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Note that the article you link to calls them transformers for HVDC links. /me Head explodes!

Yikes! I didn't notice that. After some googling I found out a couple of things:

1) China is apparently building both HVAC and HVDC projects, so both kinds are being made for them. Jeez, what *isn't* China building right now?

2) HVDC has advantages over HVAC which is why it seems to be overtaking the use of HVAC. According to this pdf, HVAC deployment around the world is almost stagnant:

http://library.abb.com/global/scot/scot221.nsf/veritydisplay/ad19434ceddd4ffac125705e0034e83d/$File/Bulk%20Power%20Transmission%20at%20800%20kV%20DC.pdf

3) There *are* HVAC transformers out there that go as high as 1000kV (apparently India has some of these), but there are few of them

4) I obviously used the wrong picture, didn't check the fine print, and since UHVAC or just UHV, where U=ultra, transformers are very rare the only picture of one I could find was on page 9 of this Siemens pdf file:

http://www.ptd.siemens.de/070201_AC1000kV_GRIDTECH.pdf

Its an 800kV HVAC xformer that they say can be upgraded to 1000kV. If size impresses you, you may want to take a look at that one, its *much* bigger than the 800kV HVDC transformer in the first pic. :)

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much info out there that is not in PDF files, and for some reason that Siemens file doesn't render quite right for me in my PDF viewer. There *seems* to be parts of that slide-show like report thats talking about 1200kV HVAC, but the transformer page (9), only mentions 800kV-1000kV, and parts of the text in the report aren't rendering for me, so even after a lot of googling, I still don't know for sure what the biggest HVAC transformer in the world is rated at. Bottom line, AFAICT: 1000kV or 1200kV for HVAC and 800kV for HVDC. Wow.

This has been out for awhile. Siemen's Digital graffitti http://w4.siemens.de/ct/en/technologies/se/beispie le/graffitis.html, Yellow Arrow http://yellowarrow.net/ and Socialight http://socialight.com/ all do GPS based info. Although they all basically suck right now so maybe apple will figure out how to do it right.

Hopefully this points to a future where large scale fusion reactors are both economical and widely used.

I'm sorry... but while this teenagers work is certainly commendable and nothing to sneeze at (in fact, Large engineering firms such as Siemens seem to take an interest in him). His work does nothing to further research in the field. Non-sustaining fusion reactors have been around for decades, and its been widely known how to build one for at least 20 years. For most people, the cost is the limiting factor. Why would you want to spend $50k-100k on something that uses more energy than it produces?

Now when we finally get a sustainable fusion reaction that produces more energy that it uses, that would be something to write about!

Most phone manufacturers have custom SDKs (including emulators), usually freely available, that support either their own language or Java. Search the manufacturers site, these are usually well hidden inside the business section.

Siemens has a good toolkit:
http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/javatools/jssta ndard/reference/techart/siemens.html
https://communication-market.siemens.de/portal/mai n.aspx?LangID=0&MainMenuID=2&LeftID=2&pid=1&cid=0& tid=3000&xid=0

http://tuxmobil.org/phones_linux.html Has alot of info/links on Cell Phones and programming for them

This reminds me very much of programming a cheap (quasi-)PLC (programmable logic controller) we use at work often: a Siemens LOGO (pdf link). Basically, it's a device that has a bunch of inputs (8 digital, or 6 digital / 2 analog), and some outputs (4 digital), and contains a bunch of logic gates, comparators, and timers. You can make fairly sophisticated control systems using these.

We use them, for example, to control chemical injection systems. They have overrides based on filters backwashing, timers to dose to keep the pumps if they haven't run for a while, timers to prevent them running too long, etc. It's pretty endless what you can do, and these are only the lowest level of entry into the world of automation and PLCs.

Take the eBlock logic and timer modules, make them all software, and you have a LOGO. You still need the sensors and controls/outputs, but you can make some fairly complex programs involving hundreds of blocks, without the size of using hundreds of blocks.

The eblocks are a neat idea for educational purposes, but I'd see people quickly moving up to small PLCs (like the LOGO). They also definately don't have any use in industrial applications, though I don't know if that was the intent or not.

... hmm, definitely not. Even SIEMENS has a thingy called instabus .

However, this reminds me of the hero in UBIK (the author was honored here) who always had difficulties with his appliances refusing to work as he was chronically out of credit.

The door refused to open. It said, "Five cents, please." He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. "I'll pay you tomorrow," he told the door. Again he tried the knob. Again it remained locked. "What I pay you," he informed it, "is in the nature of a gratuity; I don't have to pay you." "I think otherwise," the door said. "Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought this conapt." In his desk drawer he found the contract; since signing it he had found it necessary to refer to the document many times. Sure enough; payment to his door for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not a tip. "You discover I'm right," the door said. It sounded smug. From the drawer beside the sink Joe Chip got a stainless steel knife; with it he began systematically to unscrew the bolt assembly of his apt's money-gulping door. "I'll sue you," the door said as the first screw fell out.

Tough times to come.

CC.

Loath to cite Ananova, but there's a "virtual keyboard" you might be able to look into. Projects light onto a surface, and you type by interrupting the beams.

From the designer's site: Here

Good enough?

Something to remember...

Depending on how tightly you integrate home automation, and how *removeable* you make it, the resale value of your home will drop. Nobody wants to buy a house that isn't under their control and requires intricate knowledge to work and troubleshoot.

As a second tip...I work professionally in industrial automation, and have designed and worked on control systems for years. This control hardware is unreliable at best...remember, it is your house after all, and you DO get what you pay for when it comes to this kind of hardware! Using this to automate a few lights and such won't hurt you one bit, but as the scope increases, so will the problems. Obviously you don't want to spend an arm and a leg on it, but maybe that should say something about whether you really want to take the plunge or not ;)

You'd want to do this with *real* automation hardware if you were going to do your whole house, with backup redundancy and a switch that "turns everything back to manual mode". It's not a problem really, you'd just have to wire all your switches back to a main panel and control every light/outlet with a relay. You'd be doing that anyway with a whole-house automation system, so building in a backup would be part of the game.

Anyway I'm just saying, before you spend many hours putting in X-10, that crappy PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) he uses, or something like AutomationDirect offers, consider the consequences!

Links to real (and also expensive) automation hardware:

Allen Bradley (used by most major amusement parks and many large companies)

Siemens (the standard in most of Europe)

Actually, there is an even easier way: bistatic radar. You basically need to seperate the sender and the receiver, do some fancy math and use highly sensitive radar. There have been consistent stories that the steath planes used in the Gulf war were pretty visible on UK shipes with modern phased array radar, too. Of course a lot of that technology is boyond the reach of what are basically developing countries like Irak, Afghanistan and North Korea. But Siemens might have an even easier solution to detecting stealth bombers.

long distance power transmission as dc sucks. that is the main advantage of ac.

This sounds familliar. I encourage you to take a look at my comment to sig11 on K5. He said the exact same thing and it's dead wrong.

Aw hell I'll just copy and paste the whole thing here. It's my comment, anyway. :-)

Here is a link to an HVDC chapter in a power electronics course at the University of Missouri. In short: HVDC economically cheaper than HVAC when it comes to long distance transmission and, as a direct quote from that introductory page claims: With an HVDC system, the power flow can be controlled rapidly and accurately as to both the power level and the direction. This possibility is often usedin order to improve the performance and efficiency of the connected AC networks.

Now as I'd said in my first post and is backed up by the tutorial in the link above: DC transmission does not suffer reactive losses. Over large distances these losses can and do build up to become a large factor in your loss calculations. Also, unlike alternating current, DC will flow through the entire conductor instead of along the outer surface.

Now while I have not investigated the actual depth that 60Hz AC penetrates aluminum wire I do know that it is small enough that the high tension lines are specially made to take advantage of this. High tension cable has a steel core and then an aluminum outer layer to minimize the transmission losses and maximize cable strength. I'm not sure what they use for DC links but I imagine they will use solid aluminum wire and space the towers closer together. I'm not sure on this.

Furthermore, your claim that Tesla proved DC to be inferior at long distance transmission in the 19th century is only partially true. AC is more efficient for conversion and short-haul transmission: it's ability to be almost perfectly stepped up and down is wonderful and the AC motor is almost a 100% (98% efficient motors are sold every day) efficient electrical to rotating mechanical convertor. However as this link shows, Tesla also did recognize that DC was more efficient for long distance power transmission.

Lastly I refer you to this document from Siemens. (the txt version from google which also includes my search terms for this whole post is here.) It talks about the advances being made to move towards medium voltage (1200V-13kV) DC transmission since the advantages of DC power transmission for high voltage systems are so well proven.

Now that that's out of the way: you've emailled me on more than one occasion asking about information on electronics and electricity in general and where to learn more. I find it mildly amusing that you jump up claiming to have enough knowledge to scream at the top of your lungs that what you know is 100% true and proven and that what I had suggested was totally and wholly false. I didn't reply to bitchslap you but I do wonder why you did try to do it to me?

Wilhelm Siemens was the brother of the Siemens founder, Wernher von Siemens, and was responsible for the English subsidiary.

Further information here: click

I don't know what's going on in the powerline market over in the States, but here in Germany this has been in the media for quite some time (if you can read German, then check out this list of articles that were on the Heise news service over the last few months.

Development in the field is rather active over here. You can buy home spin-off solutions that are based on powerline communication already. One application that is already being sold is a (phone line) modem whose serial port is replaced by a powerline adapter, and by hooking up your computer to a second adapter you're able to access your modem from anywhere within your local house circuit. I am not quite sure what implications this has on security, but I am fairly sure that some measures are being taken. This is not really high-speed, though, even though it seems fairly reliable.

Powerline Internet access is a different matter, of course. In Cologne, they will be starting to sell powerline-based Internet and telephony by the beginning of 2001. A couple of field tests, also on a larger scale in a somewhat more public environment, have already been conducted.

The speed that is being claimed varies. Preussen Elektra (recently merger'ed into e.on Energie) claim that their particular system is capable of reaching 10 Mbps in-house and 2 Mbps for incoming/outgoing Internet access. Siemens claim they reach 1.3 Mbps over public lines and plan to extend this to 10 Mbps. So as far as cable or DSL are concerned, this is quite a competition. :-) The central problem with powerline communications is that your average powerline is just a pair of wires arranged in an unpredictable network topology, and that the behaviour of the electrical properties of the system tends to be a bit difficult to handle because most electric devices emit quite a bit of noise. Take a look at the noise emissions from a 100 to 300 W dimmable ceiling lamp, for example, and then you'll immediately see why powerline network access took this long to develop. It appears that they got this quite under control, though.

The final problems introducing this over here appear to be of a legal sort, because there are quite strict regulations in Germany as to which emissions are allowed in which part of the spectrum. With powerline communications, one has the problem of the non-shielded wires acting like a very large antenna, so they have to take care as to which frequencies they're using and how they're reducing emissions. The carriers needed for 1 to 10 Mbit are well in the amateur radio spectrum, for example. Nevertheless, powerline internet has good prospects for the future over here because it is by far the least expensive way by which to hook up people to the network (and since all major electricity corporations here also sell network services, they are quite interested in extending their customer base) - practically every house is connected to the powerline network already and has quite a bit of wiring installed as well.

Here are links to two of the siemens products I reffered to in the last post. The first is the Siemens LP 5100, a fully h.323 compliant, open hardware IP phone. The second is the TA 1100, an adapter which allows a normal POTS phone to act as a VoIP device.

SINIX is the System V.4 complian UNIX variant jointly developed by Siemens (the third largest company in Germany) and Nixdorf Computer Systems, a pioneer hardware manufacturer in Germany in the 70's and 80's -- hence the name SINIX. Nixdorf was bought by Siemens in the late 80's though when they steered into financial troubles after their PC division (sic) wasn't doing as good as they thought it would ...

There's a manual of SINIX online here for your enjoyment.

Oh and BTW, SINIX did enjoy its share of popularity in Europe (especially Germany) during the 80's and even into the 90's. I don't know though if its still under active development. Oh, and there's a 386/486 variant available for you to install over^H^H^H^H besides your Linux partition :).

Of course there is, but you will have to pay up:
Siemens Celsius Mobile

I myself is satisfied with my less than 3kg green Siemens 510. And the Sony isn't even twice as fast even though it's 2 years ahead, whatever happened to evolution? Though I have to admit that I have lost track of 3D gaming...

There is a nice little personal-proxy utility from Siemens, it's free for personal use, and does a good job of cutting the ads completely.
It can also remove referring-page info, etc.. and is very easy to setup and use, windows only unfortunately.

Have a look at: http://www.siemens.de/servers/wwash

According to Siemens, a Linux-based SAP/3 quad Xeon put down the fastest benchmark set on an 4-way Intel system. Read it here, or check out the story on /. september 13th.

I don't think Siemens is the kind of company to give "anecdotal" evidence about "the capabilities of Linux as a database server". SAP is probably one of the most robust ERP/TP systems out there.

I've got a message for all the beautiful people of the world...
THERE ARE A LOT MORE OF US UGLY MOTHERF*CKERS AROUND THAN YOU ARE!

Or Webwasher (if you use Windows).

I talked to some guys at the Siemens SAP Center and asked them.

Distribution: RedHat 6.0

Kernel: 2.2.11-SAP2 (which is the default Kernel provided by SAP with their R/3 release for Linux). There were no kernel tweaks done by Siemens. [nobody knows what SAP has done with 2.2.11].

Hardware was unmodified Siemens PRIMERGY 870/40, just with 550MHz CPUs. Tomorrow, I will try to get info about this "2.2.11-SAP2" kernel...

Anyone interested in further information about this benchmark may ask Siemens directly by emailing mailto:sizing.r3cc@wdf.siemens.de

Get it here!

If you hate ads, especially banner ads, try webwasher, it ain't perfect, but it's free and it sure helps.
http://www.siemens.de/servers/wwash/wwash_us.htm

This and 'The Bat' (email client) are the only two bits of windoze S/W I've ever really wished I could get on HPUX..

On another tack, it's easy to change names in the UK, I wonder if I could get paid (per day) to changed my name to 'Eat at MacDonalds', think about it... there are a lot of 'hits' for a name, and admen like 'hits'.

Alex Bischoff
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With WebWasher, a similar filtering tool (but available only for Windows), I can read the article just fine. Anyone knows what's the difference there?