http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9952007-7.html
With such high capacity flash-based drives becoming main stream, I think it is a matter of time before flash-memory drives completely displaces disk drives in consumer appliances. Perhaps in 2 or 3 years, the only disk drives in the market will be the very high capacity ones - 1 terabyte and larger - used mainly for backup storage or in servers. The majority of consumers will probably be using only solid-state drives in their laptops, mobile phones, PDAs, game consoles etc.
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Disk Drives
As I used to work in the disk drive industry (Conner Peripherals - bought over by Seagate), I like to follow news about developments in the disk drive industry.
Today, I came across a very amusing YouTube video featuring disk drives:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3plw-oye90
The disk drives in the video are supposedly from Maxtor. Now you know why Maxtor lost money and was finally sold to Seagate too
However, the disk drive industry is facing a threat form flash-memory based drives (solid state drives). Today, I read a news item about Samsung releasing a 256GB solid state flash memory drive:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9952007-7.html
With such high capacity flash-based drives becoming main stream, I think it is a matter of time before flash-memory drives completely displaces disk drives in consumer appliances. Perhaps in 2 or 3 years, the only disk drives in the market will be the very high capacity ones - 1 terabyte and larger - used mainly for backup storage or in servers. The majority of consumers will probably be using only solid-state drives in their laptops, mobile phones, PDAs, game consoles etc.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9952007-7.html
With such high capacity flash-based drives becoming main stream, I think it is a matter of time before flash-memory drives completely displaces disk drives in consumer appliances. Perhaps in 2 or 3 years, the only disk drives in the market will be the very high capacity ones - 1 terabyte and larger - used mainly for backup storage or in servers. The majority of consumers will probably be using only solid-state drives in their laptops, mobile phones, PDAs, game consoles etc.
Monday, 26 May 2008
"Jesus: The Missing History" - Discovery Channel documentary
I'd caught this documentary ("Jesus: The Missing History") on Discovery Channel (Asia) today, and was very impressed by the host, biblical scholar Kent Dobson, raising very important topics that critically questions the authenticity of the scriptures concerning Jesus. The documentary even ended with Dobson talking about how his study into Jesus' history had made him cast doubt on his beliefs, and even challenged his faith, which I felt was very remarkable for Dobson to do on a globally syndicated program.
I googled the net trying to see if the video of this documentary is available on YouTube. I couldn't find any, but instead learnt an unexpected piece of news. Apparently, after this documentary was broadcast in the US on March 16, Kent Dobson was forced by his school, the Northpointe Christian High School, to resign from his teaching post on March 27:
http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/04/on_historical_jesus_video_oust.html
Dobson's unfortunate experience seems to resemble a Christian version of "Expelled".
Although Dobson is a man of faith, as a teacher, he is not afraid to teach his students to think critically and to ask hard questions. On the documentary, he comes across as an honest, sincere and earnest person, and I think that one day, he will have an epiphany like Prof Bart Erhman or ex-Reverend Dan Barker, and realise that we can all be moral and good people without having to believe that Jesus is a god.
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Myanmar
If you have been following news of the Myanmar Cyclone Nargis disaster, or have donated to the relief effort to help the Myanmar victims, you would know that the Myanmar government is preventing the relief organisations from using their own experts/equipment to handle the donated supplies. Instead, the Myanmar government has told these organisations to hand over the supplies to the army, who will then distribute the supplies to the victims. The Myanmar government does not want the relief organisations personnel to distribute the donated supplies to the victims themselves.
1. According to this New York Times article, a local official found that good rice donated from Thailand under the United Nations auspices have been kept by the army. The army instead gave poor quality/rotting/waterlogged rice from its own inventories to the victims instead:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/world/asia/12myanmar.html
2. This blog entry from a Myanmar dissident says that donated supplies are now found on sale in the black markets in Yangon. Since all donations must be handed to the Myanmar army as commanded by the Myanmar government, it is obvious who is re-selling these donated relief supplies for their own profit: http://baydah.blogspot.com/
3. A report from Burma Campaign UK states that Myanmar earned about ₤1.35 billion (about US$2.7 billion) per year from the sale of gas. However, the Myanmar government, in a meeting with UN officials on 5 May, stated that they are spending ₤2.5 million on the disaster. The Myanmar government won't need to cough out more of their own money, not with the generous cash donations pouring in from UN, US, and other countries totalling hundreds of millions of dollars: http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/pm/weblog.php?id=P348
4. So, if the Myanmar government is going to use only ₤2.5 million from their yearly earnings of ₤1350 million from gas exports for the relief effort, what should the balance ₤1347.5 million be used for? Well, how about a wedding? According to this BBC report, when General Than Shwe (the leader of the Myanmar government) married off his daughter in 2006, just the gifts for the couple came to ₤50 million: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6109356.stm You can get a sense of the opulence that was lavished on Than Shwe's daughter from this YouTube video. Mind you, while 90% of Myanmar's population live below the poverty line, the military government is apparently using the country's wealth to benefit themselves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWj0tDpLAaI ------------------------------------------------------------- It's too bad the UN, Singapore, and the other Asean countries will not interfere in how the Myanmar government treats its people. Yup. The policy of non-interference in another country's "internal affair" is sacrosanct, even if the Myanmar government actions (or lack thereof) can potentially kill hundreds of thousands of people. If hundreds of thousands of people were to die due to diseases or hunger because of the lack of relief supplies reaching the victims, this would be nothing short of genocide. And the UN, Singapore government, Asean members would all be partially culpable, because they would have foreseen that the deaths would be the end result, but didn't do anything to prevent it. Tragic.
2. This blog entry from a Myanmar dissident says that donated supplies are now found on sale in the black markets in Yangon. Since all donations must be handed to the Myanmar army as commanded by the Myanmar government, it is obvious who is re-selling these donated relief supplies for their own profit: http://baydah.blogspot.com/
3. A report from Burma Campaign UK states that Myanmar earned about ₤1.35 billion (about US$2.7 billion) per year from the sale of gas. However, the Myanmar government, in a meeting with UN officials on 5 May, stated that they are spending ₤2.5 million on the disaster. The Myanmar government won't need to cough out more of their own money, not with the generous cash donations pouring in from UN, US, and other countries totalling hundreds of millions of dollars: http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/pm/weblog.php?id=P348
4. So, if the Myanmar government is going to use only ₤2.5 million from their yearly earnings of ₤1350 million from gas exports for the relief effort, what should the balance ₤1347.5 million be used for? Well, how about a wedding? According to this BBC report, when General Than Shwe (the leader of the Myanmar government) married off his daughter in 2006, just the gifts for the couple came to ₤50 million: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6109356.stm You can get a sense of the opulence that was lavished on Than Shwe's daughter from this YouTube video. Mind you, while 90% of Myanmar's population live below the poverty line, the military government is apparently using the country's wealth to benefit themselves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWj0tDpLAaI ------------------------------------------------------------- It's too bad the UN, Singapore, and the other Asean countries will not interfere in how the Myanmar government treats its people. Yup. The policy of non-interference in another country's "internal affair" is sacrosanct, even if the Myanmar government actions (or lack thereof) can potentially kill hundreds of thousands of people. If hundreds of thousands of people were to die due to diseases or hunger because of the lack of relief supplies reaching the victims, this would be nothing short of genocide. And the UN, Singapore government, Asean members would all be partially culpable, because they would have foreseen that the deaths would be the end result, but didn't do anything to prevent it. Tragic.
Tuesday, 6 May 2008
The LHC and the Higgs Boson
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is one of the most ambitious science project to date, rivalling that of the space project to sent humans into outer space. Costing an enormous US$6 billion to build (for comparison, the space shuttle Endeavour cost only US$1.7 billion, and the NASA Mars Project is US$1.2 billion), it boggles the mind that the main purpose of its construction is to determine the existence of an infinitesimally minute elementary particle called the "Higgs Boson".
More photos of the LHC at http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/03/time-machine-worlds-biggest-particle.html
There is a very engrossing talk by Professor Brian Cox about the LHC. It compresses in 20 minutes a presentation of the best scientific explanation of "what the universe is", and why the LHC is such an important project. I am sure you will enjoy this talk:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/253
-------------------------------------------------------------
If you need a primer of what is a "Higgs Boson" particle, here is my simplified explanation:
Back in my early school days, I was taught about how all matter is composed of atoms. In fact, the theory of atoms being the fundamental building block of matter was first written by the ancient Greeks back in 400 BC.
However, in the late 19th century, scientists discovered that the atom is not the most fundamental particle (a fundamental particle is a subatomic particle that is not composed of any other subatomic particle). Instead, they found that atoms were composed of electron particles orbiting a nucleus containing protons and a neutrons.
This is probably the level of science that most of us were taught up to in secondary school.
In the mid-20th century, scientists discovered that while electrons are fundamental particles, protons and neutrons were not. Protons and neutrons are composed of an even smaller particle called the quark.
Quarks never exist alone. They are always found in groups of other quarks. A composite particle made of several quarks is known as a "Hadron", which is what the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) is named for.
Thus, the scientists now have 2 fundamental particles: the quark, and the electron.
Unlike the quarks which always exist in groups (you always find quarks in groups of two or three quarks), the electron is always alone (they are said to be solitary particles). However, scientists found that electrons were not the only solitary particle. Besides the electron, scientists found other solitary particles like the muon, the tau, and the neutrino. Scientists categorised these solitary particles as "leptons".
So basically, matter is made of the fundamental particles of quarks and leptons.
(There is actually another group of fundamental particles called "anti-quarks" and "anti-leptons", which are the components of "anti-matter". However, I will not discuss anti-matter in this explanation).
But how do protons and neutrons bind themselves together in the nucleus? Why do magnets attract iron nails? Why do uranium decay, (causing harmful radiation in the process)? Why does the Earth revolve around the Sun?
All these actions are actually forces that are exerted by particles on other particles. Scientists identified 4 kinds of forces, mainly:
More photos of the LHC at http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/03/time-machine-worlds-biggest-particle.html
There is a very engrossing talk by Professor Brian Cox about the LHC. It compresses in 20 minutes a presentation of the best scientific explanation of "what the universe is", and why the LHC is such an important project. I am sure you will enjoy this talk:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/253
-------------------------------------------------------------
If you need a primer of what is a "Higgs Boson" particle, here is my simplified explanation:
Back in my early school days, I was taught about how all matter is composed of atoms. In fact, the theory of atoms being the fundamental building block of matter was first written by the ancient Greeks back in 400 BC.
However, in the late 19th century, scientists discovered that the atom is not the most fundamental particle (a fundamental particle is a subatomic particle that is not composed of any other subatomic particle). Instead, they found that atoms were composed of electron particles orbiting a nucleus containing protons and a neutrons.
This is probably the level of science that most of us were taught up to in secondary school.
In the mid-20th century, scientists discovered that while electrons are fundamental particles, protons and neutrons were not. Protons and neutrons are composed of an even smaller particle called the quark.
Quarks never exist alone. They are always found in groups of other quarks. A composite particle made of several quarks is known as a "Hadron", which is what the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) is named for.
Thus, the scientists now have 2 fundamental particles: the quark, and the electron.
Unlike the quarks which always exist in groups (you always find quarks in groups of two or three quarks), the electron is always alone (they are said to be solitary particles). However, scientists found that electrons were not the only solitary particle. Besides the electron, scientists found other solitary particles like the muon, the tau, and the neutrino. Scientists categorised these solitary particles as "leptons".
So basically, matter is made of the fundamental particles of quarks and leptons.
(There is actually another group of fundamental particles called "anti-quarks" and "anti-leptons", which are the components of "anti-matter". However, I will not discuss anti-matter in this explanation).
But how do protons and neutrons bind themselves together in the nucleus? Why do magnets attract iron nails? Why do uranium decay, (causing harmful radiation in the process)? Why does the Earth revolve around the Sun?
All these actions are actually forces that are exerted by particles on other particles. Scientists identified 4 kinds of forces, mainly:
- Strong Nuclear force (the force that binds protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom)
- Electro-Magnetism force (the force that allows a magnet to attract iron nails)
- Weak Nuclear force (the force that causes radioactive decay)
- Gravity (the force that stops us from falling into space)
- Gluon : Strong Nuclear force
- Photon : Electro-Magnetism force
- W+, W-, Z : Particles for the Weak Nuclear force
- Graviton : Gravity
Sunday, 4 May 2008
Babies being thrown off 50-foot tower
Truly one of the most bizarre videos I have ever seen. This practice of throwing babies off the temple tower has been practised by both Muslims and Hindus in a small village in Western India (the state of Maharashtra) for the past 500 years. However, it appears extremely reckless and dangerous to me. What if the baby twisted its body midway down and landed head first and snap its neck? Shiver....
CNN video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDRlWGR1kLg
CNN article:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/01/babies.tower/#cnnSTCText
Can't imagine parents would actually let their babies undergo this kind of religious ritual.
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