Sun previewed its latest prototype - Project Blackbox. Essentially a shipping-container datacenter. Google beat them to the punch last year.

However it still looks pretty impressive. Working with a room full of Sun servers I do wonder about the ability to shift the truly mammoth amount of heat pumped out by their Sparc processors - maybe its just a perception thing but they seem to run hotter than Intel boxes. Giving organisations the ability to plonk down one of these beasts anywhere they like with suitable power and water does provide pretty impressive flexibility.

I wonder if, like racks and sans, you'll be able to buy a bare-bones container you can add your own stuff into ?

Bulk storage (I'm thinking of old-fashioned physical warehouses here) suppliers might be able to find a niche by offering facilities to datacenter-containers to clients . . . Actually in NZ hydro electicity providers could do something similar - they'd be able to provide plenty of water cooling and power beside their dams . . .

Movies I've seen recently . . .

* Water

Part of Deepa Mehtas trilogy (her earlier films were Fire & Earth). Excellent film providing an insight into the barbaric practise of isolating Indian widows. The movie is set in the late 1940's so hopefully this type is stuff isn't still practised. Highly recommended.

* Out of the Blue

Riveting yet harrowing drama exploring the day David Gray went on a shooting rampage in the tiny NZ town of Aramoana (Maori for 'Pathway to the sea') and killed 13 of his neighbours. The moment David snaps made the entire theatre draw breath as the idyllic peace of the town is shattered by his actions. Its sad to think that there are so many people out there who slowly withdraw from society they fear that aren't captured by the mental health system. Definitely recommended. Note that the director Robert Sarkies earlier work includes a 'Shallow Grave' type thriller called 'Scarfies' which is also pretty good and a lot more light-hearted than 'Out of the Blue'.

* Rosenstrasse

Movie depicting one of the few displays of public protest to Hitlers deportation of the Jews in WWII occurred on Rosenstrasse in Berlin. In a passive protest thousands of German wives demanded the return of their Jewish husbands held in a Rosenstrasse collection facility before being deported to concentration camps. The movie itself is in German with English subtitles - its pretty good but a little to long. One of the interesting things related to this movie was finding the various Wikipedia references to other German resistance efforts - such as the White Rose movement, the Swing Kids and the Edelweiss Pirates.