ICT Africa Summit is a NEPAD Council and NEPAD Secretariat continental Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) event, addressing a wide range of ICT issues in Africa. NEPAD Council’s 2008 NEPAD ICT Africa Summit event was organized as an integral part of NOVATECH - The ICT Africa Summit Marketplace in collaboration with Pro-Invest - www.proinvest-eu.org. Pro-Invest is a common initiative of the European Commission (EC) and Institutions from the ACP States (Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific) to stimulate Euro-African cooperation.
The ICT Africa Summit 2010 will mobilise the major practitioners involved in ICT, e-business and related sectors all over the world, due to take place on 3rd to 5th November at the Cape Town International Convention Centre in Cape Town, South Africa. Over 2 000 high level delegates and 250 exhibitors will take part in a well placed agenda which will include plenary sessions, thematic breakaway sessions and one-to-one business meetings between participants and ICT Africa Summit 2010 exhibitors.
The ICT Africa Summit will allow participants: • to stand apart from the competition thanks to a selective and qualitative approach • to meet the top decision makers and key actors in the targeted sector • to anticipate demand in rapidly changing markets • to identify business and co-operation opportunities • to benefit from a preferred access to financial and development institutions and from contacts with high-ranking representatives and intermediary organisations • To benefit from the one-to-one meetings and exhibitions between and for participants. There will be representation from the public sector, the media, non-governmental organisations and private companies from various lines of business in the ICT sector. The ICT Africa Summit 2010 is a must attend event for key players in the ICT Industry including: • Private and public companies active in the ICT sector • Academics and researchers in the ICT sector • Information processing centres, software applications developer • Telecommunications companies, broadcasters and e-service companies. • Professional intermediary organisations • Investment promotion agencies • Chambers of Commerce and Industry • Cooperation agencies • Policy decision-makers • Regional and international financial institutions.
STRONG POTENTIAL IN AN EVER CHANGING WORLD The ICT sector of the African region has experienced major changes throughout the last decade. The ongoing fast development is to a large extent due to a general political determination to reduce the digital divide and effectively fight against under-development and poverty. It is fuelled bydrastic changes in the sector such as end of monopolies and privatisation of the main public operators, investment boom in mobile networks, introduction of new private operators and the emergence of new technologies particularly well suited for the African environment. These positive factors certainly give the ICT sector a strategic role as a catalyst for development in Africa.
Hosted by the Government of South Africa through the Department of Communications and the eSkills Institute, e-Skills Summit South Africa 2010 will take place in Cape Town, 26 - 28 July 2010.
The e-Skills Summit South Africa provides a platform to engage government, business and civil society to: - Raise awareness of current practices and development of e-Skills in South Africa - Identify gaps in the institutional and programmatic structure concerning e-Skills development in South Africa and provide a means for all stakeholders across Africa to benefit from this process - Develop a Platform for an initial Plan of Action for e-Skills enhancement in South Africa
eSkills Summit South Africa 2010 Focus & Stakeholders The e-Skills Summit 2010 will act as a focal point to establish and deliver contributions providing South Africa with the necessary skills to become a leading member of the Information Society and to contribute to meeting the aims of the South African Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF), the Millennium Development Goals and the World Summit on the Information Society Plan of Action.
The e-Skills Summit will combine Visionary and Strategic Plenary Presentations focused on South African Policy for Skills Development and Sharing International Best Practices, Thematic Workshops, and High Level Networking Opportunities.
e-Skills Summit 2010 Key Stakeholders at a National, Regional and International level include: Government Organisations involved in eSkills Development; e-Skills Policy Makers; Corporations committed to e-Skills Development; Higher Education Institutions, Open & Distance Learning Institutions, Technical and Traditional Educational Providers; Researchers, Civil Society and NGOs focused on leveraging and evaluating eSkills.
Programme The eSkills Summit will be formally opened by Hon. Gen (Ret) Siphiwe Nyanda, Minister of Communications, South Africa. The eSkills Summit consists of a one day Research Colloquium on Monday 26 July, followed by a two day eSkills Summit on Tuesday 27 July and Wednesday 28 July.
The Research Colloquium will consist of Keynote Speakers, presentations of research papers and interactive workshops. Authors who submitted papers for review will receive feedback on 12 April.
The eSkills Summit Programme will focus around three key pillars identified as a priority for the e-Skills Institute: - Definition of e-Skills: Conceptual Clarifications - e-Skills Development Research & Evaluation - South African MTSF Implementation for e-Skills Development
The Programme will feature a mix of international and national panellists representing Government, Education, Business and Civil Society who will debate different views on these three main themes and share national and international best practice. These will be complimented by moderated working groups, who will help draft the initial e-Skills National Plan of Action.
Plenary Speakers Plenary Speakers confirmed to date include: - Hon. Gen (Ret) Siphiwe Nyanda, Minister of Communications - Mamodupi Mohlala, Director-General, Department of Communications - Luci Abrahams, Director, LINK Centre, Wits - David Barnard, CEO, SANGONET - Jennie Glennie, Board of Governors, Commonwealth of Learning - Deon van der Merwe, Acting Executive Director ICT, UNISA - Joe Mjwara, Group Executive Strategic Relations, Business Connexion - Prof. Maredi Mphahlele, Chair, eSkills Working Group - Jenny van Niekerk, CEO, ICDL South Africa - Raul Zambrano, Chief ICT Advisor, UNDP
Timeline to Summit - Phased selection process for nominated Summit Delegates and Plenary Panellists begins 10 May - First Early Draft eSkills Action Plan circulated to subset of nominated Summit Delegates by 07 June - Submission of contributions, comments and additions by subset of Summit Delegates by 18 June - Draft eSkills Action Plan incorporating contributions received circulated to Summit Delegates by 12 July
HP was not Palm's only suitor when the Prē and Pixi punter offered itself for sale — Apple, Google, and RIM were also seeking the hand of the smartphone maker, presumably attracted by its webOS dowry and its patent portfolio. Nokia wasn't.
This tidbit comes from the Business Insider, citing "a source familiar with the negotiations" whose revelations parallel the information released by Palm in a May SEC filing detailing its availability.
In that filing, Palm revealed that it was "in contact with a total of 16 companies including HP" about either a full-scale acquisition or the purchase of all or part of Palm's intellectual property.
In the filing, only HP's name is used. The other four companies who engaged in substantive discussions are referred to as as
Company A, Company B, and so on:
The two companies in addition to HP that presented acquisition proposals are referred to as Company A and Company B. A fourth company, referred to as Company C, had initially been in discussions with Palm regarding an intellectual property transaction and later made a proposal to acquire Palm.
A fifth company, referred to as Company D, contacted Palm on March 18 to discuss an intellectual property transaction but did not make a proposal to acquire Palm. Company D did not enter into a nondisclosure agreement and did not review non-public information about Palm. Discussions with Company D continued intermittently until April 15.
Business Insider identifies Company A as Apple; Company B, Lenovo (no mention was made of a boogie-woogie bugle boy); Company C, RIM; and Company D, Google. Nokia did not join the party — a decision BI characterizes as "bizarre".
Company A — Apple, if BI is correct — was primarily interested in Palm's IP, but BI's source claims that had their bid been successful, Cupertino "seemed committed" to continuing to fund Palm's operations, "perhaps" to be able to compete for keyboard-loving RIM customers.
Company A(pple) made an initial offer of $600m "with the value being increased by the amount of Palm’s cash but reduced by the amount of debt and certain other liabilities." However, Palm decided that "the Company A proposal would result in minimal or zero value to Palm's common stockholders" due to their having received an offer from HP for $4.75 per share. After being told of that decision, "Company A did not subsequently revise its proposal."
Company B — Lenovo — wanted a stock-for-stock transaction, but Palm's SEC filing noted that such a deal "would take at least several months longer to close than is customary would involve unacceptable risks."
Company C — RIM — first proposed acquiring Palm in a cash deal of $6 to $7 per share, significantly above HP's $4.75. HP then upped its bid to $5 per share — and shortly thereafter RIM dropped its bid to $5.50 per share.
Then RIM stumbled by delivering to Palm a "markup" to its proposal:
This markup raised several concerns, including (i) closing conditions that could have put the transaction at greater than customary risk based on events that could occur between signing and closing, (ii) revised governance provisions that would have eliminated the separate vote of the holders of Palm common stock not affiliated with Elevation [Partners LLC, a major
Palm stockholder], and (iii) a termination fee of $60 million payable under certain circumstances, including if the merger agreement were terminated in response to a superior proposal.
The next day, Palm told HP that to stay in running it needed to "improve its offer significantly and immediately." Later that same day, HP boosted its bid to $5.70 per share. When informed of HP's bid, "Company C reaffirmed its previous bid and declined to revise its positions," but offered $800m for a nonexclusive license to webOS and the acquisition of "certain patents".
Palm turned them down, and a few days later they and HP announced their $1.2bn deal. As BI's source put it, RIM "had to work incredibly hard to blow it." But they succeeded.
Now Palm is in HP's stable — and although it's widely assumed that the deal was made for webOS, it remains unclear as to where that operating system will be used: smartphones, tablets, settop boxes, IP TVs, printers, all of the above, whatever.
For example, when the Palm deal was completed early this month, Todd Bradley, HP's executive vice president of the Personal Systems Group, said: "This allows us the opportunity to fully engage in growing our smartphone family offering and the footprint of webOS." And, indeed, Palm is still designing phones.
Then there are the murmurings that HP has "delayed" its long-rumored Android-based tablet, and that a webOS-based tablet is being given priority, for releasse perhaps as soon as October.
From where we sit, Palm selected the most suitable swain. HP has pockets deep enough to build webOS a happy home — multiple homes in multiple devices, in fact.
Palm's other suitors, to be sure, also had the wherewithal to have and to hold Palm in sickness and in health — but we fear their intentions may not have been so honorable.
According to several reports and a screenshot from Droid Forums, the original Droid has been listed as an end-of-life device by Verizon.
If these reports are true, this means manufacture and sale of the Droid will cease and support will slowly come to a halt.
We can’t say we’re completely shocked; the Droid X, Droid Incredible, and the rumored Droid 2 are joining the increasingly crowded ranks of the Android “superphones,” which also include the EVO, Galaxy S and a few other top-selling devices. Still, the Droid, which launched October 17, 2009, has been a top seller for Motorola and Verizon; if these reports are true, we’ll be sad to see it go.
Along with the Droid, Verizon is also listing a slew of other “EOL,” or end-of-life devices, which have “limited or no remaining shipments from the vendor. The Motorola Devour, Nokia’s Twist, the BlackBerry Tour 9630 and four phones from Samsung (Knack, Smooth, Intensity and Saga) will all be phased out.
The Droid 2 is rumored to be rolling out next month; this device is a faithful recreation of the current Droid handset with a few hardware/software updates retains most of the original Droid’s stylings, including its physical keyboard. Like the EVO and the new Droid X, the Droid 2 will allow for Wi-Fi tethering. It will also feature a 750MHz OMAP processor and an updated version of Motoblur, Motorola’s push-based social networking software.
Intel has hired former Palm and Apple VP Mike Bell to help the chip company rapidly accelerate its presence in the crowded smartphone market.
So, if you were expecting Intel VP Dadi Perlmutter to stand up and say: "I coulda had class...I coulda been a smartphone contender" - well, just forget about it.
Bell, who now has Moore's Law and Intel's considerable war chest on his side, will undoubtedly do his utmost to help put X86 architecture back on the ARM-dominated handset map.
Indeed, an Intel spokesperson told TG Daily that the talented Bell brings a "wealth of experience" to the Santa Clara-based company.
"We are thrilled that he has joined Intel [and] look forward to working closely with Mike in his new role here," said the spokesperson.
"Mike is heading up a team with the charter to build breakthrough smartphone reference designs with the explicit intent of accelerating Intel architecture into the market."
According to the spokesperson, Bell is a "seasoned technology veteran” who led the team responsible for designing the Palm Pre and Pixi.
Prior to his time at Palm, Mike was a VP at Apple where he worked from 1991 to 2007 and made significant contributions to the iMac, Apple TV and iPhone programs.
Yes, successfully challenging Apple, ARM and Android may take some time, but Intel has never been one to back away from a challenge.
Server maker Hewlett-Packard and commercial Linux juggernaut Red Hat have teamed up to help shops using Oracle's Sparc/Solaris platforms make the jump to Linux-based x64 iron.
While the two companies did not say so, the migrations services being offered today through HP Services are no doubt a reaction to Oracle's spiking of HP's Solaris OEM agreement last month. Under that agreement, HP was able to bundle Solaris on its ProLiant rack and blade servers and sell Solaris support contracts, much as it does for Microsoft's Windows, Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and Red Hat's Enterprise Linux.
Oracle never said why it killed HP's OEM contract - as far as El Reg can ascertain, Dell and IBM still have viable OEM contracts for Solaris, as does Fujitsu.
The Sparc/Solaris migration services that the two companies have cooked up are being offered through HP's Migration Center, a consulting practice that is part of its Technology Services division within the Services Group that has migration practices to help customers on IBM Power AIX, AS/400 and Power-i, and mainframe servers as well as its own DEC Alpha and PA-RISC customers move to HP ProLiant (x64) or Integrity (Itanium) iron.
The basic rhythm of migration is to bring in HP to do an assessment of what you have and where you might go, then come up with a migration plan, execute it, and then provide ongoing support for the new hardware and software platform. Pricing is as vague as the scope of work, and as with most services companies, prices are rarely discussed.
The same holds true for the two new services being announced today by HP and Red Hat through the HP Migration Center. The HP-Red Hat Migration and Planning Service specifically moves Sparc/Solaris shops to ProLiant servers using Red Hat's Enterprise Linux operating system and Enterprise Virtualization hypervisor, which is based on the open source KVM hypervisor controlled by Red Hat.
The HP-Red Hat Virtualization Planning Service, the second new offering announced today, is about tuning the performance of virtualized KVM infrastructure and locking down its security; it does not seem to be limited to Sparc/Solaris customers, but is rather a more generic service aimed at those who want to use the Red Hat stack to build a public or private cloud.
These two services are being rolled out in the United States today, and the plan is to have them rolled out globally by the end of 2011.
A well established client of ours is looking for the expertise of a Business Analyst. We are looking for your 4 to 6 years solid analysis experience. You will mainly be responsible for facilitating the study of problems and needs of the business to determine how the business system and information technology can best solve the problems and accomplish improvements for the business. Apply today or miss out on this wonderful opportunity!!
Key responsibilities will be:
Determine, analyze and interpret user requirements. Compile business cases. Compile user requirement specifications. Provide system demo services. Compile system mapping guides. Conduct workshops. Compile business requirement specifications. Provide development and testing support and client feedback. System configuration.
Salary: R400K - R500K CTC P/A
Qualification Required: Relevant IT Degree/ Diploma
Please quote this reference number with all your correspondence & e-mails: CCLAS 45599
Our client, a leader in the retail industry, is seeking the services of a junior to intermediate C# Developer with 1 to 2 years development experience. We are looking for your experience or knowledge in both C# and SQL. Application development experience and some experience in web development will be an advantage. You will be responsible for developing cutting-edge custom solutions for clients using both SQL and C# technologies. Show your true colours and apply for this position today!
Salary: R 120 000 to R 180 000 CTC P/A
Qualification Required: IT Realted degree or diploma
Please quote this reference number with all your correspondence & e-mails: CCLAS 45418
A very driven client of mine is eagerly recruiting for a C# developer.My client is operating in the newest technologies and industry. Therefore they need a developer who can think out of the box and develop mind blowing solutions for their clients.
Experience needed: Desktop applications development. Browser development. Rapid application development. Mobile development would be a huge advantage. I need individuals with 2 to 3 years experience in the following technologies: Winforms. SQL. XPath. XML. Windows Mobile. Linux.
Keywords: C# Jobs, Job
Salary: R200K to R300K CTC P/A
Qualification Required: Relevant IT degree/diploma or certification
Please quote this reference number with all your correspondence & e-mails: CCLAS 45673
Location: Woodmead, ZA - Junior .Net Developer-00098575
Job Description
Service Delivery professionals are responsible for providing service delivery across the breadth of offerings such as accounting, information technology, application development and maintenance, helpdesk services, procurement, learning and training, and human resources. The work that is performed by our delivery professionals may serve one or more clients concurrently and they may be located directly at a client site or within our global delivery network.
Overall Purpose of the Job:
Develop application and database components for the Avenew solution according to specifications.
Qualifications
Education, Qualifications, Experience Necessary:
Appropriate and recognised formal IT training/experience
Minimum 1 year relevant experience
Previous experience in structured program design and coding, systems analysis and design, data analysis and basic data communications is advantageous
Knowledge and Skills:
Minimum of 1 years experience in application development Experience with:
Team Foundation Server (e.g. to manage environments and deployment)
The following would be advantageous:
Microsoft Certifications such as MCSE
3 year degree in Computer Science/Information Systems
Methodical and logical approach to solve technical issues that can arise in a production environment
Professional Skill Requirements:
Proven ability to work independently and as a team member Ability to be flexible and work analytically in a problem-solving environment Excellent communication (written and oral) and interpersonal skills Strong supervisory, coaching and project management skills Must display professionalism and confidence Excellent customer service skills Proven global expertise and perspective; executive level presence and influence Strong organizational, multi-tasking, and time-management skills Excellent negotiation, influence, mediation and conflict management skills Excellent business acumen and industry acumen
Our client, a leader in the financial services industry is seeking the services of a SQL Database Administrator with 1 year Crystal reports development experience.We are looking for your 3 -4 years or more SQL DBA, SQL Scripting and Crystal Reports Development experience.You will be responsible for usual DBA functions, report writing, SQL Queries and SQL Programming. Like you, life is a charm. Being part of this team is what you were born to do!!
Personal attributes.Self motivated, self driven. Strong problem solving capabilities. Self confidence. Goal driven. Position Based in Randburg. 1 year or more experience. CRYSTAL REPORTS EXPERIENCE IS A MUST! SQL Scripting. Queries. SQL Dev. SQL reports. Team Leading.
Salary: R 300 000 to R 420 000 CTC P/A
Qualification Required: IT Related tertiary degree or diploma
Please quote this reference number with all your correspondence & e-mails: CCLAS 45060
Proving once again that in this world it's more important what you look like than what you do, the Xbox 360 has cruised to the title of best-selling console in June on the back of a sexy physical redesign. The latest numbers from NPD show that Microsoft shifted 451,700 units in the US, which ousts the Wii's tally of 422,500 and comfortably dwarfs the PS3's 304,800. Still, if Sony wants any consolation it need only look back to the results of its own console Slimmification last year -- US sales were said to have tripled in the immediate aftermath of the new SKU's release. So Microsoft might have a little bit of catching up to do yet, and let's not forget that the king of all hardware sales remains the DS, which somehow managed to sell more than half a million devices in June, in spite of the whole world and its dog already owning one.
While many are citing the lack of quality upcoming Xbox 360 titles (there’s practically nothing barring Gears 3 and Halo Reach that is exclusive only to Microsoft’s console) and Microsost’s E3 presser, which chose to focus on casual games and the Kinect at the cost of showing off hardcore games, as the end of the road for the system, legendary designer Peter Molyneux, known best for his Fable series, believes that the Xbox 360’s best is yet to come.
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Molyneux chatted about the core 360 hardware and architecture, and how his team was coming up with more and more ingenious ways to harness the power under the Xbox 360’s hood.
When asked whether familiarity with the architecture had made production more efficient, Molyneux said: “You’d think that would be true, but the problem is that with great knowledge comes great opportunity – and there’s your problem.
“If you know the GPU so intimately well, you’re not going to say: ‘Oh, that’s not any problem any more.’ You’re going to push it harder, and that’s what we do.”
When asked whether familiarity with the architecture had made production more efficient, Molyneux said: “You’d think that would be true, but the problem is that with great knowledge comes great opportunity – and there’s your problem.
“If you know the GPU so intimately well, you’re not going to say: ‘Oh, that’s not any problem any more.’ You’re going to push it harder, and that’s what we do.”
When asked whether familiarity with the architecture had made production more efficient, Molyneux said: “You’d think that would be true, but the problem is that with great knowledge comes great opportunity – and there’s your problem.
“If you know the GPU so intimately well, you’re not going to say: ‘Oh, that’s not any problem any more.’ You’re going to push it harder, and that’s what we do.”
“There’s always this curious thing that happens with consoles – you tend to find that the most spectacular looking games and tech comes after the end of the generation,” he added. “We’re still yet to discover where the 360 can go in graphical resolution. We’re still inventing stuff.”
Molyneux commented on how Lionhead Studios was still trying to test just how far the 360’s graphical fidelity could go.
Molyneux heads Lionhead Studios, which will be releasing Fable III, the third instalment in the acclaimed RPG series, later this year on the Xbox 360 and the PC.
While I agree with some of the other reviewers that this book can be ‘long winded’ at times, it is still a book with a lot of rich information on SOA technology. It is not a book about how to perform SOA implementation, but contains abstract problems and how SOA solves those problems. Thomas Erl is one of a few technical authors I’ve found to have a gift of communicating well on paper, and this book’s content moves along in a graceful manner. If you are looking for a very technical implementation book on SOA then this is not the right book (though I’d look at some of the author’s more recent releases for that). This is not a book to be read quickly, as the author presents the information in a ‘beefy’ style with a lot of information, some perhaps redundant, but I believe is there to drive home his message. As a software engineer for nearly 30 years, I’ve read nearly 100 technical books, but I must say that this one (my first one of Thomas Erl’s Series) stands out as one of the best. SOA is a very complicated topic, and there is not a short-cut to fully digesting it. I would highly recommend this book to be part of your SOA reference library.
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA): Concepts, Technology, and Design Overview This is a comprehensive tutorial that teaches fundamental and advanced SOA design principles, supplemented with detailed case studies and technologies used to implement SOAs in the real world. ***We’ll have cover endorsements from Tom Glover, who leads IBM’s Web Services Standards initiatives; Dave Keogh, Program Manager for Visual Studio Enterprise Tools at Microsoft, and Sameer Tyagi, Senior Staff Engineer, Sun Microsystems. All major software manufacturers and vendors are promoting support for SOA. As a result, every major development platform now officially supports the creation of service-oriented solutions. Parts I, II, and III cover basic and advanced SOA concepts and theory that prepare you for Parts IV and V, which provide a series of step-by-step “how to” instructions for building an SOA. Part V further contains coverage of WS-* technologies and SOA platform support provided by J2EE and .NET.
Colleen Frye from SearchSOA hit upon a theme that goes right to the heart of many
SOA projects: application modernization. Legacy applications -- defined as any system more than five years old and usually mainframes -- still power up to 80 percent of the world's applications and data.
Frye cites a recent Forrester study, sponsored by HP, that finds "organizations are dealing with a lot of applications that weren't designed for the Internet, mobile platforms and service orientation." Of the organizations surveyed, 10% have more than 2,000 applications, and 65% have 51 to 1,000 applications. The study also found that In the past three years, 56% have migrated from legacy platforms, while 46% have modernized in place.
Forrester also shares best practices it found for getting a modernization initiative rolling: "bring all parties to the table to reach an agreement (32%), increase funding/staffing levels (25%) and make a proper business case (22%)."
In a related article, Colleen also addressed the question of SOA's role in application modernization. "Organizations embarking on this route must distinguish between service orientation and service-oriented architecture, determine if legacy code is well written enough to benefit from modernization, and have a plan," she explains.
Phil Murphy, principal analyst at Forrester Research made the following case for SOA as an application modernization methodology:
"SOA is not the be-all, end-all to modernization or integration/interoperability challenges. We've got a bad habit in this industry of saying, This the answer; what's the question? Certainly SOA suffered that fate, as does every new thing we introduce. It's a tool in an arsenal; we forget they're just tools. They're good in the hands of good process and design, but they can make a mess just as easily as a masterpiece."
The timing for service-orienting mainframe systems couldn't be better. Dancing Dinosaur relays IDC's prediction that mainframe and Unix systems sales will pick up steam later this year "as the technology refresh extends from volume to value-oriented systems, which IDC characterizes as having longer planning horizons... It's also important to note that we are in the middle of one of the sharpest periods of market inflection in a decade, and we expect significant shifts in technology usage and market shares to occur as the recovery continues."
The Facebook website and its highly innovative use of open APIs is proving very influential in Web application design. Recently, Facebook replaced its Facebook Connection API with a new interface that will allow any page on the Internet to be managed like a Facebook fan page. This change promises to make it easier to collect and manage data in the Facebook social graph for more applications. The social graph is a relatively new kind of database that drives social networks. It consists of piles of ephemeral data which, in and of themselves, are relatively meaningless. Facebook and its partners can programmatically tap into this database to create myriad site capabilities – to, in effect, program the Web.
The Upgrades The main Facebook API upgrades announced earlier this year by CTO Brett Taylor include social plugins, the Open Graph Protocol, and the Graph API. These changes promise to further consolidate Facebook's lock on the largest social graph in operation. Taylor noted that "the Web is moving to a model based on the connections between people and all of the things they care about." The improvements promise to help the process of growing the underlying graph of connections in a way that is both interoperable and easy to use.
Social plugins allow website developers to add Facebook widgets using a single line of code. The first five social plugins include a like button, activity stream, recommendations, Facebook login, and a social bar. These promise to simplify the incorporation of Facebook features to a website. For example, the movie database site IMDb.com uses the like button plugin to share movie ratings among friends. Full details on the different Facebook social plugins are available.
The Open Graph Protocol allows content to be linked across users, different parts of their profiles, and their activity streams. It is implemented by adding a special page header and a social plugin. This feature could make it easy for consumers to add a movie, book, or baseball team to their list of favorites on Facebook. The publisher can use this infrastructure to push out updates, such as the latest scores.
The Graph API is the final piece of the overhaul. It is a redesign of the core Facebook API, which allows any object to be addressed via a URL. For example, the process of referring to an individual graph shrinks from several lines of codes to: https://graph.facebook.com/btaylor. This makes it possible to search over objects and personalized stream updates for a user. http://bit.ly/c4kVVb
Aquasar, a new water-cooled IBM supercomputer, has just been fired up at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.
It’s a 6-Tflop system that uses 33 two-way blades with Cell processors and an additional nine blades with dual Nehalem processors, all contained in three of their BladeCenter H Chassis. Two of the three chassis are water-cooled, covering 22 of the Cell boards and six of the Nehalem-based blades. What’s kind of cool (so to speak) is that they are using the waste heat to feed an estimated 9 kW of thermal power into the building’s heating system. This is pretty innovative stuff.
They’re using chip-attached water blocks and circulating ‘hot’ water through the system – hot being defined as 60 degrees Celsius (140°F) input and 65°C (149°F) output temperatures. We’re assuming that the liquid isn’t coming from a chiller (or it’s coming from a really crappy one), so the output line is going through a heat exchanger and giving up its warm payload to the liquid that circulates through the rooms to keep the chill off.
Engineering types have been asked in the past why heat is wasted from the data center by not being reused, and the answer is that the output temperature of the air (in traditionally cooled data centers) is too low and can’t easily be concentrated enough to provide a payoff. With an output temperature of 65°C/150°F from liquid cooling, it’s a different game – that’s definitely hot enough to do something with, one would think.
And Switzerland is a place that could use some heat!
Did you know that since the inception of the great and glorious PC industry the world leader in shipments has always been an American company? The biggest threat to this hometown hegemony right now looks to be coming from Taiwan, as Gartner's latest figures show significant growth from both Acer and ASUS, with the latter improving its global shipments by a stonking 78.5% between this time last year and now. Acer's ascent was a more modest 31.6%, though the whole PC market has taken a big uptick from 2009 with a 20.7% average growth in shipments. That's meant that even though HP and Dell have registered double-digit growth, both lost market share over that time. Toshiba has similarly had a strong showing, but ASUS' exponential growth has relegated the Japanese company to sixth in the world. That Toshibasus merger isn't looking like such a bad idea now, is it Toshiba?
Last month I had a chance to meet up with Alienware at E3 2010 regarding the second revision of the company’s portable 11-inch gaming rig, the M11x. While it might be a bit small for some, it manages to outperform many larger laptops despite starting well below the $1000 price point. Although the model that Dell originally launched at CES 2010 only featured a dual core processor, last month’s refresh brings configuration options for Intel’s Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs. This laptop is really shaping up to be one of Dell’s best offerings, one that’s great for both students and gamers.
While the M11x originally sported a glossy coat, Alienware replaced it with a soft black matte finish in the new refresh. While the company didn’t comment on the reason for the change, I’m sure they received plenty of negative feedback from gamers. Aside from that change, the rest of it is quite familiar. After spending just a few minutes handling the new model, one thing stands out the most: the M11x is built like a tank. It is still one of the most solid laptop’s I’ve come across. It might be due to a smaller chassis that leaves little room for flex, but it doesn’t matter. It’s rugged enough to last through at least a few years of abuse. And that’s a good thing since the 11-inch size targets users that intend to keep the laptop with them at all times.
After switching over to the Intel Core i7 and i5 processors, Alienware was forced to remove one port due to space constraints: VGA. Fortunately, that’s a change for the best since most new displays use HDMI and DisplayPort, which are already featured on the M11x. For those that need to deal with older displays, DisplayPort-to-VGA adapters are available. Other components such as Firewire, the 3-in-1 card reader, Ethernet, and three USB ports remain unchanged. And for those that didn’t know, the M11x completely did away with the Optical CD/DVD drive. As most gaming publishers are offering digital downloads of games, physical media is simply unnecessary. Dell even offers an option during checkout to pre-install Steam. Aside from watching DVD movies, I simply can’t remember the last time I used a CD to install a program aside from Windows 7 installation disc.
While the dual core model was well-recognized for an impressive battery life, which was unheard of in the gaming laptop industry, the new quad core models suffer a minor dip. The performance improvements the Core i7 and i5 models bring are truly impressive, but they simply consume more power than the older dual core consumer ultra-low voltage processor. The new Nvidia Optimus technology even automatically switches back and forth between the faster 1GB GForce GT 355M discrete graphics card and the slower Intel GMA 4500MHD, but even that isn’t enough. While the internal 8-cell Lithium-Ion battery offered over six hours of battery life on the dual core model, the new model gets just five hours. Regardless, it still runs for longer than competing machines. As with just about any Alienware machine, a built-in application lets customers tweak LED lighting settings for the logo, ventilation, and keyboard. Customers can even unscrew the entire bottom plate to manually upgrade or replace the battery, hard drive, or RAM.
Looking at Dell’s current lineup, the Alienware M11x sits in a unique spot. It’s almost small enough for classification as a netbook, but it offers comparable performance to 15-inch laptops. That makes it a great option for both college students and gamers. The laptop offers enough battery life when running on the integrated Intel GMA to last through an entire day’s worth of classes. It makes for a great note taking laptop, especially with a back-lit keyboard. It’s also rugged enough to carry around without falling apart easily. And for gamers, it’s probably the only lightweight solution available. Sure, it doesn’t compare to the performance of the M15x or M17x, but those are power hungry and heavy devices. The M11x manages to squeeze out nearly two hours of battery life for graphics intensive games such as Mass Effect 2 or Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 2 while maintaining great frame rates and decent rendering levels.
Since Dell discontinued the Studio XPS 13, the Alienware M11x is suddenly a great option. As my XPS M1530 is starting to get old, it’s something that I’m considering myself. I’ll probably be using an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse when at home, but it still gets the job done just about everywhere else. We at Skatter Tech will be getting our hands on one of these units from Dell very soon, so stay tuned for a full in-depth review.
The world's personal computer makers experienced recession busting growth during Q2, with shipments up 20.7 per cent on the same period in 2009.
So said market watcher Gartner this week when it revealed that computer shipments were up 16 per cent in the US and 21 per cent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Worldwide, some 82.9m PCs shipped in the quarter.
All the major brands did well, but Asian companies experienced unit shipment growth that far outstripped their Western rivals.
HP retained the leading seller slot but, like Dell, saw shipments grow by less than the industry as a whole - 12.3 per cent and 19 per cent, respectively.
Contrast that with the Asians: Acer, Lenovo, Asus and Toshiba, all of whom say shipments rise ahead of the industry: 31.6, 47.2, 78.5 and 27.5 per cent, respectively.
Acer pushed Dell out of the world number two slot, and all four Asian vendors increased their market share. HP and Dell saw their shares dip, but only by a percentage point or so.
Asus' growth allowed it to step past Toshiba into the world vendor chart's fourth slot.
Apple, incidentally, didn't make the top six globally or in EMEA, but it did make fourth place in the US with 9.8 per cent market share, up from 9.1 per cent in the year-ago quarter. Fifth-placed Toshiba increased it share too, but HP, Dell and Acer - in postions one, two and three - all saw their US market share decline despite rising shipments.
Acer's shipments actually fell here, by a tenth of a percentage point - let's be generous and call shipments unchanged year on year.
Not so in EMEA, though, where Acer's shipments leapt 37.1 per cent, pushing it past HP into the top vendor slot. All the major vendors experienced improved shipment volumes here, though HP and Dell lost market share while Asus and Toshiba, like Acer, gained it. Here too, Asus pushed past Toshiba, on the back of a 96.5 per cent increase in shipments.
