Category Archives: Business

Facebook Saves Datacenter Costs with Frigid Arctic Wind

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The constant, biting wind may have stunted the growth of Lulea’s tourism industry, but it has proven a big factor in luring big IT facilities into the area. Datacenters in Lulea are just as difficult to power and cool as any other concentrated mass of IT equipment, but their owners can slash the cost of cooling all those servers and storage units simply by opening a window: the temperature in Lulea hasn’t stayed at or above 86 degrees Fahrenheit for 24 hours since 1961 (PDF), and the average temperature is a bracing 29.6 Fahrenheit.

via Facebook Saves Datacenter Costs with Frigid Arctic Wind.

Microsoft outlines their system for used games, licenses, and family sharing

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The real question is how publishers will deal with used games, and the possibility of “transfer” fees. Suddenly online passes, or their equivalent, are being supported at the console level. One thing is for sure, this is not a good system for any retailer that relies on the sale of used games, and it’s going to be very hard to rent games as well.

via The PA Report – Microsoft outlines their system for used games, licenses, and family sharing.

BSA Study Demonstrates Open Source’s Economic Advantage

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So what this all boils down to is that the fundamental premise of the latest BSA study – that licensed proprietary software is better in many ways than pirated copies – actually applies to open source software even more strongly, with the added virtues that the software is free to try, to use and to modify. That means the potential economic impact of free software is also even greater than that offered by both licensed and unlicensed proprietary software. It’s yet another reason for governments around the world to promote the use of open source in their countries by everyone at every level.

via BSA Study Demonstrates Open Source’s Economic Advantage – Open Enterprise.

AT&T’s new monthly stealth fee has some crying foul

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Because the fee is so small, some call it a below-the-line charge because customers aren’t likely to notice it. That aside, it is also provides a way for carriers to advertise a lower fee than customers are actually charged. Presently, AT&T already charges about 50 cents as regulatory cost recovery charge per phone line, something that has been part of the carrier’s bills for about a decade.

via AT&T’s new monthly stealth fee has some crying foul – SlashGear.

Get An Inside Look At The Rackspace ‘Castle’ Via Google Street View

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Recently, we had a photographer come out to create an inside Google Street View of our HQ so our customers, friends and family – anyone, really – can get a virtual feel for what it is like to work at Rackspace. There’s a ton to see.

via Get An Inside Look At The Rackspace ‘Castle’ Via Google Street View – The Official Rackspace Blog.

Yahoo: Expect Ads On Tumblr To Ramp Up Significantly In 2014

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In the conference call, Mayer made an early reference to how Tumblr would be able to make good use of Yahoo’s advertising technology, in ways that fit Tumblr’s so-far successful, image-based, quick-blogging, youth-oriented format — what she called “native advertising formats.”

via Yahoo: Expect Ads On Tumblr To Ramp Up Significantly In 2014 | TechCrunch.

When should you open source your code

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As an organization or even individual there always seem to be questions when considering whether or not to make your project or code snippet open source. Many times, it starts with trying to figure out which license to use. But there are many other things to consider. We derived a list for you the next time you ask yourself: Should I open source my code?

via When should you open source your code? | opensource.com.

Goldman Sachs employees concerned Bloomberg news reporters are using terminals to snoop

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Goldman later learned that Bloomberg staffers could determine not only which of its employees had logged into Bloomberg’s proprietary terminals but also how many times they had used particular functions, insiders said.

via EXCLUSIVE: Goldman Sachs employees concerned Bloomberg news reporters are using terminals to snoop – NYPOST.com.

I doubt this will end well for some people.

Deutsche Telekom to curb ADSL volumes

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Germany’s national telco Deutsche Telekom is fighting back against OTT players using its broadband network for data-intense services like video-on-demand (VOD) portals without sharing their revenues by throttling the data rate to 384Kbit/s for ADSL and VDSL customers if they exceed the volume included in their tariff.

via Setback for OTT: Deutsche Telekom to curb ADSL volumes | Rapid TV News.

And so it begins….