In a major triumph for alternative energy researchers and enthusiasts, an experimental, solar-powered plane Thursday successfully completed a 26-hour flight powered by 12,000 solar cells and sunlight-powered lithium batteries.

For many in IT, 2009 was a nuclear winter, with resources stripped away as companies struggled to survive. Yet many were tasked with using IT to increase the company's efficiency, enter the few new growth markets, or fix a fundamental problem that threatened the company's ability to stay in business.

Thursday was a big day for Google as it unveiled an aggressive new platform called Google TV in partnership with Sony, Intel, and Logitech that is meant to merge the Web with your living room television.

It's about to get a lot harder for televisions to earn that familiar Energy Star logo. On May 1, the new Energy Star 4.0 standard for televisions, published last September, becomes effective. The maximum amount of power an Energy Star TV can consume will drop by about 40 percent.