The Radiophonic Workshop 9. May 2008
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In 1958 the BBC established the Radiophonic Workshop to explore and produce innovative sounds for radio programming. The group’s unconventional approach to sound synthesis and arrangement poised them at the forefront of music technology - making them the envy of many pioneering musicians. Looking back at some of their hardware setups, it’s no wonder current-day sound makers still hold the workshop in such high regard.
Workshop member Delia Derbyshire is responsible for what is commonly accepted as the group’s signature recording - recorded in ‘63, the original theme from Doctor Who.
Simply unbeatable - electronic music doesn’t get any better than that.
Visit the Radiophonic Workshop gallery
Read more of the group’s history on Wikipedia
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Office 2007 SP1 goes automatic for the people
Posted by Nerdmaster in : IT Pro , add a comment‘Huddled masses yearning to breathe free’
Microsoft will start automatically pumping out its first service packs for the Office 2007 suite next month.
Compulsory lobby register moves closer
Posted by Nerdmaster in : IT Pro , add a commentEU Parliament calls for Book of Fat Lunch
A compulsory register of lobby companies revealing which companies or organisations are paying their bills comes a step nearer today.
Bedre enn Gmail?
Posted by Nerdmaster in : IT Pro , add a commentVi deler ut invitasjoner. (Dinside.no)
ITAvisen
Analysis: In Italy, Apple shifts iPhone strategy 8. May 2008
Posted by Nerdmaster in : IT Pro , add a commentTo bring the iPhone to Italy, Apple broke with its usual gameplan and signed deals with multiple providers. Jim Dalrymple wonders what that could mean for future iPhone expansion plans.
MacWorld
AMD skippar åtta kärnor
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AMD har beslutat att gå direkt från dagens fyra kärnor till tolv kärnor i nästa generations processorer. Därmed slopar man planerna på att fördubbla antalet kärnor nästa år.
Papa John's surpasses $1 billion in online pizza sales (AP)
Posted by Nerdmaster in : IT Pro , add a comment<p><a href=”http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080508/ap_on_hi_te/online_pizza”><img src=”http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080507/capt.27f6e4c7f602443a88c7f9aa786534a1.papa_john_s_online_orders_kyer101.jpg?x=130&y=84&q=85&sig=YXbFuGdoLr76cU3X3nrk2g–” align=”left” height=”84″ width=”130″ alt=”In this Sept. 23, 2005 file photo, Rich Butler, general manager of a downtown Louisville, Ky., Papa John's restaurant, puts toppings on a deep-dish pizza. Papa John's reported surpassing $1 billion in online pizza sales Wednesday, May 7, 2008, seven years after it began offering the service. (AP Photo/Patti Longmire, file)” border=”0″ /></a>AP - Sometimes during peak hours, the phones are silent in Andy Freitas' pizza restaurants, yet the cooks are busy keeping pace with hungry customers.</p><br clear=”all”/>
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Panasonic DMR-EX78 DVD/HDD Recorder
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Panasonic knows a thing or two about digital recorders and the DMR-EX78 is a perfect example of this.
TrustedReviews
Sis ändrar reglerna efter formatstriden
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Efter sommarens kontrovers kring Microsofts dokumentformat ooxml backar nu Sis frÃ¥n omröstningsreglerna. Medlemmar ska i fortsättningen inte kunna komma in i sista stund. “Det är en balansgÃ¥ng”, säger Lars Flink, vd pÃ¥ Sis.
Apple inks Latin American deal for iPhone (AP)
Posted by Nerdmaster in : IT Pro , add a commentAP - In another step in the worldwide march of Apple Inc.'s iPhone, the top mobile phone operator in Latin America said Wednesday that it has inked a deal to bring the multimedia gadget to more than a dozen countries starting later this year.
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WiMAX promises to transform wireless Internet world (AFP)
Posted by Nerdmaster in : IT Pro , add a comment<p><a href=”http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080508/tc_afp/uscompanytelecomitwimax”><img src=”http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20080508/capt.cps.ncp74.080508022942.photo00.photo.default-512×366.jpg?x=130&y=92&q=85&sig=MrvWuRkYeHflO59eM2dgHw–” align=”left” height=”92″ width=”130″ alt=”Visitors walk past the WiMAX stand at the 3GSM congress in Barcelona, in February 2007. As US technology giants including Google place a multi-billion dollar bet on WiMAX, backers of the wireless data-streaming format say it will radically change mobile Internet use.(AFP/File/Lluis Gene)” border=”0″ /></a>AFP - As US technology giants including Google place a multi-billion dollar bet on WiMAX, backers of the wireless data-streaming format say it will radically change mobile Internet use.</p><br clear=”all”/>
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Wired SKorea battles Web of rumours over US beef (AFP) 7. May 2008
Posted by Nerdmaster in : IT Pro , add a comment<p><a href=”http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080507/tc_afp/skoreausftatradebeefinternet”><img src=”http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20080507/capt.cps.nck95.070508093655.photo00.photo.default-376×512.jpg?x=95&y=130&q=85&sig=pp9DDjcCpTxbOIHRFFX3Ew–” align=”left” height=”130″ width=”95″ alt=”South Korean protestors hold a candle-lit rally against US beef imports in Seoul on May 6. President Lee Myung-Bak is facing a barrage of online scaremongering and criticism over his decision to resume US beef imports(AFP/Jung Yeon-Je)” border=”0″ /></a>AFP - South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, the leader of one of the world's most wired nations, is facing a barrage of online scaremongering and criticism over his decision to resume US beef imports.</p><br clear=”all”/>
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In Next-Gen Bullets and Bombs, Even the Casing Explodes
Posted by Nerdmaster in : IT Pro , add a commentThe Pentagon has quietly been working on a new arsenal of advanced weaponry that replaces metal casings with “reactive materials,” normally harmless matter that combines to release explosive amounts of energy on impact, tearing targets apart with violent fury.
In development for more than 30 years, the research is beginning to bear fruit, and may soon spawn more powerful bombs, warheads that tear apart stone and concrete, mines that can be set to stun or kill, and grenades that can swat rockets or mortar rounds out of the sky like flies.
“You can get effects that are more precisely tailored to a particular target,” says John Pike, director of Washington military research group GlobalSecurity.org. “And you’re able to get a greater effect out of a smaller munition.”
Reactive materials are combinations of materials that are normally stable, but, when subjected to sudden shock — such as striking a target — release a large amount of energy. Depending on the composition and warhead design, the energy can be released as heat, a blast or a combination of the two. Unlike conventional explosives, RMs cannot be set off by fuses. Technically, they are classified as flammable solids, and they are less hazardous to transport and store than explosives.
While they’re more energetic than explosives, RMs are not intended to be a substitute. Instead, they will replace warhead components normally made of metal.
An analysis of U.S. military procurement papers and defense contractor presentations, as well as interviews with companies working on the technology, suggests that a wave of munitions using reactive materials may be headed for a battlefield near you.
The material can dramatically magnify the yield of conventional bombs, and do away with the waste embodied by a bomb’s inert metal skin. The U.S. Air Force’s 5,000 BLU-122 bunker buster, for example, contains just 780 pounds of explosives; the other 80 percent is the bomb’s thick steel casing. DARPA’s Reactive Munition program (.doc) aims to replace that steel with RMs, to create a bomb with a blast four times as powerful. Alternatively, a new bomb could be half the size of existing weapons but twice as powerful.
Conventional warheads could also benefit from an RM makeover. For centuries, shells have blasted out steel shrapnel, small pieces of metal that cause damage with their high speed. Defense contractor Alliant Techsystems is developing a warhead called BattleAxe for the Air Force that uses fragments made of RM instead of metal. Those fragments will explode on impact, making the warhead far more effective against soft targets like trucks.
RM shrapnel is also being touted as the ideal way of shooting down incoming rockets and mortar bombs (.pdf).
A radar-guided defense pod can automatically engage incoming rockets or other threats using RM-based grenades. Weapons designers suggest that RMs can be five to ten times as effective as the existing inert shrapnel for this task. Moreover, RM shrapnel can be engineered to burn out at a set distance, so there is no hazard to nearby friendly forces.
Bullets can even be made of RM. The Navy’s new
electromagnetic railgun has been criticized because it can only fire solid slugs, not the usual explosive shells. However, documents reveal that tungsten-based RM rounds are being developed for the weapon. These will explode on impact, making the railgun effective against buildings, ships and vehicles.
Shaped charges are another application where RMs can increase the effectiveness of existing designs. In a shaped charge, a hollow metal cone is surrounded by explosive material, which is then detonated, forcing the blast through the small end of the cone.
“The action is analogous to stamping on an open toothpaste tube, ejecting the liquid contents,” says Douglas Millard of British defense contractors QinetiQ.
Replace the metal liner with RM, and the explosive power of that jet will increase dramatically.
“Such reactions are highly exothermic and therefore lead to the release of large amounts of energy, which is in addition to the kinetic energy within the jet,” Millard says. “An increase in the energy coupled into the target occurs and this results in the creation of greater damage to the target.”
QinetiQ is marketing an RM-based shaped charge called Connex for oil-well perforation in the civil market. Meanwhile, the U.S. Army is developing a demolition charge called Bam Bam that blasts a jet of RM deep into stone or concrete, producing massive damage
One version of the Bam Bam charge is intended for demolishing bridges and other structures. An alternative version blasts broader, shallower craters in roads or runways, making them useless.
RMs will also transform another mutation called the Explosively Formed Penetrator, a modified version of the shaped charge. Instead of producing a narrow, short-range jet, the Penetrator fires an aerodynamic slug of metal over a long distance. It’s best known as a favored weapon of insurgents in Iraq. Again, replacing the metal with RM makes a much deadlier weapon — after punching through armor, the slug releases energy like a grenade going off.
If you’re a weapons designer, RMs also offer amazing flexibility. Alliant Techsystems is building a variable landmine (.pps) — a so-called “dial-a-yield” weapon that can produce a range of different effects.
At the lowest setting, most of the output would be light — a dazzling warning that would be impossible to miss. A higher setting would produce intense heat, creating a “discomfort zone” to drive off intruders. The third setting produces a nonlethal blast, like the concussion stun grenades used by Special Forces. If lethal force is called for, the mine could be set to produce either inert shrapnel or reactive shrapnel that explodes on impact.
RM munitions may face legal challenges. Under the St. Petersburg Declaration of 1868, the use of explosive projectiles with a weight of less than 400 grams is forbidden, as is using incendiary ammunition, like napalm, against personnel. But RMs are not technically explosive or incendiary, and although the effect on human targets might cause protests from some groups, they are likely to be accepted, human rights experts say.
“Like any weapon, it would have to go through a lengthy effectiveness and then legal review, ” says Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch. “If used in the open against military targets, it does not seem to have any obvious problems at first blush.”
However, there may be technology issues too. Although the developers sound very upbeat in all their descriptions of RM munitions, producing material that will reliably release energy only when required is extremely challenging.
“The fact that they’ve been working on it so long and don’t seem to have fielded anything yet suggests that there may be a problem with the technology,” GlobalSecurity’s Pike says.
Normally new weapons are fielded rapidly if there is a military demand — assuming they work. So far, RMs have not made it into the field, and the technology may not be as mature as developers suggest.
But Pike also notes that there has been an unprecedented surge in munitions development over the last few years, with “all kinds of weird stuff” being developed.
So after decades of being kept very quiet, reactive materials may soon be making a lot of noise.
—
Check out Danger Room for more on reactive materials.
Alt Text: Sad Explanations for Supernatural Phenomena
Posted by Nerdmaster in : IT Pro , add a commentI was pleased to see the recent news about alien images appearing on a wall in Canada.
If you haven’t seen the story, the upshot is that some reflected light shows up every non-overcast day on someone’s house in Calgary, and the resulting image looks something like a cross between Gollum and the Reddit mascot. Thus, aliens.
This is nonsense, unfortunately. I would love for even one of the completely wall-slappingly insane phenomena that bubble up these days to be true.
If even one funnel-shaped cloud or particularly reflective seagull ended up being an actual alien craft, if even one person’s Pomeranian really did house the mind of an ancient Egyptian emperor, if even one winged hominid got run over by a meth-infused trucker and examined by reputable scientists, then I could be happy in a world that’s even weirder than it initially appears to be. Tragically, though, none of them pan out in the long run.
And yet, people keep devising theories. Some, not content to come up with explanations for unexplained phenomena, instead go to great lengths to come up with bizarre takes on explained phenomena.
Exhibit One: Rods
On some videos and photos, you can see odd smudges made up of a straight line with a sort of twirly fuzz around it. What are these things? Well, one theory is that they are creatures living in the atmosphere, invisible to the naked eye but for some reason able to be caught on videotape.
This theory is wrong. While I love the idea that your basic handheld Panasonic camera has mystical-vision powers, the fact is that you can capture “rod” video of your own by pointing a camera set to a slow shutter speed at a bunch of insects. The paranormal response? Yeah, those rods are insects, but there are other rods that are visually identical to the insects, but which are actually rods!
Exhibit Two: Orbs
If rods are too interesting for you, check out orbs. Where rods take the form of moving blurs, orbs manifest themselves as roughly circular blobs. Spine-chillingly circular!
Here’s how it works. You take a photo of something with your cheapie digital camera, and the picture has a translucent gray dot on it. Clearly there’s no explicable way for weird little visual artifacts to end up on digital photos, so they must be the spirits of the departed. This one’s just sad. It’s like you want to see Bigfoot, but you hate camping, so you just classify the dust bunnies under the couch as cryptids and call it a day.
Exhibit Three: Crowd Demons
I’m being a bit unfair here, because crowd demons aren’t really a well-known phenomenon among the desperately wacky crowd, but the idea is so deliciously stupid I’m highlighting it here in hopes it will catch on.
On the GhostStudy.com website, you’ll find a photo that purportedly shows two demons sitting next to each other at a musical recital. The site suggests that if you look long enough you’ll see a shadow ghost.
It also says it shows “a dinosaur attacking a man (however, this is most likely an illusion).”
Yeah, most likely. There is less than a 50 percent chance that the photo actually shows a demon dinosaur eating a guy’s head. Another guy found a bunch of crowd demons at a Republican rally. I’m not actually seeing most of those, but maybe I just don’t have the patience to play a proper game of Where’s Weirdo?
As obvious as the rational explanations for all these phenomena are, I’m a bit sad. I’d enjoy living in a world filled with normally invisible creatures that only show their true, blurry forms on discount audiovisual equipment. Kind of like YouTube, only with more flying and fewer anime clips.
- - -
Born helpless, nude and unable to provide for himself, Lore Sjöberg eventually overcame these handicaps to become a Jersey Devil, a Dover Demon and a Pittsburgh Penguin.
DIY: LED glass tiles 6. May 2008
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Troy sent in his DIY LED tiles that he put in while renovating his bathroom. It would be interesting to see this hooked up to the internet, enabling it displaying information while getting ready for work. Maybe changing color based on weather, traffic or new emails?
Read more about making your own LED glass tiles
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MakeZine.com
DIY 35mm pinhole camera
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Here is another DIY video form ProPhotoLife.com. This time they make a 35mm pinhole camera, which take some really nice shots. There is a lot more information on the website, along with pictures of the build. [Thanks Jim]
Learn more about making a 35mm pinhole camera
Related:
Make a Pinenut pinhole camera
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China to investigate Google for illegal maps: official media (AFP)
Posted by Nerdmaster in : IT Pro , add a comment<p><a href=”http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080506/tc_afp/chinausinternetcensorshipmapsgoogle”><img src=”http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20080506/capt.cps.ncd28.060508071127.photo00.photo.default-512×341.jpg?x=130&y=86&q=85&sig=nH4wM8Ro3yKc3WJl3OJmSw–” align=”left” height=”86″ width=”130″ alt=”File photo shows an office worker looking at Google's satellite image service in Hong Kong. China has launched an investigation into online mapping services by Internet firms in an effort to protect state secrets and territorial integrity(AFP/File/Laurent Fievet)” border=”0″ /></a>AFP - China has launched an investigation into online mapping services by Internet giants including Google and Sohu in an effort to protect state secrets and territorial integrity, state press said.</p><br clear=”all”/>
YahooTechNews
Google Backs Open-source CERT Group (PC World)
Posted by Nerdmaster in : IT Pro , add a commentPC World - Google has thrown its weight behind a fledgling security reporting group for the open-source community.
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Hackers harpoon US executives with phony email subpoenas (AFP)
Posted by Nerdmaster in : IT Pro , add a comment<p><a href=”http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080506/tc_afp/usinternetcourtcrime”><img src=”http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20080506/capt.cps.ncc46.060508030529.photo00.photo.default-342×512.jpg?x=86&y=130&q=85&sig=dBiYVEy4ietpOcOncOjLnw–” align=”left” height=”130″ width=”86″ alt=”US federal court officials on Monday warned that hackers are emailing phony subpoenas embedded with malicious software to high-ranking executives to steal valuable corporate information.(AFP/File/Joel Saget)” border=”0″ /></a>AFP - US federal court officials on Monday warned that hackers are emailing phony subpoenas embedded with malicious software to high-ranking executives to steal valuable corporate information.</p><br clear=”all”/>
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Microsoft withdraws offer for Yahoo (Reuters) 4. May 2008
Posted by Nerdmaster in : IT Pro , add a comment<p><a href=”http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080504/wr_nm/microsoft_yahoo_dc”><img src=”http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/nm/20080504/2008_05_02t151013_450×348_us_microsoft_yahoo.jpg?x=130&y=100&q=85&sig=Hun31eTk2JgzuVhFiz411A–” align=”left” height=”100″ width=”130″ alt=”The Times Square Yahoo sign is seen in New York April 7, 2008. (Joshua Lott/Reuters)” border=”0″ /></a>Reuters - Microsoft Corp withdrew its offer
for Yahoo Inc on Saturday as negotiations fell through on
price, even after the software giant raised its bid by about $5
billion to $47.5 billion.</p><br clear=”all”/>
YahooTechNews