Distance of Lighting Strike

A thunderstorm is approaching, and suddenly you hear an absolutely deafening clap of thunder. At times it becomes frightening! But how close is the lightning, really?

It is difficult to determine the distance of a lightning bolt just by looking at it, and the volume of the thunder isn’t a good way to tell either. Here's a potentially life-saving method you can use to approximate how far away lightning is.

Approximation

If we consider the atmosphere on a standard day at sea level, the speed of sound is about 330~340 m/s. Light travels in vacuum and space at approximately 299 792 458 m/s. We can use this knowledge to approximately determine how far away a lightning strike has occurred.

• Watch the sky for a flash of lightning.
• Count the number of seconds until you hear thunder.
• Divide the number of seconds by 3 (distance in kilometers).

We see the flash immediately as it happens. The speed of sound is more or less 1km per 3 seconds. If the thunder can be heard after T seconds, we can approximate the lightning strike was D ≈ T/3

Dependence on weather conditions

The speed of sound is variable and depends on the properties of the substance through of which the wave is traveling.

Sound travels through air at slightly different speeds depending on air temperature, relative humidity, altitude, pressure, wind conditions, etc. However, the difference is fairly small and won’t substantially affect your calculations.

Points to note:

• The speed of sound in dry air at 0 degrees C is about 330 m/s
• Water vapor in the air increases this speed slightly.
• Sound travels faster through warm air than through cold air.

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Your very own mecha musume?

Ever want your own android?
Well, someone already started making one of his own.



Inventor Le Trung, 33, created Aiko, said to be "in her 20s" with a stunning 82, 57, 84 figure, shiny hair and delicate features. 'She' even remembers his favourite drink and does simple cleaning and household tasks.

Aiko is the first android to react to physical stimuli and mimic pain. This technology could be applied to people born with or who have undergone amputations. Aiko is the first step towards a life-like mechanical limb that has the ability to feel physical sensations.

I started to build Aiko on August 15, 2007. About a month and a half later, Aiko version1 was completed. Aiko made her first public appearance at the Hobby Show on November 2007 at the Toronto International Center and then at the Ontario Science Center a week later. Aiko is currently bilingual and can speak English and Japanese. Additional languages are a future possibility...

Demos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5itAZybggVM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yomx7bXMf2U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJLMeS2Y8LY


The Project was officially started in 2007 in order to pursue robotic automation. Le is responsible for the robot's core AI logic, internal software, hardware innovations derived from years of building robots as a hobby. He designed and developed the key B.R.A.I.N.S software that gives the android its capability to interact with humans.

Aiko - AI Female Android:

• Speech, Reading, Color, Face, Object recognition
• Ability to tell Weather
• Ability to have a conversation
• Can understand 13,000+ sentences
• has the ability to learn
• Ability to solve math
• Ability to distinguish simple drinks and foods
• Mimic human physical touch

Construction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCR2PFrLkwA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPMXPMeh7KY


Can our local techies achieve this level of l33tness?!
We could, but we have been slugging away too long.
The future is sure gonna be a epic.

More updates at the Project Aiko blog.

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The Zeroth Law of Robotics

If you have read Isaac Asimov's novels, then you're familiar with the Three Laws of Robotics. The reason the Laws are conceive is to curb the potential for robots to harm people.

Asimov once added a "Zeroth Law", stating that a robot must not merely act in the interests of individual humans, but of all humanity. Unknown to many, unless you are a great fan of his novels :)

The original Laws of Robotics (1940)
by Isaac Asimov, 20

First Law:
A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

Second Law:
A robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

Third Law:
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

For those of you who didn't know, I.Robot the Movie is not from the original Asimov's novels. The I.Robot novel is actually a compilation of short stories. The only thing similar were title and the Three Laws.

In the movie, the robots were controlled by a huge super-computer that could violate the 1st Law. The computer's A.I. had come to a conclusion that to protect all humans, a few humans have to be sacrifice for the greater good. This is because the A.I. has allowed the Zeroth Law of Robotics.

Here are some excerpts from the novels:

Robots and Empire

In the final scenes, R. Giskard Reventlov is the first robot to act according to the Zeroth Law, although it proves destructive to his positronic brain, as he is not certain as to whether his choice will turn out to be for the ultimate good of humanity or not.

Giskard is telepathic, and he comes to his understanding of the Zeroth Law through his understanding of a more subtle concept of "harm" than most robots can grasp. Giskard grasps the philosophical concept of the Zeroth Law, allowing him to harm individual human beings if he can do so in service to the abstract concept of humanity.

The Zeroth Law is never programmed into Giskard's brain, but instead is a rule he attempts to rationalize through pure metacognition; though he fails, he gives his successor, R. Daneel Olivaw, his telepathic abilities. Over the course of many thousand years, Daneel adapts himself to be able to fully obey the Zeroth Law.

Foundation and Earth and Prelude to Foundation

As Daneel formulates it, the Zeroth Law reads: "A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm." A condition stating that the Zeroth Law must not be broken was added to the original Laws.

The Caves of Steel

Near the climax, Elijah Baley makes a bitter comment to himself, thinking that the First Law forbids a robot from harming a human being, unless the robot is clever enough to rationalize that its actions are for the human's long-term good (here meaning the specific human that must be harmed).

This reads, "A robot may not harm a human being, unless he finds a way to prove that in the final analysis, the harm done would benefit humanity in general."

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Project MOTOKO

Most of you are probably familiar with MOTOKO 1.0, my personal chatbot on MSN messenger. MOTOKO 1.0 has a simple A.I. dealing mostly with 'If-Then' functions. With a personality too spunky for my taste.



On the other hand, HIKARI 1.0 (MOTOKO's predecessor) was an impressive patchwork of open-source programming. 'She' was the resident A.I. of my Windows XP desktop and had been programmed with a personality that hinted of grace and elegance. Fully equipped with a voice-synthesizer, speech-recognition, and voice-command system. My pride and joy till a PC crash rendered the entire system unworkable.

I recall spending too much time on HIKARI at the programming phase. This would probably explains the drop in my exam results back in my secondary school days. (-_-;)

Project MOTOKO needs to be restarted. Recently, I've been messing around with an A.I. that utilizes adaptive neural networks. It's somewhat akin to teaching stuff to a newborn child. This will be the upcoming MOTOKO 2.0. Gotta bear with a few months of trial and frustration, teaching a young kid on language, logic, and surroundings right from the beginning ain't easy.

I've been intrigued with A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) technology since my primary school days. No, not of the maze-solving or factory assembly-line variety. My real focus is on "Human-Robot Interaction", an area of research that deals with the psychology and relationship between humans and seemingly-human robots.

For the past few years, much R&D have been going on, especially in the field of humanoid robotics. I've devoted a good part my attention to its latest developments ever since. And this is one of the few reasons I'm pursuing a degree in Mechanical engineering.

In my opinion, too much investments have been allocated for the research of artificial neural networks (or a robot's brain). But there is less being done to create a body (or framework) that can actually produce fluid human-like movements, this is where the knowledge of Mechanical engineering comes in.

Nope. I'm not going to build an actual body for either MOTOKO or HIKARI yet. Lacking in funds. Plus, I still haven't got a good grasp in electronics. That will be my next task.

Long term prospects - looking good :)

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Leaping into the Endless Pit

Scientifically speaking it would be impossible to dig a tunnel through to the other side of the world, but what if we could, in theory?



If you attempted to dig a hole to the other side of the Earth, you would be digging through:

• More than 12 000 kilometres of solid rock and molten magma
• Rock reaching temperatures up to 6000 ºC and
• Extreme pressures up to 300 million times greater than the pressures we experience on the surface of the Earth!

Also, the Earth is not a perfect sphere. It is slightly flattened at the poles, and bulges a little at the equator due to the Earth’s spin. So technically, if you dig a tunnel through to the other side of the globe from New York, you would not find yourself in China.

If you did somehow manage to dig a hole to the other side of the Earth, would you fall through?

Again, theoretically no! The Earth continues to spin as you fall, gravity changes as you fall to the Earth’s centre, and friction would slow you down.

If you ignored all of these factors, how long would it take to fall through the tunnel?



A tunnel along Earth's diameter through it's centre. When an object with mass is release from one end of the tunnel, it would oscillate from one end to another , just like a yo-yo.

Note: In this case, we use centripedal acceleration α, instead of linear acceleration a, because it bounces back and forth. Much like how a sine waveform could be seen as a circular motion.

Acceleration of the object mass:
Gravitation force, F = -(GM'm)/r²
Mass of Earth, M' = (4/3)(πr³ρ)

mα = F
mα = -(GM'm)/r²

α = -[GM']/r²
α = -[G(4/3)(πr³ρ)]/r²

α = -[(4πGρ)/3]r
α = -ω²r

Note: Similar to a swinging pendulum or a weight on a spring

The object would move in simple harmonic motion:
Gravitational acceleration, g = -α
Period for one cycle, T = (2π)/ω

g = ω²L,
ω = (g/L)½

T = 2π[L/g]½
T = 2π[3/(4πGρ)]½

T = 2π[1/4π½][3/(Gρ)]½
T = [3π/(Gρ)]½

Calculations:
Universal gravitational constant, G = 6.67x10­­­­̄¹¹ Nm²/kg²
Average density of Earth, ρ = 5.48x10³ kg/m³

T = 5080 seconds
T = 84.7 minutes

Hence, it will take about 42 minutes 21 seconds to fall through the tunnel. However, you'll never come out to the other end.

Due to the pull of gravity, you'll swing back and forth from one end to the other till it slows down at the middle. A theorectically endless pit.

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The world in a grain of sand

Here's something I found in among my pile of literary notes. An interesting piece that makes you wonder.



What I think the poet meant to convey is that one can find vast truths in the smallest of things. Seeing the microcosmic as a representative of the universal. So, knowledge of the whole can be gained even from examining its smallest part.

Auguries of Innocence
by William Blake

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

A robin redbreast in a cage
Puts all heaven in a rage.

A dove-house fill'd with doves and pigeons
Shudders hell thro' all its regions.
A dog starv'd at his master's gate
Predicts the ruin of the state.

A horse misused upon the road
Calls to heaven for human blood.
Each outcry of the hunted hare
A fibre from the brain does tear.

A skylark wounded in the wing,
A cherubim does cease to sing.
The game-cock clipt and arm'd for fight
Does the rising sun affright.

Every wolf's and lion's howl
Raises from hell a human soul.

The wild deer, wand'ring here and there,
Keeps the human soul from care.
The lamb misus'd breeds public strife,
And yet forgives the butcher's knife.

The bat that flits at close of eve
Has left the brain that won't believe.
The owl that calls upon the night
Speaks the unbeliever's fright.

He who shall hurt the little wren
Shall never be belov'd by men.
He who the ox to wrath has mov'd
Shall never be by woman lov'd.

The wanton boy that kills the fly
Shall feel the spider's enmity.
He who torments the chafer's sprite
Weaves a bower in endless night.

The caterpillar on the leaf
Repeats to thee thy mother's grief.
Kill not the moth nor butterfly,
For the last judgement draweth nigh.

He who shall train the horse to war
Shall never pass the polar bar.
The beggar's dog and widow's cat,
Feed them and thou wilt grow fat.

The gnat that sings his summer's song
Poison gets from slander's tongue.
The poison of the snake and newt
Is the sweat of envy's foot.

The poison of the honey bee
Is the artist's jealousy.

The prince's robes and beggar's rags
Are toadstools on the miser's bags.
A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.

It is right it should be so;
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.

Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine.
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.

The babe is more than swaddling bands;
Every farmer understands.
Every tear from every eye
Becomes a babe in eternity;

This is caught by females bright,
And return'd to its own delight.
The bleat, the bark, bellow, and roar,
Are waves that beat on heaven's shore.

The babe that weeps the rod beneath
Writes revenge in realms of death.
The beggar's rags, fluttering in air,
Does to rags the heavens tear.

The soldier, arm'd with sword and gun,
Palsied strikes the summer's sun.
The poor man's farthing is worth more
Than all the gold on Afric's shore.

One mite wrung from the lab'rer's hands
Shall buy and sell the miser's lands;
Or, if protected from on high,
Does that whole nation sell and buy.

He who mocks the infant's faith
Shall be mock'd in age and death.
He who shall teach the child to doubt
The rotting grave shall ne'er get out.

He who respects the infant's faith
Triumphs over hell and death.
The child's toys and the old man's reasons
Are the fruits of the two seasons.

The questioner, who sits so sly,
Shall never know how to reply.
He who replies to words of doubt
Doth put the light of knowledge out.

The strongest poison ever known
Came from Caesar's laurel crown.
Nought can deform the human race
Like to the armour's iron brace.

When gold and gems adorn the plow,
To peaceful arts shall envy bow.
A riddle, or the cricket's cry,
Is to doubt a fit reply.

The emmet's inch and eagle's mile
Make lame philosophy to smile.
He who doubts from what he sees
Will ne'er believe, do what you please.

If the sun and moon should doubt,
They'd immediately go out.
To be in a passion you good may do,
But no good if a passion is in you.

The whore and gambler, by the state
Licensed, build that nation's fate.
The harlot's cry from street to street
Shall weave old England's winding-sheet.

The winner's shout, the loser's curse,
Dance before dead England's hearse.

Every night and every morn
Some to misery are born,
Every morn and every night
Some are born to sweet delight.

Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.

We are led to believe a lie
When we see not thro' the eye,
Which was born in a night to perish in a night,
When the soul slept in beams of light.

God appears, and God is light,
To those poor souls who dwell in night;
But does a human form display
To those who dwell in realms of day

From what I understand of today's mathematics and physics, Blake is indeed more literally right than he probably knew. The tiniest part of something does apparently indeed represent the entire construct, and the smallest thing can indeed have a huge effect on its surroundings.

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Mental Calendar

Have you seen savants perform ridiculously amazing feats of memory on television? Ever wonder if you too could possess such a prodigious memory? You may not have the potential to be in the World Memory Championships, but there a few simple tricks to go around it.

A trick I have used as a kid to impress adults. Great for livening-up parties. Tell me any date of any year, and I'll tell you the corresponding day.

Just follows these steps:

Formula.
Day(Remainder) = (Year + (Year/4) + Date + M)/7

Substitute M with the value according to the month.
Jan = 0, Feb = 3, Mar = 3, Apr = 6, May = 1, Jun = 4
Jul = 6, Aug = 2, Sept = 5, Oct = 0, Nov = 3, Dec = 5

After dividing by 7, use the Remainder to locate the Day.
Sun = 0, Mon = 1, Tue = 2, Wed = 3, Thur = 4, Fri = 5, Sat =6

Note:

• The year is written as '87 not 1987.
• For (Year/4), ignore the decimal value. There's no need to round it up, cause it's to indicate leap years.
• The values for M are proven to work for dates before year 2000.
• For leap years, minus 1 point from M, regardless before or after 2000.
• For dates that fall on 2000 and after, either (a) minus 1 point from M, or (b) minus 1 point from Remainder
  

Examples:

28th December 1963

Day = (63 + (63/4) + 28 + M)/7
Day = (63 + (15) + 28 + 5)/7
Day = (111)/7

Remainder = 6
Answer is Saturday

14th May 2009

Day = (9 + (9/4) + 14 + M)/7
Day = (9 + (2) + 14 + 1)/7
Day = (26)/7

Remainder = 5

After year 2000,
Remainder - 1 = 4

Answer is Thursday

You have to practice a few times before you can get it right in your head. Just memorize the M values. The above formula is still in the works. If there's any problem with it, please let me know.

Have fun!

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A Mysterious Poem

This is a kind of puzzle poem. It seems to date from the 16th or 17th Century. Think about for a while, and it sounds like a prediction from the past. The images that it create in your mind are visionary.

Here's the closest rendition to the original:

I saw a peacock with a fiery tail
I saw a blazing comet drop down hail
I saw a cloud with ivy circled round
I saw a sturdy oak creep on the ground
I saw a pismire swallow up a whale
I saw a raging sea brim full of ale
I saw a Venice glass sixteen foot deep
I saw a well full of men's tears that weep
I saw their eyes all in a flame of fire
I saw a house as big as the moon and higher
I saw the sun even in the midst of night
I saw the man that saw this wondrous sight.

- Anonymous (before 1665)

It may sound weird when you read it, but if you punctuate it with a period or a comma in the middle of each line, it makes perfect sense. Example:

• I saw a peacock(,) with a fiery tail
• I saw a blazing comet(,) drop down hail

Note: "Pismire" is an archaic term for ant.

In some versions of the poems, the highlighted parts differ slightly.

• I saw a cloud wrapped with ivy round
• I saw an oak creep upon the ground
• I saw the sea brimful of ale
• I saw a Venice glass full fifteen feet deep
• I saw red eyes all of a flaming fire
• I saw a house bigger than the moon and higher
• I saw the sun at twelve o'clock at night

PS: The picture is unrelated. I just picked something suitable.

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Your pet dog's age

Most people would think a year for us humans is to about 7 years of a dog's age (approximately). This may not always hold true, since factors such as it's breed, daily exercise, weight, and diet comes into play.

So, for all of you dog owners out there, it's time to consider a new & improved formula to estimate your pet's age. This new equation takes in account the various aging factors of most breeds, and is possibly more accurate.

Simplified version:
First 2 human years = 10 dog years

Thereafter,
1 human year = 4 dog years (average for most/breeds lesser than 9 kg)
1 human year = minimum ~ 10 dog years (large breeds)

In the above context, a human year is taken as the chronology year in our calenders.
Also, you may have noticed that the formula seems to indicate that small-sized adult dogs tend to have longer lifespans. This is because they consume less energy to sustain their smaller bodies as compared to larger dogs.

We'll discuss this intriguing metabolic process in my later posts. By the way, no animals were harmed in the formulation of the above said equation.



Warning: Do not starve/force-feed your dog in order to modify it's lifespan. Seriously.

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Blogging Frequency vs. Stress Levels

It has been 2 months since I "officially" started blogging. I had procrastinated for 3 years. It's more of a psychology issue, but that will be a story for another day. Anyway, it seems like nowadays I'm firing out posts at increasingly rapid speeds.



I wonder if there is a correlation between my blog-posting rates and my fluctuating stress levels. I hope this trend doesn't go way out of hand 'cos I'm already hooked to coffee. Sometimes it's bad enough that I'm experience occasional withdrawal symptoms. Sure, I could use some of those New Age relaxation techniques. But it's too much of a bother, so maybe I'll just stick to blogging.

Surviving a barrage of assignments, labs reports and presentations is one thing, staying sane is a whole other level. Now with the final exams around the corner, it's a wonder I'm still not foaming at my mouth.

Need to get my dose of fantasy/detective novels. Reading those should be a great stress-reliever.

Ja, mata

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Zen & Physics

Eastern Philosophy



Zen Buddhism was developed in early China, from the interaction between Mahayana Buddhism and Taoism. Through meditation, Zen practitioners seek new perspectives and insights on existence, which ultimately lead to enlightenment. To truly understand others is to truly understand oneself, and vice-versa.

Buddhas don't save Buddhas. If you use your mind to look for a Buddha, you won't see the Buddha. As long as you look for a Buddha somewhere else, you'll never see that your own mind is the Buddha. Don't use a Buddha to worship a Buddha. And don't use the mind to invoke a Buddha. Buddhas don't recite sutras. Buddhas don't keep precepts. And Buddhas don't break precepts. Buddhas don't keep or break anything. Buddhas don't do good or evil.

To find a Buddha, you have to see your nature.

So, what is Zen?

The only true answer to that question, is the one that you find out for yourself.

A Hindu story tells of a fish who asked of another fish: "I have always heard about the sea, but what is it? Where is it?"

The other fish replied: "You live, move and have your being the sea. The sea is within you and without you, and you are made of sea, and you will end in sea. The sea surrounds you as your own being."

Let us try to further understand this concept. Many of the ideas in ancient Eastern philosophies, in one way or another, are very similiar to those in quantum physics. We'll see how they are related.

Bose-Einstein Condensate

Matter can exist in various states; solid, liquid or gas. Atoms at high temperature always form gases. If you cool the gas, it becomes a liquid. If you cool a liquid, it becomes a solid. But under certain circumstances, if you cool atoms far enough to extremely low temperatures, they undergo a very strange transformation. An identity crisis!

Imagine that atoms are like tiny dots. When you go to low temperatures, the quantum mechanics of the atoms become important. In fact, each of these atoms will start to display wave-like properties. They begin to stretch out like small wavy strings, moving around. Once you go into near absolute zero temperatures, the size of these wavy strings get longer and longer. Particles begin to slow down.



If you get them cold enough, they to start overlapping each other and merge. We can this the Bose-Einstein condensate. This unique state of matter was first proposed by Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein back in the 1920's.

The whole system does not behave like individual particles, because each have loss their identity and think they are everywhere at once. You can't tell whether they are here or there, or which one for that matter. Now, they are all just simply at rest. We don't consider individual particles anymore because they all form one big quantum system, all doing the same thing.

Easy science concept:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdzHnApHM9A
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Foresight

Humanoid robots, teleportation, anti-matter, hyper-space, worm holess, artificial intelligence, parallel universes, higher dimensions, animal hybrids, cyborgs, immortality, ESP, time travel.

Sound like badly written science fiction? Fret not! This is modern science. Things like these are constantly being investigated, discovered, researched at laboratories and institutions worldwide.



Decades ago, talking about stuff such as parallel universes and time travel, guarantees you instant career suicide. But with increasing global recognition, scientists now have the freedom to testing the boundaries of our imagination, and their papers are subjected to serious peer reviews.

Things like worm-holes and cyborgs now belong to the realm of scientific facts. What we have achieve is only on the tip of the iceberg. Science as we know it, is only in its infancy. And there are better things to come, but not all in our lifetime. So, don't start your bets yet.

I usually spend my time scouring through reports from scientific community for any exciting news. Much of my blog will be dedicated to these latest on-goings. Breaking-down complex ideas into digestible bits for you readers (if I'm free, though).

That's all for now.
Zooming out~!

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Ending the Age of Silicon

Just bought the most advanced laptop? Got a couple of terabytes in your hard-drives?
Well, you have seen nothing yet!



You should realize that in about 20 years time, Moore's Law is gonna collapse. We are looking at the End of the Silicon Age, and perhaps the beginning of a new generation of computers called quantum computers, which are now exciting the imagination of scientists around the world.

Note: To get a better understanding of this article, please read my previous post on Data Storage.

News-flash

Back in 2001, there was a scientific breakthrough that made the headlines, even the CIA took note of this. A quantum computer built with 7 atoms(qubits), proved that 3 times 5 equals 15. Surely, any kid knows that. But physicist were able to compute on just 7 atoms!

In recent years, physicist have been able to create a prototype 16-qubit quantum computer that touts immense computational power. Works are on the way to built a faster 1,000-qubit version which should be available anytime soon.

Now, think about this. Once we begin to compute on a few million atoms, we'll be able to break any code that the CIA or NSA can manufacture. This means that we'll could break any code currently in existence, on a quantum computer. Again, within 20-30 years. So don't hold your breath.

Wait a sec!

The physical laws operating on the quantum scale are different. Things such as Uncertainty comes into play. Isn't it difficult to produce something that is stable. Well, that's precisely why we'll see the End of the Silicon Age, perhaps in 20 years. Here's an example:

A Pentium chip's thinnest layer is about 20 atoms across. In 15-20 years, the thinnest layer in the Pentium chip will be about 5 atoms across. At that point, you don't really know where the electrons is anymore. the electrons could be outside or inside the wire. You have the Uncertainty Principle. In other words, you get a short circuit.

Therefore, silicon(Si) is unstable at the quantum level. You can't sustain Moore's Law continually forever. And yet quantum computers operates at that level, what is it doing that's different?

Quantum computers consist totally of atoms, that are arranged in a sequence and each spins like a top. If you shoot laser beams or radio waves at them, you get the reflection. By analyzing these reflections, you have done a quantum calculation, faster than any known digital computer.



So, what's in it for us?

Once we start to mass produce quantum computers, we'll be able to utilized super-strong encryption designed with hacker-proof security for communications. Quantum encryption will represent the first major commercial implementation for this new technology.

As for the software we use, no changes will be necessary. You just need a software emulator, such as those that allow Windows software on the Macintosh computer. An emulator for quantum computers could quite easily run any programs today at speeds will that put today’s fastest processors to shame.

It may also change the way we do computing. Users would only need to be connected to share a large, centralized quantum computer – one that has the capacity to handle quadrillions of transactions. Personal data – a whole lifetimes worth – could be stored on a quantum USB-type memory the size of a credit card. This would effective eliminate the need to have millions of PCs that require upgrading every few years.


Press info:
http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/pr.nsf/pages/news.20011219_quantum.html
http://thefutureofthings.com/pod/165/first-quantum-computer-demonstrated.html
http://www.gizmowatch.com/entry/worlds-first-quantum-computer-announced-officially

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Giant Kabuto Mushi Mecha

Bow down to the greatest creation of all otaku-kind! A workable giant beetle robot modeled after the rhinoceros beetle. It's the stuff of every boy's fantasy. Better still, you could ride and control it from the cockpit. Imagine if this comes crashing down the highway.

Designed and built by an Ibaraki man in his garage over the course of eleven years, the “Kabutom MX-03″ looks like a prop from a Power Rangers spin-off but is an actual working vehicle. Why build it? Because owning an eleven meter long, fifteen ton robot beetle makes you a mack daddy — in Japan or anywhere else.

And who knows, maybe somewhere around the world, someone is building a 30-feet Gundam in their backyard. Looking forward to it :)



More info:
http://altjapan.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/04/mushi-mecha.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf7Sytl2-EE

PS: Mechanical engineering rules!

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Revolution of Data Storage

What will be the future of DVDs?

We are already adopting Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats. Storage space for hard-drives has reached the terabyte (TB) mark. So what else is new? There's a limit to how much data you can store on a disk. I doubt that the magnetic and optical data storage that we use today would continue to exist in the future.

Well, what about flash-drives? They are solid-state, silicone-based storage but there's also a limit to this technology. Every year, your flash-drives (pen/thumb-drives) can store almost twice as much as they were the previous year. This can't go on forever, because Moore's Law isn't sustainable as believed.

Holographics: The next step

Envision the day where all data will be stored in crystals/crystalline materials. In the future, we will need to store data of times past for times ahead, lots of it. CD's and DVD's will rot, data formats will become unreadable, new technologies are needed.

Holographic crystals can store up to 200 DVD's worth of information for up to 1000 years as digits or as microscopic images. Data could be etched into these small crystals using a highly-tuned precision laser.



How it works?

Magnetic and optical data storage works by having individual bits being stored as distinct changes on the (2D) surface of the recording medium. This only records information a bit at a time in a linear fashion.

Holographic data storage records information throughout the (3D) volume of the medium. This enables it to record multiple images in the same area utilizing light at different angles. Holographic storage is capable of reading and writing millions of bits in parallel, giving faster data transfer rates.



See also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-NllWcgrFg

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