The Next Big Tech?

Harvesting wave energy with a barge?

Harvesting wind energy with a couple of huge kites?

Have people carry a 100 gram weight up the stairs when they use it. Deposit the weight in a tray and the weights will turn some sort of incredibly efficient dynamo. Not really free energy, but free to me energy!

YukTumBubbaloo Industries ^{CSA APPROVED} has many ideas that require a little germination. I will NOT, however, publish the list here only to have them stolen.

Continuing along this vein, we are proud to announce that we have secured the most worthy law firm of Bendover, Grynn and Barrett. BGN, in business since, like, yesterday, specializes in patent trolling infringement and have yet to win a case.

Waste heat power harvesting at data centers using an organic Rankine cycle to recycle chip heat into electricity. There is a lot of heat from hot chips going to waste. Here is one idea.

Good luck to you and/or the inventor(s).

I have a solid working design for small scale wind power that is cheap, easy to build, and very reliable including everything right up to the grid tie connection but there is one problem.

I insist on having a 1000 - 1500% markup on the manufactured value before it goes to market so I need someone to subsidize the 900 - 1400% price gouge/royalty/greed I have attached to it to keep my price competitive equal with the rest of the similar market items.

Anyone with deep pockets care to help my poor suckers customers who wish to buy my products?

After trolling searching the USPTO and securing all patents related to the wind energy industry, the law firm of Bendover, Grynn and Barrett believe they have a solid case of patent infringement against you. You'll be contacted shortly to discuss the options available to you.

How about capturing all the hot air blowing out of Washington? That alone could put fusion to shame.

Seriously here an article in the Sept 3-9, pg 27, Economist about Marc Andreesen and his Venture capital firm contains the following passage:

"He (Marc Andreesen) is also convinced that there will be dramatic changes in the realm of personal technology. One of the companies that Andreessen Horowitz has invested in is Jawbone. Best known for its Bluetooth-equipped headsets and portable speakers, the firm is developing plans for a range of wearable smart devices that operate on a single software platform, or "body-area network". "Jawbone is the new Sony," claims Mr Andreessen, who predicts that its future products will prove wildly successful as people carry more and more networked gadgets around with them."

http://www.economist.com/node/21527020

Ed Weldon

Ed - You are absolutely right! Tablet computers are nice, but the new virtual reality apps need a better interface, to be precise, something right IN your face!
I see people walking around with a "commander laforge" style visor that shows the outside world, yet superimposes Google data using a combination of GPS and accelerometers to feed the correct positional data to the user. They could then "see" services offered, prices and the like just by walking past a brick & mortar business.
Opens up a LOT of opportunities in the web & data services sectors!

The visor superimposing Google spam on the user's view of the world (while driving?) sounds great for Google but awkward for others in the user's path. In any case, is this the solution to a big problem? Or just another bunt, when we need home runs.

drivemaster - Don't blame me for this one. I just read it in the paper. Blame Marc Andreeson. Yeah, that Mark Andreeson, the Netscape guy. He's got himself into a big time Silicon Valley VC operation.

Personally I have no use for a "personal network" or any of that stuff, at least until some doctor wants to put a chip in me to monitor my heart or control my testosterone levels or something like that. Far as I'm concerned this "next new thing", if that's what it will be, is the first coming of the Borg. I get that impression whenever I see one of their "collectives" with that bluetooth thing in his (usually a "his") stuck in an ear.

Scary stuff. Soon they will have access to our nuclear weapons! Do you think Dick Cheney is one of them? Does that "pacemaker" they put in him have other vital control functions? Does his new book contain a set of coded orders to the Borg neophytes who are still awaiting implants?

Ed Weldon :-)