The "Flying Cuisinart"

In 1983, engineers at General Electric experimented with an “unducted fan” engine. Without the external casing, airflow through the blades increased, delivering more power for the same amount of fuel. The thing was loud, but the company pressed on because the trick could reduce fuel consumption by as much as 26 percent. Then fuel prices dropped, gas guzzling became acceptable, and GE mothballed the project. Now that airlines are again conscious of fuel costs and carbon, the idea is back, and new tech is making it feasible.

Last September, GE began wind-tunnel testing a one-fifth-scale set of the blades at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. Using computational-design advances, engineers are redesigning the original blades to evenly distribute the air coming off the tips when they spin at supersonic speeds, which should reduce the noise. The setup more than triples the airflow through the blades, says Theresa Zeug, the project’s lead engineer, and allows them to be 14 feet wide, four feet wider than today’s largest. The engine also saves fuel by tilting the blades to control speed—rather than throttling up or down—which lets it run at a constant, efficient rate. GE will probably have to execute some spin of its own to get the public on board with the fearsome design, which engineers have dubbed the “flying Cuisinart.” But GE has time to figure that one out: The engine won’t be ready for midsize jets, such as the Boeing 737, until at least 2020

(www.popsci.com cited)

Solar power, Its what's for Christmas!

Continuing on my focus of future technologies that are not so "Future" I bring you:

The Armageddon energy Energy Solar Clovers!!

This revolutionary technology is a click together rooftop solar system that in a few hours, will save you days or weeks on design and installation. Armageddon's modual kit consists of metal frams light enough to carry up a ladder, plus 18 pound solar panels coated in Teflon instead of heavy glass, that snap ontothe frames tabs. The easy to life ready made parts mean that installers don't have to build frames on top of a house and also eliminate tricky wiring, since each frame has its own DC/AC converter that lets it plug straight into a home circuit breaker!

for a "Energy Solar Clover" I'm guessing that is 3 leaf, not 4. It starts at $8,000

www.armageddonenergy.com Coming this Fall!


Later in 2011 will be Solar Shingles! My personal Favorite

Rather than laying solar panels across your roof, use them as your roof. Dow build thin-film photovoltaic cells directly into polymer shingles. They're as protective as ordinary shingles, nail down in the same way and, in place of exposed wiring, hook together with simple electrical connectors at their ends. Some units go on sale later this year, with wide availability next year. Dow is also working on other building materials with sun power built in. They are tough and durable, and you don't have to worry about one breaking and bringing down the whole system!

www.dowsolar.com

Price not set.

Your Car Lacks Nipples, Because they Want your money!!

Ok, I am so not PC about life, but that is a fact I have yet to work on!

Here is the low down. Modern Auto manufactures have created the idea that our Ball joints and other important parts need to be a closed system.

Why did they do this?  Because of Global market Green Peace avocation. The idea being that if you have less open grease parts that when you drive through the water you will not contaminate the environment. Yet there is a hidden meaning behind this change from old reliable technology to what they have now.

What is the Meaning?  The meaning is that when you buy your brand new car you have about 4 years or less depending on the amount you drive, to use your ball joints before the grease dries out and you prematurely wear out your ball joints, THUS costing you hundreds of dollars to replace them!

Why would they do this? MONEY! money money, and to look good. They sell you on the idea of  "no maintenance needed" you will never have to crawl under your car to grease your joints every 6 months. But by going under your car or getting someone else to do it every 6 months you are saving your self $2000 or more in the first few years of your car. Their idea is that you can pop out the worn out one and put a new one in. I say nay!! I don't want to spend any money.


First off if you have Grease parts go here to learn how to Grease your joints 

so here is the plan, and it is a article I just finished reading. Add Grease points to your ball joints!

the steps are easy.

1. find your joints on your car most of the time you will not need to remove the part, and can do it quite quickly.
2. Get the parts! you will need 4-8 nipples found at auto shops, you may need 90 Degree ones so do some homework on how your car works. Get extras you never know! Also figure out the Thread Diameter and get a appropriate drill.
3. Grease up your drill and go slowly on the joint at first to catch all the metal pieces. Once through be sure to get all the little metal pieces.
4. AHH THERE IS A HOLE IN MY CAR! no worries, this is where your parts come into play, you just need to install the fitting. [ask your auto parts store about special tools] once the fitting is in your good to go!
5. Grab your grease gun and start squeezing. Your done greasing when the grease starts to come out around the end of your grease gun. Once that is done wipe if off, and put on a Cap that came with the parts.

6. Repeat!

The cool thing about this whole adventure is your doing it yourself. The Scary part is that your doing it  yourself!! but you don't have to do them all at once. In fact you can do one, one day, the others next. It is not one of those jobs you have to rip your car apart for, and then be left with no car if you don't finish!

Stay tuned and I will have a more comprehensive report on the duties involved!

From "Popular Mechanics - Sealed for life"
Question: I read in one of your old coums that it's possible to add a grease fitting to the destned-for-falure "sealed" Balljoints on the new cars. How can I do this?

Answer: This is one of my favorie complaints about new cars SPecifically, that manufactureres exclude a 10 cent zerk fitting on th eball joints and steering tir-rod ends of their vehicles. That way, when the grease dries out in a couple of years, the joint quickly wears out, and you have to replace the part. Pumping in a nickels' worth of grease twice a year would save hundreds of dollars of parts and labor when they fail prematurly.
  So, I just thumb my nose at planned obsolence and add the fittins. (surprisingly, virtually all replacement fittings- even the ones made by the OEM suppliers as exact replacements- have the proper grease fitting in the box when you buy them at the parts store. Go figure!) It's easy to do.
  Start by drilling a 3/16-inch hole in the sheet metal cap on the bottom of the joint. Odds are you can do this without removing the part from the car, although for some tie-rod ends, you might need to unhook them to get clearance for the drill to run straight. Coat the drill with grease and go slowly at the end to capture most of the chips. Now use a small pipe tap that matches your pitting to thread the hole. Again, pack the flutes on the tap with grease to catch most of the chips.
   Now you can just thread in the fitting. Be aware there are several syles of zerk fittings. You may need a straight, 45- or 90-degree zerk to allow the grease gun to hook onto the end of the fitting. Don't foget the little rubber cap to keep the end of the fitting clean. Now all you have to do is pump some grease into the fitting every 6 moths or so. Add grease until the boot is turgid, and grease is leaking out of th eseams. Your front suspension will thatnk you!

so now you can tell your car dealer to stick it! you won't pay when you can play!

Being all CSI/NCIS on yourself (Data Encryption made easy)

I always watch NCIS and wonder about certain programs in which these super spy's they hut use to encrypt data on secret sections of their HD, and USB thumb drives. Well Wonder no more!

TrueCrypt, can be used with HD or Usb Thumbdrives and it is the best free solution for encrypting your data.

Truecrypt has a sneaky way of allowing you to place a hidden volume inside another encrypted Volume. To understand that, you eed to know how a standard TrueCypt volume works. WHen you create an encrypted colume with Truce Crypt, you specify its size, like you would when creating a disk partition. The hidden volume will alays occupy exactly this much space regardless of how many files you put into it. Any space in the volume is filled with random data. To anyone without the password, the encrypted data is completely indistinguishable from the random data. To anyone with the password, the encrypted data con be decrypted, but the unused space remains totally random.
  This creates an opportunity to hide more data. By encrypting additional data with different pass phrase and inserting it among the random data at the end of the volume, TrueCrypt creates an encrypted volume with two different passwords, each of wich provides access to a different set of data. You can fill one of these volumes with dcoy data, so that even if you ever need to give away a password you can give up the decoy, and nobody will ever be able to prove that another volume exists! HOW SPY COOL IS THAT!

Download TrueCrypt from www.truecrypt.org

Run the executable; it does not matter whether you choose to extract of install it. Go to where you extracted the files and run truecrypt.exe. Click the crete volume button.
  Choose create an encrypted file container, then hidden true-Crypt Volume, then normal mode.
   You will now be guided through the necessary steps to create an outer volume. Choose the file name for the volume, a size, and a password. Don't worry about messing with the encryption settings. When TrueCrypt has finished prepping the volume, press Format (Don't worry, this won't format your Hard Drive).
  Once the first (outer) volume is completed, repeat the process for the hidden volume. Choose a size that gives you enough room to plant decoy data in the outer volume, and pick a significantly different password.
   There! You've created you hidden volume. Now you can access it at anytime by clicking select file, browsing to the volume, then clicking mount from the main TrueCrypt Screen and entering either the decoy or real password!


Also Feel free to read this Article on encrypting your whole drive with Truecrypt   Here
 

Web sites I recently Found

www.letsplayarchive.com - Want to know about a game but not play it! A website where others play the gams while maintaining a journal so you don't have to!

www.kongregate.com --Noted as the Best Flash Game hub on the net!


www.gethuman.com -- Hate Technical support labyrinth of non-human interaction. This site tells you exactly how to get a human on the phone right away. (who knows you could be talking to me soon!)

www.craiglook.com --Hate Craiglist being stuck in 1995? craiglook uses a mashup of yahoo pipes, and google maps to bring your searches closer to home and less gay.

www.kayak.com -- Looking for a quick weekend getaway, kayak can help you find the best deals on any destination, whether it is by plane, ship, or automobile. kayak searches hundreds of travel sites based on your query. And your Credit card wont get hacked like it does with Hotels.com

www.soyouwanna.com -- wanna learn what they don't teach you in school! search for all sorts of projects and ideas. Some content on the site is not work-safe.

www.howcast.com -- Instructional videos a that are actually coherent.

www.good-tutorials.com -- you don't have to be a designer to learn how to touch up photos, create your own graphics, or conjure up fancy web buttons.

www.newseum.org -- think newspaper is dead, your wrong, use this site to search the newest head lines on papers all over the world.


http://sketchup.google.com -- using a plug in based version of the sketch-up modeling program you can easily creat a textured 3d model of your neighborhood or local landmarks and submit them to be included in the google earth database


www.cookingforengineers.com --- if your the type who thinks of cooking as more a science than an art, then Cooking For Engineers is for you.

www.crackle.com -- where you can watch the TV shows and movies you can't find on NBC's Hulu.

HST = WTFT

So rumors of HST ruining the already struggling economy are popping up all over. If you listen to the people on the street they talk about obamas health care more than the impending HST debockle that is about to hit us in Ontario.

Let me break it down, HST will be the combination of 8% GST and Provincial Sales take, taking the take to a 14% on all products and services. Why is this a big deal? Think of it this way, we only pay 8% tax on Fuel. at 1.00 a liter, a honda civic costs $40 bare tank to fill. Now add another 6% and your just giving the Oil companies like Esso, and Shell a Huge Excuse to raise the price of fuel to 1.50L to "Cover the new costs of fuel and future production of their services." As a friend of mine would say, OMG WTF GUY!! exactly like that.

But fuel is not the only aspect that is going to get hit. Everything is going to get hit with HST, that is why they call it a Harmonizing tax. Yet there is nothing Harminious about it! I am not getting Harmony in my life from having added tax on services that once never had them! But here is the sick thing about it, and the only place your going to read about it is at the Gov. Website.  There if you do some digging you will find out information that reads:  "
Although the consumer pays the tax, businesses are generally responsible for collecting and remitting it to the government. Businesses that are required to have a GST/HST registration number are called registrants.
Registrants collect the GST/HST on most of their sales and pay the GST/HST on most purchases they make to operate their business. They can claim a credit, called an input tax credit (ITC), to recover the GST/HST they paid or owe on the purchases they use in their commercial activities.
GST/HST registrants must meet certain responsibilities. Generally, they must file returns on a regular basis, collect the tax on taxable supplies they make in Canada, and remit any resulting net tax owing."

Yeah it's a chunk to read, but I'll break it down. What you just read is called "legal Money Laundry" where we pay a buisness the HST tax which we assume is going to the GOV. for roads and services, but in turn the companies apply for the tax rebate and get all that money back into their pockets. So let me ask you this oh Oil Baron sitting on a mountain of liquid gold. Why is Fuel prices increasing to cover the new sales tax, when you apply for the rebate and get all that money back?

It even goes as far to say that if you buy a buisness you have to buy 90% of the usable product to be eligable for no GST/HST on the purchase, otherwise you have to buy out the company stock. Sounds great for all the big companies, but terrible for us little guys trying to be entrapeaurs and start and grow a buisness.

Now the complaint has been made that the new HST will push away buisness and with a growing concern of Call centers outsourcing, and the Large fleet of Graphic design firms trying to move away, I am starting to see the true side of this whole debockle, so here it is.


The Gov. Realized that we need more business in Ontario to bring us out of the Recession. Rather than create a nice bonus for new companies that did not involve the people, they created HST. HST allows corporations to charge us tax and then apply to get the money back completing the loop. We pay for new business in Ontario, and the Gov. gets to look like the heroes that saved the economy.

So my question is this, when do we as a people go against the grain and talk back? YOU have the opportunity to contact your local MP and get the ball rolling. Trust me when I say they will go the distance to call everyone they can to make your concern heard. Don't sit back and just read a Blog and feel informed. Do your part to save your wallet, and your family.

Heavy Rain - It's Never Rained so Hard.

WOW.... oh wait you want me to write more, sure.

Heavy rain, is a PS3 Adventure game based on the idea of, "How far will you go to save the one you love?" Let me tell you right now, that it is going to have to be quite far! I rented this game last night, and got to start playing it at 10pm, which I could not put down till 2am! Man is this game awesome.


As with most adventure games you have to do some mundane things to get the story going. But Heavy rain manages to take these mundane situations and make them interactive and enjoyable to watch. Take for instance the fact of changing a baby, and feeding it. Through the simple, yet complex control system of the ps3, the mix of holding buttons and slowly rocking the controller produce the motions of calming a baby. And don't think Resident Evil on me here, it isnt just a bunch of walking around and then Frantically pressing XXXXXXXXXXXXOOOOO to save your life. Be prepared to shake your whole body!

You follow 3 characters, although some how I counted 4, but anyway. The drama, romance, and suspense is so wonderfully played out through the scenes you follow that you just seem to never get the opportunity to press "start" and put the controller down. I love games that do this, as it is no longer a game but a interactive movie. I don't want to go into too much detail about the game because the idea of it is that it is your story. Every action you do has a reaction, choose to ask about shoes, and who knows, you might have to recall what color those shoes were to the police.

The story line is rather dark, as the name might suggest. In your city there is a killer who prey's on 9-13 year old boys, drowning them in rain water. His Clues are a Origami figure in the hand and a orchid on the chest, leaving the bodies by the train tracks in empty lots. But the story goes deeper than hunting this killer down. The killer may be one of the characters, and you may be helping him. The Killer also has a alternative motive, which you will learn about, and returns you to the question of "how far will you go?" Which got me to figure out, that how far did the previous victims family's get?

Although the main graphics are stunning, and the skin textures and volumetric rain fall is Beyond what I have ever seen in a video game. There still is a underlying layer of low poly models, and jerking animation. It's almost like they rigged up a robot with really sharp motors and the actions can be choppy. At one scene I saw 100 people at a stand still then just start walking all at once. Don't be fooled, this game is a heavy rain of emotions. At one moment you will forget to breath, and at another you may get a little left behind wondering what to do. No problem just press a button and hear what your character is thinking.

I have to say that the Fight scenes in Heavy Rain are Cinematic to the core. You can be fighting a character and be winning the battle and miss a button to press and your back in the fight. The controls are based heavy on using the thumb stick to create actions and pressing X,O, Square and Triangle. I found myself having to use both my hands as your forced to hold down more than 7 buttons at a time. Then you have to shake the controller, side to side, up down all over. It is intense, and I can see that they really wanted to open up the controls to a more "wii" mentality of fans. The only down side I found to the controls, was the case of walking. Pressing R2 enables you to walk but I found in certain areas that my area of walking was highly controlled and became frustrated when I could not approach the door. This lead to my deductive reasoning that me being trapped inside a apartment full of crazy things, was most likely part of the plot, and I should wait around.

Back in the day, and even sometimes today, Video games were either, cool to look at, or a deep controlled story. It is rare to get both, and time was spent to make sure that the inter mingling is made very clear. I praise the designers of the game, and the team that made sure that you can have your Cake and eat it in the rain.

On one last note, and again I don't want to ruin the Fantastic Scenery of the game for you, but playing as the FBI agent has to be one of the most Fantastic Technological Fantasy moments I have ever experienced. Once you get to the Dark and dismal Office space, you will understand.

after 5 hours of play, I can only assume there is about 20 more hours to go!

Total Recall, the Secret to Higher Profits!

So I have been discussing this with my wife the last few trips home. Luckily we have about 45min each way to chit chat and argue, which leads to time listening to the radio.

You all have heard that Toyota did a recall for gas pedals, a issue that I have known about since my 1982 toyota 4x4 (love that truck). But all of a sudden it's a big deal? its a conspiracy. Think about it, not proven, but think about it. 100 people complain about a issue, in their cars/trucks/SUV's and then Toyota does a massive recall. Potential to bring the big corporation down to it's knees. That was the prayers of GM, Dodge, and Ford. It is easy for a corporation to purchase 100 vehicles and then complain about a issue causing the recalls, thus making North Americans wary about buying toyota and choosing honda. Dammit that back fired in their face.

Remember that whole cash for clunkers, well more 90% of the fords were explorer models, and were traded in for Honda and Toyota Hybrids. MOTIVE!!

So here we are toyota did the recall of millions of cars, and a scared North America does not want toyota no more. WRONG! Toyota recently released that since the recall and their due diligence to fix the issue and very clever press releases, have now gained a 25% Profit margin. 25%!! is huge when you already have 50% or more of the market!

Now the bad guys here, are GM, Ford, and Dodge, they started it pointing fingers to try and bring in profit for themselves. But it backfired, it did not work, Toyota got more business. Now what are they to do?? We'll in their scarred little antic way of a child of age 5, they see all the other kids playing nice and want their toys, so now they have released a recall for Pontiac, Ford, GM and Dodge vehicles that they have known about since 2005 or sooner, but neglected to give 2 shits about unless someone forced them to.

What does this mean for us? Don't promote the destruction of a well established company just because the radio says so. I love Toyota for good reason, I have personal experience with the reliability of Toyota's 4x4's. I have personal experience with the reliability of Honda cars. Ford, not so much, gm, seen them break, dodge, well I love the caravan, great rental. "rental" anyway another topic.

When this all started I had to ask myself who started it. Like a episode of NCIS the trail leads back to those who have the most to loose. And that is who I will stay away from.


Take a look at the Top 5 Recalls of all Time. Toyota's not involved.

20 Kilowatt batteries -by 2011!

"Without a way to store their power, no number of solar panels will free a home from the electrical grid."

This is a issue I have struggled with in my own personal head over the thought of adding solar, wind, or geo-thermal power.

Researchers at Utah-based Ceramatec have developed a new battery that can be scaled up to store 20 kilowatt-hours; enough to power an average home for most of a day. An easy sell for solar users, but it could also allow the grid-bound to stockpile energy during less expensive off peak hours.
The new battery runs on sodium-sulfur, a composition that typically operates at greater than 600 F. " Sodium sulfur is more energetic than lead-acid, so if you can somehow get it to a lower temperature, it would be valuable for residential use," Ralph Brodd, an independent energy conversion consultant, says.
Ceramatec's new battery runs at less than 200f. The secret is a thin ceramic membrane that is sandwiched between the sodium sulfur. Only positive sodium ions can pass through, leaving electrons to create a useful electrical current. Ceramatec says that the batteries will be ready for market testing in 2011, and will sell for about $2000.

That may sound like a large about of money, yet when you think about the fact that 20 kilowatts per hour could power a typical north american home for most of the day, it would then relieve the typical strain that is on the already taxed system in North America. The savings could be well over $2000 for every single house hold that use's it per year. The technology will also be transferable to electrical cars, and bikes. With a batter the size of a pancake in current lab trials, once it is scaled up, it would fit into a stand up Tool box.





Full Article Here
Company Website Here

What to expect

What to expect? how professional. But is that not now what we all want to be? Professional?
What I mean is that no matter where you apply your time or money to there are always people out there that believe that you should be professional at what you do. What if you can be professional in your work, but unprofessional in your attitude. Were all so wrapped up in our little worlds that we forget to let loose, have fun, wear a rubber chicken hat, and expect people to look at us funny.

Look at google, a seriously, professional company right? yes, you are, but your not. They have a hired team of 100 people just drawing all day. YOu love to doodle, doodle all day! Must be self starter, easily motivated, creative, and work with minimal supervision. THATS ME! And you know what they draw all day? those silly google ad thingies when you go to the web page. today I will make the 2, O's to look like hooters. The birds silly, the birds. What a Great exsistance! how many years of art therory and work did you do? 5, wow, and you draw hooters all day, SWEET!

ANyway, as I type this really cold air is falling on my hands from the vent above and I am finding it really hard to type at 70wpm. so I wont.

Bye!

I have yet to return from my brain-vacation.