Fuel cells by 2004. Good write-up of MTI Micro Fuel Cells, a tech start-up that is promising to ship a commercial fuel cell for personal electronics by 2004. I so want this technology -- laptops that run for days, PDAs that run for months. LinkDiscuss (Thanks, Pat!) [Boing Boing Blog]
The prototype created by Acker's company, MTI Micro Fuel Cells Inc., relies on a minute flow of methanol to generate electricity. MTI Micro aims to shrink the prototype and begin selling its first commercial fuel cell product in 2004.
On Friday night after the InfoWorld conference, Tom Yager and I went to dinner with John Montgomery, a former BYTE colleague who's now a Microsoft group product manager deeply involved with the .NET platform. According to John, it is a daily requirement in his division that everyone -- himself included -- spend an hour a day helping customers, for example by answering questions on newsgroups.
Cool! But nobody seems to know this, which understandably frustrates John. Well, now there's an easy and direct way to handle these kinds of strategic communications. As Duncan indicates, a few more well-placed Microsoft blogs won't automatically humanize the company or guarantee trust, but it'd be a great way to start depolarizing the conversation.
