Many issues here:
(1) - Voltage is the wrong variable to measure. Energy is more relevant. He could have charged some rechargeable batteries and see how long they lasted latter with constant load.
(2) - The flat array "control", is not built in one plane facing the sun like the commercial ones. It has actually half of the cells in a second plane facing opposite the sun.
(3) - The setup is near a house wall, with the tree neared and the flat array farther, and also partly in the shade, reflected light may also confuse results. The panels should be in more controlled insolation conditions for a fair comparison.
If the kid had taken 10 minutes to talk to someone who understands solar cells this disaster would have been averted.
Doing bad science should not be encouraged !
They are not obtaining images but diffraction patterns, which after applying sophisticated methods lets them reconstruct a configuration that is
consistent with the diffraction image, to within some margin of error.
This techniques tend to better for confirming proposed structures that to getting it from scratch.
Go figure:
My main complaint about the movie was that ultrafast DNA analysis was unrealistic. What's next?. A device that transmits the sound of explosions in space?
Did anyone notice the multimeter was not set to measure voltage?
The images show the ohms symbol and the beeping of the continuity detector.
Maybe it was bad editing, but as shown it seems he didn't know hot to measure volts properly.
This case is interesting because from the legal perspective it is of interest to find responsibilities for the accident.
The malware did not cause the crash but it interfered with the logging protocols.
The technicians will be probably held responsible for not taking measures such as manually checking printed logs, if the computer failed.
To me there a good productivity indicator would be the time needed to achieve a desired functionality.
For some applications the quality of the code could be measured in terms of the computational expense of the code (does is take too much time/resouces to run).
Something harder to measure would be the maintainability. For this one could follow standardized guidelines to produce a more or less readable code.
Still there always will be intangible aspects, such as the team work previously mentioned, or coding with the goal of future interoperability.
A good coder will solve a problem fast, create code that makes efficeint use time and memory and is maintainable.
I see some potential in combining innovations meant for the netbooks with multiple processors.
Low power & lightweight software may mix well with multiple CPUSs.
Absolutely.
I would go further and say that there's a need to revert to more power efficient devices similar to the PSION's. I submitted an idea for such at the WePC website, feel free to vote it:
http://www.wepc.com/vote/view/idea/2558/Eternal_battery_PC
1-Many uses for a PC are text based. Email - Text editing - Twitter - News - Blogs - Movie Times - Weather - Wikipedia - Instant Messaging
2-A few can be satisfied with a low-res display: Youtube - Newscasts - Picture Viewing
The Ideal device has TWO LOW COST- LOW POWER SCREENS.
1- A Text-Only LCD screen with efficient GUI (i.e. norton commander)
2- A Small color LCD display (less than 2 inches)
To extend battery life Display #2 can be deactivated when the user is not looking at a picture or video.
For activities in display #1, processor speed can be low, since refreshing the text-only screen is fast. A high end microcontroller might be enough for that.
This should results in very long battery life and low cost of the computer. I wish I could build something like that.
In my opinion the press release distorted somewhow the facts in an attempt to make it more understandable.
According to the article in science they actually don't know for sure what the shape of the material. Based on absorption experiments they assume the pore structure is similar to that of activated carbon or zeolites, instead of the pore structure of usual polymer membranes.
I agree the press release is misleading, however this method seems to provide a cheaper/faster way to separate gases, which is potentially beneficial for many industrial or laboratory processes.
For the real details check the abstract in Science or the full article if available.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/318/5848/254
"his research is mostly useless from a market perspective".
That's why research is peer-reviewed y scientists and not marketers. If the market was to decide what's worthy of researching, only narrow areas of immediate commercial interest will be funded. Basic research such as math that's useful to do other research is not immediately useful market-wise, but necessary for overall progress of human knowledge.
Another book covering a similar topic is:
The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History Since 1900, by David Edgerton
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/0 5/14/070514crbo_books_shapin?currentPage=all
From the article one of the main ideas of the book is that tech. historians and the media focus too much on inventors and highly innovative ideas, while older technology and small changes made by their users are the ones that succeed and play the larger role in history.
"In the near future, the Navy develops a fighter jet piloted by an artificial intelligence computer. The jet is placed on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific to learn combat manuevers from the human pilots aboard. But when the computer develops a mind of its own, it's the humans who are charged with stopping it before it incites a war"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382992/
From the full article:
"Stabilising and directing a conventional helicopter requires that the pitch of the individual blades be adjusted with every rotation--up to a thousand times a minute. That puts massive stress on the turning mechanism and wears it out rapidly. On a four-rotor arrangement, you can achieve the same effect by changing the pitch of one or two whole rotors, rather than adjusting the pitch of individual blades. Mr Shepard reckons that this will make a big difference..."
From a rotational dynamics viewpoint, changing the axis of rotation of massive rotors will be harder & slower than adjusting the pitch of helicopter blades. I imagine it would be tricky to reorient the axes fast enough to keep the kite attitude under control. Maybe braking or accelerating them would be easier, or having a bunch of auxiliary powered rotors. Hey that's my idea eh. Hereby I claim prior art.
Can be used as synonym of effect.
From webster's website:
Main Entry: 2impact
Pronunciation: 'im-"pakt
Function: noun
[....]
2 : the force of impression of one thing on another : a significant or major effect
Happens that is very inefficient.
According to Ulf Bossel, fuel cells researcher, if you take into account all the conversion efficiencies of the process, hydrogen may not make sense as an energy storage solution.
LINK: http://www.physorg.com/news85074285.html
Agreed. In my opinion merely replacing fuels will not work. Taking multiple measures to reduce energy consumption will help more. Ideas for this can be obtained by looking how people live in places where fuel is expensive, for example the towns are designed so you don't have to drive as much or at all.
Slashdot Mirror
Many issues here: (1) - Voltage is the wrong variable to measure. Energy is more relevant. He could have charged some rechargeable batteries and see how long they lasted latter with constant load. (2) - The flat array "control", is not built in one plane facing the sun like the commercial ones. It has actually half of the cells in a second plane facing opposite the sun. (3) - The setup is near a house wall, with the tree neared and the flat array farther, and also partly in the shade, reflected light may also confuse results. The panels should be in more controlled insolation conditions for a fair comparison. If the kid had taken 10 minutes to talk to someone who understands solar cells this disaster would have been averted. Doing bad science should not be encouraged !
They are not obtaining images but diffraction patterns, which after applying sophisticated methods lets them reconstruct a configuration that is consistent with the diffraction image, to within some margin of error. This techniques tend to better for confirming proposed structures that to getting it from scratch.
Go figure: My main complaint about the movie was that ultrafast DNA analysis was unrealistic. What's next?. A device that transmits the sound of explosions in space?
Except that may be this saves us from deadly gamma rays from the core
Did anyone notice the multimeter was not set to measure voltage? The images show the ohms symbol and the beeping of the continuity detector. Maybe it was bad editing, but as shown it seems he didn't know hot to measure volts properly.
This case is interesting because from the legal perspective it is of interest to find responsibilities for the accident. The malware did not cause the crash but it interfered with the logging protocols. The technicians will be probably held responsible for not taking measures such as manually checking printed logs, if the computer failed.
To me there a good productivity indicator would be the time needed to achieve a desired functionality. For some applications the quality of the code could be measured in terms of the computational expense of the code (does is take too much time/resouces to run). Something harder to measure would be the maintainability. For this one could follow standardized guidelines to produce a more or less readable code. Still there always will be intangible aspects, such as the team work previously mentioned, or coding with the goal of future interoperability. A good coder will solve a problem fast, create code that makes efficeint use time and memory and is maintainable.
I see some potential in combining innovations meant for the netbooks with multiple processors. Low power & lightweight software may mix well with multiple CPUSs.
At the mechanical engineering level a good example would be Alibre, which is a parametric design software (like Solid Works or Autodesk Inventor).
Absolutely. I would go further and say that there's a need to revert to more power efficient devices similar to the PSION's. I submitted an idea for such at the WePC website, feel free to vote it: http://www.wepc.com/vote/view/idea/2558/Eternal_battery_PC
I posted a proposal to lower power consumption.
1-Many uses for a PC are text based. Email - Text editing - Twitter - News - Blogs - Movie Times - Weather - Wikipedia - Instant Messaging
2-A few can be satisfied with a low-res display: Youtube - Newscasts - Picture Viewing
The Ideal device has TWO LOW COST- LOW POWER SCREENS.
1- A Text-Only LCD screen with efficient GUI (i.e. norton commander)
2- A Small color LCD display (less than 2 inches)
To extend battery life Display #2 can be deactivated when the user is not looking at a picture or video. For activities in display #1, processor speed can be low, since refreshing the text-only screen is fast. A high end microcontroller might be enough for that.
This should results in very long battery life and low cost of the computer. I wish I could build something like that.
http://www.wepc.com/vote/view/idea/2558/Eternal_battery_PC
In my opinion the press release distorted somewhow the facts in an attempt to make it more understandable. According to the article in science they actually don't know for sure what the shape of the material. Based on absorption experiments they assume the pore structure is similar to that of activated carbon or zeolites, instead of the pore structure of usual polymer membranes.
I agree the press release is misleading, however this method seems to provide a cheaper/faster way to separate gases, which is potentially beneficial for many industrial or laboratory processes. For the real details check the abstract in Science or the full article if available. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/318/5848/254
You make the common mistake of confusing science and technology. I don't blame you, many people do.
"his research is mostly useless from a market perspective".
That's why research is peer-reviewed y scientists and not marketers. If the market was to decide what's worthy of researching, only narrow areas of immediate commercial interest will be funded. Basic research such as math that's useful to do other research is not immediately useful market-wise, but necessary for overall progress of human knowledge.
There was a slashdot thread about it http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/09/052620 1
The most interesting link was an explanation of "the loudness wars", by a sound engineer. It has audio examples to listen to.
http://www.digido.com/other-audio-articles/loudnes s-war-explained.html
Another book covering a similar topic is: The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History Since 1900, by David Edgerton http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/0 5/14/070514crbo_books_shapin?currentPage=all
From the article one of the main ideas of the book is that tech. historians and the media focus too much on inventors and highly innovative ideas, while older technology and small changes made by their users are the ones that succeed and play the larger role in history.
"In the near future, the Navy develops a fighter jet piloted by an artificial intelligence computer. The jet is placed on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific to learn combat manuevers from the human pilots aboard. But when the computer develops a mind of its own, it's the humans who are charged with stopping it before it incites a war" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382992/
Even better, you could do a giant art installation, like marta Minujin did in `83 in Argentina. Ha Ha. The guys, obviously are lacking in imagination.a ginas/partenon.html
Here's a link to the Book Parthenon of 1983: http://webs.advance.com.ar/martaminujin/images2/p
How impressed should we be about the "International academy of science" award?
There's a patent on a bulletproof desk in a website about absurd patents, maybe now it's not so absurd?. http://totallyabsurd.com/bulletproofdesk.htm
"Stabilising and directing a conventional helicopter requires that the pitch of the individual blades be adjusted with every rotation--up to a thousand times a minute. That puts massive stress on the turning mechanism and wears it out rapidly. On a four-rotor arrangement, you can achieve the same effect by changing the pitch of one or two whole rotors, rather than adjusting the pitch of individual blades. Mr Shepard reckons that this will make a big difference..."
From a rotational dynamics viewpoint, changing the axis of rotation of massive rotors will be harder & slower than adjusting the pitch of helicopter blades. I imagine it would be tricky to reorient the axes fast enough to keep the kite attitude under control. Maybe braking or accelerating them would be easier, or having a bunch of auxiliary powered rotors. Hey that's my idea eh. Hereby I claim prior art.
Can be used as synonym of effect. From webster's website: Main Entry: 2impact Pronunciation: 'im-"pakt Function: noun [....] 2 : the force of impression of one thing on another : a significant or major effect
Happens that is very inefficient.
According to Ulf Bossel, fuel cells researcher, if you take into account all the conversion efficiencies of the process, hydrogen may not make sense as an energy storage solution. LINK: http://www.physorg.com/news85074285.html
Agreed. In my opinion merely replacing fuels will not work. Taking multiple measures to reduce energy consumption will help more. Ideas for this can be obtained by looking how people live in places where fuel is expensive, for example the towns are designed so you don't have to drive as much or at all.