Hello All,

On browsing around the net I have found another interesting project concerning Google. Now nearly everyone reading this will have certainly of heard or used Google Maps, Earth, street etc. Well as of the early part of this month Google and the US defense department have launched a new satellite called the GeoEye-1.

This is a commercial satellite (Although controlled by the US Defense department), which Google has sole ownership of any images produced by it. Due to how popular such applications as Google maps and Earth have been, this satellite I feel, will be of great use in producing better quality maps/images, for all to use.

Although this satellite is mainly for commercai use, it is certainly able to take fairly high resolution images, considering its distance. However I believe there are limits to what Google can actually access, as there is US legislation, stopping them from accessing, the very high resolution images.

Still I will look foward to the further development of Google Maps and Earth etc. and also to see what else they can come up with/include in these web apps.

Check out the site below for more info on the Satellite:

Google Military-Controlled Satellite Reaches Orbit, We Don’t Feel Lucky

Also see the video below of the launch:

Bye

Pic - T-Mobile G1 announced - Live Photos & Video

Hello All,

It has been announced that Google and T-Mobile will be bringing a new phone out called the T-Mobile G1. From what I have seen the actual device is made by HTC, and from the experince I have had with HTC, their products are pretty reliable and high spec!

The OS is made by a company called Android, and is also in fact named Android! The phone is packed full of features, and is designed to take full advantage of Google products, such as GMail and Google Maps etc.

The device itself has Quadband and is also 3G ready offering both EDGE and HSDPA. The phone also comes complete with WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, 3.2mp camera and MicroSD card slot supporting up to 8GB. The phone is fully touch screen and also comes complete with a QWERTY keyboard and tracker ball etc.

The G1 I feel is a great development, following the IPhone’s way of thinking, but at the same time, able to rival the IPhone, with its vast array of features. As well as this it looks pretty cool to!

Check out the Android site (Link Below), for more information, pics and videos:

Android - T-Mobile G1 announced - Live Photos & Video

Bye

Hello All,

Yes I know I did a post yesterday, but as the Hadron Collider is such an interesting topic, I thought I would write about it and also focus on ‘the grid’ section of it.

Now as I would expect, due to the large media coverage on the collider, you should know what it does, and a basic idea of how it works. If not I will say what I understood from it:

The genereal purpose of the collider is to firstly get a more detailed view into physics and to understand better such events as the ‘Big Bang’. The collider is a circular machine covering a distance of 27km, passing through both Switzerland and France, but also involving overe 100 different countries in its development.

The collider works by firing particles into acclerators, which bring them to almost light speed. By doing this the particles are ‘boosted’ to hold massive amounts of energy. Once powerful enough and fast enough, two beams of partcicles are fired into the 27km tunnel at opposite directions, and are then forced to collide.

Well what you have just read is a basic understanding I found whilst reading about the collider.

Anyway, focussing more on the grid. When these particles collide they produce massive amounts of data which need to be collected. This is done by detectors placed around the tunnel, searching for various different things, such as the ‘God Particle’ and ‘anti-matter’. Naturally each detector has been given a name to suit its purpose!

For this a new computer system known as ‘The Grid’, the largest on the planet has been created. This system has been designed to cope with and collect around 700MB of data a second and millions of GB’s a year! Even with a system like this, it is expected not all the data will be able to be dealt with. To get over this, and how this system got its name (’The Grid’), scientists are sharing the data collected so that it can also processed by others. The data is only being shared with a handful of institutes, for many reasons, but one main one being, you need a Super Computer to process the data!

Where the start of the Grid is held in Geneva, where it is said the WWW was born, some also say due to the development of The Grid, a new age of computing has begun. If you think of the storage and the processing power that is required to fuel a project like this, it certainly could look like a change in computing. One example could be the steering away from the traditional magnetic storage, and the incresead development of holographic storage perhaps.

Well anyway as you would have found this is an exciting subject and I will look forward to seeing what it brings us both in science and technology!

Finally to finish off check out the link below to find out more about the collider. Also see the video for more of a ‘different’ way to learn about the collider:

BBC - ‘Big Bang’ experiment starts well

Bye

Hello All,

In this post I thought i would bring a little comedy, as we all like to laugh! Now most of you reading this would remember the Back to the Future movie series etc. Well on browsing around the web I found a Microsoft Keynote/Tech Ed/Comedy sketch event that Microsoft held some time ago. Although it is sometime ago, I still think its funny!

The sketch (as you will see), basically makes a point about all of Micrsosft’s previous visions, such as web storage, and how they now concentrate on real world issues and how they tackle IT in the current day. As well as this, there is (as mentioned) the back to the future comedy element, with all the characters, you know and love (except not all the original actors)!

Here’s the video - Enjoy:

Hope you enjoyed it!

Picture - Rise of the rat-brained robots - Diem Photography/University of Reading

Hello All,

This weeks post title, is a little weird, but at the end of this post should make sense!</p> <p>Researches have created a robot which is powered by the brain of a rat. When I say powered, by the brain of a rat I mean the rat brain takes control of such things as navigation, as would a human brain. I fell this is quite a development in robotics, as up until now (as far as I have known), the cognitive control, of a robot has been done with just hardware - chips etc.

The away rat brain works in the robot, is actiually quite clever. In fact the rat brain itself is (from what i have read), a collection of rat brain cells which researchers have grown. These cells were then put together, where they quickly grew connections to one another, and then communicate through electrical pulses. This as you would rightly assume, is similar to how our brains work. Once these connections were made, the researchers connected them to electrodes, which were in turn connected to an ultrasonic distance measurer. As you can see from the video (when you watch it), the brain cells were able (in a way), to understand the readings from the distance measurer to avoide objects. Now some of you may assume the brain is in the actual robot, but it is not! As the brain cannot leave the lab, due to such reasons, as tempreture, the robotic device itself sends readings back to the lab wirelessly, where the brain then interprets them.

As you can imagine the oppertuntites for this type of technology, are vast, and as you will see from the video - they express, the wish to understand how further parts of the brain work. You never know, some day as you have seen in the movies, we could all love for centuries :p having our heads but a robot body! However for now I think its still ok just to try to fully understand how our brains work.

Check out the video below:

Bye