9:13am - Howdy. Here's a sweet article on MSNBC about
the latest space shuttle Discovery launch. This time the shuttle
was carrying the most important piece so far for space station
Alpha. It's called the the Destiny module, and here's a clip of
what they're hoping to accomplish with it:
"The Destiny module represents the first major step
toward the type of experimentation that NASA hopes will yield new
commercial developments, breakthroughs in life sciences and, most
important to the space agency, make interplanetary travel possible."
Sweet shit! INTERPLANETARY TRAVEL! Hell yeah. You
know I'm lovin' that kinda news. :) Anyway, click
moi for the rest of the article.
FaceTrac
Here's
something that's pretty intriguing that I forgot to mention
before. Did you know that at this years Superbowl they had
special cameras at all of the gates on the stadium scanning everyone's
faces as they walked in? Yup yup. The cameras would take a
high-resolution picture and then compare it to an FBI database of
wanted terrorists, etc. This is the kind of technology that is
going to make it possible to track people wherever they go.
Certain cities in Europe have installed camera systems that cover most
of the city, mainly to prevent crime. People won't mug someone
when there's a camera sitting there watching them. I'm sure
they're doing the same thing with those cameras as well, trying to
track down wanted criminals and schtuff like that.
Anyway, here's a
really good article about "face scanning" technology that
everyone should read.
Last night my sister stopped over to get a CD burned. Napster
is still up & running, but pretty soon they're going to try and
make their service a subscription-based deal. Pay them $10-15 a
month and you get to use it. I guess that's not a terrible
amount, but I'd still rather pay $.15-25 cents PER SONG DIRECTLY TO
THE ARTIST. Fuck the middlemen, they've been screwing the
artists and the consumers since the beginning. I think it's time
they took it in the butt. LOL
My newest download tool is called BearShare. It's a variant
of Gnutella, which is an unstoppable peer-to-peer file sharing
technology. You can download it from here.
Just like the rest, it's software interface is kinda sloppy, but once
you're used to it you'll be fine. Just play around with
it! :)
Here's a little technology rant for ya.
VOIP - Voice Over IP.
IP means Internet Protocol.
Right now
your home phones make their calls through a systems called POTS, which
stands for Plain Old Telephone System. Your voice is turned into
analog radio waves and transmitted through the POTS wiring system to
the other end of the call.
The VOIP technology works by breaking down the sound of your
voice in to little "packets". These packets get sent
through the Internet, each taking a different route if necessary, and
the all get put back together in the right order at the other end of
the line. This is how the Internet works, IP, Internet
Protocol. Lots of big businesses are converting their phone systems
(called a PBX) to use this VOIP technology. It has the
potential to save a lot of money because you don't need a new phone
line for each voice call. You just need a PHAT pipe to the
Internet and you're set.
Once broadband/high-speed Internet connections are standard from
homes & businesses, this stuff will replace the phones that we're
used to today. They'll still look the same, probably, but the
way they'll work will be much cooler. So you make a call to Joe,
and while you're talking you notice that Bob just came online, so you
conference him in and BAM! 3-way VOIP conversation.
Party is at Ralph's.
Another cool thing I think I mentioned in another entry was a pimp
cell phone trick. You get this base station and plug your cell
phone into it when you come home. Then, all of the phones in
your house make their calls through your cellular account. Now
that is tits 'n giggles. With those new unlimited local calling
planz, that could work out very nicely.
Gee, I've blabbled a lot today. I guess that's it for
now. I'm sure there's some work I should be doing.
LOL <-- not really
Peace in the middle east,
Jr.
