Remember The Milk

A few days back I mentioned Openomy as a potential online to do manager, well I think that having tried 'Remember the Milk', it's the latter I'm going to stick with; it's got more features and usability
Remember The Milk Filed in: organisation, personal, web2.0, todo, lifehacks

Community Stores Heat Underground

52 family homes connected to a solar heat storage system that ... stores the summer heat underground. It is the first of its kind and residents move in next month.

Treehugger: Planned Community Stores Heat Underground: Filed in: environment, housing, heating

Ocean Thermal Energy

I thought I'd seen this before. Apparently it didn't work too well but they're trying again on a bigger scale. If they can get it to work it could be a real boon for development in the tropics.
Treehugger: Sea Solar Power, or Ocean Thermal Energy if you prefer
Filed in: energy, solar, sea, water

DVD is history: next video format=?

When I started to read this I thought, "Betamax vs VHS all over again" and that was picked up later in the article:

But if a winner does not emerge soon, observers predict a rerun of the VHS-Betamax video battle of the 80s, with many left seething after their Betamaxes became obsolete almost overnight.

Then I thought that it's not that long since I stopped buying videos and got a DVD player, I don't want to get into yet another upgrade, and in any case do I really want a HDTV? Not sure I do, really. What I would be interested in is downloading stuff from the 'net, i-tunes style... and blow me down, look what the article ends on:

Some, however, suggest both options could be bypassed by other technologies. Google is planning an online video service that will allow users to pay to download films and programmes over the internet. It could do for videos what iTunes has done for music and could quickly make DVD-style formats seem old hat.

So, maybe I don't want to worry about formats after all.
Further related article on BSkyB and M$ deal on vid on demand...
Guardian Unlimited Technology | Technology | DVD is history: get ready for next video format: Filed in: technology, DVD, formats, commercial, online

openomy

For some time now I've been looking for an online storage/backup facility that it cheap, preferably free. I think I may have found it.

Openomy is an online file system. You can store files on Openomy and access them from any computer. Openomy organizes files and users via tags (as opposed to folders).

openomy: Filed in: online web2.0 storage backup file computingonline, web2.0, storage, backup, file, computing

Leave the lion alone

The hollow criticism of the Narnia books' biblical subtext smacks of mindless offence-seeking

So begins an article which might be put in the category of 'secularist calls for fair do's'. A few nice points and I especially liked the last bit...
"Anyone holding to this "dodgy" orthodoxy, especially those who don't explain why, is treating Christianity as inherently underhand. This is unfair to all Christians, not just hardliners. And it is not the time of year to be unfair to Christians. We've pinched their festival. We can hardly talk about "underhand"."
Guardian Unlimited | Columnists | Leave the lion alone: Filed in: Narnia, criticism, Christian, secular, CSLewis

Russia and Ukraine agree gas deal

This is definitely a 'watch this space' kind of statement

...we must develop a closer coordinated European common energy policy.
"At the moment our energy policy is run largely at national level, and different countries have different levels of reserves."
Austria's energy minister Martin Bartenstein, who chaired today's meeting, said that energy conservation had to be a crucial part of Europe's coordinated effort

Guardian Unlimited Business | Business latest | Russia and Ukraine agree gas deal: Filed in: energy, EU, policy, security, environment