(Image credit: Mercer County Improvement Authority) Public universities throughout the United States have had their budgets cut deeply and often since the Great Recession began. One New Jersey community college has offset lost funding by installing a solar system on campus. Mercer County Community College (MCCC) in West Windsor, NJ will save an estimated US$750,000 annually (70 percent of its energy requirements) in electricity costs by installing an 8 Megawatt solar system on campus. The solar panels will be installed on 45 acres of open space owned by the college. The savings will be allocated toward student activities programs and services that would have been otherwise diminished or eliminated. A secondary benefit is that the system will supplement MCCC’s renewable energy program. “We are excited ... Continue reading →

Mark Hatch, CEO of Tech Shop, on stage at Maker Faire 2012 Our largest untapped resource for innovation and a growing economy is not solar or wind power. It’s not social networking or electric vehicles. It is the many millions of people who have the free time, disposable income, knowledge and passion required to make things. Or at least, that’s what Tech Shop CEO Mark Hatch explained to a packed house of computer hobbyists, DIY fans and makers of all stripes at the seventh annual Maker Faire in San Mateo, Calif., on Saturday, May 19. Tech Shop is often called a health club for makers, geeks and tinkerers. The shops — there are five locations now (including a new one near Detroit) with more on ... Continue reading →

That's not your grandma's knitting. It's an atomic force microscope image of 17 memristors, courtesy of HP Lab's J.J. Yang, via Wikimedia. A London team thinks it has figured out a better weave. Or more precisely, a better material. PC and gadget users - ie, anyone reading this story - as a group contribute to global CO2 emissions probably more than the airline industry does. Every time billions of us plug in, recharge, refresh, retrieve, reboot, download, upload, store, save, italicize, underline, boldface, capitalize, minimize, maximize, delete, surf, click or stream (you get the picture), we are drawing energy. Now, a London-led research team thinks it has found a way to slash the energy consumption of at least some of our computing functions by 99 ... Continue reading →

(Image credit: US Navy) The United States Navy foresees a future where the rising cost of oil will create operational vulnerabilities. In response, it has devised a massive online game to crowd source innovative ideas from the public to sink its energy challenges. Researchers at the Navy’s Naval Postgraduate School and the Institute for the Future, a California non-profit focused on sustainability issues, today announced an upcoming game called EnergyMMOWGLI. The game will launch starting tomorrow, Tuesday, May 22, and run for three days. The game immerses players in a dystopian year 2022; energy security is costly (a barrel of oil costs as much as a dishwasher) and resources are strained. Players battle with their wits by brainstorming how to diversify energy supply with alternative ... Continue reading →

View-Master 3D Viewer (1939) 3D fads come and go, but View-Master, introduced at the 1939 World’s Fair, springs eternal. Originally aimed at adults and featuring scenic photos, it became a kids’ toy and is now a Fisher-Price product. But if you pop a 1939 reel into a new viewer, it’ll work perfectly. 1950s-1960s models like this one are especially classic. Continue reading →

As apparently noticed first by blogger Joey DeVilla and picked up by our own Matt Peckham among many others, fresh stats from web analytics company StatCounter have Chrome edging past Internet Explorer in market share, at least for a week. It’s a landmark moment in web history — neatly summarizing the fall of IE and the rise of Chrome in one data point which we’ll all remember for years to come. Except… Matt, unlike some of the folk who reported on this, used phrases such as “if we trust…” and “according to…” in his story. Which was smart, because all we know is that Chrome squeaked by IE in StatCounter’s numbers. It’s one of numerous companies which releases browser market-share figures, and — this may ... Continue reading →

By the way Here, you'll find things that you may or may not be interested in about the East Village and other parts of New York City. Appreciating what's here while it's still here. Remembering what's no longer here. Wishing some things weren't here that are here. We love tips Have a story idea or tip about something happening in the East Village? Or maybe a photo? Or several photos? Or video! We'd love to hear about it. Or see it. Or something. Please go here to submit a tip. Contributors AtomicBlue GlassBobby WilliamsCrazy EddieDave on 7thEVFlipjdxMatt LES_MiserableMichael Sean EdwardssamoShawn ChittleStacie JoyThe Long-Lost Intern of EV Grieve Continue reading →

I’m taking a couple weeks off before the busiest part of Microsoft’s 2012 kicks into full gear. But never fear: The Microsoft watching will go on while I’m gone. I’ve asked a few illustrious members of the worldwide Microsoft community to share their insights via guest posts on a variety of topics — from Windows Phone, to Hyper-V. Today’s entry is all about the Metro-ness of Windows 8 is authored by Matthew Baxter-Reynolds. Introduced by Microsoft as a key element of Microsoft Windows Phone strategy, Metro is now being positioned as the aesthetic standard just shy of an absolute requirement for Windows Phone and tablet-optimized apps for Windows 8 and Windows RT. What no one’s asking, though, is this: “does Metro actually work?” In my ... Continue reading →

News | Evolution Track Record: Do Major Urban Subway Networks Evolve along Similar Patterns? New research digs up the underlying rules governing the shape of subway systems across the world By Sarah Fecht | May 15, 2012 | 5 Image: Wikimedia Commons/Sameboat No two subway systems have the same design. New York City’s haphazard rail system differs markedly from the highly organized Moscow Metro (above), or the tangled spaghetti of Tokyo’s subway network. Each system’s design is the result of many factors, including local geography, the city’s layout and traffic distribution, politics, culture and degree of urban planning. “There’s an endless list of possible parameters that can influence the shape of a subway network,” says Marc Barthelemy, a theoretical physicist at France's Alternative Energies and ... Continue reading →

Harry McCracken / TIME.comA crude, unimaginative simulation of what Chrome might look like on the iPadI’d love to see Google’s Chrome browser arrive for iOS devices. I’d be even more thrilled if an all-out browser war broke out on Apple’s mobile operating system, with multiple players going all-out to win the hearts and minds of users. So I was intrigued by reports that analyst Ben Schachter of Macquarie is saying that Google is working on Chrome for iOS — and that it might even be undergoing Apple’s approval process right now. Schachter says it could set off Browser Wars Part Deux– a battle reminiscent of the legendary 1990s competition between Internet Explorer and Netscape. I am, however, more skeptical than giddy over Schachter’s report. For ... Continue reading →