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mcs37 · Apr 3, 2003, 01:02 AM

Check this out, it looks like they've made some advances in ethanol biofuel cells.

http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,58119,00.html

I like the idea of pouring a shot of tequila into my laptop to give it enough juice to last for a week.

Mike

nobitacu · Apr 3, 2003, 02:41 AM

Hahaha, I guess it's a good use for those booze.

Let's just hope that the drunken Powerbooks won't do anything stupid while their drunk.

Good thing they can't drive a car.

Ming

Originally posted by mcs37:
Check this out, it looks like they've made some advances in ethanol biofuel cells.

http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,58119,00.html

I like the idea of pouring a shot of tequila into my laptop to give it enough juice to last for a week.

Mike

mcs37 · Apr 3, 2003, 09:11 AM

Originally posted by nobitacu:
Hahaha, I guess it's a good use for those booze. Let's just hope that the drunken Powerbooks won't do anything stupid while their drunk. Good thing they can't drive a car.

It conjurs up memories of Homer at the gas-alcohol pump: one for you, one for me. One for you, one for me!

Seriously though I think fuel cells are the future for our power supplies seeing as batteries just don't provide enough juice. What if you could get 100 hours of juice on a shot of vodka? That's so damn cool!

bradoesch · Apr 3, 2003, 12:19 PM

What a win-win situation! More battery life and powered from alcohol!

The Ginger Rat · Apr 3, 2003, 12:45 PM

Seriously, there is a lot of other junk in booze that I would think would accumulate over time. Stick with vodka. Or maybe slivovitz (sp?).

mcs37 · Apr 3, 2003, 01:01 PM

Originally posted by bradoesch:
What a win-win situation! More battery life and powered from alcohol!

I am curious how I'd fill up my powerbook, or as the expression may be, "give it a drink." Would there be a funnel I could pour it into? Or some "mouth" where I could pour it in, and it would "kick it back" ?

Every day, we're getting closer and closer to the Mr. Fusion scenario of Back to the Future 2 fame.

bradoesch · Apr 4, 2003, 03:31 AM

Originally posted by mcs37:
I am curious how I'd fill up my powerbook, or as the expression may be, "give it a drink." Would there be a funnel I could pour it into? Or some "mouth" where I could pour it in, and it would "kick it back" ?

Every day, we're getting closer and closer to the Mr. Fusion scenario of Back to the Future 2 fame.

Good questions. I'm also curious as to how you'd regulate how much alcohol you give it. Can't have your PowerBook hungover when there's work to be done...

schuss · Apr 4, 2003, 08:02 PM

i would think you'd probably buy little capsules of a predetermined size with a highly refined alcohol in them. they'd snap in and drain into your pb's gas tank. and they'd sell them at gas stations and airports. and your cell phone and flashlight would use the same stuff.

hopefully, this will get standardized so we can benefit from the inevitable lower cost wintel version of the capsules...

the big question is not so much what in my liquor cabinet can i feed to the powerbook... it's can i crack open the powerbook and steal a swig when i'm desperate for a drink?

mcs37 · Jun 4, 2003, 12:09 AM

There's an article on Space.com today about the status of fuel cells:

The Department of Transportation gave the industry a big boost last October when it announced that a fuel cell design by PolyFuel would be allowed on airplanes, a change from the airline industry�s rigid "no fuels" policy. Methanol powered devices, such as cell phones and laptops, should appear within the next two years.

Who wants to bet that Apple would be the first company to implement a fuel cell design into the PowerBook? "Keep your PowerBook running...all day....without being plugged in. The 2004 17" PowerBook."

Anyone think that Apple is looking in this direction? I've never heard so much as a peep, which means it hasn't yet shown up on Apple's radar, or it's a smaller project at Apple. Thoughts?

mixtup · Jun 4, 2003, 12:46 AM

So if you give it 100% agave tequila it will perform better than if you give it cheap watered down beer?

mcs37 · Jun 4, 2003, 11:13 AM

Originally posted by mixtup:
So if you give it 100% agave tequila it will perform better than if you give it cheap watered down beer?

Hell yeah. I wonder if PowerBooks will like everclear, or even moonshine!

killer_735 · Jun 4, 2003, 11:53 AM

Wait a sec! Nobody's seeing the bad implications of this! If you can indeed power things with booze, do you realize what'll happen to the price of Vodka?!

"Ah, my notebook battery died...where's the nearest liquor store?"

But anyway, I believe that methanol is a different kind of alcohol than is used in drinkable...drinks. Any chemists in the room?

Alcohol-power is awesome, though. The US currently can make enough grain to feed the entire world, but transportation costs make it unfeasible. If we're powering things with distillates of organic compounds, then all that land in the midwest becomes a giant power plant, meaning that we, and anyone else who can make large amounts of grain (Russia?) have a kick-ass new export, not to mention one that'll stop the war for oil. Please, somebody put the Bush family out of business.

killer_735 · Jun 4, 2003, 11:55 AM

Woah....just read the Wired article..you can indeed use whatever kind of alcohol...sweeeet.
Maybe moonshiners will make a comeback.

mcs37 · Jun 4, 2003, 06:00 PM

Originally posted by killer_735:
Woah....just read the Wired article..you can indeed use whatever kind of alcohol...sweeeet.
Maybe moonshiners will make a comeback.

Yup. Many of the fuel cells relate to methanol, but Wired was talking about ethanol. Shot of vodka for me, a shot for my PowerBook!

Diggory Laycock · Jun 4, 2003, 06:29 PM

Knowing Apple's eye for detail - I should imagine only Absout Vodka (or Moskovskaya) will do for powerbooks.

danbrew · Jun 4, 2003, 08:28 PM

Yeah, but there's a bad side too. Everything will work just fine for the first few years, but then...

...your PB will slowly gain weight until it weights twice as much as it did before it started on the booze.

...the screen will slowly decrease its' resolution.

...your PB will stop communicating with all your other devices. Eventually it will only talk to a USB printer, and sooner or later, it will piss off the printer and the printer will stop coming around.

...your PB will get to a point where is just can't think straight anymore. Forget about things like your spreadsheets working - hell, that's the easy part. Can you imagine a drunk trying to calculate 6 million transactions per second? ha!

:->

mcs37 · Jun 5, 2003, 03:34 PM

Originally posted by danbrew:
Yeah, but there's a bad side too. Everything will work just fine for the first few years, but then...

...your PB will get to a point where is just can't think straight anymore. Forget about things like your spreadsheets working - hell, that's the easy part. Can you imagine a drunk trying to calculate 6 million transactions per second? ha!

LOL! They'd have to call it a DrunkBook or BoozeBook.

AlbertWu · Jun 6, 2003, 01:31 AM

my question is, how will you regulate the sale of alcohol now that ethanol is no longer exclusively for getting drunk

little kid walks into a store and asks for an alcohol capsule to stick in his cell phone.

how're you gonna figure out if he's ACTUALLY gonna stick into his phone, or if hes gonna drink it?

another problem with ethanol. as opposed to electricity, an unlimited supply of ethanol doesn't run into your house (well, i suppose it COULD,) and it's not as easy to transmit as electricity, being fluid and all. you can't conduct ethanol over areas, if the tube gets pinched, it doesn't flow, etc. electricity is seriously the best way to do this sort of thing.

what if we developed a fuel cell that had a reversible reaction. it has fuel in it that goes one way and turns into waste, and if you plug it in, the electricity reverses the reaction and turns the waste back into fuel. keep all the perks of electricity, and still have a long-lasting battery.

mcs37 · Jun 6, 2003, 10:30 AM

Originally posted by AlbertWu:
how're you gonna figure out if he's ACTUALLY gonna stick into his phone, or if hes gonna drink it?

what if we developed a fuel cell that had a reversible reaction. it has fuel in it that goes one way and turns into waste, and if you plug it in, the electricity reverses the reaction and turns the waste back into fuel. keep all the perks of electricity, and still have a long-lasting battery.

I think the kid issue is not something to worry about. I'm sure when these come out, they will actually be in the form of small cartridges you stick into your laptop, as opposed to taking it out and pouring a shot in. So even if he did buy an ethanol cartridge, he's paying a whole lot for a small amount of booze.

I agree that there is an inherent problem with the fuel cell ideology: once your cell is depleted, you can't just recharge it against a wall. What I think is the best solution would be to combine a fuel cell and a battery. If the battery could fully charge to provide 2 hours of electricity, the fuel cell could provide the battery with power when it needs it. So the fuel cell acts as a secondary power source that can provide a whole lot when you need it. This makes sense because if you're only using your battery for 30 min intervals at any given time, charging between them, you don't want to be depleting your fuel cell supply constantly. But if you're on that 14-hour flight to Australia and don't have a power supply, it would be nice to have the fuel cell provide energy to the battery after 2 hours.

I think this is how it will come about, if they don't lose too much to weight. A fuel cell + traditional battery combination is the best.

lau_lau_lau · Jun 6, 2003, 01:35 PM

Originally posted by schuss:

the big question is not so much what in my liquor cabinet can i feed to the powerbook... it's can i crack open the powerbook and steal a swig when i'm desperate for a drink?

i know you're not serious, but it's likely the alcohol would be poisoned slightly so as not to attract high import duties (ame as meths) so...... NO!

tooki · Jun 8, 2003, 06:43 AM

That hasn't stopped drunkards from opening hairspray cans and drinking the contents...

tooki

lau_lau_lau · Jun 8, 2003, 09:57 AM

Originally posted by tooki:
That hasn't stopped drunkards from opening hairspray cans and drinking the contents...

tooki

...and slowly going blind.

Gametes · 09:36 PM

My PowerBook...

vmarks · Jun 9, 2003, 10:04 AM

Originally posted by killer_735:
Wait a sec! Nobody's seeing the bad implications of this! If you can indeed power things with booze, do you realize what'll happen to the price of Vodka?!

"Ah, my notebook battery died...where's the nearest liquor store?"

even worse, imagine if this were the distribution method- what about states like NC and Maine, where liquor distribution is controlled by and sold through state owned stores?

oh my. state powering-your-laptop tax.

tonton · Jun 10, 2003, 02:05 AM

Pretty soon my Powerbook will be demanding I kiss its shiny metal ass.