1. Windows 8 Jumps Onto the Metro Line
Microsoft inched further toward the tablet world Tuesday by revealing a slew of new details about its upcoming Windows 8 operating system at its Build developers conference, being held in Anaheim, Calif., through Friday. Windows Division President Steven Sinofsky headlined the presentation, which demoed various aspects of the new operating system. Among other things, Windows 8 will incorporate the Metro-style touch user interface familiar to Windows Phone 7 users. Also, Metro-style apps built for Windows 8 will be full-screen.
2. Don't Try This at Home: Overclocked AMD FX Chip Breaks Speed Record
AMD announced on Tuesday that it has been awarded the Guinness World Record for computer processor speed for an overclocked version of its upcoming eight-core FX desktop processor. This CPU hit a top speed of 8.429 GHz with the help of specialist teams, as well as a heavy dose of liquid nitrogen and helium for cooling. The previous record speed was 8.308 GHz. FX processors also happened to achieve clock frequencies well above 5 GHz using only air- or sub-$100 water cooling solutions, AMD said.
3. Linux and the Giant Breach
by Katherine Noyes
Security scares are so commonplace in the tech industry today that it's virtually impossible to keep track of them all. Security scares in the Linux world, however, are still rare enough as to cause at least a small collective gasp of consternation. That, indeed, is just what happened recently when it was discovered that the Kernel.org site had been breached last month. It's since become pretty clear that the site's source code repositories remained intact, but Linux fans around the globe are still shaking off the slight chill that resulted from the scare.
4. Scan: A Neat Way to Solve the Mysteries of QR Codes
As you are out and about, walking around the world, if you ever bother to look up from the screen on your iPhone, you've probably seen a QR code -- a black and white square with three ringed black squares in the corners and a bunch of seemingly random white and black pixels scattered all over it. They look like pixelated bar codes almost. QR stands for quick response, and the senseless little black picture is a code that can store a Web page URL or short text message.
5. Which Linux Distro Leads the Pack?
Between Googlerola, the tempestuous software patent storm, HP's shenanigans and the one-two punch delivered by CmdrTaco and Steve Jobs, we've surely displayed all the stamina any group of completely overwhelmed souls could reasonably be expected to have. Time now for a little fun. And how do Linux bloggers have fun? That's right, by engaging in a little high-spirited debate -- not of some weighty, industry-changing subject this time, though, but of a matter very close to all of our hearts. It's time, in other words, to ask the question once again: Which distro is best?
6. How our cloud does more with less
We’ve worked hard to reduce the amount of energy our services use. In fact, to provide you with Google products for a month—not just search, but Google+, Gmail, YouTube and everything else we have to offer—our servers use less energy per user than a light left on for three hours. And, because we’ve been a carbon-neutral company since 2007, even that small amount of energy is offset completely, so the carbon footprint of your life on Google is zero.
We’ve learned a lot in the process of reducing our environmental impact, so we’ve added a new section called“The Big Picture” to our Google Green site with numbers on our annual energy use and carbon footprint.
We started the process of getting to zero by making sure our operations use as little energy as possible. For the last decade, energy use has been an obsession. We’ve designed and built some of the most efficient servers and data centers in the world—using half the electricity of a typical data center. Our newest facility in Hamina, Finland, opening this weekend, uses a unique seawater cooling system that requires very little electricity.
Whenever possible, we use renewable energy. We have a large solar panel installation at our Mountain View campus, and we’ve purchased the output of two wind farms to power our data centers. For the greenhouse gas emissions we can’t eliminate, we purchase high-quality carbon offsets.
But we’re not stopping there. By investing hundreds of millions of dollars in renewable energy projects and companies, we’re helping to create 1.7 GW of renewable power. That’s the same amount of energy used to power over 350,000 homes, and far more than what our operations consume.
Finally, our products can help people reduce their own carbon footprints. The study (PDF) we released yesterday on Gmail is just one example of how cloud-based services can be much more energy efficient than locally hosted services helping businesses cut their electricity bills.
Visit our Google Green site to find out more.
7. Tracking Server Uptimes
Unlike some other OS's, Linux almost never has to reboot… or so I was told when I first started learning about it. To illustrate the point, my mentor introduced me to an app that he ran on all of his servers called uptimed.
Microsoft inched further toward the tablet world Tuesday by revealing a slew of new details about its upcoming Windows 8 operating system at its Build developers conference, being held in Anaheim, Calif., through Friday. Windows Division President Steven Sinofsky headlined the presentation, which demoed various aspects of the new operating system. Among other things, Windows 8 will incorporate the Metro-style touch user interface familiar to Windows Phone 7 users. Also, Metro-style apps built for Windows 8 will be full-screen.
2. Don't Try This at Home: Overclocked AMD FX Chip Breaks Speed Record
AMD announced on Tuesday that it has been awarded the Guinness World Record for computer processor speed for an overclocked version of its upcoming eight-core FX desktop processor. This CPU hit a top speed of 8.429 GHz with the help of specialist teams, as well as a heavy dose of liquid nitrogen and helium for cooling. The previous record speed was 8.308 GHz. FX processors also happened to achieve clock frequencies well above 5 GHz using only air- or sub-$100 water cooling solutions, AMD said.
3. Linux and the Giant Breach
by Katherine Noyes
Security scares are so commonplace in the tech industry today that it's virtually impossible to keep track of them all. Security scares in the Linux world, however, are still rare enough as to cause at least a small collective gasp of consternation. That, indeed, is just what happened recently when it was discovered that the Kernel.org site had been breached last month. It's since become pretty clear that the site's source code repositories remained intact, but Linux fans around the globe are still shaking off the slight chill that resulted from the scare.
4. Scan: A Neat Way to Solve the Mysteries of QR Codes
As you are out and about, walking around the world, if you ever bother to look up from the screen on your iPhone, you've probably seen a QR code -- a black and white square with three ringed black squares in the corners and a bunch of seemingly random white and black pixels scattered all over it. They look like pixelated bar codes almost. QR stands for quick response, and the senseless little black picture is a code that can store a Web page URL or short text message.
5. Which Linux Distro Leads the Pack?
Between Googlerola, the tempestuous software patent storm, HP's shenanigans and the one-two punch delivered by CmdrTaco and Steve Jobs, we've surely displayed all the stamina any group of completely overwhelmed souls could reasonably be expected to have. Time now for a little fun. And how do Linux bloggers have fun? That's right, by engaging in a little high-spirited debate -- not of some weighty, industry-changing subject this time, though, but of a matter very close to all of our hearts. It's time, in other words, to ask the question once again: Which distro is best?
6. How our cloud does more with less
We’ve worked hard to reduce the amount of energy our services use. In fact, to provide you with Google products for a month—not just search, but Google+, Gmail, YouTube and everything else we have to offer—our servers use less energy per user than a light left on for three hours. And, because we’ve been a carbon-neutral company since 2007, even that small amount of energy is offset completely, so the carbon footprint of your life on Google is zero.
We started the process of getting to zero by making sure our operations use as little energy as possible. For the last decade, energy use has been an obsession. We’ve designed and built some of the most efficient servers and data centers in the world—using half the electricity of a typical data center. Our newest facility in Hamina, Finland, opening this weekend, uses a unique seawater cooling system that requires very little electricity.
Whenever possible, we use renewable energy. We have a large solar panel installation at our Mountain View campus, and we’ve purchased the output of two wind farms to power our data centers. For the greenhouse gas emissions we can’t eliminate, we purchase high-quality carbon offsets.
But we’re not stopping there. By investing hundreds of millions of dollars in renewable energy projects and companies, we’re helping to create 1.7 GW of renewable power. That’s the same amount of energy used to power over 350,000 homes, and far more than what our operations consume.
Finally, our products can help people reduce their own carbon footprints. The study (PDF) we released yesterday on Gmail is just one example of how cloud-based services can be much more energy efficient than locally hosted services helping businesses cut their electricity bills.
Visit our Google Green site to find out more.
7. Tracking Server Uptimes
Unlike some other OS's, Linux almost never has to reboot… or so I was told when I first started learning about it. To illustrate the point, my mentor introduced me to an app that he ran on all of his servers called uptimed.
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