DataSlide’s Hard Rectangular Drive (HRD) does not use read-write heads moving across the recording surface of a spinning hard disk drive (HDD). Instead an ultra-thin, 2-dimensional array of 64 read-write heads, operating in parallel, is positioned above an piezo-electric-driven oscillating rectangular recording surface, and delivers 160,000 random IOPS with a 500MB/sec transfer rate.

via DataSlide reinvents hard drive • The Register.

The idea is to use cheap off-peak energy at night to freeze a tank of water or “distributed energy storage system” then use that great block of ice to cool your data centre in the daytime. Refrigerant would circulate from the tank to the Data Aire equipment eliminating the need to run the energy-intensive compressor and condenser during peak daytime hours.

Apparently this can save up to 45% on energy requirements for the cooling.

via Ice air con system aims for cool on the cheap • The Register.

as it turns out from the launcher screen of your Pre simply type in the phrase “upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbastart” — which if you parse with spacing might be more easily recognizable as the infamous Contra Konami code look it up — and up comes a hidden app called “Developer Mode Enabler.”

via The secret to Palm Pre dev mode lies in the Konami code.

It’s only been a few days since the Palm Pre was released, but one of the biggest breakthroughs for the outside-the-system developer community may have just been made.

With this, people can probably tell how the OS hooks into the hardware, which will allow them to hook in themselves – something Palm itself has been loathe to share with their userbase.

via Pre Recovery Tool Leaks Out, Including webOS Root Image(!) | PreCentral.net.