Crayon Physics

Not too sure what to say about this except it looks very cool!

Gravity Lamp for the Greener Good

A lamp lit by gravity? Patent pending...

Virginia Tech student Clay Moulton has created a lamp that produces the equivalent of a 40-watt bulb over a period of 4 hours, making use of LED lighting and gravity.

Using similar ideas found in the old-school grandfather clock, a user slides a weight approximately every 4 hours to produce a soft glow. Estimated to function for 200 years, this may be the next wave of green products.

Past innovations have been all about convenience, all about making things as easy as possible on the user (think about the innovation of the remote control). This is a step in the other direction, a manual-intervention device that is aimed at the 'greener good'.

The light, pictured at left, stands about 4' tall, and glows through the entire column, by diffusing 10 high-output LED lights.

This design was just awarded 2nd place at the Greener Gadget Conference.

Read Virginia Tech's press-release here.

$100 Laptop now $187, $50 by 2011?

Nicholas Negroponte, co-founder of the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project, presented a Keynote at the American Academy for the Advancement of Sciences earlier this week. Some items in his presentation:

• OLPC laptops are currently being produced for $187
• Thousands have been delivered
• Over 500,000 more are in the pipeline
• Production is now at 110,000 units per month
• Price will fall to $100 by the end of 2009
• Price will fall to $50 by 2011

Read a review of his address from Wired.

NCTCA Presentation

The presentation for the North Central Teachers Convention Association, presented February 8th in Edmonton, Alberta, can be viewed here.

Feel free to pass along any questions.

Further Convergence of Technology

The next step in convergence comes from Garmin, one of the leaders in GPS technology, as they launch their new Nuvifone. The Garmin Nuvifone also features a 3.5-inch touch screen, a Web browser, and e-mail capabilities. It's multimedia-friendly with MP3/ACC/MPEG4 support and a built-in camera/camcorder.

Read Garmin's press release here.

Large touchscreens are the latest wave, started by the wildly-hyped iPhone's innovative design. Comparisons to the iPhone are inevitable, but first looks suggests it has all the functionality of the iPhone with the addition of GPS technology and a better camera. It is expected to be slightly more expensive then the iPhone, but hopefully not limited to one network, as the iPhone is.

This type of convergence is a step discussed before, where instead of faster and stronger, technology will be smaller and combined.

This does leave a question that is sure to be raised about personal privacy. Having a GPS in the cell phone will leave many to wonder who is monitoring the whereabouts. Certainly parents of teenagers will be looking for technology like this to monitor their children, for better or worse, but many may question the possible invasion of privacy.

I, for one, is anxious for one less thing to carry around!