Archive
Reflection: Sun + Water= Fuel
Author: Kevin Bullis
Publication: Technology Review’s Energy Editors.
THREE MAIN IDEA FROM THE ARTICLE:
1. Nocera has found a reaction that generates oxygen from water much as green plants during photosynthesis . This achievement that could have profound implications for energy debate.
2. Electricity from solar power panels power an electrolyzer, which breaks water into hyrdogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is stored at night or on a cloudy it’s fee into a fuel cell to produce electricity.
3. As solar power energy grows, more problems will occur, it’s unrealibility becaome as serious problem. Solar energy is too expensive to store, but now this artificial photosynthesis could provide a practical way of staring energy. This has a great future in freeing people from electric grids and also it’s environmental energy stored.
What Do I Agree With The Author About This…
I agree with the author about how artificial photosynthesis could provide a practial way to store energy produced by solar energy, which could free people’s homes from the electric grid. Also I agreeit has great potential of to solve the world’s energy problem, also it will be carbon-free energy on a massive scale.
What I Disagree With The Author About This…
This maybe a great idea, but I believe this will be expensive due to the cost of electroliyzers, which could split water. I agree this has great potential, but will be a risk for people to invest in and I belive it won’t be able to get every household due to it’s expensive cost.
Six Real-World Application In This Area of Technology
1.Solar energy in homes
2. More environmental friendly energy
3. Renewable energy
4. Other types of energy
5. Use this in electrical cars
6. Newier Electrical appliance
Three Questions I’d Like To Research, Based On This Article
1. How many years will it take to just get all of North America to be able to use this new source of energy?
2. How much money does it cost for this in your house?
3. How reliable are these electronzyers?
This was the one of the first assignments I was given in this course, basically it talked about the new way of making energy, how it’s made and the effects it could have on the world. Also they talked about the pros and cons or so called debate on this topic. I think that this assignment taught me about the impact that technological design could have on the world and how it could improve people’s lives.
The Netbook Effect: How Cheap Little Laptops Hit the Big Time
http://www.wired.com/print/gadgets/wireless/magazine/17-03/mf_netbooks
Article Title: The Netbook Effect: How Cheap Little Laptops Hit the Big Time.
Author: Clive Thompson
Wired Magazine:17.03
Three Main Ideas From The Article
1. Mary Jensen invented the netbook, it’s an inexpensive computer with wi-fi, a colour screen and full keyboard, which will be sold for about $100. It was made for third world countries . It uses flash memory, Linux software and used an AMD Geode processor, which requires less energy.
2. Technology was made for the bottom of the technology, but people on the top of the pyramid want these netbook, for personal uses when they are outside and want to use wi-fi for internet. It ended the performance war beacuse these netbooks can do almost anything.
3. These netbooks are so cheap, they reshaped the fundamental economics of the pc buisness. The $300 device is so good, people no longer need to get an $1000 laptop. For everyone who want to just go on the internet, netbook will dominate.
I Really Agree With The Author About This…
I agree that these new cheap devices called netbooks will soon dominate the pc buisness because most just use computers for the internet. These netbooks can achieve these needs at a cheap and reasonable price at $100, they are also light weight and uses lesser energy. I also agree that could be a world wide product because it’s so cheap even people in the third world can afford it and also use it for longer time due to netbook’s ability to use lesser energy. Overall, I agree that netbooks are cheap and economically friendly and also fits people’s needs.
I Really Disagree With The Author About This…
I disagree with the author about how these net books can become better because the software and system of the netbook, won’t allow it to be improved without increasing the cost. IF they improve the netbook, it wouldn’t be as cheap as it now. Netbooks I believe have a great future, but won’t replace laptops because it’s more like a secondary device.
Six Real-World Application In This Area of Techology:
1. Light Compact Disk
2. Smaller and lighter power units
3.Wi-Fi
4. Longer lasting batteries
5.More portable devices
6. Different Secondary Devices
Three Questions I’d like To Ask To Research, Based On This Article
1. If they can still develop a better netbook or setting newier, what will they add on or change from the netbook?
2. How durable are these cheap netbooks, can they last as long as a laptop or desktop? Since thier so inexpensive, what material are used for the sheell?
3. Are the netbooks going to replace laptops? or will it remain as a secondary device used away from laptops and just for entertainment/leisure? Will netbooks be made more like laptops?
This article talked about how netbooks are dominating the market due to it’s cheap prices and uses. I learned that even thought a design may be more simple, but is made to fit people’s needs, in this senses, most people just use laptops to for internet, which means instead of buying a $500-2000 laptop, they can buy a netbook for $100. Making a design with more functions doesn’t really mean it is better because when designing it’s also important to know people’s needs.
What I have learned from: Blogging
A blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material. When making posts, the blogger is able to add videos, images, audio and other feature that are provided.
For the last few weeks I have been blogging for my technological design work, work by professionals, learning reflections and blogging aspects. I learned the uses of what blogs are used for, which is to allow people to show their information and stuff to other blogger. From blogging I learned how to add images, videos and audio, which made my blog more interesting. Also I learned how to change themes, settings, widgets and add links. This has been a great experience because I got a chance to see how it is to learn different types of blog and it’s an easier way of posting my work and other people’s work instead of making a website.
What I learned from Tech Design
Throughout this course I learned many different factors about technical design. What I learned:
- Fundamentals tech concepts
- Design + Planning Skills
- How to use autocad
- How to make a blog
- How to design a condo (design process and making design)
- Designing consumer product (manufacturing process, materials and others)
- Effects on society, health and safety
- How to writeTechnical writing
I think I learned the most from the consumer product assignment because I learned how to work as a team, designing something to fit people’s needs, manufacturing process and others. This project taught me what technogical design meant, which is to make products that fit everyone’s need and the ways to make it.
What I learned from: Autocad
- Learned to use many functions
- How to make shapes
- To draw lines, arrows, arcs, circles and polylines
- Draw 2D drawings
- Add text
- Hatching
- Make proper measurements
Type Pad
TypePad is a blogging service created by Six Part Ltd in 2003 and is used world wide by numerous countries. TypePad is based on Six Apart’s type of platform, it shares technology with Movable Type such as templates and APIs, but is marketed to non-technical users and includes additional features like multiple author support, photo albums and moblogging. TypePad is also currently used by many large organizations and media companies to host their weblog, such as ABC, MSNBC, the CBC, the BBC and Sky News.
Pros:
- Blogging is simple
- Easy to find blogs
- No advertisement
- Hundreds of themes
- Choice of using free blogs or professional blogs
- Blog can be posted on iphones and Facebook
Cons:
- Need to pay for pro
Even if you need to pay for TypePad Pro, I think that TypePad offers more professional designed themes, control over your content, and ways to make money. I think that I would choose to use TypePad instead of Blogger or WordPress because it provides thousand of themes, allows you to add javascript, allows you to build a connection between twitter and facebook, and provides you more tools/services.
There is a chart of the comparisons between TypePad, Blogger and WordPress: http://www.typepad.com/about/typepad-vs-wordpress-vs-blogger.html
BlogSpot/Blogger
Blogspot or Blogger is a blogging website made by google in 2003 and was ranked 16 on the list of top 50 domains in terms of number of unique visitors in 2007. Blogger was redesigned in 2006 and is claimed to be more reliable and have better quality.
Pros :
- Easy to sign up with hotmail account
- Takes a less than 1 minute to create blog
- Easy to use as format is like wordpress
- Easy to edit or change settings
- Unlimited amount of blogs
Cons:
- Designs are plain
- All the blogs look almost the same, doesn’t really stand out from the rest
- Limited to only allowed to have 1 gb of pictures
I think that the blogger is almost a replica of wordpress, but overall wordpress being better. Blogger provides unlimited posting and is easy to create a blog within minutes. I thought wordpress was better because blogger’s theme and background designs are too plain. Also the blogs all almost look, which means one blog wouldn’t really standout from the rest.
WordPress: Inserting Videos, Images, Audio or Polls
To insert a Video, image, audio or poll into your blog you first need to the upload/insert tool bar. The first icon being for images, second icon videos, third audio and last for polls. After clicking your choice a window will pop asking you to insert your image, video or other. Lastly after uploading everything, click insert images. It will appear in your visual and html and when publish will show up on your blog.
Some advantages you are provided is that it makes your blog more visual and provides audio. It provides your reader more choice as they may choose to listen to the audio or video instead of reading, allowing you to have more choice of showing your information. It also makes your blog more interesting and detailed.
How to add a theme on WordPress
WordPress has a good amount of blogs they provide to their bloggers, which allow the bloggers to peronalize their theme/setting. Each themes design are diferent, some may have two columns, colours and headers. Also the themes allow bloggers to add widgets, which allow the bloggers to add calenders, link, tags, catergories and others.
Basically what you do to add or change a theme is first go to the settings. When clicked there should be a page which allows you to add post on the left, there is a sidebar. Find appearance, then theme, which will send you to a page with numerous choices of themes. Choose which theme you choose to use, you may preview it and to change theme press activate.
Pros and Cons of WordPress
Pros:
- Variety of themes
- Easy to adjust settings
- Easy to make and edit posts
- Easy to insert pictures and videos
- Provides information on your blog on dashboard
Cons:
- Easy to insert pictures, but had difficulty placing it on specific areas
- Some themes have tight typing spaces, making it hard to put large images
- The style and format is mainly based on the theme you choose, you can’t really customize what you want
TECHNOLOGICAL DESIGN BLOG 
