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Category: News

  • Diggnation’s Alex Albrecht launches an iPhone app: Duel

    Alex Albrecht is on Wikipedia. Therefore, he is important. Not only that, but he also made a cool iPhone app that hit the store for just $1. Cheap. Like all the other iPhone apps. Unlike most other $1 iPhone apps, this one is pretty fun.

    The concept is simple: Duel enables you to host a duel on your iPhones. (Don’t fret, parental-types; though this iPhone duel will pay homage to the duels of the Wild Wild West, it will differ in one major way: nobody’s gonna get shot.) Instead, should you lose, you will simply find your fellow dueler’s ugly mug laughing hysterically in your face. Here’s how you duel: All you need is two people with two iPhones. Both need to have the app (so you could argue this app really costs $2, which is still cheap). You connect your iPhones via Bluetooth, and then you raise your phones vertically. The timer on the phones counts down from 3. Once it hits zero, you turn your phones horizontally to shoot. First one to shoot wins.

    Read the rest of this entry at MobileCrunch >>

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  • America, please grow a spine

    Another mentally ill al Qaeda cannon fodder has tried to blow up an airplane. It’s encouraging that they’re still scraping the barrel to recruit suicide bombers.

    Meanwhile, in America, there are rumors that we’ll have to forsake electronics and all motion or access to personal goods for the last hour of flight. At one point it was rumored that we’d have to go without a book for the “last hour”. We might as well scratch all children and many adults with medical, cognitive or psychiatric disorders from flying.
    Oh, and I love they way they say “last hour” as though planes never spend 1-2 hours circling the airport or waiting for a gate.
    Meanwhile anyone who’s seen a movie or read a book about smuggling or prisons is waiting for the first bomb smuggled in by body cavity – or surgically embedded into the abdomen. The next generation of scanners will have to incorporate a rectal probe.
    The TSA administrators can’t be as stupid as they look. They must know there’s really no practical way to secure an airplane (train, bus, public space) against a truly competent and determined attacker. The best we can do is balanced risk mitigation. As Schneier has told us so many times, the big changes post 9/11 were to secure the cockpit door and look to the courage of passengers.
    So if the TSA administrators aren’t stupid, where do these regs come from? They come from legislative pressure. Now, many of our legislators are stupid, but not all of them. So why do they do this?
    Because they know if a plane blows up and they didn’t max out on security theater they’ll be out of office – because we American voters are who we are.
    We gotta stop this. Voters and legislators alike need to grow an American spine — before our fear and stupidity drives us off the deep end of history.
    Update 12/29/09: Signs of vertebral development. The absurd early responses have been dropped. Also, rectal bombs have already been used in Saudi Arabia.

  • Minimed Infusion Set options/top choices

    When I went back on the pump, I was automatically shipped the Quick-Set infusion sets to use. I don’t think that any of my very minor irritations with the sets I use are specific to this type, but I am curious as to what others preferences/experiences are with the various types offered.
    Thanks 🙂

  • Getting Trained on the One Touch Ping

    I go in for my class on how to use the One Touch Ping on Wednesday. I’ve never used a pump before and have only been a Type 1 for a little over a year as a result of another medical complication.

    I’ve read up on the Ping, and searched this forum endlessly over the past 3 months.

    But I still feel like I’m going in blind.

    I know the Diabeties Learning Center where my Endo is at will teach me a lot about it, but are there any questions I need to ask? The manual has already put me to sleep once.

  • MINIFLASH – The new age in Flashpoint Testing

    Using a unique patented flashpoint method, the MINIFLASH flashpoint tester from GRABNER INSTRUMENTS (Austria) offers best repeatability and unmatched versatility for flashpoint testing. By using only 1-2 ml sample volume and by testing the flashpoint in a completely sealed metal cup, the MINIFLASH guarantees highest safety and eliminates the risk of open fires commonly experienced when testing flashpoint.

    Operating a classical Pensky Martens flashpoint tester can be tedious and frustrating. Complicated preparation and method selection require the work of a skilled technician to
    generate repeatable, unbiased results.

    Contrary to the old Pensky Martens method the MINIFLASH offers best in class handling: Simply select the method, put in 1 ml sample and press run. Clean the small sample cup with a tissue afterwards and start the next measurement. Thus an average 10 samples per hour can be tested with the MINIFLASH, results exceeding precision of the common EN ISO 2719 and D93 flashpoint standards. The MINIFLASH 8-position sampler model allows 45 minutes unattended flashpoint testing, ensures highest productivity and thus pays off instrument costs in a few months.

    When asked for their opinion on the MINIFLASH, ease of use, portability and best performance even under the most adverse conditions are voiced by our customers: “All units have been very good for us. Very user friendly, efficient and strong enough to last in an offshore environment. I remember the old days for testing flash points and these units are light years ahead in design and ease of use,” says Wayne Russell, MI-Swaco, offshore oil platform.

  • Rösler offers waste water treatment systems

    Annually about 100 systems with automatic sludge removal and about 250 semiautomatic systems are sold. However, this elaborate technology can be utilized for applications like dewatering of the sludge from paint booths, the treatment of waste water generated during the glue operation in wood processing industries, the processing of waste water created in glass grinding operations as well as the cleaning of effluent containing silicon carbide (SiC) that is generated in the production of semi-conductors and wafers. One reason for the successful use of Rösler centrifuges in these applications is the high throughput of up to 6,000 liters/hour with the automatic centrifugal filter systems. Of great importance are not only the cleanliness requirements for the different applications but also the physical limits regarding particle size and weight.
    The design of the Rösler centrifuges places great emphasis on ease of maintenance, especially accessibility to the rotary drum with indirect drive. The drum itself comes standard in aluminum; for special applications like for the separation of glass particles or silicon carbide it is made from stainless steel. This prevents a chemical reaction and, thus, corrosion of the drum. The drum has a capacity of up to 30 kg of sludge with the advantage of long time intervals between sludge „peeling“ cycles. With regard to sludge peeling the Rösler design offers another advantage: In competitive systems the peeling knife is constantly rotating with the drum, and it must be moved to the drum wall for the peeling cycle with a gear motor. In the Rösler systems the peeling knife is completely independent from the rotary drum. Mounted on a linear guide rail the peeling knife is pneumatically moved to the inner drum wall for the peeling cycle.
    The peeling cycle is followed by a rinse step for removal of residual sludge. This prevents an imbalance in the rotary drum during the subsequent cleaning cycle.
    The clean liquid phase – separated from the solid phase in the high-speed drum – is picked up by a pickup tube and transported to either a clear water buffer tank or directly to drain. Frequently, the mechanical cleaning effect of the Rösler centrifuges is supported by the addition of special chemical flocculants which allow the removal of very fine particles from the effluent.
    In Germany Rösler is certified as a waste recycling company and, thus, is authorized to take back the sludge from centrifuge applications.

  • BX4 motors with integrated compact electronics

    Electronic commutated 4 Pole Motor Series extended by 32mm types

    The brushless 4 Pole DC servomotors of the renowned BX4 Series from FAULHABER are supple-mented by motors with a diameter of 32mm. A long operational lifetime, a high, cogging-free output torque and the lack of adhesive-bonded joints characterize these powerful motors, requirements for many applications like robotics, automation, medical, machinery, aerospace and aviation. The new drives are available in two lengths of 42 or 68 mm in voltage types of 12 or 24 V. They captivate with an extremely flat slope of the n/M curve and an excellent torque-to-volume ratio and provide a con-tinuous output torque of 56 or 97 mNm.

    Besides the combination with external control electronics from FAULHABER, the motors are also available with integrated Speed Controller (SC), as two-wire version (SCDC) and with integrated Motion Controller (CS). All products with integrated electronics are equipped with an automatic limit-ing of peak and continuous current to protect motor and electronics. Separate power supply for mo-tor and electronics is optionally available.

    The SCDC type is easy to handle due to the two-wire connection. It can be used in applications with higher lifetime requirements to substitute a brush-type DC motor. Therefore the motor provides a inverse-polarity protection, the direction of rotation is selected with the terminal assignment.

    The CS version is based on the approved FAULHABER Motion Control Systems, whose compact dimensions are a great benefit for many applications. It has a serial interface RS232 and can be configurated with the FAULHABER Motion Manager 4.3 software. The increased temperature range of -20…+100 °C and the thermal limited continuous current up to 2,6 A extend the area of applica-tion of the new drives. The system is available with customer firmware on request.

    The motor versions with integrated encoder in the robust housing offer four factory programmable resolutions from 32, 64, 128 to 256 pulses and a separate index channel.
    A line driver version with differential signal output is optionally available.

  • BEUMER successful with high-capacity belt bucket elevators in India

    India’s booming activity in the building industry increases the demand in cement. In order to meet it, more and larger cement plants have been erected. Bucket elevators are used to transport raw meal to the heat exchanger. Both the application of advanced technologies and the experience of the BEUMER group are convincing: The BEUMER group has been supplying high-capacity belt bucket elevators to Indian cement manufacturers as ACC Ltd. which is part of the Holcim Group for years.

    The main growth drivers in India are the development of the infrastructure and the private housing construction. Approx. 500 billion USD are supposed to flow into the modernization and expansion of traffic routes, airports and seaports as well as into the energy and water supply up to 2012. According to information of the Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA), the expenses for cement constitute, depending on the project, between 8 and 30 per cent of the total cost. In order to meet the increased demand for this treasured material, the Holcim Group – the second biggest cement manufacturer in the world – has erected together with its subsidiary Ambuja Cement a large plant with a daily output of 8,500 tons in Bhatapara, India. Thanks to the highly advanced level of technology and comprising experience, a high-capacity belt bucket elevator of the BEUMER intralogistics specialist will be used.

    The BEUMER high-capacity belt bucket elevators are used for transporting in optimal way fine-grain to powdery products in mass flows. The grain size determines the type of bucket mounting to be used: Segment fastenings are used up to a grain size of 25 millimetres and BEUMER rubber-metal fastenings for grain sizes between 25 and 60 millimetres. A belt clamping connection for steel wire belts as traction element developed specifically by BEUMER offers a long lasting service life of the belt. In case of large centre distances, the high-capacity belt bucket elevators are provided with monitoring switches. This way, the fit of the belt clamping connection is continuously monitored. Owing to the safety system developed by BEUMER, this monitoring is contactless, wear-free and reliable.

    The BEUMER belt bucket elevator used in the cement plant in Bhatapara (India) is characterized especially by its huge height of 158 metres and by its considerable width of 1.25 metres. The conveying capacity amounts to approx. 650 tons per hour. The high-capacity belt bucket elevator used in Karnataka (South-India) is even higher. Within the context of the increased kiln performance, the company ACC Ltd., which belongs to the Holcim Group, is actually building up a large cement plant with a daily output of 13,000 tons in the Wadi plant. Here, a high-capacity belt bucket elevator with a centre distance of 175.3 metres and a conveying capacity of 600 tons per hour will come into operation.

  • Bestact – Power Reed Switch for Railway industry

    Since Bestact, a hermetically sealed glass contact power reed switch, was placed in service over 15 million have been used worldwide in rolling stocks, electric power equipment, elevators and control devices in the steel industry. Their adption in 1982 by Japanese National Railways for Shinkansen Bullet trains, it has grown along with the success of the trains themselves, and is exclusively used in all Shinkansen Bullet tains at the moment.

    As the recent demand for maintenance free components, high contact reliability and safety continues to grow, so will the appication of Bestact. Bestact has seen extensive use in ATS wayside coil controlling relays and door interlock switches throughout the 80’s and 90’s and in ATC, ATO devices from the year 2000 and on.

    Bestact has been shown to be the optimum solution for train and railroad signal applications that require extremely high reliability.

  • NEW! Silvent F1 Air Nozzles special

    SILVENT F 1 is a cooling nozzle with FRIGUS technology that is especially designed for spot cooling where unwanted heat occurs due to material milling, drilling, grinding, turning etc. Maintaining a reduced temperature during machining operations facilitates the process and extends tool life. F 1 generates a low noise level.

    Its revolutionary design is compact and the unit is simple to install. It is easy to replace your standard nozzle with a FRIGUS cooling nozzle. F 1 cools the target while blowing away chips and enhancing quality.

    FRIGUS technology provides the possibility to quickly and easily adjust both the air consumption and cold fraction you need.

    This simple, unique control design allows you to set air consumption in relation to your refrigeration requirements. F 1 also complies with the noise limitations of the EU Machine Directive and OSHA safety standards. Patent pending.

  • Cost-effective All-in-One Touch POS Solutions

    As the days of 2009 dwindling, Sinocan launches 12 inch touch POS terminal, which is likely to drive customer-facing retail technologies in the coming year.

    Eco-Friendly Point-of-Sale Systems

    Global warming and other environmental concerns are changing the way people live and do business. Sinocan and Intel are working together to offer cost-effective green retail solutions designed to help retailers to achieve their environmental goals and build customer loyalty for its brand image improvement in a fiercely competitive industry.

    Featured with low power consumption technology, Sinocan F06-12 is designed as a valuable, steady and efficient POS solution.

    Sinocan F06-12 is the best solution for the space efficiency ever you can get. With ultra compact footprint and VESA mounting compatibility, Sinocan F06-12 is the one and only choice for space-limited applications

    Cost-saving Point-of-Sale Systems

    Just plug and play. Selecting packaged POS technology which your new employees can quickly learn how to use.

    Cost-saving. With Sinocan, you get a wide selection of rugged and user friendly hardware platforms which are pre-certified to deliver the full capabilities of your specific POS application.

    Time is money. More time you spend on employee training and trial running means that more cost and expense you have to bear. Sinocan F06-12 is an intuitional pug-and-play device which conforming all industry standards and is compatible with all X86-based hardware and supporting all Windows OS (Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP, Vista, 7), Linux, WebOS etc.

    With Sinocan F06-12, no more costly employee training and system maintenance.

    Reliable, Flexible, Scalable, Upgradeable

    You need a reliable, flexible, scalable and upgradeable POS system to handle your business which grows day by day. Sinocan F06-12 is featured with smart design and modular POS stand for future changes in load demands, and could satisfy your entire POS requirement through the entire lifecycle.

    Fanless Solution with Rich Functionalities

    Highest performance with eco-friendly is the ideas Sinocan holding on POS design and development. Powered by Intel ATOM 1.6GHz CPU and cooled by fanless solution. With extensive functionalities and rich connectors, F06-12 offers you powerful performance and cost-saving efficiency. For more information, please visit http://www.lcdpc.com.cn/Pro_Fanless_POS_12.php .

  • Smart Grid Will Generate $200B of Global Investment

    Back in October during our smart grid webinar, we referenced a report on the smart grid from Pike Research that had some pretty massive global figures. Well, this morning Pike has officially launched that report which says the smart grid market will bring in $200 billion in worldwide investment between 2008 and 2015. Out of […]


  • Vital Signs: An Uninvited Guest

    The young woman carried a baby that wasn’t her own—and wasn’t even a human.

  • 5 Questions: The Rock’n’Rolling, Sky-Diving Master of Memory

    Daniela Schiller served in the Israeli army, but it was not until she went parachuting during college that she truly understood the power of fear. Now she is building on that epiphany as a postdoc at New York University, studying memory and fear with leading neuroscientists Elizabeth Phelps and Joseph LeDoux.

  • Eco Tech: Ashghal to develop solar-powered robots for regulating traffic

    robot

    Eco Factor: Traffic regulating robots powered by solar energy.

    Qatar’s Public Works Authority (Ashghal) with support from the Qatar Science Club will soon be developing new robots that will replace the manual methods used in guiding traffic at varies road project sites. The green robots will be powered by solar energy harvested by onboard solar panels.

    (more…)

  • Innolux said to be building Apple tablet displays

    apple-tablet-mac-touch-user-foxconnEmployees at a couple of parts suppliers have blabbed that they’re making parts for Apple’s unicorn-like tablet computer, which rumormongers agree will be launched at a January 26th media event scheduled by Apple. Taiwanese trade mag Digitimes reports that Foxconn subsidiary Innolux is manufacturing the so-called iTablet’s touchscreen displays, and Taiwanese publication Economic Daily says that “Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co., Ltd. has won orders to mass produce screen connectors for the soon-to-be release Apple iSlate.” More details as we get them.


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  • Biomass Plant planned for UK

    The Teeside Biomass Power Station will 'rise' out of the landscape and will be covered wit...

    This British biomass power station concept is one of the many projects being proposed around the globe as the search for renewable energy sources continues. The visually stunning Teesside plant will be covered with greenery, provide fuel for over 50,000 homes and be powered by palm kernel shells…

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  • In praise of cardiac risk calculators

    I’ve always had annoyingly high cholesterol levels, but I recently hit both age 50 and a new high cholesterol (though also a new high HDL). I figured it was time to bite the Statins.
    First, though, I made the rounds of the risk calculators. I stuck with those on US and Canadian government and educational sites. The results varied depending on where the modeling data was taken from, but I generally fell between a 5% and 7% 10 year risk of a cardiac event (Said even is not necessarily fatal, but certainly unpleasant).
    Even more significantly the only thing that really shifted my risk was to change gender. Even a fantastic statin effect, such as taking my cholesterol below 190, didn’t change my risk much (from 6% to 4%, for a 33% relative risk reduction but a mediocre absolute risk reduction).
    Considering that the statins are unlikely to be risk free [1] I decided to wait until my personal risk tops an arbitrary 10% threshold. In the meantime I’ll continue to focus on diet and (especially) exercise.
    The key lesson here is the value of these dynamic, personalized, risk calculators. They drive home the lessons we were taught in the 90s about the difference between statistical and clinical significance and they are an early and practical application of the principals of “personalized medicine”.
    Now if we could only apply these basic principles to airplane security planning…
    See also:
    [1] We have good reason to believe that the published literature has a systematic bias understating the risks of high value medications. We also know these are powerful medications that act on a wide variety of lipid receptors. On the other hand studies of absolute mortality risk in the last decade have been encouraging — but those studies were done on persons with much higher risks of cardiac disease than mine.

    —
    My Google Reader Shared items (feed)

  • Ringing in a New Year With Predictions for Hot Software Sectors

    Dennis Clerke wrote:

    The constrained venture capital markets and difficult environment for IPOs, will make 2010 a big year for M&A transactions. The leaders in hot new software sectors will be swallowed up at a premium, along with entrepreneurs tired of running on the treadmill as they get closer to retirement, will drive more M&A transactions than ever. I see these theses trends emerging:

    1. Emergence of “Social Commerce”—The continued propagation and expansion of social networks open a significant opportunity for new forms of online commerce. Expect to see integrated commerce applications embedded into the social networks that offer simplicity, security and a unique and integrated understanding of the social network participants. This will drive new forms of commerce with remarkable results in 2010 and beyond.

    2. Greater Performance for Online Advertising—The downturn in gross online ad spending has “weeded out” many undifferentiated online advertising businesses, but has also stimulated ad technology companies that make a measurable difference in converting ads to sales. Expect to see breakthrough technologies in the areas of ad placement and dynamic creative that will improve relevancy and yield from the historical conversion rates.

    3. Better Online Privacy Controls and a Move to Mobile Devices—Today’s myriad of online entertainment and productivity applications, combined with the move to greater “computing on the go” capabilities, have created a privacy conflict between web application providers and users. The application providers want to understand and expose data to improve online presence which, in many cases, is in conflict with individual privacy concerns. The situation is even more concerning for children and with mobile devices. Today’s litany of online games and social communities accessible through phones can result in personal information getting into the wrong hands. While some applications prevent this on PC’s, mobile devices are open terrain. Parents, parents, corporations and users will embrace new forms of privacy controls on mobile devices in 2010.

    4. Broad Adoption of Energy Management Applications—The concentration on clean technology and green energy has resulted in a new class of applications driving energy efficiency. Buildings account for about one-third of all energy use. It is estimated that 30 percent of this is wasted. In order to control energy use, you must measure energy consumption. Many sensor-based monitoring applications will be developed for this purpose. In 2010 you should expect to see a new breed of energy-oriented analytic applications that will help improve efficiency in the home, office, and in energy-intensive locations like data centers.

    5. Software to Manage Food Safety–There is a growing desire to get better information about what we are eating. Not just nutritional labels in the grocery store, but a complete history of food products covering the product from the farm to the kitchen. Consumers want to know more about the food we ingest, including where it comes from, potential exposure to pesticides, oversight of properly controlled transportation and more. To date we have relied on regulatory agencies for such oversight, but the system is far from perfect, as we witnessed with many food scares in 2009. Expect consumer-oriented applications on the web to play a bigger role in 2010 and beyond.

    6. Technology to Manage Water Use—With only 1 percent of the world’s fresh water available as drinking water, water capture, management and retention will become a big focus in 2010. Again, this requires measurement and testing that involves sensor-based applications, collaborative systems among agencies and better storage facilities. Expect to see highly integrated and analytical web applications that will be facilitated by wireless and mobile computing.

    [Editor’s Note: As the decade comes to an end, we’ve asked Xconomists and other technology leaders around the country to identify the top innovations they’ve seen in their fields the past 10 years, or predict the top disruptive technologies that will impact the next decade.]

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  • “Duel” iPhone App Takes You Back to the Wild, Wild West. A Game that’s Untouchable like Eliot Ness.

    Duel Start ScreenAlex Albrecht is on Wikipedia. Therefore, he is important. Not only that, but he also made a cool iPhone app that hit the store for just $1. Cheap. Like all the other iPhone apps. Unlike most other $1 iPhone apps, this one is pretty fun.

    The concept is simple: Duel enables you to host a duel on your iPhones. (Don’t fret, parental-types; though this iPhone duel will pay homage to the duels of the Wild Wild West, it will differ in one major way: nobody’s gonna get shot.) Instead, should you lose, you will simply find your fellow dueler’s ugly mug laughing hysterically in your face. Here’s how you duel: All you need is two people with two iPhones. Both need to have the app (so you could argue this app really costs $2, which is still cheap). You connect your iPhones via Bluetooth, and then you raise your phones vertically. The timer on the phones counts down from 3. Once it hits zero, you turn your phones horizontally to shoot. First one to shoot wins.

    This is a freakin’ simple concept, but it is also brilliantly fun. I challenged my buddy to a game and felt like a real bad-ass when I beat him 4-2 in a best of 7 (yes, I am using MobileCrunch as a way to brag about my conquests). I think we would’ve kept playing if it weren’t for the fact that it was Christmas Eve and we were supposed to be hanging out with our families. Oops.

    Alex AlbrechtOutside of this foray into iPhone app creation, Alexander Albrecht is an American television personality, actor and podcaster. He’s best known for co-hosting the former TechTV television program The Screen Savers, an hour-long computer and technology variety show, as well as the weekly Diggnation, and The Totally Rad Show. [Yes, this was lifted entirely from his Crunchbase entry. Sue me; it’s the holidays.]

    You can buy Duel on the App Store here for $0.99.

    P.S. If you didn’t get the headline, you need to listen to more Tupac.

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