“Space….The Final Frontier”; Microsoft should have gotten permission or paid someone who owns Star Trek, to be able to use that tag line. With the release of the WorldWide Telescope(WWT), you will be able to explore the vast reaches of space. Using ground-based and space telescopes, the WorldWide telescope has been able to capture all kinds of different angles for viewing the cosmos.

Here is a couple of statements, about the mission of the WWT:

“To aggregate scientific data from major telescopes, observatories and institutions and make temporal and multi-spectral studies available through a single cohesive Internet–based portal.”

“To re-awaken the interest for science in the younger generations through astronomy and new technologies through the virtual observatory of the WWT. This also provides a wonderful base for teaching astronomy, scientific discovery, and computational science.”

The WorldWide Telescope In Action

Probably the most impressive stat is how much data all the observatory and research facilities contain. If you were too tally up all the files in the facilities you would have hundreds of terabytes of information, and according to Microsoft Research will soon be measured in Petabytes. What’s even more impressive than all the stats, is that it is all available to us, for free. The WWT has been able to tap into all these databases, and provide an internet portal for which we can physically view the telescope images.

I especially liked these two sentences from the WWT’s information page, “By connecting to the same source materials that scientists at NASA and Caltech are using for their research, WWT is a powerful “virtual observatory” for scientists, educators, and the public. Researching the sky as easy as viewing a Web site and accessible to everyone with an Internet connection.”

A cool feature of the WWT, is that you can take space tours using the software. Many guided tours have already been created, and with the WWT you will be able to view these tours. If you do your own research and learn the program well enough, you can actually create your own tours and upload them through the software (I’m kind of hoping for a William Shatner sponsored tour).

The only drawback of the WWT is the system requirements that it takes to run:
* PC with Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 2 gigahertz (GHz) or faster, recommended
* 1 gigabyte (GB) of RAM; 2 GB RAM recommended
* 3D accelerated card with 128 megabytes (MB) RAM; discrete graphics card with dedicated 256-MB VRAM recommended for higher performance
* 1 GB of available hard disk space; 10 GB recommended for off-line features and higher performance browsing
* XGA (1024 x 768) or higher resolution monitor
* Microsoft® XP SP2 (minimum), Windows® Vista® (recommended)
* Microsoft® DirectX® version 9.0c or later and .NET Framework 2.0 or later

Luckily my roommate has just put together a new computer. With something this cool, I’m sure he won’t mind me putting the WWT on there. So if you’re interested in taking a look at the WWT, you can download the free program, here.

Alcoholics around the country can rest easy, because you hold the key for fuel manufacturing. You might still be addicted to tequilla and life still might have you down, but at least you won’t have to pay $3.80/gallon for gas.

Efuel100, has released a home brew fuel making machine; the EFuel100 MicroFueler. With this machine, you mix sugar, and yeast, or leftover alcohol from the night before, hit the start button, and within a week you can have upwards of 70 gallons of fuel. Ethanol based fuel can work in any driveable vehicle and is completely safe.

You’ll Be The Talk Of The Neighborhood With The EFuel100 MicroFueler

The machine itself costs, $9,995, but according to Efuel100, you’ll get back tax credits upwards of $3,000. Their site recommends that you use their patented “mix” to use for fuel. I wasn’t able to find anywhere on the site that said if you could mix your own, but since it’s basically just sugar and yeast, it shouldn’t be too hard.

Alright, it’s time to do some math, since economic feasibility is the big factor here. According to Efuel100, it takes 10-14 lbs of sugar to create 1 gallon of ethanol. The second ingredient, which is the yeast; lets use Efuel100’s - EFuel100-EM, each pack of this should be used every 50 lbs of sugar used. So, let’s mix in 50 lbs of sugar, which as of now is about $0.12/lb; after calculating we have spent $6.00. Now let’s put in the EFuel100-EM which is according to their site is priced at $16 per package of 64, which is $0.25 per package. Ok so with the mixture, not including water bill costs or electric costs for running the machine is $6.25 for five gallons of fuel, which equates to $1.25/gal.

What I didn’t mention in my calculations, is that you can ferment discarded alcohol to produce your ethanol. It’s actually cheaper to do this way, which could end up saving you even more money. So, when you have your shindigs, be sure to save all the alcohol from the night before.

If I had the funds, you better believe I’d have an ethanol fuel pump in my front yard. I’d have the oil covered hat on, with the overalls, givin’ travellin’ folk wrong directions, and cuttin’ up with my friend Cooter for doing so. In all seriousness, it will interesting to see if these machines catch on. It’s kind of funny to think about the 1920’s during Prohibition, with all the moonshiners almost conducting the same process as the machine. But instead of doing it to get people drunk, we’re using it to fill up our cars for less money, while helping to protect the environment.

Whenever a company’s product is looking like it’s not being adopted by consumers, they like to remain optimistic. Kaz Hirai, the president of Sony Computer Entertainment is no exception, as he is staying positive about the future of the Playstation 3 (PS3). In an article by Darren Waters of BBC News, Hirai says that the PS3 is in it for the long haul.

After reading the article, I keep picturing the Tortoise and the Hare story. The problem is, in the last generation of consoles, the PS2 was the hare, and never really let the tortoise catch up. This go around, the roles have reversed as the Nintendo Wii, and the XBOX 360 are coming out hot, with the PS3 playing catch-up. Hirai is remaining optimistic though, and had this to say about the current-gen console race, “I am very confident that after the 10-year lifecycle we will have the install base that we are looking for and that is obviously to be in the leadership position.”

Hirai Is Confident About The Future Of The PS3

The 10-year life cycle is a very serious time scale for a console. The previous Playstation consoles each had a 5 year cycle, before the next system launched. I can definitely see this timeline occuring though. When DVDs hit back in the late 90’s, early 2000’s, the Playstation 2 offered the most cost-friendly solution for DVD-playback. With their decision to provide DVD-playback on top of playing games, at a price that was competitive with other DVD players, their sales skyrocketed. HD movies have had a lot rockier of a start, with most consumers not investing in HDTVs just yet, and even less wanting to adopt Blu-Ray. So if Sony is wanting to make a “marathon” with this generation of gaming consoles, then 10 years might be a good marker.

Like the weather, and politics, video game sales are a very un-predictable system to gauge. Not even 15 years ago, it would have been crazy to think that Nintendo wouldn’t be dominating the market at this point. After fast forwarding about 8 years, it was just as crazy to think that Sony wouldn’t be in total domination this go around for consoles. It will definitely take a couple of more years before a “winner” could be decided upon. Of course if you go by Hirai, it might even take a decade.

The world of virtual reality has been a hot topic in the past decade. With popular movies like The Matrix, and less popular ones like Johnny Mnemonic (somehow Keanu Reeves got starring roles in both), the idea of virtual worlds has now become a staple in our society. In a very interesting article, by Bryn Nelson, we get to see just how real life virtual reality is making huge strides in advancement.

The apex of true “virtual reality” is to fool someone into thinking something is real, when it isn’t. This idea, according Michael McGuigan, is closer to realization than people know. McGuigan is a scientist working at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and is researching virtual light. With his research, the possibilities of creating the effect of natural light is possible. With this virtual light technology, they are able to create real life looking replicas of an object. These images, in studies have been able to fool people into thinking it’s the actual thing.

Creating The Glass Of Milk In This Scene Of Shrek, Was One Of Hardest Parts To Create. According To Animation Experts.

In other research, being conducted by Henrik Wann Jensen, at the University of California at San Diego, they are trying to make more realistic animation. It’s easier to create a realistic image, but to recreate real life animation is much tougher. The big reason for the difficulty comes from computing power. Creating a real-to-life animation consumes a lot of computing power. This problem is being addressed by trying to create animations by using methods that cut computing cost. Ray tracing and photo mapping are the two methods in which realistic animation can be achieved. With ray tracing, you can see how a beam of light interacts with the environment it surrounds. With photon mapping, it handles the other spectrum of how an object looks when light isn’t interacting with it.

The next stage of creating a more virtual realistic world is emulating conversation. While there have been advancements in word recognition, the next stage is picking up other forms of communication that humans give off. Roddy Cowie, a professor of psychology, is trying to setup dialogue to a computer by means of voice tone, and facial expressions instead of words. Here is Cowie’s thoughts on Oprah, and how she’s a good subject for the study, “We noticed that chat show hosts like Oprah seemed to be very good at conversation that bypassed most of the linguistic complexities. They had a repertoire of phrases that kept people talking, and even raised the intensity of their conversation, without much reference to linguistic details”

The actual system that Cowie is developing is called, the Sensitive Artificial Listener (SAL). SAL, can pickup on some facial animations, and can even pick up on different tones of voice. All of these different components, all modeled after Oprah’s linguistics.

While it looks as though we are pretty far from “The Matrix”. It’s so interesting to see how with computing technology, we can create near duplicates of our surrounding environment. It would be interesting to see how Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, and Van Gogh would think of us now. Because with advancements in duplicating reality through computers, we are one step closer to the marriage of art and technology.

People who have a phobia of germs, maybe want to sit this one out. In a study by a consumer watch group, Which?, they discovered just how dirty keyboards can get. The results are pretty grotesque, and definitely makes one raise an eyebrow.

As I’m typing this article, there’s a chance I’m contracting germs that could lead to food poisoning. That’s right, before we thought food poisoning only came from fast food restaurants, but now our keyboards are getting in on the action. In one of Which?’s studies, 33 keyboards were tested. Four of the keyboards had a potential for health hazards, while one had five times the amount of germs as the office toilet seat.

One of the researchers thought about how a keyboard was, “a reflection of what is in your nose and in your gut”. One of the keyboards was found to be so dirty during the tests, that it was ordered to be quarantined. The keyboard had 150 times the amount of “safe levels” of bacteria, and had five times the amount of germs as the office toilet seat.

The are a couple of factors leading to dirty keyboards. The first is eating while hovering over your keyboard, the crumbs get caught inside the keyboard and can start developing bacteria. Another reason is not washing your hands after going to the bathroom, and keys can be a sponge for those germs.

There’s no telling what’s lurking inside this germ trap

Which?, gave a couple of useful hints in the office fight against dirty keyboards. First, you should give your keyboard a good shaking everyonce in awhile, and get the crumbs and dust out from under them. There are pressurized air cans you can use as well to give it a cleaning. Second, is to rub your keyboard down with alcohol wipes on a regular basis. After finding this out, I’m on my way to the store right now.