Storage Industry Ponders Power Efficiency Redesign

Tschudi

According to some experts — including Berkeley Lab environmental technologist Bill Tschudi — recent research on methods to reduce the number of power conversions required to get energy from a wall socket into a computer could drastically reduce power consumption in both servers and storage if widely adopted. Full story.

The Next Earthquake?
Learn About It Today

Schwartz

Seismologist David Schwartz of the United States Geological Survey in Menlo Park, a member of the Western States Hazard Team, will be sharing with Berkeley Lab employees what he knows about “The Next Bay Area Earthquake” in a free talk at noon today in the Building 50 Auditorium. His appearance is the final event of the Lab’s Emergency Preparedness Week and will be preceded by an encore presentation of the documentary film on the Oakland Hills fire, “May I Have Your Attention.”

Talk on Lab, NERSC's
Input on Climate Report

Buja

Lawrence Buja, with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, will discuss the contribution of the Community Climate System Model (CCSM3) to the 4th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change today at noon in Building 50A-5132.   In his talk, Buja will discuss Berkeley Lab and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center's critical role in the CCSM development, production and data distribution.

Weekend 'Oliver' Shows Discounted for Lab Staff

"Oliver," a musical based on Charles Dickens's poignant story about a young orphan in England, is currently running at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Berkeley Lab staff interested in seeing this production — directed by Neil Bartlett — can receive a 20 percent discount on tickets for shows tonight (8 p.m.), tomorrow (2 and 8 p.m.) and Sunday (2 and 7 p.m.). Go here to purchase (use promo code 2277).

Web Calendar Upgrade Allows PDA Syncing

The Lab's online calendar will be upgraded and unavailable from 10 to 11 a.m. Sunday.  Among the new features is SyncML, which allows supported PDA cellular phones to sync directly with the calendar server without a computer. For a list of supported PDAs, go here. For details on PDA support and configuration instructions for PalmOS Treo, go here, and for WindowsOS Treo, go here. Direct questions to the IT Help Desk (x4357).

Badge Office
Closed Monday

To accommodate the intake of nearly 80 students working at the Lab this summer, the Badge Office, located in Building 65A, will be closed on Monday. It will reopen on Tuesday.

Watch Special Olympics
At Cal This Weekend

The Northern California Summer Special Olympic Games will be held on the UC Berkeley campus this weekend, with opening ceremonies tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Haas Pavilion, starring American Idol runner-up Katharine McPhee (free tickets available at participating AT&T stores). Athletes will compete in aquatics, track and field, bocce ball, tennis, and volleyball. Go here to see the schedule and location of events. No tickets are required to watch the competitions.