Gifts from the wise men and women
If you can look past the anxietyinducing headlines about why big data is creating dystopian societies or how AI is going to kill us all, technology is largely a good place. Here are three examples.– Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has found an ingenious way to store the energy generated from renewable sources – and has the financial clout to do something about it.
Elon Musk is using all his tech might to literally dig tunnels to save us all from traffic jams.
And, possibly most incredibly of all, Windows has implemented a meaningful way to detect malicious programs. Amazing. What a week.
Energy created by renewable energy
Alphabet has another graduate from its X Moonshot Lab research facility.
Meet Malta. A newly-formed company which will implement a new way to store renewable energy on a ‘‘grid-scale’’.
And here’s the crazy bit. The company plans to do this by using molten salt and antifreeze. Not kidding.
As Malta’s website explains: ‘‘Electricity can be stored as heat in hightemperature molten salt and cold in a low-temperature liquid for days, or even weeks until it’s needed’’.
And it’s going to do just that by building giant tanks and filling them molten salt.
Malta has captured the imagination of many as it makes its technology seem painfully simple. It says it will use energy from renewables, such as solar panels and wind farms to power heat pumps that would, in turn, heat up the molten salt.
The molten salt has the ability to store energy for weeks. Creating the potential for Malta to use the molten-salt stored heat to create electricity and feed it back into a national energy grid when required.
This is really exciting. Current estimates suggest that up to 30 per cent of the energy created via solar panels is wasted due to the time of day it’s created. Storing the energy created by renewable generation is key to a future that isn’t reliant on the ease of on-demand fossil fuel energy.
Well done Malta.
Elon Musk’s tunnel vision
This week, Musk made a brief public appearance to unveil his latest achievement: A new 1.83 kilometre tunnel just outside of Los Angeles.
The freshly-dug tunnel is a direct result of a Tweet he sent two years ago claiming the LA traffic was ‘‘driving [him] nuts’’ and that he would ‘‘build a boring machine and just start digging’’. That he did.
And in typical Musk fashion, he went on to outline how his efforts were more efficient than the current tunnel-digging status quo. Musk said the current section cost roughly US$10m to create. Which, he claimed, was significantly cheaper than the US$1b price tag of ‘‘traditional’’
tunnels of a similar size.
Annoyingly, Musk wasn’t so forthcoming with the exact speed of his machines. However, he did double down on his claim that snails currently move 14 times faster than the rival tunnel machines.
The Boring Company’s tunnel is unique in its design. The media were given free rides through the tunnel in a Tesla Model S that featured wheel modifications.
The car reached speeds of 64kmh during the test ride, but it’s understood Musk envisages the cars reaching 241kmh in future.
Musk plans to use his technology to build a new tunnel connecting Dodger Stadium to LA’s existing subway network.
The Boring Company also won a US$1b contract to build a 29km tunnel connecting Chicago’s main airport to the city centre.
Windows gets a big security boost
Have you ever wondered why Macs don’t seem to get viruses while Windows-based systems are essentially infection magnets?
Firstly, it’s a numbers game. There are way more PCs around than Macs. Which means the payoff for infecting Windows machines is greater.
Secondly, and just as importantly, it’s because Mac apps are sandboxed. And this keeps Macs safe, as infections can’t spread past the infected-app itself.
Part two of that problem is addressed by a new feature coming to Windows 10.
Windows Sandbox, as its name suggests, is a new app that lets you open a .exe file in a virtual sandbox. It creates a safe, temporary desktop environment where you can open and test any .exe file you wish.
Better yet, it’s really lightweight. Windows Sandbox works by creating a 100MB installation of Windows (within Windows 10). It’s great news. Incredibly, this has taken Microsoft over 30 years to bring to Windows. Better late than never.
Windows Sandbox is available for users of Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise running Build 18301 or later.