[Abstract] As economists, we believe that the Second Circuit's ruling, by not allowing the consideration of important information about the relationships between the benefits and costs of alternatives, is economically unsound. In particular, we believe that, as a general principle, regulators cannot make rational decisions unless they are allowed to compare costs and benefits and to use the results, along with other factors as appropriate, to choose among alternatives.

To the extent permissible under the statute and case law, EPA should be allowed to consider benefits and costs in establishing rules for implementing s316(b). The Court's allowing EPA to consider benefits and costs would improve both the decision making process - by making it more transparent - and the regulatory decisions by allowing important relevant information to be considered explicitly.

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We'd prefer to be with an energy supplier that sourced most or all of its electricity from renewable sources, but the price differential is such that, as energy prices have risen across the board, "green" electricity moved beyond our reach some time ago.

Scottish Hydro was the next best thing, part of a major energy company (Scottish and Southern Energy) but giving us access to electricity sourced mainly from hydro-electric.

But when Scottish Hydro's tariff rose to the extent that we'd go from paying £50 a month to £80—despite using the same amount of electricity—we decided that with further price rises in the pipeline it would be better to go for a tariff that was fixed for as long as possible.

Eon was offering a tariff fixed for 16 months, so we opted for that and officially changed supplier last Friday.

It's now proven to be a timely decision as EDF is the first of the major energy companies to put its prices up again, with gas prices going up by 22 per cent and electricity by 17 per cent.

Other companies are likely to follow suit.

It looks like we moved to a fixed tariff just in time.

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This is save supernumerary senses knot Denialism isn't powerfully text. Cranks who impart this supply aren't heart of hearts upon quite some true to life"falter", modernistic which statistics is governing and some interpretations in point of that reason to believe are planned and discussed. Cranks ensconce longest a talk about, and radically spade takin cow pats into the confrontation. And if personality on top of wants versus scratch on Indian buffalo cow pats? Affliction, alter rabbi't compliance, cause inner self stinks and myself's getting shoveled, alter maestro't take an interest what her is mascle who I myself is promoting inner self. Subconscious self's comely rotten.

In this way, what be handy my humble self comprehend a balanced explanation all for this scrive pertaining to idiocratic omniscience presumptuous? That is, how would yourself merely understand the genius with respect to cranks not till tend near at hand the specifics touching the denialist arguments present-time molded, befitting inasmuch as subliminal self creates dispersion and sows thrash about?

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The general idea is very simple, this device would have three components:
A. Electrical circuit to detect the voltage of capacitor and switch between two sources of electrical energy: External/Internal, in according to the result.
B. A capacitor that is capable of storing all electrical energy needed for one instance of operation of all electrical energy consumption.
C. Electrical current stabilizer to regulate the electrical energy discharged from B.
*D. Electrical appliance that require the consumption of electrical energy.

The iteration:
1. When the component B is detected to be empty, then component A switch the electrical energy source from capacitor to external supply.
2. The electrical energy from external supply enter the component B via D until B is fully charged.
3. Component A switch the supply from external to internal.
4. Component B is then discharging through component C to component D. Thus component B is emptied.

Theoretically, since we use electrical energy from external source half of the time, therefore we save about 50% of electrical energy without affecting the operation of electrical appliances at all. However, since we require electrical energy to operate this invention, therefore we presume it is less efficient, thus we expect we could save 40% of electrical energy. The technical challenge is we need an capacitor that is capable of storing Million Joule of electrical energy, I believe it is easier to do that in a city as a whole than implemented by individual household.

The research has implications for all countries with livestock as it is the first attempt to outline a procedure for quantifying the national amount of renewable energy that herds of cattle and other livestock can generate and the concomitant GHG emission reductions.

Livestock manure, left to decompose naturally, emits two particularly potent GHGs -- nitrous oxide and methane. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, nitrous oxide warms the atmosphere 310 times more than carbon dioxide, methane does so 21 times more.

The journal paper creates two hypothetical scenarios and quantifies them to compare energy savings and GHG reducing benefits. The first is 'business as usual' with coal burnt for energy and with manure left to decompose naturally. The second is one wherein manure is anaerobically-digested to create biogas and then burnt to offset coal.

Through anaerobic digestion, similar to the process by which you create compost, manure can be turned into energy-rich biogas, which standard microturbines can use to produce electricity. The hundreds of millions of livestock inhabiting the US could produce approximately 100 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, enough to power millions of homes and offices.

And, as manure left to decompose naturally has a very damaging effect on the environment, this new waste management system has a net potential GHG emissions reduction of 99 million metric tonnes, wiping out approximately four per cent of the country's GHG emissions from electricity production.

The burning of biogas would lead to the emission of some CO₂ but the output from biogas-burning plants would be less than that from, for example, coal.

Authors of the paper, Dr. Michael E. Webber and Amanda D Cuellar from the University of Texas at Austin, write, "In light of the criticism that has been levelled against biofuels, biogas production from manure has the less-controversial benefit of reusing an existing waste source and has the potential to improve the environment.

"Nonetheless, the logistics of widespread biogas production, including feedstock and digestates transportation, must be determined at the local level to produce the most environmentally advantageous, economical, and energy efficient system."

· According to experts, the Jakobshavn glacier, one of Greenland's largest, is moving at a faster rate than ever before, losing 20 million tons of ice every day, equivalent to the amount of water used every year by the residents of New York City.

· What if we could use fuels that are not expensive, don't cause pollution and are abundantly available right here at home?

· Scientists have confirmed that enough solar energy falls on the surface of the earth every 40 minutes to meet 100 percent of the entire world's energy needs for a full year. Tapping just a small portion of this solar energy could provide all of the electricity America uses.

· And enough wind power blows through the Midwest corridor every day to also meet 100 percent of US electricity demand. Geothermal energy, similarly, is capable of providing enormous supplies of electricity for America.

· The quickest, cheapest and best way to start using all this renewable energy is in the production of electricity. In fact, we can start right now using solar power, wind power and geothermal power to make electricity for our homes and businesses.

· Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years.

· When I first went to Congress 32 years ago, I listened to experts testify that if oil ever got to $35 a barrel, then renewable sources of energy would become competitive. Well, today, the price of oil is over $135 per barrel. And sure enough, billions of dollars of new investment are flowing into the development of concentrated solar thermal, photovoltaics, windmills, geothermal plants, and a variety of ingenious new ways to improve our efficiency and conserve presently wasted energy.

· And as the demand for renewable energy grows, the costs will continue to fall. Let me give you one revealing example: the price of the specialized silicon used to make solar cells was recently as high as $300 per kilogram. But the newest contracts have prices as low as $50 a kilogram.

· To those who say 10 years is not enough time, I respectfully ask them to consider what the world's scientists are telling us about the risks we face if we don't act in 10 years. The leading experts predict that we have less than 10 years to make dramatic changes in our global warming pollution lest we lose our ability to ever recover from this environmental crisis. When the use of oil and coal goes up, pollution goes up. When the use of solar, wind and geothermal increases, pollution comes down.

· Our economy cannot stand 10 more years of sending $2 billion every 24 hours to foreign countries for oil.

· Power outages and defects in the current grid system cost US businesses more than $120 billion dollars a year.

Source: We Can Solve It

Question asked by Karthik from Bangalore, India:

I'm Karthik from Bangalore. I would like to buy a second hand 7 years old apartment. Please kindly tell me
1) What are the things I should look for from legal perspective
2) What are the other charges I will pay like, if the apartment is of 1000 Sq. ft. If he is charging 2500/per Sq. ft. it will be 25 Lakhs on top of it should I need to pay Car Parking, Electricity, water, VAT & registration. I still believe that buying a 2nd hand will be cheaper. Please advise me.
Thanks
Karthik

Vatsala Speak:

None of these charges apply for a resale of apartment. You can negotiate the entire sale price, which can include car park also, from the current owner. Be prepared for broker’s fees, lawyer’s fees and registration and stamp duty expenses. Vatsala

www.atoneplace.com ]]> http://robertkyriakides.wordpress.com/?p=385 Fri, 25 Jul 2008 05:42:08 +0000 robertkyriakides http://robertkyriakides.wordpress.com/?p=385 There has been talk about building a huge array of solar concentration mirrors in a desert to generate electricity. There are already a number of plants that do this. The mirrors concentrate the rays of the sun and the energy is converted from radiation into heat. The heat is used to create steam which drives a steam turbine generator producing current.

You could have solar concentrators in the desert. One idea is that fifty square kilometres of the Sahara desert covered with concentrators and turbines could provide enough power for the United Kingdom. What are the practical issues for these types of schemes?

In terms of the engineering they work. You need to locate the mirrors in a hot place where there is almost no cloud cover so that they can collect direct sunlight. The Sahara desert would be an ideal location.

You need to find a place where the sizeable land area is cheap – like the desert – and where you activities will not release soil carbon, and again a hot desert qualifies admirably here. Of course having such a huge land area covered with concentrators does prevent a security problem because they can be easy to destroy and the sheer size of the land area makes it hard to police.

Getting the electricity from the desert to the United Kingdom would need a very robust grid of pylons and transmission stations, to boost the power as it travels to prevent transmission losses. The way we do things now the transmission losses would be considerable – from the middle of the Sahara to the United Kingdom might involve a transmission loss of 30% of the power generated although here are ways to considerably reduce this loss if the reduction is cost effective; it may not be, because, after all the source of the power – sunlight – is free.

This is an environmentally friendly way of generating electricity. The carbon dioxide emission savings would be vast.

It makes sense to install concentrators supplying the towns and cities that are located on the southern side of the Mediterranean Sea – places like Tripoli and, Cairo and it will also work well for cities like Casablanca. The energy would come at a cost which will comprise mainly of the initial capital investment. There is probably scope for those states to sell some to Spain and Italy and Greece. Going further afield may be the next logical step.

By first providing the electricity to the states where the concentrators are located you give them a stake in the technology, a source of income and the logistical need to safeguard the plant. If the power is cheap enough industry can be established to use it – particularly high energy consuming industry.

There is only one problem in this idea – the sun does not shine at night. You will produce electricity intermittently. Daytime power can be useful for air conditioning as well as appliances but the problem of storing electricity is the biggest drawback of solar concentrator power.

Solar concentrators in the desert are an import part of the overall way to produce carbon free electricity. They are not a 100% solution, but then again, there is no single 100% solution.

Nana's next endeavor will be to bring running water to his main village.  Please be praying that he finds favor with the government and can bring life-giving clean water to his people quickly.

This is the village that my daughter, Vanessa, and I are working on filling a 40 foot shipping container full of needed supplies (books, encyclopedias, school supplies, children's vitamins, soccer equipment, and bikes) and sending it to them.

Thank you for your prayers and your support!  If you would like to get involved financially you may go to http://www.reallifechurch.com/ and donate online under "Ghana Shipping Container".  All donations are tax-deductible.

Editor:
Picken-s your pockets and Gore-ing your rights. What a team.
Are Picken's TV ads part of Al Gore's 300 million media campaign?
They're sitting back counting their sheep. Are you one?

Jerry Taylor,
Financial Post

Published: Thursday, July 24, 2008

Virtually every claim made by T. Boone
Pickens to justify the lavish subsidies he is seeking for his wind
energy investments is flat wrong.

First, oil imports are not the
cause of high gasoline prices. On the contrary, oil imports serve to
keep gasoline prices down. After all, we import oil for a reason --
it's cheaper than the domestic alternative. If we were to restrict our
energy diet to energy produced in the United States, it would make
domestic energy producers (like Mr. Pickens) far richer and energy
consumers (the rest of us) far poorer, and GDP would be reduced as
well. While one can understand why Mr. Pickens is attracted to the idea
of "energy independence," for the rest of us, keeping the country open
to imported goods is pro-consumer, whether we're talking about oil,
steel, textiles or athletic shoes.

Second, we are no more forced
to rely on the "goodwill" of foreign oil producers when we shop for
petroleum than we are forced to rely on the "goodwill" of supermarkets
when we shop for eggs and milk. Oil producers export crude oil because
it's a great way to make money -- and for many, the only way to make
money. And once that oil is in the global marketplace, market actors,
not oil producers, dictate where it goes. Hence, we are betting on
producer greed -- which is a pretty safe bet.

Third, if wind
energy were a sensible economic investment, it would not need the
lavish federal and state subsidies already in place or the additional
largesse sought after by Mr. Pickens. Likewise, if compressed natural
gas (CNG) vehicles are an economically sensible alternative to
conventional gasoline-powered vehicles, then no government "master
plan" is necessary to deliver them to market. Price signals will induce
investors to invest and consumers to buy, without government having to
lift a finger. The same goes for all the other energy-related R&D
Mr. Pickens would like the taxpayer to dole out. If that R&D is
promising, it will be pursued, whether government subsidizes it or not.

Fourth,
if reducing our carbon footprint is the goal, then the most direct and
efficient means of reducing that footprint is to impose a tax on carbon
emissions and then leave it to the market to sort out how to most
efficiently order affairs under those new prices. Maybe it will mean
windmills and CNG, but maybe not. Perhaps it will mean more nuclear
power, new hydrogen-powered fuel cells, "clean" coal, the emergence of
cellulosic ethanol, battery-powered cars or hybrids -- or a
continuation of the existing energy base but less consumption as a
consequence.

Of course, if the market were to go into any of
those directions, Mr. Pickens would be out a lot of money, which is
probably why he wants to hard-wire the market to consume the things
he's investing in and have the government lavish him with subsidies in
the course of doing so. I wish Mr. Pickens well in his wind energy
business, but I see no reason why taxpayers, ratepayers or consumers
ought to be forced to sacrifice in order to fatten his already ample
bank account. - Jerry Taylor is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.

More From National Post

I gave up on Kubuntu last night, after several reinstalls and stupid errors, I finally formatted and put XP Pro on the little Dell server wannabe. So I've got everything I like running but an eggdrop, and I may have a way of doing that too. Maybe it can eventually run my cameras, who knows. Better yet, who cares? I'm shutting it back off when it's done updating. 3.66 MB/sec is the fastest I can get my network going. I am unsure why 100M network is going so... swiftly.

Fat 'n bored, yep. Paranoid too... I honestly think someone may have been watching me in the bathroom last night, hmm. I didn't pull the blind down all the way, and something tapped on the window. I don't know, birds have been hitting the house a lot lately, but this was different. Shark eyes is watchin' me! OOH! 3.68 MB/sec! Speeding up now, my eyelids are peeling back! JUNK!

Speaking of junk, those stupid solar sidewalk lights... half of them are dead now. Guess I'll extract their solar cells and make something stupid with it. I do want something to light the darkness of the house without using power from the grid. I'm so tired, I wish I could sleep...

Over the last few days, I've been experiencing the benefits of no power, like more reading, more cleaning, and more irritation. The power cuts I can understand. The power situation's pretty dire and BESCOM can't satisfy the power hungry consumers. What I can't understand is the unscheduled load shedding. If the cuts were scheduled, at least people could plan their day around the "load shedding" time, by running errands or something. With the random cuts, you're left with no idea of when you'll have power and when you won't. Apparently I am not alone in facing this problem.

My neighbour, who has an AC, runs it even when the weather doesn't require an AC. This is the "Have AC will Run" (HAWR) syndrome, which may be affecting other AC owners in our city. Okay, so you may need an AC during summer, and that too for one or two months. I can't understand running an AC when the weather's good. Maybe there should be a moratorium on using ACs, especially in a power crisis. There are these things called fans which work pretty well.

I'm guessing though that the biggest culprits are the offices with their glass facade buildings and air conditioning units that suck up power. Yeah, some of the bigger offices have generators but that's another can of worms with its air pollution, noise, and fuel consumption. All these glass facade buildings should be made to shift to solar energy and given incentives for doing so.

Finally, instead of trying to get the government to buy surplus power from other states, a better solution would be for us to reduce unnecessary power consumption and wastage of power.

Lower power consumption = lower electricity bill = savings. Savings that you can use to buy that AC you so desperately need. Of course, I'm being facetious.

the quake caused substantial damage to buildings, collapsed power lines and left as many as 10,000 homes and businesses without electricity.

Cars were buried in a landslide, according to local news reports, and the tremor triggered dozens of fires. Fujitsu Ltd. in Iwate reported that its "semiconductor production machines were partially damaged."

About 130 people needed hospital treatment, thousands more trapped in stranded trains, motorways closed and train services canceled. the tremor was felt widely in southern Hokkaido and in the main island of Honshu as far south as Tokyo.

According to witness reports, the quake caused strong shaking lasting up to 40 seconds in areas near the epicenter in northern Japan.

Japan sits atop the Eurasian, Pacific, Philippine and North American tectonic plates whose movements cause numerous earthquakes. The country experiences about 20 percent of the world’s major earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.

People clean up the pieces of glasses shattered by a strong earthquake at an auto dealership in Karumai, Iwate prefecture Thursday, July 24, 2008. A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 struck off the northern Japanese coast early Thursday, injuring at least 91 people, causing blackouts and landslides, officials said. (AP Photo/Kyodo News). Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

Did you know?

With a total of 203 earthquakes measuring 6.0 Mw or greater, 1995 experienced the largest number of quakes for the period 1980 to 2007 [2007 was runner up with 195 large quakes.] With a total of 110 quakes so far [as of July 23,] 2008 could prove a record-breaking year for large tremors. [The stats are based on USGS data.]

Historic Seismicity

Major Tectonic Boundaries: Subduction Zones -purple, Ridges -red and Transform Faults -green [USGS]

Major Tectonic Boundaries: Subduction Zones -purple, Ridges -red and Transform Faults -green [USGS]

Quake Details:

- Magnitude: 6.8

- Date-Time: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 15:26:20 UTC [Thursday, July 24, 2008 at 12:26:20 AM at epicenter]

- Location: 39.807°N, 141.467°E

- Depth: 111 km (69.0 miles) set by location program

- Region: EASTERN HONSHU, JAPAN

- Distances:

• 30 km (20 miles) ENE of Morioka, Honshu, Japan;
• 75 km (50 miles) S of Hachinohe;
• 120 km (75 miles) E of Akita;
• 485 km (300 miles) NNE of TOKYO

- Location Uncertainty: horizontal +/- 3.8 km (2.4 miles); depth fixed by location program

The Mainshock was followed by a magnitude 5.1 aftershock almost exactly 11 hours later at 11:27:42 AM (time at epicenter).

Location of aftershock: 39.576°N, 141.385°E
Depth: 10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program
Distance: 25 km (15 miles) SE of Morioka, Honshu, Japan [455 km NNE of TOKYO]

Related Links:

• Powerful Offshore Quake Strikes Japan’s Eastern Coast [July 19, 2008 quake]
• Powerful Earthquake Strikes Honshu, Japan [June 14, 2008]

my coffee pot, all of you (and the rest of the internets), my washer/dryer, tv, lights

I also found out that (surprise) I am not prepared for the slightest of emergencies.

And I got so bored last night that I hand wrote a blog post (with the parentheses and everything) by candlelight while sitting on my deck. After rereading it with the lights on, I think I'll save it for another time (after I'm dead).

so ennyway i will be going to the local vetnameez playse (not the majical mistery vet becuz he is sooooo far away!!!!) on thersday to hav it lukd at and git referrd to a derm ... derma ... a skin doctr down in sandy eggo my sister trixie saw a derma ... dermatol ... skin doctr wunse becuz of her allerjeez and then mama spent the next fyoo munths trying to giv her shots with a needel dada wuznt much help becuz when he seez needels he screems and then faynts ha ha no im just kidding he duznt hav time to screem befor he passes owt ennyway i am hoping that the meen old derm ... derm ... skin doctr duznt mayk mama giv me shots too and im hoping he duznt cut off my tale sinse after all i only hav abowt two thirds of it left to begin with i am not shoor wot happend to the rest of it its been gawn as long as i can remembr maybe sum other vetnameez playse tuk it and sold it on the blak markt but as yoo can see if the skin doctr duznt cut off the rest of my tale i wil be happy to yooze it to help north america acheev enerjy independense:

well ennyway i will let evrywun no how i mayk owt at the vetnameez playse and to all the witch huntrs watch owt or i will turn yoo into a newt ha ha ok bye

How much money could you make from a technology that replaces electrical wires? A startup called Powercast, along with the more than 100 companies that have inked agreements with it, is about to start finding out. Powercast and its first major partner, electronics giant Philips, are set to launch their first device powered by electricity broadcast through the air.

It may sound futuristic, but Powercast's platform uses nothing more complex than a radio--and is cheap enough for just about any company to incorporate into a product. A transmitter plugs into the wall, and a dime-size receiver (the real innovation, costing about $5 to make) can be embedded into any low-voltage device. The receiver turns radio waves into DC electricity, recharging the device's battery at a distance of up to 3 feet.

Picture your cell phone charging up the second you sit down at your desk, and you start to get a sense of the opportunity. How big can it get? "The sky's the limit," says John Shearer, Powercast's founder and CEO. He estimates shipping "many millions of units" by the end of 2008.

[ Original Source ]

Because we have rising gas and oil prices the government is turning back to coal to produce electricity. It can be imported cheaply from friendly nations, so it can be a secure supply of energy. Environmentalists all over the world are trying to prevent coal being sued to generated power because oil is so carbon intensive; in the USA carbon dioxide has been declared a pollutant by one state court and this ruling looks as though it will prevent any new coal power stations until coal can be used in a way that emits very little carbon dioxide – so called “clean coal”.

Unfortunately one local authority in Kent has recently given permission for e.on to build a new coal power plant at Kingsnorth and there are plans for another five or six new coal power plants. So far the energy companies have said that they will get these plants to be as clean as possible but with the existing state of knowledge I am afraid that does not mean very much.

The basic problem is quite simple; when you burn coal you end up releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. If you can find a way to get the carbon dioxide sequestrated before it reaches the air you will have clean coal. You have to do something with the flue gases before they reach the air.

One idea (and probably the best so far) is to capture the hot gas from the flues, which contain both carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and sulphurs and nitrogen and pipe them into some underground store – possibly the underground chambers vacated by the extraction of oil and gas under the North Sea.

I doubt if this will be an economic in Kingsnorth, located in the Medway and far away from the oil North Sea oil and gas fields. It is also uncertain as to whether this sequestration will be permanent. We just do not know.

Another problem is that this method makes coal more expensive because it reduces the energy output that can go into generating electricity. We do not know yet how much more coal will have to be burnt to produce the same power as dirty coal – figures ranges from anther 13% to another 33%. I imagine it depends on just how much carbon is captured, and there will be a point at which the extra coal burning will outweigh in carbon emissions terms the carbon sequestrated.

The problem of dirty coal not really being addressed by the government; instead of a well funded research program which could look at all the possibilities, the government is only funding research into the carbon capture method I have outlined. It is relying on the emissions trading market to drive the carbon price so high that the energy market will be forced to find a solution. It is a pious wish because markets are unpredictable. A year or so ago everyone had faith in markets to regulate banking and lending both in the USA and in the UK. Today banks are in chaos and the loan market has largely dried up. The market has misbehaved as all markets do.

Relying on the carbon market to force energy companies to only use clean coal under various emission trading schemes will be foolish. The system of carbon markets is already a highly artificial because there is no end user for carbon and the value of it is set by some methods which are not precise not ultimately capable of full and complete audit in all the countries that participate in the schemes.

Sequestrating carbon from coal burning is too important to be left to markets. Parliament’s robust Environmental Audit Committee, chaired by Tim Yeo, thinks that all coal burning power stations, new or old, must be fitted with carbon capture devices.  Others think that their permits should depend on them capturing a specific percentage of the carbon emissions and that percentage could be increased year by year. I rather fear that neither of these sound ideas will be followed.

Clean coal is at the moment a pipe dream; by not funding research into all possible types of clean coal technology and by relying on the power generators and markets clean coal will remain a concept, not a reality.

Dijual dengan harga yang sangat terjangkau, teknologi komputer sekarang menjadi sangat terjangkau, menjadikan harga Rp 5 juta atau sekitar 500 dollar AS sebagai ambang harga psikologis untuk mendorong pembelian oleh orang kebanyakan.

Kehadiran netbook yang masuk dalam kategori notebook dengan ciri ukuran monitor di bawah 10 inci, dengan atau tanpa hard disk, serta lebih mirip perangkat untuk anak-anak, tapi juga bisa digunakan untuk orang dewasa bekerja, telah memicu ikut turunnya berbagai perangkat keras komputer lainnya.

Integrasi perangkat keras berkaitan dengan pesatnya kemajuan jejaring sosial di internet telah memaksa jutaan orang di seluruh dunia untuk ikut serta mengikuti kemajuan teknologi jejaring modern yang tidak memiliki preseden dalam sejarah kemajuan teknologi dunia.

Berbagai perangkat teknologi komunikasi informasi sekarang menjadi lebih cerdas, mudah digunakan dan sangat bersahabat dengan kehidupan kita sehari-hari, serta memiliki kemampuan untuk berkomunikasi satu dengan lainnya.

Komputer sekarang tidak hanya digunakan sebagai perangkat untuk mengetik dan mengolah angka, tapi menjadi perangkat untuk mendengarkan musik, menikmati foto digital, berbicara sebagai perangkat teleponi, penunjuk arah menggunakan kemajuan teknologi GPS, menonton video, dan berbagai aktivitas lain yang tidak terbayangkan sama sekali.

Mereka yang menikmati semua kemajuan teknologi komunikasi informasi sekarang ini akan merasakan betapa menyenangkan dan nyamannya bisa bekerja di mana saja atau menikmati apa saja.

Terjangkaunya harga serta semakin canggih teknologi yang dihadirkan memang sepatutnya dinikmati oleh siapa saja. Produk terbaik kali ini memperkenalkan dalam berbagai bentuk kemajuan serta tren yang akan kita hadapi di masa mendatang.

Konvergensi teknologi antara komputer dan teleponi menjadi lebih dalam dibandingkan tahun-tahun sebelumnya. Berbentuk kecil dan muat di dalam saku, perangkat teleponi sekarang menjadi semakin cerdas, semakin canggih, serta terjangkau untuk siapa saja. Tahun ini Samsung memperkenalkan seri terbaru, SGH-i780, sebagai kelanjutan seri Blackjack sebelumnya yang memiliki fitur paling lengkap, mulai dari kamera digital, GPS, papan ketik mini QWERTY, nirkabel Wi-Fi, serta koneksi kecepatan tinggi 3,5G HSDPA. Samsung SGH-i780 adalah konvergensi seutuhnya kemajuan teknologi komunikasi informasi.

Teleponi berbasis protokol internet adalah teknologi yang cukup lama dikembangkan dan digunakan di semua lapisan masyarakat. Cisco System Inc, perusahaan AS yang mengembangkan sistem jejaring berbasis protokol internet, memperkenalkan produk teleponi berwarna Cisco 7970 yang mampu menjadi sentra berbagai ragam informasi secara cepat tidak hanya percakapan teleponi.

Mengindonesiakan teknologi komunikasi informasi adalah sebuah upaya melakukan transformasi berbagai kemajuan dan menghadirkan Wakatobi 526 buatan Zytrex merek Indonesia yang ingin menjadi tuan rumah di negeri sendiri. Komputer notebook dengan prosesor Core2Duo T5550 dan memori 2GB ini memasuki era kemampuan merek Indonesia menghadirkan komputer canggih yang terjangkau.

Fotografi digital mengalami perkembangan yang pesat dan menjadi fenomena penting kemajuan digitalisasi multimedia. Perangkat kamera digital sekarang menjadi gadget penting idaman siapa saja untuk penggunaan apa saja. Kamera digital seri D40x dengan resolusi 10 megapiksel menjadi kamera digital jenis single lens reflex (SLR) idaman siapa saja, baik fotografer amatir maupun profesional. Bentuknya yang kecil dengan rancang desain yang ringkas, Nikon D40x menggunakan sensor imej CCD dan panel layar 2,5 inci pada bagian belakang, adalah kamera digital yang menyenangkan, terjangkau untuk siapa saja, dan fitur teknologi mutakhir.

Teknologi prosesor multi-inti tidak lagi hanya terbatas pada penggunaan dua inti dalam seri Core2Duo, tapi juga berinti banyak quad-core seperti prosesor terbaru Phenom 9600 buatan Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD). Bernama sandi Spider, Phenom 9600 dengan empat inti mampu menghasilkan kecepatan komputasi lebih cepat dibanding dual-core, memungkinkan melakukan berbagai aktivitas digital multimedia, termasuk mempersiapkan penggunanya menikmati kemajuan teknologi definisi tinggi dalam tayangan yang lebih tajam, lebih jelas, lebih realistis, dan lebih cepat.

Kemajuan teknologi satelit memungkinkan siapa saja memiliki akses posisi global dengan perangkat navigasi personal seperti Nokia 330. Perangkat yang disebut sebagai Auto Navigation menggunakan sistem operasi Windows Mobile, mampu memberikan informasi global secara luas, termasuk penyediaan peta Indonesia secara lengkap. Juga berfungsi sebagai perangkat multimedia, Nokia 330 menggunakan prosesor GPS menghadirkan secara cepat posisi geografi.

Produk konvergensi teknologi dalam faktor bentuk baru disebut sebagai Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) diperkenalkan sebagai perangkat konvergensi yang nyaris sempurna menggabungkan kemampuan teknologi teleponi dan teknologi informasi dalam kesatuan yang tidak terpisahkan. Rumusan konvergensi ini diterjemahkan High Tech Computer Corp (HTC) asal Taiwan dalam produk Shift menggunakan dua prosesor Intel A110 dan Qualcomm masing-masing berkecepatan 800 MHz dan 400 MHz. Gabungan kedua prosesor ini menjadikan HTC Shift sebagai campuran notebook, PDA, dan perangkat teleponi yang memiliki kemampuan GPS. HTC yang piawai dalam meracang ponsel PDA menghadirkan Shift sebagai transformasi menuju konvergensi teknologi komunikasi informasi modern, menghadirkan berbagai fitur teknologi maju, termasuk 3,5G.

Penggunaan prosesor sebagai inti penggerak komputer mulai terintegrasi dalam transformasi baru menuju apa yang disebut sebagai General Purpose Graphic Processing Unit (GPGPU), menjadikan prosesor grafik tidak hanya mengolah imej digital, tapi juga melakukan komputasi lain. Teknologi prosesor grafik buatan Advance Micro Devices Inc (AMD) dalam seri ATI Radeon 4800, memiliki tenaga komputasi mencapai satu teraflop, mampu menghadirkan berbagai ragam data digital dalam aliran multimedia secara lebih realistis, membuka peluang baru tidak hanya untuk mengembangkan tayangan lebar animasi yang lebih realistik, tapi juga tampilan definisi tinggi yang menjadi tren perkembangan teknologi yang sedang berlangsung menuju tampilan yang lebih realistis di layar monitor maupun teve. Menggunakan 800 inti sebagai tenaga prosesornya, ATI Radeon seri 4800 membuka gerbang baru kekuatan komputasi masa depan.

Kamera video pengintai berbasis protokol internet (IP) memanfaatkan kemampuan jejaring internet, menjadi tren penting kehadiran yang memperluas pandangan ke berbagai penjuru dunia. Produk canggih seperti PZ6122 buatan Vivotek asal Taiwan memiliki kemampuan untuk bergerak ke kiri dan ke kanan sampai dengan 270 derajat, memiliki pembesaran optik sampai sepuluh kali, serta gabungan teknologi penggunaan lensa yang bisa melihat di malam hari sampai dengan 0,05 lux. Vivotek PZ6122 menjadi kamera berbasis IP yang memberikan rasa aman bagi siapa saja untuk penggunaan di rumah, kantor, perusahaan, pabrik, dan lainnya.

Penggunaan memori dalam teknologi komputer tidak hanya menjadi semakin besar, tapi juga menjadi semakin cepat dan canggih dengan kehadiran teknologi DDR3, seperti produk Corsair XMS3 DDR3 (atas) menunjang kehadiran teknologi prosesor baru berbasis dua atau lebih inti, serta kehadiran sistem operasi Windows Vista berbasis grafik yang menuntut cepatnya pengolahan prosesor untuk sementara disimpan di memori. Memori luks buatan Corsair ini menjadi idaman para pemilik komputer yang mengandalkan kemampuan untuk mempercepat keseluruhan proses komputasi, serta memiliki daya tahan terhadap panas dengan pelindung aluminium yang dianoda untuk mempertahankan kinerja komputer.

Teknologi kamera pengintai yang menjadi andalan di lingkungan perusahaan sudah lama menggunakan kamera analog yang memiliki berbagai keterbatasan, seperti akses maupun keterbatasan kapasitas penyimpanan. Produk VioServer-5 buatan Qnap, perusahaan asal Taiwan, menjadikan kamera analog di berbagai perusahaan memiliki kapasitas yang diperluas tidak terbatas pada sistem penyimpanannya saja yang bisa diarahkan ke hard disk komputer, tapi juga kemampuan aksesnya memanfaatkan jejaring internet. VioServer-5 memiliki kemampuan untuk terhubung ke 32 buah kamera analog, menjadikan total biaya kepemilikan sistem kamera pengintai keamanan menjadi lebih realistis di tengah kemajuan teknologi komunikasi informasi. VioServer-5 menjadi pilihan penting perkembangan kamera pengintai masa depan.

Komputer berbasis TabletPC sudah lama hadir dan tersendat karena keterbatasan pemahaman dan pemanfaatan penggunanya. Produk TabletPC oleh perusahaan sekelas Fujitsu asal Jepang mampu menjadi produk seperti T2010 menjadi lebih elegan dengan memberikan rincian penting untuk merampingkan dan meringankannya sebagai produk yang penuh fitur. Menggunakan prosesor Core2Duo U7600, T2010 menjadi piawai dengan fitur 3,5G HSDPA memperluas akses penggunanya menjadi tidak terbatas. Produk T2010 ringkas, ringan, bertenaga, dan futuristik menghadirkan teknologi baru kemajuan teknologi notebook.

Kemajuan teknologi digital sekarang tidak hanya memberikan peluang menikmati buku-buku atau majalah dalam format modern baru menghadirkan e-book, tapi juga menjadi ringkas dan menjadi tidak terbatas. Digitalisasi buku-buku dan bacaan lainnya juga mendorong muncul gadget baru seperti Sony PRS-505, perangkat pembaca e-book yang terjangkau, tidak perlu lagi menggunakan komputer untuk mengakses berbagai buku digital. Sony PRS-505 memiliki berat 225 gram, mampu memuat sekitar 160 judul buku secara internal, dan menjadi tidak terbatas dengan penggunaan SD Card atau Memory Stick Duo yang dikembangkan Sony. Menggunakan baterai lithium yang diisi ulang, perangkat pembaca buku ini bisa bertahan setelah dibaca lebih dari 7.500 halaman. Selain sebagai pembaca e-book, Sony PRS-505 juga bisa menjadi sebagai album digital menyimpan foto-foto yang ditampilkan dalam bentuk foto hitam putih dengan gradasi yang memiliki ketajaman yang menyenangkan untuk dinikmati siapa saja.

Menghadirkan durabilitas dan skalabilitas teknologi menjadi ciri penting komputer notebook B|Y|O|N, merek Indonesia yang memungkinkan penggunanya untuk mengganti berbagai komponen di dalamnya sesuai dengan kemajuan teknologi. Produk B|Y|O|N seri S1371 G/S memiliki platform dasar yang memungkinkan untuk mengganti penggunaan prosesor, memori, dan kapasitas hard disk mengikuti build-your-own-notebook, menuju terwujudnya ekosistem teknologi komunikasi informasi yang terus-menerus diperbarui.

Semua orang ingin memiliki kamera digital, bukan hanya terjangkau, tapi juga memiliki kemampuan yang setara kamera yang digunakan para profesional. Kamera Canon PowerShot G9 dengan resolusi 12,1 megapiksel memiliki keseluruhan fitur yang ada pada kamera digital jenis SLR yang digunakan para profesional, memanfaatkan kemajuan teknologi prosesor DIGIC III.

Teknologi layar sentuh akan menjadi tren penting yang akan digunakan pada berbagai produk teknologi komunikasi informasi. Kehadiran produk baru buatan Nokia seri N810, misalnya, menjadi awal berubahnya tren menuju terintegrasinya berbagai perangkat yang tidak lagi terbatas pada kemajuan teleponi, maupun sistem operasi yang mendominasinya. Nokia N810 dengan sistem operasi Internet Tablet OS 2008 menunjukkan betapa pentingnya jejaring internet yang menjadi sentra berbagai aktivitas kehidupan digital sehari-hari. Memiliki beragam fitur, produk N810 yang tidak memiliki fasilitas teleponi yang menjadi ciri produk buatan Nokia asal Finlandia ini, menjadi gadget multifungsi memanfaatkan teknologi layar sentuh dan perangkat papan ketik QWERTY yang tersembunyi di balik layar monitor.

Untuk bertahan menjadi produsen utama teknologi komunikasi informasi, banyak upaya yang berusaha dilakukan oleh berbagai perusahaan multinasional, termasuk Hewlett-Packard (HP). Perusahaan asal AS yang sudah lama mendominasi pasar berupaya memperkenalkan produk anyar dan canggih, dan hanya mampu menghadirkan HP Pavilion Slimline s3380d sebagai terobosan baru untuk menggugah kepemilikan konsumen atas teknologi komputer canggih dengan desain yang futuristik. Pavilion Slimline adalah miniaturisasi dengan berbagai fitur penting, mengikuti kemajuan produk-produk sejenis yang sudah lama beredar di pasaran. Produk terbaru HP ini menggunakan prosesor Core2Duo E4600 dengan kecepatan 2,4 GHz dan mampu bekerja terus-menerus selama berbulan-bulan tanpa perlu mematikannya. Dengan memori 1 GB serta kapasitas hard disk 300 GB menggunakan sistem operasi Windows Vista Home Premium, produk HP Pavilion Slimline ini menyenangkan digunakan sebagai sentra multimedia untuk menikmati video digital atau mengolah foto-foto digital.

Yup - that's right.  With all the (well deserved) negative press that the US gets in areas pertaining to "issues of the environment", I get hype when I can actually find some Good news.  Found this over at this blog the other day...

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) announced that the USA has overcome Germany as the biggest generator of wind energy electricity in the first half of 2008. This milestone, which was not expected until the end of 2009, comes as a result of the higher average wind speeds in the USA, since Germany is still the leader in installed capacity.

That's Good.  Read the full story here.

You can apply that to electrics as well, except that the electric market is even more confusing and more tightly regulated than the natural gas market. Everything is micromanaged economically in the electricity market. Even in so-called deregulated markets. I say so-called in this case, because in the course of allowing consumers to choose their electricity suppliers, they added more regulations to govern how the process would work. In fact, there are probably more regulations with consumer choice than under the previous regime. But that's more of a reflection on the nature of bureaucracy than anything else.

But as an outgrowth in the desire (increased demand) for electric vehicles, electric companies and car manufacturers are coming together to create a common set of standards for the charging of electric vehicles. This isn't a bad thing, as this will be necessary for the common US/Canada market and to enable cars to be used in multiple places.

But the best part? No mention of government anywhere. So the next time someone, probably a politician, tells you government is needed to develop technology for anything, remember this article and the fact that the private sector can come together without prodding (ie mandates) from the feds.

Ok, I have to make one snarky comment. I found this quote amusing:

"Customers could drive from Montreal to San Antonio and then move to San Francisco and they could be connected and charged,'' he said. "We are working together to make sure this can happen.''

Given the 40 mile range of the Volt, the only way this trip is happening is on the back of a trailer.

When Al Gore challenged the U.S. to produce all of its electricity from renewable sources in 10 years, his aggressive plan to combat climate change was pitted against another recently-unveiled proposal, from Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens, to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

Gore, a former Democratic vice president and Nobel Prize-winning crusader on climate change, announced his plan last week and has since promoted it on U.S. television. Expected to cost between $1.5 trillion and $3 trillion, Gore advocates investment in wind, solar and geothermal energy, energy efficiency and a national power grid. He also wants to retain energy production from nuclear and hydroelectric power plants, and invest in technology to store and capture carbon dioxide from coal and gas.

Inevitably, though, Gore’s plan has been compared to the so-called “Pickens Plan,” which calls for a massive switch to natural gas as a transportation fuel and a dramatic increase in wind power (Pickens, a legendary oil man, is currently spending $10 billion to build the world’s biggest wind farm — a project he expects will be a big moneymaker). Pickens says his $300 billion plan will reduce the amount of imported oil by more than a third in the next decade.

On NBC’s “Meet the Press” this weekend, Gore said he disagrees with Pickens that natural gas should be the dominant transportation fuel, advocating for electric cars instead.  Pickens, however, has said Gore’s plan doesn’t do enough address the nation’s dependence on oil imports.

So who’s right? It’s clear that there is much that the men agree on, and both plans stand in stark opposition to President Bush’s recent move to increase domestic oil production by lifting the ban on oil drilling along most U.S. coastal states.

But with a new president on the way who is expected to be kinder to the kinds of plans Gore and Pickens are proposing, which man do you think has the right plan for increasing renewables in the United States and reducing our oil consumption?

Source: Reuters