Opening in January, the center, run by IT firm Academica, will save $563,000 each year in energy costs, with all 500 homes benefiting from the shared heat presumably saving quite a few Euros too. [Reuters and Fast Company]

570,937,778 computers are online, with the average weight of 88 pounds, with monitors, printers, and any other peripherals. Ehhh...I'm still a bit skeptical of that number, given the popularity of laptops, but let's keep coming because this is fun!

There are an additional 175,480,931 servers, and about 100 million Blackberries/iPhone/iPod touches to worry about. Plus, there's a 9,320-mile transatlantic cable connecting one half of the digital world to the other (it in itself weighs 191,802,168 pounds) to account for.

Anyway, the final number they come up with is 1,098,868,920,000 pounds (or just over a trillion pounds, for those too lazy to count commas).

To put that number in better perspective, it's about the same weight as 25,000 cloned Sears/Willis Towers. [Crave UK and image]

What you're seeing is a tiny section of the 7.5 miles of cooling pipes inside Microsoft's new 700,000-foot Chicago data center, which is one of the—if not the—largest in the world.

It's a mesmerizing place, simultaneously industrio-scary and dreamy, eerily glowing and searingly lit. But for all the painted piping, shimmering server racks and retro-futuristic control panels, the blood running through this place's veins couldn't be more benign: we're talking Windows Live Mail, My Phone, and Messenger; WGA activation servers and Windows Update; Windows Live Office, Xbox Live and Azure, but interestingly, not Sidekick.

And amazingly massive as it is, data centers like this are the undeniable future of the biggest names in tech. Where do you think the Google searches come from? The iTunes music? The Xbox Live games? Full gallery at [CNET]

What it still does

HP's Windows Home Servers are exceptional because they take the standard Home Server build and add a bunch of extras on top of it. For example, HP was the first one to introduce support for Apple's Time Machine, which has been improved here so that you can do a complete restore in the event that you have to start your Mac up from scratch.

They've also still got the media streaming (DLNA compliant), web/iPhone streaming and iTunes server built in, as well as a media collector that sucks in media from all your regular machines on the network into one place on the server. All of this stuff is just improved.

What it does even better now

The greatest group of improvements is how the EX495 now works with Macs. Time Machine functionality was there before, but ran into problems when your Mac went down and you tried to do a fresh restore directly off the network. Now you get a separate disc to use so you can treat the Time Machine backup on the server as a standard Time Machine backup for restores.

But the most important feature on a day-to-day basis is the fact that the Home Server console works natively on Macs—even though it's just a remote desktop connection to the server anyway. You can now do on your Mac all the management actions you could on the PC, like setup new users, update your Home Server, perform diagnostics or configure video conversions.

Then there is the added ability to do media collecting on Macs, basically sucking off any videos or music you've accumulated into one network-accessible place so other machines can access it. It beats having to remember to manually place those things on the server yourself.

Of course, Macs can also access the web interface for Home Server management just like PCs can.

More power, more storage and better processing

Shoving a Dual Core 2.5GHz or a 2.2GHz Celeron processor and 2GB of RAM on these machines might seem like overkill for something that's just used to hold stuff and stream it around the network, but HP puts that to good use.

In our tests, the EX495 was able to convert a DVD movie into a full resolution h.264 and a phone-streamable 300MB movie in about an hour and a half, give or take. Very useful for not sucking up your main machine's horsepower to convert videos when you can just vomit them onto the network and have it be done by a slave machine.

The improved processor is very noticeable from just using the remote console. Clicking around to set up the photo publisher, or the media server, or adding BitTorrent plugins were much faster than the previous generation EX485 and EX487 machines. It's not even comparable to the LX195 budget versions.

At $700 and $550 respectively, the MediaSmart Servers definitely aren't cheap. If you've got an older version, like the 485/487 series, the improvements probably won't be enough to warrant you spending so much for another machine that has similar functionality. If you're new to the Windows Home Server realm, this has pretty much everything a PC or a Mac user would want to hold their data, stream their media and backup their information. [HP EX495 and HP EX490]

The kit includes a remote, 2.5-in space for a you-provided HDD, three USB slots, Ethernet, and support for more than a few file formats. It launches, well, soon, as there's no date and it's currently in pre-order. [Amazon via The Gadget Site via Engadget]

While we haven't seen Microsoft's newest data center, we hear that it has 700,000 square feet of space, really, really high ceilings, and 40-foot stacks of server-filled containers. Thinking about the stacks may leave me with vertigo, but thinking about the ingenuity of the design leaves me impressed: Microsoft has built something which'll "deliver huge benefits in cost, energy efficiency and environmental sustainability."

All those containers are plug-and-play in a way, complete with corresponding bays, and can be set up by "as few as four employees" in hours. Yes, they've designed it so that moving 60 ton stacks of servers requires only four people. If that's not incredible then let's consider that the place has a huge focus on being energy efficient: Despite the facility having a 30-megawatt power capacity, steps have been taken to make it as economical and sustainable as possible:

[T]he Chicago site employs water-side economization [which takes] advantage of cool outside air to reduce the data center's reliance upon power-hungry chillers to produce chilled water. Air economizers introduce fresh air into the data center, while water-side economizers use cooling towers to remove waste heat.

Basically Microsoft is cutting down energy waste, saving on labor, and being all-around economical. While the modular, server-in-a-box approach might not get the stamp of revolutionary, the way Microsoft is approaching it is something worth paying attention to because it might just be what'll help "meet the demand for cloud computing at scale." [Data Center Knowledge]

[Copyranter]

UPDATE: This video was actually done by an aspiring director without Cisco's involvement. So, he can pretty much strike them off his list of potential employers. Actual Cisco ads can be seen here.

The prototype pictured here is intended to promote the ServersMan app, which gives iPhone users the ability to use their phone as network storage, file viewer or a mini web server. Hey, If you are not going to sell the phones or give them away, its better than leaving them in a drawer somewhere. [IT Media via DVICE]

Unite is somewhere between a personal web server and a file sharing application, technologically and conceptually. The interface is straightforward, divided into panels for each service that you choose to "host." All of them behave in the same stupid-simple way: you start a service, whether it be photo sharing, music streaming, web hosting, or straight file sharing, select a shared directory, set your privacy preferences and go. There are also hosted chat services, and "Fridge," which is a—you guessed it—hosted quasi-Facebook wall for other Opera users to drop notes on.

Even at this early stage you can find a lot of shared content to explore, including plenty of publicly streamable music, which will almost certainly cause Opera problems even though, strictly speaking, they're not doingthe streaming. There's no video service for now, but Unite is extensible, meaning that anyone can design a plugin to add to the program's default file-serving capabilities.

Opera is proud of the fact that Unite runs against the tide of most new web services, opting for client-side content hosting over cloud-based solutions—so proud, in fact, that they're able to repeatedly, straight-facedly describe Unite as a "Web 5.0" product, which is a bit rich considering it's essentially a collection of services that have been available for years, albeit never in such a simple or consolidated way. As a convenient tool for sharing large amounts of content, I get it. As a game-changer? I'm not so sure.

Try it out for yourself: a technical preview of Opera Unite is available for download here. [Opera]

Created by software developer Donavon West, the Home Servidor is a small home server that sits in the bowels of a fully functional humidor.

The case is made from cedar, and the glass lid covers a tray for more than a dozen cigars. Below that is another glass panel, which serves to protect the server's innards from the cigar-friendly humidity and moisture provided by the humidor.

Like the case, the server itself is also custom built. There's an Intel Atom 330 dual core processor, 2GB of memory, room for two internal SATA drives, space for two external USB drives expansions, Gigabit wired Ethernet and Windows Home Server.

Pricing begins at $800, and that includes 1TB of storage.

But those nights on the porch, the ones where you're sipping some single malt Scotch and puffing a stogy while the Home Servidor pumps out mild tunes into the cool evening air? Those are free. [Baltimore Sun via Born Rich]

The Price: $390

The Verdict: Quite good. If you weren't quite sure Windows Home Server was right for you, and you have a family with both Mac and PC machines, the LX195 is an easy way to experiment without paying the $600ish dowry to hitch yourself to a full-blown EX machine.

The Catch: Like the EX HP Home Servers, you can retrieve individual files off the Time Machine backup, but you can't use it to restore your machine at boot time. Which means if you don't have a spare Mac in the house to grab the files off the server and load it onto a USB drive from which you can do a restore, you'll have a more roundabout recovery process than you'd like.

The Point: The LX195 works just fine as a Home Server and a Time Machine target backup drive (its Gigabit Ethernet makes file transfers rather speedy), but lacks the extras the company just introduced to the EX485 and EX487 that allow users to stream and convert video to iPhones and PSPs. If all you want is the base functionality, this is definitely a fine choice. But at the same time, you have to look at Acer's $400 solution that does have four expandable drive bays. But Acer's might not have the iTunes server and media capabilities that HP does. [HP]

Relatively cheap, but maintains most of HP's Home Server functionality

Doesn't have the newer EX updates

No internal-expandable storage, only USB

Speaking at the Google "Data Center Efficiency Summit" yesterday, server designer Ben Jai showed off one of their data centers and custom web servers. To the audience's surprise, each server features a 12V battery as a backup should any problem occur with a main power source. They also learned that their data centers are housed in standard shipping containers packed with 1,160 servers and a power consumption that can reach 250 kilowatts.

Essentially, the major advantage with Google's servers are that they are way ahead of the curve when it comes to energy efficiency. Jai notes:

Large UPSs can reach 92 to 95 percent efficiency, meaning that a large amount of power is squandered. The server-mounted batteries do better, Jai said: "We were able to measure our actual usage to greater than 99.9 percent efficiency."

To put that in perspective, right now Google is reaching levels of efficiency that the EPA hopes will be attainable in 2011 using "advanced technology." That's pretty extraordinary, but one has to wonder why Google is unveiling this now. Officially they feel that opening up will help other businesses in a dire economy focus more on efficiency—although Jai noted that Google was already on it's 6th or 7th generation of the server design, so my guess is that they are confident that they will remain ahead of the curve. Check out CNET for the full details. [CNET]

Among the features are improved and simplified remote access handling (it's just a one-click affair now), as well as media sharing through Windows Media Center extenders. Previously, you could grab files off of a WHS machine with your 360 through the videos app from the dashboard, but now you can go through Media Center Extender and keep the snazzy UI intact. There's also MP4 support, plus a bunch of bugfixes that you'll be happy to see.

Grab it tomorrow (the 24th) via Windows Update.

Though it looks the same on the outside, the hardware received a bump, now using a 2.0 GHz Celeron processor and 2GB DDR2 RAM. It comes in 2 storage configurations— a 750GB server or a 1.5TB server. The MediaSmart server is still built on top of the Windows Home Server platform, but makes use of a couple of additional software to enhance functionality.

First, HP tapped Twonky Media to handle their remote streaming backend. As such, you can access all your audio files and photos from any web browser with a broadband connection. You can either enter your home IP address or set up a free custom HP domain that will quickly forward you to your server. From there, a media player UI appears and your entire library is at hand. The only downside is that, when not streaming over LAN, it transcodes your MP3s at a 128kbps bitrate, apparently to minimize choppiness in streaming (bleck).

A couple of other nice features that are new for the EX485/7 are the media collector feature, which will scan and watch any folders or drives from your computer, and will gather them on the MediaSmart Server. Also new is that you can connect to Amazon's S3 cloud, and gain another layer of data protection.

Secondly, HP worked with Apple to get MediaSmart Server up and running OSX. Not only is there a Mac version of the software, but they also got Time Machine working with the device, which can do scheduled backups over the air. However, being that it is Windows Home Server, you still need a PC to set up the server, and cannot carry out any admin functions from a Mac.

That aside, much of the same functionality from the last version of MediaSmart Server is still there, such as UPnP streaming of video, photos and music, photo albums that can be published directly to the web, downloadable add-ons (like a bittorrent client), and storage in a RAID-esque, "balanced" configuration. It also has 4 drive bays, 4 USB drives and an eSATA port for adding additional storage.

As far as availability and pricing goes, the updated MediaSmart Server will be available for order on January 5, with the 750 GB EX485 selling for $600, while the 1.5 TB EX487 costs about $750. [HP MediaSmart Server on Giz]

HP Launches New Home Server for PCs and Macs
HP MediaSmart Server centralizes digital media and files for backup, remote access, sharing and uploading to social media sites

PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 29, 2008 – HP today launched a home server designed for use with both Windows and Mac computers.

Based on the Microsoft Windows® Home Server platform, the HP MediaSmart Server ex485/ex487 is a central repository for automatically backing up and accessing digital music, videos, photos and documents from multiple computers on a home network.(1)

The MediaSmart Server automatically organizes files across all PCs, streams media across a home network and the Internet,(2) and publishes photos to popular social networking and photo sharing sites.

“A growing number of digital-savvy households have both Windows and Mac computers, with hundreds and sometimes thousands of media files and documents scattered across these devices,” said Jason Zajac, vice president of strategy, Worldwide Attach Group, HP. “The HP MediaSmart Server protects, stores and organizes this content from anywhere on a network so consumers can access and share it any place they are connected.”

“HP continues to innovate on the Windows Home Server platform giving consumers even more options to enjoy and protect their precious memories and valuable data,” said Charlie Kindel, general manager, Windows Server Solutions, Microsoft. “We believe consumers will embrace the new MediaSmart Server as one of the most exciting computing products for the home.”

MediaSmart Server ex485/ex487 features include:

· HP Media Collector: conveniently schedules the MediaSmart Server to copy and centralize digital files and libraries from networked PCs

· Media Streaming: remotely streams photos and music to any Internet-connected PC or Mac

· Server for iTunes: centralizes iTunes music libraries on the server for playback to any networked Mac or PC running iTunes

· HP Photo Publisher: easily upload photos to Facebook®, PicasaTM Web Albums and Snapfish(3)

· HP Photo Viewer: allows easy sharing of photos with friends and family

· PC Hard Drive Backup: backs up networked PCs via the Windows Home Server backup feature

· Mac Hard Drive Backup: backs up Macs running Leopard using Apple Time Machine software

· Server Backup: duplicates designated shared folders to a separate hard disk drive

· Online Backup: duplicates designated folders to Amazon’s S3 online backup service for an additional layer of protection

· Smart Power Management: can schedule times for server to go to ”sleep” and ”wake up,” saving on energy costs

· Processor: Intel® Celeron®, 2.0 GHz 64-bit. Two gigabytes (GB) of 800-MHz DDR2 DRAM now standard on MediaSmart Server

· Expandability: additional drives can be added for up to 9 terabytes (TB)

"Customers are always looking for the right mix of features and ease-of-use when choosing digital home products," said Danielle Levitas, group vice president, consumer, broadband and digital marketplace at IDC. "HP's focus and investment in software allows it to deliver a home server with compelling features for Mac and PC users while offering a great customer experience that helps simplify the complexity of the connected home. This unique offering will help expand the home server market."

Pricing and availability
Manufacturer’s suggested retail price for the HP MediaSmart Server ex485 with 750 GB of hard disk storage is $599 while the HP MediaSmart Server ex487 with 1.5 TB is $749.(4)

The HP MediaSmart Server can be pre-ordered beginning on Jan. 5, 2009, from Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, Buy.com, Frys.com and NewEgg.com; it is expected to ship in February.

The first 200 consumers who visit HP Home & Home Office (www.hpshopping.com) or call +1 888 271 2982 between Jan. 5 - 11, 2009, to reserve a MediaSmart Server and use coupon code “AC5674” will receive a $50 savings off their purchase.(5)

More information is available at www.hp.com/go/mediasmartserver.

Part of me is happy for the Army and Air Force troops at the Yokota Air Base in Japan. I am all for taxpayer dollars going to improve our overseas troops' American TV watching experience (even if Heroes has crashed and burned, at least Fringe is there to take its place). But this seems like a form of suppression: The channels playback in realtime, 9 hours later. As far as I can tell, you can't even fast-forward through commercials, let alone the hours of crap TV in between the good bits.

Each of 33 channels gets its own dedicated server, so why can't each channel timeshift at the whim of whoever's watching that particular channel? Give our boys (and girls) in uniform a damned remote, Uncle Sam! I'm pretty sure they've earned it.

If this was a true rant, I'd get more into this "9 hours ahead" business. Sure, it's showing American TV at the Japanese prime time, but if my calculations are correct, it's a day off. Which means they get Thursday's Must See TV on Friday night? I'll take Liz Lemon any day of the week, but making people wait till Monday to see Amazing Race, that's just cruel and unusual. That said, at least sports and news will be broadcast in realtime. [Stars and Stripes via CNet]

It turns out that crappy old PCs are kind of a hot commodity nowadays; numerous software projects have succeeded in dressing up retired computers for purposes that often didn't even exist when they were first wheeled out of Circuit City. Here are a few suggestion for your dumpy old rigs:

Make a browsing machine for your grandmother and/or kitchen

The most straightforward, obvious use for an old PC is to wipe it clean and install a lightweight, browsing-oriented OS. With a modest PC, you can run the web-app-inclined gOS, which is essentially a modern, stripped down Linux distribution with a modern web browser and lots of links to cutting edge online services.

For older hardware, there's always Damn Small Linux. This superlight distribution will boot straight from a CD in about a minute on just about any box you can find — and it's fast. It'll make your Pentium feel like a Centrino 2. Until you try to play YouTube.

What it can salvage
gOS has room to breathe on just about anything from about 700mhz and 256mb of RAM. It's based on Ubuntu, so it's not the lightest distro, but it get good mileage out of your hard. DSL will run on anything, seriously.

How you do it
Download, burn to a CD and pop in in your computer. Both will ask you if you'd like to install or just run from a CD. Give them a try first, but you'll get your best results running from a hard drive.

gOS download page
Lifehacker's gOS Post
DSL download page

Make a professional grade home router

For people who want to rule their home networks with an iron fist, Monowall a FreeBSD-based operating system that flips any PC with two network cards into a superrouter. If that sounds boring to you, I completely understand — but if full bandwidth monitoring and control, easy setup VPNs and a complementary web server with a remote interface perk your ears up, then you should give Monowall a shot. And step outside for a few minutes a day.

What it can salvage
Got a 486? It'll work, with 64MB of RAM. If your hardware is less than five years old, though, you should probably aim a little bit higher than making a Linksys out of it.

How you do it
Again, this is a wipe>install situation. m0n0wall is based on FreeBSD, which is based on Unix. None of that matters much, though — the m0n0wall team has designed a pretty straightforward installation routine.

m0n0wall download
m0n0wall HowTo page

Create a media center PC

There's no reason to spend money on a Windows Media Center PC if you've got an Athlon XP or Pentium 4 machine with an s-video port at hand, because you can do better with the free XBMC Live. Without modern hardware you won't have much luck playing back HD video, but virtually everything else — music, standard def video, streaming content — will play beautifully. The interface is very intuitive and gives a solid set-top box feel.

What it can salvage
Recently obsolete PCs. Don't expect to get a good experience on a 1GHz Athlon or Duron system, but anything newer can handle the load.

How you do it
Like most of the other hacks here, this one is a start-from-scratch project. If you want to run it within Windows or Linux there is also an option for that. The full, OS-replacement XBMC Live is ideal, however.

XBMC Live download
XBMC HowTo
Note: Boxee is a much more polished and feature-rich fork of XBMC that runs on Linux and OS X currently, but it's in a semi-public alpha. Use this link for Gizmodo readers to skip the line a bit and get invited into the alpha.

Run a server

An obvious use for old PCs for years, running a web server has now gotten easy enough for anyone. Apache is the de facto free web server, but it's a pain to set up. Enter XAMPP, a super-simplified click-and-run version of Apache. Forward a few ports on your router and get yourself a static DNS and you've got your very own website, with as much space as you've got on your hard drive and as much transfer as your ISP will let you get away with. If you have no need for a website, you can host your music, video and files for easy access from anywhere.

What it can salvage
Anything that can run Windows or Linux, gOS and Damn Small Linux included. You can reach waaaayy back into your closet with this one.

How you do it
It's a matter of running the installation routine on your chosen operating system — there's no drive wiping or OS installing involved.

XAMPP Download
Port Forwarding Guides
Free Static DNS

Dealzmodo Hacks are intended to help you sustain your crippling gadget addiction through tighter times. If you come across any on your own that are particularly useful, send it to our tips line (Subject: Dealzmodo Hack). Check back every Thursday for free DIY tricks to breathe new life into hardware that you already own.

That's 'cause it was built into the old "Pionen White Mountains" nuclear bunker from the Cold War, though they took a year to convert it, and had to blast out more than 4,000 cubic meters of extra rock to make room for Bahnhof's infrastructure. The backup engines are two Maybach MTU diesels, and they've got the submarine emergency sound horns still in place. Meanwhile the net connections even have triple redundancy, with the fiber-optic and copper trunk lines following three different routes into the bunker. That's one massively redundant data center, no doubt about it.

On the human side, the 15 staff are treated to a 2600-liter fish tank, and a circular mid-air glass-walled conference room that has a moon-map for a floor. The CEO himself has confirmed that some sci-fi movie inspiration was deliberately incorporated into the design. Craziness. [RoyalPingdom]