They say it's dead, but you can still download a free, fully functional 32-bit version of XP encased in a virtual machine (Windows Virtual PC) from Microsoft's web site!
It's called "Windows XP Mode."
All of the incredible theories being floated, such as cyber-attacks and "electromagnetic attacks," whatever they are (EMP? not likely) are far less likely than key grid components being mismanaged or sabotaged. It's far easier to sneak into a facility and trip some breakers or drain transformer oil than to mount a concerted cyber-attack, which requires extensive research into, or knowledge of, the grid's network and physical infrastructure.
The most disturbing photo in the article, though it appears to be at a distribution sub and therefore affects a small area, is the one of burned-out transformers, one of which is missing a couple of its radiators. Even if the fire was external, if the inside was compromised it will be costly to fix and the device may even require replacement. Transformers are one of the most difficult things to repair/replace in an electrical system - most are not made until they are ordered so power could be out for months. And one that gets contaminated internally could "blow up" due to dielectric failure if not properly reconditioned by somebody that really knows what he is doing (usually the manufacturer.) That's why the US is so worried about a possible follow-up to the "Metcalf Substation Sniper Attack" near San Jose, CA in 2013.
This phenomenal six-part documentary series by the Science Channel, now available on YouTube and Daily Motion, interviews many engineers who worked on Apollo. There is one episode dedicated to the space suit, for which the contract was awarded to none other than Playtex.
Why do law-enforcement agencies feel the need to come up with a cheesy acronym or smarmy rhyme for everything they do? Does some government drone feel a real sense of accomplishment every time they perpetuate this annoying practice?
No one's forcing you to buy beef... and besides, beef is vastly UNDERpriced in relation to the energy required for its production and that production's impact on the environment.
The first thing I thought after reading the article was, What a self-centered, money-hungry idiot! To amass an amazing collection like that and then sell it at auction is unconscionable. If he didn't want to donate it to a museum outright, he could at least put it on loan. I for one would pay good money for a chance to see even a portion of a collection like that. Now, once sold at auction, these priceless items will go into the hands of other private collectors, where they will not only remain outside of public view for the most part, they will now be scattered all over the world.
That said, since this was the largest PRIVATE collection of early technology in the world, does anyone know of any good public collections, preferably in museums where they are visible to the public?
Most grid control systems are on private (192.168 style) networks not connected to the general Internet for obvious reasons, and "smart-grid" meter-reading systems that are currently implemented or planned use other methods of addressing (packet-radio protocols, etc.) So, the "smart grid" argument in the article is misguided at best.
The seat belt complaint is kind of an unfair jab, as Star Wars was released before the seat belt hysteria of the 1980s-present, where thanks to the seat-belt nazis getting their way and forcing laws mandating seat belt use in cars throughout the US, it has become politically correct and almost compulsory for TV shows, advertisements, and movies to show any character in a vehicle wearing a seat belt. Look at any other movie pre-80s (actually, most movies before the 90s) and you'll never see a seat belt being used.
Another reason why seat belts may be absent: According to several biographical accounts of George Lucas posted online, Lucas dabbled in racing as a teenager, and one of the race cars he built had a half-ass seat belt system installed. The car went out of control one day and plowed into a tree at 60mph. The belt system failed and he was thrown free, only sustaining minor injuries. Had the seat belt worked, he would have almost certainly died, and we wouldn't have the Star Wars universe today.
I remember how amazed I was when I got a hold of Robotron for the Apple. I had never seen so many objects move at one time on the Apple, and they even did a halfway-decent job with the sound on a machine that was only designed to play one simple sound at a time. And, the two-joystick control was faithfully reproduced on the keyboard.
Another game that made great use of independent control was the original Castle Wolfenstein (and, if I recall correctly, it predated Robotron by a year or two.)
The day they start bulldozing the hideous, ticky-tacky boxes 10 feet apart that are defiling mountains and alluvial fans all around southern California, I'd love to sit in the cab of the bulldozer and just mow down a row of those eyesores. That would SO make my day.
Seems like everything comes full circle...
Ever since I learned to drive, something about traffic lights has been glaringly obvious: The yellow light simply isn't sufficient warning of a light change. It may be okay if you're a long ways off, but I'm sure all of us have, on numerous occasions, experienced a "sour spot" (play on words of "sweet spot") where you are almost at an intersection, get the yellow, and have to make a split-second decision to "gun it" and try to make the light, or slam on your brakes to stop at it. Human nature is to "gun it" -- it's even a part of pop culture, the Starman "red = stop, green = go, yellow = go very fast" -- hence the type of red-light running that these cameras are tuned to maximize revenue from.
What I propose to all municipalities in states that have made the cameras illegal, as well as manufacturers of traffic-signal equipment:
Create a standardizable device which will let motorists know at a glance how much time is left on the green. It could be a numeric countdown such as the one on many pedestrian signals, a border of blue LEDs around the signal heads that extinguishes light by light as the yellow draws near, or (like in parts of Canada) a green light that flashes during the early part of the cycle, then goes to solid green 5-10 seconds before the yellow. Whatever the mechanism, it should give at least 15 seconds' warning of a light change, and do so in a manner understandable to most drivers of standard aptitude.
(I feel that a numeric countdown would be the best, as virtually everyone is familiar with countdowns [New Year's Eve, microwave oven timers, etc.])
Next, install this extra signaling scheme on busy intersections that formerly would have rated the installation of red-light cameras. Then trend the red-light-running and accident rates at these intersections for a few months (before and after).
I'd almost bet money that the red-light-running rate would drop precipitously.
Another way to improve traffic flow and cut down on light running, of course, is to synchronize signals on a city-wide basis, simply decreasing the number of opportunities to run a red. The technology exists for smart traffic control systems. It's time to implement them!
The thing that disgusts me the most about red-light cameras is the amount of manpower and technological muscle wasted to create and install these systems that could have been used instead to implement solutions like I outlined above. Red-light cameras are simply a profitable, Band-Aid solution for a real problem that has plagued traffic signals since their introduction. We must get rid of the Band-Aid and use the right tools to fix the issue.
How does the meter do that? Does it control the circuit breakers connected to these appliances, or does it communicate directly to the CPU of the appliance to tell it to turn off?
Here, we have small VHF receivers that the utility attaches to central air-conditioning units. They send a signal, a relay interrupts the control circuit to the compressor contactor.
After having not just 1, but TWO WD Caviar drives (one 80gb and one 100gb) fail in '03 due to the same faulty motor controller chip, I vowed never to buy WD again. And I haven't. The drives are still in my dustbin waiting for me to get the patience to unsolder the chip and put a different one in so I can recover data (I had about 80% of it backed up; it's the other 20% that hurts.)
The drives were technically under warranty but they wouldn't listen to any option that would allow me to recover my data. (Yeah, I realize that policy is industry wide, but when the problem is obvious - a chip with a crater in it - they could have at least been nice shipped me a replacement controller board.)
If their new drive really needs that much heatsinking, there's gotta be some kind of design problem. If I want an electric heater, I'm not buying it from WD.
WD may come out with new and fun stuff, but until it's been proven with stellar MTBF rates (and they back it up with a full 5 year warranty like Seagate's) I'm holding onto my $ and data.
Depends on the type of "traffick" accident, too. If you're in a head on, maybe a seat belt will help. T-bone, it probably won't do much. Plus, if the belt traps you in the car after a crash, and the car catches fire or ends up in a body of water, THAT is an automatic death sentence.
People who go around like sheep bleating "seat belts save lives" act as if they are miracle belts that will magically save you from any accident, no matter how severe.
Not true! You probably are better off wearing a belt than not, but it shouldn't be the government's place to tell us we MUST wear them or get ticketed.
Read George Lucas' online biography sketch sometime. If his seat belt hadn't FAILED during an accident he had as a teenager, he would have crashed into a tree at 60 mph. Luckily, he was ejected at the last instant; otherwise, Luke, Darth and the other characters that gave our young lives meaning in the 70s and 80s would never have existed.
It amazes me, especially living in the area of endless urbania that is the Greater L.A. area, that there are still uninhabited areas so vast that a plane could crash and not be found after exhaustive searching with high-tech equipment.
Then again, there is an almost-intact crashed plane near the western (Highway 190) entrance to Death Valley, near Towne Pass, that's in plain view of the highway yet almost impossible to see unless you know what you are looking for. It crashed in the 50s; it was part of a CIA mission and lost power over the Amargosa Valley. The crew bailed out near Furnace Creek, if my memory serves me correctly, then the plane crashed in the Panamint Range to the west.
After seeing that on one of my outings, Fossett's plight isn't so incredible to me. Sucks to be him, but he certainly didn't live a hard knocks life prior to his demise.
Don't forget High-Voltage DC (HVDC) power transmission. The technology was invented using giant mercury-arc valves (a history lesson in themselves) and is now carried out in most places using strings of thyristors in series. There's an 800-mile link in the West from Bonneville Dam, WA to Sylmar, CA that has a capacity of 3000 megawatts at a million volts DC (plus and minus 500kV.)
The website of ABB http://www.abb.com/ (one of the pioneers in this technology) has lots of interesting info.
It is amazing what they were able to do with those mercury arc tubes. I talked to a guy who used to maintain stuff at the Sylmar station and he said there was a guy who would disassemble the tubes and repair the grids and anodes. (The cathode was the pool of Hg.) He was said to be able to weld a beer can! I bet he would make good friends with the French guy... Sadly, the demise of the mercury tubes was simply that due to the age of the system, parts were less and less available (not to mention the ever-growing hysteria about the presence of Hg.) How I would have loved to see that system in operation! Thyristors are cool to look at, but like most solid state stuff, it just sits there and looks the same whether it is running or not.
Yeah, those 5.25 disks are/were surprisingly strong despite their delicate appearance. I have Apple 5.25's I made 20-25 years ago and most can still be read perfectly. I had ones that got dirt, soda, etc. in them and the abovementioned procedure was most effective. The ones I bit in a fit of rage while working in Applesoft and UCSD Pascal got a couple of bad sectors, nothing more.
Those idiotic 3.5's, however, are a different story. Worst disks ever. You can make a 3.5" get read errors just by looking at it wrong.
I have never been more glad to see a computer technology get outmoded than when CDs and thumb drives esentially made the 3.5" drive obsolete.
... starting with the most famous phone booth in history, the Mojave Phone Booth. I had the privilege of making two pilgrimages to this phone and answering it during the height of its popularity in 10/99. Sadly, a few months later, the Park Service (or, more accurately, the fascist spoilsport in charge of the Mojave National Preserve) had enough of the innocent fun and ordered AT&T (then called Pacific Bell in the area) to remove it, which they happily did. Not only that, in true politician form, she created a nasty letter itemizing all of the bad things that were going on out there -- 90% of which were fabrications and exaggerations.
The feeling of being out in a completely isolated, absolutely silent, gorgeous desert valley, yet receiving communications from all over the world, was indescribable. The 25+-mile, largely open-wire line even made strange pinging and popping sounds while one talked on it, which I later learned were distant lightning strikes being picked up on what amounted to a giant VLF antenna! I would imagine that someone would have heard similar sounds by hooking a speaker to an early transcontinental telegraph line.
Leave it to the government to destroy a very positive and innocent phenomenon that served to bring people together. I imagine the copper thieves would have pilfered the wire eventually anyway, but the Park Service's action was premature, selfish and uncalled for.
The death (murder?) of the MPB is a sad story, and was just the beginning of the end of the pay phone in general.
Why don't the scientists, instead of being baffled, do what they know best? They could purloin a sample of the lakebed (assuming the NPS would let them borrow enough for a test), borrow one of the moving rocks, put them in a chamber which simulates various rain and wind conditions, and see what happens over a period of time. Barring a supernatural explanation for the movement, they should see something happen.
I'd love to camp out there a few months during the wet season (or what passes for a wet season in DV) and watch them, if the pay was right...
... what will happen when the government subpoenas your MyLifeBits box for something minor, then discovers every other objectionable thing you have ever done? Or what if they want to use it to profile people based on propensity to commit crimes? Think about all the illegal stuff most of us have done, but have gotten away with because no one was watching. It's kind of like the "black boxes" Uncle Sam wants so badly to install in everyone's car, but brought to a new level.
It would have been fun to record my life in childhood/adolescent years, though. Many of the memories are still fresh or at least semi-fresh, but seeing stuff happen again on a TV screen would be really cool. Or just to remember where you put something last week!
As long as the data can be kept private, this could be kind of fun.
A few years ago there was a lot of hype about using intense sound waves to set up a standing wave in a special tube in a manner that would produce very efficient refrigeration with no moving parts other than a hefty speaker voice coil. Anyone heard any further developments on that front? It would seem to me that with energy prices skyrocketing, these alternative, energy-saving ideas and others that alt-energy geniuses like Popular Science's Smokey Yunick used to come up with would be receiving lots of new attention.
Then again, the oil industry IS one of the biggest lobbying groups on the Hill, so who knows when (if ever) we'll see a large-scale switch to alternate energy sources.
From American Scientist Magazine, May/June 2002. It's a few years old but the best article I've read to date on hard drive technology. It recaps the phenomenal advances of hard drive technology over the years and then asks the question: "When the terabyte drives come out, will we have enough data to store on them?" (At the rate I aggregate data, I would give an emphatic "Yes!")
http://www.americanscientist.org/content/AMSCI/AMSCI/ArticleAltFormat/2003423135512_546.pdf
Slashdot Mirror
They say it's dead, but you can still download a free, fully functional 32-bit version of XP encased in a virtual machine (Windows Virtual PC) from Microsoft's web site! It's called "Windows XP Mode."
All of the incredible theories being floated, such as cyber-attacks and "electromagnetic attacks," whatever they are (EMP? not likely) are far less likely than key grid components being mismanaged or sabotaged. It's far easier to sneak into a facility and trip some breakers or drain transformer oil than to mount a concerted cyber-attack, which requires extensive research into, or knowledge of, the grid's network and physical infrastructure. The most disturbing photo in the article, though it appears to be at a distribution sub and therefore affects a small area, is the one of burned-out transformers, one of which is missing a couple of its radiators. Even if the fire was external, if the inside was compromised it will be costly to fix and the device may even require replacement. Transformers are one of the most difficult things to repair/replace in an electrical system - most are not made until they are ordered so power could be out for months. And one that gets contaminated internally could "blow up" due to dielectric failure if not properly reconditioned by somebody that really knows what he is doing (usually the manufacturer.) That's why the US is so worried about a possible follow-up to the "Metcalf Substation Sniper Attack" near San Jose, CA in 2013.
Who could ignore the plaintive, "No disassemble Johnny Five!" ?
This phenomenal six-part documentary series by the Science Channel, now available on YouTube and Daily Motion, interviews many engineers who worked on Apollo. There is one episode dedicated to the space suit, for which the contract was awarded to none other than Playtex.
Why do law-enforcement agencies feel the need to come up with a cheesy acronym or smarmy rhyme for everything they do? Does some government drone feel a real sense of accomplishment every time they perpetuate this annoying practice?
No one's forcing you to buy beef... and besides, beef is vastly UNDERpriced in relation to the energy required for its production and that production's impact on the environment.
The first thing I thought after reading the article was, What a self-centered, money-hungry idiot! To amass an amazing collection like that and then sell it at auction is unconscionable. If he didn't want to donate it to a museum outright, he could at least put it on loan. I for one would pay good money for a chance to see even a portion of a collection like that. Now, once sold at auction, these priceless items will go into the hands of other private collectors, where they will not only remain outside of public view for the most part, they will now be scattered all over the world. That said, since this was the largest PRIVATE collection of early technology in the world, does anyone know of any good public collections, preferably in museums where they are visible to the public?
Most grid control systems are on private (192.168 style) networks not connected to the general Internet for obvious reasons, and "smart-grid" meter-reading systems that are currently implemented or planned use other methods of addressing (packet-radio protocols, etc.) So, the "smart grid" argument in the article is misguided at best.
The seat belt complaint is kind of an unfair jab, as Star Wars was released before the seat belt hysteria of the 1980s-present, where thanks to the seat-belt nazis getting their way and forcing laws mandating seat belt use in cars throughout the US, it has become politically correct and almost compulsory for TV shows, advertisements, and movies to show any character in a vehicle wearing a seat belt. Look at any other movie pre-80s (actually, most movies before the 90s) and you'll never see a seat belt being used.
Another reason why seat belts may be absent: According to several biographical accounts of George Lucas posted online, Lucas dabbled in racing as a teenager, and one of the race cars he built had a half-ass seat belt system installed. The car went out of control one day and plowed into a tree at 60mph. The belt system failed and he was thrown free, only sustaining minor injuries. Had the seat belt worked, he would have almost certainly died, and we wouldn't have the Star Wars universe today.
I remember how amazed I was when I got a hold of Robotron for the Apple. I had never seen so many objects move at one time on the Apple, and they even did a halfway-decent job with the sound on a machine that was only designed to play one simple sound at a time. And, the two-joystick control was faithfully reproduced on the keyboard. Another game that made great use of independent control was the original Castle Wolfenstein (and, if I recall correctly, it predated Robotron by a year or two.)
The day they start bulldozing the hideous, ticky-tacky boxes 10 feet apart that are defiling mountains and alluvial fans all around southern California, I'd love to sit in the cab of the bulldozer and just mow down a row of those eyesores. That would SO make my day. Seems like everything comes full circle...
Ever since I learned to drive, something about traffic lights has been glaringly obvious: The yellow light simply isn't sufficient warning of a light change. It may be okay if you're a long ways off, but I'm sure all of us have, on numerous occasions, experienced a "sour spot" (play on words of "sweet spot") where you are almost at an intersection, get the yellow, and have to make a split-second decision to "gun it" and try to make the light, or slam on your brakes to stop at it. Human nature is to "gun it" -- it's even a part of pop culture, the Starman "red = stop, green = go, yellow = go very fast" -- hence the type of red-light running that these cameras are tuned to maximize revenue from.
What I propose to all municipalities in states that have made the cameras illegal, as well as manufacturers of traffic-signal equipment:
Create a standardizable device which will let motorists know at a glance how much time is left on the green. It could be a numeric countdown such as the one on many pedestrian signals, a border of blue LEDs around the signal heads that extinguishes light by light as the yellow draws near, or (like in parts of Canada) a green light that flashes during the early part of the cycle, then goes to solid green 5-10 seconds before the yellow. Whatever the mechanism, it should give at least 15 seconds' warning of a light change, and do so in a manner understandable to most drivers of standard aptitude.
(I feel that a numeric countdown would be the best, as virtually everyone is familiar with countdowns [New Year's Eve, microwave oven timers, etc.])
Next, install this extra signaling scheme on busy intersections that formerly would have rated the installation of red-light cameras. Then trend the red-light-running and accident rates at these intersections for a few months (before and after).
I'd almost bet money that the red-light-running rate would drop precipitously.
Another way to improve traffic flow and cut down on light running, of course, is to synchronize signals on a city-wide basis, simply decreasing the number of opportunities to run a red. The technology exists for smart traffic control systems. It's time to implement them!
The thing that disgusts me the most about red-light cameras is the amount of manpower and technological muscle wasted to create and install these systems that could have been used instead to implement solutions like I outlined above. Red-light cameras are simply a profitable, Band-Aid solution for a real problem that has plagued traffic signals since their introduction. We must get rid of the Band-Aid and use the right tools to fix the issue.
How does the meter do that? Does it control the circuit breakers connected to these appliances, or does it communicate directly to the CPU of the appliance to tell it to turn off? Here, we have small VHF receivers that the utility attaches to central air-conditioning units. They send a signal, a relay interrupts the control circuit to the compressor contactor.
After having not just 1, but TWO WD Caviar drives (one 80gb and one 100gb) fail in '03 due to the same faulty motor controller chip, I vowed never to buy WD again. And I haven't. The drives are still in my dustbin waiting for me to get the patience to unsolder the chip and put a different one in so I can recover data (I had about 80% of it backed up; it's the other 20% that hurts.) The drives were technically under warranty but they wouldn't listen to any option that would allow me to recover my data. (Yeah, I realize that policy is industry wide, but when the problem is obvious - a chip with a crater in it - they could have at least been nice shipped me a replacement controller board.) If their new drive really needs that much heatsinking, there's gotta be some kind of design problem. If I want an electric heater, I'm not buying it from WD. WD may come out with new and fun stuff, but until it's been proven with stellar MTBF rates (and they back it up with a full 5 year warranty like Seagate's) I'm holding onto my $ and data.
Depends on the type of "traffick" accident, too. If you're in a head on, maybe a seat belt will help. T-bone, it probably won't do much. Plus, if the belt traps you in the car after a crash, and the car catches fire or ends up in a body of water, THAT is an automatic death sentence. People who go around like sheep bleating "seat belts save lives" act as if they are miracle belts that will magically save you from any accident, no matter how severe. Not true! You probably are better off wearing a belt than not, but it shouldn't be the government's place to tell us we MUST wear them or get ticketed. Read George Lucas' online biography sketch sometime. If his seat belt hadn't FAILED during an accident he had as a teenager, he would have crashed into a tree at 60 mph. Luckily, he was ejected at the last instant; otherwise, Luke, Darth and the other characters that gave our young lives meaning in the 70s and 80s would never have existed.
It amazes me, especially living in the area of endless urbania that is the Greater L.A. area, that there are still uninhabited areas so vast that a plane could crash and not be found after exhaustive searching with high-tech equipment.
Then again, there is an almost-intact crashed plane near the western (Highway 190) entrance to Death Valley, near Towne Pass, that's in plain view of the highway yet almost impossible to see unless you know what you are looking for. It crashed in the 50s; it was part of a CIA mission and lost power over the Amargosa Valley. The crew bailed out near Furnace Creek, if my memory serves me correctly, then the plane crashed in the Panamint Range to the west.
Some pics from someone who hiked to the site: http://rides.webshots.com/album/292358776FDMVRo
After seeing that on one of my outings, Fossett's plight isn't so incredible to me. Sucks to be him, but he certainly didn't live a hard knocks life prior to his demise.
Don't forget High-Voltage DC (HVDC) power transmission. The technology was invented using giant mercury-arc valves (a history lesson in themselves) and is now carried out in most places using strings of thyristors in series. There's an 800-mile link in the West from Bonneville Dam, WA to Sylmar, CA that has a capacity of 3000 megawatts at a million volts DC (plus and minus 500kV.) The website of ABB http://www.abb.com/ (one of the pioneers in this technology) has lots of interesting info. It is amazing what they were able to do with those mercury arc tubes. I talked to a guy who used to maintain stuff at the Sylmar station and he said there was a guy who would disassemble the tubes and repair the grids and anodes. (The cathode was the pool of Hg.) He was said to be able to weld a beer can! I bet he would make good friends with the French guy... Sadly, the demise of the mercury tubes was simply that due to the age of the system, parts were less and less available (not to mention the ever-growing hysteria about the presence of Hg.) How I would have loved to see that system in operation! Thyristors are cool to look at, but like most solid state stuff, it just sits there and looks the same whether it is running or not.
Explores not only the birth of the hard drive, but its future. A few years old, but very informative!
(Load the pdf version if you have the time - it is formatted just like that article appeared in the magazine)
Yeah, those 5.25 disks are/were surprisingly strong despite their delicate appearance. I have Apple 5.25's I made 20-25 years ago and most can still be read perfectly. I had ones that got dirt, soda, etc. in them and the abovementioned procedure was most effective. The ones I bit in a fit of rage while working in Applesoft and UCSD Pascal got a couple of bad sectors, nothing more. Those idiotic 3.5's, however, are a different story. Worst disks ever. You can make a 3.5" get read errors just by looking at it wrong. I have never been more glad to see a computer technology get outmoded than when CDs and thumb drives esentially made the 3.5" drive obsolete.
The feeling of being out in a completely isolated, absolutely silent, gorgeous desert valley, yet receiving communications from all over the world, was indescribable. The 25+-mile, largely open-wire line even made strange pinging and popping sounds while one talked on it, which I later learned were distant lightning strikes being picked up on what amounted to a giant VLF antenna! I would imagine that someone would have heard similar sounds by hooking a speaker to an early transcontinental telegraph line.
Leave it to the government to destroy a very positive and innocent phenomenon that served to bring people together. I imagine the copper thieves would have pilfered the wire eventually anyway, but the Park Service's action was premature, selfish and uncalled for.
The death (murder?) of the MPB is a sad story, and was just the beginning of the end of the pay phone in general.
Why don't the scientists, instead of being baffled, do what they know best? They could purloin a sample of the lakebed (assuming the NPS would let them borrow enough for a test), borrow one of the moving rocks, put them in a chamber which simulates various rain and wind conditions, and see what happens over a period of time. Barring a supernatural explanation for the movement, they should see something happen. I'd love to camp out there a few months during the wet season (or what passes for a wet season in DV) and watch them, if the pay was right...
... what will happen when the government subpoenas your MyLifeBits box for something minor, then discovers every other objectionable thing you have ever done? Or what if they want to use it to profile people based on propensity to commit crimes? Think about all the illegal stuff most of us have done, but have gotten away with because no one was watching. It's kind of like the "black boxes" Uncle Sam wants so badly to install in everyone's car, but brought to a new level. It would have been fun to record my life in childhood/adolescent years, though. Many of the memories are still fresh or at least semi-fresh, but seeing stuff happen again on a TV screen would be really cool. Or just to remember where you put something last week! As long as the data can be kept private, this could be kind of fun.
A few years ago there was a lot of hype about using intense sound waves to set up a standing wave in a special tube in a manner that would produce very efficient refrigeration with no moving parts other than a hefty speaker voice coil. Anyone heard any further developments on that front? It would seem to me that with energy prices skyrocketing, these alternative, energy-saving ideas and others that alt-energy geniuses like Popular Science's Smokey Yunick used to come up with would be receiving lots of new attention. Then again, the oil industry IS one of the biggest lobbying groups on the Hill, so who knows when (if ever) we'll see a large-scale switch to alternate energy sources.
From American Scientist Magazine, May/June 2002. It's a few years old but the best article I've read to date on hard drive technology. It recaps the phenomenal advances of hard drive technology over the years and then asks the question: "When the terabyte drives come out, will we have enough data to store on them?" (At the rate I aggregate data, I would give an emphatic "Yes!") http://www.americanscientist.org/content/AMSCI/AMSCI/ArticleAltFormat/2003423135512_546.pdf