‘Miraculous’ Aeros airship set to fly by 2013, thanks to DOD funding

Are you nostalgic for a time when the word “zeppelin” stood for leisurely intercontinental travel for the rich and famous, rather than bass-heavy portable sound and MotoBlur phones? Take heart, as Ukrainian entrepreneur Igor Pasternak claims to have solved the “buoyancy problem” that has long limited the usefulness of airships. The problem is that burning fuel or dropping cargo lightens the ship, which then needs to vent costly helium to return to earth; without a way to control buoyancy, take-offs and landings become complicated to the point of uselessness. Pasternak claims to have solved this sticking point by compressing the pricey gas, thereby conserving it for later use. The Defense Department (which loves its warblimps) has contracted his company, Aeros, to provide a working demonstration by 2012-13. Dubbed Pelican, it will only fly without a payload at first — but if the technology proves feasible, we might just see a new Era of Airships.

‘Miraculous’ Aeros airship set to fly by 2013, thanks to DOD funding originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 May 2011 05:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The PSN Outage Should Last Until May 31st


Sony is performing the old salt-in-the-wound trick by informing Bloomberg that the PSN/Quoricity outage should last another 22 days with an expected return date of May 31. This came from an interview with a Sony spokesman in a Bloomberg interview. Security is the key here. Sony is adopting new techniques and practices to beef up its online services and apparently that takes some time.

Luckily online gaming was never a core tenet of the Playstation Network or people would be really upset. In related news, co-op mode on Portal 2 is really cool.

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The PSN Outage Should Last Until May 31st

Ownership of TV Sets Falls in U.S.

The percentage of households in the United States that have TVs dropped from 98.9% to 96.7%. Why would you think that happened? Where I live, high-speed internet access costs $40 a month, whereas a decent slate of TV channels on cable costs $70. If you own a computer, the choice is a no-brainer. According to the New York Times:

There are two reasons for the decline, according to Nielsen. One is poverty: some low-income households no longer own TV sets, most likely because they cannot afford new digital sets and antennas.

The other is technological wizardry: young people who have grown up with laptops in their hands instead of remote controls are opting not to buy TV sets when they graduate from college or enter the work force, at least not at first. Instead, they are subsisting on a diet of television shows and movies from the Internet.

I had forgotten that there are places in which people can pick up several TV channels by using just an antenna. If I lived alone, I would give up TV entirely because I don’t have time to watch it. Link -via TYWKIWDBI

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Ownership of TV Sets Falls in U.S.

Worried about data caps? Here’s how to check your usage



Bandwidth caps are all the rage these days, in North America and around the world. We’re talking about the notorious ceilings on how much broadband data you can use before your ISP starts charging you extra, or slowing down your connection, or shaping your traffic use (eg, blocking your access to certain applications).

AT&T's shiny new caps started on May 2: 150GB a month for DSL and 250GB for UVerse. AT&T customers will get a $10 charge if they cross the line, with that ding repeated for every 50GB thereafter. Comcast set a 250GB cap in 2008. Canadian ISPs have had them for a while, too.

Ars readers sometimes write in asking us how they can monitor their bandwidth use to avoid extra charges. Here are some links and pictures from major ISPs, which are broadly representative of the tools used by most Internet providers.

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Worried about data caps? Here’s how to check your usage