Thoughts on This and That
I recently highlighted a novel audio amp that can run off batteries for a long, long time. And I’ve been collecting some other low power stuff that I’ll share here. But what really makes it complete is the concept of Energy Harvesting! Continue reading “Energy Harvesting for Electronics”
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It’s amazing what application specific integrated circuits can do now. I never stop being surprised at what I keep seeing coming out of the pipeline. Audium Semiconductor recently gave me one such surprise with the hyper efficient AS1001 amplifier that can deliver 100 watts peak power, from a 1.5 volt (read single battery) power supply. Continue reading “Hyper Efficient Audio – 100 W from a single battery!”
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The Nissan Leaf is an all electric car for the masses. On paper, the car seems to be a much more realistic proposition than cars like the Tesla or the Fisker. It’s a small 5 seat car, with a range of 100 miles and a target price somewhere a bit above $25k. For many, this is a price point that is manageable, even in these tough times. Continue reading “Driving the Nissan Leaf”
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Let’s say you have a 256 bit encryption key in some piece of hardware. How do you keep it secure? Turns out, it’s very, very hard. Especially when the actual device can be in the hands of those that want to crack it. Continue reading “How do you keep bits secure?”
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I was reading about a new serial hybrid that uses a micro-turbine, and that got me looking at automotive turbines of the past. We’ve come a long way, baby! Continue reading “Automotive Gas Turbines – Then & Now”
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Turns out the crafty Germans are at it again! As reported in the Fraunhofer Research News recently, a group there is working with something called a redox flow battery. Basically it uses a liquid instead of a solid to store the charge. This isn’t new, but the team has brought the energy density up to that of Li-Ion batteries, and that is new! Continue reading “Battery fill up via pump?”
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In Nasa Tech Briefs, there was a little blurb about household robot security. So I dug down to the original paper by Tamara Denning, a grad student at the University of Washington. Turns out that personal robots could be a real security risk. Continue reading “Big Brother May Not Be The Problem”
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First, let me say I’m sure it’s really a sweet ride. Even the 760 iL and iX variants are sure to be every thing that the buyers want and more. But the more I read about the 760i and all it’s variants, all I can think of is a car no one needs. Continue reading “The BMW 760i – A Car No One Needs”
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I learned something new today. All the squawking about labor costs in car manufacturing is a red herring. And I also learned that pretty much every North American car company blew chow in FY 2008. Continue reading “Labor Isn’t The Problem at the Car Makers”
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So, I was reading about some new GPS guided 155mm howitzer shells (think your Garmin Nuvi can take getting shot out of a cannon?), really interesting technology in it’s own right, when I came across an article on some conflicts between wanting to do right and wanting to be reliable. Continue reading “RoHS & COTS hit the DOD – Damned Wiskers!”
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