Sun is onto something really cool with their new Project Blackbox portable datacenters. The plan is to convert ordinary shipping containers into mobile datacenters that can be dropped into any location for customers that need to expand their capacity and data processing capabilities fast. These boxes are complete IT solutions that, fully maxed out, would place them within the list of the world’s top 200 supercomputers.

They offer:

• 250 x64-based servers with 1000 cores
• 1.5 petabytes of disk storage or 2 petabytes of energy-efficient tape storage
• 7 terabytes of memory
• Suport for up to 10,000 simultaneous desktop users
• Power and cooling to support 200 kilowatts of rackmounted equipment

Check out the movie over at the Project Blackbox site. It’s so impressive that I decided to max out all the credit cards and put one on order for the Crashpod offices. Even if we don’t need it for Crashpod version 5, I bet it would make a sweet gaming rig!

While logging into the iTunes store today I was greeted with a great surprise! One of my favorite NPR radio shows, This American Life has finally added their program to iTunes’ lineup of podcasts! Formerly, the only way to listen to TAL episodes was by streaming them from the website or purchasing them from the archives at $0.95/pop. I always hoped to eventually see the show migrate to a podcast format but didn’t see it happening if they were using episode sales as a revenue stream. The way they are making it work is each show will be available as a free podcast for one week after the original airs. After that it moves into the archives where you can either stream it for free or purchase it for the same price as before. Fans of TAL rejoice! And when you are finished rejoicing, go subscribe today so you can take advantage of this free service!