Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Robot kit

A robot kit is a special construction kit for building robots, especially autonomous mobile robots.

Toy robot kits are also supplied by several companies. They are mostly made of plastics elements like Lego Mindstorms and the Robotis Bioloid, or aluminium elements like Lynxmotion's Servo Erector Set and the qfix kit.

The kits can consist of: structural elements, mechanical elements, motors (or other actuators), sensors and a controller board to control the inputs and outputs of the robot. In some cases, the kits can be available without electronics as well, to provide the user the opportunity to use his or her own.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Roboticist

A roboticist designs, builds, programs, and experiments with robots. Since robotics is a highly interdisciplinary field, roboticists often have backgrounds in a number of disciplines including computer science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer engineering. Roboticists often work for university, industry, and government research labs, but may also work for startup companies and other entrepreneurial firms. Amateur Roboticist is also a growing hobby all over the world.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Human ecosystem

Human ecosystems are complex cybernetic systems that are increasingly being used by ecological anthropologists and other scholars to examine the ecological aspects of human communities in a way that integrates multiple factors as economics, socio-political organization, psychological factors, and physical factors related to the environment.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Natural biotic types

Some living things use naturally occurring cellular automata in their functioning.

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

Sustainable transport, also commonly referred to as Sustainable Transportation or Sustainable Mobility, has no widely accepted definition. Since it is a sector-specific sub-set to the post-1988 sustainable development movement, it is often defined in words such as this: “Sustainable transportation is about meeting or helping meet the mobility needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.” But this is only a starting point.


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

Pomponius Mela writes, and is copied by Pliny the Elder, that Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer (died 59 BCE), proconsul in Gaul received "several Indians" (Indi) as a present from a Germanic king. The Indians were driven by a storm to the coasts of Germania (in tempestatem ex Indicis aequoribus).

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

A software development kit (SDK or "devkit") is typically a set of development tools that allows a software engineer to create applications for a certain software package, software framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or similar platform.

It may be something as simple as an application programming interface in the form of some files to interface to a particular programming language or include sophisticated hardware to communicate with a certain embedded system. Common tools include debugging aids and other utilities often presented in an IDE. SDKs also frequently include sample code and supporting technical notes or other supporting documentation to help clarify points from the primary reference material.

Monday, April 07, 2008

Relational database management system

A Relational database management system (RDBMS) is a database management system (DBMS) that is based on the relational model as introduced by E. F. Codd. Most popular commercial and open source databases currently in use are based on the relational model.

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)

4th Dimension (or 4D, or Silver Surfer, as it was known during early development) is a relational database management system and IDE developed by Laurent Ribardière in 1984. In 1993, 4D Server, the client/server version of 4th Dimension was introduced and since 1995, 4D has supported both the Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh operating systems.

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

TELNET (TELecommunication NETwork) is a network protocol used on the Internet or local area network (LAN) connections. It was developed in 1969 beginning with RFC 15 and standardized as IETF STD 8, one of the first Internet standards.

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 Locomotive is a locomotive or multiple unit train that uses an on-board rechargeable energy storage system (RESS) (battery or ultracapacitors) and a fueled power source for propulsion.

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

Polymer light-emitting diodes (PLED), also Light-Emitting Polymers (LEP) and Flexible OLED (FOLED), involve an electroluminescent conductive polymer that emits light when connected to an external voltage source. They are used as a thin film for full-spectrum color displays and require a relatively small amount of power for the light produced. No vacuum is required, and the emissive materials can be applied on the substrate by a technique derived from commercial inkjet printing. The substrate used can be flexible, such as PET. Thus, flexible PLED displays may be produced inexpensively.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Computational chemistry

Computational chemistry is a branch of chemistry that uses computers to assist in solving chemical problems. It uses the results of theoretical chemistry, incorporated into efficient computer programs, to calculate the structures and properties of molecules and solids. While its results normally complement the information obtained by chemical experiments, it can in some cases predict hitherto unobserved chemical phenomena. It is widely used in the design of new drugs and materials.

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

Earth (pronounced /'???/) is the third planet from the Sun and is the major of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System, in both diameter and mass. It is also referred to as the Earth, Planet Earth, and the World, and in several contexts, Gaia and Terra.

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

The Pomegranate (Punica granatum) is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or tiny tree growing to 5–8 m tall. The pomegranate is native to the region from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran to the Himalayas in northern India and has been enlightened and naturalized over the whole Mediterranean region and the Caucasus since antique times. It is widely cultivated throughout Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, and India, the drier parts of Southeast Asia, Peninsular Malaysia, the East Indies, and tropical Africa. Introduced into Latin America and California by Spanish settlers in 1769, pomegranate is now cultivated mostly in the drier parts of California and Arizona for its fruits exploited commercially as juice products in advance in popularity since 2001. In the global functional food industry, pomegranate is included among a novel category of exotic plant sources called super fruits.

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?

Spamdexing has frequent methods, such as repeating unrelated phrases, to control the relevancy or prominence of resources indexed by a search engine, in a manner inconsistent with the idea of the indexing system. Some consider it to be a part of search engine optimization; though there are numerous search engine optimization methods that get better the quality and exterior of the content of web sites and serve content useful to many users. Search engines use a variety of algorithms to end relevancy ranking. Some of these contain determining whether the search term appears in the META keywords tag, others whether the search term appear in the body text or URL of a web page. Many search engines test out for instances of spamdexing and will remove believe pages from their indexes. In addition people working for a search-engine organization can quickly block the results-listing from entire websites that use spamdexing, perhaps alert by user objects of false matches. The rise of spamdexing in the mid-1990s made the majority important search engines of the time less useful.

Monday, February 04, 2008

Custom duty

Customs is a power or agency in a country in charge for collecting customs duties and for controlling the flow of people, animals and goods (including personal effects and hazardous items) in and out of the country. Depending on local legislation and regulations, the import or export of some goods may be controlled or prohibited, and the customs agency enforces this system. The customs agency may be different from the colonization authority, which monitors persons who leave or enter the country, checking for suitable documentation, apprehend people wanted by international search warrants, and impede the entry of others deemed hazardous to the country.
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

Laser printer is a frequent type of computer printer that rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper. Like photocopiers, laser printers employ a xerographic printing process but differ from analog photocopiers in that the image is fashioned by the direct scanning of a laser beam across the printer's photoreceptor.