Defensive Airborne Laser Lacks “Phaser Lock”

Who among us hasn’t hoped for a day when airborne laser cannons could be in place to easily eliminate any nuclear or similar threat with a quick zap?  Ok, maybe not the folks who didn't grow up on Star Trek.  

 Short of having the Enterprise sitting in orbit to take out such threats, we would have cast our hopes on the new Missile Defense Agency’s Airborne Laser Test Bed (ALTB).

Housed in the nose of a Boeing 747, the powerful beam failed its September first test to shoot down a dummy ICBM from 100 miles.  Unfortunately, although the beam struck the missile on target, it cut out shy of actually disabling the dud warhead.

This test doesn’t bode well for the new weapon, and after spending $146 million this year alone, it’s uncertain what the future will be.

Via Wired (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/09/missile-beats-flying-lightsaber-in-crucial-test/?utm_source=co2hog)

Preserving your data

I have a 100 year old copy of Dracula that is just as easy to read as the day it was printed.  I don’t think Isaac Asimov’s, Harry Seldon (Foundation) could have foreseen the massive need for data storage required in modern industry. 

Do you have important historical data stored on Floppy disks?  3.5 inch? 5 inch? 8 inch???  How about an aging stack of punch cards…in EBCDIC format (Precursor to ASCII)?  If you think you may be hard pressed to find something that can read them now, imagine how hard it might be ten or twenty years from now.  (Has anyone seen my 8-track player?)

Legal requirements for information can often have companies digging through yellowing, moldy paper documentation.  That’s why the topic of long-term digital data preservation was discussed at the Storage Networking Industry Association’s “Storage Developers Conference” in Silicon Valley.  The companies that attended were polled and 68 percent said they would need to maintain data for 100 years or longer. 

This conference brought about the invention of SIRF (Self-contained Information Retention Format) which is now designed to be a new standard for data archives. 

No information is available yet on the details of the SIRF format or what it looks like.

Via ZDnet

One Pedal to Rule Them All

Japanese inventor Masuyuki Naruse says that putting the accelerator and brake in the same “unified pedal” could reduce accidents.  The inventor states that having the two pedals just a few inches apart is a design flaw (probably because there was once a clutch there). 

The way the new pedal works is fairly simple.  A nudge to the right on the pedal causes the vehicle to accelerate while pressing down is always the brake.  I wonder how fast the testers of this system go through brake pads.

It may prove to be better design. But, like the “Qwerty” keyboard (which is designed to actually slow down the typist), how many drivers would be willing to re-learn a years-trained reflex.  Even if it turned out to be, statistically, much safer, would you take the option on your next car?

Via PopSci (http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2010-08/single-pedal-braking-and-acceleration-could-prevent-accidents)

Wind Turbine Generates Electricity in the Lightest Breeze

A conventional wind turbine needs to turn a series of gears in order to spin the turbine fast enough to make electricity.  As a result, you need a fairly strong wind to turn the blades.  The folks at Windtronics have developed an Ingenious Wind Turbine design that has no gears.  The blades spin free so it can create electricity in the lightest breeze.

At the heart of any turbine generator is simply a series of magnets that spin inside a copper coil.  The Windtronics design puts the magnets of the turbine on the actual blades and then wraps a ring with the coil around the outside of the blades.  

The result is a fairly inexpensive (about $5000 US) consumer wind turbine that can be used in areas with far less wind.  Another bonus is that, since it needs much less torque to spin, it can be mounted directly on to many houses.

Via Windtronics (http://www.windtronics.com)

The Next Evolutionary Step in Computer Platform?

The modern smartphone has more computing power and capacity than computers we used only a few years ago.  So why isn’t your Blackberry or iPhone your primary computer?  There are a few reasons, the first is a mindset.  Many see these devices and their compact size and place them in the category of, “fancy phones with email.”  The second (and the biggest) reason is their small size.   While diminutive stature makes them great for taking everywhere, a thumb keyboard and 2-4 inch screen makes them a bad choice to work on large documents or to give presentations.

To try and emulate the functionality of a single computing platform, we sync data between devices. While this works for many applications, it adds time, extra steps and loss of data (in some cases) between mobile and desktop document formats.  It also begs the question of, why we are spending time synchronizing (even over the air) our new 32+ GB smartphones the same way we did with our 16mb Palm Pilots.  Many business users can easily fit their past few year’s worth of documents into a few Gigabytes of space.   

Not to dismiss devices like the iPad, because it’s truly a half way point, most people don’t strap an iPad to their belt every morning like they do their smartphone. 

The statistics show the popularity of the smartphone platform.  A survey conducted by IBM in October 2008 of Internet users in the US, UK and China found that over 50% of all users preferred surfing the web on their smartphone over their desktop PC.  In May 2008 cellular provider Verizon Wireless got a big boost in mobility and operating efficiency by replacing the eight pound laptops of 2,250 of their field technicians with five ounce Blackberry devices.

Devices like the Redfly Mobile Companion by Celio, the Celluon Laser Key, micro sized projectors and the Impatica Showmate can now give you a larger interface to your mobile device.  Are they are the precursors for heralding in the next generation of the computing platform?