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

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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

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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

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2016-04-13 (Wednesday)

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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

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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

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2016-04-10 (Sunday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

Every Sunday morning, Radio Sweden’s domestic channel P1 transmits a 2-hour news program named “Godmorgon, världen!”, which means ‘Good morning, world!’. It is supposed to be a radio alternative to the Sunday newspaper, and as such discusses hot issues from the preceding week, mixed with satire and chronicles. The big political discussion was an analysis which impact the Panama papers may have on the world in the short term. But what I remember most from today’s program was a chronicle by the Swedish journalist and author Göran Rosenberg, who declared his worries about what is happening to the majestic ash tree, formal name fraxinus excelsior, that he sees is slowly being deprived of its beauty, due to plagues.

Here is a translation into English of an excerpt from the chronicle: “The ash tree is not only a big tree in the cultural landscape, it is also a big tree in the cultural history. Yggdrasil, the world tree, which according to Nordic mythology carried the cosmos in its branches and from which Oden [the main god] created the first human being, was an ash tree. Only that fact alone tells us how long the ash tree has been together with us.”

The complete text, in Swedish, can be found in reference #1 below. The Wikipedia article in reference #2 below give more facts about fraxinus excelsior.

AskarVinter

Fraxinus excelsior in winter in the Swedish village Gammelbo. Male in front, female behind. Please observe that the female tree is smaller than its male companion, in spite of having been planted at the same time.

Exactly 11 years ago, I had the pleasure of circling the globe. My company, which previously had dealt with electronic production machines from the Western hemisphere, had decided to find new partners in Asia. So, therefore, I left São Paulo for a quick visit to my father in Sweden, before I boarded the SAS Airbus 343 in Copenhagen on 2005-04-08. The trip from Copenhagen to Pudong airport in Shanghai, China took some 10 hours, the business class cabin was wide and comfortable. In the chair to the the right was a German man, who was going for business in the chemical industry in Shanghai. But what I remember most from this leg was the in-flight WiFi provided aboard. 1,5 months before, I had joined Skype, and now I could call friends and family while looking down on the Siberian tundra, an interesting sensation.

When we arrived at immigration, for which I had a obtained a fresh visa in my passport and received a shot against yellow fever, they did not even look at those documents. No guide of mine was to be found, so the German man’s business contact dropped me off at my hotel hotel downtown Shanghai. After a relaxing nap, I went out in the afternoon and walked around the streets to feel the city. Since Saturday night was approaching, the streets got filled with people enjoying their weekend. See below some photos I took on Saturday, tomorrow I will show some more from the following day.

09AD

Out and about in Shanghai, photos taken on 2005-04-09.

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: Det döende askträdet – ett järtecken i tiden

2: Fraxinus excelsior

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2016-04-09 (Saturday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

Today marks exactly three months since I wrote my first blog post. It has been a very interesting period, I have tried to vary the subjects and also the languages used. And I must sincerely thank all my faithful readers for comments and suggestions.

Although my interests lie mainly in technology, I have found that the subject that attracts everyone is food. So today, I will give you two new pieces of information relative to food, which I believe that most people did not know.

It all started yesterday night, when I received the latest edition of the podcast KCRW Good food from Los Angeles, always so fascinating with the always so enthusiastic Evan Kleiman. One of the topics in this program was about childrens’ food habits. “The Flavor Window” is the period between four and sevens month of ages, when human beings are more receptive to new flavors than they will ever be, so if there is something in particular you believe your child should learn to like, that is the time! (In a similar way, if you want a person to learn a foreign language and pronounce it well, it must start before the child is in the five to six-year age, because until then the vocal chords are still flexible enough to learn how to pronounce almost any sound.) “Good food” can be heard through the link in reference #1 below.

A popular sauce in adults food is the Italian pesto sauce. Today’s edition of From our own correspondents, BBC’s traditional program with chronics from abroad, among our things, talks about how to make an original pesto sauce, and who knows, maybe participate in the World Championships in pesto sauce making, held right now in Genova. More details in reference #2 below.

pesto

One suggestion about ingredients to make a pesto genovese sauce. Which are the ingredients? Look in http://2nuts4spices.com/receita-de-pesto-genovese/

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: Food & Family

2: The Babylon Brigade

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2016-04-08 (Friday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

Music has fascinated people in all times. I remember that when I was in elementary school, we practiced to sing the traditional songs for the major holidays as a choir. And although I have never had any good voice to sing, I thought that the experience of singing in a choir was quite thrilling.

Yesterday, I heard yet another podcast from Scientific American, which informed that a cancer center in the U.K. found that patients had significantly lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol after harmonizing for an hour. For more information, consult reference #1 below.

And then I also remembered news about how people singing in a choir entered into a state of synchronization even of their heartbeats. See more about that study from 2013 in references #2 and 3 below.

From there to the fantastic Swedish film “Så som i himmelen”, in English ‘As it is in heaven’, which competed for an Oscar in 2004, the connection was obvious. If you have seen it, you do not know what you are missing! See also reference #4 below.

And yet another film on the same theme is from 2012, ‘Song for Marion’, in which a cranky old man finally joins his dying wife in the joys of singing (reference #5 below).

körsång

Posters from today’s featured films about the excitement of choir singing

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: Choir Practice Could Lower Stress in Cancer Patients

2: Choir singers ‘synchronise their heartbeats’

3: Music structure determines heart rate variability of singers

4: As it is in heaven

5: Song for Marion

+: What did you learn in school today ?

2016-04-07 (Thursday)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned that:

The news we received earlier this week that the digital communications application WhatsApp has finally received end-to-end encryption of all messages sent is definitely a welcomed one. That way, one can start to use it also in areas where we would not dare using it before. But do not think that now you can relax your own security measures. Reference #1 gives a good explanation about the whole situation now.

WAduo

The co-founders of WhatsApp, Brian Acton and Jan Koum, in the company HQ in Mountain View, CA, USA, in May 2013, the year before they were bought by Facebook for US$ 19 billion. Photo by Peter da Silva / The New York Times

But did you ever wonder how a company can produce an application used by one billion users and suffer from low indices of downtime? Which is the underlying structure, e.g. which programming language was used to permit the creation of a such a largely scalable system and permit it to be used in real time? The answer is that the creators of WhatsApp got inspired by Erlang, a programming language originally created in the 1990’s by the Ericsson engineer Joe Armstrong to be used as a base for the data switching version of their flagship central office AXE system, named AXD 301. In 1998, Erlang was released as an Open Project. Reference #2 below can fill in all the blanks in that story.

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: WhatsApp Encryption A Good Start, But Far From a Security Cure-all

2: Inside Erlang, The Rare Programming Language Behind WhatsApp’s Success

+: What did you learn in school today ?