First created in 1967, the LED (light emitting diode) is a forward direction radiation emitting p-n junction semiconductor lamp. Although typically the light generated is within the visible spectrum, the radiation emitted can also be a non visible inferred light. Originally the LED was utilized as an indicator light for display panels on devices and machinery, and typically only in red. Next the light began to come in green, yellow, and orange.
Despite their efficiency and long lasting capabilities their intensity was only enough to be adequate for indoor use. It wasn’t until the 90’s that the industry finally began to see blue LEDs. Still the power ability was limited and although they became available in a wide variety of colors, and it wasn’t until relatively recent times that the white light LED was an widely accessible option. There have been many different methods created to get a white light LED, which has typically been done by manipulating the phosphorus or using multiple lights.
Now that the white LED lights are possible this has opened a door to the industry that has had potentially long lasting ramifications on our everyday living. With the new cost effective ways in which these bulbs can now be manufactured, combined with their durability and increasing intensity LEDs have already begun to replace traditional incandescent light bulbs in almost every part of our daily lives. You can now find replacement LED household light bulbs, recreational vehicle lighting, and combined with HID (high-intensity discharge), which is a new technology that gives off a very powerful and bright light, headlights.
The benefits to LED lights cannot be overstated. The compact florescent bulb, which was created as a viable alternative utilizes nearly a quarter less energy than the standard bulb, which over the course of its lifetime will consumer as much as 10 times the energy of its initial cost. As a base if you were to use a 20 watt bulb, which is just sufficient to read by, and compare it to what power would be necessary to produce the same amount of light with a cluster of LEDs, it would only take a comparable 1.2 watts. Additionally the lifespan of the basic household incandescent light bulb is 750 hours, and comparatively you can get a remarkable average life of 100,000 hours from a LED.
Because the LED does not require a filament they can be crafted to be solid, which enables them to be highly durable and useful in circumstances that would otherwise be impossible. Now you can see vehicles with single LED pods and lighting strips that illuminate them in magical and unusual ways. You can now find sleek looking motorcycles that give a futuristic glow as they speed past. With the invention of super bright LEDs, with their high efficiency and long lasting durability, the future looks bright for LED lighting.
Apple iPad uses a MicroSIM instead of normal SIM card. And many operators can just give you a normal SIM. So what’s the solution? How To Convert a SIM to a MicroSIM with a Meat Cleaver! article tells that you can do the conversion from normal SIM to MicroSIM with a chopping board, a meat cleaver and a pair of scissors – simple! There is a good series of pictures and description how to do the job.
Britain’s largest police force is operating covert surveillance technology that can masquerade as a mobile phone network. This allow authorities to intercept SMS messages and phone calls by secretly duping mobile phones within range into operating on a false network, where they can be subjected to “intelligent denial of service”. The surveillance system has been procured by the Metropolitan police from Leeds-based company Datong plc. The disclosure has caused concern among lawyers and privacy groups.
This is just one new way to do mobile phone surveillance. Mobile phone surveillance has been possible in many ways earlier. Mobile Surveillance – A Primer highlights some of the potential surveillance risks posed by the use of mobiles. It is the nature of mobile cellular systems that the network operator knows the approximate location of all phones currently on the network, as well as maintaining extensive call and messaging records. And all data and voice you send and receive goes through the operator systems.
Prosessori magazine has survived on the market for more than 30 years. The first processor released in 1979, at the same time when the first microprocessors were introduced in Finnish factories. I have been writing articles to Prosessori magazine for more than 10 years. The magazine has published a large number of articles written my me (almost 200 articles). I will be missing that magazine.
I just saw Slashdot posting mentioning Open Hardware Journal. Open Hardware Journal is a new open technical journal on designs for physical or electronic objects that are shared as if they were Open Source software. It’s an open journal under a Creative Commons license. You can download the magazine in pdf file format and redistribute it for free.
The first issue opens with words “There’s a lot of excellent Open Hardware that you might not have heard of”. It contains articles on many subjects. ‘Producing Lenses With 3D Printers’ explorers the techniques for producing optical quality lenses with 3D printers. Low-quality lenses are produced, and the causes of failure are discussed.
‘Teaching with Open Hardware Submarines’ tells about the MIT Sea Grant College Program that recognizes a need to encourage students of all ages to develop skills in marine science and ocean engineering. MIT Sea Grant transformed the basic outline of a PVC-pipe-based vehicle into a full-fledged build process, and began offering teacher trainings. The open, publicly available build instructions are central to the success of the program.
‘An Open Hardware Platform for USB Firmware Updates and General USB Development’ tells about project that provides the hardware design and software library to implement firmware upgrades and general USB access, as a serial port or a human interface device (HID). The solution, including the USB port, currently fits on a thumbnail-sized section of a PCB, and has component costs of about $4. It is currently in use in the Lightuino LED-driver circuit board and can also connect to the Arduino ICSP port, SPI, i2c, or GPIOs. It can therefore be used to “USB-enable” other simple hardware designs. This project is hosted on github at https://github.com/gandrewstone/toastedCypressUsb.
ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, is a punishing, secretly negotiated copyright treaty that could send ordinary people to jail for copyright infringement. ACTA would establish a new international legal framework that countries can join on a voluntary basis and would create its own governing body outside existing international institution. ACTA has been negotiated in secret during the past few years.
Sounds somewhat worrying to me. ACTA has several features that raise significant potential concerns for consumers’ privacy and civil liberties for innovation and the free flow of information on the Internet legitimate commerce. What is ACTA? document gives details on the agreement. The EU will soon vote on ACTA.
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has published “Speak out against ACTA“, stating that the ACTA threatens free software by creating a culture “in which the freedom that is required to produce free software is seen as dangerous and threatening rather than creative, innovative, and exciting.
ACTA has been negotiated in secret during the past few years. It seem that nobody can objectively tell us what ACTA is going to do. You should oppose it for this exact reason. What exactly it will do is so multi-faceted and so deeply buried in legal speak it requires a book or two to explain.
If you don’t like this you need to do something on that quick. The European Parliament will soon decide whether to give its consent to ACTA, or to reject it once and for all. Based on the information (maybe biased view) I have read I hope the result will be rejection.
Another worrying related thing is Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The bill expands the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. The bill would authorize the U.S. Department of Justice to seek court orders against websites in U.S. and outside U.S. jurisdiction accused of infringing on copyrights, or of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Proponents of the bill say it protects the intellectual property market. Opponents say it is censorship, that it will “break the internet”, cost jobs, and will threaten whistleblowing and other free speech.
