I would agree with "unexpected," because many do not know that the University of Alberta hosts the Canadian National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT).
Also many are not aware that Robert Wolkow entered the Guinness Book of Records with the "Sharpest Object Ever Made":
https://www.ualberta.ca/newtra...
But it is the practical translation of this new technology into nanomanufacturing that will make this computer memory revolution possible:
https://www.ualberta.ca/scienc...
Now, the University of Alberta will not only be know for being the birthplace of Deepmind's AlphaGo, but also for starting the nanomanufacturing revolution.
As a Christian scientist (Engineer, so pardon if I make a mistake in the nomenclature), here is the question I would like to ask a Christian paleontologist:
The Bible clearly distinguishes humans as spiritual beings from all other earthly beings, who cannot sin and do not need a saviour.
Since our understanding of science has thinned out and almost extinguished the line between our species and other primates, both current and from the fossil record, do you think there remains any physical or biological distinctive feature that separates spiritual humans from non-spiritual primates or hominids?
Although it is not a tablet, the OpenPandora complies with all the other conditions you listed.
It is quite a unique device and the fact it can be folded and fit in a pocket is an advantage over the tablet form factor.
The project has taken a couple of years to take off, but you can receive your device in 7 days now, if you pay $500.
I mean it seriously.
If the prions do not reproduce in culture, they could pass any quarantine test applied to a sample returned from Mars or from another planet and they could still infect the scientists that breath them in. With an incubation period of 10 years, perhaps a lot of people could become infected by such a form of exogenous life before we notice any symptoms. By then it could be too late. Perhaps we have mined that stuff and brought tonnes back to Earth and everyone breathed it in and then all we can do is wait for the incubation period to pass (remember that you cannot test a live brain for Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, only after its death).
Then the zombies win...
To watch the geomagnetic activity live, check AuroraWatch: http://corona-gw.phys.ualberta.ca/AuroraWatch/
You can also subscribe to receive e-mail alerts about probable Northern Lights.
From the website: "AuroraWatch forecasts are made by examining the behaviour of the Earth's magnetic field strength, which is measured by ground-based magnetometers."
My vote goes to openSUSE. It is well integrated and has the best finish, because they make sure all packages work well together. And administration could not be simpler than with YaST. Soon there will be a secure web interface for YaST and you will be able to service these converted machines remotely, if you need to.
I recommend trying OpenSUSE on your tablet. I am not sure about Fujitsu, but my Lenovo X60 Tablet has been working fine with digital pen since openSUSE 10.3. The openSUSE guys have been very active in developing new support for tablets. Check out this page: http://en.opensuse.org/TabletPCs#Configuring_Your_Tablet_Device
With the beta version of openSUSE 11.1, which I am now testing, I can get even the touch screen mode of my MultiTouch tablet working. Add to it the 3D desktop effects and it blows everyone out the window!
Yeah, it's great and works really well, but did they really need the 'extremely lightweight Kapton tube hanging in Kevlar fiber'
How about a bit of fishline? Many constraints guided the design of this deceivingly simple instrument.
It had to be image-based, because by the time it was proposed, replacing a descoped hot-wire anemometer, the electronic data interfaces could not be changed anymore.
It had to be ultra-lightweight, not only because of the very stringent mass constraints, but mainly the moving part had to show a displacement of the order of 1 mm under winds of a few m/s on Mars, which produce only about 1 microN drag force. A fish-line is much stiffer than the collection of thin kevlar fibres used, and not as strong.
The materials have to have to have decent UV resistance, because Mars does not have an ozone layer. Nylon can become brittle in a matter of days on Mars.
The moving parts are exposed to enormous, repeated stresses during launch and landing. Any usual material, if dimensioned to survive the trip, would be too heavy and stiff to move in the usual winds on Mars. The 8 microns thick kapton foil used for the telltale ending tube (yes, it's hollow) is extremely lightweight, yet was able survive all the beating it took during the trip without visible damage.
The comments above refuting the adequacy of a weather vane are well stated and I don't need to add to them.
OK, let's give credit where it's due. (and don't believe everything the press tells you... even well-meaning reporters can get a story wrong.)
Dr. Gunnlaugsson and his group at the Aarhus University did most of the development and design of the telltale as a space qualified instrument, including building and testing of prototypes and the final flight model.
The original concept was proposed by my group at the University of Alberta. We also ran simulated experiments with various early prototypes as a proof-of-concept that demonstrated to the rest of the Science Team that such a simple instrument would work on Mars. I say simulated experiment, because we don't have a Mars Wind Tunnel at the UofA, as AarhusU does. So, we ran our wind tunnel at speeds that produced the same drag as expected on Mars. After the initial proof-of-concept work, AarhusU took over the development, manufacture and testing, but we continued to support the work of characterization of the instrument with our CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations, which you can see briefly described in the CFD-Lab website: http://www.mece.ualberta.ca/~clange/phoenix/
under Projects.
In summary, the Phoenix Telltale was conceived at the University of Alberta, but its gestation and birth happened at Aarhus University.
Slashdot Mirror
I would agree with "unexpected," because many do not know that the University of Alberta hosts the Canadian National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT). Also many are not aware that Robert Wolkow entered the Guinness Book of Records with the "Sharpest Object Ever Made": https://www.ualberta.ca/newtra... But it is the practical translation of this new technology into nanomanufacturing that will make this computer memory revolution possible: https://www.ualberta.ca/scienc... Now, the University of Alberta will not only be know for being the birthplace of Deepmind's AlphaGo, but also for starting the nanomanufacturing revolution.
As a Christian scientist (Engineer, so pardon if I make a mistake in the nomenclature), here is the question I would like to ask a Christian paleontologist: The Bible clearly distinguishes humans as spiritual beings from all other earthly beings, who cannot sin and do not need a saviour. Since our understanding of science has thinned out and almost extinguished the line between our species and other primates, both current and from the fossil record, do you think there remains any physical or biological distinctive feature that separates spiritual humans from non-spiritual primates or hominids?
Although it is not a tablet, the OpenPandora complies with all the other conditions you listed. It is quite a unique device and the fact it can be folded and fit in a pocket is an advantage over the tablet form factor. The project has taken a couple of years to take off, but you can receive your device in 7 days now, if you pay $500.
I mean it seriously.
If the prions do not reproduce in culture, they could pass any quarantine test applied to a sample returned from Mars or from another planet and they could still infect the scientists that breath them in. With an incubation period of 10 years, perhaps a lot of people could become infected by such a form of exogenous life before we notice any symptoms. By then it could be too late. Perhaps we have mined that stuff and brought tonnes back to Earth and everyone breathed it in and then all we can do is wait for the incubation period to pass (remember that you cannot test a live brain for Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, only after its death).
Then the zombies win...
To watch the geomagnetic activity live, check AuroraWatch: http://corona-gw.phys.ualberta.ca/AuroraWatch/
You can also subscribe to receive e-mail alerts about probable Northern Lights.
From the website: "AuroraWatch forecasts are made by examining the behaviour of the Earth's magnetic field strength, which is measured by ground-based magnetometers."
My vote goes to openSUSE. It is well integrated and has the best finish, because they make sure all packages work well together. And administration could not be simpler than with YaST. Soon there will be a secure web interface for YaST and you will be able to service these converted machines remotely, if you need to.
This is a book written for kids with imaginary tales from the Middle East that revolve around solving math puzzles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Counted
With the beta version of openSUSE 11.1, which I am now testing, I can get even the touch screen mode of my MultiTouch tablet working. Add to it the 3D desktop effects and it blows everyone out the window!
How about a bit of fishline?
Many constraints guided the design of this deceivingly simple instrument.
It had to be image-based, because by the time it was proposed, replacing a descoped hot-wire anemometer, the electronic data interfaces could not be changed anymore.
It had to be ultra-lightweight, not only because of the very stringent mass constraints, but mainly the moving part had to show a displacement of the order of 1 mm under winds of a few m/s on Mars, which produce only about 1 microN drag force. A fish-line is much stiffer than the collection of thin kevlar fibres used, and not as strong.
The materials have to have to have decent UV resistance, because Mars does not have an ozone layer. Nylon can become brittle in a matter of days on Mars.
The moving parts are exposed to enormous, repeated stresses during launch and landing. Any usual material, if dimensioned to survive the trip, would be too heavy and stiff to move in the usual winds on Mars. The 8 microns thick kapton foil used for the telltale ending tube (yes, it's hollow) is extremely lightweight, yet was able survive all the beating it took during the trip without visible damage.
The comments above refuting the adequacy of a weather vane are well stated and I don't need to add to them.
Lange
Dr. Gunnlaugsson and his group at the Aarhus University did most of the development and design of the telltale as a space qualified instrument, including building and testing of prototypes and the final flight model.
The original concept was proposed by my group at the University of Alberta. We also ran simulated experiments with various early prototypes as a proof-of-concept that demonstrated to the rest of the Science Team that such a simple instrument would work on Mars. I say simulated experiment, because we don't have a Mars Wind Tunnel at the UofA, as AarhusU does. So, we ran our wind tunnel at speeds that produced the same drag as expected on Mars. After the initial proof-of-concept work, AarhusU took over the development, manufacture and testing, but we continued to support the work of characterization of the instrument with our CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations, which you can see briefly described in the CFD-Lab website:
http://www.mece.ualberta.ca/~clange/phoenix/
under Projects.
In summary, the Phoenix Telltale was conceived at the University of Alberta, but its gestation and birth happened at Aarhus University.
Lange