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
2010.08.31 Issue No. 222
Started geotagging all my old pictures. Since my cameras don't come with a GPS chip, I'm tagging my photos manually using
Picasa. When you click on the Geotag photo, Picasa will tell you to install
Google Earth first. Alternatively, you can click on the Places button on top and just use the built-in
Google Maps. So I start tagging my photos. Once in a while, I'll notice a few pictures that already have geotags. Turns out that these are photos taken from my
E75, which has internal GPS, and I guess geotagging is enabled by default. Cool.
Recently, security experts are warning people that these geotagged photos may pose a security risk. Depending on what pictures you have been taking and where and how often, it's easy to find out a lot about you. For example, I look at bunch of your pictures online. It's easy to figure out which ones are taken at home. Checking the geotags, I now have a rough idea where you live. A careful analysis of the pictures tells me what nice stuff you have at home. And if start seeing newly uploaded pictures of you in a foreign county, that tells me it's time to pay your house a visit with my removalist friends.
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 geotaggers about it. Thanks.
_________TABLE OF CONTENTS_________
* No-Pain Vaccine Patch
* Light-Controlled Membrane
* The Next Blu-ray
* Fly Eyes as Solar Cell Template
* Popeye Makes Kids Eat Veggies
* Oil-Absorbing Robots
* Likeable Links
* Questionable Question
* Quotable Quote
* Trivial Trivia
* Laughable Laugh
_________NO-PAIN VACCINE PATCH_________
Researchers at Georgia Tech and Emory University have been testing vaccine patches with microneedles. Tiny little needles so small you don't even feel them. Attached to a patch like a
Band-Aid, the little needles barely penetrate the skin before they dissolve and release their vaccine.
Some medications are already delivered by patches, such as nicotine patches for people trying to quit smoking. That's simply absorbed through the skin. But attempts to develop patches with the flu vaccine absorbed through the skin have not been successful so far. There's where the microneedle patch comes in. The business side of the patch feels like fine sandpaper. In tests, people rated the discomfort at one-tenth to one-twentieth that of getting a standard injection - virtually painless. The little needles are 650 microns (three-hundredths of an inch) in length, and dissolve after use. So two problems are solved right away — fear of needles, and disposal of leftover hypodermic needles.
The researchers are now seeking funds to begin tests in people and, if all goes well, the patch could be in use in five years.
_________LIGHT-CONTROLLED MEMBRANE________
Eric Glowacki, a graduate student at the
University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics, and Kenneth Marshall, his advisor, invented a new membrane that blocks gas from flowing through it when one color of light is shined on its surface, and permits gas to flow through when another color of light is used.
The membrane is a piece of hard plastic riddled with tiny holes that are filled with liquid crystals and a dye. When purple light illuminates the surface of the membrane, the dye molecules straighten out and the liquid crystals fall into line, which allows gas to easily flow through the holes. But when ultraviolet light illuminates the surface, the dye molecules bend into a banana shape and the liquid crystals scatter into random orientations, clogging the tunnel and blocking gas from penetrating.
Controlling a membrane's permeability with light is preferable to controlling it with heat or electricity – two readily used alternative methods – for several reasons, Glowacki said. For starters, light can operate remotely. Instead of attaching electrical lines to the membrane, a lamp or a laser can be directed at the membrane from a distance. Another advantage is that the color of the light illuminating the membrane can be changed precisely and almost instantaneously. Also, light does not have the potential to ignite a gas, which could be a crucial benefit when working with hydrocarbons or other flammable gases. Lastly, the amount of light energy needed to switch the membrane on and off is miniscule.
The membrane could be useful in controlled drug delivery and industrial processing tasks that require the ability to turn the flow of gas on and off as well as in research applications.
_________THE NEXT BLU-RAY________
Japanese researchers from
Sony Corporation and
Tohoku University announced the development of a next-generation “blue-violet ultrafast pulsed semiconductor laser,” aimed at practical technology like disk storage.
The new all-semiconductor 405nm laser source is capable of generating optical pulses in the ultrafast duration of 3 picoseconds, with ultrahigh output peak power of 100 watts and repetition frequency of 1 gigahertz. Advanced control of the newly-developed and proprietarily-constructed GaN-based mode-locked semiconductor laser and semiconductor optical amplifier have enabled peak output power in excess of 100 watts to be achieved, which is more than a hundred times the world’s highest output value for conventional blue-violet pulse semiconductor lasers.
In particular, Sony indicated they are aiming to use the laser in next-generation disk storage devices, having already achieved successful initial testing. The new laser is expected to allow for disks to hold 20 times the capacity of the Blu-ray.
No indication was given on when the new technology might reach consumers.
_________FLY EYES AS SOLAR CELL TEMPLATE_________
A team of Penn State researchers came up with an idea to use a biomimetic mold constructed from fly eyes that could be perfect for manufacturing efficient solar cells.
First they picked corneas from blowflies because this common type of fly has ideal eyes for solar cell applications. Blowflies have compound eyes that are roughly hemispherical; but within that half sphere, the surface is covered by macroscale hexagonal eyes with nanoscale features. Then the researchers took corneas, fixed them on a glass substrate, added a polymer to protect the shape and then coated nine-eye arrays in nickel within a vacuum chamber. The result was a master template that retained those useful nanoscale features. Ultimately that template can be used to replicate the pattern exactly. Next, the plan is to make a larger template from 30 blowfly corneas.
The team is currently researching butterfly wings to figure out how it might be possible to create colored surfaces without using pigments.
_________POPEYE MAKES KIDS EAT VEGGIES_________
Researchers at
Mahidol University in Bangkok found that Popeye cartoons, tasting parties and junior cooking classes can help increase vegetable intake in kindergarten children.
Twenty six kindergarten children aged four to five participated in the eight week study. The researchers recorded the kinds and amounts of fruit and vegetables eaten by the children before and after the program. During the study, the children planted vegetable seeds, took part in fruit and vegetable tasting parties, cooked vegetable soup, and watched Popeye cartoons. The researchers found vegetable intake doubled and the types of vegetables the children consumed increased from two to four. Parents also reported their children talked about vegetables more often and were proud they had eaten them in their school lunch.
Studies have shown the food habits and eating patterns picked up in early childhood 'track' into later childhood and adulthood. Focusing on healthy food choices at an early age can have a major impact on the future health of adults.
_________OIL-ABSORBING ROBOTS_________
Using a cutting edge nanotechnology, researchers at MIT have created a robotic prototype that could autonomously navigate the surface of the ocean to collect surface oil and process it on site.
Called
Seaswarm, the system is a fleet of robotic vehicles that uses a conveyor belt covered with a thin nanowire mesh to absorb oil. The fabric, developed by MIT Visiting Associate Professor Francesco Stellacci, can absorb up to twenty times its own weight in oil while repelling water. By heating up the material, the oil can be removed and burnt locally and the nanofabric can be reused. The Seaswarm robot, which is 16 feet long and seven feet wide, uses two square meters of solar panels for self-propulsion. With just 100 watts, the equivalent of one household light bulb, it could potentially clean continuously for weeks.
Traditional skimmers are attached to large vessels and need to constantly return to the shore for maintenance. Over 800 skimmers were deployed in the Gulf of Mexico during the summer of 2010; however, it is estimated that these skimmers collected only three percent of the surface oil. Using swarm behavior, the units will use wireless communication and GPS and manage their coordinates and ensure an even distribution over a spill site. By detecting the edge of a spill and moving inward, a single vehicle could clean an entire site autonomously or engage other vehicles for faster cleaning. MIT researchers estimate that a fleet of 5,000 Seaswarm robots would be able to clean a spill the size of the gulf in one month.
_________LIKEABLE LINKS_________
DSOrganize
1dl.us
Download More RAM!
Process Hacker
Porta photo album generator
_________QUESTIONABLE QUESTION_________
How come some of us can make armpit noises, and others can't?
_________QUOTABLE QUOTE_________
We do not see things as they are; we see things as we are.
~ Talmud
_________TRIVIAL TRIVIA_________
Which is bouncier - glass or rubber?
Not a trick question - A ball of glass will bounce higher than a ball of rubber. A ball of solid steel will bounce higher than one made entirely of glass.
Source: Arcamax Trivia
_________LAUGHABLE LAUGH_________
What did the Buddhist monk say to the hot dog vendor?
"Make me one with everything."
The vendor makes the hot dog, and the monk gives him a twenty, which he pockets. The monk, after waiting for a moment, asks for his change. The vendor looks at him and says, "Change must come from within."
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.
With summer coming fast, I'm onto eBay to look for a portable air conditioner. A no-frills portable airconditioner will set you back at least $150. If you opt for the reverse-cycle one, that's usually around $250 or more.
