2006 Top Ten of Polemic for Technology

Dovetail joint

A dovetail joint or simply dovetail is a joinery technique most commonly used in woodworking joinery (carpentry), including furniture, cabinets, log buildings, and traditional timber framing. Noted for its resistance to being pulled apart, the dovetail joint is commonly used to join the sides of a drawer to the front. A series of 'pins' cut to extend from the end of one board interlock with a series of 'tails' cut into the end of another board. The pins and tails have a trapezoidal shape. Once glued, a

World Multiconference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics

WMSCI, the World Multi-conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, is a conference that has occurred annually since 1995, which emphasizes the systemic relationships that exist or might exist among different disciplines in the fields of Systemics, Cybernetics, and Informatics. Critics describe the conference as having "loose standards", since it has accepted papers of dubious academic merit. Organizers stress interdisciplinary communication, describing the conference as both wide in scope as a

Lap joint

A lap joint or overlap joint is a joint in which the members overlap. Lap joints can be used to join wood, plastic, or metal. A lap joint can be used in woodworking for joining wood together

Butt joint

A butt joint is a technique in which two pieces of material are joined by simply placing their ends together without any special shaping. The name "butt joint" comes from the way the material is joined together. The butt joint is the simplest joint to make since it merely involves cutting the material to the appropriate length and butting them together. It is also the weakest because unless some form of reinforcement is used, it relies upon glue or welding alone to hold it together. Because the orientation

Perl Object-Oriented Persistence

Perl Object-Oriented Persistence (POOP) is the term given to refer to object-relational mapping mechanisms written in the Perl programming language to provide object persistence. Dave Rolsky divides POOP mechanisms into two categories:RDBMS-OO Mappers: These tools attempt to map RDBMS data structures onto Perl objects. OO-Persistence Tools: These tools attempt to map Perl objects into an arbitrary format, often an RDBMS

Killara High School

Killara High School is a coeducational public secondary school, located on Koola Avenue in East Killara, Sydney. Established in 1968, Killara High School is one of the highest performing comprehensive non-selective public schools in the state. The success of the school in the Higher School Certificate (HSC) and its reputation as a school with an extensive program of curriculum enrichment make the school highly desirable. Activities such as music, art, dance, drama, debating, sport and strong participation

Smart material

Smart materials, also called intelligent or responsive materials, are designed materials that have one or more properties that can be significantly changed in a controlled fashion by external stimuli, such as stress, moisture, electric or magnetic fields, light, temperature, pH, or chemical compounds. Smart materials are the basis of many applications, including sensors and actuators, or artificial muscles, particularly as electroactive polymers (EAPs

Overlay keyboard

An overlay keyboard or concept keyboard is a specialized keyboard with no preset keys. Each key can be programmed with a wide range of different functions. Overlay keyboards are often used as a quick and easy way to input items with just two buttons

Poop deck

In naval architecture, a poop deck is a deck that forms the roof of a cabin built in the rear, or "aft", part of the superstructure of a ship

Data Protection Act 1998

The Data Protection Act 1998 was a Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom designed to protect personal data stored on computers or in an organised paper filing system. It enacted provisions from the European Union (EU) Data Protection Directive 1995 on the protection, processing, and movement of data