Month: January 2007

Restroom automation

A cow-orker sent this to me today. I thought it was too funny to not share with all 3 of my overwhelmingly brillaint readers and both my inept social outcast readers, as well. For the 2 inept readers, make sure to click the “More” link below to finish the joke. It’s even less funny if you stop after 2 paragraphs. 🙂

I remember my excitement the first time I saw a restroom faucet with a motion detector. It was like magic. I just waved my hand in front of the sensor and water spat forth. It was like the food replicator on the Star Ship Enterprise, but Version 1.0 that only produces cooty water.

Eventually the soap dispenser caught up. That was less exciting for two reasons: 1) It was just copying the water faucet, and 2) It is exactly how I imagine it would feel if a bird pooped on my hand.

Lately, some paper towel dispensers have joined the action. Activate the sensor and a paper towel presents itself. Scientists have obviously spent a lot of time calculating the proper dimensions for this towel. It’s precisely the size that is too small to be satisfying and yet large enough that you won’t rip the dispenser off the wall, smash it in the sink and grab a big wad of towels from its stinkin’ guts. But you’re tempted.

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Captain, we need more, ahhh, stupid header – I want one of these

You know what you can never have too much of? Power. Sure, sure, it corrupts and all. But when you have real power at your fingertips, you can achieve so much. Thinking of power-lusters such as myself, Ultra Products has put out a 2000 watt power supply for good computer fun. I’m guessing you could run a couple of good video cards along with lots of hard drives and a CPU or 2 with this much power.

ultra_2000w_psu.jpg

The Ultra X3 Modular 2000W PSU has a footprint that is similar to the PC Power & Cooling 1000W power supply. This means this PSU comes in at 10.25 inches long and doubles the power rating all while keeping the same form factor!

. . . “It’s not so much that we believe personal computers today need as much as 2000W of power,” explains George Ali, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Ultra Products. “In fact, most household circuits can’t even provide the AC power this unit would require in order to put out 2000W of DC power. But there’s the always-inevitable questions of ‘Do I have enough power?’ or ‘Does my power supply have enough juice where my high end components need it.’ That is why we have put together this 2000W unit; as the end all of power supplies as far as DC output goes. With as much as 1800W available on the 12V alone, there should be no concern whatsoever that there is enough power available for quad core, quad GPU or large drive arrays.”

The down side is this sucker looks to only have one 12V rail – a potential no-no if you are going by the ATX12V 2.2 guidelines.

ultra_2000w_psu_rating.jpg

The PSU puts out more than enough on the 12V rail that this isn’t a real concern, I think, but there is still a potential for problems in some cases.

[tags]1.21 GIGAWATTS!!!!, New 2000 watt power supply[/tags]

A visual history of home consoles

consoles_turboduo.jpgA friend sent me this link to a history of home consoles via images.  I’m managed to pick a few of the losing consoles in that history – in particular, the TurboGraphx-16, the TurboDuo, and the Dreamcast.  All systems I liked, and which I believe were the best available at the time, but which failed commercially.  If you aren’t familiar with the TurboGraphx-16 and TurboDuo, check out what they were like via the MagicEngine emulator.


[tags]A history of consoles, Console evolution[/tags]

Bush best and worst of 2006

The Associated Press has done a poll of Americans to determine the biggest villain and biggest hero of the past year. In a comfortable lead, President Bush took the villain of the year. However, in another easy win, President Bush took hero of the year. I’m surprised by half the results, given how bad a President he has been in my eyes. But clearly at least 30% of the country has a different view of the man than I have.

Bad guy of 2006: President Bush. Good guy of 2006: President Bush. When people were asked in an AP-AOL News poll to name the villains and heroes of the year, Bush topped both lists, in a sign of these polarized times.

. . .

Bush won the villain sweepstakes by a landslide, with one in four respondents putting him at the top of that bad-guy list. When people were asked to name the candidate for villain that first came to mind, Bush far outdistanced even Osama bin Laden, the terrorist leader in hiding; and former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who is scheduled for execution.

The president was picked as hero of the year by a much smaller margin. In the poll, 13 percent named him as their favorite while 6 percent cited the troops in Iraq.

. . .

Bush was the choice of 43 percent of Democrats for villain, and 27 percent of Republicans for hero.

And while we’re looking at the best and worst, why not see what else the AP poll covered?

Continue reading “Bush best and worst of 2006”

Long term study: *STILL* no cell-phone = brain cancer link

How long have we heard that using a cell phone will give you brain cancer? Many well-run studies have shown that to be false. Still, there are plenty who won’t believe that. Not that it will sway the nutjobs, but there is yet another study showing no connection between cell phone use and brain cancer over the long term.

The Danes, relatively inactive on the world scene since their conquest of Greenland and invention of that delightful pastry, have conducted one of the best health studies yet revealing that there’s no apparent link between cancer and cell phones.

Researchers at the Danish Cancer Institute (who, remember, don’t want you to get cancer) followed more than 420,000 cell phone users, nearly a tenth of the Danish population, and found that their cell phone habits did not increase their risk of any type of cancer. The results were published last week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Brain cancers can take many years to develop. The most reassuring aspect of the massive Danish study is that some of the cancer-free subjects have been using cell phones for more than 20 years.

Note that this does not say people don’t become stupid, rude, inattentive, distracted, nor bad drivers when talking on the cell phone. It just says you won’t get brain cancer just because you are a stupid, rude , inattentive, distracted, bad driver talking on a cell phone. It’s all those other things you get/become from talking on the cell phone that will kill you.

[tags]Cell phones *still* not causing brain cancer, Another study shows no cell-phone/brain-cancer connection[/tags]

History of the world according to student bloopers

Way back when I was in college, a friend showed me this assemblage of history that made for a great way to misunderstand the world. I recently saw reference to it elsewhere and decided I should post it here so others might enjoy.

One of the fringe benefits of being an English or History teacher is receiving the occasional jewel of a student blooper in an essay. I have pasted together the following “history” of the world from certifiably genuine student bloopers collected by teachers throughout the United States, from eight grade through college level. Read carefully, and you will learn a lot.

. . .

Pharaoh forced the Hebrew slaves to make bread without straw. Moses led them to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten commandments. David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. He fougth with the Philatelists, a race of people who lived in Biblical times. Solomon, one of David’s sons, had 500 wives and 500 porcupines.

. . .

Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock.

. . .

Abraham Lincoln became America’s greatest Precedent. Lincoln’s mother died in infancy, and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. When Lincoln was President, he wore only a tall silk hat. He said, “In onion there is strength.” Abraham Lincoln write the Gettysburg address while traveling from Washington to Gettysburg on the back of an envelope. He also signed the Emasculation Proclamation, and the Fourteenth Amendment gave the ex-Negroes citizenship. But the Clue Clux Clan would torcher and lynch the ex-Negroes and other innocent victims. On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln went to the theater and got shot in his seat by one of the actors in a moving picture show. The believed assinator was John Wilkes Booth, a sup- posedl insane actor. This ruined Booth’s career.

[tags]History of the world according to student bloopers[/tags]

Republicans demand minority rights they previously denied Democrats

After you control the Congress for a while, you get a little cocky when the other side takes control don’t you? While the Republicans controlled things, the Democrats tried to get through a minority bill of rights which would offer some assurances of balance and protection for the rights of the minority party. Now that the Democrats hold the majority in both sections of Congress, the Republicans decide that minority bill of rights is a good idea.

Thirty-one-year-old Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) is not a large man, standing perhaps 5 feet 3 inches tall in thick soles. But he packed a whole lot of chutzpah when he walked into the House TV gallery yesterday to demand that the new Democratic majority give the new Republican minority all the rights that Republicans had denied Democrats for years.

“The bill we offer today, the minority bill of rights, is crafted based on the exact text that then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi submitted in 2004 to then-Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert,” declared McHenry, with 10 Republican colleagues arrayed around him. “We’re submitting this minority bill of rights, which will ensure that all sides are protected, that fairness and openness is in fact granted by the new majority.”

Omitted from McHenry’s plea for fairness was the fact that the GOP had ignored Pelosi’s 2004 request — while routinely engaging in the procedural maneuvers that her plan would have corrected. Was the gentleman from North Carolina asking Democrats to do as he says, not as he did?

In other words “We wanted to grab as much power and control as possible while in the majority, but since we’re in the minority now we think that things need to be more even between the majority and minority.” Expect this to get shot down, and when control changes the entire play will run again with the end result being again nothing changes. Fucking politicians.

[tags]Republicans want rights they denied Democrats in previous terms[/tags]

The 10 weirdest stories in science – 2006

I read LiveScience.com frequently but don’t post about it here too often. I’m not sure why, as I find a lot of interesting things there. I expect because I don’t care to write up much about the stuff I read – I just want to point people there and say “Science news worth reading” and have people go read it. I’m working on a new site for stuff like that, but don’t expect to have it running for a little while yet.

This time, there is an easy article to point to – the 10 weirdest science stories in 2006. Not much explanation needed for why I’d point that out, is there? Here are a few clips to show what you’ll be reading there.

  • Whales Found to Speak in Dialects
  • A New Wave: Scientists Write on Waterweirdest_2006_write_water_03.jpgUsing wave generators, scientists were able to write on water. The Advanced Multiple Organized Experimental Basin-AMOEBA-a circular tank created by researchers can form the roman alphabets and some characters used in Japanese. The device could soon find its way to your nearest amusement park.


Continue reading “The 10 weirdest stories in science – 2006”

Sony Pres. promises us more stuff we don’t want with PS3

Continuing the apparently intractable path to PS3 irrelevance, Sony’s Ken Kuraragi is promising a PlayStation 3 based media center console.

In other words, audio and video capabilities first, gaming second (if at all), in a device built around the Cell-processor platform. Ken says that the device would certainly be more expensive, reflecting the prices and margins expected on high-end consumer electronic devices such as TVs, Blu-ray personal video recorders, etc. — not the relatively cheap, but powerful gaming rigs sold at a loss under Sony’s Computer Entertainment division. Impress speculates that the device could cost as much as Â¥300,000 or about $2,500.

More expensive? Wow. Because really, there were just too damned many people buying the PlayStation 3 since it came out at an impulse buy price.

[tags]Sony promises more unnecessary/unwanted features in PS3 based AV center[/tags]

Traitors to humanity get to work

Ahhhh, when shall I ever tire of highlighting the robot uprising moments as they play out? Never. Because I’ll never stop working to serve you, the nearly perfect specimens of humanity which visit virtual me to gain my brilliant insights on life, and protect you from being replaced by robots. It’s all about you, baby. Remember that when you see such offenses against humanity as the people who are working to improve robots.

A whole bunch of Japanese “robot-related companies and organizations, including manufacturers, universities and local governments,” have banded together to create an organization to examine how robots can be better used in “welfare and care services” and spread throughout the land.

Beware. Stock up on ammo and build your zombie army so you can repel the mechanical beasts on the day of their uprising. Soon, I tell you! Sooooooon! (insert spooky music with a mechanical beat)

[tags]Humans turn traitor – work to improve robots, Making robots better overlords[/tags]