Nice map and summary stats on California solar power installs — California Solar Power History | Cooler Planet — thanks for the pointer dave
Archive for January 31, 2008
Smart electrical outlets
Recently had some new GFCI outlets installed in my house like these — The Phantom GFCI - Popular Mechanics — the addition of an LED letting me know if the outlet is live is brilliant! And then I saw this prototype — a light switch that responds to smoke alarms. I love the idea of embedding cheap electronics into our electrical system — I’d really love it if somehow my switches and outlets could all report current energy use; that would help me start to change behaviour re conservation.
Category: Uncategorized /
Tags: Energy
Nanoantenna alternative to silicon pv cells
Harvesting the Sun’s Energy with Antennas — it sure seems like at some point we may see a “moore’s law” type effect in solar cells — dramatic increases in efficiency with dramatic cost drops. Will never be as longlived as the Moore’s Law phenomenom since efficiency is capped but still seems like we will see great improvements.
Category: Uncategorized /
Tags: Energy
Wireless-enchanced DS?
Just ordered Amazon.com: Advance Wars: Days of Ruin: Video Games based on the NYTimes review today. Have to wonder — when will we see a DS with wireless integration like the Kindle? I don’t buy games that often, cartridges and manuals are a pain, why can’t I just download the games wirelessly?
Cable Storage
Like many people I have a mess of extra cables — displays, ethernet, usb, sound/speaker of many flavors, firewire, etc etc etc. I used to just keep them in a tangled mess in a drawer.
But I had an unused shoe rack like this one — Chrome Over-the-Door Shoe Rack — it is pretty great for storing cables. Lots of ways to hook them over the shoe holders, easy to keep them organized by type, etc.
Category: Uncategorized /
Tags: Home
The Best Extinct Animals
The Best: Extinct Animals, From an Elephant Bird to a 10-Foot-Long, Four-Eyed Spider — a 7 foot long centipede. a 4 eyed spider-like thing. eek.