Once you attain a certain stature in life, there are two things that no longer make sense—cheap liquor and expensive gas stations.

So there’s obvious appeal to the idea that you could turn cheap liquor into cheap gas in the time it takes you to down an ice-cold martini (made with the good stuff). Say hello to your new personal gas pump, the EFuel100 MicroFueler.

Rather than waiting in line on a smoggy street corner for the privilege of being gouged mercilessly, roll right up to the EFuel100 residing in your driveway (or garage, or basically anywhere with a power outlet and a water hookup) to fill any gas-burning auto with your homemade batch of ethanol. Just pour in the mix of sugar feedstock and yeast—or the residual gin from your Bootlegger’s Ball ‘05 gathering—and after a few days, fill ‘er up. The MicroFueler makes 35 gallons a week, each gallon costs you about $1, and your car will actually enjoy a little more power (which is why IndyCar racers use ethanol).

Sure, you can brag about the purported environmental benefits of your newfound gasoline independence, but there’s also a certain satisfaction in using that gas money you saved somewhere else.

Like the bar.

EFuel100 MicroFueler, $9,995, now available for pre-order online

Microsoft To Rip Off Wii Remote By End Of Year, Says Source

The Xbox 360 may be getting its own take on the Wii remote later this year, reports MTV News, with Microsoft said to have been knee deep in “X-remote” development since Summer of 2007. MTV cites an anonymous developer who alleges that a motion-sensitive controller is being developed alongside a Mii-like avatar system with the input of developer Rare, who is said to be late on delivering a “unified interface and look for the controller.”

“The unnamed source provided MTV with a sketch, which our hasty mock up to the left is based on and explains the copious amount of holes.

If true, it reminds us of that other Rare project said to be in the works, the Xbox Live Arcade title with Vision cam support.

You may remember the rumor regarding Rare’s The Fast and the Furriest based on internal docs delivered to Xbox 360 Fanboy. Those plans indicated that Rare was hard at work on a “wand type” interface with motion control and a furry outfit avatar system. Yes, it does sound like the stuff of nightmares.

Speaking of nightmares, MTV’s source calls the project “a colossal clusterf***” which should certainly inspire confidence. There’s even talk of waggle-formed games for the hardcore.

The best part? Rumored marketing materials that illustrate “how easy it would be for third parties to port their Wii games to the 360.” We’re not making this up!

Even more details on the exasperating copycatting await you at the original MTV News report. Consider it rumor for now, but given the extensive talk about Microsoft looking to shoehorn in Wii-like features, don’t be surprised if such a thing pops up at the company’s E3 press conference.”

Related Article:  Superfast Internet Replacement Grid

“The internet could grind to a halt within two years under the pressure of booming demand for online video, experts have warned.

Soaring visitor numbers to video websites such as YouTube and the BBC’s iPlayer are putting the copper wires, which underpin parts of the internet, under severe strain.

Experts warn that unless billions of pounds is spent on upgrading the web’s infrastructure, it could slow down or even collapse. An internet meltdown would have a disastrous impact on the economy.

Larry Irving, co-chairman of the Internet Innovation Alliance, an American industry group lobbying for universal improvements in the web’s network, said: “Our streets in cities like London or New York were designed for a certain amount of traffic.

“There are times of the day when you can get around and times when there is congestion.

“London does not shut down, it carries on, but everything slows down. The internet is something like that.”

Sections of the internet are supported by copper wires that were only intended to carry voice calls. Irving said the surge in transfers of video-related data means the risk of these wires becoming overloaded is real.

He warned that internet traffic in America was increasing at more than 50 per cent a year, while capacity was growing at only about 40 per cent. Britain is suffering a similar shortfall.

In Britain, demand for video websites has spiralled in the past 12 months. Online monitors Hitwise recorded a 178 per cent increase in visitors to video websites. Last year it was said that YouTube consumed as much capacity as the entire internet took up in 2000.

Bill Thompson, visiting lecturer at City University, London, said: “I think we’re in trouble. If you’ve got kids on YouTube and parents on iPlayer and other things going on, it all starts to go very slow.”

Consumers sharing video content, as well as downloading it, add to the drain.

Internet providers are being urged to spend billions of pounds to replace the copper wires which provide the final web link to homes with high-speed fibre optics.

Telecoms giant BT has a £10?billion upgrade plan which it will launch at the end of the month, but there are fears it will not cope with demand.

Anthony Walker, chief executive of Britain’s Broadband Stakeholder Group, said: “There are big investment challenges ahead. Replacing copper with fibre optic, taking it closer to the consumer, we’re talking about billions of pounds over almost a decade.”

This is already fantastically tantalizing…

“Scientists in Switzerland have developed a lightning-fast replacement to the internet that would allow feature films and music catalogues to be downloaded within seconds. The invention could signal the end of the dreaded ‘frozen screen’, when computers seize up after being asked to process too much information.

The latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the internet, the grid could also provide the power needed to send sophisticated images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call. David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the grid project, believes grid technology could change society. He said: “With this kind of computing power, future generations will have the ability to collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine.”

The power of the grid will be unlocked this summer with the switching on of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a new particle accelerator designed to investigate how the universe began.The grid will be turned on at the same time to store the information it generates, after scientists at Cern, based near Geneva, realised the internet would not have the capacity to capture such huge volumes of data.

The grid has been built with fibre optic cables and modern routing centres, meaning there are no outdated components to slow the deluge of data, unlike the internet. There are 55,000 grid servers already installed, a figure which is expected to rise to 200,000 within the next two years.

Professor Tony Doyle, technical director of the grid project, said: “We need so much processing power, there would even be an issue about getting enough electricity to run the computers if they were all at Cern. “The only answer was a new network powerful enough to send the data instantly to research centres in other countries.” Britain has 8,000 servers on the grid system, meaning access could be available to universities as early as this autumn.”

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The Speach Staff.

Okay, you’ve been making MP3 collections for a while now.

Now, Muxtape and Mixwit offer users the ability to make digital mix-tapes. There is a difference between the two. Muxtape is a less-developed site depending on its users for uploading and creating. Mixwit goes a bit further. It allows users to search, relying on SeeqPod and Skreemr to put together digital mix-tapes for friends, family and crushes.

Here’s the catch. As Daniel Terdiman writes on news.com, “Rafe Needleman and Josh Lowensohn have noted, Muxtape appears to be a legal time bomb, merely awaiting the wrath of the Recording Industry Association of America, while Mixwit seems to exist on firmer legal footing.”