Deviriginizing my imate PDA

To all engineers matter in this vast universe can be analyzed, categorized and placed into one of these categories:

1. things that need to be fixed
2. things that will need to be fixed after you've had a few minutes to play with them.

My iMate Pocket PC Phone Edition fell into the second category this morning, I woke up and decided to listen to our latest jam. Tired, looking & acting like a zombie I ended up hooking the wrong earphones into it, and they broke inside, leaving me with a phone I couldn't make or receive calls on (as it was under the impression it still had the earphones stuck inside) Unable to send it off to a repair shop, as I had purchased it from Dubai and wasn't willing to mail it and wait a week for it to be returned. I decided to fix it myself. You wouldn't believe just how hard it is to crack open the case, it took approximately 25 minutes to do so. First off, You will need to backup of your device as the backup battery might deplete during the course of this.. then you will need to take off the back cover and remove the battery. Underneath it you will see 4 slot small screws, and 2 TROX screws (6-point star shaped pattern), one of which is concealed under the void sticker (removing this screw will void your warrantee), then you gently have to remove the black back cover (near the camera) by gently pulling it and pushing it outwards toward the SD slot, underneath you will find the built in antenna, which is mounted by another set of TROX screws. After unscrewing those two, you will need to gently separate the back and front part of the case.

The fixing part didn't take a very long time about 4 minutes as I had to sharpen one of my screw drivers to fit in the small opening between the ends of the soldered jack. Having done so I realized how similar this is to having sex with a virgin, you have to take it slow and be ever so delicate, it might take sometime; but it’ll be fairly easier the next time, and she/it will never be the same.

Kilogram: Out of fashion?

The Kilogram (as with the meter*), the basic unit of mass in the SI system, equal to 1000 grams or 2.2046 lbs is moving towards a new definition based on a universal constant. The intention of the scientists working on this is to switch the kilogram from being defined by a physical model to a constant. A paper released on Monday proposes redefining the unit via fixing the values of one of two well-known universal constants. Avogadro’s Constant Matter is made of molecules, which are the smallest division that share all the chemical properties of the bulk material. Those molecules are made of atoms that are comprised of protons and neutrons. To a very good approximation, protons and neutrons have the same mass which is one AMU (Atomic Mass Unit). Since atoms and molecules are built from these protons and netrons, their masses are expediently measured in these units. Simply put Avogadro’s number is nothing more than a conversion factor between AMUs and grams. Planck Constant Planck constant on the other hand states the mathematical relationship between the frequency of an electromagnetic wave and the energy in that wave, and is often used to explain the sizes of quanta, which are tiny electromagnetic packets. Planck is represented by the letter h and has a value of 6.63 × 10^−34 J-sec. The combination h/2π, denoted by h (called “h-bar”), occurs frequently. So what’s wrong with our current model? In 1889, a cylinder of a platinum-iridium alloy was declared the international standard of measurement for the kilogram. It's kept at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures in France, and several copies were distributed around the world. It's unclear if the principal cylinder's mass is increasing or decreasing, scientists said, because it is the object used to measure others. Still, this poses a concern. Another worry is the possibility of the main model's destruction, come a natural disaster So the idea is to have some kind of definition to be able to construct the kilogram just given this information, without an object. Interesting. You can read more about it http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/Met --------------------------------- * Back in the days when the meter was a pair of lines on a bar kept in a box in Paris, the speed of light was a number that was measured. When it became clear that our distance standard (the physical bar) was limiting the precision with which we could measure the speed of light, we changed the standards to something more precise and repeatable than the use of this physical artifact. The first change was to specify a certain number of wavelengths of a particular transition frequency, but this defintion was found wanting. So eventually the meter was defined in terms of the speed of light, because that allowed for the most precise and repeatable definition of the meter.

Gates of New York

So pretty much everyone has heard my exuberant ranting and raving about "The Gates" since I first learned of it a couple of months ago. Although I didn't get the chance to see it up close and personal, I can only imagine how much of a breathtaking experience it has been seeing the thousands of orange curtains flowing in my favorite place in the preeminent metropolis (and my favorite city). You can tell how much of a profound effect it had on people by simply looking up "The Gates" on Flickr Today we'll finally witness the plug being pulled off the project, I thought I'd commemorate the magnificent work of art by posting a picture. I look forward to seeing Christo's and Jean-Claude's next project "The Arkansas River Project", perhaps personally this time.

Little Green Men.. Life On Mars?

It’s been a little over a decade since I came across the scientific TV blockbuster “Cosmos” and its human star Carl Sagan; whose enthusiasm for the universe and engaging screen presence awakened the astronomer in me. Ever since I’ve been fascinated by the vastness & wonder of space, the future of space travel and the possibility of extraterrestrial life forms. It’s been a very long time since I first saw Mars as a little red dot on my humble telescope. The intensive scrutiny of the red planet and the vast assortment of spacecrafts currently exploring it was an idea far fetched for me back then. Needless to say that with orbiters scanning the Martian landscape and the Spirit and Opportunity rovers have assembled what might be described as a MASSIVE FLOOD OF SCIENTIFIC DATA. The discovery of jarosite and other mineral salts on a rocky outcropping by one of NASA’s rovers “Opportunity”, and the evidence of large blocks of water ice just beneath the Martian surface by a European space probe contributed to a recent joint statement by Carol Stoker and Larry Lemke of the NASA Ames Research Center claiming they have found strong evidence that life may exist today on the red planet, hidden away in caves and sustained by pockets of water. Although their findings lacks direct proof of life on Mars, the methane signatures and signs of possible biological activity similar to those recently discovered in caves near Rio Tinto River (Called so because of its reddish tint, the product of iron being dissolved in its highly acidic water), can only make you wonder if life does exist over there. In response, NASA issued a statement calling the reports incorrect: “NASA does not have any observational data from any current Mars missions that supports this claim. The work by the scientists mentioned in the reports cannot be used to directly infer anything about life on Mars, but may help formulate the strategy for how to search for martian life. Their research concerns extreme environments on Earth as analogs of possible environments on Mars. No research paper has been submitted by them to any scientific journal asserting martian life.” Makes you wonder, ey? If life exists elsewhere it would most probably obliterate the GOD theory, GOD didn’t mention making aliens did he or she for that matter? I look forward to reading the Rio Tinto research, and its implications for present life on Mars.

So Bloody Tired

I'm tired. No, no, no wait I'm exhausted. For almost a decade I've been blaming it on poor blood circulation, bad diet, lack of vitamins, pollution, global warming, and a about a dozen other maladies that make you question the significance of living. Looking at the Department of Statistics website earlier on today; I found it isn't any of that at all. I'm exhausted because I'm overworked; let me demonstrate. If the population of this country is 6 million, and half a million are retired. That leaves 5.5 million, there are 2.5 million in school, that leaves 3 million out of which 1 million are unemployed, and another 1 million are employed by the government and/or army, 534,998 work in farming/county councils, 400,000 working abroad, 45,000 in hospitals, 20,000 in prison, which leaves just TWO people to do the work. YOU and me!! And you're sitting on your bloody arse reading this! It's no wonder I'm so bloody tired.