Category Archives: Tech

Turning Japanese

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I can look at you from inside as well

Taking Apart the Fuji X100

If you go on a fishing trip called ‘Hit em’ Hard’ and the captain tells you that you should take your bag off and put it in the ‘dry container’, what he really means by ‘dry container’ is a place that will fill up with seawater after he accidently clogs the drainage pipe, soaking you and your friends cameras, bags, wallets and cellphones for over an hour in salty seawater.

Better yet, just never go on a fishing charter with a name like ‘Hit em’ Hard.’

Needless to say, the next step of taking the camera apart was obvious.

Gettin' Social With It

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Went to share a link on twitter, and the “share this” popup on the web page didn’t include it. So I clicked on the “more” button.

I had no idea. I’ve never heard of most of these.

The Essential Parts are Not Too Complicated, and the Principle is Easily Explained

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You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

A film produced by the NPL Film Unit in the 1950s explaining the principles behind the first accurate atomic clock, designed by Louis Essen and built at the National Physical Laboratory in 1955.

I notice they were talking about achieving good vacuum while showing someone handling a vacuum component with their bare hands, which you wouldn’t normally do — fingerprints outgas. But it was the oven, so all of that junk gets baked off pretty quickly.

The mention a performance of a ten-thousandth of a million, or a part in 10^10. Clocks/frequency standards in use today (i.e. part of time scales, reporting their values) do ~100,000 times better, and experimental ones do even better than that, albeit for relatively short durations.

That device, which is a “physics package” (all the fun stuff) plus 6 equipment racks, now fits into about 6″ of space in a single equipment rack … and the devices are orders of magnitude better.

via BoingBoing

Nobody Saw This Coming

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How the Blind Are Reinventing the iPhone

For the visually impaired community, the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 seemed at first like a disaster — the standard-bearer of a new generation of smartphones was based on touch screens that had no physical differentiation. It was a flat piece of glass. But soon enough, word started to spread: The iPhone came with a built-in accessibility feature. Still, members of the community were hesitant.

But no more. For its fans and advocates in the visually-impaired community, the iPhone has turned out to be one of the most revolutionary developments since the invention of Braille. That the iPhone and its world of apps have transformed the lives of its visually impaired users may seem counter-intuitive — but their impact is striking.

I Think That Should be Thick Air

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Wind turbine creates water from thin air

All air trapped during this procedure is then directed through an electric cooling compressor situated behind the propellers. This contraption extracts humidity from the air, creating moisture which is condensed and collected.
…
One turbine can produce up to 1,000 liters of water every day, depending on the level of humidity, temperature and wind speeds, says Janin

Still pricey, however.

Are Forts Your Forte?

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And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, Again

“We also get to talk about tension and compression,” he said, though he avoids technical terms. “We talk about pushing and pulling.”

His big innovation is using blankets to wrap two large cushions so that they create a large wall panel that can stand on its edge. In fact, he creates several such panels. Then he uses another blanket or sheet to attach adjoining panels, in effect connecting the walls of the fort.

Flipping Out

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Flying object propels itself by flipping inside out

The design is based on the inverted cube shape discovered by inventor and mathematician Paul Schatz. By dissecting a cube into three parts, two star-shaped units can be produced at either end with an invertible belt in the middle section which is the same shape as the flying band. The system reproduces the entire structure: it opens to release the band while the ends remain on the ground as a docking station.

The video seems odd, though — it looks like they speed it up in spots, making it more difficult to tell what’s actually going on.

Don't Take a Slice of My Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai

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Canada’s New Quarters Will Have Glow-in-the-Dark Dinosaurs on Them

Each of the quarters, which will retail for $29.99, will feature an image of a Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai, a dinosaur discovered in Alberta. But take it into the closet under the stairs or wherever your favored glow-in-the-dark viewing site is, and the creature’s skeleton glows.

But hey, we have presidential dollars that you can buy for $2. And they’re invisible. You don’t see any in circulation, do you?