From the B.I.N. # 5

Death Star anyone? If you are looking for the next big laser thing, I give you this:  "it is fired to produce [10] large laser beams several feet wide that are then combined and focused down onto a tiny spot..." That will,  "tear apart the fabric of space." with 200 petawatts of laser power; "100,000 times the power of the world's combined electricity production."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8857154/Worlds-most-powerful-laser-to-tear-apart-the-vacuum-of-space.html


Are you ready for Cyber War? ('Cause it's coming...)
http://news.sky.com/home/technology/article/16101158


Genetically modified mosquitoes designed to kill off their children before reaching maturity released into the wild.
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/science/concerns-raised-about-genetically-engineered-mosquitoes.html?_r=4&ref=business


Threaten to wipe Israel off the map, and for some strange reason, they consider a preemptive attack; you know, before you finish building your nukes. Go figure.
http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16101552

From the B.I.N. # 4

Computer virus hits US drone fleet. Refuses to leave.
   http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/virus-hits-drone-fleet/


US Army to deploy the new Switchblade, a backpack portable drone/guided missile.
Article:
    http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.b0b893fb04aee2445cb9d54b02462bd7.2f1&show_article=1




114 year old electric car had same range as the Chevy Volt.
   http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/14/114-year-old-electric-car-gets-same-40-miles-to-the-charge-as-chevy-volt/


A NY senator believes that we have too much freedom of speech: "Proponents of a more refined First Amendment argue that this freedom should be treated not as a right but as a privilege — a special entitlement granted by the state on a conditional basis that can be revoked if it is ever abused or maltreated." (Emphasis added.)
   http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111001/00002316160/ny-state-senators-say-weve-got-too-much-free-speech-introduce-bill-to-fix-that.shtml

From the B.I.N. # 3

Putting the Intelligence Into AI
Not content to create an AI that could learn how to play the computer game Civilization on it's own (and win 46% of the time) researchers at MIT taught the AI how to learn how to read English. (Note that they did not teach it English, they actually made it smart enough, that it was able to learn English it on it's own by playing the game and looking at the manual!) When it was given the general help / instruction manual for Civilization, it was smart enough to assimilate that knowledge, and increase it's win rate to a staggering 79% of the games it played.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/language-from-games-0712.html

Synthetic Burgers
Professor Mark Post, from Maastricht University in the Netherlands, and his team have grown synthetic pork  strips and claims that within a year, they will also be able to grow synthetic beef for use as a cheap and efficient  meat source.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2008347/Test-tube-burger-coming-soon-Lab-grown-meat-needed-feed-world.html

Global warming?
"The earth is heating super rapidly! It's caused by man! We are killing our planet!" Only, the temperature has not moved in over a decade. Hmmm. Asia pollution "blamed" for halt in warming. The key sentence from the article: "World temperatures did not rise from 1998 to 2008, while manmade emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuel grew by nearly a third, various data show." (emphasis added.)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/04/us-climate-sulphur-idUSTRE7634IQ20110704

Man Induced Climate Change?
"Global warming will cause terrible storms which will grow to truly epic proportions!" Only, "During the past 6-years since Hurricane Katrina, global tropical cyclone frequency and energy have decreased dramatically, and are currently at near-historical record lows." (emphasis added.)
http://www.coaps.fsu.edu/~maue/tropical/

Don't take no pictures!
"Be afraid. Fear everything and everyone!" That's the message we hear every time you get near an airport. Fear is used as a catch-all excuse to do anything. Don't like a passenger taking a picture of your name badge when you are rude to passengers? Call them a "security risk" and have them booted off the airplane!
http://www.pixiq.com/article/woman-escorted-off-us-airways-flight-for-snapping-iphone-photo

An Open Letter to Apple.

An Open Letter to Apple.
June 28, 2009


Dear Apple,

Let me start by saying I love your products, But.

That But is the purpose for this letter. I friend of mine upgraded his computer about a year-and-a-half ago. He's a very generous sort of guy and he gave me his
old laptop. It happened to be a Macbook. Before that day I could have counted the number of times I'd used a Mac. You know the drill, kind of weird, nothing's
where it should be, and what happened to the right button, etc. I adjusted quickly because I'm used to running several different OS's (Linux in various flavors and
MS Windows). Today I am addicted.

I love my computer. It's sleek and simple and elegant and everything you claim that it is. It hasn't spontaneously invented a cure for cancer yet, but other than
that...

I live in a small town. I'm rather technically minded. You might think that's something of a non sequitur, but believe me, it's not. These two facts go hand in hand.
When someone has a problem with a computer, they often come to me. Am I a certified computer repair technician? Nope. Can I help a lot of people solve their computer
problems? You bet.

When people come to me and say they're ready for a new computer, that this dinosaur from the 1990's has finally given up it's ghost, the first thing I ask them is
"What do you use your computer for?" Most of the time the answer is e-mail, word processing, and to surf the net. Do they need BlueGene/L to do these things? Of
course not. But they do want to watch those videos people send them and they do want to play those silly flash games too. Looks like it's upgrading time.

I would love to be able to tell them that I'd be happy to pick up a Mac Mini next time I'm down at the store. I'd love to be able to tell them to order a Macbook
(Look, it even has free shipping!) But I can't. Why not you ask? You just said you love our products. Don't get me wrong, I do love your products, But.

But I could buy a Mac Mini for $600, or I could buy just-another-PC for $275. I could buy a Macbook with those cool new aluminum cases for $1200 or I could buy the
"On sale now!" just-another-laptop that I saw while writing this letter for $300. And that includes Windows XP. Sure, I'd take it off and put Ubuntu on it, but
imagine if I could find it without Microsoft on it in the first place. It'd save me another $50 or $100. Sure I could buy the Macbook Air for $1500, or I could
buy an AEEE Asus netbook for under $300.

You produce nice, high-end, quality merchandise. But you don't make anything for the my granny on Social Security, or for the high-schooler on a limited budget, or
for anyone else on a limited budget for that matter.

Give us a Crab Apple Mac. A Mac to get us started. A Mac for the masses. We want to buy it, I want to buy it. I want to pass them around like hot-cakes,
and recommend them to everyone I know. But you don't seem to want to sell them to me. Apple, why don't you want my money? I want to give it to you.

C.W.Holeman III

Cross-posted on my website and sent to Steve Dowling (Apple's Corporate PR contact).

The Five C's of Computing

I came up with a list of actions people use computers for. When you break it down, people use computers for only a few kinds of tasks:

• Computation
• Creation
  
• Communication
• Collaboration
• Consumption

If it's not on that list, you probably don't use a computer to do it.

Did I miss anything? Let me know.