"Jonathan, the tortoise, is believed to be 176-years-old and was about 70 at the time the black and white picture was taken. He was photographed during the Boer War around 1900, and his life has spanned eight British monarchs from George IV to Elizabeth II, and 50 prime ministers." - Jandy Stone
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Longevity Tortoise lives longer than you times two - Mo Kargas
I love coming across stuff like this on FF. - Derrick
I was shocked no one had posted it yet. Boing Boing linked to it while I was still at work. - Jandy Stone
I wonder how they can actually guarantee it's him and not some other tortoise... I had to take care of a few tortoises (tortoisae?) at a farm near my house and they freaked me out. They just move so slow and take big honkin bites out of lettuce. It's just menacing and scary. OK, I was bored. - anna
The original Google datacenter in '99 :) - Paul Buchheit
One of the consequences of factoring in component failure in your every move: you can save the cases, stuff's going to break anyway ;) - Mustafa K. Isik
This design turned out to be somewhat nightmarish. It was eventually cleaned up (we had a "cabling fest") and by now the designs are quite slick, though still very unconventional. I wish Google would publish more about their hardware, because it's very interesting. - Paul Buchheit
i have! it was even color coded, cables of different colors - Joelle Nebbe
WHEN CABLES GO BAD! I used to have a similar problem and the only way to trace cables was to put a small binder clip over the wire and push it along. - Stephen Pierzchala
Cables Gone Wild! woo hoo! gees that is bad. Paul YES I too wish Google published their IT Infrastructure / hardware info - Susan Beebe (Santa Claus)
pretty sure their current IT infrastructure involves genetically-modified human brains soaking in some kind of nutrient bath. - Karim
yap i seen so much worser than this pic .... :D - zos
BTW, I believe this is the same generation of hardware found in the Computer History Museum (they have the jj rack, as I recall). - Paul Buchheit
Paul: I've been inside a Google datacenter. They are a thing of beauty now. I've always wanted to interview the team that is responsible for doing those and get some video. - Robert Scoble
That's how it would look if it was set up at my house. - Gabe
I worked in a server room that look like that too - all those spagetti cabling craziness. - imabonehead
Robert - YES do video interview with Google DC Infrastructure brains! :) - Susan Beebe (Santa Claus)
How long would it take to fix if you pulled out just one cable?Or plugged it into the wrong socket? - Alistair
Here are some pics of a datacenter I put together for a client back in 2003 with some pretty insane cabling. With this much cabling, it was too hard to manage without automation. So I built some tools that allowed me to plan for rapid growth (i.e 20 server SAN jumped to 120+ while we were building out) http://bit.ly/9Q7O - Jauder Ho
Grunt: OK boss, I've got a new cable crimped. Where do you want it? Boss: Server 99,9999 port 1. See it? I'll see you in a week. Grunt: &^* - Shane
"Employees dismantling sections of Google's original data center discovered the decaying corpse of an engineer tangled in a web of network patch cables, police reported today. The mostly-skeletal remains have not been conclusively identified, though the victim appeared to have been wearing a 'Banyan Vines' t-shirt. While forensic tests have yet to be completed, the County Medical Examiner has estimated the date of death to be 'sometime around the 1999, 2000 timeframe.'" - Karim
"A police spokeperson said foul play was not suspected, adding, 'Unfortunately, this is not the first time we've seen this. The Internet was growing so rapidly back then, these things just happened. Someone goes in to work on a patch panel, and they get tangled up. It's sad. And I don't blame Google for not noticing -- their headcount was growing rapidly too. One or two engineers go missing, nobody notices. I bet the poor bastard is still getting direct deposit on his paychecks.'" - Karim
A spokesperson for Google referred to the grisly discovery as "a regrettable loss, but not a single point of failure," and added that engineers are currently required to use "the buddy system" to work in pairs when cabling servers. - Karim
Most datacenters I've ever been in don't allow photography. The exception was the Stanford Linear Accelerator data center that Scoble got me into: http://www.flickr.com/photos/t... - Thomas Hawk
AJ, we're trying to avoid spending too much money, so our datacenter pictures would be a lot less interesting than Google's. Here's a photo of one of our servers though: http://friendfeed.com/e/136525... - Paul Buchheit
This is actually really important to me right now. I just posted .jpgs of text on our biz site and it looks great. I was wondering if .pngs wouldn't be better looking. - Anika Malone
Is it true that IE *still* doesn't support PNG properly? - Victor Ganata
I don't know how to make transparent files. When I save my .png they come out with white backgrounds. :( - Anika Malone
So are they saying that Flickr has it wrong, and that my digital photos should be uploaded to the web as png? They don't really state when one should use jpg and when to use png. And I definitely don't want my photos to look "trashy" as they put it. - Wizetux
@Victor IE6 doesn't know how to show PNG24 transparency - Shey
I like how the JPG guy in this comic has compression artifacts. @wizetux JPG was invented to compress photos, so they will look fine, usually. However, JPG doesn't do so well on thinks like text and line art... or anything with really high contrast actually. - Phil Glockner
author here. glad you guys liked it.. friendfeed just became my new favorite website...@wiztux: jpg is ideal for photos, so no, flickr doesn't have it wrong - Louis Brandy
Hey Louis, welcome to FF. Looking forward to more of your comics. - Thomas Hawk
Shey, I use Photoshop, but I'm not a genius at it. It seems that whenever I make a transparent graphic for the web, and I go to save it, it gives me the 4 options. And then tells me I have to merge everything and next thing you know it's a white background. - Anika Malone
Louis, Thomas, or anyone - how much larger, on average, is a PNG file vs. a JPG file? My image excursions are primarily limited to BMP and JPG. - Ontario Emperor
@Anika: That's why, when it comes to PNGs, Fireworks works better. Have you heard of Inkscape? I enjoy using that program from time to time. - Sean McGee
@Anika Use the File --> Save For Web command and be sure the Transparency is checked in the Save for Web dialog box - Shey
@Anika: Are you using Slices? That's the best way. - John Wang
@OntarioEmp. It depends entirely on the image content and the file settings. For "computer-generated" things with low numbers of colors (like logos or diagrams) a well optimized PNG is usually smaller (and better-looking) than a JPEG. For anything with alot of color and gradients (like a photo), JPEG is superior and will be many times smaller than a PNG. - Louis Brandy
@Shey, that's what I do (I think), but I doesn't work for me. I get a white background. @John, I have no idea what Slices is. Is that a program or tool in PS? @Sean, thanks for the tip. I'll look into that. - Anika Malone
"Music can alter a space as much as lighting, fabrics and artwork, but until recently, most people relied on their own judgment when it came to sound. Now, though, an increasing number are hiring personal music stylists to pick out tunes for their homes just as they might hire an interior decorator to select furnishings." - ♫ Rahsheen ™ ★
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"Personal music stylist" -- how stupid and lazy can people be? - Brian Sullivan
I'm willing to bet the job market for "personal music stylist" will shrink dramatically in the current economy... - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)
i can see this for restaurants and such. i actually thought about this as a business idea, along with being a wine list consultant for ethnic restaurants. (i mean why on earth would a thai or indian restaurant serve chardonnay when gewurztraminer or moscato would be far better choices?) but for home? that's just ... that's why rich people need to be taxed more. if they don't they'll spend their money on bullshit like this ... lol - tiffany
this quote is the money quote though: "She recalled a bachelor who wanted particularly “cheesy” amorous music (like songs by Barry White, she said) for the bedroom of his vacation house in the Hamptons. “That was one of those times when you learned more about the client than you wanted to know,” Ms. Hoffbauer said.
" - tiffany
I guess you'd have to have to existing musical opinions to do this. Nope, won't work for me. I agree with tiffany, might be useful in businesses/restaurants, but at home, it seems pretty dumb. Listen to what you like. - Jandy Stone
Awesome! I always wanted my house to sound like an elevator! - ♫ Rahsheen ™ ★
I wanna lock these people in a dungeon and pump in Metal Machine Music for the rest of their sorry, empty lives. - tehKenny
I started playing Le Wally when I first moved in here, and ever since, it's the song of choice that goes with the furniture! - anna
Why not just say "I want my house and my life to look just like the GAP" and be done with it? Somewhere, a corporation is rubbing their hands with glee. - Jason Kaneshiro
Heavy pc and crt, ok, but the subwoofer too? You know how heavy those things are? This would work in space maybe. - Josh Haley
And I wonder where it's getting powered from. Is there an extension cord behind him, or maybe he's got a generator attached to his feet? - Costa Walcott
But which way would it point? Or should there be two, one aimed at his face, and one on the visor of his hat, to see what he can see? - Ladybug Heather
It's a 'Trojan Horse'!! The hollowed out tower contains 8 Macbook Airs, 25 iPhones, a G1™[product placement by Google] and a handful of Newtons - just waiting to be deployed! - Micah Wittman
There is a distinct lack of cup holder. - Rochelle
True... where does the Mountain Dew go? Or coffee or Jolt Cola or whatever caffeinated substance he drinks? - Ladybug Heather
Rochelle: thats what the CD Drive tray is for. - Roberto Bonini
