VERY,VERY HOT READS, I Would Read The News In This Thread This Thead Is To post Any Thing Ye Want About The News,,NEWS WAS MOVED,READ MY FIRST POST..CHEERS
p2p news / p2pnet: "Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID), which will soon replace bar codes in your supermarket, offer tremendous opportunities for business and society. But their power to report their location, identity and history also raises serious concerns about personal privacy and security, as well as technical interoperability and international compatibility. To address these concerns - some of which may well require legislative responses -, the European Commission launched on 9 March a comprehensive public consultation with a high-level Conference on RFID at the CeBit 2006 trade fair in Hannover, Germany."
The above is a clip from EU commissioner Viviane Reding's web site.
RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tags are offered up on one hand as relatively innocuous inventory checking and data control systems for industry, the military, law enforcement agencies and governments, and on the other, as spy chips the same sectors will use, and are using, to monitor citizens, as well as personal and private information relating to them and their activities.
Can governments, industry and their various above- and below-board information collection agencies be trusted to use RFID chips in a responsible and honest manner?
Of course not. But Vint Cerf, coyly dubbed Google's chief internet evangelist, attempted to cast a rosy glow over RFID as something that'll make a positive difference to our lives.
He was a panelist on a debate on the promise and pitfalls of the smart labelling technology at Cebit and he saw a day when RFID tags were, "so ubiquitous that everything, including our socks, would be studded with them," says the BBC.
"By interrogating our sock drawer with an RFID reader we could find out if any single sock of a pair was missing. A check around the house with the reader would reveal the sock no matter if it was beneath the sofa or trapped in the washing machine. RFID could solve the mystery of missing socks and that's a very important contribution to society," said Mr Cerf.
It could also give watchers the exact location of the sock's wearer, together with a lot of other personal information he or she might prefer to keep private.
Meanwhile, "Zygmunt Mierdorf, board member of German retailer Metro AG, said it was also important for businesses to ensure they treated the data generated by RFID tags properly," says the story, adding that the EU report based on responses to the EC consultation on RFID tags should be ready by the end of 2006, according to Reding.
"We will not accept that the fundamental liberties of our citizens will be compromised," she promised.
Also See:
BBC - Radio tag study revealed at Cebit, March 10, 2006
By Nick Farrell: Friday 10 March 2006, 14:25
THE FIRST WAVE of Xbox 360s overheated because, when Microsoft built the machines, it forgot to take the foil wrappers off the heatsinks.
So, when the machines first hit the shops last year, Volish switchboards were flooded with complaints that machines were overheating and cutting out.
Now a group of German modders at www.modcontrol.com think they have found the reason. They have checked two Xboxes and found that the protective foil on the GPU heatsink's heat transfer pad didn't get removed during assembly.
The protective layer was probably put on by the manufacturer of the heatsink to protect the heat transfer pad from dust, before final assembly.
But the failure to remove the wrapper caused the GPU chip to sit against the plastic protection foil, instead of the heat transfer pad.
This will lead to the graphics chip overheating say the modders in German, here, and in English with some pictures here. ”
Customizable registry tweaking. Registry Tweaker is a tool for applying registry tweaks on Windows platforms. It supports Windows 2000/XP/2003. The program is very customizable, you can add, edit tweak database, create profiles and export them to *.reg files. Everything is done just with a few clicks. If you like to track things down, Tweak Tracker is included. When you apply tweak, manually or with profile, changes are written to tracker, so you can check everything you have applied. Of course, restore to old or original value is possible. Next great thing is database update via internet. 2 methods of update are possible; overwrite or append database file, so you can never loose your custom tweaks. Under Other Tweaks section is located Windows XP Viewer/Changer and Startup manager. There you can also apply *.reg files to run at Windows startup. Neat feature is Registry backup. What it does is really simple, it exports whole registry to a *.reg file, which can be applied later if something is wrong. But this is only a basic function, nothing fancy. System information section is useful for administrators, it captures basic info about computer. Registry Tweaker has nice Directory structure, where are stored all files it uses. Becouse it does not need any other system file, you can simply copy it to portable device and carry it around .....(free).....GO THERE!
http://www.registrytweaker.net/
Posted by Quakester2000 on 10 March 2006 - 16:18 - Source: TDK
D4rk0n3 used our news submit to tell us that TDK has decided to exit the manufacturing of both CD and DVD media products as part of its on going restructuring process. A board meeting was held on March 8th to find ways restructuring its recording media business and the board concluded that exiting the market was the best option. TDK have also announced the shut down of its European media manufacturing plant in Luxemburg which will come to a halt at the end of May 2006. This will mean a total exit from the manufacturing of CD & DVD recording media market for TDK.
TDK had been looking at various ways of restructuring its problem hit media business but with a sharp drop in prices coupled with high costs of materials it wasn't viable anymore. The TDK board has decided to look at other business models for its recording business. TDK will accelerate its ODM business model or look to a third party supply.
TDK TDK Corporation announced today that the board of directors decided at the board meeting held on March 8, 2006, to further accelerate the restructuring of recording media business, to withdraw from the manufacturing of recordable CD&DVD products in TDK group. Consequently, TDK decided to shut down the production facilities at its European subsidiary, TDK Recording Media Europe in Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The shut down is planned to take place at the end of May 2006. This decision completes TDK"s withdrawal from the manufacturing of recordable CD & DVD products, coupled with the reorganization of plants in Chikumagawa area (Nagano, Japan) implemented at the end of last year. TDK Corporation and its group companies (hereinafter called "TDK") have been fundamentally restructuring the recording media business during this fiscal year.
While reviewing the progress of the restructuring and future strategies of the recording media business, TDK has looked for ways to re-strengthen the manufacturing of recordable CD&DVD foundations from various perspectives. However, a sharp drop in market prices of recordable CD&DVDs as well as the increased cost of natural resources has led the recording media business in TDK to serious problems. After studies of measure for re-strengthening manufacturing, the decision of withdrawal from the manufacturing of recordable CD & DVDs that TDK management has made should lead to an improvement and reform of recording media business to change fundamentally the business model. With this decision, TDK will accelerate ODM business model for the current generation of recordable CD&DVD products, or the third party supply. In the domain of blue laser disc, a product much expected to grow in the near future,
Posted by Dan Bell on 10 March 2006 - 17:10 - Source: Protected Soft
Here is the description of the software from the developers webpage: DVD2AVI Ripper is a powerful and easy-to-use tool that lets you make backups of your home DVD movies. It can produce high quality AVI (DivX, XviD, MPEG4, etc...) video files. With DVD2AVI Ripper, you can: select subtitle language, audio track, output file resolution and frame rate, zoom (letterbox,PanScan, etc...). The software also supports preview in a preview window.
Main features:
* Rip DVD to AVI (DivX, XviD, MPEG-4, etc...)
* User-defined file resolution, frame rate, bitrate, zoom, subtitle language and audio track
* Fast algorithm, MMX,SSE,SSE2,3DNOW optimization with automatic processor type detection
* Freeware
Looks pretty nice and the price is right, that's for sure! If you want to take a closer look at the product or find the download, just head on over to the Video DVD Maker website. We don't know a thing about this program, so if you try it and would like to share your thoughts, feel free to do so here or in our forums.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13174
Police may search computer hard drives for child pornography if their owners subscribe to Web sites selling the images, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday.
games / p2pnet: To sell a game without copy protection, not even requesting a serial number on installation. Must be commercial suicide - sale figures should be miserable.
At least, one would think so, if one believes the stories told by the copyright industry.
But that isn't the case.
Galactic Civilisations 2 went to #1 on software sales at Wal-Mart after its release. Overall software, not just game sales.
And it's not like there was a six month build up of 'hype,' or whatever. Few reviews are up yet.
Frogboy from Stardock says:
It's word of mouth. You guys. Individual people from around the world simply getting the game and telling their friends that they liked it.
And here's another thing to consider: Galactic Civilizations II has no copy protection whatsoever. Not even a CD check. Heck, you can install the game and toss out the CD and use the included serial # (which you don't even have to use to install) to redownload the entire game from us even years in the future.
Producers of CRAP (Content, Restriction, Annulment, and Protection, formerly known as DRM) and other copy protection software are trying to tell us they provide the only products still available that guarantee artists or software producers an income.
The opposite is true, as Stardock demonstrates. To have market sucess, you do not need crappy copy protection. What you DO need is a fine game and loyal fans.
People buy games they like, from producers they can trust not to try to install malware on their computers, or to deactivate other software. They won't buy games installing hidden drivers, preventing them from copying game disks, degrading CD/DVD performance and causing hardware errors.
And thats why they boycott Starforce. And threatening critics of "Copy Protection" like Starforce won't change consumer behaviour.
As long as game producers use Software like Starforce, they shouldn't be surprised by declining sales. Neither should Stardock, though they're experiencing some strange sales developments.
Here's some more from Frogboy:
Several retail chains re-ordered more units in a single go than their initial order. EB Canada, for instance re-ordered a very large number.
Yay Canada!
See, typically what happens at retail is that you get your initial "sell-in". Re-orders are only designed to bring stocking levels back to that initial sell-in level. So over time, the game fades away. It's very unusual for a game to actually increase its retail stocking after the release."
Company continues to develop more stable solid-state disks.
Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
Friday, March 10, 2006
HANOVER, GERMANY -- Samsung Electronics has developed a higher-capacity version of its solid-state disk, a flash-memory-based replacement for hard disks, and is showing it here at the CeBIT technology show.
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The drive packs 32GB of flash memory into a case the same size as a 1.8-inch hard drive. That capacity is double the 16GB of a prototype device announced by Samsung last year and was made possible by the continuing miniaturization of flash-memory chip technology.
At CeBIT, the solid-state disk is being demonstrated inside a Samsung laptop computer. Because the SSD is the same size and shape as the computer's hard drive it was relatively easy to replace the hard-disk drive with the SSD, said Yun Mini, a spokesperson for Samsung.
Benefits: Speed, Durability
The SSD technology has three major benefits over hard disks, said Yun. The first is that data access is faster. This could be seen when the SSD-based laptop was booted up alongside the same-model machine with a hard disk. The desktop appeared on the screen of the SSD laptop in about 18 seconds while the hard-drive-based computer took about 31 seconds to reach the same point.
The second advantage comes in durability. Because there are no moving parts in the SSD, it is much better at withstanding shock and much more unlikely that data will be lost if the laptop is dropped.
The third major advantage is that it works silently, said Yun.
Downside: Cost
But for all these advantages, there is a major hurdle that needs to be overcome before SSD can reach mass market: price. Flash memory costs around $30 per gigabyte; the memory needed for the 32GB SSD drive works out to about $960, before any other costs are taken into account.
Samsung thinks there are some military or industrial customers that have specialist applications that would benefit from the SSD and so might be more willing to pay a premium.
"At this moment it would be very expensive," said Yun, "but technology is moving very fast so in the near future it could be cheaper."
Prices for flash memory are coming down. In May last year, when Samsung first announced the technology, the flash memory price was about $55 per gigabyte. So it might just be a matter of time before such disks hit the mass market.
Experimental devices use solar panels to recharge and extend battery life.
Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service
Friday, March 10, 2006
HANOVER, GERMANY -- Micro-Star International (MSI) is showing off a notebook computer and an MP3 player at CeBIT that use on-board solar panels to recharge and extend battery life.
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The Taiwanese company, known mainly for its motherboards and graphics cards, said the products are experimental, and it doesn't expect to put them on sale. They're an attempt to dabble in ways to provide power to portable devices in remote areas and recharge batteries, areas the company's research and development team has been focusing on, says Marc Chen, product manager for the notebook computer division.
"This is only a concept--to create a vision for the future," Chen says.
The lid of the laptop is covered with solar panels so that even when it's closed, it's still gathering the sun's energy. The system needs a voltage converter to adapt the output of the solar cells to the laptop's battery charging circuitry, says MSI.
Money Matters
The main trouble with using solar panels, however, is cost. A user would have to pay two or three times the standard price of a notebook computer for one equipped with solar cells, Chen says. The stumbling blocks haven't discouraged MSI, though. The company plans to continue developing the idea and is looking for partners in Japan, says Chen.
The company's other solar device, the "Solar Cell MP3 player", a version of its MSI Mega Player 540 that has 4GB of storage capacity, is also too expensive to consider for mass production, says Jack Tsai, marketing manager for MSI's consumer electronics unit. But it extends battery life by 3 hours and can recharge the battery, he adds.
The solar panel on the MP3 player displayed nearly took up its entire back side. Tsai says the solar power display MSI set up has attracted a lot of interest at CeBIT, and drawn in a number of people for a closer look.
Fortified computer features hard drive and software encryption.
Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service
Friday, March 10, 2006
HANOVER, GERMANY -- Seagate Technology and Secude IT Security are displaying a fortified laptop at CeBIT that features both full encryption of the hard drive and software for easier password management and deployment of machines, the companies said.
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The laptop has Seagate's Momentus 5400 FDE (full-disk encryption) hard drive, which encrypts data with minimal effect on performance, Seagate said. The drive automatically encrypts all of the data on its hard disk, adding an additional security layer, the company said.
The drive can also be instantly erased, and the disk initialization process has been streamlined, Seagate said.
In addition to Seagate's hard drive, the laptop has TiDoCoMi access management software from Secude. With the software, system administrators can manage other add-on security features such as smart cards and biometric ID systems. TiDoCoMi also stores passwords and certificates, Seagate said.
Also on Display
Secude has introduced other software at CeBIT. The company has released Secude Secure Notebook 7.1.1, a product that encrypts the entire hard drive. The software also can encrypt data on external mass storage devices, Secude said.
The software can be configured to allow access with a smart card only. It can also accommodate certificate-based, single sign-on for Microsoft operating systems, the company said.
Secude Secure Mail version 4.0 also is now available, Secude announced at the show. Different encryption protocols such as S/MIME, PGP Desktop, and GnuPG can be used for e-mail, the company said. Administrators can set rules for who can read the encrypted e-mail, and users can contact the help desk directly through the e-mail application.
Secude, based in Zurich, was formed 10 years ago as a partnership between SAP and the Fraunhofer Institute in Darmstadt, Germany.
Company is showing a recently developed optical disc drive that can write to HD-DVDs.
Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
Friday, March 10, 2006
HANOVER, GERMANY -- NEC is demonstrating at the CeBIT trade show here this week a recently developed optical disc drive that can write to HD-DVD media.
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HD-DVD is a new disc format that uses blue lasers to achieve a storage capacity of about three times that of DVD. A single-sided HD-DVD can accommodate 15GB of data, compared to 4.7GB on a DVD. It's one of two soon-to-be-launched formats that uses blue lasers. The second, Blu-ray Disc, can store 25GB on a single-sided disc but requires a more complex drive mechanism because the disc's physical structure is different than that of DVD and CD.
NEC is demonstrating its HD-DVD drive with media from Mitsubishi Kagaku Media, which is best known by its Verbatim brand name. The company is shooting high-definition video each morning at the show and burning it onto a disc for playback during the day, said Ryoichi Hayatsu, an NEC storage product division manager, in an interview.
The blank media, which became available only days before CeBIT began, is single-sided. NEC's drive, the HD-1100, is also compatible with dual-layer discs, which can store 30GB. In addition, the drive can write to DVD and CD media.
NEC is also working on support for rewritable HD-DVD media, although the HD-DVD Rewritable specification has yet to be completed. That's expected to be finalized in May or June this year, said Hayatsu.
Also on Display
Toshiba is also showing off its first HD-DVD products at CeBIT. For example, the Qosmio G30 laptop, was launched at the show and is the first laptop to include an HD-DVD drive.
Qosmio is Toshiba's multimedia line, and the G30 includes a TV tuner and Dolby Home Theater support. Users can watch HD-DVD content on the laptop's screen or output it to a compatible high-definition monitor or television. The G30 will be available in April in major markets and will cost around $2410.
Few tools of modern technology have become as prevalent as the cell phone, which allows you to be in touch (almost) all the time, (almost) anywhere. And you can do more than just talk--modern phones let you send and receive e-mail and text messages, and even surf the Web. Sifting through the sea of service plans and handsets can be difficult, but we'll walk you through what you need to know to get the phone and service plan that's right for you.
The Big Picture
Find out how to decide which phone is right for you, learn about network coverage, and more. more
The Specs Explained
We take an in-depth look at the low-end and high-end features of wireless phones and service plans. more
Cell Phone Shopping Tips
Before you start shopping, read our recommendations to get the best deal on a cell phone and service plan. more
The Big Picture
Cell phones are more than just convenient communication tools: They allow you to sync with the calendar on your PC, dial a number by the sound of your voice, look up breaking news on the Internet, take photos, play games, send text messages, listen to music, and more. But choosing a phone--and the service plan to go with it--requires some legwork.
Your choice of phone almost always depends on your choice of wireless service provider. In most cases, you first need to figure out which carrier offers the best coverage and the best monthly service plan in your area. Then, you'll have to select a phone from the assortment your chosen service provider offers. With the exception of a few handsets, most phones work only on one provider's system because carriers have mutually exclusive networks, and many carriers lock their phones so you can't take the same phone to another provider.
There's been a lot of talk about the third generation of mobile communications technology called 3G, which is supposed to boost data-transfer performance to 2 megabits per second from the more common data-transfer rate of 19.2 kilobits per second. 3G will be particularly handy if you use a phone to wirelessly access data such as e-mail, text messages, and the Web.
A few nationwide carriers currently provide 3G. For instance, Sprint and Verizon Wireless use the Evolution Data Optimized (EvDO) network, which offers average download speeds of 400 to 700 kbps and potential maximum download speeds of 2 Mbps. Meanwhile, Cingular's 3G network, called High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), is not yet available for handsets. (Cingular's HSDPA is available for use with PC Cards, though only a few U.S. cities offer network support.) HSDPA promises average download data rates of 400 to 700 kbps with bursts to more than 1 Mbps. Currently, most Cingular phones support Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution (EDGE), which promises data transmission speeds of 384 kbps, and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), with average speeds of 40 kbps and capable of up to 115 kbps. Other carriers are expected to launch their 3G networks soon.
Key Phone Features
Wireless standard: World travelers are more affected by wireless standards than are users based strictly in the United States. This is because most of the world uses networks based on GSM, which is the global system for mobile communications standard. U.S. carriers, however, use a variety of networks in addition to GSM. U.S. carriers work on the CDMA (code division multiple access), TDMA (time division multiple access), iDEN (integrated digital enhanced network), AMPS (advanced mobile phone service), GPRS (general packet radio service), EDGE (enhanced data rates for global evolution), and/or EvDO (evolution data optimized) standards. Cingular runs on the AMPS, EDGE, GSM, GPRS, and TDMA networks. Nextel uses the iDEN network exclusively. Sprint and Verizon Wireless run on CDMA and EvDO; Verizon also uses AMPS. T-Mobile supports GSM and GPRS networks. It is important to note that Cingular runs on both GSM and TDMA networks, but the services and the phones that use them do not interoperate.
Wireless mode: Dual-mode phones, which send and receive both digital and analog signals, tend to be more reliable than single-mode models. In rural areas where digital service is often spotty or nonexistent, a dual-mode phone can fall back on an analog signal to allow service, though roaming fees may apply. Bear in mind that using an analog mode consumes more battery power than using a digital mode. If you use your phone mainly in big cities,where digital service is widespread, you can stick with a single-mode model, which is often cheaper than a dual-mode phone.
Band support: The more radio bands a phone supports, the more frequencies it picks up. Quad-band phones, as their name suggests, operate across four frequency bands. Theoretically, they provide better coverage than triple-, dual-, or single-band phones. These so-called world phones are compatible with four GSM frequencies--850 MHz (prevalent in the United States), 900 MHz (prevalent in Europe), 1800 MHz (prevalent in Asia), and 1900 MHz (also available in the U.S.). As a result, they function around the globe. You can also find tri-mode phones that work on two digital frequency bands in addition to an analog network, a particularly handy feature if you travel to rural areas.
Design: You can choose between flip-open, clamshell-style phones and, nonflip, candybar-style phones. Flip phones can be more difficult to use with one hand because the cover may be heavier than the base, and a few low-end models lack a separate caller ID screen on the cover. Fortunately, many new phones sport dual screens--a small, external LCD on the cover plus an internal display. If you buy a nonflip phone, make sure it has a keypad lock that prevents inadvertent dialing--a helpful feature when you put the phone in a pocket or bag.
Whether you get a clamshell or candybar-style phone, check its ergonomics. Is it comfortable against your ear, and can you hear callers without constant adjustment? Can you use the phone with one hand? How about hands-free use: Can you comfortably hold the phone to your ear by scrunching your neck and shoulder? Also, look for placement of the headset jack; a jack located on top of the phone is often more convenient than one located on the side.
Size and weight: Part of what makes a phone easy to use is its portability. A typical nonflip phone weighs about 4 ounces and is about the size of an energy bar--5 inches long, 2 inches wide, and 1 inch thick. Anything above that is considered large. An exception is a PDA phone, which more closely resembles a PDA on steroids than a cell phone.
Battery life: Most new phones allow at least three hours of talk time and two to six days on standby. Some phones can last up to 14 days on standby. Keep in mind that usage affects battery life, as does the signal strength of your cellular service. A phone that constantly searches for signals will run itself down quickly. Depending on the phone, recharging the battery should take about an hour or longer. When you buy a phone, consider optional accessories such as a higher-capacity battery and a portable charging adapter for use in a car.
Screen: If you intend to send and receive text messages, surf the Web, or use the phone's organizer, make sure the screen is up to snuff. Six lines of text are sufficient for most folks; anything less will make your eyes--and your thumb--sore from scrolling. Some handsets let you adjust the font size to fit more text on the screen, but the more digits you pack in, the tinier they get. Consider a PDA phone if you plan to go online or send lots of messages; many models come with a large LCD.
An LCD's contrast and backlight strengths are also important. The phones we've seen show marked differences in viewing quality. If your phone allows you to adjust such settings, you can make text and graphics easily viewable--even in bright places. These days most phones offer color screens, which are easy on the eyes.
Keypad: If you can't figure out how to use certain functions on a phone within a few minutes (with or without consulting the manual), try another. The keypad layout and menu system should be intuitive. The buttons should be responsive and easy to press. Check out the navigation buttons on the keypad. A joystick-style knob on some phones can make navigating menus quick. Most handsets come with up/down and left/right arrow keys. Buttons that protrude slightly are much easier to use than flat or recessed keys.
Many PDA phones and a few cell phones come with a small QWERTY keyboard. The tiny keys may not suit everyone, but for those who need them, they're easier to use than a software-based keyboard on a touch-sensitive screen.
Voice communications and organizer: Mobile phones bombard you with call-management features--voice-activated calling, voice recording, phone books, call histories, speed dialing, and so on. Enabling some of the features (such as caller ID, call waiting, and three-way calling) depends on your service plan. Most phones also provide security features that can restrict incoming and outgoing calls, lock the keypad, and protect or mass-delete phone book entries. Some handsets also provide a speakerphone. Some even function as two-way radios, connecting you with others on the same carrier; and in many cases, such communications don't count as airtime--a great benefit for IT personnel and other roving staff.
If you want to talk on the phone hands-free (a must if you use the phone while driving), look for a model that comes with a headset or an earphone. If you don't want to mess with cords, consider a phone that supports Bluetooth; it allows you to pair it with a wireless Bluetooth headset.
Wireless data: Nearly all new cell phones are capable of doing tasks such as sending and receiving e-mail and IM, downloading custom ring tones and simple games, or connecting to the Internet (usually through a minibrowser that's designed to work best with text-only versions of popular sites like Amazon, Google, and Yahoo). Such features, however, are heavily dependent on your provider and your service plan. Note that you may only be able to send text messages or pictures to others who use the same network.
Going online while you're waiting for the elevator is a cool idea, but most phones connect at slow speeds: only up to 115 kbps on a GPRS network and up to 384 kbps on EDGE; 3G networks, such as EvDO, provide faster connections at up to 2 Mbps.
Key Service Provider Features
Coverage: Among the nationwide carriers, Cingular, Sprint Nextel, and Verizon cover the most U.S. cities. Not all networks are created equal, however. Service can be erratic even if a carrier claims to have coverage in an area; the quality of the reception varies, too. One way to find out about a carrier's network reliability is to try out the service and one of its phones. Nearly all nationwide carriers offer a trial period of up to 30 days where you pay for only the minutes you use. You should also poll friends and colleagues about their experiences. Find out how good the phone signal is at your home, office, or anywhere else you'll need to use it.
Plan type: If you do a lot of cross-country traveling, signing up for a national phone plan is best because it will let you send and receive calls anywhere in the United States (and even in parts of Canada) at no extra charge. A local or regional plan limits the areas where you can originate a call and still pull from your monthly pool of minutes. If you have a world phone and plan to use it in other countries, choose service with international roaming.
Minutes: When choosing a plan, it's best to overestimate the number of minutes you'll be using for every sent and received call. Because one carrier's definition of off-peak may be different from another's, ask the carrier to specify the times for its peak, off-peak, and weekend hours. Other service charges include a data plan (for e-mail, photos, IM, and Web access), three-way calling, and downloads.
Contract: Virtually all carriers offer discounted service fees if you commit to a specified period of time, usually two years, though one year is sometimes available. The longer the contract period, the lower the rate. If you break the agreement, you'll incur hefty fees.
Other services: There's almost always a fee for activating service to your phone or switching the service from your old phone to a new one. Look into phone replacement plans or extended warranties, both of which typically entitle you to a new phone if yours is lost, stolen, or goes kaput.
Next page: The Specs Explained
The Specs Explained
While a cell phone can make your life easier, just getting one can be a huge hassle. When you look at handsets and service plans, the sales reps may bombard you with a ton of terms and restrictions.
The two most important questions to ask yourself before you decide on a phone and plan are "How much will I use the phone?" and "Where will I use it?" These two questions will help determine how many minutes you need and whether to go with a local, regional, national, or international plan.
The service meter starts running the minute you place and receive calls. With a local service plan, you can make and receive calls from within your local area without so-called roaming charges being added; on a regional plan, you can call from a wider area without incurring additional charges; a national plan allows you to call from anywhere in the United States and some parts of Canada without additional charges; and an international plan lets you use your world phone stateside and in several other countries.
Many companies require that you buy a phone from them when you sign up. Some offer great discounts when you do so. In some cases, you can buy the phone from a third party and sign up for service with the carrier of your choice. (The prices for phones listed below reflect the full retail price of the phone without service plan. The service plan prices are monthly charges.)
Cell Phones
Feature Low End (free with rebate to $149) Average ($150 to $299) High End ($300 to $550)
Weight 4 to 6 ounces 3 to 5 ounces 3 to 6 ounces
An important consideration. Because you'll be carrying the phone, weight and size are fairly important. Generally, the more expensive the phone, the smaller and lighter it is. (The exception to this rule is a PDA phone.)
Battery life (talk and standby) 1.8 to 3 hours talk, 110 to 180 hours standby 2.5 to 4 hours talk, 130 to 200 hours standby 3 to 7 hours talk, 130 to 330 hours standby
An important consideration. This determines how long you can go without recharging, and you don't want to be stranded with a dead battery. Standby refers to battery life while phone is on, but not in use.
Capabilities and features SMS, MMS, IM, e-mail, limited Internet browser, Java or BREW support, color display SMS, MMS, IM, e-mail, Web access, Java or BREW support, color display, built-in camera, video playback and/or recording, voice dialing, voice recording, speakerphone, Bluetooth- or infrared-enabled, push-to-talk-capable, music playback, TV/video downloads, GPS SMS, MMS, e-mail, Web access, Java support, color display, built-in camera, video playback and/or recording, voice dialing, voice recording, speakerphone, Bluetooth- or infrared-enabled, music playback, TV/video downloads, GPS, PDA functions
Somewhat important. Today's phones allow you to do more than just talk. You can send and receive instant messages and even download listen to songs or and watch videos. Most carriers also support either Java or BREW games, which you download by having them sent "over the air" to your handset.
Wireless mode Single or Dual Single or Dual Single or Dual
Somewhat important. Dual-band phones work on both analog and digital networks. They provide far greater coverage because digital networks do not cover the entire nation. However, sound quality on analog networks is not as good, and you may have to pay additional fees if you use the analog network on a digital plan.
Band support Single- or dual-band Dual-, tri-, or quad-band Dual-, tri-, or quad-band
Somewhat important. he more bands a phone supports, the more frequencies it picks up. Quad-band phones, as their name suggests, operate across four frequency bands. Theoretically that means they provide better coverage than tri-, dual-, or single-band phones.
Service Plans
Feature Low End ($20 to $35) Recommended ($30 to $70) High End ($70 and up)
Plan type Local, regional, or national Local, regional, or national Regional, national, or international
An important consideration. The plan area determines where you can originate a call without incurring extra charges. Regional plans usually include the state you live in plus areas of nearby states. Some national plans include urban areas in Canada as well.
Anytime minutes per month 10 to 300 400 to 1200 750 and up
An important consideration. Service plans include a set number of minutes you can talk on the phone, during peak or off-peak hours, without extra charges. Most nationwide carriers provide free in-network calls, meaning you can call anyone on the same network as you without using up your monthly minutes. Many plans also offer additional night and weekend minutes with the monthly fee.
Cost per extra minute $0.40 to $0.45 $0.25 to $0.40 $0.25 to $0.35
Somewhat important. This is the rate you'll be billed per minute of usage after you've exceeded your monthly allotment of minutes.
Length of contract 1 to 2 years 1 to 2 years 1 to 2 years or month-to-month
Somewhat important. When you sign up for discounted service, you often must commit to remain in the service plan for a fixed time period. If you decide to leave the cellular service provider before the end of this period, you may be charged hefty fees to break your contract.
Extra features Voice mail, call waiting, caller ID, text or multimedia messaging, photo sharing, Web browsing, downloads Voice mail, call waiting, caller ID, text or multimedia messaging, photo sharing, Web browsing, downloads, e-mail, push-to-talk service Voice mail, call waiting, caller ID, text or multimedia messaging, photo sharing, Web browsing, downloads, e-mail, international roaming
A minor consideration. What additional services do you want included in your monthly charge? Do you want to send and receive photos or download ring tones and other content? If you plan to surf or use instant messaging services built into your phone, such as AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo Messenger, make sure you test the phone in the store before you buy.
Next page: Cell Phone Shopping Tips
Cell Phone Shopping Tips
Here are PC World's recommendations for cell phones and service plans that fit the needs of most users.
Service Plans
Get at least 150 anytime minutes: Unless you plan to use your phone only for emergencies, you'll quickly go through the minutes offered in a low-cost, low-minute plan--and get stuck paying exorbitant rates of up to 45 cents a minute for additional minutes.
Go national: Even if you don't travel extensively around the country, a national calling plan often offers the best mix of minutes, features, and cost. While local or regional plans may have more minutes included, most don't offer free long distance.
Phones
Get at least three to four hours of talk time: Make sure one battery charge on your phone covers at least that. This can save many headaches later.
Pick up a headset or earphone: Inexpensive hands-free ear-bud headsets let you safely converse while driving, working, or just walking. Some phones even allow you to set voice commands to dial frequently called numbers, so you rarely need to touch the keys.
Ask about E911: This year, cell phones should contain a feature allowing emergency services to track a handset to its exact location. Look for Enhanced 911 if you intend to use the phone for emergencies.
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/bguide/0,guid,7,00.asp
It's both smelly and life-threatening. But everyone who's anyone in the corporate entertainment and software communities wants some so they can smear it on their customers.
CRAP is, of course, short for, "Cancellation, Restriction, and Punishment". DRM, in other words. And DRM, in turn, is an acronym for Digital Restrictions Management 'copy protection'.
Although snake-oil companies such as SunnComm and Firs 4 Internet of Sony BMG rootkit scandal infamy are selling it, CRAP is a farce.
Anything which can be seen and/or heard can be copied by one means or another.
Texas IP lawyer Kenneth Nash sued Microsoft over its DRM activation program and lost when a judge in Houston ruled against him, says CNET News. So on Thursday, "he took his patent claim before a federal court here in hopes of a victory on appeal," says the story, going on:
"The dispute involves patent 6,449,645. It describes how to collect the unique ID ? such as a serial number or activation key - assigned to each computer in an Internet database, preferably without the user's knowledge, and checking for multiple copies of the same program running. That could let it flag two friends who were illegally running, say, a video game with the same activation key.
"If the software patent is found to be valid and to apply to Microsoft's software, other companies could be at risk. Adobe Systems says it uses software activation technology that 'uniquely' identifies the computer and sends the information 'to Adobe's Web server.' Symantec also uses product activation. And the patent is broader than just software; it also covers 'digital music, digital movies, multimedia or the like'."
So-called "patent trolls" who never use a patent except in litigation, "have drawn fire from Congress and companies like Hewlett-Packard and Intel," CNET says.
"Last week's narrowly averted shutdown of Research In Motion's BlackBerry service has also spurred calls for patent reform."
A decision is expected later this year.
Also See:
smelly - Apple and its C.R.A.P, March 4, 2006
life-threatening - Is CRAP life threatening?, March 8, 2006
CNET News - Lawyer insists Microsoft infringed antipiracy patent, March 9, 2006
p2p view / p2pnet: I don?t often buy things from online shops, but a couple of days ago I had the urge to track down a CD copy of an album I've been enjoying for several years on mp3. I never expected there to be any guilt associated with this, but sometimes these things hit you sidelong.
Jets To Brazil were a band I completely missed when they were alive and kicking butt - never even heard of them. But, during my WinMX days, cruising endlessly for new thrills, I happened to download a couple of random tunes of theirs alongside dozens of other bands I'd never heard of. So "Starry Configurations" and "I Typed For Miles" ended up on the CD-R equivalent of a mix tape (you can easily get a hundred songs onto a CD; an mp3-capable CD Walkman makes a pretty good low-budget jukebox).
After a few days or possibly even months of random play, I started to notice how those two tracks stood out. "I Typed For Miles", particularly, is a doozy: In a Naked Lunch/Shining-type scenario the poor bastard protagonist has holed himself up in a hotel room, labouring under the belief that "I must keep writing if I'm to be better than everyone else", his ankles wired to the table legs so that literally all he can do is type. It seethes with barely suppressed rage ("They're playing love songs on your radio tonight/ I don?t get those songs on mine"), and rocks like a horse.
So of course I downloaded the rest of the album - Orange Rhyming Dictionary - and found I'd unearthed not a lost or forgotten treasure, but a treasure I hadn?t even suspected existed: a subtle, supple, but almost completely straightforward Rock album bent out of shape by devlishly clever lyrics. The songs mainly touched on subjects close to my heart, other than prose-related self-validation of course: repression, revolution and failed relationships ("Take my name off of the lease/ You can even keep the name/ It never suited me" ? 'Sea Anemone'). The closest comparisons I can offer are the first Bear album, Disneytime, and Radiohead's The Bends (another record I failed to check out til later ? I spent most of 1995 wondering whether I really liked Caspar Brötzmann or not). If it sounds like I'm selling it to you, you're right. It has to do with the guilt.
It struck me this morning on my way to work. Ordering that CD was totally selfish of me. While I get the benefit of slightly improved sound quality (especially the opening track, which I never could find at a decent bitrate), and being able to look at the artwork, quote lyrics without having to Google them, and most importantly of all file it under 'J' in my collection, the band will get practically, or more likely absolutely, nothing. (I don?t mean to single out Jade Tree, the Jets' label, particularly; it's just the way the system works. The people who didn?t pay me for records I made were nice guys, too.)
There's no guilt in enjoying music you haven?t paid for, or none that I've experienced. I like Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" although I've never even downloaded it, let along bought it; it's a famous song, it gets sprung at you often enough in shops or on the radio, what would be the point in paying for it? Just enjoy it and move on.
But now I know that there is indeed guilt, tons of it, in buying music by bands you really love. What if Blake Schwarzenbach, who wrote all those songs I adore, is down on his luck somewhere, struggling to make ends meet, or just trying to finance his next project? What if he's right now having to choose which of his children gets to go to college? Or which he'll have to give up for adoption?
The tenner I gave to some Amazon wannabes could have gone straight to him. It might have made all the difference. Instead, I blew it on my own vanity, on wanting to have a plastic disk in my hand for a couple of minutes before I put it on a shelf. There'll be no smug satisfaction in doing that, now. I feel a fool.
I'm sorry, Blake. I will track you down. And next time I have some spare money, it's going straight into your PayPal account.
For now, the best I can offer is to make a really superb rip of that CD when it arrives, and put it somewhere for all to hear.
Chris Ovenden - Brighton, England
[Ovenden is a self-confessed technology freak who says he always ends up writing about culture, or who's perhaps a culture nut continually drawn towards the hi-tech. He plays guitar, builds web sites and teaches. He also runs thepeer.blogspot.com.]
p2p news / p2pnet: Chinese courts prosecuted more than 3,500 intellectual property cases, up 28% from the year before. And they, "punished 5,336 people, up 30 percent from the previous year, said the Supreme People's Court," quoted by Agence France-Presse.
Only 5 or 6% of the IPR cases involved foreign companies or foreigners, however, said Jiang Zhipei, chief justice of the intellectual property right tribunal at China's highest court.
"Oddly enough, the foreign press, the foreign government and foreign lawmakers complain a lot, but very few actually take legal measures in China," AFP has him saying, urging foreign companies "to take their cases to the court".
As long as, " American enterprises provide evidence and sue those who infringed their rights, the Chinese courts will protect them," he said.
Also See:
Agence France-Presse - Chinese courts step up piracy prosecutions, March 10, 2006
=====================
If you're Chinese and you're looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent website blocking outside of China.
Download it here and feel free to copy the zip and host it yourself so others can download it.
Woman pleads guilty in cheese hit man plot
February 28, 2006
Jessice Sandy Booth, 18, hatched the plot after she visited the home of the men, and mistook queso fresco -- a white, crumbly cheese common in Mexican cuisine.
But the hit man she hired turned out to be an undercover police officer.
"They asked her numerous times 'Do you really want to go through with this?'" prosecutor Paul Hagerman said. "They gave her numerous chances to back out, but she said she was serious. She said she needed the money for modeling school."
Booth pleaded guilty Monday to four counts of attempted first-degree murder and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. She would be eligible for parole after serving 20 percent of her sentence, but it generally isn't granted on first request for violent crimes.
Booth planned to take part in the murders, and went with a police officer to buy a handgun. She told investigators that she planned to make sure all possible witnesses were killed.
"Then they would have been murdered, too," Booth said about children or other bystanders in her statement to investigators. "If they would have been babies they would not have been able to talk and then they would not have been murdered."
One of the biggest and most complete giant squids ever found is on display at London's Natural History Museum.
Measuring a monstrous 8.62m (28ft), the animal was caught off the coast of the Falkland Islands by a trawler.
Researchers at the museum undertook a painstaking process to preserve the giant creature, which is now on show in a 9m- (30ft-) long glass tank.
Giant squid, once thought to be sea serpents, are very rarely seen and live at depths of 200-1,000m (650-3,300ft).
They can weigh up to a 1,000kg; the largest ever spotted measured a vast 18.5m and was found in 1880 off Island Bay in New Zealand.
"Most giant squid tend to be washed up dead on beaches, or retrieved from the stomach of sperm whales, so they tend to be in quite poor condition," explained Jon Ablett, the mollusc curator at the Natural History Museum who led preservation efforts.
As a result, finding such a large, complete specimen was something of a rarity, he said.
Archie the squid
The team nicknamed the creature Archie, after its Latin name Architeuthis dux, but it may have to revise this after finding out that the squid is probably female.
Scientists admit they know little about the largest of the squid
It took several months to prepare the squid for display.
"The first stage was to defrost it; that took about four days. The problem was the mantle - the body - is very thick and the tentacles very narrow, so we had to try to thaw the thick mantle without the tentacles rotting," Mr Ablett told the BBC News website.
The scientists did this by bathing the mantle in water, whilst covering the tentacles in ice packs, after which they injected the squid with a formol-saline solution to prevent it from rotting.
The team then needed to find someone to build a glass tank which could not only hold the huge creature, but could leave the squid accessible for future scientific research, and they decided to draw upon the knowledge of an artist famed for displaying preserved dead animals.
"We contacted Damien Hirst's group after seeing their animals preserved in formalin. They put us in touch with a company who could make these tanks," explained Mr Ablett.
The squid now resides in a glass tank, filled to the brim with preservative solution, and is one of 22 million specimens that can be seen as part of the behind-the-scenes Darwin Centre tour of the Natural History Museum.
The light bulbs in 10 Downing Street are being changed for low-energy versions as part of a National Science Week environmental campaign.
National Science Week (NSW), a 10-day celebration of science, engineering and technology, is launched today with a strong emphasis on preventing climate change. The event, organised by the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA), runs from 10-19 March.
This year, NSW is promoting individual responsibility for climate change with its ?Click for the Climate? online pledge, allowing people to see how much they will reduce their carbon dioxide emission by and how much has been pledged across the country.
?Last year, over half a million people took part in National Science Week?? said Roland Jackson, Chief Executive of the BA. ?If they all just replaced one ordinary light bulb in their home with an energy saving bulb, then National Science Week would have cut down carbon dioxide emissions by over 240 tonnes. People say they can?t make a difference ? this shows that they clearly can.?
Prime Minister Tony Blair said, ?I am pleased to support Click for the Climate and will be turning down the thermostat by one degree to reduce my personal energy usage. From 1 April, all flights taken by Ministers and civil servants will be carbon neutral. This continues the precedent we set by making the G8 Gleneagles conference last year entirely carbon neutral. In addition, Downing St already sources 75% of our electricity from green suppliers, and as many light bulbs as possible have been changed over to energy efficient ones.?
p2p news view / p2pnet: In 2003, a group of Illinois parents sued their local school to stop them from installing Wi-Fi - citing health concerns and using rather specious scientific arguments. Last month we reported that one Canadian University banned Wi-Fi on campus, the College's president likening Wi-Fi to second hand-smoke.
Now Toronto's public health department wants to investigate potential health issues stemming from the city's plan to build a city-wide Wi-Fi network, according to the Toronto Star. Officials say they simply want to learn more about any potential risks such a system could pose.
For the record, not a single legitimate study has concluded that Wi-Fi or 3G poses any serious health risks. Health officials will realize this when they dig deeper, but some locals remain worried. "I do not want my daughter exposed to this unwanted health risk," one concerned parent writes in to the Star. "Why should we all become guinea pigs?"
"Cordless phones, garage door openers, baby monitors - there's a lot of stuff that has used this spectrum for a long time," says Dave Dobbin, president of project planners Toronto Hydro Telecom. "If something concrete comes along and says this is bad, we will take immediate action at that time."
Hydro Corporation is Toronto's largest municipal electrical utility, and the plan to wire the city would be the largest of its kind in Canada. Hydro purchased all of the city's light-poles last year for $60 million. The plan is to perch transmitters and receivers on every fourth of fifth lamp-post, and use a Wi-Fi mesh-networking solution.
Perhaps concerned individuals could force their children to roam the streets wearing mobile Faraday cages?
Karl Bode - dslreports
Also See:
Canadian school bans Wi-Fi, February 22, 2006
Netflix meets used-CD store as 'La La' nears launch
Not many start-up businesses have been inspired by a rock band, but Fountains of Wayne is indirectly responsible for a newly launched music discovery and trading community called La La.
Company co-founder Bill Nguyen has been friends with the band since before the group's "Stacy's Mom" was a hit. They often commiserated over how online and physical retailers offer such a limited selection and how hard it is to discover new music.
Nguyen already had considerable success creating technology-based companies, so he harnessed his experience to start La La. Then he raised $9 million in first-round funding from Ignition Partners, Bain Capital and other investors.
"Music should be a communal social experience, but in today's world 40 percent of music is purchased at places like Best Buy," Nguyen said.
At first glance, LaLa.com looks like just a trading post. The service matches members' "have" and "want" lists to facilitate exchanges for a $1 fee plus 49 cents for the prepaid shipping envelope. Members must sell an album to buy one.
Nguyen quipped that the price is the same as buying one song from iTunes or most other digital music services but then you get the rest of the album for a penny.
If the service can't find a match for a desired release, it offers to sell the release either as a physical CD or as a digital download at regular retail prices.
La La only deals in complete albums, however. "Selling one song at a time is like selling just one chapter of a book," Nguyen said.
Another unusual aspect of La La is its monetary support of musicians. Nguyen said the company reserves 20 percent of all trading revenues to financially reward those who made the music "with immense admiration and gratitude to musicians."
He also wants to implement a plan to encourage artists to post their own playlists by paying them 10 percent of any sales thus inspired.
Nguyen hasn't worked out distribution details yet but is in discussions with artists, labels and industry groups to devise a system.
The community aspects are equally important to Nguyen, who likens La La to an online version of a college dorm conversation.
Recommendations are based on trades and playlists, and Nguyen said the service's accuracy improves with time and frequency. He is more enthusiastic about personal recommendations, however. Members are encouraged to review albums and to open up their playlists and collections for others to browse.
La La is now in a test phase with membership on an invitation-only basis, limited to 1,000 people. Nguyen said its 250 members have traded more than 12,000 CDs since November and that nearly 2 million titles are in its listings. It is scheduled to go live in the next few months.
For those concerned about La La's legality, Nguyen cites the first-sale doctrine established in the U.S. Copyright Act as proof that trading used CDs is a legitimate activity.
Members also are reminded that they lose the right to keep any copies they have made once they get rid of the original. "I ask you to do your part by doing the right thing: remove songs from your iPod or PC if you've agreed to send the CD to another member," Nguyen states in an online message to members.
Nguyen is best known for founding Seven, a software company enabling mobile e-mail access on a wide variety of mobile phones, and unified messaging specialist Onebox. Onebox merged with Phone.com in a deal worth $850 million.
It's no secret that video games are currently a target for politicians, generally because of violent content. At a conference on game marketing this week, John Geoghegan laid out his 12-step plan to make gaming more socially acceptable. Geoghegan, a former marketing VP for LucasArts, told the assembled masses that the gaming business is "in deep doodoo" and needs to do a better job of selling itself. His plan is this:
1. Talk up the rating system. The goal here is to inform people that videogames are rated just like movies, and no one is suggesting that the federal government start regulating those.
2. Extol the virtues of video gaming. Let your friends and neighbors know all the wonderful things that videogames can do for you. Geohegan used examples from the book Everything Bad is Good for You to make his claim that videogames can boost reflexes and intelligence.
3. Do research. Game developers should partner with respected universities to conduct accurate testing on the good and bad effects of videogames and publicize the results. (If you're wondering why the step comes after the step in which you tell everyone about the benefits of videogames, you're not the only one.)
4. Remind people that youth culture is often opposed by those in authority. The obvious example of this is rock 'n roll, and Geohegan believes that videogames are just the latest example of the trend. His point is that new forms of culture usually don't turn out to destroy society after all.
5. Encourage both moderation and good parenting. Just because people like to game doesn't mean they should do it round-the-clock. Parents who are concerned about what their children are playing ought to get involved and start making decisions about what is and is not appropriate; in other words, they should start being parents.
6. Benchmark against sex and violence in other media. Gamers should point out the frequency of sex, violence, and profanity on television and in the movies, thereby proving that videogames aren't so bad after all.
7. Embrace the Constitution. Gamers need to wrap themselves in the flag and start talking more about freedom of speech.
8. Lobby. Find some willing congressman and start throwing cash their way.
9. Get good spokespeople. Find gamers who are also respected for their work (like Peter Jackson) to helped promote the industry and change the stereotype of gamers as children.
10. Show people the best games. Make sure people know that there's more to video gaming than dropping opponents with head shots. Tell them about the wonders of Guitar Hero, Mario Kart, Katamari Damacy, etc.
11. Put the issue in perspective. Eighty percent of all games are not rated M, so the extreme violence so often referenced when talking about videogames only occurs in a small section of the market.
12. Be proud. Gamers should not feel shame about their hobby, and they should get better at explaining to friends and neighbors just why they enjoy it so much.
Most of the ideas certainly makes sense, though some people will suddenly be turned off by the idea of lobbying. The idealist in me asks: Is throwing cash at Senators really the best way for gamers to get the message out? And the realist answers: No, but it might keep the feds from regulating the industry.
Game companies getting involved with universities to do research sounds like an excellent idea, so long as they don't lean on the research teams to produce positive results. This is their business, after all, and it would be nice to see manufacturers take an interest in finding out what affects games really do and do not have, especially on children, instead of pumping out truly violent games and simply asserting that they cause no problems.
As for benchmarking sex and violence against other media, it might be effective at keeping regulation at bay, but it's not really a positive argument for video games. It's like getting busted for throwing rocks at a house, then saying in defense that you weren't the only one. It's true, but no one's going to look at you any better because of it.
Still, Geoghegan's ideas sound a call to arms among gamers that hasn't been heard for quite a while. Gaming is no longer a niche business, and with massive growth has come the attention of the culture warriors. Gamers need to do a better job of convincing these people that there's more to gaming than bloodshed and pixelated sexual content.
IBM breaks speed records with new version of file system
3/10/2006 1:49:12 PM, by Jeremy Reimer
Yesterday, IBM and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced the results of "Project Fastball," a performance test of the latest release (2.3) of their General Parallel File System. GPFS was invented by IBM in 2001 as an experiment in clustered file systems, where data is accessed over multiple computers at once. Most existing file systems are designed for a single server environment, and adding more file servers does not improve performance. GPFS provides higher input/output performance by "striping" blocks of data from individual files over multiple disks, and reading and writing these blocks in parallel.
"Computing capability has been growing very fast, but the file system capacity has not kept up," IBM engineer Dr. Rama Govindaraju said.
Project Fastball achieved a new speed record of over 102 gigabytes per second of sustained read/write performance to a single file. The record was achieved using 416 individual storage controllers combined with 104 Power-based eServer p575 nodes (each p575 node has eight dual-core 2.2 GHz POWER5+ processors).
The resulting file system was a mind-boggling 1.6 petabytes in size (a petabyte is roughly a million gigabytes, depending on whether the binary (10245) or SI (10005) definition is used) In comparison, the total of Google's storage is reported to be between 1.8PB and 5PB. The performance of the system was maintained with up to 1,000 clients accessing the file system.
While the achievement is rather spectacular (and gave me a chance to play with large numbers, always a fun exercise), will it have any real-world applications? David Turek, vice president of Deep Computing at IBM, thinks it will:
"Advances at the upper reaches of high performance computing such as these often find powerful applications in the broad spectrum of government, industrial and commercial arenas," said Turek "IBM's close working relationship with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has resulted in another significant achievement with the potential to improve the lives of people everywhere."
Advances in the "big-iron" arena do have a tendency to drift down to commodity computers given enough time. Superscalar execution (fetching, executing, and returning results from more than one instruction at a time using a single clock cycle) and out-of-order execution were both implemented in mainframe and minicomputer systems many years ago, but today are a fundamental element of microcomputer CPUs. Hardware-based RAID controllers, which were once the domain of extremely expensive high-end industrial computers, can now be found on many commodity PC motherboards. As esoteric as a petabyte appears today, remember that only a few years ago a terabyte (1,000 or 1,024 gigabytes) was an equally exotic creature, yet many Ars readers now have a TB or more of storage at home.
IBM's GPFS is currently a proprietary system, available for AIX and some distributions of Linux (it has been tested on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 and 4.0, and SUSE Linux ES 8.0 and 9.0). Pricing is not specified on the web site, but you know that such cutting-edge technology won't come cheap. Although it is not open-source software as such, IBM is offering access to GPFS source code to clients.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060310-6362.html
Ever since Apple decided to switch from PowerPC to Intel, there has been one group of people trying to get Mac OS X to run on non-Apple x86 hardware and another attempting to get Windows to boot on a Mac. The first group has seen some success, as with a little digging and a lot of hacking, it is possible to get Mac OS X 10.4.5 running on some commodity PC hardware. Not so with Windows on Apple systems; XP has been a no-go, and it now looks as if Vista won't work either.
In a scene difficult to imagine a year ago, Apple Senior Software Architect Cameron Esfahani spoke at the just-concluded Intel Developers Forum. During his address, he said that he didn't think Intel Macs would be capable of running Vista. That's because Microsoft will not be supporting EFI in the 32-bit version of Windows Vista. At another IDF session, Andrew Ritz, a development manager at Microsoft, said that EFI support for 32-bit systems will not be included at the launch of Microsoft's next operating system. 64-bit support will come first, likely with the release of Longhorn Server.
News of the lack of EFI support in Vista will dampen the hopes of Mac owners anxious to natively run Windows on their new MacIntels. The release of the Core Duo iMac brought with it a frenzy of activity in an attempt to get Windows XP along with betas of Vista to install. Despite the enticement of an over US$12,000 reward for the first person to get XP to boot on a Mac, all efforts have proven fruitless.
With VM software so cheap (although not yet available in a native version for Intel Macs), why not just run Windows or Linux in a VM? That's an attractive solution for some, and with both Windows and Mac OS X being x86-native operating systems the performance hit of a VM should be farily minimal.
Once a 64-bit version of Vista with EFI support ships, installing it on a Conroe should be a possibility. Still the prospect of dual booting beckons like the sirens' song to Odysseus. Some want to do it just to show it can be done, much like Linux fans will try to get that OS running on a toaster oven. I fall into another camp.
At some point, I'll be replacing my Power Macintosh G5 with a new Mac tower, presumably with a Conroe inside. My hopes are that the considerably smaller cooling needs of the Conroe versus the PowerPC 970 will result in there being room for more than two hard drives in this future Mac. I would have Mac OS X on one drive, Windows on another, and Linux on the third. Using Intel's VT virtualization technology, I'd be able to have all three running "native" on my Mac, and at the same time.
Unfortunately, that scenario does not look plausible in the near future. In the interim, I'll probably be upgrading my Shuttle system while saving my pennies for a new Mac. Still, a geek can dream, can't he?
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060310-6361.html
Amazon proceeding with plan to sell digital movies
3/10/2006 10:58:10 AM, by Ken "Caesar" Fisher
Amazon is reportedly in talks with major movie studios to secure their blessings (and permission) for an online movie download service. Unnamed sources are saying that the company is negotiating with Paramount, Universal and Warner Brothers with an eye towards opening the doors on a new service perhaps as early as this summer. While the buzz has apparently made it to both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal today, Amazon's desires started to become apparent in January.
Amazon's plans are hush-hush right now, and for good reason. Everyone, it seems, is sprinting to sell video online. This is especially true for movies, which have become the forbidden fruit of the video sales category; sources have told me that the studios are quite resistant to the idea of selling movies online. The reasons are several, but ultimately most lead back to the same boogeymen... those that speak in "yarr" and "argh." But the studios also like their little shiny discs, and that's where Amazon has a leg up on the competition. The company doesn't want to compete against traditional sales, but augment them.
As we reported in January, Amazon is considering a "try before you buy model," where one could download or stream a movie for a fee, and apply that fee as a credit towards the purchase price of the corresponding DVD (or BD or HD DVD), should the content tickle your fancy. Another plan is to provide free downloadable versions along with regular DVD purchases, to draw in those who would rather swing by the closest Wal-Mart or FYE for their movie needs, because they just can't stomach waiting a couple of days for their DVDs to be delivered. (Comcast has considered a similar idea, but they're tying it to the far more limited pay per view distribution model: order PPV movie, get DVD in the mail a week later.)
Publicly or behind closed doors, Amazon has been paying more than lip service to the promise of digital downloads. The company has officially announced both Amazon Pages and Amazon Upgrade, two services aimed at augmenting traditional book sales with downloadable portions or online copies. In a way, the company's movie plans aren't that much different: bring the best of both the traditional and the digital experience to customers, and hope that the end result is a positive customer experience that leads them back to Amazon again and again.
Elusive movies
While the online sale of movie downloads seems like a no-brainer, no one has pulled it off yet. Microsoft launched commercial video downloads in March of 2005, branded as the "MSN Video Downloads" service. While some had hoped to see MSN Video downloads turn into a market leader, it has remained largely quiet, and has been seemingly ignored. iTunes started carrying commercial video later in the year, to much success. Movies are still missing from the line-up, however. As it stands, "buy to own" movies from the big studios are nowhere to be found online. While nearly everyone expects to see Hollywood's offerings on the iTunes Music Store sooner or later, Amazon may have a trick up its sleeve with its plans to augment traditional sells rather than replace them.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060310-6357.html
Microsoft, Verizon to offer free Xbox Live weekend
3/10/2006 12:03:42 PM, by Ken "Caesar" Fisher
Microsoft has announced the first of many "free weekends" for Xbox Live. Sponsored by Verizon, Microsoft will open up "Gold-level" (read: full) access to Xbox Live from March 31 through April 2, 2005. During that time anyone will be able to connect to Xbox Live and enjoy the benefits of membership and other events planned by both Microsoft and Verizon.
The event will feature Xbox Live Arcade tournaments, "Win and Play" contests, and a giveaway of 1 million "Microsoft points" that can be used to purchase content in the Xbox Live Marketplace. Verizon will use the opportunity to promote its DSL service.
"This blend of technology?Xbox 360 and a Verizon broadband connection?gives gamers the best possible online experience," said Jerri DeVard, senior vice president of national marketing and brand management for Verizon. "We think that providing gamers with exposure to this amazing service combination will change the way they view their Xbox 360 and gaming in general. Verizon is proud to deliver the first-ever Free Xbox Live Gold Weekend."
Since the launch of the Xbox 360, Microsoft has been beaming with pride over its Xbox Live service. Now in its second generation, the service is considered essential to the Xbox's long-term success, and it has been a major differentiator between the Xbox and the PlayStation. All of that is set to change now that Sony is planning a similar service for the PlayStation 3, but the momentum is firmly in Microsoft's corner.
Xbox Wild
Microsoft claims that their Xbox Live service has over 2 million customers, and that over half of all Xbox 360 owners have connected with the service. This repeats the claim made by Bill Gates at this year's Consumer Electronics Shows in Las Vegas: people are unpacking their new consoles and connecting to the service in droves. The original Xbox is believed to have seen about 10% of its users converted to Xbox Live subscribers, so "half" would be quite an improvement.
But the champagne should remain on ice for now. Although the service appears to be starting off strong, several factors account for this in part. As I noted during CES, current Xbox 360 owners can be described as early adopters, so it only stands to reason that such fans of the platform will adopt Xbox Live in higher-than-normal percentages. Then there's the fact that the Xbox 360 comes with a free Silver membership, providing messaging and downloads, but not the ability to play many games online. Technically, these people are "connecting" to the service as well, but they're not paying any additional monthly cost to do so. On top of that, the Xbox 360 also includes a 30-day trial of the Gold membership, which is usually US$50/year.
None of this necessarily deflates Xbox Live's successes, and the advent of free weekends certainly signals the companies faith in its service. Microsoft clearly believes that the more eyes that come to the service, the more subscribers they'll get at the end of the day. And they're not unwise, either. Gaming subscriptions are on a steady incline, with "massively multiplayer online" games seeing tremendous growth over the last year. While Xbox Live isn't an MMO, it's yet another place to drop that elusive "disposable income" all in the name of entertainment.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060310-6358.html
