power

The Gizmo Report: Monster Power's Outlets To Go

I usually carry a cheap extension cord when I travel-- the kind you'd get at a hardware store, with a three-wire plug and three outlets molded in plastic at the other end. Hotel rooms often hide outlets behind the bed, and sometimes all of the outlets are in use; even a very short extension cord can solve these problems.

But on my last few trips, I've been dissatisfied with the cord I've been carrying around, and I've had my eye open for a better one. I just got one, and it looks pretty good. It's the Outlets To Go OTG400 from Monster Power, one of the many brands of Monster Cable.

I'm not entirely happy with Monster. I think the company sometimes… Read more

Power outage knocks out NYC subway line

A power outage, possibly related to the sweltering heat, has knocked out one of New York City's most heavily trafficked subway lines as well as some lights in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. The outage, which apparently began around 3:40 PM EDT, affected the 4, 5, and 6 subway lines (the green line), the D line, and power in nearby areas of Manhattan and the Bronx near Yankee Stadium. There's no word on when power will be restored yet.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority's Web site, meanwhile, is timing out, probably due to the overload … Read more

Nvidia's Hybrid SLI: Power when you need it, efficiency when you don't

Nvidia apparently has an answer to AMD's Power Xpress hybrid graphics technology. AMD announced last December that its forthcoming Puma mobile platform (due in the first half of 2008) will introduce Power Xpress, which lets laptops switch between discreet graphics when plugged in and integrated graphics when running on battery power.

According to reports, Nvidia is working on a similar but slightly different dual-graphics solution it's calling Hybrid SLI. When running on battery power, Hybrid SLI, like AMD's Power Xpress, will run solely on integrated graphics. When connected to a wall socket, however, both the discreet graphics … Read more

Power Downloader saves the date

Recently, when Power Downloader was deeply immersed in a particular case, he got a phone call from Candace Clicks. She wasn't very happy with Power because he had completely missed their lunch date. After trying to calm the situation and rescheduling for a nice dinner at Candace's favorite restaurant, Power decided that he might need a little help with keeping track of appointments.… Read more

Google gloats over solar success

Google has produced enough electricity from its headquarters in the last four days to watch about 251,073 hours of television on a flat screen.

The news comes from Google's site dedicated to letting folks know exactly how many kilowatt-hours its solar project is paying out.

The search giant has covered the roofs of eight buildings and two carports at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters with solar panels in an effort to build the largest solar panel installation of any corporate campus in the U.S.

On Monday, the system was turned on and Google has been monitoring its … Read more

Low Power Radio Bill Introduced in Congress

Early this morning, Free Press announced the introduction of a new bill in both the House and Senate that would remedy legislation from 2000 which prevented low power FM stations from obtaining licensing in major media markets. The Local Community Radio Act of 2007 has achieved bi-partisan support and is sponsored by Reps. Mike Doyle (D-Penn.) and Lee Terry (R-Neb.) in the House, and Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the Senate.

With media consolidation at an all-time high and Clear Channel dominating the airwaves, the vital role of local radio programming is being eroded away. Five years ago a train derailed in Minot, North Dakota and thousands of gallons of dangerous chemicals were released into the environment; many people were injured and one person died. The commercial radio stations in the area were all owned by Clear Channel and none of them carried any advisories about the disaster. Low powered FM stations will ensure that local information will be readily accessible amongst a landscape of national stations.

Let's find all the coal, say mining experts

American coal experts want more information. And they want the U.S. government to pay for it. Today the National Research Council issued a call for more federal money to find and assess America's coal deposits.

Currently over half of the U.S. electricity is generated by burning coal. But there is uncertainty about future use and availability of coal. And there is the issue of CO2 emissions and other pollution from coal-burning power plants. Plus the U.S. must now compete with China and other nations for use of the world's coal.

In short, says the Council'… Read more

Google acquires Zenter, online slideshow tool

Google has just announced its acquisition of Zenter, a small company that makes software for creating online slideshows--a much rumored, and fully confirmed product Google's CEO Eric Schmidt officially announced a few months ago at the Web 2.0 Expo.

Zenter joins Tonic Systems, another presentation-creation service Google picked up back in April.

Zenter first unveiled its service in mid-March and has since stayed fairly quiet. The service lets users import Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, as well as grab bits of content from all over the Web for making presentations that can be viewed and shared in the Web browser. … Read more

Stay juiced even while camping

It's almost summer, and we know how popular camping is with Cravers. We think it ranks right up there with a root canal.

But fear not, CrackBerry addicts, there's at least a glimmer of hope in the "Eureka N!ergy Tent." It may not save you from bears, mosquitoes and snoring camp mates, but GeekSugar says it does have three 12-volt plugs that can be connected to a separately sold power pack to keep all your gadgets juiced no matter how remote the wilderness.

Be warned, though: The large size is supposedly designed for eight people (… Read more

Power Plate

There is nothing new about whole body vibration technology, the Russians started using it back in the 50?s and 60?s to train their Olympic athletes and their cosmonauts. Dr. Vladimir Nazarov was a member of the soviet gymnastics team and chair of sports and biomechanics at the State college in Minsk. Dr. Nazarov started testing vibration technology in competitive sports and realized the benefits in developing strength and power.

This technology has been around in many forms for quite sometime but only now has the fitness community started to develop vibration machines that are becoming fixtures in Gym?… Read more