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Caleb was born in Austin on February 20,

1995. He went to Kealing MS before com-

ing to the Liberal Arts and Science

Academy. He plays in the LBJ Jaguar

Drumline, LBJ lacrosse, and is an active

member in the Civil Air Patrol Squadron at

Camp Mabry. He wrote the B-1b Lancer

story and the DIY article in this magazine,

as well as the piece Cancer’s Calling!.

MEET THE

GEEKS

Caleb G.

Kim P.

Art fro

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Kim is rather camera-shy, at least compare to

her other group members, so she had to de-

sign her own photo, although all of the credit

does not go to her. She lives the double life

of a high school student and yes, a Dragon

Pokemon trainer. Many have tried to shoot

down the latter occupation many times, but

for good or bad, she has refused to let go

of that dream many times. She is often seen

with her trusty Typhlosion and Flygon, traveling

through the regions, taking on challenges at

the Gym or going after the Legendaries, but

not before studying of course.

Brian, at the beginning of the semester,

despised writing. After a few months, writing

has become slightly less torturous for him

and there is a slight possibility he is even

starting to like it. Brian enjoys the outdoors,

playing the piano, and playing lacrosse. He

also likes to play video games and do-

ing anything that requires little effort, such

as eating. Check out his article Every, Last,

Drop and his Top 2010 gadgets list in the

magazine. Enjoy!

Jesse is a student at the Liberal Arts and

Science academy. His group and him have

worked hard to try and create an entertaining

and interesting magazine that pertains mainly

to those who are interested in technology,

science, video games, and gadgets. Jesse is

extremely interested in technology, particularly

new gadgets, video games, computers, and

more things of the sort. This is what made

him want to create a tech-related e-zine.

Jesse had a great time writing these articles,

and coming up with all of his designs, and

hopes you all enjoy it!

MEET THE

GEEKS

Jesse M.

Brian P.

Table of Contents

Pg.2........................ Meet The Geeks

Pg.4....................... Table of Contents

Pg.5............................... A Message

Pg.6.. Game Review: Modern Warfare 2

Pg.8...........................Cancer’s Calling

Pg.10............ Most Anticipated Gadgets

Pg.12.......................Every, Last, Drop

Pg.15........... DIY: Night Vision Goggles

Pg.16............... Emulators VS Consoles

Pg.20.... Appreciate Your System Admin

Pg.24............................ B-1B Lancer

Pg.26................... Guide To Emulators

Pg.32......................... Survey Dismay

Pg.34....... Genetically Modified Dinner...

Pg.36............. Sonar In The Lone Star

We, the staff of CtrlAltDel bring to you our first and last creation. Despite the fact that this magazine is technolo-gy-based and was originally targeted for techno geeks out there, our goal is to incorporate something everyone can en-joy, hence the name CtrlAltDel as this is a reboot on what you think you know about technology. 

Even if you’re an easy-reading kind of person, check out our Top 10 gadgets list and ‘how-to’ guides. 

If you’re ready for a challenge, we dare you to read the entire magazine. We might not be Wired! but we’re pretty darn close.

A MESSAGE

Call of Duty: Modern war-fare 2 has been one of the most highly antici-pated games among first person shooter gamers since it was announced on February 11th, 2009. The reason for this excitement

is highly related to the significant impact Call of Duty: Modern Warfare had on the gaming world, starting with its release in April of 2007. The game was played all throughout the world on Xbox 360, com-puter, Playstation 3, Wii, and even a por-table version was available for Nintendo’s DS. The game brought great graphics, an interesting and lengthy campaign, and excellent multiplayer to the table, knock-ing the competition out of the way. Sev-eral important gaming websites such as GameSpot and GameTrailers praised the game with the best graphics of E3 2007 award, as well as the Playstation game of the year award. Call of Duty: Modern War-fare was rated number 3 on Gametrailer’s top ten first-person shooters of all time list, behind only Halo, and Goldeneye. The game also won several awards from IGN, X-play, Spike Video Game Awards, Acad-emy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, and the British Academy Video Game Awards. In this way, the original Call of Duty: Mod-ern Warfare monopolized the first person shooter world. In November of 2008, the Call of Duty games took another twist, going back to the WWII themed games with a new game entitled: Call of Duty: World at War. But despite the fact that there was a shiny new Call of Duty game, many people still played, even preferred Modern Warfare. So, a sequel was made, and is now the newest and best in the Call of Duty series, as well as in the world of first person shooters. The graphics in this game exhibit extreme detail, and give me chills. Every time a bul-let hits the character, or a grenade goes off two feet away, I shudder. In the gaming world, that is an incredible feat. The idea of a video game is to to create a real experience for the gamer, making them feel like they are in the middle of a war, or playing soccer, or running

The cover for Activision and Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Watfare 2.

Game Review: Modern Warfare 2

Jesse M.

through the streets of New York City. Call of Duty has always created an excellent war en-vironment, and Modern Warfare 2 takes the war scene to a new level.The cars explode, the houses explode, and even the chickens found throughout the game can be shot. The action is as if on steroids, which in this case would be the powerful graphics, and intense controls. The movement of the characters gives the game a feeling like a movie, in which you are playing. The storyline for the campaign mode is stronger than the first Modern Warfare, and takes place five years later. The most interesting component in the Modern Warfare stories is that as the player you play as two or more different soldiers, in different places, and with different groups. So, in Modern Warfare 2 the campaign is mainly played with a sergeant known as “roach”, but, for a few missions, is also played through

the eyes of Private Joseph Allen, and Captain “Soap” Mac-Tavish. The main idea of the story is that the player is trying to find a terrorist known as Vladimir Makarov, who is related to Imran Zakhaev, the main enemy in the prequel. In Mod-ern Warfare 2, the player will take part in missions that take place in a rather snowy area in Ka-zakhstan, an airport in Moscow, Russia,

and there is even a part of the game that takes place with the gamer playing as an astro-naut in a space station. All in all this game is an extraordi-nary creation, and includes incred-ible graphics, a long, interesting campaign, and great multiplayer. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Several cutscenes sprinkled all throughout the game provide a cinematic experience for the gamer.

The player will fight their way through tons of action packed scenarios, all of which are extremely creative and original. The action shown here takes place after the main character and his superviser are compromised while infiltrating an enemy air force base in a snowy Kazakhstan.

9.5Concept/Story: This game exhibits an incredibly interesting story for their nice and lengthy, one-player cam-paign mode. Fighting action takes place in several differ-ent locations, with cut scenes in between to smooth out the transitions.

Graphics: Excellent in-game movement and visuals en-hance the game to the extreme.

Playability: Modern Warfare 2 features greatcontrols as well as excellent on-screen reactions.

Entertainment: Withhours of awesome campaign, limitless online, and more great game modes, this game will bring loads of entertainment to your system, and will last for quite a while.

Sound: The sound acting in this game is absolutely flaw-less, just as it was in the pre-quel.

Replay Value: Very High

Cancer’s Calling!

Our community has become de-pendent on cell phones, for work, for friends, for family, and about any one else we can talk to. Unfortunately, it is also

a commonly known fact that cell phones cause radiation. Many people disregard this fact, due to the studies showing how little radiation is conducted from one cell phone. That is true, according to the Environmen-tal Working Group, the U.S. allows a maxi-mum of 1.6 W/kg (watts per kilogram) but with 307,559,808 people in the U.S. alone, (according to the U.S. Census Bureau) and an estimated 250 mil-lion Americans (ac-cording to the CTIA Wireless Association’s cell phone census in November 2007) that leaves about 400,000,000 W/kg per phone.

A recent study, conducted by a Tel Aviv University Israeli Scientist Dr. Siegal Sade-tzki has shown people who use cell phones are 50% more likely to develop brain tu-mors in the side of the head. It’s not only the head, though. Cell phones have also been proven to cause retinoblastoma, or eye cancer. Dr. Dariusz Leszczynski, PhD, DSc, Research Professor for Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority from Helsinki, Finland gave a 17 page speech simply on the effects of cell phones and the data he has found about cell phone radiation in the his 10 years of study on the topic during a U.S. Senate Committee meeting on Appro-priations, Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Re-lated Agencies September 14, 2009. Part of his speech states this:

“I and my research group have worked in the field of biological and health effects of mobile phone radiation for the past 10 years. The basic finding of my group’s re-search is that it appears that mobile phone radiation might induce biological responses in human cells and these responses might alter cell physiology. However, these find-ings do not yet prove that there exists health hazard.”

This means that Dr. Leszczynski’s studies show that cell phone radiation might cre-ate a new disease on its own, by altering the frag-ile balance of the cells in our body.

A popular Youtube video, actually one of the most popular for a while, has shown four cell phones around a few kernels pop-ping popcorn as the phones were simul-taneously called. Of course, these videos could be easily fixed to show the kernels popping, but another study was conducted not with popcorn, but with an egg. The study was conducted by two Moscow, Rus-sia newspaper writers Vladimir Lagovski and Andrei Moiseynko. They placed two cellphones around an egg in a porcelain cup, called each cell phone, and waited. The results were this; after 15 minutes, the egg is slightly warm. After 25 minutes, the egg became very warm. After 40 min-utes, the egg was hot and after 65 minutes the egg was cooked all the way through.

Still, many of you are wondering, ‘How do we know thats true? At least the You-

“...mobile phone radiation might induce biological responses in human cells and these respons-es might alter cell physiology.”

Caleb G.

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tube video was a video.’ and you’re right. There is no way to prove you can cook an egg with a cell phone (unless of course you try it.) But it has been proven by many scientists that these cell phone cause dangerous radiation, weather it can pop popcorn or not.

So, what are the steps we need to take to prevent our population from being in-fected? Should we all wear lead vests and hats around in our everyday life? Compa-nies have started to focus their products on these circumstances, trying to solve the issue of radiation. For example, Pong, a cell phone case company has produced a case that reduces the radiation emitted from cell phones by as much as 60% in

iPhones and soon Blackberry’s (unless of course you try it). But it has been proven by many scientists that these cell phone cause dangerous radiation, weather it can pop popcorn or not.

So, what are the steps we need to take to prevent our population from being in-fected? Should we all wear lead vests and hats around in our everyday life? Compa-nies have started to focus their products on these circumstances, trying to solve the issue of radiation. For example, Pong, a cell phone case company has produced a case that reduces the radiation emitted from cell phones by as much as 60% in iPhones and soon Blackberry’s.

The Most Anticipated Gadgets of 2010The Best Technologies Expected Next Year

By Brian P.

Google Chrome OS Project Natal

iTablet

Windows 7 Mobile

After Google Chrome OS was announced this sum-mer, the tech world has been buzzing about the possibility that it could ri-val Microsoft. It is meant to be a lightweight operating system specialized for web browsing. Chrome will use cloud computing and will reportedly have less viruses. It is expected to be released by the middle of 2010.

There are several rumors that Apple may release a tablet PC in the beginning of next year. Tablets have been released before in the 90s, but none of them received a very good reaction from consumers. Apple looks to end this streak of bad luck with what would essentially be an enlarged iTouch. These are all rumors, so there is a possibility that Apple will not release a tablet PC at all.

In response to Nintendo’s Wii motion sensing con-trollers, the Microsoft is set to release Project Natal for the Xbox 360. The project will allow the someone to play a game without a controller. The player would instead use his body movements to control the game with a sensor bar in front of the TV. This could open up the Xbox 360’s audience to a more casual audience.

Windows 7 Mo-bile is expected to debut next year. It will have better touch capabilities, cloud-based ser-vices, and a new media interface.

Photos courtesy of: Mobile G

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Multitouch Laptops Smart Phone Wars

Nuclear batteries for gadgets

4G Phones

Ever shrinking gadgets are leaving less and less room for batteries. University of Missouri researchers plan on making nuclear bat-teries small and powerful. This may be not available in 2010, but anything can happen.

Sprint and other companies planning on starting 4G networks throughout the country in the near future. 4G networks would greatly increase the speed of web browsing. Phone companies have also announced new 4G phones capable of using 4G networks. However, creating a new 4G net-work could require a long time to develop.

Dell and other companies have already released laptops ca-pable of reading multiple hand gestures at once. Most of these computers use Windows 7, which allows better multi-touch abilities than previous operating systems.

Palm Pre, Android 2.0, iPhone 3G S, and multiple other phones are all com-peting for the top spot for sales. Win-dows 7 mobile and Android phones could rival the iPhone and other smart-phone giants in 2010.

In rural Texas, rusty, old oil pumps drill all day and night for oil from the ground. "When you drive by an oil pump, you would probably be

surprised to know that over 70 percent of the oil in the oil field is left behind when the pump has completed its job," says Jay Kipper. According to the Energy In-formation Administration, energy needs will grow 44 percent by the year 2030. 38% of that energy consumption is from oil. If the world continues to depend on oil, then greater demand for it could drive up gas prices to an unprecedented peak. The research being done at the University of Texas could help extract more of the oil fields, and help feed the world's thirst for oil.

At the Bureau of Economic Geology at UT, scientists are developing nanotech-nologies aimed at increasing the amount of oil extracted from oil fields.

The way that this research works, is by injecting nanoparticles smaller than a

human hair into an oil reservoir to get data about that particular oil reservoir. These nanoparticles are injected into the reservoir at about 10,000 feet below the ground.

Then the particles sense the properties of the oil and find out where the hydrocar-bon is in the reservoir to send the data to scientists. Obtaining this information is vital when deciding where to drill for oil.

Another use for these nanoparticles is to redirect the flow of hydrocarbon that is in small pores so that it can be extracted. This oil is often left behind in oil fields with viscous oil, a very thick hydrocar-bon, allowing a huge waste of oil that could otherwise be used.

Nanotechnology could affect the oil in-dustry, in Texas, Alaska, and all over the country.Jay Kipper is an Associate Direc-tor of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas. He helps oversee several different research projects, Nano-

Every, Last, Drop

The Future of: Energy and Power

Renewable energy is in a race with fossil fuels to become the biggest energy source. But what happens if the world runs out of oil first?

Brian asfP.

Photo

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Oil rigs like this, are constantly leaving behind huge amounts of untouched oil.


particle Engineering for Subsurface Processes being one of them.

"I am very interested in the work being done at UT because energy is very important in the world today," says Kipper. "If you look back into history, the countries with the most energy resources have a better econ-omy, GDP, and a higher standard of living than the rest of the world."

The effects of this research could also lead to lower gas prices, but it might not. However, there are sever-al other rewards if this is a success.

"I think the bigger benefit is that it will help sustain a steady supply for more years in the future." says Kip-per. "If we're successful, more hydro-carbon could be extracted, giving us more oil for the future."

Many may ask what the point of researching the energy of the past, otherwise known as oil. But while renewable energy is becoming more advanced, it will take years for it to fully take the place of fossil fuels. So, the world needs a bridge from between now and when renewable energy becomes prominent enough to replace oil.

"This could make the transition to renewable energy more achievable," Kipper states.

But as the energy demand grows higher, so will the demand for oil. One of the most important benefits could be a decreased dependence on fossil fuels from other countries and the Middle East.

"When the United States learns how to extract more oil from reservoirs, it could help with the energy indepen-dence of our country." Kipper says.The Bureau of Economic Geology works with many other Universities around the country and world. There are 22 subcontracts with different Universities and in November it plans to add several other subcontracts in Europe.

The extent of the research allows it to be very thorough and precise. If hundreds of scientists are working on the same project, much faster and greater results are expected.

"The studies at the Bureau are very unique," says Kipper. "There are many geologists, petroleum en-gineers, etc., while there are also very many nanotechnologists in the US. But, there are almost no people that are experts in both fields of engineer-ing. The research projects are combining the skills of both ge-ologists and nanotech-nologists with fantas-tic collabo-ration.”

However, the research might not result in any-thing if it is not a success. If suc-cessful, the technology is planned to be used in the field anywhere be-tween five and ten years.

"If you look back into history, the countries with the most energy resources have a better economy, GDP, and a higher standard of liv-ing than the rest of the world."


"There is a possibility that none of this research will come through for us," states Kipper. "There are many challenges that face nanotechnology. Sometimes, great ideas are just not economically or scientifically fea-sible."

The future of nanotechnology in hydrocarbon extraction continues to look very bright. New research is being done everyday, and with that, new discoveries. Even if only some of this research is a success, the information discovered could have a huge impact on the way oil is drilled for energy.

Nanoparticles like this are injected into oil fields to increase oil production.


DIY: Infrared LightMost people have seen or heard about the spy night vision cameras that can see in pitch black light; but the truth is this technology isn’t just for James Bond. There is an easy way to great video and still motion cameras that can shoot in light for un-der $20. But how do you do it? That’s what this article is for, a step-by-step guide to making IR light, and for making night vision cameras.

First off, what is infrared light? IR (infrared) light is a light that has wave lengths lon-ger than visible light, but shorter than radio waves. In other words, light that’s there, but you can’t see it with the naked eye.

Night Vision Camera MATERIALS-9 (at least) High Intensity infrared LED lights (~$1 at Radio Shack)-Digital Camera-One 9 volt battery-Camera-9 volt battery case with one + and one - wire-Camera-Soldering Iron-+/- switch (optional) PROCEDUREStep 1) Solder the lights together in any way you want, but a 3x3 square will work best. Hook up all of the - wires to eachother and + to each other.Step 2)*OPTIONAL* Take your switch and hook the switch - with the battery -, and same with +.Step 3) Take the + wire from the lights and solder it to the + wire from the switch case. Same with the - (- to -.)Step 4) Mount the 3x3 block of lights on top of the camera (lights facing out) and secure the battery to the camera.Step 5) Go out at night, turn on the IR lights or insert the battery, and start shooting! HOW IT WORKSThe IR light is invisible to human eyes, but digital cameras are made to take in light at any level. Also, due to the filters in human eyes, the IR light is blocked.

IR Light Creator MATERIALS-Bright light-'Congo Blue' lighting gel from Lee Filters (181)-'Primary Red' light-ing gel from Lee Filters (106) PROCEDUREStep 1) Cut out sections of each filter that fit onto the front of the flash-light.Step 2) Seure the Congo Blue filter on top of the Primary Red filter and place it over the flash-light. When turned on, there shouldn’t be much light visible when you look straight at the flash-light, but you will be able to light up things in the dark. HOW IT WORKSThese two filters block all light except the IR light, so the only thing that is let through is IR light, hence the greater the brightness of the flash-light the more IR light.

The infrared lights (right) attached to battery case.

A picture of the invisible light through the camera.

Another picture of the eerie purple light.

Caleb G.

Emulators VS Game Consoles

Why have consumers stuck with the very first Pokemon games (Red, Blue, Green, Yellow) then proceeded to buy the games after that like HeartGold

and SoulSilver?

Kim P.

To many gamers, emulators and ROMs are a gift and a solution from the ridicu-lous pricing that the gaming industries brought on consumers. Emulators, or fondly known as emus among the gaming community, is a program that can imitate another program or device.

With emulators for each specific gaming system ever created, like how VisualBoy-Advance emulates the Gameboy Advance, gamers can have easy access to those systems as well as the copy of the games, or ROMs, without ever having the need to buy them.

With the Internet and a working PC at your disposal, all it takes is a simple download, several extractions and zip-ping, some basic knowledge on how to work emulators and the ‘insertion’ of ROMs and automatically, one would be able to launch the game.

If I understand correctly, this is what emulators are invent for; a new way of enjoying the classics (Pacman, DonkeyKong, Space Invaders, Pong) that are no longer available in stores.

However, the gaming and console industries aren’t about to let emulators and ROMs take over. Just the thought of emulators hurting the gaming industries is preposterous and probably contain a little too much paranoia for their own good.

The constant bombardment of advertise-ment on television works and time has proven itself again and again. Despite the many groans when someone men-tioned ‘Pokemon’, Nintendo definitely has no problems getting gamers to buy their products. According to Pocket Gamers, Pokemon Platinum sells about a million copies in two days, despite Platinum

being the sequel of Diamond and Pearl, whose features didn’t actually improve by much from its predecessor.

Why have consumers stuck with the very first Pokemon games (Red, Blue, Green, Yellow) then proceeded to buy the games after that like HeartGold and SoulSilver?

That’s because advertisement works. It’s the very same reason why anyone would want to stare at a 3” by 3” Nintendo DS screen and kill his or her eyes. This brings me to my next point; emula tors and ROMs are practically doing free advertisement for these game compa-nies. Many games for the Nin-tendo DS require the use of the stylus, micro-phone and the touch screen, and example clearly see in the game WarioWare: Touched!.

Try playing WarioWare: Touched! with a mouse. Although, once you actually master the art of mouse-using, you’ll find that without a microphone, you won’t be able pass the stages that require the use of the microphone. This is the limitation of emulators, but also a benefit to gaming companies.

ROMs basically provide an overview of the game. If the consumer scoff at the sight of the start screen and groan in disgust at the plot or graphics, it’s obvious telling the gaming companies what to improveon. If the gaming companies want profit, they need to realize that quality is crucial.

Especially when they produce craptastic games like Barbie and Bratz. It’s a symbi-otic relationship if you think about it. The gamers and the companies benefit from it. My opponents states that emulators and ROMs ‘support’ piracy and while that may contain some ring of truth, the situationwith emulators are very similar to how music is downloaded illegally everyday. While everyone recognizes the supposed-ly consequences, no one give more than a second thought.

Despite the many lawsuits in the past years, emulators and ROMs continued to

exist. Howev-er, despite be-ing defeated, many gaming companies are still very un-happy about it. I propose that we should not completely ban emulators

and ROMs as there is one solution that might satisfy (somewhat) both sides of the party.

Programmers are free to make ROMs as they wish, but they cannot release it until the gaming companies are no longer making profit on certain games. This solution will definitely aggravate some gamers, but it does not allow banning of ROMs or emulators.

The constant bombardment of advertisement on television works and time has proven itself again and again.

Remember, they can shut down on you anytime...

“Here, wait, let me try to remember how the joke goes.” Henry glanced at the ceil-ing momentarily, pausing for five sec-onds.

“A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes he is lost. He reduces his height and spots a woman down below. He low-ers the balloon and shouts, “Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?”

The woman says, “Yes, you’re in a hot air balloon, hovering 30 feet above this field.”

“You must work in Information Technol-ogy,” says the balloonist.

“I do,” replies the woman. “How did you

know?”

“Well,” says the balloonist. “Everything you have told me is technically correct and it is totally useless.”

The woman below says, “You must work in management.”

“I do,” replies the balloonist, “but how did you know?”

“Well”, says the woman, “You don’t know where you are or where you’re going, but you expect me to be able to solve all your problems. I have given you precisely what you asked for but now, even though you are in exactly same position as you were before, it’s my fault!”

Appreciate Your System

Administrator

Kim P.

There was a silence, but not an awkward silence as the joke sink in. The audience of two, his daughter Blair and her friend, smiled. Had it been a normal, non-geeky audience, there would be no doubt blank stares of confusion or inquires to them-selves if it was a joke to begin with.

Henry’s jokes didn’t necessarily produce tear-filled laughter, but according to Blair, they can be humorous, but some-times she swear that even she doesn’t get them.

Henry Davenport Reynolds works at a branch of Northrop Grumman, a company that specializes in American aerospace and defense technology. He works in a di-vision called IT CSL TX OSS, which stands

for ‘Information Technology’, ‘Commer-cial, State and Local’, ‘Texas’ and ‘Open System Support’.

But wait, that doesn’t sound like an aero-space engineer, does it? Well, he’s not a janitor either. What he does is not exactly the fame-and-fortune career, but it keeps society in order. Henry’s job is...brace yourself...a system administrator!

To put in simple terms, a system admin-istrator is one who maintains and oper-ates a computer system or network. He is in charge of installing, supporting, main-taining servers or other computer sys-tems and responding to service outages and other problems, or to put in his own words, “Listen to others complain.”

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His other duties also include scripting or light programming, project management for systems-related projects, supervising or training computer operators, and be-ing the consultant for computer problems beyond the knowledge of technical sup-port staff.

Currently, Northrop Grumman is con-tracted with the state of Texas to support TIERS. TIERS or Texas Integrated Eligibil-ity Redesign System, which is basically the transferring of The Texas Health and Human Service database into a new data center.

He also has other projects that he works with at the moment, but they are not of top priority and can be drop if “the case calls for it”.

“Ah, dude, what is binary fission again?”

“I don’t know, go look on Wikipedia!”

Everyday, searches are made in Wikipedia. Most do not wonder who is behind the page, working to keep Wikipedia easy and user-friendly.

System administrators like Henry have the duty of installing software, also known as wikis, on websites like Wikipe-dia.

In short, wikis is a collaborative tool that allows web pages to be created and collaboratively edited. Websites like this is usually refers as wikis as well.

“What we’re looking to achieve is fast de-livery of content and convenience for the users. In Hawaiian, wiki means ‘fast’.” Henry explains.

One of the wikis installed on Wikipedia is the MediaWiki, which like its name states,

helps enhances images and allows im-ports of media easily.

This makes organizing images and fitting it into text much easier for collaborators.

Despite Henry’s Computer Science background, his knowledge is limited in HTMLformatting.

However, he does occasionally dabble in C, Perl or Shell when the occasion calls for it. He admitted that he didn’t necessarily use it in work though.

A frequent problem that Henry encoun-ters at work is that most people who call to complain often do not realize the dif-ference between a software problem and a server problem. This being the case, patience and a little improvising is need.

Despite the fact that he might not have any specialty in a certain software problem, he is expect to do something about it. That might usually include doing something time-consuming, but not necessarily useful.

Despite the dull-sounding duties, Henry proudly states that his job is “never boring”. Although many will find that hard to believe, there is a reason why one should be proud to work within the walls of Northrop Grumman: They’re always mentioned, although rather obscurely, in the news for their inventions.

Many people have heard about how two satellites was launched and one was send to crash into the moon on purpose to search for water. The other would be in orbit, revolving around the moon to cap-ture the other satellite and relay the information back to scientists.

What most people don’t know is that

these two satellites were build and pro-vided by Northrop Grumman.

Being a system administrator requires a lot of cooperation and interaction with others. In projects, this can usually pose a problem. Henry admits that he just can’t seem to “simplify his words”.

For example, normally a person would be able to explain what a system admin does in one or two sentences. For Henry, it takes five minutes.

Well, no one did say that Henry Reynolds is a man of few words.

“Getting on a topic usually always re-minds him of something else, so when he has finishes explaining the first concept, he continues on to the one he’s thinking until both [of the people] usually forgets what the main theme was asked in the first place.” Blair, his daughter laughs.

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Ever since I was born, I was amazed by the aircraft that flew thousands of miles over me like the Boeing 747. I couldn’t understand how the helicopters flew so quickly and had so much ma-neuverability. But one of the planes that amazed me more than any other I had seen, was the giant Boeing B-1B Lancer. A breath-taking 146 feet of the world’s most ad-vanced technology with four jet engines strapped on the back. The first time I ever saw this aircraft was when I was about seven years old, at Els-worth Air Force Base, the base where my uncle Chief Master Sergeant Mark Nault worked.

Nault was training future nav-igators for the B-1b Bomber, due to his experience navi-gating the giant aircraft him-self in missions like ‘Opera-tion Iraqi Freedom.’ At the same time, he also worked on the internals of the bomb-er, installing and repairing the systems the navigators

used to keep from becoming lost during missions.

Years later, I still didn’t know much about how these planes worked, the more I got into aviation and how the heli-

copters and 747’s worked, I could not figure out the B-1B. How could a plane so big, go so fast, so high in the air and hit a target the size of a warehouse?

I later found out during my interview with Nault. He first told me about the navigation systems and how “The B-1B must have the ability to use a ‘shared’ navigation system

like GPS, but also has an “in-dependent” navigation sys-tem in case the GPS system is down for any reason.”

What this means is that the B-1B has to use two systems to navigate, and

those systems need to com-municate. The tools that the navigators use is an advanced GPS (Global Posi-tioning System) and an INU (Internal Navigation System.) The navigators will use the GPS as long “as long as it re-

mains accu-rate and

opera-

tional.” says Nault,

“If GPS drops out for any reason, the B-1B computer system will auto-matically switch to the INU for their navigation informa-tion.”

“Maintenance of these sys-tems is very simple. Common tools (screwdrivers, ratchet and socket sets) are used to remove and install the INU and GPS ‘black boxes’. Those black boxes are tested in a

B-1B LancerCaleb G.

“A breath-taking 146 feet of the world’s most advanced technology with four jet engines strapped on the back.”


laboratory environment on computers that perform di-agnostics to determine why they failed. Once the black box is tested and repaired, it is returned to the supply system to be used in the fu-ture.” Says Nault, who spent most of his career installing and repairing these systems.

The GPS/INU navigation systems are also used along with the Radar System and the Computer Systems on-board are used for target-ing during bombing runs or other missions. The proce-dure to target and destroythe enemy is as follows;

“The navigation system tells the computer system where the aircraft is. The Weapon System Operator also uses ground mapping radar to de-termine where the aircraft is in relation to targets that can be seen on the radar. These features include bridges, buildings and places where

water and land points come together. After confirming the aircraft position is accurate, the Weapon System Opera-tor enters target coordinates into the computer. The com-puter system compares all of this data and develops a ‘bombing solution’. That solu-tion results in a display that the Weapon System Opera-tors and the pilots watch on their screens.”

Another type of technology in the bomber’s armory is the JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition.) Nault, who was present for all of the JDAM tests says that “the accuracy

was consistently below the 13 meter specification.” This specification (the ‘unclassi-fied’ specification) was given to show the accuracy of the weapon technology. The JDAM is not an actual weap-on, but is fitted into other missiles and bombs and can be used in almost any air-craft.

These systems, according to Mark Nault, could take “a year for the WSOs to become proficient with all of the tac-tics they use. Maintenance skills are usually developed in about the same time.

Both WSOs and maintainers attend a year of technical school before they go to the base they will work at. They go to the technical school after attending Basic Officer and Enlisted Training.”

Though these systems are complicated, they have helped and will help naviga-tors past and present. There have been multiple missions and lives saved by the navi-gation and bombing systems, and surely this will continue in the future.

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An emulator loading a game, Yoshi’s Island.

Guide To...

This guide may only be useful for Windows Vista

1. First, you must download your emulator. The easiest way to get one is to search for one in a search engine, but for the sake of simplicity, find the website underneath and click on it and download from there.

Saving on the desktop is recommended, but anywhere else is fine too. Remember that you must have a specific game system in mind!

A Note: Dolphin, a GameCube emulator, might not work so well on Vista.

http://www.emulator-zone.com/

2. The emulator would be useless without a ROM so go get you one! Again, look for the website on the bottom and download or you can just surf the Internet and find one. The ROM must match the game system, meaning that if you got a Gameboy emulator, get a Gameboy ROM.

However, there are some exceptions to the latest versions of certain emulators that allow you to play two types of ROM on it. Again, saving on the desktop is recom-mended. If not, at least keeps your files together. It saves time and you from having to constantly look for it when you want to play.

http://www.romulation.net/


The Emulator!

4. Once you extracted (keep them together!) the ROM, emulator and the unzipping tools, find your emulator in all that mess. Refer to the screenshot on the bottom for guidance on which icon to click.

<-- This is a unzipped ROM file.

The three bottom icons are emulators.Clicking on any of them works.

3.This is where this guide may abandon you. From now on, it will only focus on Desmume, a Nintendo DS emulator. However, the concept works for many emu-lators so stay around.

Find where you saved the emula-tor and ROM and extract them if need be. To extract, you usually need WinRar or PeaZip, which are ‘unzipping tools’. Of course, you might need to unzip those too so if you don’t know how, refer to the screenshot on the right. Click-ing on it directly works fine too.

http://www.rarlab.com/http://peazip.sourceforge.net/

Right click to get this menu

5. Once you click on the emulator, a screen should pop up. Go to the File menu and select ‘Open ROM’. Search for the ROM on your desktop and it should be able to play it.

IMPORTANT: The key to keep you from going insane is organizing everything togeth-er. Keep them in folders if necessary and label them with names that have relevance. If a folder contains the ROM and save file(s), name the folder the title of the game.

~Bonus Lesson and Some Tips~

Well, you’re having fun but you have to stop for whatever reasons. Then you wonder how is my progress going to get save?! There are two ways of saving, the two original way or the ‘cheap-skate’ way.

Sometimes, a ROM records your progress auto-matically on the file you opened using the emula-tor so that you don’t have to do anything.

The second origi-nal way requires some keys press-ing but it is basi-cally like in any game console. You go to the op-tions menu and saved manually. However, some ROMS do have this option ex-cept that doesn’t mean they are save directly on the file, so be careful.

These two a very risky ways but it is cru-cially important in games like Pokemon, which this guide will explain why later.

The cheapskate way is when you open

the ROM and then click on the File menu and select ‘Save State As’. You would give the file a name and save it. From then on, you can open your ROM and then select “Load State As’ and look for

that file. It would take you automati-cally to where you last saved and this could be anywhere – when you’re about to face a boss and no check-point inside, ect.

But here’s the drawback.

For those Pokemon fans out there, remember the Elite Four and how after you beat them and you get the credit scene? Afterwards, you would be taken to the start screen and you click start and your file is

there updated and everything?

Well, not in the cheapskate way of sav-ing. The cheapskate way is not smart enough to realize that you have pro-gressed in the game and will still take you to where you last saved.


Jesse M.

Survey Dismay Are paid online survey sites stealing your money?

Paid online surveys seem too good to be true. Anyone that believes that I can become a member of one of these on-

line survey sites, write a couple useless sen-tences about the topics they give me and earn $150, needs to learn that people like them get scammed every day by these sites due to their extremely misleading advertising. But their is one more thing that poses a threat to my security when i sign up for this site: and that is that they ask for my personal information such as my “Paypal” accounts and my credit card info. If I were to give this information to a site like this, then I would most likely be scammed. So, if you can’t tell, my opinion is that these sites are too good to be true. What interest would a site have in paying me all this money for such easy, pointless form of “labor”? None. The truth is these sites will either steal money from my “Paypal” accounts, or sell my information to scammers who will do the same thing. So what is a scammer? “Thefreedictionary.com” defines scam as: “A fraudulent business scheme; a swindle,” Fraudulent as in fraud, and swindle meaning “To cheat or defraud of money or property,” also according to “Thefreedictionary.com” So is it worth it to take the risk of hav-ing tens, hundreds, even thousands of dollars taken from your accounts, just to attempt to make $20, maybe $30? Keep in mind in order to make just $20, assuming the site does not steal from you, one would have to complete 20, boring and useless surveys, only to find out later that they had been scammed out of not just their money, but their time as well. Often times, when the user of a paid online survey site signs up for an account, they do not read the privacy policy very care-fully, and agree to ridiculous things that web-

sites should not have the authority to do such as selling your information to other sites and scammers. If someone had the majority of their money in Paypal, or had their credit card linked to it, it would be extremely easy for sites to gain access to their this money when they sign up through Paypal, and take extremely large amounts of money from the user’s account. Or sell the information to other sites which will then steal money from you, or even both. Then the user’s information re-mains with one or even several sites forever, whether the user continues to waste their time on pointless surveys that will never pay off the

money stolen, or give up taking online surveys. This gives all of the sites with access to the money the ability to heartlessly steal from one person several times, even if they do not associate themselves with

the site anymore. Let’s say that you happen to get lucky with your online survey-taking, and the site does not sell your account information to scammers or websites that could steal from you. You may still end up paying extremely unnecessary fees to start an account with the site, or even a monthly fee to remain a mem-ber. Also, the user may be charged simply for access to a list of sites that provide paid sur-veys. In other words, people seeking online paid surveys may use a middleman, which will often charge its users, even just to access a short, useless list of other sites that will charge the user unfairly in the same manner as the website that referred the user to them. When all of this is put together, it seems to be not worth the risks to do these surveys for a tiny pay. They waste your time, and money, often leaving you with less money than you started with due to the many unfair fees that lay hid-den within the many crevices of these sites.

These sites are too good to be true.

Survey Dismay Are paid online survey sites stealing your money?

The final main danger related to this awful way to attempt to make money would be the huge chunks these sites take out of the us-ers’ integrity. Many people feel the effects of the intentionally slow progression in money earned. This means that they notice how little money they are making for each survey, and for the hours on end that they spend staring at a screen filling out useless surveys that have no meaning to the person. So, what do they do? They cheat. Users begin to fill out surveys incompletely, and carelessly, which is a prob-lem, particularly for those sites in which the user types up the survey answers, because they may just write random letters, which not only is most likely against the policies of the sites, but which also lowers the users standard of life. If it is okay to cheat sites out of mon-ey when they are paying you for such easy, simple “work” then what is it not okay to do? This destroys many innocent peoples’ integrity. Also, the user may find themselves in legal trouble for doing things such as this, and may end up with a fine, because most of the sites that take typed pieces in their surveys check to make sure it is done completely. This is just one more way that these sites suck money out of people they claim to be paying. Some peo-ple who are a little more serious about getting easy money quickly, will even hack the sites, and scam the scammers. This is even more im-moral, and way more illegal, therefore making it much more risky. There are simple ways of getting the site to credit you and your Paypal account with a lot more money than you have earned. Although many people may do this, I doubt they mean to be stealing, they just think its nothing, but it is no less of a crime than stealing money from a bank, convenience store, etc. But when you become associated with people who steal, (the scammers work-ing with/on the site) you become a thief. “A man is judged by the company he keeps, and a company is judged by the men it keeps...” The German Presbyterian minister William J.H. Boetcker once said.

Due to the many dangers of paid online survey sites, I would clearly not recommend the usage of these websites, but if you feel so inclined, at least be sure to take these precau-tions: Do not be fooled by the testimoni-als posted on the website. More often than not, there is no way to post one, and they are written by the site to attempt to promote it and make it seem more safe. Avoid pages with overly simple sign-up screens. Often times, websites will claim to be survey-taking sites, and simply ask you for your name, email ad-dress, or even your credit card info, which they will then sell to scammers, and other criminals, who might do anything from steal from you, to stalk you and assault you. Also, look into every site you consider possibly signing up with. You may find great reviews on forum websites, or you may find a complaint on a blog about how that site scammed/ripped them off. This should help you to make your decision. But, this is only if you feel inclined to use these websites. I certainly would recommend avoiding them altogether and playing it safe, rather than end-ing up sorry.

“A man is judged by the compa-ny he keeps, and a compa-ny is judged by the men it keeps...”

In the near future, food prices will be spiraling out of control and food across the world will be more scarce

than it is today if nothing is done to stop it. Genetically modified crops can help lead the way out of this crisis into a world where less people die from starvation. I think that genetic engineering is vitally important for our growing world. The United Nations projects that the world population will be 8.9 billion by 2050. A majority of this population will come from very poor developing countries. As popu-lation increases, so will hunger and mal-nutrition if the nutrition value and quan-tity of food is not dramatically increased from what it is today.

Luckily, genetic engineering can be a major factor in solving this issue. Rice is a major part of people’s diet in rural Asia. Rice unfortunately has very little vitamin A, which is a vitamin that prevents blind-ness and helps skin health. According to Charles Rader, who wrote a report on genetically engineered crops, two ge-netic engineers developed a strain of rice that can provide up to 15 percent of your vitamin A. Critics say that genetically engineered foods can cause diseases and even death, but they fail to recognize that 36 million die every year from starva-tion which is much more than the deaths caused by genetically engineered foods.

I believe that that the dangers of having little food is much greater than that of genetically engineered foods.

Genetic engineering can also increase the profits for farmers and the agricultural in-dustry. They can do this by either having better quality and higher quantity pro-duce or reducing production costs. Rader says that scientists have discovered that corn performs more photosynthesis than most other plants. Greater photosynthe-sis could increase how much the crop would grow. When the gene that helps corn perform more photosynthesis was injected into rice plants, the rice became much more productive than it would normally. Some soils contain toxic miner-als that can kill crops. A plant has been made that can absorb the toxic minerals and grow normally. This would increase the amount of soil that the plants could grow on and increase profits. Some engi-neering techniques can cause less strain on the environment as well. They can do this by being less dependent on fertilizer, herbicides, and insect repellent. Rader says that predatory insects can be good for plants because they can eat pests.

Genetically Modified Dinner’s Ready!

The United Nations projects that the world population will be 8.9 billion by 2050.

The future of the food that could appear on your dinner table.Brian P.


Unfortunately, these insects are killed by pesticides. If scientists find a gene that would make predatory insects more resistant to pesticides, the predatory insects could help kill the pests and re-duce the need for pesticides. Scientists are still researching ways that can lead to less fertilizer dependence. If these techniques are developed, farmers could focus less money on caring for their crops and have less expensive produce. Critics say that increased herbicide re-sistance will make farmers apply herbi-cides more liberally, but I think that it will make them use the same amount because they won’t needed as much.

I think that more should be invested into genetic engineering while also hav-

ing stricter testing for the genetically engineered foods.

Genetic engineering is exceedingly nec-essary for our world. We must continue to research if we are going to reach the need for food in the generations to come.

Do you remember when your mom used to tell you to eat all of your food be-cause there are people in Africa starv-ing? Well I’m afraid that just eating all of your food is not enough. We must act immediately and swiftly. Some say we can’t afford to alter plants. But I don’t think that we can afford not to.

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Traditional corn growing in Oregon could be replaced with genetically modified corn in the near future.

Jesse M.

It is the first day of Septem-ber, and the year is 1939. Germany at-tacks Poland,

sparking the beginning of WWII. Fast-forward a little, to the involvement of the U.S. and Britain, whose navies are using sonar to search the ocean for ob-jects to reflect their signals off. The Germans are pre-paring a surprise attack, but do not realize yet, that the joke is on them. The sonar begins to pick up a signal, and, before the German ships are visible above the water, the U.S. and British Navies discover the approaching U-boats (submarines), and are able to intercept them, and at-tack the ships, avoiding the attack.

“ARL’s (Applied Research Laboratories) involvement with sonar can be traced back to the work of the Harvard Underwater Sound lab during WWII,” ARL member and retired sub-marine captain, Mike Pesto-rius states. Applied Re-search Laboratories is the research unit at UT where acoustic sonar research, as well as electromagnetic and other types of scientific re-

search is being done. Here, Mike and others work at the lab to improve the ca-pabilities of sonar and push the boundaries of possibil-ity farther.

The use of the newly creat-ed (at the time) sonar sys-tem may have altered the course of the war greatly,

preventing the United States from being attacked so early on, as well as pre-venting possible defeat.

“There were sonar develop-ments in both the U.S. and U.K. and they were key in finding and defeating Ger-man and Japanese subma-rines,” Pestorius says.

Sonar system at the Navy. This is where sonar is primarily used, and where a lot of sonar research is being and has been done.

Sonar In The Lonestar

This newly acquired ability is called Sound Navigation and Ranging, more commonly known as sonar, allows humans to send out signals (sounds) to track down the location of an object.

This type of technology can be particularly useful underwater, especially in submarines. This is where the application of sonar occurs mainly, as the underwater equivalent to radar. That is how so-nar was helpful in WWII. Prior to the beginning of the Second World War, the development of the Acoustics sonar program at the University of Texas at Austin begins.

“That lab invented the first acoustic homing torpedo and the earli-est sonars.” The research done in that lab has now proven very useful, and advancements are still being made at UT. “I was the director of ARL for many years. I now run the internal research and education programs.” Mike Pestorius says.

Mike has helped with so-nar in the lab at UT since 1987, and was a graduate student at UT in the ‘70s.

“I am also a retired Navy submarine captain and was both a developer and user of sonar for many

years.” When it comes to sonar, and understand-ing how it works, Pesto-rius is the person to ask. He has seen it in action, and used it in real world situations, making him the perfect person to ask about sonar’s practical uses in today’s society.

“Acoustic location is used for precise underwater mapping, bio-medical device location, oil in-dustry exploration… and many other uses.” Pesto-rius explains. But many people use what is known as acoustic location more often than they are aware of.

“Your iphone or the checkout station in HEB uses acoustic devices when you enter data.”

In this case, the devices use “surface acoustic waves” to identify where the panel was touched. Acoustic location in gen-eral is the use of sound to determine where some-thing is, using echoes to locate the object. There are two types of acoustic location: active and pas-sive.

Sonar system at the Navy. This is where sonar is primarily used, and where a lot of sonar research is being and has been done.

Photo Courtesy of U

nited States Navy

Sonar In The Lonestar

“An active sonar sends out a signal and listens for the return echo. A passive sonar only listens. Both types are used by the Navy with submarines primarily using passive and surface ships using active. The two sonar types create very different ways of operating the sonars.”

In order for a group sonar at UT, they must have ac-cess to a few very crucial facilities and tools. Certain specifications must be met in order to work with so-nar.

“Correct knowledge base, extensive computer infra-structure, test tanks and the Lake Travis test sta-tion, access to test facili-ties at other labs and the USN (United States Navy).” Mike explains the facilities necessary to work with sonar.

All of these things, and maybe even more de-manding facilities, are needed for the research, but that is not holding ARL back. Many people work with this program and, like Pestorius, they show a particular interest in sonar, and are helping to work with and improve sonar.

“Sonar is the only practi-cal way to communicate or signal underwater” This is the reason that it seems to be so vital to understand it, and there is no question as to why the navy shows such great interest in so-nar technology.

“ARL works on high-fre-quency sonar for fairly pre-cise positioning of objects within about 5 km of the transmitting ship.” Pesto-rius explains.

So that is what is going on at Cockrell School of Engineering at UT, and the people working on the acoustics program there know what they’re doing. It is clear that this pro-gram has helped the mod-ern world with their sonar project, especially in the areas of the navy and oil exploration. But what is to be changed about sonar? What lies in store for this program in the future? What advancements will be made, and what advance-ments have already been made?

“The use of computers in sonar has provided com-putation capabilities that allow sonars to do things that previously were not

possible. We are continu-ally striving to improve sonar performance; better geolocation, higher preci-sion, better classification and localization, etc.”,

Recently, huge advance-ments have been made, such as incorporating computer technology into sonar devices. New possi-bilities for sonar are al-ways coming up, but there is still plenty of room for improvement, which Mike Pestorius and the other workers at ARL’s sonar project will work on, with the hopes of creating a brighter future in the area of sonar-related activity.

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This is a drawing of a sonar-related experiment preformed by Daniel Colloden preformed in 1822. Colloden at-tempted to use a bell underwater to calculate the speed of sound in Lake Geneva. Experiments such as these are some of the earliest places that interest in sonar began to show up, and without primitive tests like this, the idea of sonar may not have been around to see the modern world.

GAME OVER

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