First Flexible Screens For Cellphones Developed

If you’re a fan of the television program ‘CSI’, you must have noticed the translucent display screens the investigators always use in the labs. However impressive, it does look a little futuristic doesn’t it?

Well, it may be futurisic no more, because TDK have developed a flexible and translucent organic display that can be used in mobile phones and other gadgets, also allowing these display screens to be able to bend.

The displays use OLED technology which means very little energy is used because they are self illuminating. And get this… the displays are exremely thin – imagine this – just 0.3 mm thick.

That’s one third of a millimeter. That’s THIN. As you can imagine, because it is so thin and manufactured using a film substrate, it is also extremely lightweight.

The current flexible screens have a resolution of 256 x 64, can be up to 10 cm long and may be installed on curved surfaces. Could this possibly be an open door to manufacture cellphones that are wearable on the wrist? Obviously being flexible should increase lifespan and resistance to breakage or scratches.

The translucent display has a slightly bigger resolution at 320 x 240, and is 50 percent translucent. An interesting aspect of these displays are that although they are translucent, anyone standing behind the display is not able to see the image or text, but still be able to see through the display.


A film transparent display is planned for production in 2012. Although there are other companies that have rolled out this technology, TDK’s flexible display is expected to reach the mass market by the end of 2011, thus being the first company to mass produce the flexible displays. The translucent screens are however already being mass produced.

A football that powers cell phone!

A football that generates electricity to charge a cell phone or power a light from a short kick is set for trial at the 2010 FIFA World Cup host South Africa.
Four female undergraduate students, from Harvard University, who wanted to find a solution to the developing world's chronic power shortages, designed the ball named sOcckets.
The ball works by a 'shake to charge' torch, in which a magnetic ball rolls through a coil to generate an electric charge. The ball generates enough electricity to power an LED light for three hours in just 15 minutes of being kicked around. It can charge virtually any kind of mobile phone. "Soccer is something you will find in every African country," one of sOccket's inventors, Jessica Lin, said. "People play for hours days, so we thought, 'Why not try to get a little more out of that energy,'" she added.
Lin said that the main motive was to withhold the passion for football particularly among children in Africa's poorest communities to provide them with reading torches when the light fades.
Julia Silverman who also worked on the project brought the ball to South Africa's towns for trials to coincide with the World Cup. "The kids call it 'the magic ball'. Whenever you see a child plug in their ball for the first time and see the torch light up from the energy they've created, their eyes light up too it's a wonderful feeling," The Telegraph quoted Julia as saying. "If you think that the energy generated by a 15-minute kick around provides three hours of light, you can read a lot of pages from a textbook in that time," she added.
The sOccket ball may be available online by the end of 2010. The team intends to sell them to people in developed countries in a buy-one-give-one scheme in which the second ball will be sent to charities working in African towns. "Obviously, this won't be a regulation ball," Lin said. "But it's a big improvement over some of the makeshift balls the kids create from things like old plastic bags," she added.

Now, 'cyborg dogs' to combat Taliban

British army chiefs have unveiled their latest weapon, 'cyborg dogs', to do battle in the war against the Taliban.

According to the Daily Star, scientists described cyborg troops as mechanical mutts, which would be in action within months.

The so-called Big Dog echoes the 'AT-AT land walkers' from Star Wars films. The 2ft 6in high machines use four legs to carry gear over rough terrain.

Other prototypes being developed include a four-legged "mule" to carry kit and a robot to transport wounded soldiers from battlefields.

Early tests show it can identify the direction of incoming bullets, lock on to a target and then return fire. Its blast-proof boxer shorts can also protect British troops.

Imagine a scene from any of Hollywood’s disaster films. An eerie scene where mobile phones go on the blink, GPS is knocked out, TVs go blank and the world is plunged into chaos.


Looks like disaster flicks aren’t too removed from reality since all this could well be the potential result of a gigantic solar storm, according to a new report by NASA. The report, a warning, says Earth and space are coming together in a way that’s new to human history.

A solar storm, which is essentially violent eruptions in the sun, can eject destructive radiation and charged particles into space. These are closely connected to magnetic fields – which are hazardous for satellites and space stations.

There are reports of a geomagnetic storm sparked by a huge solar flare that swept over the Earth in 1859. Telegraph wires shorted out and set houses on fire. A brilliant aurora was seen in Hawaii—so bright that “people could read newspapers by [its] red and green glow.” Scientists predict that in May 2013, the sun’s solar cycle will peak at about the same level as in 1859. (This content courtesy a post on Gawker.com)

High-tech systems are critical for life as we know it today. Everything that we depend on and take for granted – air travel, GPS navigation, banking services (even a credit card transaction uses a satellite) and emergency radio communications – can all be knocked out by intense solar activity.

To get an idea of scale, a massive solar storm could result in 20 times more damage than the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina which hit south-eastern US in August 2005. The storm killed 1,800 people and caused damages worth $81 billion.

Some good news is that some of the damage and destruction can be avoided with warning of an impending solar storm. There is technology to put satellites in ‘safe mode’ and disconnect transformers to protect them from destructive electrical surges.

The task of accurately forecasting a solar storm lies with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the US. “Space weather forecasting is still in its infancy, but we’re making rapid progress,” said Thomas Bogdan, director of NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado.

The key for Bogdan lies in NASA and NOAA collaborating. “NASA’s fleet of heliophysics research spacecraft provides us with up-to-the-minute information about what’s happening on the sun. They are an important complement to our own GOES and POES satellites, which focus more on the near-Earth environment.”

Says Bogdon, “I believe we’re on the threshold of a new era in which space weather can be as influential in our daily lives as ordinary terrestrial weather.”

So far, we’ve been lucky to escape any big solar storms. I guess we could send Bruce Willis (a la Armageddon) to save us from the Sun in true Hollywood style. But then I would rather wait for NASA and NOAA to save us from space weather.

Nokia unveils 4 cheap phones, bicycle charger

Nokia Oyj unveiled on Thursday four new cheap phone models, and a first bicycle charger from the world's top cellphone maker, aiming to protect its dominant market share on emerging markets.
Nokia controls more than 50 percent of phone sales in India and Africa, and has a strong prosition on most other emerging markets.
"Tens of millions of these products will be sold, but competition is intensifying as Chinese vendors aggressively target the ultra low cost segment," said Ben Wood, director of research at CCS Insight.

"With all the focus on its smartphone woes it is easy to forget that Nokia is a power house in entry level products."

Nokia has struggled to keep up with rivals like Apple and RIM in the high-end of the market, and its ailing smartphone offering has hurt the stock price over the last few months.

The four new simple phone models sales prices, excluding possible operators subsidies and local taxes, range from 30 euros ($36.9) to 45 euros.

Two of the new phones, including the cheapest 30 euro model, will enable usage of two different SIM cards -- helping sharing a phone between family members or friends.

Nokia introduced also its first bicycle charger, targeting especially consumers with limited access to electricity, and it will go on sale for roughly 15 euros price, depending on market, later this year, said a company spokesman.

Cloud computing could help improve security, says Microsoft

Cloud computing could help improve security, says Microsoft.

Cloud computing adds security challenges, but also provides opportunities to improve security posture, according to Steve Lipner, senior director of security engineering strategy at Microsoft.

In addition to traditional threats such as cross-site scripting, code injection and denial of service, cloud computing expands some of those threats and introduces others, he said.

“Data privacy issues such as data location and segregation, and privileged access control, become greater in the cloud, for example,” he said.

Threats introduced by cloud computing infrastructures include new types of privilege escalation vulnerabilities from virtual machine (VM) to host or VM to VM.

“These are the kinds of new issues that organisations looking at cloud services need to ensure have been taken care of by service providers,” said Lipner.

But the good news, he said, is that the cloud computing model also provides opportunities to mitigate threats, such as slow or incomplete security patching.

“With cloud services, patching is automated to ensure all applications are up to date from a security point of view at all times,” said Lipner.

Instances of applications can also be run on more secure systems within the service providers’ infrastructure and there is greater resilience across the service, he said.

But Lipner said the decision to move to cloud services is ultimately a business decision that must be taken based on a risk analysis.

“There is always a trade-off between cost and security,” he said.

At one end of the spectrum, private clouds provide the highest level of control, but no economy of scale, while public clouds provide the greatest economies of scale with little control.

“Organisations need to find the right balance by getting the information and assurances they need to make informed risk management decisions,” said Lipner.

Microsoft is banking on a combination of transparency about what it is doing to provide secure online services and third-party validation. All Microsoft online services and software conform to the company’s security development life-cycle principles, ISO 27001 and Common Criteria for IT security.

Compliance with these standards and objectives is validated by the certifying bodies and an annual third-party SAS 70 audit.

“In choosing a cloud services provider, organisations should look at reputation, openness and certification,” said Lipner.

In these early days of cloud computing, these are the only things organisations can take into account in order to make informed decisions, he said.

Now, TV that switches off automatically when you snooze!

A new, innovative television model has been created that uses facial recognition technology to determine when you're starting to snooze, and actually switches off the picture when you nod off.

According to The Guardian, the Sony Bravia WE5 comes with a heat and motion sensor that lets the system switch off the set it's playing in an empty room, and an ambient light sensor that can reduce the output from the TV's backlight if the room gets dim, reports The New York Daily News.

"If you wander to make a cup of tea you will still be able to hear the TV but it won't be wasting energy showing the picture," a Sony spokesperson explained. As soon as the TV "senses" that you're back, the picture returns.

Nanotechnology in Communication

Washington, May 4 (ANI): Communication devices will soon

turn smaller, more flexible and more powerful, thanks to a

nano-based technology that can make computers and the

Internet hundreds of times faster.

Currently being created by Dr. Koby Scheuer of Tel Aviv

University's School of Electrical Engineering, the

communications technology "enabler" could only be used in

five or ten years in the future.

Scheuer has developed a new plastic-based technology for

the nano-photonics market, which manufactures optical

devices and components.

The plastic-based "filter" is made from nanometer-sized

grooves embedded into the plastic.

When used in fibre optics cable switches, the new device

will make our communication devices smaller, more flexible

and more powerful, he said.

"Once Americans have a fibre optics cable coming into

every home, all communication will go through it -

telephone, cable TV, the Internet. But to avoid

bottlenecks of information, we need to separate the

information coming through into different channels. Our

polymeric devices can do that in the optical domain - at a

speed, quality and cost that the semi-conductor industry

can't even imagine," said Scheuer.

Every optical device used in today's communication tools

has a filter.

Ten years from now, fibre optic cables that now run from

city to city will feed directly into every individual

home.

When that technology comes to light, the new plastic-based

switches could revolutionize the way we communicate.

"Right now, we could transmit all of the written text of

the world though a single fiber in a fiber optics cable in

just a few seconds. But in order to handle these massive

amounts of communication data, we need filters to make

sense of the incoming information. Ours uses a

plastic-based switch, replacing hard-to-fabricate and

expensive semi-conductors," said Scheuer.

Semi-conductors, grown on crystals in sterile labs and

processed in special ovens, take days and sometimes months

to manufacture. They are delicate and inflexible as well,

said Scheuer.

"Our plastic polymer switches come in an easy-to-work-with

liquid solution. Using a method called 'stamping,' almost

any laboratory can make optical devices out of the silicon

rubber mold we've developed," he added.

The silicon rubber mould is scored with nano-sized

grooves, invisible to the eye and each less than a

millionth of a meter in width.

A plastic solution can be poured over the mould to

replicate the optical switch in minutes.

When in place in a fibre-optic network, the grooves on the

switch modulate light coming in through the cables, and

the data is filtered and encoded into usable information.

The device can also be used in the gyros of planes, ships

and rockets; inserted into cell phones; and made a part of

flexible virtual reality gloves so doctors could "operate"

on computer networks over large distances.

Charging your iPod by running

If you've forgotten to charge your iPod and a power plug is nowhere in sight, a simple run could help you get out of the trouble - if new technology being developed is successful.

Every step you take can generate electricity. By packing 20,000 nanowires into three square centimeters, Georgia Tech scientists have developed the world's first gadget powered solely by piezoelectric materials.

A piezoelectric material when pushed or pulled creates a mild electrical charge.

Within three to five years piezoeleectric nanowires, woven into a cotton shirt or placed in a shoe heel, could charge a cell phone or laptop battery after even a short walk.

"This is a key step to designing technology that will be useful in the near future," Discovery News quoted Z.L. Wang, a professor at Georgia Tech and co-author of two new papers in Nature Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, as saying.

Wang's group says piezoelectrics can generate voltages up to 1.26 volts, and can produce even higher voltages.

The team used plentiful and easy-to-manipulate zinc oxide nanowires to come up with their nanogenerator.

An individual zinc oxide nanowire is invisible to the human eye, measuring anywhere between 50 and 200 nanometers across and about five microns in length.

Twenty thousand nanowires, placed side-by-side and end-to-end, cover three square centimeters, with two thin electrodes hanging off either end.

The arrangement maximizes the electricity the piezoelectric nanowires can generate.

The wires work in sync, amplifying the electrical charge to record levels as the single layer is pushed back and forth with the slightest nudge.

Pushing the arranged nanowires harder or faster would enhance the power output up to 30 times without damaging the device.

And if gallium nitride replaced the cheap zinc oxide nanowires the power output could increase almost 10 times.

Piezoelectric-powered devices could also help detect fires and collect weather data in areas that are not within the reach of traditional power grids.

Pencil Printer - Save Paper

We've all seen our fair share of speed boats, as well as submarines. But what if you can come up with a product that combines the two? A submersible boat for use both below and on the water? It sounds like something from a futuristic movie, but in reality, a prototype for this kind of watercraft is being developed and researched.

The company behind the concept is Marion Hyper-Submersible Powerboat Design, and they are very proud of their Hyper-Sub Submersible Powerboat. It is dubbed as: "a revolutionary new vessel with a design flexible enough to open the seas to industry and to individuals in ways never before thought possible." The craft is built with capabilites to not only take on the high seas, but also to transform into a "self-charging, autonomous, one-atmosphere submarine." During testing in 2008, the Hyper-Sub prototype spent two months of testing in the water, and performed well.

In essence, you would be able to use this vessel to cruise on the water, as well as under the water, but looking at the photos, this does not seem like it will be a slow moving craft. It actually looks quite fast - even standing still. The protoype "Fathom", has a seating capacity for 5 people, including the pilot, is powered by twin 440 horsepower inboard Yanmar diesel engines, with a fuel capacity of 262.5 gallons. It comes with all the bells and whistles you can imagine - GPS, chart plotting, radar, forward as well as downward sensing sonar, and of course - autopilot. And that is just on the water surface.


When diving the propulsion system is electric over hydraulic, with twin main hydraulic thrusters capable of a maximum 60 hp. The vessel also boasts bow and stern steering thrusters for underwater maneuverability. It seems the vessel will be available in three different models once in production, with the 'HS-250 Sport' designed with individual owners and charter operators in mind, with strong surface and submerged performance and has a 180 degree view through an all acrylic canopy.


The HS-600 is intended for more of an industrial use - targeted to the salvage or governmental operations. It features an all-aluminum hull.

The HS-1200 is also a very rugged configuration, but offers deeper diving capabilities. It is not clear exactly when these vessels will go into production.

Marion Hyper-Submersible Powerboat Design, LLC is a Florida Limited Liability Company formed in 2005.

Surface Computing

Basic Idea Behind Fax Machines

Most of the early fax machine designs involved a rotating drum. To send a fax, you would attach the piece of paper to the drum, with the print facing outward. The rest of the machine worked something like this:

There was a small photo sensor with a lens and a light.
The photo sensor was attached to an arm and faced the sheet of paper.
The arm could move downward over the sheet of paper from one end to the other as the sheet rotated on the drum.
In other words, it worked something like a lathe.

© Chris Hondros/Getty Images
Fax machines are frequently used to send resumes and other important papers.
The photo sensor was able to focus in and look at a very small spot on the piece of paper -- perhaps an area of 0.01 inches squared (0.25 millimeters squared). That little patch of paper would be either black or white. The drum would rotate so that the photo sensor could examine one line of the sheet of paper and then move down a line. It did this either step-wise or in a very long spiral.

To transmit the information through a phone line, early fax machines used a very simple technique: If the spot of paper that the photo cell was looking at were white, the fax machine would send one tone; if it were black, it would send a different tone (see How Modems Work for details). For example, it might have sent an 800-Hertz tone for white and a 1,300-Hertz tone for black.

At the receiving end, there would be a similar rotating-drum mechanism, and some sort of pen to mark on the paper. When the receiving fax machine heard a 1,300-Hertz tone it would apply the pen to the paper, and when it heard an 800-Hertz tone it would take the pen off the paper.

Inner workings of todays modern technologies

Nanotechnology

How Circuits Work

Have you ever wondered what happens when you flip a switch to turn on a light, TV, vacuum cleaneror computer? What does flipping that switch accomplish? In all of these cases, you are completing an electric circuit, allowing acurrent, or flow of electrons, through the wires.
An electric circuit is in many ways similar to your circulatory system. Your blood vessels, arteries, veins and capillaries are like the wires in a circuit. The blood vessels carry the flow of blood through your body. The wires in a circuit carry the electric current to various parts of an electrical or electronic system.
Your heart is the pump that drives the blood circulation in the body. It provides the force or pressure for blood to circulate. The blood circulating through the body supplies various organs, like yourmuscles, brain and digestive system. A battery or generator produces voltage -- the force that drives current through the circuit.
Take the simple case of an electric light. Two wires connect to the light. For electrons to do their job in producing light, there must be a complete circuit so they can flow through the light bulb and then back out.
The diagram above shows a simple circuit of a flashlight with a battery at one end and a flashlight bulb at the other end. When the switch is off, a complete circuit will not exist, and there will be no current. When the switch is on, there will be a complete circuit and a flow of current resulting in the flashbulb emitting light.
Circuits can be huge power systems transmitting megawatts of power over a thousand miles -- or tiny microelectronic chips containing millions of transistors. This extraordinary shrinkage of electronic circuits made desktop computers possible. The new frontier promises to be nanoelectronic circuits with device sizes in the nanometers (one-billionth of a meter).
In this article, we'll learn about the two basic types of electric circuits:
• Power circuits transfer and control large amounts of electricity. Examples are power lines and residential and business wiring systems. The major components of power circuits are generators at one end and lighting systems, motors, heating systems or household appliances at the other end. In between are power lines, transformers and circuit breakers.
• Electronic circuits process and transmit information. Think computers, radios, TVs,radars and cell phones.

Nanotechnology, sometimes shortened to nanotech

Future Designer Laptop - ROLLTOP

Future Designer Laptop - ROLLTOP //Diploma Thesis// - More amazing video clips are a click away

3D - The New Home Entertainment Medium?

Well, it seems this past week's focus on technology was pretty much centered around the dawning age of 3D television - never mind 3D Cinema. With the worldwide release and success of James Cameron's 'Avatar', it seems 3D technology may be opening up a whole new dimension in home entertainment.

3D television may become a very definite reality within the next few years, but also conceding that the industry might be a little slow to catch on to the technology as far as production is concerned. After all, having a 3D home television wouldn't help much unless industry, responsible for producing television content, do not produce content available in 3D.

However, DreamWorks, Direct TV, ESPN, and Discovery are all getting ready to be 3D compatible later this year. Consumers may be a bit overwhelmed - considering HD TV is only now starting to get some momentum in the marketplace.

One thing is clear though, 3D television seems to be set as the future of home entertainment. The two big hurdles to overcome seem to be pricing of these 3D television sets (estimates roughly in the same region of high-end HD television sets - initially, at least) and secondly, getting the market audience to embrace 3D in their homes. Now judging by the success of the above mentioned movie 'Avatar', it seems consumers are hungry for this new entertainment medium.

It does also seem as if the content producing industry (the film and program makers) will eventually be leaning towards producing programming in 3D, with the announcement of Sony's 3D camera, capable of capturing high quality images at 240fps (that's frames per second) in early October 2009.

Panasonic also recently announced their twin-lens, full HD 3D camcorder (which is a world first) set to be available towards the end of 2010. It comes at a bit of a price though - at US$21,000 they don't seem to be targeting the average tourist - so maybe home-made 3D movies are still a little way off

Interestingly enough though, as with all new technologies, 3D will be expensive at first, but will most likely become more affordable over time.

NETGEAR Push2TV - View Media From Your PC On Your HD TV

Sharing your favorite photos and videos is a great way to bring people together. However, crowding around a 17 inch screen is not the right way to do it. NETGEAR has taken notice and is offering the Push2TV digital media receiver. What this does is it transmits your PC's display to your HDTV wirelessly. To do this, you need one tiny thing: a WiFi-enabled computer that uses Intel's wireless display technology. It sounds simple, but this means that you need the newest Intel-based computers with an i3, i5, or i7 processor. Translation: the Push2TV is not backwards compatible or for folks with AMD processors.

Setup is real easy. Just find an open outlet and a HDMI input to hook it up. Everything else is done on the PC you're using with it. While the Push2TV is meant for home use, the receiver itself is light enough to take on the road as well. Imagine going to the hotel that you're staying in and being able to watch whatever you can find on the net, blown up onto the HDTV in your room. For some it may not mean much, but NETGEAR's wireless receiver would help those who have WiFi, but can't get certain channels (or stuck with bad TV reception).

As far as what you can view through the Push2TV, you're only limited by the PC you use with it. The WiFi connection ensures the best for transmitting the PC display, but you might see some short hiccups from time to time. Aside from that, picture quality on the Push2TV just about matches what you see on the computer. Some may have to adjust the resolution to fit their TV screen properly, but it's nothing too difficult to do.

The fact that NETGEAR didn't make this backwards compatible or AMD friendly is a shame. It's the only thing that keeps the Push2TV recommendable to everyone. However, if you have the right Intel processor, this wireless receiver works as promised. The connection is stable, but make sure to stay in the same room to keep the entertainment going.

NETGEAR may have shot itself in the foot, but their Push2TV media receiver is a great product for those that have the right processors from Intel. Plus, you don't need to spend an hour to hook it up to the TV like some of their rivals. The price is around $200 and will be available in stores this year. Yes, this still hasn't been released yet, but many websites have already gotten one and tested it vigorously. However, you don't need a review to know that this won't work with some computers. NETGEAR just let it out and even state that this will only work if you have the right hardware. So, if you have the right stuff, the Push2TV media receiver is a great buy. For everyone else, there are plenty of others that will work just as well or even better.

Future Mobile - Nokia 888

Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid Uses Kinetic Energy in a Unique Way

Williams Hybrid Power partnering with Porsche recently showed off the Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid that features an electrical front axle drive with two electric motors onboard that supplement the 480-bhp, 4-liter capacity located in the rear of the race car. Instead of using regular batteries that are normally found in a hybrid vehicle, an electrical flywheel generator delivers energy to the twin motors.

The flywheel's rotor that is actually an electric motor spins at 40,000 rpm storing energy mechanically as rotation energy. Whenever the brakes are applied, the two motors reverse their function and charge the flywheel. As the braking action ceases and the gas is once again engaged, there is a powerful burst of energy (up to 120kW) that is available for 6 to 8 seconds.


There is no wasted heat from burning brakes, no wasted fuel by accelerating and much lower C02 emissions. Point made, the flywheel is nothing more than a mass rotating on an axis, a form of kinetic energy. In this particular scenario, the flywheel is used to store energy, taking the place of a chemical source found in a battery.

3-D invisibility cloak

European researchers have taken the world a step closer to fictional wizard Harry Potter's invisibility cape after they made an object disappear using a three-dimensional "cloak," a study published in the US-based journal Science showed.

Scientists from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany and Imperial College London used the cloak, made using photonic crystals with a structure resembling piles of wood, to conceal a small bump on a gold surface, they wrote in Science.

"It's kind of like hiding a small object underneath a carpet -- except this time the carpet also disappears," they said.

"We put an object under a microscopic structure, a little like a reflective carpet," said Nicholas Stenger, one of the researchers who worked on the project.

"When we looked at it through a lens and did spectroscopy, no matter what angle we looked at the object from, we saw nothing. The bump became invisible," said Stenger.

Invisibility cloaks have already been developed but they only worked on two dimensions. In other words, the objects that were supposed to be made invisible were immediately visible from the third dimension, the study said.

The "cloak" invented by the European team is the first to work on three dimensions.

ElectroSelf - The Revolutionary Power Source

Backup generators are noisy and add pollutants to our air. They are also expensive and not very dependable when looking at long stretches of power outages. No wonder why some people think twice about spending $500 and upward to have a piece of equipment that collects dust most of the time.

A new company in Italy called Electro Power Systems SpA has been designing a useful alternative back up power that is clean and reliable since their inception in 2005. Last year, this unit called the ElectroSelf™ began receiving the praise that it deserved.

ElectroSelf™ is a self-contained and self-recharging fuel-cell system that runs solely on water. There are no batteries, no diesel fumes or any other type of expensive and inconvenient factors to contend with. ElectroSelf leverages the water that is produced by the fuel cell during a power outage to generate clean H2, feeding the fuel cell during the next unscheduled power shortage.

This unit can also be incorporated with a main power source in an on grid and placed anywhere in the world. For the prospect of selling power back to utility companies in very rural country, this potential is very possible. As a self-contained unit, the ElectroSelf is capable of operating in temperatures ranging between -20 degrees C to 45 degrees C, indoors or out. Forming a business from a community co-op can also become a reality within the proper realms.

Adriano Marconetto is founder and CEO of Electro Power Systems SpA and anticipates green networks such as his company have introduced to become increasingly attractive to alternative fuels already in place. The fact that ElectroSelf is 100% self-sufficient in creating its own hydrogen opens doors for other companies to search out more flexible and totally green designs in all aspects of fuel free energy.

Not only is this new design virtually maintenance free and guaranteed to return upfront costs but is also a very real option for disaster areas, areas of extreme temperatures and isolated regions. Operating costs are minimal because of the absence of moving parts and topping off with water once per year is the only regular requirement.

ElectroSelf™ was included in the Global Cleantech 100 of 2009 and at the GSMA's Mobile Innovation EMEA event in June 2009, ElectroSelf was awarded "Most Innovative Product Enabling a Greener World". This is a fascinating use of green energy by combining Hydrogen (H2) and Oxygen (O2) to create energy; hydrogen fuel by electrolysis of demineralised wastewater of the power generation phase.

Each day, innovators from around the world are creating alternative methods to aid our planet while allowing us to hold on to the luxuries that we have become accustomed to. Hydrogen fuel by electrolysis is just the first step to bigger and better energy creativity to come.

Top Ten Wi-Fi Security Threats

Gone are the early days of Wi-Fi, when CSOs lost sleep over threats like WEP cracking and war driving. 802.11n products have matured to the point where many enterprises are investing in larger, faster WLANs to support mission-critical applications. And yet, pros know that security is never to be taken for granted. Here, we offer our Top Ten Wi-Fi Threats and explain why diligence is (still) required.

1. Data Interception: Today, it’s widely understood that data sent over Wi-Fi can be captured by eavesdroppers – easily, within a few hundred feet; even farther with directional antennas. Fortunately, all Wi-Fi CERTIFIED products now support AES-CCMP data encryption and integrity. Unfortunately, there are still legacy products that only speak TKIP, and many WLANs are configured to accept both AES and TKIP. But TKIP is vulnerable to message integrity check (MIC) attacks that allow a limited set of spoofed frames to be injected – for example, ARP. Although resulting risks are modest, the writing is on the wall: The time has come to retire TKIP and require AES-CCMP.

2. Denial of Service: WLANs are inherently vulnerable to DoS. Everyone shares the same unlicensed frequencies, making competition inevitable in populated areas. The good news: As enterprise WLANs migrate to 802.11n, they can use channels in the larger, less-crowded 5 GHz band, reducing “accidental DoS.” Moreover, contemporary access points (APs) can auto-adjust channels to circumvent interference. But that still leaves DoS attacks: Phony messages sent to disconnect users, consume AP resources, and keep channels busy. To neutralize common DoS attack methods like Deauth Floods, look for newer products that support 802.11w management frame protection.

3. Rogue APs: Business network penetration by unknown, unauthorized APs has long been a top worry. Fortunately, most enterprise WLANs now use legitimate APs to scan channels for possible rogues in their spare time. Unfortunately, verifying “true rogues” by tracing their wired network connectivity is a skill that ordinary WLAN gear has yet to perfect. Without accurate classification, automated rogue blocking is a risky proposition. To not just detect, but effectively mitigate rogue APs, deploy a Wireless IPS that can reliably differentiate between harmless neighbors, personal hotspots, and network-connected rogues that pose real danger, taking policy-based action to trace, block, and locate the latter.

4. Wireless Intruders: Wireless IPS products like Motorola AirDefense, AirMagnet, and AirTight can also detect malicious Wi-Fi clients operating in or near a business’ airspace. However, truly effective defense requires up-to-date, properly deployed WIPS sensors. In particular, 802.11a/b/g sensors must be updated to monitor new 5 GHz channels (including 40 MHz channels), parse 802.11n protocols, and look for new 802.11n attacks. Furthermore, because 802.11n clients can connect from farther away, WIPS sensor placement must be reviewed to satisfy both detection and prevention needs.

5. Misconfigured APs: Back when standalone APs were individually-managed, configuration errors posed a significant security threat. Today, most enterprise WLANs are centrally-managed, using coordinated updates and periodic audits to decrease TCO, improve reliability, and reduce risk. But 802.11n adds a slew of relatively complex config options, the consequences of which depend on (highly variable) Wi-Fi client capabilities. Prioritization and segmentation for multi-media further complicates configuration. The answer here: Combine sound, centralized management practices with 802.11n/WMM education and planning to reduce operator error.

6. Ad Hocs and Soft APs: Wi-Fi laptops have long been able to establish peer-to-peer ad hoc connections that pose risk because they circumvent network security policies. Fortunately, ad hocs were so hard to configure that few bothered to use them. Unfortunately, that barrier is being lifted by “soft APs” in Windows 7 and new laptops with Intel and Atheros Wi-Fi cards. Those virtual APs can provide easy, automated direct connections to other users, bypassing network security and routing traffic onto the enterprise network. Measures used to deter Ad Hocs may also prove useful against unauthorized Soft APs, such as IT-managed client settings and WIPS.

7. Misbehaving Clients: Clients that form unauthorized Wi-Fi connections of any type, whether accidentally or intentionally, put themselves and corporate data at risk. Some enterprises use Group Policy Objects to configure authorized Wi-Fi connections and prevent end-user changes. Others use host-resident agents and/or WIPS to monitor Wi-Fi client activity and disconnect high-risk connections. However, many businesses (especially SMBs) still depend on end-users to connect only to known, authorized wireless APs. Given ubiquitous deployment, longer reach, and broader consumer electronics integration, accidental or inappropriate Wi-Fi connections have never been easier. If you haven’t already taken steps to stop Wi-Fi client misbehavior, start now.

8. Endpoint Attacks: Now that over-the-air encryption and network-edge security have improved, attackers have refocused their attention on Wi-Fi endpoints. Numerous exploits have been published to take advantage of buggy Wi-Fi drivers, using buffer overflows to execute arbitrary commands – sometimes at ring 0 (high-privilege kernel mode). Automated attack tools like Metasploit can now be used to launch Wi-Fi endpoint exploits with minimal effort. Although vendors do (usually) patch these bugs once discovered, Wi-Fi driver updates are not distributed automatically with OS updates. To protect your workforce, track Wi-Fi endpoint vulnerabilities (for example, using WiFiDEnum) and keep your Wi-Fi drivers up-to-date.

9. Evil Twin APs: Fraudulent APs can easily advertise the same network name (SSID) as a legitimate hotspot or business WLAN, causing nearby Wi-Fi clients to connect to them. Evil Twins are not new, but easier-to-use hacker tools have increased your risk of running into one. Tools like Karmetasploit can now listen to nearby clients, discover SSIDs they’re willing to connect to, and automatically start advertising those SSIDs. Once clients connect, DHCP and DNS are used to route client traffic through the Evil Twin, where local (phony) Web, mail, and file servers execute man-in-the-middle attacks. The only effective defense against Evil Twins is server authentication, from 802.1X server validation to application server certificate verification.

10. Wireless Phishing: In addition to the above man-in-the-middle application attacks, hackers continue to develop new methods to phish Wi-Fi users. For example, it’s possible to poison Wi-Fi client Web browser caches, so long as the attacker can get into the middle of a past Web session – such as by using an Evil Twin at an open hotspot. Once poisoned, clients can be redirected to phishing sites long after leaving the hotspot, even when connected to a wired enterprise network. One technique for mitigating this threat is to clear your browser’s cache upon exit. Another possibility is to route all hotspot traffic (even public) through a trusted (authenticated) VPN gateway.

In summary, the state of Wi-Fi security has significantly improved over the years. Today’s enterprise WLANs can be effectively hardened against intrusion and misuse. However, end-to-end security still cannot be assumed; just enabling Wi-Fi encryption will not make applications running over wireless networks “safe.” Wi-Fi technologies, products, and attacks will continue to emerge. Security admins still need to keep abreast of new threats, assess their business risk, and take appropriate action.

Cloud computing Reshape IT

Cloud Computing Will Reshape IT forever

While end users may never even know that the application they're using is coming from the cloud, IT will be completely transformed, and the business as a whole will have an entirely new way of viewing, using and paying for technology.

For IT, cloud computing is as significant a development as the invention of the PC, or as the effect of the iPod on the music industry.

Think of it as utility computing on steroids or services sold by the drink.

Apple made the iPod a success by changing people's perception of music from a product to a service — a single song to download as needed, as opposed to a physical CD to buy in a store — and the cloud will have the same impact on IT. While end users may never even know that the application they're using is coming from the cloud, IT will be completely transformed, and the business as a whole will have an entirely new way of viewing, using and paying for technology.

"Companies that are smart are taking a look at the varied aspects of cloud and pushing certain applications up (into the cloud) and those that need unique distinguishing characteristics they push down (into the traditional data center environment)," says Doug Neal, co-author of the report Doing Business in the Cloud - Implications for Cost, Agility and Information, and research fellow with CSC's Leading Edge Forum Executive Programme. "IT has to realize that it's in kind of a precarious position. It can either accelerate this change and gain great glory or they can sit back in denial and just atrophy."

"The most important value the cloud brings is not lower costs," Neal's report states. "It is improved agility, not just for IT, but for the business as a whole."

That agility comes from the option to offload any aspect of a company's IT infrastructure to an outside provider, paying only for the services you need as you need them.

As an example, Neal says Eli Lilly used Amazon's EC2 cloud offering to add 50 servers in a matter of days rather than weeks to assist in the development of a new drug. When any delay in a pharmaceutical project can cost $150 per second or more, that's a huge difference.

What's more, when the 50 servers were up and running, Neal says, they quickly discovered they actually needed 250. "But this is Amazon, so they changed 50 to 250 and clicked 'Go,' and ran the whole shebang that day," he says.

And that's the power of the cloud: no provisioning, no waiting, just click, pay, and you're done.

"What the promise of the cloud is, in part, to begin to segment apps so that… for those few times a year I need extra capacity, I reach out to the cloud," Neal says. "So I pay with occasional opex for what [I] used to pay for with capex and, in the process, I could probably double, triple, quadruple the bang I get out of my data center."

It's a real wake-up call for IT, promising to remove the barriers between CPUs and the services that depend on them. Think of it like Moore's Law — every 18 months, you should be able to double the level of cloud-based services you can offer - or like a RAID for CPUs: a bunch of cheap servers that can be provisioned as needed to handle any load.

Even if a server or two fails, it doesn't matter: everything just fails over as needed to the next available processor, and all that matters is the delivery of the service itself. "Failure now becomes a routine way of operating and we just wire around it," Neal says. "Google has hard drives fail on a daily basis, Google has servers fail on a daily basis, and nobody cares."

It's like replacing fine china with paper plates. "Today's leading cloud computing vendors eschew high-end components and use large quantities of the cheapest hardware good enough to do the job," Neal's report states. "They assume some of this hardware will fail, so they use software that can adapt as necessary. This approach offers substantial savings in hardware costs, and even bigger ones with people."

Still, none of this means that you should close down your data center - the cloud is still relatively new, with many variables still waiting to be hammered out. Neal says it may be a decade or more before cloud-based business apps are the norm.

But in the meantime, like cell phones in the third world, the cloud will help many smaller companies access the types of services that used to be available only to the enterprise. "If you're a small or medium sized business, this is the answer to your prayers," Neal says.

Atomic Energy

The prime objective of India's nuclear energy programme is the development and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes such as power generation, applications in agriculture, medicine, industry, research and other areas.

India is today recognized as one of the most advanced countries in nuclear technology including production of source materials. The country is self-reliant and has mastered the expertise covering the complete nuclear cycle from exploration and mining to power generation and waste management. Accelerators and research and power reactors are now designed and built indigenously. The sophisticated variable energy cyclotron at Kolkata and a medium-energy heavy ion accelerator 'pelletron' set up recently at Mumbai are national research facilities in the frontier areas of science. As part of its programme of peaceful uses of atomic energy, India has also embarked on a programme of nuclear power generation. Currently eight nuclear stations are producing eight billion kilowatt of electricity. Four more nuclear power stations are planned. The new nuclear reactors are designed in India. The peaceful nuclear programme also includes producing radioisotopes for use in agriculture, medicine, industry and research. Source: http://india.mapsofindia.com/indian-economy/india-science-and-technology.html

Facts About Aerogel - Frozen Smoke

A nearly transparent, very lightweight material that is a dry gel principally made from silica (silicon dioxide) and 96% air. Dubbed a "Super Material", aerogel is the world's lightest solid, weighing as little as three times that of air and exhibiting superb insulating properties. Although aerogel looks like it could float away, it has very high compression strength. Theoretically, a block weighing less than a pound could support a weight of half a ton. Aerogels real strength is its incredible insulating effects on any kind of energy transfer; thermal, electrical or acoustic. Aerogel can damp out almost any kind of energy. A one-inch thick Aerogel window has the same insulation value as 15 panes of glass and trapped air - which means a conventional window would have to be ten-inches thick to equal a one-inch thick aerogel window.

Aerogel tiles are used in space as comet dust collector.

Swarm Intelligence - Brandon Geiger @brandongeiger

Nanomanufacturing (Productive Nano Systems)

ROBOTmaker - assembling a nano robot chassis

Scientists demonstrate world's first germanium laser

Researchers at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) have demonstrated the first laser built from germanium that can produce wavelengths of light useful for optical communication.

Unlike the materials typically used in lasers, germanium is easy to incorporate into existing processes for manufacturing silicon chips.

So, the result could prove an important step toward computers that move data - and maybe even perform calculations - using light instead of electricity.

But more fundamentally, the researchers have shown that, contrary to prior belief; a class of materials called indirect-band-gap semiconductors can yield practical lasers.

As chips' computational capacity increases, they need higher-bandwidth connections to send data to memory.

But, conventional electrical connections will soon become impractical, because they'll require too much power to transport data at ever higher rates.

Transmitting data with lasers - devices that concentrate light into a narrow, powerful beam - could be much more power-efficient, but it requires a cheap way to integrate optical and electronic components on silicon chips.

Chip assembly is a painstaking process in which layers of different materials are deposited on a wafer of silicon, and patterns are etched into them.

Inserting a new material into this process is difficult: it has to be able to chemically bond to the layers above and below it, and depositing it must be possible at the temperatures and in the chemical environments suitable to the other materials.

The materials used in today's lasers, such as gallium arsenide, are "all tough fits," according to Tremont Miao, a marketing director at Massachusetts-based Analog Devices Semiconductor.

Integrating germanium into the manufacturing process, however, is something that almost all major chip manufacturers have already begun to do, since the addition of germanium increases the speed of silicon chips.

"The ability to grow germanium on silicon is a discovery of this group and the ability to control the strain of those germanium films on silicon is a discovery of this group," said Lionel Kimerling, the Thomas Lord Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, who leads the group.

"High-speed optical circuits like germanium in general. That's a good marriage and a good combination. So their laser research is very, very promising," said Miao.

Miao points out that the germanium lasers need to become more power-efficient before they're a practical source of light for optical communications systems.

Scientists make ultra-lightweight sponge that can absorb and conserve oil

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University have made an ultra-lightweight sponge from clay and a bit of high-grade plastic that can absorb and conserve oil out of contaminated water.

According to the research team, the material, called an aerogel, will effectively clean up spills of all kinds of oils and solvents on factory floors and roadways, rivers and oceans.

"The aerogel is made by mixing clay with a polymer and water in a blender," said David Schiraldi, chairman of the Macromolecular Science and Engineering department at the Case School of Engineering.

The mixture is then freeze-dried; air fills the gaps left by the loss of water.

The resulting material is super light, comprised of about 96 percent air, 2 percent polymer and 2 percent clay.

The oil-absorbing form is just one of a growing list of clay-based aerogels being made in Schiraldi's lab.

By adding different polymers, they produce materials with different properties.

"This particular one is oleophilic or oil-loving. Chemically, it hates water, loves oil: the perfect combination," Schiraldi said.

The aeorgel can be made in granular form, in sheets or in blocks of almost any shape and is effective in fresh and saltwater or on a surface.

Because absorption is a physical phenomenon, there is no chemical reaction between the material and oil.

If the oil is otherwise not contaminated, it can be used.

The material was first made when Schiraldi challenged his then-PhD student Matt Gawryla with idea of making kitty litter.

Gawryla added the oil cleanup concept to the program.

Case Western Reserve has granted a 9-month exclusive license for this and other clay-based aerogel technologies to AeroClay, Inc. a startup company.

Recharging your cell phone, nature's way

A new solar cell that imitates nature's way of converting sunlight to energy is making its debut in a variety of consumer products. The technology uses a photosensitive dye to start its energy production, much the way leaves use chlorophyll to begin photosynthesis.

The dye-sensitised cells will be used to provide power for devices ranging from e-book readers to cell phones and will take some interesting forms. For e-book readers, for example, the cells may be found in thin, flexible panels stitched into the reader's cover. But such panels will also be housed in new lines of backpacks and sports bags, where they can recharge devices like cell phones and music players.

The technology, long in development, will work best in full, direct sunshine, said Dr Michael Graetzel, a chemist and professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland. But the cells will also make good use of dappled and ambient light, including the indoor light of fluorescent bulbs, he said.

Most photovoltaic cells are based on silicon or related inorganic materials, not dyes. Graetzel and an American colleague, Brian O'Regan, first reported on the new type of cell in the journal Nature in 1991, and Graetzel said he and other colleagues had been working since then to refine the technology. Now G24 Innovations, a company in Campbell, California, that has licensed the technology, is using it to make solar panels at its plant in Cardiff, Wales, said John Hartnett, G24's chief executive.

Some of the panels will be placed on covers designed as an accessory for Sony e-book readers, said Tobi Doeringer, the director of global sales at Mascotte Industrial Associates, a Hong Kong company that makes bags to carry cameras, phones, sports equipment, electronic games and other products. Doeringer said the covers, costing about $99, would be available by March. The cover supplies the power via a plug in a cradle along its spine.

The panels will also be installed on tennis bags, backpacks and messenger bags that have battery chargers within, as well as on bicycle, golf, shopping and beach bags. Prices of the bags will typically range from $149 to $249, he said, depending on the materials and size of the bag. Owners can plug their phones and music players into the bag for recharging, using a USB cord. The solar panels have 11 cells each, said Kevin Tabor, director of science and research at G24. Wiring goes from the panel to a battery pack in the bag, he said. It takes about six to eight sunny hours outside for the panel to fuel the recharger, he said, but longer indoors.

The performance of the dye-sensitised cells has improved steadily in the laboratory, Graetzel said. "Our dyes and electrolytes have changed," he said, and the cells have become more efficient at converting sunlight to electricity. Within the solar cell, the dye is painted in a thin layer on a porous titanium dioxide scaffold to collect light and, in a series of steps, create power. The cells draw on many surprising sources of light. "We've even had a case where we generated voltage from moonlight," he said.

New robotic device can help partially paralyzed patients walk again

A new robotic device developed by Argo Medical Technologies in Haifa, Israel would soon help partially paralyzed patients walk again.

ReWalk, a cutting-edge robotic device lets a paraplegics to stand, walk and even climb stairs is being tested at a Philadelphia rehab hospital.

It consists of a backpack, an upper body harness and leg supports that are fitted with motorized knees and hips.

The wearer, who must have the use of his upper body, controls the movement of the leg supports with crutches, while motion sensors that are connected to a backpack computer let the device know when a step should be taken.

Researchers hope that it the device will be available in markets by the end of this year.

"ReWalk should become available in the near future and will be able to be applied widely to people with spinal cord injuries that have preserved the use of the arms," the New York Daily News quoted Dr. Alberto Esquenazi, chair of MossRehab's Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, who was instrumental in ReWalk's development, as saying.

"You need to have your arms, both for balance control and sensory feedback.

"The tip of the crutches provides sensory feedback about where your body is in space," Esquenazi added.

ReWalk consists of "smart software" that understands what the patient is intending to do, and translates that into taking a step or climbing a stair."

Esquenazi said that so far they have had no problems.

"The system has worked appropriately and patients have been thrilled at being able to use the device. Many years after the injury, they had forgotten how to stand and take steps," he said.

The device is worn over clothing and its battery lasts for three hours and the backup lasts for another 20 minutes.

"The system alerts you that the battery is running low. It tells you that you either need to get to a chair or to a plug," Esquenazi added.

The Global Seed Vault

Svalbard Global Seed vault was established to preserve a wide variety of plant seeds in an underground cavern. It is an assurance to reduce of hunger & poverty due to the national disaster. Construction of the Seed Vault, which cost approximately 45 million Norwegian Kroner (9 million USD), was funded entirely by the Government of Norway. The seed bank is constructed 120 meters (390 ft) inside a sandstone mountain at Svalbard on Spitsbergen Island. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened officially on February 26, 2008. The first seeds arrived in January 2008. This vault can storage 4.5 million samples of different seeds in the dry temperature of 0° F (-18° C). This storage process can protect the seeds for the thousands of years. Svalbard Global Seed Vault ranked no.6 on Time's Best Inventions Of 2008.

Ortery 3D Photosimile Technology - For The Office

Dubbed as the world's first "Office Photography Machine", the Photosimile 5000 is an imaging tool that provides anyone with the ability to create professional still shots and spherical flash animations for just about any purpose. It produces digital 3D copies of any product from every angle and at a very efficient speed.

Launched by Ortery Technologies, Inc., in 2008, the Photosimile 5000 now sells at a retail price of $17,000. The package consists of a studio box that houses a turntable and a Canon DSLR camera that is installed on an arc-shaped mechanical railing, allowing it to take 360-degree photos. The Photosimile 5000 studio also boasts of four daylight bulbs, giving off 6500K worth of uniform studio lighting. Its Photocapture technology ensures well-lit image with every shot.

The process of creating product shots is similar to that of using a photocopier or scanner. Simply place any object on the turntable and take up to 100 pictures at different angles in no more than 5 minutes. Taking photos for animations can be done at a rate of 20 stitched images within 2.5 minutes. Each image takes a mere five seconds in transmission to a computer, attached via USB. The user is allowed access to camera and image editing controls such as zooming in and out, resizing, and cropping. All images are received via the Photosimile software and may be saved as GIF or Flash files. Annotations and batch processing are also possible options. The software currently works only with Windows platforms.

With the advent of this technology, creating visually enticing advertisement campaigns, both print and online will be much easier and with exceptional quality. Ortery's current customers include some of the biggest names in electronics, food and beverage, as well as prominent educational institutions and government agencies. In a testimonial for the Photosimile brand, the Smithsonian Institution indicated the product's significance in easily putting together a high-quality, multimedia archaeological database with more than 20,000 images in total.

Sam Shearer, Managing Director of Ortery, claims that 360-degree product views will soon be the benchmark for success in eCommerce. True enough, the product has become a bestseller among the eBay population. Photosimile 5000 not only makes the creation of great product shots simple, but also features an "auction" button designed to customize images for eBay use.

Ortery is located in Irvine, California. Since its establishment in 2003, it has become the expert in designing and manufacturing photography automation machines. To date, about 15 percent of Ortery's business is derived from companies on eBay. Technical support for the Photosimile 5000 and other company products is offered for free.

Source:
http://www.new-technology-world.com/connect/index.php?do=/Admin/blog/ortery-3d-photosimile-technology-for-the-office/

IBM Magnetic Tape Storage Capabilities Goes Large...

Magnetic tape data storage was nothing new even in the '80s when IBM unveiled it's latest mainframe solution, the 3090. Magnetic tape was first used for data storage in 1951 on the Univac-1. It has come a long way in nearly 60 years. For example, the Univac-1 8-track magnetic tape data reel could store data at a density of 128 characters (or bytes) per inch. Assuming a 1,200 foot reel, a 1951 tape yielded a storage capacity of 1,843,200 bytes. That's not even enough to store a single top forty song with reasonably good sound quality in mp3 format.

Today's IBM magnetic tape data cartridges are capable of archiving over half a trillion bytes of information, or roughly enough capacity to store all of the books in the central library of a decent sized city.

Magnetic tape data storage is still in wide use. "But", you may wonder, "with large hard disk capacities and optical drives, why continue with magnetic tape data storage at all?" Because it makes economic sense, especially if these vast quantities of digital information can be stored in so small a package as the IBM TLO Generation 4 cartridges common today. Magnetic tape data storage is, gigabyte for gigabyte, currently anywhere from a fifth to a tenth as expensive hard disk drive storage, depending on the amount of information stored. It also has ecological benefits, as tape storage is far cheaper in terms of energy use as hard drive storage. As data density increases, costs go down.

However, IBM has just upped the ante by 44 times as compared to even their own latest generation tape cartridge. They have announced a new magnetic tape data storage prototype, developed in conjunction with Fuji Film, which is capable of storing 35 terabytes (that's 35 trillion Bytes) of information on a single tape. Do you like to read? That amount of storage is enough to store the books necessary to fill 248 miles of bookshelves. Bring your library card, a sack lunch, and maybe your passport, too - that's just a little bit longer than the entire nation of Switzerland.

The increase in cheap, reliable data storage becomes crucial when you consider that information is being stored digitally in exponentially larger volumes. The trend will continue. One of the largest single blocks of digital information is in the medical field, where access to information is widely shared among physicians the world over. Added to that is the storage of an increasing number of web sites, email accounts, student assignments and the transfer of paper archives such as genealogical records which continues apace. Without solutions to the emerging data storage problem, we would find ourselves unable to feed the growing digital appetite of the world. IBM's continued advancement of the field of magnetic tape data storage is not, therefore, simply a case of creative anachronism.


Source:
http://www.new-technology-world.com/connect/index.php?do=/Admin/blog/ibm-magnetic-tape-storage-capabilities-goes-large/