This block wouldn’t be out of place anywhere in a home or hobby room and you could then make a nice self defence tool. Of course you could just batter an intruder with the basic puzzle.
Although I am convinced that the climate change crowd are the biggest bunch of scammers after the government I actually do believe we should be a bit more careful with the environment. We should recycle what is viable to do so, in fact I was recycling in the dumpsters that firms left in supermarket car parks for years before we were forced to recycle at home.
However, I’m not sure that I would be able to live in a house like this.
Its the EDGE, Experimental Dwelling for a Greener Environment. It looks good for a holiday home but I couldn’t imagine most people with the baggage we have being able to fit much in there. This is the biggest problem with these green solutions they make too many cuts and make the house 95% rather than making it 50% and more palatable to people.
Of course not everyone has a plot of land which you could build this on. Millions of us are living in flats on estates and there is simply not the space available to move even a fraction of these people into homes like this.
Instead of trying to win awards for how something looks and how environmentally friendly it is they should be designing flats to replace our existing flats and that would make a bigger difference in the long run. Plus the cost of flats in places like London would obsorb the extra costs in making them green. Flats in most major city cost significantly more than the cost of actually building them as most of the costs are in getting planning permission and the other costs of building in city spaces. If the government made it easier for green homes and they were designed properly then modules could be brought in to make it easier and thus reducing costs to the same as ordinary, non green, homes. We would slowly move to a more sustainable future. Same with houses out in the suburbs and the country. Design them and make them viable and comparable in costs with current houses and people will choose the lower running costs every time. Those that don’t won’t make that much of a difference.
In addition of we made all council houses minimalist with limited storage space then that would discourage people to stay there for life. Council homes should be for specifically targeted for family size with people moving for larger homes and there should always be some available for people moving from other areas and people who become homeless not as cheap housing for the better off.
Of course I think we should move underground but we still like to build them high. Architects, like all of us, want to be the best, the biggest, the one that stands out on the skyline. We need to chnge that mentality in some ways but not eradicate it as we do still want our wonderous constructions.
Password security is often overlooked. It usually requires access to the computer and so the average user doesn’t actually see that much of a problem with it. Even, *cough* highly trained Russian spies wrote down their encryption keys and left them lying around. Sure it means you won’t forget the passwords but it kind of defeats the object of having secured something. Kind of like putting a spare key up outside every door, just in case.
The reverse of the coin though is IT departments who over zealously define high security. A password that changes every week. Separate passwords for each system and all with different criteria, must have at least one alpha character, one number and another character, must be a minimum of eight characters and it must he made up of alpha and numeric characters that you have not used in the last thirty changes. By the time you find a password that works you have to right it down because you just can’t remember it and the half dozen others you need to remember.
At one of my previous places of work I had so many passwords and of such differing complexity that I had to generate a system to remember them. Some of the systems, such as the appraisal system I only used once a year so I never remembered the passwords for them. Every year I prepared the appraisals and then called the help desk, told them I’d forgotten the password. They would reset it and I would log in, do all the appraisals and then leave it again for another year. Same with as many semi-annual systems as I could. Even then I still had over a dozen passwords. Mail systems (various clients), VPN, Personnel DB, Resource DBs, SAP System, Ordering System, client networks and those stupid push button locks and card swipes. Its no wonder so many people write down their passwords.
Personally, I think that writing a complete password down is not a good idea. Even if you have twenty or more to remember. You need to have a system. Make up a key word ‘TEMP’ and then afix that to the beginning of all your passwords, recording only the remainder of the password on a piece of paper. So your password is ‘TEMPpassword’ and you simply record ‘drowssap’ which is ‘password’ in reverse. That way you meet the requirement of the system and when someone finds your sheet, if you are careless, none of the passwords work and as a bonus you can deny that they are passwords so you don’t get into trouble. They are simply reminders.
Passwords for encryption keys however need to be really long and complicated. Pick a book and use a sentence from a page in there. One you can find easy enough without having to write anything down. Anything at all. No reminders, no hints and nothing obvious.
I was quite interested when I read of the nanotechnology part but it doesn’t actually say what the nanotechnology is or even does. I wonder if it is just using a keyword to get in the headlines. The stem cells make sense because the treatment restores the arteries and creates new blood vessel growth but the real treatment is the laser to heat up and destroy the arterial plaque. The laser isn’t even mentioned in the title yet it probably does most of the work.
I had visions of an injection of nanotechnology and stem cells cleaning your arteries. Now it seems that it’s a visit to a clinic or somewhere and a, as Dr Evil would say, frikkin laser being fed into your arteries.
Of use when your major arteries are really furred up but no cigar for my vision of the future. Another disappointment.
When even a camera can give away your location without your knowledge then you need to ensure that you are checking everything you put on the web. It may seem to you that there is no facility to view the creation data attached to the photography that you post on your blog or web page but all someone has to do is download it to their PC and then right click to see what is hidden behind properties.
On most photographs there will be the camera make and model, the pixel size, the F stop and the date and time it uses. Some however record the GPS coordinates of where it was taken and several bits of personal data you have input on your camera. This can compromise your security by giving bad guys your name and location details and the next time you say on your blog you are going on your holiday of a lifetime the bad guys know when your house is empty and when you will be back.
If you want to go to an extreme that picture you made of the kids in the local park will make a nice marketing picture for pedophiles and an address where to find them.
At the very least you should edit the pictures before you update them and make sure that all the information fields are deleted. Tools are available for free on the web. Your privacy is your responsability and you would not want to be responsible if you brought a predator into your neighbourhood.
When I was younger and niave I could see the universe as one big, complicated to look at but simple construct. From the big explosion of the Big Bang through to the predicted Big Crunch I thought that it all was fairly predictable and consistant with our physical laws. Each massive layer was another Russian Doll. The Universe being the biggest of them all right down to the smallest atom, and perhaps even that leads to another level. All nice and logical and, well, kind of simple.
Then along came wormholes and a few other theoretical constructs that need a Phd in Physics to understand and my little simple construct is blown away. OK. It may be theoretically but the Universe is simple and life tends towards the simple anyway so although these things may be possible they are not likely.
So with this new theory our universe could be inside a black hole and as most galaxies in our universe have black holes inside them there could be an entire universe inside each one. In those universes there would be other galaxies with black holes and each could contain its own universe. If we are in a black hole now then the universe our black hole is in could have billions of galaxies like ours each with its own and if that one is also in a black hole. This is not as bad as the parallel universe theory as it actually still fits in with it being simple.
Regardless, it’s a lot of Russian Dolls and my brain is hurting again from thinking about it. What exactly is the Universe now. Will we ever really understand it? Now it opens up new realms for Physics and questions to keep Physicists employed for a long time to come.
With the introduction of miniature recording equipment that can record for later viewing almost anything and thus show third parties, such as a court, exactly what happened rather than taking the word of someone, usually someone with something to hide, we actually were able to prove and disprove very quickly what the truth was. CCTV abounded and traffic cameras and speed cameras sprouted like weeds as our government picked the low hanging fruit and raised millions of pounds in fines while the slightly higher fruit, such as robbery and burglary being less profitable, is ignored.
Then things started to go wrong. Cameras were so cheap that they were being used by members of the public to turn the tables on criminals and our masters (but I repeat myself) and record their indiscretions. Putting pressure on our laughable justice system and making them look bad. Now of course concerns are raised about controlling the use of recording devices for the protection of the guilty.
Hospitals are concerned that recording made during a scan could record their incompetence and there could be legal complications if an abnormality is recorded by the scan, but not reported or acted upon by the sonographer. Basically, its fine for them to make a mistake as long as they can claim it was unavoidable.
Not that having video evidence makes much difference to be honest. Look at the latest with the G20 footage. A clear crime and they waited so long so they couldn’t prosecute. Look at the CCTV images that disappeared after Jean Charles do Menendez was murdered by the Met’s finest. They certainly don’t like this side of the sword.
Personally, I’m of the mind that we need a lot more monitoring. Not the sort where someone monitors us but monitoring controlled by the individual. One where a miniature camera and microphone record everything you see and say and where you can download that recording onto DVD as required and it is not illegal to withhold access to the recording. You can delete it at will. This miniature kit would be installed into your body and you would have control over deletion, download and archiving.
Think about how that would go in a criminal issue. Someone accuses you of rape. They should be able to show that recording to the jury. You can then show your side in your defence. Or not. Let the court make their decisions on the facts available. Not showing is not held against you.
In the event of your death the system could release the last few hours recording to your solicitor, or something, so that your demise can be investigated. Obviously the method for doing this would have to be set up previously.
This would be a massive step forward for justice. For one thing all those Plod who attack first and claim the, sometimes dead, victim started it would be quickly identified. That should stop some innocents going to jail after being set up by Plod or circumstance.
Getting Plod prosecuted though. You have a barely recognisable video of a guy kicking Plod and the fact that the defendant was in the area is enough to convict. You get Plod visibly beating up someone but the CPS found no evidence. Now there is a different problem and modern technology will not help much with it.
I like shopping on-line, it means I can get most of what I need without having to face women with three kids and a badly steered shopping trolley with wobbly wheels. Many of us feel the same way and we do a lot of our shopping on-line now as most items are readily available there now. The main exception of course is clothes which we have to worry about fit and looks. Less so when you are boring and unfashionable like I am so I can buy many of mine on-line anyway.
It seems that someone out there has seen an opportunity here to market a tailors dummy that can adapt to your bodies measurments and then ‘try on’ clothes so you can see what they look like on your body shape.
The dummy, marketed as Fits.me, contains a ‘robot’ that can be adjusted 100,000 different body shapes and sizes. It can grow petite, or muscular. It can create a virtual copy of pretty much every man’s body. Simply feed in your measurements and then choose what you want to model. Considering it is for men only it sounds a lot more sophisticated than I thought it would be. I guess that this means that men will have no reason to ever again visit the shops for anything but new gadgets in Dixon’s or Game.
There is currently only a mens version available as apparently, womens bodies are a lot more complicated and it seems you cannot just add boobies of different sizes but there will be a womens version available soon. Personally, I would think women would like to see exactly what they look like so I would think it would be used for viewing while they went in and bought.
Now I would have thought that as graphics have improved so much we would have been able to do without the complicated robot and actually rendered the pictures in real time. Seems an awful lot of engineering to what is in reality a visual programme and it would be a lot easier too.
Anyway, this should remove the need for men to go shopping over the busy weekends at the very least. More time for whatever your interests are and less getting your heels run into by buggies and pushed aside prams. Isn’t technology wonderful.
I’m not clear on the procedure used for a breast biopsy but I’ve just had the process for prostate biopsy explained to me and I think I’d have to have a general anaesthetic to have one. Now it appears that both these procedures are simple enough so that a robot can do them without human intervention. Finally, we are starting to utilise the benefits of computers as an aid to speed up diagnosis and healing of our bodies. I’m sure that there are dozens of other procedures that are simpler that could be performed by a little robot.
Only problem is that I can see is who will want to be seen by a cold metal tub with some odd arms with very wicked looking tools on the ends when you can have your body invaded by a nice lady doctor. Sure, it could take your blood and analyse it in a few minutes inside its body or perform a biopsy and feed the results back to the doctor in the same day but can it look at you with doe eyes and a bit of mischievous sympathy as it sticks a very large digit up your bottom?
Soon the Doctors surgeries will be full of these performing blood tests, urine samples and, for special models, semen samples. (Might bring my own for that one) They should enable Doctors to be much more productive and make diagnosis much easier and faster. If they can perform other simple surgeries well, and I don’t see why they couldn’t, it would also save time for hospital visits as they could have minor surgeries at the Doctors Practise. Save a trip to the hospital with all the associated stress and expense.
I hope they get these in and out to trial quickly. Initially with human intervention and checking and quickly over to full automation.
I would think though that it will take some time before people are willing to let a machine do what a Doctor has done up to now. I’m a techie but I’m not sure I would like it straight away, certainly for some tests and diagnosis although my Doctor isn’t anything like Dr Shipman so I’m a bit bias.
The Judas Gene was a book I read where the bio weapon was triggered by genes that were only found in Jews. Al that time the Jews were the boogie men but times have changed and …. Err…. OK. Forget that.
Anyway this team have developed nanoparticles that attack certain genes in mosquitos, and other bugs, and stop them producing chitin. This means that the larval mosquitos do not mature into fully grown mosquitos and without their chitin armour are vulnerable to anti bug chemicals and predators. Simply spread over the water that the larvae are developing in and the job is done.
Of course there are issues with this. Other bugs that produce chitin will be impacted and this could lead to that species being aradicated from that area as well. Although its more likely the mosquitos will be the only creatures left. Life is like that with weeds and annoying bugs. You simply touch a valued flower and it dies instantly and will never be seen again but weeds you have to dig out and salt the earth before you can slow it down for a few days. I also wonder how long it last? How far can it spread in that time? How can it be turned off if it goes off target or is deployed in an accidental discharge off target? I forsee a difficult time getting approval for this but when it does it should be a replacement for DDT. It could save millions. If it can answer some basic questions and it gets approval from all the whingey whiney liberals.
I’m still waiting for my little robot nanobots that can fly. They can wait until they see a mosquito or a mosquito larvae, positivly identify them as mosquitos and then laser them or squish them or something. That will save any collateral damage and we can set a life, control their deployment and even set them on loiter mode to pick up stragglers. Much much better.
A puzzle to kill with
Amazing puzzle.
This block wouldn’t be out of place anywhere in a home or hobby room and you could then make a nice self defence tool. Of course you could just batter an intruder with the basic puzzle.
I’m waiting for the automatic version.