thin film solar

[Steven Tyree]

Many people envision solar power as rigid silicon panels mounted on a roof. With thin film solar cells, you're more likely to not see them, or even know they're there. This article is about a real-life thin film solar project.

Not many bloggers are able to witness the technologies we research and write about. It's one thing to be able to buy afford a cool "green" gadget (usually not very green), but another to see the many forms of solar, wind, geothermal, etc., which are always changing and developing around the world. So when my employer decided to go solar, you might imagine my excitement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

read more.... http://cleantechnica.com:80/2008/05/24/a-thin-film-solar-panel-installation/

[Neal Oldham]

Having easy-to-install (and maintain) panels has been the hotness in TFPV for a while.  My old company has a very good design for that:  http://www.solyndra.com

[Steven Tyree]

How very cool!  What's your current employer do, Neal?

 

Steve

[Neal Oldham]

Hi,

I work for these guys now:  http://www.apple.com.  I'm a process engineer in the Panel Process & Optics group.

[Steven Tyree]

I've heard of them!

 

What's it like working for an icon of innovation?  How hard do you have to swim to keep up?

 

cheers

 

Steve

[Neal Oldham]

Oh good.  I do have 2 friends/family discounts left on Macs this year if anyone wants one :-)

It's an extremely dynamic, and I would almost say liquid, environment.  I spend most of my time in liaison with manufacturing partners, all of whom are overseas.  Since continually shifting plans & expectations are at cross-purposes with optimum manufacturing philosophy, things can get very ... interesting at times.  Every piece of Apple hardware you see is the result of literally hundreds of different experimental and prototype configurations.  Also having to deal with two teams (one in the USA and one in Asia) can be hard since it means being engaged from roughly 9 AM till midnight.

[Steven Tyree]

Dang.  Sounds like you're thriving.  I'm considering going to the other side next time I have to get a new computer.  I'll keep you in mind.

 

cheers

 

Steve

[Neal Oldham]

Once you go Mac, you don't go back ;-)  (Well, not back to Windows, anyway.)

[Robert D. Crawford]

Neal Oldham <onehundredp...@gmail.com> writes:

> Once you go Mac, you don't go back ;-) (Well, not back to Windows,
> anyway.)

Windows, Mac, it doesn't matter, man. If you don't have the 4 freedoms
you are being subjugated. The man is keeping you down, dude.

* The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).

* The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your
needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for
this.

* The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor
(freedom 2).

* The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements
(and modified versions in general) to the public, so that the whole
community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a
precondition for this.

Just kidding, more or less. I don't proselytize much anymore. Mainly
because I don't have the time to do support. Just as Neal and I have
said to one another before, we just have to agree to disagree.

Richard Stallman is my hero,
rdc
--
Robert D. Crawford rd...@comcast.net

Let's organize this thing and take all the fun out of it.

[Steven Tyree]

How about freedom from viral invasion, and freedom from obsolescence?  I hear that Macs are strong on both counts.

 

Steve

[Neal Oldham]

Well, not only Macs but also Linux machines are usually immune to viruses.   However I'd say we're getting to a point where computers in general are becoming obsolete on much longer cycles, mostly because desktop gaming is dead.  This applies to Windows machines as well.

The one advantage of Mac over Linux in my opinion is that the hardware is guaranteed to work with the software.  You'll never have to go on a driver hunt, except maybe for some small-manufacturer peripherals.  My sister-in-law has a Linux machine and connecting to the internet over a wired connection is basically impossible because of driver compatibility issues.

Regards,

Neal.

[Steven Tyree]

I'm pretty firmly in the "take it out of the box and use it" camp.  Sounds like a Mac is the way to go for me.

 

Steve

[Robert D. Crawford]

Neal Oldham <onehundredp...@gmail.com> writes:

> Well, not only Macs but also Linux machines are usually immune to
> viruses.

Precisely.

> However I'd say we're getting to a point where computers in general
> are becoming obsolete on much longer cycles, mostly because desktop
> gaming is dead. This applies to Windows machines as well.

Yes, even MS is seeing the light. By all accounts Windows 7, now in
beta, is less resource hungry than Vista. I think we have mostly come
to the point where hardware is, for the most part, beyond the average
user's needs. Better for the pocketbook, better for the environment.

> The one advantage of Mac over Linux in my opinion is that the hardware
> is guaranteed to work with the software. You'll never have to go on a
> driver hunt, except maybe for some small-manufacturer peripherals. My
> sister-in-law has a Linux machine and connecting to the internet over
> a wired connection is basically impossible because of driver
> compatibility issues.

This is one area where Linux is behind but advancing. Many major
manufacturers (IBM comes immediately to mind) are either releasing
drivers or they are encouraging and even participating in development.

rdc
--
Robert D. Crawford rd...@comcast.net

Knowledge is power -- knowledge shared is power lost.
-- Aleister Crowley

[Robert D. Crawford]

Steven Tyree <boatd...@gmail.com> writes:

> I'm pretty firmly in the "take it out of the box and use it"
> camp. Sounds like a Mac is the way to go for me.

You are probably right, although there are manufacturers producing Linux
notebooks. I think your bigger problem would be the software necessary
for your business. I've not looked at CAD/drafting software in quite a
while so this might not be the case.

rdc
--
Robert D. Crawford rd...@comcast.net

This fortune is false.

[Neal Oldham]

Target (and others) will sell you an Asus EeePC laptop with Linux for $250.  It's small and not too capable, but cheap and works fine if all you do is Internet stuff.

I still do enough computer-intensive work (movie editing, big spreadsheets, big presentations, CAD) to appreciate a big, powerful desktop though.  When I price out my dream Mac Pro it still comes out over $20k :-}

[Mac Davis]

I converted to a Mac (nice name) a little over two years ago, a Macbook pro.
There was a learning curve involved, since a lot of stuff is different, and
to this day there are a few of the ways that Mac's do things that are just
stupid compared to PCs. But with those exceptions, the Mac is much better.
It is a relief not to fool with anti virus software and spyware, plus it
never crashes and never goes into inexplicable snits the way PCs do. For
someone not very computer savvy this is a great thing. Also, the Mac is
fast and pretty much foolproof when you go somewhere and log onto wireless
networks. And if in doing so, the Mac saves you from ever getting hacked
into and your identity lifted it would have paid for itself and the price
differential (they are definitely more expensive) with room to spare. All
the microsoft stuff works on them now too, another reason to get away from
PCs, their help line is ten times better, and their warranties are solider
(mine had a bad optical eye in the cd reader, which they fixed with no
questions asked). One more thing: I tunes is great and the speakers on
this laptop are high quality with enough volume for my office, although not
enough for larger or noisier environments. I definitely don't regret
switching.
Mac

[Neal Oldham]

You can make a Mac go into a snit.  Try opening a 16MB DXF file in QCad like I did yesterday ... ;)

Be careful though; while you don't have to worry about viruses too much on Macs, many of the same rules apply (don't send passwords over unsecured networks, etc.)

There's really not much need for MS Office on the Mac.  It's really expensive.  Plus iWork does a really good job now of importing/exporting Office files :-)

[Robert D. Crawford]

Neal Oldham <onehundredp...@gmail.com> writes:

> You can make a Mac go into a snit. Try opening a 16MB DXF file in QCad
> like I did yesterday ... ;)

I did this on my Linux machine the other day with a _really_ large SQL
dump file. 16M wouldn't do it, I'm sure, but almost 40 did.

> There's really not much need for MS Office on the Mac. It's really
> expensive. Plus iWork does a really good job now of
> importing/exporting Office files :-)

Although I've not used it in a long while, OpenOffice was nice and is
available for the Mac.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/unix_open_source/openofficeorg.html

rdc
--
Robert D. Crawford rd...@comcast.net

We are not anticipating any emergencies.

[Steven Tyree]

Archicad will run on either platform.

[Neal Oldham]

A lot of people here at Apple use Google's free little sketch program:  http://sketchup.google.com/

[Steven Tyree]

I've heard good things about it.