core77-join – Page 4 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Reducing the Heat In Computing

Graphene + Copper (not to scale, obviously) About a year ago, I traveled to Cornell University to interview a bunch of materials scientists who work at the nanoscale level. This means they work with stuff that is very, very tiny. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter. One of the challenges nearly all of the scientists kept mentioning is the issue of overheating in electronics. Most of us are directly familiar with the heat released from our computers when we balance them on our lap for a period of time, for example. And this becomes a big deal as devices get smaller and smaller. The smaller the copper wires—which connect chips, among other things—the more heat they emit. This is important for future devices and wearables. Scientists are exploring all kinds of solutions but a proven one has recently been announced in the journal Nano Letters. We’ve mentioned the magic material graphene before and it continues to be the superhero material, coming to the rescue over and over again. This time, it shows up as a possible damper for heated copper wires. Graphene is a one-atom thick material that can move electrons and heat. And it is able to cling to copper. Apparently by sandwiching copper between layers of graphene, the heat created by the metal is decreased by 25 percent. When attached to copper, the graphene actually changes its structure in such a way that allows the heat to move more freely through the metal, instead of being trapped in it. From left: (1) copper before any processing, (2) copper after thermal processing; (3) copper after adding graphene. Image via UCR Today (more…)

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Reducing the Heat In Computing

Nike to Release Marty McFly’s Back to the Future 2 MAGs–With Power Lace Feature!

In 2011 Nike released the Nike MAGs , based on the design of the kicks Michael J. Fox wore in Back to the Future 2. Supply of the limited-edition sneakers were constrained to boost value, as proceeds were sent to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, netting some $6 million. While the production MAGs looked like what McFly wore in the movie, they lacked the cool self-lacing feature dreamt up by an imaginative designer (possibly the movie’s Costume Designer Joanna Johnston, Production Designer Rick Carter or Art Director Margie Stone McShirley). However, the sneakerhead corner of the blogosphere is currently abuzz with fresh news: Nike designer Tinker Hatfield was quoted at a recent event on whether the MAGs would be re-released for 2015, the year that McFly wore the kicks in the movie. Here’s the one sentence of Hatfield’s making the rounds: “Are we gonna see power laces in 2015? To that, I say YES!” If Hatfield’s true to his word, by next year we may be seeing real-life versions of this scene: Via Sole Collector (more…)

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Nike to Release Marty McFly’s Back to the Future 2 MAGs–With Power Lace Feature!

Flotspotting: Kibum Park’s Awesome Urban Residences

You undoubtedly remember those slick renderings for the Lowline , the still-in-progress underground NYC park tentatively scheduled for a 2018 opening. The renderings were done by architect Kibum Park, a partner at James Ramsey’s RAAD , a firm that “[focuses] on single and multi-family residential, commercial and hospitality projects.” Well, turns out Park’s got a Coroflot page , loaded up with renders of some bee-yootiful hotels, restaurants, houses and apartments, the latter being the ones that most caught our eye. The clients are of course anonymous and text descriptions are largely absent, but the images do most of the talking. Check out this NYC penthouse with its crazy, sun-dappled, yurt-like master bedroom with elevated library: (more…)

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Flotspotting: Kibum Park’s Awesome Urban Residences

Amos Chapple’s Photographs of the Coldest Town on Earth

Globetrotting photographer Amos Chapple has shot in sixty countries, eventually working his way up to be named Cathay Pacific’s Travel Photographer of the Year for ’09. More recently, New Zealand native Chapple recently photographed a region with weather very opposite from that of his home country: Oymyakon, Russia, where the average winter temperature is negative-58 Fahrenheit (negative-50 Celsius). As Chapple told Weather.com , “occasionally my saliva would freeze into needles that would prick my lips, ” and “focusing the lens would sometimes be as challenging as opening a pickle jar.” Viewing these photos officially means you can never complain about being cold ever again. The temperature is so brutal that Oymyakon residents’ lives are structured around surviving it, with inconveniences aplenty. For example: No wearing eyeglasses outdoors, unless you want them to stick to your skin. Even worse, there’s no indoor plumbing. It’s impossible to keep underground pipes from not freezing, so guess where you’ll go when you need to use the bathroom: Then there’s the gas situation: When you stop your car, to run into a store for instance, you cannot turn the car off, or it won’t start again. So everyone leaves their cars running (except at night, when they’re parked in heated garages)… (more…)

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Amos Chapple’s Photographs of the Coldest Town on Earth

The Next Big Thing in Geo Software

Data consolidated from a farmer’s plow’s GPS as it circled near Dmitriyev, Russia. Uncovering unknown territory is more and more rare, as GPS paired with the Web has made even the most remote or unusual routes accessible to the world. The free service of OpenStreetMap (OSM) has more than one million registered users contributing data from GPS, aerial photography and just regular traversing across every possible route in the world. OSM has more than a decade of consolidated data and is often referred to as the “Wikipedia for maps.” But the interesting part is that their data are considered their primary product, and not actual maps. Many sites are powered with OSM data—like Craigslist, Foursquare, Geocaching, MapQuest—organizations that want to use it instead of pricey Google Maps. But OSM also powers the beautiful maps produced by the startup MapBox. Here’s an example of a runner’s various routes (the thicker red lines represent the number of times he ran that particular route) using data from OSM. (more…)

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The Next Big Thing in Geo Software

Be the Change You Wish to See: Design for the US Mint

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.” -President Wacom, November 5, 1855 If you’ve ever dreamed of making your art available to millions of indifferent people in the form of a cold, hard choking hazard, we’ve got good news. The US Mint and the National Endowment for the Arts are teaming up for a wham-bam coin-design slam, and they want you to apply . They’re looking for professional artists with several years of artistic training and a portfolio that shows mastery of symbolism and complex subjects. Digital skills required. Up to 20 artists will be given year-long contracts to make commissioned demonstration designs. The designs produced will be considered for use on circulated coins and national medals of honor and/or importance. If chosen, the designs are rewarded with additional ca$h money and the offer of longer term contracts. The first application deadline is January 10th, so don’t put off for the next year what you can do while avoiding your relatives during the holidays. If you’re a US citizen with a passion for coinage or obscure types of fame, put that wolf painting on the back burner and apply for your chance to design a national icon . You too could creatively serve the country by carving a bas-relief turkey butt in plastilene. (more…)

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Be the Change You Wish to See: Design for the US Mint

Autodesk Announces CAM 360, World’s First Cloud-Based CAM Solution

So you’ve designed your product, run simulations on the model, figured out the PLM and rendered countless iterations. Now it’s time to actually machine the thing. Autodesk is now addressing this final step, taking advantage of Autodesk University’s packed attendance (10, 000-plus people this year!) to announce their new CAM 360 software , which they’re billing as the world’s first cloud-based CAM solution. CAM 360 is seen as the final puzzle piece in their cloud-based digital manufacturing software suite, following on the heels of PLM 360 (product lifecycle management), Sim 360 (simulation software) and Fusion 360 (design). By finally integrating the thing that actually generates the toolpaths for CNC, the company reckons manufacturers will enjoy a huge time savings. And the cloud-based approach confers three distinct benefits: 1) Customers no longer need worry which version of the software they and their collaborators are on; 2) Files can be accessed anywhere, anytime; and 3) they’ve got virtually limitless cloud-based computing power available to quickly crunch those monster files. The CAM 360 release date is pegged for next year. (more…)

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Autodesk Announces CAM 360, World’s First Cloud-Based CAM Solution

Eden’s (Plantable) Paper Takes the Cake When it Comes to Holiday Gift Wrapping Must-Haves

Half of the fun of the holidays is ripping into presents from family and friends or watching someone else do it . We might feel just a twinge or two of guilt as we crumple shreds of once-pristine paper waste into a trash bag and toss it to the curb for garbage collection, but what the hell, you’re on much-needed vacation and you left all of your cares at the office. Wrong. The facts: In 2011, Great Britain alone racked up 227, 000 miles of wasted paper after the holiday season. (That’s enough paper to wrap the world nine times over around the equator.) And according to a study done by Stanford, if every American wrapped three presents in reused materials, the saved paper would cover 45, 000 football fields. The upshot of the guilt trip is that it leads to solutions like wrapping your gifts in the comics section and recycle it when the present party is done, or, say, reusable packaging . UK-based agency BEAF does the DIYers one better with Eden Paper, wrapping paper for the rest of us that you can plant once you’re finished tearing into those gifts. It’s simple: By planting the used paper in some soil and watering it like a regular potted plant, you’ll see sprouts in no time. As with Democratech’s sprouting pencil and plantable OAT Shoes , the gift wrap is produced with the seeds embedded right into the paper. The brand is currently offering the paper in five flavors—chili peppers, onions, carrots, tomatoes and broccoli—but looks to include various flowers and herbs in the future. The gift wrap looks good, too—as good as it tastes, I’m sure. Design-wise, it’s a much-needed upgrade from a lot of the holiday wrap you see around the time of year. There’s only so much you can take when it comes to iridescent snowflakes and glittery ornaments. (more…)

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Eden’s (Plantable) Paper Takes the Cake When it Comes to Holiday Gift Wrapping Must-Haves

Checking In with Via Motors: Yep, Those Full-Sized Electric Pick-Up Trucks are On the Way

Following yesterday’s popular discussion on Americans and trucks , we got to wondering: Whatever happened to Via Motors ? To refresh your memory, back in January we brought you the story of an American company taking fresh-off-the-assembly-line trucks from Detroit and turning them into E-REVs (Extended Range Electric Vehicles): Powerful yet environmentally-friendly 100-m.p.g. beasts of burden. The company estimated delivery of the first models by mid-2013, but that vague date period has decidedly come and gone. We looked into it mostly afraid to find they’d gone belly-up, but were pleased to find they’re alive and well, and still leaping hurdles on their way to production. Vehicles have to be crash-tested to meet American safety regulations, and even though the trucks Via aims to produce are existing models that have already been crash-tested by their original manufacturer (General Motors), re-rigging them with electric motors requires a whole new crash test. So last month they smashed up a bunch of their cargo van models—and passed with flying colors. “The engineering work done to integrate the VIA’s electric technology has been exceptional and the vehicles have exceeded our expectations in all tests that were performed, ” says Alan Perriton, president of VIA Motors. “We are now moving on to complete certification and begin mass production.” To that end, just weeks ago Via brought their factory online in Mexico, near the GM factory that cranks out Silverados, one of the vehicles Via hacks up. Here’s a look at the facility: (more…)

New, Massive Solar Power Plant Goes Online in Japan

Japan was once colloquially known as the Land of the Rising Sun, and it can’t be only environmentalists hoping that a country with such a moniker would take solar power to heart. Following the Fukushima disaster of 2011, safe and renewable sources of energy have been under study, and at least one corporate giant has done something about it–rather swiftly, by Japanese standards. This month Japanese electronics manufacturer Kyocera pulled the wraps off of the Kagoshima Nanatsujima Mega Solar Power Plant, a project constructed at a backbreaking pace from September 2012 to October 2013. Some 290, 000 solar panels are arrayed on 1.27 million square meters on the coast of Kagoshima Prefecture, making it the largest solar power plant in Japan. The juice started flowing on November 1st, and the KNMSPP is expected to generate 70 megawatts of power, enough to power 22, 000 homes in the region. As promising as that sounds, the stark math is actually a bit dismal compared to Fukushima: The latter facility generated 4.7 gigawatts, or enough to power nearly 1.5 million homes. (more…)

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New, Massive Solar Power Plant Goes Online in Japan