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May 25, 2007
Early Science Fiction Collection on Project Gutenberg
All free, all in the public domain.
You can get you rhands on it a number of ways - the links, etc. are on this page
Posted by dottie at 3:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 24, 2007
reCaptcha - brilliant idea
This is a brilliant idea that kills two birds with one stone.
The Gutenberg Project started the ball rolling with the idea of making public domain literature available to a wide audience. Their idea was to scan books, OCR them into text and make them available on their website. It's a brilliant strategy, one that has allowed me to read a few free novels - turn of the century yes, but still a glittering array of reading material to choose from.
The problem with OCR is that the characters are often misread by the computer. The volunteer scanning the book into the computer needs to meticulously go through the text produced by the OCR process and correct all and any errors. A hugely time-consuming business I'm sure you'll agree.
The second 'bird' that I alluded to is the fact that many sites use a captcha to distinguish between humans and computers. A typical captcha will consist of distorted text that only a human can distinguish correctly. A computer attempting to enter spam onto a comment form will use OCR to distinguish what the text says.
This is where the makers of reCaptcha made the connection. In the book scanning process, the computer fails to recognise the character using OCR, but often a human has no difficulty in distinguishing the word.
Using a cache of problematic OCR'd words as captchas the process of digitising books is somewhat, if not fully, automated. The problematic OCR word is displayed along with an OCR word that is known and if the human correctly guesses the known word the problem word is assumed to be correct. Check that against a few other answers and you can be sure it is.
Brilliant strategy.
Posted by dottie at 9:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Google pushing vastly more efficient PSU's
The typical Power Supply Unit (PSU) in a PC converts only about 50-60% of the AC voltage that is pumped into it. The rest is dissipated as heat and power for driving the cooling fans.
Even the most efficient PSU's only reach 85% efficiency which is good, but can be a whole lot better.
Google has a tradition of building their own servers, leading the way for large server farms through the years -solving problems that other people thought they could live with. Not Google.
They have designed a PSU that is over 90% efficient.
How?
Well, traditional PSU's supply four or five different voltages. Most of these voltages are never used by the motherboard. Why is that? Well, the standard that defines how PC's are built has never been updated - it's a legacy issue.
Now, Google are working with Intel, and no doubt others, to try and get an new, open standard adopted that will lead to more efficient, quieter and ultimately cheaper computers. Well done Google!
It's not evil, but it is bad - super bad!
Posted by dottie at 2:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Religious organisations and altruism
Altruism is one of the common arguments that seems to be made in support of religion, or more precisely, religious organisations such as churches, charities.
The point the god botherers try to make (and this became very evident to me on the death of that vicious, mean-spirited, bigoted, hate-mongerer Jerry Falwell) is that religious people 'do good works' (by this I mean altruism rather than proselytising) that without the structure of a religious organisation these 'good works' would never be undertaken and society would quickly tumble into chaos.
I agree with them, to a point. There are lots of people doing very good work, some of them are even religious. There are, however, many non-believers, apostates and even 'infidel' doing the same thing.
The reasoning that the god botherers use is flawed and leads them into a logic trap. They posit that the loss of religious institutions would lead to a reduction or cessation of 'good works'. If you follow the logic of that then you realise that what these god-botherers are failing to realise is that without religion they would not perform 'good work'.
It could be argued that an organisation for rallying altruistic members is a great benefit. That's true enough. But what about those altrustic members? Remember we are not talking about banning altruistic organisations here, just the hypothetical disappearance of RELIGIOUS organisations. The absence of religious belief in a persons life does not lead to selfishness - actually usually quite the opposite as they realise we are all just humanm there is no hierarchy and some invisible father-figure will not make you 'luckier' because you fill yourself up with divisive smugness.
If the god-botherers are truly serious about their altruism and good works then surely, it would be no problem to reforge themselves into a new, non-religious organisation that would be all the better for being released form the shackles of preaching and the impractical and often cruel practice of suggesting to a poor unfortunate that perhaps 'god' doesn't like them very much or has some mysterious plan for them that currently involves a lot of pain, misery and humiliation.
If the god-botherers insist on suggesting that the dissolution of religious organisations would lead to a break down in society, then they are insisting that without either the moral superiority and smugness or without the whiff of brimstone to keep them on the straight and narrow, they would not indulge in altruism at all.
That's not very 'christian' now is it?
The next time some god-botherer tells you that removing religion from society would result in the collapse of altruism and ultimately lead society into chaos, point out the error of their ways and watch them squirm and hopefully, ultimately realise what they have just said makes no sense at all.
Either you want to help other people or you don't. The presence or lack of a specifically religious organisation does nothing to change that.
Posted by dottie at 10:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 23, 2007
Alien craft? doubt it... but...!
This is so bizarre.
It looks like, but isn't, some kind of extra terrestrial craft. I don't know if it's a photoshop effort or if it is a real thing created by some rich geeks.
But then again, it apparently looks like some 'tech' from the upcoming MICHAEL BAY transformers moxie...
There are also other photos on Flickr especially the comments on this photo
Some talk of sitings from a few years back
Scanning through the comments on the Flickr stream the words 'hall effect thruster', 'electromagnetic' and 'lifter' popped out in this comment from NASAnerd1947 - the comment seems to hold the best explanation of the mechanics of the how of such a craft, but unfortunately not the why :)
I'm not an expert on faking digital images, but I have studied the field of electric and electromagnetic propulsion as a professional aerospace engineer. If the object is real, the explanation put forward by robert3clemens is pretty much right on. This would be an example of an endoatmospheric Hall-effect thruster. The curved electrodes on the top would be charged to a high positve voltage. Since they are arranged in a radially symmetric manner, they would create a radially symmetric electric field gradient that goes to zero in the middle. Any positive ions in the air (nitrogen, oxygen, etc.) in the vicinity of and interior to the electrodes would therefore be forced radially inward. No central electrode would be necessary. Electrons would of course be attracted to the electrodes and collected on their surfaces. Since the positive ions are tens of thousands of times more massive than the electrons, virtually all of the momentum flow is carried by the positive ions. A superconducting ring or rings inside the donut shaped annular shell would be arranged so as to create circular magnetic field lines centered around the symmetry axis. There are a couple of different winding geometries that would work. As the ions move radially inward, they cross the magnetic field lines at essentially right angles. The Hall effect says that charged particles crossing magnetic field lines will receive an acceleration that is proportional to the size of the magnetic field and at right angles to both it and the velocity vector of the particle. If the velocity of the particle is radially inward and the magnetic field line is tangential, then the particle will be accelerated downward and through the hole. This is the slingshot effect that robert3clemens was talking about and can increase the size of the ion wind by an order of magnitude. Usually the limiting parameter on an ion wind thruster is the very low level of ionization in normal air (a few hundred per cc). There simply aren't very many charged particles around to "grab" with the electric field, and this is why ordinary "lifters" don't have enough thrust to get themselves and their power supplies off the ground. Theory and experiment show that this can be dramatically improved by artificially boosting the ion concentration in the air. This can easily be done with ultraviolet radiation; I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't some excimer lasers pointing upward, interior to the electrodes.The electrodes on the top are curved because they follow the stream lines of the ion wind; they define what is known as the "stream tube". Since air molecules flow radially inward between and around the electrodes, the volume of air flow increases as you move axially downward to the annular hole; that's why the stream tube is bigger at the entrance to the annular hole than it is at the top.
Hall effect thrusters have been used in space for decades. In that case, you have to bring your working fluid with you (usually Xenon or some other noble gas). Here, the air is the working fluid. One of the problems that all Hall effect thrusters have to deal with is charge build-up. What you're doing in the vicinity of the curved electrodes is stripping electrons off and accelerating the positively charged ions downward. Therefore you've got a positivley charged column of air moving away from the device. If you didn't do anything about that, you would eventually build up a pretty good charge separation that would tend to kill the thrust and also possibly cause destructive arcing or sparking. That's where the "paddles" or "wings" come in. I think their first purpose is to serve as electrodes that recombine the electrons with the downward flowing ion wind and thereby neutralize it. In order to do that, you need a lot of surface area, because the natural conductivity of the air is low. I think they also serve a secondary purpose of steering the thrust vector of the ion wind. If you supply a slightly different electron current to each of an opposed pair of paddles, you will pull the column of positively charged air to one side or the other. The different photos of what is probably the same device ("Chad's", Lake Tahoe, and now Capitola) have different numbers and configurations of paddles. However, the one thing they all have in common is that they all have a minimum of two pairs of paddles, diametrically opposed to each other. This always allows control of pitch and roll. They also appear designed to have a large surface area in contact with the air at the exit plane of the thruster. If this is a real object, I would guess that whoever built it is experimenting with different models of paddles. For one thing, the long paddles appear to have hinges where they join the body of the "donut". This implies that they are designed to be folded up to make storage or transport of the object easier. The short paddle with six corona discharge needles on it looks like it might not have to be stowed.
The superconducting coil or coils serve two purposes, as robert3clemens alludes to. First, they provide the very strong magnetic field necessary to produce the Hall effect; second, they are an energy storage medium. Superconducting magnets are capable of being charged and discharged extremely fast and have very low internal losses. Depending on the quality of the superconductor material, the energy density can be equal to or greater than primary lithium batteries. The main power consumption would for supplying the current necessary for maintaining the high voltage on the top curved electrodes, and "pumping" the collected electrons down to the paddles
We are not the first to think about this. The attractiveness of a purely electrically fueled aircraft with no moving parts is self-evident. The intellectual history of Hall effect (or magnetohydrodynamic) endoatmospheric thrusters goes back at least to the 1950's, when a great deal of classified work was done in the area. What makes it feasible today is the availability of "high temperature" superconductors on an industrial scale (pioneered, I might add in Silicon Valley, which appears to be at the epicenter of these sightings).
All of this says that these devices, if real, were built by otherwise ordinary, but extremely well educated and well informed human beings with a few tens of millions of dollars to play with. A discussion of where the original idea for this kind of vehicle came from will be left for another day.
OK, so why are these things being flight tested over Capitola and Lake Tahoe, instead of Edwards Air Force Base or China Lake Naval Weapons Test Center, or Area 51? Good question, it seems pretty risky. Actually, we don't know they didn't fly around Area 51 or China Lake, first. If these things were built by one of the usual suspect aerospace contractors for a government Agency, they almost certainly would have been tested at a restricted flight test center first. Maybe they have already undergone preliminary testing and they are now getting ready to move into the operational phase and they are intended to operate in the mountains and near the sea. If that's the case, we shouldn't assume that the flights are occurring without the knowledge of Homeland Security Department and other agencies. Maybe the Agency that built them wants to determine what fraction of sightings will be conveniently dismissed by skeptics as hoaxes. On the other hand, any number of dot-com millionaires and billionaires live within a fifty mile radius of Capitola. One of them could have decided to build something like this out of petty cash. In that case, they would not necessarily want or need access to a government test site. Still, flying something like this inside continental airspace without permission would be illegal most places and pretty cheeky, even for a dot-commer.
Why isn't there a video? Again, how do you know there isn't? Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. I often see such comments along the lines of "If I had seen something like this, I would have taken a perfectly focused and professionally produced video and instantly published it everywhere in order to satisfy the curiousity of random skeptics bent on character assassination." The facts are otherwise. Anyone who has ever spent any quality time investigating UFOs or other cryptic phenomena knows that only a tiny fraction of witness sightings ever get reported to anybody outside the immediate family. First of all, exactly who are you supposed to report it to? There is no official collection point for this kind of story. Second, and probably more important, what's the motivation? In most cases you simply bring down accusations of being an idiot, a fraud, or both.
Posted by dottie at 11:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sue me first Microsoft!
Microsoft recently claimed that Free Open Source Software (FOSS) like Linux, OpenOffice, Firefox, etc. actually infringe a number of their software patents.
It's a load of baloney, but, even if it were true isn't it a bit like the pot calling the kettle black? Didn't Microsoft steal the GUI from Apple who stole it from IBM?
Digital Tipping Point have started up a WIKI page to allow you to sign up and add a message urging Microsoft to sue you first (don't worry it won;t REALLY happen).
Wiki where you can add your name and message - make yourself heard!
To my mind, this is right in line with the new 'paradigm' that multi-national companies have adopted of late - litigation as a revenue stream.
The big media companies have been using the RIAA to sue individuals for over 3000 dollars a pop and all it costs them is the price of a stamp. The recipients of advisory letters from the RIAA have the choice to pay or fight.
Should an individual choose to fight and win then they still must pay their legal fees which would amount to a much larger heap than 3000 dollars - so they pay (although the EFF has helped out in certain cases that could stand as precendent...)
Looks like Microsoft is doing its usual band-wagon hopping, and long being an intimidator with hefty legal departments I expect to see them proceed with their threats.
We shall see...
Posted by dottie at 12:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 22, 2007
Trees ii
Posted by dottie at 11:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Trees i
Posted by dottie at 10:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 21, 2007
Vonnegut sums it all up, again
I just finished reading 'the sirens of Titan'.
It's a great book slathered with Kurt's unusual blend of brutality and humanism. The story also revolves around determinism, blind luck, religion, eschatology and the existence of God.
There is one line that sums up the irrationality of a belief in God
"Look after the humans and God will look after himself"
The central theme of the book is that no-one is singled out by God as special. That is something if you think about it. With this view, you are as likely to benefit from random chance as anyone else is.
No special dispensation, no hierarchy based on how well you adhere to rules written hundreds, if not thousands of years ago. No submission to a supposed higher goal that only succeeds in bringing misery to many and privilege to few.
No-one here but us animals, so look after each other.
I'll miss you Mr. Vonnegut.
Posted by dottie at 11:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 17, 2007
Falwell or Hitler?
An excellent little game that tests your knowledge of the aphorisms of these two powerful tyrants
My favourite part is the first comment from one of the participants: "I'm sorry, but I honestly find this to be in very poor taste. The man is dead. We may have had our disagreements with him, but he's dead and I think we can afford one moment of empathy. My deepest condolences to the Hitler family."
Posted by dottie at 9:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 16, 2007
PS3 v Wii
I'm not feeling too perky today - I have a cold that can't decide whether its coming or going so random heavy sleeping ensues... - so I thought I wuld watch one of my favourite commerials
Enjoy!
Posted by dottie at 4:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The morningstar calls back his favourite, and most fruitful, servant
Posted by dottie at 2:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 13, 2007
Plastic People
This is a chilling article about plastic debris accumulating in the North Pacific Sub-tropical gyre.
Ultimately this is a very bad thing as the plastic that is swirling around there ends up in the food chain and ultimately in us.
Sea creatures cannot avoid these plastics. They ingest them thinking they are food, they get tangled in them and cannot escape.
While some steps are underway to create plastics that are biodegradable and non-toxic (even so-called 'safe' plastics release toxic chemicals) the vast majority of manufacturers and consumers are ignorant of the reality; plastics are poisoning us.
Plastic will break down over the years, but the molecules seldom break apart resulting in a situation where the ocean is suffused with molecules of plastic - plastic that is almost impossible to separate. These plastic molecules have an affinity for certain classes of toxic chemicals that bind to the plastic molecules. This toxic mess is then concentrated in ocean creatures and will inevitably rise up the food chain.
The article poses the question; why do we need to make ketchup bottles and six-pack rings that last centuries longer than we do?
When time comes for the archaeologists to undertake digs on 20th and 21st century they will find a layer of plastic and little else.
Posted by dottie at 12:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 12, 2007
Things are not always what they seem to be
Possibly intentionally hilarious Yahoo news item on Yahoo News
Posted by dottie at 8:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Technology Review - MIT
How did I overlook this for so long?
Bruce Sterling dissing design, a mad chef from middle America, Tim-Berners Lee talking about his vision for the web - it's semantic...
Thanks MIT!
Posted by dottie at 7:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 8, 2007
Hacking the DMCA - Ed Felten p0wnz AACS
This is of course an answer to the whole 09-F9 brouhaha
Visit the site and grab your numbers. Mine are listed below, but you aren't allowed to read them or even tell people you know where THEY can read them or indeed even allude to the fact that they exist at all. SOOPER SEKRIT!!!
4D 45 C5 E4 CD C0 F3 85 21 E6 11 6B D7 48 6C 3B
0F 19 C4 71 81 15 61 66 DC 9B 27 4C 6A 66 75 20
BF 93 3E C4 03 7C 4C 82 C6 E3 EB D0 E1 7E D8 2D
5B 7F 2D 95 42 E9 68 0A 66 3C E8 70 3D 2A 38 8C
45 3D 50 33 FB B7 DE F9 C7 67 47 81 BF 3B B2 64
52 49 3F 92 A1 27 0E 5D AF 4F 39 23 F0 0A 76 95
71 4C 84 AA B4 5C D9 35 1D C8 A1 8B 4C 14 61 73
The best part is because I have put these medusa-like numbers on my blog, if the big media companies choose them as a pseudo-random key to encrypt the latest turd of a movie or album from their stable of over-hyped, under-talented 'musicians', then they fall foul of the DMCA - a federal offence in the U.S.!
Yes!
Fight the man!
Posted by dottie at 12:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 3, 2007
What's in a number?
This number has been very popular of late:
The original number is in Hex, so to add a bit of variety people have been expressing it in different forms. Here's the decimal version:
9-249-17-02-157-116-227-91-216-65-86-197-99-86-136-192
Posted by dottie at 2:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack