Think, Draw, Make

Updated on Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 5:00PM by MAD21

By Alan

You want to build something? The steps used to be: Think, sketch, draw, draft, design, prototype, engineer, fabricate, cut, form, machine, assemble, build, mass produce.

Some of those steps required specialized training, or years of experience to do. In the last few decades, the world changed because you could get fabrication from Computer Numerical Controlled machine tools to grind away material from a giant block of metal, plastic or wood.

But, in the last few years, this has dramatically changed. Imagine being able to think of a shape or object, draw it in the computer, and have a real model of it sitting in your hand an hour later. The part isn't carved away from a big block, instead it is created layer by layer from scratch, in plastic, metal,

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Lock Down the Net - Stolen?

By Alan

As a followup article from last year: Lock Down the Net, talking about ways to lock down a home network or computer, we thought this was an interesting development.

There are preliminary news reports that the company that manufactured the Cybersitter software is suing the Chinese government for $2.2 billion in damages in a federal lawsuit. Cybersitter, a family run company, provides Internet filtering software originally intended to prevent inappropriate website access by children in the household.

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Stereotypes with Stereos

By Alan

Most people who think about those who like technology usually picture the stereotypical image: someone who avoids the sun, skips physical fitness as boring, and stays on the couch playing on the computer rather than doing anything else. However, it's pretty obvious to anyone who might have ventured into a fitness center, gym, or even a YMCA, that technology plays a pretty significant part in modern physical activity.

Technology has played an primary role in organized physical fitness ever since 1952, when Dr. Robert A. Bruce, took the treadmill and stuck it under a human for stress testing of the heart and lungs. If you think about it, exercise equipment has to be able to last through thousands of repetitions, look cool, provide good behavior, all while not killing the person using the thing. Exercise provides stimulation to the heart, lungs, muscles, nerves, and even digestion. And while exercise is definitely beneficial to the brain, the act of exercising is not necessarily all that stimulating. When you run outside, at least you have the scenery changing, but running on the treadmill is... well... boring. The only scenery change will be the next sweaty person on the mill next to you, who is also disappointed in the brain stimulation going on.

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Always Connected to Everything, Everywhere

By Alan

I loved this illustration of storage of data as it has developed over the years. We older folks forget how much data we now store quite easily with billions of characters of storage in something smaller than a piece of gum that we carry in our pocket, and ready access to music or data through universally available wireless connections. The current Black Friday deals have hard drives around $100 that can store almost 48,000 hours (2TB drives). If you want to save 5 years worth of music, you can store it cheaply and quickly.

In the same way that anyone under 40 doesn't remember a time when you couldn't call overseas on the telephone, and everyone in a small town knew the telephone operators by name, consider that the kids born today will have no recollection of what it meant to have the phone ring with no answer, either human or robotic. It's difficult to buy a phone without an answering machine in it or a phone number without the capacity for an answering service.

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What is the Smart Grid?

By Alan

If you aren't really sure what it means to have a Smart Grid, then you aren't alone. A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of meeting with several hundred of the nation's electricity industry and government leaders at Gridweek 2009, and each attendee had their own take on what the phrase "Smart Grid" meant. I'm of the opinion that it should end up like an organic system. However, most seem to agree on a few common ingredients about the Smart Grid.

Smart Meters - The AMI (Advanced Metering Initiative) is aimed at replacing the millions of old manual/mechanical power and gas meters with digital meters that can not only report total consumption over a month (just like your power billing cycle), but could also report, minute-by-minute, the current usage of the household or company back to the utility, plus a bunch of other measurements like voltage, power frequency (remember how important that is), even outside temperature. Depending on the manufacturer and the controlling utility, the meter might also be able to receive information from the utility about current and near-future prices, and even curtailment signals for "Demand Response."

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