Urban wind power inspired by ancient Persia

A new wind-power machine has been inspired by a centuries-old idea: Persian "wind catchers."

Windation Energy Systems, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based start-up, has developed a wind appliance that looks more or less like the modern heating and cooling equipment you see on flat corporate building rooftops.

There's an 8-by-8-foot frame around a 10-foot-high cylinder. Wind blows in the top and is directed to the bottom where the wind turns a turbine to make up to 5 kilowatts of electricity. A single unit wouldn't generate enough power for an entire office building but could offset a significant portion, the company says.

Windation CEO and founder, Mark Sheikhrezai, who is originally from Iran, said he was inspired by ancient Persian buildings that use air currents and reservoirs of water to cool buildings. Using differences in air pressure, these wind catcher buildings create a steady flow of air without any mechanical devices.
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YouTube beams up Star Trek for long-form video

Google's YouTube has begun testing a dramatic departure in content and advertising, adding 15 50-minute TV episodes from Star Trek, Beverly Hills 90210, and MacGyver and with prominent new ads.

"We are starting to test full-length programming on YouTube, beginning with some fan favorites requested by you," Google said on its YouTube blog on Friday.

It's an experiment in video display and advertising, too, with ads for Research in Motion's BlackBerry and Intel's Centrino chip technology showing prominently on the videos I watched. The TV shows are preceded by a 15-second pre-roll ad, and YouTube will show mid-roll and post-roll ads as well, according to the blog posting. "As we test this new format, we also want to ensure that our partners have more options when it comes to advertising on their full-length TV shows," Google said.
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Black silicon promises 500x more sensitivity to light

Previously we reported on a Japanese-developed image sensor which its engineers claim has 100x more sensitivity to light than existing CCD or CMOS sensors. However, a physicist at Harvard has created a new silicon wafer that promises up to 500x more light sensitivity.

Eric Mazur and his graduate students were firing an intense laser light onto a silicon wafer and, by chance, added sulfur hexafluoride to it. This resulted in the creation of black silicon, whose surface is covered with microscopic spikes. We guess this increased the surface area of the chip and made it more sensitive to light. Also noteworthy is that the chip can detect infrared light, too.

New York Times reports that the production method will be compatible with what current silicon manufacturers employ, so its cost shouldn't be any higher than what is available on the market right now.
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HTC to roll out more WM6.1 updates

According to theunwired.net, HTC has released more Windows Mobile 6.1 updates for some PDA-phones in the Touch series. These are for the Touch Dual and Touch Cruise devices, both of which were not included in the original upgrade plan when WM6.1 was first launched.

WM6.1 doesn't significantly affect the operation of devices already running WM6, but it does offer some conveniences like threaded SMS and a setup wizard from the Today screen. We contacted HTC on the availability of this update in Asia Pacific. The company responded that there are upgrades forthcoming, but was unable to say which products and when customers will be able to download them. We'll update this blogpost as we get more information.

Electric Drum Kit Shirt

The days of beating your chest, Tarzan style, are way over. These days, it's cooler to rap out a beat instead, heavy metal drummer Dave Lombardo style, thanks to ThinkGeek's interactive shirt (US$29.99) which features, get this, seven actual playable drums. There's even an embedded speaker with volume control, powered by four AAA batteries.

Wear it to the next Guitar Hero World Tour party where, even if your buddies run out of instruments, you'll never feel left out as you can always front your own rock band. Ba-dum! Catch this fun gimmick in action in the video below.


Via ThinkGeek

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