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Archive for March 2015

Minutae ASSEMBLE!

March 29, 2015 future, Writing Comments Off on Minutae ASSEMBLE!

http://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology-news/newsid=39572.php

There are a lot of different lenses you can use to look at nanotechnology.  I personally prefer to use the tightest possible one, to look at machines that are built on a molecular scale (rather than just run of the mill itty bitty machines).

When you get that small, everything becomes chemistry and physics.  The standard model of how to assemble objects, or how to get parts to interact with one another, must be set aside because you are no longer dealing with things can be assembled with a hot-glue-gun and rivets, but things that have to WANT to come together.  You are attaching pieces to other pieces through chemical bonds, rather than just physical attachments.

So I am always delighted when I run across something new in this space.  The article referenced above is looking at ways to assemble nano-molecular machines not by chemistry alone, but rather by the physical shapes and attributes of the proteins that make up different parts.  It’s almost like a very fancy 3d puzzle.

Mind the Gap

March 26, 2015 future, Writing Comments Off on Mind the Gap

http://cyber.bgu.ac.il/blog/bitwhisper-heat-air-gap

I am always looking for clever ways to hack stuff.  Most of what I write falls into the science fiction genre with an eye towards future tech, but one of the things I find, over and over again in my day job as a game developer is that you can’t ever ignore your legacy.  Every system, no matter how sophisticated, went through a development process.  It started out based on the preconceptions and experiences of the original designers and unless that system was burned to the ground and started from scratch at some point, those legacies are going to be there, informing everything from the color choices down to the arrangement of microprocessors on a board.  As the staff at a company turns over and the original engineers move onto new things, the reasons for those legacies are often forgotten.  People know the system handles things one way, but over time, they *why* is left behind.

Ken Liu brought the above article to my attention (via a FB post) and I think this is a great example of a legacy hack that goes deeper than a system’s initial design.  You’re hacking one of the fundamental characteristics of a computing system itself, the heat that plagues everyone who has ever held a laptop on their lap for too long, or who has tried to play Minecraft in a sweltering 100 degree apartment.  What was a vexing problem before now has become a potential security risk.

 

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