Art, Health, Politics, Tech

Algae Power

Algae Balloons
A different approach to powering your home, than my previous nuclear battery one, over at Geoff Manaugh’sBLDGBLOG. Growing algae in balloons, in a way that makes it produce mucho H2. Some beautiful renderings of the project (it’s an urban design project in Iceland), and some commentary from Geoff about how depressing it is that we go to these lengths to, basically, just keep on doing what we’re already doing, instead of trying to change the fundamentals of our society.
Growing algae to produce power is an interesting concept, but really it’s useless without designing communities that use less energy. People just don’t seem to believe in frugality any more, and that’s what we need to return to.
And, no I’m not a hippy, preaching back to the land, and such, because, damnit, I love my tech, and my Schtufff, but with 6 billion people (is that right) on this planet, we really need to figure something out, don’t we?

General

Your very own Nuclear battery

Actually it only comes in a size that will power 25,000 homes, but hey, in Maine it would only take 20, or 30 to power the whole state. The manufacturer calls it a “battery” and not a reactor, since there’s no moving parts, and it doesn’t require an operator.
Nuke to the Future for the article about it. Here’s the website for Hyperion, the manufacturer.

books, Tech

Another thought on the Kindle (and E-Readers in general)

This post from Neil Gaiman’s Journal (Thanks from the future…) reminded me of another point against e-readers in general. When you buy and e-book, what happens to author’s signings, autographs, etc. I know most people don’t care, but many do, and that physical interaction with the author does have meaning. Yes I remember from the Times article–the first in my series on E-Readers (strange I didn’t mean for it to go there, but there you have it.)–that there might be more interaction in general, but all electronic, or from a distance.
So while authors may like the e-book idea for this reason, since it’s easier on them (although I think many do enjoy meeting their fans, and interacting with them (Wil Wheaton for example)), it’s a lousy deal for fans.

books, General, Tech

Bookeen – Cybook ePaper – the eBook reading device

CybookBookeen – Cybook ePaper – the eBook reading device
This e-book reader is much nicer looking, can read non-DRMed e-books (as well as DRMed ones), and a little cheaper than the Kindle. Still too expensive for my tastes, but it is more in the right direction.
(Three years of development and the Kindle is all Amazon could come up with, when they have models like this, and the Sony e-book reader? Wow.)

(Got this from the comments on Cory Doctorow’s article trashing the Kindle, over on BoingBoing.)

books, General, Tech

Amazon: Reinventing the Book | Newsweek.com

Amazon: Reinventing the Book | Newsweek.com
This is a great article (7 pages, so be prepared to spend some time on it.) on the future of the physical/paper book vs the electronic book. It’s mainly about Amazon’s new Kindle, but delves deeper into what reading may look like in 20-50 years, with books, and reader, and writers being interconnected.
It all sounds wonderful (to some people anyways), and I would love to be able to store a couple hundred books in a space the size of a single paperback (and wouldn’t my wife love that 😀 ), but while the price of the books are o.k. ($9.99 or less)(on second thought, maybe that is too expensive since you can get a paperback for $7.99 and the cost of digitizing a book is much less than that, $2-$4 may be a better price range here), I can’t bring myself to pay $400 for the reader, when I can get a laptop for that price. I think when the price of the reader drops to something like $99 (or even less), it may be more palatable to readers (myself included).
There’s, also the whole DRM encumberment going on which I find very absurd. If I buy a book, I’d like to be able to lend it to someone else, just like I can now, and maybe that’s the best argument for paper books right there.
Via Slashdot (Some good comments there, by the way)