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A True Nerd? Maybe Not

Posted: February 9th, 2010, by Bob

I have spent many long, lonely hours trying to decide if I am, or if I am not a true nerd. I even took a nerd test online, (http://www.nerdtests.com/ft_nq.php) and discovered I am actually a mid-level nerd with a score of 73 out of 100. This did not make me particularly happy, because it isn’t known if being a nerd is actually a good thing or not. One of the questions on this questionnaire was “Do you have a biohazard sign in your room?” That is pretty nerdy, and I certainly do not. But another question asked what I like to do on Friday nights. Apparently curling up with a good book is also considered nerdy behavior, but I think that’s great.  Another presumably nerdy sign is if you have dead bugs or rodents in your room, as opposed to having a clean room, which I guess makes you very not nerdy. I answered that I do have some dirty clothes in my room, which I think is just plain normal, unless of course you are a clean freak, for which I am sure there is another on-line quiz people can take.

So what should I do? I’ve decided to stop worrying about it and start enjoying my inner nerd, and sharing that special part of me with you, without regrets. So, for one thing, we all know that nerds love electronic gadgets and brain exercise. So maybe we should start with something electronic that also gives your brain some exercise.

A researcher for Hitachi Ltd is working on a device that translates brain activity into real world motion. At Hitachi’s research lab outside of Tokyo “the brain-machine interface” device, which fits on your head, analyzes tiny changes in blood flow in the brain, detecting brain motion and changing that into electronic signals which can then be transmitted to electronic devices to control them, without ever having to lift a finger. In the demonstration which was conducted by Akiko Obata at the lab in Hatoyama, the device was used to start and stop a toy electric train. Very interesting.

What was the name of that movie again? Oh yea. Wally. Hmmm. Well at least with this spiffy device your brain won’t get fat.

Maybe I’m not the nerd I thought I was after all. Thank goodness.

It’s a Digital World

Posted: November 19th, 2009, by Bob

child in front of computer Can you imagine technology advancing to a point where there was simply the technology that could replace today’s reality in every way? Sports, music, schools, and more?

Our  world is little by little transforming into a virtual or digital world. We exercise in games,  with a projection we enjoy virtual fish or leaves. Seeing the world on a screen, hoping to reach out, to make the projection interact with us. The games of yesterday are lost before the technology of today.

Like that mail to be a child of the 90’s, which went out to play, learn to do tricks on skates or a bicycle and not invite friends to play with the Wii or being with others by a computer.

It seems that people gradually adapt to using this technology and perhaps we will get to a point where it will not be necessary to leave the house. A computer or console could do sports, go shopping. You could pay everything online, take classes and exams digitally.

One day, everything will be through our very movements. No need for mouse or keyboard. Our bodies will connect directly to the technology, and it will be unclear where we end and the technology begins.

FaceBook, With More Tools

Posted: November 17th, 2009, by Bob

facebook screenshot The users of this program have more options for updating the information on contacts in real time. How do they do this? It  is possible with the new tools that Facebook has.

It runs from the taskbar and from there it is possible to receive some notifications, as a message, an alert, as a publication in the wall or when invitations arrive.

Here are some of their tools that help users to have greater ease in navigating the Internet: 

Facebook Photo Uploader is an application that lets you upload photos directly.

FBLook, designed to update all contact information in Outlook. FBLook  lets you know the status of contacts, update or view the friend requests. All this is possible from Outlook, a toolbar that is integrated into its interface, without heading to the Facebook website.

Dynamite Webcam can take information from any webcam and update your profile with the last image you took.

Read It is useful, because it lets you know who of your friends and relatives are reading books. In this way, you can share the work or borrow it.  

KangXi Box is an application that includes online network to allow surfers to learn the Japanese language. With these new technologies surfers become active, because not only they acquire the service offered by the Internet, but they  can also design new tools for common use.

The Humble Beginnings of Electronics

Posted: November 15th, 2009, by Bob

antique electronicsDigital electronics has been one of the most important technological revolutions of mankind. Its preamble, can be summarized as: Beginnings of electronics in general terms.

Electronics and electricity are born with the work of several prominent physicists such as Coulomb, Ampere, Gauss, Faraday, Henry, and Maxwell. Such works were collected in 1865 in the formal framework of the theory of electromagnetism, by Maxwell (deduced from the equations that bear his name). That theory, however, had to wait until 1888 for his demonstration. The demonstration referred to the Hertz realize with generation in the laboratory from electromagnetic waves. Later, in 1896, Marconi achieved transmission and detection of these waves (called terrestrial) and opened the way for future developments as important as television and telecommunications.

More specifically, the rise of electronics, as a branch of science was in 1895, the year in which Lorentz postulated the existence of charged particles called electrons, which was demonstrated experimentally by Thompson two years later. Braun, in 1897 published his invention of the first electronic tube, rudimentary ancestor of cathode ray tubes that are part of the TV valve transistor.

Electronics did not assume the connotations that characterize modern technology until the early twentieth century with the invention of the first components and in particular in 1904, with the creation of the vacuum tube or diode, by the British physicist John Ambrose Fleming. The diode, then, consisted essentially of two metal electrodes contained in a vacuum tube, one of which (the cathode) is heated by a filament.

Because of this warming, the cathode emits electrons (thermo-ionic effect) that are accelerated toward the other electrode (the anode) when the latter is maintained positive with respect to the cathode. Inserted in a circuit, the diode shows the important property of only conducting current when voltage is applied to it a certain direction. In this way, it allows the conduction of an alternating current.

The current that is obtained by connecting an appliance to one of the jacks on the walls of the houses (mains). From these early beginnings to today’s iPods and cell phones, electronics has taken a real leap.