If you’ve every owned a dog that loves to play fetch, you know that it can sometimes feel like hours of ball tossing before your dog’s eagerness to run after the fuzzy yellow tennis ball runs out. Rather than wearing out your arm, why not build a robotic ball tosser?
Nanosolar recently announced the release of their ultra cheap solar panel, SolarPly. This is basically solar cells printed on aluminum. This “foil” is “non-fragile”, can be cut or bent to any shape, and doesn’t require soldering for electrical contact. While other manufacturers have been focusing on making their solar panels more efficient, Nanosolar has been focusing on making panels cheaper to produce. Nanosolar says SolarPly costs $1 per watt, which is just less than half of coal’s $2.10 per watt cost, and retail for $0.99 per panel (except on eBay).1
Canadian Cable Internet provider Rogers has started testing a system that will allow them to insert messages to their customers about billing and account status. While this may seem to be a fairly innocuous activity, it uses technology that Net Neutrality advocates find troubling. The concern is with how far, and for what purpose, an ISP might use a technology that allows adding or removing content from the Internet.
Google has decided to throw it’s weight behind a new initiative to make renewable energy more affordable than coal. Called RE<C, the program will support research in solar, wind, and geothermal technologies in an attempt to create a renewable energy source that can generate electricity more cheaply than burning coal. This is another step in Google’s “commitment to a clean and green energy future.” Last spring Google announced they would be carbon neutral by the end of 2007.
Even as Microsoft strives to expand it’s operating system exposure in foreign markets, Linux gets a boost at home from the nation’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart. Two weeks ago the king of discount shopping introduced a $200 PC. Now, the initial production of 10,000 units has sold out, which has some wondering if Linux has found the niche market it needs to become more mainstream.
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