use it beyond e-books and browsing. Well if your company has XenDesktop or XenApp you will be happy to know you will be able to use your iPad for real work as well. It turns out the 9.7 inch display on the iPad with a 1024x768 screen resolution works great for a full VDI XenDesktop. Windows applications run unmodified and securely in the data center, and even multiple applications at once. The advancements that were made for the Citrix Receiver for iPhone will carry over to the iPad, however the iPhone restrictions of screen size and small keyboards are overcome with the iPad. It's a beautiful thing ! The iPad looks to be an ideal end point device that can empower users to be productive were ever they are and IT will be able to safely deliver company hosted virtual desktops and apps without worry.
So tell us if you want Citrix Receiver for the iPad and let us know how your going to put it to work. ( even it's just to rationalize buying another gadget 
)
Learn how to make the iPad work for your organization at Citrix Synergy.
Update : The Citrix Receiver for iPad is now in the App Store !
http://citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/index.asp?ntref=3_navhttp://community.citrix.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=115343605
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
How to Create Your First iPhone Application
What if you had a nickle for every time you heard: "I have the perfect idea for a great application!"? It’s the buzz on the street. The iPhone has created unprecedented excitement and innovation from people both inside and outside the software development community. Still for those outside the development world, the process is a bit of a mystery.
This how-to guide is supposed to walk you through the steps to make your idea for an iPhone app a reality. This post presents various ideas, techniques, tips, and resources that may come in handy if you are planning on creating your first iPhone application.
[Offtopic: by the way, did you know that there is a Smashing eBook Series? Book #1 is Professional Web Design, 242 pages for just $9,90.]
1. Have an idea – a Good Idea
How do you know if your idea is a good one? The first step is to even care if your idea is solid; and the second step is to answer the question does it have at least one of the indicators of success?
Zoom In in How to Create Your First iPhone Application Does your app solve a unique problem? Before the light bulb was invented, somebody had to shout out “Man, reading by candlelight sucks!” Figure out what sucks, and how your app can make the life of its user more comfortable.
Dog Tricks in How to Create Your First iPhone Application Does the app serve a specific niche? Though there aren’t any stats on the App Store search, the usage of applications is certainly growing with the explosion of App Store inventory. Find a niche with ardent fans (pet lovers, for example) and create an app that caters to a specific audience.
Do Not Press in How to Create Your First iPhone Application Does it make people laugh? This is a no-brainer. If you can come up with something funny, you are definitely on the right track and your idea may be the golden one. Heck, I hit a red “do not press” button for 5 minutes yesterday.
Wine Phd in How to Create Your First iPhone Application Are you building a better wheel? Are there existing successful apps that lack significant feature enhancements? Don’t be satisfied with just a wine list, give sommeliers a way to talk to their fans!
Popper in How to Create Your First iPhone Application Will the app be highly interactive? Let’s face it, most of us have the attention span of a flea. Successful games and utilities engage the user by requiring action!
Action: Does your app fall in to one of these categories? If yes, it’s just about time to prepare the necessary tools.
2. Tools Checklist
Below is a list of items you’ll need (*starred items are required, the rest are nice-to-have’s):
* join the Apple iPhone Developer Program ($99) *
* get iPhone or iPod Touch *
* get an Intel-based Mac computer with Mac OS X 10.5.5,
* prepare a Non-Disclosure Agreement (here’s a sample) *
* download and install the latest version of the iPhone SDK if you don’t already have it.
* a spiral bound notebook*
Action: Load up on your required supplies.
3. What Are You Really Good At?
What skills do you bring to the table? Are you a designer whose brain objects to Objective C? A developer who can’t design their way out of a paper sack? Or maybe you are neither, but an individual with an idea you’d like to take to the market? Designing a successful iPhone application is a lot like starting a small business. You play the role of Researcher, Project Manager, Accountant, Information Architect, Designer, Developer, Marketer and Advertiser – all rolled into one.
Remember what all good entrepreneurs know – it takes a team to make a product successful. Don’t get me wrong, you certainly can do it all. But you can also waste a lot of time, energy and sanity in the process. Don’t go crazy, reference the checklist below and ask yourself: What roles are the best fit for you to lead? Then find other talented people to fill in the gaps. The infusion of additional ideas can only enrich the product!
Skills Checklist
* Ability to Discern what works/doesn’t work in existing iPhone Apps
* Market research
* Outlining App Functionality (Sitemap Creation)
* Sketching
* GUI Design
* Programming (Objective C, Cocoa) (we assume here that we are creating a native application)
* App Promotion and Marketing
Remember to have contractors sign your non-disclosure agreement. Having a contract in place tells your contractor "I’m a professional that takes my business and this project seriously. Now don’t go runnin’ off with this idea."
Action: Select skills that are a good fit for you to lead. For those roles where you cannot lead, hire professionals.
4. Do Your Homework: Market Research
Market research is a fancy way of saying "Look at what other people are doing and don’t make the same mistakes." Learn from the good, bad and ugly in the App Store. Coming up with creative solutions in the app concept development and design starts with analyzing other (maybe similar) applications. Even if you encounter a lot of poorly designed apps, your mind will reference these examples of what not to do.
Good Ugly in How to Create Your First iPhone Application
Action: Answer these questions:
* What problem does your app solve?
* What products have you seen that perform a similar task?
* How do successful apps present information to users?
* How can you build on what works and make it unique?
* What value does your app bring to your audience?
5. Know the iPhone/iPod Touch UI
If you want to create an iPhone app, you need to understand the capabilities of the iPhone and its interface. Can you shoot a .45 caliber bullet out of your iPhone? No. Can you shoot videos? Yes!
The good news is that you don’t have to memorize the encyclopedic Apple User Interface Guidelines to get a feel for what works and what doesn’t in iPhone Apps. Download and play with as many apps as you can, and think about what functionality you want to include in your product.
Take note of:
* How do well-designed apps navigate from screen to screen?
* How do they organize information?
* How MUCH information do they present to the user?
* How do they take advantage of the iPhone’s unique characteristics: the accelerometer, swiping features, pinch, expand and rotate functions?
Action: Download the Top 10 apps in every category and play with all of them. Review the Apple Guidelines for UI design and list at least 5 features you’d like to incorporate into your app.
6. Determine "Who will use your app?"
We assume here that you’ve already determined that your app will bring value and that you will have a raging audience for your app. Well, fine, they are raging fans, but who are they really? What actions will they take to achieve their goals within the app?
If it’s a game, maybe they want to beat their high score. Or perhaps they are a first time player – how will their experience differ from someone who is getting a nice case of brain-rot playing your game all day?
If it’s a utility app, and your audience wants to find a coffee shop quickly, what actions will they take within the app to find that coffee shop? Where are they when they’re looking for coffee? Usually in the car! Do present an interface that requires multiple taps, reading and referencing a lot? Probably not! This is how thinking about how real-life intersects design.
Action: Line item out the different types of people who will use your app. You can even name them if you want to make the scenarios you draw out as real as possible.
7. Sketch Out Your Idea
And by "sketch" I mean literally sketch. Line out a 9-rectangle grid on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper and get to sketching!
Ask yourself:
* What information does each screen need to present?
* How can we take the user from point A to point B to point C?
* How should elements on the screen be proportioned or sized in relation to each other (i.e. is this thing even tap-able?)
Sketch in How to Create Your First iPhone Application
Image credit: Cultured Code
Thumbnailing your ideas on paper can push your creativity far beyond where your imagination might stagnate working in an sketching application! You can also buy the iPhone Stencil Kit to quickly sketch out iPhone UI prototypes on paper.
Action: Create at least one thumbnail page of your application per screen. Experiment with various navigational schemes, the text you put on buttons, and how screens connect. If you want to transfer your sketches into digital format, iPlotz is a good tool to check out.
8. Time for Design
Iphone Gui in How to Create Your First iPhone Application
If you are a designer, download the iPhone GUI Photoshop template or our iPhone PSD Vector Kit. Both are collections of iPhone GUI elements that will save you a lot of time in getting started. If you’ve solidified your layout during sketching, drawing up the screens will be less of a layout exercise and more about the actual design of the app.
If you are not a designer, hire one! It’s like hiring an electrician to do electrical work. You can go to Home Depot and buy tools to try it yourself, but who wants to risk getting zapped? If you’ve followed steps 1–3, you’ll have everything you need for a designer to get started.
When looking for a designer, try to find someone who has experience designing for mobile devices. They may have some good feedback and suggested improvements for your sketches. A few places to look for designers: Coroflot, Crowdspring, eLance. When posting your job offer, be very specific about your requirements, and also be ready to review a lot of portfolios.
Action: If you are a designer, get started in Photoshop. If you are not a designer, start interviewing designers for your job.
9. Programming
Xcode in How to Create Your First iPhone Application
Even though this how-to is sequential, it’s a good idea to get a developer on board at the same time when you line up design resources. Talking with a developer sooner than later will help you scope out a project that is technically feasible and within your budget.
If you are a Objective C/Cocoa developer crack, open Xcode and get started! A few forums to join if you haven’t already:
* Apple Dev Forum
* iPhoneSDK (moderated by Erica Sadun)
* iPhoneSDKForum
* iPhoneDev Forums
* iPhoneSB
If you are not a developer, you know what to do – find one! Specify the type of app you want to produce – whether it is a game, utility or anything else. Each type usually requires a different coding skill set. A few places to look for developers: Odesk, iPhoneFreelancer, eLance and any of the forums listed above.
10. Submit your application to Apple Store
OK, so how do you submit your application to Apple Store now? The process of compiling your application and publishing the binary for iTunes Connect can be difficult for anyone unfamiliar with XCode. If you are working with a developer, ask them to help you:
* Create your Certificates
* Define your App ID’s
* Create your Distribution Provisioning Profile
* Compile the application
* Upload to iTunes Connect
Action: If you are a developer, map out a development timeline and get started. If you are not a developer, start interviewing devs for your job.
11. Promote Your App
If a tree falls in the middle of the woods and nobody was around to hear it does it make a sound? Apps can sit in the store unnoticed very easily. Don’t let this happen to you. Be ready with a plan to market your app. In fact, be ready with many plans to market your app. Be ready to experiment, some ideas will work, others won’t.
Strategies for maintaining/boosting app sales:
* Incorporating social media. If your users make the high score on his or her favorite game, it is a good idea to make it easy for the user to post it to Facebook or Twitter. Think about how your app can incorporate social media and build that functionality into your app. At a minimum, set up a fan page for your app on Facebook and Twitter and use them as platforms to communicate with your users and get feedback on your app.
* Pre-launch promotion. Start building buzz about your app before it has launched. E-mail people who write about things that relate to your app and see if they will talk up the upcoming release of your app.
* Plan for multiple releases. Don’t pack your app with every single feature you want to offer in the very first release. Make your dream list for the app and make sure that the app is designed to incorporate all of the features at some time in the future. Then periodically drop new versions of the app to boost app store sales.
Action: Make a list of 20 promotional strategies that target the audience for your app. Take action on them yourself or hire someone who can!
11. Stay Focused and Don’t Give Up!
It’s easy when you are working on your first app to get all AppHappy, dreaming up a zillion new app-ideas. Dream, but don’t get sidetracked by new ideas. Your first app needs to make a big splash and getting involved in too many projects at once can dilute your passion for making your first application a success.
Action: Get out there and go kick some app!
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/08/11/how-to-create-your-first-iphone-application/
This how-to guide is supposed to walk you through the steps to make your idea for an iPhone app a reality. This post presents various ideas, techniques, tips, and resources that may come in handy if you are planning on creating your first iPhone application.
[Offtopic: by the way, did you know that there is a Smashing eBook Series? Book #1 is Professional Web Design, 242 pages for just $9,90.]
1. Have an idea – a Good Idea
How do you know if your idea is a good one? The first step is to even care if your idea is solid; and the second step is to answer the question does it have at least one of the indicators of success?
Zoom In in How to Create Your First iPhone Application Does your app solve a unique problem? Before the light bulb was invented, somebody had to shout out “Man, reading by candlelight sucks!” Figure out what sucks, and how your app can make the life of its user more comfortable.
Dog Tricks in How to Create Your First iPhone Application Does the app serve a specific niche? Though there aren’t any stats on the App Store search, the usage of applications is certainly growing with the explosion of App Store inventory. Find a niche with ardent fans (pet lovers, for example) and create an app that caters to a specific audience.
Do Not Press in How to Create Your First iPhone Application Does it make people laugh? This is a no-brainer. If you can come up with something funny, you are definitely on the right track and your idea may be the golden one. Heck, I hit a red “do not press” button for 5 minutes yesterday.
Wine Phd in How to Create Your First iPhone Application Are you building a better wheel? Are there existing successful apps that lack significant feature enhancements? Don’t be satisfied with just a wine list, give sommeliers a way to talk to their fans!
Popper in How to Create Your First iPhone Application Will the app be highly interactive? Let’s face it, most of us have the attention span of a flea. Successful games and utilities engage the user by requiring action!
Action: Does your app fall in to one of these categories? If yes, it’s just about time to prepare the necessary tools.
2. Tools Checklist
Below is a list of items you’ll need (*starred items are required, the rest are nice-to-have’s):
* join the Apple iPhone Developer Program ($99) *
* get iPhone or iPod Touch *
* get an Intel-based Mac computer with Mac OS X 10.5.5,
* prepare a Non-Disclosure Agreement (here’s a sample) *
* download and install the latest version of the iPhone SDK if you don’t already have it.
* a spiral bound notebook*
Action: Load up on your required supplies.
3. What Are You Really Good At?
What skills do you bring to the table? Are you a designer whose brain objects to Objective C? A developer who can’t design their way out of a paper sack? Or maybe you are neither, but an individual with an idea you’d like to take to the market? Designing a successful iPhone application is a lot like starting a small business. You play the role of Researcher, Project Manager, Accountant, Information Architect, Designer, Developer, Marketer and Advertiser – all rolled into one.
Remember what all good entrepreneurs know – it takes a team to make a product successful. Don’t get me wrong, you certainly can do it all. But you can also waste a lot of time, energy and sanity in the process. Don’t go crazy, reference the checklist below and ask yourself: What roles are the best fit for you to lead? Then find other talented people to fill in the gaps. The infusion of additional ideas can only enrich the product!
Skills Checklist
* Ability to Discern what works/doesn’t work in existing iPhone Apps
* Market research
* Outlining App Functionality (Sitemap Creation)
* Sketching
* GUI Design
* Programming (Objective C, Cocoa) (we assume here that we are creating a native application)
* App Promotion and Marketing
Remember to have contractors sign your non-disclosure agreement. Having a contract in place tells your contractor "I’m a professional that takes my business and this project seriously. Now don’t go runnin’ off with this idea."
Action: Select skills that are a good fit for you to lead. For those roles where you cannot lead, hire professionals.
4. Do Your Homework: Market Research
Market research is a fancy way of saying "Look at what other people are doing and don’t make the same mistakes." Learn from the good, bad and ugly in the App Store. Coming up with creative solutions in the app concept development and design starts with analyzing other (maybe similar) applications. Even if you encounter a lot of poorly designed apps, your mind will reference these examples of what not to do.
Good Ugly in How to Create Your First iPhone Application
Action: Answer these questions:
* What problem does your app solve?
* What products have you seen that perform a similar task?
* How do successful apps present information to users?
* How can you build on what works and make it unique?
* What value does your app bring to your audience?
5. Know the iPhone/iPod Touch UI
If you want to create an iPhone app, you need to understand the capabilities of the iPhone and its interface. Can you shoot a .45 caliber bullet out of your iPhone? No. Can you shoot videos? Yes!
The good news is that you don’t have to memorize the encyclopedic Apple User Interface Guidelines to get a feel for what works and what doesn’t in iPhone Apps. Download and play with as many apps as you can, and think about what functionality you want to include in your product.
Take note of:
* How do well-designed apps navigate from screen to screen?
* How do they organize information?
* How MUCH information do they present to the user?
* How do they take advantage of the iPhone’s unique characteristics: the accelerometer, swiping features, pinch, expand and rotate functions?
Action: Download the Top 10 apps in every category and play with all of them. Review the Apple Guidelines for UI design and list at least 5 features you’d like to incorporate into your app.
6. Determine "Who will use your app?"
We assume here that you’ve already determined that your app will bring value and that you will have a raging audience for your app. Well, fine, they are raging fans, but who are they really? What actions will they take to achieve their goals within the app?
If it’s a game, maybe they want to beat their high score. Or perhaps they are a first time player – how will their experience differ from someone who is getting a nice case of brain-rot playing your game all day?
If it’s a utility app, and your audience wants to find a coffee shop quickly, what actions will they take within the app to find that coffee shop? Where are they when they’re looking for coffee? Usually in the car! Do present an interface that requires multiple taps, reading and referencing a lot? Probably not! This is how thinking about how real-life intersects design.
Action: Line item out the different types of people who will use your app. You can even name them if you want to make the scenarios you draw out as real as possible.
7. Sketch Out Your Idea
And by "sketch" I mean literally sketch. Line out a 9-rectangle grid on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper and get to sketching!
Ask yourself:
* What information does each screen need to present?
* How can we take the user from point A to point B to point C?
* How should elements on the screen be proportioned or sized in relation to each other (i.e. is this thing even tap-able?)
Sketch in How to Create Your First iPhone Application
Image credit: Cultured Code
Thumbnailing your ideas on paper can push your creativity far beyond where your imagination might stagnate working in an sketching application! You can also buy the iPhone Stencil Kit to quickly sketch out iPhone UI prototypes on paper.
Action: Create at least one thumbnail page of your application per screen. Experiment with various navigational schemes, the text you put on buttons, and how screens connect. If you want to transfer your sketches into digital format, iPlotz is a good tool to check out.
8. Time for Design
Iphone Gui in How to Create Your First iPhone Application
If you are a designer, download the iPhone GUI Photoshop template or our iPhone PSD Vector Kit. Both are collections of iPhone GUI elements that will save you a lot of time in getting started. If you’ve solidified your layout during sketching, drawing up the screens will be less of a layout exercise and more about the actual design of the app.
If you are not a designer, hire one! It’s like hiring an electrician to do electrical work. You can go to Home Depot and buy tools to try it yourself, but who wants to risk getting zapped? If you’ve followed steps 1–3, you’ll have everything you need for a designer to get started.
When looking for a designer, try to find someone who has experience designing for mobile devices. They may have some good feedback and suggested improvements for your sketches. A few places to look for designers: Coroflot, Crowdspring, eLance. When posting your job offer, be very specific about your requirements, and also be ready to review a lot of portfolios.
Action: If you are a designer, get started in Photoshop. If you are not a designer, start interviewing designers for your job.
9. Programming
Xcode in How to Create Your First iPhone Application
Even though this how-to is sequential, it’s a good idea to get a developer on board at the same time when you line up design resources. Talking with a developer sooner than later will help you scope out a project that is technically feasible and within your budget.
If you are a Objective C/Cocoa developer crack, open Xcode and get started! A few forums to join if you haven’t already:
* Apple Dev Forum
* iPhoneSDK (moderated by Erica Sadun)
* iPhoneSDKForum
* iPhoneDev Forums
* iPhoneSB
If you are not a developer, you know what to do – find one! Specify the type of app you want to produce – whether it is a game, utility or anything else. Each type usually requires a different coding skill set. A few places to look for developers: Odesk, iPhoneFreelancer, eLance and any of the forums listed above.
10. Submit your application to Apple Store
OK, so how do you submit your application to Apple Store now? The process of compiling your application and publishing the binary for iTunes Connect can be difficult for anyone unfamiliar with XCode. If you are working with a developer, ask them to help you:
* Create your Certificates
* Define your App ID’s
* Create your Distribution Provisioning Profile
* Compile the application
* Upload to iTunes Connect
Action: If you are a developer, map out a development timeline and get started. If you are not a developer, start interviewing devs for your job.
11. Promote Your App
If a tree falls in the middle of the woods and nobody was around to hear it does it make a sound? Apps can sit in the store unnoticed very easily. Don’t let this happen to you. Be ready with a plan to market your app. In fact, be ready with many plans to market your app. Be ready to experiment, some ideas will work, others won’t.
Strategies for maintaining/boosting app sales:
* Incorporating social media. If your users make the high score on his or her favorite game, it is a good idea to make it easy for the user to post it to Facebook or Twitter. Think about how your app can incorporate social media and build that functionality into your app. At a minimum, set up a fan page for your app on Facebook and Twitter and use them as platforms to communicate with your users and get feedback on your app.
* Pre-launch promotion. Start building buzz about your app before it has launched. E-mail people who write about things that relate to your app and see if they will talk up the upcoming release of your app.
* Plan for multiple releases. Don’t pack your app with every single feature you want to offer in the very first release. Make your dream list for the app and make sure that the app is designed to incorporate all of the features at some time in the future. Then periodically drop new versions of the app to boost app store sales.
Action: Make a list of 20 promotional strategies that target the audience for your app. Take action on them yourself or hire someone who can!
11. Stay Focused and Don’t Give Up!
It’s easy when you are working on your first app to get all AppHappy, dreaming up a zillion new app-ideas. Dream, but don’t get sidetracked by new ideas. Your first app needs to make a big splash and getting involved in too many projects at once can dilute your passion for making your first application a success.
Action: Get out there and go kick some app!
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/08/11/how-to-create-your-first-iphone-application/
aPad is a real alternative to the Apple iPad
aPad.TV the Home of the aPad. The aPad is a real alternative to the Apple iPad, offering more freedom, more features and much more powerful functionality. The Orphan iRobot aPad is the best edition of the aPad, released on the 15th of May 2010 it's proven to be the most popular MID tablet computer available. aPad.TV will be your source of aPad functionality reviews, add-on previews, hardware testing and step-by-step modifications.
In the works is a forum and in-time a large library of how-to videos and exciting configuration ideas for you to try with your aPad. If you don't yet own an Orphan aPad, we suggest you buy now from any of the official Orphan Electronics distributors and retailers. Official Orphan aPad authorized distributor banner ads can be found at the bottom of the page.
The 7 inch screen of the aPad strikes a perfect balance between usability and portability. The Orphan iRobot Tablet PC is half the weight of most models of Apple iPad, has more input and output options and far greater scope for expansion. Also, with the Orphan iRobot aPad Tablet computer running Android 1.5 it is the smoothest and stable tablet PC available. So before you buy an aPad, be confident we will have all the information you need to help you choose an aPad and know you are getting the best edition available.
http://www.apad.tv/Monday, May 31, 2010
Helicam Combines Toy Helicopter and Camera for HD Videos
In a quest to get the perfect shot, Eric Austin, a Texas-based videographer, found a neat way to fuse a remote controlled helicopter and a Canon DSLR camera so he could shoot aerial videos easily and get the kind of footage that would otherwise be difficult to pull off.
“I took a hobbyshop helicopter and modified it to hold a camera, so I can get low altitude, close and tight aerial shots,” Austin told Wired.com.
An amateur videographer turned pro, Austin got interested in remote-controlled photography just four months ago.
“As I did more photos and videos, I realized I could develop a niche where I could use the advancements in technology to provide the kind of photos most people can’t get easily,” he says.
Austin is one of the many hobbyist photographers who are finding ways to use drones and remote-controlled helicopter toys to get a more attractive camera angle. Wired magazine editor-in-chief Chris Anderson helms a site called DIY Drones where users have found a way to use unmanned aerial vehicles to do aerial photography. Last year, New York City photographer Anthony Jacobs showed a helicam built using a German helicopter rig called MikroKopter. Jacobs used his helicam rig to shoot videos of neighborhooods in the city.
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/04/helicam-combines-toy-helicopter-and-camera-for-hd-videos
More helicopter forum : http://www.helifreak.com/
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
New Software Uses Probability Algorithm to Assemble Jigsaw Puzzles at Record Speed
When it comes to complex games like chess, computers can compete with the world’s best humans. But complicated jigsaw puzzles have largely had computers stumped — until now.
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, team has set a new world record for a jigsaw-puzzle-solving computer algorithm. The software solved a 400-piece puzzle in three minutes, New Scientist reports.
The software can handle any image, even photographs of outdoor scenes. The previous record was 320 pieces, set by a Danish team in 2008, but that software could only solve simple puzzles with clear shapes and limited colours.
The new software is adept at finding image pieces that blend well, so its inventor, MIT grad student Taeg Sang Cho, hopes it could improve photo-editing programs like Photoshop. It could make Photoshopped images look more realistic, for instance.
To train the software, Cho and his colleagues chopped 5-megabyte pictures into 400 squares. The computer analysed the predominant colours and referenced a database of existing images to roughly arrange the pieces. It uses the same common-sense approach a person would — lots of blue pieces could indicate sky, for instance, and a mixture of blue, grey and green could indicate a landscape with sky, buildings and grass.
From there, the computer’s work gets more complex. It examines the pixel colour values along the boundaries of each piece, and uses a probabilistic approach to find similar values on pieces that look alike, stitching the images back together.
It’s much harder to do this with squares than with traditional jigsaw pieces, but as Cho and his colleagues write in a paper about the findings, that’s a good thing.
“This is a good framework for analysing structural regularities in natural images since it requires us to focus on the image content to solve the puzzle,” the paper says.
Cho and his team will present their work at the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition in San Francisco next month.
New iPhone to land in US on 7 June
Posted in Mobile, 25th May 2010 12:25 GMT
June 7 is now a near-certainty to be the launch date for the latest iPhone, with Apple CEO Steve Jobs kicking off the firm's Worldwide Developers' Conference on that day (and with US retailer Wal-Mart halving the prices of the current iPhone 3GS in readiness). That would suggest that the new handset would hit the shelves in early July.
The pattern is a familiar one, since the original iPhone launch in June 2007, but the big difference is that Google is now Apple's avowed enemy, not close ally. Google executives used the firm's own developer conference last week to attack Apple at every turn, and Jobs is likely to respond during his own keynote. In a weekend open email, he said there was "not a chance" that Android could surpass Apple on the technology front, says Gizmodo.
Amid speculation over whether Verizon would get an iPhone this time around (and even some rumors that Sprint would gain a CDMA version instead), research by Morgan Stanley found that an Apple handset would benefit Verizon, with 17 per cent of its subscribers "very likely" to purchase the device if offered. That compares with 14.6 per cent of AT&T customers who express interest in the product.
Wal-Mart is to cut the price on the entry level iPhone 3GS, with 16Gb of memory, by $100 to $97 with a two-year AT&T contract. When Apple introduced the iPhone 3GS last June, it cut the price of the older iPhone 3G to $99.
Copyright © 2010, Wireless Watch
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/25/iphone_date/
June 7 is now a near-certainty to be the launch date for the latest iPhone, with Apple CEO Steve Jobs kicking off the firm's Worldwide Developers' Conference on that day (and with US retailer Wal-Mart halving the prices of the current iPhone 3GS in readiness). That would suggest that the new handset would hit the shelves in early July.
The pattern is a familiar one, since the original iPhone launch in June 2007, but the big difference is that Google is now Apple's avowed enemy, not close ally. Google executives used the firm's own developer conference last week to attack Apple at every turn, and Jobs is likely to respond during his own keynote. In a weekend open email, he said there was "not a chance" that Android could surpass Apple on the technology front, says Gizmodo.
Amid speculation over whether Verizon would get an iPhone this time around (and even some rumors that Sprint would gain a CDMA version instead), research by Morgan Stanley found that an Apple handset would benefit Verizon, with 17 per cent of its subscribers "very likely" to purchase the device if offered. That compares with 14.6 per cent of AT&T customers who express interest in the product.
Wal-Mart is to cut the price on the entry level iPhone 3GS, with 16Gb of memory, by $100 to $97 with a two-year AT&T contract. When Apple introduced the iPhone 3GS last June, it cut the price of the older iPhone 3G to $99.
Copyright © 2010, Wireless Watch
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/25/iphone_date/
WikiLeaks
http://wikileaks.org/
WikiLeaks is a multi-jurisdictional public service designed to protect whistleblowers, journalists and activists who have sensitive materials to communicate to the public. Since July 2007, we have worked across the globe to obtain, publish and defend such materials, and, also, to fight in the legal and political spheres for the broader principles on which our work is based: the integrity of our common historical record and the rights of all peoples to create new history
WikiLeaks is a multi-jurisdictional public service designed to protect whistleblowers, journalists and activists who have sensitive materials to communicate to the public. Since July 2007, we have worked across the globe to obtain, publish and defend such materials, and, also, to fight in the legal and political spheres for the broader principles on which our work is based: the integrity of our common historical record and the rights of all peoples to create new history
White iPhone 4G Images Leak Online, Next-gen iPhone to Look Slick
Images of a white-coloured iPhone 4G have been leaked on the internet. The images, first released by Apple.pro, a Chinese site, show the white iPhone 4G along with the black iPhone 4G. Parts of the phone, such as the front-facing camera, can be clearly seen on the white iPhone. Still, the phone in the pictures doesn’t seem to be assembled very well as there is a large gap near the home button which is yet to be snapped in properly.
Rumours of the existence of a white iPhone 4G model have already been floating on the internet. They were supported further by pictures of a white front panel for the phone as well as white home buttons being leaked online.
However, even the most recent leak does not officially confirm that a white iPhone 4G model will surely be launched by Apple or whether the device will look exactly as seen in the pictures. The company started selling white coloured iPhones with the iPhone 3G model and continued the trend into the iPhone 3GS model. The white iPhone 3GS also gained a lot of popularity.
No other iPhone till date has been leaked as much as the iPhone 4G. The leaks have certainly lessened the element of surprise that was expected before Apple officially launches the device at the WWDC event to be held in two weeks.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Bear Grylls Blog
Bear's Profile
Bear spent three years with the British Special Forces.
During this time he had a horrendous parachuting accident whilst in southern Africa and broke his back in three places.
Yet two years later, after severe rehabilitation, he overcame the odds to become the youngest British climber ever to reach the summit of Mount Everest and return alive.
Man vs wild season 5 and worst case scenario update...
http://beargrylls.blogspot.com/WR 104 gramma ray that my hit the Earth?
WR 104 is a Wolf-Rayet star discovered in 1998, located 8000 light years from Earth. It is a binary star with a class OB companion. The stars have an orbital period of 220 days and the interaction between their stellar winds produce a spiral "pinwheel" outflow pattern over 200 AU long.[2] The spiral is composed of dust that would normally be prevented from forming by WR 104's intense radiation were it not for the star's companion. The region where the stellar wind from the two massive stars interacts compresses the material enough for the dust to form, and the rotation of the system causes the spiral-shaped pattern.[3]
Some optical measurements indicate that WR 104's rotational axis is aligned within 16° of Earth.[4] This could have potential implications to the effects of WR 104's eventual supernova, since these explosions often produce jets from their rotational poles. It is possible that WR 104 may even produce a gamma-ray burst, though it is not possible to predict with certainty at this time.[3] Newer spectroscopic data suggest that WR 104's rotational axis is angled more like 30-40° from Earth[5]
A planet like Earth
Discovery
Gliese 581 d's orbit compared to Mercury's orbit (0.38AU) in our Solar System. 
Another artist impression of Gliese 581 d as a Super-Earth.
A team of astronomers led by Stéphane Udry of the Geneva Observatory used the HARPS instrument on the European Southern Observatory 3.6 meter telescope in La Silla, Chile to discover the planet in 2007. Udry's team employed the radial velocity technique, in which the size and mass of a planet are determined based on the small perturbations it induces in its parent star’s orbit via gravity.[3]
The motion of the parent star indicates a minimum mass for Gliese 581 d of 7.09 Earth masses. Dynamical simulations of the Gliese 581 system assuming that the orbits of the three planets are coplanar show that the system becomes unstable if the masses of the planets exceed 1.6 – 2 times the minimum values. This implies an upper mass limit for Gliese 581 d of 13.8 Earth masses.[2]
Climate and habitability
It was originally thought that Gliese 581 d orbits outside the habitable zone of its star. However, in 2009 the original discovery team revised its original estimate of the planet's orbital parameters, finding that it orbits closer to its star than originally believed. They concluded that the planet is within the habitable zone where liquid water could exist. [2][4] According to Stéphane Udry, "It could be covered by a 'large and deep ocean'; it is the first serious ocean planet candidate."[5][dead link]
On average, the light that Gliese 581 d receives from its star has about 30% of the intensity of sunlight on Earth. By comparison, sunlight on Mars has about 40% of the intensity of that on Earth. That might seem to suggest that Gliese 581 d is too cold to support liquid water and hence is inhospitable to life. However, an atmospheric greenhouse effect can significantly raise planetary temperatures. For example, Earth's own temperature would be about -18°C[6] without any greenhouse gases. If the atmosphere of Gliese 581 d produces a sufficiently large greenhouse effect, then the surface temperature might well permit liquid water and the planet might conceivably support life.[7][8][9]
Gliese 581 d is probably too massive to be made only of rocky material, but it is speculated that it is an icy planet that has migrated closer to the star.[10][11] Calculations by Barnes et al. suggest, however, that tidal heating is too low to keep plate tectonics active on the planet, unless radiogenic heating is somewhat higher than expected.[12]
[edit] Messages from Earth
In October 2008, members of the networking website Bebo beamed A Message From Earth, a high-power transmission at Gliese 581, using the RT-70 radio telescope belonging to the National Space Agency of Ukraine. This transmission is due to arrive in the Gliese 581 system's vicinity by the year 2029; the earliest possible arrival for a response, should there be one, would be in 2049.[13]
As part of the 2009 National Science Week celebrations in Australia, Cosmos Magazine launched a website called Hello From Earth to collect messages for transmission to Gliese 581d. The maximum length of the messages was 160 characters, and they were restricted to the English language. In total, 25,880 messages were collected from 195 countries around the world. The messages were transmitted from the DSS-43 70 m radio telescope at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex at Tidbinbilla, Australia on the 28th of August, 2009.[14]
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Quantum teleportation achieved over 16 km
May 20, 2010 by Lin Edwards 
More information: Xian-Min Jin, Experimental free-space quantum teleportation, Nature Photonics, Published online: 16 May 2010. doi:10.1038/nphoton.2010.87
http://www.physorg.com/news193551675.html
a, A birds-eye view of the 16-km free-space quantum teleportation experiment. Charlie sends photon 1 to Alice for BSM. Classical information, including the results of the BSM and the signal for time synchronization, is sent through the free-space channel with photon 2, to Bob, before decoding and triggering of the corresponding unitary transformation. b, Sketch of the experimental system. See the original paper for more details. Image copyright: Nature Photonics, doi:10.1038/nphoton.2010.87
Scientists in China have succeeded in teleporting information between photons further than ever before. They transported quantum information over a free space distance of 16 km (10 miles), much further than the few hundred meters previously achieved, which brings us closer to transmitting information over long distances without the need for a traditional signal.
Refurbished Thermo TSQ - Certified TSQ 7000, Quantum Used TSQ Mass Spectrometers - www.ietltd.com
Quantum teleportation is not the same as the teleportation most of us know from science fiction, where an object (or person) in one place is “beamed up” to another place where a perfect copy is replicated. In quantum teleportation two photons or ions (for example) are entangled in such a way that when the quantum state of one is changed the state of the other also changes, as if the two were still connected. This enables quantum information to be teleported if one of the photons/ions is sent some distance away.
In previous experiments the photons were confined to fiber channels a few hundred meters long to ensure their state remained unchanged, but in the new experiments pairs of photons were entangled and then the higher-energy photon of the pair was sent through a free space channel 16 km long. The researchers, from the University of Science and Technology of China and Tsinghua University in Beijing, found that even at this distance the photon at the receiving end still responded to changes in state of the photon remaining behind. The average fidelity of the teleportation achieved was 89 percent.
The distance of 16 km is greater than the effective aerosphere thickness of 5-10 km, so the group's success could pave the way for experiments between a ground station and a satellite, or two ground stations with a satellite acting as a relay. This means quantum communication applications could be possible on a global scale in the near future.
The public free space channel was at ground level and spanned the 16 km distance between Badaling in Beijing (the teleportation site) and the receiver site at Huailai in Hebei province. Entangled photon pairs were generated at the teleportation site using a semiconductor, a blue laser beam, and a crystal of beta-barium borate (BBO). The pairs of photons were entangled in the spatial modes of photon 1 and polarization modes of photon 2. The research team designed two types of telescopes to serve as optical transmitting and receiving antennas.
The experiments confirm the feasibility of space-based quantum teleportation, and represent a giant leap forward in the development of quantum communication applications.
The paper is available in full online at Nature Photonics.
http://www.physorg.com/news193551675.html
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Experimental Security Analysis of a Modern Automobile
Experimental Security Analysis of a Modern Automobile
http://www.autosec.org/pubs/cars-oakland2010.pdf
http://www.autosec.org/pubs/cars-oakland2010.pdf
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Micro-Supercapacitors Could Boost Lifetime of Portable Devices
Clay Dillow, Jeremy Hsu
Published on Friday, April 30th, 2010 at 6:45 am
Micro-supercapacitors could enable future geeks to go longer without recharging their smartphones or computers. Researchers have developed a way to build the energy-storing supercapacitors by using microfabrication methods similar to those which create microchips for electronic devices, according to ScienceDaily.
Batteries can store electrical energy in chemical reactants and typically have higher energy storage densities than supercapacitors. But supercapacitors simply store energy as electrical charge and can endure a charge-discharge cycle millions of times, compared to just several thousand cycles for batteries.
“We have known for some time that supercapacitors are faster and longer-lasting alternatives to conventional batteries, so we decided to see if it would be possible to incorporate them into microelectronic devices and if there would be any advantage to doing so,” said Yury Gogotsi, a materials engineer at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
Gogotsi worked with John Chmiola, a chemist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. They etched electrodes made of monolithic carbon film into a conducting substrate of titanium carbide, and created micro-supercapacitors with an energy storage density at least twice as much as existing supercapacitors.
That suggests micro-supercapacitors can more efficiently store energy within ever-smaller physical spaces. By directly integrating the supercapacitors with the devices they power, researchers can boost the density of microelectronic devices and allow for more functionality, less complexity and enhanced redundancy.
The almost infinite cycle life of micro-supercapacitors would make them ideal for capturing and storing energy from renewable resources, and for on-chip operations to make electronic devices longer lasting, according to Chmiola.
More short-term applications would likely combine micro-supercapacitors with micro-batteries for the most possible energy storage. But the researchers eventually hope to boost super-capacitor storage to levels closer to batteries, and hold onto the supercapacitor edge regarding charge-discharge cycles. The future of micromachines looks bright indeed — and we can think of a micro drone or two which could use more juice while doing recon. — Jeremy Hsu
http://www.popsci.com.au/2010/04/micro-supercapacitors-could-boost-lifetime-of-portable-devices/
Published on Friday, April 30th, 2010 at 6:45 am
Micro-supercapacitors could enable future geeks to go longer without recharging their smartphones or computers. Researchers have developed a way to build the energy-storing supercapacitors by using microfabrication methods similar to those which create microchips for electronic devices, according to ScienceDaily.
Batteries can store electrical energy in chemical reactants and typically have higher energy storage densities than supercapacitors. But supercapacitors simply store energy as electrical charge and can endure a charge-discharge cycle millions of times, compared to just several thousand cycles for batteries.
“We have known for some time that supercapacitors are faster and longer-lasting alternatives to conventional batteries, so we decided to see if it would be possible to incorporate them into microelectronic devices and if there would be any advantage to doing so,” said Yury Gogotsi, a materials engineer at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
Gogotsi worked with John Chmiola, a chemist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. They etched electrodes made of monolithic carbon film into a conducting substrate of titanium carbide, and created micro-supercapacitors with an energy storage density at least twice as much as existing supercapacitors.
That suggests micro-supercapacitors can more efficiently store energy within ever-smaller physical spaces. By directly integrating the supercapacitors with the devices they power, researchers can boost the density of microelectronic devices and allow for more functionality, less complexity and enhanced redundancy.
The almost infinite cycle life of micro-supercapacitors would make them ideal for capturing and storing energy from renewable resources, and for on-chip operations to make electronic devices longer lasting, according to Chmiola.
More short-term applications would likely combine micro-supercapacitors with micro-batteries for the most possible energy storage. But the researchers eventually hope to boost super-capacitor storage to levels closer to batteries, and hold onto the supercapacitor edge regarding charge-discharge cycles. The future of micromachines looks bright indeed — and we can think of a micro drone or two which could use more juice while doing recon. — Jeremy Hsu
http://www.popsci.com.au/2010/04/micro-supercapacitors-could-boost-lifetime-of-portable-devices/
Friday, April 30, 2010
Ubuntu's Lucid Lynx stalks PC and Mac converts
Ubuntu's Lucid Lynx stalks PC and Mac converts
Posted in Operating Systems, 27th April 2010 23:27 GMT
Canonical says that with the latest release schedule this Thursday, it will win your love for Ubuntu. If not immediately, give it a year - but Canonical will get you.
And by 'you', Canonical means Mac and Windows users.
Chief operating officer and blogger Matt Asay told The Reg that changes in the consumer-oriented Ubuntu 10.04 LTS edition will cause Apple fanbois to reconsider their love for Steve Jobs, while milk-fed Windows users will be less inclined to run screaming to their retailer to return their Ubuntu PC.
"I guarantee you will be impressed with Lucid if you look at it today," Asay told us in a recent interview. "We may not get you today, but we will get you six months later or a year."
The painful experiences that people had with Ubuntu in the past? When they got home, unpacked their new PC, found it wasn't running Windows but some brown piece of software crap, and returned it to the very public delight of Asay's rival Kevin Turner at Microsoft? Those will fade, says Asay.
Linux netbooks had four times the rate of return on machines loaded with Windows, according to one manufacturer in 2008. But Asay sees a brighter future. "The LTS release is a significantly better operating system than Windows," he said. "We may not win over the Mac users tomorrow, but we will impress the Mac users and we will win over the Windows users."
Ubuntu 10.04 packs a number of changes in the look-and-feel, the online services, and performance that target in particular those looking for a second machine - the netbook market. That machine will run a browser, email, IM, and music player.
Let's take the music player. Ubuntu One will be the first Linux distro to offer an out-of-the box online music store and player similar to Apple's iTunes, which works on Mac and Windows. Called Ubuntu One, the service spans millions of songs that can be searched, purchased, and played - minus DRM. The music is actually delivered by partner 7Digital, 50 per cent owned by EMI and whose customers include Adidas, Nokia, CocaCola and Sony.
Social network meets OS
Canonical has also done something neither Apple's Mac, iPhone or iPad or Windows on the PC offers but that's finding a foothold in mobile operating systems: integration of social network services with the actual operating system. This means logging in and posting is seamless and combined, and you don't need to fire up yet another application.
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS uses microblogging client Gwibber to combine streams from Twitter, Facebook, Digg, StatusNet, and such services through a Me Menu.
Performance has been improved specifically to help Ubuntu on netbooks. Canonical claimed boot up times on a standard SSD laptop are now less than 17 seconds. Chris Kenyon, director of business development who leads Canonical's OEM team, told The Reg that where Canonical has worked with PC makers on specific machines to fine-tune Ubuntu start-up, times will be even faster.
"OEMs shipping Ubuntu pre-installed can achieve even faster [results] than that. If we are pre-installing, we can further cut that down. Most users on Ubuntu will notice a really significant speed increase," Kenyon said. "For those users having a really fast boot environment is important."
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Osaka University, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Dept. of Systems Innovation Intelligent
A Perceptual Information Infrastructure monitors and recognizes real environment through sensor networks. The sensor network tracks people in real-time and recognizes human behaviors which provide rich information for understanding real world events and helps peoples and robots working in the real world.
An Interigent Robot Infrastructure is an interaction-based infrastructure. By interacting with robots, people can establish nonverbal communications with the artifical systems. That is, the purpose of a robot is to exist as a partner and to have valuable interactions with people.
Our objective is to develop technologies for the new generation information infrastructures based on Computer Vision, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence.
Introduction of intelligent robotics laboratory （PDF 450KB）http://www.is.sys.es.osaka-u.ac.jp/index.en.html
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