New sea water cooled data center for Google

Ecology today should not be a trend nor something trivial, it should be a priority. For Google ecology is a priority for years now and the company prooved it once more. In Googles new data center, which was built in Finland at the old facilities of a mill, it was decided to use sea water for cooling. Apart from reducing the amount of river water that would be used this sea water approach takes into account the temperature difference between used and bay water. So used water is mixed with cool bay water so the temperature difference between the used and bay water will be trivial. You can take a virtual tour in Googles new Data Center through the video above.

via: engadget

Source: Datacenter Dynamics

New Cray supercomputer puts IBMs to shame.

IBM just recently proudly announced a new 10 petaflop supercomputer overcoming predictions for supercomputer growth for 2011 by almost 3 petaflops.Everybody was over-enthusiastic about the accomplishment and IBM was, for a short period of time, the ultimate ruler of the Top 500 supercomputer list. But IBM's rein didn't last long. The new XK6 Cray supercomputer that was announced managed to reach the astonishing 50 petaflops mark. This performance is not just better than the one achieved by IBM. it is 5 times better and far from the rest of the competition. This new computer uses 6200 AMD Opteron CPUs, accompanied by NVIDIA Tesla 20 series GPUs, all running under a custom version of linux. The people at Cray were not very cocky though. They were humble and announced that the new supercomputer is the first

"general-purpose supercomputer that uses GPU technology".

Humble in an "annoying to IBM" kind of way that is. By the way if you want to know more about the previous top supercomputer check here.

via: engadget
source: Cray

Black hole sucking galaxy into oblivion caught red handed.

This is one of the best moments of Astronomy or Physics in general if you like. The moment that you actually bear whiteness through experimenting or by just observing an incident that was only speculated. The incident we are referring is the slow death of the galaxy Centaurus A because of a black hole it has in its core. The galaxy's death is slow but not quiet. Large jets of particles spread around the black hole as matter flows in and gets caught in the extreme gravitational pull. These jets have been recently observed by scientists and caught on film. As you can see in the relevant video particles jets can be observed with a 12 light days resolution even though we are 12 million light years away. More info at the links and the videos below.

via: PhysOrg.com
source: NASA

Robotic sciense helps paraplegic student walk.

No matter how successful, rich and famous you are and no matter how careful and thoughtful you may be you could be involved in a car accident. In fact most people in developed countries have at least one trivial or serious accident involving cars in their lifetime. This is the case of Austin Whitney. A young man having just completed high school and scheduling to continue his studies. He was ambitious and hardworking but he made a mistake. He got involved in a car accident back in 2007, after drinking and driving and was left paralyzed. The doctors said he could never walk again. At a point in life such as this a man needs a lot of strength to carry on and most of the times he needs support from friends and family. This time Austin had also the support of science. A professor at Berkeley University created an exoskeleton light and affordable to help paraplegics walk again. There are other exoskeletons in the market but their cost, being over $100,000, is just prohibitive. The exoskeleton that was created by the Berkeley team costs a fraction of the price of others at $15,000. With that price you get a lightweight but strong exoskeleton with a battery life of 8 hours. This exoskeleton helped Austin walk to the podium and receive his graduation title in front of a crowd that kept silence through this effort. Since that day, Austin and others like him can look at the future with hope for a better life.

via: Gizmodo
sources: Austin Whitney, UC Berkeley, San Francisco Chronicle

Adobe has more holes than a Swiss cheese!

Well before you accuse us of spreading inaccurate facts about Swiss cheese, we need to tell you more about the recent top ten PC vulnerability list by Kaspersky Labs. According to Kaspersky Labs Adobe was not once, not twice, but five times in the list and occupied the three first places. First came Adobe Reader that managed to put 40% of the computers that was installed at risk, the following two places were occupied by Adobe Flash. Other companies in the list include Apple with Quick Time, Microsoft with MS Office, Java Virtual Machine and Winamp. More at the links below.

via: Engadget
Source: Kaspersky Labs

My browser is running linux!

My browser is running Linux! That's how we imagine Fabrice Bellard made every single one of his friends drop his jaw to the ground. By the way, if you managed to keep your jaw in place and said "Yeah, right!" thinking this is an April Fools day joke some months overdue, we have to inform you that it is absolutely true. Mr. Bellard managed to make a PC emulator in javascript and port a version of Linux to it. Well right now there aren't many things you can do with it but who knows what it can do in a few months. If you want to take a look at the javascript page click at the emulator link bellow. More info on Mr. Bellard at his personal page.

via: Engadget
Source: bellard.org, Emulator

PSN hacked again!?!...Not realy.

If you tried to enter PSN and saw the above picture I am pretty sure you just whispered or yelled out loud in agony "Not again!". Well we all got a little scared about it being almost convinced that we would never again play online games on PSN. As it turns out we were all going crazy over nothing since it was just a mistake that could if exploited in malicious manner lead to a new leak of personal information. The mistake, being more of a miscalculation, was that you could still change your password by entering your date of birth and your email. Information only known to you.......and the hackers of course. This mistake lead to the PSN being down until the mistake was corrected. Fortunately for us Sony came across it quickly and before anyone could have access to our info again.

via: Engadget
Source: Nyleveia

Sony gives you free games as a welcome back gift.

If you are just little bit spooked by the way your personal data along with mine and some million other PSN users got stolen not more than just a month ago then you can be encouraged to re-enter the network by Sony's latest offer. If you had an account before the 20th of April 2011 you are eligible for two free games, 30 days free PlayStation Plus subscription (that becomes 60 days if you already had one) and a mystery gift for the PlayStation home users that has not been revealed yet. These offers will be available in each country as the restoration takes place.

PS3 users can choose two of the following games:

• LittleBigPlanet
• InFamous
• WipEout HD/Fury
• Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty
• Dead Nation

PSP users can choose two of the following:

• LittleBigPlanet PSP
• ModNation Racers PSP
• Pursuit Force
• Killzone Liberation

If you are from Germany then instead of InFamous and Dead Nation you can get Super Stardust HD and Hustle Kings for the PS3. And for the PSP users instead of Pursuit Force and Killzone Liberation you get JUNGLE PARTY and Everybody's Golf 2.

via: Engadget
Source: PlayStation blog

Breakthrough in solar panel technology might just postpone apocalypse!

Solar energy is a promising source of clean, everlasting energy that is available almost everywhere. The problem is that all solar panels created today can harness up to approximately 45% of solar energy and turn it to electricity. But to make solar energy cheap enough we need solar panels that could be more than 75% efficient. According to a research group from the University of Missouri a new type of solar collector has been developed that has 90% efficiency. The solar collector is actually a series of very small antennas printed on silicon wafers using classical semiconductor fabrication methods. The same group of researchers claims that with proper funding large scale fabrication of these solar collectors can be achieved in five years. Lets cross our fingers then and hope that the solar panels will be ready before all major cities are already under water.

via: Engadget
Source: University of Missouri

Angry birds for Chrome

If you have an iPhone you must have seen or at least heard off the game Angry Birds. It has a very simple plot with some birds that want to kick some pig "tails". To tell you the truth it is a highly addictive game that fits with the average gamer needs who wants a game that is fast and doesn't require quick reflexes or page after page of walkthroughs. Of course you do not need an iPhone exclusively to play the game. The game is available for Android, Symbian, Palm and a couple of days now for Chrome. So you can now download the game which is available in the Chrome store for free.
Having played both versions of the game I find the Chrome version easier to play since the mouse control feels more accurate than the finger, plus you don't have a finger to block the way so you can adjust the sling with ease. The way to move through the menu is the same as with the iPhone version and it feels a little strange to the desktop user at first since it requires sliding your mouse pointer across the screen. This is hardly a drawback since it is very easy to get used to.
The game play is smooth, without any hick ups and the game screen is large enough for the desktop. The size of the birds in relation to the actual game screen has not changed which is good once you do not need any more space.

You can download the game and see for yourself. More info on the links below.

Sources: Rovio, Chrome Store.

PSN scheduled for partial restoration today.

As it turns out, yesterdays post about the PSN was only a few hours away from Sony's announcement that gave PSN life. It is not that "IT'S ALIVE..." but it is more than it is partially alive. By partially we mean for both location and services. So the services that are being restored are online gaming, friend chatting, video playback for already owned videos and some third party services like Hulu and Netflix.
As I mentioned above this restoration is partial in terms of location as well since it will be available in North America, Europe, Middle East, Australia and New Zealand with Japan and the rest of Asia following by the end of the month.
So I wouldn't like to hold you any longer, you have some online gaming to do.

You can see the disasters timeline here.

Sources: Financial Times, PC World

Playstation network still off line!!!

When you create an eshop and online gaming network you can be cheap on many things but one, security. Sony knew this very well but you cant always win. That's what happened in Sony's case. Sometimes it's an employees fault, other times is an undiscovered security hole. Whoever it is to blame Sony got hit big time and it cannot recover even after almost a month. Lets see some of the major events in chronological order.

April 17 to 19: This is the period when PSN security was breached. Sony notices strange activity and finally shuts PSN down.

April 20: A security firm is hired to investigate, Sony makes its first public announcement.

April 21: A second security team is hired to offer assistance.

April 23: The security teams confirms that the attacks were sophisticated and coordinated perfectly.

April 26: Sony informs the public that the attackers may have access to personal data like credit card numbers.

May 1: Sony hosts a press conference to inform the public thoroughly. It announces possible PSN recovery by the end of the week.

May 3: Sony claims the hackers behind the attack were members of the well known group anonymous. Found evidence in a file left behind by hackers. The anonymous group deny any involvement.

May 6: Sony announces that the restoration will be delayed.

May 10:  Sony announces there is no firm date for the restoration.
May 15: Partial restoration of PSN for basic services and available only in North America, Europe, Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. Read more here. UPDATE

There are no news till today that could shed some light as to whats going on with the network.

For news and everything keep an eye on the blog.

Source: Wired

Good old games running on chrome!?!

Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis

If you ask me which is my favorite game of all times, among all the games I have played that must be over a thousand, I will definitely pick "Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis." That game was legend... wait for it ....ary. It was smart, funny, it kept you for hours and now... its back. If your reaction was "SAY WHAT!!" then you had the exact same reaction i did. Well the rumors are true you can now, or to be on the safe side in a while, play your games on Google's Chrome browser. The whole project which has yet to be released was created by NaClBox and is based on Google's Native Client technology. That means that you have to wait for an official release or risk with the unoficial version and be exposed to security vulnerabilities and system freezes and things like that. There are a few games currently supported with Jazz Jackrabbit, The Secret of Monkey Island and SimCity 2000 among them.

For more information click here.

via: Engadget

Sourcc: NaClBox

Facebook caught not playing nice with Google

There are some wars between corporations in the computer industry that are almost epic, for example Apple vs Microsoft or IBM vs Dell. This is also the case between Facebook and Google as with the latest report from the daily beast there is no cease-fire.  As it appears Facebook hired a public relations team not to polish the company's image but to smear the image of Google by planting a series of false or exaggerated news over the internet. The whole story broke loose when a blogger that was contacted by the PR firm blew the whistle and everything came to the surface. USA today actually spotted the whole story and made it public.

Read more on an excellent and detailed article by Dans Lyons on the daily beast here.

Source: USA Today

App Stores for all...

And what I really mean is almost for all. The idea behind the success of the iPhone has left the exclusivity of the mobile phones and has spread on pretty much everywhere. The last addition to the e-shop club is Nintendo's 3DS e-shop which is expected to debut on the 6th of June for the fellow Japanese players and one day later for Europe and the US.  It took them a long enough time to make everything since there was a need for an update on the devices but everything is almost ready with the final touches being made as we speak. So if you want to go on vacations in June make sure there is a WiFi hotspot nearby.

Back to our subject then, e-shops for all. And by all I mean every single device that is capable of a. connecting to the internet and b. running applications has or will have an e-shop. There are two facts about e-shops. The first one is that they changed the way we search for applications. In the not so old days, we used to search the internet using keyword relative to the app we were after, then spot the app we though as best and finally search for reviews or even download a demo. Now things are different. We enter the store, go to the category that interests us, we look at the apps, some of their reviews and we download the one we thing is tailored to our needs. Everything is pretty much the same, where is the difference? The difference is in censorship. Through the above process all apps downloaded should comply with a set of rules set by the e-shop. And if you ask if this is bad there are two answers. No if the store is made for a console since an app had to comply with rules either way. And yes if you have another type of device since the e-shop could cut-off a piece of software for a trivial reason and allow another ignoring the same trivial reason. The same thing happened with a series of apps with nudity in the app store. The Penthouse app is still on while others have bitten the dust.

The second fact is that they are darn good. What I mean is if I want a simple egg timer I can have an egg timer downloaded on my phone/browser/portable device/e.t.c. in seconds. And of course without all the fuss of searching for an app, for reviews and spending half your day on an egg timer.

If you really now want a good piece of advice you should use the store for anything trivial but if you want something good or an app with a specific characteristic google it.

More on the Nintendo eshop here (Engadget).

Honeycomb 3.1

As you most probably already know for the past two days google has been torturing us with "the things to come" torture. While others are distant some of them are here already. Google announced and in the same time rolled out an update for the Verizon Xoom tablet that upgrades the 3.0 honeycomb to 3.1. The new version is not a major update but adds a few notable features that were needed.

The most important of the features is the usb hosting capability for the android tablet/tv set/set-top boxes. With the new update it is possible to connect usb sticks, usb HDs, web cameras or even mice to an android device. This capability was in fact very much-needed especially for the set-top boxes.

There has also been an applications update with the music, gallery, email, calendar and web browser apps being updated. The most important is that of the web browser that now has better support for css 3D and HTML 5 embedded video playback.

We also have some minor additions like a resent applications list that features the applications that have been used most recently, resizable home screen widgets, wifi improvements and user interface tweaks.

via: mobiputing and

via: Android Developers

Microsoft finally gets free calls. It only cost them $8.5 Billion.

Steve Balmer and Tony Bates at the press conference.

It is official. Microsoft is the proud owner of Skype by paying $8.5 Billion. The announcement was made by Steve Balmer and Tony Bates where they presented a few thoughts about the contribution of Skype to the Microsoft group of products. Skype like services and support will be spreading to Windows devices, Windows Phone devices, the Xbox console, the Outlook software, the Xbox Live service and others. The rest of us that do not use one of the above mentioned devices or services are assured by Steve Balmer himself that Microsoft will continue "to invest in and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms."

Check the video of the presentation on the Microsoft new page here.

via: Engadget

Source: Microsoft

Google I/O 2011. The future by Google.

The google I/O is a small conference organised by Google so that developers from around the world can share ideas about Google products and various platforms. As Google states at the events page (take a look at the first link):

"Google I/O brings together thousands of developers for two days of deep technical content, focused on building the next generation of web, mobile, and enterprise applications with Google and open web technologies such as Android, Google Chrome, Google APIs, Google Web Toolkit, App Engine, and more."

The big question is why should we be happy. Well as with all other developers conferences we get to learn about new products, services and everything new the company will offer in the following year along with info on products to be that are currently under development. In this IO we had a few big hits like:

1. Ice Cream Sandwich, the new version of the Android software, will be available in Q4 this year.

2. New version (3.1) of Android for tablets rolling out today for Verizon Xoom in US. The rest of the tablets to follow.

3. Android@Home platform for home automation.

4. New API for creating accessories based on the company's new Open accessory standard, plus new arduino based ADK.

and many more.

More info in future posts.

via: Engadget

Source: Google I/O

Arduino... Hardware for the masses.

For those of you that do not know the arduino is a microcontroller platform based on Atmel microcontrollers. It began as an economic tool for schools and universities but has gone beyond that, since arduinos have been selling like hotcakes. Its main  advantage is that it is open source. Its main disadvantage is...  none really since you get what you pay.

The truth is for most of you there is nothing new with arduino. Everybody has heard about it and it can be found everywhere. But who are the people behind it and how it came to be? If you want to know take a look at the video and if you want more info check the link at the end.


Arduino The Documentary (2010) English HD from gnd on Vimeo.


source: Arduino Blog

NASA proves Einstein in less than 100 years

Is the 4th of May a significant date for all mankind? Maybe not for all but for astrophysicists working on time and space relation sure is. NASA finally presented the results of the Gravity Probe B (GP-B) experiment that concluded that Einstein got it right. Einstein had predicted that earths spin and gravity should create a distortion in the form of a vortex in space and time. The following sentence taken from the NASA web site says it all.
"The space-time around Earth appears to be distorted just as general relativity predicts," says Stanford University physicist Francis Everitt, principal investigator of the Gravity Probe B mission.

Artistic concept of GP-B measuring the curved spacetime.

The whole experiment was based on a simple idea but on a very complex implementation. Back in 2004 NASA launched GP-B, a satellite equipped with four perfect gyroscopes. The gyroscopes are so perfect that the spheres had to vary up to 40 atomic layers from the perfect sphere. Any variation bigger than that would lead to inaccurate results. The satellite was not simple either since it was specially designed not to disturb the gyros.
The experiment finally gives us a better understanding of how the space and time web can be affected around bigger objects such as large stars and black holes giving astrophysicists the proof that they needed for Einsteins theory.
More info on the links below:
source: NASAvia: PhysOrg 

How google searches look like!

Lets say you look for some info on the net, sports, tech or something else. What do you do to find it? If your answer is "I google it up!" then you just might be part of the following visual display of google searches over the world by language. And if you really are interested on how much your country uses google then I suggest you look it up here.

Google searches by language

By the way if you think that's cool just check the second link with the population numbers of the 1990s.
via: Engadget
Source: Google (Population)