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
2009.04.15 Issue No. 210
I'm cleaning up my mailboxes again, and I suddenly realized how many e-newsletters I have subcribed to that I don't read anymore. When I first got on the Internet bandwagon, I subscribed to Bob Rankin's Tourbus. Back then, I had enough time to read through the whole newsletter and visit all the interesting links mentioned. I also subscribed to Chris Pirillo's Lockergnome, the geek newsletter. At that time, it was only the website and the newsletter. That was before Lockergnome had the blogs, the forums, the Youtube channel, Gnomedex, etc. Another fixture is Randy Cassingham's This Is True and his sister newsletter The True Stella Awards. Very funny, smart, and interesting read.
Then I started subscribing to Dictionary.com's Word fo the Day, WhatIs Word of the Day, Quote of the Day, tech newsletters, market alerts, news, jokes, etc. At some point, I just slowly stopped reading all those newsletters. They're still archived in subfolders, piling up everyday. Good thing there's a search-and-delete function. Very handy.
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 email hoarders about it. Thanks.
_________STINK-FREE UNDERWEAR_________
Japanese astronaut Takao Doi gave the clothes a trial run during a shuttle mission last year. Even after a vigorous workout, Doi's clothes stayed dry. Koichi Wakata, the first Japanese astronaut to live on the International Space Station, is testing the clothes. J-ware should reduce the amount of clothing that needs to be sent to the space station, which has no laundry facilities. Toting cargo into orbit is expensive, so having clothes that stay fresh for weeks at a time should result in significant savings.
The Japanese space agency plans to make the clothes available to NASA and its other space station partners once development is complete. A commercial line also is in the offing.
_________LOSSLESS MP3_________
There are some issues though. Firstly, file size. A normal 320Kbps MP3 of a sample Pink Floyd song was just 14.6MB, and 320Kbps is all you'll hear if you listen to an mp3HD track on your iPod. But the lossless audio stored in the file will be stored on your iPod nevertheless, taking up precious storage space. (Although it should be pointed out that the hybrid files are smaller than the combined size of a FLAC and 320Kbps MP3, although are less efficient to encode than FLAC.) The second problem concerns compatibility. The reason for MP3's ubiquity in the marketplace, is their small size and compatibility with almost anything you throw at them. With mp3HD, not only are file sizes massive (making them impractical for small flash players), but you need to install plug-ins on your computer. True backwards compatibility would mean no additional software or updates were required.
In conclusion, mp3HD will undoubtedly appeal to archivists with hard drives in their portable music players (such as the iPod classic or Archos 5). But for the chap on the street it'll be small, convenient, decent-enough-sounding MP3s all the way.
_________FASTEST WIND-POWERED CAR________
The Greenbird is a carbon fibre composite vehicle that uses wind (and nothing else) for power. The only metalwork used is for the wing bearings and the wheel unit. The designers describe it as a "very high performance sailboat" but one that uses a solid wing, rather than a sail, to generate movement. Due to the shape of the craft, especially at such high speeds, the wings also provide lift; a useful trait for an aircraft, but very hazardous for a car. To compensate for this, the designers have added small wings to "stick" the car to the ground, in the same way Formula 1 cars do.
Mr Jenkins, from Lymington, spent 10 years designing the vehicle, with Greenbird the fifth vehicle he has built to try to break the record.
_________500MBPS VDSL2_________
In a live demonstration of a new VDSL2-based technology, Ericsson has achieved data transfer rates of more than 0.5 Gbps at 500 metres over twisted copper pairs using "vectorised" VDSL2.
Vectorised VDSL2 is said to enable extremely high end-to-end transmission rates, improving VDSL2 performance by reducing noise originating from the other copper pairs in the same cable bundle. This increases capacity and reach, boosting the number of customers that can be connected. Vectoring technology also decouples the lines in a cable (from an interference point of view), substantially improving power management, which can reduce power consumption. VDSL2-based technology also offers unprecedented speeds on existing copper lines, opening up new opportunities for operators to provide customers with broadband services such as IPTV. It also makes it possible to use existing copper networks as a backhaul for radio base stations, accelerating future rollout of HSPA and LTE-based high-speed mobile broadband services.
Standards for VDSL2 and line bonding are available today. The standardisation of vectoring is ongoing and is expected by the end of 2009.
_________SELF-HEALING POLYMER_________
Material scientists Biswajit Ghosh and Marek Urban from the University of Southern Mississippi have created a new polymer that can fix its own scratches under regular sunlight, a feat that has no end of practical applications.
At the core of their design is polyurethane, which is an elastic polymer that already has decent scratch resistance. To enhance its ability to withstand mechanical damage, Ghosh and Urban added two more components, OXE and CHI. OXE has an unstable chemical structure (a four-membered ring containing three carbons and one oxygen) that makes it prone to being split open. CHI is UV sensitive. The idea is that, if the polyurethane gets damaged by a scratch, the unstable ring structure of OXE will open to create two reactive ends. Then, UV light can trigger CHI to form new links with the reactive ends of OXE and thereby fix the break in the polymer.
In experiments, Ghosh and Urban purposefully created scratches in films of their polyurethane-CHI-OXE material and tested to see if it mended itself under UV light. When they placed the damaged film under a 120 W fluorescent UV lamp, the scratches became negligible within half an hour. This repair reaction can work under a variety of conditions, ranging from dry air to high humidity.
The ability to use natural sunlight for self-repair and the simple design are advantageous, but this polymer system still needs some work before it can be released commercially. For example, the researchers must figure out what happens if a second scratch occurs directly where a previous scratch was mended. They also need to determine the shelf life of their three-component polymer.
_________LOGGING KEYSTROKES FROM THIN AIR_________
Researchers discovered new ways to read what you're typing by aiming special wireless or laser equipment at the keyboard or by simply plugging into a nearby electrical socket.
A team from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne did its work over the air. Using an oscilloscope and an inexpensive wireless antenna, the team was able to pick up keystrokes from virtually any keyboard, including laptops. With the keyboard's cabling and nearby power wires acting as antennas for these electromagnetic signals, the researchers were able to read keystrokes with 95 percent accuracy over a distance of up to 20 meters (22 yards), in ideal conditions. Even encrypted wireless keyboards are not safe from this attack. That's because they use a special algorithm to check which key is pressed, and when that algorithm is run, the keyboard gives off a distinctive electromagnetic signal, which can be picked up via wireless.
Using similar techniques, Inverse Path researchers Andrea Barisani and Daniele Bianco say they get accurate results, picking out keyboard signals from keyboard ground cables. Their work only applies to older, PS/2 keyboards, but the data they get is pretty good. On these keyboards, the data cable is so close to the ground cable, the emanations from the data cable leak onto the ground cable, which acts as an antenna. That ground wire passes through the PC and into the building's power wires, where the researchers can pick up the signals using a computer, an oscilloscope and about $500 worth of other equipment. They believe they could pick up signals from a distance of up to 50 meters by simply plugging a keystroke-sniffing device into the power grid somewhere close to the PC they want to snoop on. Because PS/2 keyboards emanate radiation at a standard, very specific frequency, the researchers can pick up a keyboard's signal even on a crowded power grid.
The Ecole Polytechnique team has submitted their research for peer review and hopes to publish it very soon.
_________LIKEABLE LINKS_________
Diplodocs
Search for user manuals online
ShareBee
Upload, distribute, update.
Readability
GMail Tips
_________QUESTIONABLE QUESTION_________
If girls just want to have fun, why do they make it so hard and expensive to play with them?
_________QUOTABLE QUOTE_________
The good life is inspired by love and guided by knowledge.
~ Bertrand Russell
_________TRIVIAL TRIVIA_________
Where did Arabic numerals originate?
Arabic numerals are not Arabic; they were invented in India.
Source: Arcamax Trivia
_________LAUGHABLE LAUGH_________
At the end of a particularly severe winter, we removed the protective covers from our cabin cruiser and found that the weight of the snow had broken the windshield. I drove to the local glass shop, where I paid $110 for a replacement.
The owner asked if I'd like them to install it, but I said I could handle it myself.
I managed to climb up the ladder to the deck before dropping the glass. Sheepishly I returned to the shop. The owner showed no emotion as he cut the second glass.
When I saw another $110 charge, I said, "I thought I might get a break on the second piece of glass."
"I did give you a break," he replied.
"How so?" I asked.
"I didn't laugh, did I?" he answered.
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.
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