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- cubicledrone, on 11/24/2008, -5/+22Notice it's a professor and not a company. That's because here in America, employees of companies aren't allowed to invent things. They're supposed to be in a meeting watching the animated three-point lists explaining meeting agendas. If they invented things, it might disrupt the Powerpoint economy, and that's not being a team player.
- fejwuzhere, on 11/24/2008, -0/+11Also if I as a "team player" invent anything the company owns it 100%.
I may get a mention in some far corner of a internal memo, but
I get compensated the same if I invent or not.
Not much incentive. - AkronGuy, on 11/24/2008, -0/+8"The $1.5 million test will actually use five turbines; four on the cylinder and one nearby, on a standard pole, as a control. 'At the end of the year, my turbines should produce four times more than the single stand-alone,' he said."
His 4 turbines will produce four times more than a single turbine? Amazing! Who would have thought? - BossKey, on 11/24/2008, -0/+6This makes sense, placing certain curved surfaces in front of a man is known to boost his output as well.
- jocnnor, on 11/24/2008, -0/+6The $1.5 million test will actually use five turbines; four on the cylinder and one nearby, on a standard pole, as a control.
“At the end of the year, my turbine should produce four times more than the single stand-alone,’’ he said."
So, if I'm reading this correctly, the tower with 4 turbines will produce 4 times more output than the single stand-alone? Amazing! - latrosicarius, on 11/24/2008, -1/+7yay science has done science once again
- fejwuzhere, on 11/24/2008, -0/+5The blades on windmills are already shaped like a plane wing and have variable pitch to maximize the power.
- Praelior, on 11/24/2008, -0/+4Could they have at least included an image that wasn't created in MSPaint?
- chamblah, on 11/24/2008, -0/+4that price is good, but what about that just in august they were sitting at $1.36. and even just in the past month the price has dropped from $.38.
that's a very large drop. - BoneheadFarker, on 11/24/2008, -0/+4This system uses a rotating platform on top of a large cylinder. The individual wind mills are always pointed towards the wind, and the cylinder focuses the wind into the blades. If placed high enough, there would be no shortage of wind to capture. We shouldn't allow other's failures stop progress.
- cubicledrone, on 11/24/2008, -0/+4Spoken like a true middle manager. Thanks for making my point.
He's probably a professor of mechanical engineering because he couldn't get hired when he applied for private sector jobs.
Swish from the top of the arc. - fejwuzhere, on 11/24/2008, -0/+3What he forgets to account for, since he is an academic, is four time the turbine means four times the initial cost plus four times the maintenance costs.
- merky1, on 11/24/2008, -0/+3I think you missed the point. Windmills are stationary as in they can't move to where the wind is. So if air currents change, your multi-million dollar investment produces nothing, and you're stuck running diesel or coal generators as backup.
Wind and solar power are good supplements to a solid, well thought out energy plan. They are not the answer, and should not be the basis of any energy plan, and anyone who tells you that they are either has no experience in the field, or is a lying politician. - THEchemisTREE, on 11/24/2008, -0/+3The nice thing is though that here in America, there is an incredible amount of collaborative research between university professors and private companies, much of which results in highly lucrative inventions. No offense, but I highly doubt that cubicledrone has worked in a research company or university laboratory both of which produce great new technologies. I feel that the biggest obstacle to invention is intellectual property law and patent litigation, not powerpoints and meetings.
- 83457, on 11/24/2008, -0/+2your comment might be funny if it made any sense...
- cubicledrone, on 11/24/2008, -1/+3Good point. We don't really support the whole "invention" process in this country. Whenever someone devotes their life to anything besides watching television, getting drunk every weekend and cheating on their relationship, America's response is:
"Get a life." - inactive, on 11/24/2008, -0/+2"We don't really support the whole "invention" process in this country."
The only people who'd agree with you are those seeking an excuse for not having invented anything -- US citizens have invented the bulk of the world's most amazing technologies over the past few centuries. Because we're a "new" culture, we have been the most energetic, optimistic and the least mired in tradition where creativity is concerned. - davidg11, on 11/24/2008, -0/+2Yes but I didn't say buy at CPTC at $1.36 or .38, I said buy now at .25
Old adage: Buy low, sell high.
Wind power sold off in the market due to two things: credit crisis in markets and price of oil falling.
However wind has nothing to do with the price of oil.
And utilities are cash rich...they don't need the credit markets to buy wind power.
Utilities in 20 states are required to provide a certain amount of electricity via alt energy sources by certain dates in the future.
Wind is the cheapest alt energy source out there.
Finally, Obama is almost in power and is going to throw billions at wind and a new national powergrid infrastructure. CPTC creates two things: Wind Turbines, and the most efficient powerline in the world. - cubicledrone, on 11/24/2008, -1/+3So let's fire him and turn the university into a shopping mall.
- inactive, on 11/24/2008, -0/+2Nice sleuthing! I think we've got a penny stock pumper on our hands...
- inactive, on 11/24/2008, -1/+3Aren't they missing you in the NASCAR forum?
- junkneo, on 11/24/2008, -3/+4There is one perpetual problem with windmills - they are stationary - unlike flights.
The air supplying energy to the windmill will change its course in time by moving away from the constraint (windmill) in its path. Some of the off-shore wind mills in Denmark are offline due to the lack of wind which they predicted would last all year.
Wind mills are bad choice investment in the renewable energy spectrum in the long term, not to mention higher cost and frequency of maintenance. Solar is the way to go. - DonTazeMeBro, on 11/29/2008, -0/+1Look at them digg you down... ignorance is bliss
- lohphat, on 11/24/2008, -0/+1You can boot the performance even further if he gets to touch them.
- davidrools, on 11/24/2008, -0/+1Find a job at a startup or a tech incubator. We have brainstorming meetings where we think up concepts and then go off and begin writing up invention disclosures and begin developing the most promising ideas.
But yes, at a big company, meetings take too much time away from innovating. Small, nimble companies are where the magic happens...and then get bought up by the big companies where the ideas become powerpoint slides. - inactive, on 11/24/2008, -0/+1or you could make a big turbine, you know as big as that cylinder thing and produce even more power
- JohnGalt750, on 11/24/2008, -0/+1Seems like a rather basic principle to be applied. Build a big slope to funnel the air into a turbine, and you get more power out of the same turbine. The real questions are economic efficiency. If I get twice as much power out of my turbines due to this, but the whole complicated system costs three times as much then there is no real benefit. Might as well just put up twice as many normal windmills.
It's like a 100mpg car that costs a million dollars. It costs more than the problem it's trying to solve. - illDecree, on 11/24/2008, -0/+1....then why did you go into this topic?
- Colindean, on 11/24/2008, -0/+1Strange how these things happen nowadays...
- THEchemisTREE, on 11/24/2008, -0/+1To some extent I'd agree and the truly sad thing is that the US Government and it's financial/research/fill-in-theblank institutions reward egregious *****-ups too, therein lies the problem. Failure and promotions are directly proportional.
- TopherT, on 11/24/2008, -0/+1Turbines - Turbans. The problem is, no women wear turbans. Oh, and turbans have ***** all to do with the Muslim faith.
- scribat, on 11/24/2008, -0/+1True enough, but not everywhere gets enough sunlight to make solar a viable option. We just have to use the resources available in whatever particular region.
- dynotesting, on 11/24/2008, -0/+1Mirror:
http://www.zangani.com/node/2876 - THEchemisTREE, on 11/24/2008, -0/+1Well, those exist and they are called vertical axis wind turbines, (google 'windspire' or 'mariah power' But I do agree with junkneo. On the whole, wind power can augment our domestic supply but the versatility of organic solar cells (which have a ways to go) will far outweigh cumbersome turbines. I think the best possibility for future wind power is in the tethered kite generators.
- hokie47, on 11/24/2008, -0/+1My father works at an university and they take 50% of all his royalties, and he says that is very fair in the academic community. Also it is more than fair because the university pays for all the patents cost and lab cost.
- Drecoll, on 11/24/2008, -0/+1Hate to break it to all of you, but they really aren't called wind mills. Those just pulverize grain, and they have been around for centuries. Wind turbines are rather new.
- JohnGalt750, on 11/25/2008, -0/+1@ cubicledrone
Why don't you ask Vint Cerf...
Stan Lee wasn't exactly destitute, and artists aren't traditionally considered "inventors" - JohnGalt750, on 11/24/2008, -0/+1I have have personally watched the invention process in a fortune 500 company. The idea of making billions off of a potential invention is plenty of motivation.
- jimbo92107, on 11/24/2008, -0/+1Okay, this will be fun: Howsabout a quadruple solid state energy tower. Build a huge cylinder in a windy, sunny zone near a geothermal hot spot. The cylinder is coated with a combination of super-hard, light-absorbing materials, while its macroscopic shape is convoluted in such a manner as to channel accelerated wind (from any direction) into fluted passages that resonate, vibrating piezo-electric elements that convert the vibrations into electrical energy.
Meanwhile the light-absorbing materials would simultaneously feed visible light to photovoltaic cells and heat energy to either a heat exchanger or thermoelectric converters, depending on if you wanted hot water or the energy from hot water. At the same time the cylinder would house water circulating equipment for energy from a geothermal well. That part would not be solid state, but oh well...
Heck, if you built a few curved sky scrapers in formation, you could increase the wind channeling effect and really get those piezos screaming with electricity. I wonder if you could get a reverse thermoacoustic effect through a coating of carbon nanotubes? That might be even more efficient than piezo-electric elements. A properly tuned skyscraper (or formation of them) might be able to absorb all the wind energy needed for grid-free operation. - JohnGalt750, on 11/24/2008, -0/+1So all the people supporting you deserve nothing? They can spend millions financing you and should expect nothing in return? All the support staff that allowed you to make your invention possible should starve?
Furthermore do you really think the people that do invent things aren't compensated? If your company makes millions off of something you created you think they won't want you to do that again? - davidrools, on 11/24/2008, -0/+1definitely a cool idea, but you could get twice the increased airflow by putting the turbines between two cylinders and having the whole assembly rotate. I know, there are limitations to what can be placed on an urban roof, but there could be several designs optimized for different situations.
- cubicledrone, on 11/24/2008, -0/+0Apparently they don't, because every time I point out that American business can't invent a bucket to ***** in, everyone wants to disagree, yet they can never point to anything we actually invented past 1968.
- danj484, on 11/24/2008, -0/+0http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/26/apple-files-pat ...
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_200 ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_Ventures
http://www.maclife.com/patents
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/mar0 ...
You, sir, may in fact be the stupidest person alive. Just because you have a ***** job doesn't mean everyone does. - cubicledrone, on 11/24/2008, -0/+01. Apple didn't invent solar cells.
Repeat for other four examples of things that aren't inventions.
The transistor is an invention. Bolting two things together isn't. - cubicledrone, on 11/24/2008, -0/+0I watched the invention process at a Fortune 500 company too. Imagine six monkeys trying to unclog a toilet with an angry wolverine.
- somedigguy, on 11/24/2008, -0/+0I could see installing something around a water tower, but seriously this is a bad writeup.
- danj484, on 11/24/2008, -0/+0Triple fail, impressive.
- danj484, on 11/24/2008, -0/+0I work at an R&D firm, essentially plays out as a patent factory. And the engineers and/or scientists who invent the devices have their names on the patents. Of course, this is an engineering firm, everyone knows that business firms don't invent *****, cubicledrone.
- AEnkryption, on 11/24/2008, -0/+0Hey, maybe Pamela Anderson can actually be good for something.
- agdros, on 11/24/2008, -1/+1something not right about this idea. If you follow the logic, you wouldn't end up with a big huge round tank (like a water tower), you would end up with spherical/conical air scoops for each turbine. He is just deflecting the air and then passing in through the turbine.
The airplane wing example is not what is happening here. -
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