feds

We often fret over our own gas mileage and that of our neighbors' cars, but how often do we stop to think about the commercial trucking industry's impact on the environment?

FedEx Express announced in November 2008 a plan to purchase vehicles that combine Azure Dynamics' hybrid system with a Ford gasoline engine and chassis. The company now claims to be one of the first to use gasoline hybrid-electric delivery trucks for commercial use.

Peterbilt began offering four hybrid models of commercial trucks in 2008.

UPS has begun using hybrid trucks containing Eaton's energy-saving Series Hybrid Hydraulic System … Read more

On today's show, Brian Cooley announces that he's made the switch...I mean, the big switch. He bought an iPhone. The world briefly stopped rotating, and when it resumed, we laid down the smack on poor Jerry Yang, the Justice Department, the XM-Sirius merger, and subsequent channel flipping, and some poor guy who thought it was a good idea to call our show. Good times!

Yahoo's Jerry Yang to step down, as a search for new CEO commences http://kara.allthingsd.com/20081117/yahoos-jerry-yang-to-step-down-as-a-search-for-new-ceo-commences/ Jerry Yang's entire memo … Read more

While there are other PDF readers out there, the Adobe Reader for Windows and Mac is used the most. Adobe's mastery of the Portable Document Format has been nearly indisputable until recently, and even with stiff competition the Adobe Reader has the name recognition that most users trust. But is it really the best one out there? Get up close and personal with the Reader in this First Look video, judge for yourself, and let us know in the comments below.

When I bought my 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid, I realized that I was only going to achieve incrementally improved gas mileage. Nevertheless, I made the plunge because: 1) It felt good to do so, and 2) I knew that I would be getting a fat tax credit from the IRS.

Now that the IT industry has gone ga-ga over green technology, it makes me wonder where the heck Uncle Sam is in this process. Green is good for the environment, but it ain't free. Lots of large companies want to invest in green IT (and other green initiatives) but … Read more

FedEx was on hand today to show off its new Adobe AIR application for tracking packages.

Similar to tracking widgets you may have seen on tools such as Apple's Dashboard and Yahoo's Widget engine, you can keep small widgets on your desktop that update and let you know when that digital camera you ordered online mistakenly got delivered somewhere three states over. But that's not the sole use. The application doubles as command center for business users and frequent shippers to keep track of what's going on with several of their packages at once.

The company … Read more

I'm a little late to the party with this unboxing of my new OLPC XO-1 laptop, but the machine arrived while I was out of town visiting my family for Christmas. In fact, there's a story there.

Before I left, I started hearing that people were receiving their XO-1's, and I realized that if mine didn't show up before I left, it would almost certainly arrive while I was gone. The OLPC people sent out no shipment notifications and didn't reply to several emails, so I had no way to delay the shipment or contact … Read more

FedEx Europe subsidiary FedEx Express plans to add 10 diesel-electric hybrid vans to its fleet, the company announced Monday.

The vehicles, made by Fiat Group company Iveco, will be used in routes around Turin, Italy, where the company has a manufacturing plant.

"FedEx is making smart strategic investments in projects that will help drive the commercial development of new technologies for industry. We expect these hybrid-electric vehicles to perform with increased fuel efficiency and decreased emissions, making them ideal for city and urban environments," Robert W. Elliott, president of FedEx Express, said in a statement.

A sample van … Read more

I'm at the Conversational Marketing Summit, listening to a chat between organizer John Battelle and Intuit founder Scott Cook. Batelle is asking about Intuit's online presence. Cook says he'd move all his business online in a heartbeat if he could, but that many QuickBooks business customers don't want to run their accounts online. And not for reliability or accessibility reasons.

Rather, Cook says, his customers want to know where their data is at all times, since in many cases, they're keeping somewhat fictional accounts for their tax reports. Should the IRS come knocking, Cook says, &… Read more

Here are a final few tidbits from my last day at Siggraph:

Microsoft Research gave a great presentation on HD View, a company project based on capturing, assembling, and displaying multi-gigapixel image. These images are stitched together from hundreds of pictures captured through… Read more