Beutelevision

Hey AT&T, Where Is My Text Message From Obama?

I woke up this morning, my beauty sleep totally uninterrupted by that loud car honk sound I had selected on my iPhone for text messages. OK I admit it, I already heard the big news last night.

But still… what happened? I know that it must be you. It sometimes takes two hours or more for voicemails to show up. I know, I shouldn’t complain–I live in San Francisco, and maybe the city isn’t a priority for you, technology-wise.

Oh well, at least the email was only 7 hours late.

Update: I never received it - oh well. I don’t hold this against the campaign in any case. Technology isn’t perfect.

Bob Lutz and the GM Volt

Here is a nice Charlie Rose interview with Bob Lutz, talking about the ideas and progress of the GM Volt. It’s about 56 minutes long.

One of the things mentioned (at about 41 minutes in) is that the show car had a drag coefficient of about 0.43, which was too much - it reduced the range to 35 miles instead of 40. The new design has a drag coefficient of about 0.28.

1 Block Off The Grid Jumpstarts Solar in San Francisco

The exciting news is that 1BOG has selected an installation partner and the installer will be visiting my house tomorrow. I can’t wait to see what the whole process is like.

I have two questions in particular:

1) I will definitely be getting a plugin hybrid car when they are available in 2-3 years. I’ve been told that driving a PHEV about 10K mile a year would be easily covered by an additional 1.5KW of solar panels. Should I get a larger system now, even though PG&E will not pay me for electricity over and above my usage? Or should I wait until I actually get the car?

2) I live west of Twin Peaks, meaning that July and August are foggy for most of the day. Should I get a larger system to compensate?

The pricing is pretty darn good even for the larger systems, so even if PG&E gets electricity for free, I don’t think I would worry too much about it.

By the way, the installer is Real Goods Solar. They have a wonderful store called Solar Living Center up in Hopland.

Alternative Energy From a Variety of Sources

Lot’s of interesting news in the alternative energy field:

MIT creates a catalyst based on photosysthesis that produces hydrogen from water.

LS9 uses synthetic biology to produce oil from algae.

Energy Innovations gets the first UL listing for a solar concentrator.

Why Are Cables/Telcos Shaking In Their Boots Over WiMAX?

I saw an interesting demonstration recently of WiMAX (specifically the mobile version, 802.16e) and needless to say, I am impressed. The demo should consistent data rates exceeding 10 megabits/sec in a moving vehicle. The kicker was that upstream speed was better than 2 megabits/sec.

Talk about disruption in the marketplace! This far exceeds 3G of course, and for that matter, it exceeds most cable, DSL, and FIOS installations too.

In San Francisco, FIOS is not even an option–we really have only a choice of AT&T or Comcast at speeds up to 4mbs. But I can imagine a day when somebody like Sprint puts a WiMAX installation on Mt. Sutro tower and makes truly high-speed internet available for San Franciscans. All that would be required is a small receiver mounted on the house and pointed to the tower. Finally a competitive alternative to cable and DSL.

I can see why Comcast is thinking of joining rather than fighting WiMAX. Where will that leave AT&T?

Tips and hacks for Kindle

CollegeDegrees.com has over 100 tips, tricks and hacks for your Kindle. My favorite tip is how to put your own reference content on the Kindle - I have over 300 pages on a personal Wiki that I would want to transfer.

Getting published on Kindle

I just discovered a nice in-depth article by Pat B Doyle titled Publish an Ebook in Amazon’s Kindle Book Store!. It includes a 8-point guide that includes formatting tips, setting up search terms, and how to prepare a product image. I’m looking forward to following this advice for a book that I’m working on.

Brand new steam engine built in Britain

This is totally cool… a brand new steam engine was just completed in Britain and is undergoing testing. They used parts fabricated all around the world since the skills of making a steam engine in one place have disappeared.

The group I’m working with, San Francisco Trains is working to preserve both a steam engine and the place where running repairs for steam engines were made, namely the Bayshore Roundhouse just south of San Francisco. All of that same knowledge that goes into creating a steam engine was there at one time at Bayshore.

Geeks of 3D website

Geeks3d is “All 3D Tech News, All The Time”, and they just covered the Shapeways announcement.

3D printing for model railroading?

Shapeways looks really interesting. According to Technology Review you upload a 3-D design to the website, and 10 days and $50-$100 later, you receive a polymer version of your design.

I can see this as really handy for creating masters for items that I want to replicate in urethane or plaster, such as bridge parts or passenger car sides. Cool!