Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Everyone is important
During Mark's first month of college, the professor gave his students a pop quiz. He was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until he read the last one: "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?" Surely this was some kind of joke. He had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would he know her name? He handed in his paper, leaving the last question blank.
Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward the quiz grade. "Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They each deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say 'hello'". Mark never forgot that lesson. He also learned her name was Dorothy.
Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward the quiz grade. "Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They each deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say 'hello'". Mark never forgot that lesson. He also learned her name was Dorothy.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Scientists Turn Big Honking Camera Loose on Dark Energy Quest
Wednesday - September 19, 2012
An international group of scientists from universities in various parts of the world known as the Dark Energy Survey had a Dark Energy Camera built in order to find out what dark energy is. Dark energy has been posited to be the reason for the universe's expanding faster and faster. DECam took its first pictures of the southern sky recently. DECam is a 570 MP camera that will have 74 charge-coupled devices. These are made to be sensitive to the redshifted light from distant galaxies and stars.
A camera built to look for evidence of the existence of dark energy recently took its first pictures of the southern sky. The camera, attached to a telescope in Chile, will create a detailed color image of one-eighth of the sky, or 5,000 square degrees over the next five years. It will discover and measure 300 million galaxies, 100,000 galaxy clusters and 4,000 supernovae.
DECam's Mighty Optics
DECam is a 570 MP camera that will have 74 charge-coupled devices (CCDs). These are made to be sensitive to the redshifted light from distant galaxies and stars.
The camera has a 2.2 degree field of view. It can record data from an area of the sky 20 times the size of the moon as seen from the Earth in one image.
For such a wide field of view, DECam has to use a system of five specially shaped lenses, the largest of which is almost one meter in diameter.
DECam can record light from more than 100,000 galaxies up to 8 billion light-years away.
The camera is the size of a phone booth. It is mounted on the Victor M. Blanco telescope at the United States National Science Foundation's Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.
Using Decam
Dark Energy Survey scientists will use four methods of looking for dark energy with DECam. These are studying galaxy clusters, supernovae, the large-scale clumping of galaxies, and weak gravitational lensing.
"By having four measures, one can reduce uncertainties and be sure there is not some unknown problem with one of the methods," Gillian Wilson, a professor in the department of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Riverside, told TechNewsWorld.
These four measurements "are sensitive to the two primary observable effects of dark energy -- dark energy changes the expansion rate of the universe over time, and the repulsive action of dark energy competes against the attractive nature of gravity, which is the force that makes galaxies and larger structure form," Josh Frieman, Dark Energy Survey director, who's also a Fermilab scientist and a professor at the University of Chicago, said.
How the Process Works
Scheduled to kick off in December, the Dark Energy Survey will create a detailed color image of one-eighth of the sky, or 5,000 square degrees over the next five years. It will discover and measure 300 million galaxies, 100,000 galaxy clusters and 4,000 supernovae.
Pictures it takes will be sent nightly to various U.S. national supercomputing facilities, including the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois, for processing, Frieman told TechNewsWorld.
Dark Energy Survey members "have developed a lot of software to analyze the data and are continuing to refine the algorithms," Frieman continued. They also make use of existing software where possible.
"We could have some early science results some time in 2013," Frieman remarked. "It will probably take a couple of years for our first results on dark energy."
Why Dark Energy?
Dark energy is the most widely accepted hypothesis to explain observations that the universe is expanding faster and faster. In the standard model of cosmology, dark energy accounts for 73 percent of the total mass-energy of the universe.
"Cosmologists have very little understanding of what is pushing on the universe and causing it to expand," UC Riverside's Wilson said.
"The dark energy survey, along with several other projects getting under way, aim to give us a more precise understanding of how dark energy behaves," James Rhoads, an associate professor at Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration, told TechNewsWorld.
"The data we presently have allow the possibility that its density changes by perhaps as much as 20 percent every time the universe doubles in size," Rhoads continued. "The dark energy survey, along with several other projects getting under way, aim to give us a more precise understanding of how dark energy behaves. Once we know how it behaves, this will help astrophysicists and particle physicists try to figure out what it actually is."
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Apple's iPad Mini said to be made by Pegatron, Foxconn
A Taiwanese news report says that assembler Pegatron scored 50 percent to 60 percent of production orders on the iPad Mini, Foxconn will supposedly get the rest.
This mockup shows what an iPad Mini would likely look like alongside a regular sized iPad.
(Credit: 9to5Mac)As chatter continues about the possibility of Apple's iPad Mini, Taiwan's Economic Daily News wrote today that much of the device's production is said to be done by the assembler Pegatron rather than Foxconn, suggesting that the device is already in production or just about to be.
Engadget picked up this information, saying the Taiwanese paper reported that Pegatron scored 50 percent to 60 percent of production orders on the iPad Mini. Up until now, Foxconn was the only iPad assembler Apple used. The Economic Daily News also wrote that between the two manufacturers, up to 5 million iPad Minis could be made each month.
Pegatron could also get its hands into iPhone 5 production. Apparently, 53 million iPhone 5s are scheduled to be shipped this year, which means more than one manufacturer will be needed to keep up with supply.
Judge won't dissolve U.S. Samsung tablet injunction -- yet
The judge in the U.S. case between Apple and Samsung says she can't dissolve a 3-month-old injunction on Samsung's tablet.
Samsung's efforts to dissolve a 3-month-old ban on its once-flagship tablet have been put on ice by a U.S. District Court judge.
In an order this evening, Judge Lucy Koh -- who has presided over the San Jose, Calif., trial between Apple and Samsung -- denied Samsung's motion to get a June sales ban on its tablet reversed.
At least for now.
Judge Koh cited a lack of jurisdiction, something the court needs to wait on a mandate from the Federal Circuit to restore. With that said, Judge Koh said that the motion itself brought up a "substantial issue."
"Under all circumstances, Samsung's motion raises a substantial issue, and the Court therefore issues such an indicative ruling," Koh wrote.
Samung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 was given a preliminary sales ban in June, with stipulation that it could be reversed if Samsung was cleared of infringing Apple's D'889 tablet design patent. That's just what happened in the jury verdict that was delivered last month.
"The jury's verdict demonstrates that Apple's predictions about what the jury would do as to the D'889 were wrong and that the injunction entered on that basis therefore can no longer be maintained," Samsung wrote in its August filing to get the injunction dissolved.
The two companies are scheduled to once again meet in the San Jose courthouse on Thursday to talk more about any injunctions to come out of last week's verdict. Last month Apple targeted eight of Samsung's smartphones for injunctions after jurors found them infringing of one or more of its patents, an issue that's scheduled to be raised in an additional hearing in early December.
Help wanted: $183K plus. Tool gives lowdown on tech salaries
Hoping to land customers, Silicon Valley money-management startup Wealthfront is empowering workers with rich salary data.
Wealthfront CEO Andy Rachleff
Anyone who works in tech is going to like this. Wealthfront, an online financial adviser based in Palo Alto, Calif., today rolled out an interactive tool that let's you see what tech jobs pay among private firms across the country.
You'll learn, for instance, that software architects make more than managers -- a mean of $183,000 a year plus equity compared with $163,000 plus stock -- and that cash compensation across all tech companies is $112,000. Another curious finding: Despite the huge demand for engineers in Silicon Valley, jobs in the northeast pay more, presumably because companies are competing with Wall Street firms for talent.
Wealthfront calls it a Startup Compensation Tool because, in Wealthfront's view, any tech company that is private is a startup. The data is based on surveys of 8,362 employees at 135 private companies, ranging in size from 6 employees to more than 100. For Wealthfront, the impetus for creating such a tool is obvious: The company is looking for new customers. The more tech workers earn, the better the chance that they will want a firm like Wealthfront to manage their investments.
Wealthfront, which competes with startups Future Advisor and Personal Capital, is trying to upend the old-school money-management model by replacing it with a system powered by software. You can read more about the service here. The company's strategy is to try to sign up people in Silicon Valley first, and then go for a wider audience. CEO and founder Andy Rachleff, a former general partner with venture firm Benchmark Capital, has been holding seminars inside newly public companies such as LinkedIn, Yelp, and Facebook. The response has been terrific, he says, though he won't say how many customers Weathfront has to date.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
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