Sunday, February 10, 2008
NETWORK TOOLS
If you run a small business or home network, please have a look at this article from Computer World about some potentially useful network tools. I can personally vouch for Network Magic. It's kept my home network up and running for over six months.
Great Alaskan Aurora Photos
See these excellent aurora photos taken by Dave Taylor and posted on Spaceweather.com.
Bio-Crude
One of the problems of bio fuels has been the reliance of crops that are easy to crack. The cost- benefit calculation when using corn, grains and other food crops to make alcohol is that the energy input to convert these sorts of crops to usable fuel is greater than the amount of energy you can gain. Add in the reduction of land diverted from food production plus the rise in food prices in addition to distortions in tax policy and all you've achieved is another boon for the farm lobby with no net increase in fuel supplies and no reduction in carbon emissions.
The hope has been to use less valuable bio matter to produce fuel. However these sorts of raw material have been difficult to crack into usable fuel. The CSIRO and Monash University recently announced that they have developed efficient and cheap chemical processes that could achieve this dream by making is possible to use cellulose to make fuel. Lignocellulose is both renewable and potentially greenhouse gas neutral. It is predominantly found in trees and is made up of cellulose. Waste material that is currently burned or buried could be used to make fuel without using more land and using energy inputs that already exist and not increase the carbon cost to the environment.
If the chemical processes can be scaled up, even those farmers and distillers who currently benefit from high corn and grain prices and tax benefits may sign on as they could use material that is now merely treated as waste. For instance, all the paper devoted to describing, reporting, calculating, checking, proposing and regulating our current system of taxation could be used to make fuel. The results: lower carbon emissions, lower food prices, less drain on the treasury and an alternative source of energy. Sounds like a good idea to me.
Now if we could only find a way to harness all the hot air blown by politicians into usable fuel!
The hope has been to use less valuable bio matter to produce fuel. However these sorts of raw material have been difficult to crack into usable fuel. The CSIRO and Monash University recently announced that they have developed efficient and cheap chemical processes that could achieve this dream by making is possible to use cellulose to make fuel. Lignocellulose is both renewable and potentially greenhouse gas neutral. It is predominantly found in trees and is made up of cellulose. Waste material that is currently burned or buried could be used to make fuel without using more land and using energy inputs that already exist and not increase the carbon cost to the environment.
If the chemical processes can be scaled up, even those farmers and distillers who currently benefit from high corn and grain prices and tax benefits may sign on as they could use material that is now merely treated as waste. For instance, all the paper devoted to describing, reporting, calculating, checking, proposing and regulating our current system of taxation could be used to make fuel. The results: lower carbon emissions, lower food prices, less drain on the treasury and an alternative source of energy. Sounds like a good idea to me.
Now if we could only find a way to harness all the hot air blown by politicians into usable fuel!
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Xerox Printers
I am intrigued with the latest series of printers from Xerox that use solid ink sticks. I write this as I look at a box of empty Epson and HP ink jet cartridges. I can't throw them away; we throw away too much crap already. I've looked into giving them to charities that collect such things to be recycled. But nobody wants the Epson cartridges. And there aren't really many charities actually collecting these things around where I live. So a printer that doesn't create more garbage is attractive to me.
Furthermore, I do wish for a printer of higher quality than existing ink jets using ink that's clean and easy to load into the printer, prints that don't smear, doesn't go through cartridges like they're going out of style and doesn't jam at the least little deviation in paper quality. Have you ever run out of ink in the middle of the night when the stores are closed and you have a big presentation the next day? Thank God for Kinkos! And nothing irritates me more than having to replace a cartridge when I know there's more ink in the damn thing. I can hear it when I shake it!
I do appreciate the work my battle worn HP's and a relatively new Epson have done. But my requirements are exceeding the occasional use that such printers are built for and going up a step to the laser printers offered by those companies doesn't satisfy my desire for simplicity and green behavior.
So I'm going to look into the costs associated with the Xerox Phaser series of printers and actually see if I can play with one somewhere to see what this new line Xerox can do.
Furthermore, I do wish for a printer of higher quality than existing ink jets using ink that's clean and easy to load into the printer, prints that don't smear, doesn't go through cartridges like they're going out of style and doesn't jam at the least little deviation in paper quality. Have you ever run out of ink in the middle of the night when the stores are closed and you have a big presentation the next day? Thank God for Kinkos! And nothing irritates me more than having to replace a cartridge when I know there's more ink in the damn thing. I can hear it when I shake it!
I do appreciate the work my battle worn HP's and a relatively new Epson have done. But my requirements are exceeding the occasional use that such printers are built for and going up a step to the laser printers offered by those companies doesn't satisfy my desire for simplicity and green behavior.
So I'm going to look into the costs associated with the Xerox Phaser series of printers and actually see if I can play with one somewhere to see what this new line Xerox can do.
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