Tag Archives: center
Facebook is reportedly behind “Project Catapult” data center
Facebook is reportedly the company that’s planning on building a $ 1.5 billion data center in Altoona, Iowa. Before, everything was kept hush-hush, and the only thing we knew about the data center was that it was referred to by officials as the cryptic “Project Catapult”. Des Moines Register stated that it spoke with lawmakers about Catapult and discovered that it is Facebook who is behind the project.

Facebook was said to have been scouting sites to launch its next data center. There was a location in Nebraska that Facebook was reportedly looking at, but apparently Facebook has decided to go in another direction. According to Data Center Knowledge, official’s approved the site plan for Facebook’s data center in Iowa back in June, and by November Facebook and state/local officials had a meeting to discuss the “fine details” of the data center in order to finalize the deal.
Many people had already speculated that Facebook was behind the data center in Altoona, mostly because the site plans looked very similar to Facebook’s site plans for its data centers in both Oregon and North Carolina. The entire building will be about 1.4 million square feet, with 3 separate data centers measuring 466,000 square-feet. It is said to be the “most technologically advanced data center in the world.”
Facebook is also said to be in talks with officials about tax credits for wind energy production, as well as a new payment rate on water. While there are various factors that point to Facebook as the company behind the data center, Facebook has yet to officially confirm it. But if it is, it looks like both Google and Microsoft’s data centers in Iowa will be getting a familiar neighbor pretty soon.
[via Des Moines Register]
Facebook is reportedly behind “Project Catapult” data center is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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Center Jeff Saturday Retires As A Member Of The Colts
Center Jeff Saturday signed a one-day deal and retired today as a member of the Indianapolis Colts.
Saturday says he has just one regret from his career, and it’s a regret most of the city of Indy shares with him – that’s the fact the team didn’t pursue a perfect season in 2009.
“That’s the only thing I wish we would have done differently,” Saturday said to the Indy Star. “I was in favor of it, but obviously, I got out-voted (by management). When we pulled everybody and just let it go by the wayside and ended up losing (to the New York Jets), that was a great opportunity we had. As a player, perfection is the highest goal you can reach. And we were so close.”
Microsoft posts Dev Center app for Windows Phone, tops 130,000 total apps
Despite launching the Windows Phone Dev Center months ago, Microsoft hasn’t provided an option to run the dashboard on Windows Phone itself. The company is at last introducing some logical consistency (and recursion) by launching a Windows Phone version of its Windows Phone developer console. The app lets registered creators track downloads, crashes and feedback without turning to a computer, and a Live Tile can sometimes save the trouble of launching the app in the first place. Having the Dev Center always on hand may be increasingly necessary, based on Microsoft’s own figures — the Windows Phone Store is up to about 130,000 apps, or 10,000 more than it had in December. That’s not quite the breakneck pace of other mobile stores, but it’s quick enough to justify hitting the download link.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft
Via: Windows Phone Developer Blog, TechCrunch
Source: Windows Phone Store
Renault-Nissan Alliance opens new Silicon Valley research center
Automakers Nissan and Renault formed an alliance called the Renault-Nissan Alliance and opened a US research center in 2011. The two automakers have now announced that they have expanded their presence in Silicon Valley with the opening of a new advanced research center. The automakers say that initially the new research center will focus on autonomous driving and connected cars.

Autonomous driving is a big area of interest for many automakers and technology companies around the world. Google is one of the biggest companies in the autonomous driving arena and has perhaps the largest fleet of self-driving vehicles in the world. Autonomous vehicles are able to operate themselves with no input from a human using GPS and an array of sensors.
The new facility that Renault and Nissan are opening is called the Nissan Research Center Silicon Valley. Nissan says that the new center will enhance its global research capability via collaborative partnerships with companies and research institutions. Nissan says that the goal of the research center with autonomous vehicles is to realize the future with safe and stress-free mobility.
Nissan also lists goals of researching connected vehicles to allow them to tap into infrastructure and the Internet to maximize energy and efficiency. Nissan also wants to research the area of the human machine interface to enhance the experience of autonomous and connected vehicles for drivers. The research center will also participate in planning and advanced development of connected vehicle services and designing of user interface systems that are complementary to the research center’s main goals.
[via Nissan]
Renault-Nissan Alliance opens new Silicon Valley research center is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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RunKeeper 3.0 for Android gets a Holo-native UI, puts us front and center
It must be the season for Android-native makeovers within our apps. RunKeeper has just pushed out a 3.0 update to its exercise tracker that brings the interface in line with Google’s Holo concepts from Android 4.0 and beyond. There’s more to see once acclimated to the look and feel, however. The 3.0 revamp now has a dedicated tab to show all of an athlete’s progress in one area, such as goals and recent history. It also displays both intervals and pacing in mid-activity while making easy to set a reminder for the next run while cooling down. Runners wanting to modernize just need to hit Google Play to give RunKeeper a makeover that could very well improve their health in the process.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Source: Google Play
Microsoft testing out new sewage gas-powered data center

The next time you find yourself saying that Microsoft’s (MSFT) cloud services stink, you could be more right than you realize. Technology Review reports that Microsoft has “gotten approval to test a modular data center run from a biogas-powered fuel cell located at a wastewater treatment plant in Cheyenne, Wyoming.” Or put another way, Microsoft is testing out a new data center that’s powered by sewage gas.
“A person is consuming data and that person’s waste is going to power the data center,” Microsoft data center researcher Sean Parker told the publication. “It’s been a mind shift… when we smell that methane at a water treatment plant, we realize we’re smelling energy.”
And Microsoft isn’t looking at its wastewater plant data center as a novelty either: According to Technology Review, the company “hopes the project will provide insight into whether it can locate smaller data centers at biogas-producing operations, such as wastewater treatment plants, livestock farms, and landfills, around the world.” So if you’re a farmer who has a particularly gassy herd of cattle, give Microsoft a call. They might be willing to turn a smelly liability into a profitable asset.
Major cable companies try to make themselves innovative by opening up new research center

“Innovative” is probably not the word you use to describe your cable company. But Reuters reports that major players such as Comcast (CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable (TWC) are trying to change all that by opening up a new research center in Silicon Valley. The research center will be headed up by CableLabs, “a nonprofit research and development consortium established by the industry,” and will “work on projects with startups and established firms; hire engineers; and engage leading universities such as Stanford in experimenting on new tech.” Charter Communications cofounder Jerald Kent told Reuters that the entire industry needs to “get re-energized” to figure out how to compete with Web-based video for viewers and how to improve its own technology to keep up with initiatives such as Google (GOOG) Fiber.
Ceton Echo Windows Media Center Extender pre-orders are live, ship November 30th for $179
The newest option for Windows Media Center users is nearly here, as Ceton’s Echo extender has been listed for pre-order at Newegg. Available for $ 179 with a $ 10 gift card and free shipping, the diminutive accessory enables WMC streams of your live and recorded TV in up to 5 other rooms. That’s been possible with other extenders — especially Microsoft’s own Xbox 360 console — but the Echo claims its advantage is being purpose built to do the job with less noise and power consumption, plus support for features like DTS surround sound. We’ll be reviewing it as soon as the software is final, early adopters that are ready to jump but missed the beta offer can snag one at the link below — the first shipments are scheduled to go out November 30th.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Ceton Echo Windows Media Center Extender pre-orders are live, ship November 30th for $ 179 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Nov 2012 20:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Microsoft offering Windows 8 Pro users free upgrade to Media Center
When Microsoft announced that they would be getting rid of Windows Media Center and all of its codecs for DVD playback and broadcast television in Windows 8, many home theater PC fanatics were effectively disappointed and probably really aggravated. However, it looks like the company is offering anyone who has Windows 8 Pro a free upgrade to Media Center until the end of January.

Microsoft said that they essentially got rid of Windows Media Center because there wasn’t a lot of users who were taking advantage of it, but the home theater PC crowd is large enough that Microsoft received enough flack for it that they’re bringing it back for free to some users. From now until January 31, 2013, Windows 8 Pro users can sign up to receive a free upgrade to Windows 8 Media Center.
Of course, Windows Media Center is still widely available for Windows 8 users, but it doesn’t come with the OS itself. Users must purchase it as an add-on in the Windows Store for $ 10. Granted, that’s not a lot of money at all, especially for all the features that you get, but considering that it was once a free feature that came with Windows, we can see how HTPC enthusiasts would be upset.
To get your free Media Center upgrade, all you have to do is head to Microsoft’s website and enter in your email address, your Windows 8 Pro product key, and the captcha code. Once that’s done, all you have to do is wait patiently for your Windows 8 Media Center license code to appear in your inbox.
[via Engadget]
Microsoft offering Windows 8 Pro users free upgrade to Media Center is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.





