Quantum Sagas

Star Trek Shuttlecraft on eBay

Someone in California is selling a homemade ST:TNG shuttlecraft, made out of three Ford Aerostars. Not street legal, and it's not finished (it needs windows and to be painted). I wonder how it will turn out?

A Paperless School in Arizona

Vail Unified School District in Arizona has made the decision to go to an all-electronic curriculum. Students will be issued laptops instead of textbooks, allowing the teachers' lesson plans to be more flexible. It will also supposedly engage the students more, which is likely. Consequently, I had this idea when I was in my junior year at high school, but no one took me seriously. The cost of laptops has decreased significantly since then, so we may see more of this in the future. I think it's a great idea if it is executed properly and everyone involved is on the same page. While it's not as likely that the students will have trouble with the technology, some of the staff may.

This will be something to keep track of, for sure.

Another Star Trek Based Communicator Badge

Aside from the Siemens one recently mentioned, another company called Vocera Communications Systems has taken the comms badge idea to a personal communication level. It operates in principle the same way that the comms badges on Star Trek do: the user presses the button on the badge and says the name of the target person with which they want to speak, a powerful server-based app determines the target and opens the channel (VOIP), at which point two way communications can take place. The device uses Wi-Fi and a DSP chip for voice processing. I wonder what the audio quality is like with a speaker like that and whether or not you can connect an earbud or something similar? It seems a little bit bigger than it needs to be, but I see that the speaker and button take up half of the enclosure. Now if the operator could hold a conversation with the computer...

The lagging U.S. technology sector

Someone is finally calling us out on our lack of technological developments. According the the article, Japan's broadband Internet access, "...on average is about half the price and 16 times the speed of ours." 16 times the speed is only slightly advantageous, but the cost reduction is more important. Another example of the fact that the U.S. government cares less about its constituents than it does about industry, and it's taking away from the American spirit. It is the people who make the industries happen, and while the ones already in place are large and powerful, these sorts of inactions are preventing newer and potentially larger developments. What will be the future of U.S. industry if its development is stifled?

Das Keyboard

This keyboard takes a tangible architecture and makes it abstract: Das Keyboard It's an "uber"-cool product, and I have to admit I am intrigued and would be willing to try it. But of course there's one glaring problem... $79 for a keyboard of any type is too damn expensive. Anyone can take a $5 keyboard and buy blank keys for it. True, the keys are supposedly weighted with different activation forces, which would bring the manufacturing costs up a bit. But, still, $79??

From The New York Times: A Keyboard That Lets...

Less-than-intelligent Link of the Day

If you believe that the Earth is stationary in space, and other such biblical nonsense, take a moment to understand what goes on in the minds of simpletons by visiting this site:

Fixed Earth

Poor Choice for a Logo

Normally I don't post stuff like this, but check out the hilarious logo on this page... You don't have to use your imagination much:

Institute of Eastern Studies

[Update 5.09.05: It appears that they took the page with the logo down. That might have been wise, as it looked like the bottom half of an ass, sitting on a stationary pole. What it was supposed to have looked like, I believe, was a pagoda with a red sun in the background.]

Ionic Breeze unhealthy

Among the many overpriced and/or tacky gifts (you know, the ones that relatives give as mandatory gifts for semi-distant cousins, etc.) that litter the Sharper Image catalog, it turns out the Ionic Breeze is joining the ranks. Consumer Reports (you have to have a subscription to view the review) has done a review of five such devices. One of the devices is the Ionic Breeze itself, and presumably four other units that are exactly the same but made by other companies for half the cost. The review apparently states that the devices not only do NOT clean the air as the advertisements would have you believe, but as a side-effect of ionizing the air, they release potentially toxic levels of ozone. Ozone is good -- in the upper atmosphere where it protects us from the sun. But ozone is also present in city smog, and breathing it in can cause damage to the lungs.

Anyways, Sharper Image has tried to bring suit against Consumers Union for libel in the past, which didn't get very far. This time they aren't sure how to respond yet, but I find this remark by the Sharper Image company lawyer (taken from the MSNBC article) humorous:

It is astonishing that Consumers Union would continue its misguided efforts to attack the judgment and experience of millions of Americans who are satisfied with the performance of the Ionic Breeze products.

No matter that the device is potentially unhealthy... It's okay because some 2 million people misled into buying them are satisfied with their function. It is just as astonishing that, say, the NIH attack the judgment and experience of millions of Americans who are satisfied with the performance of Philip Morris products? It's a bit of a stretch because air purifiers aren't addictive, but what is the likelihood that a company who has thoroughly tested their product before releasing it (we're assuming this is the case) not know that it releases potentially harmful ozone into the air? Someone had to know, and with a little ingenuity there might be a way of controlling it -- It's a byproduct of the process by which the device operates. But instead of shelling out a few extra bucks, we'll risk the safety of our customers. That seems to be a good business model as of late, extending from commercial corporations to the government; not that they are entirely distinguishable from one another.

Whether or not the customers are satisfied with the product doesn't matter. What matters is that they are aware of the potential side effects of the device. Because this information was not commonly known, the final determination can't be placed on the consumer for whether or not the device is suitable. The lawyer here is biting his own tail. By saying that the consumer is the ultimate determination of the effectiveness and safety of the product, he effectively saying that if they were stupid enough to waste their money on the Ionic Breeze, then they should be prepared to deal with the repercussions. If now the people continue to buy the product, then they can be held accountable, after knowing of its side effects.

I have to admit, however, that if someone was willing to blow $350 on a Sharper Image gimmick, then they really should be partially responsible.

Boston.com article similar to MSNBC's

Also, Sharper Image has crafted a shill-ish response to Consumer Reports regarding levels of ozone. Unfortunately, whether or not the levels of ozone exceed federal safety standards doesn't matter -- you're still contributing unnecessary amounts into the air. The proper amount of contribution is 0ppm. If you absolutely HAVE to generate ozone, then you must stick to the regulations. But this is a consumer product, and by all accounts not necessary, and therefore generation of ozone is preventable. It is not a cost of doing business, but instead a spillover cost to society.

Retro vs. Metro Webinars

This evening, at 9:00pm EST, retrovsmetro.org held a one hour "webinar" which, more or less, discussed the election and the divide within our nation. Though it could be better organized and, in technical terms, better arranged, it was the first of such webinars, and was worth watching. The speakers included: John Sperling and Suzanne Helburn, authors of Retro vs. Metro; and Amy Goodman, host of Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now!.

Retrovsmetro.org plans to have future webinars, so go register if you get a chance.

So when are we going to start taking Soma?

While I applaud the use and practical application of new technology; and noting that I also partake of design and application of technology in the electronics field, the following application of RFID tags have me raising an eyebrow:

NYT: In Texas, 28,000 Students Test an Electronic Eye

Especially noteworthy is one of the last few paragraphs:

Advocates of the technology said they did not plan to go that far. But, they said, they do see broader possibilities, such as implanting RFID tags under the skin of children to avoid problems with lost or forgotten tags. More immediately, they said, they could see using the technology to track whether students attend individual classes. [New York Times, 11.17.2004; Matt Richtel]

I believe that it's important to have a general view of our children's daily activities, and to nudge them in the right direction -- but parenting today has become a capitalized monstrosity, to the point where adults are using their children as status bytes, not unlike proudly displaying their latest Hummer or Mercedes purchases. I'm not going to get into that discussion, or a tirade about microchipping pets, or whose plasma TV is bigger... But more importantly, this gives us the potential to keep a constant eye on our children, knowing where exactly they are at any given time, and even possibly without their knowing it (if implanted during early development). Even worse, as an implant, if they do find out they will be more likely to want to avoid it, as it is after all an assault on personal freedom. Given the increasing quality of morbidity and psychological disorders in todays youth, I could see children digging said implants out of their own skin. Taken to even more of an extreme, the potential is there to determine exactly who your children are spending time with. Penultimately, and admittedly conspiracy-theoretical in nature, the government could be looking at maps to know exactly where every individual with an implant is at any given time. Understandably, such a notion reeks of paranoia, but if steps are taken very gradually and no one thinks twice about it, stuff such as this can be done right under our noses. I won't go crafting any tin-foil hats just yet, but it still makes me a little bit weary.

The application of the RFID tag is very beneficial in many circumstances. The number one: luggage and cargo at the airport. They are experimenting with RFID labels of ever decreasing cost at specific terminals around the world, with much success:

Delta Tests RFID Tags

McCarran Airport in Vegas Implements RFID on a Large Scale

...and countless other articles in EE industry publications. The point here is that the baggage handlers don't have to see every piece of luggage or cargo in order to know that it is loaded on the plane, etc. Human error is, after all, the only mistakes that can be made. Upgrade.

I'm afraid, though, that parents will take a similar stance with their tagged children (why not? the term can also be used with wild animals being tracked by researchers) by becoming lazy. Parents are already lazy enough, they don't need to neglect their children any more than they already do. It's alright, though, because when it comes time for them to feel better about being poor parents, they spoon-feed them religious ideals, in hopes that they are raising them to be of morally sound mind. Regardless, if they know where their children are 95% of the time, they will be less likely to seek them out and pay attention to them.

RFID tags that contain key-codes to one's medical records would be a great thing to have, aside from the implant part. Granted, the implants themselves are innocuous: posing no electrical or biological threats (no more than having your ear pierced); but the idea of being a number won't sit well with a great deal of people. Picture this, however: a patient comes into the emergency room, in a comatose state or cardiac arrest, and the person who brought them in doesn't even know who they are. With a simple scan of the forearm, the emergency team knows that this patient is highly allergic to nitroglycerin (is that possible?), or some otherwise life-saving chemical.

Perhaps the emergency bracelets that people get for diabetes, epilepsy, etc. could contain the tags, rather than having them implanted?

Look for Soma in the next few years... It will probably be released by Merck.