Linear brushless motor

• Here’s what looks like a first example of a linear brushless motor mounted to a standard pushbike. Doesn’t look like it has much torque, but for a first attempt, looks promising

Filming of Toyota Auris-hybrid

• Managed to track down the creators of the video commercial for the new Toyota Auris, Hybrid. Impressive array of technology. The wheels are surrounded by phosphorescent lighting strips used in boutique hotels and discos. The rest is lighting projectors, 3D CGI mapping overlays. The second video shows the manufacturing process of the car. You get to see how relatively small the battery pack is. The battery pack is covered for 8 years under warranty and can be factory returned and recycled. At one time it had a solar roof, but for the UK at least, they took it off, because it wouldn’t be cost effective, plus in the concept car it looks a bit distractive
• The battery uses NiMh – Nickel Metal Hydride technology which is environmentally friendly according to Wikipedia, There is also a very interesting and revealing post on patent encumbrance by Texaco/Chevron. It’s well worth the read, because it explains why up until recently, why there have been few pure EV cars like the iMiEV on the market..

72 Windows 7 phone tips

• Reposting a tips blog post

New Toyota Auris hybrid hits the UK

• My next car perhaps?

Toyota Auris hyrid. 70mpg. We shall see..

What is BI–Business Intelligence

• I am currently brushing up on SharePoint 2010 BI and stumbled upon a Office 2010 Developer Training kit

Download

Windows 7 phone–recipe vault

Windows 7 Phone - Office 2010 mobile and SharePoint

• Very nicely done indeed. Make’s an iPhone look like a toy by comparison

Windows 7 Phone–Office Mobile/SharePoint–yeah baby!

Microsoft Lightspace

• Interesting video demonstrating a 3D interactive system, whereby presenters can move light objects around a table, from table to screen, or person-to-person utilising infrared sensors Aka an interactive surface. I think we may have borrowed some ideas from external folk, because I have seen something similar using a reverse engineered Wii remote and a wearable interactive projection system. Cool tech though. Look’s like you need a steady hand to not drop the ball

Popplet

• Interesting application for sharing ideas via a kind of white-boarding flowchart like app. Also available on the iPad

• Here’s a video done with Popplet for a Work Smart from FastCompany

The age of gadgets

• At the tail end of this video short from Engadget on the Jimmy Fallon's Late Night Show, you’ll see a quadricopter flying in the studio, controlled from an iPhone. Some very clever stabilisation electronics in the puppy, that’s for sure:

  The AR.Drone uses a pile of pretty sophisticated magic to enable it to fly -- those aforementioned cameras are just the start (one forward facing, one facing down running at 60 fps that allows stability in light wind) because you've also got two ultrasonic transmitters for vertical stability, a three-axis accelerometer, and a two-axis gyroscope paired with a single-axis yaw precision gyroscope for good measure

• Windows Phone, Blackberry control to be added later hopefully A tad pricey though at $299

NeoSmart - EasyBCD

• So, the final tweaks are under way. I created a P2V VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) of my existing boot OS, using the System Internals Disk2VHD utility. I then updated the boot configuration data using the GUI based EasyBCD utility from NeoSmart
• Next I plan to see if I can mount the same .VHD under hypervisor on my server, though I suspect it won’t mount properly. My plan is to boot natively to a clean VHD I normally use for demos and have my main OS hosted under Hyper-V on my server and remote into that. I will then strip down the old file based OS and expand the local boot VHD to be my primary OS, keeping differencing files for tests
• The main aim is to see how fast VHD’s are in the cloud/server when accessed via terminal services, or on external drives whilst also providing backup and instant restore scenarios
• Ultimately I’m looking for a way to have a image based ‘locked-down’ instant restore capability, were, no matter what happens I can always get back to a stable OS
• Updates, patches etc. always lead to an unstable OS that ends up bloated unreliable and difficult to troubleshoot

NeoSmart EasyBCD

Why women live longer then men?

• Easy does it ;-)

Gmail–priority inbox

• Well now that Microsoft have Mail Sweep, GMail now improve there already good web mail product
• Nicely done video

Captain Jack Flash–SPAM assassin extraordinaire

• Here’s a very funny SPAM smail I received today. Make I laugh

From: patrick lenz [mailto:patricklenz33@gmail.com]
Sent: 13 September 2010 05:30
To: MSN
Subject: Re: Celica

Hello,
Thanks for your reply.
I want to inform you that i will buy your car for your last price but I have a business proposal for you. I am  a captain with the United Nations troop in Iraq, on war against terrorism. Based on the United States legislative and executive decision for withdrawing troops from Iraq come this year, I have been deployed to come and work in your country's military base soonest. Our mission is to help beef up terrorist targeted states, mostly the United states and the European Union on the war against terrorism. I will need a car for myself and that is why i contact you. On the other hand i want to inform you that I have in my possession the sum of 10.2million USD. which was recovered from one of our raids on terrorists here in Iraq  because they keep most of their money at home for evil activities which they normally get through illegal deals on crude oil.
Based on the suffering we undergo here some of us do meet such luck. It happened that i went for this raid with the men in my unit and i decided to take it as my share for my stress here in this evil land filled with suicide bombers. I deposited this money with a red cross agent informing him that we are making contact for the real owner of the money. It is under my power to approve whoever comes forth for this money. I wish to use this money for charity purposes in Turkey, where we have about 3 million Iraqi refugees and Sudan where we have currently the highest numbers of refugees displaced as a result of war. You need to visit such places. I want to invest the money on stock fish from Norway to this refugees because base on my experience on battle ground in this places, they lack a lot of fish and meat to add to their meager and unpalatable meals which they get in little quantity just to keep them living until God knows when the problem ends. Instead of allowing this terrorists to get the money and spend it on purchasing arms illegally from Russia and North Korea it is better channeled to saving the world.
I cannot move this money to the United states because i will be in Europe for about 3years,so i need someone i could deal with. If you accept, I will transfer the money to Europe where you will be the beneficiary because i am a uniformed person and i cannot be parading such an amount so i need to present someone as the beneficiary. I am an American and an intelligence officer at that so i have a 100% authentic means of transferring the money through diplomatic courier service .I just need your acceptance and all is done.
Please if you are interested in this transaction i will give to you the complete details you need for us to carry out this transaction successfully. I decided to find someone that is real and not imaginary and that is why i went to a secured car site where i can be sure that the person is real. I believe i can trust you. where we are now we can only communicate through our military communication facilities which is secured so nobody can monitor our emails, then i can explain in details to you. I will only reach you through email, because our calls might be monitored, I just have to be sure whom i am dealing with. If you are interested please send me your personal mobile number so i can call you for further inquiries when i am out of our military network. I am writing from a fresh email account so if you are not interested do not reply to this email and please delete this message, if no response after 3days i will then search for someone else. I am doing this on trust, you should understand and you should know that as a trained military expert i will always play safe in case you are the bad type, but i pray you are not.10.2million USD is a lot of money which is the dream of anyone.
I wait for your contact details so we can go on. In less than 7days the money should have been noted on your account and i will come over for my money. I will give to you 30% of the sum and 70% is for my dream. I hope i am been fair on this deal.
Regards,
captpatricklenz

Samsung galaxy 10

• Interesting prototype of a new slate like device. Would that be WebOS, or Samsung’s own OS I wonder?. Going to be a busy Xmas and onwards in the portable space that’s for sure

New Arc TouchMouse

• The old Microsoft Arc-Mouse is great, but this latest edition is way cooler!, a pocket mouse no less, arf

SharePoint 2010–Productivity hub

• Just installed SP2010 Enterprise and installed the free productivity hub from Microsoft. The hub includes Office 2010/SharePoint 2010/Win7/IE8 etc. content packs including videos, documents and links to blogs, coaches (tutors) and is nicely skinned in Silverlight just for good measure
• So that means a company who is hosting SharePoint 2010 can avail of a free training portal by way of a this site collection add-on. Very impressive set of documentation

Download here
Demo site here – you’ll need to login as corp\demouser with pass@word1 to see the content. You may also need to install Silverlight via the plug-in

Calibre - e-book management application

• Interesting little application that allows you to control content on multiple devices plus a rather neat ability to pull online newspaper content from the Internet and pull/push to multiple devices such as the Kindle, iPad, HTC phone etc. Look’s like a winner

Windows 7 phone development - silverlight slipstreamed videos

• Fast forward to 14:51 to watch a nice demo of a silverlight application interface showing off a Mix2010 video slipstream on a series 7 phone

Project Hilo - Windows7/Vista desktop animation

• Picked up a tweet from Channel9 Microsoft’s developer site on a new project looking at new and interesting ways to leverage touch based systems to give you a Microsoft Surface like experience on the PC/laptop. Fast forward to 5:30 minutes to see the actual demo. The rest is mostly about the architecture and coding
• re-quote:
  “Project “Hilo” is a series of articles and sample applications that demonstrate how you can leverage the power of Windows 7, Visual Studio 2010 and Visual C++ to build high performance, responsive rich client applications. Hilo provides both source code and guidance that will help you design and develop compelling, touch-enabled Windows applications of your own. Join Yochay Kiriaty and James Johanson for an introduction of Project Hilo, a quick tour of its architect and design principles
  
  Additional information about the project can be found in the Introducing Project HILO post, and on MSDN – Hilo: Developing C++ Application for Windows 7”

Mix10–s Windows Series 7 Phone for developers

• Following on from a great demo of the up and coming series 7 phone, I thought I’d post this up. Great to see you can paste Silverlight embed code directly into Live Writer and that Blogger, accepts it! Live Spaces sucks in this respect :-( - just strips the code out

Google map for mobiles

• I’ve been quite impressed with the Bing utility for Windows Mobile, especially the GPS location and tracking facility along with Speak ‘voice searches’ translated in to text based searches piped into Bing.com
• Google have launched a cool little application (small .CAB file) that gives you street level maps including Street View photographs linked to your location. Ideally you need Wi-Fi or 3G as the photos are quite dense and slow to load
• Below is a shot of Cirencester a T junction looking south. Note for some countries they may not have a street view. You can rotate around the spot, including pointing at the floor or sky!

• It also has some nice features like layers; Wikipedia, Buzz, Traffic etc. The get directions also let’s you input post codes, like GL7 6NQ UK. My old address and Wikipedia has some interesting info like the local train station at Kemble and a local footballer. Impressive

Gruber assist - bike to e-bike conversion kit

• Awhile back I watched a video my bro sent me of what looked like Cancellara using a doped racing bike. This has never been proved/ But the kit does exist to convert an existing bike into a covert e-bike, with the motor housed in the main frame seat down tube using a bevel gear drive

Phillippe Starck – species mutation

• Genius or madman? Somewhere between I dare say, but nonetheless a sentient and highly intelligent individual whose design inspires others. He is currently working with the Pramac Racing team on their Green Energy program, specifically on their livery as witnessed during last weekends Mugello MotoGP
• Here, he is speaking at TedTalks. Very French and very funny and a very mercurial personality

Live Essentials (beta) Wave 4

• Wow! I’m just loving the new Live Essentials beta updates. Live writer always was a great blogging tool, but this version is awesome. Plus, all the other Live wave4 tools and the web companions rock! Well done Microsoft, a round of applause is much due

Predators tools

• Go and kill a site using the Predators tools. Cool! Love the sound effects

http://www.predators-movie.com/predatortools/

Spring is sprung

• ‘Grass is riz,  I wonder where the birdies is? quote
• Some early garden shots taken during a weekend visit to Mount Juliet, near Stoneyford, Kilkenny county

Mount Juliet - June 2010 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Slide show

Kitchen art - Lumenico

• These are some early prototypes of of brothers Kitchen artwork project. He is a electronics/lighting expert and is currently specialising in art projects for communities

http://lumenico.com

Early examples of hang gliders

• I was looking for some trailer dimensions for one of my Microlights when I stumbled on some early examples of hang gliders made from simple aluminium tubing and polyethylene sheeting and drafting tape!

 

• Wikipedia “Author: Barry Palmer (1961) This is possibly the predecessor of the earliest example of a modern hang glider. It is one of 7 or 8 gliders built by engineer Barry Palmer. The first, which was built of salvaged aluminium tubing, polyethylene sheeting and drafting tape, had an out of pocket expense of $10.89. The spars and keel were 22 feet in length, so launches of the 40 lb aircraft could be accomplished easily even in no wind. Flights got up to 600 feet in length and as high as 80 feet. The last of the series flew in the summer of 1962, and had a swinging seat, which expanded the flying capability and control well beyond the "true hang" armpit supports. The triangle control frame begun in 1891 for hang gliders,at least, was incorporated in at least one of the photographed hang gliders by Barry Hill Palmer”

Visible Earth - NASA

• Found this amazing photograph courtesy of Visible Earth – NASA

HDR using Photo stitch?

• This is a test photo I took on the way home today on the back road coming into Thomastown. It is made up of four photos stitched together using Microsoft’s Live Photo Gallery photo-stitch tool. There are two left side shots, top and bottom and two right side shots top and bottom. Each had under and over exposure, simply by the fact I was pointing towards the ground and sky

Windows phone series 7 – yes please!

• Now that’s the way to do it

Lexus e-bike prototype

• Early prototype of the Lexus e-bike. Both VW and Lexus are having a stab at the e-bike market, but like the GoCycle they have some way to go yet to produce a lightweight, pedal driven stowaway that meets the criteria of low cost, low consumption, small environmental footprint and long range i.e. >65Km
• This model looks over designed and would benefit from rear suspension to take the knocks out of the stiff carbon fibre frame – flax would be better, or just plain old aluminium would do. Overall though there are some nice touches, like the Kevlar drive and hub-based gears and neat cable-work tightly integrated

View Full Album

Model citation jet

• Nicely flown model plane. Considering the wind, that was a cool bit of flying. Mind you, a little bit of wind will make it that bit more stable on landing providing there is not too much low level turbulence

Pivot and other stuff

• I’ve been off air for the last few months mostly coming up to speed on Office 2010 whilst developing some rather cool Excel training materials in PowerPoint 2010 as a potted set of training materials with hands-on demos, combined with videos and narration
• In between work and play I’ve also been developing a new company selling e-bikes over at http://cyclotronic.eu. A 2 year incubator company selling LEV (Light Electric vehicles) whereby I intend to have my own branded models and technology at a some stage. Grin factor 10 when you ride an e-bike into town, especially when you power up the hills – it’s like being a bionic man! Muscle power + electricity – a powerful cocktail for you adrenaline junkies and not to healthy types as well..
• Out of the Office 2010 apps, Excel 2010 impresses; mostly due to the outstanding speed it loads and performs calculations on Pivot table data. With Power Pivot it can handle a million rows of data on the 32-bit version and 100’s of millions of rows in the 64-bit version of Excel 2010 allied with Windows x-64 bit + oodles of RAM
• How does Power Pivot work? Clever compression algorithms that compress data both on disk and in memory .. more
• Gary Flake of Live Labs demos Microsoft Live Power Pivot. He shows off rather impressive PhotoSynth (Silverlight?) like application that can be used to Pivot web data. You can download it here. There will also be a Silverlight application you can embed in your own site, with your own content later this summer 2010

MS PP site
MS PP Gallery site – password is Pass@word1

Office 2010 documents shared on FaceBook

• Interesting collaboration project with FUSE at Microsoft Cambridge Research, Docs.com and Facebook whereby you can edit and share Office 2010 docs in the cloud with your friends and colleagues. Currently invitation only
• One of several incubation projects under Ray Ozzie’s tutelage to further Social cohesion

PowerPivot for Excel

• I’m just brushing up on my Excel skills prior to Office 2010 going to RTM later this year
• I noted that the PowerPivot site has some good demos and hands-on labs available via www.powerpivot.com. There is also a good blog and two sample sets of data (pivot sample data) here and (SQL Server data) here
• For a Windows 7 installation, for the SQL data set for Adventure-works demo, you will need SQL Server 2008 Express edition with Advanced services from here. Instructions and prerequisites here. NOTE: You have to install SQL Server Express SP1 BEFORE you commence the main install and reboot the system. Then you won’t get any compatibility warnings and fail the ‘restart’ section of the install! SP1 is more of a pre-patch