Posted by Edward Coyle on May 17, 2012 0 Comments
On May 4th, 2012, the solar-powered craft Tûranor PlanetSolar,(which means power of the sun in J.R.R Tolkien's mythology) docked in Monaco after traveling completely around the globe in 584 days. The ship is powered by 537 square meters of photovoltaic panels, yielding approximately 93.5 kW of energy which is stored in 6 Li-Ion battery packs. The ship, designed by Craig Loomes, was constructed between 2008 and 2010 and left September 21, 2010. The crew used sophisticated software and meteorology tools to chart courses that maximized insolation to keep the batteries charged. The craft handled extremely well, even in rough seas, and in many ways outperformed expectations. While obviously not a vehicle available to the masses, the proof of concept lets us know just what can be accomplished with only 18% efficient PV cells. As efficiency in both collection and storage technology increases, practical renewable transportation is closer than ever before.
Posted by Edward Coyle on February 22, 2012 0 Comments
All technology developments result in adaptations of many different kinds. Because the Global Positioning Satellite system is so incredibly useful and relatively easy to integrate into new products and applications, it has become widely disseminated. Systems of all kinds rely increasingly on being able to locate products, vehicles and people using GPS applications. In particular, GPS is often used in tracking transport vehicles and to monitor the location and travels of various public and private employees using company-assigned vehicles. As one might expect, with the effort to control comes a push-back by those being tracked. A new study in the UK shows that many small GPS jammers are now operating, probably placed on commercial trucks by their operators. Because GPS depends on relatively small power transmission, it can often be easily disrupted by radio transmissions on the same frequencies used by the tracker. What do you expect to be the next step by those who place the GPS trackers? Of course, that next step will be met with a further counter, leading us to yet another minor but important technological contest.
Posted by Edward Coyle on January 22, 2012 0 Comments
Since almost all of our best electronics now depend on lithium ion rechargeable batteries for
their working power, it's helpful to know how to best care for them in order to extend their
usable life.
We all hate it when our battery gets to the point where it is unusable after only an hour or two when it started off going for eight to ten hours when new. Most currently manufactured Lithium-Ion rechargeable batteries can be expected to have a functional lifetime of approximately 250 to 500 charge-discharge cycles. After this number of cycles, functional battery capacity drops by approximately 30 percent from original specifications. While still obviously useful, this begins to reduce our enjoyment of the device and eventually forces us to fork out for a new battery. To extend the life of all of your Lithium ion batteries, consider the following suggestions.
Factors that increase Li-I battery life:
1. Depth of discharge: the smaller the amount of discharge before recharging, the longer the life of the battery. This means that it is generally better to avoid full discharges of the battery and to recharge more often so that the charge does not drop to near complete discharge. This recommendation is in contradiction to the rules you may have learned when you were younger and were using Nickel-based rechargeable batteries which suffered from cyclic memory problems.
2. TEMPERATURE!:: Any temperature above 86 deg. F (30 deg. C) is considered "high" for
purposes of Li battery life. If the battery is fully charged at the same time it is exposed to high temperatures, the impact on functional life is even greater. This is exactly the case for batteries in devices that are plugged into grid power for extended periods of time. The battery is at 100% charge and also suffers from additional heat from use. Thus, from a battery life perspective, it is much better to unplug your device when charging is complete rather than continuing to use it while plugged in to grid power. When you consider the cost of a laptop battery and the fact that maintaining the battery at near full charge for extended periods of time can reduce its capacity by 40% or more over a year's time, it makes sense to take the simple step of unplugging when charged. Some chargers and devices do monitor this function and may alert you when the battery is fully charged so that you can disconnect or continue using the device but stopping the charging process.
To Summarize--How to extend the life of your Li ion batteries:
1. AVOID HEAT LIKE THE PLAGUE!
Don't leave your device in the sun, don't leave it in the car, don't set it down next to heat sources. As simple as this may seem, the additional heat can add up quickly to significant reductions in battery life. While it's not that big a deal to run out of charge most of the
time, Murphy's law pretty much guarantees that when you do run short on charge it will be at the most inopportune moment.
2. AVOID FULLY DISCHARGING BEFORE RECHARGING!
Go ahead and plug in even if you're at 50% charge. It won't hurt the battery and instead will help it. HOWEVER--If you are going to store the battery/device, DO NOT STORE at full charge. Instead, discharge to approximately 80% of full charge before storing.
If you follow these guidelines, you can extend your battery life to the greatest extent possible, saving you frustration and saving the world some materials and energy. Good luck and enjoy your discharging!
Posted by Edward Coyle on December 18, 2011 0 Comments
I wrote about Carrier IQ on another website shortly after the story emerged and now I want to post a quick update on what has happened and perhaps what it shows about our current digital world. Since the story was broken by Trevor Eckhart, it has snowballed into a series of major concerns for not only the enormous group of consumers of cell phone service (pretty much anybody capable of reading this) but also for a number of telephone carriers, hardward and software suppliers and of course, Carrier IQ. According to Russell Holly at Geek.com, Sprint has just ordered their OEM providers to remove CIQ software/firmware from any handsets. Clearly, the furor raised on the internets has been a shock to a lot of folks, particularly the cell phone carriers. Carrier IQ did release a rather lengthy technical statement describing how their software and data services are intended to work. (I have a pdf copy of the release, but can't remember where I linked it from. Surprisingly, I couldn't find any mention of it on Carrier IQ's website.) Reviewing this document suggests that indeed Carrier IQ was generally doing only what it should do, which is measuring fairly specific and mundane data regarding the connection and transmission tasks occurring between your handset and your service provider. The functionality discovered and revealed by Mr. Eckhart in his videos does appear to be a bug rather than a feature, specifically related to the handset he examined having been left in debug mode when it was shipped. Of course, we have no way of knowing how many of our devices may have been left in debug mode, thus the extent of this situation and its capacity for exploitation is unclear.
What is left unexplained by Carrier IQ and the service providers who use Carrier IQ is why they initially attempted to threaten and cover up his discovery. Similarly, the dramatic backpedalling and distancing from Carrier IQ by the carriers is interesting. If CIQ software and data services are so useful and essential to proper network functioning, what will happen when it gets turned off? Are there other service providers in this same area that will slot right in, smiling at CIQ's bad luck? Or was Carrier IQ just selling primarily hot air which the telephone carriers could readily do without or perform in-house for less money? Additionally, while the CIQ statement paper seems to state pretty adamantly that they would never, ever dream of selling consumer data to a third party, I have to believe that it simply means that they had not finalized the contracts to do exactly that. (Do you think it likely that nobody in this VC-driven firm had thought of this before?) I think the most important part of this whole story has to do with its perfect demonstration of the leveling power of the net. Thirty years ago you could discover a potentially serious threat to the public good, shout about it and write letters to the editor and almost no one would hear you. Compare that to today. In the same time frame of the CIQ debacle, we also saw Paypal take a very public hit for treating a customer badly and watched as the behemoth financial company was essentially forced by public opprobrium to back up and change its tune. While it is clear that large corporate/political interests still wield unwholesome and largely hidden powers, the spread of information through technology does have the capacity to change the balance to, hopefully, a significant degree.
Posted by Edward Coyle on December 14, 2011 0 Comments
Berkely labs have developed a really impressive new form of thin film transisitor (TFT) that represents a significant step forward in interface technology. The new TFT film is composed of carbon nanotubes and is designed to be considerably stronger and more flexible than currently available materials. The new TFT could be used in a variety of personalized devices, including smart clothing, medical devices and durable e-readers. For more information, see the Berkely Labs article.
Posted by Edward Coyle on November 17, 2011 0 Comments
Go ahead and give up!
The American Cancer Society's annual Smokeout is once again upon us. Please consider exchanging this habit for something more interesting and productive. There are a lot of good reasons to quit and almost no good reasons to continue. If not for yourself, for those who care about you.
Posted by Edward Coyle on November 16, 2011 0 Comments
Scientists at Northwestern University have demonstrated new lithium ion battery technology that charges 10 X faster than current batteries.
Dr. Harold Kung and his team at Northwestern University in Chicago have created battery technology that would allow the typical cell phone rechargeable battery to be fully charged in approximately 15 minutes. That's not the only improvement resulting from the novel manufacturing methods. The batteries will also provide working power levels from such batteries for up to one week, vastly better than we can expect from the longest-lasting Li-ion batteries available today. The new processes involve creating tiny holes in the graphene sheets that comprise the battery in order to allow ion transfer more readily. Additionally, the team replaced silicon sheets with smaller clusters of the element, also allowing easier ion transport through the battery. Dr. Kung's research has focused on improving the catalytic processes that are essential to lithium battery function, incorporating novel enzymatic processes in non-biological materials to further his work. In his own words, Dr. Kung and his team
"... have greatly reduced the rapid agglomeration of silicon nanoparticles by encapsulation in an organic polymer, such that the high Li storage capacity of Si can be realized for a much extended period. We are currently examining other stabilization techniques, as well as explore new materials as cathodic storage components." (Dr. Kung's official bio page).
This is exactly the kind of innovation and focused applied research that will make it possible for us to eventually end our dependence on non-renewable energy sources while still allowing us to progress technologically in the ways we all hope for.
Posted by Edward Coyle on November 13, 2011 0 Comments
Usually we don't get too political on this blog, preferring to focus on promoting new technology and interesting gifts instead. However, when we read this morning about Mr. Romney's campaign promises, it seemed important to make sure people are aware of what he says he would like to do regarding energy policy if he is elected. While it is no surprise that someone running for office on the Republican ticket would oppose environmental regulation and would support heavily entrenched fossil fuel corporations at the expense of the citizens he supposedly would represent, the levels of silliness and his appeal to anti-science denialism are remarkable for a person in the 21st century. Apparently trying to confuse people who are unfamiliar with the real technology available today in renewables, Mr. Romney said
"To begin with, wind and solar power, two of the most ballyhooed forms of alternative fuel, remain sharply uncompetitive on their own with conventional resources such as oil and natural gas in most applications," "Indeed, at current prices, these technologies make little sense for the consuming public but great sense only for the companies reaping profits from taxpayer subsidies."
Anyone who has even started to scratch the surface of understanding renewable energy knows that wind and solar power are already very close to being economically competitive with fossil fuels. This is true even when we fail to count even the basic costs in terms of health care and environmental costs associated with traditional energy sources. When oil, coal and natural gas production costs are estimated using more realistic understandings of the additional subsidies provided by government to fossil fuels, solar and wind are actually more economical. For a comprehensive understanding of the real costs and benefits of renewable energy, Mr. Romney should read "Reinventing Fire" from the Rocky Mountain Institute and Amory Lovins. Anyone with a middle school education and reading level can understand the physics and economics described in their works and can see for him or herself who is closer to the real truth about energy costs and benefits.
It is essential that we begin confronting this type of promotion of irrational, backwards-looking propaganda whenever it appears. That someone who aspires to lead the U.S. in this age could even pretend to hold such views is appalling. While it doesn't tell you who you should vote for in 2012, it definitely tells you who not to.
Posted by Edward Coyle on November 09, 2011 0 Comments
We've got Cold Steel!
We've been working for the past several weeks to finalize our business arrangement with Cold Steel Edged Tools and have now received our first shipment of their incredibly tough, sharp knives. Cold Steel products are world-renowned for providing remarkable value at a reasonable price. Panyrgy.com now has a practical selection of Cold Steel folding knives and fixed blades for a variety of purposes. In addition to making fantastic edged weapons and tools, Cold Steel produces entertaining videos that show without any question the quality of their products. Cold Steel's Lynn Thompson has been singularly instrumental in popularizing the Tanto blade style that has found wide spread acceptance in Western knife making in the past two decades. Check out the Cold Steel Recon Tanto 
HERE:
Look for some of these videos along with individual product evaluations in the near future.
Posted by Edward Coyle on October 11, 2011 0 Comments
According to a Wired.com article published Friday, the USAF units in charge of a significant portion of U.S. remotely piloted vehicles have been struggling to remove a keylogging virus from the computers that help them run their missions. The article does not report the name of the virus program, but indicates that technicians relied initially on Kaspersky for assitance in its removal. When that was apparently ineffective, they resorted to wiping and recovering the hard drives of their machines. This is only one event in an ever-growing pattern that is an inescapable component of our reliance on technology. We love being able to access information instantly and use our computers to perform operations that are simply beyond our capacities in any other way. Unfortunately, the more we build our systems around computer processing, the greater the likelihood of such undesirable occurrences. In the case of systems that have significant importance, one can imagine many terrible outcomes that are completely within the realm of possibility. In some ways it is rather remarkable that we have not had more hacking-related disruptions than we have. In the case of operating military technology, it is easy to foresee an intentional disruption and redirection of the actual machinery of war. If an enemy had access to the keylogging data from the Predator drone controllers combined with other operational information, it would be possible to take over one or more of these powerful weapons, perhaps overriding even the many fail-safes that are undoubtedly built in to prevent it from being misused. It appears likely that this recent virus was introduced through the use of a removable USB drive, as the facility had not been required to ban their use as other defense operations centers had. However, it's generally very difficult to identify the actual vector for many such programs and thinking that you're fully protected is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. So how much should we worry about a hacker or group of hackers with bad intentions taking over a military robot and using it to attack something we don't want attacked? Probably much less than we should worry about someone shutting down large portions of our computer-controlled power grid or our financial transaction computer centers. This is one of those problems in modern life that simply require us to hope for the best and at least try to prepare for the worst. It's also another good reason to strongly encourage and support technology education and innovation that is directed toward the common good, something we in the U.S. seem to be relatively weak at, in comparison to other countries. Because technology will always involve a constant battle between people and companies who seek to misuse tech and take unfair advantage and those who simply want to get along and do the right thing, it remains very important to make it easier for the good natured to work against the bad rather than feeling forced to join them.
