Monthly Archives: February 2010

This Is What Firefox on Android Looks Like Right Now [Android]

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When I first saw this, I was tempted to call fake. I mean, why the hell is a desktop version of Firefox running on Android? What happened to Fennec? But rest assured, this is real—and actually, very encouraging.

Explaining the awkward UI, developer Vladimir Vuki?evi?:

You'll note that this is the full Firefox interface, and not the Fennec/Firefox Mobile UI; we're testing with the full interface because it's significantly more complex than the mobile UI and stresses Gecko much more. So, if the full UI works, then Fennec should work fine as well.

He goes on to say that in its current state, keyboard entry doesn't work and the browser is not at all ready for primetime, but that Android has been "pretty great to work with so far" and that development has been "progressing at a good clip."

While this is clearly more than an experiment and destined for a wide release someday, he doesn't provide a estimate of when Joe Android will be able to download Firefox/Fennec/whatever. For now, knowing that it's more than a myth will have to do. [Vlad1 via AndroidCentral]


Will the Vaccine-Autism Saga Finally End? | The Intersection

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My latest Science Progress blog post riffs on the news about Andrew Wakefield and the Lancet yesterday. In case you didn’t hear:

The Lancet, the prestigious British medical journal, has now gone to the extreme of fully retracting a notorious 1998 paper by gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues, purporting to show a shocking new cause of autism—the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine. Wakefield and his team studied digestion in 12 children with various types of behavioral disorders, nine of whom were autistic, and found inflammation in the intestines. The vaccine was blamed for letting toxins loose into the bloodstream, which not only caused the intestinal problems but, it was conjectured, then also affected the children’s brains.

The 1998 paper hit the British public like a thunderclap, triggering a decline in use of the MMR vaccine as well as a resurgence of the measles. It was the opening shot in the vaccine-autism controversy that still rages today (albeit in varied forms, not all of which still focus on the MMR vaccine). But the credibility of Wakefield’s work has since taken a steady stream of hits, culminating in this last devastating blow.

The post then goes on to relate the whole Wakefield story, and to extrapolate: Now that we know this study has been pretty much totally discredited, whence the vaccine-autism controversy, which the study kicked off back in 1998? Shouldn’t it, too, go away?

Sadly, I’m not optimistic about that happening. You can read why here.


Infrared Cameras Can Spot the Tastiest Beef [Science]

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Good meat is about more than proper marbling. Apparently quality of fat has a lot to do with its flavor, which is why researchers are re-purposing cameras to tell the best cuts from the just OK.

Two teams of Japanese researchers have been using infrared cameras to detect Oleic acid (which signals the presence of tasty, tender omega-9 fatty acids) in Hida-gyu beef. In a recent trial, 14 out of 24 experienced beef experts confirmed that beef determined to be of higher quality through infrared photography testing really was. Now, the team hopes to refine their process so that it's more accurate, while I hope whatever they discover can squeeze into a modded iPhone and correlating app. [Examiner via Switched via Picturephoning][Image by Conny Lundgren]


Aircruise From London To New York In 37hrs (In Concept-Land Only) [Concepts]

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With the Concorde long gone, it's up to big-thinking companies like Seymourpowell to dream up new transatlantic travel routes. Enter the Aircruise, which would be powered by solar power and a hydrogen fuel cell, sailing in the air at 90mph.

Ok, it'd take a while to get from London to New York (37 hours, in fact), so won't be replacing the Concorde any time soon (particularly at concept stage), but the passengers would be treated like kings and queens in their luxurious apartments. It's more akin to the cruise your mother goes on when your dad checks out/checks in with a younger woman.

Just like a glass-bottomed boat, the Aircruise would have glass floors for seeing the land and sea beneath you. It's but a distant future sadly, but one I'm looking forward to. [The Telegraph via The Design Blog via Born Rich]


Verizon Devour Is a Baby Droid With Motoblur [Android]

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Why hello there, slightly smaller Droid! I have so many questions for you. Like, why do you have Motoblur? How much do you cost? When can people buy you? Why aren't you officially part of the "Droid" line?

Apparently nobody's awake in Motorola land right now, so I'll hazard a guess at answer these questions myself, in order: Because Motorola is inexplicably obsessed with Motoblur, which can make any Android phone feel like a feature phone; less than the Droid, and probably about the same as the Droid Eris ($100 or less); the beginning of next month; and I have no idea, because this phone has more in common with the Droid than the Droid Eris does. But anyway, here's what Motorola does tell us the Devour comes with, much of which we were fully expecting:

• A touch-sensitive navigation pad
• A 3.1" capacitive touch screen (to the Droid's 3.7-inch screen)
• Pre-loaded applications such as Gmail, Google Talk, YouTube, Google Search and Google Maps with Google Maps Navigation, which implies that the software is at least Android 1.6, though hopefully 2.0 or 2.1.
• MOTOBLUR, and all the social network-y business that entails.
• An 8 GB microSD card

What we have here is a competent little phone, shrouded in artificially enforced mystery. Is it worth your time? I honestly have no idea, until we have a price. Here's the Full press release below.

UPDATE: Aaaand for a little perspective, here's what it looks like next to a Nexus One. That's a bezelly phone, right there.

Motorola DEVOUR Brings MOTOBLUR To Verizon Wireless' 3G Data Network

MOTOBLUR Service Gives Customers Home Screen Access to Content and Contacts
February 03, 2010

BASKING RIDGE, NJ, and LIBERTYVILLE, IL - Verizon Wireless and Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) today announced the availability of Motorola DEVOUR™ in March. Motorola DEVOUR will be the first Verizon Wireless phone to feature MOTOBLUR™, Motorola's unique Android™-powered content delivery service created to make wireless phones more personal and customizable.

MOTOBLUR is the first solution to sync contacts from work and personal e-mail services, including Gmail™, with posts, messages, photos and more from popular sites such as Facebook®, MySpace and Twitter. With MOTOBLUR, content is automatically delivered to the home screen and fed into easy-to-manage streams.

Key features:

* Touch-sensitive navigation pad
* 3.1" capacitive touch screen
* Pre-loaded applications such as Gmail, Google Talk™, YouTube™, Google Search™ and Google Maps™ with Google Maps Navigation.
* Android Market™ gives users access to more than 20,000 applications.
* Happenings Widget – MOTOBLUR automatically pushes status updates, wall posts and photo updates from popular social networking sites to the Happenings Widget on the home screen. Customers can flick through the latest updates and fire back responses using the slide-out full QWERTY keyboard.
* Universal Inbox – MOTOBLUR gathers texts, social network messages and e-mails into one home screen widget for quick response.
* Back-Up and Security – Contacts, log-in information, home screen customizations, e-mail and social network messages are backed up automatically on the secure MOTOBLUR portal. The portal also allows customers to use the phone's fully integrated aGPS to help locate the phone if misplaced. Remote wipe easily clears information from a lost device.
* 8 GB microSD™ card pre-installed
* Bluetooth® profiles supported: A2DP, HID, HSP, HFP, AVRCP and GAP

Service plans:

* To get the most from Motorola DEVOUR, customers will need to subscribe to a Nationwide Talk or Nationwide Talk & Text plan and a Data Package for smartphones. Nationwide Talk plans begin at $39.99 monthly access, and Nationwide Talk & Text plans begin at $59.99 monthly access. A Data Package for smartphones is $29.99 for unlimited monthly access.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Media can access high-resolution images of Motorola DEVOUR in the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at http://www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.)

MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. Android, Google, Google Maps, Android Market, Google Search, Gmail, YouTube, Google Talk are trademarks of Google, Inc. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. © Motorola, Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.


Designing Axial Flow Impellers

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I am trying to design axial flow fans, but the only reference I have found in my library is in Karassik's Pump Handbook.

He references the method devised by Hill and Peterson and another one by Steppanoff, based on NACA airfoil data. I can't found any of their books and Mr. Karassik didn't fi

The Opening Salvo From Congress

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Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee - Hearing: Key Issues and Challenges Facing NASA: Views of the Agency's Watchdogs

3 Feb 2010 Witnesses:

- Hon. Paul K. Martin, Inspector General, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Ms. Cristina T. Chaplain, Director, Acquisition and Sourcing Management, Government Accountability Office
- Vice Admiral Joseph W. Dyer [U.S. Navy, retired], Chair, Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, National

WEBCAST (I had big problems with this webcast today)

Keith's note: Hmm... Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, known Ares 1 hugger, who is anti-commercial spaceflight and an Augustine critic - and Joe Dyer (ditto) at the same hearing. Gee, I wonder what they will talk about ...

- Key Issues and Challenges Facing NASA, Statement of NASA OIG Paul K. Martin
- NASA Key Management and Program Challenges Statement of Cristina Chaplain, Director Acquisition and Sourcing Management, GAO
- Congressional Hearing on Safety, earlier post

Evolution for kids | Bad Astronomy

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Evolution_coverWe’re having a big problem in America these days, with the forces of antireality on the march to deceive our children. Evolution is a big target for them, of course, and I need not belabor the battle here.

But what can we do? We need to excite kids about the real world, and about evolution in particular. And we need to do it in a wonderful way, grabbing their attention, staying positive, and revealing all the beauty and majesty of the way life has self-propagated on this planet of ours.

Daniel Loxton has come to the rescue! He’s the brain behind Skeptic Magazine’s Junior Skeptic, a terrific feature designed to get young kids thinking. His experience putting that together is clear in his new book, Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be. This book has everything for younger readers: excellent writing, simple yet compelling layout, and a diversity of topics in evolution and its related studies which give the reader a solid background in evolutionary biology. That’s critical, as it gives them a basis on which they can build when they read more about the topic.

And Daniel covers a lot of topics, like transitional fossils, population growth, diversity of species, how we know that life changes over time, mutations, natural selection, and more. He even deals simply and efficiently with the topic of religion at the very end, telling the reader to talk to family, friends, and religious leaders about it. While I might disagree with him a bit (really, just a bit) over the boundaries of religion and science we’ve had a few discussion on Twitter about this — I think he deals with the topic elegantly in the book. After all, the book isn’t about religion, and instead of being arrogant or dismissive, he relies on the book itself being an effective treatment of the topic. I think that was a shrewd move.

And I simply cannot praise the illustrations enough, which were done by Daniel himself. WOW! The drawings are simply magnificent; the Archeopteryx on the cover will grab any kid’s attention, as will the gorgeous T-Rex on the first page. My favorite drawing was this one, which he also uses as a banner for the book:

evolutionbook_ad

It shows two women of different eras, and it beautifully demonstrates our similarities and differences. And the woman on the right is an actual human — Daniel’s wife! — something of a well-known skeptic herself. I bet if you come to TAM with a copy of the book, you can find her yourself and get both her and Daniel to sign it…

I think this book is absolutely terrific, and if you’re looking for a simple statement about it, then how about this? Simply put, I would’ve loved this book when I was a kid. It would have made me want to be a scientist.

You can get buy a copy of Evolution through the Skeptics.com website, or if you donate $100 they’ll send you a copy for free. I know, it’s not really free then, but you’ll be helping out a good group of skeptics, so it’s a good thing to do. If you prefer, it’s also available on Amazon and Amazon.ca.

My suggestion: buy several copies and give them away as gifts to kids. And maybe one for your local school as well. I know they could use it there.


Master Flowmeter Calibration

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Hello, I'm new in the forum and I have this question: is it suitable to perform a master flow meter calibration with water using a prover or seraphin if the intended use is to certify tankers flow meters to dispense fuel to aircrafts? Many thanks!

Travel the Write Way

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Travel for this multi-talented writer is an absolute passion. A passion richly steeped in family history and one Linda Dini Jenkins has shared within her Travel the Write Way entries. She also shares her thoughts about being a writer and how to travel with others relatively stress-free.

Sony’s Latest PS3 Mistake: No More Downloadable AAA Titles [PS3]

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I just want to take anyone from Sony who's related to the development of the PS3 platform in any way, and shake them until the saboteur witch doctors hired from Nintendo and Microsoft lose their hold.

The latest idea from the Sony braintrust? No more big downloadable titles. So you'll still be able to download little arcade games, but future titles the size of Warhawk will no longer be offered on PSN.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has assembled an impressive library of $20 titles on the 360, and they're intelligently slapping games like, say, Mass Effect on there before Mass Effect 2 comes out. This kind of strategery is good for the game studios, sure, but more importantly, it's convenient for the consumer.

Anyway, Sony is having none of that. Why? Because their platform is heavily invested in 50GB-wielding Blu-ray (which requires hefty installs for some games all the same).

You want to know the chief problem with Blu-ray, Sony? It's that you can't download it. You aren't out of the console fight yet. Pick yourself up, dust off your gloves and attack the world with every tentacle that is Sony's larger development monstrosity.

I grew up listening to a Walkman. This shit kills me. [IGN via Kotaku]


NASA Unveils Commercial Human Spaceflight Development Agreements and Announces $50 Million in Seed Funding for Commercial Crew

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Washington, D.C. – At a National Press Club event to “introduce new commercial space pioneers,” the President’s Science Advisor John Holdren and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden yesterday praised the seven winning companies of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) and Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) competitions. This event followed the announcement on February 1 by the White House that NASA would use commercial spaceflight providers to transport NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.

The President’s Science Advisor praised the “complementary strength between NASA and the private sector in order to make human access both to low-Earth orbit and beyond to deep space faster, safer and more affordable.” NASA Administrator Bolden added that with regard to commercial spaceflight, “It’s not a new idea, but rather, an idea whose time has come. The future is unfolding before us now, and it couldn’t be more exciting… Kids will be able to realistically envision a career that involves space, either going there or using it.”

Bretton Alexander, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, added, “The President’s new commercial crew initiative is on course to accelerate the growth of a vibrant 21st century commercial spaceflight industry, creating thousands of high-tech jobs and inspiring a new generation.”

Executives from Sierra Nevada Corporation, Boeing, United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin, Orbital Sciences, Paragon Space Development Corporation, and SpaceX came to Washington DC to attend the event. Introducing these seven companies and their executives at the press event, Administrator Bolden stated, “These are the faces of the new frontier… We will certainly be adding to this group in the near future.”
SpaceX and Orbital Sciences are the funded participants in NASA’s ongoing COTS program for commercial resupply of the Space Station, and Sierra Nevada Corporation, Boeing, United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin, and Paragon Space Development Corporation were awarded $50 million in seed money for commercial crew through the CCDev program, intended as the precursor to a full $6 billion Commercial Crew Program proposed by NASA. Both the CCDev and COTS programs are commercially structured so that NASA pays only when performance milestones are met.

Alexander added, “To have a large and diverse group of companies present at today’s event, including both established contractors and newer entrants, emphasizes that U.S. industry is ready to handle the task of commercial human spaceflight. Commercial spaceflight means growing an entire industry that will generate returns to our economy and allow America to stop sending billions of dollars to Russia to fly our astronauts.”

In addition to other companies that are developing commercial space vehicles, the seven companies featured in the press conference were:
• Sierra Nevada Corporation, which will receive $20 million in CCDev funds for development milestones for a seven-person spacecraft known as Dreamchaser which will launch on Atlas V.
• The Boeing Company, which will receive $18 million in CCDev funds for development milestones for a seven-person crew capsule for low Earth orbit transportation. Boeing partnered with Bigelow Aerospace, which is developing a series of habitable orbital complexes with two prototypes already in orbit.
• United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin that operates the Atlas and Delta rockets, which will receive $6.7 million in milestone-based CCDev funds to begin developing an emergency detection system for ULA launch systems.
• Blue Origin, which will receive $3.7 million in milestone-based CCDev funds to develop a composite crew test module and a launch escape system for its commercial spaceflight vehicle.
• Orbital Sciences, which has been awarded $171 million in milestone-based COTS funds and received a follow-on contract for International Space Station missions, and is preparing its Taurus II rocket and Cygnus capsule for initial launches in 2011.
• Paragon Space Development Corporation, which will receive $1.4 million in milestone-based CCDev funds for the development of an air revitalization system for use in crewed spacecraft.
• SpaceX, which has been awarded $278 million in milestone-based COTS funds and received a follow-on contract for International Space Station missions, and is preparing its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule for initial launches this year.

About the Commercial Spaceflight Federation
The mission of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) is to promote the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursue ever higher levels of safety, and share best practices and expertise throughout the industry. CSF member organizations include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, and spaceports. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is governed by a board of directors, composed of the member companies’ CEO-level officers and entrepreneurs. For more information please visit http://www.commercialspaceflight.org or contact Executive Director John Gedmark at john@commercialspaceflight.org or at 202.349.1121.

HP TouchSmart 600 Goes All Core i7 on Us [PCs]

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You think you're better than me, TouschSmart 600? You think because you're now configurable with Core i7 720QM (1.6 GHz) or i7 820QM (1.73GHz) processors—starting at $1700—that you've defeated the long-standing caste system separating man and machine?

Well, at least this new option makes you a viable (though a bit Pontiac-looking) replacement for an i7 iMac. Check out what I thought about the Core2Duo version of the TouchSmart 600 here. Then know that the i7 will be the exact same thing but faster. [HP]


Oil Control Piston Rings for Ported Cylinders

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I need to find piston rings that are the same diameter for both a 2 stroke AND a 4 stroke that have oil control piston rings that can tolerate and operate properly in a ported cylinder without the oil control ring deforming, distorting and extruding into the port and breaking as it travels past the