Archive for January, 2008

Will an EMP threat lead to a paper crisis?!

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

I was not in the right mood and this came to my mind, it is digital age, huge amounts of personal and business data are stored on Hard Disk Drives, Flash Memories,  DVDs and CDs.

100 years ago, people would store their images and documents on paper. Either normal paper or photo papers. I still have photos my father has taken back about 50 years ago, and they are all remained intact. AS long as they are not under direct sunlight, humidity or something similar, or if they burn.

For DVD, almost all of those problems, also heat, shock, and like that. DVD are much sensitive than paper, and a little may make lots of data unrecoverable.

Worse than DVD, are hard disks. They might look a little more secure, but those are even more sensitive, and problems include mechanical failures, and Magnetic interferences.

Personally, I am always scared of losing my data, family images, documents and a lot more of electronic design and software work. That’s awful. I have lost data before, and every year, my data has grown 10s of times from the year before, and now I have started to feel very insecure.

Now imagine some military shows it has some kind of EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) ordnance. If people, those like me specially, feel their data is unsafe, what will they do? Better to ask myself first, what will I do if I am scared of losing data due an EMP attack around me?

Maybe I make copies and put them around the world? Then what? is that enough? I say no. The cost can be too much and useless, because you don’t know where in the world there will be safe place.

Another method will be to put your data in some secure environment meters under the ground, but it will possibly make no difference, how many people can dig a 100 meter or even more bunker? I cannot for sure.

Then what if I store some of my data, at least the most important ones on paper? sya printing images and documents and designs and sources on paper, just like they did for hundreds and thousands of years since this last decade?!

Although it takes a lot of space, but it is not that costly, it is viable, and will not be easily lost, as digital data does.

Then imagine part of people think like me, and imagine they are really scared of losing their data, what will happen to the world? people may rush to buy paper, lots of it, huge amounts. What will happen to the world?

I say it might lead to a chaos, to a crisis. Just like what is happening to the oil. Price of the oil is raised from about USD 14 a barrel a few years ago to more than a hundred USD, and it is awful.

Just a simple thought.

Paymaan.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in General | 6 Comments »

Complexity of Human mind

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

This human brain is really something, I think. It always makes me surprised, you see people think about things you can’t believe, you see you can’t remember things when you need them, but at the same time, you remember or find things using the same brain which makes even yourself surprised.

Yesterday, I got nostalgic (again, I know) and tried to remember a song from W.A.S.P I used to listen back in early 90’s. Anyway, I got a copy an hour ago and it was “The Idol” from “The Crimson Idol” album. The song or even lyrics are not that important, it was the acoustic nature of the song which grabbed me. Ok so you say why in the hell you liked heavy metal, when you liked their acoustics?! Don’t ask me, my brain is as complex as yours, I just listen to what I feel I like.

Then listening to that song, made me remember something else, I don’t know how, again :)

I normally don’t believe I have done enough back in my life to be proud of, but sometimes even small things makes you happy. I remembered I designed a hardware dongle for a friend (and money of course), which nobody could unlock, it helped him sell some hundreds of his “IRANA” persian/farsi writing program for Amiga computers, and that made me very happy. The friend was “Ali Aarefi”, in case you or himself are curious :)

I have not revealed the design in more than a decade, but you’ll be amazed for sure, if you know what it was. I even prevented telling friends and competitors that I was the designer, taking any chance from them to even try to guess the design based on my style.

I talked to people about how that dongle was, and people continued to tell me yes that is a simple dongle and I can unlock it if I want etc. etc., but nobody did, and in that market full of pirates, it was a good thing I did, I feel. I myself have always been a victim of software piracy and I almost lost a full luxury life to it, so I know I did something good to a friend.

ok, so what was the dongle?! I am revealing this secret here:

Amiga computers’ hardware is something amazing, I can never forget it and I still have my A1200 and I love it. The joystick ports of Amiga, also have an analog input, unlike other computers of those times. My dongle idea was simply this, I used a high tolerance resistor on that port, inside a joystick connector, software would read the analog port, and if the proper voltage exists it worked, it was that simple!!!

A piece of code, would read the ports, about 3 or 4 lines of C, because it was Amiga and programming was a pleasure rather than a torture. Ali Aarefi would embed the code somewhere in his program, and I also filled the connectors with epoxy, so nobody could reverse engineer it.

An small success, still something you feel good when you remember it, it even made today a good day to me :)

Paymaan.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in General, Technology | Comments Off

A few plants here, a few there…

Sunday, January 20th, 2008

Our earth lives as green plans exist, there is no doubt about this simple fact. One of the reasons this earth is alive, and living things exist on it is because of those green colors, or better say, green plants.

I love nature, plants, animals, most of them. Actually there are not many animals I dislike, I believe every existence has a reason to exist, and all should exist. I can’t set a preference here, but I surprisingly like the giant animals a little more. Mostly those have lived the earth for millions of years, like crocodiles, turtles, whales, and especially Rhinos!

Well, I am not like Hagrid, but those animals lived the earth so long I believe they own the earth more than we do.

Anyway, I like plants, and I like planting. I have no private land, and actually not even an small yard (live on 2nd floor actually :) ), so since three years ago, I plant in containers.

I have about 20 to 30 containers, all in my balcony, I plant vegetables in them, yes you heard it right, vegetables in containers!!! and those produce real vegetables, in quality much better than those you buy at market!

The story is like this, you buy a few 8 liter containers, fill them with good and light soil, buy some quality seeds, and take care of them. You see for yourself how they cultivate, grow, flower, and produce real vegetables.

Plants are also so beautiful they double as decoration, and just imagine how pretty they can be having red tomatoes or green bell peppers hanging from them. Last but not least, you can’t believe how good peppers smell, even if they are not yet any peppers on them.

To make it healthier and more fun, I only use natural heirloom seeds. By heirloom I mean seeds which are original types, NOT modified genetically and are really natural. This way, fruits taste natural, smell natural, and you will notice the huge difference between them and those tasteless ones you buy from market.

In this category, I would like to talk about these kinds of stuff, and we may have some interesting discussions for every other nature enthusiast, so be my guest, and tell me what do you like to hear!

Paymaan.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in General, Nature and gardening, Technology | Comments Off

Passion for sport fishing!

Monday, January 14th, 2008

The reason for this category to exist is my personal passion for fishing. Once upon a time, I tried fishing in my childhood and it attracted me so much. Spring 2007, again I fell for this passion and since then I have tried to gather my equipments so I can be prepared for any possible opportunity to go fishing.

Actually, I guess it is a great sport, and most of the times it gives one a relaxation, the feel of nature, and lots of knowledge of insetcs and marine life.

Believe me, it is a nice hobby, and almost everybody with access to a pond, river or dam can easily enjoy it.

Anyway, in this category I would like to talk my opinions about nature, fishes, fishing holes, different kind of lures and baits, different techniques and equipments etc.

So, you too share your opinions about this and let me know if I can give any advices etc. Just consider I am an amateur fishing enthusiast, trying to explore things on every opportunity, I am not an expert, and I too watch and read and study what experts say, to learn, on a day by day basis, my comments might not be as accurate as of those of expert fishermen.

A lot more on this later!

Paymaan.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Fishing | Comments Off

A new blog is being born!

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008

It’s me looking so serious!Hello everybody!

It took me several years before I finally decided to have my own blog, not because I am new to this, but because my mind has always been filled with a lot of things, and while I am absolutely a problem resolver, deciding on my own projects sometimes gets so difficult.

This time, it got several years before I assure myself I really need to give my thoughts out on a blog, and to share my ideas with others and benefit from those many great minds out there. But it seems I am finally in a position to actually begin it.

I am not much excited yet, but maybe this work turns to something real good, so I collect all my hopes and will try my best to make something mutually useful.

I want to give my ideas on almost everything. I am very fond of personal R&D and have passed most of my life doing this on almost everything I have found interesting, I will try my best to continue this, because this is a field I like so much, even considering how hard it is to put your own money on some costly research, without any sponsors, almost no support and sometimes even lots of objections from those who don’t believe or those who don’t see any monetary results, or even those who simply are used to let others do their works.

So, let’s start and hope we will do fine.

That’s all for now, and let I do some fine tunings to my Word Press environment.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in General | 2 Comments »