Google clamps down on 'malvertising'

Google has made several enhancements to its anti-malvertising site to help its ad network customers prevent attempts to distribute malware through advertising.
The web giant launched an initial custom search engine at the beginning of the year, which is designed to allow ad networks to perform quick background checks on prospective advertisers to minimise the risk of malware.
"It checks a variety of independent, third party sites that track possible attempts to distribute malware through advertising," said a statement on the site.
"Its search results should not be considered the last word on a prospective customer, but one potential source of helpful information. If a party you're researching comes up in a search result here, we recommend you take a closer look at the party in question before rendering judgment."
Now the Anti-Malvertising.com site has been enhanced with additional educational materials relevant to "all web publishers, ad operations teams and internet users", according to Google.
Among the recommendations for publishers is that they always perform comprehensive QA on creatives and that they avoid ad networks without strong anti-malware measures in place.
Also on the site are incident response tactics for small to medium sized publishers, including sample scripts for customer service and notifying ad networks and other third parties in the event of malware being discovered.
There are links to free online security scanning services, recommended further reading and forums.
"The world of online advertising, like the offline world, is a dynamic environment that contains a diverse mix of people with different goals—both good and bad," the site reads. "This website focuses on malvertising (the threat of malware being distributed through advertising) and how you can help prevent it. "

IBM announces Lotus support for Office 2007 docs

IBM has added support for Office 2007 file formats to the newest version of its Lotus Symphony software, promising customers an economically viable alternative to other application licences.
The firm said that the increased support for file formats within the free-to-use Lotus software provides users with a legitimate alternative to Microsoft's Office product, and suggested that its use could contribute to enterprise cost-efficiencies running into the millions.
IBM explained that, by using free document processing software, firms could enjoy many of the benefits of the alternative, without having to pay for the privilege.
For example, Microsoft Office 2007 files can be imported into the Symphony suite with ease, meaning that users can access, edit and use documents without subscribing to the paid-for software.
Other improvements to Symphony include data tools, such as the ability to drill down and analyse information, and mail merge and printing tools designed to help businesses contact customers.
"IBM is delivering on its commitment to free businesses and consumers from having to pay licensing fees over and over just to access their own personal or company information," said Kevin Cavanaugh, vice president at Lotus Software.
"Now, it will be much harder to justify paying Office licensing fees when you can preserve and access your Office documents for free using Lotus Symphony."
The free Lotus Symphony version 1.3 is available now via the web. Alternatively it is shipped as standard with every copy of Lotus Notes and Lotus Foundations.

Research tool seeks out conflicts

Researchers at Intel are developing a new tool which deliberately seeks out conflicts on the internet.
Known as "Think Link," the experimental project automatically seeks out information that is contradictory to that which the user is currently viewing. When browsing the web, a browser plug-in presents links to additional viewpoints on disputed information or claims.
Researchers suggest that the project could be especially useful to activists looking to gather the latest information on a hotly-debated topic. They also suggest that the technology could simply be used by everyday users who are sceptical about the information they read online.
Aside from presenting arguments on an issue and presenting opposing viewpoints, the tool also allows users to vote on contradictory information as a means of better refining both sides of the argument.
The Think Link tool is part of a larger project by researchers at Intel's Berkeley Lab to study Confrontational Computing.
Researchers from both Intel and the University of California Berkeley are examining ways that people use the internet to conduct debate and the tools which can further aid them in discussing information online.

Woman gets $1.9 million fine for file sharing

The Recording Industry Association of America has been awarded a $1.92 million decision against a woman accused of sharing music online.
A jury ruled that Jammie Thomas-Rasset violated record label copyrights by downloading 24 songs from file-sharing service Kazaa. The jury awarded the labels statutory damages of $80,000 per song, totalling some $1.92 million.
The case was first made news in 2007 when a jury had originally ordered Thomas-Rasset to pay a fine of $224,000. The decision was later thrown out due to the judges mis-direction of the jury and a re-trial was ordered.
The case has been held up as a landmark battle between the RIAA and those accused of downloading music. Most of the accused have settled out of court and few cases have actually gone to trial.
However, the case is likely far from being officially decided according to experts. Electronic Frontier Foundation senior attorney Fred von Lohmann noted that the case would likely be appealed.
"Given the size of the statutory damages award, Ms. Thomas-Rasset's legal team will likely be seriously considering a constitutional challenge to the verdict," wrote von Lohmann.
von Lohmann noted previous cases in which similarly large damages were overturned by higher courts as 'grossly excessive' along with Supreme Court rulings which question the authority of juries to award damages in similar cases.

Users fess up to illegally copied video

A recent study has found that 8 per cent of consumers have admittedly watched an illegally downloaded video file.
The study, conducted by research firm Futuresource Consulting, surveyed consumers in the US, UK, France and Germany.
The researchers found that viewers were still largely unwilling to pay additional costs for video online, driving users to other offerings such as ad-supported services or illegal downloads.
"There is a huge appetite out there for free on-demand TV, but levels of paid-for activity are still low," noted FutureSource head of global content Alison Casey.
"In many cases, the propagation of new business models is key to the industry, with site location, navigation and unsuitable meta tagging still causing major problems for consumers; in many cases, the people we surveyed said they would watch more online content if the user interface and search facilities were improved.".
The interest in on-demand television packages was especially high in the UK. Researchers credited the success of the BBC iPlayer in noting that as many as 80 per cent of pay TV subscribers were taking advantage of additional online content from their service providers.
Users in the UK were also found to be the largest consumers of online video, with some two-thirds of users admitted to having viewed a movie or television programme online.
Researchers suggested that ad-supported models could be the way for content providers to go in the future. While few users are willing to pay for television or movie content, 99 per cent said that they would watch ad-supported online content.
"The next five years will be a period of major transition for the entertainment industry and there will be a significant shift in who receives a share of the profits, with a raft of digital platforms and the rise of on-demand content vying for rights and advertising revenues," said Casey.
"The national boundaries which used to govern broadcasting are now being challenged by the global nature of the internet, as was the case with e-commerce fifteen years ago."

Microsoft to detail new consumer security offering

Details are starting to emerge about Microsoft's forthcoming security product for consumers to replace the cancelled Windows Live OneCare subscription service.
Microsoft Security Essentials, previously codenamed Morro, is due to be released as a public beta on 23 June, but will only be available to testers in the US, Israel, Brazil and China. Like OneCare, Security Essentials will be free to Windows users.
A full version is set to be released sometime in the second half of 2009, according to Microsoft. This will be available in 10 languages across the UK and western Europe, plus Japan, New Zealand, Canada, Australia and Singapore, as well as those markets covered by the beta release.
Few details have been officially disclosed, but Microsoft said in a statement that Security Essentials is the "no-cost anti-malware service that provides real-time protection to address the ongoing security needs of a Windows PC, helping to protect it from viruses, spyware and other malicious threats".
Other reports indicate that Security Essentials is based on the core technology in Microsoft's Forefront business security products, but lacks the management capabilities.

Google updates Books service

Google has remodelled its Google Books digital library service.
The company has added a number of new features to the service in hopes of making the site easier to navigate and titles easier to share.
New additions to the site include the ability for users to view pages within books and magazines as thumbnails. Other new features add the ability to view title contents as a dropdown menu and improved search features.
The company has also added the ability for users to embed previews of books on third party sites and blogs.
"I'm excited to announce that we're rolling out changes to Google Books that give readers and book lovers everywhere new ways to interact with the words and images contained within the books we've brought online," wrote Google Books product manager Brandon Badger.
"We've also made it easier for users to share previews of their favorite books on their blogs or websites."
The new features are the latest in what has been a tumultuous stretch for the Google Books project. Late last year the company settled a long-running legal battle with a group of publishers.
With the project looking to move forward, the company inked a deal with Sony to provide titles for the Reader digital book device.
A new threat for the project emerged earlier this month, however, when the US Department of Justice opened an inquiry into the 2008 settlement.

HP expands Halo to web presentations

HP has announced several changes to its Halo video conferencing platform, including the introduction of webcasting which allows the telepresence system to be used as a delivery platform.
The webcasting service allows customers to present up to three telepresence endpoints simultaneously to create live or on-demand content directly from the Halo telepresence endpoints, and then stream the content to employees or external audiences on any web-enabled PC or laptop.
All types of Halo endpoints can be used to conduct the webcasts, and the service includes everything from planning and scripting, to video production, editing and distribution.
A customisable media portal can be set up to allow for content such as live question and answer sessions via instant messaging or phone, as well as surveys and presentation slides.
HP is also moving the Halo business unit into its ProCurve Networking group to help integrate the two sets of services more tightly, and will bring together all components of video collaboration, including networking options and services, as well as providing a single point of reference for all of the technologies.
"Customers looking for integrated unified communications and collaboration solutions that include endpoint technologies, network management and comprehensive services can turn to HP," said Ken Crangle, vice president and general manager of the Halo business unit.
"Together, these developments and offerings are aimed at helping customers reduce operating costs, lower demands on IT staff, extend their reach and facilitate better business outcomes."
HP also unveiled a new online video series offering information for small and medium sized enterprises.
Insigh ts from the Experts: Technology Tips for Small Business provides advice on a range of IT topics, including environmental issues, mobilisation, remote access, online business and back-up and disaster recovery.

EU demands greater input into internet governance

The European Commission is calling for more transparency and accountability in internet governance in the run up to the expiration of contracts held by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann).
Icann is responsible for the management of the internet's main resources, and its existing contract with the US government expires at the end of September.
The Commission is suggesting that any future contracts should be broadened to include involvement by more parties.
"There are 1.5 billion internet users worldwide, 300 million of whom are in the European Union's 27 member states. Future internet governance arrangements should reflect the key role that the global network has come to play for all countries," said the Commission in a statement.
Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, added that Icann is approaching an historic point in its development.
"Will it become a fully independent organisation, accountable to the global internet community? Europeans would expect so, and this is what we will push for. I call on the US to work together with the European Union to achieve this, " she said.
The Commission made the suggestions in a document entitled Internet governance: the next steps, which recommends that Icann, or another private body, should be externally accountable to reflect the global nature of the internet.
"As the Joint Project Agreement is ending now, the Commission believes that Icann should become universally accountable, not just to one government, but to the global internet community," it explained.

HP and Alcatel-Lucent hook up on converged IT and telecoms

HP and Alcatel-Lucent have announced a 10-year alliance designed to boost enterprise use of converged IT and telecoms.
The companies said that the global agreement would involve a joint marketing of solutions and tools, in an attempt to boost enterprise use of next-generation infrastructures.
HP and Alcatel-Lucent will also offer services designed to guide companies through the adoption of new infrastructures.
The collaboration is currently in the planning stages, but will see the firms co-market and co-develop solutions in the telecoms area. The joint solutions are expected to be offered to enterprises through HP resellers or as managed services.
"We expect that customers will be able to create new business opportunities and greater efficiencies from this alliance," said Mark Hurd, HP chairman and chief executive.
"By combining our deep expertise in IT and communications, [we] will help customers transform their technology needs into a competitive edge."
Alcatel-Lucent products in areas such as IP telephony, unified communications, mobility, security and contact centres will be integrated with HP IT solutions, the firms said.
The intention is to deliver end-to-end solutions pitched at enterprises and service providers.
"Today's global alliance represents a major transformational deal that will deliver great benefits to our customers," added Ben Verwaayen, Alcatel-Lucent chief executive.
"IT and telecoms are coming together in an unprecedented way, and I am delighted to see how we can speed up innovation in our industry. I am also confident that HP will deliver Alcatel-Lucent's best-in-class solutions in terms of performance and cost for our IT needs."

EMC and NetApp fight to buy Data Domain

The ongoing battle to take over Data Domain between EMC and NetApp has taken a new turn with tow legal challenges that could muddy the waters still further.
EMC outbid NetApp's offer of $1.5bn to buy the data deduplication vendor with a $1.8bn bid, but was trumped by NetApp who counteroffered $1.9bn. However, EMC insists its offer is superior based on stock valuations and has asked the Federal Trade Commission to examine the bid.
However, two new lawsuits threaten to complicate the process further. Legal firm Levi & Korsinsky has filed a class action suit against the directors of Data Domain, suggesting that the NetApp bid it accepted was not in the best interests of shareholders.
“Data Domain's shareholders would receive $30.00 to be paid in a combination of cash and NetApp stock,” the legal firm said.
“In addition, NetApp offered positions on its board to certain Data Domain officers and there are rumors that the Data Domain CEO Slootman could be the next CEO of NetApp. This raises questions as to whether the sales process conducted by the Board was fair and open.”
In addition the Detroit Police & Fire Retirement System has filed a separate lawsuit over the takeover.
"Data Domain's board of directors violated their fiduciary duties by approving the original and the restructured deals with NetApp, both of which give NetApp an improper bidding advantage in the form of a termination fee, a no-shop/no-talk provision and matching rights," said the Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann law firm in a statement.
"The board granted each of these deal protections before any value-maximizing process took place, in a blatant effort to ensure that their favored merger partner is Data Domain's ultimate acquirer."
Data Domain is such a prize because of its success in the field of eliminating data duplication, which is becoming a massive storage problem. As backups are made more frequently the amount of duplicated data grows and is largely useless.
For example, if a manager sends a PowerPoint presentation to twenty colleagues via email then all of them are backed up. Being able to eliminate all but one frees up 95 per cent of the space the files would otherwise have occupied, necessitating less investment in storage.

Adobe posts 41 per cent loss

Flash and PDF supplier Adobe has posted a 41 per cent drop in profits since last year, but the firm said it was pleased with its performance.
Adobe earned $126.1m (£77.3m) or 24 cents per share in the last three months, ending 29 May, a sharp decline from the net income of $214.9m (£131.7m)generated in the same period the previous year.
Although the firm’s revenue decreased by 21 per cent to $704.7m (£432m), the figure actually beat Wall Street estimates.
“We are pleased with the solid profit margin and earnings results we were able to deliver in quarter two,” said Shantanu Narayen, Adobe president and chief executive.
“We continue to invest in our key business initiatives which will drive long-term revenue growth once the economy improves.”
Adobe’s flagship product Creative Suite, which includes PhotoShop and Illustrator, is falling in customer demand but continues to occupy a large chunk of the company’s investment.
At the end of last year the company announced plans to cut 600 jobs in an attempt to drive through efficiencies.

Microsoft's Bing continues to roll

Microsoft's Bing search engine has shown steady growth for the second straight week, according to researchers.
Data from internet research firm comScore shows that the Microsoft search engine has climbed up to a 12.1 per cent share of search results over the work week of 8-12 June. Over that time, Bing racked up a 16.7 per cent daily search penetration level.
Those numbers are up from an 11.3 per cent search result share the prior week and a 9.1 per cent share in the week prior to Bing's release.
"It appears that Microsoft Bing has continued to generate interest from the market for the second consecutive week,” said comScore senior vice president Mike Hurt.
"These early data reflect a continued positive market reaction to Bing in the initial stages of its launch."
The news of Bing's early success should be welcome to Microsoft. The company has been hoping to raise its search presence on the net in hopes of cashing in on the lucrative search advertising market currently dominated by Google.
The company has made in-house projects such as Bing the centrepiece of its search strategy ever since a deal to acquire Yahoo fell through last summer.

Online world pitches in for Iran protests

A major international online effort is emerging to aid those protesting Iran's presidential elections.
The campaign has enlisted activists and IT experts alike in an effort to help users within Iran safely and confidentially post information about the recent protests over the country's disputed election.
One of the groups taken part in the effort is Anonymous. The online activist group best known for its clashes with the Church of Scientology said that it would be providing a forum which would "serve as an avenue of communication between Iranians, their families abroad and other interested parties from across the internet."
The forum, which is also backed by the Pirate Bay, allows users to post not only photos and information on protests, but also provide a missing persons database and link users to proxy servers to avoid detection.
Other efforts to skirt state censorship are being lead by individuals around the globe. In San Francisco, a man named Austin Heap is leading an effort to keep Iranians safely posting information about the protests.
An IT director by trade, Heap has been coordinating an effort through his blog to help users set up and maintain proxy servers to allow access to systems within Iran.
The effort is part of what has become an unprecedented online campaign in support of the protestors. Shortly after the demonstrations began, users took to blogs and Twitter in an effort to relay information from within the country and coordinate efforts against the standing government regime.

IBM offers sneak peek at Lotusphere 2009

IBM's annual Lotusphere customer and partner event opens next week in Orlando, and the company has been revealing the new offerings it has in store and how it will continue its onslaught against rival Microsoft Exchange.
IBM confirmed to vnunet.com that there will be four new product announcements at the event, and that new online collaboration services will be unveiled.
IBM Lotus programme director Chris Reckling plans to demonstrate how new social software tools are needed to meet new communication challenges.
"These days, it's more important than ever to tap into the power of the community," he said on the IBM web site.
IBM is also likely to build on its launch of the Lotus Sametime Unyte web conferencing system launched late last year. The firm said at the time that it plans to integrate the system with Lotus Notes to allow people working in emails to join conferences quickly, but few details have been released so far.
Also at Lotusphere, IBM will tell customers more about the benefits they can expect from its purchase of online messaging and collaboration service provider Outblaze, announced on Thursday.
IBM plans to integrate the new purchase with its Bluehouse social networking and collaboration project, which allows users to share contacts, files and project activities, and interact with chat and web meetings.
Bluehouse, along with Lotus Foundations and Lotus Mashups, were the big stories at Lotusphere 2008, and IBM is likely to demonstrate a few successful case studies of the products this time round.
Lotus Mashups is a tool that provides a way to develop composite applications, while Lotus Foundations is a package for small firms designed to ease deployment of Lotus software.
Lotus Software general manager Bob Picciano, who has replaced Michael Rhodin since last year's event, will take questions from the press on Monday and is expected to announce more details.

Google Waves hello to better online collaboration

Search giant Google has unveiled Google Wave, a system aimed at improving online collaboration, and has provided preview versions to developers at the Google I/O Conference taking place in San Francisco.

Google software engineering manager and ex-Google Maps guru Lars Rasmussen pointed to previous communications advances such as email and instant messaging as the starting point for Google Wave - essentially, asking the question: "What would email look like if we developed it today?".
"With Google Wave, we're proposing a new communications model, and after more than two years, we're very eager, and a little nervous, to see what the world might think," he said.
Google hopes Wave will cause a re-think about what a single communications platform might look like when started from scratch, but with access to the online technologies people take for granted today.
Wave will allow multiple users to exchange real-time dialogue, photos, videos, maps, documents and other information forms within a single, shared communications space known as a "wave".
Users of the system should be able to see instantly what fellow collaborators are typing and even publish a wave to a blog or web site, where the content will update instantly as the wave changes. Google said the aim is to allow people to communicate and work together in a richer, more instant and integrated way.
Google Wave will introduce features such as concurrent rich text editing, whereby users will be able to see, "almost instantly, letter-by-letter, what fellow collaborators are typing into a message or document in a wave," according to Rasmussen
There will also be a playback feature, and Google said the technology can integrate with the rest of the web. "Developers can build extensions to Google Wave using our open APIs, embed waves in other sites, or build applications that interoperate with Google Wave, " said Rasmussen.
Google also said it was planning to open source Google Wave in the coming months.

Google integrates Apps with Microsoft Outlook

Google has launched Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, which it claims will allow customers to use both applications together seamlessly.
The product will allow Outlook users to connect to Google Apps for their web-based email, contacts and calendar. Users can also access information from their work computer using the Gmail interface when they are elsewhere.
Robert Whiteside, head of Google Enterprise UK, explained that the service was designed to encourage more businesses to take to Google Apps Premier.
"This just adds to the Google Apps offline capabilities we added recently, and the BlackBerry support," he said. "It will allow businesses deploying Google Apps across the enterprise to continue using Outlook until their rollout is complete."
Whiteside claimed that Google Apps Sync will provide "extremely tight" integration between the two offerings. For example, users can accept a meeting request sent through Outlook in their Google Apps calendar, and their contacts will be completely synchronised.
A simple two-click data migration tool, meanwhile, will allow employees to easily copy existing data from Exchange or Outlook into Google Apps.

Google responds to data concerns over cloud apps

Google has responded to criticism that its online applications have poor security.
In an open letter to Google chief executive Eric Schmitt 38 computer scientists, law professors and security experts highlighted their concerns over the current state of security in the inline applications.
“Google’s default settings put customers at risk unnecessarily. Google’s services protect customers’ usernames and passwords from interception and theft,” the letter reads.
“However, when a user composes email, documents, spreadsheets, presentations and calendar plans, this potentially sensitive content is transferred to Google’s servers in the clear, allowing anyone with the right tools to steal that information.”
The letter, signed by such luminaries as Dr. Ian Brown from the Oxford Internet Institute, Jeff Moss (founder of the DEFCON hacking conference) and Brice Schneier, chief security officer for the BT Group, urges the company to make HTTPS an opt out rather than opt in service and increase the visibility of encryption services.
Google has been quick to respond to the criticism. In less than 24 hours the company had replied on the Google online security blog, with a promise to introduce HTTPS into all Google apps as soon as possible.
“We're planning a trial in which we'll move small samples of different types of Gmail users to HTTPS to see what their experience is, and whether it affects the performance of their email,” said Alma Whitten, a software engineer in Google’s Security & Privacy Teams.
“Unless there are negative effects on the user experience or it's otherwise impractical, we intend to turn on HTTPS by default more broadly, hopefully for all Gmail users. We're also considering how to make this work best for other apps including Google Docs and Google Calendar.”

Microsoft stops paying for employee's smartphones

Microsoft has confirmed that it is no longer reimbursing its employees for mobile data unless the handset used is running Windows Mobile.
Users of iPhones, BlackBerries and other smartphones will now have to pay for their own data, even if the phone is being used for work. The company said that it had introduced the measure as part of cost-cutting procedures, which included job cuts.
The move has led to some reported unrest on Microsoft campuses, particularly from iPhone users.
Nevertheless it cannot be a surprise. When Microsoft launched the Zune it set up an iPod amnesty bin in its headquarters where Apple users could dump their 'outdated' technology, although few did.
Such brand loyalty extends to the home. In an interview with Vogue Melissa Gates admitted to wanting an iPhone for herself and iPods for the children but said that they were banned from the house by her husband Bill.
Employers paying for the mobile phone use of its staff is still fairly rare in the United States but is more common in Europe. Microsoft did not say if the changes in payment would be applied worldwide.

Rapid IT change triggers maternity leave fears

The director of online job board Women In Technology has warned that women in the IT industry face major difficulties returning to work after maternity leave.
Maggie Berry said that this remains the biggest career hurdle for women in IT, superseding other challenges such as feelings of exclusion in a male dominated environment.
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Berry was speaking from her experience of managing a networking forum for IT women that has over 4,500 members.
"The technology industry moves so fast that time off can have a huge impact on your career," she said.
Berry argued that, although the government has put legislation in place to help women back to work, none of it is any good if they lack the necessary skills.
"It costs a lot of money to train up again in a specific area of IT, and not a lot of women can afford it," she explained.
Berry put forward the idea of a graduate-like programme for women who have been on maternity leave, allowing them to be "brought back onboard gradually, up-skill and gain back their confidence".
Berry mentioned IT consultancy ThoughtWorks as leading the way in this strategy.
"At the end of the maternity programme, if women did not want to apply for a position at the company, or were turned down, at least they had the confidence to apply elsewhere," she said.

Apple updates Java for OS X systems

Apple has issued an update to the Java components for the two most recent versions of MacOS X.
The update addresses a number of flaws in Java for systems running MacOS X 10.4 'Tiger' and 10.5 'Leopard,' including a number of security flaws which could allow for such actions as elevation of privileges and remote code execution.
Among the security holes being patched are a flaw which could allow an attacker to remotely execute code by way of a malformed Java applet embedded in a web page, as well as another flaw which could allow an untrusted applet to elevate user privileges.
The company is recommending that users of both OS X Tiger and Leopard install the update.
The Java update comes just days after researchers issued yet another warning to Mac users over the appearance of yet another malicious Trojan aimed at OS X.
Security vendors have worried in recent months that Mac OS X users who are not generally accustomed to dealing with malware threats could be in increasing danger as more attacks emerge.

Bull Launches 'green' Supercomputer

Bull has launched the bullx, a supercomputer that uses blade servers and water cooling to be green and fast, the company said on Tuesday.
Everything in the system has been chosen to suit the demands of high-performance computing customers, according to Fabio Gallo, vice president and general manager of Bull Extreme Computing Solutions. The number-one criteria for these customers is application performance, but having an energy-efficient system is also becoming increasingly important, Gallo said.
The bullx system is based on blade servers. Using blades is the most efficient way of building large-scale parallel systems. They are both easier to install and maintain compared to separate servers, according to Gallo.
Each computing blade in the bullx system is equipped two quad core Intel Xeon 5500 processors, and up to 18 blades can be installed in one chassis. Blades talk to each other using an integrated Infiniband QDR (Quad Data Rate) switch, which supports up to 40G bps. A rack can then be fitted with six chassis, and the number of racks in a system is unlimited. To get performance of 1 petaflop -- which right now is the performance of the largest systems in the world -- out of the bullx a customer needs 100 racks, Gallo said.
Besides computing blades there are also so-called accelerator blades, which use graphics processors to speed up floating point calculations by offloading them from the computing blades.
The accelerator blades are not for everyone, because to take advantage of the improvements the cards offer, applications have to be ported and tuned, according to Gallo. But there quite a lot of organizations that develop their own code that are eager to do the porting and tuning, and Bull can also help them with that, Gallo said.
Another important part of the system is that the racks use water-cooled doors for all configurations of the system. The use of water cooling is key when building energy-efficient data centers, because it's up to 75 percent more efficient than using air cooling, according to Gallo.
The bullx also comes with integrated protection against short bursts electrical power. That means customers won't have to use uninterruptible power supplies, which make the data center less energy efficient, Gallo said.
The system runs either Red Hat Enterprise Linux plus its own cluster suite or Windows HPC Server 2008.
Bull started pushing the high-performance computing space in 2005 and last year it acquired the German company science + computing. Currently, Bull has approximately 100 customers.
With the bullx it targets production high-performance computing in the government sector, at automotive and aerospace companies, at oil and gas companies and in the financial services area, according to Gallo. Applications include seismic processing, weather forecasting and crash analysis, he said.
The cost of the bullx will vary from tens of thousands of euros to tens of millions of euros depending on the size of the configuration.

Digital Rights Group: We've Got Your Back on ToS

Next time a major Web site such as Facebook, Google or eBay changes their seldom-read terms of service, a new project from the Electronic Frontier Foundation will be there to chronicle the alterations and highlight them for all to see.
Called TOSBack, the EFF site launched recently and is already tracking 44 sites.
"Terms of service form the foundation of your relationship with social networking sites, online businesses, and other Internet communities, but most people become aware of these terms only when there's a problem," said EFF Activism and Technology Manager Tim Jones, in a press release. "We created TOSBack to help consumers monitor terms of service for the websites they use everyday, and show how the terms change over time."
Most Internet users read these agreements about as often than they peruse car owner's manuals, which is to say only when it smells like something is burning.
Yet ToS changes happen all the time, those changes are often important, and they can cause a stink, as Facebook and its faithful learned recently when the company proposed alterations to its terms that were perceived as Facebook helping itself to the pictures and writings of members. Much caterwauling and backpedaling ensued before order was restored.
The EFF project may actually accelerate such flare-ups in the future, which would be a good thing.
Some of the initial changes that have been highlighted would appear to be trivial, such as one from Facebook that notes nothing but a change in contact information (and who uses snail-mail addresses anymore?).
But others are clearly more meaningful, such as one flagged from the ToS of domain name registrar GoDaddy.com, adding the language: "You acknowledge and agree a copy of the customer contact data you provide will be used as the initial domain contact data and made public in the WHOIS database." And another from eBay that adds several paragraphs of new verbiage covering a buyer's obligations when alleging receipt of a fraudulent item.
The site's homepage includes a "highlighted policies" box, which presumably will help pull some of the nuggets from what promises to quickly become an avalanche of change notices.
It will be interesting to see if the site proves useful … or just gets tucked back into the glove compartment.

Future Desktops Arrive Today. Goodbye to the Tower

The enterprise desktop hasn't changed much over the past 15 years or so. But technological advances like the LCD monitor and the "small form factor" motherboard are allowing PC vendors to create new form factors, like the all-in-one computer or the "cube" or "lunch box" style PC. Like most innovations these days, the new PCs are starting out in the consumer market, but will be coming to an enterprise desktop near you in the not-too-distant future.

Online Confessions: The Web Bares Its Soul

I have a confession to make. When I'm in timewaster mode, I like to drop into some of the many confession, apology, and gripe sites on the Web to check on the progress of the human condition.

Status? Things are bad all over. Love is unrequited, the person in the next cube at work is a major creep, and no one is getting laid.
With all this bad news, why do I continue to play Peeping Tom through these online windows week after week? It's because witnessing people anonymously pour their hearts out is incredibly entertaining, comforting, and pleasurably voyeuristic--all at the same time.
Face it, aren't just about all of us interested in the secret lives of others?
Are They Real?
Of course, there's no way to know whether a particular declaration of guilt or longing by a stranger is true, but that doesn't seem to make much difference. Even if totally made up, some of these little online missives really ring my emotional bell. Other evoke disgust or make me laugh.
And for those of you old enough to have swiped a Penthouse magazine from your dad or uncle, you'll note that many of the sexual online confessions read a lot like the famous "Letters to Penthouse" section. I may be cynical, but I just can't believe that everyone's cousin or sister asks them to take off their pants.
Note: Most of these sites require you to provide at least an e-mail address and a password before you can post confessions or apologies. Nothing is required to read posted material, though several sites will ding you constantly to register as you peruse their contents.
Now, check your incredulity in a bus locker and let me show you around Peeperville.

Google responds to Street View privacy concerns

Google has announced changes to the way it collects images for its Street View service in response to a number of complaints from privacy advocates.
The search firm said on Friday that many of the alterations follow ongoing discussions with the Article 29 Working Party, a coalition of European data protection agencies.
"It is important for companies operating services across Europe to be able to follow harmonised data protection guidance, and we are grateful to the Article 29 Working Party for its advice and collaboration on Street View," said Peter Fleischer, global privacy counsel for Google, in a blog post.
"They have asked us to make a few additional modifications to address local specificities to ensure that Street View better aligns to local interpretations of privacy requirements across the whole of Europe."
The changes include forewarning the public that Google will be visiting their area to record images for Street View, and the promise that the firm will not keep any "unblurred" images for longer than necessary.
Fleischer explained that 'unblurred' images are used to check for any mistakenly labelled page elements, such as a filtered out car number plate. Fleischer admitted that both of these requirements would cause problems, but said that Google is committed to meeting its privacy promises - with some caveats.
"As you can probably imagine, it can be tricky at times to say exactly where our cars will be and when. We are affected by lots of things outside our control, such as the weather and lighting conditions," he said.

Dell Tweets Its Way to $3 Million in Sales

So you thought Twitter was a waste of time? Just fun and games? Stupid even? Dell doesn’t think so.

The PC maker’s U.S. outlet store has been on Twitter since June 2007, posting specials and responding to customer questions. And according to the Direct2Dell blog, sales generated by those regular tweets have generated more than $3 million in sales.

Broken down, that’s $2 million in Dell Outlet sales, plus another $1 million from customers who entered the Dell site via Twitter, but who wound up buying hardware elsewhere on the site. Dell Outlet uses Twitters to promote clearance sales, coupons, and other discount-related fodder.

Dell’s success lends credence to the argument that Twitter is much more than a wasteland of shallow, “What are you doing?” posts. It also may provide a much-needed business model for Twitter by giving the social networking site a valid reason to charge for corporate accounts.

Dell’s success proves that Twitter can be an effective marketing tool. Even better for Dell, its followers often re-tweet the vendor’s deals to their followers, thereby boosting the reach of Dell’s pitches.

It remains to be seen, however, if other businesses can repeat Dell’s success. The PC maker’s @DellOutlet account has more than 600,000 followers, which I guess shows that Twitter users are willing to put up with marketing drivel if they perceive a clear benefit—in this case, some pretty good bargains. (Dell has other Twitter accounts too, including those for its small business, home, and international outlets.)

I follow the Dell Outlet store on Twitter, and I’ve noticed that Dell uses the service prudently. Rather than bombard its followers with endless tweets, it posts sparingly. For instance, there was one Dell Outlet post yesterday (June 11) and one today thus far. It’s smart of Dell not to over-tweet—unlike some businesses that I’ve followed in the past but have since abandoned.

There’s also the question of whether corporations will find success on Twitter if they all copy Dell’s formula. For instance, if I’m following 10 businesses, do I really want to get numerous product pitches every day? That’s like opening the mailbox and sifting through stacks of junk mail.

Certainly Twitter can benefit from money-generating corporate accounts. But it will have to prevent its users from being spammed to death.

Computer-generated sound effects make a splash

Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is so advanced today that it can be difficult to distinguish from realityMovie Camera. But the creation of the sounds that accompany the images are still largely the work of skilled "Foley artists" working with physical props.
Soon, though, computers may be able to generate eerily accurate sounds for film soundtracks too. For the first time, a team of computer scientists has reproduced the sound of flowing and dripping by modelling the way water creates sound in the real world (see video, above).
Doug James and Changxi Zheng at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, have shown that the powerful computers used to generate realistic animation can also be used to produce accurate, perfectly synchronised sound effects.
Bouncing bubbles
The pair decided to explore the problem by simulating the soothing sound of splashing and babbling water; but working out where to begin was difficult, they say.
"Like most people [we] hadn't thought much about how water produces sound when you wash your hands, or pour a glass of beer, or flush the toilet," says James. They turned to the acoustics literature for an answer, and discovered that small air bubbles, from 0.5 to 5 millimetres across, are the principal noise makers.
Armed with that knowledge, the pair could begin to design a computer algorithm to simulate the precise behaviour of those bubbles, and reproduce the sound of water. "Basically, we estimate how each bubble's vibration causes the fluid-air interface to vibrate and its associated sound radiation," says James
Making a splash
James and Zheng's model can now reproduce the sound of dripping, pouring and splashing water, as well as the babbling sound of water flowing over a step. "The babbling water step is my favourite example," James says. "It generates about 3100 bubbles per second."
Simulating nine seconds of babbling water takes 20 quad-core Xeon processors around four hours. That's about the same amount of time as it takes to produce the fluid animations that complement the sound files – although James says the results still lack some of the complexities of real splashing water, such as bubbles popping at the surface.
Nicolas Bonneel at the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control near Nice says the study "provides a real milestone for fluid sounds".
However, he thinks that more work is needed before it will be used in the movie industry: "The current realism [of the team's algorithm] is not sufficient for the film industry, but future work could improve it."

Shortcut sounds
The Cornell team agree and suggest their approach may be more suited to computer games developers who rely on standard, short sound samples to save money – a shortcut that can be irritating to the ear.
Bonneel points out that the Cornell team's process will need to speed up to appeal to games designers. They prefer shortcut systems – such as this simulation of bubbling water designed by Kees van den Doel at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada – which are less physically accurate, but give superficially similar results in a fraction of the time.
James is confident that speed improvements will be made. "Once we know what we want to compute we can always make it faster," he says. "I believe that virtual sound environments will one day be as realistic as the best computer graphics in the movies. The future will sound good."

Fix Corrupt Drivers

Pinkston32 discovered about 20 missing or corrupt drivers messing up his system.

Start by restoring your system to a point before the problems began. Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore and follow the prompts.

If that works, sigh with relief, but consider the fact that you may have fixed only a symptom. Scan your hard drive with SuperAntiSpyware or Malwarebytes (or both) to make sure its not infected. You might also want to run CCleaner, which cleans up a number of other, not intentionally malicious, problems.

But what if System Restore doesn't do the trick? In that case:

1) Go to Device Manager: Select Start, Run, type devmgmt.msc, and press ENTER.

2) Uninstall all of the corrupted drivers: Right-click each one and select Uninstall.

3) Reboot.

Windows will find and reinstall whatever drivers it can. They won't necessarily be the most up-to-date drivers, and some will be generic ones that can only run your hardware in limited ways. But your computer will be working and you'll be able to install the other drivers from CDs, manufacturer Web sites, and so on.

Human ear inspires universal radio chip

A COMPUTER chip modelled on the human ear could be used in universal receivers for radio-frequency signals ranging from cellphone and wireless internet transmissions to radio and television broadcasts.
Devices such as cellphones or FM radios are generally tuned to only a narrow frequency band. The new device is inspired by the network of hairs in the inner ear, which can pick up a wide range of sound frequencies.
We can hear because sound waves make the eardrum vibrate, which creates waves in the fluid-filled inner ear. Hairs on the membrane inside the inner ear are moved by these waves, and because different hairs respond to different frequencies, signals from the hair cells enable the brain to work out the frequency of the sound.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers mimicked this process within a chip that creates an electromagnetic wave in response to radio frequencies. The wave activates a network of transistors that act like hair cells in the ear to reveal the wave's frequency (IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits, Previous universal digital receivers have required 100 times the power of the single-frequency receivers now in use. But the ear-based analogue version, which can process frequencies ranging from 600 megahertz to 8 gigahertz, draws no more electricity than single-frequency receivers.

IBM to Expand Railroad Products From China Center

IBM pushed further into the market for railroad management systems as it opened a base in Beijing for work on train maintenance and surveillance products.Products displayed at the event included applications that monitor aging train parts and set off alerts when they need repair, or that reduce traffic jams by tracking the positions and delays of all trains on a network.The Beijing center will lead further development on those products and others, in cooperation with IBM bases in Dallas and La Gaude, France, a company representative said.Other products the center will help carry forward include a surveillance system that can track multiple people on a camera screen and ring an alarm when it spots suspicious behavior, such as someone setting a bag down and walking away. Another product controls ticket sales according to how many seats in each class are open at each point along a route.The system that monitors train parts like engines and brakes is now being expanded to cover the train tracks, which will let it log how fast trains are traveling in addition to watching for equipment problems, the IBM representative said.China's extensive railroad system and growth plans made it the natural place for the new operation, said Keith Dierkx, director of the IBM center.China aims to have more high-speed rail than the rest of the world combined within five years, he said.The center will tailor products for the huge Chinese market, which IBM has tapped before. IBM worked with China's railway ministry to deploy train monitoring and service stations across 2,000 Chinese cities starting over 10 years ago.Products developed at the center will also be marketed abroad, Dierkx said.Dierkx declined to say how many staff would work at the center, but said it would integrate work by "hundreds, if not thousands" of people worldwide.

Apple slides security fixes into Safari update

Apple has packed a major security update into its Safari browser in the shadow of Monday's product rollout at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.The updated version of the browser contains some 51 vulnerability fixes for issues in both the Mac and Windows versions. Some of the flaws could allow for remote code execution, information disclosure and cross-site scripting attacks.The security fixes come as part of a larger update for Safari, which includes faster JavaScript execution and a new cover flow history browsing feature.Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at security firm Sophos, suggested that all users should update the browser not just for the features, but for the added protections."In the past, some computer users have made the mistake of thinking that Apple's security updates for Safari are only relevant for Mac owners," Cluley wrote in a blog post. "But many of the fixes are also relevant to Safari users running Windows XP and Vista."

Global IP traffic to swell fivefold by 2013

Global IP traffic is expected to increase fivefold over the next four years, according to new figures from Cisco.The networking giant's Visual Networking Index predicts that IP networks worldwide will be handling 56 exabytes (EB) of data per month in 2013, up from 9EB per month last year. An exabyte is one billion gigabytes.Cisco said that the Asia Pacific region will dominate the IP traffic space with around 21EB per month by 2013, followed by the US with 13EB per month and Europe with 12.5EB per month.Although these regions will be responsible for the lion's share of the data flow, the Middle East and Africa region is expected to grow the fastest, with a compound annual growth rate of 51 per cent to reach 1EB per month by 2013.Cisco explained that the growth of high-speed broadband, ubiquitous internet access, high-definition video, online services and digital multitasking is driving users to consume ever greater levels of data across an increasing number of devices.In particular, all forms of video - IPTV, video-on-demand, internet video and peer-to-peer - will exceed 90 per cent of global consumer IP traffic, while video calls and video over instant messaging will increase tenfold from 2008 to 2013.This trend is spurred on by the proliferation of devices with screens, which encourage higher levels of video consumption, as well as growth in average screen sizes, which pushes the demand for higher-resolution images.Mobile broadband is also set to be a significant contributor, roughly doubling each year from 2008 to 2013. Even in the mobile space, video is expected to soak up nearly two-thirds of all mobile data traffic in 2013, making it the fastest growing application category.The Cisco report goes on to highlight the growth of 'hyper-connectivity', whereby individuals no longer have one connection to the internet and perform one task at a time.Active multitasking, such as listening to streaming music while working online, as well as passive multitasking, such as background online backups or ambient video from things like IP-security cameras, will all add to the traffic flow.Cisco explained that this multitasking means that there are now 36 hours in a network day, a figure that is expected to grow to 48 hours by 2013.

Information Technology

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Server Error Causes Google News Outage

It’s not something you see every day. Internet search giant Google ) experienced a brief outage to its Google News server today, leaving an unknown number of Web surfers missing their morning headlines and without e-mail.If you did a search between 8:40 a.m. ET and 9:55 a.m. ET today, a 502 server message appeared reading, “Server Error: The service you requested is not available yet. Please try again in 30 seconds.” E-mail service was also impacted.
For many users, including me, 30 seconds came and went. And over the course of an hour, users still were without service. Google search, however, appeared to function normally.
People on Twitter were about the outage, offering users constant updates and humor about the server issue. Some users reported that Google Apps was also down