New JonesBlog update. Experiments
 

I had checked out... The environment was so complete that for a discrete moment I had completely forgotten that we were still in the continental United States. Perhaps it was the smell of kebabs cooking or the sound of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan playing from the electronics shop that also sold pirated Western DVDs or the afternoon call to prayer coming from the tops of the minarets in the local mosque. It could have been the women selling bread, fruits or flowers by the side of the road or the Arabic men playing backgammon in the cafe with shisha pipes. Toyota trucks or bicycles being repaired in the roadside repair shops under Iraqi flags added to the realism along with a tangle of wires on poles carrying telephone and electricity around town with satellite dishes for television on rooftops were added elements. But the thing that completed it was the sound of Baghdadi Arabic from a gentleman greeting us as we drove through town.

Read all about it here. Medina Wasl with the 3rd Special Forces Group

New JonesBlog update. Sundance New Frontier 2010 and a Banksy sighting

I ran up to Park City for the Sundance Festival and to photograph an art installation, the Cloud Mirror by Eric Gradman. The point of the Cloud Mirror is to search out information on the Internet about visitors and merge that information with a real time image of the person on an LCD screen in front of them using computer vision to augment reality. You see yourself reflected back live, in person on the LCD screen in front of you with a thought bubble out of a comic book superimposed next to your head displaying all sorts of information that can be dug up through the Internet. The Cloud Mirror searches Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, IMDB, sex offenders databases and displays activities, relationship status, your favorite movies, books, music, any status updates you post etc...etc...etc... along with snarky comments.

I flew down to Las Vegas to do some work that I'll talk about here later. But while I was in town, I took two days to document Media Day and Shot Show 2010 for a number of sources including Wired, The Firearm Blog and other resources. There was some interesting new technology including a new pistol from Armatix that uses RF signals to disable the sidearm if it is too far from the wristwatch the accompanies it. Also new ballistics computers that are mounted on rifles are discussed.

New JonesBlog update(s). Shot Show 2010 Media Day

Shot Show 2010. The Actual Shot Show

and a little after party. AAC Big Bang Party

According to a research article published in the current International Journal of Biological Sciences, genetically modified corn from Monsanto increases the levels of liver and kidney failure in rats, as well as other harmful effects to the "heart, adrenal glands, spleen and haematopoietic system.

Apparently, Monsanto has wasted no time claiming the study was based on "faulty data" saying that it's own 90-day study didn't show similar problems. Of course, that ignores the fact that the organ failure only starts to show up after "5-14 weeks" according to the abstract.

New JonesBlog update. Bionic implants

The device seen in these images is called the Utah Electrode Array (WARNING: potentially graphic image after the jump of an implant in a human brain). The Utah Electrode Array is a brain implant technology developed here at the University of Utah by Richard Normann. The purpose of this device, built by currently built for us by Blackrock Microsystems is to transduce signals from external devices to deliver to the brain for interpretation. Alternatively, the device can record impulses generated in the brain for delivery of neural signals to external devices. Our potential interests in this approach are manifold, but real use and implementation of these devices is some years away still.

New JonesBlog update. Bonneville Speed Week 2009

New JonesBlog update. Its spelt F-L-Y

New JonesBlog update. USS Toledo SSN-769

New JonesBlog update. A Computational Framework for Ultrastructural Mapping of Neural Circuitry

We have just published a manuscript in PLoS Biology where we describe how to build a complete and accurate neural network. This of course is one of the long standing holy grails in neuroscience. So, this effort meets two goals: 1) It meets the goals of building a complete neural connectome (we'll be finished collecting all of the data with cell identity, physiologic response and all synaptic connectivity in approximately six days) and 2) It defines a workflow whereby investigators from around the planet can download and use the tools we are providing to build their own connectome projects using existing infrastructure. We are making those tools available here to enable other groups to assemble, browse and annotate the terabyte sized datasets required of connectome level projects.

Well, Mr. 4-digit UID asshat: I now know who you are. Let's just say my spies are everywhere. Oh, no, I'm not going to call you out. I want you to sweat it: does he really know or not? Because you don't want a war. You really don't want to pick a fight with me. I've been on this system at least as long as you have. Think about what that means. Or are you too stupid? Better watch your back, pal.

This is another open letter to Brad Smith, Microsoft's general legal counsel, in regards to their thinly veiled Linux patent threats and related lawsuit against TomTom.

(Disclaimer: As I am a nobody as far as Microsoft is concerned, I don't honestly expect Brad Smith or anyone at Microsoft to read this, and I don't care. Mostly I'm just blowing off steam and getting my beefs out in the open).

So it's come to this, is it? Suing over an ancient filesystem developed from the the 1970s (FAT) and the assorted ugly hackish kluges that have been necessary to keep the decrepit pile of garbage on life support? The one that only became a defacto standard because at one time its use was all but mandated by some older versions of Microsoft Windows that didn't support anything else? You know, the one originally developed for floppy disks?

Why don't you just stop your lawsuit now before you get laughed out of the courtroom? Seriously, you guys are starting to look more and more like your old sock puppet, The SCO Group? Remember them? Yeah, they're basically on life support now thanks to IBM, Novell and Red Hat practically bankrupting them. Guess they chose the wrong opponents to pick a fight with, huh?

So you thought maybe TomTom would roll over and play dead, eh? I guess they didn't. Especially now that they're backed by the Open Invention Network.

So you have $20 billion in the bank? Wanna watch that money continue to slowly dwindle whilst you fight the Linux community? You don't get it do you? A lot of people with serious cash have a vested interest interest in watching Linux succeed in dwindling your market share. You think others in the industry aren't prepared to enter the melee between you and TomTom? Wrong.

Give it up before you embarrass yourself. Seriously.

New JonesBlog update. Desire...

Sys-Con.tv is reporting that The Pirate Bay is currently offline due to massive DDoS attack:

I just got word that "someone" is currently DDoS'ing the thepiratebay.org. Even more interesting it may be a hijacked botnet causing the problem. More details as they come in.

Interesting. Now we'll know if the theories about the BitTorrent network experiencing difficulties if/when The Pirate Bay gets taken down are true.

In related news Wired is reporting that the prosecutor and Hollywood are demanding prison sentences for the four defendants in The Pirate Bay case.

Think SSDs are so much wickedly faster than top of the line mechanical drives like the Western Digital Velociraptor? Maybe not. Bill O'Brien has an article on his site debunking three common myths about solid state drives (SSDs):

Myth 1: A Solid State Disk will boot faster than mechanical hard drive.
This is true but it's partially smoke and mirrors as well. When SSDs first appeared, they were rather pathetic 8GB and 16GB devices. Not much fits in that size. Even at 32GB you'll still be somewhat cramped if you have hardware drivers and applications. But when you get to 64GB or 80GB or 128GB -and you have some room to feel confident about carrying the additional software you need around with you--you start to add time to the boot process.

Some of you may remember Bill O'Brien from his stint at Computer Shopper, where he co-wrote The Hard Edge with Alice Hill.