* “Poor Halo play prompts stabbing threat”:http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattle911/archives/231642.asp. Doesn’t seem unreasonable. I’ve heard campers threatened with worse.
* “How Secure Is My Password”:http://howsecureismypassword.net/. No idea how accurate, but fun. 17 thousand years for my typical password.
* “Rich on photobooks”:http://www.tongfamily.com/archives/2010/12/photobooks-for-christmas/. I just always use the default in Aperture but perhaps I should branch out.
* “AR.Drone”:http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/12/01/ar-drone-torn-down/. Why don’t I have one of these yet.
* “Declining energy quality as recession cause”:http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-11-declining-energy-quality-root-current.html. An interesting way to look at things. Not sure it actually makes sense tho.
* “Now you can swap useless Amex reward points for useless Zynga crap.”:http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/30/american-express-now-lets-you-swap-rewards-points-for-zyngas-purple-cows/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Techcrunch+(TechCrunch)
* “Snoopy themed Windows tablet”:http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/11/25/onkyo-announces-snoopy-themed-windows-tablet/. Take that, Apple.
* “Spiders on Drugs”:http://design-milk.com/spiders-on-drugs-by-guillaume-lehoux/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_campaign=Feed:+design-milk+(Design+Milk). We are asking for some serious payback from spider nation some day.
* “Umpteenth article on the death of cable TV”:http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/24/internet-tv-and-the-death-of-cable-tv-really/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Techcrunch+(TechCrunch), yawn. Until I can watch HD live sports without stuttering I am captive to cable/dish. Going to be a while.
* “Charles on breaking up MSFT”:http://www.platformonomics.com/2010/10/the-baby-bills-are-back/. Good as always.
* “Habitable planet found?”:http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/09/has-a-potentially-habitable-planet-just-been-discovered.html
* “Languages you’ve never heard of”:http://gadgetopia.com/post/7105?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+gadgetopia+(Gadgetopia). In the future, we will all have our very own programming language.
* “Topologist suggests new form of matter”:http://www.kurzweilai.net/topologist-predicts-new-form-of-matter. For most of our history we’ve used the forms of matter that nature gave us. It is interesting to observe and think about what we can create as we gain mastery over atomic organization.
* “One man’s indictment of iTunes”:http://www.xconomy.com/national/2010/09/03/the-leaning-tower-of-ping-how-itunes-could-be-apples-undoing/. The thing is a giant hairball of software.
* “Exercise and aging”:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/magazine/28athletes-t.html?_r=1&ref=homepage&src=me&adxnnlx=1290787262-FJGn2RNM8RCjxiaHpyyVDA&pagewanted=all. Crap I need to get after it.
* “Show Me What’s Wrong”:http://www.showmewhatswrong.com/. Super useful.
* “User experience of F1 telemetry”:http://www.solidstateux.com/interaction-design/the-user-experience-of-f1-telemetry/. Always impressed with the amount of money spent on racing.
* “MacPaint and MacDraw source code”:http://www.computerhistory.org/highlights/macpaint/. Nostalgia.
Energy
Electric ATV choices
Looking at choices for an electric for use around our property. Basically I think the choice comes down to these:
* “Cunningham”:http://www.cunninghamgolfcar.com/p-225-xrt-850-electric-utility-vehicle.aspx. Lacks a certain spirit, but comes in well under the price of most the others. Basically a golf cart manufacturer, I’d be concerned about torque on crappy surfaces and inclines.
* “X-Treme”:http://www.x-tremescooters.com/utvs/xu3000/xu3000.html. Plenty of attitude but doesn’t really exist yet.
* “Bad Boy Buggies”:http://www.badboybuggies.com/products.php. Perhaps too much attitude — Camo the only paint option. And I think they will come to regret that name.
* “Polaris Ranger EV”:http://www.polarisindustries.com/en-us/ATV-RANGER/2010/Mid-Size-Utility-Vehicles/RANGER-EV/Pages/Overview.aspx. Not the cheapest, might be the way to go tho, you can actually find these at dealers around here.
Lots of other regional choices. A concern I’ve heard is battery life in our moist climate, will be interesting to see how that works out.
cast concrete lamps
copper & concrete :::: lamps. interesting, particularly the ones that embed power outlets in the tower. i don’t need a lamp but a stylish power strip would be awesome.
Light Bulbs
As much as I like these LED bulbs — New LED Light Bulbs Can Replace 100W Incandescents >> MetaEfficient Reviews. — they are probably going to have to evolve a lot further in physical design before I can adopt them — like these CFL bulbs that look like incandescents — the incandescent shape is going to stay with us forever, just too many fixtures and designs have evolved around it.
Greentech Media | 150 Solar Startups
Greentech Media | 150 Solar Startups. Useful taxonomy and list
All over the place — Distilleries of Scotland, DC, Bullets, Games, Doghouses, Golf, Currency, and more
- Brett on Stuff » Distilleries of Scotland. A reason to hike Scotland
- WOW — stronger authentication than your bank. What does that say about the world.
- Running DC thru the house. An idea whose time has come again?
- Indie games DB. Often way better than mainstream games
- Guided Bullets. Why not.
- Thingiverse. Kind of an open source design site.
- Denhaus — awesome pet furniture
- Nitrogen-infused golf clubs. Golfers will buy anything.
- Dutch 5 Euro coin. Awesome, wish I could order. Not the first time I have been blocked from ordering a euro product, wish I could sign up for a forwarding PO box in Europe.
- Mini Magnetosphere. Maybe we all need one of these
Stuff I Want But Don't Need — grab bag
* Clickjacking. Pretty ugly form of attack.
* Self-powered wireless light switches. Pretty cool, instead of running line voltage to every lightswitch, they harness ambient power and send wireless signals to outlets. Now if you just combine this with…
* …Dirt-powered lamps! Or bacteria powered lamps. Way cool
* Rich’s guide to your basic canon lens set, if you are willing to spend $4-5K on lenses
* Charging station designs to hide cables. Hate dangling cables.
* Combo phone/keyfob. Damn I wish this problem would get solved for real.
* Probably too little too late, but a nice home phone base station with web/wifi functionality.
Tesla in Seattle
— good crowd looking at the Tesla this AM.
Nissan’s ECO Pedal pushes back during acceleration » Coolest Gadgets
Nissan’s ECO Pedal pushes back during acceleration » Coolest Gadgets. Love the idea of embedding behaviour into everyday objects. I want my light switches to give me feedback about energy consumption. My wallet to give me feedback about my spending.
Edison PC Power Management Software
Edison PC Power Management Software | Edison — tried on my home machine but had to uninstall. It is lipstick on a chicken — a nicer UI than the default Windows power management UI but that is all it is. If the underlying hardware doesn’t nicely support suspend, then this tool does nothing and that is my case — my desktop will not reliably recover from suspend, I have no idea why. Hangs on unsuspend, and on reboot, my video resolution was set back to VGA resolution.
Fat Spaniel Launches Open Platform
Greentech Media | Fat Spaniel Launches Open Platform. Congrats guys. One nice example of the platform use here — another here — a bunch of these up on the fat spaniel site
Fisker Karma
Fisker Automotive: Environmentally friendly, premium cars featuring plug-in hybrid technology >> Vehicles >> Features — J says we need to get one of these.
The solution to global warming
Cow Backpacks Trap Methane Gas.
Adds a new fun element to cow tipping as well.
Stuff I Want But Don't Need — Surround projector TV, Multitool, Power monitor
* Mitsubishi Ultra Thin Frame Premium Flat Panel TV with Integrated Sound Projector » Coolest Gadgets — cool. I have a discrete sound projector in one room and have been happy with. this is a great way to get surround sound with minimal fuss.
* At the other end of the price spectrum, the Li’l Guppie Multi-tool. I am not sure I actually get much value out of multi-tools but they look cool.
* Realtime power use monitor — this actually seems pretty useful.
Mark Anderson on Solving America’s Energy Crisis — get to all electric with nuclear then solar/wind
Strategic News Service Blog » Blog Archives » Solving America’s Energy Crisis — a reasonable approach. I heartily agree with the idea of getting to all electric as soon as possible. We need an Apollo-like program — we need the leadership to propose it and to get everyone focused on it. The whole country focused on the July 20 1969 Apollo landing and rallied around it — we can do the same around the date of the last tanker docking at our shores from overseas.
As I’ve mentioned to some people — there will never be a solar embargo, there will never be a solar cartel, the sun isn’t controlled by governments inimical to our interests, “peak solar” is billions of years away, and solar production economics are going to follow a Moore’s-Law-like curve. What is not to like?
Solar cost competitive by 2015
Electricity Rates from Solar Cost Competitive by 2015 « Cooler Planet
Clean Edge, a research and publishing company focused on renewable technologies and the non-profit organization Co-op America released a report that states the cost of electricity derived from solar power will be on par with electricity derived from fossil fuels by 2015.
Awesome, this is certainly my bet. The amount of investment that has poured into solar technologies is going to pay off somehow. I don’t know which approach will win, but one of them will.
Energy links — IT leaders, Tesla, Nuclear, Duke Energy, Construction
* HP working on solar PV, IBM putting a billion dollars into green datacenters, Intel spinning out a PV firm — nice to see the IT leaders getting behind alternate energy
* DOE funds electric vehicle projects — not sure why GM, GE, Ford need DOE money — give it to startups! More interesting is the note about Tesla’s deal with Daimler, very smart.
* Nuclear option gets more public support — thank goodness. The public is more rational than the politicians about energy strategy
* Duke Energy jumping into residential and commercial solar installs — the wave of the future?
* Green construction materials — I wonder about the 50 year life of these. I think I will let others be the beta testers.
World Cement Usage
The Oil Drum | World Cement Usage: An Indicator of Energy Consumption–and China and India Are Certainly Using It — OK we better start worrying about peak cement.