After flexible displays, it is now flexible touch-screen displays. Only drawback I see is that they use a inductive screen for touch sensitivity -- thus requires a special magnetic stylus to make it work (but probably a fair restriction on a flexible display, after all a flexible screen might get in contact with so many unintentional objects). Just a proof of concept but a big step forward!!
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
An interesting human interface
This video from TED shows David Merill demonstrating his invention of a new form of human interface to computers. Interesting!!
The video says the rest
The video says the rest
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Unix time approaching a special value on a special day
Unix time or POSIX time is the representation of time as the number of seconds elapsed since January 1, 1970 00:00:00 UTC. Even though it is derived from UNIX, it is widely used across all the platforms including Windows.
Unix time reaches the value of 1234567890 on this "Valentine's day" (at 2009-02-14 00:01:00 UTC) -- A special value on a special day :)
On a side note, the unix time had earlier reached 1,000,000,000 on 2001-09-09 01:46:40 UTC and will overflow the 32-bit boundary (actually 31-bit + 1 signed bit) in 2038-01-19 around 03:14:07 UTC. This overflow is expected to cause many software that do not handle this overflow, to fail in the year 2038 -- the Y2K38 problem.
Unix time reaches the value of 1234567890 on this "Valentine's day" (at 2009-02-14 00:01:00 UTC) -- A special value on a special day :)
On a side note, the unix time had earlier reached 1,000,000,000 on 2001-09-09 01:46:40 UTC and will overflow the 32-bit boundary (actually 31-bit + 1 signed bit) in 2038-01-19 around 03:14:07 UTC. This overflow is expected to cause many software that do not handle this overflow, to fail in the year 2038 -- the Y2K38 problem.
Sunday, February 01, 2009
MP5 player -- what is it?
On the other day, I was surprised to see some items in ebay named 'MP5 players'. Just like anyone else would, I really thought it would play MP5 format -- I was also feeling bad that I had no idea about the all new MP5 format. So did some search to find out what's new in MP5 than MP4 and here it is.
There is no such encoding standard as MP5. But Chinese players are available which claim to be a player for an encoding (MP5) that does not exist -- it seems that the only reasoning behind this is ignorance. Had they understood MP3 and MP4, maybe they would have named this better. There is no clear explanation as to why this was named MP5 except for that fact that they wanted to convey that these new players are better than the older MP4 players and the name should be easy to remember and should convey the meaning by itself.
The new so-called MP5 players play a wide variety of formats specially video, including MP4, MPEG, AVI, RMVB, FLV, WMV etc., Some webpage claimed that RMVB (RealMedia Variable Bit-rate) encoding is the so-called MP5 -- but I don't think so.
To keep this Chinese nomenclature simple, MP3 players play audio files, MP4 players play audio and video files, MP5 players play audio and more video files. I've personally seen MP4 players that can play some video but not even MP4 -- so forget about what it means to be an MP5 player. The best way to analyze the players is probably by going through the formats supported (if at all you believe the list is correct), because not all MP5 players are same except for the fact that they can't play MP5.
There is no such encoding standard as MP5. But Chinese players are available which claim to be a player for an encoding (MP5) that does not exist -- it seems that the only reasoning behind this is ignorance. Had they understood MP3 and MP4, maybe they would have named this better. There is no clear explanation as to why this was named MP5 except for that fact that they wanted to convey that these new players are better than the older MP4 players and the name should be easy to remember and should convey the meaning by itself.
The new so-called MP5 players play a wide variety of formats specially video, including MP4, MPEG, AVI, RMVB, FLV, WMV etc., Some webpage claimed that RMVB (RealMedia Variable Bit-rate) encoding is the so-called MP5 -- but I don't think so.
To keep this Chinese nomenclature simple, MP3 players play audio files, MP4 players play audio and video files, MP5 players play audio and more video files. I've personally seen MP4 players that can play some video but not even MP4 -- so forget about what it means to be an MP5 player. The best way to analyze the players is probably by going through the formats supported (if at all you believe the list is correct), because not all MP5 players are same except for the fact that they can't play MP5.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Solar storm -- a worst-case analysis
=== this is not completely my own info/analysis. this includes info from various articles I read on this topic. ===
In simple terms, a solar storm releases huge amount of energy in terms of electro magnetic radiations of all wavelengths into space. This outburst is not a rare phenomenon. The earth's magnetic field apparently acts as a shield to the earth in deflecting a considerable amount of energy away from the earth -- thus keeping us safe in most cases. This is one of the reasons why a solar storm is not such a feared threat.
However, there are times when the solar storm reaches its maximum intensity. It seems that we are not completely safe against such intense storms. So how does it affect us? The intense EM (electro-magnetic) waves will have a huge impact on our ionosphere -- thus affecting all the communication methodologies that we use. This issue to me is not that catastrophic (actually it is, but when compared to the next issue) if the attack was known ahead. When imagining a world without communication during the period of the storm is seeming awful, would you be able to survive in a world without electricity for months/years?? huh!! but that's the next issue.
It is feared that the intense EM waves/field will have huge interference with the power-grids and blow them up. Be it anywhere in the world, high-voltage step-down transformers are inevitable in delivering the electricity to the household (Theorum studied in school: The lesser the current transmitted, the lesser the loss in energy -- so a high voltage is essential). The EM interference might blow up the heavy duty transformers across the globe. And if that happens, even after the solar storm ceases, there is no way to deliver electricity to the home until the transformers are replaced. It is not just the question of replacing the transformers but it is also about manufacturing those many (millions?) transformers across the globe. That's going to take realll time. And till then there is no electricity!!! OMG!! It seems the only way out of this is to shutdown the distribution of electricity (in effect the transformers) during the solar storm. But a planned total blackout is not a simple task nevertheless. Maybe better than the counterpart?
From what I read, a previous solar maximum occured in 1958 when there was not a big impact on the human race. Today that's not the case. This isn't a fictional possibility, but might become a reality. The next solar maximum is expected to occur around 2010-2011, so buckle up!
Along with the LHC experiment "seeming" unsafe now after the claimed discovery of a huge flaw in their safety assurance theory, I think it is better to enjoy the time we've :) the doomsday does not seem far ahead.
In simple terms, a solar storm releases huge amount of energy in terms of electro magnetic radiations of all wavelengths into space. This outburst is not a rare phenomenon. The earth's magnetic field apparently acts as a shield to the earth in deflecting a considerable amount of energy away from the earth -- thus keeping us safe in most cases. This is one of the reasons why a solar storm is not such a feared threat.
However, there are times when the solar storm reaches its maximum intensity. It seems that we are not completely safe against such intense storms. So how does it affect us? The intense EM (electro-magnetic) waves will have a huge impact on our ionosphere -- thus affecting all the communication methodologies that we use. This issue to me is not that catastrophic (actually it is, but when compared to the next issue) if the attack was known ahead. When imagining a world without communication during the period of the storm is seeming awful, would you be able to survive in a world without electricity for months/years?? huh!! but that's the next issue.
It is feared that the intense EM waves/field will have huge interference with the power-grids and blow them up. Be it anywhere in the world, high-voltage step-down transformers are inevitable in delivering the electricity to the household (Theorum studied in school: The lesser the current transmitted, the lesser the loss in energy -- so a high voltage is essential). The EM interference might blow up the heavy duty transformers across the globe. And if that happens, even after the solar storm ceases, there is no way to deliver electricity to the home until the transformers are replaced. It is not just the question of replacing the transformers but it is also about manufacturing those many (millions?) transformers across the globe. That's going to take realll time. And till then there is no electricity!!! OMG!! It seems the only way out of this is to shutdown the distribution of electricity (in effect the transformers) during the solar storm. But a planned total blackout is not a simple task nevertheless. Maybe better than the counterpart?
From what I read, a previous solar maximum occured in 1958 when there was not a big impact on the human race. Today that's not the case. This isn't a fictional possibility, but might become a reality. The next solar maximum is expected to occur around 2010-2011, so buckle up!
Along with the LHC experiment "seeming" unsafe now after the claimed discovery of a huge flaw in their safety assurance theory, I think it is better to enjoy the time we've :) the doomsday does not seem far ahead.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
New year 2009 delayed by a second
Due to the changes in the speed of earth's rotation and revolution, slight irregular adjustments to our time are inevitable. The International Earth Rotation and reference Systems service (IERS) had earlier declared to introduce one leap second at the end of the year 2008 (UTC). This ineffect delays the new year by a second.
So, 31 Dec 2008 23:59:60 UTC is a valid time.
Before someone jumps on me, hold on, according to IERS the leap second is added at the end of the year "UTC". So for people behind or in UTC, the current year is longer by a second and for people ahead of UTC the new year is longer by a second.
For us in India, the new second would get added as 1st Jan 2009 05:29:60 IST.
Enjoy! you've got an additional second to live! :)
So, 31 Dec 2008 23:59:60 UTC is a valid time.
Before someone jumps on me, hold on, according to IERS the leap second is added at the end of the year "UTC". So for people behind or in UTC, the current year is longer by a second and for people ahead of UTC the new year is longer by a second.
For us in India, the new second would get added as 1st Jan 2009 05:29:60 IST.
Enjoy! you've got an additional second to live! :)
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Technology at its heights!!
Police in Finland seem to have cracked a car-theft case and tracked down the thief based on a DNA sample taken from a mosquito in the stolen car -- which allegedly has bitten the thief :)
This is heights! deserves kudos!
More info here.
This is heights! deserves kudos!
More info here.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Google native x86 client
Web-browsing taken to the next level -- maybe next-to-the-next level.
While on one side, people are struggling to make javascript engines faster and faster for future web applications (be it chrome's V8 or firefox's tracemonkey), this is an extreme leap on the performance. I've not read about the architecture on native-client so I'm not able to even guess the complications that would arise on the security front. But I believe the concept is more complicated because it is on a "browser".
More info here
The webpage shows a browser running Quake "natively". Not sure about the fps they achieved -- but it seems conceptually it is working. And it is open-source. This is a research project yet.
While on one side, people are struggling to make javascript engines faster and faster for future web applications (be it chrome's V8 or firefox's tracemonkey), this is an extreme leap on the performance. I've not read about the architecture on native-client so I'm not able to even guess the complications that would arise on the security front. But I believe the concept is more complicated because it is on a "browser".
More info here
The webpage shows a browser running Quake "natively". Not sure about the fps they achieved -- but it seems conceptually it is working. And it is open-source. This is a research project yet.
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