4:16 PM
Japanese emergency services are trialing a small rescue robot that can search rubble for survivors and deliver water, food, or cell phones in disaster zones. They wish to make this robot a global standard, since people die from a lack of water, food, and despair (which the cell phone helps with since if they can talk with others they won't feel alone):
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/rescuebot-can-sniff-out-disaster-20100730-10zov.html
Interesting wind farm is being established in Hawaii to deal with the problem about how generators cannot export surplus energy to neighboring companies or import power when there is no wind. Storage batteries are central to the system because peak wind power generation and peak demand times do not coincide. Computer control things so that the grid only sees a gradual increase or decrease from the power flow from the wind farms:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/business/energy-environment/28storage.html?_r=1
More energy is wasted to generate the food thrown away by people in the US than is available in oil and gas reserves off the US's coastlines. 16% of the energy consumed in the US is used to produce food and 25% of food is wasted each year, the equivalent of about 2150 trillion kilojoules lost each year!
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727712.700-us-food-waste-worth-more-than-offshore-drilling.html
The worst smog to hit Moscow in almost a decade has resulted in pollution levels 10x above safe levels, which means that Moscow residents are inhaling the equivalent of 40 cigarettes every few hours!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100728/hl_nm/us_russia_moscow_smog
BlackBerry service may be banned in India unless RIM sets up a proxy server in India to enable security agencies to monitor e-mail traffic:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-29/blackberry-said-to-face-possible-ban-in-india-over-security-considerations.html
It appears that MetroPCS will get the first LTE smartphone in the US--the FCC just approved a Samsung LTE/CDMA phone that appears to be headed for MetroPCS. The article also discusses photos of the Verizon LTE dongle that will be out soon:
http://www.intomobile.com/2010/07/30/lte-in-the-usa-first-lte-mobile-phone-passes-through-the-fcc-verizon-lte-dongle-leaked/
Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer said that Apple has "sold more [iPads] than I'd like them to sell" and says that getting Windows 7 slates and tablets into the market is one of his top priorities right now:
http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-ballmer-apple-has-sold-more-ipads-than-id-like-2010-7#ixzz0vAizMYiy
The column points out that Ballmer put down the iPad as recently as last month...the amazing iPad sales sure have changed how Microsoft views slates and tablets:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/can-microsoft-imitate-apple-one-more-time-328
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/rescuebot-can-sniff-out-disaster-20100730-10zov.html
Interesting wind farm is being established in Hawaii to deal with the problem about how generators cannot export surplus energy to neighboring companies or import power when there is no wind. Storage batteries are central to the system because peak wind power generation and peak demand times do not coincide. Computer control things so that the grid only sees a gradual increase or decrease from the power flow from the wind farms:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/business/energy-environment/28storage.html?_r=1
More energy is wasted to generate the food thrown away by people in the US than is available in oil and gas reserves off the US's coastlines. 16% of the energy consumed in the US is used to produce food and 25% of food is wasted each year, the equivalent of about 2150 trillion kilojoules lost each year!
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727712.700-us-food-waste-worth-more-than-offshore-drilling.html
The worst smog to hit Moscow in almost a decade has resulted in pollution levels 10x above safe levels, which means that Moscow residents are inhaling the equivalent of 40 cigarettes every few hours!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100728/hl_nm/us_russia_moscow_smog
BlackBerry service may be banned in India unless RIM sets up a proxy server in India to enable security agencies to monitor e-mail traffic:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-29/blackberry-said-to-face-possible-ban-in-india-over-security-considerations.html
It appears that MetroPCS will get the first LTE smartphone in the US--the FCC just approved a Samsung LTE/CDMA phone that appears to be headed for MetroPCS. The article also discusses photos of the Verizon LTE dongle that will be out soon:
http://www.intomobile.com/2010/07/30/lte-in-the-usa-first-lte-mobile-phone-passes-through-the-fcc-verizon-lte-dongle-leaked/
Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer said that Apple has "sold more [iPads] than I'd like them to sell" and says that getting Windows 7 slates and tablets into the market is one of his top priorities right now:
http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-ballmer-apple-has-sold-more-ipads-than-id-like-2010-7#ixzz0vAizMYiy
The column points out that Ballmer put down the iPad as recently as last month...the amazing iPad sales sure have changed how Microsoft views slates and tablets:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/can-microsoft-imitate-apple-one-more-time-328