This blog is named “… Rants & Raves from Japan …” but lately I’ve done a lot of Ranting but it’s time for a Rave that gives hope t a brighter future for all. This article gives me hope there’s be a cleaner and no foreign oil future n the works
To summarize the article:
“The effect may seem quite small now, but this is a significant proof of concept, and the first step in organic molecular thermoelectricity,” said Pramod Reddy, a graduate student in UC Berkeley’s Applied Science and Technology Program and co-lead author of the paper.
As any regular reader of this blog might able to tell (I know you’re out there) my family drives me crazy. I suspect that all families of bright intelligent people may have this in common. Not to say that I’m one of those bright intelligent people but I love my family and their pecuralities. I live in Japan and they’re in the U.S. so I stay in touch with them by my occasional visits and by phone (which I think describes many families). Not to go broke, with my lame out of work ass, I use Skype which suits me great. I can’t speak for them but the sound quality has gotten better with the internet getting affordable at higher speeds and the VOIP services getting much better at their jobs. I’m happy with Skype and have recommended to friends to use the same. This blog has gotten some hits in the recent past and I would like to recommend to them to use Skype. Something else I bought recently was the Belkin Wi-Fi Skype Phone
I celebrated a birthday recently and my wife got me a perfect gift. I always carry an iPod when I go out into the scary world (less so now I’m in Tokyo) and have since the 1st gen 5 GB iPod. I instantly saw the usefulness of carry all my music where I go. I never did get the 5th Gen video iPod. I have a PSP why bother with the small screen. Back to my thoughtful gift, she got me a 2nd Gen iPod Shuffle. It’s so small and even though it only carries 1GB of music (around 240) it sync with iTunes and give me a completely new listing experience each time. I’m happy, my wallet is happy, and (most importantly) my ears are happy. Treat yourself and hold your mouse over the graphic below
I read an article over at Wired today, This Global Warming Fix Stinks. Not a terrible idea to try to create the same events as the last volcanic eruption with caused the temperature to drop a degree but I think there are too many questions to make it sure fire. How abut my idea that stays with me.
My idea is similar but I don’t think that sending pollution up there is the answer. I think putting up gigantic solar cells around the poles would chill things down and freeze the oceans up there. We could work out a way to transmit the energy collected by microwave and on the ground convert those same microwaves into electricity. Still a lot of work to get those panels up there but the beauty of this plan is that we don’t have to do it all at once, we can send more panel as they become available.
We still have work to do for conversion of light into economical electricity but the payoff would be huge. The mideast will cease to be a cruel energy overlord (might as well lump many US energy companies such as Exxon). The price of energy would be a fraction of what it is today. The only way this would word to do the impossible and that is the nations of the world to cooperate.
New design and hardware for my blog, I needed to find a design and stay with it. I like this design so if aren’t any villagers storming the castle entrance I’ll stay with this design for awhile. The site is hosted at godaddy which has good rates but why does the the banner at the top of the page from godaddy say “This page is hosted free, does that entitle me to a refund ’cause I paid something for this. I installed my own blogging software on godaddy ’cause the “free” blog software from godaddy is crap.
Now now on to real life …
A few things got started this week. Bad and good like usual. The bad is about my health, I was told by a eye specialist that since the problem with my eyes fluctuate that any serious repair would be useless since there was a good chance the work would be useless. Time to wait for the money for stem cells. Which brings me to the good, the wife and I had a meeting with the folks that would make our product. We’ll start our first business!!! Well the first step at least but a million mile march starts with a single first step. I found a hospital in China that will give me umbilical cord stem cells. Not a cure but hopefully will reset the damage to my nerves so that my legs an eye to return to the state they were in before my body started attacking itself. I know what to do now so if damage begins anew I’ll be ready for it.
The web is becoming a more and more hostile. Advertisers are getting so aggressive I wonder when they will start carrying weapons and threatening people to shop (luckily guns are illegal in Japan). I use Mozilla as my web browser because of the added features that filter out much of that crap, Internet Explorer is in bed with those advertisers so there are no features to help the user (hence I stay far away). This article discusses a new tactic of those advertisers. People aren’t clicking the annoying banners on web pages so instead of clicking, the web pages will redirect a user when the user’s mouse moves over the banner. Orbitz is the first website to use this tactic. People, these tactics only exist because the scum advertisers are getting the job done. Stop spending money with companies like Orbitz and let your voice be heard by using you wallet.
If you’re a computer geek like me or are concerned with your rights as an American you might be happy to learn that Elmsoft was found not guilty of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The DMCA is a controversial law designed to extend copyright protections into the digital age. That sounds like a good idea but the law goes too far. An example of too far is when a university professor was threatened with court action when his research discovered how to break a flawed watermarking scheme for digital files (watermarking is a like branding cattle, never a good idea if you’re a cow). Or when Walmart threatened to sue Fatwallet.com, a site that gave details on the big shopping day “Black Friday”. There are too many examples of big business stripping rights from consumers using the DMCA, do a Google search and learn for yourself.
Just finished this interesting article over at OS Opinion that makes me a bit angry. It’s about Microsoft of course and some new information that’s been made available from the SEC. After Enron there are a few new rules that corporations must follow, the rules involve public disclosure of profits and costs. I’m not a money guy so the rules are a bit over my head but Microsoft had to disclose it’s financial dealing in a way it hasn’t before. Microsoft loses money on just about every product it releases except operating systems and Office. Those product earn over 85% profit, monopolies are good for earnings. They sit on $40bn in reserves and don’t pay any profits to shareholders. The economy and especially the tech side is in the dumps right now, the US and Japan are my prime concerns. Couldn’t that money do more good in the economy rather than a bank? I know that money in a bank gives banks freedom to invest. I don’t consider just giving the money away, I believe in a free economy. Microsoft has been gauging costumers so long that those customers don’t know better any more. These customers could be using the money to stop laying of personnel, or to invest in new technologies. Until this article I never had anything personal against M$ even with it’s inferior products and the marketing machine that made it the monopoly it is today. Now I’m convinced that Bill Gates in the Great Satan.
