GeekwithEnvy

Richard Vincenti Jr

35 Years of Voyager

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September 5th,  2012 marks the 35th anniversary of the launch of Voyager 1 which is now the most distant human-made object and the second longest operating spacecraft.

The mission of the Voyager spacecraft both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, was to explore Jupiter and Saturn. After major success, the mission was extended to have Voyager 2 explore Uranus and Neptune. Currently the only data we have from Uranus and Neptune came from Voyager, no other spacecraft have since explored these two planets.Voyager

Today, 35 years later these two spacecraft are still functioning and sending back information to Earth from billions of miles away, much farther away from the sun than Neptune and Pluto. The mission of both spacecraft today is to explore interstellar space and has been named the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM) .

The VIM has three phases, termination shock, heliosheath exploration, and interstellar exploration. The spacecraft were in an area that was primarily controlled by the suns magnetic field and surrounded by supersonic solar wind, this is the termination shock phase. The spacecraft are now in the heliosheath phase, the outer reaches of the suns solar winds and magnetic influence.  Soon the spacecraft will begin to move into an area where interstellar winds become more prominent and push back and slow our suns solar winds to a sub-sonic speed, eventually there will be no influence and the spacecraft will then be considered to be in interstellar space. The point where deep space begins and our suns influence ends is called heliopause, reaching heliopause is the ultimate mission of Voyager and the spacecraft should have enough power and fuel to last until approximately 2025, which should allow for enough time to reach this disatance.golden recordVoyager

Voyager also contains a 12 inch gold plated copper disk that contains sounds and images from Earth. The sounds are of wind, thunder,birds and other animals. Human speech from different parts of the world and pictures form different cultures are also included on the disk. For a complete list of the disc contents including samples, head here.

For complete details on VIM click here.

 

 

A Guide To Backing Up Your Digital Life

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In the world of digital data we have tons of pictures, documents, videos, email, financial information and more right at our fingertips, but how many of us back up all of this stuff? Backing Up DataWe are using our computers for just about everything we do in our day to day lives. With the major push to go paperless, many of us no longer write out checks to pay our bills, file paper taxes or even receive bank statements in the mail.

The convenience of having all of this information on our computers is great, but it can all disappear with one virus, power surge, or flood. Whats even more strange is that most of us know we need to back up our data but we choose not to. Perhaps it is because we just don’t know how or maybe just don’t feel like we have the time.

Here are a few great ways to back up your data and the best part is it doesn’t take very long and it’s not very expensive.

External Hard Drive-

External Hard drives are easy to set up and you can get a huge amount of storage space for very little, and to top it off they are portable. For example, you can get a 3TB, yes that’s Terabyte, for around $140. You might even find deals better then this, especially if you can find an online coupon or rebate offer. Many of these drives now utilize the new super fast USB 3.0 standard for quick data transfer.

USB Thumb Drives-

Yep, even these little guys can be of great use when you need to back up data. Thumb drives come in many shapes and sizes and some can hold up to 128GB of data. This option is not necessarily the fastest but in smaller sizes, like the 8GB for example, you can back up all of your spreadsheets or photos in a snap. I think these make a better choice than recordable DVD media since they are less susceptible to physical damage, take up less space, and are relatively cheap.

Recordable DVD-

These are quite useful to use but honestly I think the other methods of backup that I mentioned are far easier to work with. I’m not saying you should never use optical media to back up your data I am just saying there are better options.

Home Server Backup-

If you have multiple computers on a network you can back them up using something like Time Capsule from Apple, which will integrate wirelessly with Time Machine to back up your Apple computers. You can also use Clickfree Wireless backup, which will also back up your files on multiple machines. Both of these options are extremely easy to set up and work really well.

The Cloud-

Yes, it’s the cloud again! Sites like Carbonite and Mozy are super easy to use and offer solid back up protection for about $50 a year, that’s about $5 a month which is not bad for peace of mind.

Dropbox is another popular option for back up synchronization that can be downloaded or used on the web. Dropbox stores files in one folder that can be accessed from any device and it features a relatively easy to use interface.

OK, so we have a few options to choose from when it comes to how we want to back up our data but how do you choose what to back up? This process is not as bad as you might think, just think about what is irreplaceable and what means most to you personally. After you determine what can not be replaced, you can start weeding out things like video game data (excluding saved games), old documents that are no longer important like essays from 6 years ago or old resumes and emails.

Many operating systems come with a back up system of their own that you can use.

MAC

Mac uses Time Machine, which you can get detailed information on how to use here.

Windows

Windows users can use Backup and Restore, instructions on how to use this can be found here.

openSuse

With openSuse you can back up your /home using instructions found here.

Remember, redundancy is key here and try to back up only the things that you consider to be irreplaceable and most important. Using this strategy will keep your file sizes from getting out of control and help speed up the back up process.

 

 

Earthquake Tech

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Earthquake cracked ground floorThe latest earthquake ‘swarm’ in Southern California was comprised of more than 400 minor earthquakes in just a few days.  It leaves most of us to wonder if it is a sign of a larger earthquake to come. So who or what is keeping an eye on things for us? How far have we come in detecting and predicting earthquakes?

We have come along way in seismic research over the years and scientists and engineers at the California Institute of Technology, USGS Pasadena, UC Berkeley, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and the University of Southern California have been hard at work on a Earthquake early warning system (EEW). This early warning system works by detecting the first bit of energy that radiates from a particular earthquake, known as P-wave energy. This P-wave energy is used to pinpoint the location and magnitude of the earthquake.

In demonstrations of the system, software sounds an alarm and then shows the center of the earthquake. Then a simulated wave of energy is displayed, indicated by a circle increasing in size to show where the energy is as it travels away from the epicenter. The software also displays the magnitude and indicates when shaking should end. This EEW system is still a prototype and would need greater funding in order to to be more accurate and reliable for use in California and the Pacific Coast. You can see this software demonstration in action at the bottom of this page.

You could use the information gathered by these systems to try to decipher patterns in the Earth’s seismic activity to determine where more earthquakes will occur but this system is mainly built around earthquakes that have already occurred. What scientists would really like to achieve is the abbillity to accurately predict seismic activity before it happens.

A publication in the Journal of Zoology indicated that the common toad known as (Bufo bufo), was able to predict seismic activity many days in advance of a an actual earthquake. The toads will abandon their breeding site before an earthquake occurs. Researchers believe that the toads are able to detect some subtle changes in their surrounding environment shortly before an earthquake occurs.

Some research has gone into detecting some of these changes including air ionization, magnetic pulsations, and infrared radiation emitted near the earthquake location, but it is difficult to gain accurate information from these potential warning signs as there are many factors involved that disrupt and interfere with readings.

Currently, scientists use educated guesses based on the history and current seismic activity of specific regions along with the general movement of tectonic plates. These predictions are not very precise and usually get compiled into probability percentages. It’s not to say we haven’t become better at predicting them, it’s just that we can do a lot better.

What is important to take away from this is that at this time we can not accurately predict earthquakes, so it is important to prepare for them. You should always keep an emergency kit in your home. Place your kit in a well known location thats easy to get to. Your emergency kit should contain food,water, first aid supplies, flashlights, a radio and spare batteries. These supplies should be able to sustain you and your family members for at least 72 hours.

Make sure shelves are secured and always place heavy objects on lower shelves. Do not place heavy objects like large mirrors above your bed or places people will sit. Remember that it’s not the earthquake itself as much as it is the objects around you that are a dangerous when an earthquake occurs.

Useful websites with more information on this subject:

For more information on what to do before, during and after an earthquake please visit the FEMA website here.

You also get the latest updates on seismic activity through the USGS website here.

Apps you can download to track seismic activity:

If you’re looking for good mobile app that will notify you of seismic activity you can download “EarthQuake Alert!” for Android. Information about this app can be found here.

For iOS devices you can try Earthquake! The description can be found here.

 

 

Torchlight II

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Well fellow action RPG fans, get ready for Torchlight II. The game will feature the highly demanded multi-player co-op mode that will allow you to play with your friends on the Internet for free with an all new matchmaking service. You will also be able to play using a LAN connection.

Torchlight Screenshot Ember

 Torchlight II is set in a much larger open world environment that features level randomization, hub towns, and weather effects. The game will also come with an editor to allow users to create their own mods.

There are four new classes, the Outlander,the Embermage, the Berserker, and the Engineer. Once you pick a class you will be able to choose from many different weapons. There are three new weapon types, Cannons, Fist Weapons, and Great Weapons. All of these weapon types are useless of course without some enemies to destroy and Torchlight II is loaded with new enemies which drop a ton of loot.  You will undoubtedly find your self running out of space rather quickly and you will have to make some tough choices on what loot to keep and what loot to toss.

Torchlight II Screenshot Frost

I really love the artistic style of Torchlight in general and Torchlight II, with it’s many new lands to explore and new UI,  looks really polished and even better than the first game. The team at Runic has made the UI more user friendly which should make it easier for new players to get into the game. Pets will also make a return and become even more useful then ever before as you wander deep into the new world.

Torchlight II will launch as a digital download from Runic Games, Steam, Perfect World, GamersGate, GameFly, and GameStop on September 20th, 2012.

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes

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Konami has shown off the goods and the latest edition of Metal Gear “Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeros”, looks stunning. The game is set to be an open world experience but you will remain in stealth. Snake is back and in the demo shown by Konami, he is infiltrating a U.S prison in Cuba. Game designer Hideo Kojima mentions that this release is a prologue and not Metal Gear Solid 5. The game is built around the Fox engine and from what I can see, it looks absolutely amazing. The details of the game are still very hush hush but we will be keeping up on the latest news and will post new information when it becomes available.

For now you can check out the video of the demo below.