How Much Greener Are Rechargeable Batteries?

I just read a short article in Wired - 16.11 which asks "Am I doing terribly wrong by the planet if I use alkaline batteries instead of rechargeables? I mean recharging requires power, right?"

I've always just taken it for granted that rechargeables would be more environmentally friendly and never really put a great deal of thought into how much more green they may or may not be. According to this article, a 2007 study by Bio Intelligence Service (sponsored by a French rechargeable battery maker) claimed that wearing out a single rechargeable battery impacts the environment less by a factor of 28 times. Makes me appreciate them all that much more!

Guitar Hero Playing With Robotic Precision

Cyth Systems (San Diego) has built a Guitar Hero playing robot that uses a camera to see and recognize the notes flying by and pneumatic fingers to depress the buttons with great precision. You have to see it to believe it...



"We have 5 groups of pixels on the screen corresponding to the 5 notes we might need to play," says Ivan Gagne, Systems Engineer with Cyth Systems. "We relied on the light intensity of the pixels in each of those groups. We couldn't rely on the color of the notes because during the game all the notes turn bluish white when you activate star power. We also couldn't rely on the shape of the notes because, at times, they turn into stars. If that light intensity value exceeds a predetermined threshold, we know we need to hold down that key and actuate the strum bar after a predetermined delay while the note travels down the screen to the bottom "play line". If a note was there for more than ~1/4 second the machine activates the whammy bar to score additional points on the sustained notes. There's another threshold where the intensity has to drop before it can consider the note "played" and therefore ready to start playing another note. The imaging, the region of interest, and the light intensity functions were all built into NI's vision toolkit for LabView."

British Firm Develops Sniper Detection Device

When a sniper's gun fires a palm sized device designed by Qinetiq, a British defence firm, uses four microphones, a gps, and a powerful microprocessor to calculate the location of gunman and verbally relay the coordinates to the soldier carrying the device known as EARS (Early Attack Reaction System).

"Knowing immediately where the shots come from means that it eliminates the confusion and allows soldiers to find cover and return fire. It helps to make combat scenarios, especially in urban areas, a lot less confusing. Everybody immediately knows what side of the vehicle or building to jump behind when taking fire." according to Don Steinman at Qinetiq North America.

According to the Telegraph.co.uk "After roadside bombs, snipers have been the biggest cause of the 301 British fatalities in both wars..."

I think it's great that these and other such technical advances are helping our soldiers in the field, yet it still amazes me how the insurgents still manage to inflict casualties despite it all.

Verizon Says Obama's Cellphone Account Compromised

Barak Obama's cellphone carrier, Verizon, has acknowledged that a number of unauthorized employees have accessed the president elects cellphone account. “This week we learned that a number of Verizon Wireless employees have, without authorization, accessed and viewed president-elect Barack Obama’s personal cellphone account," chief executive officer, Lowell McAdam said in a statement. The account was apparently a simple cellphone account and not a Blackberry data account and was also inactive for several months. The incidents come as there is much debate over whether or not the new President should be allowed to use his Blackberry device while in office.

CBC Story.

CRTC Rules In Bell's Favor On Internet Throttling

In a long awaited decision the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has ruled that Bell Canada Inc. is not breaking the law by slowing internet speeds and will be allowed to continue throttling the bandwidth of both its own home customers and its wholesale resellers. The CRTC has concluded that Bell has proven that it must be allowed to manage its network in order to prevent congestion.

“Based on the evidence before us, we found that the measures employed by Bell Canada to manage its network were not discriminatory," said CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein in a release. The CRTC added “We have decided to hold a separate proceeding to consider both wholesale and retail issues. Its main purpose will be to address the extent to which internet service providers can manage the traffic on their networks in accordance with the Telecommunications Act.”

Net neutrality advocate Steve Anderson, who runs Saveournet.ca. says "Anyone familiar with this issue knows this is a fundamentally unpopular decision they just made. Canadians want an open internet and the CRTC knows that, yet they just made a ruling that goes against the public interest." While Jacob Glick, policy counsel for Google Canada said "Though we're disappointed with the outcome of this proceeding, we're pleased the CRTC are looking at how to best keep the internet open, an important public policy issue for the future of the internet worldwide,"

What does it all mean for you and I? A whole lot more of the same...

CBC story.

NASA Asjusts Plans After Astronaut Loses Tool Bag

A briefcase-sized tool bag drifted away from astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper on Tuesday during the first of four scheduled space walks to repair a joint used to position a solar panel towards the sun. Stefanyshyn-Piper and Stephen Bowen where about half way through their first day when the bag somehow became untethered and floated away. The bag contained a pair of grease guns, wipes and a putty knife and NASA is now considering having the two astronauts share tools from Bowen's bag in order to complete the repairs. "What it boils down to is all it takes is one small mistake for a tether not to be hooked up quite correctly or to slip off, and that's what happened here,"according to lead spacewalk officer John Ray. At least there's a back up, what a costly mistake it could have been if the repairs could not be completed. Just goes to show that regardless of how much you train and practice we are human afterall and stuff happens. Discovery Channel Story.

007 Plot Plausible?

The latest Bond flik has hit theatres, and though I've not yet had the opportunity to see it "Quantum of Solace" is definitely on my list of things to do this weekend. It seems the bad guys in this movie are bent on controlling the water resources of an entire nation and Bond of course is out to stop them. The folks at Sciencentral.com have examined the plot and have asked how realistic is the premise that water might be a country's most valuable resource. Check it out... (don't worry, no spoilers)

Google Mobile App - Voice Search On The iPhone

Google has added voice search to the Google Mobile App for the iPhone. With the app running a user simply has to put the phone to their ear, wait for the beeb, and speak their search query. Taking things a step further Gummi Hafsteinsson, Product Manager says on the Official Google Blog "When you do local searches, Google Mobile App can now automatically use your location to make results more relevant to where you are."

Now if only Google could read your mind and provide you with the search results... on second thought, no!

Space Station To Get Extreme Makeover

The Space Shuttle Endeavour docked with the International Space Station on Sunday afternoon bringing with it a second toilet, sleeping compartments, exercise equipment and a water regeneration system to support an extra 3 long term crew members. There are also 4 space walks planned for the Endeavour crew to work on the stations power system. The astronauts plan to clean a huge rotary joint needed to pivot solar panels to face the sun, the joint was shut down last year when it was found that it contained metal filings.

CBC Story.

Flip Video Of Roomba

Here is a brief video that I shot with my new Flip Ultra. It struck me that if you had told me 20 years ago that I would be here today using a filmless video camera, not much larger than the palm of my hand, to film my robotic vacuum cleaner, and then I'd transfer this video to a computer somewhere in the world so that anyone could view it... I'd have called you nuts!

I'm really enjoying the Flip Ultra. It's dead easy to use and a great size for stuffing in a pocket and taking on the road. However, I'm afraid that I'll have to buy more hard drive space, or at least be a whole lot more selective about what I save.