prizes

You know how Microsoft's Bing Cashback program rewards you for using the Bing search engine to buy stuff? Two problems: You have to buy stuff, and you have to use Bing. I'm a Google man.

Swag Bucks rewards you for using a combined Ask.com/Google engine. That's it. Just search the Web like you normally do, earn "Swag Bucks" along the way, and then redeem them for merchandise, gift cards, and other goodies.

Confession: I just signed up for the service yesterday, so I'm not yet in a position to say whether it'… Read more

The 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded for "two revolutionary optical technologies."

Charles K. Kao, who discovered how to transmit light through fiber optics, and the team of Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, who designed the first digital-imaging sensor, split the Nobel Prize, announced by the Nobel Foundation on Tuesday.

Born in Shanghai, Charles K. Kao made a discovery in 1966 that would lead to today's fiber optics. A man ahead of this time, Kao calculated how it would be possible to transmit light over 100 kilometers (62 miles), compared to only 20 … Read more

Three years ago, Netflix announced that it would give $1 million to whoever could improve its recommendation algorithm, Cinematch, by 10 percent accuracy. Called the Netflix Prize, its difficulty had become infamous. Now, a team has finally accomplished the seemingly impossible feat--well, two teams actually.

After three years of competing, BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos submitted its winning algorithm only 24 minutes before another team, The Ensemble, submitted its own showing 10 percent improvement. In fact, the accuracy of the two submissions were identical, so BellKor was awarded the $1 million prize for being first. BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos is made … Read more

Netflix is in the process of readying the second iteration of its million-dollar algorithm contest.

The original prize, which began in late 2006 and recently reached its final deadline, had both teams and individuals striving to better Netflix's algorithm for recommending movies to users--all in the hopes of winning a $1 million prize. This was later split up into smaller prizes as the contest dragged on.

According to the Associated Press, which sources a Netflix forum post by Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt, the next contest is set to debut next month along with the unveiling of the … Read more

The Campagna T-Rex is a high-performance reverse-tricycle with a pair of front wheels handling the steering, a 1400cc motorcycle drivetrain with a single drive wheel out back, and a two-seat passenger compartment in between. OptaMotive has partnered with Campagna Motors to bring high efficiency to the formula without losing any of the high performance. How do they plan to do it? By chucking the gasoline-fueled drivetrain and creating an all-electric T-Rex to compete for the Progressive Automotive X-Prize.

OptaMotive's code-name for the project is "Surge," but I think the "Grimlock" would be a much better … Read more

While the Obama administration has expressed increasing hopes that wind power will play a key role in America's future energy system, one of the world's leading scientists is ruling out the technology.

Jack Steinberger, the 1968 Nobel Prize winner in physics and director of CERN's particle-physics laboratory, spoke at a conference of Nobel laureates at the 350-year-old Royal Society in London last week.

His conclusion: "Wind is not the future," according to the London Times.

Steinberger says Europe should cancel its big wind plans and that solar energy is the future.

Historical resources in the … Read more

Large automakers are sitting out the Progressive Automotive X Prize competition for the time being, despite the green marketing opportunity.

No big auto companies are competing for the privately funded $10 million prize.

The X Prize money will be awarded in 2010 to a team that develops a vehicle getting at least 100 mpg that wins a series of races designed to simulate real-world driving conditions.

Vehicles that don't use gasoline must get the energy equivalent of 100 mpg.

Tesla Motors Inc. entered an electric vehicle in the mainstream category, which covers vehicles that meet strict performance rules. India'… Read more

LONG BEACH, Calif--The concept is simple; it's the execution that requires global collaboration and commitment. Not to mention some serious cash.

Along those lines, TED prizes are an award of $100,000 given to a select group of recipients looking to change the world with one idea or "wish." They can use the money as they choose, and at a ceremony here Thursday night, the three winners expressed their hopes for the future.

Jill Tarter, founder of SETI, or the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Life, encouraged TED attendees and others to imagine ways that every "earthling" … Read more

The X Prize Foundation announced the winner of its "What's Your Crazy Green Idea?" competition on Thursday.

The first-place winners, which will receive $25,000, were University of California at Irvine students Kyle Good and Bryan Le on the Capacitor Challenge team, for their idea that someone should develop a more efficient energy storage device to replace batteries, for everything from iPods to cars.

Unlike other X Prize competitions, the winners of "What's Your Crazy Green Idea?" were not picked by a panel of educationally pedigreed judges to build an invention for which they … Read more