Specifically, Apple may have wanted a "private license" from Sun Microsystems, and Sun simply did not want to play ball. Neither side could agree on suitable terms, so support was removed. [OpenSolaris Mailing List via Daring Fireball]

A message on MacOS Forge tersely states,

The ZFS project has been discontinued. The mailing list and repository will also be removed shortly.

There have been multiple explanations as to why Apple dropped ZFS support in Snow Leopard, and now there's more speculation to add into the mix. This time the story goes that when Oracle bought Sun, Oracle didn't want continue development on ZFS because they already had their own filesystem (BTRFS) in the oven.

ZFS was also apparently facing patent suits at the time. It all sounds like a complicated legal and political mess, which is probably why Apple just dropped it.

Whatever the true causes behind ZFS' sudden fall from grace may be, it's disappointing that we'll have to wait longer for a true filesystem upgrade in OS X. [AppleInsider]

Robin Harris, who has worked in the data storage field for as long as I've been alive, is discussing the mysterious absence of ZFS in Mac OS 10.6 over at his blog StorageMojo. He reconsiders his original stance, that there were migration or integration timeline issues, in favor of it being a battle between licensing preferences.

Harris speculates that Sun Microsystems, the folks behind ZFS, may have pushed for a Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) and patent indemnification which turned Apple off the deal. Harris emphasizes that the incompatibility between CDDL and GPL was one of the issues for Apple, but certainly not the only one. (How could it be when there are CDDL elements such as DTrace in Snow Leopard already?)

Patent indemnification could play a larger role as the manner in which Sun might waive patent claims against Apple for the use of ZFS wouldn't actually truly protect Apple from third-party claims, but that too is speculation.

What we do know is that Apple promised us ZFS a year ago and didn't put out this month. Be it a lovers' spat with Sun, licensing issues, or a larger legal picture, we're still optimistic that we'll see ZFS down the road, particularly with the changes going on as part of Sun being taken over by Oracle.

Check out Harris' thoughts and tell us yours. Why did Apple go back on something they were so proud to announce? And when will this broken promise be made up to us? [Storage mojo]

After 18 years of operation, NASA has switched off Ulysses, the space probe designed to study the properties of solar wind, the heliosphere magnetic field, and the solar radio bursts that can greatly affect our gadgets, telecommunications, and every electronic system here on planet Earth. It was the first object to see and study our Sun's poles.

But Ulysses it's not dead yet, at least in spirit. If it gets lucky, it may depart to reach other stars: According to NASA, if it gets close enough to a Jovian moon, Ulysses will jump into a new course that will lead the brave probe into deep space. That certainly would be the perfect destination for a spacecraft that has provided with such an amazing amount of data about our home star. So long, Ulysses, and please say hello to Aphrodite if you see her riding her crimson shell. [NASA]

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Sounds a bit weird and anti-green, but for some reason now you can charge its 4,000 mAh battery using a USB adapter or a car cigarette lighter. Why would you like to do a single charge with an external power source when you can just leave it by the window to have it fully charged is beyond me.

According to the company, one hour of sun and wind will provide you with 30 minutes of talk time in a cellphone. Fully charged, the K3 can load the battery cells for an average mobile phone five times, or an MP3 player more than ten times.

At $100 it is a bit on the expensive, but if their specs are correct, it looks pretty useful for emergencies. [CNET]

Each container packs in 60 of the company's Sun Fire X4500 Open Storage Systems and is constantly monitored for potential threats. It's actually a pretty elegant, modular solution to an archive that grows by nearly 100TBs every month. So rest assured folks, your precious GeoCities page from the 90's is safe and secure. [Sun via GigaOM via Slashgear]

The “Self-Energy Converting Sunglasses” concept uses a dye solar cell combined with unspecified nanotech to generate electricity while, presumably, still allowing you to see. The electricity passes through the frames to a port in the back of the glasses. Then a cord runs down your neck to your gadget of choice.

Hopefully by the time someone creates a working production model, we'll be beyond such desperate attempts to charge our portable technology. Or maybe the glasses will at least hide a halfway decent HUD inside. [Yanko]

Palmer, who touched down at UN climate change talks in Poznan, Poland, said the feat proved that solar power was a viable alternative to carbon-based fuel sources. Though to do what Palmer did, you'd need to drive a tiny three-wheeler tugging along a solar array almost as big as the car itself.

While the car probably needs a major redesign (and perhaps some more solar panel breakthroughs) to even inch close to becoming a regular on highways, it did disclose some promising technology. The car reached 55mph speeds and could travel for 300km on a single charge. Through the 17 months on almost non-stop driving, it only broke down twice.

Though this car's adventure is over, Palmer's not ready to give up eco-driving yet. He's planning a trip with six vehicles around the world in 80 days (ha!) that would draw power from hydro, geothermal and wind energy. [BBC]

I knew girls who apply stickers while tanning to get temporal sun tattoos, but I never heard of this technique to do the same thing with fruits. As much as I like Apple and apples, though, I prefer them on suntanning girls. [Nobon via Cult of Mac]

A solar furnace is a mirror structure used to concentrate sun rays into a small area called the focal point. As you can expect, the concentrated rays produce extremely high temperatures: At the focal point, solar furnaces can achieve temperatures of 5,430 ºF (3,000 ºC). The idea is not new—coming from ancient Greece—but their potential is starting to become more relevant now as we try to cut dependency on fossil fuels.

While this furnace is not as big as the largest solar furnace in the world at Odeillo, in the French Pyrenees, it's capable of achieving 4,352 ºF (2,400 ºC)—which, as you can see, it's enough to melt steel in a few seconds and almost disintegrate hot dogs. [Dark Roasted Blend]

Obviously, it's not a spaceport like Mos Eisley, even while it looks like it. But you can call it a "starport" or "skyport" because it has been designed to capture astronomical events from the rooms—called "skyspaces"—inside the volcano. Turrell, an artist expert in optics and perceptual psychology, has spent the last 30 years creating it, removing tons of land and pouring in tons of concrete and steel to make it happen. His Roden Crater light temple is going to be the pinnacle of his work.

A skyspace is a structure that has an opening in the ceiling at calculated angles. At certain times during the day, and sometimes while combined with other kind of lighting, a skypace gives the viewer the sensation of floating in midair. The rooms in the Roden Crater have been carefully designed by Turrell to provide with this sensation, while offering unique vantage points to different astronomical events that happen during the year.

So in a way, this is a spaceport, although not for alien ships to land or take off, but for people to enjoy the wonders of light and the Universe around us.

The light chambers are accessible through a 854-foot tunnel from the side of the volcano, as well as from an entrance on the top, which opens the way to a hall which actually look like the interior of an spacecraft.

Looks like it's time to prepare a trippin' trip for 2012. [Deputy-Dog]

The shape also offers less wind resistance than conventional flat panels, making them cheaper and easier to mount on roofs. These advantages ultimately reduce the cost of generating power from the sun, though Solyndra couldn't give a direct answer on how much.

Considering that everyone, from Google to the Vatican, is installing a solar roof these days, Solyndra's innovations could mean a serious boost for the industry. But what's with not actually giving figures? That seems a little... shady. [Technology Review via Dvice]

The Solar Taxi gets its juice from a $5,000 solar panel trailer provided by German company Q-Cells. Weather permitting, the trailer provides the Taxi with 60 miles of oompf. Longer runs are powered by a pair of $15,000 250-lb. recyclable batteries from Zebra Battery. They store energy from the sun and from whatever electrical socket Palmer can find at night (it's just like searching for a socket at a conference, but bigger, and people will still manage to trip awkwardly over the cord).

Altogether, Palmer said the rig gets about a 200 mile range between charges. As of this weekend, Palmer and his crew had traveled 27,000 miles across 28 countries, so that's a lot of stop and go driving—or is that charging?

The trip is scheduled to conclude in December, but Palmer won't be finished just yet. He's also in the middle of planning an 80-day solar powered race around the world for sometime in 2009. [ABC News]