Friday, February 22, 2008

Upstart Solazyme promises to make fuel from algae

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/239542835/

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It's not the first to turn to algae and biomass as a source of fuel, but upstart Solazyme seems to think it's got a leg up on other biofuel makers and its apparently lining up the deals and big bucks to prove it. As Technology Review reports, that includes Chevron, which is now in a "testing agreement" with the start-up, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which dished out a $2 million grant to the company. The trick that's attracted all that interest, it seems, is the company's particular way of using algae to convert biomass into fuel, which takes the apparently unorthodox approach of growing them in the dark, which causes them to produce more oil than they do in the light. What's more, Solazyme's method also apparently allows them to use different strains of algae to produce different types of oil, including a mix of hydrocarbons that's similar to light crude petroleum. Needless to say, all of this is still quite a ways away from finding its way into your car's tank, but the company has demonstrated its algae-based fuel in a diesel car, so it's at least moved beyond the lab.

 

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Intel Acquires Project Offset

Intel's sure in the gaming mood this week. Then again, that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's been following the events unfolding at the Game Developer Conference this week in San Francisco. On Tuesday, the news broke about the creation of the new Gaming Alliance between Intel, Microsoft, Dell, Acer, Nvidia, Razer and Epic Games.

On Wednesday, Havok, the premier provider of interactive software and services to digital creators in the games and movie industries, announced that the company would offer the PC version of its award-winning physics and animation software product – Havok Complete – for download free of charge. According to Havok's official press release, the download will be made available sometime in May.

Yet the biggest buzz coming out of the conference today is that that Intel has acquired Project Software, the creator of the yet released next generation first shooter fantasy video game called Project Offset.

According to Sam McGrath, Technical Director of Offset Software, "Today we have some major news to announce. Intel has acquired Offset Software. Yes, you read it correctly! Project Offset is going strong and we are excited about things to come. Stay tuned."

According to Offset Software's own website, the company started with just 3 people: Sam McGrath, Travis Stringer and Trevor Stringer. Initially working out of an apartment and completely self-funded, the engine and all art was created with a tiny budget — just enough to purchase the software and hardware needed for development. The budget was small but the goal was big: to create a next generation First Person Shooter set in a fantasy world (codenamed "Project Offset"), and a powerful game engine to run it.

After a year and a half of programming work by Sam McGrath on the game engine, and with the amazing artistic skills of Travis and Trevor Stringer, the three released the two "Sneak Peek" videos, showing off the technology and world behind Project Offset. The videos took the gaming industry by storm, showing that high quality, next generation technology, graphics, and gameplay rivaling that of the biggest game studios, could still be created by a small team.

You could check out one of their cool trailers here and another one here. In fact you'll notice that a number of others are available on the links to GameTrailers.com noted above.

Yet to understand what Intel was most likely interested in acquiring, you could check out Project Software's own technology overview webpage.

Neo


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Thursday, February 21, 2008

NVIDIA's GeForce 9600 GT card is officially the new budget hotness

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/238892108/

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It's been a long time coming, but it looks like the GPU industry finally figured out the fact that most consumers don't want to blow a couple grand on an SLI setup, they just want to play Crysis debt-free. The new GeForce 9600 GT from NVIDIA is an answer to those prayers, offering solid performance ratings nearly in line with last-gen's 8800 GT, at a completely lovable $199-and-under pricepoint. For now the top of the performance charts is still the 8800 Ultra -- as NVIDIA will readily admit -- but the 9600 GT is just the first of NVIDIA's GeForce 9 series, and while it's sure to be followed by bigger, badder and more expensive versions, it's refreshing to see the 9600 hitting the market first.

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- GeForce 9600 GT
Read - PC Per GeForce 9600 GT review
Read - HotHardware GeForce 9600 GT review

 

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Convert PDF Documents to SWF Flash Movies Online with PDFMeNot

Source: http://www.labnol.org/internet/tools/convert-pdf-flash-pdfmenote-online-pdf-to-swf-converter/2280/

convert pdf swf flash Like Scibd and SlideShare, PDFMeNot is an online PDF to Flash converter that will instantly convert any Adobe PDF document into a Macromedia Flash (SWF) movie while preserving the original layout, image graphics and formatting.

The PDF to SWF converter can very useful when you have to embed PDF files in web pages for inline viewing or you want to read PDF files on a computer that has no Acrobat Reader.

Here’s how to create Flash movies from PDF documents:

1. Go to PDFMeNot.com (Username: stateless Password: systems) and type the URL of the PDF file - you can use this PDF link as an example. Alternatively upload a PDF from the local hard drive.

2. In your Firefox menu bar, click Tools -> Page Info -> Media. Select the object that has an SWF extension (e.g. pdfmenot.com/store/f6a29535da98cd1.swf)  and save it to your disk. That’s the SWF file created from your PDF document. For IE, here’s the trick to save Flash locally.

Bloggers can embed the following JS code in their web templates and PDF links will open in Flash SWF format via PDFMeNot.

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://pdfmenot.com/convert.js”></script>

While PDFMeNot is an extremely convenient option for quickly viewing PDF files in the browser without loading Adobe Reader, the downside is that the generated SWF objects contains Zoom but no Print and Search function. They are all supported in Macromedia Flash Paper format used by Scribd. Thanks Marshall.

Related: Convert PDF into 3D Flipbook Magazines, Embed PDF Files in Web Pages


Convert PDF Documents to SWF Flash Movies Online with PDFMeNot - Digital Inspiration

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Infrared LEDs make you invisible to CCTV cameras

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/238372127/infrared-leds-make-y.html

This German exibition is showcasing bright infrared LED devices that overwhelm the CCDs in security cameras, allowing you to move through modern society in relative privacy. I used this as a gimmick in my story I, Robot -- now I want to own one!
The URA / FILOART developed device promises to the citizens of a more reliable protection against security measures of the state (and other Überwachenden).

In addition to monitoring purposes organised systems interaction between man and machine is still IR.ASC an additional interaction between machines dar. This absurd accumulation of technology is symptomatic, because although the entire expense of the protection measures for the alleged safety of citizens is made, the person slips on the importance scale of the current security plan ever deeper down.

Link (Thanks, Bill!)

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