tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40119458032013554592012-02-16T04:41:23.882-08:00“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comBlogger1631100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-2908856092030701202010-04-16T11:30:00.000-07:002010-04-16T11:51:44.724-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S8ixt-n3YYI/AAAAAAAAB7I/Kfpxsfb4zP4/s1600/watch_crystal_ball_game_theory.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S8ixt-n3YYI/AAAAAAAAB7I/Kfpxsfb4zP4/s400/watch_crystal_ball_game_theory.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5460809951649161602" border="0" /></a> Social learning is something we do every day, in many aspects of our lives. Humans are expert imitators, and our innate ability to learn from others may be partly responsible for our success in inhabiting nearly every corner of the globe. On some levels, it makes sense: individuals can avoid making mistakes by imitating successful tactics used by others, saving valuable time and energy. However, imitation doesn’t always produce positive results. We can make mistakes when attempting to mimic what we’ve seen. Maybe circumstances have changed, and the technique we learned isn’t useful anymore. When does social learning benefit us, and when should we figure it out for ourselves?<br /><br />A group of researchers set out to answer this question, and published their results in Science last week. To tackle the issue, the researchers set up a computer-based tournament based on Robert Axelrod’s ‘Prisoner’s Dilemma’ competitions in the late 1970s. In this type of tournament, entrants submit computerized strategies that compete against each other in a virtual world. Individuals, or “agents,” with the most successful strategies survive and reproduce, while less successful strategies die out.<br /><br />In each round of the social learning tournament, automated agents could choose from 100 behaviors, each of which returned a certain payoff. The payoffs changed over the course of the tournament, simulating changing environmental conditions that might render a behavior more or less useful. In any round, agents could make one of three moves: use a behavior they already knew (Exploit), use asocial learning to test a new behavior by trial-and-error (Innovate), or learn socially by watching a behavior that another agent was performing in that round (Observe). Out of the three possible moves, only Exploit resulted in a payoff; the two learning moves would only return information about how profitable the behavior was in the current environmental conditions. Social learning was especially costly; if Observe was played when no other agent was performing a novel behavior, the agent learned nothing.<br /><br />Over 10,000 rounds, agents had a constant probability of dying, but their ability to reproduce was based on their “success,” or the total of the payoffs they had received. Each strategy’s final score was determined by its average frequency in the population during the final 2,500 rounds.<br /><br />The researchers received submissions of agents from academics, graduate students, and high-schoolers from 16 different countries. A huge variety of disciplines were represented, including computer science, philosophy, neuroscience, and primatology. Entries could be submitted as Matlab functions or in pseudocode form, which is a series of verbal, mathematical, and logical instructions of how the decisions should be made.<br /><br />Out of 104 submitted strategies, one called discountmachine was the runaway winner. The researchers expected that the best strategies would balance Observe and Innovate moves, in order to limit the costs associated with social learning. Surprisingly, discountmachine (as well as the second-place strategy, intergeneration) used almost exclusively social, rather than asocial, learning. The results suggest that social learning was successful because agents playing Observe were learning behaviors that other agents had chosen to play based on their high payoffs; in other words, despite the potential cost, they were consistently learning behaviors with high returns.<br /><br />The most successful strategies relied more heavily on information that was recently acquired, since knowledge of the payoffs was up-to-date. However, discountmachine went one step further than other strategies, varying the use of outdated information based on how quickly the environmental conditions were changing. When the environment was changing rapidly, old information was discounted much more heavily than when conditions were relatively stable.<br /><br />Even when the researchers ran repeated simulations slowing the rate of environmental change, increasing the probability of social learning errors, and increasing the cost of social learning, the top-ranked strategies still dominated, suggesting that highly social strategies are adaptive across a wide range of conditions. Interestingly, there were a few situations in which social learning didn’t pay. Obviously, playing Observe was only beneficial when there were other agents around to imitate. Additionally, social learning wasn’t as successful when researchers eliminated the possibility of incorrectly imitating a behavior. It seems that this kind of copying error may be a source of behavioral diversity in populations.<br /><br />Thanks to this tournament, winners Daniel Cownden and Timothy Lillicrap—the graduate students who created discountmachine—are £10,000 richer, and scientists have a much better grasp on when social learning pays, when it doesn’t, and why it is such a successful strategy.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-290885609203070120?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-87119632077914392082010-04-16T10:20:00.000-07:002010-04-16T11:53:19.413-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S8ix6g3KJ2I/AAAAAAAAB7Q/y_yYh4EjjYM/s1600/big_cloudprint.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 151px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S8ix6g3KJ2I/AAAAAAAAB7Q/y_yYh4EjjYM/s400/big_cloudprint.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5460810166998542178" /></a> The question of how to print from wireless devices has been thrust once again into the limelight recently thanks to the printing-anemic iPad. Longtime notebook and mobile device users are quite familiar with the printing conundrum—cables, drivers and all.<br /><br />Google has announced that it's looking to address this problem in the form of Cloud Print. Part of the Chromium and Chromium OS projects, Cloud Print aims to allow any type of application to print to any printer. This includes Web, desktop, and mobile apps from any kind of device—potentially, this could be used on a BlackBerry, Windows machines, Macs, or even the iPad. (That is in addition to Google's own offerings: "Google Chrome OS will use Google Cloud Print for all printing. There is no print stack and there are no printer drivers on Google Chrome OS!" says the company.)<br /><br />The devices would make use of a Web-based API to either communicate directly with cloud-aware printers, or to send signals to a proxy in order to communicate with "legacy" printers. Google says it's already developing software for Windows to perform this function, "and will support Mac and Linux later on as well."<br /><br />Yes, there are already wireless printers that work over your local network without having to be tethered, but there are downsides to this solution (I say this as a semi-satisfied owner of one). The biggest hurdle is, of course, the fact that you must actually be on the same network in order to print. (I can't complete and print an expense report from this coffee shop now that I'm thinking about it, for example.) VPN is an option, but that's an extra step that could be eliminated.<br /><br />Then there's the problem we discussed above: my wireless printer only has drivers for real computers. If I buy concert tickets on my phone or if I compose a document on my iPad, I have to wait till I have access to a computer to print them. These inconveniences could easily be addressed by cloud-based printing.<br /><br />Google says that the Cloud Print project is still in the early stages, but, like with its other open source projects, the company has made the existing code and documentation open to the public. The documentation indicates that, in order to use Google's Cloud Print, users will have to associate their printers with their Google logins—a detail that might make some privacy advocates squirm. Still, Google stresses that it expects other companies to develop their own cloud printing solutions, so this is likely only the beginning of a trend.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-8711963207791439208?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-25093913711193413622010-04-16T09:01:00.000-07:002010-04-16T11:54:03.042-07:00After its recent acquisition of Sun, enterprise software vendor Oracle began making some significant changes to Solaris licensing policies. Solaris 10, the latest stable version of Sun's UNIX operating system, was previously available for free without official support. Oracle changed the license last month, however, limiting it to a 90-day trial. The new license is relatively clear, but left a number of questions unanswered.<br /><br />An Ars reader put some of those questions to his Sun account manager and got clarification about exactly what the new license terms will mean for Solaris users. According to the response that he received, Oracle intends to stop selling standalone Solaris subscriptions. Software support will only be available with hardware contracts. As our reader Eric explains in his blog, "There is no possible way to legally run Solaris on non-Sun servers. Period. End of story."<br /><br />He also got some clarification about the terms of the 90-day trial and the situations in which it is applicable. He was told that the software will remain free for personal noncommercial uses, but that the free download license is limited to a 90-day trial for commercial production use.<br /><br />"The license and accompanying entitlement from the web, without a contract and without hardware, only entitle the downloader to no-commercial, nonproduction, or personal use in perpetuity. Production use and evaluation for production are good for 90 days," he was told.<br /><br />As we explained in our previous coverage, this license covers the latest stable, official Solaris release and doesn't have any impact on OpenSolaris, the open source distribution of the operating system. Oracle has indicated, however, that OpenSolaris might not be getting all of the new Solaris features that are developed in the future. The overdue OpenSolaris 2010.03 release hasn't materialized yet; the delay is likely attributable to the understandable disruption caused by the acquisition.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-2509391371119341362?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-40358986516183774132010-04-15T22:54:00.000-07:002010-04-16T12:01:33.323-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S8iz7KQgS2I/AAAAAAAAB7Y/D5efsLP5r90/s1600/bittorent_frog_2.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S8iz7KQgS2I/AAAAAAAAB7Y/D5efsLP5r90/s400/bittorent_frog_2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5460812377133960034" border="0" /></a> The biosciences, like other branches of research, are being dragged into the digital era. This is in part because traditional mediums of communications, including journal articles, are migrating online, and in part because high-throughput approaches to biological research are producing staggering amounts of data that can only be stored in digital form. A couple of papers released by PLoS ONE have presented new approaches to both aspects of digitization that, in essence, simply involve modifying tools that are common outside of the field specifically for use by biologists.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">BitTorrenting genomes</span><br /><br />The paper that describes the BioTorrents project lays out some staggering figures on the scale of the problem, based on a query posed to someone at the National Center for Biotechnology Information. In a recent month, the NCBI served the following data sets: 1,000 Genomes (9TB, served 100,000 times), Bacterial genomes (52GB, 30,000 downloads), and Gen Bank (233GB, 10,000 downloads), in addition to tens of thousands of retrievals of smaller datasets. That's a lot of bandwidth by anyone's standards, all of it served by a relatively small portion of the NIH.<br /><br />As the paper points out, some of this is almost certainly redundant, as some labs are probably grabbing data that another group at the same institute—possibly in the same building—has already obtained. Fortunately, the larger community of Internet users has already figured out a system for sharing the burden of handling large files: BitTorrent.<br /><br />Although it would be possible to start dumping files onto existing networks, there are two drawbacks to that, the authors argue: those networks are at risk of getting shut down due to copyright violations, and finding biological databases among the other content (read: porn, movies, and TV shows) is a needle-in-a-haystack issue. So, they've modified a GPLed client, and set up their own server at UC Davis, where they work. Anyone can download, but people have to register to upload data, allowing the administrators to police things for appropriate content. The server also mirrors the data immediately, in order to assure there's at least one copy available at all times.<br /><br />The BioTorrent site enables people to find data based on metadata like categories and license type, and a basic text search is also available. Versioning options and RSS feeds are available for datasets that are frequently updated. Overall, it seems like a well-designed project, and I'm sure the NCBI appreciates having someone else shoulder the bandwidth load.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Making search visual</span><br /><br />NCBI also happens to host PubMed, a database that contains the abstract of every significant biomedical journal (and a large portion of the less significant ones, too). Since relatively few of the journals published, at least until recent years, were open access, however, it doesn't allow full searching of an article's contents. A team just a bit down Route 80 from the Davis group (at UC Berkeley) have been doing some testing to find out whether biologists are missing out when they use PubMed.<br /><br />Their project, online at BioText, uses a search engine that's indexed the full contents of a few hundred open access journals. Not only does it handle full text, but it also identifies when terms appear in figure legends, which describe the contents of images. This group's PLoS ONE paper focuses on user testing with a system that identifies relevant images based on the search terms, and displays those. It's a nice system, and the twenty or so biologists they tested it on seemed to like it.<br /><br />Of course, user satisfaction may not be the right metric, if other studies are to be believed. The paper cites one that showed that blank squares improve the use of search results as much as images do, and that people tend to believe a result is more relevant simply if it comes with an image. So, although the users may be happier with the thumbnails, they are likely to be working less effectively.<br /><br />Should a service of this sort actually prove more useful, it would be tempting to conclude that open access journals would end up having a greater impact on the scientific discourse, simply because it'll be easier to find things in them. Still, a couple of things may limit the impact. Google scholar is one of them; since the company's scanning operations deal with hardcover issues in university libraries, they won't be as up-to-date, though.<br /><br />There's also a commercial company, PubGet, that wraps PubMed searches in a user interface that will inline any PDFs you have access to. Since most scientists work at institutions with extensive journal access, that means they can easily see the full text of a paper to decide if a search result is relevant. That still doesn't overcome the inability of PubMed to index the full text of a paper, however.<br /><br />The end result (for now, at least) is that researchers will probably need to use several search tools in order to do an exhaustive check for relevant content. Unlike the open question of whether image thumbnails help or hurt, there's little doubt that this isn't great for productivity. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-4035898651618377413?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-70501744183053773972010-04-15T12:01:00.000-07:002010-04-16T12:02:53.892-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S8i0S3T3i_I/AAAAAAAAB7g/I4do1Mk1Zy8/s1600/1.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S8i0S3T3i_I/AAAAAAAAB7g/I4do1Mk1Zy8/s400/1.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5460812784364653554" /></a> AT&T has blamed issues with its network on smartphone users—sometimes pointing to iPhone users in particular—moving tons of data over its network. A new report from ABI Research says that Verizon and Sprint are moving much more data over their networks than AT&T, suggesting that its limited geographical coverage is to blame. However, AT&T says that the data and conclusions aren't very accurate.<br /><br />The ABI report, titled "US Mobile Operator Traffic Profiles," claims that Verizon and Sprint networks carried far more data in 2009 than AT&T. This is despite the fact that AT&T has more active data devices on its network, and also typically rates as one of the fastest 3G data networks in the US. ABI researcher Dan Shey cited two main reasons for this seemingly illogical conclusion: 3G data modems, and wider coverage areas.<br /><br />Both Verizon and Sprint have far more 3G laptop modems and mobile hotspots, like the MiFi, in use on their networks compared to AT&T. "It is laptop mobile data connections that have the most impact on operator data traffic levels," Shey said in a statement.<br /><br />The study also cited Verizon's and Sprint's wider 3G coverage areas as contributing to their higher levels of data traffic. Certainly, if devices can be used in more areas, then there is a greater potential for higher data use.<br /><br />However, AT&T told Ars that the study has a number of flaws, and that its conclusions don't support AT&T's own research. AT&T spokesperson Seth Bloom pointed out that based on analysis of third-party data, AT&T actually carries about half of all mobile data on its network. It also has twice the number of smartphone customers as the next nearest competitor, and mobile traffic has increased 5,000 percent over the last three years.<br /><br />Bloom told Ars that the study overestimates data use from laptop users, and underestimates the impact of smartphone users. The ABI report estimates that laptop users use 25x more data than smartphone users, though AT&T cited a Frost & Sullivan study that put that number closer to 5x. ABI also assumes that iPhones use about 2x-3x more data than the average smartphone, whereas AT&T's own data says that iPhones and other similar phones consume as much as 10x the traffic of other devices. It's worth noting, too, that most data modem plans come with a monthly data cap, usually 5GB, while most smartphone plans have no such restriction.<br /><br />Finally, Bloom said, the numbers just don't seem to add up. "For example, Sprint claimed 48.1 million customers to AT&T’s 85.1 million at the end of the fourth quarter 2009," Bloom told Ars. "If AT&T serves 37 million more customers, and more smartphone customers than any other US carrier, how could Sprint possibly carry more mobile data traffic?"<br /><br />The impact of the wider geographical area also seems overemphasized. For users that find themselves in more remote areas, that wider coverage is very important. But AT&T's 3G coverage covers a wide range of urban areas, reaching about 75 percent of the population, and its 2G EDGE network covers far more.<br /><br />ABI Research did not respond to our requests for comment on AT&T's objections to the report's content, but Bloom told Ars that AT&T had not been contacted by ABI to provide any data for the report.<br /><br />Which network actually carried the biggest number of megabytes hardly matters to the vast majority of consumers, however. With pricing largely the same between carriers, most consumers are either picking the network that has the best coverage and reliability in their area, or the one that has the device they most want.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-7050174418305377397?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-52031840271589888132010-04-09T01:38:00.001-07:002010-04-09T01:39:41.160-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S77npQlnuZI/AAAAAAAAB0g/tIbbFzVwBIE/s1600/3.png"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S77npQlnuZI/AAAAAAAAB0g/tIbbFzVwBIE/s400/3.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458054494433032594" border="0" /></a> We've argued that Microsoft needs to engage more with Web developers to give a better understanding of what the company is doing with its Web browser, allow them to provide feedback throughout the development process, and more broadly get them engaged with the development process. With Internet Explorer 9's Platform Preview, Microsoft has indeed taken steps to do exactly this. Though Microsoft still isn't releasing the nightly builds that other browsers offer, the Platform Preview definitely represents progress; it provides early access to IE9's core rendering and JavaScript engines, and will be updated approximately every eight weeks.<br /><br />The eight-week cycle was chosen because Redmond felt this provided the best trade-off between getting regular updates into developers' hands, ensuring that the preview releases are reasonably robust, and getting useful feedback that integrates well with Microsoft's own development processes. Each version will undergo reasonably extensive testing during the eight-week period, giving ample opportunity for bugs to be filed. For its part, the IE team has committed to investigating every single bug filed, and resolving all that it can.<br /><br />Indications are that the Platform Preview has thus far been quite successful. Sources close to the matter state that some 700,000 copies of the preview have been downloaded, and that interest has been global in spite of the preview being a US English-only release. The top three bug report areas are SVG, compatibility, and then CSS, which certainly indicates that developers are taking an interest in testing the browser's new features and ensuring they work correctly. Of the hundreds of bugs filed thus far, the same source says that around 60 percent of them have been addressed by the development team.<br /><br />These download numbers are substantial, and it could be make a good case in favor of this slower release strategy. The Mozilla group's weekly Status Meetings include information about the number of users of different prerelease versions of Firefox. During the lead-up to the release of Firefox 3.5, several hundred thousand people used the major betas, but the nightly releases were much less used, with perhaps 10,000-15,000 users. The Platform Preview is not anything near as usable as the Firefox betas, so 700,000 downloads is a strong showing.<br /><br />Ars talked with IE General Manager Dean Hachamovitch briefly about the Preview. He said that IE9 testers seemed particularly interested in the browser's performance and graphical capabilities, as these areas of the IE 9 Test Drive site had received most traffic. This is also reflected in some third-party reactions. NVIDIA recently used the IE9 Platform Preview to promote the graphical capabilities of its new Ion2 platform—capabilities that IE9 can, of course, exploit due to its extensive hardware acceleration (the same hardware acceleration that leaves Windows XP users out in the cold).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Stability vs. automation</span><br /><br />Microsoft's approach to browser development shows a strong commitment to the ideal of a stable, versioned platform, something that developers could reliably target for consistent results. This attitude is carried through to the Platform Preview. Unlike, say, Chrome's dev channel which automatically updates about once a week, ensuring that developers always have access to an up-to-date version, the IE9 Platform Preview will require manual updating. Though this has the obvious downside that developers might forget or not notice that a new version has been released, and hence may result in testing of obsolete versions, it maintains the important (to Microsoft) notion of predictability. With Chrome, a page might work one day and be broken the next by an automatic update, a behavior that can be confusing at best. Microsoft doesn't want IE developers to face a similar experience; instead, they will have to take deliberate action to update.<br /><br />On the other hand, automatic updates are, in a sense, part-and-parcel of the Web experience. Websites can change their appearance overnight, and while this can be confusing to some, it's an unavoidable fact of Internet life. The case can certainly be made that browsers should follow websites' lead and update themselves; this gives users a browser that (by and large) keeps on getting better—faster, more capable, and with new features. Though occasional regressions will happen (wherein a new version breaks something that used to work) a robust development process should make these rare.<br /><br />These advantages were acknowledged by Hachamovitch, especially for the more savvy, technically aware user (that is, users who are unlikely to be fazed by new features and improvements appearing within their browser automatically). But the company still prefers to take the more conservative approach to avoid problems of users being surprised by changes.<br /><br />Hachamovitch was noncommittal about what the second Platform Preview release would contain when released next month. At MIX10 we saw demonstrations of HTML5 video in a build of IE9. The version released last month, however, didn't include video support. HTML5 video is surely one of the most eagerly anticipated IE9 features. It will ship in a Preview release eventually, but we do not know when.<br /><br />The Platform Preview program is still in its early stages, and this is the first time that Microsoft has developed its browser in this way; there may yet be refinements to the program as both the company and third parties learn the best way to work together, and there's no news yet of what will happen once IE9 moves into beta.<br /><br />Thus far, at least, it looks like the scheme has been successful at getting third-party developers involved with IE9's development, which has to be good news for both sides.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-5203184027158988813?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-53728737836091141702010-04-09T01:00:00.000-07:002010-04-09T01:38:05.602-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S77nWzqf3TI/AAAAAAAAB0Y/BfY5I2_ZNic/s1600/2.png"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S77nWzqf3TI/AAAAAAAAB0Y/BfY5I2_ZNic/s400/2.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458054177431215410" border="0" /></a> Although Microsoft is beginning to acknowledge that the rich ecosystem of open source software can bring a lot of value to Windows users, the most popular open source software projects are largely developed on other platforms, which means that they aren't always easy to deploy on Windows. A relatively complex open source server stack can be rolled out on Linux with a few clicks, but it might take hours to get the same software installed and properly configured on Windows.<br /><br />Microsoft developer Garrett Serack has identified a compelling solution to this problem. He is launching a new project to build a package management system for Windows with the aim of radically simplifying installation of popular open source software on Microsoft's platform. He calls it the Common Open Source Application Publishing Platform (CoApp).<br /><br />Much like the package management systems that are a standard part of popular Linux distributions, the CoApp project will provide a delivery platform for packaged open source software libraries and applications, with support for dependency resolution and automatic updates. It could be a powerful tool for system administrators who want a WAMP stack or developers who want to port Linux applications to Windows.<br /><br />Serack wants to use Microsoft's MSI format for the packages and intends to take advantage of WinSxS in order to deliver parallel binaries so that users will have access to multiple builds of the same library generated by different compilers. The project will also seek to establish some basic standards for filesystem layout so that files are put in consistent places.<br /><br />He is coordinating the project with Microsoft's blessing, but the actual development effort will be community-driven—an approach that will hopefully enable CoApp to evolve in a way that best serves its users rather than being directed by Microsoft.<br /><br />"The folks here at Microsoft have recognized the value in this project—and have kindly offered to let me work on it full-time. I'm running the project; Microsoft is supporting my efforts in this 100%," he wrote in a blog entry about the project on Wednesday. "The design is entirely the work of myself and the CoApp community, I don't have to vet it with anyone inside the company."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Making open source development on Windows suck less</span><br /><br />Having ported several of my own Linux applications to Windows, I know from personal experience how insanely difficult it can be to set up a proper environment for developing open source software on Microsoft's operating system. For the last Qt application that I ported, the process of getting all of the dependencies installed took hours. I had to install CMake, find just the right version of Automoc, and compile OpenSSL from source.<br /><br />My current Windows VM has a half a dozen different build systems and three separate sets of version control tools, all of which had to be installed individually. I also have two completely separate installations of MinGW and a rather heavy Cygwin setup. I need all of this crap in order to port my software to Windows, but it's a nightmare to maintain. I have to meticulously document every step of the setup process if I ever want to be able to do it again on a different Windows installation.<br /><br />These headaches are enough to deter many open source software developers who would otherwise be releasing Windows versions of their applications. Spending a few hours developing on Windows often serves as a painful reminder of how much I depend on my distro's super cow powers. That is why I'm convinced that CoApp is a very good idea.<br /><br />Cygwin arguably constitutes a package management system by itself, but it tends to be somewhat insular and isn't very native. Serack believes that CoApp offers an opportunity to do it the right way and close the gaps that isolate ported open source software components from the rest of the Windows ecosystem. If it's done properly, that could be very significant.<br /><br />Although Linux enthusiasts tend to disdain Windows, porting Linux applications to Microsoft's operating system can open up a lot of opportunities. A Windows port can expose your application to a whole new audience, making it possible to attract new contributors. We have seen a number of prominent open source software projects benefit in that manner from Windows compatibility in the past.<br /><br />A positive side effect of that phenomenon is that it introduces Windows application developers to open source frameworks and technologies. Broader adoption of cross-platform Linux-friendly software and toolkits on Windows would obviously help boost the availability of software for Linux.<br /><br />Although I'm really impressed with Serack's vision, I'm a bit skeptical that a task of such magnitude and complexity can be fulfilled to an extent that would truly deliver on its potential. Such an undertaking will require considerable manpower. Ars readers who want to participate in the project or learn more can check out the CoApp page on Launchpad.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-5372873783609114170?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-49723230642542110172010-04-08T23:41:00.000-07:002010-04-09T01:36:52.851-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S77nEhVbGHI/AAAAAAAAB0Q/YomV_7xxhNI/s1600/1.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S77nEhVbGHI/AAAAAAAAB0Q/YomV_7xxhNI/s400/1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458053863273338994" border="0" /></a> Anders Carlsson, an Apple employee, announced today on the WebKit mailing list an evolution of the WebKit project called WebKit2.<br /><br />WebKit2's major aims are to bake both a "split process model" and a non-blocking API into the WebKit product—and by extension into Safari and any other client which takes advantage of the WebKit2 framework.<br /><br />Google's Chrome browser launched in late 2008 with what's called a split process model, one in which each WebKit view runs in its own process. This means that when a bad plugin or a bug in the renderer causes an error, only that tab will crash instead of the entire browser.<br /><br />IE8 has a similar system and Firefox is exploring one as well with Electrolysis. Apple's Safari 4 gained a related feature under Mac OS 10.6, which runs plugins like Adobe's Flash in a separate process and prevents the whole browser from crashing due to plugin faults. WebKit2 validates that approach by building support for split processes directly into the rendering engine.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Out of my way!</span><br /><br />Another goal of WebKit2 is to implement the API to the framework in a completely non-blocking manner. This means that developers can hook into API methods with various kinds of callbacks in order to receive notifications from WebKit views.<br /><br />For example, in my application I might want to load a webpage. I would call the loadWebsite method (which I just made up), pass it my URL, and additionally specify a callback method or block of code I would like to have attached to a particular event—say didFinishLoadForFrame (which I did not make up).<br /><br />Whenever the webpage is done rendering, my code would be executed or my method called or pinged. This should result in much more responsive applications which hook into WebKit2. Theoretically, while the renderer is rendering something, the main application loop can move on to doing something else as requested by a user.<br /><br />There are three techniques currently implemented to achieve this goal: notification-style client callbacks, policy-style client callbacks, and policy settings. A fourth method, code injection which can interact directly with the DOM, is proposed but not yet implemented. These are described in more detail on the project page.<br /><br />The neat thing about Apple's implementation is that these abilities can be used and exploited by all downstream clients of WebKit2, since they are baked right into the framework—in contrast to the tack taken in Google Chrome. The end user of an application that uses WebKit2 will get a more stable product and developers can take advantage of these enhancements without having to implement their own solutions or jump through unnecessary hoops.<br /><br />WebKit2 is currently supported on Windows and OS X—the two platforms on which Apple deploys Safari. Linux support is not mentioned at this time.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-4972323064254211017?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-36752743172843960202010-04-07T05:38:00.000-07:002010-04-07T05:39:48.586-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7x87n75wWI/AAAAAAAABu4/7ao1-jd3Gvw/s1600/1111.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7x87n75wWI/AAAAAAAABu4/7ao1-jd3Gvw/s400/1111.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457374212240556386" /></a> IBM is threatening to pursue legal action against TurboHercules, a company that sells services relating to the open source Hercules project, an emulator that allows conventional computers with mainstream operating systems to run software that is designed for IBM System Z mainframe hardware.<br /><br />In a letter that IBM mainframe CTO Mark Anzani recently sent to TurboHercules, Big Blue says that it has "substantial concerns" that the Hercules project infringes on its patents. The letter is a brusque half-page, but was sent with nine additional pages that list a "non-exhaustive" selection of patents that IBM believes are infringed by the open source emulator.<br /><br />This move earned the scorn of well-known free software advocate and patent reform activist, Florian Mueller. In a blog entry that was posted Tuesday, Mueller fiercely criticized IBM, accusing the company of abusing its patent portfolio and harming open source software in order to retain monopolistic control over its expensive mainframe offerings.<br /><br />"After years of pretending to be a friend of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), IBM now shows its true colors. IBM breaks the number one taboo of the FOSS community and shamelessly uses its patents against a well-respected FOSS project," wrote Mueller. "This proves that IBM's love for free and open source software ends where its business interests begin."<br /><br />He contends that IBM's support for open source software is insincere. As evidence of the company's hypocrisy, Mueller points out that two of the patents that IBM listed in its letter to Hercules are included in the list of 500 patents that IBM promised to not assert against open source software in 2005. Mueller is convinced that the patent promise was a manipulative attempt to placate government regulators.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">How emulation intersects with IBM's mainframe business</span><br /><br />IBM's position in the mainframe market has posed contentious antitrust issues for years. The company's software licensing model ties its mainframe operating system to its underlying System Z hardware, guaranteeing that companies who have built their own applications for the platform can't easily migrate to other hardware options. This lock-in strategy has proved lucrative for IBM, generating billions of dollars in revenue.<br /><br />Despite the extremely high cost and the fact that some companies don't necessarily derive value from the hardware's unique characteristics, they continue buying IBM's mainframe solutions because doing so remains cheaper than rewriting all of their legacy applications. We explained this phenomenon several years ago when we looked at the reasons why IBM's mainframe business is still profitable despite the declining relevance of the technology.<br /><br />A well-designed System Z emulator that allows users to migrate their own mainframe applications to commodity hardware would obviously pose a serious threat to IBM's mainframe business, but IBM's software licensing terms have historically prevented such a threat from materializing. Users would have to run IBM's mainframe operating system inside of the Hercules emulator in order to run the applications—but they aren't allowed to do that.<br /><br />It's certainly possible to run modern versions of IBM's mainframe operating system with Hercules, but it can't really be officially supported or publicly condoned by the project's developers due to the licensing issues. Much like Hackintoshing, it is fairly trivial on a technical level but constitutes an unambiguous violation of the end-user license agreement. As such, Hercules never really posed a threat to IBM in the past. The legal issues simply preclude commercial adoption and deployment in production environments. Hercules is principally used by enthusiasts to run z/Architecture Linux variants, an activity that doesn't erode IBM's lock-in strategy.<br /><br />In many ways, the project arguably benefits IBM by encouraging interest in the mainframe platform. That is largely why IBM has shown no hostility towards Hercules in the past. In fact, IBM's own researchers and System Z specialists have lavished Hercules with praise over the years after using it themselves in various contexts. The project was even featured at one time in an IBM Redbook. What brought about IBM's change in perspective was an unexpected effort by the TurboHercules company to commercialize the project in some unusual ways.<br /><br />TurboHercules came up with a bizarre method to circumvent the licensing restrictions and monetize the emulator. IBM allows customers to transfer the operating system license to another machine in the event that their mainframe suffers an outage. Depending on how you choose to interpret that part of the license, it could make it legally permissible to use IBM's mainframe operating system with Hercules in some cases.<br /><br />Exploiting that loophole in the license, TurboHercules promotes the Hercules emulator as a "disaster recovery" solution that allows mainframe users to continue running their mainframe software on regular PC hardware when their mainframe is inoperable or experiencing technical problems. This has apparently opened up a market for commercial Hercules support with a modest number of potential customers, such as government entities that are required to have redundant failover systems for emergencies, but can't afford to buy a whole additional mainframe.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">IBM's response</span><br /><br />As you can probably imagine, IBM was not at all happy with that development. Following IBM's initial threats of legal action, Hercules retaliated by filing an antitrust motion in the European Union, calling for regulators to unbundle IBM's mainframe operating system from its mainframe hardware. IBM responded harshly last month, claiming that the antitrust motion is unfounded and that a software emulation business is just like selling cheap knock-offs of brand-name clothing. The conflict escalated, leading to the patent letter that was published on Tuesday.<br /><br />When faced with patent litigation, companies often try to keep the conflict quiet and hope for an out-of-court settlement because they don't want the threat of a lawsuit to scare away potential customers. That's certainly a factor here, because IBM's threats raise serious questions about whether it is truly permissible to use the Hercules emulator in a commercial setting. TurboHercules is taking a bit of a risk by disclosing the letter to Mueller for broad publication. The startup likely chose to publicize their predicament with the hope that the open source software community will notice and respond by shaming IBM into backing down.<br /><br />As Mueller points out in his blog entry, the broader open source software community has some reasons to side with TurboHercules in this dispute: some of the patents cited by IBM cover fundamental functionality of virtualization and emulation. Those patents reach far beyond the scope of Hercules and could pose a threat to other open source software projects.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-3675274317284396020?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-39876898223779663622010-04-07T03:32:00.000-07:002010-04-07T03:34:42.557-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7xfvE7O3UI/AAAAAAAABuw/jH_f3MR7_4I/s1600/search_list.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7xfvE7O3UI/AAAAAAAABuw/jH_f3MR7_4I/s400/search_list.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457342110846868802" /></a> Responding to a medium-sized uproar, Windstream Communications says it is sorry about those customer searches performed by Firefox users and redirected from Google to its own search engine, and the Little Rock, Arkansas-based ISP has now got the situation under control.<br /><br />"Windstream implemented a network change on Friday, April 2 that affected certain customer Web browser search box queries, producing search results inconsistent with Windstream's prior practices," a spokesperson for the voice/DSL service told us. "Windstream successfully implemented configuration changes today to restore original functionality to these search queries after hearing from affected customers."<br /><br />The question, of course, is whether the company accidentally or deliberately rigged its network software to produce those "inconsistent" results. We asked, but not surprisingly didn't get an answer to that query.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Not the behavior I expect</span><br /><br />As Ars readers know, there's money to be made from the typing errors of Web users. Input a slight misspelling of a popular domain name and you'll wind up at an ad-saturated site designed to harvest all such instances. Then there are the Internet service providers that take this business one step further. Screw up a domain by a single character and you wind up at an ISP-sponsored or -partnered search engine, complete with ads on the site waiting for your impression or click.<br /><br />It appears that Windstream inadvertently or deliberately took this activity to the next level, according to its own statement and the complaints of some of its customers, reproduced on the Windstream forum page of DSL Reports. Here's one protest:<br /><br /> "Dear Windstream,<br /> For future reference: When I use google via the firefox search bar I actually want to go to google not » searchredirect.windstream.net/<br /> This redirect happens in both windows and linux even if dns is hard set in router and tcp/ip settings<br /> It took me 45 minutes to figure out how to disable this 'feature'<br /> » searchredirect.windstream.net/prefs.php you can disable this 'feature' here<br /> Honestly this isn't the kind of behavior I expect out of my isp and I consider it very unprofessional." <br /><br />To these forum concerns a Windstream support person initially posted this reply: "We apologize as this is an issue that we are aware of and are currently working to resolve. You should not be getting that redirect page when you are doing your searches. We should have this resolved soon." Next Windstream's Twitter page declared the problem is fixed: "Windstream has resolved unintentional issues with Firefox search. Apologies for the troubles you've had."<br /><br />But this episode raises some serious worries, among them: how much should your ISP be allowed to monkey around with your Web browsing activity under any circumstances? Free Press has already called for the Federal Communications Commission to investigate this affair.<br /><br />"If initial allegations are true, Windstream has crossed the line and is actively interfering with its subscribers' Internet communications," the reform groups' S. Derek Turner declared. "Hijacking a search query is not much different than deliberately ‘redirecting’ a user from NYTimes.com to WashingtonPost.com and a limited 'opt-out' capability is not enough to justify Internet discrimination. This is further proof of the need for strong open Internet rules, comprehensive transparency and disclosure obligations, and a process for relief at the FCC."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The issue has been resolved</span><br /><br />Ars asked Windstream about these concerns. Not surprisingly, the ISP isn't crazy about the probe idea. "We don't think an investigation is necessary since the issue has been resolved," the company told Ars.<br /><br />In truth, we'd be a bit surprised if the FCC jumped on this conundrum too quickly. Everybody's waiting to hear what the DC Circuit Court of Appeals has to say about the Commission's authority to sanction Comcast for P2P blocking, and most observers don't expect it to go well for the agency [update: the court has ruled]. As the Free Press statement suggests, the FCC's authority around these ISP issues is still a work in progress.<br /><br />But given that ICANN has already condemned the practice of ISP redirection in the case of misspelled or nonexistent domain names, it doesn't seem like we've heard the last about this issue. Indeed, Windstream's quick response to subscriber complaints suggests the service knows that the watchdogs are watching. Windstream's latest repairs of its search system "do not require customers who chose to opt-out to do so again," the ISP assured us.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-3987689822377966362?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-36098894158101366062010-04-07T00:13:00.000-07:002010-04-07T03:20:16.236-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7xb1pMp2OI/AAAAAAAABug/zLA1ncZeD8Y/s1600/comcast_globe_ars.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7xb1pMp2OI/AAAAAAAABug/zLA1ncZeD8Y/s400/comcast_globe_ars.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457337825616320738" /></a> The FCC's decision to sanction Comcast for its 2007 P2P blocking was overruled today by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. The question before the court was whether the FCC had the legal authority to "regulate an Internet service provider's network management practice." According to a three-judge panel, "the Commission has failed to make that showing" and the FCC's order against Comcast is tossed.<br /><br />When the complaints against Comcast first surfaced, they noted that the company was violating the FCC's "Internet Policy Statement" drafted in 2005. That statement provided "four freedoms" to Internet users, including freedom from traffic discrimination apart from reasonable network management. The FCC decided that Comcast's actions had not been "reasonable network management," but Comcast took to the agency to court, arguing that the FCC had no right to regulate its network management practices at all.<br /><br />The Internet Policy Statement was not a rule; instead, it was a set of guidelines, and even the statement admitted that the principles weren't legally enforceable. To sanction Comcast, the FCC relied on its "ancillary" jurisdiction to implement the authority that Congress gave it—but was this kind of network management ruling really within the FCC's remit?<br /><br />The court held that it wasn't, that Congress had never given the agency the authority necessary to do this, and that the entire proceeding was illegitimate. The FCC's "Order" against Comcast is therefore vacated; Comcast wins.<br /><br />The decision wasn't a surprise; during oral argument earlier this year, the judges pressed the FCC's top lawyer repeatedly. The Policy Statement was "aspirational, not operational," they said; the FCC had not identified a "specific statute" Comcast violated; and the FCC "can't get an unbridled, roving commission to go about doing good."<br /><br />Comcast pledged some time ago to change the way it handled traffic management, and it has already transitioned to a protocol-agnostic approach to congestion. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-3609889415810136606?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-16814463721797606452010-04-06T01:26:00.001-07:002010-04-06T01:27:22.289-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7rwXGYiLrI/AAAAAAAABtg/_Ya4PmiT2VU/s1600/u1iphone2.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 263px; height: 378px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7rwXGYiLrI/AAAAAAAABtg/_Ya4PmiT2VU/s400/u1iphone2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456938178153950898" border="0" /></a> Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution, announced today that its Ubuntu One cloud service will soon gain support for mobile contact synchronization. The feature will be available to users who are paying for the higher tier of Ubuntu One service.<br /><br />Canonical officially launched the Ubuntu One service last year alongside the release of Ubuntu 9.10. The service allows users to keep files and some application data synchronized between multiple computers. The company is planning to roll out several significant new Ubuntu One features when Ubuntu 10.04, codenamed Lucid Lynx, is released later this month. The new Ubuntu One music store, which is integrated into the Rhythmbox audio player, will use Ubuntu One to deploy purchased music to all of the user's computers. Much like the music store, the new mobile synchronization features are opening up for testing, but will officially launch alongside Ubuntu 10.04.<br /><br />Ubuntu One mobile synchronization is powered by Funambol, a mobile push synchronization platform that is partly distributed under open source software licenses. Ubuntu One contact synchronization will work on the wide range of devices that are supported by Funambol's client software. You can download the synchronization program for your specific device by selecting it at the beta phone page on the Ubuntu One website.<br /><br />Canonical is also releasing its own branded Funambol-based mobile client applications for certain platforms. For example, the company is offering an Ubuntu One contact synchronization program for the iPhone, which is now available from the iTunes stores. Plugins are available for several desktop applications too, such as Thunderbird.<br /><br />The underlying Funambol technology supports push synchronization for calendars, notes, and other kinds of data, but Ubuntu One's mobile sync only supports contacts at the present time. It's possible that its scope will be expanded as the service evolves.<br /><br />Canonical developer Martin Albisetti described the new mobile sync feature in an announcement today on the Ubuntu One users mailing list.<br /><br />"Getting contacts on CouchDB and replicating between desktops and the cloud was the first big step. The second, and much bigger step, is to actually get those contacts from and to mobile phones. To achieve this, we have partnered with a company called Funambol, who share our views on open source, and have an established a proven software stack that synchronizes thousands of mobile phones and other devices," Albisetti wrote. "Right now we're at a stage where we feel confident opening up the service for wider testing. We strongly recommend that [testers] have a backup of [their] contacts since we've only tested with a hand-full of phone models at this point."<br /><br />Although the service is intended for paying Ubuntu One customers, nonsubscribers will get an opportunity to test it for free during a 30-day trial period. Albisetti says that the free trial will start following the release of Ubuntu 10.04. Right now, Canonical is seeking help from the user community to test the service. He encourages users to provide feedback in the #ubuntuone IRC channel and on the Ubuntu One mailing list.<br /><br />When we reviewed Ubuntu 9.10 last year, we noted that the lack of mobile synchronization was one of the most glaring deficiencies of the Ubuntu One service. Many users already get contact synchronization for free through Google and other providers, but the feature could still potentially help make an Ubuntu One paid plan seem compelling to some regular end users.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-1681446372179760645?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-67804052484864587472010-04-06T00:01:00.000-07:002010-04-06T01:24:52.224-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7rvw68XH6I/AAAAAAAABtQ/Lu-Wdgfb6Xk/s1600/hp_slate_specs_engadget.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 296px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7rvw68XH6I/AAAAAAAABtQ/Lu-Wdgfb6Xk/s400/hp_slate_specs_engadget.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456937522247966626" /></a> It looks like HP employees have been given an internal HP Slate presentation comparing it to the Apple iPad, according to a slide obtained by Engadget. The device will cost either $549 for the 32GB flash storage version or $599 version for the 64GB version.<br /><br />Both versions sport a 8.9-" 1024 x 600 capacitive multitouch display, a 1.6GHz Atom Z530 processor with UMA graphics, an accelerator for 1080p video playback, and 1GB of non-upgradeable RAM. They'll also include a two-cell five-hour battery, an SDHC slot, two cameras, a USB port, a SIM card slot for the optional 3G modem, and a dock connector for power, audio, and HDMI out. The included Windows 7 edition will be Home Premium.<br /><br />Those are the unofficial details, anyway. Three months ago, HP went on record to explain how the project started and gave some vague details on the product: thin, light, somewhere between 4 to 10 inches, and be able take on the e-reader market, currently dominated by Sony and Amazon, head on. 2010 is the year for slates, HP said, and that's thanks to a convergence of low-cost and low-power processors as well as the touch-aware Windows 7. The company would only confirm that the tablet would be out this year, would be running Microsoft's latest and greatest, and will cost you less than $1,500.<br /><br />The questions that have yet to be answered either by HP or by rumors are mainly around what software it will feature and how exactly Windows 7 will be customized to work on the slate (though the slide does mention "HP touch-optimized UI"). <br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-6780405248486458747?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-28950882395426464252010-04-06T00:00:00.000-07:002010-04-06T01:26:22.357-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7rwJXzfa1I/AAAAAAAABtY/LEiC5q9Vc0Y/s1600/html5-serializations.png"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 347px; height: 216px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7rwJXzfa1I/AAAAAAAABtY/LEiC5q9Vc0Y/s400/html5-serializations.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456937942312250194" border="0" /></a> The developers behind the GWT Java framework have implemented a port of Quake 2 that runs natively in modern Web browsers. It takes advantage of recent innovations in emerging standards-based Web technologies such as WebGL and WebSockets.<br /><br />GWT is designed to enable Web application development with Java. Developers can benefit from Java's static typing and more rigidly structured architecture. It generates the requisite JavaScript code that is needed for the application's client-side components. GWT powers several high-profile Google Web applications, including Google Wave. The GWT developers implemented browser-based Quake by using a Java port of the Quake 2 engine on top of GWT.<br /><br />GWT and the Java-based Quake engine both had to be extended and modified extensively in order for the pairing to work, but the effort paid off. It serves as a compelling example of how emerging standards are becoming increasingly capable of delivering all of the necessary functionality for interactive 3D network gaming.<br /><br />As some readers might remember, Google released a Quake demo for Native Client (NaCl) when the plug-in was first announced in 2008. The state of open Web technologies has clearly advanced since that time. It's no longer necessary to rely on plugins to deliver this kind of functionality.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-2895088239542646425?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-61689532207321322652010-04-05T12:51:00.000-07:002010-04-06T01:23:07.839-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7pI2iZjGJI/AAAAAAAABpY/nTN3xmWMkoE/s1600/111.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7pI2iZjGJI/AAAAAAAABpY/nTN3xmWMkoE/s400/111.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456754000296876178" border="0" /></a> One of the greatest challenges of integrating renewable power into the US grid is its intermittent nature. This is especially true for wind power, which is prone to rapid fluctuations that can leave utilities scrambling to either add or dump power. But the temptation of wind is large—the US has wind resources to cover 23 times its current electric use—and that has led to many ideas about how best to deal with the erratic supply. A study that will appear in PNAS later this week suggests a radical solution: connect offshore wind up the entire Eastern Seaboard of the US into a single, huge, baseline generating system.<br /><br />The authors of the new study note that, currently at least, the fluctuations in wind power are handled by redundant generating and transmission equipment, which generally involves the burning of fossil fuels when the wind slacks off. One of the two major alternatives currently under consideration involves the use of energy storage, either large, on-grid facilities, or ad-hoc aggregation of the excess capacity in items like electric vehicles. The final option, and the one they consider, is the potential to aggregate geographically diverse collections of wind farms.<br /><br />They're hardly the first to consider this prospect, and a variety of other studies have examined the potential of distributed wind in specific locations. So, for example, a study of wind potential in the UK found a tendency for the entire geographic area to experience similar wind conditions, meaning that even a dispersed generating system might not work there.<br /><br />The new study builds on the earlier work by considering why this is the case. The UK is about 1,100km along its north-south axis, and the high pressure systems that bring it low wind tend to be roughly 1,000km in size. In contrast, the US East coast is roughly 2,500km in length, and has a tendency to spawn storms that move up the coast in a roughly northeasterly direction. Many states along the coast are already in the planning or permitting stages for large offshore wind facilities (New Jersey alone is considering at least three) that will total over a TeraWatt in capacity, assuming they're all built.<br /><br />So, for the new analysis, the authors considered a total of 11 sites on the continental shelf, ranging from the Florida Keys to the Gulf of Maine. Wind speed data was available over a five-year period for each of the sites, available with one-hour resolution between readings.<br /><br />As expected, sites close to each other showed a fair degree of correlation in wind speeds—if the winds had died at one, they were likely to be dead at a site that was relatively nearby. By the time sites 750km apart were considered, however, the correlation had dropped below 0.2, and it dropped below 0.1 for sites over 1,300km apart. As expected, this means that the large geographic spread of the sites means that they're unlikely to be hit by a single weather system that causes a synchronized rise or fall in production.<br /><br />The authors didn't seem much in the way of negative correlations, however, where a lack of wind in one site would typically mean high winds in a different one. Still, the aggregated wind power was very stable. Although production from individual sites would rise and fall by as much as 50 percent within an hour, the aggregate as a whole rarely saw changes greater than 10 percent. Throughout the entire period, the ensemble was above 5 percent of its rated capacity except for a grand total of 20 days, and never dropped to zero. For the most part, output was typically near the middle of the capacity range.<br /><br />The authors also analyzed individual weather events, including one where a large anticyclonic system was parked over North Carolina. Although the center of the seaboard was largely quiet, stations in Florida saw strong westward winds, while those in New England had a strong eastward wind, exactly as the authors had predicted. All 20 days of low production were analyzed, but the authors conclude there's no pattern involved; each of the instances was the product of unique circumstances.<br /><br />The authors seem rather interested in the idea of actually physically connecting all the sites with high-capacity undersea cables into what they term the Atlantic Transmission Grid. At roughly $4 million a mile to install, this would still account for less than 15 percent of the total price of the full system of wind farms, a figure that's in line with building redundant generating capacity onshore. Still, there would seem to be advantages to building the interconnect on land, where it would be easier to service and could integrate other intermittent power sources, like solar.<br /><br />There's also a certain irony to the fact that the authors suggest that planning and licensing the Atlantic Transmissions Grid would be simpler because it involves a single nation. While that's true to an extent, the grid would have to service a patchwork of local utilities, and incorporate sites in states that have very different perspectives on (and legislated requirements for) renewable power.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-6168953220732132265?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-46860854599835816212010-04-05T09:28:00.000-07:002010-04-05T13:31:16.420-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7pIZjhAxvI/AAAAAAAABpI/KasPI5O8tIs/s1600/amd_cpu_die.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7pIZjhAxvI/AAAAAAAABpI/KasPI5O8tIs/s400/amd_cpu_die.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456753502380410610" /></a> The x86 server wars heated up significantly in March, with the end of the month seeing a major processor launch from each vendor: AMD launched its 12-core Opteron 6100 processor, codenamed Magny-Cours, on the 29th, and Intel then finished off the month with the launch of the 8-core Nehalem EX Xeons.<br /><br />These were pretty major launches, but I've covered Nehalem EX previously so I want to focus on AMD this time around.<br /><br />AMD actually launched ten different processors at a range of clockspeeds (1.7 to 2.3GHz) and core counts (8 and 12); all of these parts make up the Opteron 6000 series, which is aimed at two- and four-socket configurations. These two configs represent the bulk of the server market, and AMD is aiming to be the value player here.<br /><br />In terms of microarchitecture, the new Opterons don't differ significantly from their predecessors, or indeed from the previous few generations. The addition of support for virtualized I/O is the main change a the core level, a change that brings AMD up to par with Intel's Nehalem parts in their level of virtualization support.<br /><br />At the level of what I'd like to call "macroarchitecture"—meaning the arrangement of cores, I/O, cache, and other resources on the processor die—there are some significant improvements.<br /><br />The shared cache for the 8-core parts is 17.1MB, while the 12-core weighs in at 19.6MB.<br /><br />On the memory front, the new Opterons boast support for four channels of DDR3—that's a lot of aggregate memory bandwidth across two or four sockets. For I/O, each package has four HT 3.0 (x16) links; this amount of I/O bandwidth is needed because there are so many cores per socket. In fact, moving out to the system level, you can see where AMD put most of its engineering effort.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">DirectConnect 2.0</span><br /><br />One of the key ways that AMD is amping up the bang-per-buck is by taking a route that it had previously made fun of Intel for: sandwiching two n-core dies into a single package (a multichip module, or MCM) and calling the resulting part a 2n-core processor. The 12-core is two six-core dies, and the 8-core part is two four-core dies (actually, it's two six-core dies with some cores disabled, an approach that helps get yields up and costs down).<br /><br />Back when Intel started doing this MCM-based multicore approach in the waning days of the Pentium 4 era, its impact on system architecture was a lot more straightforward. But AMD's NUMA system architecture, where the on-die memory controller means that the memory pool is distributed among all the sockets in a multisocket system, complicates the MCM approach. This is because the number of NUMA nodes no longer equals the number of sockets. AMD's answer to this problem is called Direct Connect 2.0.<br /><br />Take a look at the diagram below, which shows the I/O and memory buses in the Magny-Cours part. You can see that each individual Magny Cours die (or "node," from the perspective of NUMA topology) has two memory controllers and four HT 3.0 controllers. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7pIfPB8bII/AAAAAAAABpQ/aP0jr-iqL7w/s1600/2.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 235px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7pIfPB8bII/AAAAAAAABpQ/aP0jr-iqL7w/s400/2.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456753599960607874" /></a><br />The two memory controllers on each die connect directly to the pool of DDR3 that hangs off of each socket, which gives each socket its four total DDR3 lanes.<br /><br />The way the HT link bandwidth is divided up in a two-socket config is a little non-obvious, but you can see what's going on from the diagram. The controllers split the link bandwidth for each die/node into three x16 links and two x8 links. One of the x8 and one of the x16 are then combined to make what's essentially an x24 link, which is used for directly connecting the two dies that are in the same package.<br /><br />Another x16 link goes out to connect to the first die in the other socket, and the remaining x8 link connects diagonally to the second die in the other socket. The fourth remaining x16 link on one of the dies is not connected to anything, and on the other die it's used for I/O. The diagram at right attempts to illustrate how this works—it's not great, but if you stare at it for a minute it makes sense.<br /><br />What's new about Direct Connect 2.0 (as opposed to Istanbul's 1.0 version) are the diagonal links, which let each node connect to two other nodes. Direct Connect 1.0 was missing the diagonal links, so if memory was in the wrong pool a node might have to make two hops to get it, instead of just one. Of course, the diagonal links are half the bandwidth of the regular links, but you can't have everything.<br /><br />With so many cores per socket, congestion is still going to be a problem, despite the four HT 3.0 links per node. This being the case, AMD uses a technology called HT Assist to reduce inter-core traffic by cutting back on cache snoops among the sockets, so that helps mitigate some of the traffic congestion that could crop up with all of those cores and off-die links.<br /><br />Despite the drawbacks of the MCM approach, Intel proved with its own dual-die products that the strategy works, especially if you're targeting cost and not just raw performance. MCMs are also great for when you want to pack a lot of compute power into a smaller, cheaper system, and you're willing to compromise a bit on the memory performance for certain kinds of latency-sensitive, write-intensive workloads. Specifically, Magny-Cours should make for a great HPC platform, because it offers a lot of plenty of hardware per socket, per dollar, and per watt, and that's just what you need to put together a cluster of machines that can grind through heavily data-parallel workloads.<br /><br />Databases are probably a different story, especially when you compare Magny-Cours to Nehalem EX's buffer-enabled memory subsystem, which lets you cheaply cram loads of memory onto each socket. It's also the case that these types of workloads tend to have more coherency traffic, because different nodes may be accessing the same region of memory. In this case, the balance may tip in Intel's favor.<br /><br />In all, though, the Magny-Cours launch is a huge one for AMD, and its platform-level innovations like Direct Connect 2.0, support for virtualized I/O, power efficiency, and relatively low cost should keep AMD in the server game. And staying in the server game has been AMD's number one survival priority in the past two years. I pointed out at the end of 2009 just how much other business AMD has thrown overboard as the company shrank back into its core x86 server and GPU businesses, and this new server platform reflects that single-minded focus. AMD's processors may not have the raw per-core performance that Intel's Nehalem boasts, but the company is doing a lot at the macroarchitecture and system architecture levels to narrow that gap. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-4686085459983581621?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-85008790755031039702010-04-05T07:24:00.000-07:002010-04-05T13:28:25.573-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7pH1Rzd0mI/AAAAAAAABpA/U9ZEQxDJ69Y/s1600/google_fiber_list.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7pH1Rzd0mI/AAAAAAAABpA/U9ZEQxDJ69Y/s400/google_fiber_list.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456752879150682722" border="0" /></a> Now that Google has wrapped up the application period for its open access, 1Gbps fiber testbed, we know that more than 1,000 US cities want the network. Only a couple will get it, though; what's going to happen to everyone else?<br /><br />Broadband consultant Craig Settles and Greensboro, North Carolina fiber booster Jay Ovittore have joined forces to start "Communities United for Broadband." The idea is simple: create a place where communities can share strategies for moving forward with high-speed broadband plans—even if Google says no to their bid.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Pent-up demand</span><br /><br />Enthusiasm about broadband has been running high, especially during the last 18 months. In 2009, President Obama's stimulus bill set aside billions for broadband. That money, now being dispersed, is already funding plenty of regional and middle-mile projects, and it encouraged communities to think more carefully about how broadband could be made better. Then came the National Broadband Plan, which has inspired broadband discussion over the last year and now promotes some major changes like providing Universal Service Fund money to broadband providers instead of phone companies.<br /><br />But no local mayor jumped in a shark tank or changed its city's name to get federal broadband stimulus funds. It took Google's out-of-the-blue announcement earlier this year to really bring broadband excitement from governments down to the grassroots level. With so much enthusiasm generated by the project, and with cities having spent so much time to collect all sorts of useful data about their own communities, now would seem the perfect opportunity for people to take their broadband destiny into their own hands—with or without Google.<br /><br />That's what Settles and Ottivore hope to do. They're starting with a Facebook group to coordinate broadband boosters around the country. Already, a few hundred people have signed on, among them many local administrators of the Google fiber bids.<br /><br />Google's project really "brought into focus what the value of broadband is," Settles tells Ars. Even before the project has been built, Google's announcement has woken people up to what's possible; maximum speeds of 6Mbps from a local DSL provider simply aren't state-of-the-art. People want more, they know it's possible, but many see no way to get it from existing providers.<br /><br />Everyone wanted a piece of the Google action because the company was ready to build the network itself, pledging to charge users quite reasonable rates for access. But if municipalities or regional governments are going to get into the fiber-building game, that's a different and much scarier proposition, with real tax money on the table.<br /><br />Settles is no stranger to these issues, having just written a book called Fighting the Next Good Fight: Bringing true broadband to your community, but he says that "we're not in the pitchfork business" when it comes to dealing with incumbents. If existing companies will provide the services that local residents want, fine. If communities can use the recent wave of broadband excitement to encourage new entrants or nonprofits to deploy fiber, terrific. But if no one steps up to the plate, Settles encourages local governments to take the initiative themselves.<br /><br />"I believe incumbents are unaware of, or unconcerned with, the depth of people’s dislike for their service provider as well as the lack of broadband competition," he said in the official announcement. "The fact that, spending almost no money and making no concrete offers, Google generated so many community and individual responses within just seven weeks clearly shows how much incumbents have failed the market. Our effort on Facebook gives communities one path to helping correct this failure."<br /><br />The page is already stimulating discussion. When one participant asked about starting a "fiber co-op, akin to the farmer's co-ops, that allows cities to band together for bargaining purposes and equipment purchases," another person offered to talk, saying, "We are already down this road and would love to help others along in other communities."<br /><br />As Settles noted in our conversation, there aren't many "best practices" in this area. What works? What doesn't? Certainly, as municipal involvement with free WiFi a few years back showed us, there are good ways and bad ways to get governments involved in infrastructure buildouts. Sharing information, pooling resources, and grouping buying power should help, though Google could certainly do its part by producing detailed best practices guides for ISPs based on its own experience building the 1Gbps testbed.<br /><br />Last week, Google seemed to hint at just such a plan. "Wherever we decide to build," the company wrote, "we hope to learn lessons that will help improve Internet access everywhere. After all, you shouldn't have to jump into frozen lakes and shark tanks to get ultra high-speed broadband."<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-8500879075503103970?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-31993202227438029952010-04-03T21:38:00.000-07:002010-04-03T21:40:43.881-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7gYNpDYEeI/AAAAAAAABoQ/ng38Etg9lZc/s1600/peabody_ars.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7gYNpDYEeI/AAAAAAAABoQ/ng38Etg9lZc/s400/peabody_ars.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456137571196735970" border="0" /></a> When most folks think about George Foster Peabody awards for distinguished broadcast journalism, famous recipients like Edward R. Murrow or the Frontline TV series come to mind. Certainly the vast majority of Peabody picks are either people or programs. But the latest winners, announced on Wednesday, include a website: National Public Radio's "topically boundless counterpart," as Peabody calls it. Everybody else knows the site as npr.org.<br /><br />"A whole lot of things considered, from 'South Park' to North Korea, make this one of the great one-stop websites," Peabody adds. Needless to say, the suits over at the service are tickled pink by this prize.<br /><br />"For all of us, today's awards speak to NPR's ability to adapt and grow while continuing to tell stories and create new online features that serve your needs and interests," NPR Vice Presidents Ellen Weiss and Kinsey Wilson declared on the network's blog.<br /><br />Indeed, npr.org is quite something. You can get the latest news, or hourly news, access a slew of music, listen to concerts, tune into all your favorite NPR shows, follow dozens of interviews, stick NPR widgets on your desktop, listen to great features about culture, find your local NPR station, or growl at NPR's ombudsman, Alicia Shepard, all on one easy to navigate portal.<br /><br />And the entire site comes—dare we say it—without commercial Web ads (save for NPR donation widgets and the NPR Shop, of course).<br /><br />But this award reflects more than the appeal and usefulness of NPR's website. We think it's recognition that NPR represents one of broadcast radio's few success stories over the last decade.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Radio survivor</span><br /><br />The master narrative of radio was brutally but accurately summarized by a Boston Globe market survey report in 2005: "On Demand Killed the Radio Star—How Satellite Radio, the Internet, Podcasting and MP3 Players Are Changing the Terrestrial Radio Landscape." Add to that the foolhardy broadcasting mergers which followed the Telecom Act of 1996, mix in this nasty recession, and you wind up with train wrecks like Citadel media, the nation's third biggest broadcaster, whose shares closed at 1.6 cents last December following the company's bankruptcy announcement.<br /><br />NPR has not only survived all this, but compared to the rest of the pack, the network is thriving. The service saw a huge boost in its listenership during the 2008 election—a 7% jump, bringing the audience to 27.5 million listeners weekly. At present, a third of the nation's FM radio stations are classified as "educational," and over 900 of those are either NPR affiliate stations or run some NPR programming.<br /><br />On top of this, NPR has pursued an aggressive Internet and mobile broadband strategy, with a terrific Public Radio Player for the iPhone, which now has 2.5 million subscribers. You can reach hundreds of public radio stations with the app, picking and choosing which show you want to listen to and when, or opting for demand streams that can be accessed at any time.<br /><br />Plus there's a mobile NPR.org (m.npr.org), and an NPR news app for the Android. It allows for backgrounding, so users can access other applications while tuning into headlines. And of course since it's an Android, the code is open source.<br /><br />And last week, NPR released a new read-write API that will allow other media services to post content to NPR as well as receive it. The first participants in this experiment include Oregon Public Broadcasting and the Northwest News Network, followed by KQED in San Francisco, WBUR in Boston, and WXPN in Philadelphia.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">More to come</span><br /><br />Such is NPR's zeal for keeping up with the cyberJoneses that the network is promising that it will be completely iPad compatible when said famous device is released by Apple on April 3.<br /><br />"From day one, iPad users who visit the NPR website will get an experience that is optimized for the device," the Inside NPR blog pledges. "Features like the NPR audio player have been given greater visibility and adapted for the unique technical requirements of this new platform; we've modified the navigation and made the site more 'touch' friendly; and we've improved the sponsorship experience—all without changing the main site."<br /><br />Proactive, adaptive, and imaginative, public radio is keeping radio alive. Congratulations to npr.org. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-3199320222743802995?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-6450799267533286412010-04-03T02:41:00.000-07:002010-04-03T02:41:00.260-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7bjc8ySbwI/AAAAAAAABjA/7B6ZnJLhaFo/s1600/meerkat-pumpkin-listing.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7bjc8ySbwI/AAAAAAAABjA/7B6ZnJLhaFo/s400/meerkat-pumpkin-listing.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455798085098827522" border="0" /></a> Ubuntu 10.04, codenamed Lucid Lynx, is scheduled for release this month. The developers at Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution, have already started the process of planning for the next major release. Founder Mark Shuttleworth revealed today in a blog entry that Ubuntu 10.10, which is scheduled to arrive in October, will be codenamed Moribund Moth Maverick Meerkat.<br /><br />Ubuntu 10.04 is a long-term support release, which means that the focus during the current development cycle has largely been on stabilization and refining the existing technology. Shuttleworth says that we can expect to see a return to experimentation in the 10.10 release, with the potential for some radical changes.<br /><br />Some of the most important goals include delivering a new Ubuntu Netbook Edition user interface, improving the Web experience, boosting startup performance, and extending social network integration on the desktop. Shuttleworth also hopes to advance Ubuntu's cloud support by simplifying deployment and making it easier to manage cloud computing workloads.<br /><br />The meerkat was chosen as the mascot for the new version because the creature embodies some of the key values that will influence the coming development cycle.<br /><br />"This is a time of change, and we're not afraid to surprise people with a bold move if the opportunity for dramatic improvement presents itself. We want to put Ubuntu and free software on every single consumer PC that ships from a major manufacturer, the ultimate maverick move," Shuttleworth wrote in the announcement. "Meerkats are, of course, light, fast and social—everything we want in a Perfect 10."<br /><br />Canonical's staff, Ubuntu contributors, third-party application developers, and members of various upstream communities will gather in Belgium next month for the Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS), an event that takes place near the beginning of each new Ubuntu development cycle. This event provides a venue for planning the details of the next major version of the distribution. More specific details about the Maverick roadmap will be available after the event.<br /><br />Ubuntu 10.10 will coincide with the launch of GNOME 3, a major overhaul of the open source desktop environment that provides significant parts of the Ubuntu user experience. Shuttleworth's statements about bold moves and opportunities for dramatic improvement suggest that we could potentially see Ubuntu adopt the new GNOME Shell if it proves suitable. It's possible that we could also see the new default theme evolve and benefit from experimental features that were deferred during this cycle, such as RGBA colormaps and client-side window decorations.<br /><br />The upcoming 10.04 release is looking really impressieve. Users can expect to see even more progress as the Malodorous Mongoose Maverick Meerkat begins to take shape. As usual, we invite our readers to share their most humorous alternate codename suggestions in the discussion thread.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-645079926753328641?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-78355120259218706102010-04-03T00:10:00.000-07:002010-04-03T00:10:00.226-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7bdxKSAASI/AAAAAAAABiY/LKXD5Sn2Mj8/s1600/fishhook_fly_ars.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7bdxKSAASI/AAAAAAAABiY/LKXD5Sn2Mj8/s400/fishhook_fly_ars.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455791835249115426" border="0" /></a> Vendor lock-in gets a bad wrap, especially when it comes to the cloud. Users may complain about it, and IT administrators may eye cloud platforms with distrust on account of it, but lock-in is one of the core tradeoffs that clients make in return for access to scalable, flexible cloud services. And that lock-in provides some security for service providers who are taking on the considerable infrastructure cost that building a cloud platform entails. That’s why IBM is now cultivating lock-in by adopting a version of the same strategy Microsoft used in the '80s and '90s to establish the Windows and Office monopolies—give away the product (in Microsoft’s case, by turning a blind eye to rampant piracy), so that your user base is locked in by the time you get really serious about charging.<br /><br />That looks to be the motive behind IBM’s Global Entrepreneur initiative, which promises early-stage startups free use of specific IBM cloud services, as well as access to the kind of sales, marketing, and technical expertise that Big Blue’s growing and hugely successful services arm typically charges big bucks for. Check out the roster of goodies for startups that are accepted to the program:<br /><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">Under the new initiative, start-ups can for the first time:</span><br /><ul><li> access IBM's software portfolio through a cloud computing environment, including IBM industry frameworks to accelerate software development;</li><li> work side-by-side with scientists and technology experts from IBM Research to develop new technologies;</li><li> take advantage of dedicated IBM project managers to assist in product development;</li><li> attend new IBM SmartCamp mentoring and networking workshops with VC firms, government leaders, academics, and industry experts at the global network of 40 IBMInnovation Centers to build business and go-to-market plans;</li><li> tap a new social networking community on IBM developerWorks to connect with other entrepreneurs and more than eight million IT professionals from around the world.</li></ul>And then, when your startup grows up, it will be very hard—if not completely impossible (more on this below)—to ditch IBM's platform for someone else's.<br /><br />To qualify for the program, startups will need to be less than three years old, privately held, and "actively developing software aligned to IBM's Smarter Planet focus areas." IBM is partnering with 19 associations and VC groups in different parts of the world in order to identify startups and attract them to the initiative.<br /><br />All told, anything that gets promising, early-stage companies to build their software directly to IBM's cloud is great for IBM—and the fact that these companies will also get a free taste of IBM's consulting services is an added bonus. But is it good for the startups?<br /><br />The answer to that latter question depends entirely on how good IBM's cloud offerings are, and not so much on the fact of the lock-in itself. That's because lock-in is a defining feature of the cloud landscape, and when you decide to use cloud services either as a consumer or a company, you have to go in with your eyes open.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Lock-in goes with the territory</span><br /><br />The issue of lock-in comes up enough in discussions of the cloud that it's worth recapping how it works for readers who don't follow the topic as closely.<br /><br />In a nutshell, cloud services are offered at three levels of abstraction, and the higher up you go on the abstraction ladder, the more you're locked in to a specific vendor's offering.<br /><br />The lowest level with the least lock-in is infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). A great example is Amazon's EC2, which lets you cheaply and quickly get metered access to any number of virtual Windows or Linux machines. If at some point you decide you don't like EC2, you could always host identically configured VMs on your own in-house hardware, and ditch Amazon's platform entirely.<br /><br />At the next level up are platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offerings like Google App Engine. It's at this level that the real lock-in starts. If you build our application on App Engine, then it's an App Engine application. And if Google's platform goes down, as it has done once already this year, then so does your app. Or, if you decide you hate Google and want to switch, you'll have to rewrite the app.<br /><br />At the topmost level of abstraction is software-as-a-service (SaaS), the most commonly cited examples of which are Salesforce.com and SugarCRM. These are cloud applications that you pay to access, and they've got your data siloed away in their cloud. For some SaaS apps, like Google Docs, you could conceivably get your data back out, but it's a pain. SaaS platforms are designed to ingest data and keep it, not to spit it back out in an easily portable format (though there's a movement afoot to change that).<br /><br />Ultimately, lock-in will be a prominent feature of the cloud landscape from here on out, and more companies will follow IBM's strategy of actively targeting early-stage software startups in order to hook them on a specific platform. This isn't necessarily a bad thing or a good thing—it's just one more technological trade-off to juggle. So it's up to cloud users to educate themselves about the amount of lock-in that they'll be subject to when they commit to any cloud platform, and to factor that into their decision. If lock-in is a serious concern for you, then you'll have to be extremely careful about the kinds of cloud services you pick, and about how you use those services.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-7835512025921870610?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-51259209800111527532010-04-03T00:01:00.000-07:002010-04-03T00:01:03.135-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7bi9fBhv2I/AAAAAAAABiw/5Cn9d58gafQ/s1600/fcc_ipad_intro-thumb-640xauto-13102.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 310px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7bi9fBhv2I/AAAAAAAABiw/5Cn9d58gafQ/s400/fcc_ipad_intro-thumb-640xauto-13102.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455797544533737314" /></a><br />The Federal Communications Commission beat iFixit to the punch in publishing the first iPad take-apart photos, although the Commission did have an unfair advantage since it got pre-launch access to the device for its usual RF testing. The photos do give a first look at the iPad's laser sculpted aluminum casing as well as a little detail about how the hardware is put together.<br /><br />What's not surprising is that most of the internal volume us taken up by two large Li-Ion batteries. The logic board is tiny and appears to be not much bigger than an iPhone. All of the internal components are jammed in there good and tight, as one might imagine. But what's most surprising is that there is actually a good amount of empty space inside.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7bi-xnbJMI/AAAAAAAABi4/xhYYSs0VYmc/s1600/2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7bi-xnbJMI/AAAAAAAABi4/xhYYSs0VYmc/s400/2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455797566704395458" /></a><br />Lest you think iFixit took this challenge lying down, however, the company craftily removed the FCC's meager attempts to cover up details of the chips that Apple requested the FCC keep "confidential." iFixit analyzed the source of the components, but none of them are major surprises so far. There's an Apple A4 processor, Toshiba flash memory, and Broadcom radio chips. The IPS display panel is also suspected to be made by LG Phillips.<br /><br />Some of the components are too small to make out in the relatively low-resolution images, and some of the components might be slightly different in the actual shipping version. iFixit promises have a more detailed analysis after receiving its own iPad.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-5125920980011152753?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-37662203694085440462010-04-02T19:14:00.000-07:002010-04-02T23:16:53.993-07:00Apple's gigantic bankroll may be burning a hole in its pocket. Almost two years after purchasing PowerPC designer P.A. Semi, Apple appears to have snapped up ARM design house Intrinsity. According to a report that first appeared on EDN (via electronista), a number of engineers at the company have indicated that they are now or soon will be employed by Apple. Some of them have even gone as far as to change their LinkedIn profiles, with one reverting it—possibly out of fear of drawing the wrath of his new, secretive employer.<br /><br />Intrinsity is known for its expertise with ARM processors such as the one used in the iPad. The design house has always been fairly quiet about its client list, so it's quite possible that Intrinsity contributed as much, if not more to the A4 ARM processor that powers the iPad than did P.A. Semi. Intrinsity has done work on customized Cortex A8 processors for the likes of Samsung, so the company's expertise in the area would be extremely attractive to Apple.<br /><br />If the sudden disappearance of Intrinsity's web site is truly an indication that Apple has made another purchase, it's a clear sign that Cupertino has really big plans for ARM and doesn't see a future for x86 outside of its desktops and laptops. In addition to powering iPads and iPhones, it's possible that we could see Apple-created ARM chips in other consumer devices—even HDTVs—if Apple wants to try and stake out more consumer electronics turf.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-3766220369408544046?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-42592352383388757162010-04-02T15:26:00.000-07:002010-04-02T23:28:30.016-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7bf-_fEzCI/AAAAAAAABio/Bm81IZFO-nE/s1600/icade_intro_thinkgeek-thumb-640xauto-13077.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 341px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7bf-_fEzCI/AAAAAAAABio/Bm81IZFO-nE/s400/icade_intro_thinkgeek-thumb-640xauto-13077.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455794271892589602" /></a><br />Games are big on the iPhone—the majority of apps on the App Store are games, and games are regularly among the top-selling paid and free apps. With the iPad, gaming on Apple's mobile devices is poised to get even bigger (pardon the pun). But even with the touchscreen and accelerometer inputs, some games just need more traditional D-pad or joystick controls. The question is, why aren't third-party accessories available to give us this control?<br /><br />Apple itself may be getting into the gaming accessory business, if the details of a recently published patent application are any indication. A group of emulator enthusiasts has already started limited production of a similar accessory for the iPhone and iPod touch. And, a fake gaming accessory from ThinkGeek has caused a major buzz on the Internet, enough that the company may be considering turning it into a real product.<br /><br />Apple has filed a patent application, published today, for an "Accessory for Playing Games with a Portable Electronic Device." The patent was originally filed in September 2008, so clearly Apple has given thought to this issue. The patent describes a device that a "portable electronic device," such as an iPhone or iPad could slip into, and offer a user "a plurality of input controls that may be actuated by a user while playing a game." The illustrations that accompany the patent clearly show an iPhone-like device connecting to the accessory via a dock connector.<br /><br />The accessory could include any of the following: buttons, D-pad, joystick, a keypad, microphone, camera, speakers, and even a secondary display. The device could also offer a number of gaming related features, such as force feedback or streaming of video or audio to external devices. Apple also suggests it could include integrated memory for storing your "game progress."<br /><br />Apple isn't the only one to be thinking along these lines. In May 2008, a group of hackers modified a SNES controller to work with a jailbroken iPhone over a serial connection, and built a prototype of what is now known as the iControlPad. The device is akin to a bulky iPhone case that adds a D-pad and four buttons that could be used to control games.<br /><br />Over the last two years a few prototypes were made as the iControlPad was refined, and now a finalized version is being manufactured in limited quantities in the UK. One version even includes a built-in rechargeable battery to power an iPhone or iPod touch for "marathon gaming sesions." (I would buy one just to play Space Miner without having to recharge every eight hours.) There is also an SDK that developers can use to add support to the games they make. The only problem is that it will only work with games made for jailbroken iPhones or iPod touches—the numerous games from the App Store just won't work.<br /><br />The problem isn't technological, though. Apple added an API in iPhone OS 3.0 to let accessories connected via the Dock connector to communicate with an app. Unfortunately, making such an accessory means a company must join Apple's "Made for iPod" program, which means negotiating a licensing fee to gain access to both the API as well as the necessary chips that must be included to "authorize" accessories to connect to an iPhone, iPod touch, or even the iPad. The cost alone can be prohibitive, and only a few accessories have been produced so far.<br /><br />Another roadblock is that the current implementation of the accessory API limits a device to communicating with only one app. Even if App Store developers wanted to add iControlPad support to their games, so far they wouldn't be able to. (This misstep doesn't just affect gaming accessories, either—generalized sensors could be made for a variety of scientific applications, for instance.)<br /><br />These roadblocks could also prevent products such as ThinkGeek's iCade from ever becoming a reality. The iCade purports to be a miniature classic arcade cabinet that you slide an iPad into. The cabinet includes stereo speakers and a classic joystick and buttons, which, when coupled with the iPad's large screen, would make for the ultimate retro gaming device. The iCade would interface via the Dock connector with an iPad version of the MAME arcade emulator, allowing anyone to live out their own King of Kong kill-screen fantasies.<br /><br />Though the product is actually a clever (and cruel) April Fool's joke, Ty Liotta, ThinkGeek's merchandising manager and head of custom product design, told Ars that it could very well end up being a real product. "People would really like to buy it, and we have had many people e-mailing and requesting it be created," Liotta said. "Our customers know we have turned April Fools items into real products before, so they know there is the potential there."<br /><br />Liotta was referring to one of last year's April Fools products, a sleeping bag that claimed to be made of the "exact synthetic compounds needed to re-create Tauntaun fur," ostensibly to keep you warm even in temperatures a low as those on the ice planet Hoth. ThinkGeek got so many requests to make the product that it secured a license from LucasFilm and had them manufactured. (Ars art director Aurich Lawson counts himself among the many proud owners.)<br /><br />Though there are software licensing issues and the current limitations of the accessory API for iPhone OS, Liotta is hopeful that ThinkGeek could work with Apple and perhaps game developers to make the product a reality. "I did see a number of different products when I was at CES that use the Dock connector in all kinds of different ways," Liotta told Ars. "I didn't think we could convince Lucasfilm to let us make the Tauntaun sleeping bag and obviously that worked out."<br /><br />Over 2,000 customers have signed up on ThinkGeek's website to be alerted whenever the iCade is available to order, and one customer even offered to fund 100 percent of the development costs to make the iCade a reality. Along with production of the iControlPad, it's clear that gamers are willing to pay to enhance the gaming experience on Apple's mobile devices.<br /><br />Apple went through the trouble of filing a patent on a gaming accessory, but so far hasn't produced one of it's own. If Apple isn't interested in making one, it should be working with product developers to make building these accessories feasible and allowing developers to build support into their games.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-4259235238338875716?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-60372323855291023542010-04-02T10:23:00.000-07:002010-04-02T23:25:55.293-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7bfYUpXBDI/AAAAAAAABig/2aM-xWtlmF4/s1600/internet_cable_broadband.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7bfYUpXBDI/AAAAAAAABig/2aM-xWtlmF4/s400/internet_cable_broadband.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455793607557973042" /></a> The Federal Communications Commission's Universal Service Fund is cleaning up its act. Yes way—for real. And not only that, it looks like we've been a tad unkind to the benighted program in the past. Turns out that what seemed like a pretty devastating audit of one of the USF's main programs was way off in its calculations.<br /><br />Here's the short version of that story. The USF, paid for by small tithes on your phone bill, runs four programs: a fund that subsidizes the phone bills of the poor; a program that subsidizes the computer/network needs of schools and libraries; another that underwrites broadband for rural health care facilities; and a division that offers financial support to rural carriers.<br /><br />That last program is called the "high cost" fund. It helps with the challenges that rural carriers face in trying to provide service to relatively few consumers in spread out areas. Unfortunately, past audits of the fund have concluded that its high cost title has a second, less desirable meaning—a scarily huge error rate in payouts to carrier recipients: 16.6 percent, according to a review that the FCC's Inspector General released three years ago. A subsequent assessment warned that the program overpaid carriers by almost a billion dollars from July 2006 through June 2007.<br /><br />But the Universal Service Administrative Company's new Annual Report includes a re-check of those numbers that calls them way too high. Not 16.6 percent for that first assessment, USAC says, just 2.7 percent. "USAC anticipates similar results in the final reports on the second and third rounds of the FCC OIG USF audit program," the Annual Report also notes.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Big fixups</span><br /><br />Still, the document indicates the company has taken to heart many of the criticisms of the ways that it monitors its four programs. In mid-July of 2008 the Government Accountability Office warned that the FCC has not established meaningful performance goals for the USF. But the GAO reviews' most important finding was that nobody really audits the cost records of these telcos for, well, costs. FCC and USF data collection efforts only peer at a small percentage of recipients, GAO charged, and "generally focus on completeness and consistency of carriers' data submissions, but not the accuracy of the data." This could "facilitate excessive program expenditures," the report very politely concluded.<br /><br />Now, in 2010, USAC will take a new approach, the company promises, "analyzing data from beneficiaries and from USAC to measure rates of improper payments and using a broad audit program to measure program compliance." The FCC has also established an interim cap on high cost fund payments to competitive carriers. And the low income program is completely revamping itself, with a new cost-tracking system to reduce accounting errors.<br /><br />All this is good news, because the Universal Service Fund could become a huge engine for the expansion of broadband in the United States. Last year the USF paid out $7.3 billion to its recipients—money going out to 1,865 eligible telecommunications carriers in the case of the high cost program. But the balance of that cash went to phone service providers, not to ISPs.<br /><br />So the FCC's National Broadband Plan recommends that Congress transitions USF money to two new programs. First, a Connect America Fund to support broadband providers for poor and rural regions. The CAF, as outlined in the Plan, is designed to avoid the errors of High Cost. It will only provide funding in zones "where there is no private sector business case to provide broadband and high-quality voice-grade service." The program will give to no more than one provider per area (as opposed to over a dozen in some present instances). Its recipients will be adequately audited. And, of course, they will have to provide broadband.<br /><br />Second, the FCC wants Congress to launch a "mobility fund" to help various states get up to speed in 3G wireless.<br /><br />All this could take a while for the House and Senate to get out the door. The FCC says this transition needs to happen by 2020, with reforms of High Cost and disbursements from Connect America both beginning in 2012. But the agency isn't waiting for Capitol Hill to get started. The Commission's next meeting, scheduled for April 21, will propose "common-sense reforms to the existing high-cost support mechanisms to identify funds that can be refocused toward broadband"—plus a Notice of Inquiry that asks for input on "the use of a model to determine efficient and targeted support levels for broadband deployment in high-cost areas."<br /><br />Let's see how far the USAC and FCC can get on their own while waiting for Congress to take the big steps. Hopefully they won't have to tread water for too long.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-6037232385529102354?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-66757832355756126272010-04-01T04:14:00.000-07:002010-04-01T05:17:05.645-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7SOqtcDPZI/AAAAAAAABdo/BXSvMq6_0W8/s1600/att_logo.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 330px; height: 190px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7SOqtcDPZI/AAAAAAAABdo/BXSvMq6_0W8/s400/att_logo.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455141913055411602" border="0" /></a> Since the original iPhone launch, AT&amp;T has put in motion a number of upgrades to its wireless network to accommodate the pounding it received at the collective fists of millions of iPhone users. But according to AT&amp;T CTO John Donovan, Apple has also done its part to adjust the iPhone to work better on AT&amp;T's network.<br /><br />Donovan told the Wall Street Journal that, even as the company worked to convince Apple that it was improving its network, AT&amp;T engineers went to Apple to give Apple's engineers a "crash course" in wireless networking. Apple modified how the iPhone communicates with towers to reduce the overhead for making connections or sending texts.<br /><br />"They're well past networking 101, 201 or 301," Donovan told WSJ. Apple is now "in a Master's class."<br /><br />Ars contacted both AT&amp;T and Apple for further details about what was changed, but neither company offered any specific information. We do know, however, that the way the iPhone—as well as smartphones that came after it—use certain techniques for saving battery power that can bog down signaling channels on cell towers that aren't configured to handle signaling loads dynamically. The last we heard about significant changes in the 3G networking capabilities of the iPhone OS was in late 2008, though it's sure that Apple since tweaked the the network stack whenever needed.<br /><br />AT&amp;T learned that hard way that iPhone users didn't add network traffic in the same predictable patterns as users of other phones did. The company "is managing volumes that no one else has experienced," Donovan said. The growing pains that AT&amp;T experienced as the iPhone skyrocketed to the top of the smartphone market in the US have left a number of users frustrated, with many willing to jump to another carrier if it could offer service for the iPhone. Half of Ars readers using an iPhone said they would switch to Verizon if a rumored CDMA-compatible iPhone materialized soon.<br /><br />Verizon CTO Anthony Melone bragged late last year that the company was more than ready to handle the onslaught that iPhone users would bring to the network. "We are prepared to support that traffic," Melone told BusinessWeek.<br /><br />That's easy to say, AT&amp;T spokesperson Seth Bloom told Ars, "but the truth is no one knows what their network would look like if they had the iPhone." "Of course, it's true that others have been able to watch what we've done to handle a 5,000 percent surge in data traffic," Bloom added. "But watching is quite different from doing."<br /><br />Bloom said that the upgrade to HSPA 7.2 and the added backhaul—"enough to also support our LTE buildout"—will keep AT&amp;T ahead of the competition, which may be enough to keep iPhone users from looking at other carriers. "More and more people are going to get the benefits of 7.2 speeds this year on our network," he said.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-6675783235575612627?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-80566775223975356832010-04-01T02:19:00.000-07:002010-04-01T05:20:18.359-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7SPdf2Su-I/AAAAAAAABd4/Hago0CjOXa0/s1600/E8_roots_zome.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7SPdf2Su-I/AAAAAAAABd4/Hago0CjOXa0/s400/E8_roots_zome.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455142785580710882" border="0" /></a> A bit over two years ago, news sources and science blogs lit up when a pre-print paper from Dr. A. Garrett Lisi came to light that proposed a novel theory of everything—one theory that accurately describes all four of the universes fundamental forces. Current theories have demonstrated that three of the four fundamental forces and their associated particles can all be obtained from different symmetry operations (think rotations and reflections) of an algebraic group called a Lie group The pre-print, hosted by the on-line repository arXiv, proposed that, within the complicated symmetry group E8, all four forces of nature could be described and united.<br /><br />The hype that ensued (Google still suggests "surfer physicist" as a possible query) made this pre-print the most downloaded arXiv paper by March of 2008, and spawned an entire Wikipedia entry for the paper alone. As an engineer who specializes in theoretical work, it seemed to me to be a case of "give me enough parameters and I can fit a horse." Our in-Orbiting Headquarters physicist, Dr. Chris Lee, described it as solid, but noted it had some serious shortcomings.<br /><br />In the intervening years, the paper—to the best of my knowledge and research ability—has not made it through peer-review to publication. A new paper, set to be published in an upcoming edition of Communications in Mathematical Physics, formally addresses the idea, and not only finds that Lisi's specific theory falls short, but that no theory based on the E8 symmetry group can possibly be a "Theory of Everything."<br /><br />The new paper, which is also freely available as a preprint through the arXiv, is highly technical and lays out its case as a proof to a mathematical problem that attempts to define the criteria for a valid theory of everything. The authors begin by laying out three key criteria that a pair of subgroups on a Lie group must have in order to be a 'Theory of Everything.' The first is a trivial, yet purely mathematical, restriction that must hold true between the chosen sub-groups. The second is that the model cannot contain any "'exotic' higher-order spin particles." The final issue is that the gauge theory employed in our group must be chiral—a limitation dictated by the existing Standard Model.<br /><br />In the original work by Lisi, it was proposed that the 248 dimensions of E8 corresponded to specific particles, either bosons or fermions—over 20 of which had yet to be discovered. The authors of the paper state that, in private communications, Dr. Lisi has backed off on this specific claim, and now states that only a subset of these dimensions represent actual particles. This modified version of the theory has yet to be publicly presented.<br /><br />Going with the original version, one has to ask whether there is the correct amount of space within the potential subgroups to explain what we already know about. Math tells us that all the fermions—particles with half-integer spin—must come from what is known as the (-1)-eigenspace of the Lie group. Physics and math tell us that, in order to describe the known fermions, the subgroup of interest must have 180 dimensions.<br /><br />Unfortunately, the (-1)-eigenspace on E8 (where the fermions must exist) has either 112 or 128 dimensions—too few to account for the known fermions. This goes directly against the claims made in Lisi's original work, and is not compatible with known spin theory and three generations of matter as described by the Standard model. The authors do point out that this result is not incompatible with a 1- or 2-generation Standard Model (as opposed to the accepted 3-generational Standard Model) being embedded in a real form of E8.<br /><br />The authors go on, in a purely mathematical fashion, to prove that any "Theory of Everything" is not capable of meeting all three criteria in any real representation of E8, or even in a complex representation of E8. They show that any set of subspaces that meet the first criteria and either the second criteria or a relaxed version of it, will necessarily fail to meet the third.<br /><br />When asked, Prof. Garibaldi, co-author of the paper and expert in exceptional Lie groups, stated that he felt an obligation to help set the record straight. "A lot of mystery surrounds the Lie groups, but the facts about them should not be distorted," he said. "These are natural objects that are central to mathematics, so it's important to have a correct understanding of them."<br /><br />He went on to describe the work in easy to understand terms, and elegantly showed how disputes in science are handled. "You can think of E8 as a room, and the four subgroups related to the four fundamental forces of nature as furniture, let's say chairs," Garibaldi explained. "It's pretty easy to see that the room is big enough that you can put all four of the chairs inside it. The problem with the 'theory of everything' is that the way it arranges the chairs in the room makes them non-functional."<br /><br />(An example of this being that one chair is inverted and stacked atop another chair—it's there, but it isn't useful for sitting.)<br /><br />"I'm tired of answering questions about the 'theory of everything,'" Garibaldi said. "I'm glad that I will now be able to point to a peer-reviewed scientific article that clearly rebuts this theory. I feel that there are so many great stories in science, there's no reason to puff up something that doesn't work."<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-8056677522397535683?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-53683263876508518142010-04-01T00:01:00.000-07:002010-04-01T05:18:51.516-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7SPGYCdSZI/AAAAAAAABdw/UQZd2iPIewU/s1600/chrome_interview_list.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7SPGYCdSZI/AAAAAAAABdw/UQZd2iPIewU/s400/chrome_interview_list.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455142388347259282" border="0" /></a> Google announced Tuesday that its Chrome Web browser will integrate Adobe's Flash plug-in. The latest version of Flash will ship with Google's Web browser, obviating the need for end users to download and install it separately. Google will also start regularly deploying new versions of Flash through Chrome's update system in order to ensure that users always have the latest version.<br /><br />Google has also revealed that it will be working closely with Adobe, Mozilla, and other players in the Web ecosystem to improve the API that browsers use to support plugins. Such improvements could potentially help ameliorate some of the technical deficiencies that have plagued Flash and other plugins.<br /><br />A new version of Chrome with the integrated Flash plug-in was rolled out yesterday to users of the Chrome developer channel. The Flash integration is not enabled by default because it is still highly experimental. It can be turned on by activating Chrome with the —enable-internal-flash parameter at the command line. The new developer version of Chrome also has a new plugin management interface that can be used to toggle which plugins are active.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Can Flash be fixed?</span><br /><br />Although the Flash plug-in is widely used on the Internet, it is strongly disliked by a growing number of users. Websites like YouTube are seeing strong demand for adoption of standards-based alternatives to Flash. There are signs that disdain for Adobe's plug-in is becoming increasingly mainstream and is no longer just confined to the community of technology enthusiasts and standards advocates.<br /><br />This trend is largely driven by the fundamental technical failings of Adobe's technology. The Flash plug-in is often criticized for its awful browser integration, poor performance (especially on Mac OS X and Linux) and stability, lack of conduciveness to accessibility, and excessive resource consumption. Another major problem is its frequent security vulnerabilities, which have made it a major target for exploits.<br /><br />Adobe deserves much of the blame for Flash's defects, but the problem is also largely attributable to the underlying limitations of the framework that browsers use to enable plug-ins.<br /><br />The original browser plug-in system, which is called the Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI) was first introduced in Netscape Navigator 2.0. It is a historical irony that Adobe itself played a key role in influencing the earliest development of the plug-in, before even Flash existed. Several Adobe developers collaborated with Netscape to produce the API so that the nascent Acrobat Reader program could be embedded in the browser and be used to display PDF content on the Internet.<br /><br />The plug-in architecture was basically designed for the purpose of running an independent program inside of the main browser window, but it has been stretched far beyond its intended capacity by modern plug-ins that attempt to provide a lot more functionality. Due to the limitations in the design of the plug-in API, Flash has to maintain its own insular universe inside of a rectangle that doesn't seamlessly mesh with the rest of the page.<br /><br />Referred to as the "plug-in prison" phenomenon, this limitation has created a lot of barriers to making plug-ins like Flash operate as a native part of the Web. You can see its detrimental impact on the browsing experience in many areas—such as scrolling, keyboard navigation, text selection, and resizing—where Flash content simply doesn't conform with the expected behavior.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Improving the API</span><br /><br />Mozilla and other major stakeholders have been working on an update to the plug-in API with the aim of improving the situation. It won't even come close to fixing all the problems with Flash, but it will begin to address certain critical issues. According to the documentation that has been published so far, the update will attempt to boost consistency between implementations, augment support for out-of-process plug-ins, and improve the way that plugin rendering integrates with browser compositing in order to fix layering glitches. There will also hopefully be some opportunities along the way for improving performance, stability, and security.<br /><br />Mozilla started publicly working on it last year. Google has now affirmed its intention to join the effort and contribute to improving browser support for plug-ins.<br /><br />"The browser plug-in interface is loosely specified, limited in capability and varies across browsers and operating systems. This can lead to incompatibilities, reduction in performance and some security headaches," wrote Chrome engineering VP Linus Upson in Google's official Chromium blog. "That's why we are working with Adobe, Mozilla and the broader community to help define the next generation browser plug-in API. This new API aims to address the shortcomings of the current browser plug-in model.<br /><br />Google's interest in this effort seems somewhat inconsistent with the company's affinity for emerging native Web standards, but there are several relevant factors to consider. It's worth noting that Google itself has implemented its own browser plug-ins, such as the Native Client (NaCL) technology.<br /><br />Improvements that Google contributes to the NPAPI could potentially be beneficial for NaCL, enabling Google to use it in ways that might not otherwise be possible or practical. Another relevant factor is the potential opportunity for ChromeOS. Strong support for Flash could potentially look like a competitive advantage for ChromeOS-based devices relative to Apple's competing products.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Are plug-ins still relevant?</span><br /><br />Although there is clearly an opportunity for Adobe and browser vendors to make Flash behave better on the Web, it may never be a first-class part of the Internet. Indeed, one could argue that the idea of a proprietary vendor-controlled plug-in that loads interactive components into a Web page from a binary blob is fundamentally antithetical to the underlying design of the Web.<br /><br />As the standards process accelerates and previously weak browsers like Internet Explorer start to catch up and deliver support for the latest functionality, the need for plug-ins is rapidly declining. As an example of the growing viability of the standards process, consider the nascent WebGL standard, which has gained broad acceptance and multiple implementations in a very short period of time.<br /><br />There is no technical reason that prevents Adobe from participating in the Web like a good citizen. Instead of maintaining a plug-in, the company could propose new functionality for Web standards, contribute implementations to open source browsers, and then target its authoring tools to support those capabilities. The vast majority of companies that are involved in the Web ecosystem are committed to extending the Web in that manner because it's simply more consistent with how the Web works.<br /><br />Now that all of the major browsers, including IE, are aggressively adopting emerging standards, the value of plug-ins is not as clear-cut as it once was. It appears that the primary reason why Adobe still pursues a plugin-based strategy at this stage is so that it can preserve the vendor lock-in that is inherent in having a proprietary plug-in.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-5368326387650851814?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-86512116790561914882010-03-31T06:43:00.001-07:002010-03-31T06:43:49.609-07:00After tabulating all the vulnerabilities published in Microsoft's 2009 Security Bulletins, it turns out 90 percent of the vulnerabilities can be mitigated by configuring users to operate without administrator rights, according to a report by <a href="http://www.beyondtrust.com/">BeyondTrust</a>. As for the published Windows 7 vulnerabilities through March 2010, 57 percent are no longer applicable after removing administrator rights. By comparison, Windows 2000 is at 53 percent, Windows XP is at 62 percent, Windows Server 2003 is at 55 percent, Windows Vista is at 54 percent, and Windows Server 2008 is at 53 percent. The two biggest exploited Microsoft applications also fare well: 100 percent of Microsoft Office flaws and 94 percent of Internet Explorer flaws (and 100 percent of IE8 flaws) no longer work. <br /><br />This is good news for IT departments because it means they can significantly reduce the risk of a security breach by configuring the operating system for standard users rather than administrator. Despite unpredictable and evolving attacks, companies can very easily protect themselves or at least reduce the effects of a newly discovered threat, as long as they're ok with their users not installing software or using many applications that require elevated privileges. <br /><br />In total, 64 percent of all Microsoft vulnerabilities reported last year are mitigated by removing administrator rights. That number increases to 81 percent if you only consider security issues marked Critical, the highest rating Redmond gives out, and goes even higher to 87 percent if you look at just Remote Code Execution flaws. Microsoft published 74 Security Bulletins in 2009, spanning around 160 vulnerabilities (133 of those were for Microsoft operating systems). The report, linked below, has a list of all of them, which software they affect, and which ones are mitigated by removing admin rights. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-8651211679056191488?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-71410174287948923142010-03-31T03:40:00.000-07:002010-03-31T06:43:00.607-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7NRGj8IMJI/AAAAAAAABWI/wl5gzYI24iU/s1600/old_books.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7NRGj8IMJI/AAAAAAAABWI/wl5gzYI24iU/s400/old_books.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454792746844303506" border="0" /></a> Apple initially named five of the top six major publishers as launch partners for its iBookstore for the iPad. More recently, we heard that two independent publishers had signed deals to provide e-books and that Apple plans to offer free public domain titles from Project Gutenberg. Now, self-published authors will also get a crack at the iBookstore via deals Apple has struck with e-book publishing services Smashwords and Lulu.<br /><br />Smashwords and Lulu are for e-books what TuneCore is for music. TuneCore will take your CD (or indie film) and upload it to the iTunes Store for a flat fee, eliminating the need to jump through all the hoops necessary to set up an account directly with Apple. All the royalties earned on sales of the album and individual tracks are then forwarded to the artist.<br /><br />Smashwords works a little differently; instead of an up-front free, it takes a small percentage of the royalties that various e-book stores offer. However, authors merely need to upload a specially formatted Word document with the text of their book, along with an image of the cover. Smashwords uses tools that automatically convert the Word file into the formats specified for online e-book stores such as Barnes &amp; Noble, Amazon Kindle, and Lexcycle Stanza, and uploads books to the stores that an author requests.<br /><br />Details of a deal to add the iBookstore as a publishing option leaked after an e-mail to current Smashwords clients was widely published online. Though he couldn't comment on specific details, founder Mark Coker told Ars that he could confirm that Smashwords does have a deal in place with Apple.<br /><br />The e-mail was sent to current Smashwords authors to make sure their books were ready in time to be on the iBookstore at this weekend's April 3 launch. It also explained that books destined for the iBookstore have a few extra requirements, which Smashbooks will make standard for future submissions. All cover images need to be at least 600px tall, titles must have a unique ISBN number (separate from the print version if one exists), and books must have a price that ends in ".99" (i.e. $4.99 versus $4.95).<br /><br />Apple also requires that pricing for e-book versions should be less than a print version if one is available, and there are limits to the maximum iBookstore price for the first 12 months after release depending on the price of the print edition. Currently there is no option to sell books on the iBookstore without FairPlay DRM, and Apple didn't respond to our request for comment on the matter.<br /><br />Smashwords gives authors and publishers 60 percent of the retail price of an e-book as a royalty, with Apple keeping the usual 30 percent and Smashwords keeping a 10 percent cut for its services. "Our general policy for the last two years at Smashwords has been to return 85 percent of the net to our authors and publishers," Coker told Ars. Even with Smashwords keeping a small percentage, though, that's a far better deal than the 35 percent authors are getting publishing directly on the Kindle.<br /><br />It also appears that book publishing service Lulu will also begin to distribute books via the iBookstore shortly. Lulu will convert titles to ePub format automatically and upload them to the iBookstore unless authors specifically request that it doesn't. Further details about pricing and availability aren't known since no public announcement has been made, but would likely be similar to those offered by Smashwords.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-7141017428794892314?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-33317238866934928902010-03-31T00:09:00.000-07:002010-03-31T06:40:34.046-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7NQwRAyoFI/AAAAAAAABWA/JiSwdavGh7s/s1600/verizon_3g_iphone.png"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7NQwRAyoFI/AAAAAAAABWA/JiSwdavGh7s/s400/verizon_3g_iphone.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454792363806466130" border="0" /></a> Apple plans to release new iPhone hardware this summer—this is widely accepted among the Apple community despite the lack of any announcement from Apple. But more rumored details about the hardware and its expected launch date supports Steve Jobs' promise that it will be an "A+ update." This new hardware will supposedly launch on AT&amp;T in the US, but yesterday we heard from the Wall Street Journal that a CDMA-based version was destined for Verizon sometime this year. Several analysts are less certain than WSJ's sources, but Apple may be ready to make the CDMA leap to stave heated competition from Android.<br /><br />After WSJ's story mentioned the obvious—that a new iPhone was coming this summer—Daring Fireball posted a number of expected features of the upcoming iPhone refresh. The device will likely be powered by a version (perhaps the exact same one) of the A4 processor inside the iPad. It may also have a 960 x 640 pixel display, a front facing camera, and iPhone OS 4.0 is expected to enable some form of third-party multitasking.<br /><br />All of those prognostications are fairly safe. Jobs long ago said that PA Semi would be designing chips to power its mobile products, and if the A4 can get up to 10 hours of runtime for an iPad with its 9.7" LCD screen, it could likely give a big boost to the runtime for the iPhone in addition to snappy performance.<br /><br />A 960 x 640 pixel display will help keep the iPhone in the running with some newer mobile devices with screen resolutions that exceed the current model's 480 x 320 display. The higher resolution also jibes with the "iPhone HD" moniker that Engadget sources suggest the new model will wear. The screen would still have the same 3:2 screen ratio with a doubling of pixel dimensions, meaning existing iPhone apps could easily be scaled to fit the new screen without much apparent difference in quality. However, apps updated for the higher resolution should look absolutely stunning.<br /><br />The iPhone HD name may also refer to the camera hardware. Intel previously suggested that Apple would adopt a 5 megapixel OmniVision sensor that was effectively a drop-in replacement for the current iPhone's 3.2 megapixel sensor. The new sensor uses backside illumination for increased light sensitivity, but can also shoot HD video in 720p or 1080p HD resolution, trumping the current iPhone's limit of 640 x 480 SD video.<br /><br />The front-facing camera has long been rumored as a hardware upgrade ever since the first iPhone launched in 2007. Such a camera would enable video calling or conferencing à la iChat AV or Skype. Several of the iPhone OS 3.2 betas contained resources necessary for video calling, and the feature may finally make an official appearance via a front-facing camera and iPhone OS 4.0. iPhone OS 4.0 is also expected to bring a "full-on solution" for running multiple third-party iPhone apps simultaneously.<br /><br />Engadget's sources expect the new iPhone to launch on June 22. Daring Fireball suggests that date could be likely if WWDC is in early June. The new model would likely be announced during the WWDC keynote, giving developers a few weeks to update apps to take advantage of new features in time for its launch.<br /><br />Despite what may prove to be a very compelling upgrade for current iPhone owners, what about those on non-GSM carriers? Apple has called CDMA a dead-end technology in the past, but an update to WSJ's report from yesterday about a likely Verizon-ready iPhone notes that Apple may have "changed its mind" given that LTE won't likely be widespread even on Verizon until sometime in 2011, and on AT&amp;T until sometime in 2012 or later.<br /><br />Several analysts expressed doubt that Apple would make the CDMA plunge this year, if at all. Sources for Morgan Keegan analyst Travis McCourt said that Qualcomm is working on a CDMA radio chip that could work with the iPhone, but that it won't be a dual mode CDMA-GSM chip that Apple wanted. Even if Apple could build a CDMA-capable iPhone, there's still the matter of Apple and Verizon being able to come to an agreement to provide service for the device. For instance, AT&amp;T's $30 per month data plan includes unlimited data, while Verizon's similar plan for smartphones is capped at 5GB. Verizon would also have to implement the necessary back-end to support the iPhone's Visual Voicemail feature.<br /><br />UBS analyst Maynard Um also agreed that a Verizon launch this year would be unlikely. However, both analysts suggested that a CDMA iPhone could launch with other carriers, especially those that have far less immediate plans to transition to 4G LTE. Possible alternate options include China Telecom (which doesn't used UTMS/HSPA for 3G), KDDI in Japan, SK Telecom in Korea, or even Sprint in the US.<br /><br />Still, several metrics suggest that Google's Android platform is growing much faster than the iPhone, especially in the US, even though the iPhone has still outsold Android devices by a large margin. Part of the reason that Android is able to grow so fast is that it's available on multiple devices from multiple carriers. AT&amp;T only has so many customers willing to go for the iPhone, and there are only so many willing to switch carriers to get one.<br /><br />Our reader poll from Monday suggests that half of current Ars iPhone users would defect to Verizon if the iPhone was launched on that network, and plenty of current Verizon customers would be interested in an iPhone if it were available. A CDMA iPhone might not mean much for worldwide growth, given that there is still plenty of growth opportunity with GSM-based carriers. However, if Apple wants to maintain US smartphone market dominance, going CDMA might be the only option for the next few years.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-3331723886693492890?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-75581307837490260132010-03-30T13:29:00.000-07:002010-03-30T13:30:33.017-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7JfXnSU7VI/AAAAAAAABV4/x9obfKw0QAY/s1600/sad_beer.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7JfXnSU7VI/AAAAAAAABV4/x9obfKw0QAY/s400/sad_beer.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454526957986573650" border="0" /></a> Solaris 10, the official stable version of Sun's UNIX operating system, is no longer available to users at no cost. Oracle has adjusted the terms of the license, which now requires users to purchase a service contract in order to use the software.<br /><br />Sun's policy was that anyone could use Solaris 10 for free without official support. Users could get a license entitling them to perpetual commercial use by filling out a simple survey and giving their e-mail address to Sun. Oracle is discontinuing this practice, and is repositioning the free version as a limited-duration trial.<br /><br />"Your right to use Solaris acquired as a download is limited to a trial of 90 days, unless you acquire a service contract for the downloaded Software," the new license says.<br /><br />It's important to understand that this change will not affect OpenSolaris, which is still freely available under the terms of Sun's open source Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL). Users who don't want to pay for service contracts will be able to use OpenSolaris instead. That might not be particularly comforting to some users, however, because there are is some uncertainty about the future of OpenSolaris.<br /><br />Although Oracle has committed to continuing OpenSolaris development, the company says that OpenSolaris might not get all of the new features that are being developed for the Solaris platform. Oracle says that it is reevaluating some aspects of the development process and isn't entirely sure how it will proceed.<br /><br />It's not clear exactly how this will play out, but it seems that Oracle might choose not to open the source code of certain improvements in order to differentiate its commercial Solaris offerings. If Oracle decides to move in that direction, then OpenSolaris will no longer be able to serve as a drop-in free replacement for the latest commercial version of the operating system.<br /><br />OpenSolaris contributor Ben Rockwood, a Sun Community Champion, discussed the licensing change in a recent blog entry. The licensing changes will be detrimental to smaller Solaris users, he says. He also expresses some concerns about the future of OpenSolaris due to the lack of communication from Oracle about the current status of the overdue OpenSolaris 2010.03 release.<br /><br />"There may be attractive offerings for new customers in the high-end enterprise space, but long time supporters in smaller shops are going to get royally screwed," he wrote. "This might be a good time to catch up on non-Sun/Oracle distros such as Nexenta, Schillix, and Belenix."<br /><br />Sun started giving away Solaris for free so that it could retain mindshare for the platform as Linux gained a broader presence. Oracle doesn't really need to do that because it has robust commercial offerings for both Linux and Solaris. Oracle can afford for Solaris to become the niche premium offering while Linux dominates most of the rest of the market. If dropping the free version gets some existing users to start paying for service contracts, than it's a win for Oracle. The downside is that the changes in licensing will exacerbate the growing rift between Oracle and the existing community of OpenSolaris enthusiasts.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-7558130783749026013?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-40508477445026599942010-03-30T09:17:00.000-07:002010-03-30T13:26:43.860-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7JeZRAQV6I/AAAAAAAABVo/3ziENV1aSOc/s1600/broadband_binary_speed_ars.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7JeZRAQV6I/AAAAAAAABVo/3ziENV1aSOc/s400/broadband_binary_speed_ars.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454525886853306274" border="0" /></a> A new study charges that some of the Internet Service Provider speed test results that the Federal Communications Commission cites in its surveys are inaccurate. Specifically, tests conducted by the comScore market research group tend to give wrongly calculated lowball marks on ISP performance, says Netforecast—its work commissioned by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association.<br /><br />comScore's various testing errors "result in an underreporting of the actual speed delivered by an ISP on its network, and the individual errors create a compounding effect when aggregated in an individual subscriber's speed measurement," Netforecast concludes. "The result is that the actual speed delivered by each ISP tested is higher than the comScore reported speed for each result of every test."<br /><br />Not only that, but "other broadband user speed tests are also prone to the same data gathering errors," Netforecast warns.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Absolute indicators</span><br /><br />comScore publishes market survey reports on online trends—everything from IP video use to music downloading. The outfit's surveys are constantly quoted by the big telcos, cable companies, and ISPs in their filings with the FCC. Comcast and NBC Universal, for example, repeatedly cite comScore stats in their brief asking the Commission to approve their proposed merger.<br /><br />But it looks like big cable draws the line when it comes to comScore's assessment of ISP speeds—not surprising given that the NCTA has asked the agency to "continue to look at maximum advertised speed rather than some measure of 'actual' speed" in defining broadband. The Netforecast survey notes that the FCC has used comScore metrics "as an absolute indicator of specific ISPs' performance," but doesn't say in which report. The Commission most famously mentions them, however, in Chapter Three of its National Broadband Plan.<br /><br />Citing comScore data, the 370+ page document concludes that the average advertised speed for broadband has gone up to the tune of 20% every year over the last decade. "However, the actual experienced speeds for both downloads and uploads are materially lower than the advertised speeds," the NBP adds. "The actual download speed experienced on broadband connections in American households is approximately 40-50% of the advertised 'up to' speed to which they subscribe. The same data suggest that for upload speeds, actual performance is approximately 45% of the 'up to' advertised speed (closer to 0.5 Mbps)."<br /><br />Netforecast pushes back on all this, charging that comScore's testing assumptions are wrong. Specifically, they "overstate the disparity" between "median actual and maximum advertised speeds." Here's a thumbnail of Netforecast's analysis of comScore's methodology:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Severe limits</span><br /><br />According to Netforecast, comScore client software applications, operated at home by consumer recruits called "panelists," run speed tests with the goal of reaching a test server every eighteen hours. If a broadband level speed is detected, the client downloads a file ranging in size from 1MB through 15MB. The test then crunches the results via a formula that multiplies the file size by 8 (for byte/bit conversion), then divides it by the test time and byte delay.<br /><br />So, for example—according to Netforecast's representation of comScore's formula—a 15MB file taking 3.5 seconds to download with a minimum startup latency of .5 seconds will be parsed as so: (8*15,000,000)/(3.5 - 0.5) = 40,000,000 = 40.0 Mbps.<br /><br />Netforecast identifies six problems with comScore's testing:<br /><br /> * In its calculations, comScore should have noted (Netforecast thinks) that a Megabyte equals 1,048,576 bytes, not 1,000,000. This resulted in an error factor of -4.5 percent in the example above—that is, an actual speed of 41.9Mbps, not 40 (see different definitions of megabyte here).<br /> * Only one TCP connection is used each test. This "severely limits the accuracy of its results," the analysis contends. "Many speed test services operate multiple parallel TCP connections to more accurately and realistically measure ISP performance."<br /> * Client-server factors leading to delay are not consistent in each trial. The system initiates a speed test from the comScore client to the server, which uses a reverse DNS lookup to determine the ISP network the client is on. It then determines the optimal server for the test. But: "The peering relationship with the panelist's ISP may be so complex that the test path introduces high delay," Netforecast warns. "Effective performance degrades when delay increases."<br /> * The panelist's computer may have other software running during the test. "In fact, comScore recruits panelists by providing them software such as screen savers that operate when the panelist is not actively using the network," the critique contends. "The other software can reduce the computing resources available for the speed test."<br /> * The test traffic may conflict with home traffic. A home Wi-Fi network could add complexity to the results, as could other PCs or machines connected to the network, or neighboring networks and cordless phones.<br /> * The tests place subscribers in speed tiers higher than the one that they actually purchased.<br /><br />And so, complains Netforecast, the effective service speeds comScore delivers are based on erroneous tests, while the advertised speeds are often wrong.<br /><br />"It is essential that ISP speed tests be thoroughly understood and that their results are truly representative and accurate," the Netforecast analysis concludes. "The industry should define standardized and transparent targeted methodologies for ISP speed testing and foster their widespread adoption."<br /><br />We contacted both comScore and the FCC for a comment about the report, but have yet to receive a reply.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-4050847744502659994?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-16883138403800843302010-03-30T08:27:00.000-07:002010-03-30T13:28:49.343-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7Je6vtKa2I/AAAAAAAABVw/9XTm5Nb62Tk/s1600/google-sauron-eyes.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7Je6vtKa2I/AAAAAAAABVw/9XTm5Nb62Tk/s400/google-sauron-eyes.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454526462030408546" border="0" /></a> Google's Buzz social networking service, which launched as part of Gmail in February, was met with considerable controversy. The service automatically transformed users' e-mail address books into public Buzz contact lists, creating the potential for sensitive information to be exposed without user consent.<br /><br />The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) condemned Google's mismanagement of the service's rollout and lack of privacy safeguards. EPIC filed a complaint with the FTC, calling for the organization to review the matter. A bipartisan group of congressmen are the latest to join the chorus. In an open letter addressed to FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz, eleven members of the US House of Representatives called for an investigation of Buzz and closer scrutiny of Google's pending acquisition of mobile advertising company AdMob.<br /><br />"We are writing to express our concern over claims that Google's 'Google Buzz' social networking tool breaches online consumer privacy and trust. Due to the high number of individuals whose online privacy is affected by tools like this—either directly or indirectly—we feel that these claims warrant the Commission's review of Google's public disclosure of personal information of consumers through Google Buzz," the letter says. "We hope to be of assistance to you in finding constructive solutions to fill in the gaps that leave our online privacy vulnerable to unsolicited intrusion."<br /><br />The letter specifically highlights the contact list disclosure issue, but also raises questions about the implications of Google's advertising practices. The letter asks the FTC to determine if Google's acquisition of AdMob—and the resulting reduction in mobile advertising competition—will reduce incentives for the company to protect consumer privacy.<br /><br />Google took swift action to correct Buzz's privacy problems shortly after the controversy erupted. The automatic contact-following behavior was replaced with a system that recommends people to follow. The service's underlying functionality was also made more transparent and the mechanisms for disabling the service were improved.<br /><br />Although these changes have been broadly lauded as a step in the right direction, critics believe that Google needs to go further and make the service itself an opt-in offering. The forceful rollout of the service, and Google's move to inject it into Gmail as an unsolicited addition, are cited by EPIC and other privacy advocates as a serious breach of user trust.<br /><br />This view is shared by outgoing FTC Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour, who criticized Google in a recent panel about Internet privacy. In Harbour's opinion, Google's "irresponsible" launch of Buzz is representative of the broader privacy and security issues that society faces with the emergence of cloud computing. She fears that questionable privacy practices will escalate if steps aren't taken now on behalf of consumers. "Consumer privacy cannot be run in beta," she reportedly said.<br /><br />As Google expands its reach into more corners of daily life, the company will face more stringent scrutiny. The Buzz privacy blunder, and the concerns that it has raised, have clearly penetrated the awareness of lawmakers and the policy community.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-1688313840380084330?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-27219491506348570202010-03-29T05:26:00.000-07:002010-03-29T05:27:18.153-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7CcoBMzr-I/AAAAAAAABVg/IF4M3jWOLs8/s1600/janus.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7CcoBMzr-I/AAAAAAAABVg/IF4M3jWOLs8/s400/janus.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454031360076525538" /></a> Many systems that purport to have connectivity to the IPv6 Internet, well, don't. According to measurements done by Google 18 months ago, about a third of a percent of all Web users' systems think they have IPv6, with huge regional differences. In reality, it doesn't work for 27 percent of those users. Last week at the IETF meeting in Anaheim, engineers from Yahoo proposed to solve this problem by only exposing a server's IPv6 addresses if a DNS query comes in over IPv6.<br /><br />Today, the 0.09 percent of Web users with broken IPv6 suffer significant timeouts if they, for instance, aim their Web browser at an IPv6-enabled site. The browser will first try to connect over IPv6 for upwards of a minute before giving up and retrying over IPv4. This is a big problem for important Web destinations such as Google and Yahoo, because they don't want to lose 0.09 percent (or more, as IPv6 use increases) of their visitors and therefore, revenue.<br /><br />Google has "solved" this problem with its Google over IPv6 program which requires DNS server operators to get whitelisted. Users of whitelisted DNS servers subsequently receive google.com's and youtube.com's IPv6 addresses as well as the usual IPv4 addresses when they perform a DNS query for the addresses that go with those DNS names. Everyone else gets only the IPv4 addresses. Apparently, Google, Netflix, and Microsoft have been exploring the possibilities of a shared, industry-wide IPv6 whitelist.<br /><br />However, Yahoo is taking a different approach. If a user is performing DNS queries over IPv6, then obviously his or her IPv6 connectivity works. So exposing IPv6 addresses to users sending DNS queries over IPv6 should be fairly risk-free. Everyone agrees that this solution, like the whitelist solution, is rather ugly. This means implementing "two-faced DNS": a DNS server that gives different answers to different people performing the same query. Obviously, such practice isn't particularly DNSSEC-friendly. (But that can be solved by also giving DNSSEC enabled users the IPv6 information.)<br /><br />There are two problems with Yahoo's approach. First of all, mechanisms for computers to learn the IPv6 addresses of nameservers are lacking. Unlike IPv4, IPv6 often doesn't use DHCP (many systems, such as Windows XP and Mac OS X don't even support IPv6 DHCP). One alternative mechanism to learn IPv6 DNS server addresses, RFC 5006, is even less widely deployed. So most systems that have both IPv4 and IPv6 connectivity perform their DNS requests over IPv4. <br /><br />The other issue is that there is at least one other server between a Yahoo user's computer and Yahoo's DNS servers. If that server is operated by people who are oblivious to IPv6, it's unlikely that they will configure it such that it only gives out Yahoo's IPv6 addresses to users who send queries over IPv6. So the whole thing hinges on the cooperation of those network operators who are breaking IPv6 connectivity in the first place.<br /><br />If this is the only way that content networks such as Yahoo and Google are prepared to become IPv6-capable, it's still better than nothing. And perhaps this downside will be addressed when the Yahoo engineers work out the details of this proposal, which is so far just a set of presentation slides.<br /><br />In the meantime, it would be nice if network operators wouldn't arbitrarily block IPv6 packets inside IPv4 packets, thereby disabling "IPv6 tunnels," and for people who enable IPv6 to make sure it keeps working after the initial excitement of running the new protocol wears off. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-2721949150634857020?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-58359297537658308182010-03-29T00:24:00.000-07:002010-03-29T05:26:26.153-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7CcWxmeknI/AAAAAAAABVY/6OMbNeJkcSI/s1600/law_justice_ars.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S7CcWxmeknI/AAAAAAAABVY/6OMbNeJkcSI/s400/law_justice_ars.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454031063831450226" /></a> Last week, the full US Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit upheld an earlier ruling by a partial panel, invalidating a biotech patent that originated in research at MIT and Harvard. The patent covered any of three ways to disable a signaling pathway involved in the immune response, and would have enabled its licensee, Ariad Pharmaceuticals, to go after companies that already have drugs on the market. The court held, however, that simply specifying different ways of interfering with a protein without any written description of how to do so constituted insufficient grounds for granting a patent.<br /><br />This case, and a similar one (University of Rochester v. Pharmacia) that served as precedent, both followed a similar pattern. In each case, basic research in a university context identified a key protein involved in inflammatory responses. For Rochester, it was they enzyme Cox-2; drugs that inhibit it included Celebrex and Vioxx, both painkillers with lower risk of stomach irritation than aspirin. In the new case, it was the NF-kappaB signaling pathway, which is involved in the immune response to pathogens. Excessive activation of the NF-κB creates chronic inflammation. In this case, Eli Lilly had two drugs already on the market.<br /><br />In each case, the patent that was granted contained a generic description of how to inhibit the protein involved. For the Ariad patent, three methods were mentioned: blocking the signaling pathways that activate NF-κB, reducing the protein's activity, and preventing the protein from binding DNA. Neither patent specified the actual biochemical mechanism for performing any of these inhibitory functions, nor did they describe any substances that could actually do so. In short, they covered any possible method of targeting a specific biochemical pathway.<br /><br />As soon as the patents were granted, the grantees turned around and sued the pharmaceutical companies that had actually done the hard work of finding an implementation of these generic concepts.<br /><br />The first suit, which was decided in 2003, didn't go well for the patent holders, as a judge ruled that the patent, as granted, didn't include a sufficient description of an actual invention. The new case resulted in a jury trial, which Lilly lost, leading its lawyers to request that the verdict be vacated as a matter of law. The presiding judge declined, leading to the appeals process. An initial ruling by a three-judge panel overturned the Ariad patent on the grounds of an insufficient written description, but the full court decided that the issue was significant enough to merit consideration.<br /><br />The relevant passage of the US patent code was quoted in full in the decision:<br /><br /> The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention. <br /><br />To a certain extent, the argument is over where to put the commas in the statute, which determines what, precisely, needs to appear in the written description. Based on its reading, the Court has determined that "nothing in the statute’s language or grammar that unambiguously dictates that the adequacy of the 'written description of the invention' must be determined solely by whether that description identifies the invention so as to enable one of skill in the art to make and use it." So, even though a skilled biochemist could view the rough descriptions in the patent and know how to develop an inhibitor, that alone is not enough to mean that the patent is valid.<br /><br />With that interpretation of the law stated, the court focused on whether the patent defined anything that could reasonably be described as an invention. "Every patent must describe an invention," the decision states. "It is part of the quid pro quo of a patent; one describes an invention, and, if the law’s other requirements are met, one obtains a patent."<br /><br />Its conclusion is that this sort of description is nowhere to be found. Using biological terminology, the Court concluded that the patent describes what it terms a "genus" of inventions, but neglects to specify any "species"—meaning actual chemicals—that are sufficient to show that the patent holder can actually claim to have implemented the genus. Instead, using language from an earlier decision, it dismisses this approach as "no more than a 'wish' or a 'plan'." Just as the court decided in the Rochester case, without a description of an actual chemical that performs these functions, a patent cannot be considered to have provided an adequate written description.<br /><br />Although it simply reaffirms the Rochester decision, the new opinion attempts to explicitly set a standard for written descriptions that apply generally. And the standard it sets is a rather significant one. Based on the last several decades of biochemistry and molecular biology, it's really easy to identify proteins that help regulate a variety of essential processes, and suggest a variety of routes to inhibiting them. Actually developing something that does so successfully is where the hard work and creativity—the inventiveness, as it were—comes in. In short, this interpretation of the statute appears to bring patent law more in line with the general intent of the patent system.<br /><br />The decision is also a good sign that the Appeals Court (or at least its clerks) have come to grips with modern biology. The decision includes a decent description of the NF-κB signaling process, and casually discusses testimony regarding whether the protein has a transcription activation domain that's distinct from its DNA binding domain. It's not a stretch to expect that a court that finds the biology mysterious will be more likely to grant deference to technically complex but flawed patents, to the detriment of both research and society. The fact that the court is comfortable discussing biochemistry suggests that this risk is receding. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-5835929753765830818?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-61180801208986263762010-03-28T05:48:00.000-07:002010-03-28T05:50:33.721-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S69QkDYsEFI/AAAAAAAABTw/yAiUGZkzVRE/s1600/500x_sshot-2010-03-26-_14-53-54_-_1_.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 254px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S69QkDYsEFI/AAAAAAAABTw/yAiUGZkzVRE/s400/500x_sshot-2010-03-26-_14-53-54_-_1_.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453666254083330130" border="0" /></a>There's any number of great antivirus tools that help protect your PC from viruses, but what about when you encounter an already-infected PC? Your best bet is a boot CD, and the free AVG Rescue CD cleans viruses easily.<br /><br />The AVG Rescue CD comes in two flavors: an ISO image that can be easily burned to an optical disc, or a compressed version that can be installed to a bootable flash drive. Once you've done so, you can simply boot from the drive of choice directly to the AVG menu, where you can scan for viruses, edit files, test your drive, or even edit the registry. Since the bootable CD is based on a version of Linux, you can also access a number of common Linux tools to make changes to your system and hopefully make it bootable again.<br /><br />The AVG Rescue CD is a free download for anybody, cleans viruses from Windows or even Linux PCs, and is a great addition to your PC repair toolkit. If you need some help setting up the bootable USB flash version, check out the <a href="http://www.guidingtech.com/2083/avg-rescue-cd-virus-spyware-removal/">Guiding Tech tutorial</a> for the full walk-through.<br /><br /><div class="related"><a href="http://www.avg.com/us-en/avg-rescue-cd">AVG Rescue CD</a> [AVG via <a href="http://www.guidingtech.com/2083/avg-rescue-cd-virus-spyware-removal/">Guiding Tech</a>]</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://lifehacker.com/">Lifehacker.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-6118080120898626376?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-16351225659206305532010-03-28T02:42:00.000-07:002010-03-28T05:48:32.470-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S69PIVb3x2I/AAAAAAAABTo/rquAiXlqQo0/s1600/500x_2010-03-26_103151.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 228px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S69PIVb3x2I/AAAAAAAABTo/rquAiXlqQo0/s400/500x_2010-03-26_103151.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453664678380554082" border="0" /></a>Windows: If you're setting up a new system or helping a friend to see how much great free and open source software exists, ZeuAPP is a portable installation tool for nearly a hundred applications.<br /><br />ZeuAPP is essentially an installation dashboard for 82 applications. You can navigate to application types like CD Burners, P2P apps, Office apps, and more. Under each tab are applications for that category with a "Download" and "Visit Website" button which allow you to download the application and automatically launch the installer or visit the web site for more info.<br /><br />ZeuAPP is freeware, portable, and Windows only. Looking for something that'll also quickly grab and install your favorite non-open source apps? Check out <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5388408/ninite-bulk+installs-great-free-windows-apps">previously mentioned Ninite</a>.<br /><br /><div class="related"><a href="http://blog.zeusoft.net/zeuapp">ZeuAPP</a> [via <a href="http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/essential-opensource-windows-utilities-under-one-hood/">Addictive Tips</a>]</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://lifehacker.com/">Lifehacker.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-1635122565920630553?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-91248368210089893212010-03-28T00:21:00.000-07:002010-03-28T05:34:26.244-07:00What if, instead of pocket-dialing, you could pocket-send-a-Mars-rover-over-a-cliff? That was the goal of two programmers at EclipseCon 2010 (via Slashdot). A competition at the conference asked developers to either create an e4-Rover client or use one to move a demo robot over a model Mars landscape. Two participants, Peter Friese and Heiko Behrens, built the robot-controlling client into an iPhone application.<br /><br />Entrants could win the rover challenge at EclipseCon in one of two ways. The goal of the first competition was to create the most "attractive, usable, and effective" robotic command-and-control system based on e4, as judged by a panel. The second competition involved using the client to maneuver the provided robot over a landscape, earning points for completed tasks and getting the highest score.<br /><br />Friese and Behrens built an iPhone application to control the robot using the phone's accelerometer, tilting it around to guide the rover in various directions. They won neither of the two categories, which awarded prizes including a tour of a NASA robotics lab, Lego robotics sets, and credits for Amazon Web Services. Until we all get personal Mars rovers, the realistic implications of the app are small; however, these developers certainly have a jump start on a Mars rover game. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-9124836821008989321?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-3052990468285815912010-03-27T14:10:00.000-07:002010-03-27T14:11:43.355-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S650hZozO9I/AAAAAAAABRQ/4mI_rCV9BiE/s1600/gamestop_ninj.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S650hZozO9I/AAAAAAAABRQ/4mI_rCV9BiE/s400/gamestop_ninj.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453424315958770642" border="0" /></a> Used game sales are not popular with publishers who only see profits when new copies of games are sold. Increasingly, games are now sold with one-time use codes that give customers extra content or features; those buying the game used will have to pay that same fee to access this content. GameStop is facing legal action due to this practice for one simple reason: the game box advertises the content, but the stores don't disclose the fact that the content costs extra for those who buy used.<br /><br />A class-action lawsuit against the retailer has been filed in California, claiming that the game boxes claim the content is included, when the code has most likely been used or is missing completely from the second-hand packaging. GameStop's return policy allows returns within seven days, which the suit claims is not enough time to protect consumers.<br /><br />"The availability of this additional content is prominently advertised on the packaging of these games," the suit states. "Despite the representations on the packaging that the game comes with a free use code, unbeknownst to consumers who purchase a used copy of one of these games, upon attempting to download the content identified on the game's packaging, consumers are unable to do so unless they pay an additional fee.<br /><br />"In short, as a result of GameStop's deceptive and misleading practices, consumers who purchase used games from GameStop unknowingly find that they must pay an additional fee to access the full game they though they purchased."<br /><br />The suit even includes scans of the back of certain game boxes, such as Dragon Age Origins, which states that it includes a downloadable character and quest, a $15 value. In smaller print it clarifies that the content is given via one-time use code, available with "full retail purchase." On the back of Gears of War 2: Game of the Year Edition, the text reads "Includes 19 extra maps and an additional campaign chapter." In tiny print under that, it states "Download card included."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Is this deceptive?</span><br /><br />The text simply says that the codes are included with retail purchase, and in this case, they're not going to be. GameStop doesn't sticker these games with warnings about missing content, and store staff is under pressure to push preowned product over new as the profit margins on used content is much higher than new copies of the game. It's unlikely store clerks are going to stick their necks out and explain that the price after purchasing the extra content is going to be higher than it would have been to simply buy the game new.<br /><br />With most of this content coming in at $10 to $15 to download if you don't have the single-use code, and GameStop's practice of selling games for approximately $5 less than new, these games suddenly become a very bad deal for consumers. Without education on the nature of this content in the store, misunderstandings over what is actually included in the box may be more common than we think.<br /><br />In class-action suits the biggest winners are usually the lawyers, but if GameStop is forced to be more upfront about what is included in these game boxes future consumers will be able to make smarter purchasing decisions. As the practice of add-on content as a reward for buying a game new becomes more prevalent, this issue will only become more important.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-305299046828581591?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-18000539376521136302010-03-27T10:11:00.000-07:002010-03-27T14:12:38.184-07:00There's more data coming in on the extent to which low income Americans depend on public institutions for broadband. A new report released by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation says that 44 percent of those living below the poverty level access e-mail and the Web via their local public library. And nearly a third of Americans over 14 used library Internet services in 2009. That's about 77 million people.<br /><br />The study was based on almost 50,000 telephone and Web form surveys. It also found that:<br /><ul><li> Forty percent of those 2009 users accessed library Internet resources to find employment. Seventy-five percent of these looked for a job online. Half posted their resume or filled out an online job application.</li><li> Another 37 percent researched some illness or medical problem, or searched for or made an appointment with a doctor.</li><li> Forty-two percent used their local library's Internet for education; over a third of these did their homework online. A big portion of these users were teenagers.</li><li> Sixty percent accessed a library computer to contact someone else.</li></ul>The study is further confirmation (if more is needed) that low income Americans know that broadband is now an absolute necessity in this economy. It's also more evidence of the huge pressure on libraries to meet this demand. About a third of libraries say they lack both the 'Net connections and staff power to provide the services for which low income patrons ask.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-1800053937652113630?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-41724506905076573362010-03-27T00:45:00.000-07:002010-03-27T14:10:30.159-07:00The dominant carrier of the western and southwestern United States has announced that it will apply for a $350 million broadband stimulus grant from the Department of Agriculture's Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP). Qwest says it wants to build infrastructure to link over half a million households, hospitals, businesses, and schools that currently have no access to broadband. We're talking download speeds of 12 to 40 Mbps, according to the telcos' press statement.<br /><br />"Much like the water and electric programs the government established to encourage rural development, federal grants are needed to enable the deployment of broadband to high-cost, unserved areas," Qwest Vice President Steve Davis says in the release.<br /><br />The news triggered a wry commentary from Karl Bode over at DSL Reports, who notes Qwest's history of trying to block smaller providers access to utility poles, opposing Seattles' fiber development projects, and missing BIP's first stimulus application round, all the while dressing itself up for a possible sale.<br /><br />"It seems a little counterproductive to give Qwest taxpayer money for network builds they were unwilling to do," Bode notes. "Consider this again: we'd be giving taxpayer money to a company that spent millions of dollars fighting towns and cities from using taxpayer money to wire themselves when Qwest wouldn't."<br /><br />Qwest covers most of the western US, save Nevada and California. The company's statement doesn't explain where exactly the telco plans to roll out these broadband lines, and the application isn't up on BIP's application database yet. But whatever the carrier is planning on doing, it'd better hurry up. BIP says the deadline for infrastructure project applications is this Monday, March 29, at 5 PM EDT. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-4172450690507657336?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-5787878581641781582010-03-27T00:22:00.000-07:002010-03-27T13:25:22.497-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S65pnOcP59I/AAAAAAAABRI/Kc64Md_ssxk/s1600/acta_globe.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S65pnOcP59I/AAAAAAAABRI/Kc64Md_ssxk/s400/acta_globe.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453412321404643282" border="0" /></a> Harvard Law School professors Lawrence Lessig and Jack Goldsmith took to the op-ed page of the Washington Post today to slam the Obama administration's approach to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)—and to threaten a lawsuit if ACTA is signed without Congressional oversight.<br /><br />The US has positioned ACTA as an executive agreement rather than a treaty. Such a move means that ACTA doesn't need Senate approval, but it also means that the agreement should not alter US law, either. If you want to change the law, you go to Congress.<br /><br />Lessig and Goldmsith argue that ACTA, at least it its current leaked form, does involve "ideas and principles not reflected in US law."<br /><br />Example number one is a pretty poor choice, in our view; the professors say that "ACTA could, for example, pressure Internet service providers—such as Comcast and Verizon—to kick users offline when they (or their children) have been accused of repeated copyright infringement because of content uploaded to sites such as YouTube."<br /><br />As we've noted before, though, the language here comes from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act—already US law. The leaked drafts show that ISPs need policies in place to deter repeat infringement; a footnote suggests that "three strikes" Internet disconnections might be one appropriate way to do this, but would not be required.<br /><br />The more fundamental complaint is that the president simply doesn't have the power to negotiate executive agreements on IP law and communications policy.<br /><br />"The administration has suggested that a sole executive agreement in this instance would not trample Congress's prerogatives because the pact would not affect US domestic law," write the professors. "Binding the United States to international obligations of this sort without congressional approval would raise serious constitutional questions even if domestic law were not affected."<br /><br />They recommend that Congress stand up for its rights and insist on being consulted—something that (now Vice President) Joe Biden did to the Bush administration when he was a senator. If ACTA is signed without such oversight, Lessig and Goldsmith say it will "be challenged in court."<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-578787858164178158?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-53787603604420740242010-03-26T10:53:00.000-07:002010-03-26T14:54:03.030-07:00Google's Android mobile operating system is gaining considerable traction in the smartphone market. According to a report from mocoNews, the secret behind Android's success is a series of revenue-sharing agreements that Google has signed with carriers and even some handset manufacturers.<br /><br />The specific details are somewhat hazy, but the report cites unnamed sources who say that Google is giving its partners a cut of the advertising revenue generated by its mobile users. These deals are said to be isolated to the companies that are shipping Google Experience devices—handsets that come preinstalled with Google's branded mobile applications.<br /><br />Mobile advertising is still at a relatively nascent stage of its evolution. A New York Times article that was published earlier says that mobile ads in 2009 generated less than one-third of one percent of all total ad revenue. Despite the current lack of compelling demand for mobile advertising, there appears to be a whole lot of potential for growth, which is why Google and Apple are both making big investments. Google's $750 million acquisition of mobile advertising firm AdMob is pending and Apple reportedly paid $275 million for Quattro, one of AdMob's competitors.<br /><br />The availability of Android's source code and the absence of licensing fees helps to make Android adoption an easy choice for carriers and handset makers, but the revenue sharing is possibly how Google seals the deal and attracts loyalty.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-5378760360442074024?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-80685600652250167402010-03-26T08:54:00.000-07:002010-03-26T14:55:32.192-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S60tPpjNGdI/AAAAAAAABPQ/IUkBCgo3qr8/s1600/ubuntu-one-listing.png"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 274px; height: 154px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S60tPpjNGdI/AAAAAAAABPQ/IUkBCgo3qr8/s400/ubuntu-one-listing.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453064470690339282" border="0" /></a> Although Ubuntu is generally regarded as a desktop Linux distribution, the sever variant is becoming increasingly popular in the cloud. It is silently infiltrating server rooms and gaining traction in enterprise environments. A recent survey published by Canonical provides some insight into adoption trends of Ubuntu on production servers.<br /><br />As Ubuntu's presence in the server space grows, it is showing up in some unexpected places. Weta Digital, the New Zealand company that did the special effects for Lord of the Rings and some of the 3D rendering for Avatar, reportedly runs Ubuntu on its 35,000-core render farm and virtually all of its desktop computers. The Wikimedia Foundation, the organization behind the popular Wikipedia website, rolled out Ubuntu on 400 of its servers in 2008. We even use Ubuntu ourselves on several of the key servers that power the Ars Orbiting HQ.<br /><br />One of the factors that is potentially driving Ubuntu adoption on servers is the pricing model. Canonical makes Ubuntu updates available for free, but also offers commercial support as a separate service. As companies that deploy Linux cultivate better in-house support capabilities, they want commercial Linux support options that are more granular and less expensive.<br /><br />Some of the major Linux companies like Red Hat have been slow to respond to that demand, creating an opportunity for alternatives like Ubuntu and CentOS to gain traction. We looked at this phenomenon in 2008 when Ubuntu was beginning its ascent on servers.<br /><br />It's worth noting, however, that the Linux server market is big enough to accommodate a plurality of players with very different models. Canonical is still a small fry and won't be displacing the reigning incumbents in the immediate future. Even though companies that want to decouple support costs from updates are starting to shy away from Red Hat, it's pretty clear from Red Hat's latest impressive quarterly earnings that there is no shortage of companies for whom its current offerings are still highly desirable.<br /><br />One way in which Canonical is aiming to differentiate its server offerings is by emphasizing Ubuntu's support for the cloud. In the Ubuntu server survey, Canonical cites statistics from Cloud Market which show that Ubuntu is the most popular platform on Amazon's Elastic Compute Cluster (EC2), representing over 30 percent of all EC2 platform images.<br /><br />Cloud Market also has a timeline that shows the usage rates of various platforms on EC2 since May 2009. The chart shows a trend of massive and rapid growth for Ubuntu starting in October 2009. This correlates with the release of Ubuntu 9.10, the first version of Ubuntu for which official Amazon EC2 images were made available.<br /><br />Although EC2 is relatively popular, there are some workloads for which it is not a particularly good value and there are a lot of companies that are unwilling to entrust sensitive data to a third-party provider. When consulting firm McKinsey &amp; Company tackled these issues last year, they pointed out that companies for whom EC2 is a poor fit can still improve cost-efficiency by using virtualization technologies to boost server utilization in in-house data centers.<br /><br />One potential solution is Eucalyptus, an open source framework that allows companies to create their own self-hosted elastic compute clusters. Eucalyptus is built to be interoperable with EC2 APIs, which means that it is largely compatible with tools that are designed to work with Amazon's cloud. The researchers behind Eucalyptus launched a company last year with the aim of commercializing the technology. They recently brought in Marten Mickos, former head of MySQL, to be the new CEO.<br /><br />Eucalyptus is said to be a compelling option for companies that want to have elastic computing capabilities in their own data centers. Canonical uses the Eucalyptus technology as the foundation of its Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) package, which allows companies to roll out a private Ubuntu-based cloud. Canonical sells a number of services on top of UEC, including consulting, training, support, and management tools.<br /><br />Canonical is building a roster of partners to boost the strength of UEC. In an announcement earlier this week, Canonical revealed that Dell will offer UEC software and technical support with several enterprise hardware packages. The bundle will be based on the upcoming Ubuntu 10.04, a long-term support release.<br /><br />"Behind the scenes we've worked with Dell's DCS team for over six months to test and validate the integration of the [Ubuntu] cloud stack on their new PowerEdge-C series," wrote Canonical global alliances director Mark Murphy in a statement. "This is the first major offering of a true open source Cloud solution backed by a major corporate vendor."<br /><br />The cloud is playing an increasingly central role in Canonical's evolving business strategy. The company's commitment to UEC and Ubuntu's popularity on EC2 are both clearly growing. At the same time, Canonical is attempting to monetize the desktop with its integrated Ubuntu One cloud service. As Canonical climbs towards profitability, the cloud-centric strategy could give it a lift.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-8068560065225016740?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-37098816365668031252010-03-26T07:50:00.000-07:002010-03-26T14:57:50.688-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S60trLjxqpI/AAAAAAAABPY/GmR5Baw-MVc/s1600/circuit_crystal_ball.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S60trLjxqpI/AAAAAAAABPY/GmR5Baw-MVc/s400/circuit_crystal_ball.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453064943676009106" border="0" /></a> We're rapidly closing in on a decade since the first desktop processors cleared the 3GHz mark, but in a stunning break from earlier progress, the clock speed of the top processors has stayed roughly in the same neighborhood since. Meanwhile, the feature shrinks that have at least added additional processing cores to the hardware are edging up to the limits of photolithography technology. With that as a backdrop, today's issue of Science contains a series of perspectives that consider the question of whether it's time to move beyond semiconductors and, if so, what we might move to.<br /><br />The basic problem, as presented by IBM research's Thomas Theis and Paul Solomon, is that scaling the frequency up has required scaling the switching voltage down as transistors shrink. Once that voltage gets sufficiently small, the difference between on and off states causes problems from some combination of two factors: the off state leaks (leading to heat and power use problems), or the device switches slowly, meaning lower clock speed. Faced with a "choose any two" among speed, size, and power, we've been doing pretty well via chipmakers' focus on the latter two, but that's now gotten physicists and materials scientists thinking it might be time to look elsewhere.<br /><br />With four individual perspectives loaded with technical information, it's not realistically possible to dive into the details of each, so what follows is a top-down overview of some of the arguments that are advanced by the various authors.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Forget clockspeed entirely</span><br /><br />It's not that the authors of this perspective think continued progress in the sort of electronics that appear in laptops is unimportant; they just suggest it will be increasingly less interesting as we focus on small, flexible systems that can be put in portable devices like smartphones, integrated into things (like clothing) that don't currently contain electronics, and ultimately find their way into implantable medical devices. For all of these applications, flexing and stretching are more important than raw speed.<br /><br />We've covered a variety of approaches to getting bits to bend, and the perspective breaks approaches down into two basic categories: either make the electronics flexible, or make them small, and connect them with flexible material. In the former category, the obvious choice would be some sort of organic transistor, but the authors suggest that the need for this is overstated. If standard silicon is fashioned into a silicon ribbon, it's actually remarkably robust when flexed. The trick is to embed the ribbon in a stable, flexible substrate, as well as accepting that the device will never have the same power as a complex, multi-layer chip of the sort that we use today.<br /><br />The alternative is to make the electronics rigid, but extremely small and simple, so that they don't occupy much space. These mini-chips can then be embedded in a flexible material without changing its bulk properties. All that's left is connecting them up and providing them with power, but a number of materials—metals, silicon, and a carbon-nanotube derivative called "buckypaste"—can provide flexible and bendable wiring. Both approaches are already working in the lab, and the primary challenges tend to involve integrating materials that have very different properties in terms of hydrophobicity, heat dissipation, etc.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">More bang for your volt</span><br /><br />The IBM duo mentioned above reason that, if the problem is that we can't switch existing gates well with small voltage changes, it's time to find a switch that will amplify the impact of a small voltage change. So they consider two approaches that allow a voltage change to have nonlinear effects. The first is something called "interband tunnel FET." In the on state, electrons have easy access to a valence band they can tunnel into. A small change in voltage, however, makes this valence band inaccessible, creating a sharp, and leakage-proof off state. The problem with this approach is that, right now, we can make these devices with carbon nanotubes, but not silicon.<br /><br />The alternative is to create some sort of gain device into the circuitry that amplifies a small input voltage. A sandwich of ferroelectric and dielectric layers will apparently allow the ferroelectric layer to switch its bulk behavior between two polarization states, giving a small voltage input an all-or-nothing impact. Adding these devices would obviously increase the size of a gate but, at the moment, the real problem is switching speed: theoretically, these things could switch in less than a picosecond, but actual implementations are taking 70 to 90ps.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Forget silicon entirely</span><br /><br />The remaining two perspectives focus on the promise of transition metal oxides. The unusual electronic properties of these materials were made famous via high temperature superconductivity, but it's a very diverse group of materials with a huge range of properties. Bonds between oxygen and metals like titanium and lanthanum are extremely ionic in nature, which brings the large, electron-rich d-orbitals of the metals to the fore. Depending on the precise structure of the material and the additional metals present (Zn, Mg, and Sr appear common), the large collection of d-orbital electrons act as a bulk material.<br /><br />And, just like any bulk material, the electrons can have phases, including solids, liquids, gasses, superfluids, and liquid crystals; there are also property-based phases, like spin- and orbital-liquids. Where there are phases, there are phase transitions, which can be induced by electric and magnetic fields, among other factors. So, the potential is there for a small input to have a significant impact on a large collection of electrons. So far, the first demonstrations of this have come in the form of different types of RAM based on ferroelectric, magnetic, and resistance.<br /><br />Things get even more interesting when the interfaces between different oxide layers are considered. We've covered one report in the past that described how the interface between two transition oxide insulators could allow superconductivity, and a variety of other interesting effects are described here. Some of these have already been demonstrated to switch states at features below 10nm; an atomic force microscope has created conducting lines at 2nm resolution in a different material.<br /><br />A decade or more ago, the problem with these materials was having any control over their formation, but we've now gained the ability to deposit layers of the stuff with precisions of a single unit cell of the crystal. The roadblock now is theory; as one perspective puts it, the large numbers of electrons present create a many-body problem that we can't really solve. More generally, there are a lot of transition metals, and a lot of complex oxide combinations (LaAlO3-SrTiO3 and La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 are just two of the many combinations mentioned). Right now, theory simply hasn't reached the point where we can accurately model the effect of bringing these materials together, which makes designing anything with specific properties very hit-or-miss.<br /><br />The overall message is that we're a long way from seeing anything resembling these ideas in a device, with the possible exception of bendable circuitry. For the moment, this hasn't been a crisis, as the fab-makers have managed to stretch out photolithography, and multicore processors are being put to reasonably good use. Still, the payoff from additional cores is likely to shrink fast, and it's nice to think that there may be something on the horizon that could restart a MegaHertz race.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-3709881636566803125?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-11829220809421745982010-03-25T11:43:00.001-07:002010-03-25T11:44:05.437-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6uu7A1KtxI/AAAAAAAABOw/MOmFkWuTi_0/s1600/pwn2own_day1_2010_ars-thumb-640xauto-12871.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6uu7A1KtxI/AAAAAAAABOw/MOmFkWuTi_0/s400/pwn2own_day1_2010_ars-thumb-640xauto-12871.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452644102720632594" border="0" /></a>The first day of the annual Pwn2Own contest in which security researchers can win cash and hardware if they successfully compromise machines using zero-day exploits is finished. Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 7, Firefox 3 on Windows 7, Safari 4 on Mac OS X 10.6, and iPhone OS 3 were all compromised during the competition. Google's Chrome was the only browser left standing—and in fact, was completely untested. None of the researchers at the competition even tried to attack Chrome.<br /><br />So far, little is known about the successful exploits. Until vendors have been informed of the flaws and those flaws have been patched, details will not be made public.<br /><br />The iPhone was not successfully hacked in 2009's competition, but was predicted to fall this year, and those predictions have come true. A zero-day Safari flaw was used to gain access to text messages stored on the device by Vincenzo Iozzo from German security firm Zynamics and Ralf-Philipp Weinmann, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Luxembourg. Notable in the exploit was that it bypassed both iPhone's Data Execution Protection as well as its requirements that all code be signed.<br /><br />A little more is known about the IE8 exploit, including an (abridged) video of the browser being taken down. The successful researcher, Peter Vreugdenhil, has published a rough outline of the techniques used to bypass IE8's DEP and ASLR protections.<br /><br />The Safari hack came from Charlie Miller; this makes three years in a row now that Miller has pwned—and hence owned—a Mac at pwn2own. Thus far, nothing further about either this exploit or the Firefox one appears to have been published.<br /><br />Neither the iPhone exploit nor the IE8 exploit managed to escape the OS-supplied sandboxes that protect these platforms. Without escaping the sandboxes, the impact that flaws can have is reduced, preventing, for example, writing to hard disk (and hence, preventing installation of malware). Nonetheless, read-only access is still valuable for data theft.<br /><br />It is this sandboxing that might explain why Google's Chrome was untouched; no researcher even attempted to attack it. It is certainly not the case that Chrome has no security flaws—a couple of days before the Pwn2Own draw was made to decide who got to attack which machine and in what order, Google published an update to Chrome that fixed a range of security flaws, some of which were deemed to be high-risk. Google's sandboxing shouldn't be impenetrable, but it is sufficient to make the standard harmless exploit payload—starting up Windows calculator—harder to do.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-1182922080942174598?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-66535116072339072972010-03-25T09:41:00.000-07:002010-03-25T11:42:59.050-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6uunV7W9YI/AAAAAAAABOo/AZtpXwZ2vcg/s1600/ipv6.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6uunV7W9YI/AAAAAAAABOo/AZtpXwZ2vcg/s400/ipv6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452643764786361730" border="0" /></a> This week, the IETF is holding its 77th meeting in Anaheim, California. Last year around this time, the IETF met in San Francisco, and the Internet Society took advantage of this large gathering of Internet engineers to promote IPv6 and tell us that that it's high time to trade in the dusty 1980s Internet Protocol for the shiny 1995 version. Tuesday, the news was that people are actually starting to heed the advice.<br /><br />Geoff Huston of APNIC, the registry that gives out IP addresses in the Asia-Pacific region, looked at various numbers that could tell us how much traction IPv6 is gaining. One metric that's easy to observe is the global routing table. After all, if you want people to reach your IP addresses, you'll have to tell them what those addresses are so packets can be routed in the right direction. This is done with the BGP routing protocol.<br /><br />Currently, there are more than 322,500 IPv4 address ranges announced in BGP, and 2,770 IPv6 address ranges. However, because of the need to conserve IPv4 addresses, ISPs get small IPv4 blocks and frequently have to come back for more. Meanwhile, they can get a single, huge IPv6 block all at once, making this an apples-to-oranges comparison.<br /><br />The number of BGP-capable networks that are sending out an IPv6 announcement is a more useful measure, and this totals 34,214 for IPv4 and 2,090 for IPv6. So 6.1 percent of all networks have IPv6 enabled in their routers. This metric is expected to reach 80 percent by 2017 if current trends continue.<br /><br />Transit networks—ISPs that in turn have ISPs or other BGP-capable networks as their customers—have relatively high IPv6 deployment: 22 percent.<br /><br />Huston also looked at the ratio between the number of distinct IPv4 and IPv6 addresses seen by the Web servers of APNIC and its European counterpart RIPE. This ratio is now slightly over one percent. Caveats apply, however. Multiple IPv4 users may share an address through Network Address Translation while a single IPv6 user may be using different addresses over time due to address privacy mechanisms. Also, the Regional Internet Registries aren't exactly mainstream Web destinations; their visitors are very likely more IPv6-capable than average.<br /><br />Comcast's Jason Livingood had some information to share about the IPv6 trial the cable giant recently initiated. More than 5,400 people volunteered, with some even changing ISPs to be able to do so. Comcast already has a number of systems running native IPv6: the backbone network, peering points (where traffic is exchanged with other ISPs and content networks), "converged regional area networks (CRANs)," DNS servers (authoritative and resolvers), DHCP servers, and the provisioning system. Next are the Cable Modem Termination Systems (CMTSs), CPEs (Customer Premise Equipment), and home gateways.<br /><br />Comcast has its own IPv6 monitor, which shows that IPv6 reachability for the top 1 million websites is only about a sixth of a percent. Another IPv6 deployment monitor shows 2.4 percent of the Alexa Worldwide Top 500 Web Sites have IPv6 addresses in the DNS, and several country top 500 lists have percentages ranging from 0.8 (US and UK) to 2 (China).<br /><br />Yet another metric is provided by the Amsterdam Internet Exchange. Its IPv6 traffic has been hovering around the 0.2 percent mark for the past year. This is traffic exchanged by some 200 large and small ISPs and content networks present in Amsterdam, reaching almost a terabit at peak times, with about 1.5 gigabits of IPv6 traffic. Actually, 0.2 percent is higher than expected: if one percent of all users have IPv6, and one percent of all servers have IPv6, that would make one percent of one percent of all traffic IPv6 traffic.<br /><br />Some of this maddening inconsistency can be blamed on Google, which has two IPv6-capable destinations in the Web top 10: google.com itself and youtube.com, which gained IPv6 recently. However, most people with IPv6 connectivity will reach these over IPv4, because Google only discloses its IPv6 addresses to DNS servers that have been accepted into the Google over IPv6 program. Jason Livingood explains that Comcast saw a large spike in IPv6-reachable Web destinations "due partly to content owners adding Comcast DNS servers to their authoritative server whitelist."<br /><br />Don't forget: we've used 3,026 million IPv4 addresses and have just 680 million to go, with 203 million used up in 2009. Time is running out.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-6653511607233907297?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-58352076531220238062010-03-25T07:39:00.000-07:002010-03-25T11:41:34.751-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6uuQgE2BVI/AAAAAAAABOg/VxNNliyv4lM/s1600/genetics.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6uuQgE2BVI/AAAAAAAABOg/VxNNliyv4lM/s400/genetics.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452643372373509458" border="0" /></a> Collections of genetic profiles have continued to grow steadily, but scientists have struggled a bit with finding the most effective way to use them. In a paper published in PNAS this week, a group of researchers took one of the larger gene expression data repositories and sought to parse its disease-related data with a few computational techniques. They were able to use the resulting database in conjunction with a diagnostic program to accurately diagnose a given gene expression profile up to 95 percent of the time.<br /><br />Gene expression data can be used to identify what differences in expression are likely to be connected to the presence of a certain disease. The formal association of a gene with a disease is known as an "annotation." However, getting the expression data and annotations into a usable form has been a challenge, and previous approaches have been limited to straightforward queries, asking the database to match a given profile or a phenotype. This approach leaves a lot of information untapped.<br /><br />Scientists realized they could improve the usability of genetic databases by sorting their expression profiles into disease classes, and then querying the database with similar profiles. This would turn the databases into a predictive diagnostic tool—it would take gene expression profiles as input, find other matching profiles, and then check the matches for their disease annotations.<br /><br />First, researchers standardized gene expression profiles by sorting them into a hierarchical system of disease classifications. They compared each diseased gene array result to a normal expression profile, and took the logarithm of the difference between them. This ratio of differences gave researchers profiles to work with that were standardized across a collection platforms and labs. They also evaluated the similarities between standardized profiles to identify correlations between gene combinations and diseases. Finally, they standardized the disease annotations associated with genes using the Unified Medical Language System.<br /><br />Once their database of profiles was fully standardized, researchers created Bayesian classifiers for each disease grouping. Bayesian probability is based on evaluating the likelihood of one event given the probability of another, as well as the probability of a correctly positive test. For example, if a blood sample tests positive for cancer, Bayesian probability states that the the probability of that person actually having cancer is based on the accuracy of the test, the independent probability of someone getting cancer, and the independent probability of testing positive for cancer.<br /><br />Classifiers like these allow the program to evaluate an expression profile based on disease prevalence in similar profiles. Aside from the number of variables it accounts for, Bayesian systems are also able to "learn" and take into account new information, which is ideal for a genetic database where new samples are being added all the time.<br /><br />With the classifiers in place, the diagnostic database was ready to use. When it was fed a query profile to figure out what diseases the person behind the profile might be prone to, the database would assess the profile's similarity to others it had on record and pull up the relevant Bayesian disease classes. The program could then read out the annotated disease concepts that correlated with the query profile.<br /><br />Overall, the system had a diagnostic accuracy rate of 95 percent, with a precision of 82 percent. Researchers found the accuracy of the results was significantly improved when they applied a second Bayesian step for error correction. They also found that more datasets produced much more accurate results—for example, a test for a rare disease that only had three datasets associated with it in the system had a diagnostic precision of only 41 percent.<br /><br />In addition to diagnosing diseases, the database was also fairly adept at finding relationships between diseases and drugs, provided that profiles contained information on the effects of medications. The system was able to recover many known drug side effects, and also suggested new disease-drug relationships. For example, they were able to construct a disease drug map that linked an anticancer drug, doxorubicin, to skin disorders (the drug has a side-effect of skin inflammation) and to cardiovascular disease (it has a cumulative toxic effect on the heart over time).<br /><br />Some have expressed apprehension about the use of genetic diagnoses, in part because their predictions are somewhat unreliable. This program could potentially overcome those concerns by making diagnoses more robust, and providing some quantification of the uncertainties.The authors note that the system's diagnostic accuracy and precision should continue to improve as more samples become available. Its creators also hope to integrate more phentoypes into the database, such as gene expression changes associated with stress responses and cell differentiation, possibly creating another map that could be overlaid on the genetic one to provide a different kind of predictive information.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-5835207653122023806?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-42554239749681212032010-03-23T11:22:00.000-07:002010-03-23T11:24:36.480-07:00With the Nintendo DSi XL landing in the offices of the gaming press this week, Nintendo saw fit to announce its newest product in its portable line: the Nintendo 3DS. The company gave limited details via a press release in Japan; we know the system will use two screens, won't require any sort of special glasses, and will be backwards compatible with current DS and DSi games.<br /><br />The system will be released before the end of the fiscal year, which means the latest we'll see it in Japan is next March. The system is expected to make an appearance at this year's E3, and we'll surely be given more information before then. For now, Nintendo has yet to release any images of the system, or how games will look, or be played.<br /><br />So how will the 3D effect be displayed? We posted a video of a downloadable game that's out now in Japan that uses head tracking to simulate a 3D image, and since then we've had time to try the game on a friend's Japanese DSi during GDC. By tracking the motion of the system in relation to your eyes, you seem to be able to peer "into" the picture by turning the system this way and that. It's a surprisingly effective effect, and some iteration of this system may be used in the 3DS.<br /><br /><center><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/h5QSclrIdlE&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/h5QSclrIdlE&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></center><br />Nintendo has a history of announcing hardware upgrades and features that may seem silly at first glance before going on to become huge success. Many scoffed at the idea of the Nintendo Wii, until lines to play the system at its first E3 showing stretched around the convention. 3D is fresh in the minds of consumers after the success of Avatar, and 3D-capable televisions are expected to make a splash at retail this year. A portable system that works with all your old games and won't require glasses? It could be the right product at the right time.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-4255423974968121203?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-57270659554788657032010-03-23T05:20:00.000-07:002010-03-23T11:22:49.504-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6kGzkmBr6I/AAAAAAAABMY/pQS_cLbKiNM/s1600-h/internetexplorer.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 312px; height: 208px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6kGzkmBr6I/AAAAAAAABMY/pQS_cLbKiNM/s400/internetexplorer.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451896306974961570" border="0" /></a> The first few weeks of the browser ballot, Microsoft's solution to put an end to the EU antirust case, has already resulted in Redmond's browser losing market share to its rivals, according to web stats firm StatCounter.<br /><br />In France, IE usage has dropped by 2.5 percent, Italy by 1.3 percent, and the UK by 1 percent. Browser developers Opera and Mozilla have reported strong growth within Europe, with Opera claiming that downloads have doubled since the ballot was introduced, and a Mozilla spokesperson claiming, "We have seen significant growth in the number of new Firefox users as a result of the Ballot Choice screen :As the ballot is rolled out across the rest of Europe, Mozilla expects further gains to be made.<br /><br />The ballot isn't universally popular. Although 12 browsers are offered, only the top five are immediately accessible. The remaining seven are only visible after scrolling horizontally. As the seven minority browsers expected, their presence in the ballot has done little to boost their market share. A spokesman for the Flock browser said, "To date, new downloads of Flock originating from the browser choice screen have only contributed marginally to growth in overall downloads. This is also the case for the other browsers not on the main screen."<br /><br />The remaining browsers have petitioned the EU to try to get the ballot changed. For its part, Microsoft still maintains that the browser ballot is compliant with the EU's demands. With some 200 million European users due to be shown the choice screen, and the benefits of being included becoming increasingly clear, time is clearly of the essence for the seven smaller browsers.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-5727065955478865703?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-23211090702576023722010-03-23T00:37:00.000-07:002010-03-23T11:16:44.118-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6kFavD0JDI/AAAAAAAABMQ/VTYB-YMwm94/s1600-h/binary_code_gear_ars.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6kFavD0JDI/AAAAAAAABMQ/VTYB-YMwm94/s400/binary_code_gear_ars.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451894780775900210" /></a> A Microsoft kernel engineer, Dave Probert, gave a presentation last week outlining his thoughts on how the Windows kernel should evolve to meet the needs of the multicore future ahead of us. Probert complained that current operating systems fail to capitalize on the capabilities of multicore processors and leave users waiting. "Why should you ever, with all this parallel hardware, ever be waiting for your computer?" he asked.<br /><br />Probert said that a future OS should not look like Windows or Linux currently do. In particular, he targeted the way current OSes share processor cores between multiple applications. He suggested that in multicore OSes, cores would instead be dedicated to particular processes, with the OS acting more as a hypervisor; assigning processes to cores, but then leaving them alone to do their thing. It might then be possible to abandon current abstractions like protected memory—abstractions that are necessary in large part due to the sharing of processor resources between multiple programs and the operating system itself.<br /><br />The reason for this major change is, apparently, that it will improve the responsiveness of the system. Current OSes don't know which task is the most important, and though there are priority levels within the OS, these are generally imprecise, and they depend on programs setting priorities correctly in the first place. The new approach would purportedly improve responsiveness and provide greater flexibility, and would allow CPUs to "become CPUs again."<br /><br />Probert is an engineer for Microsoft, working on future generations of the Windows kernel. He acknowledged that other engineers at Microsoft did not necessarily agree with his views.<br /><br />At least, this is what has been claimed; the're one original report from IDG, and that's about the extent of it. The presentation was made at the Microsoft and Intel-sponsored Universal Parallel Computing Research Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the slides unfortunately appear to be available only to university attendees and sponsors. Either the report is missing some key point from the presentation that explains the ideas, or it's just not that surprising that Probert's Microsoft colleagues don't agree with him since, well, the suggestion just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.<br /><br />The big reason that you might have to "wait for your computer" is because your computer hasn't done what you've asked it for. It's still loading a document, or rendering a Web page, or computing your spreadsheet, or something else. Dedicating cores to specific processes isn't going to change that—the problem is not task-switching overhead (which is negligible, and far, far quicker than human reactions can detect) or the overhead of protected memory. The problem is much simpler: programs are slow to react because the tasks they're doing take a finite amount of time, and if sufficient time has not elapsed the task will not be complete!<br /><br />It's true that some programs do bad things like failing to respond to user input while they're performing lengthy processing, but that's bad coding, and dedicating cores to processes isn't going to do a thing to prevent it. That problem needs to be fixed by developers themselves. The broader problem—splitting up those tasks so that they can be computed on multiple processors simultaneously, and hence get faster and faster as more cores are available—remains a tough nut to crack, and indeed is one of the problems that the Parallel Computing Research Center is working on.<br /><br />Most peculiar is the alleged claim that this model has "more flexibility" than current models. Current systems can already dedicate processor cores to a task, by having the OS assign a task to the core and then letting it run uninterrupted. But they can also multiplex multiple processes onto a single core to enable running more processes than one has cores (we call this "multitasking").<br /><br />This isn't to say that operating systems won't undergo changes as more cores become more common. Windows 7, for example, included a raft of changes to improve the scaling of certain system components when used on large multi-core systems. But none of these changes required throwing out everything we have now.<br /><br />It's not possible that we might yet have to do just that in order to get useful scaling if and when CPUs routinely ship with dozens or hundreds of cores. But unless something's missing from the explanation, it's hard to see just how a massive single-tasking system is the solution to any of our problems.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-2321109070257602372?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-81125120678473323102010-03-22T23:17:00.000-07:002010-03-23T11:19:22.665-07:003D TVs dominated the show floor at CES 2010, and I spent a good deal of time trying out all of the models and approaches on offer from vendors large and small. My conclusion was that Panasonic's plasma-based approach was noticeably superior to the competition, so I wasn't surprised to learn that consumers seem to agree.<br /><br />Bloomberg reports that Panasonic 3D TVs have already sold out at Best Buy, despite having launched as recently as March 10. In fact, there's reportedly a shortage of the TVs, and they're on backorder.<br /><br />I honestly didn't expect consumers to snap up even the best 3D TVs, since I didn't find the experience to be compelling enough to pay a premium for. I'll admit that Avatar in 3D changed my mind, and I found myself thinking that when it comes time for me to replace my current plasma TV in a few years, I'll definitely pick up a 3D-capable model.<br /><br />It looks like the 3D TV revolution will definitely happen, but unless the makers of LED-backed LCD models can find a way to boost the quality of their 3D experience, only one company stands to benefit from the change so far. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-8112512067847332310?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-37920173190653103642010-03-21T03:15:00.001-07:002010-03-21T03:28:47.631-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6XyB9_7rpI/AAAAAAAABIg/d4YBNUuQY5M/s1600-h/ubuntu_new_list.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6XyB9_7rpI/AAAAAAAABIg/d4YBNUuQY5M/s400/ubuntu_new_list.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451029039638359698" border="0" /></a> Canonical has announced the availability of the first Ubuntu 10.04 beta release. The new version of Ubuntu, codenamed Lucid Lynx, is scheduled to arrive in April. It will be a long-term support (LTS) release, which means that updates will be available for three years on the desktop and five years on servers.<br /><br />Although the Ubuntu developers have largely focused on boosting stability for this release, they have also added a number of noteworthy new features and applications. One of the most visible changes is the introduction of a new theme—a change that is part of a broader rebranding initiative that aims to update Ubuntu's visual identity.<br /><br />Canonical's Ayatana team has continued its effort to overhaul the panel. Ubuntu 10.04 introduces a new application indicator system that will streamline the panel notification area. The panel has also gained a new menu—referred to as the Me Menu—for managing instant messaging presence and posting short messages to social networking Web sites. The social networking functionality is powered by Gwibber, my open source microblogging application, which was added to Ubuntu for version 10.04. Another application that's new in Lucid is Pitivi, a simple video editing tool. In a controversial move, the Ubuntu developers have decided to remove the GIMP, the popular image editing program.<br /><br />The new theme has benefited from further refinement since its initial inclusion. Some of the more garish elements, like the strong hash marks on the scrollbars that we saw in the original version, have been smoothed out and made more subtle. Several bugs have also been addressed, such as the problems we previously encountered with OpenOffice.org menu highlighting. The Ubuntu Software Center has also gained an improved look that matches the new Ubuntu branding.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6XzOi4BSFI/AAAAAAAABJI/DPZT6BsO1aI/s1600-h/screenshot8.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 278px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6XzOi4BSFI/AAAAAAAABJI/DPZT6BsO1aI/s400/screenshot8.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451030355207342162" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6XzOEtdoJI/AAAAAAAABJA/jmhO7TzfUVw/s1600-h/screenshot6.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 278px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6XzOEtdoJI/AAAAAAAABJA/jmhO7TzfUVw/s400/screenshot6.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451030347109998738" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6XzN9atZhI/AAAAAAAABI4/M9QX1-qF718/s1600-h/screenshot5.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 279px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6XzN9atZhI/AAAAAAAABI4/M9QX1-qF718/s400/screenshot5.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451030345152292370" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6XzNU_4wHI/AAAAAAAABIw/8NsecIwPk4I/s1600-h/screenshot4.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 278px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6XzNU_4wHI/AAAAAAAABIw/8NsecIwPk4I/s400/screenshot4.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451030334302371954" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6XzNOH9rMI/AAAAAAAABIo/GvuEVaI0K8A/s1600-h/screenshot2.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 278px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6XzNOH9rMI/AAAAAAAABIo/GvuEVaI0K8A/s400/screenshot2.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451030332457200834" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6X0y6344LI/AAAAAAAABJY/1FZnKnimFsU/s1600-h/screenshot11.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 278px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6X0y6344LI/AAAAAAAABJY/1FZnKnimFsU/s400/screenshot11.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451032079636160690" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6X0yiGhFgI/AAAAAAAABJQ/8gKDsvPSQ6c/s1600-h/screenshot10.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 278px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6X0yiGhFgI/AAAAAAAABJQ/8gKDsvPSQ6c/s400/screenshot10.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451032072986629634" /></a><br />The beta is not quite ready for use in production environments, but it's already fairly robust and ready for widespread testing. You can <a href="http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/10.04/">download</a> it from the Ubuntu Web site. If you would like to test it in a virtualized environment without having to change your current Ubuntu installation, you might want to try the TestDrive tool. For more details about 10.04 beta 1, check out the <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/lucid/beta1">official release notes</a>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-3792017319065310364?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-46656683727364198372010-03-21T03:15:00.000-07:002010-03-21T03:15:46.858-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6XwZ4rNaMI/AAAAAAAABII/Ic16pJaq5bA/s1600-h/acid_face.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6XwZ4rNaMI/AAAAAAAABII/Ic16pJaq5bA/s400/acid_face.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451027251502868674" border="0" /></a> Microsoft's development direction of Internet Explorer 9 is unambiguous: implementing HTML5 Web standards is the name of the game, with the intent of letting developers use the "same markup" to work everywhere. As IE General Manager Dean Hachamovitch said at MIX10 this week, "We love HTML5 so much we actually want it to work."<br /><br />Redmond is targeting real-world applications based on real-world data. For example, every single JavaScript and DOM API used by the top 7,000 websites was recorded. IE9 will deliver support for every API used by those sites.<br /><br />That obviously gives rise to a chicken-and-egg situation—what about the APIs that developers can't currently use because of a lack of widespread support, but would like to? Beyond the top 7,000 data, Microsoft has a number of HTML5 usage scenarios that it's targeting. The company has not said much on what those scenarios are, but given the demonstrations of HTML5 video and SVG animation, it seems that these are clearly viewed as core technology for a future HTML5-powered Web.<br /><br />This dedication to HTML5 does not, however, mean that Microsoft is going to devote considerable effort to, for example, the SunSpider benchmarks or the Acid3 test. As the browser develops, the scores in those tests will likely improve (it currently gets 55/100, a marked improvement on IE8's 20/100), but they're not the number one priority. Acid3 is a scattergun test. It's not systematic—you can implement a high proportion of a particular specification and not pass the test, or a much lower proportion but still pass—and though many of the features it tests are useful, that's probably not the case for everything, and it's certainly not testing the one hundred most useful HTML5 features or anything like that.<br /><br />More fundamentally, there are different degrees of "supporting a standard." Some demonstrations of the highly desirable and widely demanded CSS round borders helped explain this. The IE9 Platform Preview and WebKit both purport to support CSS3's rounded borders, and the Gecko engine (in Firefox) has an extension to provide rounded borders (the extension is nonstandard, but implemented in such a way as to not interfere with standard features). Rounded borders are something that developers are particularly keen on, since without CSS support, they have to be approximated with images, which is much less flexible (you can't easily change the colour or thickness of a border if it's done with images, for example). So in terms of desirability, they rank pretty high.<br /><br />Unfortunately, they don't look consistent. At all:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6XwyI0f7OI/AAAAAAAABIY/shVtnHN42u8/s1600-h/ie9-rounded-borders-small.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 239px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6XwyI0f7OI/AAAAAAAABIY/shVtnHN42u8/s400/ie9-rounded-borders-small.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451027668153658594" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6Xwx1PYH8I/AAAAAAAABIQ/CDYXR_q9Gzg/s1600-h/chrome-rounded-borders-small.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 239px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6Xwx1PYH8I/AAAAAAAABIQ/CDYXR_q9Gzg/s400/chrome-rounded-borders-small.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451027662897684418" border="0" /></a><br />These are two browsers that both support a feature. But they look completely different. This has two interpretations: either one or both of the browsers is wrong, or the specification is lousy (such that both browsers are doing what the specification says, even though it's surely not what any developer would want). In general, this kind of discrepancy isn't something that a test like Acid3 will reveal. It needs systematic, thorough suites of tests that verify each individual part of the specification, and ensure that the different parts of the specifications work together.<br /><br />In developing these tests, sometimes errors in the specification will be revealed. But it's also likely that errors in implementations will be revealed, even implementations that are widely perceived to "support" feature X or Y. Acid3 can't show just how much of the HTML5 standards a browser supports. It can't even tell you very much about which parts of the standards <em>aren't</em> supported. To do these things requires much more thorough testing.<br /><br />It's for this reason that Microsoft is continuing the work it did for Internet Explorer 8. With IE8, Microsoft developed, and delivered to W3C, a huge library of CSS 2.1 tests. Systematic testing was the only way to ensure that the browser truly lived up to the demands of the specifications. So for IE9, the company is developing a new raft of tests, <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2010/03/17/test-drive-104-new-professional-grade-tests-for-web-standards.aspx">the first batch of which have already been submitted to W3C</a>. Microsoft doesn't want IE9 to have the same kind of test results as <a href="http://samples.msdn.microsoft.com/ietestcenter/">other browsers</a> presently do; a feature isn't done until all the tests pass.<br /><br />A case could be made that these other browsers are perceived as more compliant than they really are; while there are certain browsers that excel in certain areas (Opera's SVG support has long been extensive), other browsers also have considerable gaps. Sure, not as big as the gaps that IE8 presently has, but substantial nonetheless. All vendors clearly have plenty of work to do before the "same markup" goal really becomes reality.<br /><br />Scoring well on the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark is similarly not an explicit target for IE9. SunSpider is useful, and tests JavaScript performance in many ways, but just as real web pages aren't written like the Acid3 test, real web applications aren't written like SunSpider. Real applications do things like optimize their design so that the basic page loads quickly, and then complex activities happen asynchronously in the background. SunSpider doesn't really test this style of development, and yet this is how real applications actually work.<br /><br />This doesn't make SunSpider bad, but it explains why it's not a priority. It would be a mistake to optimize specifically for SunSpider, as SunSpider is not representative of real-world usage. Developers should optimize for reality, not for specific microbenchmarks.<br /><br />Microsoft wants its HTML5 support to be stable and robust. This means that Internet Explorer 9 is unlikely to support every single part of the various specifications that make up HTML5; some parts are presently too much of a moving target to be viable. Other parts may be stable, but not relevant to the scenarios that the company is using to guide its development effort. But what the company will deliver will be thorough in a way that isn't necessarily the case with other browsers. Clearly the company has an up-hill struggle if its browser is to be perceived as highly conformant with Web standards. But it's certainly heading in the right direction.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-4665668372736419837?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-79270481531251114622010-03-21T00:01:00.000-07:002010-03-21T02:53:38.840-07:00Apple has been very busy on the mobile front, with the iPad launching in two weeks and iPhone OS and hardware upgrades expected this summer. However, Apple hasn't forgotten about its Mac business—sources for AppleInsider report that long overdue updates to Apple's Cinema Display and Mac Pro will be also appear by June.<br /><br />Expected to join the 24" LED Cinema Display that Apple launched in October of 2008 is a 27" LED Cinema display based on the same panel currently used in the 27" iMac. Issues with the panels caused problems for Apple that resulted in shipping delays for the 27" iMac, though those problems have been rectified. The 27" LED Cinema Display has the same resolution as the current 30" Cinema Display, though it is 16:9 instead of 16:10. Its introduction should finally lay to rest the 30" model, which hasn't been updated in three years.<br /><br />Apple is also said to be wrapping up an update to its Mac Pro workstation towers, which have only gotten a slight speed bump since they were introduced well over a year ago. Apple has been waiting for Intel to release new 32nm Xeon parts, codenamed "Westmere-EP," which were officially launched this week. These 5600-series Xeons have six cores compared to the quad-core parts used in current Mac Pros. The process shrink from 45nm offers a 60 percent performance boost while maintaining the same power requirements of previous Xeons.<br /><br />A Core i7-980X Extreme Edition processor, codenamed Gulftown, may be used in the lower-end single processor Mac Pro model. However, there are slight architecture differences between the Core i7 and Xeon variants. Apple may simply offer a single Xeon option as it does now.<br /><br />Apple is also dealing with the issue that MacBook Pros have also not been updated in some time, despite the fact that mobile Core i3, i5, and i7 parts have been available since January. The delay may be due at least in part by licensing issues. These issues have prevented NVIDIA from building integrated controllers, like the 9400M used in all of Apple's current portables, for Intel's newer processors. However, NVIDIA's Optimus platform may provide the solution to work around the problem and maintain the MacBook Pro's seven-hour battery life.<br /><br />Additional delays may also be caused by constrained supply of Intel's mobile processors. Intel is reportedly giving priority to "major clients," according to sources for DigiTimes, so our hope is that Intel counts Apple on that category.<br />Apple CEO Steve Jobs promised a number of exciting product introductions this year at the most recent quarterly earnings call. The coming months might give us a virtual cornucopia of new Macs to choose from.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-7927048153125111462?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-39283991194013619902010-03-20T01:30:00.000-07:002010-03-20T01:32:03.444-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6SH4WS4NhI/AAAAAAAABIA/Ny3ZnUBekR8/s1600-h/acta_globe_ars.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6SH4WS4NhI/AAAAAAAABIA/Ny3ZnUBekR8/s400/acta_globe_ars.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450630851152328210" /></a> The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) isn't just another secret treaty—it's a way of life. If ACTA passes in anything like its current form, it will create an entirely new international secretariat to administer and extend the agreement.<br /><br />Knowledge Ecology International got its hands on more of the leaked ACTA text this week, including a chapter on "Institutional Arrangements" that has not leaked before. The chapter makes clear that ACTA will be far more than a standard trade agreement; it appears to be nothing less than an attempt to make a new international institution that will handle some of the duties of groups like the WTO and WIPO.<br /><br />Why bother? Well, from the perspective of countries like the US, the existing institutions have problems. For one, they feature a huge number of nations, some of whom have blocked some of the anti-counterfeiting provisions desired by the US and others. Call this the UN problem—getting much done with so many people in attendance can be tricky, and ACTA has become a "coalition of the willing" who have decided to go form their own club instead.<br /><br />But WIPO, especially, has also opened up over the last decade, and now has robust rules for the participation of consumer groups and other non-governmental organizations. It also requires far more transparency, with the publication of proposals and draft texts throughout a negotiating process. As we have seen too clearly, ACTA has none of this.<br /><br />Jamie Love of KEI claims that the US Trade Representative has already "told members of Congress it is their intention to marginalize the participation by consumer interest organizations in the new forum."<br /><br />The new ACTA secretariat won't be a mere administrator. The leaked chapter makes clear that the new governing body will "make recommendations regarding the implementation of ACTA" and will itself "identify and monitor techniques of piracy and counterfeiting."<br /><br />In other ACTA news, a separate chapter has also leaked, and in it the EU wants to make sure that criminal penalties exist for "cases of willful trademark counterfeiting and copyright or related rights piracy on a commercial scale." On a "commercial scale" doesn't mean that such infringement must be done for financial gain, however; it also includes "significant willful copyright or related rights infringements that have no direct or indirect motivation of financial gain."<br /><br />Despite the public support of President Obama, ACTA is running into bad press throughout the world. The European Parliament last week even managed to pass a strong resolution of displeasure with the ACTA process, which passed 633-13.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-3928399119401361990?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-1946417199534161902010-03-20T00:27:00.000-07:002010-03-20T01:29:04.354-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6SHOtLwCnI/AAAAAAAABHw/-DbItJ968X0/s1600-h/rolodex_ars.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6SHOtLwCnI/AAAAAAAABHw/-DbItJ968X0/s400/rolodex_ars.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450630135741942386" /></a> Firefox's flexible XUL framework and sophisticated add-on system offer a rich platform for enhancing browser functionality. Mozilla Labs takes advantage of this capability as it experiments with new concepts for augmenting Web interaction. Some of the latest experiments to emerge from Mozilla Labs aim to make contacts and identity a core part of the browser.<br /><br />Mozilla has announced the availability of an experimental new add-on for Firefox that is designed to import information about the user's contacts from a variety of Web services and other sources. The add-on makes contact details easily accessible to the user and can also selectively supply it to remote Web applications. The initial implementation can import data from Gmail, Twitter, and the local system address book on OS X. It can optionally use the Gravatar service to find contact avatars.<br /><br />After the add-on has imported and indexed the user's contact data, it becomes available to the user through an integrated contact management tool that functions like an address book. There are a number of ways that the contact information could potentially be useful in the browser itself. One of Mozilla's first experiments is an autocompletion feature that allows users to select a contact when they are typing an e-mail address into a Web form.<br /><br />A number of more compelling usage scenarios involve making the user's contact information available to remote Web services. Consider, for example, the popular social networking website Foursquare, which requests access to your Gmail account so that it can connect you with your friends. Instead of giving it access to your Gmail account and all of your contacts, you could use the contacts add-on to selectively provide limited details about specific groups of contacts.<br /><br />The add-on is designed in a manner which ensures that contact information is only made accessible to Web services with the user's explicit permission. In many ways, it could potentially be more secure and respectful of privacy than the existing mechanisms that are already widely used today by many social networks to automatically establish friend relationships for new users.<br /><br />To make the browser's contact database accessible to Web applications, the add-on uses the W3C Contacts API specification. It's an emerging standard developed by Nokia that defines JavaScript methods for interacting with contact data. The functionality described by the standard is intended to allow Web applications to seamlessly integrate with the user's browser-integrated address book.<br /><br />The API is still in the editing stage, but appears to be relatively comprehensive. It supports adding, removing, and updating items in the browser's contact database and also provides methods for searching and iterating over contacts.<br /><br />The add-on also supports Plaxo's Portable Contacts standard, which is associated with the OpenSocial initiative. Mozilla says that its new contacts add-on is using the Portable Contacts format to store data internally.<br /><br />Mozilla is enthusiastic about opportunities for making the new contacts add-on integrate with Raindrop, the experimental communication platform that is being developed by Mozilla Messaging. There is also a chance that we could eventually see contact synchronization support integrated in Weave. As the browser increasingly becomes the central hub of Internet communication, native support for managing and accessing contacts could be a valuable enhancement.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-194641719953416190?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-51725703135645276132010-03-19T21:34:00.000-07:002010-03-20T01:35:49.352-07:00April 10: General Robert E. Lee's last address to Confederate troops, the Titanic's departure from Southampton, England, my friend Jake's birthday, and now, Google's rumored pull-out date in China. The company is preparing to announce its decision as soon as March 22, according to an anonymous source speaking to the China Business News, though it likely won't be the end of the company's operations in the region.<br /><br />The newspaper's source, quoted by Bloomberg, said that Google's Chinese staff will find out what their options are on March 22 as well. Previously, Google had told them that they could either move to the US to work at Google's headquarters or that they could work for Google's Asia-Pacific business.<br /><br />Chinese officials have been warning Google's partners to continue censoring search results in the event that the company decides to either open the floodgates on taboo topics or pull out altogether. Though some believe Google has already begun to let some results leak through, it seems as if the official decision has not yet been made.<br /><br />Google will continue its Asia-Pacific operations, even if Google.cn ends up going away. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-5172570313564527613?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-30517523542954921802010-03-19T20:29:00.000-07:002010-03-20T01:30:28.390-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6SHnAGPbmI/AAAAAAAABH4/qgLtKKFQFgA/s1600-h/ipad-touch.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 380px; height: 274px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6SHnAGPbmI/AAAAAAAABH4/qgLtKKFQFgA/s400/ipad-touch.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450630553135967842" /></a> Apple is alerting developers that they have just over a week to prepare iPad apps and get them submitted for review if they want them to be in the App Store on April 3.<br /><br />Developers must build their apps using beta 5 of the iPhone OS 3.2 SDK and submit them by 5pm PDT on March 27 to get an initial review by Apple, according to an e-mail sent to developers this afternoon. Reviewers will run the apps on iPad hardware and e-mail developers with notes on the "readiness" of the app, and information necessary to submit the app for final review for inclusion in the App Store by April 3. Only apps that are submitted for the initial review process will have a chance to go on sale at the "grand opening of the iPad App Store."<br /><br />The crux of the problem is that most developers won't have access to actual iPad hardware to test and debug their apps before they go on sale. Beyond a select few developers given early access under reportedly rigid security provisions, this is the only chance most will have for their app to run outside of the iPad Simulator unless they wait until after April 3 to test on hardware themselves. Unfortunately, that could mean giving competitors a big jumpstart.<br /><br />The good news, though, is that iPad owners will have more than just Apple's apps to choose from on day one. Also, developers have observed especially quick review times of late. This suggests that even in the worst case that some apps require an early fix, developers should be able to get it out to users with little delay.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-3051752354295492180?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-81113939107011889052010-03-17T12:53:00.000-07:002010-03-17T13:01:26.323-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6E05KpSRNI/AAAAAAAABCg/q-jGTXNtBso/s1600-h/imagehosting_listing.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 267px; height: 150px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6E05KpSRNI/AAAAAAAABCg/q-jGTXNtBso/s400/imagehosting_listing.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449695180809716946" border="0" /></a> <span class="posted"><abbr class="timeago datetime" title="March 17, 2010 10:44 AM"></abbr></span> <!--body-->Image hosting is the kind of service many people use for sharing their images. There are several great options that cost money—like <a href="http://smugmug.com/">SmugMug</a>, for instance—but unless you're a major shutterbug, a free service might fit your modest needs and usage pattern better. Here we round up three of the top options for free image hosting around the Web—Flickr, Picasa, and Photobucket.<div id="" class="body" style=""> <!--page 1--><h3>Flickr</h3> <p><a href="http://flickr.com/">Flickr</a> has been around for many years, and is now owned by Yahoo. Most of us in Orbiting HQ have used Flickr for some time, and by virtue of its longevity, popularity, and well-documented API, many desktop and mobile imaging apps feature some kind of Flickr integration.</p> <p>Like many image hosting solutions, Flickr has a free basic account which you'll only need a verifiable e-mail address to activate. If you already have a Yahoo ID, you're good to go; otherwise, you'll have to go through the registration process at Yahoo to get started.</p> <p>Once that's out of the way, you'll have plenty of options for uploading images to Flickr. You can use Flickr's Web 2.0-ified uploading interface by clicking on the prominent "Upload photos &amp; videos" link on the home page, or by clicking "Upload Photos" from the drop-down navigation menu labelled "You." You can select multiple images from your machine using a native file picker. Once you have your list, you can select to make the images public or private, and click upload.</p> <div class="news-item-figure" style="width: 640px;"> <div class="news-item-figure-image"> <img style="width: 457px; height: 314px;" src="http://static.arstechnica.com/web/flickr_uploader.png" alt="screen shot" /> </div> </div> <p>Once all the images are uploaded, you can add titles, tags, and descriptions. A Flash-based Organizr tool helps you arrange photos into "sets" (commonly called "albums" on other sites). You can also arrange sets of sets called "collections."</p> <p>In addition to the online uploader, Flickr has a number of Flickr-made and third-party apps that you can use to <a href="http://www.flickr.com/tools/">get images into your photostream</a>. Flickr makes an Uploadr app for both Mac OS X and Windows. iPhoto '09 <a href="http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2009/03/ilife-09-review-imovie-iphoto.ars/3">includes native Flickr support</a>, but plugins exist for <a href="http://arstechnica.com/apple/guides/2009/12/flickr-uploading-alternatives-for-the-discerning-iphoto-user.ars">iPhoto</a>, Aperture, and Adobe Lightroom for exporting images directly from those apps to your Flickr account. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/services/">Other apps</a> for desktop and mobile platforms are available as well.</p> <div class="news-item-figure" style="width: 640px;"> <div class="news-item-figure-image"> <img style="width: 469px; height: 322px;" src="http://static.arstechnica.com/web/flickr_photostream.png" alt="screen shot" /> </div> </div> <p>From any individual image page, you can edit tags, title, and a description; you can view shooting data; and logged-in users can add comments. Two easy sharing options include "Blog this," which will publish a post on a configured blog with the image and a link to its Flickr page. Clicking "All sizes" will let you choose from a range of automatically generated images sizes, and give you the option to copy HTML code to insert the image into a blog or webpage. Flickr's terms of service require a link back to an image's Flickr page when embedded in another site, so keep that in mind if you have to use custom code to insert images into forums.</p> <p>Flickr has a number of ways to share images directly through the site. One way is by joining various topical groups. For instance, I'm a member of a Band Photography group for images of live bands, and a member of a group that's just for users of Tamron's 28-75mm f/2.8 zoom lens. You can also add Flickr members as a contact, and view that contact's images. Flickr provides an RSS feed with all new uploads from your contacts, so you can easily keep up with what your friends are posting.</p> <div class="news-item-figure" style="width: 640px;"> <div class="news-item-figure-image"> <img style="width: 488px; height: 335px;" src="http://static.arstechnica.com/web/flickr_set.png" alt="screen shot" /> </div> </div> <p>Other options for doing things with your images are available as well. Flickr includes integrated image editing via <a href="http://arstechnica.com/web/reviews/2010/03/hands-on-picnik-is-handy-and-inexpensive-not-very-google-y.ars">Picnik</a>. Flickr also has integrated support for making prints, photo books, calendars, and more via SnapFish. And if you like, you can simply browse using Flickr's "Explore" options, which will show you images based on certain tags, locations, or "interestingness."</p> <div class="news-item-figure" style="width: 640px;"> <div class="news-item-figure-image"> <img style="width: 504px; height: 346px;" src="http://static.arstechnica.com/web/flickr_explore.png" alt="screen shot" /> </div> </div> <p>A standard free account comes with a number of limitations. You can only upload 100MB of images per month, and images are limited to 10MB each. Flickr now allows short video uploads (90s max, 150MB per video), and free accounts are limited to two per month. Other limits: you can only post an image to 10 groups, browsing your photostream will only show the last 200 uploads, and you'll only have access to resized versions of your images.</p> <p>Upgrading to a Pro account costs $24.95. Doing so allows you to upload unlimited photos and videos, though images are limited to 20MB max. You get unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, archiving of and access to full resolution images, and the ability to share videos in HD. You'll be able to choose a custom URL name, replace uploaded photos with edited versions, post images to up to 60 different groups, and access detailed viewing and referrer stats. You'll also have the benefit of ad-free browsing and sharing, so not only will you not see ads while viewing the site, visitors to your images won't see them, either.</p> <h3>Picasa Web Albums</h3> <p>Of course, Yahoo isn't the only search company with an image hosting service. Some time ago, Google bought the Picasa image cataloguing and editing application, and added a <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/">Picasa Web Albums</a> service to Google's stable of cloud services.</p> <div class="news-item-figure" style="width: 640px;"> <div class="news-item-figure-image"> <img style="width: 511px; height: 351px;" src="http://static.arstechnica.com/web/picasa_uploader.png" alt="screen shot" /> </div> </div> <p>You'll need a Google ID to get access to Picasa Web Albums. Once you have an account, you can start uploading images directly via the Web. Unlike Flickr, which has the concept of a photostream of continuous, not necessarily related images in chronological order (by upload date), uploads in Picasa Web Albums are always assigned to an album. The online upload tool allows you to select up to five images for uploading at one time. To get the best uploading experience, Google encourages you to use the <a href="http://picasa.google.com/">Picasa application</a>. It has been available for Windows for some time, but Google has released a <a href="http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/01/macworld-ars-google-officially-releases-picasa-for-mac.ars">beta for version for Mac OS X</a>.</p> <p>Picasa itself is quite <a href="http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2008/09/test-drive-picasa-3-gets-off-online-photo-sharing-right.ars">comparable</a> to iPhoto for Mac OS X, only it uploads images to Google instead of MobileMe, and it has a Windows version. It keeps track of your images, allows you to edit them, and collects images into virtual albums. Using Picasa, you can upload as many photos at a time as you want, up to your 1GB free storage limit. Google doesn't limit features for free users, just storage space. Additional storage starts at just $5 per year for 20GB, which is shared across Picasa, Gmail, and Google Docs. Options go all the way up to 1TB, which costs $256 per year, and also includes a free Eye-Fi WiFi-enabled memory card for direct Picasa uploads.</p> <p>Like Flickr, individual image pages allow you to add and edit tags, titles, and captions. You have options to edit using Picasa (if it's installed), order prints online, and download the image. You can also click "Share" to send the image via e-mail using your Gmail account, or you can click "Link to this Photo" in the sidebar to get either a link to the Picasa page or HTML code to embed in another webpage.</p> <div class="news-item-figure" style="width: 640px;"> <div class="news-item-figure-image"> <img style="width: 480px; height: 330px;" src="http://static.arstechnica.com/web/picasa_imagepage.png" alt="screen shot" /> </div> </div> <p>One nice feature that Google recently added to Picasa is facial recognition. iPhoto added this feature January of last year, buy Google takes it one step further—the facial recognition works via Picasa Web Albums, even if you don't use the Picasa application itself. You can link faces to your Gmail contacts, and sort all your images by who is in them.</p> <h3>Photobucket</h3> <p>Photobucket is another great sharing option if neither Flickr nor Picasa float your boat. Photobucket uses a Java-based uploader that lets you browse your file system for images to upload. It will also pull in images from any accessible URL, and offers options to upload via MMS or e-mail (Flickr offers these latter two options).</p> <p>Like Flickr, the free option includes ads and a number of limits to uploads, resolution, and bandwidth. For registering, you'll get 500MB of storage space, in which you can store images limited to 1024x768 pixels and 1MB total file size. You'll have a 10GB per month bandwidth limit, with limited statistics reports about how your images are viewed.</p> <div class="news-item-figure" style="width: 640px;"> <div class="news-item-figure-image"> <img style="width: 491px; height: 337px;" src="http://static.arstechnica.com/web/photobucket_uploader.png" alt="screen shot" /> </div> </div> <p>Moving up to a Pro account will cost $2.00 a month, or $24.95 per year. Photobucket offers a 20% discount if you pay for two years up front. Pro accounts have unlimited storage space and bandwidth, can upload images as high as 4000 x 3000 pixels, and can also access images via FTP. This last feature is especially nice if you need to replace images lost on a local drive or move images somewhere else at a later date. Pro users get ad-free albums, custom URLs for each album, support for Flash files in addition to photos and videos, "premium" tech support, and Photobucket promises to keep links to your images active.</p> <p>One area that sets Photobucket apart from other services are the extensive sharing options. You can link your Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter accounts to share directly with those services. You can also grab a link to the Photobucket page, a direct link to the image file itself, HTML embedding code, and IMG code compatible with most popular bulletin boards and forums. You can send an image directly to a cell phone as an MMS, but it'll cost you $1.99 for the privilege each time.</p> <div class="news-item-figure" style="width: 640px;"> <div class="news-item-figure-image"> <img style="width: 515px; height: 354px;" src="http://static.arstechnica.com/web/photobucket_imagepage.png" alt="screen shot" /> </div> </div> <p>Also similar to Flickr, you can edit images directly via built-in support for FotoFlexer.com, which offers a number of options similar to Picnik. Photobucket partners with Kodak to offer traditional prints as well as photo-adorned gifts like mugs, cards, puzzles, and t-shirts via Kodak. You can also have prints sent to a local Target store for printing and pickup.</p> <div class="news-item-figure" style="width: 640px;"> <div class="news-item-figure-image"> <img style="width: 521px; height: 358px;" src="http://static.arstechnica.com/web/photobucket_editing.png" alt="screen shot" /> </div> </div> <h3>Now get uploading and sharing</h3> <p>These are just a few of the many options available. There are several sharing sites, such as <a href="http://twitpic.com/">TwitPic</a> and <a href="http://yfrog.com/">yfrog</a> that are specifically for sharing with Twitter. There are other services, such as <a href="http://skitch.com/">Skitch</a>, which interface for sharing directly from a screen grabbing app. But these three options are the most popular among Ars staff for free, general purpose image hosting.</p></div><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-8111393910701188905?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-35395303274266167322010-03-17T10:51:00.000-07:002010-03-17T12:53:15.931-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6EzFl2LS_I/AAAAAAAABCY/IBJUz--ZXj8/s1600-h/thumb_laptopwork.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6EzFl2LS_I/AAAAAAAABCY/IBJUz--ZXj8/s400/thumb_laptopwork.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449693195246717938" border="0" /></a> Surprise! Most students use Wikipedia at some point during their research on a paper or project, and they usually do so early on in the process. Online peer-reviewed journal First Monday recently published the findings of its research on student Wikipedia use and said that the service often serves as a starting point for the students who use it, allowing them to gather information for further investigation elsewhere. This is despite the fact that their professors still frown on Wikipedia use—but it seems that students believe what their profs don't know won't hurt them.<br /><br />The research was done as part of Project Information Literacy (PIL) out of the University of Washington. Researchers included data from focus groups across seven university campuses in the US as well as survey responses from six campuses. What they found was that a full three-quarters of students use Wikipedia at least occasionally, with 30 percent of the group saying they always use it when performing their own research. Thirteen percent used it rarely and only nine percent said they never used Wikipedia (mysteriously, three percent said they didn't know whether they used it or not).<br /><br />The reasons for Wikipedia use aren't very much of a reach. Eighty-two percent of the students surveyed said they went to Wikipedia for background information or a summary about a topic, often using it as a way to get started on further research (76 percent). "Students reported they could not begin their research process until they had an idea of what they were going to write about. They did not think that they could approach an instructor about an assignment, until they knew more about their topic," reads the report. "Wikipedia was a convenient go-to source under these circumstances. The source delivered results students could act upon, allowing them to get unstuck and move forward."<br /><br />It's clear, however, that students are aware of the limitations of Wikipedia. Only 17 percent said they used Wikipedia because they felt it was more credible than other websites, and that's not even including more academic research materials. A very heavy majority (97 percent) still referred to course readings to get background on a topic, as well as scholarly research databases (93 percent).<br /><br />Additionally, students are aware of the stigma against using Wikipedia—so much so that they avoid telling their professors that it was included in the research process at all. "Sure, I use Wikipedia just to get a taste, even though my professors say not to," one focus group participant said. Indeed, the PIL report says that most students simply avoid citing Wikipedia after having used it to get off on the right foot.<br /><br />Wikipedia's role in higher education has always been a hotly debated topic, with a large majority of instructors expressing a very negative view of the service. This is despite the fact that some experts have rated Wikipedia's overall accuracy higher than regular Joes on the street, following a highly publicized study that rated Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica around the same level of accuracy. As long as students are aware of the limitations—and it certainly seems that they are—the PIL study seems to indicate that their usage behaviors are pretty safe.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-3539530327426616732?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-30208414465224504932010-03-17T09:47:00.001-07:002010-03-17T12:51:10.680-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6EyRnWjpVI/AAAAAAAABCQ/ApI3r2hU3Q4/s1600-h/testdrive-thumb-640xauto-12686.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 337px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S6EyRnWjpVI/AAAAAAAABCQ/ApI3r2hU3Q4/s400/testdrive-thumb-640xauto-12686.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449692302297769298" border="0" /></a>I frequently download the latest Ubuntu daily build and set up a fresh install in a virtualized environment so that I can test software that I'm developing or evaluate the status of Ubuntu development.<br /><br />Canonical's Jorge Castro recently <a href="http://castrojo.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/using-testdrive-to-save-time-on-testing/">introduced me</a> to a nifty tool called TestDrive that simplifies the setup process by automatically downloading the ISO and configuring a VM. TestDrive provides a simple command-line tool that allows you to select which ISO image you want to test. It will download the image and then configure and launch a VM. The real win is that it caches the ISO images and uses rsync to update the parts that have changed so that you don't have to download the whole ISO again every time you want to test a new daily build.<br /><br />It has saved me a bit of time over the past week. It's also fairly easy to use, which makes it a handy tool for casual Ubuntu users who want to see the latest updates to the new default theme or try out some of the new features that have been prominently discussed in recent reviews. It supports both KVM and VirtualBox. You can configure your preferred virtualization software, the default ISO caching path, and the default memory configuration by editing the <code>/etc/testdriverc</code> file.<br /><br />To get TestDrive on Ubuntu 9.10, you can <a href="https://edge.launchpad.net/%7Etestdrive/+archive/ppa">install it from the project's PPA</a>. For more details, visit its <a href="https://edge.launchpad.net/testdrive">project page</a> on Launchpad.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-3020841446522450493?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-88103932382187742592010-03-16T08:14:00.000-07:002010-03-16T08:18:00.193-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5-hFq1XdpI/AAAAAAAAA_I/OrXt0zE4WbY/s1600-h/linux-desktop-i-want-to-believe.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 262px; height: 327px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5-hFq1XdpI/AAAAAAAAA_I/OrXt0zE4WbY/s400/linux-desktop-i-want-to-believe.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449251192911132306" border="0" /></a> Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution, is undergoing significant changes in management. Founder Mark Shuttleworth has stepped down from his role as the CEO so that he can increase his involvement in the software design and development process. Jane Silber, who has long served as the company's chief operating officer, will be taking over as CEO. To fill the COO vacancy left by Silber's ascension, Canonical has recruited Matt Asay, the former vice president of business development at open source content management software company Alfresco.<br /><br />Asay seems like a good choice for Canonical in some key ways. He accumulated knowledge of the enterprise Linux ecosystem during his time at Novell and he brings a wealth of real-world expertise in monetizing open source software from his experiences at Alfresco. Despite these strong points in his favor, there are also some reasons why he is a surprising choice for Canonical. In particular, Asay has always been an extremely vocal skeptic of Linux's viability on the desktop. During the month that he has been working for Canonical, his views on the matter seem to have evolved considerably.<br /><br />Asay's opinions about Linux and open source software are well known because he writes a <a href="http://news.cnet.com/openroad/?tag=rb_content;overviewHead">blog at CNET</a>. He has consistently been supportive of Ubuntu's vision and identified it in 2007 as Linux's best chance for desktop success. Despite his enthusiasm about Ubuntu's commitment to usability, he doubted its potential to make a real impact.<br /><br />"I will admit to being a Linux desktop nonbeliever. It feels a bit like yesterday's battle fought with the wrong weapons: geekiness rather than ease of use. There's a chance—still a slim one, but a chance nonetheless—that Ubuntu will change that," he <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-9799636-16.html">wrote in 2007</a>.<br /><br />In a more strongly-worded piece a year later, he declared that Linux on the desktop was a lost cause. He thought that Ubuntu might have a chance on netbooks, but argued that the real opportunities for open source are in the cloud.<br /><br />"I am an ardent open-source advocate, but I admit to perplexity as to why the Linux community so desperately wants its year on local systems. Who cares?" he <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10126080-16.html">wrote in 2008</a>. "It's time to move on. Next year won't be the year of the Linux desktop anymore than 2010 will be. Why? Because we don't need a Linux desktop. We need to accelerate efforts toward the cloud, which is open source's game to lose."<br /><blockquote class="pullquote plain">Apple leads in some areas, but I think if we were to tally up its total record against Linux, and not simply in the narrow categories it chooses to target, we'd see the balance weigh heavily in Linux' favor.</blockquote><br />A short time after he joined Canonical, he had a revelation. In a complete reversal of his previous position, he boldly <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10455816-16.html">declared</a> that the year of the Linux desktop isn't just imminent, but has already arrived. He came to this new conclusion about desktop Linux after spending a few days running Ubuntu. Yes, all it took to convince Asay of Ubuntu's viability was actual hands-on experience with the software. A dedicated Mac user since 2002, he apparently never bothered to seriously test a Linux desktop distro until after he joined Canonical.<br /><br />"In my new role at Canonical, I've switched to using Ubuntu on my Lenovo ThinkPad X200s and have found Linux comfortably routine. Like my Mac, it just works—no drama with day-to-day Internet activities like e-mail, Web browsing, IM, Twitter. It lets me do all the things I used to do, and still largely with the same applications I used on my Mac," he wrote recently. "The desktop battle is largely over for Linux. There's really no reason not to use it, other than habit."<br /><br />In an <a href="http://www.linux.com/news/featured-blogs/185-jennifer-cloer/293844-qa-with-matt-asay-how-linux-is-beating-apple-and-much-more-">interview</a> with the Linux Foundation that was published yesterday, he elaborated on some of his new opinions. Pointing to the strength of Linux in the mobile and embedded markets and Ubuntu's improvements to Linux usability, Asay said in the interview that Linux has an opportunity to surpass rival Apple.<br /><br />"Apple leads in some areas, but I think if we were to tally up its total record against Linux, and not simply in the narrow categories it chooses to target, we'd see the balance weigh heavily in Linux' favor," he said.<br /><br />The mixed messages and conveniently sudden transformation into a true believer could raise some serious questions about his credibility. I happen to think that his reversal of opinion is genuine (he wouldn't have joined Canonical if he thought it was doomed), but he seems to be overcompensating a bit in his newfound enthusiasm for desktop Linux. It could be problematic because he risks making his endorsement of the platform sound insincere.<br /><br />It's going to take him a while to earn the trust of the Ubuntu community. Practically all of Canonical's previous and ongoing efforts to monetize the distro have been met with a certain degree of concern by some users and contributors. The volunteers who have helped to make Ubuntu a success are wary of being exploited and are slow to accept Canonical's monetization strategies.<br /><br />As the COO, Asay will play an important role in making Ubuntu become commercially successful. If the community is distrustful of Asay's motivations and agenda, it could exacerbate the friction that arises when Canonical seeks new revenue streams to make Ubuntu sustainable. He needs to prove to the Ubuntu community that he truly cares about Linux on the desktop and is not just out to make a quick buck. His previously dismissive attitude about the relevance of desktop Linux is obviously not particularly conducive to that. It's not an insurmountable obstacle, however.<br /><br />Although Asay's views about the Linux desktop have a clear continuity problem, it's important to acknowledge that his position about open source business opportunities has largely been consistent. He has always been a strong proponent of seeking success in the cloud. This is a strategy that Canonical is already starting to embrace: over the past year, we have seen the company place an increasingly strong emphasis on the cloud in its commercial offerings. The Ubuntu One service is emblematic of that shift.<br /><br />He doesn't know much about the Linux desktop, but Asay is well-equipped to help guide Canonical's cloud strategy and turn it into a successful business that will sustain the company as it pursues its desktop ambitions.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-8810393238218774259?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-88094975291783163082010-03-16T07:09:00.000-07:002010-03-16T08:14:23.580-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5-gNZSFtPI/AAAAAAAAA_A/6Hua9UlKPWE/s1600-h/businessman_phone_ars.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5-gNZSFtPI/AAAAAAAAA_A/6Hua9UlKPWE/s400/businessman_phone_ars.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449250226127090930" border="0" /></a> Microsoft has been quite explicit on the matter: Windows Phone 7 Series is being designed first and foremost for the consumer market. The result is the emphasis on a strong, consistent, effective user interface, possibly at the expense of functionality; Microsoft wants to have this thing out in time for the "holiday season" this year, so there's a limited window for further development, at least for the initial release.<br /><br />That said, the phone does have features aimed at the enterprise market. Obviously, there's Exchange support, with ActiveSync, providing push mail, address book sync, and all those features that we know and love. In common with Outlook 2010, Windows Phone 7 Series also seems to support multiple Exchange servers concurrently. I say "seems" because it didn't quite work when we tried, but that seemed to be due to a bad password rather than any fundamental flaw—the phone was happy to accept the configuration and created two distinct Outlook Tiles on the Start page, so it looked like it was doing the right thing.<br /><br />The other big enterprise feature is Mobile Office. Microsoft showed off Mobile Excel, using it to edit and save a spreadsheet, and the new Mobile apps, in their Office hub, seem to be much more functional than the current offerings for Windows Mobile. If nothing else, the high resolution of the demo devices (800x480) made Excel much more useful.<br /><br />What there won't be is much beyond that. When I asked if the devices would support, for example, policy enforcement to disable cameras (as many workplaces prohibit the use of camera phones, and with 5 MP cameras a mandatory part of Windows Phone 7 Series devices, policy-based lockouts are the only option), full device encryption, or remote wipe, the answer was nonspecific but broadly negative.<br /><br />Though I would be quite surprised if, at the very least, encryption and wiping were not a part of the official release (many Exchange servers are configured to refuse to allow ActiveSync with devices that don't support these features), things extensive policy support and application management won't be a part of the initial release, with a result that the new platform may well represent a regression relative to the current Windows Mobile 6.x/System Center Configuration Manager platform, and move Windows even further from the full range of remote device management capabilities offered by BlackBerry Enterprise Server.<br /><br />Coupled with the continued refusal to clarify how enterprise applications might be deployed (though the company says that it will provide an answer within the next few months), this leaves Windows Phone 7 Series looking quite anaemic for enterprise users at the onset.<br /><br />Microsoft believes that Exchange support plus Mobile Office will be enough to make the platform compelling to corporate customers. I'm not convinced. And while I believe that targeting consumers is the right thing from the perspective of building a phone that isn't miserable to use (unlike the current Windows Mobile platform), I don't think it needed to come at the expense of these enterprise features.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-8809497529178316308?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-62641524006625544762010-03-16T00:01:00.000-07:002010-03-16T00:01:00.797-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S558-7zEFMI/AAAAAAAAA-4/Dq3Q7SZN9mM/s1600-h/hs-2001-22-e-web_print_0.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 277px; height: 333px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S558-7zEFMI/AAAAAAAAA-4/Dq3Q7SZN9mM/s400/hs-2001-22-e-web_print_0.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448930019810481346" border="0" /></a> A paper released in <i>Science</i> last week detailed research that showed globular clusters may be more noncommittal than previously thought. The spherical collections of stars are normally anchored to a single galaxy, but a new study shows that there may be some globular clusters that are currently between galaxies, floating within galaxy clusters and looking for a new home. Scientists are hoping that by tracking globular clusters as they settle down in a new galaxy, the motion could provide information about the effects of dark matter.<br /><br />Globular clusters usually sit in the halo, or in the vicinity of the disk, of a single galaxy. However, since we've been finding other objects—like red giants and planetary nebulae—in the no-man's land between galaxies, scientists thought they might find globular clusters that are also under the gravitational influence of multiple galaxies at once.<br /><br />A survey of the sky turned up a few rogue globular clusters in the galaxy cluster Virgo, 54 million light years away, hanging around in the space among galaxies M87, M49, and M60. Most of the globular clusters emitted light that was bluish in color, indicating they did not contain much metal (metal-rich globular clusters are reddish, and the subject of some recent news). Their lack of metal content suggests that they are recently divorced from smaller dwarf galaxies.<br /><br />Scientists will watch the globular clusters closely as they move under the galaxies' gravitational influence, looking for indications that they're likely to settle down with a single galaxy. Since scientists generally know the masses of these objects, studying their trajectories and controlling for gravitational behavior caused solely by each object's mass could provide new measurements on the effects of dark matter.<br /><br /><i>Science</i>, 2010. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1186496">10.1126/science.1186496</a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-6264152400662554476?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-76596588386222229322010-03-15T11:25:00.000-07:002010-03-15T11:27:47.491-07:00Google's partners are getting a stern warning from Chinese authorities over Google's decision to ditch censorship in the country, which some believe has already begun. An "industry expert" speaking anonymously to the <em><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/world/asia/15google.html">New York Times </a></em>said that a notice went out to Google's biggest online partners on Friday, telling them to be prepared to continue censoring search results no matter what Google does.<br /><br />As we covered on Friday, Google is on the verge of either ending its censorship of search results or pulling its business out of China, although insiders say that Google is trying to work out an agreement with a handful of agencies so it doesn't have to leave altogether. China's Minister of Industry and Information Technology, however, has made it clear that if the company doesn't respect Chinese laws with regards to censorship, "the consequences will be on you."<br /><br />According to the <em>Times</em>, the government's warning to Google's partners is primarily meant to avoid confusion if China is forced to flip the switch on the Great Firewall to block Google's results. Like other parts of the world, there are numerous Chinese portals that use Google-powered search boxes on their sites, and readers might be a little more frustrated when it's not just <a href="http://google.cn/">Google.cn</a> that's being blocked, but also sina.com.cn or ganji.com. Implementing a last-minute switch to another search service could be difficult for those sites, though, so it seems reasonable to expect that there will be some downtime for one and all.<br /><br />According to some, however, Decision Day has already arrived: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-google-stops-censoring-china-search-engine-2010-3">Silicon Alley Insider</a> notes that Beijing resident Bill Bishop is already pulling up uncensored results for the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, which were previously blocked within China. Other taboo subjects remain inaccessible, however, meaning that the Tiananmen Square results are either a bug or evidence of Google testing the waters before going whole hog. Given the company's commitment to standing by its original word, we're going to guess the latter.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-7659658838622222932?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-11007184919260823602010-03-15T09:21:00.000-07:002010-03-25T09:15:46.143-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S557L0LvHLI/AAAAAAAAA-w/T96x4WjLdmg/s1600-h/computer_crime.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S557L0LvHLI/AAAAAAAAA-w/T96x4WjLdmg/s400/computer_crime.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448928042081524914" border="0" /></a> Back in the golden age of comic books, you always knew what was coming after the bad guy got a good dose of hot lead from the cops. "Remember boys and girls..." the last panel warned in 30 point type, "crime doesn't pay!"<br /><br />Alas, it appears that Internet crime pays.<br /><br />The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports that the total dollar loss from all cases referred to its Internet Crime Complaint center was $559.7 million in 2009. That's more than double the previous year: $264.6 million. And the number of complaints grew substantially as well: 336,655—a 22.3 percent jump from 2008's 275,284.<br /><br />"The figures contained in this report indicate that criminals are continuing to take full advantage of the anonymity afforded them by the Internet," the FBI's Donald Brackman of the National White Collar Crime Center commented on the latest statistics. "They are also developing increasingly sophisticated means of defrauding unsuspecting consumers. Internet crime is evolving in ways we couldn't have imagined just five years ago."<br /><br />In 2009 the median dollar loss from these incidents was $575. That means half of all the complainers sustained losses higher than that amount. But what is probably most frustrating to the FBI is that the top scam for which the agency received cries for help came from the victims of bogus e-mails purporting to originate from the Bureau itself. These represented 16.6 percent of the total number of complaints.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Report.exe</span><br /><br />Typical of this kind of dodge was the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate e-mail that made the rounds last June. It gave the appearance of a confidential report on terrorism accidentally released by the FBI. "Recipients are reminded that FBI Intelligence Bulletins contain sensitive terrorism and counterterrorism information meant for use primarily within the law enforcement and homeland security communities," the phony e-mail temptingly explained. But when the curious clicked on the supposed document ("report.exe"), they downloaded malware designed to steal their own sensitive computer data or spew out spam messages.<br /><br />Or they might have received a phony "official order" e-mail from the FBI's Monetary Crimes division informing them that they were under investigation for some financial crime. The message commanded them to hand over personal financial information, such as their bank account number, or face prosecution. Some of these e-mails even claimed to come from top FBI officials.<br /><br />Next to fake FBI documents, consumers contacted the agency about merchandise which they ordered online and never received. These represented 11.9% of complaints. That category was followed by Advanced Fee Fraud scams (9.8%) —typically in which an e-mail recipient was told that they'd won some lottery, but must pay a fee up front to get the prize.<br /><br />Close on the heels of these came identity theft (8.2 percent) and overpayment fraud schemes (7.3 percent). The latter involved recruiting people to (supposedly) ship merchandise overseas and receive payment from a creditor of their employer. The victim was then told by e-mail that they'd been overpaid for their last shipment, and to transfer some money back to the company. The trick was to get the target to wire the money back before their payment check cleared.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Free money!</span><br /><br />Interestingly, the FBI report mentions as part of a scam trend a website that, when we checked on Sunday, was still up: nevergitback.com. The trend involves unsolicited phone calls urging consumers to go to various online venues to get their share of government stimulus money. "These sites require victims to enter personal identifying information after which they are directed to a second page to receive notification of eligibility," the report says. "Upon completion of an online application and payment of $28 in fees, victims are guaranteed to receive a large sum of stimulus money, but they never do."<br /><br />We entered an e-mail address and name into nevergitback.com's online form, and were led to a page that told us that $28 would buy us a "free money list" with intel on "thousands of Government Agencies &amp; Private Foundations" that "Give Away Millions Each Weak! [sic]"<br /><br />"Currently there are over 1,425 US Government Agencies &amp; 62,393 Foundations that are Giving Away Free Money," the site continues. "But not every one of these Free Money sources will give YOU Free Money... So... we have a Monthly List for you to use... So You CAN Find Free Money!" It also promises consumers that if they haven't received $7,500 "OR MORE... from the Sources on our 'Free Money List' -- Simply let us know and we will RETURN your $28 Refundable Deposit to you instantly!"<br /><br />We're not planning on sending $28 to this outfit, so don't ask us how things went.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">We're on a mission</span><br /><br />In any event, all these activities are continuing through 2010. There's a brisk business in rental/real estate scams these days, the FBI says—grifters duplicating legitimate Web-based rental ads. "When the victim sends an email through the classified advertisement website inquiring about the home, they receive a response from someone claiming to be the owner," the Bureau warns. "The 'owner' claims he and his wife are currently on missionary work in a foreign country. Therefore, he needs someone to rent their home while they are away. If the victim is interested in renting the home, they are asked to send money to the owner in the foreign country."<br /><br />The report also notes that, based on incidents in which the complainer could identify a possible crime suspect, the District of Columbia, Nevada, Washington, Montana, Utah, and Florida "have the highest per capita rate of perpetrators in the United States." We'll leave it to Ars readers to come up with fair and regionally unbiased explanations for those demographics. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-1100718491926082360?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-81915656209452279972010-03-15T06:16:00.000-07:002010-03-15T11:20:32.192-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S556XnDZYnI/AAAAAAAAA-o/zp8OUrfEG6E/s1600-h/121321321321.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 277px; height: 156px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S556XnDZYnI/AAAAAAAAA-o/zp8OUrfEG6E/s400/121321321321.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448927145203688050" border="0" /></a> In 2008, the social networking site Classmates.com found itself on the receiving end of a class action lawsuit that focused on its membership recruitment tactics. The company has now settled the suit via the typical mechanism: trivial discounts to the affected parties, and some hefty legal fees. But, as part of the settlement, the company will have to abide by an agreement that's specific enough to dictate how it will set browser cookies on its members' computers.<br /><br />Classmates.com was sued because it allegedly sent out e-mails to anyone registered for its free service, suggesting that their fellow graduates were looking to contact them—they could find out who that person was if they'd simply upgrade to one of the subscription tiers. At least two individuals did so and quickly discovered that the mystery classmate didn't exist—nobody they knew had been looking.<br /><br />As part of the settlement, Classmates.com didn't have to admit that it had actually sent out misleading e-mails, but the settlement does recognize that there's a distinct class of individuals who had received marketing e-mails during the time the offenses allegedly took place. Those individuals will have a choice of $3 in cash or a $2 credit towards their paid Classmates subscription. These payments are capped at a total of $9.5 million; if more people sign up, this total will be divided evenly among them. Any members, even if they didn't receive one of the marketing e-mails, will get a $2 credit.<br /><br />For their troubles, the two initial representatives of the class who filed suits will get $2500. Their lawyers, however, can collect up to $1.3 million in attorney's fees.<br /><br />So far, nothing out of the ordinary. But the company has also agreed to injunctive release terms that are rather specific about how it goes about its business. For starters, it won't be able to simply refer to its "guestbook" in any marketing; instead, it will have to use "Classmates® Guestbook," and hyperlink any use of the term to a detailed explanation of how the feature works. (The e-mails at issue said that a former classmate had browsed a user's guestbook.) Similar links will have to appear in the company's terms of service and information pages.<br /><br />Another issue that's addressed by the injunctions is the handling of login credentials in some of Classmates e-mails. Apparently, the e-mails contained HTML, and would use it to test for the presence of a cookie that specified if a user was logged in; if they weren't, the e-mail would set the cookie to do so. This, not surprisingly, led to some problems when the company's users forwarded these e-mails—all the recipients would end up logged in to someone else's account.<br /><br />Going forward, Classmates will clearly indicate this in its Privacy Policy, and each e-mail that uses a cookie of this sort will contain warnings against forwarding the message in all-caps. Not as good as ending the practice, but better than nothing.<br /><br />Although the basic terms of the settlement are nothing out of the ordinary, the injunctive relief is rather unusual, in that it addresses both issues related to the practice at issue, and those that don't seem to directly relate, but could very well have seriously annoyed the parties to the suit—those parties not only seem intent on reforming Classmate's business practices, but its security practices as well. This seems unlikely to set a trend, but it's difficult not to wish that it would.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-8191565620945227997?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-5967587321531338172010-03-14T23:59:00.000-07:002010-03-15T11:16:26.235-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S555Ma9gsvI/AAAAAAAAA-g/SiMcsX04Yi8/s1600-h/disco_reindeer_ars.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 279px; height: 157px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S555Ma9gsvI/AAAAAAAAA-g/SiMcsX04Yi8/s400/disco_reindeer_ars.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448925853467587314" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Well, that's one way to get a balanced diet:</span> We all know that carnivorous plants have evolved in regions where the soil isn't very nutrient-rich, and they use their prey to supplement what they don't get via roots. Apparently, however, there are alternatives to eating the victim. I'll let the authors of a recent paper explain matters: "Three Bornean pitcher plant species... produce modified pitchers that 'capture' tree shrew faeces for nutritional benefit. Tree shrews (Tupaia montana) feed on exudates produced by glands on the inner surfaces of the pitcher lids and defecate into the pitchers." Apparently, it's possible to identify feces-eaters based on the distinct morphology of their pitchers.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Reindeer got no rhythm:</span> Circadian rhythm, that is. In the Arctic, light doesn't provide cues regarding daily activities; rather, it indicates seasonal changes. So it's no surprise that reindeer have somehow managed to unplug their biological clock, both at the cellular and whole-body level.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Tracking the exponential decay of an Internet meme:</span> The number of zeroes used in the term "w00t" fits a power law distribution. This has previously been found in a less rigorous study of the number of A's used when typing out Captain Kirk's immortal line, "KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Biomedicine meets industrial synthesis:</span> My research career was focused on basic biology. Writer Matt Ford worked on the use of zeolites in industrial-scale catalysis. Who would have guessed our interests might meet via medical research? Studies of basic biology have shown that nitric oxide regulates things like wound healing, inflammation, and blood vessel function. So, researchers have built a fabric that includes an NO-permeated zeolite, which slowly releases the molecule to its surroundings. Possible uses include bandages and a wrap for organs destined for transplants.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Gaming hurts, no, make that helps—well, it does something to students:</span> This is one of those situations that shows why the public so often gets confused about research-based guidance. In a single week, we've seen a study in which some lucky kids were gifted with a free video game system; some got it immediately, others after a four-month delay. Those who got the games earlier saw reading and writing scores plunge in a manner that correlated with amount of time spent gaming. So, games are bad.<br /><br />Or not. The same week saw a press release from Spanish researchers who have found that, although heavy gaming can cause problems, moderate gaming can be beneficial, and increase a student's sense of self-sufficiency, something that is generally correlated with academic achievement. A little thought would suggest that the two studies are actually consistent with each other, and the impact of gaming primarily depends on how the games are used.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Reality-based geology might help with evolution education: </span>Some faculty at the U of Minnesota decided to survey freshmen in a biology course about their understanding of evolution and education history. Nearly a quarter of the students had been taught creationist ideas during high school, and a substantial fraction of them didn't accept evolution. All of that's consistent with other polling data, but the big surprise was the following: a lot of the students who didn't understand evolution thought the Earth was less than 20,000 years old. Since the evidence for an ancient Earth seems much easier to grasp than things like cladistics and DNA sequence alignments, it's possible we could fix one of the vexing problems with biology instruction just by handling geology better.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-596758732153133817?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-52323058954565604912010-03-14T08:23:00.000-07:002010-03-14T08:25:37.350-07:00Apple has made inroads into the professional market with the iPhone—the company has noted that some Fortune 500 companies have deployed them alongside or even replacing BlackBerrys. Despite this, analysis of app usage suggests that it <a href="http://www.localytics.com/blog/post/iphone-analytics-show-peak-mobile-app-usage-on-nights-weekends/" title="Localytics Blog: iPhone Analytics Show Peak Mobile App Usage on Nights &amp; Weekends">remains a mostly personal device</a>.<br /><br />Mobile analytic firm Localytics examined logs of use of third-party apps and found that app use during the week typically begins to ramp up around 5am and slowly increases to a peak around 9pm. Weekdays also tend to have a little bump in use right around lunch time.<br /><br />On weekends, however, use starts picking up around 6am, reaching a steady peak around noon until 11pm. App usage sharply ramps down after 11, but slightly slower than it does on a typical week day.<br /><br />This usage pattern is typical for a device that is used for personal rather than business reasons. However, it's also possible that business users are either sticking to Apple's supplied apps or are using custom-developed in-house apps for specific business needs. For instance, a business user is more likely to fire up Mail or Calendar than, say, Tweetie or <em>Plants vs Zombies</em> during the work day. Localytics notes that it expects to find similar usage patterns for the iPad, and that developers may want to consider these patterns when designing apps for either platform.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-5232305895456560491?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-24407266430064565482010-03-13T01:13:00.000-08:002010-03-13T01:13:00.481-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5qcD1_GbyI/AAAAAAAAA1g/6NXSLd_XhE4/s1600-h/6a00d8341bf67c53ef012876d0cf8e970c-800wi.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 264px; height: 264px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5qcD1_GbyI/AAAAAAAAA1g/6NXSLd_XhE4/s400/6a00d8341bf67c53ef012876d0cf8e970c-800wi.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447838289103318818" border="0" /></a> Chinese authorities are pounding their desks over compliance with the law as Google's C-Day approaches. The "C" is for Censorship, of course, which Google plans to lift in China sometime in the near future. The company has been in talks with China ever since the highly publicized hack earlier this year, and although the two may not be in agreement over what to censor, it seems likely that Google will keep at least some of its business in China.<br /><br />"Google has made its case, both publicly and privately," China's Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong told the press on Friday when questioned about censorship, according to Reuters. "If you don't respect Chinese laws, you are unfriendly and irresponsible, and the consequences will be on you."<br /><br />Translation: in this game of chicken, the Chinese government won't be the one to budge. Meanwhile, a person "familiar with the talks" told the Wall Street Journal that the company isn't likely to pull out of China altogether if this censorship experiment goes sour. Google is apparently putting together a "patchwork agreement" with a number of different Chinese agencies so that it can continue operating to some degree in China.<br /><br />One thing's for sure: the status quo won't hold. The WSJ's source claims a decision will come within weeks, and Google CEO Eric Schmidt indicated at a press conference in Abu Dhabi that "something will happen soon."<br /><br />If Google opens the floodgates on previously censored topics like the Dalai Lama or the Tiananmen Square protests, there's little stopping China from taking measures to block the site like it already does with numerous others. There are plenty of workarounds for crafty Internet users, but we wouldn't be surprised to see this happen if China and Google are unable to come to an agreement.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-2440726643006456548?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-49042079212315713982010-03-13T00:49:00.000-08:002010-03-13T00:49:00.227-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5qbI77VZ_I/AAAAAAAAA1Y/p8HV4zoWR8k/s1600-h/ipadscreenlock_apple.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 247px; height: 241px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5qbI77VZ_I/AAAAAAAAA1Y/p8HV4zoWR8k/s400/ipadscreenlock_apple.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447837277085853682" border="0" /></a> When Apple first introduced the iPad in late January, we noted with much disappointment that the device had no way to lock the screen orientation. This is apparently no longer the case, however—according to an updated iPad specs page, there is now a screen-rotation-lock switch on the right-hand side of the device, seemingly replacing the mute switch that was there when the media first played with it.<br /><br />In January, Ars confirmed the lack of a screen-lock option with an Apple representative at the iPad event. At that time, the Apple rep reminded us that individual apps give users the option to lock the screen into portrait or landscape mode (which is already the case on a number of third-party iPhone apps), but that the iPad itself had no universal control like on the Kindle or Nook.<br /><br />As a serial in-bed Kindle and iPhone user, this was disappointing to me and a number of other readers. There are few things on earth more annoying than trying to type on your iPhone at a strange angle and have the screen rotate four times before you're finished.<br /><br />Apple apparently heard our cries. 9 to 5 Mac first pointed out the difference in specs this morning, which is now reflected on the official iPad spec page. Yep, that sure does say "screen rotation lock," and that option was definitely not there when Ars played with the iPad on January 27.<br /><br />For those of you who forgot, today is iPad preorder day as well. You can now reserve one to be picked up in-store on April 3 (WiFi only) or you can preorder either the WiFi or 3G versions to be delivered to you. As usual, you can count on Ars to have a review up not long after the iPad launch!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-4904207921231571398?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-38395140991646112582010-03-13T00:03:00.000-08:002010-03-13T00:03:00.538-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5qaWwLW6FI/AAAAAAAAA1Q/V4NuiRrxqig/s1600-h/personas_header-580x340.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 273px; height: 159px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5qaWwLW6FI/AAAAAAAAA1Q/V4NuiRrxqig/s400/personas_header-580x340.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447836414938376274" border="0" /></a> Firefox 3.6—the latest version of the popular open source Web browser—was officially released in January, but there are still many users who have not yet updated. In an effort to increase awareness about the availability of version 3.6, Mozilla announced today that it will start rolling out upgrade notifications to its users through the browser's built-in update system.<br /><br />According to Mozilla's statistics, the new version has already been downloaded over 100 million times since its release in January. That doesn't include the significant number of existing users who have already migrated to 3.6 by using the browser's built-in upgrade system without being prompted to do so.<br /><br />Firefox is arguably one of the most successful open source software projects. Mozilla celebrated last year when Firefox surpassed 1 billion total downloads. The current number of active daily users is said to be over 350 million.<br /><br />Getting such a large user base to migrate to the latest version is not an easy task, but Mozilla always manages to get the job done. Studies show that Firefox ranks high in update effectiveness, getting over 85 percent of its users to switch to a new version within 21 days after release. The only browser that has a better upgrade penetration rate is Chrome, due to its highly aggressive background updater.<br /><br />Firefox 3.6 is a somewhat modest incremental update. It brought several noteworthy new features for users, such as the Personas lightweight theming system. It also offers some compelling new capabilities for Web development, including CSS gradients, client-side filesystem APIs, and the @font-face feature.<br /><br />For more details about the automated upgrade process, you can refer to the announcement in the Mozilla Developer Center.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-3839514099164611258?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-48668643966374411502010-03-12T07:40:00.000-08:002010-03-12T07:45:32.729-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5phkObMQTI/AAAAAAAAAy4/NtyiVvaPG6Y/s1600-h/3d_hand_binary_ars.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5phkObMQTI/AAAAAAAAAy4/NtyiVvaPG6Y/s400/3d_hand_binary_ars.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447773974233366834" border="0" /></a> At GDC the Khronos Group announced not one but two new OpenGL specifications. The headline release, OpenGL 4, includes a raft of new features bringing OpenGL in line with Microsoft's Direct3D specification. OpenGL 3.3 was also released, providing as many of the new version 4 features as possible to older hardware.<br /><br />The Khronos Group, the consortium of hardware and software companies that governs OpenGL, OpenCL, and other related specifications, made no bones about its intentions for OpenGL 4: providing standardized support for Direct3D 11 features to OpenGL developers was the prime concern. Direct3D 11 integrated two key features into the graphics pipeline: hardware tessellation and compute shaders. The former allows the video card to synthesize polygons programmatically, enabling considerably smoother, more natural looking curved surfaces. The latter is a key part in the development of using the GPU for general-purpose computation (GPGPU)—not just for producing graphics, but for performing various kinds of high-performance math.<br /><br />Direct3D 11 mandated support for complex programmable tessellation and compute shader integration. Although Khronos' OpenCL specification provides a general API for GPGPU programming, this didn't have the same integration into the graphics pipeline. With OpenGL 4, both of these deficits (relative to Direct3D 11) are rectified.<br /><br />As well as these big-ticket items, the new specification provides support for new data formats improving rendering accuracy and computational precision.<br /><br />The new specification remains an evolution of the previous OpenGL 3 specification. More radical changes, of the kind initially proposed for OpenGL 3 but later abandoned, are still nowhere to be found. The initial plans for OpenGL 3 were to create a new object-oriented API that was, again, closer in concept to Direct3D; this was welcomed by game developers but rejected by visualization and CAD developers due to its lack of backwards compatibility. After considerable efforts to develop such an API, the Khronos Group did an abrupt about turn in favor of a more conservative evolution of the API, and this conservative approach is still apparent in version 4. Revolutionary change is clearly not in the cards.<br /><br />The overall tone from Khronos makes clear that it's Direct3D that sets the standard for what features video hardware supports. The group promotes OpenGL's platform-independence, in contrast to Direct3D's Windows-specificity. But even that benefit is diluted somewhat; though OpenGL is a fundamental technology to MacOS X's graphical stack, Apple hasn't offered full OpenGL 3 support on its latest operating system, instead sticking to version 2.1 with a few extensions.<br /><br />NVIDIA promises OpenGL 4 support will coincide with the launch of its new Fermi GPUs later this month. ATI/AMD has made no specific commitment, but support is likely to come sooner rather than later.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-4866864396637441150?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-30776598918701177172010-03-12T05:38:00.000-08:002010-03-12T07:40:45.544-08:00The latest data from market research firm comScore shows Apple holding on to a quarter of the US smartphone market, which grew roughly 18 percent over the last six months. That makes the iPhone the number two smartphone in the US, though it still lags well behind number one RIM. Android-based devices are still growing rapidly in popularity.<br /><br />Over the last few months, comScore data shows RIM and Apple holding pretty much steady, with RIM at 43 percent and Apple at 25.1 percent. Unsurprisingly, Palm (which includes webOS and PalmOS) devices and Microsoft-powered devices continued to decline. Android-based devices, however, continued to rise sharply, enough to eclipse Palm to take fourth place in the US market.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5pgXOQE0nI/AAAAAAAAAyw/1D4swTevOuE/s1600-h/comscore_us_smartphone_share_640.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5pgXOQE0nI/AAAAAAAAAyw/1D4swTevOuE/s400/comscore_us_smartphone_share_640.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447772651336815218" border="0" /></a> Though Apple still lags significantly behind RIM in this category, it's worth noting that Apple has been able to hold a pretty steady share over the last few months. This is in spite the typical cyclical ebb and flow of Apple's market share, which has tended to drop significantly in winter in anticipation of updated iPhone models that are typically released in June or July, followed by a sharp spike in late summer or early fall.<br /><br />comScore says that an average of 42.7 million Americans were actively using smartphones between November 2009 and January 2010. That's about 18 percent of the overall 234 million Americans using a mobile phone over the same period. Motorola, LG, Samsung, and Nokia continue to lead overall sales of mobile phones in the US.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-3077659891870117717?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-2512782482585782562010-03-12T00:09:00.000-08:002010-03-12T07:38:56.435-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5pf4iSxWPI/AAAAAAAAAyo/kurNzl-A6nY/s1600-h/atom_ars.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5pf4iSxWPI/AAAAAAAAAyo/kurNzl-A6nY/s320/atom_ars.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447772124140886258" border="0" /></a> Intel's announcement last week that the company is planning two versions of its Atom processor specifically for the NAS market was easy to overlook. After all, there are a few Atom-based NAS options on the market already, and the new single-core D410 and dual-core D510 aren't really different from their netbook counterparts in anything other than their target platform. But the roster of vendors that has already signed on to produce Atom-based NAS devices—QNAP, Synology, and LaCie, among others—gives a glimpse at the fact that the home/SOHO NAS market is one place where Intel is definitely poised to take significant marketshare from ARM, and in the near-term. This trend toward x86-based NAS will be great for consumers, because it will hasten NAS's integration into the home network.<br /><br />First, though, a quick note about the Intel hardware. The main thing that makes the new platform specialized for NAS is the amount of I/O hardware on the southbridge: six PCIe lanes, 12 USB 2.0 ports, a port multiplier function, and eSATA ports. This would be overkill for a netbook (compare Pine Trail's two PCIe lanes), but for a NAS that may host a number of peripherals, it's perfect.<br /><br />If you're thinking that an x86-based machine with this much I/O and storage is essentially just a headless "PC," you're right. But the line between NAS and PC got blurry a long time ago, at least in the home/SOHO market. We're already well into an era where NAS boxes are competing primarily by multiplying software features, and many vendors have moved into a new phase of differentiation via add-on services like cloud backup. Despite the fact that many of them use ARM-based chips and have very limited CPU and RAM resources, a NAS is now a Linux PC on your LAN in all but name.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Going x86 and joining the network</span><br /><br />If there's a downside to the NAS becoming more PC-like, it's that NAS vendors typically load their products with a boutique, in-house, Linux-based OS/application stack that's... well, "workmanlike" and "adequate" come to mind as descriptions. A trip through the support forums of leading NAS vendors will show that the platforms can be quite buggy in real-world use—showstoppers are rare, but there are plenty of niggling bugs (especially where add-ons are involved) that require hacks and workarounds. Web interfaces are often klunky, and not everything "just works."<br /><br />ReadyNAS is one example of everything mentioned above, and the company is already moving in the direction of x86 for its NAS line. But the x86-based ReadyNAS Pro commands an enormous premium over the rest of the ARM-based ReadyNAS line. Though they haven't announced an Atom-based product, Atom will provide a much less expensive route for the company to make the transition to x86 across the rest of its product line.<br /><br />The first and most obvious advantage that the NAS market's shift to x86 confers on both vendors and end-users is that vendors can opt out of the software race entirely and just use Windows Home Server. WHS has been very well received, but so far its reach has been restricted because you have to shell out for a real PC. The new Atom-based NASes will change that, and will let users get into WHS without paying much of a premium over the current cost of a NAS.<br /><br />If users or vendors don't want to go the Microsoft route, they can also adopt and easily tailor any one of a number of popular Linux distros.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">DisARMed</span><br /><br />Regardless of what ends up being the market's ultimate preference, it seems likely that the current proliferation of boutique, vendor-specific, ARM- and Linux-based NAS OSes is probably not long for this world. The enormous legacy code base of the world's most popular ISA may not give x86 an edge in mobile phones, smartbooks/tablets, or GPUs, but the PC is its home turf, and insofar as that's what the NAS is rapidly becoming, Atom seems ideal for it. In the future, then, NAS vendors will make their value-added software contributions at higher levels of the stack, focusing on drivers, service and support, UI, add-on applications, and networked services (e.g., cloud backup).<br /><br />My ultimate hope for x86 NAS is that OS vendors like Apple, Microsoft, and even Google will embrace it and integrate it seamlessly into the user experience. The NAS should be a local, largely transparent cache for my and my family's cloud data, and not something that I have to manage as a storage volume in its own right. Hopefully, the fact that client and server hardware are now on the same architecture will hasten this development by lowering the development cost for such integration.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-251278248258578256?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-55061662808850639942010-03-11T01:08:00.000-08:002010-03-11T01:08:02.055-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gWJRXcXbI/AAAAAAAAAw4/1Sns86WbV1U/s1600-h/window_wall_ars.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gWJRXcXbI/AAAAAAAAAw4/1Sns86WbV1U/s320/window_wall_ars.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447128097840979378" border="0" /></a> The CodePlex Foundation has announced the arrival of several new board members, including Jim Jagielski, the Chief Open Source Officer of SpringSource. Jagielski, who was one of the original cofounders of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), brings a lot of credibility and leadership experience to the CodePlex Foundation.<br /><br />When the CodePlex Foundation was established by Microsoft last year, an interim board of directors was assembled to help get the organization off the ground while permanent board members were being chosen. A number of the interim board members, including Novell's Mono project leader Miguel de Icaza, will be turning their seats over to new representatives. Former Microsoft open source evangelist Sam Ramji, currently VP of strategy at Sonoa, will be remaining on the board, along with Microsoft .NET Framework program manager Davies Boesch.<br /><br />The function of the organization is to encourage more commercial software vendors to get involved with open source software development. Microsoft's role in forming the CodePlex foundation reflects the company's growing acceptance of the open source development model and willingness to collaborate with other commercial vendors on open source technology.<br /><br />During a roundtable discussion at the Linux Collaboration Summit last year, Ramji made a case for Microsoft's open source efforts and argued that it is possible for Microsoft to embrace open source software while still competing with Linux. He talked about the potential for collaboration and the value that Microsoft can bring to the open source ecosystem. The foundation seems like a vehicle that Microsoft has established for precisely that purpose, but the company's past criticism of open source development and ongoing confrontational posture towards the Linux community have created a lot of skepticism.<br /><br />Jagielski's arrival on the board will give the CodePlex Foundation a big boost in credibility. He is presently the chairman of the ASF board of directors, which means that he has a lot of insight into the management and operations of a successful open source software foundation. As the former CTO of Zend and current Chief Open Source Officer at SpringSource, he also has a long history of championing open source software in the enterprise.<br /><br />"CodePlex has a unique opportunity to further increase the importance and acceptance of open source, especially within environments which have, up to now, been resistant to it," he said in a statement. "As the CodePlex Foundation continues to mature and evolve, being in the position to be able to help guide and foster the Foundation as a director is a huge honor."<br /><br />Although some critics of Microsoft might question the relevance of the CodePlex Foundation, there is no question that open source software projects are increasingly embracing the Windows operating system. Geeknet, the company behind the SourceForge project hosting website, issued a statement today saying that "Microsoft has increased its engagement with the OSS community," leading to open source software projects' "dramatically increas[ing] compatibility" with Microsoft's operating system.<br /><br />According to Geeknet, the amount of Windows-compatible open source software has grown from 72 percent in 2005 to 82 percent in 2009. Of the top 25 projects on SourceForge, 23 of them are compatible with Windows. Of course, these statistics, though intriguing, aren't necessarily authoritative evidence of closer ties between Microsoft and open source. The increase could partly be driven by the growing ubiquity of cross-platform development toolkits or a number of other factors. SourceForge's hosted projects are also not necessarily representative of the broader open source software ecosystem.<br /><br />Anecdotally, we have seen some very compelling evidence that bringing open source software projects to Windows and Mac OS X can help attract new contributors. We looked at this phenomenon in 2008 when the popular Tomboy and Banshee applications gained cross-platform compatibility. The KDE project has also benefited from broader cross-platform support.<br /><br />It seems clear that both the open source software community and Microsoft can benefit from the availability of open source software on the Windows platform. With that in mind, it seems like the CodePlex Foundation can be a useful instrument for enabling the requisite collaboration.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-5506166280885063994?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-21008968101034528352010-03-11T01:04:00.000-08:002010-03-11T01:04:00.546-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gVR3e8tLI/AAAAAAAAAwY/zpFWYf9s-CA/s1600-h/google_toolbox_ars.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 275px; height: 155px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gVR3e8tLI/AAAAAAAAAwY/zpFWYf9s-CA/s320/google_toolbox_ars.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447127146000331954" border="0" /></a> At the Campfire One event last night, Google launched the Google Apps Marketplace and demonstrated how external Web applications from other vendors can be integrated into Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and other services that are part of the search giant's Web-based productivity suite.<br /><br />In the quest for data liberation, Google's hosted Web services have long offered a wide range of APIs for third-party developers. With the launch of the new marketplace, however, Google Apps for domains is opening up even further and enabling external software to expose its own functionality directly through Google's Web-based applications. This will make it possible for third-party software in the cloud to offer broad interoperability with Google Apps and very tight integration.<br /><br />When a Google Apps domain administrator installs an application from the new marketplace, it will be accessible to users directly through the Google Apps navigation bar, and the administrator will be able to configure it through the Google Apps control panel. Those are the simplest examples of how software can tie into the Google Apps interface. Google says that there are many other integration points that can be used by app developers.<br /><br />In order to ensure that the experience is seamless, Google is relying on a number of increasingly important open standards. Single sign-on, for example, is facilitated by OpenID. Google Apps will act as an OpenID provider, and third-party Web applications that integrate with Google Apps will be implemented as OpenID relying parties. This will make it possible for users to access the integrated software without having to provide a separate set of credentials.<br /><br />The new marketplace system uses OAuth to open up the user's data to third-party applications in a manner that is secure and transparent. During the app installation process, Domain administrators will be able to see a list of data access permissions that the app needs in order to operate. The applications will only be able to touch the user's data if they are given explicit permission by the domain administrator. Data access can be revoked at any time through the Google Apps control panel.<br /><br />During the presentation at Campfire One, Google invited several of its marketplace partners to demo their new apps. Intuit showed how it has integrated its own Web-based payroll offering with Google Apps, allowing employees to access their paystubs directly through Google Calendar. Much deeper integration is also possible. Atlassian showed how its collaborative development tools can be woven into the Google Apps ecosystem, with interactive notifications, calendaring, and embeddable OpenSocial gadgets that can be snapped into Gmail, Google Calendar, and iGoogle.<br /><br />I tested the new marketplace myself by installing the Aviary application on my gwibber.com domain. After installing the app, it became possible to access Aviary content directly through the navigation sidebar in Google Docs. Installation was a simple process that required only a few steps. The user experience wasn't flawless, however. Aviary had a bit of trouble handling the authentication token.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gVcfxw8lI/AAAAAAAAAwo/eOCD7CzPWS8/s1600-h/install.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 183px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gVcfxw8lI/AAAAAAAAAwo/eOCD7CzPWS8/s400/install.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447127328615363154" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gVy5JOcJI/AAAAAAAAAww/ZEZ3ezlE92s/s1600-h/control-panel.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 138px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gVy5JOcJI/AAAAAAAAAww/ZEZ3ezlE92s/s400/control-panel.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447127713381773458" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gVcOLlZxI/AAAAAAAAAwg/qtrSm1cPqcQ/s1600-h/settings.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 373px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gVcOLlZxI/AAAAAAAAAwg/qtrSm1cPqcQ/s400/settings.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447127323891820306" border="0" /></a>In order to participate in the marketplace, developers will have to pay an initial $100 entry fee. Google also takes 20 percent of the revenue from application sales. As the service is primarily geared towards business users, the marketplace is currently only available to Google Apps for domain users, not regular users of Google's services. For more details about the marketplace, see Google's <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/open-for-business-google-apps.html">official announcement</a>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-2100896810103452835?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-56811223697731034302010-03-11T00:02:00.000-08:002010-03-11T00:02:00.310-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gUs0DiLVI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/o8268kb2WLU/s1600-h/500x_onliveiphone.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 206px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gUs0DiLVI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/o8268kb2WLU/s400/500x_onliveiphone.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447126509424880978" border="0" /></a> The OnLive streaming game service that takes console and PC games, renders them server-side, then streams it to your Mac or PC, will go live on June 17 in the US (lower 48).<br /><br />A year after our first hands on, they've improved speeds to a point where it actually looks really good. Latency didn't seem like it was a huge problem (on stage, in their demo), and in controlled quarters, they've said that focus group participants had no idea that they were playing a game streaming over the internet.<br /><br />Some slightly new details. They've got two ways of rendering games. You can either natively on their own servers using their own SDK system—which requires game publishers to go and adapt existing games onto their platform (an easy task if it's a Windows game, slightly more difficult for, say, PS3 games)—or they can render it natively on the console it was intended for, and stream that to your PC/Mac, which causes more latency than the "native" method.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gUslEO7-I/AAAAAAAAAwI/_9cgYlmu_FI/s1600-h/500x_onlivetop.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 219px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gUslEO7-I/AAAAAAAAAwI/_9cgYlmu_FI/s400/500x_onlivetop.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447126505401282530" border="0" /></a>OnLive will charge you $15 a month for just having the service, which includes playing demos and live-spectating people who are playing games (which is essentially in real time, letting you, combined with the chat function, basically play a game with a buddy across the country and give him real-time tips as he goes). If you want to play a game yourself, they'll sell you both games and rentals, with a price TBD. The subscription service is preliminary, and they'll have cheaper packages if you sign up for 3 or 6 months.<br /><br />The upside for the platform, as OnLive puts it are the instant play (because games are rendered and already slotted up on the server), easy multiplayer, saving games in the cloud, always-updated games and instant downloading of add-ons, because there are no downloads (it's all server-side).<br /><br />A couple future-looking announcements they made were that they're going to focus on Macs and PCs first, but have a Microconsole TV adapter in the future in order to get this onto your TV, plus maybe support specialty controllers and motion gestures depending on the demand for these games. They'll also have 1080p, 60FPS streaming some time in 2011, depending on how many of their customers actually can support 1080p60.<br /><br />One illustration of how this thing actually works is when the developers pulled out an iPhone and streamed Crysis—downrezzed, of course, to the iPhone's native resolution—and played it quite smoothly. There's no way the iPhone can get anywhere near running Crysis in full details, so this demo can drive home the point that all this processing is going on on the server side. They then spectated the same game, using another account, and that ran at full resolution smoothly as well.<br /><br />Again, the ultimate test is getting this into our homes and hooking it up to our Comcasts, or DSLs, or U-Verses and our FIOSes and seeing whether or not it performs up to par, compared to a standard console experience. If it actually is as transparent as they say, it kinda paves the way for people to eschew consoles in order to get straight to the gaming. And the way OnLive is positioning themselves really is as an Xbox Live-esque service, which is kinda impressive if they can pull it off. [<a href="http://www.onlive.com/">Onlive</a>]<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://gizmodo.com/">Gizmodo.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-5681122369773103430?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-52465394767562918802010-03-10T13:21:00.000-08:002010-03-10T13:26:21.108-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gN8tLaNmI/AAAAAAAAAvg/vVrSJt8_7II/s1600-h/500x_powervr3.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 218px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gN8tLaNmI/AAAAAAAAAvg/vVrSJt8_7II/s400/500x_powervr3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447119085875377762" border="0" /></a>I spoke to Imagination Technologies—maker of the PowerVR chip that powers smartphones like the iPhone, Droid and many others—and they said, definitively, that you'll have graphics comparable to the PlayStation 3 in 3 years.<br /><br />They know this because these are the chips they're designing right now. The way the development process works for phones is that Imagination comes up with a chip, which they license, and that works its way through development cycles and people like Apple or HTC, which then incorporate them into their phones, which they in turn have to productize and bring to market. The whole thing takes three years. But in three years, says Imagination, you're going to have a PS3 in your pocket. And that's not just running at the 480x340 resolution that most phones have now, that's PS3-esque graphics on 720p output via HDMI to a TV. Hell, some phones in three years will have a 720p display native.<br /><br />But there are going to be some interesting things between now and then. Imagination is still working on support for the products out now—the chips in the iPhones and the Droids and the Nokias that use PowerVR. The two most interesting things are Flash acceleration in hardware and OpenCL support, which enables GPGPU computing.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gN8ZnKKpI/AAAAAAAAAvY/ABTpgIHb7uo/s1600-h/2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 258px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gN8ZnKKpI/AAAAAAAAAvY/ABTpgIHb7uo/s400/2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447119080623057554" border="0" /></a><br />The first is obvious. By utilizing a software-based update, phones on the market right now can run Flash acceleration. Imagination's been working with Adobe for about three years now, and they've gotten the acceleration up to about 300% compared to using just software. They think they can do even better. Even still, 300% is pretty damn good for just pushing what you can do with your current phone.<br /><br />Secondly, there's OpenCL support, which allows devices to utilize the GPU—the graphics chip—to help out in general purpose computing. For a more in depth look on what this means, check out our feature on GPGPUs, but in essence it's going to allow multi-threaded tasks to be executed faster than they would be otherwise.<br /><br />I also asked Imagination about what's going to be different about their chips that will hit the market one, two and three years from now, and they say one of the big things is going to be focused on multiprocessors. Theoretically you can get about three or four into a phone without going too crazy on power demands, which will help them pull off that PS3-equivalency we talked about earlier.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gOM-cGSHI/AAAAAAAAAvo/EKineJG4fP0/s1600-h/500x_powervr2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 237px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gOM-cGSHI/AAAAAAAAAvo/EKineJG4fP0/s400/500x_powervr2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447119365386684530" border="0" /></a><br />Keep in mind that this stuff is what's "possible" in three years, based on what hardware is going to be available in the phones released then. A lot of this is still based on phone makers like Apple or HTC or Palm or Motorola to make these features available. But since most of the major phone manufacturers are going to have essentially the same chip, it's in everyone's self-interest to push as much power out from their phones as possible.<br /><br />But if you're looking forward to what's coming one year from now, check out the screenshots in the post, taken from the demos they had running on sample hardware.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://gizmodo.com/">Gizmodo.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-5246539476756291880?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-50922234112990934872010-03-10T12:29:00.000-08:002010-03-10T13:31:49.154-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gPn49mpRI/AAAAAAAAAv4/uco3xPnCP1A/s1600-h/500x_smartphonemarketshare_01.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 238px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gPn49mpRI/AAAAAAAAAv4/uco3xPnCP1A/s400/500x_smartphonemarketshare_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447120927284700434" border="0" /></a> The latest smartphone subscriber numbers <a href="http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/3/comScore_Reports_January_2010_U.S._Mobile_Subscriber_Market_Share">are out</a>, and the last three months have been kind to Google. Android's still a relatively small player, but its usage base more than doubled since October. The iPhone, meanwhile, keeps on treading water.<br /><br />RIM remains the leader in the smartphone space, with nearly half the market using BlackBerries. Apple's 25.1% share is undeniably impressive, but only growing .3 percentage points (relative to the market) means this summer's impending iPhone 4 release can't come soon enough for Cupertino. Either that or a whole mess of patent lawsuit wins.<br /><br />The losers, predictably: Palm, whose business model is collapsing before our eyes, and Microsoft, whose sitting duck WinMo 6.5 OS is in the process of being totally scrapped.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gPocKP1HI/AAAAAAAAAwA/dRbidv38NL8/s1600-h/500x_smartphonesharespreadsheet.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 283px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gPocKP1HI/AAAAAAAAAwA/dRbidv38NL8/s400/500x_smartphonesharespreadsheet.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447120936732972146" border="0" /></a><br />[<a href="http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/3/comScore_Reports_January_2010_U.S._Mobile_Subscriber_Market_Share">ComScore</a> via <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/10/google-apple-palm-smartphone-share/">TechCrunch</a>]<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://gizmodo.com/">Gizmodo.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-5092223411299093487?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-15929655282538855542010-03-10T10:26:00.000-08:002010-03-10T13:29:11.604-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gPB6EbQyI/AAAAAAAAAvw/JrNBelje1Ek/s1600-h/111111111.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5gPB6EbQyI/AAAAAAAAAvw/JrNBelje1Ek/s320/111111111.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447120274746721058" border="0" /></a> As part of the grand hoopla-fest building up to the release of the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan this month, the agency hosted a Digital Inclusion Summit at Washington, DC's Newseum on Tuesday. Co-sponsored with the Knight Foundation, during the course of the event the FCC disclosed more components of The Plan. These include recommending the creation of a Digital Literacy Corps "to conduct skills training and outreach in communities with low rates of adoption," and tapping into the agency's Universal Service Fund to subsidize broadband for low income people.<br /><br />But what really got our attention was this: the NBP will ask the government to "consider use of spectrum for a free or very low cost wireless broadband service.''<br /><br />That's odd, we thought, since the FCC and Congress have been considering such an idea for years.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">M2Z</span><br /><br />Between 2006 and early 2009, the agency actively vetted a proposal by M2Z Networks to provide a free, wireless broadband across the United States. The FCC would lease a national spectrum license to M2Z in the Advanced Wireless Services-3 (AWS-3) band area (2155-2175MHz), and the company would offer a free, advertising-funded, 512Kpbs broadband service that filtered out indecent content. Consumers would be able to access the band area via an attachment device on their computer. The firm would also offer a faster, unfiltered premium service and pay the government 5 percent each year from its gross revenues. Once granted this band, M2Z would commit to rolling out the smut-free network to 95 percent of the US population over the course of a decade.<br /><br />M2Z launched a spirited campaign to generate public interest in its proposal, which came complete with a small battalion of endorsers. "I know many Utahns would welcome the opportunity to provide their children with the educational and economic opportunity which broadband access can provide without having to become software engineers in order to protect their children," Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT) wrote to the FCC in 2007.<br /><br />But while the idea received lots of shout-outs from family advocacy groups and members of Congress, the FCC rejected just granting the spectrum to a chosen entity. Then in 2008, agency chair and values voter Republican Kevin Martin came up with an alternative proposal to run an auction of that license zone—the winning bidder promising to abide by M2Z's commitments and rules.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Auction skewing</span><br /><br />Various groups and companies quickly launched counter campaigns to stop or modify the Martin/M2Z plan. T-Mobile insisted that the service would interfere with spectrum it owned in a nearby band. And the wireless industry in general, led by CTIA - The Wireless Association, charged that the scheme would "skew an auction to the benefit of one entity or business model." Ironically, Key Republicans on Capitol Hill quickly took sides with big wireless, while Democrats backed Martin—with Rep. Anna Eschoo (D-CA) submitting a bill to the House that pretty much echoed what Martin proposed.<br /><br />Meanwhile civil liberties groups and bookseller/publisher trade associations opposed the plan on different grounds. The service "would censor content far beyond anything ever upheld by any court for any medium," warned a coalition of 22 public interest groups in July of 2008. "This prohibition would plainly infringe on the rights of adults to access broad categories of lawful speech," they wrote.<br /><br />In response to T-Mobile's concerns, the FCC's Office of Engineering Technology ran a battery of interference tests in Seattle that concluded that peaceful coexistence with T-Mobile's licenses was doable. As for the civil liberties concerns, to our delight, in December of that year Martin called Ars to announce that he was dropping the porn-filtering part of the plan from his proposal (Julius Genachowski, the present chair of the agency, should feel free to emulate this fine example by contacting us at his convenience).<br /><br />None of these gestures did the cause much good, however. Wireless companies challenged the FCC's engineering report. And while those public interest groups were presumably assuaged by Martin's announcement, it's not as if they suddenly became big supporters of the plan overnight.<br /><br />When Martin called us, we asked him what the prospects for the proposal now looked like. "This is an item that has been pending at the Commission for several years, that the Commissioners were originally critical of not having moved forward faster," he lamented. "Other commissioners said, 'We're overdue; we've got to do this.' But when an actual item is put forth where you have to make a hard decision, they say, 'Well, I'm not so sure what I want to do anymore.'"<br /><br />In the end, the Commission never weighed in on the plan. Martin quit the agency the following year. To this day, the FCC has not voted on whether to launch the auction or not.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">An open question</span><br /><br />We contacted M2Z CEO John Muletta to ask him what he thought of the FCC's latest proposal for a free wireless service. His response was pretty magnanimous, given his recent fortunes with the agency.<br /><br />"I think this a victory for Chairman Genachowski's data-driven process," Muletta told us, "which has independently confirmed that we have low broadband adoption in this country largely because broadband is too expensive. Certainly a free service would go a long way to addressing that issue."<br /><br />But "since the FCC has yet to take action on the AWS-3 rulemaking, it's an open question as to whether the incumbent carriers will eventually hijack the process that is supposed to follow the National Broadband Plan and somehow delay the quick auction of the AWS-3 band (in the face of a spectrum crisis and drought)."<br /><br />There is also some irony in the fact that the same wireless industry that once objected to skewing auctions for a single business model is now, in the name of a looming spectrum crisis, asking the FCC to coordinate the massive transfer of television license spectrum to wireless sector—essentially on the grounds that wireless broadband providers could more productively use those licenses than TV broadcasters. And where were all those Orin Hatch style Republicans once big wireless cried foul over Martin's smutless free broadband plan?<br /><br />As the M2Z story indicates, anyone who proposes setting aside spectrum "for a free or very low cost wireless broadband service'' could quickly find themselves on very uncertain terrain, with positions shifting overnight, and supposedly solid allies disappearing at the last minute. We are talking, after all, about a service that consumers could get for free rather than buying it from AT&amp;T, Verizon, T-Mobile, or Sprint. So here's some free advice: whoever launches the crusade at the FCC this time around better make sure they've really got the votes.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-1592965528253885554?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-4653919714639898752010-03-09T11:31:00.000-08:002010-03-09T11:37:11.688-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5ajUq1fFNI/AAAAAAAAAnI/BxPhbJoLRBU/s1600-h/thumb_taxes_ars.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5ajUq1fFNI/AAAAAAAAAnI/BxPhbJoLRBU/s320/thumb_taxes_ars.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446720374842528978" border="0" /></a> Amazon has pulled the plug on its affiliate program in Colorado thanks to a new state regulation on sales tax collection. The company sent a notice to its Colorado-based affiliates Monday morning to let them know about the decision, urging residents who depend on the affiliate program to contact their lawmakers if they want the program back.<br /><br />Most states only require retailers to collect sales tax if they have a sufficient enough brick-and-mortar presence thanks to a 1992 Supreme Court decision on <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/91-0194.ZO.html">Quill Corp. v. North Dakota</a>. Despite this, a handful of states have tried to pass laws in recent years (often dubbed the "Amazon Tax") that would force Amazon to start collecting sales tax if their <em>affiliates</em>—that is, those who use Amazon's affiliate links on their own sites or blogs in order to earn a return on referrals—are based in those states.<br /><br />The Colorado law in question is <a href="http://www.leg.state.co.us/CLICS/CLICS2010A/csl.nsf/fsbillcont3/B30F574193882B4B872576A80026BE0C?Open&amp;file=1193_rev.pdf">HB 10-1193</a>, which targets sales made by affiliates through out-of-state retailers such as Amazon. Because the affiliate lives in Colorado and is "targeting" other Colorado residents (in sort of a roundabout way via the Internet, since the Internet really targets everyone in the world), state legislators feel that Amazon should collect and pay Colorado sales taxes.<br /><br />According to Amazon's e-mail to affiliates posted by <a href="http://globalgeeknews.com/blog/2010/03/08/amazon-terminates-colorado-based-associates/">Global Geek News</a>, "[t]he new regulations do not require online retailers to collect sales tax. Instead, they are clearly intended to increase the compliance burden to a point where online retailers will be induced to 'voluntarily' collect Colorado sales tax—a course we won't take."<br /><br />As for current payments, everything earned before March 8 will be paid out by the end of the month, but Amazon won't pay for any further referrals after today. Amazon says that it will still sell its products to customers in Colorado and advertise through other channels, including through its affiliates in other states. Ouch.<br /><br />Colorado isn't the first state to try and get taxes out of Amazon through its affiliate program. New York first started the trend by passing a very similar law in 2008, which caused Amazon to file a lawsuit. The retailer argued that it does not own or lease any space in the state of New York and has no representatives soliciting business there. Similarly, as noted by <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2010/02/california_plans_tax_on_amazon.html">NPR</a>, Rhode Island and North Carolina have also passed laws along these lines—Amazon responded to those by simply cutting off its affiliate programs in those states like it did with Colorado. (Presumably, Amazon has not cut off affiliates in New York yet because the market is too big to give up.)<br /><br />Amazon's letter makes it clear that the company believes HB 10-1193 is neither "constitutionally-permissible" nor evenhanded. Indeed, with the Supreme Court ruling in place, it looks as if these states are just trying to find workarounds, especially since they are obviously hurting for tax revenue. Amazon urges its (former) Colorado associates to contact the <a href="http://www.leg.state.co.us/Clics/CLICS2010A/csl.nsf/directory?openframeset=">General Assembly</a> and <a href="http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/GovRitter/GOVR/1177024890452">Colorado Governor Ritter</a> over the issue.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-465391971463989875?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-36860526383193086832010-03-09T08:25:00.000-08:002010-03-09T11:31:57.221-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5ah_IjDydI/AAAAAAAAAnA/i7FZS75wiOM/s1600-h/firefox-multiprocess.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5ah_IjDydI/AAAAAAAAAnA/i7FZS75wiOM/s320/firefox-multiprocess.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446718905349556690" border="0" /></a> Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2358815,00.asp">claims</a> that the company's ubiquitous Flash plug-in doesn't ship with any known crash bugs. One can only assume that he has never used the software. As Adobe representatives exhibit an <a href="http://twitter.com/jdowdell/status/8458096582">increasingly</a> <a href="http://twitter.com/jdowdell/statuses/8511820361">dismissive</a> attitude about Flash's technical deficiencies, the browser vendors have stepped up to address the problems and are finding ways to insulate their users from Flash's poor security and lack of stability.<br /><br />Several mainstream browsers isolate Flash and other plug-ins in separate processes in order to prevent an unstable plug-in from crashing the entire browser. Mozilla is preparing to introduce a similar feature in the next version of Firefox. A developer preview that was recently made available to users offers an early look at the new plugin crash protection.<br /><br />Its part of a broader Mozilla project called Electrolysis that seeks to eventually bring full support for multiprocess browsing to Firefox. Electrolysis will make it possible for a browser crash to be isolated to a tab or group of tabs rather than affecting the entire browser. Similar functionality is already available in Internet Explorer and Chrome. Although Mozilla has already taken major steps towards implementing holistic multiprocess browsing, the plugin isolation is the only part that will land in the next release.<br /><br />As we explained last year when we first covered Electrolysis, Mozilla has adopted parts of Chrome's interprocess-communication (IPC) implementation. In the latest developer preview build, it is used to facilitate interaction between the isolated plugins and the rest of the browser. Mozilla created its own protocol, called IPDL, that is used to define the messages that are passed between the processes through the IPC layer. For more details about IPDL, you can refer to the introductory <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en/IPDL/Tutorial">tutorial</a> that has been published at the Mozilla developer Web site.<br /><br />In the developer preview, a plug-in that crashes will be replaced with a warning message. It will automatically transmit a crash report to Mozilla. You can resurrect the crashed plug-in by reloading the page. In the current implementation, each plug-in operates in its own process that runs separately from the rest of the browser. For example, when you load up pages that have Flash and Silverlight content, Flash and Silverlight will each have their own process. Individual plug-in instances are not isolated from each other.<br /><br /><img style="width: 525px; height: 480px;" src="http://static.arstechnica.com/ffplugin/crash1.png" /><br /><br />As a result of this design, a single crashed plug-in instance will cause all other instances of the same plug-in to terminate, but will not affect content that is rendered by other plug-ins. A Flash crash will not affect running Silverlight content, and vice versa. For example, if I have a Silverlight demo in my first tab, a Flash video of the <a href="http://trololololololololololo.com/">Internet's latest fad</a> in my second tab, and I load Matthew Dempsky's Flash Crash demo in a third tab, both instances of the Flash plug-in will terminate but the Silverlight demo will continue running. The trololo man's magnificent song of ineffable wordless joy will be brutally silenced by Flash's ignominious inadequacy. Oh the humanity!<br /><br /><img style="width: 533px; height: 485px;" src="http://static.arstechnica.com/ffplugin/crash2.png" /><br /><br />Mozilla is looking for users to help test the new feature and make sure that it works reliably. You can <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/3.7a2/releasenotes/#download">download</a> builds of the developer preview from Mozilla's Web site.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Arstechnica.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-3686052638319308683?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-20419505218077224042010-03-09T00:16:00.000-08:002010-03-09T11:24:58.756-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5agXDJLxiI/AAAAAAAAAm4/UYZ9t15u3t4/s1600-h/500x_m4500front.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 273px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5agXDJLxiI/AAAAAAAAAm4/UYZ9t15u3t4/s400/500x_m4500front.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446717117192455714" border="0" /></a><br />Remember the hardcore guts of the Dell M6500 workstation? The M4500 is just like that, except at 15.6-inches you've actually got a shot at carrying it around in comfort. It's also the most powerful of workstation of its size.<br /><br />The M4500 supports both Core i5 and Core i7-920XM Quad Core processors along with optional Nvidia Quadro FX 1800M or Quadro FX 880M graphics. And its starting weight of six pounds makes it a mobile workstation that's actually, well, portable.<br /><br />It's also the first mobile 15.6-inch mobile workstation to come with an optional 64GB SSD MiniCard (starting at $220) for more storage and better battery life. Speaking of which: the M4500 is listed as getting 7 hours and 40 minutes, which is a pretty impressive claim for such a hardcore machine.<br /><br />Its target audience is distinctly professional: oil and gas, federal, medical, that sort of thing. On the plus side, that means Dell's packed the M4500 with government-level fingerprint security. On the down side? This thing's going to <em>cost</em> when it's finally available in the next few weeks.<br /><blockquote> Liberating creative professionals, 3D animators, engineers and research scientists from their desks, Dell unleashes the world's most powerful 15.6-inch mobile workstation<br /><br />· Hardware Certification On More Than 95 Applications From More Than 35 Key Independent Software Vendors , Assures Compatibility and Optimized Performance<br /><br />· First 15.6-inch Mobile Workstation to Offer Optional SSD MiniCard for Additional High-performance Data Storage<br /><br />· Dell Precision T7500, T5500 and T3500 Tower Workstations to Be Among the First to Offer Intel® Xeon® 5600 (Westmere-EP) Processors<br /><br />ROUND ROCK, TX, Mar. 9, 2010 – For those with the passion to discover, imagine and create the future, "on-the-go" access to workstation-class computing provides the freedom to work wherever inspiration strikes. This passion to create is why Dell continues to push the boundaries of workstation performance and mobility with the announcement today of the world's most powerful 15.6-inch mobile workstation¹-the Dell Precision M4500.<br /><br />The Dell Precision M4500 joins Dell's family of mobile workstations, which includes the world's most powerful 17 inch mobile workstation, the Dell Precision M6500.<br /><br />The new mobile workstation is designed to liberate creative professionals, designers, animators, engineers and research scientists from their desks. The M4500 also supports the missions of defense customers who require mobile workstation performance and security, including authentication and data encryption, when in the field.<br /><br />Workstation Mobility Redefined: The Dell Precision M4500The M4500 is the world's first mobile workstation to offer a 64GB SSD MiniCard for additional high-performance data storage and user selectable thermal tables that enable better performance in turbo mode along with extended battery life. In addition to the M6500, the M4500 provides near instant access to email, calendar, contacts, the Internet and virtual remote desktops with a new revolutionary technology called Dell Precision ON.<br /><br />Other product highlights include:<br /><br />· Available with optional Intel Core i7-920XM Quad Core Extreme Edition, Core™ i7 and Intel® Core™ i5 processors linked with fast 1066MHz and 1333MHz memory for compute intensive and memory bandwidth sensitive applications;<br /><br />· Optional NVIDIA® Quadro FX 1800M or Quadro FX 880M graphics with 1GB of dedicated memory for large models and models with high texture;<br /><br />· Optional HD+ sRGB LED 15.6-inch screen with 100 percent user selectable color gamut support;<br /><br />· Optional 3MP camera and Gobi 2.0 mobile broadband support with a multi-touch touchpad for greater user flexibility;<br /><br />· Enables easy portability with a starting weight of only 6.0 lbs; and,<br /><br />· Support for the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, XP, along with Red Hat® Linux 5.3 64-bit.<br /><br />Like the Dell Precision M6500, the M4500 offers compatibility and optimized performance on 95 key applications from leading Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) such as Adobe, Autodesk, Dassault Systèmes and Schlumberger.<br /><br />The Dell Precision M4500 mobile workstation will be available for order globally in the coming weeks. More details can be found at www.dell.com/precision.<br /><br />Compatibility for Ease of Use and Deployment<br /><br />The M4500, as a part of the Dell E-Family product line, is compatible with E-Family accessories, including port replicators, notebook stands, display and monitor stands and external storage modules. In addition, the M4500 comes with optional security features including Dell ControlVault security, FIPS fingerprint reader and a contactless smart card reader, delivering comprehensive security options.<br /><br />Dell Services offers a suite of highly customizable service and support solutions throughout the PC lifecycle including Dell ProSupport and Dell ProManage. Dell also offers a robust set of services for organizations looking to migrate to Windows 7. In addition, Dell offers flexible computing solutions, working with organizations to build a comprehensive solution for virtualization-infrastructure sizing, deployment and ongoing support. </blockquote><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Source: <a href="http://gizmodo.com/">Gizmodo.com</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4011945803201355459-2041950521807722404?l=w-itnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Raduhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02182140710548821202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011945803201355459.post-10138089324655387842010-03-08T05:59:00.000-08:002010-03-08T05:59:02.016-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5PcnnwZnHI/AAAAAAAAAjI/q0d5HZVTgys/s1600-h/ad_blocking_ars.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhgv--YEnj0/S5PcnnwZnHI/AAAAAAAAAjI/q0d5HZVTgys/s400/ad_blocking_ars.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445938947666058354" border="0" /></a> Did you know that blocking ads truly hurts the websites you visit? We recently learned that many of our readers did not know this, so I'm going to explain why.<br /><br />There is an oft-stated misconception that if a user never clicks on ads, then blocking them won't hurt a site financially. This is wrong. Most sites, at least sites the size of ours, are paid on a per view basis. If you have an ad blocker running, and you load 10 pages on the site, you consume resources from us (bandwidth being only one of them), but provide us with no revenue. Because we are a technology site, we have a very large base of ad blockers. Imagine running a restaurant where 40% of the people who came and ate didn't pay. In a way, that's what ad blocking is doing to us. Just like a restaurant, we have to pay to staff, we have to pay for resources, and we have to pay when people consume those resources. The difference, of course, is that our visitors don't pay us directly but indirectly by viewing advertising.<br /><br />My argument is simple: blocking ads can be devastating to the sites you love. I am not making an argument that blocking ads is a form of stealing, or is immoral, or unethical, or makes someone the son of the devil. It can result in people losing their jobs, it can result in less content on any given site, and it definitely can affect the quality of content. It can also put sites into a real advertising death spin. As ad revenues go down, many sites are lured into running advertising of a truly questionable nature. We've all seen it happen. I am very proud of the fact that we routinely talk to you guys in our feedback forum about the quality of our ads. I have proven over 12 years that we will fight on the behalf of readers whenever we can. Does that mean that there are the occasional intrusive ads, expanding this way and that? Yes, sometimes we have to accept those ads. But any of you reading this site for any significant period of time know that these are few and far between. We turn down offers every month for advertising like that out of respect for you guys. We simply ask that you return the favor and not block ads.<br /><br />If you read a site and care about its well being, then you should not block ads (or you subscribe to sites like Ars that offer ads-free versions of the site). If a site has advertising you don't agree with, don't go there. I think it is far better to vote with page views than to show up and consume resources without giving anything in return. I think in some ways the Internet and its vast anonymity feeds into a culture where many people do not think about the people, the families, the careers that go into producing a website. People talk about how annoying advertisments are, but I'll tell you what: it's a lot more annoying and frustrating to have to cut staff and cut benefits because a huge portion of readers block ads. Yet I've seen that happen at dozens of great sites over the last few years, Ars included.<br /><br />Invariably someone always pops into a discussion like this and brings up some analogy with television advertising, radio, or somesuch. It is not in any way the same; advertisers in those mediums are paying for potential to reach audiences, and not for results. They have complex models which tell them if X number are watching, Y will likely see the ad (and it even varies by ad position, show type, etc!). But they really have no true idea who sees what ad, and that's why it's a medium based on potential and not provable results. On the Internet everything is 100% trackable and is billed and sold as such. Comparing a website to TiVo is comparing apples to asparagus. And anyway, my point still stands: if you like this site you shouldn't block ads. Invariably someone else will pop in and tell me that it's not their fault that our business model sucks. My response is simple: you either care about the site's well-being, or you don't. As for our business model sucking, we've been here for 12 years, online-only. Not many sites can say that.<br /><br />Let me stop and clarify quickly that I am not saying that we are on the verge of vanishing from the Internet. But we, like many, many sites are greatly affected by ad blocking, and it is a very worrisome trend.<br /><br />So I'll end this part of the discussion by just reiterating my point: blocking ads hurts the sites you love. Please consider not blocking ads on those sites.<br /><br /><span style="f