Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Human ecosystem
Monday, May 19, 2008
Natural biotic types
Patterns of some seashells, like the ones in Conus and Cymbiola genus, are generated by natural CA. The pigment cells reside in a narrow band along the shell's lip. Each cell secretes pigments according to the activating and inhibiting activity of its neighbour pigment cells, obeying a natural version of a mathematical rule. cell band leaves the colored pattern on the shell as it grows slowly. For example, the widespread species Conus textile bears a pattern resembling the Rule 30 CA described above.
Plants regulate their intake and loss of gases via a CA mechanism. Each stoma on the leaf acts as a cell.
Neural networks can be used as cellular automata, too. The complex moving wave patterns on the skin of cephalopods are a good display of corresponding activation patterns in the animals' brain.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL)
This is the least restrictive of the Microsoft licenses and allows for distribution of compiled code for either commercial or non-commercial purposes under any license that complies with the Ms-PL. Redistribution of the source code itself is permitted only under the Ms-PL. Initially titled Microsoft Permissive License, it was renamed to Microsoft Public License while being reviewed for approval by the Open Source Initiative (OSI). The license was approved on October 12, 2007. According to the Free Software Foundation, it is a free software license and is compatible with the GNU GPL version 3. However, for new software, FSF asks to use an older free software license that serves the same purpose, like Apache License 2.0, “to combat license proliferation”.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Transformation of culture
Transformation of culture, or cultural change, refers to the dynamic process whereby the living cultures of the world are changing and adapting to external or internal forces. This process is occurring within Western culture as well as non-Western and indigenous culture of the world. Forces which contribute to the cultural change described in this article include: colonization, globalization, advances in communication, transportation and infrastructure improvements, and military expansion.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Sustainable transport
The concept of sustainable mobility is a reaction to things that have gone radically and visibly wrong with current transportation policy, practice and performance over the last half of the twentieth century. In particular unsustainable transportation consumes more energy and creates pollution and declining service levels despite increasing investments. It delivers poor service for specific social and economic groups.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Caecilius Metellus
Metellus Celer recalls the following: when he was proconsul in Gaul, he was given people from "India" by the king of the Sueves; upon requesting why they were in this land, he learnt that they were caught in a storm away from India, that they became castaways, and finally landed on the coast of Germany. They thus resisted the sea, but suffered from the cold for the rest of their travel, and that is the reason why they left.
It is unclear whether these castaways may have been people from India or Eastern Asia, or possibly American Indians. Edward Herbert Bunbury suggested that they were Finns. This account is open to some question, since Metellus Celer died just after his consulship, before he ever got to Gaul.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Software development kit
Monday, April 07, 2008
Relational database management system
A short definition of an RDBMS may be a DBMS in which data is stored in the form of tables and the relationship among the data is also stored in the form of tables.
Friday, April 04, 2008
4th Dimension (Software)
The 4D product line has since expanded to an SQL front-end, integrated compiler and several productivity plug-ins and interfaces. Some of the more useful plug-ins include 4D Write (a word processor), 4D Draw (to draw shapes), 4D View (somewhat like a spreadsheet, but with extra functionality) and 4D Internet Commands (which let you add all sorts of Internet related functionality to a database). There are also over 100 third-party plugins, free and commercial.
Monday, March 24, 2008
TELNET
The term telnet also refers to software which implements the client part of the protocol. TELNET clients have been available on most Unix systems for many years and are available for virtually all platforms. Most network equipment and OSs with a TCP/IP stack support some kind of TELNET service server for their remote configuration (including ones based on Windows NT). Because of security issues with TELNET, its use has waned as it is replaced by the use of SSH for remote access.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Hybrid Locomotive
Hybrid trains typically are powered either by fuel cell technology or the more conventional diesel-electric hybrid which reduces fuel consumption through regenerative braking and switching off the hydrocarbon engine when idling or stationary (as used in automobiles such as the Toyota Prius).
Energy used by train operations makes up approximately 70% of all energy consumed by railroad companies, so reduction of this not only provides environmental benefits but economic advantages as well.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
PLED
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Computational chemistry
Examples of such properties are structure (i.e. the expected positions of the constituent atoms), absolute and relative (interaction) energies, electronic charge distributions, dipoles and higher multipole moments, vibrational frequencies, reactivity or other spectroscopic quantities, and cross sections for collision with other particles.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Earth
Home to millions of species including humans, Earth is the only place in the world where life is known to exist. Scientific evidence indicates that the planet formed 4.54 billion years ago, and life appear on its surface within a billion years. Since then, Earth's biosphere has considerably altered the atmosphere and other abiotic conditions on the planet, enable the proliferation of aerobic organisms as well as the formation of the ozone layer which, jointly with Earth's magnetic field, blocks harmful emission, permitting life on land.
Earth's outer surface is divided into several rigid segments, or tectonic plates, that regularly travel across the surface over periods of many millions of years. About 71% of the surface is enclosed with salt-water oceans, the remainder consisting of continents and islands; liquid water, necessary for all known life, is not known to exist on any other planet's surface. Earth's interior remains active, with a thick layer of comparatively solid mantle, a liquid outer core that generates a magnetic field, and a solid iron inside the core.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Pomegranate
In the Northern Hemisphere, the fruit is classically in season from September to January. In the Southern hemisphere, it is in period from March to May.
Monday, February 11, 2008
What is Spamdexing?
Monday, February 04, 2008
Custom duty
A customs duty is a charge tax on the import of goods or export of goods. In England, customs duties were conventionally part of the customary revenue of the king, and therefore did not need parliamentary consent to be levy, unlike excise duties, land tax, or other impositions.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Laser printer
Monday, January 21, 2008
Clothing
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Cricket
The bowler, a player from the field team, bowls a hard, fist-sized cricket ball from the locality of one wicket towards the other. The ball usually bounces once before feat the batsman, a player from the conflicting team. In defence of the wicket, the batsman plays the ball with a made of wood cricket bat. Meanwhile, the other members of the bowler's team stand in a variety of positions around the field as fielders, players who retrieve the ball in an effort to stop the batsman scoring runs, and if possible to get him or her out. The batsman — if he or she does not get out — may run between the wickets, exchange ends with a second batsman (the "non-striker"), who has been waiting near the bowler's wicket. Each finished exchange of ends scores one run. Runs are also scored if the batsman hit the ball to the border line of the playing area. The match is won by the team that score more runs.