Day after patch, Java zero-day sold to highest bidders

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With exploit sold for $5,000 via cybercrime forum, experts double down on calls for consumers to uninstall the software

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

“Java is fundamentally broken because it is built upon a broken promise: That it runs in a protected sandbox which somehow protects the user,” Krebs told CSO Online on Wednesday.

Sunday’s patch was an effort to quiet a firestorm of criticism and calls not only from a majority of security experts but even the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for consumers to disable Java on their PCs.

This latest report intensified some of those calls, but also a bit of pushback, although not in the form of any major defense of Oracle. Simon Crosby, […] banning or disabling Java would not solve the problem. “Humans develop buggy code — […] they can all be subverted,” he wrote. “Moreover, many users (and businesses) depend on Java … banning it would severely impact my ability to work.”

Crosby wrote that “micro-virtualization” can solve the problem with Java and other insecure applications with “hardware isolation to enforce ‘need to know’ on a per-task basis on the endpoint.”

See on www.networkworld.com

Power Engineers, Smart Grid Techies: In Demand Now

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At  several professional meetings over the past year a common theme emerges at some point. Electrical/power engineers are aging and the academic programs have been seeing a decline in enrollment.  …

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

For years this grid remained basically the same. The growth in power plants and transmission lines was steady and the educational system generating engineers maintained the same steady pace. But just as our electrical grid has aged so has the work force that runs and maintains it. And just as everything is aging new demands and new technologies are changing the face of power. The rate and type of growth – of new power sources, increased rate of transmission and now even types of transmission are out pacing the grid workforce.

 

So what does this mean? It means at just the time when new interest and new opportunities are arising, we are seeing a decline in the number of professors for power engineering (they do have to retire) and that maybe new professors prepared to instruct on the old and the new technologies have not been developed at the rates they should have.

See on blog.climateandenergy.org

Renewables Move up the Rankin’s

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Renewables Move up the Rankin’s.

Energy Efficiency in Data Centres to Lower Costs and Benefit the Environment

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LONDON, Jan. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — The data centre market is growing at an extremely high rate and its boom…

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

“Data centre managers are under constant pressure to lower the TCO [Total Cost of Ownership] and energy is one of the main components of the overall data centre operation cost.  […]

Data centres are classified as mission critical facilities and any down time will result in a significant financial loss. In order to ensure highest availability, data centre managers employ high powered UPS systems. These UPS systems consume about 7% of the total energy.   […]

See on www.prnewswire.com

5 Biofuel Trends to Watch Out for in 2013

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2012 saw the introduction of next generation, advanced biorefineries. Here we look at the trends that will hit the biofuel market in 2013, including; Green Diesel, Decline of Oil,

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

The Retreat of Oil Majors

Trend: Oil Majors double down on “Golden Age of Gas” while narrowing investments across the advanced biofuel space.

An early strategic investor in the advanced biofuels industry, global oil majors have begun trimming excess fat from their biofuel investment portfolios over the past couple of years. BP, a leading investor in the biofuels industry, pulled out of its commercial Highlands Park project in Florida in October 2012 to refocus on R&D efforts. Shell, meanwhile, has dropped a number of investments across the advanced biofuels landscape, concentrating its commercialization efforts on its Raizen joint venture with Cosan in Brazil.

See on oilprice.com

Lower nitrogen losses with perennial biofuel crops

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Perennial biofuel crops such as miscanthus, whose high yields have led them to be considered an eventual alternative to corn in producing ethanol, are now shown to have another beneficial characteristic — the ability to reduce the escape of…

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

In the study, funded by the Energy Biosciences Institute, miscanthus, switchgrass, and mixed prairie species were compared against a typical corn-corn-soybean rotation. Harvested biomass and nitrogen, nitrous oxide emissions, and nitrate leaching in the mid-soil profile and through tile drainage lines were all measured.

The researchers found that the perennial crops quickly reduced nitrate leaching in the mid-soil profile as well as from tile lines. “By year four each of the perennial crops had small losses,” Smith said. “Nitrous oxide emissions also were much smaller in the perennial crops–including switchgrass, which was fertilized with nitrogen, while prairie and miscanthus were not. Overall, nitrogen levels were higher for the corn and soybean treatment as well as switchgrass, but were lower for prairie and miscanthus. Prairie and miscanthus levels were lower due to harvest of the plant biomass (and nitrogen) each winter, with no fertilizer nitrogen additions to replace it, as occurred in corn and switchgrass,” she said.

See on www.sciencedaily.com

Why Frack When You Can Grow Biofuel? USDA Has $25 Million In Answers

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture has just embarked on a new round of $25 million in funding for four new biofuel research and development projects, offering farmers and other rural property owners the potential for new alternatives to selling or…

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

One of USDA’s new projects addresses this approach through a new cropping system, in which the weedy biofuel plant camelina will be rotated with wheat-based plants. The $5 million project, through Kansas State University, will study the commercial feasibility of converting camelina to biobased adhesives and coatings as well as biofuel.

Another $6.5 million will go to Ohio State University to demonstrate an innovative anaerobic digestion system (anaerobic refers to bacteria that thrive without oxygen) that can handle multiple feedstocks. The new system will use natural decomposition to break down manure, agricultural waste, woody biomass and biofuel crops.

There is no such thing as impact-free energy production, but all of these biofuel projects are designed to fit sustainably into the core business of the farmer, which all boils down to long term land stewardship.

See on cleantechnica.com

IRENA: Fossil fuel subsidies cause everlasting expenses and pollution

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Abu Dhabi: Decreasing costs of renewable energy sources may convince the world governments to minimise subsidies on polluting fossil fuels, a senior official of International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) said here on Sunday.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

World governments were ignoring the fact that although renewable energy sources require big initial investments, their long-term operational and maintenance costs are minimal, he [Frank Wouters, Deputy Director General of Irena] pointed out.

Effective policies are more important than subsidies for countries to scale up renewable energy on a large scale, experts participating in the assembly also pointed out.

Anywhere in the world, investment in renewable power generation depends on stable regulatory frameworks, transparent planning processes and clear procedures for connection to the grid, said the participants at a workshop as part of the assembly.

See on gulfnews.com

Western Wind Energy | Western Wind Energy Corp. – Update on process with Brookfield

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TSX.V Symbol: “WND”
OTCQX Symbol: “WNDEF”
Issued and Outstanding: 69,820,125

VANCOUVER, Jan. 14, 2013 /CNW/ – Western Wind Energy Corp. – (the “Company” or “Western Wind”) (TSX Venture Exchange – “WND”) (OTCQX – “WNDEF”) wishes to announce an update to its efforts with both Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners L.P. (“Brookfield”) and Western Wind’s sales process.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

ABOUT WESTERN WIND ENERGY CORP.

Western Wind is an independent vertically integrated renewable energy production company that owns and operates wind and solar generation facilities with 165 net MW of rated capacity operating in the States of California and Arizona.  Western Wind further owns substantial development assets for both solar and wind energy in the U.S. The Company is headquartered in Vancouver, BC and has branch offices in Scottsdale, Arizona and Tehachapi, California.  Western Wind trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol “WND”, and in the United States on the OTCQX under the symbol “WNDEF”.

Western Wind owns and operates three wind energy generation facilities in California, and one fully integrated combined wind and solar energy generation facility in Arizona.  The three operating wind generation facilities in California are comprised of the 120MW Windstar, the 4.5MW Windridge, both in Tehachapi, and the 30MW Mesa facility near Palm Springs.  The facility in Arizona is the Company’s 10.5MW Kingman integrated solar and wind facility.  The Company is further developing wind and solar energy projects in California, Arizona, and Puerto Rico.

Disclaimer:  This memo is not an offering or endorsement and any actions made by others based upon the information contained herein are wholly their own.  No Liability will be assumed by the author.

See on www.newswire.ca

www.esi-africa.com | Funding for renewable energy projects in Africa and Asia

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14 January 2013 – The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) will fund 28 new projects that aim to scale up renewable energy and energy efficient solutions in key emerging markets and in selected developing countries in Africa and Asia.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

“The nexus between clean energy, food production and water provision is one of the exciting new areas we are looking at,” Eva Oberender, REEEP’s programme director, says. “This includes developing solar-powered cold-storage for fishing communities in Indonesia, solar-powered pumps for irrigation in Kenya and Burkina Faso, and improvements in energy efficiency in Chinese agriculture.”

 

Several of the 28 selected projects replicate or scale up successful initiatives previously funded by REEEP.

See on www.esi-africa.com