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There’s no question that the cloud provides a conceptually correct approach to large-scale data storage. As opposed to expensive gear from the likes of Sun and NetApp, which require a large capital outlay to get up and running, cloud-based services allow to you scale as you need at a much cheaper rate.

Today, Parascale launched a private beta of their software for cloud storage. You just have to bring your own cloud or have available Linux boxes to run the software on.

This approach obviously bodes well for enterprises needing to scale data storage as well as Internet companies that have large amounts of assets to manage. Regardless, this is one space where I really think being open source makes sense. A big part of being able to scale is knowing what underlies the applications. It’s impossible to know what’s inside every company’s IT department and without collaboration it will be very difficult for cloud-style storage software to be broad enough for the general market.

That compares to 15 cents per gigabyte per month from Amazon’s S3 Web storage service, not counting what customers pay for inbound and outbound bandwidth. After about six months, a customer would end up paying more for Amazon S3.

Companies can keep adding as many servers as they need, with each one acting as a redundant node. The software runs on the cluster as whole, treating it as one giant file system. This creates private cloud storage that companies can host themselves inside their own firewalls. ParaScale CEO Sajai Krishnan says customers can expect to pay about $1 per gigabyte, depending on their server costs.

As reported on TechCrunchIT:

The Parascale software appears quite similar to the open-source Eucalyptus project, which favors a node-controlled system with smart and dumb endpoints to manage and process data. Both products are also geared to a “virtualized layer” that abstracts the software entirely, providing for easy scaling.

The Xserve is possibly the least-promoted product in Apple’s lineup, but the company has certain educational and creative-professional customers that like to run a
Mac OS X environment top to bottom. Still, the Xserve accounts for a fraction of Apple’s revenue, although it caused a few problems for future iPod and iPhone chief Mark Papermaster upon his departure from IBM.

(Credit:
Apple)

Apple unveiled an updated version of its Xserve server Tuesday, adding Intel’s latest server processors.

The new models come with the option of one or two of Intel’s quad-core 2.26GHz Xeon processors and 3GB of RAM, with the base model starting at $2,999 with the single processor. Several configuration options are available, including Xeon processors up to 2.93GHz.

Apple's Xserve has new processor options.

The news was first reported on Monday by PaidContent.

Huffington Post CEO Betsy Morgan is leaving the company, slated to be replaced later this week by Softbank Capital’s Eric Hippeau. Morgan was first hired in 2007.

In December, the Huffington Post raised another $25 million in funding. It was riding a wave of popularity–and scrutiny, considering its controversial views on paying for content and labor–in the wake of the 2008 presidential election, and was starting to aggressively expand coverage beyond politics. Long-term profitability, however, was still a question mark.

“We’ve had a really good year, ad-wise,” Morgan said to CNET News in an interview shortly before the presidential election. “We’re in the game at a different point in our life cycle than the other mainstream players. We’ve seen the brand really grow to top of mind with both agencies and clients and the response has been really positive.”

Hippeau has been serving on the board of the left-leaning news outlet, which was co-founded by pundit Arianna Huffington in 2005, since its first round of venture funding in 2006. The former chairman and CEO of Ziff Davis Media, he’s on the board of a number of different companies including Yahoo. His new role at Softbank will be “special partner and adviser.”

But aside from the manufacturing benefits, the researchers found that the cellulosic rubber tires had better traction on wet surfaces and were less affected by heat compared to conventional tires.

Manufacturing tires from a renewable plant source could be less expensive to produce than tires using carbon black, which is made from oil, or silica which takes a lot of energy to produce.

(Credit:
Oregon State University)

The rubber composite contains microcrystalline cellulose as an additive, a material that can be made from a wide variety of plant materials, instead of the usual carbon black or silica typically used.

“Early tests indicate that such products would have comparable traction on cold or wet pavement, be just as strong, and provide even higher fuel efficiency than traditional tires in hot weather,” according to a report from Kaichang Li, associate professor of wood science and engineering in the OSU College of Forestry, and Wen Bai, a doctoral student who collaborated on the project.

I’m sure you’ve heard of a rubber tree plant, but have you also heard about the new rubber tree tire?

Researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) have developed a tire made from plant materials combined with rubber that offers several benefits over conventionally manufactured tires.

Doctoral student Web Bai working on a rubber composite for tires in an OSU laboratory.

To make sure it’s not looking for activity on an entire Web page, AlertBox is designed to let you grab bits and pieces of any site–not the entire thing. Once installed, you can summon it by clicking the little bell shape in the bottom corner of the browser, or using a keyboard combination. It then pops up with a selection screen that, similar to Apple’s Web clips widget, lets you pick what part of the page you want it to track. You can then choose how often you want it to check for future changes in increments of two minutes, up to one day.

The AlertBox in-box lets you keep track of all your alerts, and delete ones you no longer use.

Faults aside, I really like the idea of creating a simple in-box of changing content that does not rely on RSS. I think this, with a little bit of archiving to let you track changes in content throughout the day (like Web archiving service Iterasi does), would make for a very useful alternative to widget start pages and feed readers.

(Credit:
CNET)

RSS is great technology, but one of its shortcomings is that it doesn’t always represent all of a site’s content stream. Many times there are parts of a news or content site that change either through an editorial hand, or with items chosen by users. A new
Firefox add-on called AlertBox helps track these “scraps” of content, and can be used to keep an eye out for any changes. This includes things like price changes, edits or updates to a news story, and the top stories on content sites.

AlertBox lets you choose particular sections of a site to keep an eye on for updates.

AlertBox’s way of tracking new content is an in-box-style counter down in the bottom of your browser. When clicked, it takes you to a page of Web clippings that are constantly updated with whatever the latest text is of the page elements you had selected. To be honest, this part of the add-on could use a little work, as it’s just a text rip that loses all of the formatting on the page. And all of these alerts are housed not in the cloud, but on your local machine, which has two big downsides: One is that you need to have Firefox going at all times for it to alert you. The other is that you can only access those alerts on that particular machine.

(Credit:
CNET)

The 21st century is here, my friends! We can now eat healthier produce and end pig castration, all in one fell swoop. It’s like we are reviving, instead of killing, two birds with one stone.

(Credit:
Elizabeth Armstrong Moore/CNET)

Produce at a Northeast Portland farmers' market on May 23.

(Credit:
‘Fraunhofer IPM’ Freiburg / Germany (Prof. J.
W?llenstein and co workers))

But when it comes to determining the freshness of harder-to-read foods like pineapple and pork, I’m a total neophyte. Which is why a press release titled “Ripe pineapple and delicious pork” out of a German institute just caught my eye.

This system is similar, apparently, to conventional equipment used to test food safety in larger laboratories. Now we the consumers get to be our own little lab technicians right there in the produce aisle–if we can afford, that is, the time it takes to test all those delectables, not to mention what Dr. Mark Bücking of IME predicts will be a four-digit euro price tag.

The male pig produces hormones and certain odorous substances necessary for reproduction. What the female pig finds attractive, however, smells anything but pleasant to human noses. It’s true that most pigs are slaughtered well before sexual maturity–before any odorous substances have formed in the majority of pigs. As there is the risk, however, that some boars could produce odorous substances prematurely, all boars are castrated when they are young piglets. Castration may not be necessary in the future if the pork could be tested on-line before it is packaged.

Basically, the metal oxide sensor–at just a centimeter wide–analyzes gases emitted by foods through a small electrical current. Permit me to geek out on the science for a minute.

The detection system was developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institutes for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME in Schmallenberg and for Physical Measurement Techniques IPM in Freiburg. It all started with work on metal oxide sensors (like those in cars) to close ventilation vents when driving through a tunnel. But the researchers took this a step further.

If a gas flows over the sensor at extremely high temps (300 to 400 degrees Celsius), it burns at the point of contact. The resulting exchange of electrons alters electrical conductivity. Whichever substances are filtered out through a separation column with polymers tell us how fresh, and safe, that particular food is.

The researchers are also investigating whether they can use this sensor on pork. And this is a section of the announcement I cannot resist quoting:

The metal oxide detector analyzes which gases are present in foods.

Since moving to Portland in 2005–land of not only good beer and bikes but also a number of renowned farmers’ markets–I’ve learned how to pick a peach. In fact, I spend so much time in the produce section that I recently landed a book deal while squeezing the avocados at my local produce market. (No seriously, the publisher called while I was squeezing avocados.)

Oh, as well as something of a concealed weapons violation. You see, he had a concealed weapons permit, but omitted to mention to the arresting deputy that he actually had the gun on his person, according to WCPO9. A frustrating iPhone can sometimes affect one’s memory.

This is not, to my knowledge, an iPhone that was already shot.

However, the allegation is not merely that Goodrich told the employee that he would, indeed, blast his iPhone. For he is accused of revealing that he happened to have the perfect little weapon behind the right side of his shirt. (Strangely, it was a black shirt.)

If your iPhone is causing you difficulties, don’t smoke it, stroke it. Or take it to an Apple store where a genius will offer counseling.

But few are those who threaten to blast their gadget and actually mean it.

Which makes one wonder what thoughts might have been brewing at the Kenwood Towne Centre Apple store in Cincinnati on Thursday.

Court papers do not seem to be specific as to what element might have been malfunctioning on his 115.5mm-long gadget. However, they do allege that Goodrich told an Apple store employee that he was “so mad, I could pop a 9mm at it.”

You will perhaps experience a sense of stunned discomfort when I tell you that Goodrich has, indeed, been charged with aggravated menacing and causing fear of harm to an Apple employee.

According to WCPO9 (which is a Cincinnati TV station rather than C-3PO’s illicit lover), Donald Goodrich, 38, wafted into this very Apple store.
His cup appears not to have been overflowing with joy for his
iPhone.

(Credit: CC Johan Larsson/Flickr)

Some shout at Comcast cable boxes that refuse to delete recorded shows, leaving no room for new ones.

We all express frustration with our electronica in different ways.

I am not sure how many people are so intimidated by the Apple store’s graphic perfection and preternatural youthfulness that they actually take an extra 9mm with them.

Taking a gun to a gadget is like taking a blow-up doll to a dinner party. It doesn’t reflect well on you at all.

Others smack their microwaves when, commanded to heat some old spaghetti bolognese, they get stuck with 45 seconds to go.

In a move to assuage European publishers’ concerns over book digitization, Google on Monday said European books still listed as commercially available will not be included in its online registry of orphaned and out-of-print works–unless rights holders give their express authorization.

Under the terms of the settlement, Google agreed to pay the authors and publishers $125 million. The company will also be responsible for selling access to copyrighted works in its repository. Most of the revenues from such access would go to the authors and publishers.

Google made its conciliatory gestures as the European Commission kicked off a series of discussions aimed at “seeking precise details on the exact scope of the settlement” and “how many European works or publications will potentially be affected.”

At a hearing in Brussels Monday, organizations representing various European publishers, libraries, rights holders, and businesses involved in Internet commerce criticized the proposed settlement as it currently stands, saying it would lead to “a de facto monopoly” in the emerging digital books market.

“Google could unilaterally decide no longer to give access or modify access through a ranking scheme,” George said, and for “political and ideological considerations.”

“The challenge for EU policymakers is to ensure a regulatory framework which paves the way for a rapid roll-out of services, similar to those made possible in the U.S. by the recent settlement, to European consumers and to the European library and research communities,” the commissioners said.

The search giant also said it will let two non-U.S. representatives onto the eight-person board of the Books Rights Registry, which was set up to govern the proposed books settlement reached with U.S. publishers and authors who sued Google in 2005. Plaintiffs alleged that the company’s digitizing initiative amounted to “massive” copyright infringement.

The debates are expected to continue this week. On the first day of the events, Viviane Reding, the EU’s commissioner for information society and media, and Charlie McCreevy, commissioner for the bloc’s internal market, said in a joint statement that “it is time for Europe to turn over a new e-leaf on digital books and copyright,” and that book digitization such as that being attempted by Google highlights the “need to adapt Europe’s still very fragmented copyright legislation.”

Representing France at the hearing, Nicolas George of the country’s Ministry of Culture said the deal presents “a clear and evident risk for cultural diversity,” according to The New York Times.

But the U.S settlement–which has been alternately hailed by civil rights groups as a way to bridge the Digital Divide and hampered by opposition from authors and privacy advocates–will only apply to users in this country.

2. Flixster Movies: It’s a close second. Flixster Movies is a fantastic app for film buffs.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

A long name, but it's worth checking out.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Flixster Movies provides a full social movie experience.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

My top 3

MatchFlick MatchFlick’s chief function is to provide you with a quiz that, so far, has over 7,000 questions. The more questions you answer correctly, the higher your global rank on Facebook.

Blu-ray Collection keeps all your movies in one place.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

LivingSocial: Movies has a great recommendation engine.

MatchFlick quizzes you on your movie knowledge.

Once you find what you’re looking for through the app’s search field, you can add it to your listing. Those movies can then be viewed by other app users. The app lists over 1,000 films. And since you can rate your listings, you can see how much you liked a movie, compared to your friends.

After you add the app to your profile, you’re immediately presented with several films. You can choose the film you like and request them to rent it at the movie store. It might sound rather simplistic, but the app can be an effective movie-recommendation engine, since friends’ opinions matter so much. A larger listing of films would have been nice, but the app is still worth checking out.

1. LivingSocial: Movies: With so many great features, LivingSocial: Movies is simply the best app in this roundup.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

My Movie Reviews needs more movies to review.

Movie Expert MovieExpert is a neat game that lets you watch clips from different movies to find their “goofs.”

If you go to the Video Store buy something for me It might have a long name, but If you go to the Video Store buy something for me is a neat app that lets you share your movie interests with all your friends.

Overall, the quiz is quite difficult. Unless you’ve seen several movies and you can remember obscure scenes, you’ll probably have trouble answering questions. If the quiz isn’t for you, MatchFlick also provides information on the latest DVD releases, what’s playing in theaters, and reviews. It’s a full-featured app, but its design and menu system make it difficult to sift through all the extras it offers.

LivingSocial: Movies starts by requiring you to add movies to your listing, saying what you have watched, what you’re currently watching, or what you will soon watch. You can also rate each film out of five stars. From there, LivingSocial: Movies provides you with recommendations of films you might like based on the movies you rated highly. The app even lets you create a top 10 list to let all your Facebook friends know which movies you love. LivingSocial: Movies is a must-have.

Blu-ray Collection Blu-ray Collection provides an extremely useful way to track and share your Blu-ray collection.

My Movie Reviews is a bit of a misnomer. You can’t review any movie you like. Instead, the app limits your reviews to the films that are currently in theaters. When you see those movies, you can use the app to write a review, choose a star rating, and post that to your Facebook wall. Creating the review is simple, but not having the ability to write a review on any movie detracts from the experience. My Movie Reviews is a great premise, but limiting reviews to only those films in theaters is a major problem.

After you add the app to your profile, you’ll need to watch a full movie clip. When you find the problem with the scene, you can click on it on the area where the mistake is. You’ll start out with 3,000 MoviePoints. If you guess wrong, you’ll lose 100 points. When you accurately identify the problems, you’ll receive 100 MoviePoints back. It’s an addicting game, but it’s extremely difficult.

Flixster Movies is like having the full Flixster experience in Facebook. You can review films, take quizzes to test your knowledge, connect with other app users, and research films you’re interested in. It’s a full-featured product that works quite well.

LivingSocial: Movies LivingSocial: Movies is my favorite movie app on Facebook. It’s useful, unique, and effective at tracking film interests.

3. Blu-ray Collection: There’s no better way to track Blu-ray films.

Social film going

My Movie Reviews My Movie Reviews is one of the least-useful apps in this roundup, but if you’re a frequent moviegoer, you might like it.

Flixster Movies Flixster Movies connects you with other movie fans to talk about your favorite films. The app also lets you update your Facebook status with the movies you want to see in theaters.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Movie Expert asks you to find the problems with each film scene.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

If you’re a film buff, you might be happy to know that Facebook apps are available that will help you stay up-to-date on the industry, while giving you the option to tell all your friends what movies you love. Some of the apps are better than others, but one thing is certain: if you’re a real movie fan, you need to add at least some of them to your profile.

Soul Calibur was a great fighting game.

Power Stone 2
Although I’m sure some folks were fans of Power Stone, I’ve always felt that Power Stone 2 was the superior game in the franchise.

Why I love it: Power Stone 2 didn’t have a deep story, but what it lacked in story, it made up for in outstanding battle sequences. It was yet another fun game to play.

Seaman
OK, Seaman was a little…different. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good game.

Sonic Adventure
Say what you will about the battle between Sonic and Mario, but Sonic Adventure (my first game for the Dreamcast) was a blast to play. We finally had Sonic in true 3D. And he delivered an experience that allowed you to jump around worlds and enjoy the same kind of exhilarating speed that had become a staple of the franchise. It certainly wasn’t a perfect game, due to some suspect visuals, but it was a great game, nonetheless.

Jet Grind Radio has a unique look.

(Credit:
Gamespot)

Skies of Arcadia features Vyse at his best.

Do you have any favorite Dreamcast games I haven’t listed here? Let us know in the comments below.

Using a cell-shaded design that fits perfectly with the game’s story, you’re a rollerblading graffiti gang member who wants to tell everyone in the city who is in charge. To do so, you need to cruise around town and “tag” the streets.

Jet Grind Radio
Jet Grind Radio seems one of the most unique games released for the Dreamcast.

Phantasy Star Online in action.

To commemorate the Sega Dreamcast’s 10th anniversary, I thought I needed to do something a little special.

(Credit:
Sega)

(Credit:
Sega)

Why I love it: Shenmue was my favorite game on the Dreamcast. It combined a great story with action unlike anything we had seen to that point. I still anxiously await that day when Shenmue will make its triumphant return and let me finally get revenge on Lan Di.

NFL 2K1
NFL 2K1 was one of the best football games ever released. It featured outstanding visuals for its time, the controls were great, and the gameplay was even better. It provided me with the most exciting football experience of its time.

Virtua Tennis was one of my favorite sports games.

Soul Calibur
If you didn’t play Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast, you missed out on one of the best fighting games the platform ever offered.

Seaman starts out with an empty aquarium. Soon, you’ll have baby Seamans living in that aquarium that require your help to survive. As they grow stronger, a single Seaman, which is basically a cross between a fish and a human, will reign supreme in the tank. You can hold conversations with him. You can even listen to him chastise you for either not taking care of him or not visiting him lately. Your goal? Release him to dry land so he can achieve his great destiny.

Why I love it: Soul Calibur was the best fighting game on the Dreamcast. What more can be said? If you own a Dreamcast, buy this game on eBay. You won’t be upset you did.

Why I love it: If you’re looking for stunning visuals (for the time), cool mid-air ship fights, and a nice battle system, there’s really nowhere else to look but at Skies of Arcadia. It’s another unique, fun game that we just don’t have enough of today.

(Credit:
Sega)

Why I love it: Sonic Adventure was one of the most exhilarating games on the Sega Dreamcast. Its controls were outstanding, it was fun, and most of all, it was exciting.

Why I love it: When the NFL 2K series was in its prime, I forgot about the Madden series. Yes, it was that good. Today, we’re stuck with Madden. And each time I hike the ball in Madden NFL 10, I’m left wondering what the NFL 2K series would look like today. Hmm.

Listed below, you will find 10 of the best Dreamcast games ever released. Some are certainly better than others (I’ll let you decide on that), but they all hold a special place in my gaming heart. And I’m willing to bet they might hold a special place in yours.

Virtua Tennis
It’s not often that I think a sports game deserves a spot in a roundup of a platform’s best games, but Virtua Tennis certainly does. The game delivers one of the most realistic (and fun) tennis experiences I have ever played on a console. You can play in the world tour to become the best player in the world, you can try to win the “Grand Slam,” or you can just play with some buddies. In any case, you’ll find an extremely compelling title.

(Credit:
Gamespot)

Let’s take a look.

Why I love it: I’ve played Virtua Tennis more times than I can count. Even now it’s one of the games I reach for when I load up my Dreamcast. It has all the features that make a good sports game great.

The main character, Vyse, is in the Blue Rogues. They capture a girl named Fina, which causes the enemy, the Valuan Empire, to raid their home town. Vyse and his partners need to break through the Empire’s strong shell, save their comrades, and find out why Fina is so important to the battle.

(Credit:
Sega)

Why I love it: The game’s story was good, but just being able to hook up to the Web and play with others online was an incredible feat at the time. It was my entree into the online-gaming world.

Shenmue left before its time.

Shenmue
Shenmue was one of the most epic titles ever released on the Dreamcast. It told the story of a young boy from Japan named Ryo Hazuki who watched his father die at the hands of Lan Di. The epic was supposed to span several titles, but eventually, after the Dreamcast died and Xbox sales of Shenmue II stayed flat, Sega shelved it. Shenmue still has a cult-like following and we’re all still hoping for its reemergence. But with each passing year, the chances of that happening are becoming slimmer.

Seaman was certainly a unique game.

Power Stone 2 features some fighting action.

(Credit:
GiantBomb)

Phantasy Star Online was the first online home console game ever released. The title allowed gamers to hack and slash their way through the story, while partnering up with gamers across the Web.

(Credit:
GiantBomb)

Why I love it: Jet Grind Radio, like many of the games I loved from the Dreamcast days, offered a unique idea that gamers responded well to. It was fun and willing to “push the envelope” a little. That should be commended.

Skies of Arcadia
Skies of Arcadia was one of the best role-playing games released for the Dreamcast.

Overall, the game’s online experience wasn’t great compared to what we have today, but it started the online-gaming era. It should be commended for that.

Power Stone 2 pits you against characters in a 3D fighting arena. You can use weaponry to take them out, objects to sustain your health, and more.

Sonic Adventure was quite an adventure.

Phantasy Star Online
If you never played Phantasy Star Online, you missed out on one of the most compelling games ever released for the Dreamcast.

(Credit:
Gamespot)

Why I love it: Seaman was admittedly weird. But it was also unique. It was a long-shot when it was first announced. It was a risk that wouldn’t be taken in today’s gaming space. Perhaps that’s what I miss (and loved) most about that era.

NFL 2K1 looks awfully nice for that generation.

Soul Calibur featured several fighters battling it out in a slew of different areas. The fighting was superb. The visuals were stunning. And as someone who played the arcade version and the Dreamcast version, I can tell you that there was no comparison: Sega’s platform easily bested the arcade.

(Credit:
Gamespot)