Five new apps for the Iphone

Five fab apps for iPhone OS 3.0 and the new 3GS

Here's a quick look at five applications iPhone and iPod Touch owners should consider. The easiest way to track them down is by accessing the App Store on the iPhone and searching for the app title. (You can do it in iTunes, too, if you want.)

Bob flies the BluBaby

Blu-Baby Flight Demo from Robert Brown on Vimeo.

Remarkable video footage from RC models.

Making of: FPV Air2Air Hydroplane from flip on Vimeo.

Florida lawmakers just can't get it right. Sunshine State? Not yet.

Solar disarray: Lawmakers bungle green push

As a blazing sun bore down this week, Southwest Florida got a sweltering reminder of true solar power.

With the intensity and frequency of its sunshine, Florida should be a world leader in harnessing this potent form of renewable energy.

Yet, the state has only a handful of commercial solar arrays, offers a paltry $5 million rebate program and serves merely as a conduit for federal stimulus funds targeted to renewable energy projects.

Despite good goals set by Gov. Charlie Crist, Florida has done too little to increase the use and generation of solar power or to encourage businesses or jobs in developing, supplying or installing the equipment.

Behind the scenes...how RC gear really works.

RC Gear from Crazy Builders on Vimeo.

This is a pretty interesting explanation of how RC, Radio Control, gear works. We take a lot of this for granted but when you see what goes on behind the scenes you understand just how remarkable the technology is today. Wait for the end. Pretty funny.

Aspire One Solar Logger

AspireOneSolarLogger
Originally uploaded by rbrown3rd

My new netbook, and Acer Aspire One. This one is running Windows XP and is functioning as the server that uploads data to http://bbbrown.mysolarlog.com/ . It takes the place of a headless Dell machine running Windows Vista. This change reduces energy consumption of the server by 1.22 kwh per day. This is a significant savings over the old machine and is just one little bit of energy that we are no longer consuming. It is amazing how many small things we have plugged in that are sucking small amounts of energy. It all adds up.

webkit

webkit
Originally uploaded by asadotzler

Talk about a steady decline. Internet Explorer has been gliding down from the altitude it got by being bundled with all new computers. Does this mean that the PC user community is getting more savvy with time? Firefox shows a steady growth. I just tested the new Safari 4 on my Mac and it has some very nice features. I believe that it is built on the Gecko engine like the new Firefox. I have also test Chrome by Google and it is really fast but as of yet has few addons or enhancements. For now, I will stick with Firefox as my web browser.

Dramatic gains in truck efficiency through aerodynamic testing.

AeroTruck E-38096: Air flow testing on aerodynamic truck

During a decade spanning the 1970s and 1980s, Dryden researchers conducted tests to determine the extent to which adjustments in the shape of trucks reduced aerodynamic drag and improved efficiency. During the tests, the vehicle's sides were fitted with tufts, or strings, that showed air flow. The investigators concluded that rounding the vertical corners front and rear reduced drag by 40 percent, yet decreased the vehicle's internal volume by only 1.3 percent. Rounding both the vertical and horizontal corners cut drag by 54 percent, resulting in a three percent loss of internal volume. A second group of tests added a faired underbody and a boat tail, the latter feature resulting in drag reduction of about 15 percent.

My Firefox Add Ons

Believe me when I say I have done a LOT of testing with Firefox addons.  After considerable experimentation this is my current stable of Firefox addons that provide such incredible functionality that I have yet to see a web browser that approaches this setup.  I'll publish a series of discussions about each of these in the future and what I find so useful about each of them but for now, here is my list:

Firefox and the "Awesomebar"

A Little Something Awesome about Firefox 3 :: The Mozilla Blog

A Little Something Awesome about Firefox 3
Posted by Mary Colvig

April 21st, 2008 · Mozilla News, Tips & Tricks

Deb Richardson, author of the about:mozilla newsletter, wrote one of the better explanations I’ve seen on the “AwesomeBar,” Firefox 3’s revamped URL bar. It’s not the most humble of names, but if you check out Deb’s post you’ll see why it’s earned it.

In Deb’s words, here’s a quick snapshot of what makes Firefox 3’s URL bar just so awesome:

Dubbed the “AwesomeBar”, it lets you use the URL field of your browser to do a keyword search of your history and bookmarks. No longer do you have to know the domain of the page you’re looking for — the AwesomeBar will match what you’re typing (even multiple words!) against the URLs, page titles, and tags in your bookmarks and history, returning results sorted by “frecency” (an algorithm combining frequency + recency).

Only in South Florida

Iguana problems tackled at Palm Beach County symposium -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Leapin' lizards. Literally.

More than 100 people showed up at the Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension Service building west of West Palm Beach on Tuesday to learn about everything iguana. There was information ranging from what plants are most vulnerable to an iguana palate to how to harass and euthanize them if they become a nuisance.

Cooliris for Firefox

I love this addition to Firefox.  It is a stunningly beautiful way to browse photos and videos by category or on any web page.  This is one of my recommended Firefox add ons.

Cooliris :: Firefox Add-ons

Full-Screen, 3D -- Cooliris is simply the fastest and most stunning way to browse photos and videos from the Web or your desktop. Effortlessly scroll a "3D Wall" of your content from Facebook, Google Images, YouTube, Flickr, and hundreds more.

The future of browsing, at least with Firefox our favorite browser.

From "ReadWriteWeb" a glimpse into the future of web browsers.  We currently use Firefox with several add ons that give our browser customized power.  One of these is called Ubiquity and another enhances tabbed browsing.  The add ons that we find useful to us seem to be useful to others too.  The future of Firefox seems to incorporate all of them into the browser itself.  We find this article innteresting and perhaps you will too.

The Future of Firefox: No Tabs, Built-In Ubiquity - ReadWriteWeb

Thanks to its extensibility, Firefox quickly became the favorite browser for most power users. But while extensions are a great way to make Firefox more functional, Mozilla's designers are also currently thinking about a complete redesign of the way the browser looks and feels, in order to keep up with changing usage patterns. The most radical proposal we have seen so far would do away with the standard browser tabs, and replace them with an interface that looks more like iTunes than Firefox.

Earth Trainer Tomato Growing

This is a great set of instructions for growing tomatoes  hydroponically in plastic storage containers.  The link is here.  Complete instructions including videos are available.  Just continue through the article to the bottom.  I've always had an interest in this and will probably give it a try this spring.  I used a hydroponically watered feed tray to start some Amaryllis seedlings.  They are all doing well.  One of our lilies produced big seed heads and just as an experiment we tried germinating them by using what is known as the "California Method.'  It involves floating the seeds in glass containers until they germinate.  I used some big glass casserole trays and it worked.  I would say we got about a fifty percent germination rate.  The method of growing described in this tomato article might also be a great way to continue growing those seedlings.  I am definitely going to give this a try. 

Nice Orchids For You..

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Nice Orchids For You..

View more presentations from Dinisha .

Plug-in Vehicles for Clean transportation

This this technology is far off in the future?  Watch a video about a family who has driven for 7 years and 70,000 miles with no gas and using only the energy generated from their solar panels.  This could have been implemented almost a decade ago and was not.  Our own house generates excess energy during the day.  We could use it to charge up a plug in vehicle.

Watch this fascinating video right here.

New things in Gmail

Gmail has served us well as a web based email client.  The developers are always coming up with new things to make it even more appealing.  Here are some new features that I really like:

	YouTube previews in mail by Stanley C and Braden K Shows a video preview whenever you receive a YouTube link in an email. You can watch the video right inline!
	Picasa previews in mail by Dan, Stanley, Mark & Umesh Shows photos previews whenever you receive a Picasa link in an email.
	Flickr previews in mail by Dan P Shows photos previews whenever you receive a Flickr link in an email.

...and this one is especially nice.  It is still under development but works well.  The delay needs to be a bit longer or user configurable.  But, this is very nice.  We used to have an undo in our email at work and it saved me many times when I sent something and then had second thoughts about it.

Undo Send by Yuzo F Oops, hit "Send" too soon? Stop messages from being sent for a few seconds after hitting the send button.

First Ever Whale Sedation

A right whale was sedated in order to remove entangled fishing gear.  About 90 percent of the gear was removed.  Read more.

Federal Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency

Here is a list of all the new tax credits for energy efficiency.  There are a lot of them.

Solar systems thirty percent off. Buy now.

Solar stuff that Obama will help you buy.

The new tax credits amount to thirty percent off for photovoltaic and solar water heating systems.  If only we had the money.  Well in Florida you also get $4 a watt for photovoltaic systems and $500 for solar water heaters.  So, for photovoltaic systems that is almost another thirty percent off.  Wow.  Wish the tax credit cap had been removed when we installed ours.  We would have saved a LOT.