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A Robotic Storage Facility Danny Ocean Could Love

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Remember Ocean’s 11, where Danny Ocean pulled off an elaborate, overly complicated heist on one of the most secure vaults in Vegas? Maybe we’ve seen too many action flicks, but a robotically controlled storage facility with biometric recognition and retinal scanning seems like the perfect opportunity to try this out in real life.

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RoboVault, which claims to be “the first storage facility of its kind in the world,” is a fully automated robotic container retrieval system that stores valuables ranging in size from automobiles to artwork.

The South Florida facility is currently under development by storage facility developer Marvin Chaney who has developed self-storage facilities for more than 25 years. The robotic retrieval system is being developed by Westfalia Systems.

So what makes the facility bulletproof? Check a few specs:

  • The exterior is designed to withstand Category 5 hurricanes with winds up to 200 mph.
  • Solid concrete roof, solid concrete, steel reinforced tilt-up wall panel exterior, double pane hurricane impact glass
  • Retinal scanning, heartbeat detection, biometric recognition, and 24/7 monitoring
  • Private entrance for clients to drive into the building and access the safe deposit box through anther privately monitored interior entrance
  • Emergency back-up generator for 100% back-up of electrical base building safety and HVAC for “business as usual” environment up to ten days after loss of local service
  • Provides a strict climate controlled environment meeting wine industry standards of temperature and humidity that allows the collector to incrementally expand their personal cellar capacity.

Here is a video with animated renderings of what the facility will look like in action.

K3b: Burn CDs and DVDs on Linux

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CDs and DVDs are an important feature on the utility belt of any computer enthusiast . Even with the rise of removable media like pen drives and external hard disks, everyone likes keep a collection of songs and videos on burned media.

In Windows, there are dozens of solutions, ranging from the popular Nero to the free CD BurnerXP. Linux users, on the other hand, had to deal with the lack of intuitive options for CD burning until some time ago. The tools available were powerful, but usually worked on the command line. The average user tends to fear it, so the rise of graphic environments like KDE and Gnome represented a big improvement.

K3b is an excellent choice if you’re using Linux. It’s amazingly easy to use, with an intuitive interface, similar to Nero’s, with two explorer panels on top, and the project panels below. The standard options are adequate for the most common purposes; you’re unlikely going to change anything besides the name of the volume, and the recorder speed. But if you want to, the program is powerful enough even for heavy users.

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To create a project, just drag and drop any file you want to the project panel and it will be added. You can play music files to check if the songs are correct, convert songs to MP3 or Ogg (and many more) formats, create data CDs and DVDs, create and burn CD and DVD images, VCDs and SVCDs. You can even build an eMovix CD, which will boot on almost any computer and play your chosen songs or movie.

Truth is, K3b is a front-end to the more common choices on Linux, like cdrecord, cdrdao, mkisofs and cdparanoia. But a beautiful one, well structured and polished. It’s ease of use and robustness make it worth of a try. Here is the download page.