Nybble 2006.01.01

N Y B B L E   B I - W E E K L Y   N E W S L E T T E R
A Free Ezine about Anything Tech and Everything Else
2006.01.01 Issue No. 171

As they say, there's a first time for everything. This is the first
time I failed to publish Nybble for over a month. That's right - no
Nybble for the whole month of December. A bit busier at work during
the holiday period. A visiting sibling from abroad. My first holiday
break in years. For 2006, I resolve to be more consistent with
Nybble's publishing dates.

Without further ado, enjoy some tech news from yesteryear. Happy new
year, everyone!

Have an answer, comment, suggestion, or violent reaction? Send them my
way by clicking on Reply or join nybbletalk@yahoogroups.com to
discuss a topic. If you think Nybble is good enough, do tell the new
year revelers about it. Thanks.

_________TABLE OF CONTENTS_________
* Power-Generating Car Ramp
* E-Paper as Packaging
* Potential Hearing Loss from Earphones
* A Dollar for a Pixel
* Google Music Search and Mobile Gmail
* Likeable Links
* Questionable Question
* Quotable Quote
* Trivial Trivia
* Laughable Laugh

_________POWER-GENERATING CAR RAMP_________
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/somerset/4535408.stm

Dorset inventor Peter Hughes has developed a road ramp that uses
passing cars to generate power. Called Electro-Kinetic Road Ramp, it
has plates that move up and down as vehicles pass over them, driving a
generator. Depending on the weight of the vehicle passing overhead,
between five and 50kW can be generated. The generated electricity can
be used to power traffic lights and road signs. According to Mr.
Hughes, the ramp is silent, comfortable and safe for vehicles.

Mr. Hughes developed the concept over the past 12 years, and recently
approached councils across UK with the final patented project. The
prototype was created and tested at Hughes Research unit at the
Westland Helicopter base in Somerset, at a cost of £1m. More than 200
local authorities had expressed an interest in ordering the £25,000
ramps. Around 300 jobs are due to be created in Somerset for a
production run of 2,000 ramps next year.

Can't they just build a new expressway will these ramps placed every
few meters? Will definitely generate lots of power.

_________E-PAPER AS PACKAGING_________
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/1,69839-0.html

Electronics maker Siemens is readying a paper-thin electronic-display
technology so cheap it could replace conventional labels on disposable
packaging, from milk cartons to boxes of Cheerios. According to
Siemens, the technology could transform consumer-goods packaging from
the fixed, ink-printed images of today to a digital medium of flashing
graphics and text that displays prices, special offers or alluring
photos, all blinking on miniature flat screens.

Siemens' paper-thin display -- composed of a polymer-based
photochromic material -- is capable of displaying digital text and
images when prodded by an electrochemical reaction powered by a
low-voltage charge. When the electric charge is no longer applied, the
chemical reaction is reversed, and the electronic ink is no longer
visible -- which is how a flashing effect is created. The power source
is based on commercially available, ultra-thin batteries. Electronic
memory strips store the images.

For commercial applications, it is the very low cost of the display's
substrate that largely sets Siemens' display technology apart. A
1-by-2-inch, paper-thin electronic display that Kodak developed costs
more than $40 to make, for example, while Siemens' costs just 30 cents
to produce. Siemens says its display substrate, unlike competing
materials, does not have to be produced in a clean-room environment
since it only requires the level of cleanliness needed for paper
printing. If and when Siemens can mass-produce the material, the
company still has to sell the idea to packaging companies.

Miniature displays in color could appear on consumer-goods packaging,
including medicine vials, in 2007, with a resolution of 80 dpi. Three
or more images could flash consecutively, creating a crude animation
effect or cycling through multiple messages. By 2008, the resolution
could double.

_________POTENTIAL HEARING LOSS FROM EARPHONES________
http://www.startribune.com/789/story/150546.html

Hearing specialists are warning that iPods and MP3 players may be bad
for your hearing health. The big culprits aren't the devices
themselves, but the tiny "ear bud" style headphones that the music
players use. In a study published in the journal Ear and Hearing,
researchers at Harvard Medical School looked at a variety of
headphones and found that, on average, the smaller they were, the
higher their output levels at any given volume-control setting. Other
studies have shown that because the tiny phones inserted into the ears
are not as efficient at blocking outside sounds as the cushioned
headsets, users tend to crank up the volume to compensate. A study
done by Australian researchers last summer found that about a quarter
of iPod users between 18 and 54 years of age listened at volumes
sufficient to cause hearing damage. Moreover, having music players
with longer-lasting batteries and more storage capacity encourages
people with portable players to listen longer, not giving the ears a
chance to recover.

Hearing advocates are pressing for people to turn down the volume. The
rule of thumb suggested by researchers at Boston Children's Hospital
is to hold the volume of a music player no higher than 60 percent of
the maximum, and use it for only about an hour a day. The National
Hearing Conservation Association also recommends that parents try to
find audio gear for their kids that have volume-limiting devices built-in.

_________A DOLLAR FOR A PIXEL_________
http://snipurl.com/l766

Alex Tew, a 21-year-old student from a small town in England, was
lying in bed thinking out how he would pay for university. He had an
idea, and after four months on the Internet, he's on his way to
earning a cool million dollars. No, he doesn't sell porn, drugs, or
organ-enhancing pills. All he sells are pixels, the tiny dots on the
screen that appear when you call up his home page called
www.milliondollarhomepage.com.

His cool idea is to turn his home page into a billboard made up of a
million dots, and sell them for a dollar a dot to anyone who wants to
put up their logo. A 10 by 10 dot square, roughly the size of a letter
of type, costs $100. He sold a few to his brothers and some friends,
and when he had made $1,000, he issued a press release.

That was picked up by the news media, spread around the Internet, and
soon advertisers for everything from dating sites to casinos to real
estate agents to The Times of London were putting up real cash for
pixels, with links to their own sites. So far they have bought up
911,800 pixels. Tew's home page now looks like an online Times Square,
festooned with a multi-colored confetti of ads. he site features
testimonials from advertisers, some of whom bought spots as a lark,
only to discover that they were receiving actual valuable Web hits for
a fraction of the cost of traditional Internet advertising. Meanwhile
Tew has had to juggle running the site with his first term at
university, where he is studying business.

_________GOOGLE MUSIC SEARCH AND MOBILE GMAIL_________
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/searching-for-music.html
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/47883.html

Google now has a music search function. Type in an artist name, and
Google will show some information about that artist, like cover art,
reviews, and links to stores where you can download the track or buy a
CD via a link at the top of your web search results page. Right now
the music search feature mostly works for artists popular in the U.S.
and a more limited number of artists from other countries, but the
Google guys plan to expand it to classical music, worldwide artists,
and lesser-known performers. The list of music stores will also grow
over time.

Google has also launched a mobile-friendly version of its popular
Web-based e-mail service, Gmail, offering a streamlined interface
meant to be more compatible with small screens. Anyone with a Gmail
account and a Web-enabled phone can access Gmail remotely. Google said
the service detects the type of device being used to access the mail
account and returns message listings and e-mails in an appropriate
format based on the size of the screen and other factors. The service
will also automatically synchronize Gmail accounts, showing messages
viewed remotely as read the next time a user logs on from a PC, and
will enable mobile users to open certain attachments, including text
files in Office or in PDF format.

_________LIKEABLE LINKS_________
The Freesound Project
http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/
The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons
licensed sounds.

IVR Cheat Sheet by Paul English
http://paulenglish.com/ivr/
find-a-human, fight back IVR phone menu hell

How To Write Unmaintainable Code
http://thc.org/root/phun/unmaintain.html
Ensure a job for life ;-)

Beginner's Guide to Quantum Entanglement
http://www.joot.com/dave/writings/articles/entanglement/

Functional Paper V8 Engine
http://www.yeesjob.com/v8engine.htm

The Ultimate Guide to Google Services
http://www.tipmonkies.com/2005/11/17/the-penultimate-guide-to-google-services

_________QUESTIONABLE QUESTION_________
Why is the hot on the left and the cold on the right?

_________QUOTABLE QUOTE_________
"I recommend you to take care of the minutes, for the hours will take
care of themselves."
~ Lord Chesterfield

_________TRIVIAL TRIVIA_________
How do animals that live underwater keep their eyes safe from salt and
other irritants?
Nature always provides for its creatures. Underwater animals are
equipped in different ways to see underwater. Whales and dolphins have
special "greasy" tears that protect their eyes from salt. Fish do not
have eyelids to protect them at all, but they do have hardened lenses
that keep the water from hurting them.
Source: Arcamax Trivia

_________LAUGHABLE LAUGH_________
A devoted wife had spent her lifetime taking care of her husband. Now
he had been slipping in and out of a coma for several months, yet she
stayed by his bedside every single day.
When he came to senses, he motioned for her to come near him.
As she sat by him, he said, "You know what? You have been with me all
through the bad times. When I got fired, you were there to support me.
When my business failed, you were there. When I got shot, you were by
my side. When we lost the house, you gave me support. When my health
started failing, you were still by my side. You know what?"
"What dear?" she asks gently.
"I think you bring me bad luck."

That's all for this week. Nybble is and will always be a work in
progress. Please do send me your comments and suggestions on how to
improve Nybble. Just hit the reply button to you know, reply.