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Rising biomass demand could drive land grabs

Reuters

Rising global demand for cleaner energy from biomass could drive more land acquisition in poorer nations where food security and land rights are weak, an International Institute for Environment and Development report said today.

"If left unchecked, the growing pressure on land access could undermine livelihoods and food security in some of the world's poorest countries," the London-based nonprofit research group said, calling for more public scrutiny into global biomass expansion plans.

Biomass energy makes up 77 percent of world renewable energy, and trees and woody plants account for 87 percent of that biomass, the report said. … Read more

Commodore unveils images of the all-new C64

It may be 29 years later, but I can still remember looking at what was about to be my Commodore 64, up on a shelf at a Long's Drugs near my father's house.

This wasn't my first computer--that had been a Commodore Vic-20, a machine with the same body as the C64 but with just 2 kilobytes of memory. I can recall using that little machine with my old friend to write the most elementary little BASIC programs:

10 print "hello" 20 goto 10

But then it was time to upgrade. I'd inherited a tiny bit of money, and off to the drugstore I went. I knew what I wanted. Commodore's all-new C64 was on every geek's wish list, and I was no different. What would I do with it? I wasn't sure. But I had to have it.

And have it I did. Bringing the beige machine home--along with its fantastic innovation, the stand-alone floppy disc drive--was one of the best days of my childhood, and over the years, I used that computer for everything: homework, playing games, joining my first bulletin board systems and, yes, downloading pirated games at what I think must have been 300-baud speeds.

Now, a new version of Commodore, the company, seems ready to re-introduce the Commodore 64. At least, it's putting out a modern computer built inside the familiar-looking plastic case. It has an all-new operating system, yet the company promises that the OS is backward-compatible, meaning that if you still have a copy of "Pooyan" or "Kilowatt," you might be able to run it. … Read more

Bose debuts new in-ear headphones

We weren't fans of Bose's first in-ear headphones, but maybe Bose will make a better impression with its new line of in-ear headphones, which include the IE2 audio headphones and the MIE2 and MIE2i mobile headsets, which are designed "specifically for music-enabled mobile phones." The company says each is engineered with proprietary Bose technologies for improved audio quality and feature new StayHear tips for "greater stability and a comfortable fit."

None of these models are noise-canceling or noise-isolating. While the IE2 headphones don't feature an in-line microphone for receiving cell-phone calls, both the … Read more

Silicon Valley celebrates Commodore 64 at 25

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--I don't want to date myself, but when I was in high school, one of the things I remember was that, among the geeks like myself who hung out in the computer lab, a bit of a culture war was under way.

No, it wasn't Macs versus Windows. But Apple was a player in this battle.

In fact, it was the Commodore 64 versus the Apple IIe, and while the school had a collection of Apples in the lab that all of us had to use, those of us who had C64s felt like we … Read more