Dadamotive: February 2009 Archives

Mindset

Posted by Herman | February 28 | 2009 8:00 PM | permalink

Amidst all the doom and gloom in the news you can spot the seeds of change.

The principle of "lean" is to focus on value creation for customers, remove waste (including wasted time) and rely on the skills of your staff to improve and change.

A small company in my home town is in the business of cutting metal sheets, welding and so on to make metal parts for machines.Ofcourse they have seen a sudden drop in orders recently. So what is their answer? Laying off people? No.

They went from 2 shifts per day to 3 shifts.

They recognized what their main asset is: a big expensive lasercutter which cuts metalsheets to a specific design. They shifted manpower to the lasercutter and improved the utilization rate of this asset so they could cut parts quicker and cheaper.

Just what his market needed: small series served quicker and cheaper.

They are doing fine, have increased their client base.

We need more of this and less bailouts.

Decentralized

Posted by Herman | February 28 | 2009 10:07 AM | permalink

Gasification of (unedible) biomass is one of the most promising sources of renewable energy.

The sources of this biomass are by nature (pun intended) distributed geographically.

Would it not be nice if the efficient conversion of biomass to useful energy/electricity could be decentralized, saving us the energy loss of trucking all this biomass to a big factory and distributing electricty and heat back again? Creating the possibility of cooperative energy companies, owned by the users themselves.

Nexterra aims to create these decentralized systems. They are starting to test 2 MWe systems in a relatively small form factor.

Like the Bike!

Posted by Marjolein | February 27 | 2009 12:31 PM | permalink

Tired of pedalling, but attached to your old bike? Try GreenWheel:

Scientists at MIT are testing a new power generation, storage and propulsion system known as the GreenWheel that will turn any pedal bicycle into an electric hog.

"Just take the wheel off, put a GreenWheel equipped wheel on in its place, plug it in and it should work just fine," said Ryan Chin, one of the GreenWheel designers. "The whole thing has been designed so all the parts except the throttle are enclosed in the wheel."
From the outside, the GreenWheel has the radius of a small dinner plate and is about 2 inches thick. Inside the aluminum frame sits the three major GreenWheel components: an electric generator, batteries and an electric motor.

Image: MIT lab

Via: MSNBC

Counterproductive

Posted by Herman | February 26 | 2009 2:45 PM | permalink

The purpose of patents is to create a balance. A balance between the need to create a sizable reward and incentive for inventors and investors, and the need to benefit as society from these innovations. More importantly, to create a continuous flow of improvements and innovations building upon each other. That is the motivation to limit patent protection in time. After some years the inventor is deemed to be rewarded and others can use the ideas to create something new.

The current patent system has been designed for physical goods and processes, not for a hyperconnected age where "connect and share" of ideas creates the highest value for society. The abundance of rather ridiculous software patents creates stalemates and patent wars that serve no purpose.

The latest one is reported by Ars Tecnica. As a proof that trouble never comes alone, poor TomTom is targeted by Microsoft in a broad patent lawsuit. The details are available in the article, but the general issue at hand is a proof that software patents currently lead to World War I -like warfare. Old ideas, stalemates and a massive loss to society.

A wonderful world with wonderful inventions

Posted by Herman | February 25 | 2009 10:08 PM | permalink

Different tack

Posted by Herman | February 25 | 2009 9:49 PM | permalink

Most people think that hybrid propulsion systems are only useful in cars. The nice thing is that even in boats a hybrid makes sense. Even a tugboat. Ecogeek reports.

The Carolyn Dorothy, displayed before a large crowd in the Long Beach, California area on January 23, was built by Seattle, Washington-based Foss Maritime. This tug joins a fleet of existing standard tugboats servicing the needs of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

So what exactly makes this Green Assist tug a hybrid? Foss first detailed this project back in 2007. In place of a traditional tugboat engine, this boat is powered by two 670 horsepower battery packs coupled with two 335 horsepower diesel generators.

Miaow!

Posted by Marjolein | February 24 | 2009 4:47 PM | permalink

We use a lot of batteries at home, preferably rechargable ones. Wouldn't it be nice not worrying about recharging them and still have full batteries? This is a beautiful solution: SunCat batteries (great name, they like to bake in the sun, just like your feline friend). A SunCat battery charges itself with the solar cells when exposed to sunshine. Knut Karlsen made some prototypes.

Change

Posted by Herman | February 22 | 2009 10:00 AM | permalink

Although the ranks of specialists are still dominated by middle aged men (babyboomers and the generation just after them) this will change soon. The student population at the universities has changed dramatically. More than 70 % of the students of medicine currently are female.

As one professor told me, the girls are usually the best students. Highly motivated, structured and very intelligent.

Most of them are not willing to work 80 hrs per week as an independent. They prefer to get a laborcontract with normal hours and vacations. This will mean the end of the current structure with "independent" specialists.

The second change has been triggered by the Iphone.

Its intuitive user-interface is very appealing to people in the medical profession. Already several applications are available for daily use, like a stored database of farmaceutical knowledge: drugs, their components, specific effects and side-effects, their application and so on. I am told that many specialists and specialized nurses carry an Iphone with them all the time just for this purpose: immediate, on the spot searches in this immense database.

From males with stethoscopes to females with Iphones.....

Big Project (2)

Posted by Herman | February 21 | 2009 5:46 PM | permalink

Missing from the discussions in Amsterdam is the question: is it still a good idea and investment?

Lets do a quick calculation.

Lets assume the costs increase even more, from the current projection of costs of Euro 2 billion to Euro 2.5 billion. Depreciation time 50 years, interest rate 5 %.

It is estimated by many experts that on average 200.000 people will use this metro-line per day.

This means per user per day: 0,68 Euro depreciation, 1,20 Euro interest (or per year accumulated 50 and 87 mio). Which in real terms will be reduced to 1/3 after 50 years if we assume an inflation of 2 % per year.

If we assume this is interest paid to our own pension funds, so to our children, do you think it is worth the investment? Just look at the map of Amsterdam, see the connection with Schiphol and the big railway hub created in the south of Amsterdam. Think about the required shift in mobility, from cars to public transportation.

You can be sure many people and many visitors will use this line extensively.

I believe it is very much worth the effort.

Big project

Posted by Herman | February 21 | 2009 5:09 PM | permalink

The recent turmoil about the rising costs of the new metro-line in Amsterdam (" Noord-Zuid lijn") leads to the usual comments and proposals by critics. More committees and more experts, tougher negotiators who can shift the riscs involved much more to the contractor, and so on.

I don't buy it. Yes, probably you can and should manage these projects better. But the reality of these one-of-a-kind complex projects with a lot of unknowns is that there is a lot of risc. Building infrastructure underground in an old city is in the highest category.

In the Amsterdam case, once you made the decision that you need the line and you do not want to tear down houses to be able to build the line, there is no alternative.

You could have tried to get a fixed price contract where there was hardly any risc of cost overruns for the government. I am certain that the contractprice would have been far far higher than the current revised projections: the contractor would have taken margins for every imaginable situation, even the ones that have not materialized and will not materialize.

Unfortunately our chosen representatives usually want to have their cake and eat it at the same time. The cheapest possible costs projection combined with an unwillingness to understand and accept riscs.

And for Amsterdam? The real mistake was the deal with the central government. All cost overruns are for the city, creating a heavy burden (from 300 mio Euro to currently 900 mio Euro or more).

Test case

Posted by Herman | February 21 | 2009 8:55 AM | permalink

We are witnessing a large real life test. Thanks to a screwup of a record company the new album of U2 is all over the P2P networks. It will be interesting to see the impact.

First on the sale of the new CD which is important for record company, but secondly the impact on the revenue of the band, which is the metric for the musicians. The two are not necessarily correlated.

My prediction? A slightly lower sales figure for the record company, a higher income for the musicans due to higher prices and fully packed stadiums when they make a tour.

Access to (digital) music anywhere increases the value of the live experience.

It will be interesting to follow this particular case.

Oops....

Posted by Herman | February 21 | 2009 8:37 AM | permalink

The power of crowdsourcing: Slashdot readers pick up a giant error.

(Source Slashdot, hattip Dirk)

Arctic Ice Extent Understated Because of "Sensor Drift"

dtjohnson writes "The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has been at the forefront of predicting doom in the arctic as ice melts due to global warming. In May, 2008 they went so far as to predict that the North Pole would be ice-free during the 2008 'melt season,' leading to a lively Slashdot discussion. Today, however, they say that they have been the victims of 'sensor drift' that led to an underestimation of Arctic ice extent by as much as 500,000 square kilometers. The problem was discovered after they received emails from puzzled readers, asking why obviously sea-ice-covered regions were showing up as ice-free, open ocean. It turns out that the NSIDC relies on an older, less-reliable method of tracking sea ice extent called SSM/I that does not agree with a newer method called AMSR-E. So why doesn't NSIDC use the newer AMSR-E data? 'We do not use AMSR-E data in our analysis because it is not consistent with our historical data.' Turns out that the AMSR-E data only goes back to 2002, which is probably not long enough for the NSIDC to make sweeping conclusions about melting. The AMSR-E data is updated daily and is available to the public. Thus far, sea ice extent in 2009 is tracking ahead of 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008, so the predictions of an ice-free north pole might be premature."

Green Get Away

Posted by Marjolein | February 20 | 2009 11:24 AM | permalink

Always wanted to be invisible? Then this must be your ultimate get away for the weekend. This treehouse, designed by Tham & Videgard Hansson, is plated with mirrors that reflect the woods around it, so it blends in with the surroundings. You will enjoy the view while no one is able to see you. Nice to escape from the busy everyday world for a while.

Via: Environmental Graffiti

Low hanging fruit

Posted by Herman | February 19 | 2009 11:11 PM | permalink

A recent report showed how big the impact can be of relatively simple measures.

If all states in the USA would copy the energy saving methods of the top 10 states, the electric energy consumption of the country would be reduced by 30 %.

Civilized

Posted by Herman | February 19 | 2009 10:40 PM | permalink

A picture tells a thousand words.

I do not like professional soccer and its crazy ecosystem. A warped world.

Therefore it is amazing to see a ritual on TV just moments ago.

The players of Fiorentina, losing an important game in their home stadium against Ajax Amsterdam, say gooodbye to their opponents when they leave the field. In two lines, creating a honor guard lane.

I just learned that their trainer has introduced this as a standard in the team, at every game they play at home.

He has earned my deep respect.

Nano power

Posted by Herman | February 19 | 2009 10:23 PM | permalink

When we hear the word "fuel cell" we tend to think about pumps and valves and stacks and the works. Complex installations.

But when you minaturize the fuel cell, everything starts to get solid state and simple. Two recent publications show what you could get. Very interesting way of approaching the technology.

A sugar cubed cell (shown right) and a very, very small chip (shown left)

Wifi war

Posted by Herman | February 18 | 2009 4:45 PM | permalink

The magic of mobile communications hides the fact that the technology and the engineering supporting the magic have their limitations. (For anybody who is interested and wants to be awed by the intricacies of radio communications engineering, see digital wave propagation.HTM).

A friend of mine has a wonderful apartment in Amsterdam with a fiber connection , 100/100 Mbps. He has bought a toplevel wifirouter, N-spec, supporting up to 300 Mbps, to get full bandwidth to his laptops. To his frustration nothing works. The radio signal as seen by the laptops is fine, but no Internet whatsoever.

A befriended radio engineer explained what is the problem. All neighbours in the apartment block have wifi, some more than one access point. Hardly anybody bothers to change anything after the router is unpacked, other than the security settings. The standard setting is channel number 6, out of 13/14 channels available. All these access points are competing with each other on the same channel, creating a lousy signal-to-noise ratio.

The problem gets worse when you use N-spec routers: they need a lot more radiobandwidth and are more sensitive for interference.

So the solution is to choose a free channel (preferable number 1 [update: if you have an iPhone you better choose channel 1] or 14) or allocate channels between neighbours so as to minimize interference.

More likely people will start a war by purchasing antennas that amplify the signal strenght. That explains why range extenders and amplifying antennas are so popular in a crowded city like Amsterdam.

3 x 7.000.000.000

Posted by Herman | February 18 | 2009 9:46 AM | permalink

Now that the bad news about the sudden recession is all out in the open a lot of plans are put forward to stimulate the economy.

Obama has signed off a stimulus package including approx. 7 billion euros to improve the broadband networks in the USA, especially in rural areas.

Our Dutch unions propose plans requiring 7 billion euros to be spent on infrastructure, energy saving and the lot.

And to my utter surprise: nobody, absolutely nobody in the Netherlands mentions or encourages the 7 billion euros to be injected into the economy by private means.

The upgrade of our communication infrastructure to fiber (Fiber-to-the-Home) has been started by municipalities and entrepeneurs. The regulators (NMa, OPTA) have set the stage for a massive roll-out by Reggefiber (partly owned by KPN) in a manner which is quite unique and an example for other countries. Providing all of the Netherlands with fiber will require some 7 billion euros just for the physical wires. The rest comes on top.

Rolling out fiber-to-the-home is 80 % labour and 20 % materials. Most of the labour has to be local, and the Netherlands is home to several leading manfucaturers of fiber. There is a lot of proof that an improved communication infrastructure has significant multiplier effects in the rest of the economy.

And all this without spending tax-payers money.

Are there losers in this plan? Yes, the cable companies.

But if you look closely you will find that most of the cash generated by these companies is sent out of the country, sometimes even with some extra cash from the tax-authorities (loss compensation). And they have a history of milking the company, not of investing in our economy.

So why is no politician or talkshow proud of this fact?

Simple math

Posted by Herman | February 18 | 2009 9:10 AM | permalink

This week there is a worldwide conference in Barcelona on mobile communication.

A visitor reports that one of the messages of the conference is " Mobile broadband is the only serious alternative to bring broadband to the people - forget about Fiber to the Home/Curb etc.".

The last message shows how often lobbyists speculate on the fact that most people and especially politicians do not understand the laws of physics.

Debunking is easy: the message might be usefull for sparsely populated rural areas, but more than half of the worlds population lives in cities.

Do the math yourself.

- all bandwidth provided by an antenna is shared by everybody within the area its covers

- all the wireless data sent to and from the antenna must be transported to the Internet to be of any use (backhaul)

- this transport must be done with a fixed line (fiber) given the amount of data and the distances to be covered

So in Amsterdam we once did the math with some politicians.

- suppose you have an antenna which supports 100/100 Mbps, shared

- suppose you share this with 5 families (radio engineers will start to laugh because it is hardly feasible to create this, but lets assume it just for the sake of argument)

- than you need 85.000 antenna's + 85.000 fiber backhaul connections

- for which you have to pass every house and open every street, so why not go all the way fiber?

- suppose you share with 25 families? It reduces the number of backhaul fibers

- at that point you start to dilute the capacity significantly, which translates in wide swings of speeds depending an user behaviour, like in the old days with cable

- this raises the question quickly how futureproof the investment would be? How soon before people start to get irritated, before applications arise which hit the ceiling? How soon before you want your own fixed line back?

Remember the early days of DSL. People started to share their expensive DSL-line with their neighbours using wifi. One year later this trend was gone: people were fed up with the hassle and the limitations. They bought their own line.

Look and ye shall find

Posted by Herman | February 17 | 2009 6:24 PM | permalink

It always amazes me how inventive we can become once we really start to put our hearts and minds into solving a problem. Like this: shock absorbers in a car kill motion energy. Motion energy from wheels moving up and down. Why not regenerate the energy back to the propulsion system?

Variation

Posted by Herman | February 17 | 2009 1:47 PM | permalink

More and more prototypes and real commercial vehicles are presented that use an unusual configuration : 2 steering/tilting wheels in front, one in back. The Piaggio MP3 is to be credited with kicking off the trend, but others are following. There is a logic to it: 3 wheeled vehicles are stable and much safer than motocycles. 2 Wheels in front means more rubber in contact with the road, which leads to better steering and braking.

Some Dutch guys have applied this concept to an electric e-assist cycle.

Still some way to go

Posted by Herman | February 17 | 2009 9:03 AM | permalink

The Department of Energy in the USA has released its 2008 Annual Progress Report on for the Energy Storage Research and Development Vehicle Technologies Program. In short: their view of the state of the art in battery technologies for cars.

They identify the challenges.

"The high-energy efforts are focused on overcoming the technical barriers associated with commercialization of PHEV batteries, namely:

Cost - The current cost of Li-based batteries (the most promising chemistry) is approximately a factor of three-five too high on a kWh basis. The main cost drivers being addressed are the high cost of raw materials and materials processing, the cost of cell and module packaging, and manufacturing costs.
Performance - The performance barriers include the need for much higher energy densities to meet the volume/weight requirements, especially for the 40-mile system, and to reduce the number of cells in the battery (thus reducing system cost).
Abuse Tolerance - Many Li batteries are not intrinsically tolerant to abusive conditions such as a short circuit (including an internal short circuit), overcharge, over-discharge, crush, or exposure to fire and/or other high temperature environments. The use of Li chemistry in these larger (energy) batteries increases the urgency to address these issues.
Life - The ability to attain a 15-year life, or 300,000 HEV cycles, or 5,000 EV cycles are unproven and are anticipated to be difficult. Specifically, the impact of combined EV/HEV cycling on battery life is unknown and extended time at high state of charge (SOC) is predicted to limit battery life."

I just wonder if they have set the target at replacing a gasoline car without any compromise. Usually new technology is first driven to mimic and surpass old technology (which is very hard). But quite often you can witness a whole new disruptive approach in the next phase, where new technology suddenly is used differently.

I have a feeling this report is in phase 1.

Sinking sun

Posted by Herman | February 16 | 2009 6:34 PM | permalink

Econmaster has compiled a graph of the economic decline in the EU, USA and Japan.

It shows how hard the Japanese have been hit. Ouch.....

(Source: Infectious Greed)

Indian Climate Solutions

Posted by Willem | February 15 | 2009 2:59 PM | permalink

Thomas Friendman tells a very encouraging story in the New York Times on two young women who have just driven an electric car with roof-top solar panels all over India in a "climate caravan" to highlight the solutions to global warming being developed by Indian companies, communities, campuses and innovators, as well as to inspire others to take

action. Best part in my opinion is where they point out the American and Chinese embassies. The U.S. Embassy's roof is loaded with antennae and listening gear. The Chinese Embassy's roof is loaded with ... new Chinese-made solar hot-water heaters. Another great example that we might have to look eastwards for green innovation in stead of westwards.

MLAB

Posted by Willem | February 15 | 2009 12:50 PM | permalink

Recently Measurement Lab was 'unveiled' by its sponsors, among which Google, New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute and the PlanetLab Consortium. As they state themselves on their website: Measurement Lab (M-Lab) is an open, distributed server platform for researchers to deploy Internet measurement tools. The goal of M-Lab is to advance network research and empower the public with useful information about their broadband connections. By enhancing Internet transparency, M-Lab helps sustain a healthy, innovative Internet. The good part is that they launched some interesting tools for Users, among which a tool named 'Glasnost', which tests whether your internet service provider blocks or hinders BitTorrent. Other tools deal with testing your connection speed or with determining whether your ISP is giving priority to some traffic or users above others (coming soon). The not so good part is that they do collect information about you, your IP-address and your ISP. Maybe not so bad, since they are quite open about it, but think whether you want this before using their tools. And a word of warning: they clearly are in the development phase since their tools are not that easy to use. But fun if you enjoy this kind of stuff.

Days of Building Sprawl Are Over

Posted by Willem | February 11 | 2009 10:28 PM | permalink

Green Car Congress reports that responding to a question from a city councilwoman about transportation and infrastructure in the stimulus bill during a town hall forum in Ft. Myers, Florida, President Obama said that the days of just building sprawl are over. He mentioned further that transportation is not just fixing our old transportation systems but its also imaging new transportation systems and that we should be using this money to help spur this kind of innovative thinking when it comes to transportation. That will make a big difference. Yes, he gives hope. Let's help him realize his plans! The discussion below the article on Green Car Congress is not bad at all, by the way. And to show that the conservatives in Britain are good friends with Obama, the Tories presented what they call a long-term vision for the railways, which includes a high-speed north-south rail line between Manchester and London.

Demand and Price

Posted by Willem | February 11 | 2009 9:45 PM | permalink

The International Energy Agency said global demand for oil is expected to fall 1.2% this year, the biggest annual drop in 27 years, as U.S. consumption declines and Chinese growth weakens. According to the Wall Street Journal U.S. crude prices are down nearly 75% from a July peak of $147 a barrel. What other products exist where such a relatively small change in demand causes such a massive drop in price? As far as I know only products where there are also big changes on the supply side. Which is not the case with oil in the short term (say 5 years). The only other explanation is pure speculation. Or the futures market, as it is called nicely.

Bio massive

Posted by Herman | February 11 | 2009 5:37 PM | permalink

Many experts believe that biomass (or more specific biowaste plus specific non-edible crops that do not compete with food production) can produce a massive amount of renewable (bio-) gas. In quantities that can make a very large impact on mobility.

Recently several studies were released that all point in this direction.

The first on is a report of the Energy Transition Task Force in the Netherlands called "Biomass; Hot Issue Smart Choices"(3.4 Mbyte). The report tries to take a balanced view, given the fact that the biofuel craziness in the USA (subsidizing corn farmers to produce ethanol) has raised serious doubts on the ethics and viability of biofuels.

The potential of biomass/biowaste is estimated as being very interesting.

Secondly the National Grid of the UK has produced a report that shows that UK biowaste could supply 50 % (18.000 million cubic meters) of the residential natural gas demand in the UK. The efficiency of injecting cleaned bio-methane into the gasinfrastructure is much higher than powering electricity plants which produce 70 % waste heat. Investments needed: 10 billion pounds. Quite competitive with other renewable sources.

At the same time researchers are publishing progress in converting cellulose (a non-edible waste product) into liquids for biofuel or a fully functional process to convert cornstalks in to biogas and energy..

And for anybody who likes to tinker himself: "Build your own algae bioreactor to produce biofuel"

Walking the gemba

Posted by Herman | February 10 | 2009 9:56 AM | permalink

" Walking the gemba" is a phrase used to proponents of the "lean" methodology. Simply said, managers should go regularly to the place where the primary process is executed and observe the daily reality. Observe for waste, for routines that mask flaws, for details not shown in beautifull coloured graphs and reports. You will be surprised....

Apparently the new management of the NS (National Rail in Holland) understands this concept. This morning in peak traffic several senior managers of the NS walked through my Intercity, talking to everyone about how the service was perceived, asking about problems and suggestions.

A good start, keep it up.

Broken

Posted by Herman | February 09 | 2009 11:21 PM | permalink

Business Pundit makes fun of a downturn with "Broken Logos".

Lies, damn lies and statistics

Posted by Herman | February 09 | 2009 11:06 PM | permalink

Nancy Pelosi, a prominent Democrat has created a graph which shows the dramatic effect of job losses in the USA during the last 12 months. This graph is racing around on the net. But, as Paul Kedrosky shows, the graph is very flawed and biased (selective choice, absolute numbers instead of percentages).

[Pelosi graph]

.

He points to the correct graph as produced by Time.

Still not a pretty picture, but a different conclusion: such as the weak and slow recovery in 2001.

E-bug

Posted by Herman | February 09 | 2009 4:18 PM | permalink

Americans always loved their VW Beetles. So it comes as no surprise that a producer of golfcarts, facing a downturn in orders tries a new tack by producing conversion kits for VW Beetles to E-Bugs. Fun and business at the same time.

Source : Zoomilife

Sign of the times

Posted by Herman | February 09 | 2009 12:02 PM | permalink

The AMS-IX is one of the largest Internet hubs in the world. The statistics on the traffic they manage can be viewed on their website on a daily basis. The recent graphs reveal how Internet has become part of our life.

This graph demonstrates that consumers dominate Internet traffic, not businesses.The peak is in the evening.

The yearly graph shows a marked increase of traffic, starting in the summer at the same time the credit crisis was erupting in full force. In 6-7 months time a jump from 400 Gbps peak to nearly 650 Gbps peak. KPN told me they see a similar increase in traffic in their core network.

One possible explanation, other than people searching in the Internet for more information? More spare time to watch Youtube movies because work pressure eases off with the reduction in economic activity.......

The future of newspapers

Posted by Herman | February 09 | 2009 9:03 AM | permalink

The traditional newspaper business is under pressure. With the rise of Internet, an increasing number of TV channels and more communication facilities people has more choice where to get information. The early erosion was in the 2 bread-and-butter revenue streams: advertisements to buy and sell stuff (now taken over by the likes of Ebay and Marktplaats and Craigslist) and advertisements for personell (Monsterboard and other job-boards). The trend hass accelerated now that other advertisement spending is dropping.

Some people are asking for a bail-out, Sarkozy floats plans for mandatory "free" newspapers for youngsters.

In my opinion, all these measures are looking backwards, trying to shore up an old business model against the tide.

Luckily there are others who look forward: the NY Times has released an API to search through their database. Om Malik has an excellent article on the potential of this new approach.

In my opinion the NY Times gets it: connect and share is the name of the game .

Eye candy

Posted by Herman | February 07 | 2009 6:44 PM | permalink

We tend to focus on the development of alternative drive systems for cars, but there is a lot going on in two-wheelers. I like the outrageous designs that are cooked up, vibrating with power and speed. I like the fresh and uninhibited approaches: let's try it all, even hydrogen powered fuel cells in motorcycles. Zoomi Life tracks a lot of these developments, here are a few.

An electric scooter.

An awesome fuel cell cycle:

A 250 km/h electric racer

A hydrogen fuel cell motor cycle built by college students:

Testing the all electric racer.

Warpspeed

Posted by Herman | February 07 | 2009 2:15 PM | permalink

For communication technology nothing beats optical transmissions over fibers. The inherent capacity of light is incredibly high. The limiting factor nowadays is the electronics: as soon as you convert light to electrical signals you have to slow down. So researchers around the world are working on all-optical processing of information to bypass this limit.

NetworkWorld reports on a big step forward. It is already well known how to encode 64 channels of 10 Gbps into one wavelenght, totaling 640 Gbps per wavelenght over 1 fiber. Demultiplexing the channels requires optical processing which was a problem until now. The researchers have solved this problem with a clever and small optical waveguide. They estimate that this technology will hit the market in 2012.

We will need it: more Fiber to the Home will put great strain on the backbones.

Dealing in the dark

Posted by Herman | February 06 | 2009 6:15 PM | permalink

Very few people are aware of the fact that very secretive negotiations are being conducted by our governements that could have serious consequences. The so-called Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations have been progressing for a year or more. They were presented as just a discussion on how to do a regular check-up on intellectual copyright law between Western countries and Japan, how to prevent cheap copies of branded luxury items to flood our markets etc.

More and more organizations have gotten wind of the fact that Big Content was trying to get their infamous anti-piracy laws injected into this agreement, bypassing national lawmakers and representative bodies. After all, it is very difficult NOT to ratify a complete body of international agreements which have been negotiated between many countries. If you reject the agreement, you must reject it in total and face the economic damages.

So many groups have tried to get more information on the state of the negotiations, so national and EU-parliaments can influence the negotiations before being confronted with a binary decision. No such luck. A worrying fact.

Ars Technica has an excellent overview of the state of affairs.

Citynet of heat

Posted by Herman | February 06 | 2009 2:09 PM | permalink

District heating ("stadsverwarming") is associated by some people with old flats in the former Soviet union. It is problably not well known that it is still in use in many Western countries including the Netherlands.

The technology is starting a second life: using waste heat from existing power stations is a logical method to reduce CO2 emissions. Waste heat can even be used to create cold: like a small camping refrigerator powered by a gasflame.

In Amsterdam there are plans to go one step further. Near Amsterdam you have 3 independent power and heat generating plants of considerable size. The plan is to create a hot water ringnet connecting all three plants: a citynet for heat. The first advantage is that the supply of hot water to users can be garantueed, even if one plant is off-line. The second advantage is that other suppliers of heat can be attached in the future: like biomass power plants, creating more competition and more flexibility.

Like all infrastructure projects, this is not easy or cheap. Even the legal environment is not quite adapted yet. Nevertheless: SchaalsprongDEF-051108.pdf reads like a primer on district heating. Recommended..

Forward

Posted by Herman | February 06 | 2009 12:10 PM | permalink

You can see more when you walk. Like this surprise on the Rhoneweg in Amsterdam.

Truckland, a regional dealer of trucks has taking the initiative in 2008 to import an electric version of a Fiat Doblo. The Micro-Vett has a range of approx. 150 km with a recharge time of 5 hrs. Topspeed is approx. 115 km/hr. Practical specifications as far as I am concerned.

The only drawback is the high purchase price. Understandable if you have to convert new cars. For a passenger-version the difference (including all taxes and VAT) is roughly 50.000 euro versus 20.000 euro for the standard petrol version. You cannot recoup this difference by reduced operational costs unfortunately, unless other benefits/subsidies can be added. Like extended access schedules for inner cities ("venstertijden").

The Clean Green Machine

Posted by Marjolein | February 05 | 2009 12:16 PM | permalink

In Huddersfield, Britain, a garbage truck sneaks through the city. A silent bin lorry collects garbage, takes it to the Energy from Waste power and recycling station and charges the electric truck with energy produced from the garbage it collects.The megawatts that are not used for charging the garbage trucks are pumped into the National Grid.

Link and picture from: Register Hardware

What's new pussycat...

Posted by Tine | February 04 | 2009 10:33 AM | permalink

Not as much as we like to think...

Volvo Cars started manufacturing in 1941 the PV56 with a wood gasification unit on the back as an answer to wartime petrol shortage. This PV51 of '37 has been converted during the war. So can we built mobile units to produce biogass on locations where lumber isn't easily transported from? YES WE CAN! Might biogass be like concrete: invented by the Romans and forgotten for more than a millennium?

The hype is over

Posted by Willem | February 03 | 2009 11:12 PM | permalink

This interesting graph taken from the great Dot Earth blog by Andrew C. Revkin in the NY Times indicates that global warming is currently at the bottom of the top-20 list of top priority issues for the American public. Top priority of course is the economy with jobs and terrorism at the number two and three spots. So now that the hype is over, we can concentrate on getting some work done. And the good part is that a large number of issues that are considered higher priority, like energy, jobs, education and environment, are directly connected to reducing global warming. And Obama recognizes this. Now we can only hope he gets the work done!

Thorium Reactors

Posted by Willem | February 03 | 2009 10:44 PM | permalink

Indian infrastructure player Punj Llyod and US-based Throium Power, which signed an MoU last month to form a 50:50 joint venture company for exploring commercial nuclear power opportunities, are targeting an investment of up to $1 billion in the venture.

"We are looking at an investment of several million dollars or up to a billion in the coming years, depending on how India's government allows commercialisation of nuclear power sector," Dennis Hays, vice-president of Thorium Power, said on the Indian Business Standard website.

In this time where more and more voices are calling for a return to Nuclear Power this raises the interesting question how much nuclear fuel is available in the world. Clearly the different parties do not agree here. Where the Nuclear Energy Agency announced a year ago that we would have enough resources long into the future, others state that with slightly increased nuclear demand we will run out of the easy to mine uranium within thirty years or so and that then we need to turn to other potentially more dangerous sources.

A Canadian Nuclear Engineer, Dr Jeremy Whitlock, maintains a very interesting website on the subject, where we can find the, in my opinion most realistic, answer that in principle there is a lot of uranium available, but that it fully depends on how much we are willing to pay for it. Moreover, the developments in reactor technology are still going on and the efficiency of nuclear reactors still leaves a lot of room for improvement. Finally, thorium, which is about three times more available than uranium in the form of thorite (see picture), can also be used as fuel. And this possibly explains the Indian joint venture mentioned above, since India has one of the worlds largest thorium reserves. Interesting, but I still do not know where I stand on the subject of nuclear energy...

Sunsailing

Posted by Marjolein | February 03 | 2009 4:42 PM | permalink

The Aptera electric car has had a lot of publicity already. The latest news is that they rolled out the first pre-production, and that the first shipments are planned for October. Aptera doesn't stop with cars though, they unveiled a concept of a solar powered pontoon, the Loon, as wel. Nice!

Via: Engadget

Test drive

Posted by Herman | February 03 | 2009 2:25 PM | permalink

Apparently GM (and other manufacturers as well) has some 100 fuel-cell cars on the road for testing. See the video (Source Ecogeek)

When in Rome....

Posted by Tine | February 03 | 2009 11:15 AM | permalink

Brick is brick and concrete is ...."Beton"

Concrete in buildings, as demolishing and recycling companies tear down today, is just plain concrete: a renewable material not much changed since the roman times, although the town of Pozzuoli lost its trade to Portland, but what about the concrete used in present days? We all talk about 'sustainability', but what if our children want to break down recently build concrete structures?

"Vliegas" (fly ash) is used as a replacement of Portland cement, as a solidifier and praised for its quality. Do we consider its toxic qualities as well? Demolishing in future days the concrete of today containing vliegas is not sustainable at all: how to extract the toxic vliegas from the concrete?

Todays concrete is often filled with polystyrene. How to separate it from the concrete? Recycling companies did intensive testing, but splitting them on the demolishing site is practically impossible.

These are just a tiny examples of how we dilute our pollution through society instead of making real changes for the better

Revolving life

Posted by Marjolein | February 02 | 2009 1:20 PM | permalink

Another breathtaking building will be constructed in Dubai, it should be finished in 2010: a skyscraper with rotating apartments. Each apartment can rotate independent of the other units. The building will be powered by wind and solar energy.Pre-fabricated individual units will be used in construction, to ensure a shorter building time, and less waste on the construction site.

More information and pictures on Dynamic Architecture
Via: Gizmodo

Struggles through a dense forest

Posted by Tine | February 02 | 2009 1:08 PM | permalink

In Finland mayor biogass plant projects are put on hold because of a simple calculation: how many miles can a lumber truck drive to a plant and stil give the plant the oportunity to make a positive Co2 output result. Not very many miles as you can imagine....

In Holland the calculator apparently works different: we import wood from Austria, Italy and even from Australia (six!!! weeks in a ship to start with) to burn in electricity plants and still can sell the output as being 'duurzaam'. One of the bigger energy distributors uses around 700.000 metric tons of wood a year to mingle with household and burnable industrial waist and there are four or five big players who do the same....