Directory —
Technology —
Blog Details for "techRivet"
techRivet techRivet techRivet is all about the balance, keeping tech topics in balance and the readers off-balance. The rivet will range from SEO, to NASA, to wetware. You'll get the variety you crave! Articles
The Russian Shuttle Superior to the NASA Space Shuttle!
2008-04-04 23:58:00 Those pesky Soviets...er Russian s and there socialist propoganda...er democratic...er dictatorial...er whatever they've got for a government and its pesky propoganda. The Buran shuttle itself, otherwise, is quite similar to the U.S shuttle, it is, however, more advanced in the sense that unlike the U.S shuttle it can be piloted unmanned solely by computer, completing even complex two week missions with no-one on board. To summarise... Buran-Energia was in many ways an improvement on the US Shuttle system, with a much more flexible design, even if sadly, it is not the system that is currently in operation. The U.S. Shuttle System Vs. Russia's Buran-Energia heh. eh... Wait. I got lost there somewhere. Doesn't something have to actually DO something before it can be declared better? I mean we are up to Shuttle Mission STS-124. That should count for something don't you think. Throw me a bone here people. There are some awesome pi... More About: Space , Nasa , Space Shuttle
Everything you wanted to know about the Space Shuttle but were too afraid t
2008-04-04 05:29:00 So I found this link out there on the fabulous intertubes. Teh r0><or (that's translated into "the roxor", [that translates one layer further into "That Rocks!"]). But I digress...where was I again? Oh yeah space shuttle. Well being the proud owner of a 3rd grader and a 1st grader the first section of the document regarding the Space Shuttle that I drilled into was the how-do-they-go-to-the-bathroom section: http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/techn ology/sts-newsref/sts-eclss-wcl.html#sts- eclss-wcs You're welcome. You can go over the rest of the document here: http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/techn ology/sts-newsref/ heh: Ironically named software platform upon which to build your Shuttle OS - The software programs are written in HAL/S (high-order assembly language/shuttle) especially developed for real-time space flight applications. More About: Space Shuttle , Wanted
Spaceship II: under construction.
2008-03-27 20:54:00 This is fascinating. We have a private Space Race fully underway. Several companies pursuing several different strategies. A couple, like Virgin Galactic, are promoting space tourism with a sub-orbital flight. SpaceX is looking to create ISS capable rockets. Bigelow is looking create space hotels. Heinlein would love it right now. Anyways check out the pictures of the construction of SpaceShip Two. http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a ir_space/4256017.html More About: Construction , Under Construction
Burning hole of FIRE!
2008-03-26 23:29:00 So if you are the Soviet Union back in 1971 and oh let's say you are out exploring for natural gas and umm...one of your exploration rigs happens to fall into a sinkhole...that'd be bad right? Now let's say that all of a sudden natural gas starts coming out of this hole, what do you do? Devise some clever way of stopping the flow of natural gas and perchance capture it for using to create energy? Scramble and backfill the hole as best you can to "cap" the problem and then re-assess how you can access this seemingly rich natural gas deposit. Light it and watch it BUUURRRRRN! You guessed it! Soviet ingenuity stretched as far as a match and the natural gas hole has been burning for 40 years... > > Awesome! Communism at work. Second world creation, third world sustained engineering. Update: This comment from techRivet's #1 fan. This must be a the cause of Global Warming! We can blame the ice [not] melting at the south pole on the Soviet Union... More About: Fire , Burning , Hole
How fast is the Bugatti Veyron? Not fast enough to outrun a Eurofighter.
2008-03-26 01:43:00 I saw this episode on Top Gear (which is an awesome show BTW) wherein they raced a Bugatti Veyron against a Euro-fighter. The fighter jet had to go 1 mile vertical and back and the Bugatti had to go 1 mile horizontal and back. Well here is a home video of the event. Pretty cool. Oh alright, here's the original: > > More About: Bugatti Veyron , Fast , Eurofighter
The Clarke Event: Largest Explosion in the Universe.
2008-03-25 21:17:00 On March 19th of 2008, Arthur C. Clarke passed away. Earlier in that day [Earth time] there was an event, an explosion the likes of which has never been witnessed in human history. A powerful stellar explosion detected March 19 by NASA's Swift satellite has shattered the record for the most distant object that could be seen with the naked eye. NASA Satellite Detects Naked-Eye Explosion Halfway Across Universe It was a gamma ray burst of such magnitude that it was visible to the naked eye from across half the universe. Later that evening, the Very Large Telescope in Chile and the Hobby-Eberly Telescope in Texas measured the burst's redshift at 0.94. A redshift is a measure of the distance to an object. A redshift of 0.94 translates into a distance of 7.5 billion light years, meaning the explosion took place 7.5 billion years ago For those following along at home, that is CRAAAZY far away. Well this is all mind-boggling, but now there is an effort to get th... More About: Event , The Universe
The Joules of the Universe.
2008-03-25 00:05:00 This is a great chart showing the different energy transfers that occur in the universe. From the smallest wiggle of a photon to all the energy expended since ever in the whole Universe ... http://www.circlon-theory.com/HTML/joules .html Some notable items on the chart: 2.6845 * 106 - One horsepower per hour 1013 - Titanic fall to the bottom 1048 - yearly output of the Milky Way More About: The Universe
Guest Post R2D2: As an officianado of the Ballet, I resent techRivet's ban
2008-03-22 21:46:00 I, one R2D2 esquire, do hereby revolt against the unfair censorship of my free speech. I refuse to kowtow to the dictatorial, uncivilized editorial board here at techRivet.com and bring to you one of the most extraordinary ballet performances you will ever see. If I could cry I would. I guess I will let out a few plaintive Beep-beeps followed by a mournful woooop. The Great Chinese State Circus Performs Swan Lake. It gets frankly astonishing at about the 4:30 mark. And even before then it is unbelievable. More About: Post , Ballet , Guest , Resent
Colors Name Explorer.
2008-03-22 04:09:00 The folks over at Dolores Blog have put together a dataset of Wisdom-of-Crowd named colors. Essentially asking what the people out on the intertubes would name each color. They have also create a tool into which you can enter a descriptive word and which then returns the colors that are correspondingly titled. Kinda neat. Try It! ...umm that's it, if you were looking for more...well... ooooooh look kittens: More About: Colors , Explorer
Hubble Discovers 67 more "lensed" galaxies.
2008-03-20 05:33:00 We gotta keep this telescope operational: Hubble discovers 67 new gravitationally lensed galaxies What is gravitational lensing? Gravitational lensing occurs when light travelling toward us from a distant galaxy is magnified and distorted as it encounters a massive object between the galaxy and us. These gravitational lenses often allow astronomers to peer much farther back into the early universe than they would normally be able to do. Here is a cool video of an Einstein Ring. An Einstein ring is a complete circle image of a background galaxy, which is formed when the background galaxy, a massive, foreground galaxy, and the Hubble Space Telescope are all aligned perfectly. Therein creating a complete circle lense effect. > > So pretty pictures are nice, but what impact do these discoveries have on astro-physics? Well read on dear surfer, read on. ...they can be used to create a census of galaxy masses in the universe to test the predictions of cosmological mo... More About: Galaxies
Observation test...you will fail.
2008-03-20 00:52:00 We did this in a marketing class for my MBA last fall. It is pretty neat. I can tell you that you will fail and you can do nothing about it. We'll talk about it in the comments. > > More About: Test
Harvard Medical School - Slow cancer growth through starving the cancer cel
2008-03-19 04:14:00 As we relentlessly march into the future scientists continue to discover stuff about stuff. And you know what we don't forget the stuff we already knew about stuff. That is the law of accelerating change in a nutshell. Some of the stuff we learn about stuff we had to already know about some other stuff before we could figure out the new stuff about stuff. You follow? Now some fairly bright scientists at Harvard have come across a technique for "starving" cancer cells and thereby curbing their growth. When the researchers forced cancer cells to switch to the other form of pyruvate kinase in the lab by knocking out production of PKM2, the cells' growth was curbed. This is a novel technique that science had to first understand the process behind cancers explosive growth before the solution could even be looked for. This is not a treatment yet, but could open up new avenues to combat the disease[s]. More About: Medical , Cancer , School , Growth
Arthur C. Clarke - R.I.P.
2008-03-19 02:01:00 Author Arthur C. Clarke dies Another Grand Master of SF passes away. :( update: Arthur C. Clarke: requiescat intra astra Arthur C. Clarke died today, at age 90. He was the last of the Big Three ? Isaac Asimov, Clarke, and Robert Heinlein ? to pass away, and we shall not see their like again. Bruce Webster sums it up as good or better than I can.
Why are there no Englishmen in space?
2008-03-18 22:33:00 Because you just can't get a good cup of Earl Gray in orbit. </rimshot> Actually they voted in 1986 to not participate in human space missions. Sensible and boring...oh wait this is England so that makes sense. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/108 4/1 The article's lede is that Britain might be returning to the human spaceflight arena. But if you read through the whole article you will see it is merely an opinion piece without any basis in fact. Looking at a search on the subject, it appears people bemoan the current status of the lack of Englishmen in space every couple of years. Oh well, space free of Englishmen...I guess we'll all keep drinking our squeeze tubes of coffee. More About: Space
Off-Topic: Awesome, dare I say, Righteous skiing head-cam video.
2008-03-17 20:56:00 double-awesome! And totally sweet! > > More About: Video , Awesome , Topic , Head , Skiing
Online Video: 101 uses, 96.72 of them are useless, but those remaining 3.28
2008-03-16 02:13:00 Jose over at ThinkJose.com talks of a story of a friend of his, Louis. Louis happens to be deaf. Well Louis has found a grand use for online video as a communication tool for the deaf. Go check out the videos over at ThinkJose.com. Why video is changing the world More About: Video , Online Video , Online , Useless
What is going to drive BCI? Gaming!
2008-03-15 00:53:00 Mind-Reading Game Headset to Hit Market Brain computer interface is coming. And it's coming fast. There are several companies set to hit the market with products over the next couple of years: Emotiv and NeuroSky. Both of these products are focusing on the gaming market segment to begin with. There they have a ready customer, willing to spend money on accessories, looking for new gadgets and typically younger, typically male. If done correctly the experience gained from entering that market could lay the groundwork for many other segments: quadraplegics, fighter pilots, surgeons, artists, equipment operators, data/security experts. Eventually how about an everyday person in a wired world... More About: Gaming , Drive
Shuttle Launch STS-123: Cooler than a pool in summer.
2008-03-14 23:28:00 Turn it up. More About: Summer , Launch , Pool , Shuttle , Cooler
Speed Racer Trailer...could this actually maybe not suck??...I mean lookit
2008-03-13 23:16:00 > > They didn't shy away from the cartoon aspect, they embraced it. Went for it. and...well we'll have to see. More About: Trailer , Speed Racer , Speed , Suck , Racer
Real James Bond sub-car!
2008-03-13 21:15:00 Are you a fan of James Bond ? Yeah me too. Do you dig the scene "The Spy Who Loved Me", where bond and lovely agent "triple-x" take their lotus and drive it right off the dock into the water and it becomes a submersible? > > Yeah me too. (even when dubbed in Italian) Well Rinspeed has made a concept car submersible out of a Lotus Elise. > > More About: Real
Next Miracle of modern science...cure blindness.
2008-03-13 01:28:00 Eyes on prize: Visionary device gives hope Once again our good friend accelerating change comes around to help us out. This near achievement is only possible because of all the surrounding improvements and miniaturization in computers and silicon chip construction in general. ?There has been this explosion of interest in this field because basically the technology in the last 20 years has become miniaturized enough and sophisticated enough so that for the first time we can imagine building something small enough to put in the eye,? said Dr. Joseph Rizzo III, who founded the project in the late 1980s and co-directs the 36-member team. What will be next. More About: Science , Miracle , Modern , Cure , Blindness
Spinning disks are dead: Toshiba to Offer 128 GB Flash Drive
2008-03-12 23:44:00 I was just having this conversation with my brother. Essentially Hard Drive s have overshot their market segment. They consistently provide more and more storage capacity and have now exceeded the needs of their customers. Do you really need a terabyte in your home? Unless you are ripping your entire DVD collection (ummm...not legal right now) to your HD, you are probably fine with a couple of 120gig drives. Enter solid state. Quieter, more energy efficient, better I/O. ...and now you can get them up to 128gig: Toshiba to Offer 128 GB Flash Drive done and done. More About: Flash Drive , Dead
Matrix of coolness and geekness.
2008-03-12 16:59:00 click on the image for a larger view. More About: Coolness , Matrix
It's my birthday! yay!
2008-03-11 19:14:00 I've given the entire techRivet staff the day off! We're off to the company yacht for manhattans and pinochle. More About: Birthday
Now THIS is a story: Asimov's "The Last Question"
2008-03-10 21:24:00 I've read it before and it's one of those things that just plain sticks with you. One of those stories that you finish and say, "Why didn't I write that, it's brilliant." The Last Question More About: Story
Make your own Ringworld model.
2008-03-09 00:13:00 eh...so I think I might have mentioned in passing here once or twice that I'm a geek. So don't say you haven't been warned. Here is a PDF of a Ringworld model. Just download, print and assemble. Isn't this just cool. It so deserves to be built and hung from your ceiling. [do it, ignore your wife, she told me she digs geeks, trust me.] Download this link and print this. More About: Model , Make
Some guys have too much time on their hands: Creating a Revolutionary 3D Ga
2008-03-08 03:33:00 Crazy but true. This guy Peter Rakos, created an entire rendering engine/technique in Excel. I'm not sure it is quite up to the requirements of Halo 3, but it is still a nifty example of how versatile Excel can be. Check out the video. > > And you can download the excel files yourself and try it out. More About: Time , Creating , Hands , Guys , Revolutionary
Scuba diving with a re-breather
More articles from this author:2008-03-07 00:47:00 This is cool. On a typical dive, the Poseidon Discovery lets divers stay underwater at least three times as long as scuba gear can, and since you don?t exhale into the water, you don?t create bubbles or noise that can scare off fish. Instead of being limited by the amount of air you bring with you, a re-breather extends your time underwater by scrubbing what you exhale. How about a 3 hour dive instead of a 1 hour dive. More About: Scuba Diving , Diving 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
