Thursday, November 28, 2002

Berkeley Labs.  Discovery may yield full spectrum solar cell.  Extremely interesting if it pans out.  Basically, some new work in materials technology for LEDs has led to the development of a low cost compound that works across the full spectrum of visible light.  ~70% efficiency vs. ~15-20% currently.   I did a little work on what it would cost to power my home, and I found that a $14k system would supply about 1/3 of my needs using existing solar cell technology.  If similar price points are in place (based on the size of the panels) with a more efficient system, I could buy a system that supplies all of my needs and provide a recoupment of 100% of the investment in 4 years (and that's in New England!).  [John Robb's Radio Weblog] 9:38:35 AM    comment []

Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Investor.  Great source of news on the topic. [John Robb's Radio Weblog] 9:37:55 AM    comment []

What I like best about the MS Longhorn alpha release screenshots is the ability to switch between desktops.  I think the reasoning behind this is that there is a potential, given current graphics technology to create highly graphical and interactive desktops that take up the full screen (like what you see in modern PC games).  These desktops would run concurrently and not provide the standard icon laden interface we commonly use. [John Robb's Radio Weblog] 9:37:08 AM    comment []

CNet.  100 poor schmucks at the Naval Academy are about to get double banged by the RIAA.  The combination of the Academy's honor code and the military justice system will make consequences of their use of downloaded MP3s a living hell.  I bet the 3-4,000 people at the other academies (and those at the Naval Academy that weren't using the P2P network when the snooping took place) are quickly erasing their collections right now.  I propose a "don't snoop, don't tell" policy for the military re:  MP3s. [John Robb's Radio Weblog] 9:35:25 AM    comment []

Microsoft ignoring faulty 1st generation X-Boxes. This is a thread on Microsoft's official X-Box forums, discussing faulty 1st generation X-Box DVD readers. More importantly, though, it describes Microsoft's unwillingness to deal with the situation. Long story short, those who bought their machines at launch now have a machine that refuses to run new software correctly. Worse yet, those boxes seem to now be degrading fairly rapidly. In a month, I'm betting we'll all have $300 paperweights. (The problem is also briefly mentioned in a story by news.com.) [kuro5hin.org] 9:33:04 AM    comment []

One Reason I Own ReplayTVs. If TiVo Thinks You Are Gay, Here's How to Set It Straight "A phone call the machine makes to TiVo, Inc., in San Jose, Calif., once a day provides key information. As these men learned, when TiVo thinks it has you pegged, there's just one way to change its 'mind': outfox it. Mr. Iwanyk, 32 years old, first suspected that his TiVo thought he was gay, since it inexplicably kept recording programs with gay themes. A film studio executive in Los Angeles and the self-described 'straightest guy on earth,' he tried to tame TiVo's gay fixation by recording war movies and other 'guy stuff.' 'The problem was, I overcompensated,' he says. 'It started giving me documentaries on Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Eichmann. It stopped thinking I was gay and decided I was a crazy guy reminiscing about the Third Reich.' He mentioned his TiVo tussle to a friend, who told an executive at CBS's 'The King of Queens,' who then wrote an episode with a My-TiVo-thinks-I'm-gay subplot.... Many consumers appreciate having computers delve into their hearts and heads. But some say it gives them the willies, because the machines either know them too well or make cocksure assumptions about them that are way off base. That's why even TiVo lovers are tempted to hoodwink it -- a phenomenon that was also spoofed this year on another TV show, HBO's "The Mind of the Married Man...." Mr. Everett-Church, a privacy consultant for businesses, predicts that as techno-profiling increases, more people will purposely muck up their profiles. They'll fear ordering books on mental illnesses or sexual preferences because they'll wonder if they'll somehow be publicly identified. All techno-profiling companies contacted for this article said that information gleaned is for the customer's personal use only. Still, even Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos knows the potential mortification factor. For a live demonstration before an audience of 500 people, Mr. Bezos once logged onto Amazon.com to show how it caters to his interests. The top recommendation it gave him? The DVD for 'Slave Girls From Beyond Infinity.' That popped up because he had previously ordered "Barbarella," starring Jane Fonda, a spokesman explains.... Virginia Heffernan, TV columnist for Slate.com, doesn't understand why some people are resistant to techno-profiling, or find it creepy. She didn't look for any deep meaning when her TiVo kept giving her TV shows in Polish. And after buying self-help books on Amazon.com, she accepted that every time she logged on, the site pitched products to make her a more self-fulfilled human being. 'I like the idea that someone cares,' she says. 'Even a machine.' " [Wall Street Journal, via MetaFilter] [The Shifted Librarian] 9:30:19 AM    comment []

Antigravity scooter uses bug shell mojo to hover. In 1988 scientist Viktor S. Grebennikov discovered that some types of insect chitin contain anti-gravitational properties. Based on this opening and by using bionics principles, the author designed and builded antigravitational platform, and also, practically, developed principles manned flight with the speed up to 25 km/min. Since 1991-92 years the device was used by the author as a means of fast movement. With photos of the good doctor in flight! Link Discuss [Boing Boing Blog] 9:07:08 AM    comment []