10 Feb., 2019 | Webfundsachen
Wasserstoff: Deshalb zögern deutsche Autohersteller noch
Wasserstoff: Deshalb zögern deutsche Autohersteller noch
http://bit.ly/2BrvGbi
40 Milliarden Euro wollen die deutschen Automobilhersteller in den nächsten drei Jahren in alternative Antriebe investieren. Wasserstoff spielt dabei jedoch keine große Rolle. Tatsächlich fließt nur ein Bruchteil der Investitionssumme in Brennstoffzellen. Anders sieht es im asiatischen Raum aus.
By Rl91 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://bit.ly/2TC5Isu), via Wikimedia Commons
Folgt Trendsderzukunft auf Youtube und Instagram
Wasserstoff als Alternative zu Elektroautos
Elektroautos haben nach wie vor ihre Schwachstellen. Insbesondere die Tatsachen, dass die Reichweite begrenzt ist und die Batterien anschließend neu geladen werden müssen, schreckt viele potentielle Käufer ab. Die Reichweite-Problematik wird besonders deutlich, wenn es draußen kalt ist. Der Jaguar i-Pace etwa hat laut WLTP-Normzyklus eine Reichweite von 467 Kilometer. Unter frostigen Bedingungen schafft er kaum noch 300 Kilometer. Brennstoffzellenfahrzeuge könnten hier echte Alternativen schaffen, die ohne normalen Verbrennermotor auskommen.
Ganz auf dem Abstellgleis ist der Wasserstoffantrieb auch in Deutschland nicht. So arbeitet Daimler etwa an einem Baukastensystem für Brennstoffzellen, das 2022 im Elektrobus eCitaro zum ersten Mal zum Einsatz kommen könnte. Allerdings ist die Technologie auch nach 25 Jahren Forschungsarbeit noch deutlich teurer als Batteriesysteme, was die deutschen Hersteller zögern lässt.
Anders sieht es in Asien aus. Der koreanische Hersteller Hyundai will beispielsweise bis 2030 700.000 Brennstoffzellensysteme pro Jahr herstellen. Der Hersteller setzt darauf, dass Wasserstoff-Antriebe den Transportsektor nachhaltig verändern werden. Und die deutschen Hersteller wollen mitmachen: Audi ging diesbezüglich eine Partnerschaft mit Hyundai ein, BMW arbeitet mit Toyota zusammen.
LOHC soll Infrastrukturprobleme lösen
Ein zentrales Problem der Brennstoffzellen ist ihre Effizienz: Etwa die Hälfte der eingesetzten Energie geht verloren. Außerdem hapert es an Infrastruktur: In Deutschland sind nur 55 Tankstellen entsprechend gerüstet, bis Ende 2019 sollen es dann 100 sein. Konventionelle Kraftstoffe können indes an mehr als 10.000 Tankstellen nachgefüllt werden, und auch Ladepunkte für Elektroautos gibt es inzwischen in großer Zahl – auch wenn die diesbezügliche Infrastruktur ebenso noch ausbaufähig ist.
Ein Team rund um Prof. Peter Wasserscheid, der das Helmholtz-Institut für Erneuerbare Energien in Erlangen-Nürnberg leitet, möchte das Infrastruktur-Problem für Wasserstoff lösen. Dazu haben die Forscher eine kraftstoffähnliche Flüssigkeit entwickelt, mit der es möglich ist, Wasserstoff mit der bereits existierenden konventionellen Kraftstoff-Logistik zu speichern, zu lagern und zu transportieren. Dabei setzen sie auf eine bereits bewährte Chemikalie: „ Seit den Sechzigerjahren sind industrielle Wärmeträgeröle im Einsatz. Sie sind billig und extrem hitzestabil. Im Unterschied zu heutigen Kraftstoffen stellen sie also kein Gefahrgut dar„, so Wasserscheid. Die Trägerflüssigkeit mit dem Namen „Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier“ (LOHC) kann pro Liter mehr Wasserstoff binden als die gleiche Menge Druckgas bei 700 bar.
Erster Einsatz auf Schienen
Um LOHC wie geplant einsetzen zu können, muss aber die Technologie der Brennstoffzellen angepasst werden. Aktuell wäre es lediglich möglich, LOHC günstig an Tankstellen zu liefern, die den darin gebundenen Wasserstoff dann in Hochdruckgas transformieren, um im Anschluss Wasserstoffautos betanken zu können. Der nächste Schritt wäre jedoch, den Wasserstoff im Auto selber aus der Trägerflüssigkeit heraus in der Brennstoffzelle zu Strom zu transformieren. Mit 80 Litern LOHC käme ein Fahrzeug dann etwa 500 Kilometer weit. Die Tankzeit läge bei etwa drei Minuten. Erste Prototypen werden bereits unter Laborbedingungen getestet.
Ihren ersten Praxiseinsatz soll LOHC jedoch auf der Schiene absolvieren. In Deutschland sind 40 Prozent des Bahnnetzes noch nicht elektrifiziert, woraus ein akuter Bedarf an Wasserstoff-Loks als Alternative zur dieselgetriebenen Variante resultiert. Um Züge mit Druckwasserstoff zu betanken, müsste die komplette Infrastruktur neu aufgebaut werden. LOHC ermöglicht es jedoch, die vorhandene Technologie zu nutzen. Grund genug für das Bayerische Wirtschaftsministerium, Fördermittel in Höhe von 28 Millionen Euro zu bewilligen. Damit soll innerhalb von 5 Jahren ein LOHC-Nahverkehrszug auf die Schienen gebracht werden.
Auch ein Einsatz direkt im Auto ist grundsätzlich möglich, wenngleich noch problematisch. Es müsste ein extra Reaktor mit Pufferbatterie eingesetzt werden, um das Gas aus der Trägerflüssigkeit freizusetzen. Außerdem müsste der Wasserstoff aufgrund der empfindlichen Brennstoffzellen von den Rückständen der Flüssigkeit befreit werden.
Technologie
via Trends der Zukunft http://bit.ly/2TX0BUn
February 8, 2019 at 03:01PM
10 Feb., 2019 | Webfundsachen
Tencent moves into automotive with $150M joint venture
Tencent moves into automotive with $150M joint venture
https://tcrn.ch/2E4dXIG
China’s internet firms are getting pally with giant state-owned automakers as they look to deploy their artificial intelligence and cloud computing services across traditional industries. Ride-hailing startup Didi Chuxing, which owns Uber China, announced earlier this week a new joint venture with state-owned BAIC. Hot on the heels came another entity set up between Tencent and the GAC Group.
GAC, which is owned by the Guangzhou municipal government in southern China, announced Thursday in a filing it will jointly establish a mobility company with social media and gaming behemoth Tencent, Guangzhou Public Transport Group alongside other investors.
The announcement followed an agreement between Tencent and GAC in 2017 to team up on internet-connected cars and smart driving, a deal that saw the carmaker tapping into Tencent’s expertise in mobile payments, social networking, big data and cloud services. Tencent, which is most famous for its instant messenger WeChat, went through a major restructuring last October to place more focus on enterprise-facing services, and the GAC tie-up appears to fit nicely into that pivot.
Tencent shakeup puts the focus on enterprise
The fresh venture will bank a capital infusion of 1 billion yuan ($149 million) with GAC owning a 35 percent stake. Tencent and Guangzhou Public Transport will take up 25 percent and 10 percent, respectively.
A flurry of Chinese internet service providers have made forays into the automotive industry, marketing their digital and machine learning capabilities at old-school automakers. Besides Tencent, GAC has also recruited telecommunications equipment maker Huawei and voice assistant startup iFlytec to upgrade its vehicles. Search titan Baidu, on the other hand, operates an open platform for autonomous driving cars and has chosen state-owned Hongqi to test out its autonomous driving solutions. Ecommerce behemoth Alibaba has also set foot in transportation with a smart sedan jointly developed with state-owned SAIC.
Technologie
via TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2S7UdIS
January 31, 2019 at 02:14PM
10 Feb., 2019 | Webfundsachen
9 Online Learning Platforms for Quality Professional Development
9 Online Learning Platforms for Quality Professional Development
http://bit.ly/2RSJPDJ
Professional development is more than just a job perk—it’s a job requirement. In order to learn the newest technologies and best practices, you need to keep up with the latest developments in your field. Online professional development courses offer an opportunity to hone your existing skills and pick up new ones as you grow in your career.
What Makes a Great Online Platform for Professional Development?
Online professional development has come a long way since Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, took off in 2012. Then, they were generally free and offered unlimited enrollment (hence the „massive“ and „open“). Now, courses come in all shapes and sizes, with different levels of interactivity, instructor engagement, and commitment required.
As we evaluated various platforms, we looked for several things. First, we wanted to be sure that the platform was authoritative—whether that means an affiliation with a reputable institution of higher learning or instructors with impressive experience levels.
We also looked for platforms with breadth; that is, they cover either a wide array of subjects or all the topics that are central to a specific area. Additionally, the courses offered on these platforms dig deep into the material. We’re not looking for courses that just check a box. Finally, we favored platforms that offered some sort of certification that you can add to your resume.
In the end, we narrowed it down to nine popular online platforms for professional development. Take a look and see which platform offers the right courses for you.
9 Online Platforms for Quality Professional Development
Coursera for course variety
edX for professional certifications
Alison for an affordable alternative
Udacity for cutting-edge courses
LinkedIn Learning for day-to-day skill-building
Skillshare for courses in creative fields
Codecademy for programming courses
General Assembly for interaction with instructors and mentors
Udemy for niche courses
Coursera
Best online professional development platform for course variety
If you want to develop a variety of skills, Coursera will give you the breadth of options you want without sacrificing quality. With roots in the Computer Science department at Stanford, its early offerings focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). Now Coursera now offers over 2,700 courses in almost any field imaginable.
If you want to earn a certificate for your course, you’ll need to complete the course assignments, usually in the form of quizzes. But if you’re just interested in learning something new to develop your skills, and don’t need to prove to future employers that you’ve done so, you can audit most courses for free, viewing all the course material without participating.
If you’re up for a major commitment, they offer Professional Certificates in Applied Project Management and Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship. These certificates are intended for knowledge workers with some experience under their belt. But before you shell out the hundreds of dollars required, be sure that the employer you’re looking to impress will be swayed by this accomplishment.
Each course is affiliated with a university, corporation, or other organization, and the credentials of the instructors are clearly laid out. In many cases, you’re learning from the most respected professors in a given field.
Coursera Pricing: Many courses can be audited for free; pricing for individual courses ranges from $29-$99, specializations range from $39-$79/month, and degrees can run anywhere from $15-$25,000/program.
edX
Best online professional development platform for professional certifications
With roots in Harvard and MIT, edX is focused on hardcore academics. Still, they offer a few ways to consume the material, depending on your goals. Their XSeries Programs let you dig deep into a subject (e.g., data analysis in Excel), and they also offer about 100 Professional Certificates Programs in everything from mortgage backed securities to corporate finance to front-end development.
The edX user experience skews low-tech compared to some of the others on this list, but the authority of the instructors is apparent. For example, you can take a course on data science from a Harvard professor or a course on big data from a Microsoft content developer.
As a non-profit organization that runs on its own open-source software platform, edX practices what it preaches. Compared to many of its competitors, it offers an impressive amount of educational content for free, requiring only an investment of time and cerebral wherewithal. Of course, if you want a certification, it’ll cost you.
edX Pricing: Audit many of edX’s courses for free; fees for courses that provide credentials vary greatly, from as low as $50 for individual courses, to a few hundred dollars for certificates, and as much as $25,000 for a master’s degree.
Alison
Best online professional development platform for an affordable alternative
Courses on Alison are based on courses from institutions of higher learning including Yale, Columbia, and Cambridge, as well as corporations like Microsoft and Google—and it’s often presented by the same professors and experts who teach the live versions of the courses.
Founder and CEO Mike Feerick makes a point of adhering to the high ideals early MOOCs were founded on, such as open source ideas and the free flow of information. That’s why much much of Alison’s content is free, and you can download your „learner record“ at any time for proof of completion. Even the certificate courses are much more affordable than the competitors‘: You can get a course certificate for just over $20.
Alison Pricing: You can access all content on Alison for free (with advertisements); even Alison’s paid courses are quite affordable compared to their in-person counterparts.
Udacity
Best online professional development platform for cutting-edge courses
Udacity is a creature of Silicon Valley—and it shows. It’s distinguished by its partnerships with tech giants like Google and its emphasis on advanced, cutting-edge topics: things like deep learning, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and self-driving cars.
Udacity’s Nanodegree programs provide learners with focused coursework developed with industry partners, who, according to Udacity’s website, hire many of the programs‘ graduates.
And you know you’re getting authoritative material. For example, the Google Analytics Nanodegree is presented „in collaboration with“ Google, and the instructors are certified Google Analytics partners. And the Intro to Self-Driving Cars Nanodegree is taught by people like Sebastian Thrun, one of the pioneers of autonomous vehicle development.
Udacity Pricing: Some courses are free; Nanodegree costs vary by program.
LinkedIn Learning
Best online professional development platform for day-to-day skill-building
Founded in 1995 as Lynda.com and later acquired by LinkedIn, LinkedIn Learning offers bite-sized courses that can get you up and running on a given subject quickly.
For example, there’s a 35-minute course that teaches the soft skill of delegating, and an hour-and-a-half-long course on digital marketing. Compare that to the comparable 29-hour course offered by Coursera. Of course, the LinkedIn courses don’t dive as deep, but if you’re just looking to understand the basics and pick up the key vocabulary needed to communicate about a topic, it absolutely does the trick.
Plus, with nearly 1,000 courses just on business software and tools, it’s a great place to start for visual learners who are looking for quick but thorough app tutorials.
Of course, because you’re able to consume so much, it’s also a bit more expensive: After a free trial month, monthly subscriptions are $29.99 per month. (Post-acquisition price hikes have proved predictably controversial.) The good news: LinkedIn Learning is popular with employers who want to provide professional development as a perk at work, so you could encourage your employer to give it a try.
LinkedIn Learning Pricing: From $29.99/month for access to unlimited courses; some premium LinkedIn subscriptions include free access to LinkedIn Learning.
Skillshare
Best online professional development platform for courses in creative fields
Skillshare presents itself less as an academy and more as a community. The 25,000+ courses available are created by professionals who want to help other professionals learn new skills (and make some cash in the meantime, of course).
There are business and technology courses available, but some of Skillshare’s most unique courses fall under what it calls the Creative category. Because these courses are offered by community members, you end up getting more niche classes, like iPad Art: Create Robots.
For such a potpourri, most courses are of remarkably high quality. Of course, you’ll still need to be more discerning as you choose your courses since you can’t go by name recognition as you can on other platforms. Be sure to read the bio of the instructor before diving in.
Skillshare Pricing: Some free classes are available; from $15/month for Skillshare Premium that includes unlimited access to more than 25,000 courses.
Codecademy
Best online professional development platform for programming courses
There are plenty of places you can go to learn to code online. But if you’re serious about it, Codecademy should be your go-to. Codecademy has been criticized for moving too fast—among other things—but it will teach you the material quickly and thoroughly.
Plus, unlike many learn-to-code platforms, there are instructors who will review your code and give you personalized feedback to be sure you’re on the right track. So if you’re looking to learn programming, web development, or data science and you have the energy for an intensive class, try Codecademy.
Codecademy Pricing: Many courses are free; from $39.99/month for Codecademy Pro.
General Assembly
Best online professional development platform for interaction with instructors and mentors
General Assembly offers courses both in person and online, and focuses on development, design, and data. Throughout the courses, you’ll be consistently in touch with instructors, TAs, and mentors, who are largely drawn from local professional organizations. You might find yourself learning from a product designer at Facebook or a web developer at Coca-Cola.
These relationships are valuable during the course, but the value extends long after you finish. You’ll be networking while you’re taking the courses, and General Assembly prides itself on its alumni network. In a day and age when connections lead to jobs, this isn’t something to laugh at. Of course, it also means you’ll pay a hefty fee: Courses are usually thousands of dollars each.
General Assembly Pricing: Prices for courses begin in the high three-figures and extend to over $13,000 for full-time coursework. There is one free coding class.
Udemy
Best online professional development platform for niche courses
Courses on Udemy can be contributed by anyone.
Before you run in the other direction, there’s a review system that can help you cull through the 80,000+ courses in the marketplace and find those that have been approved by other learners.
Because the contributors have a wide variety of backgrounds, you’ll find niche courses like The Complete Guide To Multifamily Real Estate Investing. So if you’re looking for a course that you can’t find anywhere else, chances are you’ll find it on Udemy.
Udemy Price: Some courses are free; premium courses range between $20 and $200 but often go on sale for less.
There’s no reason you can’t take courses on multiple platforms. If you don’t mind jumping around a bit, you can find the right course using Class Central, a search engine that aggregates online courses from several of the platforms on this list.
Is the student ready to become the teacher? Make your own course. It’s a gratifying and sometimes lucrative way to share what you know and build your authority in your area of expertise. Many platforms will walk you through the process of creating and promoting an online course. Some are simple and easy to use, while others provide options for granular tweaks, custom branding, and more. Here’s our primer on how to do it, with a detailed look at the pros and cons of the leading platform options available.
Technologie
via The Zapier Blog http://bit.ly/2P0SSRp
February 5, 2019 at 01:16PM
10 Feb., 2019 | Webfundsachen
Recommended Reading: Building a life in ‚World of Warcraft‘
Recommended Reading: Building a life in ‚World of Warcraft‘
https://engt.co/2SmyxfX
Blizzard
My disabled son’s amazing gaming life in the ‚World of Warcraft’Vicky Schaubert,
BBC News
This is an amazing story from parents about their son who suffered from a rare degenerative muscular disorder. After his passing, they discovered that Mats had lived a full life through video games. He made friends all over Europe in the process, rather than being confined to an isolated existence due to his medical condition.
One way ‚The Social Network‘ got Facebook right Megan Garber,The Atlantic
Facebook recently celebrated its 15th birthday, so The Atlantic took a look at back at the film that chronicled the company’s origins. While the movie has its flaws, it did foreshadow the trials Zuckerberg & Co. are currently facing.
The challenge of America’s first online census Issie Lapowsky,Wired
The 2020 census is going digital in the US, and to say there are challenges to making it happen is a massive understatement.
The anger inside Gary Clark, Jr. Patrick Doyle,Rolling Stone
Gary Clark, Jr. is one of the most talented musicians in the game right now, and the current political climate is fueling a fire inside of him.
The rise of the iPhone auteur Ben Lindbergh,The Ringer
Steven Soderbergh’s High Flying Bird is the latest in a library of movies that were filmed entirely on an iPhone. The Ringer examines how this still rarely-used technique has benefits and how it could eventually become the norm.
Technologie
via Engadget German https://engt.co/2O2sS7J
February 9, 2019 at 08:09PM
