Archive for the 'Infrastructure' Category
My First Solar Customer to Ditch the Grid
September 29th, 2016Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — I just sold my first off grid system to a customer with grid power available at his house. He’s going pretty small (2 kW array, 4x 230AH 12V AGM batteries, 4kW/48V pure sine wave inverter), but he said he’s fed up with dealing with electricity […]
Power Outage Grips Entire State of South Australia
September 28th, 2016Via: Stuff: The entire state of South Australia is currently without power, with the region in the grip of what could be one of the most extreme weather systems to hit in 50 years. A mass blackout began on Wednesday afternoon, with the a “weather event” behind the unprecedented outage. Premier Jay Weatherill said the […]
Real Headline: “Get Ready for Freeways That Ban Human Drivers”
September 22nd, 2016Sure, they lead with the safety argument, but what you’re going to wind up with is something like this: Didn’t pay taxes? “Driving disabled. Would you like to pay overdue taxes, penalties, fees and interest now?” Didn’t pay parking fine? “Driving disabled. Would you like to pay your fine now?” Children not vaccinated? “Limited destinations. […]
Power Out Again
September 20th, 2016I was just working on an off grid proposal for a solar customer… When the power went out. It’s a sign! Anyway, I’m taking the night off from Cryptogon. Green tea: Check Phone state of charge 54%: Check Audiobook loaded on phone: Check
6 States Facing Possible Gas Shortages After Colonial Pipeline Spill
September 19th, 2016The number of eggs in one basket with this thing is insane. Via: ABC: Six states — Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and North Carolina — are facing possible gas shortages after a pipeline spill, officials said. The states have all declared states of emergency, citing concerns about “fuel supply disruptions” and “disruptions of […]
Tesla Wins Massive Contract to Help Power the California Grid
September 16th, 2016Via: Bloomberg: Tesla just won a bid to supply grid-scale power in Southern California to help prevent electricity shortages following the biggest natural gas leak in U.S. history. The Powerpacks, worth tens of millions of dollars, will be operational in record time—by the end of this year. Tesla Motors Inc. will supply 20 megawatts (80 […]
Equation Group Firewall Operations Catalogue
August 17th, 2016#EXTRABACON *chortle* Via: musalbas: This week someone auctioning hacking tools obtained from the NSA-based hacking group “Equation Group” released a dump of around 250 megabytes of “free” files for proof alongside the auction. The dump contains a set of exploits, implants and tools for hacking firewalls (“Firewall Operations”). This post aims to be a comprehensive […]
Make Your Time: Hacking Group Purportedly Hacked NSA-Linked Equation Group, Auctioning Cyber Weapons
August 15th, 2016Real or fake, I couldn’t stop chortling while reading the text. I think I know the author. Via: Computerworld: Quite honestly this could be fake – even the broken English announcement could be faked to make the attackers seem to not use English as their native language – but the Shadow Brokers said on GitHub: […]
Tesla and SolarCity to Combine
August 1st, 2016Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. Via: Tesla: Just over a month ago, Tesla made a proposal to purchase SolarCity and today we are announcing that the two companies have reached an agreement to combine, creating the world’s only vertically integrated sustainable energy company. Solar and storage are at their best when […]
Inside the Test Flight of Facebook’s First Internet Drone
July 21st, 2016Via: The Verge: In its first flight, Aquila exceeded engineers’ expectations for its energy efficiency. More test flights are planned, aimed at flying Aquila “faster, higher, and longer,” says Jay Parikh, Facebook’s vice president of engineering, in a blog post today. And then Aquila will have its next big test: flying with the “payload,” as […]
