Slashdot Mirror

Further follow up, I have seen around the internet numerous times the claim that Gorilla Glass has an hardness of 9. Most of those claims, however, just like the page you link to, do not cite any references for this information.
However, nowhere in Corning's official literature do they ever indicate ANY Mohs rating for it. They only give the Vicker's rating, and they give it well below what other sources besides the one I linked to give for sapphire

I did some more digging for more places that site the vicker's rating of sapphire, all of them give the Vicker's hardness rating of 2000 for sapphire, still well over the manufacturer's specs for gorilla glass.
http://www.kevingalloway.co.uk...
http://americas.kyocera.com/ki...

I'm confused about this... based on searching on google for "sapphire largest crystal", it looks like it's very hard to grow sapphire crystals above 30cm or so (e.g. see wikipedia article ). So how do they make it only $350? It looks to me like even small pieces of the stuff are darned expensive (e.g. see here ). Dan

quicky estimates based on info from slashdot posts:

2% of US acreage = about 200,000 square meters
solar panels = about $500/square meter for 16% efficiency panels means $100M I have no idea what the construction and transmission infrastructure would cost. This does not include any kind of motorization of the panels to track the sun.
power output = about 150W/meter2 (in the field, not in the lab, no gaps between panels) means 300 megawatts total
http://global.kyocera.com/

US power demand in 2006 = 760 GigaWatts
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/epat3p2.html

I call shenanigans on the %2 acreage will meet our power needs claim.

Even with vapourware 40% efficient panels there is just no freakin' way that'll work.
If you were to build the suggested 'pump water uphill' battery mega-construction project you would need much more than double your peak load so that you can meet demand while 'charging' for overnight demand.
So just pave over %80 of the USA and you'll be able to power everything with solar! fantastic!

Not the mention that a pumped-water battery large enough to power the USA overnight would be by far the biggest construction project in history and would have massive environmental consequences.

I'm not sure what you mean by "revenues", but their consolidated net sales as of March 31st 2007 were $11,557,268,881 which is just a tad more than $3 billion.
Corporate info here.

Kyocera makes everything from ball-point pens to machine tools.

Kyocera is interested in things like data security in printing. Kyocera Mita America's Data Security Kit Offers Critical Data Protection of Stored Data on Color Multifunctional Products [November 14, 2007]

Microsoft is also interested in things like data security in printing.

Tell me why the Geek trots out his paranoia every time two companies that compliment each other sign a cross-licensing agreement.

Of course, if you carry it on your person through the metal detector you might get it through, though looking at the kyocera homepage (http://global.kyocera.com/prdct/fc_consumer/kitchen/kyotop.html it looks like they connect the handle to the tang using metal pins.

Of course, if you carry it on your person through the metal detector you might get it through, though looking at the kyocera homepage (http://global.kyocera.com/prdct/fc_consumer/kitchen/kyotop.html it looks like they connect the handle to the tang using metal pins.

But in the USA, while you'll buy a Motorola, you might not but a YinYangCaller. In a few years you might if the YinYangCaller brand establishes itself.

The development of the industry moves steadily up the value adding chain: Start with manufacturing (lowest value) a few years back, now they're into design (higher value). In a few more years they could get into branding (highest value).

Many Japanese companies like Sony managed to do that (though they've now trashed their brand a bit), so there is nothing stopping Chinese company doing the same. In many ways it is easier now since there is better globalisation and less NIH. Then there are all those Samsungs and similar that have managed to establish a brand.

For an interesting look at how this process unfolds, look at Kyocera - how they started out making ceramics then IC packaging and slowly grew the value into branding cellphones etc http://global.kyocera.com/company/summary/history/ until1979.html

With reference to tantalum caps. I used to work for a company called AVX, which was part of the Kyocera Group. We made Tantalum caps. and believe me, you don't want a bad one in your pc. I've seen a Motorola mobile phone which had a bad cap in it, and lets just say, there wasn't much left of the phone afterwards. When Tantalum burns, it keeps going, and the only thing that can put it out is salt.

They are used in Seagate hard drives too IIRC, which always worried me, but they went over to a different process a few years back, whereby the caps are produced on a wafer then sliced up rather than being processed individually. Lot's of nasty chemicals involved, acetic acid, glycolic acid, phosphoric acid and manganese to name a few.

They could have parked here.

KYOCERA Inaugurates First-Ever Solar Grove, Unleashing "Power of the Sun" for Parking Facilities "Solar Trees" Convert Parking Lot into 235-Kilowatt Solar Electric Generating System.

(Alas, both websites are already /.'ed with only 23 comments.)

In the LCD screens I've worked on, they use a little module called a Voltage Inverter which is DC powered and outputs high voltage at around 50-100KHz. Supporting document : http://americas.kyocera.com/kicc/Lcd/notes/inverte rs.htm It works on the same principal as a fluorescent bulb, but not the same specs as a the shop style bulbs.

Another point to make is that the phosphor in a CRT is meant to be responsive, while the phosphor in a light source is primarily meant to be bright.

in fact, I can assign all sounds except phone # keypresses to any mp3 I'd like...

It makes little economic sense to build a solar generation plant on the moon, when we can do the same here on Earth. If we assume a power requirement of 2000 watts/person (quoted from the article), it should be possible to meet this requirement with only 630 square feet of PV panels per person (see calculations and references below). This is not an unreasonably large land area when compared with the 2.8 hectares per person required for food production. The real obstacle to widespread PV deployment is not a shortage of land, but the cost of PV equipment (panels and energy storage). Why would we build it on the moon? This would only make it more expensive.

The idea of using microwave satellite relays to distribute the power may have some merit. This would solve the issue of energy storage if we could transmit power to the other side of the world.

Today's commercially available PV panels are about 15% efficient. Their output rating is based on an irradiance of 1000w/m^2. This means one square meter of PV panels has a rated output of about 150 watts. The average insolation in the united states is about 5.5 sun hours. The average daily energy produced by a PV array is the product of it's rated power and the insolation. This means a square meter of PV panels will produce on average 825 watt hours/day (150 * 5.5). Given the value of 2000 watts/person and multiply by the number of hours in a day, you get an energy requirement of 48 kilowatt hours/day (2000*24). Take the this energy requirement and divide by the energy produced by a square meter of PV panels to get the number of square meters required: 48000 / 825 = 58 m^2 or 626 square feet.

Please don't reply with the argument that it takes more energy to produce a solar module than it will produce in its lifetime without reading the this.

Now if Kyocera 7135 series II would support BlueTooth the world would be a cooler place!

-- Multics

Now if Kyocera 7135 series II would support BlueTooth the world would be a cooler place!

-- Multics

Microsoft's new Orange SPV which is the first commercially available Smartphone

All this time, I must have been imagining commercially available smartphones like the Handspring Treo and the Kyocera Smartphone.

Have you ever really tried to do any of this stuff with a phone? Browse the web? Get your email? It's useless on a phone. The screen is too small and entering information into the phone is an exercise in frustration. Or you end up with a phone like the Kyocera which is a great palm, but sucks as a phone. Ever try actually holding it to your face and talking on it?

I'm all for cool technology and doing things that are cool just for the sake of doing it, but John Q. Public is never going to accept this stuff if it's a pain to use. It solves a problem that doesn't exist.

Scottaroo

Just wait a month and get samsung's I300 palm phone, then you won't need to sync your phone & pda because they'll be the same, and since it's palm, it will sync with linux. Kyocera also has a palm phone which is dual mode (the samsung is PCS only).

I think the "smaller is better" mantra that cell phones have followed WILL be reversed when you see how much easier an interface like the PalmOS is to use than a damn touchtone keypad. Here's a link with a picture.

--