| Green living on campus
Here are some tips for going green on campus: If you intend to upgrade your computer for all the research you're expecting to do, a little pre-class research will tell you which laptop brands are energy-efficient. Compact fluorescent light bulbs use 75 percent less energy than regular incandescent bulbs but provide the same soft lighting. Wash your clothes in cold water to cut 90 percent of the energy used in the wash cycle (most of which is needed to heat the water). Air-dry your clothes when possible. In the 45 minutes it takes to dry a load of wet clothes, an electric dryer will consume more energy than a dorm room requires in a normal day. If you don't have a car and a car battery at your disposal, look for devices that will charge all your hand-held electronics -- from cell phones to iWhatevers.
3M says settles battery patent dispute with Sony
3M Co. <MMM.N> said it settled a lithium-ion battery cathode patent dispute filed in March against Sony Corp. <6758.T> <SNE.N> and other companies in U.S. district court in Minnesota. Under the settlement, Sony Corp. and Sony Electronics Inc. are now licensed sources of batteries containing 3M's cathode technology. Specific terms of the settlement are confidential, 3M said. 3M, which makes such products as Scotch tape and Post-It notes, in May settled a patent dispute with Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. <6752.T> <MC.N> over the issue. Its complaint is proceeding against Lenovo Group Ltd. <0992.HK>, a U.S. unit of Hitachi Ltd. <6501.T>, CDW Corp. <CDWC.O>, and Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. <6764.T>, 3M spokeswoman Donna Fleming Runyon said on Monday.
Toshiba recalls about 10,000 Sony-made batteries overseas
TOKYO -- Japanese electronics company Toshiba Corp. began recalling about 10,000 Sony-made batteries for laptop computers in Japan and overseas, company officials said Thursday. Toshiba spokesman Keisuke Omori said there have been three cases in which the batteries caught fire between September and June. There were no injuries from the three fires; two in Japan and one in Australia, he said. The battery models to be recalled are different from those involved in a massive recall of Sony Corp. lithium-ion battery packs last year. Sony announced that recall after it was found that they could overheat and catch fire. In the latest case, company investigations found batteries manufactured on December 3, 2005, were a cause of the problems, and there were about 5,100 of them sold in Japan, the U.S., Europe, Australia, China, the spokesman said.
It bends! It twists! It's a paper-like battery!
It's a battery that looks like a piece of paper and can be bent or twisted, trimmed with scissors or molded into any shape needed. While the battery is only a prototype a few inches square right now, the researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who developed it have high hopes for it in electronics and other fields that need smaller, lighter power sources. "We would like to scale this up to the point where you can imagine printing batteries like a newspaper. That would be the ultimate," Robert Linhardt, a professor at the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies at RPI, said in a telephone interview. The development is reported in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Unlike other batteries, Linhardt said, it is an integrated device, not a combination of pieces.
Sony, 3M settle battery patent dispute
3M Co. said Monday it has reached agreement in patent settlement with Sony Corp. over the technology in a type of battery used in laptop computers and cell phones. St. Paul, Minn.-based 3M said in a statement that Sony's Sony Electronics unit is now a licensed source of lithium ion batteries containing 3M cathode technology. .
Nokia warns about overheated batteries
Cellphone maker Nokia is urging customers to check their cellphone batteries after 100 overheated. The warning applies to 46 million Nokia-branded "BL-5C" batteries worldwide, which were manufactured by Matsushita between December 2005 and November last year. Nokia said it did not know how many were sold in New Zealand. There would be no charge for replacing the batteries. The advice does not apply to any other Nokia-branded batteries. Nokia said there had been 100 cases, globally, of the BL-5C batteries overheating. There had been no reports of serious injuries. The company said batteries could overheat while charging due to a short circuit, causing the battery to dislodge. Customers need to remove their battery to check them.
GCN Lab Review | PGP’s disk encryption is an easy way to secure data, especially for mobile devices
No one any longer questions the importance of data encryption, especially after last years infamous theft of the laptop PC containing sensitive Veterans Affairs Department data. That incident showed that policies alone such as forbidding employees to bring computers home dont work. Some people will fail to follow them and enforcement is difficult if not impossible.
Thats why encrypting sensitive data is the way to go. If an encrypted laptop or USB flash drive falls into the wrong hands, it will be useless because the data is inaccessible without a password. The key, however, is to balance security with convenience. If the encryption and decryption process requires several extra steps and takes too much time, people wont want to use it.
PGP Whole Disk Encryption Version 9.6 does a great job at striking that balance.
11:01 a.m. -- Idaho Army National Guard employee's laptop, thumb drive stolen in string of car burglaries
Boise police are still looking for whoever stole a thumb drive during a string of car burglaries in the Columbia Village neighborhood early Tuesday morning that has personal information on about 3,400 soldiers with the Idaho Army National Guard.The theft of the portable computer drive and laptop was part of at least four car burglaries near the area of Lake Forest Drive shortly after midnight Monday. All of the cars were either unlocked or windows were down low enough for the burglars to get inside, according to police reports.The thumb drive, which was in the car of an Idaho Army National Guard employee, had names, social security numbers, address, and date of birth for all of the 3,400 Army National Guard soldiers in Idaho, according to reports.The drive does not have medical records for soldiers on it, according to Guard reports.
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