After starting out in the world of smartphones, Google’s Android has since grown its presence in the world of technology by appearing on tablets, televisions, eyewear and more. Now it looks like we may know the market that the Bugdroid has its sights set on next: The world of automobiles. A new report from The Wall Street Journal
claims that Google and Audi are planning to take to the CES stage next
month to announce their plans to create an Android-powered in-car
entertainment system. Sources claim that Google and Audi will team up
with other automotive and technology companies on the effort, including
NVIDIA. Eventually the project could allow drivers and passengers to access
apps, music, navigation and other services that are similar to what’s
already found on Android smartphones. This software would reportedly run
on hardware built directly into the vehicle rather than rely on an
Android-powered smartphone for the heavy lifting. Many of the details of Google and Audi’s work are still a mystery for
now, but it makes sense that The Big G would look to vehicles as a way
to help Android grow. Not only is it still a fairly wide open market,
but Google can use its existing Android app base to ensure that its
in-car system has a large selection of software for consumers at launch.
Plus, as more people adopt smartphones and integrate them into their
daily lives, they’ll want to be connected as much as possible and could
see a familiar-looking Android entertainment system as a good reason to
buy one vehicle over a different one that’s not similarly-equipped. What do you think of the possibility of an Android-powered in-car
entertainment system? Would such a setup influence your decision on
whether or not to purchase a particular vehicle?
Heads up, spec hounds: Samsung
today announced that it has created what it says is the industry’s first
8Gb low power double data rate 4 mobile memory. The chip is made using a
20-nanometer class process technology, and Samsung says that it can
support a data transfer per pin rate of 3200Mbps. Overall Samsung says
that its new 8Gb memory module offers 50 percent better performance than
its LPDDR3 predecessor while consuming 40 percent less power.
So what does this news mean to us consumers? The introduction of 8Gb
LPDDR4 memory could lead to the arrival of smartphones and tablets with
4GB RAM, which is a full gig more than what’s found in high-end devices
like the Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Note 10.1 – 2014 Edition.
Mobile is exactly the market that Samsung is targeting with its new
chip as well, with the company saying that the 8Gb LPDDR4 memory will be
used in smartphones, tablets and laptops with Ultra HD displays.
Samsung expects its 8GB LPDDR4 memory to become available sometime in
2014. No specific products that will take advantage of the new chip
have been named quite yet, but considering that Samsung rolled out the
Note 3 and Note 10.1 – 2014 Edition with 3GB RAM earlier this year, I
wouldn’t be surprised to see the company launch a flagship device or two
with 4GB RAM at some point next year.
Amole Gupte came into prominence with his writing for the
celebrated Taare Zameen Par. One thing that emerged through the film was Amole’s
commitment towards the cause of children. From having worked for years along
with his wife Deepa Bhatia on children’s welfare, rose the fount of stories
from the observation , and thus came about Stanley Ka Dabba.
At the risk of your approach toward the movie being
ruined by Taare Zameen Par, I must mention that though it was Gupte’s
idea, and he was supposed to direct it, until Aamir Khan took up the job and
made it in a manner that Indian audiences commonly find appealing. Every single adult Ishaan
Awasti (Darsheel Safary’s character in Taare Zameen Par) encounters is
portrayed as either cruel or indifferent, until a major Bollywood superstar
turns up as his salvation.
But how Gupte deals
with Stanley, is more real. It isn’t everyday
that one comes across honest cinema with
a message.
When writing about films, I fail to understand why much isn’t
mentioned about the director. An insight into what led to creating the motion
picture. Stanley ka Dabba is essentially Amole Gupte’s story and he weaves it
with his experience.
Stanley, like all kids loves to concoct elaborate stories,
much to everybody’s amusement. He fibs without malice when in trouble, or when
a concerned teacher asks why his face is covered with bruises. And who, unlike
his classmates does not get a ‘dabba’ to school which earns him the ire of a
cussed teacher (played by Amol Gupte) who eyes children’s lunchboxe who berates him for it. Gupte rebukes at norms and tries to break them through the film.
The charm of
the film lies in its real, lucid storytelling. I am refraining from delving
into the plot, because this is essentially an interpretation, more textual than
contextual. For most viewers, the film may require patient viewing to deconstruct.
Gupte’s son Partho (who plays Stanley in the movie) appears
as if he is born into the role.
Food is used as a metaphor in the film for Stanley’s life.
The ‘Dabba’ is what carries that message
So you come across a book title with the names of a mathematician, an artist and arguably the greatest music composer of all time. What are their names doing together on a book title you ask yourself. Well the thing is great men speak truth. And truth can be sought out in anything. This book isn't about math, art or music. It is about life. In an appetizing, thrilling package that will force you to keep turning pages.
Certain ideas in the sciences have been stuffed almost to bursting with metaphoric meaning. Everybody's favorite is the concept of entropy, a measure of disorder in thermodynamics. Entropy tends to increase, and so the world is called on to express a variety of sentiments about the common fate of dissipation and decay. The uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics has been extended, or distended, in a similar way: From the principle that any observer disturbs the thing he measures comes the notion that no bystander is entirely innocent.
The incompleteness theorem proved in 1931 by Kurt Godel seems to be another candidate for metaphoric inflation. It is a great truth, and so it ought to have a large meaning; perhaps it should have the power to change lives. Unlike entropy and uncertainty, however, the incompleteness theorem is not the kind of idea that grabs you by the lapels and insists on being recognized.
The theorem is a variation of the only well-remembered line of the Cretan poet Epimenides, who said, "All Cretans are liars." Another version of the same antinomy is more succinct and more troublesome: It reads, "This sentence is false." The unsettling effect of these statements was for a long time attributed to the looseness and ambiguity of natural languages, where a phrase can refer simultaneously to more than one thing. It was assumed that in a formal language, one constructed on strict rules of logic, no such inconsistent statements could be formulated; they would be unutterable, Gödel showed otherwise.
Gödel's proof employs a formal language invented by Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead, who had set out to build a second foundation for the arithmetic of whole numbers. The language has a vocabulary of symbols and a grammar of rules for combining the symbols to form "strings" which can be interpreted as statements about the properties of numbers. A few simple strings are accepted as axioms, or self-evident truths. Any string of symbols that can be derived from the axioms by applying the grammatical rules must also be true; it is therefore designated a theorem. The language is at once simple and powerful, and until 1931 it appeared to have the satisfying quality of completeness. Russell and Whitehead believed that any true property of the whole numbers could be demonstrated in their language, and that no false propositions could be proved.
The theorem by which Godel upset that believe is a string of symbols in the Russell-Whitehead language that can be interpreted on two levels. In one sense it is a straightforward statement about the natural numbers that seems to be true; at the same time, it represents a statement of "metamathematics" with the evident meaning: "This string of symbols is not a theorem." The paradox of Epimenides is with us again, and this time there is no escaping through the loopholes of language. If the string can be derived from the axioms, then a falsehood has been proved and the Russell-Whitehead language is inconsistent; by implication, so is arithmetic. If the string cannot be derived from the axioms, then there is a true statement about the natural numbers that cannot be proved in the formal language. There is good reason for choosing the latter alternative and concluding that the Russell-Whitehead language is incomplete. In fact, the result is more general than that: Any system of formal logic powerful enough to describe the natural numbers is intrinsically incomplete.
It is easy enough to respond "So what?" No one thinks or speaks a formal language, and arithmetic seems to work quite well even if it is rotten at the core. Douglas R. Hofstadter, who is an assistant professor of computer science at Indiana University, addresses this issue at some length. At the heart of Gödel's theorem he finds the idea of self-reference, which can be viewed as a circular argument collapsed into itself. The same principle operates in other contexts, and in most of them it gives rise to no sensation of paradox.
In his title Professor Hofstadter yokes together Godel, Johann Sebastian Bach and the Dutch artist Maurits Corpelis Escher, and a substantial part of his book is dedicated to showing that this is not such an unlikely team of oxen. Escher is the easier case: his drawings (like the paintings of René Magritte, which are also discussed) have an obvious connection with verbal and mathematical paradox. For example, the print "Waterfall" shows a mill race in which water seems to flow always downhill and yet moves from under the wheel to over it. The image is formally undecidable in the same way that Godel's theorem is: the eye presents the mind with two competing interpretations, and neither one is fully satisfactory. Much other modern art plays a more obvious game of self- reference, asking whether the painting is a symbol or an object and frustrating any attempt to give a definitive answer.
The well-known combinatorial trickery of Bach's canons and fugues gives rise to another rich pattern of ambiguous perceptions. A theme enters, then appears again, inverted or reversed or in a different key or a different tempo; the transformed melody then blends with its original. Figure and ground may unexpectedly change roles. Even though each of the notes is heard distinctly--and in Bach the notes have a logic only slightly less formal than that of the Russell-Whitehead language-- the ear cannot always resolve their relationship. Douglas Hofstadter would not argue that awareness of the underlying mathematics contributes much to appreciation of the music, but the music does illuminate the math. And, less seriously, there is at least one instance of explicit self- reference in Bach's work. In the last measures of the "Art of Fugue," written just before the composer died, he introduced a four-note melody that when transcribed in the German system of notation spells "B-A-C-H."
Escher and Bach are only the beginning of Professor Hofstadter's Shandean digressions. He traces connections that lead from Godel's theorem to Zen, where contradiction is cherished, to the social insects, where it is not clear whether the ant or the entire colony should be regarded as the organism; to television cameras pointed at television screens, to "elementary" particles of matter made up of still smaller elementary particles. He constructs a quite elaborate analogy between the incompleteness theorem and the transmission of genetic information encoded in the nucleotide sequences of DNA; here the self-reference of the theorem is comparable to the self-replication of the molecule. Most of all, he is at pains to present the implications of Godel's proof for theories of the human mind (and of artificial intellects). In the mind, the entire procedure of the Godel proof seems to be repeated: A large but mechanistic, rule-following system, when it grows complex enough, develops the capacity for self-reference, which in this context is called consciousness.
Professor Hofstadter's presentation of these ideas is not rigorous, in the mathematical sense, but all the essential steps are there; the reader is not asked to accept results on authority or on faith. Nor is the narrative rigorous in the uphill-hiking sense, for the author is always ready to take the reader's hand and lead him through the thickets. Someone seeking no more than an introduction to Godel's work would probably do better to look into a little book published 20 years ago by Ernest Nagel and James R. Newman, "Godel's Proof," which is just as clear and thorough and is only one percent as long. But Douglas Hofstadter's book is a more ambitious project. It is also a more pretentious one. To accompany each expository chapter, the author has provided a whimsical dialogue cast in the form of a Bach composition. For example, one dialogue has the form of a canon cancrizans, which is the same when read forward or backward. Some may find these interludes amusing. For my part, I was strongly reminded that the challenge of writing such a piece is not in throwing the melodies together according to rule, but in making music of them.
There’s no doubt about it. Windows Phone is growing, both in mind
share and market share. The platform itself is also maturing, albeit
very slowly. Even application development is on a steady rise. Earlier this month,
the Windows Phone store reached an impressive and very important
milestone: 200,000 applications. Comparatively, this is quite small, though. Both Google Play and App
Store are home to over 1,000,000 applications each. However, Windows
Phone is considerably younger than its counterparts. And its application
development growth was once fairly comparable to the App Store and
Google Play. It took App Store 16 months to reach 100,000 applications.
Similarly, it took Android 24 months. Windows Phone Store split the
difference, reaching 100,000 apps after just 20 months. There’s more to the story, though. From before the time Windows Phone
officially launched, Microsoft has given many developers incentive to
develop for its new mobile platform, such as, well … money. According to
CNET, the amount varies anywhere from $60,000 to $600,000,
and firms like Foursquare claim it never would have been able to
develop for Windows Phone had Microsoft not provided financial
resources.
Reports as recent as July
corroborate Microsoft’s bribe tactic. But the monetary incentives are
reportedly only offered to high-profile developers who already have
popular applications on other platforms. No developers have ever been
named directly, but it’s not difficult to pick out the popular
applications which have been ported over to Microsoft’s mobile OS. This
year alone, we’ve seen Temple Run, Instagram, Vine, Spotify, Waze, and
more. With Microsoft shelling out tons of cash and even dropping $100 into
developers’ laps for each new application submission, we’d say the
company has given developers a proper reason to want to at least try
developing for Windows Phone. But all those incentives still hasn’t made
the Windows Phone Store a complete, roaring success like it should
have. There are now 200,000 applications in the Windows Phone Store
– a fair and respectable amount. However, if we look at the
competitors, who do not give developers incentives at all (at least not
openly), the growth has slowed considerably. For comparison, it only
took Apple’s App Store five months to grow from 100,000 to 200,000
applications, and it only took Google Play seven months to do the same.
It took 18 months for the Windows Phone Store to reach 200,000
applications after hitting the 100,000 app milestone. That’s over three
times as long as iOS and more than double the time it took Android.
A
quick score in the beginning, however, doesn’t necessarily mean the
investment of time (or continued development) of apps is worthwhile. And
although developers receive $100 for each application submission to the
Windows Phone Store, that’s not nearly enough to earn a living. In fact, earning a living is much more difficult on the Windows Phone
store than it is on either App Store or Google Play, according to a
small sample survey of 6,000 developers in 15 different countries from Vision Mobile.
The findings note Windows Phone developers earn an average of $3,600
per month, compared to $5,200 and $4,700 per month on App Store and
Google Play, respectively. While $3,600 is nothing to scoff at (especially if you have
applications on all three stores), those numbers are just averages,
taken from a relatively small sample survey. Most developers, I imagine,
can only hope to make that each month. In January 2012, Elbert Perez provided a look into his Windows Phone earnings from 2011. He earned $61,321.59. Not bad, right? Well, Perez had 15 add-supported applications at the time. 15!
He earned an average of $5,110.13 per month, but only $340.68 per
month, per app. Still, following his story forward just three months, in
April, his average monthly revenue had dropped from around $4,000 to $2,000 due to competition and having to work other side jobs.
Photo via Forbes
Forbes, with some rough math and inexact approximations,
based on official numbers from each store, corroborates Vision Mobile’s
findings – not with exact numbers, but the meaning of the numbers. The average revenue per application
is $625 for Windows Phone, $1,125 for Android, and $4,000 for iOS. The
respective revenue per developer is $2,222 on Windows Phone, $6,000 on
Android, and $21,276 for iOS. Simply put, Windows Phone isn’t yet big enough to support sustainable
income for a lot of developers. And because of that, at least one
popular developer is hopping off the Windows Phone bandwagon, Aviary.
Photo Editor by Aviary is one of the more popular photo editors on
Android and iOS. When a user asked about further support for Windows
Phone 8, Aviary responded with:
“Hi Chris, Due to lack of general
platform traction we are discontinuing development of Aviary technology
on Windows / Windows Phone. Any currently released Aviary SDK or app for
Windows should therefore be considered as-is and unsupported going
forwards. However, your feedback is much appreciated and will be
considered should we decide to revisit developing for Windows in the
future. I apologize I couldn’t be of better assistance. Please don’t
hesitate to contact me if you have any additional questions.”
The good news? Windows Phone is stronger than ever. And it’s finally
beginning to weasel its way out of the catch-22 it’s been caught in for
years: there weren’t enough users to support developers who create great
apps, and at the same time there were not enough developers creating
great apps for users to want to buy into the platform. One interesting find from Forbes’ rough math? The actual revenue per
download on Windows Phone is more than both Android and iOS – $0.1538,
compared to $0.01875 and $0.10, respectively. With continued platform
growth, the Windows Phone Store could eventually become a force to be
reckoned with. For now, it will continue to experience growing pains, and it will suffer losses like Aviary along the way. But it’s no longer a matter of developers trying to determine if
there’s a light at the end of the tunnel; it’s about determining if that
light is getting bigger and closer all the time, and convincing
themselves it isn’t staying the same.
--Pocketnow
There has been a lot of chatter surrounding the idea of 64-bit mobile
processors ever since Apple used it as marketing buzz with its new
iPhone 5s. We pointed out that it could be a while before iOS users
actually see any real benefit from the 64-bit A7 processor, and now Qualcomm is saying that the processor will actually offer "zero benefit" to users.
As
we have pointed out, the main advantage of 64-bit processing is in
addressing over 4GB of RAM, and the iPhone 5s only offers 1GB of RAM.
Qualcomm's senior vice president and chief marketing officer, Anand
Chandrasekher, echoes this point and adds "You don't really need it for
performance, and the kinds of applications that 64-bit get used in
mostly are large, server-class applications." He also says on the
topic:
I
know there's a lot of noise because Apple did [64-bit] on their A7. I
think they are doing a marketing gimmick. There's zero benefit a
consumer gets from that.
Chandrasekher
also said that it "makes sense" for Qualcomm to get into 64-bit mobile
chips "from an engineering efficiency standpoint", so it does make his
comments a bit odd. He did not say when Qualcomm would introduce a
64-bit chip, but did say that he doesn't believe consumer or hardware
makers will be drive demand for 64-bit chips. That makes us wonder what
exactly would would drive demand, if anything.
Of course, the noise about 64-bit has extended beyond Apple, because Samsung has not only promised "64-bit functionality", we have heard that Samsung is in the final stages of designing a 64-bit Exynos
processor. And, since Android already has 64-bit support built in
because of its Linux kernel base, it should be easy enough for Samsung
to implement. But, Samsung will face the same issue that apps won't be
optimized, so the actual benefits could be negligible.
From a father's desperate search for his missing
daughter to the true story of rivalry between two Formula One car
drivers, Hollywood's topography this year was rich with films that went
beyond entertainment and provided a wholesome cinematic experience.
We list the 10 best Hollywood films of 2013 that released in India:
Prisoners: A
story that revolves around the search for two missing girls, Denis
Villeneuve's "Prisoners" is one of the finest thrillers to come out of
Hollywood this year albeit blood and corpses. Is it acceptable to do the
wrong to get to the right? The film presents an opportunity for us to
find answers to these questions, which in essence form the premise. Hugh
Jackman as the grieving father chips in a career best performance.
Gravity: Alfonso
Cuaron's "Gravity" is a visually stunning film that literally makes you
float as you leave the cinema hall. It is the most successful Hollywood
flick of the year in India, making a whopping Rs.40 crore and
successfully completing 50-day runs in several cities. The film is about
a space shuttle that is destroyed and its medical engineer and a
veteran astronaut who are stranded in space.
Mud: No
actor across the globe had a better year than Matthew McConaughey, who
proved why he is the most talented in the business with films such as
"Magic Mike" and "Dallas Buyers Club". In "Mud", a coming-of-age story,
Matthew plays a drifter who lives in a boat on a tree. The film explores
the unlikely friendship between him and two 14-year-olds.
Monsters University: You
don't have to be a fan of animation films to like "Monsters
University", a prequel to highly successful "Monsters, Inc". The story
tracks the college days of two most lovable animated characters Mike
Wachowski and James P. Sullivan, who from being worst enemies grow on to
become best friends. All that you want to know about team work is
imbibed in the film with a dash of humour.
Django Unchained: Who
doesn't love a Quentin Tarantino picture? In this brilliant and brutal
spaghetti western, Tarantino paints an atrociously violent tale of
revenge against the backdrop of slave plantation of pre-civil war
America. Featuring Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained" is
the most ruthlessly violent film to come from the factory of Tarantino.
Warm Bodies: Can
love bring someone from the dead? Well, it does in "Warm Bodies", about
an unusual zombie falling in love with a beautiful young girl. It's a
simple yet powerful film about human connection and love even during an
apocalypse.
Captain Philips: A
riveting recounting of a true story, director Paul Greengrass took on a
terrain very few filmmakers would dare to and succeeded in it. "Captain
Philips" focusses on the 2009 hijacking of an American cargo ship by
Somali pirates. The film, at heart, is about the victims of
globalization and what they do for a living.
About Time: Known
for churning out memorable romantic flicks such as "Love Actually" and
"Notting Hill", filmmaker Richard Curtis tugs at yours hearts with
"About Time", a surprisingly thoughtful romantic-comedy and a
coming-of-age story of a young man with a special gift to go back in
time. Domhnall Gleeson is a perfect successor to Hugh Grant, who was
popularised by Curtis many years ago.
Rush: You
don't have to know about Formula One racing to watch Ron Howard's
"Rush", which captures the rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda
with an adrenaline pumping narrative. Greed, ambition, focus and
attitude are explored in detail in the film, which was powered by the
performances of Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Bruhl and Hans Zimmer's
electrifying score.
Pacific Rim: To
save the world from monstrous sea creatures, filmmaker Guillermo Del
Toro created giant human-controlled robots in his magnum opus "Pacific
Rim", which was visually grand and entertaining from the get go. If you
thought the visuals weren't enough to blow you away, then you should
listen to the soundtrack by Ramin Djawadi.
Which is your favourite 2013 Hollywood Film? Tell us in the comments below.
China's Chang'e 3 spacecraft has successfully landed on the moon. Read the full story here: China Lands On The Moon: Historic Robotic Lunar Landing Includes 1st Chinese Rover
China's first moon rover mission is poised for a weekend landing on the
lunar surface, an event that — if successful — will mark the country's
first robotic landing on another celestial body.
China's Chang'e 3 lunar lander is
currently orbiting the moon with its solar panels and landing legs
deployed. If all goes well, the lander — which is carrying China's first
robotic rover — for a planned soft-landing on Saturday, Dec. 14,
Beijing Time at Sinus Iridum, also known the Bay of Rainbows.
Once on the moon, the lander will unleash the instrument-laden Yutu rover,
a six-wheeled robot built to trundle across the dusty, time-weathered
terrain for months. Yutu — which means "Jade Rabbit" — is named after
the rabbit that travels with the goddess Chang'e to the moon in Chinese
legends. [See photos from China's Chang'e 3 moon landing and rover mission]
The solar-powered Yutu rover comes equipped with cameras, a robotic arm
tipped with science sensors and a radar system attached to its
underbelly. The stationary lander itself is instrumented to observe
Earth, astronomically eye other celestial objects from the moon, as well as watch the Yutu rover scamper about.
More than meets the eye
The surface of the moon has not been visited for decades.
Apollo 17 moonwalkers packed up their belongings and rocketed off that
barren landscape in 1972. Last to explore the moon was the former Soviet
Union's robotic Luna 24 sample return mission in 1976.
If successful, the Chang'e 3 mission will mark the first time a Chinese spacecraft has touched down on the surface of an extraterrestrial body.
"I think a successful landing and rover operations will be of enormous
significance for lunar exploration," said Ian Crawford of the Department
of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Birkbeck College, University of
London.
"Just being the first controlled soft-landing on the lunar surface for
37 years would be significant enough, but a successful deployment of
only the third robotic rover, and the first equipped with modern
instruments, will be remarkable," Crawford told SPACE.com.
And apparently there is more to this mission than meets the eye — given
what's known about the Chang'e 3's payload for prospecting.
China's moon science
Crawford said Yutu's ground-penetrating radar, or GPR for short, is one
of the most "significant instruments" on the rover. For one, that
hardware may reveal the scale of bedding of individual basaltic flows in
Sinus Iridum. That data may help identify ancient regoliths, or
"paleoregoliths," he said. [The Moon: 10 Surprising Facts]
"I have long been interested in the very rich scientific records, which
may be trapped in palaeoregoliths sandwiched between lava flows,"
Crawford said, and Sinus Iridum would be an excellent location to test
the concept.
There are indications, Crawford said, such layers were detected by the orbital radar carried by Japan's Kaguya moon probe.
It was launched in 2007, orbited the moon for a year and eight months,
and was purposely impacted on the lunar surface in June 2009.
If palaeoregolith layers exist within the uppermost 330 feet (100
meters) or so of the moon's topside, then the Chang'e 3 mission should
detect them, Crawford said. While China’s radar-toting spacecraft won't
have any means to access such buried layers, "I think the validation of
GPR as a means for detecting them, and confirmation of their existence,
would be a major contribution to future exploration plans," he said.
Mining potential
Chinese space officials have been clear about surveying the moon and then tapping it for its resources.
"China has made no secret of their interest in lunar Helium-3 fusion
resources," said Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, a former Apollo 17 moonwalker
and professional geologist. He is author of the book, "Return to the
Moon — Exploration, Enterprise, and Energy in the Human Settlement of
Space."
Rare on Earth, Helium-3, rooted in the moon's upper surface by billions
of years of solar wind blasting, could be mined to energize fusion
reactors. That initiative has long been advocated by Schmitt. [See Photos from Chang'e 3's Launch to the Moon]
Yutu's belly-mounted radar could give the depth of minable regolith and
also identify boulders in that regolith large enough to cause mining
problems, Schmitt told SPACE.com. "In fact, I would assume that this
mission is both a geopolitical statement and a test of some hardware and
software related to mining and processing of the lunar regolith."
Schmitt said that NASA's now on-duty Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)
has radar aboard that has obtained some very useful data. For example,
it identified a buried, second fault that crosses the valley of
Taurus-Littrow, the site that Eugene Cernan and Schmitt inspected on the
Apollo 17 mission in December 1972.
Furthermore, Apollo 17's
Command Module pilot, Ronald Evans, operated a radar "sounder" from the
Command Service Module in lunar orbit. "I understand that people are
still actively trying to process that data," Schmitt said.
Geophysical exploration
Pascal Lee, a planetary scientist and chairman of the Mars Institute at
the NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., had done
noteworthy work with ground-penetrating radar.
GPR can indeed be considered an In-situ Resource Utilization (ISRU)
instrument, Lee said, in that GPRs are commonly used on Earth in
geophysical exploration. They are used, he told SPACE.com, as the
initial phase of subsurface reconnaissance that precedes any actual
exploitation — or utilization — of resources.
"GPR is a profiling instrument, so it is expected to be operating while
the rover is roving, as opposed to when it’s stopped at any particular
location," Lee said.
Lunar radar returns
GPR usually has a dipole antenna setup, so one antenna transmits a
radar signal into the ground, while the other antenna receives the
echoed signal, Lee said. Radar returns are triggered by discontinuities
in the physical properties underground, for instance when more or less
electrically conducting materials are encountered by the incoming radar
signal, he said.
"The time of return of various echoed signals tells you how deep things
are. The shape and polarization of the returning signal tells you what
types of materials are encountered," Lee said. "If different sounding
frequencies are available on the GPR, which seems to be the case on the
Chinese rover, the higher frequencies are used for probing to shallow
depths while the lower frequencies, longer wavelength, are used to probe
to greater depths," he said.
Usually, GPR does not do well in the presence of liquid water in the
ground, Lee said. "In the case of the moon, we are in GPR heaven, and
the subsurface is expected to be bone dry when it comes to any liquid water."
Excavation plans
Lee said that the GPR on Yutu is expected to be a subsurface structural
profiler. If that's the case, at higher frequencies, it will provide
profiles of subsurface material transitions down to a depth of about 100
feet (30 meters).
"It should, therefore, be able to tell us where the lunar regolith
transitions to more compact underlying materials. At lower frequencies,
it will generate profiles of the deeper subsurface structure of the moon, down to hundreds of meters, provided the rover can rove over distances of order hundreds of meters or more," Lee said.
From an ISRU perspective, it's mostly the high-frequency soundings,
down to a depth of 30 meters or so that will be most informative, as
they will tell you how deep the lunar rubble layer is, "an important
piece of information if one has future excavation plans," Lee said. The
deep sounding of the lunar subsurface, he said, down to hundreds of
meters is more of value in an academic and possible geologic context, he
said.
First order data
The Chang'e rover's GPR is thought to have a penetration depth of 100
feet to nearly 330 feet (30 meters to 100 meters). It apparently can
operate in two wavelengths, giving it very high resolution at shallow
depths to penetrate through the regolith and into the mare basalts. The
other GPR wavelength can penetrate through the regolith and into the
mare basalts.
Once operating on the moon, the GPR should provide some first order
data, said Jeff Plescia, a space scientist at Johns Hopkins University's
Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.
Plescia also chairs NASA's Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG),
chartered to assist the space agency in planning the scientific
exploration of the moon. [Photos: New Views of Apollo Moon Landing Sites]
The subsurface distribution of boulders on the moon is unknown, Plescia
told SPACE.com. The late astrogeologist, Gene Shoemaker, argued years
ago that the subsurface distribution should resemble the surface
distribution, Plescia said.
"But there is no data. The trenches that were dug during the [Apollo]
missions did not go very deep and there were only one or two instances
where they thought they hit a rock either in drilling or with a cone
penetrometer…which might suggest rocks are rare," Plescia said.
Radar equipment onboard NASA's LRO does get some penetration, as does
Earth-based Goldstone and Arecibo radar dishes, Plescia said. "But given
the spatial resolution it would be more statistical than actually
mapping boulders as Chang'e 3 could do," he said.
Visit SPACE.com for the latest news on China's space missions and the Chang'e 3 moon landing. Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more
than five decades. He is former director of research for the National
Commission on Space and is co-author of Buzz Aldrin's new book "Mission
to Mars – My Vision for Space Exploration" published by National
Geographic. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Original article onSPACE.com.
In the wake of a postponement in mid-production due to the death of
actor Paul Walker in a Valencia car crash on November 30, Universal
Pictures is moving "Fast and Furious 7" from July 11, 2014, to Friday,
April 10, 2015. The studio and filmmaker James Wan (taking over
from Justin Lin) have been trying to figure out how to continue
production on the lucrative franchise. This announcement confirms that
the studio will proceed the race car franchise, which stars Vin Diesel.
On Sunday night he posted on Facebook the new release date; Walker will
be in the film, a source close to the movie told THR, even though he was unable to complete all his scheduled scenes. Here's the Diesel posting:
"The
last scene we filmed together…There was a unique sense of completion,
of pride we shared… in the film we were now completing… the magic
captured… and, in just how far we've come… Fast and Furious 7 will be
released… April 10th 2015! P.s. He'd want you to know first…"
Neal H. Moritz and Diesel return as producers.
It's not often you hear someone say 'Willy Wonka meets the Matrix', do you? But that's exactly what New York Times had to say about Ready Player One and this reviewer strongly echoes their views. Ernest Cline's debut book, one that explores love, war, greed and the overall decadence of humanity, is a truly interesting read.
Yep. The book cover is *that* intriguing.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune--and remarkable power--to whoever can unlock them. For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are based in the pop culture he loved--that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape from the real world, one which is falling apart primarily due to negligence, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday's icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes's oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig. And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle. Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt--among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life--and love--in the real world he's always been so desperate to escape. A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. For most of the first half of this book, I was unimpressed. The writing is flat, and the story unremarkable. The book gets hype because of its pervasive use of 1980s popular culture, particularly its references to science fiction, fantasy, and video games. The problem is that most of these references serve no purpose. Something is described by pointing out its resemblance to something from a film or television show—a particularly annoying form of "telling, rather than showing" given that a reader of the wrong age or background won't know the reference—but said reference adds nothing to the events at hand. Either that, or the reference is carried to cringe-worthy, fan-fiction-grade extremes. For instance, in one scene, the online avatar of the main character, Wade Watts (known online as Parzival) pilots a DeLorean DMC-12 resembling the one used in the Back to the Future films, except for the addition of the computerized voice and sweeping red light of KITT from Knight Rider, a pair of Ghost Busters logos adorning the doors, and a license plate reading "ECTO 88". Whether mentioned in passing or over the top like the aforementioned mash-up car, however, virtually all of these allusions are brought up and then dropped in the space of a sentence. The DeLorean, for example, takes up a couple of paragraphs and is then never used again. Ready Player One doesn't draw from 1980s popular culture; it just name-drops it all over the place. Sometimes it seemed the only purpose for these references is that the author and reader could share a knowing, self-congratulating smile. The notion of a "massively multiplayer" online role-playing game becoming the human race's main form of entertainment presents some amusing possibilities, though, and Ready Player One doesn't completely squander its potential. The moment when I started to enjoy the book came about halfway through, in a chapter describing a day in Wade's life some time after his break-up with Art3mis. Cline shows him putting his life in order, rescuing his health and habits from the pallid, flabby state a life online had put them in. His avatar Parzival, previously a penniless high school student, becomes one of the coolest, most powerful characters in the OASIS. But then, at the end of the chapter, in a moment of insight, Wade realizes that all the good things in his life only exist inside in a world that isn't real. Despite his accomplishments, he lives alone in a featureless one-room apartment, never going or even looking outside. Cline takes the familiar narrative arc of, "boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy falls into depression, boy turns his life around" and twists it in a way that I found interesting. Cline shares the late twentieth century computer geek's vision of the Internet as a benevolent force. Wade has genuine feelings of friendship and love for his online friends, people he would never have met offline, people with whom he shares bonds of mutual interests and ideals rather than geography. An online world is one without racism or other prejudices. (Or at least, it's a world where you can avoid these prejudices by configuring your avatar appropriately. Let's not go into the implications of that.) Furthermore, despite its post-energy-crisis shabbiness, the world of Ready Player One is one in which the good guys have won: free speech, privacy, and "net neutrality" all rule the day. At the same time, no matter how cool he tries to make the OASIS (and I admit, it is cool), Cline is conflicted about it. Its pleasures are tempered by the fact that for many of its players it serves as a drug, distracting them from the shabby state of real life in late twenty-first century Earth. Wade's dissatisfaction with a life spent entirely online is explored throughout the book, though never deeply. I would have liked to see the book explore this tension between the unifying and isolating effects of the online world in more detail. The idea of falling in love with someone you've never met is an interesting one though. And Cline explores it with brilliance. The OASIS is a place where you can change your appearance, age and even gender. What you cannot change though, is your personality. People exist as nothing but raw personality in the OASIS and it is something our protagonist learns to value over time. In summary, Ready Player One touches on some interesting ideas, although it doesn't explore them as deeply as I would have liked. The writing is nothing special, but it gets the job done. The story gets more interesting in the second half, and the annoying popular culture references become less frequent. I'm glad I stuck it out to the end. And one the bright side the overcrowding of references might just be a good way to rediscover late twentieth century pop-culture, much like Halliday's quest urged our protagonist to. Even though it doesn't deserve the hype it is getting in nerd circles, Ready Player One is a decent read. And with another book by Ernest Cline, Armada, soon to be published, Ready Player One can be used to get a taste of Cline. I'd rate the book 7 out of 10 but Cline has his moments of brilliance throughout. Some might even call Cline to be the William Gibson of our generation. Will Armada live up to its expectations? Stay tuned.
Cline shows remarkable promise. Will he live up to it?
Killer Bugs vs. Killer 8 year Olds.
No, this isn't a post about one of those America's Funniest Home Videos. Yes, this is serious stuff. Well if you are an avid reader that is. So what am I talking about? Orson Scott Card. If you haven't read any of his works before, Ender's Game is a great place to start.
One devastating attack on humanity by an intergalactic colony of insects. Or buggers, as the world now likes to call them. As the humans prepare, another attack. By a bigger army. Outnumbered, outmaneuvered and overpowered humanity reaches its doom. And then a savior. Mazer Rackham. Saved by the tactical genius of one man, humanity limps on.
And now we move eighty years or so into the future. Humanity is thriving. Living in constant fear of a "Third Invasion" but thriving. But there is a downside to thriving too. A very real one which we face even now. Overpopulation. Every family is required by law to not have more than 2 children. But the government is also recruiting soldiers. Preparing for the third invasion. One they suspect is not too far away. And when they find two siblings, both having severe potential, yet both getting disqualified due to mysterious other reasons which have 'nothing to do with their abilities' the government orders a third child. One that might be just perfect. One that might turn out to be a second Mazer Rackham. Enter Ender. Real name Andrew. Ender is what his sister calls him because he finally might end this terror.
But how does his elder brother treat him? How does he get treated when Ender is living proof that his brother wasn't good enough?
Read on to find out. And of course the government is hiding something. What are these mysterious reasons that disqualified Peter and Valentine, Ender's siblings? And how can they be so sure an invasion is upcoming? And why is no one ever showed what actually happened at the deciding historic fight of Mazer Rackham's fleet of a few starships against the formidable apocalyptic army of the Buggers?
A gripping thriller by a master storyteller, Ender's Game will have you hooked till the end. With plot-twists everytime you expect that all has been revealed, you will never forget this experience. With the deepest philosophical questions arising from the simplest of matters you will be left shaken to your roots. And if you think you haven't gotten enough this is only one in a long series of books. But if you think you do not have the time to get a new favorite series reading this book as just one will suffice.
So, are you ready?
Oh and did I mention? He is 12 when he saves humanity.
So, what's up guys? It's the holiday season and Christmas is nearly upon us... We all know what that means, it's time for another shower of christmas and new year posts to come on social networks, people singing christmas carols, kids waiting up late night for Santa and in the tech world, to look back at this awesome year and reflects on some of the greatest devices to come out. I'll have links to some of the good videos on YouTube. But for the mean time, I'm here to blog about some odd connections to christmas. Some scenes from our favourite telly series or movies we didn't expect Christmas in, scenes that brought out a deeper connection to it. So without further ado, let's have a look shall we?
The legend of Santa Claus
Christmas decorations
So now, let's check out what made the Top 10 list... By the way, the list is in no particular order. SPOILER ALERT: The blog may contain spoilers so proceed at your own risk!!
1.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Part 1
Harry and Hermione at his parents grave in Godric's Hollow
Harry Potter is as big a part of our childhoods as Oreos, Cartoons, Tom & Jerry and junk food. It is the first time we got introduced to the magical realm... And who can forget the moment when Harry and Hermione for the first time visit Harry's home, Godric's Hollow. The legendary birthplace of Godric Gryffindor, Albus Dumbledore and of course Harry himself. The sad moment when he sees his ruined house and his parents graves and the excitement on discovering the grave of Ignotus Peverell. Well, all of these were as big moments as they could get but we can't overlook the small parts for example,
By far and wide Robert Downey Jr. is at the time one of the most famous actors alive. His various roles as the intrepid detective, Sherlock Holmes and the eccentric billionaire and superhero Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man are works of art. Then in The Avengers, Stark upgrades the Arc Reactor technology to power Stark Tower by self-sustaining clean energy. The conversation with Pepper Potts to follow has a thing or two to do with Christmas.
Pepper: Are we off the grid?
Tony: Stark Tower is about to become a beacon of self-sustaining clean energy. Light her up!
*Stark Tower powers up
Pepper: How does it look?
Tony: Like Christmas but with more... ME!
3. The Big Bang Theory
Season 2 Episode 11- The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis
A rare Sheldon hug
It's Christmas time in The Big Bang Theory and Penny wants to buy gifts for Sheldon and Leonard. Sheldon, not being comfortable with the concept of giving a gift of approximately equal value in return, comes up with a plan to buy several 'bath item gifts' of various price ranges so as to have an appropriate gift for Penny. But then Penny gifts Sheldon with a napkin used by Leonard Nimoy himself which also said "Live long and Prosper - Leonard Nimoy". Sheldon considered the gift priceless and decided to give Penny all the gifts he had bought to choose from. Then thinking it was still not worth enough, Sheldon gives Penny a rare hug.
4. The Joker
The Ace of Knaves
Batman's arch nemesis, the Clown Prince of Crime, the most maniacal and charismatic villain ever, The Joker... But what possible connection can he have with Christmas? Well, that connection came in the Batman Arkham Origins game. The Joker got his theme song in a modified version of famed christmas carol "Carol of the Bells". And somehow, the feel of the song combined with the new bits of music brought the essence of the Joker into the christmas carol. Never had I imagined to see Christmas with part of the Joker.
In this Christmasy episode of Boston Legal, Alan Moore defends a cross-dresser who was fired from his job of playing Santa Claus for the same. With the help of Reverend Al Sharpton, he miraculously wins the case and also with it wins a bet with a fellow lawyer at the firm, where the loser plays the winner's 'Elf".
6. How I Met Your Mother
Season 2 Episode 11- How Lily Stole Christmas
Ted and Lily
Marshall has to go to work, and while leaving he goes out with his eyes closed so that Lily's christmas decorations are a gift for him at Christmas. But as events unfold, Lily finds out that Ted had called her a 'bad word' when Lily and Marshall had broken up in the past. In her anger Lily took away the decorations, but later returned them when she calmed down, leaving Marshall none-the-wiser about what had happened.
Meanwhile, Barney is too sick to party!!!
7. Supernatural
Season 3 Episode 8- A Very Supernatural Christmas
Dean and Sam celebrate Christmas
Anti-Santa, Pagan Gods and Beer... That's pretty much a supernatural Christmas alright. Here, Sam and Dean investigate murders committed by an anti-Santa who pulls his victims up the chimney; and Dean wants to celebrate a traditional Christmas since it will be his last, but Sam refuses, not wanting to accept that Dean won't be around next year. While investigating, they find that the murders are actually the work of Pagan Gods who were hiding as townsfolk the Carrigans. As the events unfold the Winchesters manage to 'gank' them and put a stop to the murders. To finish the show off, Sam and Dean Winchester celebrate what was to be their last Christmas together.
Dean being tortured the the Gods
Carrigan: You know what I say when I feel like swearing? Fudge.
Dean: If you fudging touch me again, I'll Fudging Kill You!!
8. Sherlock
Season 2 Episode 1- A Scandal in Belgravia
Sherlock plays violin at Christmas
With Sherlock season 3 coming up, what better way to pass time than by revisiting the past episodes. And among them, who can forget the episode with Irene Adler's debut. The beginning, the tempting scenes of Irene Adler, and the "I am SHERLOCKED" moment. One of the best episodes of Sherlock to date and all of the moments of deciphering codes are just rightly balanced by all the happy Christmas and New Year cherishing moments.
I AM SHER- LOCKED
9. Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
An elf who was mistaken for Santa Claus
A dark take at the Santa Claus story, where Americans plan on excavating from underneath a mountain Santa Claus, who is buried there frozen in ice. The protagonist Pietari, meanwhile reads out about Santa and finds the old legends behind him. This is a story of a kid who overcame his fears and defended his loved ones from the dangerous elves (one of whom they had captured and mistaken for Santa) and the real monstrous Santa Claus.
The group discover the monstrous Santa buried in his icy tomb
10. Home Alone
Home Alone- pizza scene
Well, we're at the end of the list now. So what better way to top it off than with a childhood classic...
The entire Home Alone series stands as an example of the importance of family in Christmas. But leave that alone, and what we remember are the totally uncanny and downright hilarious methods implied in fighting off burglars. A childhood tale we all remember, if this series is not in the essence of Christmas, I don't know what is... And Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal!!
So guys I'm pretty much done here, so I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!
P.S.- Here are some tech videos I promised at the start:
Both videos are really great and it shows that people with good choice tend to think similar...
With this I'm out. If you have any different opinions be sure to leave them in the comments or if you have to say something to me you can always message me up on my g+ id. The link is below
