Eideard

Big publishers are flocking to the iPad, readying to publish electronic versions of their bestselling books on Apple’s much-anticipated tablet device due to launch April 3. But smaller publishing houses are making the move, too, including self-publishing service Smashwords.

Smashwords, a site where writers can publish their own e-books, said today it has signed a distribution deal with Apple to put its books into the iPad iBookstore. Mark Coker, chief executive of Smashwords, said in an email to authors that his company has been working on the deal ever since the iPad was announced. And, yes, this means that unpublished authors can sell their work on the Apple iPad at virtually no cost…

The company also said it is adding ISBN (International Standard Book Number) support as required by Apple, and it is preparing a large delivery of books to Sony’s e-book store. Apple’s requirement is that all e-book prices end in .99, so you can sell at 99 cents, $1.99 etc. The price must also be less than the print counterpart. The distribution cost to get the book on the iPad is free. Smashwords and Apple divide the remaining 40 percent of the e-book price.

Maybe I’ll get round finishing my High Desert Mediterranean cook book, eh?

Last one out the door at night – turn out the lights!

When a corporation as large as Ford decides to do something as simple as shutting down its computers at night, the savings can be astronomical. In the case of Ford, powering down computers can save the company $1.2 million each year.

The new program called PC Power Management, utilizes energy saving settings provided by Microsoft Windows. The energy settings will be used on company laptops and desktops to reduce energy waste. A managed shutdown will occur each night and during the weekend period. Additionally, computers will be awake to receive updates during pre-selected non-business hours, freeing up time previously used for updates throughout the working day.

According to Ford, an estimated 60 percent of the company’s computers remained on after business hours resulting in wasted energy. The new managed shutdown will eliminate waste to the tune of over a million dollars in savings for the company and reduce its carbon footprint by an estimated 16,000-25,000 metric tons per year.

The folks at autobloggreen have the whole press release at their site.

Rock on, Mulally!

Cutting off the GPS monitor

A Florida judge threw out the rape and murder conviction of a man who served more than half his life in prison before DNA testing exonerated him.

“Let me take the opportunity to apologize to you for the criminal justice system of the state of Florida,” Broward County Circuit Judge Thomas M. Lynch IV told Anthony Caravella, 41, who served more than half his life, or nearly 26 years, in prison for a crime DNA tests said he didn’t commit…

Caravella was 15 and had an IQ of 67, well below normal, when he was charged with the Nov. 5, 1983, murder of Ada Cox Jankowski, 58, in Miramar, Fla.

Public defender Diane Cuddihy argued last year new evidence showed police had hit and coerced the mentally challenged teen into confessing, promising a girlfriend would be freed if he helped them…

DNA test results exonerated Caravella Wednesday. County prosecutors asked Lynch Thursday to throw out his conviction and life sentence.

“I waited a very long time for this — it feels good, man,” the Sun-Sentinel quoted Caravella as saying.

Caravella was provisionally released six months ago when early tests seemed to clear him. But he had to wear a GPS monitor and obey a curfew while prosecutors did further forensic testing.

He said Thursday he felt 10 pounds lighter without the GPS device around his ankle.

How many more like him remain in prison – convicted unjustly?

Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Chinese carmaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group has purchased Volvo cars from U.S. auto giant Ford, the Swedish carmaker announced Sunday.

The $1.8 billion deal represents the biggest ever purchase by a Chinese car manufacturer, but it is considerably less than the $6.4 billion Ford paid for Volvo in 1999.

“We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Ford, enabling us to safeguard and strengthen Volvo’s renowned brand heritage,” said Geely chairman Li Shufu.

“Volvo will be a separate company with its own management team based in Gothenburg, Sweden.”

He added Geely will help Volvo to realize its potential in the Chinese market.

“The agreement provides a solid foundation for Volvo to continue to build its business under Geely’s ownership,” said Alan Mulally, Ford’s president and CEO, in a statement on the company’s Web site. “The sale of Volvo will allow us to further sharpen our focus on building the Ford brand around the world and continue to deliver on our One Ford plan serving our customers with the very best cars and trucks in the world.”

Nice PR lingo which – in fact – I expect to continue along in reality. Geely is in the learning stages of becoming an extra-national brand. Ford is in the learning stages of how to be a global brand in the 21st Century.

Japan is well ahead of the rest of the world in mobile phone technology: handsets that can pick up TV channels have been standard for years and in many shops payments can be made by swiping a phone over a sensor.

But the latest craze is ring tones said to be therapeutic.

Across Japan the arrival of spring is bringing out the cherry blossom but it is also making people reach for their handkerchiefs as, at this time of year, hay fever is rife.

A company called the Japan Ringing Tone Laboratory has developed what it claims is a cure.

For relief, sufferers need only wait for a call on their mobile phone. The sound is supposed to dislodge pollen if the user holds the handset up to their nose.

Do they have a version for constipation?

Another of the so-called therapeutic ring tones is for those trying to lose weight.

We have enough eejits in America that this outfit could make a bundle.

Republicans perfected it…

Behold, a new YouTube star rises. There’s nothing terribly new about seeing a teenage girl use YouTube to discuss the world of beauty and fashion. But Blair Fowler, a sixteen-year-old girl whose name seems directly drawn from the pages of Sweet Valley High, has been written up twice this week for her use of video to not only share her favorite fashions, but monetize her YouTube fame with promotional deals.

Fowler was first cited as an example of the teen girl phenomenon of putting your “hauls” (ie — purchases from shopping trips) online, and in fact she is a great point person to consider in the examination of this trend, given her intense yet approachable commentary on what she acquired.

She is reputed to be making over $100K a year already – selling into a demographic wholly composed of 13 to 17-year-old girls. That’s the amount directly dealing with her YouTube videos.

My wife just commented, “Now, we know why we’re climbing out of the recession!”

Live possum – playing possum

Pennsylvania police have charged a man with public drunkenness after reports that he tried to resuscitate a long-dead opossum on a highway.

State police said several witnesses had seen Donald Wolfe, 55, tending to the roadkill about 65 miles north-east of the city of Pittsburgh.

One reported seeing Mr Wolfe kneel before the animal and gesturing as though he were conducting a seance. Another reported seeing him give mouth to mouth resuscitation to the carcass.

State police Trooper Jamie Levier said the animal had been dead a while…

Eeoough!

The captain of a huge “flying” boat that has smashed world records for speed on water now plans to sail round the world in under 40 days.

Frenchman Alain Thebault, skipper of “Hydroptere,” a revolutionary sailing boat that looks more like a plane, says his next project is to circumnavigate the globe in half the time of the Jules Verne novel “Around the World in 80 Days…”

“Hydroptere,” currently the world’s fastest sailing boat, gets its speed from foils, or underwater “wings” that lift the boat and enable it to “fly” several meters above the water. This innovation, which uses principles similar to those of airplanes, avoids drag and allows the 18- by 24-meter boat to achieve previously unimaginable speeds…

“When you sail at very high speeds, around 100 km/hour, the water becomes like a rock,” he said. “So yes, it is dangerous.Sailing at very high speeds is similar to high altitude for alpinists — up there, you have to spend the least time possible.”

Thebault and his team rebuilt “Hydroptere” [after a 2008 crash] and in late 2009 it became the fastest boat on the planet, traveling at over 50 knots over 500 meters and one nautical mile.

Thebault is currently building a larger version of the boat, “Hydroptere Maxi,” to make his attempt at crossing the world in under 40 days…

But before all that, the maverick sailor, who admits this project is both his profession and obsession, has another goal: He will attempt to cross the Pacific in three days in 2011.

Good luck, dude. I’ve had close friends with some experience at high speeds on water and the biggest risk is the one you never see. What may be floating in the water in your path.

The Government Accountability Office Punk’d Energy Star recently by submitting fake products and companies for certification. The Environmental Protection Agency’s arbiters of efficiency standards rubber-stamped 15 out of 20 bogus products and a handful of fake firms became Energy Star Partners. Here are three of our favorite fabrications.

1. Tropical Thunder Appliances

To perform this investigation, the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) March 26, 2010, report states that it “used four bogus manufacturing firms and fictitious individuals to apply for Energy Star partnership…”

Dummy websites emblazoned with Energy Star Partnerships remain online for each of the four front companies—Cool Rapport (HVAC equipment), Futurizon Solar Innovations (lighting), Spartan Digital Electronics, and Tropical Thunder Appliances.

2. The Feather-Duster Fly-Strip Air Freshener

Ostensibly an indoor air purifier, this item is actually a standard space heater spangled in strips of flypaper, with a feather duster perched up top.

The product was submitted without a standard safety file number from the Underwriters’ Laboratories. Plus, the product’s website did not include a disclaimer required for Energy Star certification. Last but not least, the garish photo submitted with the product’s application portrays what is clearly a feather duster rigged to space heater. Nevertheless, these obstacles proved surmountable—the product was approved in 11 days and became listed on the Energy Star website…

3. The Gasoline-Powered Alarm Clock

On the application for Energy Star certification, this product’s description stated that “the item is the size of a small generator and is powered by gasoline.” The GAO never devised an image of this piece of nonexistent indoor power equipment, which would presumably make enough noise to temporarily wake consumers before carbon monoxide fumes sent them back to sleep for good. The dimensions are listed as 18 inches tall, 15 inches wide and 10 inches in depth. “Gas-powered clock radio is sleek, durable, easy on your electric bill, and surprisingly quiet,” the product’s marketing description states.

All were approved!

BTW – I don’t think anyone in our federal government gets to have more fun than GAO investigators.