Saturday, June 25, 2011

9 things that will disappear in our lifetime??

Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt to them. But, ready or not, here they come.

1. The Post Office
Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.

2. The Cheque
Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with cheque by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of pounds a year to process cheques. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the cheque. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business.

3. The Newspaper
The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.

4. The Book
You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that you are lost in the story, can't wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you're holding a gadget instead of a book.

5. The Land Line Telephone
Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they've always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes

6. Music
This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It's the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music purchased today is "catalogue items," meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with. Older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before the Music Dies."

7. Television
Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they're playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It's time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.

8. The "Things" That You Own
Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services." That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That's the good news. But, will you actually own any of this "stuff" or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?" Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.

9. Privacy
If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That's gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure that 24/7, "They" know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits. "They" will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again.

All we will have left that can't be changed are "Memories", and then probably Alzheimers will take that away from you too !

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Grow your own clothes...

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

What's best for my computer: Hibernate, sleep, or shut down?

Q: Does putting my computer to sleep help extend the battery life? What else can I do to save energy and make my new computer last?
A: We’ve all heard stories about what's best for a computer’s battery. That’s why I was excited to make friends with Fred Peters, president of Huntington Beach IT Services.
In addition to teaching computing courses in Orange County, Calif., Peters happily makes house calls to revive frazzled computers and the people who rely on them.

Here are his expert tips on how to keep your new laptop running smoothly.
Sleep mode vs. shutting down
Peters notes that your work process will determine whether it’s more efficient to use “Sleep” mode or simply shut down the computer. “It is never fun to have to consistently wait any amount of time if the shut downs are too frequent,” he says. "‘Sleep’ requires more power, but it boots up faster, while ‘Hibernate’ uses less power, but takes longer to come online.” That same logic applies to shutting off your computer completely.
“Your computer will become obsolete before you wear out your computer by turning it on and off a lot,” he adds. “It also doesn't take more energy to start a computer than to keep it running.”
Sleep mode requires a constant, though reduced use of power (0-6 watts). Peters also notes that colorful screensavers do nothing to conserve energy. Accessing your computer remotely with the Wake on LAN feature also can drain the power.
To get the most for your money, Peters advises adjusting power settings so that it automatically goes into Sleep/Standby mode after about 15 minutes of inactivity, and then shut it down at the end of your day.
Bionic battery life
To get the most out of your computer battery, Peters says to you have to give it a workout. Don’t keep your machine plugged in to an outlet. Instead, discharge the battery daily.
Size does matter
By purchasing a laptop, Peters says that you are ahead in the energy-saving game. Laptops use about 15-60 watts, while desktops use 65-250 watts — plus another 15-80 watts for a monitor.
He also adds that you can further conserve energy by using an LCD monitor and ditching the high-end video card unless it’s absolutely necessary. Also, turn off printers and other peripherals when they are not in use.
To kill “vampire power,” TreeHugger.com suggests purchasing a power strip. With all peripherals connected to one source, it’s easy to simply flip the switch on power hogs any time.

Establish a backup process
In addition to Peters’ great advice about conserving energy, I discovered the hard way that it also pays to save backup versions of your work. Invest in an external hard drive to hold your digital music library, special photos, and other key documents. Frequent backups ensure that your data doesn’t die with your laptop.
While you are in the process of backing things up, create an emergency file (on good old-fashioned paper) that contains your computer’s serial number along with other key data such as your credit card numbers and phone numbers to reach each company, along with contact info to your insurance company. Access to that information is vital, particularly in the event of an accident, fire, computer theft, or other catastrophe.
Peters warns that those key pieces of information are not safe on your computer. If you are like me and absolutely need a digital holding space for those nuggets of information, he suggests sites like Last Pass as your online vault.
Happy computing! Morieka
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Now Let me append hereunder certain contrary reports on discharging the laptop battery regularly as well as other stuffs upon Notebook batteries, gathered from the net : -

Notebook batteries are a common topic of discussion, and the vast majority of questions about them deal with prolonging their lives. There is a lot of information about Lithium Ion (hereafter Li-Ion) batteries to wade through. There are a lot of misconceptions floating around as well. This simple guide addresses the most common notebook battery questions and concerns.

How long will my battery last?
Your notebook battery will deteriorate over time whether you use it or not. Although the Li-Ion industry does not publicize this fact, your battery’s clock began ticking the moment it was assembled. The elements inside your battery slowly react with each other, eventually rendering the battery unable to supply the required power to your notebook. In addition, your battery is rated to last between 300 and 800 charge/recharge cycles. It will gradually lose charge capacity rather than abruptly fail to power your notebook.

The general consensus is that notebook batteries last one to three years. While you can slow the battery’s aging and loss of capacity, you cannot stop either decline. The temperature of the battery, combined with the amount and nature of its usage contribute significantly to your battery’s lifespan. You can ease the aging process with some care and maintenance.TemperatureLower temperatures slow down the self-discharge (loss of charge while disconnected) and aging process of the elements within your battery. Therefore it follows that higher temperatures shorten the life of your battery. Leaving your battery connected while on AC power causes the internal temperature of the battery to rise. Removing your battery and storing it in a cool, dry place will help to slow the aging process. Keeping your notebook in a hot environment is also detrimental to your battery.Amount of UsageThe Lithium-Ion batteries used in notebooks are rated to handle between 300 and 800 charge/discharge cycles. Some of these cycles are used when you leave your battery connected to your notebook while on AC power. On AC power, the notebook will routinely “top-off” the battery when its charge reaches predetermined levels (i.e. 95%). Removing your battery and storing it in a cool, dry place will help to preserve some of these cycles.Nature of UsageLi-Ion batteries do not suffer from the memory-effect (requiring complete discharge before recharging to avoid loss of capacity) like older rechargeable batteries. Regular full discharge/recharge cycles result in an increased loss of capacity per cycle. A series of partial discharge cycles are better for Li-Ion batteries than a single full discharge. You should, however, calibrate your battery routinely.
Connected or Disconnected when on AC Power?Things to consider if:

You are removing the battery while on AC power:
Pros:
• Preserves charge cycles
• Keeps the battery temperature lower thus slowing the aging process
Cons:
• Lose the battery as backup power during power outages and voltage drops
• Unsaved work will be lost and data may be corrupted without backup power
• UPS (uninterruptible power supply) needed to serve as backup power source

You are leaving the battery connected while on AC power:
Pros:
• Battery serves as backup power during power outages and voltage drops
• More convenient for “grab-and-go” use
• Battery doesn’t require sufficient warming time (as it would after being stored in the refrigerator)
Cons:
• Loss of charge cycles
• Battery’s temperature is higher on AC power resulting in accelerated aging

Quick Reference: Simple Guidelines
• Heat is your battery’s worst enemy. Avoid keeping your battery in hot places such as your car during the daytime.
• A full discharge puts more strain on your battery than several partial discharges. You do not need to worry about battery memory with Li-Ion batteries. Get into the habit of recharging the battery when it reaches 10-20%.
• Never discharge your battery to 0% – as this can render your battery useless.
• Calibrate your battery’s fuel gauge by doing a full discharge every 30 cycles. Run the battery to the cut-off point in your notebook to keep the battery’s fuel gauge accurate.
• If you will be on AC power for an extended period of time, you can prolong your battery’s lifespan by removing it and putting it into prolonged storage.
• Prolonged storage should be done with a 40% charge-level and in a cool, dry place. Some experts recommend you place the battery in your refrigerator. Use a sealed plastic bag to keep moisture out if you do this.
• Do not freeze your battery.
• Allow a stored battery to warm to room temperature completely before using or recharging it.
.........................
Ten Tips to increase your Laptop's Battery Life
Here are 10 simple, but effective tips to get more out of your laptop battery. There’s no rocket science involved. Just simple tricks.

Written by Tris Hussey of TNW.

Turn off WiFi and Bluetooth if you don’t need them. Obviously if you’re trying to be online when you’re on battery power you need to keep these on, but if you’re on a flight or someplace where you aren’t going to be online, just turn the WiFi off. Same goes for Bluetooth, if you don’t need it on, turn it off.
Turn down your screen brightness. While screens are a lot more efficient than the used to be, you can still squeeze more time out of your battery if the screen isn’t at full power. The trick here is turn down the screen until it’s too dark to use, then bump it up a notch or two. That should give you the right balance of brightness and power saving.
If you have a backlit keyboard, turn the light off. Just like the screen, the keyboard light drains the battery pretty quickly.
If you’re not using it, quit it. Every app that is running needs a little processor and hard drive time tostayrunning, all those apps add up to more drain. And don’t just quit the apps you can see all the extras like Dropbox or mouse tools or other add ons use power too…if you don’t really need them, just quit them.
If your laptop has a “power saving mode” use it. For example on MacBook Pros there is a setting for More Performance (it can tap into the graphics chip) or Better Battery (no graphics chip). Better battery is clearly the choice here.
Set your screen to turn off if not used in a couple minutes. I know it seems extreme, but if you can set your screen to turn off if you’re idle for a minute or two…believe it or not it will make a difference.
Have your computer go to sleep if idle for five minutes. Yes, I know, it sounds extreme, but still the idea is that if you’re not actively using your machine, then turning the screen off and going to sleep will help you eek out more power.
Avoid connecting things to USB ports or the DVD drive. You want to suck your batter dry in a flash? Connect a phone that needs to charge into your machine and watch a movie off the DVD drive at the same time. Those two are huge power draws, especially USB drives and phones that need charging (obviously a charging phone will suck power straight out of your battery). Just try to put off or avoid using them for long.
Use a RAM disk. This is a little geeky, but here’s the idea. If you need to work on a document instead of constantly reading and writing to your hard drive, a RAM disk is a temporary disk that is saved all in RAM. Not accessing the drive means less power usage. Back in the day we used to use RAM disks to speed up all sorts of functions on our machines (an old trick was to put your Firefox cache on a RAM disk), but the trick seems to have fallen out of favor. The utility I used on my Mac (and unwisely deleted) doesn’t seem to be available, but OS X Daily has simple instructions for Mac users. For Windows users I haven’t been able to find something that looks reliable (suggestions are welcome).
Run your battery down once a month. I know this is controversial. Yes, it was certainly true that older batteries had a “memory effect” problem, but it was thought that new ones didn’t. I guess we were wrong because even Apple recommends draining your battery once a month. In fact, I’m draining my battery as I’m writing this post. Not only that I’ve disregarded all the advice here (well except for using the DVD drive). It’s still taken nearly two hours to run the machine until it’s down to reserve power. The next step is to just let the the machine drop into sleep and run the battery completely down, then charge it back up.

Evolution of the Cellphone

SRA/Ericsson MTA (Mobile Telephone System A) - Year: 1956
.

The 88-pound MTA phone, shown here, is typical in size and weight of early mobile phone systems from the pre-integrated-circuit era. Most were so heavy and power-hungry that they required permanent installation in a car or other vehicle. Very few people owned, used, or even encountered such devices; for example, the service for the model shown here existed in only two Swedish cities and served a mere 125 subscribers from 1956 to 1967... [it was the] first automatic mobile telephone system (it didn't require a human operator to manually connect the user to an outside phone line).

Motorola DynaTAC 8000X- Year: 1983

Though Motorola announced the world's first handheld mobile phone--a prototype of the DynaTAC 8000X you see above--in 1973, it took ten years for the DynaTAC to reach the market... Upon its release in 1983, the DynaTAC 8000X became an instant cultural icon, both as a status symbol for the rich (thanks to the $ 3995 retail price--$ 8657 in 2009 dollars) and as an almost miraculous wonder-phone that a person could use anywhere. With the DynaTAC, the cell phone revolution had finally begun...
Motorola MicroTAC - Year: 1989

After the success of the DynaTAC, Motorola followed up with the much smaller and lighter MicroTAC phone in 1989. The MicroTAC included a novel space-saving idea: Motorola engineers placed part of the phone's hardware in a hinged section that could fold inward or outward as needed, thus reducing the phone's size when it wasn't in use. The flip concept lives on in many cell phones today...
Motorola StarTAC - Year: 1996

In 1996, Motorola further shrank its line of pocket cell phones, producing the 3.1-ounce StarTAC--which immediately proved popular and influential. The StarTAC expanded on the partially collapsible design of its precursor, the MicroTAC, by allowing users to fold the phone in half when they weren't talking on it. We now call this design "clamshell," for its resemblance to the way a clam opens and closes. The StarTAC's general design was widely imitated, and a large percentage of mobile phones still use it today...
RIM BlackBerry 5810 - Year: 2002

The BlackBerry brand began in 1999 as a simple two-way pager, but it morphed into a line of full-fledged smartphones in 2002 with the BlackBerry 5810, the first of the series to include integrated cell phone support. Thanks to top-of-the-line mobile e-mail and text messaging (the QWERTY keyboard didn't hurt either), BlackBerry phones soon became indispensable tools for businesspeople and other professionals... [it was the first] BlackBerry with an integrated voice cell phone [and] push e-mail support...

Sanyo SCP-5300 - Year: 2002

In 2002, Sprint and Sanyo released the first American cell phone with a built-in camera, the SCP-5300--and the public went crazy for it.

The camera phone became a bona fide cultural phenomenon, allowing the average Joe to quickly and personally share both mundane and earthshaking events with the rest of the world. Today, camera phones are so common that we don't call them "camera phones" anymore...

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Wanna check the New Android tablets.....

These New Android Tablets Will Be Thinner And Lighter Than The iPad 2

Samsung and HTC officially unveiled new tablets at the CTIA conference in Florida.

Most surprisingly was Samsung's redesign of the Galaxy Tab 10.1, which was originally introduced at the Mobile World Congress in Spain a few weeks ago. Samsung also introduced a 8.9 inch version of the Tab.

Both Samsung tablets run Android 3.0 Honeycomb and are thinner and lighter than the iPad 2. The 10.1 will be released on June 8th and the 8.9 will be released early this summer.

Sprint announced the HTC EVO View 4G, a seven-inch tablet based on the Flyer tablet unveiled at MWC. But unlike most new Android tablets, the View will only run version 2.3 Gingerbread instead of the tablet-optimized Honeycomb. It will be released this summer.

Here's a breakdown of the specs for the three tablets:

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1:

10.1 inch screen

Dimensions: 1.3 pounds and 0.34 inches thick (lighter and thinner than the iPad 2)

Android 3.0 Honeycomb

Cameras: 3 MP rear and 2 MP front-facing with 720p video and LED flash

1 GHz dual core processor

16 GB ($499) or 32 GB ($599) wifi-only models

USB 2.0 and Bluetooth

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9:

8.9 inch screen

Dimensions: 1.04 pounds and 0.34 inches thick

Android 3.0 Honeycomb

Cameras: 3 MP rear and 2 MP front-facing with 720p video and LED flash

1 GHz dual core processor

16 GB ($469) or 32 GB ($569) wifi-only models

USB 2.0 and Bluetooth

HTC EVO View 4G:

7.7 inch screen

0.5 inches thick and 0.93 pounds

3G and 4G mobile hotspot supporting up to eight devices

Available on Sprint's 4G network

Android 2.3 Gingerbread

32 GB of internal memory

Cameras: 5 MP rear and 1.3 MP front facing with HD video

Wifi and Bluetooth 3.0

No pricing available yet

Thursday, March 3, 2011

10 More Stupid Laws From Around The World

The original "Strangest Laws From Around The World" featured 15 of the strangest laws I could find. Researching and reading them is strangely addictive, so here are 10 more stupid laws.

Politicians do some downright stupid things. Sure, we all do. But these are the people who draft our laws - the ones who decide how the rest of us should live and behave. Maybe you consider wars you disagree with to be "stupid" decisions. Perhaps it's the latest report of infidelity from politicians that's getting under your skin. But today let's have some fun and look at the lighter side of government gaffs by exploring some incredibly stupid laws that may still be on the books.

In Pennsylvania it's illegal to have more than 16 women live in the same house.

I wanted to kick things off with an example of a dumb law from my own home state. I'm not sure if the specifics reported are right, or if it's still the case (as opposed to an old law). But I do remember the topic coming up periodically when I was in college. It was a concern for sororities where groups of "sisters" would share a sorority house.

In Sweden it's illegal to paint a house without a painting license from the government.

Well, if that's the case I'm glad I don't live in Sweden. I just painted my place this spring, and am planning to do some more paint touch-ups soon. While this sounds like a pretty stupid law, I could maybe understand it if it's outdated and became law out of concerns over lead-based paint or something.

It's reported that in San Antonio, Texas it's illegal to use your eyes or hands while flirting.

Why not just ban flirting altogether? Outdated, still on the books — I don't know. But this is one where I can't even begin to understand the logic if it's true ... not even in a historical context. You?

Don't send the kiddies trick-or-treating on Halloween in Virginia.

It's reported that doing so is illegal. Again, I'm not sure if this is legit or current. But the idea doesn't really surprise me. I know where I live Halloween trick-or-treating is very different than it was when I was a kid. They've put strict limits on the time kids can go out, and I seem to remember them deciding trick-or-treating should be a different day at some point — maybe if Halloween was on a school night. So no, if this is true, it wouldn't really surprise me. Just for curiosity's sake, have you seen changes in trick-or-treating since you were a kid too? Or do I just live in a dud of a town?

In Singapore, oral $ex is illegal (unless it leads to the real deal).

Let's be honest here. $ex laws can sometimes be the funniest. It's usually a case of them being outdated, based in times when public opinion was quite different. And when it comes to international $ex laws, I'm pretty "forgiving" because I certainly don't understand every culture out there. What sounds crazy to me might be perfectly normal there. But this one? I really hope it's just a joke or at least off the books now. Oral $ex is illegal, unless you use it as foreplay. Why do I suspect only a man could come up with that idea?

While we're talking about Singapore, tourists take note: it's also illegal to pee in an elevator.

Because apparently we need a reminder.

Way to go Fairbanks, Alaska! (They cleaned up filthy moose $ex on city streets!)

This is one of those reported laws that's so incredibly stupid I can't help but hope it's true (because that makes it all the funnier). As if animals give a moose's behind what our laws say. If it works, maybe my local officials can write a law that would stop those damned birds from crapping on my car.

In Canada, it's reported that it's illegal for clear and non-dark sodas to be caffeinated.

Ironically, just this morning I was talking to someone about caffeinated beverages (yes, my life is so relevant to my work!). I never actually knew that Mountain Dew had caffeine (haven't had it in years either). It was pointed out to me that it's indeed one of the most caffeinated sodas here in the U.S. So when I saw this stupid law I immediately thought of Mountain Dew. And I just had to look it up — is Canadian Mountain Dew different from "real" Mountain Dew? And it seems that it is (or at least was)! I don't understand why the law was created in the first place, but I found it to be one of the most interesting. Yes. I find soft drinks fascinating. Shut up.

In Washington State, it's illegal to use x-ray machines to find the perfect shoe fit.

The hilarity of this dumb law is in its specificity. Sometimes when you read about stupid laws, they're actually just taking general laws and twisting them to sound silly (like a ban on large animals such as big dogs on a beach being twisted to say you can't take a polar bear to the beach). But this one isn't one of those. The law specifically mentions shoe fittings, and you can see the actual text of the law in the source for this one. I could completely understand a law banning any non-medical use of x-ray equipment because of the radiation involved. But to specifically call out shoe fittings? What were they thinking? I just can't imagine so many people in Washington State trying to do this that they felt it necessary to make it illegal.

In New Jersey, it's illegal for a murderer to wear a bullet-proof vest while committing that crime.

Well, I guess if you can't get him on the other charges.

Friday, February 25, 2011

How Robots Are Going To Replace You In The Office

Face-to face meetings are important. According to Harvard Business Review, they help management teams root out negligence, increase productivity, provide a positive competitiveness, and deepen relationships with colleagues.

So it's not surprising that Americans took 427 million business trips last year. According to the Global Business Travel Assn., the bill for all this traveling to provide face-to-face contact between clients and companies was $228 billion.

Bloomberg Businessweek's Drake Bennet thinks there is a better, and cheaper, alternative to business travel: telepresence robots.

Bennet reports that the worldwide market for telepresence robotics is expected to grow from $556.1 million in 2010 to $13.1 billion in 2016. Robots that can be controlled from any location could be responsible for everything from office security and surveillance to holding remote meetings and virtual collaboration.

"On snow days we'll have well over half the guys on VGos [robots]," says Tom Ryden, cofounder of robot-maker VGo Communications. "They'll stop and chat with each other, robot to robot. You'll be walking down the hall and see two guys just chatting away, and they're both in some other location.'"

Only a few robot models are currently available -- and they are already in high demand. VGo Communications quickly sold out its first production run of 100. Another company, Anybots, currently has an order backlog of a month and a half.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Android Activations Visualized: See The Stunning Rise (VIDEO)

In case you had any doubts that Google's Android operating system has been on an impressive rise, the developers of the platform have just released a video featuring a visual representation of that growth.

From October 2008 to January 2011, the video follows Android activations around the world with a technicolor display of spurting spikes of light, that only get bigger as time goes on. Google says they now activate 350,000 Android devices each day, which comes to close to 10 million per month.

Watch the full video below:

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Best and Worst Cell Phones

Nokia ranks best among 16 brands of cell phones rated by GoodGuide, while BlackBerry was rated the worst. The ratings were released exclusively to WalletPop's Consumer Ally and will be online in their entirety this week.

Consumer Ally has teamed up with GoodGuide, whose experts have rated more than 65,000 consumer goods -- including food, toys, personal care and household products -- using factors that include concern for the environment, personal health and social responsibility, as consumers begin increasingly to consider those in addition to price.

GoodGuide's ratings also include a brief explanation for each category, though the user can drill down into each score for more detail. The health score measures a product's potential health impact on consumers.

The environment score is based on the impact of the product in question and the company's overall policies and practices. The society score evaluates social impact, which can include treatment of workers, workplace diversity, community involvement and corporate ethics.

The cell phone ratings mark GoodGuide's first foray into consumer electronics, and its experts tested hundreds of cell phones from 16 different manufacturers.

The complete cell phone ratings, which will include all best and worst products, are due to be published by Thursday. But in a WalletPop exclusive, below are the top five best and worst brands (averaging their GoodGuide scores):

5 Best Cell Phone Brands

Nokia (7.6)
Palm (6.6)
Motorola (6.4)
Sony Ericsson (6.2)
Pantech (5.9)

5 Worst Cell Phone Brands

Sharp (4.6)
Casio (4.5)
Garmin-Asus (4.3)
LG (4.1)
BlackBerry (3.3)

When the complete ratings are published, they'll also include information on the methodology used to rate cell phones, which we've summarized below.

Social Scores

Social scores were assigned to cell phone manufacturers by enhancing GoodGuide's standard indicators of corporate social performance. These scores also included an additional indicator identifying issues specific to the electronics industry: supply chain responsibility, specifically whether minerals used in a phone are sourced from conflict areas.

Environmental Scores

Scoring cell phones and phone manufacturers on environmental performance presented problems because few companies disclose information about their production practices or phone attributes. Reviewing manufacturer websites, GoodGuide determined that more than 90% of the phones on the market make no environmental claims whatsoever.

Health Scores

Health scores were not assigned to cell phones by GoodGuide due to a lack of scientific consensus whether cell phone use poses a significant health risk. All products rated by GoodGuide comply with the current FCC standard governing electromagnetic field radiation. For users that want to take precautions and limit their radiation exposure, GoodGuide ratings provide filters that make it easy to identify phones with the lowest emissions.

Google unveils payment platform for online content

Google will take a 10-per cent share of revenue from subscriptions managed through “Google One Pass,” less than the 30 per cent charged by Apple

Google unveiled an online payment platform for publishers on Wednesday, a day after Apple launched a subscription service of its own for newspapers, magazines, music and video.
Google will take a 10-per cent share of revenue from subscriptions managed through “Google One Pass,” less than the 30 per cent charged by Apple.
The new payment system for online content was announced by Google chief executive Eric Schmidt in a speech at Humboldt University in Berlin.
Lee Shirani, director of business product management for Google Commerce, said publishers who opt to use Google One Pass to charge readers for digital content can set their own prices and terms.
“Readers who purchase from a One Pass publisher can access their content on tablets, smartphones and websites using a single sign-on with an email and password,” Shirani said in a blog post.
“Importantly, the service helps publishers authenticate existing subscribers so that readers don’t have to re-subscribe in order to access their content on new devices,” Shirani said.
Google said publishers can offer readers a variety of options including full subscriptions or even single articles for purchase.
“With Google One Pass, publishers can customize how and when they charge for content while experimenting with different models to see what works best for them,” Google said.
“We’ve been working with publishers for some time now to help them find ways to engage their readers, attract traffic to their sites, and make money online,” said Carlo D’Asaro Biondo, Google vice president for Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
“By working with the publishing industry and experimenting with a variety of products, we can come up with tools to help journalism thrive online.”Google said its launch partners include German publishers Axel Springer AG, Focus Online (Tomorrow Focus) and Stern.de.
Others include France’s Le Nouvel Observateur, and Spain’s Prisa.
Google’s US partners are Rust Communications, publisher of the Southeast Missourian newspaper, Media General, which operates 18 television stations and 21 daily newspapers, mostly in the southeastern United States, and Bonnier Corp., publisher of Popular Science.
Google said Google One Pass is currently available for publishers in Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States.
Google’s announcement comes a day after Apple unveiled a subscription service for digital newspapers and magazines purchased through its online App Store.
While newspapers and magazines have been searching for new ways to charge for digital content and make money from mobile devices, Apple’s 30-per cent cut of each subscription purchased through the App Store raised some eyebrows in the struggling publishing industry.
Apple’s subscription service was first offered with The Daily, a digital newspaper for the iPad tablet computer launched earlier this month by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Can you believe it....Computers powered by poop....

Today almost everything runs on electricity. We use electricity to run trains, cook, lighting and so much more. Thus it is very important that people are able to know where they can get all the required electricity. People are able to tap energy from alternative sources of energy to help relieve the common sources of electricity.

Many companies are trying their best to try and cut down their electricity consumption. A good example would be Google. Google consumes a lot of energy. Google searches require the same energy that an 11 watt bulb requires when it's on for an hour. So one can be able to estimate how much energy is required for the Google servers and all other equipment to run. Thus Google has tried to cut their energy costs by developing advanced cooling methods and using energy saving techniques.

Others companies are also following the same trend. For example HP. It presented a paper to the 4th international conference on energy sustainability that describes how HP plans how they will use manure of cows to power their data centres. The title of the paper is design of Farm Waste-Driven supply Side Infrastructure for Data centers.

The manure that would be used will be from midsized dairy farms. Electricity will be derived form it by putting it through an anaerobic digester. The heat that is derived from this process would be used to power the turbines of the data centers cooling system. The electricity that is derived from this process will be used to power the data center. The temperature of the anaerobic digester would be regulated by the waste heat that is generated by the data center. This process ensures that there is maximum efficiency. This process also produces enough energy to be able to run the dairy farm. Thus one not only saves power use by the data centers but also the dairy farm.

According to HP, a dairy farm with about 10000 cows produces approximately 200000 tones of manure in a year. The manure produces methane gas. According to research this gas is more detrimental to the environment than carbon dioxide. The manure also pollutes the environment by polluting the rivers and streams. Thus HP using this manure to produce electricity will greatly improve the environment as it gets rid of this pollutant.

Other than reducing pollution, this process will also help boost the economy of the farms. The farms will be able to use this same electricity to run their farms and also earn huge chunks of money by selling the manure to be used elsewhere to produce the electricity. The farms can earn approximately two million dollars annually from selling the power that they produce.