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Expecting Unreal Weather

2010-01-16T15:18:37-08:00

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Latest In Nanotech Lithography

2010-01-06T16:14:34-08:00

Last, a new addition to your tech lexicon: Nanotech lithography. In the latest issue of Breakthrough Technology Alert, editor Patrick Cox told his readers about the coming boom in a technology that allows us to “print” electronics on virtually anything.
“Xerox has developed a silver-based conductive ink that can be printed on everything from plastics to textiles,” Patrick notes. “The ink’s melting temperature of 140 degrees Celsius is low enough to allow printing on plastics. Instead of expensive fabrication facilities, specialized inkjet printers will be able to print circuits that could be used as part of flexible signage, radio frequency identifier tags and even novelty clothing.
“Beyond logic circuits, energy storage devices will be printable as well. Two years ago, chemists at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., were able to place a thin film of cellulose over a surface of carbon nanotubes. This breakthrough will enable paper and CNT-based batteries. Stanford researchers have been able to take a paper substrate and coat it with ink made of silver and carbon nanotubes to create working ‘paper batteries.’
“Paper-based batteries charge and discharge quickly, making them suitable for a wide variety of technologies. Together, these breakthroughs herald an era of ultra-cheap, easily manufactured energy storage…
“New nanotech-scale manufacturing and materials technologies in the semiconductor industry are going to power a revolution in how we make electronic devices, power our homes and collect and analyze information. Right now, the vast majority of people have no idea how profound these changes are going to be.”
This is just one of several technologies Patrick says are on the verge of changing the world as we know it. For the full list, look here.

Source: Agora Financial

Stuff like this is so cool. Even more cool will be the ability to fabricate electronics at home. What a brave new frontier to the information age!

Imagine some day people will buy $5,000 circuit printers with custom enclosure fabrication functionality. The user will download the specs and it will spit out a shiny new gadget. The requirements will change just like computers, along the lines of Moore's Law, so you'll want to have the latest printer. The fabricated gadgets could be as simple as a flash application today, like those annoying sound boards. Or it might be a hand-held game because eventually, these printers will be capable of fabricating lights, simple displays, and so forth, I imagine. Or maybe the lights are external and the displays would use a form of e-ink technology!

There will be completely practical uses for these printers, but by far, they will be used for total crap. Sounds like fun! Maybe I'll be able to print an actual working full sized flying car! I was promised flying cars, you know (E: Yes, Anthony, we know you were promised flying cars).

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Twitter DoS!!

2009-08-06T09:55:44-07:00

twitterstatus

18 notes

Ongoing denial-of-service attack

We are defending against a denial-of-service attack, and will update status again shortly.

How am I going to Twitter about this??

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My Gadsden Flag On Display

2009-07-05T12:33:26-07:00

I pulled out my yellow "DONT TREAD ON ME" flag at the park yesterday when they started up with the patriotic stuff. I'm sure it just confused people who saw it. It's more of a New England symbol and has little connection to California.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Wilson Park Yesterday

2009-07-05T12:09:00-07:00

Here's a composite photo of the Independence Day event at Wilson Park.

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Wilson Park

2009-07-04T14:57:38-07:00

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Sent from my friking iPhone!

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My Thoughts on Cap & Trade

2009-06-30T07:00:22-07:00

First, let me clarify that big oil companies are fans of Cap & Trade and lower profits as long as it effects the whole industry equally. If oil company A has to lose 30%, A would want to make sure oil company B loses 30% as well.

The problem is that oil company C can't afford to lose 30% of its profits, so it'll go out of business or be bailed out (of course, bailouts would be very likely if A and B took out default swap insurance policies on C going under, who itself netted out swaps on A and B going under, obviously).

Another problem is it raises the bar for oil company D to enter the market. So, yes, big oil likes Cap & Trade because it makes competition scarce. All big energy providers want Cap & Trade so they can "stabilize" their market. But really, "stabilization" is code for what I call "a fettered market."

So are you willing to act in defiance of Cap & Trade? Clearly, since the system doesn't work, we should work outside the system. If the market is regulated, we need an unregulated alternative. The advantage we have is that we don't have to worry if it's "green" or not.

As an example, one way to do this would be to buy a whole-house electrical generator that can run on multiple types of fuels (not very green sounding, which is good). My grandfather installed one of these in his previous residence, and it was pretty cool. I believe it could be configured to run on gasoline, propane, and natural gas. The natural gas option meant he could theoretically run it indefinitely.

Obviously, this would require a change in life style. Merely installing a generator isn't a silver bullet. But if the economics work out, it could be a smart move.

My grandfather got this generator because the place he lived would have frequent power failures in the winter. He wasn't thinking of political defiance. Nonetheless, having a way to go off grid or partially off grid would create competition for the electric company who is itself (voluntarily) hindered by Cap & Trade. In addition, the ability to run on propane also opens the possibility for "alternative" methods of trade.

For most, it could come down to a mere matter of economics. Is it really more cost effective to produce your kilowatt hour for yourself or allow the regular fettered market to do under heavy tax. If the cold hard numbers are the only thing anyone looks at, it may or may not be enough to justify the act. But it might be good to also go one step beyond the math and looking at this alternatives as a form of defiance.

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Kindly Ignore This

2009-06-05T13:36:28-07:00

I’m posting this as an experiment in counter-search engine optimization. It has nothing to do with you. Yes, I am totally ripping off this guy.

In fact, I don’t particularly want anyone to read it. Go away. Or try some posts from other blogs that I’ve recently enjoyed. If you came here to read something, these should do nicely:

1.	path train
2.	french open tv schedule
3.	karna small bodman
4.	eddie freas
5.	racing for recovery
6.	federer del potro live streaming
7.	david carradine asphyxiation
8.	anna hansen photo
9.	nj path
10.	tennis channel

Again, none of these links has anything to do with the point of this post.

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My Thoughts on the Tased Granny

2009-06-03T17:31:59-07:00

First, let me start off with an analogy. Here's the setup:

Once there was an old man who lived alone on his private property in a remote part of the town. Usually, he would just sit on his back porch, polishing his favorite shotgun.

Then one day, a little girl of about 5 years old happened upon the property. She was picking flowers had wondered in, oblivious to the property line.

The old man decided he wanted to enforce his property, so he took the appropriate actions to get the little girl to leave.

First, he put his shotgun away. Then he walked over to the little girl and politely but firmly asked her to leave.

The little girl ignored him.

What level of force is appropriate for the old man to force the little girl to get off his property?

Is there any point where it is appropriate for the old man to lay hands on the little girl?

I would say the old man is basically stuck. If the little girl continues to ignore him, there is nothing he can do. There is no level of force he himself can personally use on the little girl. He might be justified in yelling at her, but that's probably about it. Maybe he could get his big dog to bark at her, as long as he is able to keep the dog on a leash. But at no point is the old man justified in inflicting pain or bodily harm on the little girl.

Perhaps if the little girl was really a ninja disguised in a dress, maybe the old man would be justified, but that's not the analogy. The intent of the analogy is to illustrate that there is no path imaginable that could lead to a justification for inflicting pain or bodily harm on the little girl.

So here is a video that shows that we are living in a police state:

I bet that "dash-cam" will never surface. It doesn't have to. There is no path imaginable that could lead to a justification for inflicting pain or bodily harm on the granny. There is no mention of weapons, only profanity. Profanity alone qualifies as "being combative" "violence" to the police, which is asinine. But even if she threw her dentures at the officer, there is still no reason for the officer to use the taser.

So remember, these thugs will lash out at you with their pain sticks if you don't comply. If anyone is ever successful in non-compliance, this will undermine the entire system, so there are no exceptions. You are lucky they are only pain sticks, you worm!

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Don't Give Up On Mozy

2009-05-17T19:03:24-07:00

I've been using Mozy to perform backups on my home system. Basically, Mozy is an online backup solution. It's rather inexpensive compared to certain solutions and more expensive than others.

One of the problems I've had is that Mozy never seems to ever complete the backup. According to the log the longest attempt was a try for 3 hours, and in that attempt, the software only got half way through my total backup. It seems to give up after 11 tries or so. Each subsequent attempt would get only so far then report failure.

I was thinking of giving up on it since after a month, it never completed a backup. But I also noticed that the log claimed to have files on the server, with the message "Already on server." In other words, my client would report a file to upload, but the server would claim it already had the file, which is good. So it appears that previous failed attempts did actually result in files being backed up.

But how many files have been backed up? That's the thing, I don't know from the client. But the server says there are massive files on its side. I'd estimate about 65% or 70% of the files I've been trying to upload have actually reached the server. And that's a sliding average because I have a lot of large video files that I back up locally and remove. So it might actually have all of my files.

Bottom line is that over a month's worth of use, a large number of files have reached the Mozy server, so I'm going to stick with Mozy for now. I'm not happy with the client, but it appears to move in the direction I want. I think the client could certainly improve, but I'm willing to work with it.

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