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Microsoft Releases Power Counter for Green Consumers

admin — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:39:56 +0000

Always on the cutting edge of “stuff that goes onto your power meter in the basement and you forget about” technology, Microsoft and Blue Line Innovations have teamed up to release the Hohm PowerCost Monitor and WiFi Gateway. The device sticks to your power meter and
reads the actual usag (N.B. it may not work on some older meters) and then transmits it to your Windows PC.The kit presumably forces you to change your habits by showing you just how much power you’re using at any one time.he device itself is bog standard – I saw a similar kit from Black&Decker recently – but it connects to your access point and the Hohm system
then translates the dollars and cents of power use into a handy graph.
The Blue Line PowerCost Monitor and WiFi Gateway are available today from Blue Line Innovations and through select retailers. The complete package of PowerCost Monitor and
WiFi Gateway is available for $249 (estimated retail price); consumers who already have the PowerCost Monitor can purchase the WiFi Gateway separately for $159 (estimated retail price).
Obviously the question is this: will this thing, when in place, be used and will this be another example of Microsoft abandon-ware? First, knowing the average early adopter, this will be cool for a few months and then sit on the power meter, ignored, until it falls off. My buddy has one of these and that’s exactly what happened: after a while, knowing you’re spending 2 cents on plugging in your Wii charger is lost in the miasma of other everyday information. The real trick here is to produce energy-saving devices rather than energy sensing junk.
Essentially, this smacks of something like the SPOT watches of yore – a cool technology in theory that is eventually too wonky to live on its own. Here’s hoping this dedication to green runs deeper through the company.

Dutch arrive at training camp

admin — Wed, 19 May 2010 20:51:53 +0000

The Netherlands’ 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ squad comprising players, management and families, arrived at a training camp at Seefeld in the Austrian Tirol on Wednesday.
In total 140 members of the Dutch entourage are in Seefeld to prepare for South Africa at altitude. “We’ve got a good team and if we play well we will have our chances,” said midfielder Rafael van der Vaart.
Three members of the squad – Bayern Munich duo Arjen Robben and Mark van Bommel and Wesley Sneijder of Inter Milan – will arrive on Monday after Saturday’s UEFA Champions League final in Madrid.
The Dutch, coached by Bert van Marwijk, face Mexico in a FIFA World Cup warm-up in Friburg, Germany, on 26 May. The Netherlands are drawn in Group E in South Africa with Japan, Cameroon and Denmark.

Fergie: US will reach second round

admin — Wed, 19 May 2010 20:47:48 +0000

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has backed the USA to do well at next month’s 2010 FIFA World Cup™ finals in South Africa – once they have played England.

The United States open their Group C campaign against Fabio Capello’s England in Rustenburg on 12 June before playing Slovenia and Algeria, and while Ferguson believes the Americans could go a long way in the tournament, he added that he is not expecting them to start their run to the latter stages until after their first game.

“In the group they’re in with England and Algeria, it’s not beyond them to qualify,” Ferguson said during a press conference in New York to publicise Manchester United’s summer tour to North America. “England will be very, very motivated under Capello. Capello is a really outstanding coach.

“Of course, he has some issues what his team is going to be to start with, but they will be difficult to beat. If [the US] can survive after that in terms of the next two matches, they have a very good chance at qualifying. In fact, I think they will qualify,” he said.

Ferguson, whose side will face a Major League Soccer All-Star team in Houston, Texas, on 28 July as part of a four-game tour through Canada and the US, pointed to Fulham’s Clint Dempsey and MLS 2009 player of the year Landon Donovan as the players to watch in Bob Bradley’s squad.

“You know, they’ve proved themselves in previous World Cups. Donovan, Dempsey, have some experience of being there before,” he said. “I don’t think they’re going to be overwhelmed with the atmosphere of the World Cup, the importance of the World Cup, the intensity. I think that will be easy for them. I think they’ll be used to that. Those players have that, Donovan, Dempsey. Dempsey has had a great season in England this year. They are very athletic, they apply themselves very well, and are difficult to play against.”

Backing Henry in the MLS
Ferguson also tipped former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry to be a great success in MLS should the France striker’s expected transfer from Barcelona to the New York Red Bulls be completed.

“He was an outstanding footballer with Arsenal,” the Manchester United manager said. “He was the best player. He had incredible speed and his goal scoring was exceptional. When he moved to Barcelona, that continued, although I think that Barcelona’s team, as it’s proved now in the last year or two, he found it difficult on that team.

“What you’re getting with Thierry Henry is enormous experience and presence. I would not say he’s deteriorated by any means. He’s still a very competent player. He doesn’t have the brilliant pace he had five years ago, but he’s still quick and he’s experienced. I think that when players get older, they know how to use speed better, their timing is better. I think he’ll be a success here, I have no doubt in my mind about that,” he also said.

Chile earthquake may have shortened days

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:09:59 +0000

Seventh strongest quake in recorded history may have shifted Earth’s axis
The massive 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile may have changed the entire Earth’s rotation and shortened the length of days on our planet, a NASA scientist said Monday.The quake, the seventh strongest earthquake in recorded history,hit Chile Saturday and should have shortened the length of an Earth day by 1.26 microseconds (millionths of a second), according to research scientist Richard Gross at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
“Perhaps more impressive is how much the quake shifted Earth’s axis,” NASA officials said in a Monday update.The computer model used by Gross and his colleagues to determine the effects of the Chile earthquake effect also found that it should have moved Earth’s figure axis by about 3 inches (8 centimeters or 2.7 milliarcseconds).
Earth’s figure axis is not the same as its north-south axis, which it
spins around once every day at a speed of about 1,000 mph (1,604 kilometers per hour). The figure axis is the axis around which Earth’s mass is balanced. It is offset from the Earth’s north-south axis by about 33 feet (10 meters).Strong earthquakes have altered Earth’s days and its axis in the past. The magnitude-9.1 Sumatran earthquake in 2004, which set off a deadly tsunami, should have shortened Earth’s
days by 6.8 microseconds and shifted its axis by about 2.76
inches (7 centimeters, or 2.32 milliarcseconds).
One Earth day is about 24 hours long. Over the course of a year, the length of a day normally changes gradually by one millisecond. It increases in the winter, when Earth rotates more slowly, and decreases in the summer, Gross has said in the past.The Chile earthquake was much smaller than the Sumatran temblor, but its effects on Earth’s figure axis were a bit larger because of its location. Its epicenter was located in the Earth’s mid-latitudes rather than near the equator like the Sumatran event.The fault responsible for the 2010 Chile quake also slices through Earth at a steeper angle than the Sumatran quake’s fault, NASA scientists said. “This makes the Chile fault more effective in moving Earth’s mass vertically and hence more effective in shifting Earth’s figure axis,” NASA officials said.Gross said his findings are based on early data available on the Chile earthquake. As more information about its characteristics are revealed, his prediction of its effects will likely change.The Chile earthquake has killed more than 700 people and caused widespread devastation in the South American country.
Several major telescopes in Chile’s Atacama Desert have escaped damage, according to the European Southern Observatory, which manages those facilities.

US plans ‘dramatic reductions’ in nuclear weapons

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:52:18 +0000

US President Barack Obama is planning “dramatic reductions” in the country’s nuclear arsenal, a senior US administration official has said.
This would come as part of a sweeping policy review designed to prevent the spread of atomic weapons, he said.
He added that the new strategy will point to a greater role for conventional weapons.Mr Obama is to meet his Defence Secretary Robert Gates later on Monday to discuss the new nuclear strategy.
The review “will point to dramatic reductions in the stockpile, while maintaining a strong and reliable deterrent through the investments that have been made in the budget,” the official said.He said the review would go further than previous reviews in “embracing the aims of non-proliferation. “Officials say thousands of nuclear weapons could be cut, in many cases by retiring weapons that are now kept in storage.
The new strategy will also seek to abandon plans put in place by the previous administration to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons for penetrating underground targets known as “bunker busters.”
The officials say the strategy will be an important step towards Mr Obama’s declared aim of reversing the spread of nuclear weapons and seeking a world without them.New partnerships Last April, Mr Obama outlined his vision of a world free of nuclear weapons in a major speech in the Czech capital Prague.
He spoke of putting an end to Cold War thinking, a process in which, he insisted, the US was morally obliged to play a leading role.
He called for the forging of new partnerships to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and a global summit on nuclear security, which will take place next month.
Ahead of the summit, the Obama administration began a wide-ranging nuclear policy review, which was initially supposed to have been released in December.
The BBC’s Jonathan Marcus says all the signs are that the first draft of the document has been rejected as being too wedded to the status quo and not sufficiently “transformational” to use the language favoured by the Obama administration.He says the review will be read closely to see what it might say about the potential circumstances in which nuclear weapons would be used, an issue Mr Obama is to discuss with Mr Gates.The review comes as the US and Russia appear close to a new deal to cut their nuclear arsenals, despite Moscow’s concerns over Washington’s missile defence plans.
The document will also set the tone for the next five-yearly review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT agreement, to be held in May.The Obama administration is hoping to bolster the NPT, amid growing concern over Iranian and North Korean nuclear programmes.Jonathan Marcus says Mr Obama will want to prevent the weakening NPT regime from unravelling, and to do so he needs to have powerful evidence that the US is taking its disarmament responsibilities seriously.