Thursday, December 27, 2001
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RFID
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Sunday, December 23, 2001
TIME.com: Inventions of the Year -- The best inventions of 2001 Electric bikes have never been cool. After all, what self-respecting rider would let a battery do all the work? But fuel-cell technology, which uses pollution-free hydrogen gas to generate an electric current, could ignite electric-bike sales. The first prototype, from Italian bikemaker Aprilia, stores compressed hydrogen in a 2-liter metal canister housed in the frame. With a top speed of 20 m.p.h., the bike won't win the Tour de France. But it weighs 20% less than regular electrics and travels twice as far, about 43 miles, before it needs more gas. Now that's cool.
Availability: In 2003, for approximately $2,300
To Learn More: www.apriliaenjoy.com
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Bicycle,
HPV
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TIME.com: Inventions of the Year -- The best inventions of 2001 The wind in your hair, the sun in your eyes, the smell of salt in the air—and then you get seasick. If you love boating but hate all that bouncing around, the OutRider may be for you. Mounted on a funny-looking ski and shock absorber, the flat-bottomed boat lightly skims the surface of the water for an ultrasmooth ride. Side hulls and an aerodynamic design help keep the thing steady while you zip over waves at speeds of up to 80 m.p.h.
Availability: February 2002, for $60,000
To Learn More: www.klemflyingboats.com
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Boats
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TIME.com: Inventions of the Year -- The best inventions of 2001 Senator John Glenn is not the only civilian who would enjoy rocketing into space, but chances are the rest of us won¹t be hitching a ride on a space shuttle anytime soon. We¹ll have to wait until private companies can take us there. Jeff Greason of Mojave, Calif., has done his part by creating the first low-cost, reusable rocket engines. Greason¹s EZ-Rocket prototype, which took flight this fall, is powered by twin engines that burn isopropyl alcohol and liquid oxygen to generate 400 lbs. of thrust. Greason¹s engines should be able to carry passengers 65 miles above the earth‹too low to go into orbit but high enough to give space tourists a spectacular view of the planet. Greason estimates that planes powered by his engines could someday cost as little as $900 per flight to operate. The planes would cost as much as a Lear jet ($10 million), but Greason figures that¹s a bargain considering that Lear jets can¹t fly high enough and the cheapest boosters start at $100 million.
Availability: Opened Sept. 2001
To Learn More: www.xcor.com
Next: Gyroplane >>
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Spacecraft
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Friday, December 21, 2001
The NPR Basic Jazz Record Library: Duke Ellington "I never heard so musical a discord, such sweet thunder." So says Puck in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and so says Duke Ellington, who wrote that music, "Such Sweet Thunder." A.B. Spellman, why should it be part of our NPR Basic Jazz Record Library?
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Duke Ellington,
jazz,
music,
NPR
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Ars Technica: The PC enthusiast's resource Posted 12/20/2001 - 3:37PM, by Caesar
This Washington Post story let the cat out of the bag: WinXP's Universal Plug 'n Play support contains a flaw that essentially allows malicious users to seize control of any unpatched XP system on the 'net. This flaw is also present in the Internet Connection Sharing client that can be installed in Win98 and WinME. In other words, everyone using a Microsoft OS should get the patch. From the story:
A Microsoft official acknowledged that the risk to consumers was unprecedented because the glitches allow hackers to seize control of all Windows XP operating system software without requiring a computer user to do anything except connect to the Internet.
There is no KB article yet, although Microsoft said that information will be available within 24 hours under KB article Q315000. Most egregious, in my view, is the fact that this bug was discovered five weeks ago, yet we're only learning about it now, yet not from Microsoft, but from the media. Also note that the patch has not appeared on WindowsUpdate yet, so you'll need to grab it and install it the old fashioned way. Update: I've just received a copy of the security bulletin that Microsoft sent out over e-mail. It contains much more in-depth information than is currently available elsewhere. I've posted it up here for those interested.
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bug,
Microsoft,
XP
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Thursday, December 20, 2001
Largest Human Chromosome Unraveled
Dec. 20 — Scientists said on Wednesday they have deciphered the third human chromosome that contains a treasure trove of information about diseases ranging from obesity and eczema to dementia and cataracts.
With more than 727 genes and nearly 60 million DNA letters, chromosome 20 is the largest human chromosome to be finished so far.
Thirty-two of the genes are linked to genetic illnesses including the brain wasting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, severe immune disorders and illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes and dermatitis.
"This is one more completed chapter of our genomic anatomy textbook — medical research will be using this information for decades to come in its quest to tackle our common diseases," said Dr. Mike Dexter, the director of the Wellcome Trust, the world's largest medical charity.
Scientists from The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, England, led by Dr. Panos Deloukas, completed the sequence which is reported in the science journal Nature.
All of the information is freely available to scientists around the globe.
"It is a unique piece of the puzzle," Deloukas told Reuters. "We have probably annotated more than 95 percent of this chromosome."
Chromosome 20 is the first chromosome to be deciphered since scientists from Britain, China, France, Germany, Japan and the United States working on the Human Genome Project sequenced all the estimated 40,000 or more genes in humans earlier this year.
"In two years' time we should see the sequence of the remaining chromosomes being finished," Deloukas added.
Each chromosome is made up of a molecule of DNA in the shape of a double helix which is composed of four chemical bases represented by the letters A (adenine), T (thymine), G (guanine) and C (cytosine). The arrangement, or sequence, of the letters determines the cell's genetic code.
Chromosome 20 comprises about two percent of the three billion letters that make up the human genetic code. It is much bigger than chromosome 21, the smallest and first chromosome, mapped by Sanger scientists in 1999. Chromosome 22, the second smallest human chromosome, was sequenced in 2000. It has genetic components linked to 35 diseases and syndromes.
One of the interesting aspects of chromosome 20 is that scientists found an extra chunk of DNA containing at least one gene. They estimate 37 percent of Caucasians have the additional DNA chunk.
"For the moment we don't know whether this gene is truly functional in these humans and if it is functional what are the consequences for the people who have it. That was a bit of a surprising finding," he said.
Chromosome 20 also contains 30,000 SNPs — single nucleotide polymorphisms — which are the variations in human DNA that make people unique. SNPs contain clues about why some people are susceptible to diseases like cancer or diabetes, the best way to diagnose and treat them and how they will respond to drugs.
Any two humans are 99.9 percent similar. The 0.1 percent difference in DNA is what makes an individual unique.
"As with the Harry Potter series, we already know how long the complete works of the human genome will be -- 24 installments -- and we can't wait to get our hands on them all," Masahira Hattori and Todd Taylor of the RIKEN Yokohama Institute in Japan said in a commentary on the research. "We have already had a few glimpses of what's to come but there are many mysteries and secrets to be revealed."
Labels:
Dead Link,
Genome,
human,
Science
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Tuesday, December 18, 2001
The Blondie Story
This is now a dead link, but the Wayback Machine is your friend.
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Dead Link
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Friday, December 14, 2001
Thursday, December 13, 2001
Wednesday, December 12, 2001
Seti Logs
| Date | Units | Percentile Rank | Total Users | Rank | Users at Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/12/01 | 3451 | 99.476% | 3424608 | 17946 | 11 |
Seti@Home
Tuesday, December 11, 2001
Sunday, December 09, 2001
Seti Logs
| Date | Units | Percentile Rank | Total Users | Rank | Users at Rank |
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| 12/09/01 | 3421 | 99.469% | 3418765 | 18146 | 8 |
Seti@Home
Friday, December 07, 2001
Thursday, December 06, 2001
Wednesday, December 05, 2001
Tuesday, December 04, 2001
Monday, December 03, 2001
Seti Logs
| Date | Units | Percentile Rank | Total Users | Rank | Users at Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/04/01 | 3370 | 99.461% | 3408068 | 18369 | 7 |
| 12/04/01 | 3366 | 99.460% | 3407215 | 18398 | 7 |
| 12/01/01 | 3342 | 99.457% | 3401963 | 18480 | 8 |
Seti@Home
InformationWeek > Innovation > Get The Bugs In > November 30, 2001
In a few years, microrobotic creatures just millimeters in diameter may do everything from creating materials with new molecular properties to performing military reconnaissance flights. They'll duplicate the wing motions of the housefly to become hard-to-detect surveillance tools or take 200,000 measurements per second to unlock the mysteries of DNA.
Mysterious IT is a motor scooter - Tech News - CNET.comYa right, this is anticlimatic after all the hype.
• Key Players in the Plame Affair