Science/Tech

Apple and Backdoors

2013-05-10T12:11:00-07:00

According to a report published today on Appleinsider:

Apple is inundated with so many requests from law enforcement agencies to decrypt seized iPhones that officials must endure a waiting list before their case is handled.

This should be very troubling news to any owner of an iPhone or other iOS device which is encrypted. Why? Because Apple clearly has a backdoor capability to decrypt the contents of your phone.

An ATF agent turned to Apple for help after discovering that the agency "did not have the forensic capability" to decrypt the phone. Once the agent reached out to Apple, they were told it would be a wait of at least 7 weeks before the case could be addressed.

Law enforcement agencies are attempting to bypass Apple's security in order to gather evidence that can be used to charge suspected criminals. But because they're unable to break Apple's encryption, agencies are forced to seek assistance from the iPhone maker

If Apple did not have the capability to decrypt these devices there would be no reason to put anyone on a waiting list. Better put another layer of your own encryption on top if you are in the Apple ecosystem.

Copyright 2004-2013 by Gedanken Experiment (previously Rant Street), all rights reserved. Full terms of use at www.gedankenexperiment.dk

Hyundai T7 Update

2013-03-15T08:43:00-07:00

There has been a lot of traffic on my initial T7 review. I thought I would post a short update. After a month, I can say this tablet pretty much rocks for the price. The only things I wish it had were a) a larger battery and b) Android 4.2. I do expect the latter at some point and comments from Nexus 7 owners who updated to 4.2 indicate improved battery life. As to the battery itself, this was clearly a design trade off Hyundai made and it is one I can live with. I can stream about 4 hours of 3+ Mbps video to the device and about 4 1/2 hours if the video is stored locally. That is about two movies, quite a few TV episdoes and at least one football game. I'm not much of a gamer anymore but will try to get some data on that. Would 7 to 10 hours be nice? Sure. But I am never that far from an outlet and I typically do not watch more than two hours of video at a time. [Note: I've just tried BS player which appears to allow the screen to be shut off during playback - this should extend the time when outputing to HDMI on a TV]

What I really do want to convey here is that Hyundai truly is supporting this tablet. Today they released the third firmware (ROM) update since I got the tablet. Granted, the first of those came out while mine was in transit, but it is clear Hyundai wants this to be more than just a cheap Chinese tablet. In the most recent ROM, they removed virtually all of the pre-packaged applications (majority were Chinese) and the user is left with very close to a vanilla Android 4.0.4. They do include Adobe flashplayer, ES file explorer, Google Maps (previously installed from Play store), UT media player, Youtube and a GPS app.

So here's hoping that Hyundai keeps up the good work and gets us all Android 4.2 some time soon. And Hyundai, you really should try to get some marketing going.

Copyright 2004-2013 by Gedanken Experiment (previously Rant Street), all rights reserved. Full terms of use at www.gedankenexperiment.dk

Hyundai T7 Review

2013-02-28T16:03:00-07:00

This is part three of a three part post about buying a new tablet directly from China. Part I covers the search for an appropriate device Part II recounts the search for a seller and the buying process. Part III is a review of the tablet itself.

2/26/13 I have just flashed a ROM update. It is supposed to include a number of optimizations and better battery usage. Still ICS. Need to reinstall apps and get battery fully charged then will retest video rundown time to see how much battery life has improved. (see battery section for update)

Unboxing the T7

OK so I have a box in front of me which is white and marked Hyundai/Mobile Internet Device in the top left, Enyos 4 Quad processing in the top right, T7 on bottom right with an image of the little precious in the middle. The sides of the box repeat the Hyundai and T7 markings. The back is blank, except for the bottom row of icons which list what capabilities, i.e. wifi, usb, gps,etc. It appears Hyundai at some point will offer a 16gb model as there is a box to be checked 8 or 16 (8 in this case). Contact info is in both asian (Chinese or Korean) and English along with the website hyundai.digital.cn. There are two other boxes, only in asian lettering. One is ticked on the right; perhaps it is the 8/16 GB in reverse but really do not know.

The shipping box had some extra styrofoam sheets for padding, as does the inside of the white box. Somewhat unusual for this day and age, the top removes completely from the bottom half of the box. The T7 is inside a plastic sleeve, it feels much like the exam gloves nurses and doctors wear - not a clear plastic, but opaque and not clingy to the touch.

Behind it is a warranty card with enough English to figure out where to put your personal info. Not sure about where to put a stamp. Below the card is a pull out which reveals additional items. Most obvious is the power adapter. There is also a usb cord inside a sealed package, same for headphones. There is a user manual in multiple languages, including English. "Warning #2: do not soak or steam sources close to the device or charger." The English appears quite good, though a diagram with numbers and the list of functions of buttons and the like on the tablet is too small to read, even with my glasses. There is also a square, heavy paper item which appears to be an inspection sticker of some kind. There is no included hdmi cord. The hdmi port appears to be about 2/3 the size of a regular one. Nothing else is in the box.

Everything on the tablet is clearly labeled in light grey, either in English or by icon. There is an additional screen protector like film marked 'please peel off this mask AFTER application completed' - I assume that means the warranty card.

Plugging the T7 in to charge turns on a small orange/red light. It is interesting that Hyundai decided to use a separate port for charging with so many others doing it thru the usb connector. The connecting plug is very thin and about 3/16" long.

Inside the DHL outer packaging wrap is an invoice of sorts, apparently prepared for customs. The item is described as a "sample of tablet pc". The invoice is from Shenzhen Windstone Electronic Technology LTD and includes the shipping details, date etc. with a message 'We are nice to offer you the following items under the conditions given below:' tablet pc 1 $65.00. I suspect that rate is to avoid/minimize customs hassles.

Physical Characteristics

The tablet is white and just on the edge of comfortable to hold one handed. My hands are average at best, but I think a smaller hand could still hold it without discomfort. The bezel on the short sides is larger, roughly 3/4" but only 3/16" on the long sides. This makes it easy to hold for playing games without covering the screen and also allows for a one handed grasp when using it in landscape mode. There is a very small silver bezel which wraps around the top and curves over to eventually connect the white case bottom. The combination of firm edge around the top (screen) layer which then tapers off makes the device easy to hold without having the edges dig into your fingers or palm.

The front camera is at the top (portrait) right, the rear camera is at the top center directly on the other side. There is a home button located on the front of the tablet, at the bottom center. While it is true that there is a soft (touch screen) home key in Android, pressing the buttom is sometimes quicker and is independent of screen orientation. What would have been more useful, however, is if the button had pointer capability as well, i.e. the ability to move up/down, left/right by a small flick. The power button and volume rocker are located on the top left side.

All the expansion ports are on the bottom edge of the tablet, below the home button. Everything is labeled in light grey on the back by word or icon. From the left (when looking at the bottom) are power, mini-HDMI, microSD, earphones, micro-USB and the microphone. The earphones are standard 3.5mm. The T7 does not come with an HDMI cable so you will need to purchase this. It is quite frightening to see how many different standards there are for HDMI and USB connections. Let me save you some trouble. The T7 needs an HDMI A male to mini-HDMI C male cable. (The linked one from Newegg worked fine and was only $2.29). The USB port is a micro-USB "B" connection. I knew I needed to hook up a USB drive which had a full sized "A" male connector so I picked up a micro-USB "B" to standard USB "A" female cable, again, from Newegg for $5.99. I also grabbed a 32 GB class 10 micro-SDHC card for $24. To the best of my knowledge, the T7 can take no larger than 32GB and will not take SDXC. But if you have one handy, give it a try.

Build

We also learn from the bottom of the tablet that it was designed by Toptech in Korea. Looking at the corporate website, I think what is really meant is that Toptech has done the case. And while the tablet does carry the Hyundai name (and web address for Hyundai Digital, CN), this is a Samsung device.

Noted in Part I, the cpu is the Exynos Quad Core "smdk4x12", clocked from 200 MHz up to 1600 MHz. Specifically, an ARMv7 processor, variant 0x3, part 0xc09, rev 0 and the associated GPU is a Mali-400MP. And who built the device? Why Samsung, of course - S.LSI Division, Smasung Electronics Co LTD. Knowing this should make anyone considering purchasing the T7 quite a bit more comfortable with that decision.

I'd be remiss not to mention the screen. The real physical dimensions are 3.71"x 5.94" which translates into 1280x800 @216dpi. However, you will sometimes see reference to1280x752. That figure seems to relate to an internal Android effort to help normalize screen dimensions.

While it is difficult to fully assess build quality in a new device, the T7 does appear to be solidly assembled and does not run hot. There is a screen protector installed but I cannot be certain whether this was put on by the seller or the manufacturer. This creates a small dismerit as there is a small airpocket around the perimeter on two adjoining sides, but I don't this will ever be a big problem.

However, one issue which did come to light is with the microSD port. It is extremely tight and almost seems to be inclined at a very small angle. This is not a problem when putting in a card, but may be when ejected one. Perhaps it was just my fumble fingers in the initial press to eject, but my new card did not come out cleanly. Given how delicate these tiny flash cards are, rather than trying to re-insert/eject again, I took a very small flat edged blade and lifted the card just enough to slide it the rest of the way out with my finger. I had no problem putting it back in again and it was undamaged. I think I'll leave it in now until I really need to swap it out.

Below are a number of photos of the T7. Also shown are the Samsung Galaxy SIII and Note 2. Striking similarity, no?

*Face*	*Bottom*	*Top*
*Ports*	*Ports (labeled)*	*System Info*
*Welcome Screen*	*Netflix*	*Google News*
*Samsung Note 8 (credit:Fandroid.com)*	*Samsung Galaxy SIII (credit: wikicommons)*

Benchmarks

Everyone is always interested in benchmarks so I ran quite a few. All results are for the stock Hyundai T7 with no modifications. In the Antutu test, while it did score very well, the CPU is reported at 1400 MHz when in fact the top speed is 1600 MHz. Note that it also lists this as the top speed in the system info tab. Digging a little bit deeper, I installed a monitoring application and discovered that the the T7 seems to be capped at 1400 MHz. This type of governor does not appear uncommon and is probably done to avoid over heating and enhance stability. However, it is possible to 'unlock' the extra 200 MHz by rooting the device and using one of the many third party cpu speed controllers.

I've put in a few comparisons here and there. Keep in mind that the iPad-mini is a 1024x768 device while the T7 and Nexus 7 are 1280x800. What I find interesting is that in some tests the Mali-400MP trails the pack but in other tests it does fine. Not being a 3D expert, I am uncertain what to say about this. Is it the GPU? The Open GL version? Android 4.0.4 vs 4.2? The application itself? Benchmarks can be dramatically affected by build options (ie, cpu/gpu flags). I guess I would take the lower scores with a grain of salt given the reaosnable peformance on the other graphics tests .

Benchmark	T7	Nexus 7	Galaxy SIII	Gal. Note 2	iPad mini	Notes
Antutu	14,651	12,726	11,960	13,654	•	Reports CPU as 1400 MHz
Quadrant	3,883	3,669	4,454	6,643	•
Vellamo HTML5	1,503	1,342	1,722	1,812	•
Vellamo Metal	435	413	537	606	•
Sunspider (Stock)	1,765	1,660	1,460	1,330	1,482	Android browser was slower than all others
Sunspider (Opera)	1,498	•	•	•	•	lots of flickering
Sunspider (Chrome)	1,545	•	•	•	•
Sunspider (Firefox)	1,592	•	•	•	•
CF-Bench	12,133	11,649	13,110	15,305	•
GL Egypt
Classic/On-Screen	6,345	7,202	•	•	6,683
HD Off-Screen	1,650	1,484	•	•	1,634
An3dBench	34,211	34,507	36,386	•	•	@1280x752
NenaMark2	53.4	55.8	58.8	55.8	•	fps

Where there is a comparision, I did my best to find scores which were from devices which were not overclocked. In addition, benchmarks are always being updated and may not always be comparable from version to version.

Battery Life

Testing battery life is difficult. I find most of the tests done on websites to be somewhat contrived in that they only test the run down time while playing a video or a game. Unfortunately, nobody seems to have an application or script that better emulates "real" world usage. Thus I too fell into the 'lets play some video' trap with five test scenarios per below:

Test 1: Video played from internal storage on MX player using device speakers: 4 hours 15 minutes
Test 2: Video played from attached USB hard drive (powered hub) on MX player using head phones: 4 hours 36 minutes
Test 3: Streaming of hockey game in HD @3.2Mbps on MX player using headphones: 3 hours 16 minutes
Test 4: Streaming of hockey game in HD @3.2Mbps on MX player using headphones, screen at 3 brightness, no location services, output to HDMI: 3 hours 25 minutes
Test 5: Streaming of movie on Netflix using headphones: 3 hours 20 minutes (5% charge was remaining)

Remote streaming was over wifi. Note, when output to HDMI the tablet screen does not turn off and screen brightness can only be dimmed to "3", not completely off. The default brightness is "9" and this seems more than bright enough; I can't imagine turning it up any further except perhaps in very bright outdoor lighting. If anything, it can be lowered when inside or viewing with no room lighting.

The results are pretty consistent. If you are playing video locally, expect about 4:15, give or take. If you are streaming over wifi, 3:15 is about it.
So no, you are not going to get 7,8 or 9 hours rundown time. The primary reason is that the battery is simply too small at 3,400 mAh, especially when compared to the Google Nexus 7 (4,325 mAh) and Apple iPad-mini (4,490 mAh). The Nexus is 27% larger for the same sized screen, the iPad-mini is 32% larger for a screen only 75% as large. The Nexus 7 also has talked up its power management circuits from Maxium Integrated.

All that said, in a more normal usage situation - browsing, e-mail, some video, reading - the T7 should last about 6 hours. I will try to update this with a better assessment over the coming weeks. I can say that it loses very little charge when it goes into standby mode. In my usage so far, I have seen it drop 2% when left in standby for about 15 hours. A full recharge takes about three hours but 50% is significantly quicker.

Battery Updates
Hyundai released an updated rom on 2/19/13. This was still for Android 4.0.4, but they claimed some optimizations and also some improved battery life. I've left the original update notes below. In summary, there is indeed some improvement. I have only done three tests. One with locally stored video and two with Netflix streaming. I did not see any notable change in the locally streamed test. However, the Netflix streaming did see improved battery life, from 3hr20m to about 3hr45m +/- 5 mins.

I also attempted two rundown tests with only the screen on, nothing else running. This brought to light something which may be affecting all Android owners this week. Google apparently pushes an application called 'Google play services' and this got on the T7 - I found out when I noticed the battery draining faster than expected on this test and checked running aps, finding that one using a lot of CPU. There were a few others that looked high as well, related to messaging notifications. In checking about today, I've found a few Nexus 7 users complaining about the same thing in the past few days. So keep an eye out for that. On the second try (today) I used one of the astronomical backgrounds and stopped the test at 50% run down, just over 3 hours later. Rather than wait to see if it would really go 6+ hours, I charged back up and verified my previous Netflix run. Please note as well, the digital clock application was running after the boot eventhough I had not placed the widget on any screen. I've disabled that one along with the other Chinese applications. Note I have also disabled the Pinyin keyboard again and can report no apparent issues.

I am really hoping Hyundai gets a 4.2 update out there soon. Based on what Nexus 7 owners are reporting, it got them quite a bit more battery life. That may or may not translate to the T7, but I'll keep my fingers crossed that it can push the video times closer to five full hours. Even so, I still firmly believe that unless you are going to be out of pocket from an electrical outlet of any kind for more than 24 hours, this tablet will get you through a normal day of use. [I mean, you all don't just sit there attached to your tablet 24/7 do you? Work? TV? Eat?]

2/27/13 I did two video run down tests (using MX player) with the updated ROM. Playing local video, headphones and wifi on got 4hr20m, though 4% usuage is reported for an ad network which was not there in prior test. Call it 4:25 which is a tiny bit better than earlier test. However, streaming Netflix did show a fairly significant improvement, hitting 3hr50m with 5% left. Now we wait for Android 4.2 and any additional firmware improvements.

2/28/13I may redo these tests - I had installed "Google Play services" and this appears to suck up a good amount of cpu when nothing else is running.

Subjective Assessment

Contrary to the knee-jerk reactions by the usual gadget sites, this tablet is for real. The IPS screen is excellent. Whatching a hockey game stream in high definition was really quite spectacular. The viewing angles are such that it is hard to not be able to view the screen. Performance likewise is extremely good. There is no hesitation or delay at all when moving between screens or applications. Netflix runs fine too and that it can stream live HD sports without missing a beat is a testament to the T7 meeting its objectives. The physical design of the T7 also gives a lot of confidence. It does not bend or flex and all edges are smooth and flush where they meet. Would it survive a four foot fall onto a concrete sidewalk? Mmm.. probably not, but then neither do most other phones and tablets.

The expandability is as described. Once you have the micro to regular usb adapter cable, anything USB just seems to work. Flash drives mount immediately. The USB3 external hard drive needs to be mounted through a powered hub. I found that it was best to plug the hub into the T7 prior to powering the tablet on. It would then find and mount the external drive without issue. I have also found my USB laptop mouse works fine with the T7 and Android 4.0. The HDMI output also worked well - once you knew the correct trick. I've noticed quite a few questions and complaints in Android forums about getting HDMI out to work on various devices, in particular with Samsung televisions. I too struggled at first until I realized that the 16:9 output option in the Android display settings was the wrong one to use. Instead, use the 'Default TV' setting. Everything worked from that point on. As noted earlier, the screen does not shut off when output goes to the HDMI port. There are valid reasons for this not happening automatically, but there should still be a way to manually kill the screen to save battery.

The cameras are as specified. The front one is really only useful for something like Skype. The rear camera is good enough for quick snaps to be posted on facebook or make small prints. At 2MP, it is not a high quality shooter and you shouldn't really be expecting it to be a camera substitute. At this price point it is certainly acceptable, especially in light of "better" cameras on more expensive tablets still getting panned in reviews (and the Nexus 7 has only one 1.2MP front facing camera). It took a while before better cameras appeared in phones and the same is probably true of tablets.

The one true weakness of this tablet is the relatively short battery life. You will probably not be able to watch two streaming movies, though you might be able to if they are stored locally. However, in the real world I do not see this as a major problem for most people who are not going to need the device to run non-stop for 8 hours. There is more than enough juice to do your web browsing, e-mail and light video and gaming and still make it through the day before plugging in. While it is probably not the best thing to do, a 30 minute charge will get you a substantial fraction of the battery charge, so even in hard pressed situations on the road you should be able to keep going.

Conclusion

For $187 at the door, this is a pretty amazing device and you can get it for $172 if you do not pay up for FedEx (over other courier services like DHL or EMS). This is about $100 cheaper than the Nexus 7, the most likely alternative.

The Nexus 7 wins hands down in the battery longevity. Beyond that, the edge is usally with the T7. There are some 3D benchmarks in which the Nexus fared better, but on most benchmarks the Hyundai performed better. For the daring, there are still 200 MHz of cpu available on a rooted device.

But where the T7 really outshines the Nexus 7 is the availability of the USB, SD and HDMI ports. Can a Nexus 7 go to a friend's house and play your streaming video content on their home TV? No, but the T7 can. Nor can the Nexus be expanded either through USB or microSD. Beyond the unlimited physical storage, the ability to swap out the microSD card or use a flash or external drive means you can also segregate work from play. Everyone will value those features differently, but along with a $100 discount they seem to be at least a fair trade off against the T7's 8 vs the Nexus 7's 32GB internal memory.

To conclude, I would not hesitate to recommned this tablet, in particular to those drawn to the iPad mini who are not yet part of the Apple ecosystem. The substantial savings and equal, if not better performance and expandability, should make it an easy decision. The gap is closer against the Nexus 7 but still substantial. Having used the Hyundai for the past 10 days, I can see no reason to pay over $200 for a 7" tablet. Indeed, I think the high margins on 10" tablets may be in danger, and not just on a size/usability factor vs the 7" models. If Hyundai can bring to market a quality product at 7", it is only a short while before they and others have realistic 10" competitors at a substantial discount to iPads and Nexus 10s. I'll go out on a limb here, but I do think the tablet space will be mature within the next 18 to 24 months. Great news for consumers.

Copyright 2004-2013 by Gedanken Experiment (previously Rant Street), all rights reserved. Full terms of use at www.gedankenexperiment.dk

Buying A Tablet Directly From China: AliExpress

2013-02-19T16:01:00-07:00

This is part two of a three part post about buying a new tablet directly from China. Part I covers the search for an appropriate device Part II recounts the search for a seller and the buying process. Part III is a review of the tablet itself.

So the next step was to find a place to buy this Hyundai T7 tablet. Given that I was using the PandaWill site for some initial product research, I first looked into their background. What I found was a wide range of comments - some people very happy, others pissed off, many ok but with caveats. This left me with a decidedly "meh" feeling, which was sealed when I found out that the free shipping was by slow post. Delivery could take a month or more. Putting aside the typical American impatience when buying the new shiny, this was simply too long to have a purchase in limbo.

I next checked out DealsPrime, the place which did the in-depth video review of the T7 that I watched on YouTube. I was again left with the feeling that while odds favored everything working out ok, it would take a long time to get the device. Of course, I could pay extra for faster shipping - $20ish at PandaWill and $40 at DealsPrime. I suppose if I had to pick between DealsPrime and PandaWill, I would lean towards DealsPrime as they at least gave me something of real value in the video review, though at a premium of $20 unless I used China post. And there was still the nagging issue of payment and would I be out close to $200 if things went wrong.

With a little more Googlefoo, I found myself at AliExpress, a name which made me a touch nervous, but some how rang a bell. And there it was - they are related to Alibaba.com, a name which I recalled being talked about quite a bit in the early 00's on CNBC. So perhaps there is... something... behind this AliExpress site. Looking down the page for the "about" link, I first found this:

AliExpress brings you quality products at wholesale prices on even the smallest orders. AliExpress is a part of Alibaba.com and offers minimum orders as low as 1 item, buyer protection and express delivery with full tracking. AliExpress currently hosts more than 5,900 different types of products from over 44 different industries

Well, I fit into the "one item" category. But what is this "buyer protection?"

The about page spells it all out in more detail. In essence, AliExpress acts as a broker between the buyer (you) and the seller (some foreign company or individual). As agent, AliExpress escrows your payment until you not only receive the order, but also acknowledge that you got what you ordered and in working condition. In addition, there are mechanisms in place to get a refund should there be problems with the purchase, even after you confirm the delivery.

So, that is a step in the right direction. Certainly the escrowing of funds, which includes not releasing your credit info, is a significant advantage over the other two websites. But who are these foreign sellers and do they have the Hyundai T7?

The search field on AliExpress answered that question right away. Typing in just "T7" showed a few choices, including Hyundai T7. Selecting that brought in 45 results (vs 1,132 for just T7). And then the head scratching began. Most of the item descriptions are the same, though a few have the odd word or two (aka "Engrish"). Most use the standard product photo, a few have dolled it up a bit. You next notice that there is always a price range. Indeed, every seller will offer you just the tablet or some package of extras like covers, "TF" (microSD) cards, screen covers and car chargers.

Items with free shipping are always by China Post. Most sellers offer alternatives, such as EMS (a special international priority mail classification), DHL, UPS and FedEx. ePacket is also sometimes offered which uses (to my understanding) "codesharing" between Hong Kong Post and the USPS. USPS provides first class service and delivery confirmation once the package hits US shores. There is some, though not exact, uniformity in shipping prices between sellers.

Also provided in the main listing pages are the number of orders each merchant has filled. Many have had none. In addition, some show a seller rating, while others do not. This appears to be a bug in the AliExpress website code as in many cases, those sellers with no rating on the group listing page do indeed have a rating on the detailed item description page. One should of course take these ratings with a grain of salt (even on Amazon or NewEgg), but they can give you at least an indication of customer satisfaction and how long they have been selling goods through AliExpress. Some sellers have little history. Others have two or three years.

After a bit more Google review of 'buying on AliExpress,' I decided the safest course was to focus on sellers with a longer history and at least a few orders for the T7. I quickly narrowed my choice to four merchants who had similar pricing, history and rating. My final decision was based on a unique circumstance - I needed the item delivered by a courier to my door. My present location (the secure northern bunker) does not have any mail service. Unfortunately, none of the sellers I selected provided UPS. All had DHL and one had DHL and FedEx. Generally, EMS and DHL cost $25-$35. Oddly, the one having FedEx cost $40 but offered DHL at $55. What should have been an easy choice was not as I was uncomfortable selecting DHL. In the past a package was sent to me at this location via DHL and left for final delivery at the local post office. By some good fortune, they held the package for a day and tried me on the phone before giving it back to DHL. I wasadmonished for allowing this delivery to happen, but was able to get the package. Needless to say, I did not want to go through that again. Thus my choice was the seller with FedEx delivery at a $15 premium to the EMS and DHL service which others offered. Had I been in a major metro area I would have picked DHL over EMS if the price difference was under $20.

I elected to get just the tablet and no additional option packages. I would have liked to get a few screen protectors, but it was unclear how to include that request and I did not want to make this process any more complicated than it already was. Thus on January 31, I placed an order for a new, Hyundai T7 tablet with "Obama-Android-Sale", located in Guangdong, China. Yes, the merchant name was a bit troublesome but I chalked it up to them trying to differentiate themselves from the crowd and thinking that some how associating "Obama" would maybe put people at ease (hmmm.. no.) What I did know, however, is that they had been a seller since April of 2011 and had over 500 orders during that time with a high rating.

While I was still nervous about the whole process, the buyer protection from AliExpress was enough to give it a go. The price I paid, $187 shipped, was about the same I would have paid to PandaWill and $20 less than DealsPrime.

The payment process on AliExpress is pretty standard for e-commerce. Name, address, shipping address, etc. You can also provide a note to the seller. After transmitting, the order is marked as "processing" until the seller to acknowledge their new sale and AliExpress waits for the credit card to verify, and I assume a hold placed on the funds ("Pay Success"). In the detailed item description each seller lists the approximate time before they post the goods. Obama-Android-Sale claimed the goods would ship within 10 days.

I received a notification on 2/2 that the shipping process had begun - a label was printed for the courier. Indeed, that was excellent news...except the courier listed was DHL, not FedEx. AliExpress offers a way to send a message to the seller, which I tried to do (Why are you sending this DHL? I asked FedEx!?!). In fact, in my order note I specifically stated the item must go FedEx. I never got a reply but did get an update a few days later that the package was now in Hong Kong. At that point I rang up DHL to enquire what could be done to ensure no foul ups with the delivery going to the post office. I was told not to worry, the package would be delivered to my door by their courier and not left with the post-office. They had expanded in the area and the post-office drop was for a different service category. At that point I felt a little more at ease, though still nervous.

My bad luck had the package landing at the nearest major metro airport on a Friday morning, 2/8 and DHL of course does not deliver on the weekends. I had a very anxious weekend of hoping that a yellow van really would show up on Monday. And of course waiting another two days for the new shiny was torture! Wel, it did show - bright and early about 9 AM. There were no issues with customs and perhaps that was one unstated advantage of it going DHL. The item was valued at $65, probably the seller's cost (or close enough to it to not raise eyebrows too much).

The unboxing and item review follow in part III. However, to complete this segment you do need to know that the item did arrive as described and in good working order. After a day of "trust but verify," I went to the AliExpress website and confirmed the delivery. This allowed them to release the payment to the seller (I had already received an e-mail reminder to do this the night before).

The whole process, while not perfect, was a success. Perhaps this was beginners luck, but I think the escrowing of payment by AliExpress goes a long ways to making sure that most of the time you will get what you ordered and in working condition. That does not necessarily translate to the product itself meeting your expectations, which is of course just like buying an item at BestBuy and finding out after a week or two that it sucks and you should have bought something else.

Would I order through AliExpress again? Yes, I think so. One thing I might do differently is to try to find a friend looking for similar item and buy two to lessen the per item shipping cost. But even with $30 or $40 to ship by courier, the gap between US retail for the same or similar product is still quite large.

Would I buy from Obama-Android-Sale again? Yes, and in fact their real name is Shenzhen Windstone Electronic Technology Ltd. Here is my post-sale seller review (and their amusing reply):

Excellent turn around time in getting the tablet into the shipping process and the entire process took 12 days, including snowstorm/weekend which may have added two days. The product arrived well packaged, as described and in good condition.

The one issue I did have was: FedEx was offered as shipper but it was sent by DHL and I never received answer why this was done. I was lucky that DHL now delivers to my door as until recently they give to postman and I do not have mail service here (very rural). Seller lists higher price for DHL but reality is all competitors charge less than what I paid for for FedEx for DHL ship (about $15 less).

In the end I am pleased with the transaction as I can't say chosing another seller and saving the $15 that I would have gotten the tablet as fast. I don't know if seller can change store name, "Obama Android" may put some people off but I can confirm they do (in this case) provide fast service and goods as described in working order.

Seller's reply
good buyer,good buyer,can build in long time cooperation big buyer more hot selling style welcome u ,over 30kg,free door to door for delivery goods,free clear customs fee.

Buying A Tablet Directly From China

2013-02-19T14:57:00-07:00

Part one of a three part post about buying a new tablet directly from China. Part I covers the search for an appropriate device Part II recounts the search for a seller and the buying process. Part III is a review of the tablet itself.

Besides writing for this blog (infrequently of late!) I am also doing work as an application developer in the mobile space, i.e. phones and tablets. Recently, I've come to the conclusion that the tablet format is far more appropriate for the applications I have planned. Though all the major players (Google, Apple, Microsoft, Blackberry) provide development environments which include software based device emulators, unfortunately, even with a fairly fast PC the emulators are still a bit slow. Also, for testing purposes, nothing really equals having a device in your hands. For those reasons, I was in the market for a tablet of some kind.
The first decision of course was how much to spend. Answer: not a lot. This tablet's primarily function will be testing user interfaces and overall application performance. My planned applications range from relatively simple to mildly demanding - nothing too taxing. Most of my focus has also been in the Google world, which is good as there are many Android tablets available, unlike Apple (two), Microsoft (few) and Blackberry (one).

I began by looking at the 10" tablets but quickly decided that the major brands were outside of my budget. However, after checking the Asus offerings, I realized that any tablet should at the least include a microSD expansion port. Better still would be USB and HDMI ports. While none of those were critical to my development needs, from an end-user standpoint I felt if the money is going to be spent then it was not too much to ask for the ability to expand the storage or be able to output to a larger screen. Too bad Asus were so expensive!

Next, I re-read reviews of the Nexus 7 printed last fall. The reviews were generally pretty good, but where were the ports? Non-existent. The Tegra3 processor was starting to look a little bit dated too. The price for the 32GB model was bearable at about $250, but after tax and shipping, perhaps a little bit rich for the specs. Right now I think we are two or three generations of tablets away from a performance peak after which the current rapid update cycle will slow considerably. Thus began my Google search for a generic "10 inch android tablet".

Hmm.. 23 million results. Well, guess there are a few to look at. One link caught my attention. It was for a Chinese tablet called the "Chuwi V99" and came with a 2048x1536 284 dpi display - a "retina" display as Apple prefers to call it. The review was generally pretty positive and pointed to availability at a site called PandaWill. Some more comments there indicated one problem the reviewer had (with Netflix) was resolved. The price? $256 with free shipping. Hmmm... this sounds interesting. The specs looked fairly good too. 2GB ram (vs 512MB or 1GB that are common on low end tablets), 16GB flash internal memory, front/rear cameras (2/5MP), microSD expansion, a USB port and a 9,000 mAh battery. However, no GPS, no bluetooth and no HDMI out. I was somewhat surprised there was no HDMI out given the USB and SD ports. The lack of GPS was a small let down, though at this time I really don't have anything planned which would use it. Bluetooth? Never use it so not of concern to me. The CPU was listed as an A7 quad core with PowerVR GPU - an "Allwinner A31".

YouTube revealed a few videos of the tablet and it seemed nice. But that "Allwinner" CPU would need more research. Checking Pandwill a bit more, I noticed a name I did know - Hyundai - with a 10" X900 tablet. The specs were similar to the Chuwi but with a different CPU (Rockport RK3066) and only 1GB ram. Again, a CPU I am unfamiliar with, but at least I was familiar with the name of the tablet "manufacturer". Though I never knew that Hyundai made more than cars and trucks. Hmm. More research. [An interesting aside is this short T7 and for only $165. Checking the specs, I was pretty amazed. The CPU was listed as quad core Samsung Exynos 4412 (A9) - the same CPU used in the latest smart phones like the Samsung Galaxy S3. I knew from looking at phone reviews that this was a pretty kick-ass CPU/GPU combo.

Looking further, the T7 had 1GB ram, 8GB flash. The 8GB looked kind of light but yes, there was a microSD port for up to 32GB cards, USB and HDMI as well. GPS too. Not sure about the 3,300 mAh battery - that seemed small compared to what was going in the 10" tablets, though against a smaller screen and newer processor. This was starting to sound like something which could work for me, so again I took to Google and YouTube for reviews.

Google had nothing. About all I could find were "reviews" which just listed specifications or worse, mocking US based gadget sites noting its availability and filing it under "watch out, too good to be true!" However, YouTube had a handful of video reviews, one of which was from another Chinese product website, DealsPrime. It was in two parts and quite extensive. By the time I finished watching it I was sold on the T7 tablet. The only hurdle now was ... buying from China?

Copyright 2004-2013 by Gedanken Experiment (previously Rant Street), all rights reserved. Full terms of use at www.gedankenexperiment.dk

SM Higgs: Underwhelmed and Not Convinced

2011-12-13T07:40:00-07:00

Just a quick note on the "results" put out this morning with much fanfare by the Atlas and CMS collaborations at the LHC. Call me completely underwhelmed. Talk the previous week had been that at least one of them was in the high 3 sigma range yet in fact, we get 3.6 from Atlas and 2.4 from CMS before including LEE (look elsewhere effects). They do report p values which are consistent with expectations if a SM Higgs were aboiut 125 GeV but honestly, why was this result published? When including LEE, Atlas drops to 2.4 sigma and CMS to 1.9. Yes we can play the game of trying to combine the statistics from two different detectors to boost the reported confidence but at these low starting points is that not just GIGO? (Atlas data also show a spurious signal near 100 GeV where Higgs has already been excluded.) Ok, perhaps that is a bit harsh but you get my point.

Unfortunately, the mainstream press is so wound up about this whole Higgs thing (and please don't ever refer to it as the "G" particle!) that they will make an even bigger deal out of the CERN presser than did the LHC groups. I think this is a bad day for HEP and tarnishes what have been traditionally for more stringent cuts on what is a major event and what is not (yet).

It may yet be that the SM Higgs is found about 125 GeV but I think it will take significantly more data, on the order of 10 fb^-1

Copyright 2004-2013 by Gedanken Experiment (previously Rant Street), all rights reserved. Full terms of use at www.gedankenexperiment.dk

Tiger Woods: Just Admit It

2011-05-12T10:29:00-07:00

Hot off the wires:

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. � Tiger Woods limped off the golf course and into a future that is murkier than ever Thursday when he withdrew with leg injuries after his worst nine holes at The Players Championship. "I'm having a hard time walking," he said. Woods shot a 42 on the front nine of the TPC Sawgrass, including a triple bogey on the fourth hole when he didn't clear a water hazard 30 yards in front of him. He constantly walked some 20 yards behind his playing partner, holding his golf club for support, limping noticeably after each hole.Source:AP wire

And from late 2009:

NEW YORK � A Canadian doctor who has treated golfer Tiger Woods, swimmer Dara Torres and NFL players is suspected of providing athletes with performance-enhancing drugs, according to a newspaper report. The New York Times reported on its Web site Monday night that Dr. Anthony Galea was found with human growth hormone and Actovegin, a drug extracted from calf's blood, in his bag at the U.S.-Canada border in late September. He was arrested Oct. 15 in Toronto by Canadian police. Using, selling or importing Actovegin is illegal in the United States. ... Galea visited Woods' home in Florida at least four times in February and March, the newspaper reported, to provide that platelet therapy after his agents were concerned by his slow recovery from June 2008 knee surgery.Source:Huffington Post

While there is no smoking gun proof, this reeks of a classic post-steroid use physical breakdown. Just as in baseball (where the users were far more obvious to the eyes), steroid use is not just about hitting the ball further, its about bat (or club) speed too and being able to hit balls/make shots you otherwise would not be able to. And when removed, performance may return to ordinary or even worse due to collateral damage. While this may be unpalatable to the prim and proper world of golf, perhaps it is time to consider publicly that Tiger's rapid fall as a professional golfer is more likely to be performance enhancing drug related (or even some unusual blood therapies which Galea was involved) than psychological demons left over from his off-course antics and divorce. But as Bonds and Clemens have shown, athletes and their protectors will deny even long after the court of public opinion has passed judgement.

Copyright 2004-2013 by Gedanken Experiment (previously Rant Street), all rights reserved. Full terms of use at www.gedankenexperiment.dk

Unacceptable Moonlighting By Secretary Chu

2011-02-25T15:40:00-07:00

We regularly check out the arXiv for papers in the hep- and nucl- branches and once in a while the astro-ph (high energy, nuclear and astro physics respectively). Gr-qc (general relativity/quantum cosmology) not so much, if ever. Which explains why we missed this paper co-authored by a certain Nobel laureate who also happens to be the US Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu. The paper came to our attention via the blog Cosmic Variance. The abstract is

Equivalence Principle and Gravitational Redshift

Michael A. Hohensee, Steven Chu, Achim Peters, Holger Mueller

(Submitted on 21 Feb 2011)

We investigate leading order deviations from general relativity that violate the Einstein equivalence principle (EEP) in the gravitational standard model extension (SME). We show that redshift experiments based on matter waves and clock comparisons are equivalent to one another. Consideration of torsion balance tests, along with matter wave, microwave, optical, and M\"ossbauer clock tests yields comprehensive limits on spin-independent EEP-violating SME terms at the $10^{-6}$ level.

We suppose it is interesting if you are involved in atom interferometry and gravity research, perhaps even a significant contribution. Even if all that is true, the inclusion of Dr. Steven Chu in this work (as well as a referenced 2010 paper) is a gross affront on the American public, taxpayers in particular.

Dr. Chu was nominated and accepted his current position as Secretary of Energy in 2009. Prior to this position he was a prominent physicist (after all, he's a Nobel laureate as we have often been reminded by Team Obama) at Stanford University. The Nobel was given jointly and cited his research in developing techniques for the cooling of atoms using lasers such that they could be trapped and stored for further measurements and testing. Great stuff for sure.

Yet, that was Dr. Chu's prior position. He is now employed by the American public and paid a handsome salary and benefits to be Secretary of Energy. This is a very demanding job. The DOE has writ over a vast range of programs - from the safety of nuclear weapons to research labs to domestic energy production. In addition, the Obama administration has placed great emphasis on both energy independence, in particular by renewable energy sources as well as global warming of which energy sources and use are a major factor. The concept of free time is one that just does not apply to Cabinet level positions.

However, it does seem that Dr. Chu has made time to collaborate on various theoretical research topics in general relativity. How much time is any one's guess but any research worth publishing is likely to have represented a fair amount of time - even if Dr. Chu is primarily just reviewing his 'collaborators' work and adding in a few.. ahem.. insights.

This is unacceptable. Let's use a slightly different analogy. Mr. X, who now heads government Agency Y, was a former employee of MegaCorp. He left on good terms and with some projects which were still in progress. While head of Agency Y, Mr. X has continued to help Megacorp complete and perhaps extend those outstanding projects he left behind as he was instrumental in creating the projects and a heavy weight. Megacorp has agreed to pay Mr. X a flat fee for his continued involvement, understanding that he cannot guaranty exactly how much time he will be able to commit to their projects. The work is unrelated to the operational area of Agency Y so there is no issue of influence, kickbacks, etc.

Would the above be acceptable to the public? Or would Mr. X be raked over the Congressional coals? The only difference between Dr. Chu and Mr. X is that Dr. Chu appears to be doing his research free of charge and instead of for Megacorp, the private, not for profit corporation known as Stanford University.

Dr. Chu owes an apology to the American people for using time which should have been spent on the many pressing needs of his Cabinet post on this and other research. In addition, he should state for the record that he will suspend his academic work completely until his term expires or he resigns.

Copyright 2004-2013 by Gedanken Experiment (previously Rant Street), all rights reserved. Full terms of use at www.gedankenexperiment.dk

LHC Restart - Still a Flawed Plan?

2009-02-10T17:25:00-07:00

Yesterday, the management of the LHC project at CERN announced plans for a restart of the damaged facility later this year. The Geneva press release reads in part:

The new schedule foresees first beams in the LHC at the end of September this year, with collisions following in late October. A short technical stop has also been foreseen over the Christmas period. The LHC will then run through to autumn next year, ensuring that the experiments have adequate data to carry out their first new physics analyses and have results to announce in 2010. The new schedule also permits the possible collisions of lead ions in 2010.

In Chamonix there was consensus among all the technical specialists that the new schedule is tight but realistic.

�The schedule we have now is without a doubt the best for the LHC and for the physicists waiting for data,� said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. �It is cautious, ensuring that all the necessary work is done on the LHC before we start up, yet it allows physics research to begin this year.�

But is the schedule they have now the best for the health of the LHC? We raise this question as it was nearly 20 months ago that we wrote this after the previous magnet faux-pas at CERN:

As we wrote a few months ago (yes, the science column has been getting short shift), the catastrophic failure of the 'inner triplets' in a vacuum test in March would likely delay the startup schedule of the LHC. With a press release this past week, CERN has both denied and confirmed our assessment by keeping the originally planned full startup date of May, 2008 but canceling the initial low-energy test run.

�The low-energy run at the end of this year was extremely tight due to a number of small delays, but the inner triplet problem now makes it impossible,� said LHC Project Leader Lyn Evans. �We�ll be starting up for physics in May 2008, as always foreseen, and will commission the machine to full energy in one go.�

This seems to us a foolish course of action which only serves to make management look 'effective' by keeping to the original full startup date. However, by tossing out the low-energy warm up run CERN risks finding out about more problems the hard way. Prudence suggests that with a machine this complex and costly, caution should be the order of the day and an abbreviated test run should be scheduled to kick the tires before driving the new Porsche off the dealer's lot.

In fact, the ultimate start date was delayed another four months but our fears were well founded as the near full energy runs last fall resulted in significant damage to the collider and at least a one year delay in real physics being done.

Now, we will readily admit to only one brief course ('foray') in beam physics so we don't portend to be even remotely as knowledgeable as those involved in day to day operation of the LHC. However, common sense tells us that this is an extremely complex machine - both in terms of the number of disparate parts as well as its function - and that it is far better to burn two or three months time doing low energy runs than to just flip the switch on full and cross ones fingers, again. Delays due to mechanical failure are incredibly costly, not just because of money spent on repairs but also from the downtime of hundreds, if not thousands, of physicists and technicians. CERN will have wasted over a year because of the events of last September and another similar delay would be devastating coming at a time of budget constraints due to the ongoing world wide economic recession. Well, we'll cross our fingers for you, but perhaps a good old fashioned spirit cleansing is in order:

Copyright 2004-2013 by Gedanken Experiment (previously Rant Street), all rights reserved. Full terms of use at www.gedankenexperiment.dk

Physics Nobel for Symmetry Breaking

2008-10-07T10:24:00-07:00

Yoichiro Nambu, Makoto Kobayashi, and Toshihide Maskawa have been awarded the Nobel prize in Physics for 2008. This award recognizes their work on issues related to symmetry and spontaneous symmetry breaking in nuclear and particle physics. However, the award comes with quite a bit of controversy for the ommission of Nicola Cabibbo, the 'C' in the CKM (Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa) matrix which describes how quarks change flavor under certain weak decays ('flavor changing'). Cabibbo is in fact noted for his 1963 proposal of θ_C, a measure which describes the mixing of down and strange quarks under weak interactions.

Kobayashi and Maskawa went on to generalize this idea to all quarks when in the late 1960s and early 1970s theory showed there were three families of quarks totaling six particles. Tommaso Dorigo's A Quantum Diaries Survivor blog has reaction from the Italian INFN to the omission of Cabibbo from the prize. We have to agree - they dropped the ball as the initial idea was clearly his and thus he should have been included.

Nambu's name appears in many areas of nuclear and particle physics. The Nobel was awarded for his work on the mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking but he is also known for proposing the color charge of QCD (quantum chromodynamics) as well as massless Nambu-Goldstone bosons which appear in field theories with spontaneous symmetry breaking. This award is for his work in the 1960s which resulted in pions being recognized as the result of spontaneous breaking of an (inexact) axial-vector current symmetry. A more detailed explanation appears midway through this Cern Courier article.

That the Nobel committee recognized this theoretical work is a very good thing but it is sad that it will be tainted by ignoring Cabibbo's contribution.

Copyright 2004-2013 by Gedanken Experiment (previously Rant Street), all rights reserved. Full terms of use at www.gedankenexperiment.dk

Its LHC Day!

2008-09-09T21:28:00-07:00

Well today is the big day, many years in waiting. Today CERN will turn on the LHC and the earth will be swallowed up by a strangelet. No, just kidding. The LHC should go operational today with 450 GeV test beams for the first time, on its way to 5 Tev beams later this year and ultimately 14 TeV CMS. But rather than recount a list of stats, we refer you to the very accessible CERN LHC faq. It is a pretty amazing device and the four principal detectors Alice, Atlas, CMS and LHCb) are as well. LHCb is said to have the early track at seeing the Higgs boson (mission #1 for the LHC) if it decays in certain unusual ways, such as by neutralinos (also hypothetical). Of course, that would presuppose that Fermilab's Tevatron doesn't see it first. Man that would really, really piss of the EU. Hope they haven't counted our boys out!

Some people will object to the very large price tag (over $6 billion) spent on getting the LHC to this point and we don't disagree that a large amount of coin was spent. However, beyond the scientific merits of the project, LHC and the Tevatron before it bring many tangible benefits to the rest of world. Perhaps most famous is the hypertext transmission protocol (the http of web pages) which was developed at CERN and became what the rest of us call 'the web'. Fermilab pioneered the use of superconducting magnet technology - even after CERN researchers laughed at the idea - and besides use in particle accelerators, the technology is now used in MRI devices. According to the DOE, Robert Marsh, the head of a major alloy supplier, once said that "every program in superconductivity that there is today owes itself in some measure to the fact that Fermilab built the Tevatron and it worked." Other advances have come in the areas of networking, network computing and data processing. The 'Grid' is a widely distributed processing network to analyze the 15 Petabytes of data the LHC will take each year (a CD-ROM every second). Grid computing is now being used for many other research projects.

But this should also be a fun day so we leave you with these videos by some CERN natives called Les Horribles Cernettes (they're good, really!):

If hip-hop is more your thing, check out the Large Hadron Rap:

Copyright 2004-2013 by Gedanken Experiment (previously Rant Street), all rights reserved. Full terms of use at www.gedankenexperiment.dk

Gustav From The Buoys

2008-09-02T15:19:00-07:00

Mother Nature provides us with another encore opportunity to look at the progression of a hurricane from the weather buoys in the National Data Buoy Center system. These buoys vary considerably in ownership and observational mission. While many are owned by NOAA, others are the property of and/or maintained by regional universities while still others operate off oil and gas drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Most record air pressure, wind speeds, gusts, directions and water temperature. Some only record wind speeds and water currents and directions. Still others are tsunami warning buoys which measure wave heights.

We begin with Buoy 42040, east of the southern tip of LA and about 65 miles south of Dauphin Isle, AL:

Buoy 42040 Click for full size
Source: National Data Buoy Center

Next, right on that southern tip of LA is Pilots Station East at SW Pass, LA. This buoy recorded the highest wind gusts, just over 100 knots or nearly 120 mph:

Buoy PSTL1 Click for full size
Source: National Data Buoy Center

Slightly further inland and west of Pilots Station East is the NOAA station at Grand Isle, LA:

Buoy GISL1 Click for full size
Source: National Data Buoy Center

Moving inland, we first come to the Shell Beach, LA station:

Buoy SHBL1 Click for full size
Source: National Data Buoy Center

and west of that, the Bayou Gauche, LA station which is also run by NOAA:

Buoy BYGL1 Click for full size
Source: National Data Buoy Center

Interestingly, a bit further west, the lowest pressure of 28.50 in Hg was recorded at Amerada Pass, LA:

Buoy AMRL1 Click for full size
Source: National Data Buoy Center

And just to show that a buoy and weather station's job is not an easy one, the buoy station at South Timbalier Block 52 off the south west coast of LA seems to have taken the second half of the day off:

Buoy SPLL1 Click for full size
Source: National Data Buoy Center

Copyright 2004-2013 by Gedanken Experiment (previously Rant Street), all rights reserved. Full terms of use at www.gedankenexperiment.dk

Have LHC Black Holes Jumped The Shark?

2008-08-14T17:59:00-07:00

By now many people in the world are aware that CERN is about to commission the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the largest and bestest ever toy for high energy particle physics. After a problem with some of the magnet assemblies was discovered last year, the time table was pushed back a bit and some preliminary testing plans were reduced or eliminated. By late July, all the beam lime components were at their nominal operating temperature of -271°C and just last week a first test was done to work on synchronizing the injector (SPS or Super Proton Synchrotron) with the LHC. September 10th is the tentative date for the first 'live' circulating beam at 450 GeV with the goal of ramping up to 5 TeV beams for collisions at a center of mass energy of 10 TeV this fall. Fermilab and their search for the Higgs particle is now officially on the clock!

Along the way though there has been considerable hand wringing in the press over the objections of a small number of people (some with physics degrees) who feel that planet earth will be be in great peril if the LHC is operated at full energy and luminosity. Many of these individuals believe that the LHC will create mini-black holes which will, so they claim, swallow the earth. Others also believe that the LHC may be able to create exotic new forms of matter called 'strangelets' which also could interact with ordinary matter on the earth resulting in our doom. Similar complaints were lodged before Brookhaven's RHIC (relativistic heavy ion collider) began operations in 2000. CERN, like BNL, caved into these outrageous speculations and produced detailed reports on the 'risks' of operation and presented them to the public.

Quite a few physics blogs (written by those who have PhD's in high energy physics or related fields) have quite thoroughly explained the issues involved. One of the better ones, generally accessible to lay readers, is by BackReaction with the following posts: one, two, and three.

So it was with befuddled amazement that we heard the LHC and black holes mentioned while listening to the NYC area sports talk radio station, WFAN. A NJ car dealership, Brad Benson Hyundai (Benson was an offensive line star of the NY Giants super bowl team of 1986/7), regulalry runs radio spots with Benson spoofing or otherwise making fun of some topic of current events while extolling the '30% off' his dealership gives on new car sales. Most of the spots make light of politicians and their problems and a few have made it onto YouTube such as this one on Bush or this one on Elliot Spitzer.

Well, Black Hole Strangelet People (BHSP's), you've jumped the shark. Benson just ran an add in which he comments on the possibility of black holes and other weirdness swallowing up the earth when they turn on the LHC this fall while promptly offering a $1,000 "End Of The World " discount so you can enjoy a new car before it is too late. Luckily, I was driving slowly in a low traffic neighborhood as there was a serious risk of my truck having a collision with another car - physics! on the radio! on WFAN!?! LHC??? Hopefully for Brad he only has to pay the discount if CERN actually creates some strangelets or black holes which start eating the earth. (PS - Brad, its pronounced haa-drons, not hey-drons)

Fonzie where are you?

Copyright 2004-2013 by Gedanken Experiment (previously Rant Street), all rights reserved. Full terms of use at www.gedankenexperiment.dk

Are Electric Cars Worth It?

2008-04-25T20:25:00-07:00

While reading Engadget we came across a post about a car called Think. This is just one of many recently announced electric car projects and we've always wondered.. but how much does it cost to 'fuel it up?' The press on this car (Forbes and the Intl. Herald Trib. have written about it) is very light in this regard, though for the Think we did see a mention of 3c per mile. Well that's at least a start but we are chronic cynics and needed to calculate this for our self.

Using the technical specs available on the Think website, we see that a full charge requires 10 hours of 230 VAC at 14 Amps. This works out to be 32,200 watt hours or 32.2 KiloWatt hours in common units of electricity use. In our area of the Northeast US, 16 cents per KWH is common (though we are told the unweighted national average is about 10c) which equates to $5.15 per complete charge. The Think is said to have a range of 111.85 miles (180Km) for a cost per mile of $0.046. Sounds cheap so far.

Lets compare to a gas powered car getting 40 mpg - there aren't many but they are available. And to make the comparison fair, in addition to the electric bill, we have to add in the "mobility charge". What's that you say? In order to make the purchase price of the Think more attractive, Think has decided to in effect lease the owner the most expensive part, the battery. This runs about $300/month in Europe but is expected to drop closer to $100 as production ramps up. For this analysis, lets go with $150/month.

A typical light driving commuter - to the train station and back 5 days a week and errands on the weekend or someone living in the city driving a few miles a day, 7,500 miles per year is typical (and usually the lowest usage on insurance policies). For this driver, the traditional, high mpg gas car would cost 187.50 gallons, or $750 per year at $4.00/gallon. The Think will run (in the Northeast) about $350 in electricity cost but an additional $1,800 per year in battery fees for a total $2,150 or nearly 3X the operating cost of the gas powered car. Stretching this out to a more common 15,000 miles per year, the Think would run $2,500 total while that old fashioned car comes in at $1,500. The break even comes about 32,500 miles per year!Of course, there are other considerations. While not an especially expensive car at an estimated $25,000, its more traditional competitors such as the Honda Civic (45mpg) or the Mini Cooper (37mpg) both have lower MSRP's, higher top ends and to the casual observer, look far safer. But perhaps we shouldn't be so selfish and should consider the environment. To this we would be inclined to answer that the energy used to make the Think (or other hybrid or electric car) is equal or greater than the simpler traditional car while the environmental disposal costs are potentially significant (proper reclamation of the battery, etc). We will leave that debate to those who can model the entire life cycle of the car. But until gas prices rise to at least $6.50 a gallon (~$250/bbl crude) the Think is not competitive with a regular car.

Copyright 2004-2013 by Gedanken Experiment (previously Rant Street), all rights reserved. Full terms of use at www.gedankenexperiment.dk

CERN Announces Non-delay Delay

2007-06-27T22:39:00-07:00

As we wrote a few months ago (yes, the science column has been getting short shift), the catastrophic failure of the 'inner triplets' in a vacuum test in March would likely delay the startup schedule of the LHC. With a press release this past week, CERN has both denied and confirmed our assessment by keeping the originally planned full startup date of May, 2008 but canceling the initial low-energy test run.

�The low-energy run at the end of this year was extremely tight due to a number of small delays, but the inner triplet problem now makes it impossible,� said LHC Project Leader Lyn Evans. �We�ll be starting up for physics in May 2008, as always foreseen, and will commission the machine to full energy in one go.�

This seems to us a foolish course of action which only serves to make management look 'effective' by keeping to the original full startup date. However, by tossing out the low-energy warm up run CERN risks finding out about more problems the hard way. Prudence suggests that with a machine this complex and costly, caution should be the order of the day and an abbreviated test run should be scheduled to kick the tires before driving the new Porsche off the dealer's lot.

Copyright 2004-2013 by Gedanken Experiment (previously Rant Street), all rights reserved. Full terms of use at www.gedankenexperiment.dk

LHC Delays Expected

2007-04-02T04:43:00-07:00

Hmmm...was it just odd coincidence that we post on the ATLAS detector at the LHC only to learn later that night of a significant failure with the beam line? In fact, the event in question happened a few days earlier but news is just now getting around that CERN has a big problem on their hands - as does Fermilab, after the serious (catastrophic?) failure of a three quadrupole magnet set during a high pressure test. As has become the disturbing trend in high energy physics, the latest accelerators and detectors have become multi-country/multi-lab endeavors due to the inability of individual countries to finance these projects on their own. And thus Fermilab is on the hot seat with CERN pointing figures at them because these were magnets designed and assembled in the US. Fermilab has delivered nine of these quadrupole magnets but is also partially on the hook for 18 additional magnets designed and tested by the Japanese lab KEK and final assembled by Fermilab prior to delivery at the LHC.

Initial indications are that there may have been a design oversight which failed to account for asymmetric loads which develop in the support structure holding the magnets inside their super cooling cryostat during a quench. [A quench is when a superconducting magnet suddenly goes 'normal' and releases a large amount of energy in a very short time.] While the engineering plans were reviewed by all parties involved, including CERN, nobody seemed to consider this issue. In addition, Fermilab only tested their magnets individually and not as part of the final triplet assembly (probably due to costs if we were to guess).

That the problem appears to be with the support structure and not the magnets themselves is a good thing. But it is hard to believe this will not result in at least a many month, if not year or more, delay for the LHC. Even if the existing structures can be used with only minor modification, engineering reviews will need to be made and modifications and testing done to all 27 of these quadrupole triplets. That won't be happening overnight. The official announcement (via Fermilab) is here.

Copyright 2004-2013 by Gedanken Experiment (previously Rant Street), all rights reserved. Full terms of use at www.gedankenexperiment.dk

ATLAS Detector at LHC

2007-04-25T19:58:00-07:00

As many of you know, 2007/2008 will be an exciting time for particle physics in Europe as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) starts to come on line. However, few people outside of the particle physics community ever set foot inside one these colliders - there aren't many of them and work takes precedence over public touring. And even when one does have the chance to sneak a peak, each facility is different. A trip in the mid 90s to Fermilab was interesting but ultimately under whelming as not much of the 'good stuff' was available, unlike a similar trip to Brookhaven where one could see up close the detectors, beam line and control rooms (picture below of the STAR detector at BNL).

STAR Detector at BNL Click for full size

From the physics blog Backreaction comes notice that CERN now has a live webcam following the construction of the ATLAS detector, the largest at the LHC and probably in the world. In addition there are some 360 ° views of the detector cavern and beam line (requires quicktime) which allow the user to zoom and pan all around. Almost like being there!

Copyright 2004-2013 by Gedanken Experiment (previously Rant Street), all rights reserved. Full terms of use at www.gedankenexperiment.dk

More Space Junk

2007-03-28T15:36:00-07:00

As if the Chinese ASAT test last month wasn't enough, word comes today from SpaceWeather.com that Australia was treated to a spectacular display last night - of a very bright explosion and a resulting cloud of debris which was visible for almost an hour. The explosion was a "major breakup event" of an old Russian Briz-M rocket booster travelling in the wrong orbit since last year after it failed to launch of a communications satellite. When more is known on the amount of debris and orbit we'll post an update.

Update 3/27/07: In a somewhat related event, a Lan Chile A340 flying to Aukland, NZ narrowly escaped being destroyed by the apparent early de-orbiting of a Russian satellite with debris raining down within five miles of the flight.

According to a plane spotter, who was tuning into a high frequency radio broadcast at the time, the pilot "reported that the rumbling noise from the space debris could be heard over the noise of the aircraft. "He described he saw a piece of debris lighting up as it re-entered (the earth's atmosphere). He was one very worried pilot, as you would imagine."

Airways New Zealand had been warned by Russian authorities almost two weeks ago that a satellite would be entering the earth's atmosphere sometime today between 10.30am and midday NZ time (6.30-8am WA time). Airways New Zealand then provided that information to airlines and pilots that would be travelling in that region at that time. They could then decide for themselves whether they wished to fly during that period. "But clearly there has been a timing issue," the spokesman said. Source: thewest.com.au

Hassium 270

2007-01-05T01:35:00-07:00

An interesting result from the realm of experimental nuclear physics was announced recently by a team of 24 scientists from 10 research institutions, including the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Institute for Heavy-Ion Research (GSI) as well as institutions in Russia, the U.S., Switzerland, Japan, China, and Poland. The group is engaged in "transactinide chemistry", a fancy term for research into the chemical properties of super-heavy elements [the transactinide's are those elements with atomic number greater than Lawrencium, ₁₀₃Lr (atomic number Z=103), the last element of the actinide series].

As is the case with all elements with atomic number larger than Plutonium (Z=94), ²⁷⁰Hassium (Z=108) is not naturally occuring and is created by colliding two lighter nuclei. In the TUM experiment, a high energy beam of ²⁶Mg (atomic mass number A=26) atoms are collided with a stationary target of ²⁴⁸Cm to form ²⁷⁰Hs (with four neutrons as byproducts). Pretty standard fare for super-heavy nuclei, though the researchers exploited a known feature of ²⁶⁹Hs which forms tetroxides when exposed to oxygen allowing for easier analysis of nuclear and chemical properties in a chromatographic detector.

And the result was to peg the lifetime of ²⁷⁰Hs at 30 seconds - an eternity when compared to most super-heavy nuclei which are deformed and decay in milliseconds. The fact that ²⁷⁰Hs was found to be 'long lived' confirmed theoretical expectations that the element would be near an island of stability. These 'islands' refer to elements having a certain combination of neutrons and protons (filled 'shells') which are energetically favorable and result in a nucleus less prone to decay through fission or other routes. ²⁷⁰Hs is close to the island expected to have 184 neutrons and 114 protons and theoretical calculations indicated ²⁷⁰Hs had sufficient closed subshells to give relative stability and long life. Elements on and near the island will also have spherical nuclei unlike their deformed super-heavy brethren. Unfortunately, the experimentalists haven't yet figured out a way to combine lighter elements to create one of the elements at the center of this island, such as ununquadium-298, unbinilium-304 and unbihexium-310 (all with 184 neutrons and proton numbers 114, 120 and 126). Unbihexium-310 is predicted to be the most stable as both the number of protons (126) and neutrons (184) are magic (closed shells), hence this element would be 'doubly magic' and very unlikely to decay. Note the funny element names are 'systematic element names' - temporary placeholders formed by an internationally approved methodology and used until the element is actually created for real. Once confirmed, an official name is assigned.

Copyright 2004-2013 by Gedanken Experiment (previously Rant Street), all rights reserved. Full terms of use at www.gedankenexperiment.dk

Junk Science Or Junk Food Science?

2006-10-23T18:18:00-07:00

The AP wire is running a story on the results of two studies of weight gain by college students. Apparently prior studies were not very good as they looked only at the first semester of college and men were unrepresented. From the wire service article

One out of six gained 10 or more pounds during freshman year, and 6 percent gained the "Freshman 15" or more. Men tended to gain weight sharply in the first semester and then more gradually after that, while women gained a lot at first and then tended to plateau, she said. At the end of the freshman year, more than 17 percent were overweight or obese, compared to only 14 percent at the start.

The second study involved 907 students, 55 percent of them male, at an unidentified public university in the Midwest and was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Students were weighed four times as in the previous study, but also at the end of their sophomore year. Similar to the first study, students gained an average of 7.8 pounds during the freshman year. More than one-third gained 10 pounds or more, and one-fifth piled on 15 or more. Things got worse the next year. Males were on average 9.5 pounds heavier, and females, 9.2 pounds heavier, than when they started college.

"Students don't appear to be losing weight over this time and in fact they gained additional weight in their sophomore year," Lloyd-Richardson said. Source: AP

Shocking! Absolutely shocking! Until of course one thinks back to their own college years and realizes they too gained weight during college. While the results of these studies may be accurate, what exactly are they telling us? Should we really be shocked that a young adult, typically 17 or 18 years old, would gain 5 to 15 pounds over their first two years of college? While drinking ages are now uniformly 21, all indications are the majority of college students still find ways to consume large amounts of alcohol, a certain way to gain weight. And once students are away from Mom, food selection is almost certain to suffer. We think it unlikely either of these factors has changed significantly during the past 30 years if not longer. But what of the more obvious fact that most people continue to grow and fill out a bit even after high school? While these studies are probably accurate and hence technically not 'junk science', we think speaking of a roughly 10% weight gain over the first two years of college in the alarmist terms they do is junk science.

Copyright 2004-2013 by Gedanken Experiment (previously Rant Street), all rights reserved. Full terms of use at www.gedankenexperiment.dk