Links from the Gregg Zone

1) Every now and then I run across something that gives me hope, when it comes to getting off the oil merry-go-round this really hit home. These are links to a video, and a home site from the video. This is about Shai Aggasi who shocked the software world by resigning his position with SAP just as he had been appointed the next CEO to undertake this project. He is heading a new way of introducing fully electric cars to entire countries. They have Denmark, Israel, Hawaii, Australia, and the San Francisco Bay Area, either singed up or in progress. They have a deal with Renault-Nissan to build the cars. The trick is separating battery ownership, from car ownership. They plan to sell electric minutes, as opposed to petro miles. Kind of like a cell phone you pay for the minutes. Video link here http://www.ted.com main site link here http://www.betterplace.com/
2) This is a site sent to me by my friend Tony in Playa Del Rey California, part of my morning Skype coffee group. When he mentioned spray on batteries I knew there would be a place for it here. Nano-technology is at it again at the nano-scale things get interesting, it may be possible to use the movement of your fingers while typing to power small applications. Even stranger they say it will be possible to grow batteries using viruses, but the idea of charging your phone by walking, walk to work the long way and recharge your lap top. What is next, I can’t wait... link here http://www.cnn.com
3) My Troll link for the week; this is something that Riley might find interesting and Joe frustrating. It seems Microsoft may have found a way to solve the touch screen keyboard you need to look at what you are typing problem. I found another one of these solutions a few weeks ago they had a tactile answer using small balloons, I have to admit I think this makes all that research and development obsolete before it hits the prototype stage. Evidently with this all you have to do is put your fingers on the screen and it will automatically orientate the keyboard to where your fingers are. Very cool thanks Troll, link here http://news.cnet.com
4) I ran across this term biomimicry, had to add that to dictionary, anyway the term got me interested. Going to use two links here again the first to the main page for The Biomimicry Institute, it is a term referring to mimicking nature to form a product or process design. As an example there is work being done studying how geckos can climb glass walls, there is a beetle that extracts its drinking water from fog. The list is quite long, there is a new science coming from this line of study. The second link is a site where you can search your needed application to see if there is a relevant process in nature that may help to solve your problem. Main page link here http://www.biomimicryinstitute.org/ search for your application here http://www.asknature.org/
5) This is probably a site every one knows about, but was just discovered by me, that’s not anything new in my geek spot. Anyway I just found it and for a surfer like me it is very interesting, and helpful. It is a listing of over four million suggested sites, broken down into over a half million categories. The search engines are so commercial I find them more and more difficult to use, even the advanced search dictating the URL as org. or gov. eliminating words like shopping cart, shipping, and price do not have the same effect they used to. Anyway I like this site as a tool for surfing, http://www.dmoz.org/