Tdf Team Time Trial
Lynne Kiesling Seriously, how am I going to get any work done if the Tour de France continues to be this exciting? Holy cow! No spoilers here, but yowza.
July 2009
The Economist, Computer World on Building the Smart Grid
Lynne Kiesling Recently the Economist included a thorough smart grid story in their Technology Quarterly issue; if you are looking for a good overview of the state of play in smart grid at a high level, this story will give you that background, running the gamut from distribution automation to interoperability standards. Another recent overview …
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Innovation in Incandescents
Lynne Kiesling Want some evidence for why technology mandate legislation is fraught with difficulties? This New York Times article on innovation in incandescent light bulb technology is a datum: When Congress passed a new energy law two years ago, obituaries were written for the incandescent light bulb. The law set tough efficiency standards, due to …
Crude Oil Price Volatility
Michael Giberson The New York Times observes that crude oil price volatility has been exceptionally high for the last eighteen months. (Hmmm. Eighteen months ago … January 2008 … the Iowa caucuses … the U.S. presidential primary season gets underway in earnest … nahhh, couldn’t be all due to presidential politics.) Actually, eyeballing the chart …
Wired Guide to Following the Tour De France Online
Lynne Kiesling The Tour starts today, yay!!!! I’m totally jazzed. Here’s a very useful guide from Wired to various ways to follow the Tour online. And even more cool, it’s a wiki, so if you know of some other sources they are missing, log in and add ’em! This year I’m cheering all-American — Christian …
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Anderson/gladwell Debate Brings out All of the Web Intelligentsia
Lynne Kiesling Gee, I really feel like the new, new world has truly arrived, when one of the most visible conversations in the places I frequent is about Malcolm Gladwell’s New Yorker review of Chris Anderson’s Free: The Future of a Radical Price. Chris Anderson responds to Gladwell, continuing the conversation. But you know that …
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Latitude-Specific Solar Cells
Lynne Kiesling How cool is this? Solar cells that can tune to the light angle and quality at different latitudes: Quantasol has now created GaAs [gallium arsenide] solar cells that can be tuned to the prevailing light conditions of a particular place, to get the most out of the cells wherever they are. To do …
Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles and the New York Electric Power System
Michael Giberson The New York Independent System Operator – the folks the manage the electric power transmission system in the state – has released a report on the potential effects of plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV) on New York power systems operations. Given the very early stage of technology development – if there are any PHEV’s …
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Walmart Supports Employer Health Care to Raise Rivals’ Costs
Lynne Kiesling I have to admit, I thought that this point was obvious. Clearly Walmart (accurately, I think) sees itself as well-positioned to leverage its size nationally to negotiate better health care arrangements than its competitors, so its newly-announced support of employer-based health care is a classic example of raising rivals’ costs. Apparently, it’s not …
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Technology and Changing the Business Model in the Electricity Industry
Lynne Kiesling Germany’s utility Yellow Strom is a technology leader. They are leading in the introduction of digital technology in the interface between their wires network and the customer’s home; for example they are one of the first partners with Google to roll out Google’s Power Meter, and they are working on an application that …
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