| Small energy savings can add up
Home air conditioners are energy hogs, but little sources of power running quietly behind the scenes can also pile up over time, adding to costs and demand. It's cell phone chargers left plugged in, DVD clocks running day and night. Televisions, cable boxes, digital video recorders -- any device with a computer chip that allows a display clock or remote control to work. As Duke Energy's residential customers brace for what could be their highest monthly bills ever, conservationists and utilities say unplugging electronics that drain power even in the off position is an often overlooked way to save electricity. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California estimates the power wasted from a typical home's electronics equals burning a 60-watt bulb year-round.
Just Like Everybody Else
Kasey Hodges just wants to be a normal teenager. But it's too late for this Springdale 15-year-old -- and it has nothing to do with her disability. Kasey is the classic overachiever.A rising junior at Springdale High School, Kasey maintains a perfect 4.0 grade-point average in pre-Advanced Placement classes. Next year, she tackles classes in the school's International Baccalaureate program. She was named an All-American Scholar by the United States Achievement Academy for this year's work in her English class.Kasey joined the school's BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) team, helping create a robot for competition against other schools, and took classes in the engineering academy. She played a role in the school's spring musical "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and served on the SHS Student Council, helping organize and work dances and fundraisers."She's in so many clubs," said Kasey's mom Angela Bassett.
Fears of €500m faulty battery recall hits Nokia reputation
Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer, was yesterday forced into one of the world's largest product recalls as the Finnish company admitted the batteries in 46m of its phones could be faulty. The news saw more than half a billion pounds wiped off the company's stock price as analysts said the recall could cost up to €500m (£340m). Nokia has set up a page on its website to deal with consumers worried that their phone may contain one of the faulty batteries. .
Westhead has no plans to rest regulars
Now what? The celebration after clinching their first playoff berth since 2000 was sweet, but oh-so-short for the Mercury. With the teams first goal out of the way, the Mercury now turn their attention to the second level of claiming home-court advantage for the postseason. Atop the Western Conference heading into tonights game against New York, Phoenix (19-11) is one game ahead of both San Antonio and Sacramento. The Mercury play the Monarchs twice to end the season next weekend, already own the tiebreaker against San Antonio and cant fall as far down as Seattle, which has all but clinched the fourth seed. The top two spots get home court, but the Mercury also want to be on full-strength batteries. Here comes the temptation for coach Paul Westhead to rest Diana Taurasi, Cappie Pondexter, Penny Taylor and Kelly Miller a little more to keep his regulars healthy and fresh.
News and views on Linux-powered devices ...
Jul. 16, 2007 SSV has added optional WiFi and GSM/GPRS networking to a small industrial PC targeting M2M (machine-to-machine) applications. The Com/PC is available with a Pentium M or Geode processor, runs Linux or Windows, and targets remote maintenance, tank field monitoring, telemetry, and POS/vending machine applications. .
Sony invests $99 mln in Singapore battery plant
SINGAPORE, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Sony Corp. said on Tuesday it will invest S$150 million ($99 million) into a lithium ion battery plant in Singapore to start operations in August next year. Sony said in a statement that the factory would employ around 500 workers once it is fully operational in 2010. Ion lithium batteries are used in mobile phones and laptops. The Japanese company employs around 2,000 people in Singapore. (Reporting by Kevin Lim, editing by Jan Dahinten; singapore.newsroom@reuters.com, +65 6403 5659)) ($1=1.518 Singapore Dollar) .
Mobile phones, emails in flight
PASSENGERS on Qantas flights may be allowed to use mobile phones, send laptop computer emails or log on to the internet by the end of the year. For the past five months, a single Qantas 767 on the run between Sydney and Perth and Darwin and Cairns has been equipped with a small base station that allows transmissions to be made without interference to aircraft systems. Select passengers yesterday on a flight to Sydney were allowed to switch their mobile phones and lap-tops on mid-flight to be part of a trial and send test emails and SMS messages. Voice calls were not allowed. Initially, there were problems with service over the eastern part of Western Australia and the Great Australian Bight, before some mobiles received a message stating: "Welcome to AeroMobile, as a courtesy to fellow customers, please switch your phone to silent." Qantas said yesterday the low-key trial began in April and anecdotally had been a success, paving the way for more domestic aircraft to be fitted with the Telstra-backed Picocell satellite-linked base station.
Intel Ships first 'Extreme' Mobile Processor
Intel expanded its line of "Extreme" processors to include chips for notebooks, as well as a new flagship desktop processor on Monday. In addition, the company also disclosed its plans to debut battery-friendly quad-core processors for laptops by next year. The announcements come as Intel celebrates its one-year anniversary of introducing the Core microarchitecture. .
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