Wind energy may not be a magic bullet as temperatures rise

Study: Rising temperatures threaten wind energy
[Via All Today's News - Sightline Daily]

As global temperatures rise, wind speeds drop, says a researcher who has calculated by how much and points out it will mean less wind for powering turbines. The conundrum is that while wind is promoted as a renewable source of energy, greenhouse gases released by the burning of fossil fuels impede the ability to produce clean electricity from wind.

Winds are caused by a difference in temperatures between the polar regions and lower latitudes. Increasing global temperatures are felt more at the poles that nat the Equator so as the world heats up, there will be less of a difference in temperature and thus less wind energy.

But it still sounds like wind energy will be useful. This is just a nice demonstration that even some ‘simple’ solutions may be more complex. Wind is still an indirect way to harvest energy from the sun. Perhaps a more sustainable solution would be to make it easier to more directly grab that energy.

Warmer earth may produce stronger toxins

Warmer earth may produce stronger toxins
[Via All Today's News - Sightline Daily]

Global warming may be making pesticide residues, heavy metals and household chemicals more dangerous to fish, wildlife and, ultimately, humans, scientists warn. And climate change is also set to challenge scientists’ methods for studying toxicity.

Climate change stresses animal populations, making them more susceptible to environmental toxins. But climate change also makes the toxin more prevalent and longer-lasting in some circumstances. A one-two punch that does not bode well for many species.

Their new App almost makes me want to subscribe to the Washington Post

The Washington Post App for iPad
[Via Daring Fireball]

I love this trend of creating high-production value movies to promote apps.

[More]

I may not like much of the work they produce but I have to give them props for this ad. They are not afraid to look a little silly. The journalists and pundits all played themselves, with Bob Woodward and Bill Bradlee front and center.

The “Was that Robert Redford?” comment as Woodward walked by was really unexpected and funny. I’ll download the app mainly because of this ad.

Which was its purpose.

Thinking about playing games from the iPhone using an Apple TV

by com2us
Sneak Peek at The Incident 1.3
[Via Daring Fireball]

Running on a TV (via a connected iPad), controlled by an iPhone. Look at this and tell me you’re not intrigued by the idea of native iOS apps for Apple TV. Update: Video of it in action.

[More]

And it seems that this is something that takes very little time on the developers side to make it happen. So, games become just another form of content for the Apple TV. Maybe not as great as a devoted console version. But the developer only has to create an iOS version and then make relatively small changes to cover everything from a mobile version to a laptop to a huge plasma.

Instead of a version for XBox, Playstation, Wii and their mobile versions, if any exist. I think Apple is going to be very disruptive to the gaming world. Especially in a few years when more memory allows more complex games to be created.

I know Doom Classic has been a lot of fun. The iPad allows new ways to control the action – tilting the iPad permits strafing, for instance.

‘A pocketable train wreck’ not good words for something that costs about as much as an iPad

by sam_churchill

Gizmodo Reviews the Samsung Galaxy Tab
[Via Daring Fireball]

Scathing review overall (“a pocketable train wreck”, “this thing is just a mess”), but he does say battery life was good.

[More]

And this is from an outfit that has, a best, a tempestuous relationship with Apple. Man, they hit the overall usability a lot. For example, the apps are just scaled up so there is no real advantage over what content the phones provide. Why get a bigger ‘phone’? The larger screen provides no inherent advantage.

How about data input:

There is no way to not feel like a total dorkface while typing on this thing. In portrait, it’s like tapping on a massive, nerdy phone. In landscape, it’s just dumb. You still have to thumb type, only you’re stretching out further, and text entry swallows up the entire screen. Swype might be dandy on a phone, but on a seven-inch screen it doesn’t work so well—you have to travel a lot further to sketch out words. In other words, you get the worst of a phone’s input problems—amplified.

Perhaps having an operating system tuned to the form factor would have helped. In addition, the lack of innovation, should make the ears of lawyers prick up:

In the places where Samsung tries to make the Tab feel more like a tablet than a big phone, it’s not afraid to borrow liberally from what Apple’s done on the iPad. The music app (a huge improvement over the standard Android player) bears an uncanny resemblance to the iPad’s iPod app, while the faux-realness of the Calendar, Contacts and Memo apps feel like Chinatown knockoffs of Cupertino software.

It proves the wisdom of Steve Job’s and the folly of Adobe:

The browser is miserable, at least when Flash is enabled. It goes catatonic, scrolling is laggy, and it can get laughably bad. When better browsing is half the reason to go for a larger screen, that’s insanity.

The 900 or so comments are also quite illuminating. I would not expect the Galaxy Tab to do much this Christmas if this is the general view.

In fact, for me, the killer is having to get a contract. I only deal with the wireless companies because I have to for an iPhone but I really do not want to need them for other stuff.

Just another reminder of how hard it is to overcome an incorrect rule of thumb

by Individuo

Girls are just as good at math as boys
[Via Boing Boing]

Overall, girls and boys perform equally well at math. Gender is a predictor of math performance, but a very weak predictor.

[More]

Here is a relevant quote from the research paper:

‘…to put these findings in a broader context, gender can be conceptualized as one of many predictors of mathematics performance. Other factors include socioeconomic status (SES), parents’ education, and the quality of schooling. Melhuish et al. (2008) compared the effect sizes of nine predictors of children’s mathematics performance at age 10: birth weight, gender, SES, mother’s education, father’s education, family income, quality of the home learning environment, preschool effectiveness, and elementary school effectiveness. The striking finding was that gender was the weakest of these nine predictors (i.e., it had the smallest effect size). Mother’s education, quality of the home learning environment, and elementary school effectiveness were far stronger predictors. Our findings are consistent with those of Melhuish et al.: gender is not a strong predictor of mathematics performance’

Instead of recognizing that more effective education, including that of the mother, has a much greater impact on math equality, too many people just throw up their hands and say “men are better at math than women.” That is a simple way to deal with a complex problem – apply the wrong simplifying heuristic, especially one that allows inaction.

They are wrong. Little data supports that rule of thumb. It is a false representation of the complex world around us. Following a false rule of thumb increases the likelihood that follower will make important mistakes with severe ramifications for themselves and others. Think ‘No one would leave a loaded gun in the house’ as they lift the pistol to their temple to demonstrate.

Deciding to stick with false rules of thumb and inappropriate heuristics is a path to failure. Living in a Cargo Cult World full of such incorrect rules suggests a view of the natural world that can have devastating consequences.

It takes work to construct valid rules of thumb for complex problems but that is what we will have to do because most of the problems remaining for us to solve are complex ones. So if simplifying heuristics are created, we had better make sure they do a good job of modeling the real world.

Otherwise, we start to resemble the Easter Islanders who cut down the last trees on the island to help them create the moai that allowed their ancestors to provide everything in life. That rule of thumb was not ultimately a sustainable one for them.

The most comprehensive story of the rise and fall of Apple’s Xserve, with pictures

Why Apple axed Xserve, and how it can reenter the server market
[Via AppleInsider]

Many of Apple’s customers in enterprise environments are shocked by the company’s decision to discontinue the Xserve. There’s an easy answer why it happened: they weren’t selling well. Here’s why, and how the company may address the server market in the future, using lessons learned from iOS.

[More]

While I think it is unlikely, a Server App Store is an intriguing idea. Lowering the price of server software while increasing the ease of administration would have a very disruptive effect.