U.S.S. Independence

Posted on October 14, 2008 by Mark Urbin

The Navy is rolling out it’s new littoral combat ship, the U.S.S. Independence.  The 127 meter long trimaran hull will pull 60 knots (that the Navy will admit publicly to), with a crew of 40.  In addition to the advanced sensor package, it carries a configurable mix of guns, missiles and helicopters.  It can even carry Strykers and Humvees to put ashore after it softens things up with missiles and it’s Bofors 57mm gun.

Plus it just looks cool.

U.S.S. Independence

U.S.S. Independence

Filed under: Miltech, US Navy | Tagged: , , | 7 Comments »

Now on Twitter

Posted on October 12, 2008 by Mark Urbin

Urbin Technology is now on Twitter.

Filed under: Internet | Tagged: , , | Leave a comment »

This is scary

Posted on October 8, 2008 by Mark Urbin

Japan’s Daily Yomiuri Online has a very chilling story about Communist China concerning technology imported their country.

The Chinese government plans to introduce a new system requiring foreign firms to disclose secret information about digital household appliances and other products starting from May, sources said Thursday.

…

If a company refuses to disclose such information, the Chinese government plans to ban the firm from exporting the product to the Chinese market, as well as bar production and sales in the country, according to the sources.

Critics worry that such a system risks seeing the intellectual property of foreign firms passed onto their Chinese competitors.

In addition, the envisaged system poses security concerns if coding technology used in digital devices developed in other countries is leaked to China, they added.

There already is a serious problem with Communist China complete disregard for IP rights.  Giving them access to the source code of every IC based device that is imported to their country is only going to make that worse.

HT to Doug Ross

Filed under: security | Tagged: , , , | Leave a comment »

Microsoft is going into the cloud

Posted on October 3, 2008 by Mark Urbin

Microsoft is playing catchup with Google and entering the Cloud Computing space. Here is what CEO Steve Balmer had to say about it:

 “We need a new operating system designed for the cloud and we will introduce one in about four weeks, we’ll even have a name to give you by then. But let’s just call it, for the purposes of today, Windows Cloud.”

…

“Just like Windows Server looked a lot like Windows but with new properties, new characteristics and new features, so will Windows Cloud look a lot like Windows Server.”

…

“We’re not driving an agenda towards being service providers, but we’ve gotta build a service that is Windows in the cloud.”

Microsoft probably feeds the need to respond to Google’s new browser, Chrome.  What I’m hearing about Chrome is that isn’t so much as a entry into the browser market, but a platform for more robust “cloud” based apps such as Google Documents.

One of the exisiting theories is that Chrome is the first componet of a Google OS.  Chrome is supposed to be the interface to the applications.  If you look under the hood of Chrome, it is built more like an OS than a browser.  

All it will need is a thin layer to access the hardware (boot, and then interface with video/storage/audio/periferal I/O(USB for a start)/network interfaces)  and it’s pretty much good to go.

This would a thin client model with most of the applications out in the cloud, and as much of the data as well.

It seems that Microsoft is taking this serious enough to announce their own cloud base computing plan.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Filed under: Internet, tech rumors | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Robert Heinlein would be proud.

Posted on September 29, 2008 by Mark Urbin

US based Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, became the first private company to success fully put a payload into orbit. 

Their liquid fuel rocket, Falcon1 put a payload into orbit from a US military facility on Omelek Island in the Kwajalein Atoll yesterday.

It was their fouth try, but if it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

Robert Heinlein would have been proud of their success.

Filed under: Space | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

Business card sized web server

Posted on September 26, 2008 by Mark Urbin

Ok, it’s a little thicker, but still way cool.  Tiny web server aren’t that new.  I remember seeing webservers that fit in a matchbox years ago.

The fact that you can etch this board yourself and that it uses a SD card instead of eeprom is slick.

Filed under: Gadget, Internet | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

Fully Viable Stem Cells from Adults

Posted on September 26, 2008 by Mark Urbin

No embryo required.  So say the researchers at Harvard Medical School. They are claiming to have developed a method that will produced stem cells from adults that are “potent” as embryonic stem cells.

This method has a benifit over embryonic stem cells.  These adult stem cells could be grown from a patients own tissue.  This would allow them to be transplanted without triggering immune rejection.

This method also avoids the ethical issues many have with harvesting embryonic stem cells.

Filed under: biotech | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

Green Crude

Posted on September 25, 2008 by Mark Urbin

Sapphire Energy, a San Diego based startup, has a process they claim can produce 91octane gasoline from “algae microorganisms, salt water, carbon dioxide and the power of the sun.”

The interesting twist to their technology is that method doesn’t use a plant that people typically use for food (like corn, sugarcane or sugar beats).  So not only doesn’t this solution use food products, it doesn’t require actual farm land (i.e. land used to grow food) to produce the fuel. 

Sapphire claims that they can set up a production facility in the desert.  The steady sunlight is an important factor in their production, and the salt water can be shipped in.

Their stated goal is to product 10,000 barrels a day, which in the national economy isn’t that much.  It is however, 10,000 barrels a day that isn’t pumped out of the ground, and will be produced domestically.

Filed under: biofuel, Energy | Tagged: , , | 4 Comments »

Solar electric power has officially “arrived.”

Posted on September 24, 2008 by Mark Urbin

Electical solar power at the individual homeowner level is no longer the exclusive realm of the uber-ecowarrior or the Heinlein inspired individualist determined to live “off the grid.”

It’s mainstream now.  The concrete proof of this has arrived.  Solar Power Panel Rustlers!

Police departments in California — the biggest market for solar power, with more than 33,000 installations — are seeing a rash of such burglaries, though nobody compiles overall statistics.

Investigators do not believe the thieves are acting out of concern for their carbon footprints.

Filed under: Energy, solar power | Tagged: , , | 3 Comments »

Even more American electric cars in the pipeline

Posted on September 24, 2008 by Mark Urbin

Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge are working to get electic cars to market.  It looks like Chevy is going to beat to the market with the Volt though.

These new entries are still “Concept Cars,” so I’m taking their “late 2010” release date with a chunk of salt.

Keep in mind that introducing a lot of plug in hybrids or pure electric cars into the market is either going to require new sources of power (home based cheap solar and industrial scale Nuclear for example) or some serious inovations in electrical grid management.

Filed under: alternate fuel cars, Energy, Nuclear Power, solar power | Tagged: , , , | 4 Comments »

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