News in Detail
Israeli comic artist wins prestigious U.S. prize
"Exit Wounds," a graphic novel by the Israeli comics artist Rutu Modan, won the 2008 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award this weekend for the best new graphic novel - the most prestigious U.S. prize for works in the comics industry. The Eisner prizes are awarded every year for comics creations in various categories, at a festive ceremony that is part of the Comic-Con International in San Diego. The event is considered to be comics' Academy Awards.
Last weekend's awards, the 39th of their kind, were attended by some 125,000 people. (By comparison, the Sundance Film Festival, which lasts 10 days, is usually attended by about 45,000 people.)
"Exit Wounds" was published in Europe and the U.S. a year and a half ago. The Canadian publishing house Drawn & Quarterly ordered the book from Modan, who worked on it for two years.
After its publication, the graphic novel received excellent reviews in leading newspapers, including The Guardian and The New York Times. Both American and European newspapers placed the book on the lists of the best works of 2007 in the sphere of literature and comics.
Modan's book, which numbers 160 pages, tells the emotional story of a detective search in contemporary Israel. A Tel Aviv teen goes to look for his father who went missing in a terrorist attack. He is joined in his quest by his father's young lover. Am Oved will publish the book's Hebrew version next month, entitled "Karov Rahok."
Before "Exit Wounds," Modan was mostly famous in the global comics field for her short stories, which appeared in books published by the independent Israeli comics publisher Actus, a company she co-founded. Alongside teaching at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, Modan has also illustrated several children's books and drawn illustrations for newspapers.
She has received various prizes, including the Science, Culture and Sports Ministry's graphic design award.
Modan has been living in Britain for the past year.
Scholarships fpr the Car Design Master's Course with Lamborghini
After two years of successful collaboration with Audi and the most recent, challenging experiences with the Italian brand Alfa Romeo, again Scuola Politecnica di Design draws attention back to the legendary brand Lamborghini, worldwide synonymous with sportiness, exclusivity and the extreme character of its iconic models.Scuola Politecnica di Design and Alfa Romeo will grant scholarships in order to participate to the Car Design Master’s Course which will begin on
October 22nd 2008 and finish in October 2009. The aim is to select the best students and professionals, providing them with an excellent training with the protagonists of automobile design.
Participants from all the world will develop a new concept car under the guidance of SPD tutors assisted by Filippo Perini, Lamborghini Head of design, and his staff.
The Master’s programme also features lectures with leading figures in car design and guided tours of design centres, museums and exhibitions. Visits will be held at Lamborghini headquarter in Sant’Agata, Modena. The official language of the Master’s course is English.
You can find all the information on the link below:
http://www.scuoladesign.com/master-car-design/eng/programma_en.html
Participation to the Master Course is open to candidates who have a degree from schools / universities
of design, engineering and architecture, or to people with significant experience and skills in car design.
All those interested in taking part to the selection have to send their CV and portfolio by e-mail to: lamborghini@scuoladesign.com
For every car designer it’s important to stay at least one year in Italy.
So if you do like car design and you think you have great skills in this field, don’t miss this opportunity.
Send your portfolio as soon as possible.
SCUOLA POLITECNICA DI DESIGN
Via Ventura, 15
20134 Milano – Italy
Tel. +39 0221597590
http://www.scuoladesign.com
Yahoo Games offers ad-supported downloadable games
Yahoo has launched Yahoo Games that offers ad-supported downloadable games from the top casual games publishers. According to Yahoo, paid downloads without advertising will also be available to users on Yahoo Games.
“In game advertising is a win-win for Yahoo Games, our partners and our users,” Kyle Laughlin, head of games, Yahoo, has said. “Yahoo Games will safely and simply monetize our games experience while providing the best and most popular games free to game enthusiasts.”
Adobe releases tools to improve Google, Yahoo search of popular Flash video format
iInternet users will now have an easier time finding sites that rely heavily on the popular Flash video format.
Adobe Systems Inc., the format's developer, has released a customized version of its Flash Player software that allows Google Inc.'s search engine and others to see the elements of Web pages embedded with Flash content the same way a human would.
Search crawlers, the programs that find and index content for search engines, currently have a difficult time "seeing" non-text formats.
Although they can often index static text and links within basic Flash files, many Web pages associated with Flash video are dynamically generated on the fly as visitors are ready to view them. And some Web pages are now designed almost entirely in Flash, with menus and other features embedded within the Flash video.
Adobe's new tools help search crawlers navigate dynamic Flash pages more easily. Google's crawlers, for instance, will be able to click buttons along the way and remember the information for the index.
"Improving how we crawl dynamic content will ultimately enhance the search experience for our users," Bill Coughran, Google's senior vice president of engineering, said in a statement.
Google already is using the new tools and Yahoo Inc. plans to soon. Adobe plans to extend support to other search engines.
Web designers don't need change the way they do anything to accommodate the upgrade.
There are limits, however. Google is indexing only actual text within Flash files -- not text presented as images such as the words on a street sign. So Google's YouTube video clips still aren't covered because they don't contain embedded text.
Adobe MAX 2008 2009
iAdobe announced dates and locations for its MAX 2008/2009 event series.
MAX is the premier industry forum for designers, developers and business decision makers focused on creating and delivering rich, engaging digital experiences across mediums and devices.
The series begins Nov. 16 to 19 in San Francisco, followed by events in Milan from Dec. 1 to 4, 2008, and Tokyo from Jan. 29 to 30, 2009.
Adobe also launched its call for entries for the 2008 worldwide MAX Awards program, which recognizes the most innovative work from designers and developers around the world.
Entries are being accepted through Sept. 5, 2008.
Under the theme, "Connect. Discover. Inspire." the San Francisco event will feature keynotes from CEO Shantanu Narayen and CTO Kevin Lynch, as well as technology "sneak-peeks," business discussions, technical sessions, hands-on workshops, exhibits and networking events.
More than 200 sessions will engage designers, developers and business strategists.
"MAX inspires creatives and technologists to design, build, and share new ways for people to deliver engaging experiences over the Web and on any screen," said Adobe chief technology officer Kevin Lynch.
"Nowhere else can passionate members of the Adobe community learn from the best, be on the inside track of breaking industry news, connect with peers and industry experts while discovering cutting-edge technologies."
www.max.adobe.com/
Stockphoto Announces Second Annual Punctum Day Awards
iStockphoto® announced the categories for its second annual Punctum Day Awards on August 19 to celebrate creative excellence. Punctum is the strong emotional reaction you have to a stunning image and August 19 was chosen because that day in 1839 was the day that Louis Daguerre first introduced the camera.
With prizes totaling $40,000, member nominations start July 2, to identify and showcase the year's best iStock files and artists in five categories.
On a secret date within the next two months, all exclusives will also receive 100 percent of their sales revenue for the day. The highly successful program whereby top iStock contributors submit to Getty Images' Photodisc collection will be extended to include Silver artists (those with at least 2,500 downloads). Finally, members who become Exclusive have several new incentives including personalized keyword assistance.
The Punctum Day Award winners will be chosen based on their high-caliber, quality files rich with artistic achievement. iStock artists can access complete contest details at http://www.iStockphoto.com/punctum-awards. Community members will select their favorites in five of the categories from July 2-25, 2008. The Top 10 finalists selected by the community will be announced on August 7.
Winners will be chosen by a panel of special guest judges and will be announced on August 19 (with the exception of the Battle Royale annual Steel Cage Battle). $5,000 USD will be awarded to each artist in the following categories.
1. Photo of the Year
2. Vector of the Year
3. Video of the Year
4. Flash file of the Year
5. Design of the Year
6. Battle Royale 2008: Steel Cage battle will take place from July 2 to September 27 and the winner will be announced October 9.
Punctum Day Inspector's Choice Awards
Two more award categories will be chosen by the iStockphoto Inspection team.
1. Most Improved Contributor of the Year -- $5,000 USD prize
2. Most Deserving of a New Camera -- Canon or Nikon camera worth $5,000 USD
Getty Images Photodisc Collaboration Extended
iStock is the only microstock agency that can offer contributors a career path and the possibility of becoming a prestigious Getty Images photographer. Last year, Diamond- and Gold-level iStock contributors were offered the opportunity to submit up to five new images a month to Getty's Photodisc collection. The program will be expanded to include Silver-level contributors later this year.
Keyword Preference for Exclusives
iStock is making its keyword standards more stringent and will be rejecting more files with poor metadata. However, those who become exclusive will never be rejected for incorrect keywords and will receive personalized assistance with this task
Spielberg to raise $1 billion for DreamWorks
Steven Spielberg aims to raise over $1billion in third-party financing to recreate DreamWorks as a separate company that reacquires ownership of films.
Spielberg wants to reestablish DreamWorks as a studio that owns the movies it makes. Currently, DreamWorks is a unit of Paramount Pictures, a subsidiary of media conglomerate Viacom. DreamWorks was acquired by Paramount in 2005.
Earlier, Spielberg was supposed to grant the distribution rights to Universal who lost the acquisition in 2005. But on the recommendation of his advisers, Spielberg will allow a bidding effort among studios for the acquisition of distribution rights of future DreamWorks movies.
AMD to Release its Long Awaited Puma Platform for Laptops
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) will uncage its Puma laptop platform at events in Taipei and Paris on Wednesday. It's the first new laptop platform the microprocessor manufacturer has developed since it acquired graphics chip specialist ATI — and perhaps the last such platform in which central processor and graphics processor will be separate components.
"The next generation is all about graphics and throughput," said Leslie Sobon, AMD's worldwide director of product marketing. "Nobody needs to open Word and Excel documents faster," she said, so instead AMD is focusing on speeding up video and video games performance for home users.
There's no "Puma inside" logo to promote it, though: Customers looking for the latest chips will need to check that they're getting a laptop with an AMD Turion X2 Ultra processor (the "Ultra" is new), the 780 chipset and an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3000 Series graphics chip -- or maybe two, if they want to profit from one of the platform's power-saving, performance-enhancing features: hybrid graphics.
Some of the graphics chips that work with the Turion X2 Ultra are already on the market, but AMD is adding a discrete graphics chip at the high end of the range, the 3870.
Of the 100 or so notebook designs being readied using the new platform, around one-third will use discrete graphics chips, said Sobon. Those models may appeal more to Europeans: Around half of laptops sold in Europe include discrete graphics chips, which use their own memory rather than sharing system resources. In the U.S. about one-fifth of laptops ship with these chips.
"Europe understands the value of discrete graphics, the U.S. not so much," she said. "If you have $50 to $100 more to spend on a laptop, those dollars are better spent on discrete graphics than on faster clock speed."
Companies building laptops with Puma components include Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu-Siemens, HP, NEC and Toshiba, she said. But there'll be no Puma notebook platform from Lenovo or Apple: "Of course" we tried to sell the processors to Apple, said Sobon, noting that the company does buy ATI graphics chips from AMD.
One-third of those laptop designs have 15-inch screens, but there are also models with screens as large as 18 inches or as small as 12 inches. "There are no ultraportables," said Sobon.
The first crop of Puma-based laptops will be missing one of the more interesting features of the platform: PowerXpress. This can toggle between using an integrated graphics chip to save power and a discrete chip for better performance, all without rebooting the machine. The first machines to feature it will appear late in the third quarter, said Sobon.
The Turion X2 Ultra processor has other power-saving capabilities: Power to either of its dual cores, or the integrated memory controller, can be reduced or cut entirely, depending on its level of activity. It can also offload the video encoding and decoding activities involved in playing DVDs or editing videos to the graphics chip, reducing power consumption.
Analyst expectations for Puma are high.
"Puma is what is going to allow AMD to improve its competitive position against Intel," said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research.
Intel is leaving AMD little room to maneuver, though: "It's keeping a pretty strong pace on platform rollouts," said McCarron.
And although problems with some chipset components of Intel's upcoming Centrino 2 mobile platform, code-named Montevina, have delayed its launch a little, "There really isn't a big gap between the platforms," he said.
With the Centrino brand, Intel made a big deal of its own wireless capabilities, but AMD thinks it can do better by allowing laptop designers to choose their favorite third-party wireless products. "We are open in our wireless solutions," said Sobon. As a result, AMD products have "2.5 times the throughput and range that they do," he said.
AMD stands to gain little from moving into the wireless chip market, according to McCarron: Design costs are high, because the chips are complex and yet relatively inexpensive. "There's not a lot of profit for AMD to be chasing there," he said.
McCarron doesn't expect the launch of Puma to have much effect on notebook pricing. "As technology gets improved, components get replaced at the same price point."
Adobe Launches Hosted Services, Adds Flash to Acrobat
Adobe unveiled the next version of its Adobe Acrobat software, which adds support for the company's Flash multimedia technology. The company also plans to launch a new Web site offering users free hosted services for document creation, sharing and storage.
The move positions Adobe competitively against Microsoft, Google and other companies offering similar services online and signals Adobe's first major move into the hosted-services arena for business documents.
Combined, the two announcements support Adobe's broader strategy to offer rich-media capabilities through Flash and other technologies for both online and offline documents.
Adobe's new Web site, called Acrobat.com, offers beta versions of several hosted document services. They include Adobe Buzzword, a word-processing service that the company acquired from Virtual Ubiquity in September.
Adobe also is offering Adobe ConnectNow, a service that offers free Web conferencing for up to three people, and an online repository for documents. The company also provides guidance for converting documents to PDFs and will let users convert up to five documents into PDF for free on the site.
Adobe says Acrobat.com is a place where users can work with documents in the cloud, a definition that is similar to how Microsoft and Google are positioning online services they offer for free.
Even as Adobe rolls out hosted document services, Adobe Acrobat 9, the company's packaged software for document sharing, is expected to ship in late June or early July, said Kevin M. Lynch, vice president of product management and marketing for Acrobat. The software will allow users to incorporate Flash content in documents that can be converted to PDF, so any dynamic media created in Flash and included in the document will become portable, he said.
Acrobat 9 will come in its three typical versions, Standard, Pro and Pro Extended, for US$299, $449 and $699, respectively. Current users can upgrade for a discount; more information is available on Adobe's Web site.
Toby Bell, research vice president with Gartner, said that Adobe could trump Google in its ambition to compete with Microsoft to offer online services in the enterprise space because of its strength in business document-management and mindshare with creative professionals.
"PDF originally was sort of the offline model for the Internet-based portability of information, but usually ... you're offline when you do it," he said. "Now the online [services] coupling is probably a strong enough and solid enough business proposition that it will generate revenue for Adobe, something that is missing in a lot of Web 2.0 strategies."
So far Microsoft has not offered a hosted version of its Office productivity suite, but it did recently launch its own elaborate file-sharing service called Windows Live Mesh. The company also offers online file-storage services through Windows Live SkyDrive. Google has its own document-creation and -storage service called Google Docs. Neither company offers hosted Web conferencing at this time.
While its competitors use online advertising as a business model for their online services, Adobe has no current plans to go this route, the company said. Rather, it eventually will offer premium, subscription-based versions of the services for a fee.
Asustek to Launch IMac Rival in September
Asustek Computer plans to launch the Eee Monitor in September, a PC built into a monitor designed to rival Apple's iMac, the company's CEO said Monday.
The new device joins the Taiwanese company's popular Eee family of products, which started with the low-cost mini-laptop, the Eee PC. Asustek has expanded its laptop line to include different OSs, Linux and Windows XP, as well as configurations and sizes. The company will launch two new Eee PCs at Computex Taipei 2008 on Tuesday, the Eee PC 901, which boasts nearly eight hours of battery life, and the Eee PC 1000, which has a 10-inch screen and regular-sized keyboard.
But the company is already looking ahead to new products to keep the Eee family fresh, said Jerry Shen, CEO of Asustek, in a briefing.
The Eee Monitor will be a stand-alone monitor and PC similar to the iMac. But the Eee line is designed to be low-cost, so Asustek's Eee Monitor will likely beat the iMac on price. Shen declined to comment further on the Eee Monitor's price or configuration.
Asustek is also launching Eee Box soon, a white mini-desktop PC about the size of a hardback book that will come with either a Linux or Windows XP OS. Shen said it will cost between $200 and $300 per unit.
Eee Box uses an Intel Atom microprocessor and will come in a range of configurations, including a choice of hard drives from 80G bytes to 250G bytes in size, and allow users to surf the Internet wirelessly via 802.11n Wi-Fi. It also carries four USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports, two each in front and back, and a slot for MMCs (Multimedia Cards), SD (Secure Digital) cards and Memory Sticks.
"In the future, we'll expand the features," Shen said.
Asustek also plans to bring Wii-like wireless gaming to PCs with the Eee Stick, gaming controllers that use motion sensors so people can bowl, slash swords and play other games on a PC. Eee Stick is designed for PC gamers, not game console users. They work with PC game pads, mice and keyboards and connect to the PC via USB (universal serial bus) ports.
Starting around August, the company will bundle the controllers with its popular Eee PC low-cost laptops and the desktop Eee Box. Next year, the Eee Sticks will be sold in packs with five to eight games for around NT$2,000 to NT$2,500 ($66 to $82).
Intel Unveils New Chipsets at Computex Show
Sean Maloney, executive vice president of Intel, made the announcement during a keynote address at the conference on Tuesday. The Intel 4 Series Chipsets, which include the G45, G43, P45 and P43, will be used with the 45 nanometer Intel Core2 Duo and Intel Core2 Quad processors.
"The Internet is going high-def," Maloney said during his keynote. "Desktop PCs with these new chipsets let you enjoy, share and protect your digital life. They have the processing power and graphics to deliver stutter-free HD video playback, improved 3-D performance and leading storage capabilities."
Maloney noted that people increasingly are looking to be able to store all of their HD videos, photographs, music and games in one place - a central library -- and be able to access that library of entertainment and data from small mobile Internet devices while they're on-the-go.
The new Intel G45 Express Chipset sports with the updated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD, and is designed to deliver strong visual performance and quality. According to the company, it's the first Intel platform to integrate complete hardware High Definition pipelines for Blu-ray and other HD content playback. It's also the first Intel platform to post-process HD content for improved visual quality.
The Intel G43 Express chipset is designed to deliver strong graphics for everyday computing. It uses Intel Clear Video Technology for HD playback, while it also has an enhanced 3-D graphics engine with full support of Microsoft Windows Vista Premium.
A chip set is a group of integrated chips or circuits that are designed to work together. Often sold as a single product, chip sets are designed to work with a main processor.
Nvidia Takes Swing at Intel With New Tegra Chips
The market for hardware that can run mobile Internet devices heated up considerably Monday with the unveiling of Nvidia's Tegra family of processors, whose models contain chips for multiple functions.
The Tegra chips directly compete with Intel's Atom processor line, which was announced in early April at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai. With an increasing number of people wanting or needing to access computers outside of their offices, makers of mobile Internet devices are seeking new ways to make computers smaller and more efficient.
"There's a battle emerging here," said Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at research firm Insight 64. "This is going to be a very exciting area. It's perceived to be one with huge growth over the next few years. Everyone is going to want an in if they can pull it off."
Mobile Internet devices are small machines, falling somewhere between smart phones and laptops.
The new Tegra processors are low-power chips that are designed to enable high-definition media and computing experiences on a small device. Andrew Hamber, a spokesman for Nvidia, said that a MID device running an Intel chip uses about 12 watts of power. The same device running a Tegra chip uses 1.3 watts, he said.
Dean McCarron, an analyst at Mercury Research, explained that putting multiple functions on one chip reduces energy consumption. The bigger and longer the wire needed to connect multiple chips, the more energy is needed to send any signal or interaction between them.
McCarron also noted that a single chip takes up less real estate, which in turn leaves more space for a larger battery or other features.
"This Nvidia chip comes in handy because it makes video on a large screen look good," said Brookwood. "People go to a hotel room or their office and they want to plug their device to a TV so they can watch whatever movie they had downloaded. Handhelds didn't really have good video capabilities before. So if you had a movie on a small device and hooked up to a TV, it looked terrible. Now this can handle the high resolutions that TVS support."
Brookwood noted that Intel is slated to release Moorestown, the successor to its new Atom chip, next year. It's expected to have graphics and video capabilities built in, but Brookwood said it's unlikely that the quality will be comparable to Nvidia's product.
"The interesting battle will begin next year when you see these Nvidia chips up against [the new chips from] Intel," he added.
AMD will Manufacture First Fusion Chips Itself
Much speculation has surrounded Advanced Micro Devices' manufacturing plans for its upcoming Fusion family of processors and whether these chips could be produced under contract. But a senior executive said on Tuesday that AMD plans to manufacture the first chips itself.
The first Fusion processors will be made at AMD's chip plant in Dresden, Germany, said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager of AMD's Graphics Products Group, during an interview.
"There are some lower-end models that we're considering that we might use the fabless model for," Bergman said, indicating the production of these chips would be outsourced.
Due in late 2009, Fusion chips will combine processor cores, a memory controller and graphics cores on a single piece of silicon. Current AMD processors have the processor cores and memory controller on the same chip. Adding a graphics core to these chips is technically challenging, in part because AMD's existing microprocessors and graphics chips are made using different technology.
AMD's graphics chips are made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. using a bulk CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) process, while the processors are made by AMD and Chartered Semiconductor using SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technology.
The Fusion chips will be made using SOI, Bergman said.
Adobe Unveils Acrobat 9 Software
Adobe Systems introduced Adobe Acrobat 9 software. It delivers native support for Adobe Flash technology, the ability to unify a wide range of content in rich PDF Portfolios, and access to real-time capabilities for co-navigating a PDF document.
For the first time, it provides deep support for Adobe Flash technology, enabling users to include Adobe Flash Player compatible video and application files in PDF documents. Recipients simply need free Adobe Reader 9 software to consume the content. Now, static documents can come to life as dynamic communications.
The software also includes the ability to unify a wide range of content into a single document with the new concept of PDF Portfolios. The portfolios enable business professionals to assemble multiple media types, such as documents, video, audio, and even 3D objects, into one, compressed PDF file. Users can then choose among several professional layouts—or create their own—to quickly integrate content, define navigation, and add polish and branding.
In addition, it provides access to capabilities for collaborating live within a PDF document — enabled by working with Acrobat.com, a new suite of hosted services Adobe introduced as public beta. For example, a salesperson could use Acrobat 9 to send a lengthy contract to clients. The sales professional, or any of the recipients using Adobe Reader1, can then drive the group’s navigation through the PDF document in real-time working with Acrobat.com. This helps ensure everyone is literally, and figuratively, on the same page.
Additionally, Acrobat 9 users can access Acrobat.com for storing and sharing files, use it as a central location for collecting data as part of a forms process, and to gather comments in a shared document review. Acrobat.com includes other services, such as Adobe ConnectNow, personal Web conferencing that provides desktop sharing, video and voice conferencing, and integrated chat; and Adobe Buzzword, Web-based word processor that can be used to easily co-author and share documents for comment and review, creating high-quality print results.
The Acrobat 9 family consists of Acrobat 9 Standard, Acrobat 9 Pro, and the new Acrobat 9 Pro Extended software. The most comprehensive member of the family, Acrobat 9 Pro Extended, includes Adobe Presenter software for easily turning Microsoft PowerPoint presentations into multimedia experiences that can be published as PDF files.
Acrobat 9 Pro Extended, Acrobat 9 Pro and Acrobat 9 Standard for Microsoft Windows, and Acrobat 9 Pro for Mac OS X, are expected to be available by July 2008 in English, French, German, and Japanese language versions.
Acrobat 9 Pro Extended is expected to be available for $699, and registered users of qualifying earlier versions of Acrobat2 can upgrade to Acrobat 9 Pro Extended for $229. Acrobat 9 Pro is expected to be available for $449, and registered users of qualifying earlier versions of Acrobat3 can upgrade to Acrobat 9 Pro for $159. Acrobat 9 Standard is expected to be available for $299, and registered users of qualifying earlier versions of Acrobat4 can upgrade to Acrobat 9 Standard for $99.
More information on the Acrobat 9 family of software is available online at www.adobe.com/acrobat.
World's first solar speedboat: 30-knot, 80kw Czeers Mk1
Electricity and water: we usually do everything we can to keep the two apart, but it seems the electric engine revolution is moving through the boating world as well. And when you're out on the water enjoying a speedboat, what more appropriate power source is there than the sun? The Czeers MK1 prototype solar speedboat is a 30-knot photovoltaic dream in delicious shades of carbon fiber, solar cell and lush orange leather. Solar boats for environmental warriors eh? Next thing you'll be telling us they're making wind-powered ones.
The Czeers MK1 prototype is, as far as its Dutch creators are concerned, the world's first solar speedboat. The Delft Technical University Solarboat Team built the original platform as an entry in the 2006 Nuon Frisian Solar challenge, which it easily won - and in the process, attracted serious investment power from Rabobank to get a full scale test boat built.
The resulting test boat, made from 100% carbon fiber inlaid with leather trim, photovoltaic cells on almost all horizontal surfaces and an LCD touch-screen control system, launched at the Millionaire Fair in 2007, and has since proven itself up to 30 knots on the water.
The 10-meter boat manages to pack in 14 square meters of solar panels and an 80kw electric motor. It uses no oil, produces no fumes or engine noise, and quietly generates all its own power in a completely sustainable fashion. Here's a youtube vid of the test boat in action.
Czeers hopes to produce between 4 and 8 boats per year. The price? Undisclosed, but probably rather a lot.
Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro
 Adobe announced a new version of Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro, the company's comprehensive Web conferencing and eLearning solution.
The version includes new functionality that enriches online communication and collaboration, enabling organizations and schools to offer more engaging rapid training, interactive virtual classes and dynamic online meetings.
Acrobat Connect Pro includes many new features for Web conferencing such as options for archiving and editing recorded online meetings; new presence capabilities that can allow federation with popular instant messaging (IM) clients; and powerful compliance and usage reporting tools.
eLearning enhancements include break-out rooms to let students in virtual classes initiate separate conversations online; rapid authoring of video-based content; integration with Learning Management Systems (LMS) from Blackboard and SumTotal; and tools that track and organize online classes.
Users also can easily tailor training sessions or meetings that help capture participants' attention and increase knowledge retention, resulting in an online learning experience remarkably similar to an in-person class.
Combined with the new version of Adobe Presenter, also introduced today, Acrobat Connect Pro can enable users to hold engaging online meetings that incorporate high-impact Adobe Flash Player compatible presentations.
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatconnectpro/
Illustration Conference ICON5 to Be In New York this Summer
CON5 The Big Picture is gearing up for 4 exciting, jam-packed days in The Big Apple. Hundreds of illustrators, art directors, creative and media professionals will meet over the July 4th holiday for lots of fun, information and inspiration.
ICON5 will be held at the historic Roosevelt Hotel near Grand Central Station. This prominent landmark named for Teddy Roosevelt has been meticulously restored to its majestic glory from the 1920's with modern-day amenities.
ICON5 will bring together over 750 national and international attendees and speakers. These highly skilled, highly educated professionals work on the cutting edge of the global visual evolution and will bring their unique energy and enthusiasm to the conference. ICON embraces the city it's produced in with various pre-conference events, such as studio tours of local artists and magazine art departments; visits to museums and other sites of interest and public exhibitions.
ICON The Illustration Conference is a national, grass-roots, not-for-profit, professional entity established in 1997 to serve the illustration community. ICON is an all volunteer organization supported by sponsor contributions and registration fees. Unlike many other conferences, ICON is not supported with membership dues. Since the first conference in Santa Fe, NM, our purpose has been to provide a platform for illustrators to address, in a timely manner, the most important issues and ideas facing the profession.
ICON is committed to creating an ongoing dialogue that serves the whole industry. Each conference brings together a community of illustrators and creative professionals to explore new concepts, media, technologies, and professional issues. Programming topics fall into these three important categories: Inspiration, Industry and Business.
For more information, go to http://www.theillustrationconference.org/
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