Sunday, October 27, 2013
IPIN – IPHONE LASER
It’s no secret that many Apple products (iPhones & iPads mainly) don’t really lend themselves to peripheral devices. This has made companies get creative, and that’s exactly what the iPin is. The iPin slips into your iPhone’s headphone jack and allows you to use your phone as a laser pointer. Perfect for your next presentation, the iPin app not only allows you to use the laser, but flip through pages as well. There’s also no need to remove it when a call comes in, simply turn it to switch it off. It’s a small and clever upgrade for your new 5S.
Inside The Data Center Where Google Stores All Its Data [Pictures]
Have you ever wondered how Google does what it does? What makes it perch at the top? Well, to reveal a part of it, Google has launched a website where the visitors are offered quite amazing photos taken inside Google Data Centers in U.S., Finland and Belgium. There are a total of eight data centers in the above mentioned countries and Google is building more in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Chile. The virtual tour of North Carolina data centre will also be made available in the street view being offered by Google. Before you dive into the amazing pictures, take a sec to commend Google for being there for us whenever we need it, thanks a lot Google!
It’s not just an amazing color display folks, welcome to campus network room where the fiber optic network usually works at a speed which is 200,000 times faster than your internet connection at home. Those yellow cable trays are for the fiber cables which are running throughout and making Google achieve what others cannot.
Did you know that the Council Bluffs Data Centre has over 115,000 sq. ft. of space available? Google sure is making great use of this space to help us search and browse efficiently.
Not just intricate building folks, you are looking at the steel beams which are supporting the whole structure while also acting like a backbone when it comes to distributing power.
Again a picture from Council Bluffs Data Centre and it shows the network room where plastic curtains are in place. Cold air is blown from the floor and these plastic curtains help keep the cold air in while keeping the hot air away.
Wow, great color scheme and sure looks like a playground! This is the water system for Google. The blue pipes bring cold water supply and the red pipes show the warm water its way back to the cooling area. (Picture is from Oregon Data Centre).
So Google does take the color scheme too seriously. These cables are different which are organized by different colors. Hence, you need not ask for the technical name of the cable but rather a simple “give me the red one” request would suffice.
LEDs being used smartly folks. These LEDs when showing blue color indicate that everything is working fine. LEDs are being used because of them being long lasting, efficient and well, bright!
Welcome to the server floor in Hamina, Finland. These require a huge amount of power and space to function efficiently and Google is making use of an old paper mill at this particular site. Two reasons for that; it’s a large structure and it’s quite close to Gulf of Finland’s water that can be used for cooling purposes.
Welcome to the tape library where Google keeps the backup data and makes use of robotic arms to load and/or unload tapes when and as required.
The capacity of this storage tank is roughly 900,000 liters and it is home to the water which will be sent to the data centre’s heart for cooling purposes.
Here’s another great example of how to be organized and efficient. Each server rack has four switches and they are attached to a different colored cable. This scheme is followed throughout the data centre and it helps during failure by making it easier to spot which needs repairing.
Take a peek behind the server aisle; quite a large assembly of fans will funnel hot air from the server racks into the cooling unit after which it will be re-circulated.
Here’s an image from the Dallas Data Centre in Oregon showing the steam rising above the cooling towers.
Even deer like to stay near Google Data Centre. (Council Bluffs, Iowa Centre)
Mike Bahma working on a motherboard which has been swapped out of server, if it cannot be repaired, Google will have it broken down into parts. These parts are then recycled.
Saturday, October 26, 2013
P.A.C.O. BLUETOOTH SPEAKER WITH GESTURE CONTROLS
P.A.C.O. BLUETOOTH SPEAKER WITH GESTURE CONTROLS
The P.A.C.O. Bluetooth Speaker is the closest you’ll come to being able to use the Force for the time being. The concrete and fir board speaker allows you to control your music and audio with the wave of a hand. Based on hand positioning and movement, you can change tracks, raise/lower the volume, and play/stop your music all together. The harmonic wood and concrete used help the speaker offer rich bass and warm treble and an overall solid experience. It would also be super smooth to wave on some Boyz II Men when you have a lady-friend over.
THE WEEKEND AGENDA
Every Friday we’ll get you hooked up with some solid weekend plans. These are the things we think you should watch, read or do over the next few days.
1 LOOK AT THIS: Emily Ratajkowski: The Girl Who Stole Summer - GQ
2 READ THIS: Rare Bourbon ‘Pappy Van Winkle’ Heist – Courier Journal
3 MAKE THIS: DIY Smartphone Microscope – Instructables
4 EAT THIS: Jim Beam Meatballs – Guyism
5 SEE THIS: All Is Lost – All is Lost
6 DRINK THIS: Smoked Maple Bourbon Chai Tea Toddy – The Kitchn
7 WATCH THIS: Game Of Thrones Medieval Land Fun-time World – YouTube
8 LISTEN TO THIS: WXPN 885 Greatest Songs of the Millennium – WXPN
9 WEAR THIS: Twenty Jeans Shirts - Sharpologist
10 WATCHES MORE EXPENSIVE THAN A FERRARI
Let’s be realistic here, the economy is in the crapper and your 401k looks about as arousing as you do after a cold shower. What’s a Burgundy drinking, ‘stache rocking, web surfing Internet denizen like you to do? Diversify your skill set by ogling watches you’ll never be able to afford and learning what makes them tick.
Most of these watches are more complicated than college calculus and have more history than you could learn in a lifetime. You might even need an engineering degree and an instructional tome to figure out how they work. Regardless, all these watches (for one reason or another) are ridiculously cool and absurdly expensive. Sell the Ferrari, liquidate the stocks, and pick up one of these bad-ass timekeeping devices.
THE PATEK CALIBER 89 - $5,120,000
Buying this watch would require selling 3.5 Bugatti Veyrons, which happens to be 70% of the total number they sold in 2005. The closest most of us will ever get to a Veyron is drooling over it on Top Gear. It’s all about perspective here people. Three Veyrons. Say it out loud – Three. Veyrons. So what makes this watch worth $5.12mil? For starters, it is the most complicated watch on the planet with 33 complications. Essentially, it requires a degree in mechanical engineering to understand, but suffice it to say it has everything but the kitchen sink. It also took more time to design than you spent in college (including those extra years “studying” chemistry).
SPLIT SECONDS PATEK PHILIPPE REFERENCE 1436 BY TIFFANY & CO. – $214,000
It’s emblazoned with the Tiffany & Co. name, so you know it’s gonna be expensive. Compared to the rest of the watches on this list though, it’s actually pretty cheap. Well, you know, if two-hundred grand can ever be considered cheap. You’re getting the Patek and the Tiffany names, what else could you want? The ability to time two events that start simultaneously but end at different times – you didn’t think those fancy blue hands were just for show did you?
PATEK PHILIPPE REF 5016P – $762,000
Rounding out the Patek trinity is the Ref 5016P (The P stands for platinum, duh). This watch is the second most complicated wristwatch (the first one was a pocket watch so it doesn’t count) that Patek has produced. The problem with watches of this caliber the need for adjustments, but Patek has an app for that. If you keep this moon-phase, perpetual calendar, retrograde behemoth running continuously it won’t need adjusting until 2100. That’s something your children’s children’s children will most certainly appreciate.
THE BREGUET MARIE ANTOINETTE – $XX,000,000
This watch was originally designed by Breguet himself and has more pieces (823) than an iPhone. It’s self winding, has a minute repeater, perpetual calendar, equation of time, jumping hour, power reserve indicator, and a bimetallic thermometer – everything but MMS messaging. It took forty-four years for the original to be constructed and Breguet and Marie Antoinette both died before it was completed. Ultimately, the original watch disappeared, never to be seen again. When Swatch acquired Breguet, an Indiana Jones style quest for the watch began. When they came up short they reproduced the watch using only the images of the original. Breguet has received offers in the eight digit range, but still refuse to sell.
JAEGER-LECOULTRE GYROTOURBILLON 1 – $400,000
This watch is clearly complicated, but it has a feature some of the others don’t, a tourbillon. What’s a tourbillon? A wrist-mounted anti-gravity device. Tourbillons (in the most basic terms) prevent gravity from adversely affecting accuracy. Normal tourbillons only rock one-axis anti-gravity, this tourbillon rocks two. No word yet on when the third and fourth axis will be integrated.
ROLEX SUBMARINER – $234,000
At some point in time, everyone has held, worn, or owned a Rolex Submariner. This one is special because it was held, worn, and owned by the one and only Steve McQueen. That’s right, the “King of Cool” owned this particular submersible, self-winding, stainless steel oyster bracelet Rolex. You’re getting time, Rolex, and bona fide badassery.
VACHERON TOUR DE L’ILE – $1,250,000
Vacheron is the oldest watch manufacturer still in existence since its inception in 1755. 250+ years of history allows them to make watches that eclipse most others. The Tour de l’Ile has tourbillon, two faces, and more complications and parts than even the Breguet Marie Antoinette (hopefully without the beheading) making it the most complicated serial wrist watch ever made. It’s worth JUST shy of a Veyron… unless you buy used.
AP ROYAL OAK GRANDE COMPLICATION – $560,000
Audemars Piquet (that’s where the AP comes from obviously) does it again with the Royal Oak Grande Complication. The Grande Complication is another watch that has a perpetual calendar accurate until long after you will no longer be alive. It has a lot of the same complications as the other watches (minute repeater, split seconds chronograph, aforementioned perpetual calendar) but presents them in a way that doesn’t require a thousand page instruction manual just to read. Real men don’t use instruction manuals.
RICHARD MILLE TOURBILLON – $525,000
Look at it. It looks like a Rube Goldberg machine had sex with the Gugenheim and the offspring was skeletonized. Quite a few of these watches have modern elements, but none of them have the modern design that this watch does. Made of aluminum, titanium, and awesome it would be the perfect compliment for the new clear hood you just put on the Ferrari.
ULYSSE NARDIN TRIPLEJACK MINUTE REPEATER – $340,000
It may be crazy, but this watch seems like holds some deep, dark, historical secret that only Nicolas Cage can uncover. But that may just be the three Jacks “hammering the bells to separate the quarters from the minutes.” Sure, it’s more expensive than a Ferrari, but something about this watch just seems a lot less complicated. Since when did you just want to tell time with your watch?
This is the point in the movie after the credits roll where you get that wicked cameo that’s sole purpose is to say thanks to an underappreciated celebrity. In this case, the star is none other than Ben Clymer of
In case you haven’t heard of Hodinkee (for shame!), it’s a daily collection of the most interesting and rare watches around the world. Think Cool Material specifically geared towards vintage and interesting time pieces.
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