Wired: Top Stories

File Sharer Settling With RIAA for $756 a Song

A Bronx woman agrees to pay the Recording Industry Association of America $6,050 for purloining eight tracks on the Kazaa file sharing network. That's $756.25 per song. The largest penalty ordered in an RIAA file sharing lawsuit was $9,250 per track.

18.08.2008 22:09:00 - Wired: Top Stories

Re-enact Bullitt With GPS Maps

Wanna abuse a Mustang by re-enacting that awesome chase in "Bullitt?" Seero's got you covered with a GPS overlay that breaks it down street by street. See it here and let us know what other chases oughtta get the "geo-broadcasting" treatment.

18.08.2008 21:42:47 - Wired: Top Stories

Helicopter Pilots Break Round-the-World Speed Record

Two seasoned helicopter pilots obliterate the previous record for circumnavigating the globe even after losing time in Russia to fuel shortages and engine problems.

18.08.2008 21:18:52 - Wired: Top Stories

'Harry Potter' Fans Fight 8-Month Film Delay

The Half-Blood Prince won't hit theaters till summer 2009, and the studio's scheduling move conjures the wrath of Potterphiles everywhere. Disappointment and anger fuel petitions and protests both online and off.

18.08.2008 20:51:00 - Wired: Top Stories

Beat the Odds at 'Fable II' Pub Games

Fable 2 is coming October 21, and the producers behind the game are giving you a chance to beef up your character's wallet beforehand ... by gambling. Our tutorial will tell you how to get the best odds. With a little know-how, and a lot of luck, you might just get the upper hand.

18.08.2008 20:30:00 - Wired: Top Stories

Android-Powered Phone Wins FCC Approval, But Faces Obstacles

The first phone to use the Google-backed Android operating system has won FCC approval, and the filing documents suggest it could be available as early as Nov. 10. But hitting that deadline will be difficult, industry analysts say.

18.08.2008 19:40:00 - Wired: Top Stories

Pandora Could Be First Major Casualty of New Royalty Rates

Pandora -- practically the poster child for online radio -- says it will shut down if royalty rates enacted in March of 2007 are not altered soon.

18.08.2008 19:32:00 - Wired: Top Stories

Andy Grove's Electrifying Energy Proposal

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To drill or not to drill? That has been the question this summer as Congress, the president and both candidates debate where and whether we should be exploring for domestic oil. The implication is that this is an important step in reducing our dependence on imported oil.

It is not. Oil—wherever it is produced—is priced, sold and consumed in a global marketplace. Whatever the outcome of this existential debate, any incremental oil will be sold to the highest bidder, in the U.S.—or in other countries— most of which have an insatiable appetite for oil.

Such flaws of strategic logic seem to show up in most discussions on what to do. We must discipline ourselves to follow a more rigorous approach, which can be hard to do given the enormous importance energy has in our lives. The plans announced recently by T. Boone Pickens and former Vice President Al Gore provide a good opportunity to think through our strategic options, by means of a comparative look. (See the Portfolio.com Green Machine graphic to find out where investors are putting their cash in the clean-tech game.)

I include as a third option a plan to allow cars and trucks on U.S. roads to run primarily on electricity drawn from the regular electric grid.

Pickens proposes to build massive wind farms in the nation's center to generate a large part of America's electricity, which would then liberate the natural gas that is currently used to generate electricity. If the cars on the road were to be retrofitted to run on natural gas, Pickens argues, the need to import the corresponding amount of petroleum would disappear. Setting aside the task of retrofitting over 200 million vehicles, this plan raises a fundamental question. Natural gas, like oil, is a global commodity that can be shipped anywhere. Even if it is produced in the United States, what makes it stay here? It does so if, and only if, the United States pays the prevailing market price for it, just as we are paying market price for the petroleum fueling our cars today. So very little would change.

Vice President Gore's focus is on carbon reduction. He proposes that by 2018, 100 percent of America's electricity be generated from sources such as wind, solar and geothermal. Doing so would free a lot of oil, imported and domestic alike, as well as coal and natural gas. The oil, coal and natural gas that the U.S. does not use would become available for others through the world market. Correspondingly, carbon emissions would be shifted to other countries, but the world's total would not be reduced. And, in spite of this effort, cars on the road would still be fueled by petroleum.

I have been arguing that the first task—Job 1—is the electrification of the transportation sector. The fuel needs of transportation account for a very large part of the nation's petroleum consumption. Even more important is that today only petroleum and agri-fuels can be used as sources of energy for the overwhelming majority of the nation's vehicles, even though the residential, industrial, and commercial needs for fuel can be satisfied using the full range of energy sources.

Put another way, the various sources of energy are fungible for residential, industrial, and commercial uses, but not for transportation.

If we are to undertake the equivalent of open-heart surgery on our economy, we must insist that after the trauma, the fuel for all segments of the economy should be capable of coming from multiple sources of energy. This will allow us to cope with the unexpected, and will prepare us for future transition to renewable sources of energy like wind and solar. This is why fungibility in transportation is important.

This approach has its problems too. As with Pickens' plan, cars and trucks, old and new, must be converted. They need to be able to run on electric power, even if only partially. As we make progress, we will become increasingly dependent on battery technology and manufacturing, most of which currently takes place outside the U.S. If investments in battery manufacturing abroad outstrip domestic investments, this situation is reinforced. In addition, improved battery technologies may end up using exotic metals. As we scour the periodic table of elements, our hunt may lead us to yet another set of dependencies.

The key features of the three approaches, in a comparative fashion, are shown in this table.

Complicated picture? Yes, it is.

Let's face it, we are dealing with the adaptation of the world's largest industry, under the pull and push of different problems. To have even a small chance to improve matters and end our dependence on imported oil, we need to ask basic questions: What problems do we intend to solve? And in what order? Environmental? Economic? National security? They are all important, but our answers lead to different approaches and to different outcomes.

Personally, my bias is that national security has to be our first priority. We can't lead the world if we're on our knees begging often-hostile nations for oil. Wars have been fought over natural resources, and this could happen again. But whatever the answer, objectivity and clarity are essential for us to make progress on the issue that informs the life of our generation.

18.08.2008 17:15:00 - Wired: Top Stories

10 Great Webcomics You Should Not Share With Your Kids

If you want funny, geeky and mature cutting-edge comics, the web is where to look.

18.08.2008 12:30:00 - Wired: Top Stories

Getting Audiophile Sound in the Worst Place for It

Cars are lousy places for audiophile-quality sound systems, but Naim is among the high-end home audio companies working with premium automakers to bring high fidelity to the road.

18.08.2008 09:00:00 - Wired: Top Stories