Pumping DC power to the data center

http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9835281-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5


Posted by Martin LaMonica
Thomas Edison had it right, say the founders of start-up Validus DC Systems. Direct current is the way.
Validus on Tuesday announced that it has raised $10 million from Oak Hill Venture Partners to further develop its data center power supplies that use direct current (DC) to lower power consumption. Products are expected to be released in late January next year.

By using direct current, rather than drawing electricity from outlets that supply alternating current, data center managers can reduce their energy consumption by up to 40 percent, according to the company.
There is a growing awareness of the cost and waste associated with electricity in data centers. Companies are also struggling to get enough electricity to power their gear.
With a few exceptions, nearly all data centers use the alternating current that comes off the electricity grid. Instead, most companies are using virtualization or are buying more efficient cooling units, according to a recent survey done by data center automation company Cassat.

Next-Gen Travel Sites Find Better Deals, Faster

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/startups/news/2007/12/airfare_sites

Savvy travelers know Travelocity and Expedia don't always include the cheapest fares in their searches. But who has time to comb through every airline website looking for better deals? Four new airfare mash-up sites do the hard work for you.
Unlike the first generation of travel sites, these startups don't actually sell you the ticket once you've found your fare. Instead, they search airline and travel-booking sites to find the best deal, then hand you off to the site offering that fare when you're ready to buy.
We found that all four of the search engines we tested cover roughly the same travel websites, but the deals they found varied by as much as $100. On fare prices, Yahoo FareChase was the clear winner, delivering the lowest prices on five out of eight test routes. FareCast comes in a close second for usability, although it delivered the lowest fare in only one test case. Here's how the sites stack

The Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov

http://www.ebookee.com/The-Foundation-Series-Isaac-Asimov_138526.html


is an epic science fiction series written over a span of forty-nine years by Isaac Asimov. It consists of ten volumes (about one million words) that are closely linked to each other, although they can be read separately. The term ‘Foundation Series’ is often used more generally to include the Robot Series and Empire Series, which are set in the same fictional universe. Total there are fourteen novels and dozens of short stories written by Asimov, and six novels written by other authors after his death. The series is highly acclaimed, winning the one-time Hugo Award for “best all-time science fiction series” in 1965.
Foundation
Foundation and Empire
Second_Foundation
Foundation’s Edge
Foundation and Earth
Prelude to Foundation
Forward the Foundation
Password flibrary.org
Download

Missing matter caught in tangled cosmic webs

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2007-12-10-missing-matter_N.htm


var storyURL = "http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2007-12-10-missing-matter_N.htm";
var storyTitle = "Missing matter caught in tangled cosmic webs";
By SPACE.com Staff
Cosmologists are always complaining about their inability to find the dark matter in the universe, invisible stuff that's supposedly more prevalent than regular matter. They don't even know what it is, so of course they can't see it.
Meantime, a whole bunch of normal matter is missing, too.
A new computer model at least suggests where some of that missing normal matter might be.
Regular vs. dark

The New LinkedIn Platform Shows Facebook How It's Done

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/12/the-new-linkedi.html

The New LinkedIn Platform Shows Facebook How It's Done
By Scott Gilbertson December 10, 2007 10:16:45 AMCategories: communities
A social network showdown is coming. LinkedIn, which aims to track your business and professional connections, has rolled out a new developer platform and already the majority of the web press is comparing LinkedIn's efforts Facebook's platform. It's a fair comparison, but there's one key difference between the two — LinkedIn's platform is actually useful.

Web2.0--All about Social Networking

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Location: BlogsProfitimo Articles

Posted by: profitimo
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Web2.0 is a phenomenal topic in the present arena. Infact, the topic has grown to much debatable phase as each one of us is trying to derive an inference to it, without getting the actual meaning unexplored. Everyone one of us related to Search engine Industry is trying to explore this very topic. So the exact meaning of Web2.0 is open to debate. According to Wikipedia's definition “ Web 2.0, a phrase coined by O'Reilly Media in 2004, refers to a perceived second generation of web-based services—such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies—that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users.” According to Tim O’Reilly "Web2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them.Web2.0 is all about linking, sharing and collaborating with people." Examples of Web2.0- Google, Amazon etc.