Windows Vs OSX

Microsoft and Apple are two of the biggest computer companies on the planet, and they have both been fighting it out for who has the best operating system. 90.9% of the world’s computers use Windows, and even then only 26% of them run Windows 7, this just shows Microsoft’s dominance over Apple in this field.

I admit Apple’s products have got one thing going for them and that is style, they are sleek and aesthetically pleasing but that is just about where their ‘greatness’ stops. Windows is the better operating system by far, however bad the case that it comes in may be.

Windows 7 now loads up just as fast as OSX and is much more customizable too, you can customise your desktop with gadgets and what programs you use regularly, and you can also use start menu and there you can find all of the applications that you have installed and there is a search tool too, whereas on a mac you have to open finder and the either search and even then you may end up looking through the system folder which contains the application file and several other associated files whereas on Windows you will find all of the associated files under program files.

OSX isn’t as adaptable as Windows 7; Windows 7 will work on just about any computer that has been made in the past 5-10 years. However OSX will only work on very few products. Also adding extra components to an Apple Mac is very costly, but because of Windows compatibility it is quite easy to install a component for a fraction of the price.

Also Mac’s are over prices for what they actually are, you can get a Windows computer up to a half of the price however with exactly the same spec, or even a better spec.

Now to software compatibility, again Windows trumps Apple, there is much more software available for Windows and again at the fraction of the price. Yes some of it is useless however most of it can be very helpful and make life a lot easier, whereas Mac can over complicate even the simplest processes. E.g. cropping a picture on Word

Mac

Windows

1) Make sure your Formatting Palette is open. If not, click View -> Formatting Palette in the menu bar. 2) With your image selected, go to the Formatting Palette and see if the Picture category is revealed. If not, click on Picture to open it. 3) There should be a Crop button. Once clicked, the edges in your image will change to show handles you can drag to crop the image. 4) Click the Crop button again to finish the crop

1)Select the picture and click the format tab 2)Click crop 3)Select area of picture wanted 4)Press enter to complete

Many say that there is a much lower chance of getting a virus on a Mac, this is true if you are comparing to a Windows computer that doesn’t have any antivirus software, however if you have a good antivirus software then you will be perfectly safe, and you can get several great antivirus software for free. There are less viruses out there for a Mac and this is for one simple reason less people use Macs and so hackers write viruses for the wider market (Windows) yet Mac is still just as susceptible to viruses as a Windows machine.

For all of those gameoholics out there, Windows is definitely the better operating system to have for one simple reason there are more games for Windows then there are for Mac, also if your computer becomes a bit out dated and you need to upgrade a part to play a game then is simple and cheap to do whereas a Mac would be very costly to upgrade and that is excluding the parts.

In conclusion Windows have the better operating system by far because of its compatibility and user friendliness and very simple setup and use, however I have to admit Apple win the style contest, but are trailing when it comes to their operating system. OSX still needs a lot of development if it wants to catch up to Windows 7, but for looks Windows 7 could do with some work.

Graphene

What is Graphene?

Graphene is and allotrope of carbon. Carbon the basis of life, fossil fuels and some of its structures form some of the strongest compounds in the universe such as diamond. Graphene has exactly the same structure and bonding as graphite, however it differs in one key aspect. Graphite is made up of several layers that are held together by a weak intermolecular force called Van Der Waals forces whereas graphene has only one layer. The bonding is exactly the same as graphite; each carbon atom is covalently bonded to 3 other carbon atoms to form a hexagonal lattice.

How to Make Graphene

Graphene is made by using a process called mechanical exfoliation which, this may sound crazy but, literally involves using adhesive tape to remove layers off a graphite block and slowly as the block becomes thinner and thinner until you are left with a single layer which is graphene, however to remove the flakes off the tape they dissolved the tape in acetone and after a couple of other processes, the single layer graphene sheet was sedimented on a silicon wafer. There are a few other methods such as epitaxial growth on silicon carbide and metal substrates. Growing graphene on silicon carbide involves heating it to temperatures over 1100°C and on the surface of the carbide a sheet of graphene will form on the surface of the carbide. It is a similar process when using metal substrates. There are also several other methods such as the reduction of graphite or carbon dioxide or even cutting open nanotubes.

What is So Special about Graphene?

Since testing with graphene has begun scientists have be discovering several unusual properties that it has. Graphene has been shown to be more than 200 times stronger than steel and has a tensile modulus of 1 TPa which is equivalent to 150,000,000 pounds per square inch, whereas steel has a tensile modulus of 104,400 pounds per square inch. Graphene is also a lot lighter, harder, stronger and more flexible than steel and is also much more cost effective and it is also eco-friendly. It is a perfect material to be used in manufacture of planes and other vehicles; it is much lighter and stronger than most of the materials used at the moment, such as steel, aluminium and fibre glass. It is much more cost effective because it will save fuel because of its weight and also it will create less pollution and therefore will be cheaper to run; also it is much more ecologically sustainable.

Another astonishing property of graphene is that it has no band gap which means that it can absorb light with any frequency, this is a very useful property when trying to create photovoltaic cells also known as solar cells, this is also a very helpful in out fight against global warming and finding a more sustainable fuel source.

Graphene has another very intriguing property due to its hexagonal lattice. It can conduct electron at room temperature with almost no resistance this is because its mean free path is bigger than its dimensions. This is very similar to superconductivity however at room temperature.

Graphene has some other physical properties such as it is transparent however if you put it on a completely blank piece then you can just about see it, astonishingly this means that you can see a single layer of atoms. Also it is rather elastic and can stretch up to 20% of its original length.

Graphene has broken both the records for thermal and electrical conductivity. It is a 1,000,000 times more conductive than copper and conducts electricity in the limit of no electrons; it carries electricity with more precision and efficiency than any other material ever discovered. Also diamond is a very good conductor of thermal energy however graphene has been proven to be a better conduct of heat than diamond and now
holds the record for the best heat conductor.

And finally, graphene is impermeable, not even a helium atom can pass through its lattice and so is very good at containing even gasses, and when these gasses get caught in its lattice they change its electrical properties, this makes it perfect for creating sensors to detect even the smallest gas leaks.

What can it Be Used For?

Graphene is an amazing material with amazing properties but what are its uses? As I have already mentioned graphene could be used in sensors and be used to find dangerous molecules. It can also be used to create better solar cells and stronger wind turbines and this will lead to a more green way of living. Also because of the strength and light weight of graphene, it can be used to make stronger and lighter implants such as the hip or shoulder. And because of it electrical properties it could possibly be used to create super capacitors and in high powered electronic devices, and will be a very useful tool in advancing touchscreen and TV technology. IBM has already made a 100GHz transistor out of graphene and has promised a 1THz processor soon.

Graphene is a very useful material with several possible uses and will become very common in some of the technology we use every day, this is one material that you will be seeing a lot of in coming years.

ACTA

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is being used to set international standards for interlectual property rights. Also it aims to create a framework across the globe that will target counterfeit goods, generic medicines and copyright infringement. However the ACTA laws change form country to country:

USA:
Anyone in the USA found to be downloading copyrighted content 10 times or more within 6 months will recieve a 5 year jail sentence. Also the US government or the copyright holders will be allowed to issue court orders to any sites that are accused of infringement of piracy policies.

UK:
The UK ACTA policy isn't as extreme as the US policy, they are planning to send a letter to anyone that is caught downloading illegally, this letter will contain suggestions to help the person to stop downloading.

France:
France's policy is a little more affective than the UK's, for anyone found to be downloading illegally thay will first send an e-mail to them and if they continue they will send a letter and still if they continue they will recieve a court order and the judge will be allowed to fine or remove their internet connection.

Italy:
Italy dont have a three strike policy like France. Instead the internet provider will have to disconnect as soon as a person is found illegally downloading. Also they will have to keep a list of all the offenders incase of reoffenders.

Spain:
In Spain the Interlectual Property Commission will decide whether or not to remove the data from the internet.

New Zealand:
Here they also have a three strike just like France however they will have to go to a tribunal where they will decide whether the offender will pay a fine and how much which is up to $15,000 and whether they will be disconnected.

ACTA has caused many issues across the globe, there have been several protests and patitions. One of which will be held at Trafalgar Square on 11th February. There are several other protests being planned through this website http://www.stopp-acta.info/english . If you would like to read the Consolidated Text you can view it at http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/actaoct2010.pdf. If you would like to sign the online petition you may do so here : http://www.avaaz.org/en/eu_save_the_internet/?fp?170,55

NEOShield project

NEOShield is a new project to defend Earth from Near Earth Objects (NEO). This project has been set up to assess the best way to remove any threats by any interplanetary objects such as asteroids. This project is being lead by the Institute of Planetary Research in Germany.

Approximately once a year an asteroid the size of a car enters our atmosphere, but this burns up as it falls through our atmosphere, causing stunning fireballs in the sky. Every 2000 years an asteroid the size of a football field, this asteroid is wouldn't completely burn up in our atmosphere and it will cause a lot of damage to the local area.

They are going to consider several techniques to lessen the effects of an asteroid impact. A few of them are:

KINETIC IMPACTOR:
This involves a spacecraft that would, not exactly collide with it but change the velocity of the asteroid, such that the asteroid would "arrive early" or "arrive late" therefore causing it to miss the earth.

GRAVITY TRACTOR:
This proposition includes positioning a craft close to the asteroid and then using ion thrusters to keep them from colliding because of the gravitational pull between them. And then, scientists are predicting that because of the gravitational attraction between them the spacecraft will be able to "tow" the asteroid out of its trajectory with Earth.

BLAST DEFLECTION:
This is the classic suggestion for stopping an asteroid collision, this consists of placing an explosive of sorts, usually nuclear, close to or on the surface of an asteroid, the hope is that the explosion would cause it to be deflected away from earth or to be broken in to smaller pieces that burn up in our atmosphere.

This project, in the long term, will be helpful to the existence of humans and will save millions of pounds in damages.

SOPA Issue

Recently there is a big issue to do with SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act). Several companies are supporting this act, such as Nike, Viacom and Pfizer. However there are several opposing it too, such as Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia.... and the list goes on.

As you can tell, some of the biggest online companies are opposing this act. You may have noticed that most of the supporting companies are product based, this is probably to stop people selling counterfeit goods over the internet.

Companies like Google, Yahoo! and Wikipedia are opposing it because they deal with information which will be restricted if SOPA is inforced. Wikipedia will lose thousands of pages, Google will have to restrict searches, and so will Yahoo! Google, the largest search engine in the world, will be restricted and will only show us certain results instead of all the possiblities.

Another issue with SOPA is that if they closed down one illegal site another 5 will be opened and so it will be pointless to close them down in the first place, that just how the internet works. However because of the restrictions on search engines, they will be harder to find but they will still exist.

In conclusion, I think that SOPA will not make much of a difference except for make these illegal file sharing websites less obvious however they will still be working just as well and still selling and sharing products and files illegally.

Pictures of Our Universe

Mystic Mountain
























 Supernova Remnant (N 63A)

Light Echo from the star V 838


























 Spiral galaxy M74

 Star Cluster NGC 602

The Ant Nebula (MZ 3)





















 
 The Trifid Nebula

Glowing Gases in the Swan Nebula






















Filaments in the Crab Nebula

Bug Nebula (NGC 6302)

Photos thanks to NASA and the Hubble Telescope Project

Introduction

Hey!! this is my blog, as you can see on my profile, I am 17 and have a keen interest in Entertainment media, Science and Photography + Technology ( E.S.P ) once i have completed my A-levels I am hoping to go into Astrophysics or Pharmacy. Here is a quick introduction to the topics that I am going to cover in this blog:

Entertainment media: I will be posting latest music and classic songs, and some covers and so on .... Also i will be posting about movies, recent releases, or that i have recently watched and amazing classics. I will also be talking fictional novels and maybe some science papers.

Science: I will be commenting about scientific theories, my opinion and thoughts on several topics ranging from the images from the Planck space telescope to the hunt for the Higgs Boson particle and many other topics.

Photography + Technology: Photography is one of my favourite hobbies and I will be posting about new cameras their pros and cons and also new lenses and what they are good for and not good for, just to let you know I'm a Canon person and so will probably not be commenting about any other make of SLR :-) Sorry to disappoint Nikon people

Also i will be talking about the latest gadgets gizmos, games and  and whether or not that they are worthwhile or just another gimmick.


This is my very first blog post if you have any comments or recommendations then please comment. Thanks for reading guys!