Just make sure you don't mix up the plus and
minus
Since the digital camera we own here at Downtime seems to need
replacement batteries after every half-dozen or so snaps, the idea
that a plane could run on a few AAs seems particularly
improbable.
However, last week Japanese scientists managed just that,
getting a glider-like plane in the air for about a minute, powered
by nothing more than 160 batteries.
The test flight was hailed by the Japan Aeronautic Association
as officially the world's first manned flight powered by dry-cell
batteries, but Downtime's advice is not to get too excited about
the brave new world of battery-powered flight.
It still sounds like we have a way to go before we are all
flying to Spain on nothing more than two Duracells and some spares
in case the worst happens.
When old technology becomes an old friend
Last week's request for stories about emotional attachments to
yesterday's technology prompted a chunky virtual mailbag, proving
once and for all that you are a bunch of techno-softies at
heart.
Matthew Smith at Siemens admitted that in a recent office move
he was forced by his colleagues to finally bin the BBC Micro
teletext adapter he had concealed under his desk for the past
umpteen years. He never actually used the thing, since it was
designed to display teletext pages on a BBC Micro computer he did
not own, but mysteriously he found that did not stop him feeling
choked at its passing.
Jon Arnold, an IT technician at a further education college in
the West Midlands, said his department still keeps the original
sealed sets of Win 3.1 floppies, which clearly has a whole lot more
to do with nostalgia than the college's current desktop computing
needs.
"Added to that, one of the lecturers still uses a 20-year-old
Psion Organiser 1 and will not retire it. The sad bit is, every
time the batteries expire he has to re-enter all his data and
licence keys," Arnold said.
Doctor, doctor, there's a sponge in my
stomach
As readers of Downtime will know, RFID tags are getting into
some increasingly strange places (ATMs, anyone?), but Downtime was
still struck last week by a bit of ingeniousness at Stanford
University School of Medicine.
Doctors at the school have been testing if RFID-enabled sponges
hold the key to stopping surgeons leaving medical instruments or
supplies inside patients.
The test apparently worked well, though RFID sponges will not be
coming to a hospital near you until the tags themselves get
smaller. At the moment each one is nearly an inch across, and tends
to get in the way of blood-mopping duties. Nice.
Now India is beating us at IT as well as
cricket
As the UK's ID cards scheme struggles to get off the ground,
maybe John Reid and co need to look further afield for a decent,
practical solution.
Downtime noticed last week that the agricultural department of
the town of Krishnagiri in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu
has successfully issued ID cards to eligible farmers to trade in
the neighbouring town of Hosur.
Farmers reportedly trade more than eight tonnes of vegetables
every day at the peak of the harvest season. So far, the state has
issued cards to 750 farmers without a hitch, enabling them to trade
only in the vegetables specified on their individual card.
Sounds to Downtime like these guys have got it cracked. Cue,
surely, an expensive fact-finding mission involving a sizeable team
of Home Office officials to see how their public-sector cousins in
Krishnagiri have pulled it off.
Vote for your IT greats
Who have been the most influential people in IT in the past 40
years? The greatest organisations? The best hardware and software
technologies? As part of Computer Weekly’s 40th anniversary
celebrations, we are asking our readers who and what has really
made a difference.
Vote now at:
www.computerweekly.com/ITgreats