Category: Science & Engineering

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For a Greener World

We have lived a life of ruining the world.  Pollution and waste are at the worst high and worst of all, we aren’t really aware of it.  We need to bite the bullet and strive for a greener world.  So where do we start, you ask?  Start using less gasoline.  Use re-useable bags for shopping instead of plastic bags.  Check sites like TreeHugger.com.  And here are some developments that could help.

There’s a company called Brammo which is producing a motocycle.  That’s nothing new.  But it’s an all-electric bike!  Currently, it only has about 42-mile range and requires about 4 hours to recharge.  That’s lame, you say.  But it’s perfect for commuting to work.  The downside is that it is expensive at $10K.  But you will practically pay nothing on fuel anymore.  And as it gets revamped, the cost will come down.  It’s this kind of progress and direction the world needs to make.

Another cool idea that’s coming around is making ethanol out of garbage!  That’s ingenious!  I do believe that alternative energy source is the future in saving the Earth from dying.  I hope we all try to contribute in saving the Earth.

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Please donate time on your PS3 and PC to help find cure!

I have lost my uncles, aunts, and grandparents, not to mention friends, to cancer.  Liver cancer, lung cancer, stomach cancer, you name it.  I’ve even lost my cousin to Leukemia.  That’s why I searched for ways to help in whatever I can do.

Enter Stanford University.  A professor there started studying the ways proteins change and become new molecules, also known as “folding”.  By studying and knowing how proteins fold, a cure for cancer can be found.  I have my PS3 and my 2 PCs doing this whenver I am not using them.  So yes, you do pay a bit extra for electricity usage but for a 200W PC, that equates to about $20/month extra!  If you have the new PS3 Slim, it only uses about $10/month of electricity!

By helping and contributing, I feel like Morpheus from Matrix…

“Now consider the alternative. What if I am right? What if the prophecy is true? What if tomorrow the war could be over? Isn’t that worth fighting for? Isn’t that worth dying for?”

Don’t you want to feel like you’ve done all you can?  So as to not have regrets?!  I sure do.  I want to know that I’ve done all I can in help fighting cancer.  Let’s make cancer history…  If you need help setting this up and running it, please ask and I’d be ecstatic to help!

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Engineering Basics – Linux

Lately, I have had to train people. And I am realizing that of the 4, 3 don’t know much about Linux. And as a somewhat of a veteran engineer now, if you are going to enter the engineering job field, please please please learn some basics of the Linux OS!!

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Myth Busters on Moon Landing: Is it a Hoax or Real?

If you are a sci-fi fan and fellow nerd, you know that we really landed on the moon. 😛 But people have been arguing that it was a conspiracy all along. Well, Myth Busters, a show on cable network somewhere (I think it’s on Discovery) proved that it’s real! Now go and weep! 😀

Gizmodo, my favorite gadget blog site, reports and shows some video clips.

  1. They proved boots can leave footprints on dust in vacuum surrounding.
  2. Momentum alone will keep the flag waving in a vacuum (no wind needed)
  3. Retroreflectors were left on the moon and they shot a laser at it to get signal back

So read and weep you conspiracy losers!! 😛 I guess those same people will move onto work on how to make Mars landings a hoax!

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Water-powered car!!

Japan has developed a water-powered test car!! 😮

It can sustain 80 km/h for an hour on 1 liter of freakin’ water!!! How come we don’t have that already?! I will tell you why… it’s because of those money and life sucking oil companies!! That’s why!! 😡 All those oil companies better get on the right gear ’cause I’m not paying freakin’ $5/gallon!!

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Heat & Biking: Forced Convection and Heat Transfer

In the morning when I bike to work, it’s normally in mid to upper 70’s.  That’s pretty decent cool weather.  However, when I return, it’s low 90’s to high 80’s even after 6 pm!  😮  But when I do bike home, it doesn’t feel as hot as you’d think!

What the hell is “forced convection”?!  😀  Convection is heat transfer from one medium to the other through the fluid that surrounds the medium.  Basically, you release heat from solids or liquids to surrounding environment.  So in the case of biker, your heat dissipates to the air that surrounds you.  There are two kinds of convections:  free and forced.  Free convection is where the fluid that surrounds the boy in question is not moving, like swimming pool.  Forced convection is where the fluid is now moving, like the river.  What’s this got to do with feeling cooler when biking?!

Well, body temperature is 98 F to begin with.  So when ambient temperature is already in high 80’s to 90’s, there’s going to be not much heat transfer from your body to the air.  Heat transfer is directly related to the difference in temperature after all.  Yet in sitting still, free convection doesn’t help in dissipating your body as it gets hotter.  But once you get moving, air starts to move around you and you now have forced convection.  Forced convection basically, in layman’s terms, strips the heat away from you and thus increases the heat transfer rate despite the low difference in temperature.

So until I get home and stop, my body thinks that it’s rather cool outside still!  Science and engineering can be so nice, huh?!  😀