Archive for January, 2012
Facebook Data Centre Uses As Much Power As The Entire County It’s In
By admin at 31 January, 2012, 10:00 pm
Data centres are power-hungry, and Facebook’s Oregon centre in Crook County is no exception, using 28MW. While that’s fairly standard, it has doubled the power use of the county. The entirety of Crook County uses just under 30MW. Add to that the fact that this is only Facebook’s first phase of data centres in this part of the US, and the everyday power needs of the local …
Read More >>Apple Hires Brit To Head Worldwide Retail Operations
By Hong Kiat at 31 January, 2012, 8:15 pm
Apple has just appointed John Browett, chief executive of UK electronics retailer Dixons, as its new vice-president of retail. It’s the first external senior-executive appointment by Tim Cook, and will see Browett take over the whole of Apple’s retail strategy. No pressure, John. [The Guardian Image: Shutterstock] …
Read More >>Americans Bigger Toilet Surfers Than Australians?
By Hong Kiat at 31 January, 2012, 8:00 pm
According to Telstra’s 2011 annual smartphone survey, 33 per cent of questioned Australians admit to ‘throne surfing’. Sure, that was across all ages, but it’s still low compared to 91 per cent of Americans aged 28 to 35 using their device on the loo, according to the New York Times. Moreover, a quarter of Americans say they won’t go to the toilet without their phone! …
Read More >>The Modern Lantern Brightens Rooms Without Hogging Powerpoints
By admin at 31 January, 2012, 7:30 pm
Rearranging your furniture is easy enough but your lighting tends to stay where its been since you moved in — limited by the location of available outlets. Or it was limited at least, until the folks at Modern Lantern designed a table lamp that doesn’t need them. The Modern Lantern is powered by a Li-Ion battery seated in the lamp base. The battery is rated for 12 hours of continuous u …
Read More >>Firefox 10 Is Now Live
By AutoBlog at 31 January, 2012, 6:45 pm
The newest version of Firefox is now available for the PC and Mac. Its newest features include a Forward button that remains hidden until you actually need it, support for full-screen APIs, and better extensions management. [Mozilla] …
Read More >>Amazonian Mushroom Eats Indestructible Plastics
By Gizmodo at 31 January, 2012, 6:30 pm
We use polyurethane to make just about everything — garden hoses, furniture, the entirety of my local 99-cent store. It’s easy to produce, durable, and dirt cheap. What it isn’t is recyclable — there isn’t a single natural process that breaks it down. That is until a newly-discovered Amazonian fungus takes a bite. Pestalotiopsis microspora (not shown) is a re …
Read More >>Despite Obama’s Hangout Hope, Semiconductor Jobs Are Still Going Away
By admin at 31 January, 2012, 5:30 pm
Earlier today, President Barack Obama took part in a Google+ Hangout. You might think this was a cheap campaign stunt. (And it kind of was!) But a serious technology employment question came up, and the President flubbed it. Jennifer Weddel, from Fort Worth Texas, asked the President why H1B visas are being still being issued and extended when American technology workers are still out of work. She …
Read More >>This 15,000-Lumen LED Light Cannon Will Turn Night To Day
By yanko at 31 January, 2012, 4:30 pm
You can forget about hanging it from your belt, because this miniature sun — masquerading as a torch — is heavy enough to need two hands to operate. And with 15,000 lumens, the XM18 is bright enough to illuminate a small planet. As you can see, it’s actually composed of 18 smaller LED torch components, all wrapped in a custom housing powered by 32 lithium batteries and cooled wit …
Read More >>Musical Dice Relieve Songwriter’s Block
By admin at 31 January, 2012, 4:00 pm
Have you ever heard a terrible song and thought you could do better? Even though you don’t know the first thing about music? Thanks to the randomness of the universe and this set of Chord Dice, now you can. Each set comes with five eight-sided dice that include all the chords in the key of G. (Plus the company’s website listed on each one, you know, in case you wanted to buy them again …
Read More >>Helicopters Are About To Get Faster Thanks To Humpback Whale Fins
By admin at 31 January, 2012, 3:45 pm
A helicopter’s rotor design may allow for vertical takeoffs but that comes at a price — the backwards moving blade counteracts the helicopter’s forward momentum, causing it to stall at high speeds. But one German firm believes that outfitting the blades with bumps inspired by the fins of humpback whales. A humpback whale swims at roughly five times the speed of Michael Phelps, ov …
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