It is conventional wisdom that computer innards don t like excessive heat, which is why most data centers are conservatively cooled with powerful air-conditioners to a temperature range of between 68 degrees and 81 degrees Fahrenheit. This theory has even got its very own law explaining it, called the Arrhenius Equation. And here s a tale of what happens when things get overheated. But this isn t the way it will ALWAYS be, according to Mark Monroe, director of sustainable computing at Sun Microsystems. Monroe says more businesses are starting to challenge the theory that data centers must resemble meat lockers. Not only are they more readily adopting and pushing the envelope with free cooling (the practice of using outside air to keep...

Demonstrations of Xrite/Pantone s ColorMunki Photo color calibration package at Macworld Expo brought out the color freak in me. The package offers an interesting piece of hardware and a software with an easy-to-use interface that looks to take the sweat out of printer and monitor calibration.

Yes, it s that time of year again. Mere hours after my plane touched the tarmac in a surprisingly chilly Las Vegas, CES 2009 has kicked off with the unofficial opening to the show: CES Unveiled. With consideration to the terrible economic free-fall the world has and continues to experience, there are a surprising amount of people buzzing about the ballrooms at The Venetian for the event. Make no mistake: Princeton economist Paul Krugman may be heralding the second Great Depression, but vendors and press alike are oohing and ahhing at new gadgets anyway, Heinekens in hand. What recession? Though there isn t much news to report at an event like this -- stay tuned, most of the big announcements are slated...

Lots of petroleum-derived materials in today s automobile. Gone is the chrome plating and wooden dashboards of yore. For lightweight strength and waterproof exterior it s hard to beat plastic and polyester. Until now. Baylor University researchers say the coconut husk may yield the strong fiber of future cars and other durable products. They ve made experimental versions of trunk liners, floorboards and car-door interior covers from the outer fibers of a cocnut shell. The fibers could also be used for construction materials, replacing wood-baswed particle boards. The resrearchers say there are over ten million coconut farmers on earth, most living on tiny annual incomes. This could promise to turn their trash into cash. The oil and petrochemical companies won t like this one...

Recently I tried to warn an indifferent public about the curse of the killer jellyfish. This time, it s an even tinier threat, but also a great one. Deadly and toxic algal blooms are increasing in the world s coastal waters. Researchers cite degraded water quality from increased nutrient pollution as the cause of increased HABs (harmful algal blooms). The algae can kill fish, marine mammals and other micro-organisms. And make you very sick. Further they say all the added nutrients in the coastal waters are coming from man made sources, like all the fertilizer pouring down the Mississippi from the American Corn Belt due to the recent ethanol boom. [poll=71]

My new REDFLY C8N arrived today and I was also pleased to get some news about some of the things that Celio Corp is showing off at CES 2009 in Vegas. Celio Corp unveiled their new PC software that lets you use your Windows Mobile device with your Windows PC just like if you had the REDFLY hardware. They also are showing off two proof-of-concept ideas that include a Smartphone Dock and Google Android drivers for the REDFLY. Keep in mind these are ideas under development and Celio Corp is just showing off how their driver concept can be applied to other applications.

Not so long ago you couldn t run a reasonable size ERP on a single machine at a reasonable cost - but with today s gear you can. So why haven t we all gone back to that nice simple big machine model? I think we are - I think that s what cloud computing points at.

In the wake of the escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas, it didn t take long before pro-Hamas supporters organized themselves and started to defacing thousands of pro-Israeli web sites in order to use them as vehicles for propaganda -- Israel is meanwhile hijacking TV signals. For the time being, pro-Israeli sites remain automatically probed for web application vulnerabilities through search engines reconnaissance of the Israeli web space by JURM-TEAM and TEAM-Evil, two groups working together and using identical templates for the defaced sites. Compared to previous hacktivism (politically motivated hacking)?? activities on behalf of this group consisting primarily of mass web site defacements through web applications vulnerabilities exploitation, last week TEAM-Evil managed to hijack the DNS records of several hundred...

So Mike Contaxis at MacSoda had the "real reason" why Steve Jobs was not going to give the keynote today at MacWorld. This was before Jobs disclosure of the "hormonal imbalance" that his medical team has determined is leading him to lose weight. Jobs is set to become Obama s Chief Technology Officer. Nice stab in the dark, Mike. There s a certain electricity to the idea, even if uttered with tongue in cheek. Nothing would give Obama more of a dramatic distraction as he tries to rejuvenate this ailing economy. After all, if we really want to give this economy a stimulus, it s not about rebuilding roads. It s about funding greater innovation. That starts with digital technology, biotechnology, energy and the...

Andre Mendes, CIO of the Special Olympics, explains how they got their circuits and networks up and running in Shanghai so quickly???through the generous time of volunteers. Because they are a nonprofit, he explains, they often get to skip a lot of red tape.

Andre Mendes, CIO of the Special Olympics, says that being the CIO for a nonprofit often means being the "Chief Begging Officer" as well. Rather than use open source software, they have managed to convince larger software companies to donate or give grants for most of what they need.

Andre Mendes, CIO of the Special Olympics, describes the website where friends and family can go see footage and information on any participant in the games. Results are posted constantly, so viewers can stay up to date.

Apple has posted a stream of today s keynote address by Phil Schiller at Macworld Expo here in San Francisco. The Apple Keynotes podcast (iTunes) has not yet been updated as of this writing. Apple s Web site features rotating pages with new announcements today. All the information can also be found in new product pages for iLife 09, iWork 09 and the MacBook Pro 17-inch. The Apple online store is open and press releases are posted for the new products. Changes Coming to the iTunes Store Apple Introduces 17-inch MacBook Pro With Revolutionary New Built-in Battery That Delivers Eight Hours of Use & 1,000 Recharges Apple Introduces iLife ???09 Apple Unveils iWork ???09 After watching the stream, how do you rate...

Clearly, the jury is back on the Macworld keynote this morning. The "new and exciting" announced on stage this morning was, well, mostly new but hardly exciting. That s why I was expecting to see some great things on the expo floor today. Also see: Live: Philip Schiller keynote at Macworld 2009 Some of the buzz after Apple announced that this year s Macworld would be the company s last suggested that this could possibly be a good thing for the third-party vendors who come to Macworld to showcase their products but usually got lost in the excitement of what the company announces on stage. Without Steve Jobs to steal the show or big announcements to grab headlines, here was the chance for...

Andre Mendes, CIO of the Special Olympics, talks to CNET???s Dan Farber about managing technology operations for a non-profit that currently has more than 2.8 million athletes participating in its summer and winter games. Mendes discusses capturing the event online for family and friends and the unique experience of running IT for an organization dedicated to helping disabled people take part in competitive sports.

A currently active malware campaign is taking advantage of bogus LinkedIn profiles impersonating celebrities in an attempt to trick users into clicking on links serving bogus media players. LinkedIn is among the latest social networking services considered as a valuable asset in the arsenal of the blackhat SEO knowledgeable cybecriminal, simply because this approach works. For instance, Googling for "Keri Russell nude" or "Brooke Hogan Naked pics" you ll notice that the bogus profiles have already been indexed by Google and are appearing within the first 5/10 search results. This is a proven tactic for acquiring search engine traffic which was most recently used in the real-time syndication of hot Google Trends keywords and using them as bogus content for the...

For me the new, unibody MacBook Pro 17-inch (PN MB604LL/A) is probably the most exciting thing announced here at Macworld Expo. Not only because I m more of a hardware guy but also because I m a MacBook freak. So, where to start? The MBP has three compelling new features. The new MBP17 has a matte screen option. Can I get a Hallelujah?! I ve been a staunch critic of glossy displays in MacBooks, and I m not the only one. It appears that Cupertino is finally listening. The unibody MacBook Pro 17 is the first in the new form-factor MacBooks to offer a configuration with a matte screen Apple calls "antiglare." It s a $50 option though, which is a bit of a slap...

Behind the scenes at Macworld Expo, developers have mostly good things to say about OS X 10.6, called "Snow Leopard." While details may emerge during Tuesday s keynote presentation, the biggest question mark is the cost of the update. One developer wondered about Snow Leopard s marketing: "From a marketing point of view, if you call something Leopard and the next version is Snow Leopard, then that [latter version] has to be free. Maybe [Apple can charge] a slight bump, but not a $99 upgrade." (All of the developers requested their discussion be without attribution.) Another developer agreed that Snow Leopard would be a "tough sell" as an update. However, the cost question was important to developers plans and for customer...

My home state of Oregon has joined many other states with electronics recycling centers. If you are one of the six other people who live in this seemingly empty state, here s where you can find the "ecycling" centers. Many other states had electronic recycling before us. Illinois. Maryland. Kentucky, which privatized ecycling. Ecycling may not be too profitable right now. It appears the recession is playing havoc with private recycling business models. Here s a link to the clever private company that managed to glom onto the URL: ecycling.com. Sadly Oregon only collects monitors and TV sets and computers. They don t accept the two most trashed and trashable pieces of electronics: keyboards and cell phone. Best of all: mighty New Hampshire...

A year ago, I wondered when and whether Microsoft would make Bob Muglia, head of the company s Server and Tools business, one of the company s presidents. On January 5, 2009, that happened.