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
2011.04.05 Issue No. 226
Another missed issue. That's two months in a row already. When Nybble started, it was a weekly newsletter. I had lots of time on my hands then. It became bi-weekly, then monthly. Now, it's looking like I don't even have enough bandwidth to publish the newsletters on a monthly basis. (Or maybe I'm just getting lazy with so many other distractions vying for my time.) I got myself a Twitter account, but so far only 3 or 4 tweets. My laziness knows no bounds. Hopefully, I didn't disappoint anyone out there with my late newsletters. Out of 200 subscribers, I don't even know what percentage are the active ones. Yeah, I'm talking to you.:-)
Anyway, it's a slow day at the office, so back to our regular programming.
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_________TABLE OF CONTENTS_________
* Playstation 3 Supercomputer
* First Plastic Computer Processor
* Artificial Clouds for 2022 Qatar World Cup
* Mobile Phones Weakens Bones
* Artificial Leaf
* Likeable Links
* Questionable Question
* Quotable Quote
* Trivial Trivia
* Laughable Laugh
_________PLAYSTATION 3 SUPERCOMPUTER_________
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/03/rome_labs_supercomputer_is_mad.html
Computer scientists at Rome’s Air Force Research Lab have assembled one of the world’s largest, fastest and cheapest supercomputers — and it’s made from PlayStation 3s.
By linking together 1,716 PlayStation 3s, they’ve created a supercomputer that’s very good at processing, manipulating and interpreting vast amounts of imagery. This will provide analysts with new levels of detail from the pictures gathered on long surveillance flights by spy planes.
The PlayStation 3 is a video gaming console that originally sold for about $500. It was developed by Sony, released in 2006 and is known for its sizzlingly clear video graphics.
To custom-build a supercomputer without using commercial off-the-shelf PlayStation 3s would likely have cost 10 times as much. In addition, the system uses a fraction of the energy that comparably sized supercomputers use. Portions of it — say 300 machines — can be turned on while the rest are off, depending on a job’s needs. The Air Force calls the souped-up PlayStations the Condor Supercomputer and says it is among the 40 fastest computers in the world. The Condor went online late last year, and it will likely change the way the Air Force and the Air National Guard watch things on the ground.
_________FIRST PLASTIC COMPUTER PROCESSOR________
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/37126/?p1=A2&a=f
Researchers at the IMEC nanotechnology center in Leuven, Belgium used 4,000 plastic, or organic, transistors to create the first plastic microprocessor, which measures roughly two centimeters square and is built on top of flexible plastic foil.
The processor can so far run only one simple program of 16 instructions. The commands are hardcoded into a second foil etched with plastic circuits that can be connected to the processor to "load" the program. This allows the processor to calculate a running average of an incoming signal, something that a chip involved in processing the signal from a sensor might do. The chip runs at a speed of six hertz-on the order of a million times slower than a modern desktop machine-and can only process information in eight-bit chunks at most, compared to 128 bits for modern computer processors.
Making the processor begins with a 25-micrometer thick sheet of flexible plastic. A layer of gold electrodes are deposited on top, followed by an insulating layer of plastic, another layer of gold electrodes and the plastic semiconductors that make up the processor's 4,000 transistors. Those transistors were made by spinning the plastic foil to spread a drop of organic liquid into a thin, even layer. When the foil is heated gently the liquid converts into solid pentacene, a commonly used organic semiconductor. The different layers were then etched using photolithography to make the final pattern for transistors. In the future, such processors could be made more cheaply by printing the organic components like ink.
Organic transistors have already been used in certain LED displays and RFID tags, but have not been used to make a processor of any kind. The microprocessor was presented at the ISSCC conference in San Jose, California, last month.
_________ARTIFICIAL CLOUDS FOR 2022 QATAR WORLD CUP________
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1369525/Artificial-clouds-cool-Qatar-2022-World-Cup.html
Qatar have developed artificial clouds to provide shade for stadiums and training grounds at the
2022 World Cup.
With temperatures soaring as high as 50 degrees Celsius in the summer, there was speculation the World Cup would take place in the winter and alter the fixture calendars of the major leagues across the globe. It was also suggested that some matches could be played in other areas of the Arabian Gulf due to the close proximity of the stadiums in Qatar. FIFA have since dismissed both ideas, insisting the tournament will go ahead in the summer and all matches will take place in Qatar.
Qatar say they will air condition the stadia via solar power and now scientists at Qatar University have designed the 'cloud' which can be produced at a cost of US $500,000 (£310,000) each. The 'clouds' will be made from a lightweight carbon structure carrying a giant envelope of material containing helium gas. Four solar powered engines move the structure via remote control.
_________MOBILE PHONES WEAKEN BONES_________
http://www.thinq.co.uk/2011/3/28/mobile-phones-rot-your-bones/
Newly-published research suggests that mobile phones can reduce the mineral content of the bones they hang out around. Researchers at the the National University of Cuyo, in Mendoza, Argentina, looked at men who wear mobile phones on their hip. They discovered evidence to suggest that the proximity of the mobile phone caused a reduction in bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD) in the men who wore the phones over a 12-month period, compared to a control group that didn't.
The study measured BMC and BMD in the left and right hips of two groups of healthy men - 24 who did not use cell phones and 24 who carried their cell phone on their right hip, for at least 12 months. According to the researchers, few studies have looked at whether electromagnetic fields emitted by cell phones could affect bone mineralisation. They suggest that with rapid uptake of mobile phones, any significant effect on BMD could have a substantial effect on the osteoporosis rate in the population. Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disease characterised by low bone mass and microarchitectural deterioration that leads to increased bone fragility and increased risk of fracture .
More research is needed to follow up this study, particularly in women, who generally have higher rates of osteoporosis, and children, who may have a long life of mobile phone use ahead of them. While the actual energy emission by modern mobile cell phones is well below the limits set by current standards, precluding significant thermal effects, a growing body of evidence suggests that non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation in the frequency range of mobile cell phones may cause non-thermal biologic effects. Many of these non-thermal biologic effects "might be relevant for human health," the study notes.
_________ARTIFICIAL LEAF_________
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/03/spinning-the-suns-rays-into-fuel.html?ref=hp
Nearly all the energy we use on this planet starts out as sunlight that plants use to knit chemical bonds. Now, for the first time, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge have created a potentially cheap, practical artificial leaf that does much the same thing — providing a potentially limitless source of energy that’s easy to tap.
The new device is a silicon wafer about the shape and size of a playing card coated on either side with two different catalysts. The silicon absorbs sunlight and passes that energy to the catalysts to split water into molecules of hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen is a fuel that can be either burned or used in a fuel cell to create electricity, reforming water in either case. This means that in theory, anyone with access to water can use it to create a cheap, clean, and available source of fuel.
The new device isn't the first semiconductor capable of splitting water. Over a decade ago, a team led by John Turner of the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, created a gallium arsenide chip capable of splitting water, ultimately storing 12% of the energy in sunlight in hydrogen. But gallium arsenide is expensive, and the device quickly corroded in water, making it unusable. Three years ago, a team led by chemist Daniel Nocera of MIT solved half the problem with a special cobalt and phosphorus-based catalyst that knit O2 molecules. This catalyst was unique in that it dissolves and reforms as part of its catalytic cycle. Although the catalyst corrodes during use, each time it starts over it’s working with a pristine, noncorroded surface to continue the reaction.
When the device is placed in a clear jar and exposed to sunlight, it produces a steady stream of oxygen and hydrogen bubbling up to the surface. According to Nocera, the setup converts 5.5% of the energy in sunlight into hydrogen fuel. The new catalyst also appears highly stable. The team has been operating the device for a week, using water from the nearby Charles River in Cambridge, without any drop in efficiency. The next step is to find out whether the device works equally well in seawater. If so, it could dramatically lower the cost of producing hydrogen fuel.
_________LIKEABLE LINKS_________
Cheatsheets for Tcpdump and Wireshark
http://packetlife.net/blog/2008/oct/18/cheat-sheets-tcpdump-and-wireshark/
OperaTor - Opera + Tor
http://archetwist.com/en/node/7
Nokia Plan S
http://nokiaplans.com/
Japan for the Uninvited
http://www.japanfortheuninvited.com/
_________QUESTIONABLE QUESTION_________
Why do women find me attractive only when I already have a girlfriend (or wife)?
_________QUOTABLE QUOTE_________
No woman will ever sleep with you because your music collection is sorted by genre, artist and the date each album was released.
~ Joel Stein
_________TRIVIAL TRIVIA_________
How did the foot come about?
The one-foot measurement is based on one-third of the length of the arm of King Henry I (1068-1135) of England.
Source: Arcamax Trivia
_________LAUGHABLE LAUGH_________
Several men are in the locker room of a golf club when a cellular phone on a bench rings and a man engages the hands-free speaker function and begins to talk. Everyone else in the room stops to listen.
MAN: "Hello!"
WOMAN: "Hi Honey, it's me. Are you at the club?"
MAN: "Yes."
WOMAN: "I'm at the shops now and found this beautiful leather coat. It's only $2,000; is it OK if I buy it?"
MAN: "Sure, go ahead if you like it that much."
WOMAN: "I also stopped by the Lexus dealership and saw the new models. I saw one I really liked."
MAN: "How much?"
WOMAN: "$90,000."
MAN: "OK, but for that price I want it with all the options."
WOMAN: "Great! Oh, and one more thing. I was just talking to Janie and found out that the house I wanted last year is back on the market. They're asking $980,000 for it."
MAN: "Well, then go ahead and make an offer of $900,000. They'll probably take it. If not, we can go the extra eighty-thousand if it's what you really want."
WOMAN: "OK. I'll see you later! I love you so much!"
MAN: "Bye! I love you, too."
The man hangs up. The other men in the locker room are staring at him in astonishment, mouths wide open.
He turns and asks, "Anyone know whose phone this is?"
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.
TomTom unit came up with a warning saying that my map is out
-of-date already. So what do I do? Download the latest ones from the Internet, of course.
