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bogdan's (micro)blog

bogdan » 2012, the leap year

11:20 pm on Jan 7, 2012 | read the article | tags: sci-tech

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)

bogdan » aaas’s «nasa at a turning point&r …

08:13 pm on Aug 30, 2011 | read the article | tags: sci-tech

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.

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

10:37 pm on Jun 9, 2011 | read the article | tags: sci-tech

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.

bogdan » i2c bi-directional level shifter

01:00 am on Jun 1, 2011 | read the article | tags: sci-tech

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.

bogdan » got the reply from cern. «unfortun …

04:09 pm on Apr 7, 2009 | read the article | tags: sci-tech

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»

bogdan » mozilla for african-americans. who would …

| read the article | tags: sci-tech

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

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

11:00 pm on Mar 24, 2009 | read the article | tags: sci-tech

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.