Wearable computer

Bill Moggridge

Bill Moggridge, inventor of the first laptop computer, passed away

     British designer, William Grant "Bill" Moggridge, co-founder of the IDEO design firm, has died of cancer at the age of 69 on September 8, 2012.Bill Moggridge came up with the clamshell format for the GRiD Compass laptop when attempting what seemed impossible in 1980: design a real computer that would fit in an executive briefcase.

Ø  Moggridge designed the GRiD Compass laptop (1982) around an early flat screen produced by Sharp. This was a yellow-on-black electroluminescent panel that could display 80 characters of text and 320 x 240 pixel graphics.

Ø  The GRiD Compass 1101 was innovative in its use of storage, too. It didn't include a floppy drive — something that IBM's Think Pad 240 also dispensed with in 1999 — or a CD drive, because the CD hadn't even been invented. Instead, it included 384K of non-volatile electronic "bubble memory" developed at Bell Labs. It seemed a promising idea at the time, but rotating hard drives rapidly took over.

Ø  The GRiD Compass was a powerful machine for its day, with an Intel 8086 processor running GRiD OS in 256K of memory. Today's users might find it a bit heavy at 4.9kg (10.75lbs), but it was less than half the weight of an Osborne 1, an  early portable computer, at 10.7kg (23.5lb), and incomparably smarter.

Ø  The GRiD Compass made Moggridge briefly famous to a generation of geeks, but he spent his life outside computing. He said his career had three phases: first as a designer, then as a manager of design, and then as a communicator. In the final phase he was a writer, graphic designer and video-maker. He wrote two books published by MIT Press: Designing Interactions, published in October 2006, and Designing Media, published in November 2010.

Universal Serial Bus

USB stands for ‘Universal Serial Bus’ .It is the next step in creating a computer interface that really works universally. It boasts cross-platform compatibility for Macintosh, Linux/UNIX, and all versions of Windows since 98SE. The USB connector ports are available standard on virtually every computing machine manufactured in the past eight years.

Ø  USB was designed to standardize the connection of computer peripherals, such as keyboards, pointing devices, digital cameras, printers, portable media players, disk drives and network adapters to personal computers, both to communicate and to supply electric power

Ø  USB are now used to connect devices such as mobile phones, music players, personal digital assistances etc. to the computer.

Ø  USB has effectively replaced a variety of earlier interfaces, such as serial and parallel ports, as well as separate power chargers for portable devices.

Ø  USB mass storage devices are now widely used for data transmission.

Ø  USB devices are used to interface electronic devices with computer.

Many versions of USB has been released, such as USB 1.0, USB 2.0, USB 3.0 , based on the transfer rate. USB 3.0 has the highest transfer rate (625 MB/s), about 10 times more faster than USB 2.0 (60 MB/s)

USB standard connectors are of two types, USB standard A & USB standard B, based on their shape.

The structure of  USB 1.x and 2.0. are shown. The pin 1 provides +5 V, pin 2 (data-) & pin 3 (data+) are data pins, pin 4 is ground. A unit load is defined as 100 mA in USB 2.0, and 150 mA in USB 3.0. 

Are CFLs Safe

ARE CFLs SAFE???......

      Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) along with more traditional fluorescent lamps are now being aggressively marketed as environmentally friendly due to their reduced electricity consumption. Indeed, widespread replacement of incandescent bulbs with CFLs will greatly reduce electricity demand. However, there are safety issues that we often forgets ………………….

Ø  Long exposure of the shorter-wave ultraviolet (UV) light that escapes from the CFL can cause health problems such as skin problems , damaging of tissues etc..

Ø  CFL ,used to work on dimmer switches(if it is not specifically made to work with dimmers),can dramatically reduces the life of the lamp and also places you at the risk of fire. Also most photocells, motion sensors and electric timers are not designed to work with a CFL.

Ø  Fluorescent lamps create several hazards if broken. Breaking the glass can cause shrapnel injuries, along with the release of mercury and other hazardous compounds.

Ø  The most commonly cited fluorescent lighting hazard is mercury. Fluorescent and CFL bulbs contain a small amount of mercury. CFLs average less than 4 milligrams of mercury.  Mercury vapor is extremely toxic. Even in liquid form, contact with mercury is considered life-threatening or a "severe" risk to health. Even very small doses of mercury can cause severe respiratory tract damage, brain damage, kidney damage, central nervous system damage, and many other serious medical conditions.

Ø  Flicker and glare from fluorescent lights can also cause headaches and discomfort. Ever since fluorescent lighting was introduced in workplaces, there have been complaints about headaches, eye strain and general eye discomfort. These complaints have been associated with the light flicker from fluorescent lights.  

  CFLs MUST BE RECYCLED…

Heinrich Hertz