Microreactors have already been used for on-site reforming of fuels, such as methanol or propane, to produce hydrogen to be used in fuel cells. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have designed very efficient ceramic microreactors to do this task. The scientists say that their microreactors are much better than other fuel reformer systems. They are now trying to reform gasoline and diesel, which are more widely distributed than propane — via Slashdot
A robot that glides along a layer of mucus inside the human intestine could make medical examinations like colonoscopies less painful for patients, say Dutch scientists. They are working on a snail-inspired robot that should be far gentler on the gut’s delicate lining
It seems Wal-Mart is threatening retaliation against studios who decide to offer movies on iTunes. The retailer seems a bit miffed that someone would dare to undercut their prices. This wouldn’t be the first time they’ve turned on a supplier for dealing with Apple — via Slashdot
Richard Branson, the British magnate and adventurer, said Thursday that all future profits from his five airlines and train company, estimated at $3 billion through the next 10 years, would be invested in developing energy sources that do not contribute to global warming
Time Warner said Thursday that it had agreed to sell AOL France’s Internet access business to Neuf Cegetel, a French telecommunications network operator, for about $365 million in cash
A copyright dispute between Google and a group of publishers in Belgium escalated Friday as the Internet search engine defied a court order to publish an earlier decision in the case on its Belgian web sites
It looks like Microsoft is once again looking to save a few bucks at the expense of minimising piracy, as the company has reportedly confirmed to IDG News Service that every version of Vista — from Home Basic to Ultimate — will ship on a single DVD when the OS is finally released. Of course the downside to this strategy is that somehow, somewhere, some clever hacker is going to figure out a way to get Ultimate onto his/her machine without the upgrade fee (after disabling WGA of course), and people the world over will gleefully follow suit
Torpark is a modified version of Firefox that automatically routes you through the EFF’s TOR servers, thereby anonymising everything you do online
The head of an organisation that fights unwanted bulk e-mail said Friday that an Illinois company will remain on its block list despite a court order and a steep monetary judgment. Spamhaus suggested it did not defend the case because it did not believe a court in Illinois had jurisdiction over the UK-based organisation. Steve Linford, the head of the UK-based Spamhaus, insisted the company sends spam that is illegal in the United Kingdom and said Spamhaus will continue to list the Illinois company on its block list
Hackers are taking advantage of a newly discovered vulnerability in Internet Explorer to install spyware on PCs that visit any of a number of Russian porn sites. The malware, first reported yesterday by researchers at Sunbelt Software, takes advantage of an unpatched flaw in the way IE processes Vector Markup Language (VML) code. VML is a language used to display graphic information on the Web. The attack appears to work on all versions of Windows running the IE 6 browser
Hackers using computer worms sneakily implanted via AOL instant messages were building a potentially evil botnet
, a Silicon Valley Internet security firm said on Tuesday
A burning laptop that frightened passengers at Los Angeles International Airport over the weekend was a ThinkPad, Lenovo confirmed Wednesday, and that notebook ships with Sony’s battery technology
All Scotland’s electricity needs could be met from renewable energy sources by 2050 under a bold vision for a greener future unveiled yesterday by Nicol Stephen, the deputy first minister. In an hugely ambitious pledge, the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats vowed to go further than the Executive’s existing commitment to meet 40 per cent of the country’s electricity requirements through renewable sources by 2020
Yahoo’s gotten Hollywood Records, owned by Disney, to release the new Jesse McCartney’s album Right Where You Want Me
, as unrestricted MP3 files. Apparently hell has frozen over — via Boing Boing
Researchers from Intel and the University of California at Santa Barbara have found a way to build low-cost laser chips that could eventually shuttle data around PCs at much higher speeds than today’s copper wire interconnects. The researchers combined the properties of a compound semiconductor material called indium phosphide, which emits light constantly, and silicon, which can be used to amplify and direct that light. They sandwiched the materials together to create a single device that can be manufactured using standard chip-making techniques
UK-based online trading site Betfair was granted a licence to operate in Australia this January; it built a new data centre and flew the whole thing from the UK to Tasmania on two chartered aeroplanes; in the first three weeks of going live, the company has achieved 100 percent uptime
An MIT researcher has a vision: Four hundred huge offshore wind turbines are providing onshore customers with enough electricity to power several hundred thousand homes, and nobody standing onshore can see them. The trick? The wind turbines are floating on platforms a hundred miles out to sea, where the winds are strong and steady
BAE Systems, one of the world’s biggest arms manufacturers, is designing a new generation of green
munitions, including lead-free
bullets and rockets with reduced toxins. It also wants to cut the dangerous compounds in its jets, fighting vehicles and artillery, which it warns can harm the environment and pose a risk to people
Toshiba will replace about 340,000 laptop computer batteries made by Sony worldwide, the latest in a string of Sony battery woes. The batteries, used in Dynabook and Dynabook Satellite laptops manufactured between March and May this year, could fail on the road because of problems with storing and transmitting power
Most studios have already picked a side in the HD-DVD / Blu-ray war, but for the few still contemplating a near suicidal attempt at a simultaneous DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-ray release, there’s help on the way. A pair of Warner engineers have been working on a way to get all three formats to hold hands on a single disc, and have recently filed a patent to that effect
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