Microsoft’s ‘Project Mountain’ puts $700 million into data center powering Xbox One and Office 365 cloud

Microsoft really, really doesn’t want your Xbox One’s online services going offline. In a near $700 million investment ($677.6 million), the company’s opening a new data center in Iowa specifically aimed at powering Xbox Live and Office 365. Microsoft’s Christian Belady told Iowa’s Des Moines Register that the data center “supports the growing demand for Microsoft’s cloud services” — a much lauded function of both the Xbox One and Office 365 . Alongside the $700 million investment, the company’s getting a $6 million tax rebate from the state to move in, effective for five years. As for Microsoft’s cloud, we’ll assuredly hear more about it — for both Xbox One and Office 365 — this week at Build . Filed under: Gaming , Internet , Software , Microsoft Comments Via: NeoGAF Source: Des Moines Register

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Microsoft’s ‘Project Mountain’ puts $700 million into data center powering Xbox One and Office 365 cloud

NSA Releases Secret Pre-History of Computers

An anonymous reader writes “The National Security Agency has declassified an eye-opening pre-history of computers used for code-breaking between the 1930s and 1960s. The 344 page report, entitled It Wasn’t All Magic: The Early Struggle to Automate Cryptanalysis (pdf), it is available on the Government Attic web site. Government Attic has also just posted a somewhat less declassified NSA compendium from 1993: A Collection of Writings on Traffic Analysis. (pdf)” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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NSA Releases Secret Pre-History of Computers

Semi-Restore Restores Your iPhone without Losing Your Jailbreak

Windows/Mac: SemiRestore is a new app for jailbroken devices that makes restoring your iOS device to a stock-like version as easy as a click of the button. Read more…        

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Semi-Restore Restores Your iPhone without Losing Your Jailbreak

12th-century latrine still holds parasites from the crusaders’ feces

The medieval crusaders may be long gone, but some of them left behind something a bit personal. In a ruined castle in Cyprus, researchers discovered a latrine that still contained the fecal parasites of the European invaders. Read more…        

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12th-century latrine still holds parasites from the crusaders’ feces

A Typeface Designed To Thwart Spying Computers

If people are snooping on your textual communications and you don’t like it, there are a couple of things you can do. You can try to block the prying eyes, you can stop saying things you don’t want to be seen, or you can make your messages make no sense to the outside. The anti-authoritarian typeface ZXX is shooting for that last one. Read more…        

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A Typeface Designed To Thwart Spying Computers

Cross-section photographs of bullets are strangely fascinating

Sabine Pearlman ‘s photographs find beauty in the destructive engineering of ammunition with this series of cross-sections of bullets cartridges from a Swiss bunker. They reveal the complexity inside each case. Read more…        

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Cross-section photographs of bullets are strangely fascinating

Server Farms Flourish In Iowa: Microsoft Plows $700M More Into Des Moines

1sockchuck writes “A big chunk of the Azure cloud will be living on the plains of Iowa. Microsoft will invest another $700 million to expand its Iowa data center campus near Des Moines, marking the third major server farm for the state this year. Facebook recently announced a new data center in Altoona. The same day, Google said it would put another $400 million into its facility in Council Bluffs. Why Iowa? Aggressive tax incentives and a central location to bridge the distance between these companies’ east and west coast server footprints.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Server Farms Flourish In Iowa: Microsoft Plows $700M More Into Des Moines

Transgenic silkworms spin glowing fluorescent silk

If your greatest problem with your silk clothes is that they don’t look impressive enough under black light, you’re in luck. Researchers in Japan have genetically engineered silkworms that spin silk that glows under fluorescent light. Read more…        

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Transgenic silkworms spin glowing fluorescent silk

Digital Grotesque: complex, 3D-printed room

Digital Grotesque is an ambitious architectural project using 3D printers and game-of-life-style algorithms to produce a room whose walls, baseboards, ceiling and moldings are all a-crawl with the most astonishing array of forms and complexities. They’ve completed a 1:3 prototype, which is presently on exhibit in Basel, and are proceeding to print out the full-scale item. the prototypes show a regard for both material sensitivity and the limits of technologically manipulated form– millions of grains of sand bind together to create a new typology of sandstone and subsequently treated to be glazed and gilded. drawing from the algorithmic confines of the game of life and cell division, a set of simple geometries met with minimal parameters begets a highly involved form. the result is rich, shimmering composition ridden with impossible undercuts and a transcendental sense of the limits of technology. the term grotesque is derived from the unplanned complexities of a water-shaped grotto, itself a naturally occurring architecture long regarded for the uncanny presence of human-sized spaces in various landscapes. digital grotesque showcases 3-d printed room by michael hansmeyer ( Images: Digital Grotesque ) ( via Dvice )        

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Digital Grotesque: complex, 3D-printed room