Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Web 2.0 tool: Isndr.... when "Quick n Dirty" is all you need

You know those times when you just need to pass a file to a friend, relative, coworker or other associate?  But the file you want to pass is either too  big for mail, or the sharing app provider wants either money and/ or information about you including what color your knickers are and what you had for breakfast?

No time for BS and just wanna "get er done"?   Try this!


 

This cool little tool lets you quickly share a file with a friend (or friends) super quick.  You upload your file and then send your recipients the "tiny URL" the site gives  you.  when  web over to that url, they will have instant access to download the file... the company that does this claims to not keep record of the file or the transaction so if privacy is a issue, well here is the fix.    Having said that, its just good user policy to encrypt ones data -anytime- it leaves your control....RSA is a great way to do that .... send  the url along with your public key and your recipient can unencrypt the file

Days of futurists past.... Gene Rodenberry

I'M GIVIN' 'ER ALL I GOT, CAPTAIN!!

So screamed Scotty while attempting to outrun Klingons orbiting around Uranus. Unknowingly Scotty in 1966 was predicting the future in 2009. Ok, ok... it wasn't Scotty who made the prediction, it may more appropriately be attributed to the author of Star Trek - Gene Roddenberry. The Starship enterprise was powered by an ion-propulsion engine which used Dylithium crystals.

It turns out that 40 years later, Ion propulsion engines are science fact, not fiction. Dylithium, as it turns out, is a gas not a crystal...its the gaseous state of the element Lithium...and its not used for propulsion.

Xenon gas, on the other hand is! In fact, the Ion propulsion engine does now exist, and its used to propel satellites through space. a certain exploratory research satellite named "Dawn" was launched in late 2009 towards to asteroidsCeres and Vesta. Unlike its predecessor "one trick pony" research satellites, Dawn entered orbit around the first asteroid, studied it and returned information to earth. It then thrust out of orbit and moved to the next asteroid to repeat the sequence...all using a Xenon ion propulsion drive.

So... what forces could have transfiormed an imaginary propulsion system and enabled today's sattelite ? The first would seem to be sociological.  The generation that grew up as kids watching StarTrek on TV is todays engineers and scientists.  The notion of space flight for that generation was not so far fetched.  After all, we were in the middle of  space race with Russia and just a couple of years later we put a man on the moon.  These science facts of the time easily reinforced anyone who may have thought "well, why not?"  From another point of view, the technical advances over the last 40 years have become tremendous enablers!.. Just one, alone, has made a myriad of things happen: Electronic miniaturization.   Via this one marvel where circuits are now designed at the atomic level,  SO many MILLIONS of transistors packed into the size of a postage stamp makes the ROOM sized computers of the 60s laughable!...speaking of laughable,

Capt. Kirk's "communicator" didn't have a video screen, nor could it be used to play games. But it did make a cool little "weep weep" sound when you flipped it open....


My OLD AND OBSOLETE CELL PHONE DID THAT AND HAD A VIDEO SCREEN AND CAMERA! ... eat your heart out Cpt. Kirk!!

http://scienceray.com/physics/ion-propulsion-from-star-trek-to-nasa/

Sunday, February 13, 2011

The sleep machine

What if...

It were possible to put on your 'sleeping cap' and drift off to a deep relaxing sleep? What if said cap had no consequences or side effects like those of modern sleep-aid drugs (including anesthetics) or the very common booze bottle?  Why do this?

Because exhaustion has been demonstrated to be a major cause in traffic accidents, poor job performance, social dysfunction and a host of other consequences[1].  Insomnia and/or "restless sleep" happens for many reasons and consequently there are also many  treatment therapies.   However, as noted previously  "sleep-aids" are the common approach to sleep induction.  I suspect that a good part of sleep-aid use is because its "fast and easy".. I suppose that meditation or exercise are equally effective sleep inducing mechanisms, but they require both time and effort.  What the objective is, then, is to develop and equally "quick n easy" sleep solution that replaces both over-the-counter and prespcription drugs.

"Restful" sleep has been identified as that portion the sleep cycle known as Delta wave sleep where the brain is at itsl lowest point of activity during sleep [2]. Sleeplessnes or non restful sleep can be due to numerous things but most treatments are very uncomfortable for the user (e.g CPAP) or have many undesireable side effects (drugs). The device in question induces sleep by stimulating the brain electronically, and in fact, had already been studied over 40 years ago [3] but for reasons unclear to me, never really gathered the momentum necessary to become a commercial product.

I suspect a couple of reasons:  First, technical issues.  Technology of 40 years ago may have  not have allowed practical application of the technology outside of a clinical setting, in addition, the state of  the body of knowledge may not have been sufficient, at the time, to deliver a product that was thoroughly safety tested. Secondly, social unawareness of the linkages between insomnia, exhaustion, performance, and morbidity issues.  That is, whereas today we know that exhaustion (from insomnia or restless sleep) is a the root of many accidents, back then these linkages were not so clear. Therefore insomnia was understood in the more classical sense and wasnt reall the subject of public discourse.  That brings ut to today...

Whare trying to become a 'natural' and 'green' society.  That means many things,but one among them is the desire to improve our lives in more natural ways.  I extend this concept by interpreting 'natural' as the desire to live in a less chemically dependent world.  With that,  I would want to revive research in electronarcosis and its potential consequent products.  Because there is precedent research and because science can today address this topic so much more broadly,  I  suspect that both Delphi and NGT methods of eliciting new ideas and approaches to this topic.  Not to mention, both the Delphi method and NGT are already heavily used approaches in the field of medical sciences.   In fact, I would see an approach whereby NGT efforts are subsequently supported by Delphi pannels  that allow the introduction of other contexts into the main research question.  The idea here is to be able to capture the 'breadth a depth'  of  my propsed device so that it does, in fact, meet its proposed goals of "restful sleep induction without noxious side effects"






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[1] Naitoh,P., Kelly,T.L. & Englund, C. (1991) lHealth Effects of Sleep Deprivation,
NAVAL HEALTH RESEARCH CENTER SAN DIEGO CA,http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA249653


[2] Stbaus, B., Elkind, A. & Bodian, C. (1964) Electrical Induction of Sleep, The American Journal of the Medical Sciences (248)5 514-520

[3] Magora, F., Beller, A., Aladjemoff, L., Magora, A. & Tannebaumm, J. (1965) Observations on electrically induced sleep in man,  British Journal of Anesthesia (37) 480