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Sony and Apple going OLED?

November 19, 2009 by bobbrowning

If you want an Apple tablet you will have to wait until next year.    A wag pointed out in the Inquirer that  “THE SECOND COMING of Apple’s Newton tablet, which has been hyped more than the return of Christ, is now looking equally delayed.”  The interesting news is that the reason for the delay is that they are changing the screen to OLED technology (Organic LED).

This doesn’t mean that the screen is some tree-hugging new age stuff, just that it uses certain organic chemicals in its construction.  The result is a screen that doesn’t need a back light, is much thinner and more flexible that existing screens and has better colours and contrast.   In other words the best thing since LCDs.

These screens are not cheap of course, new technology never is, so they won’t be giving away the new tablets with your box of cornflakes.

Sony is looking at this too and is proposing  a laptop without a keyboard.  Isn’t that the same as a tablet?

So in ten years time will I take my laptop out of my pocket, unfold it to a big screen and keyboard and work away?

Maybe.

Posted in Technology | Leave a Comment »

Peak Oil Production Year – 2009

November 15, 2009 by bobbrowning

The International Energy Agency (IEA) produces oil production forecasts which are used by governments around the world to plan their future energy needs.  The last forecast showed a growth from 84 million barrels per day (Mb/d) to 106 Mb/d in 2030 which is exactly the production required to meet the expected growth in GDP over this period.

So that is all right then.

The University of Uppsala in Sweden has taken a close look at these figures and finds that they are based on recovery rates which exceed, by a large margin, the recovery rates ever achieved with any previous oilfield development.  Plugging in more realistic recovery rates they show a slow decline in world production to 75 Mb/d in 2030.

It depends how fast you develop the fields of course and they have used different assumptions that move the peak oil date from now till 2013.  However whatever assumptions they make the 2030 figure always comes out around 70-75 Mb/d.

It looks as if the IEA has simply projected requirements for oil and assumed that they would magically be met as they always have in the past.  However Uppsala has news for them – the stuff can run out and is running out.

This is a massive difference and given that big capital energy projects have a very long lead time, this level of error can blow the government’s plans out of the water.  Like the efforts on climate change, we have a choice.

  1. Bite the bullet and do something – even if it is expensive
  2. Put our heads in the sand and hope it comes out all right.

With todays miserable excuse for a government, guess which one we will go for.

No prizes.

Posted in The-rest | Leave a Comment »

Peak oil is coming

October 26, 2009 by bobbrowning

I find it absolutely amazing the way the human race is sleep-walking into a couple of related disasters. Our children are going to ask ‘what were they thinking of’.

Firstly we all know about the half-hearted attempts by our government to address climate change.  The other highly related issue is peak oil.

We have known for years that oil production in any system follows a bell-shaped production curve (the Hubbert curve – check out ‘peak oil’ in Wikipedia). This means that inevitably the world’s production will reach a peak and then slowly decline.  If you think abut it for 10 minutes that is pretty obvious.  If oil demand continues to rise then the inevitable result is a rapid rise in the oil price, shortages, and a major economic crisis.

When will this happen?  Expert opinion varies from ‘it is happening now’ to ‘after 2030’.  The UK Energy Research Council says around 2020.

This is after the next election, so the politicians obviously don’t need to bother with this.  There are much more urgent problems.

Someone needs to teach them the difference between ‘urgent’ and ‘important’.  Not taking action now has consequences.

The solution to the climate change issue and the peak oil issue is the same.  Renewable energy and nuclear.  It would be nice to say no nuclear, but we have ignored this issue for so long that a nuclear period is probably inevitable.  If the crisis is coming in ten years we need to give this serious attention and do something serious now.

Posted in Still-coding | Leave a Comment »

Ebooks

October 23, 2009 by bobbrowning

There is a lot of activity on the ebook front.  If you have not been following these developments, drop by your local Waterstones and try out a Sony ebook.  You load up your book(s) and read on a screen, surprising like reading words on paper.

These gadgets use different technology for the screen. These (Electronic paper) screens have two really useful properties.

  1. You read them using ambient light rather than being back-lit which is much easier on the eye.
  2. They only use power when the screen changes, ideal for reading.  Power consumption is minute.

You can carry a whole library around in a gadget about the size of a paperback.

I really like the reader gadgets, but haven’t bought one because Continue Reading »

Posted in Technology | Leave a Comment »

Netbook, Tablet or Courier

September 23, 2009 by bobbrowning

My mobile phone is too limited for any real work, my laptop is too big and only has a few hours battery life.  I need a smaller computing device that doesn’t weigh much or take much space, but which will do proper computing  jobs plus of course web surfing.

I still think the favourite is the netbook.  A possibility is the upcoming Apple tablet.  However Microsoft have come up with a third alternative that is really cool.  This is a tablet-like device, but with two screens, that folds.   They call it the Courier.  I really think two screens can work really well.

But no keyboard?

More details and a little video here: http://gizmodo.com/5365299/courier-first-details-of-microsofts-secret-tablet

Posted in Still-coding | 1 Comment »

Netbook – Smartbook

September 3, 2009 by bobbrowning

A smartphone is a mobile phone with some computer capabilities, such as web browsing and email.  A Netbook is a small notebook computer.  So a Smartbook is what?  Something between a Smartphone and a Netbook.?

You might think so.

Take device A.  This has 64 meg memory, a mobile phone operating system (windows CE or Android) a couple of gig of flash memory.  In other words the same spec as a smartphone but without the phone bit and with a screen and keyboard.

Device B.  A gig of main memory, maybe even a dual core processor, 160 gig disk, a full-blown multi-user operating system with a full set of office applications.

Obviously device A is a smartbook and device B a netbook.

Wrong. If device A has an intel processor and a Microsoft operating system and device B has an ARM processor and Unix.

It is madness, but the definition of a smartbook now is apparenrlty that it has an ARM processor because ARM processors are the ones you have in your mobile phone.

This is a triumph of marketing for Microsoft/Intel.

It has to stop.

Posted in Still-coding | Leave a Comment »

Eternal Earth-Bound Pets

August 18, 2009 by bobbrowning

I love this site http://eternal-earthbound-pets.com/

Quote

You’ve committed your life to Jesus. You know you’re saved. But when the Rapture comes what’s to become of your loving pets who are left behind?   Eternal Earth-Bound Pets takes that burden off your mind.

We are a group of dedicated animal lovers, and atheists. Each Eternal Earth-Bound Pet representative is a confirmed atheist, and as such will still be here on Earth after you’ve received your reward.  Our network of animal activists are committed to step in when you step up to Jesus.


Posted in The-rest | Leave a Comment »

Swoopo

August 17, 2009 by bobbrowning

About a year ago I blogged about Telebid, the on-line bidding site with a difference. The difference is that you need to be a chump to fall for the proposition.  I just checked to see if they had been closed down now, but I see they are now called Swoopo.    (www.swoopo.co.uk)

It looks like a very cool auction site with some real bargains. There is an upmarket Viaio laptop going for £44.80p  What is the catch?

The catch is that it costs money to bid. They state very clearly that bidding starts at 10p and it costs 50p for each bid. And each bid ups the price by 2p or 10p.  Do some math.  The Sony was a 2p auction, so a price of £44.80  means that there must have been 2240 bids.  At 50p per bid that means they have made well over a grand in bidding fees with five minutes to go.

In a bizarre twist, they are auctioning packs of 300 bids (worth £150). One pack was sold for £28.32 on a 2p auction so they have made an amazing £708.

Is this a scam? Not at all.  They are not cheating and are very clear about how the site works.  You just have to be dumb to fall for it.

This was started by a very clever German guy  with presumably no conscience  at all.  There is an interview with the Manager of Sucker Development  – sorry Business development here.

Posted in The-rest | 3 Comments »

You would think Amazon could get something as simple as this right

August 14, 2009 by bobbrowning

I have been receiving an Amazon Web Services newsletter but decided to un-subscribe.

Easy – you just hit the unsubscribe button and you are done: right?

Wrong.  Number one you have to sign in.  I had forgotten my password.  The password refresh function requires that you enter a code from a distorted image.  So distorted I had to have two goes.

I got the email, reset the password.  Then I was taken to the shopping page.

Back to the email, clicked on the link again, went to a page with my name, address and checkbox for this newsletter.  I unchecked the checkbox and submitted.

Error!  I have to enter a valid State.  Uh.  In the first place I hadn’t changed my address, and in the second place we don’t have states in the UK.

So I enter a state (XX) the postman with think they are blowing him kisses.

Done.

About five minutes for something that should have taken 5 seconds.  Not to mention my blood pressure.

Posted in Still-coding | Leave a Comment »

Project Governance

August 5, 2009 by bobbrowning

I overheard a guy talking on his mobile phone on the train yesterday.  I heard the term ‘Project Governance’ for the first time.  What a useful phrase.  And how out of date I must be – it even has a Wikipedia entry.

Posted in The-rest | 1 Comment »

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