posted by admin on Jan 25

There is a great new way to link up your work between your different hardware solutions! 

If you’re a techno-geek like me then you’ll no doubt have more than one computing device. Personally I use a laptop, desktop and a smartphone depending on where I am and what I’m doing.

But the use of multiple computing devices in this way can be a major inconvenience for one big reason. And that is file sharing.

The Current Problem: 
If I create a spreadsheet on my laptop while travelling, I don’t want to waste time emailing it from one computer to another, or saving it onto a memory stick and then manually copying it across to my other computer.

I just want to be able to create or edit a file on whichever device I happen to be using at the time, and then be able to access it from my other machines. So for example, if I am working on a presentation at the office and then want to move it onto my laptop so I can actually take it to my client, I don’t want to mess around. I just want it on my other computer. Without fuss.

And without fuss clearly means without wires or other gadgets. I don’t want to go to all the trouble of setting up a home network, convincing my computers to communicate with each other and so on. Not fun!

The Easy Solution?
So recently I was very pleased when a friend of mine introduced me to a fantastic new piece of software that does just this.

The software is called DropBox and comes with a variety of subscription models (including a free version for light users like me).

Essentially you install the DropBox software on all your computers and the software then creates a “worm hole” between all your devices. On the desktop screen of each piece of hardware you will see an item called “DropBox”. Simply drag a file into that folder and you will be able to access it securely from any of your other devices.

The software itself is password protected for your privacy and simply uses an internet connection to quickly and easily sync your files for you. I haven’t been this impressed with such a simple application in a long time.

Nice job, DropBox!

posted by admin on Jan 22

The New NEFF CircoSteam oven is certainly looking like a healthy option in the kitchen!

We all cook with steam on the hob, usually in great towers – but steam cooking in an oven is really going to change the way we prepare healthy food!  I have only just found someone who owns one and it’s the first time I had heard of them!

The appliance is basically a compact oven – like a combination microwave if you like – that offers to steam your food without all the steam escaping around your kitchen!

Why Steam?
It is well known through the world of healthy eating and weight loss, that steamed food is better for you in terms of the nutrients it keeps and the lack of other ingredients like cooking oil needed to help cook it.

Baking, roasting and frying usually include some preparation with fats or oils which are absorbed by the food, as well as being heated so high and sometimes for a considerable time that they dry out and or become soaked in fatty materials.

Boiling is seen as a cooking practice that removes or destroys valuable vitamins and minerals from the food.  The food is thrown around the pan under a lot of pressure and reduces many fleshy ingredients to a mush – think of over-cooked sprouts!

And all these alternatives can result in the food you are cooking being completely destroyed if cooked too long – either burnt to a crisp or reduced to a slush.

Benefits Of A Steam Oven:
Well, not so with a steam oven.  None of the above is true at all with steam cooking and the list that follows highlights the benefits:

• Nutrients remain in the food during cooking
• The food retains all of it’s moisture during cooking
• You don’t need fats or oils to cook with steam
• You can’t burn your food when steam cooking
• You can’t turn food into a mush when steam cooking
• You can never overcook food you are cooking with steam

There are also further advantages of a steam oven over the regular stack of pans and commercial steamers:

• Steam cookers retain all the steam inside themselves rather than filling your kitchen
• These combination cookers take up no more space on your counter – it’s built in to your microwave ‘space’
• The huge internal size allows more food to be steamed at the same time – so the whole meal could be steamed rather than just the vegetables.
• There are about 50 pre-programmed settings for everything you are likely to cook – so it’s so easy to use.

So, if you are considering a new small oven or combination microwave – then take a look at this alternative.  And just so you know – it received an A rating for energy use – so can reduce your energy bills while you reduce your waistline too!

posted by admin on Jan 19

Biofuels hit hard criticism when they were competing with human crops, but things might change…..

People are starting to look at waste materials and invasive plants as potential sources of biofuel – rather than using what could have been food for humans.

With the world population soaring and food shortages the world over – it was time to move biofuels forward so to utilise a more sustainable and non-competitive source – and 2 such examples have recently been publicised.

Bracken:
This plant grows virtually everywhere.  Whether it’s in open fields, heathlands, moorlands and mountains.  It is also a worldwide genera and has the widest distribution of any other fern.

Nobody likes it growing on their land (apart from National Parks) as it is very dominant in the landscape and nothing really eats it either (as it is carcinogenic) – so it just spreads across a landscape stealing the light from any other young or low-lying plants.  And a it won’t let grass grow beneath it – the mountains sides and valleys can’t be used for grazing as there is nothing for the sheep or cattle to eat and farmers pay a lot of money to get it cut and removed from their land every year as it is.

It turns the land into a very green wasteland in terms of human needs – and at one time the British Government had an eradication program in place to deal with it’s excessive growth!

However, it is actually because it grows itself very well, and grows back every year - even if cut back when fully grown, it seems like the perfect crop to start working on for sustainable fuels.

The only problem is of course that it usually grows in places that are not easy to get to with modern farm machinery.

Old Yeast:
We all know that there is always going to be whisky in Scotland – so what can we do with all the natural waste materials?

As with the bracken – waste materials from whisky plants costs a lot of money to dispose of – so why not find a way to either use that waste, or find a way to sell it as a product.

Distillery waste (yeasty materials) will be fed into an anaerobic digester to create methane gas – a biogas.  The idea is that if all the distilleries in the area do this – they could power themselves without the need to draw on other energy sources from elsewhere. 

I know it isn’t going to power homes and other businesses – or the whole country, but if these large commercial buildings can fully power themselves using their own waste products, then less energy will have to be created from other sources and shipped or piped to them.

The Future:
Can you imagine if warehouses could generate their own energy from all the waste cardboard they get through, or supermarkets could create biogas from all the food they throw away being bio-digested. 

Even huge offices and sky-scrapers could be creating biogas from all the waste created by their workers – basically, they would be powering themselves!

New technologies are allowing smaller scale operations which were just not viable in the past – they just were not cost effective before we understood how our waste was affecting the environment.  But now companies have to be more environmentally responsible and to also pay to process and dispose of their own waste – they are starting to think about spending that money on alternative services – green services.

And, there must still be plenty of waste products that could be used for fuel or energy – just waiting to be discovered.  Certain things are always going to be needed by people – so why not use the left-overs constructively?

posted by admin on Jan 16

Happy New Year to all you readers – and here are some technological articles to inspire you in 2010.

First up, we have some extensive tips on using the Google Wave software by Herbert Anderson: 25 Tips for Students & Teachers Using Google Wave.

Sam Nash then leads with an interesting post on why we just accept the old as standard when we should be looking for the best instead – he gives his opinion on one of the alternative computer keyboards on the market: DAS Keyboard – The Successor to the IBM Model M Keyboard | Gadget News and Reviews.

A great review of the Samsung Corby Pro by Ankesh is up next with some great opinions and images: OG Review Samsung Corby Pro (GT-B5310), however the obligatory mobile apps post by Mary Jones this month, is about the 20 most useless ones that have been invented: The 20 Most Outrageous/Useless iPhone Apps!  Some are unbelievable…..

And to finish up, something fun: Jason Keller lists his Top 20 Online Games of 2010 and Ankesh gives us a quick glimpse at quite a neat looking gadget: ‘Printing Your Toast’ concept for the office geek.

See you next time!

posted by admin on Jan 11

I don’t think there is one in large scale use – so why not?

I was just thinking about how we all ‘have’ to have large electrical delivered these days.  You can’t just walk into a store and wheel out a huge wall-mounted widescreen TV these days – or your American style ice-making tall fridge-freezer anymore – it all has to be delivered.

As does anything you order online – and this is really an expanding market, so why haven’t these large electrical companies come up with a re-usable tough outer casing to deliver these things to us in rather then acres and acres or cardboard?

Existing Packaging:
Now, we all know that a new fridge, oven or TV come packaged in so much outer packaging that it takes hours to get all the parts out and all the waste materials disposed of – I mean the box my new upright fridge freezer came with so much rubbish, that it had to be disposed of at the local amenity site rather than with normal waste – so another road journey was needed.

And I am well aware that such items need a certain amount of packaging to make a safe journey from the depot to your home – but what if this could be replaced by a better – more inclusive – delivery service.

For example, rather than all the polystyrene and plastic currently being used – what if it was just protected from dust in the warehouse - and a stronger outer casing used only for actual delivery.

That way, when you order a new washing machine, they slip your lightly packaged machine into the new outer casing and ship that off to your home as normal.  The delivery drivers would then move this whole package into your home, remove the outer casing and leave you with a perfectly working electrical – but without the usual piles of cardboard and plastic.

They wheel away the empty outer back to the delivery lorry, where it folds in half and stacks with the other empty cases, ready to be used again tomorrow for another washing machine.

New Packaging:
I know that all white goods and TVs are different shapes and sizes but these new cases are slightly adjustable on the inside so you only need 5 or 6 outer sizes – I mean single ovens, washers, driers and fitted fridges and freezers are all roughly the same shape aren’t they? 

Fasteners and supports inside could be moved up or down for a snug fit and then set back to standard when stored.  And they would store well as they are the same shape at the back and front – so storing in a ‘nest’ would be easy.

Being made of recycled and recyclable materials, they would be eco friendly; being modern technology, they would be unbelievably light – yet strong; and being re-usable and easy to store, they could save manufacturers and delivery firms a whole lot of money.

I know that there are a few small scale deliveries in reusable cartons – so why not scale it up?