Biofuel breakthroughs at the University of Georgia and Iowa State
July 31, 2008
Biofuels, generally ethanol, are becoming more and more popular as an alternative to fossil fuel. The emissions are cleaner and the fuel is essentially “home grown” so little to no reliance on foreign oil interests. Unfortunately, the processes used to make ethanol from corn or other plant materials has been costly and inefficient. Developments at the University of Georgia and Iowa State should make ethanol production more efficient and cost effective.
Ever since Google Street View was launched in May 2007, there have been concerns from some quarters about how much the scheme infringes on civil liberties. While most of the USA accepted Street View without any trouble, public perception in the UK has proved to be a slightly tougher nut to crack. 
YouTube has introduced its voice-to-text technology to enhance the search function, and to provide rich metadata for select videos. The technology makes the video headlines less important for searching now that any searched keyword can be found by searching the entire audio file instead. 
A Microsoft senior director says that Microsoft’s heart is deep inside Open Source. Cue jokes about whether Microsoft has a heart in the first place. 
There’s another twist in the already long and winding road that has seen the massively popular Scrabble imitator (it’s lines like those that really help their legal case), Scrabulous, going up against the real thing. Forget Scrabulous – meet Wordscraper. 
An industry-shaking idea itself, the Chevy Volt is on uncertain ground as Eestor continues to make progress on its ultracapacitor battery. Eestor just announced that its technology was verified by a third party, and that the company is on track to deliver a battery capable of powering a car for 300 miles on one charge. 
Announcements from both satellite companies this week indicate the future launch of true 1080p HD programming by way of pay-per-view movies in the near future. While DIRECTV was the first to announce such a change, Dish Network looks to be the first to deliver on its promises. 
LG will soon offer a device that plays high definition Blu-ray movies along with video streamed over the Internet from Netflix, which represents the latest move by Netflix to deliver movie rentals online rather than through the mail. Everything available through traditional means, including movies and TV shows will become available instantly through the internet-connected Blu-ray player. 
British politicians have called for YouTube to find a better system for vetting inappropriate content – though they’ve acknowledged that manually checking every clip before it appears would be unworkable. 
Dell recently introduced its ultra small PC line for the living room. This is Dell’s answer to the small PCs recently launched by other manufacturers such as Apple and HP. 
Well of course we’re bloody ready for 3G! What kind of question is that? A T-Mobile flyer noting the October 1 rollout of 3G to 27 U.S. cities has been spotted; there is hope for the network that once had the beautiful Catherine Zeta-Jones for a celebrity representative. 
With its latest release of financial information, First Solar (FSLR), a manufacturer photovoltaic solar modules just demonstrated that focusing on green, sustainable technology has wild profit potential. The company announced a 57 percent increase in quarterly profits. 
Coca Cola is a worldwide commodity. Even in countries where drinkable water is scarce, you can buy a Coke. Now Coca Cola is engaged in the Cola Life Campaign project looking at ways to save the lives of millions of children in Africa. 
The finally successful merger of XM and SIRIUS raised some thoughts about other areas where two competing companies could merge to ease the financial load. A prime example is in the satellite television industry where Dish Network and DIRECTV are in steep competition in all areas. Even though they’ve already tried such a merger, the successful marriage in the satellite radio world might give way to another try. 
Yesterday saw a raft of news articles and blog posting reporting that India was developing a $10 laptop. I saw the story, read it with interest and then decided not to write it up for Blorge because something seemed slightly wrong. And so it proved to be, as the Indian Government’s press bureau issued an apology, and updated the proposed price of the laptop to $100. 