Wednesday, September 27, 2006, 02:04 PM
Although Bono the lead singer with U2 made an appearance at DEMOfall 2006 in San Diego yesterday, the real stars of the show were the emerging technologies that will affect peoples lives.
One such technology that made its debut was the USBCELL from Moixa Energy. The USBCELL pictured above on the left is an AA battery that can be recharged from a USB port on a PC. This means that you can recharge your batteries without the need to carry a specific charger. A really compelling product with an immediate application.
The USBCELL pictured is just the start. Simon Daniel, founder and director of Moixa Energy is a passionate advocate of rethinking the Energy Axiom which is the basis of the 20th Century power supply, the AC mains distribution system. Today there are a plethora of small electronic devices with associated adaptors, plugs and cables which are more suited to a low voltage power supply. If we used this low voltage power supply for these devices then it would mean that renewable energy such as solar and wind or micro power generation would be practical.
When I talked with Simon Daniel, we discussed the applicableness of this low voltage power supply in countries and continents with largely rural populations like India and China and Africa. Universal mains electricity in these countries is neither economic or environmentally justified. The low voltage power supply could be used to power cell phones, radios and computers. Thus enabling these communities to join the information society.
I dont know whether Bono or Simon got to talk but I do know that Bono has a long term interest in Africa and alleviating the poverty of contless millions. To people in the west we could dismiss having a radio as just a means of entertainment but in Africa radios can save lives by educating people about AIDS or by providing accurate weather forecasts that can help farmers save their crops.
David Howe
David Howe is Managing Director of Howe Systems. The views expressed in this article are his own and do not represent company policy.
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Monday, September 11, 2006, 11:45 AM
I sometimes enjoy reading the Dell catalogue that lands on my door mat. One item caught my eye. Dell now recommend that your PC have 1GB of RAM to Vista proof your new investment. Vista is Microsofts replacement for Windows XP.
Dell no doubt know what they are talking about. But it begs the question, why do you need 1GB of RAM. Not so long ago a PC with 128MB of RAM was adequate for most desktops. Now to stay current you need 1GB. Why?
Could the answer be that this has less to do with direct user benefits and more to do with policing user behaviour and that hot potato Digital Rights Management.
By the way if you have a laptop chances are that Vista is not for you. A significant number of laptops do not have 1GB of RAM and will not support 1GB of RAM.
Its going to be a hard sell putting Vista on every desktop and laptop. Basically change or modify all your desktop machines and make a leap of faith and buy an untried operating system.
David Howe
David Howe is Managing Director of Howe Systems. The views expressed in this article are his own and do not represent company policy.
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Friday, August 11, 2006, 11:01 AM
I have recently started an AdWords campaign. For any of you who don't know what AdWords is, do a search on Google and keep an eye on the right hand side of the search results page. You will see paid for advertising on the right hand side of the page. These are AdWords.
What is interesting about AdWords is that it results in highly targeted advertising spend. You select your message wording and you select hidden keywords that will trigger an impression of your adevertisement on the search results page.
You pay per click to your chosen landing page. You set the budget per month or day and depending on the package you've chosen you can set the maximum cost per click for individual keywords.
Certain keywords cost more per click than others and the more you are willing to pay the more impressions you get. However Google do not charge the maximum cost per click all the time. Google actually have a bidding engine that sets the price per click and the more you are willing to pay the higher the position of your advertisement.
Considering the revenues that AdWords generates, how do you know if you are getting fair value for your bid? To be honest I don't know the answer. How do you put a value on words after all?
Well, Google have found a way of putting a value on words. As they say in Readers Digest -'It pays to improve your word power'. Google no doubt agree!!
David Howe
David Howe is Managing Director of Howe Systems. The views expressed in this article are his own and do not represent company policy.
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Wednesday, August 2, 2006, 11:20 AM
Mozilla recently announced that Firefox has recorded its 200 millionth download of the web browser. This places Firefox amongst the most successful internet ventures in history. With great features like tabbed browsing and pop-up suppressors Firefox has set the standard for others to aspire to. Firefox has emerged from the rubble of the old Netscape browser by way of the Mozilla project.
As a long time user of Firefox, it is difficult to contemplate using any browser that does not support tabbed browsing.
Why is Tabbed browsing so useful? It reduces clutter on the desktop and allows the user to open multiple sites and skip between them seamlessly. Just imagine you are doing comparative shopping between several sites, with Firefox you have a sane way of comparing the offers from vendors.
And when your finished, you can close all the sites on Firefox in two clicks. The second click is to verify you want to close all the current tabs. No need to hunt around your desktop for open websites and multiple pop-ups. Sanity in an increasingly insane world.
David Howe
David Howe is Managing Director of Howe Systems. The views expressed in this article are his own and do not represent company policy.
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Wednesday, July 12, 2006, 07:30 PM
Microsoft anounced that it will stop supporting it's Windows 98 product from the 11th of July 2006. This is a problem for over 70 million users whose operating system will not be maintained by the vendor.
In a statement Microsoft said it was "ending support for these products because they are outdated and these older operating systems can expose customers to security risks". This is extraordinary, surely the longer an operating system is supported (patched and revised), the more stable and secure it should be. At least thats the experience with other operating systems.
So Microsoft in its wisdom is creating 70 million honeypots. Honeypots are computers that attract what Microsoft like to call "the bad guys".
Microsoft are urging their 70 million customers to upgrade to a newer operating system which I guess may involve an additional cost and junking all your old software.
What if a proportion of customers dont upgrade. The problem is that
these customers now represent a security threat to everyone else. Imagine if it was possible to take control of a fraction of these machines. Thats a hell of a lot of processing power in the wrong hands. In addition the "bad guys" now have a stationary target to hone their skills on.
As a responsible corporate citizen Microsoft should provide security patches. Its not like 70 million is a small number of customers.
David Howe
David Howe is Managing Director of Howe Systems. The views expressed in this article are his own and do not represent company policy.
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