Thoughts and Theories From Roger Andre
for the curious, and people getting to grips with computing and computers.
Sunday 28 September 2008, 11:47 PM
Nano Tech In The Extreme.
Hi everyone. Before getting to the point of this particular nano blog, lets have a quick look at where we are today in the world of nano technology.
1. On the 18/9/08 it was reported that Penn State researchers in the USA have developed a method to cheaply copy the structures found on biological surface structures, meaning that we could be driving around in cars coloured in the matt black of a butterflys wing, or the metallic finish of some beatles.
2. 17/9/08 A breaktrough is reported by engineers and scientists in the development of a new carbon based material called graphene. This would allow us to double the electrical charge stored on todays ultra capacitors. Good news for the renewable energy sector.
3. 15/9/08 Naometer sized cargo ships (maybe they should be called
cargo subs) have been developed that can sail through the blood stream and avoid detection by the bodys immune system. Then they can find their way to any undetected tumors and deliver the relevent medicines on site to combat them.
More information can be found here for those interested:
http://www.nano.org.uk/news/newsarchive.htm
Anyway, my point is this: one day I do really belive that you could have a load of very mineral rich soil and then send in preprogramed nano bots and watch almost anything you want grow out of the ground, anything from a house brick to a circuit board. This would sideline the need for heavy industry and manufacturing.
The power as I have mentioned elsewhere, would come from other nano bots able to extract on demand, the power required from individual atoms. This would be a gentle process and would eliminate the need for bashing the hell out of nature to get our energy.
"And what of jobs and the economy"? I hear some cry. Well with such nano power extraction on demand It would be possible to run out door heating at no cost to the planet and open up a new era of plenty, as far as feeding the world population is concerned.
And, as for growing material goods, this would still need intense supervision by people, especially if windows is still in the running.....
1. On the 18/9/08 it was reported that Penn State researchers in the USA have developed a method to cheaply copy the structures found on biological surface structures, meaning that we could be driving around in cars coloured in the matt black of a butterflys wing, or the metallic finish of some beatles.
2. 17/9/08 A breaktrough is reported by engineers and scientists in the development of a new carbon based material called graphene. This would allow us to double the electrical charge stored on todays ultra capacitors. Good news for the renewable energy sector.
3. 15/9/08 Naometer sized cargo ships (maybe they should be called
cargo subs) have been developed that can sail through the blood stream and avoid detection by the bodys immune system. Then they can find their way to any undetected tumors and deliver the relevent medicines on site to combat them.
More information can be found here for those interested:
http://www.nano.org.uk/news/newsarchive.htm
Anyway, my point is this: one day I do really belive that you could have a load of very mineral rich soil and then send in preprogramed nano bots and watch almost anything you want grow out of the ground, anything from a house brick to a circuit board. This would sideline the need for heavy industry and manufacturing.
The power as I have mentioned elsewhere, would come from other nano bots able to extract on demand, the power required from individual atoms. This would be a gentle process and would eliminate the need for bashing the hell out of nature to get our energy.
"And what of jobs and the economy"? I hear some cry. Well with such nano power extraction on demand It would be possible to run out door heating at no cost to the planet and open up a new era of plenty, as far as feeding the world population is concerned.
And, as for growing material goods, this would still need intense supervision by people, especially if windows is still in the running.....
Saturday 27 September 2008, 7:53 PM
Business And Domestic Security Threats, Different Tactics Being Deployed
If there's one thing i'm learning whilst doing my rounds, it is this.
There are very different tactics being deployed when it comes to
security breaches in the domestic front and in the business front.
On the home front, I am coming across plenty of browser hijacks, with people being directed to the sites of some major high street chains.
before I attempt to name and shame, I will first have to look into the
legalities of doing this, but my god, I am outraged!! These people
advertise to us on our televisions as though they are our friends, when nothing could be further from the truth! (but we already know this, don't we)?!
The reality is that somewhere along the line there are some pretty
shady deals going on. The high street chains can tell us they are our
friends all they like, the opposite is in fact true, they must look
upon their customers with contempt. (old news, I know).
Meanwhile, I have been let loose on a number of computers that belong to small business, and all of them have tested positive for trojans, just there, silently in the background trying not to be visible or disruptive. And all this is happening on machines that have fully paid up security software running. Should we be alarmed? Maybe, but I take great pleasure in educating people in the ways of locking down their machines.
I really am enjoying canvasing for business, I didn't realise I had
such a salesman in me, but I've found the ability to go out there and
get my self appointments, which translates straight into work. The
feeling of freedom is immense and the quality of life is very high.
There are very different tactics being deployed when it comes to
security breaches in the domestic front and in the business front.
On the home front, I am coming across plenty of browser hijacks, with people being directed to the sites of some major high street chains.
before I attempt to name and shame, I will first have to look into the
legalities of doing this, but my god, I am outraged!! These people
advertise to us on our televisions as though they are our friends, when nothing could be further from the truth! (but we already know this, don't we)?!
The reality is that somewhere along the line there are some pretty
shady deals going on. The high street chains can tell us they are our
friends all they like, the opposite is in fact true, they must look
upon their customers with contempt. (old news, I know).
Meanwhile, I have been let loose on a number of computers that belong to small business, and all of them have tested positive for trojans, just there, silently in the background trying not to be visible or disruptive. And all this is happening on machines that have fully paid up security software running. Should we be alarmed? Maybe, but I take great pleasure in educating people in the ways of locking down their machines.
I really am enjoying canvasing for business, I didn't realise I had
such a salesman in me, but I've found the ability to go out there and
get my self appointments, which translates straight into work. The
feeling of freedom is immense and the quality of life is very high.
Monday 22 September 2008, 10:24 PM
First Time Out On My Own
It's been a crazy month! From leaving the world of engineering, to finding what I thought was a fairly good techy job, leaving that after a week, going into the temping world (yawn) and now all of a sudden I am fully self employed and already busy.
There's a nice gap in the market it seems. There are people out there being priced out of PC maintainence by the shop fronts, and many complaints of insatisfactory work being undertaken. The only logical thing was for me to step in, get some businesss cards printed and start filling in the gaps. I've found self marketing a lot of fun, with a fair bit of leg work and driving involved.
I've had everything come back at me, from senior citizens who need help getting on line, to naughty kids who end up with nasty colds and flus on their laptops.
Once you get into it, the process of becoming self employed is not so bad, the only bugbear is having to wait for my unique tax ID number to come through (I've only been on PAYE before). I now have this strange etheric conection to all my reciepts and bank statments, and at this stage look forward to being my own accountant.
Oh yes, while I am small I will be using my current account for business, because having a business account is not a legal requirement. All you have to do is highlight expenditure and income on your statements with a highlighter pen, along side keeping records in a cashbook or software. (check out PC utilities for some pretty good freeware).
Being mobile, my only real overheads are petrol, and when a customer does ask me to bring a machine home, then I'm allowed to calculate how much electricity I'm using in relation to work time.
So at the moment it seems the way to go is to do it all your self whilst you are starting out. When things get silly then bring in the accoutants etc.
There's a nice gap in the market it seems. There are people out there being priced out of PC maintainence by the shop fronts, and many complaints of insatisfactory work being undertaken. The only logical thing was for me to step in, get some businesss cards printed and start filling in the gaps. I've found self marketing a lot of fun, with a fair bit of leg work and driving involved.
I've had everything come back at me, from senior citizens who need help getting on line, to naughty kids who end up with nasty colds and flus on their laptops.
Once you get into it, the process of becoming self employed is not so bad, the only bugbear is having to wait for my unique tax ID number to come through (I've only been on PAYE before). I now have this strange etheric conection to all my reciepts and bank statments, and at this stage look forward to being my own accountant.
Oh yes, while I am small I will be using my current account for business, because having a business account is not a legal requirement. All you have to do is highlight expenditure and income on your statements with a highlighter pen, along side keeping records in a cashbook or software. (check out PC utilities for some pretty good freeware).
Being mobile, my only real overheads are petrol, and when a customer does ask me to bring a machine home, then I'm allowed to calculate how much electricity I'm using in relation to work time.
So at the moment it seems the way to go is to do it all your self whilst you are starting out. When things get silly then bring in the accoutants etc.
Friday 5 September 2008, 4:53 PM
Prozone, Vertigo And Captivity.
Hello fellow bloggers. I've been away. No not just been away, but been away against my will!
It goes something like this....I took a new job. I was asked in the interview if I was OK with heights, as part of the job involved being up a ladder. I said yes. I was then asked if I was OK being away for the odd night. again, I replied affirmatively.
The tech part of the job sounded good. It involved installing
the "prozone" ball detection system in football stadiums. This meant laying red light optical cable to the cameras, and going from the cameras via a media converter (copper wire) into an ethernet router and then onwards into the server. The option also exists to have the camera work as a self contained computer with its own IP address, which you can then point your favourate web browser at.
Wireless options are also available when laying cable is impractical but aren't as reliable. The end result is that the position of a ball can be pinpointed in any time or space.
Well, I found myself high up on the gantrys which is where part of the cable run leads to. At times I was only a sneeze away from a great big drop when bending down to put bolts into the cameras. This was it, virtigo big time. The ground spun away from me and rotated even though I was still!
I was also destined to never be at home if I stuck with this job. These stadiums (stadia)?? take a week to complete by default even though I had the Impression It was just the odd night away. Anyway, I've quit this job, and am going back to temping for a while, but it's nice to be home and back online, and also to see how far things have moved on in a week, as I've been stuck in a travel lodge in battersea with no laptop, no wife and no internet cafes around (I was too tired in the evening to go looking for one). Just a dodgy terminal in the hotel, and there was no way any login details were going in that thing!
Apart from all this, the people I worked with were great, genuine,
and very dedicated to what they were doing.
OK enough said, I'm looking forward to reading all the new blogs,
and getting involved with some discussions.
It goes something like this....I took a new job. I was asked in the interview if I was OK with heights, as part of the job involved being up a ladder. I said yes. I was then asked if I was OK being away for the odd night. again, I replied affirmatively.
The tech part of the job sounded good. It involved installing
the "prozone" ball detection system in football stadiums. This meant laying red light optical cable to the cameras, and going from the cameras via a media converter (copper wire) into an ethernet router and then onwards into the server. The option also exists to have the camera work as a self contained computer with its own IP address, which you can then point your favourate web browser at.
Wireless options are also available when laying cable is impractical but aren't as reliable. The end result is that the position of a ball can be pinpointed in any time or space.
Well, I found myself high up on the gantrys which is where part of the cable run leads to. At times I was only a sneeze away from a great big drop when bending down to put bolts into the cameras. This was it, virtigo big time. The ground spun away from me and rotated even though I was still!
I was also destined to never be at home if I stuck with this job. These stadiums (stadia)?? take a week to complete by default even though I had the Impression It was just the odd night away. Anyway, I've quit this job, and am going back to temping for a while, but it's nice to be home and back online, and also to see how far things have moved on in a week, as I've been stuck in a travel lodge in battersea with no laptop, no wife and no internet cafes around (I was too tired in the evening to go looking for one). Just a dodgy terminal in the hotel, and there was no way any login details were going in that thing!
Apart from all this, the people I worked with were great, genuine,
and very dedicated to what they were doing.
OK enough said, I'm looking forward to reading all the new blogs,
and getting involved with some discussions.
