ULTRANET

Taking Nature's Cue For Cheaper Solar Power

2007-07-30T05:01:00.000-07:00

Solar cell technology developed by Massey University’s Nanomaterials Research Centre will enable New Zealanders to generate electricity from sunlight at a 10th of the cost of current silicon-based photo-electric solar cells.

Dr Wayne Campbell and researchers in the centre have developed a range of coloured dyes for use in dye-sensitised solar cells.

The synthetic dyes are made from simple organic compounds closely related to those found in nature. The green dye Dr Campbell (pictured) is synthetic chlorophyll derived from the light-harvesting pigment plants use for photosynthesis.

Other dyes being tested in the cells are based on haemoglobin, the compound that give blood its colour.

Dr Campbell says that unlike the silicon-based solar cells currently on the market, the 10x10cm green demonstration cells generate enough electricity to run a small fan in low-light conditions – making them ideal for cloudy climates. The dyes can also be incorporated into tinted windows that trap to generate electricity.

He says the green solar cells are more environmentally friendly than silicon-based cells as they are made from titanium dioxide – a plentiful, renewable and non-toxic white mineral obtained from New Zealand’s black sand. Titanium dioxide is already used in consumer products such as toothpaste, white paints and cosmetics.

“The refining of pure silicon, although a very abundant mineral, is energy-hungry and very expensive. And whereas silicon cells need direct sunlight to operate efficiently, these cells will work efficiently in low diffuse light conditions,” Dr Campbell says.

“The expected cost is one 10th of the price of a silicon-based solar panel, making them more attractive and accessible to home-owners.”

The Centre’s new director, Professor Ashton Partridge, says they now have the most efficient porphyrin dye in the world and aim to optimise and improve the cell construction and performance before developing the cells commercially.

“The next step is to take these dyes and incorporate them into roofing materials or wall panels. We have had many expressions of interest from New Zealand companies,” Professor Partridge says.

He says the ultimate aim of using nanotechnology to develop a better solar cell is to convert as much sunlight to electricity as possible.

“The energy that reaches earth from sunlight in one hour is more than that used by all human activities in one year”.

The solar cells are the product of more than 10 years research funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology.

Bermuda Triangle

2007-07-29T01:58:00.001-07:00

You won't find it on any official map and you won't know when you cross the line, but according to some people, the Bermuda Triangle is a very real place where dozen of ships, planes and people have disappeared with no good explanation. Since a magazine first coined the phrase "Bermuda Triangle" in 1964, the mystery has continued to attract attention. When you dig deeper into most cases, though, they're much less mysterious. Either they were never in the area to begin with, they were actually found, or there's a reasonable explanation for their disappearance.

Bermuda Triangle Image Gallery

The Bermuda Triangle covers roughly 500,000 square miles in the Atlantic Ocean. See more pictures of the Bermuda Triangle.

Does this mean there's nothing to the claims of so many who have had odd experiences in the Bermuda Triangle? Not necessarily. Scientists have documented deviations from the norm in the area and have found some interesting formations on the seafloor within the Bermuda Triangle's boundaries. So, for those who like to believe in it, there is plenty fuel for the fire.

In this article, we'll look at the facts surrounding what we do know about the area as well as some of the most commonly-recited stories. We'll also explore the bizarre theories like aliens and space portals as well as the mundane explanations.

Many think of the Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, as an "imaginary" area. The U. S. Board of Geographic Names does not recognize the Bermuda Triangle and does not maintain an official file on it. However, within this imaginary area, many real vessels and the people aboard them have seemingly disappeared without explanation.

The Bermuda Triangle is located off the Southeastern coast of the United States in the Atlantic Ocean, with its apexes in the vicinities of Bermuda, Miami, Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. It covers roughly 500,000 square miles.

The area may have been named after its Bermuda apex since Bermuda was once known as the "Isle of Devils." Treacherous reefs that have ensnared ships sailing too close to its shores surround Bermuda, and there are hundreds of shipwrecks in the waters that surround it.

The Devils' Sea

Image courtesy NASA
Miyake Island, Japan

The Devil's Sea, also called the Formosa Triangle, is located off the coast of Japan in a region of the Pacific around Miyake Island, about 110 miles south of Tokyo. Like the Bermuda Triangle, the Devil's Sea doesn't appear on any official maps, but the name is used by Japanese fishermen. The area is known for strange disappearances of ships and planes - at least by those in the United States.

Another myth is that, like the Bermuda Triangle, the Devil's Sea is the only other area where a compass points to true north rather than magnetic north (more about this later).

One popular theory is that volcanic activity around the area, particularly an underwater volcano, could be responsible for the disappearances.

What's the Mystery?
Over the past 100 years, the Bermuda Triangle has seen what some say is a significant and inordinately high number of unexplained disappearances of planes, ships and people. Some reports say that as many as 100 ships and planes have been reported missing in the area and more than 1,000 lives have been lost. The U.S. Coast Guard, however, maintains that the area does not have an unusual number of incidents.

In 1975, Mary Margaret Fuller, editor of "Fate" magazine, contacted Lloyd's of London for statistics on insurance payoffs for incidents occurring within the Bermuda Triangle's usually accepted boundaries. According to Lloyd's records, 428 vessels were reported missing throughout the world between 1955 and 1975, and there was no greater incidence of events occurring in the Bermuda Triangle than anywhere else in the world.

Image courtesy Amazon

Gian J. Quasar, author of "Into the Bermuda Triangle: Pursuing the Truth Behind the World's Greatest Mystery" and curator of Bermuda-triangle.org, argues that this report "is completely false." Quasar reasons that because Lloyd's does not insure small crafts like yachts and often doesn't insure small charter boats or private aircraft, its records can't be the definitive source. He also states that the Coast Guard's records, which it publishes annually, do not include "missing vessels." He requested data on "overdue vessels" and received (after 12 years of asking) records of 300 missing/overdue vessels for the previous two years. Whether those vessels ultimately returned is unknown. His Web site has a list of these vessels.

The National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) database indicates (according to Gian J. Quasar) that only a handful of aircraft have disappeared off the New England coast over the past 10 years, while over 30 have occurred in the Bermuda Triangle.

The mystery of the Triangle probably took hold with the first well-publicized disappearance in 1945, when five Navy Avengers disappeared in the area. The cause of the disappearance was originally "pilot error," but family members of the pilot leading the mission couldn't accept that he had made such a mistake. Eventually they convinced the Navy to change it to "causes or reasons unknown."

Is Insurance Higher in the Bermuda Triangle?According to Norman Hooke, who conducted marine casualty studies for Lloyd's Maritime Information Services, based in London, "The Bermuda Triangle does not exist." He instead says that disappearances in the Triangle are typically weather-related. So despite the theories of why ships and planes disappear in the area, insurance premiums are no higher than for any other area of the ocean.

The myth gained momentum after reporter E.V.W. Jones compiled a list of "mysterious disappearances" of ships and planes between the Florida coast and Bermuda. Two years later, George X. Sand wrote an article for "Fate" magazine, titled "Sea Mystery at our Back Door." The article was about a "series of strange marine disappearances, each leaving no trace whatever, that have taken place in the past few years" in a "watery triangle bounded roughly by Florida, Bermuda and Puerto Rico."

As more incidents occurred, the reputation grew and past events were reanalyzed and added to the legend. In 1964, "Argosy Magazine" gave the triangle its name in an article titled "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle" by Vincent Gaddis. Argosy magazine's tagline a "magazine of master fiction," but that did nothing to halt the spread of the myth. More articles, books, and movies have appeared, suggesting theories ranging from alien abductions to a giant octopus.

What is Clean Coal Technology?

2007-07-29T01:55:00.000-07:00

Coal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. When burned, it produces emissions that contribute to global warming, create acid rain and pollute water. With all of the hoopla surrounding nuclear energy, hydropower and biofuels, you might be forgiven for thinking that grimy coal is finally on its way out.

Power Sources Image Gallery

Image courtesyof Morgue File
A coal-fired power plant in Conesville, OhioSee more power source pictures.

But coal is no sooty remnant of the Industrial Revolution -- it generates half of the electricity in the United States and will likely continue to do so as long as it's cheap and plentiful [Source: Energy Information Administration]. Clean coal technology seeks to reduce harsh environmental effects by using multiple technologies to clean coal and contain its emissions.

Coal is a fossil fuel composed primarily of carbons and hydrocarbons. Its ingredients help make plastics, tar and fertilizers. A coal derivative, a solidified carbon called coke, melts iron ore and reduces it to create steel. But most coal -- 92 percent of the U.S. supply -- goes into power production [Source: Energy Information Administration]. Electric companies and businesses with power plants burn coal to make the steam that turns turbines and generates electricity.

When coal burns, it releases carbon dioxide and other emissions in flue gas, the billowing clouds you see pouring out of smoke stacks. Some clean coal technologies purify the coal before it burns. One type of coal preparation, coal washing, removes unwanted minerals by mixing crushed coal with a liquid and allowing the impurities to separate and settle.

Other systems control the coal burn to minimize emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulates. Wet scrubbers, or flue gas desulphurization systems, remove sulfur dioxide, a major cause of acid rain, by spraying flue gas with limestone and water. The mixture reacts with the sulfur dioxide to form synthetic gypsum, a component of sheetrock.

Low-NOx (nitrogen oxide) burners reduce the creation of nitrogen oxides, a cause of ground-level ozone, by restricting oxygen and manipulating the combustion process. Electrostatic precipitators remove particulates that aggravate asthma and cause respiratory ailments by charging particles with an electrical field and then capturing them on collection plates.

Video Gallery: Coal Comeback

See how clean coal technology works in this video from Hitachi True Stories, which profiles the MidAmerican Energy Company's Council Bluffs Energy Unit 4 -- the country's first power plant company to have mercury limits specifically noted in its air emissions permit.

Gasification avoids burning coal altogether. With Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) systems, steam and hot pressurized air or oxygen combine with coal in a reaction that forces carbon molecules apart. The resulting syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, is then cleaned and burned in a gas turbine to make electricity. The heat energy from the gas turbine also powers a steam turbine. Since IGCC power plants create two forms of energy, they have the potential to reach a fuel efficiency of 50 percent [Source: U.S. Department of Energy].

Skype Vs Vonage

2007-07-26T03:58:00.000-07:00

In a way, the Internet is a paradox. Getting access to it in your home almost always requires you to spend some money. But once you have that access, you can use the Internet to save money. You can shop around for lower prices on everything from electronics to airline tickets. You can also send e-mail messages, pictures, music and videos without paying for any type of postage. With Voice over IP (VoIP) services, you can make phone calls -- even long distance or international ones -- for free.

Currently, there are several VoIP services on the market. The two most well-known ones are Skype and Vonage. Although both of these services use VoIP technology, they're quite different from one another. In this article, we'll explore how each of these services works, and we'll give you the information you need to decide if one of them is right for you.

Skype and Vonage are similar in that they're both VoIP services. When you make a VoIP call, you use your computer's built-in microphone and speakers, a headset, an IP phone or a phone plugged into an analog telephone adapter in place of an ordinary phone. This equipment and your computer translate the analog signal of your voice into a digital signal. The digital signal travels over the Internet. Once it reaches its destination, the telephone or computer that answers the call translates it back into analog sound. Check out How Voice over IP Works to learn about this process and how it's different from plain old telephone service (POTS).

Voice over IP uses a technique called packet switching to send a call over the Internet.

Skype and Vonage are also similar in that they can be significantly less expensive than traditional phone service. This is especially true if you make a lot of long-distance calls. Depending on how you use it, Skype can even be completely free. But the two services have more differences than similarities, starting with the steps you need to take to open an account.

To start an account with Skype, all you have to do is go to the Skype homepage and click "Download Now" to download a free program. This program is the Skype soft phone client, which includes an on-screen keypad you can use to make calls.

After you install the program, the Skype Getting Started wizard shows you how to add contacts, make calls and import contact information from your address book. If you haven't already signed up for an account at the Skype Web page, you can also follow a link from the program to create your username and password.

The Skype application looks and works a lot like an instant messaging(IM) client. As with an IM client, you can change your online status, look at your contact list and decide who you want to talk to. In order to use these functions and to make calls, your computer has to be on and connected to the Internet, and your Skype application has to be running.

Calls to other Skype users are free, as are outbound calls to traditional numbers until the end of 2006. As of January 1, 2007, using Skype to call land lines and cell phones will cost $29.95 per year (Skype-to-Skype calls will still be free). To receive incoming calls from traditional phones, you must purchase Skype Credit and use the add-on SkypeIn service.

This process is significantly different from what you need to do to get started with Vonage. While opening a Skype account is a lot like starting an IM account, opening a Vonage account is more like getting set up with a new ISP. You sign up for the service at the Vonage Web page. But rather than downloading a program, you fill out forms online to establish your account. Unlike Skype,
the service is not provided for free.

Signing up with Vonage is a multi-step process involving:

Selecting a service plan (prices start at around $14.99 a month)
Choosing whether to keep your existing phone number or get a new one
Choosing the equipment that will allow you to use the service
Entering your name, address and phone number for 911 calling purposes

Unlike Skype, which you can often use without buying any additional equipment, Vonage requires special hardware in order to work. You can chose an Ethernet router with built-in telephone adapter, which is free after a rebate, or you can chose from a variety of other adapters, routers and phones. Another option is to change the phone wiring in your home so that you can use your regular phones plugged into your phone jacks. This is only a good option if you own your home and do not share walls or wiring with neighbors. Finally, you can make calls with a soft phone client similar to the one used for Skype, but this is an add-on service rather than part of the basic package.

The Vonage dashboard.

Once you sign up for a Vonage account, you can use a Web interface to view your call history and change your account settings. This online guided tour can give you a good idea of the options you can add or change online.

After you sign up for your account, Vonage will ship your adapter or other equipment to you. Unless you pay for professional installation, it's up to you to install it and set it up. Exactly what you'll need to do depends on the equipment you choose and the existing equipment in your home. Complete instructions are provided, and setup is usually pretty simple. You'll need to write down the settings you use to connect to your Internet service provider (ISP) before you begin.

The author used a Linksys WRTP54G wireless router for Vonage service.

The Linksys WRTP54G has a port for connection to the Internet, two phone ports and four Ethernet ports.

Skype and Vonage are very different in the equipment required to use them and the cost involved. They also use different methods to make and receive calls, which we'll look at in the next section.

Skype, Vonage and 911 One of the big differences between Skype and Vonage is the ability to dial 911. Skype is not a home phone replacement -- it's a supplement to your home phone service. One of the reasons why you shouldn't replace your home phone service with Skype is that you cannot use it to dial 911.

Vonage service has 911 capabilities, but the process isn't automatic -- you have to set up and activate the ability to dial 911. Not everyone who uses Vonage has access to E911, which transmits your name and address to the public safety answering point (PSAP) when you call 911. In addition, since Vonage service relies on the Internet and in most cases a powered router, you also will be unable to call 911 if your electricity or Internet connection goes down. As of March 30, 2006, about 70 percent of Vonage customers had access to E911.

How Many Users? As of April 2006, 100 million people had downloaded Skype, and Vonage had 1.6 million subscribers.

Make Your Own Solar Charger

2007-07-24T23:34:00.000-07:00

John B. Carnett

Keep your gadgets powered even when the grid fails you

It's a dark and stormy night—too dark. Your home has lost power. Fortunately, you've got a fully charged power plant, built from an inexpensive solar panel and a rechargeable battery. Eight hours of sun will produce enough juice to watch An Inconvenient Truth—twice—on a portable DVD player. You can even find inverters that will turn the station into an AC outlet. Add additional panels and batteries, and you could power the margarita machine and the flat-panel too.

John B. Carnett

Parts

A. Bamboo scraps ($7; local flooring store)

B. Sunforce five-watt, 12-volt solar panel ($48; amazon.com )

C. Quarter-inch plastic mono plug (50¢; allelectronics.com; #SPH)

D. Solar DC charger controller for solar panel ($28; allelectronics.com; #SCN-2)

E. 12-volt 12AH rechargeable battery ($36; allelectronics.com; #GC-1214)

F. Four feet of 18-gauge wire ($5.65; allelectronics.com; #WRB-18)

G. Two female terminal disconnects (23¢; jameco.com; #109112)

H. 15-amp DC panel meter ($12; allelectronics.com; #PMD-15A)

I. Reese "Towpower" connector ($9; local auto-parts shop)

J. Cigarette-lighter "Y" adapter ($3.65; allelectronics.com; #CLP-Y)

Step-by-Step

Build the case
To make a cheap, eco-friendly case, we glued up bamboo flooring scraps (bamboo is fast-growing and renewable). Cut holes in the box for airflow and easy carrying, and build frames to hold the DC charger controller and the battery.

Add the panel
Attach the solar panel at an angle roughly equal to your latitude for optimum charging (go to census.gov/cgi-bin/gazetteer to find yours). Add a tilt bracket for additional adjustability. Leave space underneath both the panel and the controller for airflow.

Wire it up
Snip off the cigarette-lighter plug and solder the quarter-inch mono plug onto the "Y" adapter. Insert the mono plug into the 12-volt output outlet on the controller. Connect all four power leads from the battery and the solar panel to the controller's input terminals. Hook up the meter to the controller's input terminal for the solar panel. For more power, attach additional solar panels, and add extra batteries—but don't exceed the 12-volt rating of the controller.

Connect the battery
Test all connections with a volt- meter before attaching the battery. Connect the red wire with a female- terminal disconnect to the battery's positive (+) terminal, and connect the black wire to the negative (–) terminal. Place the station in the sun, and plug something in.

Teleportation

2007-07-24T05:21:00.000-07:00

Ever since the wheel was invented more than 5,000 years ago, people have been inventing new ways to travel faster from one point to another. The chariot, bicycle, automobile, airplane and rocket have all been invented to decrease the amount of time we spend getting to our desired destinations. Yet each of these forms of transportation share the same flaw: They require us to cross a physical distance, which can take anywhere from minutes to many hours depending on the starting and ending points.

But what if there were a way to get you from your home to the supermarket without having to use your car, or from your backyard to the International Space Station without having to board a spacecraft? There are scientists working right now on such a method of travel, combining properties of telecommunications and transportation to achieve a system called teleportation. In this article, you will learn about experiments that have actually achieved teleportation with photons, and how we might be able to use teleportation to travel anywhere, at anytime.

Teleportation involves dematerializing an object at one point, and sending the details of that object's precise atomic configuration to another location, where it will be reconstructed. What this means is that time and space could be eliminated from travel -- we could be transported to any location instantly, without actually crossing a physical distance.

Many of us were introduced to the idea of teleportation, and other futuristic technologies, by the short-lived Star Trek television series (1966-69) based on tales written by Gene Roddenberry. Viewers watched in amazement as Captain Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy and others beamed down to the planets they encountered on their journeys through the universe.

In 1993, the idea of teleportation moved out of the realm of science fiction and into the world of theoretical possibility. It was then that physicist Charles Bennett and a team of researchers at IBM confirmed that quantum teleportation was possible, but only if the original object being teleported was destroyed. This revelation, first announced by Bennett at an annual meeting of the American Physical Society in March 1993, was followed by a report on his findings in the March 29, 1993 issue of Physical Review Letters. Since that time, experiments using photons have proven that quantum teleportation is in fact possible.

Working Of DSL

2007-07-23T06:43:00.001-07:00

When you connect to the Internet, you might connect through a regular modem, through a local-area network connection in your office, through a cable modem or through a digital subscriber line (DSL) connection. DSL is a very high-speed connection that uses the same wires as a regular telephone line.

Here are some advantages of DSL:

You can leave your Internet connection open and still use the phone line for voice calls.
The speed is much higher than a regular modem
DSL doesn't necessarily require new wiring; it can use the phone line you already have.
The company that offers DSL will usually provide the modem as part of the installation.

But there are disadvantages:

A DSL connection works better when you are closer to the provider's central office.
The connection is faster for receiving data than it is for sending data over the Internet.
The service is not available everywhere.

In this article, we explain how a DSL connection manages to squeeze more information through a standard phone line -- and lets you make regular telephone calls even when you're online.

Telephone Lines
If you have read How Telephones Work, then you know that a standard telephone installation in the United States consists of a pair of copper wires that the phone company installs in your home. The copper wires have lots of room for carrying more than your phone conversations -- they are capable of handling a much greater bandwidth, or range of frequencies, than that demanded for voice. DSL exploits this "extra capacity" to carry information on the wire without disturbing the line's ability to carry conversations. The entire plan is based on matching particular frequencies to specific tasks.

To understand DSL, you first need to know a couple of things about a normal telephone line -- the kind that telephone professionals call POTS, for Plain Old Telephone Service. One of the ways that POTS makes the most of the telephone company's wires and equipment is by limiting the frequencies that the switches, telephones and other equipment will carry. Human voices, speaking in normal conversational tones, can be carried in a frequency range of 0 to 3,400 Hertz (cycles per second -- see How Telephones Work for a great demonstration of this). This range of frequencies is tiny. For example, compare this to the range of most stereo speakers, which cover from roughly 20 Hertz to 20,000 Hertz. And the wires themselves have the potential to handle frequencies up to several million Hertz in most cases.

The use of such a small portion of the wire's total bandwidth is historical -- remember that the telephone system has been in place, using a pair of copper wires to each home, for about a century. By limiting the frequencies carried over the lines, the telephone system can pack lots of wires into a very small space without worrying about interference between lines. Modern equipment that sends digital rather than analog data can safely use much more of the telephone line's capacity. DSL does just that.

Asymmetric DSL

Most homes and small business users are connected to an asymmetric DSL (ADSL) line. ADSL divides up the available frequencies in a line on the assumption that most Internet users look at, or download, much more information than they send, or upload. Under this assumption, if the connection speed from the Internet to the user is three to four times faster than the connection from the user back to the Internet, then the user will see the most benefit (most of the time).

Other types of DSL include:

Very high bit-rate DSL (VDSL) - This is a fast connection, but works only over a short distance.
Symmetric DSL (SDSL) - This connection, used mainly by small businesses, doesn't allow you to use the phone at the same time, but the speed of receiving and sending data is the same.
Rate-adaptive DSL (RADSL) - This is a variation of ADSL, but the modem can adjust the speed of the connection depending on the length and quality of the line.

Distance Limitations
Precisely how much benefit you see will greatly depend on how far you are from the central office of the company providing the ADSL service. ADSL is a distance-sensitive technology: As the connection's length increases, the signal quality decreases and the connection speed goes down. The limit for ADSL service is 18,000 feet (5,460 meters), though for speed and quality of service reasons many ADSL providers place a lower limit on the distances for the service. At the extremes of the distance limits, ADSL customers may see speeds far below the promised maximums, while customers nearer the central office have faster connections and may see extremely high speeds in the future. ADSL technology can provide maximum downstream (Internet to customer) speeds of up to 8 megabits per second (Mbps) at a distance of about 6,000 feet (1,820 meters), and upstream speeds of up to 640 kilobits per second (Kbps). In practice, the best speeds widely offered today are 1.5 Mbps downstream, with upstream speeds varying between 64 and 640 Kbps.

You might wonder, if distance is a limitation for DSL, why it's not also a limitation for voice telephone calls. The answer lies in small amplifiers called loading coils that the telephone company uses to boost voice signals. Unfortunately, these loading coils are incompatible with ADSL signals, so a voice coil in the loop between your telephone and the telephone company's central office will disqualify you from receiving ADSL. Other factors that might disqualify you from receiving ADSL include:

Bridge taps - These are extensions, between you and the central office, that extend service to other customers. While you wouldn't notice these bridge taps in normal phone service, they may take the total length of the circuit beyond the distance limits of the service provider.
Fiber-optic cables - ADSL signals can't pass through the conversion from analog to digital and back to analog that occurs if a portion of your telephone circuit comes through fiber-optic cables.
Distance - Even if you know where your central office is (don't be surprised if you don't -- the telephone companies don't advertise their locations), looking at a map is no indication of the distance a signal must travel between your house and the office.

3-D Glasses

2007-07-22T01:16:00.000-07:00

Although the 1950s are most often considered the 3-D movie decade, the first feature length 3-D film, "The Power of Love," was made in 1922. Since that time the use of 3-D technology in theaters and on television has drifted in and out of mainstream popularity. But, whether you've used them for the big screen or at home in front of your television, you have to admit 3-D glasses are incredibly cool.
They make the movie or television show you're watching look like a 3-D scene that's happening right in front of you. With objects flying off the screen and careening in your direction, and creepy characters reaching out to grab you, wearing 3-D glasses makes you feel like you're a part of the action - not just someone sitting there watching a movie. Considering they have such high entertainment value, you'll be surprised at how amazingly simple 3-D glasses are.

Most human beings come equipped with two eyes and an absolutely amazing binocular vision system. For objects up to about 20 feet (6 to 7 meters) away, the binocular vision system lets us easily tell with good accuracy how far away an object is. For example, if there are multiple objects in our field of view, we can automatically tell which ones are farther and which are nearer, and how far away they are. If you look at the world with one eye closed, you can still perceive distance, but your accuracy decreases and you have to rely on visual cues, which is slower.

To see how much of a difference the binocular vision system makes, have a friend throw you a ball and try to catch it while keeping one eye closed. Also try it in a fairly dark room or at night, where the difference is even more noticeable. It is much harder to catch a ball with only one eye open than with two eyes open. If you want to try a quick test of your binocular vision, visit this Web site.

The binocular vision system relies on the fact that our two eyes are spaced about 2 inches (5 centimeters) apart. Therefore, each eye sees the world from a slightly different perspective, and the binocular vision system in your brain uses the difference to calculate distance. Your brain has the ability to correlate the images it sees in its two eyes even though they are slightly different.

If you've ever used a View-Master or a stereoscopic viewer, you have seen your binocular vision system in action. In a View-Master, each eye is presented with an image. Two cameras photograph the same image from slightly different positions to create these images. Your eyes can correlate these images automatically because each eye sees only one of the images.

Photo courtesy Dan Metz
When you use a View-Master viewer, it's easy to see how your binocular vision system works.

3-D Viewing

In a movie theater, the reason why you wear 3-D glasses is to feed different images into your eyes just like a View-Master does. The screen actually displays two images, and the glasses cause one of the images to enter one eye and the other to enter the other eye. There are two common systems for doing this:

Red/Green or Red/Blue
Although the red/green or red/blue system is now mainly used for television 3-D effects, and was used in many older 3-D movies. In this system, two images are displayed on the screen, one in red and the other in blue (or green). The filters on the glasses allow only one image to enter each eye, and your brain does the rest. You cannot really have a color movie when you are using color to provide the separation, so the image quality is not nearly as good as with the polarized system.

The red and blue lenses filter the two projected images allowing only one image to enter each eye.

Polarization
At Disney World, Universal Studios and other 3-D venues, the preferred method uses polarized lenses because they allow color viewing. Two synchronized projectors project two respective views onto the screen, each with a different polarization. The glasses allow only one of the images into each eye because they contain lenses with different polarization.

The polarized glasses allow only one of the images into each eye because each lens has a different polarization.

There are some more complicated systems as well, but because they are expensive they are not as widely used. For example, in one system, a TV screen displays the two images alternating one right after the other. Special LCD glasses block the view of one eye and then the other in rapid succession. This system allows color viewing on a normal TV, but requires you to buy special equipment.

3-D glasses with red/blue lenses

Bio Diesel

2007-07-21T00:46:00.000-07:00

if you've read or watched the news lately, you've probably come across some article, snippet or sound bite related to oil and oil prices. Even in your daily routines, there's a good chance of someone mentioning it. Whether it's in automotives, economics, history, geography or politics, oil has managed to filter into almost every aspect of our daily lives. It's one of the most discussed (and controversial) commodities that consumers rely on daily.

All of this talk about oil sparks continued interest in gasoline alternatives. Things like electric cars and hydrogen fuel cells are being talked about as feasible alternatives to oil. As technology improves, these concepts could become reality. But what about now?

Lost in the mix are the biofuels, fuels made from biological ingredients instead of fossil fuels. These starting ingredients can range from corn to soybeans to animal fat, depending on the type of fuel being made and the production method.

Generally speaking, biodiesel is an alternative or additive to standard diesel fuel that is made from biological ingredients instead of petroleum (or crude oil). Biodiesel is usually made from plant oils or animal fat through a series of chemical reactions. It is both non-toxic and renewable. Because biodiesel essentially comes from plants and animals, the sources can be replenished through farming and recycling.

Biofuels, such as ethanol made from corn and biodiesel made from soybeans, help support American agriculture.

Biodiesel is safe and can be used in diesel engines with little or no modification needed. Although biodiesel can be used in its pure form, it is usually blended with standard diesel fuel. Blends are indicated by the abbreviation Bxx, where xx is the percentage of biodiesel in the mixture. For example, the most common blend is B20, or 20 percent biodiesel to 80 percent standard. So, B100 refers to pure biodiesel.

Biodiesel isn't just a catch-all term, however. There is also a formal, technical definition that is recognized by ASTM International (known formerly as the American Society for Testing and Materials), the organization responsible for providing industry standards. According to the National Biodiesel Board (NBB), the technical definition of biodiesel is as follows:

a fuel comprised of mono-alkyl esters of long chain fatty acids derived from vegetable oils or animal fats, designated B100, and meeting the requirements of ASTM D 6751.

That sounds kind of rough, but it's a lot more familiar than you may think -- you encounter these fatty acids every day.

Virtual Reality

2007-07-20T05:40:00.000-07:00

What do you think of when you hear the words virtual reality (VR)? Do you imagine someone wearing a clunky helmet attached to a computer with a thick cable? Do visions of crudely rendered pterodactyls haunt you? Do you think of Neo and Morpheus traipsing about the Matrix? Or do you wince at the term, wishing it would just go away?

A virtual reality CAVE display projecting images onto the floor, walls and ceiling to provide full immersion.
If the last applies to you, you're likely a computer scientist or engineer, many of whom now avoid the words virtual reality even while they work on technologies most of us associate with VR. Today, you're more likely to hear someone use the words virtual environment (VE) to refer to what the public knows as virtual reality. We'll use the terms interchangeably in this article.

Naming discrepancies aside, the concept remains the same - using computer technology to create a simulated, three-dimensional world that a user can manipulate and explore while feeling as if he were in that world. Scientists, theorists and engineers have designed dozens of devices and applications to achieve this goal. Opinions differ on what exactly constitutes a true VR experience, but in general it should include:

Three-dimensional images that appear to be life-sized from the perspective of the user
The ability to track a user's motions, particularly his head and eye movements, and correspondingly adjust the images on the user's display to reflect the change in perspective

2007-07-20T04:27:00.000-07:00

Most people think of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) as a showcase of everything new, but the annual multi-conference-center sprawl of technology has been around since 1967. Since then, numerous groundbreaking products have made their debut at CES. Some of these, like the VCR and the compact disc player, were revolutionary. Others, like the Blu-ray and HD radio, significantly enhanced existing technology.

Every year, geeks and technophiles scour CES, looking for everything from dramatic breakthroughs to practical, handy gadgets. Here are the highlights of what members of the HowStuffWorks staff saw as they made their way around the show floor. We'll start with some of the most dramatic displays -- which, unfortunately, you can't take home with you.

Honda's Sprinting ASIMO

As long-time fans of Honda's humanoid robot, we were particularly excited to see ASIMO at CES. ASIMO's latest iteration can run at close to 4 miles per hour (6.4 kilometers per hour). The newest model can also use a cart to move and carry objects. A new communications card lets the robot recognize people, and cameras and kinesthetic sensors let ASIMO move in tandem with humans.
Sharp's 108-inch AQUOS LCD TV

Geo Cacher

2007-07-20T04:19:00.000-07:00

Have you ever daydreamed about going on a hunt for a hidden treasure? Today, thousands of people around the world are doing just that through geocaching. Geocachers seek out treasures hidden by other players while exploring interesting locations.

At its most basic level, geocaching is a game where players use GPS receivers to track down a container, or cache. Caches may contain any number of small items, or they may only contain a logbook for players to sign to mark their find.

To understand what geocaching is all about, let's take a look at its history. In the spring of 2000, the U.S. government discontinued Selective Availability, its practice of degrading publicly-available GPS signals. Under this initiative, the GPS inserted random errors in signals for commercial receivers that made accurately determining your position impossible -- your reading could be off by as much as 300 feet. The purpose for the program was to give the U.S. military an advantage with GPS hardware. However, the military developed technology that would allow them to scramble GPS signals over sensitive areas, so Selective Availability became obsolete. Once it was switched off, it became possible for someone with a commercial GPS receiver to determine his own location with much greater accuracy. These days, you can usually determine your position within a range of 6 to 20 feet. The increase in accuracy is what makes geocaching feasible.

2007-07-04T02:26:00.000-07:00

There's been a lot of talk about the Internet revolution in Pakistan, but now, for the first time, Ultranet actually walks the talk with ultra-fast, low-cost broadband services for home and corporate users. Whether you are an avid gamer, a streaming radio-head, a compulsive surfer, or just trying to get some real work done, we have something for everyone.

Broadband Vs Dial-up

If you are already a broadband user, you know you'll never go back to dial-up. If you're still stuck with a dial-up connection, imagine a big, fat pipe that loves serving you rich websites, streaming radio, peer-to-peer gaming, and just about anything that the Internet has to offer, at lightening speed.

There really isn't much to say about dial-up. It was great, back in the day, when there was no other way to connect to the Internet. But now, you have a choice and scores of reasons to switch.

Broadband is 10-20 times faster than a traditional dial-up connection.
You're always on. No busy signals and you don't have to waste any time waiting for a connection.
Your broadband telephone line is shared with your broadband connection, so calls are not missed and the phone line is never busy.
You don't have to pay your phone company any additional call charges as you have to connect only once.
You can set up a wireless network and share your Internet connection with multiple users.
You can work on a wide range of applications, which are just not feasible on slow dial-up connections.

By now, you're probably thinking that broadband costs a bomb. Well, Ultranet makes it possible to get broadband Internet access at prices comparable to some dial-up plans. It may seem more expensive initially, but over the long run, broadband can work out equivalent or even cheaper than some dial-ups plans, depending on your usage.

Our Mission

2007-07-04T02:23:00.000-07:00

To assure a suitable provision the service of access to Internet with the best relation existing price-quality in the market. This flexibility allowed to develop a product diversity us that covers certain necessities.

To design and to implement solutions to size, for it our continuous task of investigation allows to tell on the resources and technological innovations us according to specific necessities.

To maintain the commitment to guarantee that our products and services accompany the growth and evolution of our clients to turn this process our source of continuous improvement.

LAN Connectivity,

Wi-Fi Connectivity

Obtical Fiber Connctivity (for Loop Holder)

Services of Hosting Web site

Introduction

2007-07-04T02:14:00.000-07:00

We started with our services as a small network few months ago. Now we bring you so much more. We make access to all the latest communication and entertainment technology affordable, useful and fun. We're Ultra Networks (Cable Internet service provider). When we began as a small company in january 2007, Today we're a company, bringing you the cutting edge in digital entertainment and Internet communications for the home.Ultra Networks is a broadband communications company providing a full range of advanced broadband entertainment services to the home. Ultra Networks also provides business to business video, data and Internet protocol (IP) solutions through Ultra Networks Business Division.Fueled by the availability of affordable personal computers, the growth of broadband networks, startling advances in digital technology and the explosion of the Internet as a vehicle for commerce, education and entertainment.With the ability to transmit voice, video and data at high speeds, cable is the primary platform for delivering these services to the home and workplace. Ultra Networks is achieving the Wired World vision by developing and deploying advanced interactive services through our broadband infrastructure