In today’s world where fossil fuel is enervating and most of the energy is now being utilized from either sun or wind, basically engaging natural resources, everyone is trying to make its resources more energy efficient and environment friendly. Most of the companies are using green technology and many are investing most of their money in the same technology. As one of the leading companies in this field, Bloom Energy is mulling over to make its resources more energy efficient. The company is located in Sunnyvale California giving away solid oxide fuel cell technology and products for hydrogen generation and distributed electricity.

Bloom energy has declared to raise its capital to create market for its new product called Bloom Box. The company is planning to augment $150 million in sixth round; with co-operating with Advanced Equities investing the company has planned Initial Public Offering (IPO) which is of worth $1.45 billion.

So what makes this Bloom Box different from the rest of the technologies out there? According to the reports the Bloom Box takes in oxygen from one side and natural gas or biomass from the other, it is basically a large sized refrigerator. They are made by cutting small sand squares and then baking them turning them into a ceramic. Once turned into a ceramic it is then coated with black and green “inks.” Stacking them with metal plates, the Bloom Energy produce them with a special process.

Fateh missile the new and improved version of the old one has been successfully test fired by Iran. It is of longer range missile and surpasses it previous versions, reported by Iranian news agencies.

Iran’s defense minister Brig. Gen Ahmed Vahidi while briefing said that the Fateh-110 paid off the hard work of Iranian scientists, originally designed by them and it is a lot more accurate and long range than the ones before, state run Press TV and the semi official Fars news agency.

The dynamics of the Fateh-110 are 9 meters (29.5 feet) long and weighs about 3,500 kilograms which is 7716 pounds, it was still obscure regarding the Fateh-110 as a short or a medium range missile, said the Press TV.

According to the Fars the Vahidi thinks that the production of this missile will boost up the potential of field of defense as well as of technology. When the issue of Kuwait’s purchase of U.S made Patriots was raised the Iranian Defense Minister replied that Iran’s Fateh-110 project was by any means not interconnected with Kuwait’s Patriot missiles, reported Fars.

He further clarified that for us Kuwait is not hostile we have warm relation with each other but he did say that such a system (Patriot) was not needed by Kuwait.

(Columbia, Missouri) May 19, 2010 — Missouri Web Host, located in Columbia, Missouri, has decided to start off their new business right: by offering a half-off discount to new customers.

The discount will be applied to the lifetime of each individual account- it will never expire for those who lock in on the low price.

Those who opt for the plan will be placed on a shared Linux server, with no restrictions on bandwidth and disk space. As long as customers observe a fair use policy, there will be no unfair limits that other hosts place on shared hosting accounts.

The original price for the plan is $19.95 each month, which includes free telephone support from a Missouri-native. The discount takes the price down to $9.85 each month instead.

To claim the discount, visitors must go to http://MissouriWebHost.com. Missouri businesses are encouraged to get their accounts created before the coupon codes are all used up.

Apple has submitted a rather mysterious patent application, which appears to be a set of methods for lighting a display with external light sources — among which the sun seems to have the most… prominence. We all know how little patent illustrations actually resemble the devices which proceed from them, so I wouldn’t take these weird-looking line drawings as accurate representations of future apple products. Instead, try to wrap your mind around what they’re supposed to do . It seems that Apple is looking at ways of leveraging existing light sources to make its displays visible. Not by internal reflectance, which is how e-ink is visible in sunlight, but by piping and reflecting the light to the edges or back of the display. The applications of the technology are enumerated in the patent : …these electronic devices may not be used effectively in certain physical settings, such as, for example, where the external or ambient light is brighter than the illumination of the display screen. As a result, a user may not be able to view the information on the display screen sufficiently. For example, a user may have difficulty viewing the information presented on a display screen of a laptop computer while outdoors on a sunny day. Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide apparatus and methods for collecting external light to help illuminate a display screen of an electronic device. As for the actual device, they give a few options. One would have a reflector that shines light toward the back of the screen, another would have a “light harness” which I suspect would be a way of gathering light in one area and releasing it in another, and the third method I can’t seem to figure out. Would it work? Who knows? Chances are someone thought of something cool and their manager at Apple said “patent that sucker.” At least Apple admits that their stupid glossy screens suck in the daylight. [via The Register - "Apple display patent enslaves sun," lol]

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Apple patent watch: sun-lit displays

Another possible breakthrough for LCD TVs? Researchers at Japanese chemical company Teijin and Yamaguchi University claim they have developed a new technology that makes it possible to halve the weight of LCD TVs. Conventional LCD displays are based on silicon solid-state devices on glass substrates, which “sandwich” liquid crystals. These devices generate heat when used, forcing manufacturers to go for heat-resistant (heavy) glass substrates. But according to the researchers, they placed a thin layer of heat-resistant silicon dioxide on plastic (polycarbonate, to be more exact) instead. The plastic is lighter than glass substrates, which need solid frames to make them more stable. Plastic substrate frames are considerably lighter, with Teijin saying this will pave the way for LCD TVs that weigh 50% as much as normal. The company also claims their production method will lead to clearer images (using plastic substrates makes it possible to build higher-power solid-state devices into the TVs). Teijin plans to enter a joint venture with a major electronics makes and commercialize their technology within the next three years. Via The Nikkei [registration required, paid subscription]

Link:
Coming soon: 50% lighter LCD TVs

My aunt called last night to ask about a laptop she saw advertised in the weekly circular. It had most of the features she wanted, and was priced lower via the ad than she’d seen online for a similarly configured laptop. This led to a brief discussion of name brand preferences for laptops, and the price differences between them. I had to explain to my aunt that you get what you pay for: a laptop is made up of lots of little parts, each available from a variety of OEMs and distributors. Different brand name laptops use different OEMs and distributors for their parts, so the quality of the individual components inside the laptops vary wildly. Generally speaking, better quality parts cost a bit more, but provide better performance and better reliability. A recent study from DRAMeXchange Technology (who?!) proves this point as it relates to solid state drives. According to an Infoworld story , DRAMeXchange Technology found that there exists a “wide disparity” of quality in SSDs, due to controller chips, NAND chips, and firmware. Intel ranked number one in their tests at the 100-160GB range, as well as in the 60-80GB range. Top grades for performance were given to companies for a number of criteria, including best performance for the price, best overall transmission efficiency, best high-speed writing, best system boot disk, and best high-load input/output. The research company plans to conduct tests to determine if SSD performance declines after long-term use.

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You get what you pay for, with SSDs and just about everything else

My aunt called last night to ask about a laptop she saw advertised in the weekly circular. It had most of the features she wanted, and was priced lower via the ad than she’d seen online for a similarly configured laptop. This led to a brief discussion of name brand preferences for laptops, and the price differences between them. I had to explain to my aunt that you get what you pay for: a laptop is made up of lots of little parts, each available from a variety of OEMs and distributors. Different brand name laptops use different OEMs and distributors for their parts, so the quality of the individual components inside the laptops vary wildly. Generally speaking, better quality parts cost a bit more, but provide better performance and better reliability. A recent study from DRAMeXchange Technology (who?!) proves this point as it relates to solid state drives. According to an Infoworld story , DRAMeXchange Technology found that there exists a “wide disparity” of quality in SSDs, due to controller chips, NAND chips, and firmware. Intel ranked number one in their tests at the 100-160GB range, as well as in the 60-80GB range. Top grades for performance were given to companies for a number of criteria, including best performance for the price, best overall transmission efficiency, best high-speed writing, best system boot disk, and best high-load input/output. The research company plans to conduct tests to determine if SSD performance declines after long-term use.

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You get what you pay for, with SSDs and just about everything else

Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cox are busy funding some new, super-duper anti-BitTorrent technology called BitStalker . The difference between it and other anti-BitTorrent systems is that it’s said to be accurate . That’s a huge development, actually. The Man and those sycophant ISPs are sick and tired of punk kids downloading Valley of Neptune , despite the fact that it’s not 2005 anymore, and every kid under the age of 14 already knows how to do so with his eyes closed and while he’s doing his maths homework. To that end, they’ve enlisted the aid of BitStalker, which, unlike older anti-BitTorrent systems, is an active system. It doesn’t just sit back and try to sniff out your packets, but rather goes into there and actively looks. The difference between a “no drugs allowed” sign and a drug-sniffing dog. Worst metaphor ever? I’d say so. The best part is that, even though this new BitStalker business is supposed to be so much more effective at detecting illegal BitTorrent activity, TorrentLeech spoke to a bunch of top BitTrrent sites (not to be confused with topsites ) and found that they’re completely unimpressed with the technology. So while the BitStalker people can claim all sorts of magic claims, the fact is the people who would most likely be affected by it couldn’t give a toss. Back to Real Madrid-Lyon.

The rest is here:
Top BitTorrent sites are not afraid of BitStalker

We’ve told you about the iTable before , and PQ Labs. They showed off their latest stage in the development process at CeBIT this year, by installing the screen into a coffee table. The newest version can register up to 32 touch points and actually determine the shape of the object being placed on the screen. But to me, that’s not the real story. The real story is that they installed a game that’s near and dear to my heart, Warcraft III . To me, this is the true future of the touchscreen interface, and the part of the technology that I’m excited about. It’s definitely worth your time to watch the video and see how far they’ve come in the development process, and how they are stacking up against their competitors . [via Gizmag ]

Originally posted here:
The iTable continues to develop and show gaming potential

Just so you know, I’m not making light of warfare — it’s just that virtual training like this, while valuable, does remind one simultaneously of Modern Warfare and Ender’s Game . Of course, as this article notes , the current generation of potential soldiers has grown up in a digital age and expects a little Xbox with their ammo box. Training has, since the introduction of America’s Army in 2002 (remember, everyone thought it was going to suck, and it really didn’t at all), incorporated more and more virtual or simulated training, though admittedly the technology used is decidedly last-generation still. But when you can save a million rounds of ammo by having your recruits shooting pixelated guys in a 360-degree combat room like this one, the benefits are clear. I wish we didn’t have to send 19-year-olds into a war zone, but every advantage we can give them is helpful. And for the record, if I had to have someone watching my back while bullets whiz past, I wouldn’t mind if it was one of my old Counter-Strike clanmates.

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360-degree virtual combat room is like Iraq: The Arcade Game