Archive for October, 2008
DemocracyUpsideDown 2008-10-31 15:10:00
Friday, October 31st, 2008DemocracyUpsideDown 2008-10-31 15:06:00
Friday, October 31st, 2008Alaska? No, Say it isn’t so!
Thursday, October 30th, 2008
It appears that the closest thing we have in the United States to a socialist state is Alaska....
Will Twitter really change your life?
Thursday, October 30th, 2008It is a bit difficult to take any article seriously that claims in the title that "this technology will change your life." But Twitter, a strange cross between blogging and text messaging, may "a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/136443/2008/10/twitter.html">finally be growing up. Twitter may actually have some real value with respect to public safety, because you can have lots of people subscribed to a Twitter feed that can then quickly send a message to a lot of cellphones all at once. Twitter may also have some uses as an internal messaging systems for businesses and organizations, both for some kinds of routine messages ("the staff meeting starts in 5 minutes") and non-routine messages ("fire in the supply room, evacuate immediately).
Long term, it is hard to guess just how many different communications channels we A) want, and B) can manage. Most of us already suffer from email fatigue. It has taken nearly one hundred years for the automobile to evolve into the trouble-free, powerful transportation systems we take for granted today, and they are still changing and improving. We are barely out of the Model T era of computer and communications technology.
Write-in Against Boucher
Thursday, October 30th, 2008Dissatisfied with Rick Boucher not having an opponent on the ballot this year? There is a solution.
Just don’t skip over voting in the U.S. House race. Hit the write-in button and type something in. It can be your name, a friend’s name, anybody or anything. With the advent of new electronic voting machines in the past couple years the write-in process is much simpler and easier. Some people I know have a method where they will each year write-in one of them against any uncontested Democrat on the ballot.
A good number of write-in votes can serve as a referendum against a candidate with no opponent. I encourage all of you in the 9th District to write-in something against Boucher.
Roanoke running out of Ladder Trucks?
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008DemocracyUpsideDown 2008-10-29 14:45:00
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008DemocracyUpsideDown 2008-10-29 14:34:00
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008AEP, SCC, The Virginia General Assembly, And Economics 101
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) challenge the electric grid
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008Electric utilities and electric car manufacturers are beginning to sit down and talk to each other. At the Austin Alt Car Expo, representatives from the two groups shared opportunities and concerns. One very big concern is how the electric grid will handle the additional power load represented by electric cars. The electricity does not come out of the air for free, and a few solar panels on the roof of such cars will not keep the batteries charged up if you have a commute of more than a mile or two each way.
The biggest problem is managing the time of battery recharging. If everyone drives their electric car home and tries to plug it in at 5:15 PM, the power grid would melt down. So what is needed is a smart grid that can talk to the car and schedule charging at a time when the electric grid can handle the load, like later in the evening.
And that means you need a very reliable and robust community broadband network that enables two way communications between smart house power controllers, smart car power controllers, and electric utilities. Design Nine is working with VPT Energy Systems to design this system.