Using the cars' weight to generate energy

Kinetic energy is not a new subject on this blog. I've already shown you how this kind of technology can be used to generate enough energy to power some parts of a nightclub or more simply, your MP3 player.

This time I bring you a great idea developed at a Sainsbury's supermarket in Gloucester, United Kingdom. This supermarket has installed kinetic plates in the parking lot that use the weight of shopper's cars to pump a series of hydraulic pipes, which in turn drive a generator. The figure below is quite self-explanatory:


Apparently, the kinetic system can generate enough energy to power the store's checkouts. While it may not seem as much, it sure is a great step towards a more green attitude.

Here's another picture at location:



Source: Engadget, Guardian

Retro-blogging: best posts of June 2008

Previously, on "The Tech In Me":

• DVRs, TVs and infrared sensors
• So, you thought your Bluetooth headset was secure?
• The key to my heart
• Cool webdesigner shirts
• Quantum superposition, or how can video games be creative
• How to make solar power more appealing
• YouTube just got more interesting
• Dance to charge your cellphone
• How to download musics from MySpace using Safari and "wget" (on Mac OS X)
• Eco-friendly gadgets
• How old is the Internet?
  

Interesting ideas/products that we may never end up using

The USB Fan Tie

The K-wine plate

The Strawberry plate

The Solar-powered tie

There's more here.

Rechargeable batteries with solar cells

Now here's a great idea: integrate a solar cell directly into a rechargeable battery so that it can recharge just by facing the sun.


The SunCat batteries were born when its creator wondered as to why "hasn't anyone made a battery with integrated solar cells" and answered: "The batteries should just bask in the sun like a cat and left for a while, in a sunny window, they would slowly recharge."

I think it's a great idea and the good part is that you can do it yourself... that is, if you can get around the necessary parts and have the skill to build them :-)

Just check the SunCat blog post for details, here.

Who's right about the Google carboon footprint?

Some say that the environmental impact of performing 2 Google searches is equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide that is generated by boiling a kettle for a cup of tea.

Google says those estimates are too large and in fact a Google search uses just about the same amount of energy that your body burns in ten seconds.

Who's right?

Light bulbs as the new WiFi technology?

That's right, it looks like there're some guys at Boston University's College of Engineering working on low-power LEDs which could utilize an optical communication system to carry data wirelessly.


Using a technique which rapidly switches the LEDs on and off data transmissions could be made via imperceptible -- yet undoubtedly brain-scrambling -- flickering patterns, and each light would be its own network entry point at speeds of 1 to 10Mbps.

Why is this interesting? Well, as professor Thomas Little says: "Imagine if your computer, iPhone, TV, radio and thermostat could all communicate with you when you walked in a room just by flipping the wall light switch and without the usual cluster of wires."

Looks interesting, doesn't it?

Source: Engadget

Retro-blogging: best posts of October 2007

Previously, on "The Tech In Me":

• The WiFi t-shirt
• The device that produces more energy than it consumes
• Using the same mouse and keyboard with different computers
  
• A new way to make music
• The universe was about to collapse
• McDonald's and free WiFi: a dangerous combination
• Quick Tip: RSS2PDF
• Infinite GMail addresses
• Better parking with "Around View"
• "Flight Mode" is not good enough to avoid iPhone users from getting arrested
• Drug Dealers vs. Software Developers
• When you work too much on a computer...
• Isaac Asimov's best story
• The Linux Kama Sutra
• This one beats the iTunes visualizer, right?
• Projector/Cellphone concept
• iPhone available in Portugal?
• Cellphones on a plane
• Smile for the picture
• E-paper now in color
• Some great TED talks
• Was it really worth it for Radiohead?
• Geek thought of the day
• Your mobile phone as a QR-code reader
• The day I saw the light
  

And if you're looking for even older "best" posts, check here.

In case everything goes wrong, LHC has Gordon Freeman

As you might have heard, CERN has created the Large Hadron Collider, the largest science device ever built with the intention of understanding some of the most fundamentals aspects of the origins of our Universe. The science experiment had its first try on September 10th, but the real thing will be fired up in a month from now.

Criticized for not offering any guaranties as to the safety of this kind of experiment, CERN decided to take immediate action and deployed a well-known fail-safe system: hiring Gordon Freeman.

This is still under a whole lot of secrecy but I was able to retrieve a photo that proves that Gordon Freeman is already on location, supervising the whole thing, just in case the experiment creates a wormhole into another dimension in which huge, ugly, slimy extra-terrestrial beings jump through with the intention of dominating Earth:



UPDATE: as a reader pointed out in a comment to this post, if Gordon Freeman is there, then G-Man is probably there too... And in fact I digged a little deeper in my secret archives and found this image that proves that G-Man is also among the scientists in the LHC:


(It helps to be a Half-life fan to understand this post) :-)

This is so true!

Another way to generate power while dancing

If you thought that dancing to charge your cellphone was a wild idea, check out this new power-generating dance floor:


It's always good to appreciate all these efforts for some eco-friendly gadgets.

Source: Engadget

A nice cellphone holder

Most of the times, when I charge my cellphone, it turns out that the power outlet is far away from some table, desk or chair in which I can place my cellphone while it's charging. That's why a gadget like this would make so much success at my house:


Source: Gizmo Blog

Retro-blogging: best posts of July 2007

Previously, on The Tech In Me:

• Plants that phone when they need to be watered
• It's not the cellphones' fault
• The Wii Workout, at the gym!
• 15 years of SMS
• Vodafone says "no to 3G-less iPhone" - and now that a 3G version of the iPhone is available, iPhone has said yes :-)
  
• The ISPs won't tell on you
• The evolution of cellphones
• Avoid that cable clutter under your desk
  
• 500 GB in one DVD
• Technology can be used for the strangest things
• How to keep your Coke cold while at the computer
  

Eco-friendly gadgets

Lately, I've been posting on more eco-friendly technologies (such as the car that runs on water or the gadget that charges your cellphone while you dance) because I've been increasingly concerned about the serious consequences that may occur if Humanity doesn't find alternative sources of energy to end our dependency on fossil fuels.

And to continue in that wave of eco-friendly technologies, here's a list of some interesting gadgets/ideas to turn our technology consumption a bit more "green":

• Solar Cells under Multi-touch displays - This is an idea based on the patent that Apple recently registered that stated their intention of creating a layer below the iPhone's display made out of solar cells. The idea is really insteresting as it allows you to leave your gadget on the sun to charge itself, but I still have doubts if it's actually a good idea to leave the gadget exposed to intensive heat :-)
  



• Solar cell backpack - This one is obvious. This backpack receives sunlight and turns it into energy used to charge your gadgets inside, such as a laptop, cellphone or iPod.
  



• USB-rechargeable battery - Forget about special chargers that you have to use to charge your batteries. This battery charges itself once connected to a computer's USB port.
  



• Kinetic-based batteries - In the same line as the dance charger, this battery charges itself with the movement that a person produces while walking, which means that it doesn't need to be connected to an energy source directly to be then used in some gadget :-)
  

You can find more eco-friendly gadgets here.

Source: The Hottest Gadgets

Dance to charge your cellphone

This is not a new idea (yep, when I was 16 I had a wrist watch that was built based on this concept - the simple swing of my arm while walking was enough to power the watch), but at least someone got the idea of using the technology for more recent needs. As a matter of fact, I often wonder why is it that so much (of my) energy is wasted while cycling in those stationary bikes at the gym.



Well, now it's possible to use our body's kinetic energy while practicing several activities (such as dancing, or something more suitable to your taste...) to charge gadgets, such as Orange's DanceCharge that allows you to charge your cellphone.

Source: Engadget

A car that runs on water

A Japanese company has developed a car that runs only on water and air. Why isn't something like this shown on every newscast in the world? Doesn't this represent a step further to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels? Check the following video for details:



Source: TugaTrónica (Portuguese - check an English source here)

How to make solar power more appealing

It is very important to find new energy sources that allow us to overcome the dependency on oil. But so far it has been difficult to find suitable alternatives. And one of the reasons behind this (but definitely not the most relevant one) is the fact that these new energy sources require huge installations that are not very appealing. Whether it's because they're big or ugly or uncomfortable, the fact is that most people don't like how solar power appliances look like.

That's why some people have been working on trying to make this technology look more appealing. Here are some examples:

Veil Solar Shades:

Lily-shaped pads in rivers:

SunTable for your patio:

Solar Plants:

Do not install Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1

Microsoft has recently released the Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1, which apparently fixes some of the issues that this Microsoft product presents on the Macintosh platform. However, my experience with it, hasn't been particularly interesting:

1. I installed the SP1 and apparently everything seemed to be working well. Office applications were still behaving in the same way and I didn't notice anything different, except for maybe a slightly improvement in performance, but nothing drastic.
2. But after a while, as my Mac became a bit hot (as it usually does, because of my CPU-intensive activities) the fans started working to compensate for the high temperature. Nothing strange here, except for the fact that suddenly my Mac, that used to be a perfectly silent machine, started making a noise equivalent to a 100 Km/H wind and it literally looked like it was going to take off into the air.
3. After googling this issue for a while, I installed the iStat Pro widget, which reveals the behaviour of the laptop fans (among other things) in real-time. Apparently, the normal behaviour of a Macbook Pro's fans when working at full speed is around 3900/4000 rpms. But after installing SP1 my Mac's fans were now working at a top speed of 6000 rpms. No wonder I thought it was going to take off!
4. I first thought that this was just a coincidence, but to be sure I totally removed Office 2008 (yep, Microsuck doesn't allow you to uninstall only the Service Pack... you have to uninstall the entire Office suite and reinstall it without adding the SP1) and reinstalled it.
5. Surprise, surprise, no more 6000 rpms fans...

I have no proof that Office 2008 SP1 is the responsible for this issue, but it sure is a hell of a coincidence.

Anyway, I'm going to keep on working as usual (with the occasional CPU-intensive tasks) for the rest of the day, to check if the noisy fan issue comes back. If not, tomorrow, I'll install SP1 again and perform another set of experiences with the CPU fans.

Keep tuned for the results!

Ring! Ring!

Who is it? It's a wake up call from Earth.

Handy laptop bags

In a time where the oil reaches historic values, everything that we can do to help reduce the consumption of energy is appreciated. And solar-powered devices can be part of the solution.

Until now, the manufacturers of this kind of technology weren't able to produce anything more powerful than a purse that can charge small devices like cellphones. But the technology is advancing and you can now charge your laptop by using this solar-powered laptop bag.

But what's the point of having to go outside to charge a laptop if you don't have Internet access? Well, with the amount of WiFi hotspots now available (some of them in open sunny spaces) you may be able to find some free Internet access out there. You just have to know where to look for.

And what better way to do it than with a handy laptop bag (or a WiFi detecting t-shirt) that detects surrounding WiFi signals without having to take your laptop out of the bag?

Pretty handy, hum?

Retro-blogging: best posts of January 2007

Previously, on the Tech in Me:

• Retro-tech: a digital polaroid
• Earn some money with your YouTube videos
• European PS3 in March
• It takes 21 sms to make a cellphone thief repent
• DRM for Blu-ray and HD-DVD already cracked
• Need free pictures for your blog?
• The Nintendo Wii's exercise plan
• Fight crime with your cellphone
• Wireless Energy
• Free online TV
• Better searching on the wikipedia
• Google Earth: a terrorist's attack planner
• Joost: HDTV over IP
• The iPhone is here