|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Interior Dept. wants 100GW of solar power on federal land |
Ars Technica
|
| (+ Subscribe) Posted on: Thursday, July 02 2009 04:18 AM |
|
|
On Tuesday, the US Department of the Interior announced plans that should radically streamline the process of building utility-scale solar facilities in the US Southwest. After having surveyed terrain administered by the Bureau of Land Management, the DOI has identified the best sites for solar facilities. It will now withdraw these areas from consideration for other uses and undertake a single environmental review for all of them. Assuming their use for solar power production is approved, the land may be able to produce roughly 30 percent of current US residential energy use.
The program, which was published in the Federal Register in order to solicit public comment, was jointly announced by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Senate leader Harry Reid (D) of Nevada, one of the states included in the program; the rest are Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. The move follows a general solicitation for comments on solar production using BLM lands that was initiated last year. Participants obviously thought it was a good idea, and the stimulus bill provided the DOI with $41 million specifically to promote the production of renewable energy on public land.
Click here to read the rest of this article
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| GPS-Based System For Driving Tax Being Field Tested |
Slashdot
|
| (+ Subscribe) Posted on: Wednesday, July 01 2009 08:37 AM |
|
|
| An anonymous reader writes "Apparently, since gas consumption is going down and fuel efficient cars are becoming more popular, the government is looking into a new form of taxation to create revenue for transportation projects. This new system is a 'by-the-mile tax,' requiring GPS in cars so it can track the mileage. Once a month, the data gets uploaded to a billing center and you are conveniently charged for how much you drove. 'A federal commission, after a two-year study, concluded earlier this year that the road tax was the "best path forward" to keep revenues flowing to highway and transportation projects, and could be an important new tool to help manage traffic and relieve congestion. ... The commission pegged 2020 as the year for the federal fuel tax, currently 18.5 cents a gallon, to be phased out and replaced by a road tax. One estimate of a road tax that would cover the current federal and state fuel taxes is 1 to 2 cents per mile for cars and light trucks.'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| China Gives Up on Green Dam, People Celebrate |
Mashable!
|
| (+ Subscribe) Posted on: Wednesday, July 01 2009 04:54 AM |
|
|
In a very unexpected move, the Chinese authorities have indefinitely postponed their order that all PCs sold in the country must come with software, called Green Dam Youth Escort, that blocks certain websites.
According to Reuters, Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, who had previously organized a protest against the Green Dam initiative, has also called the people of China to celebrate its demise. About 200 Beijing residents, dressed in t-shirts mocking Green Dam, have arrived at a trendy art zone cafe to party all day in celebration of this victory in a war against censorship.
The Chinese authorities were under a great deal of pressure from various trade groups, American, European and Japanese chambers of commerce, and the U.S. National Association of Manufacturers, which send a letter of protest against the measure, claiming it “raises significant questions of security, privacy, system reliability, the free flow of information and user choice.”
The combination of a huge public outcry against Green Dam and the reluctance of PC sellers to comply probably wouldn’t have been enough to convince the Chinese government to give up on Green Dam, but the fact that this measure was obviously undertaken in haste, with Green Dam itself having some serious issues (it doesn’t, for example, support 64-bit operating systems), was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back. In a word, Green Dam was not only unpopular; it was nearly impossible to implement.
Unfortunately, however important, this victory is a minor one. The Green Dam initiative was only postponed by the The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology; it could be reinstated at a later date. Even more importantly, Chinese internet users are still behind the iron veil of the Great Firewall of China, which blocks them from visiting certain websites, with the blockade often spreading to the most popular internet destinations. I hope that the Chinese authorities have really softened up when it comes to censorship, but I fear that this might only be a minor drawback in their quest for total control the Chinese internet.
Tags: censorship, china, Green Dam
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| WiMax/In Home and Mobile Bundles Coming From Comcast |
VoIP Watch
|
| (+ Subscribe) Posted on: Tuesday, June 30 2009 05:41 AM |
|
|
A lot of time and words are spent bashing Comcast by many a pundit, but you can't ignore the fact that as a company they clearly have a strategy and a very defined one that says "we want to be you communications company."
In Portland Oregon, a market they serve in competition with iLec Qwest much in the same manner that Cablevision competes mostly with Verizon in the metro New York region, the cable giant is showcasing just why the invested in ClearWire after Sprint proved once again they can innovate but not market Xoom, their mobile WiMax play backed now by a consortium of cable operators and technology players including Google and Motorola, as well as Intel, who always plays the role of the Insider.
Rethink Wireless points out that:
Comcast is offering a 12-month introductory rate. For $50 a month, a subscriber gets 12Mbps home cable broadband and WiMAX, which is only a $7 premium over the cost of cable broadband alone (and includes a free Wi-Fi router). A national 3G add-on is an extra $20 a month and roaming to other Clearwire WiMAX markets is free. After the one-year trial the tariff goes up to $73 a month ($93 with 3G). There will be a $99 charge for a dongle (and other devices to follow in future), though people who commit to a two-year deal get the gadget for free.
To me, the $20 a month national mobile calling plan is a new low in pricing, and while the number of minutes weren't revealed, at the end of the day for $73 a month to have mobile WiMax, voice and cable broadband is a sweet deal. All they're missing is a WiFi roaming deal and this would make the WiMax bundle direction to really consider if you lived in the covered area. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Some Overheating 3GS iPhones Glow Pink |
Slashdot
|
| (+ Subscribe) Posted on: Wednesday, July 01 2009 01:51 AM |
|
|
| Hugh Pickens writes "The Telegraph reports that dozens of users of the recently released iPhone 3GS have reported overheating issues, with some iPhone owners unable to pick up the device because the handset gets so hot to the touch, while others say the casing turns pink with the heat. 'I am definitely experiencing issues with the iPhone running warm and quick battery life lost,' writes Tom Goldstein on one discussion board. 'The phone seems to warm up almost immediately if I am doing anything that pulls data over the network.' Some users have said the device has been too hot to put to their ear while making a phone call, and others say the overheating seems to occur when owners are using the iPhone's mapping software, which uses the handset's built-in GPS technology. Melissa J. Perenson writes at PC World: 'I became aware the handset had become very hot. Very, very hot — not just on the back, but the entire length of the front face, too.' Some gadget experts believe faulty batteries could be the cause of overheating and poor battery life. 'My guess is there's going to be a whole lot of batteries affected because these [iPhones] are from very large production runs,' said Aaron Vronko, who fixes iPods and iPhones. 'If you have a problem in the design of a series of batteries, it's probably going to be spread to tens of thousands [of device], if not hundreds of thousands, and maybe more.'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Interview With A Patent Troll... Which Skips The Key Questions |
Techdirt
|
| (+ Subscribe) Posted on: Tuesday, June 30 2009 02:38 PM |
| Tags: patent |
|
|
Aaron Martin-Colby points us to Good Magazine's softball interview with Erich Spangenberg, considered by many to be one of the more successful "patent trolls" or "non-practicing entities" out there. The interview is a huge disappointment, though, as the interviewer basically only gives a superficial hearing to the reasons why Spangenberg is causing tremendous harm, and instead tries to paint him as a "Robin Hood" figure, taking money from super wealthy companies (she leaves out the "distributing it to the poor" part, because, you know, that doesn't actually happen). She ignores the economic arguments (which are long and quite detailed) of how much harm such activities do to the economy by shifting resources from actually making stuff to just transferring money around to lawyers.
But worst of all, the article presents Spangenberg as always being right and always having big companies settle (or that he wins his cases). You would think that any profile on Spangenberg would include little facts like that he was caught shuffling patents around in order to sue companies multiple times over the same patent -- despite a settlement promising not to. Doing so eventually cost Spangenberg $4 million. Robin Hood? Or how about his attempts to stretch what highly questionable patents cover? For example, patent 5,493,490, which covers a system for making electronic proposals to buy cars (which, yes, you would think seems obvious enough, but what do you know?), which Spangenberg is asserting against dozens of companies who don't sell cars, but do sell other stuff online.
The problem isn't that there are people who sue without ever making stuff (even though that's what some claim). The problem is that the patents are ridiculous and never should have been granted. Giving someone a total monopoly on an invention (and, despite claims to the contrary, in reality, patents do cover "ideas" not just inventions) should only be granted in extreme circumstances. Yet, the Patent Office hands them out like lollipops to children at times. But, unfortunately, this interview doesn't get into any of that. The reporter seems swept off her feet by Spangenberg bragging about his wealth and who he knows, and doesn't bother to ask any of the important questions.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Amazon Cuts Off Affiliates In Hawaii And Rhode Island... Who Else Wants To Try? |
Techdirt
|
| (+ Subscribe) Posted on: Wednesday, July 01 2009 02:31 AM |
|
|
Last week, Amazon decided to cut off North Carolina affiliates due to proposed legislation that would have affiliates (really, advertisers) be considered as local "employees" for the sake of proving that Amazon had a business "nexus" in the state, and thus need to collect state sales tax there. It appears similar legislation is popping up across a bunch of states, and Amazon is cutting off affiliates one by one. Affiliates in both Hawaii and Rhode Island have been told that they can no longer sell via Amazon over this issue. It'll be interesting to see if any states back down. Pissing off a bunch of small business owners who make money selling products via Amazon probably isn't a particularly wise thing to do in the middle of a recession.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| What Went Down At Rackspace Yesterday? A Power Outage And Some Backup Failures. |
TechCrunch
|
| (+ Subscribe) Posted on: Tuesday, June 30 2009 01:21 PM |
|
|
As many of you know, a lot of the sites that use Rackspace as their hosting provider were down for about an hour yesterday. That’s because Rackspace went down. Apparently, it was a power outage at a data center that caused it, an incident report that we’ve obtained explains.
While Rackspace has backup systems in place, a series of events apparently caused those backups to fail, resulting in the servers going down. Here’s the key nugget:
The breaker on the primary utility feeder tripped, initiating a sequence of events that ultimately caused a power interruption in Phase I and Phase II of the data center. All systems initially came up on generator power without customer impact. The ‘A’ bank of generators, which support UPS clusters A and B in Phase I and UPS cluster E in Phase II, then experienced excitation failure which escalated to the point where the generators were no longer able to maintain the electrical load. Rackspace then attempted to switch to our secondary utility feeder, but was unable to do so due to an issue in the Pad Mounted Switch (PMS). At approximately 3:15pm CDT, power supply through UPS clusters A, B and E was lost when the batteries in those clusters discharged, and equipment receiving power through those clusters experienced an interruption in service.
The service says only one of its nine data centers were affected by this failure, but many high profile sites collapsed as a result, including EventBrite, Justin Timberlake’s site and Michelle Malkin’s popular political blog. As Rackspace noted yesterday that “We owe better, and will deliver.”
Below, find the full incident report.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Windows 7 Beta automatic shutdowns begin today, RC users safe until March 1st |
Engadget
|
| (+ Subscribe) Posted on: Wednesday, July 01 2009 01:49 AM |
|
|
You're not still running Windows 7 Beta are you? Tsk tsk, better get your RC build before your system starts spontaneously shutting down every 2 hours. As Microsoft has warned repeatedly, Windows 7 Beta builds will begin bi-hourly shutdowns starting on July 1st in a bid to move you over to the latest release candidate. RC user will suffer the same treatment starting March 1st, 2010 on the way to a June 1st expiration -- well after the October 22nd launch date of Windows 7 to retail. This concludes this Engadget public service announcement, your regularly scheduled snarkiness will return in a moment.
[Thanks, Kyle]Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablet PCs Windows 7 Beta automatic shutdowns begin today, RC users safe until March 1st originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Asus Eee PC T91 launch slips to “late July” in UK |
Netbook Choice
|
| (+ Subscribe) Posted on: Monday, June 29 2009 03:04 AM |
|
|
There has been much speculation as to when Asus’ first convertible netbook, the 8.9-inch Eee PC T91, will start to hit retail. At the very beginning it was believed to launch in ‘late May/early June’, this then slipped to “early July” and now it seems that this has slipped to “late July” according to our [...] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|