Knowledge should be free

I just spent a few hours writing a fully functional gift certificate fufillment system which allows gift certificate purchasers to printout certificates online, take the cert to the participating restaurant, and have the restaurant validate the certificate via the phone through the Asterisk open source phone switch/PBX (Private Branch eXchange, or your company phone system)

 I have extensive experience with the Asterisk PBX/Phone switch and I continue to be impressed with the quality of software and how it has the ability to revolutionize telecommunications services.   Asterisk is really a shining example of the power of open source softwaere.  I am not particularly beholden to open source as the only religion in software development, but for particular types of services, it seems to be successful. 

  To produce a similar IVR system in the past may have taken you months and upwards of $20,000 for all the dedicated hardware and specially licensed software.  With Asterisk and VOIP you can be fully functional in days.   Also, the quality of VOIP service and underlying internet service has really improved in recent years to the point that most people cant tell that their calls are routed over VOIP networks.   The thing I like most about VOIP is instant provisioning.  I can purchase and route a DID or 800 number instantly over the public internet or private trunks without any special and cumbersome additional telecommunications services like private leased lines.   Instant number provisioning and the flexibility of the Asterisk phone switch combine to create many new services which were not able to be provided previously in the antiquated PSTN.   

It seems like databases have been mostly abstracted to XML frontends as well for non-trusted interfaces.  XML is a framework for organizing data usually in a flat text or stream type interface which loads the structured parsing and sorting on the user application instead of the database interface.   

More information on Asterisk can be found at http://www.asterisk.org  with a particularly easy installation at http://www.trixbox.com

More information on XML can be found at http://www.xml.com/ 

Nanosolar (http://www.nanosolar.com) could have finally cracked the nut on a renewable energy power source of the future.  The problem with renewable energy sources has historically been the fact that the cost per kilowatt hour was significantly more expensive than coal/fossil fuel.  Simple macroeconomics dictates that renewables will occupy a boutique state in total energy production until such time as rising fossil fuel prices eclipse the extensive capital expenditures and operating costs of renewable energy. 

I have thought that the big breakthrough would come in solar as radiant heat seems to physically offer the most energy potential; however, the current modes of solar power production didnt seem very efficient.  Before I heard about Nanosolar, I was thinking that some new method of coverting radiant energy to electricity would have to be devised to achieve the lower KWH cost. 

Nanosolar took a different approach.   Instead of devising a new method to harvest energy from the sun, they made the current methods of production significantly more efficient.  Quoting from their website “Nanosolar has developed proprietary process technology that makes it possible to produce 100x thinner solar cells 100x faster.  “.   They claim to be able to produce energy cheaper than coal.

If this claim is correct, it is not only responsible but profitable to use solar technology.   That would be the news the earth is waiting for. 

A more informative blog on the topic can be found at:

http://www.celsias.com/2007/11/23/nanosolars-breakthrough-technology-solar-now-cheaper-than-coal/

I spend quite a bit of time looking at the night sky with some great resources.  One of my friends recommended I check out the close asteroid encounter (600M rock, 1.4x distance to moon).  Unfortunately my telescope aperture was too small and tuesday was cold and cloudy. 

 One of the other articles i was reading made reference to the tunguska incident in siberia at the beginning of the twentieth century.  I dont think it was widely reported because siberia is so remote, but a large asteroid hit the earth and leveled a great swath of land with the nuclear equivalent of a 20megaton blast. 

 Here is the wikipedia of the tunguska incident:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event

 Here is a link to an article on the recent asteroid:  http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=207314&Sn=WORL&IssueID=30316

 I read an estimate that one of these large rocks (800M+) hits the earth about every 30k years.   Any amateur astronomer looking at the face of the moon knows that the earth is very proficient at covering its craters. 

-Brad