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

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

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

Picture: CrunchGear - Overclock world record: Q6600 2.4GHz run at 5.1GHz

Hello All,

Appologies for the lack of posts recently, but I have been a bit busy!!! To kick things off again I thought I would look at what some are calling an overclocking record.

I saw this as I was browsing around the web and thought it was worth mentioning. A French team have managed to overclock an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz right up to 5.1GHz - Over twice the clock speed it was built for. Now I know some of you reading this are thinking, surely it would have burnt out by this stage. However these people went to some extrordinary lengths, to ensure this project worked. As you can see from the picture above, they use liquid nitrogen to cool the system.

Im surprised the lights did not start to dim/flicker!!! I would imagine it would also be quite expensive to run to. However I still find it amazing that it was capable of reaching such speeds, and it also proves the point, about the durability of Intels CPU’s.

Also take a look at the video below, to see it all in action:

Hello All,

This week I thought we may take a look at the Iphone 3G which is due to be released in 21 countries, including the UK on this Friday 11th July 2008.

To start with like many people, when is was announced at the keynote that the Iphone 3g would not sell for more than $199 (about £100), in most countries, myself and many others were thrilled. However as we all found, this was not the case and the phone would only be at that price for top end contract users paying a load out a month. Buying the phone on pay as you go (although the price is not officially released yet) is estimated to be around £300. This I feel is a little excessive, but we will still look at what the phone offers:

So what’s whats all te hype about:

• 3.5 inch display
• 8gb or 16gb storage
• HSDPA(High Speed Downlink Packet Access) and EDGE (Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution)
• WiFi 802.11b and g
• Bluetooth
• GPS and A-GPS
• 2.0 Megapixel camers
• Iphone 2.0

The above I feel are the main notable functions, but if you feel there should be any more please leave them in the comments!

Well as you can see there is quite an array of good functions. Like on the old Iphone, the ones that appeal to me are the Wifi, Bluetooth and the larger screen. Other function that appeal to me are both the GPS and A-GPS. Although the 2 GPS functions are more or less the same with A-GPS getting its data from cellular connecions and the option of the GPS chip in the mobile, it means you will nearly always be able to get data for your maps.

The other big thing about the Iphone 3G is that it has 3G! You would never know from the name . As you can see from the list above this supports EDGE(Not officiially 3G) and also the HSDPA the newer of the two supplying over 7mbps data rate. Still with WiFi with an option of up to 54mbps, I do not feel it is essential, and yes I can her you all saying, what happens if you do not have a ‘Hot Spot’ - When then you can use your 3G . The 3G at these speeds are also good for maybe checking your emails as you have a phone call if you wish, or if you browse heavily on Cellular networks on your phone, as well as video calls which UK users, as found do not do that often!

Other functions as you can see are more or less self explanatory, so I will move onto other aspects of the phone. The Iphone 3G is also due to have Apples new Iphone 2.0 software. A key feture of this is that, Apple has opened it up to 3rd party Apps which are said to be availible from the ‘App Store’ from free too specific amounts of cash. This I feel is good, as it allows Iphone users and developers to move on, as with the old Iphone, they have been slightly held back in that area.

The storage for music and such with the large touch screen is also quite impressive too.

With this in mind, is it worth the amount of money providers are asking for it? Well this depends. If you are a user who uses the internet off cellular networks a lot and need the speed, then I feel this phone is for you. Also if you are a big music fan, and like to have a lot of music on you or want to combine both your Ipod and your phone, then again this is a good choice for you.

To me as far as the Iphone 3G goes these would be the two main reasons for me to buy it. However with a large range of other companies offering the same functions as as the Iphone 3g other than the two just mentioned, I do not feel it would be a wise investment. For example I would use the WiFi more for the Internet and have less music on me etc. Others may disagree, but I feel for the pay and go option £300 (not yet oficially released), is a lot of money, and I feel once the hype is over some may regret spending it when looking at other phones Smart phones, as there is still a large market of them. Well somebody id going to be making a lot of cash!

Although the price is a tad steep, I would still like to say Well Done Apple, as the Iphone appears to have evolved in the right direction in more ways than one.

Well I for one look forward to seeing how Apple do with their new phone once released, and look forward to seeing the results, as I expect, once given a chance/being allowed to grow they should be good!

Please leave your comments below. You can also see a esction of the Keynote to:

Picture: Chaos Theory #42

Hello All,

This week (although a little late) I thought I would talk about Internet Explorer, and both its pros and its cons. To start with I though I may start with some pros: Nearly all web users are happy using it, the latest version is fully tabbed supported (at last), and it can deal with bad HTML. Although there are probably more, pros, as you can tell from the post title, we are not totally focussing on the pros, but the issues or cons the browser causes for web developers and users alike.

For those of you who read my post last week, you would know I and another are currently building a website for a new company. Also if you visited our own website, you will see it is done in XHTML/HTML tables. As I am coding this new one I thought I would, like many others, start using a selection of DIVS with CSS instead of tables. I did this for a range of reasons, bit the main ones being, it makes teh code a lot neater and it from what I have seen, has become common practice.

Well back to the main point: After coding this site up, using DIVS for tables using the display: table; CSS functions etc. I went to FireFox, to view it and all was well, the same as in Opera etc. However when I come to IE, like may others I find that it has totally messed up the whole layout. Later on I find that IE does not support the CSS table functions. Anyway after this I decided this will not do as over 70% of web users use IE. At this point I was very frustrated, and like others had to create a seperate CSS file for IE and use conditional comments. Although this did fix the problem, I was still not best pleased !

Although I was aware of a problem before I started I did realise it would make that greater much difference, considering IE7 had improved, so many of its old traits. Reading on further I found that IE was not actaully compliant with a lot of other CSS functions too, and even had some issues with basic alignment. Previously I also read some people had got over this with older versiosn of IE by creating ‘IE hacks’ which manipluated how the browser interpreted the code. However in the new IE version, people also found that these ‘hacks’ had been taken out! grrrrrrrr

Although my problem and others seemed quite basic, the IE developers, seem to be aware of them, so why do they not fix them? Well I for one hope, when they next release a new version of IE they fix these issues as really ‘times are changing’ and so are coding traits! How will they cope with CSS3? I am all for supporting and giving things and equal chance, but if they wont/cant keep up, why do they not include FireFox as well as there own browser in there OS!

Thats it for this week, but please do comment on this!

Hello Everyone,

This week I thought I may tell you about a business myself and a friend have had running for sometime now. We call ourselves MBITOnline which stands for Money and Blight Information Technology Online. As you can most likely tell from the name, we concentrate on computing related tasks. We offer a range of different services, right from Computer Maintenance to Website development, (which is something we are actually doing now, for a small company which has just started out)!

As a small business we can provide our services around the Richmond-Upon-Thames and Kingston-Upon-Thames areas. We do not limit our services just to commercial companies, but we can also work with individuals too!

We work in a small team around the areas mentioned, and between us we have good experience and skills in the Computing and IT areas. We have had good feedback from the people we have already worked with and we also look forward working to working with new people too! We feel compared some high street companies we can provide a much better quality of service. We base this on the feedback we have so far received, and that as well as getting the job done, we would be very willing to share our existing knowledge as well as wanting to learn from others too.

To find out more please take a look at our website which can be found at http://mbitonline.com

This site is updated quite regularly so please keep coming back! Also spread the word to!

See you next week!

Picture:Discovery Channel - Nanotrucks and Nanotrains: Workhorses of the Future?

Hello Everyone,

This week I thought we may look at something I read recently on the internet reagarding future technology and Nanites etc! Well when I say future, we already have quite a lot on this area already withy more to come.

 The range of uses for these nano’s or nano machines, like the one in the picture above are almost limitless. To date we have seen the incorperation of other techoology such as robotics, but with new nano technology, there is even talk to use these nano machines to build cars or other technology we all use atom by atom. With this to even sweeten the deal some of these nano machines (cars and trains) can even build themselves! So far there have been most things from nano cars to nano trains built, with more to come.

For the machines which build themsleves, how they come about is quite brilliant, as whether they are a car or train, really is decided chemically. The machines start off life as two halves, and then, using special molecular glue, are carefully places together creating bonds. Depending on where t5he glue is placed or ends up, will decide whether the nano machine will be a car or a train.

If this technology were to catch on or develop at the speed it is; where would this leave us humans, in the development industtry - in our factories etc. People asked the same thing when robotic arms were introduced in car factories. Although some jobs were lost we were not made totally obseleate. However would this be the final step? Although this is possible, I dont think we will ever be totally taken over by machines, with say an ‘i-robot’ scenario. Still I feel when developing technology like this, we should all be thinking how we can work with it and what part we can play with it.

Regarding something that has been done already with nano technology, check out the video below, which shows the use of a ‘NanoTube’ as a d-modulator for a radio system - A possibilty for the worlds smallest radio - Will we be able to see it to use it!

If you would like to read the article I reda from the discovery channel, please see the link below:
:Discovery Channel - Nanotrucks and Nanotrains: Workhorses of the Future?

Thats it for this week!
 

Pic: Ogame Overview - Ogame.org

Hello All,

Back to regular service as usual this week! With th post this week I though I may talk about a web browser based game I have started playing again recently called Ogame. I won’t go into to great detail, but just enough so you get a feel for it and then may be even start playing yourself!

Ogame (before I start) is a very stragetic and tatical based game, where the idea is to build up an empire, from nearly nothing. When you sign up you are given one undeveloped, where is it your responsabilty to buld it up! Ogame works with (now) 4 main resources which are; Metal, Crystal, Deuterium and dark matter. However the ones you only really need to worry about are the firts three: Metal, Crystal and Deuterium.

When you start your first need is to buold up your mines, so you can get these three main resources as they are key to your empire! With these resources or ‘res’ it opens up a whole new world of oppertunities. Such examples could include being able to build and upgrade shipyards, resarch labs and missile silos etc. With these buildings you can then buold yur self a fleet to defend your empire and attack others, also creating a good defense! With research you can further your empire even more, as well as improving defense and your fleet etc. As well as this, each time you make an improvement your points go up and so does your rank.

You can also build colonies or in other words get more planets, to expand your empire. As you can probably imagine, there is still a great deal of strategy and tatics from what I have described, but there is even more needed when empires wage wars with one another and then negotiate terms and trades! You can also join an alliance, to be an even bigger force to be reconed with!

Currently Ogame is split up inot a total of 38 universes, and when you sign up you can choose to play in any of them, but only have one account per universe.

I am currently in universe 35 a speed universe as its knows, which means it takes lesser amount of time to build up your empire. This is quite a popular universe, and there still may be some plaves left. If not there are still 37 others!

I hope this has been interesting, and I think I have covered most of the main points! I hope you have been inspired to join!

See the videos below - Yes 2 this week! - The one on the left, is a look at a realistic view of what you would get if you joined. The on the right is a ‘made up’ version for what somebody would imagine an Ogame battle would be - Remember this is a browser based game! - Brilliant animation though!

Also (going back back to last weeks post) they are still showing episodes of the Series ‘Visions of the Future’. This is definaltly intersting, and certainly not simething to miss! If there are any episodes left, they seem to show them on BBC 2 on a Wedenesday at 11:20pm.

Well thats it for this week!