Category: Science & technology

Categories
Liberty Science & technology

[426] Of the big brother is jamming your band

What is this current fad with radio jammers?

First, it was the French government allowing theaters to install jammers for the sake of eliminating unwanted ringing. Well, since cell phones nowadays are loaded with countless loud incessant noise, ringing might not be the right term. Nevertheless, jamming?

But I guess it’s not too bad. I myself hate people with cell phones that lack ethics. Hate is a strong word. Perhaps annoying is more accurate word to describe these goddamned unethical cell users. Then again, I’ll stick with hate.

Then, I read somewhere that churches in Mexico have installed these jammers. The situation is aptly described in the following excerpt:

MONTERREY, Mexico – It was the reporters who noticed first. Unable to call their editors while covering the weddings of the rich and famous, they asked the priest why their cell phones never worked at Sacred Heart. His reply: Israeli counterintelligence.

Very funny!

Anyway, that is not all. From the article where the excerpt was, err, excerpted, the Indian Parliament has been using such technology to politely discourage congressmen from receiving phone calls during a session.

Regardless the fact that I hate these goddamned unethical cell phone users, I don’t know whether this is good or bad.

For one, it is a blessing to us, the goddamned unethical cell phone users’ haters. If the jamming technology starts to propagate to everywhere, no more ringing or whatever it is called right now in the middle of a lecture, an assembly or any situation that requires cell ethics.

However, isn-t this is somewhat erosion of freedom?

I want my freedom to hate!

If suddenly everybody utilizes this jamming technology, there will be no goddamned unethical cell phone users anymore! Imagine the horror of the goddamned unethical cell phone users’ haters! The pain of no hate is unbearable! There will be no one left for us the goddamned unethical cell phone users’ haters to hate anymore!

Maybe its time all the goddamned unethical cell phone users’ haters start to concentrate on hating the Buckeyes. Then again, the people from a obscure place called Ohio just had one more loss and this time to the Badgers. Due to that, the marginal return to hate is so small; it’s not worth hating the Buckeyes anymore.

Wait!

There exists a subspecies of human that chatter loudly at light speed! Yes! A new found source of hate! Now, if the radio jamming technology is spreading everywhere at our expense, we should all evolve and become haters of goddamned uneducated people that incessantly chatter at a light speed!

Yet, there is a possibility that the government will restrict our freedom to hate the goddamned uneducated people that incessantly chatter at light speed. This is a problem indeed.

A ah! Friends, haters, countrymen!

It is Israel that is providing this jamming technology. It is Israel that is restricting our freedom! It is true then that Jews rule the world by proxy! Hence, we must hate Israel to secure our freedom to hate!

Oh, boy. Mahathir is going to be proud of me. Totally.

p/s – check this out. Via WorldChanging, my current favorite website.

Categories
Environment Science & technology

[425] Of Envisat and nitrogen dioxide

A few days ago, the European Space Agency released its Envisat observations. According to the news on ESA website, Envisat is the largest environmental satellite at this moment. The most interesting finding is, at least to me, is the distribution of nitrogen dioxide in the world. Practically, it’s the map.

From the map, there are a few large hotspots.

A larger map can be found here.

The location and the intensity of the two hotspots are probably expected. One is located somewhere around New England while another concentrated around the Benelux. However, I was surprised to see the size of China’s hotspots.

I know that China has been growing rather fast and has a somewhat questionable environmental record. Yet, I have never thought the pollution in China to be that bad. Though it might be premature to say the distribution of nitrogen dioxide represents the pollution spread on the whole, I do think it is safe to assume such distribution gives a picture of what is happening. After all, nitrogen dioxide is rarely produced in nature.

Another location that I didn’t expect is South Africa. But that is rather because I don’t know much about Africa. But I wonder, what is that big light blue blob near the Gulf of Guinea? What could possibly going on there?

Maybe oil, I think. I don’t know.

Categories
Environment Science & technology

[423] Of glaciers in Tibet

For the past few weeks, there has been an alarming rate of news related to the environment, in particular the melting of glaciers, coming out of China. When I first saw it via my usual news feed, I had thought it was just another report but almost everyday since then, the news from there doesn’t seem to give it a break. As right now, it keeps pouring out.

The report came out after a Sino-US team released the result of their observation of the situation in Himalaya near Tibet. The most important finding is that the glaciers there are shrinking at 7% per year and it is expected to disappear within 100 years. Previously, the glaciers have been shrinking at 5%. Seeing the first derivative as increasing is one thing, seeing the second derivative as increasing is another.

This immediately announces the danger of China facing great floods sooner or later, frequently, as mentioned in the report. China so far has been able to tame its rivers through a set of dams. However, I don’t think the dams will be able to control the rivers with the glaciers receding at the current rate.

Despite being concern with this news, I don’t know how bad 7% is. As someone once said to me, one cannot fully understand the statistics until one sees the real thing. But, I once saw a picture of a glacier in South America; it was probably in the Andes. There was a team of explorers wandering off somewhere and the place was full of ice. It was a huge glacier. Ten years later, the same team visited the very same site again and found that the place has been relinquished of its white background. The glacier has in fact receded a few kilometers away upward. If that is how bad 7% is, it is alarming.

Categories
Future Science & technology

[401] Of 640K ought to be enough for anybody

I bought a Seagate 160 Gigabytes Barracuda ATA 7200 RPM hard drive for $116 yesterday. The original price was $150 but an instance rebate brought the price down tremendously. The end price should hover around $60 after a mail in rebate that I plan to send out later this week.

160GB for $60 is a bargain I tell you. That is about 60% discount and price per space ratio is less than 30 cent per gig. Usually, the ratio would be more than a dollar per gig.

Despite the excitement of finding a great bargain with a help of a friend, I think I will encounter a possible problem.

On the manual, it says somewhere that my BIOS and OS need to support 48-bit addressing if I want to use more than 137GB. After spending some time on the net researching, I found out that it is related to Bill Gates’ infamous “640K ought to be enough for anybody”.

640K. Yeah. Right.

Anyway, what I do know is that this addressing stuff seems to put a limit on the volume of space that can be made available to the system regardless the physical size of the hard drive. I wonder why do that want to limit it anyway?

I am not sure whether my current system supports 48-bit or 24-bit addressing and I have no idea how to find it out. I honestly however, have not really made a thorough search on the internet about this addressing stuff. Any l33+ out there? Help this poor n00b out will ya?

But man, I did not even use all of my old 40 GB hard drive and now, with this new 160 GB hard drive, I don’t know what I want to do.

200 GB definately sounds like great way to piss RIAA. 200 gigs dude. 200 gigs. Dude, this is better picking my nose, that’s for sure.

Maybe I should start uploading part of myself into my hard drive. Yeah, I’ll do just that!

Categories
Economics Science & technology Sports

[398] Of update in Enschede

Ajax has just beaten Twente three to two and is currently placed third in the Eredivisie standing. PSV earlier won five against two against Roosendaal and Feyenoord won six to one against De Graafschap.

Ajax managed to take a 2 – 0 lead by halftime. The first goal was scored by Tom de Mul, a rising star in Ajax that was promoted from the youth team earlier this season. Ten minutes later, van der Vaart made it 2 – 0.

In the second half, on the 46th minute, Ibrahimovic scored Ajax’s third goal. But Twente almost managed to catch up with Ajax. Two of their players, Karim Touzani and Blaise N’Kufo scored a goal each. Thank goodness their third goal never came.

Though I am a bit disappointed by Ajax’s low number of goals compared to the other big three teams, I must say I am relieve to see Ajax won.

On other update, Ajax has taken two Argentinian youths on loan with an option to buy them after the loan period ends. I heard that the two Argentinians are exciting.

From the inside, some youth team members have been promoted to the first team. One of course is Tom de Mul of whom scored for Ajax. The other is Daniel de Ridder, said to be the next big thing in Ajax. But we will see. There is still a lot of time for de Ridder.

On the goalie position, the younger Stekelenburg has finally replaced Lobont. Stekelenburg has also been selected into the Dutch national team as the first keeper. The national team is currently under Marco van Basten, an Ajax and a world football legend.

Cronyism eh?

Across the channel in London, Chelsea has just beaten the Red Devils, courtesy of Gudjohnsen’s goal. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

Soccernet has this to say:

Mourinho seemed relaxed enough to lounge on the Chelsea bench, with his feet up and a wide grin on his face, an expression matched by his boss, Roman Abramovich, in the directors’ box.

I trust, many of us are still grinning. I know I am.

p/s – Holy crap! Somebody is aunctioning B$1 trillion on EBay, currently priced at $46! 46 bucks! Damn! This is getting out of hand.