RBS Enterprises is Robert B. Stretton Enterprises at http://RBSe.us | . A conservationist at heart, merchandiser, consultant, webmaster, automation specialist, and all-around engineer, serving the Earth online since 1997... | "To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk" -- Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) | "True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing." -- Socrates (469-399 B.C.E.)
"ALONG THE IMMEDIATE COAST... SHOWERS MAY CONTAIN SMALL HAIL OR EVEN A FEW FLURRIES BEGINNING LATER THIS AFTERNOON."
Issued by The National Weather Service
Eureka, CA
3:59 am PST, Sun., Dec. 6, 2009
We will see...
"Issued by The National Weather ServiceEureka, CA 3:59 am PST, Sun., Dec. 6, 2009"
- Local Weather Alert for Eureka, CA - weather.com (view on Google Sidewiki)
People For a Human Rights Sanctuary?
We’re a group of very concerned, active, and local residents who have united to address consistently ignored issues of poverty, of certain chronic suffering, and oppression of homeless people- that requires greater focus by everyone. Each day harassed, and with another pending nightfall… the necessity to rest, to sleep… and with no sanctuary. International Treaties, the U.S. Constitution, courts at every level in this country have established the obvious- that sleep is a human necessity. Also, they’ve established that depriving someone of sleep is cruelty. However, local police, judges, and the public continue to treat homeless people who must live and sleep in public as if they’re committing crimes. In the rare instance that a homeless person has support to challenge, in the local courts, “criminal charges” of sleeping, he or she wins or the case is dismissed. The public’s belief that homeless people are living outside of the law hardens personal prejudice and adds more conflict to a people already facing painful and critical situations. Homelessness growing, no relief in sight, all of us facing deeper economic woes, lost jobs, state budget cuts, etc. The illegality of local police and government practices against homeless people is never mentioned in the media nor talked about by officials. It is imperative that all of us who know the truth help bring it to others now, so that these practices of harassment, threatening arrest, physical abuse, and confiscating peoples’ personal property ceases. Such practices cause great stress and injury and allow prejudice to grow. Criminalizing of homeless people must stop. We have plans to create a well organized and well maintained camp, a human rights sanctuary, with and for homeless people- a prototype for other sanctuaries that may follow. This will take skills and effort from people from all walks of life. We are also being advised by competent legal support. Communities in other cities are busy following this same course. Tell everyone you know about the March on September 12th . We are open to and encouraged by more folks who would like to share ideas or get involved in any way. http://peopleproject.wordpress.com/===eof===Do your part in your town to help. Support the efforts. Sincerely,Robert Stretton RBS Enterprises 1.707.444.9650 rbse@yahoo.com http://RBSe.us |
| COMMENTARY - Ten emerging technologies to watch in 2010By Peter Clarke EE Times (11/18/09, 11:40:00 AM EST)LONDON — EE Times has compiled a list of emerging technologies that we think will be worth watching out for in 2010.Recessions are the times of change when R&D investments get pushed to the fore. It is well known that when markets and prosperity return they never return in exactly the same form that they went away.We have deliberately favored the hardware- and physically based side of the technology landscape, although software is also likely to increase its impact and importance in 2010.There are also some technology trends that are so self-evident and long-term that we have not listed them. We would include amongst these the need to reduce power consumption and the need to pursue low-carbon and reduced materials content solutions. We see these as drivers for some of the more detailed technologies we list below. We don't claim to have a perfectly accurate piezoelectric crystal ball, but some technologies and some technology providers are going to change the landscape in 2010. The ten technologies listed below, in no particular order, might just be part of our changing times.1. Biofeedback or thought-control of electronicsA number of companies and research institutions have shown how brain waves, captured using sensors on a skull cap or head-set, can be used to control computer systems. The applications are medical — giving communications and control of the environment to heavily disabled people — military and, increasingly, in consumer and computer games control interfaces. This may seem like science fiction but the thought-control human-computer interface is here now and is being promoted by companies such as Emotiv Systems Inc. (San Francisco, Calif.).2. Printed electronicsThe possibility of the rapid printing of multiple conductive, insulating and semiconductive layers to form electronic circuits holds out the prospect of much lower cost ICs than those prepared by conventional fabrication methods. Printing semiconductors usually implies the use of organic materials (although see below) with very different performance to silicon. It is also implies much larger minimum geometries than can be attained in silicon. But there are applications that can benefit from modest performance on flexible subtrates at low cost; the RFID tag is one and the active-matrix backplane for displays is another.Kovio Inc. (Milpitas, Calif.), a privately-held pioneer in printed silicon electronics, has been plowing the printed electronics furrow since the company was founded in 2001, and in July 2009 announced that it had raised $20 million in Series E financing. Kovio said it planned to use the money to commence volume shipments of its Kovio RF barcodes. 3. Plastic memoryThis is allied to printed electronics as it may well be produced using printing, it may well have modest performance compared to silicon, but it is expected to be low cost. One pioneer in this area is Thin Film Electronics ASA (Oslo, Norway) which has tried for a number of years to get the technology out the door and spent some time working with Intel.The technology is based on polythiophenes, a family of polymers that display ferroelectric properties. The memories are rewritable, non-volatile, show more than ten years data retention and one million cycles, according to Thin Film Electronics. In September 2009 PolyIC GmbH & Co. KG (Fuerth, Germany) used the technology to make a 20-bit memory on a roll-to-roll line using polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as the substrate.4. Maskless lithographyFor many people the main question that hangs over semiconductor lithography is when will extreme ultra violet lithography take over from immersion lithography? But there is a dark horse in the race, maskless lithography based on an electron beam, which is being pioneered by Mapper Lithography BV (Delft, The Netherlands).In July 2009 Mapper shipped a 300-mm electron-beam lithography platform to CEA-Leti in Grenoble, France, where it was set to be used for R&D by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. TSMC is one of the key researchers of lithography and the company's interest in the Mapper technology is at the very least keeping the likes of ASML and Nikon working hard.5. Parallel processingThis technology is already here in the form of the dual- and quad-core PC processors and the multicore heterogeneous processors used for embedded applications. However, there is as yet little formal understanding of how multiple processors will be programmed and used for the utmost computational and power efficiency.This is one of the core problems in Information Technology that has faced the industry since the advent of the processor and we are still working away at it. Initiatives such as OpenCL and Cuda speak to that as do the prospect of using graphics processors as general purpose processors, as well as FPGAs and software programmable processor arrays. We expect a lot more activity in 2010. 6. Energy harvestingEnergy harvesting is not a new idea. We have had the motion-powered wristwatch for many years. But as electronic circuits move from consuming milliwatts to consuming microwatts an interesting thing happens. It becomes possible to contemplate drawing power for those circuits, not from the electricity grid or from a battery but from a variety of ambient phenomena. And this is expected to have far-reaching impact.One of the early applications is to have vibration-powered, wireless sensors in place on machinery, in vehicles. The battery-less aspect of such sensors removes the need for maintenance. EnOcean GmbH (oberhaching, Germany) has pioneered the use of wireless, batteryless switches for use in building automation and is now helping to drive the EnOcean Alliance to form standards.Nokia is looking at energy harvesting in the context of the mobile phone but has stressed it has no prototype as yet. But in 2010 all makers of mobile equipment have to be looking at energy harvesting to, at least, augment the battery life of their equipment.7. Bio-electronics and wetwareThis might be a bit more on the research side than the development side for 2010, but the coming together of the biological and the electronic is ripe for exploitation. We are used to the inclusion of hardware within animals in the form of under-the-skin tags for animals and heart pacemakers for human beings and the need to improve and reduce the cost of medical care is being felt acutely.As the industry's capabilities in MEMS and organic electronics fabrication improves the scope for integration of tissues and electronic circuitry increases. Lab-on-a-chip is one manifestation of the technology, and here is an example from IBM disclosed recently, but it is also possible to grow biological cells on electronically addressable substrates. The opportunities for in-vitro diagnostics are clear. Information about the electrical behavior of individual cells and their reactions to drugs is a major focus for research in cardiac and neural ailments such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease.So, in short, we expect a lot of research and the continued emergence of bio-electronics as a mainstream activity. 8. Resistive RAM or the memristorThe pursuit of the universal memory goes on. It needs to be simple like a DRAM, or preferably even simpler as those capacitors are a problem to scaling. It needs to be able to retain data for years with the power off and able to be used millions of times. It needs to be simple to make using conventional methods and with materials that are not out of place in conventional wafer fabs. And we still haven't found it yet.Or have we?In 2009 Unity Semiconductor Corp. emerged from seven years of stealthy research with its conductive metal oxide (CMOx) technology, although we are pleased to note that EE Times was reporting on Unity in April 2006. But 2009 has also seen the arrival on our radar screens of 4DS Inc., Qs Semiconductor Corp. and Adesto Technologies Inc.We are also aware that many of the larger IDMs are active in RRAM. And the reference to the memristor is because two-terminal devices that display a memory-effect in their resistance characteristic are effectively the practical implementation of the theoretical work, championed by Hewlett-Packard Labs, on the memristor, often described as the fourth passive circuit element after resistors, capacitors and inductors.9. The through-silicon viaThe depth of the interconnect stack on top of the leading-edge silicon surface is deep and can vary markedly in minimum geometry. We have speculated that this could result in a splitting of front-end fab production into surface and local interconnect followed by higher stack connection, possibly in different wafer fabs.The desire, for marketing as well as technical reasons, to mount multiple die in single packages is also driving a need for more sophisticated interconnect and the arrival of the through-silicon-via passing completely through a silicon wafer or die is clearly important in creating 3-D packages.In May 2009 Austriamicrosystems started producing TSV parts on a foundry basis, targeting suppliers of devices for 3-D integration of CMOS ICs and sensor components. Expect more of the same in 2010.10. Various battery technologiesWe have become so used to Moore's law and the steady miniaturization of microelectronics it is easy to become frustrated with a technology that does not double in performance every two years. But battery technology is relatively mature and is not driven by the same forces as the integrated circuit. Indeed if energy storage becomes too dense it can become dangerous.Nonetheless we all rely increasingly on batteries for energy storage and to power our various gadgets. Indeed it is arguable that without further breakthroughs in battery technology for electric vehicles the compatibility of the automobile and sustainable green transportation is in jeopardy. So the pressure is on.Recent spins on nickel- and lithium-based battery chemistries, such as nickel oxyhydroxide, olivine-type lithium iron phosphate and nanowires, are gunning to displace the venerable but problematic alkaline-manganese dioxide formulations. ReVolt Technology, a developer of rechargeable zinc-air batteries, has selected Portland, Oregon as the location for its U.S. headquarters and manufacturing center. We expect similar developments to come on apace in 2010, and every smart battery is set to provide a power management IC opportunity. ===eof===2010 will be an interesting year. I can't wait! B-)Sincerely,Robert Stretton RBS Enterprises 1.707.444.9650 rbse@yahoo.com http://RBSe.us |
(AP) -- Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that has drawn some decidedly juvenile pranks, is looking to impose more discipline with new restrictions on the editing of articles. The latest changes come as Wikipedia tries to balance a need for credibility and a desire for openness. While anyone can still edit entries, the site is testing pages that won't register changes until they are approved by an experienced Wikipedia editor. If the site's users respond well to the test run, the new restrictions will apply to all entries for living people in the next few weeks. The idea is to block the kind of high-profile vandalism that has marred some pages. In one of the most recent embarrassments, Democratic Sens. Robert Byrd and Edward Kennedy were prematurely declared dead by rogue editors. Still, Wikipedia risks discouraging legitimate editing if restrictions on changes or additions become too burdensome, keeping articles from getting better or keeping up with events. That may be especially true on more obscure pages with fewer active volunteers to approve edits in a timely way. Aware of the risks, Wikipedia has set the criteria for "experienced editor" status relatively low. Users who are registered for a few days can give changes the OK, said Jay Walsh, a spokesman for the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the site. A more uniform system for filtering changes on Wikipedia represents a step back from the site's original philosophy, which called for harnessing the collective knowledge of volunteer editors without any major restrictions. But it is not the first time Wikipedia has attached some strings. The same flagging process, for example, has been imposed on all entries in the German-language Wikipedia for more than a year. On the English site, too, high-profile pages that are likely to be defaced, such as Michael Jackson's, have been tightly restricted. Some observers believe Wikipedia must continue tightening editing policies if it wants to gain credibility. "I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop," said Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at the Santa Clara University School of Law. Goldman envisions a future Wikipedia curated by a relatively small group of dedicated editors. Under the current model, he said, there simply aren't enough volunteers to catch all errors. "My hope is that Wikipedia still exists and is still considered a useful site," Goldman said. "But it will be at that point a very tightly controlled site. It won't have that veneer of a site that anyone can contribute to. They haven't closed the drawbridge. People can still get in. But it keeps going up and up and up." Separately, the Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment group started by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, said Tuesday it is committing $2 million over two years to the Wikimedia Foundation. Omidyar Network's grant will support Wikimedia's goals of bringing free educational content to people around the world and supporting more people to help create that content. It follows last week's announcement of a $500,000 grant from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to make Wikipedia's software more user friendly and to develop training materials to engage new potential volunteer editors. ===eof=== I find Wikimedia to be very helpful for the most part. I think some sort of policing is needed to protect the system from vandals though. /rbs:.:.: . |
| "Location, Location, Location" Twitter to have geographic coordinates: http://blog.twitter.com/2009/08/location-location-location.html B-) |
| Search Engine with many media types. Each Summary has a thumbnail, SHARE links, Preview, Save, & Trash options - http://www.nexplore.com/ |
| August 13, 2009Twitter co-founder Biz Stone shares lessons learned from the site's recent crash, talks about the growing influence of the brand and speculates on the micro-blogging site's future.Watch the interview: http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200908/20090813.html===eof===After viewing this interview, I'm confident that Twitter.com is here to stay. Tweets are a very powerful tool.../rbs:.:.: . |
Why FaceBook really bought FriendFeed August 11, 2009 | Jim Connolly | Comments 11 So, FaceBook has acquired FriendFeed. This immediately got people speculating as to why FaceBook, with all those hundreds of millions of happy users, would want to buy FriendFeed. In short - FaceBook didn’t want to buy FriendFeed! FaceBook bought talent - Not a platform
The FriendFeed software is (as any geek will tell you) awesome; but that’s the problem. Geeks like us LOVE it, but it’s not usable enough for mainstream use. Although far superior to Twitter technically, FriendFeed lacks the instant usability that sites like Twitter offer. So, I don’t believe FaceBook bought FriendFeed for the platform either. FriendFeed does have one extremely valuable asset though - Talent!In buying FriendFeed, FaceBook has just acquired the services of four extremely smart people; Bret Taylor, Sanjeev Singh, Jim Norris and Paul Buchheit. Before founding FriendFeed, these guys worked at Google and helped develop services like, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Groups. Their market value is huge and that’s what I believe FaceBook is paying for. In a press release accompanying the acquisition, FaceBook confirms the value it places on FriendFeed’s co-founders - saying they will; “hold senior roles on Facebook’s engineering and product teams.” The remaining 12 FriendFeed staff members will also be joining FaceBook, as part of the deal. At the time of writing this, there’s been no mention as to what FaceBook has paid for Friendfeed. ===eof===We shall see what Facebook has to offer with this acquisition. I'm looking forward to the results...RBSe.us. |
| This message was sent to post@posterous.com and is distributed to my 3 (currently) social network sites, Twitter, Facebook, & Blogspot. You can cut-n-paste to your email once and off it goes to all your social networking sites, it's that easy. Setup is simple and extensive help is available if needed. This is, by far, the easiest way to publish... Just email it!Check out http://Posterous.com for yourself.Sincerely,Robert Stretton RBS Enterprises 1.707.444.9650 rbse@yahoo.com http://RBSe.us |
