Future Tech

I have collected a few links to tech stories and will now relay them here and tie them together using an increasingly-strained film-based theme. Ahem.

1. NASA is working on a plasma drive for spacecraft. This is good news for people who want to get to Mars in a reasonable time (39 days) instead of the months it takes with chemical rockets. Plus it looks like what drives the Millennium Falcon!
2. NASA is also looking into using a ground-based laser to get rid of orbiting space junk before it hits our satellites or causes chain-reaction chaos, aka Kessler syndrome. The graphics remind me of a certain moon-sized space station...
3. There's a company building a Rankine Cycle heat regenerative external combustion engine. This differs from normal car engines by being quieter, cooler and able to use a wide range of fuels. Also it needs no catalytic converter, muffler, oil lubrication or transmission. This is clearly an engine of the future, and, um, was probably used on one of those pod racers? Yeah.

DVD Player

Sometimes, when you put a disk in your DVD player it grinds and clicks for a while and then grumpily says "No Disk", even when there clearly is a disk in there. Other disks don't work either. A Google search brings up various advice; from the optimistic "blow air into the tray" to the more helpful "clean the lens". Not being a fan of those Cleaning Disks (a CD with bristles attached), I opened up the case. There was some general fluff to remove and the lens looked clean, but I wiped it anyway with an alcoholled cotton swab. Disks still did not play. After puzzling for a while, I reasoned that the mechanism was working but the player was not receiving data from the disk, and the data should be coming out of the paper-thin ribbon cable that is attached to the laser assembly. On my player, this is attached with one of those slide-out-a-little plastic clips that grip the cable. After swab-cleaning and secure re-location into the socket, all was well. So I hope this shows up sometimes as an additional thing for tinkerers to try before reaching for the credit card.

Rockets

Sci-fi author Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash, The Diamond Age) has written an article about why we use rockets to get into space. To begin, he shows how inter-continental rocketry was invented ahead of its time, due mainly to WWII and the threat of a Third. These hyper-expensive things were then re-purposed when it was realized that satellites were so damned useful. He then discusses why we are now locked-in to using them as the default way to get into orbit, even though they are expensive and dangerous. The reasons are not just regulatory and managerial - there is accountancy (launch insurance) and international law (permission to fly over countries). We have made rockets "as close to perfect as they're ever going to get", yet we don't try alternative, better technologies.

He does not give any answers, but one of the advisers he credits gives away an interesting detail; he works for LaserMotive, world leaders in power-beaming. This technology just happens to be the best way to power a space elevator. Could this be hint for what features in his next novel?

Forecast

"Spring is around the corner"
- Punxsutawney Phil, Prognosticator of Prognosticators

John Barry, RIP

A soundtracking genius - whether it was tv (The Persuaders) or film (Midnight Cowboy, Out of Africa) his distinctive sound always gave the final product an extra boost of class. The producers of James Bond owe him a pint not only for keeping their monster series afloat, but for inventing Cold War Spy Music in the classic film The Ipcress File. The man could not be cooler unless he had his own jazz band and shared a house with Michael Caine. Oh wait, he did. RIP.

Computer

I have recently been reading up about the EDSAC, the first practical stored-program computer. This is because a replica has been commissioned to be built at Bletchley Park. Of course, it was one of those room-sized beasts, tended to by blokes in overalls and thick, round spectacles. Reading the specs, I see that it used 3000 valves/tubes, and therefore used 12kW of power. Seen as though an electric fire uses just 1kW, it is going to get pretty hot in that room. I'm thinking they should maybe build one for show that has pretend valves lit with LEDs, and have someone sitting inside it with the transistor equivalent in a shoebox on his lap.

Website Update

Dealometer is now CitizenLocal. This is just a standard re-branding, we weren't taken over or anything like that. The deals will still be as good as before - the current one is for half-price local beer. If anyone spots a reference to Dealometer on the site (except "Dealometer Inc." at the bottom), please inform me and I will rush over to my computer workstation and fix it.