Omega Garden - makes plants grow much faster than normal:
Re: Technolgies useful for Indian problems
Posted: 01 Jul 2009 04:45
by ramana
I saw a gizmo made by Toro which has an enigne driving two tracks and has a front end power takeoff to which attachments like an auger for digging holes, a fork lift for pallets transfer and a shovel to move small boulders can be attached. The opertaor stands behind the gizmo on a platform and can ride it standing on it. Looks very useful in confined spaces like the hill roads. It takes the drudgery and danger out of yard work where a big bulldozer wont fit in and increases productivity.
A small disk-sized batter from Ceramatech can store upto 20kWh, which is enough to power a home for a day. The battery will sell for $2000.
To me, this is amazing, as it would enable storage of energy to avoid load-shedding during peak hours.
Re: Technolgies useful for Indian problems
Posted: 08 Aug 2009 06:07
by Sanjay M
Lockheed-Martin's HULC:
Any infantry could benefit from this, and so could industry, recreational outdoorsmen, etc.
Re: Technolgies useful for Indian problems
Posted: 09 Aug 2009 02:28
by svinayak
Internet needs fundamental changes to survive
by Iain Thomson on Aug 6, 2009
The basic TCP/IP protocols are unsuited to the modern internet, and a new system is needed that sacrifices openness for accountability, experts have warned.
"There are fundamental problems in the internet, and maybe we need to look at fundamental fixes," said Marcus Sachs, executive director for national security and cyber policy at Verizon. "It's like the old Roman roads: our enemies will use it against us."
The basic structure of the TCP/IP is insecure, he added, explaining that it was built 40 years ago for a very different computing model that took little account of security.
This means that attackers from organisations and other nation states are pillaging government databases for information and making the US fundamentally unsafe, according to Sachs.
Designs must change, he said, giving the example of the American electricity plug which had lasted for over 100 years. TCP/IP could not do the same, he warned.
Sachs's calls were echoed by Rod Beckstrom, president of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, who said that a few simple changes could make TCP/IP more secure and save vast amounts of security spending.
"The best investment in global security is to improve the internet protocols. Putting in a more secure version of the Domain Name System, so you have signed web addresses, would be a great step forward," he said.
Over our lifetimes, our cells gradually accumulate within them increasing amounts of garbage, called lipofuscin, which eventually clogs them up to the point where they cannot function well enough and die.
A researcher is investigating a technique involving the use of short-pulse lasers to destroy the lipofuscin that collects within the cells, to rejuvenate them and thus make them young again.
carbon negative cement
Posted: 12 Aug 2009 08:40
by Sanjay M
British company Novacem has developed a new cement based on magnesium silicate instead of limestone, which is carbon-negative, in the sense that it has a net absorption of carbon over its life-cycle, as opposed to existing cements which are the source of immense carbon emissions during their manufacture:
Hmm, couldn't Bhuvan copy this idea? After all, there are a hell of a lot of cellphone users on Indian roads at any given time. Therefore the number of GPS-enabled phones (or whatever India's version of GPS will be called) will only go up with time, thus improving the data sampling.
Given the fact that traffic congestion in India is far worse than in Western countries, such a service could be of great use.
Someone in the comments section said this would amount to 100W/sq.ft under ideal conditions. That's pretty amazing - even a significant fraction of that amount would be fabulous.
Re: Technolgies useful for Indian problems
Posted: 31 Aug 2009 09:32
by Sanjay M
Knome has developed ways to handle genomic information that could become very useful in helping people to diagnose and manage their risks for disease:
http://nanosolar.com/
Solar power plants generate high-value peak power directly within the local power grid. With no fuel risk, no water consumption, no moving parts, no noise, and no pollution.
Built with the Nanosolar Utility Panel™, solar power plants are now profitable in a wide range of geographies and power markets.
Whether ground mounted on free acreage or rooftop mounted on buildings, solar power plants are now a must for a healthy and dependable energy mix.
The notion of a kilogram of enriched Uranium conjures up an image of a powerful amout of energy. Enough to power an entire city for years when used in a nuclear power plant, or enough to flatten an entire county when used in a bomb — that’s presumably what many people would say if one asked them about their thoughts.
In our new solar cell technology, we use an active material called CIGS, a Copper based semiconductor. How does this stack up against enriched Uranium?
Here’s a noteworthy fact, pointed out to me by one of our engineers: It turns out that 1kg of CIGS, embedded in a solar cell, produces 5 times as much electricity as 1kg of enriched Uranium, embedded in a nuclear power plant.
Or said differently, 1kg of CIGS is equivalent to 5kg of enriched Uranium in terms of the energy the materials deliver in solar and nuclear respectively.
The Uranium is burned and then stored in a nuclear waste facility; the CIGS material produces power for at least the warranty period of the solar cell product after which it can then be recycled and reused an indefinite number of times.
The technological breakthrough of the Sapsan is that the train has no locomotive. Instead, electric motors are attached to wheels all along the train cars, as on some subway trains. (Passengers sit in the first car too.) Its top operating speed is 217 miles an hour, though in tests this model has reached 255 miles an hour, or about half the cruising speed of some jet airplanes.
In Russia, it took a decade of on-again, off-again talks before Siemens signed a deal with the state railways in 2006 amid a general thaw in relations between Germany and Russia.
Oh, and it's a product of German-Russian cooperation too, which should give the Atlanticists heartburn.
That makes it doubly nice.
I don't know if this is something terribly different - but I have done non-destructive testing way back in 1998 and from the description in the article, it looks like roughly the same principle.. I wonder what new things they have done in that field...