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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/nBylKkwzHmw/story01.htm
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Penultimate talks iPad stylus [Macworld 2012]
Rene and I are at Macworld 2012 and had the pleasure of talking to Penultimate developer Ben Zotto. You, the iMore nation, asked us to ask Ben his thoughts on styli for the iPad, so we did! Check out the video above for Ben's insights on the personal decision of choosing an iPad.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Mars Rover Opportunity Turns 8
I think it is great that the device was design to last max a year or two, and lasted 8, but on the flipside, this means they aren't really good engineers.
First of all it was engineered to guarantee to work for 3 months which was the allotted project objectives. Based on the budget and capability, this is what NASA had designed the rovers to do. Surviving for years is a bonus.
Just because they erred on the side of a good result doesn't mean the estimates are better. It means their methodology is HEAVILY padded, or if we assume +/-400~800%, they were just lucky that it didn't swing the other way. Given Phobos-Grunt, perhaps space engineering margin of error really is +/-400~800%. Although I suspect huge margins of error were thrown about in NASA>
Of course they padded their estimates and erred on the side of caution. 1) There is no way to retrieve or repair this rover. 2) NASA knew about the sticky dust from previous missions, but they didn't have omnipotence when it comes to the Mars climate. They didn't know that windstorms were capable of cleaning said dust. So you would have rather just wing it and not pad their estimates. So when the rover failed, they can tell NASA "oh well, try again in two years."
If that's the case, huge design buffers, that means they don't understand the underlying physics/materials engineer, and had to heavily overdesign, which means there is a far more efficient design out there.
I don't think you understand that there are different goals in engineering. One goal may be efficiency. The goal in this case was absolute reliability despite any unknowns the rovers may have experienced on Mars.
I'm not knocking NASA engineers, I'm just exploring how to shave down this margin so that they can make more efficient designs at lower cost that behave as expected.
Again efficiency is not as much a priority as reliability in these cases.
Building something that behaves as expected is far, far, FAR more important than building something that blows away expectations by orders of magnitude. The former is good engineering, the latter is waste, or worse, dumb luck!
The engineers never worked on the expectation that you ascribe. People outside of NASA have placed it on them. For them, the mission was successful when the rovers completed their objectives after 3 months. All these years afterwards are bonus.
Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/faYZ7wTveBs/mars-rover-opportunity-turns-8
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Robert Hegyes, played Epstein on 'Kotter,' dies (AP)
METUCHEN, N.J. ? The actor best known for playing Jewish Puerto Rican student Juan Epstein on the 1970s TV show "Welcome Back Kotter" has died.
The Flynn & Son Funeral Home in Fords, N.J., says it was informed of Robert Hegyes' death Thursday by the actor's family. He was 60.
A spokesman at JFK Medical Center in Edison, N.J., told the Star-Ledger newspaper that Hegyes, of Metuchen, arrived at the hospital in the morning in full cardiac arrest and died.
Hegyes was appearing on Broadway in 1975 when he auditioned for "Kotter," a TV series about a teacher who returns to the inner-city school of his youth to teach a group of remedial students. They included the character Vinnie Barbarino, played by John Travolta.
Hegyes appeared on many other TV series, including "Cagney & Lacey."
Romney responds to Gingrich immigration shot (AP)
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. ? Notable moments from the GOP presidential debate Thursday night in Jacksonville, Fla., just days before the state's Jan. 31 primary:
___
IMMIGRATION FIGHT
Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney had their sharpest exchange when Gingrich said Romney was the most anti-immigrant candidate in the GOP field. Romney responded indignantly, reminding Gingrich that Romney's father, George, was born in Mexico.
"The idea that I'm anti-immigrant is repulsive," Romney fired at Gingrich. "Don't use a term like that. You can say we disagree on certain policies, but to say that enforcing the U.S. law to protect our borders, to welcome people here legally, to expand legal immigration, as I have proved, that that's somehow anti anti-immigrant is simply the kind of over-the-top rhetoric that has characterized American politics too long."
Romney also asked Gingrich for an apology for an ad Gingrich recently pulled from airwaves that attacked Romney on immigration policy. Gingrich didn't offer one.
___
MOON SHOTS
Gingrich's proposal for a permanent American colony on the moon was mocked by Romney, who said Gingrich is developing a pattern of pandering to local voters.
"If I had a business executive come to me and say I want to spend a few hundred billion dollars to put a colony on the moon, I'd say, `You're fired,'" said Romney, a former businessman.
He then noted Gingrich's calls for a new interstate highway in South Carolina, a new VA hospital in northern New Hampshire, and widening the port of Jacksonville to accommodate the larger ships that will soon be able to transit the Panama Canal. Romney said promises like that were what had caused a massive budget deficit in the first place.
Gingrich defended himself saying he'd find plenty of things to cut and shouldn't be mocked for setting priorities.
"You don't just have to be cheap everywhere. You can actually have priorities to get things done," he said.
___
MEDICAL RECORDS
The oldest candidate in the race, 76-year-old Rep. Ron Paul, said he'd be happy to share his medical records with the public if he were the nominee. Then he one-upped his fellow candidates by challenging them to a 25-mile bike ride.
He had no takers.
All of the candidates said they'd release their medical records for scrutiny. Paul, who would be the oldest president ever elected, said his records are short, about a page long.
Gingrich vouched for his competitor's fitness. "I'm confident that Dr. Paul is quite ready to serve if he's elected. Watching him campaign, he's in great shape," he said with a laugh.
___
FIRST LADY CHATTER
Asked what their wives would bring to the position of first lady, the candidates were happy to gush about their better halves.
Paul, married for 54 years, says he's got an anniversary coming up next week. He also plugged his wife's work as an author ? of "The Ron Paul Cookbook."
Romney praised his wife for battling multiple sclerosis and breast cancer.
"She is a real champion and a fighter," he said.
Gingrich said he's met each of the candidates' wives and said they'd all be "terrific first ladies." He says his wife, Callista, would bring a tremendous artistic focus and would be a strong advocate for music and music education.
Rick Santorum says his wife is "my hero" because she gave up a successful career to help raise their seven children.
___
MOM IN THE HOUSE
Santorum got a big applause line when he introduced his mom, 93-year-old Catherine Santorum. During the debate's introductions Santorum said he was glad to have his mother at the debate. And, it turns out, she can help turn out the vote for her son ? she is a north Florida resident. When she stood up to be recognized, the debate hall gave her loud applause.
___
NO LOVE FOR TSA
Even before the debate started a rowdy, Paul-supporting crowd at the University of North Florida debate site shouted jeers toward the Transportation Security Administration. The anti-TSA chants came days after Paul's son, GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, was stopped by security at the Nashville airport when a scanner set off an alarm and Paul declined to allow a security officer to pat him down.
Police escorted Paul away, but allowed him to board a later flight.
Ron Paul has already used his son's experience to promote his "Plan to Restore America," which would cut $1 trillion of federal spending in a year and eliminate the TSA. He has said the incident reflects that the "police state in this country is growing out of control."
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Coastal storms have long-reaching effects, study says
ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2012) ? Coastal storms are known to cause serious damage along the shoreline, but they also cause significant disruption of the deep-sea ecosystem as well, according to a study of extreme coastal storms in the Western Mediterranean published in the Jan. 25 issue of the online journal PLoS ONE.
The researchers, led by Anna Sanchez-Vidal of the University of Barcelona in Spain, identified a storm in Dec. 2008 as the most extreme storm in the area over the last 25 years, and found that it resulted in major redistribution of marine organic carbon associated with clay particles from shallow to deep water. This injection of carbon helps support life in the deeper water and boosts carbon sequestration, the authors write.
Despite the importance of such events for deep-sea ecosystems, however, the severe damage to coastal environments must also be taken into account, and both of these factors must be considered when considering how human-induced climate change might alter the overall ocean ecosystem.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science.
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Journal Reference:
- Anna Sanchez-Vidal, Miquel Canals, Antoni M. Calafat, Galderic Lastras, Rut Pedrosa-P?mies, Melisa Men?ndez, Ra?l Medina, Joan B. Company, Bernat Hereu, Javier Romero, Teresa Alcoverro. Impacts on the Deep-Sea Ecosystem by a Severe Coastal Storm. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (1): e30395 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0030395
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/O1f1MChn9sc/120125172315.htm
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Two more Tibetans killed by Chinese forces after protests: group (Reuters)
BEIJING (Reuters) ? Two Tibetans in China's southwestern Sichuan province were killed when security forces fired on demonstrators, a Tibetan advocacy group said, upping the death toll in several clashes over government controls to four since Monday.
The violence is likely to add to rising tensions in the rebellious Tibetan highlands of Sichuan that border Tibet, where security forces have struggled to maintain control over heavily Buddhist communities.
At least two people were shot dead and many were wounded during protests in Seda County on Tuesday, the London-based Free Tibet group said late the same day.
"Locals describe the town as being under curfew: they have been told not to leave their homes and they are now afraid that if they do they will be shot," the group said in a statement.
Calls to the county government and public security bureau, about 680 km (423 miles) west of Sichuan's capital of Chengdu, were not answered.
But on Wednesday, the official Xinhua News Agency confirmed the clashes in Seda, saying police were forced to open fire killing one "rioter" when protesters attacked a police station with gasoline bottles, knives and stones.
"Police were forced to use force after efforts involving persuasion and non-lethal weapon defense failed to disperse the mob," Xinhua said, adding that 14 police officers were injured and 13 people were arrested.
The news agency earlier confirmed a separate clash on Monday in Luhuo township, called Drango or Draggo by Tibetans, in the western highlands of Sichuan near Tibet. It said one protester was killed and five police officers were hurt.
Free Tibet in a separate statement late on Tuesday said it had confirmed that at least two Tibetans had been killed in Monday's incident in Luhuo and that it had the names of 36 people wounded in the clash.
The group, which campaigns for Tibetan self-determination, also said that troops fired teargas in a third location in Sichuan -- Meruma township, Aba County, called Ngaba County by Tibetans -- after people protested.
Security forces have been on edge after 16 incidents of Tibetans setting themselves on fire over the past year in response to resentment of Beijing's controls on religion.
Most of the incidents occurred in Sichuan. Some of the protesters have called for the return of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Buddhist leader revered by many Tibetans.
Other advocacy groups and a resident in a village near Luhuo reached by Reuters had slightly varying accounts of the incidents, which are difficult to verify because the government restricts travel to Tibet and parts of Sichuan.
The Tibetan government in exile in India said on its website five people had been shot dead in the two incidents.
ON THE DIPLOMATIC BACKBURNER
The clashes come at an awkward time for China as Vice President Xi Jinping -- expected to replace President Hu Jintao in a leadership handover late this year -- prepares for a visit to Washington in February.
U.S. Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues Maria Otero said in a statement the United States was "gravely concerned" about the reports of violence.
"The U.S. government repeatedly has urged the Chinese government to address the counterproductive policies in Tibetan areas that have created tensions and that threaten the distinct religious, cultural and linguistic identity of the Tibetan people," Otero said.
Analysts, however, say the government's policies leave little hope of easing tension, and China's economic influence has put other countries' efforts to broach human rights -- including those of the United States -- on the backburner.
"What dominates the U.S.-China relationship has more to do with trade and economics than human rights and Tibet," Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, said.
"We have to consider that even though these policies are failing to win over Tibetans to the Chinese state, they are very effective in cementing China's control," Bequelin said. "It seems the leadership has made the calculation that it can rule without the consent of Tibetans."
China has ruled what it calls the Tibet Autonomous Region since Communist troops marched in in 1950. It rejects criticism that it is eroding Tibetan culture and faith, saying its rule has ended serfdom and brought development to a backward region.
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
China's Foreign Ministry has branded the self-immolators "terrorists" and has said the Dalai Lama, whom it condemns a supporter of violent separatism, should take the blame.
(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley and Max Duncan in Beijing, Farah Master in Hong Kong, and Madhukar Abhishek in Dharamsala, India; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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