wine
Latest
New Korean RFID device claims to help prevent wine fraud
It's sorta unclear to us exactly how this new flavor of RFID tags is going to prevent wine fraud, but nonetheless, Sontec, a Korean RFID manufacturer is claiming as much. As we noted only a few weeks ago, wine fraud is big business, and every wine and winery from Chateauneuf-du-Pape to Penfolds surely would want a way to prevent their label's image from being tarnished. Sontec's new RFID, which operates at 900MHz, apparently has a range of up to three meters and will include the origin, date of production and distribution channel of the wine. Presumably if a wine (or other spirits) was diluted and still had this tag on it, no one would be the wiser, but given how secure RFID is, it's not like nefarious faux-wine peddlers would even really have to stoop to those means.
NEC's winebot detects fraudulent bottles
Apparently wine fraud is big business, with certain less-than-reputable vineyards watering down their Cabernet with a little Merlot, for instance, or even filling their supposedly boutique bottles with some off-the-shelf Manischewitz. Well the engineers / wine connoisseurs over at NEC have had enough, so they've invented a wine-tasting "robot" that can distinguish between 30 distinct varieties using only a five-milliliter sample. We've already seen NEC use infrared light in a food-tasting bot, and now they've taken a similar approach with this new device -- about twice the size of a three-liter wine box (mmm...box o' wine) -- which uses LEDs to fire infrared light at a sample and an array of photodiodes to interpret the resulting reflection. Until they can boost its recognition abilities to include many more varieties of wine (about 1,000, in fact), though, this project is little more than an academic exercise -- meaning you'll still need to bring your corkscrew to the liquor store if you want to ensure that you're getting a quality product.
That unique "new Mac" smell
You all know what I'm talking about: the moment you tear open your new Mac and are greeted by that complex combination of a "little bit of plastic bag with a hint of lindenberry followed by a rush of Styrofoam." We all love it. Just like every other Apple product I've purchased new, my MacBook features that same unique scent.I'd forgotten how much I missed it. I purchased my last Mac (a 15" Titanium PowerBook) second hand, from a smoker. Then I spilt a glass of wine on the keyboard which made it pong of cheap rosé. Needless to say, my MacBook smells significantly better than my old Mac. Its scent is amongst my most favorite smells and in my opinion it is second only to the smell of napalm in the morning.Knowing this, you'll understand my disappointment after I Googled "that new Mac smell" and found that research suggests that the smell emanating from new gadgets is very unhealthy. Wikipedia's entry on a similar feature found in cars, "that new car smell", links to research that likens the odor to sniffing glue. There's also an article from 2004 on Geek.com that recounts evidence that toxic fire retardant chemicals found in computers can be transferred to dust. Although the article says that "two of the chemicals in question (penta and octa-brominated diphenyl) have already been banned and will no longer be used in production by the end of this year," I'm forced to reconsider my love of the smell of new Macs.Does anyone have any information that would restore my confidence in my new Mac's smell?
Road to WINE travel-able, but filled with potholes...
Don't get overly excited by this Digg post , announcing WINE arrives for Intel Macs. If you actually follow the links through to the discussion thread where this story originates, you'll find that WINE is compiled and working, but not that well: "I warn you. There is nothing to get excited about.... What I mean by this is, while this does in fact run windows apps, it *doesn't* seem to be running things that I *know* worked with the stuff that was floating around last summer. Its perplexing as to why this is. " To keep your eye on the situation, you should keep reading those boards and check regularly with the Darwine project.
