The world's fastest car

The buzz at L.A.'s annual Auto Show is all about the newest, fastest car in the world, Bugatti's Veyron 16.4.

The super sleek car has a 16-cylinder engine in a "W" layout with four turbos, giving 1001 horsepower running through a clutchless sequential 7-speed transmission. It has a launch control feature which allows the driver, when pressing the brake and gas at the same time, to make the most of the car's rocket-like propulsion and jet forward. It accelerates to 60 mph in 2.3 seconds and hits top speeds of 253 miles … Read more

A winning concept car for L.A. living: The Pad

What's the ultimate driving machine for Southern Californians squeezed by real-estate prices? An urban loft on wheels, of course.

The so-called GMC Pad is a concept car from the automaker that took first prize in the L.A. Auto Show's design competition Thursday. In keeping the with the contest's theme of "an L.A. adventure," the Pad is a roving, hipster bus that offers the city dweller cultural and geographic freedom, according to its designers.

The concept car features an electric hybrid system for propulsion while driving, but which also serves as a power generator … Read more

Bezos builds out space venture near Space Needle

The focus of attention on Blue Origin, the secretive space colonization initiative backed by Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos, has shifted from Texas to the Pacific Northwest.

The Seattle Times is reporting that documents filed with the city of Kent, Wash. and with the Federal Aviation Administration show Blue Origin is revamping a 243,000-square-foot office and warehouse to accommodate rocket assembly equipment and a staff that will grow from 40 people currently to as many as 100 over the next several years. The low-profile, high-altitude start-up is expected to move into its new quarters in the first quarter of … Read more

Galileo satellite set for lift-off

The clock's ticking on the launch of the first demonstrator spacecraft for Galileo, Europe's global satellite navigation system. On Wednesday, a Soyuz rocket is expected to carry Giove-A into space, according to a BBC News report.

The plan is for 30 satellites to eventually be put into orbit for Galileo, a public-private effort that is expected to run up a tab of billions of dollars. The project, led by the European Space Agency, should give countries on the continent an independent alternative to the U.S. military-run Global Positioning System.

Private rocket firm scrubs launch

SpaceX, the private company that wants to put rockets in orbit, scrubbed its second attempted launch on Monday because of technical difficulties that arose when emptying a fuel tank.

"Due to high winds, we placed the countdown on hold and began draining the fuel tank. As we drained fuel from the 1st stage tank, a faulty pressurization valve caused a vacuum condition in the tank. This caused a fuel tank barrel section to deform and suck inward. It is important to note that the root cause is an electrical fault with a valve, not structural design," wrote SpaceX … Read more

Yahoo signs license with JPEG patent company

Search giant Yahoo has decided to take a license out on the so-called JPEG patent with Forgent Networks. Under the deal, Yahoo will pay Forgent royalties but be dismissed from the pending patent suit taking place in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The suit, which involves several remaining defendants, revolves around U.S. patent number 4,698,672. Forgent acquired the patent when it bought Compression Labs in 1997. During an audit of its intellectual property portfolio in the early 2000s, company officials first realized that the patent, in their belief, embodied a method … Read more

World Economic Forum salutes tech pioneers

The World Economic Forum--an annual conference that brings together world leaders to discuss important issues and, according to past attendees, drink late into the night-- unfurled a list of 36 start-ups that it says are tech visionaries. (To attend the Davos, Switzerland gatherings, winners will have to cough up $15,000.)

Many have been profiled on News.com before. One, the two-person Ecology Coatings has developed waterproof paper and fast-drying paint that requires fewer toxic chemicals. Matrix Semiconductor, recently acquired by , designs 3D semiconductors. Another, Amyris, founded by Lawrence Livermore Labs scientist Jay Keasling, has created a way to artificially … Read more

Sun-powered data center beats the heat

A California hosting company has adopted "green building" designs and solar power to keep its energy costs low and market itself to environmentally aware customers.

Affordable Internet Services Online (AISO) on Sunday issued a press release which details the energy-efficient upgrades it has made to the company's building and data center.

AISO is powering its computing gear entirely with solar power from over 120 photovoltaic panels. The company has also adopted a few green building techniques to reduce its overall power consumption.

The data center itself has been reconstructed using steel studs, which the company considers the … Read more

Oil expert Daniel Yergin says the end is not near

Despite all the fears about oil reserves running out, it won't happen anytime soon, said Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates and author of "The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power.

"This is not a world running out of oil anytime soon. It is a compelling image, but not the right image," he told an audience at the International Petroleum Technology Conference in Doha, Qatar.

The problem, he said, is that skeptics often discount the role of technology in allowing oil companies to tap new reserves. In the '70s, offshore oil … Read more