The social network breaks an unwritten rule by giving away plans to its new data center—an action it hopes will make the Web more efficient.

Just weeks before switching on a massive, super-efficient data center in rural Oregon, Facebook is giving away the designs and specifications to the whole thing online. In doing so, the company is breaking a long-established unwritten rule for Web companies: don't share the secrets of your server-stuffed data warehouses.

Ironically, most of those secret servers rely heavily on open source or free software, for example the Linux operating system and the Apache webserver. Facebook's move—dubbed the Open Compute Project—aims to kick-start a similar trend with hardware.

"Mark [Zuckerberg] was able to start Facebook in his dorm room because PHP and Apache and other free and open-source software existed," says David Recordon, who helps coordinate Facebook's use of, and contribution to, open-source software. "We wanted to encourage that for hardware, and release enough information about our data center and servers that someone else could go and actually build them."

The attitude of other large technology firms couldn't be more different, says Ricardo Bianchini, who researches energy-efficient computing infrastructure at Rutgers University. "Typically, companies like Google or Microsoft won't tell you anything about their designs," he says. A more open approach could help the Web as a whole become more efficient, he says. "Opening up the building like this will help researchers a lot, and also other industry players," he says. "It's opening up new opportunities to share and collaborate."

The open hardware designs are for a new data center in Prineville, Oregon, that will be switched on later this month. The 147,000-square-foot building will increase Facebook's overall computing capacity by around half; the social network already processes some 100 million new photos every day, and its user base of over 500 million is growing fast.

The material being made available—on a new website—includes detailed specifications of the building's electrical and cooling systems, as well as the custom designs of the servers inside. Facebook is dubbing the approach "open" rather than open-source because its designs won't be subject to a true open-source legal license, which requires anyone modifying them to share any changes they make.

The plans reveal the fruits of Facebook's efforts to create one of the most energy-efficient data centers ever built. Unlike almost every other data center, Facebook's new building doesn't use chillers to cool the air flowing past the servers. Instead, air from the outside flows over foam pads moistened by water sprays to cool by evaporation. The building is carefully oriented so that prevailing winds direct outside air into the building in both winter and summer.

Microsoft has been loosing the browser wars

Alienware laptops brings another heavyweight in the market with there new series of 3D capable  laptops.Powered by Intel Core^TM i7 2820QM (2.3GHz) processor this laptop have a 17-inch full HD 1080p display.With 16 GB memory your gaming machine will be flying with speed and the SATA II hard drive enable faster storage of data.You also get a 1.5 GB Nvidia graphics card  and had a lot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader.

The 3D gaming will be a totally out of the box experience and you can actually play  the High-def 3D games the way they are meant to be played.Also watcing HD movies and blueray ones will be bliss.

The laptop has a great improvement on its battery life and you can use with without carrying your ac adapter for long time.The back lit keyboard and touchpad gives great look and feel to the laptop as you can even use it for gaming in a dark room.

[caption id="attachment_534" align="alignleft" width="650" caption="3D Gaming now a reality"][/caption]

Following are the tech-specs of this machine:

Processor

iPad 2 : Thinner, Lighter and  Faster!

Amit Kr

The new iPad2 ©

Now that the new iPad 2 has finally been announced; many of you might have been wondering if it is worth the efforts (read long queues) and the money to buy a new iPad 2. Well, I think the answer is a resounding Yes!! Apple has come with some innovative new features and great upgrades in iPad 2.  Here we preview some of the features of iPad 2 and also compare it with iPad so it is easy for our readers to decide if iPad 2 is worth the upgrade.

iPad 2 comes with a long list of features.  The first thing that got us excited in iPad 2 is the smart cover. There's a new cover for the device, which is best defined by Steve Jobs himself: "We designed the case right alongside the product. It's not a case -- it's a cover." Basically, it's a magnetic flap that protects the front and automatically wakes and puts the device to sleep according to whether it's open or closed. It takes only milliseconds to open and close the cover and the whole process is flawless.

The new iPad 2 is 15% lighter than iPad and at 613 grams , it feels very comfortable to hold in hands.  It is also 33% thinner than the original iPad and at just 8.8 mm, you really forget the device and get immersed in the Apple feeling.

You must have heard that external looks are not everything. It is what inside the heart that counts. Apple does not disappoint us at that too. With the new A5 Dual Core processor; the new iPad2 is claimed by Apple to be twice as fast and the graphics performance is up to nine times better than on the original iPad, while power requirements have been kept the same. Battery life is great with Apple promising 10 hours. That means you can keep yourself hooked to movies on that trans-Atlantic flight without worrying about recharge.

One of the great things about iPad 2 is the dual cameras : Front and rear cameras.  The front camera is a VGA camera that can be used for facetime chats with other iPad, iPhone, iPod, and Mac users.  The rear camera can shoot 720p HD video at 30 fps.

The new iPad will come with the newest version of Apple’s mobile operating system iOS 4.3.  This update enables better performance while using the Safari Internet browser, iTunes home sharing and Airplay improvements. It will also include the Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities found in the Verizon iPhones.

With built in gyroscope, high end processors and new apps for iMovie and GarageBand; the iPad 2 is a great multimedia experience.

Pricing :

AT&T introduced two new postpaid plans for tablets, a category that includes the upcoming iPad 2. Unlike prepaid plans which require customers to buy data allotments upfront, these new plans can be added to a customer's current monthly cellular bill. This new postpaid option is month-to-month and does not require a long-term commitment.

Pricing for the postpaid plans mirror the prepaid plans with a $14.99 plan that provides 250 MB of data or a $25 plan with 2 GB of data. Overages on the new postpaid plans will be charged at a rate of $10 per 1 GB of overage. This is slightly less than the prepaid plans which charge customers $25 for an additional 2 GB of usage. These new plans give customers the freedom to choose how they would like to be billed for data to be used with their shiny new 3G iPad 2.

As a benefit for early adopters of the iPad 2, AT&T is offering a limited-time promotion that provides one free month of service for those that signup for the new $25/2 GB plan.

Below we have given a comparison table of iPad vs iPad 2.