The Internet is an interesting medium. It offers vast amounts of information and entertainment. There are many beneficial, and detrimental aspects of the world wide web. It has moved passed the novelty stage and is now moving into being viewed as a utility, something everyone needs. There is one terrible problem with the Internet, one that can be easily seen since its inception, fragmentation of society.
Before the Internet, people lived together in communities based on general attributes; such as color, religion, and place employment. Because there were still large variations of people within those populations, extremist viewpoints were muted, and only powerful hatred of others created smaller segmented groups. Then the Internet came into being.
With the Internet, anyone with a certain viewpoint can easily seek out others of the same mind, and in doing so have their own viewpoint validated. This can be something as simple as a group of people thinking that their particular favorite brand is the greatest product of its type, or something dangerous like new hate groups forming around ideas the are easily reinforced by others.
The Internet creates islands of people with similar mindsets. On these islands they are able to emotionally separate themselves from people of different opinions and ways. When the island of opinion is formed around something negative, this creates a dangerous combination that can more easily lead to violence than in the past.
The future of the Internet is something far grander than most can picture. There will be a day soon when we become plugged into the Internet, but not the Internet as you think of it today. It will be a connection of minds. A joining of billions of intellects working for one common purpose, the bettering of humanity.
When everyone is connected the idea of harming someone else becomes impossible. The idea of ownership also vanishes. All of society ills start to disappear as a new reality comes about. With billions of minds connected, scientific advancement enters a completely different level of acceleration.
This idea has been rolling around in my head for a few years, and I hope to hash it out in more detail.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Residential Wind Power
I've been in love with the idea of generating your own electricity for many years. The problem of course is the fact that it isn't easy. The one idea I keep coming back to is wind power. It is beautifully simple and elegant, yet is still difficult to make work.
The one concept I can't understand is why there is no gearing involved with today's smaller windmills. Wind power created high torque, low speed work power, and you need high speeds to get a useful current out of a generator. Why not use some creative low friction gearing to get the high torque, low speed movement, into a high speed low torque movement. You will lose some power to friction, but I have always thought it is a practical solution to the problem of low wind speeds.
I can imagine a length of helix shaped lightweight plastic moving in low wind speeds, moving some light plastic gears that gear up the speed of the rotating magnet in the copper coil. It may not work at all, but the small home made generators I see that can be homemade require higher speeds to generate useful current. I really want to try this one day, but I have to build a simple generator first. Sadly I never seem to take the time to do it, a real regret of mine.
The one concept I can't understand is why there is no gearing involved with today's smaller windmills. Wind power created high torque, low speed work power, and you need high speeds to get a useful current out of a generator. Why not use some creative low friction gearing to get the high torque, low speed movement, into a high speed low torque movement. You will lose some power to friction, but I have always thought it is a practical solution to the problem of low wind speeds.
I can imagine a length of helix shaped lightweight plastic moving in low wind speeds, moving some light plastic gears that gear up the speed of the rotating magnet in the copper coil. It may not work at all, but the small home made generators I see that can be homemade require higher speeds to generate useful current. I really want to try this one day, but I have to build a simple generator first. Sadly I never seem to take the time to do it, a real regret of mine.
A Day, Like Many
Overall today was a good day. I didn't work too hard as I have many scripts I've created to do my job for me. I did get in one prolonged dispute with a programmer, which got me rather flustered. This time though I was wrong. I hate being wrong, and to be fair to myself I lacked a critical piece of information that would have led me to the correct answer.
I've been reading a large amount of blogs, news, and tweets about the whole Iranian event. It is truly impossible for someone in my position to amass a necessary amount of information about the situation to form a solid opinion about the event.
I am saddened by the loss of life that has already occurred, and will likely continue. There is something sickening though by the subtle language I see/hear media outlets using in referring to the young man's death. 'At least one is dead' This is a loaded phrase, and it carries with it a certain assumption that the audience is likely to make. People hearing this phrase might assume that there will be more deaths to follow. It's a 'stay tuned for more' kind of phrase that I find repugnant.
Some are calling the Iranian dispute a 'Coup', or 'Revolution'. If either are actually true I can find no evidence that it is organized in any way. There is a 'leader' of sorts when referring to the 'losing' challenger, however this person does not appear to have any control over the protesters.. This easily leads to the conclusion that there is no plan. If the actions of the protesters were to bring the government of Iran down, the question would have to be asked 'What now?'. This is a simple question that I doubt anyone involved with the protests would be able to give a coherent answer to.
In any revolution there needs to be an endgame plan. There needs to be people ready to assume certain social roles in order to prevent society from descending into complete lawlessness from which it can not escape in a timely manner.
I've been reading a large amount of blogs, news, and tweets about the whole Iranian event. It is truly impossible for someone in my position to amass a necessary amount of information about the situation to form a solid opinion about the event.
I am saddened by the loss of life that has already occurred, and will likely continue. There is something sickening though by the subtle language I see/hear media outlets using in referring to the young man's death. 'At least one is dead' This is a loaded phrase, and it carries with it a certain assumption that the audience is likely to make. People hearing this phrase might assume that there will be more deaths to follow. It's a 'stay tuned for more' kind of phrase that I find repugnant.
Some are calling the Iranian dispute a 'Coup', or 'Revolution'. If either are actually true I can find no evidence that it is organized in any way. There is a 'leader' of sorts when referring to the 'losing' challenger, however this person does not appear to have any control over the protesters.. This easily leads to the conclusion that there is no plan. If the actions of the protesters were to bring the government of Iran down, the question would have to be asked 'What now?'. This is a simple question that I doubt anyone involved with the protests would be able to give a coherent answer to.
In any revolution there needs to be an endgame plan. There needs to be people ready to assume certain social roles in order to prevent society from descending into complete lawlessness from which it can not escape in a timely manner.
Why I'm Doing This
I have created many blogs over the years, and each one of them is now lost and forgotten forever. I came to realize that the problem was that I always tried to apply a theme to each blog. I really have no 'theme', nor do I want one. I am interested in far too many topics to chain myself down to one specific subject.
This is ensures that I will never create a popular blog, but that's not what this specific blog is about. Because my interests change on a near daily basis, I can never bring a thought to fruition. I hope to spend my time on this blog hashing out an idea as far as I am able to take it before something else catches my fancy.
My hope is that someday I'll either come back to an idea and try to complete it, or hope that someone else discovers something interesting here and decides to run with it themselves.
This is ensures that I will never create a popular blog, but that's not what this specific blog is about. Because my interests change on a near daily basis, I can never bring a thought to fruition. I hope to spend my time on this blog hashing out an idea as far as I am able to take it before something else catches my fancy.
My hope is that someday I'll either come back to an idea and try to complete it, or hope that someone else discovers something interesting here and decides to run with it themselves.
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