distribute

Some utilities are thinking small when it comes to solar power.

Utility Arizona Public Service on Monday submitted a proposal to install and own solar power systems on customers' rooftops in Flagstaff. Customers will pay today's electricity and hot water heating rates for the energy those systems produce over a 20-year period.

Duke Energy last Thursday gained approval for a $50 million project in North Carolina with a similar model. The utility will install and own solar electric panels at 100 to 400 locations and pay a rental fee to property owners.

By owning the systems and the power … Read more

Talk about a race to the bottom: a week after I pondered which digital music distribution service was cheapest, WaTunes made the question irrelevant by offering digital distribution for free. That's right--for no money down and no cut of the royalties, WaTunes promises to distribute your digital downloads to iTunes, Amazon's MP3 store, Rhapsody, eMusic, and Rhapsody.

So how does the company expect to make money? The answer became clear this week when WaTunes launched its premium-priced service, WaTunes VIP. For $29.95 a year, artists and labels will get distribution to more stores (including the Zune Marketplace), … Read more

Turning your passion into a small business is a very difficult task. But staying on top of the paperwork might just kill you. Fortunately, inFlow Inventory Software offers users an opportunity to organize every aspect of their business.

This freeware program has a clean interface that may be intuitive for people familiar with other inventory software programs. However, if you are not, there is an excellent training video and sample setup waiting to guide you through the program. inFlow is dominated by four major tabs for organizing a business. Sales, Purchasing, Inventory, and Reports each offer an interconnected way to … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--The Internet and the rise of online video have meant a plethora of new options for independent filmmakers. But, as has been well-publicized, the money just isn't there yet. A panel at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival on Monday highlighted that this is an extremely contentious issue.

"Digital distribution is not some magic bullet," said panelist Gary Hustwit on the success of his documentary "Helvetica," in front of a packed room of audience members that came from both SXSWi and its sister festival, SXSW Film. "It's not that because the film … Read more

Google is expanding its AdSense program--literally.

The Web search giant announced Wednesday in a blog post that it is pitching advertisers on the use of expandable ad units, those adverts that start out as banners or square ads and launch larger ads that cover much of the Web site's content. However, Google says that unlike the most annoying variety, these expandable ads won't enlarge on their own or with a simple mouse-over; users will have to click on the smaller ad to get the larger ad.

Many users may find expandable ads annoying, but as Google points out, … Read more

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently struck a deal with the president of the Generalitat de Catalunya in Spain, which had earlier made a commitment to move off Microsoft and other proprietary software to open source, to get free Microsoft touch-screen PCs and other technology.

George Orwell might pay "Homage to Catalonia," but why should Microsoft care about a tiny deal in a tiny market?

The answer came from my friend and Alfresco CTO John Newton while we were talking yesterday:

Microsoft is a distribution model. It's certainly not an innovator. Open source challenges Microsoft because it offers … Read more

When I was first learning how to cook, I burnt my fair share of sauces. And stews. And beans. And most other things I tried to cook. You get the idea. Put a guy with no experience and no formal training into the kitchen and see what happens. Chances are not very good that the resulting dishes will be very edible. I (almost) always ate what I made and learned from my mistakes. One of the first lessons I learned was not to turn the burner all the way up for everything. Seems like common sense now, but then common … Read more

Action spy dramas increasingly feature a computer geek character who accesses everything from satellite imagery to floor plans to convenience store security cameras, then feeds the data to his team, saving the day. This type of work, it turns out, is easier said than done.

Two agencies are trying to make it easier to access and blend Web-based snoop-scoop. The U.S. Joint Forces Command and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency are sponsoring an annual demonstration called Empire Challenge, which "seeks to improve interoperability of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance activities" among end users.

One of last year's Challenge … Read more

Whatever we may think about the causes of the current market meltdown, free markets do tend to heal themselves over time. Hence, it was only a matter of time before someone would come along and give Microsoft a run for its money in its core businesses, Windows and Office.

What was less clear, however, was just how much a giveaway--the browser--was going to become central to it all, as applications and data are increasingly being run in "the cloud" with the browser being used to access them.

As I noted on Friday, Microsoft is under considerable threat from Mozilla's Firefox browser … Read more