Video

Overheard: Shpigler coaches Yahoo on how to negotiate more effectively

Overheard: Overclocking your toothbrush

Overheard: Laptop Li-ON battery pack overheating

We intentionally created conditions in which the Li-ON battery pack would explode inside a generic portable. The results are dramatic.

Overheard: HP bullet-proof server

Overheard: The exploding Web server

We decided to give a web server early retirement in a manner that allowed us to “feel good” because it had kept support staff up for many nights trying to sort it out.

Nick Lansley , Tesco.com

Overheard: Top 10 ways to kill your server

Scalent Systems builds software that can take 1 or 1000 machines “From Dead Bare Metal to Live, Connected Servers in 5 Minutes or Less”. But we were sitting around on April Fools’ day thinking about how many ways we’ve heard of hardware dying… and we came up with our own interpretation.

Overheard: Don’t worry — It isn’t you, it’s them

Overheard: What happens to your computer after you give it to charity?

Overheard: The ten most interesting data center tours on video

I am proud to present the January 2008 WhatIs.com Editor’s Choice Award to the individual creators of the following data center tours. For those of you who like to look under the hood or peek behind the curtain, there’s some good stuff here.

1. CyGem Ltd. Data Center
Jeff Moore takes us through one of his customer’s facilities. He does a nice job pointing out the details.

2. Huawei Data Center
16,000 square meters of high tech real estate that could double as a set for Mission Impossible.

3. Inside NVIDIA’s engine room
An interesting look behind the scenes at NVIDIA back in 2002. Joe Sura does a nice job hosting the tour.

4.CNBC’s graphics SAN
Why did CNBC choose Apple? It’s cost-efficient, of course!

5. Century College Kopp Center
This is a working lab where students hone their data center management skills.

6.Sun’s Project Blackbox
Adam Yates gives a close-quarter tour of a data center in a shipping container.

7. Server room at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
The Neutrino Observatory, which closed its doors in November of 2006, is still analyzing data — looking for insight into the properties of neutrinos and the core of the sun.

8. Internetwire Communications
This short tour is narrated in German, but I think you’ll be surprised how much you understand.

9. IBM data center in Second Life
This promo-tour explains how IBM is mapping real data centers to a virtual data center in Second Life to look at power solutions. IBM has 8 million square feet of data center space around the world, so lowering the electric bill is a big deal.

10. DRFortress
As I watched this tour, I wondered how a business like this will be affected by cloud computing. Will they be like the local hardware store after Home Depot comes to town?

Overheard: Microsoft is hot on viral marketing

Extreme Makeover–Server Room parody. I just wish it was funnier.