Air-cover: Innovation's secret ingredient

Bill Fischer has written about how innovation can flourish in organizations (see his latest book The Idea Hunter (co-authored with Andy Boynton),Jossey-Bass, 2011). You need a great team that can work freely. That is a necessity. But, what he finds as more important is to protect this team from the day to day problems and the usual business related stress and strains. Someone with enough authority, within the organization, can do this. Such a person would need to be visionary enough to understand what's needed, what's possible, etc. and have faith in the team. Usually, such person will be a hard nosed businessman, but needs to have this head in the cloud kind of imaginative bent of the mind too. Mr. Fischer provides many examples of this collaboration over time. Steve Jobs succeeded, repeatedly, in nurturing such innovation. May be, this is a necessary combination to get innovative products/ services generated in an organization!


Air-cover: Innovation's secret ingredient - Forbes:

Observations about Academia

I met a principal of an engineering college in Hyderabad. We got to talking. The topic turned to evaluation of faculty members. I have several posts on how, in the present way of administering things, you cannot reward good performance of teachers. Having worked in industry for a long time, rewarding performance is something routine and one of the best tool to encourage someone to give his/her best. I discovered that is not possible here, how do you provide positive reinforcement  to some one doing well!


Having listened through a lot of presentations, I was a little surprised how performance issues are never discussed in such gatherings. Performance issues, particularly, teaching performance need to be evaluated and really good teachers need to be encouraged. Looks like this issues is an aversion universally. I have been following up on "lecture capture" for sometime now. One of the biggest barrier seems to be the aversion of teachers to appear in such lecture capture sessions.The resistance coming from the fact that the video may be used for evaluation. Student evaluation, often is not usable. Then what do you use for evaluation. Research performance and other aspects may not tell you anything about the teaching capabilities.


There is another side to teaching capabilities, comments on that later.

Another Seminar and Some Observations About Academia

I was at a place named Sirhind in Punjab on 16 th. and 17th Dec. There was a seminar about the role of regulatory bodies in higher education. That is a significant issue. I presented a paper on " Technological Changes Impacting Teaching-learning processes". This talked about some significant changes happening in technology related to education. To me, the most significant thing is the changes now possible with text books.


From the time text books were created as printed material, since the time of Gutenberg, text books have been quite static.By the time it is published and start to get used in classrooms, the material is already behind times. One of the criticisms about text books have been that text books are out of date compared to what is happening in industry. Even when newer editions come out, they take 2/3 years and thus never in sync. If you create a ebook now, it is possible to be absolutely current. Even if the text book were to be updated, it can be done very frequently and distributed easily.


Text books can be customized for a course being run on different colleges, different course and for different instructors. A student can add material to it and customize it further. It can be updated as he learns, researches the material, the book can be a living document. For professional courses this can keep being updated through the students' working life too!


Would it not be nice if the book could keep updating itself!


Comments on Academia remains reserved for the next post, hopefully in a couple of days!

China Advancing on Their Navigation Setup

The eighth of the 35 constellation Beidou system went up on the 27 of July. This is a sure sign of China's determination of creating a navigation set up all of their own. This will take a complete break from the familiar GPS system. The system should be complete and star its international operation by 2020, as claimed by the Xinhua.
China launches navigation satellite: Xinhua

OMAP4470 Will Power Smarter Smartphones

Users keep demanding more and more power on their smartphones. They would expect ever smarter apps to run on these devices. The processors have started to become multicore in the process. Over the years the user interface experience has become an important feature required in smartphones. That has driven graphics capability into the processor core.With the blowing up of video demand, it is increasingly necessary to have these combine CPU+GPU  processors handle video. Video at HD and 3D variants are also increasingly being demanded. manufacturers are trying to meet these demands with processors with multiple cores, integrated graphics processing and capability to handle HD video, etc. Here is an example that was announced back in jun and are due into market by early 2012, sampling should start during second half of this year. Here's the press release announcing the processor.
OMAP4470 app processor packs processing power, graphics and display functions

Reinventing the book

This too is for academics, general readers too. Books, as we know them, is changing completely! Possibilities are immense. This article looks at some of them as is happening and as is evident from the BookExpo end May!
For one thing, the possibilities of combining multi-media has not really been applied completely. I feel very excited in thinking about just how it can be used for making the learning of concepts so easy. Education is, after all, about getting these concepts! Rest of your life, one applies them and possibly makes this place a little more livable! As people get more used to reading from screens, the book is bound to shift to the screen. There are no two ways about it. I would think, that would happen by the time the young generation, early and late twenties, take over. These people are so used to reading screens that reading learning material from screens would be very natural for them. What form the content will take is anybody's guess. This article discusses a few, things that are visible already. Time to think how best to use the new technologies and how to use them for learning!


Reinventing the book, one uncertain step at a time

Take engineering education in context - 2011-04-21 10:00:00 | EDN

This piece is for everyone involved in engineering practice. The article I have cited below brings out a major issue in how engineering is taught everywhere. Dr. Kevin C Craig mainly criticizes how in the engineering curriculum we teach skills in isolation and very little attention is paid to "playing the game". By playing the game he compares it with training of a baseball player where a rookie learns all the skills as well as how to use them together to play. In case of an engineer it will be actually engineering things while using all the skills he learns in isolation, without a good feel of how they are to be used together. How to use the skills learnt individually and in combination is vital to creating good engineers.


In our context, the situation is even more pathetic. The so-called engineers we churn out every year are woefully short on those individual skills. Capability to use them together is something they are not very capable of . We, the trainers are to blame for that I would think.

Take engineering education in context - 2011-04-21 10:00:00 | EDN

What is the Potential Impact of Tablet Computers on Education

While this article talks about how education might be affected, it is interesting to look at the question in general. 7 inch handheld tablets, or similar form factor e-Readers seem to have the potential in education similar to what the slated brought in a while back! HP calls their tablets "slates" possibly to raise that image in the minds of buyers. To my mind an eReader and a tablet as a ereader may considered similar, but what tablets can offer is animated illustrations inn color and other multimedia add-ons. It is this ability to create animated illustrations, inherent interactivity (far more than page turning) that gives tablets an edge in education. I am sure they will get their rigyhtful place eventually.


What is the Potential Impact of Tablet Computers on Education Systems in Africa?

The college essay - ASPIRE™

This is for my dear students who just went out into this wide open world, even for some of you coming into the fourth year. Either way this is for students who want to pursue their studies in US/UK and such countries. One of the major requirements for all applications to the admission committees of the universities. This is an excellent article on why such an essay( also known as SOP or statement of purpose) is required and how to go about writing an effective one.

The college essay - ASPIRE™ - People Power Limited, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Intel Announced Oak Trail But Will It Lead To El Dorado!

The El Dorado of the mobile phone and tablets that is! Intel missed the boat in this marketplace. The mobile space seems to be growing all the time. The smartphone and the tablets are growing the way no other device has grown before. Everything seems to be going to the various variants of the ARM architecture.This Oak Trail announcement, about a month or so back, announced this family of devices. However the boat may be too far gone.

Intel Officially Announces Oak Trail Computer Processors

Samsung 2GHz dual-core smartphone processor

2 core processors for the mobile space are breaking out all over. What that means is smart phones are going to get smarter and, more interestingly, closer to a PC. While smart phone are more of a phone with lots of other capabilities through apps, PCs are more of general computing capabilities that may have some communications capabilities. What is when a unified device is going to appear! I'll mush rather like to carry around one device that gives me everything. Phone, general computing, the whole nine yards of it! I'll happily carry such a device around!
Samsung intends to release 2GHz dual-core smartphone processore

Super 30 founder to start school! - Yahoo! India Education

Super 30 founder to start school! - Yahoo! India Education

Hands-on with the iPad 2

This link refers to a visual tour of the new (then, back in Mar) iPad2. So definitely take a look at the slides, pictures do speak a thousand words. Looks nice and handy and in the white version like a slate! This device is available in white and black. With the original iPad it was " you can have any color, as long as it is black!" You can hold it one hand comfortably as it is significantly thinner. (this photo is from the Computerworld photo show)

With the use of covers available, the device can be made to stand on a table for comfortable video viewing or the video conferencing everybody is going ga-ga over, the well known "FaceTime" app that is enabled by the front and 2 cameras in the devices, and the one that looks at you. The other camera is for looking at other people, taking video of others and their photos. Most tablets have this general form factor. So the pertinent question is will this be the way we all will be doing our computing in future!

Visual tour: Hands-on with the iPad 2

Eight free Windows 7 tools

I don't know if these are really the top free applications. But the suggestion in this article from Infoworld do look interesting and hence I am pointing out to my readers too. These applications are, in no particular order, evernote, desktops, FastStone photo resizer, easy duplicate file finder, teamviewer, dropbox, clip training and AllMyApps. They are all free so, there is no stake in trying them out, drop them if you do not like any one of them. But if it can ease the hassle we all go through everyday, these will be worthwhile.


Evernote makes it very easy to take all kinds of notes, including audio, images, video. It lets you sync the notes with all kinds of machines including your smartphone.


Desktops is for creating desktops to your liking and you can have up to four of these virtual desktops.


FastStone photo resizer would let you rename the photos als when you resize them. Besides, it will let you crop and rotate the pictures as also adding a watermark or a logo. You can change the color depth of the images too.


Easy duplicate finder does just that. It finds all the duplicates quickly and lets you resolve them easily and safely.


Teamviewer lets you share your desktop with others and make communicating about specific issues meaningful.


Dropbox makes remote backup, in this case in the cloud, very simple. You just drop the files to be backed up into this box/folder and you are done!  The files can be synced by other users on on other machines. Wioth 2GB free space that is quite useful to start with.


AllMyApps collects applications, has some 1600 now, and lets you download a collection and install them in one go. You do not have to install them one by one.


That leaves the clip training which is a collection of some 100 training videos about Windows 7 features including some of Office functionalities too.


Go ahead, try them and see which of them save you some bother!!!!




Eight free Windows 7 tools you gotta try

Glonass-K Satellite Available By Year End

Glonass set up, Russia's answer to the US GPS system is nearly complete with 22 of required constellation of 24 satellites required for a fully operational system. The balance two should go up by the 3rd quarter of this year. Like the GPS this system too will have both military and civilian use and will provide accuracy for civilian use withing a few meters. Receivers have started to appear in the market hat can handle both GPS as well as Glonass satellite signals to determine your position. This series of Glonass-K, satellites have a service life of 10 years. They will beam five navigation signals; four in the special L1 and L2 bands and one for civilian applications in the L3 band.


Russia To Start Operating New Glonass-K Satellite By Year End

Open code is irrelevant to Android's success

Put differently, open code or not Android is going to succeed. iPad uses iOS and it is entirely proprietary and has very large community of developers are developing apps for the platform, Similarly, though Google said Android will be open source, the strategy seems to develop versions of the OS and then make the source available to big partners not to all comers though. The way Android has gone past iOS in number of phone that use it, this free source or not issue is not really going to matter. developers will work with the Android for the phone or the tablet avatar.

IT departments beware though, these devices are going to come into the enterprise and your network. Read about issues in the referred article.

Why open code is irrelevant to Android's success 

iPad 2 announcement-Reviews

iPad 2 announcement created quite a buzz. Most like the iPad 2 too. We have already covered one that likes Motorola Xoom. Basically the issue comes down to iPad is real, it is here. What really matters is how soon other competitive products can come out and offer a better price/ performance spot. With iPad and Xoom offering 2 cameras and powerful graphics power, every one of the competitor will have to offer these. Read the detailed buzz via the reference link.

iPad 2 announcement: Review roundup - Computerworld Blogs

Apple's iPad 2 Launched in Early Mar

iPad was a huge phenomenon. iPad 2 has followed soon. Steve Jobs came back from medical absence to launch the product. It is certainly better. According to Job's estimate the new dual core A5 has double the performance and something like 9 times graphics capability from the earlier version. That is a huge improvement. In a post in the recent past we have seen how the Motorola Xoom might be better. However, let us see what the market decides! WiFi and 3G versions are available. With the front camera and FaceTime apps has a great impact. The device is lighter and thinner. We'll follow both Xoom and iPad to and see who becomes the leader!

Steve Jobs launches Apple's iPad 2 - Computerworld

Motorola Xoom versus the iPad 2

According to this blog item in Computerworld, the Motorola Xoom is better than iPad. Originally the writer compared the Xoom with the original iPad on eight counts. Even when iPad came out he finds that the Xoom is still better! While jury is still out on which is really better, quite often the arguments border on religious fervor, we'll have to wait and see what wins in the market.


The original eight counts of better features were the OS, better hardware, better screen resolution,  front and rear cameras, better browser, it is able to play Flash, no Apple big brother to decide what you should see or not and apps are better on it.

Honeycomb or the Android 3.0is meant for tablets and improved quite a from the earlier versions. As easy to use as the iPad OS it can be customized and is rich in features. Notifications are handled better and multitasking and switching between apps is easier. NVidia Tegra 2, 2 core processor gives you better graphic capabilities. That includes 3D games. iPad processor is a single core one.Xoom wins over iPad with a 10 inch, wide aspect, 1280x 800 pixels vs. 9.7 inch with 1024x 768 pixels.

Tow cameras lets video chat to be done easily while making photo/video taking quite easy.Chrome on the Xoom with tabbed browsing is better than the Safari on the iPad. Motorola has not barred Adobe flash, so you can get to see all the flash content and download them as you like. Xoom does not have Apple breathing down you neck and decide what is good for you! Google's built-in apps, including Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Calendar, is better than IPad comes with.  Xoom's Tegra 2 chip, lets you use vector graphics and 3D rendering in Google Maps.

That was in early March. Then came the iPad2 announcement and the author Preston Gralla still finds the Xoom to be the better one. iPad2 moved to 2 core processor and 2 camera configuration. So that was a bit of catch up. He is still not happy with whatever tweaks have been done to iOS 4.3 but Honeycomb remains better still. Xoom advantages of the apps, no whims of Apple affecting you and ability to still enjoy flash remains advantages according to the author. I, too, think he is probably right. But, as I have said it still may get decided on entirely different reasons. These advantages will remain, however.

Motorola Xoom versus the iPad 2 --- the Xoom is a clear winner - Computerworld Blogs

One More Batch of Students Pass Through Our Portals

When I was looking around my facebook page, one of our last year's student came up and we had a chat.I suddenly realized how fast one whole year have passed. Right now we are in the middle of that phase where the 2011 pass out have completed their exams and over the last couple of days been leaving the campus.

Last year the placement scene was bad and this guy I was chatting with, had to go over to Bangalore and got a very good placement. This year situation is a lot better, yet there will be quite a few who would have to seek employment off-campus. We were actually chatting about how just going over to Bangalore and other such centers will let people find jobs. Couple of questions arise from there. Why can't these people find jobs here in West Bengal? The long time ruling party did not do much in terms of attracting these IT companies into this state. The party was actively opposed to this so called "automation" and the state was synonymous with bandhs, strikes and trouble in general. Now that that has changed, hope the scenario will change.

Second question was the quality of the engineers that are being produced in the country. A Mckinsey report had said only 25% of engineering graduates are employable. West Bengal did not have the private engineering colleges as in many other states for a long while. Over the last decade though these colleges proliferated and were put under the umbrella of the WBUT, the technical university. Strangely, these colleges as a lot seem to produce engineers even below the national average. This university has almost a 100% pass rate. I cannot imagine that could be good for anybody.

All the subjects have a 30% internal evaluation quota. Thje purpose must have been good when set up. But, what has really happened is the marks obtained by students are not any indicator of their quality but an attempt by the colleges to keep the pass rate high. Students get a very high set of marks out of this 30 marks. Thereafter they just have to pick up 10 to 15% may be a little more to achieve the 40% pass marks.

Thus, this has given rise to a strange phenomenon. Final year students, particularly in the last semester, do not attend classes. They demand and get reasonable numbers in the these internal evaluations. The balance 10-15-25 marks out of 70 is easy to get, thanks to various question-answer help books available in the market. Students have tough balancing job of course. They have to manage placement interview etc. But, all the same, not doing any class at all cannot be good! Do they learn any of these last semester subjects? Doubtful.Yet, every year we are churning out a few hundered of them, from each of these colleges. Where are we going!?

But then that is just one side of the problem. Most places there is a problem with teaching too. Teachers quite often are not up to the job. We manage to get the syllabus completed somehow. We are unable provide enough effort to get the students interested or make them learn. It is rather a vicious cycle. We go through this year after year, when can we turn all these into a virtuous circle, if at all!!

Mobile World Congress: The new front in the processor battle | ZDNet

Mobile world congress took place in Feb. looks like the next generation processors are coming out from a whole range of manufacturers. With smartphones demanding powerful applications, with demand for some of the productivity applications on the go, the phones are looking more like a computer. The mobile computing may finally be here. Besides there is a lot of activity in the Tablet space. More and more powerful processors will be coming out over this year and the next. Broadcom, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Samsung ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments all have new application processors coming out. This generation is certainly for multi-core and graphics enhancements. Graphics enhancements are, no doubt, driven by the need for handling video, HD as well as 3D, if possible. A sampling of the capabilities of these new processors bear it out.


Nvidia has the Tegra2 line. The newer Tegra will have four ARM Cortex-A9 cores and a 12 core graphics processor. Tegra 2 had eight graphics cores and the new line delivers 5x the graphics performance. The current roadmap promises delivery of 75x graphics processing by 2014. Qualcom integrated the wireless communications and the processor in its Snapdragon line. The new enhancements coming are PQ 8060, a dual core processor and Adreno 220 graphics. APQW 8064 will have four cores running at 2.5 GHz and Adreno 320 graphics. 15% better performance and 15x graphics enhancements are predicted.

Samsung's Exynos 4210 will have two Cortex-A9 cores at 1GHz.  TI’s OMAP4430 is based on two Cortex-A9 cores running at 1GHz and Imagination’s PowerVR540 graphics. OMAP4440 follows that'll work at 1.5GHz and has better graphics performance. OMAP 5 platform will be based on ARM’s Cortex-A15. With two CPU cores and multi-core graphics, OMAP 5 will have 3x the processing power and 5x better 3D graphics than OMAP 4.

These are just some of the things happening in the processor space. Read the complete article for some more examples of the upcoming processors.

Mobile World Congress: The new front in the processor battle

Texas Instruments To Launch Feature-Rich, ARM-Based Mobile OMAP 5 Processors

According to this news item, these chip samples are going to be available by the second half of this year.These ARM based processors are directed at the mobile space and possibly brings the mobile computing closer to reality. The OMAP 5 packs a lot of processing power and is a significant improvement over the OMAP4.The new chip will have dual ARM Cortex A15 cores, running at 2 GHz. These are helped along by dual Cortex M4 cores that's handle the real-time load, such as video processing.

The 28 nm fab process helps the chip, even with four cores running, manage with 60% of power consumption of the OMAP4. Performance wise the OMAP 5 will deliver 3x processing power an 5x graphics processing compared to the earlier generation.

The chip will thus be able to easily support stereoscopic (3D) applications that include video conferencing using some additional graphics power. Four HD displays or four cameras can simultaneously be supported. Devices using the OMAP 5 will be to offer record and playback 3D video, or convert 2D video to 3D, at 1080p resolution. It will let advanced gesturing applications, touch-less sensory technology, and computational photography applications such as face recognition, object recognition and text recognition, etc. be supported.



Texas Instruments To Launch Feature-Rich, ARM-Based Mobile OMAP 5 Processors

Windows 8 on ARM SoC, Phone 7 updates, tablets

With the Windows 8 MS is going to give you a version for the ARM based processors. That creates an ARM based PC making opportunity. Similarly does it create an opportunity for the MS behemoth to move into the mobile space that they entirely missed! Can elephants dance! may be not but they can run at 40 KMPH when needed, is this an occasion, we would see MS hitting the ground running! I have nagging feeling that it is too little, too late!



CES 2011: Windows 8 on ARM SoC, Phone 7 updates, tablets

Freescale offers take on tablets, 3-D units

The microprocessor company Freescale takes a look at the future and predicts what kind of processors would be required. They aim to have them ready when the time comes. As described in this news release, their Director of global consumer marketing feels there are four trends visible. One is that future tablets are going to provide augmented reality. For example, you may be standing near a shop in a mall and yet find out what's happening around you in other shops. The second thing that is going to happen is the #D video will be common. Future tablets can take 3D video with two cameras and let you view 3D video.. Third thing that's going to happen is that the tablet will become a gaming platform and will need the necessary power to let you play the games well. And finally, tablets will be used for content creation too rather than just content consumption as is done now.
Freescale offers take on tablets, 3-D units

Striving For A Competitive CPU And Platform Edge

Brian Dipert expounds on Sandy Bridge here.The product roadmap, mobile variations, the new micro-architecture and so on. Read for all the details. But, the Sandy Bridge has suffered a set back already. The chipset helping design processor based systems turned out to have faults in them. There has been a product call back. Thus the road map talked about here is likely to slip somewhat.

Intel's Sandy Bridge: Striving For A Competitive CPU And Platform Edge 

10 new open source projects to watch

According to this article in te Infoworld are
Diaspora- open source social network
OpenStack- open source, open standards cloud computing platform.
Cloud9IDE- open source integrated development environment
OpenStackNova- open source fabric controller
NuGet- open source package management system for .NET platform
ActivitiBPM platfor- open source business process management and workflow management
SparkleShare- file sharing and collaboration tool
VoltDB- OLTP SQL database
RapidFTR-a mobile app that lets aid workers collect, sort and share information about children in emergency situations
ownCloud- an open personal cloud designed to be run on a personal server


That is a wide diversity of applications! What you can see4, is the reflection of the trends you see otherwise. Socila networking is represented. Cloud computing is given due importance, there is a very useful mobile application and then some development aids and an assortment of other tools.


Watch out!
10 new open source projects to watch 

The key mobile trends emerging from CES 2011

Compared to the Forbes report published here a couple of days back, this report looks only at mobility related trends. 4G networks are coming, smartphone could become smart enough to be the only device to be carried by consumers. If need be you could dock it with a larger screen, keyboard etc.Products are coming out that are smartphone and yet powerful enough to do double duty as a computing device and then dock with thos things if needed. Motorola Atrix, RIM Playbook etc. are some examples.

On the other side Android Honeycomb that can handle multi core ( in fact, it would require multi core processors) are going to barge into this integrated space too if they have enough communication savvy to connect to 3G and 4G networks! I am happy that, when one or the other happens, there will be only onedevice to carry rather than we trying to juggle several of them!

The key mobile trends emerging from CES 2011

Are your networks ready for the cutover to IPv6?

The worls has run out of IP addresses, I mean the 32 bit IPv4 addresses. IPv6 allows 128 bit IP addresses and that should eventually solve all the problems. June 8 has been marked as the IPv6 testing day when all the majors like Google will run on IPv6. Whenever changeover occur, there's bound to be some problems and all the kinks should get ironed out in a few years! Not to worry though, majority of users should not face any problems. In any case you will know for sure on that Jun day experiment worldwide!
Are your networks ready for the cutover to IPv6? 

Russia To Launch New Batch Of Glonass Satellites

The alternate global navigation system, GLONASS, from Russia was coming along strongly until it hit a snag. In a December launch 3 satellites to complete the constellation failed to launch. Now they planning to do the same in June. Intially the system is meant for Russia and local countries only. But, the service is going to get extended worldwide soon. Systems that can handle GPS as well as GLONASS have started appearing in the US market already. It'll be interesting to watch the level of service provided by these satellites.

Russia To Launch New Batch Of Glonass Satellites By June

Nvidia to develop PC processors

With the announcement that Microsoft is going to break out from the Wintel and support ARM, big changes in the make up of the PC as we know it would change. Since the time in eighties the PC was released, it has been the x86 processors and the Windows operating systems. Only players in the processor space were the AMD and to some extent the VIA technologies. With MS support for another very well established architecture like the ARM, there is bound to be changes in the space. Similar moves are happening to get additional players into the mobile space where the ARM architecture is  strong. The competition in both space could only do good for consumers!! Let's watch and see.
Nvidia to develop PC processors

Hottest Technologies Of 2011

Following article is a review of the new technologies that emerged as the new year dawned. this report is based on the consumer electronics show right in the first week of the year. According to this Forbes article the Motorola XOOM tablet generated a lot of buzz as that is the tablet device that is coming out first with the Android 3.0, the Honeycomb.
NVIDIA dual core Tegra is another technology to watch for. The dual core version of the combine CPU and GPU type created a lot of interest, now they are upgrading this. Microsoft's Surface takes touchscreen interface to the extreme. It is a 40 inch 1080p kind of display that takes touch based inputs. Possibilities look very promising!Samsung SUR40 also is in the game but is targeting businesses.

really thin TV and very smart smartphones and 3D cameras are some more things to watch out for! Read in detail in the Forbes article.



The Hottest New Technologies Of 2011 - Forbes.com

What Kind of Seating Suits The Tech Workers Best!

What is the best seating arrangement for IT people! Is it a complete open space or cabin/cubicle based arrangement is better! Basically the spectrum is completely private arrangement or completely open arrangement that encourages easy interaction. The complete open arrangement probably is good for creative teams. Agile process teams possibly could do with the open arrangement, but adding some space where an individual can duck into(even if it is not a complete cubicle) becomes necessary. Closed offices does not promote interactive work. What comes out from the discussion in the article is that you need to balance between the open and some private space depending on the type of work.


Cubicle wars: Best and worst office setups for tech workers 

HP Blade Systems Matrix Technology

As the need for ever larger data centers grow, the demand for a scalable server infrastructure grows. One should be able to put together the initial solution quickly and then scale up as needed.HP BladeSystem Matrix uses off the shelf solutions available to create this modular solution. rather than a mere collection of components the Matrix puts together tried and tested components proven in the marketplace to
provide value in demanding datacenter environments. Matrix also incorporates the offerings of
leading application, management, network, and storage partners. Making it easy to fit customer environments and continues to work with all traditional application workloads.

HP BladeSystem Matrix is supplied as a factory configured solution. that has the c7000 enclosure, server blades, shared storage, management software for provisioning, optimizing and protecting the infrastructure. Implementation and training is also included to get customers a quick start. Full range of HP ProLiant and Integrity full-height and half-height server blades are supported and one could create over 1500 managed systems of virtual and managed machine instances.
http://resources.idgenterprise.com/original/AST-0003909_Understanding_the_HP_Bladesystem_Matrix_technology.pdf

The key mobile trends emerging from CES 2011

With the rise of mobility there is even more incentive to carrying just one device that can do all our work even on the move. Whether that will be a smarter smartphone of a tablet with voice/video communication added is something we'll have wait and watch. But there are moves for certain that is moving us towards this goal. The following article by Galen Gruman of Infoworld tries to look at what are the significant trends that indicate this.

As you'll see, like most attempts at viewing a crystal ball, there is an inherent danger of going wrong. However, discerning such a high level trend should not be too difficult!

"Samrtphones would ultimately replace Desktop PCs for most users". The evidence he offers is quite convincing. But, there guarantees that things will happen exactly the same way. Currents happening will trend to show a direction in which things are moving. He offers Motorola Mobility's Atrix, that can be docked into a simple desktop and can become a netbook. Google is promoting a cloud only computing paradigm through its Chrome OS. That should contribute to our hook up to computing power to become simpler. Android Honeycomb is coming and should make tablets more powerful. That's a move away from desktop bound computing.

That move away also takes away the need for monolithic applications like the MS Office. Apps come into use. You buy and use a highly focused tool. This is another path to lightweight computing along with everything in the cloud set up. Android is set to take over the tablet world. But that's not important. What would ultimately be meaningful is if the apps phenomenon or the cloud type is going to be favored by users.

The key mobile trends emerging from CES 2011

Wintel No More!!

 The long time partners are certainly looking around. Microsoft announced at the latest CES, this Jan, that it would release a version of Windows on ARM series processors.Other half of the partnership was busy showing off devices that use the 2nd generation core architecture processors (aka Sandy Bridge). Intel was busy promoting all kinds of devices that ran Android and Meego (Intel+Nokia promoted, Linux derivative). The devices included Google Smart TVs, set-top boxes from Boxee and Logitech, and a raft of tablets, of course. Well, the partnership has not exactly broken down, but both partners are playing the field and trying to find opportrunities in this changing marketplace.
Is the Microsoft-Intel marriage finally over? 

Windows 8 on ARM SoC

Windows invariably meant the OS for the x86 processor. that, in turn, largely meant processor chips from Intel. This is picture that started right from the time PC revolution started and continued until now. For a brief time the Windows NT was offered in PowePC , MIPS and Alpha processors. None of the chips achieve any kind of significant numbers and when the next version came out, these supports were not there.

 This definitely looks like the point when the WINTEL stranglehold on the huge majority (remember, AMD too plays!) of PCs might change. Not too soon though, this may take a while.

Faster Forward - Microsoft to ship Windows for ARM processors

Nvidia challenges Intel with PC central processors

A PC and WINTEL were synonymous until now. Not any more. The recent CES at Las Vegas in first week of January brought news that changes that relationship for  ever, I guess. PC meant Intel processors that kept building on the original 8086 architecture. Other than AMD no one else challenged that. NVIDIA was happy to build chips and boards for supporting graphics and video on the huge numbers of PC  being sold. That changes now and NVIDIA has announced a processor that can go inside the PC.

The company is going to build a central processor using ARM architecture. The processors will be integrated on the same chip as NVIDIA's graphic processor and will be aimed at everything from workstations to supercomputers. "We are designing a high-performing ARM CPU core in combination with our massively parallel GPU cores to create a new class of processor," said Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA CEO. This they expect would free the PCs, workstations and servers from the hegemony and inefficiency of the x86 (Intel) architecture.

What makes this really feasible is the announcement from Microsoft that they will be releasing a Windows version (Windows 8!) for the ARM processor.

CES-UPDATE 3-Nvidia challenges Intel with PC central processors | Reuters

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

Virtualized servers can make IT management easier. But, what the heck is this VDI or the Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure! VMWare is a well know name in virtualization and they seem to have coined this term. Usual anticipation about this picture is that it is going to need a large data center, powerful servers, a lot of central storage, complex software and all that complications, must surely cost a bundle.

The following article by Keith Schultz take a look at virualization and finds that it is not necessarily so.The VDI is a way of organizing computing resources. With the data centers as we discussed above, all you need are thin clients at the user end to meet his computing needs. That reminds us, those of us who saw it, of the good old days when one powerful computer was connected to number of terminals. They are indeed similar. Now the central computer is replace by this data center organism of many servers, connected together with the necessary storage and software services.

He reviews three different products and finds that they do not have to cost you an arm and a leg. performance differed somewhat between the three products. read details in the original article.
InfoWorld review: Desktop virtualization made easy

OverDrive Helps Connect Libraries and Users with eBooks - AppScout

With the coming about of eBooks, what happens to the libraries!This application from OverDrive is an example of things to come. With the dematerialization of content (everything is just electronic bits and bytes)  one would think the library, as we know it, may cease to exist. instead the libraries are evolving too and they now lend out a lot of electronic books and other contents. This app from OverDrive finds you the library, in your neighborhood that has the content and lets you get connected. The library would lend out the material and use it the way you want to.

The application allows users on multiple platforms to download its OverDrive Media Console app to read eBooks too after the content has been downloaded.  The OverDrive Media Console is available for iOS and Android. You thus have them on iPads as well as Android based tablets. Phones like iPhone as well as other Android phones can be used too. The same app can be used to search for specific books or media in electronic format. The Console app is available for free from iTunes App Store and the Android Market.

OverDrive Helps Connect Libraries and Users with eBooks

iPad Would Not Kill Kindle

Like most such competing trends, iPad book readers and the original eBook reader the Kindle will continue to be in existence for a while. What happens for the longterm is something to watch for. The referenced report from Forrester has some data and predictions on both. 


Tablets are set to grow 130% to 24 million units in 2011 compared to 10. 3 million in 2010. 8.5 million of the tablets last year should be just one brand the iPad! This year though a lot many others are going to take a share of the 24 million pie. The CES show at the beginning of the year showcased more than 75 of these models.


What is to be noted is that Kindle or the other ereaders did not wilt. they are too set for a significant growth. These are predicted to grow to 15.5 million units during the year, showing a growth of 50% over last year's numbers.


These predictions seem to be supported by another source. A J P Morgan report of a survey indicates brand awareness of Kindle and iPad were 76% vs. 84% for iPad. More interestingly, apparently people want both devices. 28% of those who took the survey indicated that they ether already have a Kindle or want to buy one during the year. 40% of iPad owners also own a Kindle. Another 23 percent want to acquire a  Kindle during the current year!
iPad Not Death Sentence for Kindle

Classrooms without Textbooks!!

When are the classrooms going to be all digital! That would have been a naive question even a while back, when it would have been in the realm of the science fiction. But not any more. just look at the proliferation of the ereaders! That is able to give you an equivalent experience to book reading. So if the contents that are similar in quality come cheaper then the choice would swing to the readers. text books already cost quite a lot, anywhere from $50 to $100 or more. EBooks on the other hand costs much less. This year for the first time on-line sales of eBooks have exceeded the on=line sale of printed books! So, digital media is certainly coming.

Then there are the tablets with book reading apps on them. These have the potential of a lot of value add compared to a printed book. Just consider one aspect, the illustrations! In the printed books they are static and takes a while to derive complete meaning out of a chart or a graph or interdependence of events indicated on the illustrations. Not so on the tablets, the illustrations are live, in color and could be animated to show any dependencies easily. Then if you consider the dimension video can add to the learning experience, then it is not difficult to guess which way the future textbooks should go.

It is heartening to see MLTI (Maine’s Learning Technology Initiative) being taken up for schools i the state of Maine in the US towards this goal. Let's watch what they are up to!

Sanford schools on verge of new tech revolution - Keep Me Current: News

Trillion-dollar Market for Gadgets!!

The Consumer Electronics Association predicted, just prior to opening of the CES, that the market of consumer Electronics devices would reach $964 billion and may even hit the magic number of a trillion dollars! That would be a rise of 10% in the sale of mobile phones, computers, television sets and other items.Smartphones, touchscreen tablet computers, electronic book readers and flat-panel liquid crystal display (LCD) television sets are likely to push this movement. The trends seen by them are as follows.


Smartphones, not mobile phone in general, will rise. tablets will double  in sales this year to 30 million units. eReaders like the Kindle will still be strong with shipments of 20 million worldwide.Mobile computers, including tablets, will reach $220 billion out of a PC sales volume of $316 billion. desktop share is going to be only $96 billion out of that.

Web-connected televisions are set to a continuous growth. By 2014 about 52% of all TVs sold will be web capable.It was only 9% last year, 2010. Apps are beginning to get anywhere, from smartphones to tablet computers to TV sets.Half the mobile device owners download and use apps covering areas like communications, weather, maps, music, news, games and social networking. we are in exciting times, alright!

AFP: Trillion-dollar forecast for gadget sales

Tablets Everywhere in CES

We have been discussing, for some time now, how everybody seems to have discovered tablets as the new computing devices segment. The latest CES show had something like 100 tablets on show. Can any market really take this much diversity! Not so, it is already being predicted that consolidation is already here and some of these exhibits may not even get manufactured and come into the market.That certainly is a very highly likely scenario.

What is really interesting though, computing has found another format. This is something people are going to use without abandoning the workhorses, the desktops and the laptops. Eventually the tablets may evolve into the only form of computation people prefer but that is going to be some time away!
With CES raining tablets, some will get flooded out - Computerworld

Freescale quad-core for CE space

Freescale is going to offer pretty sophisticated quad-core processors for high-end consumer electronic devices. And you thought consumer electronics were high end toys for grown ups!  Actually, the way these things have grown, particularly smartphones came on the scene, they need a lot of processing power. What with CE devices doing recording/playback of 3D video, augmented reality, mobile gaming and driver-information systems. HD video combined with 3D is a true heavy load on any processing system, considering you need real time MPEG compression/decompression (particularly the H.264), lightning speeds are called for here.  What is interesting is that the company's new i.MX6 series offers three price/performance points on the same ISA. Thus designers can design devices once and get higher performance versions simply by moving the design to the higher performance processor. These levels will be met by one, two and four core models.


Freescale aims quad-core at consumer apps

Intel Sandy Bridge Processor and Chipset Lineups

Intel released a range of processors and a set of chipsets to support them in building systems this week.This being called the second generation of the core micro-architecture.Features of this micro-architecture (known as the Sandy Bridge) include getting the memory controller, the PCI Express (PCIe) controller, and video functions all located within the processor die. These then can share data and power much more easily. The micro-architecture will scale from the smallest netbooks to the biggest servers. What these push performance will buy are a wide variety of actions while consuming less power. Media processing features have been polished up. Built-in DirectX 10.1 capabilities to new programming that Intel has promised will considerably improve video transcoding, photo editing, and other similar tasks (such as watching Blu-ray 3D content). A major revamping of Turbo Boost has been done to boost performance for short periods.New Advanced Vector Extensions will push floating point–intensive application performance.


Intel Sandy Bridge Processor and Chipset Lineups | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

Windows 7 Tablet PC in Early 2011

There's a rush for tablets. It was only a question of time before somebody was going to use Windows 7 on it. Android looks like a hands down winner in Tablets beside the Apple operating system. It will be interesting to see how it fares in this segment. Beyond the mainstream Wintel platforms Windows have not made much of a dent so far. Let's watch!

IN MEDIA Announces $399 Windows 7 Tablet PC, Shipping Early 2011

The Press Association: New ultra-fast processor unveiled

Dr Wim Vanderbauwhede, of the University of Glasgow, and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Lowell have created a processor that has 1000 execution units or cores. This would be the fastest processor as of now. Intel also has announced its plans to create a thousand core monster soon.


In a true MIMD fashion, they have sliced up a large FPGA into execution units which can handle thousand different instruction streams. Dr Vanderbauwhede justifies the use of FPGAs thus;  "FPGAs are not used within standard computers because they are fairly difficult to program but their processing power is huge while their energy consumption is very small because they are so much quicker - so they are also a greener option."


As a benchmark, the chip was used to run a MPEG movie algorithm and it achieved a throughput of 5 Gigabytes per second. That would be at least 20x faster than current desktop performance. the team is hoping to present the findings at the International Symposium on Applied Reconfigurable Computing in March this year. What would be interesting to find out would be how do they make it all work. Memory contention, system bus bandwidth, communication overheads, cache coherence etc. are some relevant problems.

New ultra-fast processor unveiled

E-Book Boom Changes Book Selling And Publishing

This holiday season electronic books sold more than printed books sales on-line. That eBooks have gained a momentum as it brings in the change in reading habits, is without a doubt. The referenced article below had a interesting take on why  things are really changing. Until the tablets came out, an argument offered for printed books was that parents would like to introduce kids with very well illustrated books. Now we have an equivalent to a living book, in almost the same format as a printed book. A tablet is handled much like a book yet can bring in higher value add in terms of living illustration! Illustrations that could be animated, cartoons, videos, movies and what have you! There's no doubt printed books would continue for some time, until a generation who started their reading with tablets/eReaders takes over and the age of the Gutenberg would be over!

E-Book Boom Changes Book Selling And Publishing : NPR