Shapeways Showing An Interest In Australia?

     I haven't got any particular commentary to add to this link, but I really like the idea behind Shapeways.  If they're keen to have a more local Australian presence, I'm keen to help promote them!
     Shapeways is essentially a rapid prototyping service - you send them a 3D computer model and they send you back a physical object.  Check out their website if that sounds at all interesting to you.

Greens Want to Give Money For Nothing

     Interesting statement from Queensland's Greens candidate Larissa Waters:

"What we're saying is people should be paid for all of the energy they generate, irrespective of whether they then use some of it in their home,"

     I wonder if I can just tell them that I generated a massive amount of electricity, but managed to use it all?  Or that I generated it, but "lost" it on the way to the grid.  I mean the end result to everybody outside of my home is the same, I'm not giving them anything.  Does it matter if I didn't really generate anything?  Do I still get paid?

     I think I'm generally a fairly "green" leaning person, but things like this just annoy the heck out of me.  If you want to get serious about solar for Australia, fund some solar plants.  Solar updraft towers or one of those systems based on parabolic reflectors and a centralised heating location like the Andasol one both seem like a good idea to me.

     Centralising generation gives higher energy conversion efficiencies, cheaper installation cost per Joule, cheaper maintenance and easier load balancing.

     Having each individual home generate its own electricity means lower transmission losses & a greater sense of contributing, but that's about it.

/rant

BP (soon to be ex) CEO's payout

     Report on Treehugger about the payout that Tony Hayward is likely to receive when he resigns.  Just a little under $19 million in Australian dollars.  While it's not particularly surprising, CEO's walk away with giant payouts for doing lousy jobs all the time, it is still very disappointing.
     Mind you, I think it's most likely that the actual oil spill probably had nothing to do with the guy - but $19 million for the horrible PR job that he's done since then?  It just shows how wrong society has gotten some things.

Jelloware!

     The title really speaks for itself, cups made from Jelly!  Well almost, it's actually agar agar which is seaweed based - the end effect is very similar though.
     The Way We See The World is just a design house, so there's no purchase links on the website, which is a shame.  I'd buy some for novelty value, though a lot of the attraction for me is the flavourings they've put into the glasses.
     Not that I think the flavourings are really a good addition, but the idea of having "rosemary-beet" flavour slowly infusing into my summer drink is just gross enough that I'd like to try it.  Probably only once though.

Blade Electric Vehicles Unhappy Over Government Preference For i-MiEV

     So it seems that the governments decision to lease a trial fleet of 40 electric vehicles has met with some response other than shrugging after all.
     The director of Blade Electric Vehicles is (understandably) upset that the government has entered into an agreement to lease 40 Mitsubishi i-MiEVs, rather than Blade Electrons.  While I sympathise with him, and think it would be nice to see the government supporting an Australian company, it's readily apparent to me why they haven't.
     The Electron simply doesn't have the visual impact of the i-MiEV.  I doubt very much that such things as performance and cost (two areas where Mr Blade states the Electron betters the i-MiEV) even entered into the equation.  With a fleet of only 40 cars I'd imagine the only thing the government wants from the test fleet is positive press.  Due to the shortcuts taken in creating the Electron - it's a Hyundai Getz retrofitted with an electric powertrain - the vehicles would go completely unnoticed on the road.

Blade Electron

Mitsubishi i-MiEV

     Pretty clear which one of these stands out more.  Maybe BEV should invest in some ugly bolt on fibreglass panels to make their vehicle look more techy.

HydroSTICK - Hand Held Fuel Cell

     So it seems like Horizon have finally got their hand held fuel cell to market.  I like the system that these guys have come up with, basically instead of batteries you plug in little "Solid Hydrogen" cartridges.  Ok, I'm absolutely sure that's marketing guff and the cartridges only contain "Solid Hydrogen" in the loosest sense, but it's still a neat idea.  And ok, so the cartridges aren't really equivalent to batteries - though I'm sure Horizon loves that comparison.  Batteries are completely self contained, hook them into a circuit and electricity flows.  Attach a wire to either end of a HydroSTIK and nothing much will happen, it's just a fuel tank.  The hydrogen needs to be recombined with oxygen in another unit (the fuel cell) to get anything useful from it.
     Horizon make a couple of different fuel cells for use with their HydroSTIK, one designed for RC cars (Ok, that's kinda neat...) and one designed to be useful, providing power for usb devices - the MiniPAK.  Everything looks pretty slick, however there's a few shortcomings.
     Firstly there's the energy density, the HydroSTIK is quoted as having 12 Watt hours of energy.  Probably this doesn't mean much to you?  It's about the same amount of energy as you get in a C size battery, or about 3 AA's.  Volume of the HydroSTIK is a little larger than a C cell though, it's a little narrower & a fair bit longer.  Overall it's got about an extra 10% volume.  So the energy density is down on your standard garden variety batteries, but not by _that_ much.  An extra 10% bulk to feel good about my green ways?  I might live with that.
     But...  Ooops, I forgot - the HydroSTIK doesn't do anything without its fuel cell.  Hmm, the extra bulk is starting to add up quite a bit now.  Looking at the size of the Horizon fuel cells, I'd guess the overall package is only going to have around half the energy density of current batteries.  Not really ready for prime time yet.

     Now looking at the MiniPAK device charger they're quoting a maximum output of 400mA.  This is also just a little underwhelming - the USB spec is meant to be able to provide up to 500mA at maximum capacity.  I think there's some devices (I'm looking at you iPhone - I know it won't charge from only 300mA) which may not like only getting 400mA.  It seems a little random that they've only designed the MiniPAK to put out 400mA, but maybe that's the best they could get with the technology they're using.  So keep in mind if you're using your MiniPAK to charge something, it'll likely go slower than it would plugged into a USB port.

     So while I think that the whole HydroSTIK ecosystem is a neat idea, to my mind it's really just proof of concept stuff at the minute.  I hope that Horizon is successful enough to be able to get generations two and three of their products to market though, then I think I'd really be interested.

MasterChef Vs. Politicians - Foodies Win!

     I'm not sure if I should be laughing or blushing for our country over this.  It seems as though the televised debate for the upcoming election has been rescheduled to avoid the finals of MasterChef.  Are there really that many people that are deeply interested in both politics and MasterChef?

     I mean, at a maximum there'll only likely be around 20% of Australia watching Masterchef, and I'd guess about a third of that watching the election debate.  So it'll probably work out to be around 1 in 100 that's keen on watching both?  I thought we were a democracy, the majority of people aren't going to watch both shows.  Is it really worth the global humiliation that'll be heaped on us because of this due to those few people? :)

     (Ok, I'm definitely coming down on the laughing side over this.  I really do love Australia sometimes.)

iPhone Cases & Windows Anti Virus

     I was thinking about Apple's decision to give away cases with the iPhone, and wondering about how much of an impact that was going to have on 3rd party case manufacturers.  I'm sure it'll hurt them a little bit, but I think that the majority of cases get bought for customisation as much as protection.  Either because people like the look of the case, or because it provides some extra functionality that the phone (or other device) doesn't already have.  For mtcase of choice, the Speck ToughSkin, it's a combination of both.  It is more skewed towards function than aesthetics, but that just gives it more aesthetic appeal to me.  Anyway, enough sidetracking.
     With the apparent fix to most of the iPhone 4's reception issues being a case, the accessory industry was probably counting on a windfall.  A bumper season even.  (Sorry, couldn't resist.)  With the Apple cases being given away for free it seems they're likely going to sell less cases rather than more.
     What I find interesting is the potential parallel between iPhones with cases, and MS Windows with antiviral software.  If you're reliant on having a case with your iPhone 4 or having to suffer through a miserable user experience, then you're in a similar boat to PC users having to use antiviral software.
     Now the way the two situations have come about are almost polar opposites. the need for antiviral software grew slowly over time.  While some may argue that the need for it came about due to Microsoft's poorly engineered product, in reality it was more to do with a changing world and people who worked hard to find flaws and outsmart the MS engineers.  If the Apple situation really is due to the antennas shorting, then the need for a case has just been thrust abruptly into the marketplace due to some bad engineering.
     It makes me chuckle to imagine accessary makers banding together to complain to Apple at the launch of the iPhone 5, as due to design improvements cases were no longer needed.  Thinking about things in that light really highlights how ridiculous McAfee & Symatec's complaints of anti-competitive behaviour by Microsoft when it was trying to launch its own anti-virus product really were.

     Just to clarify my view here - I don't really believe that cases on the iPhone 4 are as necessary as anti-viral software on Windows.  It's just an interesting parallel to ponder.

Apple's Antenna Press Conference

     So Apple has held a press conference attempting to reassure everybody that the iPhone 4 antenna issues aren't really any worse than any other smartphone.  So thanks for that Apple, you've pointed out that I can "Death Grip" my 3GS into a state of minimal reception as well.  Am I meant to feel better about the iPhone 4 issues because of this?  I do not.
     I accept that there's going to be some signal attenuation when you hold the phone and cover the antenna.  I accept that all phones do this to some extent, it's just physics after all.  I don't think the issues that have surface with the iPhone 4 are to do with a simple blocking of the antenna though.  Apple hasn't admitted that it's any more than this, though they may have offered a solution to the real problem with the free bumper cases.
     After all, the iPhone 4 antenna goes around the entire phone.  Unless you've got hands like boxing gloves or are so worried about dropping your shiny glass tech-toy that you're using a two handed grip, you're not going to be able to cover the whole antenna.  So if that's the situation, why is the attenuation actually worse on the iPhone 4 than the iPhone 3G?  Less than 1 more dropped call per hundred, but worse nonetheless.  Also, why do the problems go away when you do something to stop conductivity to the antenna, either with a case or a strip of tape?  Because when you do these things you solve the root cause of the iPhone 4's antenna problem.
     You see, I believe that the problem with the iPhone 4 isn't the same signal attenuation problem that you do get with every mobile phone.  It _is_ due to the external conductive antenna.  Hence why the "Touch of Death" decays the iPhone 4's reception as much as the death grip on a comparable phone.  See this video for an example.  You don't need to "Death Grip" the iPhone 4, just touch it in a way that shorts the antennas.
     Apple came a long way with their recent press conference, but for whatever reason, they stopped short of admitting that the iPhone 4 has a fundamental design issue which causes it to be more sensitive to signal degradation than normal phones.  It's odd that they'd go so far, but stop short of admitting the whole truth.

     At the end of the day though, they _have_ taken steps which will rectify it with the bumper case, and I'm guessing there'll be a minor hardware change to coated metal bands by September.  I don't think it's been handled in the best way, but there's no hardware issue I can see with the phone which would deter me from buying it.
     There's a caveat to that statement though.  I plan on putting mine in a silicone case, I'd put one on with or without the exposed metal and shatterable glass - I just like the grippiness that cases provide.  I've got a Speck ToughSkin on my 3GS and think it's great.  If I was buying the phone for its industrial design though, I think I'd wait until September and see if there's little hardware tweak.

New electric motorbike - Brammo Empulse

     So electric motorcycle manufacturer Brammo have just released a new series of bikes, the "Empulse".  (It's up for pre-order now, but deliveries don't start until 2011.)  This is the first commercial electric motorbike I've seen that actually looks cool.  Even better it's priced equally with their main competition - Zero Motorcycles while completely creaming it in the specifications department.
     The two companies are looking to make very different products with the Zero bikes* aiming more at a weekend crossover dirt bike market and Brammo seeming very focussed on the road, but the comparison has to be made:

Brammo Empulse:

• Range ~ 100km (For the "cheap" $10k US one.)
• Top Speed - 160km/h
• Power - 41kW
• Torque ~ 79Nm
• Weight ~ 180kg
• Capacity - 6kWh (Again, for the cheap one - they also do 8 & 10kWh versions for extra range)
• Charge Time ~4 hours (Based on Aussie 240v)
• Neat looking without being over styled.  (Ok, just a personal opinion there!)

Zero S:

• Range ~ 80km.
• Top Speed - 105km/h
• Weight - 124kg
• Capacity - 4kWh
• Charge Time, Less than 4 hours (Probably much less on 240v)
• Power & Torque - no information.
• Bordering on ugly, looks like a cheap Chinese eBay bike.

     Pretty clear which one comes out on top eh?  I actually quite liked the whole package of the Zero bikes when they first launched, but I think it was more for the novelty value of riding something quiet off road mostly.  As a street electric bike though, the Brammo Empulse blows it away.  In fact I'd go as far as saying that the Empulse might wind up being the first electric motorbike which people will consider against standard petrol bikes.

     I hope it handles well, be interesting to see some reviews closer to launch.  I'm also just a little bit too curious as to how much it'll cost to land one in Australia. :)

More info on the Empulse at the Hell For Leather site, from people that have actually spoken with Brammo.

*Hmm, I never realised what an unfortunate name that was for their company before.

iPhone 4 launch likely to be delayed.

     Well, it's not like the linked Gizmodo article is saying anything particularly revolutionary.  Especially after the delayed iPad launch I think most people would've been betting money on the iPhone being delayed as soon as Apple started getting the bad press for the antenna issues.

     I'll throw on my prognosticating hat while I'm here and say that I expect during the press event tomorrow the following will be announced:

•  the iPhone launch to the rest of the world will be delayed by approximately 1 month.
• Apple have made hardware changes to better insulate the antenna.  These changes will involve some sort of barely perceptible clear coating over the steel band, rather than a purely internal change as some sites have speculated. (I could go further and say that the coating on early units will begin peeling within 6 months, but that'd just be being mean.)
• Apple will offer free bumpers to existing iPhone 4 customers, or the option of swapping their phones for one of the new insulated versions when they become available.

Rex the Exoskeletal Wheelchair Substitute

     This thing looks pretty amazing, just from a technology point of view.  I'm not really qualified to know about the medical benefits that the user in the clip is talking about, improved circulation and so forth, but it seems to make sense for that as well.
     I think they really need to work on getting the speed of this thing up to a standard walking pace, as it is too many people are going to see it and say that it's too much slower than a wheelchair to be feasible.  I suppose at the minute, for general purpose usage, they'd be right.  For specific circumstances though, even with the current fairly underwhelming speed I'd think should greatly assist some difficult access areas.
     Go New Zealand!  It's nice to see them up on the world stage for something other than the Weta Digital for a change.
     I'm really looking forward to seeing how devices like this develop over the next few years.  I think Rex Version 4 should be a real winner - so long as they don't make try and make it wireless... There's a lot of contact points on a persons legs that could short an antenna out. :)
     There's some more details at the Rex Bionics website, but not too many unfortunately - for example there's no mention of range, battery life, speed etc.  Hopefully the flurry of media attention they're receiving now encourages them to come forth with a few more details.

Harsh conditions for Australian cricket team.

     This morning I happened to catch a snippet of the 8:00am news on Channel 9's "Today" program, where they had a little bit of a mix up with the background footage to a story.  The presenter's spiel went something like (paraphrasing):

"And the Australian cricket team are facing tough conditions in Pakistan this week..."

     Meanwhile the footage in the background showed some soldiers, fully kitted out with packs and rifles stomping through some war torn country.
     I know Pakistan isn't exactly peaceful at the minute, but I think they might have been exaggerating the hardships the Aussie team are facing.  It got a chuckle out of me if nothing else - anybody else catch this one?

Toyota unintended accelerations more hype than fact?

     So it appears that the US department of transport has been having trouble finding much evidence of true runaway accelerations on Toyota vehicles.
     Out of 3000 reported cases, there's only one confirmed case, which was traced to the floor mat trapping the accelerator pedal rather than a fault with the electronic throttle control.  Though there isn't any mention as to how many of the 3000 cases have been analysed so far.
     Aside from the issues with the floor mat, the most common problem seems to be driver error.  People think they've hit the brakes when really they've hit the throttle, then panic and won't release it.
     I suppose this is good news for Toyota, after all it is what they were saying from the start - at least until they got too much bad press over it.  On the other hand, if it was a design flaw at least it'd be something they could fix.  If the problem is just that your customers aren't competent to drive, well...  That's a harder one to work around.  Maybe they'll have to start giving people a competency test before they let them buy a car, I'm sure that'd go over well.
     I'm mostly joking there - it's entirely possible there's a design flaw of some type to do with pedal positioning or angle which is the real problem.  I'd think if it were that simple though then Toyota would've been shouting it from the rooftops by now.

Apple disappearing Consumer Reports iPhone 4 forum mentions.

     It seems like Apple is banishing forum posts which mention the Consumer Reports findings of degraded phone reception when bridging the iPhone 4's antennas...  I.e. holding the phone.
     It's not really a surprise - if I recall correctly Apple seems to have a propensity for doing things like this.  They don't like discussions which go against the company line appearing on their forums.  I can understand that, but I think binning them isn't the smartest move.  They should know that once something makes it onto the web once it's almost impossible to erase.
     You could argue that it was the tone of the removed thread (cached here, by Bing for all the conspiracy theorists!) they weren't keen on - there's a fair bit of snippiness between posters.  Given there's a bunch of removed posts with those when googling the Apple forums though, it's hard to believe this was the sole reason.

     Personally I don't see why this is still such a big deal, both from Apple's side and from those covering it.  Any phone you hold is going to have its signal somewhat degraded, just because there's a lump of meat in between the mobile tower and your phone.  The iPhone 4 is going to cop this, as well as (I believe) an extra impact from having its two antenna modules bridged by somebodies sweaty palm.  Personally, I'm not a radio expert - I've no idea how much impact that bridging is going to cause.  Some people seem to think it's very significant, and some that it only has a minor effect.
     I do think it's likely to be a real issue, and I believe Apple should step up and acknowledge this to a greater extent than they have done - but I'm not sure it's as much of a problem as it's been made out to be.  Only more testing will prove that out, one way or another.
     I would love to know if Apple product engineering is madly testing painted/dipped clear coated metal bands though - but only from curiosity, if I get one I'll be putting it in a nice grippy silicone case anyway.
    

Spotify Available For Linux

     Hit the link for more details, but it seems Spotify have released a Linux client.  I'm inordinately cheered by this, given that the service isn't technically available in Australia.
     It seems a little limited at the minute - online music only, premium (i.e. add free) version only.  But it's just a Beta, I think they'll iron those issues out.  That the good people at Spotify have even developed a Linux version is enough to make me take notice of them.
     I'm not the biggest "social" media convert, the main reason that I'm so interested in services like Spotify & Last.fm is that I have trouble discovering new music and artists that I like.  I just don't get to listen to as much radio as I'd like anymore.  For me they definitely a lot of the niche that radio used to have carved out.
       Anything which helps to point me towards new music that I might not have heard, but might love, gets a big stamp of approval.

Campaign Against Mandatory Internet Filtering

     Just a link to a campaign against the mandatory internet filter.  I don't necessarily think their add is that great, it's a little cheesy and a lot sensationalist but I do agree with the message that they're trying to get out.  You can allow  them some liberties for trying to make the message more catchy and more easily consumable by the average consumer.

     There's a couple of links on that webpage that are worth looking at, and they've put together a nice summary here.  Without wanting to sound too tinfoil hat, basically the filter will be ineffective at performing the task the government says they're implementing the filter for.  At the same time it will slow down general net access, while allowing the government to filter whatever they decide to - with absolutely no public transparency.

     If you're at all concerned about freedom of information, or even about not having your internet experience degraded, then this is definitely something that should concern you.

Carbon Sequestering Issues

     The linked article only glosses over the details, but it throws out a number of only a 1% release of carbon per 1000 years for any carbon sequestering system to be useful for preventing global warming.  That's not really a shock to me, but I wonder if anybody who thinks they're going to save the world by "sequestering" carbon through biological means has read this.

     It really gets under my skin when people talk about using tree plantations, or even farming as "Carbon Sinks".  What do they think happens to the carbon wrapped up in those trees and crops when the trees get milled and the food gets eaten?

     Trees could at least have some merit as a delaying tactic, once you've churned the atmospheric carbon into wood, it'll take quite a few years for it to be released again - providing the wood isn't just burned.  I don't even want to think about eating produce from crop which is going to be able to "sequester" carbon for any significant period of time though.  I'm picturing something like the worst scone ever.  Extra dense, heavy and dry, that's going to go in one end but never leave.  And it'll last longer than you will.  Yech.

ATO eTax Failure

     See the linked article for the ATO's pathetic statement regarding the lack of availability of the eTax software for anything other than Microsoft windows.
     Honestly, this abysmal situation has been going on that long that I've ceased to be surprised when another year rolls around and the ATO have still made absolutely no moves towards making electronic tax return submission available to all computer users.  Just because I'm not surprised, doesn't mean that I'm not outraged.
     I've been bumping into this issue for years, mostly using Linux and being able to get away with WINE....  Except for last year when I had to install eTax on a borrowed windows PC to do the actual submission.
     The ATO don't even make a token effort at having their official, publicly funded, software available to those who choose not to use Microsoft Windows - they should be raked over the coals for this.


For anybody else that's as annoyed about this as I am, the official ATO complaint address is:

Complaints
Australian Taxation Office
Locked Bag 40
Dandenong Victoria 3175

Apple's iPhone 4 Bar Dropping Explanation

     So Apple has put out a press release stating that it's aware of the perceived issues with iPhone 4 reception, and that's all it is - a perception issue.  Albeit one that Apple themselves created.  The actual iPhone 4 is apparently getting better reception than any previous iPhone and people should stop with the complaining.

     Apple are going to issue a software update, but it's not an actual "fix" for the problems that people have been seeing, it'll just mean that the number of signal strength bars displayed on the Apple phones reflects more accurately the actual signal strength that people are getting.  You'd think there'd be a standard for that, but apparently not.

     Personally, I don't think there was anything "accidental" about the original way that Apple worked out it's signal strength to bar ratio.  It's a little disingenuous for them to be saying they just did it accidentally.  I think it's certainly possible that there were some bad marketing decisions made though.

     There are a two main ways I can see the iPhone shipping with an over optimistic indicator of signal strength.

• Apple studied how to set the number of bars relative to signal strength.  They looked at other phones on the market and realised that as long as you had (for example) 3 or more bars, the majority of people were perfectly happy with their call quality and data transmission rates.  Rather than annoying people by showing them a less than adequate looking number of bars, they just simplified things and made 5 bars on the iPhone equal to 3 bars on most others.  I could see Apple doing this, it seems very much the way they design products - removing complexity where it doesn't add any benefit.
• The other possible reason is more tied to the iPhone situation in America.  With the phone locked into a single carrier, and not necessarily the best carrier for coverage, maybe there was a little pressure from AT&T to artificially inflate the perception of reception.

     Whatever the reason, it's easy to see why Apple would want to backpedal on this now.  Why would they want to make the iPhone seem like it's got issues with its call quality, when it's really at least as much to do with the service provider not having enough coverage?  Well, maybe in America with one carrier there is a reason to share the pain with the AT&T - you don't want the customer to think that by buying an iPhone they're locking themselves into patchy coverage as well.

     I've seen many reports on each generation of the iPhone saying that it's a great device, but a pretty ordinary phone.  My personal experience is that it's a pretty good phone too.  I'll be interested to see if the opinion of the iPhone's general call quality improves once Apple rolls out the update and the number of bars more accurately reflects the signal strength people are receiving.  You'd think that people should be expecting slightly lower performance once they realise they don't have perfect reception.

     I'm curious to see how many bars I drop on my 3GS.  There's definitely some locations I'm at regularly where I've been very surprised to be getting a solid 5 bars, but a 20m shift will drop those 5 bars back to 1.