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SCI/TECH ARCHIVES -- JANUARY 2010
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JANUARY 25, 2010 -- JANUARY 31, 2010 THUMBS DOWN FOR TRUCKERS, BUS DRIVERS TEXTING
Talking on a cell phone impairs your driving. It's not a matter of paying attention, it's a matter of your brain blocking out critical information. That information is in the form of signs, pedestrians, and traffic lights.
It does not matter if the phone is in your hand or in your ear.
You are 4 times more likely to cause an accident driving while on the phone. That is the same statistic as driving intoxicated.
Texting ups that figure to 8 times as likely to cause an accident.
You are twice as likely to cause an accident while texting than you are driving drunk! Ban cell phone use while driving or you might just as well legalize drunk driving. It's the same outcome. It's not worth it. It's irresponsible Read the article PC WORLD/Is a ban on texting for truckers and bus drivers enough? <> As a future truck driver currently enrolled in a CDL course and holder of a CDL learners permit I applaud this step. It needs to be applied to ALL drivers. Truck drivers are the safety conscious ones out there. Its the rest of the driving population that needs this law passed onto. Read the article WASHINGTON POST/U.S. bans truckers, bus drivers texting <> Let’s not stop with banning texting by commercial truck drivers only, as it’s clear that so much more needs to be done to include all transportation operators, particularly those responsible for hauling passengers and/or hazardous materials. Let’s just outright declare a nationwide texting/cell-phone ban altogether and resolve the problem, considering 6,000 deaths could have been prevented if people didn’t feel the need to be connected while they’re behind the wheel. People haven’t and won’t get it, throwing common-sense out the window, hence the need to implement the ban country-wide. Read the article WALL STREET JOURNAL/Dot is expected to ban texting for commercial drivers ROBO-WARBOTS DEPLOY BEYOND THE REALMS OF SCI-FICTION
What robo-soldiers offer is an autonomous weapons system that likewise carries a risk of indiscriminate activation. But is this more or less worrying than a landmine or a cruise missile? Hari is right that there is probably no computer software sophisticated enough to discriminate between friend or foe, combatant or civilian. But then that same concern also applies to human beings. Special forces soldiers take years of training to be able to go into a close-quarter battle where they can identify and kill terrorists without killing hostages. And even then, they can make mistakes. Read the article U.K. INDEPENDENT/The age of the killer robot is no longer a sci-fantasy
<> The most interesting point in this article, and possibly the most overlooked, is that certain nations can now wage war without any consequence, or at least without the consequence of a large casualty rate. The use of drones and remotely operated weapons takes the risk of casualties out of the equation for the force that can remove their personnel from the field. Subsequently, initiating war becomes easier and the meaning of war is changed. When we wage war where the enemy has no opportunity to fight back, it becomes something other than war; something, perhaps, closer to extermination. Read the article U.K. INDEPENDENT/The age of the killer robot is no longer a sci-fantasy
Anything that knocks supercilious talking head commentators who do nothing but commentate (y'know if you had a track record of achieving something, anything in almost any field,Oxbridge socialising and Groucho networking excluded, then you'd have more credibility...) can't be a bad thing. Where I think Sunny is off-kilter is in referencing 'the mob,' as it's such a derogatory and loaded term. What hasn't been recognised until now is how much genuine expertise lies with individuals among the masses, outside of the circles of power and influence and most definitely outside of the paid talking head commentariat. Now there is the chance for those who actually do know their stuff, have achieved, are genuinely expert to show how shallow, solipsistic, solecistic and plain ignorant too many members of the commentariat and politico-media classes are, how undeserving of their wealth and privilege, and my goodness those commentators don't like it. Read the article U.K. GUARDIAN/ The Twitter Mob rules, OK? <> Social Media is free speech, free speech for everyone, not just Journalists; that is really what they are complaining about. Even the social media organisations themselves have had to take notice of campaigns on their websites as this successful campaign to have a male-to-female transsexual unbanned from Facebook has shown. Journalists have to realise that they have a lot of power, and that frequently many of them abuse that power. Up to now they have been able to avoid having to take responsibility for their abuses of power, Twitter and Facebook have just evened things up a bit. That is what they don't like. Read the article U.K. GUARDIAN/ The Twitter Mob rules, OK? <> I'm all for newspaper columnists, editors & owners being held to account, open to criticism, or at least made to realise they can't just print any old rubbish & get away with it. But Twitters? Tweeting? What's wrong with good old-fashioned pitchforks & ramrods as the crowd descends on the dirty, filthy media-baron's castle? Read the article U.K. GUARDIAN/ The Twitter Mob rules, OK?
JANUARY 18, 2010 -- JANUARY 24, 2010 BING-GO! PURGING USER SEARCH RECORDS
The information is extremely valuable for researchers and product development. That'll appease the privacy whiners, but maintain access to data for future generations to analyze. Read the article ARS TECHNICA/Microsoft to delete user's IP addresses after six months
JANUARY 11, 2010 -- JANUARY 17, 2010 WHAT'S ON THE SLATE FOR PERSONAL COMPUTING?
I think tablets are hot because of Apple. They are a major driving force in technology. Due to massive success of the Ipod and later Iphone, companies want to beat Apple and not play catch up. Apple wins because of the Itune's store. That's the real secret of their success! Also, those thinking that Apple's upcoming device will be a laptop replacement used for productivity purposes will be disappointed. Instead, I think it will be a consumer-minded device and not productivity-based product like a Macbook or other laptop. Read the article PCWORLD/Tablets are hot at CES <> Hi, I just came from the future… 2030 to be exact. I remember when the tablets came out. No one could fit it in their pockets but because of the unsatiable desire to have one (God knows why) all men started wearing man purses. But don't worry because it's no longer a cause for ridicule. The problem is, women expect us to carry everything now to make up for the last few hundred years of making them carry our stuff. Anyway, I'm here to tell you to please don't buy a tablet. We can't stand man purses! Read the article CNN MONEY/BRAINSTORM TECH/Microsoft upstages Apple's tablet
Well, for the 'Rich and the Creative' who can pay the 'Mac Tax', they can wait for the Apple version. Windows based devices are for the masses – we are talking about billions of consumers across the globe – not the priviliged ones who only can afford a proprietary, expensive 'cute little Mac'. Interestingly, after 30 years, Apple has a market share of 5.19% of the world PC market. Since it's release on Oct. 22nd, 2009, Windows 7 has already exceeded that number. So either the millions of people are crazy to embrace Windows 7 and Microsoft products or 'Apple-lites' are living in a fools paradise. Either way, I love my PC and would not give it up for anything. Read the article CNN MONEY/BRAINSTORM TECH/Microsoft upstages Apple's tablet
JANUARY 4, 2010 -- JANUARY 10, 2010 WHITE DWARF STAR THREATENS EARTH --- IN TEN MILLION YEARS
Within 10 million years we should be able to build a Dyson Sphere around the sun and inner planets, shielding them from the expected supernova and providing enough living space on it's interior for the 20 trillion humans, or their evolutionary ancestors, to live comfortably. I'm at least glad to know that we've got a few years to figure this one out! Plus, in 10 million years, where will this star system be in the galaxy in relation to ours? Read the article SPACE.COM/Explosive nearby star could threaten earth <> If nothing travels faster than light, then no information about the supernova can get here before the radiation from the supernova itself. All we can study are the changes leading up to the explosion; it doesn't matter if we are 100 or 3000 light years away. Someone 1000 light years closer will see the exact same sequence of events we will, only 1000 years sooner. And they won't be able to warn us, because nothing travels faster than light. Of course this assumes that 10 million years from now we still haven't found a way to travel faster than light. If we have, we can simply run away from the big scary monster.... Read the article SPACE.COM/Explosive nearby star could threaten earth
DECEMBER 28, 2009 - JANUARY 3, 2010 IT'S A WONDERFUL "WATER-WORLD"
HARVARD-SMITHSONIAN ASTROPHYSICS I've long thought that there must be other planets in the universe capable of supporting life, and by chance at least some of them must. But I was thinking these life-supporting planets might be rare, with just a few per galaxy, and not necessarily all in a hospitable state during the same span of time. Read the article ARS TECHNICA/Astronomers discover Alien water world <> Only 40 light years. Wow we can possibly vacation there since its only 40 light years away. I am being sarcastic. We can never go there unless we find a way to travel faster than the speed of light. 40 light years is the distance light will travel in 40 years and light travels pretty fast 3.0 x10^8 meters per second. Read the article ARS TECHNICA/Astronomers discover Alien water world <> The more that we can get humanities curiosity channeled to the stars, the better the world will be. It is the understanding that the universe is far bigger than just us, and the problems that we face on earth and the wars that we fight are utterly pointless in a grander scheme of things. It's the appreciation that we even exist, for if you look into the universe, you realize that all the odds are against us. If Earth were just a little closer or a little further away from he sun, this wouldn't be possible. With black holes and asteroids and jets and a whole other host of things out there, you start to say, wow, I'm lucky to be here, even if it is only for an instant. It's a beautiful thing. Read the article SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE/Super-earths inspire hopes for alien life
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