ublo » sci-tech

2012, the leap year

bogdanel — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 21:20:33 +0000

Should we expect a new revolution in physics, this time with logic arguments and not for justifying huge funds with flipping coins and counting particles (link)? Here's a recent paper describing how gravity can be considered a consequence of the information, not as a fundamental force. In my humble opinion, this idea has the necessary beauty to kick us beyond Einstein's general relativity.
Erik P. Verlinde - On the Origins of Gravity and the Laws of Newton

(image courtesy: nasaimages.org)

aaas’s «nasa at a turning point&r …

bogdanel — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:13:32 +0000

aaas's «nasa at a turning point» webinar is over. conclusions:

nasa's budget is only 0.3% of the federal budget. meaning that it can power the dod for only 6 weeks. or it's equivalent to a movie night a year for every american. kind'of cheap, i'd say;
the future is on mars with a nuclear powered heavy-lifting spaceship; the future is global: we don't want to upset the chinese. russians for engines, europeans for artificial environment, americans for the experience. plenty of room for the others.
unfortunately, and this is my own opinion, obama destroyed a dream. and you need dreams in order to fulfill them.

it’ll be a busy summer. just ordered a …

bogdanel — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 19:37:16 +0000

it'll be a busy summer. just ordered a launchpad msp430, a maple (rev5), a fez domino from watterott electronic. already have a propeller platform sd and plenty of arduino. i'm trying to choose the best platform for next year's lectures.

i2c bi-directional level shifter

bogdanel — Tue, 31 May 2011 22:00:08 +0000

playing with an arduino and a few boards i've got from watterott i needed a simple solution for safely connecting the 3.3V boards to the 5V arduino's I2C/TWI interface. searching the web i've found an article addressing this problem without using some unavailable chips. the solution uses 4 general purpose NPN transistors and 6 resistors. i've built and tested the bi-directional level shifter and it worked fine getting data from a ITG3200 gyro, an ADXL345 accelerometer and a HMC5843 magnetometer, all connected at once.

got the reply from cern. «unfortun …

bogdanel — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:09:50 +0000

got the reply from cern. «unfortunately we have not been able to offer you a position at this stage. however, we have put your name on the list of reserve candidates in the event that a position becomes available»

mozilla for african-americans. who would …

bogdanel — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 09:14:23 +0000

mozilla for african-americans. who would've thought? anyway, for those of you who (think they) have a ~~black~~long enough wireless range, click here to get blackbird =)

rosetta stone. well, not quite. it's ro …

bogdanel — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 21:00:21 +0000

rosetta stone. well, not quite. it's rosetta dvd in a cool glass/stainless-steel spherical covering. for those who know what i'm talking about, here.