Video ad winner does Linux no favor

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and when the Linux Foundation announced a contest to produce a TV advertisement for Linux they meant well. It's just a shame the results don't end up doing Linux any favors. At all.

The problem with asking amateur film makers to make ads is that you get amateur results, unfortunately. And so, like watching your father dance at a wedding, it just ends up being embarrassing. Leaving aside the number of entrants who were so enthusiastic about the competition that they forgot the rule limiting the videos to 60 seconds, you have to wonder how some of the entries are meant to persuade people to use Linux.

Manchester waste deal

Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA) has signed a 25-year £3.8bn waste and recycling contract with Viridor Laing that will trigger a £640m construction programme, creating a network of recycling facilities over the next five years.

These will include abiological treatment plant with anaerobic digestion, a materials recovery facility and a combined heat and power plant.

Greater Manchester's network of 25 household waste recycling centres will also be upgraded.

MRI pressure

A pressure group that goes by the name of the MRI Alliance is demanding that the European Commission amends the Physical Agents (EMF) Directive, which, if adopted into national legislation, would drastically curtail the use of MRI scanners in hospitals.

The EMF Directive, adopted by the European Union (EU) in 2004, and due to come into force on national statute books in 2012, contains limits to occupational exposure of electromagnetic fields.The Directive was originally set to become law in 2008, but this was postponed due to pressure from the MRI community.

Equity investment

Private-equity investment in the UK reached just £2bn in the first quarter of 2009, according to the Centre for Management Buy-out Research (CMBOR) at Nottingham University, with two thirds of this total from just one deal.

This compares to £1.3bn in the fourth quarter of 2008 - the lowest quarter for more than 13 years.

CMBOR, a provider of research and analysis on the private-equity market, sponsored by Barclays Private Equity, also reported that deal numbers declined to just 61 in the first quarter, from 92 in the fourth quarter and 152 in the same period in 2008.

Administration file

Visteon UK has filed for administration with the UK High Court under the insolvency act and has been placed under the control of administrators from KPMG.

The UK business has not been profitable since its incorporation in 2000 andits reported losses since total £669m. Various restructures were attempted but none were successful.

Visteon UK includes plants in Basildon, Belfast and Enfield. Employing approximately 600 people, the plants manufacture automotive interiors, climate and powertrain components.

Energy reduction

A Hertfordshire-based company has developed a drying system that could save millions of pounds in energy costs.

Elstree-based Secomak linked up with engineers at Hertfordshire University to devise the Powerstrip system, which can dry a range of products, including bottles, cans, jars, fruit, vegetable and consumer goods.

The aim of the collaboration is to achieve a big reduction in energy consumption without compromising performance.

Palladium power

Two Brown University chemists have created a meansof producing palladium nanoparticles that could prove useful to developers of fuel cells.

The scientists produced the palladium nanoparticles with about 40 per cent greater active surface area than commercially available palladium particles, and the nanoparticles remained intact four times longer.

Palladium is far cheaper than another popular fuel cell catalyst, platinum, and it is also more abundant.

Knee indicator

Cardiff University spin-out Demasqrecently revealed details of its novel bone and soft-tissue medical-imaging software, which aims to provide doctors with more detailed images of the knee than conventional technology.

Theso-called Degenerative Knee Indicator (DKI) software will be launchedin the UK and the US this year. In parallel, Demasq is generating additional products for a range of other imaging applications.

Demasq, the company, was established through a partnershipbetween university IP commercialisation companyBiofusion and Cardiff University andits products are based on the workof Prof Hechmi Toumi, a specialist at the muscle-bone-tendon unit of the university's School of Biosciences.

Apps to dominate CTIA Wireless 2009

We've barely unpacked our bags from GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, and we're on the road again to Las Vegas for CTIA Wireless, the U.S. tradeshow and conference held every spring where the biggest and most influential players in the U.S. mobile market gather.

Conficker tracking - all's quiet, so far

April 1, 6:35 a.m. PDT: McAfee says its Avert Labs is seeing Conficker-infected hosts attempting to call their "master" to get instructions, but those calls are not getting through. "This could be deliberate and the infected hosts may try again later, perhaps over the weekend when people aren't watching as closely," McAfee spokesman Joris Evers says. Hear more on this podcast. And for more technical details on what the worm is doing, McAfee Avert Labs has an updated blog posting.