Sun Microsystems has developed a ‘data center in a box’ concept that may just alter the business model of computing. Here’s Sun’s Project Blackbox site.

The system is intended for computing projects that need to come to market or to scale up quickly. The datacenter looks like a simple cargo container that can be deployed anywhere. You can take a video tour to see the box inside and out using the box in Sun’s parking lot.

From the NYTimes article:

The expandable computer system, called Project Blackbox, is based on a standard 20-foot shipping container and can be deployed virtually anywhere there is electricity, chilled water and an Internet connection.

The system is planned for commercial availability in the second half of 2007, with prices beginning around $500,000.

There’s a new search engine on the scene: Ms.Dewey.

That’s her to the left. Ms. Dewey is a new, interactive, Flash based search engine. To assist you in your search, the website is hosted by smoking hot model/actress/vocalist, Janina Gavankar.

For a fun time, try entering these queries:

“fastest bittorrent client”
“Who are you?” (enter this several times for different results)
“how to fight a ninja”
“world of warcraft”
“Janina Gavankar“

I was heading to the msdn blogs aggregate page to peek at what the Microsoftie bloggers were up to today but decided to go through the main MSDN page first, when lo and behold, I learn that a new and improved ‘XML Notepad’ has been released!

Here is the MSDN tech article on XML Notepad, why it hasn’t been updated since 1998 and details on the new and improved version, it’s a good read. 

You can download the tool here.

(thumbnail is clickable)

Stay tuned for a upcoming article on popular commercial and free mobile phone web browsers, and their pros and cons.  We’ll review the top mobile browsers and compare functionality of each. 

C|Net has an article describing the new dual screen laptops we’re all about to know and love running Vista.

PCMag has their list of the worst of the worst tech products of this last quarter. While you’re at it, here’s the worst of Q1 and Q2 as well. Enjoy.

Here’s an article/review of an x86 simulator running MS-DOS that was ported to a Palm PDA. It has 80 col x 25 rows, can run many DOS apps like Word 5, QBasic, etc…Long live DOS! 

Good stuff.

You can now download the public beta of ActiveSync 4.5.

Microsoft ActiveSync 4.5 is the latest sync software release for Windows Mobile-powered devices. It appears that most of the benefits will be for WM 5 powered devices and benfits for Enterprise scenarios using Exchange.

The landrush is on, get your .mobi domain address today while the gettin’ is good!

The .mobi domain is for sites that are optimized for mobile phones. You can check out what any .com/.net/.org web page would look like if it was viewed on the mobile using this .mobi emulator. It’s fun for about 30 seconds.

Ran across a tutorial on creating Vista icons. Vista has a new GUI and the really cool shell theme ‘Aero’. Check out some of the examples on that page, but even better you can browse and click on samples at this page from rw-designer.com.

From there you can view the default Vista system icons in varying sizes/resolutions like the example below. Though if you look close enough, it appears that the smallest rendition of this icon appears to never wrap around the *front* of the device like all the others. File a bug!

Here’s the download page to build 5728 of the Release Candidate for Windows Vista. Previously you needed to be a Beta tester or part of the TAP program to get the builds. Go get the bits and party on this OS, there’s tons of new features and enhancements.

Found this girl geek, probably pining for the day she could pose as the “Network Centerfold” girl of the month. Though I think she could just be holding up the network cabinet. Anyway, for the wiring job…I’d give her a 7 out of 10.