Google products : Google Green website to provide insights into its energy

Google on Thursday took the unprecedented step of talking about how much electricity it takes to power YouTube, Gmail, search and other services in the Internet “cloud.” “Google products for a month…our servers use less energy per user than a light left on for three hours,” senior vice president of technical infrastructure Urs Hoelzle said in a blog post. “And, because we’ve been a carbon-neutral company since 2007, even that small amount of energy is offset completely so the carbon footprint of your life on Google is zero,” he continued. The global Internet giant added “The Big Picture” section to its Google Green website to provide insights into its energy use and environment-friendly practices. Handling 100 searches at Google data centers burns the same amount of power it takes to light a 60 watt bulb for 28 minutes, according to The Big Picture. Three days of streaming YouTube video requires as much energy as making, packaging and delivering a DVD.

A year of providing free Gmail email service to a user takes less energy than drinking a bottle of wine, stuffing a message in the empty vessel and tossing it in an ocean, according to Google. “For the last decade, energy use has been an obsession,” Hoelzle said. “We’ve designed and built some of the most efficient servers and data centers in the world; using half the electricity of a typical data center,” he added. Google uses renewable energy whenever possible and has a large solar panel installation at its headquarters in the California city of Mountain View, according to Hoelzle. And by investing in renewable energy projects, Google is helping create 1.7 gigawatts of green power. “That’s the same amount of energy used to power over 350,000 homes, and far more than what our operations consume,” Hoelzle said. Google released the energy figures as it promoted software applications offered as services on the Internet as saving energy as well as money.

3D solutions

Amid sharpening technology, there is no doubt that 3D TV is here to stay with the whole industry currently at the same stage as when high-definition (HD) was introduced. 3D was a key issue at the recently finished IFA electronics fair in Berlin where most TV majors displayed their latest 3D solutions with hopes to take the lead in the booming market. 3D will be everywhere next year,’’ said Jim Chabin, president of the International 3D Society. Now, attention is being shifted as to whether latecomer LG will break down the current domestic lead of Samsung. Price matters for 3D hopefuls because there is little 3D-only content on the market and consumers don’t have much knowledge, in general, of viewing differences offered by the different technologies used by Samsung and LG. That’s why we are confident to completely beat Samsung’s technology in China by the end of this year and our next targets are the United States, Europe and Japan,’’ said Kwon Young-soo, the chief executive of LG Display, in a meeting with reporters, Thursday. LG Display, the display-making affiliate of Korea’s LG Group, uses film-patterned retarder’’ (FPR) technology and is looking to increase its customer base to top-tier manufacturers including Sony, though senior LG spokesman Gary Son declined to unveil the name of any new Japanese clients.

3D TVs, introduced by Panasonic, Toshiba, Samsung and LG among others currently use two different technologies. Samsung uses the “active shutter-glass” (ASG) format as opposed to the FPR system. A Samsung, Sony and Panasonic alliance argue that there is a clear difference in picture quality between ASG and FPR. FPR technology shows left and right images to each eye that are then combined by the brain. LG Electronics, leading Chinese TV makers, Toshiba of Japan and Philips of the Netherlands utilize this power free technology. For LG, doing business with Sony and Panasonic is crucial to take the lead in the global 3D market as the two Japanese companies are strong brands. I’ve learned that LG has struck a significant deal with an Asia-based TV major for its FPR 3D technology,’’ said one high-ranking industry executive, adding an official announcement will be possibly made at next year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. GfK, the world’s fourth-biggest market research firm, says the proliferation of FPR 3D is inevitable as it is much cheaper than battery-powered ASG devices. We expect that in the future passive 3D technology will have a much stronger share than the active version,’’ said Juergen Boyny, the global director of consumer electronics at GfK.

Because the glasses are cheaper, there is a much lower investment by the consumer. What we are seeing is that 3D at home is a communal thing with people tending to watch the film or the show in a family group or inviting friends round and that’s why polarized 3D becomes a very attractive proposition.’’ Samsung has acknowledged the challenge from FPR, however, the world’s biggest TV maker is still confident. The company said it dominates the 3D market in the United States with a market share of 47 percent, followed by 10.8 percent by LG as of the end of the second quarter of this year, according to the data from DisplaySearch, a market research firm. Samsung also said it controls 50 percent in Europe, while LG had a 13.3 percent during the same period, DisplaySearch said. Yoon Boo-keun, who handles Samsung’s television business, claimed 3D is only one function and stressed Samsung is migrating into Internet-based advanced TVs to offer what it claims is a seamless experience.’’ Samsung is the market creator for `Smart TV applications.’ We are the world’s fastest in adding customized applications,’’ said Yoon. The market is telling (which technology is better). We are in the phase of moving into the new and next sector,’’ the executive added.

university computer network : ebook

Hart, who was 64, is credited with inventing the ebook on July 4, 1971, when he uploaded the US Declaration of Independence to his university computer network. He began digitising more texts and started Project Gutenberg, a volunteer effort to make all of the world’s out-of-copyright books available online. Hart wrote: “I am hoping that with a library this size that the average middle class person can afford, that the result will be an even greater overthrow of the previous literacy, education and other power structures than happened as direct results of The Gutenberg Press around 500 years ago.” Project Gutenberg’s library now contains more than 36,000 books, in 60 different languages, all typed-in by volunteers and all available free. On average, 50 new books are added each week. With the growth of ereaders and tablets over the last few years more people than ever are using the library. Writing in July, on the 40th anniversary of his first upload, Hart said: “One thing about eBooks that most people haven't thought much is that eBooks are the very first thing that we're all able to have as much as we want other than air. Think about that for a moment and you realize we are in the right job.” An obituary posted on Project Gutenberg said: “Michael prided himself on being unreasonable, and only in the later years of life did he mellow sufficiently to occasionally refrain from debate. Yet, his passion for life, and all the things in it, never abated.”