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- The Car as your Friend
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zogger Sat, 17 May 2008 21:14:31 PDT
- A lot of new cars have some amount of voice activated gadgets connected with them, the GPS navigation and the cellphone system, and perhaps the tunes player. But what if the car really acted like another passenger riding shotgun with you, would it help or hurt? And what are the implications of all the data that advanced computer equipped and partially controlled cars collect, once it gets into the hands of the insurance company, the government, and advertisers?
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- Computer Cooling and Solar Photovoltaics
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zogger Sat, 17 May 2008 20:31:17 PDT
- IBM has taken a trick they developed for cooling hot chips and applied it to another silicon product, solar cells. By using their "liquid metal cooling interface" technique, they were able to run solar cells behind concentrator lenses at extremely high temperatures.
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- Using Less Chemicals on Cropland
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zogger Sat, 17 May 2008 19:52:07 PDT
- New research is showing that altering crop rotational cycles to include more species can reduce the demand for chemical herbicides and fertilizers. They can still get good yield and also improve water quality by not having as much runoff waste.
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- US to Stop Filling Strategic Petroleum Reserve
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zogger Sat, 17 May 2008 16:45:29 PDT
- The US Department of Energy announced they will not sign contracts to continue filling the long term strategic petroleum reserve this year, meaning no more new oil to go into it. This follows congressional action to try and force the market to drop prices a little by easing up demand. Analysts say it might help with a few cents on the gallon.
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- Can Microsoft Survive the Internet?
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zogger Sat, 17 May 2008 15:44:49 PDT
- Dominant on the desktop and risen to the world leader..sure..but can Microsoft beat off and conquer the internet, the paradigm shift that overtook stand alone personal pcs when they were growing and becoming leaders?
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- When We Are All Felons
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Uncle Entity Sat, 17 May 2008 15:05:49 PDT
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Federal prosecutors are bringing felony charges against an adult woman who signed up for a MySpace account under a false name in order to harass and torment a teenage girl, who later committed suicide, based on violating the terms of service of the website after they couldn't find a crime to charge the woman under.
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- Toyota Breaks One Million Mark with Prius Sales
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zogger Fri, 16 May 2008 18:46:26 PDT
- According to their own figures, Toyota took a bit more than ten years from first release to passing the one million mark with Priuses sold, in 40 different nations. The push is on now hard, all the majors and a lot of startups are coming out with hybrids, plug in hybrids, and all electrics.
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- ARRL proposes "fifth pillar" of amateur radio
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David Moisan Fri, 16 May 2008 17:39:03 PDT
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The ARRL will proclaim tomorrow at Dayton that "technology" be one of the "five pillars of Amateur Radio", along with public service, advocacy, education and membership.
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- Visualizing What is About to Happen
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zogger Fri, 16 May 2008 17:20:16 PDT
- Researchers think they can now explain exactly what various optical illusions work. They theorize it is because the brain has evolved to do a slight fast forward projection on things we are seeing, it anticipates what should be there well before, by a tenth of a second, it could possibly arrive via the speed of the visual cortex. Basically it is a compensation for lag time.
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- Relief Efforts Switch Gears in China
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zogger Fri, 16 May 2008 13:51:20 PDT
- China has switched from primarily slow and careful rescue efforts to now moving big quantities of rubble with heavy equipment in an effort to locate bodies and remove them to prevent diseases outbreaks. In addition they are both receiving and soliciting outside help and aid, the first time they have done that since the nation was established in 1949 following their long running civil war.
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- Japan Releases Surplus -- Rice Prices Drop
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zogger Fri, 16 May 2008 13:23:59 PDT
- Japan has been stockpiling huge quantities of rice that they bought from the US, but have been prevented from re-exporting by prior agreement. They have apparently received permission or will shortly from the US to sell off their extra which has resulted in an easing of global prices in the markets today. In addition Pakistan is also set to resume exporting.
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- Photovoltaics follow Moore's Law
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David Leppik Fri, 16 May 2008 08:57:25 PDT
- The price per watt of a photovoltaic module has been decreasing at a remarkably steady 6% a year for the last 25 years-- despite wavering levels of R&D.
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- US Senates Votes Disapproval of Media Consolidation
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zogger Fri, 16 May 2008 07:08:40 PDT
- The Senate has passed a "Resolution of Disapproval" regarding an FCC decision to allow more media consolidation in key markets The disapproval measure was introduced and lead by Senator Dorgan. This isn't binding yet but is a clear indicator they think the FCC has gone too far in appeasing the large media conglomerates. The House is working on similar, and even if it passes it will be most likely vetoed by the executive, this go around anyway. Both Senators Clinton and Obama were cosponsors of the resolution, and there are some big Rs on the list there as well, like Stevens and Inouye.
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- Medical X-Prizes
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zogger Thu, 15 May 2008 21:10:20 PDT
- MIT student researchers are working in collaboration with the X-Prize Foundation in working out the details for medical X-prizes. One of the first efforts could go towards developing a cheaper and faster way to both detect tuberculosis infections and treat them.
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- An Alternative for Membranes in Water Purification
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zogger Thu, 15 May 2008 19:53:40 PDT
- PARC researchers have developed an alternative for purifying water that uses less energy than reverse osmosis membrane systems. This new method involves pumping the water in a spiral tube connector, with small branches that lead off. Particles of contaminate being larger than water molecules tend to be forced to the outside walls of the tubing, where they can be diverted away.
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- Yahoo! Prepares to Repel all Boarders
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zogger Thu, 15 May 2008 18:21:35 PDT
- Corporate takeover king Carl Icahn, along with some other major shareholders, has launched a campaign to replace the entire board at Yahoo, so that he can renegotiate with Microsoft on a sale. Late in the day Yahoo has responded to him saying they can run their company just fine and they don't need his other hand picked team.
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- Verizon Moving to LiMo Linux Platform
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zogger Thu, 15 May 2008 17:13:40 PDT
- Verizon has joined the Linux Mobile organization, and they say they will start using the LiMo platform on a few simple devices and work their way on up.
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- Carbon Trade at One Million Tons--Profit
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zogger Thu, 15 May 2008 13:30:30 PDT
- The European Climate Exchange has surpassed one million tons in traded carbon credits in one day. Who says pollution can't be profitable?
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- Help Develop Super Rice
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zogger Wed, 14 May 2008 21:18:03 PDT
- Here is another option for your spare computer cycles, the Nutritious Rice for the World project, part of the World Community Grid.
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- Real Bugs in the Machine
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zogger Wed, 14 May 2008 21:02:50 PDT
- An invasive species of ants is hatching out all over the Houston, Texas area and invading electronic devices, among other places. The ants are fast, tend to explore randomly, and once established are fairly immune to most eradication techniques. Voracious and omnivorous eaters, they can actually eat another invasive pest, the fire ant, but also consume a variety of other insects and plant juices.
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- Ex Fed Chairman Volcker Warns on Economy
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zogger Wed, 14 May 2008 18:33:33 PDT
- Among other speakers at a Congressional committee hearing today, ex-Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker warned about the economy, saying there was a real threat of loss of confidence in the dollar and that actions taken to try and stem investment bank failures could lead to rampant inflation. He also commented on the ignoring of food and energy prices when figuring inflation rates.
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- Rare US Coins Found at Shipwreck Site
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zogger Wed, 14 May 2008 17:24:12 PDT
- Sport divers working old wrecks in the US Gulf of Mexico in relatively shallow water found an old coastal paddle wheeler that sank in the 1800s carrying a hoard of the first US minted gold coins along with other bounty. Appraisers think some of the coins, the ones in the best condition, might be worth as much as $100,000 a piece.
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- Proposal Draft: New Voice Codecs for Amateur Radio
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Bruce Perens Wed, 14 May 2008 17:09:12 PDT
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Two years ago, techocrat user Wowbagger wrote D*STAR, Is Anyone Else Worried? That article focused on the fact that the trade-secret, patented, copyrighted nature of the AMBE voice codec used in the D*STAR digital voice radios sold by ICOM doesn't really fit the spirit of Amateur Radio.
Last year, I included discussion of that in my keynote at the TAPR/ARRL Digital Communications Conference. The president of AMSAT asked me to repeat the discussion at their conference in November, and to keep working on the problem.
Here's my first proposal draft for doing something about it. Please comment. If you're going to Hamvention, I'll be there to discuss it with you. - Bruce
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- A Murder of Crow
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Thomas Lord Wed, 14 May 2008 10:18:13 PDT
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Looking out the window this morning, I saw an abundance of flies. They're a constant annoyance but this was a remarkable display of so many, so excited. I wondered why.
Wandering out, I found the yard absolutely strewn with crow feathers. Some poor bird got picked clean. The carcass is nowhere in sight -- hopefully it get et up.
No topic post would be complete without a link to some neat science. Without further ado, a recently posted Ted video considers the relationship between crow and man.
Spoilers below the fold for those who can't or don't want to watch the video. And some reflections on the one that died here last night (and my role in the crime).
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- Water Rationing for California East Bay Area
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zogger Wed, 14 May 2008 07:00:17 PDT
- Residents and businesses in the San Francisco East Bay area are being required to restrict water use because of the ongoing supply crisis. Some residents of the area who have already dramatically dropped use will be hard hit, because the restrictions are gauged on past use.
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- Using Cellphone Technology to Help Facilitate Remote Medical Imaging
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zogger Tue, 13 May 2008 21:36:25 PDT
- A new paper is outlining a concept of using mostly off the shelf hardware combined together to make it possible to have cheaper and faster modern imaging type technology to be used in remote and developing world areas. The system uses a cellphone, a simplified Data Acquisition Device, then a remote server and imaging reconstruction computer.
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- Statistics and the Economy
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zogger Tue, 13 May 2008 19:00:54 PDT
- The government issues many reports and indices pertaining to the economy like the Consumer Price Index and Unemployment figures and the rates of inflation..but how exactly do they arrive at these figures and are they a true representation of what people are experiencing? Critics on the street at the checkout counter and economic analysts are starting to cry foul over these numbers, saying they are designed and tweaked to reflect what they would like, rather than what "is", so that governmental programs that depend on those numbers can save money.
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- Pirates of the English Channel
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Uncle Entity Tue, 13 May 2008 17:24:51 PDT
- The UK communication regulator's (Ofcom) plans to hunt down and silence pirate radio stations has been uncovered by The Register through Freedom of Information Act requests. Previous attempts that involved issuing licenses to the stations has only resulted in the 'mainstreaming' of the stations as the former pirates sold the licenses to 'large commercial radio groups' and lead to more pirate stations popping up to fill the void Ofcom claims.
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- Billion Trees Project Reaches Double Their Goal
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zogger Tue, 13 May 2008 17:08:28 PDT
- The United Nations Billion Trees Campaign has far surpassed their original goal, with recently passing the two billion mark. Noting the effectiveness and enthusiasm for the project, they are expanding it to seven billion trees, more than one per person on the planet, before a big climate conference in 2009.
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- Alternative To Silicon Chip Invented By Student
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Uncle Entity Tue, 13 May 2008 16:50:51 PDT
- ScienceDaily (2008-05-13) -- Even before Weixiao Huang received his doctorate, his new transistor captured the attention of some of the biggest American and Japanese automobile companies. The 2008 graduate's invention could replace one of the most common pieces of technology in the world -- the silicon transistor for high-power and high-temperature electronics.
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