512 Pixels

CNET, on Google’s server hardware:

Typical data centers rely on large, centralized machines called uninterruptible power supplies (UPS)–essentially giant batteries that kick in when the main supply fails and before generators have time to kick in. Building the power supply into the server is cheaper and means costs are matched directly to the number of servers, Jai said.

“This is much cheaper than huge centralized UPS,” he said. “Therefore no wasted capacity.”

Efficiency is another financial factor. Large UPSs can reach 92 to 95 percent efficiency, meaning that a large amount of power is squandered. The server-mounted batteries do better, Jai said: “We were able to measure our actual usage to greater than 99.9 percent efficiency.”

The Google server was 3.5 inches thick–2U, or 2 rack units, in data center parlance. It had two processors, two hard drives, and eight memory slots mounted on a motherboard built by Gigabyte. Google uses x86 processors from both AMD and Intel, Jai said, and Google uses the battery design on its network equipment, too.

Efficiency is important not just because improving it cuts power consumption costs, but also because inefficiencies typically produce waste heat that requires yet more expense in cooling.

That’s some pretty sweet engineering.

Starting sometime before the launch of the iPhone 3G in July, the Apple rumor mill keeps churning up guesses about the ‘iPhone nano.’

The rumor consists of a few main points:

Apple will release a phone that is physically smaller. This iPhone will be cheaper because Apple will leave out features found on “regular” iPhones.

Let’s look at these points one by one:

1. A Physically Smaller iPhone: The iPhone now sports a 3.5-inch LCD (measured diagonally). The case is in-line with other smartphones - 4.5 by 2.4 by 0.48 inches. It’s comfortable to hold with one hand and big enough to cradle with your palm and type with your thumb. Anything smaller would be difficult to cradle.

The issue that outweighs the “how does it feel” factor is the on-screen keyboard. With a smaller screen, the keys on the keyboard would have to be smaller. A work-around would be having a horizontal-only keyboard, but that would require the user to flip the phone on its side anytime text input was needed.

A common argument I hear is “If Apple changed sizes, it would break current apps that are built for the iPhone’s 320 x 480 screen.” While this is an issue Apple and the developer community will have to deal with, it is ridiculous to think Apple will always stay with the 320 x 480 format. If Apple changes it, the developer community will adapt. It’s not really an issue in my mind.

2. The iPhone Nano Will Be Cheaper… Like $99: When the iPhone was released, it cost $499 for the 4GB model, and $599 for the 8GB. These days an 8GB model will run you $199, while $299 gets you 16GB of storage. Quite a change, but I don’t think the price is going to sink any lower.

Here are some numbers: in the first quarter of 2009, Apple sold 4,363,000 iPhones.  If the company sold the same number of 8GB and 16GB models, the company made $1,090,750,000 on iPhone hardware sales. That’s a lot of money. I don’t see Apple wanting to cut their margins on what has turned out to be a cash cow. Not to mention Apple doesn’t want to be the bargain bin provider - for computers or iPhones. They like being the premium brand - and they do well at the upper-end of their various markets.

3. The iPhone Nano Will Have Fewer Features: Apple doesn’t like having products that don’t represent the brand fully. An iPhone (at this point) with no 3G or no GPS does not further the brand. It’d be like Apple releasing a new iMac running on G5 processors. Once they went to Intel, they can’t go back. Even the iPod Shuffle - Apple’s cheapest hardware offering besides peripherals - screams Apple. An under-powered, under-featured iPhone couldn’t do that effectively.

Scott Bourne, on his new glossy MacBook Pro and Cinema Display:

It doesn’t make sense to me to have a glossy main monitor for editing photos but a matte finish on the smaller laptop. I wanted them to match. I only do serious editing on my large monitor. I use the small laptop monitor only for looking at images downloaded while in the field and I do that in my nice, dark hotel room, so no worries.

The one thing that you can’t understand about the glossy screen is that it is BRIGHT! I mean like the SUN BRIGHT. I put it next to my last-gen 15″ MacBookPro and was staggered by the difference. The new screen is so very bright that it literally overcomes much of the glare. There’s no way to explain this. You just have to see it for yourself. If you compare the two side-by-side, it’s VERY apparent. It’s not one of those deals where you need a special scientific test.

So for me the glossy is fine. I know, I know, many of you won’t like the glossy. So don’t buy it. Pay the extra money for the matte screen. You go your way and I’ll go mine. I’ve been using it for a month with ZERO problem.

The New York Times:

The company said it would continue to operate its newspapers and online sites while it focuses on further improving its cost structure and stabilizing operations. The company has retained Rothschild to commence a process for the sale of asset, the company said. The bankruptcy petition was filed in Delaware.

[…]

While the Sun-Times has taken several steps to reduce costs, “the significant downturn in the print advertising environment that has affected newspapers across the country has continued to severely impact us,” the chairman, Jeremy L. Halbreich, said. “Unfortunately, this deteriorating economic climate, coupled with a significant, pending I.R.S. tax liability dating back to previous management, has led us to today’s difficult action.”

Zlok has  a brief piece up about Rob Janoff, who invented the Apple logo. Here’s some direct quotes:

For inspiration, the first thing I did was go to the supermarket, buy a bag of apples and slice them up. I just stared at the wedges for hours.

At first the Apple logo was black to save on printing costs - remember, this was 1977 - but Jobs wasn’t happy about that:

So I just put colors where I thought they should be, not even thinking about a prism.

Another fascinating look not only at Apple history, but at the design process that goes into timeless pieces.

[ via TUAW]

A nice collection of photos during Earth Hour.

I came across a bulldozer this afternoon:

There’s an event in May called “140 | The Twitter Conference” that is exactly what I was talking about yesterday:

On May 26th and 27th at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, we’re bringing together  the top gurus in the Twitosphere to discuss all things Twitter, from understanding the business value of Twitter to exploring the what makes a great Twitter app.

Just a few of the other topics to be covered include: Utilizing Twitter data for brand monitoring and seeking Alpha * Creating compelling Web services with the Twitter APIs * Best practices: How smart organizations are utilizing Twitter * Attracting and keeping followers.

The API sessions interest me from a programming standpoint (Alex Payne is teaching them, which is pretty sweet), but the rest of it is more of the crap that is getting under my skin more and more.

Microsoft’s new ad, targeting the “Mac Tax:”

Hey, you get what you pay for, sweetheart.

Also of note: at one point, she picks up a netbook and pokes fun of it, saying, “This is like a phone.” Subtle.

Leo King at Macworld:

Businesses can make use of Twitter as a public relations channel, but they need to be aware of security when sharing ideas, market-research firm Gartner has said.

[…]

Many businesses are using Twitter as a public relations and marketing channel, Gartner said. Businesses are “tweeting” about corporate accomplishments, distributing links to press releases, and responding to other Twitterers’ comments about their brand.

Gartner said this approach should be used with caution because uninteresting Tweets could hinder the brand image as much as help.

[…]

Jeffrey Mann, research VP at Gartner said… “If organizations have not defined a public Web participation policy, they should do so as quickly as possible.”

I just love stuff like this. I’m sure Gartner got paid a pretty penny by someone for their research - they are part of a new social media ecosystem that has cropped up recently.

For example, there are tons of “social media gurus” with camps, PowerPoint-based lectures and websites out there teaching people how to harness the Internet. Titles include “10 Ways to Use Twitter to Meet Clients” and “34 Ways to Draw People to Your Facebook Page.” The best part is most of these firms are super-impressed with themselves, but I’m not sure why everyone is so worked up because social media isn’t new.

Sure, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are all new, but the conversation that takes place within those networks is the same conversation that’s been going on for ages: Instead of a neighborhood bar, we have neighborhood web forums and Facebook pages. Instead of chatting at the water cooler, we send each other text messages about how ugly the boss’s tie is.

But people don’t understand new things, so they sign up for seminars (or pay big firms tons of money) to teach* them how Twitter will change their lives and how using Facebook can increase revenue, and they lose a little bit more of how things used to be done - face to face.**

The simple truth is that people don’t really change all that much. Business doesn’t change that much. Accounting is accounting, if it’s done with QuickBooks or with a pen on a ledger. Social media doesn’t have the power to alter the world in the way some of the “experts” would have us believe.

On a somewhat related note, the inclusion of companies on social media networks breaks down the conversations even further. For example, Apple has a page on Facebook. How is that not advertising? Sure, Apple users use the wall and the forums to ask each other questions, but Apple’s purpose on Facebook is to advertise their products - simple and old-fashioned advertising.

And that is as old as time. Just like relationships.

———- *To clarify, I don’t have a problem with people teaching others how the mechanics of social media networks - my issue is with people acting like social media is some new, God-given gift to humanity that only they can unlock. **In fact, in a way, the term “social media” is somewhat oxymoronic. By spending all of our times on our computers trying to force relationships with people, we are neglecting to do it in real life over cups of coffee and in discussions about good books.

CNET has posted a nice collection of sketches and screenshots documenting the developement of the Windows 7 user interface:

Much of the early work in coming up with the Windows 7 desktop was done not at a computer, but in freehand drawings. Some was on whiteboards, others on notepads or scraps of paper. “We would sketch on anything available, (Microsoft designer Stephan) Hoefnagels recalled.

The best thoughts that have come to mankind over the years were drawn on scraps of papers and on napkins.

Apple Insider:

Published for the first time this week, a patent filing for the process reveals that Apple wants to provide a more secure method for preventing unauthorized access to a whole device – or private information on that device – than current techniques like passcodes; however, it also wants to avoid taking up the owner’s time with a separate scan or consuming extra space with a distinct reader.

The solution, the company suggests, would be to automatically use a sensor either hidden within the device or else repurposed from its usual role. Devices could recognize a fingerprint* or finger vein pattern simply by waiting for the user to touch the display, which would hide the sensors on or behind the screen. A forward-facing camera could alternately look for retinal patterns or even recognize the facial features of owners when they’re in the right position for use.

I’m all for it. In a world where we all carry way too much information around with us, increased security is a must.

That said, users don’t want to be annoyed by the measures put in place to keep them safe. Today, the only real security measure on the iPhone is the passcode lock, which makes users punch in a 4-digit code to unlock their iPhone. While it is simple, it can be a pain to unlock an iPhone with one hand, or while doing something else, like driving.

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• I’ve always liked this feature on Thinkpads and other notebooks.