technology Archives - Darryn Van Hout

Digital Detox Benefits And How To Do A Technology Cleanse in 2020

Darryn Van Hout — Sun, 13 Sep 2020 05:36:36 +0000

Technology is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it has made our lives too easy and more convenient while on the other, it has promoted sedentary lifestyles. However, regardless of its pros and cons, most of us are hooked to it with everything we need—meetings with friends and family, entertainment, news, map etc. just a click or tap away.

So, when do you ever take a break from your phone, television or computer? May be you think you don’t spend that much time relaxing. And perhaps you find it harder to resist checking or scrolling through your phone or computer. Don’t worry, you are not alone.

In this 21^st century, technology is ever evolving no wonder most people are always having a gadget in their hand to check what’s new. But now, it’s becoming vital to shut down all things digital once in a while and focus on you.

I am going to discuss a hand full of important ways to kick start your digital detox without quitting along the way, but first, let’s understand why you should consider it.

Digital Detox Benefits

Our tech gadgets are always handy—phones, laptops, tablets etc. That’s the reason why experts are advising that constant need and reliance on our digital toys can turn unhealthy.

No doubt, technology has become a necessity for most things. However, when your life becomes too dependent on it, you can easily start ignoring other more important things in your life.

If technology stands in your way of your relationships, job, education, finances or whatever, then this is a red flag for destruction. Carrying out a digital detox once in a blue moon is an effective way to spend more time socialising or doing more useful things that you’ve been yearning to do like relaxing during a ‘me time’.

A digital detox shouldn’t last for months. It could take a day or two and can greatly help you to focus on what matters in front of you and not just what’s on your smart screen.

You can choose to focus on yourself and those around you and not worrying, snooping around on social media to see what others have been up to lately or finding work-related emails when you are out of office. Take the digital detox for a day or two, every now and then.

Technology Cleanse Tips

It’s never an easy thing to lock your phone or laptop away and be completely cut-off from the rest of the world, but if you can ease into it by trying for a day first, you’ll feel the difference.

Change One Habit At A Time

To make the quest a bit realistic, try give up one thing at a time. You can start by leaving your phone at home when you’re going out or by checking your emails only once during the day. After choosing the one habit to change, try it out on your first detox adventure. Once you achieve this, focus on another and combine them in the next digital detox. This will help you stick with your digital detox program and ease the challenge the first day.

Alert Friends, Family and Colleagues

You may be discouraged from taking a digital detox because you’re worried about how your friends and loved ones will reach you especially in case of an emergency. Letting people know when and for how long you will take the digital detox challenge without your phone or laptop can help you feel more relaxed. When you do this, be sure to have the contact of someone who can reach you by other means in person or via landline in case of an emergency. You can also inform your social media contacts that you will be having a social media holiday so your friends and family will know what’s really going on. This will help you clear your mind of any worries, allowing it to just focus on yourself.

Log Out From All Social Networks

If you are taking a social media detox, it can be more difficult achieving success when your phone is constantly sending you notifications from various apps. This could make for a bait to get you back into the waters if it keeps vibrating or beeping next to you.

Be sure to log out of all your social media accounts. This will bar any notifications and you won’t have to be tempted to check your phone. If you can’t log off, then at least turn off your notifications so that you don’t receive them.

Make Deliberate Effort With Friends And Family

Have you ever tried to talk to someone while they are glued to their phone? Most often we consider that rude, however, so many of us do exactly that, in most cases unknowingly. With time, constant multi-tasking and self-conscious decisions lead to a lack of focus.

Try spend quality time with your family and friends. You can intentionally leave your phone at home, in the car or your bag so that you give your complete attention to others.

If you need to check something, schedule a time to do so and only check it then.

Spend Time In Places Where Use Of Phone Is Prohibited

When you begin your digital detox journey, visit places where phones are not allowed as this will make it easier for you. If you are a fan of yoga or meditation, this could be the ideal place to hang out. You can also consider some amazing self-care and relaxation time.

You can also take up swimming or jogging. This helps you avoid the temptation of checking your phone.

Be Easy On Yourself If You Really Have To

Sometimes totally shutting yourself from the use of technology can be a hard nut to crack particularly if it is your first digital detox. If you are afraid of stopping the detox altogether, you can go easy on yourself and take a short break. Give yourself specific time to use your phone or laptop such as 1 hour in the morning and another in the evening.

This will help you stick to your detox program without feeling too daunted. You can then shorten that time during your next detox until you are able to stop it completely for a day or two.

Try And Do Something Totally New When on Your Digital Detox

Digital detoxing can present opportunities for you to try out new things you’ve longed to do. Use the time you are away from your phone or computer to offer a helping hand to someone, focus more on parenthood, help your mum with grocery shopping or volunteers at a charity during the weekend. If none of these makes you tick, then you can as well focus on just relaxing by meditating or getting a massage.

Digital detoxing should not be stressful—it’s meant to be a positive and more relaxing period.

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Worried About 5G’s Health Effects? Don’t Be!

Darryn Van Hout — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 05:18:01 +0000

Top speed, convenience and instant gratification…that’s what we all expect from the internet. And from the way we are wired, the more we get it, the more we want it—and better!

But as the available networks become overwhelmed, providers are looking for the next big technology solution; the fifth generation is already here—5G. Of course, it’s very natural to wonder if the forthcoming, more powerful technology has any potential hazards for human health and the environment.

As carriers across the world rush to install 5G technology networks, some people are citing fears that this next gen wireless technology could pose far-reaching health risks. This seems to have sparked Covid-19 and 5G conspiracy theories during this global health pandemic. So… I sought to find out if you really have to be worried.

More than 180 scientists and doctors from across the globe (36 countries) recently made an appeal to the EU warning against the dangers of 5G. According to the critics, the new technology could lead to massive spikes in involuntary exposure to electromagnetic radiation.

On the other hand, the telecommunications industry experts have accused scientists of “fear mongering” over the 5G wireless technology and that since the research is funded by the public, they owe the public ethical responsibility to guarantee their safety.

This blog delves deeper into this peer-reviewed scientific research work and we hope by the time you finish reading it, your guess will be as good as ours.

Indeed, there’s little if any reason to even imagine that 5G frequencies are riskier than the other types of electromagnetic radiation such as visible light

Earlier in the year in the US, the Portland, Oregon city council moved a resolution requiring the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to share its research findings about the potential health risks of the 5G wireless technology.

Last May, the House of Representatives in Louisiana made a resolution asking the state Department of Environment Quality and Department of Health to initiate a study about the environment and potential health effects of the 5G network.

In the meantime several Bay Area towns, Sebastopol and Mill Valley included, are plannng to stop carriers from setting up the 5G infrastructure.

“The impending roll out of 5G technology will require the installation of hundreds of thousands of ‘small cell’ sites in neighbourhoods and communities throughout the country, and these installations will emit higher-frequency radio waves than previous generations of cellular technology,” US representative Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon) wrote in a letter to the FCC echoing earlier concerns about the latest technologies involving 5G.

There are real concerns as to how the 5G technology is being installed in the United States. And these concerns relate to security issues, the possibility of interfering with weather forecasting systems as well as the FCC stream-rolling local regulators in the name of fast-tracking the roll out of 5G network.

In Australia, negative media is limited at this stage and for good reason. The latest major setback was during August 2018 when Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia would not allow Huawei in the the market. Huawei is the giant Chinese tech company that is suspected to have ties with the Communist Party, to build the country’s 5G network.

However, concerns raised over potential health impacts of the new 5G technology seem to have been blown out of proportion.

If you have not been worried about previous cellular service generations causing cancer, you shouldn’t be worried about 5G either

Most health-related issues about the impact of 5G emanate from a millimetre-wave technology which is high-frequency radio waves expected to deliver faster speeds.

The catch here is that the millimetre-wave transmission is far less reliable in longer distances than the transmission that uses lower frequencies which mobile carriers have been conventionally using.

To ensure that the 5G service is reliable, everywhere over millimetre-wave frequencies, mobile carriers will be required to have a higher number of smaller access points.

This has birthed two fears: First, the impact of millimetre-wave signals could be riskier than the traditional frequencies; and two the higher number of access points, with some being closer to households, might expose many to stronger radiation than the 4G service.

However, millimetre waves are not the only or primary way through which carriers can deliver the 5G service. Telstra 5G Mobile delivers the most ubiquitous 5G service available today. However, it relies on a band of low frequencies previously used in television broadcast. Meanwhile, other competing mobile internet providers gave re-purposed some of the “mid-band” spectrum it employs in 4G to offer 5G.

Currently, the primary focus of the wireless industry is the use of mid to low band frequencies for the new 5G since installing a hundreds of thousands of millimetre wave access points would be cumbersome and costly.

In essence, 5G is expected to continue riding on similar radio frequencies that have been the underlying technology for radio and television broadcast, mobile services, satellite communications, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Where 5g Fits in the Electromagnetic Spectrum

When carriers finally roll out the millimetre-wave coverage, there will be no need to worry given that visible light, radio waves and ultraviolet light all form part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The parts of the spectrum with higher frequency include x-rays and the gamma rays which are referred to as “ionising radiation”. Now these are the most damaging radiation as it can break molecular bonds and even cause cancer.

Radio waves including millimetre waves and the visible light are generally non-ionising which means they do not break molecular bonds. They contain higher frequency than the conventional broadcast frequencies; though they have weaker frequency than those of visible light and far lower than the ionising radiation like the x-rays, gamma rays and the shortwave ultraviolet light.

Calling it 5G and changing the frequency does not change the relevant biological health factor, which is energy.
Robert DeMott, an expert toxicologist specialising in risk assessment at Ramboll, a consulting firm

Another expert, Eric S. Swanson, professor of nuclear physics at the University of Pittsburgh says that visible light is one of the most common sources of higher-energy, higher-frequency electromagnetic energy than the millimetre waves or mobile phone frequencies. But this does not mean that continuous exposure to non-ionising radiation won’t have negative side effects. Generally, electromagnetic energy generates heat which apparently is the “one and only” health risk posed by radio waves, according to Demott.

This is backed by research on the biological effects of non-ionising radiation such as millimetre waves. In a study published in 2005 by the International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety at IEEE, an engineering professional organisation, the over 1,300 peer-reviewed research on the biological effects of radio frequencies discovered that there there were “no adverse health effects that were not thermally related”.

To safeguard against effects related to heat, the FCC in conjunction with other regulators have set limits regarding the amount of energy to be emitted by wireless devices. “The normal consensus is that you don’t need to worry about a temperature increase of less than one degree Celsius because our bodies change by one degree Celsius in and of their own activities all the time, even at a cellular level,” DeMott says.

In conclusion

5G technology can’t replace 4G rather it will accompany 4G into the near future and potentially in the long run. More research needs to be done to ensure the cited synergistic effects from exposure do not cause harm. I mean, obviously the health issues raised are serious and deserve serious attention. Otherwise there’s no need to get too agitated about 5G.

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Tesla Motors new solar batteries exceed all expectations

Darryn Van Hout — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 02:00:56 +0000

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk was heard loud and clear in early May as he announced the initial response to his company’s latest product line of solar batteries. Intended for residential use, consumer interest in the product has surpassed expectations.

Tesla Motors is constructing a 5 million square foot solar battery factory expected to open in 2016 which, even with its significant size, may still not even be big enough to accommodate for the high demand if the initial figures are anything to go by.

Australia has the highest penetration of sunlight per capita in the world, making the potential impact of solar storage like the Tesla Powerwall a promising prospect for the Australian energy industry.

Australian energy retailers, like Natural Solar, are already expressing their strong support for Tesla’s innovation in solar storage. The systems are expected to complement existing solar installations and improve the Australian economy in a number of fields.

Natural Solar Director Chris Williams says that not only will the Tesla Energy battery technology benefit solar installers like Natural Solar, it will equally benefit consumers through the significant energy savings and asset growth over time.

If Tesla Energy’s recent announcements weren’t enough to excited the Australian electricity market, generous government rebates are also in place to assist households of lower income levels to access the technology.

Natural Solar’s Chris Williams says that the combination of Tesla’s technology and government incentives offers Australian retailers and consumers a win win solution to solar storage.

Tesla Motors new solar battery surpasses all expectation

According to Bloomberg Business, several days after Tesla Motors new solar battery announcement, $800 million worth of the products were on reserved.

Though the figures look really impressive, it must be said that reservations do not necessarily mean guaranteed sales at the end of the day. This is more so the case for the home batteries which are sold under the Powerwall brand.

Anybody is able to reserve one of Tesla Motors new solar batteries with no deposit required and absolutely no commitment to go through with the sale. However, this is unique to the solar battery and does not extend to the Tesla Motors vehicle line, whereby a down payment of up to $5,000 is required to secure the purchase.

Demand of the Tesla Motors solar battery predicted to outstrip supply

With $800 million worth of batteries already reserved, it would be impossible for Tesla Motors to supply more batteries, as they are predicted to be out of stock until mid-2016. The new $5 billion plant currently under construction would easily be at full capacity in the manufacturing of these batteries according to Musk. Two-thirds of its production capacity output was supposed to be used for manufacturing electric vehicle batteries, but Musk has considered making the already humongous factory even bigger.

Many analysts are not sure how to value such new business. Receiving an accurate estimate may even take a year or more according to Morgan Stanley. Baird & Co and Morgan Stanley both do not currently include battery product valuations from Tesla Motors.

JPMorgan Chase’s Ryan Brinkman has valued the new business at $15 a share or in other terms at around $1.9 billion.

Tesla Motors will make little if any profit from these early battery storage sales. Musk himself has admitted that gross margins will not be high but he is sure that it will rise to around 20% once production is in full effect at the new plant.

As energy costs rise, consumers turn to cheaper solar battery alternatives

Consumer interest in solar batteries is at an all-time high and Tesla Motors have managed to develop a well-rounded product. The company itself has never put a figure on their bookings thus far, so Bloomberg used the following information in order to arrive at the $800 million estimate:

According to Musk, the batteries have been created to pair in perfectly with rooftop solar systems which had a 38, 000 product reservations.
Many customers reserved more than one battery, with the average order per client between 1-1.5. Musk has claimed that close to 50,000 – 60,000 were booked. Bloomberg set the amount at 55, 000.
There are two designs to select from with varying prices attached. One at $3, 000 and the other at $3, 500. If the difference is halved, making it $250 a unit, then the total Powerwall orders amount to $178.8 million thus far.

Powerpack created as the commercial version of the residential Powerwall

Tesla is working on a product called the Powerpack with companies such as Amazon and Target as well as certain utilities. As most interest for the new storage batteries are from the utilities and bigger companies, the Powerpack comes in a 100 kilowatt an hour block of batteries to aid in commercial power storage.

Musk has stated that 2,500 bookings for the commercial battery storage products has been received. These all come with a minimum of 10 Powerpacks. Thus 25, 000 units equal 2.5 million kilowatts an hour.
A Powerpack is priced at $250 per kilowatt an hour.
Thus the total Powerpacks booked are $625 million.

The sum of $625M and $178.8M resulting in Tesla Motors’ predicted total of $803.8M worth of battery reservations.

Khobi Brooklyn, a Tesla spokesperson has even stated that Bloomberg’s stats look accurate. “In the coming months, we will work with our distribution partners to ensure that customers are well informed and know what to expect when deliveries start this summer,” she added.

Photo courtesy of JD Lasica on Flickr

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