IBM Is Building the Largest Data Storage Array Ever, 120 Petabytes Big. Researchers at IBM's Almaden, California research lab are building what will be the world's largest data array--a monstrous repository of 200,000 individual hard drives all interlaced.
All together, it has a storage capacity of 120 petabytes, or 120 million gigabytes. There are plenty of challenges inherent in building this kind of groundbreaking array, which, says, IBM, is destined to be used for, as Technology Review writes, "an unnamed client that needs a new supercomputer for detailed simulations of real-world phenomena. " For one thing, IBM had to rely on water-cooling units rather than traditional fans, as this many hard drives creates heat that can't be subdued in the normal manner. There's also a sophisticated backup system that senses the number of hard disk failures and adjusts the speed of rebuilding data accordingly--the more failures, the faster it rebuilds. According to IBM, that should allow it to operate with the absolute minimum of data loss, even none. Building Marketable Homes. August 15, 2011 Building homes on time and on budget can provide great value; building homes with unique features in order to sell homes faster is also key.
By integrating home technologies into a residential construction project, construction companies can give themselves a head start on the sales process. New research from the CEA (Consumer Electronics Assn.), www.ce.org, Arlington, Va., suggests realtors believe technology will play a significant role in home sales during the next five years. Survey participants report interest in home technology among homebuyers is high.
Two in three realtors say technology features encouraged interest in homes, and their clients are excited to see features such as security systems, home theaters, and home-automation and energy-management systems. The research says nine in 10 realtors in the past 24 months have bought, sold, or showed homes with these kinds of systems. It seems consumers may be willing to pay for this technology, too. Cry baby. The Joy of Tech is a comic about technology and pop culture, created by Nitrozac and Snaggy, and updated three times a week.
We like to feature the people and events that are making today's tech news. We've been making comics on the web since early 1999, and The Joy of Tech just celebrated its 10th anniversary. We're very proud to be featured regularly on places like AllThingsD (from the people who publish The Wall Street Journal), Bloomberg Businessweek, Macworld UK magazine, Folha in Brazil, and others, both on the web and in print. Airbnb’s roller coaster week of ups and downs. Social bed and breakfast marketplace Airbnb started the week on a high note by confirming that it had raised a large $112 million second round of funding that pushed the startup’s valuation to an estimated $1.3 billion.
Just days later, the company’s reputation spiraled down after social link sharing community Hacker News caught wind of an Airbnb user’s emotional account of merciless renters, who ransacked her apartment and turned her entire life upside down. “Three difficult days ago, I returned home from an exhausting week of business travel to an apartment that I no longer recognized… With heart pounding and stomach churning, I slowly swung the door open as both a pungent odor and the full realization of what had occurred washed over me: this wasn’t just a random break-in.
My home had been burglarized, vandalized and thoroughly trashed by a ‘traveler’ I connected with via the online rental agency, Airbnb.com,” wrote San Francisco resident EJ on her personal blog June 29. Tech Withdrawal Similar to Giving Up Drinking, Smoking. Going without the Internet and other modern technologies, even for a short amount of time, can be as harrowing as giving up smoking or drinking, a new study suggests.
A new report from British consumer research firm Intersperience found that over half of people felt "upset" when asked to not use any technology for 24 hours and 40 percent felt "lonely" when not engaging in activities such as social networking, emails, texting or watching their favorite TV channels. Intersperience asked more than 1,000 British adults ages 18 to over 65 about their digital lives and restricted participants to get through a full day without using technology . One participant described the challenge "like having my hand chopped off," while another called it "my biggest nightmare. " Flash vs. HTML5.
Iphone & Ipad. Can Technology Reinvent Education? By Robin Willner | 9:25 AM March 18, 2011 Editor’s note: This post is part of a three-week series examining educational innovation and technology, published in partnership with the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard University.
In 1994, IBM posed a deceptively simple set of questions to district superintendents and chief state school officers: Is there a long-standing barrier to school improvement that you think can be addressed by emerging technology to accelerate the pace of reform and support student achievement? What have you always wanted to do for students, teachers or parents that might finally be possible? What are the critical levers for change that could be enhanced through technology? Most education leaders were stumped, in part, because many of the technological advances we take for granted were still to come. But there was more to the challenge. But there’s more. Technology alone is never the answer — that’s the main lesson from Watson’s Jeopardy win.