From musical instruments and sewing machines, to board games and GoPros.
In Sacramento, California you will find The Library of Things, a new service from the Sacramento Public Library that lets you borrow a variety of items from musical instruments and sewing machines, to board games and GoPros.
The Library of Things is located inside the Sacramento Public Library’s Arcade location which already features 3D printers, 3D scanners and a bike repair station that you can use on site.
There are various instruments available including: ukuleles, acoustic guitars, drums and keyboards.
You can also borrow a sewing machine, button maker, laminator and screen printing kit!
Believe it or not, they even have a huge collection of board games (62) and video games (55)!
There’s even techy gadgets like GoPros, Wacom tablets and a projector available.
To see all of the items available to borrow as well as learn more about the on-site tools like 3D printers and bike repair station, visit The Library of Things
The IXION Windowless Jet Concept was created specifically for the 2013 NBAA Business Aviation Show. Created by Technicon Design, it was also a recent winner at the 2014 International Yacht & Aviation Awards in the Exterior Design category.
The idea is to remove all windows, instead turning the interior cabin into a giant screen, using “existing or very near future technology to display the exterior environment to the inside surfaces of the cabin via external cameras.”
Check out the concept video below along with additional images and information.
Gareth Davies, Design Director at Technicon’s French Studio
“The ethos of the project is simple, to challenge current thinking, and propose something a little different, but not just a fantasy. It has to be credible and relevant, yet provoke discussion”.
“We quickly settled on the controversial yet interesting idea of removing the windows from the cabin and using existing or very near future technology to display the exterior environment to the inside surfaces of the cabin via external cameras. Removing the windows allows for weight reduction, simplifies construction and opens up an enormous spectrum of possibilities for interior design. We wanted to couple this with amorphous solar panels which power the low voltage systems on board and thus offer a unique visual dynamic for the exterior.”
“The user experience is greatly enhanced by directly engaging the passengers with the environment outside, to the point of exhilaration by giving an unhindered panoramic view from the inside. Parallax barrier technology allows the passengers to see different views at the same time on the same screen. A myriad of potential cabin moods and themes open up by tailoring the images or ambiance that is displayed, even by mimicking a more traditional interior if desired.”
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What a difference 10 years make! In this great ‘then and now’ comparison, we see a USB flash drive from 2004 vs a USB flash drive from 2014. For the non-techies, the USB drive on the bottom is 64 mb while the USB drive on the top has a 64 gb capacity. Today there are even smaller drives than the one showed in the picture above with even greater capacity, but this particular drive works well for comparison as they are similar in shape and design.
1 Gigabyte = 1024 Megabytes
So the USB drive on top has 1024 times the capacity of the drive on the bottom.
This increase works quite elegantly with Moore’s law which is:
The observation that, over the history of computing hardware, the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years. The law is named after Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore, who described the trend in his 1965 paper. His prediction has proven to be accurate, in part because the law is now used in the semiconductor industry to guide long-term planning and to set targets for research and development.
The capabilities of many digital electronic devices are strongly linked to Moore’s law: processing speed, memory capacity, sensors and even the number and size of pixels in digital cameras. All of these are improving at roughly exponential rates as well. This exponential improvement has dramatically enhanced the impact of digital electronics in nearly every segment of the world economy. Moore’s law describes a driving force of technological and social change in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
The period is often quoted as 18 months because of Intel executive David House, who predicted that chip performance would double every 18 months (being a combination of the effect of more transistors and their being faster). Although this trend has continued for more than half a century, Moore’s law should be considered an observation or conjecture and not a physical or natural law. [source]
As the world’s largest online retailer, Amazon needs somewhere to put all of those products. The solution? Giant warehouses. Eighty to be exact. Strategically located near key shipping hubs around the world.
The warehouses themselves are massive, with some over 1.2 million square feet in size (111,484 sq m). And at the heart of this global operation are people (over 65,000 of them), and a logistics system known as chaotic storage.
Chaotic storage is like organized confusion. It’s an organic shelving system without permanent areas or sections. That means there is no area just for books, or a place just for televisions (like you might expect in a retail store layout). The product’s characteristics and attributes are irrelevant. What’s important is the unique barcode associated with every product that enters the warehouse.
Every single shelf space inside an Amazon warehouse has a barcode. And every incoming product that requires storage is assigned a specific barcode that matches the shelf space in which it will be stored. This allows free space to be filled quickly and efficiently.
At the heart of the operation is a sophisticated database that tracks and monitors every single product that enters/leaves the warehouse and keeps a tally on every single shelf space and whether it’s empty or contains a product.
There are several key advantages to the chaotic storage system. First is flexibility. With chaotic storage, freed-up space can be refilled immediately. Second is simplicity. New employees don’t need to learn where types of products are located. They simply need to find the storage shelf within the warehouse. You don’t need to know what the product is, just where it is. Lastly is optimization.
Amazon must handle millions and millions of orders. That means that at any given moment there is a long list of products that need to be ‘picked’ from the shelves and prepared for shipment.
Since there is a database that knows every product required for shipment and the location of each product inside the warehouse, an optimized route can be provided to employees responsible for fulfilment.
Since Amazon deals with such a wide variety of products there are a few exceptions to the rule. Really fast-moving articles do not adhere to the same storage system since they enter and leave the warehouse so quickly. Really bulky and heavy products still require separate storage areas and perishable goods are not ideal for obvious reasons.
In this storage system a wide variety of products can be found located next to each other. A necklace could be located beside a DVD and underneath a set of power tools. This arbitrary placement can even help with accuracy as it makes mix-ups less likely when picking orders for shipment.
Overall it’s a fascinating system that at its core is powered by a complex database yet run by a simple philosophy. It’s Chaotic Storage. There’s no better way to put it 🙂
The Superbus project is an ambitious attempt to disrupt the personal transport industry. This new concept in sustainable mobility consists of: a new electronically powered vehicle capable of cruising speeds in excess of 250 km/h (155 mph), new dedicated infrastructure (such as a dedicated lane on highways), and new logistics via a central routing optimization system.
While hard to pinpoint, some have suggested the Superbus is somewhere between a regular bus and a train. It’s advantage over the former is that it’s capable of vastly higher speeds and greater flexibility, not confined to a rigid schedule or route. As for the latter, infrastructure and implementation is cheaper and does not require the need for changeovers from target to destination. The Superbus’s promise of demand-dependent-door-to-door transportation is a feature neither bus or train has.
Below you will find a brief overview of this interesting concept along with images and additional specs on this new class of vehicle.
The Superbus Team
The project is led by Wubbo Ockels, the Netherlands’ first astronaut and a professor of aerospace sustainable engineering and technology at TU-Delft. Along with two other key people, the three head up the Superbus research and development team.
Prof.dr. Wubbo Ockels
First Dutchman in space and now full professor at TU Delft and the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. At TU Delft he heads the ASSET chair (AeroSpace for Sustainable Engineering and Technology). Within the project he has the role of General Manager
Dr. ing. Antonia Terzi
Italian designer with a Formula 1 background. She used to be the chief aerodynamicist of the BMW-Williams Formula 1 team. Antonia holds the position of Chief Vehicle Designer. Next to that she is assistant professor in the ASSET chair.
Joris Melkert MSc
Aerospace engineer and now assistant professor in the ASSET chair. He has been involved in several aircraft development projects as well in the development of NUNA 3, the fastest solar car on earth. He is in charge of logistics and infrastructure matters.
– The Superbus is made of carbon fiber and has an electric motor (battery powered)
– It seats up to 20 passengers in a luxury setting, with 16 gull-wing doors for easy entrance
– Has a cruising speed of 255 km/h (155 mph)
– Contains an obstacle detection system using radar equipment and a fast responding electronic guidance system
– Has undergone significant testing and features high manoeuvrability and formidable breaking power
– Developed in the Netherlands
Above and below are images of the ‘Mule’ used for testing
The Superbus Technical Specifications
Power train: Electric motors powered by lithium polymer battery pack and regenerative braking
Power output: 400 kW
Driving range: 210 km
Braking: 250-0 km/h in less than 200m
Cruising speed: 250 km/h (155 mph)
Length: 15,000 mm (49.21 ft)
Width: 2,550 mm (8.20 ft)
Height: 1,650 mm (5.41 ft)
Weight: 10,500 kg fully loaded
Suspension: Air springs and frequency selective dampers system and lifting hydraulic cilinders
Ride height range: 330 mm (70mm to 400mm)
Chassis frame: Carbon fiber reinforced plastic
Bodywork: Carbon fiber reinforced plastic
Glazing: Lexan Polycarbonate
Driving mode: Driver assisted controlled on existing roads, autopilot on Supertrack
Equipped with: Seat belts, TV, internet, air-conditioning, heating, etc
Provided with: Navigation system, obstacle detection, communication system, fail safe system and control system
