Google Conference on Scalability 2007

The videos from the Google Scalability Conference are now available online.

Jeff's talk, above, had lots of interesting stats on Google's operations.

My My Frosty

$2.5K Car

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/10/1325207&from=rss

"After months of rumors and tantalizing leaks, Tata Motors has finally unveiled the Tata Nano, its already legendary $2,500 car that promises to change the face of not only the Indian car market, but the global auto industry. The tiny car is a four door, five seat hatch, powered by a 30 HP engine that gets 54 miles per gallon."

Gasoline from CO2

"Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico have found a way of using sunlight to recycle carbon dioxide and produce fuels like methanol or gasoline."

"He and Stechel said the technology could be 15 to 20 years from viability on an industrial scale.
The Sandia team originally developed the CR5 to generate hydrogen for use in fuel cells. If the device's rings are exposed to steam instead of carbon dioxide, they generate hydrogen. But the scientists switched to carbon monoxide, so the fuels they produce would be compatible with existing infrastructure."

Sounds very interesting. I assume the process for generating gasoline from carbon monoxide is well known. I would hate to see carbon monoxide floating around....

Color-blindness Simulation

Here is a site that lets you simulate viewing other sites as they would appear to color blind people of various types: http://colorfilter.wickline.org/

Thanks to Dan Fox for the link.

DIY Drones

I think my kids' children will be able to have dragons flying around in their bedroom, spraying cold fire on roaring hand-sized bears roaming the far corners of the shelves.

Or, maybe it will come sooner: http://diydrones.com/