It's a Laser!

By Alan

We all remember the fun scene from Toy Story about Buzz Lightyear bragging about his laser on his arm.

The word laser originally was the upper-case LASER, the acronym from Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. However, it’s a bit misleading, because it’s not just “light” that could come out, but nearly any kind of electromagnetic radiation. The “original” lasers were actually putting out microwaves.

Lasers can be very bright, they can be dim. They could be a single color (more singular than any other kind of light), and some lasers can be broad spectrum light (an interesting prospect).

We forget that lasers can do all kinds of things besides point forward and light something up.

It’s interesting that several brand new cool methods of using lasers have showed up in the news recently.

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The Sign Says "Occupied"

By Alan

Ever feel like you are being watched? Increasingly, this is true, since security cameras, traffic cameras, monitoring systems, and other kinds of video are in more and more locations. But, if you consider the definition of watching being something other than just visual pictures, you have lots of other things observing you. Motion detectors, audio detection, radar systems, all "watch" you to see if you trigger their programming.

We often never really think about the sophistication of designing automatic things that react to you. There are sensors to figure out the proximity of a person, either by infra-red lights, noise, or motion. Lots of ways to determine if a human (or at least an upright, warm, moving body) actually is nearby. Oh, the infra-red sensors know you are there. <click>

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Elevator Anniversary

By Alan

Recently, I moved offices from the 12th floor of a 100 year old building, to the 6th floor of a more modern skyscraper. Ironically enough, the move meant that I'm actually having more elevator rides than before. Because of a quirk of construction, I take a ride to the "sky lobby" on the 4th floor, where I board other elevators to access the rest of the floors. I found it fun that a significant anniversary was passing by at the same time I was finding new elevator experiences.

Despite the "simple" concept, elevators weren't actually a common thing until after March 23rd, 1857 when Elisha Otis installed the first commercial "safety elevator" in New York City. Several years before he famously demonstrated the safety of his cable elevator at the World's Fair by getting into his elevator himself, and having the cable cut while he was several stories above the ground. Before his invention, this would have meant certain death. (Because Jumping up in the air at the bottom doesn't help).

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Tablets Aren't Just Stone Anymore

By Alan

It used to be that when you talked about Tablets, you would capitalize the word from respect, and you meant the rock tablets that held the Ten Commandments (and we don't mean the movie). It was some hunk of stone or wood that carried an inscription. It was the best method for having an enduring message. Paper or parchment wouldn't really last years, much less centuries.

Then, the word tablet (or tablette) showed up to mean something pressed together into a small package (like a tablette of soap) which eventually came to mean a small pressed package of powder into a medicinal dose. That became the primary use of the word in the 20th century.

Enter computers. Tablet computing became a popular definition. But, Tablet Computing has come and gone as possible items in "the next big thing", but the sales never went anywhere, and the companies that made tablets found only a couple niche markets that could support any users of tablets.

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Scotty, We Need More Power!

By Alan

This was the rally cry from Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise to the Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott, typically when the Enterprise, or Starfleet, or Earth, or the entire Universe was in danger of being destroyed, and true to his efforts, the hardworking Scottish engineer manages something to save the day. Sure Kirk could find excuses to tear his shirt, kiss alien women, and give flying kicks to any opponent into next week, but Scotty saved the ship more often than anybody, and worked on a weapon bigger than anyone else. Anywhere.

But, the concept of ultimate energy in Star Trek was using matter and anti-matter fed (very carefully) into a reaction chamber and getting power out of it. Presumably that power was electricity.

Well, the hot topic in the news right now is Bloom Energy Servers, which are designed as modular fuel cell systems. A number of larger companies have started using the prototypes at the large scale. Obviously there is some promise of success if companies like Google, Coca-Cola, Bank of America, Staples, eBay, Cox Enterprises, Walmart and FedEx are involved.

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