Consumers in the U.S. are increasingly choosing alternative energy sources, even though they cost more, according to a recent article in the Washington Post.
Utilities in 36 states offer some form of green pricing, and last year 430,000 households bought green power - up 20 percent from a year earlier, the U.S. Energy Department reported.
Tags: alternative energy
The ever-informative blog Micro Persuasion features a great link list today, including a link to this news story about young entrepreneurs doing business on MySpace. It's a very smart way to launch a marketing campaign. Indeed, considering the fact that MySpace has become the most popular site on the Internet, it's unwise for a business not to have a presence there. It doesn't cost anything to set up a promotional profile, and MySpace users can quickly spread the word about your business (see the Wikipedia entry on viral marketing).
If MySpace works for business and bands, why not political campaigns? It's already happening, as this article in BusinessWeek describes. In my area, the 43rd district in Washington, state congressional candidate (and friend of mine) Stephanie Pure is using this approach. See her MySpace profile here: http://www.myspace.com/peopleforpure. Using MySpace is a very smart campaign strategy in the young, urban, web-savvy region I live in.
Use of MySpace as a promotion vehicle -- for a growing variety of causes -- will undoubtedly increase.
Unlike other popular blog services like TypePad and WordPress, Blogger does not include built-in support for blog categories. This is a big strike against Blogger. Categories make blogs much easier to navigate by topically organizing posts in an easy-to-access list.
You can find a number of workarounds to this problem on the web. Categories via Technorati tags is one example.
However, I haven't found anything as elegant and easy to use as David Nicholson's solution, posted at Where Magic Lives. With his approach, which employs a nifty Ajax technique, you add some simple code to your template, and then add a transparent one-pixel image (he has the code for this too) to each post that you want to categorize. It's as easy as that.
I tried his solution myself last night, and it works great. One thing I learned during the process: it's best not to put the pixel code at the beginning of your blog entry. This is because it makes a small "empty spot" at the beginning of a paragraph. It's better to put it at the end of a paragraph, preferably one that ends with a short line of text.
Tags: Blogger blog categories blogging
Over the past year, I've spent a lot of time listening to podcasts. Although podcasting is still very much in its infancy, standards of quality (and lack thereof) are already emerging. What makes for a great podcast?
So, which is the best podcast out there today, according to these standards?Tags: podcast podcasting Slate
Following up on my previous post about BlogExplosion, another one of its interesting features is its blog rental service. You can earn credits (and attention) by renting out a space on your blog to other BlogExplosion members, and bid for spots on their sites. I put my rental spot up for bid last night. Right up in the upper left corner. I had three bids, and I chose Recommended because it's a truly interesting blog. It covers a wide variety of new gadgets, technological trends, and services (yes, I voraciously consume this sort of reading material), all delivered with a unique perspective. Give it a visit!
Tags: BlogExplosion blogging blog rental
Check out this fascinating blurb in Wired today about a project that British engineers are currently working on. It involves capturing street vibrations -- everything from trains and cars to footfalls of pedestrians -- and converting this energy into electricity.
"We can harvest between 5 to 7 watts of energy per footstep that is currently being wasted into the ground," says Claire Price, director of The Facility Architects, the British firm heading up the Pacesetters Project.Wired refers to advocates of this technology as "vibration harvesters," a term that currently returns a grand total of 50 hits in a Google search. I'm sure that number will be going up very quickly.
Thanks to Pam Blackstone's three column template post, I've redesigned this blog a bit. I definitely prefer her three-column style to the two-column Blogger template that I'd been using.
I've also been poking about through the sites that cater to bloggers. There is a dizzying array of such services, all catering to bloggers' desires to increase traffic on their sites. BlogExplosion offers an interesting approach: you earn credits by surfing member blogs. You can then redeem those credits by assigning traffic to your blog. Essentially, this puts you at the front of the BlogExplosion surfing queues, so you are guaranteed immediate hits. The problem, though, is that these surfers are randomly coming across your site, and they probably won't be interested in its subject matter. I've noticed that all my BlogExplosion visitors tend to quickly view and leave, which is a little disappointing.
Wikablog is a simple blog directory, a la Wikipedia. It's very easy to build a public, editable page for your blog, and tag it with categories. However, I found that although my blog shows up in some categories (business and internet), it doesn't show up in several other categories that I chose. Wikablog seems relatively unknown; I'll be curious to see if it catches on.
I also joined BlogShares, but I confess that my cursory glance through its help documentation has left me pretty confused. It appears to be a sort of stock market that trades blogs. Web traffic increases the value of a blog. How might this sort of virtual economy evolove, one wonders? For example, the virtual world Second Life already has its own thriving economy, including a stock market. Our digital identities -- or avatars -- are becoming an increasingly important part of our lives. How closely will our financial lives be intertwined with the popularity (web traffic, etc) of our digital selves?
In this blog's "Bloggishness" section (right-hand column) I'll be displaying links to the blog sites that I participate in.
Tags: blogger blogging template BlogExplosion Wikablog BlogShares digital identity
An interesting article in Plenty magazine just burbled up through the diggosphere (if you'll pardon that neologism) about an upcoming blog updated with real-time air-pollution data, transmitted by pigeons.
Each pigeon will be equipped with a tiny backpack loaded with devices that will measure pollution data and transmit the information to the web, creating a real-time air pollution index.The PigeonBlog is under construction until August 1, at which point you'll be able to view it here.
Tags: pigeon smog air pollution blog
While walking to work this morning, I heard a
Future Tense podcast about the new Democracy Player. It's a new Internet TV application that subscribes to video RSS feeds. You can use it to search for videos and subscribe to channels. The Democracy Player is developed by the Participatory Culture Foundation. This group wants to make sure that the emerging world of online TV is more diverse and intelligent than the conventional TV wasteland we've been living with over the past half-century. From the PCF site:
Our mission is to build an open and democratic television platform. Television is the defining medium of our culture. There's now an opportunity to create a television culture that is fluid, diverse, exciting, and beautiful. Built by people working together....Television is moving online. Will it be the same narrow, top-down cultural stagnation that we see on traditional television?Ever since reading Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death as a young lad in high school, I've been highly crictical of mainstream television. And so, "technoptimist" that I am (in this way I differ from Postman), I'm very excited about the move to online TV, especially considering technology like the Democracy Player.
During our recent road trip, my family's van broke down just a short stretch of road from the Idaho-Montana border. We were towed back to Dave Smith Motors in Kellogg, Idaho. This town of 2,400 is where we spent two (long) days selecting a new van and getting it equipped to tow our camper.
During this time (which was an exercise in patience and flexibility), we had ample opportunity to learn about the town. Dave Smith Motors is a ubiquitous presence in Kellogg -- its balloon-festooned car lots and chipper salespeople are all over town. It employs over 200 people, and strangely enough, it's the largest Chrysler dealership in the world.
How did this happen in a small, remote Idaho town?
Like many communities in Montana and Idaho, Kellogg's economy was originally grounded in the mining industry. But the good times didn't last. In the 70s, 91 miners died in a mining accident in Kellogg. And in the 80s, after massive layoffs at one of its mines, Kellogg plunged to an economic nadir, with 95% unemployment. Kellogg wasn't alone; other mines in the region were suffering a similar decline.
Enter Dave Smith Motors. During the early 90s, its managers took a big gamble: they decided to use the Internet (an emerging technology at that time) as a fundamental sales medium. They did this with a sophisticated in-house application that facilitates web marketing and sales. The gamble paid off. Sales have grown from $45 million in 1994 to over $200 million in 2000.
It's a compelling story of a small-town business taking advantage of technology. But much better stories lie ahead for communities that tap into the current alternative energy boom. Biodiesel, ethanol, wind and solar energy: these are the technologies that venture capital firms are currently pouring boatloads of cash into. With an abundance of biofuel resources and untapped wind power, rural communities are in a position to reap tremendous benefits.
For further reading about the current alternative energy boom, see these two excellent articles:
Tags: business Kellogg Idaho Dave Smith Motors rural economy alternative energy web business
Yesterday I returned from my vacation, a few days later than originally planned. Our van gave up the ghost in Idaho, and we had a two-day setback as we tracked down a new vehicle. You'll see a longer post about this soon. In the meantime, I proffer you these quick observations:
Here is an informal poll: when (if ever) did you start hearing the term OOF to mean "Out of Office"? I first encountered it when I worked at Amazon.com, in 1999. I recall being doubly confused by a coworker's email message: "OOF tomorrow /eom." Both of those acronyms have become more prevalent since then. Except now I generally see eom enclosed in brackets, like this: <eom>.
According to The Microsoft Lexicon, OOF originally stood for "out of facility." I remain curious about when it became commonplace in offices. Or perhaps it's not in yours. Please do leave a comment if you haven't heard this acronym before; I'm curious. Or if you have any OOF-ish thoughts of any sort, please do pipe up.
I myself will be OOF from this blog for the next week, as I'll be on a road trip with family members across the western U.S. See you in a week!
Four interesting developments to watch:
Tags: marketing avatar Ray Kurzweil blind scanner-reader denver
Quite a bit, according to a recent National Technology Readiness Survey. As FutureWire puts it:
If all workers in the US who are able to telecommute actually worked from home an average of 1.6 days per week, the gasoline savings would total $3.9 billion (not to mention reduced car emissions, less stress and more productive time).The FutureWire post goes on to suggest that, in light of this fact, there should be a national initiative to encourage telecommuting. I like that idea. Another reason that businesses should be thoroughly prepared for telecommuting is the possibility of an avian flu epidemic, as eWeek discussed a few months ago.
Today, Bad Language has a very helpful list of ten tips on waking up early, including setting goals for yourself with a tool like Joe's Goals, promising yourself rewards, and simply going to sleep earlier. The fact that Bad Language is a stellar source of top ten lists notwithstanding (it actually has its own top ten tips for top ten lists), this early-rising advice seems particularly reasonable. Much more so, for instance, than Steve Pavlina's popular post on rising early, in which he advises to stay awake as long as you like. Apparently that works for him, but not for me.
As for myself, I have a pretty simple approach: I put myself in the early-rising mindset as I fall asleep the night before. I just think for a few moments about why it is important to wake up at x o'clock, and about what will go wrong if I don't. When I wake up the following morning, I'm generally still in that mindset, and I have a feeling that it's important to get up right away. At that point, the key is to get up right away. Because if I don't, I'll talk myself out of the early-rising mindset, and drift back into a blissful somnolent state.
Tags: sleep early rising productivity Bad Language morning waking
The New York Times reported today that a paralyzed man was able to control a computer, a television, and a robot -- using only his thoughts, which controlled a small sensor in his brain.
The paper helps “shift the notion of such ‘implantable neuromotor prosthetics’ from science fiction towards reality,’’ Stephen H. Scott of Queen’s University in Canada wrote in a commentary in the journal. The implant system, known as the BrainGate, is being developed by Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems of Foxborough, Mass.Via New York Times and Bodyhack
Treehugger reports that holographic solar modules, which use holograms to concentrate light, may increase solar cell efficiency by more than 25%. The holographic solar modules are undergoing research and testing by Prism Solar Technologies.
See a previous Treehugger post for more information on holographic solar technology.
7/13 update: a Digg post on this has appeared, with some interesting comments.
A few days ago, I gave some instructions on how to subscribe to this blog by adding its RSS feed to your personalized Google homepage. Here's an easier way to do it. Just click this button:
While the Google home page is great for tracking a few RSS feeds, I've found that it becomes unwieldy for anything over ten feeds. In that case, I recommend trying an RSS reader such as Bloglines. I just started using Bloglines a few days ago, and I'm very impressed. I now have a place to quickly check today's Pitchfork album reviews, the latest BusinessWeek technology headlines, food news and facts over at Slashfood, and my friend Dorje's latest photos. You can subscribe to my blog via Bloglines by clicking this button:
I've added other feed subscription options in the "Subscribe" section of this blog. If you don't see your RSS reader listed, or if you have any questions, let me know.
I know, I know, I keep mentioning MySpace. Like it or not, though, it keeps growing in popularity. Indeed, as reported today, MySpace has for the first time become the most visited US Web site, surpassing Yahoo! Mail and Google. Surprised? Yes, me too. As this Hitwise post indicates, visits to MySpace have increased by 4300% in the past two years.
How has MySpace achieved such phenomenal growth so quickly? Hitwise promises to answer this question with an analysis soon. In the meantime, you can read the cover story from the most recent issue of Wired magazine--an interesting discussion of Rupert Murdoch's acquisition of MySpace last year, and his highly successful hands-off business strategy. The article mentions that MySpace might grow out of its core demographic as everybody hops on the bandwagon:
what happens when the audience is part of the show? Participation feeds on itself, cementing established users and drawing new ones. Curious colonists from other demographics are already arriving. Forget the putative horror of being owned by Rupert Murdoch – will a sudden deluge of millions of thirtysomethings send their younger siblings running in the other direction? Senior citizens? Foreigners? (Google’s attempt at social networking, Orkut, has morphed inexplicably into a hangout for teenage Brazilians.) OMG!!! Mom has a MySpace profile!!!!!As I mentioned in a previous post, however, I don't see this happening. Instead, I believe that social networking sites that target specific demographic groups will continue to appear. Mark my words: we'll see popular MySpace equivalents for 50- and 60-somethings soon. As reported in the Wired Bodyhack blog last week (a post that yours truly was quick to comment on), My Cancer Place has already materialized: "The #1 place to join a community of people with cancer." There will be many more such sites.
Tags: MySpace social networking My Cancer Place Wired web traffic
I consider myself to be a fairly extroverted socialite; I spend a lot of time with a variety of friends. But I'm definitely not one of those people who can never eat alone. Ever since my childhood days of reading "Choose Your Own Adventure" books (This Wikipedia entry gave me a burst of nostalgia) at the table whilst dawdling over my meal, I've always treasured a solitary meal and a good book. Or, as has been the norm over the past six or seven years, a lesiurely web-browsing session.
And so, I welcome the advent of the keyboard food tray. It's another step forward for multitasking. And one more reason to avoid face-to-face contact with others!
Via TechEBlog and Treehugger
Looks like this is a fairly new Myspace profile:
http://www.myspace.com/myplanet
It really does seem that "green" is going mainstream this summer. A welcome development!
A post in Autopia today mentions how easy it is to tweak your vehicle and increase its gas mileage. The author added 3 mpg just by increasing his tire pressure. And simply changing your driving style can have a dramatic effect: 10%, according to Autopia. The EPA site fueleconomy.gov claims that the mileage boost can be as high as 33% at highway speeds.
According to this article, another way to improve your vehicle's fuel efficiency is to keep it clean.
Believe it or not, that layer of dirt on your exterior creates drag that, over long distances, hurts your miles-per-gallon count.More tips on improving gas mileage--replete with estimated gas savings--can be found here.
Tags: mileage fuel efficiency mpg gas
Update: See my more recent post on an even easier way to subscribe.
After some template tweaks, this blog is now officially live. If you have an RSS reader, you can subscribe to my site feed: [http://foiblesfollies.blogspot.com/atom.xml]
Another way to keep up to date with the RSS feed is via a personalized Google home page. This site gives some instructions on how to set one up, though they may be a bit out-of-date. This Google Help page also gives instructions on how to set up a personalized Google home page. Once you've set that up, you can add my site feed by doing the following:
link in the upper left-hand corner of the page. 
link (it's to the right of the 
button).
"With windmills, low-energy homes, new forms of recycling and fuel-efficient cars, Americans are taking conservation into their own hands."
Also see this blurb in Treehugger.
via Newsweek | digg story
I've been using a Treo 600 for almost three years now, and I've noticed with interest how it has come to serve as an extension of my memory. Like most folks who have started using cell phones during this decade, I no longer remember telephone numbers--my phone does this for me. I also no longer maintain mental lists of movies to see or music to listen to. Nor do I need to keep paper shopping lists, or paper lists of any sort. It's become a habit now: when I'm talking with someone and I want to remember an interesting bit of our conversation, I simply note it in my phone.
I've found that my phone is an especially handy tool for audio reading. Since I installed a one-gigabyte SD card in it last year, I've been using my phone to "read" voluminous amounts of material, via audiobooks and podcasts. The advantages of audio reading over visual reading are clear. Not only can I multitask (washing dishes, etc.) while audio reading, I can also have one long extended reading experience. For example, I'm currently listening to Collapse, by Jared Diamond. Before I leave my door in the morning, I've already started audio reading, and this continues uninterrupted through my 18-minute walk to my bus stop, during the commute, and then during my walk from the bus to my office. There's no putting the book down, or glancing up to see if the bus has arrived.
But there's a downside to audio reading--it's more difficult to retain information than with traditional visual reading. Especially during my walking-commute, a plethora of distractions force my attention away from the book. Sometimes I realize that I don't recall what I've listened to over the past five minutes. Although it's possible to go back over what I've missed, it's not as convenient as visually re-scanning, and I generally don't bother.
This problem would disappear with audio-to-text capture functionality. For instance, if I realized that I hadn't really paid attention to the past five minutes of content, I could click a button on my phone and that particular chunk of audio would be transferred to a text file that I could refer to later. This would also be handy for scenarios where I want to check on the definition of a word, or the geographical location of an island. Such functionality would enable audio readers to retain much more information.
I'd love to see this sort of innovation occur in the near future--in the next five years. It would be a big step forward from current memory-augmentation capabilities of smartphones. Where would things go from there, though, say, in 15-20 years?
No one has any idea, but I can certainly dream: I want to see a smartphone (or whatever its all-in-one handheld successor will be) that functions as a true externalization of my memory. I can imagine a device that continually records everything that I hear and see, compiling and indexing it like Google Desktop currently does for information on hard drives. All recorded information could be quickly accessed through spoken commands.
Could this sort of virtual augmentation of memory eventually occur? And if it does, will it cause our traditional memory functions to atrophy away? Or would our minds, freed from their former tasks of committing quotidian details to memory, move on to more substantial problem-solving pursuits?
Yesterday Dr. James DeLaurier, an aeronautical engineer and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto's Institute for Aerospace Studies, fulfilled a lifelong dream, seeing his manned mechanical flapping-wing airplane, or ornithopter, fly - a dream first imagined by Leonardo da Vinci.
With the successful flight, DeLaurier has been lucky enough to touch what many describe as the Holy Grail of aeronautical design, achieving a place for himself, his team of volunteers and students in aviation history.via Toronto Star | digg story
I've spent the afternoon prettying up this blog. My goal is to make it lean, clean, and fully usable before I fully go public and tell everyone about it, which I'll be doing soon. I think I'm almost there.
I signed up with HaloScan's free service and added their TrackBack functionality to my posts. Based on the information in this helpful post, however, I decided not to use HaloScan's comments feature. Apparently it only retains comments for four months.
I also added Technorati tags to my posts. After playing around with the template a bit, I decided that these look better right-aligned, to set them off from the main content of each post. To do this, I tweaked my template after refreshing my memory on CSS here.
Tags: Blogger web design HaloScan Technorati
Former Vice President and environmental activist Al Gore is planning to address Wal-Mart Stores Inc. executives next week at the retailer’s quarterly conference on sustainability, part of the company’s recent efforts to become an environmental leader, a Wal-Mart spokesman confirmed.
On September 30, 2005, this report indicated that there is enough offshore wind power within 50 miles of the coasts of America to meet its current electrical energy needs.
A mere nine months later, new developments in wind power technology are occurring around the world at a (happily) dizzying pace. Within the last few weeks alone:
Wind power is arriving in Bickleton at a time when local farming is in serious decline. Founded more than a century ago, this town of about 90 people prospered for decades as grasslands were turned into wheat fields. There once was a bank, meat market, hotel and theater. All are long gone.
Tags: wind power alternative energy Southwest Windpower GE rural economy
Chinese developers have unveiled the world's first permanent magnetic levitation wind power generator.
via Treehugger | digg story
Tags: wind power alternative energy
