John Huntington’s Entertainment Technology Blog has an interesting posting Toshiba’s Very Cool “Space Chair”Ad. It consists mainly of two videos. The first video shows the cool Toshiba TV ad. The second video is the “Making of” video. It tells how the ad was made using several high definition cameras rigged to a big weather balloon that lifts the whole system to the sky.
xkcd webcomic has today a funny comic about difference between academia research and business. Check out that Academia vs. Business strip yourself on the comic web page (the comic strip picture is too big to fit to the layout of this blog so I could not add it nicely here).
Construction and Use of a Passive Ethernet Tap article provides straightforward instructions on how to construct and use a passive Ethernet tap. It allows you to monitor Ethernet traffic on with any hub or switch and any operating system. A passive Ethernet tap is useful when installing an intrusion detection system (IDS) sensor or when snooping Ethernet traffic. I have used this passive Ethernet Tap for successfully monitoring 10 Mbit/s and 100 Mbit/s Ethernet traffic.
This circuit is a widely used hack. It is a hack in a sense that it is not technically up to the specifications an Ethernet device should need, but it is simple and works pretty well in most cases. The simple construction method used in this circuit creates impedance mismatches to the communications line, which are not good for the communications. But because Ethernet is pretty robust technology this “not so good” system works well enough when we are not using the Ethernet up to it’s extreme limits. The Ethernet communications is designed to work up to 100 meters cable length when properly wired. When you use considerably shorter cables, there is more room for different kind of imperfections on the communications line, for example imperfections like this passive tap. When I have kept the main communications line cables less than 10 meters in length and the tap cables 2-3 meters long everything has worked well.
The Creepiest Thing You Can Do To a Building web page shows you very many pictures how adding a little bit of graffiti or other props to building air ducts can make them look very creepy. This page will give very good ideas for practical jokes.
Usenet Newsgroups have been great over the past almost twenty years for me. I am finding less and less good posting and always more and more spamming. I fear that we are witnessing the death-rattle of the terminally. The problem is not Usenet newsgroups. Thousands of them are thriving quite nicely today just as they have for decades. The problem is that people do not seem to use them as much as earlier and more spam coming to them.
I still find all the web-based forums to be too primitive. Too often the problems are both user interface and the content (too many forums and too few really good and active). No web-based forum holds a candle to real Usenet. If you only know Usenet through a web-based interface like Google Groups, then you don’t really know Usenet. All web-based forums are dramatically inferior to Usenet.
Likely many of us also use web-based forums for certain specialty topics, particularly forums that are chartered for the discussion of certain hardware and or software, etc. But the Usenet newsgroups continue to be orders of magnitude faster and more efficient than any web-based forum I have seen in 20 years.
Web-based forums are generally HORRID. I avoid them unless absolutely necessary. If you have never used a real Usenet newsreader client and a proper Usenet NNTP server, then you are in no position to judge what is happening to this or any other Usenet newsgroup.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
