Wednesday, June 11, 2008
ENJOYING A SHORT BREAK
With nothing much happening in Manila these days, except for the end of the summer and back to school activities, I've decided to take some time off from blogging and have all the applications in my Macbook updated.
Doing this project online with a dial-up connection would only prove to be an exercise in futility, or sheer madness, so I brought instead a USB memory stick to the Power Mac store where I make my Apple product purchases. The staff were nice enough to provide me with all the necessary updates I needed.
I also took the opportunity to learn how to make use of my iPod video -- transfer all my CDs into it as well compile some of my photographs as music videos. It was indeed a lot of work, but I finally got everything working.
The only thing I need at the moment is to find the best DVD ripper so I could copy all my music videos and movies into my iPod. The free software recommended to me, iSquint, I couldn't get to work. If anyone is familiar with it , or knows of another more effective and user-friendly DVD movie ripper for the Mac -- freeware, of course -- please share with me.
Once I truly learn all these without a hitch and make all these toys to work synergistically, I may include some videos and slides into my future blog entries.
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Please note:
I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.
Thank you!
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I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.
Thank you!
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Labels: innovations
posted by Señor Enrique at 10:41 AM
| 23 comments
Saturday, May 31, 2008
CHILDREN ABOARD A JEEPNEY
Despite our kids having to face a challenging future born by certain factors -- (the ill effects of global warming, dwindling food supply) our men of science continue to explore innovative ideas that may someday yield great benefits. Take the following, for example:
Andrew Schwarz, a neurological engineer at the University of Pittsburgh, has led the new research that enabled two monkeys to feed themselves successfully with a robotic arm wired directly into their brains. This may not bode well for people who are against animal testing, but this research paves the way for someday freeing paraplegics from their wheelchairs or giving amputees their limbs back.
Most people who become paralyzed or lose limbs retain the mental dexterity to perform physical actions. And by tapping into the motor cortex region of the brain which is responsible for movement, researchers can decode a person's intentions and translate them into action with a prosthetic.
This had been done mostly with monkeys and in virtual worlds or with simple movements, such as reaching out a hand. But two years ago, an American team hacked into the brain of a patient with no control over his arms to direct a computer cursor and a simple robotic arm.
Schwarz's team at the University of Pittsburgh, on the other hand, have successfully extracted even more complicated information from the brains of two monkeys by reading the electrical pulses of about 100 brain cells. Normally, millions of neurons fire when we lift an arm or grab a snack, but the signals from a handful of cells are enough to capture the basics, Schwarz says.
His monkeys were able to control a robotic arm that moved at the shoulder and elbow and could clench and open its hand.
To train the monkeys, the researchers first recorded their brain activity as they controlled the robotic arm with a joystick. Once the monkeys had learned to feed themselves in this way, Schwarz's team secured their arms and made them rely on controlling the robot with their brain.
To avoid frustrating the animals during their first attempts, the researchers partially guided the robot themselves. Gradually, these training aids were dispensed with, and after three weeks the monkeys had mastered the robotic arm.
Read complete article here and see the video report here.
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Please note:
I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.
Thank you!
*
I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.
Thank you!
*
Labels: innovations
posted by Señor Enrique at 10:27 AM
| 4 comments
Friday, April 07, 2006
FUTURISTIC MOBILE HOMES
This is a picture of GMC's new concept truck—combination vehicle and residence—for Los Angeles called the "PAD." It is basically envisioned by General Motors’ designers as "an urban loft with mobility". While cars.com gives this an official "zero chance of production", the Institute for the Future (IFTF) sees it as a lot more realistic vision of the future than it may at first appear.
While some may perceive PAD as a culmination of America’s fascination with SUVs, IFTF’s Technology Horizons program which is focusing its research this year on the theme of "lightweight infrastructure, considers this as a viable lightweight alternative to the traditional home or apartment. Moreover, if the concept embodied by PAD really caught on, IFTF predicts the emergence of temporary cities; ushering in a whole new form of urbanism based on nomadism and reconfigurable cities.
These new infrastructure designs, according to IFTF, will emphasize smaller, smarter, more independent components that can be organized in ways that are more efficient, more flexible, and more secure than the capital-intensive networks of the 20th century. Lightweight infrastructure will allow urban planners to rapidly prototype new forms of settlement as needs and constraints shift from day to day.
Talk about trailer parks the size of a city!
The Institute for the Future is a non-profit research organization located in Palo Alto, California. Founded in 1968, the Institute conducts basic research on the futures of emerging technologies, health, and global business trends. It also works with clients on targeted research projects.
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Labels: innovations
posted by Señor Enrique at 11:08 AM
| 3 comments
Monday, March 20, 2006
GOING BACK TO THE MOON
Here’s how artist John Frassanito sees NASA's new crew exploration vehicle in lunar orbit. Building from the best of Apollo and shuttle technology, it will be three times bigger than the Apollo of times past and will carry four astronauts to and from the moon.
This new spaceship will be the centerpiece of NASA's back to the moon project and according to estimates, before the end of the next decade, astronauts will head back to the moon not only for surface explorations, but to remain as well — building outposts and paving the way for eventual journeys to Mars and beyond. Another exciting era for NASA, indeed.
Read more…
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Labels: innovations
posted by Señor Enrique at 7:19 AM
| 6 comments
Thursday, February 09, 2006
MILLION DOLLAR HOMEPAGE
The Million Dollar Homepage is a prime example of an excellent alternative to Google’s AdSense; in generating legitimate extra cash from the Internet, that is.
Alex Tew was grappling for a solution to finance his schooling when he came up with the idea to sell the pixels of his Website for $1 each. He launched it last September, and just last month, he had auctioned off the last 1,000 pixels on eBay Inc. His total take: a cool one million dollars! I wonder how many AdSense mouse clicks will it take to earn this kind of money.
Inititally, Tew hawked his pixels to friends and family, but attention snowballed as the project progressed. Various businesses started buying his pixels as ad spaces. However, no online project of such simplicity and success goes unnoticed and unscathed by the angry at heart. Since Tew started receiving wide media coverage, his site has been getting its share of malicious distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks from various hackers from Asia to Europe.
According to a Computerworld article, there has been so much traffic to this 21-year-old’s site. "At times, it surges 200Mbit/sec.," said Russell Weiss, vice president of technical services at InfoRelay Online Systems Inc., which hosts the young man’s site under its Sitelutions service.
Alex Tew intends to have the site up and running for five years. However, he prohibits those who have purchased from him to sell or auction off their pixels.
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Labels: innovations
posted by Señor Enrique at 9:02 AM
| 4 comments
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Art Concept: FOOD FACILITY
A restaurant without a kitchen created as an art concept (installation?) and hosted by Mediamatic.
Diners at Amsterdam’s Food Facility go online to check out the menus from take-out restaurants in the neighborhood while a food advisor, not a waiter, stands ready to offer food quality critiques, estimated delivery times, and places the orders. Diners are encouraged to mix and match from various establishments.
A separate food DJ receives the food from the delivery person, unpacks and prepares them to be served by the food advisor at the patron’s table.
For photos and exhibition illustrations of Food Facility, visit Mediamatic.
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Labels: innovations
posted by Señor Enrique at 5:23 AM
| 0 comments
