Category: Technology

A perennial point of contention among chemists is the issue of naming the chemical elements. At least at the top end of the periodic table. However, the periodic table of rejected elements provides some light relief while concentrating on this crucial chemical conundrum. Where else can you find delirium, sin, and crouton?

I’m sure they meant element 15 (Bs) to be Bosphorus, but somehow missed the s, although Boss Porous would be a great name for a Dukes of Hazard revival set in a lab…

I haven’t mentioned search terms for a while, but one that drew in the punters to the sciencebase site stood out in my recent trawl of the site logs – “crystallized ink”. Now, what’s all that about? I wondered.

At first, I assumed it was someone worrying about their little pot of Indian blue going all glacial on them (as is the wont of certain types of honey and concentrated acetic acid solutions). But, then I thought maybe the pen manufacturers, in a bid to recapture a dwindling market for handwriting implements, had come up with a way to add a glittery appearance to the extruded product of their implements…

A quick Google, however, revealed that crystallized ink, at least on the basis of the page one SERP is a product of science fiction – an ink that can oscillate between two states: visible and invisible. This product could thus be used to create animations on the page without the need for a conventional computer screen. The main citation is on this page http://lattice.mysteryandmagic.com/reference.a.html. Pull back to the top-level and you will a sci-fi game called The Lattice (semantically the name is reminiscent of another sci-fi genre, I’d say). So, that was an intriguing find.

But.

Trawling the logs a bit deeper revealed the keyphrase “clogged printer head”. A quick cross-check revealed that the search had come from the same IP within a couple of minutes. So, I suspect our inkvestigator was actually just looking for information on how to unblock their printer rather than either anything as archaic as Quink or as futuristic as animated ink.

Shame.

This post is no longer relevant as I switched tag cloud systems.

One aspect of the Sciencebase science blog that seems to be of perennial interest to regular visitors is the cloud of keywords to the right of the page. This tag cloud changes continually as new posts appear in the blog, shifting the emphasis on that part of the page between the various categories and subject areas that I cover.

So, how does it work, that’s the usual question from visitors. Well, it’s presumably obvious insofar as the size and shade of each keyword in the cloud reflects the number of posts associated with a particular tag. size and shade of each word reflects how many entries there are in my blog with a particular tag. Hence, chemistry is big and black because I’ve posted lots of chemistry entries whereas the word worm is small and so faintly gray as to be almost invisible as there are only very few entries with that tag. This particular post is in “Geek”, so it will have added a small amount of extra weight to that keyword in the cloud. Mouseover each tag in the cloud to see how many articles are available under that tag (I’ve not tagged up all articles though, so those are only numbers for those posts that have appeared since the switch to WordPress).

Anyway, lots of blogging software has plugins or builtin functionality to create such a tag cloud, so search the web for that phrase (tag cloud) together with the name of your blogger to find out how to add it. The Sciencebase blog uses the amazing Ultimate Tag Warrior together with a clever bit of extra coding in the template file to create this ephemeral and ever-changing menu.

September 2008 update: Sharp-eyed readers will have noticed the tag cloud has been missing for a while now. I disabled UTW some time ago and am now using Simple Tags and working my way through 1500 posts on Sciencebase to add useful tags and to resurrect the tag cloud at a later date. Watch this space.

I just received an email purportedly from an academic publisher offering me the chance to win an iPod simply for taking part in a survey of my usage of their products. Fair enough.

But, when I click the survey link, the anti-phishing filter in my email program is tripped revealing the message to be a potential security risk. The reason? When one clicks the link to the survey, the link is apparently to “xyz321.con”, but the actual link is pointed to “uvw123.nob”. In other words, they don’t match, a discrepancy that is usually indicative of an internet fraud. Similar things happen with those “Validate your account” messages that appear to be from your bank, eBay, or Paypal, viz, click on something that looks like www.paypal.com and end up at a phishing page on www.abcxyz123.info or whatever.

To an inexperienced user, there is no quick and easy way to validate that the Springer email is genuine, so most would, I’d hope, follow their IT deparments didacts and simply delete the message as a phish.

If I were running such a marketing mail out, then I’d ensure the URL and anchor pointed to the same domain, in this case it would look far “safer” if both pointed to “publishersite.com” rather than some other obscure domain that is unrelated to the company’s genuine domain. This looks and is much safer for the end users and so would ensure a much high percentage take-up of the offer.

For more information on phishing and other computer security issues, I’d recommend you check out http://www.sciencetext.com where I host a stack of tech and security tips, just in case you haven’t got an IT department to offer the software and knowledge to back up those didacts.

Pnicogen. Silent “p” or sounded? The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) people just contacted me, wanting a definitive answer.

Partly because they found my Molecule of the Month on the subject at Paul May’s excellent site and suspected I was some kind of expert. Sadly I’m not, so I’ve resorted to asking a couple of contacts who might actually have a clue. I’d like it to be p’nuh but suspect the p should be silent, as in pneumatic. However, the OED entry currently claims otherwise, and my first contact agrees that it should be “p’ni”

The idea of robots in the military brings about thoughts of a sci-fi nightmare, probably starring Arnie and most definitely not R2. The military does, nevertheless, already use robotics to help members of the armed forces protect themselves against a wide range of dangers. But, the idea of a robot fighter shooting at the enemy is not that far from reality.

Read about this and the latest robotics news on our scenta robots news page.

P30%_gha! or p0%3ghA!?

If you’ve ever resorted to scribbling your assigned computer password on a Post-It and sticking it to the side of your monitor because it was too cryptic to remember, then research at the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology in Germany, could be just what you’ve been waiting for.

The scientists there have developed a new program — PasswordSitter. “Using it, you only need to remember a single password. The program provides all the other passwords on any device, whenever you need them”, explains team leader Markus Schneider, “A special procedure based on state-of-the-art encryption technology provides the necessary security.”

Despite new security mechanisms, requesting a password is the most common method of checking a user’s identity. Most of us have so many passwords for websites, databases, email etc, that remembering which one goes with what is a major headache. The problem is doubled by company IT managers who often force users (quite sensibly) not only to choose non-obvious passwords with mixed alphanumerics and even punctuation marks but also to change it on a regular basis.

According to the annual Safenet survey, half of all professional computer users write down their passwords, and around a third even divulge their passwords to colleagues. It almost defeats the object of having a password in the first place. A lot of people go for weak passwords, such as the name of a spouse, or don’t think twice about using the same password for everything. “These kinds of practices harbour potential security risks”, says Schneider, “On the other hand, it’s virtually impossible for you to follow the security advice from the experts without any help.”

PasswordSitter bolsters security because it generates strong passwords, while the level of security can be set to allow different password guidelines to be followed and passwords can be changed quickly and easily.

But, you may be wondering why not opt for one of those neat USB fingerprint reader? gadgets? Well, they’re fine if you’re at your own PC, but what happens if you’re working at someone else’s workstation or in a cybercafe?

PasswordSitter provides users with access to their passwords from any device at any time they need them.

So, how does it work? Well, it seems that Fraunhofer aren’t so keen to reveal details, although Schneider told Sciencebase that, “PasswordSitter is available as signed Java applet. If you are in a cybercafe in Peru, then you can download PasswordSitter, type in your Master Password and PasswordSitter generates your ebay password for you every time you need it. Note that your ebay password is not stored in the PasswordSitter system.”

There are other password-minding systems out there – including PassPack and LastPass and if you’re stuck for ideas for how to come up with a password try my passwords for scientists idea.

Personally, I’m way past the dating game, having been happily married for several years. But, as an angsty teen with a passion for the more nerdy things in life – many of which begin with the prefixes astro-, star-, and chem- Trek Passions would have been a lifesaver. If you’re looking for love and haven’t yet found your Lieutenant Uhura, your Han Solo, or even your Ford Prefect, then this site could be the place to go. Essentially, it’s an off the dial free dating site for sci fi fans and it does exactly what it says on the tin. It interfaces lonely hearts, enables matter transportation of an amorous kind, and basically presses all the right buttons among the millions of Trekkies, Starwarsies, Clarkies, and perhaps even Wyndhamies out there.

McCoy: [to Spock] You see, I feel sorrier for you than I do for him [referring to Kirk] because you’ll never know the things that love can drive a man to. The ecstasies, the miseries, the broken rules, the desperate chances, the glorious failures and the glorious victories. All of these things you’ll never know, simply because the word “love” isn’t written into your book. Good night, Spock.

So, sign up, but watch out it’s a scary worlds out there…

A sciencebase visitors attempted to spam the blog recently with an advert for his detox kits. Needless to say, this blog automatically adds a rel=nofollow tag to all comment URLs, so it’s a waste of time spamming us anyway, but moreover, all comments are moderated so that cr*pfloods are easily averted.

Anyway, if you want to find out what a detox kit is check this Google search: detox kits – Google Search

It seems that the marketing spiel claims that these kits can clear out the tell-tale signs of any drug of abuse and so help users pass drugs tests. Looks like bunk to me, nothing can “detox” your body. Metabolites have to be excreted eventually and chemical analysis would reveal the presence of even modified metabolites in your urine.

One thing that does worry me about these kits though. If they do “mop up” drugs and drug metabolites from your bloodstream then they’re going to have to be incredibly selective so as not to interfere with prescription drugs, surely.

I’d be very wary of using them (they’re rather pricey too!) to try and pass a drugs test. Much easier just to avoid those drugs of abuse in the first place.