There are many places where security cameras are not allowed. In California, state employees cannot be recorded while working as an example. (Fear of having their productivity analyzed) I have seen a couple of data centers with NetBotz cameras that all have to be covered because of this. There are applications, but there are also better approaches.
It seems more logical to me to let the CCTV cameras dumb-down their output to act as motion sensors capable of discerning color and motion rather than purely using motion sensors. If you want to get an image, you can call up the camera manually and get whatever is live (or less than 5 minutes old). You can then program a system to look for suspicious movement patterns, and grab the video feeds from affected cameras.
Depending on how aggressive you got with the system, you could even scan for things like cashier fraud without storing all the video.
But just plain motion sensors are a pain in the ass. There isn't generally good enough field of view data internally for anything but the most basic functions-- occupancy sensors and alarm systems.
It is actually sad what critical systems end up getting connected to the internet for all the wrong reasons.
Say I develop a SCADA system for a large data center for a major financial institution. It has an IP backbone, and I connect security cameras to that; the backbone is sized about 1,000x what it needs for my bandwidth requirements, so it isn't a problem. The cameras actually provide a support function (call it visual feedback) to the SCADA network, so it is all in the family, right?
All ethernet ports are located in spaces that require secure access (and happen to house things like EPOs that can take down the facility in one go), and everything is perfectly logical....And then something changes. Innocuous changes, like the responsibility for after-hours first response shifting from Security to the NOC. Then everything goes to hell. The Network folks are against stand-alone networks, since they can't send an outbound mail message to their servers. Then, they complain that their management tools can't spot problems on the network. Pretty soon, it is straight on the corporate network...
Every time I have done a solid SCADA system, this is what ends up happening. Pretty soon, I will just go back to RS-485 networks, which kills me. The only plus I have is that my network is fundamentally more secure than the NetBotz crap that all the IT guys put in without proper security gateways...
The problem with that logic is that the updated Google Maps application is good enough for 95% of the population. It ultimately provides much better functionality than my real, dedicated GPS unit. Garmin and their kind destroyed the market with overpriced map updates and locked regional maps.
A dedicated unit is great when you need better accuracy of course, or where you want to track waypoints and such, but that is a much smaller market.
While I am no HVAC engineer, I pretend to be one on odd-numbered days.
Cold climates have several real challenges for data centers. From an HVAC standpoint, there are two general ways to cool a data center in a cold climate-- outside air only and air/water cooling. Air/water systems have drycoolers with glycol kept around 30-40F, and circulate the cold water throughout the building to fan coil units. Minimal outside air is brought in for "fresh air," and must be humidified which generally requires a lot of energy.
The air-only systems bring in 100% outside air, but must first temper (heat-- to avoid condensation) it and increase the humidity to control static inside the space. Very little pump energy, but the humidification and pre-heat are expensive.
While it seems trivial to filter out dust, the better air filtration systems increase the pressure drop of the air handling unit, and force you to use a bigger fan. Heat wheels and enthalpy wheels are also an option, but have similar challenges in most real-world situations.
The biggest challenge with cold climates is making sure the diesel generators start when needed. This alone makes most data center managers skeptical at the prospects of cold-climate data centers.
For a truly efficient solution, the best approach is likely to be heat removal at the chip level and recovery for other purposes. 100F air isn't very useful, but if you can get 150F water off the chip then that heat can often be reclaimed for some other purpose more effectively. If all else fails, 150F water is pretty easy to cool off in a closed circuit dry cooler no matter what the outside temperature.
There is also a lot of work going into direct-evaporative cooling solutions (swamp coolers) for data centers, as well as some other non-compressor based cooling systems. Unfortunately, most of these can work very efficiently for 9-10 months a year, and need a separate system to cool for the remainder of the year. Having two systems makes the payback equation often favor the less efficient solution...
While I know that Motorola needs to get a "sink or swim" attitude for the mobile phone business, if I was a MOT shareholder I would want to first kick out management and then determine what needs to be done.
The real opportunity for the next generation of devices is tighter integration among functions. I would look at the iPhone and iPod Touch as examples of what happens if they draw the line in the sand as proposed. One is a phone, one isn't... but they both benefit from the same user interface and common marketing (to establish brand and look). That same potential may exist between a cell phone and a walkie-talkie or whatever next generation device comes out, but breaking up the businesses will force them to ignore that potential synergy.
The real reason that Motorola is sucking wind now is that they tied their success to Nextel with the lone exception of the RAZR. They never seemed to listen to customer complaints of their user interface, and people got tired of it and switched to something else. They made a "pretty cool" phone in the Q, but stuck it with Windows Mobile. They aren't doing anything to push the envelope.
Sony was selling the equipment at a loss to win the war, at least for pressing the disks (technically leasing the equipment...). Prices have to come up now so they make a profit. Simple business.
Unfortunately, they didn't realize who their competition really was.
By non-multi tasking, the complaint is that you can't run two browser "tabs" at the same time downloading content. You can't switch to the calculator (bad example), do something, switch back to the browser and expect content to have been downloaded in the background.
On a slow network connection (or with slow browser rendering), you need to be able to have two or three things downloading and rendering at a time to "keep up."
Precision motions in CAD aren't made on the basis of a mouse alone. While I do miss my old 16-button digitizer and a larger working area than a mouse offers, I am pretty darn comfortable with my MacBook Pro's touchpad and single button. The big issue is that the software has to be better at working with the UI.
So... part of me thinks it isn't terrible to patent the gestures, as long as you offer free licensing to free software and reasonable fees for commercial software.
The first priority is to minimize cords and chargers; pick devices that can share the same chargers as much as possible. Blackberrys and Motorola phones both charge from the same mini-usb charger or through the laptop. If I could find a camera that did the same, it would go a long way. Disposable or AA/AAA format rechargables might sound good, but they really are a pain in the ass.
After you manage that feat, see if you can find a laptop that just needs 24V or 12V external power source that you can find a generic power supply for that can be multi-function in some fashion with easily interchangeable tips will get you that extra distance.
Skip the dedicated GPS-- unless you will really be out in places that you can die if you don't find your way out. (A guide might actually be a better investment then...) If you are doing a lot of driving... it might make sense, but if you are scattered over a lot of different places it won't be as effective as you might hope.
Camera... the DSLR is a pain to lug, especially with extra lenses, but the quality is better. Go with a smaller camera (I like the Pentax Optio series) and take more pictures.
Laptop... if weight *really* matters, as I have said in other similar threads, I used to use a Palm V with an external keyboard. A Nokia 770/800/810 would almost do today, if your storage can be a server elsewhere. (This is often more of a challenge than one would expect. I have had to wait 24 hours for information to upload before...) In a lot of places, you can tether your phone to something like a N800 pretty cheap.
Main key is to decide what your primary need is-- infotainment, communication, "work," documentation of your days,..?
From the WSJ article, the shoebox is $1,500, launch is $50 (they use H2 rather than He), and recovery $100. They pay farmers to launch them and adventurers to recover them, included in that cost. With 5% mortality, the cost per balloon is $225, or cost per year $82k. Since the boxes are so cheap, they can distribute 20-30 to different farmers to launch when requested. The recovery is aided by GPS coordinates, but I will admit it wouldn't be worth $100 to me to go out and find one.
The coverage should be ~50 mile radius.
To build a base station to do the same thing you would need at least a 300' mast and microwave links between them, plus you have to lease the ground. I don't think you can pull it off with less than a 3-year payback; you also need more prime airwaves.
It's actually a pretty ingenious start-up solution.
Initial costs are minimized by having such a cheap deployment cost. Costs are kept down by limiting the battery needs for the device, letting it drift, and having a practical coverage range. If the marginal cost to launch another balloon is only $225 given launch, recover, and mortality, they can quickly adapt to changing needs. Upgrading the network with new technology is about as easy as it gets... just mail out a new set of shoeboxes!
Once you start adding complexity to it with solar cells and propulsion, costs can quickly spiral out of control.
I'm just curious how much bandwidth they can muster out of a system like this...
I read the WSJ version of the article, and it was actually much more supportive of some regulation than I would have expected. Unfortunately, they still don't catch on to the fact that all these sanctioned monopolies are stifling the market and preventing true competition.
I'm not necessarily for government controlled (last-mile) infrastructure, but the government needs to at least mandate competition-- maybe force unbundling of competitive services for cable and DSL/FTTH and just give us the pipe, er... tube.
This might actually be the only time in my life where I have defended military spending, but here goes: -The US military is about technological superiority over opponents rather than force size. Technology is a "force multiplier." -When your opponent nullifies your force multiplier you have to maintain par strategically. -Military strategy is more about winning the war than the battle, right or wrong. It isn't about protecting people but protecting the viability of the nation. Individuals can be sacrificed.
In contrast, "homeland security" to protect us from the "terrorists" is all about security theater. Border security does little to improve the picture; look how effective it is with the drug trade. Corrupting one of the "blue collar" people at the border creates an adequate hole to do whatever you want.
The first step is to limit the forces that want to do "bad things" in a political arena, and ensure that justice happens after the fact to discourage the next round.
Yeah... I have plenty of NDAs covering information on my laptop. Most of the companies are US-based, but not all. Under the NDA, the only time I can be compelled to provide information is under a court issued warrant.
Many years ago when I did my first big trip, the ability to post pictures and stories of my travels for my friends was one of the things that helped to maintain connections both between the people back home, and those met on the road. I have thousands of pictures from the travels; it was before the days of digital cameras, as well as a couple notepads that I wrote for my personal journal. While the crate of photos and the journals might be cool for the next generation, nothing took the place of the website for today.
A couple years ago I did a little blog from "our little island", and it was similarly useful (and a whole lot easier to deal with).
I have to say it is idiotic to just put everything in a paper journal, no matter what the practicality, fails to realize some of the benefits of being able to edit and make information available to others.
In my day, I used a Palm Pilot plus an external folding keyboard to make things work. Today I would go for an Eee PC or the PDA + keyboard route again. Not great for managing pictures, but adequate for writing.
The problem is "public performance" keeps changing meaning. It used to be that an organized community not profiting from display of content was considered a private audience.
Clearly you are right, but it is odd that Apple didn't announce that product at launch to just shut people up. Since Apple doesn't license the mag-safe connector to anybody, it makes it much harder to get a third-party battery pack.
While I know the product will appeal to a large number of people, all the goofy connector cords really become a pain, and only one powered USB port means that you can't use an external hard drive.
I would have expected Apple to figure out a way to have an external block that can add all the ports one might need... DVI, gigabit Ethernet, 4xUSB, FW, and maybe even an external battery, without relying on a tangle of USB Hub, Ethernet Dongle, Mini-DVI Dongle, etc. Something along the line of the supplemental Sony batteries for their ultraportables.
And, as a 100k flier, I have to say that a very small portion of my flights have had working power outlets. Those that did only have the DC airline adapter, so that is one more frigging cord I have to lug with me. I have a second battery that I always fly with for coast-coast or international flights... and I need it. I would love to drop down from my 17" MBP to something lighter and easier to travel with, but the Air doesn't fit my needs.
(My wife on the other hand would probably love it in practice-- small, light, still a reasonable keyboard and screen. When the battery dies, go to sleep.)
Many countries do not have grounded "neutral" conductors, in the third world as well as some countries in Europe. You get shocked a lot when using equipment that assumes that either a specific or at least one conductor is grounded. Leakage current can be very high, and it does burn out equipment.
Equipment with a low voltage input does not require grounding. The metal in the keyboard support pan for my old Dell was the worst, but my MacBook Pro was really rough when used in countries that have a floating neutral. Common problem, especially in winter with low humidity.
Commercial customers can get a curtailment rate, where on 3-24 hours notice they must cut back to a contracted firm service level. Many companies cut back light levels, up the thermostats, and even shut down manufacturingto take advantage of discounted normal rates. Larger users shed several megawatts.
For it to make sense residentially, you have to have a pool of about 10 homes to save 5 kW.
Utilities need to manage total energy consumption as well as peak demand to stretch generation and transmission capacity and control costs.
There are just so many fundamental problems with this concept I don't know where to start. Power is such an easy shot-- where the hell are you going to get enough biodiesel to run a data center of any size for starters. Moving the data center around also would use a whole lot of "less environmentally friendly" bunker oil, and fundamentally the only problem it addresses is a real-estate one.
Oh, and it doesn't address the real-estate problem very well, because protected berths with access to good fiber are pretty expensive in and of themselves.
The sad thing: This proves we are in an economic bubble and the pop is coming!
I have an iPhone, jailbroken twice but currently locked down. I have seen about a dozen iPhones through my random holiday travels in airports and on planes where I could see the home screen. Nine of the 12 had third party apps installed.
Given the demographic, I was amazed by that-- well over half the people with an iPhone love it, but identify the fact that there is something fundamental missing to the point tha they are willing to void the warrantee to fix it.
The key is that people's needs are different, and there needs to be a fair way to address them. The walled garden won't sell 10m phones in 2008.
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There are many places where security cameras are not allowed. In California, state employees cannot be recorded while working as an example. (Fear of having their productivity analyzed) I have seen a couple of data centers with NetBotz cameras that all have to be covered because of this. There are applications, but there are also better approaches.
It seems more logical to me to let the CCTV cameras dumb-down their output to act as motion sensors capable of discerning color and motion rather than purely using motion sensors. If you want to get an image, you can call up the camera manually and get whatever is live (or less than 5 minutes old). You can then program a system to look for suspicious movement patterns, and grab the video feeds from affected cameras.
Depending on how aggressive you got with the system, you could even scan for things like cashier fraud without storing all the video.
But just plain motion sensors are a pain in the ass. There isn't generally good enough field of view data internally for anything but the most basic functions-- occupancy sensors and alarm systems.
It is actually sad what critical systems end up getting connected to the internet for all the wrong reasons.
...And then something changes. Innocuous changes, like the responsibility for after-hours first response shifting from Security to the NOC. Then everything goes to hell. The Network folks are against stand-alone networks, since they can't send an outbound mail message to their servers. Then, they complain that their management tools can't spot problems on the network. Pretty soon, it is straight on the corporate network...
Say I develop a SCADA system for a large data center for a major financial institution. It has an IP backbone, and I connect security cameras to that; the backbone is sized about 1,000x what it needs for my bandwidth requirements, so it isn't a problem. The cameras actually provide a support function (call it visual feedback) to the SCADA network, so it is all in the family, right?
All ethernet ports are located in spaces that require secure access (and happen to house things like EPOs that can take down the facility in one go), and everything is perfectly logical.
Every time I have done a solid SCADA system, this is what ends up happening. Pretty soon, I will just go back to RS-485 networks, which kills me. The only plus I have is that my network is fundamentally more secure than the NetBotz crap that all the IT guys put in without proper security gateways...
The problem with that logic is that the updated Google Maps application is good enough for 95% of the population. It ultimately provides much better functionality than my real, dedicated GPS unit. Garmin and their kind destroyed the market with overpriced map updates and locked regional maps.
A dedicated unit is great when you need better accuracy of course, or where you want to track waypoints and such, but that is a much smaller market.
While I am no HVAC engineer, I pretend to be one on odd-numbered days.
Cold climates have several real challenges for data centers. From an HVAC standpoint, there are two general ways to cool a data center in a cold climate-- outside air only and air/water cooling. Air/water systems have drycoolers with glycol kept around 30-40F, and circulate the cold water throughout the building to fan coil units. Minimal outside air is brought in for "fresh air," and must be humidified which generally requires a lot of energy.
The air-only systems bring in 100% outside air, but must first temper (heat-- to avoid condensation) it and increase the humidity to control static inside the space. Very little pump energy, but the humidification and pre-heat are expensive.
While it seems trivial to filter out dust, the better air filtration systems increase the pressure drop of the air handling unit, and force you to use a bigger fan. Heat wheels and enthalpy wheels are also an option, but have similar challenges in most real-world situations.
The biggest challenge with cold climates is making sure the diesel generators start when needed. This alone makes most data center managers skeptical at the prospects of cold-climate data centers.
For a truly efficient solution, the best approach is likely to be heat removal at the chip level and recovery for other purposes. 100F air isn't very useful, but if you can get 150F water off the chip then that heat can often be reclaimed for some other purpose more effectively. If all else fails, 150F water is pretty easy to cool off in a closed circuit dry cooler no matter what the outside temperature.
There is also a lot of work going into direct-evaporative cooling solutions (swamp coolers) for data centers, as well as some other non-compressor based cooling systems. Unfortunately, most of these can work very efficiently for 9-10 months a year, and need a separate system to cool for the remainder of the year. Having two systems makes the payback equation often favor the less efficient solution...
While I know that Motorola needs to get a "sink or swim" attitude for the mobile phone business, if I was a MOT shareholder I would want to first kick out management and then determine what needs to be done.
The real opportunity for the next generation of devices is tighter integration among functions. I would look at the iPhone and iPod Touch as examples of what happens if they draw the line in the sand as proposed. One is a phone, one isn't... but they both benefit from the same user interface and common marketing (to establish brand and look). That same potential may exist between a cell phone and a walkie-talkie or whatever next generation device comes out, but breaking up the businesses will force them to ignore that potential synergy.
The real reason that Motorola is sucking wind now is that they tied their success to Nextel with the lone exception of the RAZR. They never seemed to listen to customer complaints of their user interface, and people got tired of it and switched to something else. They made a "pretty cool" phone in the Q, but stuck it with Windows Mobile. They aren't doing anything to push the envelope.
More telling is the fact that iTunes surpassed the other two retailers mentioned in sales-- Target and Best Buy.
It will be interesting to see when the labels figure out how to run a (music) business!
Sony was selling the equipment at a loss to win the war, at least for pressing the disks (technically leasing the equipment...). Prices have to come up now so they make a profit. Simple business.
Unfortunately, they didn't realize who their competition really was.
By non-multi tasking, the complaint is that you can't run two browser "tabs" at the same time downloading content. You can't switch to the calculator (bad example), do something, switch back to the browser and expect content to have been downloaded in the background.
On a slow network connection (or with slow browser rendering), you need to be able to have two or three things downloading and rendering at a time to "keep up."
Precision motions in CAD aren't made on the basis of a mouse alone. While I do miss my old 16-button digitizer and a larger working area than a mouse offers, I am pretty darn comfortable with my MacBook Pro's touchpad and single button. The big issue is that the software has to be better at working with the UI.
So... part of me thinks it isn't terrible to patent the gestures, as long as you offer free licensing to free software and reasonable fees for commercial software.
The first priority is to minimize cords and chargers; pick devices that can share the same chargers as much as possible. Blackberrys and Motorola phones both charge from the same mini-usb charger or through the laptop. If I could find a camera that did the same, it would go a long way. Disposable or AA/AAA format rechargables might sound good, but they really are a pain in the ass.
..?
After you manage that feat, see if you can find a laptop that just needs 24V or 12V external power source that you can find a generic power supply for that can be multi-function in some fashion with easily interchangeable tips will get you that extra distance.
Skip the dedicated GPS-- unless you will really be out in places that you can die if you don't find your way out. (A guide might actually be a better investment then...) If you are doing a lot of driving... it might make sense, but if you are scattered over a lot of different places it won't be as effective as you might hope.
Camera... the DSLR is a pain to lug, especially with extra lenses, but the quality is better. Go with a smaller camera (I like the Pentax Optio series) and take more pictures.
Laptop... if weight *really* matters, as I have said in other similar threads, I used to use a Palm V with an external keyboard. A Nokia 770/800/810 would almost do today, if your storage can be a server elsewhere. (This is often more of a challenge than one would expect. I have had to wait 24 hours for information to upload before...) In a lot of places, you can tether your phone to something like a N800 pretty cheap.
Main key is to decide what your primary need is-- infotainment, communication, "work," documentation of your days,
From the WSJ article, the shoebox is $1,500, launch is $50 (they use H2 rather than He), and recovery $100. They pay farmers to launch them and adventurers to recover them, included in that cost. With 5% mortality, the cost per balloon is $225, or cost per year $82k. Since the boxes are so cheap, they can distribute 20-30 to different farmers to launch when requested. The recovery is aided by GPS coordinates, but I will admit it wouldn't be worth $100 to me to go out and find one.
The coverage should be ~50 mile radius.
To build a base station to do the same thing you would need at least a 300' mast and microwave links between them, plus you have to lease the ground. I don't think you can pull it off with less than a 3-year payback; you also need more prime airwaves.
It's actually a pretty ingenious start-up solution.
Initial costs are minimized by having such a cheap deployment cost. Costs are kept down by limiting the battery needs for the device, letting it drift, and having a practical coverage range. If the marginal cost to launch another balloon is only $225 given launch, recover, and mortality, they can quickly adapt to changing needs. Upgrading the network with new technology is about as easy as it gets... just mail out a new set of shoeboxes!
Once you start adding complexity to it with solar cells and propulsion, costs can quickly spiral out of control.
I'm just curious how much bandwidth they can muster out of a system like this...
I read the WSJ version of the article, and it was actually much more supportive of some regulation than I would have expected. Unfortunately, they still don't catch on to the fact that all these sanctioned monopolies are stifling the market and preventing true competition.
I'm not necessarily for government controlled (last-mile) infrastructure, but the government needs to at least mandate competition-- maybe force unbundling of competitive services for cable and DSL/FTTH and just give us the pipe, er... tube.
This might actually be the only time in my life where I have defended military spending, but here goes:
-The US military is about technological superiority over opponents rather than force size. Technology is a "force multiplier."
-When your opponent nullifies your force multiplier you have to maintain par strategically.
-Military strategy is more about winning the war than the battle, right or wrong. It isn't about protecting people but protecting the viability of the nation. Individuals can be sacrificed.
In contrast, "homeland security" to protect us from the "terrorists" is all about security theater. Border security does little to improve the picture; look how effective it is with the drug trade. Corrupting one of the "blue collar" people at the border creates an adequate hole to do whatever you want.
The first step is to limit the forces that want to do "bad things" in a political arena, and ensure that justice happens after the fact to discourage the next round.
Yeah... I have plenty of NDAs covering information on my laptop. Most of the companies are US-based, but not all. Under the NDA, the only time I can be compelled to provide information is under a court issued warrant.
Many years ago when I did my first big trip, the ability to post pictures and stories of my travels for my friends was one of the things that helped to maintain connections both between the people back home, and those met on the road. I have thousands of pictures from the travels; it was before the days of digital cameras, as well as a couple notepads that I wrote for my personal journal. While the crate of photos and the journals might be cool for the next generation, nothing took the place of the website for today.
A couple years ago I did a little blog from "our little island", and it was similarly useful (and a whole lot easier to deal with).
I have to say it is idiotic to just put everything in a paper journal, no matter what the practicality, fails to realize some of the benefits of being able to edit and make information available to others.
In my day, I used a Palm Pilot plus an external folding keyboard to make things work. Today I would go for an Eee PC or the PDA + keyboard route again. Not great for managing pictures, but adequate for writing.
The problem is "public performance" keeps changing meaning. It used to be that an organized community not profiting from display of content was considered a private audience.
Clearly you are right, but it is odd that Apple didn't announce that product at launch to just shut people up. Since Apple doesn't license the mag-safe connector to anybody, it makes it much harder to get a third-party battery pack.
While I know the product will appeal to a large number of people, all the goofy connector cords really become a pain, and only one powered USB port means that you can't use an external hard drive.
I would have expected Apple to figure out a way to have an external block that can add all the ports one might need... DVI, gigabit Ethernet, 4xUSB, FW, and maybe even an external battery, without relying on a tangle of USB Hub, Ethernet Dongle, Mini-DVI Dongle, etc. Something along the line of the supplemental Sony batteries for their ultraportables.
And, as a 100k flier, I have to say that a very small portion of my flights have had working power outlets. Those that did only have the DC airline adapter, so that is one more frigging cord I have to lug with me. I have a second battery that I always fly with for coast-coast or international flights... and I need it. I would love to drop down from my 17" MBP to something lighter and easier to travel with, but the Air doesn't fit my needs.
(My wife on the other hand would probably love it in practice-- small, light, still a reasonable keyboard and screen. When the battery dies, go to sleep.)
Many countries do not have grounded "neutral" conductors, in the third world as well as some countries in Europe. You get shocked a lot when using equipment that assumes that either a specific or at least one conductor is grounded. Leakage current can be very high, and it does burn out equipment.
Equipment with a low voltage input does not require grounding. The metal in the keyboard support pan for my old Dell was the worst, but my MacBook Pro was really rough when used in countries that have a floating neutral. Common problem, especially in winter with low humidity.
Commercial customers can get a curtailment rate, where on 3-24 hours notice they must cut back to a contracted firm service level. Many companies cut back light levels, up the thermostats, and even shut down manufacturingto take advantage of discounted normal rates. Larger users shed several megawatts.
For it to make sense residentially, you have to have a pool of about 10 homes to save 5 kW.
Utilities need to manage total energy consumption as well as peak demand to stretch generation and transmission capacity and control costs.
There are just so many fundamental problems with this concept I don't know where to start. Power is such an easy shot-- where the hell are you going to get enough biodiesel to run a data center of any size for starters. Moving the data center around also would use a whole lot of "less environmentally friendly" bunker oil, and fundamentally the only problem it addresses is a real-estate one.
Oh, and it doesn't address the real-estate problem very well, because protected berths with access to good fiber are pretty expensive in and of themselves.
The sad thing: This proves we are in an economic bubble and the pop is coming!
I have an iPhone, jailbroken twice but currently locked down. I have seen about a dozen iPhones through my random holiday travels in airports and on planes where I could see the home screen. Nine of the 12 had third party apps installed.
Given the demographic, I was amazed by that-- well over half the people with an iPhone love it, but identify the fact that there is something fundamental missing to the point tha they are willing to void the warrantee to fix it.
The key is that people's needs are different, and there needs to be a fair way to address them. The walled garden won't sell 10m phones in 2008.