Virgin

Biofuel takes flight with Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic Airways flew a 747 from London to Amsterdam on Sunday powered in part by a biodiesel made from tropical oils.

The fuel used by the plane is a combination of regular kerosene-based jet fuel and a biodiesel from Imperium Renewables composed of babassu oil and coconut oil. Babassu comes from a tree in Brazil. In fact, 80 percent of the fuel consumed by the plane was kerosene-based. Only 20 percent of the fuel used on the flight came from plant oils. Still, it's a first, says Virgin.

The oils came from existing plantations, Imperium said. No modifications … Read more

Photos: Full speed ahead for SpaceShipTwo

Ready to pony up $200,000 for a ride into space? Virgin Galactic unveiled its final design for SpaceShipTwo, a suborbital spacecraft for private citizens, at an event Wednesday at New York's American Museum of Natural History.

CNET News.com's Caroline McCarthy was on hand to witness Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson and Scaled Composites CEO Burt Rutan show off images and mockups of the spacecraft.

The passenger vehicle will be mounted to WhiteKnightTwo, its "mother ship," which will fly the craft to the upper atmosphere. SpaceShipTwo has a 42-foot wingspan and wide windows so … Read more

Virgin Mobile goes MySQL Enterprise: One innovator chooses another

Richard Branson is one to go against the grain, and usually to good effect. He has built a major business empire by taking chances on innovation.

Small wonder, then, that his company Virgin Mobile has selected MySQL to manage a critical component of its business: SMS messaging. According to MySQL's release on Thursday:

Over 500GB [of SMS data] are contained in MySQL data tables, and subject to thousands of queries per second. This solution handles the processing of Virgin Mobile's SMS messaging--where each individual text message can generate over 100 database queries on average (analysis, processing the response, and annual statistics)....[Using MySQL and LAMP]...ensures the operator a significant return on investment compared with a proprietary system.

Virgin Mobile could have chosen MySQL's Community product for this, but it recognizes that mission-critical applications generally require a real company behind them. Hence, the decision to go with MySQL Enterprise. Evaluating MySQL was free; going into serious production for free would be less intelligent.… Read more

Pre-CES: Virgin America - where else can your seat be rebooted?

On the way to the CES I took Virgin America, the new airline venture from Virgin, and had the bizarre experience of having my seat re-booted, no, not rebooked, but re-booted because the remote control unit for my seat wasn't working.

How apt, I thought, that on the way to the geekiest, techiest place on Earth (at least for the next few days), that the plane carrying me there featured touchscreen entertainment center controls for on-demand food, music videos, tv, and mp3s.

The whole experience was, like most products these days getting our attention, was slick. The plane's … Read more

Spaceport America reports a successful launch

It's a small step for mankind, but a giant step for Spaceport America.

According to a release from the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, UP Aerospace ("Space is 62 miles away, Getting there is just a phone call away") successfully launched a "test flight vehicle" on Wednesday.

The Spaceport, which is near Las Cruces, N.M., is the future home of Virgin Galactic, as well as the XPrize Cup.

UP Aerospace, according to its Web site, is in the business of selling cargo space on launch vehicles.

The release said that the Wednesday launch was private, … Read more

Episode 620: Not safe for trademark

Virgin Mobile unveils Studio V

Virgin Mobile yesterday announced a new feature that lets its subscribers take personalization on their phones to a new level. Studio V will allow users to create their own ringtones and wallpapers in an online community. Virgin Mobile gives you a ringtone mixer to create your work and you'll be able to manipulate photos and graphics to your liking.

The pricing scheme is a little quirky. Though you'll be able to use Studio V for free, you'll have to pay to download your own content to your phone. Wallpapers will be $1.99 each and ringtones are $… Read more

Designing a rocket ride into suborbit

SAN FRANCISCO--Before Virgin Group mogul Richard Branson hired him to design a futuristic tourist rocket ship, Richard Seymour's only experience in the market was dreaming up spacecraft for the movies.

The U.K. industrial designer, for example, conceived of a spacecraft that could send people to the sun in the Fox Searchlight movie Sunshine. That exercise, although not technically possible, taught him to think about how hostile space is for humans, with the capability to "turn you into face cream," Seymour said.

"We were thrilled when Virgin Galactic came to us," he said here Thursday … Read more

Kyocera and Virgin Mobile deal out a Wild Card

Virgin Mobile has been selling the Kyocera Wild Card since October 7, but it's finally making the phone available to its retail partners like Best Buy, Target, and RadioShack.

Also known as the Kyocera M1000, the Wild Card is exactly the same as Cricket's Lingo except for a few services that only Virgin Mobile offers.… Read more

Suit exposes flaws in Creative Commons

When Creative Commons first surfaced, it was heralded as a means to share media without being ensnared by the complications accompanying traditional copyright.

With six different licenses available, media creators were provided the opportunity to dial in the exact rights they wanted. Or at least that was the plan.

In reality, this bevy of choices has led to significant confusion and as CNN reports, 16 year-old Alison Chang recently learned her picture is being used for a Virgin Mobile ad campaign in Australia. She didn't give her permission, and it appears that the ads exploit confusion around Creative Commons.