Solar sunflower inspired by nature could bring clean energy anywhere

Imagine a transportable solar power station that tracks the sun like a sunflower and cools itself by pumping water through its veins just like a plant.
The Sunflower Solar Harvester, developed by the Swiss company Airlight Energy, can do all that and in the process produce heating, desalinated water, and
refrigeration from the 12kW of energy it provides from just 10 hours of sunlight - enough to power several households.
Aimed at off-grid communities in remote regions, the all-in-one 10m-high system -- whose components can be transported in a single container and reassembled in
situ - has been in development for more than two years and could be on sale as early as mid-2017.

Integrated system
"It's an integrated system so it supplies both electricity and heat," head of research at Airlight Energy, Gianluca Ambrosetti, told CNN. "You can use this heat to
drive a cooling system too, if you need refrigeration."
He said the system will appeal to those that have multiple requirement and a lot of sunlight.
"It's not going to work so well if you have a lot of requirements and you have the climate of, say, Germany."
Nevertheless, off-grid regions from as disparate and far-flung places as North Africa, the Middle East, the United States, Chile and Australia have expressed an interest
in the technology.
"Then there are those regions that have good solar radiation and high fossil fuel prices such as Japan which is not an obvious place for this sort of system, but where
we see a lot of potential," Ambrosetti said.

Water-cooled
At the core of the technology are IBM-designed water-cooled solar panels whose microchannels carry away the heat produced by the reflector mirrors. The flower-like array
of reflectors concentrate the sun's energy more than 2,000 times onto the six panels which each hold 25 photovoltaic chips.
The heat is carried away by the water at a rate that keeps the microchips at their optimum temperature, making the Sunflower Solar Harvester one of the most efficient
solar energy producers around.
Developers say that it needs just a quarter of the panels to produce the same amount of power as conventional systems.
Everything about its design is aimed at bringing down costs; what would normally require large and expensive solar mirrors is achieved with metallised foil of the type found in
food packaging like potato chips.
The concave shape of the reflectors is kept in place by a light vacuum, a useful failsafe if the cooling system fails. Rather than overheating the solar cells, the operator
can simply release the vacuum to diffuse the reflected sunlight.

Remote appeal
While the company is not claiming the technology will completely replace fuel-powered generator sets -- which can often produce 10 times the power of one solar sunflower --
Ambrosetti said it could be possible to run some remote facilities with an array of the parabolic mirrors.
"You would, of course, not have just one Sunflower but several so you can scale it up quite easily," he said. "Hospitals, for instance, are quite energy intensive -- if you
needed 1.2mW to run a hospital you'd need 100 sunflowers.
"But if you were in a small camp hospital with minimal refrigeration requirements for medicines, it could be set up in a remote location and just one dish could satisfy
quite a lot of those needs."
The system produces around 20kW of thermal power from 10 hours of sunlight, enough say the developers to power a low-temperature desalinator in coastal regions. Sea water
vapor would pass through a polymer membrane and condense in a separate chamber, to produce as much as 2500 liters of fresh water per day.

Vascular system
Ambrosetti said the cooling system drew its inspiration from nature where vascular systems operate to carry away excess heat.
"We are still a long way from commercialization, but what we can do is to tap into its potential. We plan to set up early adopter projects that would be running by 2016,"
he said. "We aim to have four or five dishes in various locations around the world to show the potential of the system so people can really start to touch it with their hands."
Ambrosetti said the system was likely to appeal commercially to green residential and commercial developments.
"It's biggest potential is in making integrated systems where you can provide several things at once such as heating, cooling and electricity," he said.

Source from: http://edition.cnn.com/

Why Apple is defending Microsoft in court

When are your private emails really out of the U.S. government's reach?
Microsoft thinks it knows the answer and is fighting in court to prove its point.

At a press gathering in New York on Monday, Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) laid out its case for why it is refusing to comply with a federal subpoena and search warrant for
some customers' emails. The emails live in a data center in Ireland. And Microsoft argues they should be off-limits to the U.S. government until Ireland gives the OK.
Apple (AAPL, Tech30) and 18 other tech rivals, as well as 16 media organizations, including CNN, have filed or said they will file court briefs in support of Microsoft's position.
Microsoft's argument basically boils down to this: Data stored overseas is not subject to U.S. law enforcement. If Uncle Sam wants information that lives in a foreign server
farm, it has to go through a legal channel known as a mutual legal assistance treaty.

Related: Microsoft begins accepting Bitcoin
For example, just because Hilton is a company based in the United States, the U.S. government couldn't search a Hilton hotel room in England. Items in that room would be
covered by U.K. laws, noted Ed Lazowska, computer science professor at the University of Washington, who spoke during the briefing. (Lazowska's department is sponsored by Bill
Gates, Microsoft's founder).
But in August a federal trial judge rejected Microsoft's argument. The judge's reasoning: Since the emails can be instantly transferred to the United States with a click of a
button, the search would actually occur here. Microsoft has appealed the decision.
Details about the criminal case have been sealed, but Microsoft hinted that the customers in question are not American. The company noted that it typically houses data in
server farms that are close to the customers themselves in order to minimize upload and download lag times.
"If this were a matter of Americans trying to evade U.S. law, that would be a different question," Brad Smith, Microsoft's chief counsel, said Monday. "Should we tell
Europeans that they are now subject to U.S. law? That doesn't seem like the right precedent."

Related: Microsoft kills off iconic product
Smith acknowledged that Microsoft's bottom line is at stake. The cloud computing business is booming. People and corporations around the world are increasingly storing
their data in server farms owned by Microsoft, Google (GOOGL, Tech30), Apple and others. Customers must believe that their emails are secure.
But Smith also said Microsoft believes it is being principled about the matter. If Ireland were to give the OK, Microsoft would turn over the data without question, he said.
So why haven't U.S. prosecutors just asked Ireland for the emails. Too much red tape, the U.S. government argued. In addition, Ireland is a U.S. ally -- what happens when the
servers are in countries with unfriendly governments?

Source from: http://money.cnn.com/

Apple Announce iPad Air

Apple has just announced an all new iPad – the iPad Air. This all new model will be replacing the current generation iPad.
It essentially looks exactly like the current iPad Mini but with a larger 9.7-inch screen. It now has the all new A7 64-bit chip, found in the iPhone 5S,
and the all new M7 motion processor chip. Battery life will now go up to 10 hours.
Instead of calling it just the iPad, Apple has now attached Air on the end. This may be to cause less confusion between the two models of iPads available.
The iPad Air will be available on the 1st of November.
Source from: http://theultralinx.com/

Russian malware targets WordPress users, over 100,000 sites infected

A Russian malware dubbed SoakSoak has infected nearly 100,000 WordPress websites since Sunday,
prompting Google to blacklist over 11,000 of those domains (the number is increasing), according to a report from cybersecurity firm Sucuri.
The malware exploits a previously-known vulnerability in a WordPress plugin called Slider Revolution to modify the file wp-includes/template-loader.php,
causing the wp-includes/js/swobject.js to be loaded on every page on the site, which in turn loads the malware from a russian website.
The malware campaign is targeting WordPress users running Internet Explorer on Windows and is also making use of a number of new backdoor payloads,
some of which are being injected into images to further assist evasion while others are being used to inject new administrator users into vulnerable
WordPress installs.
Replacing the aforementioned files is not a permanent solution as it doesn't address the leftover backdoors and initial entry points, the report notes.
The only way to remove the infection is to make sure that the Slider Revolution plugin you are using is up to date, although Sucuri says it won’t be easy.
“The biggest issue is that the RevSlider plugin is a premium plugin, it’s not something everyone can easily upgrade and that in itself becomes a disaster
for website owners,” the report said, adding that some websites don’t even know they have the plugin as it’s been bundled into their themes.

Source from: http://www.techspot.com/

Google Now on iOS and Android gets voice controls, notification cards for Nest thermostat

Nest thermostat owners can now use Google’s iOS and Android apps to control their home’s temperature. The feature will support over two dozen
voice commands for controlling the smart thermostat via Google Now, either using the official app or through the microphone or search box on Chrome.
Google Now will also bring up card notifications to let you know when Nest is changing things up based on your presets. It’s also appears to use
location-based actions to deliver the right temperature at the right time -- to pre heat or cool down home when you’re coming back from work.
If you own a Nest thermostat, you’ll need to authorise your account first by opting into the voice commands and the Google Now card here.
Nest launched its Works with Nest program back in June, opening up its platform to developers and other home automations devices. The integration
with Google Now shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the search giant spent upwards of $3 billion for the smart-devices company.

Source from: http://www.techspot.com/

How To Shop Online Safely

You’ve been eyeing something all year long, and you finally have an excuse to buy it. It’s the holiday season — and at least in this house –it’s the season of buying and
wrapping things I really want and putting them under the tree with my own name on it. Really, I can’t leave these things to other people, I’ll never get what I really want
that way. In all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it’s easy to let your guard down and make some poor choices in your rush to snap up a fabulous deal. A little bit
of caution can go a long way. Here’s how to get everything on your list without sacrificing your safety and identity, and how to avoid the crowded stores by getting it done online.

1. Speed up your PC. Some online retailers offer special deals right at certain dates and times. If your computer stumbles even just a little bit, it may be the difference
between securing the deal and being left in the cold. This is especially true when bidding on items on ebay — you can miss out on a great deal if your computer starts acting up
or going slow at exactly the moment you need it to be speedy. Don’t let someone swoop in and outbid you at the last minute!

-Use ChicaPC-Fix™ to optimize your computer’s speed.

2. Clean up your PC. If you are going to be doing any shopping online, it is a very good idea for you to make sure your computer is free of any spyware or viruses
BEFORE you start entering your credit card information into websites. Some malicious programs that could already be on your computer can steal this information, even
if the site you are entering it into is a trusted and secure page.

-Use ChicaPC-Shield™ to rid your computer of the nasty programs on your computer before you unwittingly hand over all of your credit card information to the virus
sitting on your computer.

3. Get Secure. In your rush to score a terrific sale item, you may not pay attention to the URL (the address at the top of the screen). Instead of amazon.com you
could have been redirected to amaz0n.com (a zero instead of an o).  Someone could have set up this page to look exactly like amazon, but it’s not really the true site.
You enter your username and password into the page, you may even enter some credit card or bank account information. Later you check the real Amazon site and they have no
record of your order, because it was with a fraudulent page.

-Use Chica Password Manager™ to verify the validity of a website before you enter personal. information. Click here to hear what others are saying about Chica Password Manager™.
ChicaLogic is your one stop shop to get FAST and SECURE access to the best deals the web has to offer this holiday season. With many features not even listed here such as
automatic form filling for super fast checkouts and automatic blocking of malicious programs, you won’t have to worry about a thing when ChicaLogic has your back!

Source from: http://www.chicalogic.com/

How to Manage Your Privacy Settings on Facebook Timeline

Facebook is always changing, whether we like it or not. As we all make the change over to the new Timeline kicking and screaming, this is a great
time to go through your privacy settings and make adjustments as needed.

It’s also important to remember that by default, Facebook wants to make you a very social person and wants you to share share share. If you
aren’t comfortable with that, it’s time to get into your privacy settings and get busy. Look at the top right-hand corner of your Timeline for the
upside down triangle, click it, select Privacy Settings, and let’s go.

How You Connect. This is where you decide who is able to look you up on your Timeline by your name or your contact information, as well as who
can send you friend requests, Facebook messages, and post on your Timeline. Decide between Everyone/Friends of Friends/Friends.

How Tags Work. You have the power to determine what happens when someone wants to tag you in a photo, post, or Check-In. Allow it anytime, or
get notified on a per tag basis if you want to decide before manually allowing or denying the tagging. Handy if you don’t want pictures a friend
took of you dancing drunkenly on a bar finding their way to your Timeline, or if you don’t want people knowing exactly where you are or where you were.

Apps and Websites. This is where you decide how to edit your settings for what is shared on applications and websites. By default Facebook wants you
be social and share a lot here, so if you aren’t comfortable, it may be best to stay away from most of these. Under this header, you’ll want to decide
whether or not you want to enable the Public Search function. This controls if people can see a preview of your Timeline from search engines.

Limit the Audience for Past Posts. If you overshared in the past and want to try to clean the slate a bit, go here. Any content you shared with
Friends of Friends or Public will change to Friends only. I’m not sure how effective this is, because once a post is out there it’s out there, but it
can’t hurt if you are seriously cleaning house.

Blocked People or Apps. Go here if you want to keep certain people far, far away from you and your Timeline, or if you want to make sure you are
never bothered with another application request.

Clean Up Your Timeline. When you make the big switch from the old profile page to the Timeline, Facebook gives you a couple weeks to clean house.
Do it. Facebook takes it upon itself to post various pictures and posts from recent years – many of which you may not want to see making a reoccurrence.
All you need to do is go through and if you want something gone, click in the upper right-hand corner and either hide it from your Timeline or delete it
entirely.

Miscellaneous Tips. You decide how much you want to share with each and every post too – just hover and click in the upper right-hand corner and select.
You can click in the upper right-hand corner of other people’s posts as well to decide if you want to see all updates from that person, most of them,
or only the important ones. You can also unsubscribe completely from someone’s status updates – which I am sure will come in handy during this election
year with any friends you have that are highly opinionated and don’t share your views.

Source from: http://www.chicalogic.com/