Daily TIPs: Blogging for Bucks, Power Waves, Core Strength, & More

Tag : single-chip computer
Daily TIPs: Blogging for Bucks, Power Waves, Core Strength, &More Neil Savage 9/23/08
Suniva Promises Cheap, Efficient Solar Cells
An Atlanta, Ga-based startup, Suniva, says it can make solar cellsthat are more efficient than existing devices and do it much moreinexpensively. Technology Review says the company’s solar cells convert about 20 percent ofsunlight into electricity, almost as much as the best solar cellson the market. But their manufacturing process, which resemblessilk screening for T-shirts, and the fact they use less puresilicon, could bring costs down significantly once production isscaled up.
Wireless Costs Are All About Control
Yesterday we linked to a BusinessWeek story saying that costs forwireless access are going up because of bandwidth limits. A writerat GigaOm takes issue with that conclusion, and argues that the real reason is thatwireless carriers want to maintain control over the services theirusers enjoy. If the carriers can control the distribution ofservices for music, photo sharing, and social networks, they couldpotentially make a lot more money, she writes.
Blogs Make Money, Report Finds
The average blog that runs ads is actually making money, accordingto a report from Technorati. The report found that mean annualrevenue for blogs is $6,000, well over the mean annual cost of$1,800. As TechCrunch tells us , with a note of skepticism, blogs that draw 100,000 or more uniquevisitors each month are earning $75,000 and up.
Will the Volt Jolt the Car Industry
General Motors unveiled the Chevy Volt last week, and a columnistat Salon wonders if it will wind up as the new new thing or the Edsel reborn.Though he quotes one reviewer who calls the electric car “the1984 Apple McIntosh on wheels,” he also cites skeptics whodon’t like the design and worry that the price will be toohigh.
Multicore Chip Increases Computing Power
Instead of always striving to make processors faster, computer chipmakers are also improving performance by putting more, slowerprocessors on a single chip, creating multicore chips. While Inteland AMD are still offering four-core chips, a San Jose, CA-basedstartup called Tilera has just introduced a 36-core chip. CNET News reports the company already had a 64-core chip, which it updated, butwanted the less expensive, smaller device to broaden into marketssuch as video conferencing and network and security applications.By running programs, such as image processing software, in parallelon slower processors, the multicore chip accomplishes tasks fasterthan chips with fewer cores.
Support for Tidal Power Swells
The pursuit of power generated by the movement of tides has facedobstacles, such as the wave power machine that sank off the coastof Oregon last year. Despite such setbacks, the New York Times reports that ocean power companies are making a new push to develop thetechnology. The paper says there are roughly 100 small companiesaround the world that hope to turn the tide to electricity.
Candidates Agree and Disagree on Climate Change
Both candidates for U.S. president agree that climate change isimportant for the country to address, and both support emissioncap-and-trade systems, private sector involvement, and aninternational approach to tackling the problem. The Wall Street Journal reports that surrogates for Democrat Barack Obama and Republican JohnMcCain debated the issue during a panel on climate change in NewYork. Where’d they disagree? The Republican wants the federalgovernment to oversee emissions rules, whereas the Democrat likesprograms that have been started by California and 10 northeasternstates.
People Follow Parties on Global Warming
Where you stand on global warming can be predicted by yourpolitical affiliation, a study in Environment has found. Scientistslooked at data from the Gallup poll over the past decade and foundthat Democrats and Republicans diverged in their beliefs aboutclimate change, Science News reports. For instance, in 1997, 27 percent of Democrats and 37 percent ofRepublicans thought global warming was exaggerated. In 2008, thepercentage dropped to 17 percent among Democrats, but rose to 59percent among Republicans.