Awesome new technology

For a long time the rail gun has been included in the realm of video games and science fiction, but now the idea of a rail gun could be included in conventional modern and completely real weaponry. The technology behind a rail gun is relatively simple to understand on a basic level. You simply propel a bullet or projectile through a barrel using the forces of magnets in order to bring it up to ridiculous speeds. The systems would be able to send a projectile much farther and faster then conventional firing systems and also just looks awesome. Even though it is not really practical to use a rail gun quite yet in a battle field, I just thought that it was something that is worth seeing and mentioning.

video

http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/11/navys-prototype-rail-gun-projectile-hits-mach-7-at-33-megajoule/

3ds review

So... I have been saving up for a year, and just recently purchased the 3ds. Even though I did not get any games (the ones I want come out a bit later) it is still really frigin cool. The first important thing to mention is that the 3D actually works. One might think that the 3D is lame and gimmicky and gets boring after a while, but at least for now, it is still very amusing and cool looking. If you can afford it, and have liked nintendo products in the past, I would suggest buying it sometime this year.

Kinda creepy tech

Recently in Japan (where else) a new eating utensil has appeared, which is basically a theremin tied to a fork. Just on its own, a theremin sounds rather creepy, but when attached to a fork that plays when you eat, it is just weird. it works based on an electric current running through your body. Different foods with different resistances make different sounds. It is suggested that other utensils could be used too, but I think it would be rather weird to have you whole dinner table humming some annoying high pitched noise non stop. Just my opinion.

Cool new tech

Recently, historical science researchers decided to test out an x-ray machine from 1896 and compare the results to that of a modern x-ray machine. If that is not cool, I do not know what is. because they the old x-ray machine had thousands of times more radiation then a modern machine, they tested in on a cadaver. Of course the modern x-ray had a clearer image and was safer, but even though the results were as expected, it was still interesting to see how much technology progressed. In 1896, the x-ray machine that they had was probably thought to be a modern and safe technological marvel, while we know better now. Perhaps in 100 years our x-ray machines will be considered unsafe, blurry and old. Technology advances and it will be interesting to see where we take ourselves.

last last week in comp sci

We have started going into interface and associated labs, but I have yet to finish tic tac toe, so hopefully I will not get too far behind. The interface labs are not really hard, but just long so there are plenty of opportunities for minor bugs to arise. I have gotten rid of most of said bugs, but there are some stubborn ones which will not go away even if the code seems to be an exact replica of the model code. I will probably just move on and call this lab as good as done for now. I will probably have to work after school on the tic tac toe lab or come in extra during lunch.

a few weeks ago in comp sci

We have recently started working on references and parameters, but I am still stuck on the tic tac toe lab refs and params are fairly simple with only a few rules that need to be followed such as whether or not a method changes or doesn't change the value of a string or number, but once you have that down, it is fairly simple. The syntax is a tiny bit confusing like always, but that is really the only way to make this concept hard, so it is understandable. I have to think for a while and draw a simple chart for some of these problems, but I can chug on through most of them so for now I am doing well.

Sad new blog tech

This week has been a rather sad week for science and space exploration due to the imminent retirement of the space shuttle discovery. Discovery embarked upon its last launch in order to take a humanoid robot into space. After this mission space shuttle discovery will be retired from use, and then there will be only 2 functioning American space shuttles left. These two shuttles will only have one more launch each before they are retired too though, so this is the beginning of the end of the space shuttle era. After this point, the US will not have any opperating space vehicles and will have to use another countries, or a private companies shuttles in order to do anything is space. Meh :(