Launch of Bloom box fuel cell: Bloom Energy press conference details

Bloom Energy fuel cell company unfurled the blueprint of their Bloom Box mass production today. Details of new technology was made public in Bloom Energy press conference at eBay campus in Silicon Valley. Bloom Box Launch was attended by Colin Powell, Secretary of State and Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of California. Bloom energy is aimed at generating a clean reliable energy to be made available at an affordable price. The green energy source Bloom Box claims to be 60% cleaner as compared to a Bloom Box power plant. In addition, it will have the specialty to produce power on demand and on site.
Bloom Energy fuel cell can produce electricity by taking any of those fuel cells. It would produce electricity without any chemical plants that are complex and need to process the fuel. It is wireless and it will enable a user to make his own electricity.

Bloom Box is said to be a revolutionizing concept as an alternate energy solution for future. In contrary to the notion, the fuel experts said Bloom Box technology is not revolutionary. They claim it not the cheapest fuel cell system. According to fuel cell expert from Colorado School of Mines, Nigel Sammes there is nothing new in Bloom Box and you can find out the same stuff on some websites.
It remains to see whether Bloom Energy serves as the alternative energy solution for future. You can find out more details on bloom energy here.

Media Center, gaming fixes arrive for Windows 7

Microsoft has released a slew of nonsecurity updates on Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center, the majority of which are for the latest versions of the client and server operating systems.

Compatibility

The first release is for a game, application, or firmware that is either installed incorrectly, causes system instability, or has primary functions that do not work correctly. The update will either prevent incompatible software from running (hard block with third-party manufacturer consent), notify the user that incompatible software is starting to run (soft block), or improve the software's functionality (update). This month's update has changes for 209 applications on Vista/Server 2008 plus 329 applications on 7/Server 2008 R2. Here are the direct links: Windows Vista 32-bit (2.8MB), Windows Vista 64-bit (3.3MB), Windows 7 32-bit (1.8MB), and Windows 7 64-bit (2.0MB). Window Server 2008 and Itanium versions are also available.
The next issue occurs when 32-bit applications on 64-bit versions of Windows 7 run in a Windows Vista context and prompt the user with an unnecessary Program Compatibility Assistant warning. You can grab it for Windows 7 64-bit (418KB), Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit (418KB), and Windows Server 2008 R2 Itanium (2.0MB).

Windows Media Center

The first Windows Media Center update is the February 2010 Cumulative Update, which improves the overall experience for systems with digital cable card tuners, resolves backward compatibility issues for some legacy Windows Media Center extensibility applications, and resolves an issue with how recorded TV shows are managed when switching to a user locale that is based on the Hijri calendar. It is available for Windows 7 32-bit (4.2MB) and Windows 7 64-bit (5.2MB).
The second update fixes an issue where TV playback extensibility applications may stop responding if no tuner is available to handle a tune request: Windows 7 32-bit (2.1MB) and Windows 7 64-bit (2.1MB). The third update fixes an issue in which third-party extensibility applications in Windows Media Center may stop responding after starting DVD playback: Windows 7 32-bit (2.2MB) and Windows 7 64-bit (2.3MB).

Other

There's also a fix for how Windows Internet Explorer 8 encodes and decodes JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). Microsoft has improved JSON interoperability by updating IE8 to the new "ECMAScript, fifth edition" standard specification on all supported versions of Windows: Windows XP 32-bit (784KB), Windows XP 64-bit (1.3MB), Windows Server 2003 32-bit (781KB), Windows Server 2003 64-bit (1.3MB), Windows Vista 32-bit (490KB), Windows Vista 64-bit (797KB), Windows Server 2008 32-bit (490KB), Windows Server 2008 64-bit (797KB), Windows 7 32-bit (492KB), Windows 7 64-bit (804KB), Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit (804KB), and Windows Server 2008 R2 Itanium (1.0MB).
When a user formats or checks the properties of a Secure Digital (SD) card larger than 32GB, the capacity is reported incorrectly. The fix is available for Windows 7 32-bit (239KB), Windows 7 64-bit (250KB), Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit (250KB), and Windows Server 2008 R2 Itanium (324KB).
Lastly, Microsoft also posted the optional Windows 7 antipiracy update; here are the direct links: Windows 7 32-bit (1.37MB) and Windows 7 64-bit (1.34MB). As promised, Microsoft is offering it on Windows Update but it won't be downloaded or installed automatically, even if Automatic Updates are turned on.

New IP task force brings "stronger and stricter enforcement"

The Department of Justice has announced a new intellectual property task force that will bring together antitrust, the civil and criminal divisions, and the FBI in an effort to "confront the growing number of domestic and international intellectual property (IP) crimes."
The announcement was vague on details, but it did make three curious statements that suggest the task force wants to do more than clamp down on counterfeit pharmaceuticals and knock-off handbags. For one thing, the new task force "will also serve as an engine of policy development to address the evolving technological and legal landscape of this area of law enforcement." Secondly, the Department of Justice will "leverage existing partnerships with federal agencies and independent regulatory authorities such as the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Communications Commission." Finally, Justice will "develop a plan to expand civil IP enforcement efforts."
Taken separately, no statement is all that interesting; put them together, though, and it certainly sounds possible that the new task force will ponder ways to curtail Internet-based IP infringement, including "noncommercial" P2P (the music and movie businesses deny that there is such a thing; in their view, it's all commercial). Singling out the FCC as a partner agency, for instance, could mean only that the task force cares about better communications systems for law enforcement. Perhaps the task force just wants to encourage deployment of new gear in the 700MHz spectrum reserved for public safety?
On the other hand, expanding "civil enforcement" of copyright claims has long been on Big Content's wish list. The PRO-IP Act, which became law in 2008, initially directed the Department of Justice to prosecute major civil copyright cases, then turn any damage awards over the the private firms affected. That provision was stripped from the bill before passage.
The task force emphasis on "policy development" could also create pressure on the FCC to encourage "three strikes" rules by American ISPs. The possibility isn't just paranoid crazy talk; the MPAA and RIAA both explicitly asked the FCC to encourage this in recent filings on the soon-to-be-unveiled National Broadband Plan. And both groups attended a recent IP-focused meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder and Vice President Joe Biden—a meeting explicitly credited with spurring the creation of the new task force.
"The Attorney General’s announcement follows a summit meeting convened last December by Vice President Biden, a long-standing champion of US intellectual property rights-holders," said the press release.
It also follows the creation of a new White House job, the Intellectual Property Encforcement Coordinator, which was mandated by the PRO-IP Act. Between Joe Biden, IPEC Victoria Espinel, the new DoJ task force, and the secretive Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), it's clear that intellectual property enforcement has the major backing of the Obama administration.
As Biden put it, get ready for "stronger and stricter enforcement of intellectual property rights."