有熊式: 2006/08

2006/08/31

Guide to green electronics

{image} Your guide to green electronics @ Greenpeace

2006/08/24

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The scientists agreed that for a celestial body to qualify as a planet:

- it must be in orbit around the Sun
- it must be large enough that it takes on a nearly round shape
- it has cleared its orbit of other objects

@ BBC: Pluto loses status as a planet

Criticism @ BBC: Pluto vote 'hijacked' in revolt

"It's an awful definition; it's sloppy science and it would never pass peer review - for two reasons.

"Firstly, it is impossible and contrived to put a dividing line between dwarf planets and planets. It's as if we declared people not people for some arbitrary reason, like 'they tend to live in groups'.

"Secondly, the actual definition is even worse, because it's inconsistent."

2006/08/22

Real-colour display technology

Arrays of thousands of tiny "super prisms" controlled by robotic muscles could bring real colour to TV screens for the first time, scientists say.

The devices, known as electrically tunable diffraction gratings, have been built by researchers in Switzerland.

They manipulate light to reproduce the full spectrum of colours on screen, impossible using existing technology.

The team say the devices could also be used to make computer displays with the same resolution as high-end LCDs.

"Today's displays can only reproduce a limited range of colours," said Manuel Aschwanden of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, and one of the team behind the work.

"The main advantage of this technology is that it can display all colours."

Full article @ BBC: Artificial muscles light up TVs

2006/08/18

提交碩士論文

Handed in today, my MA dissertation titled
'Random Access Narrative: An interactive experience of storytelling'.

2006/08/16

How many planets are there?

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How many planets are there?

So what definition have they decided on?
For a celestial object to be considered a planet, it must satisfy two conditions:

1- The object must be in orbit around a star, but must not itself be a star
2- It must have enough mass for the body's own gravity to pull it into a nearly spherical shape

Any object with a mass greater than 0.6% that of our Moon and a diameter greater than 800km would normally meet the second condition. But borderline cases will have to be resolved by more observation.

Some objects currently considered to be moons and asteroids could be eligible if they meet those basic tests. So the definition leaves the door open for other objects to join the expanding club.

@ BBC: Q&A New planets proposal