Latest Inventions

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?

posted by admin on Dec 16

Welcome to the final Blog Carnival of 2009 - And Best Wishes for the New Year!

Let’s begin with the very thorough and interesting article by Mary Jones who details 25 Everyday Technologies That Came from NASA. Neat!

And welcome back to a regular writer on e-books - Marco Gustafsson with his article this time on the Cool-er EBook Reader: Intuitive Marketing or Blatant Copying?.

The third article is about the planet - and lists lectures that could change the way you think about biology, technology and the world itself - let Linda Jones share with you 50 Fascinating Lectures on the Future of the Planet.

A little story about the Eco Rally that took place earlier this year by 00FF00 has some great info and some nice photos too! So, read here about The Revolve Eco Rally

And finally, the obligatory ‘Apps’ listing article this month is from Carolyn Friedman who tells us about the Top 20 iPhone Apps for Business Travelers but is joined by a very in-depth article on just 1 particular app - John presents us with his article on A Bird-finding App for iPhone and iPod Touch

See you in 2010!

posted by admin on Nov 29

It’s not a Latest Invention, but I just had to pass on something I found a company doing that I wanted to introduce!

They are called the Corporate Angel Network (CAN) and they work hard and for free to match up empty seats on smaller corporate jet flights with cancer patients who are unable to fly to the specialist appointments on normal planes, either due to insurance clauses or due to the risk of infection in large crowds.

Since 1981, CAN - a not-for-profit organisation based in the States - has been working with corporations with their own fleets of small aircraft to fill their empty seats for free (yes - totally free to the patient and the person who travels with them) to help them travel between home and various hospitals and specialists as and when.

CAN currently transport around 250 patients a month according to their own stats, and uses the services of over 500 airlines.

It’s a great concept and for a great cause and it’s even sort of eco friendly (filling seats on an already scheduled flight).  So if you can help other patients, recommend them to a friend in need or make even a small donation - this charity needs voices to spread the word!

Thanks.

posted by admin on Nov 26

I just saw an advert for a new online ‘game’ that showed me a lot about how a city is powered - and the impact of ‘green’ alternatives.

It’s called Energyville and has been put together by The Economist Group, to show people the environmental costs of the many forms of energy available - and the essential we can’t do without at the moment.

Of course it is only a simplified storyline - but it is filled with facts and figures that really make you think about what we can expect for the future.  I mean I got to the point where it told me that we cannot currently run our transport networks without oil - we need it or we cannot exist.  So much for filling my city with ‘green’ energy!

Enter Energyville Yourself:
Take yourself to their website where you get a basic introduction to the site, then you name your city and either choose the actual game to start - or you can try the tester version to get to grips with the place.

I entered the tester city - which I decided to name ‘Hopesville’ - and it was very well laid out.  I was confronted with a very compact version of a major city with homes, an airport, factories, offices and transport systems: but nothing was working - it all had no power.  And the soundtrack was of just birdsong.

It all looked so peaceful - but then without all the noise and hub-bub of a city there wouldn’t be any food, furniture or products in the world!  So I needed to get things moving.

All the areas have information buttons where you can read about the energy needs of all the important sectors of a working city like commercial buildings, vehicles and homes as well as containing some amazing and extensive facts unique to that sector - like under transport it said that ‘ wide based tires improve fuel economy by up to 5% - saving up to 400 gallons of fuel per year; that’s US$1,680 at todays rates - and around 4 metric tonnes of CO2!

Running The City:
Next you have to decide what energy sources you want to use for your city and drag the factories, dams or wind turbines onto your cityscape.  But do so with care!

Each item your drag onto the scene has an impact on your key energy indicators: Economic Cost, Environmental Cost and City Security - as well as clocking up your overall energy score!  And, as you start to power the city it comes alive; cars start moving around, lights in offices come on and planes take-off!

The idea is obviously to keep your energy score as low as possible, but creating enough of the right energy to power your city.  The information can help you and the main info box tells you what you are doing wrong!  So needless to say it was screaming at me to use oil to power by infrastructure when I was trying to run the whole place on hydro and wind power!

And, the energy scores for some of the green alternatives are not so low after all!  It certainly made me think differently about it all - I mean a biomass factory had more energy cost than a coal factory!

Fully Powered:
When you have reached full power for your city for 2015, it takes you through a mid way storyline detailing some future events that could affect your city - for example if biomass factories make world hunger even worse than it is today, then your factory becomes more expensive to run!  And all the rest….

The game then takes you back to your city in 2015 to see how it looks.  And I didn’t like mine!  It was noisy and busy and using far too much energy - total contrast to when you first start the game!

But - as it’s busier - it needs yet more energy - so you need to add more factories or change your sources to get the balance again.  It isn’t a nice place to be in my opinion!

The End?:
When you finally finish your city (and it can only take a few minutes to complete if you don’t read it all), it takes you to the ‘final score’ section, which shows your total energy cost and environmental impacts etc.

It also gives you a final score out of the thousands of people who have played it!  I’m afraid I was nearly in 200,000th place with my hydro and wind (with a little oil) based city!  And we are told that that is the way forward!

So, maybe try out your own ideas in this format - I might see if nuclear is the way forward!

posted by admin on Jul 23

Fancy a simple GPS gadget that can get you back to square one?

It’s not as stupid as it seems really - especially if the starting point is your car parked up in a national park. Or your tent in the middle of the woods!

It’s called the ECCO and it’s a small gadget that fits nicely on your key fob.

Basically, this small device can save the global postition of exactly where you are standing - and then get you right back there when you have finished whatever it is that you are doing.

How Does It Work?
Let’s say that you have travelled to a large woodland that you have never been to before - and you want to go for a long stroll - but there are no clear footpaths or marked walkways.

Now, you don’t want to get lost do you? So it would be great to know that where ever you walked up or down hills and over streams - you could click on your gadget and it would lead you back to your vehicle so that you could go home!

Nothing could sound more perfect to me as a walker. I could park my car anywhere, click the gadget to register the location, then go out for hours with the dog without the worry of getting back to where I started.

Ths gadget even tells you how far away you are from your car, so you can work out how long it would take to get back - that way you won’t end up walking for miles in the opposite direction. You would be able to walk roughly in a circle and knowing exactly where you are.

Does It Only Work For Cars?
No. I was using the car as an example of a popular thing that we want to get back to but it could be anything.

Basically, you set the first location wherever you want to, so from your home, from your school, from your tant or caravan - or just at the start of a woodland or mountain range. It will save any location regardless of where it is or why you saved it!

It would be great for kids to use if they are playing outdoors as they could always follow the gadget back to where you wanted them to be! Yes, it’s not foolproof and it in no way replaces good parents - but it is a back-up plan if your kids tend to wander out of eyeshot!

Great to use at great theme parks, mainly as a safety device - where you set the start point as the security desk or your hotel/cabin and if you get seperated from anyone - you can all meet back at the same place!

Great for being on holiday and not knowing your way around - or when you are staying out late in a new town after a few drinks - and you need to find your hotel room!