Xenophilia - News Archives: Technology

Technology

Also, See Our Technology News Archives from 2005

12/15/2004 Technology. Before the Internet was invented, I had a vision that one day you'd be able to read any book from a computer. Then came Project Gutenberg. You can get entire books on line. A great start!

the Internet's oldest producer of FREE electronic books (eBooks or eTexts) ... 1923 is a good first rule-of-thumb for the U.S.A. ... you won't find the latest bestsellers or modern computer books here. You will find the classic books from the start of this century and previous centuries, from authors like Shakespeare, Poe, Dante, as well as well-loved favorites like the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the Tarzan and Mars books of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Alice's adventures in Wonderland as told by Lewis Carroll, and thousands of others. "

Now Google is going to scan and catalog entire University Libraries full of books. The plan over the next six years is to put "15 million books from seven of the world's top libraries online."

12/6/2004 Technology.(channel3k | ctrib) Preparing to communicate inside US homes around US military bases? Military Radios May Interfere With Garage Doors Pentagon, Industry Disagree On Scope Of Problem.

"The garage-door opener frequency at issue - 390 megahertz - has belonged to the military since around 1950. Openers have legally operated at that frequency since at least the early 1980s, Karasek said....

U.S. law allows low-power electronic devices to operate on military frequencies if they don't cause interference. It was a good frequency for garage-door openers because transmissions can penetrate the doors."

12/1/2004 Technology (wired) This wins today's "Disgusting Use of Technology" award. Real death by robot (with machine gun). R2-D2 it ain't. Cowardly and sick. Where is the humanity? How long until these things learn to reproduce and then turn on their creators? I-Robot.

"The Army's new Talon robot -- machine gun-equipped, and due to arrive in Iraq this spring. Photo: Carl P. Evans III."

When they take over the planet at least we might be able to out run them ... if we can all run away at 5 miles per hour for over four hours ... and dodge bullets. Cripes.

"TALON's speed ranges from 4 mph (6.6 kmh) down to a creep with a continuous operational life of over four hours."

You think I'm joking but some "Scientists are experimenting with robots that will eventually be able to reproduce."

12/1/2004 Technology / Earth (yahoo) "British scientists seeking to protect the environment have designed a biodegradable mobile phone cover that breaks down in soil when discarded and sprouts a flower from a seed embedded inside the case."

12/1/2004 Technology (cnn) Will the "Make Love Not Spam" screensaver that attacks spam sites do any good? Probably not. Watch out that this screensaver doesn't turn around and spy on your computer.

These are not tested and I don't recommend using them, but here they are.

"Wonder if the spammers who took this down actually realizes that they left the actual files available?

For windows:
download2.makelovenotspam.com/screensa..

For superior (Mac) users:
download2.makelovenotspam.com/screensa.."

11/30/2004 Technology / Humor Witness the F-22 stealth fighter plane with stealth mode turned on!

11/30/2004 Technology / Freedom (cnn)

Log on to be a satellite spy

Vincent Tao, an engineer at Toronto's York University, has invented a mapping and surveillance tool called Same (See Anywhere, Map Anywhere), [Shouldn't it be SAMA? - xeno] which produces images so sharp that geographic co-ordinates typed into a Web site (not yet released) can reveal the make of a car parked on the street.

11/29/2004 Technology / Health (cnn) Cell Phone Battery Explosions:

CPSC highlights dangers of exploding cell phone batteries

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Curtis Sathre said it was like a bomb going off.

His 13-year-old son Michael stood stunned, his ears ringing, hand gushing blood and body covered in black ash.

In a split second last August, fragments from Michael's exploding cell phone had hit him between the eyes and lodged in the ceiling of the family's home in Oceanside, California.

Over the past two years, federal safety officials have received 83 reports of cell phones exploding or catching fire, usually because of incompatible, faulty or counterfeit batteries or chargers.

Also see http://www.recall-warnings.com

11/23/2004 Technology Wow, I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden my computer is incredibly fast. I'm serious. It is really strange. Like a vice grip has been removed.

Perhaps some watcher got tired and set my computer free? If so, thanks! I've always wondered why these high powered machines are so dang slow. I thought it was a bloated operating system, I guess not.

I have all the same programs / services / etc. running today as always, but wham! This thing is down right speedy!! There must have been something slowing it down. Good time to take a snapshot of everything. Strange, but great!

11/19/2004 Technology Google has announced a new research tool! The new scholar.google.com site searches only peer-reviewed scholarly journals. This is fantastic. I've already found some interesting info in a few minutes.

11/19/2004 Technology (turkishpress) Bill Gates sees spam "under control" in two years. Possibly for this reason: (pcworld) AOL Supports Microsoft Antispam Plan. To overcome industry objections, Microsoft revises its Sender ID proposal. The experts, however, remain skeptical about Bill's vision.

11/11/2004 Technology. This thing scares me: a robotic pillow with communication technology and heating elements built in called "the Hug". What if it malfunctions? Could it be used as a long distance weapon to attack someone in bed? Very scary.

11/5/2004 Paranormal / Technology (yahoo | space) Air Force report calls for $7.5M to study psychic teleportation. | U.S. Air Force Takes a Look at Teleportation.

"It seems that mere stealth technology is not enough; the United States Air Force wants to get from here to there without even traversing the space in between. Are they looking for a Star Trek(TM) transporter?"

Eric Davis, a physicist with Warp Drive Metrics of Las Vegas, couldn't be reached for comment. The Air Force paid $25,000 for the report, part of a $20.5 million advanced rocket and missile design contract. The report calls for $7.5 million to conduct psychic teleportation experiments.

"... A 'remote viewing' project, for example, undertaken by defense intelligence services and declassified in 1994, sought to see whether psychic powers could be employed to spy on the Soviet Union.

"The views expressed in the report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the Air Force, the Department of Defense ... or the U.S. Government," says an Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) statement sent to USA TODAY. "There are no plans by the AFRL Propulsion Directorate for additional funding on this contract."

Explaining why the lab sponsored the study, AFRL spokesman Ranney Adams said, "If we don't turn over stones, we don't know if we have missed something."

11/4/2004 Technology (motorcyclecity.com) The Dolmette Chain Saw Motorcycle. The combined power of 24 Dolmar chain saw engines is fed into to a 5-speed Harley-Davidson transmission by an awesome series of primary belts.

11/4/2004 Technology (discovery) Nov. 4, 2004 - Giving a new meaning to the term grassroots music, Pioneer Corp. said Thursday it had developed a next-generation disc made of corn to let the eco-conscious consumer dispose of data in the soil.

The Japanese electronics maker said the Blu-ray optical disc, which can be written once and stores 25 gigabytes of data, is 87 percent natural polymer derived from corn and biodegrades.

11/5/2004 Technology / Survival "The Hidden Door Company has the solution for your pre-apocalyptic weapon-hoarding needs"

10/15/04 Technology / Biology. (nature.com) Paralysed man sends e-mail by thought. "Brain chip reads mind by tapping straight into neurons. An pill-sized brain chip has allowed a quadriplegic man to check e-mail and play computer games using his thoughts. The device can tap into a hundred neurons at a time, and is the most sophisticated such implant tested in humans so far.

... In June 2004, surgeons implanted a device containing 100 electrodes into the motor cortex of a 24-year-old quadriplegic. The device, called the BrainGate, was developed by the company Cyberkinetics, based in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Each electrode taps into a neuron in the patient's brain.

The BrainGate allowed the patient to control a computer or television using his mind, even when doing other things at the same time. Researchers report for example that he could control his television while talking and moving his head.

Rival teams are building devices to read brain activity without touching neurons. Neural Signals, based in Atlanta, has patented a conductive skull screw that sits outside the brain, just under the skull. Other researchers are developing non-invasive technologies, for example using an electroencephalogram to read a patient's thoughts. ...

9/29/04 Tech (techtree) A new optical disk format has been invented by Scientists at the Imperial College, London, which enables 1,000 GB, a terabyte of data, to be stored on a disk the same size of a CD. The disk, called MODS, for Multiplexed Optical Data Storage, works by varying the angle at which the disk reflects light from a drive's laser.

This system can store 332 different data signals where a CD or DVD can only store two. ... Although Torok's team can get the data onto the disk, they do not have a drive that can read it back fast enough. Consequently they do not expect MODS to go into commercial production until 2010 or beyond."

Sweet. That's 1,462 regular 700 MB CDs.

9/22/04 Tech. Yang Wang and colleagues at Boston College have created "An antenna that captures visible light like radio antennas capture radiowaves... . They said the device, which uses tiny carbon nanotubes, may one day lead to ... a way of converting solar energy into electricity." -aip.org

9/9/04 Tech Fly-Munching EcoBot Generates Buzz. This is yet another robot that eats living things to generate its power.

"The point behind the experiment is, ultimately, to create "release and forget" roving droids that are almost completely autonomous."

Hmm... machines feeding off of living things... that might make an interesting movie...

9/7/04 Tech / Odd Happenings. SoCal man accused of stalking ex-girlfriend with GPS. Ara Gabrielyan, of Glendale used "... a cell phone and global positioning system to his ex-girlfriend's car to track her whereabouts ... The woman finally learned how he was following her when she discovered him under her car attempting to change the cell phone's battery, police said."

This guy is a sick puppy, but this is an interesting case from a privacy and technology standpoint.

If it is illegal for individuals to track eachother, it should also be considered stalking for stores to send you home with RFID tags on products that can monitor your whereabouts.

In some areas the rights of companies are surpassing the rights of individuals.

Some take control by monitoring themselves: The gadgeteer.org has a guy with a who you can track over the web. More on GPS phones here. I may get one of these for tracking my own car:

LandAirSea has the Mobile Watch Digital real time GPS car tracking unit. It uses a Dual-Mode CDMA wireless modem, which provides nationwide digital cellular coverage for the USA. A compact flash memory card stores historical data. The system provides instant location with no time delay and you can use your cellular phone to pinpoint location. Can alert your cell phone when movement is detected. The MobileWatch viewing software operates on a desktop computer with Internet access.

9/5/04 Tech/Blog. My new phone. The Sprint Store said my old phone had water damage ... but it didn't. Turns out alcohol-based colognes can destroy cell phones. My cell phone was actually destroyed by being in the same duffle bag as a (mostly closed) bottle of Obsession for Men. A new phone of same quality would cost $300 because I didn't get the insurance. Argh! Loophole: Add second phone to your existing line and you can get the new customer discount at Radio Shack on a newer model of phone. So I did. I switched to Verizon for one day, then back to Sprint and had to get a new phone number. The new cell phone I picked up today is a Sanyo SCP-5500(L). Cost a few hundred bucks after rebate, but takes 15 second movies and better pics. See food review below for first pic from this camera phone. Click video photo for a sample .qtl video from this phone. This is my own 8 second horror movie titled "DMV Basement.

8/10/04 Tech. (innovations-report) "The car was made with the help of space technology and can reach a top speed of 170 km/hr ( 105 miles/hr ). Nuna 2 is powered by solar energy and is covered entirely by solar cell panels." Yes! A 100 MPG solar car! This rocks. Does it fly?

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6/24/04 Tech. ( RR | newsday | myway | USAtoday ) This is beautiful because spammers suck. Take a good look at the spammer in these AP pictures. He is Sean Dunaway.

"(New York-AP) An America Online software engineer stole a list of 92 million customer screen names that was eventually used to send massive amounts of e-mail spam. ... 24-year-old Jason Smathers was arrested at his home in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and was charged with conspiracy. Smathers worked at AOL offices in Dulles when he stole the list and sold it to a 21-year-old Las Vegas man. Sean Dunaway used the list to promote an Internet gambling operation and sold it to spammers. Dunaway also was arrested at his home and was charged with conspiracy. Each man could face up to five years in prison and at least $250,000 in fines if convicted."

At one point Dunaway paid Smathers $100,000 for an updated version of the list according to Secret Service agents. AOL is a Time-Warner company.

"Dunaway ... offered the list to spammers, charging them $2,000 for lists containing names beginning with a single letter of the alphabet or $52,000 for the entire list, the complaint said.

At least one spammer used the list to send advertising for herbal penile enhancement pills, prosecutors said.

One blogger Howard Greenstein had a great idea. The punishment should fit the crime. For the theft of the email addresses, here is the suggestion:

"If he were to type:

To: Customer@aol.com
Dear Customer,
I am sorry I sold your email to spammers. It will never happen again.
Sincerely,

Jason Smathers

to each person, it would take him about 566 years of 24 hour days to do it.

How did this scam get broken? One spammer talked under pressure.

"Authorities allege Dunaway used the list to promote his Internet gambling business, and then resold it to another spammer for $52,000. That spammer, who isn't named in the complaint, eventually agreed to cooperate with authorities and fingered Dunaway to U.S. Secret Service Agent Peter Cavicchia, hoping for leniency from government prosecutors." - msnbc

This has NOTHING to do with Bush's worthless "CAN Spam" act, which has in fact made spam much worse by taking away strong state anti-spam laws.

6/11/04 Technology Look how good we are getting at creating artificial actors. Closer and closer to being indistinguishable from a real person! This Wonderful Life by Liam Kemp

"This short film was presented at the Electronic Theater at Siggraph this year in San Diego. A troubled young woman finds an unexpected surprise in this highly emotional and beautiful tale. This short film features some of the most advanced and complex facial expressions I have ever seen Truly impressive both technically and artistically. Armed with nothing but his trusty Athlon 1.4 Ghz, 3ds max and a lot of patience, created this true little masterpiece. Bravo! "

6/15/04 Technology. ( ecomtimes) Web Inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee Finally Gets His Due. He was already knighted by the British, but now he's finally getting some cash. I'd like to take some space to thank the inventor of the Web. Tim changed the course of history and has contributed more to humanity, IMHO, than any other living person.

"If Tim Berners-Lee had decided to patent his idea in 1989, the Internet would be a different place. Instead, the World Wide Web became free to anyone who could make use of it.

Many of those who did became rich: Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com), Jerry Yang (Yahoo), Pierre Omidyar (eBay) and Marc Andreessen (Netscape). But not Berners-Lee, 49, a British scientist working at a Geneva research lab at the time.

That is why some people think it is fitting or about time that he finally becomes wealthy, with the award Tuesday of the world's largest technology prize, the Millennium Technology Prize from the Finnish Technology Award Foundation. The US$1.65 million prize for outstanding technological achievements that raised the quality of life is supported by the Finnish government and private contributors.

"It was a very nice surprise," Berners-Lee said in an interview Sunday as three days of ceremonies began.

6/15/04 Technology. First Cell Phone virus discovered. "It propagates through the "Bluetooth" wireless technology, repeatedly sending itself to any Bluetooth-enabled device that it can find, regardless of the type. The worm will not damage a phone or its software but shortens the device's battery life by constantly scanning for other Bluetooth-enabled devices. ... If the virus succeeds in penetrating the phone it writes "Caribe" on the screen and is activated every time the phone is turned off and on."

520/04 Technology. (Azom | Scienceagogo ) Are there artificial birds powered by the sun? Possibly, but if so, the technology is still secret. A while back on 10/27/02 we reported on a giant mystery bird spotted in Alaska. Today, a few years later, there is a story "World's First Flapping-Wing, Solar-Powered Unmanned Aircraft". If our real technology is many years ahead of what comes out publicly we can speculate that a prototype of something similar might have already existed in 2002.

5/17/04 Technology. Fuel economy falls rapidly at speeds above 60 mph. Each five miles per hour you drive over 60 mph is like paying an extra 10 cents a gallon (US Dept of energy 2004 fuel economy guide). Use cruise control to maintain constant speed.

Aggressive driving (like putting the pedal to the metal and then stomping on the brakes) burns 33% more fuel. Replace a clogged air filter can save 10% (19 cents a gal with today's prices). Use energy conserving motor oil. Avoid stacking luggage on the roof rack (decrease wind resistance) Annual fuel costs for Ford Explorer $1631 vs $465 for Toyota Prius gas-electric.

See www.fueleconomy.gov

5/17/04 Technology. Are giant robots helping people in cars? Watch this video of Dr. Colin Mayhew's giant robot stopping a car (right click and save as) before it crashes into a wall. More here.

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5/16/04 Google Ads. Crud. Google to have graphic ads. Time to find another simple uncluttered search engine?

4/7/04 Pet Washing. ( msnbc ) Washing pets in washing machines. Some pet owners find it very difficult to relax when their pets are getting washed in the washer.

3/29/04 Technology / Freedom (aeroenvironment) Super Small Spy Planes. I used to wonder if someone could fit a camera on top of a fly. For a while I wouldn't get undressed unless all the flies were out of the room. Now they have this: "Since 1986, AeroVironment has been developing small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for use in military surveillance, law enforcement, and civilian rescue efforts. The award-winning Black Widow , developed with DARPA sponsorship, is a six-inch, electrically powered aircraft with a small camera that flies for 30 minutes at a range up to 1.8 km from the ground station while downlinking live color video.
Another miniature flying vehicle, an ornithopter dubbed Microbat, is in development. In its final form, Microbat is expected to weigh less than 15 grams, including controls and a miniature camera with down-link capability." What's next, test flights over nude beaches?

3/30/04 Technology. Solar-powered vibrator--making it just that much easier to go green.

3/22/04 Net Stats . 75% OF AMERICAN HOMES HAVE ACCESS TO INTERNET Nielsen//NetRatings, an Internet audience measurement and analysis company, announced on Thursday that nearly 75% of American homes have access to the Internet. The percentage is up from 66% in February 2003. Out of a U.S. population of almost 273 million people over 204 million have access to the Internet; that percentage has increased 9 points year-over-year. Out of this U.S. population of Internet surfers, more women surfed online compared to men. Kenneth Cassar, director of strategic analysis for Nielsen//NetRatings, said that this fact wasn't a surprise, considering that "women make the majority of purchases and household decisions." Age groups also play a factor in who is surfing the Web. Males and females age 35-54 online outnumber those 25-34. Females still lead males in both age groups.

3/18/2004: Turing Test : (newsci | cnet) A program called ChatNannies creates thousands of artificial users that log on to chat channels and have conversations with users to look for Paedophiles attempting to "groom" children. The nanniebots do such a good job of passing themselves off as young people that they have proved indistinguishable from them. In conversations with 2000 chatroom users no one has rumbled the bots. See a sample conversation. AI has come a long way. Does this new software pass the Turing Test? Could this technology could be combined with voice imitation so you could have a phone conversation with a fake person that would seem real? All kinds of applications for that.

3/16/2004: Sound Weapons : (Bradford ) This paper on non-lethal weapons mentions vortex generators that create acoustic projectiles. The Vortex Launcher from SARA "feels like having a bucket of ice water thrown into your chest."

"Toroidal vortices also occur in nature - Whirlpools, tornadoes, and hurricanes are all toroidal vortices. There may even be a galaxy in the shape of a toroidal vortex. The most impressive maker of toroidal vortices on earth are volcanoes. They can produce huge and very visible smoke and fog rings which rise hundreds of feet into the air and last as long as ten minutes. ... Dolphins ... blow air ring bubbles, and ... play with them. In fact, this is one of their favorite games."

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3/16/2004: Sound Weapons : (ABCNews | WATimes | Indybay ) The Pentagon's Secret Scream. Sonic devices that can inflict pain--or even permanent deafness--are being deployed. San Diego company American Technology Corp has created a battery-powered sonic rifle.

SOUTH POMFRET, Vt. Marines arriving in Iraq this month as part of a massive troop rotation will bring with them a high-tech weapon never before used in combat or in peacekeeping. The device is a powerful megaphone the size of a satellite dish that can deliver recorded warnings in Arabic and, on command, emit a piercing tone so excruciating to humans, its boosters say, that it causes crowds to disperse, clears buildings and repels intruders.

"[For] most people, even if they plug their ears, [the device] will produce the equivalent of an instant migraine," says Woody Norris, chairman of American Technology Corp., the San Diego firm that produces the weapon. "It will knock [some people] on their knees." ...

In 1995, then-Secretary of Defense William Perry decided to ban Pentagon development of nonlethal laser weapons intended to permanently blind. His decision led to a subsequent international ban.

So shouldn't we have a similar discussion about high-intensity sound, which can cause permanent hearing loss or even cellular damage? The new megaphone being deployed to Iraq can operate at 145 decibels at 300 yards, according to American Technology, well above the normal threshold for pain. ...

The device emits so-called "sonic bullets" along a narrow, intense beam up to 145 decibels, 50 times the human threshold of pain.

This is the same focused sound technology we told you about that can beam voices so they seem to come from inside your head. Such a device might be used to make you think you were crazy, for example.

Norris tried out the acoustic beam at a mall near his office and passers-by all stopped to listen when the sound was aimed at them. "That is absolutely amazing," said one woman, "it sounds like the sound is inside your head."

In 1994 Newsweek printed " ...Sources tell Newsweek that the FBI consulted Moscow experts on the possible use of a Soviet technique for beaming subliminal messages to Koresh. The technique uses inaudible transmissions that could have convinced Koresh he was hearing the voice of God inside his head."

The Long Range Acoustic Device ( LRAD ) is a 45-pound, dish-shaped device that emits a high frequency shrill tone -- about 2,100 to 3,100 hertz -- that compares to the sound of smoke detectors. "That's a sensitive region for developing hearing loss," said Richard Salvi, director of the Center for Hearing and Deafness at the University at Buffalo. "The longer the duration, the more serious it is."

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2/23/2004: When you go to through airport security, machines see through your clothes. See this example (front), or this (back) example of x-ray backscatter technology.

Even more recently, millimeter-wave scanners (safer than X-rays) made by the government-run defense firm Qinetiq can produce a moving 360° image. They say it is just too revealing. Do you get the feeling from looking at the photo on the left that this technology is even more impressive than they are letting on with this one crummy photo?

"All objects emit terahertz signals. A dramatic example of terahertz imaging can be seen here provided by QinetiQ which is pioneering the development of compact millimeter wave imaging systems."

Can we all subliminally see through eachother's clothes already, since these are natural emissions? Perhaps it is one of those things where only dogs or bees can see through your clothes naturally. Personality quiz: Would it bother you if bees can see through your clothes?

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2/23/2004: Want to see through walls? "ultra wideband (UWB) pulse radio might have a future as a radar that can see through walls, and do so in great detail" according to elibrary. A cellular phone emits about 600,000 micro watts of UWB according to space.com and UWB systems may soon provide us with devices that deliver personal radar. Another article says, "The pulses of radio energy emitted are similar to those used in radar, so soldiers, for example, can use this to 'see' through walls by measuring the pulses. Rescue workers can also use it to detect objects buried in rubble." We also found that a portable "system, devised by UK radar research specialist Cambridge Consultants (CCL) uses low-frequency radio pulses to penetrate walls up to 25cm thick." That's close to a foot thick. You know what this means, right? Someone may be watching you right now. Military technology is always about 10 years ahead of what is announced, right? Or is that a myth? Try flipping off the ceiling right now just for fun ... but smile when you do it, to show you don't really need to be zapped with a pain ray.

10/23/03: Cool Gadgets: While individuals at sea can survive without food for 60 days and longer, deprived of water, few could last beyond 10 days. In high temperatures, survival may be limited to only 2 or 3 days. The MROD-06-LL (4610-01-313-6085) is the world’s smallest available hand-operated desalinator. Katadyn desalinators use reverse osmosis. Reverse osmosis is capable of rejecting bacteria, salts, sugars, proteins, particles, dyes, and other constituents that have a molecular weight of greater than 150-250 daltons (see below). The filtering process requires enormous pressure (typically 50 bar) to push the fresh water through the membrane. The P-ur Survivor-06 is the smallest hand operated salt water filter in the world. While extraordinarily compact in size, the Survivor 06 makes an ounce of drinking water in less than 2 minutes (nearly 2 pints per hour). Cost: $595.00 available at safetycentral.

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