Author Archives: Stephen Gordon

An Idea Who's Time Has Come…

I’m speaking, of course, of the Apple II.

Students at MIT are taking the old Apple II architecture and developing Internet capable computers that could be sold for about $12.

A $12 computer of sorts – a cheap keyboard and Nintendo-like console – already exists in India, where people hook the devices to home TVs to run simple games and programs.

But Lomas, an American graduate student who stumbled across the computers in Bangalore while on an internship last summer, hit on the idea of upgrading the devices’ 1980s-era technology.

He and others at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology symposium hope to soup up the systems – which are based on old Apple II computers – with rudimentary Web access and more.

“My generation all had Apple IIs that we learned to type and play games on,” the 27-year-old said. “If we can get buy-in from programmers, we can develop these devices and give (Third World) schools Apple II computer labs like the ones I grew up with.”

I guess I’m a sucker for the low end of the computer revolution. Certainly you can buy a multi-core monster with all the bells and whistles for a few thousand dollars, but I’ve always been fascinated by what a few dollars and a lot of ingeniuity can accomplish. We will have crossed a very important milestone when an Internet capable computer shows up in my kid’s Happy Meal.

More cheap electronics blogging:

Back in December of 2006 I replaced my failing cellphone with a GoPhone. No, I didn’t get fleeced with the pay-as-you-go deal. I dropped in the SIM from the last phone and it was good to go on my regular plan. At $20 it was so cheap that I considered it disposable. I could go through 3 or 4 of those a year and be money ahead on getting a new phone out of my service provider. I figured I’d use it for a few months and then get some flavor of smart phone.

That GoPhone lasted until late last month – more than a year and a half. It holds the record for longest service of any cellphone to be carried by Stephen Gordon. Actually it was still working. The only problem was that the ringer kept getting quieter until I couldn’t hear it to take a call anymore. I replaced it with another cheap phone.

I’m sure at some point I’ll step up to an iPhone – its far enough up the high end to offer sufficient value to make it worth the leap. But I see no reason to go middle-of-the-road on a cell phone. Why pay $100 for a mid-range phone when $20-$30 will get you something that has 95% of the mid-range features?

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“Solving the World’s Problems: The Speculist Way!” Part 2

…of two. Check out part 1 here.

That’s right. Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon finished solving the worlds problems with part 2 of this two-part show.

Assume anything is possible. In the next 25 years how could we:

  • Eradicate cancer, heart disease, AIDS, and dysentery;

  • End war, and
  • Make the environment pristine.

Our audience contributed greatly to the success of this show.

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I Want My Flying Car!

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This is an old idea who’s time may have finally come. Brian Wang has written a great post over at Next Big Future about flying cars. His idea is that small electric airplanes could be incredibly efficient – 438 MPG equivalent.

Of course one big problem with flying cars has always been that airplanes are much more difficult to pilot than cars. Brian argues that UAV’s are proving that robotic flying could be very safe. It would be push button flying. It wouldn’t be any more difficult than using a GPS. You tell the aircraft where you want to go and it does the rest. It plans the flight (including determining whether fuel stops will be necessary), files a flight plan, communicates with ground control, taxis to the runway, takes off, stays in contact with aircraft control, and lands – all on its own. The driver could always change the destination en route if desired, but the aircraft itself does all the flying.

When you get to your destination airport you detach the flying chassis and drive away. I would guess that the upper flying chassis would probably be powered by liquid fuel while the car could be powered by batteries (but see Brian Wang’s post on electric aircraft). These flying chassis could be interchangeable. They would be kept and serviced at the airport. You’d rent them as needed.

So, what production car would be good for flying? Jesse James used this sports car:

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But this thing flew only 300 feet or so (video link). It was more like an Evel Knievel stunt than flying. There are probably better, lighter cars that would be more practical. Something like this:

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This is the Aptera Type 1. It will come in two models – all electric car and hybrid. The all electric will have a 120 mile range. The hybrid is said to get 300 mpg with an increased range. The top speed of both models is 90 mph. Here’s the Popular Mechanics story on the car:

This is another way that the electric cars could become practical long-range vehicle. For short trips you drive. For long trips you fly. If there’s sufficient gas in reserve, the flying chassis could even charge your battery as you go. It could even become a popular alternative to commercial flying.

HIV has a Weakness

HIV is a uniquely clever virus. It constantly mutates to elude the body’s defenses – and our medical intervention. But in order to work at all, some part of the HIV virus has to remain unchangeable. Dr. Paul and Dr. Miguel Escobar in Houston believe that they’ve found that part of the virus. AND they have found a way to exploit that weakness.

Check out the video.

It’s news like this that makes us say, “If you’re not excited about the future you’re not paying attention.”

FastForward Radio

“Solving the World’s Problems: The Speculist Way!” Part 1

…of two.

That’s right. Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon will be solving the worlds problems in two podcasts. This was the first.

Assume anything is possible. In the next 25 years how could we:

  • Eliminate crime.
  • Abolish hunger and poverty.
  • End terrorism.

Our live audience is a big part of this show. Harvey Espatchelowe called in and Matt Duing had some great comments in the text chat.

If you typically listen on a delay, please listen live next week as we finish this two-parter. We need your help digging ourselves out of our own challenge. You can suggest a problem to consider or, even better, give us a solution. We’ll give a FFR coffee mug to the caller or chat-room guest who makes the best contribution to the discussion. Next week we’ll ask how, in the next 25 years, can we:

  • Eradicate cancer, heart disease, AIDS, and dysentery;

  • End war, and
  • Make the environment pristine.

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FastForward Radio

Phil Bowermaster, Stephen Gordon, and Michael Darling covered a lot of ground with this show.

dark knight.jpg

They talked about The Dark Knight film, the hybrid bridge to electric vehicles, how a Blue Ray player makes regular DVD’s look better, and they took a shot at figuring out how an electron can be two places at once.

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The Mouse is Dead…

MouseNotWorking.jpg

…long live visual computing.

Gartner analyst Steve Prentice is predicting that the computer mouse will be dead in 3-5 years.

When I first read that headline I scoffed. But then I asked myself, “when was the last time I used a mouse?” I’m sure I’ve touched a mouse during the second Bush administration, but I realize now that I haven’t used a mouse daily in 3 or 4 years. Instead I’ve used the touchplates on the various laptops I’ve owned. The transition was so natural that I hadn’t noticed.

And the touchplate is getting more powerful. Try duplicating the two-finger gestures that Apple is pioneering for the iPhone and Macbook Air with a mouse. The Wiimote might be the harbinger of great things too.

So I’ll go along with this prediction. In 3-5 years most people will have moved on from the mouse and nobody will miss it.

But it was an essential first step to visual computing.

A Short Bridge to EV's

Hybrid electric/gasoline vehicles have been thought of as a bridge technology to full electric vehicles. There are a number of factors that could make the bridge long (25+ years) or short (a decade). Paypal cofounder and Tesla chairman Elon Musk is betting on a short bridge. Here’s why:

  1. Hybrids represent a poor compromise. The product is neither a good EV or a good gas powered vehicle.

    EM: Because you need both a gasoline-powered engine and a big battery, neither can be very good, and the engine will be a weak engine. It’s just not where the future lies.

  2. Batteries capable of offering EV’s comparable range to gasoline vehicles will be available sooner than most people think.

    EM: We’ll be able to offer a car with a 305-mile range roughly three years from now.

    …

    I think what we’ll see is an increasing amount of energy being stored in the battery pack and a lowering of the cost of the battery pack over time.

    …

    If you look at the improvement of battery energy density, it tracks to about 8 or 9 percent a year.

  3. Tesla will address the EV road trip problem with their second model.

    EM: There is the occasional road trip, but that’s actually pretty rare, and for some people it’s never. Our second model will address that rare case in two ways. One is to allow people to switch out the battery pack, so you can go to a battery-change station just like you’d go to a gas station. The second path is to have a high-speed charge. If you have a high-powered onboard charger, you can get an 80 percent charge in 45 minutes. If you’re going from L.A. to San Francisco, which is about a 400-mile trip, you can drive 200 miles, stop for lunch, charge your car in the restaurant parking lot, finish lunch and continue the remaining 200 miles to San Francisco.

  4. And there will be improvements to EVs beyond batteries that will enable EV’s.

    EM: [Battery improvements are] not the only thing. The efficiency of the electric motor, the efficiency of the powertrain, the rolling resistance are all important.

  5. Part of the electric infrastructure improvement necessary for EV’s can be done right at the EV owner’s residence.

    EM: I have another company, SolarCity, which is the largest provider of solar power to homes and businesses in California. The solution is to get a SolarCity solar panel on your roof and then have an electric car. It takes actually only a small solar-panel setup – of about 10 by 15 feet – to generate 200 to 400 miles a week of electricity for your car.

Read the whole interview.

(H/T to Michael Darling)

Musk didn’t mention it, but there’s another factor that would tend to push us to EV’s quickly:

  1. Skyrocketing gas prices.

    Dude. We’re there.

    No, I’m talking about $7,8… $10/gallon gas. If gas prices go in that direction the hybrid’s gas engine will look less like a feature than a bug.

FastForward Radio

Phil Bowermaster, Stephen Gordon, and two surprise guests talk about shopping for HDTV equipment without getting reamed, Hellboy 2, and why electricity will be so important to the transportation sector in the future.

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