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Message 920953 - Posted: 24 Jul 2009, 6:55:43 UTC

Wireless power system shown off

A system that can deliver power to devices without the need for wires has been shown off at a hi-tech conference.
The technique exploits simple physics and can be used to charge a range of electronic devices.
Eric Giler, chief executive of US firm Witricity, showed mobile phones and televisions charging wirelessly at the TED Global conference in Oxford.
He said the system could replace the miles of expensive power cables and billions of disposable batteries.
"There is something like 40 billion disposable batteries built every year for power that, generally speaking, is used within a few inches or feet of where there is very inexpensive power," he said.
Trillions of dollars, he said, had also been invested building an infrastructure of wires "to get power from where it is created to where it is used."
"We love this stuff [electricity] so much," he said.
Mr Giler showed off a Google G1 phone and an Apple iPhone that could be charged using the system.
Witricity, he said, had managed to pack all the necessary components into the body of the G1 phone, but Apple had made that process slightly harder.
"They don't make it easy at Apple to get inside their phones so we put a little sleeve on the back," he said.
He also showed off a commercially available television using the system.
"Imagine you get one of these things and you want to hang it on the wall," he said. "Think about it, you don't want those ugly cords hanging down."

Good vibrations
The system is based on work by physicist Marin Soljacic at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
It exploits "resonance", whereby energy transfer is markedly more efficient when a certain frequency is applied.
When two objects have the same resonant frequency, they exchange energy strongly without having an effect on other, surrounding objects.
For example, it is resonance that can cause a wine glass to explode when a singer hits exactly the right tone.
But instead of using acoustic resonance, Witricity's approach exploits the resonance of low frequency electromagnetic waves.

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Message 920958 - Posted: 24 Jul 2009, 7:01:33 UTC

Artificial brain could be reality in just 10 years, scientists claim



A functioning artificial brain could be built within a decade, scientists claim.
Henry Makram, director of the Blue Brain Project, has already simulated elements of a rat brain.
He told the TED Global conference in Oxford he is well on his way to developing a synthetic human brain, which could be used to develop treatments for mental illnesses.
'It is not impossible to build a human brain. We can do it in 10 years,' he told the conference.
'And if we do succeed, we will send a hologram to TED to talk.'
Mr Makram believes his research could eventually help the two billion people globally who suffer from brain impairment.
His research group, which launched in 2005, aims to engineer a computer simulation of a brain from laboratory data.
The project has already created an artificial neocortical column which is unique to mammals. We have many of these columns to cope with complex cognitive functions including parenthood and social interactions.
It was digitally constructed using a software model of 'tens of thousands' of neurons.
At least one computer is required to process the data from every single neuron, so the researchers plan to use the IBM Blue Gene supercomputer with 10,000 processors to make it come alive.

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Message 921132 - Posted: 24 Jul 2009, 21:37:29 UTC

wireless power system? Check out a bio on Nicola Telsa. He was making a transatlantic version of this same thing when funding was removed by his les than reliable funders. You'd be amazed at all the things we have and use now because of Telsas work.


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Message 921161 - Posted: 24 Jul 2009, 23:15:06 UTC - in response to Message 921132.  
Last modified: 24 Jul 2009, 23:17:06 UTC

wireless power system? Check out a bio on Nicola Telsa. He was making a transatlantic version of this same thing when funding was removed by his les than reliable funders. You'd be amazed at all the things we have and use now because of Telsas work.


Yeah, I know of his work, About 7 years ago when I was doing my A-Levels before Uni, I was studying Design & Technology: Electronic Systems & Control as one of my subjects. We built a Tesla Coil as part of a project in that class. Part of the final paper for that module had to include a history of Nicola Tesla. Very Impressive stuff!!

Theres another company that are looking into practically absorbing ambient radio waves (Like the old Crystal Radios Used to do but on a more practical scale) rather than using induction between two coils. Would love to see some of this happen. I dread looking behind TV cabinets, No matter how meticulously I arrange the wires and secure them they still manage to get tangled...

BREAKING NEWS: The Wire Gnomes Attack Again

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Message 921313 - Posted: 25 Jul 2009, 16:47:42 UTC

Hubble pictures Jupiter's 'scar'



Hubble has trained its new camera on the atmospheric disturbance on Jupiter believed to have been caused by a comet or asteroid impact.
The telescope used the Wide Field Camera 3 fitted on the recent shuttle servicing mission to capture ultra-sharp visible-light images of the scar.
The dark spot near the gas giant's southern pole was noticed first by an amateur Australian astronomer.
Some of the world's biggest telescopes have since taken detailed pictures.
Engineers at the US space agency, Nasa, interrupted the post-servicing commissioning of the refurbished Hubble to use the WFC-3.
"Because we believe this magnitude of impact is rare, we are very fortunate to see it with Hubble," said Amy Simon-Miller of Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
"Details seen in the Hubble view show a lumpiness to the debris plume caused by turbulence in Jupiter's atmosphere."
The pictures augur well for Hubble. Its servicing should give it several more years of life.
The WFC-3 will be used to take the deepest images of the cosmos yet.
Astronomers cannot be absolutely sure Jupiter was struck by a space object, but the evidence seems compelling. One estimate of the diameter of the impacting body suggests it may have been hundreds of metres wide.
"This is just one example of what Hubble's new, state-of-the-art camera can do, thanks to the [shuttle] astronauts and the entire Hubble team," said Ed Weiler, Nasa's chief scientist. "However, the best is yet to come."
It is 15 years since Jupiter was famously hit by Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. It broke up into several pieces as it plunged on to the gas giant. There was prior warning of that event and Hubble took some typically remarkable pictures on that occasion, too.
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Message 921314 - Posted: 25 Jul 2009, 16:52:04 UTC

Europe's Mars rover slips to 2018



Europe's flagship robotic rover mission to Mars now looks certain to leave Earth in 2018, two years later than recently proposed, the BBC understands.
The ExoMars vehicle is intended to search the Red Planet for signs of past or present life.
The delay is the third for the mission originally planned to launch in 2011.
While the switch will disappoint many people, officials say the change will open up a greatly expanded programme of exploration at the Red Planet.
The European Space Agency (Esa) will now join forces at Mars with the US space agency (Nasa). The two organisations believe they can achieve far more by combing their expertise and budgets.
The basis for this approach was agreed at bilateral discussions in Plymouth, UK, last month.
Since then, scientists and engineers on both sides of the Atlantic have been working up the basic architecture for a series of missions in 2016, 2018 and 2020 (launch opportunities to Mars come up roughly every two years).

Mass issues
The plan, or baseline, for this programme is now starting to emerge.
It would see the agencies launch a European orbiter to the Red Planet in 2016. Its main aim would be to track down the sources of methane recently detected at Mars. The presence of methane is intriguing because its likely origin is either present-day life or geological activity.
Confirmation of either would be a major discovery.
The American Atlas rocket used for this mission would also have capacity to carry sufficient mass to put some sort of static lander on the surface. The European orbiter would act as its data relay to Earth.
The 2018 launch opportunity would be taken by ExoMars, again launching on a US Atlas rocket. This mission window is actually one of the most favourable in terms of planetary alignment for many years, and that makes it possible to send a very heavy surface mission.
The proposal on the table currently is that ExoMars should be joined by a slightly smaller rover in the class of the US Spirit and Opportunity vehicles that are on the surface today.
ExoMars and its smaller cousin could be targeted at the Methane sources identified by the 2016 orbiter.
The 2020 launch opportunity would probably then be taken by a network of instrumented static landers.

Technological goals
Both Esa and Nasa will have tight finances going forward and will have to constrain their ambitions accordingly.
European ministers pledged sufficient monies at their major triennial gathering last year to take the budget for ExoMars to 850m euros. Esa officials believe the proposals they are formulating with Nasa can broadly match the cost requirements and the technological goals of both parties.
For Europe, the primary goals are to land, to rove and to drill on Mars. However, under the plan outlined above, these objectives could not all be achieved during the ExoMars opportunity.
In 2018, it is likely the entry, descent and landing (EDL) of Europe's rover would be handled by the Americans, using the "skycrane" system they have designed for their big 2013 rover known as Curiosity.
If Europe really does want to do EDL, the option is open for it to take responsibility for the 2016 surface package of instruments.
Esa's director-general, Jean-Jacques Dordain, has promised to report to his member states in the autumn with firm proposals for a re-scoped Mars exploration programme.

Industrial jigsaw
Two months of intensive discussions will now take place in those member states, and in European industry which will be responsible for building the spacecraft systems.
If financial contributions to the mission from Esa member states were to change substantially, the space agency might have to re-visit the balance of industrial work allocated to different countries through the process of "juste retour".
Esa's rules of juste retour ensure the work which returns to a member state reflects the financial contribution it makes to a programme.
The ExoMars rover was originally conceived as a small technology demonstration mission.
It was approved in 2008 and should have been launched in 2011. Then, as ambitions grew and the design was beefed up, the launch was put back.
At first, it was shifted to 2013. Last year, a decision was taken to move it even further back, to 2016, because of budget concerns.
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Message 921418 - Posted: 26 Jul 2009, 6:48:15 UTC

Bacterial Computer Solves Hamiltonian Path Problem



Computers are evolving – literally. While the tech world argues netbooks vs notebooks, synthetic biologists are leaving traditional computers behind altogether. A team of US scientists have engineered bacteria that can solve complex mathematical problems faster than anything made from silicon.

The research, published today in the Journal of Biological Engineering, proves that bacteria can be used to solve a puzzle known as the Hamiltonian Path Problem. Imagine you want to tour the 10 biggest cities in the UK, starting in London (number 1) and finishing in Bristol (number 10). The solution to the Hamiltonian Path Problem is the the shortest possible route you can take.

This simple problem is surprisingly difficult to solve. There are over 3.5 million possible routes to choose from, and a regular computer must try them out one at a time to find the shortest. Alternatively, a computer made from millions of bacteria can look at every route simultaneously. The biological world also has other advantages. As time goes by, a bacterial computer will actually increase in power as the bacteria reproduce.

Programming such a computer is no easy task, however. The researchers coded a simplified version of the problem, using just three cities, by modifying the DNA of Escherichia coli bacteria. The cities were represented by a combination of genes causing the bacteria to glow red or green, and the possible routes between the cities were explored by the random shuffling of DNA. Bacteria producing the correct answer glowed both colours, turning them yellow.

The experiment worked, and the scientists checked the yellow bacteria's answer by examining their DNA sequence. By using additional genetic differences such as resistance to particular antibiotics, the team believe their method could be expanded to solve problems involving more cities.

This is not the only problem bacteria can solve. The research builds on previous work by the same team, who last year created a bacterial computer to solve the Burnt Pancake Problem. This unusually named conundrum is a mathematical sorting process that can be visualised as a stack of pancakes, all burnt on one side, which must be ordered by size.

In addition to proving the power of bacterial computing, the team have also contributed significantly to the field of synthetic biology. Just as electronic circuits are made from transistors, diodes and other devices, so too are biological circuits. Synthetic biologists have worked together to create the Registry of Standard Biological Parts, and this new research has contributed more than 60 new components to the list.

For more information on the expanding field of synthetic biology, download the latest edition of the Guardian's Science Weekly podcast. Alok Jha and James Randerson were joined in the pod by synthetic biologist Paul Freemont, professor of protein crystallography at Imperial College London, to discuss a future of biological machines.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein
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Message 921699 - Posted: 27 Jul 2009, 17:48:40 UTC

Barcode replacement shown off



A replacement for the black and white stripes of the traditional barcode has been outlined by US researchers.
Bokodes, as they are known, can hold thousands of times more information than their striped cousins and can be read by a standard mobile phone camera.
The 3mm-diameter (0.1 inches), powered tags could be used to encode nutrition information on food packaging or create new devices for playing video games.
The work will be shown off at Siggraph, a conference in New Orleans next week.
"We think that our technology will create a new way of tagging," Dr Ankit Mohan, one of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers behind the work, told BBC News.

Distant reader
The Bokodes currently consist of an LED, covered with a tiny mask and a lens.
Information is encoded in the light shining through the mask, which varies in brightness depending on which angle it is seen from.
"It is either bright or dark depending on how we want to encode the information," said Dr Mohan, who works for the MIT Media Lab Camera Culture group.
The researchers believe the system has many advantages over conventional barcodes.
For example, they say, the tags are smaller, can be read from different angles and can be interrogated from far away by a standard mobile phone camera.
"For traditional barcodes you need to be a foot away from it at most," said Dr Mohan.
The team has shown its barcodes can be read from a distance of up to 4m (12ft), although they should theoretically work up to 20m (60ft).
"One way of thinking about it is a long-distance barcode."
Initially, said Dr Mohan, the Bokodes may be used in factories or industrial settings to keep track of objects.

'Look at me'
However, the team also thinks they could be used in consumer applications, such as supermarkets, where products could be interrogated with a shopper's mobile phone.
For example, they could be used to encode nutritional information or pricing offers.
"One to the side may say 'hey, look at me, I'm a dollar cheaper'," said Dr Mohan.
Taking a picture would also allow people to compare lots of different products quickly.
A similar system could be used in a library, said Dr Mohan.
"Let's say you're standing in a library with 20 shelves in front of you and thousands of books."
"You could take a picture and you'd immediately know where the book you're looking for is."
And the team also believes the tags could find their way into places not normally associated with traditional barcodes.
For example, the system's ability to read angular information could allow its use in motion-capture systems used to create videogames or films.
Dr Mohan said they could also be used to augment the information incorporated into Google Streetview, a service which allows users to browse a selection of pictures taken along city streets.
At the moment, the images for Streetview - accessible through Google Maps - are collected by trucks and cars fitted with several cameras.
"Shop and restaurant owners can put these Bokodes outside their stores and as the Google truck is driving down the street it will capture the information in that."
For example, a restaurant could put menu information inside the tag.
When the data is uploaded to Google Maps, it would automatically be displayed next to the image of the restaurant, said Dr Mohan.

Colour code
Currently, the tags are expensive to produce - around $5 (£3) each. This is, in part, because the early prototypes require a lens and a powered LED.
However, the researchers believe the technology could be refined so that tags were reflective and require no power.
"We already have prototypes which are completely passive," said Dr Mohan.
In this form, they could cost around 5 cents each, he added.
It is not the first time that companies or researchers have suggested replacements for, or enhancements to, barcodes.
For example, in 2007 Microsoft launched its High Capacity Colour Barcode, a series of coloured geometric patterns.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology - essentially tiny electronic tags that broadcast encoded information - were also touted as a barcode replacement.
Although they are now used in many applications, such as library books, passports and travel passes, RFIDs have yet to displace the familiar black and white stripes of the barcode.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein
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Message 921700 - Posted: 27 Jul 2009, 17:52:14 UTC

Apple reported to be readying tablet computer for music and ebooks



Like this - only bigger: Apple is expected to launch a tablet computer that functions like an iPod Touch but with a larger screen
Apple is about to launch a tablet computer that will be like an enlarged version of the iPhone and iPod Touch - not running the full Mac OS X operating system, but instead limited to running one application at a time - in part as a means of selling more music downloads, according to reports posted in today's Financial Times.
The screen is expected to be substantially larger than the existing 3.5 inches (8.9cm) diagonal viewing size of the iPod Touch and iPhone, so as to give users looking at their music library an experience closer to looking at 12" album sleeves from the recording industry's past, when music was recorded onto vinyl.
There are no indications about the price or screen size of the machine. Apple is always extremely careful about preventing details of new products leaking out before their launch, and the limited information that has slipped out about this one - which has been rumoured, in some form or other, for years - will almost surely have come via its partners in the music business on the project.
However there is also speculation that the new - and so far unnamed - tablet computer will contain ebook capabilities, and that book publishers have been talking to Apple about the reading capabilities of the new system, which would be an immediate rival to Amazon's Kindle. "It would be a colour, flat-panel TV to the old-fashioned, black and white TV of the Kindle," one publishing executive told the FT.
The FT reports that the company, which just announced record financial results despite the economic downturn, is working to release the tablet-style machine in September along with new iPods.
The device is expected to have Wi-Fi capabilities and to be able to download and stream music and run applications just like the iPod Touch.
Mark Mulligan, vice-president and research director of consumer product strategy at Forrester Research, said: "the rumours around a tablet are pretty presistent building up to this. Everything strategically makes sense: the one thing that record labels are still unable to do is to get people to buy albums in sizeable numbers. The problem is that iTunes unbundles albums; to persuade people to buy bulk, they have to deliver added value."
Some of the impetus for the new device is believed to have come from record companies which have seen their incomes plummet even when people buy content legally because far fewer now buy entire albums; Apple's iTunes Music Store, launched in 2003, allows people to download single tracks rather than buying the whole album at once - drastically cutting the income for the record company.
The Apple tablet though would allow a bigger display perhaps including videos, photographs, sleeve notes and lyrics for a song or album.
The FT reports that Apple has been working with EMI, Sony Music, Warner Music and Universal Music Group on a project codenamed "Cocktail" to produce new formats for music downloads that would enhance the standard download experience - which is usually limited to, at best, a video and PDF booklet as well as the music.
"It's not just a bunch of PDFs," one music executive told the FT. "There's real engagement with the ancillary stuff."
Mulligan said: "If you've ever bought a digital booklet at iTunes, it's almost useless. It has to be much more than a booklet. iTunes is experimenting with bundling things together in 'Cocktail'. If the rumours substanstive, this is much more ambitious. You move away from albums as straitjacket and start developing bundles of content, videos, interviews, even live streams. The tablet is the perfect form factor perfect for that."
Mulligan added: "if you watch video on an iPod or iPod Touch, it's still a small screen. But put it in a big tablet and bundle DVD-like content, and that is a form factor for this content."
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Message 921716 - Posted: 27 Jul 2009, 18:22:54 UTC - in response to Message 921699.  

Barcode replacement shown off



A replacement for the black and white stripes of the traditional barcode has been outlined by US researchers.
Bokodes, as they are known, can hold thousands of times more information than their striped cousins and can be read by a standard mobile phone camera.
The 3mm-diameter (0.1 inches), powered tags could be used to encode nutrition information on food packaging or create new devices for playing video games.
The work will be shown off at Siggraph, a conference in New Orleans next week.
"We think that our technology will create a new way of tagging," Dr Ankit Mohan, one of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers behind the work, told BBC News.

Distant reader
The Bokodes currently consist of an LED, covered with a tiny mask and a lens.
Information is encoded in the light shining through the mask, which varies in brightness depending on which angle it is seen from.
"It is either bright or dark depending on how we want to encode the information," said Dr Mohan, who works for the MIT Media Lab Camera Culture group.
The researchers believe the system has many advantages over conventional barcodes.
For example, they say, the tags are smaller, can be read from different angles and can be interrogated from far away by a standard mobile phone camera.
"For traditional barcodes you need to be a foot away from it at most," said Dr Mohan.
The team has shown its barcodes can be read from a distance of up to 4m (12ft), although they should theoretically work up to 20m (60ft).
"One way of thinking about it is a long-distance barcode."
Initially, said Dr Mohan, the Bokodes may be used in factories or industrial settings to keep track of objects.

'Look at me'
However, the team also thinks they could be used in consumer applications, such as supermarkets, where products could be interrogated with a shopper's mobile phone.
For example, they could be used to encode nutritional information or pricing offers.
"One to the side may say 'hey, look at me, I'm a dollar cheaper'," said Dr Mohan.
Taking a picture would also allow people to compare lots of different products quickly.
A similar system could be used in a library, said Dr Mohan.
"Let's say you're standing in a library with 20 shelves in front of you and thousands of books."
"You could take a picture and you'd immediately know where the book you're looking for is."
And the team also believes the tags could find their way into places not normally associated with traditional barcodes.
For example, the system's ability to read angular information could allow its use in motion-capture systems used to create videogames or films.
Dr Mohan said they could also be used to augment the information incorporated into Google Streetview, a service which allows users to browse a selection of pictures taken along city streets.
At the moment, the images for Streetview - accessible through Google Maps - are collected by trucks and cars fitted with several cameras.
"Shop and restaurant owners can put these Bokodes outside their stores and as the Google truck is driving down the street it will capture the information in that."
For example, a restaurant could put menu information inside the tag.
When the data is uploaded to Google Maps, it would automatically be displayed next to the image of the restaurant, said Dr Mohan.

Colour code
Currently, the tags are expensive to produce - around $5 (£3) each. This is, in part, because the early prototypes require a lens and a powered LED.
However, the researchers believe the technology could be refined so that tags were reflective and require no power.
"We already have prototypes which are completely passive," said Dr Mohan.
In this form, they could cost around 5 cents each, he added.
It is not the first time that companies or researchers have suggested replacements for, or enhancements to, barcodes.
For example, in 2007 Microsoft launched its High Capacity Colour Barcode, a series of coloured geometric patterns.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology - essentially tiny electronic tags that broadcast encoded information - were also touted as a barcode replacement.
Although they are now used in many applications, such as library books, passports and travel passes, RFIDs have yet to displace the familiar black and white stripes of the barcode.

The problems multiply when you multiply the complexity. For example try checking yourself out at the store with a slightly wrinkled barcode. now do it with the newer barcodes. I can see how FexEd and delivery companies can use this but I just don't see it for grocers


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Message 921719 - Posted: 27 Jul 2009, 18:25:26 UTC - in response to Message 921716.  
Last modified: 27 Jul 2009, 18:34:40 UTC

@Skildude: I agree, Paper tags are not impervious to damage and it probably will get worse with these smaller more complex barcode's. I can see the queues forming now as Sue sends someone to isle 3 for a price check. :-D
I think the way forward is probably RF tagging.
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Message 921989 - Posted: 28 Jul 2009, 22:48:50 UTC

ATI FirePro plays leapfrog with Nvidia
AMD has made its latest move in the game of workstation-class graphics leapfrog it's playing with competitor Nvidia.

On Tuesday, the company announced its ATI FirePro V8750 3D workstation graphics accelerator, designed - as explained by AMD - for "CAD, Digital Content Creation (DCC) and oil and gas professionals." In other words, for deep-pocket corporate installations that require high-end graphic performance.

Note to gamers: The FirePro V8750 won't run Crysis any faster than your current card. In fact, it'll likely bog it down. The V8750 is for pro users who need hyper-accurate 16-bit RGB color and 2560-by-1600 multiple-display resolutions. High-end gaming cards are more interested in pushing as many pixels and vertices through their pipelines and onto your display as possible.

AMD notes that the ATI FirePro V8750 compares favorably with one of Nvidia's top offerings, the Quadro FX 4800. On paper, at least, they have a case. The FirePro V8750 has 800 shader processors and a GDDR5 memory bandwidth of 115.2GB per second, while the Quadro FX 4800 weighs in with 192 shader processors and 76.8GB per second GDDR3 bandwidth.

Nvidia's Quadro FX 5800, on the other hand, has 240 processing cores and 102GB per second bandwidth to its 4GB GDDR3 memory. That's still slower than the specs of the FirePro V8750, but its 4GB memory allotment is significantly higher than the 2GB of the V8750 and the 1.5GB of the FX 4800.

The catch is that the Quadro FX 5800 streets for around $3,000 in its base configuration, and it can run up to $7K in tricked out configs by PNY Technologies. Both the FirePro V8750 and the Quadro FX 4800, on the other hand, run "only" $1,800.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein
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Message 921991 - Posted: 28 Jul 2009, 22:52:44 UTC

Hard cheddar! Pioneers lose first cheese in space



It was supposed to be a small step for a cheese - and a giant leap for cheesekind.

But attempts to send the first lump of cheddar into space ended in disaster yesterday when organisers lost track of their precious payload minutes after lift-off.

The stunt - which owes more to good old British eccentricity than Neil Armstrong - was an attempt by a West Country cheesemakers' group to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Moon landings.

At 4.30am, they launched a weather balloon attached by a pole to a capsule containing a digital camera, a GPS tracking device and a 300g lump of Somerset farmhouse cheddar glued to a plate.

It was supposed to fly 19 miles into the upper atmosphere before the balloon burst and the capsule floated back to earth on a parachute.

But within ten minutes of taking off the tracking system failed.

'We think it's somewhere in the East of England - possibly in Essex or Hertfordshire', said Dom Lane, of the West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers' Group. 'We wanted to take a photograph of a piece of cheddar floating majestically in the firmament with the curve of the Earth below it.'

Mr Lane said that although Nasa astronauts had taken powdered or liquid cheese sauce into space, this was the first time a slice of real cheddar had been sent.


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Message 922114 - Posted: 29 Jul 2009, 12:39:12 UTC

Microsoft and Yahoo! join forces to topple Google



Microsoft and Yahoo! today unveiled a 10-year deal to create an online search and advertising partnership in an effort to challenge Google, the world’s biggest internet search engine.

Under the agreement, Yahoo! use Microsoft’s new Bing search engine on its own sites, while Yahoo! will act as the exclusive global sales force for the companies’ premium search advertisers.

Yahoo! will get to keep 88 per cent of the revenue from all search ad sales on its site for the first five years of the deal, and have the right to sell ads on some Microsoft sites.

Yahoo! estimated the deal will boost its annual operating profit by $500 million and save it about $275 million on spending since it will not have to invest in its own search technology.

The deal has been announced more than a year after Yahoo! rejected a $47.5 million (£29 million) takeover bid from Microsoft and Yahoo!'s attempt to strike a search advertising deal with Google fell apart under regulatory scrutiny.

Microsoft is counting on Yahoo!'s search engine, which ranks as the second largest in the world with a global market share of 8 per cent, to pose a more formidable challenge to Google, which holds 67 per cent of the global audience, according to the most recent data from the research company comScore. In the US, Google's share is 65 per cent, compared with 20 per cent for Yahoo!.

Despite spending billions to upgrade its search engine, Microsoft still held just a 3 per cent share worldwide and 8 per cent in the US in the comScore rankings.

There is a chance a deal combining the powers of the second and third-ranked search engine companies would be blocked by antitrust regulators.

Shareholders of both Microsoft and Yahoo! have been urging the two to strike a deal for some time.

Earlier this month, the activist investor Carl Icahn, who owns about 5 per cent of Yahoo! and is a director on its board, spoke out again in favour of a search deal, as talks between the two companies appeared to regain momentum.
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Message 922119 - Posted: 29 Jul 2009, 13:10:35 UTC

'Disaster satellites' ready to fly



A Russian Dnepr rocket will place two British-built imaging satellites in orbit on Wednesday.
The UK-DMC2 and Deimos-1 spacecraft will join four platforms already in the sky that together form the Disaster Monitoring Constellation.
The network obtains rapid pictures of areas struck by natural calamities - such as floods, earthquakes and fire.
The imagery is used by governments and aid agencies to co-ordinate relief efforts on the ground.
"After a major disaster, the first thing you need to do is supply the relief workers with an up-to-date map," explained Philip Davies, from manufacturers Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL).
"If there's been a big flood, there will be landslides, roads will have been washed away and bridges will be down. So you need a new map that shows you how to get around the area; and it's the satellite imagery that helps you do that."
The launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan is scheduled for 1846 GMT.
The two satellites will ride into orbit on a converted Soviet-era SS-18 intercontinental ballistic missile.
UK-DMC2, as the name suggests, is Britain's second contribution to the constellation. Deimos-1 is owned by a Spanish imaging company.
The pair joins orbital assets that belong to Algeria, China and Nigeria (a Turkish satellite is no longer operational after finishing its mission).
The spacecraft picture the Earth at resolutions between 4m and 32m, across an ultra-wide 600km-plus swath.
When they fly over their home territories, the satellites acquire a range of data for domestic use - everything from urban planning to monitoring locust swarms.
But when the platforms fly across the rest of the globe, they gather imagery which is pooled and sold on to commercial users.
Every so often, however, a major disaster will strike some part of the globe and the DMC constellation will be tasked with gathering emergency pictures as fast as possible.
Recent deployments have included the Australian bushfires in February this year, and after the major cyclone that hit Burma in May 2008.
"The biggest use of the DMC was after the Asian tsunami is 2004," said Mr Davies.
"We used the fact that it's a constellation and can cover very wide swaths to image the entire Indian Ocean coastline.
"Other satellites may have been able to deploy high resolutions at particular locations, but we were the only system that could cover the entire coastline at a reasonable resolution."
The UK-DMC2 platform carries some improvements over the previous DMC satellites, including an enhanced camera sensor to deliver better ground resolution, and X-band transmitters that will enable the spacecraft to download data 10 times as fast as its orbital cousins.
The 96kg, 60cm cube is also carrying a student experiment called Poise, which was developed by pupils at Shrewsbury School, in Shropshire.
The experiment will measure variations in the ionosphere - the outermost layer of the atmosphere. These variations can affect the accuracy and safety of satellite navigation (sat-nav) systems.
SSTL is famous for producing the very first spacecraft for Europe's forthcoming sat-nav system, Galileo.
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Message 922461 - Posted: 30 Jul 2009, 16:42:47 UTC

Nasa defends its spaceflight plan



Engineers developing Nasa's new rockets have denied that the agency's human spaceflight plans are too expensive, too risky and subject to long delays.

The US space agency has already spent four years developing its next-generation rockets, called Ares.

The engineers defended their work before a presidential panel tasked with reviewing Nasa's plans beyond 2010, when the shuttle is due to be retired.

They said Ares was the safest, fastest way to get Americans back into space.

Critics have asked questions about the technical scope of the next-generation human spaceflight programme, known as Constellation, and Nasa's ability to manage its cost.

Some have called for the Ares launchers to be scrapped in favour of adapting existing rockets.

"We have done what we said we would do and we are well on the way to our first test flight," said Steve Cook, head of the Ares project office at Nasa's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Speaking during a public hearing, Mr Cook dismissed suggestions by some that the space agency was on a flawed path with Ares.

"There have been several outside reviews since we began," he explained.

Other officials told the panel they were working to solve technical challenges with the new system, including a slim possibility that powerful energy waves created during a launch could injure astronauts or make it impossible for them to perform basic tasks.

Norman Augustine, chair of the review committee and former chief executive of aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, said members would offer broad options to President Obama.

Those could range from continuing to fly the space shuttle to moving forward with the Constellation programme without any changes, he said.

"We will not be in the tweaking business," Mr Augustine said during a news conference.

Under a $35bn (£21bn; 24bn euros) plan put in place under former President George W Bush, Nasa is working to retire the shuttle fleet by the end of 2010 and to fly its new Ares-Orion system by 2015.

President Obama appointed the Augustine committee in May to gather information from space agency officials, scientists, the aerospace industry and from Congress about the best future course for US manned space flight.

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Message 922593 - Posted: 31 Jul 2009, 4:46:25 UTC

Endeavour shuttle ready to land

The space shuttle Endeavour is set to return to Earth after a 16-day mission to the International Space Station.

The first attempt to touch down is scheduled for 1547 BST (1047 EDT) at Nasa's Kennedy Space Center.

The weather forecast is favourable for a landing in Florida, although a slight chance of rain is possible, Nasa said.

Endeavour blasted off on 15 July with its crew of seven astronauts after weather concerns scuppered five launch attempts.

Their arrival at the ISS raised the number of crew on the orbiting outpost to 13 - a record for the space station.

The station, now about the size of a four-bedroom house, has been under construction for more than a decade.

Endeavour's crew delivered and installed fresh batteries, large spare parts and a "porch" for Japan's Kibo science laboratory. This addition to the onboard lab is designed to hold outdoor experiments.

Five spacewalks were undertaken during the course of the mission.

Crew members also shared some unexpected inconveniences, most notably a flooded toilet aboard the space station.

Endeavour will bring home Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who has spent 138 days in space and has been a member of three separate space station crews.

US astronaut Tim Kopra launched aboard Endeavour and will remain on the station.

Discovery will be next to fly to the ISS; its launch is scheduled for 18 August at 0925 BST (0425 EDT).
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Message 922596 - Posted: 31 Jul 2009, 4:58:27 UTC

Panel Wants Deep Space, Not Landings as U.S. Goal

A panel examining the future of the United States’ human spaceflight program will suggest that the Obama administration may want to skip the part about landing on other worlds.

That could, panel members said Thursday, enable the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to send astronauts to more corners of the solar system more quickly while keeping within a limited budget. But it would also eliminate the possibility of astronauts leaving new iconic footprints on the Moon or Mars for a couple of decades.

At a public meeting in Cocoa Beach, Fla., the 10-member panel discussed at length the possibilities of where NASA might go next and how it might get there.

As the panel discussed NASA’s future, NASA’s present — the space shuttle Endeavour and its seven astronauts — prepared to return on Friday to complete a successful 16-day mission. During five spacewalks, astronauts installed the final pieces of a Japanese laboratory and replaced batteries on a solar wing.

Since the end of the Apollo Moon landings more than three decades ago, NASA, with the space shuttles and now the International Space Station, has toiled in Earth orbit a few hundred miles off the ground.

A subcommittee of the panel studied several possibilities, including NASA’s current program to send astronauts back to the Moon by 2020, a more ambitious plan to skip the Moon and aim directly for Mars and what the members called the “flexible path,” which would avoid the “deep gravity wells” of the Moon and Mars, saving the time and cost of developing landers to carry astronauts to the surfaces of those bodies.

Edward F. Crawley, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who headed the subcommittee, said, “The flexible path essentially goes across stepping stones” of progressively longer, more challenging missions by which NASA would learn how to operate long missions in deep space.

A flyby of the moon might be followed by more distant trips to so-called Lagrange points, first to the location where the gravity of the Moon and the Earth gravity cancel each other out, then to where the gravity of the Earth and Sun cancel out. There could also be visits to asteroids or flybys of Mars leading to landings on one or both of the low-gravity moons of Deimos and Phobos.

This approach, Dr. Crawley said, would provide “the most steady cadence of steady improvement.”

That approach could also improve the capability of robotic explorers on Mars. Instructions from controllers on Earth now take several minutes to reach craft on Mars. But astronauts on a Martian moon could operate robots on the planet in real time.

The subcommittee also recommended that NASA establish fueling depots in space. “You can now do much larger missions with the same size booster” by launching an empty spacecraft and fueling it in orbit, said Jeff Greason, chief executive of XCOR Aerospace and a panel member. “It really is a game changer.”

That may even make unnecessary the powerful Ares V rocket now in the planning.

When President George W. Bush proposed his “vision for space exploration” in 2004, the program was to receive $108 billion for 2006 to 2020. But Mr. Bush never asked for such financing, and Congress never added money. The financing is now projected at $81.5 billion. If widespread sentiment for extending the life of the International Space Station by five years to 2020 is heeded, the station would consume $10 billion to $14 billion.

“In fact, it is unclear whether NASA has the financing for any scenarios that do anything important beyond low-Earth orbit prior to 2020,” said Christopher F. Chyba, a Princeton professor of astrophysics and a panel member. “If we really want to do this, we have to provide a realistic budget for it. Otherwise, let’s be clear about the limits placed on us by the actual budget.”

The panel, headed by Norman Augustine, a former chief executive of Lockheed Martin, will hold two public meetings in Washington next month and will present its final options to the White House by the end of August.
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Message 922599 - Posted: 31 Jul 2009, 5:08:35 UTC - in response to Message 922596.  

Well I for one hope the US does go back to the Moon and then on to Mars, Congress be dammed If We don't. Damn cheapskates hate new technology, Apollo gave US all what We have today, Think of what going to the Moon(and land and making a base there) and then to a Mars Landing will do, It will push our technology envelope out farther, Just like Apollo did. Congress don't be stingy or shortsighted, NASA is important to the Worlds future.
The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's
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Message 922680 - Posted: 31 Jul 2009, 16:03:38 UTC

Firefox passes billion milestone



The open-source browser Firefox passed its billionth download on Friday, ahead of the release of its fourth iteration.
The milestone includes downloads of all versions of the web software since its first release in 2004.
Figures suggest that Firefox now has nearly one third of the browser market worldwide, at 31%.
Microsoft's Internet Explorer still dominates the field with around 60%, whilst Google's Chrome, Apple's Safari and Opera are all less than 5%.
Microsoft is currently in talks with the European competition regulators, which ruled in January that pre-bundling Internet Explorer with the company's Windows operating system hurt competition.
The firm recently made a proposal that would offer European buyers of its new Windows 7 operating system a list of potential browsers when they first install the software.
Regulators in Brussels said they "welcomed" the proposal but have yet to make a decision.
Firefox would be among the browsers on offer.

Record run
The browser, developed by the Mozilla Foundation, has quickly become a favourite with web surfers since its launch in 2004.
Last year, the foundation set a new Guinness world record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours when the third version of Firefox was downloaded more than eight million times.
The billionth download figure includes all versions of Firefox released since 2004 and includes single users downloading multiple copies for different computers.
In addition, the figure includes anyone manually updating their software to the latest version, rather than waiting for the automatic download.
Automatic updates are not included in the total.
The total number of downloads can be tracked on the Mozilla website. The foundation plans to launch a new website, OneBillionPlusYou.com, to celebrate the milestone.
Mozilla developers are currently working on the fourth iteration of the software.
Earlier this week, it showed off screenshots of the next version of the browser, Firefox 4.0.
The images showed a browser with a similar look to Google's Chrome software.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein
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