Remember back in June how Air New Zealand announced it was going to be trialling a biofuel mix in a 747 aircraft based on the jatropha plant? Well, they did it, and according to The Register, everything went off without a hitch. The plane used a 50-50 mixture of the biofuel and regular fuel in one engine, while the other three all had regular fuel running through them. They tested out a series of mid-air manoeuvres like engines stops, restarts, and got full power from the biofuel mix.

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Test Freaks wrangled as many flash drives as they could and ran them through an oddly intense testing regime, finding out that your choice in USB stick brand may actually matter.

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In order to get certified by the FAA, every new plane must undergo wing tests to prove that it can withstand 150% of the load that it could ever be expected to encounter in flight. Engineers usually try to pass the test, and continue to stretch the wings to see just how far they can get, resulting in spectacular wing-snappings. The Boeing 787 cleared the 150% with no trouble at all, but engineers stopped short of snapping the wing. Why? Because the 787 uses revolutionary composite wings, and breakage could result in an explosion of thousands of shards material spreading around the construction hangar. After a little time and some (in all likelihood, hilarious) rationalising, they've finally done it with a 50ft section of wing — thankfully on video. [Boeing via Reddit]

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Gizmodo readers like you tend to think they know more about technology any other people—including (or especially) Giz editors. You're the person your friends and family come to with computer problems, what those in the know call a geek. But there are varying levels of geekdom. In order for you to prove where you stand, I've compiled a handy list of 50 key geek skills. Many of them are straightforward, some are tough as hell. Only the most dedicated shut-in basement dwellers will score a perfect 50. How do you stack up? Hit the jump to find out, and be sure to keep a tally as you read—there's a poll at the end to see how you measure up to your fellow Giz readers.

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As most of you know, commercial analogue TV in this country will become all but extinct on February 17th 2009. However, the digital revolution begins today in Wilmington NC. Basically, the town and its 197,760 TV-watching households will serve as guinea pigs for the nationwide rollout. The town has been bombarded with information about the switch, but the powers that be will be watching closely to see what unfolds. Will throngs of old people run screaming into the streets when Wheel of Fortune goes black? We will just have to wait and find out. [TVWeek]

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Filed under the "good thing we tried it out first" department is this recent test of Shuttle-replacement Orion's parachute re-entry system. Based on the same system used for Apollo, the group of eight parachutes deploys after re-entry, ensuring the Orion capsule glides down back to terra firma for a pillow-soft landing. That's what's supposed to happen, anyway.

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Apparently, proxy test taking is a big enough problem that the nation's top business schools will soon require that students undergo a palm vein scan before taking their GMATs. Like a fingerprint, the system of veins running through the hand is unique to every individual, and supporters claim that using vein scanning is not only superior to the current digital fingerprint method, but it also does not come with the same stigma.

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Tom's Hardware tested battery life in laptops with SSDs yet again and found that they aren't such a power suck, correcting a previous study. SSDs didn't outperform their HDD counterparts in all tests, but combined with Laptop Mag's study I think we can safely put the issue to rest for now. [Tom's Hardware]

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Ever since Steve Jobs showed the speedy new iPhone 3G in a browser faceoff against the Nokia N95 at WWDC, users on Howard Forums have been crying foul. They say His Steveness's test of loading the National Geographic homepage was bogus because the N95's browser uses Flash, a feature that the iPhone's Safari lacks. We ran our own tests of the N95 browser with Flash turned off in New York and San Francisco, and found some interesting results: The N95 is often slower than was demoed at WWDC. But much, much faster with the free Opera browser with it's images optimised server-side.

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Everyone knows how much of a bunglefart the "Certified for Windows Vista" sticker was in determining whether computers worked OK or completely lousily with Vista. Microsoft doesn't want to repeat this, which is why they're telling hardware manufacturers to start testing their products with Windows 7 as soon as the first beta is out, unless they don't want to qualify for Microsoft's new Windows 7 compatibility sticker. Microsoft's going to check up on them too, making sure companies' current Windows Vista submission "include a complete CPK with test logs from Windows 7." [Information Week]

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