Here is my collection of trends and predictions for year 2014:
It seems that PC market is not recovering in 2014. IDC is forecasting that the technology channel will buy in around 34 million fewer PCs this year than last. It seem that things aren’t going to improve any time soon (down, down, down until 2017?). There will be no let-up on any front, with desktops and portables predicted to decline in both the mature and emerging markets. Perhaps the chief concern for future PC demand is a lack of reasons to replace an older system: PC usage has not moved significantly beyond consumption and productivity tasks to differentiate PCs from other devices. As a result, PC lifespan continue to increase. Death of the Desktop article says that sadly for the traditional desktop, this is only a matter of time before its purpose expires and that it would be inevitable it will happen within this decade. (I expect that it will not completely disappear).
When the PC business is slowly decreasing, smartphone and table business will increase quickly. Some time in the next six months, the number of smartphones on earth will pass the number of PCs. This shouldn’t really surprise anyone: the mobile business is much bigger than the computer industry. There are now perhaps 3.5-4 billion mobile phones, replaced every two years, versus 1.7-1.8 billion PCs replaced every 5 years. Smartphones broke down that wall between those industries few years ago – suddenly tech companies could sell to an industry with $1.2 trillion annual revenue. Now you can sell more phones in a quarter than the PC industry sells in a year.
After some years we will end up with somewhere over 3bn smartphones in use on earth, almost double the number of PCs. There are perhaps 900m consumer PCs on earth, and maybe 800m corporate PCs. The consumer PCs are mostly shared and the corporate PCs locked down, and neither are really mobile. Those 3 billion smartphones will all be personal, and all mobile. Mobile browsing is set to overtake traditional desktop browsing in 2015. The smartphone revolution is changing how consumers use the Internet. This will influence web design.
The only PC sector that seems to have some growth is server side. Microservers & Cloud Computing to Drive Server Growth article says that increased demand for cloud computing and high-density microserver systems has brought the server market back from a state of decline. We’re seeing fairly significant change in the server market. According to the 2014 IC Market Drivers report, server unit shipment growth will increase in the next several years, thanks to purchases of new, cheaper microservers. The total server IC market is projected to rise by 3% in 2014 to $14.4 billion: multicore MPU segment for microservers and NAND flash memories for solid state drives are expected to see better numbers.
Spinning rust and tape are DEAD. The future’s flash, cache and cloud article tells that the flash is the tier for primary data; the stuff christened tier 0. Data that needs to be written out to a slower response store goes across a local network link to a cloud storage gateway and that holds the tier 1 nearline data in its cache. Never mind software-defined HYPE, 2014 will be the year of storage FRANKENPLIANCES article tells that more hype around Software-Defined-Everything will keep the marketeers and the marchitecture specialists well employed for the next twelve months but don’t expect anything radical. The only innovation is going to be around pricing and consumption models as vendors try to maintain margins. FCoE will continue to be a side-show and FC, like tape, will soldier on happily. NAS will continue to eat away at the block storage market and perhaps 2014 will be the year that object storage finally takes off.
IT managers are increasingly replacing servers with SaaS article says that cloud providers take on a bigger share of the servers as overall market starts declining. An in-house system is no longer the default for many companies. IT managers want to cut the number of servers they manage, or at least slow the growth, and they may be succeeding. IDC expects that anywhere from 25% to 30% of all the servers shipped next year will be delivered to cloud services providers. In three years, 2017, nearly 45% of all the servers leaving manufacturers will be bought by cloud providers. The shift will slow the purchase of server sales to enterprise IT. Big cloud providers are more and more using their own designs instead of servers from big manufacturers. Data center consolidations are eliminating servers as well. For sure, IT managers are going to be managing physical servers for years to come. But, the number will be declining.
I hope that the IT business will start to grow this year as predicted. Information technology spends to increase next financial year according to N Chandrasekaran, chief executive and managing director of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest information technology (IT) services company. IDC predicts that IT consumption will increase next year to 5 per cent worldwide to $ 2.14 trillion. It is expected that the biggest opportunity will lie in the digital space: social, mobility, cloud and analytics. The gradual recovery of the economy in Europe will restore faith in business. Companies are re-imaging their business, keeping in mind changing digital trends.
The death of Windows XP will be on the new many times on the spring. There will be companies try to cash in with death of Windows XP: Microsoft’s plan for Windows XP support to end next spring, has received IT services providers as well as competitors to invest in their own services marketing. HP is peddling their customers Connected Backup 8.8 service to prevent data loss during migration. VMware is selling cloud desktop service. Google is wooing users to switch to ChromeOS system by making Chrome’s user interface familiar to wider audiences. The most effective way XP exploiting is the European defense giant EADS subsidiary of Arkoon, which promises support for XP users who do not want to or can not upgrade their systems.
There will be talk on what will be coming from Microsoft next year. Microsoft is reportedly planning to launch a series of updates in 2015 that could see major revisions for the Windows, Xbox, and Windows RT platforms. Microsoft’s wave of spring 2015 updates to its various Windows-based platforms has a codename: Threshold. If all goes according to early plans, Threshold will include updates to all three OS platforms (Xbox One, Windows and Windows Phone).
Amateur programmers are becoming increasingly more prevalent in the IT landscape. A new IDC study has found that of the 18.5 million software developers in the world, about 7.5 million (roughly 40 percent) are “hobbyist developers,” which is what IDC calls people who write code even though it is not their primary occupation. The boom in hobbyist programmers should cheer computer literacy advocates.IDC estimates there are almost 29 million ICT-skilled workers in the world as we enter 2014, including 11 million professional developers.
The Challenge of Cross-language Interoperability will be more and more talked. Interfacing between languages will be increasingly important. You can no longer expect a nontrivial application to be written in a single language. With software becoming ever more complex and hardware less homogeneous, the likelihood of a single language being the correct tool for an entire program is lower than ever. The trend toward increased complexity in software shows no sign of abating, and modern hardware creates new challenges. Now, mobile phones are starting to appear with eight cores with the same ISA (instruction set architecture) but different speeds, some other streaming processors optimized for different workloads (DSPs, GPUs), and other specialized cores.
Just another new USB connector type will be pushed to market. Lightning strikes USB bosses: Next-gen ‘type C’ jacks will be reversible article tells that USB is to get a new, smaller connector that, like Apple’s proprietary Lightning jack, will be reversible. Designed to support both USB 3.1 and USB 2.0, the new connector, dubbed “Type C”, will be the same size as an existing micro USB 2.0 plug.
2,130 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to design a Web application with a 40+ year lifetime?
Every passing year brings changes, so think hard before building systems.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/06/how-to-design-a-web-application-with-a-40-year-lifetime/
We are currently migrating the client’s data from the past 40 years from various sources (Paper, Excel, Access, etc…) to the database. Future requirements are:
Workflow management of forms
Schedule management of forms
Security/Role-based management
Reporting engine
Mobile/Tablet support
Only 6 months in, the current (contracted) architect/senior programmer has taken the “fast” approach and has designed a poor system. The database is not normalized, the code is coupled, the tiers have no dedicated purpose and data is starting to go missing since he has designed some beans to perform “deletes” on the database.
I suggested using a CMS system like Drupal, but for policy reasons at the client’s organization, the system must be built from scratch.
Comments:
I think it’s a bit unreasonable to expect a Web application circa 2013 to be still up and runnable in 2053. Technologies are going to change. Platforms are going to come and go. HTML may be a quaint memory by then. But your data will still be around.
For your database, don’t worry too much about normalization. Instead you should be concerned about logging everything and having audit tables that track changes/deletes in data.
testing says:
If you would like to take a great deal from this article then you have to apply these strategies to your won website.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Linux Gaming Will Increase ’30-fold’ with Steam Machines
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/valve-alienware-steam-box-machine,27084.html
Back in the late ’90s when GPUs were first emerging, OpenGL was the go-to API when developing a game for the PC. But as the years rolled by, Microsoft DirectX became the dominant API. Thus when you talked about a PC game, it was typically for Windows. But all that’s changing thanks to Valve Software, which has been supporting Linux gaming for the past several years. Even OpenGL is getting renewed attention from developers.
Last week during E3 2014, Alienware’s product manager Marc Diana said that the launch of the Steam Machines next year will likely increase Linux gaming 20 to 30 fold “overnight.” These gaming rigs will ship with SteamOS, which is based on Linux, along with Valve’s in-house developed controller.
“It’s projected that whenever SteamOS comes out, there’s going to be 700 plus titles on SteamOS that are OpenGL games.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers unveil experimental 36-core chip
Design lets chip manage local memory stores efficiently using an Internet-style communication network.
http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/researchers-unveil-experimental-36-core-chip-0623
Tomi Engdahl says:
Oracle makes Sun-sized leisure grab
$5bn on Micros Systems – that’s Micros, yes Micr… oh forget it
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/23/oracle_buys_micros/
Oracle is buying systems maker and consulting shop Micros Systems for $5.3bn to break the slowdown in its hardware and software business.
The giant Monday confirmed reports it is buying Micros, which builds and delivers integrated systems including point of sale systems for the retail and hospitality sectors.
Oracle reckoned the deal extends its offerings in these areas by combining the Micros products with Oracle’s business applications, technologies and cloud portfolio.
Never heard of Micros? How about Sun Microsystems or PeopleSoft? The Micros deal is valued at $5.3bn, or $4.6bn net of Micros’ cash.
The amount Oracle is paying puts it in the same ballpark as these two earlier Oracle deals.
Oracle spent $7.4bn on the once mighty Sun and found $10bn in loose change for PeopleSoft.
Established in 1977, Micros customers include TGI Friday’s, Pizza Hut and OMNI Hotels. Micros claims its systems are running on 330,000 sites in 180 countries.
The company wrangles code in workflows, web, front and back office to deliver apps, internet IPTV, call centers and kiosks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FPGA news roundup: Microsoft “Catapult”, Intel’s hybrid and Xilinx OpenCL
by Rahul Garg on June 21, 2014 10:30 AM EST
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8189/fpga-news-roundup-microsoft-catapult-intels-hybrid-and-xilinx-opencl-
There has been some activity in the FPGA realm lately. First, Microsoft has published a paper at ISCA (a very well-known peer-reviewed computer architecture conference) about using FPGAs in datacenters for page ranking processing for Bing. In a test deployment, MS reported up to 95% more throughput for only 10% more power. The added total cost of ownership (TCO) was less than 30%. Microsoft used Altera Stratix V FPGAs in a PCIe form-factor with 8GB of DDR3 RAM on each board.
Intel revealed plans to manufacture a CPU-FPGA hybrid chip that combines Intel’s traditional Xeon-line CPU cores with FPGAs on a single chip. The FPGA and CPU will have coherent access to memory.
Finally, you may remember our previous coverage of OpenCL on Altera’s FPGAs and we had mentioned that Xilinx had some plans for OpenCL as well. Recently (~2 months ago) Xilinx updated its Vivado design suite and now includes “early access” support for OpenCL.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Disrupting the Data Center to Create the Digital Services Economy
https://communities.intel.com/community/itpeernetwork/datastack/blog/2014/06/18/disrupting-the-data-center-to-create-the-digital-services-economy
We are in the midst of a bold industry transformation as IT evolves from supporting the business to being the business. This transformation and the move to cloud computing calls into question many of the fundamental principles of data center architecture. Two significant changes are the move to software defined infrastructure (SDI) and the move to scale-out, distributed applications. The speed of application development and deployment of new services is rapid. The infrastructure must keep pace. It must move from statically configured to dynamic, from manually operated to fully automated, and from fixed function to open standard.
As a first step, we start with a commitment to deliver the best technology for all data center workloads – spanning servers, network and storage.
But what we find even more exciting is our next innovation in processor design that can dramatically increase application performance through fully custom accelerators. We are integrating our industry leading Xeon processor with a coherent FPGA in a single package, socket compatible to our standard Xeon E5 processor offerings.
Our new Xeon+FPGA solution provides yet another customized option, one more tool for customers to use to improve their critical data center metric of “Performance/TCO”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
60GHz wireless USB link unveiled at InfoComm
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/06/infocomm-gigabit-wireless-usb.html
Icron Technologies, a specialist in USB and video extension technology, and Quantum Electro Opto Systems Sdn. Bhd. (QEOS), a provider of high-speed, low-power connectivity, intelligent video security solutions and CMOS millimeter-wave solutions, have introduced what they say is the industry’s first successful implementation of an indoor-optimized 60 GHz wireless USB 2.0 link, with QEOS’ new 60 GHz single-chip transceiver delivering wireless multi-gigabit throughput and optimized for indoor usage.
“USB over wireless offers customers an elegant and flexible extension solution for installations where eliminating cables proves beneficial,”
“We are excited to work with Icron to combine our industry’s first 60 GHz single-chip CMOS solution with their impressive USB extension technology to demonstrate the first indoor use, consumer-friendly 60 GHz USB link,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Looking beyond iPhone, ARM 64-bit chips get into servers with GPUs
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2366483/looking-beyond-iphone-arm-64bit-chips-get-into-servers-with-gpus.html
Breaking from the cocoon of the iPhone 5S, 64-bit ARM processors will start delivering breakthrough performance in servers, aided by graphics cards used in some of the world’s fastest computers.
The first high-performance servers with ARM 64-bit processors have been announced with Nvidia’s Tesla graphics cards, which is also in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Titan, the world’s second fastest supercomputer. The servers from Cirrascale, E4 Computer and Eurotech were announced at the International Supercomputing Conference in Leipzig, Germany.
The first 64-bit ARM processor was used by Apple in the iPhone 5S, which was introduced last year. No 64-bit ARM products have been announced since, but there is a growing interest in low-power ARM servers to process lightweight tasks such as responding to search and social networking requests.
There is an interest in ARM processors combined with GPUs in research areas like protein folding, drug discovery and atomic simulations, said Ian Buck, vice president of accelerated computing at Nvidia.
“They now have an alternative than x86 servers, they can validate more choice,”
Nvidia faces competition from AMD, which is developing an ARM server processor and sells graphics processors such as FirePro for the supercomputing space. Nvidia lacks a CPU specifically for servers and is not developing one, Buck said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Opera’s Chromium-based Web browser is now available on Linux
http://thenextweb.com/apps/2014/06/23/operas-chromium-based-web-browser-now-available-linux/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mozilla puts a development environment into the browser with WebIDE
Nightly Firefox builds can develop, deploy, and debug apps all in the browser.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/06/mozilla-puts-a-development-environment-into-the-browser-with-webide/
Browsers have long contained development tools to help debug and diagnose problems when authoring Web content, but Mozilla is taking Firefox to the next level. Nightly builds of the browser now contain a development environment, WebIDE, for creating, testing, and deploying Firefox OS apps.
With WebIDE, developers will be able to create new applications from scratch, package them for distribution, deploy them to both the Firefox OS simulator and real Firefox OS hardware, and remotely debug them—all from within the browser and without the use of additional tools.
Mozilla cites two major advantages of using WebIDE as compared with developing apps for competing platforms. In-browser development tools are already familiar to the enormous number of Web developers that exist, so using them for application development minimizes the number of new tools and new skills that must be learned.
Second, they’re extremely lightweight as development tools go. The substantial size of downloading tools such as Xcode or Visual Studio, in addition to the cost of developer licenses on other platforms, can limit their appeal and usability, especially in emerging markets. Putting the tools into the browser means that Mozilla’s reach is near universal.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Micron 3D Memory Supercharges Xeon Phi
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322855&
Analysts have been speculating wildly about the technical details of the massively parallel next-generation Knights Landing Xeon Phi. For instance, they have said 3D memory would be stacked on top of its die. However, today Intel and its 3D memory partner, Micron Technology Inc. put all that speculation to rest.
The self-hosted many integrated core (MIC) Knights Landing version of the Xeon Phi will deliver more than 3 teraflops of double-precision peak performance per single socket. However, the Micron 3D memory that facilitates that speed will not be stacked atop the Knights Landing die. Instead, Intel and Micron have been working on a super-high-bandwidth parallel-path interface that will allow 3D Hybrid Memory Cubes (HMCs) to surround the Knights Landing die in such close proximity that the HMC will behave as if they were on the Xeon Phi die.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel Massive Parallel Upgrades Due
3-teraflops processors boosted by silicon photonics, inventive code
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322847&
Intel unveiled its many-integrated core (MIC) roadmap to expand the high-performance computer market at the International Supercomputer Conference (ISC-14) in Leipzig, Germany, June 22-26. The multi-faceted unveiling revealed the details of a new version of its massively parallel processor — the Xeon Phi — as well as a new interconnection fabric based on Intel’s silicon photonics advances, and an educational program designed to give every new programmer on the planet the opportunity to learn how to code for parallel processors.
Intel has been talking about a new version of its massively parallel Xeon Phi processor — currently with 60 cores per chip — but at ISC-14 unveiled many more, but not all, of the details about the new chips, which will be available in the second half of 2015. Its current-generation Xeon Phi is a 1-teraflop chip cast in 22 nanometer CMOS and sold on a PCIe board in several versions. The Green500 list pronounced it the most power efficient parallel processor in the world. The Top500 supercomputer list just announced the Xeon Phi powered Tianhe-2 (Milky Way 2) supercomputer at the National Supercomputing Center in Guangzhou, China as the fastest in the world for the third time running.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cloud Physics reveals new predictive storage services, cash injection
The cloud knows what happens if you tweak THAT disk
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/24/cloud_physics_reveals_new_predictive_storage_services_cash_injection/
Private cloud analytics outfit Cloud Physics has announced a new funding round and product.
The new product is a storage analytics tool that aims to help beleaguered sysadmins wrangling private clouds by warning them about imminent storage SNAFUs their generalist skills might not equip them to detect. Cloud Physics CEO John Blumenthal reckons the two most pressing issues such sysadmins face are capacity management and troubleshooting.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ubisoft: DRM Can’t Stop Piracy
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/ubisoft-drm-can-t-stop-piracy/1100-6420602/
VP of digital publishing says, “I don’t want us in a position where we’re punishing a paying player for what a pirate can get around.”
“What becomes key for us is making sure we’re delivering an experience to paying players that is quality,”
To fight piracy, Early explained that Ubisoft needs to not only focus on making better, more compelling games, but also ensure that these games have more online services (which are not available to pirates) baked into them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Should you entrust your systems management to the cloud?
Balancing the risks
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/24/cloud_security/
Cloud-based security and systems management (CSSM) applications have been going through my lab for testing lately and I find myself seriously weighing their use in production.
The basic reasoning behind using a CSSM is that the on-premises offerings are pretty universally miserable to work with. They are old, creaky beasts with layers upon layers of features and nerd knobs. They are a pig to set up, a pig to maintain and they take crazy amounts of resources.
Worse, the on-premises offerings either flat-out cost too much or the licensing was created by consulting the ghosts of Microsoft licensing specialists past.
The cloudy stuff is new; as such, it doesn’t have the cruft of the old. Yay for that, but the cloudy offerings also don’t have the flexibility of the battered on-premises warhorses. I find myself able to argue on either side of this one.
At scale, CSSM applications are amazing tools. You put a few hours of work into a change and hey presto, you can control tens of thousands of systems.
At the SMB end, those several hours spent on configuring, testing and deploying a change could see someone manually make the change on every one of a small company’s 100 PCs.
The border between where exactly a full-bore on-premises CSSM setup pays for itself is hazy and company specific. CSSM applications make the financial maths even more difficult to judge.
If you combine it with stuff you already own, such as Active Directory, or alternative deployment technologies, such as Puppet, do you get something that meets all your needs in a simpler and cheaper fashion?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung’s Latest Tablet Boasts Sleek Hardware, Confusing Software
http://recode.net/2014/06/24/samsungs-latest-tablet-boasts-sleek-hardware-confusing-software/
The tablet is also packed with free promotions that Samsung calls “gifts.” These include free subscriptions to various online newspapers and magazines, including Bloomberg Businessweek, and a year of free in-flight Wi-Fi from GoGo.
However, just as in its latest Galaxy S phone, Samsung has loaded a confusing array of duplicate apps into this tablet; generally, one from Google and one from Samsung itself. So there are two calendars, two browsers, two video players, two music players and two photo galleries, among others. In many cases, the device asks users which one to use when, say, opening a Web page or viewing a photo, but there’s no easy way to decide.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dell inks OEM deal with Nutanix to build mutant server, storage, networking beasts
Could this open the door for Fibre Channel Compellent arrays?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/24/dell_signs_oem_deal_with_nutanix/
Dell has announced it will begin supplying a converged server, storage and networking appliance using Nutanix software.
Nutanix is one of several startups making waves in the converged system space. Such systems are simpler to acquire, install and operate as they use integrated hardware and software components designed to eliminate as much complexity as they can.
Shared storage is produced by virtualising the node’s own storage into a single pool.
Dell tells us the term “Web-scale” means:
Hyperconverged system using X86 servers
All intelligence is in the software with no special hardware
Distributed everything with no single point of failure
Self-healing with fail-in-place capability – the system keeps running
API-driven automation and rich analytics
Tomi Engdahl says:
REAR-END my CLOUD: HDS embiggens its object storage
Stick your content whereever you please
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/24/hds_goes_into_cloud_backending/
Cloud back-ending is becoming more and more popular with storage system vendors and HDS has added cloud as a storage tier to its HCP object storage offering.
The HCP (Hitachi Content Platform) supports so-called adaptive cloud tiering which supports the automated movement of data “to and from a choice of leading public clouds from Google, Amazon and Microsoft based on changes in demand and policies set by the organisation.”
HCP Anywhere provides mobile device access to HCP storage and HDI (Hitachi Data Ingestor) inputs data into HCP, being a kind of cloud data on-ramp.
What we have here is a widespread and wide-access storage environment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How did that happen? Microsoft has become a hardware company. There is now a range of devices, from phones to phablets to tablets and tablets that verge on laptops, being made by Microsoft.
The distinction between laptop and tablet becomes blurred
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/24/microsoft_hardware_opinion/
Tomi Engdahl says:
AMD APUs to Become Efficient Faster Than Moore’s Law
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-apu-efficient-goal-moore,27099.html
Rather than announcing a new product, AMD has announced a new target called the 25X20. The idea behind it is APU efficiency.
So what exactly does the target entail? Well, AMD wants its APUs to be 25 times more efficient by the year 2020. The company indicated that over the last six years (an equal time period from today till 2020), its products became about ten times more efficient. The company also recognized that if such improvements take place, the company will be outpacing Moore’s law by about 70 percent.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ARRRRR. Half world’s techies are software PIRATES – survey
They’re OPENLY doing it, too
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/25/half_of_the_worlds_techies_use_pirated_software_says_survey/
Almost half of the world’s enterprise IT managers openly admit to using pirated software at work – at least a survey from a software industry association says so.
A report (PDF) from The Software Alliance claims that during 2013, 43 per cent of all software in the world was installed without a licence, up from 42 per cent in the previous study.
The results were extrapolated from a survey of 22,000 consumer and enterprise PC users and a parallel survey of more than 2,000 IT managers.
The survey estimated around $62.7bn worth of unlicensed software had been used last year. The US accounted for $9.7bn of this, with an unlicensed rate of 18 per cent, it claimed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft tests HALF-INCH second screen to spur workplace play
Stop your yammering and use ‘glanceable’ device to make yourself feel at home
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/25/microsoft_tests_halfinch_second_screen_to_spur_workplace_play/
Microsoft Research has detailed a tiny device called “Picco” that pipes sketches to users to make the workplace more feel more intimate.
Detailed here in a research paper titled “A Small Space for Playful Messaging in the Workplace: Designing and Deploying Picco”, Microsoft Research explains that Picco is “a tiny situated display for drawings and simple animations, which are created on a dedicated tablet app.”
Picco was built to test whether playful technology can find a home in the workplace.
Microsoft tested Picco in two group of interns and a family. All groups found the device amusing, but also reported that Picco and Picclets were useless for any functional or meaningful communication. Subjects, did, however, feel that the appearance of Picclets made the workplace feel a little more intimate.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Unveils New Cross Platform Design Language “Material Design”
http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/25/google-unveils-new-cross-platform-design-language-material-design/
Google announced a new universal design language, called Material Design, as part of the forthcoming “L” release of Google’s Android mobile operating system. The design is meant to offer a more consistent, universal look-and-feel across mobile, tablets, desktop and “beyond,” the company explains.
“We imagined… what if pixels didn’t just have color, but also depth? What if there was a material that could change its texture? This lead us to something we call ‘material design,” says Matias Durate, Director of Android operating system User Experience at Google, during the keynote this morning.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google previews Android apps running on Chromebooks
http://thenextweb.com/google/2014/06/25/google-previews-android-apps-running-chromebooks/
Google has confirmed that Chromebook devices will one day be able to run standard Android apps, during its I/O keynote today.
During the presentation, the company showed off Vine and Flipboard apps running on a Chromebook, which, of course, uses Google’s own Chrome OS.
The move is an important one for Chromebooks (and the Chrome OS platform more widely), as it will open up the platform to far more apps than are currently available, in theory broadening its general appeal.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Introducing the new Gmail API
http://googleappsdeveloper.blogspot.fi/2014/06/introducing-new-gmail-api.html
Designed to let you easily deliver Gmail-enabled features, this new API is a standard Google API, which gives RESTful access to a user’s mailbox under OAuth 2.0 authorization. It supports CRUD operations on true Gmail datatypes such as messages, threads, labels and drafts.
In contrast to IMAP, which requires access to all of a user’s messages for all operations, the new API gives fine-grained control to a user’s mailbox.
To keep in sync, the API allows you to query the inbox change history, thereby avoiding the need to do “archaeology” to figure out what changed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Cardboard Turns Your Android Into a DIY Virtual Reality Headset
http://gizmodo.com/turn-your-android-into-a-virtual-reality-headset-with-g-1596026538
Want a virtual reality headset, but can’t afford the hefty pricetag on most existing models (or to hold out for the future)? Google dropped an inexpensive solution today following its I/O keynote: Google Cardboard, an app that lets Android users transform their phones into VR headsets with the help of a DIY cardboard viewer.
It’s not exactly the Oculus Rift, but who cares what the outside looks like if the virtual reality experience is any good? The Cardboard app lets users watch YouTube, virtually carouse on Google Street View or virtually scale the Himalayas with Google Earth, among other immersive demos.
Google provided directions to put together the viewer, which is made from cardboard, velcro, magnets, and lenses (NFC tag optional).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Everything You Need to Know About Google’s I/O Keynote
http://www.wired.com/2014/06/google-io-keynote/
Android 5.0
Google’s Sundar Pichai started things off with a preview of the upcoming “L” (Android 5.0) release today.
Mobile Chrome
Avni Shah, director of program management for Chrome came out next to talk about mobile web experience. On the mobile web, Google’s also bringing in new design elements.
Chrome also gets a multitasking upgrade.
Android Wear
Android Wear will support various screen configurations—circular or square, for example. It understands your voice, so you can interact with it. Singleton shows this in action on an LG G watch.
Android Auto
Google is coming to your car, too. Google’s Patrick Brady, a director of engineering for Android, announced Android Auto today—a way to use connected Android apps and services in the car. Navigation, communication and music will take center stage here.
Android TV
Oh, hey and Google is also coming to your TV with Android TV. “We’re simply giving TV the same level of attention as your phone and tablet,” said Google’s Dave Burke. Basically, it just treats the TV like another Android screen. The interface is extremely slick.
Android Everywhere
But it isn’t all Android—or at least not entirely. Pichai also wants to tell us about Chromebooks.
Chromebooks are bringing in cues from Android as well. It already supports Google Now.
But the big goal has been to integrate Android applications into Chromebooks. And it’s happening.
Cloud Services and More Protesters
And of course, because this is a developer event, Google talked about its cloud services as well. It’s trying to make it really easy for developers to offload data, debugging, tracing and processing functions to the cloud. This announcement was interrupted by a protestor, who chanted “wake the fuck up,” and repeatedly claimed “you’re all working for a totalitarian company that builds robots that kill people.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
SQL fights back against NoSQL’s big data cred with SQL/MDA spec
The empire strikes back with multi-dimensional arrays
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/26/sql_to_worlddog_we_doing_big_data_too/
With the growing popularity of big-data tools like NoSQL databases and Hadoop, it might have looked like SQL could be in line to be moved on from “venerable” tag to “obsolete”, but last week, the ISO SQL working group agreed to start work on SQL/MDA (multi-dimensional array) specs.
The people behind SQL have decided it’s time to get serious (really, really serious) about big (as in really, really big) multidimensional datasets, and have kicked off an effort to extend the standard, adding the new capabilities needed by spatial, scientific, engineering and medical users.
As spatial publication GIM International notes, SQL doesn’t offer an elegant way to handle the kinds of arrays generated by scientific big data.
Similarly, data collected by big sensor networks can easily become multi-dimensiona
A separate effort, called Rasdaman (a scalable multi-dimensional array analytics server) has been working for some time to apply an SQL-like query language to array databases.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why software builds fail
New research into the reasons for software compilation errors at Google helps to reveal ways to improve developer productivity
http://www.itworld.com/big-data/424262/why-software-builds-fail
Software builds – that is, compiling programs into machine executable code – is an important part of most developers’ lives. When builds fail, due to compilation errors, it requires programmers to take extra time and brainpower to find and fix the problem, reducing their productivity. A better understanding of the cause of frequent software build errors, then, could help lead to new or improved development tools that would reduce these errors and increase developer output.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How much disruptive innovation does your flash storage rig really need?
Random IO? Or just plain random?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/23/how_much_disruptive_innovation_does_your_flash_storage_rig_really_need/
Our technology world is fascinated by disruptive innovation. Every tech startup says its new technology is disruptive and therefore it is bound to succeed.
So it is with all-flash arrays which can answer data requests in microseconds, instead of the milliseconds needed by disk drive arrays.
Startups such as Pure Storage, SolidFire and Violin say they have best-of-breed products in the networked storage array category because they are all-flash with software designed from the ground up to control their arrays.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Couchbase relaxes into golden couch stuffed with 60 meellion dollars
VCs bet on Oracle’s demise
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/26/couchbase/
Upstart database firm Couchbase has pulled in $60m in filthy valley lucre to help the company take business away from Oracle and IBM.
Couchbase is a JSON document-oriented database that prides itself on its scalability, performance and ease of maintenance.
It, like contemporaries MongoDB and Datastax, reckons it can use new non-relational (NoSQL) database technologies to attract not only developers, but serious enterprises, away from incumbents like Oracle and IBM.
furniture online says:
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Tomi Engdahl says:
LG is making a Google Project Tango device for 2015
http://www.slashgear.com/lg-is-making-a-google-project-tango-device-for-2015-26335504/
Google’s Project Tango team is working with LG to release a commercial device based on the platform, expected to hit store shelves in 2015. The partnership, revealed at Google IO 2014 during a presentation from Google’s ATAP team of skunkworks, will see LG follow the recently-launched Project Tango developer tablet with a version intended for the everyday consumer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IBM, Lenovo Tackle Security Worries on Server Deal
http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/ibm-lenovo-tackle-security-concerns-over-server-deal-1403733716-lMyQjAxMTA0MDIwNTEyNDUyWj
International Business Machines Corp. IBM -0.19% and Lenovo Group Ltd. 0992.HK -0.19% are grappling with ways to resolve U.S. security concerns over IBM’s proposed $2.3 billion sale of its computer-servers business to the Chinese company.
The deal, struck in January, remains in limbo as the U.S. government investigates security issues around IBM’s x86 servers, which are used in the nation’s communications networks and in data centers that support the Pentagon’s computer networks, say people familiar with the matter.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mozilla takes the Web 3D with Oculus Rift VR experiment
Prototype can show 3D graphics in real 3D.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/06/mozilla-takes-the-web-3d-with-oculus-rift-vr-experiment/
With WebGL and fast JavaScript, the browser is becoming a viable gaming platform. Mozilla has been promoting it as capable even of graphically rich 3D gaming. A new Mozilla experiment is making that 3D a little more real.
The work is only in its early stages, and there’s no relevant specification—yet—for how browsers should expose this kind of VR hardware.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Larry Page: Healthcare Data Mining Could Save 100,000 Lives a Year
http://science.slashdot.org/story/14/06/27/152213/larry-page-healthcare-data-mining-could-save-100000-lives-a-year
Google often gets criticism for its seemingly boundless desire for data collection and analysis, but the company says it has higher ambitions than just figuring out how best to serve advertising. Speaking to the NY Times, Larry Page said, “We get so worried about these things that we don’t get the benefits Right now we don’t data-mine healthcare data. If we did we’d probably save 100,000 lives next year.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google: 100,000 lives a year lost through fear of data-mining
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/26/google-healthcare-data-mining-larry-page
The search firm’s CEO and co-founder, Larry Page, estimates 100,000 lives could be saved next year if mining of healthcare data was acceptable
“For me, I’m so excited about the possibilities to improve things for people, my worry would be the opposite,” he told the New York Times’s Farhad Manjoo. “We get so worried about these things that we don’t get the benefits … Right now we don’t data-mine healthcare data. If we did we’d probably save 100,000 lives next year.”
“I think technology is changing people’s lives a lot, and we’re feeling it,” Page told Manjoo. “In the early days of Street View, this was a huge issue, but it’s not really a huge issue now. People understand it now and it’s very useful. And it doesn’t really change your privacy that much. A lot of these things are like that.”
“I think in some ways it’s good that there’s an open debate about it and I think we needed it,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Facebook Moved 20 Billion Instagram Photos Without You Noticing
http://www.wired.com/2014/06/facebook-instagram/
Your Instagram photos aren’t where they used to be.
This spring, even as some 200 million people were using Instagram on their smartphones, a small team of engineers moved the photo sharing service from Amazon’s cloud computing service—where it was built in 2010—into a data center operated by Facebook, which bought Instagram in 2012. “The users are still in the same car they were in at the beginning of the journey,” says Instagram founder Mike Krieger, “but we’ve swapped out every single part without them noticing.”
Now, Instagram runs on its own dedicated machines inside the Facebook facility.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Exclusive: HP to settle suits over Autonomy deal; make claim against ex-CEO Lynch
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/27/us-hewlettpackard-lawsuits-idUSKBN0F21YD20140627
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why do dynamic languages make it difficult to maintain large codebases?
Dynamic languages have costs associated with them that static languages don’t.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/06/why-do-dynamic-languages-make-it-difficult-to-maintain-large-codebases/
Large codebases are more difficult to maintain when they are written in dynamic languages. At least that’s what Yevgeniy Brikman, lead developer bringing the Play Framework to LinkedIn says in a video presentation recorded at JaxConf 2013 (minute 44).
Rather it is also everything else that is frequently missing from a dynamic language that increases costs in a large codebase. Dynamic languages which also include facilities for good testing, for modularization, reuse, encapsulation, and so on, can indeed decrease costs when programming in the large, but many frequently-used dynamic languages do not have these facilities built in. Someone has to build them, and that adds cost.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Seeing Is Believing With Google’s Tango Tablet
Consumer-grade 3D-sensing mobile available in 2015
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322905&
Project Tango will be in consumer hands as early as next year, speakers at Google’s I/O developer conference said today. Google is in early engagements with LG Electronics to produce the 3D depth-sensing tablet next year.
“Project Tango is a focused effort to work with the hardware and software ecosystem to advance the state of 3D sensing on mobile,” technical program lead Johnny Lee told attendees. “The compute is genuinely here to do amazing things with our devices. What’s missing is the hardware and software.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
You need a list of specific unknowns we may encounter? Huh?
Hey CIO, if you want my advice… oh, you don’t
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/27/it_bosses_stop_shouting_and_listen_for_a_change/
Freelancer, independent contractor, casual worker… call me what you will. I tell people I can’t hold down a proper job due to my low boredom threshold but the real problem is that I have an aversion to managers, especially senior managers.
They may not all look like the pointy haired hate-figure in the Dilbert strip but that’s what they are inside. Dear reader, you know what I’m talking about.
My freelance status puts me in a situation that is simultaneously enviable and precarious. Managers understand that I don’t have to put up with the same shit as employees and I could just turn round and walk out the door. How enviable! They also know that by the time I have reached the entrance of the car park, another contractor will have been hired to replace me. How precarious!
As with all contractors, experience has taught me to keep my head down and mouth shut. This wasn’t so easy in the early days, when it used to make me anxious that big companies wasted so much money on poor decisions. Foolishly, I would try to help them curb the waste and suggest ways of improving their productivity and profitability. Oh yes, I truly was that naïve.
Since then, I learnt that big organisations would rather flush vast sums of money down the drain getting things wrong again and again before hitting on a winning formula than spend a fraction of the cash getting it right first time.
Tomi Engdahl says:
US National Archives enshrines Wikipedia in Open Government Plan, plans to upload all holdings to Commons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2014-06-25/News_and_notes
Tomi Engdahl says:
Top 500 Supecomputers June 2014
http://www.top500.org/lists/2014/06/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Linux celebrates in the world’s fastest computers
In Top500 list, it is difficult to find a super computer that does not use Linux.
Linux share of the world’s supercomputers is 97 per cent
Source: http://www.itviikko.fi/uutiset/2014/06/27/linux-juhlii-maailman-nopeimmissa-tietokoneissa/20149048/7?rss=8
Tomi Engdahl says:
Windows ‘Threshold’: More on Microsoft’s plan to win over Windows 7 users
http://www.zdnet.com/windows-threshold-more-on-microsofts-plan-to-win-over-windows-7-users-7000031070/
Summary: One of Microsoft’s main goals with ‘Threshold,’ the next major version of Windows, is to win over Windows 7 hold outs. Here’s the latest on Microsoft’s plan, according to my sources
Users running Threshold on a desktop/laptop will get a SKU, or version, that puts the Windows Desktop (for running Win32/legacy apps) front and center. Two-in-one devices, like the Lenovo Yoga or Surface Pro, will support switching between the Metro-Style mode and the Windowed mode, based on whether or not keyboards are connected or disconnected.
The combined Phone/Tablet SKU of Threshold won’t have a Desktop environment at all, but still will support apps running side-by-side, my sources are reconfirming. This “Threshold Mobile” SKU will work on ARM-based Lumia phones, ARM-based Windows tablets and, I believe, Intel-Atom-based tablets.
The Microsoft OS team is hoping to get as many Windows 7 users moved to Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and Windows 8 users to Windows 8.1 Update in preparation for (hopefully) getting them to move to Threshold once it is out. It’s still early in the Windows development cycle for Microsoft to have decided on packaging, pricing and distribution, but my sources say, at this point, that Windows Threshold is looking like it could be free to all Windows 8.1 Update and maybe even Windows 7 Service Pack 1 users.
Microsoft is basically “done” with Windows 8.x. Regardless of how usable or functional it is or isn’t, it has become Microsoft’s Vista — something from which Microsoft needs to distance itself, perception-wise.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rare HPC beauties unveiled: Quivering racks, Lustre clusters and the tiers of a Cray
It’s all getting a bit terafloppy in Deutschland
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/30/isc_leipzig_roundup/
The International Supercomputer Show in Leipzig, Germany, was full of fascinating things at the high-end grunt front of the computing business. Here’s what attracted this roving hack’s eye.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Backstage at HP, Ars sees how the sausage gets made
We peek at some of the engineering and testing that goes into a modern PC.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/06/backstage-at-hp-ars-sees-how-the-sausage-gets-made/
We spent the day touring a half-dozen specialized labs, including HP’s software testing lab, environmental lab, materials lab, and electromagnetic lab.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Windows 9 rumors: Microsoft backing away from the Metro world
Desktop systems will apparently disable the Metro environment.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/06/windows-9-rumors-microsoft-backing-away-from-the-metro-world/