The Woz speaks at AlwaysOn 2006. Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder, speaks on the development of the Apple II technology.
Author Archives: curiouscat
Solar Tower Power Generation
How Australia got hot for solar power
In Australia Enviromission looking to build a 1,600-foot tall “solar tower” that can power 100,000 homes.
The tower will be over there,” Davey says, pointing to a spot a mile distant where a 1,600-foot structure will rise from the ocher-colored earth. Picture a 260-foot-diameter cylinder taller than the Sears Tower encircled by a two-mile-diameter transparent canopy at ground level. About 8 feet tall at the perimeter, where Davey has his feet planted, the solar collector will gradually slope up to a height of 50 to 60 feet at the tower’s base.
Acting as a giant greenhouse, the solar collector will superheat the air with radiation from the sun. Hot air rises, naturally, and the tower will operate as a giant vacuum. As the air is sucked into the tower, it will produce wind to power an array of turbine generators clustered around the structure.
The result: enough clean, green electricity to power some 100,000 homes without producing a particle of pollution or a wisp of planet-warming gases.
Write on Water
Device uses waves to “print” on water surface
Ok I don’t exactly understand the practical advantages of this but it is cool.
Researchers at Akishima Laboratories (Mitsui Zosen), working in conjunction with professor Shigeru Naito of Osaka University, have developed a device that uses waves to draw text and pictures on the surface of water.
…
Each letter or picture remains on the water surface only for a moment, but they can be produced in succession on the surface every 3 seconds.
…
Each letter or picture remains on the water surface only for a moment, but they can be produced in succession on the surface every 3 seconds.
How Google Earth Is Changing Science
How Google Earth Is Changing Science (broken link removed) by Manfred Dworschak:
Google Earth wasn’t really intended for scientists….
But now the scientific community is discovering how useful the software is for their own work.
But now the scientific community is discovering how useful the software is for their own work.
With a single keystroke, biologist Born superimposes colored maps over the Arctic. The maps show him where the ice sheet is getting thinner and the direction in which the pieces of floating ice on which walruses like to catch a ride are drifting. All of the ice data, which comes from satellites and measuring buoys, is available on the Internet. By loading the data into the program, Born can detect how global warming is affecting the migratory behavior of his giant walruses.
The way simple to use tools will be used is hard to predict. By making tools (and ideas – open access research) readily available (and customizable – Google Map API) allows the community to build upon the tool in wonderful and unanticipated ways.
Tools, that may indeed be technically superior, may languish while simple to use, widely available, tools can flourish and create great benefits (from the network effect).
Internship with Bill Gates
IIT-M boy wins Microsoft internship
Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd today announced that Abishek Kumarasubramanian from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras has been selected for a one year internship with Bill Gates and will work directly with his technical assistant’s team in Redmond.
The official code4bill site doesn’t have the final selection posted yet.
Continue reading
Summer Health Tips
Summer health tips from Google
Taraneh Razavi, M.D., has kindly provided a few tips on coping with such summer challenges as tick bites, thunderstorms, and heat exhaustion. She’s also blogged about insect repellents and sunscreen. But as she reminds us, summer also means – there’s ice cream. Stay healthy and cool, people, and have fun this and every weekend.
Other posts include: Who is Living Longer and Avoiding Nursing Homes.
NASA Robotics Academy
The NASA Robotics Academy is an intensive resident summer program of higher learning for college undergraduate and graduate students interested in pursuing professional and leadership careers in robotics-related fields.
Besides attending lectures and workshops with experts in their field, the Robotics Academy students are involved in supervised research in GSFC laboratories, private companies, and universities, and will participate in visits to other NASA Centers, the Applied Physics Laboratory, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a number of robotics-related academic laboratories and industries.
Projects this year include: Conformal Gripping System for Space Robots and Cooperative Team-diagnosis in Multi-robot Systems
Excellence in K-12 Mathematics and Science Teaching
Going to School with Samuel Wheeler (NSF does not provide a way to link directly so you have to look down the page to find this interview of teacher Samuel Wheeler).
NSF: What is your most successful tool to inspire students to study science?
Wheeler: I craft my science courses in such a way that the students themselves become the investigator and principal learner, and I become a guide or facilitator. If they are allowed to explore the material from their own interests with the proper springboard, then it is easier to inspire them.
Wheeler: I craft my science courses in such a way that the students themselves become the investigator and principal learner, and I become a guide or facilitator. If they are allowed to explore the material from their own interests with the proper springboard, then it is easier to inspire them.
Samuel Wheeler received the, Presidential Awardees for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching – USA.
Continue reading
Cat History
The family history of the cat has been notoriously murky in the past, in part because the few discovered cat fossils are very difficult to tell apart.
The international team took a different approach by sampling DNA from living cats. They looked at both mitochondrial DNA – the scrap of DNA within the parts of the cell that generate energy and are passed along the maternal line – and DNA from the X and Y sex chromosomes.
A picture has emerged of a feline ancestor that wandered all over the world, becoming one of the most successful carnivore families.
2006 MIT Engineering Systems Conference
2006 MIT Engineering Systems Conference
Business systems, engineering systems, and organizations grow in complexity and require careful analysis to solve problems effectively and resiliently. International commercial, political and social situations are increasingly complex and miss-steps can have a profound impact on business operations. Future corporate leaders will need increased knowledge and skills to compete in such environments. Join us on September 26th as the Engineering Systems Division at MIT and the MIT Industrial Liaison Program co-sponsor a day of presentations by MIT faculty and invited corporate speakers exploring the topic of “Complex Systems, Complex Times: Reflections on the 21st Century Enterprise.”