2009-03-31

Storage in the Cloud

Clipped from: ParaScale software clusters servers into enterprise cloud storage | Crave - CNET

ParaScale, a start-up that develops cloud-storage solutions, announced Monday the availability of its ParaScale Cloud Storage (PCS) software. The software, once installed on any standard Linux platform, enables the server to be linked with others to act as one massive file repository that offers high parallel throughput.

(While this solution is available only for the enterprise market, regular users can also participate in similar clustering cloud storage using their home computers with Wuala, another online storage service that LaCie acquired awhile ago.)

Clipped from: ParaScale Cloud Storage Software – Build your own cloud storage

ParaScale Software, Powering Cloud Storage

ParaScale cloud storage software clusters tens to hundreds of servers together to act as one giant file repository with massive capacity and parallel throughput for a variety of applications. Deployments can start at several terabytes and it is easy to scale the cloud capacity and performance by adding commodity hardware. Having shared access via a standard network and protocols, a single administrator can easily manage hundreds of servers, with the system automatically balancing out hot-spots and capacity utilization across the various nodes. ParaScale software enables the enterprise or service provider to build enormous storage pools on commodity hardware at an affordable cost.

Clipped from: ParaScale Cloud Storage Software - Digital Content Storage Management

ParaScale Products Overview

PCS changes the storage landscape by offering several unique benefits:

Slashes storage costs by leveraging commodity hardware
Increases read/write throughput by allowing parallel data transfer
Accelerates performance and load-balances capacity across all nodes, by using automatic data migration and replication
Simplifies deployment by allowing incremental expansion, one disk at a time.

Clipped from: Wuala - The social online storage

Wuala, the social online storage

Voilà, here comes Wuala! Securely store and back up files online, access them from anywhere, and share your photos, videos, and music with friends and family.

Clipped from: Wuala - Why Wuala?

Why Wuala?

This need for online storage hasn't gone unnoticed: search for 'online storage' and you will find dozens of services. So, the obvious question, why Wuala? Wuala is unique in many ways and we believe it's the best application for a wide range of tasks. In addition to an array of convenient and distinguishable features, there are three core principles which make Wuala really stand out:

1. Security and privacy
Wuala is secure and protects your privacy: In contrast to many other services, all data you store in Wuala is encrypted on YOUR computer before it is stored online.

Convenience

2. Bridging web and desktop
Wuala is neither a website, nor a classical desktop application - it bridges web and desktop, combining the best of both worlds.

Technology

3. Economic technology
Wuala is based on a novel technology that reduces our costs so that we can provide you with a better service for free.

2009-03-30

ISIS Airship -- Eye in the Sky

clipped from www.latimes.com

Pentagon plans blimp to spy from new heights

The giant dirigible would use radar to closely and constantly monitor activity on the ground from 65,000 feet.

clipped from www.latimes.com

clipped from www.darpa.mil

Space, Near-Space and Airborne Sensors and Structures

clipped from www.darpa.mil

Integrated Sensor is Structure (ISIS)

The goal of the ISIS program is to develop a stratospheric airship based autonomous unmanned sensor with years of persistence in surveillance and tracking of air and ground targets. It will have the capability to track the most advanced cruise missiles at 600 km and dismounted enemy combatants at 300 km.

ISIS Program Overview Briefing
Updated 3/5/09 (.pdf, 960KB)

clipped from www.gizmag.com

US$10 million skin for DARPA's remarkable ISIS stratospheric airship

clipped from www.gizmag.com

2009-03-29

car2go Daimler's Rent-by-Mobile-Phone Car-Sharing Concept

clipped from www.youtube.com

smart car2go

clipped from www.prnewswire.com

car2go goes USA - Daimler introduces innovative mobility concept in Austin, Texas

Ulm, Germany / Austin, TX (March 26, 2009) /PRNewswire/ — Daimler will bring its innovative car2go mobility concept to the U.S. by fall of this year. The first international pilot will start in the Texas capital Austin with an initial fleet of about 200 fuel-efficient smart fortwo cars. car2go provides a simple, flexible, and cost-effective solution for city driving. The U.S. introduction coincides with the expansion of the pilot in Ulm, Germany, where the company opens the service to the public on March 26 after the internal test which started last October.

The car2go concept is based on a fleet of smart fortwo vehicles which are available for rent to registered members at any time, 24/7, making city driving as easy as using a mobile phone.

clipped from reviews.cnet.com

Renting a smart Fortwo for by the minute, hour, or day is one of the newest forms of transportation heading to Austin, Texas.

clipped from blog.wired.com

Smart car2go, From Ulm to Austin

2009-03-28

Nanogenerators to Charge Gadgets

Clipped from: YouTube - Power shirt reported by Fox News

Power shirt reported by Fox News

Clipped from: New nanogenerator may charge iPods and cell phones with a wave of the hand (3/28/2009)

New nanogenerator may charge iPods and cell phones with a wave of the hand

Imagine if all you had to do to charge your iPod or your BlackBerry was to wave your hand, or stretch your arm, or take a walk? You could say goodbye to batteries and never have to plug those devices into a power source again.

In research presented here today at the American Chemical Society's 237th National Meeting, scientists from Georgia describe technology that converts mechanical energy from body movements or even the flow of blood in the body into electric energy that can be used to power a broad range of electronic devices without using batteries.

Pictured is a schematic illustration shows the microfiber-nanowire hybrid nanogenerator, which is the basis of using fabrics for generating electricity. - Professor. Z. L. Wang and Dr. X. D. Wang, Georgia Institute of Technology.

Clipped from: The next not-so-big thing: Nanogenerators: Scientific American Blog

The next not-so-big thing: Nanogenerators

Wang's nanogenerator consists of an array of vertically aligned zinc oxide nanowires (each about one micron long) standing about a half-micron apart on a flat piece of gallium arsenide, sapphire or a flexible polymer substrate. On top of that nanowire forest, Wang and his colleagues lowered a tiny plate containing thousands of silicon electrodes until they were touching the tips of the nanowires (sandwiching these wires between the substrate and the electrode plate). When the plate—which is wavy like a piece of corrugated cardboard—is pressed down on the wires, this flexing produces small electrical charges. "The elastic bending of the zinc oxide nanowires is a major advantage," Wang says. Carbon nanotubes, for example, are much less flexible.

Clipped from: Zhong Lin (ZL) Wang's Nanoscience and Nanotechnology group

Research Highlights

Nanogenerator made by Z.L. Wang and Jinhui Song.

read the paper

Clipped from: YouTube - Hamster driven nanogenerator

Clipped from: YouTube - Human finger driven nanogenerator

2009-03-27

Electrolysis Breakthrough for Storing Solar Energy

clipped from cleantechnica.com

MIT Energy Storage Discovery Could Lead to ‘Unlimited’ Solar Power

clipped from www.itbusiness.ca

MIT: Solar power storage discovery could mean energy nirvana

Researchers at MIT say they've made an energy storage breakthrough that could transform solar power from an alternative to a mainstream energy source. The university is calling the solar project a major advancement in energy research.