LinkNotes: 01/01/2008

2008-01-31

Emerging Economies and U.S. Hegemony

click image to enlarge

While U.S. financial investors are troubled over a recent downturn in the national economy, other markets across the world are emerging. What does this mean for the global political and economical order? An interesting analysis in IEET by Mike Treder

clipped from ieet.org

Emerging Economies and U.S. Hegemony

Does the decline of U.S. geopolitical hegemony make multilateral global governance less likely or more likely?

A feature story on the CBS Sunday Morning program yesterday dealt with the shifting world economy and particularly with the rise of economic power in Asia.

They show GDP as a percentage of total world output. Note the dramatic reversal in just five years. How much more will it change in the next five or the next ten years?

The two previous periods of international order in the 20th century lasted for 30 years and then 40 years (see graphic below). Now it appears that the current order may have met its demise after less than 20 years.

Does the recent rise of emerging economies and the evident decline of U.S. unipolar power make that global governance scenario less likely or more likely?

Rain Power

Capturing the kinetic energy of raindrops to generate power. A new technology, with interesting prospects for remote sensor technologies.

clipped from www.treehugger.com

The Power of Rain: Alternative Energy

Chaillout and his colleagues realized that every time a drop impacts on a surface it is an opportunity missed. Each raindrop has an impact energy that is highly dependent on the size of the drop; from a small drizzle drop that has 2 microjoules on impact, to a downpour size drop that carries 1 millijoule of impact energy.

What can you do with this tiny power plant? The authors suggest that this type of device might work quite well for sensors, especially if the sensor is detecting rain, or in a rainy environment. Imagine a weather sensor that would only send a signal of how hard it is raining, when it is in fact raining. Or how about sensors that will automatically close your house windows when a storm suddenly appears?

clipped from environment.newscientist.com

Pitter-patter of raindrops could power devices

Au-MY -- Fun LED Car Sign

Use emoticons ("smileys”) not only on the web but also on the road. This Cool Car Gadget, has special led sign with messages which drivers can use to communicate with each other,

clipped from www.au-my.com

AU-MY Ltd (U.K.) / about us

clipped from www.au-my.com

DRIVEMOCION/ FUN LED CAR SIGN!

clipped from www.au-my.com

2008-01-30

GigaPan -- Gigapixel Panoramic Images

GigaPan the newest development of the Global Connection Project aims to bring distant communities and peoples together through very high-resolution (gigapixel and up) panoramic images.

clipped from gigapan.org

clipped from onemansblog.com

GigaPan consists of three technological developments: a robotic camera mount for capturing very high-resolution (gigapixel and up) panoramic images using a standard digital camera; custom software for constructing very high-resolution gigapixel panoramas; and, a new type of website for exploring, sharing and commenting on gigapixel panoramas and the detail our users will discover within them. The GigaPan website allows hosting and sharing all kinds of panoramas, and so the robotic GigaPan mount is recommended but is certainly not required to be part of this community.

clipped from gigapan.org

Panorama of the Waffle, Burning Man 2006, by James Bell. Stitched by
Scott Telstad

The Golden Temple, Harmandir Sahib, is the holiest Sikh site. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Temple.

View into the canyon from Kaibab trail. Look for the Colorado River at the bottom, and part of Phantom Ranch on the right.

Boston Waterfront, taken from near Logan Airport

A MacBook Air Commercial and a Parody (videos)

A commercial of Apple's New MacBook Air Notebook and a Brilliant parody with an envelope and a piece of paper.

clipped from www.youtube.com

The New MacBook Air Envelope Ad

clipped from www.youtube.com

MacBook Air Parody

Animals & Pets Videos

Funny videos of Cockatoos, Parrots, Pythons, Cats, Chimps, Turtles, and more

2008-01-29

Build a Hackintosh

You can build your own "Hackintosh"—a PC that runs a patched version of OS X Leopard. A few clips from posts in Lifehacker.com which show you how to build your own high end computer running Leopard from start to finish for under $800.

clipped from lifehacker.com

Build a Hackintosh Mac for Under $800

clipped from en.wikipedia.org

OSx86

OSx86 is a collaborative hacking project to run the Mac OS X computer operating system on non-Apple personal computers with x86 architecture processors. The effort started soon after the June 2005 Worldwide Developers Conference announcement that Apple would be transferring their personal computers from PowerPC to Intel microprocessors.

OSx86 is a portmanteau of OS X and x86. A computer built to run this type of Mac OS X is sometimes known as a Hackintosh, which is a recycled term originally denoting the modified Lisa 2/10 running Mac System.

clipped from lifehacker.com

The Hardware

clipped from secure.newegg.com

clipped from lifehacker.com

UPDATE: Building your Hackintosh just got a lot easier. After you build your system using the hardware I've listed in this article, here's how to install OS X on your Hackintosh PC, No Hacking Required.

clipped from lifehacker.com