2009/03/31

NEW NET Issues List for 31 Mar 2009

Below is the final list of issues for the TUESDAY, 31 March 2009, NEW NET (Northeast Wisconsin Network for Economy and Technology) 7:00 - 9:00 pm weekly gathering. This week we're upstairs at Tom's Drive In, 501 N Westhill Blvd, Appleton, Wisconsin, USA.

The ‘net

1. Number of Facebook users over 35 doubled in last 60 days http://tinyurl.com/c7emn8 (ReadWriteWeb) “…Over the last 60 days, according to data from Inside Facebook, the number of users over 35 doubled, and the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is women over 55. The majority of Facebook users is now over 25…in the U.S., the majority of new users is not only over 25, but there is also a far larger number of new female users than male (13.5 million vs. 9.5 million in the last 180 days)…”

2. Flickr Co-founder Unveils Her New Startup: Hunch http://tinyurl.com/dnlp5n (ReadWriteWeb) “…Flickr co-founder and Hunch head honcho Caterina Fake divulged some more details about the new project on her blog. The new project aims to become a site that can help anyone make a decision about anything. The way it will do this is through the application of decision trees that are created by contributing users. Using decision trees in expert systems is nothing new, but applying that idea to a crowdsourcing model might possibly be a stroke of genius. Think Aardvark meets Wikipedia and you start to get the idea. Hunch is still in closed beta, but is accepting requests for invites…”

3. Government 2.0 Camp: online citizen engagement http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10206276-38.html “…Hundreds of Web 2.0 evangelists flocked to a school auditorium in Washington Friday morning to kick off Government 2.0 Camp, the inaugural event of Government 2.0 Club, a national organization created to allow government, academia, and industry to collaborate on Web 2.0 solutions for government…in a well-attended discussion at the event, the new-media directors admitted that if they were to use more online tools to engage citizens, they wouldn't quite know how to tell whether it accomplished anything…”

4. Yahoo Shuttering Travel Bargains Site FareChase Today http://tinyurl.com/cjp8h5 (TechCrunch) Yahoo is cutting more fat today by closing its travel bargains website FareChase, which it originally acquired back in July 2004 and re-launched two years later. The company will be announcing the shut-down later today, and will start redirecting visitors of the service to its main travel site soon…”

5. Mozilla, graphics group seek to build 3D Web http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10203458-2.html “…Two influential organizations are banding together to try to bring accelerated 3D graphics to the Web, a move that eventually could improve online games and other Web applications. The Web is gradually becoming a better foundation for applications with splashy, sophisticated interfaces, but 3D graphics on the Web remain primitive…Mozilla, the group behind the Firefox browser, and Khronos, the consortium that oversees the widely used OpenGL graphics interface technology, are trying to jointly create a standard for accelerated 3D graphics on the Web…”

6. Status.net: Future of Business Intelligence? http://tinyurl.com/c689z9 (ReadWriteWeb) “…Laconica, the Canadian company offering the most popular Open Source alternative to Twitter, announced plans today to begin selling subscriptions to hosted microblogging installations for businesses. The default address of these new sites will be yourname.status.net…Is this creepy? It doesn't have to be. There's a whole lot of exciting potential here and if an increasingly open technology world can help the business world understand the value of open over control (as it is) then this kind of analysis could be democratized and used for good…Knowledge sharing paths get worn in the virtual grass of the public field of microblogging. Smart companies want their people creating those paths…It won't happen on Twitter alone, though. It's too public, the company is too bound by its own limitations…We expect that hosted or free company-specific microblogging installations will become huge sources of Business Intelligence data…”

Security, Privacy & Digital Controls

7. China Becoming the World's Malware Factory http://www.pcworld.com/article/161920/ “…Speaking at the CanSecWest security conference last week, Wei Zhao, CEO of Knownsec, a Beijing security company, said that while many Chinese workers may be feeling hard times, business is still booming in the country's cybercrime industry. "As the stock market dropped like a stone, a lot of IT professionals lost lots of money on the stock market," he said. "So sometimes they sell 0days," he said, referring to previously unknown software bugs. "China is not only the world's factory, but also the world's malware factory," Zhao said…Chinese hackers tend to focus on hacking software that runs on the desktop, rather than the server, because the underground market pays big money for client-side bugs, which are then often used to install malicious software on millions of desktops…”

8. 3D-based Captchas become reality http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10204300-1.html “…the folks at YUNiTi.com, a social Web site…announced Wednesday that it has created a 3D Captcha method that is unbreakable by current computer technology, yet much easier for humans to identify. Captchas is short for Completely Automated Public Turing tests to tell Computers and Humans Apart. This is a way to make sure the input is not generated by a computer. Similar to Hayward's idea, this new technology relies on our ability to identify objects in 3D instead of using alphanumeric characters…”

9. GhostNet: global cyber espionage http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/technology/29spy.html A vast electronic spying operation has infiltrated computers and has stolen documents from hundreds of government and private offices around the world, including those of the Dalai Lama…the researchers said that the system was being controlled from computers based almost exclusively in China, but that they could not say conclusively that the Chinese government was involved….It can, for example, turn on the camera and audio-recording functions of an infected computer, enabling monitors to see and hear what goes on in a room. The investigators say they do not know if this facet has been employed…The electronic spy game has had at least some real-world impact, they said. For example, they said, after an e-mail invitation was sent by the Dalai Lama’s office to a foreign diplomat, the Chinese government made a call to the diplomat discouraging a visit. And a woman working for a group making Internet contacts between Tibetan exiles and Chinese citizens was stopped by Chinese intelligence officers on her way back to Tibet, shown transcripts of her online conversations and warned to stop her political activities…” [China refutes claims -- http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/03/31/china-ghostnet.html]

10. Politician wants to censor online maps http://tech.yahoo.com/news/afp/20090328/tc_afp/usbritainitinternetespionagegoogle “…I have proposed a bill, AB 255, that would require all Internet mapping sites to take the same precautions with California government buildings, places of worship, schools and hospitals." The bill, which Anderson introduced in February, would make it state law for online mapping services to blur images of designated "sensitive" locations, whether the pictures were taken at street level, from the air, or by satellites…The official maintains that he is not opposed to online maps, but believes only those up to evil deeds are interested in details such as positioning of entrances, windows and air ducts…”

11. Spam Back to 94% of All E-Mail http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/spam-back-to-94-of-all-e-mail/ “…The average seven-day spam volume during the latter half of March is now at roughly the same levels as October of last year—around 94 percent of all e-mail—according to anti-spam company Postini, a division of Google. At first, the McColo takedown cut global spam traffic by about 70 percent, according to Postini, which provides e-mail security for more than 50,000 businesses and 15 million business users…”

Mobile Computing & Communicating

12. reQall: Don't look now, but you're a cyborg http://tinyurl.com/cabkz7 (ComputerWorld) “…the term cyborg…originally envisioned either the human mind enhanced by machines, or the use of human minds to control or direct machines. Aren't Internet-connected cell phones technically machines that are enhancing our minds?...I wrote a blog item Wednesday about the announcement by a company called reQall Inc. of its new self-described "memory aid" service…The new version has yet another "killer feature," which truly brings reQall into the realm of science fiction. It's called Memory Jogger, and it's baked into reQall, always working quietly behind the scenes. The Memory Jogger technology looks at a wide range of criteria, such as the time of day, what's on your calendar or your physical location (it uses your phone's GPS) to figure out what to remind you of, and when. The reQall Memory Jogger is so eerily intelligent that it feels almost like a human assistant is looking out for you. As you're about to drive by the cleaners, your phone beeps and shows the message, "Pick up your suit!" As you're about to leave your office for a business lunch, your phone tells you, "You met Jonathan Smith at CTIA 2006, he's a vegetarian, went to UCLA, obsessed with golf, has twin daughters and likes to be called 'Jonathan,' not 'Jon…”

13. Apple: 1 – iPhone developers: 0 http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10204817-37.html A clause in the Apple/developer agreement for the App Store if enforced could potentially bankrupt developers…a clause regarding refunds has the potential to bankrupt developers because they are required to pay a steep out-of-pocket fee to Apple if an App is returned…if Joe iPhone plays with this developer's $10 App for a while, decides he's bored with it and manages to convince Apple to give him a full refund, the developer will have to return not only the $7 he got from the sale, but also an additional $3 he never saw…”

Open Source

14. Recession Causing Enterprises to Rethink Open-Source http://tinyurl.com/cwc7z5 (eWeek) “…Open-source companies are seeing sales go up as the Dow [Jones index] goes down. And it's starting to accelerate." The reason is, Asay said, is that "people woke up on Jan. 1—those that still had jobs—and said, 'You know what? I've got to do something. At 50 percent or 70 percent or some percent less budget, I still have to do my job. How am I going to do that?'" Suddenly, open source makes a lot of sense…”

15. Open-source Flash game engine in open beta http://gigaom.com/2009/03/28/pushbutton-open-source-flash-game-engine/ “…I was excited to hear about PushButton, a Flash game engine from a team of seasoned game developers that’s free, open source, and associated with an innovative revenue model that should help spur its adoption. Quietly released in open beta to friends and family last week, it already seems to be gaining an enthusiastic following; Ada Chen of Mochi told me she’s also heard a lot about it from developers at Sunday’s Flash Gaming Summit, and “the feedback has all been overwhelmingly positive…”

16. TomTom settlement: key Linux/open source questions unanswered http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10207291-56.html “…While reaction to Microsoft's settlement with TomTom was varied on Monday, there seemed to be a consensus that it will do little to settle the many questions related to whether Linux infringes on Microsoft's intellectual property…I don't think this answers any questions in terms of whether Microsoft's patents in any way cover Linux," Gatto said. Microsoft has long asserted that various implementations of Linux do infringe on its intellectual property and has struck a number of patent deals with companies that either distribute Linux or use it in their products…Open-source pioneer Bruce Perens criticized the settlement, saying that it may instill fear in other companies that are using embedded Linux and thus have something of a chilling effect…A second issue raised by the settlement is whether, in fact, Microsoft and TomTom were indeed able to comply with the terms of the General Public License in crafting their deal…Microsoft probably didn't want to test the FAT patents in court, and may have been worried about facing an expensive battle over the (Open Innovation Network) patent portfolio," Lindberg said in an e-mail interview. "TomTom was probably worried about a long and expensive patent battle about technology that was not central to their product...the most interesting element of the TomTom agreement was the company's decision to remove the FAT (File Allocation Table) file system from their product within two years. "That seems like a win for Microsoft, but in the long run it may end up reducing Microsoft's patent leverage…”

SkyNet

17. The genius behind Google’s web browser http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/03775904-177c-11de-8c9d-0000779fd2ac.html “…the farmhouse still seems steeped in the past; yet this is the place where a key part of the future of the internet first took shape…Lars Bak, its owner and a programming genius to his peers, made his home here for a reason – he doesn’t particularly want to be found…Lars Bak isn’t a household name…The Dane had first appeared on California’s Silicon Valley radars in 1991, when he joined Sun Microsystems and began building a reputation as one of the industry’s best programmers. He left to help start Animorphic Systems in 1994, which was then acquired by Sun. Once back at the company, Bak developed what would become Java HotSpot, an industry-standard computing system…Bak started work, setting up an office in what is now the home cinema. The farmhouse is built around a courtyard, with the family home opposite the office. Every day, he walked across the cobbled stones to his office and started writing code. And at the end of each day, he walked back across the courtyard and left it all behind for the night. In between those strolls, he threw himself into building a browser that would increase the possibilities for others to do what he was engaged in: working from home, attached to the head office and all its tools only by the power of the internet. Bak may be a computing genius, but he didn’t touch a computer until he was at university.…”

18. More Security Loopholes Found In Google Docs http://tinyurl.com/dj3hhh (TechCrunch) “…Security consultant Ade Barkah checked in with us to alert us to a couple of serious security issues associated to Google Docs, the web-based office software from the world’s most famous search engine company, giving a whole new meaning to its mission to make the world’s information universally accessible. On his blog on software, infrastructure and security, Barkah outlines no less than three issues that he discovered while investigating some potential security lapses…” [Google’s response : http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/03/just-to-clarify.html ]

19. Google Docs Inserts Drawings http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_docs_inserts_drawings.php “…Google Docs just got an amazing new feature called insert drawing. With it you can now create and insert drawings directly into your Google documents, spreadsheets and presentations. The drawing creation tool is easy to use, and supports snapping to grid points and full free-form or constrained rotation and sizing of individual lines, shapes, or groups of composite items. The best part is that the entire insert drawing module is rendered in-browser. It only takes a few minutes of playing with the new module to discover that it has a number of great things going for it…”

20. Google Ventures launched in New England http://tinyurl.com/cweuoe (Xconomy) “…Google has launched a venture investing wing called Google Ventures, and Rich Miner, who is based at the company’s Cambridge, MA, office and is the former leader of its Android mobile operating system project, is one of the managing partners…I am staying in Boston as an East Coast partner,” Miner replied. “We think New England is a great place to be. It’s a fertile ecosystem with the right combination of top universities, seasoned entrepreneurs and experienced management…”

21. Top Google execs: $1 salary, no bonus, no options http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10204209-93.html Wall Street executives feeling harassed by taxpayers outraged at their pay might take note of how Google's ruling triumvirate fared in 2008: $1 in salary each, no bonus, no stock grants, and no stock options. Google has offered co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Chief Executive Eric Schmidt "market-competitive" salaries every year since 2005, but once again in 2008, the three turned it down…”

22. Google Bans Tethering Apps in the Android Market http://tinyurl.com/dbntf3 (jkOnTheRun) Phone carriers do not like tethering, that is very clear. Many smartphones have integrated 3G and carriers rely on the charges for that bandwidth to keep them profitable. Tethering, the ability to use the phone as a modem for laptops, has long been shunned or outright banned by carriers that do not want to see that ability cut into the bottom line. Many U.S. carriers charge an extra monthly fee for the privilege of tethering the laptop to the 3G phone, while some forbid it outright. Google has reportedly notified a developer that their tethering app is a violation of the TOS of the Android Market…”

23. Don't use Google Checkout for your business http://tinyurl.com/cy4h8c (slash7) “…to sum up our experience with Google Checkout: * they did not try to contact us to resolve any issue, * there's no way to find out why they closed our account, due to "security reasons", * there was no notice (we found out by accident, when we tried to pay for something with Google Checkout), * they kept over $200 of our money, * there is no appeal, * there is no one we can contact, * we cannot open a new account, * our money is gone, even though people have received their products…”

General Technology

24. DIY Freaks Flock to 'Hacker Spaces' Worldwide http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/03/hackerspaces.html “…The two are working on a recent Monday evening at Noisebridge, a collectively operated hacker space in San Francisco. Across the table, Noisebridge member Molly Boynoff is typing on a sticker-covered MacBook, learning to program in Python. Next to her, Noisebridge co-founder Mitch Altman is showing two newcomers how to solder resistors and LEDs onto a circuit board. "There are zillions of people around the world doing this," says Altman, referring to the swell of interest in do-it-yourself projects and hacking. "It's a worldwide community." At the center of this community are hacker spaces like Noisebridge, where like-minded geeks gather to work on personal projects, learn from each other and hang out in a nerd-friendly atmosphere. Like artist collectives in the '60s and '70s, hacker spaces are springing up all over…”

25. Email startup Xobni leaves beta http://venturebeat.com/2009/03/24/email-startup-xobni-leaves-beta-raises-32m/ Xobni is finally launching the “official” version of its plug-in that improves organization in Microsoft’s email program Outlook…The San Francisco company adds an inbox sidebar to Outlook that shows profiles of people you’re corresponding with. By making related content (phone numbers, past messages, files exchanged, and more) immediately accessible, the plug-in helps you avoid fruitless or time-consuming searches through giant piles of email…”

26. Flyak: Successful Surface Modeling http://www.pddnet.com/scripts/ShowPR.asp?RID=22072&CommonCount=0 “…The four-time Norwegian kayaking champion and physics expert and his partner, kayakbuilder Peter Ribe, have created what they hope will become the fastest human-powered craft in history—the Flyak. There’s nothing supernatural about the Flyak’s acceleration, as the name implies, the Flyak “flies.” Its wings are underneath the water, in the form of front and rear hydrofoils. The more the surface area of a hull touches the water, the greater the vehicle’s resistance…Once it reaches a certain speed, the Flyak’s hull does not touch the water at all…”

27. Tesla Shows Off Family-Friendly Electric Car http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10205759-54.html “…Tesla on Thursday took the covers off the Model S…Because they have fewer moving parts and don't require oil changes, electric vehicles should also have lower maintenance costs. "Model S costs roughly $5 to drive 230 miles--a bargain, even if gasoline were $1 per gallon…Musk said the Model S will have three battery options providing a range of either 160, 230, or 300 miles per charge…”

28. David Pogue's secret weapon: Patience http://www.thestandard.com/news/2009/03/27/david-pogues-secret-weapon “…David Pogue…is probably the world's most widely read and watched tech product reviewer…How does he do it?...Pogue's shtick is clever: He plays the role of the buffoon who has belatedly wandered into the action long after he should havePogue takes the hit for his readers. They're not the early adopters on Geoffrey Moore's technology adoption curve. They're the pragmatists and conservatives. The mass market. The horde of buyers who actually make gadget manufacturers rich. Pogue lets them feel normal which, statistically, they are. He answers the questions they've only now come around to asking out loud…What he's really doing is echoing the thoughts of his huge, non-tech-industry audience. Trust me, your parents are nodding right along with David Pogue…”

29. Honda controls robot with human thought http://www.tgdaily.com/html_tmp/content-view-41898-181.html Honda Motor Company has announced a new development in robotic control -- a brain machine interface (BMI). A computerized sensor-net reads subtle electrical impulses directly from a person's scalp, as well as related changes in cerebral blood flow. Each time a person thinks about various movements, such as right hand or left hand, the computer identifies the thought, which is then sent to a thought-controlled version of Asimo the robot, which responds to those thought-commands…”

30. Your PC over the next 50 years http://tinyurl.com/dgjuwx (TechRadar) “…In a few decades from now, our current concepts of a PC and IT in general will seem so quaint and arcane that the only place to see them at all will be in old attics or museums, where they will sit next to an abacus and vacuum tube computers, and seem very alien to those being born now…In fact, most researchers believe the technology we will use in 2059 has not been invented yet. Imagine the scenario: those who were born in the last 10-15 years have grown up with the Internet and computers. They are what Gartner Group calls the "natives" (and the rest of us are immigrants)…even today there are some glimmers that showcase how technology might look in 50 years…”

Leisure & Entertainment

31. Perfect German Board Game Redefines Genre http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/magazine/17-04/mf_settlers “…Germans, it turns out, are absolutely nuts about board games. More are sold per capita in Germany than anywhere else on earth…Because of this enthusiasm, board game design has become high art—and big business—in Germany…Teuber began tinkering with a new theme for a game: an uncharted island. In his original vision, players would slowly discover the island by flipping over tiles, then establish colonies using the indigenous natural resources. The game incorporated elements of other ideas Teuber was working on, but for some reason this one seemed special. "I felt like I was discovering something rather than inventing it," Teuber says…Eventually, Teuber whittled his invention down to a standard pair of dice, a handful of colored wooden houses that represented settlements and cities, stacks of cards that stood for resources (brick, wool, wheat, and others), and 19 hexagonal cardboard tiles that were arranged on a table to form the island. He had hit on something with this combination—the enthusiasm on family game night was palpable. During nearly every session, he, his wife, and their children would find themselves in heated competition. The game was done, Teuber decided. He called it Die Siedler von Catan, German for "The Settlers of Catan." Released at the annual Essen fair in 1995, Settlers sold out its initial 5,000 copies so fast that even Teuber doesn't have a first edition. That year, it won the Spiel des Jahres and every other major prize in German gaming. Critics called it a masterpiece. Fans couldn't get enough, snapping up 400,000 copies in its first year…”

32. April 7, $1.29 for hot iTunes songs http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cotown-itunes26-2009mar26,0,5579880.story “…Apple's iTunes, plans to boost the price of many hit singles and selected classic tracks to $1.29 on April 7, breaking the psychological barrier of 99 cents in what could be the first big test of how much consumers are willing to pay to download individual songs…Apple Inc. set the 99-cent-per-song rate in 2003 when it launched the iTunes Store. The company long resisted pressure from the music industry to allow flexible pricing, arguing that it would inhibit sales. Apple changed its tune in January, however, announcing that it would begin selling music at three prices: 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29, based on wholesale costs set by the labels…”

33. Imeem Not Closing http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/03/imeem-crunched.html “…imeem…on-demand music service ranked well into our top ten due to its vast catalog, playlist embedding, and social features…A recent report on TechCrunch echoes chatter we heard a earlier this year about imeem's financial situation taking a turn for the worse. TechCrunch calculates that imeem is $30 million in arrears to the labels on licensing payments, which Imeem spokesman and vice-president of marketing Matt Graves says is way off. "[TechCrunch's] $30M number is not only wrong, it's preposterous," said Graves. "We don't now owe, nor have we ever owed, that amount of money to the labels. And the shutdown rumor is equally false – we are not shutting down."…Even in a good market, imeem's ad revenue was barely enough to cover its music licensing payments, assuming it sold all of its ad inventory…Imeem's central problem -- and that of any other licensed on-demand music site -- is that the revenue it can derive from music fluctuates with market pressures, while the record labels and other stakeholders tend to want the same amount per song regardless of what's happening in the rest of the world…”

Economy and Technology

34. Nokia invests $70m in mobile payments http://blogs.ft.com/techblog/2009/03/nokia-sends-70m-mobile-payment-to-obopay/ “…There are signs the mobile payments market is really taking off at last with Nokia announcing a substantial investment in service provider Obopay…Obopay operates in the US and India. It allows those signing up for its service to fund their account with cash or by linking up their credit card or current account. They can then send money to any text-message enabled cell phone. The receiver can either sign up for an Obopay account or have the money transferred directly to their bank account. Obopay charges 25 cents to send any amount up to $1,000 and nothing to receive it…”

35. Tying the Hyperlocal Knot http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/03/27/tying-the-hyperlocal-knot/ The Knot is launching 75 new localized sites in the hopes of reaching brides-to-be from Tampa to Tucson…Brides are best served by content available in their specific location, he said. Likewise, wedding vendors want to advertise in bridal outlets that target a region…The local sites bring the total number of niche Web sites under the Knot umbrella to 85. Mr. Liu says the company plans to have more than 200 such sites by the end of the year…When users sign up, they share the location and date of their wedding as well as an email address — a trio of details that is a goldmine for advertisers looking to target consumers. The Knot’s local sites feature a home page with region-specific content, including listings for reception sites, florists, bridal salons, wedding photographers and DJs…Costs for this kind of expansion are minimal, because the local sites use a heavy dose of already-created national content that is applicable to a wedding anywhere. For example, “8 Top Wedding Cake Q&As” gives guidelines as to when in the planning process to contact a baker or when to cut the cake at the reception. That article is then is paired with a listing of city-specific vendors divided by category.”

36. Citysearch/MySpace Local http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/31/myspace-citysearch-partner-to-create-myspace-local/ “…MySpace and Citysearch are jointly announcing a new MySpace property this morning called MySpace Local. The site combines Citysearch business listings (including address, photos, menus, videos, maps and hours of location) from a thousand cities with the MySpace community. The site is launching into private beta this week, with a general U.S. launch next month. The new site will eventually include listing information for all Citysearch businesses via small business listing pages. To start just restaurants, bars and “nightlife” listings are included. Users can rate and review businesses, which is shared via the MySpace activity feed…”

37. Western Digital buys its way into solid-state drive market http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10207148-92.html “…The Lake Forest, Calif.-based Western Digital has a strong presence in the notebook industry with its 2.5-inch drives, but not the rapidly expanding Netbook segment. With the acquisition, Western Digital is now instantly a player in that market. "SiliconSystems' intellectual property and technical expertise will significantly accelerate WD's solid-state drive development programs for the Netbook, client and enterprise markets…”

Civilian Aerospace

38. WhiteKnightTwo takes third test flight http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090327-whiteknighttwo-test.html “…That marked the third flight for WhiteKnightTwo, which had its maiden test flight at the end of last year. The twin-fuselage aircraft flew for more than two and a half hours, reaching a maximum speed of 161 mph and an altitude of over 18,000 feet (3.4 mi). WhiteKnightTwo is slated to carry SpaceShipTwo as part of a reusable spaceliner fleet designed by aerospace veteran Burt Rutan and his company Scaled Composites…Now the stratosphere is the limit as we will continually test Eve for the next few months up to her ceiling of above 50,000 feet," said Peter Siebold, test pilot for WhiteKnightTwo during its first three flights…”

39. Simonyi and Soyuz dock with ISS http://tinyurl.com/d695r2 (DailyMail) Astronauts on board Russia's Soyuz spacecraft breathed a sigh of relief after they managed to manually dock with the International Space Station. They were forced to take action after an engine failure knocked out the automatic docking system when they were less than 100 metres from the ISS…The shuttle was carrying Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Michael Barratt who will form Expedition 19 with Mr Wakata. They were accompanied by U.S. billionaire and Microsoft developer Charles Simonyi…” [related story --http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/033009-russian-capsule-docks-ex-microsoft-exec.html]

40. Volunteers flock to space experiment http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7966731.stm “…How about the following: locking yourself inside a small metal container for three months without any communication with the outside world, with electronic monitors attached to various parts of your body and with frozen baby food and cereal bars for breakfast, lunch and dinner? To add to the fun you'll have five companions who will do everything possible to stop you trying to escape before the three months are up…from a control room outside, a team of scientists will monitor your every move checking for any signs that you are starting to crack up…this well-paid, extreme version of Big Brother and The Weakest Link attracted 6,000 applicants from 40 countries…”

Supercomputing & GPUs

41. NVIDIA's Lock on GPU Computing Can Be Picked http://tinyurl.com/cq2vb4 (HPCwire) “…NVIDIA'…GPU computing product set -- CUDA, Tesla, et al. -- continue to be ahead of the curve. Being the industry leader in this area, NVIDIA certainly recognizes the importance of this technology…NVIDIA PR Director Derek Perez makes the case that GPU computing and its offspring, visual computing, are part of a "sea change" in the IT landscape and his company is in a great position to cash in on this. It's hard to disagree with that assessment. In the HPC space, GPU computing is the most compelling technology to come on the scene in recent memory, and NVIDIA has jumped out to an early lead. Because of CUDA and some hardware innovations, NVIDIA is probably at least a year ahead of AMD and two years ahead of Intel…”

42. Intel details future graphics chip at GDC http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10204911-64.html “…Forsyth said that there is not yet a Larrabee chip to work with--it's expected late this year or early next year…Beyond games, Intel is also trying to catch a building wave of applications that run on the many-core architectures inherent to graphics chips. Nvidia and AMD graphics chips pack hundreds of processing cores that can be tapped for not only accelerating sophisticated games like Crysis but for doing scientific research and high-performance computing tasks…at its heart are processor cores, not GPU cores. So it's bringing that x86 programmable goodness to developers," Forsyth said. Larrabee will carry the DNA of Intel's x86 architecture…It's based on a lot of small, efficient in-order cores. And we put a whole bunch of them on one bit of silicon…In-order processing cores are used, for example, in the original Pentium design and in Intel's Atom processor. "It's the same programming model they know from multicore systems already but there's a lot more of them," he said…”

43. Lenovo / NVIDIA ThinkStations http://tinyurl.com/dmclax (HPCwire) “…Turbo-charged for performance, Lenovo's latest workstations can even be configured for personal supercomputing, helping enable professionals to innovate faster and reduce the time between an idea and a product. Adding the NVIDIA Tesla C1060 GPU platform to the workstations offers 240 additional cores of dedicated math processing power to help speed up calculations dramatically. In addition to this super performance boost and quieter computing experience over previous Lenovo workstations, the new workstations also feature the latest, high performance technologies…There has been a revolution in our industry for building information modeling, and we're finding that with large 3D model files it takes a long time to get them open and started…”

44. UPCRC Illinois Offers Summer School for Multicore Programming http://tinyurl.com/d2vktf (HPCwire) Programmers with little or no exposure to parallelism have an opportunity to learn about multicore programming at the UPCRC Illinois Summer School to be held June 22-26, 2009 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Coursework will provide a solid foundation in the fundamentals of multicore programming, offer hands-on experience with the use of multicore languages and libraries, and introduce emerging research topics…Applicants can choose to attend on campus…or online as a virtual student…”


*****

2009/03/24

NEW NET Issues List for 24 Mar 2009

Below is the final list of issues for the TUESDAY, 24 March 2009, NEW NET (Northeast Wisconsin Network for Economy and Technology) 7:00 - 9:00 pm weekly gathering. This week we're upstairs at Tom's Drive In, 501 N Westhill Blvd, Appleton, Wisconsin, USA.

This past week had quite a few news items related to parallel GPU programming and visual computing. The topic has not yet hit mainstream, but it does appear to be gaining momentum.

The ‘net

1. Major publishers partner with Scribd: viral e-book marketing http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/03/publishers-part.html “…publishers announced a wide-ranging partnership Wednesday with Scribd to begin to release an increased number of best sellers as free e-books — a major marketing push to harness the long tail of a literate social network that boasts some 50 million loyalists. The publishers have already been conducting trials for a few months, offering a few books (around 8-10) and some excerpts on a limited time basis. But this new partnership is a sign that they view the platform as much more than simply another testing ground, and that they plan to include a much greater flow of content which they hope will boost both print and e-book sales through e-book sharing and word of mouth on sites like Twitter. It's less about creating a new revenue stream for e-books on Scribd and more about enhancing existing print and e-book channels by using the crowd as the new tastemaker…”

2. Google-scanned e-books free for Sony Reader http://tinyurl.com/d7j649 (BusinessWeek) “…Amazon (AMZN) Chief Executive Jeff Bezos won't tell you how many Kindles he's sold, but he's happy to share the number of e-book titles available on the device: 250,000, at last count. With one fell swoop, a rival has made that library look small. On Mar. 19, Sony announced the addition of 500,000 titles to the collection of 100,000 e-books currently available to Sony Reader devices. Sony is giving away the books through a partnership with Google, which has already scanned and stored some 7 million books for its Google Book Search project…Many of Sony's free titles cost money on the Kindle. Kenneth Grahame's children's classic, The Wind in the Willows, will set the buyer back $2.39, for instance…the partnership underscores a key distinction between the Sony and Amazon strategies that in the long run could work to Amazon's advantage. Amazon, which recently began selling e-books to users of devices other than the Kindle, including Apple's iPhone, has shown it's as interested in selling digital books as it is in selling machines. Meantime, by loading its reader with free books, Sony may be more focused on devices. "Amazon's business is selling books, and Sony's business is selling hardware…”

3. Open source textbooks http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-open-source-textbook-firm-flat-world-knowledge-gets-8-million/ “…Bringing the freemium model to the musty world of textbook publishing, Flat World Knowledge (FWK), a Nyack, NY-based publisher of open-source commercial textbooks, has raised $8 million in its first round of funding…Other competitors in the space, each with their own twists, include FreeLoadPress and CourseSmart…”

4. Microsoft Releases Internet Explorer 8 http://tinyurl.com/dzox8r (InformationWeek) “…Microsoft will release the latest version of Internet Explorer at noon Eastern time on Thursday, bringing major changes in a bid to hold onto the browser's dominance and fend off an increasingly crowded field of browsers, including the still-surging Mozilla Firefox…Throughout the testing process, Microsoft has focused most heavily on two new usability features, Web Slices and Accelerators. Accelerators let users perform actions like translation, mapping, and search from the right-click context menu, which brings up a window inside the current page to show translated text, a map, or search results. Web Slices, which requires work on the part of site developers and therefore are still few and far between, let users create a link on their favorites bar, which brings up only a small portion of a Web site such as a condensed local weather forecast…” [IE 8 and web standards http://www.crn.com/software/215901381]

5. Businesses targeted with Skype For SIP http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10201830-92.html “…On Monday, Skype, which is owned by eBay, will announce a new version of its Internet calling service that allows companies to use their IP-enabled corporate phone systems to make Skype calls using regular office phones instead of using a headset that plug into a PC. The new service called Skype For SIP allows companies to use the Skype service with their IP-enabled PBX's…Skype has been trying to reach business customers for nearly three years. In 2006, it announced Skype for Business, which is designed for users who are too small to invest in building their own Internet Protocol telephony networks…But the latest announcement is targeted at companies that are larger than the small 10-person operation. These are companies that have already invested in a SIP-based PBX phone system…” [http://www.disruptivetelephony.com/2009/03/skype-tears-down-more-walls-with-skype-for-sip.html http://gigaom.com/2009/03/22/skype-now-means-business-friends-the-sip-world/]

Security, Privacy & Digital Controls

6. University of Michigan researchers want to figure out where the worm started http://tinyurl.com/ccjp2k (ComputerWorld) “…Where did the Conficker worm come from? Researchers at the University of Michigan are trying to find out, using a vast network of Internet sensors to track down the so-called "patient zero" of an outbreak that has infected more than 10 million computers to date. The university uses so-called darknet sensors that were set up about six years ago in order to keep track of malicious activity. With funding from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, computer scientists have banded together to share data collected from sensors around the world place sensors around the world…The goal is to get close enough so you can actually start mapping out how the spread started," said Jon Oberheide, a graduate student with the University of Michigan…To find the minuscule clues that will identify the victim, researchers must sift through more than 50 terabytes of data, hoping to find the telltale signatures of a Conficker scan…”

7. Gov,t employees told to use, banned from using, social networks http://techdirt.com/articles/20090318/0226244166.shtml “…the US military has been blocking access to YouTube, but set up a special alternative just for troops, called TroopTube. And, yet... it started blocking that site as well. It may just be a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, but it seems so common in government that it's really rather ridiculous. These tools, while they may be prone to misuse and time-wasting, are also becoming key ways that people communicate. For a supposedly more open and transparent government, allowing access is a necessity. Deal with the abuses separately, rather than making an outright ban

8. Hackers penetrating industrial control systems http://tinyurl.com/dcuujz (ComputerWorld) “The networks powering industrial control systems have been breached more than 125 times in the past decade, with one resulting in U.S. deaths, a control systems expert said Thursday…he's been able to find evidence of more than 125 control systems breaches involving systems in nuclear power plants, hydroelectric plants, water utilities, the oil industry and agribusiness. "The impacts have ranged from trivial to significant environmental damage to significant equipment damage to deaths," he told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. "We've already had a cyber incident in the United States that has killed people…”

9. Deep Packet Inspection Puts Open Internet at Risk http://www.freepress.net/node/49008 “…The uncertainty surrounding Net Neutrality has given rise to a technology known as Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) that offers Internet service providers unprecedented control over Internet content…the emerging DPI business model, marketed for its ability to monitor, control and ultimately charge subscribers for every use of an Internet connection, poses a major threat to the open Internet…”

10. Botnet runs on DSL modems, routers http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2009/03/new_botnet_runs_on_dsl_modems.php A fascinating new botnet has been found running on DSL modems and routers running an embedded Linux distribution. The worm is called "psyb0t" and appears to have been circulating since at least January, 2009. The worm infects any of a family of Linux Mipsel devices ("Mipsel" is the port of Debian Linux on MIPS processors) that contain one of several administration interfaces. The worm uses a dictionary attack against the admin interface…”

Mobile Computing & Communicating

11. Samsung N110 netbook http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/samsung-n-110.aspx “…Samsung remains atop the heap with its new N110. Though this netbook's internal organs are the same as its predecessor, including a 1.6-GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM, Windows XP Home, and a 160GB hard drive, Samsung has extended the touchpad and increased the six-cell battery’s capacity to give this $469 netbook a lengthy 7 hours of runtime…Samsung left the keyboard on the N110 untouched. The 93 percent of full-size layout is comfortable, and the raised keys provided nice tactile feedback…the Samsung N110’s comfortable keyboard will satisfy even the fastest of touch typists…”

12. Peek Launches Business Emailer Handheld: The Pronto http://tinyurl.com/dljp62 (FastCompany) “…Peek's tiny handheld wireless e-mail gizmo has had a fascinating success story, and its modeled on a "simplicity versus complexity" ethic that sets it against the increasingly sophisticated Blackberry…It's likely to be a great success for two reasons. For starters, it's cheap. The unit costs just $80, and a monthly "no secret extra fees" account is just $20 for unlimited data…the device is mind-bogglingly simple: all the device does is let you read and send your e-mail on the fly and in a timely manner. When I got my first Blackberry that's essentially all I used the device for…After all, you don't want your corporate suits getting distracted with browsers and games do you?…”

13. Palm's Secret Weapon for the Pre http://www.businessweek.com/print/technology/content/mar2009/tc20090323_446801.htm “…Apple veterans such as engineer Mike Bell joined Palm, too. For one, there was more opportunity to make money on options—given Palm's beaten-down stock and Apple's sky-high shares. It was also a rare opportunity to work on a clean-sheet-of-paper project. "Apple is a mature company," Rubinstein, known as "Ruby," said in an interview with BusinessWeek late last year, likening Palm today to the sickly Apple he joined in 1996. "If we build a great product, people are going to care. For whatever reason, there's a lot of passion around Palm." Soon, veterans from companies including Silicon Graphics (SGIC), Nokia, and Microsoft came on board…Palm's team of veterans were motivated by the fact that no smartphone operating system had ever been built from the ground up for the modern smartphone—a powerful, general-purpose computing device that was fast becoming as central to consumers' lives as their PCs…Palm set out to create software that would require no synching with a PC, and that would solve problems only a phone in your pocket could solve…”

Open Source

14. TomTom countersues Microsoft http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10200948-16.html TomTom, sued earlier by Microsoft for patent infringement related to GPS technology and TomTom's implementation of Microsoft's FAT, or file allocation table, technology in Linux, is fighting back. Unfortunately, its countersuit relates to four of its GPS patents that it claims Microsoft infringes, not the Linux patents that have the open-source community up in arms…Despite my earlier concern that TomTom couldn't afford to fight Microsoft's allegations, it looks as if TomTom has found both the money and the will to fight. I just wish that it were fighting over FAT, not GPS…”

15. TomTom joins OIN http://tinyurl.com/c5xpko (ars technica) “…"Linux plays an important role at TomTom as the core of all our Portable Navigation Devices," said TomTom IP director Peter Spours in a statement. "We believe that by becoming an Open Invention Network licensee, we encourage Linux development and foster innovation in a technical community that benefits everyone…TomTom's decision to join the OIN as a licensee could potentially pave the way for a patent showdown between Microsoft and OIN over the FAT patents. At the very least, it could give TomTom more leverage in its patent negotiations with Microsoft…If Microsoft does decide to follow up its lawsuit against TomTom with lawsuits against other vendors, it would have very broad ramifications. This situation could potentially end up being the first test of the OIN's defensive patent portfolio…”

16. Firefox May Already Be Dead http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/161637/firefox_may_already_be_dead.html “…Google Chrome is now available in alpha for Linux, and I downloaded it for Ubuntu. Despite the fact that I was running it on my rather underpowered Dell Mini 9, it started in the blink of an eye. Additionally, any JavaScript-heavy sites like Gmail or Google Docs were so responsive that it's almost unbelievable. Does that sound familiar? That's right. It's just like how Firefox used to be. Run Chrome and Firefox side-by-side, and Firefox is embarrassingly slow. It's not even in the same league. It's an old man on the running track trying to compete against a sprightly 20-year-old. I think Firefox has lost the plot…” [another Chrome article -- http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/03/as-ms-pushes-ou.html]

17. MIT adopts OpenAccess mandate http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2009/03/mit-adopts-university-wide-oa-mandate.html This afternoon, the MIT faculty unanimously adopted a university-wide OA mandate. Here's the resolution the faculty approved (thanks to Hal Abelson, MIT professor of computer science and engineering, who chaired the committee to formulate it)…The Faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is committed to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible. In keeping with that commitment, the Faculty adopts the following policy: Each Faculty member grants to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology nonexclusive permission to make available his or her scholarly articles and to exercise the copyright in those articles for the purpose of open dissemination…”

18. gCalCron, Linux, Gcalendar http://lifehacker.com/5179566/gcalcron-automates-your-linux-system-with-google-calendar “…Linux only: gcalcron allows you to issue terminal commands to a computer through Google Calendar. It's more beginner-friendly than editing cron jobs or remote shell work , and great for remote download control…”

SkyNet

19. EPIC Threatens to Burst Google's Cloud http://www.technewsworld.com/story/security/66540.html Privacy rights organization EPIC, the Electronic Privacy Information Center More about Electronic Privacy Information Center, has asked the Federal Trade Commission More about Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to shut down Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) More about Google cloud services on grounds that the company is misleading consumers. This follows a breach in Google Docs on March 7, which was caused by a software bug that led users to inadvertently share some of their files with others. Google has since fixed the bug. EPIC's formal letter of complaint says that Google promises users their documents are stored securely and assures them that their documents, spreadsheets and presentations will remain private unless they publish these to the Web, or invite viewing or collaboration. On the other hand, it points out, Google's Terms of Service explicitly disavow any warranty or liability for harm that might result "from Google's negligence, recklessness, mal intent, or even purposeful disregard of existing legal obligations to protect the privacy and security of user data…”

20. Gmail’s Undo Send Isn’t Really Undo http://tinyurl.com/co33mq (ZoliBlog) “…First of all, I love Gmail, it’s my one-and-only email system. And I’m certainly glad to see the ever accelerating rate of enhancements, whether “official” or just the Labs variety. But oh, please, can we have some control here and call features what they really are?...Today we’re getting another new feature: Undo Send. Except that it really isn’t. Undo Send, that is. Undo Send is what Outlook has offered for ages: you can actually recall a message that had already been sent, provided the recipient has not opened it yet, and you’re both on Exchange. What Gmail offers now is a momentary delay of 5 seconds, during which you may just realize you’re emailing the wrong Smith or Brown, and hit the panic Undo button. It’s not really undo, since the message was never sent in the first place – Gmail was holding it for 5 seconds, if you had enabled this option…”

21. Google Summer of Code: It's About Passion Not Experience http://tinyurl.com/cjaaf4 (ReadWriteWeb) “…Now in its fifth year, the Summer of Code will match 1000 students to 150 mentors from around the globe, and give them a chance to work on project such as WordPress, Mozilla Project, GNOME, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Chromium, Creative Commons, Berkman Center at Harvard University…Google will debut Melange which comprises half workflow software, half content management software…Melange began as an open source program, managed by Google engineers when it was determined they needed to improve infrastructure. Paying homage to the science fiction world, the name Melange comes from the movie Dune and means 'spice of creation…Tips for Students…Try not to get intimidated: Passion counts more than experience…According to Hawthorn, it's very important to begin a dialogue with mentors. "Each mentor has included a list of ideas and it's a good idea to begin getting involved early…”

22. Map addresses in a Google spreadsheet http://news.cnet.com/8301-13880_3-10201764-68.html “…If you store street addresses in a spreadsheet, you can now plot those addresses on Google Maps in just seconds, with no programming required. And doing so won't cost you a cent--unless you volunteer a contribution to the people behind the Map A List beta service that makes it all possible…”

23. Call to 'shut down' Google Maps Street View in the UK http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7959362.stm “…In July 2008, the ICO gave permission for Street View to launch partly because of assurances Google gave about the way it would blur faces and registration plates. Google has removed some images following complaints…Among them were a woman who had moved house to escape a violent partner but who was recognisable outside her new home on Street View. Also complaining were two colleagues pictured in an apparently compromising position who suffered embarrassment when the image was circulated at their workplace. The ICO said it had received the complaint from PI and would respond "shortly". It added: "It is Google's responsibility to ensure all vehicle registration marks and faces are satisfactorily blurred…”

24. Google: ‘Orion’ Technology, Longer Snippets http://tinyurl.com/ckw6e2 (SearchEngineLand) “…Google is announcing two changes to search results this morning. The first involves the use of longer “snippets” (text extracts containing the keywords) when users input queries of three words or more…The other and more significant change introduced today is based on the 2006 acquisition of “Orion.”…Take a search such as the American Revolution as an example of how the system works. Orion would bring up results with extracts containing this phrase. But it would also give results for American History, George Washington, American Revolutionary War, Declaration of Independence, Boston Tea Party and more…”

General Technology

25. First Flight Brings Terrafugia “A New Level of Credibility,” http://tinyurl.com/dmrffu (Xconomy) “…After Terrafugia’s heavily attended press conference this morning announcing the maiden flight of the company’s drivable aircraft, the Transition, I buttonholed founder and CEO Carl Dietrich for a one-on-one interview. He said the flight, which took place on March 5, is probably “the biggest single milestone” that Terrafugia could have achieved—and that the company is now in a strong position to raise more money as it continues with testing and development of its “flying car” and eventually moves toward manufacturing. If venture or private-equity investors don’t come through, Dietrich says the company has good leads on “a couple” of possible corporate investors. Interestingly, Dietrich says it’s not clear yet whether the Transition will actually be manufactured in Massachusetts. The company has “proposals from all around the country” for siting its manufacturing facilities—but for now, the company’s modest garage in Woburn, MA, will do…”

26. Light and Heat: Giant Fresnel http://www.brotherswhitney.com/2008/11/light-and-heat/ “…We all played with magnifying glasses as kids. Lighting leaves on fire, scorching our retinas, and causing a massive downswing in the local insect population…A few kids were lucky enough to join the big leagues with their big Fresnel lenses. I was one of those much-envied kids. I cannot imagine how a twelve inch square of plastic could bring more joy to anyone. It was instant fire, molten lead, and ant vaporizing. At that scale it ceased to be cruel… the ants simply ceased to be. Flash forward nearly two decades. I’m hard to impress (though easy to entertain). Fantasticked out by thermite and plasma torches, how could a little magnifying glass impress me? When it’s a very big one. Three feet by four feet…”

27. Carbon nanotube muscles http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/03/flexing-carbon-nanotube-muscles.ars “…Artificial muscles are likely to be essential components of robotics, prosthetic limbs, and a variety of micro-machinery. Quite a few designs are out there, involving materials like carbon nanotubes and silicon elastomers but, to one degree or another, these usually fail to operate as well as natural human muscles. In today’s issue of Science, University of Texas scientists led by Ray Baughman report on a new type of muscle that dramatically outperforms biological ones in nearly every way. Baughman’s research group created carbon nanotube aerogel sheets by pulling nanotubes from a mass of disordered tubes into organized bundles of ribbons. These bundles formed an aerogel with a surprisingly low density (about 1.5 mg/cm3), making them nearly as light as air. Just one gram of this material can cover an area of over 30 m2. Although these sheets can spread out, they are also compressible. Their thickness can be reduced 400-fold, decreasing their overall volume. Perhaps even more notable than their low density is their amazing elasticity, which is simultaneously combined with hardness…” [related video http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/10/09/working-calculator-m.html]

Leisure & Entertainment

28. Zeebo Debuts New Game Console for Emerging Market http://tinyurl.com/d4alrr (Xconomy) Zeebo, a San Diego video-game company backed by Qualcomm, today launched the “world’s fourth console” for video games. The company’s strategy…is focused on the video-game market in emerging countries. Zeebo is entering an industry dominated by the big three of game consoles: the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox, and Sony PlayStation. Instead of challenging them head-on, however, Zeebo is aiming at the middle-class market in Brazil and countries like Mexico, Russia and India. The Zeebo system goes on sale next month in Brazil…”

29. New OnLive service could turn the video game world upside down http://tinyurl.com/c4myt2 (VentureBeat) “…if entrepreneur Steve Perlman’s OnLive lives up to its goals, the company will disrupt the entire video game industry — to the delight of both game publishers and gamers…Perlman…has developed a data compression technology and an accompanying online game service that allows game computation to be done in distant servers, rather than on game consoles or high-end computers. So rather than buying games at stores, gamers could play them across the network — without downloading them…This is video gaming on demand, where we deliver the games as a service, not something on a disk or in hardware,” Perlman said. “Hardware is no longer the defining factor of the game experience…Nvidia will benefit to a degree because OnLive’s data centers use high-end graphics chips in their servers. Nvidia has been a development partner in helping to create the server technology…the algorithms change the structure and order of Internet data, or packets, so they can sail through the Internet. A packet can make an entire round trip in 80 milliseconds, a very short amount of time compared to other Internet traffic that travels through hardware that either compresses or decompresses the data…To use OnLive, all you need is a broadband connection running at two megabits a second for standard graphics or five megabits a second for high-definition graphics…OnLive has been in stealth mode for seven years…”

30. Winners announced for Havok Physics Innovation Contest http://tinyurl.com/dhxwh7 (Intel) “…a contest to encourage developers to create games that made innovative use of Havok Physics and Animation for PC…Most Innovative Use of Physics in a Game…1st - Creo Forma by Michael Peddicord, United States…2nd - Derby Attack by Matias Nazareth Goldberg, Argentina…entries are all posted on the contest website, and are available to download and play…”

Economy and Technology

31. The end of the free lunch—again http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13326158 “…During the dotcom boom, the idea got about that there could be such a thing as a free lunch, or at least free internet services. Firms sprang up to offer content and services online, in the hope that they would eventually be able to “monetise” the resulting millions of “eyeballs” by selling advertising. Things did not work out that way, though, and the result was the dotcom crash…Then it happened all over again, starting in 2004 with the listing of Google on the stockmarket, which inflated a new “Web 2.0” bubble. Google’s ability to place small, targeted text advertisements next to internet-search results, and on other websites, meant that many of the business models thought to have been killed by the dotcom bust now rose from the grave…The free lunch was back. Now reality is reasserting itself once more, with familiar results. The number of companies that can be sustained by revenues from internet advertising turns out to be much smaller than many people thought…Ultimately, though, every business needs revenues—and advertising, it transpires, is not going to provide enough. Free content and services were a beguiling idea. But the lesson of two internet bubbles is that somebody somewhere is going to have to pick up the tab for lunch.

32. Why IBM Wants Sun http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2009/tc20090318_847789.htm A potential marriage between tech giants IBM and Sun Microsystems is rattling the tech industry. The two companies are in merger talks, and IBM (IBM) has offered $6.5 billion in cash…While computer hardware has steadily become a less important part of IBM's business, Sun is much more than a hardware company. It has been one of the most important Silicon Valley innovation factories of the past two decades—much of it in software. Combining IBM, the innovation leader of the East, with Sun, an innovation leader out West, would yield a formidable player…”

33. Trying to Earn More Money? Stop Wasting Your Time http://tinyurl.com/cfkzz7 (FreeMoneyFinance) “…I've been working with someone named "Nicole," a freelance writer who offered to help me interview some of my readers and collect money stories for my blog. She offered to work for me in exchange for advice on building her freelance business. Last week, we had our first "advice" call, and it was fascinating…Our conversation was a great example of the troubles that many entrepreneurs face when starting their businesses, so I thought I'd share some simple techniques that Nicole and I came up with to focus her on earning more money…”

Civilian Aerospace

34. Teens capture images of space with £56 camera and balloon http://tinyurl.com/cv49qo (Telegraph) “…Proving that you don't need Google's billions or the BBC weather centre's resources, the four Spanish students managed to send a camera-operated weather balloon into the stratosphere. Taking atmospheric readings and photographs 20 miles above the ground, the Meteotek team of IES La Bisbal school in Catalonia completed their incredible experiment at the end of February this year. Building the electronic sensor components from scratch, Gerard Marull Paretas, Sergi Saballs Vila, Marta­ Gasull Morcillo and Jaume Puigmiquel Casamort managed to send their heavy duty £43 latex balloon to the edge of space and take readings of its ascent. Created by the four students under the guidance of teacher Jordi Fanals Oriol, the budding scientists, all aged 18-19, followed the progress of their balloon using high tech sensors communicating with Google Earth. Team leader Gerard Marull, 18, said: "We were overwhelmed at our results, especially the photographs, to send our handmade craft to the edge of space is incredible…”

35. Colbert wins space station name contest http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29841715/ “…The name "Colbert" beat out NASA's four suggested options in the space agency's effort to have the public help name the addition…Colbert urged viewers of his Comedy Central show, "The Colbert Report" to write in his name. And they complied, with 230,539 votes. That clobbered Serenity, one of the NASA choices, by more than 40,000 votes. Nearly 1.2 million votes were cast by the time the contest ended Friday. NASA reserves the right to choose an appropriate name…”

36. Space symposium soaring http://www.gazette.com/articles/symposium_50395___article.html/space_industry.html There is no recession in orbit, organizers of the 25th annual National Space Symposium have found. While other trade shows have withered amid the faltering economy, the symposium that starts next week at The Broadmoor is as big as ever…The healthy symposium is good news for the local economy, because it is expected to draw 7,500 people who will pack area hotels and drop cash in restaurants. The real money at the symposium changes hands in hotel rooms at The Broadmoor where industry giants like Boeing and Lockheed Martin along with smaller players including local technology firms cut deals for satellites, services and computing gear. This year's symposium focuses on the future of the space industry…”

Supercomputing & GPUs

37. Lenovo Refreshes Workstations With Desktop Supercomputer http://tinyurl.com/c48o33 (InformationWeek) “…Companies looking to convert the systems into personal supercomputers can opt for the Tesla C1060 graphics processing unit. The GPU, introduced last year, offers 1 teraflop, or a trillion computational operations per second, and 4 GB of memory. Nvidia claims the platform, which offers 240 processing cores, delivers 10 times the computational power of a computer with two quad-core CPUs while using about the same amount of energy. In order to run high-performance computing applications on the systems, however, the heavily computational portions of software would have to be run through Nvidia's CUDA compiler…”

38. New video-editing software gets multiframe tech http://news.cnet.com/8301-13580_3-10202382-39.html “…The $49.99 software program, called vReveal, analyzes a video's adjacent frames and combines the data to create a higher-quality version. This can bring out details in dim areas, correct camera shake, and remove noise and blocky compression artifacts…It can run up to five times faster when you have a CUDA-enabled Nvidia GPU in your system…”

39. GIS Record for supercomputing desktop http://sev.prnewswire.com/computer-software/20090315/LA8390215032009-1.html “…Manifold.net today announced a new world record for the number of processors used in a personal computer for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) processing…Manifold demonstrated an upcoming new software product that simultaneously utilized over 1440 processor cores to perform a remote sensing image computation at supercomputer speed with over 3.5 teraflops of performance. Manifold demonstrated the new software on a desktop 64-bit Windows PC equipped with three NVIDIA GTX 295 GPU cards costing less than $500 each. The demonstration showed how a desktop Windows PC using inexpensive consumer components and running a $245 Manifold GIS package can run over one hundred times faster than any other GIS or remote sensing software package…”

40. Three Reasons for Moving to Multicore http://www.ddj.com/hpc-high-performance-computing/216200386 “…even computers aimed at the home market have at least two processor cores. Four-core machines are already widely available, with affordable six processors on the horizon. As if that's not enough, some hard-core gamers have dual quad-core processors installed, while companies like Intel are prototyping 80-core processors…When asked what are the top three reasons motivating companies to move to multicore, Cilk Arts' Ilya Mirman reports that they repeatedly heard three key themes…”

41. CUDA, Supercomputing for the Masses: Part 11 http://www.ddj.com/hpc-high-performance-computing/215900921 “…In this installment, I revisit local and constant memory and introduce the concept of "texture memory." Optimizing the performance of CUDA applications most often involves optimizing data accesses which includes the appropriate use of the various CUDA memory spaces. Texture memory provides a surprising aggregation of capabilities including the ability to cache global memory (separate from register, global, and shared memory) and dedicated interpolation hardware separate from the thread processors. Texture memory also provides a way to interact with the display capabilities of the GPU…”

42. Finding the Door in the Memory Wall, Part 2 http://tinyurl.com/ddrds8 (HPCwire) “…we contrast the behavior of a highly parallel state-of-the-art algorithm with that of a moderately-parallel algorithm in which some of the parallelism has been traded for lower DRAM bandwidth demands. We show the latter outperforms the highly parallel algorithm by a factor three on today's multicore processors…”

43. Penguin Computing: GPU computing clusters http://tinyurl.com/cm9tdy (PenguinComputing) “…Penguin is now offering an Altus 1702 fully-integrated cluster with four twin 1U compute nodes, four NVIDIA® Tesla™ S1070 GPU Computing Systems, Gigabit Ethernet and Penguin’s Scyld management software for $44,985 (configuration Z170034). This system provides over 16 teraflops of compute power in a 9U rack configuration. A cluster option expands the configuration to eight Altus 1702 twin compute nodes and eight Tesla S1070 GPU Computing Systems with over 32 teraflops of performance for less than $89,000. All systems have AMD Opteron 2376 CPU's and 8GB RAM per node, a 24-port GigE switch and a Scyld annual subscription included for each node. Each Tesla S1070 1U GPU Computing System has four Tesla T10 GPUs, each delivering almost one teraflop of single precision and 80 gigaflops of double precision performance…”

44. Multicore chips pose next big challenge for industry http://tinyurl.com/d3n9zk (ComputerWorld) Adding more processing cores has emerged as the primary way of boosting performance of server and PC chips, but the benefits will be greatly diminished if the industry can't overcome certain hardware and programming challenges, participants at the Multicore Expo in Santa Clara, California, said last week…” [http://www.khronos.org/news/events/detail/khronos_devu_at_multicore_expo]

45. Your next CPU could be a GPU http://tinyurl.com/cgnqw9 (TechRadar) “…just take a look at the companies that want a slice of the GPGPU pie: Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Microsoft, IBM, Apple and Toshiba all want in. And it's not just speculation that's leading to such big interest: GPGPU systems are already outperforming CPU-only clusters in fields as diverse as molecular dynamics, ray tracing, medical imaging and sequence matching…”


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