Seattle has outfitted more than a dozen Toyota Prius hybrids with new plug-in technology to squeeze even better fuel efficiency from the eco-wonder.
City officials were intrigued by data suggesting they could cut their fuel consumption in half by using batteries charged directly from the grid. If claims are to be believed, drivers would routinely see 100 mpg using readily available battery packs installed in the trunk.
Just over a year after performing the conversions, the city says it is thrilled with the cars. The plug-in Prius hybrids have used less gas and emitted less CO2 than their conventional counterparts. But the tests also have put a big dent in the plug-in promise.
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Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Software ensures content security regardless of file format
RSA Conference Booth #1517 (Microsoft Partner Pavilion) - GigaTrust, the market leader in providing cutting-edge email security and content protection software products that enhance and extend Microsoft's Windows Rights Management Services (RMS), today introduced GigaTrust Desktop Client 6.0, the latest edition of the email and content security suite of tools that enable persistent protection beyond the enterprise. Desktop Client 6.0 extends the security of RMS to PDF documents and drawings and files produced in the most popular CAD applications to protect a major source of valuable corporate intellectual capital. It also has the ability to stop hundreds of screen scraping and PC sharing applications while protected documents are being viewed and in the process enhance the security for your enterprise.
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Military friend-finder
BAE Systems received a $13m (£8.65m) contract from the US military’s Naval Air Systems Command to provide 500 identification friend or foe (IFF) digital transponders and spares to the US Army and US Navy.
The AN/APX-118 common transponder identifies aircraft and ships as friendly forces by responding to interrogations from ground-based or airborne IFF systems.
The transponders, installed on aircraft and naval vessels, establish the identity of friendly forces.
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The AN/APX-118 common transponder identifies aircraft and ships as friendly forces by responding to interrogations from ground-based or airborne IFF systems.
The transponders, installed on aircraft and naval vessels, establish the identity of friendly forces.
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Incredible bulk
Materials researchers at the Materials Research Institute at Penn State University have reported the highest known breakdown strength for a bulk glass ever measured.
Breakdown strength, along with dielectric constant, determines how much energy can be stored in an insulating material before it fails and begins to conduct electricity.
A bulk glass with high breakdown strength and high dielectric constant would make an ideal candidate for the next generation of high-energy density storage capacitors to power more efficient electric vehicles, as well as other portable and pulsed power applications.
The highest dielectric breakdown strengths for bulk glasses are typically in the 4-9MV/cm range. The breakdown strength for the Penn State samples were in the 12MV/cm range, which in conjunction with a relatively high permittivity, resulted in energy densities of 35J/cm3, as compared to a maximum energy density of 10J/cm3 for polypropylene, the most common dielectric for pulsed power applications.
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Breakdown strength, along with dielectric constant, determines how much energy can be stored in an insulating material before it fails and begins to conduct electricity.
A bulk glass with high breakdown strength and high dielectric constant would make an ideal candidate for the next generation of high-energy density storage capacitors to power more efficient electric vehicles, as well as other portable and pulsed power applications.
The highest dielectric breakdown strengths for bulk glasses are typically in the 4-9MV/cm range. The breakdown strength for the Penn State samples were in the 12MV/cm range, which in conjunction with a relatively high permittivity, resulted in energy densities of 35J/cm3, as compared to a maximum energy density of 10J/cm3 for polypropylene, the most common dielectric for pulsed power applications.
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New Flying Car Aims to Save Lives in the Amazon
“Gather around, everyone,” Steve Saint says. “Let’s say a prayer about these flights.” Saint, a thin, gray-bearded 58-year-old, is wearing khakis and a salmon-colored shirt and holding a red crash helmet with a radio headset. He is standing with a dozen employees and well-wishers in front of a candy-apple-red vehicle parked beside a crumbling strip of tarmac at a sleepy little airstrip near Dunnellon, Fla., 87 miles northwest of Orlando. The contraption looks like a dune buggy, but one with a propeller in back like an Everglades airboat and, billowing above, a rainbow-colored flex wing—essentially a double-canopy parachute—held aloft on a mast.
“Jay, how about you?” Saint says, peering through wire-rimmed glasses. “You built this thing. You know what can go wrong.” Jay Dyck, the project’s chief designer, steps forward, closes his eyes and drops his chin. “Father and God,” he booms, warming to his task, “we have tried to do our best.” A prop plane buzzes into the blue Florida sky behind him. “Father, we leave it to you. Help Steve stay alert and be safe.” His entreaty done, Dyck scrutinizes the driveshaft and chute lines one last time. “You can design something on paper, but it’s just a thing until you get it in the air,” he tells me, his animated face growing sober. “If something goes wrong up there, you can’t park it. You’re gonna come down.”
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“Jay, how about you?” Saint says, peering through wire-rimmed glasses. “You built this thing. You know what can go wrong.” Jay Dyck, the project’s chief designer, steps forward, closes his eyes and drops his chin. “Father and God,” he booms, warming to his task, “we have tried to do our best.” A prop plane buzzes into the blue Florida sky behind him. “Father, we leave it to you. Help Steve stay alert and be safe.” His entreaty done, Dyck scrutinizes the driveshaft and chute lines one last time. “You can design something on paper, but it’s just a thing until you get it in the air,” he tells me, his animated face growing sober. “If something goes wrong up there, you can’t park it. You’re gonna come down.”
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Speed Test: Windows 7 May Not Be Much Faster Than Vista
Improving performance is one of Microsoft's design goals with Windows 7, and many early reviewers (including ours) have said that the new OS seems peppier than Vista. But tests of the Windows 7 Release Candidate in our PC World Test Center found that while Windows 7 was slightly faster on our WorldBench 6 suite, the differences may be barely noticeable to users.
We loaded the Windows 7 Release Candidate on three systems (two desktops and a laptop) and then ran our WorldBench 6 suite. Afterward we compared the results with the WorldBench 6 numbers from the same three systems running Windows Vista. Each PC was slightly faster when running Windows 7, but in no case was the overall improvement greater than 5 percent, our threshold for when a performance change is noticeable to the average user.
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We loaded the Windows 7 Release Candidate on three systems (two desktops and a laptop) and then ran our WorldBench 6 suite. Afterward we compared the results with the WorldBench 6 numbers from the same three systems running Windows Vista. Each PC was slightly faster when running Windows 7, but in no case was the overall improvement greater than 5 percent, our threshold for when a performance change is noticeable to the average user.
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At the London Underground, RFID Keeps Escalators Moving
RFID is being employed to track the maintenance of escalators used by passengers of the London Underground subway system. Once the application is completely rolled out, at the end of 2010, some 30,000 tags will be attached to the steps of 200 escalators. If an escalator suddenly ceases running during rush hour, those aboard it can be seriously injured by the crowd. The application helps improve escalator safety via providing a more efficient maintenance process.
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Supercomputer's Model of Human Contact Simulates Swine Flu
An extravagantly detailed computer model of the U.S. population is taking a crack at understanding the H1N1 “swine flu” outbreak. The model, built by researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, in Blacksburg, Va., is composed of realistic representations of the major ways that people in the United States come into contact with one another—in other words, real-world social networks. Last Thursday, the U.S. Department of Defense began using the model to provide recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services, according to the Virginia Tech engineers.
In the model, called EpiSimdemics, real cities are represented as groups of artificial people whose demographic attributes match data from the last census and land-use databases. By seeding the model with a handful of infected individuals in a manner that mirrors the real cases—say, 45 teenagers in one part of New York City—the model can run hundreds of simulations to illustrate possible future infection patterns across a population of between 50 million and 60 million in nine regions, according to Madhav Marathe, a deputy director of Virginia Tech’s Network Dynamics and Simulation Science Laboratory (NDSSL). In one experiment, for example, the model was asked to determine the impact of school closures on flu transmissions.
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In the model, called EpiSimdemics, real cities are represented as groups of artificial people whose demographic attributes match data from the last census and land-use databases. By seeding the model with a handful of infected individuals in a manner that mirrors the real cases—say, 45 teenagers in one part of New York City—the model can run hundreds of simulations to illustrate possible future infection patterns across a population of between 50 million and 60 million in nine regions, according to Madhav Marathe, a deputy director of Virginia Tech’s Network Dynamics and Simulation Science Laboratory (NDSSL). In one experiment, for example, the model was asked to determine the impact of school closures on flu transmissions.
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Boeing acknowledges early 787s will be heavy, reaffirms payload commitments
While Boeing 787’s recent rapid progress is a welcome change after nearly two years of delays, lingering in the background are concerns over the airframer abililty to meet customer promises as the airframer acknowledges its early 787s will be heavy.
The confirmation comes in the wake of a report by a Wall Street research firm which raises concerns over the airframer’s ability to meet performance as well as describing production goals - even after being revised – as remaining highly ambitious.
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The confirmation comes in the wake of a report by a Wall Street research firm which raises concerns over the airframer’s ability to meet performance as well as describing production goals - even after being revised – as remaining highly ambitious.
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Antiship Missiles Engage Diverse Targets
urface warfare is in the news as navies tackle pirates off the Somali coast. The impact of piracy reflects the importance of sea lanes to a global economy, and navies are reequipping to deal with high- and low-level threats. One result is the emergence of a variety of antiship missiles. DTI has covered Chinese, Russian and Indian developments, but the rest of the world is also responding to changing threats.
At the U.S. Navy League exhibition in Washington this month, Raytheon Missile Systems will unveil an upgrade to the BGM/UGM-109E Tomahawk Block IV land-attack cruise missile that will make it a multirole weapon capable of hitting moving ships. The package has four elements: An active electronically scanned array, millimeter-wave seeker provides target acquisition and homing; a passive electronic surveillance system is for long-range acquisition and identification; the 1,000-lb. blast-fragmentation warhead is replaced by a shaped charge; and the two-way data link gets more bandwidth.
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At the U.S. Navy League exhibition in Washington this month, Raytheon Missile Systems will unveil an upgrade to the BGM/UGM-109E Tomahawk Block IV land-attack cruise missile that will make it a multirole weapon capable of hitting moving ships. The package has four elements: An active electronically scanned array, millimeter-wave seeker provides target acquisition and homing; a passive electronic surveillance system is for long-range acquisition and identification; the 1,000-lb. blast-fragmentation warhead is replaced by a shaped charge; and the two-way data link gets more bandwidth.
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