Thank you xbox-scene! Now, don’t get me wrong, I like a lot of the products that M$ puts out, and overall I think the 360 is a good value, however they royally screw you on some of the peripherals, $50 for a 64 megabyte memory card anyone? Anyways, the wireless adapter for the xbox 360 which is required to connect the 360 to a wireless network is a whopping $100. Madness! I don’t know about you, but I find that to be a somewhat exorbitant cost to charge for such a thing. Luckily for the tech-savvy xbox-scene has linked to an article detailing how you can use a second wireless router in lieu of purchasing the ripoff pricey adapter. Hit the link for the full story.
Episode 19 of the Unsayable Podcast is now available for download. This week Chris and I discuss 45 nanometer chips, the DARPA Grand Challenge, and the PS3.
Stories for this week’s show include:
This is really interesting news, and I’ll try to not get too technical but I do want to cover why this is interesting. Currently, Intel’s state of the art fab is a 65 nanometer process that uses a CMOS transistor. There are a couple problems with this current configuration, the biggest being the gate dielectric or insulator that keeps current from leaking between the electrode, source, and the drain. Why is this a problem? Currently on the 65 nanometer chip that insulating layer is only 1.2 nanometers thick, which is to really say 1.2 nanometers thin or roughly five atomic layers. The thinner the gate dielectric the less efficient it is an insulating layer and what you end up with is a transistor that is never really switched off, like a light bulb that is either on or just dim. This wastes a tremendous amount of electricity and contributes to the waste heat given off by the processor.
The new revolution has come in replacing the silicon dioxide gate dielectric with a hafnium based high-k material that Intel claims reduces current leakage by ten times. And because the hafnium gate dielectric is a more efficient insulator than the silicon dioxide this allows the transistors to shrink even smaller without losing so much electricity. The new transistors require less energy to switch off and on, and consume 30% less power than the last generation chips.
I’ve generalized a lot here, and basically all I’ve done is give a thumbnail of the article on bit-tech, so surf on over there and check out the full story.
I know the Unsayable community is not used to music related material, but I am posting this anyways, because music warms the soul. CAUTION: This music does not contain information about death lasers, exploding Neutrons, and cataclysmic cosmic collisions.
1. Girltalk: NightRipper
I know, I know… a mash up album at number #1? Everyone likes this album its hard not to.
2. Grizzly Bear: Yellow House
Very chill and incredibly good
3. Tapes n’ Tapes: The Loon
Debut album
4. Brightblack Morning Light: Self Titled
Good background music
5. Sunset Rubdown & Spencer Krug: Shut Up I Am Dreaming
Spencer Krug from Wolf Parade stars in this album.
6. Thom Yorke: The Eraser
Radiohead anyone? This will tide you over until Fall 07
7. Peter, Bjorn and John: Writers Block
Got this last week and can’t stop listening to it
8. TV on the Radio: Return to Cookie Mountain
Previous album Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes was decent, this album is a giant leap forward for this band
9. Islands: Return to the Sea
Catchy Pop
10. Asobi Seksu: Citrus
Their live show is very intense
Here is the quote from DARPA
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will hold its third Grand Challenge competition on November 3, 2007.
The DARPA Urban Challenge features autonomous ground vehicles conducting simulated military supply missions in a mock urban area. Safe operation in traffic is essential to U.S. military plans to use autonomous ground vehicles to conduct important missions.
I can’t wait for my car to drive itself.
The press release has gone out on the official AACS website, but that’s just the final flower on the coffin, and they are a little late in the announcement. DRM on the the two new high def optical disks formats have both officially fallen to the efforts of dedicated hackzorz Muslix64. So, let me back up for a moment, HD DVD and Blu-Ray both use the AACS content protection system. AACS utilizes a 128 bit encryption system, and no, before any starts to correct me, they haven’t done a brute force crack of the protection, the laws of physics are still safely in place. What has happened is that the fatal weakness in both of the schemes is that for anyone to actually watch a movie, the encryption key has to be available to the player so it can decode the movie and play it on screen, and that is the weak link. There isn’t any need to try a brute force attack on the encrypted data if you can just snatch the keys from memory while the disk is playing.
What do the DRM scumbags AACS have to say about it?
AACS LA has confirmed that AACS Title Keys have appeared on public web sites without authorization. Such unauthorized disclosures indicate an attack on one or more players sold by AACS licensees. This development is limited to the compromise of specific implementations, and does not represent an attack on the AACS system itself, nor is it exclusive to any particular format. Instead it illustrates the need for all AACS licensees to follow the Compliance and Robustness Rules set forth in the AACS license agreements to help ensure that product implementations are not compromised. AACS LA employs both technical and legal measures to deal with attacks such as this one, and AACS LA is using all appropriate remedies at its disposal to address the attack.
Hmm, they sound pissed. We are about to see something pretty interesting I think, in that part of the AACS system allows the revoking of keys, which is nice for stopping piracy, but not nice in that it bricks whatever player was used to tease out the encryption keys. Early adopters be warned, MPAA will stop at nothing, including turning your $1000+ movie player into an expensive paperweight, to protect their content.
Hit the link for the AACS website
BACK!!! You unruly mob you! Feel the Wrath of my People-Microwaver!
25 Jan
Posted by Jason as Technology, Science, Society
We’ve covered the “active denial” systems on the Unsayable Podcast before, but it appears as though Ratheon Inc. actually has a model ready for production and it is currently being field tested at Moody Air Force base in Georgia. So, what are we talking about here? Basically you have a high voltage power unit, beaming equipment, and a rectangular dish antenna for transmitting the energy. A system like this could be mounted on the back of a humvee, and used to quell nasty rioters and civil disturbers. What is the effect you ask? Let’s get some quote action on here. From the sciam article:
The so-called Active Denial System causes an intense burning sensation causing people to run for cover, but no lasting harm, officials said.
“This is a breakthrough technology that’s going to give our forces a capability they don’t now have,” Theodore Barna, an assistant deputy undersecretary of defense for advanced systems and concepts, told Reuters. “We expect the services to add it to their tool kit. And that could happen as early as 2010.”
Basically what we have here is a big microwave antenna that you can point at people, and instead of heating up your food, it heats up your enemy. Is this good or bad? To be honest, I don’t know.
However, take a look at this guy.
Does he look like he’s having a good time? If they would do this to a journalist who works for Reuters, would they hesitate to use it on you?
I happen to think these these people are the more likely target
I HATE hippies
hit the jump for the full story - SCIAM
People, are always asking me, Jason, why in the world should we dump all this money into the space program, or return to the moon, when there are so many other pressing things to do here on earth? I usually respond with something like, “NEVER question me again!” However, on rare occasions I’m willing to look at this question in some detail. It’s actually a very valid question, and for my answer, I would like to reference one of my other favorite things, real-time strategy games.
So, let’s ask ourselves, what happens when you spend your whole time in the beginning of the game, carefully guarding your tiny corner of the map, unwilling to spend resources on expansion until your part of the world is perfect? Well, I’ll tell you, the more adventurous players will colonize the rest of the map, pulling new resources from the areas they settle, and then they’ll wipe the floor with you because their system has become a system of scale.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not insinuating we need to revisit the moon in order to win global RISK, but what I’m saying is that analogy provides us a good example. Chances are, you are not going to find an oil or gold deposit in your backyard. Nor would it be wise to create a giant luxury cruise ship in the middle of a land locked state. The moon is a frontier base that will grow to become it’s own producer of wealth and material. There is always a start-up cost associated with any new program, and you have to be willing to eat those initial costs to reap the benefit later. When you look down the long road, and you see a thriving human civilization spread throughout our local area of the solar system, you know what you should see? $$$$, that’s what.
Hit the link for SpaceRef’s take on the whole thing.
Episode 18 of the Unsayable Podcast is now available for download. This week Chris, Bart, and I discuss nano materials, spiderman, and all the videogame news fit to print.
Stories for this week’s show include:
Science Daily has a cool article about a paper that was recently published detailing the work of researchers at the University of the Pennsylvania School of Medicine in creating a biological interface that could communicate between the human nervous system and an artificial limb which could be controlled by thought. Great for patients who have had limbs amputated, people with spinal cord injuries, or this guy 
Hey there big fella! See you soon! Hit the link for the full story from ScienceDaily
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