Thingful, search engine for data

Note: Thingful is a “search engine” (beta version) for data and artifacts/sensors that produce data (the coming “Internet of Things” so to say, but also and mainly weather stations, aircrafts and Rastracks at this day). Already quite loaded, the content of the search engine and its map will with no doubt explode in the close future. It is a project by former creators of Pachube (in particular Usman Haque), which was an open webservice to “store, share and discover” data from realtime sensors, now sold and therefore private… It was sold to LogMeIn in 2011 (which is somehow a sad destiny for an open data project, but this is a different story) and became then Xively.

 

thingful

The Home & Personal Data(-Mining) Center

Interestingly, when it comes to experimentation with hardware and The Cloud (or more generally with servers), the most interesting and almost crazy examples are made by the hobbyists and makers who are building and customizing their own data (Bitcoin) mining farms.

It happens in their houses, caves, bathrooms, bedrooms, closets, etc., it seems their are no limits to experimentation. A “house miner” even hacked his own swimming pool to cool down his servers (Portrait of a Bitcoin Miner, link below).

It is almost a subculture of home-brewed personal data-centers, built at home (or at the small office).

 

A few notable examples in pictures above (where we can verify that the questions of cooling and cables organization are for real…)

More insane rigs:

https://99bitcoins.com/20-insane-bitcoin-mining-rigs/

http://www.thinkcomputers.org/insane-crypto-currency-mining-rigs/

 

A portrait of “Eric”, a Bitcoin miner:

bitcoin_farming_14

Eric built a custom cooling system using water from his swimming pool.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2043985/portrait-of-a-bitcoin-miner-how-one-man-made-192k-in-virtual-currency.html

 

And more “mining rigs” of all sorts on Google Image…