Using wind power intelligently

A new initiative will go beyond simply producing energy from alternative sources. The EDISON research consortium will seek to match power generation from wind turbines on the island of Bornholm, Denmark, with the power consumption of charging plug-in electric cars. Electric vehicles would ideally be charged at times when wind energy is high and power consumption is low thanks to an infrastructure with intelligent charging facilities that can communicate with the power system to agree on a time for charging.

Cars for a variety of functionalities will soon flow onto the Danish market from vehicle makers all over the world. These carbon-neutral vehicles will be cheaper than conventional vehicles as a result of a Danish tax exemption. However, the infrastructure must be developed for charging electric vehicles efficiently. If electric vehicles were connected to the power grid simply by plugging them in anytime, anywhere, it might mean that new conventional power stations would have to be built. On the other hand, if electric vehicles could be connected to the power grid “intelligently,” this would integrate much more wind energy into the Danish power system in the future.

The goal is to charge electric vehicles when it best suits the power grid. This would normally be at night when the demand for power is lowest. Electric vehicles would thus have a stabilizing effect on the grid. EDISON hopes to develop a networked system to schedule the vehicles for charging, ensure that the vehicle owner is billed for the charge no matter which power point is used and create a means of control via price signals, so if power production from wind turbines suddenly falls more than anticipated, the electric vehicles could be disconnected.

Fake security products for sale

If you’ve bought a PC security product online lately, you might want to investigate a little to be sure you’ve purchased real security software and haven’t been scammed. Take for example AntiSpyware 3000. This “product’s” website can still be accessed through http://antispyware3000.net/ — but please don’t download or “try” anything from the site. You will note that the site is professionally designed — cyber criminals now work harder on their schemes to take your money, so beware.

If you were unfortunate enough to have downloaded the trial version of AntiSpyware 3000, it would have unleashed a disaster on your computer. The fake antispyware program would run fake scans on your machine and would send out false alerts advising you that your machine is overrun with spyware. It also loads a computer virus onto your machine. The goal is to convince you to buy a “full-copy” of their worthless product.

If you have made the mistake of downloading AntiSpyware 3000 or any other false security product to your PC, be careful where you turn to undo the damage to your machine. Some websites offering “free” advice on how to remove AntiSpyware 3000 — will actually load other malicious code onto your PC.

The numbers keep falling

Worldwide PC shipments fell 1.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, following five years of almost uninterrupted double-digit growth. As the economic environment continues to deteriorate in 2009, PC shipments are expected to fall by more than eight percent in the first half of 2009 and gradually improve to a small positive growth in the fourth quarter, according to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker.

The financial crisis continues to spread as bank rescues expand, key industries falter, stock values drop, and unemployment rises steadily, among other signs of stress in economies around the world. This is clearly the biggest financial shock in a long time. Nevertheless, PCs are far more important and far less expensive today than they were in previous economic crises. A typical PC today costs half what it did in 2000, and prices continue to drop at a rapid rate, making PCs more affordable and less likely to be sacrificed in tough times. The PC market is also more driven by replacements than it used to be. Portable PCs now make up fifty percent of the installed computer base. Portable PCs typically have a shorter lifespan than desktops, requiring replacement sooner despite efforts to extend system life.

Flight 1549 reconstruction

You may have already seen it on television, but if you’d like to watch it through your PC, you can view the animated reconstruction of the US Airways Flight 1549 Hudson River Plane Landing at www.youtube.com/watch?v=imDFSnklB0k. The reconstruction contains digitized accurate models of the exact plane involved in the crash, and the whole Manhattan skyline, along with an accurate portrayal of the reported flight-path and a photo-matched depiction of the rescue of passengers toward the end. Animations such as this one are now made for legal purposes in lawsuits.

There was of course no video of the entire flight, but a company called Scene Systems made the animation in three days following the event. This included data-analysis, modeling, animation, rendering and post-production. According to the company, the task was made more difficult because Scene Systems did not have access to official data sources such as flight-recorder data. Instead, the company’s animators took data about the flight path from various reputable news sources, and further details from photography and eyewitness reports.

HP and Sun sign for Solaris

HP and Sun Microsystems have signed an expanded multiyear partnership agreement that enables HP to distribute and provide software technical support for Sun’s Solaris 10 Operating System on the HP ProLiant server and blade system platforms. Under the terms of the new original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and support agreement, Sun becomes a strategic HP ProLiant OS distribution partner and Solaris is now elevated to the lineup of key operating environments for the HP ProLiant platform. The new deal sets a course for the companies to work together to expand demand for both Solaris and OpenSolaris on both HP ProLiant servers and server blades into new markets. By providing a single point of purchase, contact and accountability for Solaris on HP ProLiant, HP and Sun hope to improve the overall customer experience. To further reduce operational costs, the companies will collaborate on integration of Solaris 10 and HP Insight software on HP ProLiant servers to deliver usability and management enhancements.