This is a daily opinion column written by Lowell Heddings, the founder of How-To Geek, featuring his take on the latest in the world of technology.
Researchers Say They Have Designed an ‘Unhackable’ Fiber Network
Researchers are touting “impossible to hack” fibre networks after a trio of tech firms unveiled a superfast working demonstration of quantum key distribution, which uses photons to send encryption keys.
When they say “unhackable” what they actually mean is “untappable” because the way the cable works, it will be impossible to tap into the cable at some point in the middle without basically making all the data unusable. This doesn’t mean that using this technology will make the hacking threat go away. It just means that the cables themselves can’t be tapped. But the routers could probably be hacked.
IBM’s super fast, powerful and tiny carbon computer chips could soon be in all our devices
IBM announced today (Oct. 1) that it had overcome one of the major hurdles preventing carbon nanotubes from being used as transistors for computer chips. It could mean the end of the silicon computer chip.
Carbon nanotubes are, as their name somewhat suggestions, thin rolled-up sheets of carbon, only one atom thick. These tiny tubes display all sorts of useful characteristics, such as being super strong, super insulating, and being great, reliable semiconductors. That makes them a great material for computer chips, as they process the ability, like silicon, to switch between having electrical current flow through them or not. They’re also considerably smaller than the smallest silicon transistors on the market.
Every few months I keep reading about advancements in carbon nanotubes that will change the world. When they finally figure out how to wrangle them for computing and also produce them at commercial scale, almost anything is possible. But that’s probably 5-10 years from now, which isn’t what I would call “soon”, as the clickbait headline indicates.
The Decline of ‘Big Soda’ – The New York Times
Over the last 20 years, sales of full-calorie soda in the United States have plummeted by more than 25 percent. Soda consumption, which rocketed from the 1960s through 1990s, is now experiencing a serious and sustained decline.
Sales are stagnating as a growing number of Americans say they are actively trying to avoid the drinks that have been a mainstay of American culture. Sales of bottled water have shot up, and bottled water is now on track to overtake soda as the largest beverage category in two years, according to at least one industry projection.
It’s not a secret anymore that sugary drinks will make you gain weight, or prevent you from losing weight. When I switched from drinking sugary soda to diet soda, without making any other changes in my meat and potatoes diet, I lost 25 pounds over the next few months. Tons of people are switching off the soda.
And now there’s a lot of research that shows that diet soda might be actually tricking our body into thinking that we’re consuming sugar, which then has a similar effect to drinking regular soda. Your body’s insulin response gets all out of whack, and you can’t lose weight.
The problem is that many people are switching to things that aren’t healthy either. Juice is chock full of sugar, and many of the flavored water beverages on the market include added sugar, making them no different than soda. If you’re drinking something that tastes sweet, you should check the list of ingredients.
I went and got myself a Sodastream, which actually makes pretty lousy soda that ends up being more expensive than just buying the brand name stuff on sale. But instead of using it for soda, I just make soda water — which is plain old water infused with CO2 to give it the bubbles. There are no sweeteners, artificial or otherwise, and no other chemicals at all. It’s a great substitute for soda, and is much cheaper than buying sparkling water in bottles.
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