New Tricorder Technology

Apparently this little gizmo developed by R. Graham Cook and his research group at Purdue is getting a lot of play on the web right now because someone associated the word tricorder with the story. Seems kind of silly, since this project has been underway at least since 2005.

As it turns out, the technology is not all that new either. The device is essentially a portable mass spectrometer, technology that goes back to the 1930's. Fairly light ones were later made so NASA could send them on space missions.

The real innovation here is not on the mass spectrometer itself but the ionization technology. In order to analyze an unknown compound you need to ionize it somehow, then send it through the mass spectrometer. Normally this is done at a very low vacuum, which is what makes a typical mass-spec system so big (vacuum pumps are bulky and heavy). This little puppy achieves ionization without need for a low vacuum.

For this reason, the CNet article may have it backwards in their opening paragraph - it's the ionized particles that are typically used in any mass-spec process.

Egypt blogger jailed for 'insult'

An Egyptian blogger received a four year sentence recently for posting insults on his blog. He was given one year for insulting the President, and three more for insulting Islam. He called the President a 'dictator', can you believe that? And he had the nerve to smear the country's top Islamic institution, al-Azhar university, as "the university of terrorism".

Apparently he was correct on both counts. The university pressed the case and pushed the charges. What I find disturbing is that the President and Islam really take themselves that seriously. I can only wonder how many people in the U.S. would be doing hard time for their criticisms of President Bush. - Read the article

Don't do the crime if you can find the Wine

I'll let you draw your own conclusions from this graph, which I found to be more humorous than serious. This comes from the website Swivel.

There are only two ways to live your life... one is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle.
:: Albert Einstein

Empty Vessel

I met ayont the cairney
A lass wi' tousie hair
Singin' till a bairnie
That was nae langer there.

Wunds wi' warlds to swing
Dinna sing sae sweet.
The licht that bends owre a' thing
Is less ta'en up wi't.

:: Hugh MacDiarmid

ayont the cairney: beyond the little cairn
bairnie: baby
licht: light

What a man knows at fifty that he did not know at twenty is for the most part incommunicable.
:: Adlai Stevenson

A Good Soldier

A good soldier is never aggressive;
A good fighter is never angry.
The best way of conquering an enemy
Is to win him over by not antagonizing him.
The best way of employing a man
Is to serve under him.
This is called the virtue of non-striving!
This is called using the abilities of men!
This is called being wedded to Heaven as of old!

:: Tao Teh Ching

Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it.
:: George Santayana

Protable Apps Anyone?

What is a Portable App? It's an application that you can take with you. It runs on your USB, Compact Flash, or other portable memory technology.
Here are some of the applications available with Portable Apps Suite :

• Portable Firefox (web browser)
• Portable Thunderbird (email client)
• Portable OpenOffice.org (office suite)
• Portable AbiWord (word processor)
• Portable NVU (web editor)
• Portable Sunbird (calendar & task list)
• Portable FileZilla (FTP client)
• Portable Gaim (instant messenger)

Cool! My next question was - Why would I need them? This is why:

• Carry your web browser with all your favorite bookmarks
• Carry your calendar with all your appointments
• Carry your email client with all your contacts and settings
• Carry your instant messenger and your buddy list
• Carry your whole office suite along with your documents and presentations
• Carry your antivirus program and other computer utilities
• Carry all your important passwords and account information securely

There are additional benefits:

• Have your favorite websites handy to recommend to a friend or colleague
• Have your presentation AND the required software ready to go for that big meeting
• Have your password with you if you want to bank online while traveling
• Have utilities handy when visiting family or friends that are having PC problems

My Days as a Loafer

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.

:: Henry David Thoreau

Quote of the Day

"What is dangerous about this situation is not the fact of having a nuclear bomb. Having one or perhaps a second bomb a little later, well, that's not very dangerous."

— French President JACQUES CHIRAC saying a nuke-armed Iran posed no significant risk. He later retracted his comments

Anything too stupid to be said is sung.
:: Voltaire

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore

Like as the waves make toward the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
Nativity, once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd,
Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight,
And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth
And delves the parallels in beauty's brow,
Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth.
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:
 And yet to time in hope my verse shall stand,
 Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.

:: William Shakespeare