Saturday, August 26, 2006

Movie 2006.08.26 - Heaven

This is the first movie of Krzysztof Kieslowski's planned trilogy - Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this film. The pace is slow-moving, the dialogue is sparse and minimal, the score is light and unintrusive, and the scenes are very well-shot. You'd be surprised it's directed by Tom Tykwer of Run Lola Run fame.

The movie starts with Filippo, a cabinieri played by Giovanni Ribisi, engaged in a helicopter simulation. During the training, he flies the chopper higher and higher, and the voice-over tells him patiently that in the real world, a helicopter cannot fly that high. In the next scene, we see Philippa (nice choice of names), an English teacher played by Cate Blanchett, preparing a bomb and delivering it to an office. She leaves it in the wastebasket, which was later collected by the cleaning lady. She (the cleaning lady) takes the lift, together with a Dad with two kids, and they were all killed in the explosion. Philippa was later picked up by the police. During her interragation (the most dramatic part of the movie), where Filippo served as a translator, she was devastated to find out that her bomb had claimed innocent lives, instead of the drug pusher she intended to take out. Filippo took a liking to her and concocted an elaborate escape plan, but not before arranging for the drug pusher to come to the police station, and for Philippa to shoot him dead (using the police chief's gun). Having avenged her husband's death, the couple fled to the Montepulciano countryside. They shaved their heads to avoid identification and life was good for a while. They were ultimately tracked down by the police. During the manhunt, they commandeered a police helicopter, and away they went. Instead of flying off, the helicopter went straight up - up and up until it is just a speck in the sky.

Not much in the way of a plot or dialogue. This is more like a "feeling" movie, where you concentrate on the acting, the unsaid words, the framing of the scenes. Nicely done.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Movie 2006.08.19 - Infernal Affairs (Mou Gaan Dou)

Three times I have watched this film - on a DVD, on a PC, and on SBS. Every time I watch it, I learn some new detail about the story - just like Fight Club. Definitely one of the best suspense-thriller to come out of Hong Kong. It's so good, Martin Scorsese recently made a remake called The Departed starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, etc. Even then, some critics say that Infernal Affairs is still better. I personally haven't see The Departed, so let's not go there.

On its own, the score and the shots used in Infernal Affairs are just great. When it comes to police/gangster/triad movies, Hong Kong is one of the best. That sequence where the gangsters are about to make the drugs exchange at the beach, and the cops just waiting to pounce on them, and the police superintendent and the crime boss in their control rooms getting last-minute inputs from their moles, trying to outwit each other - just wonderful. And the scene where the good cop and bad cop face each other off at the rooftop overlooking the city - that's the iconic shot of the movie.

No, I'm not gonna tell the story here because that'll take all day. A lot of people are confused whether Andy Lau's character (Ming) is a good person or not. In one scene of the movie, the pleads with Tony Leung's character (Yan) that "I just want to be a good cop." "Sorry, I'm a cop. Tell that to the judge." I truly believe early on that Lau wanted to reform. In that scene where Yan was kicked out of cadet school, Ming has already mentioned (silently) that he'd rather be kicked out, too. Maybe he's just an unwilling pawn in the crime boss' chessboard, biding his time until he can cleanly kill off his controller, which he did in a sting operation. He cornered the boss in an underground parking level and shot him point blank. He thought he's now a free man - a up-and-coming hotshot police officer with a pretty wife and a new apartment - able to start life with a clean slate. Then it all comes tumbling down because it ain't over till Yan says it's over. Yan found out that Ming was the mole so he sent a recording of Ming's conversation with the crime lord to his wife. Yan probably can't forgive Ming for the death of Superintendent Wong. This is the point of no return for Ming because with Yan alive, he could lose everything he had. In a fit of rage, he deletes Yan's police record - his only link to the force. He then tells his wife that he still has the file and will set everything all right - which is an outright lie. Jump to the square-off at the rooftop. Yan let his guard down for a while, and was promptly shot in the head by one of Ming's cohorts in the force. Ming must be so frustrated - just how many people know about his secret identity?! He kills off his comrade in the lift. He walks out of the lift to face the cops - gun up and badge out.

So, does crime pay? Watch sequel Infernal Affairs III. (Part II is the prequel.)

Human Browser at Customs House

With nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon, I was at the Customs House lobby area reading newspapers and using my laptop. A nice-looking girl with headphones came over and started talking to me. I tried to respond, but she's not making much sense. She's speaking in complete sentences, but I have no idea what she's talking about. Then I noticed a tiny webcam positioned on her right shoulder. She's also got a backpack on. Aha, must be a laptop inside doing playback and/or recording. I let her rant for a few more minutes, trying to figure out the source of her ramblings. Wondering when her stream-of-consciousness monologue will end, so I can go back to my laptop, I said to her, "I don't think you can hear me." It was then that she asked for my name. I answered, and she incorporated my name into her monologue. So she can hear me. Good thing I didn't say anything bad about her. After a while, she left me alone, and picked on other unsuspecting visitors.

It was only later that I found out that the girl is actually a Human Browser. It's part of the Esquisse Yourself art and design exhibition being held at the Customs House. According to SMH: "In the Human Browser by French artist Christophe Bruno, the viewer became the search engine query without touching a computer. This was possible through an actor who carried a microphone, headphones and webcam and was linked wirelessly to Bruno in France. As the visitor talked to the actor, Bruno watched the conversation, typed questions and comments into Google and a software program he developed vocalised the search results and transmitted them to the actor's headphone. She, in turn, blurted out the results in full, including URLs, numbers and punctuation."

One other exhibit that caught my attention was the circular ping pong table with a revolving net.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Hack the Xbox

With the price of the Xbox hitting an all-time low, I went out and bought myself one last week. Got the Xbox system bundle which come with the unit, a controller, Halo2 and Forza Motorsport. Imagine, Halo2 and Forza. What more can you ask for? Now, an Xbox is no good if it's not modded. The stock Xbox comes with a DVD drive, but it can't even play DVD movies out-of-the box, unlike the PS2. For that, you have to buy a DVD movie playback kit consisting of an IR receiver module you plug into the USB port and a remote control. One more way for M$ to make extra money. Well, not from this guy.

There are two ways to hack an Xbox: one, go to the dodgy shops and have a modchip fitted in, or two, DIY via a software mod. Being the cheapo geek that I am, I decided to take the 2nd route. Took me about one week's worth of trawling the forums, sifting through the vague/obsolete/incomplete information, and visiting some little-known sites to download all the software I need to execute the hack. Basically, what you need is UXE, which contains the Xbox exploits, and xboxhdm, which reformats your Xbox hard disk and installs a hacked dashboard. Extract both packages, copy UXE to xboxhdm's linux directory, and burn the whole thing onto a CD-ROM. This is what we'll use to hack the Xbox.

The thing with Xboxes is that its hard disk is locked. Upon boot-time, a 32-bit password (generated from a 16-bit key hashed with the hard disk model and serial number) is needed to unlock the hard disk. If you don't have the password (as is probably the case), you need to hotswap it to your PC before xboxhdm can do its work. Not for the faint of heart because you could fry your hard disk if you don't do it right. (For those unfamiliar with the term, hotswap means you transfer your Xbox hard disk to your PC, while it is powered on.) And you have to know exactly when to take out the Xbox's IDE cable, or else you might be risking a hotswap only to find out that the hard disk is still locked. Most guys on the forums recommend unplugging the hard disk right before the white Microsoft text comes up. Once you manage to get the hard disk unlocked, it should be smooth sailing from there.

So shall we start, gentlemen? Turn on your PC with the xboxhdm disc in the CD-ROM drive. Press ESC when the BIOS starts scanning for the hard disks. At this point, your Xbox should already be undressed, and the hard disk ready to go. Power on the Xbox. At the right moment, quickly unplug the IDE cable (NOT the power cable), and connect the hard disk to the PC's IDE cable. On the PC, press any key to continue the hard disk scan. If the BIOS can't see the drive, that means hard disk is still locked. If all goes well, the xboxhdm main menu will show up after the PC has booted. Choose Option 1 to boot to VGA console with xbox-drive utilities. Enter "xboxhd" when asked to log in. Choose Option 1 again to "Build a new Xbox HD from scratch". After everything is done, power down both the PC and the Xbox. Return the hard disk to the Xbox and power it on. Welcome to your newly soft-modded Xbox!

Hack the Xbox

With the price of the Xbox hitting an all-time low, I went out and bought myself one last week. Got the Xbox system bundle which come with the unit, a controller, Halo2 and Forza Motorsport. Imagine, Halo2 and Forza. What more can you ask for? Now, an Xbox is no good if it's not modded. The stock Xbox comes with a DVD drive, but it can't even play DVD movies out-of-the box, unlike the PS2. For that, you have to buy a DVD movie playback kit consisting of an IR receiver module you plug into the USB port and a remote control. One more way for M$ to make extra money. Well, not from this guy.

There are two ways to hack an Xbox: one, go to the dodgy shops and have a modchip fitted in, or two, DIY via a software mod. Being the cheapo geek that I am, I decided to take the 2nd route. Took me about one week's worth of trawling the forums, sifting through the vague/obsolete/incomplete information, and visiting some little-known sites to download all the software I need to execute the hack. Basically, what you need is UXE, which contains the Xbox exploits, and xboxhdm, which reformats your Xbox hard disk and installs a hacked dashboard. Extract both packages, copy UXE to xboxhdm's linux directory, and burn the whole thing onto a CD-ROM. This is what we'll use to hack the Xbox.

The thing with Xboxes is that its hard disk is locked. Upon boot-time, a 32-bit password (generated from a 16-bit key hashed with the hard disk model and serial number) is needed to unlock the hard disk. If you don't have the password (as is probably the case), you need to hotswap it to your PC before xboxhdm can do its work. Not for the faint of heart because you could fry your hard disk if you don't do it right. (For those unfamiliar with the term, hotswap means you transfer your Xbox hard disk to your PC, while it is powered on.) And you have to know exactly when to take out the Xbox's IDE cable, or else you might be risking a hotswap only to find out that the hard disk is still locked. Most guys on the forums recommend unplugging the hard disk right before the white Microsoft text comes up. Once you manage to get the hard disk unlocked, it should be smooth sailing from there.

So shall we start, gentlemen? Turn on your PC with the xboxhdm disc in the CD-ROM drive. Press ESC when the BIOS starts scanning for the hard disks. At this point, your Xbox should already be undressed, and the hard disk ready to go. Power on the Xbox. At the right moment, quickly unplug the IDE cable (NOT the power cable), and connect the hard disk to the PC's IDE cable. On the PC, press any key to continue the hard disk scan. If the BIOS can't see the drive, that means hard disk is still locked. If all goes well, the xboxhdm main menu will show up after the PC has booted. Choose Option 1 to boot to VGA console with xbox-drive utilities. Enter "xboxhd" when asked to log in. Choose Option 1 again to "Build a new Xbox HD from scratch". After everything is done, power down both the PC and the Xbox. Return the hard disk to the Xbox and power it on. Welcome to your newly soft-modded Xbox!

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Hail, Sydney!

This is the second time (in my whole life) I've seen hail. First time was in Kellyville. We were playing badminton in a warehouse with a tin roof. You should've listened to the racket it made! This time, I was in the safety of the office when hail the size of marbles started falling. Most of us rushed out to the sidewalks to see the hailstorm up close. Being employees of a mobile phone company, we took out our cameraphones and started taking pictures and videos of the event. Too bad none of the parked cars got smashed. :-) By the time I drove home at 7pm, the streets are still covered with white ice.

City2Surf 2006 Results

The official results for last weekend's City2Surf 2006 is out today. Putting in my bib number into the website, this is what I got:

"Congratulations! Well done Albert on completing The 2006 Sun-Herald City2Surf, you were 27588th over the line with a time of 116:58."

What's more, based on your time, they can show you video footages (three viewpoints) taken at the finish line area. Yup, that's me limping through the finish line. They also have a personalized wallpaper featuring a satellite image of the race taken at 10:13am, and a marker indicating your approximate location at that time. Cool, huh?

Monday, August 14, 2006

First freedb Submission

Yay! My first freedb submission since I started using it a few years back in conjunction with EAC. I got these two The CompanY CDs, and they're not yet in freedb. I entered the track titles, clicked a button, and voila! Both CDs' information are now with freedb.

The Anthology 20th Anniv. Celebration
  1. Didn't We
  2. Minsan Pa
  3. Everlasting Love
  4. Now That I Have You
  5. Muntik Na Kitang Minahal
  6. Pakisabi Na Lang
  7. Nescafe Frappe
  8. Pag Nagkataon
  9. Kung Kailan Pa
  10. A Different World For You And Me
  11. The Look Of Love
  12. Jambalaya
  13. Mahal Kong Radyo
  14. Hindi Na
  15. Forevermore
  16. Bulaklak
  17. Company Theme
  18. Gusto Ko Ng A Cappella
  19. GMA Kapuso Jingle
  20. Vocalise
Legends - Greatest Hits
  1. Harmony
  2. Sana Nga (Ikaw Na)
  3. Special Memory
  4. Now That I Have You
  5. Kung Nagmamahal Ka...Ako Rin
  6. Minsan Pa
  7. Back Together
  8. Muntik Na Kitang Minahal
  9. Pakisabi Na Lang
  10. Hulog Ng Langit
  11. Everlasting Love
  12. Didn't We
  13. For The Long Run
  14. Hanggang Sa Muli
If you haven't heard of The CompanY before, you should give them a try. Best mushy OPM love songs I've ever heard.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

City2Surf 2006

It was a good day to run. Not as cold as last year. Sun Herald is giving away red caps to all registered participants of City2Surf. Pray tell how come I didn't get mine. I was told they ran out of caps already. How can that be when I registered early and got to the registration booths on time? Doesn't matter, as I was wearing our corporate light blue cap.

Definitely getting older. While my legs started to buckle at the 11-km. mark last year, this time it's starting to hurt at 5 kms. I didn't even try to slow-jog uphill anymore. By my own reckoning, I finished the 14-km. run in 1 hour and 40 minutes. My knees was so sore, I rested at McDonald's for one full hour. The place is quite busy, especially after the race, so I shared tables with this old lady. She was telling me that she had been here since early morning. Her 88-year old husband joined City2Surf again this year, much to her exasperation. She said she's definitely not letting him join next year. Every few minutes, she would look at the entrance, or go out to check. I tried my best to cheer her up, as she's clearly worried. Told her that if something really happened or if he got lost, he (or somebody) will call her on the mobile anyway. By the time I left, she's still there waiting. Now, that's true love.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Bargain Xbox

Not able to restrain myself any longer, I dropped of my stuff at home after work, and drove straight to Chatswood to buy myself an Xbox. I've visited Myer, Kmart, EBGames in the city and the nearby suburbs before, and they're all out of stock. I reckon Microsoft pulled back the remaining stock, so people will be forced to buy the new Xbox 360. Well, not this geek.

Toys R Us has some funny deals going on. An Xbox unit with single controller is selling for A$250. They have an Xbox Console Bundle that comes with two games. That one costs A$200. You read that right. Just for the bundled Halo2 and Forza Motorsport, I should've grabbed the deal right then and there. Good thing I didn't because Myer is selling the same system for even less. Ah, thank heavens for capitalism!

Saturday, August 5, 2006

Movie 2006.08.05 - Intacto

Another wonderful movie from SBS. This psychological thriller from Juan Carlos Fresnadillo revolves around luck - how people gain it, how they use it, how they lose it. The film starts off by introducing us to Federico. He's an earthquake survivor who works at this obsure casino owned by Samuel, another extremely lucky guy. Federico doesn't have to do much in the casino. When someone is having a lucky streak at the tables, Federico touches the person lightly, and takes away his good fortune. Later on he got tired of his work, and bids goodbye to Samuel. Samuel doesn't approve of his plans, so he takes away Federico's gift and throws him out into the streets. Federico vows revenge, so he goes about looking for a lucky guy to partner with. Seven years later, he finds Tomas Franz, a bank robber who is the sole survivor of a plane crash that left all other passengers dead. It seems that being the sole survivor, Tomas acquires the collective luck of all those who perished. Federico proceeds to train and hone Tomas' luck by entering him into some bizarre gambling games where participants put molasses on their hair and a giant praying mantis decides who is the lucky one. Another game involves the participants being blindfolded and running through a dense forest at full speed, and see who is left standing. The winner of this game gets the chance to proceed to Ucanca and challenge the luckiest of them all, Samuel Berg "The Jew". Tomas lost his concentration and smacked into a tree. So the matador Alfredo went on to Ucanca, where he is shot dead by Sam in a game of Russian roulette.

Apparently, Samuel and another guy Daniel were the only survivors in a Nazi concentration camp. Daniel later got killed, and his luck passed on to Sam. For 30 years, Sam's reign as the "God of Chance" was never successfully challenged. With Alfredo dead, it's now Tomas turn. He fired at Sam, and it turned out to be the empty chamber. Sam spins the barrel again and prepares to shoot Tomas. At this point, Sarah the lucky policewoman, who has been investigating the gambling underground, barges into the room. Sam points the revolver at her and shoots. Another blank. Everybody starts shooting at each other. After the smoke has cleared, only Tomas was left standing (sitting, actually). He holds the dying Sarah, and she says, "I don't love you anymore," which is a way to pass on your luck to another person. This was also how Tomas saved his girlfriend from certain death.

For me, the movie seems to say that luck is fleeting and uncertain. Who's to say that what you consider lucky will not be the cause of a misfortune in the future? For example, Tomas lost the woodland race, so it was Alfredo who went to Ucanca. Because of that, Alfredo was the one killed in the Russian roulette, not him. Then again, if Tomas had taken Alfredo's place, who knows maybe the bullet will miraculously become a blank. Or maybe there really was a bullet intended for Tomas, but when lucky Sarah showed up, the bullet became a blank? Hard to say, these things.

Thursday, August 3, 2006

Nybble 2006.08.03

N Y B B L E   M O N T H L Y   N E W S L E T T E R
A Free Ezine about Anything Tech and Everything Else
2006.08.03 Issue No. 179

Anybody else seen or heard about DualDiscs before? I went to a Virgin
Megastore recently, on saw these things on display. Apparently,
they've been out on the market for quite some time. I've come across
Copy-Controlled discs before (thwarting my CD-ripping efforts), but
this is the first time I've seen a DualDisc.

So what is a DualDisc? Based on the leaflet I got, it's a dual-sided
optical disc - CD audio on one side and a DVD side. Technically, it's
not a "real" compact disc because its CD side has a thickness of only
0.9mm, while the Red Book CD specs require a minimum thickness of
1.1mm. To compensate, engineers working on the new format increased
the size of the pits, so that the standard laser can still do proper
tracking (hopefully). Because of this deviation from the book, some CD
players might not be able to play the discs. Even if they do, the
increased pit size means that the max playing time is reduced - from
the standard 74 minutes to 60. For these reasons, Philips and Sony
(the inventors of the CD) didn't allow DualDiscs to carry the CD logo.
Being a full-pledged DVD (on the other side), the DVD Forum allowed it
to bear the DVD logo.

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 CD
collectors about it. Thanks.

_________TABLE OF CONTENTS_________
* Biggest Thing in the Universe
* Petaflop Computer
* Blue Crab Nano-Sensor
* Super Mosquitoes from Athens
* Scent Recording and Playback
* Plasma Needle to Replace Dentist's Drill
* Terabyte Laptop Drive from Seagate
* Galileo's PRN Codes Cracked
* Ricoh's All-in-One Optical Device
* Likeable Links
* Questionable Question
* Quotable Quote
* Trivial Trivia
* Laughable Laugh

_________BIGGEST THING IN THE UNIVERSE_________
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2006-07-27-biggest-blob_x.htm?csp=15

An enormous amoeba-like structure 200 million light-years wide and
made up of galaxies and large bubbles of gas, that's what. The
galaxies and gas bubbles, called Lyman alpha blobs, are aligned along
three curvy filaments that formed about 2 billion years after the
universe was formed. The filaments were recently seen using the Subaru
and Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea.

The interesting thing about this heavenly structure is that the
galaxies are packed four times closer than the universe's average.
Some of the gas bubbles are up to 400,000 light years across, nearly
twice the diameter of our neighboring Andromeda Galaxy. The finding
will give researchers new insight into what the structure of cosmos
looks like at the largest scale.

_________PETAFLOP SUPERCOMPUTER_________
http://snipurl.com/ub7h

For several years now, the US and Japan has been vying for leadership
in high-performance computing. IBM's BlueGene/L at the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory has given US bragging rights for the
past two years. Now Japan is about to take back the world speed record
for computing it held earlier in the decade. The MDGrape-3 at Riken
(formerly known as the Institute of Physical & Chemical Research) in
Yokohama was clocked at a mind-boggling one quadrillion calculations
per second. In industry-speak, that's one "petaflop" of floating-point
calculations per second. Four years in development and $9 million in
costs, the Riken machine is the first ever to accomplish the feat.
It's nearly three times swifter than BlueGene/L, the official No. 1 in
an industry ranking called the Top 500 Supercomputer Sites.

The MDGrape-3 wasn't ready in time to qualify for the list which was
released on June 27. It could top the next one, but the machine may be
ineligible because of its specialized hardware. Why the fuss over
supercomputers? Experts believe that the nation with the most machines
near the top of the ranking generally has the most competitive
economy. Trailing far behind the U.S. is Britain with 35
supercomputers, followed by Japan (29), China (28), and Germany (18).

_________BLUE CRAB NANO-SENSOR________
http://www.technologynewsdaily.com/node/3907

We've covered chitosan from shrimp shells in Nybble before. As
reported, they were being used the military as miracle bandages that
can stop bleeding in 30 seconds. This time, chitosan (pronounced
"kite-o-san" found in the shells of the Chesapeake Bay's famous blue
crab, is the key component in a nanoscale sensor system developed by
researchers at the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of
Engineering. The sensor can detect minute quantities of explosives,
bioagents, chemicals, and other dangerous materials in air and water,
potentially leading to security and safety innovations for airports,
hospitals, and other public locations.

This is how it works. The nanoscale sensor employs multiple miniature
vibrating cantilevers, similar to diving boards, that are coated with
chitosan, plus optical sensing technology that can see when the
cantilevers' vibrations change. Different cantilevers can detect
different substances and concentrations. When a targeted substance
enters the device from the air or water, the chitosan on a specific
cantilever interacts with the substance and causes that cantilever's
vibration to change its characteristics. The optical sensing system
sees the vibration change and indicates that the substance has been
detected.

_________SUPER MOSQUITOES FROM ATHENS_________
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060704/hl_afp/greecehealthdisease

Don't look now, but the super mosquitoes are coming. According to a
study conducted by Aristotelio University in the northern city of
Salonika, cramped housing conditions and air pollution in Athens have
given rise to a "super breed" of mosquito that is larger, faster and
more adept at locating human prey. They can detect humans at a
distance of 25-30 metres (yards) and also distinguish colours, unlike
their colour-blind counterparts elsewhere in the country that only
smell blood at 15-20 metres. The "super mosquitoes" of the Greek
capital also beat their wings up to 500 times a second -- compared to
350 beats for other variations -- and are larger by 0.3 microgrammes
on average.

According to the study, the mosquitoes of Athens have adapted to deal
with air pollution and insect repellents, and overpopulation in the
Greek capital of over four million has provided them with a healthy
food supply.

_________SCENT RECORDING AND PLAYBACK_________
http://snipurl.com/ub7i

Engineers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan are building
an odour recorder capable of recording a smell and playing it back
later, just as you can with sounds or images. Simply point the gadget
at a freshly baked cookie, for example, and it will analyse its odour
and reproduce it for you using a host of non-toxic chemicals. While a
number of companies have produced aroma generators designed to enhance
computer games or TV shows, they have failed commercially because they
have been very limited in the range of smells they can produce.

The Tokyo team's system will use 15 chemical-sensing microchips, or
electronic noses, to pick up a broad range of aromas. These are then
used to create a digital recipe from a set of 96 chemicals that can be
chosen according to the purpose of each individual gadget. When you
want to replay a smell, drops from the relevant vials are mixed,
heated and vaporised. In tests so far, the system has successfully
recorded and reproduced the smell of orange, lemon, apple, banana and
melon. The device could be used to improve online shopping by allowing
you to sniff foods or fragrances before you buy, to add an extra
dimension to virtual reality environments and even to assist military
doctors treating soldiers remotely by recreating bile, blood or urine
odours that might help a diagnosis.

_________PLASMA NEEDLE TO REPLACE DENTIST'S DRILL_________
http://snipurl.com/ub7k

A flaming plasma needle doesn't sound any better than the dentist's
drill. However, the plasma needle, which is cold and painless to the
touch, could be just the panacea we have been waiting for. And what do
you know? It could also be used to painlessly remove cancerous tissue.

Physicist Eva Stoffels-Adamowicz, who is based at the Eindhoven
University of Technology in the Netherlands, first came up with the
idea for the needle while working with low-pressure plasmas. The
plasma needle she developed is a 50-millimetre-long tungsten wire
housed in a quartz tube filled with gas. Driving a voltage through the
needle generates a small plasma spark at its tip "like a children's
sparkler". The team found that when the nitric oxide plasma is
produced using small amounts of energy and applied in short bursts, it
can kill bacteria while leaving other living cells unharmed. In short,
the plasma needle could be used to excise tumours or skin cancers.
Stoffels-Adamowicz's team is already working on a method to generate a
plasma that can be sent down blood vessels via a catheter. They think
that plasma therapy could one day be used to help clear blocked
arteries, although it is likely to be used in dentistry much sooner

_________TERABYTE LAPTOP DRIVE FROM SEAGATE_________
http://snipurl.com/ub7m

Seagate Technology Inc. plans to increase disk capacity by 10 times
with new technology it has just patented called Heat-Assisted Magnetic
Recording (HAMR). The technology includes nanotube-based lubrication
to allow the read/write head of a disk to get closer to the surface
and store more information. The smaller the data-recording areas on a
disk surface, the more of them that can be packed together, and
subsequently the greater the capacity of the disk.

Storing data properly in extremely small areas requires the magnetic
material to be heated during the writing phase, but this causes the
lubricant film deposited on top of the magnetized recording layer to
evaporate. Seagate's patent resolves this problem by having a
reservoir inside the disk casing that contains nanotube-based
lubricant. Some of this is periodically pumped out as a vapor and
deposited on the surface of the disk, replenishing the evaporated
lubricant.

Seagate anticipates that the new technology could increase disk
capacity by a factor of 10, making possible a 600GB 1.8-in. drive, a
1.46TB 2.5-in. drive, and 7.5TB Barracuda 3.5-in. drive. The lubricant
reservoirs will be built to last the life of the disk.

_________GALILEO'S PRN CODES CRACKED_________
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/521790/?sc=rsla

Members of Cornell University's Global Positioning System (GPS)
Laboratory have cracked the so-called pseudo random number (PRN) codes
of Europe's first global navigation satellite, despite efforts to keep
the codes secret.

The navigational satellite, GIOVE-A (Galileo In-Orbit Validation
Element-A), is a prototype for 30 satellites that by 2010 will compose
Galileo, a $4 billion joint venture of the European Union, European
Space Agency and private investors. Galileo is Europe's answer to the
United States' GPS. Unlike GPS whose signal is free as the project is
funded by American taxpayers, Galileo must make money to reimburse its
investors -- presumably by charging a fee for PRN codes. Because
Galileo and GPS will share frequency bandwidths, Europe and the United
States signed an agreement whereby some of Galileo's PRN codes must be
"open source." Nevertheless, after broadcasting its first signals on
Jan. 12, 2006, none of GIOVE-A's codes had been made public. So in
late January, Mark Psiaki, professor of mechanical and aerospace
engineering at Cornell and co-leader of Cornell's GPS Laboratory, went
about cracking Galileo's PRN codes.

Within one week Psiaki's team developed a basic algorithm to extract
the codes. Two weeks later they had their first signal from the
satellite, but were thrown off track because the signal's repeat
period was twice that expected. By mid-March they derived their first
estimates of the code. On April 1, they published the final results on
http://gps.ece.cornell.edu/galileo. Two days later, NovAtel Inc., a
Canadian-based major manufacturer of GPS receivers, downloaded the
codes from the Web site in a few minutes and soon afterward began
tracking GIOVE-A for the first time.

_________RICOH'S ALL-IN-ONE OPTICAL DEVICE_________
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=190300953

Ricoh announced that it has developed an optical component that reads
and writes all disk formats—Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD, as well as DVD
and CD—with one pickup and one objective lens. The component is a
3.5-mm diameter, 1-mm thick round diffraction plate with minute
concentric groves on both sides which function as a diffraction
grating. The diffraction plate is placed between lasers and an
objective lens. The diffraction grating is designed to adjust a light
beam to an optimum incident ray relative to the objective lens so that
light focuses on the proper position for each disk format. For
example, the data layer of the Blu-ray Disc resides 0.1 mm from the
disk's surface, while the HD-DVD data layer is 0.6-mm deep from the
disk's surface, the same as DVD disks. CDs have a data layer depth of
1.1 mm from the disk surface.

Multiformat players and recorders can identify which format disk is
loaded. Based on the disc information, Ricoh's optical diffraction
component adjusts the laser beam with its diffraction grating for each
format and passes it to the objective lens. The lens then forms a beam
spot at the appropriate depth for each disk format.

The company intends to begin sampling the device with OEMs by year's end.

_________LIKEABLE LINKS_________
Screenplays for You
http://sfy.ru/

The Internet Movie Script Database
http://www.imsdb.com/

Awesome Movie Scripts and Screenplays
http://www.awesomefilm.com/

Krunch
http://krun.ch/
Online compression and decompression

eHow.com
http://www.ehow.com/
Clear Instructions on How to Do (Just about) Everything

_________QUESTIONABLE QUESTION_________
How come regular cars don't have rear wipers, unlike hatchbacks, vans,
and SUVs?

_________QUOTABLE QUOTE_________
Lying is done with words and also with silence.
~ Adrienne Rich ~

_________TRIVIAL TRIVIA_________
When is an eel not an eel?
When it's electric -- Electric eels are not really eels but a kind of
fish. Although they look like eels, their internal organs are arranged
differently.
Source: Arcamax Trivia

_________LAUGHABLE LAUGH_________
Why a man would want a wife is a big mystery to some people. Why a man
would want *two* wives is a bigamystery.

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.