If you geek out with the thought of datacenters and thousands of servers in the room surrounding you, you’ll want to check out this article on Google’s datacenter setup.
In it, we find that Google has been using 12-volt batteries inside each and every server. Truly a remarkable idea.. Also, Google has been using storage-container server environments like the ones Sun sells – since 2005!
Any serious technophile loves monitors. I personally have a monitor fetish – 4 screens in all. You can just do so much more with more monitors!
Well, let’s take that one step further… What about multiple workstations?
Right now, I am running Ubuntu Desktop with the server kernel to accomodate all 8 gigs of RAM. But as you know, Adobe doesn’t like Linux. Neither does Camtasia – the software I do the screen recordings in.
An obvious solution is to dual-boot between Ubuntu and Vista, and I do. But it takes so long for Windows to start up!
So the answer is to run two workstations – side by side. One monitor on the Vista machine, three monitors on Ubuntu.
This is achieved using a software package called Synergy. Synergy allows two or more machines to share the same keyboard and mouse. So when I move my cursor off of the Ubuntu machine, it will show up on the Vista PC!
Synergy has all sorts of documentation that accompanies it. And the windows setup is easy. But the most useful resource I found for Ubuntu was this How-To…
Below, you’ll see a picture I found of the most amazing desktop I have ever seen. It’s 6 total monitors with two laptops, all sharing one keyboard and mouse! Simply nuts..
YourFonts is a free font generator using your own handwriting for the letters and numbers! All you do is print out the template, complete it, scan and upload it!
Here are some of the features:
Your own handwriting turned into your very own font for free
Optionally include your signature and digitally sign your contracts
You’ll have your very own font within 15 minutes
Make as many fonts as you like
Use your fonts on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux
Personalize your digital scrapbook pages and invitations
Make your own “family handwriting history”
Use your fonts in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and every program that you own
For this last christmas, I got a Popcorn Hour to stream movies and podcasts from my media server. I love it, I really do. In fact, I have been thinking about dropping cable because most of the time I am watching Internet programming on Hulu or podcasts.
Recently, I started playing with Boxee. Boxee is a grown up version of the Xbox Media Center app that you can install on Windows or an old Xbox console. It’s a simple application that aggregates endless Internet video content so that you can watch it on your computer.
Right now, you can only install it on Apple or Ubuntu – both of which are extremely easy. You don’t need to unzip and compile – just edit the sources list, update and apt-get. They’re getting a Windows version ready for distribution as well!
For more information or to sign up, check out boxee.tv. If you’ve used it, let us know your favorite programming!
Not that you are a couch potato but if you love watching TV and especially if you are one of those who constantly likes to flip channels, here is something for you – Hillcrest Labs’ Loop motion-sensing remote. This remote pretty much works like Nintendo Wii Remote, in fact they sued Nintendo last year over Wii controller patents. Through a combination of sensors and accelerometers, the remote senses the users’ movements and reflects them on the screen. Users can click on the right or left button to then make selections.
The design of the remote looks pretty sleek and it certainly gets by with less buttons than the remote controls that we are used to seeing. Check out the video below to see if it might be something you might want in the near future, (please note that the video is from 2007 when Hillcrest Lab first introduced it but it seems like they will be releasing it sometimes soon.)
Everyone knows about “The Richter Scales.” They performed at the Crunchies 2008 and they totally nailed it once again. In their performance they talk about podcasting, cuil, twitter, yahoo, google ohh and they pick on Jerry Yang, former Yahoo! CEO as well which is always fun to see. The funniest part of the show is at the end when they change the name of the popular tech blogs/sites into a porn domain,
Chuck Norris is a legend in his own ways. There are thousands of books on what Chuck Norris can do and of course he is an internet celebrity. If Chuck Norris doesn’t scare you, you must be from another planet cause everyone on earth is scared to death. We recently found out that even Google knows better than to mess with Chuck Norris, check this out ,