Feel like your band is too good for the street corner, but not quite ready to hit the studio on your own? Well, the world wide web combines reality and fantasy once more. SellaBand is bridging the gap between starving artist and up-and-coming star by facilitating piecemeal purchases of bands by the internet community.

Not so unlike the soccer team that recently sold 26,000 person ownership, essentially each participating band on SellaBand has their forthcoming CD broken up into 5,000 parts, priced at $10 each. Once the artist hits that magic number of $50,000, they get their pick of the high powered industry producers and studios the website has on consultancy. All money is held is escrow until the goal is hit to assure the process is legit.

13 artists/groups have thus far achieved the full monetary goal, and three tracks from their respective CDs are available as free downloads. The other tracks are to be sold for $.50 each, the profits of which are to be split evenly between the CD sponsors, the artist, and (of course) SellaBand.

Based in Germany and only incorporated in 2006, the site has gained some decent popularity quickly, especially now that the music industry crisis has been brought to the forefront of debate. Between last.fm and Yahoo! both planning to offer full track listening, and Radiohead’s business model-shattering internet distribution, now may be just the time for a delicate balance like SellaBand with a Web 2.0 community twist.

So whether you’re a struggling musician or just always wanted to say you were “with the band,” here’s your chance to buy a piece of the Music 2.0 pie.

If you take a trip to Disney World you might be lucky enough to test a new device that promises to streamline your experience. The “Disney Magic Connection” is a wireless device that plans on radically changing the way you experience the magic. It runs on a Nintendo DS and has the ability to:

• Give current wait times for attractions
• Let you know whether FastPasses are left for that particular attraction
• And when those FastPasses will become available
• Show schedules
• Parade routes
• Interactive maps which reveal the location of rides, shows and attractions, restaurants, character appearances, restrooms, etc.
• It will know which ride you are waiting for and display interactive trivia based on that information to pass the time

I’m what you might call a Disney fanatic. When I heard this announcement I was both intrigued and disappointed. The theme parks are a multi-layered environment. They offer so much detail that even as a Disney fan, I still find new cracks and crevices unexplored on each visit.

It’s exciting that families will be able to share a streamlined “in-the-know” experience. On short trips where you might not have the time to plan out an 8-hour day with tired children, you’ll still have the ability to see a lot. That includes character visits, attractions and activities that you might have overlooked by planning ahead on a generic website.

At the same time it’s disappointing because it separates park goers into two groups, those who can afford the device and those who can not. It also has the ability to trivialize the experience by making a job out of the visit. Unless it’s designed with the parks atmosphere in mind, I fear that some guests may constantly be looking down into the screen rather than at the meticulous detail that the parks are known for.

Either way, it should be available for the general public by April of 2009. Chalk up another one to the Imagineers for continuously innovating the theme park experience.

Who likes paying $3 a gallon? Answer: no one. Least of all the producers of the new Extreme Hybrid SUV, AFS Trinity. They’ve set out to create a hybrid that will go up to 150 miles per gallon. Surprisingly the road hasn’t had too many bumps.

Hybrids today use the electric portion of the car at low speeds and as the car accelerates the internal combustion engine kicks in. This system goes a completely diffrent route. It runs completely on batteries for the first 40 miles and then allows the engine to kick in after they are drained. Rationale is that the average American drives about that distance to work and back. So why pay at the pump when electricity gets you there smoothly without even using gas?

Long distances on pure electric comes with a price: a full electric motor alongside a full-size gasoline engine. To conquer the obstacle they installed a a 200-horsepower G.M. VueGreen Line motor in the bottom rear of the vehicle. Drivetrain is then run by a belt to propel the front wheels while the custom AFS Trinity motor propels the rear.

Another key difference from regular hybrids is the addition of ultracapacitors. When you press on a normal hybrid’s brakes it converts that energy into a current that recharges the battery. More than half of the energy produced is wasted with this method. Ultracapacitors promise to significantly increase the efficiency of regenerative braking while maintaining the same amount of space taken up by current day lithium ion batteries.

Their working prototype will be shown at the North American International Auto Show this coming Sunday in Detroit. Personally I can’t wait for an innovation like this to hit the showroom floor at an affordable price. Lucky for me, that wait may soon be over.

It takes a lot of energy to keep the human body warm. So why not harness that power? The Berkeley Lab at UC Berkeley plans to lace silicon nanowires into a power-jacket. The excess heat from the human body would be used to recharge portable electronic devices, such as cell-phones, PSP’s and laptops.

The process being developed is called “electroless etching,” where rough silicon nanowires are synthesized with silver ions on a flat wafer surface. These wafers would be woven into coats and the excess warmth given off by the body would be transformed into energy.

Thermoelectric materials have been around for a long time. Scientists are just beginning to find a way to make them efficient enough to prove practical. That’s because silicon is a poor conductor of heat at room temperature. The lab has found a solution, reduce the size of the nanowires and combine a flat surface with a heat conducting material.

Don’t expect to pick up this coat next week. The lab still needs to find industrial partners to put all this research to use in the commercial world. With a little luck, we might just have a solution for keeping all of our gadgets at full power, even on the go.

I know what you’re thinking, all this online Web 2.0 malarkey was great when it was connecting you with old girlfriends on MySpace, but what has it done for you lately? Just remember, Internet or no Internet, strength is in numbers.

A fan base with an interest in a minor-league soccer team, Ebbsfleet United of Northfleet England, took that lesson to heart. Who needs fantasy leagues when you can just buy the team outright? Twenty-six thousand fans pitched in $70.50 each. That price bought them a place in history as the first online community to both own and manage a professional sports team.

The site is a meeting place for owners; allowing them to vote on issues such as lineups and the purchase of new players. Fans are able to watch the games via a live feed and thumb through real-time stats on each and every player. The portal will have weekly updates from the coach they select, giving them the skinny on player performances during practice.

This is where you let your mind wonder. Imagine making a bid for the Dallas Cowboys. Last time the franchise was evaluated, its price was estimated at a dizzying $923 million. Yet if 10 million people each ponied up $100 in a mass collaborative effort they’d have a shot at snatching America’s Team from Enemy No. 1, Jerry Jones, for a cool $1 billion.

So let’s sneer at the golden rule for once. Why does it have to be that ‘he’ who has the gold makes the rules. Massive projects like this one – online and off – turn that ‘he’ into a ‘we.’ And with the right motivation, buying a team no longer need be a rich man’s game.