Thoughts from the Shelf

To date the biggest problem surrounding the development of hydrogen cars is the lack of hydrogen refuelling stations, making it impossible for willing adopters of the technology to make a seamless transition from petrol to hydrogen powered cars.

With only three hydrogen refuelling stations in Britain, the cost of equipping the country with an adequate hydrogen refuelling infrastructure would be billions of pounds.

Traditionally hydrogen has also been ineffective to produce, as well as expensive to transport and produce meaning sceptics have frequently doubted the fuels commercial potential.

ITM Power has attempted to bridge this gap with the development of what it calls the ‘Green Box’, a device the size of a fridge which can installed in a home garage and produce an independent supply of hydrogen.

Where by conventional hydrogen generating machines use expensive materials like platinum to turn water into hydrogen, making the idea of such a device impossible, the ‘Green Box’ has replaced this with a plastic membrane that does the same job at a fraction of the price.

The system works via an electrolyser which produces the gas from water and electricity. An internal combustion generator converts the gas back into electricity to provide power for the home.

It is thought that the device will be able to produce enough hydrogen overnight to provide fuel for 25 miles, and with higher pressure refuelling units in more public places enough hydrogen could be produce for journeys of up to 100 miles.

Although these higher pressure public units are expected to cost up to £20,000, the smaller home unit could cost as little as £2,000, making hydrogen powered car an economically viable option for most.

“Given the pressing need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, especially oil, and to cut CO2 emissions, the future for hydrogen as an alternative means of storing and utilising energy cost-effectively has never been brighter,” – Jim Heathcote, chief executive of ITM.

For existing petrol cars this new hydrogen powered system is also an option, with the addition of three pieces of technology costing around £3,000. These include a hydrogen tank at a cost of around £3000, four hydrogen injectors at £100 each, and a chip to allow the conversion.

News was released today the Sony Playstaion site has fallen victim to hackers who targeted the site in an attempt to engineer credit card number and other personal data from gamers.

The Playstaion site that was hit was in the US, and targeted pages promoting PlayStation games such as SingStar Pop and God of War. The malware attack worked by running a fake antivirus scan on users computers, later prompting them to purchase phoney antivirus software in order to solve the inevitable problem it detected.

Insecurity firm Sophos said that the criminals behind the scam had used an SQL injection vulnerability to add unauthorised code to pages.

Talking of the scope of the attack Graham Cluley, from Sophos stated that “There are millions of video game lovers around the world, many of whom will visit Sony’s PlayStation website regularly to find out more about the latest console games.”

He went on to say that “Most would never expect that surfing a website like this could potentially infect them with Malware…It is essential that all websites, especially high profile ones like this, have been properly hardened to prevent hackers from injecting malicious code into legitimate web pages.”

A favourite on The Shelf, the BBC iPlayer is due for a second generation overhaul, as the service gets a facelift a year after it was launched in beta.

As part of the plans the iPlayer will integrate both radio and video services into a single player, with increased functionality and user friendly interface.

“We’ve learned quite a bit over the last 12 months about what our audience likes… and we’ve continued to innovate quite substantially.” – BBC group controller Erik Huggers

As part of the increased functionality of the player users will be able to resume last played clips (dependent on cookies) allowing them to resume half way through a program they didn’t have time to watch in its entirety on their last visit.

Another feature that will be added to the service is a TV schedule, allowing users to plan which programs they wish to view in advance, ensuring the seven day play back restriction of favourite shows doesn’t expire without first having the chance to watch them.

As well as incorporating radio into the service, 250 new television programs a week will be added to enable access to the entire BBC schedule free of charge.

The service was first launched on Christmas day 2007, and has since changed the viewing habits of millions of people who are now able to catch up on a range of shows broadcast across the BBC digital channel catalogue. In the last six months alone the BBC state that there have been over 100m programme requests.

The service has proven to be the reason for the success of a range of shows, including Gavin and Stacy which receives 7% of its viewing figure through the service, and The Mighty Boosh which receives 40%.

Currently only available through Windows on the PC, there are also plans for a version of the download service for Mac and Linux.

The Shelf reported in April in ISPs vs BBC iPlayer of pressure from ISP put on the BBC to pay for extra bandwidth due to the iPlayer’s unprecedented success, but huggers commented on that recently stating:

“All that has literally gone silent. We are partnering and working very closely with the ISP community.”

The BBC is also part of a joint commercial venture with ITV and Channel 4 called Kangaroo which is due to launch later this year, and there are plans to integrate the iPlayer into that service. – Protest of Kangaroo

With plans to make its 80 year archive accessible to the public, as well as provide an overseas service, it could very well mean there will eventually be a commercial arm to the BBC’s on demand offerings.

News has resurfaced that Sony is planning to release a mobile phone that will incorporate elements of its popular Playstation Portable or PSP. With Sony already lending its name to the Cybershot and Walkman Sony Ericsson mobile it would seem a logical step.

In the mobile market Sony is part of a joint venture with telecommunications giant Ericsson to make mobile phones, and last week launched the motion sensing F305 gaming phone. Motion sensing technology used allows the user of the F305 to play games such as bowling and fishing, imitating the movements required if actually playing the sport.

Although a break through in gaming facilities seem in mobile handsets to date, it had been predicted that the F305 model would include some Playstation branding or a PSP style design. However, leaked information suggests that the Sony isn’t willing to give their converted Playstation branding to a joint venture.

With Sony Ericsson lying a lowly fifth place in the handset market it seems Sony are not wiling to risk their closely guarded PlayStation brand on a joint venture handset quiet yet.

It is rumoured that such decisions has lead to the break down of the Sony Eriksson relationship, and sources have said that relation between the two are frosty.

This further fuels rumours that Sony is in fact working on its own PSP style mobile phone handset which is being tipped for release around Christmas 2009, however contrary to this the joint Sony Ericsson venture has filed a joint patient for a portable mobile communication device that mimics the PSP.

As usual there are no confirmed comments regarding any of the rumours so I guess time will tell.

The internet is set for its biggest shake up in decades if plans to open up the address system are passed by the internets regulators. If plans are passed then the rules on top level domain names such as .com and .co.uk could be relaxed, allowing companies to turn their brands into domain names, whilst at the same time individuals could create their own space on the internet.

A relaxation of the rules could also result in the creation of the .xxx domain to serve adult content, a topic that has been widely discussed for a number of years.

Currently TLDs are restricted to countries such as .uk and institutions such as .net or .org. Because of the current restrictions small countries have often hired their TLD domains out to relevant industries. For example Tuvalu has leased .tv domains to many television firms. The country of Tokelau significantly increased its profile by offering free domain names in return for a served advert, a move which has transformed the communications infrastructure of the island.

Internet regulator ICANN has been has been working towards opening up internet address for years, and if successful new domain name could be internationalised.

ICANN spokesman said of the plans “It’s a massive increase in the geography of the real estate of the internet.”

Hundreds of new domain names could become available by the end of 2008, with thousands more likely to follow.