Filed under: Laptops

So now that HP's joined Dell in releasing information on which laptops have those defective NVIDIA GPUs, we can sort of piece together which chips are faulty -- and just as had been rumored, it looks like basically every Geforce 8600M and 8400M chip is affected. That's not good news for NVIDIA, which has been saying that only "previous-generation" chips were problematic -- unless the chipmaker is planning on updating the hugely popular 8x00 series sometime, say, now, that's not exactly true, now is it? Other affected chips appear to be in the GeForce Go 7000 and 6000 lines, as well as the Quadro NVS 135M and the Quadro FX 360M, but that's just looking at model numbers, and we can't be exactly sure. We'd say that if you've got a machine with any one of these GPUs, it might be wise to call in and see what your laptop maker is going to do -- and it would be smart for NVIDIA to come right out and say exactly how big and how bad this problem really is.

Read - Dell list of machines and patch
Read - HP list of machines, extended warranty infoPermalink|Email this|Comments

Despite worldwide food shortages and falling farm production in the United States, little attention has been paid to a critical piece of the agricultural production web: Fertilizer.

Industrially produced fertilizer accounts for a huge increase in agricultural productivity over the last 30 years -- the so-called "green revolution" -- but its production consumes about 1.5 percent of all the energy used worldwide and produces a huge amount of planet-warming carbon dioxide along the way.

You'd think that would mean scientists would have an easy time getting funding for research into less energy- and carbon-intensive ways of fertilizing crops. You'd be wrong.

"The fact that I have a Nobel Prize doesn't keep me from losing my funding," said Richard Schrock, an MIT professor who won science's most prestigious prize in 2005. "The amount of money that is required is not available at this point."

More money could lead to a world-changing breakthrough. Schrock and David Tyler, of the University of Oregon, have been closing in, slowly but steadily, on new ways to get the air's nitrogen to react and transform into the ammonia that powers the global food system.

Schrock was able to use a molybdenum catalyst to take protons and electrons -- which would normally stick together to form hydrogen -- and instead produce ammonia. Now he's working on revisions of his process that include different forms of hydrogen.

Tyler, meanwhile, published a major paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in which he reduced nitrogen using hydrogen and an iron catalyst. Tyler said his team "had almost" created the right catalyst for converting hydrogen and nitrogen into ammonia. Some members of his team anticipate a major breakthrough as early as this year.

"There's an enzyme called nitrogenase, found in bacteria, that will make ammonia," Tyler said. "If nature can do it, you'd think scientists ought to be able to reproduce it."

So far, no dice.

If there was ever a field crying out for innovation, fertilizer is it. Most fertilizer production depends on a 99-year-old industrial method known as the Haber-Bosch process, which produces ammonia, the chemical precursor to nitrogen fertilizers. By one scientist's count, the 87 million tons of ammonia that are produced each year by this process feed 40 percent of the world's population (.pdf).

However, the energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process depends on using lots of natural gas, both as a source of hydrogen and for the power needed to cook the chemicals.

Given all the demand, natural gas prices have doubled since the mid-90s, and the price of ammonia has tripled. That's bad news for farmers, especially those in the developing world who already have limited ability to purchase fertilizers.

"Why are the Chinese using so much energy?" Tyler asks. "It's making ammonia plants."

Some environmental and organic farming groups contend that just "greening" the process of making ammonia isn't enough. They point to the problems that nitrogen-based fertilizers cause. Nitrogen gets into rivers, which carry the fertilizer to the coasts of developed countries. There, algae feast on the stuff and use all the available oxygen in the water. The result: dead zones off the coasts of countries that use the fertilizers. Other groups argue that heavy input of fertilizers encourages monoculture: planting huge tracts of single, high-yield plant species, a practice they say is bound to be environmentally destructive.

But given rising populations and rising food prices, the world might not be in an either/or situation: We could need new farming methods and new ways of making ammonia.

In a twist worthy of an Arthur C. Clarke novel, the global scale of the problem all comes down to the way that electrons arrange themselves around the nucleus of nitrogen atoms. A nitrogen atom has five electrons in its outer shell, so it has a tendency to share three electrons with another nitrogen atom to create a triple covalent bond, one of the strongest in nature.

Learning how to break that bond was a tremendous breakthrough for human technology -- all the more remarkable given that bacteria can do it with relative ease. But all of the world's nitrogen-fixing bacteria only produce about as much nitrogen as humans do now. With world population estimates continuing to grow, any process that aims to replace Haber-Bosch would need to be able to replace existing nitrogen production and then some, in order to meet the world's growing demands.

So while billions of dollars in venture capital are flowing in to cleantech companies that would only make small differences in the world's energy balance, research into new fertilizer tech is inexplicably underfunded.

"Something like this, the big guys would jump all over it," Tyler said, "assuming we could do it."

: Photo: Courtesy Victorinox

The first spring-loaded Swiss Army knife, the Offiziersmesser, included a single knife blade, two screwdrivers, a can opener and an awl punch.

When it was registered as a trademark by Swiss-blade-craftsman Carl Elsener 111 years ago, no one would have believed that his simple multifunctional tool would dominate the survival/useful gadget market for more than a century.

Over the years, useful attachments ranging from spoons, forks, USB keys, toothpicks, lighters and compasses have all recessed quietly into the elegant steel handle with the familiar White Cross logo. What began with a few surgical instruments and razors led to a revolution characterized by three important qualities: Durability, portability and multiple-purpose utility.

Click through the gallery to see the Swiss Army knife's cultural impact and the current tools it inspired. (Do you have your own favorite multitool? Tell us about it in the comments.)

Left: The classic Swiss Army design for the 2008 collection contains a few more basic tools than the original design.

: Photo: Donald Stampfli/AP

Cuban President Fidel Castro proudly holds up the Swiss Army knife he received as a gift from the Swiss Press Club on May 20, 1998, in the notoriously politically centrist city of Geneva, Switzerland. We’re guessing he used it to chop off the end of a fine Cuban cigar.

The toughest individuals in the world, as well as the not so rugged, carry Swiss Army knives. U.S. presidents have been known to cradle a Swiss Army in their pocket, and astronauts keep them in the space shuttle, just in case.

President Lyndon Johnson was known to commission thousands of personally engraved Swiss Army sets to be sent out to his friends and most loyal supporters.

: Photo: Karl Mathis/Keystone

Former President George Bush shows off the Swiss Army knife he received from Carl Elsener, chief of Victorinox, left, in Lugano, Switzerland, 2001. Carl is the descendant of founder Karl Elsener.

The Swiss Army knife was one of the first multifunction tools to be available to the public, and the knife's use on the battlefield contributed to its popularity, especially after World War II. The Victorinox Swiss Army Company is currently the most-recognized tool brand in the world.

The origin of the company’s success comes from an early modification by Karl Elsener. When building the first tool for the Swiss Army, he included a sharp-edged "erasing" blade that could be used to erase the pen handwritings of the Army officers. (He included the corkscrew later on, as a lifestyle-specific addition.)

: Photo: Wenger/Keystone/Photopress

Among the many top Swiss Army knives, the 24-tool Champion is often ranked among the most prized and efficient, but the craziest one of all has to be 2007's Swiss Army Knife XXL, left, (created by former rival Wenger, after its 2005 acquisition by Victorinox). Selected by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's Most Multifunctional Pen Knife, the XXL includes 87 tools and 141 functions. But doesn’t it defeat the spirit of the original's weightless portability?

:

One of the world's first true gadgets, the Swiss Army knife initiated the quest for the perfect multitool. Today, the dream of a unified tool is mostly fantasy, but there are tons of specialized innovations that follow in the spirit of the original Victorinox standard.

The Crank Brothers Multi-19 bicycle tool includes four different screwdrivers, a chain tool, seven different types of hex keys (all made out of superdurable high-tensile steel), a spoke and an open wrench. It's also ridiculously light at only one-third of a pound.

This type of tool is usually reserved for an emergency, but it’s indispensable for a quick adjustment or repair.

:

The Li'l Guppie looks like the metal, horror-movie version of the Nemo clownfish, but this little multitool is no joke. Based on a wrench platform and its older precursor, the Guppie, the Li’l Guppie is one of the most popular form factor tools today: keychain tools.

Even if you are disgusted by its unbearable cuteness, the number of features will undoubtedly win you over. Among its features are an adjustable wrench jaw, a blade made out of high-carbon stainless steel, a screwdriver tip, an additional Phillips screwdriver and a pocket clip. Not only that, but the tail end of the gadget serves as a bottle opener.

:

The Shopro multifunction hammer pushes the multitool outside the realm of knives, but also out of the realm of pockets. Not too many multitools provide the weight balance necessary to include a quality hammer. True, it won’t drive like a forged-steel sledgehammer, but it makes up for lack of strength with portability.

The Shopro is able to separate into two different sections, so when the torque (for the pliers) is applied to the connected sections around the handle, the grip functionality is transferred to the jaws. And it’s also very manageable -- it’s about the same size as a Wiimote.

The Shopro also includes pliers, a nail puller, large- and small-slotted screwdrivers, a serrated saw, a large and a small knife and a bottle opener.

:

The Leatherman is the brave multitool that dared to question the superiority of the Swiss Army knife as the best multitool out there, and lived to create its own niche. The four-inch long, 100 percent stainless steel Pocket Survival Tool was interesting from the beginning because it fit the needs of everyone from the construction worker to the weekend warrior, mainly because of the simple, durable pliers and the comfortable grip.

That first version also included wire cutters, a clip-point knife, a metal/wood file, a ruler, different screwdriver sizes and an awl punch -- all in a small container which rendered pocket-size the regular toolbox.

By the time Leatherman tools were selling over a million a year in 1993, and Keanu was using it to open elevator doors in Speed, the tool had become a household name.

Solution: give them more Windows Vista!

A leading Wall Street cheerleader for Windows Vista has taken the gloss off a new Microsoft website encouraging customers to give Windows Vista a go.