After Bendy Buses We Are Getting Bendy Phones
Apparently, companies are working on mobile phones that can be folded and rolled up. It’s here on the BBC, where they refer to them as bendy phones.
It’s an interesting idea, but what will the battery life be like, as any reasonable battery would be substantial and pretty rigid?
I’ll stick with my Nokia 6310i.
Coalition At War Over Wind Farms
This headline is on the front of today’s Sunday Times. The row is also reported here in the Telegraph.
It is to be expected.
I must be one of the few green individuals, who is totally opposed to onshore wind farms. Offshore ones are a different matter.
I’ll give you a simple personal example, which is not about wind farms, but about visual intrusion. My previous house had one of the best views in Suffolk. But it wasn’t perfect, as a water tower on the horizon spoilt the view. Now I only joked about it and on some of the photos, I air-brushed it out. And it was after all several kilometres away on the outskirts of Haverhill. If they decided to knock it down, I’d have bought drinks all round. Now that was one water tower, how would I have felt about a line of wind turbines on the intervening ridge. It would have probably made my house unsaleable.
So I can understand why people get upset about visual intrusion.
But let’s face it too, most who live in the countryside are some of the most energy wasteful people you could want to meet. Many have large uneconomical vehicles that they drive up and down from London every weekend. And they often live in large energy-inefficient houses. So asking them to accept wind turbines is like asking a vegan to eat meat every day.
No wonder the countryside, which generally votes Tory, doesn’t want wind turbines.
In fact I find it rather surprising that anybody, anywhere in the world, wants wind turbines on a beautiful landscape. It’s just like sticking fake moles all over the Mona Lisa.
I am surprised that wind farms haven’t come under physical attack from their opponents. But I can’t find any incidents on the Internet.
Offshore wind farms though should be developed.
There is so much less visual intrusion and I believe innovative designs can make them bigger and at less cost per watt. I’m possibly back to my old favourite of the Balaena.
FIFA Sees Sense On Goal-Line Technology
At last! It’s all here about how the old farts have caved in to technology!
I’ll believe it when I see it in action.
A Building For Eureka Moments
The winner of the Stirling prize was announced last night and it’s reported here on the BBC’s web site. I particularly liked this bit, about the winning building; the Sainsbury Laboratory at Cambridge University.
Stanton Williams received a £20,000 prize. Director Alan Stanton described the design as a 21st Century cloister, which encouraged scientists to interact and exchange ideas.
“Two scientists working on two pieces of research could bump into each other in the corridor and have a eureka moment, and say, my God, there’s the possibility of some really interesting scientific breakthrough here,” he said.
“Quite often, accidents are important, in science as they are in any creative endeavour. The building is there to try to ambush scientists into meeting and talking.”
I’ve worked in some crap buildings, most notably the electronics lab at Enfield Rolling Mills, but some good ones too, like ICI’s state-of-the-art offices for the 1960s in Runcorn. But then until probably about 1980, I rarely saw a scientist, researcher or innovator in anything pleasant. Even banks in those days had some really grim premises, if Lloyds Bank’s offices in Lombard Street were anything to go by. The Chief Management Accountant, who I effectively worked for, had a dingy office tucked away on a mezzanine behind a stair-case.
Could all of this, explain our dismal economic performance in those years? Anybody with a brain felt unwanted and went where they were appreciated.
We really don’t take working conditions for researchers and innovators seriously. Hopefully, this new lab in Cambridge will set the new standard.
Are The Best Ideas Started In Garages?
The storage of electricity has always been a problem and it’s one that will get worse as we get more renewables like wind-power, that tend to produce electricity at variable times.
So this article on the BBC web site caught my eye. I particularly like this bit.
The technology was originally developed by Peter Dearman, a garage inventor in Hertfordshire, to power vehicles.
Just like Hewlett-Packard, which started in a garage.
What is the most significant fact, is the IMechE have got involved.
This might be one of those ideas that runs and runs.
It has a lot of things going for it.
- It’s all technology we have had around for years.
- It doesn’t require large amounts of land.
- The plants could also be used to say produce liquid carbon dioxide, nitrogen or oxygen, where they are needed, instead of bringing it in by tanker. On the other hand liquid oxygen is dangerous stuff to have around.
I shall be watching this story in the future.
An Interesting Slant On Apple
I found this article on the BBC web site. I like this interesting snippet.
This is what happens when a company is too cheap to invest in research and development. Did you know that Apple spends far less on R&D than any of its rivals – a paltry 2% of revenues, versus 14% for Google and Microsoft?
I’ve run R&D and you must spend to keep ahead of the game. Perhaps, Apple are too interested in making money?
But mugs will still queue up for the iPhone5. I won’t!
Cyclehoops
I hadn’t heard of Cyclehoop until I saw a piece about how they have got a large export order from Vancouver, on the strength of their presence at the Olympics.
I like them, as hopefully, they’ll tidy up bikes on the streets and we’ll get less clutter that I’ll walk into. Admittedly, I do it less now, as my eyesight may not be perfect, but I’ve learned how to use it properly.
One thing I like about the design is that they are compact and can be very bright, so they aren’t among that large class of street furniture you trip over.
I’ll be looking out for some in use.
On another matter, their web site is very professional.
They also fulfil my theory, that there are many ways to redesign what we already have.
Looking at the gallery on the web site, you see too that it’s not a one-product company. They’re more a solutions company, that you go to when you want to park any number of bikes, from one to several thousands.
The Future Of Freeview
I have been looking at an article which describes digital terrestial television in the UK, which is generally referred to as Freeview.
At present there are a hundred or so TV and radio channels, most of which are free-to-air, but some like Sky Sports One and Two are available through various subscription methods like BT Vision, which I have.
When the switch-over is complete and everybody in the UK can get their free-to-air channels in a digital form, terrestrially if they want to, the old analogue signal can be switched off and the spectrum released can be sold off.
I had thought that this free spectrum would end up with those providing mobile services, but it would appear that there’s nothing technically to stop a broadcaster buying spectrum and using it to broadcast other services, whether they be free-to-air or by subscription.
I did say technically, as they would probably have to be regulated by the British authorities.
So would this have attractions for other broadcasters? The obvious candidate would be Sky, as it might like to setup a new Freeview multiplexer to broadcast all their channels terrestrially, probably using similar technology to that used by BT Vision.
It would also allow a powerful sports body such as the Premier League or Formula One to have their own channel.
I think the days in the UK, where you needed a satellite dish to get certain channels may well be numbered. I don’t think Sky will be objecting, as they know how to price a service to maximise the revenue. They are also one of the partners in Freeview.
Can We Trust Anything Nick Clegg Says?
Did Nick Clegg know the hornet’s nest he’d stir up by his temporary tax on the rich?
If he didn’t then he must be rather stupid and can we trust anything else he says?
But then politicians in this country, are often pilloried for simple statements. Remember, Norman Tebbit and getting on your bike and Harold Wilson on the pound in your pocket.
If we need to raise more money there are other ways to do it.
For instance, you could put a black box in every car and charge per mile. The Dutch government proposed this and promptly lost an election.
The only true statement is that from Dieter Helm, who said “Ministers who try to pick winners should remember that losers tend to pick governments.”
I wonder how many bright brains and successful companies are rethinking their future because of Nick Clegg’s statements.
Let’s say you are a small hi-tech Internet-based company, writing say apps for smart-phones. You can do this anywhere in the world, so perhaps if you fancied working in say Barbados, you might go.
If Nick Clegg had kept quiet, he wouldn’t have given anybody the idea to go.
Politicians seem to forget that most of our successful developments could be done from anywhere. They should make sure that they don’t encourage people to relocate. Except of course to the UK.
Disruptive Innovation
I’ve not heard the term before, but read this article. It starts with this question and answer.
Question: what do these companies have in common?
Skype, Spotify, Marks and Spencer, Whipcar, Zopa, Zilok, Kiva, Patagonia, Kickstarter, Café Direct, Taskrabbit, Buzzcar and InterfaceFLOR.
Two of my favourite innovators; Zopa and Kiva are mentioned in the same breath as quite a few companies like, Skype, Spotify and M&S.
If the article has a fault, it’s that it misses out a couple of well known names, who the writer would call disruptive innovators.
I would have thought ARM Holdings and Dyson should be on the list. And I would think that a certain company called Metier Management Systems was one of the first! So we were only a shark in a small pond, but we completely rebuilt the pond.
The Anonymous Widower 