Half-Life 2 mini-series blows minds on a dime

We've found some fairly unwise applications for $500 in the past, including (but not limited to) a few pyramid scheme investments and a number of unused gym memberships -- if only we'd followed the example of the upstart indie filmographers at Purchase Brothers, who recently spent five Benjamins on an extremely worthwhile cause: Producing the first two episodes of a Half-Life 2-inspired miniseries, titled Escape from City 17.

The Purchase Brothers recently dropped the first episode onto an unsuspecting internet -- we've got it posted after the jump. If you've played the series (we find it difficult to believe there are people who haven't, at this point), you really need to check it out. A touch of naughty language and a healthy dose of gunshootery might make it a bit NSFW, but we think you'll agree -- it's worth risking your employment to watch this video with all available haste.

(I would suggest clicking through to the actual Youtube page and hit the HD version. Much better. –D-Bone)

Half-Life 2 mini-series blows minds on a dime - Joystiq

Doorstep Astronomy: Spot 5 Planets

This month you'll have an opportunity to see all five naked-eye planets – but not all at once.  Two of them are evening objects, while the other three are clustered together low in the east-southeast sky deep in the dawn twilight. 

The planets move around in our sky and become brighter and dimmer over time depending on where they are in their orbits around the sun. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are never visible to the naked eye.

Here's what you can look for:

The Evening Lantern

If you ever wanted to see a planet so bright it will take your breath away, this is your week and

Venus is the planet.  It hangs lantern-like, high in the west as darkness falls.  It's so bright now that you should have little trouble finding it even before sunset in a clean, deep blue sky – which is also a good time to look at its dramatic crescent shape in a telescope.

As dusk starts to fade, this unrivaled heavenly lamp can scarcely be missed â€" you won't need a map.  Venus sets more than 3 hours after the sun. 

Venus is now at the pinnacle of brilliancy for this current evening apparition.  Viewed through a telescope in the coming weeks, its crescent grows larger but thinner as the planet approaches the Earth in the celestial scheme of things and shows us more of its night side. By month's end Venus is similar in apparent size to Jupiter – but less than one-quarter of it is lit.

Gray markings in the planet's cloud cover remain quite subtle.  Look around sunset, when the sky is brighter and Venus's crescent is less dazzling than it becomes after dark.  Also, watch for signs of the mysterious ashen light – a still unexplained illumination that some observers have occasionally noticed in parts of Venus's night side.

On the evening of Feb. 27 the Americas will be greeted with one of the most spectacular Venus-crescent moon conjunctions possible. The pairing will persist from before sunset into the depths of darkness.  Venus will sit about 1.5-degrees above and to the right of the three-day old crescent.  Be sure not to miss this!

Lord of the Rings

The next planet to look for is Saturn. This week it comes up above the eastern horizon about 90 minutes after sunset, but by the time of its opposition to the sun on March 8 it will be visible all night from dusk to dawn.  Two nights later, on March 10, Saturn will ride high above the full moon. 

Brightening slightly from magnitude +0.7 to +0.5, Saturn appears twice as bright as the bluish star, Regulus, the brightest star of Leo, the Lion. Shining sedately with a yellow-white hue, Saturn appears far to the lower left of that first magnitude star during the evening. 

If you have a telescope magnifying at least 30-power, you'll be able to glimpse the famous ring system, which now looks like a bright line that bisects Saturn's disk.  The rings open slightly to 2.3-degrees from edgewise by the end of February, but the rings will start closing again later this spring, ultimately disappearing even in big telescopes by midsummer. 

A planetary trio

The other three planets visible are morning objects.  Two of these are visible toward month's end but with some difficulty: Jupiter and Mercury. 

Solar conjunction for Jupiter was on Jan. 24; by the final week of February it'll be on its way back into view, appearing a little higher each day.  Off to its upper right will be fainter Mercury.  Bring binoculars for this challenging sighting; the two planets will be very low above the east-southeastern horizon about 30-35 minutes before sunrise. 

Just before sunrise on the 22nd, seek out the slender sliver of an old crescent moon, just 2-½ days before new phase, low near the east-southeast horizon.  If you find it, use it as your guide to locate Mercury and Jupiter, located about 5 or 6-degrees to the moon's lower left.  Binoculars will help.

Jupiter and Mercury engage in a close conjunction early on the morning of Feb. 24, with Jupiter appearing to stand almost directly above Mercury; they're separated by 0.7-degree. For comparison, the moon's apparent width is 0.5-degree. The place to look is very low in the east-southeast.  Mercury shines at a respectable magnitude -0.1, but still appears only about one-sixth as bright as Jupiter's -2.0.

The only planet seemingly out of the loop in terms of visibility is Mars.  Shining at magnitude +1.3 and rising deep in the glow of dawn less than an hour before sunup, it's not yet a naked-eye object for mid-northerners.  Nonetheless, on the mornings of Feb. 16, 17 and 18, Mars and Jupiter will be separated by less than 1-degree.  On the 17th, in fact, Jupiter will appear just 0.6-degree to the upper left of Mars. So if you can locate Jupiter, you should be able to find Mars with binoculars or a small telescope. 

And with Mercury close by this makes for a planetary trio.  For those Space.com readers living south of the equator, these three planets will appear a bit higher and against a somewhat darker sky; hence making them easier to see. 

SPACE.com -- Doorstep Astronomy: Spot 5 Planets

Netflix Reaches 10 Million Subscriber Mark

Netflix has eclipsed 10 million total subscribers

Netflix proudly issued a press release announcing the online movie rental company now has more than 10 million subscribers.

"Ten million subscribers is a symbolic but meaningful achievement for our company," said Reed Hastings, Netflix co-founder and CEO. "From a subscriber standpoint, Netflix is singularly focused on making movie enjoyment easy, and we'll strive to deliver on that promise in added and improved ways in the years to come."

The company has added 600,000 streaming subscribers to its service since the start of 2009, with that number steadily growing.  Subscribers now have the ability to watch streaming content directly to their TV or on the Internet, which offers greater flexibility.

Netflix also has agreements so its streaming service is available through the Microsoft Xbox 360 game console, Roku Netflix player, and several standalone Blu-ray players, including products from LG and Samsung.  More than one million Xbox 360 owners have installed the Netflix application, and both Microsoft and Netflix expect that number to increase.

Even though many people are cutting back on entertainment and luxury spending, that means they're staying at home watching movies rather than going out and seeing movies in theaters.  Netflix has shown to be rather recession proof, and expects to continue to succeed despite the struggling global economy.

In the future, Netflix hopes to end its Q1 fiscal quarter with 10.1 million to 10.3 million subscribers.  In an ideal situation, the company will have between 10.6 million and 11.3 million subscribers by the end of the year.

DailyTech - Netflix Reaches 10 Million Subscriber Mark

YouTube introduces paid and free downloads

After years of trying to convince us that, no -- we really shouldn't want a way to watch YouTube content offline, the company has officially confirmed that they are rolling the ability to download YouTube videos. The program is still evolving, but right now, both free and paid downloads are available from a small list of providers.

I'm can't help but be struck by a sense of déjà vu . If you recall, the now defunct Google Video initially offered paid downloads -- it was an epic failure. I don't want to be too quick to judge, but unless YouTube implements some changes, like FAST, it is going to end the same way.

Here are the problems as I see it:

• The partner channels testing paid downloads are, for lack of a better word, unimpressive. I'm sorry, but I really don't want to pay $0.99 for a math lesson, a so-called hacking lesson or to see a new media douchebag. I'm perfectly content to watch that content online if the alternative is paying.
• If the free content from Stanford University is anything to go by, the downloaded quality isn't that great. If I'm going to pay for a download (or even take the time to download a 245 meg file of a free program), at least make it worth my while.
• Again, the content selection thus far sucks. What's the use of promoting all this commercial content if there's no way any of it is going to be downloadable, since it appears everything has to be licensed either by the Creative Commons or public domain?
• They hide the stuff you do purchase under http://www.youtube.com/my_purchases. Take a cue from Apple, make it easy to access your purchased content. Maybe put a link in the main YouTube menu.
• It's unclear how many times you can download content and whatnot.

Those issues aside, I suppose it's cool that YouTube is finally allowing people to download content. Now, let's cue the flood of YouTube stars desperate to make a buck off of their unique sense of self.

YouTube introduces paid and free downloads - Download Squad

More Evidence of Water and Ice on Mars

The possibility of water and ice evidence on the Red Planet of Mars continues to grow

Researchers studying the Martian surface have found further evidence that the Red Planet once had flowing water, due to winding channels and gullies carved in the planet's surface.

Researchers are using images captured by the Mars Odyssey THEMIS VIS camera, Viking Orbiter cameras, and Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera to analyze images of select regions of Mars.

Specifically, researchers from the Planetary Science Institute of Arizona studied the Arabia Terra region, located in the northern hemisphere, and more than 100 areas in the Hellas Basin, which is in the southern hemisphere.

Tongue-shaped deposits similar to rock glaciers on Earth were found in 30 different images captured of the Lellas Basin, and it's possible the ice is still flowing in that section of Mars.  Furthermore, an in-depth analysis of the craters found channels ranging from around 3 to 7 feet across that were narrow and branched down the walls.

"If you look at all of these (features) individually, it's not necessarily strong evidence that there was ice and/or water flowing on the surface," lead researcher Daniel Berman from the Planetary Science Institute of Arizona said.  "But if you look at this suite of features you see throughout these regions, what you have is a story of the deposition of a fair quantity of ice most likely during this period of high obliquity, several million years ago, which has subsequently begun to melt and flow down the crater walls and across their floors."

There has been growing evidence of past water and water ice on the Red Planet, with researchers making numerous breakthroughs over the past 10 years.  The interest in Mars has continually grown as space nations begin to talk about numerous missions that could take place to the planet in the next 25 years. 

The likelihood of life on the planet has also increased lately, though there is still much research left to be done.

DailyTech - More Evidence of Water and Ice on Mars

Google's Grid Meter Looks to Save Homeowners Some Green

Google distinguishes itself from the pack by offering its green grid meter service for free

DailyTech previously covered IBM's efforts to release a "green meter" which monitored the amount of electricity that small businesses use and equating it to green house gas emissions.  Now Google has joined IBM and others by releasing its own entry into the burgeoning grid meter market.

The new service from Google is called PowerMeter and it's free to both home and commercial users.  While this sounds great, there's one significant catch -- PowerMeter relies on others to provide the information it needs.  Google is hoping that makers of home electronics and appliances will add hardware which will feed the service information wirelessly.  It also needs utilities to provide it with grid metrics.

Kirsten Olsen Cahill, a program manager at Google.org, the company’s corporate philanthropy arm which developed the service, states, "We can’t build this product all by ourselves.  We depend on a whole ecosystem of utilities, device makers and policies that would allow consumers to have detailed access to their home energy use and make smarter energy decisions."

The new service, if it gains a hardware foothold, will offer homeowners their first chance to participate in a smarter grid.  Google is among the firms leading such efforts which seek to use existing resources more efficiently.

The service and others in the future may interface with the chips inside devices such as washing machines, dryers, and dishwashers to give users an ever-changing visual display of how much money it will cost to use the device at that particular time of the day.  Electricity charges are tied to demand, something most consumers never pay much attention to when it comes to power usage.  By using devices at times when demand is lower, users could potentially save a great deal of money, depending on their utility's policies.

Describes Rick Sergel, chief executive of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, an industry group that sets operating standards for the grid in an interview with the New York Times, "They’ve been putting a chip in your dishwasher for a long time that would allow you to run it any time you want.  (These services) provide an opportunity to create dancing partners that will help the system balance itself."

The new meter could also be very useful for plug-in electric vehicles.  With GM and others preparing to unleash a fleet of electric plug-ins on the streets, advanced grid meters could allow for billing, at local recharging stations and could also help users and utilities work together to figure out the optimal time for daily recharges.  If the user leaves the car plugged in, the smart meter would help the power companies figure out the lowest demand time of the day and recharge the car then.  This would save the user money, while helping the utility by reducing the stress on its networks.

The new stimulus package which has almost passed through Congress should help further finance efforts such as Google's.  It includes $4.4B USD for "smart" power technologies, with money earmarked specifically for 4 million meters.  James Hoecker, a former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has some jurisdiction over transmission lines says the efforts will not only improve the grid, but will also create jobs.  He states, "You can hire a lot of people to install smart meters."

DailyTech - Google's Grid Meter Looks to Save Homeowners Some Green

Zumbox Wants to Kill Snail Mail (Finally)

Why on earth do we still have snail mail? For packages? OK. But everything else, really? All the paper, all the transportation, all the man-hours delivering to you thousands of little pieces of paper every year. All of that could be easily digitized...but no. Even with all the glory of e-mail, mail volume is still increasing.

A company called Zumbox wants to change that.

The big advantage that snail mail can claim is that it's actually tied to where you physically are. E-mail addresses change, some people don't have them, and it can be difficult for businesses to get email addresses from their customers. Thus, customers end up continuing to get physical letters...just so people can be sure you're getting them.

Zumbox has fixed this problem by creating a virtual mail box for every physical address in America. So, if you have an address, you already have a Zumbox.

Zumbox hopes that you will soon be receiving notices in the mail along with your bills that say "this piece of mail was also delivered to your Zumbox." If you go to your Zumbox and pick it up, you can select to have that company deliver mail only to your Zumbox.

If you sign up at Zumbox, they send a pin number to your physical address (the only snail mail you'll ever receive from them, I'm promised) that you must enter to certify that you are who you say you are. If messages have already been delivered to your Zumbox, you will see them there. And, with a click of a button, you can tell the mail senders to only send these items to your Zumbox!

Zumbox has just announced that it will offer it's service to "qualified senders" for free. So companies, municipalities, and non-profits who have legitimate lists for sending notices, bills and direct mail will all be able to use those lists at Zumbox. You, as a consumer, will also be able to send a limited amount (possibly in the thousands) of messages through Zumbox. Whether it's a post card to your grandma, or a notice to your neighbors of a lost dog.

All this talk about free stuff is going to make you start wondering how they're planning on making money. Well, your Zumbox will have two boxes, one for mail from certified senders, and one for mail from people who've paid Zumbox to use the service. Zumbox allows unprecedented abilities for geo-targeting. So your spam box will likely actually have some useful spam in it. A local restaurant or snow shoveling service can hit their exact target area for only five cents a letter, instead of up to more than a dollar for direct mail services.

Of course, the success of the program all depends on whether they can get people to sign up. In my opinion, if they can get some big businesses and non-profits in on the idea, and sending out notices telling people to check their Zumboxes, the chances that this will catch on are quite good.

And with the amount of money (not to mention trees) to be saved by the proposition, I'd like to think that they're not having too hard of a time getting big senders involved.

EcoGeek - Clean Technology