OK, let me begin this post with a disclaimer: I am an Apple fanboy, there’s no denying it. I’ve been using their products practically for all of my life and, professionally speaking, I’m not sure what I would be doing without them.

After the iPad announcement there has been a lot of posts in the blogosphere about the apparent shortcomings of Apple’s new tablet computer: no multi-tasking, no voice calls, no built-in camera, thick bezels, no flash, no 16:9 form factor, no OLED display. Personally, I was completely thrilled about the feature set of the device. Frankly, I am a bit surprised that so many people are concentrating on minor details that are completely irrevelevant, in my opinion. This is the first generation of a completely new class of device and adding a voice call capability or a camera would be completely trivial from a technical point of view. If you think about it for even a second, there is completely rational explanation to all of the shortcomings. They didn’t make these engineering choices because they didn’t know how to add the missing features, but because they chose not to.

I am excited about iPad precisily for the same reason that some others are disappointed in it. A lot of the excess crap has been shaved off and a brand new platform for truly elegant computing solutions has been created. There are no bootloaders, no trashcans, no display drivers, no extra ports. Some of the other companies that have tried to make this happen like to slap on all kind of extra goodies on products without really thinking that much about the entire pipe-line of events and files in the life of people leading a digital lifestyle.

I, for one, don’t listen to FM radio broadcasts anymore, I don’t like looking at snapshots taken by a crappy $10 cell phone camera module, I do not want to download themes to customize desktop. I think Apple did a superb job of simplifying both the user experience and the channels for both content and software developers to deliver products on a platform that is lightweight, stable and fast. Windows Mobile, Mameo and Symbian are literally years behind with this stuff.

I don’t really need an iPad, but I’m getting one anyway. I think that choosing a computing platform or game console is a lot like buying a hand bag or a bottle of wine or a sports car. You are not only buying a physical product, but an entire philosophy and lifestyle with it. This is something that the pixel counters often miss when they get a knee jerk reaction because of a missing feature. More than anything else, iPad is about simplicity and minimalism.

In the words of Bruce Lee: It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.

I stumbled upon this highly iconic and symbolic image while I was checking the daily news stream. Those target crosses and the numeric temperature values just take a whole new meaning in this context. A cross is a universal symbol for disposal or erasure. And how about those numbers.. if they are too high, you are immediately and automatically moved to a lower caste as a human being. You become a potential risk to the society and the environment.

If pandemic threats become more serious and outbreaks threaten bigger populations, it doesn’t take much imagination to see this kind of routine monitoring happening on the streets as well. The surveillance cameras are already there and it doesn’t take much to retro-fit them with additional sensors. And while you are at it, why not add breathing gas analyzers to elevators or rotating doorways, heart rate monitors on door handles and automatic chemical analysis at bar restrooms for example.

Just throwing ideas around here, folks

My tropical hideout for this Christmas only has electricity from 6pm to 9pm, so I decided to get a Solio to charge my cell phone and digital camera. So far I’ve been very satisfied with this little gadget. You can charge it from a small wall charger or aim it to the sun for 10 hours or more to charge it’s 950 mA internal li-ion battery.

I also bought an ipod cable for it, even though I don’t have an iPod yet. The digital camera battery can be charged via an optional universal 12 V cigarette lighter adapter.

Q4 How long does it take to charge Solio?
In optimum conditions it will take at least ten hours of direct sunlight (longer in cloudy or weak sunlight conditions) to fully charge Solio, but this will give you enough power to charge an average cell phone more than once or give your iPod up to an additional 9 hours of playtime. Apporoximately 4 -6 hours of direct sunlight to your Solio will let you charge an average mobile phone about once depending on temperature conditions and intensity of sunlight, and the type of phone you have. Charging the solio from the mains power supply will takes 4.5 hours using the dedicated Solio travel adaptor (included).

Being able to digitally capture moving images with an apparent quality of 35 mm film has been the proverbial Holy Grail of many people for a long, long time. Independent movie makers with a micro budget, art students, video artists, video production companies and a whole bunch of other organizations and individuals would love to have that elusive “film look” in their productions.

There are quite a few big time Hollywood productions being made with digital image acquisition right now, but the new thing is that some of these technologies are beginning to trickle down to a price level that small companies and even individuals can afford. Here’s a quick round-up of three solutions at a price point of less than 10000 dollars including a lense or two (say, a Zeiss
Planar T* 1,4/50 for example).

Nikon D90 and Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Nikon and Canon have both introduced DSLR cameras that can capture HD video. Nikon’s D90 and Canon EOS 5D Mark II can both capture decent HD video. Nikon is using motion JPEG compression and Canon is using the more efficient H.264. Nikon is capturing 720P at 24 fps and Canon is using 1080P at 30 fps. Unfortunately both of these cameras have only an exposure lock, but ISO and shutter speed are automatically controlled by the camera. This is not a very desirable behaviour for more ambitious film projects. Nevertheless they are a huge step up from video capture capabilities of previous DSLR models. A lot of people will most likely be using these cameras, especially the 5D mark II for a new style of independent film production called “web cinematography”. It’s basically a video/film production where the end product will be available only on the web… perhaps as a embedded video in a browser window, a downloadable quicktime file or even an entire film distributed over Bit Torrent. Have a look at this video by the cinema accessory manufacturer Zacuto to get a feel on how to pimp up a DSLR for professional productions.

• Canon 5D videos on Vimeo
• Nikon D90 videos on Vimeo

Scarlet

The other big news this year was the announcement of Scarlet… a more affordable version of the Red camera, which has already been used in several Hollywood productions as the main camera. A price point of 3000 US dollars for a camera that can capture 3K resolution images would have been a laughable proposition just a few years ago. Some of the high-end digital cinema cameras such as the Panavision Genesis are not even available for purchase, but are for rental only. Scarlet has been projected to ship in 2009, but with a small and unique company such as Red, one never knows.

One of the many desirable qualities of the “film look” is the shallow depth of field. It is more easily created with a fully open aperture, but the effect is more noticeable with a larger sensor size. The most economical Scarlet will only have a 2/3 inch sensor which is the same size that is most commonly used in broadcast video cameras. To get as shallow depth of field on a 2/3 inch sensor as on a 35 mm sensor one would have to open up the aperture about 2 and a half stops additional stops. That is, on a 2/3 inch sensor you have to shoot at T1.9 to have the same depth of field as T4.0 on a 35 mm sensor.

2/3 inch is often seen as a completely inferior format to a “full frame” 35 mm sensor. If you have any doubts that a smaller sensor can’t be used for big time productions, have a look at the trailer of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The entire film was shot with a Thomson Viper, which has a 2/3 inch sensor. A very interesting interview with Claudio Miranda about the workflow can be found at the Studio Daily web site.

Besides shallow depth of field, “Film look” does have numerous other components to it. Sound is actually very important as well. One of the other key components is the latitude of the image, or the depth of the dynamic range in an individual frame. Scarlet has an obvious edge in this respect, because it records what is essentially an equivalent of RAW images in still cameras. It is a compressed image, but it does have high bit depth and therefore malleability that one needs in order to color correct or to put it in film terms “grade” it in the post.

Sony PWM EX-1 and Letus adapters

As far as HD image capture is concerned, what’s happening on the prosumer / low-end professional video front? The new big dog on that field is the Sony EX-1 / EX-3 duo which is Sony’s counter strike to Panasonic’s P2 format. Sony is using a new SxS card as a solid state storage solution for their new camera which can shoot at 60 fps for slow motion effects. The DSLR cameras mentioned above cannot do any slow motion effects, by the way. But the DSLR cameras do have that beautiful and saturated film look that everyone is after. How do you recreate that on EX1? The answer is a depth of field adapter that projects the image of a 35 mm lense on a ground class for the video camera to capture. You can get absolutely beautiful results with these, but they are bulky, very sensitive to calibration, inherently lose a lot of light in the optical path and they are quite pricey. However, at the moment, many people think that they are the best that current techonology has to offer for a relatively inexpensive way to capture film like footage on a digital camera. The XDCAM file format, while not as flexible as REDcode format, is still a step up from the DSLR video file formats.. as far as the flexibility for color correction is concerned.

For an assortment of sample videos with a depth of field adapter, have a look at these videos at Vimeo.

• Letus – a manufacturer of depth of field adapters
• Sony XDCAM product line

I believe that in the very near future there will be a revolution in the sheer amount of indie film production made with these new, affordable tools. I am eagerly waiting for more news about Scarlet. I can hardly wait to jump on this wagon and finally be able to produce relatively film like results without breaking the bank and virtually switching careers.

The Magsafe connector on the Macbook Pros works really well, but the connector on the power supply cable doesn’t have adequate support and will eventually fail if used roughly. I decided to add an additional support structure to the connector using shrink tubing and a champagne bottle cork. While at it, I documented the procedure and made an illustrated guide on how to do it.

Materials and tools used: 12.7 mm shrink tube, a champagne cork, a sharp knife, a kitchen temperature meter, a gas stove.

On the 16th of November in 1974 an crude 1679 pixel image was broadcast to space from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. It included simple, low resolution images of human beings, solar system and the formula of DNA.

After 34 years another message is being broadcast towards an earth like planet called Gliese 581C. The transmission is being sponsored by Bebo, a social networking site. The content of the message is a collection of the most popular images from their users based on a vote.

Please observe how the increased resolution of imaging technologies and our magnificent advances in the understanding of the universe and life itself are present in the content of this new message.

Switchback is a rather appealing product if your work involves performing tasks with a computer in adverse weather conditions. It’s water and dust resistant and can operate at -10 degrees celsius with the solid state hard drive option. You can also get an optional wireless package that includes a civilian GPS module. The display is a touchscreen enable 5.6″ LCD screen which is sunlight viewable.

The processor is a 1 Ghz Intel Celeron© M and if I understand correctly, the device can run multiple operating systems such as Windows XP and Linux simultaniously.

I have no idea how much it costs, but my estimate would be somewhere between 4000-6000 euros per unit.

If you already own a Hummer H2, this is the computer to get further enhance your ruggerized look and feel

I was seriously considering to build a charger like this myself. After googling around a bit, I found a company (Thermo-Gen) that has already designed a commercial product that allows you to keep low power mobile electronics charged up in the wilderness. It works with water, a heat source and the Peltier effect to generate electricity.

The mobile Thermoelectric Generator / charger (TEG) is based on a Trangia stormproof stove. The TEG can be used with all types of heat sources: LPG, alcohol, kerosene, open log fire, log fired stoves…

• Electric power output: 9W with cool water and 4W with boiling water in the
  kettle.
• Kettle diameter: 160mm
• The “all in one” packs into a compact unit
• Electric connection: DC plug connector
• Optional adapter: DC-plug to car cigarette lighter socket
• Cellular phones and other units are charged via a cigarette lighter charger
  adapter connected to the TEG output

As long as you have firewood and water, you could easily keep a GPS, a digital camera and a Nokia communicator infinitely charged with this ingenious device. I wrote about portable power sources some time ago, but unfortunately solar power is not a realistic option here in Finland.

During my last hike in Lappland I realized what a difference a little bonfire can make to a camp site. It immediately increases the general comfort level of a wilderness camp. You can cook food, dry your gear and stay warm much more easily when you are staying next to a fire. Unfortunately modern ultralight tent and clothing materials are usually very sensitive to heat. When placed next to fire, a typical tent or synthetic clothing can catch fire in no time.

Many Finnish hikers use a traditional lean-to shelter made of aluminium coated nylon such as the one pictured above. What I cannot understand is why hasn’t anyone made one out of Nomex. Nomex is a type of aramid fibre that is used in textile products used by the military, fire fighters and car racers. It is patented by DuPont and various fabrics based on it seem to be readily available from manufacturers such as Warwick.

A company called Massif even produces fire-resistant, waterproof, breathable outdoor clothing. I’d be interested in sewing a traditional lean-to shelter out of waterproof Nomex derivative. Please drop me a line on the comment section of this post if you know of a supplier that could sell a short roll or a leftover piece of suitable fabric.

EDIT: I’ve learned that Nomex is also used in hot air balloons in the part that is closest to the burner. I’ll contact a balloon pilot tomorrow to ask for more details. All I really need is an approximately 2 x 5 meter piece or 10 square meters… I can’t afford to buy a 500 meter roll.

Philips, Computed Tomography – Brilliance CT – 64-channel configuration

The Brilliance 64-channel configuration breaks through previous boundaries in CT imaging, providing large volume, thin-slice coverage to improve diagnostic confidence, image quality and productivity.

With 40mm of thin-slice coverage, the 64-channel broadens horizons in cardiac imaging, allowing for unprecedented coronary artery evaluation. The 64-channel configuration also provides breakthrough performance in advanced  pulmonary imaging, multi-organ trauma evaluation and low-dose pediatric applications to boost your clinical capabilities to the highest level attainable.

Remember that story about Tom Cruise buying a $200000 ultrasound scanner for personal use to check his unborn baby? Well, if you have the money to spare, here’s a gadget that any budding scientologist should love, the 64 channel Philips Brilliance! Who wouldn’t want to reach the highest level attainable?

Perhaps one day you will be able to search Google not only for people’s names, but also for their pictures, fingerprints, internal body structure or DNA.

The hottest Christmas present tip this season: a personal fingerprint or DNA poster!

Reuters – EU agrees public funding for satellite project

Supporters say it is a vital technological platform for Europe, but critics say it could be a costly white elephant because the U.S. system already has a dominant market position and Russia and China are working on their own systems.

Berlin had been blocking the use of unspent EU funds partly because it feared German firms could be shut out of major work under the initial tendering scheme, but also out of concern at the precedent of using unspent funds that would otherwise be repaid to member states.

TENDER REDIVIDED

To placate Germany, diplomats said EU leaders could issue a declaration next month pledging that the use of unspent funds for Galileo would remain an exception.

The total cost of Galileo — 3.4 billion euro ($5.1 billion) — is being raised from public funds after private companies declined to carry the risk.

Uncharacteristically, I am going to a political rant mode for a paragraph or two.

“…because the U.S. system already has a dominant market position and Russia and China are working on their own systems”? Isn’t this the main reason why this system is being built in the first place? I am amazed that it has taken this long and that people are not seeing importance of this project. As a mental exercise, just imagine someone pressing a big red button to turn off GPS for everyone else except the American Army. Is it an unprobable scenario? Perhaps it is, but if it happens, there really is no place to call and ask for your money back.

GPS has grown from a military platform to a global, ubiquitous navigation system that has thousands of applications all over the world. It is a mind bogglingly powerful ace card that USA has up their sleeve. They can use that big red button any time they see fit. GPS system’s selective availability could probably be enabled at a relatively small geographical area for a short period of time if needed.

In my opinion, 3.4 billion euros is pocket money to neutralize that threat. Well, granted, it doesn’t take much shoot down a competing satellite positioning system, but it is not only military threats that this system could be used for. Anyway, sometimes it is just time to bite the bullet and show that you have the muscle to get by relatively independently if need be.

This was a tiny little news item at Reuters which probably goes unnoticed by most media. I wanted to highlight it a bit to underline the importance of projects like this instead spending 200 million euros a year on MEPs commuting between Strasbourg and Brussels.

OK, rant mode over, thank you for listening.

Scientists develop Terminator-style helmets which allow fighter pilots to see through their planes | the Daily Mail

A futuristic helmet which allows fighter pilots to see through the walls and floor of their aircraft has been developed by scientists.

The high-tech head gear is attached to cameras on the outside of the aircraft, which project pictures of the plane’s surroundings onto the inside of the pilot’s visor.

The pilot then has 360 degree vision of the world around the plane, allowing x-ray style vision.

This is for the European F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. It will also impose infra-red imagery on to the visor to allow the pilot to look through the cockpit floor at night and see the world below.

Eye-Fi Wireless Card

Eye-Fi uses home wireless networks to eliminate the time-consuming chore of dealing with cables, card readers or software plug-ins associated with uploading photos. Users simply turn on their digital camera and their pictures are wirelessly uploaded. The Eye-Fi Card works with existing and new SD-compatible digital cameras and stores photos like a conventional SD memory card.

How on earth did they manage to cram a 2 GB memory chip and a wi-fi chip the same card? I remember when a 1 GB hard drive used to cost a thousand dollars and wireless networking required great big satellite dishes.

Well, times they have a-changed and now you can pop in a memory card that uploads your photos automatically via wi-fi as you take them. I am curious if you can also upload your photos directly to iPhoto or if you can only upload them to online services. It does seem to support a wide variety of different services including Facebook, Flickr and the open source Gallery software. At $99 it’s not an expensive add-on if you need something like this for real-time coverage of an event for example.

Micro-Compact Low E-Home

The micro-compact low e-home is all-electric and powered by photovoltaic solar panels of 8 sqm with a small diameter vertical axis wind generator.

Day-time excess power is diverted into the grid. Night-time power is provided by the wind turbine and reserve batteries. Heating and air conditioning is ducted to each of the four function spaces. Long duration LED lighting is used internally and for the external walkways.

I wouldn’t call it exactly portable at 2 metric tonnes of weight, but it is an interesting and quite well though out concept. The Micro Compact home web site has several other variations of this shelter. The price is around 34000 euros per unit.

On my recent trip to Lappland, I met a guy who had built a small transportable fibre glass home mounted on a sledge. It could be moved around with a snow mobile and could house him and his dog. I think that architects who design miniature houses like the Micro Compact home could really learn a lot by interviewing people who have actually built and used homes like this in the real life. Sometimes there is a bit of an ivory tower situation between the architects and the real world users of portable homes.

And don’t let me get started on the huge RV truck conversions that they are building in USA. Sometimes they have a small garage built in the truck for another vehicle. Check out this example of these gas guzzling monsters.

I just read an interesting story about the new generation of wiretapping technology that FBI is using in the USA. Coincidentally, three of the last Hollywood blockbuster movies I’ve seen (Bourne Ultimatum, Die Hard 4.0 and Ocean’s 13) have all dealt with the general themes of “individual versus the surveillance system” and “we can see your every move at the hidden command center”. I also saw Wim Wenders’ “The Land of Plenty” which was about a Vietnam war veteran who had become more or less obsessed with surveillance.

I remember seeing scenes in Hollywood movies portraying the Echelon as early as 1994 (“Clear and Present Danger”), but recently it has become the most trendy plot element that you can have. The usual way to weave it into an action film plot is to have the protagonist somehow fool the system and simply outsmart the government agents at the hidden command center by switching the sim card in a phone or hiding behind a balloon seller at a busy railway station.

Bourne Ultimatum went completely over the top with the surveillance theme though. All I can remember about the plot was that the same scene was basically acted out in slightly different variations about 5 or 6 times. During the end credits they played the theme song by Moby.

Well, I guess my point is that not only the script writers, but also the audience in this seemingly less secure world have become fascinated with wiretapping and remote sensing. Whether it’s good entertainment or not, I can’t say. But I do know that during insecure times, horror films repeatedly become a more popular genre. A society based on the remote surveillance and monitoring of the potential threats in the neighbourhood is indeed a bit horrific.

Suunto Lumi

The Suunto Lumi helps you navigate mountain trails and city streets with ease. This sleek outdoor instrument is designed with smart, strong, passionate and active women in mind – women like you.

It’s a cloudy morning, but the barometer on your Suunto Lumi says blue skies ahead, so leave your raincoat at home. The day counter reminds you that a special event is coming up – you still have time to make plans. The weather trend indicator and day counter are a few of Suunto Lumi’s intuitive features that you can use to navigate through life.

Props for a good idea and what appears to be a technically great execution. Suunto’s reputation for high quality products especially in the diving instruments product line is impressive.

For quite some time there has been a specific type of consumer that has been a prime target for market segment researchers… the “active yet trendy outdoor person”. Nokia, Nike, Apple, Sony and many others have been trying to come up with products that appeal to people who enjoy both the urban and outdoor lifestyles. New women specific products are popping up left and right every month. Suunto has finally entered the game as well with their Lumi “instruments”.

In their advertising they refer to the menstrual cycle with the same kind of discretion (“Special event”) as the tampon advertisers with their mysterious blue liquids. I like the way Suunto does their brand building. It is very logical and persevering.

The consumers who are interested in these type of products are usually very fashion conscious. The replaceable wriststrap is actually a rather clever innovation in this industry. I doubt that many women have bought or even considered buying the previous “wrist-top computers” that have been double the size of a typical gentlemen’s wrist watch.

U.S. Subs Luxury Submarines

At U.S. Submarines we are always interested in finding new clients for our products. Unfortunately, there are very few individuals financially capable of purchasing one of our vehicles. And while there are quite a few corporations that could afford our products, not many can justify the expenditure.

There is also what we call the “Lemming Syndrome”. There are many individuals and corporations that purchase expensive luxury yachts, some of which get very little use. Yet when approached with the concept of a luxury submarine, they discard the idea without serious consideration because they do not know anyone else who has one, and they are not progressive enough to contemplate the advantages of ownership. Sadly, a place to sip cocktails while invoking as much envy as possible is the rationale for many status conscious large yacht owners. So, we’re always interested to speak to the progressive and enlightened few who might consider one of our submarines as an incredible alternative which opens the possibilities of new worlds and new experiences – all in perfect comfort and safety.

I really like the tone of the text at the U.S. Submarines web site. They are selling a novel concept to a clientele that is willing to pay 10 to 100 million dollars for a vehicle that many might view as no more than an extremely expensive status symbol. Their potential clients include arab sheiks, world leaders and hi-tech mega-millionaires. As a side note, the president of our own country recently commissioned a luxury yacht for mere 2 millions euros.

I read through most of U.S. Submarines marketing material and learned a lot about submarines… licensing, operating range, comfort factors etc. Although going underwater in a metal tube might not seem like the safest thing to do, I was surprised to find out that there haven’t ever been any serious injuries or fatalities in the history of tourist submarines. Statistically speaking, that actually makes it the safest form of transportation in the world.

Although submarines aren’t exactly the most fashionable form of transport, they have remained a source of constant inspiration for popular culture ever since Jules Verne wrote about Nautilus and Captain Nemo in Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea in 1870.

Nautilus

Much of the ship was decorated to standards of luxury that were unequalled in a seagoing vessel of the time. These included a library with boxed collections of valuable oceanic specimens that were unknown to science at the time, expensive paintings, and several collections of jewels. The Nautilus also featured a lavish dining room and even an organ that Captain Nemo used to entertain himself in the evening.

I spent last week at a summer cabin in Jämi area and in the Seitseminen national park. Most of the time the weather spirits were not in a favorable mood, but luckily the skies cleared for the experimental aircraft gathering, The Jämi-Niinisalo Fly-In.

There was a whole bunch of stuff to see for the aviation enthusiasts. I learned a lot about the hobby of building and flying your own aircrafts and about aviation in general. One thing that fascinated me in particular was the radio controlled aircraft modeling. It had seemed like a way too expensive and difficult activity for a person with poor hand/eye co-ordination (like me) to even consider.

Fortunately, nowadays it is possible practice flying the models at the comfort of your own computer den. I think I have crashed a few thousands of dollars worth of virtual planes already!

I highly recommend the free demo of the RealFlight 3.5 simulator. It is available at RealFlight web site. It has only one model, but the wind dynamics and the physics simulation are apparently quite accurate and realistic. I am seriously considering getting the full version some time in the future.

EDIT: To get an idea what you can do with modern electric planes, have a look at this this demonstration flight at YouTube.

A Greener Apple

It is generally not Apple’s policy to trumpet our plans for the future; we tend to talk about the things we have just accomplished. Unfortunately this policy has left our customers, shareholders, employees and the industry in the dark about Apple’s desires and plans to become greener. Our stakeholders deserve and expect more from us, and they’re right to do so. They want us to be a leader in this area, just as we are in the other areas of our business. So today we’re changing our policy.

I’ve been following Greenpeace’s Green My Apple campaign with great interest. I’m the first one to admit that I’m a real Apple fan boy and that fact can make it difficult to judge the effectiveness of Apple’s environmental efforts with objectivity. However, after reading both sides of the story, I couldn’t help but to re-position Greenpeace as a somewhat hypocritical organization in my personal mind map. They chose Apple as a high profile target and a type of a scapegoat to serve as an example to other companies that refuse to co-operate and communicate with Greenpeace’s activists in a manner that is seen proper by Greenpeace.

To me it is obvious that Apple has been doing a much better job (all in all) with their environmental policy than many of their competitors. The Greenpeace campaign was targeting a very specific part of the policy: toxic substances and recycling practices. One of the goals of this campaign is to make all computer products 100% PVC free. PVC is commonly used as a shielding material for ethernet cables for example. I discussed this matter with one of Greenpeace’s charity muggers on the street and found out that even their own offices still use PVC-shielded cable. Sure the PVC free cabling is more expensive and difficult to obtain, but if 90% of your income goes to a “fund raising and expenses” one would expect that you could use at least part of the remaining 10% to clean up your own act and show a good example to others by phasing out PVC in your own organization. And yes, PVC free cabling is available today. Not speak of feeding electricity from the land lines instead of running the engines of Rainbow Warrior to generate electricity while moored at a port!

It is also obvious that today’s announcement will put Apple to the top end of Greenpeace’s score card and after this they will proudly tout their campaign as a great success. I wonder what they will do with the domain name though.. perhaps they could spend a few thousand euros to rename and repurpose it as “greenmyhp.org” or “greenmydell.org”.

Well, part of my disgust with this particular dirt throwing campaign has something to do with the charity monging practices that Greenpeace and many other non-profit organizations are so aggressively using these days. Although financially extremely lucrative, I am certain that the shameless “face to face” guilt trip marketing strategy will really hurt their reputation in the long run. Unobjective scoring and grading of companies and data for publicity stunt reasons in campaigns like “Green my Apple” will only exacerbate the process.

Ahh, there… I’m glad I got that out of my system! Peace, love and understanding to all of my treehugging brothers and sisters… and the rest of you eco-conscious gadget-freaks and code monkeys as well. And to any Greenpeace activists that might stumble upon here: no offense intended, just please clean up your own act while you are saving the world.

Astronautix – Rescue Ball

Before the Challenger disaster, shuttle crews wore no space suits. This presented the problem of how to move them from one shuttle to another – if – it was possible to launch a rescue mission before the supplies aboard the stranded shuttle ran out.

To address this problem, Johnson Spaceflight Center devised the most minimal spacecraft of all time – the Personal Rescue Enclosure (PRE) Rescue Ball. The rescue ball was an 86 cm diameter high-tech beach ball with three layers: urethane inner enclosure, Kevlar middle layer, and a white outer thermal protective cover. Crew members were to climb into the ball, assume a fetal position, and be zipped inside by a space suited crew member. They donned an oxygen mask and cradled in their arms a carbon dioxide scrubber/oxygen supply box with one hour worth of oxygen. The ball would be connected by an umbilical to the shuttle to supply air until the airlock depressurized. The crew member would then be floated over to the rescue shuttle by the suited astronaut. The process would be repeated until the entire crew was moved from one spacecraft to another.

Can you imagine yourself floating in outer space inside a little insulated plastic ball with a tiny window? Astronautix has a page describing dozens of different space rescue vehicles, but this has to be the smallest one ever. It was also apparently used to test the astronaut candidates for claustrophobia.

I have had a special interest in emergency and minimal shelters for a long time. Check out my earlier entries about hammocks, foam homes and kammi shelters.

Steve Roberts, the original technomad, has pioneered a lifestyle that combines outdoor life with electronics and engineering. The problem with going off the grid for a month or two is that you might not a have job when you return. Perhaps innovations in shelter design and other miniaturization techniques will provide a way to carry your own both your office and home tucked away in your backpack in the future. That is a concept worth pursuing, in my opinion.

It’s a plastic straw, it’s a post-it note… it’s the ingenious Gedankenstütze!

Object art. There’s plenty more at Atelier V.

I also like the tissue paper tea bag and the window sleeping support goggle.

Sony Home – Hollywood Reporter

In the wake of virtual worlds like Second Life and such file-sharing stalwarts as YouTube and Flickr, Sony Computer Entertainment is using its PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable to usher in its own virtual online-connected community.

The initiative, dubbed “Home,” will allow gamers to create virtual avatars and congregate in 3-D homes and halls to socialise via text, audio or video chat; watch movie trailers or feature films; and play casual games. Gamers will be able to do all this via a free download that will be offered in the fall in the U.S. and Europe.

“We believe there are now incremental opportunities for publishers to create their own ‘homes’ for gamers to visit and play games while being served up streaming trailers and sponsored advertisements in a reasonable fashion,” he said. “Sony’s online strategy, while behind Microsoft’s Xbox Live service and its 6 million global users, appears differentiated and impressive on first pass.”

McNealy cited an example of how Electronic Arts could make money by selling virtual “Madden NFL 2008″ T-shirts for avatars in the “Home” world. In addition, streaming video content for upcoming games, movies or TV shows could be shown on walls throughout the “Home.”

This came totally out of the blue for me. Sony is a strange creature. On the other hand, they have been mimicking the successful products of other companies since the very beginning. On the other hand, they have shown over and over again that they are not following others when it comes to big, strategic moves.

Sony “Home” essentially seems like a Second Life clone without the ability to build your own objects except in a very limited way. Having total freedom to build your own structures and scripts is both the strength and weakness of Second Life. Over time, it has been riddled by a number security incidents… self replicating virus objects, stolen customer data etc.

I have high hopes for this initiative. It will finally bring secure 3D virtual communities to the masses.

EDIT: Here’s a promotional video clip of the project

New York Surveillance Camera Players

Debut Performance

At around 11 pm on Tuesday 10 December 1996, six members of the Surveillance Camera Players (Michael, Katie, Bill, Susan, Lisa, and Orrin) performed most of Art Toad’s special adaption of Alfred Jarry’s play Ubu Roi in front of a surveillance camera in Manhattan’s Union Square subway station. At the same time, three other SCPers (Grrrt, Michelle and John), as well as several on-lookers, watched the play on one of the station’s closed-circuit television monitors.

It is interesting to note that An International Day of Action Against Video Surveillance was organized on September 7th, 2001… just two days before the incident that changed the public opinion about government surveillance in general.

Here in Vienna they have a surveillance camera at the top of every escalator on the U-bahn stations. In contrast, the density of cameras at the Tube stations in London was phenomenal. Each staff member monitors up to 60 cameras. The New Scientist has an interesting article about new software that can spot dubious behaviour, suicide attempts, abandonded packages etc.

Face recognition technology is slowly crossing over from security products sector to consumer electronics. Canon’s new Powershot TX1 has a rather advanced face recognition system that can even recognize multiple faces in a scene while shooting video at HD resolution!

It just occurred to me that it wouldn’t be all that difficult to implement an “identity search” on Google Images. All it would take is to automatically index every face in each image and link it to the profile picture of your Gmail account for example. It won’t probably happen in a year or two, but who knows about the future? The technology is already here.

EDIT: I just learned that Royal Caribbean has a ship-wide surveillance systems utilizing facial recognition technology. This enables security personnel to locate any passenger on the ship, except in private areas (such as staterooms and restrooms).

El Cerrito firm unveils the Proteus, ‘a new class of vessel’

The strangest vessel made its formal premiere Thursday on San Francisco
Bay, and it was a sight to see: It looked like a spider, wiggled over the waves
like a porpoise, and was fast as the wind.

It is named the Proteus, after a Greek god of the sea, and is the first of
what might be a long line of wave adaptive modular vessels — WAM-V for short
– developed by Ugo Conti, an engineer and inventor. Conti calls it “the
prototype of a new class of vessel.”

Using technology developed by Conti’s El Cerrito Marine Advanced Research
Inc., the WAM-V is “a new class of watercraft … that delivers a radically new
seagoing experience.” It has twin hulls, like a catamaran, connected to each
other and a control cabin by four metal legs. The legs ride on titanium springs
– like shock absorbers — that allow the WAM-V to adjust to the surface of
the water — to flex like knees.

Dual hulls seems to be trendy thing to do this Winter (among crazy inventors that is).

Spede factor: 10.

RESETDESIGN

The 2Cycle: two bicycles that can be linked to form a stable four-wheeler in no time. Physically challenged people and senior citizens can ride it together without risking their necks. The spiffy four-wheeler has back supports for a comfortable ride and can be equipped with an auxiliary motor.

I finally got my trusty old Cannondale Silkpath back from Velosport where it was being serviced. They did a really good job and the bike is now as good as new. We are moving to Vienna soon and I’ve found out that you can transport foldable bikes in trams over there. Brompton seems to be the leading brand in that area of bike design.

I guess the contraception pictured above doesn’t count as a foldable bicycle although you can split it in two. It is a design study from Design Academy Eindhoven.

The weather here in Europe has been crazy this Winter and there seems to be a ton of news about ecological matters in mainstream media these days. The alpine tourism industry is being hit by the freight train of global warming really hard this year. I have a feeling that even the most die hard climate change-scepticists are starting to have second thoughts about their stance now. A 1 celsius degree increase in mean temperature would make half of the ski resorts in Germany practically snowless.

I’ve owned two cars in my life and both of them ended up being wrecked in one way or another. I switched to bikes and public transport about 20 years ago. I’m sort of happy that I don’t have to start weaning myself from the car centric way of life at this age.

iCarta-Atech Flash Technology

Now you can Enhance your Experience in any room with your favorite music from your iPod.

Features:

• 4 Integrated high performance moisture-free speakers deliver exceptional clarity and high quality sound
• Charges your iPod while playing music
• Audio selector allows you to play iPod shuffle or other Audio device
• Integrated Bath tissue holder that can be easily folded as a stereo dock
• Requires AC Power (AC Adapter included)
• Easy to remove from Wall Mount

For your information… the item above is a genuine “Made for iPod” product.

Ahh, what an excellent find! An arts and crafts blog for all the evil mad scientists in the world! Check out Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. To give you an idea on what kind of stuff they work on, have a look at this list of tools:

The lab staff is travelling this week. Here’s what I brought with me, which might give you a hint about some of our upcoming projects:

• A: MacBook Pro
• B: Cookbooks (We’re doing the cooking!)
• C: AVRISP mkII microcontroller programmer box
• D: Star-shaped cookie biscuit cutter
• E: The microcontroller programmer itself (fits in the box)
• F: USB cable for programmer (fits in the box)
• G: Olimex development board for 20-pin AVR chips (fits in the box)
• H: Power for the Olimex board
• I: Ten Atmel ATtiny2313 microcontrollers (fit in the box)
• J: Microcontroller target board with 17-segment LED display and battery box (fits in the box)
• K: Sheet from ATtiny2313 data sheet showing pinouts
• L: Four fresh nutmeg nuts. (Meg nuts?)

P.S. I maintain the Mad Science group on Orkut. Drop me a line if you want to start moderating it.

Science magazine’s breakthroughs of 2006

• 1. The Poincare Conjecture.
  Reclusive Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman apparently solved the venerable mathematical problem.
• 2. Digging out fossil DNA.
  Researchers used new techniques to sequence more than one million bases of nuclear DNA from a Neanderthal.
• 3. Shrinking Ice.
  Glaciologists discovered that the world’s two great ice sheets were indeed losing water to the oceans – at an accelerating pace.
• 4. From sea to land.
  Details emerged of a 375-million-year-old fish that fills an evolutionary gap between sea creatures and land animals.
• 5. The Ultimate Camouflage.
  A British-American team built a “metamaterials” cloaking device, that rendered an object invisible to microwaves.
• 6. Ray of Hope.
  Clinical trials show the drug ranizumab improved the vision of about one-third of patients with an age-related condition that causes degeneration in vision.
• 7. The road to speciation.
  Studies on the fruit fly and on butterflies aided our understanding of how species arise.
• 8. Beyond the light barrier.
  New microscopy techniques allowed biologists to get a clearer view of the fine structure of cells and proteins.
• 9. The Persistence of Memory.
  Neuroscientists provided insights into how the brain records new memories.
• 10. Small molecules.
  Researchers reported a new class of small RNA molecules that shut down gene expression.

Via BBC News

Merry Christmas, everyone!

The Shroud of Turin: relic, historical artifact, icon or pious fraud?

Proposal to clone DNA:

A secretive group of 13 or 14 Christians called the Second Coming Project propose to obtain a small sample of DNA from the shroud or from a relic that people believe can be traced to Yeshua of Nazareth’s (Jesus Christ’s) body. They propose to clone Yeshua by taking the ovum from a woman, removing her DNA and replacing it with the DNA obtained from a relic. If the fertilized ovum successfully divides, it would be implanted in the womb of a woman and hopefully result in a birth nine months in the future. They targeted 2001-DEC-25 as the date of birth, even though there is a consensus among Christian theologians that Yeshua was born circa 4 to 7 BCE, probably in the fall. There are obstacles to this project. There is no consensus among the scientific and religious communities that Yeshua’s DNA is present on any relic or artifact. There is no assurance that DNA that has been in existence for two millennia can be made to replicate. Bill Merrell, vice president of convention relations for the Southern Baptist Convention, said that this effort is “the height of foolhardiness,” “the highest silliness in the category of neither science nor religion” and “perfectly reprehensible.” The project appears to be founded on the belief that Yeshua is the son of God and that this condition was determined by his DNA. Thus, a cloned version of Yeshua would also have divine status. In essence, they would be creating a God — a fourth member of the Trinity.

2 The project apparently failed, because there was no further information in the media.

I personally believe that cloning and genetic manipulation will be as commonplace as aspirin and band aid within a hundred years or so. That is, if we don’t manage to blow the entire planet up before that.

NASA – New Station Flight Control Room

JSC2006-E-43860 (6 Oct. 2006)— International Space Station flight controllers have this area as their new home with increased technical capabilities, more workspace and a long, distinguished history. The newly updated facility is just down the hall from its predecessor at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston. Known as Flight Control Room 1, it was first used to control a space flight 38 years ago, the mission of Apollo 7 launched Oct. 11, 1968. It was one of two control rooms for NASA’s manned missions. The room it replaces in its new ISS role, designated the Blue Flight Control Room, had been in operation since the first station component was launched in 1998.

Photo credit: NASA

It looks a bit like they are playing video games over there, doesn’t it? NASA has done a tremendous job popularizing the notion of space flight and it is indeed one of the few areas of exploration that still has that special aura of glory associated with it. Sweden just got their first astronaut, a former national Frisbee champion, Christer Fuglesang. There is apparently quite a space fever in Sweden right now. Magazines and television are covering the flight in great detail.

I often visit Nasa’s web site just to browse around and see what’s happening. A section that I found particularly interesting describes the Golden Record that was sent to space with Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. It is a sort of a time capsule containing sounds and images from earth. It’s a bit shocking to notice how dated the images have become in only a few decades. I’m not sure if they have made time capsules like this on other vessels after the Voyager missions. Who knows… maybe they have, but they just haven’t told anyone.

EDIT: the image above is of the station flight control room, not of the original Flight Control Room 1

USB Cell is a clever little invention. It is a AA size rechargeable battery that you can charge via any USB port. They had them down at the PC World in Peckham and I bought a pair out of curiousity. There is a built in LED indicator that glows when the battery is charging and it blinks once the charge is up to 90% of the 1300 mAh capacity.

In other news, we paid a visit to Camden market today and watched Borat’s movie film at the local Odeon Cineplex with my friendly hosts Tina and Stefan. Believe or not, but there is an urban neightbourhood fox that lives near their place in Rotherhite. She greeted us with glowing eyes when we arrived home the other day. Tina tells me that she sees the fox every morning when she goes to work.

My visit to London has been a very pleasant experience so far.

Vectrex 1982-1984

The Vectrex was a completely vector graphics based system, hence its name. Vector graphics are the kind of graphics used in such popular games as Asteroids, Battlezone, Space War, and Tempest. Most videogames use raster graphics, which utilize pixels. In this type of display, the beam inside your television or monitor scans across horizontally from the top down, drawing each row of pixels. Vector graphics, on the other hand, draw to exact coordinates – using x/y or “vector” values. Vectors graphics are very sharp and allowed the Vectrex to produce some outstanding visual effects such as scaling and rotation. To produce its special graphics, the Vectrex had its own nine by eleven-inch monochrome monitor (color vectors would have been very difficult and expensive to produce).

The Vectrex had it’s origins at Western Technologies/Smith Engineering, when some of the engineers wanted to find a way to use a bunch of the cheap cathode ray tubes (CRT’s) they had just purchased. An all in one vector gaming system was decided, and the rest is history.

Light pens, 3d goggles with spinning colored discs as accessories. No wonder new games for this system are still being released. Check out the Vectrex game database

I believe the Motorola 68A09 processor used in Vectrex had a floating point performance of about 300 FLOPS. For comparison the PS3 has a theoretical floating point performance of about 2 180 000 000 000 FLOPS (2.18 Teraflops). You could give a Vectrex to every living person on earth to get the same kind of processing power as in a single Playstation 3.

Consider this: A Playstation generation generally has a lifespan of about 10-15 years. I wouldn’t be surprised if you could give a PS3 to 7000 million persons in year 2030 to get the processing power of a single PS5.

There was an opportunity to get your body composition analyzed at the Viikki campus of biological sciences for a mere 5 euros today. I was super excited to read all the information on the printout. I was especially happy to hear that all my values were within normal tolerances. Though the machine did have the nerve to suggest that I should increase my muscle mass by 5 kilograms! That’s the equivalent of about two human babies! Where on earth am I supposed to put all that mass!? Well, I guess I’ll have to find a personal trainer.

Inbody 720

Body composition analysers are frequently used to programme and monitor obesity treatment, for applications in nephrology, endocrinology as well as for medical rehabilitation and general fitness training. The InBody range of body composition analysers provides information about intra- and extra-cellular water, fat, protein and minerals. The system applies Direct Segmental Measurement (DSM) defining the body as five different cylinders, i.e. four limbs and a trunk, and measuring the impedance of each part separately. It is, furthermore, possible to examine the segmental development of the subject. In body composition analysis, it is most critical that the trunk section be accurately measured. Though the trunk is the largest of the five body segments, its impedance value is about 20 ohm, the lowest among the five parts. Hence, a difference of 1 or 2 ohm can significantly affect the result.

There is a similar device at Naantali Spa

I contemplated about writing about the death of game arcades or the sleep behaviour of dolphins this morning, but after seeing the founders of the company that was sold yesterday to Google for 1600000000 dollars, may I present my first YouTube blog entry ever: Two Kings.

To put this into perspective, consider this: YouTube has a staff of 67 employees and it was founded in 2005. It had an initial investment of $3,5 million by Sequoia Capital.

Answer honestly.. Would you give $3,5 million to two jokers whose business idea can be summed up with one sentence: “it’s a video sharing web site that converts your uploaded videos to flash video files”?

To quote my favorite master of modern poetry, Lordi: “The jokers soon’ll be the new kings”.

Subterranea Britannica: Sites: Tower Subway

The Tower Subway consists of an iron tube, 7 feet in diameter and about
1235 feet in length, laid some 18 feet below the bed of the Thames.
It runs between Great Tower Hill on the north side of the river, and
Tooley Street on the south. It belongs to a Limited Liability Company,
and was opened for tramway traffic on the 12th April, 1870. Being a
losing speculation, the tram cars ceased to run on 7th December, 1870;
but it was opened for foot-passengers (toll, one halfpenny) on the 24th
of that month, and the Company have successfully continued it only as
such. It is reached at each end by a spiral staircase of 96 steps. The
Subway is well lighted up with gas, the average heat by the thermometer
being 65 degrees Fahr. Those, however, who are afflicted with chest
complaints should not attempt to make use of it, owing to the extreme
closeness of the atmosphere and the limited space in the tube, which
renders stooping necessary. It is open from 5.30 AM. till midnight.

This week the big news in greater Helsinki area has been the decision to build the extension of the Helsinki subway Westward to Espoo. I searched for a website about the abandonded tube stations in London to illustrate the point that, no matter how modern they may seem at the moment, all subway stations will be abandonded or demolished sooner or later. The best I could find was the description of the Tower Subway in Subterranea Britannica.

However, building a subway to Espoo instead of extending the road network was a major environmental policy decision and I’m really happy for it for many different reasons.

Golf clubs have a long tradition of being exclusive hideouts and meeting places of the business elite. There are national equivalents of such clubs in every country, but golf is indeed unique in that respect that it is a truly global stomping ground for the business movers and shakers. Cory Ondrejka from the Linden Labs, the producers of Second Life virtual world, remarked that World of Warcraft is the new golf. There is an interesting discussion about the subject at Terra Nova and, more recently, at Joi Ito’s blog.

As a former Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) addict, I tend to agree with Chris Goggans who said:

If your business partner is addicted to crack, and the only way to consistently reach him is at the local crack house, you would not say “Smoking Crack is the new Golf.”

You might say, “DAMNIT, why in the hell do you not answer your cell phone, forcing me to drive over to the crack house at all hours to get your comments and signature.”

Even more likely, “Get some help. Please.”

Ahem…

WoW is highly addictive and the social aspects of it are as important as the game itself. However, if golf is the single malt whiskey of social clubs, WoW is the Coca-Cola. Whiskey is an expensive, traditional and, in a word, exclusive treat. Coca-Cola, on the other hand, can be bought at any convenience store and it is being consumed by practically everyone. In the words of Andy Warhol:

“You know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke, and no amount of money can get you a better Coke. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good.”

Nobody’s saying that you can’t mix coke with whiskey, though. The “new golf” metaphor doesn’t refer to playing the game itself, but to the fact that there are guilds within the game which are every bit as prestigious and admired by the players as their real-world counterparts, the golf clubs. Sometimes, nobody knows if they are run by a teenager, Tom Hanks or a dog, for that matter. It doesn’t really make a difference and that’s the beauty of virtual worlds and Internet in general.

MMORPG players are often trying to find justification for all the time and effort they are putting into their addiction. It is true that playing MMORPGs can be very educational, entertaining and rewarding, but keep an eye for the compulsive pattern. Games can, and do, break perfectly functioning relationships. Some addiction clinics are treating the compulsive gamers together with chemically dependant people, sex addicts, eating disorders etc.

For the record, the collage above was done with Creative Commons licensed material on Flickr.

There was a little news story about plans to introduce free Wi-Fi in public transport buses and trams in Helsinki. If the pilot goes well, the system will be introduced “as early as 2009″. The system will apparently utilize the new 450 Mhz Flash OFDM network that is currently being built by Digita.

Well, I have nothing against the project. Helsinki has often been criticized for being so far behind in providing decent public Wi-Fi infrastructure and this gap has been filled mostly by private restaurant and cafe entrepeneurs. This is obviously the same phenomen that has happened in most other metropols in the world.

The new @450 network will most probably be the first nationwide wireless broadband network in the world. You simply need a WiFi-like adapter (or a hybrid Wi-Fi/Flash OFDM adapter) and an account with an ISP to access the Internet at near-ADSL speed no matter where you are. Considering this, how many of the potential commuters using laptops will be using the @450 network directly instead of using the Wi-Fi gateway in the buses?

Digita.fi – @450

Digita aims to open the @450 network in early 2007. At first, the network will be available in the north and on the coast. The network will cover most of Finland during 2007 and the entire country by the end of 2009. The rollout will depend on the needs of the service operators and the areas.

Digita will utilise the open network model for the rollout of the @450 network. This means, that Digita’s role is to be the network operator and offer network capacity to all interested service providers under equal, non-discriminating conditions.

The @450 network utilises the frequency of the NMT 450 network freed from mobile phone use. The frequency band of the network is low, which means that large geographical areas can be covered with one base station. For this reason, the network is well suited as a connection network covering the whole of Finland. Thanks to the @450 network, Finland still has a clear chance to be the pioneer in wireless broadband connections, that is, to be the first country in the world with a nationwide wireless broadband network.

The @450 network will not be free to use though. I think that it’s a very positive thing that the network operator (Digita) and the service provider (read ISPs) have been separated into two operational categories.

As a side note, the fon wi-fi community has been making it’s first steps here in Finland lead. I was eager to join myself, but it is simply not an option for people who can’t start juggling between ISPs if the provider decides to mass ban the people who are basically sharing their connection with a WLAN router from a third party operator. Any kind of connection sharing is explicitly forbidden in the fine print on their terms of service. Sure, it will work for a while, but once it reaches critical mass, all it needs is the proverbial short unix script to make it collapse like a house of cards. Personally, I’m putting my bets on the @450 network for ubiquitous wireless internet access in the future.

I recently finished the production of a biofeedback based multimedia program entitled On the World’s Pulse. It is designed to promote the Millennium Technology Prize. The program shows six different image sequences to a viewer while simultaniously measuring the heart rate with a custom made Polar heart rate monitor. The sequence with maximum heart rate is automatically chosen for a further quiz about that particular subject. After the quiz there are a few info screens about the prize itself and previous winners. This year’s winner is professor Shuji Nakamura.

The Millennium Technology Prize

Professor Shuji Nakamura is one of the most significant inventors of our time. In 1993, he stunned the optoelectronic community with the announcement of very-bright blue GaN-based light emitting diodes (LEDs). In rapid succession, he then announced a green GaN-based LED, a blue laser diode, and a white LED. All these developments were things that other researchers in the semiconductor field had spent decades trying to do.

Professor Nakamura’s story is unique. Born in 1954 in Japan on the island called Shikoku, he received his master’s degree in 1979 at the University of Tokushima. He started his scientific and technological career outside mainstream Japanese technology, working as an engineer at Nichia Chemical, a small phosphor company in the countryside.

My fellow citizens here in Finland have been flooding like lemmings to get an old skool non-biometric passport for themselves while it’s still possible. After last Friday, the only kind of new passport you can get has a microchip with your face as a machine readable JPEG on it. After about two years, the new passports will have your fingerprints on the chip as well. I contemplated on getting a traditional passport for the next ten years for myself, but after having gone through so many immigration interviews in different countries I decided that the privacy issue is not really such a big deal for me.

When I flew from Munich to San Francisco last December they handed out a little form to fill out before I even boarded the plane. The form was for stating your first address after you have arrived to USA. After filling out the form and going through two or three interviews by different types of security personnel in Germany (including a passport authenticity check that took what seemed like an eternity), the actual USA border crossing took less than a minute. I’m not sure if this was a special arrangement with the Munich airport only, but I’m certain that the biometric passport initiative will make the process a lot more efficient.

Actually I think that it is a positive thing that fingerprints are no longer associated only with crime scene investigation and prisons. There is a fingerprint based access control at the gym I use. It seems to me that people are totally habituated to it. I, for one, prefer it to BERTILLONAGE

No longer used, bertillonage was a late 19th century method of identifying people by use of multiple bodily measurements. A person would go through a 20-60 minute measuring exam where they would have various body measurements taken: height, length, and breadth of the head, the length of different fingers, the length of forearms, etc. The results were then recorded and/or compared to a record database. Though all done by hand, the record filing and checking system was quite fast for its time.

Created in the 1890′s by a Paris police desk clerk, an anthropologist named Alphonse Bertillon, this method of identification became the primary method for identifying criminals in the late 1800′s. Bertillon based his system on the claim that measurement of adult bones does not change after the age of 20. He also introduced a cataloguing system, which enabled filing/checking records quite quickly.

The system was a success, identifying hundreds of repeat offenders, and was used world-wide until 1903, when two identical (within the tolerances) measurements were obtained for two different persons at the Fort Leavenworth prison. The prison switched to finger printing the following day and the rest of the world soon followed, abandoning bertillonage forever.

My friend Janne has been busy with his favorite skunkworks project.. an electric sailboat aptly called “Hello, World”. I went on a little test sail a couple of days ago and almost caught boat fever myself. There is something unreal about the way the boat silently glides through water when the sails are down. Janne told me that people are often scratching their heads when he nimbly moors the boat. The potentiometer or “gas pedal” is extremely sensitive and the minimum propulsion is feather light like an invisible djinni’s hand.

While not sailing, she is powered by a set of 14 lithium ion batteries.

What is Skunkworks

A skunkworks is a group of people who, in order to achieve unusual results, work on a project in a way that is outside the usual rules. A skunkworks is often a small team that assumes or is given responsibility for developing something in a short time with minimal management constraints. Typically, a skunkworks has a small number of members in order to reduce communications overhead. A skunkworks is sometimes used to spearhead a product design that thereafter will be developed according to the usual process. A skunkworks project may be secret

EDIT: After this trip, I designed a logo and new web site for Electric Ocean as a favor to help them launch the business.. it’s a worthy cause, I think.