Modular Solar Energy
From
Scientific American. Oerlikon's industrial technology (brand name: micromorph) allows the construction of modular solar panels (1.4sqm, 25Kg) that are more efficient (9% of energy is converted in electricity, up to 95Watt of power) and don't contain toxic or rare elements.
Quoting:
"We're taking … an Intel-inside type of approach," says Chris O'Brien, Oerlikon's marketing chief in North America. "We're able to sell customers a turnkey [assembly] line with guaranteed module performance and throughput at a fixed price."
Labels: Technology, Thank God.
According to
Spiegel, on the 20th of November there should be 2 million objects online, linked to European culture, in a sort of gargantuan encyclopedia on the Internet.
The number is supposed to grow to 10 million by 2010, in an effort to keep up with the competition started by Google book search, that has already digitised 10 million volumes.
Martin Selmayr, a spokesman for Reding's office at the European Commission, said the project involves organizing various digital projects already underway at Europe's state libraries and national archives, so the books and films and photos and paintings can be clicked through on a single site.
No one at the European Commission scans books. But Reding's office does have to smooth out compatibility problems, and make sure all the scanned files work with all the other scanned files. The libraries also need to avoid duplicating their efforts, since Europeana has no particular need for twenty-seven digital copies of Goethe's Faust.
The decision about what to scan first is not made by politicians, rather, the EU entrusted the decision to librarians and archivists, and each of them have clearly their different priorities.
Again, it seems to me, that the model for the organisation of this project is that of network of networks, and the main concern of the top level is compatibility and data durability. The metadata seem to be on the site.
Labels: Databases, Technology
Nearly there...?
Plastic logic has announced a new e-ink display. It may change something...
Labels: Technology
Ecclesiastical networks.
A Franciscan nun runs the team that build the
vatican site.
Sister Judith Zoebelein, editorial director of the Holy See, explains how her purpose is to form local communities over the global Internet:
The idea is to use the medium of the Internet, the energy of the Internet, to bring together a group and from that group create local Church, we call it, local community and then bring that local community back into the actual world...
Here. And at
LIFT.
Labels: Technology, Third Millennium Church, Those religious people...
Installed.
Pope Benedict XVI has become the first pontiff to harness solar power to provide energy for the Vatican.
According to
BBC news.
Labels: Technology, Thank God., The Pope
Hi, Robot
From an
article on the Economist, updates from
Automatica, a two-yearly robotics trade fair held in Munich:
Robots are continuing to get cheaper—a medium-sized robot able to stack goods onto pallets now goes for about $50,000. And the cost of installing and maintaining them is falling as they become better adapted.
Not there yet...
Labels: Technology
The
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is planning to collaborate with
highly respected international organizations such as the United Nations Foundation, United Nations entities such as the World Health Organization, UNICEF and International Red Cross.
The initiative is called Humanitarian Technology Challenge and its purpose is finding answers to real world problems that Non Governmental Organisations face in areas of healthcare in the developing world.
The list of preliminary challenges includes:
Tracking/monitoring of supply shipment.
Patient identificatio/Electronic Health records
Affordable data communications to/from remote field offices
Power generation and storage in remote areas
Remote training for device use, treatment regimens.
The slides have been presented to
IEEE - International conference on Robotics and Automation - ICRA 2008 few days ago by, I suspect, Gianmarco Veruggio.
Note that sponsors' links are also interesting.
My question would be: why are they doing this only now?
Labels: Life is a serious business, Technology
From the letter that Benedict XVI sent to the
FAO a couple of days ago, I quote something I think media overlooked.
As I wrote and repeat, sorry for my clumsy translation.
In questo particolare momento, che vede la sicurezza alimentare minacciata dal rincaro dei prodotti agricoli, vanno poi elaborate nuove strategie di lotta alla povertà e di promozione dello sviluppo rurale. Ciò deve avvenire anche attraverso processi di riforme strutturali, che consentano di affrontare le sfide della medesima sicurezza e dei cambiamenti climatici; inoltre, occorre incrementare la disponibilità del cibo valorizzando l’industriosità dei piccoli agricoltori e garantendone l’accesso al mercato. L’aumento globale della produzione agricola potrà, tuttavia, essere efficace, solo se sarà accompagnato dall’effettiva distribuzione di tale produzione e se essa sarà destinata primariamente alla soddisfazione dei bisogni essenziali. Si tratta di un cammino certamente non facile, ma che consentirebbe, fra l’altro, di riscoprire il valore della famiglia rurale: essa non si limita a preservare la trasmissione, dai genitori ai figli, dei sistemi di coltivazione, di conservazione e di distribuzione degli alimenti, ma è soprattutto un modello di vita, di educazione, di cultura e di religiosità. Inoltre, sotto il profilo economico, assicura un’attenzione efficace ed amorevole ai più deboli e, in forza del principio di sussidiarietà, può assumere un ruolo diretto nella catena di distribuzione e di commercializzazione dei prodotti agricoli destinati all'alimentazione, riducendo i costi dell’intermediazione e favorendo la produzione su piccola scala.
That I would translate as:
In this specific moment, when the safety of food is threatened by the increment in price of agricultural products, new strategies to fight poverty and promotion of rural development must be elaborated. This must happen through a process of structural reforms, that allows the confrontation of the challenges of the safety itself and the climate changes; furthermore, it is necessary to increase the availability of food that renders valuable the activity of the little famers, guaranteeing their access to the market. However the global increment of agricultural production will be effective only if it will be accompanied by the actual distribution of such production and if it will be mainly targeted to satisfy basic necessity. It is certainly not an easy path, but one that would lead, among other things, to the rediscovery of the value of the rural family: this (value) is not limited to the preservation of the transmission from parents to children of the systems of cultivation, conservation and distibution of food, but it is above all a model of life, education, culture and devotion. Furthermore, from the economic point of view, it assures an effective and loving care of the unprotected, and because of the principle of sussidiariety, adopts a direct role in the distribution and commercialisation chain of products destined to the sustenance, reducing, in this way, the intermediation costs and encouraging the production on small scale.
So it seems to me that the Pope here is mainly critising economies of scale applied to agriculture, fostering the model of the small farmer for the production and distribution of food.
Technology is morally oriented because, specifically, it can code intensionality.
In other words, a technological product can show a purpose and a purpose can be qualified morally.
I can see as part of the solution of the problem the development of technologies whose aim is that of helping the small farmers consolidate their position on the market (It has already happened to me to see a milking robot...)
This is another thread of thoughts; I will keep an eye around for ideas on the subject.
Labels: eLabora, Technology
If you didn't drop it, don't pick it up.
What type of skills do you need in order to contribute to a peacekeeping mission?
People at
Zdnet.co.uk have been invited to a UN
Information and communication task force survival training exercise in Pisa.
Quoting:
IT is integral to any relief project as, without the two-way radios, portable satellite terminals, and GPS receivers the technical specialists set-up, it is almost impossible for the rest of the aid agency personnel to communicate with each other and the people they are there to help.
The article gives some detail on the course and some interesting links of foundations that provide funds and human resources to intervention in areas of crisis.
The training exercise took place in a military base, home to the Italian Airborn Brigade 'Folgore'
Labels: Life is a serious business, Technology
