Byte by Bite

Starry-eyed researcher posts list online

by Marv Dealy

An interesting timeline presented itself last Monday, February 20th – on that day in 1725 occurred the first recorded incident of a white man scalping a Native American, copying a practice stretching back to the Scythians of Eurasia in the 400’s BC (www.Answers.com – look up scalping).

On February 20th in 1872 the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in New York City (www.metmuseum.org). And on that day in 1902 Ansel Adams was born (www.AnselAdams.com).

Skipping ahead to that day in 1962, John Glenn became the first from the United States to orbit Earth. Aboard Friendship 7 on a mission dubbed Mercury 6, Glenn landed slightly less than 5 hours after he took off (www.Answers.com – look up John Glenn).

And, last Monday, a Carnegie Institution researcher, Dr. Margaret Turnbull, released her short list for stars most likely to harbor civilizations. Her top candidate was beta CVn, some 26 light-years (152.88 trillion miles) away in the constellation of Canes Venatici in the Northern Hemisphere near Ursa Major and Boötes, under the handle of the Big Dipper. (see, The American Heritage Dictionary). Traveling 60 miles per hour around the clock every day of the year will only get about 500,000 miles under your belt, so you can see whoever is near beta CVn is going to have to shout pretty loud if we’re going to hear anything.

In any event, Dr. Turnbull based her assumptions on certain things common to our sun and solar system, such as a “could be” belt where planets could be close enough for large bodies of water to be liquid and not far enough away to be frozen, amounts of iron in the atmosphere, the star’s age, and all sorts of other stuff you can read at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4728228.stm

Amazing. In the event I actually get the VW into orbit and leave on the 2,908-year-trip (or so – fuzzy math) to beta CVn and actually make it, I’ll bend all efforts to send some sort of word back.

Mac OSX Vulnerability

Secunia released an “Extremely Critical” advisory regarding a vulnerability in the Macintosh operating system that can be exploited by malicious people wanting to compromise an infected system. Apple has not yet released patch for the OSX – but do check frequently for software updates as one should be released soon.

In the meantime, you can change a setting in your Safari browser that will temporarily fix the problem. All you need to do is disable the “Open safe files after downloading” option (it’s in Preferences). If you’re using older Mac operating systems you don’t need to worry. Read more at Secunia’s web site at http://secunia.com/advisories/18963

Nerd Oscars

Held in the same ballroom where the Oscars will be awarded in Hollywood two weeks hence, the 2006 Scientific and Technical Academy Awards recognized stuff that changed the way movies are made.

Among 17 winners was a veteran stuntman, Scott Leva, who invented a better airbag for stunt falls after a friend and fellow stuntman died when the airbag he was using for a movie stunt failed.

Another award honored John Platt and Demetri Terzopoulos for pioneering computer-generated techniques that were developed decades ago that simulate cloth in motion pictures such as a flag billowing or a garment folding. Today, they’re busy at work to develop artificially intelligent virtual actors. Read more at Wired.com (http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,70247-0.html?tw=wn_index_6)

WiMax is coming, but not very soon

An excellent commentary by Joanna Glasner at Wired News called “A word to the wise on WiMax” is worth a read. For you new readers, WiMax is billed as picking up where WiFi leaves off in terms of getting broadband “the last mile” when it’s just too expensive for DSL or cable.

Widely available today, WiFi enables you to pick up a broadband Internet signal from some cooperating merchant or municipality when you’re within a short distance of the antennae, either inside or outside. WiMax extends that coverage from a few hundred feet to a few miles from each antenna, making the covering of large areas much more feasible.

Some municipalities that have gone to the effort of or are working on providing their voters with what is, after all, just one more utility include Philadelphia, San Francisco and Hermiston, Oregon.

Countries that will use fixed WiMax include Mexico and South America, according to Monica Paolini of Senza Fili Consulting, saying that regions that don’t have proper infrastructure in place for cable broadband or DSL will find WiMax most appealing.

She doesn’t comment on areas like ours where there is existing infrastructure but no leadership evident from either elected, appointed or self-anointed leaders in the effort to make broadband at least as common as drinking water from an open ditch.

Read more of Glasner’s commentary at http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,70241-1.html?tw=wn_story_page_next11

Free WiFi Internet

Faithful reader #17 Jim Tuite writes that MacDonald’s WiFi isn’t free – I’d said last week that it was.

If any of you out there know of local WiFi hot spots within the reach of this paper that I haven’t mentioned, send ‘em along, we’ll keep working toward an accurate list.