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February 19, 2010 6:38 AM PST
Google gets go-ahead to buy, sell energy
by Candace Lombardi

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The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has authorized Google Energy to buy and sell electricity in bulk like any other utility.

The FERC, the agency with oversight of the U.S. power grid, signed an order (PDF) on Thursday that grants Google Energy market-based rate authorization. This paves the way for the search giant to not only better manage its own energy costs, but to possibly add electricity marketer to its repertoire of services.

The order specifically grants Google Energy--a subsidiary of Google--the rights "for the sale of energy, capacity, and ancillary services at market-based rates" while acknowledging that neither Google Energy nor its affiliates "own or control any generation or transmission" facilities.

Google has expressed a desire for access to larger amounts of renewable energy to help produce the electricity it consumes as part of its vast search-engine empire. Google has long maintained that its goal is to become a carbon-neutral company. As a side note, it's not unusual for large companies to be granted the authority to trade in the wholesale electricity market for the purpose of managing their own energy costs.

As recently as January--after Google Energy made its request to FERC--the company maintained that its expressed immediate wish was for more control over electricity pricing to more effectively gain access to affordable renewable energy.

"Right now, we can't buy affordable, utility-scale, renewable energy in our markets. We want to buy the highest quality, most affordable renewable energy wherever we can and use the green credits," Google representative Niki Fenwick told CNET News at the time.

But it seems that Google may actually enter the energy business. The search giant formed the Delaware-based subsidiary called Google Energy in December and when asked about it, hinted at a future in energy.

"We don't have any concrete plans. We want the ability to buy and sell electricity in case it becomes part of our portfolio," Fenwick told CNET News in January.

Google's escalating interest in energy
Prior to that obvious play, the company has been testing the energy industry waters through green energy technology investment, and research.

In 2007, Google pledged to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to help engineers and scientists figure out a way to generate 1 gigawatt of clean electricity and make it cheaper than coal.

In 2008, Google CEO Eric Schmidt presented an energy plan--complete with explicit math calculations--to back up an idea for how the U.S. could eventually get 100 percent of its electric power generation from renewable sources, cut emissions by half, create more jobs, and decrease overall energy costs.

Google has also invested hundred of millions in green energy technology research and start-up companies with projects in wind, solar, solar thermal, and geothermal. It has invested in projects to develop plug-in hybrid cars and has developed with its own "smart charging" software for plug-in electric vehicles.

The company has launched its own energy pilot projects including a 1.6-megawatt solar installation for its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, thought to be the largest corporate-owned installation in the U.S.

Google has even developed a smart metering software platform for monitoring and regulating home electricity use from any Web-enabled phone. Google Power has been testing the software in the U.K., as well as unveiling a U.S. version for smart phones.

Its most notable electricity investment success story might be eSolar, a start-up that grew out of the Google Idealab and offers "turnkey" thermal solar energy plants using software-controlled heliostats. The company has already garnered over 500 megawatts worth of projects for Southern California Edison and several utilities in the southwestern U.S., with projects in the pipeline for China, Spain, the Middle East, and South Africa.

Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page were also early investors in the electric car maker Tesla.

And in the lead-up to the recent Copenhagen summit on climate change, Google hosted its own energy conference in November that included leading energy experts and the U.S. undersecretary of energy.
Google could not immediately be reached for comment.

Topics:
Green IT,
Deals and investments,
Policy,
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Energy efficiency,
Solar

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Google,
Google Energy,
renewable electricity,
energy,
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February 18, 2010 8:08 AM PST
More 'turnkey' options for thermal solar
by Candace Lombardi

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Instead of conventional solar plants that use solar panels to convert light into electricity, eSolar's thermal solar plants use software-controlled heliostats to reflect sunlight onto a central tower to heat water for steam. The steam is then used to rotate a turbine to generate electricity.
(Credit: eSolar)

eSolar is partnering with a power plant developer to offer utilities a soup-to-nuts approach for designing, building, and installing thermal solar power plants, the solar start-up announced Thursday.

Power plant developer Ferrostaal will act as a general contractor to build the plants, while eSolar will provide the solar thermal field technology design and development. The two plan to initially offer the service in Spain, the United Arab Emirates, and South Africa.

eSolar, which was created by Idealab and funded by Google.org, makes utility-scale thermal solar systems that operate differently than conventional solar plants. Instead, using solar panels to convert light into electricity, eSolar's thermal solar plants consist of software-controlled heliostats (mirrors) that reflect sunlight onto a centralized tower. The heat generated by the tower creates steam from water to rotate a turbine that generates electricity.

eSolar already has a significant list of projects in China and the Southwest of the U.S., but this deal will provide it with a greater reach in Europe, the Middle East, and South Africa. Ferrostaal, meanwhile, which already installs parabolic trough and Fresnel lens solar plants, can add heliostat systems to its portfolio. The partnership will also increase the speed with which the companies can get solar thermal plants designed, built, and running, both companies said.

But eSolar is certainly not the only company offering a "turnkey" solar thermal option to utilities.

After Solar Trust acquired the rights to about 726 megawatts worth of solar projects for Southern California Edison in August 2009, the company explained it would be offering the utility a "turnkey solution" for thermal solar. In addition to designing, building, and installing the solar thermal plants, Solar Trust also plans to manage and run the plant facilities.

Of course the comparison is not completely apples-to-apples. While Solar Trust also offers thermal solar solutions like eSolar, it uses parabolic troughs to reflect sunlight and heat liquid for steam instead of heliostats.

Topics:
Deals and investments,
Solar

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eSolar,
thermal solar plants,
heliostats,
Idealab,
Ferrostaal,
Google.org

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February 18, 2010 7:26 AM PST
First Chevy Volt cars will not be E85 ready
by Candace Lombardi

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GM's first batch of the 2011 Chevy Volt may not have E85 capability, though the company promises later versions will.
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)

Updated to add comments from General Motors.

The first batch of General Motors Chevy Volt 2011 plug-in hybrid cars will not be compatible to run E85, a blend of gas and ethanol.

Tom Stephens, GM vice chair for global product development, called for more government support of ethanol and a need for more E85 stations during his Tuesday speech at the Renewable Fuels Association conference in Florida. Stephens mentioned that early editions of the 2011 Chevy Volt may not be E85 compatible, several news outlets have reported.

Tony Posawatz, vehicle line director for the Chevy Volt, confirmed the same notion on the leading Chevy Volt blog on Wednesday.

"We are finalizing some of our options and the associated timing that goes with them. The E85 capable emission package will have its timing finalized soon. It will not be available for November 2010," Posawatz told GM-Volt.com.

On Thursday evening GM officially confirmed that all the off-the-cuff comments were indeed true.

"Flex-fuel availability for Volt at launch has been delayed. The decision is based in part on the Volt rollout plan to California, Washington, DC, and Michigan. Of the three launch markets, only Michigan, with more than 60 E85 ethanol pumps, has any significant availability. California has a handful of stations and the DC has only one or two," Alan Alder, GM's news relations manager, said in an email to CNET News.

"Also, the price of E85 is presently uncompetitive vs. gasoline," said Adler.

The news is a little shocking to those who've followed the Volt and GM closely. The company has been very publicly supportive of E85 and has been investing in flex-fuel technology for its cars for some time. GM has also long maintained that the Chevy Volt would be a flex-fuel vehicle as well as a plug-in hybrid.

Posawatz told CNET News specifically in April 2009 that the 2011 Volt, in addition to being a plug-in hybrid, would also be a flex-fuel vehicle capable of running on either gasoline or E85.

Adler also said that GM has not yet decided when the Volt may be "flex-fuel capable."

Topics:
Transportation,
Biofuels

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General Motors,
Chevy Volt,
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February 17, 2010 1:35 PM PST
Three Tesla employees dead in small-plane crash
by Reuters

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A small airplane crashed and killed three Tesla Motors employees in Northern California on Wednesday, the electric car maker's chief executive said.

A Cessna 310 struck an electrical tower after taking off on Wednesday morning, crashed into a residential neighborhood and killed all three people on board, according to local police. Tesla confirmed all had worked at the car company.

Tesla is withholding the employees' names while it works with authorities to notify their families, Chief Executive Elon Musk said.

"Tesla is a small, tightly-knit company, and this is a tragic day for us," Musk said.

Tesla, a six-year-old start-up, is one of the best-known companies in the emerging electric car industry, which is growing as more people seek "clean energy" alternatives in their daily lives.

Hollywood stars drive its stylish sports cars, and investors are eager to cash in on its Silicon Valley cachet.

Tesla's planned Model S, a luxury sedan.
(Credit: Tesla Motors)

Tesla filed for an initial public offering of up to $100 million last month. The company was co-founded by and is currently run by Musk, an entrepreneur who made his fortune as co-founder of online payments service provider PayPal.

Musk frequently travels in a private jet on Tesla business.

The three employees were mid-level engineers, said a person familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to give out details about the fatalities.

The plane was registered to Air Unique in Santa Clara, Calif., Air Unique was registered with Tesla engineer Doug Bourn.

The plane left the Palo Alto Airport at about 7 a.m. PST bound for Hawthorne Municipal Airport in Southern California. It lost power before striking the tower, breaking off a wing, East Palo Alto Police Department Captain John Chalmers said.

The wing hit a house, causing a fire. The rest of the aircraft struck parked vehicles, Chalmers said. There were no reports of injuries on the ground, Chalmers said.

Story Copyright (c) 2010 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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February 16, 2010 3:18 PM PST
Houston aims to be electric car capital
by Reuters

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Houston, nicknamed the Petro Metro for the profusion of oil and gas companies that dot its skyline, is an unlikely host for an electric-car revolution.

But the fourth-biggest U.S. city, which claims the title of the "Energy Capital of the World," is competing with cities like San Francisco to be the nation's electric car capital.

Nissan Leaf parked outside CNET's San Francisco headquarters.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

"We are the Petro Metro but we are also a car city," said newly elected Mayor Annise Parker, speaking at an event on February 5 to promote the Nissan Leaf, an all-electric, five-passenger vehicle that can travel 100 miles on a single charge. "To have an electric vehicle that appeals to a car culture will make the real difference for market penetration."

Cities like Houston and San Francisco are forging partnerships with automakers and power companies to make the vision a reality.

In Houston, for instance, Japanese-based Nissan Motor has signed a deal where the city and power provider Reliant, a unit of NRG Energy, will build a handful of public-charging stations to allow electric car drivers to recharge their cars.

Nissan has signed agreements with other cities like San Diego, Seattle, and Orlando and states like Tennessee and Oregon to ensure that public-charging stations are built.

Such agreements are key to easing skeptical consumers' fears of running out of juice if their car batteries run low before they can reach their garage charging stations.

For beleaguered U.S. automakers like General Motors and Ford Motor, electric cars could be a way to boost shrinking market share.

"Detroit needs something to be exciting and new," said William Hederman, a senior vice president at Concept Capital's Washington Research Group.

General Motors' highly-anticipated battery-powered Chevy Volt hits showrooms in November, about the same time that Nissan begins U.S. sales of the Leaf.

Love of big cars
Texas drivers have a well-established affinity for over-sized cars, but the case for electric cars is strong.

Even if a small percentage of Texas drivers switch to electric cars, the payoff could be substantial. The Houston area alone is home to 4.5 million vehicles that travel 86 million miles a day, according to state statistics.

And Texas leads the nation in producing clean, carbon-free electricity from windmills. But the state must build billions of dollars worth of transmission lines needed to channel the wind power to urban centers.

For U.S. utilities that have seen electric demand slump 5 percent over the last two years due to a recession, the electric car is a godsend, said Kevin Book, managing director of research at ClearView Energy Partners.

"What a salvation the electric car revolution would be for generators that are well below their capacity margins and trying to figure out how to make money," Book said.

In a strange bedfellows story of sorts, U.S. utilities have moved in recent months to cement ties with automakers.

"We've worked very closely together," said Tony Earley, chief executive of a Detroit utility and chairman of the U.S. electric industry's main lobbying group who also sits on Ford's board of directors.

Such coordination has helped utilities fend off clean-car competition in the form of natural gas-powered vehicles promoted by Texas oil man T. Boone Pickens, Hederman said.

Utilities see electric cars as a perfect market for spare electricity that is generated by power plants in off-peak hours that could be sold to consumers who will recharge their electric cars during late-night and early-morning hours when power is the cheapest.

"If it works the way utilities envision, it's growth that fills in the valleys of their demand patterns, and that would be a wonderful thing," Hederman said.

Utilities must build or buy generation to meet the one day of the year when electricity demand is the highest. "The other 364 days of the year our system is under-utilized," said Earley, also chief executive of DTE Energy in Detroit. "There is a lot of capacity that is unused."

Under pressure
For utilities and auto companies watching climate change legislation advance on Capitol Hill, electric cars are a useful tool to reduce heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions to comply with looming first-ever U.S. greenhouse gas restrictions.

"We know that our utility partners face the same pressures that we do to reduce emissions," said Mark Perry, Nissan's director of product planning.

About one-quarter of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions are linked with cars. U.S. President Barack Obama wants to put 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015 to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

And even without climate change legislation, smog-enveloped cities like Houston are already under the gun from federal regulators to reduce smog-causing pollutants like nitrogen oxide, which comes mainly from vehicles.

One big question mark for utilities is how they will be compensated for building charging stations. One study by the University of California Berkeley pegged the cost of building U.S. charging stations at $320 billion in coming decades.

State public utility commissions will have to give utilities permission to recover infrastructure costs via higher rates, but won't approve electric charging stations until they are widely used, Hederman said.

Story Copyright (c) 2010 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Additional stories from Reuters

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February 16, 2010 12:16 PM PST
This electric car rides the train
by Wayne Cunningham

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Rinspeed UC

From the exterior, the Rinspeed UC concept doesn't look as radical as the company's previous cars.
(Credit: Rinspeed)

Rinspeed UC (photos)

Custom carmaker Rinspeed has a history of bringing designing outlandish concept cars for the Geneva auto show. Past efforts include the transparent eXasis, the submersible sQuba, and the mutable iChange. But this year Rinspeed announced something almost pedestrian, an electric city car.

The UC, which stands for Urban Commuter, is a custom built electric car. From the outside, it looks similar in form to other two seat city cars. Its performance stats aren't particularly impressive either, with a top speed of 75 mph, torque at 96 pound-feet, and a range of only 65 miles.

But the car is only part of a larger transportation scheme. It is designed to be easily loaded on special rail transport cars for long trips. Your typical European could drive the few miles it would take to get to the nearest rail station, sit in the restaurant car while the train crosses a few countries, then drive off the train and go about business. Given the U.S. rail infrastructure, the UC would be a more difficult proposition here.

Inside, the UC shows more radical Rinspeed design, for example eschewing a steering wheel for a joystick controller. Rinspeed, aware of the problems using a joystick to drive a car, designed this one with a special force feedback system. The car delivers feedback to the joystick, such as resistance to sharp turns of the steering wheel that mimics the resistance of the actual tires on the road.
Originally posted at The Car Tech blog

Topics:
Transportation

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2010 Geneva auto show,
Rinspeed,
concept,
electric car

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February 14, 2010 1:07 PM PST
A new wire twist on silicon solar cells
by Reuters

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CHICAGO--U.S. researchers have devised a way to make flexible solar cells with silicon wires that use just 1 percent of the material needed to make conventional solar cells.

The eventual hope is to make thin, light solar cells that could be incorporated into clothing, for instance but the immediate benefit is cheaper and easier-to-install solar panels, the researchers said.

The new material, reported on Sunday in Nature Materials, uses conventional silicon configured into micron-sized wires (a micron is one-millionth of a meter) instead of brittle wafers and encases them in a flexible polymer that can be rolled or bent.

"The idea is it would be lower-cost and easier to work with by being more flexible than conventional silicon solar cells," Michael Kelzenberg of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, who worked on the study, said in a telephone interview.

Solar cells, which convert solar energy into electricity, are in high demand because of higher oil prices and concerns over climate change.

Many companies, including Japanese consumer electronics maker Sharp and Germany's Q-Cells SE, are making thin-film solar cells using organic materials such as polymers, but they typically are less efficient at converting solar energy into electricity than conventional cells using silicon.

The study is among the latest to combine the flexibility of the new organic or carbon-containing films with the high efficiency of silicon, which is heavy and stiff.
... Read More

Story Copyright (c) 2010 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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2. Trading Emissions, Leaf Clean merger blocked
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silicon solar cells,
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Nature Materials

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February 13, 2010 6:00 AM PST
Effort to trace 'conflict minerals' in electronics
by Martin LaMonica

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Hewlett-Packard's efforts to be more socially and environmentally sustainable have taken it to an unexpected--and uncomfortable--place: the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo.

Concerned that purchases of metals could be financing armed conflict in the West African country, HP and a handful of other companies are turning their attention to its suppliers of metals, including tin, gold, tantalum, and tungsten, which are used in everyday computing products and mobile phones.

At HP, it's an extension of an initiative that started over a decade ago to ensure that supply chain partners adhere to certain environmental and social standards. The near-term objective is to not purchase metals tied to armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but there's a longer-term goal of certifying the source for minerals of all kinds, according to Zoe McMahon, HP's manager of supply chain social and environmental responsibility.

Proceeds from illegal mining operations, which are controlled by military factions, are helping fuel a complex conflict that crosses between the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring Rwanda.

HP felt pressure to act from outside groups, including enterprise customers, investors, and non-government groups pushing for more transparency of suppliers in the IT industry. In its investigation, HP decided to focus primarily on the source of tantalum because it is used far more than other metals, specifically in capacitors.

An initial review done a few years ago indicated that HP's metals purchases were not directly linked to the mines in question, and thus not directly contributing to the violence. But as the violence escalated, HP looked further and the picture became somewhat hazy.

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"Because our suppliers are not using material from the DRC, that gave us some comfort. But to this day, there is still no certification mechanism that can assure us wholeheartedly that they are not sourced from the DRC," said McMahon. "Once metals are with smelters, it's difficult to know where the material comes from."

The push toward "traceability" in the metals extraction is an outgrowth of HP's practices of auditing its supply chain partners to make sure they do not contribute to human rights and environmental violations, said McMahon. By auditing its suppliers, HP reduces its chances of bad publicity or seeks to avoid other business risks. Other IT-related companies that have worked on the DRC conflict minerals issue include Intel, Motorola, Dell, and Philips, she added.

At this point, local groups don't advocate that metals purchasers stop buying from Africa or the DRC. On the contrary, the goal is to establish a "clean stream" of metals and promote environmentally and socially responsible mining practices there, said McMahon.

Rooting out the sources of tantalum
Within the overall IT industry, there have been a number of efforts to lighten the environmental footprint of computing, with the most visible being development of more energy-efficient computers.

Also, as awareness over the impact of exported electronic waste has grown, there have been efforts to certify recyclers. State regulations have also led to an increase in local electronics recycling options.

But the issue of metals traceabilty is very challenging, admits McMahon. Getting reliable information is not easy, particularly when you consider the complexity of the supply chain. A laptop computer, for example, could have 15 suppliers for its main components. Each one of those suppliers has multiple suppliers, which in turn can have suppliers. All told, a single product could be sourced from dozens of places.

Funding to create maps and audit different facilities relies in large part on U.S. government funding, which is uncertain even though there are conflict minerals bills under consideration and there has been diplomatic pressure on this issue in Africa.

There are, however, some efforts that could serve as a template for IT industry-specific certifications, said McMahon. The Electronics Industry Citizen Coalition is preparing a report, due to come out next month, that creates maps to trace the path of tin to market. Next month, representatives from the tantalum supply chain industry will meet with EICC members in an effort to create a sourcing certification to be applied in the DRC.

The hope is that the electronics industry can pressure other industries, such as aerospace, jewelry, and automotive, to pursue certification, said McMahon.

"We have some gaps in our understanding of our products and we want to continue filling gaps (from suppliers)," she said. "Who isn't in the room [discussing the issue] are the traders in the DRC, that's the hard part. In pulling together all parts of the tantalum supply chain, it's been evident that greater action is needed."

Topics:
Environment

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materials,
minerals,
metals,
IT,
sustainability

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February 12, 2010 7:40 AM PST
Nissan to take Leaf reservations in April
by Martin LaMonica

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Nissan will start taking reservations for its Leaf all-electric sedan in April, with deliveries coming at year's end.

The company isn't disclosing the car's price tag, but Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has said it will be competitively priced with similarly sized vehicles, which the company sees as crucial to mass market adoption. The $100 reservation fee is refundable, and the company will start to take actual orders in August, Nissan said Thursday.
2011 Nissan Leaf (photos)

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The design of the car is very much aimed at everyday use, although its anticipated 100-mile driving range does impose limits. It's a four-door sedan with a hatchback, as well as on-board features to help drivers track battery charge level and remaining range.

As they plan their electric car launches, carmaker executives have been considering the idea of separating the price of the battery--which significantly adds to the cost of production--from the purchase. But Nissan indicated that batteries are included in the cost, whether it's a purchase or a lease.

Of the incumbent auto companies, Nissan is the most bullish on all-electric vehicles and the company's nationwide public tour in the U.S., which ended Thursday, was marked by a "groundswell of grassroots support," according to Nissan. The company earlier this month secured a $1.4 billion loan from the Department of Energy to modify Nissan's Smyra, Tenn., plant to produce the Leaf and its batteries.

Still, the question of sticker price continues to hang over the Leaf--and the electric car segment in general. Optimists expect that plug-in cars--whether they are hybrids or battery electrics--will become a sizable slice of the auto market over the next 10 years, much the way hybrids sales have grown because of consumer demand. Nissan projects that electrics will be about 10 percent of the market in 2020.

But auto industry experts point out that the hefty price of batteries is not projected to drop dramatically in the next few years, which will limit its adoption even with tax credits for plug-in cars. The Boston Consulting Group forecasts that sales of hybrids will represent nearly three-quarters of electric car sales by 2020.

Most likely, electric cars like the Leaf will take hold in certain regions, which would mimic the sales pattern of hybrids. Consumers' needs for range vary in different parts of the country and world, which would make an electric car more suitable in San Francisco, for example, than in rural Iowa.

Also, certain municipalities are eager to promote electric vehicles adoption by providing incentives for public charging stations and simplified permitting for installing 240-volt charging points in people's homes. The DOE has also provided grants to pay for over 6,000 recharging stations in Seattle, Phoenix, Tuscon, Ariz., and San Diego, in addition to locations in Tennessee and Oregon.

So even though the Leaf and other electric cars are expected to cost more upfront, you'll start to see them on U.S. streets early next year.

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February 11, 2010 9:12 AM PST
SunPower to acquire SunRay for $277 million
by Candace Lombardi

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A rooftop solar installation from SunPower at Del Monte Foods in Kingsburg, Calif.
(Credit: SunPower)

U.S. solar-panel manufacturer SunPower has signed an agreement to acquire SunRay Renewable Energy and its existing solar projects for $277 million, both companies announced Thursday.

The maker of high-efficiency solar panels said approximately $235 million of the deal will be in cash, which SunPower announced it already has in hand, forgoing the need to raise equity capital to finance the deal. The remaining $42 million will be in the form of credit and promissory notes.

SunRay, a European solar-power company, might be best known for its completion in November of the 24-megawatt Montalto di Castro solar-photovoltaic power plant, the largest solar plant in Italy at the time it opened. SunRay partnered with SunPower on the project, which consists of 78,720 of SunPower's high-efficiency solar panels and now supplies enough energy to power 13,000 homes, according to SunRay.

As part of the $277 million agreement, SunPower will acquire 1,200 megawatts worth of solar-photovoltaic projects, including those in early-stage development, in France, Greece, Italy, Israel, Spain, and the UK.

Aside from giving it a stronghold in Europe, SunPower said it anticipates the acquisition of SunRay will aid the company in its continual expansion in North America as well. The company announced it expects the deal to be complete by the middle of 2010 and will provide details of the transaction at its upcoming earnings report in March.

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Deals and investments,
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solar-photovoltaic power,
solar panels

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1. First Chevy Volt cars will not be E85 ready

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Here's another one of Facebook's gradual moves into the e-commerce world: The company announced Thursday a "strategic relationship" with eBay-owned payment system PayPal to make its technology available for the purchase of self-service ads as well as the Facebook Credits currency.
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URL Typos Earn Google $497 Million Per Year

Google could be making millions from 'typosquatting' because its network of display ads--from which it receives a cut of the profits--run on the typo'd sites.
* 322 diggs
What Google needs to learn from Buzz backlash

From privacy concerns to poor launch perception of the service's actual usefulness. How can Google avoid making these mistakes in the future?
* 558 diggs
'Why Firefox?' and 'Why Windows?'

Is Mozilla becoming too much like Microsoft?
* 588 diggs
PHP and Perl crashing the enterprise party

The enterprise has long favored Java and .Net, but PHP and other dynamic programming languages have left their infancies and are rapidly closing the gap on their more stodgy competitors.
* 555 diggs
Buzz off: Disabling Google Buzz

My colleague Molly Wood called it a privacy nightmare, but to many, Google's new social-networking tool Buzz is at its root an unwanted, unasked for pest. We didn't opt in to some newfangled Twitter system and we don't particularly want to see updates from contacts we never asked to follow creep up in our Buzz in-box.
* 501 diggs
Antipiracy update due for Windows 7

An optional update to Windows closes a number of hacks that counterfeiters have used to bypass the product activation technologies built into Windows 7. With the update, Windows will try to restore Windows to its proper state, as well as marking tampered versions as non-genuine copies of the operating system.
* 485 diggs
D&D on Microsoft Surface w/Video

Trading pencils and paper for virtual dice on Microsoft's multitouch tabletop computer speeds up famous role-playing game.
* 792 diggs
Feds push for tracking cell phones

Two years ago, when the FBI was stymied by a band of armed robbers known as the "Scarecrow Bandits" that had robbed more than 20 Texas banks, it came up with a novel method of locating the thieves. FBI agents obtained logs from mobile phone companies corresponding to what their
* 329 diggs
U.S. House Passes Cybersecurity Research Bill

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a cybersecurity bill that calls for beefing up training, research, and coordination so the government can be better prepared to deal with cyberattacks.

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Business Tech
IE to lose Windows monopoly next week in Europe

Company will start to publicly test its legally mandated browser choice process next week before a wider European launch around March 1.
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Gallery
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The Open Road
Can IE compete on a level playing field?

Starting March 1, Microsoft will have to learn to compete in the browser market again due to an EU antitrust agreement. This should be good for consumers, but also for Microsoft and its competitors.
*

Beyond Binary
Canada's high-tech effort to 'own the podium'

The host nation has spent millions of dollars over the past few years investing in technology it hopes will give it a better showing in the medals standings.
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Video
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Media Maverick
Google book settlement draws fire in court

Search engine is turning copyright on its head, say opponents of a settlement that would enable Google to scan snippets of out-of-print books.
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Video
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Geek Gestalt
Denny's social network plan may not be fully cooked

The restaurant chain invites its dinner customers to visit its Twitter account, but thanks to a misprint on the four-month-old menu, diners are pointed to a Taiwanese man's account.
*

Nanotech - The Circuits Blog
Toyota software bugs unlike those in flaky PCs

The Toyota Prius' electronic issues signal that cars will have more software bugs. But cars are not PCs, an expert at car Web site Edmunds.com explains.
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Gallery
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Inside CNET Labs Podcast
Inside CNET Labs Podcast 80: The excellence of character

Character, SELECT!
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Green Tech
Google gets go-ahead to buy, sell energy

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's order paves the way for Google to become a major energy player.

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