Technically Speaking

The browser wars are heating up, as the first beta of Firefox 2.0 is due on Tuesday July 11th, and Internet Explorer version 7.0 is now on it’s third beta release.

Firefox fans, and browser junkies have an opportunity to get a jump on Tuesday’s beta, as a public “release candidate” has been posted on the Mozilla FTP site. This nightly build is finally feature complete, although it’s still not completely ready for mass consumption.
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Reports from early testers compliment two of the significant new features: an integrated spell checker, and an anti-phishing tool. The spell-checker promises to make blog and forum postings more lucid. The phishing filter (an integrated component of IE 7.0 as well) works with locally stored lists of bad sites, along with Google’s site listing, and possibly others down the road.

The rest of the interface stays mostly the same, unlike the more radical changes in IE 7.0. Firefox 2.0 does include a horizontal scrolling capability for tabs, and an ability to close a tab directly from within the tab itself. The Options dialog has been reworked to include a horizontal, tabbed based interface, and numerous changes have been made under the hood.

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Some of you may know that I have been spending much of my time doing photography as of late. I am on the Canon bandwagon, I shoot with the Canon 20D. I’ve been using Canon equipment for about six years ago starting with the Canon G1. Each year Canon busts out with new and revolutionary advances in their equipment, this year is no different. I have been waiting for some time to see what the specs for the new DSLR, the 30D, would be. I am pleased to say that they are almost exactly what I was hoping for. Some of the improvements I like are, spot metering, ISO setting can now be viewed in viewfinder and a bigger view screen. (2.5 inches). There are quite a few more and definitely something that will entice you to either buy the model or upgrade from your existing model.

* 8.2 Megapixel APS-C size CMOS sensor
* 5 fps and 30 large JPEG frame burst
* 2.5”, 230K pixel, 170º wide viewing angle LCD screen
* Picture Style image processing parameters
* Spot metering and High Precision 9-point AF system
* DIGIC II image processor with 0.15 sec start-up time
* Digital Photo Professional RAW processing software
* 100,000 cycle shutter durability and rugged magnesium alloy body
* Simultaneous RAW and JPEG recording
* Wide 100-3200 ISO range
* E-TTL II Flash
* PictBridge compatibility
* Complete compatibility with all Canon EF and EF-S lenses and EX-series Speedlites
* USB 2.0 Hi-Speed and Video Out connectivity

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I found a couple of great articles for the recently announced 30D, dpreview and Rob Galbraith Digital Photography Insights. Do check them out for more information about the Canon 30D.

Rumor has it that Wyse Technology Inc is going to provide the hardware for Google’s new low-cost PC. The cost of their PC will be a low low price of $200. This is meant to be sold wordwide and if this all goes well then it would be expected that every household would have a PC alongside the TV.

The Internet giant reportedly is in talks with retailer Wal-Mart Inc. to sell the PCs, with the hardware being provided by Wyse and Google bringing in the software.

Wyse President and CEO John Kish mentioned during a presentation at the Red Herring Fall 2005 conference last month that his company was in discussions with Google focusing on a $200 PC that would be targeted at developing markets such as China and India, part of Wyse’s greater push to bring technology to such countries.

Google’s reported negotiations with Wal-Mart suggest a plan to sell such systems not only in emerging markets but also in such countries as the United States.

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Apple is stretching their iPod line to as thin as it can go. They have come out with a pencil thin version of the iPod that hold 1000 songs. The new addition to the product line is called iPod Nano and I must say that it will make it even easier to carry your music with you everywhere you go.

Quick stats.

Only .27 inches thin and 1.5 ounces, iPod nano packs a lot into its diminutive design. Up to 14 hours of battery life(1). 2GB or 4GB of storage.(2) A bright color display. The Apple Click Wheel. A Dock connector that fits an entire ecosystem of iPod accessories. With so many features like these, iPod nano can change the way you listen to music — and more. Click on a feature to see it on the iPod nano display, then read about it here

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This is newly posted to the Apple website and orders are being taken so hurry up and get in on it now.

This news comes as somewhat of a shock. Apple will cease to use the IBM chip architecture in their PowerPCs. In actuality, Apple has been preparing for this switch for sometime now, as Jobs explains:

In his speech, Jobs revealed that Apple has been developing all versions of OS X since its inception to run on Intel and PowerPC chips.

“Mac OS X has been leading a secret double life the past five years,” he said.

The move to Intel marks a tectonic shift for Apple, which has used processors from IBM and Motorola (now Freescale Semiconductor) throughout the life of the Mac. However, the company has changed architectures before, shifting in the 1990s from Motorola’s 68000 family of chips to the PowerPC architecture jointly developed by IBM and Motorola.

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The main reason for the switch is that the future of the IBM PowerPC chips has nearly come to an end. They can’t squeeze much more performance out of it and Apple was hoping to have a 3Ghz machine in 2006. With the PowerPC this would be possible.

As for why Apple was making the shift, Jobs pointed both to past problems and to the PowerPC road map, which he said won’t deliver enough performance at the low-power usages needed for powerful notebooks.

Two years ago at the same conference, Jobs introduced the first G5-based Power Macs and promised developers that the company would have a 3GHz PowerMac within 12 months. The company still doesn’t have a machine that fast. “We haven’t been able to deliver,” he said. Nor has Apple been able to introduce a G5-based laptop–something Jobs said “I think a lot of you would like.”

Things weren’t looking better in the coming months, Jobs said, saying that IBM’s PowerPC road map would only deliver about a fifth the performace per watt as a comparable Intel chip.

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With this change, I think that Apple will be able to tap into Microsoft’s market a lot easier. It might even be possible to have machines dual boot Longhorn and Leopard. An interesting thought, heh.

Yesterday, the world’s largest passenger plane, a double deck plane, successfully completed a 4 hour test flight. The Airbus A380 is visioned as the future of air travel with room for 840 people total. When it is in production the likely configuration setup for 3 classes will seat 555 passengers with options like bedrooms, gyms, bars, spacious lounges and even a basketball court. In addition to all of that, Airbus states the A380 will use 20% less fuel and will fly quieter, cheaper and more environmentally friendly than the 747.

The A380 is Airbus’s answer to the Boeing 747. Here are the stat comparing the planes and the future plans of Boeing in the super jumbo jet arena.

The Boeing 747 had dominated the jumbo-jet market for more than three decades, and the company has left open the possibility of trying to rev up dormant sales. Meanwhile, Airbus highlights these selling points for its plane, vs. the 747. The A380:

• Has at least 35% more seats. Depending on airlines’ specific orders, it can accommodate between 555 and 800 passengers.

• Flies 10% farther without refueling.

• Is more fuel efficient.

Instead of replacing the aging 747 with a new goliath-size plane, Boeing is championing the development of a 250-seat 7E7 Dreamliner. The high-tech, superlight plane can fly between almost any two airports in the world. The 7E7 is expected to be unveiled at the end of next year.

Steven Udvar-Hazy, CEO of International Lease Finance, the largest customer for both Boeing and Airbus, says there’s a need for both the 7E7 and the A380. “I don’t think the two compete as much as the press has made out of it. They serve two different segments of the market.” At the same time, Udvar-Hazy says, “Boeing miscalculated the 747 replacement market.”

Airbus has orders for almost 150 A380s. It expects to break even with another 100 orders.

None of the financially strapped U.S. airlines has placed an order. U.S. transport companies FedEx and UPS have ordered cargo versions of the A380.

Nevertheless, the plane should be much in evidence in a few years to passengers flying high-volume international routes such as London Heathrow to New York John F. Kennedy.

“The A380 is critical for us,” says Eryl Smith, director of planning and development at Heathrow. “It will change the face of Heathrow and the face of long-haul travel.”

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Currently, four prototypes will be used in a 2200 hours flight test programme lasting 15 months. Then upon certification the plane will hopefully go into production in the third quarter of 2006. Australian carrier Qantas became the first airline to commit to U.S. flights, announcing here that it will begin using the A380 between Melbourne and Los Angeles starting in October 2006.

The three robot teams, two from the US and one from Switzerland, brought their robotic arms to Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices Conference in San Diego, California. Each team was hoping to have there devices stand up to the world’s strongest man in a wrestling match. So in moving towards that goal, they started the contest against a slightly weaker opponent, a 17-year-old girl named Panna Felsen. Although Panna calls herself a weakling, she managed to defeat each arm in a matter of seconds.

Despite her lack of strength, training and technique, she was able to conquer the first arm, developed by Environmental Robots Inc. from Albuquerque, New Mexico, in just 24 seconds. Following this, and a pep talk from an arm wrestling expert, it took her just four seconds to beat the second arm and three seconds for her to win the last match.

Two champion arm wrestlers oversaw the matches to ensure that standard arm wrestling rules were observed. The three robot teams are now trying to work out what went wrong.

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It is obvious that the new technology used in this contest needs to mature a bit before the ultimate goal can be reached. EAP artificial muscles, the technology used in this contest, are special plastics that can change shape when activated either electrically or with chemicals.

Nevertheless, the drive to develop EAP artificial muscles is unlikely to be deterred by this setback because of the need to overcome the current limitations with existing actuators and motors.

Electric motors tend to be too weak, while hydraulics and pneumatics are too heavy for use in robotics or prosthetics. EAPs, in comparison are lightweight, quiet and capable of energy densities similar to biological muscles.

The three robot teams, two from the US and one from Switzerland, each used different types of EAPs for their arms. The Virginia Tech group had three sets of chemically activated muscles acting on the shoulder joint, triggered by hydrochloric acid which caused the EAP strands to contract. Unfortunately, as it turned out, it only started to work a few minutes after its match had ended.

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Andrea Alù and Nader Engheta of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia have conceived a technology that may exceed the capabilities of the current sophisticated camouflage systems used today. Their concept involves using Plasmon waves, which will reduce the scattering of light when it strikes an object. That scattering of light is what makes object visible to the eye.

The key to the concept is to reduce light scattering. We see objects because light bounces off them; if this scattering of light could be prevented (and if the objects didn’t absorb any light) they would become invisible. Alù and Engheta’s plasmonic screen suppresses scattering by resonating in tune with the illuminating light.

Plasmons are waves of electron density, caused when the electrons on the surface of a metallic material move in rhythm. The researchers say that a shell of plasmonic material will scatter light negligibly if the light’s frequency is close to the resonant frequency of the plasmons. The scattering from the shell effectively cancels out the scattering from the object.

For visible-light shielding, says Engheta, nature has already provided suitable plasmonic materials: silver and gold. To reduce the scattering of longer-wavelength radiation such as microwaves, one could make the shield from a ‘metamaterial’: a large-scale structure with unusual electromagnetic properties, typically constructed from arrays of wire loops and coils.

Alù and Engheta’s calculations show that spherical or cylindrical objects coated with such plasmonic shields do indeed produce very little light scattering. It is as though, when lit by light of the right wavelength, the objects become extremely small, so small that they cannot be seen.

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The idea is still in the theoretical stage but it appears to be sound from a physics standpoint. Also according to theory, the technology will work better on small objects, optimally, it will work best when the wavelength of the light is the same size as the object being shielded, which basically means ‘microscopic’ items. At this point the object can’t be shielded from daylight because it is made up of various light wavelengths, and the Plasmonic cover will work when it is tuned to one specific light frequency. The theory is new and is sure to change when it is understood better. So don’t rule out the possibility of having a cloaking device just yet.

Australia’s CSIRO research organization has released a ground breaking technology for delivering indexed video content. Annodex search tool provides actual video content with detailed summaries, interactivity through video, and hyperlinks to additional material. CMML is the dubbed name behind Annodex, and it allows for website to be constructed using video instead of text. This open source technology is free for download and is currently available in Debian GNU/Linux.

The CSIRO has dubbed the technology behind Annodex Continuous Media Markup Language, or CMML. According to the organisation, “CMML does for time-continuous media what HTML does for text. It allows the user to search, access, navigate and query”.

Project leader Dr Silvia Pfeiffer told ZDNet Australia this morning that the reason the organisation chose Firefox as a development platform over Internet Explorer (IE) was the fact that Firefox’s plugin architecture was easier to work with and the browser was supported across several platforms. The CSIRO had initially tried to develop Annodex for IE, but found that Microsoft’s browser had numerous security holes.

Currently the software only supports playback of media webs that are encoded using the open source Ogg Theora (for video) and Ogg Vorbis (for audio) codecs. Pfeiffer said that the choice to use the Ogg codecs was based on the need for Annodex to be royalty-free and available to all users. In contrast, formats such as MPEG2 or MPEG4 have licences that “have to be paid for”. In addition, according to Pfeiffer, while Theora does not have as high a compression ration as MPEG4, it is “quality wise as good as the MPEG2 format,” and only “one level of quality behind the top-level compression codecs”.

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Checkout the CSIRO website to try the technology for yourself.

How much PC power can be put into the shell of a Mac Mini? Here is another example of someone tinkering with a perfectly good machine but this time there seems to be a valid reason behind it. Kevin Rose, of The Screen Savers fame, has taken it upon himself to do an extreme modification of the Mac Mini to see how much PC power per square inch can be put in its case. Of course, the first step would be to gut the Mac Mini and stuff it full of PC components. Using thee parts list below Kevin walks use through the process.

Parts needed:

Nano-ITX Motherboard
Laptop IDE HD 2.5” (any capacity)
40 to 44pin IDE converter
Motherboard risers
Sears Tap kit

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Now I said that this was done for the sake of technology, but Kevin has not given us the benchmarks that answer the initial question; “How much PC power can be put into the shell of a Mac Mini?” I’m confident that we will see the results shortly, we will just have to wait patiently.

NIAC (NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts), is looking into te possibility of a superconducting magnetic radiation shielding system to supplement (or replace) traditional passive shielding. Jeffery Hoffman, a former astronaut, is heading up the research funded by NASA.

The idea of using a magnetic field to shield a craft from radiation is not new; as Dr. Hoffman points out “the Earth has been doing it for billions of years!” Using magnetic shielding was proposed in the late 1960’s, but not pursued after plans for further space exporation were scrapped.

Two types of radiation need to be addressed, according to William S. Higgins, an engineering physicist who works on radiation safety at Fermilab, the particle accelerator near Chicago, IL:

* Solar flare protons (which would come in bursts following a solar flare)
* Galactic cosmic rays (a continuous background radiation)

The easiest way to protect against this radiation is to absorb it. However, such shielding can be massive, and cosmic rays can interact with the shielding and create secondary charged particles, worsening the situation. The primary benefit of using magnetic shielding is to save on the mass required for traditional absorption technologies. The mass of the spacecraft, which must be lifted off from the Earth and placed in orbit, directly drives the cost of space systems. Reducing the amount of mass would make space exploration more affordable and therefore more sustainable over the long term.

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The Earth naturally protects us through the same method so logically the idea should work. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS),is scheduled to be tested at the ISS, results will give insight as to what it will take to maintain a magnetic field of considerable strength and the near-absolute zero temperatures.

The project will be tackled in two phases.

Phase I research studies the shielding efficiency of the baseline design, and would begin conceptual systems design. Phase II would provide a detailed comparison of magnetic shielding with traditional passive absorption technologies, and detail how to integrate the magnetic shield into a spacecraft.

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CIB is the name of the latest storage system IBM is working on. The main purpose behind the idea is to provide a space saving yet easily configurable medium for mass storage of data. The CIB can be simply stacked together, as if you are building a wall, and they will intelligently work together as one storage unit.

CIB is an effort to make highly reliable storage systems from less-reliable standard components, said Robert Gardner, a research center staff member and co-leader of the development project at IBM. The storage units are literally designed as square bricks that can be assembled into large, Rubik’s Cube-like blocks.

Each brick has its own CPU, memory, cache and networking connections. This makes the brick “appliance-like and easy to add by end-users,” Gardner said.

Individual bricks can have varying amounts of storage capacity of up to 80 GB. The bricks can be assembled into systems containing terabytes or even petabytes of storage capacity.

Rather than using typical wire prongs or plugs, the bricks are connected with a novel technology called “capacitive coupling,” in which one block is mated to the next through a conductive plate. Gardner displayed two different prototype couplers, one made of Mylar and the other of thin ceramic. The couplers are actually able to transmit data through the extremely thin layer of air between one brick and the next., Gardner said.

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IBM has also developed a water cooling system, IceCube technology, to answer the cooling needs of the bricks. By using water cooling, IBM storage bricks can save up to 7 times the floor space needed for the equivalent in traditional storage setups. The experimental IceCube technology may also be release as a separate product. No timelines were given as to when we may see these things in production.

The spin Hall Effect, named after American physicist Edwin Hall, was discovered in 1879. Today, with the coming of semi-conductors, the Hall effect is used in a variety of devices. This Hall effect is produced by the charge of an electron. There is another way to produce the effect and that is through the spin of an electron.

The Hall effect comes in two varieties itself: spin and charge.

In 1879, when Edwin Hall was monitoring an electric current — that is, a moving charge — in a magnetic field, he observed a measurable voltage.

He attributed the effect to the force a magnetic field exerts on moving charge carriers, pushing them to one side of the conductor and building up charge on that side.

The charge buildup ultimately balances the magnetic force, producing a measurable voltage between opposite sides of the conductor.

Today’s sensors and electronics make liberal use of this plain-vanilla “Hall effect.”

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The spin Hall Effect was first predicted in 1971 by Russian physicists M.I. D’yakonov and V. I. Perel; they predicted that current-carrying electrons with opposite spins would move toward opposite sides of a semiconductor wire. The prediction hasn’t been proved/observed until now (2004).

Potential applications of the spin Hall effect may include “sensing technologies, potential pathways towards shuttling spin information in semiconductors, as well as quantum computing and quantum communication,” said Awschalom, who directs the UCSB Center for Spintronics and Quantum Computation.

But he added, “The most exciting aspect of this finding is that you don’t know exactly where it’s going to lead.”

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Lexar introduces it’s new form factor in flash memory cards. It is designed for universal and superior interoperability to bring next generation storage, connectivity and utility products to a broad variety of computing, consumer electronics and mobile electronics devices. There really isn’t anything new about the memory itself, this all seems to be about the packaging. The card will be able to fit into any industry standard USB Type A socket, which will make the need for card readers nonexistent.

Lexar’s USB FlashCard will be the first product based on the new form factor. The USB FlashCard will offer universal plug and play connectivity with all modern operating systems leveraging the ubiquity of the USB interface. Lexar plans to introduce Full-Speed USB versions in 16MB, 32MB and 64MB capacities as well as Hi-Speed USB versions in 64MB, 128MB, 256MB, 512MB and 1GB capacities with a high performance 60MB/s interface speed in 2005.

“Lexar’s USB FlashCard will offer unparalleled ease of use by leveraging the pervasive USB interface”, said Petro Estakhri, Chief Technology Officer, Lexar. “Moving forward, our intent is to leverage the open standard to create technology that is feature rich in terms of security, provides an easy interface and is built on an environmental design that meets general standards for almost all of today’s computing, consumer and mobile electronics devices using non-volatile storage.”

The USB FlashCard is designed to fit into any industry standard USB Type A socket. Lexar is working with connector manufacturers to offer an extended USB Type A socket to be used in consumer electronics devices and mobile applications such as digital still cameras and handheld computers. The USB FlashCard sockets would accommodate the USB FlashCard inside of a camera similar in use to other forms of flash memory cards.

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Toyota has a vision of personal vehicles for the 21st century. Personal mobility devices, concept vehicles and helper robots, will be on display at the Toyota stand at the Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan, in March 2005.

Built using environmentally friendly plant-based materials, the single passenger unit is equipped with intelligent transport system technologies that allow for safe autopilot driving in specially equipped lanes.

The model allows the user to make tight on-the-spot turns, move upright amongst other people at low speeds and can be easily switched into a reclining position at higher speeds.

Body colours can be customized to suit individual preferences and a personal recognition system offers both information and music.

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Toyota seems to be steering their innovative juices towards the advancement of wearable exoskeletons. I’m sure the interest for these types of inventions are high in the military arena, but will there be a demand in the civilian sector? The description of these devices give me the thought that the Segway is actually making good on its promise to revolutionize the world. The ideas in the Toyota prototypes enhance some of the already used mobility ideas by putting a coolness factor to them. Gone are the days of the motorized wheelchair, soon we will see the mobility challenged moving in style.

The Google Scholar site is a new search tool Google released yesterday. The tool’s purpose is to help search academic research filed within Google’s massive index. Through specialized algorithms this is the first attempt to separate out specific content in Google’s system. If the beta site is successful, Google could start offering custom search sites on specified topics in the very near future.

Although Google already had been indexing the reams of academic research online, the company hadn’t been able to separate the scholarly content from commercial Web sites.

By focusing on the citations contained in academic papers, Google also engineered its new system to provide a list of potentially helpful material available at libraries and other offline sources.

The scholarly search effort continues Google’s effort to probe even deeper into content available online and offline. Last month, Google expanded a program that invites publishers to scan their books into the search engine’s index, enabling people to peek at the contents online before deciding whether to buy a copy.

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Bill Gates announced, at the Microsoft IT Forum in Copenhagen, Denmark, that biometric and smart cards will be the direction of the future for security authentication. He has decreed the change to smart cards for his company and believes that this is a good thing because, “We’re finally seeing leading edge customers taking that step,” said Gates.

“A major problem for identity systems is the weakness of passwords,” Gates said. “Unfortunately, with the type of critical information (protected by) these systems, we aren’t going to be able to rely on passwords. Moving to biometric and smart cards is a wave that is coming, and we see our leading customers doing this.”

Gates added that Microsoft plans to issue smart cards to its employees for accessing the company building and their computers. The system will be based on Microsoft’s .Net technology.

“In time, we will completely replace passwords,” Gates said. “Having the .Net capability, we are very excited to see smart cards moving into this framework.”

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Microsoft shaping the future again, any bets on how it will eventually turn out?

The European Space Agency has successfully navigated a ion propulsion vehicle into orbit around the moon. This is the first craft of such type to accomplish the feat.

The s-called SMART-1 spacecraft blasted off from Kourou, French Guiana, Sept. 27, 2003, on top of an Ariane 5 rocket, the Washington Post reported.

Since then its ion propulsion engine has been slowly moving the spacecraft by expelling positively charged atoms, or ions, of the gas xenon, accelerated by an electrical field inside the spacecraft’s engine.

The engine does not combust fuel; rather it splits atoms with electricity to get ions, accelerates them at high speed, and then ejects them, driving the spacecraft forward. SMART-1 generates its electricity by converting sunlight with outsize solar arrays that give the spacecraft a 45-foot wingspan.

Although ion propulsion does not generate much thrust, nothing slows it down in space so it constantly accelerates. Now that it has entered Moon orbit it will use the ion engine to slow down and study the lunar surface.

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Some time ago Engadget wrote about a robot pill that you can swallow and it would walk through your intestines taking pictures. Well the picture above shows the robot pill. Right now it looks as if it is fitted for an elephant or at least a horse. Hopefully, if the aim is to use it on humans, we will see some significant reduction in size in later models.

A new prototype vehicle, by Nissan, that incorporates a multimedia platform capable of showing up to 4 moving images on an onboard screen at once, will be displayed at this year’s World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems. With several cameras located on the car, the driver will be able to see all things around them. The prototype will display the latest in safety equipment as well as multimedia capabilities. And to top it all off, the car is IEEE 1394-Compatible.

The car is fitted with one monitor in the front and another in the rear seat area. Depending on the chosen mode, the front seat monitor can display up to four images at one time from seven different cameras mounted at the front, side and rear of the vehicle, giving the driver all-round visibility including blind spots. Simultaneously, the rear seat monitor can show DVD images.

The multimedia capabilities are made possible by the adoption of a high-speed 1394 optical fiber network communications system which allows a data transmission rate of 400 Mbps (mega-bites per second). Whereas conventional analogue cables are only capable of transmitting one image, the optical network communications system allows the transmission of multiple images.

The high-speed 1394 optical network communications system is built with optical fiber compatible with the IEEE 1394 data communications standard. Data transmission over bus systems compatible with IEEE 1394 has already been implemented for personal computers, digital cameras and other consumer electronics products.

The application of optical fiber also means that the weight of the cables can be reduced to about one-half the weight of a conventional wiring harness.

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