Our next session will be an excursion to the Benalla Gliding Club on Wednesday April 10. We will meet at Gliding Club at 11am.
Les Rodgers
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Jennifer Clemow, an Olefins Applications Engineer from Qenos gave us an interesting presentation on the production of various industrial use outputs from the Qenos Melbourne Petrochemical plant. She spoke about the long history of the plant which uses natural gas as the feedstock. Jennifer’s role is in the design, development and implementation of computer based control systems to maximise the safety of the plant while at the same time ensuring the profitability of the plant. The presentation was well received and the half hour presentation quickly blew out to an hour with the discussion and many questions that followed . Les Rodgers with Jennifer Clemow After the break we viewed an interview with Bill Gates centred around his role in the Breakthrough Energy Coalition. This group was formed at the time of the Paris accord when he lobbied a number of fellow wealthy people to form a coalition to fund innovative research. The research is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and only those research projects which expect to reduce greenhouse gas by half a percent or more are being funded Two examples which were discussed included the production of meat grown from cells from live animals such as chicken and wagyu beef. The other example was the funding of a nuclear fusion generator, the holy grail of nuclear power because of its extraordinary efficiency & safety. We ran out of time so will hold over the discussion until later in the semester.
Our next session will be an excursion to the Benalla Gliding Club on Wednesday April 10. We will meet at Gliding Club at 11am. Les Rodgers
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I thought we might take a break from 5g for a while because we have a visitor Jennifer Clemow from Qenos, who is going to tell us all about sensors, actuators and supervisory systems and computers in controlling a petro–chemical plant.
Jennifer Clemow is a chemical engineer with 28 years experience as a process control and automation engineer in the petrochemical industry. She has worked much of her career at Qenos Australia (Melbourne plant) on configuration of control systems and implementation of advanced control. She has also worked internationally for Aspen Technology, Singapore, on implementation of advanced control for plants in Malaysia and the USA, and worked for ExxonMobil in Singapore on start up of one of the worlds largest ethylene crackers. Jennifer was the 2012 PACE ZENITH award winner in the oil and gas section and runner up for the Brodie prize at APCChE/CHEMECA 2015. Also we have an interesting interview about innovation with Bill Gates, formerly the world’s richest man having been deposed this year by Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame. Mind you the divorce settlement may change that back again. A notable philanthropist, Bill Gates talks about the likeminded group (eg Richard Branston et al) that he coerced into setting up a $billion innovation fund during the Paris agreement negotiations. Next month we have a visit to the gliding club organized. More about that later. Les
This session commenced with a number of short videos about autonomous aircraft, possibly for use as Uber style taxis.
We also viewed a Wall Street Journal video of future technologies exploring the use of autonomous aircraft particularly for military applications.
There seem to be fewer difficulties with autonomous aircraft than there are with autonomous road transport. The second part of this month’s meeting was devoted to 5 G. The 3GPP standard called 5 G NR was finalized and released last year. NR stands for New Radio and implies two methods of implementing the technology, one being 5 G NR SA, which is a Stand Alone version for new base stations. The second is 5 G NR NSA or Non-Stand Alone, which allows for the use of the existing 4 G LTE network to simplify and speed up implementation. Two frequency bands will be used for 5 G, these are less than 6 gHz and greater than 15 gHz. The later is now called millimeter waves We viewed a video produced by Ericsson, the well-known manufacturer of telecommunications equipment. This video showed what we might expect from 5 G (added in December 23 as the earlier version replaced)
(This video and other Ericsson resources on 5 G - https://www.ericsson.com/en/5g/what-is-5g)
We also saw a Nokia video showing the effect of lower latency:
We generally discussed the specifications, which allows the network to be split into slices depending on requirements. The main slices are:
In all cases lower power consumption is required for both user equipment (now called Ue) and base station equipment. The enabling technology to achieve these standards is Massive MIMO with beam forming and active antennas and precoding. We saw a video by Thomas Marzetta from the Bell Labs who was responsible for the development of these.
We looked at what these technologies involved. As they say, ‘it’s complicated’.
While Massive MIMO can be explained using elementary linear algebra, explaining how multiple interferences caused by multipath propagation from nearby buildings and even the atmosphere is a problem in radio communications, it is not easily explained how that can be turned to a huge advantage in massive MIMO without using mathematics. The best way is to let the maths flow past and look at the results. In Marzetta’s paper in the limiting case, with an infinite number of antennas, the interference and noise disappear leaving only the enhanced required signal. Massive MIMO uses hundreds or thousands of antennas depending on the frequency band. 4 G LTE uses 4 or 8. We will finish discussion of 5G and its implementation next month. Les Rodgers Tech Savvy Talks for February will include a Ted Talk about autonomous aircraft for use as taxis. An Uber air service for local trips without a driver! Also a video on actual prototype autonomous aircraft in action.
Five G is now a reality at least for Optus with a fixed service at two locations in the ACT, and more promised elsewhere. Telstra is also gearing up to deploy services this year. It is time that we had a closer look at what this new technology is and its benefits. Five G was inspired by a new method for mobile wireless communications in a paper in 2010 by Thomas Marzetta who now owns a number of patents. This had the potential to give startling increases in speed and throughput, decreased power consumption and cheaper handsets and accordingly the specification for 5G started that year. It has been a long time coming and much work has gone into finalizing the specification and designing the building blocks for the system now called 5G. NR. NR equals new radio. We will look at it in two parts over two months with the first part a more general view. Les Rodgers
This month in a rather packed session we looked at some digital assistance technology. Bev demonstrated her Google Digital Assistant for us and fun was had by all in giving it instructions and its response to those requests. We even had some music from Scotland as well as episodes of Late Night Live, as a result of requests of it.
Videos of other assistance technology were shown for example Alexa, Amazon’s version of a digital assistant where you can actually order products from Amazon, by instructing Alexa. Unfortunately Alexa sends only what she thinks is appropriate.
Of particular interest to older people was Apple’s latest digital watch. Apart from telling the time (it seems a minor requirement for a watch now) it can detect when you have had a hard fall and if you don’t respond within a minute it will ring an emergency number for you. Other health features apart from the usual such as heart rate, include monitoring atrial fibrillation which would be of interest to some. Another convenience is that it can be paired to your mobile phone service, and can be used as a phone. Useful for those who don’t have their phones welded to their hand
We brought ourselves up to date with the latest in driverless cars and discussed the things that lead up to the death of a woman wheeling her bike across a four lane highway in Arizona. She was struck by the Uber autonomous car (with a driver on board). After about a seven month investigation Huber have put in place a much more rigorous testing regime.
RACWA have purchased a level four autonomous vehicle at a cost of $500,000 for trial in Western Australia. The small bus which was purchased has an unusually large number of sensors, including three costly Lidars, six cameras, radars and ultrasonic sensors. The trials should lead to legislation for the operation of autonomous vehicles in that state. It is something of an anomaly that the first level three autonomous car is available for sale in Australia but is disabled due to lack of required legislation.
Hydrogen power for electric fuel cell cars has had a boost with CSIRO research into the production of hydrogen from the use of metal membrane technology using ammonia. The idea is to transport liquid ammonia to your local garage where it would be converted to hydrogen on site in a simple process. A number of fuel cell vehicles are being trialled in Australia, including Melbourne, at the present time.
A video proposing wide scale use of hydrogen was discussed. The advantage of hydrogen is that its use produces zero greenhouse gases. Ideal for backup of intermittent renewable energy.
Finally we viewed a video of a TED Talk by Tom Gruber, the designer of Apple’s Siri. He is urging the development of AI as an enhancement of human capability rather than a competitor to it.
This video prompted some interesting discussion. It is interesting to note the timeline for an implant to ameliorate the effects of dementia is slated for 2030. That would be good to bring forward!
Les Rodgers Les was indisposed this month so we didn't have our regular meeting. However Tech Savvy talkers met at the Northo later in the month with the topic for discussion - the evolution of the mobile phone into a smart phone, it's now a device - what's next? Can it be a replacement for the NBN with or without 5G?
Les Rodgers This month Tech Savvy Talkers looked at the exciting new technology of CRISPR Cas9 for use as a gene editing tool. This technology was awarded “Breakthrough of the Year 2015” by the prestigious Science magazine of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This tool allows editing, ie removing or replacing a single base pair of the 3 billion in a DNA sequence of the human genome or of course replacing whole genes. The co-inventor of the process, Jennifer Doudna likens it to using a word processor for editing text. The ramifications are far reaching ranging from curing genetic diseases in humans or animals ie blood diseases or types of cancer, creating new types of medication, modifying crops etc. One application of great importance is the ability to eradicate whole species such as the malaria causing mosquito which kills one thousand children a day at present. There could be unforeseen impacts of doing so. This known as a gene drive. Designer humans are also theoretically possible. The great strength of CRISPR is the ease and low cost of using the technology. This also its greatest threat. There are many moral and ethical issues similar to those for AI and there is a worry that the technology is advancing so quickly that the regulators are unable to keep up. Videos that we used follow... Les Rodgers
The themes of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) featured on Gruen Transfer early in September - the thought provoking segment starts about 3 mins in and lasts for around 26 mins. It's available until Oct 8 on iView .... https://iview.abc.net.au/show/gruen-xl
This month Tech Savvy Talkers had an excursion to the Wangaratta GOTAFE where the Innovation Hub was the subject of our visit.
The Innovation Hub is managed by Craig Murphy who generously spent two hours with us to explain what it is all about. He also demonstrated some of the equipment for us. The Hub has come a long way from an initial grant application in 2016 to what is a very well equipped facility today.The Hub has already had a relocation in its short life and is now located in a new area which is currently being expanded to include additional functions. Craig explained that the thinking behind the facility is that it is based on the worldwide Maker Movement in that it provides working space for students, local business, industry and the community at large. Digital Disruption, Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things and the need to be responsive to product development and lead times were all considered when designing the Innovation Hub.The vision is to provide a ‘one stop shop’ where people from all walks of life can come together and learn and grow in a safe non-threatening environment. The equipment includes quite a number of 3d printers of various types including resin and plastic filament and a 3d scanner to reproduce a software model for later printing by the 3d printer. Also included is a very sophisticated CO2 laser cutter and etcher (able to cut wood up to about 10 mm thick and etch anodised aluminium). The etcher can be driven by the well known Adobe and Autodesk software such as Photoshop and Autocad. Other items of interest were the vacuum former for making plastic objects from a mould. A garment printer is also available for reproduction of artwork on suitable material. We were taken with the small robot based on an Arduino micro computer board together with the various actuators to make it do something. While this was assembled from a kit, the plastic components could easily be obtained by using the 3d printers and the software developed by local enthusiastic students etc. The two hours passed quickly and we all enjoyed our visit. After thanking Craig profusely, those of us who had the time enjoyed lunch at The Hollywood in Wangaratta. Coffee at the Northo this month was highlighted by Malcolm’s presentation of his adventures in the UK particularly in regard to travelling the canal system and also the technologies he and his family saw at the Farnborough air show. Most impressive was the new lightweight Airbus 350. The A350 uses a combination of materials, including plastic reinforced by carbon fibre, along with titanium and aluminium alloys. More than 70 per cent of the aircraft is made of lightweight materials. Aerobatic helicopters with ‘outside’ loop the loop capability were also amazing. Sadly, the canal system technology relying more on brawn (in this case Malcolm’s wife’s) was not nearly so impressive but none the less interesting. Les Rodgers Tech Savvy Talks will return from a winter break on Wednesday August 8th, meeting at 9.15 am in the car park for an excursion to GOTAFE’s Innovation Hub in Wangaratta.
Then on Thursday August 23rd the ‘Tech Savvy Talkers’ will meet at ‘The Northo’ at 3pm to catch up on items and issues of interest. Les Rodgers Our last meeting consisted of a short talk about the origins of coffee from about the 15th century onwards. Some surprising facts were that it is the most traded agricultural commodity in the world and the second most traded after petroleum. The industry employs over 100 million people worldwide mainly in the production of green beans in developing countries. Other interesting facts are that it spread across the world quite rapidly after an Islam mystic Brother Baba Budan smuggled seven seeds into Yemen and grew the Coffea Arabica bushes. We also looked at the development of roasting and grinding methods which are now quite sophisticated. The evolution of brewing machines started around the beginning of the 20th century with the first true espresso machine being produced in 1947. Technological improvements followed quite rapidly and today’s machines, both home and commercial take full advantage of today’s technologies. The presentation closed with a short video of a café latte complete with latte art being produced robotically using the latest machines. Brian Howard showed us some of the model heat engines that he has produced with his great skill. One works simply on hot water while a second was a miniature steam engine. Bev lead a discussion on podcasting, which was new to most members. There is a huge range of podcasts available both audio and video based on a great variety of topics and music. Very useful when driving or at night if sleep isn’t coming so easily. We will look into this further next semester. Speaking of next semester we discussed greater involvement by the members of the group and decided that for next semester it might be better if I lead the first hour of a session and others might be able finish the second half with topics of interest to them personally. Because of the absence of a number of members in July it was agreed to have a break that month and start in August with a possible excursion as the first meeting. Les Rodgers Photograph - Malcolm Sanders
Seeing that the instigator of quantum computing, Richard Feynman, would have been be 100 years old this month and our Australian of the year Michelle Simmons, is a whiz on quantum computing, quantum computing was the focus of our May session. As part of a most informative session presented by Les, we watched a presentation by Richard Feynman ‘Probability & Uncertainty – the Quantum Mechanical View of Nature’ on You Tube, followed by a video segment Women in Science - Michelle Simmons.
Throughout May there have been many emails between members about next steps in terms of the NBN, with some members now choosing from available plans, receiving new routers, being connected, monitoring internet speeds and comparing them with what they have been used to.
NBN and related topics were also shared at a most convivial ‘Tech Savvy Talkers at the Northo’ session in late May. Members are asked to put their thinking hats on then contact Les on 5762 7600 with a technology/science related topic of interest they could add to the agenda for 15 minutes at our session on 13th June. It could be a 'show and tell'; a book review; Ted Talk, documentary of interest or a presentation on a topic about which you are intrigued or have a passion. This isn't compulsory, but a great opportunity to give Les a break if you have a topic you'd like to present. Les Rodgers and Bev Lee
'Digital Assistants’ have been on the agenda at a recent Thursday afternoon coffee meeting and at our regular session this month. There are four main alternatives, which are Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft. Of these Amazon’s ‘Alexa’ appears to be the most innovative, with an enhanced voice recognition algorithm able to recognize individual account owner’s voices and proposed use of the owner’s voice as a password for access to the account. Up to ten different voices can be recorded.
We watched a short video clip demonstrating how to set up Alexa with the latest version of the digital assistant. The video also demonstrated how Alexa would only recognize the account owner’s voice and rejected others. However it also showed how it could be foiled by a recording of the owner’s voice. Since Amazon is also considering developing a finance capacity similar to PayPal using Alexa, further enhancement of the security will be needed.
Our Ted Talk this time was by Scott Galloway, a Professor of marketing from NYU. The talk was entitled “How Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google manipulate our emotions.”The combined market capitalization of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google is now greater than the GDP of India (and Australia).
In this spectacular and controversial rant, Scott Galloway shared insights and eye-opening stats about their dominance and motivation. Some interesting discussion followed the video..
We also followed up on the 5G mobile demonstration by Telstra at the Gold Coast during the Commonwealth Games using some cutting edge technology. We noted the evolution of Telstra from a telephone company to a data services company which will involve the “shuttering” of 2500 local telephone exchanges and converting the remainder to distributed data centres. There will also be additional data centres located between the major data centres and the local facilities. This is needed for edge computing vis a vis cloud computing where fast acting low latence transmission is required for the IOT. Fifty percent of mobile traffic is still expected to go over the 4G network. Les Rodgers This month we had the second part of a two part series about Artificial Intelligence.
Firstly we listened to a Ted Talk by Zeynep Tufekci about the impact of the use of AI by the big software houses Facebook, Google and Amazon. The strategy of these businesses is to keep internet users glued to their respective sites to sell advertising and products. These organizations collect and process enormous amounts of personal data and use AI to greatly increase this data and categorise people into various groups which can be individually targeted by users and unscrupulous users, including political and government. This was followed by two short videos from the Wall Street Journal about the revolution in robotics leading to the unemployment of large numbers of people worldwide, even including China. This is likely to have a society altering impact which must be addressed by governments over the next ten years. “The next ten years will be either the best or the worst in human history” according to an MIT professor. Finally we looked at a couple of short segments from Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 movie 2001-A Space Odyssey, showing what a super intelligent computer could do if it had no moral or ethical alignment with human values. This was followed by Ted Talks opposed to and in favour of the idea of an Existential Threat to humanity from Artificial Super Intelligence. Videos used: Zeynep Tufekci, Ted Talk Wall St Journal Moving Up series 2001- A Space Odyssey video clips Garry Booch Ted Talk Nick Bostrom Ted Talk Post script: Change of venue: Next month’s ‘Tech Savvy Talkers’ discussion group will be at ‘the Northo’ (North Eastern Hotel), 3 to 4pm on Thursday April 26th. Les Rodgers Artficial Intelligence has become a hot topic in recent times. It was an agenda item at the World Economic Forum at Davos earlier this year. It was also a major item for discussion at the recent World Government Summit in Dubai, where it was addressed under the title of Human Augmentation. The Talk Savvy Talks meeting this month had an in-depth look at what Artificial Intelligence is and found that it is now considered to consist of several parts:
A(NI) is very much in use at the present time and has the capacity to take over high level repetitive tasks currently carried out by humans, which is why it is a topic of conversation at World Forums. It can have a major impact on society and is considered by some to be as significant as was the Industrial Revolution. We looked at several relevant videos, including ‘What is Artifical Intelligence – for People in a Hurry’;‘Google’s Deep Mind Explained’ and an interview with educator and entrepreneur Sebastian Thrun, ‘What AI is -- and isn’t’, which highlights the way in which the new generation of computers is programming itself (subtitles/closed captions available) (link to transcript).
Next month we will consider the impact and potential future impact of AI.
Les Rodgers We were fortunate to have Martin Nichol from Sun Real to speak to our group in November. Sun Real completed the installation of a 100 percent renewable off grid micro hydroelectric system at Mt Stirling to service the Telephone Box Junction café, ski-shop and office, as contracted by the Mt Buller/Mt Stirling Resort Management Board. This was to replace the hydro system destroyed by fire during the bushfires of 2006-7 which was temporarily replaced by a diesel powered generator. The project by all accounts was a very challenging one due to the difficult terrain and the need to install a weir with 350 metres of 110 mm diameter poly pipe to deliver water to the AC ‘turbine’ with 80 metres of vertical drop. Around 6 to 7 kW power is produced by the 3 phase alternator. This is converted to DC and then converted back to AC by associated inverters to provide 3 phase grid quality power. To get the power from the turbine to Telephone Box Junction several hundred metres of aluminium cable was also installed. 650 metres is underground down the Mt Stirling Rd and 200 metres in steel conduit through bush country in accordance with the environmental requirements of the State Government and Energy Safe Victoria. Also installed was a large lead acid battery bank costing around $30,000 and associated inverters. This provides 70 kW hours of storage to boost power production when required. Martin explained some of the difficulties and problems which arose with the project. The system has been operational since July this year and is working well according to reports. Martin also imparted a good deal of information about roof top solar systems generally and responded to many questions from interested participants regarding the latest types of panels available, micro inverters, power optimizers and battery back up. Martin also showed us some very interesting monitor displays of working solar systems. The information available from these displays shows how well the system is performing and how much power is being used at any time and how much is fed back to the grid. Everybody present found it a most interesting and informative session.
Les Rodgers At our October meeting we considered pumped hydro schemes as an alternative option for baseload energy. After a vigorous discussion about the complex nature of decision making about alternative energy sources we watched a recent Lateline program in which Bob Katter took Anthony Albanese on a renewable energy ‘power trip’ to see a range of renewable energy projects in his rural electorate. It was refreshing to see two MPs from different political backgrounds engaging constructively in discussions about options for renewable energy during the trip, which included a visit to a pumped hydro scheme. We then watched another video segment which explained the nature of pumped hydro schemes in greater detail (links are available on the Tech Savvy Talks web page).
After the break we moved on to advanced robotics, watching an absorbing documentary in which cameras followed the almost completely ‘roboticized’ BMW assembly line from go to whoa during the production of its 2018 model. The comparison with the assembly line when David Hall worked at Ford c 1977 and when Bev’s Economics students attended excursions to see assembly lines operating at Ford and Holden during the 70s and 80s was stark. Our next session will feature a guest speaker from local renewable energy business ‘Sun Real’. Sun Real’s recent projects have included a small hydro installation at Mount Sterling. We had initially planned to go on an excursion with Martin from Sun Real to Mt Sterling in November, but after a ‘reality check’ decided most of our legs wouldn’t manage the walk in from the road! Our ‘Tech Savvy Talkers’ discussion group continues to meet at Rustik café on the fourth Thursday at 3 pm. At the next meeting they will be farewelling Peter Simpson, who is moving to Shepparton. We will miss you Peter!
Something to add to our discussions regarding electric vehicles...
At our September Meeting Marcus Bolger gave an excellent presentation to the group about his work as a Patents Attorney. There was no shortage of questions for Marcus from class members, many with backgrounds in science, technology and engineering. Thank you for a most informative presentation, Marcus! Tech Savvy Talks sessions usually incorporate a TED Talk on a technology related topic. TED talks are video podcasts of the best talks and performances from TED Conferences around the world in which the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). There are talks on science, technology, entertainment, design, business, global issues, the arts and much more. This month Les recommended a particularly thought provoking and informative TED Talk ‘How a Driverless Car Sees the Road’ by Chris Urmson, a roboticist and until recently head of Google's self driving car project. You can view it below along with some articles for further reading. Driverless or autonomous cars are very different from cars with Advanced Driver Assistance Systems which are now readily available. They are not something in the distant future and in fact a number of manufacturers expect to have level 4 cars available for sale by 2020. Level 4 means that the car can drive autonomously but may hand control back to a driver under some circumstances. Therefore controls such as steering wheels accelerator and brake controls will still be present. Level 5 autonomous cars will have no controls or steering wheel in the car. A major benefit from autonomous cars is the reduction in loss of life from motor accidents currently at over a million per year worldwide at present. Our next TED TALK will be in similar vein, but about advanced robots, as presented at this years TED TALKS conference. Unfortunately there wasn’t time at our regular meeting in September to continue with the series about cells so the next part will be shown in our meeting room at 2.00 pm prior to our next 'Coffee at Rustik' get together. Follow up reading -
Recent article relating to Chris Urmson in Forbes -- https://www.forbes.com/sites/chunkamui/2017/05/08/urmson-on-driverless-cars/#356681bf47c9 'Perspectives on Driverless Cars' Lecture in April 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtgBySRrN0Q This month Tech Savvy members began by sharing topics including driverless cars; the growing use of artificial intelligence; use of smart phones when travelling; the coding error and money laundering crisis facing the Commonwealth Bank; driveable helicopters and the world’s first floating wind farm. Les and Wendi shared frustrating episodes of problem solving with IT, with applause for Les on his eventual victory.
On a different note, Len reported on using a lathe for the first time in his current pastime of restoring ‘kangaroo’ chairs. David Hall then became an impromptu guest speaker as we drew him out about the superbly crafted wooden box he had with him. David spoke about the woods he uses in his work, including the wood from pellets; woods available in the North East; integrating computer related design skills from his engineering background when he works and the work he will be exhibiting in October at the Manningham Gallery. After the break, we watched first of a three part series about cells, the basis of all life on earth. The video was a visually stunning high definition blue ray video produced by the BBC and presented by Dr. Adam Rutherford. The first part showed the fascinating story of the progress of the study of cells from when a Dutch producer and seller of napkins and also an amateur scientist, first found life in a sample of water. He invented a simple tiny microscope of far greater power than the renowned scientists in the Royal Society in England had seen before. This enabled him to see and describe the “little animals” in the water which the English scientists were unable to reproduce at first. The story continued of the many people and groundbreaking discoveries that lead to the realization that all life on earth, plant and animal came from similar cells with a nucleus. The story will continue and eventually bring us up to modern times so that we can explore “what happened after Dolly the sheep”. This represents a change from our almost exclusive focus on electronic technologies to a wider field just as interesting and challenging. Our next discussion group at Rustik café is on Thursday August 24th at 3pm. Les Rodgers and Bev Lee
Following up two of this year's themes... road/air vehicles...and alternative options for baseload energy...
.'Coding' is currently in the news, with a push to have more young people learn coding to empower them to create sites, programs and apps. Another form of coding, and code breaking, became an imperative during World War II, when Dr Alan Turing and his team at Bletchley Park in the UK sought to understand and break Germany’s 'enigma' code and developed a machine to counter it. We watched the excellent movie 'The Imitation Game' which follows the story of mathematician, cryptanalyst, war hero and pioneer of modern-day computing Turing as he and his team sought to break the Enigma Code. All considered ‘The Imitation Game’ worth viewing - it is available on loan from the Benalla Library.
Items raised by this month’s Rustik discussion group included Facetime (Les); a 256 USB flash drive which connects to standard USB and phones (Terry); the NBN (Peter) and the interconnector to South Australia (Len). Facetime, which is used by a number of U3A Benalla members, can only be used between two Macs of one form or another. Either WIFI or the mobile network can be used but using the mobile network would incur a charge depending on how long the call was and the users plan and how much data was left on the plan. For example, a one-hour call would use approximately 150 MB of data. If the call triggered the need for more data capacity then worst case for Telstra, $10 would be required for 1GB. This compares with $60 being required for a mobile voice call for one hour. Skype, Duo or Messenger would give similar results. WIFI is generally of much greater capacity and 150 MB would not impact it very much if at all and would be virtually free. Regarding the interconnector to South Australia, many of us envisage lattice steel towers with wires on them which might fall over in the wind. Actually, there are 180 kilometres of two high voltage DC cables from Red Cliffs in Victoria to Berri in South Australia, very securely buried in the ground and completely safe from all the bad weather that could be thrown at them. (Note - for more reading about the interconnector, check out the Len's links on the Murraylink high voltage direct current electricity transmission link here.) Bev Lee & Les Rodgers |
About 'Tech Talks'Are you reasonably tech savvy; interested in technological developments and keen to continue developing your knowledge base? Then the ‘Tech Talks’ discussion group may be of interest. Monthly sessions include viewing of topical ‘TED Talks’; presentations on topics of interest by class members or guest speakers; shared news of developments across a range of technologies. Topics discussed include developments in science as well as technology.
We hope to attract more interest by having guest speakers. Please note that wide ranging discussion of topics is encouraged. Meeting times2nd Tuesday of month
2pm to 4pm U3A Meeting Room 2 FacilitatorNeville Gibb 0428 858 688
LinksArchives'Tech Savvy Talkers' reports/photos from the Rustik then Northo discussion sessions to end 2019.
Resources from Ian McLeod's 'Making the Most of the Internet' course which preceded Tech Savvy:
MMI webpage Ian's Blog Links and references Categories
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