Terabyte Labs

Well this looks like it’s the first post of my new blog. For some reason I’ve been really reluctant to start a blog of my own. Probably because I don’t consider my everyday endevaours worthy of the great melting pot of filth that is the Internet. Still it’s a new year so changes are abound.

It took a long time to find the blog software I’m using. Most of the software out there just doesn’t agree with my host for one reason or another, or is just simply plain ugly. I think a blog should be nice to look at. If nothing else it amuses your readership while they trawl through the random crap that usually permeates your average blog.

Oh dear, it didn’t take me long to rant about something did it? I wonder how many bloggers rant about blogs in their first blog.

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Firstly, human society is a reactive one not a preemptive one. We would rather fix a problem after witnessing its effects than before. Secondly, even if we wanted to, it wouldn’t be possible to protect against every threat that society faces. Who knows where the next earthquake, tsunami, hurricane or terrorist will strike. With these kinds of events the best we can do is improve defences after the damage has been done and hope it won’t happen again. Even with defences in place, people will not see their effects until these defences fail. This is particularly true for climate change and it is the reason nothing will be done about until it is too late.

The general consensus at the moment is that climate change will happen and that it will cause massive damage to economies if nothing is done about it. But even with this premise, it is impossible to find the correct solution for the same reason that it is impossible to protect against an earthquake. Not only do we need to know exactly when the damage will occur but we need to know the level of damage that will be caused.

Think about what happened about the Y2K bug. There was quite a large panic stirred up and companies spent millions updating their hardware and software to ensure they didn’t become victims of some world-wide electronic nuclear fallout. This time we had the luxury of the exact time that a disaster would occur. We were even convinced - mainly by sensational press coverage - that it was a real threat. And yet we still managed to mess up how the problem was dealt with. The total expenditure was estimated at over $US 300 billion and yet the perceived impact of the bug was almost non existent. Some would say that this demonstrates the project’s success for which there are many arguments against but the point is that when trying to prevent a disaster, there is always a balance to be made between cost of prevention and cost of recovery. In the Y2K case I think most people will agree the balance was tipped towards the former rather than the latter.

Now with climate change the problem is many times more difficult to manage. Firstly it requires the coordination of all the major countries of the world as each country’s emissions affect the whole world’s climate. Secondly, it’s impossible to predict exactly what effects climate change will have for each country, or exactly when these effects will be noticed. How do governments respond to threats that they cannot see or measure@f0 Thirdly even if governments do introduce taxes against energy consumption on homes, businesses and industries, how can they measure any benefit these measures have on reducing climate change@f1

In any case, even in the extremely unlikely case that we get the balance of expenditure just right it will be impossible to know that in the decades to come. Some people will say we should have spent more earlier on to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, others will say that the taxes that were introduced damaged the economy more than climate change would have. This is why, as long as society continues to work in its current form, we will undoubtedly lose the fight against climate change. We’ll lose whether we know it or not.

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If, like me, you like to read, you’ll know how expensive books can become. I get through perhaps 5-10 books a year which means I probably spend about £50-£70 a year on books. Once I’m finished they just find their place on my bookshelf.

That was until I discovered ReadItSwapIt which is a free service that allows you to swap your books for books that other members of the site have. You just have to upload a list of books you want to swap along with a description of their condition, make a request to swap with another member and if that person likes the look of one of your books, you proceed with the swap.

This is a great way to recycle books and get the most out of them while also saving money on your new books. Another great use of power of the internet.

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Remember the music discovery service Pandora? The service allows you to enter an artist or song and it will play you songs that are similar in style. Well now it’s become a whole lot better.

Pandora Backstage allows you to enter an artist or song and it will give you a short biography of that artist, along with a list of all the artists it has in its database that are similar in style. When you click on an album it even gives you a list of songs and allows you to listen to samples of each song. This is a great way to quickly discover music similar to music you like. Just check it out.

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For some reason round numbers seem to be more attractive to governments and organisations when setting their various future targets. It makes you wonder whether they really think about the date they are setting or if they just choose a date that sounds far enough away for them to feel comfortable. I keep hearing these targets on the news and it makes me wonder just how many things will be achieved by the year 2010? Will the world suddenly become a better place? Here’s a list of the more interesting things that will supposedly take place by the year 2010:

• The EU will increase use of renewable energy to 12% of total energy consumption in the EU.
• The UK will increase use of renewable energy to 10% of total energy consumption in the UK.
• The UK will increase use of renewable transport fuel (e.g. ethanol, biofuel) to 5%.
• The UK government will cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20% of 1990 levels.
• India will provide free, compulsory, high quality education for all children aged between 6-14.
• The Swedish government will phase out nuclear power entirely.
• The 8 member states of the G8 summit held in 2005 will pledge US$50 billion in aid to developing countries.
• The G8 members will ensure universal access to anti-HIV drugs in Africa.
• The International Space Station will be completed.
• The Space Shuttle Program will be discontinued.
• Canada will become the world’s top sporting nation.
• The United States football team will become a legitimate threat to win the 2010 world cup.
• Members of the Convention on Biological Diversity will have made a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level.
• The United Nations Population Fund will have reduced global levels of infection of HIV by 25% from 1999 levels.
• The world population will reach 7 billion.
• General Motors will release the Hy-wire: an electronically controlled hydrogen fuel cell powered car.
• Japanese robots will be available to commercial households.
• Governor Schwarzenegger of California will make hydrogen fuel available along all Californian highways.
• The Galileo Positioning System will become operational.
• Russia’s GLONASS positioning system will be back to working order.
• In England, 13 million or 30% of the population will be obese.

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Here’s an idea for a power saving feature that currently no digital camera has:

There should be an option to turn off the screen of the camera until you press the shutter button down half way. At this point you’re ready to take a photo so the screen would turn on to show you the photo you are about to take. If you let go of the shutter button the screen should remain on for about 5 seconds. After you have taken a photo the screen should display your photo for a couple of seconds and then turn off.

Why have this feature? Well it would allow you to take photos perhaps once a minute without worrying about turning the camera off to save battery or turning it on to take the photo. It allows the fastest response time between wanting to take a photo and taking it while allowing minimum power to be consumed when the camera is not being used.

Why doesn’t any camera have this feature? I don’t know. Some cameras have a sleep mode where the screen will turn off after a minute or two but this is too long to make it worthwhile. If you are taking a photo on average once a minute the screen will remain on pretty much all the time. Why have the screen on when you’re not looking at it?

Of course this feature would not be useful all the time. If for example you’re taking lots of photos of people one after the other you’d want the screen on all the time so you can always make sure you get the right shot. However I have found that in my experience the vast majority of the time I decide to take a photo about 1 or 2 seconds before arriving at the point in time I want to take the photo. If my camera is not ready then it will often be too late. If I’m waiting around with my camera ready without seeing a shot I want to take then I’m unnecessarily wasting battery.

Why is battery life so important? Well it’s not that important provided you have the ability to recharge your batteries every day and you’re camera has the ability to last a whole day. But that’s not the point. The question you should be asking is what reason do manufacturers have for not including this feature in their cameras?

Just as a final note, when I last used my camera I noticed it was showing the low battery icon as soon as I started to use it that day. Normally my camera will only allow you to take 5-10 photos when the low battery icon is showing before turning itself off. As I had lots of photos to take I turned the screen off entirely and resorted to using the viewfinder instead. That day I was able to take over 100 photos and I’m sure I could have taken a few more. It just got me thinking just how much power the screen was using and how 90% of the time this power goes to waste.

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One of the main things that I have mentioned in my How the World Should Be article is how I would like to see a decent phone that can replace my current phone, camera and mp3 player.

Camera phones have been around now for over five years. The first one I saw was around three years ago and the picture quality was absolutely terrible. Now three years later picture quality is still absolutely terrible. The number of megapixels may have increased by about 3 times but the camera lenses are no way near good enough to give the level of detail that 2 million pixels can provide. You just need to compare a photo taken with my three year old 2mp digital camera with one of today’s 2mp camera phone to see just what a waste camera phones are.

However compare my camera with one of today’s within the same price range and you’ll find the number of megapixels has tripled and the size reduced about four times (eg).

Now let’s have a look at what’s round the corner for camera and phone technology. In 2004 Samsung annouced they’d produced the SPH-S2300 with 3.2 megapixels, 3x optical zoom and xenon flash. Great I thought - this is the direction we need to be heading. But since then I heard nothing. These devices seemed to be more proof of concept than viable consumer products.

Then just last month Sony annouced their slightly more visually appealing K800.
This phone has more or less the same specs as the 2004 Samsung but with a pretty amazing 350 hours of standby battery life. Even better I thought, just what I want. But what about my music?

Now along come Samsung once again. On the 6th of this month we heard about their SGH-i310 which claims to have and 8gb microdrive for storing pictures and music. Brilliant, I could just about squeeze my music collection on to that I think. But what about my pictures? This phone has just a 2mp camera and no doubt a tiny crappy lens. Well we can’t have it all I guess.

Three days later I heard about Samsung’s SCH-B600 which sports an amazing 10mp camera with 3x optical zoom and a decent flash.

Samsung are obviously on the ball at the moment. They are also one of the world’s largest suppliers of flash memory and are continually producing bigger and cheaper chips. It’s clear they can see the demand for high capacity mp3 playing phones and decent quality camera phones. One thing I hope they don’t overlook is battery life. Probably the best thing about my 2 year old Nokia 8310 is that the battery lasts about 5 times longer than modern phones’.

So we’re not quite there but hopefully some time soon we’ll see a 20gb, 10mp, 3x optical zoom, flash based phone with enough battery to last for 350 hours on standby and at least 20 hours listening to music. The last thing you’d want is to be unable to make a call because your phone died after a long train journey.

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One thing I like to do with my many hours spent online is search for and discover new music. This isn’t always easy of course; it’s difficult to tell Google what kind of music you like and have it suggest other similar music. That’s where the Music Genome Project comes in.

Since January 2000 a bunch of hard working audiophiles have been compiling a massive list of over 300,000 songs and entered their musical properties into a database. This means you can now discover great new artists similar to the ones you love.

Pandora is a service based on the Music Genome Project. You can enter the name of an artist or song and it will stream a personalised music station of music of the same style. The service is entirely free so make sure you try out.

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I was at a friend of mine’s. We were all there to witness the big event; his house gave the best view from the top of the hill. The event was to take place somewhere over Birmingham that night, we just didn’t know exactly when.

All of us waiting, the tension was mounting when someone shouted look!”. Through the trees at the end of the garden there was a glow. I moved round to get a better look. A small mushroom cloud fireball was rising slowly into the sky. Then came the flash, so blinding that it hurt even with my hands over my eyes. Then a terrible noise as if air was filled with buzzing electricity. I looked back round again and the glow through the trees was getting bigger. The wind was getting stronger. Suddenly everything was blasted away by a hot, fiery wind. Flaming wreckage rained from the sky. Everything was on fire. I looked up, the back part of the house was crumbled away and fire consuming the rest. The last thing I remember was running…

At least that’s what I thought I remembered. When I woke up I was back in Cardiff. I couldn’t possibly have been at my friend’s house. Besides why would they do a nuclear testing over Birmingham? And how would the blast cause so much damage over 100 miles away? Those were some of the questions that made me realise it was just a massively vivid dream. A pretty cool dream though all the same.

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I’ve just thought of an interesting method of tackling spam. One thing that almost all unwanted emails have in common (almost all; I’ll get to the rest in a bit) is that they will point you towards a website of some sort so that you can purchase their products or so that they can steal your credit card details. Spammers are getting around current filtering methods by hiding the intention of their email within random bits of text (often from well known books or other documents) which fool filters looking out for common words and phrases. Others will not even put much text in their email at all but will attach an image with their advert which when clicked will link to their website.

One tactic filters could use (and probably do) is to mark messages with links as having more probability of being spam. But this doesn’t cover the short messages loads of people send saying something like “Hey check out this funny link…” etc.

A more effective method would be to analyse the link itself. With an email service such as Google Mail they are able to keep lots of information about spam to improve the spam filtering. For example it would be quite easy to keep a list of links that appear in messages that people have marked as spam. If lots of people mark the same links as being in spam messages then it provides an easy identifier for any future spam from that company.

However this method is likely to be evaded by using anonymous looking links. It would be fairly easy to use a service such as tinyurl.com which redirects you to a website given an identifier. The spammer could then create a new redirecting url for every message that was sent meaning no two urls would look the same.

A better method would be for the spam filter to follow the links given in spam messages. If a link redirects to lead to a blacklisted url then that message is most likely to be spam. All the filter would need to do is check the header of the url being pointed to to find the redirection link. To get round this method the spammer would have to keep changing the address of their website which could be quite costly for them and would limit the number of potential visits to their site.

An even better and more reliable method would be for the filter to follow the link and download the actual webpage. Analysing the words on the webpage would be far more effective than analysing the words from the email. It would also be possible to identify the website from the content rather than by its address which would make it a lot easier to blacklist against.

The problem with this of course is the resources required to download a webpage every time someone links to a website through email. To limit this the standard methods of spam filtering should be used as well. If a message looks like it might be spam then the link should be analysed. If the link is blacklisted then the message should be marked as spam. If the domain of the link is whitelisted then it should be marked as not spam. Otherwise the link should be followed. If the domain of the webpage is blacklisted then the message should be marked as spam. If the domain or address is whitelisted then it should be marked as not spam. Otherwise the content of the webpage should be downloaded. The webpage should then be analysed. It should then be added to the blacklist or whitelist based on its content.

Of course the process would probably be a little more complex than that but that’s the basic idea. The whitelist and blacklist should be effective in reducing the amount of traffic and unnecessary downloading.

I mentioned earlier that there were some spams that didn’t include links. As far as I know the only ones of this type I’ve seen are those related to the stock market which are intended to cause a stir among investors and drive the price of shares up. This seems to be a relatively new type of spam but of course once spam filters adjust to block messages with words such as st0ck or invest0r we should see fewer and fewer of them.

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Got an hour to waste? Have a look at this huge animated gif.

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I was recently pointed to some awesome simulations involving galaxies and what might happen when they collide. The simulations were created on a super computer and enable us to view what might happen within the period of several billion years in just a few minutes. A particularly interesting one shows the mergence of the Milky Way with the Andromeda galaxy which is predicted to start to occur in the next 3-4 billion years or so. Some of the other simulations involve hundreds of galaxies interacting with each other. The movies are pretty big so you’ll need a decent internet connection to download them.

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