cooling

Large multinational companies are building data centers designed to flow with their environment. There's something you probably didn't expect to hear five years ago.

Microsoft, for instance, is building a data center in Ireland in which the server rooms and other facilities will be cooled with devices called air side economizers, which pipe outside air inside.

"It uses fresh air aggressively to keep your building cool," said Rob Bernard, Microsoft's chief environmental strategist, in a phone interview. "The ideal scenario is that if Ireland continues to develop wind power and hopefully wave power, you … Read more

CORK, Ireland--Researchers for years have devised cooling systems that sit next to or on top of chips and other hot components. Now, researchers in Ireland are trying to make one for inside these components.

The University of Limerick in Ireland, in conjunction with Cork's Tyndall Institute and other research organizations in the country, is working on a liquid cooling system for inside chip packages. Chip packages are those blue/brown plastic sleeves that surround semiconductors and let them plug into a board. When you look at a chip, you're really looking at the package.

In this system, a … Read more

Cool Earth Solar on Thursday said it has raised at least $21 million to further develop a solar generator that you could mistake for a shiny kiddie pool.

The Livermore, Calif.-based company said the Series A round, from undisclosed investors, could be augmented by other investors in 60 days.

Cool Earth Solar has taken a radical approach to building a solar-power plant using a technique called concentrated solar photovoltaics, in which light is magnified onto solar cells to maximize electricity output.

It plans to manufacture plastic balloons, which will be suspended on metal and wire structures. These round balloons … Read more

PicLens, which we've covered before, is a browser plug-in that replaces the typical photo viewer you use on sites like Flickr. It's recently been updated, and if you haven't checked it out lately, now's the time. It's stunning.

The plug-in, which works in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Flock, and Safari (where it's a bit limited), lets you create a moving wall of images where you'd otherwise just see your Web app's more static display of pictures. Launching the viewer is just a matter of clicking a new "play" icon that appears … Read more

Next week, Greenest Host in San Diego is going to start offering carbon-free Web services to consumers.

The company plans to start selling Web hosting services for about $14.95 a month. The trick is that its servers and other systems are powered by solar panels or batteries charged by solar panels. In rare instances, a propane-based generator will kick in, but for the most part the services will not contribute greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

The solar-powered server center is the creation of Affordable Internet Services Online (AISO), which has been offering environmentally friendly Web hosting for a few … Read more

From time to time I'll highlight interesting or useful websites.

I'll start off with three sites that appeal to my interest in product design. And no, none of them are this one.

Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools blog isn't just about cool tools, although there are lots of those. It's also about books, videos, and websites that tell you how to do things. Anyone may contribute a recommendation; other contributors include Paul Saffo and Stewart Brand.

Dennis Palatov's dpcars.net is the most technically interesting automobile-related site I know of (although Autoblog is the most … Read more

With the Summer Solstice last week, it's pretty warm out, and that means we're definitely in the midst of fan season. Being a bit tired of the same old designs that we've all seen and probably had since college (come on, you know the types... the floppy cheap drugstore plastic floor fans, or those double fans you close your window over?)... so here are some more aesthetically pleasing options - So you really have NO EXCUSE left to have an ugly fan.… Read more

There are plenty of portable USB fans intended to keep your laptop under control, but this one has a distinction no others can claim: supernatural forces. Although the distributors of Evercool's "Magic Notebook Cooling Fan," insist that "evil forces are probably not involved," how else can one explain a design that looks more than a little satanic?

Granted, there's no goat head in the center of its pentagram, but the red LED ring that glows when it's in use would definitely freak us out. It's a good thing GeekSugar says the fan … Read more

The contraption displayed here may look like some kind of ill-conceived device from the days of bloodletting, but it's actually a physiological instrument for the 21st century. "CoreControl" is described as a "cooling glove" that increases the flow of blood to the palm's "radiator zone" and lowers the body's overall tempurature two to five times faster than ice packs, fans and other traditional methods.

Avacore Technologies, which makes the device, claims remarkable success in tests with athletes, firefighters, military personnel and others. "You don't necessarily feel cooler; you just … Read more