Instead of dirt and poison, we have
rather chosen to fill our hives with honey and wax; thus furnishing mankind
with the two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light.
Swift,
The Battle of
the Books
The debut of the Google Chrome OS
powered Cr-48 smartbook from partners Google, Acer and Samsung as detailed in my blog
article entitled “Google
Chrome OS and Open Source - Star Wars A New Hope”, as promised by Google
created a flurry of excitement.
Since its debut, the noise in
Developer, Electronics and IT world especially aficionados of Open Source, Cloud Computing and NC (Network
Computers) has continued to boil on, refusing to die quietly, as everyone is
slowly warming up to the idea of a Laptop with SSD (Solid State Drive) that is
quiet, lightweight, Cloud-Based and has a ten (10) hour battery life.
The smartbook was born on Tuesday
December 7th 2010, but came out too late for Christmas 2010.
Still, improvements must be made as
the people who have gotten the limited Beta Edition of the smartbook to try out
and tweak may read the news below and realize that the smartbook, finally
answering the demand from customers for SSD, can have longer standby times.
I speak of the recent announcement
of a breakthrough by MTI Micro called the Mobion Fuel Cell Generator as
mentioned in the article “Portable fuel cell
generator: Green and powerful”, published December 13, 2010 1:53 PM PST by
Dong Ngo, CNET News - Crave.
Finally, a bit of Organic Chemistry,
as it ties in nicely with the electronics and the basic science of fuel cells!
A fuel cell powered by Methanol, with chemical
formula CH3OH, differing from the much publicized Ethanol (C2H5OH),
having a lower boiling point due to its simpler molecular structure. The
educational stuff aside, it generates much interest as the process for making Methanol from Carbon Dioxide,
Hydrogen and Oxygen using Chromium/Manganese Oxide Catalyst, at fifty (50) to
two hundred and twenty (220) atmospheres at around 723K.
Or you can make it in your back
yard using a common Methanol Generator that reforms Ethanol (think alcoholic
spirits!) and Distilled Water to make all the Methanol you will ever need to
refill as many Mobion Fuel Cell Generator cartridges as many times as the
warranty for the device lasts.
The development of this technology
spans a considerable time period and reflects the usual problem that has
bedeviled electronics: Power Supplies. As far back as 2003, the idea of fuel
cells powered be methanol was conceived.
But technical difficulties as it
relates to scaling down the technology to work inside a Laptop or smaller sized
consumer electronics device as stated in the article “Bye-Bye
Batteries?”, published April 3, 2003
3:00 am, by Lincoln Spector, PCWorld
albeit further advances, note-noteworthy, failed to address the issue of the
power usage of devices such as Laptops.
Thus SSD’s have popped on the scene
from Apple in 2007 with the first Apple MacBook Air, recent updates in 2010
improving on both the price as well as the performance as per my blog article
on Administrator Kirk’s Geezam blog
entitled “MacBook
Air and FLASH-based Harddrives - The Quest for Instant On”.
Apple,
which gave us the Apple iPad, the first
tablet, redefined the Netbook with the Apple
MacBook Air and now Google has redefined the Laptop and rebranded it as the
smartbook, fulfilling my predictions of the coming relevance of SSD’s as per my
my blog
article entitled “Dell
Inspiron Duo and Solid State Drives - Charles Darwin and the survival of the
Fittest”.
Despite the major advancements in Processors
and Motherboards, even the mighty Apple has
left the Power Supply Design in the backwater for PC, which the Apple iPad appears to be showing the ability
to kill as per the article entitled “Tablets
and the Future of the PC - Jurassic Park and License to Kill”.
Apple
has instead opted to design a battery replacement in the Apple iPod, Apple
iPod Nano, Apple iPod Shuffle, Apple iMac, Apple
Mac Mini, Apple TV, Apple Air, Apple
MacBook Pro and their latest toy, the Apple
iPad with built in Solar Panels as per the article “Apple eyes gadgets
with built in Solar panels”, published January 22, 2010 7:46 AM PST by
Martin LaMonica, CNET News - Green
Tech.
It is further asserted in the
article “Apple
patent bid combines solar with Touch Screen”, published June 7, 2010 6:31
AM PDT by Martin LaMonica, CNET News -
Green Tech in a bid to kill off the charger
Thus it would seem that this humble
development may actually be a serous game changer for Power Supplies, as conceivably
it could be used to give Laptop, Netbooks and PC’s longer battery life on par
with smartbooks.
The likes of the Apple iPad and the Apple MacBook Air both threatening to make
them extinct as stated in the article “Tablets
threaten to make Netbooks obsolete”, published Wednesday September 8, 2010
2:20 pm ET by Tony Bradley, Cold Business Center, Yahoo! News as well as on my blog
article entitled “Tablets
and the Future of the PC - Jurassic Park and License to Kill”.
The investment in a Methanol Generator would be
seen in the saving in your Utility Bill and would bring a smile to may a householders
face, knowing that such as simple Fuel Cell technology has finally been made
portable and cheap enough to power their myriad of electronic gadgets.
Google Chrome OS powered Cr-48
smartbook could be exponentially extended, making the smartbook become a device
that is forever on and truly cutting the cord. But the real developments would
be awaiting the MacBook
Tower line of PC.
Augmented with LightPeak, as
everyone appears to be speculating, according to recent rumors with regards to Apple possibly
adopting this port specification as per the article “Anticipating 'Light
Peak' Tech from Intel, Apple”, published December 15, 2010 4:00 AM PST by
Brooke Crothers, Nanotech - CNET News and
predicted by my
blog article entitled “Wi-Fi,
LightPeak and PowerLine Broadband - The Young and the Restless”.
Augmentation with Solar panels to
power Intel Processors, with MacAfee Antivirus built into the Intel Processor
firmware is even a more exciting prospect, oweing to the fact that the Japanese
and Chinese have been developing Intel replacement chip technology that uses
Solar panels as per my blog
article entitled “Intel
and LightPeak - Race towards the Sun”.
The PC too may also see its Design
redefined with the Power Supply finally stepping into the Alternative Energy
Mantra that appear to be pushing everything else, the Ultimate case of
Cord-Cutting as per my blog article
entitled “Alternative
Energy and Solar Power - Die Another Day”.
Too bad MTI Micro could not have
made the Mobion Fuel Cell Generator to run on tap water, which I suspect is the
next step, a stone throw away from the Hydrogen Fuel Cell I do desire as per my blog article
entitled “Lithium-Ion
vs Hydrogen Fuel Cell - The Living Daylights”, Green Lantern Style.
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