The stratospheric Vehicle
you know what is a satellite, but do you know what is a STRATELLITE
A Trade Mark from SANSWIRE company an airship and communications technology manufacturer .
What is a Stratellite?
It is a 75m long high tech air vehicle (balloon type) designed to fly in the stratosphere , 21 km above earth , and to manage communications (broadband, mobile phones..) in a area of 770 000 sq km. It is robot piloted, and powered by solar cells.
Stratellite has an autonomy of 18 months. The first exemplary is to be launched over Lima , Peru and will handle all communications such as Voice , VoIP, video, and WIFI services.
Sanswire plan to manufacture hundreds to thousands of those "flying wales " that will populate our sky, primarily the states of South America, at a much lower cost than satellites (only 10 %).
Except Telecommunications the stratellite can respond a very large scheme of applications like security ,environment or defense missions.
Emmanuel Facovi
- Android female "Valerie" Speech - multi-language synthesize, Color binocular vision
- High degree of intelligence: Learning methods: Rote memory Monkey see - monkey do (visual imitation) Logical inferenceNeural networks
Japan the big Jump from Traditional to Virtual World
Very far from the Japan traditions ( see my former note here ) I would like to talk an other aspect of the Japaneese society.
In reaction to the very rigid rules and social pressure , a new type of young men, the Otaku, has appeared at the opposite of the typical japaneese "salarymen".
The Otaku are obsessed with Mangas, Love Dolls, figurines ,Electronics and Animes.
Originally decribed as social misfits , Okatus are now firmly rooted in Japaneese culture. Several movies like " Densha Okoto (the train Man) or TV programs display their life and made them popular.
The Otakus refuse to become adults, they reject the hard reality of Japaneese Life and escape into the virtual world .
Most of this young generation , also decribed as parasite singles (hikikomori) , live by their parents up to 35 . They use to stay locked into their rooms for years.
They are now running the streets searching to satisfy their fantasy addiction.
They are 15 millions individuals.Because of fear of being rejected or disliked, people turn to anime characters or idols that pose no personal conflict
In Tokyo , the famous Akihabara quarter, also called Akiba , is the temple of electronics and the Okatu s territory.
Otaku rarely have Girlfriends ,
but they are buying Dolls in Spare parts in dedicated shops, dress them and live with them.
Those nerds spend 3 Billions Euros for dolls and electronics every year.
A huge business is blooming around those crazy shoppers.
Recently , numbers of bars and cafés for Otakus have opened with waitresses dressed as Lolita Maids on every blocks.
What next are they going for ?
The Android female of course.
Japan is leading the research or artificial intelligence , Actroid Der the female receptionist is showing up in exhibitions.
Prototype of intelligents robots are under developments by numerous Japaneese firms.
by Emmanuel Facovi
At a time where electronics and technology are entering our day to day life at home, an other alternative using "bio-technologies" propose the home of the future. A former group from MIT(Mitchell Joachim, Lara Greden and Javier Arbona-Homar )have conceived a home that doesn't just use "green" design but is itself a living ecosystem.
The concept is the use of young trees growing together into a shape that would sustain the foundation of the home.
The gaps could be filled in with soil and growing plants to create small gardens.
On the interior walls, a mixture of clay that would provide insulation and block moisture.
On south-facing walls, windows made of organic plastics would absorb warmth in the winter; ground-floor windows on the shady side could draw in cool breezes during hot months.
Water collected on the roof would flow through the house for use by people and plants; waste water would be purified in an outdoor pond with bacteria, fish, and plants that consume organic waste.
This project is aiming primarily sub tropical areas , but the first stage of using eco systems in design of our home is a close reality.
An atlernative proposal is mixing modern material with ecological and living areas.
In area London, a successful example of Eco house are already built .The London scheme will involve at least 1,000 homes, which will be powered entirely by renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic panels, wind turbines and the burning of waste.
Emmanuel Facovi
What key factors made of a company like Nokia the undisputed World leader in Mobile Technology (over 35 % Handsets Market Share / over 30 Billions Euros Turnover)
When I started to work with Nokia in Finland in the early 90s,it was just sketching a strategy in the telecommunication market.
At that time the company was a small to medium player in making tyres, cables, TV sets..
Nokia then step up in telecommunication market with NMT (Nordic Mobile Trunk) products, the ancestor of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication).
Of course there is many reasons why Nokia became sucessfull: brilliant technology, clever marketing, manufacturing exellence and procurement securing the exploding market demand ....but
all those are the effects of a remarkable management and organization that put the Collective Efficiency as the cement of knowledge, Innovation, Talents and Initiatives.
From a start point Nokia Management had a very high consideration and respect for the personnel. Individuals were considered as the precious source of the overall success and had the opportunity to developp themselves, go for experience in a foreign countries, change job positions and exchange ideas.
Some of my friends I met in the cold northern Finland many years ago are now enjoying family life in Texas for a decade.
On the other side customers and partners were a key focus for the development of new products and services. Ascendant marketing permited to segment the offering (remember the interchangeable phone covers)
Nokia developped many collaborative tools and communities that helped communication, exchanges within and outside the company:
For developpers with Developpers Forums or Competitions,
For customers with Club Nokia or Forum Blogs ,
For third party companies with Growth partner program ,
For Start ups with BlueRun Ventures (Capital), for universities ,
For designers with Nokia Concept lounge....,
For subcontractors with Nokia Clusters,
For young generation with the sponsoring of sport events (X games..)
.. and many others
At a time when many companies still have not understood the benefits of working an other way that top-down and bottom-up , Nokia give a bright illustration of managing an extended enterprise with "collective efficiency" .
Lets guess that the new era of Web 2.0 (Blogs, Wikis, Communities Networks..) will lead more and more companies to adopt a new way of managing. Some others such a Nokia or Google are doing that for long.
Emmanuel Facovi
At a time where electronics and technology are entering our day to day life at home, an other alternative using "bio-technologies" propose the home of the future. Mitchell Joachim, Lara Greden and Javier Arbona-Homar (a former group from MIT)have conceived a home that doesn't just use "green" design but is itself a living ecosystem.
The concept is the use of young trees growing together into a shape that would sustain the foundation of the home.
The gaps could be filled in with soil and growing plants to create small gardens.
On the interior walls, a mixture of clay that would provide insulation and block moisture.
On south-facing walls, windows made of organic plastics would absorb warmth in the winter; ground-floor windows on the shady side could draw in cool breezes during hot months.
Water collected on the roof would flow through the house for use by people and plants; waste water would be purified in an outdoor pond with bacteria, fish, and plants that consume organic waste.
This project is aiming primarily sub tropical areas , but the first stage of using eco systems in design of our home is a close reality.
An atlernative proposal is mixing modern material with ecological and living areas.
In area London, a successful example of Eco house are already built .The London scheme will involve at least 1,000 homes, which will be powered entirely by renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic panels, wind turbines and the burning of waste.
Emmanuel Facovi
Did an aircraft lost its engine ?
We will need to rethink how a windmill looks like in the near future . Aerodynamics is at full potential
Forget the big propellers and get use to see "jet engine" floating in our windy country areas.
A bench of benefits:
This new windmill called Stormblade Turbine, designed by par Victor Jovanovic,is much more efficient than current designs an can operate for wind speeds ranging from 11 to 193 km/h (7mph to >120mph) .An efficiency of conversion of wind into electricity of 70 % versus 40 %.
The generated power is also much higher compared the size of the blades. The noise much lower, the cost too.
Five years backwards I visited the windmill fields of Palm Springs in California, , an impressive alignment of thousands windmills.
lets now figure out how the turbine would fit the landscape.
This Turbine represents a major step forward in the clean green energy, both in the design and the technology. It shoulb be industrialized by the end of 2007
anyway my favourite design definitly keeps this traditional ones, 
a real flavour from Holland and Greece
Happy Wind !!!
Emmanuel Facovi
3motion of California has just launched a new futurist electrical vehicle ,
This 3 wheel stand up is environment friendly , for use in high density area . Powered by electrical batteries it has a speed of 40 km/h and an autonomy of 45 km. It costs around 6000 US$
An other company ,Segway did already developped their famous 2 wheels vehicle for patrolling city streets, airport concourses or parks and trails. Hundreds of police depts already use the Segway trough the US, as well as security perdonnel in a hundred of Airports so far. The speed is 20 km/H and the operating range is 38 km.
To move forward or backward on the Segway PT, the rider just leans slightly forward or backward. To turn left or right, the rider simply moves the LeanSteer frame left or right.
Bad guys will have to run faster...
Not a Toy but a real 100$ Laptop . This is the crazy project developped by Nicholas Negroponte from MIT Media Lab, called ONE LAPTOP PER CHILDREN . OLPC is a non profit organization (see OLPC website )
It aims to produce a low cost notebook computer for children in developing nations, allowing them to pick up programming skills and enhance their education through the use of the internet.
The laptops are expected to launch under the name '2B1' some time early next year at a cost of about $140 per unit as launch stage.The laptops are powered by an AMD processor and run an adapted version of Fedora Linux. They will connect to the internet through a Wi-Fi mesh network. The power generation can be done by innovative ways including a Wind up.
Quanta Computer of Taiwan ( a 10 Billion $ company) will be the Manufacturer of this Laptop that will be able to do everything a basic computer does except storage big amount od data.
Nigeria already ordered and paid 1 million pieces. Thailand already is driving tests in some areas and many Ministery of education already show interest in the program. ( see Map Orange colours shows interested Ministeries and Green Pilot countries for the program launch)
A 100$ PC is another project developped by cie in India .Rajesh Jain, co-founder of Novatium, which right now is manufacturing its first 10,000 $100 computers. The Novatium computer is not really a laptop or a desktop, but probably closer to the old idea of a network computer, you plugs into either a TV or monitor and any keyboard. It has no hard drive or internal storage. If you want to save something, you do it on a portable USB key drive. The PC provide a network connection and access to network-based software -- most of it open-source
Bill Gates criticised the small screen and hand crank, but isn't that initiative a new way of caring for our future and develpment of our world ?
Emmanuel Facovi with Via Venture
Small is beautiful. This Baltic North Europe country with its 1,4 million people, joined Europe Union in May 2004.
A look on future and a distinctive model of new technologies implementations.
The Estonian, a connected E-CitizenMost Estonians have an ID card with on a credit card format with a Chip, they
Biotechnology is an other area of strong development of the Estonians economy. With the goal of preventing people health and data base builds up and map the population genetics features (http://www.genomics.ee )
Estonia provide a very attractive fiscal system for individuals and Businesses. Income Tax is among the lowest and simplest: 23% for all individuals, but the favourable treatment is even more beneficial for Enterprises: 0 % Tax on Companies profits if reinvested, and 26 % on company dividends. The average monthly salary is 600 Euros, and the minimum guaranteed salary 192 Euros. Labour cost is still very competitive,
Do not believe that has an impact on the Public Finance. In Estonia Public Budget deficit is prohibited
Estonia is also a beautiful tourism desination, history and nature life desserve a visit.
Get a charm from the pretty Tallin
Learn more about and its Baltic neighbours at: www.baltictimes.com and one of the best and most complete site on at http://shaan.typepad.com/shaanou/
Just Amazing, the ultimate design for kids is in .....Beijing China. A coulourfull , funny bookstore is offering chineese kids the ultimate playground and fantasy experience.
Named "Kids Republic" , it has big screens and displays with Movies around book ,and many play areas. Everything to syimulate kids imagination is there , something our western kids would love for sure.
Designer is Keiichiro Sako fromJapan
Going to Beijing twice a year the last years , it is a every time an estonishing discovery for me.
The preparation for the 2008 Olympic games is driving the city to be the most modern and fashionable capital in the world.
Emmanuel Facovi
