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Inside This Article 1. Introduction to How Home Networking Works 2. Building a Home Network 3. Wired Networks 4. Wireless Networks 5. New Home Network Technology 6. Lots More Information 7. See all Networking articles New Home Network Technology New developments in home networks involve more than just home offices and entertainment systems. Some of the most exciting advances are in healthcare and housing. In healthcare, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) let doctors monitor patients wirelessly. Patients wear wireless sensors that transmit data through specialized channels. These signals contain information about vital signs, body functions, patient behavior and their environments. In the case of an unusual data transmission -- like a sudden spike in blood pressure or a report that an active patient has become suddenly still -- an emergency channel picks up the signal and sends medical services to the patient's home. The housing industry is another important field for home network technology development. Bill Gates owns one of the few smart houses in existence, but someday, we might all live in one. A smart house is a fully networked structure with functions that can be controlled from a central computer, making it an ideal technology for homeowners who travel frequently or for homeowners who simply want it all."
Inside This Article 1. Introduction to How WiMAX Works 2. How WiMAX Works 3. What Can WiMAX Do? 4. Dollars and Cents 5. The WiMAX Scenario 6. Lots More Information 7. See all Connectivity articles The WiMAX Scenario Here's what would happen if you got WiMAX. An Internet service provider sets up a WiMAX base station 10 miles from your home. You would buy a WiMAX-enabled computer (some of them should be on store shelves in 2005) or upgrade your old computer to add WiMAX capability. You would receive a special encryption code that would give you access to the base station. The base station would beam data from the Internet to your computer (at speeds potentially higher than today's cable modems), for which you would pay the provider a monthly fee. The cost for this service could be much lower than current high-speed Internet-subscription fees because the provider never had to run cables. Network scale The smallest-scale network is a personal area network (PAN). A PAN allows devices to communicate with each other over short distances. Bluetooth is the best example of a PAN. The next step up is a local area network (LAN). A LAN allows devices to share information, but is limited to a fairly small central area, such as a company's headquarters, a coffee shop or your house. Many LANs use WiFi to connect the network wirelessly. WiMAX is the wireless solution for the next step up in scale, the metropolitan area network (MAN). A MAN allows areas the size of cities to be connected."
Inside This Article 1. Introduction to How Digital Cameras Work 2. A Filmless Camera 3. Digital Camera Resolution 4. Capturing Color 5. More on Capturing Color 6. Exposure and Focus 7. Storing Digital Photos 8. Summary 9. Lots More Information 10. See all Digital Cameras articles In the past twenty years, most of the major technological breakthroughs in consumer electronics have really been part of one larger breakthrough. When you get down to it, CDs, DVDs, HDTV, MP3s and DVRs are all built around the same basic process: converting conventional analog information (represented by a fluctuating wave) into digital information (represented by ones and zeros, or bits). This fundamental shift in technology totally changed how we handle visual and audio information -- it completely redefined what is possible."
In a transatlantic flight, a plane passes through a severe storm. The turbulence is awful, and things go from bad to worse when one wing is struck by lightning. One woman in particular loses it. Screaming, she stands up in the front of the plane. “I’m too young to die!” she wails. Then she yells, “Well, if I’m going to die, I want my last minutes on Earth to be memorable! Is there ANYONE on this plane who can make me feel like a WOMAN??” For a moment there is silence. Everyone has forgotten their own peril, and they all stare, riveted, at the desperate woman in the front of the plane. Then, a man stands up in the rear of the plane. “I can make you feel like a woman,” he says. He’s gorgeous. Tall, built, with black hair and jet black eyes, he starts to walk slowly up the aisle, unbuttoning his shirt one button at a time. No one moves. The woman is breathing heavily in anticipation as the stranger approaches. He removes his shirt. Muscles ripple across his chest as he reaches her, and extends the arm holding his shirt to the trembling woman, and whispers, “Here. Iron this.”"
In a transatlantic flight, a plane passes through a severe storm. The turbulence is awful, and things go from bad to worse when one wing is struck by lightning. One woman in particular loses it. Screaming, she stands up in the front of the plane. “I’m too young to die!” she wails. Then she yells, “Well, if I’m going to die, I want my last minutes on Earth to be memorable! Is there ANYONE on this plane who can make me feel like a WOMAN??” For a moment there is silence. Everyone has forgotten their own peril, and they all stare, riveted, at the desperate woman in the front of the plane. Then, a man stands up in the rear of the plane. “I can make you feel like a woman,” he says. He’s gorgeous. Tall, built, with black hair and jet black eyes, he starts to walk slowly up the aisle, unbuttoning his shirt one button at a time. No one moves. The woman is breathing heavily in anticipation as the stranger approaches. He removes his shirt. Muscles ripple across his chest as he reaches her, and extends the arm holding his shirt to the trembling woman, and whispers, “Here. Iron this.”"
Tech: amazing, water, computer generated, cg More: amazing, cg, computer generated, water Related Funny and Amazing Links"
Funny joke - Fast Camel -- It Rocks Everything. Funny joke - Fast Camel -- It Rocks Everything.: "Funny joke - Fast CamelMay 16, 2007 @ 1:19 pm · Filed under Jokes There’s this guy walking along a road to town with his camel. Along the way, a guy stops and ask’s if he needs a ride to town. The guy say’s, yeah. He hop’s in, the driver say’s, what about your camel. The guy said, Oh, he’s ok, he know’s his way to town. So the driver start’s driving, he get’s up to about 45 MPH, and he looks in his rearview mirror and see’s the camel right behind him. He say’s to the guy, hey buddy ya know your camel is behind us? The guy say’s, yeah it’s ok, he knows his way to town, speed up a little. The driver speed’s up to about 55 MPH, he’s driving along, and look’s behind him and again see’s the camel. And say’s to the guy, your camel is still there. The guy say’s, he’s know’s the way, speed up a little. So the driver speed’s up to 65 MPH. He drive’s for a bit, and look’s behind him, and look’s at the guy and say’s, hey buddy your camel he’s looking pretty rough. The guy say’s, oh yeah, what’s he doing. The driver say’s, well, his ear’s are folded back and his tongue is hanging out.. The guy say’s, HIS TONGUE IS HANGING OUT,, TO WHICH SIDE. The driver say’s to the left side. The guy say’s, YOU’D BETTER HOLD YOUR COURSE, HE’S FIXIN TO PASS YA..!"
10 tips for a perfect night sleep -- It Rocks Everything. 10 tips for a perfect night sleep -- It Rocks Everything.: "Many persons have sleep problems when outside it’s hot. They fall asleep late, they sleep for short periods of time and they wake up many times during the night. Here are 10 tip to follow in order to get your rest even during the hot summer nights. 1. Go to sleep at about the same hour every night, your body will get used to this and it will prepare itself for sleep. 2. Don’t do any exercises at night because they pump the blood and you’ll not be able to fall asleep. 3. Don’t eat and don’t drink a lot before going to sleep. Dinner must be light and it would be best eaten at least 2 hours before bed time. Digestion delays the sleep and it disturbes it. 4. Avoid nicotin, alcohol and caffeine for at least 5-6 hours before going to sleep. Those stimulents can keep you awake at night. 5. Sleep only during the night. During day time, rest for one hour maximum and don’t ever sleep after 3 p.m. 6. Keep your sleeping room well aired and if it’s possible leave a window slightly open during the night. 7. Before going to sleep go take a warm bath or a reassuring shower, read a book or listen to your favorite music. It will help you fall asleep for sure ! 8. Try to apply some moisturizing cream on your shoulders, neck and soles of your feet. You’ll relax in no time and the tension accumulated over the day will disappear. 9. Don’t appeal to drugs or any kind of medicine in order to combat your insomnia. A glace of warm milk or tea, sweetened with honey will help you do the trick. 10. During the night sleep, try to keep your feet on a soft pillow, this will make the tiredness go away and you’ll get a very nice night sleep."
Inside This Article 1. Introduction to How the Bugatti Veyron Works 2. Creating the Engine 3. Special Features 4. The Body 5. The Tires and Interior 6. Lots More Information 7. See all Exotic Cars articles
Photo courtesy Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. The Bugatti Veyron. See more pictures of the Bugatti Veyron.
How would you define the most amazing production car in the world? Would it be: The car with the most horsepower? The car with the fastest top speed and acceleration? The most expensive car? At the moment, the Bugatti Veyron appears to have it all: A W-16 engine that can produce 1,001 horsepower A top speed of 250+ mph (400+ kph) A zero-to-60 time of three seconds A zero-to-180 time of 14 seconds A price tag somewhere in the $1.2 million range. In this article, we will take an in-depth look at this amazing automobile and see how it is possible to fit so much performance into a single machine. It all starts with the engine... The Bugatti Veyron is a car built around an engine. Essentially, Bugatti made the decision to blow the doors off the supercar world by creating a 1,000-horsepower engine. Everything else follows from that resolution."
Contrary to early reports, it seems the site wasn't hacked, at least not deliberately. Rather, it disappeared because of an unfortunate (and presumably accidental) mix-up at a major ISP in Pakistan. Ars Technica has a good technical explanation.
The Pakistani government had just ordered the ISP in question to block access to YouTube because of offensive and "non-Islamic" videos hosted there. What engineers at the company did was add a rule to their routers that sent data destined for YouTube off nowhere in particular.
Unfortunately, this rule got forwarded to a major ISP in Hong Kong and then on to other routers around the world. And as a result, requests from users outside of Pakistan ended up being sent into the same black hole.
Should we be alarmed that such big site can be knocked out of action so easily? Well, I don't think it's a major cause for concern. After all, the problem was rapidly fixed ??? Google just reassigned YouTube to a different block of IP addresses. And it would be hard for anyone to deliberately perform the same stunt more than once before other routers started ignoring them altogether.
Of course, some people might argue that being unable to access YouTube videos for a few hours is not such a bad thing. But it certainly put a dent in my afternoon.
Contrary to early reports, it seems the site wasn't hacked, at least not deliberately. Rather, it disappeared because of an unfortunate (and presumably accidental) mix-up at a major ISP in Pakistan. Ars Technica has a good technical explanation.
The Pakistani government had just ordered the ISP in question to block access to YouTube because of offensive and "non-Islamic" videos hosted there. What engineers at the company did was add a rule to their routers that sent data destined for YouTube off nowhere in particular.
Unfortunately, this rule got forwarded to a major ISP in Hong Kong and then on to other routers around the world. And as a result, requests from users outside of Pakistan ended up being sent into the same black hole.
Should we be alarmed that such big site can be knocked out of action so easily? Well, I don't think it's a major cause for concern. After all, the problem was rapidly fixed ??? Google just reassigned YouTube to a different block of IP addresses. And it would be hard for anyone to deliberately perform the same stunt more than once before other routers started ignoring them altogether.
Of course, some people might argue that being unable to access YouTube videos for a few hours is not such a bad thing. But it certainly put a dent in my afternoon.
Enlarge image The Moon took on a reddish hue in the total lunar eclipse of 21 January 2000 (Image: NASA/KSC)Tools Related ArticlesEclipse leaves sky gazers over the Moon 05 March 2007 Moon to blush red during total lunar eclipse 02 March 2007 Enigmatic relic was an eclipse calculator 29 November 2006 Search New Scientist Contact us Web Links20-21 February 2008 lunar eclipse, NASA Lunar eclipses 2001-2010, NASA Eclipses, NASA The Moon will turn red as it passes through Earth's shadow in a total lunar eclipse on Wednesday night – the last such eclipse until December 2010. The 3.5-hour eclipse will be visible from most locations on Earth if skies are clear, except for Asia and Australia. Lunar eclipses occur when the Earth passes directly between the Sun and Moon, casting its shadow on the lunar surface. One edge of the Moon's face will begin to darken as the eclipse begins at 0143 GMT on Thursday, and the eclipse will end at 0509 GMT. The most dramatic phase, however, will occur from 0301 to 0351 GMT, when the Earth's shadow will completely cover the Moon. Find out the conversion between GMT and your local time and watch a NASA video previewing the upcoming eclipse. If you could watch the eclipse from the surface of the Moon, your surroundings would grow dark as the Sun disappears behind Earth. But the ground would still be lit by an eerie red glow. Looking up, you would see the source of this light: a glowing red ring around Earth. The red ring is due to sunlight being refracted through the Earth's atmosphere – essentially, the combined glow of all the world's sunrises and sunsets. It is the reason why the Moon is not black but reddish during a total lunar eclipse. The deepest part of the eclipse, when the Moon is completely covered by Earth's shadow, will be visible from virtually all of North and South America, all of Europe, most of Africa and part of the Middle East. The eclipse will not be visible from Asia, Australia or New Zealand, because the Moon will be below the horizon at these locations during the event. As many as three lunar eclipses, including partial eclipses, can happen per year. The last total lunar eclipse was on 28 August 2007. The next one will occur on 21 December 2010.
Mind-reading machine knows what the eye sees
Mind-reading machine knows what the eye sees Search New Scientist Functional magnetic resonance imaging, Wikipedia A device that reveals what a person sees by decoding their brain activity could soon be a reality, say researchers who have developed a more sophisticated way to extract visual stimuli from brain signals. Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, US, developed a computational model that uses functional MRI (fMRI) data to decode information from an individual's visual cortex – the part of the brain responsible for processing visual stimuli. "Our research makes substantial advances towards being able to decode mental content from brain activity as measured using fMRI," Kay Kendrick, a co-author of the study, told New Scientist. "In fact, our results suggest it may soon be possible to reconstruct our visual experiences from brain activity." Complex imagesPrevious research has shown that fMRI can pick out brain activity associated with viewing different images. But so far it has only been possible to identify very basic images, from fixed categories, such as a face or a house. The process also depends on prior knowledge of the associated brain activity. Now the Berkeley team has shown that brain imaging can reveal much more complex and arbitrary images, without prior knowledge of brain activity. The team first used fMRI to measure visual cortex activity in people looking at more than a thousand photographs. This allowed them to develop a computational model and "train" their decoder to understand how each person's visual cortex processes information. Next, participants were shown a random set of just over 100 previously unseen photographs. Based on patterns identified in the first set of fMRIs, the team was able to accurately predict which image was being observed. Dream reader?"It is going to be particularly powerful in the field of visual perception and possibly the field of decoding motor responses," says John-Dylan Haynes of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany.
