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Power

Submission + - Helium leads to geothermal energy resources

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "When we think about alternative sources of energy, we often forget the potential of geothermal energy resources. In fact, it has been estimated that accessible geothermal energy in the U.S. represents 90 quadrillion kilowatt-hours or 3,000 times the country's total annual energy consumption. So far, it has been difficult and expensive to locate good sources of geothermal energy. But now, two U.S. researchers have found a new method which doesn't require drilling. They are using the ratio of helium isotopes in surface waters to point to the best sources of geothermal energy. But read more for additional references and a picture showing how sampling surface water can lead to new sources of geothermal energy."
Patents

Submission + - OLPC lawsuit-bringer has past fraud conviction? (boston.com)

Submitted by d0ida
d0ida writes: The Boston Globe posted an article online about LANCOR's lawsuit over the keyboard design: see http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/12/01/one_laptop_per_child_orders_surge/ "Negroponte said the lawsuit is without merit, because OLPC uses a keyboard programming technique developed in 1996, long before the Nigerian patent was filed. The founder of Lagos Analysis Corp., Ade Oyegbola, was convicted of bank fraud in Boston in 1990 and served a year in prison. Oyegbola insists his Nigerian patent is legitimate and said he plans to file a copyright-infringement lawsuit against OLPC in an American court."
Linux Business

Journal Journal: Linux ultraportable this year's must-have.

Journal by ozmanjusri
Several large online stores, including Amazon and CNET are billing the Linux-powered ASUS Eee PC as America's most wanted Christmas gift among notebooks products.

The Eee PC's US success is reflected in strong demand worldwide.

"In places such as Taiwan, US and Hong Kong, it seems like the Eee PC is sold out as soon as it appears on the market," Said Sunny Han, Director of ASUS Global Brand Center.
Patents

Submission + - Portable Nuclear Reactor to Power Homes (sfreporter.com) 1

Submitted by
Xight
Xight writes: "Santa Fe Reporter article about a portable nuclear reactor is the size of a hot tub, but is big enough to power 25,000 homes claims the company Hyperion Power Generation. Thing is they don't want to call it a reactor, but a really big battery since it is self-contained with no moving parts. If all goes according to plan, Hyperion could have a factory in New Mexico by late 2012, and begin producing 4,000 of these reactors."
Censorship

Submission + - creationists violate copyright (blogspot.com)

Submitted by The_Rook
The_Rook writes: the discovery institute copied Harvard University's BioVisions video, "The Inner Life of the Cell", stripped out Harvard's copyright notice, credits, and narration, and inserted their own creationist friendly narration and renamed the video "The Cell as an automated city". pretty insidious, as suggesting that a cell is like a city is to suggest that it was designed rather than evolved. it should also be of interest because the discovery institute, really more of a lawyer mill than a scientific institution, engaged in a particularly egregious example of copyright infringement.
Linux Business

Submission + - A Review of the $200 Wal-Mart Linux PC (lightandmatter.com)

Submitted by
bcrowell
bcrowell writes: "Wal-Mart's new $200 Linux PC has generated a lot of buzz among geeks. Although they're sold out of stores, I bought one for my daughter via mail order, and have written up a review of the system. The hardware seems fine for anyone but a hardcore gamer, but the preinstalled gOS flavor of Ubuntu has a lot of rough edges."
The Internet

Submission + - Sky's botched Google migration (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Rupert Murdoch-owned British ISP Sky is migrating their customers to the Google Apps platform, and the customer experience is terrible. Their 1m customers were told that they need to change their client settings to enable SMTP Authentication and other settings on a certain date — but not to do it before then or their e-mail would break; but if you don't do it on the date your e-mail will also break. Oh, and if you're a POP user you also need to enable that manually in the 'Skoogle' interface, as seemingly they chose not to run a system-wide command to allow it for all users. In addition, if you want help then you're pretty much on your own. One user has made 7 support calls and still not been able to access his e-mail since the migration. Hardly surprising that the story has made the papers with their helpdesk in meltdown. It does make you wonder why they simply didn't put proxy servers in place to proxy the new service by modifying the old settings in the network and give their customers time to switch over without their e-mail breaking in the meantime. Or even a simple ActiveX tool to help out the less technical users. Apparently the move is all about a greater customer experience for their users. An interesting way of showing it.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Close but no Cigar from Netflix 1

Submitted by
Ponca City, We Love You
Ponca City, We Love You writes: "In October 2006, Netflix, the online movie rental service, announced that it would award $1 million to the first team to improve the accuracy of Netflix's movie recommendations by 10% based on personal preferences. Each contestant was given a set of data from which three million predictions were made about how certain users rated certain movies and Netflix compared that list with the actual ratings and generated a score for each team. More than 27,000 contestants from 161 countries submitted their entries and some got close, but not close enough. Today Netflix announced that it is awarding an annual progress prize of $50,000 to a group of researchers at AT&T Labs, who improved the current recommendation system by 8.43 percent but the $1 million grand prize is still up for grabs and a $50,000 progress prize will be awarded every year until the 10 percent goal is met. As part of the rules of the competition, the team was required to disclose their solution publicly. (pdf)"
United States

House Narrowly Avoids Having to Debate Impeachment of Cheney 1033

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the sweep-it-under-the-committee-rug dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) yesterday successfully moved articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney to the House Judiciary committee. 'Today's resolution from Kucinich (D-Ohio) was essentially the same as the legislation he introduced earlier this year, which included three articles of impeachment against Cheney based largely on allegations that he manipulated intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war. The last article accuses Cheney of threatening "aggression" against Iran "absent any real threat."'"
The Internet

Submission + - Microsoft Plans $500 Million Chicago Data Center (datacenterknowledge.com)

Submitted by
miller60
miller60 writes: "Microsoft is planning a huge new data center in the Chicago area, as it continues to expand its Internet infrastructure in an effort to keep pace with Google in web-based services. The new facility in Northlake, Ill. may cost more than $500 million and is expected to span 440,000 square feet. Microsoft opened a 470,000 square foot data center in Quincy, Washington earlier this year, and is building a similar facility in San Antonio. Microsoft has also submitted plans for a $500 million data center campus in Dublin, Ireland."

Feed Engadget: Pink solar cells provide green power on the cheap (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

The race to build a cheaper solar cell continues to produce results, as researchers at Ohio State have developed a nanotech solar cell with a unique pink color that they say will one day be able to produce as much power as traditional silicon cells for a quarter of the cost. The dye-sensitive solar cells, or DSSCs, get their pink color from a mixture of ruthenium and either titanium or zinc oxide particles that absorb sunlight, while nanowires link the particles to provide power transfer. So far the team have gotten the cells to produce half as much power as traditional cells, but the next step is to start using nanowire "trees" to improve efficiency to equal or surpass those levels. No word on when we'll see this tech hit the market, but surely the prospect of a hot pink solar Cadillac isn't too far off.

[Photo is of an unrelated DSSC concept from New Zealand]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Feed Engadget: Archos 605 reviewed: it gives the giddiness, indeed (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video


The French PMP-maniacs over at ArchosLounge gotten their hands on the biggest and baddest of Archos' fifth-generation lineup, the 605 WiFi, and it looks like the device is pretty sweet. The user interface is praised as being exceptional, using 3D effects and the whole of the 4.3-inch touchscreen to make navigation simple. That screen wins high marks for another reason, as well: while it's a tiny bit grainy, the scratch-resistant surface somehow doesn't pick up any fingerprints or get greasy -- the bane of all touch devices. The Opera browser has been refined and now works with more websites (no Flash, though), while video streaming seems to work as advertised, although content is currently a little limited. Other than that, the only downsides seem to be the lack of an IM client and the fact that thinness comes at its usual price: the battery is no longer user-replaceable. We're not complaining, though -- this $300 music-playing, video-streaming, PDF-reading, widgetized wonder seems like a hit to us. Check the read link for the entire massive review, and here's hoping that recent FCC approval means we'll see this thing hit shelves in the States soon.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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