2016-04-21 (Thursday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

What do you if you live far from the city, it is in the middle of the night, the only jar of baby food fell to the floor and got crushed, the only grocery store is of course closed, but your baby is still crying because s/he is hungry?

The Icelander Robert Ilijason, who lives in a village called Viken, in the county of Skåne in the South of Sweden, met with exactly that situation. His solution was to set up a new type of convenience store, a totally unmanned store, open 24/7. The registered customers download an app to their smartphone, which gives them access to entering the store anytime. They pick up a product,  use their phone to scan its label and register the purchase. Once a month, they receive an invoice to pay. And the store owner cannot complain, so far nothing has disappeared from his shelves uncounted. Video monitoring guarantees that fact.

The store has created a lot of interest from all over the world, quite understandably so. Reference #1 below, in Swedish, from Radio Sweden, interviews the owner and gives more details. An article in English can also be found in reference #2 below.

autostore

Robert Ilijason in his unmanned convenience store. Photo by Linnea Edin/Sveriges Radio

Finally, my around-the-globe-trip is close to coming to an end. After the 37-hour day before, it was good to lay over in Montreal. And even though the weather was rainy, I did not mind, because as you know, Montreal has a famous huge underground city with shops and food places. Nearby is also the McCord museum, which showed handicraft and traditional Canadian interests. See also references # 3 and 4, as well as the photos, below.

20AD

Photos I took in Montreal on 2005-04-20. In the upper row are external and internal views of the underground city, and in the lower row are shown two favorite Canadian pastimes, ice hockey and hunting, from the McCord museum.

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: Sveriges första obemannade matbutik

2: Sweden opens unmanned 24-hour convenience store

3: Underground City, Montreal

4: McCord Museum

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2016-04-19 (Tuesday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

There is a classical truce of 100 days given to a new government, administration or similar to be able to get into its role. In the same way, today I communicate that this is my 100th blog post since I started writing daily posts on 2016-01-09. Had I not suffered an accident on 2016-02-22, that day would have been last Sunday instead.

I would like to thank all my faithful readers for your support, suggestions and encouragement, sure that there is a public interested in knowing about my findings in this ever so complicated world. At the same time, I must admit that the blog posting is sometimes taking too much of my available time, so I have decided to continue in a somewhat reduced format. The content will continue the same, but I cannot promise a new post every single day. Depending upon availability and what happens in the world, I expect to publish 2 or 3 posts per week. Thank you very much for your understanding!

Dateline

A photo of the inflight monitor showing the moment when we crossed the International Date Line. Sorry about the resolution, unfortunately the screens in 2005 were at most of VGA quality.

Continuing my around-the-globe-journey 11 years ago, today it is time to say Sayonara, Nippon ! And 2005-04-19 proved to be the longest day of my life so far, 37 hours from midnight in Tokyo till the next midnight in Montreal, since the latter one was 13 hours behind the former. And of course, we crossed the International Date Line, as you can see in the photo above, and of which you can read more about in reference #1 below.

19AC

On my last day in Japan, 2005-04-19, I found yet another example of how densely populated the Japanese islands are. In order to permit that a person buys a car, s/he has to prove that there is already allocated parking space for the car. And what do you do if you need two cars? The solution is a private elevator in your parking space to administer two cars in one horizontal space! The other two photos show a double-decker bridge on the way to the airport and also a proof that Japan is not only the land of the rising sun, but also the setting sun. さよならにっぽん !

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: International Date Line

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2016-04-18 (Monday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

A few days ago, I heard an interesting story from the SR local radio station in Borås, named SR Sjuhärad. SP (The Swedish Technical Research Institute) in Borås, together with the University of Göteborg (Gothenburg) has developed a new type of paint, to be used in the hull of boats and maintain them clean from the plants that tend to propagate there. If the boat owner can keep the hull clean from Balanidae, then s/he can reduce friction during travel and save up to 20 % of fuel.

The traditional paint used today to keep those plants away contains copper, which contaminates the water. The revolutionary paint does not contain copper, but instead a chemical compound named Abamectin and is produced by bacteriae. The difference between the old and the new paint is that the latter one permits the plants to attach themselves to the hull and once there they are poisoned by the paint, die and eventually fall off the hull.

The new paint should be available commercially by a German company within three years. See references #1, 2 and 3 below for further details.

One week ago I talked about the technology podcast This Week in Tech, which then discussed a US draft for law that demanded that producers of any equipment or software containing encryption technology should also provide non-encrypted access, if any authority so requested. Yesterday’s program have further information in this polemical subject. And also, this program celebrates 11 years of regular, weekly podcasts by Leo Laporte and his team. Congratulations to all of you!

And speaking of 11 years ago, on 2005-04-18 I had a pleasant field day with my sister-in-law Sônia to the region around Japan’s sacred Mount Fuji, which we ended with a purchasing spree in the electronic district Akihabara downtown Tokyo. Below are some photos I took that day.

18AD

Out and about in the Tokyo vicinity, photos taken on 2005-04-18

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: SP i Borås bakom framtidens båtfärg

2: Havstulpaner

3: Balanidae

4: This Week in Tech 558 Rattlesnake in a Piñata

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2016-04-17 (Sunday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

In the Guizhou province in the Southwest of China, an impressive construction is underway. It is the Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST). This exact location was chosen because it is very well shielded from magnetic disruptions, the ground is both stable enough to hold the structure and porous enough to drain away water and protect the telescope.

When concluded later on in 2016, FAST will be the largest single-aperture radio telescope in the world, with a 500 meter diameter, 60 % larger than the current largest one, the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. It will be comprised of 4,500 triangular panels, which when combined with an active adjustable reflector, will enable scientists to observe a larger area of space in greater fidelity than any telescope before it. See also reference #1 below.

ST

The Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, currently under construction in Guizhou province, China. Photo credit: ChinaFotoPress / Getty Images

And today I also learned that within the next few months, Sweden will exhibit a topological map with a resolution 25 times greater than the current one. The older aerial photos will give way to a modern method where an airplane flying on an altitude of 2 km beams a laser over a 1,5 km wide area, thus permitting a ground resolution of 2 m! Not bad, considering that Sweden has a total area of 450 000 km2. The new map has already revealed surprising archeological facts about the Swedish landscape that were unknown before. Reference #2 (in Swedish) gives more details.

And finally, why is everybody talking about “April in Paris”? I say “April in Tokyo”, with cherry trees in blossom like the one in the header photo. I had left Beijing a couple of hours earlier, but before that I had one of the biggest surprises ever in my life. While waiting for my flight to be called out, I visited the VIP lounge at the Beijing airport to check e-mails, and there I met a good old friend from the same small village where we both were born. He had been in China together with his wife to inaugurate a new production plant. Now I perfectly understand the meaning of the expression “It is a small world we live in!”

17AD

Arriving in Tokyo on Sunday afternoon 2005-04-17, my sister-in-law and her family brought me to see some interesting sights and take these photos. The ones in the top row are from the lush gardens of Edo Castle, and the ones in the lower row are also from downtown Tokyo, giving both a birds-eye view of the center and a street view of the Kabuki-za in the Ginza district. For more information, see references #3, 4 and 5 below.

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: An otherworldly visitor nests in rural China

2: Ny höjdmodell över Sverige

3: Edo Castle

4: Ginza

5: Kabuki-za

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2016-04-16 (Saturday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

It is getting easier to achieve good quality of an action video, when the photographer is holding the camera in his/her hands and records whatever is shown ahead. Engadget covers that subject in an article in reference #1 below.

The secret is to equip the camera with a device that compensates for the shaking motion. One such company with success in this area is FeiYu Tech that offers their stabilizers (so-called gimbals) to be attached to the camera. Have a look at the video in reference #2 below, which shows the amazing improvements. But very soon, we should be expecting to see such gimbals integrated into the cameras, such as in th case of Revl and others.

Continuing my trip to China, on Saturday 2005-04-16 I had the pleasure of reaching the highest peak, in all senses, of my trip, when visiting the Great Wall. The guide that had met me at the airport the day before had to transfer his duty to a friend, who normally worked in the Motorola office in Beijing. And she had to sweat to earn her day’s work. Look at the pictures below, the ascent on foot was very steep, but the perfect Spring Saturday made us challenge it with great pleasure. Besides the photos below, consult also references #3 and 4 below for further details.

16AG

Photos taken on 2005-04-16 in the area of the Juyong Pass, 50 km North of Beijing center. Climbing up to the top of the Great Wall took 1,5 hours, with frequent stops. Both my guide and I were of course very happy once we have arrived at the top. The descent, in which I counted 2 613 steps, took a mere 30 minutes. On our way back to the hotel, after a good lunch, we stopped at Changling, where the Ming dynasty tombs are located. The photo on the bottom left shows a stove used to burn commemorative inscriptions and sacred silk materials after sacrificial rites in the Ming dynasty.

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: The revolution in action cameras will now be stabilized

2: GoPro FeiYu G3 gimbal test

3: JuYongGuan

4: Ming tombs

+: What did you learn in school today ?

2016-04-15 (Friday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

One has to be totally certain about what a certain computer command will really do before typing it. If not, it is possible to end up with deleting deleting multiple web site, as you can see in reference #1 below.

On my business/tourism trip exactly 11 years ago, on 2005-04-15 I took a plane from Shanghai’s domestic airport to Beijing’s international airport. The compulsory guide picked me up and brought me downtown to the hotel. In sequence, I took the subway to the Tiananmen Square (aka the Square of the Heavenly Peace). After contemplating the size of the square for some minutes, I entered the Imperial Palace, aka the Forbidden City.

Below you can see some photos from my visit there. Some parts were being refurbished for the Olympic Games three years later, but that did not hinder me very much.

15AD

15EG

15HK

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: Man erases thousands of websites with a bad command

+: What did you learn in school today ?

2016-04-14 (Thursday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

As you know, the Summer Olympic Games are scheduled to be held in Rio de Janeiro in August this year. And in 2020, the host city will be Tokyo, the capital of Japan.

Thinking about facilities for all the expected tourists during the games, the Japanese authorities have developed an identification system based upon the person’s fingerprints, that is planned to be used when making payments, checking in at the hotel, etc. Trial will start already this month. See the figure below and reference #1 for further information.

Fingercurrency

A brief description of how the ‘Finger currency’ system is supposed to function.

On my last day in Shanghai, 2005-04-14, I spent some hours visting the Shanghai Museum, located in People’s square. Below are some photos from there.

14AD

Of the many fine collections of ancient Chinese art in the Shanghai museum, let me just appoint one here. In the upper right photo are shown the Bells of Marquis Su of Jin, from the ninth century BC. I have a sound recording of the bells. If I can find that file, I will update this post so that you may hear it. See also reference #2 below for information about this impressive museum.

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: Fingerprints to be tested as ‘currency’

2: Shanghai Museum

+: What did you learn in school today ?

2016-04-13 (Wednesday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

It seems that SHL (Swedish Hockey League) has yet another thing in common with big brother NHL (National Hockey League). Further to the similarity of the names, in today’s radio program about ice hockey from Radio Sweden, also called Istid (literally meaning ‘Ice time’), it was explained that there is also a rule in SHL regarding the nuance of the uniform used by the two opponents, which also smells very NHL. The rule requires that the home team use dark colored shirts and the away team use light colored ones. The classical team Leksand, which will return to SHL next season, pleaded to use their traditional white jerseys at home, but without success.  I apologize for any contrary information in my post of 2016-02-11.

SHL11&13

Two photos which prove the SHL rule of dark colored shirts at home and light colored ones away. The leftmost photo shows a happy Robert Rosén from Växjö Lakers after his team, playing at home, forced a seventh semi-final game against Skellefteå AIK on 2016-04-11, by scoring one second before the end of regulation! The rightmost photo shows players from Skellefteå AIK, in their home jerseys, celebrating the decisive goal during the sudden death over time, when playing at home today, 2016-04-13. The photos were taken by photographers from TT, Mikael Fritzon (left) and Robert Granström (right), respectively.

Finally, the photos below were taken exactly 11 years ago, showing typical means of transport in Shanghai then. I understand that now there are many more private cars in the streets, as well as many more options to travel by subway. In 2005, there were only 2 subway lines, but as a preparation for the 2010 World Exhibition, 15 more lines were built during those 5 years!

13AD

Photos I took on 2005-04-13 in Shanghai. Regarding the two bottom photos, taken in the subway, many other subway cars around the world have monitors inside them nowadays, but I think that signs like the ones on the bottom left should be used more frequently also elsewhere to avoid disgusting passenger behaviors.

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: Istid 13 april

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2016-04-12 (Tuesday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

On Sunday evenings or afterwards as a podcast, one of my favorite technology programs is Leo Laporte’s This Week in Tech. Among other things, this week’s edition discussed at length a draft of a US Congress bill to obligate any provider of encryption solutions to data communication to also offer means of decrypting it when summoned by the authorities. Scary stuff! Reference #1 below appoints to the TWiT show.

Reference #2 below discusses the same draft, and here is a citation of that article:

“Feinstein-Burr ‘encryption bill’

A draft of the long-awaited Feinstein-Burr ‘encryption bill’ surfaced late Thursday night and has law and tech experts reeling.

“To uphold both the rule of law and protect the interests and security of the United States, all persons receiving an authorized judicial order for information or data must provide, in a timely manner, responsive, intelligible information or data, or appropriate technical assistance to obtain such information or data,” the discussion draft states.

The draft of the “Compliance with Court Orders Act of 2016” essentially requires any device manufacturer, software manufacturer, electronic communication service, remote computing service providers, “or any person who provides a product or method to facilitate a communication or the processing or storage of data” to comply with court orders and hand over any plain-text communications the government demands.

Tom Mentzer, press secretary for Senator Diane Feinstein, D-CA, who is heading the bill alongside Senator Richard Burr, R-N.C., shared their joint statement to Digital Trends: “We’re still working on finalizing a discussion draft and as a result can’t comment on language in specific versions of the bill,” according to the statement. “However, the underlying goal is simple: when there’s a court order to render technical assistance to law enforcement or provide decrypted information, that court order is carried out. No individual or company is above the law. We’re still in the process of soliciting input from stakeholders and hope to have final language ready soon.” But Mentzer also said “nothing has been released by the committee,” meaning the discussion draft will likely be revised greatly before it becomes a bill.”

10EH

Photos taken during my afternoon visit to the Yuyuan garden on 2005-04-10

Continuing my pleasant Sunday sightseeing in Shanghai, that I wrote about yesterday, above are four photos from the impressive Yuyuan garden. Reference #3 below has a complete description of the garden.

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: This Week in Tech 557 – A trainwreck of Brobdingnagian proportions

2: Feinstein-Burr ‘encryption bill’

3: Yuyuan garden

+: What did you learn in school today ?

2016-04-11 (Monday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

This morning, I read an interesting article in Folha de S. Paulo. After all the problems we have had with the viruses transmitted by the mosquito Aedes Aegypti (Zika, dengue, Chikunbunya, yellow fever), now there is an epidemic spread of the swine flu, H1N1. Therefore, let us hope that the contents of this article may result in a big relief in a not too distant future.

The interesting subject is about developing a universal anti-flu vaccine. There are at least 31 candidates being tested, most of them still in the pre-clinical phase, i.e. before being tested in human beings. Read more in reference #1 below, a article in Portuguese. A article about the study done so far was recently published in the “Vaccine” magazine, at the end of March, 2016.

The header photo shows the TV-tower Pearl of the Orient in Shanghai, on a photo I took on 2005-04-10. Below are more photos from the same interesting Sunday sightseeing in Shanghai. Tomorrow, there will be more.

10AD

Photos taken on a beautiful spring Sunday off and on the Huangpu river in Shanghai, 2005-04-10. These photos show both the old buildings on the Bund and the modern ones on the opposite bank of the river.

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: Pesquisadores fazem corrida em busca de vacina universal contra a gripe

+: What did you learn in school today ?