November 4th, 2009
The International Space Station (ISS) isn’t just an orbiting laboratory, spaceship testing-ground and multinational geek-fest — it’s also the world’s highest (250 miles) and fastest (17,500mph) computer network. Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS) allow constant radio communications in the S- and Ku-band, while UHF signals are used to talk with the Space Shuttle and crew members on spacewalks. There’s also a single IP phone for cheap interstellar calls and ‘limited’ webcam video-conferencing abilities. There is significantly large network on board the Station, comprising 68 IBM ThinkPad A31 laptops and 32 Lenovo ThinkPad T61p devices. Space Station IT: High technology article tells about the IT technology used on board. Interview: The Space Station’s IT guys interviews Tyson Tucker and Joey Crawford, the NASA flight controllers responsible for maintaining uptime in mankind’s first permanent space colony. I saw those interesting articles first mentioned at Slashdot.
Posted in Computers, Telecom and Networking | 1 Comment »
November 2nd, 2009
cnet News article The tech behind U2’s record-smashing tour tells about the technology used in U2’s 360 tour. It has been called the biggest rock tour in history, at least as measured by the size and cost of its infrastructure–more than $750,000 per show, according to Rolling Stone. The center of the show is a custon made 360-degree stage, which allowed huge numbers of fans to watch the show from all the directions. The 360-degree stage features a 90-foot-tall steel structure, topped by a center pylon reaching 150 feet in the air; the innovative 360 degrees video screen atop the stage. The video screen, according to information provided by the band’s publicists, is “broken into segments mounted on a multiple pantograph system, which enables the screen to ‘open up’ or spread apart vertically as an effect during different stages of the concerts.” The screen itself is comprised of more than a million pieces, including components to illuminate 500,000 pixels, as well as 320,000 fasteners, 30,000 cables and 150,000 machined pieces. The show employs a large number of computers and electric motors to control the motion of the screen, and there are large numbers of computer-controlled moving lights.
Posted in Entertainment Technology | 1 Comment »
October 30th, 2009
Dive into HTML5: What Does It All Mean is a good overview to new HTML5 techologies and how to use them already today for making normal web pages. I saw this article mentioned at Kenneth Falck’s Blog.
Posted in WWW dev | 1 Comment »
October 27th, 2009
Advances in data center technology and Internet usage have pushed enterprises to 10 Gigabit Ethernet (Gbps) links. Services like search engines, carriers, ISPs need even higher speeds. Lacking alternatives to 10-Gbps connections, carriers and enterprises have resorted to using multiple 10 Gbps connection (expensive solution).
Projected Internet traffic growth mandates the need for higher speed Ethernet (HSE) connections sooner or later. The amount of backbone Internet bandwidth maintained by major Internet carriers has been expanding at 75 to125% per year. While 10 Gbps appears to be sufficient for most data centers today, 40 Gbps is expected to meet data center needs through 2014. 100 Gbps rate has been identified as the next high-speed network operator interface.
An IEEE Task Force has been established with the objective of standardizing 40 Gbps within the data center and 100 Gbps between major Internet nodes. Ensuring the success of High Speed Ethernet (HSE) tells you more about those new 100 GbE and 40 GbE Ethernet technologies around the corner.
Posted in Telecom and Networking | 3 Comments »
October 26th, 2009
What would happen if they’ve turned off the Internet. After the riots have settled down and the withdrawal symptoms have faded, how would you cope? Cracked.com asked you to Photoshop what life would be like in an Internet-addicted society learning to cope without it. The World of Tomorrow (If The Internet Disappeared Today) picture collection shows you the best 20 pictures.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
October 19th, 2009
Some users believe that Windows is the best netbook OS. You might have read countless Microsoft-funded “studies” trying to persuade that Windows is already dominating the netbook space.
Linux is not going anywhere but up in the netbook market. 10 reasons Linux should be your netbook operating system article lists reasons why Linux is a much better fit for netbooks than Windows.
Posted in Computers, Telecom and Networking | 3 Comments »
October 15th, 2009
Starting next July 2010, every person in Finland will have the right to a one-megabit broadband connection. Finland’s Ministry of Transport and Communications has made 1-megabit broadband Web access a legal right, YLE, the country’s national broadcasting company, reported on Wednesday.The government had already decided to make a 100 Mb broadband connection a legal right by the end of 2015. According to the Helsinki Times when it reported the 100Mb target last year, the Finnish government said that no household “would be farther than 2 kilometers from a connection capable of delivering broadband Internet with a capacity of at least 100 megabits of data a second). Some variation will be allowed, if connectivity to some remote locations can only be arranged through mobile phone networks.
Finland is the world’s first country to create laws guaranteeing broadband access. Earlier this year France has made Internet access a human right.
I live and write this blog in Finland. Finland is the home country for me, Nokia and ePanorama.net web site.
Posted in Telecom and Networking | 5 Comments »
October 9th, 2009
Prosessori magazine reports that traditional CRT display technology is dying much sooner than expected earlier. The sales of CRT based displays has practically ended in Western Europe, Japan and North America. And the sales of traditional CRT based TVs is also dropping very quickly on developing markets as well. According to Displaysearch research center people in China do not want anymore to buy old fashioned TVs with picture tubes. The change to flat screen displays is so quick, that the manufacturers of LCD TVs have hard time to produce as markets need. It is expected that 130 million LCD displays will be sold this year. And the prices will continue dropping.
Posted in Audio and Video | No Comments »
October 8th, 2009
Use right ground symbol in your electronics schematics and other drawings.
Earth-ground symbol represents a real connection to earth. That connection could be for example 10-foot-high copper-clad steel bar driven into the earth (at your premises or nearby provided by power company) or metal water lines. That earth ground is wired to the neutral of your house wiring at the breaker panel. You can reasonably use the earth-ground symbol for the ground pin on the electrical outlet. Your electronics equipment schematic should use the earth-ground symbol to indicate connection to the electrical outlet ground pin on equipment plugged to wall outlet.
It is bad practice to use earth-ground symbols for chassis common. You an use the chassis common wherever a power supply or circuit card connects to the chassis. In a circuit board schematic you can use chassis symbol when a standoff screws the PCB to the chassis.
Signal-ground symbols are most suitable for most circuitry on a PCB. A design can have several of these symbols, with notations to identify them.
Information source: EDN magazine article Draw the line: Isolation shields systems from shocking surprises
Posted in Electronics Design, Groundloop | 2 Comments »
