December 20, 2007
Christmas Trees Unsafe - Faith Inconvenient
(Tim Jones)
Hey, Tim Jones here again. This is from my blog Old World Swine;
I link THIS STORY (Reuters) - about the removal of Christmas trees due to the risk of fire - only because it reminded me of an incident that took place when I was a newly minted Catholic and Parish Council member.
During one council meeting I noted that some parishioners had asked me to ask if we couldn't have some votive candles in the church. The priest made some remarks about the fire hazard, and said he wasn't sure about insurance and liability, and stuff. He suggested electric candles. The meeting moved on, as I silently resolved not to press the issue lest we actually wind up with prayer candles that turned on and off and reminded me of a tacky chandelier at my aunt's house.
Father then read a letter from our Bishop, directing all parishes to begin working toward perpetual Eucharistic Adoration as soon as possible.
If there is a word the opposite of "enthusiasm", it was written all over our priest's face. Once again, he noted all the problems that would have to be overcome... security, scheduling... well, that was about it, but the upshot was that it was going to be a pain in the tush and the Bishop's letter was going to be ignored. That was it.
I must have made some sort of grunt of perplexitude, because I remember Father explaining to me again what a gigantic logistical headache perpetual Adoration would be, and ending with the clincher that "This parish is just not that devotionally-minded".
Had I been older, and a more grizzled and seasoned Catholic, I might have asked the question that popped into my head, "...and you are okay with that? As the spiritual father of the parish, the complete lack of interest in classic Catholic devotions doesn't bother you just a teensy bit?". I guess I didn't ask because I knew the answer.
This also got me to thinking about another question that has bothered me from time to time, about why we don't hear from the ambo more encouragement for Catholics to make use of the sacrament of Confession. It seems like it is always scheduled at dawn-thirty on Saturday mornings, and I can count on one hand the number of times I have heard even the mildest endorsement of it in a homily. Forgive me if I have entertained the idea that some priests might not push Confession because they really don't want to make more work for themselves.
It must be a dreary job, in a sense, listening to the same old sins week in and week out, and some that must grieve any sensible person. There is no one else in the parish who can do it. My Dad was a cop for a number of years, and I think the constant exposure to the underbelly of the human family took its toll on him over the years, though he never talked about it. Cops are basically the guys who follow after the parade with a shovel.
I would like to have some input from priests or others who might be able to answer the question. Are some priests, perhaps, partly motivated to keep mum on the dearth of confessing Catholics by a desire not to further clutter their already busy schedules? Just asking.
Posted by Tim Jones in Sacraments, Technology | Permalink | Comments (71)
September 25, 2007
iTunes, You Just Got Some Serious Competition
(Jimmy Akin)
Amazon.com has just launched its new mp3 download service, which offers DRM-free music for download.
EXCERPTS:
Web retailer Amazon.com Inc. launched its much-anticipated digital music store Tuesday with nearly 2.3 million songs, none of them protected against copying.
The store, Amazon MP3, lets shoppers buy and download individual songs or entire albums. The tracks can be copied to multiple computers, burned onto CDs and played on most types of PCs and portable devices, including Apple Inc.'s iPod and Microsoft Corp.'s Zune.
Songs cost 89 cents to 99 cents each and albums sell for $5.99 to $9.99.
Major music labels Universal Music Group and EMI Music have signed on to sell their tracks on Amazon, as have thousands of independent labels. The company said several smaller labels are selling their music without copy protection for the first time on the Amazon store, including Rounder Records and Trojan Records.
The thing that is different about this venture, compared to other similar ones, is that Amazon has the corporate muscle ot give iTunes a run for its money--or rather, a run for our money. Even if it doesn't have as big a catalog as iTunes right now, it more than its competitors has the potential to get there and even surpass the selection on iTunes.
So naturally Amazon's stock went up.
Shares of Amazon rose 89 cents to $93.48 Tuesday.
In other words, the price of a song.
This is, of course, good news for all of us, as it is likely to lead to lead to more DRM-free media in the future.
Now they just need to let me put mp3 songs and albums with previews in my aStore.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Technology | Permalink | Comments (18)
September 21, 2007
One More Step into the Future of TV
(Jimmy Akin)
NBC to begin free downloads of programs.
As you'd expect for this kind of thing, there are commercials that can't be easily skipped and (somewhat less expectedly) the files expire after a week.
Nevertheless, the industry continues to experiment with online delivery.
Paid, non-commercial, non-expiring is where it's at as far as I'm concerned, but I understand free and commercial as one avenue to be explored.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Technology | Permalink | Comments (16)
September 04, 2007
iPhone Adventures #Somethingorother
(Jimmy Akin)
So how cool is this?
Saturday night I'm on my way to square dancing, but I'm going to a place I don't normally go, and I'm having trouble finding it.
Turns out I want to be at the United Methodist church hall in La Mesa, but I'm headed toward the United Methodist church in Lemon Grove. (Easy to get confused. You just turn left on Spring Street instead of right.)
But I don't know that at the time!
So I get there and I realize I'm at the wrong place. It's all dark. So I pull over and pull out my iPhone and start Googling where I'm supposed to be.
I find a web page for the (round dance) club that normally dances at the Lemon Grove church, and it has a contact name and phone number for a member of the club.
NOW HERE COMES THE COOL PART!
I notice that the contact person's phone number is hyperlinked in the browser window, so I tap the hyperlink to see what happens (tapping is the equivalent of clicking a hyperlink on the iPhone's touchscreen).
A dialog box pops up and asks me if I want to call the number I just tapped.
I tap "Yes" (or whatever), and a couple of seconds later I'm talking to a member of the Lemon Grove club, who explains where I really want to be, and I'm on my way. (Back to Spring Street; turn right this time.)
So how cool is that?
The phone number was not specially coded with html. It was the phone that recognized it as a phone number on a web page and gave me corresponding tap-to-call functionality.
WOO-HOO!
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Technology | Permalink | Comments (18)
July 16, 2007
An Itch For Information (A Cure For The Curious)
(Jimmy Akin)
Things change when you have a live Internet connection in your pocket.
Most smart phones access a crippled version of the Internet, but the iPhone accesses the real deal--and it changes things when you've got an Internet connection as close as your cell phone.
I began to experience this the first night I had my iPhone. I had done a blog post from the phone itself and then gone square dancing, and at a couple of points in the evening we were between tips (a tip is a pair of square dance songs--usually one done as a patter call and one as a singing call) and I didn't happen to be talking to anybody at the moment and I thought, "I'll check the blog and see if anybody has commented," so I did.
I haven't done that since, but I have used the phone to clean up nasty comment spam when I wasn't at my laptop.
Yesterday I was in church and a spot on my back started itching, and I thought, "I bet Wikipedia has an article on itching and what function it plays for us. I mean, I know it involves the chemical histamine--and for some time I've wanted to know what useful function histamine plays, anyway, since I'm always having to take anti-histamines for allergies and such. What good is histamine anyway?" But, well, I was at Mass, and I didn't want to pull up Wikipedia and start reading it during Mass, so I didn't.
Afterwards I went to Wal-Mart to get some keys duplicated, and then I had to stand in the ultra-long Sunday afternoon line to check out, and I thought, "Hey! It wouldn't be sacreligious to check Wikipedia here, while I'm killing time in an otherwise boring checkout line!" So I pulled out the iPhone and spent the rest of my time in line reading about itching and what it does for us (encourages us to scratch off parasites that might be clinging to us).
Then while square dancing on Sunday night my partner liked one particular song and wanted to know who did it (the song "I'm Gonna Be [500 Miles]), so I looked it up on the Internet to see who did it (the Proclaimers).
So . . . it's just kinda different when you've got a live Internet connection in your pocket.
BTW, I've got requests from folks to give periodic updates on what the iPhone is like, so that's what this is.
Oh, and . . .
HERE'S THE ARTICLE ON ITCHING THAT I WAS READING.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Technology | Permalink | Comments (58)
July 10, 2007
New Phone
(Jimmy Akin)
I've been needing a new phone for a while. My old phone had been dying on me for some time and behaving more and more erratically. I've spent the last few months trying to just get by until my renewal date came up and also a couple of new phone models that I was interested in came out.
Last time when I bought a phone (a cell phone, that is--I only have a landline in case of emergencies, so I use my cell as my primary phone), I decided to get one that would play mp3s so I could listen to them, for example, while waiting in the chiropractor's office. I got one that Verizon said would do this--as well as browse the web and other cool things--but BOY was I disappointed!
It turned out that the phone had minimal mp3 capability--none of which was even documented. I mean, it was so primitive that it had no way whatsoever to pause the mp3. If you had to stop for any reason then you just had to start the mp3 over again (NOT good with audio books!). I also never used its web features because Verizon wanted to charge me an arm and a leg for them (their rate is twice their competitors'), and the connection would have been really slow and the encoding would have prevented me from viewing many sites--including my own blog!
I really felt like Verizon had sold me a bill of goods, but I decided to bide my time and wait for the technology to mature and get a full-featured smart phone the next time. The question was: What phone to get? Globe-trotter Steve Ray has a Treo that he swears by, and I know others who really like their Treos, and for a time I was planning on getting one of those. However, I decided to also investigate something else: an iPhone.
I researched them thoroughly, waited for them to come out, read the reviews,and carefully weighed the pros and cons. In the end, I decided to take the risk, and today I got one. I'm pleased to say that so far I am extraordinarily happy with it.
Other smart phones may have features it doesn't (yet) have, but the user interface (the main feature I bought it for) is extremely intuitive, and the overall package is wicked awsome. The potential problems I was concerned about also have been non-issues. The virtual keyboard works well, and AT&T has ramped up the speed of its EDGE network so that it's comparable to other 3G networks, and I haven't noticed any problem with pages loading too slow.
So--at least as of this moment--I'm pleased as punch.
I'm also blogging from it--right now. That's how easy to use it is. I've only had the thing activated and usable for an hour or so, I haven't read its instruction manual, and I'm using it to compose sizable blog posts.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Technology | Permalink | Comments (21)
May 31, 2007
This Looks Fun
(Jimmy Akin)
ALTERNATE LINK IN CASE OF VIDEO PROBLEMS.
Of course, I'm not sure how practial it will be for many of the computer tasks I perform (e.g., text creation & manipulation). And I don't want to spend all day hunching over a horizontal surface to do research, but I'm sure that this interface will be useful for some things. And it looks fun to play with.
CHT to the reader who e-mailed!
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Technology | Permalink | Comments (19)
February 22, 2007
Excel Bleg
(Jimmy Akin)
I do a lot of text manipulation in Microsot Word, and I'm really familiar with how to use Word to massage text into the form I want. I can really make MS Word sing and dance.
But I'm not as good with MS Excel. I can only make Excel skip and hum.
So I've got a couple of questions for any Excel Experts out there:
1) I'm constantly having to re-set the default cell alignments for every spreadsheet I touch. Invariably, I want the text in cells aligned to the top, with shrink to fit and word wrap turned ON. What I want to do is LOCK THE DEFAULTS to my preferred settings so that I don't have to re-set the alignment every single time. There's gotta be a way to do this, even if it means monkeying with a dll. Anybody know how?THIS PROBLEM SOLVED IN THE COMBOX. WOO-HOO!
2) I also need to find a way to insert carriage returns/paragraph marks/blank lines within text cells. Yet, as you know, hitting Enter does not produce the desired effect. Further, pasting multiple paragraphs from another app (like Word) results in the text being put into different cells. How can this be overcome? THIS PROBLEM PARTLY SOLVED IN THE COMBOX (THANKS!), SO HERE'S A CLARIFICATION: I also need to be able to paste text into Excel from Word that will go into several cells some of which contain line breaks within the cell (e.g., Cell 1, Cell 2 which has a line break in it, Cell 3 which doesn't, etc.). I imagine that I need one kind of code to use as a cell break and another to use as a line break. Any ideas? Thanks!
¡Muchas gracias, mis amigos!
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Technology | Permalink | Comments (51)
January 31, 2007
Flight Of The PhoenixBumblebee
(Jimmy Akin)
When 9/11 happened, I wanted our forces to release thousands of tiny, bird- or bumblebee-sized aircraft to swarm over the landscape in Afghanistan to search of Usama bin Laden.
But we didn't have them yet.
Now we're closer.
Good.
What amazes me is that it took us this long to figure out something rather basic about the way such aircraft need to work: They need to have wings that are less flexible on the front and more flexible on the back.
Duh! you can tell that by looking at a bumblebee's wing!
Just look at all that structure on the front that ain't there on the back! (Above.) That translates to more rigidity on the front and more flexibility aft. You don't need to re-invent the wheel on this one. God already did it for us. We just need to miniaturize to the point that we've got countless "drones" waiting to swarm out in search of terrorist masterminds.
Oh, and we're close to having
Good on that also.
The second link covers things like the panic-inducing Active Denial System (which was announced some time ago) as well as other systems that are still a bit down the road.
These systems, which are non-lethal, will change the face of warfare and result in it producing even less casualties than it does now, which is far smaller than in the past. Ironically, as our ability to make war has grown, a smaller and smaller chunk of the population has ended up dying due to warfare. These types of systems hold the promise of helping us get to the next level in non-lethalness.
How Catholic moral doctrine absorbs the impact of these new, non-lethal systems remains to be seen.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Technology | Permalink | Comments (22)
August 21, 2006
iPod Audiobook Problem Solved!
(Jimmy Akin)
I use my iPod more than most gadgets. It's kind of surprising to realize it, but I listen to my iPod more than I watch TV these days. With my bad eyes, the iPod has allowed me to read a lot more books than I was able to get through previously, and audiobook-listening has supplanted TV-watching for me.
Long-time blog readers know that I even use the TextAloud program to make my own mp3 audiobooks, such as from texts available online at Project Gutenberg.
I also download audiobooks from Audible.Com.
But there's been a problem.
For a long time my iPod seemed to behave erratically with regard to whether it would pick up where I left off in the middle of an audiobook. Sometimes it would, and sometimes it wouldn't.
I could always get it to pick up at my stopping point if I didn't do anything else with the iPod. For example, if I was listening to Bram Stoker's Dracula and I hit "Pause" then I could come back and hit "Play" and it would resume where I'd stopped listening.
But Dracula is 14 hours long, and I didn't want to commit to using my iPod for nothing but Dracula-listening until I'd worked my way through the whole book. I'd want to use it to read Dracula a bit at a time over a few days, while listening to other things in the interim--you know, the way you'd put down dead tree book of Dracula and read something else for a while. I'd want to listen to music, or shift to a different audiobook, or go from fiction to non-fiction for a while. I didn't want to have to devote my iPod exclusively to Dracula for the few days it'd take me to get in 14 hours of listening.
Yet if I migrated away and listened to something else, I'd lose my place in Dracula! Upon going back to it, I'd have to use the clickwheel to navigate back to where I thought I was in the book (and then re-listen to at least the last few minutes).
But I wouldn't lose my place with other audiobooks. They'd pick up right where I left off, no trouble at all.
So I had a puzzle: Why would I lose my place with some audiobooks and not others?
I thought it was something I was doing: Hitting the wrong button or something (e.g., the center wheel button instead of "Play"), but I researched it and found that my actions were not the problem. It has to do with the way the iPod handles different file types, and--best of all--there is an EASY FIX.
Basically, there are certain file formats that iTunes/an iPod recognizes as audiobooks and treats accordingly. It therefore remembers where you were in these file types. But mp3 (the format I use for my homemade audiobooks) is NOT one of those file formats. Because people use mp3 for songs--which are usually short and not the kind of thing people want to pick up in the middle of--the software automatically thinks "song" rather than "audiobook" and doesn't bother remembering where one was--even if the "song" is 14 hours long!
That's why I'd lose my place in SOME audiobooks (ones in mp3 format) but not OTHERS (like the ones from Audible, which are in a proprietary format that iTunes recognizes as an audiobook).
The first research I did on the Web indicated that the solution to this would be to laboriously convert all of my mp3 audiobooks into another format and then change the file extensions so that iTunes would recognize them as audiobooks, and I really was not looking forward to that, given how many of these things I have, but I discovered that there is a MUCH EASIER SOLUTION.
Basically--at least in the current version of iTunes (version 6.0)--all you have to do is this:
1. Click on the file you want to have treated as an audiobook (it doesn't matter what the format is).
2. Right-click and select "Get Info"
3. Go to the "Options" tab.
4. Select "Remember playback position."
5. Click "Okay."
And you're done! iTunes will then start putting an electronic bookmark at the place you left off and resume there when you go back to the book.
Here's a picture of what the relevant dialog box looks like (click to enlarge):
Now, you'll note that at the bottom of the dialog box there are buttons labelled "Previous" and "Next."
These are EXTREMELY handy, because they allow you to quickly go through an entire playlist of files (or chunk of your library) you want to do this to. Thus if you have a whole bunch of mp3s in a row that you want to audiobook, all you have to do is select "Next" and then "Remember playback position" and then "Next" again until you're done, at which point you hit "Okay." It only takes a few minutes to whip through a long playlist that way, since you don't have to go to the hassle of selecting the file and then doing "Get Info" and "Options" each time.
You can also select "Skip when suffling" so that you don't have audiobooks turning up in the random rotation when you're listening to randomized songs, but I use the shuffle feature so seldomly that I haven't bothered to do that yet.
One nice thing about the bookmark is that it transfers between iTunes and the iPod. This means you can start listening to the book in iTunes (say, as soon as you've created it) and then when you transfer it to the iPod the bookmark will go with it, so dialing it up on the iPod will result in you picking up where you left off in iTunes.
Cool!
And thus is solved one of my major headaches.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Technology | Permalink | Comments (21)
August 11, 2006
Logos Libronix Lack Of Catholic Works
(Jimmy Akin)
A reader writes:
I own a Logos Libronix (LDLS) collection of ebooks and love the many of the functions of the LDLS system especially the search functions. However there are few Catholic titles available. I know Harmony Media has a great selection of Catholic titles but I would love to be able to search the Catechism, and Papal Encyclicals, and Vatican II documents in LDLS.
Recently another Catholic user has posed the question in their newsgroups as to why there are so few Catholic titles. The response was the following:
"The Libronix Digital Library System is just that - a library system with many books by many publishers. And many of those books disagree with each other in one way or another. For comparative study this is a very good thing. It means you can compare multiple theologies and a variety of doctrinal positions. Yet for many Catholic publishers, that's where the problem lies. Most love the idea of their books being searchable in the LDLS, but when they find out that other non-Catholic books can be added to the system by users, they stop loving the idea. It's the commingling of books on Catholicm and perhaps, books on Calvinism that stops them short. For many specific reasons, they cannot and will not allow this to happen. Yet, if Logos were to build a special product that effectively put a wall around Catholic material, our Library system representing many books by many publishers would cease to be a Library system, at least in the way the LDLS is constructed. "
Are Catholic publishers not allowed to publish their books with Nihil Obstats and Imprimaturs in a system that allows the use of non-Catholic material? That seems to be the answer we are getting. But in a normal library all kinds of books are in one place, it doesn't make sense that the Church would have such a restriction.
We have no responses fro any Catholic publisher on the subject.
Do you know of any other electronic versions of Catholic titles besides Harmony?
Harmony is a leading producer of Catholic e-books, though there are other companies that have put them out. To date many of the results have not been that impressive (the USCCB, for example, put out an electronic edition of the Catechism a few years ago that was simply awful; you had to click seven different things before you could get to your first screen of Catechism text). I'm sure this is something that will be solved with time and--to a significant extent--can be done at home using online resources. IntraText also has critical editions of certain key Catholic works available online.
As far as your question about what Catholic publishers are allowed to do, nothing in canon law prevents them from allowing their works to be placed in a particular storage medium as long as it is made clear that any imprimaturs that their works carry apply only to their works and not to other works also placed in the storage medium. This is the principle, for example, by which the Vatican allows the Catechism and the Code of Canon Law and the Code of Canons for the Eastern Churches to be placed in the IntraText archive, which also contains many non-imprimatured works.
That being said, I do not know who at Logos wrote the reply that you quote or whether it would be endorsed by higher-ups at Logos. It also is not clear to me what the person means, but at first glance the person appears to be trying to blame Catholic publishers for not wanting to have their works put on CDs for Catholic publishers that also contain unlockable versions of non- or anti-Catholic works.
In the old days, Logos did not have a problem preparing special edition CDs for Catholic publishers. I know, because they did prepare a special edition CD for Catholic publishers at one time that omitted the anti-Catholic footnotes of the 38-volume Church Fathers set.
If Logos has now decided that they will no longer prepare special editions for Catholic publishers and they insist on putting unlockable non- or anti-Catholic works on CDs then that is entirely a marketing decision of the people at Logos and has nothing to do with a concept of a library.
A library can include whatever works the librarian wants, and if the librarians at Logos are insisting on putting unlockable non- or anti-Catholic works on proposed CDs for Catholic publishers then that is entirely their own choice. There is no reason in the world, assuming the economics of the deal would work, why an all-Catholic library CD cannot be produced except the choice of Logos management.
I'm also dubious of the broad-brush approach that the author of the statement applies to Catholic publishers. Catholic publishers are not monolithic, just as Protestant publishers are not. They have different degrees of openness to non-Catholic ideas and different degrees of risk tolerance. As someone who works in Catholic publishing, I am leery of catchall statements about Catholic publishers saying that they (as a group) are not willing to do certain things.
I suspect that there are Protestant publishers who have resisted placing their works in Libronix format for the reason that they don't want their works next to works hostile to their viewpoint, and I suspect that there are Catholic publishers who would not have a problem placing their works in Libronix, even on a CD containing non- or anti-Catholic works. The statement that you quote thus strikes me as taking a broadbrush approach that attempts to place blame on Catholic publishers, which is not good PR to my mind.
Knowing that a company is likely to make such statements as part of its public relations efforts is also the kind of thing that would make Catholic publishers leery of doing business with Logos. One could easily have said, "You know, we've talked to a number of Catholic publishers, but thus far we haven't been able to put together any (or very many) deals, although we'd love to. If you'd like to see your favorite Catholic works available in Libronix format, contact the publishers and let them know that there's a demand for this."
Trying to make it sound as if Catholic publishers are overcautious (or even paranoid) and thus to blame for not making their works available in this format is not the kind of thing likely to encourage them to make them available in this format.
This is the information age, and sooner or later a large number of Catholic works will be available in electronic format. Whether Logos wants its Libronix format to be the one that wins out in that regard is something that is principally Logos' responsibility.
I'm also glad that you have had a good experience with Logos Libronix. Personally, I have had a bad experience with it. The Logos system was good when it was in the 1.6 version but when they made the jump to 2.0 they (in my opinion) overbuilt the thing so that it became so musclebound it was simply easier to use Google or CTRL-F to search html documents. Libronix, when it came out, crashed my system and I haven't been able to use it, so they may have solved some of the overbuilt interface problems from version 2.0. Perhaps at some future point I'll try it again and discover that the problems have been solved (something that would please me very much).
Hope this helps!
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Technology | Permalink | Comments (12)
July 17, 2006
Ode To A Cell Phone
(Michelle Arnold)
It all started with a cheerful electronically-generated voice telling me that my cellular service provider needed to change the SIM card in my phone and could I please come down to the nearest store location so that this could be done?
So, I headed out to the nearest store location I knew of and found out it was no longer in business. Figures. Eventually I found another location and pulled into the lot. When I entered the store I found out that this must have been the day a whole lot of other people were also told to get new SIM cards. I was in for a wait.
After waiting thirty minutes, more or less, and joking with people in line that apparently the store locations were not given the heads-up on the Great SIM Card Switch, I finally handed my phone over to an employee for service.
"Oh," I'm told, "This phone is too old for the new SIM card. You'll have to get an upgrade."
Yes, the phone I had was old. I originally purchased it in 2000 when I decided that I would rather not hike to a freeway call box if my car broke down by the side of the road somewhere. I ended up using it more than the two or three times in its lifetime I needed to call AAA from a broken-down vehicle, but I never did upgrade the phone. It was clunky and didn't do much beyond send and receive calls, but that was all I needed.
But the perk to losing a faithful friend would be a free phone, right?
Riiiight.
For a two-year contract and $20 more -- after mail-in rebate -- I could get a phone that looked somewhat like my old one but was so small it looked like I'd have to hold it to my ear to hear and then move it to my mouth to speak. So, for a mere $40 more -- after mail-in rebate (and that two-year contract), don't forget -- I could get a cell-phone that looked like a phone. It also had a camera, which I thought was neat, but didn't really need. I would learn later that it also had a confusing host of other features that I am still trying to figure out how to navigate.
After forking over $85 -- after tax of almost $15 -- I was the owner of a new phone. "Would you like any accessories today?" asked the clerk who should have just given me a new SIM card or a free phone to compensate for my cellular provider's decision to reprogram their networks in such a way that they could no longer accommodate long-term customers (six years in my case) who had old phones. It was all I could do not to snort.
You may be wondering why I didn't protest more forcefully. Well, remember that thirty-minute wait? There was another thirty-minute wait behind me and another gentleman was patiently trying to get redress from the clerks who had basically destroyed his phone by putting in a SIM card that restricted his access and couldn't be replaced by his old SIM card -- because, one, they had thrown away the old one; and, two, because they had already transferred his phone's information to the new, faulty SIM card. In the face of such suffering by fellow customers, it seemed churlish to raise holy hades at having to pay for a new phone.
Why am I telling you all this? To give you the heads-up on what lies ahead should you receive a call or letter asking you to replace your cell phone's SIM card. What happens should you choose not to replace it? Funny you should ask. A customer put that very question to one of the clerks.
"Well, your service just keeps getting worse and worse until finally you can't use your phone at all."
NOTE: Now that I have a cell phone I no longer can use, I was intrigued to find out that there is such a thing as a cell-phone recycling program.
Posted by Michelle Arnold in Technology | Permalink | Comments (23)
July 12, 2006
Coming Soon To A Pocket Near You
(Jimmy Akin)
Apple and Microsoft appear to both be trying to get out an interesting new product in time for Christmas: the wireless iPod (or, in Microsoft's case, a wireless mp3 player):
Current iPod owners have to sit in front of a computer to download music onto the gadget. But with the wireless version, they would be able to download new songs anywhere and at any time - as long as there is a wireless network in the area.
I thought the story was interesting, and it touched on some additional interesting things, but I'm not bowled over by the idea of a wireless iPod.
I use my iPod every day (mostly for audiobooks), and I think it would be nice to have the ability to download content wirelessly, but that's not the highest thing on my most-wanted iPod features list.
I haven't had a lot of success using wireless hotspots with my laptop, and I don't know if they'd fare much better with a wireless iPod.
They also aren't all over the place (yet). If I could have cellphone-type coverage for downloads (i.e., if I could take my iPod virtually anywhere and get content), that would be better, but I just don't hang out in wi-fi hotspots (not even Starbucks).
And then there's the matter of trying to navigate a wireless music store with a click wheel. Ick.
What I'd rather have a Bluetooth iPod so I could get the content from my computer without having to hook up the iPod physically.
Built-in speakers for the iPod would be even better.
What I'd like most of all are good wireless earbuds (probably kept in a compartment inside the iPod when not in use so they can recharge) that have significant battery life so that I can listen to my iPod in public without having that annoying cord between the Pod and the buds.
I know that there are already some wireless headsets for iPods, but I haven't been impressed with the ones I've seen thus far, and I'd rather have earbuds that I could plug into the iPod for recharging when not in use.
But that's just me.
Whadda y'all want in an iPod (or equivalent device)?
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Technology | Permalink | Comments (18)
June 14, 2006
Blipverts!
(Jimmy Akin)
Back in the 1980s there was a TV show based on the character Max Headroom.
It was called (unsurprisingly) "Max Headroom."
Or sometimes, "Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into The Future."
Whatever.
Anyway, the pilot episode of this show (which also has a British version that is somewhat different) tells the origin story of Max Headroom.
It seems that 20 minutes into the future, ace news reporter Edison Carter is being shoved off of a story by his employers (Network 23) because he's getting Too Close To The Truth.
The Truth is that the station's major sponsor--the sinister ZikZak Corporation--has begun using a new advertising technique called "Blipverts," which are very, very short ads (just a few seconds) that have unpleasant side effects . . . like causing some of the viewers who see them to explode.
Eventually, sinister forces decide to bump off Edison Carter. They fail, but in the process a virtual quirky sorta-clone of Carter is created, and thus is born Max Headroom.
Why am I telling you this?
Because some advertisers are now considering using a new advertisting technique, which would be . . . you guessed it . . .
Edison Carter, call your office!
BTW, my favorite line from the Max Headroom show was the following explanation that one character gave to a couple of girls who had grown up in the TV-saturated, cyberpunk culture of the show: "It's a book. It's a non-volatile storage medium. It's very rare. You should 'ave one."
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Technology | Permalink | Comments (17)
June 07, 2006
G.I. Joe, Call Your Office!
(Jimmy Akin)
Man, if the guy in the photo on the left only existed in the real world, with real, functional flying wings like the ones he's got on, that would be WICKED COOL, wouldn't it?
Well, he does! And it is!
It turns out that
Elite special forces troops being dropped behind enemy lines on covert missions are to ditch their traditional parachutes in favour of strap-on stealth wings.
The lightweight carbon fibre mono-wings will allow them to jump from high altitudes and then glide 120 miles or more before landing - making them almost impossible to spot, as their aircraft can avoid flying anywhere near the target.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Technology | Permalink | Comments (24)
April 07, 2006
Skin = Sin?
(Tim Jones)
Most of us have probably heard that a high-ranking official with the Department of Homeland Security was recently arrested for soliciting sex with a 14 year old.
Shock. Rage. Depression.
Turns out the youngster was a cyber-impostor, in reality the official was fooled by a cop (good thing it wasn't a terrorist, huh?).
Over at The Smoking Gun, comes a tale about similar disgustingness going on at the highest levels of NASA. I happened to be drinking coffee from a NASA mug when I read THE STORY, so it was of more than passing interest. According to the article:
"On Wednesday morning, federal investigators seized a laptop computer, a hard drive, CDs, and other material from the office of James R. Robinson, who was present when agents with NASA's inspector general executed a search warrant at his E Street office. According to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court, Robinson, 42, used his office computer (and another in his Virginia home) to trade and examine illegal images and videos."
So, I thought, the proclivity to want to look at nasty pictures of children doesn't discriminate, but can be found at all levels of society, all occupations, and in people of great or little intelligence. Once again, the perp was caught by a cyber cop(s) posing as a youngster. As has been said before, sin makes people stupid.
But what really caught my eye was this bit:
"In December, after being contacted by postal agents, NASA's inspector general opened its own probe of Robinson, which included a review of reports from the space agency's "web activity monitoring application." The NASA system, dubbed Web ContExt, is apparently a state-of-the-art application that used a "skin tone filtering system" to determine that Robinson was viewing child porn from his office computer, most recently in January, according to the affidavit."
So, NASA has some new, ultra-kewl technology that somehow scans the content of web images and indicates how much of the total is made up of "skin tones". I assume that over a certain threshhold, some sort of red flag would pop up.
I don't know how widespread this technology is, but it wouldn't be too surprising to find out that some of the larger corporations were using it. If they aren't, they soon will be.
This brings up the old debate about public good vs. invasion of privacy. On the one hand, you might catch a bunch of child victimizing cyber-pervs, and on the other, you might have blackmail, extortion and the errant prosecution of innocent people.
One way or the other we will have to come to terms with this kind of technology.
Posted by Tim Jones in Technology | Permalink | Comments (21) | TrackBack
January 30, 2006
Text-To-Speech
(Jimmy Akin)
Last week I put up a link to an audio file I made out of the pope's new encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, using a text-to-speech program.
I also suggested on Catholic Answers Live that a person might want to read the Catechism off the Vatican's web site using such a program to help one get through it.
The result of these actions was that I got a number of requests for info about what program I use, how much it costs, etc.
I've blogged about this before, but it seemed opportune to hit this again, so here goes:
The program I use is called TextAloud. It's produced by the folks at NextUp.Com, and it costs about $30. You can also download a trial verison for free.
One of the nice things about TextAloud is that you can buy different voices to go with it, and some of the voices they have these days are REALLY cool.
The best voices currently are the AT&T Natural Voices, which sound so good that I suspect they are reverse-engineered from individual people. The basic two Natural Voices are known as Crystal and Mike. They come with the pack that you need to order to use Natural Voices. This pack costs $25 or $45 depending on the quality you want the voice to have (8khz vs. 16khz).
Incidentlaly, you can download both TextAloud and the AT&T Natural Voices online from the NextUp site. You don't have to wait for CDs to ship, so you can be up and running with these programs in next to no time.
Personally, I use AT&T Natural Voice Mike (16khz) most of the time. If you want to hear what he sounds like, listen to THE POPE'S ENCYCLICAL or, if you don't want to download 17mb then listen to THIS ADAPTATION I DID OF EDGAR ALLEN POE'S "THE RAVEN."
One of the nice things about TextAloud is that the current version integrates a plug-in for the Firefox web browser so that you can have it read web pages without having to copy and paste them into TextAloud. In fact, you can use your cursor to select specific text on a web page so that the program won't read stuff on the page that you aren't interested in. (HINT: Have it read the "printer friendly" version of a web page to eliminate even more junk.)
I do this all the time and, in fact, it's the principal way that I get my news. I have Mike read me a bunch of printer-friendly news stories every day.
TextAloud also will read a file into .mp3 format, and you can control the speed that it does this (it doesn't do it out loud in this mode, so it can go really, really fast. Mike read the pope's encyclical to .mp3 in a couple of minutes on my computer, but when you listen to the file it's like an hour and a half of listening time).
You can then listen to the .mp3 on your computer or your portable player (think: iPod).
Incidentally, if you haven't yet joined the .mp3 revolution then you should know that you probably already have joined it without realizing it. Y'see: Virtually every computer sold these days already plays .mp3s. Window Media Player, QuickTime, iTunes, RealPlayer (WARNING! Evil software application!), and countless others all play .mp3s. Since virtually every computer sold these days comes with at least one of these programs pre-loaded, you may well have clicked on a web audio link and heard an .mp3 file without even realizing you were listening to one.
Which is a long-winded way of saying: Don't be intimidated by .mp3s if you haven't consciously used them yet. Unless you bought your computer back in the Cenozoic Era, you've already got what you need to listen to them, so go ahead start using them consciously.
Practice by clicking the above link to "The Raven."
So: Hope that helps, and happy text-to-speech-ing!
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Technology | Permalink | Comments (16) | TrackBack
December 13, 2005
To Speak To A Live Person, Press...
(Michelle Arnold)
You've called some company and have found yourself lost in a veritable maze of voice mail instructions, none of which gives you the number to press to speak to a real live human being who can answer your question or fix your problem quickly and easily. Have you ever wondered if there is some way to break through the system and be routed to the human being to whom you need to talk? There is! One enterprising individual has put together some crib notes to keep on hand the next time you're winding your way through Voice Mail Purgatory.
(Nod to Some Have Hats for the link.)
Posted by Michelle Arnold in Technology | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack
November 30, 2005
"Set PHaSRs On Blind!"
(Jimmy Akin)
Yessirree, you're lookin' at an honest-to-God PHaSR, right here!
A Personnel Halting and Simulation Response system, that is.
It was recently unviled by the Air Force as a form of non-lethal crowd control and, like the phasers on Star Trek, is a laser-related weapon. (It also looks suspiciously like certain 24th century type III marine combat phaser rifles.)
It shoots a pulsed beam of green laser light that is intended to temporarily blind ("dazzle") the targets it is trained on, making it useful for crowd control and dazzling potentially dangerous motorists who are approaching military checkpoints too fast (i.e., as if to ram through them or suicide bomb or something).
Similar white-light-based systems are already being used in Iraq to stop potential terrorists careening toward military checkpoints, but the new system may be more effective.
An important aspect of the PHaSR system is that it does not (or is not supposed to) cause permanent blindness. Permanently blinding laser weapons do exist, but they are banned under a 1995 U.N. protocol and so are not used.
The PHaSR system seeks to avoid permanent blindness by automatically sensing the distance to the target and (apparently) adjusting the strength of the laser beam it emits (though the military is presently a bit cagey on exactly how this works).
It also uses two different frequencies of light in case the target is wearing goggles to block one frequency.
SWEET!
Now if they'd just develop zatnikitels. You just can't beat that "one shot stuns, two shots kill, three shots disintegrates" functionality.
P.S. Y'know, this only raises the question of why they never used a sub-stun setting to dazzle people on Star Trek.
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November 21, 2005
The (not-so) Fiery Furnace
(Tim Jones)
We've been having trouble with our furnace.
For you folks out in sunny California, or down in balmy Florida, a furnace is a household appliance common here in Arkansas, the primary job of which is to waft great billows of toasty, heated air into our chilly living spaces, so that we don't have to go to all the trouble of getting up and walking all the way to the closet and putting on a sweater.
That's alot to ask of any American, especially when you consider that there is a good chance of misplacing the TV remote while you walk around the house.
So, I called a technician and he fiddled around with the thing for about twenty minutes, announced that he had found the problem and informed me that it would be very expensive to fix. I told him to hold off ordering any parts, because I wanted to be able to do some creative budgeting before I coughed up several hundred bucks.
That night, my wife (the one of us who isn't absent minded) reminded me that we have household insurance that covers stuff like this.
OO-RAH!
I called the number on our copy of the contract, and in a few hours, another technician was knealing in our cramped furnace closet, only a few feet from the catbox. I thought to myself that anyone who spends that much time in basements and garages probably gets to see alot of catboxes.
The new technician is younger than the last. He sets to work, and the thought of telling him about yesterday's technician crosses my mind. Should I tell him that "the other guy" thought it was a stuck relay?
He hums a little while he works. He is patient, unlike "the other guy", who seemed to be having a hard day, and grumbled whenever he dropped a screw, or misplaced his flashlight.
Do I just casually drop a remark like, "-think maybe it's a stuck relay?"
The "new" guy is moving a little probe around to different wires that run around the furnace. A little red light in the probe blinks on and off as he touches here and there.
Do I mention the previous diagnosis, just to save him some trouble?
No, and here's why. Two reasons:
1) I have no clue as to whether the "other guy" was correct in his diagnosis. Sure, I would have trusted him to fix the problem, because he knows more than I do, but I can't say for sure that he got it right on his first go.
2) As I heard someone say recently, "Everyone likes to peel their own banana". This guy seems confident and capable. He probably likes to go about his job in a certain way, testing and deducing according to his own logical pattern. He might not appreciate people throwing out theories while he is trying to systematically form his own judgements. I could just see him giving me a sideways glance and saying, "Well maybe it's a stuck relay and maybe it ain't.". Here in thenSouth, such un-asked for advice could be taken as a lack of trust. It wouldn't be polite.
This new tehnician is very patient, and works for a solid twenty-five minutes before saying anything.
"Hm-m-m-mm."
That's it; "Hm-m-m-mm.".
A few minutes later he stands up and explains "Looks like there's a bad relay in your control board.".
It's going to be expensive, and will take a few days to get the part, he says. We make some innocuous conversation and chuckle a little over how complicated machines are these days. In the old days, I could have fixed my own furnace, but this one has an electronic brain. I always used to work on my own cars myself. He understands.
He leaves with a "take it easy", and I'm glad I didn't mention the other technician.
It's chilly at night this week. We can make it like an adventure. Pile blankets on the bed and wear sweaters. And now we have an excuse to use the fireplace!
Posted by Tim Jones in Technology | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack
October 06, 2005
WiFi Bleg!
(Jimmy Akin)
I gotta question for y'all!
My current laptop is WiFi enabled, which allowes me to connect to take it to a large number of places and connect it to a large number of wireless networks. (Meaning: I don't have to plug it into an ordinary modem in order to connect to the Internet. I can just sit in a Starbucks--or wherever--and blog or check my e-mail from there.)
When I've used this feature, however, I have often gotten messages telling me that the WiFi networks that are in range are "unsecured," and warnings appear telling me that data I send over the networks may be observed by others.
But I get similar warnings when I use normal, modem-based networks. (These are also generally observable except for unique, encoded transactions where I submit my passwords. Thus a snooper may observe what I am buying from Amazon.Com, but my password *itself* is in a uniquely encrypted bit of the transaction.)
So my question is: WHAT LEVEL OF SECURITY IS PROVIDED BY SUCH WIFI NETWORKS?
FOR EXAMPLE: If I type in my password for my e-mail account on a WiFi network, can other folks see that? Or is it like a normal web-based account where snoopers could see my e-mail but not the password I send?
Or can *anything* (password or not) be seen by a snooper. (In which case, why would ANYONE use an unsecured network to do ANYTHING?).
I'd appreciate whatever light on this question folks can shed.
If possible, PLEASE INCLUDE LINKS to where I can read more about the security processes in question!
Thanks much, folks!
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Technology | Permalink | Comments (19) | TrackBack
September 27, 2005
He's No Match For Droidekas!
(Jimmy Akin)
Good news, everybody!
Battle robots may be joining the peace-keeping mission at the North Korea/South Korea DMZ (a.k.a., "the Neutral Zone").
EXCERPTS:
Armed, six-legged robots may one day work alongside man's best friend on the southern side of the Korean DMZ.
South Korea will spend 33.4 billion won over the next five years to develop the robots for the heavily fortified demilitarised zone that divides the peninsula, the Communications Ministry said in a statement Friday.
South Korea envisages the robots performing roles on the battlefield now done by dogs, such as sniffing for explosives and catching intruders, the ministry said.
The robots will stand knee-high to the average adult, mounted on wheels for road missions or on as many as eight legs to get them over uneven terrain, it said. Equipped with firearms, they will be able to carry out combat missions via remote control.
RomulanNorth Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il probably won't be pleased!
No floral baskets for the robots!
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August 15, 2005
The Shape Of Poorly-Designed Things To Come
(Jimmy Akin)
I don't know if they've shown up in your area yet, but here in San Diego stores are staring to have self-service checkout machines. The newly built Wal-Marts have them here. So do a few of the grocery stores.
The idea is that the store can save some money on cashiers if they let customers check themselves out and pay for their products, the same way banks can save money on tellers if they have ATMs for customers to use. Theoretically, both kinds of machines also benefit the customer by giving him greater convenience and speed since there are now more checkout lanes open for use. (How often have you been in a store where they have ten lanes, only two of which have checkers and are open?)
The problem is that ATMs work but these cussed things don't.
As y'all know, I have nothing against technology. I'm fer it. I use it all the time. I'm a reg'lar tech-no-phile.
But they ain't got the bugs worked out of these self-checker machines. Every time I use one it ends up as a frustrating experience. The other day I was at Wal-Mart and decided to complain to the manager about the experience (about the fourth or fifth bad one I'd had with their machines), telling him that the machines were poorly designed and that, although I was supportive of their efforts to introduce them and a technology fan, I would take my business elsewhere if I had to either use such frustratingly designed machines or wait through long lines now that they had fewer checkers.
If enough people tell them things like that, they may fix things.
After leaving the store, I started thinking about what exactly was frustrating about the devices. Basically, they're too complex, but where does the source of the problem lie? It seemed to me that there are three general sources of the problem:
First, there is the bagging process. When you swipe a product over the scanner the machine directs you to put it in a bag in the bagging area, where an RFID sensor (or something) recognizes that you've done so and tells you to scan the next item.
In theory.
In practice what happens is that, for one reason or another, the RFID sensor doesn't recognize that you've put the item in the bag, and you have to interrupt your scanning of the next product to try to convince it that you've done what you're supposed to.
I don't know what function the bagging process is supposed to fulfill (presumably something to do with making sure you scan all your items and do so only once), but whatever it is, it ain't essential because they have a "Skip the bagging process" button for folks who are fed up with the whole thing and won't do it.
Personally, I just put my items in the bagging area without making any effort to actually put them into a bag. I'll bag them after I've got them all scanned, because the processes are just to frustrating to manage simultaneously. (Which is probably why clerks don't do both at once, too. First they scan your items, then they bag them.)
A second source of needless complexity--and this is a much more serious problem--is the number of sources of information you're expected to keep track of while you do all this. I counted at least six. You're suppose to simultaneously juggle:
- Audible instructions in the form of a human-sounding voice from the machine
- Beeps and boops that sound when you scan items or do something wrong
- Printed signs affixed to different parts of the machine
- Instructions on the left hand side of the main touch-screen
- Instructions on the right hand side of the main touch-screen
- Instructions appearing THREE FEET AWAY on the secondary touch-screen where you swipe your payment card
The problem is that you often can't tell which information source you're supposed to be paying attention to. You don't know if you're supposed to be listening for the voice, for a beep, for a video instruction on a touch-screen, or even which touch-screen you're supposed to be looking at.
For example, yesterday when I was trying to pay for my items, I swiped my ATM card through the secondary touch-screen's slot, entered my PIN, and told it that I wanted a certain amount of cash back. I then noticed that the main touch-screen (three feet away) was saying "Authorizing transaction," which to a normal human being means that the machine has all the info it needs and is calling your bank to, y'know, authorize the transaction.
Not!
After waiting and waiting and waiting (during which time the customer behind me in line noted how slow the device was in getting authorization from my bank, figuring it was a modem or line problem), I discovered that the secondary touch-screen (THREE FEET AWAY) was saying "You have asked for $60 in cash back, which will make your total $74.15. Do you wish to approve this amount?"
I'd been waiting all this time and the machine hadn't even tried to call my bank yet!
I didn't know that, though, because I was mistakenly paying attention to a separate and erroneous (or at least misleading) source of information coming from the machine.
This really has to change if they want people to use these machines. ATMs work, in part, because they don't require you to keep track of so many sources of information. They have one touch-screen, and they keep your attention concentrated there or on the slots immediately adjacent to the touch-screen.
They don't make you hop back and forth needlessly between two different touch-screens, nor do they change-off the way you're getting information (Am I supposed to be listening for the voice now? Which screen am I supposed to be looking at? Which side of the screen am I supposed to be looking at?)
ATMs also keep together things like where the cash comes out and where your receipt comes out. Those two slots are right next to the (single) touch-screen. But that's not the way it is with the auto-checker machine. The cash back slot is two feet below the main touch-screen, while the receipt slot is immediately under the secondary touch-screen. The voice has to tell you where to look for these things and then you have to lunge back and forth between them to get your cash and receipt.
The third major problem is that there are simply too many bells and whistles on this sucker. The process is over-built. When you're in a regular checker lane and you swipe your card, you typically have only to press one of two or three buttons to tell it whether you're using a credit card, a debit card, or some third kind of card that I don't have.
Why you even have to do that, I don't know. I don't know why the machine can't identify what kind of card you're using from the numbers in the magnetic stripe when you swipe it. It certainly knows if you're using Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or what bank to draw the debited funds from using those numbers. I also don't know that anybody would get bent out of shape if the machine simply treated all combination debit/credit cards as one or the other. But at least you only have to press one of two or three buttons to get past this step.
Not one of fourteen.
That's right! You've got to pick from more than a dozen payment options on this device! Half of them I didn't even know what they were, and it was really frustrating trying to simply find the option labeled "Debit Card" amid all the unfamiliar, complex, and colorful icons.
I don't know who makes these machines, but they need to realize that if you want people to learn to use something like this you have to make it AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE. You cannot build a device that gives you all the options (and more!) that you'd have in a human-checker lane.
So, bright boys, go back to the drawing board and simplify. Strip down the steps the customer needs to perform to the bare minimum. Eliminate the stupid bagging process entirely. Get rid of the secondary touch-screen. Don't put competing information on two sides of the remaining touch-screen. Eliminate the voice. Centralize all the parts of the machine that the customer has to interact with. Keep his attention focused on a single area of the machine. Don't give him conflicting signals (like "Authorizing transaction" when, in fact, you're not authorizing the transaction) from different sources.
Trust me on this one, guys: Less Is More.
Apparently some folks who make these machines have realized this. Mrs. Decent Films tells me that a few years ago in her area they introduced clunky, complex machines like the ones described above--and they didn't last. People wouldn't use them. So they vanished, but in the last few months they've introduced new, streamlined machines that are much simpler and are a breeze to use.
So there's hope. And eventually economic survival of the fittest will drive the evil machines above out of the market.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Technology | Permalink | Comments (35) | TrackBack
June 14, 2005
What's This?
(Jimmy Akin)
Actually, it's something called a "difference engine."
A model of one was presented today, June 14, back in 1822 to the Royal Astronomical Society.
In an accompanying paper, the inventer of the difference engine, Charles Babbage, explained how it worked and provided plans.
The Royal Society was impressed and agreed to underwrite Babbage's attempt to build a genuine difference engine (rather than just a model).
Unfortunately, a variety of problems (including personal ones) hampered Babbage from doing this, and he was never able to complete the project. The one you see above was constructed by his son from parts in his workshop.
Now.
Why am I telling you all this?
Because Babbage's difference engine was the ancestor of the machine you are using right now: the computer.
The difference engine was designed to automatically compute mathematical and astronomical tables (hence the Royal Astronomical Society's interest in it). Babbage later revised his plans in an attempt to come up with a more powerful machine he called an "analytical engine" (a.k.a. "Difference Engine No. 2").
Though these machines were nothing compared to the computer you're using at the moment, they still represented a fundamental technological shift that has changed the course of human civilization.
LEARN MORE ABOUT BABBAGE . . .
. . . AND HIS MARVELOUS CONTRAPTION.
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May 14, 2005
The Only Way to Fly
(Tim Jones)
From our "Why Didn't I Think of That?" Department comes an idea so obvious (in retrospect) that it makes the wheel look like wild speculation.
Those clever lads (and/or lasses!) at Cirrus Aircraft have gone and made an airplane that is practically stupid proof.
Did you forget to top out your fuel tank? Did you fly into a snowstorm? Stall out? Got a busted hydraulic line? Don't matter! Just pull a lever and the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) floats you down to the ground like that feather on Forrest Gump. Well, the impact is more like jumping off a ten-foot ladder (according to the literature), but - hey - let's not get picky.
The plane also has a composite body which makes it lighter, yet stronger, than traditional airframes. This plane is giving the long dominant Cessna some Cirrus competition (heh).
To be honest, though, no aircraft can be made absolutely stupid proof. Ditch over water and you might still be toast.
Just, you know... really soggy toast.
Safely find out more HERE.
Posted by Tim Jones in Technology | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack
May 13, 2005
Bouncy Concrete
(Jimmy Akin)
Lemme tell you a story: Here in San Diego there is a place called Mission Valley, which is where Mission San Diego ("California's First Church") is located. (It--the church, not Mission Valley--was built over 200 years ago, before the founding in the U.S.)
I used to live right next to Mission San Diego and thus in Mission Valley.
Down the midst of Mission Vallue is the I-8 interstate.
Bisecting Mission Valley along its north-south axis is the 805 freeway.
The 805 doesn't cross the bottom of Mission Valley, though. Instead, flung across the valley is a huge bridge, (what seems like) hundreds of feet in the air.
I get a little nervous whenever I have to cross the Mission Valley Bridge. (I once saw a too-quickly-lane-changing pickup there flip over right in front of me, killing the man and pregnant woman inside it.)
But it's a major traffic exchange point in San Diego (photographed above by satellite), and when I lived in Mission Valley, I regularly used it.
Particularly because had friends who lived on the north side of Mission Valley, right near where the 805 bridge rejoins solid ground.
It was really convenient to go over to their house! I'd just get on the I-8, head towards the Mission Valley Bridge, and then zoom up ramp to the 805 and the point where their house was.
On the way home afterwards, I'd head down the Mission Valley Bridge, take the exit ramp curving down to the I-8, and in a few minutes I'd be home.
Now: One Friday night I was heading down the 805/Mission Valley Bridge ramp and my car (didn't have a pickup at the time) suffered a DOUBLE BLOW-OUT. Both of my rear tires popped.
Quickly, I worked my way into the emergency lane and stopped the car. I got out to see if I could change the tires and discovered this was impossible. Not only did I not have two spares, the car consumed the entire width of the emergency lane on the bridge, meaning that my body would have to hang out into Friday night traffic if I even attempted to change the tires.
Not a good solution.
I therefore started trudging back up the incline until I reached an emergency callbox, where I could call for help. (This was in the '90s, before I had a cell phone.)
After trudging up half a mile or so (that's how big the bridge is), I finally reached the callbox and summoned a tow-truck. I then returned to my car to wait.
At this point in my life, I was (foolishly) suppressing the Southern elements in my speech, except that they would come out when I was either very relaxed or under stress. Needless to say, I was twangin' up a storm by the time the tow-truck guy arrived.
Once he got there, I waited in the cab of the truck and he used it's mechanism to slide a big metal plate under my car, which the truck then lifted up and redeposited it onto the back of the truck.
As it picked my car up off the roadway and redeposited it, the truck vibrated MIGHTILY, ROCKING BACK AND FORTH IN THE EMERGENCY LANE PRECIPITOUSLY, WITH ME IN THE CAB LOOKING DOWN INTO (WHAT SEEMED LIKE) HUNDREDS OF FEET OF DARKNESS OVER THE CONCRETE RAILING AND SAYING PRAYERS TO WHOEVER THE PATRON SAINT OF BRIDGE-BUILDING MIGHT BE (St. Patrick, among others, as I later determined).
The tow-truck guy towed me home in mere minutes, and all was well that ended well. (I bought new tires the next day.)
Now: What brings this story to mind?
When I was walking up the incline to get to the emergency phone, I noticed something very disturbing: The Mission Valley Bridge . . . BOUNCED.
As cars would zoom past me toward whatever Friday night merriments they had planned, the roadway under my feet . . . BOUNCED. It wasn't rigid. It was made out of concrete, of course, but still it . . . BOUNCED.
In earthquake-prone California, bouncy bridges are important.
The reason is that structures that have a little "give" in them have less of a tendency to break. That's why the wings of an airplane are designed to bounce when they encounter turbulence. If they were rigid, they'd snap off. I therefore know I'm safer if I'm sitting over the wings and see them bouncing--thought I still don't like it. It annoys my pre-reflective sensibility that rigid structures are stronger than flexible structures.
Tonight I was thinking about this because I ran across
A STORY ABOUT EXTRA-FLEXIBLE CONCRETE.
It may not have the zing of transluent concrete, but it's zingy (and bouncy) enough.
EXCERPTS:
By mixing fiber in concrete scientists have created a bendable material that is lightweight, resists cracking, and lasts longer.
Fiber-reinforced concrete is not new. But this variety, developed at the University of Michigan, is said to be 500 times more resistant to cracking than what your sidewalk is made of. It's also 40 percent lighter.
The stuff is called Engineered Cement Composites (ECC).
The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) will use the ECC to replace part of a bridge that crosses Interstate 94. The slab will eliminate the need for expansion joints, which are moveable steel teeth that separate sections of regular concrete. With the ECC, a longer continuous slab will be possible.
The Mihara Bridge, a new structure in Hokkaido, Japan, has a deck of ECC that is a mere 2 inches (5 centimeters) thick. It is expected to open this month.
God bless the folks who have blow-outs on the Mihara Bridge!
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Technology | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBack
April 27, 2005
Hail The iPod!
(Jimmy Akin)
Okay, that allusion is rather obscure, so four points (instead of the usual two) to the person who can supply the two consonants needed to complete the allusion, as well as identifying its source. (Tim J has a shot at this, I happen to know.)
That said, not only may “Hail the iPod!” be obscure, the concept of an iPod itself may be obscure for some folks.
Despite all the buzz about them on the ‘Net, an awful lot of folks aren’t sufficiently addicted to modern media trends (despite Madison Avenue’s best efforts in that regard) to have become iPod-obsessed yet.
Recently, in fact, someone asked me the very sensible question: “What is an iPod?”
I explained it by saying: “It’s like a digital Walkman.”
For anyone remotely tuned in to consumer electronics after 1980, that would do the trick, and it did.
For those even more immune to the blandishments of Madison Avenue, I’ll offer a slightly elaborated elaboration: An iPod is a hand-held device designed to do basically one thing—play audio files like a tape recorder, only without the tape.
Most of the time people play music on their iPods, but they also play spoken-word files, like audiobooks. A favorite format for these files (though not the only one) is the much-touted “.mp3” format that you may have heard of.
How it works is this:
- You pay for sound files that you download off the Internet and onto your computer, or your copy sound files from your CD collection (which you paid for) onto your computer. Or you make your own sound files (which you don’t need to pay for since you’re the copyright holder).
- Then you transfer these sound files to your iPod and then you go out in public and listen to them like a blissed out zombie through
tiny electrodes attached to your braintiny earpieces.This is a process known as “capping.” - You steal music and put it on the iPod and work it off in purgatory and (possibly) jail.
The thing is: iPods are really cool. Almost as cool as digital watches used to be. And they’re all the rage.
One can see why!
I bought an iPod a while back and have been using it constantly. It came in particularly useful on my recent trip. I’ve only filled up my (40 gig) iPod by 10%, but that 10% gives me 12.4 days of continuous listening without having to hear the same song twice (if I don’t want to). At this rate, I could fit four months (124 days) of solid listening onto my iPod.
As you can see, you can fit a huge amount of sound onto an iPod, and it makes packing for a long trip much easier (for me, anyway).
Of late I’ve been taking along all kinds of music CDs on trips, as well as a bunch of abridged audiobooks (since unabridged audiobooks take up too many CDs and are hard to get and expensive), as well as a lot of dead tree books that I’d rather have in electronic format.
Not anymore! (Mostly.)
This time I didn’t take any music CDs or any audiobooks on CD. I just too my iPod, which contained more music and more (unabridged!) audiobooks and downloaded radio shows than I could possibly listen to on the trip. All of the bulky audio stuff I would normally have taken to keep myself aurally entertained and informed was replaced by one tiny device not much bigger than a pack of cards.
My suitcase loved me.
The iPod even replaced dead tree books that I would have previously taken. As I mentioned, the morning I left, I downloaded Cardinal Ratzinger’s interview audiobook Salt of the Earth (from Audible.Com).
But that’s not all!
I’d also converted tons of public-domain writings by fiction authors like H. P. Lovecraft and others to .mp3 format, and these also whacked down on the number of dead tree books I would ordinarily have taken, consuming valuable space and putting additional weight load on my suitcase.
I still succumbed to the temptation of taking a few of books not yet available in electronic form (such as Cardinal Ratzinger’s Introduction to Christianity and Truth and Tolerance), but my suitcase loved me anyway. For a bibliophile such as myself, this was a real change!
To bend the old TV Land slogan, it was “Better Living—Through Technology!”
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