Maybe you’ve heard of Apple’s new iDataCenter in North Carolina.  Know how big it is? Really big. Five times the size of the Apple setup in Newark, CA. Cloud computing, here we come.

It appears that US officials are very close to nailing the person(s) responsible for hacking Google’s Gmail service. According to the BBC, the “alleged hacker is a Chinese ‘freelance security consultant in his 30s’ who had published extracts of the attack code on the web.”

The clock is ticking, pal. You can run, but you can’t hide.

As if. Brooke Crothers wandered into a Valley Best Buy over the weekend, and immediately began drooling over..ready….Dell laptops. He says that Dell has done what Apple cannot- deliver pleasing design at a competitive price. Brooke hasn’t grasped the concept yet, though. Apple laptops are intentionally overpriced, to weed out the riff-raff. Would they be as cool if everyone had one? I rest my case. Key quote below:

“Dell deserves credit–not all the design glory should go to Apple. Dell has delivered elegant designs that don’t come with a luxury laptop surcharge.”

Apple should buy Abbey Road, even though they say it’s not for sale. Full circle with the Apple trademark and all that.  Wouldn’t it be totally cool Fab to have “Live From Abbey Road” concerts on iTunes? Dear Leader can just write the check. Pocket change. Bonus: it would drive The Dragon Lady absolutely bonkers.

Personally, I like the iDeal one. More here.

Brother, it just doesn’t get any better than this.  Hear what Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has to say about bagging the America’s Cup, and what’s ahead for the event. He also “doesn’t like how the America’s Cup has become a contest for only the super wealthy.” Right.

You’ve heard about this, right? A high school in Pennsylvania lets students check out loaner Apple laptops to use. Oops- the laptops have webcams in them, and the school has reportedly activated the cameras 42 times in the last 14 months, thus being able to view inside the students home. The feature is supposedly so the school could see where the gear is if it was stolen. Mr. Hand would never have agreed to this.

Appadvice.com says look for presale of the iPad this coming week, maybe as soon as the 25th.

Fireball XL5 was an integral part of my youth. Spaceships in the 60′s? Are you kidding?

One of the UK Gerry Anderson shows of the early ’60′s, Fireball chronicled the adventures of the dashing Steve Zodiac (great name) and his ship, Fireball XL5.  He had a robot for a co-pilot, and had a thing for Venus, the ship’s resident babe. (If a puppet can be a babe? She sounded a lot like Zsa-Zsa Gabor to me.) But wait, as they say on TV…there’s more.

I distinctly recall going over to my Grandma’s house in November or sometime- prior to Christmas.  My Mom went with her back to the rear bedroom, and the door was closed, but not locked. Key concept. They were in there a long time.  I’m like 5 or so, but I said, “Right, that’s it, they’ve been in there forever, I wanna go home.” So I marched back to the door, opened it up (it wasn’t locked remember, oops) and there spread out on the bed was…..the ship you see below. Houston, we are ready for lift-off.

Ack.

It wasn’t the deluxe “Space City” set, either. I didn’t care. Needless to say, I went totally bananas and they gave me the detachable nose-cone just to shut me up. (And this was after my cousin had brought his Fireball to the golf course the previous summer. More bananas.) So Moms and Grandmas, let this be a lesson, from someone who’s been there.  If you’re checking out Christmas presents…lock the door, and save your kid some hysteria. Fireball is still around- check the great diecast version. That one is right here on my desk.Bonus: click here for the totally trippy n’ groovy theme song.