Monday, September 21, 2009

Colored solar panels work without direct sunlight, double as PAR Can filters

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/21/colored-solar-panels-work-without-direct-sunlight-double-as-par/

With eco-friendliness on everyone's mind, it's no shock to see more and more progress being made in the realm of solar. Shortly after hearing that boffins across the way were swapping carbon nanotubes for silicon, a Tel Aviv-based startup is now hoping to push its colored panels into the mainstream thanks to their ability to work sans direct sunlight. Granted, the tinted cells have only shown a 12 percent efficiency rate in testing, but they can reportedly be produced for around half of what a conventional panel costs. In essence, the cost savings comes from the dearth of silicon within, as GreenSun Energy has discovered that power can be generated by simply diffusing available sunlight over the whole panel and allowing nanoparticles to handle the rest. We'll invite you to visit the links below for the science behind it, but we're just interested in helping Ma Earth while replacing every windows in our apartment with a stained glass alternative.

[Via Inhabitat]

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Colored solar panels work without direct sunlight, double as PAR Can filters originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel's 1.73GHz Core i7-820 QM mobile CPU maneuvers onto test bench

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/21/intel-cores-1-73ghz-i7-820-qm-mobile-cpu-maneuvers-onto-test-be/

The middle child of Intel's forthcoming new family of mobile performance parts, the i7-820 QM clocks in at 1.73GHz when things are relatively calm, or it can Turbo Boost its way up to an enviable 3.06GHz when your multitasking life demands it. The PC Pro crew have snatched one from Intel's presumably still warm hands, and have given it a benchmarking run to find out if it extends the Core i7 legacy of dominance into the mobile space. Their conclusion? "It's very, very fast." They couldn't avoid gushing about the dynamic overclocking and efficiency improvements relative to Intel's older generation of quad-core laptop procs, but battery life tests showed you'll still want to keep a power outlet nearby. Read link below should furnish you with more info, should you require it.

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Intel's 1.73GHz Core i7-820 QM mobile CPU maneuvers onto test bench originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Sep 2009 04:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seagate 2TB Barracuda XT: world's first SATA 6Gbps hard drive

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/21/seagate-2tb-barracuda-xt-worlds-first-sata-6gbps-hard-drive/

Ready for this speed freaks? Seagate just announced the world's first 2TB disk with full support for the third generation SATA interface pushing data at 6Gbps -- double the rate of previous controllers. The 3.5-inch SATA 6Gbps Barracuda XT drive spins 4x 500GB platters at 7200RPM with a big 64MB cache to prevent bottlenecks. It promises a sustained transfer rate of just 140MBps (compared to 600MBps / 4.8Gbps possible), MTBF of 750,000 hours, and carries a five-year warranty. The disk hits retail this week for about $299 list. Then you'll just need to find SATA 6G controller / MoBo to make the most of your new purchase -- fortunately, SATA 6Gbps is backward compatible with SATA 1.5Gbps or 3Gbps rigs until then.
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[Via TG Daily]

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Seagate 2TB Barracuda XT: world's first SATA 6Gbps hard drive originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Sep 2009 05:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Saturday, September 19, 2009

Realtime Bidding (RTB) may improve ad exchng efficiency, but it may not be necessary at all. http://bit.ly/13jbbg - shout out in comments.

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Friday, September 18, 2009

Core i7 Laptops: Early Tests of Mid-Range Quad-Core Chip Say It's Fast, Real Fast [Intel]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/q8DpzJoFr-U/core-i7-laptops-early-tests-of-mid+range-quad+core-chip-say-its-fast-real-fast

Looks like Core i7 could dominate laptops the way it has desktops. We should see the chips in new machines at next week's Intel Developers Conference, but PC Pro has already tested the mid-range quad-core 1.73GHz i7-820QM, and they're impressed.

The UK Magazine's test laptop was a 16-incher with modest specs: 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 5400rpm hard disk, Nvidia GeForce GT240M graphics, and a 32-bit Vista install.

So they were surprised when it almost matched the results of the their top-performing laptop to date: a much higher-specified Dell Precision M6400 Covet with a 2.53GHz Core 2 Quad QX9300, twice the RAM, faster 7200rpm hard disk, high-end Nvidia Quadro FX 3700M graphics, and 64-bit Vista OS.

PC Pro's write-up also digs into the i7-820QM's heat and power saving efficiencies, and sums things up as follows: [PC Pro]




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