Technology

Microsoft Hohm Joins Forces With Blue Line Innovations to Help Consumers Track Energy Use Down to the Minute and the Dollar

*Real-time power data monitor uses cloud to provide online, personalized energy- and money-saving recommendations via your Hohm profile.* 

REDMOND, Wash. — July 27, 2010Tracking your energy use and saving money just got easier today. Microsoft and Blue Line Innovations have joined forces to give consumers real-time information about their energy use down to the minute and the dollar. The companies have combined Blue Line’s popular energy tracking device with Microsoft Hohm to give consumers information about their household energy use — and its cost — at a glance, with easy-to-use graphs that show where you can save the most energy and money.

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Stieg Larsson Passes 1 Million Kindle Books Sold

*Larsson is the first author to join the new “Kindle Million Club”*

SEATTLE, Jul 27, 2010 — Amazon.com, Inc., today announced that Stieg Larsson, author of the internationally bestselling Millennium Trilogy, has become the first author to sell over 1 million Kindle books and is the first member of the new “Kindle Million Club.”

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2011: The Year Of The Tax Increase

Unless the U.S. Congress acts, there is going to be a massive wave of tax increases in 2011. In fact, some are already calling 2011 the year of the tax increase. A whole host of tax cuts that Congress established between 2001 and 2003 are set to expire in January unless Congress chooses to renew them. But with Democrats firmly in control of both houses that appears to be extremely unlikely.

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IBM Provides Smartphone Data Services for Solar-Powered Robot Car Journey From Italy to China

*Smartphones to Collect and Tweet CO2 Levels as Part of Environmental Research Project*   

MILAN, Italy – 26 Jul 2010: The VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge (VIAC), an epic 13,000km journey from Parma, Italy to Shanghai, China using unmanned, solar energy powered vehicles, aims to showcase the benefits of green transport.    

Over the course of the trip, the automated vehicles will use IBM Human Centric solutions to collect data on CO2 pollutants in the regions covered along the way – Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and China – using the data to assess the health and environmental impact of CO2 in these areas.

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BP, Deepwater Horizon and the Armageddon Scenario

What exactly is going on in the Gulf of Mexico? When there are reports of media blackouts, then the natural reaction is to start investigating, and in the current environmental catastrophe, the more stones one turns, the more horrific the potential scenario becomes. While scare mongering is as pointless as it is dangerous, the truth remains that the media have the duty to inform. (more…)

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