I picked up a link on Lex’s blog.  It looked odd, since the retired P-3 aircrewman resisted for so long….lo and behold! There was a real blog!

He’s well read, excellent on military history, in particular, Civil War history.

Welcome to the fray, AW1, for when you find this post.:)

Displays. LCDs are getting cheap. Who can’t afford a 17″ these days with rebates? Ok, what’s next?

Organic Light Emitting Diode or OLED displays. From Wave Report tutorial on OLEDs:

Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) technology

An OLED is an electronic device made by placing a series of organic thin films between two conductors. When electrical current is applied, a bright light is emitted. This process is called electrophosphorescence. Even with the layered system, these systems are very thin, usually less than 500 nm (0.5 thousandths of a millimeter).

When used to produce displays, OLED technology produces self-luminous displays that do not require backlighting. These properties result in thin, very compact displays. The displays also have a wide viewing angle, up to 160 degrees and require very little power, only 2-10 volts.

OLED displays have other advantages over LCDs as well:

* Increased brightness
* Faster response time for full motion video
* Lighter weight
* Greater durability
* Broader operating temperature ranges

There are two types of OLED displays – passive and active. These distinctions, plus narration about the OLED 2001 conference and the market challenges that the technology will face can be read in WAVE 151 or as a separate article on the WAVE Report site.
[…]

Thin and no backlights needed! I also read a year or so ago, they have figured out how to stack the blue/green/red diodes, rather than placing them in a small triangle to make a pixel. That breakthrough will provide even higher quality displays, tripling the resolution.

BUT WAIT! There are also PLEDs – Polymer LEDs. And I found them when the search box had PLED as a typo by me in it. So I got edumacated by mis-spelling…

From Cambridge Display Technologies FAQs:

How do PLEDs displays work?
PLED displays are made by applying a thin film of light-emitting polymer onto a glass or plastic substrate coated with a transparent electrode. A metal electrode is sputtered or evaporated on top of the polymer. Application of an electric field between these two electrodes results in emission of light from the polymer. When a current is applied, electrons from the cathode migrate through the cell and meet positive ‘holes’ migrating from the anode. When they meet, they form so-called excitons, and as the electrons drop into the holes, energy is released as light. See also How PLEDs work.
[…]
How big can PLED displays be manufactured?
Displays up to 40 in. have been demonstrated and ultimately, because of the scalability of ink jet printing, even larger displays are expected. The relative simplicity and flexibility in manufacturing means that different technology sets could enable modular display devices that can be tiled to produce very large displays.

Approximately how much will it cost?
Costs to manufacture, when compared with LCDs of comparable volume and maturity of production tools and processes, are expected to be 20-40% lower.

What are PLED displays used for?
PLED has four key applications:

* Large single pixel displays can be used in lighting applications, replacing incandescent and fluorescent bulbs.
* Low information content displays where inorganic LEDs are currently used: video, hi-fi, shaver, watch etc
* Displacement of cathode ray tube (CRT) or LCD (traditional television and computer display applications): mobile phones, digital assistants, computers and televisions.
* New display applications for which PLED characteristics make it uniquely suited. E.g., replacement for traditional automotive instrument panel, dynamic advertising applications, graphical signs for point of sale or purchase, electromechanical signage, bio-medical testing.

See that? Print them with an inkjet like process….and, like OLEDs, cheaper than LCD technology. I have also read that the LED displays can be put on a flexible/bendable (not foldable) base, leading to all sorts of new ideas for paper thin display surfaces that are not required to stay flat all the time to be usable.

Now, never fear, the scientists are even father out with Quantum Dot display technology…

QD Vision has this to say about the practical stuff, you know like price and performance:

[…]
QD Vision has developed a prototype of a 32-by-64 red pixel QD display that uses the new printing process. Quantum dots were printed within a sandwich of organic semiconductor thin films, which when driven by a current, enable quantum dots to emit light. The quantum dots are 5nm inorganic semiconductor nanocrystals synthesized by QD Vision.

Quantum dots displays are expected to provide sharper colors and cost less to make than the competing technologies like organic light-emitting diodes while using a similar manufacturing process to OLEDs.
[…]

MIT Labs have been working to develop the technology for a while now:

Quantum-dot LED may be screen of choice for future electronics

December 18, 2002

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–MIT researchers have combined organic materials with high-performing inorganic nanocrystals to create a hybrid optoelectronic structure–a quantum dot-organic light-emitting device (QD-OLED) that may one day replace liquid crystal displays (LCDs) as the flat-panel display of choice for consumer electronics.
[…]
CREATING BRIGHT LIGHT

The QD-OLEDs created in the MIT study have a 25-fold improvement in luminescent power efficiency over previous QD-OLEDs. The MIT researchers note that in time, the devices may be made even more efficient and achieve even higher color saturation.

“One of the goals is to demonstrate a display that is stable, simple to produce, flat, high-resolution and that uses minimal power,” Bulovic said.

The MIT researchers were inspired by advances in all-organic LED (OLED) technology. OLEDs, which can be used to create TVs or computer screens only a fraction of an inch thick with the same brightness as LCDs, have been making their way into commercial electronic devices. The MIT group envisions that QD-OLEDs will in time become complementary to OLEDs because they can be built on the same electronic platforms with compatible manufacturing methods.
[…]

So, the future for your display surfaces/devices looks bright and inexpensive, too!

For a long time, I have had my eyes be attracted to earth bound transportation that have the looks of fighter planes.

Thanks to CPU Magazine, I found one more:

It’s the “alé” from Fuel Vapor Cars:

The “alé” features a unique 3-wheeled configuration: 2 in the front, and one in the rear. The front wheels drive and steer the vehicle. This design enables the car to perform at a superb level, particularly in cornering, with the car easily pulling 1.7 g’s in corners during track testing on street tires. The three-wheeled automotive platform also aid in improving fuel efficiency and aerodynamics.

Honda mill, swallowing a highly vaporized fuel mixture, getting 92 MPG on gasoline! Runs lean, low emissions, 1/4 mi in the low 12s, measures side forces of 1.7G in the corners….

But…IT LOOKS LIKE THE BUSINESS END OF A FIGHTER!

Added benefit (IMHO): One seater, so I don’t have to fight over listening to talk radio while I’m driving…Might be in limited production next year, in the $75-100K range. Just consider the pent up frustration those of us with bad eyes can purge ourselves of, especially when they go into mass production.

If, however, you’re more into open cockpits, bugs in the teeth type of pseudo flying experience, and have a “green” streak in your genes:

Then there’s the “Killacycle” (Hot chick not included, void where prohibited, not available if you can’t get your own, and not legal in all 50 states anyhow), the battery powered motorcycle. 8.168 in the qtr mile makes it really fast…but it uses over 1000 batteries to make that happen.

There you are: Today’s gleaned technology news, selected because I think it’s cool stuff.

Welches ist jene?
“I dunno, but it was something FAST!” – Bill Cosby

Something about having to back off the throttle at 230 mph due to road conditions…and that was…ummm…56% power…

If Lex can’t manage to find his chestnuts and get a non-military jet flying job, despite several offers, maybe he can consider one of these as a 2D substitute. Then, for the ValOUR-IT 2007 fund raising drive, he could take a lucky high bidder out for a spin in the desert near his house…How ’bout it, Lex? Feeling charitable?

And who would say NASA isn’t useful for something?

H/T: Wired Magazine – Sep 07 Edition

Maybe we’ll have to begin paying farmers not to grow peanuts anymore, for fear a small segment of society will demand complete access to all venues, public or private, free from any responsibility to avoid situations that may, in fact be life threatening…

From a local franchise door…no kidding!How soon do we stop driving on roads because it’s too difficult for parents to pay attention, lean out the window and yell “GET OUT OF THE STREET BEFORE YOU GET HIT BY A CAR!” when little Johnny strays off the grass and onto the asphalt? When you see the signs in your neighborhood “No Motorized Vehicles Allowed – Children Might Be on Roadway” you’ll know we’re renounced all personal responsibility…

Some readers may well know of DICNAVAB (“Dictionary of Naval Abbreviations”), but, while chasing links on the sitemeter, I found DICNAVSlang.

enjoy yourselves…and be educated in the ways of the “Fleet.”

Samsung is cranking out DLP TVs that are able to provide fast enough frame rates so you can see 3D images. You will need to wear your shutter glasses, but they’re wireless. Low end for the TV is $1499, but can run towards $4500 (size) and then you’ll need a media center type PC.

Samsung HL-T5087S DLP HD 3D TV
David Berlind from ZDNet has a little report and video on the new toy….

As requested by VA Joe, I’m passing the word:

From Aug 5th thru the 20th, VA Joe is taking votes for military support organizations. The winning organization gets $1000 added to the coffers from VA Joe’s website….2nd, 3rd and 4th places get some bucks, too!

Get moving! VOTE HERE!

If you’re not a VA Joe member, sign up…it’s a free registration, and get on with helping support the troops and their families!

(and check out the site while you’re there for the other info that’s posted!)

Some one searched for Chances of dying while skydiving and my blog came up as hit #2…

Then I wanderer about the link forest. looking for link trees and found this article. From “Living the Risky Life?” by Gene Charleton, beginning with this:

A Risky Day
Few of us think of ourselves as risk takers. Skydiving, bungee jumping or street luge are not in the vocabularies most of us use to describe our daily activities. Yet we live with risk all day, every day, without jumping out of airplanes or off bridges, or zipping down the street on our backs. Most risks we take are unseen among the minutiae of getting through the day. They’re there, but few of us spend a lot of effort thinking about them.

Most of us live our lives as if we could escape from risk by being careful. Engineers look at risk differently.

But…the money quote I like is:

Through the looking glass Risk is often in the eye of the beholder. Here’s an example:
which is riskier, skydiving or commuting to work? Here’s what the numbers say: About 350,000 sport parachutists make about three million parachute jumps each year in the United States. About 30 of them die in accidents. That works out to one death for every 100,000 jumps. If you make one parachute jump each year, your chances of dying are about 1 in 100,000.

On the other hand, more than 40,000 people die each year in traffic accidents. That’s 1.7 deaths for every 100 million vehicle-miles driven. If you drive 10,000 miles a year, your risk of dying in a traffic accident is about 1 in 6,000. You’d have to jump 17 times in a year before your odds of dying in a skydiving accident equaled your odds of dying in a car crash. So why do so many people consider skydivers to be danger junkies while these same people happily risk their lives on the way to the office? People’s perceptions of what is risky and what is not are colored by how they see themselves in relation to the risk.

Oh, and it you drive about 20K/year….think of the odds…

So, all of you ground pounding “legs” out there will get in your car, but think I’m crazy? The joke is on you: I know what it’s like to hurtle towards the earth with others, making formations while going 120+ mph, yet all reaching the ground safely to begin to concoct the “jump lies” we will tell while drinking the free beer from the first timers (name the “first” and someone had to buy a case or beer/soda) just after the sun sets and we pack gear up before heading home; To meet people from all over the world, just because they were in the area of the drop zone you’re at, and they came by to get some air time, not because it was a special event; To be able to say “I can trust them with my life” and really know you can and that you mean it. Yes, and there’s lots more interesting things I’ve had happen in the 28 years worth.

Come Oct, there will be some video posted of two big ways. No one got hurt and we made a record….

Just thought you might like to know…and here’s the USPA drop zone locating page.

A Prius? 100 mph? YEEHAW! Maybe Tom Cruise should get one to have a ground based version of his P-51 Mustang…

But…I wonder how this flies in the Global Warming discussions at the family dinner table?