Poodles Can Fly!

Poodles Can Fly!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Autocar drives the Nissan Leaf, walks away with a grin — Autoblog Green

Autocar drives the Nissan Leaf, walks away with a grin — Autoblog Green

More on the Leaf.

Money Quote: "If you don't drive more than 70 or 80 miles a day, then the Leaf might just be the perfect planet-friendly transport for you."

Wearable Location-Based Mobile Social Network

Wearable Location-Based Mobile Social Network

Let's see if I can do this justice.


The idea is that you carry a device that acts like a souped up active RFID tag. These devices communicate tag to tag using an IEEE 802.15.4 radio with a proprietary network stack. The contents of the tag is a social affinity list which characterizes the characteristics of the person you are most interested in meeting. The tag is also a Bluetooth device that you pair with your cell phone.

When the tags 'discover' each other they exchange affinity lists. If there is a match, your cell phones exchange brief text messages and you determine whether to meet or to check each other out on Facebook or whatever.

The marketing scenario is young people going about their daily business and meet serendipitously. It's hard to imagine adoption reaching the critical density required to make this particular scenario work although a helping hand from network operators might create the necessary volumes.

However, what if they handed out the tags as a party favor at something like The Lilith Fair or Lolapalooza? Or any other big festival that draws a large number of socially active individuals? Trade shows and conventions are other obvious opportunities, which to be fair are included in the marketing material.

One question is why a 2.4 GHz radio instead of one of the sub-Gig radios for longer range?

Another point is that the term 'Location-Based' is a bit of a misnomer given that your location or identity is not exchanged by the tags. A better term might be 'Proximity-Based' since this is what really triggers the activity.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Interesting Wireless Sensor Network Patents

Do you recognize these patents?

7,103,511

7,697,492

If not, you should. Need to know why? Contact one of these companies:

West Technology Research Solutions LLC

Elster Electricity 
Aclara 
Itron 
Tendril 
Landis & Gyr
GE Appliances 
EKA Systems
Tantalus
Comverge 
SilverSprings Networks
Intermatic
Hawkings Technologies
HomeSeer Technologies
Cooper USA
LS Research 
Advance Sensoring Technology 
Mesh City
Cypress 
Trilliant Incorporated

Still Waiting for the ZigBee Green Energy Specification...

In the mean time, the world moves on.

EnOcean and TI Announce Energy Harvesting Cooperation

New Research from WTRS

High Speed Wireless Connectivity: It's not just for HD Video Anymore.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Thursday, June 10, 2010

More Nissan Leaf: I'm Going to the Mat with my Manager on This One

Instapundit Takes Sales 101 and asks; Does Nissan really expect Leaf buyers to plunk down $2K for a charger then order the car?

Well, Nissan probably does.

From the linked article the purchase process for the Nissan Leaf:

  • Reserve
  • Home Assessment
  • Charger Installation
  • Order
Why would you ask the buyer to pay $2000 for installation of the dedicated circuit that is a required prerequisite for the Leaf purchase prior to actually negotiating the purchase?

Smart selling. By the time the buyer is ready to negotiate specific details of the purchase they are already $2000 worth of expense into the process.

Walk away from the deal at that point and the buyer is stuck with the $2000 bill for a charging system they won't be using. Most folks, not having shared class time with my Engineering Econ Analysis professor have not had the mantra 'Sunk costs are non-recoverable' drilled into their heads.

The sales guys can book the deal at 'Charger Installation' although they can't recognize the revenue until 'Order.' Is that a great model or what?

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Test Driving the i-Mieve

Driving the i-Miev from San Francisco to Vacaville without air conditioning

Money quote: In Vacaville, the journalists would all be fed while each i-Miev would be hooked to the quick charger. After 20 minutes each on the charger all the i-Mievs would be juiced to about 80-percent of battery capacity. Another 34 miles on the I-80 would then have the electric cars cruising into California’s capital, Sacramento. It was like the days of stagecoaches­—San Francisco to Sacramento with just one stop in Vacaville to change horses.