Upcoming Technology

Blu-Ray And HD DVD Technology

saratrooperblog — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:25:06 +0000

Movies are finally ready to take advantage of the High Definition displays that have been in stores for years. DVDs brought us great picture and sound that created a boom in the television and home theater market. Display technology rapidly grew to bring us a picture that was twice as good as DVD quality video. The problem was that DVDs cannot store enough information to fit HD quality video and sound, until now. New technology has created a DVD that can store up to five times more information than before. This new technology comes in two formats called Blu-Ray and HD DVD. These two formats were created separately and they currently in competition with each other. They both use similar technology to bring HD quality video and sound, but they do have some differences.

The technology behind the two formats is based on the same optical technique that regular DVDs use. A laser is focused onto the surface of the disc and reads the digital information that is converted to video and sound. Blu-Ray and HD DVD incorporate a new colored laser that can be focused more precisely onto a smaller area of the disc. This allows there to be more information packed onto the same size disc. It’s like a record player using a smaller needle and lines are just moved together tighter towards the center, leaving more room on the outside for more information. The reason for having to fit the information onto the same size disc as a DVD is so that all optical discs created with older technologies will fit into the same reader. So a Blu-Ray or HD DVD player will play CD, DVD and their own discs. Because of their competition there are no players that will play Blu-Ray and HD DVD.
The main difference between the two formats is simply a matter of storage. HD DVDs can store 15GB; about three times as much as a DVD. A Blu-Ray disc can store 25GB which is about five times as much as a DVD. Both will have the same video resolution as of right now, but Blu-Ray has the potential to store better video when it is available. For now, extra space is used for movie extras like behind the scenes segments. Only time will tell if these formats will merge or fight it out to the end. History has shown us that one format usually prevails.

Latest Technology Invention – Archimedes May Be Back

saratrooperblog — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 09:23:56 +0000

What are you talking about? – Archimedes and latest technology invention in the same breath? For those not in the know – Archimedes was the ancient Greek’s most famous mathematician. He was the one who ran through the streets naked yelling “Eureka” (I have found it) when he solved a very important problem while sitting in his bath.

The latest technology invention is this – taking what most probably the latest and using it in a new way. Archimedes had scribed some of his theories on goat parchment somewhere between 287-212 B.C. Amazingly, this parchment has lived on – and in the middle ages a Monk scraped the papyrus and OVERWROTE Archimedes’ writings – (which was probably the best thing to happen – because the writings lived on (covered over) as a Christian prayer book – thus not subject to destruction by anti-science thinkers of the Dark Ages and beyond).

Without getting into the whole story – the manuscript has lived on to this day – where it was purchased at auction for about 2 million dollars, and then very graciously turned over to classicists and old book restorers. It was found that the prayer book had been written over some other writing.

Here is where the latest technology invention comes in. The experts were having trouble reading the underlying script, naturally. A physicist that worked with the Stanford Synchotron Radiation Laboratory – which runs the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center – just happened to get some info on the Archimedes project while at a conference.

This physicist studies spinach! His latest technology invention was studying how determine iron and other elements in spinach. He – through the info he received – found that the ink used by Archimedes would have iron as a base.

The next step was to contact the classicists and restorers of the manuscript and suggest using his tools (the Stanford accelerator) to scan the book like he did his spinach – and the iron content in the ink should stand out (even through the overwriting).

After over four years of preparation – the use of this latest technology invention was accomplished. The scanning of the document is being done as we speak [beginning August 4, 2006]. The results are pretty amazing – and are available online and with a webcam.

This is one of the first instances where classicists and language scholars and physicists (nuclear and other) have worked together on a project such as this. The concept is mind-boggling – two such diverse fields working together to bring one of mankind’s greatest minds back to life with his writings – which have been buried beneath prayers for thousand of years. This is truly a fascinating use of the latest technology invention.

Nano Technology With Nokia Morph

saratrooperblog — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:14:56 +0000

Nano Technology has evolved as an all together different technology area in the mobile world. Mobile phones are advancing at a great and faster pace than never before and Nokia Morph is truly a mobile wonder. This phone has been developed by Nokia Research Center and the University of Cambridge (UK).

The Morph specialty lies in the design and technology used to make it possible. The best part of this phone is that you can transform it according to your wish and that what exactly Nokia wanted to come up with- Flexible and Reliable phone. You can radically change the phone in different shapes one of being the bracelet way.

Professor Mark Welland, Head of the Department of Engineering’s Nanoscience Group at the University of Cambridge and University Director of Nokia-Cambridge added, “Developing the Morph concept with Nokia has provided us with a focus that is both artistically inspirational but, more importantly, sets the technology agenda for our joint nanoscience research that will stimulate our future work together”

Mobile phones like Nano Morph certainly depict the upcoming Nano Technology and it will surely be a front-runner in the use of various gadgets and technologies be it Computers, Air Conditioners, Robots, Cars or like this one viz Mobile phones and smartphones. Nokia Morph is truly an absolutely wonderful gadget with flexible bending and wearing options and surely the best in the gadgets segment from the house of Nokia. Wonder what will be next from Nokia, World’s leader in the Communication segment.

Nokia Morph is truly a gadget of a lifetime and a wonder from the house of Nokia.

Upcoming Technology in Fast Food Drive-Thrus

saratrooperblog — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:44:31 +0000

CNN has an article up, explaining the cutting-edge technological battle between the fast food chains: drive-thru automation. It will surprise none who have experienced the annoyance of trying to order a cheeseburger through a fuzzy, warbling speaker from an anonymous immigrant on the other end that the strategy these companies are banking on is absolutely clueless. What will companies like Burger King and Wendy’s be doing to guarantee a better drive-thru experience for you, the consumer? One: outsource your order to call centers, possibly in India. Two: use computer programs that guess your upcoming order.
Why don’t these companies just take the smart tact: take an incompetent employee or half-assed program out of the loop entirely? Allow drive-thru customers to just punch in their order on easy-to-read computer screens. While that still depends on an anonymous incompetent on the other end actually filling that order correctly, is anyone who has ever endured customer service from Dell recently really relishing the idea of someone identifying himself as “Joe America” fielding his order for a cheeseburger from ten thousand miles away?

Fear prevailing on the mind of IT Directors

saratrooperblog — Fri, 30 May 2008 07:28:49 +0000

During InfoSec Europe, Secure Computing took a survey of IT Directors, one-hundred and three of them to be exact, and asked them about their fears. What is it that concerns them most regarding IT security?

When asked to pick which was the larger threat, either outsider or insider, more than eighty percent said internal threats worry them the most. Insider threats can come from anywhere, jaded employees, accidental disclosure of sensitive information, and outright criminal theft. Less than one in five directors felt the external threats posed by criminals are more dangerous.

So why are these IT Directors showing fear? Because according to the survey, thirty-seven percent of them have experienced data leaks within the past year. Keeping with this data, the directors who took part said that internal security is at the top of their shopping lists.

Another item of note from the survey included Email as being identified as the biggest current security risk to the IT Director’s organizations (34 percent). VoIP was noted as well, coming in second with twenty-five percent, and is deemed a bigger threat than Web surfing, which only twenty-one percent of the directors said was the biggest threat. Despite this apparent confidence, however, four in five respondents (79 percent) feel they could be better prepared for Web-borne threats.

Established external threats continue to be the biggest concern in a developing Web 2.0 environment, according to Secure. Viruses top the list of offenders, with thirty-one percent of IT Directors feeling it is the biggest threat, while spam comes in second with eighteen percent, and data leaks a close third at fourteen percent.

Another issue raised by the Directors was disclosure laws. Over two-thirds of the directors believe data breach disclosure should be compulsory in the UK, as it is in the United States.

Multitouch features to be included in windows 7

saratrooperblog — Fri, 30 May 2008 07:26:37 +0000

While the anticipated arrival of Windows 7 is still some 18 months away by Microsoft’s (tentative) reckoning, the Redmond-based company has this week taken the opportunity to unveil one of the ambitious new features it has planned for possible inclusion.

With Apple’s iconic iPhone and Nintendo’s hugely popular dual-screen DS videogame console paving the way for a rush of ‘me too’ touch-sensitive devices, it hardly comes as a surprise to find American software behemoth Microsoft Corp. busy banding around a multi-touch interface for its next operating system.

Specifically, during the Wall Street Journal’s ‘D: All Things Digital’ conference in California, representatives from Microsoft gave attendees their first video demo glimpse of the multi-touch interface in action.

The demo‘s content, which appeared somewhat similar to Microsoft’s touch-based Surface technology, showcased a user applying simple tactile finger gestures to access, shift and organise photographic images, explore a 3D global map, and even tickle the ivories on an on-screen piano.

While undeniably tantalising in terms of bringing users ever closer to their systems via more complete physical interaction, subsequent online reaction is varied when considering the true worth of a multi-touch interface in Windows 7 — or any operating system.

For example, many tech watchers consider touch-screen interaction as little more than a fluffy gimmick that will add unnecessary processing pressures to their computers, much like Windows Vista’s much debated Aero visual interface.

In terms of what users would rather see Microsoft do with Windows 7, the general consensus appears to call for more focused development on the production of clean and efficient code, improved efficiency and reliability, better software compatibility, and a final operating system that doesn’t unfairly tax the hardware’s processing capabilities through throwaway features.

Microsoft has said that further details related to the ongoing development and features of its Windows 7 operating system will be revealed as the product gradually takes shape over the coming months. The current company calendar guess for the arrival of Windows 7 sees the operating system pencilled in for an early 2010 release.