Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Makani: Google’s Energy Harvesting Kites
March 17th, 2015Via: Google: Makani is working to accelerate the shift to clean, renewable energy by developing energy kites, a new type of wind turbine that uses lightweight electronics, advanced materials, and smart software to generate more energy with less materials—all at lower cost.
How Robots & Algorithms Are Taking Over
March 16th, 2015Via: The New York Review of Books: Here is what that future—which is to say now—looks like: banking, logistics, surgery, and medical recordkeeping are just a few of the occupations that have already been given over to machines. Manufacturing, which has long been hospitable to mechanization and automation, is becoming more so as the cost […]
Hertz Puts Cameras In Its Rental Cars, Says It Has No Plans To Use Them
March 16th, 2015Via: Fusion: Hertz has offered the NeverLost navigational device for years, but it only added the built-in camera feature (which includes audio and video) to its latest version of the device — NeverLost 6 — in mid-2014. “Approximately a quarter of our vehicles across the country have a NeverLost unit and slightly more than half […]
“3D Printer” for Small Molecules
March 16th, 2015Via: HHMI News: Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientists have simplified the chemical synthesis of small molecules, eliminating a major bottleneck that limits the exploration of a class of compounds offering tremendous potential for medicine and technology. Scientists led by Martin Burke, an HHMI early career scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, used a […]
This Microscope Can See Down to Individual Atoms
March 16th, 2015Via: Vice: As our devices get ever smaller, so do the materials we use to make them. And that means you have to get really close to see them. Really close. A new electron microscope unveiled at the UK’s national SuperST?EM facility images objects at an unprecedented resolution, right down to the individual atoms. SuperSTEM […]
IBM LOOKING AT ADOPTING BITCOIN TECHNOLOGY FOR MAJOR CURRENCIES
March 16th, 2015😯 Via: Reuters: International Business Machines Corp is considering adopting the underlying technology behind bitcoin, known as the “blockchain,” to create a digital cash and payment system for major currencies, according to a person familiar with the matter. The objective is to allow people to transfer cash or make payments instantaneously using this technology without […]
Momma, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Programmers: “A System Tends Toward a Giant Ball of Mud Given Enough Time”
March 13th, 2015I’m one of the early backers of Star Citizen, easily the most ambitious video game project of all time. Never mind that I don’t own hardware that’s minimally powerful enough to play the initial alpha release modules, or an internet connection with datacap large enough to download the final client (which could top 100GB) once […]
Why Hacking a Tesla Battery May Foreshadow an Energy Revolution
March 13th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — Guys are recovering the battery packs from wrecked electric cars and using them for off-grid solar systems. In the spirit of Quake 3, I salute you: Via: Bloomberg: Afoot is an unprecedented worldwide effort — equivalent to a kind of a tech-age version of the […]
New Barbie Doll Sends Speech from Children to Mattel Over Internet
March 12th, 2015Via: Washington Post: At a recent New York toy fair, a Mattel representative introduced the newest version of Barbie by saying: “Welcome to New York, Barbie.” The doll, named Hello Barbie, responded: “I love New York! Don’t you? Tell me, what’s your favorite part about the city? The food, fashion or the sights?” To revive […]
800,000 Microinverters Remotely Retrofitted on Oahu—in One Day
March 11th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand that include Enphase products and services. — Enphase systems are now helping stabilize the grid in Hawaii. Via: IEEE: Utilities are asking more of the rooftop solar systems that increasingly are popping up throughout their distribition grids. As we profile in this month’s Spectrum, leading utilities […]
