Scientist Transmits Solar Power on Earth, Next Up: Space

New advances in power transmission would make Tesla proud

After decades of dormancy, interest in transmitting power wirelessly is finally heating up in the tech community.  Intel recently demoed its new wireless charging tech which it says could power its next generation chipsets.  Now, a former NASA researcher is revealing even grander plans to transform the business of power generation as we know it.

Funded by the Discovery Channel, John C. Mankins finished a four month experiment which began by collecting solar power, nothing out of the ordinary.  What happened next was relatively extraordinary, though -- he transmitted the power 92 miles (148 km) between two Hawaiian Islands. 

Terrestrial power transmission is only of interest to Mr. Mankins as a proof of concept.  Mr. Mankins' true plans are out of this world.  He envisions a network of 1,102 lb. (500 kg) satellites beaming solar power collected from panels back to Earth, satisfying all the world's power needs.

After working loyally for NASA for 25 years, he resigned after the solar program at the agency was terminated.  Now he's completed one of the more ambitious transmission experiments in history -- enough to make Nikola Tesla, the man who first envisioned wireless power transmission, proud.

The work still has a long way to go, though.  The transmission only successfully received one one-thousandth of the total power sent, a very low efficiency.  This was primarily because the receivers were so tiny.  Larger receivers, would still be rather inefficient, but could in theory, achieve much higher efficiencies.  Furthermore, the costs were relatively high at $1M USD, but Mr. Mankins believes the costs would decrease as the technology was scaled up.

In total each of the nine solar panels in the transmission assembly sent 2 watts of power.  They were originally equipped to send 20 watts, but the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration would only approve the lower power transmissions.

The encouraging results have reaffirmed Mr. Mankins' commitment to one day bring space-based solar power to the world.  His vision is that one day a fleet of satellites will beam power down to lake-sized receivers.  He enthuses, "The test was in no way fully successful, (but) I think it showed it is possible to transmit solar power quickly and affordably."

Mr. Mankins is president of ARTEMIS Innovation Management Solutions LLC, a startup which provides "strategic planning, technology assessment, and R&D management objectives" to government agencies.  He is also president of the Space Power Association.

The U.S. military is investigating similar plans to use satellite based solar power to beam power to troops on the battlefield.

DailyTech - Scientist Transmits Solar Power on Earth, Next Up: Space

Possible First Photo of Planet Around Sun-Like Star

Astronomers have taken what may the first picture of a planet orbiting a star similar to the sun.

This distant world is giant (about eight times the mass of Jupiter) and lies far out from its star (about 330 times the Earth-Sun distance). But for all the planet's strangeness, its star is quite like our own sun.

Previously, the

only photographed extrasolar planets have belonged to tiny, dim stars known as brown dwarfs. And while hundreds of exoplanets have been detected by noting their gravitational tug on their parent stars, it is rare to find one large enough to image directly.

"This is the first time we have directly seen a planetary mass object in a likely orbit around a star like our sun," said David Lafrenière, an astronomer at the University of Toronto who led the team that discovered the star. "If we confirm that this object is indeed gravitationally tied to the star, it will be a major step forward."

Further study will be needed to prove that the planet is in fact orbiting around the star, as opposed to the possibility, however unlikely, that the two objects just happen to lie in the same area of the sky at roughly the same distance from us.

"Of course it would be premature to say that the object is definitely orbiting this star, but the evidence is extremely compelling," Lafrenière said. "This will be a very intensely studied object for the next few years!"

The researchers used the Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii to glimpse the planet and its star, 1RXS J160929.1-210524, which lies about 500 light-years from Earth. Though the star has about 85 percent the mass of the sun, it is younger than our star. In order to image the far-flung system, the team utilized adaptive optics technology, which uses flexible mirrors to offset the distortion light suffers as it passes through Earth's atmosphere.

The strange planet so far from its parent star is unexpected based on current theories of star and planet formation. For comparison, the farthest planet in our solar system, Neptune, lies only 30 times the Earth-sun distance away from the sun.

"This discovery is yet another reminder of the truly remarkable diversity of worlds out there, and it's a strong hint that nature may have more than one mechanism for producing planetary mass companions to normal stars," said team member Ray Jayawardhana, also of the University of Toronto.

The distant exoplanet, at about 1,800 Kelvin (about 1,500ºC), is also much hotter than our own Jupiter, which has a temperature of about 160 Kelvin (-110ºC).

The team discovered the new planet as part a survey of more than 85 stars in the Upper Scorpius association, a group of young stars formed about 5 million years ago. The researchers have detailed the study in a paper submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters and also posted online.

"This discovery certainly has us looking forward to what other surprises nature has in stock for us," said University of Toronto team member Marten van Kerkwijk.

SPACE.com -- Possible First Photo of Planet Around Sun-Like Star

Guitar Hero World Tour Setlist Revealed

Activision has finally unveiled the full 86-song setlist for the upcoming Guitar Hero World Tour.

The game includes tracks from Blondie, Joe Satriani, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Nirvana, Sublime, Tool and Ted Nugent -- a full list can be found below.

Guitar Hero World Tour hits North American retail shelves on October 26. European and Australian territories will see the game on November 7 and November 12, respectively.

• 311 - “Beautiful Disaster”
• 30 Seconds To Mars - “The Kill”
• Airbourne - “Too Much Too Young”
• The Allman Brothers Band - “Ramblin' Man”
• Anouk - “Good God”
• The Answer - “Never Too Late”
• At The Drive-In - “One Armed Scissor”
• Beastie Boys - “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”
• Beatsteaks - “Hail to the Freaks”
• Billy Idol - “Rebel Yell”
• Black Label Society - “Stillborn”
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - “Weapon of Choice”
• blink-182 - “Dammit”
• Blondie - “One Way or Another”
• Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band - “Hollywood Nights”
• Bon Jovi - “Livin’ On A Prayer”
• Bullet For My Valentine - “Scream Aim Fire”
• Coldplay - “Shiver”
• Creedence Clearwater Revival - “Up Around The Bend”
• The Cult - “Love Removal Machine”
• Dinosaur Jr. - “Feel The Pain”
• The Doors - “Love Me Two Times”
• Dream Theater - “Pull Me Under”
• The Eagles - “Hotel California”
• The Enemy - “Aggro”
• Filter - “Hey Man, Nice Shot”
• Fleetwood Mac - “Go Your Own Way”
• Foo Fighters - “Everlong”
• The Guess Who - “American Woman”
• Hush Puppies - “You're Gonna Say Yeah!”
• Interpol - “Obstacle 1”
• Jane's Addiction - “Mountain Song”
• Jimi Hendrix - “Purple Haze (Live)”
• Jimi Hendrix - “The Wind Cries Mary”
• Jimmy Eat World - “The Middle”
• Joe Satriani - “Satch Boogie”
• Kent - “Vinternoll2”
• Korn - “Freak On A Leash”
• Lacuna Coil - “Our Truth”
• Lenny Kravitz - “Are You Gonna Go My Way”
• Linkin Park - “What I've Done”
• The Living End - “Prisoner of Society”
• Los Lobos - “La Bamba”
• Lost Prophets - “Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast)”
• Lynyrd Skynyrd - “Sweet Home Alabama (Live)”
• Mars Volta - “L'Via L'Viaquez”
• MC5’s Wayne Kramer - “Kick Out The Jams”
• Metallica - “Trapped Under Ice”
• Michael Jackson - “Beat It”
• Modest Mouse - “Float On”
• Motörhead - “Overkill”
• Muse - “Assassin”
• Negramaro - “Nuvole e Lenzuola”
• Nirvana - “About a Girl (Unplugged)”
• No Doubt - “Spiderwebs”
• NOFX - “Soul Doubt”
• Oasis - “Some Might Say”
• Ozzy Osbourne - “Crazy Train”
• Ozzy Osbourne - “Mr. Crowley”
• Paramore - “Misery Business”
• Pat Benatar - “Heartbreaker”
• R.E.M. - “The One I Love”
• Radio Futura - “Escuela De Calor”
• Rise Against - “Re-Education Through Labor”
• Sex Pistols - “Pretty Vacant”
• Silversun Pickups - “Lazy Eye”
• Smashing Pumpkins - “Today”
• Steely Dan - “Do It Again”
• Steve Miller Band - “The Joker”
• Sting - “Demolition Man (Live)”
• The Stone Roses - “Love Spreads”
• Stuck In The Sound - “Toy Boy”
• Sublime - “Santeria”
• Survivor - “Eye of the Tiger”
• System of a Down - “B.Y.O.B.”
• Ted Nugent - “Stranglehold”
• Ted Nugent’s Original Guitar Duel Recording
• Tokio Hotel - “Monsoon”
• Tool - “Parabola”
• Tool - “Schism”
• Tool - “Vicarious”
• Trust - “Antisocial”
• Van Halen - “Hot For Teacher”
• Willie Nelson - “On The Road Again”
• Wings - “Band on the Run”
• Zakk Wylde’s Original Guitar Duel Recording

Image courtesy Activision

Guitar Hero World Tour Setlist Revealed | Game | Life from Wired.com

Extra Life charity lets gamers battle cancer

With billions of loyal fans visiting our site each hour, we have a considerable, almost daunting amount of power. It's a power we occasionally use for evil or just for stupid, but we decided this morning that we'd do something good with it for a change and direct your attention to Extra Life.

Fresh from the victory of their non-boycott, Sarcastic Gamer is once again rallying the troops, this time asking them to set aside Oct. 18 for an all-day gaming marathon. All you have to do is get friends and loved ones to sponsor your decadence with money that goes straight to the Texas Children's Cancer Center. It's like a charity fun run, but for fat people.

It's a great effort, but do us a favor and take at least a couple of breaks, will you? The last thing you want to do is fight cancer while you die of dehydration.

Extra Life charity lets gamers battle cancer - Joystiq

Report: Windows 7 Beta 1 Slips from October to December

It appears testers will have to wait longer to get their hands on Vista's successor

Windows 7 is one of the hottest topics in the tech community today.  Set to debut in late 2009 or early 2010, Microsoft's latest version of Windows promises to make up ground in areas Windows Vista lacked, by offering a leaner build, innovative user interface technology such as touch inputs, and better hardware partner support.  With regular blogs streaming from Microsoft's Redmond, Washington Windows 7 development team, the company is in full swing preparing for the release.

Fans, developers, and customers are eagerly awaiting the release of the first beta candidate of the new OS.  Initially speculation was that Microsoft would roll out beta 1 at its late October Professional Developers Conference (PDC), or at the latest, at its early November Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC).

However, it appears that the release has been pushed back.  ZDNet cites inside sources as saying that the earliest the beta 1 might be released would be mid-December.  A scant few already have their hands on the new OS.  Some hardware partners and a select group of customers were given access to the two milestones -- alpha builds of sorts -- M1 and M2.  The Windows team is supposedly in the process of wrapping up M3 for release.

The slip has led many to speculate that Microsoft may release an interim Community Technology Preview (CTP) build for release to a broader group of testers.  However, if it has such plans, Microsoft is leaving its customers and hardware partners in the dark about them.  Most reticently believe that Microsoft will not release Windows 7 previews to a wider audience until it’s nearly feature-complete.

One thing that is known is that Microsoft is collecting testers for the eventual beta release through its Connect site.  A post on the Windows 7 Engineering blog by Christina Storm, a program manager on the Windows Customer Engineering feature team, states:

When we release the Windows 7 beta we will also be collecting feedback from this (Windows Feedback) panel and asking for participation from a set of Windows 7 beta users.Our current plans call for signing up for the beta to happen in the standard Microsoft manner on http://connect.microsoft.com. Stay tuned!

If the beta 1 does drop in December, it will mean that there will be less than a year between it and the targeted release to market date (late 2009).  Some speculate that this may be because Windows engineering chief Steven Sinofsky routinely delivered short betas for the Office team he once headed.  While some are speculating that this could be a significant mistake, leading to Vista-like compatibility issues, its virtually set in stone that Microsoft is going to take things at its own pace.  In the meantime, the rest of the tech community is left to patiently wait.

DailyTech - Report: Windows 7 Beta 1 Slips from October to December

Firefox 3.1 To Add Private Browsing?

With similar features already built in to Safari, IE8, and Google Chrome, the Mozilla gang is once again looking to add private browsing to Firefox.

While the Stealther addon can already provide this functionality, FIrefox is looking to implement it in the 3.1 release before year's end.

The goal will be to store as much data from private browsing sessions as possible in memory to avoid writing to the hard drive. Information that users save explicitly - bookmarks, for example - will still be written to the disk. Subtlty appears to be a goal as well, since IE's Inprivate mode notification "is fail," according to developer Mike Connor. I'll assume he's not a fan of Chrome's tiny Spy Guy either.

Why add the feature? There are a number of reasons given at the wiki, including planning a surprise party, viewing porn, or cheating on your spouse. I believe I see a pattern forming. Others - like me - probably just want the assurance of being able to browse without leaving traces of activity on a local machine.

Specifics about Mozilla's goals for private browsing can be viewed at the wiki.

Firefox 3.1 To Add Private Browsing? - Download Squad

Microsoft SideWinder X8 gaming mouse uses new BlueTrack laser

Whoa. Microsoft blasted its mice into the next level yesterday with its BlueTrack laser tech, and one of the first out of the gate is this seven-button SideWinder X8 gaming mouse. Gamers will be skeptical of its wireless nature, fantasizing that their reflexes are faster than the X8's 13,000 frames per second, 75g maximum acceleration, 120 inches per second maximum speed and 2.4GHz transmitter, but they may like the way it can hold up to 30 hours of nonstop gaming before it needs a charge. This oughta beat its predecessor handily.

That "4000" festooned on its side boasts of the SideWinder X8's impressive-sounding 4000 dpi resolution, getting well into the spec-derby range and far beyond anything meaningful. Maybe numbers like that can help to justify its $99.95 price, or convince hard-core gamers to wait until February for its release. Take a look at another pic of the mouse tethered to its spool-like charging cable minder, as well as Microsoft's press release:

Microsoft's Press Release:

Experience Untethered, Uninterrupted Gameplay With Microsoft’s New SideWinder X8 Mouse

First wireless SideWinder mouse features Microsoft BlueTrack Technology for the best speeds and feeds available.
REDMOND, Wash.  Sept. 10, 2008  Microsoft Corp. today unleashed the SideWinder X8 Mouse, offering wireless freedom with wired performance with a 2.4GHz wireless connection that is built for lag-free play. The latest SideWinder mouse features an innovative play-and-charge system to ensure a nonstop gaming experience — up to 30 hours of active gaming on a single charge — with no need to stop the game to change batteries. The SideWinder X8 Mouse is a top performer thanks to Microsoft’s new, proprietary BlueTrack Technology that gives this mouse the best frame rate, speed and acceleration on the market and a tracking range from 250 to 4,000 dots per inch (dpi).

“When conducting our research, we found room for improving on the wireless experience for gamers, especially as it related to perceived delay or lag time of response. The SideWinder X8 Mouse will put those wireless gaming mouse fears to rest,” said Bill Jukes, product marketing manager for Microsoft Hardware. “We designed this mouse to perform to the highest gaming standards — with near-zero latency, uninterrupted gameplay and the world’s most advanced tracking with BlueTrack Technology.”

Innovation for Gaming Performance
The SideWinder X8 Mouse is a top-performing wireless gaming mouse, with a combination of BlueTrack Technology tracking that provides the best speeds and feeds available, 2.4GHz wireless technology built for lag-free play, and an easy recharging system that keeps gamers in action.
• BlueTrack Technology. The world’s most advanced tracking offers next-generation tracking technology for gaming with image processing of 13,000 frames per second, 75g maximum acceleration and 120 inches per second maximum speed.
• 2.4GHz wireless. The device is built for lag-free play with virtually no latency.
• Play and charge. Get up to 30 hours of active gaming on a single charge, or use the play-and-charge cable for nonstop action. The winding cord management system offers easy charging — simply unwrap the cord from around the storage box and snap it onto the underside of the mouse.

Designed for Gaming
Comfort continues to be one of the main needs of PC gamers, and the SideWinder X8 Mouse features a unique, comfortable design that gamers will appreciate for extended sessions of play. Features include the following:
• Scroll wheel with tilt. The mouse has better feel and response with detents for precise control.
• Engineered for speed. The shape was designed for quick, balanced and precise gaming actions.
• Vertical side buttons. The top and bottom design makes locating side buttons easier and reduces unintentional activation. The X8 also offers smart features to enhance the gaming experience, including an LCD screen on the mouse to quickly view dpi settings and macro-recording icons, and a Quick Launch button that provides one-touch access to Microsoft’s PC gaming features.

Custom Tuning
Gamers also like to customize their gaming mouse to fit their needs, which is why the SideWinder X8 Mouse offers the following adjustable features:
• DPI switching. Instantly switch sensitivity among high, medium and low with one click, ranging from 250 to 4,000 dpi.
• Replaceable mouse feet. Choose from three materials for glide preference.
• Seven programmable buttons. Customize five programmable main buttons, plus left and right tilt.
• Macro record button. Easily record macros while in game with the dedicated button.

Pricing and Availability
The SideWinder X8 Mouse will be widely available in February 2009 for an estimated retail price of $99.95 (U.S.).2 The mouse is available now for pre-sale on Amazon.com and will ship in February when it is released. The SideWinder X8 Mouse will be backed by a worldwide three-year limited hardware warranty from Microsoft Corp. More information about this and other Microsoft Hardware products can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/hardware.

About Microsoft Hardware
For more than 25 years, the Hardware Group has employed innovative engineering, cutting-edge industrial design and extensive usability testing to create products of exceptional quality and durability that enhance the software experience and strengthen the connection between consumers and their PC. Microsoft Hardware leads the industry in ergonomic engineering, industrial design and hardware/software compatibility, offering consumers an easier, more convenient and more enjoyable computing experience. Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer, which launched in 1999, earned a place on PCWorld.com’s December 2005 list of “The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years” as the first mainstream optical mouse that “brought gunk-free pointing devices” to a broad consumer base. More information about the Hardware Group is available at http://www.mshardwareguide.com.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

DVICE: Microsoft SideWinder X8 gaming mouse uses new BlueTrack laser