Archive for Technology - page 3

I have contemplated a time or two the imminent Robot Revolution.  These next two stories only add to my paranoia.  Did I say that out loud?  I mean apprehension.

The first story is about scientists who have taught (programmed?) swarms of micro-robots to act in unison to form larger objects or shapes.  They even  title the article “Mini-robots Self-organise into Army”.  You know…like the hordes of androids in the movie “I, Robot”.  That’s reassuring.

The next story is about one of those industries that is uniquely Japanese – the Sex Doll Industry.  Yes, there is a Japanese Sex Doll Industry,  Well, they call them “Dutch Wives”.  Read the story if you don’t believe me.  No, they don’t explain why they call the that, and I’m not sure I want to know.  They are simply detailed, life like poseable dolls with realistic….never mind.  They’re not actual robots – yet.

Anyhoo…the story is about how the industry has reached “the next level” in creating the perfect Dutch Wife.  The only conclusion I can reach is that we are destined to be taken over by a sentient self-organising army of Dutch Wives with perfect skin.  And that could get weird.

It seems like the right time for this – this is fire season.  All over the west, but in California…Northern California in particular.  Since I live near an airfield with a long runway, the occasional large tanker flies over my house.  So why not do a little post with some video of the largest air tanker in operation in the U.S.?  That would be the DC-10 “Rainmaker”.  The McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 is a wide-body airliner that is no longer used for commercial passenger flight.  It’s three engine configuration, with two engines mounted on wing pylons and the third engine mounted at the base of the vertical stabilizer makes it easily identifiable whether on the ground or in flight.  The DC-10 ended production in 1989.

Here’s a Modern Marvels segment that give you the basic facts:

Here’s some footage taken by a news crew that was in the drop zone:

There are only two of these flying, Tanker 910 and Tanker 911.  Quite a machine.  Glad we have ’em.

A minor internet kerfuffle has erupted over the introduction of an app called “Sketch Factor”.  Sketch Factor is a crowd source app where users can upload information they find “sketchy” about their neighborhood or wherever they happen to be.  This is then added to map data and can be used to avoid, or if you’re looking for sketchiness, to find certain neighborhoods.  Some on the internet have declared the app “racist”.  Here’s the logic:

Step 1:  The app was created by two young white people,

Step 2:  All smartphone users are affluent white people,

Step 3:  All white people distrust black people and find them “sketchy”,

Step 4:  Therefore white people will use the app to flag black neighborhoods and black people as “sketchy”.

Step 5:  Racism!

I suppose that my labeling of some neighborhoods as “bad” is confirmation of my “racism”.  I am a firm believer in situational awareness and minimizing risk, and so I would find this app usefull especially if I was in a strange town.  I don’t see at all how that equates to racism.  A lot of the discussion of the app seems centered on Washington, D.C. maybe because the Gawker writer lives there (I think).  Anyway, a Washington D.C. news crew went out to do a story about one of the neighborhoods identified as “sketchy”, and while they were doing man on the street interviews with the residents there something happened:  “but as folks were telling us that it was a good neighborhood, and that not much activity happens around there — as that was being told to us, our van was being robbed.”    

So…Sketch Factor: 10 out of 10.  I wonder if they reported the incident.  Probably not, that would be racist.

Having been busy the last few days I have not had time to note the 45th Anniversaries of the first manned moon landing by Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969 and the first men walking on the moon – Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin on July 21.  I was twelve years old when it happened, and I remember the interest in the event was intense and universal.  It was broadcast live on all three major networks, TV and radio were the only sources for live information at that time – no internet or cable TV yet.  Looking back now, especially at the moon landing sequence, it was a little risky airing it live.  Some years afterward we found out that the landing computer “overloaded” and began spewing error codes, and rather than wasting effort to translate the codes Armstrong and Aldrin shut it off and flew the Eagle in manually.  They landed with 30 seconds of fuel remaining.  Here are some highlights:

People worldwide were glued to their TV sets.  For at least a brief moment, it seemed humanity shared a common dream, embodied by two men and an idea.  It was a monumental feat carried out at great risk.  I do not believe that a mission like this could even be carried out today as risk averse as we seem to be, and as evidenced by the fact that manned space flight has been all but abandoned.  And we are worse off for it.

In case you’re new here, welcome!  And here are a few ins and outs of how my blog operates.  First off, I’m Mike, the sole proprietor.  Pleased to meet you.  This blog is my peronal communication platform, and posts here reflect only my personal opinions.  I claim no expertise in anything.  In other words, if I write about Law, do not use that as legal advice.  If I write about medicine, do not take that as medical advice.  Get the picture?  OK, good.  Since there is no “official” theme to this blog, you will find posts about many different subjects here which may (or may not) fall loosely into one of several “categories” which you will find listed in the right hand sidebar just under the “recent posts”.  If you want the unfiltered blog, that is to see all posts regardless of category, simply start at the top and keep scrolling down.  Newest posts are at the top, and as you scroll down you go back in time.  If you wish to view only posts in a certain category, then find the category you want in the sidebar and click on it.  Voila!  Only posts in that category will be displayed.  Also in the sidebar are listed “popular posts” and “recent posts”.  Popular posts are those most viewed – not neccessarily the best, but most viewed.  For whatever reason.  And recent posts are just that…the most recent posts.  At any time you can click on the “home” button at the top right to bring you back to the top of the front page.

Within each post I will embed links for additional information – whenever you see red text like this you can click on it, and it will open the link in a new tab.  Try it.  Back? OK, good.  Many of the graphics such as pictures, graphs or cartoons may be enlarged simply by clicking on them.  Some of these graphics are mine, others are not. Embedded youTube videos can bel viewed by clicking on the “play” arrow at the bottom left or in the center of the YouTube frame.  Easy.

Finally – comments.  To the left of the post title, under the red date box you will see a grey box that says “comments” with a number in it (usually a zero, unfortunately).  If you wish to leave a comment on a post, click on that box and a dialogue box will appear – type your comment and click “submit”.  If you don’t want to enter your e-mail adress just use a fake one.  I do not work for the NSA.  Comments can be simple – “I like this” or “you are an idiot”.  My favorite one so far is “ha ha ha this”.  I guess he thought the post was funny.  I think that’s about it.  If you have any other questions, leave them in the comments.  Enjoy.

I have not written a post about the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 since May 18th  because there have been no new developments.  Yesterday, however it was reported in the Wall Street Journal that Australian Authorities have announced a new search area and are seeking bids from private contractors to search that area.

Since the plane disappeared on March 8th, thousands of square miles of the Indian Ocean west of Australia have been searched, but have yielded no trace of the missing plane.  The new search area was deduced using a combination of known facts and educated guesswork.  The current assumption is that the plane’s autopilot was switched on (it could not have been accidentally engaged) after the plane deviated from it’s assigned course, and that the plane flew on it’s own for several hours after the crew was disabled, possibly from hypoxia or oxygen depletion.

This is a mystery that may never be solved.  The search area is immense and in arguably the most remote and unfriendly ocean in the world.  Even if the wreck is found it may not hold all the answers to what happened and why.  The investigation continues…

WSJ: Australian Report Postulates Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Lost Oxygen

…Wearable Technology!  When I wrote a few days ago about the evolution of wearable technology, I wondered whether a particular need inspired the technology or if  it was the rise of the technology that manifested the need.  And now I have learned of another use for wearable technology: life-logging.

I have never heard of life-logging, and the fact that I am only now learning about it is a bit of a surprise to me.  Though I’m no techie, I don’t live in a cave either.   Maybe I’m in denial about my cave dwelling.  No matter.  But when I read Rachel Metz’s review of 2 life-logging devices in the MIT Technology Review, I learned that certain “data fanatics and academics” have been life-logging since as early as 1994.  

This post isn’t so much about the performance or practicality of the devices – basically small wearable cameras.  If you want that information I suggest you read Ms. Metz’s review here.  This is more about the actual activity of life-logging;  As in what is it and why do it?  Fortunately for me, Ms. Metz provides the needed background in her review.    Life logging is precisely what it sounds like:  logging chronologically, in real time, the events which you area a party to that make up your life, and compiling or cataloging the information into an archive. To achieve this, one wears a device clipped to the clothing or around one’s neck that continually records images.  Not a video recording, but still shots taken at intervals (like the old school security cameras), I suppose because bandwith and storage isn’t (yet) free so some conservation of data is required.   The author reviews two such devices, the Autographer and the  Narrative.

That takes care of the “how”, now on to the “why?”  In 1998 one of the early adopters, Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell, started to collect as much digital information about his life as he could.  His goal?  To create a searchable archive of his memories.  If you think about it, people have been creating archives of their memories to some extent for a long time already.  How many have kept diaries?  Or compiled photos of special events into albums – albums which are now replaced by digital photo archives both online and off.  Camera phones have become ubiquitous and are now readily at hand to record any daily events whether momentous or mundane.  The progression seems logical – from once daily written records, to photographic records of special occasions, to photographic records of many daily events to life-logging: photographic records of all life’s events – compiled into a searchable archive.  So we don’t forget.

To me, this describes the process of creating a substitute memory – one that doesn’t forget or distort the way our organic memories do.  This is a clinical recording of the data that makes up an individual’s life experiences (assuming narration or dialog could be added).  One that will survive once our organic beings cease to exist.  And it could readily be imagined that in some future time the use of this technology might become as common as smartphone use has become today and that more and more people will compile such archives.  Could or would these archives then be compiled into a super archive – the collected memories of humanity?  And if so would that be a good thing?

What effects might this have on us a human beings?  Do we even understand what our memories mean to us?  It is a fact that our memories of events change over time – some traumantic events we forget altogether.  Is there a purpose to this we don’t understand that may be sidestepped by life-logging?  I am on the record as being skeptical of new technology, though history has also shown that I eventually adopt and conform.  History has also shown that technology often evolves from our servant to become our master; and that if technology can be abused, it will be abused.  

So as technology evolves, so do humans evolve.  We adapt to new technologies and increasingly assimilate them into our very being.  In my opinion, we should tread lightly and thoughtfully.

Cross Posted at Men Out Of Work Blog

My post over at Men Out Of Work Blog

Those sly devils at NASA have been working quietly behind the scenes perfecting their design for a faster than light starship.  According to this article in the UK Daily Mail, NASA reveals warp drive spacecraft designs!  The most important research hurdles have been cleared, and therefore we may be traveling to interstellar destinations in only  a few hundred years.

It has been theorized that faster than light travel is impossible in much the same way it was believed that the sound barrier was impenetrable, but recent breakthroughs have completely changed how the public and journalists view the likelihood of achieving this goal;  We now know that important breakthroughs have brought this accomplishment to the very brink of realization.  The first step toward making this dream a reality was drawing a picture of the proposed spaceship.  Scientists must have said “how can we create warp drive if we don’t have a drawing of a cool spaceship?” Crossing this threshold was such an important first step, artist Mark Rademaker was chosen to complete the task.

Only with this accomplished could the next logical progression  take place, which was to make a movie about interstellar travel.  Not just any movie about how interstellar travel is possible.  A movie showing that interstellar travel is imperative!  To Save Mankind!  With this achievement within reach, only one barrier remains – the discovery of an energy source for the ship.  Scientists are hard at work and have already eliminated some candidates such as Unobtainium and Doesntexistium as not feasible due to their imaginary nature.  After exhausting the search for illusory energy sources, researchers zeroed on on things that actually exist – space and time.  And though there is no process for rendering them into energy, they have achieved the important first step of giving the process a name: “switching on the field”.  This name was chosen for it’s speculative smooth acceleration curve, which also would yield the benefit of allowing the craft to be without seatbelts in order to save precious weight:

“The process of going to warp is also one that is smooth, rather than using a massive amount of acceleration in a short amount of time.  ‘When you turn the field on, everybody doesn’t go slamming against the bulkhead, which would be a very short and sad trip,’ Dr White said.”

Now at last mankind is poised to leap into the great unknown and spread our wisdom, entertainment media and advertising to the farthest reaches of the cosmos!  But can we afford to wait several decades or more to ensure our survival against all those bad things humans have done that will surely wipe us out?  Is it wise to just sit back and hope we make it before Gaia unleashes her certain and terrible revenge upon us?  We have no choice but to wait and find out.

Cross Posted at Men Out Of Work Blog

When I read the headline The Dawn of a Robot Revolution as Army of Machines Escape the  Factory, I confess that  my imagination took me back in time to this:

That’s me. No, not the robot. The robot karate dude

I imagined hordes of malevolent robots escaping their factories, bent on revenge and mayhem against their creator-oppressors.  But in reading the story, it turns out that the revolution is in how and where robotics are used instead of human labor.  A more accurate headline might have been something like “Increasing number of benign machines make cost effective replacement of human labor with robotics more commonplace outside of traditional industrial factory settings”.  However…that loses a little of it’s ooomph…the revised headline could possibly be used to sedate a large animal.  How about you?  Still awake?  Good.

As I like to say, just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get me.  And so the robot conspiracy may yet be underway regardless.  I have heard that robots are a patient lot.  I’d keep an eye on that Automatic Cow Milking Machine if I were you.

Oh..and since it’s Music Friday: