Dangerous Things We Should Let Children Do

Kids these days do not often realise what they are missing. Yes, they've got their computers and high-tech toys. However, they're often overly protected. Watching this video, it reminded me of so many fun things that I did while I was a child, most of which were done without my parents knowledge! I doubt that they would've let me do those things, even during those days, when warnings weren't everywhere.

Pyrotechnics
I used to love playing with fire. During the mid-autumn festival, when other kids played with lanterns, I'd play with nothing but the candles (with dry leaves and newspaper). This was when I first learned that water doesn't necessarily put out fires. It can actually help it to burn bigger and brighter.

During Chinese New Year, I'd take it a step further and extract the powder from inside fire crackers, and light them directly. I once lit up a couple of boxes of fire crackers worth of powder. The resultant flash left me blind for many minutes. This taught me about combustion and oxidisation (powder left open for a while, will not light).

Many years later, I used my knowledge to light up our school camp fire, using electricity (with match stick primer and petrol accelerator).

Weapons
I used to own several multi-purpose penknives. They had a blade, screwdriver, cork screw, scissors and a bunch of other built in tools. I used it to do lots of things. I carried it everywhere with me, even to school (nobody checks your pockets when you're a prefect!). Today, this would be almost an impossibility. I definitely learned how not to handle a knife and I still have the necessary stitches to prove it.

Projectiles
I never did throw a spear before, though I did throw a great many things. I loved making and playing with paper planes. Up till today, I can still fold several different paper plane designs. I'd often make extra cuts and folds to the wing and tail, in order to make the plane go further, last longer, or do stunts. This taught me about flight and control surfaces. When I was little, I used to dream of being an aeronautical engineer.

Destruction
Oh, I was very good at this. My whole family will attest to this. I used to be called 'The Destroyer' when I was little. I took apart anything that I could lay my hands on (not necessarily limited to old/damaged stuff). My toys rarely lasted more than two weeks before I'd take them apart, often to figure out how it works inside. On several attempts, I had even managed to combine parts from different toys into a new hybrid toy (often Frankenstein-ish, held together with rubber bands and tape). This taught me a lot about how things worked and how to build stuff, which still plays a major role in my life today.

I also took my curiousity to the next level, by learning about formless things too, like electricity. But, that's the subject of a much longer post.

Driving
I can remember my dad taking me out driving, when I was very little. I couldn't possibly reach the pedals, but I could handle the steering wheel. It was a wonderful experience, at that time. Thinking about it still puts a smile to my face. I'm not sure how much it helped me, but I didn't have any problems learning to drive later. In fact, my driving instructor did not believe that I had never driven before, during my very first lesson (of 3, and I passed without kopi).

Anyway, watch the video. It's cool.

Our Days are Numbered!

Toyota unveils personal-Transport and Violin-playing robots
Uploaded by AkihabaraNews

Seriously. Our days are numbered. This video showcases three of Toyota's latest robotic wonders. I've always found the Honda ASIMO very cute. Now these three are very scary robots indeed.

The first, reminds me of Rosie the Robot Maid, from The Jetsons. It has a humanoid upper-torso on a wheeled base. It could be conceivably put to use, ferrying stuff around, and handling machines in any flat environment. I could see it being used in hospitals to wheel stuff around and even possibly automate the monitoring of patients. It's probably not quite suitable for the home as it cannot pass through narrow passageways.

The second, is very impressive. They demonstrated the robot's dexterity by getting it to play a tune on a real violin. It's only a matter of time before they get the mechanism down right for the robot to play some really complicated violin pieces. This is the robot that we should really be worried about. It's designed to replace humans an human tasks. It walks on two feet and so, can conceivably go anywhere a human can go. If it has sufficient finesse to play the violin, I'm sure that it can work other devices quite well too.

The third, is definitely useful. I can see it finding an application at home. It is more a slave robot, that can ferry people and stuff around. Now, it would be very interesting to see a few of these things moving together, like ducks in a row. It could ferry kids to and from school, help out with grocery shopping (or any other kind of shopping) and carry geriatrics and disabled people around. This is definitely something that is very useful to have around the house.

I've always lamented the fact that we've not had much progress in robotics for decades. After the major push in getting robots working in industrial settings, money stopped flowing into robotics. But now, it seems that Japan is moving ahead again. Large corporations are throwing money at the problem, to try to bring robots into the home. This is the cutting edge of robotics research and development.

From a technical stand-point, there are essentially two opposing frontiers of robotics. This is the example of one frontier, with complicated machinery performing delicate tasks. The other frontier of robotics is getting very simple machines to perform complex tasks. It seems that the Japanese have got a head-start on the former, but they don't seem to be focused on the latter.

University Open Day

Today, there were so many kids running around the college and the department. It's our Open Day here. I had forgotten that I had volunteered to help out until I got a reminder email yesterday. So, here I am, in the picture, explaining the finer details of electrical machines to random kids.

We had a rather interesting set of gadgets to demonstrate. It starts with the basics of induction with currents producing magnetic fields that induce currents, which produces more magnetic fields. This was demonstrated with a setup involving a massive coil of wire wrapped around a steel core. Aluminum rings float when they are dropped into the core.

Then, we move onto the next setup, which has a series of single phase cores, that generate a magnetic field. By tossing sheets of aluminum onto the field, we can show levitation and how adding more sheets actually generate a stronger field.

Next, we bring in the concept of 3 phase current where we show a synchronous motor running. After that, we unwrap the motor onto a strip running on 3 phase current. This is used to illustrate the electromotive effect. The aluminum bar moves horizontally across the field when placed on top of it.

Finally, we deliver the coup de grace with the coolest display. We make a 3 phase tube with gradually increasing number of rings of each phase. This creates an increasing magnetic field, which results in an acceleration. Then we put in various materials into the tube, and fire it out onto a target. That's me, in the picture, describing one of the bullets that we fired out onto the target.

This was generally regarded as the coolest display in the room. You cannot beat an electrical cannon with anything else. I met another Malaysian, who was also demonstrating the same series of gadgets. It's surprising how small this world is. I was initially surprised that she didn't understand the principles involved. Then, I found out that she's actually a chemical engineer, but she's did a Masters is microelectronics and is now doing a PhD on CNT in our division.

PS. My hair is a mess. I need to cut it soon.

Freaky Hybrid Memory

I just read a freaky article today in New Scientist. Boffins at University of California at Riverside have created a new kind of non-volatile memory by "attaching individual viruses to tiny specks of semiconducting material called quantum dots." Freaky!

I bet the Michael Crichton will have a field day with the possibilities. I'm currently reading his book "Next", which deals with genetics and bio-technology. Needless to say, it is an interesting book. He is very much like Dan Brown and Neal Stephenson. They're all capable of melding fact and fiction in a way that makes it easy to read. Dan Brown does it with history, Neal Stephenson with computing and Michael Crichton with bio-technology.

Imagine the possibilites, an organic-silicon hybrid machine that can interface with both living organisms and electronics. Days of Johnny Mnemonic are not far away now. Freaky!

TechLinks 2007

I spent the day at Duxford today with the TechLinks programme. This is a grass root programme to encourage school going children to take up science and engineering. Britain is currently undergoing an education problem with few people taking up careers in science and engineering. This has resulted in the country losing it's technological lead in the world.

The programme is funded by various funds, from both the government and private science, technology and engineering companies. It is run by volunteers, who come from both academia and industry. My group was led by Mike, an engineer from Pi Technology who used to work with ARM on the RiscOS in it's early days. When he found out that I was a processor designer, we had quite a long conversation. He was assisted by Mick, the local IET treasurer who had retired from BT nearly a decade ago. Mick is a Chartered Engineer and knows my supervisor as they've both served on the IET committee together at one time. As you can see, the volunteers are all hardcore engineers who are trying their best to encourage kids to take up science, engineering and technology careers.

We were joined by a couple of apprentices from Turbine Motors. Apprenticeships are something that I've not encountered until coming here. I'm not aware of any formal apprentice training schemes in Malaysia but they may exist, just not to the extent that they do it here. Unlike the very theoretical approach of engineering degree programmes, most of the apprentices start by getting some practical work and training with a company. As part of the programme, they undergo many certifications and some go on to earn an engineering degree. Mick doesn't have an engineering degree either as he started of as an apprentice as well and he gave them some advice on how to build their careers beyond an EngTech. Personally, I think that this is a very good idea and it could benefit a lot of people back home by giving them skills and training to perform engineering tasks.

As for the kids, some of them were very smart and finished the tasks very quickly. However, most of them were quite bored as they had thought that the trip was a history trip. For our group, they had to build a combination lock with 3 switches. For one of the groups that had extra time, I asked them how many switches it'd take to make a 1 million combination lock. One of them actually did some math to work out the results. This worried me as he couldn't do x2 multiplication and had to resort to sequential additions to get the answer. He did get the correct answer after a while. I'll give him marks for perseverance. Mind you, these are secondary school students.

Anyway, the activity ended at 12.30 and we were provided a sandwich lunch. After that, we were free to do whatever we wanted and I decided to visit the Imperial War Museum at Duxford instead. This is covered in the next blog.

PS: For some reason, we were all sternly warned not to accompany any kids to the loo. If any of them need to go, we are supposed to get one of their teachers to accompany them.

Natural climate change?

I always find the issue of climate change a little contentious. Furthermore, it is currently being politicised so much that you cannot tune into any western politics without hearing the words climate change uttered. As an engineer, I do not dispute the facts that climate change is happening. However, I have never been quite convinced with the conclusions.

I've blogged about this issue many times and I don't wish to add much else except that scientists have recently discovered that Mars is undergoing a similar amount of climate change as us. According to this article, scientists from NASA say that Mars has warmed by about 0.5C since the 1970s, which is similar to the warming experienced on Earth over approximately the same period. So, I'm curious to see what the politico-pseudo-science environmentalists have to say about that. Let's re-examine the arguments.

Firstly, this discovery leads the the question of whether or not humans are responsible for climate change or is it just a natural part of the planet's cycle. The people who say that we are responsible like to quote carbon dioxide emissions and other green house gases as the cause for climate change. They blame us for polluting the environment and causing it to warm up. They like to show scary graphs with inconceivable extrapolations that illustrate how the warming cycle has accelerated in recent decades. So, I guess that we'll just have to blame the martians for the climate change on Mars then. Regression isn't science, it's statistics.

Secondly, this brings into the question of what should we do about the issue. As our planet gets warmer, life on the planet will certainly be affected. However, it isn't very clear whether we should take action to correct this phenomenon or should we develop methods to adapt to this change. However, choosing the latter isn't quite as sexy as claiming that the end of the world is coming and we're all doomed unless we splurge billions of dollars on every hopeless endeavour. This is fundamentally the most important issue because if we aren't the cause for climate change, we might not be able to do much to alter it's course. Unfortunately, big money goes to sexy projects and politicians like to look sexy as well.

So, I find it a bit sad that we do not have the best information to help guide our decisions. It is ultimately a failure of science to come up with the information we need. We can blame the politicians for turning this into a huge emotional issue. However, we have no one but ourselves to blame for not coming up with accurate conclusions. Maybe it's better to spend more money in learning more about our planet and the environment. Hopefully, we can figure out what to do then.

World's largest social experiment

I'd just read an interesting article about a massive social experiment that is soon to start in this world. The social experiment targets about 100 million young children in the developing world. It's called the OLPC project. I'd introduced this project in a previous blog. This project is very interesting from several aspects.


Firstly, from the sheer size of the project. It aims to put laptops into the hands of 100 million children from around the world. Each laptop will cost $100 and so, it's a massive $10 billion project that everyone is trying to get a slice of. The massive demand on computer components and parts will certainly reduce the supply to the rest of the world for processors, flash memory and most importantly, LCDs.

Secondly, the amount of engineering that went into the design of this super rugged laptop is amazing. Aside from the effort that went into cost savings, the laptop is designed to work in the desert countries of the middle east to the rain forest of amazon. Plus, it is also supposed to work where electricity may be non-existent. It is a sheer engineering marvel from all stand points.

Thirdly, nobody really knows how it is going to change the lives of these children. The project believes that the kids will figure things out for themselves just like kids everywhere else in the world do. They are hoping that the teachers will not require specialised training and will learn how to use these machines along with their students. Another worry is that these laptops may not reach their intended children but will be sold off illegally in some sort of black market trade, which is certainly possible, considering the sheer volumes involved.

Fourthly, nobody knows what's going to happen in 5 years time, when these children graduate onto the job market. A while generation of computer savvy kids are going to go into a job market that doesn't require these skills. The question the is how these markets will cope. The children could end up leaving their countries for better prospects outside, or they could become vehicles of change and bring modernisation and technology into their own countries. This is probably the biggest effect that this project can have.

Having had some experience bringing technology to children who have none, I can safely say that children are surprisingly quick and learning things. Their natural curiosity and fascination will encourage them to experiment. As a result they will very quickly master the machines, with minimal instruction. In the IKNet project that I was involved in, they quickly went from never having seen or touched a computer before, to creating documents within days. So, I certainly am supportive of the ideas behind this project.

All in all, I believe that this project is an excellent one. It is the biggest project running now, that has the real power to change societies and change the world landscape forever. It's the kind of project that is very exciting to work on as nobody really knows what's going to happen. It's breaking new ground in all areas, from anthropology to technology. I wonder how difficult it would be to actually apply for a job with them. Making the world a better place is a Good Thing (tm).

DWave makes no splash?

The demise of classical computing has been greatly exaggerated. In fact, it is a total lie. I still stick by my earlier statements that I do not believe in the promise of quantum computing. I will believe it when I see it. DWave had unveiled what they 'call' a quantum computer. After digesting their press release and scouring their website for more information, I'm decidedly unimpressed.

All they had managed to accomplish is to show a proof-of-concept for an quantum analogue computer. This isn't quite the same thing as a digital computer. It is more akin to the electronic/mechanical analogue computer that I had been working on for the first part of my PhD. Hence, I can understand the advantages and disadvantages of just such a computational beast.

From the lack of reporting by the mainstream press, I would assume that they came away less than persuaded. I don't really blame them. From what limited reporting that I could glean from the Net, it seems that this machine is *far* less impressive than the quantum computing promise is supposed to be.

According to one article, the 'Orion' is much slower than most PCs. Also, it is smaller than the head of a pin, but stored inside a large vat, using liquid helium for cooling. To quote: "It is about as portable as an elephant stuck in 14 tonnes of cement". All pioneering computers were huge. But, until everyone has a supply of supercooled liquids, this one is a bit more difficult to deploy than the rest.

However, this is possible a very first step, just like how the mechanical/electronic analogue led to the mechanical/electronic digital computer. So, maybe in another decade or so, we would be able to see a real quantum computer. But, they will need to prove it to me before I will believe in it!

UPDATE: Quote from Wired, "And notwithstanding lofty claims in the company's press release about creating the world's first commercial quantum computer, D-Wave Chief Executive Herb Martin emphasized that the machine is not a true quantum computer and is instead a kind of special-purpose machine that uses some quantum mechanics to solve problems." So, the quantum physicists cannot quite celebrate yet!

What do I think about "An Inconvenient Truth"?

While waiting for the batch processing to be done on the pictures from the CUMaS Malaysian Food Feast, I thought that I'd blog a bit about something else first. I had actually wanted to blog about this movie the night I saw it but I had already done a bunch of blogs that day and decided against it.

An Inconvenient Truth is billed as a shocking environmental documentary. It is, at present, rated as the 3rd highest grossing documentary. Therefore, I was fairly interested to catch the free screening of it last week at Fitz. Unbeknownst to me, last week was actually Cambridge's 'green week'.

My personal views on this matter are pretty strong and this documentary did little to change my perception on global warming. To me, global warming is a strong political, and commercial tool. Present day science is unable to predict the future. Hence, all the wildly diverging predictions on the effects of global warming [ranging from us burning up in a ball of flame to the coming of a new ice age] are highly speculative. Documentaries like these piggyback on science to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt.

All the scientists agree that global warming *is* happening. Science can conclusively prove that global warming has been happening. Scientists collect historical data and analyse it to show historical patterns. However, that's where the science ends. The fiction begins with the assumption that the patterns will continue, simply because we do not have an accurate model of our environment. Analysing trends is not thought in science but that skill is taught in statistics class. And you know what they say about statistics.

The documentary is peppered with political messages. At one point, it took a direct swipe at the current US regime, which is no longer signatory to the Kyoto Protocol by pointing out the fact that the president's former science advisor had O&G interests. At other points, it paints Al Gore as a champion of the environment while Bush as the person who stole the election.

However, the documentary lost it's credibility by blaming the New Orleans disaster on hurricane Katrina, which is blamed on global warming. This is just plain irresponsible. Any logic minded person will know that the disaster was caused by human error and malaise on a unprecedented scale. It was a disaster waiting to happen and the hurricane merely facilitated it. The disaster response (or rather lack of one) was the direct cause to all the problems, not global warming.

Whichever way you lean on this issue, this documentary is a good way to spend some time. It is highly entertaining, with good production quality and a clear message to spread. Certainly, there are worse ways to spend an hour or two.

*** image from wikipedia ***

If this rumour is *real*, I'm in deep shit!

There's a rumour going around that D-Wave, of BC, is going to unveil a 16-qubit quantum computer next week. They are the world's best funded quantum computing company. Most other monies going into quantum research are for quantum cryptography.

First of all, I will assume that they have a working prototype of the system that they can demonstrate and that it will actually perform some form of useful computation. I have always been telling anyone who's willing to listen, that the whole idea of quantum computing is fiction. I will only believe that it will work when someone actually shows me one.

If the unveiling next week is real, I'm going to be forced to eat my own words! Haha! Not only that, it would also rapidly change the whole spectrum of my research area (i.e. microprocessor architecture). So, it would seriously screw up a lot of other people's careers. It should also render my current research project obsolete! That's a great prospect to be waking up to next week.

As much as I am loath for such a thing happening, I am also interested in what it can do. As a scientist, I'm naturally curious and open enough to accept that my previous perceptions were wrong. As an engineer, I'm interested to find out how it works and what it can do. As a businessman, I'm keen to see what appliations it can have and how it can best be commercialised.

So, even though I've had a bunch of blogs already today, I felt that this development had sufficient life changing properties to warrant another one. It may just change my entire career. Incidentally, all the articles that I'd found about this news had been plastered with the same Xeon ad for some reason. Maybe there's some form of entanglement involved [ok, that was lame!].

Is climate change really that bad?

I've wanted to blog about this for a while. First, the disclaimer. I'm not an environmentalist. So, my knowledge in this field may be sketchy. However, I have been inundated with the propoganda from various groups about the adverse effects of global warming since I was a child. But after reading "State of Fear" by Michael Crichton, it started me thinking. Granted, it's a work of fiction, but it's entire premise is based on fact (and the author lists the various peer reviewed papers for those who're interested to research it).

Okay, I'm not goung to argue that global warming is not happening. All the science seems to conclude that there is a recent rise in global temperature. However, things get very sketchy when someone tries to say that global warming is bad and that we're all going to die from it. Now, that sounds to me like FUD and that got me into thinking. Is it actually that bad?

The only thing that is constant in our environment is constant change. Our environment has never been operating in a "steady state" (pardon the engineering parlance). It is constantly changing, going through both warming and cooling periods at different times (watch Ice Age 1 and 2). So, is it so bad that our environment is changing?

This is the point at which, the science starts to approach fiction. No one can predict the future, especially for a turbulent system that is neither well characterised nor understood. So, all that any researcher can say about where things are headed, is based on pure conjecture. The honest truth is, no one really knows what is going to happen.

So, I'm not too convinced that global warming is a bad thing. Who knows, it might be something that our planet actually needs and is part of it's natural temperature cycle. What started me on this blog? This article in TheStar.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/12/25/nation/16409939&sec=nation

It's another slow news day. Public holidays tend to have that affect.

* Image from wikipedia *