Small Fish, Big Pond

The blog is still hosted myself rather than being a “wordpress blog” but the technology is no longer nucleus.

Problem is that RSS import didn’t work so that the posts have to be moved by hand and have their dates changed to match the original posting date. Also the links that linked within the blog don’t work anymore, or until I fix them. Plus comments were lost but there weren’t many; I do read them and still remember and since most were messages to me the info is not lost.

That reminds me that tomorrow I’ll be doing more work on prepping next years hydroponic garden. I’ve been tracking this one from day one to make up a list of parts needed, how much they cost, and where I got them.

Anyway sorry about the mess, I hope the new look is an improvement.

I also might be testing out new features so if weird stuff appears and disappears it’s just me farting around with stuff on the back.

I was practicing my Japanese (in other words watching imported TV) and they had a program talking about the Zephyr Corporation in Tokyo who produces a residential class windmill. The program NHK J-TECH was typical Japanese daytime TV, a lot of pro-Japan talk about how innovative Japan is and how they’re revolutionizing the world. A lot of it is true but if there’s one thing Japanese media never misses is a chance to pat itself on the back.

On a side note it’s cool to see Pakkun and Makkun switch boke/tsukkomi roles when speaking English. In English Pakkun is no-longer the foolish foreigner and plays the straight man to Makkun’s foolish foreigner.

Japanese media difference aside it’s very true that this company had made some great strides in wind power generation, all in a device small enough that to fit above your average suburban home (43lbs, 6ft rotor). I know that there are companies doing this in America and they may be just as advanced or more but they certainly aren’t getting their name and product out. And that may be a social comment on the fact that our TV media likes to play reality TV, and dramas where imaginary “straw man” terrorists are constantly trying to blow up the oceans! Perhaps if we spent more time extolling our own virtues and the innovation that comes from within the US we would spend less time watching Cables News that constantly tells us everything is falling apart. I’m sure the local Green energy solar and wind powered startups would like the publicity as well.

I just hope the US can get over itself arguing whether global warming is manmade or not, and realize that regardless of what you believe the answer to that is, green technologies are the future world wide and that if we aren’t the ones innovating and producing the future we’re going to end up importing it from the rest of the world at our own expense.

Enough philosophy, down to brass tacks; I want one of these windmills.

Gizmodo recently had a small article about a concept of wind powered street lights that was kind of cool. But we all know that concepts rearely become the glittery futuristic reality they portray. Meanwhile these turbines exist now and have been on sale for a few years. They advertise them in much the same way, either small residential generation or powering isolated or low draw installations like lighting in parking garages or bus and train stops.

They start generating power in as little as 5MPH wind and will continue generating power upto hurricane force winds. Most commercial windmills shut off and stop as wind passes 50MPH; the Airdolphin uses excess power to electromagnetically brake the propeller once it reaches 1000 rpm and if winds continue up to hurricane gales it will slow itself to 600RPM to avoid damage (I thought they could feather the blades but maybe that’s too complex for a small deployment). They said they used to have problems with the sound generated before so they copied the feathers of an owl by putting a small ridged edge to the blade and it lowered the sound produced by the turbine to less than 60dB, or roughly ambient neighborhood levels.

The power generated is 1.1kW at 27MPH wind and peaks at 4kW at 44MPH wind. So the windmill can offload roughly one quarter of the average power draw of a home; I think they said the 1kWh rate stored enough power to use a 47” LCD flat screen for 5 hours. The average price I could find for one was about $6000, which means you won’t be making back your money very quickly with one of these little guys unless you’re in a windy area. So you’ll have to be happy with the fact that you’re spending the same amount of money, getting the same amount of power, but being only three quarters of the burden your neighbors are.

But these aren’t really mass produced yet either so the price may go down as demand increases. They mentioned selling 200 in the last 4 years to 31 different countries, which is output you’d expect from a company that hasn’t really moved from walk to run yet. However if they catch on and price comes down these would be great to add into a smart grid to for a community or town; Zephyr already markets a turbine specifically for plugging into the US smart power grid.. In wind power alone a community could offload 1/4 of its power from the grid, add in solar and smart devices on the grid and the community could cut out another 1/4 to 1/2 of that.

They also have an add-on data display server that tells you the wind conditions in real time, how much power you’re making, and it can be connected over IP to provide an accessible page that can reports this information anywhere on the net.

I have to admit I love this stuff, we may never have a future with flying cars and extremely dangerous houses on thin stilts like in the Jetsons, but we already have the technology for a much more futuristic world, if only we can get momentum going for mass production. And while I don’t think that we’ll ever in our lifetimes get to the point where we can completely eliminate the traditional power plant but with the distributed onsite power of a million wind and solar generators helping out we can significantly reduce our dependence on those plants so that they are small enough to not have the impact they do now.

Ross Rubin writes a great article in his “Switched On” guest post at Engadget. I really agree with his basic premise that the iPad and future tablets aren’t really filling a gap that exists anymore.

Rewind back to 2001 when Ross mentioned the Handspring Treo. At the time I was rocking a Handspring PDA and had just purchased a new Dell laptop; for me at this point the gap that Steve Jobs referenced was already pretty much gone. The laptop gave me limited mobility with computing and for the times I didn’t want to bring my laptop I had the PDA which took my most needed computing abilities wherever I went. In fact when people asked me what it was I always told them it was a computer in my pocket.

Now I’m talking about computing from a productivity standpoint. I had basic web surfing abilities so long as I had WiFi, but my main concerns were for the productivity “apps” I had loaded on the PDA. So surfing youtube while on the bus was not really a concern.

In the present from a productivity standpoint not a lot has changed other than the small gap that existed for me in 2001 is basically closed now. My Smartphone is more capable than before and my netbook is more mobile than before.

This would explain the problems tablets have fitting in. From a productivity standpoint they’re a niche product because the gap they were supposed to fill has closed. They’re remaining use it recreational, so you can watch youtube from you bed or use the web, movies, and games in situations where the smartphone is too small but you don’t want to whip out a laptop.

In which case the iPad is perfectly positioned but won’t have the ubiquity that the iPhone did. And any tablets that follow will either be deemed a non-tablet by the community (full OS convertible for instance), or just a big smartphone.

Lobotomized British Girl weds Laptop

Marrying your Nintendo DS girlfriend is so 2009. Real geeks marry their Macs.

I’d like to think this is just a spoof but I’ve met people who were so addicted to the Apple that this isn’t really a big of a stretch as it pretends to be.

So Google is adding the ability to virtually walk around a store the same way we can virtually drive down a road with street view. Obviously Google is continuing to push their service out further and further in the face of competing services like Microsoft’s Bing.

I can see some uses for this but considering how grainy some street view images are I don’t think I want to shop virtually. I’d much rather they spent their time cleaning up existing photos, adding more streets to non-major cities and improving their interface to have the photosynth style transition like Microsoft. (And I wish Microsoft would hurry up and add more streets to its street view).

If this becomes an actual feature we have to ask the question:
Is Google Shop Views useful or did Google just jump the shark when it comes to mapping?

Since I drove roughly 1400 miles to see Polysics I should finally write a new review (I have about 6 shows I’ve seen without reviewing). As I mentioned earlier Kayo is leaving so this is as much a farewell tour as anything else. I know that the band will go on but after this show it’s hard to imagine them without her.

First off it was fun finally taking my new car on a road trip. My sister came along but spent most of the trip napping in the passenger seat. The drive was long but fun; driving around LA is a royal pain in the ass seems like people like to sit in the passing or commuter lane and go slower than the already slow moving traffic.

Anyway the show.

It’s funny that for how different things seem they’re really all the same. At the Roxy, the charge $5 for plastic cup half full of bud and call it a deal; I guess all places are rip offs. I thought it was a bit odd that there is a curtain shutting off the stage until a band is ready. I guess its good since it keeps ignorant fans from cheering when a roadie is tuning up a guitar.

There was also reserved seating which I think was more for the late night club crowd that aren’t there for the show, they just always hang out at at the club.

I didn’t catch the first band’s name, Little red riding hood I think?
Too bad because they had great energy, whole group was onfire regardless of how much the crowd was into it. They eventually got the crowd to at least react which is impressive for a first band of the night.
The platinum blond was hot and sexy, although she was a bit over the top at times. Running your hand over your body = sexy; flat out rubbing your pussy with your hands and the mic is too much. Save that part for the guy’s imagination.
The lead guy had good energy as well and they made a good compliment to the music, although his outfit seemed a bit gay (maybe he is or maybe it’s just a really “artistic” outfit.
They really had a good sound that goes down well with what’s popular in music now. It was independent but not in a boring crybaby emo Iron and Wine sort of way. It was very aggressive and upbeat without being top 40 pop music.
I definitely wish they had been more clear saying their name so I could find them online.

The sound guy for the Roxy is perfect, with ear plugs in the music was just the right volume and just the right balance. After years of suffering through the local SLC sound guys this guys seemed like a master of the craft. Kudos.

2nd band was New Kingdom; first thing I noticed about them was everybody had the same big hair. But once the music started I was pleasantly surprised again. They also had an “indie” sound that is very similar to popular non-mainstream music right now.
The best way I could describe them was like a chilled out more indie sounding band heavily influenced by Jameroquai.

After two great bands like this I was starting to feel bad for how sad the local music groups in Utah were. We have a few good bands of kids who are used to playing in their parents garages but nothing really worthy of grabbing out of the area and pushing for nationwide release, and here were two relatively small bands that seriously need to be “discovered”. All I could do was think back to that crummy local band Vile Blue Shades. Kids in LA are spoiled by too much good talent.

But not all was lost, the third band, Sabrosa Purr, sucked. Indie music treads a fine line between genius and madness, you’re either one of the other. Except in this case madness isn’t like some cool intensity, it’s just shitty ear grating music. It was just slow and moody and it’s hard to tell if they were actually playing music or each in some drug induced trance making noise that sounded like music to them.
Fuck this emo shit.

I don’t mean to dwell on the negative and I know some people really like this stuff (the same people that think Pitchfork Media is the gods of reviewing good music). I’m sorry but if you like this you’ve been brainwashed by the shitty indie overlords who want to destroy music. 20 years from now your kids will ask you why you liked a band that faked its talent by playing really slow AC/DC chords and screaming 14 year old poetry into the mic and you’ll have no response other than you were just trying to fit in (It’s so ironic that people try to dislike the popular so much that they’ll let people convince them this is good music.) Screw this pretentious bullshit.

–Re reading this I realized that everybody drumming at the finale was nice but not revolutionary enough to make up for the crap music. Oh, and the chick playing was kind of hot.

Polysics were Polysics; amazing in just about everyway. Many bands seems so cool when you watch a music video, or look like their shows are amazing; then you see an actual show and it’s utter crap. Polysics are just as energetic and out of control on stage as they are in music videos; maybe more so, in the music videos it’s a bunch of cut scenes with makeup and cool down time in between, live it’s just a marathon of music and energy, it wasn’t 2 songs in before Hiro was already covered in sweat from bouncing all over the place belting out lines and guitar riffs.

While I was watching I realized that the band has an almost perfect setup for the music they’re doing. Masashi in the back, relatively emotionless as the drummer anchor. The two girls to either side doing mostly backup vocals, Fumi is a bit more energetic but Kayo with her robot impersonation. And Hiro trapped between them and the audience bouncing around all over the place. The setup is great, it’s not like justa band crammed up on stage, you could setup a camera and every performance would look like it was setup to be a music video.

Only Hiro attempted any English and it was limited at best, considering all Japanese go though a couple years of english I’m sure they have a bit more understanding then they let on but it was still fun watching them try to break down the language barrier. God know how tough it is, I learned myself from the time I spent in Japan trying not to sound like a fool.

Anyway, well worth the time and gas to head down to see the show. If you have a chance to see them make sure you take it. And that’s not counting the 4-6 hours or so that we had to be tourists the next day before we headed back home. 24 hours driving, 4 hour show, 6 hours car camping, all in about 42 hours. Not bad at all.

New CDs Bought at the show:

I’m glad Natalie Dee is doing research in the field of smells, the pleasant, the funky, and the heavy freaking gross smellements.

I also like the relationships between smellements, like the 4th period appetizing transitional being all breads; starting with the basic Br “Bread” and progressing in to the heavier Cb “Cinnabon”.

Click for larger Smellements

Natalie Dee

I drive past this place every day on the way to work, I’ve always wondered what the clean rooms inside look like.

Lehi Microchip Plant

The automated overhead robots are pretty cool.

Via Engadget.
ST86UMRJXQ95

More fun video from Gizmodo. I love the Walt Mosspuppet videos, they’re far more entertaining and informative than the real thing.

Captain Picard- sorry, Patrick Stewart shares my sentiments on smartphones the internet and twitter to a T. Although I use a TouchPro instead of an iPhone, but I’m attached the same way with it.

I’m also having a hard time not seeing him as Picard because i just watched the TNG Star Trek movie reviews on RedLetterMedia.com. If you’re looking to waste some time at work check them out.

RedLetterMedia reviews

Infrastructurist links a great video starring their Editor in Chief on a Fox Business (I know they suck but muddle through it) report talking about the future of building out High Speed Rail in the US. Basically answering who will build the system?

Checkout the video starring Infrastructurist’s gorgeous editor.

Most of the stimulus money given out to HSR projects were given to projects that are already quite mature and have most of the pre-planning done so there won’t be time to ramp up development and production in country. This of course means we need to bring in foreign countries to get it going and when jobs are hard to find that raises some heckles.

I liked the version that Click and Clack of Car Talk put out about a year ago when the Auto bailouts were being made. GM and other US auto manufacturers should create new daughter companies that build HSR tech. Partner with overseas HSR companies to bring their tech to our factories.

1. US auto factories are being abandoned and auctioned off production equipment and all.
2. There is currently a lack of HSR factories in the US.
3. GM et all are looking to build new transpiration option that will appeal to the consumers now that oil isn’t dirt cheap.

Is it just me or does this seem like a perfect storm of events to create jobs, save failing companies, and improve US travel infrastructure all at the same time?
Although to covert quick enough we may need to buy non-US and used equipment of overseas until we ramp up local knowledge and production.

However the point I wanted to add was that this is proof of why the US needs to focus on green technologies now. No matter what you believe in global warming the world is going to demand windmills and solar panels in the future. If America doesn’t position itself now as the leader of this tech we will find ourselves buying it from European and Asian companies down the line.

Image src from chick publications “Here he comes” (don’t google if easily offended)

Treehugger had a great post talking about how the green movement often parallels extremist religion in getting its message out. It’s a really interesting take and I agree totally that perhaps the reason that people believing in Global Warming has dropped below 50% is because the people pushing green ideas and conservation do sound like they’re trying to push their cult like beliefs on you.

“You shouldn’t eat that, it’s meat not kosher.”
“Mother Earth God suffered for your sins!”
“Aren’t you ashamed you’re destroying the planet going to hell?”
“Your wasteful consumerismsins will send us all to hell!”

I have to admit, listening to a lot of people who share the same beliefs as me proselytize about how we need to “protect mother earth” is such a turn off I want to join everybody else in denouncing them. One of my favorite bands even has a song about being sick of being preached to by celebrities.

I see this rejection of the green movement all over Utah, ironic since Mormon missionaries are experts at trying to force their beliefs on others. MANY people I know want to destroy the Earth faster just to spite people who preach a green lifestyle. And they’re dismissed because greens think that they must just be a “lunatic fringe.” But I agree with the green movement and at times even I want to spit in the face of people telling me how to think and what to do. Obviously there is a problem in how the message is getting out, not in how poorly people are receiving it.

I think I have a unique line on how to improve the message. Like I said I agree with most all of what the green moment preaches; however my appeal to it is my desire for efficiency in how we collectively impact the world as an organism. I want the same end result as the green movement of zero impact, but I reject the pushy messages same as red America.

Let’s face it Americans don’t like being told what to do. The first problem is saying, “You need to stop wasting resources.” Second problem is we don’t like being forced into having sympathy, “You need to quit using paper bags because logging is destroying the North Western Tree Rat’s ecosystem.”

Most Americans respond with, “I don’t care.” and the worst respond with, “Fine, I hope they die, and I hope they burn in hell!” The solution is to hit people in a softspot that even the most hardened beer swilling, rifle-hunting, red state American feels it; in the wallet.

I’ve always believed that the way to create converts to a green lifestyle is the same way Christmas was stolen from Christianity… Capitalism.*

Me:Us: “You should get a more fuel efficient car. Using less gas means you buy less gas, and that’s more money in your pocket.”
“Turn down your thermostat in winter. Your gas bill will be much smaller.”
“Use CF bulbs and turn them off when not in use. Using less electricity means you pay the electric company less.”

Them: “Doesn’t all that stuff cut down on pollution and lower humanities’ carbon footprint.”

Us: “I think so. But do you really care so long as you have more money for yourself? Think of the lower pollution as icing on the cake.”

Watch people flock to the green movement and an efficient earth friendly lifestyle after that.

*Capitalism is really just another religion, the ATM is the altar and I’ve seen many people pray before it to, “Please have money!”

Question to the religious: How many times have you visited the ATM and now many time have you gone to church in a week?
How much of your day do you dedicate to making money?
How many times have you decided to keep money for yourself when you saw situations where others needed it more?

Tablet Computing (Apple definition)

Well it’s the end of the day and the initial reports of the iPad are out. Many people including me said this would define what a tablet computer is and I still believe that. And like I also mentioned earlier, it’s disappointing because a tablet should be more than this.

It’s just a big iPhone, minus a few features; and other than a larger screen it adds nothing. While many of the “faithful” are trumpeting it, BGR called said that it “changes the course of history”, I think everybody is getting scammed paying for this when other devices do so much more.

Across the tech-o-sphere it seems that people aren’t as enamored over it as they have been with other new apple devices, however the original iPhone was similar. As people get some personal hands on time with this they may fall in love, it just may take 5-6 months to get the ball rolling (after sales begin).

Some gripes and suprises:

-THERE IS STILL NO FLASH. I know Apple doesn’t like flash but being compatible with the internet is a BIG deal. Even if Adobe AIR or Microsoft Silverlight take over you still need to be backward compatible. Not to mention that flash is still ALL over the internet and IF it does get overtaken it won’t be years still it’s phased out.
Major, Major, Oversight.

-NO MULTITASKING
Really!?!

-No USB connectivity or SD card. Not a big deal but at the same time it’s so easy to add you just throw it on for pennies and the additional functionality of the device is boosted far beyond parts costs. This was left off to limit what the device can do and kepp control in Apple’s hands.

-The standalone price is nice but more than a netbook, much more ($700) if you want even 64GB onboard which is standard in the $400 netbook range.

-3G is available but is ANOTHER BILL on top of your iPhone.
This is also unacceptable, the iPhone contract should cover the tablet. Nobody who owns both are going to use both concurrently but they will be charged for both concurrently, a net win for AT&T.

-Its interface is pretty but nothing that any other developer couldn’t have done on other tablets. People say windows or Linux is bad for tablets; people who say this WANT a tablet to be a big smartphone. And even if you think the Desktop OS is bad for tablets it’s not hard for any third party company to skin it with something that has big glossy buttons for people with no eye-hand coordination.

-Making the processor in house is cool. But it also means this thing can be locked down and never hacked or played with by modders. Not a big deal on sales corporate level but it is a big deal with the hardcore user community.

-I can’t believe there is no camera for impromptu video web chats over skype, that idea seemed very “Apple” to me, oh well. I never would have wanted a camera on the back to take pictures, that’s really not the job of a tablet.

-I’m glad it’s compatible with bluetooth keyboards but charging $70 for a Apple keyboard+dock is highway robbery. However Apple peripherals have always been pricey.

-Not really sure what what GPS capabilities are. Haven’t seen anything saying “It has GPS!”.

-Not really sure if it has a mic input anyhwere (the 3.5mm jack may be headphones only). Skype and voice communications or recording of any kind may be impossible either way you cut it.

Compared to my earlier predictions on the 19th I got 77% percent!!!

I went back and numbered my prediction list without changing the predictions. True or false 1-18 the results:
TTTTTFTFTTFTTTTFTT
14 true
4 false
77% accuracy, Nostradamus level!

I only used the first 18 predictions since those apply to release day although 20 and 21 have already come true. Fun game, too bad it’s a work night or I’d turn it into a drinking game.
UPD: the AR comment as well.

It’s far too long from anything to be more than wild rumor but this is the second time I’ve seen a rumor that Windows Mobile 7 may not be backward compatible with older Windows Mobile versions, and this time from a reputable source. Ina Fried: Cnet news.

Although Microsoft has typically been loath to make major changes to the desktop version of Windows at the expense of compatibility, the software maker appears ready to make a bigger break with its mobile past–a sensible move given its declining share of both the market and developer interest.

Bummer since about 30% of my apps stopped being supported before 2006 but I’ve hung onto them through each upgrade. Luckily they’re all pretty minor. Plus I was contemplating changing OS’s so it’s not like this wasn’t a possibility all along.

However a re-write major enough to break compatibility is a big thing. Possibly major Kernel changes, interface changes, everything you can think of is possible.

Microsoft may be re-writing their phone OS taking into account all their previous history on phones and PDAs and incorporating more recent trends like iPhone OS, webOS, Android, Zune, etc.

Just what I was expecting 10” iPhone. Images from Engadget live blog.

Called it!

You have to be kidding me.

Looks like big iPhone.

Big keyboard, takes up half of screen. Getting used to this will be like getting used to 9” netbook… Painful.

My first impression is that the bezel is pretty dang big.
But now you can browse full size webpages instead of smartphone scrolling. And while HD Youtube was mentioned I want to see HD video H.264, and is the tablet missing flash?!?!

Thanks to Engadget. Sorry for adding 300 extra views to your bandwidth.