Intro

Hello, fellow Citizens. This is Citizens of Tech show #3, recorded on the 12th of May, 2015. Hey, we ve gotten some good feedback on the show, so now you can tweet @citizensoftech. That will be the best way to talk to us, because our inboxes are already kinda full. So let s keep it on the Twitterz.

I am Ethan Banks, you can follow me @ecbanks. Joining me, wearing a mitre, and with an air of suffused dignity, Eric Sutphen ministers technology oracles to you and joins me on the microphone.

Request

We re looking for good book recommendations. Anything you ve got that you d like to share with your fellow Citizens, let us know – tweet to @citizensoftech.

Setup

Citizens of Tech runs in 3 segments — present, past and future. We start off with newsy tech things we thought were interesting, take a look back and past tech we think was cool, then peer over the horizon to technology coming soon (ish).

Present

1. Exoprotein

https://www.exoprotein.com/why-crickets

While the consumption of insects has gained renewed attention recently, it is in fact nothing new. As eclectic omnivores, it s likely that humans have consumed insects, the most abundant terrestrial life form excluding bacteria, for an exceedingly long time. Today, 80% of the world still eats over 1,600 species of insects, from Jing Leed in Thailand to Escamoles in Mexico to Casu Marzu in Italy. Eating insects simply makes sense.

• Insects are exceptionally nutritious.
• Insects have marginal environmental impact.
• We need a new source of protein, one that can sustain the world into the future.

2. The Mr. Money Moustache Blog

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com

• Think of this site as finance hacking.
• It s not about retirement really. About financial independence. No assumption that you ll stop working unless you want to. The point is that you could, not that you will.
• Major ideas.
  • Stop spending. Save as much as possible.
  • Your dollars are little soldiers that can work for you. Build a mighty army. Grow your stash.
  • Budgets are dumb. They are freedom to spend, just up to a limit. That s wrong thinking. Spending of any kind should be a careful, painful decision. Parting with your money means putting off your independence that much longer.
  • Stop commuting. Live close to your job. Bike, not ride. Clown car trips. Cars are for intracity travel, not trips to the supermarket. If you own a car, should be the least costly, most fuel efficient, reasonable car. A car should not be a status symbol, as they are grossly inefficient energy expenditures in general.
  • Frugal doesn t mean cheap.
  • DIY. Stop paying others to do what you could if you took the time to learn. Those skills payoff in the long run.

3. Study Reveals Wikimedia Foundation Is ‘Awash In Money’

http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/05/11/1229222/study-reveals-wikimedia-foundation-is-awash-in-money

• Wikipedia Costs about $2.5 Million to run per year
• $53 Million in Investments – they keep running annual fundraisers anyway…

4. The world s most dangerous racing simulator

http://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/consumer-electronics/gaming/cars-that-thinkgadgetsgaming-the-worlds-most-dangerous-driving-simulator

5. Rapid Fire from TechCrunch

5a. Carly Fiorina for President

http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/04/carly-fiorina-touts-hp-experience-in-her-bid-for-presidency/

http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/05/carly-fiorina-85-95-percent-of-what-we-do-online-is-superficial-and-useless/

5b. Biobots 3D Printer

http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/04/biobots-is-a-3d-printer-for-living-cells/?ncid=rss

• Instead of plastic, BioBots 3D printer uses a special ink that can be combined with biomaterials and living cells to build 3D living tissue and miniature human organs.
• The use-case at this point is for research and pre-clinical screening, such as drug testing (as a replacement for animal testing).
• It s not about 3D printing replacement organs from a person s own cells. But maybe someday.

5c. Liquidity 0.2micron filter water bottle

http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/04/liquidity-launches-to-bring-clean-water-to-everyone/?ncid=rss

• Liquidity s core technology is a membrane with pores of .2 microns in width, small enough to eliminate microbial contaminants that make up the vast majority of water quality incidents.
• The water bottle flows at nearly the same rate as those without a filter included. The is possible because the filter is made up of between 80-90 percent open space, there is almost no pressure or wait time required to move water through the membrane making the product hugely convenient to consumers. (Traditional membranes hover around 20 percent of open space.)
• To create the nano-fiber thin membrane that could be produced at scale, Liquidity had to invent their own manufacturing process.

5d. Nikola Labs Launches

http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/04/nikola-labs-launches-iphone-6-case-which-harvests-electricity-from-the-air/?ncid=rss

• A case for an iPhone 6. It converts the wasted 90 percent of energy the phone produces trying to pump out a cellphone signal, and puts it back into the phone, thus powering it for up to 30 percent longer.
• This is not an extra battery; it simply works passively. Essentially it is harvesting back the ambient RF energy already being produced by the phone.
• They aim to bring the product to market within one year.
• Launching on Kickstarter in one month for $99, and they hope to ship it inside the following four months.
• Nerd cred. Appropriately, Nikola Labs launched its product in the very building Tesla himself lived and eventually died in.

6. Deathwatch

1. We add popover ads to the list, because we hate them so so so so so much. We WANT them to die. We’re not sure they’re going to.
2. Still on the list – FM radio & Tidal.

Past

We discuss lunchbox computers. Eric and I both had one from back in the 286 era. For example, Eric had one of these beauties. http://oldcomputermuseum.com/compaq_lunchbox.html – the model III.

Future

1. Audi has made carbon neutral e-diesel from CO2 and Water + Electricity

https://www.audi-mediaservices.com/publish/ms/content/en/public/pressemitteilungen/2015/04/21/fuel_of_the_future.html

• Water heated up to form steam is broken down into hydrogen and oxygen by means of high-temperature electrolysis. 800 degrees Centigrade (use of heat recovery keeps this *relatively* efficient [70-ish %] )
• In two further steps, the hydrogen reacts with the CO2 in synthesis reactors, again under pressure and at high temperature. Article is unclear as to the actual chemical composition, but standard Diesel is between . C10H20 (Cyclodecane) to C15H28
• The reaction product is a liquid made from long chain hydrocarbon compounds, known as blue crude.
• The efficiency of the overall process from renewable power to liquid hydrocarbon is very high at around 70 percent.
• Similarly to a fossil crude oil, blue crude can be refined to yield the end product Audi e diesel.
• This synthetic fuel is free from sulfur and aromatic hydrocarbons, and its high cetane number means it is readily ignitable.
• As lab tests conducted at Audi have shown, it is suitable for admixing with fossil diesel or, prospectively, for use as a fuel in its own right.
• Generally, diesel engines operate well with a CN from 40 to 55
• This is compelling from a theoretical standpoint – carbon-neutral fossil-fuel replacement, but issues persist pros and cons:
  • Pros:
    • Potentially Carbon Neutral
    • Sulfur Free
    • Aromatic Free – No diesel smell
    • High Cetane rating
  • Cons:
    • Shipping is still subject to spills and would still wreak havoc on ecology at a spill site
    • Ultimately it s still putting carbon into the air
    • Production powered by Coal would still be a net negative to carbon output. – requires 100% renewable energy to truly be carbon neutral.

2. Micro Wind Turbine – Oscillation not rotation

http://cleantechnica.com/2015/05/01/new-whirlwind-attracting-bladeless-micro-wind-turbine-gets-harvard-cred/

Request

Just a reminder that we re looking for good book recommendations. Anything you ve got that you d like to share with your fellow Citizens, let us know @citizensoftech.

Outro

Thanks for listening to Citizens of Tech today. Follow the show on Twitter @citizensoftech. And please tell your friends. We re going to keep the show in the Packet Pushers incubator for the first 10 shows or so, then we re stepping out on our own. There s 4,500 of you already listening, which is great start! See you next week.