CherryPal for Everyone

Actual Pictures of my CherryPal

2008-12-05T23:24:00.001-08:00

A blog reader requested pictures of my CherryPal and here they are, taken with my phone.

You can see the black box it arrived in that has the picture of it on the outside, a close up of the CherryPal sitting on the box, hooked to the monitor and power supply, and the CherryPal sitting on the keyboard so you can see the comparative size of it.

Took my CheryPal out to a cafe!

2008-12-05T10:16:00.000-08:00

So I thought it would be interesting to see just how portable this device is. Yes, it is tiny and hand held, but that's before you add the monitor, keyboard and mouse peripherals.

So I loaded everything into my black HBO duffle bag. The keyboard is weightless and it would have fit into a messenger bag if not for the fact that my flat screen monitor is of the desktop variety, and not the smallest, slimmest available.

Cafe Roma is in UC Berkeley territory, and there is a back room where people can sit for hours working, studying, reading, without being disturbed. I have been there for live performances in this back room as well.

So I chose a table next to the wall where there was a 3 prong outlet, necessary for my monitor. Of course the CherryPal requires electricity, but only a 2 prong. (Note to self- place a 3 prong to 2 prong adapter in my bag for future CherryPal outings.)

I felt like a magician pulling out my bag of tricks, wires and peripherals in front of an audience. It is funny that the CherryPal itself is so non-intrusive. I was pleased that I had both a full size keyboard and monitor for much more comfort.

Some places provide the monitor for hooking up your laptop - and so now I have a new opportunity to explore conducive CherryPal locations outside my office.

I did explore the word processing program briefly. I plan to blog directly on location from my CherryPal for future posts!

Received my Username and Password!

2008-12-04T13:25:00.001-08:00

Ok - just to manage some expectations here:

There is no huge organization behind the CherryPal from my direct experience.

Max Seybold is answering emails personally and recently said:

"At the Brand Angel party July 3rd I clearly stated that the success of CherryPal's design principles (building the same product, though, lower energy consumption and much cheaper) is much more important to me than the success of CherryPal (the company) itself. Don't get me wrong, I am fully commited to making CherryPal successful.

CherryPal evolved from a project to a company just recently. We are not a multi-billion dollar company. We don't have budget nor desire to put any spin on what's going on. It is what it is."

So, it goes that I received my username and password,
and my 2 colleagues and I are working to get the keyboard, mouse and CherryPal all communicating...

We plug in the username, the password, and a desktop comes up that has icons for
Home, Trash and File System.

:)

Plugged in My CherryPal, and...GNOME?

2008-12-04T12:37:00.001-08:00

So I immediately plugged in my CherryPal to the electricity and plugged in my waiting monitor.

On the screen, the CherryPal logo appeared!!!!
Yeah, I'm in now, finally, after all these months -
then I saw a small box appear that said

"GNOME Desktop Manager"

across the top, in a gold color, with the following horizontal menu underneath:

"Session / Language / Actions / Sun, Jan 13 4:21 AM"

(followed by:)
Welcome
_____________________
Username

and box to fill in a username followed by:

Please enter your user name."

I thought that this related to the monitor as it has been around for about 7 years and originally belonged to an HP sys admin who may have swiped it before selling it to me...

So, I went out to Radio Shack with the intention of purchasing a PS/2 Female to USB-A Port Adapter to plug in my keyboard to one of the USB ports. I thought I would need two of them or else a USB mouse, and decided to purchase a cordless keyboard and mouse for $29.00 (Logitech Cordless Desktop EX100).

I put batteries into keyboard and mouse (included in box), plugged in my CherryPal (there is no on or off switch), and voila! CherryPall logo appears on screen and a connection bar (much like sending an email via cell phone) appears - then,

GNOME Desktop Manager...

WTF!

Max had said that there should have been a one page start up sheet included in the box. I did not get anything other than a small tshirt (thank you!) in the box with the cardboard packaging and the foam pocket on the CherryPal unit.

More to come...

CherryPal At My Front Door!!!!

2008-12-03T16:05:00.000-08:00

It arrived!

In a small, black cardboard box with a picture of the CherryPal on the outside.

I'm openning it - It is soooo tiny - like a compact make-up case.

It is even smaller than a paperback book - its the size of a handheld Nintendo GameBoy - the original ones - about the size of the Nintendo DS (dual screen). If you take a standard 8 1/2 by 11 inch peice of printer paper and fold it in half, it is smaller than that.

I've plugged in my monitor, which goes directly into the back. I went to plug in my keyboard, but found I need a USB connector to plug it into the CherryPal...there are 2 USB ports available - which means one for the keyboard and one for the mouse. It only came with a cord to plug it into the wall. I'll also need a phone connection, as there is a port for a phone jack.

There is no literature, no user manual, no directions, NADA...

I thought I was prepared with everything I needed, but guess its off to Radio Shack for my USB connector for the keyboard and mouse.

More to come in the new adventures of plugging in my CherryPal!

Announcing Cherrypal C114 - 8GB local FLASH storage

2008-10-13T14:17:00.000-07:00

CherryPal™ replaced the C100 with the 8GB SSD C114

- still the same price!!!

CherryPal™ C114

The CherryPal™ C114 desktop is about the size of a paperback book, but has the performance you would expect from a full-size desktop computer. Freescale's fast triple-core mobileGT processor delivers exceptional multimedia performance and feature-rich user interfaces, while only consuming as much power as a clock radio. CherryPal uses 80 percent fewer components than a traditional PC, and because it has no moving parts, it operates without making a sound and will last 10 years or more.

Specifications:

-Freescale’s MPC5121e mobileGT processor, 800 MIPS (400 MHz)
of processing
-256 MB of DDR2 DRAM
-8GB NAND Flash-based solid state drive (increased from 4GB
C100)
-WiFi 802.11b/g Wi-Fi
-Two USB2.0 ports
-One 10/100 Ethernet with RJ-45 jack
-One VGA DB-15 display out jack
-Headphone level stereo audio out 3.5mm jack
-9vDC 2.5mm 10 watt AC-DC adapt er power supply
-Weighs 10 ounces
-1.3” high, 5.8” x 4.2” wide

From Max Seybold, CEO, Cherr ypal

"The first CherryPals will get shipped on US election day, November 4th, guaranteed. We were able to upgrade the C100 to the

C114 for the same low price. We increased the local Solid State Disk Drive from 4GB to 8GB and slightly changed the casing, lighter and slimmer, very cool. I am sure you will like it. So, the store is open again with guaranteed shipment 11/4/2008, guaranteed."

1. Order directly at http://cherrypal.com/SHOP.html:

for $249.00 plus shipping. Shipping begins on November 4, 2008.

2. For $10 off, use the coupon code CPP206:
You will be asked to enter the coupon CODE at the Google Checkout site. ENTER CPP206
YOU MUST ENTER THE CODE CPP206 IN ORDER TO GET TEN (10) DOLLARS OFF!
You will be notified when your new CherryPal has shipped.

3. Please come back to http://cherrypal.blogspot.com to share your comments about your experience of purchasing, receiving, using and being a CherryPal!

CherryPal will start shipping the C114 (read that as C-eleven-four) on US Election Day, Tuesday November 4th, 2008. We all hope this day will change the world for the better.

All open and future orders will get an automatic upgrade
to the C114 - same low price of $249.00 but with 8GB
(C100 4GM) local FLASH storage.

Use Code CPP 206 for $10 off

CherryPal will start shipping the C114 (read eleven, four) on US
Election Day, Tuesday November 4th, 2008.CherryPal is accepting orders again, shipment on 11/4 guaranteed!!!

We all hope this day will change the world for the better.

CherryPal thanks you for your interest in green/open/fair personal
cloud computing.

For international buyers: The C114 comes with US power
adaptor 110V to 240V.

From cherrypal.com:
CherryPal HyperCloud™ Technology

CherryPal is the only company that provides a patent-
pending combination of both hardware and software
encryption, making it highly secure. The CherryPal also
offers a patent-pending single software layer technology.
This collapses the operating system and browser into
one layer, where there had traditionally been three
separate layers. It makes the computer exponentially
faster and virtually eliminates any risk of bugs or viruses
for the user.

Why being in a "CLOUD" is a good thing...

The CherryPalCloud™ Innovation

CherryPal has removed the hassle from personal
computing by moving most of the software and data that
traditionally sits on the desktop to the Internet. Instead of
accessing programs and data from your desktop
computer, the majority of information is processed and
stored on the web in a highly secure environment called
the CherryPalCloud™, which is automatically accessed
at boot-up. The CherryPalCloud removes many of the
headaches typically associated with traditional personal
computers, including:

* application downloads, software upgrades and
crashing operating systems, because everything is
maintained in the CherryPalCloud by CherryPal
administrators

* viruses and hackers, because the user’s hardware
is no longer exposed to local bugs and viruses

* lag time, because the majority of cumbersome
software applications are stored in the CherryPalCloud,
the computer operates just as fast – if not faster – than a
traditional PC.

Portable TVs To Be Left Behind in Signal Switch

2008-10-11T02:16:00.000-07:00

By David Lieberman

October 10, 2008 7:16AM

Many electronics manufacturers find themselves waiting to reach an agreement with broadcasters on a technology standard for a new generation of energy-efficient mobile televisions that could work in cell phones, iPod-like portable players and PDAs. Broadcasters would then transmit a separate signal to these devices.

In an era of dazzling battery-powered portable devices including iPods, computers and cellphones, it’s hard to imagine what it’s like to be unable to catch the news and entertainment anytime and anywhere we want. But millions of people who own portable televisions, including those who depend on them when they flee their homes or lose power during hurricanes and other emergencies, may soon return to the dark ages. Virtually all of the nation’s 7 million battery-powered TVs receive analog signals. They’ll become useless after Feb. 17, when broadcasters must abandon analog and just transmit digital signals — unless the sets are connected to digital-to-analog converter boxes.

The problem is, the vast majority of converters must be plugged into the wall. That makes them unreliable in an emergency.

“Unfortunately, a lot of well-intentioned policymakers found out after the ink was dry that there were more (portable) devices and households affected” than they imagined, says Richard Doherty of The Envisioneering Group, a research and consulting firm.

That’s a “great irony” in the federally mandated move to digital TV, says Shannon Dunham, a communications specialist at law firm Sherman & Howard. Although the government “intended to reclaim the (analog) bandwidth for emergency use” — including police, fire and medical communications– “in the end, they’re going to affect people who get emergency information” from portable TVs. Radios equipped to pick up audio from local TV broadcasts also will lose those analog signals. The Red Cross says that it’s not worried.

“More people tend to listen to radio (stations) than watch TV in a disaster,” spokesman Jonathan Aiken says. Looking for Local News But many local disaster officials are apprehensive about the loss of portable TV at a time when lots of chain-owned radio stations have cut back on local news. “It is absolutely a concern of ours,” says Veronica Mosgrove, a spokeswoman for…

View original post here:
Portable TVs To Be Left Behind in Signal Switch

http://www.mobile-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62376

http://newmobiletech.com/portable-tvs-to-be-left-behind-in-signal-switch/

Samsung Korea shows off two new green PCs

2008-10-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

High on a Hill

Eco-friendly technology for Asia

by Hillary Chan, Malaysia

Oct 8, 2008 02:11

I think it is unfair that when green tech gadgets get reviewed, the reviewer will inevitably emphasize how low the specs of the machine are and give it lower points or star ratings because of that, without giving it additional brownie points for being green. I guess gadget makers will just need to work harder to bring us greener yet more powerful machines, while consumers keep pounding their doors to keep demanding them to be made. The latest to launch green PCs is Samsung Korea, which showcased the MV100 Tower and MZ100 Slim Tower only a few days ago.

Samsung's new machines consume only 60W when used in power-saving mode and that's pretty amazing even though it is not the lowest in the market. I don't know the exact specs for these Samsung PCs, so I can't compare.But the CPU casings are black and mean-looking, which mean I assume it is more powerful than any on the EarthFirst chart.

The lowest energy sipper is still the CherryPal which my colleague wrote about here. It uses CherryPalCloud which helps you save information on the Internet, so you will never need that much harddisk space anyway. So which green PC (on the chart and off) appeals to you most?

http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/high-on-a-hill/post.htm?id=63006747&scid=hm_bl

Union Square's Albert Wenger offers crash course on cloud computing

2008-10-04T21:44:00.001-07:00

[Posted on October 3, 2008 - 6:47 PM]
-- Mary Kathleen Flynn

The profile of so-called "cloud computing" has been rising rapidly over the last week or so. First, Oracle Corp. Larry Ellison mocked it as "gibberish," then Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman called it "stupidity," citing privacy concerns. Meanwhile Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer told a London audience Wednesday that the software giant will soon release "Windows Cloud."

Amid the controversy, I figured it was a good week to get a tutorial on cloud computing, and fortunately Union Square Ventures partner Albert Wenger (pictured) was kind enough to give me one. At Tim O'Reilly's Web 2.0 Expo in New York last month, Wenger gave a presentation on cloud computing, which he walked me through Thursday at Union Square's office.

One of the tricky things about trying to understand cloud computing is that there is no concensus on a definition. If you try to look up the term on Wikipedia or through Google searches, as I did, you'll find yourself more confused at the end of the exercise than you were going into it.

Thankfully, Wenger begins his presentation with a definition, albeit a multi-part one. He says there are four key characteristics of true cloud computing:

1. Cloud computing is independent of machines (either real machines or virtual ones), giving applications developed for it the ability to run on any hardware.

2. It requires little if any configuring.

3. The same code scales from hundreds of users to hundreds of thousands of users so developers do not need to rewrite their programs as they grow their companies.

4. It enables easy integration and delivery of Web services at scale.

"When the cloud is fully realized, developers will no longer have to worry about provisioning and monitoring machines, whether virtual or real, or whether they will be able to handle a 1000-fold increase in load on their service," Wenger explains. "A single individual will be able to create a site or service that can affect the lives of many millions or even billions of people."

Wenger says cloud computing will "fundamentally transform how software and services on the Web are created."

Putting his money where his mouth is, Wenger leads Union Square's $1.5 million investment in 10gen, which is developing a cloud computing environment. The majority of 10gen is owned by AlleyCorp, the New York incubator of former DoubleClick Inc. executives Kevin Ryan and Dwight Merriman.

Wenger, who advocates "regulation by transparency" instead of standards, says Stallman is right to raise privacy and other control issues about proprietary cloud computing environments, such as Google App Engine, Amazon Web Services and Salesforce.com Inc.'s Force.com.

10gen's approach is to develop an open-source cloud computing environment. "What MySQL did for databases, 10gen will do for cloud computing," predicts Wenger.

See Albert Wenger's Continuations blog
See Sept. 29 post on cloud computing from Tech Confidential

http://www.thedeal.com/techconfidential/behind-the-money/blog/behind-the-money/the-profile-of-socalled-cloud.php

©Copyright 2008, The Deal, LLC. All rights reserved.

Stallman not the only Cloud Critic

2008-10-03T10:34:00.001-07:00

What Does 'Cloud Computing' Mean, Exactly?

A lot of people aren't sure, but one thing is for certain: Dislike for the phrase has brought together some strange bedfellows.

October 1, 2008
By Andy Patrizio
http://www.internetnews.com/software/article.php/3775346/What+Does+Cloud+Computing+Mean+Exactly.htm

With so much talk about "cloud computing," it's easy to feel lost in the clouds. If you either don't understand the term, or don't see a reason for it, you're in good company.

Take Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, for one. During his recent Churchill Club appearance, Ballmer dismissed the uniqueness of the concept by saying, "When people talk about cloud computing, they're talking just about taking some stuff, putting it outside the firewall, and perhaps putting it on servers that are also shared or storage systems."

Oracle's always-quotable CEO Larry Ellison went one better, according the Wall Street Journal. Ellison declared during a recent analyst conference, "The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women's fashion. Maybe I'm an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking about. What is it? It's complete gibberish. It's insane. When is this idiocy going to stop?"

According to Gartner, you can blame hardware and software vendors for the confusion -- and the apparent outrage it's spawning. David Smith, a vice president and research fellow at the analyst firm, said he agreed that "cloud computing" represents another take on well-worn concepts, brought about as vendors slap the latest buzzword on their products if they think it will help them sell.

Full story at InternetNews

Copyright 2008 Jupitermedia Corporation All Rights Reserved.

Gartner Says Contrasting Cloud Views Creating Confusion

2008-10-03T10:19:00.000-07:00

STAMFORD, Conn., Sept. 29 -- The term "cloud computing" is being loosely applied and defined differently, and it's creating a lot of confusion in the market, according to Gartner, Inc. Analysts say it is imperative to understand these different perspectives and set the proper expectations to obtain the anticipated benefits.

Gartner defines cloud computing as a style of computing in which massively scalable IT-related capabilities are provided "as a service" using Internet technologies to multiple external customers. However, there have been different perceptions of what is included in cloud computing.

"The term cloud computing has come to mean two very different things: a broader use that focuses on 'cloud,' and a more-focused use on system infrastructure and virtualization," said David Mitchell Smith, vice president and Gartner Fellow. "Mixing the discussion of 'cloud-enabling technologies' with 'cloud computing services' creates confusion."

The two prevalent views of cloud computing are as follows:

The cloud is an idea that derives from the perspective of the Internet/Web/software as a service (SaaS). The focus is more on cloud than computing with the emphasis placed on access to services from elsewhere (that is, from the cloud). This cloud is a global-class phenomenon and a high-level concept that can refer to a range of services extending from system infrastructure (for example, compute services and storage services) through applications (for example, CRM) and business processes (for example, payroll services). Gartner's definition is along these lines, with the off-premises nature of cloud services being the point of reference, and applicability to intraenterprise use as a secondary effect.

The second popular interpretation is a use of technologies, including virtualization and automation, that focuses more on the computing than on the cloud aspect, with emphasis placed on the technologies that enable the creation and delivery of service-based capabilities. This perspective is an extension of traditional data center approaches and can be applied to entirely internal enterprise systems with no use of external off-premises capabilities provided by a third party.

"Although these perspectives are different, there is a connection between them. Any provider of cloud computing services must have an environment that includes an infrastructure to support their delivery. Virtualization often is used to implement this underlying infrastructure to support delivery of the cloud computing services," Smith said. "Cloud system infrastructure services are a subset of cloud computing, but not the entire picture."

Gartner recommends that users clearly separate the consideration of cloud computing and cloud computing services from the use of cloud computing-related concepts and technologies for the creation of internal systems. Both perspectives (services and technologies) are valuable and should be pursued; however, they are two separate but related initiatives.

Gartner analysts will provide additional analysis on cloud computing during the upcoming Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2008, taking place Oct. 12-16 in Orlando, Fla. Gartner Symposium/ITxpo is the IT industry's largest and most strategic conference, providing business leaders with a look at the future of IT. More than 6,000 senior business and IT strategists will gather for the insights, tools and solutions they need to ensure their IT initiatives are key contributors to and drivers of their enterprise's success. Gartner's annual Symposium/ITxpo events are key components of attendees' annual planning efforts. They rely on Gartner Symposium/ITxpo to gain insight into how their organizations can use IT to address business challenges and improve operational efficiency. Additional information is available at www.gartner.com/symposium/us.

Email This Article

Print This Article

Copyright © 1994-2008 Tabor Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Cloud computing is a trap, warns GNU founder Richard Stallman

2008-10-01T22:37:00.001-07:00

Richard Stallman on cloud computing: "It's stupidity. It's worse than stupidity: it's a marketing hype campaign." Photograph: www.stallman.org

Web-based programs like Google's Gmail will force people to buy into locked, proprietary systems that will cost more and more over time, according to the free software campaigner

Bobbie Johnson, technology correspondent
guardian.co.uk,
Monday September 29 2008 14:11 BST

The concept of using web-based programs like Google's Gmail is "worse than stupidity", according to a leading advocate of free software.

Cloud computing – where IT power is delivered over the internet as you need it, rather than drawn from a desktop computer – has gained currency in recent years. Large internet and technology companies including Google, Microsoft and Amazon are pushing forward their plans to deliver information and software over the net.

But Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and creator of the computer operating system GNU, said that cloud computing was simply a trap aimed at forcing more people to buy into locked, proprietary systems that would cost them more and more over time.

"It's stupidity. It's worse than stupidity: it's a marketing hype campaign," he told The Guardian.

"Somebody is saying this is inevitable – and whenever you hear somebody saying that, it's very likely to be a set of businesses campaigning to make it true."

The 55-year-old New Yorker said that computer users should be keen to keep their information in their own hands, rather than hand it over to a third party.

His comments echo those made last week by Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, who criticised the rash of cloud computing announcements as "fashion-driven" and "complete gibberish".

"The interesting thing about cloud computing is that we've redefined cloud computing to include everything that we already do," he said. "The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women's fashion. Maybe I'm an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking about. What is it? It's complete gibberish. It's insane. When is this idiocy going to stop?"

The growing number of people storing information on internet-accessible servers rather than on their own machines, has become a core part of the rise of Web 2.0 applications. Millions of people now upload personal data such as emails, photographs and, increasingly, their work, to sites owned by companies such as Google.

Computer manufacturer Dell recently even tried to trademark the term "cloud computing", although its application was refused.

But there has been growing concern that mainstream adoption of cloud computing could present a mixture of privacy and ownership issues, with users potentially being locked out of their own files.

Stallman, who is a staunch privacy advocate, advised users to stay local and stick with their own computers.

"One reason you should not use web applications to do your computing is that you lose control," he said. "It's just as bad as using a proprietary program. Do your own computing on your own computer with your copy of a freedom-respecting program. If you use a proprietary program or somebody else's web server, you're defenceless. You're putty in the hands of whoever developed that software."

Printable version

Send to a friend

Clip

Article history

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008

Black’s the colour to help save energy, says Andrew

2008-09-25T23:48:00.000-07:00

http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/community/s/2035844_blacks_the_colour_to_help_save_energy_says_andrew

22/ 9/2008

A 13-YEAR-OLD boy has set up a search engine website that can help people save energy.

Andrew Davey, who lives in Knaphill, got the idea after reading a blog by Mark Ontkush, a green computing specialist based in Boston, USA.

Mr Ontkush had calculated that an all-white web page used 74 watts of electricity to display, whereas an all-black screen uses only 59.

He said that on a website such as Google, which deals with approximately 200 million queries per day, the change from a white screen to a black one would save 15 watts each time it was displayed. That would add up to a significant amount of energy saved per day.

Andrew said: “After reading the article I thought it was quite amazing that it hasn’t been done already. It’s so simple but very effective.”

The youngster set up his own energy-saving black web page alternative to Google called ecosmartsearch, which took him about a week to do.

He said: “It works with the Google search engine and gets the same results as Google. I’ve always been good at computers and I turned my talents to website design, not something easy at all.

“My friends really like it. I’m just trying to get them out of the habit of using Google. I showed a couple of teachers and they think it’s really good. They are really impressed and have started to use it.”

Andrew had previously made a website for his dad’s medal business.

He said: “I wanted to make my own website in which I could gain some income and become better at website design. I decided to put the writing into green to associate it with energy-saving.

“I also wrote: ‘We are saving energy, now it’s your turn,’ on the home page, hoping that people will think about that light they left on and go and turn things off.

“I have a couple of ideas to make things that save energy. I would like to be an entrepreneur and have my own web design company.”

Andrew has also been part of the green team at Woking High School.

He said: “We were looking at energy-saving issues. I think helping the environment is a great thing to start doing. Every little helps.

“I’m really proud of myself for what I’ve done as I don’t think many people of my age have made a proper website and got it on to the web.”

To use Andrew’s search engine and save energy, go to www.ecosmartsearch.com.

Filtering Viruses Through The Cloud

2008-09-23T08:31:00.000-07:00

» Full Story on Forbes.com

Andy Greenberg,

09.22.08, 6:00 AM ET

To fight an epidemic of malicious code, security software vendors are heading to the data center.

http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/09/21/virus-clouds-security-tech-security-cx_ag_0922virus.html

Anti-virus programs are notorious for acting suspiciously like the malicious software they're meant to eradicate, hijacking your PC and choking its resources by scanning files endlessly.

Now, security software vendors are hoping to solve that parasitic problem with the same information technology transformation meant to make all software cheaper, more efficient and less resource-intensive: the move to the "cloud."

In the past months, cybersecurity vendors including F-Secure, McAfee (nyse: MFE -news - people ), Symantec (nasdaq:SYMC - news - people ) and Trend Micro have all released new versions of their software designed to move more of the work of identifying viruses, Trojans and other forms of "malware" off of desktop PCs and onto faraway servers connected by the Internet. Beyond lightening the load on their customers' machines by performing more analysis as a networked service, they also claim that cloud-based approach may be a more effective strategy for keeping up with the ever-faster flood of new malicious code.
By all appearances, more desktop machines are becoming infected with malicious software than ever before. Over the past year, the number of PCs ensnared in botnets--herds of users' computers infected with malicious software that sends spam or performs click fraud--has more than quadrupled, according to cybersecurity researchers at the Shadowserver Foundation.
One element of the problem, says Trend Micro's vice president, Carol Carpenter, is the acceleration of malware's mutation into new, as-yet-undetected strains. "Three or four years ago, we saw 50 new threats a day. Now we see 50,000 threats a day," she says. "The order of magnitude has changed dramatically."
That means protecting users from newly discovered malware is no longer a matter of days or hours but seconds. Updating a customer's anti-virus software three times a day, as the 2008 version of Symantec's Norton software advertises, or even 10 times a day, as F-Secure boasts, is no longer enough.
The cloud-based solution announced by Trend Micro in June and implemented earlier this month by McAfee and F-Secure is designed to cut that vulnerable period to seconds. Rather than wait for a database of newly identified malware signatures to be downloaded to a PC, the upgraded software takes a "hash"--an identifying number that doesn't reveal the file's contents--of every new application running on a machine and compares that identifier to the software vendors' continuously updated database of threats on in-house servers. If the application doesn't match anything in the vendor's database of safe files, the software issues a warning to the user and performs a closer scan of the file for suspicious characteristics.
That communication between the PC and the database over the Internet, say researchers at F-Secure and McAfee, takes as little as 100 milliseconds. And by pulling the process off the desktop and into the cloud, it uses just a fraction of the computing resources of a traditional anti-virus scan.
Software developers have different approaches to the cloud-based anti-malware system. F-Secure, for instance, scans every application, while McAfee uses an initial filter based on size and how hidden a file's source code is to determine whether it needs scanning in the cloud. Jon Oltsik, an analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group, points out that Trend Micro was the first to announce the technology, but balks at picking which company's approach is most effective. "From a technology perspective, they're all pretty close," he says. "This is not a game of leapfrog. It's a change in the way we have to do things to keep up with the monumental growth in the number and sophistication of attacks."
Security offerings in the cloud aren't strictly new. The security firm Postini, for instance, offered to scrub e-mail for spam and viruses as early as 1999, filtering e-mail before it reached a user's computer without any software on his or her desktop. In July of 2007, the firm was purchased by Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) to be integrated into the search giant's software-as-a-service applications.
In fact, none of the major software vendors implementing malware-detection in the cloud are offering "cloud computing" in that pure form: Each application still involves installing software on the desktop to more easily scan a client's machine and also to detect threats that come from sources other than the Internet, such as a USB drive.
Still, that incomplete move to the cloud holds the potential to act as a kind of collective intelligence, says Oltsik. A software vendor like Symantec, for instance, asks its users to opt in to what it calls the Norton Insight system, which currently assembles data from 17 million customers and uses it to better understand when a new strain of malicious code has appeared. Security researchers liken that approach to a "neighborhood watch" strategy.
Even so, cybersecurity isn't likely to overtake the extraordinary evolution of malware, says Rich Mogull, a security consultant and blogger. Even with malware detection performed over the Internet and piped out at faster speeds than ever before to client computers, no company offers anything beyond "signature-based" filtering, or filtering by characteristics in the program's code, says Mogull. In other words, new malicious files can only be detected after they've been found elsewhere in a company's anti-malware network.
Because malware will appear in forms that even a company's Internet-hosted database doesn't recognize, outbreaks will still occur even among "protected" computers, he says. Given that some cybercriminals are now writing custom malware targeted at single organizations, that's not enough, he says. "No matter how fast we react in this cloud-based scenario, it's still reactive," he says.
But the next generations of anti-malware software may go beyond signature-based detection. Researchers have been working for years on "behavior-based" malware detection, watching what applications do rather than looking at their characteristics to determine their intent.
Symantec's vice president of research and technology, Carey Nachenberg, says its software, possibly in the next year, will try a "reputation-based" approach. He declines to share details of the new strategy but says that one simple element of reputation is simply how many times an application has been seen before--newer, unique applications will be automatically less trusted than common, tested ones. He says the system is closer to Google's Web page ranking algorithm than traditional anti-virus programs.
"Right now, our fingerprinting is faster than ever before," Nachenberg says. "But in the future, the fingerprints disappear completely."

http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/09/21/virus-clouds-security-tech-security-cx_ag_0922virus.html

CherryPal Delivery Update

2008-09-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

Good News From CherryPal Center:

"The CherryPals had gone back to the manufacturer to fix a firmware issue. We were surprised ourselves about the software issues. The delay was caused by a software bug in the graphics core of the processor. We started a joint project with Freescale and got the graphics core issue resolved. It is fixed now. We are doing final testing right now.

"We expect to start shipping the C100 in early October."

Here at CherryPal for Everyone we have been very patient waiting, hoping, and learning about cloud computing, green computing, and the competitive space. Stay tuned to http://cherrypal.blogspot.com to get first tastes!

http://www.blogcatalog.com/blogs/cherrypal-for-everyone.html

Everything’s Gone Green

2008-09-17T22:09:00.000-07:00

INFOCHAT
The Information Center of the I.T. Industry

http://infochat.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/everythings-gone-green/

Everything’s Gone Green
Posted by Admin on September 16, 2008

Users Are Confused About the Issues and Solutions Surrounding Green IT - Gartner
by: Jerry Liao

Nowadays, most computer companies are talking about virtualization, VoIP, cloud computing, mobility, SaaS, and Green I.T. But it seems the industry made a mistake as somewhere in terms of explaining to users what these technologies is all about. Particularly, Green Computing. What is it really? In general, green computing relates to the use of computing resources in conjunction with minimizing environmental impact, maximizing economic viability and ensuring social duties. But how many I.T. users actually understand what green computing is all about?

As pointed out in a recent study by Gartner Inc, IT users are unsure of the implications of green IT and where to invest their technology budgets. Gartner analyst said this confusion will continue for some years to come in what is a rapidly changing segment of the industry.“The IT industry is saturated with green IT talk,” said Rakesh Kumar, research vice president at Gartner. “Conferences, presentations and consultants are springing up to provide guidance and advice on a range of issues that are being codified under the generic term of green IT. Unfortunately, with so much hype, users are left with a sense of confusion about where and when they should invest their time and money.”

There is a great deal of uncertainty about which green technologies and products are actually available today and which may become available in the future. The future “productization” of technologies will not just depend on the maturity of the design but also on the prevailing market conditions and the possibility of future legislation.

However, Gartner research shows that the spectrum of green technologies, services and legislation that users need to focus on can be broken down into short-term (immediate), midterm and long-term activities. The immediate issues affect the next 24 months and need to yield a quick return on investment while the midterm category covers the next five years. The long-term category covers products and activities that are, by nature, rather esoteric and may never become mainstream.

Immediate Green IT Issues for Users to Focus OnImmediate Green IT issues center around power, cooling and floor space problems in data centers and office environments. With this in mind, Gartner has identified eight important areas for users to focus on during the next 24 months:

- Modern data center facilities’ design concepts
- Advanced cooling technologies
- Use of modeling and monitoring software
- Virtualization technologies for server consolidation
- Processor design and server efficiency
- Energy management for the office environment
- Integrated energy management for the software environment
- Combined heat and power

Midterm Green IT Issues for Users to Focus OnDuring the next two to five years, many green technologies will mature and become important to IT groups looking to develop greener IT organizations. However, much of the planning and assessing of the appropriateness and cost of using these new products needs to be examined earlier and in the context of an overall IT strategy. This is especially the case where government legislation (affecting building design, for example) may come into force. Gartner highlights eight areas in this category:

-Green IT procurement
-Green asset life cycle programs
-Environmental labeling of servers and other devices
-Videoconferencing
-Changing people’s behaviors
-Green accounting in IT
-Green legislation in data centers
-Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and IT programs

Long-Term Green IT Issues for Users to Focus OnThere are many green IT technologies, services and projects that will span the next five to 20 years. Much of the industry hype (or “greenwash”) sits in this area and is causing confusion for users. They are unclear about whether carbon-trading programs will become the norm, or whether it will be possible to recycle energy from data centers in a simple and cost-effective way. Gartner has identified the following seven areas to focus on:

-Carbon offsetting and carbon trading
-Data center heat recycling
-Alternative energy sources
-Software efficiency
-Green building design
-Green legislation
-Green chargeback

I am just wondering if the I.T. companies themselves understand what green computing is all about. There are some vendors who would sell products and/or solutions to consumers without knowing what the product is all about and how it would benefit their clients. For the nth time, vendors should realize that the word marketing is not just about selling, its about establishing relationship / partnership with your clients. Earn their trust and be sincere, and you don’t have to do any selling anymore.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
My Plan for Continual Learning about Technologies
Have you tried turning it off, and on again.
Global Green USA

This entry was posted on September 16, 2008 at 8:48 pm and is filed under Digital Citizens. . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Hey-Hey-You-You-Get-on-My-Cloud

2008-09-12T21:13:00.001-07:00

Cloud Computing

Pew Survey: 70 Percent of Internet Users Choose Webmail or Online Storage

By Roy Mark
2008-09-12

Rate This Article:

Add This Article To:

Digg this

Del.icio.us

Slashdot

Y! My Web

E-mail

Furl

Google

Simpy

Spurl!

PDF Version

A Pew Internet & American Life study shows almost 70 percent of Internet-using Americans use cloud computing even though many don't know what the term means. More than half of online Americans use Webmail services like Microsoft's Hotmail, Google's Gmail and Yahoo e-mail in addition to storing photos, videos and data in the cloud. While privacy and security issues are a concern, Internet users are flocking to cloud computing because it is easy and convenient, Pew says.

WASHINGTON—Whether they know it or not, American Internet users' heads are in the clouds. According to a new Pew Internet & American Life survey, almost 70 percent of Americans with Internet access use Webmail services, store data, photos and videos online, or use software programs such as word processing and spreadsheet applications with functionality located on the Web.

"Webmail is the starter drug, so to speak," John Horrigan, Pew's associate director of research, said at a Sept. 12 conference at Google's Washington headquarters here. "A lot people said they value the cloud for the ease of sharing information with others, so that social nature of the Internet really informs the use of cloud applications."

Users also value their privacy. Despite the rapidly escalating use of cloud computing by consumers, Horrigan said the Pew survey found that 68 percent of people using cloud services would be "very concerned" if companies like Google, Microsoft or Yahoo used their stored data to match their interests with advertising or shared or made public their online files.

"People are very obviously making trade-offs in privacy when they engage in these behaviors. That means that people are weighing the pluses and minuses, often in very situational and subtle ways," Horrigan said.

Horrigan stressed that the survey was not intended to be a comprehensive overview of cloud computing but a snapshot of a select set of activities of typical PC users. The activities included using Webmail, online storage of data, photos and videos, use of online apps such as Google Docs or Adobe Photoshop, and online backup storage.

Overall, the study found that 69 percent of users have either stored data online or used a Web-based application. Webmail services dominated the responses (56 percent), followed by online storage of photos (34 percent), online apps (29 percent), video storage (7 percent), paid storage (5 percent) and hard drive backup services (5 percent).

Predicting that cloud computing will become "as important as the Web was 15 years ago," Mike Nelson, a visiting professor at Georgetown University and a former technology policy advisor for President Bill Clinton, said, "Cloud computing is going to transform computing, and not in 10 years but four or five years."

The rapid move to cloud computing, Nelson said, raises important policy questions.

"We have to start thinking right now about how organizations and individuals adopt this technology and how policymakers and, perhaps, outdated policies, meet a new reality," Nelson said.

A starting point for policy discussions might be the Pew survey. The results show 90 percent of respondents would be "very concerned" if a cloud computing company sold files to others without express permission. Other strong concerns included using photos and other information in marketing campaigns (80 percent) and analyzing stored data for unwanted targeted advertising (68 percent).

Survey respondents also had concerns about companies keeping copies of online files even after consumers delete the files (63 percent) and the ability of law enforcement officials to access the files (49 percent).

"Consumers expect their information will be treated the same on the cloud as it is if it were stored at home on their own computers," said Ari Schwartz, vice president and chief operating officer of the Center for Democracy & Technology. "That seems to be a tall order to ask, but that is what they expect."

That would, indeed, be a very tall order for Washington, Nelson said.

"I do think government has an almost infinite ability to screw up things when they can't see the future," he said. "We have to have leadership that believes in empowering users and empowering citizens."

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Cloud-Computing/Hey-Hey-You-YouGet-on-My-Cloud/

Cloud Computing Expo - NComputing & its Disruptive $70 PC

2008-09-12T21:03:00.000-07:00

NComputing claims to be "revolutionizing computing"

By: Maureen O'Gara

Sep. 12, 2008 02:00 PM

IDC doesn't recognize the company that claims to be the leading thin client house on the planet as a through and through thin client company.

Seems two-thirds of it doesn't fit IDC's standard definition of what a thin client should be.

However, that quirky little factoid hasn't stopped NComputing from seeing over a million of its widgets deployed in the 20 months since it came to market and becoming, by all accounts, the fastest-growing desktop virtualization outfit around.

NComputing claims to be "revolutionizing computing."

Okay, all the boys say that but NComputing's appeal, particularly in emerging markets, home to the so-called "next five billion," is its promise of a $70 PC, a price point that has so far eluded such competitors as One Laptop Per Child (OLPC).

For instance, it was NComputing - not OLPC - that captured the first 1:1 country-wide education deployment, which happened to be in Macedonia, whose 180,000 student seats now constitute the largest known thin client deployment ever. It is also the largest known desktop Linux deployment ever even though NComputing's virtualization solution is built on Windows.

NComputing reportedly came in at half the next lowest bid and that includes all the hardware, the transportation, setup, training and maintenance.

What had to have pushed Macedonia over the edge is the fact that NComputing's proposition is sustainable: its users only consume an eco-friendly watt of power and the widgetry will never be obsolete.

NComputing's siren song has attracted commercial accounts like FedEx, CSC, Lear, the World Trade Organization, Carrefour, Cigna, Remax and Flextronics among its user base of 20,000 organizations in 90 countries.

The start-up now boasts an annualized run rate of over a million units. It says it's expecting orders of 10,000 units a clip starting this fall and is expecting to fulfill 7% of all K-12 public school purchases in the US this year, pretty good for a new arrival with only two rounds and a $100 million valuation to its name.

Its siren song also attracted Will Poole, the co-head of Microsoft's Unlimited Potential and former boss of Microsoft's Windows Client Business, whose enviable position gave him the pick of the litter.

Poole, who created Windows Starter - now at seven million sold in emerging markets - and championed détente with OLPC - the Windows version of its XO will be out any minute now - is retiring from Microsoft at the end of the month and says he wants to give something back.

He wants a shot at saving the world by resolving some of the global development issues. And he's going to use NComputing, where he will be non-executive co-chairman and ambassador to developing countries, as a platform while he figures out what he wants to do next.

Poole, by the way, has some money in the company.

What NComputing does is take a bog-standard PC and hang terminals off of it. It figures PCs are so powerful today that most applications only use a fraction of their capacity.

It taps that under-utilized capacity and can put, say, 10 users on a $500 Dell Inspiron reportedly with no discernable latency.

NComputing CEO and co-chair Stephen Dukker, the fast-talking, golden-tongued founder of eMachines, who's been down this disruptive, low-cost road before, says the company's widgetry, stored in a black box that has no CPU, memory or moving parts, doesn't try to eliminate the latency, it compensates for it.

The mojo was developed in Germany by an outlet called HydraPark that was determined to make Citrix eat its dust. NComputing, which got started in 2003, bought the Citrix-killer and from that its vSpace desktop virtualization software and User eXtension Protocol (UXP) were born.

NComputing offers two species of its technology: the X-series and L-series run on Windows Server. (Warning: NComputing won't be as cheap for commercial accounts as for education given Microsoft's licenses.)

The X-series is the cheaper, your basic 70 bucks a head on a one-watt-per-user budget. It uses a direct 10m connection between host and user, which limits it to no more than seven users per PC on X300.

In this case the host - which needs a special card - which is why the X-series doesn't qualify as a thin client as far as IDC is concerned - can be something as simple as a $350 Dell Vostro 200 with a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo chip, 1GB of RAM and a 80GB HDD.

It offers Internet access, full multimedia, office productivity and presentations.

The pricier L-series uses an Ethernet connection so it has no distance limitations and can service up to 30 users per desktop PC. It runs $140 per user and demands five watts per seat to run.

Figure a $499 Inspiron 530 with a 2.4GHz quad core, 3GB of memory and a 500GB hard drive. Now imagine it simultaneously running four videos off the Media Player, four IE sessions, two IE sessions with streaming video, four Excel sessions, three Word sessions, three Acrobat Reader sessions and nine PowerPoint sessions.

Dukker says two-thirds of his customers are using the X-series, the rest are on the L-series; 60% are running Windows, the rest Linux.

Dukker figures where OLPC made its mistake was in expecting the user to fend for himself once the XO arrived.

NComputing's business model, a job creator at least in the third world, is 100% channel. The reseller gets a 30% margin but is required to deliver the goods, set up the site, support the darn thing and train the users. Dell is part of the channel.

NComputing, which has 150 people worldwide, now has offices in 14 countries including India, Brazil, Korea and Mexico and roughly 50% of its business comes from emerging markets.

NComputing, by the way, calculates that if the 850 million PC worldwide were replaced by its gismo energy use would decline by over 120 billion kilowatt-hours, the equivalent of planting 460 million trees.

Published Sep. 12, 2008— Reads 168
Copyright © 2008 SYS-CON Media. All Rights Reserved.

http://ajax.sys-con.com/node/674082

About Maureen O'Gara
Maureen O'Gara is the Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected technology reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025.

Interview: Wikipedia's founder on Wikia Green

2008-09-09T12:47:00.000-07:00

smart

Channels: Tech News Tags: internet, community, climate change

Wikipedia's founder has launched a community for all things green. Like Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales' new Wikia Green can be edited by anyone, but Wikia's built to attract people passionate about a topic rather than provide general reference. For example, the Wikipedia entry on 'Green Computing' takes a broad overview of carbon emissions from IT, while Wikia Green's entry offers tips for individuals, such as buying laptops instead of desktops. We chatted with Jimmy to get the inside track on Wikia Green.

Why do Wikia Green now? There are so many green blogs and guides all over the internet, and they've had a head start on this project. Aren't people feeling over-saturated with 'green'?
Wales: No, this is a growing area. What we're doing is actually complementary to blogs in the sense that what blogs do is update you on a day-to-day basis. Also, blogs are engaged in political or other types of analysis, whereas a wiki becomes a touchpoint for the community, a place where people meet up and work on whatever the consensus is about a certain topic.

We're hoping that a lot of bloggers will find it useful to send their readers (there) and also to collaboratively work on background information. The blogger doesn't really enjoy explaining something over and over. But if I want to tell you about biodiesel, and if you don't know about biodiesel, I can say, "Read this article first."

Were you seeing maybe an increased interest in green topics on Wikipedia? What sparked your interest in launching this?
Wales: One of the funny things about Wikipedia is I have no idea what the traffic is. We don't even track those kinds of numbers... This was sparked initially by a conversation with Al Gore last year just before he won the Nobel Prize. He said there should be a green wiki...We discussed it some and I decided hey, this is a good idea.

How do you hope to get contributors flowing in? Are you doing any publicity efforts aimed at green blogs, for instance?
Wales: We're doing a lot of outreach. I've been holding a series of green dinners where people educate me...I met Zem Joaquin and we're working with her on (her blog) ecofabulous, and we're gonna be powering their eco lingo column. We're trying to build relationships and to learn from this community: what's missing? What do you need?

Will this integrate Web 2.0-type features, videos, maps, and other tools at some point?
Wales: We have the ability for people to do videos and some mapping stuff. The initial focus is on encyclopaedic content and magazine-style articles...The software is the same platform we use across all the wikis.

How do you prevent companies from stacking the entries with what some environmental activists call greenwashing? How will the community regulate this?
Wales: My view is that's virtually impossible in a wiki context, particularly a green wiki...The community monitors things as they come in. It's not a voting-style system that can be gamed. It's really an open discussion, dialog, and debate system. This is one of the great strengths of a wiki: it's a great counter to astroturfing and other types of campaigns.

What personal interest do you have in green topics and sustainability? Are you measuring your carbon footprint and trying to offset it?
Wales: Yes, I'm doing some things like that...At Wikia we're going through a process of trying to be certified as a green company...I come to this as an outsider. I'm part of that broad general public saying there's something really important and I want to learn more. It's time to wake up and do something. I'm finding it hard to get educated because the information is so disparate. I saw a need where people could come together and really clarifying and documenting all this kind of information.

Do you use any green servers, for instance, on the back-end are there efficiency features in terms of the hardware used to support all this?
Wales: No, we're looking into those kinds of things. On the server side of things the single greatest thing we've done is hire our new CTO, Artur Bergman, because he's an optimisation genius and has doubled the efficiency of our servers.

Where do you see this in 5 to 10 years? What do you hope will develop?
Wales: Obviously we want this to be a large and successful community. I don't have milestones or targets...As long as there's a healthy community and people are having fun and producing something of value, I'm satisfied.

Wikia Green is live now.

Posted: 09 September 2008, 10:48am by Elsa Wenzel

Based on: Wikipedia's Wales launches Wikia Green

New E-Newspaper Reader Echoes Look of the Paper

2008-09-09T11:30:00.001-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/technology/08ink.html

Plastic Logic/Sony/Kevin P. Casey for The New York Times

The Plastic Logic reader, left, has a screen the size of a sheet of paper for a copy machine. Center, Sony’s eReader; right, Amazon.com’s Kindle. The Plastic Logic device, which is yet to be named, can be updated wirelessly and store hundreds of pages of documents.

By ERIC A. TAUB

Published: September 7, 2008

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The electronic newspaper, a large portable screen that is constantly updated with the latest news, has been a prop in science fiction for ages. It also figures in the dreams of newspaper publishers struggling with rising production and delivery costs, lower circulation and decreased ad revenue from their paper product.

Esquire Unveils Cover With Electronic Ink (September 8, 2008)

While the dream device remains on the drawing board, Plastic Logic will introduce publicly on Monday its version of an electronic newspaper reader: a lightweight plastic screen that mimics the look — but not the feel — of a printed newspaper.

The device, which is unnamed, uses the same technology as the Sony eReader and Amazon.com’s Kindle, a highly legible black-and-white display developed by the E Ink Corporation. While both of those devices are intended primarily as book readers, Plastic Logic’s device, which will be shown at an emerging technology trade show in San Diego, has a screen more than twice as large. The size of a piece of copier paper, it can be continually updated via a wireless link, and can store and display hundreds of pages of newspapers, books and documents.

Richard Archuleta, the chief executive of Plastic Logic, said the display was big enough to provide a newspaperlike layout. “Even though we have positioned this for business documents, newspapers is what everyone asks for,” Mr. Archuleta said.

The reader will go on sale in the first half of next year. Plastic Logic will not announce which news organization will display its articles on it until the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, when it will also reveal the price.

Kenneth A. Bronfin, president of Hearst Interactive Media, said, “We are hopeful that we will be able to distribute our newspaper content on a new generation of larger devices sometime next year.” While he would not say what device the company’s papers would use, he said, “we have a very strong interest in e-newspapers. We’re very anxious to get involved.”

The Hearst Corporation, the parent of Hearst Interactive Media, owns 16 daily newspapers, including The Houston Chronicle, The San Antonio Express and The San Francisco Chronicle, and was an early investor in E Ink. The company already distributes electronic versions of some papers on the Amazon Kindle.

Newspaper companies have watched the technology closely for years. The ideal format, a flexible display that could be rolled or folded like a newspaper, is still years off, says E Ink. But it foresees color displays with moving images and interactive clickable advertising coming in only a few more years, according to Sriram K. Peruvemba, vice president for marketing for E Ink.

E Ink expects that within the next few years it will be able to create technology that allows users to write on the screen and view videos. At a recent demonstration at E Ink’s headquarters here, the company showed prototypes of flexible displays that can create rudimentary colors and animated images. “By 2010, we will have a production version of a display that offers newspaperlike color,” Mr. Peruvemba said.

If e-newspapers take off, the savings could be hefty. At the The San Francisco Chronicle, for example, print and delivery amount to 65 percent of the paper’s fixed expenses, Mr. Bronfin said.

With electronic readers, publishers would also learn more about its readers. With paper copy subscriptions, newspapers know what address has received a copy and not much else. About those customers picking up a copy on the newsstand, they know nothing.

As an electronic device, newspapers can determine who is reading their paper, and even which articles are being read. Advertisers would be able to understand their audience and direct advertising to its likeliest customers.

While this raises privacy concerns, “these are future possibilities which we will explore,” said Hans Brons, chief executive of iRex Technologies in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

IRex markets the iLiad, an 8.5 by 6.1-inch electronic reader that can be used to receive electronic versions of the newspaper Les Echos in France and NRC Handelsblad in the Netherlands.

The iRex, Kindle and eReader prove the technology works. The big question for newspaper companies is how much people will pay for a device and the newspaper subscription for it.

Papers face a tough competitor: their own Web sites, where the information is free. And they have trained a generation of new readers to expect free news. In Holland, the iLiad comes with a one-year subscription for 599 euros ($855). The cost of each additional year of the paper is 189 euros ($270). NRC offers just one electronic edition of the paper a day, while Les Echos updates its iRex version 10 times a day.

A number of newspapers, including The New York Times, offer electronic versions through the Kindle device; The Times on the Kindle costs $14 a month, similar to the cost of other papers. “The New York Times Web site started as a replica of print, but it has now evolved,” said Michael Zimbalist, vice president for research and development operations at The New York Times Company. “We expect to experiment on all of these platforms. When devices start approximating the look and feel of a newspaper, we’ll be there as well,” Mr. Zimbalist said.

Most electronic reading devices use E Ink’s technology to create an image. Unlike liquid-crystal display of computer monitors and televisions, electronic paper technology does not need a backlight, remains displayed even when the power source runs down, and looks brighter, not dimmer, in strong light. It also draws little power from the device’s battery.

Plastic Logic’s first display, while offering a screen size that is 2.5 times larger than the Kindle, weighs just two ounces more and is about one-third the Kindle’s thickness.

It uses a flexible, lightweight plastic, rather than glass, a technology first developed atCambridge University in England. Plastic Logic, based in Mountain View, Calif., was spun off from that project.

Next Article in Technology (6 of 7) »A version of this article appeared in print on September 8, 2008, on page C5 of the New York edition.Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/technology/08ink.html

More on Cloud Computing for Law Firms

2008-09-08T20:45:00.000-07:00

KM Space

The Law Firm Knowledge Management Blog, with postings on knowledge management, enterprise 2.0, legal technology and the practice of law

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2008

By Doug Cornelius

http://kmspace.blogspot.com/2008/09/more-on-cloud-computing-for-law-firms.html

Cloud computing has been in my mind lately. Either there are more conversations going on or I am just noticing them more. I ran across this post by Maggie Fox of Social Media Group: You store your money in the cloud - why not your data?

Maggie writes:

"You already store your money in the cloud. Your employer does not give you a bag of gold ingots on payday. They electronically transfer funds to a third party. Most of us are so comfortable with this that we don’t even think about it. . ."

So why should we so uncomfortable with keeping our documents and enterprise information in the cloud. Maggie points out that there needs a more robust competitive environment for providers and government regulations need to be in place to make it viable. The recent mistake on Google Chrome's Terms of Service [See: Making Terms of Service Clearer from the Official Google Blog.] One sided terms of service with no liability for a loss of data will not be acceptable for a business to embrace cloud computing.

The challenge will be determining the value of lost data. If the bank looses your $100 deposit, they owe you a $100. If the cloud computing provider loses 100GB data, how much is that data worth?

Of course the enterprise is just as capable of wiping out its own data on sources inside firewall.

Yesterday, I posted on knowledge management in the cloud through Practical Law: Knowledge Management and Practical Law Company. Sunday, I posted about the Xconomy cloud computing conference. Both of which came from my Cloud Computing and Law Firms post last week.

http://kmspace.blogspot.com/2008/09/more-on-cloud-computing-for-law-firms.html

Eco friendly CDs and Green printing

2008-09-08T18:19:00.001-07:00

Sep 7, 2008

Operations Management

http://www.citeman.com/index.php/eco-friendly-cds-and-green-printing/

It’s impossible to even think of computing without CD’s. Be it loading program on a lap top or watching a movie or storing backups of all your stuff CD’s are built to last. But that is where the problems raise. They are built to last longer than you might need them, so when you throw it away, it just adds to what has been labeled as e-junk foiling up a landfill in some part of the city. Multiply this by the sheer amount of people who use them. And you would probably have enough shiny discs to make a small mountain. There is an awful lot of plastic that goes into a CD. And the problem is that it lasts and lasts much like an unwanted house guest.

But there are ways to get around this from buying CD’s that have less plastic to ones that have a label which says they are environmentally friendly, to even buying them without the extra plastic packaging . A lot of people are catching onto this new trend.

Although there seems to be no alternative to using polycarbonate plastic in the production of CDs, the first green option is to reduce the number of CDs that are used. For starter use a blank DVD that can pack in a lot of information and you would not need an armload of them.

Unless you are using a rewriteable CD, you can only write information onto a CD once. So why not buy a pen drive with flash memory? They cost more, but you can use them over and over again.

The next time you head out to buy blank CDs, buy them on spindles on bulk and not in the individual plastic cases that each one comes with. You don’t need the jewel cases.

A lot of CD’s these days are made from packaging that is recycled. Right down to the inks that are used in the inlay and cover printing. For example the inks that are used in eco-friendly CDs are made from vegetables oil (linseed oil being an industry preference here) that are mild and ecologically sensitive

Look for CDs that have labels on them that state this. Look for CDs that come in cardboard or paper cases. Now you might think that this is an odd idea, as paper comes from trees and our forests are shrinking. However, between two options this is a better this is a better idea as using trees is better than using plastic. Trees are a renewable resource. Forests can, and are being re-planted while plastics made from petroleum which, as we all know is not only a non-renewable resource, but is the cause of many wars in the world.

It might cost a tad more to purchase new technology, but it is always cheaper in the long run for us, and the environment. The all pervasive nature of technology draws heavily from both environment and precious energy resources. An average PC wastes nearly half its power and the server consumes nearly one third. In addition, poor practices in disposal and recycling of technology products pose a hazard to the environment. However, technology is now gradually stepping up its green awareness and some of the biggest names in technology are leading this environmental push.

A simpler option, one should try Green Print that is www.printgreener.com. This is a tiny application that sifts through web pages and filters out the unwanted content before going to print.

As soon as the Green Print is installed the user will find two new entries in his printer list. The first one is called Green Print, which is the virtual printer that culls out waste pages. Basically, this application wedges itself between web browser (Internet Explorer or Fire fox) and printer, thus turning it self into a virtual printer. This means that instead of firing printouts to regular printer, it turns them over to Green Print. It will then checks for waste pages, cut them from the print list, and hand them over to the actual printer. Green Print also allows to save pages as a PDF file.

http://www.citeman.com/index.php/eco-friendly-cds-and-green-printing/

Cloud Computing - New Buzz Word To Describe New Trend

2008-09-07T20:30:00.000-07:00

http://www.impactlab.com/2008/09/07/cloud-computing-new-buzz-word-to-describe-new-trend/

September 7th, 2008 at 11:42 am

Computer geeks do so love using weird and oddly poetic buzz words to describe new trends. From these formidable minds, we mere mortals were handed such gems as “phishing”, “blog”, “spam”, “digg” and “cookies”. Yes, cookies.

Here’s another one that you’ve probably heard being mentioned in your travels on the internet: cloud computing.

It does sound a bit up in the air, so I’m going to try and describe it in as simple a way as I can.

At its most basic level, cloud computing is an internet-based service that you can use - without having to understand the technology behind it - to satisfy whatever computer need you may have.

In other words, its using software available “in the clouds” of the internet, so to speak. You do whatever you want done via the internet, with software installed on a “virtual” computer.

An obvious example is web-based email services, such as Yahoo, Hotmail, and Gmail. You can send, receive and store email on the internet, without having to install any software on your machine.

Another example is Google’s document service where you can open any document on the internet, change it, and save it again. You don’t need to buy any software, or install any software on your computer. If you have the file and an internet connection, you can open it and change it.

Of course, this is a very slimmed down definition of cloud computing. The term actually includes a broad spectrum of technologies.

Full article: Via iafrica.com

http://www.impactlab.com/2008/09/07/cloud-computing-new-buzz-word-to-describe-new-trend/

Google Chrome goes portable: Carry it on a USB Flash drive

2008-09-07T20:09:00.000-07:00

Posted Sep 4th 2008 3:00PM by Brad Linder

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/09/04/google-chrome-goes-portable-carry-it-on-a-usb-flash-drive/

Want to take Google's new web browser Chrome for a spin, but don't want to install anything on your computer? While Google hasn't officially released a portable version, the browser is open source. So just a few days after the launch of Google Chrome, an independent developer has released Portable Chrome.

Portable Chrome comes as an 11MB self extracting file. When you run the executable, all the files you need to run Chrome will be loaded to the directory of your choice. Just click on ChromeLoader.exe to launch Google Chrome. And that's pretty much it. The browser includes all the same features you'll find in the original version of Chrome, including a super fast JavaScript engine, incognito mode, and the ability to run tabs as separate process.

[via Digital Inspiration]

Download Squad is a member of the Weblogs, Inc. Network.

Google’s Top 10 Cloud Computing List

2008-09-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

Posted by Sam Diaz @ 11:16 am

Sam Diaz: At the Office 2.0 conference in San Francisco Google delivers a "Top 10 Things I Can Do in the Cloud That I Couldn't Do A Year Ago." No surprise that many of the tasks on this list revolve around the search giant's cloud offerings.

READ FULL STORY

Review: Dell Joins the Netbook Fray

2008-09-05T09:20:00.000-07:00

REVIEW DATE:09.04.08

By Cisco Cheng

Once thought to be a dying breed, UMPCs (also known as netbooks) have hung around the laptop market and are finally gaining some momentum. As more people look for inexpensive, lightweight secondary laptops to fulfill basic computing needs like Web surfing and e-mail, they are turning toward UMPCs. Recognizing this trend, Dell joins the game with the Inspiron Mini 9 ($399 direct for XP version with E-Value code, regularly $474), sharing space with such systems as the ASUS EeePC 900, the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC , the Acer Aspire One, the MSI Wind, and the Lenovo IdeaPad S10. Despite all the time Dell has had to develop a great product, the final result isn't quite enough to overtake the MSI Wind, our Editors' Choice in this category.

Read the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 full review

Bottom Line

The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 doesn't advance the development of UMPCs, but it does give you a solid system and a great price.

Pros

Runs the Intel Atom platform. Weighs only 2.3 pounds. Very responsive mouse buttons. Well-priced with eValue code.

Cons

Keyboard is too small. Needs a bigger battery option. Limited to SSD hard drive option.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2329393,00.asp

Pencils, schmencils, I need a laptop - Globe and Mail

2008-09-05T08:38:00.000-07:00

TRALEE PEARCE

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

Remember when back-to-school supplies consisted of pencils, erasers and a few crisp, new notebooks in primary colours? Now that the cellphone is ubiquitous and kids have TVs in their bedrooms, the laptop, it seems, is the universal - and in this store, international - must-have.

It helps that prices have dropped enormously in the past five years - shoppers tonight are considering models that cost about $600.

http://license.icopyright.net/user/external.act?content_id=8142425

The Future of Cloud Computing; Cloud Computing Is The Future

2008-09-04T13:47:00.001-07:00

Peter Bell, a general partner at Highland Capital, gives Forbes a wonderful interview on all things cloud computing. Read the whole thing.

Takeaways:
Cloud computing isn't just hype. "There will be a lot of carnage. But there will be some good companies that emerge, similar to Web 2.0. Was Web 2.0 a buzzword? Yes. But when you look at Facebook or MySpace or Gmail, there's pretty significant value there."

Your concerns are real. "If you have a cloud and it fails, there isn't anyone to call. That may be OK if you're bootstrapping your operation, because you may be able to recreate your infrastructure. But as you get into mission-critical or more established business, there will need to be multiple levels of solutions."

Start-ups should be looking to be adopted by larger platforms."There are too many companies looking for 10% of the market. What we're looking for are a couple things. There has to be enough value in the features they offer or in their subcontractor capabilities that customers will demand those features or capabilities. If management capabilities are optimized for the cloud, then the customer will tell the likes of IBM that they need to include it."

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://bizbox.slate.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/176

The Rise (and Possible Fall) of Ultraportable Laptops

2008-09-04T08:41:00.000-07:00

David Haskin, Computerworld.com

Thursday, August 21, 2008 2:34 PM PDT

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/150152-1/the_rise_and_possible_fall_of_ultraportable_laptops.html

For some users, the new generation of ultraportable notebooks comes close to embodying the Holy Grail for road warriors. Their laptop-like keyboards make them more usable for typing tasks than smart phones, but they are lighter and cheaper than traditional laptops. The original Asus Eee PC, for instance, cost about $400 and weighed about two pounds when it was introduced last October.

However, while pundits and technology journalists have lavished attention on these products, skeptics have raised questions. For instance, is there anything really special about these devices, or do they just represent old technology in new packaging? Are users as enthusiastic about these tiny laptops as the pundits are? Will they fade away like so many other "next big things"? And perhaps the oddest question: What do we call these things, anyway?

"It's way too early to talk about this being a viable product category," says Avi Greengart, mobile device research director at Current Analysis Inc. "I'm not sure how much of a market there is for them, particularly with subnotebooks like MacBook Air with [larger] keyboards and displays getting thinner and lighter. And you can get some real work done on, say, an iPhone or a Nokia E-series smart phone."

Not surprisingly, vendors and other proponents strongly disagree.

"The Eee PC has successfully explored user segments that have been ignored by other notebook vendors," says Kevin Huang, senior director of marketing at Asustek Computer Inc. "For example, a lot of kids use their parents' notebooks, but they are just too heavy to carry to school. But at two pounds, kids can easily put [ultraportables] in their backpacks." Huang insists that, over time, this product category will expand to become attractive to many types of users.

Ultrasmall Laptops -- Not a New Phenomenon

If small laptops like the Asus Eee, MSI Wind, Everex CloudBook and HP Mini-Note 2133 give you a sense of déjà vu, it's because these are hardly the first devices of that particular size and shape. For instance, Hewlett-Packard Co. introduced the 3-lb. Omnibook 300 in 1993, and that 386-based device developed a small but loyal following.
In the late '90s, several vendors released clamshell devices based on Windows CE (now called Windows Mobile), such as NEC's MobilePro series. These devices looked like tiny laptops, although they used a PDA operating system and could only handle "pocket" versions of desktop applications.
Another similar type of device is the ultramobile PC (UMPC). These devices -- such as the Samsung Q1 Ultraand OQO -- which started appearing in 2006, use a variant of Windows and typically have touch screens as small as 5 in. They have never caught on broadly, perhaps because prices initially approached $2,000 and because their keyboards are only slightly more spacious than those on smart phones. However, prices have recently dropped closer to $1,000, and they have found a home in vertical markets such as hospitals and warehouses.
The new crop of ultraportables differ from UMPCs in that they look and feel like traditional clamshell notebooks -- they're just smaller and lighter. One product that some classify as one of the first of today's ultraportables is the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) device, which is aimed at children in developing nations. At one point, Intel Corp. was in discussions to provide processors for the OLPC effort; the company's ClassMate device is seen by some as both a competitor to OLPC and a prototype for its more commercial ultraportables.
The Name Game
One peculiarity of this latest generation of tiny laptops is that there's no agreement about what to call them. Intel, which wants to be the dominant chip maker for this class of devices, calls them "netbooks."
"Netbooks are for communicating with e-mail and IM, browsing and things like media streaming -- very basic things," says Anil Nandury, Intel's marketing director for netbook platforms. Intel's competitors, however, disagree.
"Netbook is an Intel term," counters Tim Brown, international marketing manager at Via Technologies Inc., an Intel competitor in Taiwan. "But they're not just about the Internet. We use the term mini-notebook." Other names that have popped up for these laptops include "mini-laptop," "ultraportable" and even "ultramobile," though that name is already used for UMPCs.
One thing that vendors and analysts do agree about is that these devices share several common traits. First, they have a maximum display size of 10.2 in., which, not coincidentally, is the screen size of some of the newest of these devices. By contrast, ultrathin laptops such as Apple Inc.'s MacBook Air typically have screen sizes of about 13 in. diagonally across.
Second, these devices are often available in Linux versions, a less-expensive alternative to Windows, although several are now available with Windows XP. (At least one, HP's Mini-Note 2133, can come loaded with Windows Vista.)
Third, they are relatively inexpensive -- as noted, the original Asus Eee PC was $400, an unusually low price for a lightweight, reasonably-featured system.
One bit of emerging technology often used in these tiny laptops -- and one that is not inexpensive -- is the use of solid-state drives (SSD) for storage. Unlike traditional hard disk drives (HDD), SSDs have no moving parts. This enables them to be lighter, run cooler with less power and boot faster. The problem with SSDs, for now, is that they are more costly and have less capacity than HDDs, issues that will surely be resolved over time. To keep prices down, ultraportable laptops that do come with SSDs tend to not have much storage capacity -- the original Eee PC, for instance, came with a 4GB SSD, barely enough capacity to handle the onboard applications and a few user files.
However, the most interesting feature of these devices may be the processors -- such as Intel's Atom andVia's C7-M and Nano -- that were specifically designed to be small, inexpensive and require low power.
New Processors, Less Power
Despite the decades-long trend toward ever more powerful processors, the processors being developed for these small computers aren't very powerful at all. In particular, Intel's Atom and Via's C7-M chips can process only a single instruction at a time and only in order, although Via's Nano can perform out-of-order processing. Intel's Nandury says the Atom processor has 47 million transistors, in comparison with as many as 820 million transistors in a high-end quad-core processor.
The simplicity of these chips makes them particularly suitable for ultraportable laptops. For one thing, the chips themselves are small. The entire Atom chip package is about 22 millimeters square; a typical quad-core chip set is as much as 37.5mm square, according to Nandury. And these processors are inexpensive to produce. Nandury says Intel sells Atom chips to laptop vendors for $44 per thousand, compared with as much as $183 per thousand for dual-core processors.
Perhaps most important for road warriors, all this simplicity means the processors draw relatively little power, which extends battery life. The original Eee PC, with its 7-in. display, used the Celeron M processor common in larger laptops and got between three-and-a-half and four hours per charge. By contrast, the more recent Eee 901, which has an 8.9-in. display and is based on the Atom processor, gets four to six hours of battery life, according to the vendor.
Success or Failure?
As might be expected, vendors insist that these small laptops are a success. "So far, Asus has shipped over 2 million Eee PCs, and demand is still strong," says Asus's Huang.
That figure, which represents worldwide sales, does not impress Stephen Baker, an analyst at NPD Group Inc., which monitors sales of a variety of products, including laptops.
"Two million units isn't a big chunk when the worldwide market is 160 million," Baker says. He adds that only about 200,000 ultra-portables have been sold in the U.S. since January, and many of those were returned, likely because they lack the power and display size that people expect in a laptop.
"The only ones who seem to be keeping it [after buying such a device] are early-adopter tinkerers who want Linux boxes," Baker says.
Like Greengart, Baker questions the long-term viability of the entire category, particularly with vendors increasing display sizes and prices. The newest generation of small devices from vendors such as Asustek and MSI Computer Corp. have 10.2-in. displays and prices in the $600-to-$800 range. The recently released Eee 1000, for instance, costs about $700.
"If you put one of these on the shelf in a store, it won't look so good compared to a 15-in. laptop with more power that sells for the same price or maybe just $100 more," Baker says.
But even the skeptics agree that the market is still in flux. For one thing, more tiny laptops are on the way. For example, Lenovo Group Ltd. is said to have models in the wings. And proponents of this class of devices say they will get cheaper over time.
"Right now, the prices range from $300 to $800," says Via's Brown. "In the next year, $200 to $700 will be the range."
But the biggest changes -- and what may cause tiny laptops to lose momentum or even disappear entirely -- may be in the size and shape of upcoming mobile devices. Intel says that a variant of its Atom processor is aimed at so-called mobile Internet devices, or MIDs, which are roughly the size of PDAs and have built-in Internet connectivity. So far, the best-known MID is Nokia Corp.'s N800 series of Internet tablets, but Intel claims more vendors are developing such devices. Research firm Allied Business Intelligence Inc. recently predicted sales of 50 million MIDs per year by 2013, largely using Linux as their operating system.
Also expect more connectivity. Some ultraportable laptop vendors are said to be building 3G connectivity into the devices -- one such device, the G10IIL, is already available from Taipei-based Elitegroup Computer Systems Co. According to Brown, at least one cellular carrier in the U.S. -- Sprint Nextel Corp. -- is seriously considering not just offering 3G-ready ultraportables but also subsidizing their price to make them affordable. The carriers like the idea because it will help sell their 3G data services, Brown says.
In other words, whether or not the current generation of ultraportable laptops is a success, we're just seeing the beginning of the move to smaller, more connective devices that will come even closer to the road warrior's Holy Grail.
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/150152-1/the_rise_and_possible_fall_of_ultraportable_laptops.html

For more enterprise computing news, visit Computerworld.
Story copyright © 2007 Computerworld Inc. All rights reserved.

Shiny, Happy Browser? Google's Chrome

2008-09-03T18:19:00.000-07:00

The Channel Wire

September 02, 2008
Posted by Samara Lynn at 6:34 PM
http://www.crn.com/software/210300132

We think we are in love. And yes, with a browser.

Right from the get-go, reviewers noticed how fast is Google's new beta browser, Chrome. Usually, loading my iGoogle page, chock full of gadgets and widgets takes a full minute to load, or will sometimes even crash Internet Explorer. With Chrome, load time took scant seconds. A side-by-side comparison of loading papervision3d.org -- an open source 3D engine for the Flash platform yielded the following results:

-- IE time to load 3D image -- 1 min 22 seconds

-- Opera -- 1 min 33 seconds

-- Firefox -- 1 min 38 sec

-- Chrome -- 1 min 8 seconds

Curious results with Firefox though, since it has been purported that Chrome and Firefox use the same rendering engine.

Cold start of Chrome took literally, a second.

Chrome features incognito browsing -- which for whatever a user's purposes, malevolent or otherwise, leaves no traces of a Web site visited. Downloaded files from the site, however, are visible.

The address bar does double-duty as a search bar as well, adding to the minimalist interface. Less clutter equals better. This has been named appropriately, the "omnibox."

Upon opening, Chrome lists thumbnails of most visited sites by default. Extended Validation SSL sites are indicated as well as "dangerous" sites, like known phishing sites.

The great potential of Chrome is with performance. Tabs are within the window and through multi-threading architecture. Each window, actually each task, is allocated its own single process. This is great if you are browsing via multiple tabs and if one tab mucks up and crashes, the entire browser will not seize (hear that Internet Explorer developers?)

Yet, as with any new relationship it is easy to overlook the flaws. Chrome has yet to pass the Acid3 test, allowable because it is still is beta, and there does not seem to be the high customization ability that Firefox has with extensions. Also, Chrome is currently only available for Windows, but Linux and Mac compatible versions are on the roadmap.

This new browser, as with many new browsers and search engines, holds promise of being "the _____ killer."

So far, it looks good, but time will tell.

http://www.crn.com/software/210300132
Copyright © 2008 United Business Media LLC

Download Chrome beta: http://www.google.com/chrome

Google on Google Chrome - comic book

2008-09-02T12:07:00.000-07:00

This site unofficially covers Google™ and more with some rights reserved. You can subscribe to the feed, email your tips and join our forum!

Google Chrome Screenshots

Google announced their browser Google Chrome to be available on Tuesday, but their download page and tour was already partly available at gears.google.com/chrome/ just now, as Uval in the forum noticed. While the download itself didn’t work when I tried, I was able to extract some screenshots, from the frontpage but also the YouTube videos. And while the product tour videos themselves seemed to require a special group membership at YouTube, the video still previews are public and you can paste the video identifier into a URL like this one to see more high quality stills.

Google Chrome is Google's browser project; this comic book by Google, drawn by Scott McCloud, is scanned here and shown under its Creative Commons license.
http://blogoscoped.com/google-chrome/

Cloud computing is here now; software as a service may be longer

2008-09-02T11:34:00.000-07:00

By Mitchell Hall | Tuesday September 2 2008 - 09:02am

http://www.nbr.co.nz/print/34723

Microsoft senior architect Miha Kralj says the infrastructure for cloud computing is already here, but privacy issues, reliability and security mean software as a service is only just beginning.

Speaking to NBR today at Microsoft’s tech-ed 2008 conference in Auckland, Mr Krajl says many businesses are already migrating services from software to the web, taking advantage of packages like Google Gears and Microsoft Livemesh.

Essentially these are applications that allow users to synchronise information across multiple platforms, such as a work computer, home laptop, and mobile.

For example they can create a word processing or spreadsheet document at work that is stored “in the cloud,” to be accessed from a home computer, or allow other work colleagues to access – and modify – that document from their computers. Or it can mean automatically updating an address book on a work, home computer and mobile whenever each connects to the internet.

The advantages to business of these technologies are obvious, such as the ability for groups to work together remotely on projects, being able to access “real time” information remotely, and in Google’s case the cost – free – is a big saving on using Microsoft’s Office suite of applications which range from $399-679.95.

However, larger organisations, particularly in critical areas such as hospitals and banks, are unlikely to adopt this soon given the need for redundant backup and the sensitivity of their information.

Mr Krajl that these types of organisation won’t migrate until there is greater regulation of the IT industry –there is currently zero, unusually for such a large and critical industry, and there will probably be a mixture of legislation and litigation that drives this process.

For smaller business owners such as retailers or farmers, Mr Krajl advises that they need to start thinking about differentiating their products as commodities, given that they are now, or will soon be, competing worldwide (online), and need to find a way to apply a premium to their commodity.

He cites the example of an American company that sells “digital energy,” or premium branded power; the lesson being if you can sell “premium” power, you can add a premium to any commodity.

While Mr Krajl predicts telecommuting will lead to reduced travelling (and thus costs), he cautions that it is a myth that the IT industry is green.

It is actually one of the dirtiest – as dirty as the aviation industry at 2 per cent of total global carbon emissions – because of the inefficiencies of transporting and cooling energy.

http://www.nbr.co.nz/print/34723
Copyright notice by the National Business Review
New Zealand

----------------------------------------------------

Tech Ed Videocast: Computing's industrial future

Computerworld editor Rob O'Neill interviews Microsoft senior architect Miha Kralj

By Michael Foreman Auckland | Wednesday, 3 September, 2008

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/tech/3D87BABF78C110D4CC2574B8001C08E9

A New Battle Is Beginning in Branding for the Web

2008-09-01T10:46:00.001-07:00

By STEVE LOHR

Published: August 31, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/technology/01copyright.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=business&pagewanted=all

For the empirical proof, look at the filings with the government for new trademarks that, put simply, are brand names.

Applications surged in the dot-com years, peaking in 2000 and then falling sharply for two years, before rising to a record last year of more than 394,000.

Recently, a new front has opened in the Internet branding wars.

It lies beyond putting trademarks on new businesses, Web site addresses and online logos. Now, companies want to slap a brand on still vaguely defined products and services in the uncharted ephemera of cyberspace — the computing cloud, as it has come to be known.

Cloud computing usually refers to Internet services or software that the user accesses through a Web browser on a personal computer, cellphone or other device. The digital service is delivered remotely, from somewhere off in the computing cloud, in the fashion of Google’s Internet search service.

Dell has tried to trademark the term cloud computing itself. But in August, the United States Patent and Trademark Office sent a strong signal that cloud computing cannot be trademarked.

It issued an initial refusal to Dell, which filed its application 18 months ago, when the term was less widely used in industry conversations and marketing.

Dell had passed early steps toward approval, but the office turned it down, after protests from industry experts that cloud computing had become a broadly descriptive term, and not one linked to a single company. Dell can appeal, but that seems unlikely.

In recent years, patents — not trademarks — have been the main focus of intellectual property experts and the courts, especially around the issue of whether patents on software and business methods have become counterproductive, inhibiting innovation.

But some legal experts say trademark issues may take on a higher profile, fueled by the escalating value of brands in general and trademark holders increasingly trying to assert their rights, especially on the Internet.

“Trademark is the sleeping giant of intellectual property,” said Paul Goldstein, a professor at the Stanford law school.

Microsoft, for example, is developing a technology that is intended to synchronize the data on all of a person’s computing devices, even synchronizing it with family members and work colleagues as well, automatically reaching across the cloud.

When Microsoft announced the concept this year, it said the technology would be called Live Mesh. Just what it is and how it may work remains unclear, but Microsoft filed for a trademark on Live Mesh in June, an application that awaits judgment from the Patent and Trademark Office.

Mesh and mesh networking are widely used terms for technology that connects devices.

“This is the challenge for our examiners,” said Lynne G. Beresford, commissioner for trademarks in the Patent and Trademark Office. “With emerging marks in a field that is changing quickly, you have to make a determination about what the common understanding is.”

That challenge, legal experts say, is one of several for trademark policy and practice in the Internet age. Instant communication, aggressive business tactics and an unsettled legal environment, they say, mean that trademark disputes on the Internet will increase in number and intensity.

The first round of trademark conflict on the Internet, focused on cybersquatting, has subsided. Cybersquatters were early profiteers who bought up the Web addresses, or domain names, of well-known trademarked brands, and then tried to charge the companies huge amounts of money to buy them.

In 1999, Congress passed a bill against cybersquatting that allowed companies to sue anyone who, with “a bad faith intent to profit,” buys the domain name of a well-known brand. The same year, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a nonprofit oversight agency, established a system for resolving domain name disputes.

The new areas of conflict, according to legal experts, include trademark owners trying to assert their rights to stifle online criticism of their products, and to stop trademarked brands from being purchased as keywords in Internet search advertising.

Early court rulings in keyword cases point to the uncertain legal setting and the international differences in trademark law. In the United States, lawyers say, the initial rulings have tended to allow companies to buy the trademarked brand names of rivals as keywords in search. Ford, for example, can bid on and buy “Toyota,” so that a person typing Toyota as a search term would see a link to Ford’s Web site in the paid-for links on the right hand side of Google’s Web page.

In the United States, that practice has not been interpreted as causing any fundamental consumer confusion. Google also argues that because any bidder can make an offer for any word — Google supplies no list — it is not a user of trademarks. “We are not using keywords, we are not selling keywords, we are selling ad space,” said Terri Chen, Google’s senior trademark counsel.

But in a French court ruling in 2005, Google was enjoined from allowing others to buy as a keyword the trademark brand of a French luxury goods maker, Louis Vuitton. For countries other than the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Google has a trademark complaint system, so holders can generally prevent their brands from being purchased as keywords by others.

The speed of Internet communication and heightened competition to claim and establish brands have drastically changed trademark tactics over the years. Compare the positioning and pre-emptive moves around cloud computing with the gradual pace of building one of the most valued brands in the world, Microsoft’s Windows.

The use of personal computer windows and graphical user windowing systems were around long before Microsoft announced its plans for a Windows operating system in 1983. The first version was introduced in 1985, and Microsoft did not file for a trademark until 1990. Its application was initially rejected as “merely descriptive.”

But, as so often, Microsoft persevered. It kept investing in advertising, branding and product development. It presented the Patent and Trademark Office with surveys showing people had come to associate the term Windows with Microsoft, and in 1995 the trademark examiners finally agreed.

With its cloud computing project Live Mesh, Microsoft is taking a far faster, more focused approach. It is employing Live, which it uses in other Internet offerings, like Windows Live and Xbox Live, as half of a two-word trademark — or composite mark, in legal terms. “Mesh networking is the generic category, but Live Mesh is Microsoft’s implementation and acts as a source identifier,” said Russell Pangborn, Microsoft’s director for trademarks.

One thing that has been undeniably transformed by computing and the Internet is the trademark office itself. Ms. Beresford, a professed “trademark nerd,” recalled that when she joined the office in 1979, searches for the same or “confusingly similar” trademarks began in the “search room.” The applications and registration documents were kept in wooden cabinets, filed alphabetically.

Trademarked images were kept in separate drawers and grouped into visual categories, she recalled, like “grotesque humans” (the Pillsbury doughboy) and “human body parts” (the Yellow Pages’ walking fingers).

Examining attorneys, Ms. Beresford noted, were issued rubber covers for their index fingers for going through files faster and with fewer paper cuts. The technology tools have been upgraded considerably since then. The work is now done mainly on computers, searching the Web and specialized trademark databases. Eighty-five percent of the office’s 390 examining attorneys work primarily from home.

The search room, Ms. Beresford observed, has “gone the way of the buggy whip.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/technology/01copyright.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=business&pagewanted=all
A version of this article appeared in print on September 1, 2008, on page C1 of the New York edition.

‘A really cheap laptop is a myth’

2008-09-01T10:31:00.001-07:00

1 Sep, 2008, 1202 hrs IST,TNN
http://infotech.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-3430906,flstry-1.cms

NEW DELHI: Having identified mobility, green IT and virtualisation as trends driving computing, PC major Dell is running a global road show--Future of Computing Tour--to discuss these trends.

Inaugurating the India leg of the tour, Dell India general manager Sameer Garde told ET what these trends translate into for the PC maker and how its retail strategy in India differs from other markets. Excerpts:

What is the Future of Computing Tour all about?
It’s a global Dell platform for discussing key trends with our customers and showcasing our products, services and solutions. We do this is in all of the 150-odd countries we’re present in.

What’s behind the choice of these trends?
Mobility, green IT and virtualisation are the top three trends which the customers are telling us. Customers are no longer asking for ‘this much memory’ or ‘so many giga hertz’.

Most companies are concerned about power consumed by their data centres. Five years from now, data centres in India would need about 20,000 mw.

To address this, we are working on redesigning data centres so that they consume less power, as well as using virtualisation and blade servers that use 25 per cent less power and take much less space.

These are initiatives for the ‘connected’ or existing PC users. What about the ‘unconnected’?
We have launched a range of affordable Vostro PCs for the SMBs who want to get connected to the Internet. However, there is a great need to increase broadband penetration in the country.

How about a low-cost PC?
Affordability is a key aspect of buying IT products, but it’s not everything. A really cheap laptop is a myth and I don’t think consumers are really looking for it. They are looking for a reasonably-featured and good-looking product.

You announced a tie-up with retailer Croma for distribution in India. But no such tie-ups after that. Why?
The India market is really different. In markets like the US, Europe and China, the consolidation of retail is very high. In India, a lot of consumers still prefer to buy from their regular, small multi-brand stores.

So, we are present through such smaller multi-brand stores in about 150 cities. We are careful about over-distribution, which companies tend to indulge in, leading to competition among channel partners.

Copyright © 2008 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.

Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

2008-08-31T12:02:00.000-07:00

The Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen sits in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden near the Walker Art Museum. (Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor)

http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2008/08/29/twin-cities-homespun-and-cosmopolitan/
www.csmonitor.com Copyright © 2008 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.

How to get virtually UNLIMITED Online Space for Free? (preview)

2008-08-31T10:57:00.000-07:00

KNOwledge Within Life Is priZeless. Knowliz.com is a Technology Oriented Blog which contains news, information and articles based on Internet, Computer

Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Posted by: Anurag Bansal at 8:20 PM

http://www.knowliz.com/2008/08/how-to-get-virtually-unlimited-online.html

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned about couple of options by which you can share files with family and friends. Out of that list, some of the options let you upload any kind of file and your files remain on their server forever.

I am listing some of the options which I tried and would definitely recommend anyone interested. For complete review and restrictions, read my previous post on the same topic.

Please click here to continue reading this article.
http://www.knowliz.com/2008/08/how-to-get-virtually-unlimited-online.html

Thank you to Anurag Bansal for permission to post his research and for the valuable content on his blog!

Why Clouds

2008-08-31T10:47:00.000-07:00

Mystical lessons within the clouds.

by Rabbi Boruch Leff

When was the last time you asked a question with childlike wonder, like "Why is the sky blue?" If it's been a while, let's try one now.

Why did God create a world with clouds?

Scientifically, we could answer that clouds consist of water that has evaporated, then condensed into vapor. When these vapor particles combine and become heavy enough, they will fall as rain. As described by meteorologist, Jeff Pardo, clouds "help regulate the earth's energy balance, by reflecting and scattering solar radiation or absorbing the earth's radiated infrared energy. Clouds maintain the earth's atmospheric stability because clouds form when air rises and cools. When a blob of air goes up into an area of less pressure, it cools. When it reaches its dew point temperature, the rising parcel is no longer unsaturated. Water begins to condense, and it then rains."

This is why the Talmud states that God never withholds clouds from the world -- they are required constantly for the world's existence. (Taanit 3b)

But there are deeper mystical lessons contained within the clouds. The verse states "God covers the heavens with clouds and prepares rain for the earth" (Psalms147:8).

The onset of heavy, dark clouds may appear somewhat menacing, but it is really nothing of the sort. God brings the clouds and fills them with rainwater, bringing tremendous blessing to the world. The lesson is clear. God often send us worries and troubles but in the end we come to understand that the purpose of the ordeals was to carry us to great achievements.

In a deeper vein, Kabbalists suggest that there are times when God brings clouds to block the sunlight for ecological purposes. Similarly, there are times when God presents blockades to spiritual success for certain purposes. If a person stares directly into the sun, his eyesight is temporarily impaired, and prolonged exposure would lead to vision damage. This is why we cannot tolerate staring into the sun.

We experience this in the spiritual realm as well. There are times when jumping to great spiritual heights too quickly is damaging to our growth. One who takes on too much too soon can easily burn out and, in the end, regress.

Stable growth needs to happen gradually. Taking on too much, too fast, most often doesn't last. This is one of the reasons God redeemed the Jewish people from Egypt in stages; releasing oneself from an idolatrous Egyptian culture cannot be done overnight.

Spiritual growth requires patience and consistency. Remember, it doesn't matter how high up you are on the spiritual ladder, as long as you are moving up.

Perhaps this is why God blocks the sun with clouds. Ultimately the clouds purpose it to produce the blessing of rain; in spiritual terms the clouds remind us to aim for permanent, steady growth, one step at a time.

Clouds act as a type of barrier, letting us know that there are levels that are presently beyond us and we shouldn't leap to heights we're not yet ready for. But when we do climb the ladder and finally reach the clouds, we see that they have no strong substance to them. You can fly right through them! Clouds are a mirage, they are not real obstacles.

The message is clear. Once we start to grow spiritually and embark on the path toward heaven, we should not be intimidated by the obstacles, the clouds that lie before us. They are an only an illusion. Just keep soaring and you'll pass right through them.

http://www.aish.com/societyWork/sciencenature/Why_Clouds$.asp
Site contents copyright © 1995 - 2008 Aish HaTorah

TreeMark™ Tree Rating - A fresh perspective to green computing

2008-08-30T19:12:00.000-07:00

Electronics & IT Grimoire:
Sharing some of the ingredients & spells from my Grimoire …

Posted by Abbas Ahmed

August 31, 2008

Recently, we have been seeing lots of energy-efficient products entering our lives, the change has been triggered by factors like rising oil prices, increase in environmental pollution and soaring electricity costs. There has been a significant shift towards energy efficient computers, especially in the data centers.

Centaur semiconductors have come up with a very interesting way of evaluating the energy efficiency of micoprocessor products. It is called the TreeMark™ Tree Rating. Centaur defines it as “The number of trees that need to be planted to counter the amount of carbon dioxide created as a by-product of the electricity generated to power the processor over its operational lifetime”. The good thing is, Centaur’s processors rate very well on this benchmark when compared with their Intel or AMD counterparts.

I still keep on wondering what would be the TreeMark rating for the components other than the processor in a computer. If a processor’s TreeMark rating is 7 trees, the rest of the electronics in the computer could raise the bar by 14-20 more trees. Not to mention the amount of thermal cooling required in the datacenters.

The situation demands more involvement in the process of creating energy efficient compute appliances on part of the industry leaders. I would like to mention the good work done by IBM for the Power6 Processor.

The figure below shows how the TreeMark Tree rating can be calculated for an electrical load.

http://www.cyberjots.com/2008/08/31/treemark%E2%84%A2-tree-rating-a-fresh-perspective-to-green-computing/

Where did the Computer Go? Computing in the Cloud.

2008-08-30T18:27:00.000-07:00

Published on WSO2 Oxygen Tank (http://wso2.org)

by Ayanthi Anandagoda

Table of Contents

Cloud Computing
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Hardware as a Service (HaaS)
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
at Cross Roads..
Benefits
Concerns
Players
Summary
References

1. Cloud Computing..

Cloud computing essentially encapsulates the following three concepts: pay-as-you-go, on-demand and on the Net. It is the computing model of the day, where the use of IT is billed like a utility and hence the term utility computing. Cloud computing is a part of the on-demand model for computing that allows companies to focus on creating true business value rather than delve on setting up and maintaining IT infrastructure to get going.

How do we then, relate cloud computing to SaaS, PaaS and HaaS? As you dig deeper it becomes apparent that SaaS, PaaS and HaaS are different categories of cloud computing. Where SaaS refers to applications in the cloud, PaaS refers to the platforms in the cloud while HaaS refers to the infrastructure in the cloud[1].

2. Software as a Service..

The concept of 'Software as a Service' or SaaS, is an application delivery model with vendors hosting Web-based applications on the Internet and consumers consuming them on line. Technologies such as Web services and REST [22] play an integral role in the development of SaaS applications.

The origins of the popular CamelCase term goes back to a white paper published by the Software & Information Industry's eBusiness Division in 2001 titled "Strategic Backgrounder: Software as a Service" [2], in which they discussed, “the delivery, management and payment of software by Application Service Providers (ASPs) as a service rather than a product..” with users 'subscribing' for the use of software rather than purchasing them upfront.

Despite the hype back in the days, the ASP model failed to take off as anticipated by the originators largely due to the unavailability of network and Web being untested grounds for many. Today, tables have clearly turned with Internet access at lightening speeds, increased habitats on the Web and the increased adoption of open standards.

Web 2.0[3] addressed largely the Web-based socializing and consumer-oriented software domain but not SaaS. The list of vertical industries qualifying for SaaS application model include Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems, Human Resources Management (HRM) systems, video conferencing, accounting and various others.

SaaS presents a number of licensing and pricing models for the vendors to choose from that includes pay-as-you-go, subscription-based, revenue-based, usage/transaction-based and other. Some even go as far as offering complete services free of charge preferring to monetize with ads only.

3. Hardware as a Service..

The concept of Hardware as a Service' or HaaS refers to, the virtualization of the data center. It appears to be that HaaS provides the real estate support while SaaS provides the application functionality in the journey towards cloud computing supremacy.

With striking similarities to hardware leasing, HaaS is a model in which the vendor manages the lease as opposed to the customer that helps keep service calls to an absolute minimum.

Earlier this year, Apple announced its slightly different flavor of HaaS that promises to improve old hardware with software upgrades an act that was already adopted by Microsoft on Zune devices, Nintendo on wii and Sony on its BlueRay playback on the Playstation.[4]

4. Platform as a Service..

In the next logical evolution of computing in the cloud comes as an integrated platform to build, test, and deploy custom applications that we called the Platform as a Service (PaaS).

The concept of 'Platform as a Service' is a form of cloud computing delivers development environments as a service rather than offering full-blown applications. Pioneered by Amazon, Google already has an offer with the Google App engine, where you can sign up for a free account use up to 500MB of persistent storage, CPU and bandwidth for about 5 million page views a month. Sun is on its way with their offering of Platform as a Service in what they called Project Caroline[5].

More Definitions

Utility Computing refers to making computing resources available as a metered service.
Grid Computing refers to an infrastructure in which networked computers are able to access and utilize the power of one another
Elasticity refers to the ability to dynamically acquire or release computing resources on-demand

5. at cross-roads..

SaaS is predominantly looked at as an application delivery model, as opposed to the concept of SOA (Service Oriented Architecture)[6] - an architectural strategy weaving together services to create business processes. So, what have they got in common?

On one side, the flexible and scalable pedigree of SOA brings value to SaaS - in terms of loosely coupled, contracted services that empowers SaaS providers more efficiently compete in the marketplace against packaged, on-premise software vendors in terms of price, flexibility and other service quality offerings. As demand for scalability and flexibility mounts, SaaS can only serve in the short term without SOA offerings to enable them optimize the construction and operation of SaaS services for the long run.

On the other side of the equation, increasingly many enterprises expect SaaS be made available for their SOA implementations without getting bogged down in development. As we see, although the initial impressions of the cloud computing model was all about delivering software, the transformation is far more fundamental and deep routed in SOA.

The intersection, has been inevitable. The two forms have converged and have already begun to fuse great possibilities for the enterprise.

6. Benefits

Is SaaS, cloud computing and PaaS serious enough for the enterprise to build and deploy business applications?

virtualization of computing power
on demand service coupled with a pay-per-use business model yielding to economies of scale
increased scalability
ability to leverage power of SOA
reduced startup times specially for the Small Office Home Office customer(SOHO), who no longer has to bear all the costs of infrastructure and maintenance.
single point of accountability
rich application functionality at dramatically low costs
removes the need to over-buy in terms of "safety net" capacities to handle periodic traffic spikes

7. Concerns

Cloud computing seem convincing enough. Buy how about security and privacy?

The concern inevitably raises the question "how much do we need to know about the services we acquire or consume from other sources?To this point I'd say that the companies offering cloud computing services will live and die by their reputations. As cloud computing leaves users to feel that they lose a degree of control over their often-sensitive information - it would be for the cloud operators to convince otherwise.

There are addtional concerns that include concerns of how well the popular pay-as-you-go payment model is defined, as services consumption variables become complex with tiers of service constraints being added.

8. Players

Infrastructure Providers:

Amazon Web Services: “..capitalizes on Amazon's combination of computational skills and operational savvy. It piggybacks on a multi billion-dollar IT infrastructure. And it pulls in a whole new category of customers looking for rock-solid scalable computing on demand — blue-chip startups like Zillow and PowerSet, kids in garages building the next Google, even adventurous corporate IT jocks looking to offload some of the drudgery.” [7]
Recently announced IBM's cloud computing offering dubbed 'Blue Cloud' is expected offer Enterprise Data Center facilities to the financial services.To have Oracle endorsing such a concept is a landmark in itself. Cloud computing offers an economic advantage of being able to leverage the provider’s shared infrastructure without having to own the major cost of directly supporting a widely distributed user base. the case for doing it yourself is progressively getting weaker and weaker. complementary synergies between these two powerful software approaches Web 2.0 offers a face to SOA:
The Sun Grid Compute Utility: Based on open-source technologies such as Solaris and various Java technologies, Sun Grid is an on-demand grid computing service operated by Sun Microsystems.

Application Providers:

Sales Force: Founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff (an ex-Oracle employee) the company is headquartered in San Francisco, California and is 'The Leader in On-Demand Customer Relationship Management (CRM)'. Its AppExchange allows external developers to create extensions that'll link them into the core Salesforce.com system. These extensions typically include varieties of sales and financial tools.
Oracle aims to package a range of Oracle products into a coherent platform that ISVs can build their SaaS offerings on. Just a little over a month ago Oracle launched their latest on-demand CRM release - Oracle CRM On Demand.
Microsoft's Live Mesh with design goals of unified device, data and application management.
Netsuite hosted online business software programs include accounting, customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, e-commerce and Web site development.

Platform Providers:

9. Summary..

The on-demand model is moving everything from software applications to processing power to storage and APIs from desktops and organizational data centers to the cloud. The obstacles are more in the lines of security and privacy. Cloud operators are expected to prove themselves against rival hackers. Despite the concerns, however, the utility-style pay-by-the-drink pricing computing trend will no doubt change the society as profoundly as cheap electricity did centuries ago.

10. References & Resources:

RiGHTSCALE Blog - Define Cloud Computing
Strategic Backgrounder: Software as a Service
Web 2.0 - Beyond the Conference..
Macworld Confirms Growing Trend of 'Hardware as a Service' - WIRED
Project Caroline - Platform.. as a Service
Service Oriented Architecture - an Overview
Cloud Computing. Available at Amazon.com Today - By Spencer Reiss
Google App Engine - Run your web applications on Google's infrastructure.
The Big Switch - Nicholas Carr
REST

Ayanthi Anandagoda is a Senior Content Specialist at WSO2. ayanthi at wso2 dot com

Source URL:
http://wso2.org/library/3634

Links:
[1] http://aws.amazon.com
[2] http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/22613.wss
[3] http://www.network.com/
[4] http://www.salesforce.com/
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco%2C_California
[6] http://crmondemand.oracle.com
[7] http://www.mesh.com
[8] http://www.netsuite.com
[9] http://code.google.com/appengine/
[10] http://www.salesforce.com/platform/
[11] http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-05/mf_amazon?currentPage=all
[12] http://blog.rightscale.com/2008/05/26/define-cloud-computing/
[13] http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-05/mf_amazon?currentPage=all
[14] http://www.siia.net/estore/ssb-01.pdf
[15] http://wso2.org/library/3707
[16] http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/news/2008/01/macworld_hardware
[17] http://research.sun.com/spotlight/2008/2008-04-09_caroline.html
[18] http://wso2.org/library/3174
[19] http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-05/mf_amazon?currentPage=all
[20] http://code.google.com/appengine/
[21] http://www.nicholasgcarr.com/bigswitch/
[22] http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?design.4.66625.16

© 2008 WSO2 Inc.

Students in Brazil get a new Classmate

2008-08-30T07:40:00.001-07:00

By Ina Fried
Staff writer, CNET News
August 29, 2008, 4:00 a.m. PDT
http://news.cnet.com/Students-in-Brazil-get-a-new-Classmate/2009-1042_3-6245413.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1040_3-0-5&subj=news

Editors' note: This is part of a series exploring computing in Latin America.

CAMPINAS, Brazil--A math teacher gives a class of eighth-graders their assignment and tells them to get to work.

The students grab their bags and fan out across the campus, enjoying the sunny autumn day. Sitting in groups of three and four, some at tables and some on the ground, the students work on the day's lesson. None of the students are using books or writing on paper. Instead, in each student's hands is a small blue-and-white computer that acts as both textbook and notebook.

Click here to read all of the blogs in The Borders of Computing series.

The computers are Intel's Classmate PC, and each one of the students at the Bradesco Foundation school here has one to use each day. As the largest one-to-one computing project in Latin America it's being closely watched. School officials say there is more at stake than the reputation of the Classmate PC, however.

"We have to tread carefully," said Vice Principal Tania Maria Gebin de Carvalhao. "You can't have a recall of students and say 'wait, we did it wrong, come back.'"

The stakes are also high for the technology companies involved. Intel and Microsoft hope to show not only the power of giving laptops to students--but also to show the world that they too have a product in this area--with so many headlines in the U.S. focused on Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child project (Microsoft, more recently has started working with OLPC as well).

One of the keys is knowing when to use computers and when not to us them. In chemistry, for example, it's important that students have the hands-on experience they get by mixing chemicals in test tubes.

Eighth-grade math students work at Intel Classmate PCs in an outdoor classroom at the Bradesco Foundation school in Campinas, Brazil.

"The lab is still good," Gebin de Carvalhao said, but the computers have also come in handy, such as if a teacher wants to demonstrate an explosive reaction.
"Sometimes for safety reasons, it's better not to do it in the lab."

Although it is traditional paintings and not PowerPoint illustrations that hang on her wall, art teacher Elaine Barreiros has also found the computers to be a valuable addition to her classroom.

On this day, she has about two-thirds of the class researching the dress of different ethnic groups while a third of the kids have set their laptops aside and are carving wax sculptures based on their research.

Elaine shrugs off the notion that computers might get in the way. Pointing to the current project, she notes that many of the students will never have the opportunity to travel to all of Brazil, even. "This is the best resource we have," she said, pointing to a laptop. "They can travel the world."

In teaching geometry class, Paulo Cesar Mucci uses an electronic whiteboard to show how a protractor works, noting that the technology makes it possible to see every degree, something that wouldn't be the case if he had to hold up a protractor or draw one by hand.

Unlike in some other one-to-one programs, the Bradesco students don't get to take the laptops home each night.

There are two main reasons for this. First of all, when this group of students heads home in the afternoon, the laptops' day is just beginning. Students in Brazil only go to school for four hours a day, meaning the school is able to offer three shifts of classes: morning, afternoon, and night. As a result, the laptops can do triple duty, even with each student having his or her own laptop throughout the day.

Even if they had more laptops, they still wouldn't send them home, though. Administrators would be worried about the laptops making it back to school. It's not that they think the students would mistreat or misplace the laptops.

"They might get mugged," said the school's principal. Because of where the students live, "it's still not safe."

http://news.cnet.com/Students-in-Brazil-get-a-new-Classmate/2009-1042_3-6245413.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1040_3-0-5&subj=news
Copyright ©2008 CNET Networks, Inc., a CBS Company. All rights reserved.

Eyes turn to dawn of 'visual computing'

2008-08-29T10:34:00.001-07:00

SAN JOSE, California (AFP) — Lifelike graphics are breaking free of elite computer games and spreading throughout society in what industry insiders proclaim is the dawning of a "visual computing era."

Astronauts, film makers and celebrities joined software savants, engineers and gamers in the heart of Silicon Valley this week for a first-ever NVision conference devoted to computer imagery advances changing the way people and machines interact.

"Visual computing is transforming the videogame industry; transforming the film industry, and has all kinds of potential for how we view real-time television," NVIDIA co-founder Jen-Hsun Huang told those gathered at the event.

"We solve some of the most challenging problems for more and more companies around the world. Let the era of visual computing begin."

Gamers dueled for three days in a cavernous room in the San Jose Convention Center while entrepreneurs showed how graphics breakthroughs are shining in other fields.

Car makers are exploring letting potential buyers not only customize automobiles with graphics software but go on virtual test drives.

Graphics processing underpins financial modeling and weather forecasting.

Israel-based Optitex demonstrated software that replicates fabrics so realistically that clothing designers can see what fashions will look and act like on people before garments are made.

Optitex's animation software is being eyed by Hollywood film makers.

Dassault Systemes puts 3D computer-assisted design to work virtually constructing passenger jets, buildings and more.

"Three-D should be a new way for us to dream and design the future of our world," The French company's chief executive Bernard Charles said at NVision.

"It will impact everything we do: education, science, talking to each other ... of course games."

He predicts that lifelike graphics combined with feedback from online communities will let people influence how products are designed, sold and even how "green" they are.

Charles maintains computer simulations will be so realistic that virtual activities will mirror physical experiences.

Simulators already play an important part in training for space shuttle missions, according to former US astronaut Eileen Collins, the first woman shuttle commander.

"When you fly the actual mission you feel like you are in a simulator," Collins said. "We really can't do our job without the good visual graphics that we get."

The world of visual computing is "inescapable," said Chris Malachowsky, a co-founder of NVIDIA, a California firm renowned for high-end graphics processing cards for computers.

"We are being presented with displays everywhere," Malachowsky told AFP. "It used to be about the computing part, but the emphasis is shifting. It is not so much about the computation but how it is presented and seen by people."

The rising tide of digital videos, photos, films and television shows on the Internet is lifting the status of graphics chips, cards, and software and strengthening a trend to "unflatten" displays with 3D imagery.

Malachowsky spoke of using visual computing power to develop new medicines or provide doctors with real-time 3D images of patients' organs.

"They will be able to recreate scan data so fast you could see your own heart beating," Malachowsky said.

"This is being subsidized by all these kids out there playing games."

Perceptive Pixel founder Jeff Han, referred to by some as "the father of touch screen" computing, maintains graphics opens up user interface control possibilities that could render a "mouse" obsolete.

Han demonstrated touch-screen technology that lets several people simultaneously manipulate applications and files on a single large monitor.

"It's not personal computing anymore," Han said. "It's visual computing."

Battlestar Galactica bombshell Tricia Helfer praised computer animation innovations that enable the science fiction television series to rivet viewers.

Helfer plays a part-machine, part-organic Cylon character called "Number Six" that has turned on its creators.

"It's a bit threatening," Helfer said of technology promising to one day make animated characters indistinguishable from real actors.

"But the advantages and uses of it are amazing, but it is something we are going to have to get used to."

Hosted by

The Key Advantage of Cloud Computing is Portability

2008-08-29T10:20:00.001-07:00

The key advantage of cloud computing isn't performance or scalability – it is portability

By: Brandon Wybenga

Aug. 29, 2008 09:15 AM
http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/658588

Saying that your business should never, never, ever use cloud-based applications instead of desktop or network/server based ones is about as ridiculous as saying that cloud-based applications will eventually replace IT completely. Mostly cloud computing is a way to provide an application at low startup costs in exchange for revenue over time.

With an article that begins with "Cloud computing apps are for suckers. If there is an alternative that runs locally on your own machine, it will always be better," John C Dvorak, seems to be going from "baiting Mac users" to "baiting Google users."

But let's just take the argument at face value. Some of the points he makes are good ones – specifically, the ones with performance issues.

I don't care if you have 30-megabit-per-second service, you'll get flaky performance from most online apps, especially if they're popular. Always remember that your online speed is only as good as the speed at which data is coming at you: The application server may be swamped, and the various nodes along the route could become clogged, too. Nothing is ever as fast as the machine sitting on top of (or beneath) your own desk.

Your desktop is faster than the cloud – that's true - but is your car? Information stored in the cloud can be accessed from any place with a Net connection. Information stored locally can only be accessed locally – well, unless you connect through a VPN or set up a VNC server. But even for those of us that know how to do it, a VNC server is a hassle, and a security risk unless you do it exactly right. 90 minutes is horrendous downtime for an enterprise application, and Dvorak is right so far as any application where 90 minutes downtime is unacceptable shouldn't be put on the cloud.

But there are plenty of applications – and for small-to-medium companies, e-mail is one of them – where the losses incurred from 90 minutes of downtime is less than the cost of having a dedicated in-house application installed and maintained on the network. (If the opposite is true, don't use cloud computing, use the in-house application, and keep an eye on how it performs.)

Dvorak also points out that your data is at the mercy of the service provider and that if the service is cut off, for whatever reason, so is your data. That's true, but if you don't back-up your data, your data can be lost by a hard drive crash. Both are about as likely to happen, in my experience.

To Dvorak, "People tend to forget that software is NOT a service; the whole cloud scheme is a scam to lock users into a single product and somehow extract more money from them." There is some aspect of vendor lock-in, but mostly cloud computing is a way to provide an application at low startup costs in exchange for revenue over time – whether through advertising, in the case of Google's apps, or through a subscription model. Yes, it is very much "renting" rather than "owning," but that can very well make financial sense in many cases.

After that, the arguments get a bit silly.

What happens if the net is attacked and your entire cloud world is gone for days and days? It just happened in the Republic of Georgia, and it can probably happen anywhere.

If the Russians start bombing us, John, I'm sure that the boss will give us a few days off.

Ask yourself why the heck will we need six-core, high-performance chips if the cloud takes over everything?

Why do we need six-core, high-performance chips now? In a virtualized server, certainly we'll need power to spare, but unless you're doing video editing or animation rendering, a six-core chip is probably overkill. And if we stop putting the big iron in the datacenters of big companies (very unlikely), they'll pop up in the data centers of the SaaS providers.

When it comes to performance and scalability, absolutely, standard client-server IT applications and local programs are going to have SAAS beat. Final Cut Pro is not going to the cloud. Photoshop isn't going to the cloud (though Photoshop Elements is...). But the key advantage of cloud computing isn't performance or scalability – it is portability. This is why people will pay twice as much for a laptop with the same specs as a desktop computer. Mobility is important.

Published Aug. 29, 2008
Copyright © 2008 SYS-CON Media. All Rights Reserved.

About Brandon Wybenga
Brandon Wybenga is the System Administrator for DataPros for Healthcare, a data cleansing and consulting company based out of Tampa, Florida. He is also attending ITT Technical Institute, Tampa, earning his Bachelor of Science in Information Security Systems.

No Blueprint Yet For Private Clouds

2008-08-29T08:46:00.001-07:00

Posted by Roger Smith, Aug 28, 2008 05:28 PM

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/08/no_blueprint_ye.html;jsessionid=RUPC25P1M02GIQSNDLRSKHSCJUNN2JVN?print=true

Many people don't like the concept of "private clouds," including my colleague John Foley and Sam Johnston ("The case against 'private clouds' "), since by definition cloud computing involves letting people plug into shared IT services in data centers that aren't their own. As oxymorons go, though, private cloud computing doesn't strike me as particularly egregious: I would probably rank it halfway between 'green data center' and 'business intelligence' on my own (admittedly moronic) oxymoron scale.

I discussed the cloud computing ecosystem earlier this month with Sam Charrington, VP of product marketing and management for Appistry, a maker of middleware that helps applications run smoothly in a cloud environment, after his LinuxWorld Expo Cloud Computing session. Charrington's view of the future of cloud computing includes Google (NSDQ: GOOG)-like public clouds as platforms for applications; virtual private clouds, which are third-party clouds, or segments of the public cloud with additional features for security, compliance, etc. (for HIPPA medical record compliance or SOX accounting standards, for example); as well as private or internal clouds, which are an extension of virtualization and used primarily because of their capital or operational efficiencies. His formulation seems to me to make sense since it also dovetails with my view of cloud computing as a natural evolution from the grid/utility computing model, which is the delivery of storage, computation and other computing resources as metered services similar to the way traditional public utilities deliver electricity.

A private cloud, by analogy, is computing capacity produced "off-the-grid" similar to the ways some homeowners produce electrical power with renewable energy sources such as solar arrays on their roof or windmills, and therefore have the option of using it themselves; selling it back to a centralized grid; or allocating it to anyone they choose. Ultimately, anyone with a data center will conceivably be able to provide cloud services, as long as those services conform to a set of cloud infrastructure standards, most of which have yet to be defined.

Sam Johnston ("Cloud standards: not so fast...") is one of many who say cloud standardization efforts are premature. Johnson points to the market-driven ecosystem that has sprung up overnight aroundAmazon (NSDQ: AMZN) Web Services as an example of what kind of cloud standards are needed, namely "simple, rugged, market tested interfaces defined by the innovators in each area (virtualization, storage, services, etc.)." I tend to agree that much of the cloud standardization effort at the moment seems to be putting the cart before the horse, although I'm intrigued by the possibility of leveraging some of the work that's been done on the new Open Virtualization Format (OVF), created by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) standards organization. OVF is a platform independent, efficient, extensible, open packaging and distribution format for virtual machines that allows virtualization packaging, distribution, installation, and management -- all within an archive or Tar file such as "myApp.ova," which can include a digital signature for security.

OVF can be compared roughly to the MP3 digital music format that is used to encapsulate music information. A packaging format that is vendor-neutral, it allows virtual machines, or sets of virtual machines, to be installed on any platform including public, virtual private, and private clouds. OVF is based on the DMTF's Common Information Model (CIM), which would make a good starting point for a cloud API. (If you're not familiar with CIM, it's an open standard that defines how managed elements in an IT environment are represented as a common set of objects and relationships between them. This is intended to allow consistent management of these managed elements, independent of their manufacturer or provider.) This seems like as good a blueprint as any for cloud standardization, although I would like some safeguards to assure the separation of public, virtual private, and private clouds. Off-grid private clouds should be able to be autonomous in much the same way that off-grid homes can generate electrical power on-site with renewable energy sources such as solar or wind; with a generator and adequate fuel reserves; or simply done without, as in Amish communities.

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/08/no_blueprint_ye.html

Bill Gates spills Microsoft cloud computing strategy

2008-08-28T13:36:00.001-07:00

Storage Optimization
Posted in Uncategorized by storageoptimization on the August 28, 2008

Image: PC Magazine

Good old billg has something to say in his “exit interview” about storage in the cloud in this week’s PC Magazine. In essence, his view is that computing and storage will move to the cloud at different rates, and that storage is the more logical thing to move first. Your local storage (presumably on your Windows PC in Mr. Gates’ worldview) will be a cache of a subset of the master data held in the cloud.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2321132,00.asp

Moving data in to the cloud makes a lot of sense, as it makes that data available to computers everywhere, and it also centralizes management of data for backups, geo-replication, and hardware refresh in places where economies of scale can take place that an average user or company could not manage or afford.

I agree with Bill on a couple of these points. I think storage does move to the cloud faster than compute, both because people already understand the idea of storage networks, and that their storage is on a network somewhere –in the cloud, that network pipe is just a bit longer. Compute is something people are use to having close at hand, either on their desktop or in their own data center.

For storage in the cloud to really take off, though, I think storage optimization is an absolutely key ingredient. As regular readers of this blog know, when I say storage optimization I mean a combination of content-aware technologies to drastically reduce the size of data (content aware compression, subfile deduplication, and logical compaction to name a few). There are two places where storage optimization makes sense for storage in the cloud to take off. One is at the customer end of the pipe – if you can shrink your data before you send it to the cloud, you’ll use less bandwidth getting it there and getting it back, and since most “clouds” charge you per Gigabyte, you’ll pay less too.

The other place is in the data center of the storage cloud provider. That’s going to be a very competitive marketplace, and the cloud vendors that can charge you the least amount per Gigabyte – to store, to transfer, to replicate –are going to have the competitive advantage. So the cloud vendors that do the best job of integrating storage optimization in to the cloud in a transparent way will have the edge. And the cloud is a great place to get that edge.

Think of deduplication, for example. If you deduplicate songs just in your own house, well you may only have one copy of each song. Why would you have ten copies of a Britney Spears song? (I might ask why you would have any at all … but we’ll leave that for another time.) However, if 5 million people store their data at a cloud storage provider, how many copies of that hit song might end up there? Does the cloud provider need to store 5 million copies of the same thing? No. If they do, they are being very inefficient. A song is a simple example, but even with enterprise data, the more data you have, the more likely it is that you’ll find patterns, correlations, duplicates, or data relationships that can be exploited for better compression. So the cloud offers an opportunity for efficiency that don’t exist at each little pool of local storage on your hard drive today.

To me, storage optimization and the move of storage to the cloud make a perfect match.

Storage Optimization aims to provide an objective look at the fast-changing world of storage. The blog was started by Carter George, co-founder of Ocarina Networks and provides regular commentary, including guest posts from industry leaders, customers and influencers, on how storage innovations are helping to shape the future of business.

http://storageoptimization.wordpress.com/2008/08/28/gates-spills-ms-cloud-computing-strategy

'One Laptop' Falls Short Of Education Goals

2008-08-28T09:39:00.001-07:00

by Cyrus Farivar

http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=94011852&m=94011816

Morning Edition, August 27, 2008

Listen Now [3 min 14 sec]t

One Laptop Per Child was an ambitious promise to children in the third world. The project has had trouble with its leadership, finances and competitors. Instead of the legacy of education for third-world children, the One Laptop Per Child program has spurred an industry in low-cost laptops for consumers.

purchase transcript:
STEVE INSKEEP, host: Poor people in developing countries have been the focus of ambitious projects, like this one aimed at bridging the world's digital divide. A non-profit called One Laptop Per Child made a promise three years ago to provide $100 computers to millions of children. The group has achieved only a fraction of that goal. But as Cyrus Farivar reports, One Laptop Per Child has still made its mark on the global computer industry.

CYRUS FARIVAR: There's only...

NPR (National Public Radio) is an internationally acclaimed producer and distributor of noncommercial news, talk, and entertainment programming.
Copyright 2008 NPR

A holistic approach to green IT is essential

2008-08-28T08:58:00.000-07:00

Businesses must look at the whole picture when implementing green strategies
Written by David Tebbutt
Computing, 24 Jul 2008
http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/analysis/2222199/holistic-approach-green-4127834

Green computing is an admirable objective – but because the strategy focuses on computing itself, it often fails to consider the wider environmental problems that face the world.

Even labelling the green computing issue as “environmental” does not really do the trick. The better approach is to start with “sustainable development” and work back from there.

According to the 1987 Brundtland Report, also known as Our Common Future, sustainable development “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

The report took an international view of sustainability and applied it to employment, food, energy, water and sanitation. We sometimes forget that if our computer equipment is made in China, its water and ground pollution largely stays there, while the gaseous emissions are shared with the whole world.

The only truly environmental way of accounting for our choices is to look at the lifecycle impact of what we buy and throw away. That includes everything from raw materials through construction, packaging, delivery, use and disposal.

Anything less than this is just playing at being green.

Of course, such an approach is also inconvenient. It is very difficult to discover the carbon footprint of what we buy – it is much easier to find out how much energy something uses for our base calculations.

As such, you rarely hear IT vendors talking about embedded carbon and other pollution in the products they try to convince IT managers to buy. And it is why governments are so keen to focus on pricing carbon and setting targets.

Some 5,000 British companies will be obliged to sign up for the Carbon Reduction Commitment in 2010, which will make businesses measure their carbon emissions to see how they compare year on year. League tables will be published and some firms will be rewarded with bonuses, while others will be punished with fines.

The commitment will focus minds. But companies will analyse their emissions – including those they inherit with their energy supplies – and may decide to offshore polluting elements of their work. The result will be a nice, clean UK operation and no reprimands for embedded carbon. As a result, the company in question might be obeying the letter of the law – but hardly its spirit.

So, what will drive companies to do the right thing? Money and regulation are top of the list. Brand value, corporate social responsibility and public relations are all closely intertwined.

Many companies need to be seen to be environmentally sensitive and if you work for such a firm, life will be relatively easy. These businesses concentrate on working with management and examine every corner of the business to discover opportunities to be greener.

However, if money and regulations drive the firm, every green decision needs to be costed. If regulations are involved, penalties are usually not far away.

As such, the equation still boils down to money – and you are wasting your time trying to appeal to the firm’s better nature. Sooner or later, though, the company will come under customer or shareholder pressure to act greener, especially if it is part of a supply chain to more committed businesses.

Centre attention on the areas that will make a difference but require little or no investment – switch off desktops at night, print fewer documents, turn off power chargers when they are not in use, turn off lights if no one is around.

Extend the period between machine replacements and find ways to reuse retired equipment. The Met Office, for example, sends its end-of-life computers to other measuring stations around the world.

Your next stage should be to look at virtualisation, which can help cut the amount of equipment you need or allow you to take on more work without buying new PCs. You might also be able to optimise your datacentre cooling without massive upheaval. And going even further, large companies can benefit from consolidating multiple datacentres, which can reduce electricity use and other associated costs.

But IT has a much bigger role to play in helping a company achieve good environmental performance.

Technology can help reduce energy use and other pollution in areas which are beyond IT’s remit.

Publishing reference materials online – catalogues, manuals, directories and so on – saves on print, transport and packaging. Videoconferencing can save time and money – and the stresses of work life can be diminished, too.

Home working can also help employees dodge the commute and, depending on how many people do it and for how many days, can also reduce office size and the associated costs.

In a recent survey, Freeform Dynamics discovered that only 28 per cent of IT departments actually know how much energy they use. And, no doubt, the figure would be even smaller if the question were asked with regards to the total IT estate.

If you belong to such a company, perhaps the most effective starting point for everything would be to obtain a copy of its bills. This approach might lead to more granular metering, so that you can see where to apply new measures for saving energy.

David Tebbutt is programme director at analyst Freeform Dynamics. Read the blog at: http://freeform.computing.co.uk

http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/analysis/2222199/holistic-approach-green-4127834

Computing provides insight for IT leaders.

Computing and Computing.co.uk are published in the UK by Incisive Media.

Akhter Computers Launches LoCO2 All-in-One Energy Star 4.0 PC

2008-08-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

Posted By: Mariella Moon
http://www.goodcleantech.com/2008/08/akhter_computers_launches_loco.php

Another PC that joins the ranks of the recently released Tangent Evergreen 17 and Shuttle X27 energy-efficient PCs is the new Akhter LoCO2 PC. The LoCO2 claims to the world's first Energy Star 4.0 approved all-in-one PC. It's a combined computer which has a 19-inch LCD panel, Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and hard disk drive, in just a single form. LoCO2 consumes 55 watts of energy when in use, and 3 watts when put in Sleep Mode.

In spite of the incorporated elements, the computer maintains a thin profile measuring merely 85mm in depth. Other optional features include a touch panel and 802.11 b/g WiFi connectivity. The Akhter LoCO2 all-in-one PC has a starting price of approximately $1,078 depending on the configuration.

Cloud Computing Terminology

2008-08-27T21:14:00.000-07:00

Thinking Out Cloud
Cloud Computing, Grids, Everything-as-a-Service and more

http://gevaperry.typepad.com/main/2008/08/new-cloud-compu.html
Posted on August 19, 2008 at 01:33 AM
by Geva Perry

While the debate on the actual definition of cloud computing rages on, it seems that a whole new cloud computing vocabulary is rapidly emerging. I thougt I'd list some of the new terms I'm seeing with brief definitions, examples of usage and references to discussions related to these terms. Hope this is useful.

Cloudburst: The term cloudburst is being use in two meanings, negative and positive:

Cloudburst (negative): The failure of a cloud computing environment due to the inability to handle a spike in demand.
Reference:"The only way to do cloud computing efficiently is to share the cloud - to establish a broad, multitenant grid (or a number of them) that balances the loads of many different companies. Otherwise, it'll be one cloudburst after another, and a whole lot of underutilized capital assets." Source: Nicholas Carr: Intuit's cloudburst frustrates customers.
Cloudburst (positive): The dynamic deployment of a software application that runs on internal organizational compute resources to a public cloud to address a spike in demand.
Reference: "ISV virtual appliances should underpin a new surge in cloud use followed by self-service mechanisms and enterprise connectors enabling organizations to 'cloudburst' to using cloud services." Source: The 451 Group: RightScale rolls its on-ramp toward other cloud systems (subscription required)
Related uses: Cloudbursting. Reference "In addition to direct sales to enterprises, going forward it hopes that extending out from private clouds to public ones – what we like to call 'cloudbursting' – will become a prevailing IT weather pattern and provide it with additional opportunities. " Source: The 451 Group: Q-Layer has the wisdom to enable private clouds (subscription required)

Cloudstorming: The act of connecting multiple cloud computing environments.
Reference: "...Zimory will be covering off the key cloudy marketplaces and activities: public cloud, internal cloud, cloudbursting (grow-over from internal to public clouds) and cloudstorming (connecting multiple clouds)." Source: The 451 Group: A Cloud for All Seasons

Vertical Cloud: A cloud computing environment optimized for use in a particular vertical -- i.e., industry -- or application use case.
Reference: "The verticalization of the cloud would provide marketing benefits, as Friedman notes, while also providing a possible means of addressing issues of information security crucial to industries such as health care and financial services." Source: Nicholas Carr: The vertical cloud

Private Cloud: A cloud computing-like environment within the boundaries of an organization and typically for its exclusive usage.
Reference: "It is these companies that have dramatically leveraged their internal and originally Private Cloud Computing infrastructures to significant economic benefit. " Source: Kent Langley: Private Cloud Computing: A Few Thoughts

Internal Cloud: A cloud computing-like environment within the boundaries of an organization and typically available for exclusive use by said organization.
Reference: "With Cloud Computing becoming more and more popular, large corporations are likely to set up their own clouds and integrate them with external clouds, like Amazon EC2." Source: Markus Klems: Internal Cloud

Hybrid Cloud: A computing environment combining both private (internal) and public (external) cloud computing environments. May either be on a continuous basis or in the form of a 'cloudburst'.
Reference: "Microsoft would, no doubt, agree. Their "software plus services" approach similarly advocates a hybrid cloud/desktop environment." Source: Kendall Whitehouse: Kevin Lynch: Clearing the AIR

Cloudware: A general term referring to a variety of software, typically at the infrastructure level, that enables building, deploying, running or managing applications in a cloud computing environment.
Reference: "Go to Google Maps, Yahoo Mail, or MySpace — most of Web 2.0, in other words — and you're using cloudware." Source: Wired: Geekipedia - Cloudware

External Cloud: A cloud computing environment that is external to the boundaries of the organization. Although it often is, an external cloud is not necessarily a public cloud. Some external clouds make their cloud infrastructure available to specific other organizations and not to the public at-large.
Reference: "If an enterprise were to run an app in an external Cloud and wants to connect that to their systems of record in their own datacenters, they might want to consider the same platform in their data centers." Source: Bert Armijo: Pain in the aaSemantics

Public Cloud: A cloud computing environment that is open for use to the general public, whether individuals, corporations or other types of organizations. Amazon Web Services are an example of a public cloud.
Reference: Gerrit Huizenga: Um, Just who is managing your public cloud?

Cloud Provider: An organization that makes a cloud computing environment available to others, such as an external or public cloud.
Reference: "Some workloads, such as application testing and training, are prime candidates for early deployment to a cloud provider due to their transient nature and high Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)." Source: John Janakiraman: Deploying Your Existing Applications to the Cloud

Cloud Enabler: A general term that refers to organizations (typically vendors) who are not cloud providers per se, but make available technology, such as cloudware, that enables cloud computing.

Cloud-Oriented Architecture (COA): An architecture for IT infrastructure and software applications that is optimized for use in cloud computing environments. The term is not yet in wide use, and as is the case for the term "cloud computing" itself, there is no common or generally accepted definition or specific description of a cloud-oriented architecture.
Reference: James Urquhart: The Principles of Cloud Oriented Architecture

Cloud Service Architecture (CSA): A term coined by Jeff Barr, chief evangelist at Amazon Web Services. The term describes an architecture in which applications and application components act as services on the cloud, which serve other applications within the same cloud environment.
Reference: Jeff Barr: The Emerging Cloud Service Architecture

Virtual Private Cloud (VPC): A term coined by Reuven Cohen, CEO and founder of Enomaly. The term describes a concept that is similar to, and derived from, the familiar concept of a Virtual Private Network (VPN), but applied to cloud computing. It is the notion of turning a public cloud into a virtual private cloud, particularly in terms of security and the ability to create a VPC across components that are both within the cloud and external to it.
Reference: "A VPC is a method for partitioning a public computing utility such as EC2 into quarantined virtual infrastructure. A VPC may encapsulate multiple local and remote resources to appear as a single homogeneous computing environment bridging the ability to securely utilize remote resources as part of an seamless global compute infrastructure." Source: Reuven Cohen: Life in the Cloud: Virtual Private Cloud

Cloud Portability: The ability to move applications (and often their associated data) across cloud computing environments from different cloud providers, as well as across private or internal cloud and public or external clouds.

Cloudsourcing - As defined by Dion Hinchcliffe: "Leveraging services in the network cloud to provide external computing capabilities, often to replace more expensive local IT capabilities.Cloudsourcing can theoretically provide significant economic benefits along with some attendant trade-offs. These trade-offs can include security and performance. The term "cloud" represents a set of external services on a 3rd party network, usually the Internet. The services can represent raw computing, storage, messaging, or more structured capabilities such as vertical and horizontal business applications, even community. These services are delivered over the network, but generally behave as if they are local." Read an overview of cloudsourcing by Dion Hinchcliffe.

Trackback
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/743706/31984164

Who Provides What in the Cloud

2008-08-27T13:27:00.000-07:00

John Edwards, InfoWorld

Wednesday, August 27, 2008 1:00 PM PDT

The news that AT&T has joined the rapidly growing ranks of cloud computing providers reinforces the argument that the latest IT outsourcing model is well on its way to becoming a classic disruptive technology.

By enabling datacenter operators to "publish" computing resources -- such as servers, storage, and network connectivity -- cloud computing provides a pay-by-consumption scalable service that's usually free of long-term contracts and is typically application- and OS-independent. The approach also eliminates the need to install any on-site hardware or software.

Currently dominated by Amazon.com and several small startups, cloud computing is increasingly attracting the interest of industry giants, including Google, IBM, and now AT&T.

"Everyone and their dog will be in cloud computing next year," predicts Rebecca Wettemann, vice president of research at Nucleus Research, a technology research firm.

Yet James Staten, an infrastructure and operations analyst at Forrester Research, warns that prospective adopters need to tread carefully in a market that he describes as both immature and evolving. Staten notes that service offerings and service levels vary widely between cloud vendors.

"Shop around," he advises. "We're already seeing big differences in cloud offerings."

To help cut through the confusion, here's a rundown some major cloud providers -- both current and planned -- all offering resources that go beyond basic services such as SaaS (software as a service) applications and Web hosting:

3Tera: Appliance-Driven Virtual Servers

3Tera's AppLogic is a grid engine that has evolved over time into a full-fledged cloud computing environment. The company says its offering is designed to enable datacenters to replace expensive and hard-to-integrate IT infrastructure -- such as firewalls, load balancers, servers, and SANs -- with virtual appliances. Each appliance runs in its own virtual environment.

AppLogic combines servers into a scalable grid that's managed as a single system via a browser or secure shell. According to 3Tera, datacenters can add or remove servers on the fly, monitor hardware, manage user credentials, reboot servers, install software, build virtual appliances, back up the system, repair damaged storage volumes, inspect logs, and perform every other management tasks from a single point of control, all while the system is running.

Amazon.com: As-You-Need-Them Basic IT Resources

Amazon was an early cloud computing proponent, and the company now has one of the market's longest menu of services. Amazon's core cloud offering, the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), provides a virtualized cloud infrastructure that's designed to provide scalable compute, storage, and communication facilities.

Amazon's cloud computing arsenal also includes the Simple Storage Service (S3), a persistent storage system, as well as the Simple Database (SimpleDB), which provides a remotely accessible database, and the Simple Queuing Service (SQS), a message queue service that's also an agent for tying together distributed applications created by the EC2, S3, and SimpleDB combo.

AT&T: Scalable Hosting in a Managed Network

AT&T Synaptic Hosting aims to give datacenters the ability to manage applications, compute resources on servers, and stored data elastically, so they can scale up or down as needed. The hosted platform provides dynamic security and storage capabilities as well as a Web portal to manage capacity, conduct maintenance, and monitor network service and performance.

AT&T has long offered hosting services, but not ones that could scale up or down as needed. AT&T's resources and services run within its own network, rather than across datacenters linked via the public Internet, which the company claims provides more certainty over server levels.

Google: Resources for Small Businesses and Developers

Google already offers several cloud-based services, such as e-mail and storage, for consumers, a well as the AppEngine development and provisioning platform for individual developers. The company's logical next step, given its vast infrastructure resources, would be a move into the enterprise cloud market.

"There's not that much difference between the enterprise cloud and the consumer cloud," Google CEO Eric Schmidt said last May during an appearance in Los Angeles with IBM chief Sam Palmisano, as the companies announced a joint cloud computing initiative.

Over the next year or so, Google and IBM plan to roll out a worldwide network of servers for a cloud computing infrastructure. The IBM-Google cloud runs on Linux-based machines using Xen virtualization and Apache Hadoop, an open source implementation of the Google File System. Provisioning is automatic, courtesy of IBM's Tivoli Provisioning Manager.

IBM: A Platform for Your "Internal" Cloud

Aside from its Google venture, IBM is focusing its cloud strategy on "Blue Cloud," a series of cloud computing offerings that will enable computing across a distributed, globally accessible fabric of resources, rather than on local machines or remote server farms. Built on IBM's massive-scale computing initiatives, Blue Cloud aims to give datacenters the ability to establish their own cloud computing architecture to handle the enormous data-processing power required for video, social networking, and other Web 2.0 technologies.

Initially, the Blue Cloud technology must be deployed internally at each organization, essentially as the foundation for an "internal" cloud. The Blue Cloud platform, running on IBM BladeCenters with Power and x86 processors and Tivoli service management software, dynamically provisions and allocates resources as workloads fluctuate for an application. Blue Cloud is being billed as a more distributed computing architecture than typically found in most enterprise datacenters. It is based on Hadoop. Over time, IBM expects to offer Blue Cloud resources on demand, in the provisioned style of Amazon.com and AT&T.

IBM also provides hosting services for SaaS providers, including SAP and SucecssFactors.

Sun Microsystems: An On-Demand Grid, and Perhaps More

With its "the network is the computer" mantra, Sun provided much of the inspiration for the cloud computing movement. And its Sun Grid Engine was one of the first on-demand cloud offerings, providing access to compute and storage resources optimized for parallel-processing applications.

The company also has a research venture dubbed "Project Caroline" meant to provide a configurable pool of virtualized compute, storage, and networking resources to small and medium-size SaaS providers, so they don't need to develop their own infrastructure. There have been recent reports that Sun is planning to turn Project Caroline into a full-blown business, but there's been no official word from they company yet.

TerremarkWorldwide: Resource Pool for On-Demand Servers

The Terremark Enterprise Cloud is designed to give datacenters an Internet-optimized computing infrastructure. Enterprise Cloud clients buy a dedicated resource pool of processing, memory, storage, and networking, from which they can deploy servers on demand. A Web portal allows server to be dynamically provisioned from a pre-allocated pool of dedicated computer resources. Terremark promises that its cloud servers behave exactly like their physical counterparts, allowing applications to be run without modification.

XCalibreCommunications: Self-Provisioned Virtual Servers

Described by some observers as Europe's answer to Amazon's EC2, Scotland-based XCalibre's FlexiScale provides self-provisioning of virtual dedicated servers via a control panel or API. Persistent storage is based on a fully virtualized high-end SAN/NAS back end.
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/150379-1/who_provides_what_in_the_cloud.html

Copyright 1998-2007, PC World Communications, Inc.

School officials suggest buying more online versions of books

2008-08-27T13:11:00.001-07:00

Internet access may replace the purchase of texts, Martin says

By Lisa Boone-Wood Journal Reporter
Published: August 27, 2008

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school officials told the school board last night that buying more online subscriptions for social-studies textbooks might be a necessary next step.

While evaluating a tight budget earlier this year, school officials decided to buy classroom sets of social-studies books for sixth-and seventh-graders, instead of buying books for each student to take home.

After realizing that every book in the classroom set doesn't come with access to an online version, school officials suggested that buying an additional 82 online subscriptions, at a cost of about $5,000.

The additional subscriptions would be bought so more students can access the online textbooks outside of school.

Superintendent Don Martin said that every student has access to the books during the school day and can access online versions of books and other learning tools online if they have Internet access at home.

Students can also go to the more than 40 WinstonNet labs in local libraries and other locations to access the information, he said.

"It's kind of an experiment to see how that works," Martin said. "We will actually evaluate that at the end of the year. If it works well, we won't buy textbooks next year.

"I actually think the opportunity to not carry that big, old book back-and-forth and access the book online is interesting."

Martin told members of the school board last night that he has received several inquiries from parents about the online textbooks. "Everybody doesn't have a computer at home," he said, adding that another possibility in making the textbooks more readily available would be to use the old textbooks.

"We've had no one indicate that they want to go back to the old textbooks, but that is an option," he said.

■ Lisa Boone-Wood can be reached at 727-7232 or at lboone-wood@wsjournal.com
©2008 Media General Communications Holdings, LLC. A Media General company.

Storing your stuff online is not cloud computing

2008-08-27T10:34:00.001-07:00

skwpspace

yan pritzker’s home on the web

yan@pritzker.ws

http://skwpspace.com/2008/08/26/storing-your-stuff-online-is-not-cloud-computing/#comment-13742

I’ve noticed people have been saying things like “I am cloud computing because my mail is now on gmail ZOMG”. Storing your mails on the internets is not cloud computing, it’s just online storage. Uploading pics from your phone directly to the web is not cloud computing. Google docs is not cloud computing. Just storing something on the Intarweb does not mean you’re “using cloud computing”. So stop abusing my favorite buzzword :-)

Cloud computing is a far more interesting and far reaching shift than the ability to store your stuff ‘out there’. I think the fundamental principle that defines cloud computing is on-demand resource provisioning. Whether it’s storage or computing power, it means that startups no longer have to spend money up front on data centers. It means that enterprises can save tons of money by not having servers out there idling and burning cash.

And even though there are detractors who will say “cloud computing is grid technology rebranded with a new buzzword”, they are just like the people who said “AJAX is DHTML and we had it in the 90s”. These people are missing the point. Having terminology to describe a phenomenon is a Good Thing. It enables us to easily refer to it and build on top of it. But let’s make sure we understand what’s happening before we apply this new buzzword to every online service under the sun, because then we’re limiting its usefulness.

http://skwpspace.com/2008/08/26/storing-your-stuff-online-is-not-cloud-computing/#comment-13742

What I do:

I am the founder of Planypus, a place to share plans with your friends. I set the general direction for the company as well as leading the development team. I am the senior developer and one of the first employees at CohesiveFT where I am primarily responsible for the web side of the Elastic Server On-Demand product, a virtualization factory that lets you easily produce virtualization ready and cloud ready servers from a component library.

California Schools Reduce Carbon Footprint with NComputing

2008-08-26T12:48:00.000-07:00

By Anuradha Shukla

TMCnet Contributing Editor

http://green.tmcnet.com/topics/green/articles/38006-california-schools-reduce-carbon-footprint-with-ncomp uting.htm

Dublin Unified School District in California repo rtedly has deployed NComputing low-cost virtual desktops in its classrooms in order to provide affordable computer access to students.

In addition to reducing the effective teacher-to-student ratio in classes and improving the way teachers engage with students, NComputing’s ultra-efficient technology has also reduced Dublin’s computing systems carbon footprint by more than 90 percent. Also, by using Ncomputing X300 virtual desktops, Dublin has expanded PC access for as little as $70 per student.

Stephen Dukker, chairman and chief executive officer of Ncomputing, said that when the student-to-PC ratio moves from about 9:1 to 3:1, it makes sense to get the computers out of the labs and into the classrooms. He said that once there are enough computing stations in each classroom, the teachers can personalize lesson plans, be more productive, and better engage their students.

With NComputing technology, many classrooms in Dublin USD now have two PCs. Each of these PCs uses two NComputing X300 kits to support seven users, putting 14 computing seats in each classroom. Ncomputing has created a 2:1 student-to-computer ratio for the whole class, or 1:1 computing for half of the class.

Tim McCarty, director of technology and information services for Dublin USD during the installation, said that students are much more involved during class due to the increased personal attention they are receiving from teaching staff and are also highly receptive to the use of computers in the classroom setting. He said that affordable desktop virtualization technology is changing the way they teach.

NComputing access devices consume as little as 1 watt per user, versus 115 watts for a PC. Dukker claims that NComputing is delivering so-called “green” computing. He said that at just 1 watt, it uses less electricity than a night light.

“We are heartened that the Sundance Channel and others are recognizing the potential of this solution in helping reduce carbon dioxide emissions,” he said.

Headquartered in Redwood City, California, NComputing is a privately held virtualization software and hardware company, founded with the goal of making desktop computing affordable for everyone. The company recently announced that over 250 colleges and universities across the country have deployed NComputing solutions to get the most out of their PC investment, cut support and maintenance costs by as much as 80 percent, and save electricity to help comply with aggressive green initiatives.

Anuradha Shukla is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anuradha’s article, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Michael Dinan
http://green.tmcnet.com/topics/green/articles/38006-california-schools-reduce-carbon-footprint-with-ncomputing.htm
Copyright 2008 Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) - All rights reserved

----------------------
How NComputing works:

http://www .ncomputing.com/Portals/0/NComputing_Flash%20Demo.swf
© 2008 All Rights Reserved - NComputing

Forestle turns Google searches green

2008-08-25T19:38:00.001-07:00

By Jacqui Cheng Published: August 25, 2008 - 05:30PM CT

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080825-forestle-turns-google-searches-green.html

The push toward green everything—green commuting, green shopping, green living, and even green computing—has exploded this year. But, as we all know, some of these initiatives are easier to take part in than others, and the most successful ones generally require the least amount of effort. With the launch of Forestle, "green searching" takes this trend to the extreme; with nothing more than a web search, you too can help the planet.

Forestle.org is an independent, nonprofit site based out of Germany, and it was officially launched today after a period of beta testing. Results are delivered through Google, so they are as good as one might expect from a favorite search engine. So what's this pony's trick? According to the folks behind Forestle, all of the site's income (minus administrative costs, of course) from sponsored links is donated to The Nature Conservancy's adopt an acre program that helps to sustain the world's rainforests.

Forestle founder Christian Kroll tells us that, as a result, 0.1 square yards of rainforest are "saved" with every single web search. "Within our testing phase we already saved more than 15,000 square yards of rainforest," he said. In fact, as of this writing, the number appears to be up to 15,258 square yards, and the constantly-updated number appears on the main page of the site.

The company's about page says that admin costs make up only five percent of Forestle's overall income, and that Forestle will always remain transparent by posting financial reports on its site.

Using Forestle can be easier than just setting it as your home page, too. The company offers plugins that work with Firefox, Safari, and Opera in order to let you use Forestle from your browser's search bar.

I installed the plugin for Firefox, adding it to my list of available search engines and making it even easier to use Forestle to perform my everyday searches. When you use the Forestle plugin, you can also use "indicators" to search specific sites. For example, typing "amazon::" before a search will let you search Amazon's site—the same applies for others like "digg::", "ebay::", "weather::", and "dictionary::".

Of course, the downside to using Forestle is that it's not integrated with all of Google's other services. You won't get a link to your Gmail, or iGoogle, or Google Calendar at the top of Forestle, although the site does link to things like Google Image Search and Google Maps.
The only real advantage to using Forestle over Google is for the green benefits, but for those interested in Forestle's work, the site has made going green about as simple as it could possibly be.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080825-forestle-turns-google-searches-green.html

NVISION 08 - A Town Turned Green

2008-08-25T11:39:00.000-07:00

http://www.gameaxis.com/home/?blog=2465
by kichigai on Monday, 25th August 2008 @ 12:17:57 P

NVIDIA's first big computing/gaming event is about to kick off tomorrow in the capital of Silicon Valley (that's San Jose, California btw). With preparations all under way, downtown San Jose has been turned into a green city. With the blessing of Mayor Chuck Reed proclaiming this "Visual Computing Week", NVIDIA is really pulling all the stops to make this successful. NVISION is a 3-day visual computing conference that's expected to draw a crowd of around 10,000 participants from around the world.

Yeah, yeah, so you're probably thinking NVIDIA = graphics cards, and NVISION's going to be this big boring tech conference like Computex, so why is GameAxis here? Well, a couple of very good reasons.

One, this will be the first time the Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC) finals will be held in the US, instead of Paris, France. The ESWC is the 'other' big international gaming tournament other than the World Cyber Games (WCG).

Second, there will be a Guinness World Record attempt at the largest/longest consecutive LAN party by playing for 36 hours straight.

Third, there will be a special Video Games Live (VGL)concert performance for NVISION. If you consider yourself a gamer and you don't know what VGL is, please leave your gamer card at the counter, do not collect $200, do not pass Go, and close your browser right now.

Fourth, the guys from MythBusters is supposed to make an appearance with a 'Special' surprise for the closing ceremony. Hell, I just wanna see what it is.

And Lastly, NVIDIA has a very interesting list of 'famous' people who will appear at the event. This list comprises of a strange array of people with geek cred, gaming cred and well...just cred. Tricia Helfer (Number 'Six') of Battlestar Galactica will be there to add the celebrity babe factor, Jeff Han, the multi-touch screen technology guru for the real geeks, and Lorne Lanning, the creator of the Oddworld series are some of this mixed bunch.

Anyway, after a very smooth flight to San Francisco (my flight was early, there was No one in the airport, I passed US customs in 5 minutes, and the drive down to San Jose was in clear traffic throughout), I decided to go walk around to find my bearings. As expected, everyone was still busy setting up, but surprisingly no one stopped this lone journalist poking his camera everywhere. There's nothing really to show though, I mean, what's there to see in an empty room with just tables and chairs for the BOYC LAN centre, or the cardboard, paper and tape strewn floors of the exhibition area.

Well, tomorrow is the big event, and whether it will just turn out into a three day fun party, or the biggest visual computing event of the century, well, that's what I'm here to find out. Stay tuned for more NVISION highlights on www.gameaxis.com.

How Cloud Computing Works

2008-08-25T11:21:00.000-07:00

by Jonathan Strickland

Browse the article How Cloud Computing Works

Introduction to How Cloud Computing Works

Let's say you're an executive at a large corporation. Your particular responsibilities include making sure that all of your employees have the right hardware and software they need to do their jobs. Buying computers for everyone isn't enough -- you also have to purchase software or software licenses to give employees the tools they require. Whenever you have a new hire, you have to buy more software or make sure your current software license allows another user. It's so stressful that you find it difficult to go to sleep on your huge pile of money every night.

Soon, there may be an alternative for executives like you. Instead of installing a suite of software for each computer, you'd only have to load one application. That application would allow workers to log into a Web-based service which hosts all the programs the user would need for his or her job. Remote machines owned by another company would run everything from e-mail to word processing to complex data analysis programs. It's called cloud computing, and it could change the entire computer industry.

I Computed Lonely As A Cloud
Although cloud computing is an emerging field of computer science, the idea has been around for a few years. It's called cloud computing because the data and applications exist on a "cloud" of Web servers.

In a cloud computing system, there's a significant workload shift. Local computers no longer have to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to running applications. The network of computers that make up the cloud handles them instead. Hardware and software demands on the user's side decrease. The only thing the user's computer needs to be able to run is the cloud computing system's interface software, which can be as simple as a Web browser, and the cloud's network takes care of the rest.

There's a good chance you've already used some form of cloud computing. If you have an e-mail account with a Web-based e-mail service like Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or Gmail, then you've had some experience with cloud computing. Instead of running an e-mail program on your computer, you log in to a Web e-mail account remotely. The software and storage for your account doesn't exist on your computer -- it's on the service's computer cloud.

What makes up a cloud computing system? Find out in the next section.

Cloud Computing Architecture

When talking about a cloud computing system, it's helpful to divide it into two sections: the front end and the back end. They connect to each other through a network, usually the Internet. The front end is the side the computer user, or client, sees. The back end is the "cloud" section of the system.

The front end includes the client's computer (or computer network) and the application required to access the cloud computing system. Not all cloud computing systems have the same user interface. Services like Web-based e-mail programs leverage existing Web browsers like Internet Explorer or Firefox. Other systems have unique applications that provide network access to clients.

You've Been Virtually Served
Most of the time, servers don't run at full capacity. That means there's unused processing power going to waste. It's possible to fool a physical server into thinking it's actually multiple servers, each running with its own independent operating system. The technique is called server virtualization. By maximizing the output of individual servers, server virtualization reduces the need for more physical machines.

On the back end of the system are the various computers, servers and data storage systems that create the "cloud" of computing services. In theory, a cloud computing system could include practically any computer program you can imagine, from data processing to video games. Usually, each application will have its own dedicated server.

A central server administers the system, monitoring traffic and client demands to ensure everything runs smoothly. It follows a set of rules called protocols and uses a special kind of software called middleware. Middleware allows networked computers to communicate with each other.

If a cloud computing company has a lot of clients, there's likely to be a high demand for a lot of storage space. Some companies require hundreds of digital storage devices. Cloud computing systems need at least twice the number of storage devices it requires to keep all its clients' information stored. That's because these devices, like all computers, occasionally break down. A cloud computing system must make a copy of all its clients' information and store it on other devices. The copies enable the central server to access backup machines to retrieve data that otherwise would be unreachable. Making copies of data as a backup is called redundancy.

Grids, Clouds and Utilities, Oh My!
Cloud computing is closely related to grid computing and utility computing. In a grid computing system, networked computers are able to access and use the resources of every other computer on the network. In cloud computing systems, that usually only applies to the back end. Utility computing is a business model where one company pays another company for access to computer applications or data storage.

What are some of the applications of cloud computing? Keep reading to find out.

Cloud Computing Applications

The applications of cloud computing are practically limitless. With the right middleware, a cloud computing system could execute all the programs a normal computer could run. Potentially, everything from generic word processing software to customized computer programs designed for a specific company could work on a cloud computing system.

Who's Who in Cloud Computing
Some of the companies researching cloud computing are big names in the computer industry. Microsoft, IBM and Google are investing millions of dollars into research. Some people think Apple might investigate the possibility of producing interface hardware for cloud computing systems.

Why would anyone want to rely on another computer system to run programs and store data? Here are just a few reasons:

Clients would be able to access their applications and data from anywhere at any time. They could access the cloud computing system using any computer linked to the Internet. Data wouldn't be confined to a hard drive on one user's computer or even a corporation's internal network.
It could bring hardware costs down. Cloud computing systems would reduce the need for advanced hardware on the client side. You wouldn't need to buy the fastest computer with the most memory, because the cloud system would take care of those needs for you. Instead, you could buy an inexpensive computer terminal. The terminal could include a monitor, input devices like a keyboard and mouse and just enough processing power to run the middleware necessary to connect to the cloud system. You wouldn't need a large hard drive because you'd store all your information on a remote computer.
Corporations that rely on computers have to make sure they have the right software in place to achieve goals. Cloud computing systems give these organizations company-wide access to computer applications. The companies don't have to buy a set of software or software licenses for every employee. Instead, the company could pay a metered fee to a cloud computing company.
Servers and digital storage devices take up space. Some companies rent physical space to store servers and databases because they don't have it available on site. Cloud computing gives these companies the option of storing data on someone else's hardware, removing the need for physical space on the front end.
Corporations might save money on IT support. Streamlined hardware would, in theory, have fewer problems than a network of heterogeneous machines and operating systems.
If the cloud computing system's back end is a grid computing system, then the client could take advantage of the entire network's processing power. Often, scientists and researchers work with calculations so complex that it would take years for individual computers to complete them. On a grid computing system, the client could send the calculation to the cloud for processing. The cloud system would tap into the processing power of all available computers on the back end, significantly speeding up the calculation.

Same As It Ever Was
Cloud computing could turn home computers into simple terminal interfaces. In some ways, this is a step backward. Early computers included hardwired user terminals. Each terminal had a computer monitor and keyboard, but they only served as an interface to the main computer. There was no way to store information locally on a terminal.

While the benefits of cloud computing seem convincing, are there any potential problems? Find out in the next section.

Cloud Computing Concerns

Perhaps the biggest concerns about cloud computing are security and privacy. The idea of handing over important data to another company worries some people. Corporate executives might hesitate to take advantage of a cloud computing system because they can't keep their company's information under lock and key.

The counterargument to this position is that the companies offering cloud computing services live and die by their reputations. It benefits these companies to have reliable security measures in place. Otherwise, the service would lose all its clients. It's in their interest to employ the most advanced techniques to protect their clients' data.

Privacy is another matter. If a client can log in from any location to access data and applications, it's possible the client's privacy could be compromised. Cloud computing companies will need to find ways to protect client privacy. One way is to use authentication techniques such as user names and passwords. Another is to employ an authorization format -- each user can access only the data and applications relevant to his or her job.

Private Eyes are Watching You

There are a few standard hacker tricks that could cause cloud computing companies major headaches. One of those is called key logging. A key logging program records keystrokes. If a hacker manages successfully to load a key logging program on a victim's computer, he or she can study the keystrokes to discover user names and passwords. Of course, if the user's computer is just a streamlined terminal, it might be impossible to install the program in the first place.

Some questions regarding cloud computing are more philosophical. Does the user or company subscribing to the cloud computing service own the data? Does the cloud computing system, which provides the actual storage space, own it? Is it possible for a cloud computing company to deny a client access to that client's data? Several companies, law firms and universities are debating these and other questions about the nature of cloud computing.

How will cloud computing affect other industries? There's a growing concern in the IT industry about how cloud computing could impact the business of computer maintenance and repair. If companies switch to using streamlined computer systems, they'll have fewer IT needs. Some industry experts believe that the need for IT jobs will migrate to the back end of the cloud computing system.

Autonomic Computing Systems
Another area of research in the computer science community is autonomic computing. An autonomic computing system is self-managing, which means the system monitors itself and takes measures to prevent or repair problems. Currently, autonomic computing is mostly theoretical. But, if autonomic computing becomes a reality, it could eliminate the need for many IT maintenance jobs.

Sources

Bogatin, Donna. "Google CEO's new paradigm: 'cloud computing and advertising go hand-in-hand.'" ZDNet. Aug. 23, 2006. Retrieved March 11, 2008. http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-markets/?p=369
Brodkin, Jon. "IBM unveils 'cloud computing.'" Network World. Nov. 19, 2007. Vol. 24, Iss. 45. pg. 10.
Carr, Nicholas. "'World Wide Computer' is on horizon." USA Today. February 25, 2008.
Hickins, Michael. "Cloud Computing Gets Down to Earth." eWeek. January 21, 2008. pg. 14.
"IBM Introduces Ready-to-Use Cloud Computing." IBM. Nov. 15, 2007. http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/22613.wss
Lohr, Steve. "Cloud Computing and EMC Deal." New York Times. Feb. 25, 2008.
pg. C 6.
Lohr, Steve. "Google and I.B.M. Jon in 'Cloud Computing' Research." New York Times. Oct. 8, 2007. pg. C 8.
Lohr, Steve. "I.B.M. to Push 'Cloud Computing,' Using Data From Afar." New York Times. Nov. 15, 2007. pg. C 7.
McAllister, Neil. "Server virtualization." InfoWorld. Feb. 12, 2007. Retrieved March 12, 2008. http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/02/12/07FEvirtualserv_1.html
Markoff, John. "An Internet Critic Who Is Not Shy About Ruffling the Big Names in High Technology." New York Times. Apr. 9, 2001. pg. C 6.
Markoff, John. "Software via the Internet: Microsoft in 'Cloud' Computing." New York Times. Sep. 3, 2007. pg. C 1.
"Middleware." Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute. Retrieved March 12, 2004. http://www.sei.cmu.edu/str/descriptions/middleware_body.html.
Naone, Erica. "Computer in the Cloud." Technology Review. Sept. 18, 2007. Retrieved March 12, 2008. http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19397/?a=f
"Report sees big shift in IT delivery." IT Week. London. Nov. 5, 2007.
Swanson, Bret and Gilder, George. "Unleashing the 'Exaflood.'" Wall Street Journal. Feb. 22, 2008. pg. A 15.
"The future of IT? It's not all bad news, Nick Carr says." Network World. Jan. 14, 2008. Vol. 25, Iss. 2. pg. 8.

CherryPal for Everyone

Actual Pictures of my CherryPal

Took my CheryPal out to a cafe!

Received my Username and Password!

Plugged in My CherryPal, and...GNOME?

CherryPal At My Front Door!!!!

Announcing Cherrypal C114 - 8GB local FLASH storage

Portable TVs To Be Left Behind in Signal Switch

Samsung Korea shows off two new green PCs

High on a Hill

Eco-friendly technology for Asia

by Hillary Chan, Malaysia

Oct 8, 2008 02:11

Union Square's Albert Wenger offers crash course on cloud computing

Stallman not the only Cloud Critic

Gartner Says Contrasting Cloud Views Creating Confusion

Cloud computing is a trap, warns GNU founder Richard Stallman

Black’s the colour to help save energy, says Andrew

Filtering Viruses Through The Cloud

09.22.08, 6:00 AM ET

To fight an epidemic of malicious code, security software vendors are heading to the data center.

http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/09/21/virus-clouds-security-tech-security-cx_ag_0922virus.html

CherryPal Delivery Update

Everything’s Gone Green

Hey-Hey-You-You-Get-on-My-Cloud

Pew Survey: 70 Percent of Internet Users Choose Webmail or Online Storage

Cloud Computing Expo - NComputing & its Disruptive $70 PC

Interview: Wikipedia's founder on Wikia Green

Related Links

New E-Newspaper Reader Echoes Look of the Paper

Related

Esquire Unveils Cover With Electronic Ink (September 8, 2008)

More on Cloud Computing for Law Firms

KM Space

Eco friendly CDs and Green printing

Cloud Computing - New Buzz Word To Describe New Trend

Google Chrome goes portable: Carry it on a USB Flash drive

Google’s Top 10 Cloud Computing List

Review: Dell Joins the Netbook Fray

Pros

Cons

Pencils, schmencils, I need a laptop - Globe and Mail

The Future of Cloud Computing; Cloud Computing Is The Future

The Rise (and Possible Fall) of Ultraportable Laptops

Ultrasmall Laptops -- Not a New Phenomenon

The Name Game

New Processors, Less Power

Success or Failure?

Shiny, Happy Browser? Google's Chrome

Google on Google Chrome - comic book

Cloud computing is here now; software as a service may be longer

Tech Ed Videocast: Computing's industrial future

Computerworld editor Rob O'Neill interviews Microsoft senior architect Miha Kralj

A New Battle Is Beginning in Branding for the Web

‘A really cheap laptop is a myth’

Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

How to get virtually UNLIMITED Online Space for Free? (preview)

Why Clouds

TreeMark™ Tree Rating - A fresh perspective to green computing

Where did the Computer Go? Computing in the Cloud.

Students in Brazil get a new Classmate

Eyes turn to dawn of 'visual computing'

The Key Advantage of Cloud Computing is Portability

No Blueprint Yet For Private Clouds

Bill Gates spills Microsoft cloud computing strategy

'One Laptop' Falls Short Of Education Goals

A holistic approach to green IT is essential

Akhter Computers Launches LoCO2 All-in-One Energy Star 4.0 PC

Cloud Computing Terminology

Who Provides What in the Cloud

School officials suggest buying more online versions of books

Storing your stuff online is not cloud computing

California Schools Reduce Carbon Footprint with NComputing

Forestle turns Google searches green

NVISION 08 - A Town Turned Green

How Cloud Computing Works