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02.10
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On “Biofuel Review Part
3: Land Availability, Conversion, and
Deforestation”
(January
2010)
The underlying assumption is
that biofuels must be grown on or created from
crop, competing with food stuffs.
Discussion of biofuels being
generated by digestion of cellulose-based
materials (corn husks, leafs, sawgrass, food
waste, wood and the like) all being treated as
waste today is gaining increased attention.
Algae-sourced biofuels (the
original source of petroleum) have been
investigated, with feasibility proof being
generated with lage grown in man-made ponds in
Nevada deserts. There are many brackish and salt
water bearing types of algae than can used use
to grow oil equivalents that would not require
fresh water. Another possibility is the use of
sewer effluent to grow algae. All of these are
simply another form of solar energy used to
create liquid fuels directly.
It is always easier to "prove"
that something can't be done, by limiting the
discussion to existing systems and knowledge
than is is to bring in the new approaches that
change the underlying definitions and
constraints.
In the 1800s, there were studies
that proved that New York City would become
uninhabitable due to horse droppings from the
horses required to supply needed food and goods
to a growing population. Subways, cars and
trucks changed the rules.
Frank Muench
IEEE Member
Waukesha, Wis.
***
On Electronic
Medical Records — Sorting out the Alphabet Soup
of Health Care IT" (January
2010)
Thanks for this article. Good
information, good overview of the program. My
son is entering private practice next year. I am
forwarding him the information.
Jerry Courville
IEEE Member
Kinder, La.
***
Excellent! You did a splendid
job of starting to unclog the vocabulary pipe
for Healthcare Information Technology
Okaey Ukachukwu
IEEE Member
Gilberts, Ill.
***
On "What Does the
Bilski Hearing Tell Us?" (January
2010)
Nathan Bailey and Jill Browning
have provided a very good summary of the Supreme
Court hearing on the Bilski Case and of the
issues before the court. The ultimate issue is
where the line should be drawn between
patentable and unpatentable in so-called
business methods patent applications, which
include applications for what are termed
software patents. In the Bilski case, the
Supreme Court is considering a Federal Appeals
Court test of machine-or-transformation. If a
patent for a process involves a machine or a
physical transformation of something, then a
patent is warranted. If not, no patent.
I offer two other possible
tests. First, if the "invention" is little more
than Data In-Data Out, no patent. The second
suggestion is based on a description of a patent
I once heard from a USPTO official. He said a
patent consists of two things: an invention and
the words describing the invention. I would
argue that many patent applications in the
process field are long on words and short on an
"invention." Indeed, in far too many cases the
applications are simply describing ways of
organizing human activity, which in my mind
falls far short of an invention.
David Holland
IEEE Member
Alexandria, Va.
***
On "Embedded Systems Design:
Responding to the Challenge" (January
2010)
This article does a service
drawing attention to the deficit of
embedded-systems design engineers. However, I
think the outlined curriculum is deficient in
two respects: (1) no attention to software; (2)
no attention to control.
Rance
Cleaveland
IEEE Member
Arlington, Va.
***
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