MPJ

More and more I found myself troubled by following worldwide news on daily basis. It's not that I have lack of free time to filter them all out. More, it is that recently I started feeling certain reluctance reading the headlines filled with conflicts, wars and civil fights, religious and cultural animosities, political and all the other disgusting affairs, political elections full of poorly casted actors, stories that you have to use superb power to read them between the lines, worldwide armed conflicts and warfare in foreign countries that I have not the slightest clue what initiated them all and why, mediocre journalism and sensationalism in the worst meaning of the word, etc... The list is endless and believe me I'm not even referring to all those black chronicle stories with unappropriated articles where i.e. somebody killed his parents with an ax or mass murder of cinema crowd by a lunatic in batman suit or worse. Or in today's case and what inspired me to revive this...

Wearable technology can’t be dismissed as a fad anymore. Its steady rise in popularity proves these devices are here to stay. Thus, they’ve naturally had an impact on Android and iOS mobile app development . The significance of wearable technology’s influence will only grow as prices drop and more consumers embrace these products. Approximately 141 million smartwatches have already been sold this year alone. It’s highly likely that number will be even higher next year. The most popular wearable devices currently belong to three basic groups. They include: Smartwatches: Products such as the Apple Watch essentially introduced many consumers to the idea of wearables. These devices are unlike traditional ones in that they are capable of doing more than simply displaying the time. A smartwatch can typically send email alerts, help users navigate unfamiliar areas, facilitate calls, and more. Fitness Trackers: Wrist-worn fitness trackers may look somewhat like smartwatches. However, th...

The internet has grown so large that it now has a hand in almost every part of our daily living. We reside in smart homes connected by some part of the internet, run a series of transactions and save sensitive files online, to mention but a few. Learning from the stories of big companies like Yahoo and Uber that have suffered massive attacks from hackers in the past, it would thus not be surprising that you be interested in keeping your cyber life as secure as can be. Looking at the various options available, only two stand out when it comes to protecting your data on the internet. They are: The Tor Browser and VPN services What is TOR? Short for ‘The Onion Router,’ TOR is the most secure browser you can access the internet with. The browser has been developed with military-grade security in mind. If that means anything, it’s that you get as much security as possible when browsing the internet. Connecting to the internet via a TOR browser, your data goes through a syst...

There is a mountain just couple of kilometers south of our weekend house that is actively blocking our view toward unknown and beyond. It is not too big, just about one kilometer high, rounded in shape, overgrown in surrounding forests with large plains on the top. In the past, from the years of my early childhood till today I had different feelings about that mountain. First, it was the real edge of the world when I thought there was nothing behind. Then I grew into my teen ages when I unsuccessfully wanted to conquer it and plant a flag on the biggest rock of the highest peek possible. When that was over I dreamed about living there in a forest shack in sort of utopian kind of equilibrium with nature itself. There was a time when I just hated it for blocking my nightly sky from the southern constellations and galactic center lying somewhere in the direction of Sagittarius and Scorpius. Now, I only want to pay her a visit someday and see how mountain was looking at me all those years...

I probably mentioned before that I love reading and watching true Sci-Fi stories. The ones that have legacy in old Jules Verne fiction. The ones that predict the future and might be real some day. The red planet is no exception - when I see a title with "Mars" in it, I eagerly read the teaser, secretly hoping for a two hours of entertainment if it is a motion picture or two days if it is a book. Right at this moment, I am holding "The Martian" by Andy Weir*, the novel I was waiting to come into book shops for months. Especially when it was announced that Ridley Scott is taking the director's chair for the upcoming movie, later this year. This month, the crew should be located within one of the only places on Earth that resembles Mars perfectly. "Wadi Rum", a valley in southern Jordan, also known as "The Valley of the Moon" is currently a home for many trailers, including the one occupied by Matt Damon, who's playing Mark Watney, the main ...

Until recently I had a toy-model of Russian space station Mir hanged in our living room settled nicely between two more common house decorations. It was small in size, no bigger than five cubic inches with two teeny tiny Soyuz spacecrafts docked at their designated locks and numerous solar panels all over the place. The plastic toy is long gone now but still from time to time it raises some nice memories, especially those moments when couple of our guests after close inspection from all directions asked questions like "What the heck is this?" or "Is this art?". Not many of them recognized the most challenging technological endeavor of the last two decades of previous century at first glance. On March 23, 2001, all the biggest Mir's fragments after surviving hellish re-entry through the atmosphere hit the Pacific ocean and ended 15 years of various scientific experiments performed by 28 long duration multinational crews with total of 104 people from 12 ...

I remember that scene from the movie "The Blues Brothers" with Jake and Elwood hiding from who-knows-who in the super tiny apartment next to skytrain or railway tracks, shaking every now and again and every time when a train is passing by the neighborhood. I always felt sympathy for all those people who are actually living next to those high trafficking high or rail ways with heavy tremors in the air in form of high decibels of various noises all around them. Guess what? Our own neighborhood is now getting similar feeling. Actually, similar is understatement. It is way worse. The new tracks are placed just couple of dozens of meters above our house. In recent months and years, the local airport are getting more and more traffic and the runway position is actually crossing our street almost to the single angle. I couldn't do much about it except to took the camera as soon as I heard the noise and 'shot' their underbellies. So here are couple of those taken in previ...

The year was 1975 when I was browsing small dusty workshop located next to the garage within our house backyard. It was perfect combination, I was about to turn 7 years old, eager to explore the darkest corner of my childhood realm and the dark workshop was the most mysterious chamber in our entire family estate, no bigger than four cubic meters occupied with heavy and old greenish oak cabinet with couple of drawers and compartments filled with tons of different tools, mechanical devices and various interesting stuff I didn't know their origin and purpose. It was, more or less, the year when I started to break things in order to find out what was inside or to find how something works, foolishly believing that I would be perfectly able to put things together back. Well, from this point of view in time, I can't remember if there was at least one mechanical device I "inspected" in such manner that I successfully restored after unscrewing all the bolts and junctures...

If you start thinking of augmented reality, what will come to your mind first? Well I don't know about you, but if you ask me, there is no doubt, it's the car keys. Yes, car keys. Let me explain. This is one of those weird situation when you're approaching your car from the distance and vainly trying to unlock the door with your fancy wireless keys. You are simply too far away from the car. But if you put the keys next to your head and try again your brain will do the magic. It will augment the poor thing and considerably enhance the wireless range and the car will no longer be locked. Don't believe me? Try it for yourself. I don't remember exactly where I saw this, probably in those documentary shows like "Brainiac" or "Top Gear" but it works every time. Human body is a large conductor when it comes to radio waves and it easily alters the field when it's close to transmitter or receiver, but still this is very nice example of how your body ...

The most memorable part of my life is of course the childhood, especially the part from the point when I learned to read until the middle teen years - for me it was the period of life when empty bucket in my head rapidly started to fill itself with every information it stumbled everywhere possible. When I look to that period from today's point of view what comes to mind first is that it was technology free time. The state of the art technology of the time was color TV set with only two programs with broadcasting ending around 9pm. Radio stations were at the peak of their popularity with small handheld AM receivers and only few owned a FM receiver with crystal clear sound - that is if you don't move quickly to avoid noise. Communication device of the time was heavy pulse telephone set that required a hard table with special place in the house. But I don't connect my childhood with technology gadgets of the time. Not at all, what it pops to my mind now is a big cherry ...