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cool snip it from bbc

Satellite tie-up for fast Galileo

The test satellite, Giove-A, was launched in 2005

The UK company that built the test satellite for Europe's Galileo network is joining forces with a German firm to bid together to build more satellites.

SSTL believes the link-up will drive down costs and speed up production by boosting competition among suppliers.

Europe's proposed rival to the US Global Positioning System (GPS) has been delayed by rows over funding.

A compromise deal is expected to be announced at a meeting of transport ministers in Brussels on Thursday.

It follows a recent agreement by EU members to use leftover portions of the farming budget and spare science and technology funds to cover a 4bn euros (£3bn) funding gap. The shortfall was created when a private consortium asked to build and operate Galileo collapsed.

Under the new deal, the work will be split into six segments, enabling all countries to get a share of the construction work.

Project impetus

Amid this backdrop, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) is joining forces with OHB, based in Bremen, Germany.

GALILEO UNDER CONSTRUCTION A European Commission and European Space Agency project 30 satellites to be launched in batches by end of 2011-12 Will work alongside US GPS and Russian Glonass systems Promises real-time positioning down to less than a metre Guaranteed under all but most extreme circumstances Suitable for safety-critical roles where lives depend on service Europe lofts Galileo satellite Q&A: Europe's Galileo project Galileo puts UK on map

OHB has built several satellites for research purposes and is involved in human spaceflight and the Columbus space laboratory.

"To date there's been no competition for operational Galileo satellites," said Phillip Davies, the business development manager at Guildford-based SSTL.

"The announcement of the new team opens up the possibility of a real competition."

The partnership believes it can produce Galileo spacecraft quickly and at an extremely competitive price. OHB would build the satellites; SSTL would produce the electronic payloads.

The 30-strong constellation of Galileo satellites was conceived in the 1990s as an alternative to GPS, the technology that underpins car navigation systems and tracking devices.

European market

The proposed European system promises to improve the availability and precision of location and timing signals delivered from space. Designed to work alongside GPS, the enhanced programme is expected to drive many new applications, especially as new mobile phones come on to the market with sat-nav functionality.

Galileo will have five services geared to different types of application or need.

So far only a single test satellite - built and operated by SSTL - has been launched. Giove-A was lofted from Kazakhstan in December 2005.

A contract for the first four satellites in the final constellation was placed with a consortium, known today as European Satellite Navigation Industries, in 2004. New contracts must be placed in the coming months for more spacecraft if Galileo is to maintain its present schedule of being operational by the end of 2012.

A committee of British MPs recently called for the scheme to be curtailed unless there was a more convincing cost-benefit analysis; but SSTL has always maintained that once the system becomes even partially operational, the benefits will be obvious. It believes its partnership with OHB provides a solution to getting Galileo working quickly.

A new war?

An interesting (and scary) idea I had one day was, could there be a war over the Internet? think about it. there are computers everywhere, and now people have the knowhow to do bad things with them, whats stopping them? especially in America.... to be continued... Some theories of how castrographic damage can be done.

new x-ray scanner

excerpt from bbc.com

The new 256-slice CT machine takes large numbers of X-ray pictures, and combines them using computer technology to produce the final detailed images.

It also generates images in a fraction of the time of other scanners: a full body scan takes less than a minute.

The Philips machine was unveiled at the Radiological Society of North America.

Because the images are 3D they can be rotated and viewed from different directions - giving doctors the greatest possible help in looking for signs of abnormalities or disease.

All images also can be accessed on any computer in a hospital or by colleagues and researchers remotely, to make it easier for the whole team to share information.

The heart in fine detail Enlarge Image

The scan is much quicker than current technology, as the machine's X-ray emitting gantry - the giant ring-shaped part that surrounds the patient - can rotate four times in a single second - 22% faster than current systems.

The cost of the equipment - known as the Brilliance CT - is unclear.

At present, it is only being used in one hospital: the Metro Health medical centre in Cleveland, Ohio, which has been using it for the past month.

"This scanner allows radiologists to produce high quality images and is also designed to reduce patients' exposure to X-rays," Steve Rusckowski, chief executive of Philips Medical Systems, said.

"It is so powerful it can capture an image of the entire heart in just two beats."

The record company EMI was behind the first commercially viable CT scanner, which was invented by Sir Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield in Hayes, United Kingdom at the company's laboratories and unveiled in 1972.

At the same time, Allan McLeod Cormack of Tufts University independently invented a similar machine, and the two men shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

"This is a quantum shift from the first CT scanners as it gives a lot more detail," says Dr Keith Prowse, Chairman of the British Lung Foundation.

"It seems to be another step beyond what we were previously able to do. The high resolution enables you to see smaller things in both the lungs and the airways and then decide whether there is anything there and how best to get at it.

"In the case of cancer, it will help us see how far it has spread. It will also help us pick up new patterns of abnormality. It promises to be a significant advance."

what would you like to see on my site the most?

what would you like to see in my site. Same? or different?

Is technology bad?

Wow with the way tech is now you would think that life would be much easier. But no it isn’t, in fact life has actually harder. You would think that the advent of cell phones and computers, Internet, blogs, and wifi would help people get there work done so they can go home with there families. But no now a boss or some one else can call you and tell you to come to work. Not to even mention the fact of big brother, who is always watching what we do and regulates what we do. Ever think about it? Go some where and count the cameras you may be surprised. Plus the fact that your identity is always out there just waiting to be taken advantage of. But you say to your self what do I do about this?

1. Hide under a rock for the rest of your life
2. Never answer your phone
3. Where a paper bag over your head

in reality there is not much you can do. *IF YOU LIKED THIS ARTICLE LET ME KNOW AND I WILL PUBLISH MORE LIKE THIS*-thank you-Hack sauce

help the planet...

yes you can help the planet by doing nothing but downloading this. find.pcworld.com/58385 it is a program that will lower your total computer electricity cost and will show/tell you how many resources you've saved. MUST DOWNLOAD HELP THE PLANET-sorry I was a day late, but i think that we should help the planet no matter what!!!!! Also if you want to help more use blackle instead of google its the same thing!! blackle (if any links are broken tell me)

tba

todays post will be postponed-sorry...HackSauce

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Is wifi dangerous?


there was lots of debate on this topic. teachers thought that there students were being slowly damaged and hurt by the small radiation from wifi. here is a snip it from the full web.


"The government is taking another look at the effect that wireless networks have on health.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) has announced it will carry out "systematic" research into how wireless networks are being used.

The research will aim to establish average exposure to the low level radiation emitted by wi-fi access points and wireless links on computers.

The HPA said it expected the results of the research to be "re-assuring".

Average exposure

In its statement outlining its intentions, Professor Pat Troop, chief executive of the agency, said there was "no scientific evidence to date" that wi-fi or wireless local networks could have an adverse effect on the health of the general population.

The signals used on wi-fi networks were very low power, said the HPA, and well within guidelines issued by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation (ICNIRP).

"Given this, there is no particular reason why schools and others should not continue to use wi-fi or other wireless networks," said Prof Troop.

However, she added, little work had so far been done on the exposure of the average person to wi-fi networks. The research will aim to establish a baseline for this exposure.

The HPA said it was "logical" to consider this research work in light of advice from the agency itself and England's Chief Medical Officer that children should limit non-essential use of mobile phones.

The agency said it was now consulting with other government departments about the best way to carry out the research project.

It said that the results of the research would be published on its website and submitted to peer-reviewed journals.

Wi-fi networks have been in the news because some teachers have expressed worries about its effect on the health of pupils.

In August 2007 the Professional Association of Teachers said pupils were being used as "guinea pigs" until the safety of wi-fi was established.

The government has said its expert advice was that there was no problem with wi-fi, nor any reason to discourage its use."

So the overall awnser is no but what about phones? can they hurt you? give you cancer?...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7042334.stm

Projector in a phone... say what?

welcome to the world of picop where you can beam full color hi-res images with your phone. you know that little camera on it? well imagine that as a little projector. very cool but the earliest release date is some time 2008 and the first phone to have it is nextel. when i found this i thought that it was a great idea that could be the next best thing... to see more go to http://www.microvision.com/pico_projector_displays/embedded.html