New Electricity

Experts from Yale University are saying that it could be possible to start using ideas from the eel. They say that if eels can produce up to 500 volts of electricity to stun there victims then why cant we. These experts have been researching the biology of the eel to figure out how exactly the eel can produce this much voltage. They found out that in the blood they pump out positivly charged vitamins through there system and leave a mass of negativly charged cells. When they open up certain blood ways there is a rush of electrons causing high numbers of voltage.
From this they say that the fuel used to drive the pumps that you can put in is sugar. They said that they could power up a remote which uses about 1.5 volts with the invented pump and some sugar now. The scientists on thsi project say that they want to eventually move to photosynthisis so it will knock out the middle man so to speak. Which means the cells will produce there own sugars by the sun and not having to feed them.
So to think about this in possibly simplier terms. You could have a car that runs on cells that could be the same cells inside your body if you had the right process and sugars flowing through them.

New Type of Microchip

For those of you who couldn’t tell, my last blog about Circuit City was not something I would say I am “proud of.” I wrote it because it fit the topic, and it might be interesting to some people out there, but I doubt the majority cared.
My new topic is quite different. It is something that everyone will be able to use, and if it goes as planned, can revolutionize the medical world as we know it. The basis of this revolution is a small “microchip” that goes under your skin, and monitors your health. If something goes wrong, it knows that it needs to release medicine into the bloodstream.
This chip, about the size of a dime, will help the medical world take a much more personal step into our lives. With it, we do not have to go to the doctor for checkups nearly as routinely. If we have something that fixes the problem when it occurs, what’s the point in going to a doctor?
Imagine if you have diabetes, you can see that if you are having a lack of sugar, you will naturally have blood and kidney problems. But, with this chip, the body is constantly watched and taken care of when it is in trouble. The body will release the medicine necessary to combat against the problem, and thus will help prolong life.
Testing for the MicroChip will begin next year, and the hope is that soon enough, the chip will be able to realize and correct more severe problems within the body, including degeneration of organs, or the body’s systems over all. It will also be able to release more and more doses of drugs and vaccines, and this will help remove some of the stress of people having to take several medicines throughout the day. If they do not have to worry about taking it, less stress will be evident.
This is definitely a cool thing.

Closing?

After doing my usual boring research for something for the class to read, I came upon something that will not necessarily aid you from a technological standpoint, but from a consumer standpoint. What am I talking about? Lucky for you, I wasted my own precious time, once again, to aid you. I have recently found that Circuit City, the second largest electronics retail store, is facing two difficult options Option 1, is declaring bankruptcy. This could be devastating to the college student, seeing as how I’m sure some of you shop at Circuit City for your electronic needs, I feel it is quite important for you to know how your future shopping endeavors could turn out. If the store declares bankruptcy, I expect they will just be bought out by Best Buy, or another large conglomerate similar to Best Buy.
Option 2, is more cost effective for Circuit City, but for employees, and some consumers, it will be bad news. The second option is to close down 150 stores, saving the store around $350 million total. But, that is $350 million of actual people’s money. So basically, if they cut the stores, they lose millions of customers, and thus risk more down the road by not going through the easy route.
Personally, I feel like they should just take the potential buyout. I feel this, because if they do, then they save all the people’s jobs, and the company still makes money. The only difference would be that part of the profit will go to whoever buys them out, rather than the store itself.
Quite the dilemma, in my opinion, but I sincerely doubt the CEO of Circuit City is too worried about it. He is going to be quite comfortable with whatever package he is offered to step down as owner of the large franchise.
I wrote this merely so all of you college students out there can use it to your benefit, and maybe take advantage of some of the huge electronics sales that could potentially happen, very soon.

Text Safe Or Get A Ticket

A recent survey was done on this nation due to a crazy notion that a train engineer was texting. He crashed with some cars and caused 25 deaths. The great question here is why the hell was he sending and receiving text messages?

It seems that people all around the United States still send and receive text in just about any situation no mater the risk. According to that survey released Tuesday it showed that 77% of people have used a such device while driving a moving car. 

If you want to know of the crazier situations 41% of people said they have used a mobile e-mail device wile skiing, on horseback or riding a bike. For some future numbers it is said that the proportion of the corporate work force using company-supplied mobile devices will grow to nearly 40% by 2010 from just under 25% now. People say that in this economic crisis workers may feel more squeezed and under pressure to use their mobile devices even more. They say the reason for this is as people get laid off. The workers still employed have to do more forcing them to do more outside the office.

This is a strong message to anyone out there even if you don't work. Please don't text while you are doing something else. The point of texting is so that doesn't happen. I think it will be ok if you take the extra 2 min to get where ever your going. Then you can focus on that precious phone of yours again. 

Beep .... Beep .... Beep ................ BEEP!

How many of you know someone who annoys the crap out of you? It may be the way they talk or how loud they play their music. But in any case it makes you want to wrap your hands around their throat and strangle them to death. That however would be illegal and you probably would be sent to the big house, so how about something more conventional like
The ThinkGeek Annoy-a-tron.

The Annoy-a-tron does exactly what it was named for, it annoys. It is not much bigger than a quarter but packs a loud obnoxious beep. The Annoy-a-tron comes with a magnet on it so you can easily hide it when you are ready to get your revenge. The gadget is programmed to give off a beep every couple of minutes. This would seem to be really easy to find then because you could just time it and listen to where it is located but you cannot. It is programmed to change the interval in which it goes off after each beep. That means that it could go off then go off again in two minutes and then not go off for another four minutes. No one would be able to listen to help pin point the location of the device because they would know when it was to go off next. You can also adjust the volume of the beep, the load the more annoying it is to your victim.

Let me paint a picture of this sinister device in action. You go over to your roommate’s desk and place the Annoy-a-tron on the bottom of the table top. You chose the frequency, which is also the volume of the beep, and turn it on. They come back and sit down to start doing their homework. Within a few minutes you hear a beep. Your roommate looks around and asks you if you heard anything. You say no and let the fun continue. A couple of minutes later another beep. After about an hour of beeping, your roommate flips out and says he cannot take it anymore. He gathers his stuff and walks out while you celebrate your victory.

This gadget would be a great deal of fun but be careful you never know when it might be you hearing the ongoing BEEP.

The Wrong CD!

When I look around my room do you know what I see? Actually you probably do not, so I will just tell you. I see CDs and DVDs everywhere; some have no covers to protect them and there is no order to them. I can guarantee that if you look around your room you can see the same thing. Now for those of you who get everything online and do not have any CDs or DVDs, I am sorry. I like to keep it old school and have everything on CDs to help take up space in my giant room. Now back to the problem that the majority of people have, CDs and DVDs everywhere with nowhere to put them. I have discovered the solution to our problem and it is called the USB Storage Carousel for CD/DVDs.

This nifty device will end my struggle whenever I try to find the right CD and it will also organize my collection for me. The Carousel can hold any type of CD, DVD, game CD, or music CD. It can hold every type as long as it does not have a diameter longer than 12cm. 12cm is the basic CD and DVD size so you do not have to worry. The Carousel can hold up to 150 CDs and DVDs inside its chamber. Now if you have more than 150 CDs do not worry because a Carousel can stack on top of another one. So you can have two or three Carousels sitting on top of each other and have them all working together. There is a neat component of the Carousel and is that the Carousel can be plug into your computer through a USB port. Ok, before you think that it can play any of the CDs or DVDs that it holds it cannot, but it does allow you to look at each and every one. The software that comes with the Carousel allows you to organize the CDs and DVDs the way you want. If you are a gamer like me, you can make a section for games and keep them away from your music so you do not accidently put the wrong CD in your game console and screw it up. Yes it can happen; I have done it before and cried as my Backstreet Boys CD was murdered. The software allows you to go through your collection and choose the CD/DVD of your chose and them it sends a message to the Carousel to spin around and eject that CD for you. The Carousel also does a good job of keeping your CDs and DVDs in mint condition by leaving spaces in between each one to stop scratching and cracking.

Now do not fret if you do not have a computer because the Carousel can also operate on its own without computer software. On the front of the Carousel there is a key pad so you can type in a number and the device will turn to that slot. So if you want to listen to “Who Let The Dogs Out?” all you have to do is type in the number slot for the Baha Men CD and it will pop out for you. Sense you are not using the software for the Carousel; you will not be able to organize your collection as easily. But the creators of this device thought of this and made a form for you to index your CDs and DVDs, so you can keep your stuff categorized the way you want it.

I really am looking into purchasing a USB Storage Carousel to help me keep my music and games organized. I suggest you do the same so that no longer will you have to put a CD in and realize that it is actually Britney Spears singing to you instead of the voices of the Backstreet Boys.

Blu-Ray????

Sometimes, even the technology blog cannot answer a question. I found this out, when a friend of mine simply asked, "whatever happened to blu-ray discs? Weren't they supposed to be the next evolution from the DVD?" This got me thinking, and I realized that he was right, A few years ago when blu-ray was supposed to be huge, everyone was excited and could not wait for the disc to come out. Now, I own more DVD's than I did a few years ago. If blu-ray was supposed to be great, why don't I buy more of those?

First off, blu- ray discs are basically the same as a DVD or a CD. They are the same size, but they hold more information. Without getting into too much optical physics, the best way to explain this, is to say that the blu ray discs use a different type of frequency to read the disc, and because of this new way, you can store substantially more.

Now, back to the actual disappearance. Many of my friends don't have blu ray discs either, and I don't have a real reason to explain it. In my opinion, people were happy with the DVD, and didn't see a reason to go out and buy a new set of their favorite movies, when they already have them. I completely agree with this. I don't want to go out and buy a new copy of Jurassic Park (my favorite movie, for your information) just because somebody came out with a new storage system.

The people that make new types of storage need to leave the system that works alone. DVD's revolutionized the world, and everyone seems to be quite content with them. Keeping this system for another ten years is what we need. Then, it might be a good idea to institute the blu-ray, or whatever other type of video device we have