Computer technologies for 2013

1,455 Comments

1. September 13, 2013 at 11:59 am

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   Intel Quark Runs on Roof, Raises Questions
   http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1319447&itc=eetimes_node_199&cid=NL_EDN_DesignIdeas_20130912&elq=f86be4f0931649b68bba1bd3cdc2abe5&elqCampaignId=1128

   An HVAC system on a rooftop in Minneapolis is running Quark, Intel’s newest and smallest SoC. If all goes well, Daikin McQuay might someday buy millions of the chips.

   Intel announced Quark at its annual developer conference here as its bid to get a jump on the emerging Internet of Things. However, it provided no details on its technical specs or when it will be released, suggesting it is more of a rushed trial balloon than a nailed-down product and strategy.

   In a brief encounter after his first IDF keynote, Intel’s new chief executive, Brian Krzanich, said Quark is x86 compatible. The chip he showed was made in a 32nm process, he added.

   In his keynote, Krzanich described Quark as a fifth the size and a tenth the power consumption of Atom. It’s a synthesizable core Intel will let others use along with third-party silicon blocks in SoCs Intel will make.

   Designers will not be allowed to customize the Quark core. They can only connect third-party blocks to its fabric. Intel will allow some process tweaks for some customers, he added.

   Last week, HVAC giant Daikin got one industrial reference board using a Quark chip and including WiFi and 3G support. Kevin Facinelli, executive vice president for operations at the company, dialed into the board from the IDF event here to show it is working.

   “We looked at Freescale and ARM too but decided on using Quark,” Facinelli said.

   The mechanical engineering company was not concerned about relative silicon performance. It just wanted to offer a remote maintenance capability with high security.

   Security software gave Intel the edge over ARM. The Quark reference board runs a stack of white-listed Wind River embedded operating system supplemented with McAfee security software, the kind of embedded system stack Intel has been touting for embedded systems for more than a year.

   Peter Glaskowsky, a veteran processor analyst, said Quark could be a 386-vintage subset of the x86 for which patents are now expired. “They could be making a virtue of necessity,”

   Alternatively, it could be the world’s smallest 64-bit x86.

   One wrinkle for Intel in this scenario is whether AMD has any outstanding patents on a 64-bit x86. It pioneered the architecture with its Opteron later emulated by Intel’s processors.

   Reply
2. September 13, 2013 at 1:31 pm

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   SAP Aims for Bigger Presence in ‘big Data’ with Hadoop Partnerships, New Apps
   SAP will resell Hadoop distributions from Intel and Hortonworks
   http://www.cio.com/article/739509/SAP_Aims_for_Bigger_Presence_in_39_big_Data_39_with_Hadoop_Partnerships_New_Apps?taxonomyId=600010

   IDG News Service (Boston Bureau) — Few tech buzzwords of late have been more prevalent than “big data,” and SAP is hoping to make sure the market knows it’s hip to the trend with a series of new announcements.

   Perhaps the most significant announcement, made at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, concerns a pair of new agreements under which SAP will resell and support Apache Hadoop distributions from Intel and Hortonworks.

   “We have signed a formal agreement driven by both companies at the executive level to make HANA plus Hadoop a winning combination for our customers,” said Irfan Khan, senior vice president and general manager, SAP Big Data, in an interview.

   While definitions of “big data” vary, in general the term refers to the large amounts of unstructured data being generated by websites, social media services, sensors and other sources. Big data discussions also often refer to the “three Vs,” or the velocity, variety and volume of information streams.

   “downstream demand” data, such as from retail point-of-sale systems, for insights that could help marketing teams and supply chain managers operate more effectively.

   Other big data-themed applications target areas such as fraud management and customer engagement.

   Reply
3. September 13, 2013 at 1:45 pm

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   Google swaps out MySQL, moves to MariaDB
   ‘They’re moving it all,’ says MariaDB Foundation headman
   By Jack Clark, 12th September 2013
   http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/12/google_mariadb_mysql_migration/

   Google is migrating its MySQL systems over to MariaDB, allowing the search company to get away from the Oracle-backed open source database.

   The news came out at the Extremely Large Databases (XLDB) conference in Stanford, California on Wednesday, one month after El Reg reported that Google had assigned one of its engineers to the MariaDB Foundation. News of the swap was not an official announcement by Google, it came out during a presentation by Google senior systems engineer Jeremy Cole on the general state of the MySQL ecosystem.

   It turns out that far from being a minor initiative to keep MariaDB alive, Google is actively patching and upgrading MariaDB 10.0 to be fit enough so that Google can migrate all of its thousand-plus MySQL instances onto the technology.

   “Were running primarily on [MySQL] 5.1 which is a little outdated, and so we’re moving to MariaDB 10.0 at the moment,” Cole said in a presentation he gave on the general state of the MySQL ecosystem.

   By moving to MariaDB, Google can free itself of any dependence on technology dictated by Oracle – a company whose motivations are unclear, and whose track record for working with the wider technology community is dicey, to say the least. Oracle has controlled MySQL since its acquisition of Sun in 2010, and the key InnoDB storage engine since it got ahold of Innobase in 2005.

   MariaDB is an open source database backed by Monty Widenius, who spearheaded the original development of MySQL. It is designed to replace Oracle-backed MySQL. Right now, Google has about five people working part-time on MariaDB bug fixes and patches, our sources tell us.

   Google’s widespread MariaDB push may be an attempt by the Chocolate Factory to shift developer allegiance from MySQL to MariaDB, and in doing so dilute Oracle’s influence over the open source database ecosystem.

   “I’d really love to see a single MySQL community, I think that’s more or less impossible under Oracle, I don’t know if that’s possible under MariaDB,” Cole said.

   Though more attention has been paid to Google’s flashier next-generation SQL systems such as Spanner and the back-to-the-future F1 database, Cole confirmed to El Reg that MySQL is running across “thousands of instances” at Google upon legions of flash-based servers. And it’s on the move.

   Google is not alone in its shift to MariaDB: Red Hat is ditching MySQL for MariaDB in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.

   Reply
4. September 13, 2013 at 3:10 pm

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   SSD Annual Failure Rates Around 1.5%, HDDs About 5%
   http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/09/12/2228217/ssd-annual-failure-rates-around-15-hdds-about-5

   “On the news that Linus Torvalds’s SSD went belly up while he was coding the 3.12 kernel, Computerworld took a closer look at SSDs and their failure rates”

   Reply
5. September 13, 2013 at 3:13 pm

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   SSDs do die, as Linus Torvalds just discovered
   But SSD failure rates are still vastly better than hard disk drives
   http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9242367/SSDs_i_do_i_die_as_Linus_Torvalds_just_discovered?taxonomyId=234&pageNumber=1

   Linus Torvalds found out the hard way that solid-state drives (SSDs) aren’t invincible — and when they do fail, they can die without warning and at inconvenient times.

   The creator of the Linux kernel blogged this week that the SSD in his workstation simply stopped working, interrupting his work on the Linux 3.12 kernel.

   “The timing absolutely sucks, but it looks like the SSD in my main workstation just died on me,” Torvalds wrote. “I had pushed out most of my pulls today, so realistically I didn’t lose a lot of work.”

   While SSDs are vastly better performers than hard disk drives and are considered more reliable for mobile devices because they have no mechanical parts to break, they do have a limited lifespan. With some early SSDs, that lifespan ended up being less than a year, depending on the quality and use of the drive.

   As an investigation into SSD reliability performed by Tom’s Hardware noted: “We know that SSDs still fail…. All it takes is 10 minutes of flipping through customer reviews on Newegg’s listings.”

   “I think the best way to describe SSD reliability is that thanks to controller maturation, average product endurance is improving and the standard deviation is falling,” said Ryan Chien, an SSD and storage analyst with IHS’s Electronics & Media division.

   Although most client drives outlast their three-to-five year warranties, if Torvalds was subjecting such a drive to heavier workstation-type workloads, which happens a fair bit in enterprises, “the lifespan likely will not meet expectations,” Chien said.

   Multiple factors affect SSD reliability, according to Jeff Janukowicz, research director for SSD and Enabling Technologies at IDC.

   “If I’m writing 10GB a day to a 120GB SSD, it will last over 10 years,” Geiser said.

   Unlike hard disk drives, all SSDs slow down after initial use because once a sufficient amount of data has been written to them, the processor in the drive begins to move data around — a function known as the read-modify-erase-write (erase-write) cycle. So each time new data is written to the SSD, data must first be marked for deletion before new data can be written. Over time, the cells or transistors in NAND flash wear out due to the erase-write cycle.

   SSD makers have increased the sophistication of error correction and ‘wear leveling’ software, which works to more evenly spread data writes across a drive so as to not “wear out” any block of cells more quickly than another. But, eventually they all wear out.

   As NAND process shrinks in size — that is, as the transistors become smaller and smaller to accommodate greater density and capacity — firmware must compensate for the increase in errors. (The smaller cells or transistors get, the more likely data errors will occur.) NAND flash process technology has shrunk from 35 nanometers (nm) a few years ago, to under 19nm today.

   “From the data I’ve seen, client SSD annual failure rates under warranty tend to be around 1.5%, while HDDs are near 5%,” Chien said.

   Reply
6. September 13, 2013 at 3:14 pm

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   Investigation: Is Your SSD More Reliable Than A Hard Drive?
   http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-reliability-failure-rate,2923.html

   Does a lack of moving parts translate to higher reliability? That’s the assumption many enthusiasts and IT professionals make about SSDs. We go straight to the data centers using these devices, dig into failure rate statistics, and suggest otherwise.

   Reply
7. September 13, 2013 at 3:20 pm

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   Mobility Brings Changing Roles for CIOs, Workers and Businesses
   http://www.cio.com/article/739490/Mobility_Brings_Changing_Roles_for_CIOs_Workers_and_Businesses

   Mobility in the enterprise is on the move. What’s the future look like? BYODers might have to fork out more cash, businesses must turn into mobile tech experts, and CIOs will take on a new role.

   Mobility is on the verge of breaking out in the enterprise, a mega-shift wrought with great opportunities and big challenges that will forever change the face of companies, IT departments, employees and customer relationships.

   For employees who bring their own devices (BYOD) to work, there’s no question mobility in the enterprise will soon hit their wallets hard. In other words, the bill for the convenience of being able to use your own smartphone for personal and work-related purposes will come due.

   By 2015, most companies will adopt mandatory BYOD programs for many workers, says Bryan Taylor, research director at Gartner, speaking to some 1,000 attendees at AirWatch Connect. This means employees will have to fork out hundreds of dollars for a smartphone and maybe a tablet or PC merely as a condition of employment.

   Today, many BYODers receive $40 monthly as reimbursement for their smartphones, but this amount will be reduced by 30 percent by 2016. Even worse, most employees won’t receive any reimbursement, Taylor says.

   If this sounds outrageous and unprecedented, it’s not. Companies used to reimburse employees for their home Internet connection, but now it’s a rarity for a company to do so. BYOD reimbursement may go down the same path.

   However, companies won’t stand to gain huge cost savings from these mandates and reimbursement savings. Gartner predicts that the typical organization will spend more than $300 per employee annually for mobile applications, security, management and support.

   CIOs have been outcasts in the enterprise mobility movement.

   This has led to an explosion of shadow mobile IT throughout an organization. There’s no question IT is losing control of its own infrastructure.

   For CIOs, though, the good news is that companies are starting to realize that their mobility strategy is too important to be left to a grassroots movement with tech-neophyte decision makers often swayed by a slick PowerPoint presentation from a tech vendor.

   “The mobile trend is unstoppable,” Borg says. “An organization can’t afford for the CIO’s role to be sidelined.”

   Salesforce.com CIO Ross Meyercord has a message for his peers: “You’re in the software business now.”

   Let’s say your company makes toothbrushes, Meyercord says, the future toothbrush might have embedded sensors that track how someone brushes his molars. Thanks to your company’s mobile software and cloud services, this information will go back to the research and development team and perhaps even to the customer’s dentist.

   This kind of thinking puts practically everyone in the mobile tech game.

   “Every touchpoint has a use case for mobility, and that wasn’t true five years ago,” Rodgers says.

   Reply
8. September 13, 2013 at 4:57 pm

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   CloudFlare CEO: ‘Insane’ NSA gag order is costing U.S. tech firms customers
   http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/09/12/cloudflare-ceo-says-insane-nsa-gag-order-is-costing-u-s-tech-firms-customers/

   We’ve now moved beyond mere talk about how the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs may hurt U.S. cloud providers, says Matthew Prince, the chief executive of CloudFlare. The companies are already feeling the pain.

   CloudFlare, a Web site security firm and network provider with clients that run the gamut from WikiLeaks to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, is getting 50 to 100 calls per day from customers demanding more answers about the firm’s involvement with the U.S. National Security Agency, Prince says.

   But that’s information the company can’t give out, he explains, and the inability to say anything about government requests is seriously hurting his business.

   “We get calls regularly that say, ‘CloudFlare must be working with the NSA,’ which we’re not,” Prince said. “We’ve gone so far as to litigate requests that did not meet with our processes, but I can’t tell you anything beyond that, which is insane.”

   “The fundamental thing here is trust. We’re in the trust business. These programs threaten that trust,” Prince said. “We’ve lost customers as a result of this and will continue to lose customers as a result of this.”

   Prince said the tech community is as much to blame as Washington for these types of problems. The two often have conflicting goals, with tech working to flow around barriers, and law aiming to build them up, he said.

   Without more leeway from the government, Prince said, tech companies will have to come up with their own solutions that could cost law enforcement agencies valuable crime-fighting tools. Google has said that it’s planning to encrypt its records to hamper government security programs that affect its customers’ privacy. And Prince said he may have to do the same, for the good of his clients.

   Reply
9. September 14, 2013 at 1:37 pm

   Tomi says:

   Google swaps out MySQL, moves to MariaDB
   ‘They’re moving it all,’ says MariaDB Foundation headman
   http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/12/google_mariadb_mysql_migration/

   Google is migrating its MySQL systems over to MariaDB, allowing the search company to get away from the Oracle-backed open source database.

   Google has been operating its own heavily modified version of MySQL since version 4.0, and the Chocolate Factory now runs on a custom MySQL 5.1 build, Cole said in his talk at XLDB. But now Google is moving to MariaDB 10.0. This version of MariaDB is roughly equivalent to MySQL 5.6, so a lot of Google’s work has revolved around making sure that the changes that have occurred since 5.1 are well understood.

   Google’s MySQL also has the ability to “failover between multiple data centers and have read access in all data centers,” he said.

   “We’ve known for some time that Google has been working in the community, we’re delighted it’s now public knowledge,” Phipps tells us.

   Reply
10. September 14, 2013 at 1:39 pm

    Tomi says:

    Monty Widenius: “Google is a big support for MariaDB’s development”

    The American search engine company Google will change the MariaDB database and participate in product development.

    Google is planning to move to Oracle now owning MySQL database of the Finnish MariaDB database of thousands of servers. The matter told The Register

    MariaDB’s founder and developer Michael “Monty” Widenius says 3T for the news to be true.

    “Google said the initial April MySQL Conference, where they announced the MariaDB exchange ratio., This is a big deal for us because it tells us how strongly the conclusion is expected.”

    MariaDB’s users are on the rise. The database is the default database of the Red Hat Linux distribution, which will bring Widenius, already four to five million users. MariaDB ratio has shifted to include the Wikipedia encyclopedia.

    “I believe that six months from now, there are 30 full-time developers., It is more than MySQL ever has been,” said Widenius.

    Source: http://www.3t.fi/artikkeli/uutiset/teknologia/google_vaihtaa_mysql_tietokannasta_suomalaiseen_mariadb_hen

    Reply
11. September 15, 2013 at 9:18 am

    Tomi says:

    Tablet Sales in Fourth Quarter Could Surpass PCs, With Annual Tablet Sales Set to Eclipse Computers by 2015
    http://allthingsd.com/20130912/tablet-sales-in-fourth-quarter-could-surpass-pcs-with-annual-tablet-sales-set-to-eclipse-computers-by-2015/

    It looks like Steve Jobs was right to predict that the PC would become the “truck” to the tablet’s “car.”

    “When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks, because that’s what you needed on the farm,” Jobs said at our D8 conference in 2008. But, he went on, as we became a nation of cities, cars gradually overtook trucks, and became the dominant form of transportation.

    Fast-forward five years, and Jobs’ projection appears to be on track. Market research firm IDC projected on Wednesday that tablet shipments in the fourth quarter will outpace the number of desktop and notebook computer units sold. By 2015, annual tablet sales will top PCs, as well, IDC said.

    But it turns out that even more people are opting for the motorcycle, if you will. Smartphones will make up more than two-thirds of the smart-device market by 2015, IDC said, accounting for 1.4 billion devices.

    While the tablet and smartphone markets are maturing in some places, trade-in programs should help keep the market growing.

    “At a time when the smartphone and tablet markets are showing early signs of saturation, the emergence of lower-priced devices will be a game-changer,”

    Reply
12. September 16, 2013 at 1:10 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Analysis: Despite fears, NSA revelations helping U.S. tech industry
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/15/us-usa-security-snowden-tech-analysis-idUSBRE98E08S20130915

    (Reuters) – Edward Snowden’s unprecedented exposure of U.S. technology companies’ close collaboration with national intelligence agencies, widely expected to damage the industry’s financial performance abroad, may actually end up helping.

    Despite emphatic predictions of waning business prospects, some of the big Internet companies that the former National Security Agency contractor showed to be closely involved in gathering data on people overseas – such as Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. – say privately that they have felt little if any impact on their businesses.

    Insiders at companies that offer remote computing services known as cloud computing, including Amazon and Microsoft Corp, also say they are seeing no fallout.

    Meanwhile, smaller U.S. companies offering encryption and related security services are seeing a jump in business overseas, along with an uptick in sales domestically as individuals and companies work harder to protect secrets.

    “Our value proposition had been that it’s a wild world out there, while doing business internationally you need to protect yourself,”

    LITTLE IMPACT

    Google employees told Reuters that the company has seen no significant impact on its business, and a person briefed on Microsoft’s business in Europe likewise said that company has had no issues. At Amazon, which was not named in Snowden’s documents but is seen as a likely victim because it is a top provider of cloud computing services, a spokeswoman said global demand “has never been greater.”

    Politicians in Europe and Brazil have cited the Snowden documents in pushing for new privacy laws and standards for cloud contracts and in urging local companies to steer clear of U.S. vendors.

    “If European cloud customers cannot trust the U.S. government, then maybe they won’t trust U.S. cloud providers either,” European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes told The Guardian. “If I am right, there are multibillion-euro consequences for American companies.”

    There have indeed been some contract cancellations.

    There are multiple theories for why the business impact of the Snowden leaks has been so minimal.

    One is that cloud customers have few good alternatives, since U.S. companies have most of the market and switching costs money.

    Perhaps more convincing, Amazon, Microsoft and some others offer data centers in Europe with encryption that prevents significant hurdles to snooping by anyone including the service providers themselves and the U.S. agencies. Encryption, however, comes with drawbacks, making using the cloud more cumbersome.

    Another possibility is that tech-buying companies elsewhere believe that their own governments have scanning procedures that are every bit as invasive as the American programs

    BOON FOR ENCRYPTION SECTOR

    “One of the results we see from Snowden is an increased awareness across the board about the incredible cyber insecurity,” Denaro said.

    “Clients are now inquiring how they can protect their data overseas, what kinds of access the states might have and what controls or constraints they could put in with residency or encryption,” said Gartner researcher Lawrence Pingree

    Stiennon said that after more companies encrypt, the NSA and other agencies will spend more to break through, accelerating a lucrative cycle.

    “They will start focusing on the encrypted data, because that’s where all the good stuff is,” Stiennon said.

    Reply
13. September 16, 2013 at 1:26 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Sandisk reveals 4K capable Compactflash cards
    Offers 256GB capacity
    http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2294714/sandisk-reveals-4k-capable-compactflash-cards

    STORAGE VENDOR Sandisk has been quick to capitalise on the latest buzzphrase in television with the launch of its Sandisk Extreme Pro Compactflash memory card that sports 256GB capacity.

    With its Video Performance Guarantee (VPG-65) assuring users of write speeds at a consistent 65MBps, the memory card is capable of recording 4K television, the successor to HD TV. Recording directly in 4K has been an obstacle to widescale adoption of the new format, so with this latest leap, it won’t be long before we will be able to see how many wrinkles our favourite newsreaders have under all that makeup.

    Sandisk also includes a one year licence for Rescuepro recovery software, just in case of you accidentally delete the shot of a lifetime.

    Flash memory technology continues to advance at a rapid pace, and it presents exciting possibilities for both professional and consumer users.

    Reply
14. September 16, 2013 at 1:55 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Slideshow: Intel’s CEO Fires Up IDF
    http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1319489&

    Intel’s new chief executive made his public debut at the company’s annual developer forum here, carving out an image as a straight shooter loaded for bear. “Our plan is to lead in every segment of computing,” he said in his first keynote as the CEO.

    Reply
15. September 16, 2013 at 2:14 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Microsoft endures Patch Horror Day on Friday 13th – issues updates to 8 of 13 updates
    http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2013/09/14/microsoft-endures-patch-horror-day-on-friday-13th-issues-updates-to-8-of-13-updates/

    Last weekend, I made a joke about Friday the Thirteenth no longer implying anything in computer security circles except that it was a week with a Patch Tuesday in it.

    And what happened?

    Friday the Thirteenth turned into Patch Horror Day for Microsoft, as Redmond release engineers waited, no doubt with bated breath, to see if they had solved the problems that required eight out of 13 security patches to be reissued.

    Last month, of course, Microsoft turned out a couple of patches that didn’t work properly; this month, patching worked far too keenly for some users.

    Soon after we’d written up our Tuesday recommendations, concluding with our usual imprecation to “patch early, patch often” (this time, in fact, we said, “Best get patching right away, then!”), we began to see worried comments appearing on Naked Security.

    Reply
16. September 16, 2013 at 2:19 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Couchbase relaxes NoSQL derrière into mobile seats
    Couchbase Lite sits a small JSON DB atop iOS, Android
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/13/couchbase_mobile_nosql/

    Database startup Couchbase has developed what it believes is the first NoSQL database for mobile devices, but why would anyone want such a thing?

    The Couchbase Lite database was announced by the company on Friday as part of its “JSON Anywhere” strategy, which sees it also create a new data syncing service and a cloud test and development “sandbox” platform. It comes a few weeks after the company trousered $25m of filthy Valley lucre.

    By bringing the key-value document store to mobile devices, the company hopes to corner a use case that is both very young, and potentially ubiquitous. Couchbase Lite is designed to let developers take advantage of the expanded processing and storage capabilities of modern phones and fondleslabs.

    “The goal is to provide a modern database that embodies the same philosophy as Android and iOS,”

    “The Couchbase Lite device databases – they will talk to a Couchbase server in the cloud through the Sync Gateway,” Yaseen says.

    The beta community editions of Couchbase Lite and the Couchbase Sync Gateway are available for download, and the Couchbase Cloud is open.

    We asked MongoDB Inc, the steward of the MongoDB database, whether it had plans for a mobile locally-deployable version of Mongo: “We don’t currently offer a version of MongoDB for mobile devices,”

    Reply
17. September 16, 2013 at 2:29 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Translate This: Google’s Quest to End the Language Barrier
    http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/google-translate-has-ambitious-goals-for-machine-translation-a-921646.html

    Can the language barrier be breached? Google certainly thinks so: Under the leadership of a computer scientist from Germany, the company is making progress toward a universal translation tool. But competition is looming from Microsoft and Facebook.

    When science-fiction writers envision the future of mankind, a number of ideas for improving the world repeatedly pop up. They include free, unlimited energy and spaceships traveling at the speed of light. And they include the creation of miniature computers that serve as universal translators, eliminating all language barriers.

    The last of these dreams, at least, is something Google intends to make a reality. The man in charge of the project is a computer scientist from a small village near Erlangen, in southwestern Germany.

    Franz Josef Och, 41, has long been focused on a single goal: to build the perfect translation computer, a machine that is so inconspicuous and fast “that you hardly notice it all, except as a whisper in your ear,” a device that can promptly spit out any text, the content of a website or a conversation in any other language.

    The German computer scientist and his team have already made substantial progress. Google Translate can now translate text back and forth between 71 languages, be it from English into German or from Icelandic into Japanese.

    The Google service was used about 200 million times last year. And, so far, it has been free of charge. But multinational companies, in particular, would attach a great deal of value to an automated translation service; Google could almost certainly charge a substantial amount of money for the tool in the future.

    For now, however, the company’s goal is to perfect the service, and its path leads through the smartphone. The Translate team has developed an app that transforms smartphones into a talking translation machine, with the ability to handle about two dozen languages so far.

    The app works very well, as long as sentences are kept relatively simple.

    Och feels that the application is still “slightly slow and awkward, because you have to press buttons.” The quality of the translation is also inconsistent. But only a few years ago, people would have said he was crazy if he had predicted what Translate could do today.

    ‘A Quantum Leap’

    IBM laid the foundation for automated translation decades ago, but the project made no headway and was soon abandoned. For this reason, the first years at Google were “a pure research project” for Och and a handful of coworkers. Recently, however, they have made tremendous progress — “a quantum leap,” as Och calls it.

    And the larger the mass of existing data, the better the system works. This is why the translation computer only became possible as a result of the Internet. The worldwide web offers an enormous wealth of existing translations.

    A Slice of Humanity

    Och remains vague, saying that the business side of things isn’t his department. But he is willing to say this much: “Machine translation makes a lot of information accessible for many people, and that makes many other things possible.” The indirect benefit, he explains, is what’s important. Google has taken a similar approach with its other products. Its search engine and email service are available at no charge, for now. But they also supply Google with hundreds of millions of users and their data.

    At the same time, there is growing competition. A few weeks ago, Facebook acquired a small company that has developed a system for language entry and automated translation. The social network wants to use the system to facilitate communication among its users, of which there are more than a billion from upwards of 200 countries.

    The European Union has developed its own automated translation program, called MT@EC, which is primarily designed to tackle bureaucratic jargon. Owing to budget cuts, the EU will likely have to eliminate 10 percent of its human translation workforce in the coming years.

    Microsoft has also launched a translation project.

    Reply
18. September 17, 2013 at 10:07 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    IBM Again Pledges $1 Billion to a Linux Effort
    http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/09/16/ibm-again-pledges-1-billion-to-a-linux-effort/

    Linux continues to dominate data centers. IBMIBM +0.51% wants more of that action to take place on its hardware.

    The computer giant on Tuesday plans to pledge that it will spend $1 billion over four or five years on Linux and related open-source technologies for use on its Power line of server systems, which is based on the internally developed chip technology of the same name.

    IBM has long been one of the biggest backers of Linux. It made another celebrated $1 billion pledge in 2000 to support the technology as it was beginning to gain a foothold in businesses.

    Since then, Linux has become the mainstay operating system for many servers–particularly those used in computer rooms operated by big Web companies like Google. Most of those machines are x86 servers, which take their name from the underlying chip design sold by Intel and Advanced Micro Devices

    IBM, though it sells such machines, also adapted Linux for use on its mainframes and its Power servers. The latter historically used IBM’s variant of the Unix operating system.

    “We continue to take share in Unix, but it’s just not growing as fast as Linux,” says Brad McCredie, an IBM vice president of Power development who also holds the title of fellow.

    IBM is planning to formally disclose the investment at LinuxCon, an annual conference for developers and others this week in New Orleans.

    Changes made by Android backers usually wind up in the code at the heart of Linux and vice versa, says Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, which helps oversee its development.

    “It’s in everything,” Zemlin says of Android. “We love it.”

    Reply
19. September 17, 2013 at 10:08 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Gabe Newell: Linux is the future of gaming, new hardware coming soon
    Valve chief blasts PC market, promises big news is coming next week.
    http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/09/gabe-newell-linux-is-the-future-of-gaming-new-hardware-coming-soon/

    Gabe Newell, the co-founder and managing director of Valve, said today that Linux is the future of gaming despite its current minuscule share of the market.

    That seems hard to believe, given that Newell acknowledged Linux gaming generally accounts for less than one percent of the market by any measure including players, player minutes, and revenue. But Valve is going to do its best to make sure Linux becomes the future of gaming by extending its Steam distribution platform to hardware designed for living rooms.

    Newell made his comments while delivering a keynote at LinuxCon in New Orleans. “It feels a little bit funny coming here and telling you guys that Linux and open source are the future of gaming,” Newell said. “It’s sort of like going to Rome and teaching Catholicism to the pope.”

    Valve brought Steam to Linux in February, and the platform now has 198 games. Newell has previously promised to unveil a Linux-based “Steam box” to compete against living room gaming consoles sometime this year, and his company has updated the Steam software to work better on TVs. While he didn’t specifically mention the Steam box today, Newell hinted at an announcement next week.

    “Next week we’re going to be rolling out more information about how we get there and what are the hardware opportunities we see for bringing Linux into the living room,” Newell said.

    Besides just releasing Steam on Linux-based operating systems, Valve is contributing to the LLDB debugger project and is co-developing an additional debugger for Linux, Newell said.

    Reply
20. September 17, 2013 at 12:15 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    How do you choose your vendors?
    Trevor Pott has a little list. What has he missed?
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/17/how_do_you_choose_your_vendors/

    Part of ranking vendors (and their products) involves attaching a certain level of priority to the different categories you judge them on. Everyone is going to value different elements of a supplier relationship differently

    Reply
21. September 17, 2013 at 1:09 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Chinese DRAM Plant Fire Continues To Drive Up Memory Prices
    http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/09/17/0330207/chinese-dram-plant-fire-continues-to-drive-up-memory-prices

    “Damage from an explosion and fire in SK Hynix’s Wuxi, China DRAM fabrication plant will drive up global memory prices for PCs, servers, and other devices, according to new reports. Most of the damage from the Sept. 4 fire was to the air-purification systems and roof of the plant,”

    “The Wuxi plant makes approximately 10 percent of the world’s supply of DRAM chips; its primary customers include Apple, Samsung, Lenovo, Dell and Sony.”

    Reply
22. September 17, 2013 at 2:53 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Flash biz Violin plays for $162m shower of notes – will rivals drown it out?
    IPO at end of month, but upstart needs to be heard over the storage array din
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/17/flash_boy_violin_looking_to_raise_162_million/

    Flash array startup Violin Memory wants to raise $162m in a stock-market debut, according to paperwork filed for its IPO.

    Earlier this month rival Pure Storage received $150m in a funding round, which may or may not be significant in Violin’s pricing calculations.

    Other recent big-bucks flash-array news this month has included:

    Cisco’s purchase of Whiptail for $415m.

    Western Digital’s purchase of Virident for $685m.

    As a reminder, Violin’s mainstream storage competitors EMC and NetApp have their own acquired XtremIO and in-house built FlashRay products respectively, and HP has its own all-flash 3PAR 7450 array. There are also other flash array startups such as Nimbus Data, Skyera and SolidFire, and Fusion-io has a flash array capability with its NexGen acquisition.

    Reply
23. September 18, 2013 at 11:34 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Microsoft Leaves Windows 8.1 Pricing Unchanged From Windows 8 But Kills System Builder SKUs
    http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/17/microsoft-leaves-windows-8-1-pricing-unchanged-from-windows-8-but-kills-system-builder-skus/

    Microsoft today announced the pricing structure for its upcoming Windows 8.1 operating system. Windows 8 users will receive the new code free of charge, but for those not currently on Microsoft’s most recent operating system, the software will cost $119.99 in its basic form, and $199.99 for the ‘Pro’ edition.

    It’s important to note that the Windows 8.1 prices listed above are for the full Windows 8.1 operating system, and not simply an upgrade to it from a prior install of Windows. This is a change. Previously, Microsoft sold upgrades, and standalone “System Builder” copies of Windows.

    No more. As the company noted in a blog post, by offering “full version software” that doesn’t force users to have a prior copy of Windows installed, Windows 8.1 can be deployed with more “flexibility.”

    Microsoft cites “feedback” as one of the reasons that it moved away from selling upgrades and separate “fresh” copies of its operating systems.

    Now, any copy of Windows that you buy, starting with Windows 8.1, will simply be the full set of code, regardless of what you have on your computer. It’s a nice and long-needed change.

    Reply
24. September 18, 2013 at 3:23 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Apple does not innovate anymore

    Apple last week announced its new 5S and 5C smart phones are no longer caused by the same kind of turmoil as a previous release. It seems that after Steve Jobs era, the company is no longer innovate. Apple has become the typical American corporation.

    Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=378:apple-ei-enaa-innovoi&catid=13&Itemid=101

    Reply
25. September 18, 2013 at 3:28 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Intel also wants to IoT devices

    With the new Quark processor, Intel is trying to compete agains the British ARM’s on very low power devices.

    The new general manager Brian Krzanich really presented the key to his speech Quark-circuit family, which is intended for the Internet of Things, for example, wearable electronics devices.

    Intel promises Quark-processor basis for the development of devices for the reference cards for the end of the year. Initially, we are aiming to industry, energy and transport applications, Krzanich defined.

    Low power consumption is not the only big new thing in connection with Quark. Intel will also license the processor. The processor giant clearly wants to challenge ARM’s Cortex-M and Cortex-R family Consolidating processors. Quark has taken the Pentium instruction set position, so it is the x86 architecture. The details of the Intel architecture has not yet been revealed.

    Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=380:intel-haluaa-myos-iot-laitteisiin&catid=13&Itemid=101

    Reply
26. September 18, 2013 at 4:59 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Armed With $14M In New Funding, Bright Wants To Take On LinkedIn With A Data-Centric Approach To Recruiting
    http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/18/armed-with-14m-in-new-funding-bright-wants-to-take-on-linkedin-with-a-data-centric-approach-to-recruiting/

    Bright, a startup that is betting that data science and machine learning algorithms will be central to hiring and finding jobs

    Similar to CareerBuilder, Monster and others, Bright serves as a platform that job seekers can search for jobs that match their interests. But Bright aims to take this one step further my extracting more than just keywords to match job finders with recruiters. As CEO Steve Goodman explains, there is an inefficiency in the labor market where in jobs that are in the range of $30,000 to $80,000 in salary; where recruiters are overwhelmed by applications. He says many job seekers are eliminating a “spray and play’ strategy on sites like Monster to as many jobs in generalized sectors like sales.

    So Bright’s alogrithm takes into account location, past experience, and more to match Pepsi applicants with Coca Cola recruiters, and these applicants will receive higher bright scores than others. The algorithm also takes into account synonyms. So if someone lists Java on their resume, Bright’s technology will assume they are also strong in Apache.

    Reply
27. September 18, 2013 at 5:57 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Microsoft to Develop More TV Programs as It Readies Xbox One
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-18/microsoft-to-develop-more-tv-programs-as-it-readies-xbox-one.html

    Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) said it will expand its TV programming beyond the show based on its best-selling “Halo” game as it tries to position the new Xbox One console as a portal for games, videos and music.

    Xbox One is an attempt to merge TV watching with video game playing as Microsoft teams with partners including the National Football League to offer features such as viewing highlights and game scores. To underscore that broader approach, Microsoft is producing a live-action “Halo” show, in which director Steven Spielberg will be involved, and has a production team in Los Angeles developing concepts.

    “They have literally hundreds of ideas that they are incubating right now,” Spencer said. “We will have some new announcement for TV shows coming pretty soon.”

    The Xbox One will be released in the U.S. on Nov. 22 with a price of $499. The company’s first new console in almost eight years uses voice commands and motion sensing to recognize users and let them shift between games, live TV and Skype through an improved Kinect device that will come with the machine.

    The PS4, Sony’s first new console in seven years, and Microsoft’s Xbox One are each projected to sell 3 million units worldwide this year

    Reply
28. September 18, 2013 at 6:01 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    GitHub Adds Support For Diffing 3D Files
    http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/09/18/011236/github-adds-support-for-diffing-3d-files

    “A few months after releasing support for viewing models in .STL format, GitHub just added support for viewing changes to .STL formatted 3D models directly in the browser.”

    3D File Diffs
    https://github.com/blog/1633-3d-file-diffs

    Back in April, we introduced the 3D file viewer. Today we’re improving this by displaying diffs of STL files on GitHub.

    How does this work? We take both versions of the model, and using binary space partitioning, we compute the added, removed, and unchanged parts. This is done using csgtool, a C library paired with a Ruby gem via FFI. These pieces are cached and displayed by the 3D viewer

    Reply
29. September 19, 2013 at 11:39 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Grand Theft Auto V Is the Most Expensive Game Ever—and It’s Almost Obsolete
    http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-18/grand-theft-auto-v-is-the-most-expensive-game-ever-and-it-s-almost-obsolete#r=rss

    The release of Grand Theft Auto V yesterday brought to the forefront an apocalyptic scenario. The end-times theme isn’t part of the blockbuster video game’s setting, a fictionalized Los Angeles that’s havoc-filled but otherwise enduring. The apocalypse is part of the non-pixelated reality for gamers living through the final weeks in the eight-year reign of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

    Rockstar Games (TTWO) reportedly spent $115 million developing Grand Theft Auto V and $150 million on marketing—and the game is expected to make almost six times that much in sales over the course of the first year.

    Later this year, next-generation technology from the two major gaming powers will hit the market and render obsolete the current console, which will be banished en masse to dusty closets and the cluttered shelves of GameStop (GME) outlets. Grand Theft Auto V will likewise become an outmoded relic: Neither the Xbox One nor the PlayStation 4 will be able to run games made for older consoles (at first, anyway).

    The market for gaming consoles is also relatively friendly to developers who don’t immediately move to the hot new thing. About 150 million current versions of the Xbox and PlayStations have been sold worldwide, and even the most optimistic sales forecasts for the upcoming consoles put them nowhere near those numbers for quite some time. Nor will Microsoft (MSFT) or Sony (SNE) stop selling their old gear. It could be as late as 2015 before annual sales of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 surpass sales of their lower-priced predecessors, according to
    Gartner (IT) analyst Brian Blau.

    Reply
30. September 19, 2013 at 11:59 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Apple Reinvents Its Wheel With iOS 7, Takes Developers Along For The Ride
    http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/18/apple-re-invents-its-wheel-with-ios7-takes-developers-along-for-the-ride/

    Today brings the release of the most dramatic iOS update that Apple has ever made. More people will experience this change in a shorter period of time than at any point in computing history.

    “Measured by the number of people that are going to see a big change within the same 24-hour period,” says Evernote CEO Phil Libin, “I think iOS 7 is the biggest day in technology ever. There’s never been another day like this in the history of the universe where hundreds of millions of people will see a big change to something that they’re used to. Nothing of this scale has ever occurred.”

    Then you start to think about the way that we see updates or changes to those platforms. Windows transitions between versions can take years from the time they’re announced. Windows 8 is still chugging along on the low end of the curve. In the mobile world, the newer, better versions of Android like Jelly Bean take months, if not years, to reach meaningful market share. Yes, Jelly Bean is much better looking, more capable and very, very good compared to older versions of Google’s OS. But by Google’s own numbers only around 45% of Android users have even seen it on their devices, and it was released 16 months ago. The absolute latest version of Jelly Bean has yet to register on Google’s charts.

    Then we have iOS. Due to Apple’s extremely focused devices strategy and tightly controlled model that shrugs off carrier concessions and partner licensing, iOS has adoption rates that are off the charts in comparison. Recent predictions from mobile app performance management company Crittercism estimate that (if iOS 7 follows the trend of iOS 6) the new OS will hit 80% adoption rates within three months.

    Reply
31. September 19, 2013 at 12:13 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Xilinx joins the OpenCL effort, as part of All Programmable Abstractions initiative
    http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/fpga-gurus/4421142/Xilinx-joins-the-OpenCL-effort–as-part-of-All-Programmable-Abstractions-initiative

    OpenCL has found more support among Altera partners, but has needed another major FPGA vendor to support this open language, originally developed by Apple Inc. In mid-September, Xilinx announced it would work with partners MathWorks and National Instruments on OpenCL, as part of a new All Programmable Abstractions initiative.

    Critics might see Xilinx as adding a special superfluous marketing spin to the commitment to OpenCL. For the time being, APA does seem to be an ill-defined paper initiative. But the goal of Xilinx and its two major development partners is admirable.

    The APA initiative wants to place C, C++, System C, and the new OpenCL in a common framework to encourage high-level language programming of FPGAs. This could not happen too soon.

    Current trends in FPGA use suggest that most mid-range and larger FPGAs will rely at least on a single microprocessor core, if not multiple cores– either homogenous multiprocessing cores, or heterogeneous cores reliant on dissimilar threads and programming models.

    Xilinx is not putting a timeline on its work with partners on APA, and frankly, it would be unlikely to see any C++ or System C projects emerge before late 2014. This could push an OpenCL program into 2015 or later.

    Reply
32. September 19, 2013 at 1:07 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    GTA V Makes $800 Million In 24 Hours
    http://games.slashdot.org/story/13/09/19/0244224/gta-v-makes-800-million-in-24-hours

    “The highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto V was released at midnight yesterday, and to no surprise has managed to break the record for highest sales in 24 hours. Distributors Take-Two Interactive have announced that the game has managed to achieve a staggering $800m (£490m) worth of sales within the first day, and is certainly going to break the forecasted $1 billion within the week.”

    Reply
33. September 19, 2013 at 1:10 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    How Linux defenders attack bad software patents before they’re approved
    Group identifies dangerous patents and tries to cut them down to size.
    http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/09/how-linux-defenders-attack-software-patents-before-theyre-approved/

    Despite the rise in the number of patent trolls launching lawsuits affecting open source software, there are some glimmers of hope. The America Invents Act that was signed into law in September 2011 has provided new ways to prevent the issuance of over-broad software patents that could fuel future lawsuits.

    In a session at LinuxCon today, Linux Defenders director Andrea Casillas explained how the group is using rights granted by the new law to fight patent applications. A project of the Open Invention Network, Software Freedom Law Center, and Linux Foundation, Linux Defenders examines the 6,000 new patent applications published each week, attempting to identify those that are potentially threatening to Linux and open source. Then, the group looks for prior art that would invalidate at least some of the claims in the patents.

    The next step is working with Linux technologists to file defensive publications, which are not patents themselves but describe an invention and place it in the public record, preventing new patents from being granted that cover the same technology. These are typically two- to three-page descriptions of the technology, which the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) examiners can read when conducting their review of prior art that might invalidate or limit the scope of a new patent application. Linux Defenders has filed about 200 of these defensive publications.

    “We’ll work with authors or inventors or developers to take submissions, edit them, and work hand in hand with them to make these publications more effective,” Casillas said, urging the Linux community to help the group identify dangerous patents and find prior art.

    Defensive publications are an old strategy, but it’s become more accessible to the public because of the America Invents Act, Casillas explained. “This is the first time examiners have welcomed the public interaction,” she said. “Any individual can electronically submit up to three pieces of prior art at no cost per application.”

    One patent lawsuit “could make Red Hat go away”

    In a separate session at LinuxCon yesterday, Red Hat’s Fedora engineering manager Tom Callaway discussed legal threats to open source.

    Red Hat has criticized patent trolls and taken many steps to protect itself and its customers from them. Callaway said the threat can’t be understated. “I do not overestimate this. Red Hat is not a small company in our industry, in open source. We’re possibly the biggest. One good loss at trial on a serious set of patents could make Red Hat go away. It would be gone. That’s the seriousness of patents and that’s how chilling they are on our industry,” he said.

    Reply
34. September 19, 2013 at 2:09 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    HP’s new gesture-control laptop is the first with Leap Motion
    http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/19/4745964/hp-envy-17-leap-motion-se-notebook

    Touchscreens are now fairly standard in Windows 8 notebooks, but HP’s new Envy 17 Leap Motion SE has integrated yet another type of input: touchless. The Envy has Leap Motion’s gesture recognition technology built directly into the palmrest, allowing users to move seamlessly between the touchpad, touchscreen, and 3D gesture control.

    This integration is powered by a new Leap Motion micro sensor

    HP appears to be just testing the technology for now, however, as the Leap Motion Controller will only be available in a single notebook configuration. The Envy 17 Leap Motion SE has a touchscreen, a 4th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, and Nvidia graphics.

    Michael Buckwald, CEO of Leap Motion, sees the technology as enabling a new type of computer interaction, rather than trying to replace the keyboard or touchpad. “We want to allow users to control 3D objects using 3D space, like exploring Google Maps or modeling objects.”

    But Buckwald doesn’t plan to stop with just laptop integration. He says the new micro sensor is small enough to fit in both tablets and smartphones, an area of future interest for the company. “The automotive industry has also expressed a lot of interest in Leap Motion integration, and we’re also interested in exploring the different options there.”

    Reply
35. September 19, 2013 at 2:20 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Brocade Software Beats Cisco ASICs
    http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1319524&

    Intel would be hard pressed to find a better spokesman for its communications initiative than Kelly Herrell. The founding CEO of software startup Vyatta is the man behind the code running in a new family of x86 servers announced today by Brocade Communications that act as virtual edge routers, undercutting costs of Cisco routers.

    The Brocade Vyatta 5600 vRouter pumps out as much as 10 Gbit/s in packet traffic per x86 core under the hood. Meanwhile, Brocade continues to drive ahead its own switches that, like Cisco, take a more traditional approach of using ASICs.

    “The idea Intel silicon can drive multiple 10G cards at line rate is a reality — it’s shipping and we have customers using it,” said Herrell, who became general manager of Brocade’s software networking business unit when it bought Vyatta in 2012. “The ability of those x86 platforms to drive packets per second has exploded many fold in a short time,” he said.

    Since the Westmere generation of CPUs, Intel has been tinkering with ways to reduce cache misses and context switching latency when its processors handle packets. It rolled out a Data Plane Developer Kit (DPDK) to further grease the skids of its Xeon chips in comms systems.

    Before that work, Vyatta used Linux for packet forwarding and it maxed out at 8 Gbit/s to 10 Gbit/s per CPU with little added benefits beyond five cores.

    “Now we get 10G line rates per core with 64-byte packets and linear performance as we add cores,” said Herrell. “System shipping today deliver almost 200G throughput for a two-socket server, and in the routing/firewall world that is shocking because it replaces $100,000 proprietary boxes.”

    Herrell claims some of the new Brocade servers will deliver 40x the throughput of more expensive Cisco virtual routers. That’s thanks in part to the Vyatta software that uses Intel’s DPDK to run control and data plane traffic on separate cores.

    “we are competing with the $20-100,000 Cisco ASR class router at one tenth the hardware cost.”

    Such x86 servers cannot compete, however, with Cisco in higher end core routers

    “The overall trend is that for first time software is playing a key role in network infrastructure — it was always assumed it was all done with ASICs, but that’s no longer true,” he added.

    Brocade’s new servers target the emerging market for so-called network function virtualization. The term stems from a whitepaper from a dozen carriers calling for easier ways to manage their networks in software.

    The carriers formed a two-year work group under the European Telecommunications Standards Institute that now includes more than 60 carriers and network systems vendors. It essentially aims to lay out guidelines for delivering features in high-level server software rather than traditional systems using ASICs and proprietary code.

    With the founding of Vyatta and now his work at Brocade, Herrell is riding the trend. “You don’t need proprietary ASICs to do the bulk of the work for routing VPNs, firewalls, and that sort of thing,” he said.

    Reply
36. September 20, 2013 at 11:54 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Sony Plans To Launch Gaikai PS3 Library in 2014
    Sony will use the cloud technology to provide PS3 games to stream to PS4 and Vita.
    http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/09/19/sony-plans-to-launch-gaikai-ps3-library-in-2014

    Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida said that Sony plans to launch Gaikai cloud services with a library of PS3 games in North America next year.

    A selection of games will be available at launch, which will expand over time – Yoshida mentioned that users will want a good selection of titles to browse through from the beginning, like with Netflix, so the plan is to launch with a decent number of available games. They will be available to play through PS4, PS Vita and the recently-announced Vita TV.

    Sony will launch this service in 2014 in North America.

    Reply
37. September 20, 2013 at 12:08 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    No Update on Microsoft CEO Search, but Company Divides in Five New Business Segments
    http://allthingsd.com/20130919/microsoft-no-update-on-ceo-search/

    There is one key question on the minds of Microsoft watchers: Who will be the company’s next chief executive?

    But, as it kicked off its first financial analyst meeting in two years, Microsoft had little to say beyond the fact that it continues the search process it outlined when it announced that Steve Ballmer planned to step down within the next 12 months.

    Earlier:
    “While this business faces some headwinds with the PC business … we have a full transition that is under way,” Turner said, beginning his talk.

    As for the transition to being a “devices and services” business, Turner says that doesn’t mean Microsoft is building all the devices.

    “We want a healthy ecosystem,” Turner said. “It does mean we are going to make some of the devices.”

    Turner talks about four big megatrends in tech: Cloud, social, mobility and Big Data. (The question, of course, is how well Microsoft will do in those.)

    We’re told things are about to restart.

    Reller starts by recapping July 11 “One Microsoft” reorganization.

    Reller: What about Windows RT?

    Myerson: ARM-based chips have incredible share in phones. Expect many more Windows tablets running ARM chips, Myerson says.

    Speaking of Microsoft tablets, Reller notes Microsoft’s Surface event is coming up next week.

    Okay, so what about apps?

    “We understand where we are at,” Myerson says. We have a plan and are making progress.”

    The opportunities are larger. More devices than there are PCs.

    Hood on how to think of the enterprise business. “Three Key Buckets” — now that’s serious old-school Microsoft.

    Key point: Subscription renewals should be higher than the 75 percent Microsoft currently gets on its enterprise agreements with big customers.

    There’s also an opportunity to sell more premium versions in a subscription world. “Opportunity, opportunity, opportunity,” Hood says.

    Ballmer — “Our devices should come with our cloud services. You will be able to use our services without our devices. … I know we can do a better job on our own devices.”

    Hard to do real integration with Google Play and iOS rules, Ballmer says. Our services will be available on a number of different devices.

    Consumers spend the most on devices and monthly phone service and not much beyond that, he says. Hence the need to be in device business.

    “I do believe Google’s practices are worthy of discussion with competition authorities and we have had conversations,” Ballmer says. “I don’t think their practices are getting less meritorious of discussion.”

    Here we go. The five new reporting segments. (There were five before.)

    There will be, on the devices and consumer side, a hardware, licensing and other segment and, on the commercial side, a licensing and other. T

    So, in hardware is Surface, Xbox and other hardware, consumer and devices licensing will include Windows, Windows Phone, consumer Office and intellectual property licensing. Other includes Bing and MSN, Office 365 home premium subscriptions and Microsoft-created video games.

    On commercial, licensing includes sales of Windows enterprise licenses, server products, business Office sales, the Dynamics and unified communications business.

    The other segment there will include enterprise services, Windows Azure and Office 365 for business.

    Why make a change this big? “In some ways, it’s hard,” Hood says, but it will enhance accountability.

    The company will report in both old and new way for the next quarter.

    Reply
38. September 20, 2013 at 12:20 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    The U.S.’s crap infrastructure threatens the cloud
    Thanks to state-sponsored cable/phone duopolies, U.S. broadband stays slow and expensive — and will probably impede cloud adoption
    http://www.infoworld.com/d/application-development/the-uss-crap-infrastructure-threatens-the-cloud-226917

    According to the broadband testing firm NetIndex, U.S. consumer broadband speeds rank 33rd in the world, right behind the Ukraine. Personally, I pay more than $1,500 per month for 30/30MB fiber for our office. This is ridiculously expensive and slower than the average household Internet in many other countries. It’s a serious impediment to the United States maintaining its economic competitiveness — and to enabling all of us to take full advantage of the cloud, which is clearly the next phase of computing.

    Poor laws and regulations have protected a duopoly in most areas of the country. You can buy Internet from the local cable monopoly or the local phone monopoly, period. Neither have much motivation to make it much faster nor any cheaper.

    For many small businesses, $1,500 per month is out of reach.

    Plus, in some rural areas of my state and the rest of the country, there is no broadband at all.

    Originally, my company used the same cable broadband you get in the home with 50MB down and 5MB up (believe it or not, this is perceptibly slower than 30/30MB fiber in general). When we moved from local servers to the cloud, we knew the 5MB uplink would be a serious problem.

    The effect on the cloud
    One would expect that the United States would lead in “cloudification,” since Amazon and most of the other cloud pioneers are located here. But I can’t help but wonder if the broadband advantage outside our borders will not only make those countries more competitive in technology, but also speed up their cloud adoption. If you’re moving out of your local network or local data center, then not only burst capacity, but packet loss and latency are seriously important.

    After the initial cloud rush, where everyone will be talking but only a few will be doing, I expect that cloud adoption will closely match broadband speed, cost, and availability curves

    Reply
39. September 20, 2013 at 12:22 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Microsoft does not give up, even though many people consider Windows RT and failed platform.

    The company promises “many Windows RT tablet PC more.”

    “I look forward to the ARM tablet computers will grow,” says Microsoft’s operating systems, Executive Vice President Terry Myerson.

    In addition, Morton H. Meyerson brought out the Nokia store from the hardware know-how: “More epic devices from Nokia”

    Microsoft will publish the Surface 2 tablet PC next week.

    Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/quotentista+eeppisempia+laitteita+nokialtaquot++microsoft+lupaa+lisaa+rttaulutietokoneita/a931792

    Reply
40. September 20, 2013 at 12:47 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Swedish company Tobii Technology has completed the tablet accessory, which allows the device can be controlled using an eye movements. Enhancement works on Windows 8 devices such as Microsoft’s own Surface and Dell’s Latitude 10.

    Tobii Eyemobile is intended for users who have physical problems with a tablet, for example due to illness.

    The device converts Windows 8′s contacts, clicks and swipes functional as commands through a mere glance. If the user has a hard time delivering the speech, too, is can successfully talk with Gaze Interaction software.

    Tobii Eyemobile is already on sale in the Swedish company’s online store. Price of the device will be more than $ 4,000.

    Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=394:windows-tablettia-voi-ohjata-katseella&catid=13&Itemid=101

    Reply
41. September 20, 2013 at 12:54 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Microsoft: IE 11 is the world’s fastest web browser

    Microsoft updates Windows 8.1, the reform of the web browser is. Internet Explorer 11 will be published in late October, and the browser will be available to the older Windows 7 operating system.

    Microsoft has measured the performance of the most popular browsers on the SunSpider test program that measures the javascript code execution speed

    It is good to remember that the test does not tell the whole truth about the performance of the browser. Although the web site is commonly used in JavaScript components, it is just one of the factors affecting the speed.

    Source: http://www.tietokone.fi/artikkeli/uutiset/microsoft_ie_11_selain_on_maailman_nopein

    Reply
42. September 20, 2013 at 3:24 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Ballmer hints at Office on the iPad and Android tablets

    Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer hints that the company is developing an Office office software on the iPad and Android tablet computers.

    On Thursday, Ballmer told the Wall Street analytiikoille speaking, that Microsoft has the opportunity to offer their products to other platforms than Windows. Completely straight answer to retire remaining point-General did not give on Office issues.

    At the same time, he blurted out that Microsoft is “working on everything, what do you think the company should work on.”

    Ballmer did not directly mention Android or iOS AA. However, they are currently the only laudable platforms, which the company could go after additional sales.

    Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/ballmer+vihjailee+officea+ipadiin+ja+androidtabletteihin/a931933

    Reply
43. September 20, 2013 at 3:39 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    What the NSA and Business (Should) Have in Common
    http://www.cio.com/article/739947/What_the_NSA_and_Business_Should_Have_in_Common?page=1&taxonomyId=3061

    Regardless of where you sit on the privacy vs. security spectrum regarding the controversy over the NSA collecting telephony metadata for millions of phone calls, the situation has made one thing clear: telephony metadata can be valuable. In fact, now is a good time to evaluate (or create) a system for internally gathering and making the most out of this important, but often overlooked information source.

    Reply
44. September 20, 2013 at 4:04 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Extend USB 3.0 Vision Applications Over Fiber
    http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1365&doc_id=267886&cid=nl.dn14

    With more than 10 billion devices in the market already, USB is undisputedly the most successful computer connection interface to date. But for machine vision applications, USB 2.0 has been only a minor player due to relatively low throughput rate (480 Mbit/s) and distance reach (5 m) compared to rival vision camera interfaces like FireWire, GigE Vision, and Camera Link.

    The standard having been formally published last January, USB3 Vision cameras support up to 5 Gbit/s to produce high-quality resolution, vibrant colors, and high frame rates comparable to Camera Link at a fraction of the total solution cost.

    The only flaw with this technology is the distance limitation. Not all copper cables can support USB 3.0’s higher bandwidth at any appreciable distance. While great strides were made to improve throughput from USB 2.0’s 480 Mbit/s to USB 3.0’s 5 Gbit/s, distance took a step backward from 5 m to 3 m.

    Fiber-optic cabling is the obvious choice over copper to increase distance, especially for newer transmission standards such as OM3 multimode fiber.

    The stars seem to be aligned with USB 3.0 and fiber to work together to resolve the distance gap. But it’s never quite that easy.

    ExtremeUSB has long been the extension standard for USB 1.1 and 2.0, and is now bridging the gap for USB3 Vision. It supports plug-and play-functionality (no software drivers required) and is compatible with all popular operating systems. ExtremeUSB 3.0 extenders are designed to extend USB3 Vision-compliant applications up to 100 m over OM3 multimode fiber, and have been validated by machine vision camera leaders like IDS, Lumenera, NET, Point Grey, The Imaging Source, Ximea, and others.

    Reply
45. September 23, 2013 at 10:12 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    The New Normal: Multi-Everything
    http://www.cablinginstall.com/whitepapers/2013/06/the-new-normal–multi-everything.html

    Today’s IT discussions are filled with terms like Cloud, Virtualization, SANs, BYOD, SaaS, and SLAs. Rarely is the physical layer – Layer 1 of the 7-Layer OSI Model – part of the buzz. All network technologies lead back to that critical, foundational layer and the cabling infrastructure that supports it.

    Reply
46. September 23, 2013 at 10:18 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Mozilla Launches Preview Of Firefox For Windows 8 Tablets
    http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/20/mozilla-launches-preview-of-firefox-for-windows-8-tablets/

    Mozilla’s long-delayed Firefox for Windows 8 tablets has finally made its first public appearance outside of the relatively obscure and unstable Nightly development channel. As Mozilla announced today, the chrome-less tablet version of Firefox that runs in Windows 8′s Metro/Modern UI mode is now available in the Aurora release channel. From there, it will slowly make its way to the beta and release channel. It’s not expected to arrive in the stable release version before late January 2014.

    Reply
47. September 23, 2013 at 12:00 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    USB 3.1 demo shows new spec well on its way towards 1.2GB/sec goal
    Bad news for Intel’s pricey Thunderbolt
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/21/usb_3_point_one_demo_shows_impressive_performance/

    At CES this January, Jeff Ravencraft, the president and chief operating officer of the USB Implementers Forum USB-IF), told The Reg that the unfortunately named “SuperSpeed” USB 3.0 would double its throughput from 5Gb/sec to 10Gb/sec in its 3.1 incarnation. We recently sat down with him again and saw it in action.

    The demo was conducted using a Fresco Logic–developed, FPGA-based, USB 3.1 prototype controller board connected not to a storage device, but to DDR memory. Why not an SSD? “Because there are no solid-state drives that are at that level yet,” Ravencraft explained.

    “With USB 3.0 at five-gig,” Ravencraft said, “you’d typically see, at the high end, around 450 megabytes. So here we are, eight weeks out, and we’re already showing double that.”

    Speaking of “real products”, Ravencraft proudly pointed to the fact that there are now over 1,000 certified USB 3.0 products in the market, and said that the analyst group MRG estimates 700 million individual SuperSpeed USB–enabled devices – certified and uncertified – will be shipped in 2013, and that shipments will grow to around 2.2 billion by 2016.

    MRG sees this as bad news for Intel’s baby, Thunderbolt. “Thunderbolt suffers extensively from a pricing problem,” they write. “The cost to add Thunderbolt to a notebook computer remains exorbitantly high when compared to the costs for adding USB 3.0 to the same notebook.”

    Reply
48. September 23, 2013 at 1:31 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Social media – a threat or an opportunity?

    Corporate managers face the dilemma of social media. On the other hand they want to use social media and get their clients to the company’s point of view produce positive content on social media channels.

    Social media opportunities-informed leaders of the movement also want their employees to be active in social media, because of the thoughts and insights into the decision-making processes are different points of view.

    Appropriate to the use of social media may also reduce the impact of telework distancing the workers.

    The dilemma arises from the fact that, although the use of social media can produce the above-mentioned positive aspects, at the same time, there are concerns about how to work with productivity goes.

    What if your employees twiittaavat, facebuukkaavat and blogging all the time? These activities benefit the business value calculation is difficult, if not impossible. Or is it?

    Work more effective, however, requires that people share information and knowledge with others. It should, therefore, bring the old master-apprentice approach to the present.

    Social media facilitates the reachability of a variety of situations availability, it may also help you to make better decisions.

    Dissemination of information through social media does not require any special computer skills and data management structures to plan in advance.

    Salesforce.com, which is known for its CRM cloud service, has recently introduced a social media tool called Chatter.

    Salesforce tool is widely used for its own internal operations. Seller may, for example to discuss the chatter with the organization before you submit a tender for a large customer.

    Of work during working hours should probably, however, benefit the company, in consideration of the employees receive a salary.

    If social media tools into companies more widely available, I believe it will lead directly to the operation of direction to the company for the benefit of a more efficient use of information.

    When no longer needed, at cards, back behind the operation of the observing superiors, but the company sees the systems directly to each employee participation.

    Mere business applications provide too structured world, just the social media applications are being too social. The combination of the two may produce a combination that will work is done quickly and efficiently.

    Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/cio/blogit/ict_standard_forum/sosiaalinen+media++uhka+vai+mahdollisuus/a931949

    Reply
49. September 23, 2013 at 1:34 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Valve Announces Steambox, Sort Of
    http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/09/22/0233246/valve-announces-steambox-sort-of

    “A new page has appeared over at Steam with this slightly cryptic text, a countdown, and an image of a console controller. ‘Last year, we shipped a software feature called Big Picture, a user-interface tailored for televisions and gamepads. This year we’ve been working on even more ways to connect the dots for customers who want Steam in the living-room.”

    Comment:

    I think Valve has a very good shot at taking on the console market.

    They have a recognizable and respected name.

    Their online delivery system is tested and reliable.

    Their software quality is generally good.

    What I know of their test betas has been solid.

    They have a huge catalogue of games for the platform before it’s even released.

    Reply
50. September 23, 2013 at 1:36 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Exploring the Samsung ARM Chromebook 3G
    http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/exploring-samsung-arm-chromebook-3g

    Back in late 2010, Google announced a “Chromebook”—a low-cost, entry-level netbook that would run Google’s own operating system, ChromeOS. Google’s vision of ChromeOS, although based on Linux, basically would be a giant Web browser, with all the apps on the machine running in the browser. ChromeOS would be a nearly stateless computer, with all the user’s apps based in Google’s cloud, running the Google Apps suite.

    Google’s first stab at this was the CR-48: an Intel Atom-powered netbook with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of Flash. The CR-48 wasn’t a powerhouse by any means, but it had a couple cool things going for it. First, it came with 100MB of free 3G service a month. Second, it had a “developer mode” that allowed users to break free of the strict Chrome-based browser jail and expose the chewy Linux center. A CR-48 in developer mode became a usable machine for a lot of people, because the machine pretty much became a small Linux laptop.
    Today—the Samsung ARM Chromebook

    Fast-forward a couple years, and the first real Chromebook products are hitting the market. Quite a few Chromebooks exist today, but all of them are Intel-based (either Atom or Celeron). In late 2012, however, Samsung released an ARM-based Chromebook. This little guy is different in lots of ways—primarily, it beats its bigger brothers in size and battery life, without compromising much on performance. Speaking of performance, let’s go over the specifications of the XE303—the first non-Intel powered Chromebook

    Reply