Oh, Those UFOs!
More UFO news last week. Yeah, I know. I should have mentioned it last week, when it was still actually news. (It’s been busy here at Maison D’Lock – sorry.) But if some of you have missed it, since the mainstream media have the attention span of a stunned guppy, let’s take a quick look.
First off, parts of Norway were treated to an amazing visual spectacle in the form of a spiraling blue light show in the sky, early on the morning of December 10th.
Looks pretty amazing! Many news services now seem to think the spiral light formation was the result of a Russian missile test launch, which failed in the upper atmosphere, going out of control. Check out the video – you can actually see the spiral rotating.
The very next day, news agencies and bloggers began reporting on the discovery of an “alien graveyard” in Rwanda, of all places. Claims of more than 200 bodies, in a 500 year old mass grave, are circulating on the ‘net.
But, given that the source seems to be the World Weekly News – home of Bat Boy, this may be more coprolite than fossil remains.
More soon, kids. Christmas approaches like a freight train on a downhill, with no brakes. I need to either get running, or get out of the way.
Peace and a happy season to you all.
Happy Birthday, Internet!
So. The Internet turns 40 years old today! The very first interconnection between two remotely located computer systems took place on October 29th, 1969.
Warning: GEEK ALERT! This post is going to be excessively nerdy. If you find your eyes beginning to glaze over, you might want to read one of my most popular posts ever, “They Call This A Jeep?“
Now, back to the Internet’s Birthday… It was 1969. The first man had walked on the moon only a few months before, it was the Summer of Love, and Woodstock, the US Army was still in Vietnam, and the military’s research arm – DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - had been working for years towards the goal of a massive computer network.
(Today, it’s become something that we take almost for granted, but even 15 years ago, most people weren’t online, and many people didn’t even have home computers. That’s a lot of change for such a short time.)
Getting back to 1969, it may have been a remarkable event, but it was little noted at the time. To quote Leonard Kleinrock, one of the people who invented the hardware and software that make the Internet work:
…on October 29, 1969, at 10:30 in the evening, you will find in a log, a notebook log that I have in my office at U.C.L.A., an entry which says, “Talked to SRI [Stanford Research Institute] host to host.” If you want to be, shall I say, poetic about it, the September event was when the infant Internet took its first breath.
Here’s Leonard Kleinrock himself, in a short talk about the event.
(And for more geeky fun, here’s the story of the first e-mail.)
This infant network went on to become ARPANET, the first wide-area network of computers that could “talk” to one another. And ARPANET was eventually opened to the public in 1990, when Tim Berners Lee created the “World Wide Web” – a way of “linking” documents (or pages) to one another on the network. (Click here for a complete timeline of the Internet’s development.)
From there, the changes have been rapid, not to say amazing. The amount of data that can be carried on the Internet has been radically increased, allowing users to watch videos, chat with other people anywhere in the world, and send messages, pictures, and documents to any computer on the planet. Or in orbit. Wow, huh?
There are, of course, a few problems. First are the unintended consequences such as economic disruption, and the social implications. The Internet has certainly changed dating and relationships for lots of people.
And there’s the issue of Network Neutrality. That’s the concept that all Internet traffic should be treated equally, no matter who originated it – little old you or me, or Fox News. A lot of people want to keep the playing field level, and allow small companies to compete with bigger concerns. Big companies with deep pockets could buy up all the bandwidth, crowding out the smaller competition. Not fair. Alaska Senator Ted Stevens tried to explain it, resulting in one of the favorite Internet quotes of all time:
The Internet is a series of TUBES!
So, now we’re more or less up to date, seeing where the Internet is at 40.
What’s in the future for the Internet?
As the Internet enters its fifth decade, one of the possibilities is something called the Semantic Web, another invention of Tim Berners Lee. The Semantic Web will rely upon the meaning and weight that visitors give to web pages, to establish their value and relevance. The social media phenomenon – Twitter, MySpace, Facebook – is the first step in that direction.
The Internet also has the capability of connecting to – and communicating with – virtually anything, anywhere. You might have an Internet-connected refrigerator that orders more bread and veggies when you run out, or an Internet-connected thermostat and Venetian blinds, allowing you to control the environment of your home from your laptop or iPhone.
Another interesting development: this week, President Obama announced $3.4 billion to be put towards modernizing America’s power grid. That will include making it “smarter” and more resilient to interruptions and attack, using some of these new Internet technologies.
Not to be outdone, DARPA and the military are getting in the act, developing a new, “hardened” military network protocol, intended to keep our fighting men and women connected under the worst of circumstances.
All of these developments in connectivity could usher in a new era of peace and freedom, or a new era of oppression and slavery. It’s up to us how they get used. A hammer can be used to build a house, or crack a skull. Tools are amoral. Humans can make a choice.
If you’d like to learn more about our options for the future, you can listen to the podcasts from Media Monarchy and The Corbett Report, and then examine the resources they offer. There is also Adam Greenfield’s Everyware site, for information on Ubiquitous Computing.
That’s the beauty of the Internet. You can use it to learn about anything, including the Internet itself.
The future of the Internet at 40 is exciting, and possibly scary. So is the future of humanity. I wonder where we will find ourselves in the year 2049?
UPDATE: 10/31/09 I can’t believe I forgot to include this. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) this week chose to allow non-Latin characters for Internet domain names. According to Rod Beckstrom, ICANN’s President and CEO:
“This is only the first step, but it is an incredibly big one and an historic move toward the internationalization of the Internet. The first countries that participate will not only be providing valuable information of the operation of IDNs in the domain name system, they are also going to help to bring the first of billions more people online – people who never use Roman characters in their daily lives.”
This will supposedly save lots of keystrokes for Asian, Russian, and Arabic Internet users. And the beat goes on.
Back To My Roots
Before I was dragged by circumstances into the world of Web 2.0, I started my geek life as a hobbyist. And I am terribly, terribly ancient; when I started being an electronic hobbyist, there were no “software” hobbyists. I was totally hardware. Soldering iron, screwdriver, and pliers, baby.
So last weekend, feeling a bit of a lack in my life, I decided to get away from the keyboard for a bit, and take up tools to craft a charger for my MP3 players. I find it tiresome to have to charge them off my PCs, and since I have all these parts lying about in my junk boxes and in the shed, why not build my own USB charger?
Let us begin…
…with an empty Altoids tin. This lovely, inexpensive steel box is easily drilled and cut, provides mechanical protection, electrical shielding, and heat dissipation, all in one. Plus a curiously strong minty freshness for the project.
Here you see the pile of parts I collected for the project, including the aforementioned Altoids tin, a USB connector salvaged from an old PC motherboard, a cheap cell phone charger, a solid state 5 volt regulator, a socket for the regulator (that’s the green & silver whatsit), a red LED for the little pilot light (letting me know it’s on and functioning), a couple capacitors (to smooth the voltage a bit), and a couple parts I didn’t use – a rectifier and a smaller 5 volt regulator. I included them in the pic for reference. Click here for a complete parts list. And click here for a schematic.
I started building up 2 of these USB chargers. The 2nd one isn’t finished yet. My engineering and design is done “on the fly” and I had to change course a little as I went. This photo shows the regulators mounted with their sockets in the Altoids tins.
The next image shows the mounting of the USB connectors. Using a utility knife, I was able to cut a rectangular hole in the sheet metal, in a sort of sideways “H” pattern. This left me with two tabs I could bend back into the tin, which I could use to attach the USB connector. You’ll see how in a subsequent shot.
Now, with the cover open, you can see the major parts installed. On the left, a small power jack – same size as a headphone jack on an MP3 player. To the right of that, you see the regulator and socket, and on the right, the USB connector, soldered to the tabs I mentioned. Nice and sturdy!
Sharp-eyed visitors will note that there seems to be something funny with the “input / output” labels. They look Photoshopped, and that’s because… they are. When I first used my Sharpie to mark the terminals, I got them swapped because the data sheet I downloaded was a little unclear. I got it sorted out later. But the ground symbol was on the correct terminal all along! 1 out of 3 ain’t bad. Same average I am currently running with “Sex, drugs, and rock & roll”. You figure out which one. Here’s a hint – the radio is on.
And here it is – the finished project! The cell phone charger was replaced by the wall bug from an old answering machine. The cell charger didn’t have enough voltage or current to “git ‘er done”, so – course correction. On the left side of the box, you can see the plug-in jack for the adapter, and on the bottom of the box, you can kinda see the pilot light peeking out.
Next pic shows the final project, cover open, adapter connected. You can see the capacitors in place, all the wiring, the LED pilot light, and its 270 ohm dropping resistor, connected to the 5 volt output. Looks simple, huh? Well, try this at home – I dare you! Don’t burn your fingers with the soldering iron. I generally pick it up by the “cord end”, sort of thing.
This final image shows the unit under power. The pilot light is glowing merrily and a laptop light is plugged into the USB jack, to demonstrate that the unit is, in fact, delivering a well-regulated 5 volts to the USB device plugged into it. You can also see the regulator mounted to the outside of the tin.
And there you have it! The project gave me about 4 hours of very enjoyable hobby time overall, not including some time hacking on the little cell charger, trying unsuccessfully to get more “oomph” out of it.
No uneaten Altoids were harmed in the creation of this project.
And it makes a nice companion to my Altoids USB thumb drive. I had a nifty little USB MP3 player which I accidentally fried during another hardware project, but the flash drive part was still working. So I stripped off the display and its PC board, and wrapped the memory stick part in electrician’s tape. But that’s not a very sturdy solution.
Eventually, I decided to use an Altoids gum tin as an enclosure. First, I cut a slot at one end for the USB connector. Then some double-stick foam tape and hot melt glue mounted the thumb drive circuit board to the box, and we’re good to go.
I marked the capacity inside the lid, and as you can see, there is still room left over for some Post-It flags and a place to store the protective cap from the connector.
Altoids style, my friends! Go thou now, and do likewise. Make a project with an Altoids tin, or some similar metal box, for yourself or a loved one. It’s a lot of fun, and it can take you back to your creative roots.
What Happens To Your Brain When You’re In Love?
Yeah, what the heck happens, anyhow? The rose-colored glasses drop down over our eyes, and we become stupid. We forgive the major character flaws of our beloved as just “endearing quirks”.
What’s up with that?
What’s wrong with my messed-up monkey brain?
My day job – ThoughtOffice – posted a blog this week that tries to answer those questions, and more. We posted a video featuring TEDTalks speaker Helen Fisher, as she tries to explain the chemistry of love.
Glad somebody’s still trying. I haven’t decided yet; whether to give up on figuring out the whole “love” thing, or keep trying. The idea of love – theoretically – still has a lot of attraction. That wonderful, mad feeling of caring so deeply about someone else, longing for her touch and aching to see her face, to hear her voice and slowly, gently kiss her lips… is still captivating. But as you probably know from bitter personal experience, dear reader, the reality can rapidly change from a blissful dream to a horrific nightmare. Disappointment, betrayal, or just plain boredom – all can be fatal to love.
It’s confusing stuff, this love business. Perhaps The Rutles summed it up best.
Enjoy the video. I’m off to bed. Alone. For tonight, at least.
Attention, Alternative Energy Enthusiasts!
Friends, neighbors, and fellow geeks – this is the most exciting news I’ve heard all year. The legendary oil man T. Boone Pickens has started an online effort to help get America off imported oil, and onto renewable domestic energy. You could have knocked me over with a feather. Quite a small one, in fact. Here’s a video that explains why the plan is needed:
So – go right now to his web site – it’s free to join. It’s a social / Web 2.0 sort of site, with all sorts of options for participation. I’ve only had time to explore a small part of the site, but I was so impressed and excited, I had to get to blogging about it.
Not to toot my own horn, but he’s saying some of the same things I have been trying to communicate for years. That there is no way to drill our way out of this mess. That we need to move on to other energy sources, and lose the petroleum habit.
Pickens has also acknowledged that the peak of world oil production (known as peak oil) occurred in 2005, and from here on, it’s going to be more expensive and more scarce. For more information on peak oil, and the petroleum crisis, check out a film called Crude Impact. Ask me, and I can loan you my copy. It’s an important documentary, and extremely serious. I want as many people as possible to see it.
It’s kind of nice to be vindicated, to be sure. But it’s truly exciting to know that there are some smart, well-regarded people willing to stand up and put their names & fortunes on the line for a future where America isn’t sending all its money out of the country, impoverishing ourselves for no good reason.
Now – let’s do this. The stakes are too high to just sit back and wait for the hammer to fall, because when it does, it’s going to fall hard.
More wireless fun
It’s been a busy few weeks since my last post. The sound quit working on my Linux-powered laptop, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to try Ubuntu 8.04 in place of Mint. Well, to quote an Alka-Seltzer ad from my youth, “So I tried it. Didn’t like it.”
Went ahead and downloaded the latest version of Linux Mint and plonked it back on the hard drive. Happy days! Back to where we were, with sound and all. Not sure what happened to the noises. Perhaps it got tangled up when I installed Skype. Ah, well. I’m back to running Mint, a familiar distro, and I’m a happy litle geek, but still a Linux newbie.
It took some time to get the wireless card (D-Link G650) working again, too. Not sure what I was doing wrong, but somehow, through multiple makes, it’s working too!
So, I betook myself to the local pub, one McMenamin’s in East Vancouver (WA, not the one in BC). I had a very tasty Reuben, and actually got some work done, too. Amazing. I’m gonna have to do more of this mobile thing. The off-duty baristas from the Starbuck’s across the parking lot made the place a little noisy for a while, but they went off to karaoke or something, apparently.
It’s closing time, dear reader. Back home and to bed for me.
Garden of geeky delights
This is really just the coolest Sunday morning ever, here at Maison D’Lock. I set up my home wireless network last night with a Linksys WRT54G that I got on e-bay for $35 with shipping, and as I am typing on my Mint Linux / HP laptop, I am also streaming music from a custom channel on Pandora.com, and the laptop’s audio output is plugged into the entertainment system. Damn, this is cool. I can listen loud, and control the volume with the little buttons on the side of the laptop. Right now, live Pink Floyd is streaming effortlessly through the aether, to my laptop, and out the speakers across the room. David Gilmour is “Wishing I Was There“, and all is well with the world.
The tune just before Floyd was “Always Something There To Remind Me“, by Naked Eyes, possibly one of my favorite songs ever. I turned it up to max and sang along like a drunken karaoke nitwit. Like I said, it’s a good Sunday morning. For a geek like me who loves the comfort of his couch.
Oh, wow. “Something” by The Beatles just came up on Pandora. If you’ve never heard any Beatles on some good speakers, you may want to. George Martin packed a lot of amazing production into their later music. I remember listening on some pretty chintzy radios way back when Beatles music was still current. I just heard some details I never heard 40 years ago.
Wow. Technology is great when it works right. Hope everyone else is having a Sunday as good as this!
I’ve been slacking.
And watching the tube, and working a lot on ThoughtOffice. But today, I watched both NCIS and Torchwood, and was struck once again by how much Mark Harmon and John Barrowman look alike. Decide for yourself:
If you haven’t seen either show, you’re missing something. Truly. Both are well written, well acted, and lots of fun.
If you don’t have BBC America, but you do have a digital cable box, it’s quite likely that you can see Torchwood in the “OnDemand” section. Same with NCIS, believe it or not.
Cool technology, that OnDemand thing. It’s like having a DVR that’s located at the cable company. (For all my geek readers, it’s all running on hardware from C-COR / nCube, an offspring of Intel in Beaverton, Oregon, just a few miles from where I lived, in the mid ’80s.)
For those of you who are not full-on geeks like me, it means you can watch hundreds of TV shows, movies, and special programs. Frinstance, right now OnDemand has not only NCIS & Torchwood, but season one of The Monkees, some episodes of I Dream of Jeannie (damn, Barbara Eden was HOT!), a few episodes of Top Gear (a British TV show about cars – very cool & very funny) and quite a number of recent Godzilla movies. Yes, as you might expect (and possibly hope), the Godzilla movies are wonderfully awful.
So, enjoy the new season, kids.
I like cable TV a lot better since I don’t work for a cable company anymore.
Some days, all you can do is shake your head…
…and wonder what’s to become of us all. Today, I got a catalog geared towards me and my fellow fat asses. It features a portable chair that can hold up to – wait for it – 800 pounds. Who’s going to use this? It’s for use while camping or -gasp, wheeze- hiking! Oh, yeah, right. Delusional, I am not. And yes – in the catalog picture, all four models are sitting on their fat… chairs… behind the open tailgates of gas-guzzling SUVs. (Oh, by the way, manufacturers please note. The seat is only 24 inches wide. Huh? 800 pounds = great big old booty = wider than 24 inches. Jesus. Will someone please use their melon for something other than holding up their hair?)
Humanity is SO broken.
The book I reading right now, The Uplift War by David Brin, has as its main theme a galactic civilization where various space-faring species travel about the Five Galaxies “uplifting” pre-sentient species they find here and there. As a result, I am especially aware of cultural and genetic issues right now. We humans could use a serious genetic intervention. But that has a really nasty taste in the mouth since the hopelessly incorrect and misguided “eugenics” of the first half of century 20.
I wonder how far back that stupid misadventure will set the progress of the human race? How much our genetic advancement may have been delayed by Hitlerian anti-semitism, or dogmatic religious beliefs that dictate that our rickety DNA is somehow “holy” and inviolate, the province only of God Almighty? (If we are a divine creation, well – His Handiwork is pretty damn sloppy, that’s all I have to say.)
Sigh. It’s an issue for me because I feel victimized by my genes. Stupid DNA anyway. I’d love to be able to fix some things, starting with my metabolism, my pancreas, then the proportions of certain… things…
Okay, here are some other ideas. To begin with, the age of procreation should be moved out to 45. No sex urge, no fertility, no nothing until 45. That way, there will be no interference with education & careers. People will have a fighting chance to get their finances and their heads together before breeding. No chance of stupidly knocking up your girlfriend and ruining your life and hers.
Next, life span should be increased to about 150 or more. This would give us time to see the next generation solidly on its feet, and see the grandkids by age 95 or 100. Not to mention the fact that we are, as things are now, just beginning to get the hang of how things work, and our bodies and minds begin falling apart. What’s up with that? Can’t we do better? Hello?
Give us 100-120 productive years, and 30-40 years of retirement. Time to spend the cash we’ve amassed. Maybe even become a little wiser, and get the chance to pass along the wisdom. Perhaps then we hairless monkeys might begin taking a longer view of things, if we knew we would be around long enough to suffer the consequences, eh?
What do you think about that, George Bush? Dick Cheney?
About the Blogroll
It occurred to me just now that I have not drawn any attention recently to my Blogroll. (That’s the list of links in the right sidebar.)
There are a lot of useful links there for very good free security software, as well as some entertaining content. I just added a few more links, such as Belarc, and the Spyware Warrior page.
The Spyware Warrior page is especially important if you see a pop-up on your computer screen, claiming that you may have X number of infections and should “click here to buy CrapWare 2007″ to fix the problem. This is never a good idea, in my experience. It’s like buying stock based on the recommendation of a spam message. Just don’t do it. And don’t send your bank account info to any so-called Nigerian princes, either.
If you are the sort who doesn’t heed these kinds of warnings, then may I respectfully suggest you keep your will updated, because you’re going to be found in the bathtub with a hairdryer one of these days for sure.
Be careful out there, okay?
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. If you’re in the Portland / Vancouver area, and need a trustworthy geek to disinfect your computer, give me a shout. I’m very affordable, and am available evenings, weekends, you name it.
