We all know printer ink cartridges are expensive, but just how expensive? Try up to $8,000 per gallon. Thank God we don’t run this stuff in our cars.
Archive for December, 2007
Printer Ink is Expensive
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007Mom’s Paintings Scanned in to the Computer
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007A couple of months ago I had 4 of my mother’s paintings scanned into the computers. This is the local pro camera shop that is the only place in Amarillo where you can buy a Mac. Scanning paintings is apparently quite popular, because they were a month behind and it actually took 2 months.
I picked them up yesterday and they look fantastic. $25 per piece seemed like a lot at the time, but the quality is definitely there. And I have four jpegs that I can use on the computer to make T-shirts, mugs, screen savers, desktop backgrounds, calendars, etc. Uploading pics isn’t something I want to do at work, so I’ll get these posted tonight.
Another service they have is printing an image on canvas. This is cool. When I picked up the paintings a couple was working with the guy to get photos of their college-age daughter printed on canvas.
Updated:
These are full size scans and may take a while to download; 4-9 meg a piece.
Autumn
Hot Air Balloons
Pheasants
Winter Cabin
NYT: Start-Up Sells Solar Panels at Lower-Than-Usual Cost
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007While many photovoltaic start-up companies are concentrating on increasing the efficiency with which their systems convert sunlight, Nanosolar has focused on lowering the manufacturing cost. Its process is akin to a large printing press, rather than the usual semiconductor manufacturing techniques that deposit thin films on silicon wafers.
Nanosolar’s founder and chief executive, Martin Roscheisen, claims to be the first solar panel manufacturer to be able to profitably sell solar panels for less than $1 a watt. That is the price at which solar energy becomes less expensive than coal.
“With a $1-per-watt panel,†he said, “it is possible to build $2-per-watt systems.â€
According to the Energy Department, building a new coal plant costs about $2.1 a watt, plus the cost of fuel and emissions, he said.
This might be a game changer for solar. You can see “cheap” places online selling big glass panels for $5-$10/watt w/o shipping. Imagine fuel prices being cut in half. I would expect them to sell these panels at $3-$5/watt to home consumers and reap a good bit of profit. Solar plants could be built at the $2/watt rate. A $10,000-$15,000 installation could become $5,000-$10,000.
In Texas and other states, this is a home improvement that the homeowner can make without getting a bill for higher property taxes.
Nanosolar Website
New York Times
Start-Up Sells Solar Panels at Lower-Than-Usual Cost
Wired: Printing Organs on Demand
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007Need a skin graft? A new trachea? A heart patch? Turn on your printer, and let it spit one out.
…
Here’s how it works: A customized milling machine prints a small sheet of bio-paper. This “paper” is a variable gel composed of modified gelatin and hyaluronan, a sugar-rich material. Bio-ink blots — each a little ball of cellular material a few hundred microns in diameter — are then printed onto the paper. The process is repeated as many times as needed, the sheets stacked on top of each other.
Once the stack is the right size — maybe two centimeters’ worth of sheets, each containing a ring of blots, for a tube resembling a blood vessel — printing stops. The stack is incubated in a bioreactor, where cells fuse with their neighbors in all directions. The bio-paper works as a scaffold to support and nurture cells, and should be eaten away by them or naturally degrade, researchers said.
Though it can take less than two minutes to print a sheet of bio-paper with bio-ink, it can take about a week for such a tube to fuse, Forgacs said.
These tissues are produced from the patient’s own cells, so there is no chance of rejection. They hope to make kidneys, livers, skin, blood vessels, and hearts. The pieces of heart start beating on their own after a few hours.
I saw on Wired TV recently, the doctor was showing off a bladder that they printed. He said they had put three of them in people who no longer had bladders due to bladder cancer. He also had skin and blood vessels. I think Dr. Frankenstein would be jealous.
Mission and Long Term Goals of the Laboratory Columbia University
Printing Organs on Demand
Organ ‘Printing’ Creates Beating Heart Cells
Where is my Googlish Database Searching for SQL Server?
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007If you’re stuck using an internal application or maybe even an app that you company bought the Search capability probably sucks. I know every app I’ve worked has 1990’s search technology in it. We’ve all used Google and marveled over its ability to find what we wanted and Google isn’t even recent Search technology. It’s from ~2000 with some updates. Ask.com probably has the best and most recent search engine technology. It’s worth trying out if you’ve only every used Google.
Why do searches on so many applications suck? Most companies making products are cheap about it. They use the search technology that comes with the databases. What’s that? It’s either Full Text Search or Wildcards. Both suck and both are old. Wildcards are * and ? from the DOS command line. Is that old enough for you?
Full Text Search indexes the contents of certains fields. This probably could use a Google-like engine if Microsoft or Oracle chose it, but they don’t. And they should. What a great advantage one could have over the other, heh? Why doesn’t Microsoft package an old MSN engine in SQL Server? Say 3-5 years old.
If you want nice searching in your app, don’t complain to the developer. They can’t help you. Ask the two massive database companies why they aren’t innovating on this. Do they want Google to fund an Open Source initiative in which they donate the 2002 Google search engine? Does MS need another front on which they compete with Google? That’s what will happen if these guys don’t get off their duffs and innovate.
Christmas Upgrades
Monday, December 17th, 2007Christmas is a time for snuggling by the fire with a warm body and a hot toddy or a warm body in a hot teddy. For geeks it’s a time for those year end present to oneself like Dual Core processors, wireless keyboards, Wiis, etc. My list includes a 3 gig upgrade for the MacBook (currently 1 gig) a couple of upgrades to my iPod like a new battery (60% more capacity) and hard drive (15 gig from 4), and maybe a new monitor (bigger than my bedroom TV). It’s also a time for giving; like the eMac to my nephew and the Vista box and spare monitor to someone else. Grandma got DSL recently and I might get rid of some networking crap, er Christmasily give away networking gear.
Two years ago, I got a dual core X2 3800 with 6600 SilentPipe video card. Ahhh, I remember the look on my face (in the mirror) as I set down the box and I picked it up. Good times. Things like that have convince me that I give the best Christmas presents.
Burning a DVD on Mac
Sunday, December 16th, 2007Recently, I needed to burn a CD of photos. Well a DVD really, 7.5 gig. Windows XP provides for burning a CD like this, but not a DVD. This boggles my mind. why do you need a separate overly complex program like Nero just to make a big “floppy” disk.
So, I looked on the Mac. This functionality is built in. The Mac’s install programs are little CD images in the .dmg format. .iso, a CD/DVD image is similar. Windows, even Vista, doesn’t know an .iso file from a whole in the head.
This is how you do it. Use Disk Utility to make an .iso file. Then double click the .iso file to mount it and just copy your files into it. Now, burn this .iso file to disk using Disk Utility.
Pandora Playlist
Saturday, December 15th, 2007A problem with buying CDs the risk of wasting your money. If you’re lucky more than 3 songs are worth a damn. I’m not lucky very often. Sugarcult, Bowling for Soup, and Blue October are probably the exceptions.
Recently, I downloaded PandoraJam. It can record and put them in iTunes. This thing is very much worth $36. It places the songs in its own Pandora Playlist. I wanted this functionality ever since I found Pandora. The music is great, but give me the playlist so I can go somewhere and buy the songs. Now, I have both.
This is my Pandora Station. It’s amazing how little repetition of artists. The maximum number of songs from any one artist is 4. Many show up on the list once or twice. A lot of artists I never heard of before Pandora.
Scripting on Macs
Saturday, December 15th, 2007Have you ever wanted the computer to execute a series of actions. Maybe all the files in My Documents should be syncronized to a backup folder after Word closes. Or you want to rename all the pictures your camera took. Or you want to rotate a whole bunch of photos. Or play a slideshow with one click. These task on Windows takes some programming skill. I’ve written programs and scripts to do three of these. Several hours of development and testing were involved. It was satisfying, but I was left wondering why such simple tasks are so difficult.
Particularly, the file renaming. I would think anyone with, by now, thousands of photos would want something more meaningful than DSC000023.jpg or 2007-05-12-0012.jpg, etc. The best you can accomplish with Windows is MyFileName (1), MyFileName (2),.. Since, we’re on this topic there’s one more thing that should be in modern operating systems. That is the ability to read the EXIF data from camera files. I don’t care if it requires a license fee. MS and Apple should pay it and move on.
While these activities require programming skill in Windows they do not on Mac. There are two ways you can script actions; Automator and AppleScript. If the program has the right hooks it can be manipulated by Automator. That gives this scripting ability to non-Apple programs.
The Unofficial Apple Weblog has started a series on Automation on the Mac. It should be a good overview of what you can do with Mac scripting and how to do it.
I am astounded that with all the copying MS has done of Apple, they have not copied Automator. Their tool that is roughly analogous is Visual Basic Script/CScript/Window Management Instrumentation (WMI), which has several long standing defects and which MS seems to have abandoned 5+ years ago. These tools are pretty much limited to the Windows Operating System and a few MS products.
Compound Discovered on the Artic Ice Sheet
Friday, December 14th, 2007A Canadian survey time made a stunning find this weekend. In the deep north, they came upon hidden compound containing warehouses, factories, a barn, stables, and barracks. An elderly couple are claiming ownership of the residence. Living with them are over a 100 midgets and two dozen reindeer. Contained in the warehouses are an untold number of children’s toys.
The compound resides on a section of ice that has been surveyed many times. Geologist, Matt Helms, speculates that the proximity to magnetic North obscured the facilities for many years. The North pole’s continued and accelerating movement away from the compound probably contributed to its discovery.
Geneticists are concerned over several anomalies in the group. The midgets are of an unusually thin build with narrow fingers and pointed ears. One of the reindeer sports a red nose that glows in the dark. The couple claims to be 300+ years old even though both weigh over 200 lbs. No evidence of genetic testing or manipulation has yet been found. Though, the names of the South Korean scientists who recently created a glow in the dark cat have been found among Mr Claus’ papers under the heading “Nice”.
Canadian Parks officials are concerned that an endangered species of reindeer seems to have been kept as pets and possibly used to pull a sleigh found in the barn. When questioned about the reindeer, Mrs Claus stated that they could fly, but only on December 25th. Mental health professionals from Ontario have been called in. The reindeer will likely be taken and returned to a local nature preserve.
Several companies are claiming copyright, trademark, and trade secrets violations. Among them are Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Hasbro, Fisher-Price, Playskool, and Disney. The Claus’ could be facing millions of dollars in damages. The couple has yet to explain how they are able to procure the knowledge and resources necessary to produce these near perfect forgeries. The contents of the warehouses are being inventoried. The work is expected to stretch through the holidays into next year.
In a curious legal twist, it seems that the Clauses may be able to claim ownership of the North pole. Their claim goes into the legal morass with Canada and Russia. The Clauses having lived for some time on the recently disputed ice sheet seem to hold the strongest claim based on international law.
Update:
While we were preparing this story for publication a black helicopter arrived and took Mr Claus away. Several boxes of what appear to be papers were also loaded into the helicopter. When questioned, Mrs Claus stated that boxes contained the list of “who’s naughty and who’s nice”. She stated that no warrant was offered and the men did not identify themselves.
We researched the identification numbers on the aircraft. It is registered with the KIAM Corp, reported to be a front for the CIA. Some believe that Mr Claus was turned over to the US goverment in a controversial practice known as rendition. One Canadian official stated that the Department of Homeland Security was asking about the list and how it had been generated.
BBC: A child’s view of the $100 laptop
Thursday, December 13th, 2007A parent and child’s review of the OLPC.
A child’s view of the $100 laptop
What will a child in the UK make of a laptop designed to help children in the developing world? Rory Cellan-Jones brought an XO home to find out.
In late November I returned from Nigeria with a sample of the XO laptop.
The computer, made by the One Laptop per Child charity, is a robust little machine designed to entertain and educate children while allowing them to learn by themselves.
I knew there was only one person who could review it for me.
The Nine Year-old’s View
Enter Rufus Cellan-Jones. He is nine, has far more experience of games consoles than computers, and has strong views on most matters.
“Looks fun,” was his only comment when I handed over the small, green and white laptop, explaining that he was the only child in Britain to have one.
Red Fluorescent Cat Cloned
Wednesday, December 12th, 2007Those crazy Asian biologists and their love affair with glow in the dark and fluorescent cloned organisms. Remember the fish and the pigs?
A cloned Turkish Angola kitten, left, gives off a red fluorescence glow while an ordinary one appears to be green in this picture taken under ultraviolet light at a laboratory of Gyeongsang National University in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, Wednesday. The cloned cat’s genes were modified with a fluorescent protein. / Yonhap
Red Fluorescent Cat Cloned
Korea Times
ComputerWorld Careers: IT Manager at the South Pole
Wednesday, December 12th, 2007December 10, 2007 From the start, Henry Malmgren was determined to get to the South Pole. After graduating from Texas Tech University in 1998 with a degree in MIS he applied for a job in the Antarctic every year before NSF contractor Raytheon finally hired him as a network engineer in 2001. Since then he has alternated between the Denver headquarters and the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, spending two summers and two winters there before finally working his way up to IT manager. Staying over is a commitment: Once the winter starts, there’s no way to get in and out of the base until summer begins eight to nine months later. “I thought I would just do this for a single season, but somehow it always seemed too easy to keep coming back,” he says…
JOS: Talk at Yale
Wednesday, December 12th, 2007Joel on Software has a great trilogy of posts from a speach that Joel Spolsky gave to Yale’s graduating class. It’s a walk through his experiences and history of software development for the past ~20 years with insightful commentary. Joel has worked for some recognizable companies; Microsoft on Excel and VBA, Juno, and Viacom. This is worth a quick read even if the technology is unfamiliar to you, because he reveals how familiar those companies are with the technology and their attitudes about it.
Timeline of Science and SciFi
Monday, December 10th, 2007Chronology for Anatomy of Wonder: A Critical Guide to Science Fiction, Fifth Edition
Anatomy of Wonder has always tried to provide a synoptic overview of science fiction, showing both the forest and the trees. Its length makes that difficult. This online chronology provides a more comprehensible, if necessarily a much more sketchy, perspective on many of the most important books, short stories, films, radio and TV over six centuries. Because most SF represents a marriage of imagination and technology, significant scientific and technological developments are also shown, highlighted in boldface. It should be obvious to the reader that the exploration of the implications of scientific and technical developments has occupied fiction writers for far longer than the period since 1929, when science fiction became the increasingly common name for the genre.