Archive for the 'Technology' Category
‘Tesla Powerwall 2 Is a Game Changer in Home Energy Storage’
October 28th, 2016Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — Yep. I’d agree with that. As far as I can tell, this authoritatively blows away all other residential energy storage options. 14 kWh capacity for $5,500, 5kW (7kW peak) inverter included, AC/DC charging options. It looks like hybrid, backup and off-grid modes will be available. […]
About Half a Million Solar Panels Were Installed Every Day Around the World in 2015
October 26th, 2016Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — *grin* Via: IEA: The International Energy Agency said today that it was significantly increasing its five-year growth forecast for renewables thanks to strong policy support in key countries and sharp cost reductions. Renewables have surpassed coal last year to become the largest source of installed […]
Tesla Powerwall 2.0 Announcement on Friday
October 26th, 2016Via: Electrek: Tesla will unveil its next generation Powerwall, sometimes called ‘Powerwall 2.0‘, at an event on Friday. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been hyping the product since August saying that “no other company has anything close to it.”
“Central Moscow GPS Anomaly”
October 26th, 2016Via: AP: Joggers, taxi drivers, players of Pokemon Go and senior Russian officials are seeking an explanation of why mobile phone apps that use GPS are malfunctioning in central Moscow. A programmer for Russian internet firm Yandex, Grigory Bakunov, said Thursday his research showed a system for blocking GPS was located inside the Kremlin, the […]
The Pentagon’s ‘Terminator Conundrum’
October 25th, 2016Almost unnoticed outside of defense circles… I’ve been posting about this on here since 2002. 😐 Via: New York Times: Almost unnoticed outside defense circles, the Pentagon has put artificial intelligence at the center of its strategy to maintain the United States’ position as the world’s dominant military power. It is spending billions of dollars […]
Self Driving Truck Makes First Commercial Delivery
October 25th, 2016Via: New York Times: The futurists of Silicon Valley may not have seen this one coming: The first commercial delivery made by a self-driving truck was 2,000 cases of Budweiser beer. On Tuesday, Otto, the Uber-owned self-driving vehicle operation, announced the completion of its first commercial delivery, having delivered its beer load from Fort Collins, […]
Google Co-Founder’s Reported ‘Flying Car’ Spotted Hovering in Hollister
October 25th, 2016Via: Monteray Herald: In Hollister, population 40,000, the first rule about Zee.Aero is you don’t talk about Zee.Aero. Related: Airbus Wants to Build a Self-Flying Taxi Called Vahana
China’s Plan to Organize Its Society Relies on ‘Big Data’ to Rate Everyone
October 24th, 2016Via: Washington Post: Imagine a world where an authoritarian government monitors everything you do, amasses huge amounts of data on almost every interaction you make, and awards you a single score that measures how “trustworthy” you are. In this world, anything from defaulting on a loan to criticizing the ruling party, from running a red […]
Batteries May Trip ‘Death Spiral’ in $3.4 Trillion Credit Market
October 23rd, 2016Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — Via: Bloomberg: Battery technologies starting to disrupt the electricity and automobile industries may also emerge as a trillion-dollar threat to credit markets, according to Fitch Ratings. A quarter of outstanding global corporate debt, or as much as $3.4 trillion, is linked to the utility- and […]
The Little-Known Company That Enables Worldwide Mass Surveillance
October 23rd, 2016Via: The Intercept: It was a powerful piece of technology created for an important customer. The Medusa system, named after the mythical Greek monster with snakes instead of hair, had one main purpose: to vacuum up vast quantities of internet data at an astonishing speed. The technology was designed by Endace, a little-known New Zealand […]
