The Oil Drum: Europe | The energy efficiency of cars

The Oil Drum: Europe | The energy efficiency of cars: "The future of motor vehicles lies in improved efficiency and that is to the left of the gasoline ICE in the chart. That future is electric vehicles powered by high ERoEI renewable electricity."

It's a good introduction to automobile efficiency, well worth the 5 minute read. This graph is a nice summary:

Mark Cuban on Internet Video

Mark Cuban wrote an interesting post on his blog: The Great Internet Video Lie

Let me quote briefly:

So what are your options [if you want to stream video to many people] ? You have a single option. You have to use a Content Delivery Network (CDN). CDNs specialize in delivering content that needs to scale to large numbers, and 10k simultaneous users, particularly if its sustained for any period of time, like a cable network would be, is considered a large number.
...

If you have dreams of competing with traditional TV network viewing numbers using the internet, dream on. You cant afford it. You have been sucker punched by the Great Internet Lie.

I find this very interesting considering the fact that a couple of months ago I talked with some guys who are working on a startup that enables just this, at basically no more cost than streaming a single copy of the video. The technology seemed very feasible - I think it could very well work.

I just found it interesting that Cuban believes this is a great limiter - he's no newbie to technology. At first I thought his post was naive But as I started to write this I realized he's a lot smarter than that. I just wonder what he's got up his sleeve.

I know that the guys I talked to have a good idea and are running with it. But there are others out there, probably smarter, with good ideas of their own. Finding a software solution to the bandwidth problem is just a matter of time - and there's a lot of money at stake.

Ironically, a software solution that enables efficient small-scale video streaming, allowing small players to reach a wide audience at low (no?) cost... it's a threat to the CDN's. It's also a threat to the media companies.

Cost keeps the small guys out of video streaming, and the media companies like it like that.

I'm not pushing a conspiracy theory or anything, I just imagine that a solution to this problem is a threat and the players with money and interests will do a lot to protect their interests. I imagine there'll be legislation (like DMCA, copyright), patent lawsuits, lack of net neutrality.

Of course, a disruptive technology doesn't mean the little guys will have anything worth watching.

Note: I chose not to work with the start-up for a variety of reasons. But the technology does seem solid, and they seemed to be working toward the right connections. I wish them the best.

File This Under Kinda Creepy

I remember when EFF first pointed these out four years ago. The printers still do it - be aware.

EFF's "Yellow Dots of Mystery" on Instructables | Electronic Frontier Foundation:

it's deeply troubling that printer manufacturers implemented this surveillance mechanism under the table after secret meetings between government representatives and technology manufacturers. Printer companies don't disclose the tracking to their customers and so the existence of these yellow tracking dots remains secret.

Big Dog!

Pretty cool looking robot, its walking motion reminds me of a deer (or two very skinny legged people facing each other). It covers some incredible terrain, and can even leap over an obstacle. Check it out: Boston Dynamics: Big Dog

Slick Idea

Miles pointed me to this cool product - a memory card with WiFi, allowing you to automatically upload pictures from your camera (either at home or at various hot-spots). I don't think I'm going to get one (I just bought a nice 8GB card - which is 2000 photos with highest resolution). However, if we were to travel much, this would be a really easy way to keep track of where and when pictures were taken.

Eye-Fi

CarpoolMatchNW - Car Pool and Rideshare Matching Service, Oregon, SW Washington

Work just clued me into this page, which is pretty slick. You enter your home&work addresses and it'll find people who match your route (as well as times).

CarpoolMatchNW - Car Pool and Rideshare Matching Service, Oregon, SW Washington

I'm only driving to work 2 days a week now (boo-yah!) but still it'd be nice to share the drive.

My Work In A Press Release

Just found out there's a press release that talks about what I'm working on:

Mentor Graphics Outlines IC Implementation Strategy to Address Sub-45nm Challenges: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance:

"A new Calibre nmLVS tool with interactive debugging features (to be released to the general market in the second half of 2008) that will speed layout-versus-schematic checking with automated suggestions for fixing the design, improved short identification, and overall improvements to the environment to reduce debugging time."

I'm the one writing the new LVS debugger. woo-hoo

Driving Directions from Google

How cool is this? Google's driving directions show you what to look for on the street:

YouTube - Driving directions with Street View on Google Maps

Coolest Thing This December

Johnny Lee is genius, check out this 3-D hack for display, it'd make for an awesome game.



He's also got prototypes for interesting displays, auto-configuring displays, a steady-cam, and low cost interactive whiteboards.

Seems Apropos

I quit Intel to work for Mentor, and one of the big questions was whether or not things would be better at Mentor. This comic seemed relevant:



My 6 month report of whether working at Mentor is better/worse than at Intel: on par, just different things to complain about.

Simple, Clever, Let's Use Them

Pretty cool technology here: solar powered LED road studs, and according to some of the case studies, it's reduced accidents by 70%. While that wouldn't happen everywhere, it'd probably help quite a bit in the right places.

Web Pages

I was looking for an artist I know I'd seen at the Corvallis Fall Festival, and I noticed how many folks don't have a web page.

I think that's nearly inexcusable for almost all businesses, but especially for artists. Mary and I talked about it for her business, and we figured it probably wouldn't be worth the effort (at this point). A friend of hers, however, has a great web page for a naturopathic physician. As good as she is, Portland is inundated with naturopaths, and she probably needs something to help set her apart. Mary's situation in Corvallis is a bit different.

But, back to artists, you simply have to have a web page now. Let's say you're one of the 22 artists who do jewelry. How am I going to remember which one was the one I liked? The name probably isn't going to stick, I need to see your product. Plus, what if I want to contact you to buy something? The Fall Festival at least provided an option for a website - but no other contact information. Even if they didn't provide a slot for the website, a quick google on your name would probably find your website (especially if it's listed on a couple of the festivals you'd frequent in a year).

One of my favorite vendors at the festival is King Wu. And, to be honest, I didn't remember his name (and he's someone I actively look for each year we go). But given the list of artists, I was happy to look through the 6 web sites for photographers at the festival to find his site.

In fact, that's exactly what I did a couple of years ago when I was trying to find a particular photograph Mary and I saw while visiting Arizona. She'd really liked a couple of prints in a gallery in Flagstaff. A quick search of galleries in Flagstaff gave me a couple of phone numbers to call. I called each and asked about their artists, and 10 minutes later I was on the guy's website - looking at the exact print I wanted.

It's just a shame that only 87 of the 171 artists at the Fall Festival have web sites. It's not difficult to do, it's not terribly expensive, and I'd bet that even a simple web page with a couple of representative photos and contact information would result in more sales (provided you produce a unique product - I just don't understand how the dudes who try to sell middle-school shop class quality woodwork at Portland's Saturday Market stay in business... I mean, seriously, a mirror behind a wooden board with a routed edge???).

Every business should have an answering machine/service that at least gives the business name and hours of operation (I should *never* get a busy signal). And secondly, most businesses really need web pages.

Google Branding

This guy had an interesting question (well, ok, it's kind of mundane, but I'd thought about it recently) would you switch from Google if a better search engine came along?

Sure, if Google were *only* a search engine, I'd probably switch. However, I'm using it for more and more stuff. I use it for my primary non-work email, for calendaring, IM chat, blogging, RSS feed aggregator, the searchbar, and (obviously) the general search engine. So, they've built up enough collateral that I'd need a large jump in search improvement (like 10X better, or natural language processing) to switch.

Plus, I like the way Google does things. For one, their products/services just work. And secondly, they use open standards for their implementation. Which means, I can use their IM chat server with any client (doesn't have to be GTalk), I can read my GMail with whatever client I want (they just added an IMAP interface), and their calendar works with ical format, so I can use it to consolidate my work calendar with home. So, even if I want to move away from Google search, I know I can still use their other services because they don't lock anyone out of using their stuff via proprietary interfaces.

Biometrics at my bank

On November 6th, my bank is going to start using biometrics for extra security for online banking. I'm not sure if this makes me feel safer or not.

I had actually noticed that the online login page does erase the entire password when you hit the backspace key (as opposed to just erasing just one character). I thought it odd, but now it kind of makes sense, they've been collecting the biometric information for a while now, and they only wanted to record the typing when you type the correct password.

(1:03pm) Edited to add: I wonder how this will work with people who choose to have their web browser remember their passwords. Perhaps the widget on the FirstTech online login doesn't allow that...

Innovation at Risk

I've had many a discussion with friends about patents (specifically whether or not they should be applied to software). Here's an interesting book that's about to come out that looks at patents from an economic point of view - basically, are they adding to our economy or dragging it down.

Innovation at Risk

Three chapters are available on-line. The first is the introduction (worth reading), and I imagine that I should read the ninth so I can win the next debate.

Slick idea

While I still like the concept of the MoGo mouse for simplistic design, these batteries recharge through a built-in USB port. Way slick - you don't have to tote around a charger for your batteries - just plug them in directly to your computer. If my current mouse batteries ever die (they're rechargable), I might give these a shot.

Spray-Right All Angle Sprayers and Plug-ins

This is a plug for an amazing new product that's out there - a spray bottle that works no matter what angle you hold the bottle. I'm gonna pick one up next week when I drive by the shop near work that carries them.

You see, I know the guy who invented this - he'd been talking about it for a long time and it's cool to see him getting it off the ground. Hopefully he'll get a big contract with CostCo or Home Depot or something, but until then, he's just going to local shops.

In the next week or so you'll be able to order them on-line.

Seriously, check out the web page:

Spray-Right All Angle Sprayers and Plug-ins

DMCA article

This is a good article on what affect the DMCA has had on the electronics industry. I especially like the last paragraph:

Hollywood is good at telling stories. The one it has been screening in Washington—that music and movies will perish if the regulators don't kill the dangerous gizmos first—is powerful drama but has about as much basis in reality as Lord of the Rings. Killing off gizmos and subjecting technological development to the whims of federal regulators will ultimately hurt not just consumers but also tomorrow's creative industries—both technology and entertainment.

The article in full: IEEE Spectrum: Death by DMCA by Fred von Lohmann and Wendy Seltzer.

Google Library

As you may have heard, Google is going to digitize the contents of several libraries and make them publicly available. While this is an admirable task, I think the press it has received is a little too much.

The announcements often talk about the idea that the public will really win from this, that it sort of turns copyright on its head - wrestling control away from the publishers and giving it back to the people. And others think that Google will just increase its level of copyright infringement.

The reality is you probably don't care about the books they'll digitize.

You will only get full access to books whose copyright has lapsed. Copyright has only lapsed on books that are 75 years old or so. Remember the Mickey Mouse copyright battle in the courts (aka Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act? Well, it keeps books in the hands of the publishers. Most people really don't care about books that were published at the turn of the century. Seriously, when was the last time you picked up a book back then?

Any queries that hit newer books (the ones you read) you'll get a couple lines of context, which is nice, but it's not turning copyright on its head or somehow making the books available to you and me.

Microsoft Closing

Dvorak has a very intriguing thought, what would happen if Microsoft closed for business?

While most of his columns are generally new ideas, his latest one, Smear Factor, on how there seems to be a concerted effort to smear the image of Linux is a bit late. There has already been a flurry of writings about this very topic: Eric Raymond, Andy Tanenbaum, and all of Groklaw.