Australia, Australia, be careful...

These are not my words, they came in an email.

Figure 1: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd - Australia.

Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia , as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks..

Separately, Rudd angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying he supported spy agencies monitoring the nation's mosques. Quote:

'IMMIGRANTS, NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT. Take It Or Leave It. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Bali , we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Australians. '

'This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom'

'We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society . Learn the language!'

'Most Australians believe in God. This is not some Christian, right wing, political push, but a fact, because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.'

'We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why. All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us.'

'This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our Christian beliefs, or Our Way of Life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great Australian freedom, 'THE RIGHT TO LEAVE'..'

'If you aren't happy here then LEAVE. We didn't force you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country YOU accepted.'

Don't be so Naive (Tech)

All I have to say is "Don't be so naive" world, everyone treats computers and technology as though it is a ceramic dish wrapped in a thin layer of delicate glass! This world is full of viruses, hackers, trojans and the like - companies like Microsoft and Norton claim to be able to clean your computer of everything of the like. Sometimes the truth can be hidden behind a nice, big, professional logo!

Figure 1: Cartoon of a Computer, welcome to reality

Wikipedia describes a trojan as "In the context of computing and software, a Trojan horse, also known as a trojan, is malware that appears to perform a desirable function but in fact performs undisclosed malicious functions. Therefore, a computer worm or virus may be a Trojan horse."

Now, pay close attention to that description - it says that it appears to perform a desirable function but performs malicious functions. This short description is what most people skip over - most people only see "worm or virus". Here is the important point of this paragraph - if you install a program (for example: Adobe Photoshop (no claims are made against Adobe or any of it's parters)), even if it's storebought, and you install the program, the program might be able to send information about you without you knowing it! Don't be so naive, usually in the big, long, agreement there will be a section saying that the program sends information about it's user!

People just blindly click this!

I will not go into detail about the difference between a virus and a computer worm but i will say this:

Viruses and computer worms need to be willingly installed by the user of the computer.

This point is important to creators of viruses/worms because if (somewhere in software agreement) you agree to having malicious software on your PC then there is nothing that you can do. This is, however, why anti-spyware and anti-virus software was intended for! Personally, I do not trust the following anti-virus software producers: Microsoft, Norton, McAfee. The ones that I would suggest getting would be Avast!, AVG, and Search & Destroy. A lot of antivirus/antispyware programs are free! So why not get them - in most cases they won't hurt your computer (Avast! and AVG are freeware and are legitimate), Spybot: Search & Destroy is not free but there are free lite versions of it.

(I do not certify that any software listed above (or at all for that matter) will not harm your computer, download them at your own risk!)

Organic LEDs

I am in a technology, so obviously i have a nack for new technologies (not saying i'm an expert or anything). I just recently learned about these new LED screens (not a typo it's not LCD it's actually LED) called O-LEDs or Organic Light Emitting Diodes.

Figure 1: Flexible Screen (yes it's real)

One of the main features of an O-LED is that it does not require a backlight to operate - that means that it consumes less power, much, much less power. However, these O-LEDs are very expensive and take a lot of money and time to create - so they are not widely in circulation yet. The first time I ever saw one was in the Sony Style (Sony's circulation store) and they had one O-LED screen, it was a 12-inch screen, picture was sharp and clear, resolution was not perfect but it was still great, and it was only 5 mm wide! The thing did cost 2,500 Canadian Dollars - much too expensive for anything i would even have use for, but it is technology at its best.

Figure 2: OLED as seen from the side.

So I decided to do a little research on how the thing works, it has been around for several years now (around 2005). The largest OLED tv produced was in 2008 and it was 40 inches, but the price for it was off the charts. In May of 2007 Sony produced the first flexible screen, it was 2.5 inches and 0.3 mm thick - it was fully flexable like a piece of paper. Wow. They keep releasing smaller versions and claim to be able to go 10 times smaller, but it breaks too easily. 

Welcome to the future!

The Good, The Bad and the Scientific

I have read several news reports over the weekend (decided to take a Monday off because I also have a lot during school to get done). Two stories caught my attention, a girl in Red Deer, Alberta, was abducted and she broke away from her captors and ran to a payphone. In Canada new research has been applied to Stem Cells and a method has been designed into creating them without using unborn fetus or viruses. 

The first story is quite the ugly one, a 16 year old girl in Red Deer, Alberta, was lured into an unknown man's vehicle while she was out buying medication. The man pretended that he was police, he even had fake red/blue lights on top of his car. The fact that the girl was missing was discovered when her father found her truck, unlocked, parked at the drug store with all her stuff in it - she was missing. She then broke away from her captors on Saturday (2 days later from the kidnapping) and escaped to a payphone where she called for help.

Stem cell research has become interesting lately, Canadian scientists have discovered a new method for creating stem cells without the danger of using unborn fetus and without using viruses. It can lead way to cures for diabetes, cancer and other cell issues such as brain damage. There is no danger of the body rejecting the new cells because they are made from the patients own stem cell matter.

Figure 1: Embryonic Stem Cells