Technology
pontiff | July 31, 2008Sure quantum computers can find a needle in an unstructured haystack quadratically faster than their classical brethren, but I didn't think the word "quantum" and "search" would appear in the press quite this soon: Ex-Googlers reinvent web search: Quantum porn (not safe for work! i.e. they show the quantum porn!) and Quantum porn engine foiled by strawberries and muffins: How the Cuil kids live. And yes, I "cuil"ed my own name, and no, this blog doesn't come up (nor any quantum porn.)
drorzel | July 31, 2008The other day, the Dean Dad remarked on one of the quirks of academic technology:
Last week I saw another iteration of something I still don't really understand. People who are perfectly civil in person are often capable of firing off incredibly nasty and hateful emails. Sometimes they'll do that with cc's all the way up the chain, as a way of spreading the manure over the most ground with the least effort. Yet, when confronted, they're surprised that anybody would take offense, and they revert to their perfectly civil selves.
It is, indeed, mystifying, and seems to be more common in…
clock | July 30, 2008Best time to appreciate Open Access? When you're really sick and want to learn more about what you have.:
* Complete OA still a long way off. One thing I re-learned during this was that it is incredibly frustrating to see how much of the biomedical literature is still not freely available online. Shame on Elsevier and all the others who are still hoarding this important information.
* Thanks to those providing OA. Related to the above issue, I came to appreciate was the societies and publishers have decided to go the OA route. I spent a lot of time reading material from ASM, BMC, PLoS…
clock | July 29, 2008We knew the web was big...
The Blogosphere Needs to Mature - But How?
Tracking Facebook's 2008 International Growth By Country
The Web's Dirty Little Secret
The Future of the Desktop
sciencetolife | July 28, 2008 You may soon be enjoying microwave popcorn and other 'nuked' foods and beverages faster than ever before, while saving on electricity. Researchers in Pennsylvania and Japan report development of new ceramic materials that heat up faster and retain heat longer than conventional microwave cookware while using less energy.
The ceramics are made from a mixtures of magnetite and petalite and are reported to heat faster than commercially available microwave cookware.
"Rice cooks in about half or less time," the researchers say. Other applications may include pizza delivery, since the food…
zooillogix | July 28, 2008This is old but Oysters Garter reminded me of it and I still think it's pretty cool. Also, I love lobsters (see below below).
The Biomimetic Underwater Robot Program based out of Northeastern University seeks to develop "neurotechnology based on the neurophysiology and behavior of animal models." This particular lobster robot is meant to sniff out underwater mines or some such, but I suspect that's just what the researchers told DARPA to get a big check to build a badass robotic lobster.
Perhaps of equal interest are these pics of my wedding cake (for reals):
UPDATE: My lobster cake was…
gregladen | July 27, 2008How many Microsoft software engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
None. The burned out light bulb is expected behavior.
In fact, it will be incorporated into the next version as an added feature in the Professional Version (not available at discount).
But seriously folks, if you want to have a look at a few funny anti-Microsoft jokes (and a much larger number that really are not that funny) check this out.
Here's a couple of examples:
Windows 95: 32 bit extensions and a graphical shell for a 16 bit patch to an 8 bit operating system originally coded for a 4 bit microprocessor,…
gregladen | July 25, 2008Sorry for the mixed metaphor, but I assure you, it gets worse.
Google may be taking a shot at Wikipedia (and similar projects) with its newly unveiled Knol project. Knol was announced many moons ago but has been under cover and password protected with only a few special people allowed in to see what was going on and contribute. Now, it is "open to everyone" according to an announcement made this week.
What the heck are we talking about?
A 'Knol" is a unit of knowledge .... a write up, blog-post or wiki-article-like about a particular topic, from an authoritative source.
The key principle…
pontiff | July 23, 2008You know that web based applications have really entered into your life when you click the Firefox icon and you wonder why the browser doesn't appear and cover the document you are editing.
gregladen | July 23, 200890% Geek
Created by OnePlusYou
I lost four percent because I do not read comic books and have not since the magic age of 14.
The other six percent, I'm not so sure about. But I did answer all the questions honestly. I guess 90% isn't bad.
[hat tip Grrrrl]
pontiff | July 22, 2008For those of you interested in TiddlyWiki and who happen to live in the great city of Seattle, there will be an informal meetup for TiddlyWiki enthusiasts this Saturday, June 26. For details see: TiddlyPac.
neurophilosophy | July 22, 2008
While wandering around looking at the outreach activities at ESOF2008, I came across this interesting booth for the PS3GRID project, by members of the Multiscale Lab, which is located in the University of Pompeu Fabra's Computational Biochemistry and Biophysics Laboratory at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park.
Run by volunteers, the project involves building computer simulations of molecules to study protein dynamics and interactions. This is done using gaming hardware such as the PlayStation 3 and NVIDIA graphics card, which have more processing power than the CPUs found in standard…
clock | July 19, 2008Electronic Publication and the Narrowing of Science and Scholarship by James A. Evans, ironically behind the paywall, has got a lot of people scratching their heads - it sounds so counter-intuitive, as well as opposite from other pieces of similar research.
There is a good discussion on FriendFeed and another one here.
A commentary at the Chronicle of Higher Education is here, also ironically behind the paywall.
Here is the press release and here is the abstract:
Online journals promise to serve more information to more dispersed audiences and are more efficiently searched and recalled.…
pharyngula | July 17, 2008I have been tempted many times by that over-expensive sexy slab of technology called the iPhone, so I don't need Seed adding to the temptation with a list of science apps for the iPhone.
Fortunately, the strongest argument against the iPhone for me right now is that it's closed and only supports one carrier…who does not offer good service in the wilderness of western Minnesota. If ever they opened the gadget up, though, or if ATT built a cell phone tower in my neighborhood, I'd have to rely on my wife's ability to slap and shackle me to prevent wasteful spending.*
*Which is, obviously, a…
pontiff | July 15, 2008Um, okay, so was this little piece of information really noteworthy enough to be included in a New York Times article on Psystar:
Although Psystar's Web site was available earlier today, by 1 p.m. EDT it was offline and returning the error message: "Database Error: Unable to connect to the database: Could not connect to MySQL" to Computerworld editors and reporters attempting to connect.
I mean, isn't that a bit high up even for an inverted pyramid?
pontiff | July 15, 2008When people ask me about my iPhone, I usually tell them that it is a great gadget, but not really a terrific cell phone. I'm going to have to modify that a bit now, I think. With the addition of third party applications, the iPhone is now a super duper great gadget, but not really a terrific cell phone. Here are some of the free apps I've been loving (I haven't yet looked at the paid ones, cheapo that I am!)
Pandora Radio. Many of you already know Pandora Radio, a service wherein you enter favorite music and it produces a radio station based upon your preferences. The iPhone app for…
clock | July 14, 2008What is Web 2.0? Ideas, technologies and implications for education by Paul Anderson:
The report establishes that Web 2.0 is more than a set of 'cool' and new technologies and services, important though some of these are. It has, at its heart, a set of at least six powerful ideas that are changing the way some people interact. Secondly, it is also important to acknowledge that these ideas are not necessarily the preserve of 'Web 2.0', but are, in fact, direct or indirect reflections of the power of the network: the strange effects and topologies at the micro and macro level that a billion…
gregladen | July 13, 2008Over the last couple of weeks, I've installed Ubuntu Hardy Heron (the most current version), which comes with Firefox 3.0, on a couple of machines. My most recent effort has left me wondering what could be so terribly wrong with this picture. On one of these computers, it is impossible to open more than three or four tabs (if any of the sites is using flash) without losing almost all functionality within Firefox. The app simply spends most of its time not responding.
Worked fine on my test system, but on my production system... well, production over. Can't really use that computer any…
clock | July 10, 2008Antony Williams, who I had a great time with over coffee yesterday, alerted me to his blog post about a new chemical with some amazing properties - shining UV light onto the solution turns the liquid green instantaneously, and removal of the UV source results in instant change of color from green back to transparent.
Aaron Rowe and Kyle Finchsigmate also blogged about it.
You can see the chemical structure here:
See those two rings with nitrogens highlighted in blue? See the bond that connects those two rings? That bond is broken by UV light and immediately rebinds once the light is gone…