Leland Teschler • Executive editor Officials estimate it will cost $50 billion to field the chargers needed for the expected number of electric vehicles on U.S. roads by 2030. But it’s possible that spending every penny of this amount won’t prevent the extinction of the cross-country road trip. Here’s the logic behind that statement: It’s […]
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Worst suspicions confirmed: The terrible security of internet routers
Leland Teschler, Executive Editor Here’s the latest IoT security nightmare: All of the wireless routers through which most IoT traffic passes are probably vulnerable to botnets and other kinds of security breaches. That’s the conclusion of researchers at Fraunhofer FKIE in Germany who analyzed 127 different routers sold by seven vendors. The routers they examined […]
Battery breakthrough fatigue
Leland Teschler • Executive Editor For some cheap thrills, try Googling the words “battery breakthrough.” You’ll be presented with page after page of articles breathlessly chronicling one research result after another in energy storage. But you might wonder why, with so many earth-shattering developments, electric vehicles can’t travel 1,000 miles before needing a recharge. The […]
How to electrocute yourself in a few easy steps
Here’s a fun project: Pop open an old microwave oven and scavenge the high-voltage transformer powering the cavity magnetron vacuum tube. Then use it to make yourself a Lichtenberg generator. But be sure there’s someone nearby to call an ambulance. Lichtenberg generators are used to create art and abstract objects by burning fractal patterns into […]
Now or later? No time for time-of-use energy savings
Leland Teschler, Executive Editor One of the big justifications for smart home electronics and internet-of-things pipe dreams is a concept called time-of-use electricity billing. Long used for industrial concerns, the plan is to bring TOU billing to households, so they’ll be charged more for electricity they use during periods of peak use, less for juice […]
