I don't know who has the pockets and the space to install Hydrofloors—mechanically operated tiles that sink into the ground slowly, revealing a swimming pool already full of water—but I want to meet them. Watch them in action:
According to the manufacturer, the system is "nearly invisible" and you can adjust the depth of the swimming pool to any depth just by using a control panel. I wonder if my downstairs neighbor will mind it if I install one. [Hydrofloors via Notcot]
NASA Announces Agency Center Management Changes
"Arthur E. "Gene" Goldman, who has been the director of Stennis since November 2008, has been named deputy director of Marshall. Patrick Scheuermann, the deputy director at Stennis will take over as the Stennis director. Stennis houses many of NASA's rocket propulsion test capabilities and applied science programs. Marshall's work includes propulsion systems, engineering, science, space operations and other work in support of NASA missions. As previously announced, Woodrow Whitlow, Jr., the Glenn center director, has been named the associate administrator for Mission Support at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Ray Lugo, the deputy director at Glenn, has been named acting director."
After years of Mini DVI and Mini DisplayPort, will Apple really give us HDMI? A bucketful of rumors from AppleInisider say HDMI is replacing DVI in the next Mac minis, and reveals a long lost audio/video Mini DisplayPort adapter.
The new Mac mini, according to AppleInsider, will ditch its old DVI port for HDMI, which'll sit next to the Mini DP port. The reason Apple's interested in HDMI is that it delivers audio along with video over a single port, unlike the current MiniDP spec. The catch, though, is that these new Mac minis use Nvidia's MCP89 chipset, meaning they'll likely be Core 2 Duo machines still—not yet getting the upgrade to Core i3/i5/i7.
In terms of other Macs, the audio/video problem still exists, so what Apple had cooked up to go with those Blu-ray players that never happened in the latest iMacs is a proprietary DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapter that carried audio and video through a customized Mini DisplayPort. We might see this revised Mini DP port in the next MacBook revision though, and the adapter that goes with it.
The updated Mini DisplayPort with audio sounds like the most logical option for Apple, rather than backtracking to HDMI after purposely shunning it. Just give me one port that carries both audio and video—I don't care what you call it—and some way to plug it into another display or plug other stuff into the Mac, and I'll be happy. [AppleInsider]
Please help me ,to make it run.......
I have single ohase 7kw genset, trying to start 4 hp single phase air compressor,when the swith on gen set overload and stop ....
thanx
Sure, you could just sit tight and wait until mega ISO camera sensors give all of our cameras flawless night vision, but what if you have a Micro Four Thirds camera right now? Then this lens will do just fine.
Noktor's HyperPrime 50mm has something I've only seen one other time in a consumer lens: an aperture diameter larger than its focal length. In performance terms, this means that the lens lets in twice as much light as an already dead-fast ƒ1.4 lens, letting you crank down your camera's ISO settings to capture a cleaner picture. In photographic terms, this means that you'll only be able to focus on a paper-thin plane, giving your photos—assuming you're focusing on something close by—an extreme depth of field effect.
The lens ships in April for $750, but given the extraordinary aperture size, reasonably high price and relatively unknown manufacturer, and full manual operation—that's right, no auto focus—it's probably best for you Micro Four Thirdsers to wait until this thing proves its prowess. [Noktor via DPReview via Wired]
can i download a free plc training
The invention of the microscope allowed scientists to peer into the tiniest of cells. Now, imagine a device that can not just look into minute cells, but can also listen in on their activities.
A team of scientists is building a “micro-ear” that uses tiny beads and lasers to amplify and measure vibrations on a molecular scale. The team hopes the new device will become standard lab equipment soon, allowing scientists to listen to the movement of bacteria such as E. coli as well as microorganisms that cause diseases like sleeping sickness [The Daily Beast].
The micro-ear is based on an established technology that uses laser light to measure tiny forces. The “optical tweezers” work by suspending very small glass or plastic beads in a beam of laser light. Measuring the movement of these beads as they are jostled by tiny objects allows measurements of tiny forces that operate at molecular scales [BBC]. The optical tweezer is so sensitive, it can measure a piconewton force, which is a millionth of the force that a grain of salt exerts when resting on a tabletop [BBC]. But unlike the optical tweezer, where one single laser beam measures the forces exerted by tiny objects, the micro-ear would use a circle of bead-bearing laser beams to listen to the object in question.
Scientists say this circle of laser beams can pick up the motion caused by bacteria as they use their flagella to motor forward. That motion causes the ring of electrically-charged beads to wobble by different amounts, and all those wobbles are measured using a high speed camera. That output is then connected to a speaker, so that researchers can hear the bacteria’s vibrations. The device has already picked up Brownian motion, letting researchers listen to atoms and molecules sloshing about in a fluid. The new micro-ear could also help scientists understand how harmful bacteria move, and how drugs can be used to stop them in their tracks.
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Image: iStockphoto
Reader note: A few days ago I again saw the "Step Forward" commercial that was run a lot after Obama was elected with its notable quote "Where's my moon" on TV. The commercial indicates we are to go to USAService.org I did so in hopes of obtaining some inspiration. I wound up at http://www.inauguralstore.com/. I could only laugh! Try it for yourself.
Famed space artist Robert McCall, 90, dies, Collectspace
"An artist whose visions of the past, present, and future of space exploration have graced U.S. postage stamps, NASA mission patches, and the walls of the Smithsonian, Robert McCall died on Friday of a heart attack in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was 90."
The late, great Robert McCall, Miles O'Brien
"When the congregation decided to add a small, chapel-in-the-round for smaller ceremonies a few years ago, they called upon this artistic pair in their midst to design the stained-glass windows. ... Not long after it was finished, and not long after the Challenger disaster, the widow of the commander of the doomed flight, June Scobee visited here. After gazing into the glass and reflecting, she told the McCall's she knew where her husband was. The McCalls' eyes glisten as they recount the story."
Challenger Center Mourns the Death of Space Artist Robert T. McCall, Challenger Center
"Bob's artistic talent and imagination helped us to create the concept and design for Challenger Center, and he remained a close friend and supporter. My heart goes out to his wife Louise and his entire family," said June Scobee Rodgers, Challenger Center's Founding Chairman. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in McCall's honor to the Challenger Space Center of Arizona, 21170 North 83rd Ave, Peoria, AZ 85382, http://www.AZChallenger.org."
hello friends..m in final year (last semister)of chemical engg & have first class in aggregate..m also doing diploma course in "piping & materials".
I m looking 4 a job in pipng design field..cud any1 suggest me 4 d same..!!!!
Panasonic is going to be rolling out production of Li-ion batteries that use a silicon alloy anode soon, according to Nikkei. The result? A whopping 30% increase in capacity. Panasonic's not the only company working on the technology, but they're the first to yield any kind of spec detail.
The Si-alloy batteries are expected to retain at least 80% capacity even after 500 charge/recharge cycles, and will be available commercially starting in 2012. The first target: notebooks, although the bigger fish appears to be vehicles. Don't get to excited about the impact on electric cars, though: given the additional weight associated with Si-alloys, it'll be some time before we see one of these bad boys in a Volt. [Nikkei via Engadget]
An analyst is reporting that "an unspecified production problem at the iPad's manufacturer, Hon Hai Precision, will likely limit the launch region to the US and the number of units available to roughly 300K."
Analysts make poofy, speculative claims that we ignore all the time, but Canccord Adams' Peter Misek here is reporting that there is an actual "unspecified production problem" happening at Foxconn (the prettier name for Taiwanese manufacturer Hon Hai Precision) resulting in a "manufacturing bottleneck." Of course, it's possible he's still wrong, and a million iPads will flow freely later this month (ooo, is it March already?).
But a high-demand, low-supply launch wouldn't be the worst thing in the world either. It certainly wouldn't be unprecedented; Christ knows, Amazon and Nintendo that strategy milked it for years. [AppleInsider]
- "What you mean is that you want to signal that you're unselfish and virtuous to the point of self-sacrifice, but that if everyone around you was taking an anti-ageing pill, you'd take one too; you wouldn't pass it up and be the only wrinkly one. You also wouldn't kill yourself when you hit 78 in your futuristic young body, rather you'd look back with nostalgia on those mad days of youth when you thought that death was somehow good. By then you would have learned that you are running on corrupted hardware, and that a lot of your far-mode verbalizations are not really your true preferences. No offence meant - I had to go through this painful realization too."
From Robert Wiblin's Facebook.
There is great clusterfuckassery going on right now on the PlayStation Network, affecting fat PS3s. Sony is working on it and they hope to "resolve the problem within the next 24 hours." Updated
We hope to resolve this problem within the next 24 hours. In the meantime, if you have a model other than the new slim PS3, we advise that you do not use your PS3 system, as doing so may result in errors in some functionality, such as recording obtained trophies, and not being able to restore certain data.
The latest thin PS3 model doesn't have this problem, but if you have a fat PS3, here's what you are facing if you turn it on:
• The date of the PS3 system may be re-set to Jan 1, 2000.
• When the user tries to sign in to the PlayStation Network, the following message appears on the screen; "An error has occurred. You have been signed out of PlayStation Network (8001050F)".
• When the user tries to launch a game, the following error message appears on the screen and the trophy data may disappear; "Failed to install trophies. Please exit your game."
• When the user tries to set the time and date of the system via the Internet, the following message appears on the screen; "The current date and time could not be obtained. (8001050F)"
• Users are not able to play back certain rental video downloaded from the PlayStation Store before the expiration date.
Update: According to some readers, Netflix doesn't work either.
Update 2: Some readers report everything is back to normal.
Keep watching for updates. [Sony]
He may have plastic boobs saggier than Dame Judi Dench, but as Wired points out, this RoboThespian "shows more acting range than some Hollywood stars." The British robot has been programmed to show off a variety of acting abilities.
His creators, Engineered Arts, have made him completely self-supporting, with his torso capable of bending and turning, his arms able to move about, and even basic facial gestures performed. He is powered by compressed air, with the control system sitting in his torso along with the air valves that help him move.
The best bit however is that he can be fully-programmed to perform a script on cue, translating text to speech in English, Spanish, Germany, French and even Mandarin Chinese.
Seen in the videos below is the third version of RoboThespian, the most advanced so far—but also the coolest robot you've never heard of. [RoboThespian via Wired]
Assassin's Creed II is one of the best console games of 2009. And now, Ubisoft has released a top-down multiplayer version of it for the iPhone/iPod touch, free for two days.
The game, which is to the console version of ACII what the original Grand Theft Auto is to GTAIV, features a top-down viewpoint. The goal is to seek out fellow assassins who you're playing over WiFi and...assassinate them. You sneak around by blending in with civilians.
Sound fun? Well, it's free for now but bumps up to $2.99 after 48 hours, so get on it! [iTunes Link]
Florida Space Day in Tallahassee March 3, 2010
"Key representatives from Florida's space industry will visit Tallahassee to participate in Florida Space Day and share the challenges the industry faces in ensuring Florida remains at the forefront of the nation's space program. Florida Space Day is a milestone event that presents an opportunity to educate and bring awareness to Florida legislators on the significance of the aerospace industry and its impact on Florida's economy."
Can anyone tell me how to calculate what thickness of plate is required when blanking off a manufactured open ended pipe. The plates are to welded onto both ends to allow for pressure testing of the item and cut off again afterwards.
Editor
Günter Berghaus
Editorial Board
Matteo D’Ambrosio
Marjorie Perloff
Irina Suboti?
Jorge Schwartz
The last twenty years has seen some major advances in the field of Futurism Studies. What in the first decades after WW II was frowned upon and regarded with political suspicion, has subsequently taken a remarkable development, both in academia and on the art/publication market. Futurism has now come to be regarded as Italy’s most important contribution to modern art and as having left a lasting mark on Italian literature. Consequently, in the 1980s and 90s, a pool of more than 500 artists and writers has been rediscovered, presented to the public by means of exhibitions and publications, and dozens of them promoted to an elevated status in the national pantheon. Every history of art and literature of the past twenty years has accorded Futurism a prominent position in the cultural history of the country.
Outside Italy, the development has been similar. Between 1945 and 1970, few publications were dedicated to the international branches of the Futurist movement, and even less to the leading figures in Italy. This situation changed remarkably after the epochal 1986 Palazzo Grassi exhibition, Futurismo e futurismi. A long series of international exhibitions throughout the Western world raised Futurism to a status on a par with Expressionism, Dada and Surrealism. Consequently, it entered the syllabus in academic institutions and became a standard topic, not only in courses of fine art, design and architecture, but also Italian Studies, Hispanic Studies, Slavonic Studies, Cultural Studies, Theatre History, Music History etc.
This trend has even been surpassed in Eastern and Central Europe. After the demise of the Communist régimes, the historical avant-garde could be thoroughly re-assessed and in many cases for the first time uncovered. A wealth of artistic creativity in the often short-lived democratic States of the 1910s and 20s has come to light, and the central position played by Futurism in it has now been firmly established. This has resulted in over 2,500 publications since the fall of the iron curtain in 1989.
The astounding development outlined above found a peak in the 2009 centenary of the foundation of Futurism. 300 exhibitions, 45 international conferences and an uncountable number of theatre and musical performances, radio and TV broadcasts have given Futurism an unprecedented prominence in the cultural calendar. Futurism Studies as an academic discipline is now firmly established and produces some 300-350 monographs annually (more than half of them outside Italy), tendency still rising. Yet, it is conspicuous that this discipline is strongly compartmentalized, not so much in terms of artistic media, but along national borders. Italian scholars rarely take note of the heaving research that is being carried out in the UK or US, not to mention Russia, Brazil or Germany; but also vice versa, Mexicans or Argentinians tend to be very knowledgeable about creacionismo, ultraismo and estridentismo, but publish few studies on Zenitizam, Zaum-poetry or Poetizmus.
One of the consequences that can be drawn from this situation – and it is one that I have presented, to considerable approbation, at numerous conferences in 2009 – is that the debate on Futurism must become more globalized and be less centred on Italy. Futurism had a world-wide impact and generated many international Futurisms. It made important contributions to numerous avant-garde movements, despite the fact that their agendas only partially overlapped with Marinetti’s aesthetic and political programme.
I have suggested at various academic gatherings in 2009 the founding of an International Yearbook of Futurism Studies, designed to act as a medium of communication amongst a world-wide community of scholars and a forum of debate on the manifold Futurist and para-Futurist phenomena in and outside of Italy. This idea has won widespread support, and half a dozen leading scholars have enthusiastically agreed to serve on the board of such a periodical. More colleagues will be approached in the next months to serve as contributing and consultant editors. Typically, they will be experts on the multifaceted influences of Futurism in their respective country, act as intermediaries to their academic community (especially of young scholars), solicit contributions for the Yearbook and act as referees for essays submitted.
Thus the Yearbook will facilitate contacts across national borders and academic disciplines and establish a global network of academics working in the field of Futurism Studies. The periodical will also act as a coordinating medium for bi-annual regional conferences (the first will take place on East and Central European Futurism, as part of the 2010 EAM conference at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznán/Poland, 9-11 September 2010; a second is planned on Latin-American Futurism for 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, a third on woman Futurists outside Italy for 2014 in Toronto).
The Yearbook will publish essays generated from those conferences, but also contributions focussed on other countries. It will have an interdisciplinary orientation and publish research concerned with literature, fine arts, music, theatre, dance, decorative arts, graphic design, fashion etc. Each volume will have some 250-300 pages and consist of the following sections:
The silicon inside 90 percent of ereaders out there is made by Freescale, and their new chip, the i.MX508—based on a ARM Cortex A8 (sorta like the iPad!)—will make them cheaper, and page turns 4x faster.
The chip's a custom SoC that integrates the functions from multiple chips into one—specifically, the E-Ink hardware display controller—along with that Cortex A8, which gives the readers enough juice to turn pages in half a second, versus the two seconds that's typical now. As the first chip expressly designed for ereaders, it also strips out unnecessary features, so the net result for the ereader is that it's $30 cheaper a unit. Freescale wagers that with the cost savings, it could drive ereaders to under $150 by the end of the year. (Though that in part depends on how much the E-Ink displays themselves are going to continue to cost.)
An E-Ink reader that costs $150 would definitely look more attractive as a dedicated long-reading device against an iPad that does lots of things on top of reading—and has those fancy digital magazines—than the ones that more like $260 today. Then again, Amazon's working on a full-color multitouch Kindle with Wi-Fi, if that tells you anything about the future of E-Ink readers. In the meantime, I'm all for cheaper. [Freescale via Bloomberg via Digital Daily]
