Technology

Next year in February i have to buy or lease a new car. I think, i just found my new car. A Volvo. To be exact: The Volvo XC60. Not because it´s a Volvo or because of the fact that it´s a really cool car. No, because of a little function integrated into the car. It´s called City Assist. The car has the capability to automatically brake the car in such situations like stop-and-go at a traffic light. As accidents in such situations hit me once or twice in the time i own a car, this would really reduce the costs for repairs and this feature would let my car insurance finally drop to a decent level. Sometimes technology is really a heaven-send...

I assume this demo reel of this project in computerized imaging shows the drain, where the next two or three bigger speed bumps and core multiplications will find their way into consumption. The projects website "Using Photographs to Enhance Videos of a Static Scene" describes:

We present a framework for automatically enhancing videos of a static scene using a few photographs of the same scene. For example, our system can transfer photographic qualities such as high resolution, high dynamic range and better lighting from the photographs to the video.

At least you should look at the embedded video presenting the capabilities of this technology.

Nice presentation about the most southern installation of SamFS: Ein Robot auf hoher See - SAM-FS bei 70 Grad Süd (sorry, only in german language, but nice photos). It´s about a SamFS installation on the Polarstern, a german research vessel. I found this presentation held by Dr. Hans Pfeiffenberger from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research after a hint from a colleague. This is storage under extreme conditions.

It´s a common practice between us admins to look after the load averages. Interestingly the correct math behind this numbers is not really simple. Roman wrote about it at How many kernel engineers does it take to solve one differential equation?. Interesting read.

When somebody told me in 1995 that i will hear music on a mobile telephon, which updates my play list on a website while walking around in my room via wireless lan while reading mail ... in thirteen years from that day, i would had told him or her to take less of the pills he or she took . Well ... today i´ve installed MobileScrobbler on my iPhone and this now my mobile does exactly the stuff described in the beginning. How time flies.

Looking TV educates. This morning i viewed a documentation i´ve recorded a few days ago on the german TV channel Phoenix. It was a documentation about a reconstruction of the motorglider of Karl Jatho. I didn´t know that Jatho made his first motorized flight a few months before the Wright Brothers.

zpool.org found a really interesting computer case for a Thumper@home: Chenbro ES34069. This case is a small ITX case with four hot swapable drive bays and room for a single boot disk (would populate with a flash based solid state disk)

A fully automatic Triple-A goes berzerk and kills 9 soldier in south africa.

A robot cannon began wildly and autonomously firing its huge gun in South Africa last Friday, killing 9 soldiers and wounding 14. The Oerlikon GDF-005 antiaircraft gun suddenly began uncontrollably shooting as it swung back and forth, spraying hundreds of high-explosive 35mm cannon shells all over the place

This is a good example why software should never ever control the actual firing of bullets. In wartimes it may be a good tradeoff to design a trigger-happy robot for antimortar/antishell artillery, as it´s propable that more people are killed by mortar rounds then by a berzerk robot. But at peace time without incoming rounds? At least it wasn´t a wise choise to put live ammunition into this robot.

I´ve got some really good photos of the maiden flight of the A380 MSN11. You will find them at aviation.c0t0d0s0.org.(here and here

Ob Airbus jetzt wohl Ausparksensoren beim A380 nachruestet? Airbus A380 in Bangkok leicht beschädigt

Sometimes it looks like Boeing is the IBM of the aircraft industry: Bold statements galore, but nothing behind it . Interesting article at the Seattle Times : Boeing may acknowledge further 787 delays next week. I remember dozens of articles in the media who try to tell the world, that Boeing is so much better at constructing the 787 then Airbus at building the A380. But: The airframe of the 787 at rollout wasn´t able to fly, even when all other systems were in place and functional, because of temporary fasteners.

Boeing partly dismantled the first 787 immediately after its rollout to allow mechanics to install systems — including electrical wiring, hydraulic tubes and the flight-deck instrumentation — and also to replace temporary fasteners.

And according to other reports, switching on the power in the plane is still weeks away. I simply do not believe that they deliver their first 787 in May 2008. I would bet on May 2009. At the end, it´s like with the Power6 4.7 Ghz

A second A380 can be found here, even a A340 looks a little bit small in relation to the lady.
(found on Google Maps via Google Sightseeing)

Erstauslieferung der SIA-A380 ist am 15. Oktober. Vielleicht hören dann endlich mal die Unkenrufe auf ...

Two impressive points at this video: The landing with cross winds and the the sheer size of the lady ...

The Chicago Tribune speculates in "Takeoff appears delayed for 787" about delays due software problems. I don´t think, that the software will be the biggest problem of the 787. As far as i know, nobody has long-term experience with an large sized commercial aircraft consisting out of plastic. Until now all "plastic aircraft" were military ones, pulled into the hangar at night, relativly small time airborne and with a "no-matter-the-costs"-maintainance. But whats with an apron-parking aircraft, that rushes from one airport to another?