smart stuff

The Google Box

I found this on pbs.org.

How can I top last week’s prediction about Google’s shipping container data centers? By explaining a bit more about how the system came to be and how it will work.

In last week’s column I told how Google has been experimenting with portable data centers built in standard 40-foot shipping containers. The idea isn’t new and it isn’t even Google’s. As far as I can tell it came originally from Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive, who wants to replicate the archive here and there around the world and figured that a shipping container filled with servers and disk drives might be the easiest way to do so. Not only is it truly plug-and-play, but it is also a heck of a lot cheaper from a bit-schlepping perspective. Carrying a petabyte data center by ship from California to Australia is the virtual equivalent of an OC-192 optical connection - the world’s most powerful SneakerNet.

GOOGLE & SUN OFFICE

.. here we go. How long will it take till this hurts MS really badly? google-blog.dirson.com/post.new/0285/

Web-based Office suite will hurt Microsoft

A web-based office suite, maybe partially powered by Ajax will eventually kill Microsoft’s cash cow office.

It will take 5 years, as one has to get all right. The fast intuitive UI, the security, the marketing and many other things. Looking at a big company, most people only use:

Browser
Calendaring app
Word
Excel
Powerpoint

Why did openoffice not have a wider impact so far? Can a web-based suite win without entering the "comopatability/file format" war?

Have a nice and long weekend. It’s the last two days of the Oktoberfest, so I am preparing for some beer.