Category: Tech

FPEG Two Stroke Future Shock

Toyota has developed a high-tech, two-cylinder, internal combustion engine to keep an electric car charged.

It’s effective because it never has to turn a crankshaft or any other shaft or gear just about. Its piston  goes up and down merely to provide AC electricity to charge a battery.

The engine is two feet long and measures 8 inches round. Road and Track says it could generate 15 hp which would be enough to keep a compact electric vehicle rolling at highway speed even if the main drive battery gets depleted, according to Road and Track.

Toyota says its simple engine  — which it calls the Free Piston Engine Linear Generator (FPEG) — achieves a remarkable thermal-efficiency rating of 42 percent in continuous use.

Below is a visualization:

 

FPEG Two Stroke Future Shock

FPEG Two Stroke Future Shock

Infrared Smart Phone

Smart phones can browse the web and carry thousands of songs but what has always been missing is the ability to take a thermal image of your roof.

Well, wait no more. Popular Mechanics reports that a new attachment by FLIR Systems can do just that.

The FLIR ONE  cost just $350 and attaches to an iPhone or Android, according to PM.

Why would anyone need to thermal image something? PM points out that they can not only find poorly insulated parts of a home but hidden wasp nests, tire leaks, and take body temperature at a distance.

Also they are great for bird watching, PM says.

Flir One Infrared Smart Phones

The FLIR ONE infrared smart phone in action.

Peel Mucho Potatoes In Minute

Leo Morten Lund of Denmark has found a way to peel a pretty big bag of potatoes in 40 second by using an electric drill and a toilet bowl brush.
Tip: use a new toilet bowl brush.
Here’s the demonstration

 
 

Peel Mucho Potatoes In Minute

 

Peel Mucho Potatoes In Minute

Tangled Earphones Science Studies

Tangled Earphones Science Studies

A group of physicists have finally undertaken to resolve the mystery as to why earphones, and other ropey things, tangle reports DiscoverMaganize.com.

They put strings of different stiffness in a box and tumbled it.

Complex knots form within seconds with the stiffer strings less likely to get knotted.

They made computer simulations of the data obtained and learned that when jostled the strings formed coils with the loose end weaving through the strands like a grandma knitting a sweater.

The scientists say the knots were analyzed using mathematical knot theory.

Betcha didn’t even know there was such a thing as mathematical knot theory.

 

Tangled Earphones Science Studies

 

Supreme Court Ends Aereo Broadcasts

The Supreme Court ruled, today, June 25, that Aereo Inc. was violating the copyrights of broadcasters in providing its service.

Aereo had developed a technology to allow persons to watch over-the-air television broadcasts on their computers.

The broadcasters led by ABC said no fair.

The ruling, written by Stephen Breyer, was 6-3 with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joining him.

The dissent, written by Justice Antonin Scalia and joined by Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, was not so much in sympathy with Aereo but noted that the technical claim made by the networks in the lower courts —  namely that Aereo was the primary abuser of copyright which means actually using copyrighted work — was incorrect.

They recommended that the case be returned to the lower courts and appeared to have an expectation that Aereo would be found in violation of  “secondary liability” which means that they would be responsible for infringement by third parties.

The danger of ignoring the reasoning in the dissent means that it creates the possibility of new claims against internet service providers and such that previously had an expectation of immunity.

 

Supreme Court Ends Aereo Broadcasts

Supreme Court Ends Aereo Broadcasts

 

HB 2107 Punishes Digital Degraders

A bill to protect against digital degraders is now before the Pennsylvania Senate.

HB 2107, which passed the House on June 9 with a 197-0 vote, wil make it a third-degree misdemeanor to share an intimate image of another person without consent.

“With the rise of digital photography through the use of social media, protecting one’s privacy continues to be an important issue, especially when unscrupulous individuals use social media to post intimate images of others,” says State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129).

The law allows for state-level prosecution of an alleged perpetrator, if the victim is a Pennsylvania resident, regardless of the perpetrator’s state of residence.

The bill also would allow victims to bring both criminal and civil charges against someone who engages in this activity. Conviction for this charge includes a criminal sentence of up to six months in prison and up to a $1,000 fine. Civil penalties could be much higher, including the cost of actual damages, attorney fees and additional relief the court deems necessary and proper for loss of reputation, money and property.

HB 2107 Punishes Digital Degraders

HB 2107 Punishes Digital Degraders

Pierre Sprey Disses F-35

Pierre Sprey Disses F-35

The F-35, an “inherently terrible airplane”?

Pierre Sprey, the jazz musician/gospel singer who designed the legendary F-16 fighter, went on Canadian TV to call the new backbone of the United States Air Force “a turkey” that can neither win a dogfight nor provide ground support.

Why? Canada is making the F-35 the backbone of its air force as well.

Sprey says the plane’s vaunted stealth technology can be defeated by low frequency, long wave-length World War II era radars.

In fact, he says all our stealth technology can be defeated by such radar and that the Russians have picked up on this.

With all this doom and gloom, it should be pointed out that Sprey also dissed the F-15 which turned out to be a pretty successful aircraft.

In related matter, Sen. John McCain is trying to save the legendary A-10 Warthog, the beloved ground support aircraft that is slated to be replaced by the F-35.

And who designed the A-10? Pierre Sprey.

Sprey’s music was sampled on Kayne West’s rap hit Jesus Walks.

Below is Sprey’s interview last year with the Canadian Broadcast System’s Fifth Estate program.

 

 

Pierre Sprey Disses F-35

 

 

 

Supreme Court Changes Decisions

Apparently, the Supreme Court changes decisions after issuing rulings.

It’s not something taught in the typical civics lesson.

The matter was revealed by New York Times columnist Adam Liptak last month.

David Zvenyach, the general counsel to the Council of the District of Columbia, writes computer code as a hobby. He applied the JavaScript application Node to crawl the opinions posted on the Supreme Court  every five minutes.  He  then follows up with a manual tweet.

He explains why here.

Kudos to Zvenyach and all hail institutional transparency.

Hat tip Gigaom.com

Supreme Court Changes Decisions

 

Supreme Court Changes Decisions

 

Internet Now Full

Internet Now Full

There are fewer than 17 million IPv4 internet address remaining in North America,  the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) reported in April.

This means that officially the internet is full.

The IPv4 standard allows for 4.295 billion addresses worldwide. As 536 million of them are reserved, there is only about 3.7 billion usable.

There are 7 billion people in the world.

The web has reached its limit.

The solution is to advance to the IPv6 standard — IP means Internet Protocol and the “v” stands for version — which would provide 2 followed by 128 zeros worth of addresses.

The sticking point is that IPv4 and IPv6 are not compatible.

We feel it will all work out somehow.

If you think about it, it is kind of a good problem.

Internet Now Full

Internet now full and time is running out to fix the problem.

 

 

 

Baldness Cured Via Laser Hat

Baldness Cured With Laser HatBaldness Cured With Laser Hat

A guy tinkering in his garage has cured baldness by inventing a laser hat, at least according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

The inventor is Tamim Hamid is a former NASA research engineer, who has degrees in electrical engineering, computer engineering and biomedicine. His company is Theradome.

The hat contains 80 lasers that mimic sunlight and help bring hair follicles back to life. It is based on research from the mid-60s in which Dr. Endre Mester while trying to trigger the growth of cancerous tumors in rats miscalibrated a laser resulting in the growth of hair instead.

The product was financed with crowdfunding via IndieGoGo. Hamid’s motivation was, well, take a guess.

The devices cost $795 and as of now are only approved for use by women. Approval for men is expected soon though, according to Hamid.

 Baldness Cured Via Laser Hat