New Technology Reviews!.: Carolina

North Carolina town goes paperless, embraces iPads

<img alt="" border="0" class="aligncenter" height="135" src="http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/8141/usingipadatwork.jpg" width="279" /> The town of Cornelius, NC has launched a new program designed to cut down on paper use in the town's government facilities, and the linchpin of this program is none other than Apple's tablet, the iPad. According to the local Herald Weekly paper, the town passed out iPad 2s to commissioners at a recent board meeting, and plans to use the devices for sharing agenda packets, budget information, and everything else you need to run a small town, without printing any of it out. The whole plan seems surprisingly well thought out -- the town actually ran a trial of the program with just three iPads, and the paperless agenda plan has been set up for quite a while now. It was relatively cheap, too -- the town has only spent $5200 on the iPads (not counting some document sharing software previously purchased), and fully expects to make that money right back up in saved time and paper costs. Pretty impressive move, and of course this means the town commissioners also get to use Apple's magical and revolutionary device during meetings (though they should probably keep the Angry Birds off of government property, just in case). We've seen iPads used in a professional setting before to great effect, and here's another situation where Apple's product is not only better for a few reasons, but actually cheaper as well.

North Carolina town goes paperless, embraces iPads

The town of Cornelius, NC has launched a new program designed to cut down on paper use in the town's government facilities, and the linc...

Answered questions about Apple's North Carolina data center

<DIV class=separator style="CLEAR: both; TEXT-ALIGN: center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNLittMTuVvlqaavKPrvN-2TfaQ29cuNIstWGHm4VzUG5fNPCrsyiTeXx_4JXPFTbwR3QbSNlX9q_OEPXKJlxNZOA2UYuH8__UimmXa6PmrPxJBuCGxcgwvR_sH7q5DQ92G96Kjb0qYaA/s1600/ncdatacenter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 1em; MARGIN-RIGHT: 1em"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNLittMTuVvlqaavKPrvN-2TfaQ29cuNIstWGHm4VzUG5fNPCrsyiTeXx_4JXPFTbwR3QbSNlX9q_OEPXKJlxNZOA2UYuH8__UimmXa6PmrPxJBuCGxcgwvR_sH7q5DQ92G96Kjb0qYaA/s1600/ncdatacenter.jpg"></A></DIV>Much conjecture has come of the Death Star that Apple is building in North Carolina. Some suspect it will power a future streaming version of iTunes or a major update to MobileMe. The folks at Data Center Knowledge have combined the rumors with their own knowledge about these things into a single, unofficial Apple Data Center FAQ. Among their findings is the center's size. In a word, it's huge. At 505,000 square feet, it's one of the world's largest data centers. A property assessment from Catawba County revealed that the central server area is enclosed by 262,328 square feet of space. Apple has also reportedly purchased 75 acres of land across the street from the main building, according to "local officials," though what Apple will do with that plot of land is unknown. What's inside? The FAQ has a few educated guesses, based on recent Apple job postings. For instance, they note that Apple says that its "...data center environment consists of MacOS X, IBM/AIX, Linux and SUN/Solaris systems." Also, recent listings call for candidates who are familiar with storage systems using IBM, NetApp and Data Domain, and data warehousing systems from Teradata. There's much more, so go over and check it out. In the meantime, we'll have to wait before we realize the power of a fully armed and operational data center.

Answered questions about Apple's North Carolina data center

Much conjecture has come of the Death Star that Apple is building in North Carolina. Some suspect it will power a future streaming version o...