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Interior Dept. OKs first solar projects on public lands

While news of the White House solar installation captured the world's attention yesterday, another historic change that could have greater impact on solar energy in the U.S. was taking place.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, announced it had approved the first large-scale solar-energy projects to ever be built on public land.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar signed final versions of the Records of Decision for two solar installations, both of which happen to be on public lands in California. They will have a large impact on the amount of electricity generated from solar as a result.

"There are 11 million acres of public lands in the California Desert, and a large majority of those lands are managed for conservation purposes. These projects, while a significant commitment of public land, actually represent less than one-hundredth of one percent of that total area. Given the many benefits, the extensive mitigation measures, and the fair market value economic return, approval of these projects is clearly in the public interest," Salazar said in a statement.

One of the alternative-energy projects approved was proposed by a subsidiary of the oil giant Chevron.

The Chevron Lucerne Valley Solar Project, which will be overseen by the Chevron subsidiary Chevron Energy Solutions of California, was granted use of 422 acres of public land in San Bernardino County, Calif., for the purpose of building a 45-megawatt solar plant consisting of 40,500 solar panels. The land is located near California State Route 247 north of San Bernardino National Forest and abuts an existing transmission line. When complete it's expected to generate enough electricity to power between 13,500 and 33,750 homes at any given time. (The range takes into consideration the natural fluctuation in available solar power.)

Another project, the Imperial Valley Solar Project, which will be overseen by Tessera Solar of Texas, was granted use of 6,360 acres of public lands in Imperial County, Calif. It's desert land located along Interstate 8 near Plaster City, Calif., just north of the California-Mexico border. That plant will consist of 28,360 parabolic solar dishes estimated to produce about 709 megawatts worth of energy annually. Once up and running, that plant is expected to provide enough energy to power between 212,700 and 531,750 homes at any given time.… Read more

Google finally announces Project 10^100 winners

Google has finally announced the winners of its Project 10^100 contest, which will award five different projects a total of $10 million.

The contest was first announced back in 2008 but has taken quite a long time to reach its conclusion, after Google changed the project to focus on "themes" rather than specific ideas. Sixteen themes were selected exactly a year ago, and the public was given an opportunity to vote on the themes most worthy of funding.

Organizations then submitted specific proposals for the five most popular ideas, and the list of winners follows below:

• The … Read more

Galaxy Tab coming to all four carriers

  Links from Friday's episode of Loaded: Samsung announces the Galaxy Tab Bing Maps gets public transportation HDCP is really broken Justin.tv iPhone app to stream live broadcast

Bing Maps gets public transit directions

Microsoft has begun adding public-transportation directions to its Bing Maps service, with directions available initially in 11 metropolitan areas in North America.

"Transit options are available for bus, subway, light rail, and local rail," Brian Hendricks, an associate product manager for Bing Maps, said in a blog post yesterday.

The areas covered in the initial release are Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Jersey, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Vancouver.

The addition helps the service match a feature available already in Google Maps, Bing Maps' primary rival. Online mapping is increasing in … Read more

MegaReader: 1.8 million e-books on your iPhone

If I'm ever stranded on a desert island, I hope I've got MegaReader on my iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch. And, um, a solar charger. And 3G. And a Starbucks would be nice.

Because MegaReader, you see, supplies enough reading material to last a lifetime. The app promises access to a whopping 1.8 million free e-books--far more than any other reader app I know.

Whether that count is accurate is difficult to say, but at the very least you'll have enough books to tide you over until rescue comes--or you get mixed up with The Others.

The … Read more

FCC appears to delay Net neutrality rules

In a blow to Net neutrality advocates, who were hoping for sweeping new rules as early as this month, federal regulators suggested Wednesday that they're delaying any action in the near future.

The Federal Communications Commission said it will be conducting a "further inquiry" into the details of broadband regulation, including whether wireless networks should be exempted from strict Net neutrality rules, a concept that Google and Verizon recently endorsed. (Here's some background from last year on wireless regulation.)

Technological developments, including per-usage plans from AT&T Mobility and Leap Wireless, have changed the wireless … Read more

Smooth landing in wacky JetBlue job-quit affair?

Once upon a time, a weird news story was just a weird news story. Now, thanks to the Web, it's an international sensation and everyone can be a part of it: a reality-show-hungry couple claiming their kid flew away in a balloon; a strange, dead animal washing ashore; an oddball clan of Alaskans getting improbably close to the White House.

This week, it was the ridiculous story of Steven Slater, a JetBlue flight attendant who cursed out an uncooperative passenger over the intercom, activated the plane's emergency slide, and escaped with a beer in hand. Not only is … Read more

In NYC: Private livery service, public Wi-Fi

Private car services may not be the cheapest way to get around the city, but at least you can get a little work done while you're stuck in traffic, now that a handful of them are equipped to deliver free ad-supported Internet access. Or so the rationalization goes.

But it's not just the well-heeled who will benefit from this perk; these mobile hot spots may be the answer to delivering free Wi-Fi to all of New York City.

LimoRes Car & Limo Service, a private car service company, has outfitted 25 of its cars with Wi-Fi hot spots … Read more

Hedge your bets in cloud computing

Debates flare up all the time about what is the "right" way to consume cloud computing. Public cloud providers push for ditching your data center in favor of pay-per-use services delivered over the network. Many hardware vendors claim that the enterprise's road to cloud computing is through the operation of private clouds. Still others argue that the whole concept is a crock of...well, you get the idea.

Which argument do you buy? How should you plan to deploy and operate your IT resources over the next 3, 5, even 10 years? In who's basket should … Read more