It seems that good service is something of a rarity in the world of IT support. I’ve met my share of IT people, and I do have to admit that yes, there are a lot of support experts that do emanate an air of pompous superiority. Unfortunately, one of the pleasures of those people is to make users feel like complete idiots, turning the whole support process into a nightmarish experience.
With that said, everyone needs to call in for help from time to time (Even us!), and if you want your questions answered quickly and effectively, you’ll need to know a thing or two before picking up that phone. Video after the jump.
Contrary to popular belief, Google is a large, rich, mysterious company. Oh wait, that’s extremely obvious in everything they do. In fact, they recently demonstrated their mysteriousness by releasing Google Chrome with about one day’s notice to the internet at large. Instead of stirring up hype or even accidentally leaking any information about their breakthrough browser (though technically the one day heads-up was in fact a leak), Google just plopped it out and watched to see if it gained any popularity. It’s that intense secrecy, followed by an unexpected release, that makes me believe Google might just jump into another big sector: telecommunications.
This was one of Google’s April Fools jokes about a toilet based broadband system (click for the whole thing).
You see, Google has made some purchases over the years that might make you scratch your head. For instance, they have been buying up miles and miles of “dark fiber.” That is, fiber optic cable that’s was rolled out during the first internet boom, but was never “lit up” with an actual connection to the network. Why would anyone do this for any reason other than to create a high-speed data network?
Google argues that they can connect their massive data centers to one another with these huge quantities of fiber, but it’s not much of a stretch to imagine them including regular users in that network as well. In fact, they’ve acted as a service provider before. It didn’t work out, but they paired with Earthlink for a while to offer free, municipal WiFi to San Francisco. Also, they recently invested in o3b, a company investigating satellite broadband opportunities in the developing world. Seems like a trend to me.
The dream of a “Googlenet,” for most analysts, consists of a vast data storage network connected to a “thin client.” The hardware would consist of only a simple processor, RAM, and a user interface of some kind. Google would provide all of the programs and data, stored on their massive servers, while you would only have to worry about carrying your hardware, finding a connection, and trusting the Googleplex with every drop of information. I for one welcome our Google overlords….
Judging from the newest trailer for the upcoming LEGO Batman game, Batman and his friends may be a little square themselves, but they’ve got some pretty sleek rides. They’ve got the Batmobile, Robin’s Bat-Bike, planes, trains, boats… and apparently the same sort of humor we’ve come to expect from the previous Star Wars and Indiana Jones LEGO games. Check out the game’s official website for a ton of new screenshots.
Between this game coming up soon (slated for a 9/23 release) and the article I just read in Game Informer about Batman: Arkham Asylum, I think that there’s about to be some new life in this particular franchise.
The childlike obsession with Lego continues. In the past, we’ve had classic photos in Lego and video game scenes in Lego. Now it’s the turn of classic album covers to get the Lego treatment.
The Flickr page currently features 25 album covers in Lego, including Bob Dylan, Iron Maiden, The Beatles, and Radiohead. If you have your own Lego cover to offer, you can join the Flickr group and upload your work for the rest of the group to see.
I particularly like the one above, although I am not sure about John Lennon having a Harry Potter jagged scar on his forehead!
The Times Online reports that Google wants to pile several datacenters onto some empty oil tankers and shove them offshore to international waters. Their plan? Use the ocean’s waves to generate electricity and to keep their equipment cool. This could apparently save them millions in operating costs and also help the company avoid paying any taxes to sovereign nations.
Google may take its battle for global domination to the high seas with the launch of its own “computer navy”. The company is considering deploying the supercomputers necessary to operate its internet search engines on barges anchored up to seven miles (11km) offshore.
The “water-based data centres” would use wave energy to power and cool their computers, reducing Google’s costs. Their offshore status would also mean the company would no longer have to pay property taxes on its data centres, which are sited across the world, including in Britain.
In an attempt to address the problem, Microsoft has investigated building a data centre in the cold climes of Siberia, while in Japan the technology firm Sun Microsystems plans to send its computers down an abandoned coal mine, using water from the ground as a coolant. Sun said it could save $9 million (£5 million) of electricity costs a year and use half the power the data centre would have required if it was at ground level.
Concerns have been raised about whether the barges could withstand an event such as a hurricane. Mr Miller said: “The huge question raised by this proposal is how to keep the barges safe.”
I don’t think the wizards at Google have fully cooked this idea. First, ocean power is as yet unproven for power production on a large scale, and I fail to see how it could generate the megawattage required to power a datacenter. Second, salt water destroys everything. The datacenters at sea would have to be considered disposable. Salt water corrodes everything it touches, and ships that are moored collect enough barnacles and algae to keep a squad of maintenance crew in wetsuits employed fulltime to scape the keels.
And seeing that a hurricane can shut down gasoline production in the gulf by impacting gigantic offshore oil platforms, what chance do moored ships have against storms? Google would return 404 errors everytime it rained really hard.
I recognize the need to reduce costs associated with datacenters though, particularly when it comes to cooling. Building a datacenter in an old mineshaft? Smart. Building in Siberia? Smart. Putting out to sea? What a dumb idea. And don’t get me started on the company trying to avoid their taxes.
Last week, we had an article about how a British Academic wanted to reform the English language using a phonetic approach. Unsurprisingly, the whole thing brought quite a stir in the comments section, with some people agreeing, and others disagreeing with the proposal.
So when I stumbled on this video today, I immediately thought of all of you who were fighting to determine if a reform was actually in order. Check it out.
Believe it or not, the man you just saw is 103 years old. His name is Ed Rondthaler and he used to be President of the American Literacy Council. He makes quite a point of showing why the English language needs to be reformed, but the question is, do you agree with him? Let us know, along with any commentary that you feel may be relevant to the issue, in the comments section.
Once used as spyplanes for the military, these re-purposed UAVs (uncrewed aerial vehicles) are now being used to deliver medical supplies to remote, isolated South African villages. They can also transport medical samples back from the same villages to normally out-of-reach laboratories for analysis. It’s nice to know that technology initially developed for military purposes can be put to good use. Let’s just hope that one of these planes doesn’t go crashing in the wild while transporting a highly contagious blood sample. It probably wouldn’t infect anyone, but who knows?
We’ve showed you the German “AirKick” a few weeks ago, and now you’ll see the next best thing: A Swiss homemade catapulting contraption. Oh, and before you hit the play button, here’s a bit of advice. If you’ve got a battleaxe or claymore laying around you, please make sure you put it away before looking at this video. You might get a sudden urge to chop off a head, or something.
For Terminator fans, the Sarah Connor Chronicles are back on television and a new badass terminator, played by Shirley Manson, is on the prowl looking for John and Sarah Connor. Yes, the Shirley Manson, lead singer of the band ‘Garbage’. A nice bonny red haired Scottish Terminator!
Some viewers, especially big fans of the Terminator movies, have voiced their strong criticism of Manson playing a Terminator, saying that her acting was terrible. But how can you possibly judge her by the first episode alone? I mean, come on, give the poor woman a chance!
The part when the guy went to have a leak and the toilet morphed into Manson was a classic. I don’t think I’ll be looking at a toilet the same way again anytime soon!
Did you see the first episode of season 2? What did you think of Manson’s performance? Do you think she is a scary Terminator? Or a bit of a lumpy jelly?
Oh and she also sang a song for the season premiere which I thought was rocking – a cover version of Samson and Delilah. Here it is :
If you’re a gamer, you’ll know from experience that PC shooters are very common and mostly very enjoyable. Who doesn’t enjoy shooting opponents on the screen? A lot of those games are also available free of charge and online, and one of them is currently causing a huge amount of controversy.
The game is called “Muslim Massacre” and as the name implies, it involves shooting Muslim characters – as many as possible. The premise of the game is that the US has declared war on Islam and it’s your mission to kill as many Muslims as possible. So pick up your high-powered weapons and go for it. You can see right away the potential for an uproar.
The developer of the game is unapologetic and says he loves playing it. Muslims are obviously outraged and are calling for the game to be banned and taken offline. But how do you take a game offline? The short answer is you obviously can’t. If the developer wants the game kept online, he can move it around various online locations and make the download links freely available to anyone that wants them.
So what do you think, GAS gamers? Is this a deeply offensive game or are Muslim people just overreacting?
It seems that good service is something of a rarity in the world of IT support. I’ve met my share of IT people, and I do have to admit that yes, there are a lot of support experts that do emanate an air of pompous superiority. Unfortunately, one of the pleasures of those people is to make users feel like complete idiots, turning the whole support process into a nightmarish experience.
