The hot story in the news this week is Volkswagen's reported brazen cheating in diesel engine emissions testing. This brought to mind a host of similar occurrences, from Samsung/HTC cheating at benchmarks to alleged cheating in SPC enterprise storage performance testing. Cynics say we should just assume we're being cheated, but is this a world in which we want to … [Read more...] about Your Mileage May Vary: Lies, Damn Lies, and Benchmarks
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When Incandescent Bulbs Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have Incandescent Bulbs
Although they are ridiculously inefficient, incandescent lightbulbs seem to have a huge number of fans. Despite the romance of the glowing filament, many governments are moving to ban the use of incandescent light bulbs in many applications. Here in the United States, the federal government intends to encourage the use of more efficient light bulbs but there is no outright … [Read more...] about When Incandescent Bulbs Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have Incandescent Bulbs
How I Eliminated Over 2 kW of Lighting at Home
The average home is incredibly inefficient, and nowhere is this more obvious than the ubiquitous electric lightbulb. Compact fluorescent (CFL) and LED lights are an order of magnitude more efficient at converting electricity to lumens rather than heat, but making the switch is not simple. The limitations, pricing, and sheer variety of lighting options are daunting. 1 kW No One … [Read more...] about How I Eliminated Over 2 kW of Lighting at Home
The Myths of Standardization
“The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from.” Andrew Tanenbaum's statement may be a cynical and dismissive, but it's not far from the mark. Indeed, there are a great many standards, perhaps as many as there are efforts to standardize the world around us! But what good are standards, really? The 3 Standard Types In technical fields, standardization … [Read more...] about The Myths of Standardization
The Downward Spiral: How Economic Pressure Turns Commodities to Junk
I am certainly not the first person to notice the peculiar “race to the bottom” that happens when products are commoditized. But it is been much in my thoughts recently as I observed the annual tragedy of holiday price wars. How can a company economically produce a DVD player, tablet computer, or even a string of Christmas lights at the prices we see today? Working conditions, … [Read more...] about The Downward Spiral: How Economic Pressure Turns Commodities to Junk