Maiden

Apple today said it plans to make its Maiden, N.C., data center run entirely off renewable energy by the end of the year.

The company said it's building two solar array installations in the area, which when combined will bring in 84 million kilowatt-hours of power annually. Apple is also at work on its bio-gas fuel cell installation, set to be completed later this year.

All told, Apple says it will produce 60 percent of the power it requires to run the data center on site, procuring the other 40 percent from "local and regional sources" … Read more

I recently chatted with mastering engineer Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound in NYC. He mastered Beyonce's "Live at Roseland: Elements of 4," Iron Maiden's "Flight 666" DVD, and James Taylor's "One Man Band," so you can see he's a pretty versatile engineer. When he was a kid the sound of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" turned him around, and the first Guns 'n' Roses album made a big impression.

My first question was simply this, "Does the process start as soon as you hear the album for the … Read more

Apple plans to build a solar farm next to its massive data center in Maiden, N.C., according to a Charlotte Observer report.

The company has won approval to reshape the slope of 171 acres of vacant land it owns adjacent to the data center in preparation, according to permits issued in Catawba County. However, the permit offered no details about the solar farm project itself--dubbed Project Dolphin Solar Farm-- including its size, the newspaper noted.

Apple has spent reportedly $1 billion to build a 500,000-square-foot behemoth of a data center in Maiden, N.C., which had the code … Read more

Now I don't want anyone to panic, but on Thursday, for the first time in two years, famous scienticians from the board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists will move the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock, which is perhaps the most bad-ass-named fake clock in the world after the "Timex of Space and Time" (which I just made up).

Nobody knows if the hand will move closer to the figurative midnight (which, apparently, causes all-out nuclear war or something equally destructive) or farther away (which I believe causes extinct species to come back to life). … Read more

This week in the New York Times, op-ed columnist David Brooks mourns the passing of what I'd call the classic rock age. This was the era in which everybody learned about a musical act at the same time--the fabled Beatles-on-Ed-Sullivan moment--and it wasn't uncommon for active bands consisting of young people to sell out 20,000-seat arenas. (John Bonham and Robert Plant weren't even 30 when Led Zeppelin sold out the 60,000-seat Kingdome in Seattle in 1977. When's the last time a young, non-nostalgia-act rock and roll band had that many fans?) Brooks argues the … Read more

Hear ye! Hear ye! Before us we have two gallant fighters preparing to do bloody battle for our affections. In the orange corner we have Baron Vista, representing Windows' finest, and in the black corner is Count OS X, representing Apple.

That's right, we're doing Mac vs. PC, Crave UK-style: in tights. Gasp in fear as Vista approaches OS X, questions his parentage and slaps a heavy gauntlet across the Count's supple, moisturised face. Feel your heart race as OS X swings his sword with reckless abandon, and scream in desperation as Vista counters with a barrage … Read more