Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Microbes Churn Out Hydrogen at Record Rate


FiReaNGeL writes to mention that Penn State Researchers have improved on their original microbial electrolysis cell design bringing the resulting system up to better than 80 percent efficiency when considering all energy inputs and outputs. "By tweaking their design, improving conditions for the bacteria, and adding a small jolt of electricity, they increased the hydrogen yield to a new record for this type of system. 'We achieved the highest hydrogen yields ever obtained with this approach from different sources of organic matter, such as yields of 91 percent using vinegar (acetic acid) and 68 percent using cellulose,' said Logan. In certain configurations, nearly all of the hydrogen contained in the molecules of source material converted to usable hydrogen gas, an efficiency that could eventually open the door to bacterial hydrogen production on a larger scale."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Open Source Video Player Miro Hits 1.0 [Video]

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Windows/Mac/Linux: Cross-platform, open source video application Miro is now available in a full-featured, bug-fixed 1.0 version. The program formerly known as Democracy Player plays almost any kind of video file, but its real value lies in its content fetching and organizing features. Miro can subscribe to video podcasts, grab from YouTube channel feeds or BitTorrents (letting you make your own season pass) and keep video libraries organized, amongst other features. Miro is a free download for Windows, Mac and Linux.

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Extreme Hi-Tech Log Cabin Would Make Al Gore Cry (Gallery)

EH_Log_Cabin.jpg Ahh, the great outdoors. Wouldn't it be nice to get out to the woods, to a log cabin far from the things of man? Naturally, you'd still need motorized Lutron Sivoia QED window shades, a "corporate-style" phone system from Panasonic, a whole-house music system and an AMX home control system to bring it all together. Oh and...

...a Meridian sound system with Vidikron Vision 90 DLP projector and a 130-inch screen for the home, I mean cabin, theater. And what about two kitchens, one for you and one for your guests? After all, you're not a caveman. Speaking of caves, it might pay to replace some of the natural rocks around the property for high-end speakers that just look like rocks, am I right?

So how much for this 10,000-square-foot relax-o-dome located (I believe) near Fort Collins, CO? You know the drill: If you have to ask, you'll never know. For more shots of decadence, hit EH's article. [Electronic House]

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Thumbplay On The Block: $500M For Ringtones?

thumbplaylogo.jpg We hear that Thumbplay, the NY-based ringtone startup that's been growing at a supercharged rate, has hired Morgan Stanley to quietly shop itself around.

We gather this is more of a market-testing exercise than a full-blown sales pitch; apparently Thumbplay's investors (Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates and Meritech) are more interested in raising some additional capital and eventually taking the company public.

But if Thumbplay did want to put itself on the block, it might be able to get a substantial price: We hear that the company is doing more than $100 million/year in sales, and that a conservative multiple would be 2x - 3x and an optimistic one might be as high as 5x.  The latter would make the two-year-old company worth more than $500 million.
One potential hitch: Some data we've seen suggests that the ringtone market is flattening. Perhaps this is why Thumbplay is eager to move into other markets such as full-blown music sales.

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IBM's BlueGene/L: world's fastest supercomputer, 3 years running


The TOP500 supercomputing list was just announced and IBM's BlueGene/L system has kept its crown. In fact, IBM's and the Department of Energy's co-developed monster at Lawrence Livermore has occupied the number 1 position since 2004. Of course, an upgrade was required boost the Linpack benchmark to 478.2 TFlop/s from the 280.6TFlop/s the machine was clocking just 6 months ago. The top 10 swath is dominated by the US, Sweden, and Germany with India breaking into the list for the first time at the number 4 position with its HP Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c system measuring 102.8TFlop/s.

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