Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Blockenspielâ¦you know, for kids!

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/yankodesign/~3/323871899/

Bust out the aspirin and put down that toy AK-47 fully automatic machine gun you were thinking about buying Junior for his birthday and think about giving the gift of music. Check out the latest in getting your groove on like a tyke, this ‘AMK’ is a modular sound toy specially designed for preschool children. Kiddies can independently play and combine sounds through plugging these uniquely programmed music blocks. Designed by Berlin based PKNTS, this has my vote for a “minor” hit.

Designer: PKNTS Studio [ Video ]

In interaction with the computer, single sounds and entire sets can be transferred to sound blocks.

The children can independently play and combine the sounds through plugging these blocks.

Daniel Jarosch, Henrik Klingel, PKNTS

Chocolove

Source: http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2008/06/chocolove.html

Who doesn't love chocolate? Chocolove creates premium, organic chocolate. From their website:

"The idea was simple - a selection of distinctly flavored chocolate bars made with all-natural ingredients and the classic techniques of Europe's finest chocolatiers. The package design would resemble a love letter sent from a distant land, and inside each wrapper - a classic romantic poem. The cocoa content would be clearly indicated on the front of each wrapper, the tasting notes would be simple and approachable, and the price, affordable."

Chocolove now offers limited edition "bars of origin." I love that they've taken the language of the wine-world, and have translated it to chocolate. They produced 45,000 bars for each location. And the packaging is a testament to craftsmanship and history behind each bar.

Even the descriptions sound like they were taken from a wine journal:

Made from Trinitarios, a variety from Trinidad, this chocolate is true to the varietal; complex with hints of fruit. The aroma is like a glass of wine. The flavor starts with hints of tangy tropical fruits and wood, then transitions to dried fruit and on to a light dry finish.

Sign me up for a tasting!

Inside Microsoftâs Internet Infrastructure & Its Plans For The Future

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/323671717/

A few minutes after she delivered a speech at our Structure 08 conference in San Francisco, I caught up with Microsoft’s corporate VP of global foundation services, Debra Chrapaty, for a video chat. I think a more appropriate title for her would be Mr. Softie’s Internet Infrastructure Czar. I found her very knowledgeable, engaging and open with her opinions. “We have some new innovations up our sleeve that are going to knock the socks of anything anyone is doing, including our friends down south,” she told me. She didn’t name Google, of course, but we all know who she was talking about.

Her candor was one of the reasons I wanted decided to share the video with you guys. The common theme of the conversation: Microsoft is spending liberally to build out its Internet infrastructure, including upgrading its backbone network and scaling out its data center infrastructure by adding new technologies.

When I asked her exactly how much Microsoft was spending on it, she dodged the question, saying just that it was a big number. This much we do know: Two years ago, the company was spending close to $2 billion on its infrastructure; it has since undertaken the development of six data centers, with parts of two networks already online.

Facts About Microsoft-Owned Data Centers
Adding 10,000 servers a month
New data centers being planned/under construction are equivalent of over 15 US football fields of data center space.
Plans to cut of 30% to 40% in data-center power costs company-wide over the next two years.
Current network backbone runs at about 100 gigabits per second, but soon Microsoft plans to bump it to 500 Gigabits. I think this could be big for Level 3, long time partner of Microsoft.
Building out its own CDN (Edge) network - 99 nodes on a 100 gigabit per second backbone.
For Microsoft, total data grows ten times every three years. The data in near future will soon approach 100s of petabytes. This includes data from all of their online services.
Source: Microsoft, GigaOM

Location	Status
Quincy, Washington	Opened April 2007, construction continues
When complete, it will consume 48 megawatts of energy. Microsoft can tap up to 72 MW of energy coming from hydro power. Microsoft is paying about 1.8 cents per kilowatt, but will rise to between 2.6-to-2.9 cents per kilowatt as more capacity goes online. Two data centers in this location.
San Antonio, Texas	Under Construction, planned opening September 2008
It will be 447,000 square feet on 44 acres. Microsoft is building two data centers here
Dublin, Ireland	Under Construction
first Windows Live data center outside the U.S.
Northlake, Illinois	Under Construction, Phase one to go live in October 2008
The first floor of this facility is going to be entirely made of containers and would house Microsoft search.
Iowa	TBD
Source: Microsoft

Watch the video to get the full low-down, but if you’re in a hurry, here are some highlights, including her quotes from our conversation.

“We are building data centers but I don’t want to say not just data centers. We are already on to our second generation data centers. More utilization, better density and more power efficient.” For Chrapaty, power efficiency is not just talk, it’s her mission — she is the driving force behind Microsoft’s server utilization.
“Infrastructure is a differentiator. I use FedEx as an example. They are world’s most predominant distribution company. It wasn’t that they had a great brand or they had all these plans. No, what they did was find these strategic landing fields where they could get in and out quickly to key distribution points across the globe. It defined their company. I think the same is true in the infrastructure now. Data centers are already becoming a scarce resource.” Google realized this a long time ago; Microsoft is now demonstrating how it can put money to work and build an advantage over others.
Like Google, Microsoft is taking the design of servers into its own hands. “We are doing some unique things in the mother board designs, server designs, and because we are Microsoft, operating systems.”
She’s a big champion of container data centers, which essentially act like the trailers on long-haul trucks, optimized and packed with all sorts of gear — servers, switches, storage systems — that’s wheeled in and plugged into the power grid and the network. Sounds like Rackable Systems and Verari are major suppliers of these containers to Microsoft; the company is making extensive use of them in their Chicago facility.
Her comments indicate that Microsoft has plans to offer managed services to large corporations.
She lets us know first that they are building a IOWA data center, which is huge for Iowa. Google has one in Iowa too.

Apple Supposedly Working on iPhone With Slide-Out Keyboard (Realllly?) [Rumor]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/324278354/apple-supposedly-working-on-iphone-with-slide+out-keyboard-realllly

Apple marring the form factor of the iPhone to create a mutant with a slide-out keyboard just to please business users sounds about as far out there as it gets, but that's exactly what the Reg is suggesting. According to their reports (unclear whether it's from "inside Cupertino" or "inside mobile operators" 'cause of their wording), "whether or not [Steve Jobs] ever makes it work, he is already trying to make a 'slide-out' keyboard for a corporate version of the iPhone" that he's showing prototypes of to certain operators. If this thing ever came to light, it would be way next year and not aimed at consumers.

We're going to say this emerging from the depths of Apple seems pretty unlikely—as much as Apple might want to crib marketshare from BlackBerry and Co. (which rests in part on the keyboard), we just don't see Apple making hardware just for business users, especially potentially bulky, less than aesthetically perfect hardware. (Though Apple would obviously pretty it up.) Besides, you do get used to the keyboard—though driving while texting your mom isn't as easy. [The Register]

ATI's Nvidia GeForce GTX 280-Killer Is Water-Cooled, Super-Powered [Ati]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/324382405/atis-nvidia-geforce-gtx-280+killer-is-water+cooled-super+powered

ATI's probably pretty mad Nvidia stole some of the excellent mid-range Radeon HD 4850's thunder by dropping the GeForce 9800 GTX+ for a mere $30 more. So they're hitting back with a special Radeon HD 4800 card designed solely for the crushing of Nvidia's top-of-the-line GTX 280 graphics card in pure performance.

Code-named "Super RV770," it has pre-installed water-cooling and an unlocked BIOS so you can push the core speed to 950MHz (maybe beyond 1GHz) with a memory bandwidth of 150GBps, even more than the GTX 280.

Diamond's Radeon HD 4870 XOC Black Edition (which launched today for Smooth Creations' build-to-order gaming PCs) is actually the first "Super RV770" card, though it's not clocked quite as high as AMD's super spec. TG Daily expects announcements from other ATI partners like Asus and Sapphire to be coming up shortly. Of course, this is all talk 'til we see some benches. [TG Daily]