Nybble Issue No. 224

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
2010.12.17 Issue No. 224


Thought I'd share a lifehack. So you're at home, and someone calls you asking you to sign some documents and send it back to them as PDF pronto. You've got the paper forms, but you don't have a scanner. What to do? Well, if you have a digital camera, you can use it as a "scanner". Put the pages on a dark surface for maximum contrast. Position the camera right on top of the page you want to "scan", not at an angle. Adjust the zoom so that the whole page is exactly covered. Make sure all four sides are straight and aligned. Transfer the pictures to the PC, then crop off the excess parts using a photo editor. Instead of simply emailing the forms as JPGs, download PDFCreator. From the photo editor, use PDFCreator as your virtual printer. Send off the resulting PDF files.

It's that time of the year again. Happy holidays to you all.

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 GTD fans about it. Thanks.


_________TABLE OF CONTENTS_________
* Underground Food Delivery
* PS3 Supercomputer
* Strawberry-Picking Robot
* Solar-Powered Hornets
* Self-Healing Plastic
* Likeable Links
* Questionable Question
* Quotable Quote
* Trivial Trivia
* Laughable Laugh

_________UNDERGROUND FOOD DELIVERY_________
http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/foodtubes-proposes-underground-physical-internet-14742

The Foodtubes group is proposing a system of underground tunnels which could deliver food and other goods in all weathers with massive energy savings.

The proposal uses lightweight metal capsules 2m long, which are roughly the same size as the cages that are carried by supermarket lorries. They are moved by an electromagnetic “kick” from linear induction motors built into the side of the underground polyethylene tubes at speeds of up to 60mph and, at junctions, are steered one way or another by other linear motors operating under computer control to their destination.
The energy savings over road distribution would be huge, since around 92 percent of the diesel burnt by a lorry is used to transport the vehicle itself, which spends much of its time driving around almost empty. As well as this, increasing amounts of the electricity used by the system could come from green sources.

The group, which includes an Oxford physics professor and logistics experts, wants £15 million to build a 5 mile test circuit, and believes the scheme could fund itself if used by large supermarkets and local councils, and could expand because it uses an open architecture.

_________PS3 SUPERCOMPUTER________
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/31784/US_Air_Force_Creates_Powerful_Supercomputer_Out_Of_PS3s.php

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has connected 1,760 PlayStation 3 systems together to create what the organization is calling the fastest interactive computer in the entire Defense Department. The Condor Cluster, as the group of systems is known, also includes 168 separate graphical processing units and 84 coordinating servers in an parallel array capable of performing 500 trillion floating point operations per second (500 TFLOPS).

Using PS3s for the supercomputer's core allowed AFRL to construct the system for a total cost of $2 million, which Barnell estimates is five to 10 percent of an equivalent system built entirely with off-the-shelf computer parts. It will also consume one-tenth the power of other comparably powered supercomputers. Defense engineers worked directly with Sony and a distributor to acquire the systems. The project used the older, large PS3 units rather than new Slim models which, crucially, do not allow for the installation of Linux as an "Other OS."

The computer, which is housed in Rome, New Work, will reportedly be used for quick processing of ultra-high-resolution satellite imagery, as well as research into artificial intelligence, radar enhancement and pattern recognition.

_________STRAWBERRY-PICKING ROBOT________
http://singularityhub.com/2010/12/04/japans-robot-picks-only-the-ripest-strawberries-video/

The Institute of Agricultural Machinery at Japan’s National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, along with SI Seiko, has developed a robot that can select and harvest strawberries based on their color. Ripened berries are detected using the robot’s stereoscopic cameras, and analyzed to measure how red they appear. When the fruit is ready to come off the vine, the robot quickly locates it in 3D space and cuts it free. From observation to collection, the harvesting process takes about 9 seconds per berry. Creators estimate that it will be able to cut down harvesting time by 40%. Prototypes are currently being tested in the field with marketable versions expected in the next few years. This artificial agriculturalist was recently recognized by the 4th Annual Robot Award of the Year in Japan.

A typical berry field one square kilometer in size takes about 500 hours to harvest. With its speedy evaluation, the strawberry picking robot could cut this down to around 300 hours. Not only that, but every berry would have a quantifiably similar level of ripeness based on color, and would be harvested with a minimum of bruising. Robots will also be able to harvest during the night (as shown in the videos below) allowing for the fruit to reach market closer to optimum freshness. These improvements in speed and quality will likely translate to millions of dollars saved each year for the industry as a whole.

_________SOLAR-POWERED HORNETS_________
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9254000/9254445.stm

Scientists working in Israel and the UK have recently discovered that the Oriental hornet has a unique ability to harvest solar energy.

The large wasp species has a special structure in its abdomen that traps the sun's rays, and a special pigment that harvests the energy they contain. The discovery helps explain why these hornets have a large yellow stripe across their body and why they become more active as the day gets hotter.

Using an atomic force microscope, scientists examined the fine structure of the hornet's cuticle, hard layers of which form the insect's outer body, or exoskeleton.
The part of the cuticle coloured brown is made from an array of grooves, with a height of just 160 nanometres. The structure of the yellow part of the hornet's body is made from a series of oval-shaped protrusions, each containing a pinhole-sized depression. Each protrusion is just 50nm tall and interlocks with another. These structures stop light being reflected off the hornet's body. Instead the light is trapped, and harvested for energy.

The pigment melanin gives the hornet its dominant brown colour. The pigment xanthopterin, in the head and abdomen in a form of stripes and bands, gives the Oriental hornet its bright yellow colour. Xanthopterin works as a light harvesting molecule transforming light into electrical energy. The hornets' ability to convert sunlight in this way could explain why they become more active during the middle of the day, when the light intensity is highest.

_________SELF-HEALING PLASTIC_________
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/241156,researchers-build-self-healing-plastic.aspx

US scientists have developed a self-healing material that uses a fibre optic "nervous system" to detect and address cracks. It was designed to prevent "catastrophic failure" and recovered up to 96 percent of an object's original strength in laboratory tests.

Here's how it works. Henry Sodano and his team at the Arizona State University embedded a fibre optic network into a "shape memory polymer", which is a plastic that returns to its original shape when heated. The network transmitted infrared light from a one-watt laser, acting as a nervous system because any cracks in the fibre would cause light to be lost from the network at that point. Light lost from the fibre network would be absorbed by the surrounding plastic, heating the material in the process. When heated, the plastic became 11 times more tough, which prevented the crack from spreading.  The polymer would then return to its original shape. (Technically, the material did not return to its original condition, because although the crack faces were brought together, no molecular bonds were re-formed.)

Should a suitable commercial partnership be struck, Sodano said the material could reach the market within two years. The work was funded by the US National Science Foundation.

_________LIKEABLE LINKS_________
Jetbytes
http://www.jetbytes.com/
On-the-fly file transfer

I Can't Find My Phone
http://www.icantfindmyphone.com/

Audiogalaxy
http://www.audiogalaxy.com/

_________QUESTIONABLE QUESTION_________
Why does ice cream taste better than cold cream?

_________QUOTABLE QUOTE_________
A child educated only at school is an uneducated child.
 ~ George Santayana

_________TRIVIAL TRIVIA_________
Do fingernails on one hand grow faster than another?
The fingernails grow faster on the hand you favor. If you are right-handed; your right fingernails will grow faster; likewise the fingernails on the left hand of a left-handed person. The middle fingernail grows faster than all other nails.
Source: Arcamax Trivia

_________LAUGHABLE LAUGH_________
During their ten year anniversary, a wife reminded her husband, "Do you remember when you proposed to me, I was so overwhelmed that I didn't talk for an hour?"
The hubby replied, "Yes, honey, that was the happiest hour of my life."


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.