Batteries that harvest energy from the nuclear decay of isotopes can produce very low levels of current and last for decades without needing to be replaced. A new version of the batteries, called betavoltaics, is being developed by an Ithaca, NY-based company and tested by Lockheed Martin. The batteries could potentially power electrical circuits that protect military planes and missiles from tampering by destroying information stored in the systems, or by sending out a warning signal to a military center. The batteries are expected to last for 25 years.

The anti-tamper systems are to prevent someone who gets their hands on equipment from being able to determine its inner workings to defeat or reverse-engineer it.

Battery technology is a major roadblock, and not only for the military.

Of course, if the military suddenly had batteries that were ten times as powerful and one-tenth the size of current batteries, it wouldn’t be “Gee, look how much less our troops have to carry.” It would be, “Gee, I can carry all this new gear now plus four extra mags.”

Via Instapundit.

And yes, I realize that my sites are sort of jacked up on IE8, even in Compatibility View. I’m working on new templates for both MO and GunPundit. Hopefully, they’ll be ready shortly.

Murdoc needs one for the basement.

I’m in the middle of re-installing Windows XP on my main PC and when I tried to install the drivers for my Hewlet Packard HP LaserJet P2015d, I got the following error:

Executable ‘E:\P2015eGSG.exe’ had the following unrecoverable error: Couldn’t find library MSVCR80.dll(required by C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\MICROS~\OFFICE12\MSOXMLMF.DLL) Please ensure that it is installed.

Searching the web got me all sorts of suggestions, from moving files between directories in system folders to changing file settings and attributes to downloading and installing various packages from Microsoft or elsewhere.

What I did that ended up working just fine was this:

1. Boot PC with printer turned off (or disconnected)
2. Insert driver CD and exit install routine if it starts
3. Connect printer and turn it on
4. Give Windows a minute to “find” the printer
5. When it asks, have it automatically install the software

That worked like a charm for me. Good luck.

When Murdoc was a kid, his dad would order stuff from the good old JS&A Catalog. Some of the things we tried included the Speak & Spell a year or two before it was in stores and a one-handed typing machine which Murdoc taught himself to use fairly well. Another product was called, I think, the Bone Phone. It was an FM radio inside of a flexible blue padded “collar” which draped around your neck. The radio’s speakers rested against your collarbone, and you “heard” the music despite your ears being open. I used it extensively one winter while skiing, and absolutely loved it.

Unfortunately, we usually sent back everything we ordered from JS&A before the end of the 30-day trial period or whatever it was. I think maybe the only thing we ever kept was the Speak & Spell. Anyway, I’ve always wondered why the bone speaker thing never caught on. I’ve got to think that there would be a lot of applications for it, both in the military and in the civilian world.

If anyone knows more about the Bone Phone or where to find JS&A catalogs from the 70s, let Murdoc know.

UPDATE: “Bone Fone”, not “Bone Phone.” Found a little info at the top of this page. I think that black-and-white image is from the JS&A catalog.

UPDATE 2: Now that I know how to spell it I’m finding lots of info:

Bone Fone from the JS&A Catalog

A GunPundit post is #1 on a Bing search linked from MSN.com today, and traffic was through the roof until the host pulled the plug on the site. After explaining that it was legit traffic due to a temporary spike, the helpful support tech said “Sorry we can’t let it run with this traffic” and said I’d have to upgrade.

I understand that they can’t have one site hogging the majority of the resources on a server, but my sites combined do not pull in the traffic to justify dedicated hosting. I’ve had traffic higher than this in the past, and had no trouble after I installed a cache plug-in to prevent overloads when things spike for a day or two. Not sure why this is a problem today, but it is. I’ve seen where they temporarily move sites experiencing traffic to other servers until things die down, but apparently that isn’t an option for whatever reason.

Unfortunately, they are not telling me how long the site will be down. In fact, they aren’t being helpful at all.

UPDATE: Apparently got escalated. Someone else is at least going through the motions of being helpful. Hopefully I can disable a few things temporarily and be back on the air soon.

8GB Flash Drives with free shooter games loaded for $14.99.

Choose from Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Lockdown, Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, and Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII.

Today (Thursday) only.

This is the roughly the same as requiring you to carry around a big sign with your name, passport number, birthday, and place of birth on it whenever you carry your passport in your pocket.

Anyone can scan that chip. And you won’t know that they’ve done it.

The plan was shelved temporarily, but since August 2007, only the new chipped e-passports have been issued.

Here’s some news: Hacker war drives San Francisco cloning RFID passports

Using a $250 Motorola RFID reader and antenna connected to his laptop, Chris recently drove around San Francisco reading RFID tags from passports, driver licenses, and other identity documents. In just 20 minutes, he found and cloned the passports of two very unaware US citizens. Fortunately, Chris wears a white hat; his video demonstration is meant to raise awareness to what he calls the unsuitability of RFID for tagging people. Specifically, he’s hoping to help get the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative — a homeland security project — scrapped.

Via Phil at RNS.

Highway sign in Texas last month

Pranks with electronic road signs stir worry

Pranksters in at least three states are messing with electronic road signs meant to warn motorists of possible traffic problems by putting drivers on notice about Nazi zombies and raptors. And highway safety officials aren’t amused.

The latest breach came Tuesday during the morning rush hour near Collinsville, Ill., where hackers changed a sign along southbound Interstate 255 to read, “DAILY LANE CLOSURES DUE TO ZOMBIES.”

And signs in Austin, Texas, recently flashed: “NAZI ZOMBIES! RUN!!!” and “ZOMBIES IN AREA! RUN.”

Though kinda amusing, I guess I’ve gotta agree that this is out of line.

A reader emails:

It’s not a metaphorical sign of the coming apocalypse as we usually refer to it. It’s an actual sign of the coming apocalypse.

Prepare yourself:

The last one, The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks, won’t be out until June but is available for pre-order.

Here is a slightly edited and expanded version of a comment I left over at Say Uncle on the topic:

I never had a problem with this sort of program.

Over the years I’ve had a number of military public affairs types leave comments here at Murdoc Online. FWIW, I’ve nearly always found their messages worth reading, informative, and on topic. In other words, nearly the exact opposite of the trolls they were countering.

They also left comments directed at me that corrected or expanded upon posts I wrote. Always in a respectful, conversational manner. Most of them seemed to by Army personnel regarding Army programs (Styrker, anyone?) and I’ve never been sure which commenters are doing it on their own and which are part of an official response program.

To be honest, as long as the comments are basically truthful, honest, and constructive, I don’t have an issue with it. In fact, if the military didn’t have large programs like this underway, I’d be concerned.

I wouldn’t mind seeing some of this directed in more open way at the “real” mainstream media, either.