My MIT Tech Review Comment: Resolution of Infrared Detectors

Over at MIT's The Physics arXiv Blog, there's an article talking about a new development of an infrared detector. The basic idea is that they're using a four-wave mixing process to upconvert the infrared wavelengths to the visible spectrum. In my mind, that's heterodyning. They're mixing several wavelengths together inside of some rubidium atoms and one of the output wavelengths occurs in the visible spectrum. From that point, they pass the signal to a normal visible light image processor (CCD, CMOS, whatever) and VIOLA! (Yes, I meant to say "Viola!" It's a joke. No comentz on me porr speeling. Kay?)

Now take a look at the image. The first few lines were created with a normal visible camera; the last line was created using the above-discussed technique. Note that the last line is a bit fuzzier than the first ones. Here's how the MIT article explains this fuzziness (read "lower resolution"):

The technique clearly has some limitations, not least of which is the drop in resolution that this process causes. That's largely because of the motion of rubidium atoms in the gas, which must be heated to 140 degrees C.

I think they're getting too complicated with this explanation. How about the reason for the lower resolution is due to the fact that the original image was created using infrared wavelengths? Resolution, meaning the ability to resolve objects within an image, is related to wavelength. The longer the wavelength, the lower the resolution becomes. Infrared wavelengths are longer than visible light. Hence, it makes sense that an infrared wavelength image is going to be lower resolution than one made using visible light.
This was going to be the comment that I was going to leave at the MIT Tech Review site, but I decided not to.

Why MIT's Technology Review Has a Dearth of Comments

I follow MIT's Technology Review. It's a pretty decent website for all-things-tech. One thing I don't like, however, is their system for commenting. One of my favorite blogs, The Sensuous Curmudgeon, has a very simple method for adding comments. You type in your comment, give it an e-mail address and the "name" by which you want to be known, and click "Submit". Done. No muss, no fuss.

MIT's system, on the other hand, is far more arduous. First, you have to sign in with an account. They give you the "option" of signing in with your Facebook (blech), Twitter, Google, or Yahoo! account. Since I'm here, I already have a Google account. I signed into that thinking that would then allow me to post a comment. Wrong! No, as shown by the image above, once I've signed in with my Google account, I still have to create a "Technology Review" account. Put simply, WTF!?!?! You want two accounts for anyone to post a comment? I thought MIT was supposed to be the bastion of high tech. Apparently, their website didn't get that memo. Now they're a bastion of high bureaucracy.
Whatever, MIT. Keep your web site. I'll post my comments here.

My Father is on Linux - Finally

My father is in his mid 70s. He's not big on new things. He likes things to stay the same, not so much because he hates new things, but simply because he doesn't want to have to spend time learning new things. This especially goes with technical things, such as working on computers. So long as he has his "Mahjonng" and "Freecell", he's happy.
His computer is currently a 10 year old desktop with 512 MB of RAM and a 80 GB hard drive. It was running Windows XP, though he's not been running it that much. Why? Because it's slooooooow. I mean slooooooooow. I was home for a few, too-short days and took the plunge to dual boot his system with Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat). His response has been a surprising, "Fantastic, fantastic, FAAAAAAANTASTIC!" Under Windows, his browser (Firefox) was so slow that when clicking on one of his web-based e-mails, he could go grab a soda or sandwich and be back before the e-mail was fully open. Now, it's almost instantaneous. Is his Windows infected? Is it just his computer needs some temp files cleaned out? Perhaps a good cache cleaning? No idea. Don't care anymore. He's got his computer back and that's what's important.
On top of that, I was also able to "share" his HP PSC 2355 all-in-one printer with both my mother's desktop (still running Windows XP and sloooooowly at that) and her laptop. That was a bit of a chore NOT because of the Linux, but because of Windows. How do I know this? Well, my laptop also runs Ubuntu 10.10. I had to print out the wife's and my tickets for the flight home. All I had to do to allow my laptop to print from my father's computer was to say "Look at IP address 192.168.1.170" (the IP address of my father's computer). After that, my laptop said, "This is a HP PSC 2350 series printer. Correct?" I simply confirmed it and I was done. Windows, on the other hand, kept saying, "What kind of printer is this? Where can I find the driver?" What? Really? Oh, whatever. I have my tickets, my parents can print from any computer, and they can also share files if needed. My father has also been able to get caught up on his e-mails now that he's able to fly through them.
This is only the beginning of the experiment. I hope that the streak of good luck continues.