The Solar Site

Alternative Technology

I worked for a Solar Electric installation company called EcoEnergies in the Bay Area from 2000-2003. When I quit to start my own web production company. I chose the name SunPoweredProductions.com, because I liked the metaphor of healthy websites having "roots", "leaves", "flowers" and "fruit".

The site has done well, but because of the name, I consistently get visitors looking for Solar Power. In order to try and direct these visitors somewhere useful, I created "The Solar Site" page, which draws on my experience doing solar in the Bay Area and my Alternative Technology investing knowledge.

Take a look at The Solar Site

Solar Power for Dummies

Alternative Technology

Interested in Solar Power? Here's an obvious place to start.

From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank

Alternative Technology

I have quite a few friends driving around in veggie oil cars. All of them have one thing in common. This book... From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank is an all you need to know on the revolutionary practice of turning fossil fuel diesel cars into renewable energy powered greenhouse gas efficient vegetable oil powered French fry cars.

The downside to vegetable oil power is that a great deal of farmland is required. While still probably a better solution than fossil fuels, with the adoption of veggie oil for cars there are now tracts of forest being cut down to fill up fuel tanks in several parts of the world.

Medieval II: Total War

Game Corner

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An extraordinary task to try and improve on Rome: Total War, but Medieval II is most definitely an improvement. The graphics on the battlefield are beautiful, however slower systems with older graphics cards struggle to capitalize. The big improvements to gameplay are with the AI on the battlefield. In Rome, the AI was idiotic at defending fortified cities. The enemy commander would place few units to defend walls and often needlessly retreat back to the city center. In regular combat the AI could be severely outdone by using feint cavalry charges to break up large enemy armies into manageable bits, that could be locally outnumbered and broken by cavalry charges to the flanks and rear. In Medieval II, the computer opponent places infantry and archers on the city walls opposite your troops and moves them to counter your movements and it is much harder to win regular battles. While the experienced player can still make enough progress to keep the game interesting, one can not depend on the same battlefield advantage as with Rome: Total War. The level of challenge involved in the campaign game is inspiring. I hope that in the near future the Total War series will come out with a multi player campaign game.

This excellent video by Attila16 will introduce you to the thunder of battle

Read more: Medieval II: Total War

Axis & Allies

Game Corner

One of the best boardgames ever made, Axis and Allies combines the history and drama of the second world war with deep strategy lacking in many modern computer games.

Below is an excellent video about Axis & Allies

Read more: Axis & Allies