With the popularity of Internet homepages there has not been as much demand for hardcopies of my newsletters. If you would still like a paper copy please let me know. From now on the newsletters will only be published on my homepage two or three times a year. To see the latest about BAC-GROUND (updated approximately every month) see:
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Engineers at Robert Bosch Corp. and Mercedes Benz, Germany have developed a system that keeps cars from spinning (along the vertical axis) out of control in sharp or slippery turns. The key component is a spin sensor, originally designed for the aerospace industry, located in the center of the car. The sensor monitors the how the car is moving and how it is controlled. If there are any differences between these two measurements, then it means that the car is slipping or spinning. If spinning is detected the system will take over certain controls of the car to try to correct the situation. Corrective measures include slowing the engine down and putting on the brakes to one of the wheels to control either understeering or oversteering. The advantage of this system is that it can respond within 40 milliseconds of the start of slippage. On preliminary tests this system showed that 78% of those cars not equipped with this system ended up off the road in a simulated ditch. None of the antispin-equipped cars spun out of control. This system is available as an option in S-Class Mercedes Benz cars.
Ashely, S., `Staying on the Road While Taking a Spin', TechnologyReview, February/March 1996.
Finally, the best but least known operating system in the world, NEXTSTEP, is advertising! Follow the NEXTSTEP link at WebCrawler, the fastest search engine on the Internet:
By the way, WebCrawler is written in C and Objective-C for NEXTSTEP. Just thought you'd want to know.
September 1995.
Roush, W., `Building a Wall Against Toxic Waste', Science, Vol. 269, 28 July 1995, p. 473. or if you are on the Internet, point to the following the link:
Description of iron filings wall to be installed at trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE) plumes that are threatening the groundwater supply of 67,000 townspeople in Cape Cod, MA.
Electronic publishing of peer reviewed scientific articles is now a reality. To see an example of this see The Journal of Biological Chemistry at:
