Tech: June 2004 Archives
Apprently NASA did some research and came up with a new antenna design. I honestly cant say i understadn the technology behind it, but its based on some sort of Algorithm:
Using a coevolutionary algorithm, we optimized the design parameters for a quadrifilar helical antenna by encoding various parameters that control the shape and size of the antenna into a linear representation.
all this with the top 3 benefits of, 1. Less power comsumption, 2. doesn't require a matching network (not sure what this means...), 3. Has a more uniformed coverage. Not to mention its easier to design, and has taken the idea of being used near building, which current day antenna tech. inst really designed for, building obstacles.
Well Sprint annouces that they will be making a move to the EV-DO tech, the true speed of 3G cell technology at the end of this year in selected markets. This will mean up to speeds of 2.4 Mbps, with an average download speeds of 300-500 Kbps, and an upload speed of 144 kbps.
So this article spectulate the use of the Treo series in Sprints advertisements. And questions the current cool deal of $10 unlimited internet use.
Apprently the fear of our satellite communication network going down in the event of nuclear happening in space. We need to sheild our satellites. Apprently this can be done now days. But since our communication network is baed on old a$$ satellites, we have to figure out a way to protect the old ones. Like saving all the old folks incase of a fire. So Darpa and NASA came up with this:
One idea is to use '"electrodynamic-static space tethers' that would remove highly charged radiation particles." And no, as Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up.
"The tethers would be carried by satellites in low Earth orbit and cut across magnetic field lines, inducing electromagnetic current that would dilute the nuclear radiation and push it away from satellites, a government official said.
All i can say is, have we seen The Day after Tomorrow or that "great" movie The Core? Werent all these catastrophies the result of some science experiment with the magnetic fields?? Well good to know that we are actually doing this stuff, and not just another case of Hollywood lying to us about Tech.
Well Japan is at it again. In the future wave of storage mediums, NTT has created the newest storage medium, the Info-MICAs. The current design model is about the size of a postage stamp and hodls 1 gig of info. How does this work? this is what i got. Apprently they encode holograms of patterns onto layers of thin-film. And it is a stack in layers. The benefit being, 1. no high-powered laser and spinning, 2. low power consumption, 3. Large data storage for cheap. 4. u can duplicate the content easily. and 5. u cannot copy it from home. This is the dream of RIAA i think, specially since they r trying everything to sue u.
So this thing can be produced for the cost of making CDs. Obivously this sint flash ROM< it isnt writeable so it wont replace SD of CF cards. So the concept is that it might replace CDs and DVDs one day, as it is working its way up to 10 Gb.
The good thing is this is close to what the Sci-Fi films always refer to as a data-cube. Data can be stored in massive layers of some sort of cyrstal (thin-film). And it can be read with a relatively low powered light that doesnt need to be "always-on" like CDs.
Supposely This is been in the news for awhile. Thse new methnol based fuel cells that can power devices up to 5 times more then... (i'm not sure what they were comparing to. I assume the mean the current Li-on cells). But anything to increase the playing time of my iPod is good news. I guess we just have to wait for the iPod 4 (fake photo of one
the new phrase from the Sony Interaction Laboratory that basically evolves the cut and paste concept to between devices via wirelss technology. Imagine sharing data accross from ur PDA to ur collegue's laptop, or to a projector.
They've done it.
Sarcos Acompany who builds robots for US Defense dept. has built this robotic exo-suit that helps its wearer to carry things. Supposely this can help soilders carry heavy equipment, and even help the wounded of the battlefield. Of course they didnt mention the heavier weapons that a single soilder can now carry, or how it one day may assist in the jump combat of hard-suits or Power-suit enhnaced martial art combat. But i'm quite sure that stuff will come later when the japanese adds their flavoring to the robotic exo-skeleton. So far they only mention it is going to get lighter and stronger. These guys also make cybernetic limbs... |
So big news on the DVD front. The Register has an article about the approval of DualDisks format calling it the HD DVD. This format will hold about 15G or 30G dula layer. Also stuff about what compressions to use for Audio and Video. Thought it seems that Microsoft got a foot in the video comrpessing door and sloted in their compression. (Article here from Cnet.)
But of course this has nothing to do with the Blu-ray technology of Sony. My question is why not?
Blu-ray article form Cnet.
Blu-ray Deck news from the Register.
