A cycle came to an end on Thursday afternoon, when the doors of the establishment located at 1217 Alameda Santos, Sao Paulo, closed the last time. That address worked the ultimate unity of Monkey, a network that grew to 63 stores throughout Brazil. The end of the Monkey is the best example of the changes that are happening in the Brazilian Internet user's point of view and mark a new phase for an institution that has been synonymous with digital inclusion: a lan house.
According to Nielsen / NetRatings, there was a decrease in access to the internet through internet cafes while the number of Brazilian band C and D who can buy computers and access the Internet from their homes increases every month.
Moreover, some 33 million Brazilians still rely on them to connect - 49% of internet accesses in Brazil occur through Internet cafes.
The decline of the traditional model of Internet cafes is a reflection of economic change in the country plus a cheaper and easier to buy computers - factors which together are profoundly changing the way the Brazilians behave online.
Tingling. Two factors were instrumental in closing the last Monkey - one that plagues all internet cafes and other premises of a peculiarity of Alameda Santos. The first is the change in user profile: boys playing Counter Strike for people wanting to use Messenger and Orkut. "This seemed like an anthill before, we passed by password. But now the kids play at home, just go to the store in championships, "said Leandro Montoya, who was manager of the Monkey, 2008 until closing last week.
Except that even with this loss of users who come to play in their own homes, followed Monkey lucrative guarantees Montoya. But not as in times past. "As she lies in a prime area, highly valued, compensated longer sell or lease the building," he explains.
Thiago Silva, owner of GigaByte, Vila Borges, west of Sao Paulo also feels the change in the skin through which runs the business. With the difference that your shop is in a poor neighborhood of Sao Paulo, which prevents the use of real estate transactions. The solution was to create a new source of income: "Living alone lan house no longer. Here, I fix computers, install programs. Have to have something more, "says Silva.
Exception to the scenario that has been presented is the GamenetX, in Moema district, south of the city. The store still stands as the beginning: it offers fast connection and powerful computers, focusing on game users. The store owner says that Alexander Gasparini faces the same problems as other home, but found a niche. "The professional tournaments in Counter Strike have sustained. A company can rent our space and get organized. They pay three to four times more than we are billed on a typical day. "
The end of an era. The traditional business model of Internet cafes over. Who is sentencia Mario Brandao, president of the Brazilian Digital Inclusion Centers, citing as the reason for declining the extreme similarity of all Internet cafes: "It's like a food court that all restaurants serve the same dish."
But he believes that the Internet cafes will remain very significant in Brazilian digital life. To demonstrate how they can coexist, offering an attractive, he invites us to make a trip: "In my lan house (in the neighborhood of Abolition in Rio de Janeiro), have according to the distance education institutions, and I'm going partnership with schools. At 100 meters, has a lan house all dark, a full immersion environment, which is for staff to play. More than 50 meters, you find only a xerox, cartridge change, printing. Walk a mile for the other hand, has another that specializes in VoIP Four, one near the other, not compete with each other and offer something more. "
With internet access in Brazil getting more homemade, Messenger, Orkut, Facebook and Twitter - beyond games - become fully integrated services to the daily lives of people, such as cell phones. It remains to convince the public internet cafes which can offer something that people do not find the connection in the comfort of their homes. Welcome to phase two - is it the last?
quarta-feira, 17 de novembro de 2010
Scientists have identified three new species of frogs in Colombia.
Three species never before identified, were found in Colombia.
Red eye frog was found at 2,000 meters
A dispatch from conservationists who sought a toad regarded as extinct eventually discovered three new species of amphibians.
The animals never before identified, were found in Colombia. Among them is a frog that produces a poison and one that has red eyes.
The animals identified on shipping tend to be more active during the day, a rare behavior among amphibians.
However, the same scientists failed to locate the species sought: the frog in Mesopotamia (Rhinella rostrata), which was reportedly last seen in 1914.
Red eye frog was found at 2,000 meters
A dispatch from conservationists who sought a toad regarded as extinct eventually discovered three new species of amphibians.
The animals never before identified, were found in Colombia. Among them is a frog that produces a poison and one that has red eyes.
The animals identified on shipping tend to be more active during the day, a rare behavior among amphibians.
However, the same scientists failed to locate the species sought: the frog in Mesopotamia (Rhinella rostrata), which was reportedly last seen in 1914.
terça-feira, 16 de novembro de 2010
Former F1 designer creates car without doors that fight gridlock
Car occupies a third of the space of conventional cars when parked and is made from recycled materials.
A former Formula 1 designer has created an environmentally friendly car that can be the solution to the congestion in big cities.
The vehicle occupies one-third the space of a conventional car when parked, is so narrow that it can divide a track with another track or street car and is built off of recycled materials.
Its manufacturing release much of the heavy machinery used by the automotive industry today and requires only 20% of the capital needed today.
Hero of racing fans, Gordon Murray has designed, among others, McLaren driven by Ayrton Senna when the Brazilian won his first championship in Formula 1.
Six years ago, the designer and abandoned the race, taking the same team of engineers who worked with him at McLaren, went looking for a new challenge: to build the tiny T 25, an urban car that he hopes will revolutionize the how cars are built today.
T 25: The Project
Murray's car is built in a shed-based glass fiber, recycled plastic bottles and hollow steel tubes. It uses a fifth of the materials needed to build a conventional car.
The vehicle carries three passengers, weighs 575 kg, is 240 cm long, 130 cm wide and 160 cm tall.
It reaches a top speed of 145 km per hour and should cost around $ 9000.
Proponents say a car like this could potentially prevent congestion on the roads, in view of projections that the number of vehicles on the planet should reach 2.5 billion by 2020.
It can also allow millions of people to realize their dream of owning a car - while using fewer resources vital to the planet, such as water, energy or steel.
'Mentality of Formula 1'
The object that embodies the vision of Murray is stored in a modest building in an industrial area in Surrey, southeast England.
The T 25 has no doors. To enter it, you need to raise the driver's cabin.
Following the pattern of the F1 supercar, the driver sits alone in front of the car in the middle of the vehicle, with two passenger seats located on the back.
Also following the pattern of F1, the T 25 is built with composite materials - and just the cheapest.
The body panels and monocoque car (or base) are reinforced with glass, which costs much less than carbon, says Murray.
"Some of the fibers are (grouped in patterns) random, some are interlaced and others are unidirectional - that's the mentality of Formula 1," Murray told the BBC.
The structure is fixed on a frame made with a steel pipe which "alone is not strong enough."
Murray explained, however, that once the monocoque is glued to the tube in a process similar to how a car's windows are fixed in the body of the vehicle, it becomes "as strong and secure as a conventional car."
Manufacturing
According to Murray, the manufacturing process of cars created by his team, called iStream, is flexible and inexpensive.
He dispenses with the conventional facilities gigantic factories and much of the heavy machinery and highly polluting, such as large presses that manufacture steel components and welders.
To make any change in frame size or shape and color of the car body, just rewrite the software, explains Murray.
That is, the same production line can produce different models in a single day.
Thus, the factory of the future may be smaller and cheaper, and pollute less.
Intellectual Property
Gordon Murray explained that the goal of his team is designing cars that he hopes will be mass produced very soon.
Besides the model for three passengers, Murray and his team - composed of 30 engineers - are secretly developing several different designs - for two vehicles, five and eight passengers, plus a bus.
He emphasizes, however, that his goal is not to make the cars and, yes, show the world that his team is capable of.
"I'm known as a designer, my team is an engineering company, but in fact the essence of our business is intellectual property."
"I want to sell as many allowances iStream for so many people and so many different cars as possible in the world," says Murray.
Economy
The final argument in favor of Gordon Murray visionary of his car, however, is econômico.O use of cheaper components, to a lesser extent, manufacturing structure and a smaller, offers manufacturers tremendous cuts costs and reduces the risks of investing . The factory that builds a car iStream - whatever shape or size of the car - is about 20% of capital investment and 20% the size of a conventional manufacturing plant, "he said. "And (uses) about half the energy." "We ripped the rulebook and threw the window." BBC Brazil - All rights reserved. It is forbidden any reproduction without written permission from the BBC.
A former Formula 1 designer has created an environmentally friendly car that can be the solution to the congestion in big cities.
The vehicle occupies one-third the space of a conventional car when parked, is so narrow that it can divide a track with another track or street car and is built off of recycled materials.
Its manufacturing release much of the heavy machinery used by the automotive industry today and requires only 20% of the capital needed today.
Hero of racing fans, Gordon Murray has designed, among others, McLaren driven by Ayrton Senna when the Brazilian won his first championship in Formula 1.
Six years ago, the designer and abandoned the race, taking the same team of engineers who worked with him at McLaren, went looking for a new challenge: to build the tiny T 25, an urban car that he hopes will revolutionize the how cars are built today.
T 25: The Project
Murray's car is built in a shed-based glass fiber, recycled plastic bottles and hollow steel tubes. It uses a fifth of the materials needed to build a conventional car.
The vehicle carries three passengers, weighs 575 kg, is 240 cm long, 130 cm wide and 160 cm tall.
It reaches a top speed of 145 km per hour and should cost around $ 9000.
Proponents say a car like this could potentially prevent congestion on the roads, in view of projections that the number of vehicles on the planet should reach 2.5 billion by 2020.
It can also allow millions of people to realize their dream of owning a car - while using fewer resources vital to the planet, such as water, energy or steel.
'Mentality of Formula 1'
The object that embodies the vision of Murray is stored in a modest building in an industrial area in Surrey, southeast England.
The T 25 has no doors. To enter it, you need to raise the driver's cabin.
Following the pattern of the F1 supercar, the driver sits alone in front of the car in the middle of the vehicle, with two passenger seats located on the back.
Also following the pattern of F1, the T 25 is built with composite materials - and just the cheapest.
The body panels and monocoque car (or base) are reinforced with glass, which costs much less than carbon, says Murray.
"Some of the fibers are (grouped in patterns) random, some are interlaced and others are unidirectional - that's the mentality of Formula 1," Murray told the BBC.
The structure is fixed on a frame made with a steel pipe which "alone is not strong enough."
Murray explained, however, that once the monocoque is glued to the tube in a process similar to how a car's windows are fixed in the body of the vehicle, it becomes "as strong and secure as a conventional car."
Manufacturing
According to Murray, the manufacturing process of cars created by his team, called iStream, is flexible and inexpensive.
He dispenses with the conventional facilities gigantic factories and much of the heavy machinery and highly polluting, such as large presses that manufacture steel components and welders.
To make any change in frame size or shape and color of the car body, just rewrite the software, explains Murray.
That is, the same production line can produce different models in a single day.
Thus, the factory of the future may be smaller and cheaper, and pollute less.
Intellectual Property
Gordon Murray explained that the goal of his team is designing cars that he hopes will be mass produced very soon.
Besides the model for three passengers, Murray and his team - composed of 30 engineers - are secretly developing several different designs - for two vehicles, five and eight passengers, plus a bus.
He emphasizes, however, that his goal is not to make the cars and, yes, show the world that his team is capable of.
"I'm known as a designer, my team is an engineering company, but in fact the essence of our business is intellectual property."
"I want to sell as many allowances iStream for so many people and so many different cars as possible in the world," says Murray.
Economy
The final argument in favor of Gordon Murray visionary of his car, however, is econômico.O use of cheaper components, to a lesser extent, manufacturing structure and a smaller, offers manufacturers tremendous cuts costs and reduces the risks of investing . The factory that builds a car iStream - whatever shape or size of the car - is about 20% of capital investment and 20% the size of a conventional manufacturing plant, "he said. "And (uses) about half the energy." "We ripped the rulebook and threw the window." BBC Brazil - All rights reserved. It is forbidden any reproduction without written permission from the BBC.
SolarReserve plant will produce electric energy with Molten Salt.
Solar energy can be the most widely used source of energy so far, but a great Dilene to be solved to produce energy at night or on cloudy days because it needs to be resolved if the day without sunshine investment in this type of technology would be impaired right. But now, a new venture called SolarReserve has a technology that aims to change this picture because they will be able to generate electricity into the evening.
Unlike other solar power plants to SolarReserve will be able to produce electricity at night or in adverse weather. The program will save and store captured solar energy in molten salt, the new solar plant will produce up to 500 megawatts of peak power is comparable to what a regular coal plant will not produce any CO2 in the atmosphere.
The concept behind new concentrated solar power plant is very similar to solar power tower in Seville, where hundreds of solar panels reflect sunlight to heat water inside a tower, which later evaporates into steam, which passes a series of turbines to generate electricity. However, instead of using the water tower, the tank will SolarReserve molten salt and a huge variety of mirrors that reflect light to the tank is heated to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit heated. The liquid is then pumped to a steam generator that spins a turbine to produce electricity.
Due to the unique ability of the product to store the energy it captures, this system will function as a conventional power plant, but with several advantages, because the salt is more predictable than water reserves, the supply is inexhaustible and free, and the impact environment is practically zero. "
The SolarReserve uses molten salt plus a mixture of sodium and potassium nitrate instead of instead of water or oil, allows the heat to be stored for use when the sun is not present. After several studies found that the molten salt is the most efficient fluid when it comes to transport heat from the sun. The study indicates that the molten salt is used in tower systems for solar energy because it is liquid and the pressure of the atmosphere can provide an efficient low-cost way to store thermal energy, operating temperatures are compatible with today's technologies already used in steam turbines, has a great advantage. It is nonflammable, making your shipping, handling and producing far fewer dangerous and clean.
We hope this technology will soon be released because the nations sold here in Brazil is no lack of sun and salt year round. icon biggrin produce Electric Power Plant SolarReserve with Molten Salt
Residents of Maranhão wins green homes.
Project wants to use techniques bioconstrução.Cada still costs $ 7000.
Residents of the settlement's Big Island Paulino Tutóia, Maranhão, are benefiting from a pioneering experiment with: the construction of green homes.
The old house where she lived with her husband and daughter, Rosilene Machado only preserves the memory of the discomfort. "It was very small," he said.
Rosilene lives in a settlement of the Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), the Big Island of Pauline, one of 72 islands in the Delta of located between the states of Piauí and Maranhão.
The farmer was chosen by the Environment Ministry to receive the first home eco island. The project is a pilot and part of the government that wants to use bio techniques to improve the lives of people in the community. The bio is a technique that uses materials with low environmental impact.
The choice of this settlement took into account the conditions of environmental preservation of the island, the ease of transportation, tourist attractions in the community and the fact that there are already resources released by INCRA for housing improvement.
The house was built in Rosilene community projects in the community who received training. Outside walls, the bricks gave way to super adobe, a mixture of earth and clay, placed inside a bag of raffia. On the internal structure were used tadd adobes. Everything done on the island and the residents. Part of the wood used in construction were recycled from the former home of Rosilene.
Thermal Comfort
The architect responsible for the project is Cecilia Prompt, consultant to the Ministry of Environment and that was to guide the construction Maranhão. Cecilia explained that the green house is perfect for the climate, which guarantees the so-called "thermal comfort". "There are several factors that make it more environmentally friendly, including the aspect of thermal comfort," said Cecilia.
The house is a hundred square meters, with living room, kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms.
The family home Machado will serve as a demonstration unit of sustainable buildings. The idea is to use this technology to build another 33 homes in the community and bring this project to the coastal islands of Maranhao, which are protected areas.
On the Big Island of Pauline live 34 families who live from fishing and extraction of the crab. As the livelihood of the population depends on preserving the pilot project for bio help the community to learn how to build hurting the environment as little as possible.
Ecotourism
The island will be placed on ecotourism in the roadmap Tutóia. It is a proposal of the environment that encourages community-based tourism. The environmentally friendly homes will be an added attraction.
"It's a way to bring these people to work with tourism and receive dividends in a way that does not mischaracterize their culture and tradition," said Márcio Barragan, coach of the Chico Mendes. Each house costs $ 7000.
Residents of the settlement's Big Island Paulino Tutóia, Maranhão, are benefiting from a pioneering experiment with: the construction of green homes.
The old house where she lived with her husband and daughter, Rosilene Machado only preserves the memory of the discomfort. "It was very small," he said.
Rosilene lives in a settlement of the Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), the Big Island of Pauline, one of 72 islands in the Delta of located between the states of Piauí and Maranhão.
The farmer was chosen by the Environment Ministry to receive the first home eco island. The project is a pilot and part of the government that wants to use bio techniques to improve the lives of people in the community. The bio is a technique that uses materials with low environmental impact.
The choice of this settlement took into account the conditions of environmental preservation of the island, the ease of transportation, tourist attractions in the community and the fact that there are already resources released by INCRA for housing improvement.
The house was built in Rosilene community projects in the community who received training. Outside walls, the bricks gave way to super adobe, a mixture of earth and clay, placed inside a bag of raffia. On the internal structure were used tadd adobes. Everything done on the island and the residents. Part of the wood used in construction were recycled from the former home of Rosilene.
Thermal Comfort
The architect responsible for the project is Cecilia Prompt, consultant to the Ministry of Environment and that was to guide the construction Maranhão. Cecilia explained that the green house is perfect for the climate, which guarantees the so-called "thermal comfort". "There are several factors that make it more environmentally friendly, including the aspect of thermal comfort," said Cecilia.
The house is a hundred square meters, with living room, kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms.
The family home Machado will serve as a demonstration unit of sustainable buildings. The idea is to use this technology to build another 33 homes in the community and bring this project to the coastal islands of Maranhao, which are protected areas.
On the Big Island of Pauline live 34 families who live from fishing and extraction of the crab. As the livelihood of the population depends on preserving the pilot project for bio help the community to learn how to build hurting the environment as little as possible.
Ecotourism
The island will be placed on ecotourism in the roadmap Tutóia. It is a proposal of the environment that encourages community-based tourism. The environmentally friendly homes will be an added attraction.
"It's a way to bring these people to work with tourism and receive dividends in a way that does not mischaracterize their culture and tradition," said Márcio Barragan, coach of the Chico Mendes. Each house costs $ 7000.
Bioasfalto: Asphalt Green replaces oil with vegetable oil
By studying the effects of adding vegetable oil to the common asphalt, a U.S. engineer may have discovered an Asphalt Green, a possible replacement for asphalt-based petróleo.O Professor Christopher Williams, University of Iowa, was testing compositions better able to withstand the intense temperature variations that the asphalts are subjected, especially in the Northern Hemisphere, with severe snowstorms in years where it snowed, and summer temperatures that hit records year after year.But the result was much better than expected - the asphalt not only assimilate a larger share of bio-oil than expected, but also its quality greatly increases in road conditions and durability.Bioasfalto - Born bioasfalto then, with the first tests began to be made this month. Gains have already begun to be verified in application, since the bioasfalto can be applied to a lower temperature than traditional asphalt oil.Since these initial trials will focus on durability and resistance to temperature variations, the researchers chose a bike path at the university as a laboratory.The monitoring will be done on the bioasfalto for a year to cover all seasons.Professor Williams says the bioasfalto allows mixing petroleum-based oils are partially replaced by biomass derived from various plants and trees.Fast Pyrolysis - Bio-oil used in bioasfalto is created by a thermochemical process called fast pyrolysis, where corn stalks, wood waste or other biomass is heated rapidly in an environment without oxygen.The process produces a liquid vegetable oil that can be used for the manufacture of fuels, chemicals and asphalt.The process also creates a solid product called biochar - a charcoal - which can be used to enrich the soil and to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
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