In the annals of urban design, Peter Calthorpe is a living legend. He is the man who made Portland, Oregon the bustling eco-friendly metropolis it is today by insisting on light rail links rather than the prior plans for a pointless (but symmetrical) ring road around the city. Here is a man who is helping to build China, three cities at a time (literally — that’s his current roster) while still advising the state of California on its future urban growth. He is a thought-leader and author, most recently, of Urbanism In the Age of Climate Change.
When it comes to technology, however, Calthorpe is a professional cynic. He chides city bosses for relying on technology to fix their environmental ills — providing cosmetic offerings like electric vehicle charging stations, for example, or iPhone apps that identify parking spots — rather than making greater, greener tweaks to the urban organism itself. “You can’t put the cart before the horse,” he says, “and the horse is the city. You’re never going to take away this social animal stuff. Proximity is more important to us than ever. Technology matters, but I don’t think it’s a substitute for fundamental urban design.”
That doesn’t mean a city has to make itself into Manhattan — though Calthorpe is well aware that such dense environments are the most eco-friendly human habitations, pound for pound. We don’t need to go that far to make our cities much more energy-efficient. Instead, Calthorpe points to a suburb of Oakland called Rockridge as his prime example: dense, leafy streets with plenty of shops, nice houses, mass transit and a high walk score. If we all lived that closely, he says, we’d make a massive dent in the causes of climate change — and we’d be happier, more social and more creative creatures to boot. “Even the high-tech, Internet-connected world wants to be in the same place,” Calthorpe says. “They’re not interested in living on a mountaintop. They want to crowd into places that are all about exchanges of ideas.”
How to Make It Happen
Having sampled the delights of Rockridge — and similar dense walkable suburbs, such as Cobble Hill in Brooklyn — we can’t help but agree with Calthorpe and his goals. But we do think there are a few areas where cutting-edge technology can help him reach them. Indeed, Calthorpe admits that as a 60-something, he is not as familiar with the tech world as he could be. So here are a few ideas:
1. Offer Wi-Fi on public transit. Calthorpe knows good public transit is essential to the kind of neighborhoods he wants (Rockridge was built as a “streetcar suburb” and still “has streetcar DNA,” he says), and he points to higher ridership rates in cities with high walk scores, like San Francisco. But anyone who spends time riding the MUNI in the Bay Area knows that it is an experience in dire need of improvement, and it isn’t attracting all the riders it possibly could. Meanwhile, tech companies like Google and Apple are running dozens of Wi-Fi-enabled shuttles from the city to the Valley every day so employees can noodle on laptops or stream movies on tablets as they ride.
So why not implement a bus-based Wi-Fi system? That’s the major advantage transit has always had over driving — you can do other stuff while you’re on it. And in today’s hectic work world, extra time online during the day is like gold dust. It wouldn’t even have to be free. Cities could provide it to riders at cost for a monthly fee, or get companies to sponsor it. They’d reap the rewards in massively increased white-collar ridership and provide an elusive sense that riding the bus is actually something to aspire to.
2. Encourage checkins. So you want to increase your city’s walk score? Then give people more reasons to walk around, using the tools they already have in their pockets. Indeed, get them addicted to it. That dovetails nicely with the purpose of location-based checkin services like Foursquare and Gowalla. Merchants could get a small tax break for being active participants on these services, especially if their checkins came with information on where you can walk next. Cities could dot the landscape with checkin posts that offer information on the neighborhood or track and reward you for being on foot. While you’re at it, these posts could offer transit details on nearby buses, and inform you how much money you’ll save getting to your destination on transit versus using gas, much as Google Maps does now.
3. Install more parking sensors. Yes, parking sensors have primarily been used for those iPhone apps that tell you where to park. But they could just as easily be used to change driving behavior. Calthorpe intentionally reduces parking spots in the cities he designs in order to reduce the number of cars on the road. You could get the same effect by upping the price at peak times and limiting the amount of time you’re allowed to park in a given spot before you get a ticket, forcing drivers to use their cars for crucial, timely trips only — and take transit the rest of the time. What’s more, parking sensor activity would be your best guide to where new transit services are needed.
How else could new technology help bring about Peter Calthorpe’s vision of tight, friendly, walkable suburbs? Let us know your ideas in the comments.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
How to Choose an Inkjet Picture Printer
What quite a few wonder is if you can get color text from an inkjet printer why can't you get photos from that as well? Like I mentioned the big difference is in the style. There are a lot of technological differences in each due to which an inkjet printer can't print photographs and vice versa.
With the development in technological know-how, inkjet photograph printers are also out there. This does equally the employment for you. Even so the high quality of pictures nonetheless does not match with the photo printers. The key explanation is that the all in an individual printer which does every thing, needs to have all like text, graphics and even higher resolution for printing very good text and pics. The picture printer on the other hand has dye sublimation technological innovation. They never spray tiny jets fairly they utilize a colour film.
There are added benefits and drawbacks in both inkjet and photo printers. Initial let's search at image printers. A photograph printer is extremely rapid in printing images when compared to inkjet. They necessitate no upkeep where by as the inkjet printer does require regular routine maintenance like washing and even replacement. It does clog as well.
The prints are pretty easy in photograph printers and the dots are not visible at all even if magnified. Most inkjet printers exhibits the dot pattern on the print outs. They print really superior information of shadows in dark spots also which may turn up blotchy in inkjet prints.
Due to die- sublimation technological innovation there is a crystal clear top rated coat on the prints which safeguards the pictures from becoming damaged from water and finger prints. There is no protection from water in inkjet. If the h2o spills on the print, it is ruined.
Some of the negatives of a photograph printer must be mentioned too. A image printer creates pretty very good good quality glossy images but not matte pictures. Several printers do not even have these possibilities. On the other hand, those samples can however give you a very good notion of the overall performance you can expect.
Consider carefully just before you get an inkjet picture printer this is an expense that demands some consideration!
Printing your very own pics is incredibly effortless currently, primarily with the progress of dedicated photograph printers which can produce photos that are just like professional printouts. If you're seeking for a moveable photo printer to create photos for the duration of travels, road trips, or if you just want a handy equipment which you can use to print your photos whenever and anyplace you want, then the best product that I can endorse is the Canon Pixma mini320 Compact Image Inkjet Printer. The adhering to is an in-depth analysis of this product or service.
Layout:
This equipment is a devoted photograph printer and it can only make output on image paper dimensions of up to 5'' x 7'' only. So if you are considering to use this for other printing purposes, like printing paperwork or paperwork, then you've got the improper product. This device is only ideal for printing photographs, and for that matter, it does a really superior occupation.
With the development in technological know-how, inkjet photograph printers are also out there. This does equally the employment for you. Even so the high quality of pictures nonetheless does not match with the photo printers. The key explanation is that the all in an individual printer which does every thing, needs to have all like text, graphics and even higher resolution for printing very good text and pics. The picture printer on the other hand has dye sublimation technological innovation. They never spray tiny jets fairly they utilize a colour film.
There are added benefits and drawbacks in both inkjet and photo printers. Initial let's search at image printers. A photograph printer is extremely rapid in printing images when compared to inkjet. They necessitate no upkeep where by as the inkjet printer does require regular routine maintenance like washing and even replacement. It does clog as well.
The prints are pretty easy in photograph printers and the dots are not visible at all even if magnified. Most inkjet printers exhibits the dot pattern on the print outs. They print really superior information of shadows in dark spots also which may turn up blotchy in inkjet prints.
Due to die- sublimation technological innovation there is a crystal clear top rated coat on the prints which safeguards the pictures from becoming damaged from water and finger prints. There is no protection from water in inkjet. If the h2o spills on the print, it is ruined.
Some of the negatives of a photograph printer must be mentioned too. A image printer creates pretty very good good quality glossy images but not matte pictures. Several printers do not even have these possibilities. On the other hand, those samples can however give you a very good notion of the overall performance you can expect.
Consider carefully just before you get an inkjet picture printer this is an expense that demands some consideration!
Printing your very own pics is incredibly effortless currently, primarily with the progress of dedicated photograph printers which can produce photos that are just like professional printouts. If you're seeking for a moveable photo printer to create photos for the duration of travels, road trips, or if you just want a handy equipment which you can use to print your photos whenever and anyplace you want, then the best product that I can endorse is the Canon Pixma mini320 Compact Image Inkjet Printer. The adhering to is an in-depth analysis of this product or service.
Layout:
This equipment is a devoted photograph printer and it can only make output on image paper dimensions of up to 5'' x 7'' only. So if you are considering to use this for other printing purposes, like printing paperwork or paperwork, then you've got the improper product. This device is only ideal for printing photographs, and for that matter, it does a really superior occupation.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Apple Cracking Down on Jailbreaks, Downgrades in iOS 5?
Apple has reportedly changed a part of iOS 5 to make it impossible for iPhone users to downgrade their phone's firmware, even if they'd rather run an earlier version.
The iPhone Dev Team, a well-known group of iPhone hackers, first discovered the change in an unlocked developer's version of iOS 5, which is expected to be released this fall.
Normally, to restore your iPhone to an earlier version, you'd save "SHSH blobs" (which are like digital signatures to authenticate software) at a specific timestamp and use a third-party app to restore your firmware back to that time. The SHSH blobs are static and can be used as often as you like.
But the team found that in iOS 5, Apple has prevented people from being able to save these blobs for a specific timestamp. Instead, Apple will re-assign your phone a new SHSH blob each time your reboot your device in jailbreak mode, making saved blobs irrelevant since Apple can just reject ones that were saved.
This only affects untethered jailbreaks, so one way around it is to simply connect your iPhone to your computer and boot it up in jailbreak mode each time. But realistically, who lugs around a computer with their iPhones?
Furthermore, as the hackers note, this new system only applies to iOS 5.0 blobs and beyond. You'll still be able to revert to pre-iOS 5.0 versions with your saved blobs, but from 5.0 onwards, there is no turning back.
The iPhone Dev Team, a well-known group of iPhone hackers, first discovered the change in an unlocked developer's version of iOS 5, which is expected to be released this fall.
Normally, to restore your iPhone to an earlier version, you'd save "SHSH blobs" (which are like digital signatures to authenticate software) at a specific timestamp and use a third-party app to restore your firmware back to that time. The SHSH blobs are static and can be used as often as you like.
But the team found that in iOS 5, Apple has prevented people from being able to save these blobs for a specific timestamp. Instead, Apple will re-assign your phone a new SHSH blob each time your reboot your device in jailbreak mode, making saved blobs irrelevant since Apple can just reject ones that were saved.
This only affects untethered jailbreaks, so one way around it is to simply connect your iPhone to your computer and boot it up in jailbreak mode each time. But realistically, who lugs around a computer with their iPhones?
Furthermore, as the hackers note, this new system only applies to iOS 5.0 blobs and beyond. You'll still be able to revert to pre-iOS 5.0 versions with your saved blobs, but from 5.0 onwards, there is no turning back.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
What's New With Operating Systems?
In the light of fast-paced changes on the browser front, are users finding that innovation at the desktop has stagnated? Has it? Or is there a lot brewing 'under the hood' that we're just not aware of, yet take for granted as our user experience improves incrementally?
For most computer users, an operating system is somewhat like the engine under a car's hood. They know how to start and stop the engine, how to drive around, probably how to check oil levels, but beyond that, the knowledge is limited. With a car, that is okay, since we do not really need to know more unless we are hard-core enthusiasts, or working in the automotive industry.
Getting back to operating systems, the beauty of these 'engines' is that they allow users to run their computers and use their favourite applications, while they take care of allocating system resources, handling processes, and so on. Operating systems are far from perfect, but they are remarkable pieces of software for the sheer complexity of tasks that they handle.
We open up the engine and take a look at some of the recent innovations in operating systems.
Splashtop: A fast-booting OS
What do PC users do after they press their PC's power button?
* Go get a cup of coffee
* Stare at the screen and practice meditation
* Chat with colleagues
* Any of the above
Jokes aside, most of us usually spend minutes waiting for the operating system (OS) to boot up. This is especially frustrating when we need to look up something on the Internet quickly, or just have a few minutes to check personal e-mail.
{quotes}A new operating system called Splashtop allows you to connect to the Internet without booting your main operating system{/quotes}. Splashtop has two components: a core engine that runs out of the BIOS, and an optimised Linux stack that boots rapidly. Splashtop boots out of the BIOS (basic input-output system) on the motherboard of the PC, generally in five seconds or less, according to the website, and provides quick access to certain applications, like the Splashtop Web browser (based on Firefox) and Skype-- or offers you the choice of booting your main operating system.
Splashtop is currently available only on ASUS motherboards. When we enquired about how the company plans to make Splashtop available to customers, Andrew Kippen, press and blogger relations manager at DeviceVM (the company that provides Splashtop) revealed, "We spoke about many different ways to release Splashtop, but in the end decided that launching with a partner like ASUS, the world's largest motherboard manufacturer, was the best way to reach consumers. Splashtop-enabled laptops and desktops will be released later this year."
Splashtop uses flash memory on the motherboard to store its applications. Could that be a bottleneck? Kippen says, "This is not an issue, since we tailor each version of Splashtop to the manufacturer's specifications. If there is a size issue, manufacturers can include a larger flash memory chip, or run Splashtop from a partition on the hard drive."
On issues like vulnerability to attacks and whether it is possible to save attachments or documents, Kippen says, "Like I mentioned earlier, we tailor each version of Splashtop to a manufacturer's specifications, so [the answer to] your question depends on the manufacturer. On current ASUS products, we allow persistent data (like bookmarks and cookies) to be written to memory. However, users cannot save files, for security reasons."
Since Splashtop is Linux-based, it is immune to most of the attacks that plague traditional operating systems. Restricting access to memory, whether flash memory or the hard drive, further ensures that Splashtop always works properly.
Speaking on the reasons for the OS's popularity, Kippen adds, "A major reason for Splashtop's success is that more and more applications are moving to the Web. Users (excluding business users) spend more time with Web-based e-mail, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and other websites than on any desktop program. Online applications like Google and Zoho are quickly becoming viable options for most Office-like applications.
"We are targeting mass-market consumers, i.e., normal people who just want their computer to work without any wait or fuss. We see ourselves as a good complement to the traditional OS, great for lightweight applications like Web browsing and media playback, but not the right fit if you want to do video editing."
Splashtop is not the only company in this space. Phoenix Technologies, a company that makes BIOS software, is developing software called Hyperspace that will launch along with the PC's regular OS. Hyperspace, which is billed as a "compact and secure application environment", will be able to run applications as well as perform systems maintenance (repair, back-up, recovery, etc) and security. Phoenix expects manufacturers to start offering Hyperspace in the latter half of 2008.
For most computer users, an operating system is somewhat like the engine under a car's hood. They know how to start and stop the engine, how to drive around, probably how to check oil levels, but beyond that, the knowledge is limited. With a car, that is okay, since we do not really need to know more unless we are hard-core enthusiasts, or working in the automotive industry.
Getting back to operating systems, the beauty of these 'engines' is that they allow users to run their computers and use their favourite applications, while they take care of allocating system resources, handling processes, and so on. Operating systems are far from perfect, but they are remarkable pieces of software for the sheer complexity of tasks that they handle.
We open up the engine and take a look at some of the recent innovations in operating systems.
Splashtop: A fast-booting OS
What do PC users do after they press their PC's power button?
* Go get a cup of coffee
* Stare at the screen and practice meditation
* Chat with colleagues
* Any of the above
Jokes aside, most of us usually spend minutes waiting for the operating system (OS) to boot up. This is especially frustrating when we need to look up something on the Internet quickly, or just have a few minutes to check personal e-mail.
{quotes}A new operating system called Splashtop allows you to connect to the Internet without booting your main operating system{/quotes}. Splashtop has two components: a core engine that runs out of the BIOS, and an optimised Linux stack that boots rapidly. Splashtop boots out of the BIOS (basic input-output system) on the motherboard of the PC, generally in five seconds or less, according to the website, and provides quick access to certain applications, like the Splashtop Web browser (based on Firefox) and Skype-- or offers you the choice of booting your main operating system.
Splashtop is currently available only on ASUS motherboards. When we enquired about how the company plans to make Splashtop available to customers, Andrew Kippen, press and blogger relations manager at DeviceVM (the company that provides Splashtop) revealed, "We spoke about many different ways to release Splashtop, but in the end decided that launching with a partner like ASUS, the world's largest motherboard manufacturer, was the best way to reach consumers. Splashtop-enabled laptops and desktops will be released later this year."
Splashtop uses flash memory on the motherboard to store its applications. Could that be a bottleneck? Kippen says, "This is not an issue, since we tailor each version of Splashtop to the manufacturer's specifications. If there is a size issue, manufacturers can include a larger flash memory chip, or run Splashtop from a partition on the hard drive."
On issues like vulnerability to attacks and whether it is possible to save attachments or documents, Kippen says, "Like I mentioned earlier, we tailor each version of Splashtop to a manufacturer's specifications, so [the answer to] your question depends on the manufacturer. On current ASUS products, we allow persistent data (like bookmarks and cookies) to be written to memory. However, users cannot save files, for security reasons."
Since Splashtop is Linux-based, it is immune to most of the attacks that plague traditional operating systems. Restricting access to memory, whether flash memory or the hard drive, further ensures that Splashtop always works properly.
Speaking on the reasons for the OS's popularity, Kippen adds, "A major reason for Splashtop's success is that more and more applications are moving to the Web. Users (excluding business users) spend more time with Web-based e-mail, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and other websites than on any desktop program. Online applications like Google and Zoho are quickly becoming viable options for most Office-like applications.
"We are targeting mass-market consumers, i.e., normal people who just want their computer to work without any wait or fuss. We see ourselves as a good complement to the traditional OS, great for lightweight applications like Web browsing and media playback, but not the right fit if you want to do video editing."
Splashtop is not the only company in this space. Phoenix Technologies, a company that makes BIOS software, is developing software called Hyperspace that will launch along with the PC's regular OS. Hyperspace, which is billed as a "compact and secure application environment", will be able to run applications as well as perform systems maintenance (repair, back-up, recovery, etc) and security. Phoenix expects manufacturers to start offering Hyperspace in the latter half of 2008.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Google to Retire Google Health, PowerMeter Services
Google said Friday that it would retire Google Health and Google PowerMeter, neither of which achieved the critical mass that Google felt would be necessary to continue it.
In the case of Google Health, the site will remain operational until Jan. 1, 2012. From then until Jan. 1, 2013, users will not be able to use the site but will be able to download their data. Google PowerMeter, on the other hand, will be retired on Sept. 16 of this year.
Both were based on the idea that with more and better information, people can make smarter choices, whether in regard to managing personal health and wellness, or saving money and conserving energy at home," Aaron Brown, senior product manager of Google Health, and Bill Weihl, the Google "green energy czar," wrote in a blog post on Friday. "While they didn't scale as we had hoped, we believe they did highlight the importance of access to information in areas where it's traditionally been difficult."
Google Health went live in May 2008. >Users could log in to the service at google.com/health to import their medical records, fill prescriptions, and get lab results, set up text-based pill alerts, keep track of immunizations, and get pertinent news alerts. The last major update was in Sept. 2010, when the company revamped the site to place more of an emphasis on wellness.
"Now, with a few years of experience, we've observed that Google Health is not having the broad impact that we hoped it would," Brown and Weihl wrote. "There has been adoption among certain groups of users like tech-savvy patients and their caregivers, and more recently fitness and wellness enthusiasts. But we haven't found a way to translate that limited usage into widespread adoption in the daily health routines of millions of people."
Users can download their personal information from the site in one of several formats: printable PDF, a Continuity of Care record in XML format, CSV files, HTML or XML versions, or a unified ZIP archive.
Over the coming weeks Google will also be adding the ability to directly transfer your health data to other services that support the Direct Project protocol, an emerging open standard for efficient health data exchange, the company said.
Users can still transfer and store their information in Microsoft's HealthVault, an online data store that was launched in 2007. But Hohm, Microsoft's alternative for homeowners to manage their energy consumption has also been refocused on the smart grid and electrical vehicles.
In PowerMeter's case, more and more information is being made available to consumers online, as with the controversial SmartMeter from Pacific Gas & Electric.
"Momentum is building toward making energy information more readily accessible, and it's exciting to see others drive innovation and pursue opportunities in this important new market," Brown and Weihl wrote. "We're proud of what we've accomplished with PowerMeter and look forward to what will develop next in this space."
In the case of Google Health, the site will remain operational until Jan. 1, 2012. From then until Jan. 1, 2013, users will not be able to use the site but will be able to download their data. Google PowerMeter, on the other hand, will be retired on Sept. 16 of this year.
Both were based on the idea that with more and better information, people can make smarter choices, whether in regard to managing personal health and wellness, or saving money and conserving energy at home," Aaron Brown, senior product manager of Google Health, and Bill Weihl, the Google "green energy czar," wrote in a blog post on Friday. "While they didn't scale as we had hoped, we believe they did highlight the importance of access to information in areas where it's traditionally been difficult."
Google Health went live in May 2008. >Users could log in to the service at google.com/health to import their medical records, fill prescriptions, and get lab results, set up text-based pill alerts, keep track of immunizations, and get pertinent news alerts. The last major update was in Sept. 2010, when the company revamped the site to place more of an emphasis on wellness.
"Now, with a few years of experience, we've observed that Google Health is not having the broad impact that we hoped it would," Brown and Weihl wrote. "There has been adoption among certain groups of users like tech-savvy patients and their caregivers, and more recently fitness and wellness enthusiasts. But we haven't found a way to translate that limited usage into widespread adoption in the daily health routines of millions of people."
Users can download their personal information from the site in one of several formats: printable PDF, a Continuity of Care record in XML format, CSV files, HTML or XML versions, or a unified ZIP archive.
Over the coming weeks Google will also be adding the ability to directly transfer your health data to other services that support the Direct Project protocol, an emerging open standard for efficient health data exchange, the company said.
Users can still transfer and store their information in Microsoft's HealthVault, an online data store that was launched in 2007. But Hohm, Microsoft's alternative for homeowners to manage their energy consumption has also been refocused on the smart grid and electrical vehicles.
In PowerMeter's case, more and more information is being made available to consumers online, as with the controversial SmartMeter from Pacific Gas & Electric.
"Momentum is building toward making energy information more readily accessible, and it's exciting to see others drive innovation and pursue opportunities in this important new market," Brown and Weihl wrote. "We're proud of what we've accomplished with PowerMeter and look forward to what will develop next in this space."
Friday, June 24, 2011
WordPress warns server admins of Trojans
Companies and bloggers that run their own WordPress installations should make sure that they have not downloaded any of three popular plugins that were, for about 24 hours, playing host to malicious code, WordPress creator Auttomatic warned.
"The WordPress team noticed suspicious commits to several popular plugins containing cleverly disguised backdoors," wrote Matt Mullenweg, a founding developer of Auttomatic. "We determined the commits were not from the authors, rolled them back, pushed updates to the plugins, and shut down access to the plugin repository while we looked for anything else unsavory."
Auttomatic initiated a systemwide reset for WordPress.org, forcing all users to change their password. In addition, the company locked out changes to other plugins while it checked the integrity of their code.
"Web-based backdoors can be extremely dangerous," Paul Ducklin, a researcher with security firm Sophos, wrote in a blog post on the incident. "A WordPress backdoor might offer something with similar functionality, but using a different, unexpected URL, and using a password known to the hacker, instead of to you."
Users of Auttomatic's WordPress service, Wordpress.com, are not affected by the attack, Ducklin says.
Among the advice for administrators: Never use your WordPress password on any other site, Auttomatic says. Password reuse has become a major issue following a number of breaches as online services, such as Sony's Playstation Network and RockYou, have succumbed to online attacks. One analysis of the password file leaked in the hack of Sony Pictures found that more than two-thirds of people that also had accounts on another site, Gawker, used the same password.
The three plugins include WPtouch, a theme which formats Web sites for mobile devices; AddThis, a bookmarking plugin that allows visitors to share the site with friends; and W3 Total Cache, software that improves site performance by caching content. The plugins are fairly popular: WPtouch boasts 2 million downloads, while the other two enhancements have about half of a million downloads each.
The incident says less about the security of open-source code and more about whether administrators should question whether they should immediately apply downloads, says Chester Wisniewski, a senior security advisor with Sophos. In the future, he may think twice before applying an update for his WordPress plugins, he says.
"It is contrary to everything that I would tell someone running a WordPress site," Wisniewski says. "I tell them, that if you are ever in there and there is a button saying an update is available, to click it and update."
That's a question that WordPress will have to address in the future, he added.
"The WordPress team noticed suspicious commits to several popular plugins containing cleverly disguised backdoors," wrote Matt Mullenweg, a founding developer of Auttomatic. "We determined the commits were not from the authors, rolled them back, pushed updates to the plugins, and shut down access to the plugin repository while we looked for anything else unsavory."
Auttomatic initiated a systemwide reset for WordPress.org, forcing all users to change their password. In addition, the company locked out changes to other plugins while it checked the integrity of their code.
"Web-based backdoors can be extremely dangerous," Paul Ducklin, a researcher with security firm Sophos, wrote in a blog post on the incident. "A WordPress backdoor might offer something with similar functionality, but using a different, unexpected URL, and using a password known to the hacker, instead of to you."
Users of Auttomatic's WordPress service, Wordpress.com, are not affected by the attack, Ducklin says.
Among the advice for administrators: Never use your WordPress password on any other site, Auttomatic says. Password reuse has become a major issue following a number of breaches as online services, such as Sony's Playstation Network and RockYou, have succumbed to online attacks. One analysis of the password file leaked in the hack of Sony Pictures found that more than two-thirds of people that also had accounts on another site, Gawker, used the same password.
The three plugins include WPtouch, a theme which formats Web sites for mobile devices; AddThis, a bookmarking plugin that allows visitors to share the site with friends; and W3 Total Cache, software that improves site performance by caching content. The plugins are fairly popular: WPtouch boasts 2 million downloads, while the other two enhancements have about half of a million downloads each.
The incident says less about the security of open-source code and more about whether administrators should question whether they should immediately apply downloads, says Chester Wisniewski, a senior security advisor with Sophos. In the future, he may think twice before applying an update for his WordPress plugins, he says.
"It is contrary to everything that I would tell someone running a WordPress site," Wisniewski says. "I tell them, that if you are ever in there and there is a button saying an update is available, to click it and update."
That's a question that WordPress will have to address in the future, he added.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Multi-touch wall's powered by embedded Windows
NEC has demonstrated one of the world's largest multi-touch computers, powered by Windows Embedded Standard 7. The "Multi-Touch Wall" measures about 15 feet diagonally, offers resolution of 5,464 x 1,536 pixels, and employs infrared sensing, according to a DigInfo.tv report.
NEC's giant Multi-Touch Wall was shown off at last week's Digital Signage Japan 2011, according to a June 16 DigInfo.tv report (embedded at the end of this story). Company spokesperson Takeshi Wada is quoted as saying the device incorporates eight thin-bezel displays controlled by a single Windows Embedded Standard 7 computer.
NEC's Multi-Touch Wall
According to Wada, each single display measures 46 inches diagonally and has a resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels. Thus, the eight screens collectively offer one of the world's-biggest Windows desktops, with 5,464 by 1,536 pixels.
NEC said the Multi-Touch Wall is 4.1 meters (about 14.45 feet) wide and 1.15 meters (about 3.77 feet) high. Therefore, it measures almost 15 feet diagonally.
In the video, Wada says the displays have an ordinary glass surface, but infrared sensing was added to the array to provide two-point multitouch. Potential uses are said to be corporate showrooms, education, and product promotion.
Wada adds, "Actually this product is being installed in Microsofts new showroom. Right now, it is in exhibit form for display, but we are already finishing custom products. We will offer it to particular customers as a solution to match their needs in the future."
No details were provided about what processor the underlying computer employs, or how many graphics cards it had to be equipped with. As we reported June 15, NEC also used the Digital Signage Japan 2011 event to unveil two Windows-powered signage modules that comply with Intel's Open Pluggable Specification.
NEC's giant Multi-Touch Wall was shown off at last week's Digital Signage Japan 2011, according to a June 16 DigInfo.tv report (embedded at the end of this story). Company spokesperson Takeshi Wada is quoted as saying the device incorporates eight thin-bezel displays controlled by a single Windows Embedded Standard 7 computer.
NEC's Multi-Touch Wall
According to Wada, each single display measures 46 inches diagonally and has a resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels. Thus, the eight screens collectively offer one of the world's-biggest Windows desktops, with 5,464 by 1,536 pixels.
NEC said the Multi-Touch Wall is 4.1 meters (about 14.45 feet) wide and 1.15 meters (about 3.77 feet) high. Therefore, it measures almost 15 feet diagonally.
In the video, Wada says the displays have an ordinary glass surface, but infrared sensing was added to the array to provide two-point multitouch. Potential uses are said to be corporate showrooms, education, and product promotion.
Wada adds, "Actually this product is being installed in Microsofts new showroom. Right now, it is in exhibit form for display, but we are already finishing custom products. We will offer it to particular customers as a solution to match their needs in the future."
No details were provided about what processor the underlying computer employs, or how many graphics cards it had to be equipped with. As we reported June 15, NEC also used the Digital Signage Japan 2011 event to unveil two Windows-powered signage modules that comply with Intel's Open Pluggable Specification.
Monday, June 20, 2011
A bad day for Windows tablets?
Microsoft has killed its "Courier," a Windows CE-based tablet that was to have featured dual screens and handwriting recognition, according to Gizmodo. Meanwhile, HP's Windows 7-based Slate could also be shelved following that company's acquisition of Palm, TechCrunch claims.
The Courier was to have featured a Windows CE-based operating system -- likely similar to the version on the Zune HD or Windows Phone 7 -- running on an Nvidia Tegra SoC. The device's dual multitouch screens would have allowed it to act as an e-reader and digital journal, with built-in handwriting recognition, according to multiple reports.
The device was first revealed in a Sept. 2009 Gizmodo posting, at which time it appeared to be interesting but likely nothing more than a design concept. Last March, however, rival tech blog Engadget cited an "extremely trusted source" as saying the Courier would go on sale during the second half of this year.
Microsoft's Courier
Source: Engadget
Engadget -- which published a gallery of official-looking images plus the video embedded later in this story -- claimed the Courier would have a pen-based interface centered around drawing and writing. A related website would have allowed access to everything entered into the device in a blog-like format, added writer Nilay Patel.
Latter in March, Microsoft appeared to confirm the Courier's existence via a posting on its JobsBlog recruiting page, which referred to the Courier as an upcoming product, and linked to earlier coverage on the Engadget website. As reported by All Things Digital's Peter Kafka, mention of the Courier came in a posting touting "how Microsoft is again leading the industry in innovation."
The JobsBlog posting is said to have read as follows:
Do you already know everything about Project Natal and the Cloud? Is Blaise Aguera y Arcas' jaw-dropping TED talk on augmented-reality Bing Maps and Photosynth last month's news? Then check out some of the online chatter surrounding new releases of Window [sic] Phone 7 series handsets, Internet Explorer 9, and the upcoming Courier digital journal.
Speculation about the Courier was also fueled by a Digitimes report earlier this month, staging that a dual-screen device fitting its description would be built for Toshiba by subcontractor Compal Electronics. Toshiba manufactured Microsoft's original Zune music player, whose hardware was based on a Toshiba PMP (personal music player) known as the Gigabeat.
Now, however, the Courier is no more, according to a Gizmodo story that has reportedly been officially confirmed by Microsoft. "On Wednesday, Microsoft execs informed the internal team that had been working on the tablet device that the project would no longer be supported," writes Joel Johnson.
Gizmodo contacted Microsoft for confirmation, and quotes Frank Shaw, a corporate vice president of communications, as saying:
It's in our DNA to develop new form factors and natural user interfaces to foster productivity and creativity. The Courier project is an example of this type of effort. It will be evaluated for use in future offerings, but we have no plans to build such a device at this time.
Microsoft provided no reason for killing the product, but a prime motivation could be a desire not to compete with its many customers who are already producing Windows-based tablets. It's believed the dual-display design may have also caused excessive battery consumption and possible scratching as the device was transported.
What about HP's Slate?
HP has been vigorously promoting a tablet device of its own, the Slate. Detailed in pictures and videos released by the company, plus a leaked document (below) reproduced by Engadget, the Slate is designed to compete with Apple's iPad.
A presentation comparing HP's Slate to Apple's Ipad
(Click to enlarge)
Source: Engadget
According to this purported HP presentation, the Slate incorporates netbook-like hardware and software, including an Intel Atom Z530 processor clocked at 1.6GHz, 32GB or 64GB of flash storage, and Windows 7 Home Premium. It's said the Slate will operate for only five hours on batteries, similar to or less than a variety of netbooks.
In the wake of HP's announced intent to purchase Palm -- whose Linux-based WebOS could be used to create ARM-powered tablets -- the Slate might not pass muster any longer, or so a new posting on the Tech Crunch blog suggests. Quoting a "source who's been briefed on the matter," Michael Arrington says "HP has killed off its much ballyhooed Windows 7 tablet computer."
A slide from HP's presentation announcing the acquisition of Palm
(Click to enlarge)
Arrington, who claims to have helped develop the Linux-based "CrunchPad" tablet now being sold as the JooJoo, says "our source tells us that HP is not satisfied with Windows 7 as a tablet operating system." The manufacturer may also be abandoning Intel-based hardware for its iPad competitor simply because it's too power-hungry, he theorizes.
HP's Slate
"We've reached out to HP for comment," Arrington adds, but no official response appears to have been received. (Meanwhile, we're wondering whatever happened to the old journalistic precept of requiring two sources for a story.)
The Courier was to have featured a Windows CE-based operating system -- likely similar to the version on the Zune HD or Windows Phone 7 -- running on an Nvidia Tegra SoC. The device's dual multitouch screens would have allowed it to act as an e-reader and digital journal, with built-in handwriting recognition, according to multiple reports.
The device was first revealed in a Sept. 2009 Gizmodo posting, at which time it appeared to be interesting but likely nothing more than a design concept. Last March, however, rival tech blog Engadget cited an "extremely trusted source" as saying the Courier would go on sale during the second half of this year.
Microsoft's Courier
Source: Engadget
Engadget -- which published a gallery of official-looking images plus the video embedded later in this story -- claimed the Courier would have a pen-based interface centered around drawing and writing. A related website would have allowed access to everything entered into the device in a blog-like format, added writer Nilay Patel.
Latter in March, Microsoft appeared to confirm the Courier's existence via a posting on its JobsBlog recruiting page, which referred to the Courier as an upcoming product, and linked to earlier coverage on the Engadget website. As reported by All Things Digital's Peter Kafka, mention of the Courier came in a posting touting "how Microsoft is again leading the industry in innovation."
The JobsBlog posting is said to have read as follows:
Do you already know everything about Project Natal and the Cloud? Is Blaise Aguera y Arcas' jaw-dropping TED talk on augmented-reality Bing Maps and Photosynth last month's news? Then check out some of the online chatter surrounding new releases of Window [sic] Phone 7 series handsets, Internet Explorer 9, and the upcoming Courier digital journal.
Speculation about the Courier was also fueled by a Digitimes report earlier this month, staging that a dual-screen device fitting its description would be built for Toshiba by subcontractor Compal Electronics. Toshiba manufactured Microsoft's original Zune music player, whose hardware was based on a Toshiba PMP (personal music player) known as the Gigabeat.
Now, however, the Courier is no more, according to a Gizmodo story that has reportedly been officially confirmed by Microsoft. "On Wednesday, Microsoft execs informed the internal team that had been working on the tablet device that the project would no longer be supported," writes Joel Johnson.
Gizmodo contacted Microsoft for confirmation, and quotes Frank Shaw, a corporate vice president of communications, as saying:
It's in our DNA to develop new form factors and natural user interfaces to foster productivity and creativity. The Courier project is an example of this type of effort. It will be evaluated for use in future offerings, but we have no plans to build such a device at this time.
Microsoft provided no reason for killing the product, but a prime motivation could be a desire not to compete with its many customers who are already producing Windows-based tablets. It's believed the dual-display design may have also caused excessive battery consumption and possible scratching as the device was transported.
What about HP's Slate?
HP has been vigorously promoting a tablet device of its own, the Slate. Detailed in pictures and videos released by the company, plus a leaked document (below) reproduced by Engadget, the Slate is designed to compete with Apple's iPad.
A presentation comparing HP's Slate to Apple's Ipad
(Click to enlarge)
Source: Engadget
According to this purported HP presentation, the Slate incorporates netbook-like hardware and software, including an Intel Atom Z530 processor clocked at 1.6GHz, 32GB or 64GB of flash storage, and Windows 7 Home Premium. It's said the Slate will operate for only five hours on batteries, similar to or less than a variety of netbooks.
In the wake of HP's announced intent to purchase Palm -- whose Linux-based WebOS could be used to create ARM-powered tablets -- the Slate might not pass muster any longer, or so a new posting on the Tech Crunch blog suggests. Quoting a "source who's been briefed on the matter," Michael Arrington says "HP has killed off its much ballyhooed Windows 7 tablet computer."
A slide from HP's presentation announcing the acquisition of Palm
(Click to enlarge)
Arrington, who claims to have helped develop the Linux-based "CrunchPad" tablet now being sold as the JooJoo, says "our source tells us that HP is not satisfied with Windows 7 as a tablet operating system." The manufacturer may also be abandoning Intel-based hardware for its iPad competitor simply because it's too power-hungry, he theorizes.
HP's Slate
"We've reached out to HP for comment," Arrington adds, but no official response appears to have been received. (Meanwhile, we're wondering whatever happened to the old journalistic precept of requiring two sources for a story.)
Sunday, June 19, 2011
IDC: Windows Phone 7 will be fastest-growing smartphone OS
Android will surge to a dominant 39.5 percent share of the fast-growing global smartphone market this year, then further climb slowly to a 45.4 percent share by 2015, says IDC. However, the research firm adds, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 will actually see the fastest growth, supplanting Symbian to reach a second-place 20.9 percent share by 2015.
According to IDC, vendors will ship more than 450 million smartphones in 2011, compared to the 303.4 million units shipped in 2010. This projected 49.2 percent growth rate is four times faster than that of the overall mobile phone market, says IDC. The growth, however, is slightly less than the 2010 rebound, driven by pent-up demand from the recessionary 2009 market, says the research group.
IDC also has good news for the Google-backed Android operating system. The iPad may be tough to dislodge from its dominant perch atop the tablet market, but the smartphone market will continue to fall to Android, says a new IDC study projecting worldwide smartphone sales through 2015.
OperatingSystem 2011market share 2015 market share 2011-2015 CAGR
Worldwide smartphone OS share and growth rate (CAGR), 2011-2015
"Android is poised to take over as the leading smartphone operating system in 2011 after racing into the number two position in 2010," stated Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team. This year, Android vendors will "broaden and deepen their portfolios to reach more customers, particularly first-time smartphone users," he continued.
Judging from the projections, which are part of the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker project, Android will see its biggest jump this year, to 39.5 percent of smartphones sold worldwide, then slowly inch up to 45.4 percent in 2015. This nonetheless represents a 23.8 percent increase over the four-year period, which beats the projected Apple iOS rate of 18.8 percent and RIM BlackBerry's 17.1 percent.
What's more, Android's two main rivals are expected to lose share overall, with iOS slipping to 15.3 percent, and BlackBerry dropping more substantially to 13.7 percent by 2015.
Windows Phone 7 to grow the fastest
The fastest growing smartphone OS will be Windows Phone 7, which will grow from 5.5 percent in 2011 to a second-place 20.9 percent in 2015, projects IDC, whose numbers also include the fading Windows Mobile. In short, IDC sees Microsoft's new mobile OS as successfully supplanting Symbian's smartphone share over the next four years as Nokia shifts over to Windows Phone 7.
"The new alliance brings together Nokia's hardware capabilities and Windows Phone's differentiated platform," stated Llamas, who said the first Nokia Windows phones would ship in 2012. "By 2015, IDC expects Windows Phone to be the number two operating system worldwide behind Android," he added.
Interestingly, IDC sees the "others" category as growing even faster than Android, rising at a 28 percent clip from 3.5 percent in 2011 to 4.6 percent in 2015. IDC doesn't elaborate who the players are here, but Linux will likely underscore most, if not all, of these rival operating systems.
HP's Linux-based WebOS may well be the frontrunner of the bunch. Samsung also offers its Bada OS, which adds Samsung's homegrown middleware and UI on top of a Linux kernel. So far, however, Bada sales have been eclipsed by the huge numbers for Samsung's successful Android-based Galaxy S phones.
It is still unclear whether Intel can find a new phone partner for the Linux-driven MeeGo phones now that Nokia has left it high and dry. Other entries include the recently updated, carrier-driven LiMo (Linux Mobile) spec, which will appear in several new phones this year, according to the LiMo Foundation.
Finally, rumor has it that Motorola is working on its own web-oriented mobile operating system, which if true, will almost certainly run on Linux.
Further information
More information on the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker may be found at IDC's announcement page.
According to IDC, vendors will ship more than 450 million smartphones in 2011, compared to the 303.4 million units shipped in 2010. This projected 49.2 percent growth rate is four times faster than that of the overall mobile phone market, says IDC. The growth, however, is slightly less than the 2010 rebound, driven by pent-up demand from the recessionary 2009 market, says the research group.
IDC also has good news for the Google-backed Android operating system. The iPad may be tough to dislodge from its dominant perch atop the tablet market, but the smartphone market will continue to fall to Android, says a new IDC study projecting worldwide smartphone sales through 2015.
OperatingSystem 2011market share 2015 market share 2011-2015 CAGR
Worldwide smartphone OS share and growth rate (CAGR), 2011-2015
"Android is poised to take over as the leading smartphone operating system in 2011 after racing into the number two position in 2010," stated Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team. This year, Android vendors will "broaden and deepen their portfolios to reach more customers, particularly first-time smartphone users," he continued.
Judging from the projections, which are part of the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker project, Android will see its biggest jump this year, to 39.5 percent of smartphones sold worldwide, then slowly inch up to 45.4 percent in 2015. This nonetheless represents a 23.8 percent increase over the four-year period, which beats the projected Apple iOS rate of 18.8 percent and RIM BlackBerry's 17.1 percent.
What's more, Android's two main rivals are expected to lose share overall, with iOS slipping to 15.3 percent, and BlackBerry dropping more substantially to 13.7 percent by 2015.
Windows Phone 7 to grow the fastest
The fastest growing smartphone OS will be Windows Phone 7, which will grow from 5.5 percent in 2011 to a second-place 20.9 percent in 2015, projects IDC, whose numbers also include the fading Windows Mobile. In short, IDC sees Microsoft's new mobile OS as successfully supplanting Symbian's smartphone share over the next four years as Nokia shifts over to Windows Phone 7.
"The new alliance brings together Nokia's hardware capabilities and Windows Phone's differentiated platform," stated Llamas, who said the first Nokia Windows phones would ship in 2012. "By 2015, IDC expects Windows Phone to be the number two operating system worldwide behind Android," he added.
Interestingly, IDC sees the "others" category as growing even faster than Android, rising at a 28 percent clip from 3.5 percent in 2011 to 4.6 percent in 2015. IDC doesn't elaborate who the players are here, but Linux will likely underscore most, if not all, of these rival operating systems.
HP's Linux-based WebOS may well be the frontrunner of the bunch. Samsung also offers its Bada OS, which adds Samsung's homegrown middleware and UI on top of a Linux kernel. So far, however, Bada sales have been eclipsed by the huge numbers for Samsung's successful Android-based Galaxy S phones.
It is still unclear whether Intel can find a new phone partner for the Linux-driven MeeGo phones now that Nokia has left it high and dry. Other entries include the recently updated, carrier-driven LiMo (Linux Mobile) spec, which will appear in several new phones this year, according to the LiMo Foundation.
Finally, rumor has it that Motorola is working on its own web-oriented mobile operating system, which if true, will almost certainly run on Linux.
Further information
More information on the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker may be found at IDC's announcement page.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Want to stop cybercrime? Follow the money
It's easy to spam and phish because of the existence of large botnets full of infected computers.
This has effectively created a platform economy in which the botnets are the platform, Savage said. While he didn't make this specific comparison, it sounds very much like how popular operating systems, browsers and devices are the platforms for large-scale software development. The goals are much different, though.
Unfortunately for the criminals, they can't even trust each other. Hackers who sell software that infects PCs are like normal companies in the sense that "they do not want you to pirate their software," Savage said.
"These guys have a problem with this since they are selling to criminals," he said.
One such software author took the extraordinary step of distributing versions of the software compromised with malware, so people who downloaded pirated copies would get infected themselves.
"This has been effective and kept his price high," Savage said. "He sells it for $500."
And if you've ever wondered what would happen if you actually respond to one of those Viagra ads, it turns out you will almost always get some pills - real or not - in return for your credit card payment, as long as the company has a way of getting their wares past Customs. And if you're not satisfied with the product, getting a refund is easy. These companies need to fly under the radar, and want as little attention from credit card companies as possible.
"They have far better customer service than any business you've ever dealt with," Savage said.
This has effectively created a platform economy in which the botnets are the platform, Savage said. While he didn't make this specific comparison, it sounds very much like how popular operating systems, browsers and devices are the platforms for large-scale software development. The goals are much different, though.
Unfortunately for the criminals, they can't even trust each other. Hackers who sell software that infects PCs are like normal companies in the sense that "they do not want you to pirate their software," Savage said.
"These guys have a problem with this since they are selling to criminals," he said.
One such software author took the extraordinary step of distributing versions of the software compromised with malware, so people who downloaded pirated copies would get infected themselves.
"This has been effective and kept his price high," Savage said. "He sells it for $500."
And if you've ever wondered what would happen if you actually respond to one of those Viagra ads, it turns out you will almost always get some pills - real or not - in return for your credit card payment, as long as the company has a way of getting their wares past Customs. And if you're not satisfied with the product, getting a refund is easy. These companies need to fly under the radar, and want as little attention from credit card companies as possible.
"They have far better customer service than any business you've ever dealt with," Savage said.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Microsoft getting back to business at 100th annual retailing show
Microsoft may have talked up an ARM-based future for "big Windows" at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), but it's getting back to business at the National Retail Federation (NRF) convention in New York. The event will showcase solutions using the Windows Embedded Standard, Windows Embedded POSReady, and Windows Embedded Handheld operating systems, according to the company.
This week's CES surprised some observers via Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's announcement that the company will port "big Windows" -- perhaps to be known as Windows 8, though neither a name nor timeframe was revealed -- onto ARM processors. Combined with the fact that today's ARM-based Windows Embedded Compact 7 "got no keynote or press conference love" (in the words earlier today of Microsoft watcher Mary-Jo Foley), the event conspired to make it seem as though Microsoft had lost interest in its existing embedded operating systems.
Fortunately, that doesn't actually seem to be the case. Leaving the world of chatter about what might happen two years from now, and returning to a realm where money actually changes hands, Microsoft will be staging its typically significant presence at next week's National Retail Federation (NRF) show in New York.
This year marks the 100th for the NRF convention, described by its organizers as "the world's leading retail event, bringing 18,500 retail executives and vendors from more than 50 countries together." Of more than 600 exhibitors, the majority are outside the IT industry, but heavy-hitters such as Cisco, Fujitsu, Honeywell, IBM, NCR, Wincor Nixdorf, and many others are all represented, in addition to Microsoft.
Microsoft says it will showcase platforms and technologies tailored for the retail and hospitality markets, including Windows Embedded POSReady, Windows Embedded Handheld, and "next-generation" digital signage products. Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail and Microsoft Dynamics CRM software will also be shown off, the company says, with the aid of partners such as Aladata Solution, Avande, HCL Technologies, and Retaligent Solutions.
According to Redmond, Microsoft executives will participate in the following "Big ideas and super sessions events," all held at the Javits Convention Center:
* Monday, Jan. 10, 11:30 a.m.noon -- Translate Customer Understanding Into Differentiated Strategies
o Speaker: Randy Misener, retail solutions director, Avanade
* Monday, Jan. 10, 33:30 p.m. -- Connecting Your Business to Devices and Customers with Windows Embedded
o Speaker: Barb Edson, senior director of marketing, Windows Embedded, Microsoft
* Monday, Jan. 10, 4:455:15 p.m. -- Aligning the Agendas of the CMO and CIO
o Speakers: Tom Kersten, national retail director, Microsoft, and Jeong Woo, retail specialist, Microsoft
* Tuesday, Jan. 11, 8:309:30 a.m. -- Super Session: Making the Retail Business Dynamic
o Speaker: Kirill Tatarinov, corporate vice president, Microsoft Business Solutions, and featured guest Bill Fields, chairman, China Horizon
* Tuesday, Jan. 11, 11:30 a.m.noon -- Winning in Retail Today and Tomorrow
o Speakers: Dilip Popat, global retail industry director, Microsoft Dynamics, and Michael Griffiths, global retail group product director, Microsoft Dynamics
* Tuesday, Jan. 11, 1:452:15 p.m. -- Connected Customer Centricity: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age
o Speakers: Bill Patterson, director, product management, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, and Javed Sikander, global retail technology strategist, Microsoft
No specifics about hardware to be showcased were provided, but it's a safe bet Windows Embedded Standard 7 devices will be shown that employ Intel Core i5 or i7 processors and the chipmaker's recently announced Open Pluggable Specification (OPS) for digital signage devices.
Intel's OPS was unveiled in October during a keynote at the Digital Signage Expo 2010 in San Diego. It's said the spec, which is supported by Microsoft, NEC, and Taiwan's Digital Signage Special Interest Group, will help standardize the design and development of digital signs.
The chipmaker said in October that standardization will "enable easier installation, use, and maintenance," as well as making digital signs "more intelligent and connected." Such products are unique in that not only must they often be available 24/7, but also failures can be blatantly obvious and embarrassing.
The complete OPS specification is available only to "approved applicants," according to Intel, but involves the use of Core processors and the Windows Embedded Standard operating system. A "fanless and compact" prototype was shown off in San Diego, and included both vPro technology and KVM (keyboard video mouse) redirection capabilities, the company adds.
The massive Intel/Microsoft Intelligent Digital Signage Concept
We also expect NRF attendees to get another glimpse of the Intel/Microsoft Intelligent Digital Signage Concept device that was shown off last year. Pictured above, this sports a seven-foot-six-inch multitouch screen touted as having holographic glass, plus a camera that allows the Windows-based system to estimate the gender and age of anyone passing by it.
This week's CES surprised some observers via Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's announcement that the company will port "big Windows" -- perhaps to be known as Windows 8, though neither a name nor timeframe was revealed -- onto ARM processors. Combined with the fact that today's ARM-based Windows Embedded Compact 7 "got no keynote or press conference love" (in the words earlier today of Microsoft watcher Mary-Jo Foley), the event conspired to make it seem as though Microsoft had lost interest in its existing embedded operating systems.
Fortunately, that doesn't actually seem to be the case. Leaving the world of chatter about what might happen two years from now, and returning to a realm where money actually changes hands, Microsoft will be staging its typically significant presence at next week's National Retail Federation (NRF) show in New York.
This year marks the 100th for the NRF convention, described by its organizers as "the world's leading retail event, bringing 18,500 retail executives and vendors from more than 50 countries together." Of more than 600 exhibitors, the majority are outside the IT industry, but heavy-hitters such as Cisco, Fujitsu, Honeywell, IBM, NCR, Wincor Nixdorf, and many others are all represented, in addition to Microsoft.
Microsoft says it will showcase platforms and technologies tailored for the retail and hospitality markets, including Windows Embedded POSReady, Windows Embedded Handheld, and "next-generation" digital signage products. Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail and Microsoft Dynamics CRM software will also be shown off, the company says, with the aid of partners such as Aladata Solution, Avande, HCL Technologies, and Retaligent Solutions.
According to Redmond, Microsoft executives will participate in the following "Big ideas and super sessions events," all held at the Javits Convention Center:
* Monday, Jan. 10, 11:30 a.m.noon -- Translate Customer Understanding Into Differentiated Strategies
o Speaker: Randy Misener, retail solutions director, Avanade
* Monday, Jan. 10, 33:30 p.m. -- Connecting Your Business to Devices and Customers with Windows Embedded
o Speaker: Barb Edson, senior director of marketing, Windows Embedded, Microsoft
* Monday, Jan. 10, 4:455:15 p.m. -- Aligning the Agendas of the CMO and CIO
o Speakers: Tom Kersten, national retail director, Microsoft, and Jeong Woo, retail specialist, Microsoft
* Tuesday, Jan. 11, 8:309:30 a.m. -- Super Session: Making the Retail Business Dynamic
o Speaker: Kirill Tatarinov, corporate vice president, Microsoft Business Solutions, and featured guest Bill Fields, chairman, China Horizon
* Tuesday, Jan. 11, 11:30 a.m.noon -- Winning in Retail Today and Tomorrow
o Speakers: Dilip Popat, global retail industry director, Microsoft Dynamics, and Michael Griffiths, global retail group product director, Microsoft Dynamics
* Tuesday, Jan. 11, 1:452:15 p.m. -- Connected Customer Centricity: Customer Relationship Management in the Digital Age
o Speakers: Bill Patterson, director, product management, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, and Javed Sikander, global retail technology strategist, Microsoft
No specifics about hardware to be showcased were provided, but it's a safe bet Windows Embedded Standard 7 devices will be shown that employ Intel Core i5 or i7 processors and the chipmaker's recently announced Open Pluggable Specification (OPS) for digital signage devices.
Intel's OPS was unveiled in October during a keynote at the Digital Signage Expo 2010 in San Diego. It's said the spec, which is supported by Microsoft, NEC, and Taiwan's Digital Signage Special Interest Group, will help standardize the design and development of digital signs.
The chipmaker said in October that standardization will "enable easier installation, use, and maintenance," as well as making digital signs "more intelligent and connected." Such products are unique in that not only must they often be available 24/7, but also failures can be blatantly obvious and embarrassing.
The complete OPS specification is available only to "approved applicants," according to Intel, but involves the use of Core processors and the Windows Embedded Standard operating system. A "fanless and compact" prototype was shown off in San Diego, and included both vPro technology and KVM (keyboard video mouse) redirection capabilities, the company adds.
The massive Intel/Microsoft Intelligent Digital Signage Concept
We also expect NRF attendees to get another glimpse of the Intel/Microsoft Intelligent Digital Signage Concept device that was shown off last year. Pictured above, this sports a seven-foot-six-inch multitouch screen touted as having holographic glass, plus a camera that allows the Windows-based system to estimate the gender and age of anyone passing by it.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Why Facebook Is Losing U.S. Users
Has the world's No. 1 social network finally peaked in its home country?
News hit the other day that Facebook may have lost about six million users in the U.S. in one month, according to Inside Facebook, a site that analyzes the social network for developers and marketers. Facebook has close to 700 million users worldwide, so a loss of six million doesn't sound like much, especially in light of data that suggests the service has been pushing aside regional social sites to conquer large swaths of the developing world, and actually posted a net increase in overall users over the same period.
But a six million user loss is a little more painful when compared to the U.S. user base, which reports say stands around 150 million—or roughly half the population of the country. It's not crippling, but a four percent reduction isn't negligible either. At the same time, the same data source suggests the service is experiencing similar losses throughout the Western world in places like Canada, the U.K., and Norway. Could American audiences finally be turning on the social network?
When asked about the report, a Facebook spokesman told PCMag that, "From time to time, we see stories about Facebook losing users in some regions. Some of these reports use data extracted from our advertising tool, which provides broad estimates on the reach of Facebook ads and isn't designed to be a source for tracking the overall growth of Facebook. We are very pleased with our growth."
Facebook itself may not put a lot of stock in the numbers, but it tellingly didn't offer any of its own. Absent official statistics, industry observers tend to believe the report.
"I think the data to be correct." says Lou Kerner, a social media analyst with Wedbush Securities, a Los Angeles-based investment bank. "As Facebook starts to get near 50 percent penetration in a lot of these countries, the growth starts to slow. A little bit of fatigue sets in. Older people who sign up don't get as much value as younger people do, so they tend not to stick around. They come and they go."
So assuming the data is correct, why is Facebook losing U.S. customers? There are a few possible explanations:
1. Seasonal Changes
One of the simplest explanations for the change is that it's just a normal blip in Facebook's seasonal cycle. Every spring, many college students graduate, and while their Facebook profiles don't get deleted, their Internet habits can change rapidly, especially when suddenly faced with the prospect of selling themselves to potential employers. Inside Facebook notes that "short-term factors" like this may be obscuring overall trends.
"May starts the seasonally slow period for social networks," says Kerner. "Kids have finals and leave school, so they get out of their social networking routine."
2. The Privacy Envelope Has Been Pushed Too Far
This is the favorite go-to theory for pundits, since everybody likes to talk about privacy when Facebook makes headlines. It makes sense on paper: Facebook makes some change or introduces a service that appears to make the site less private or secure, everybody makes a big deal about it, and Facebook (typically) goes ahead and does it anyway. Then everyone starts to theorize when users will begin leaving en masse in defiance.
The theory overlooks the inconvenient fact that through all of Facebook's privacy shenanigans (and there have been many), its user base has grown massively, and the most recent hullabaloo over the site's new facial-recognition abilities is small potatoes compared to controversies of the past. To suggest that the Facebook finally hit the last straw on privacy over the last month assumes users just started caring about the issue.
"I don't think this is a Facebook problem as much as it's a privacy on the Internet problem," says Kerner. "I think more than driving people away, it's stopping people from coming."
3. Facebook's Time Has Come
It's probably inevitable: Somehow, someday, Facebook will start to decline, just like its predecessors MySpace and Friendster. Its users will slowly lose interest, moving on to other networks and platforms (possibly Twitter, or whatever emerges from Apple's iCloud). It seems impossible given Facebook's colossal user base and rapid growth, but it would be far from the first complacent empire that fell.
The problem with the theory is that it completely ignores another, more important statistic: user engagement. According to Alexa, people visiting Facebook are actually visiting 40 percent more pages per visit than they were just three months ago. That's not the picture of a disinterested populace ready to pack its bags for the 140-character wilds of Twitter.
"Facebook's page views per user have continued to grow very rapidly on a global basis," says Kerner. "Before you see an decline in users, you see a decline in engagement. Unique users don't become highly engaged and drop off—they use it less and less and then drop off."
So Facebook's users are spending more time on the site than ever, though the overall number of users may be declining slightly, at least in North America and few other places. Still, when your market penetration is as deep as Facebook's, it's going to be difficult to avoid the occasional downward arrow.
Kerner admits, "Facebook isn't for everybody." That's certainly true, though it's just as certain that everybody has at least heard of it. Even if the company launched an all-out marketing campaign tomorrow to try and recruit new users to make up for those who left, I suspect it would have little effect. The people who want to be on Facebook are there, and those who aren't probably never will be (or never should have been).
As for the six million users who left in the last month, they're probably similarly divided: some are just taking a break and will be back, while the others probably weren't the sharing type in the first place. That's not something the social network would like, but if there were a "Live With It" button, it's an easy click.
News hit the other day that Facebook may have lost about six million users in the U.S. in one month, according to Inside Facebook, a site that analyzes the social network for developers and marketers. Facebook has close to 700 million users worldwide, so a loss of six million doesn't sound like much, especially in light of data that suggests the service has been pushing aside regional social sites to conquer large swaths of the developing world, and actually posted a net increase in overall users over the same period.
But a six million user loss is a little more painful when compared to the U.S. user base, which reports say stands around 150 million—or roughly half the population of the country. It's not crippling, but a four percent reduction isn't negligible either. At the same time, the same data source suggests the service is experiencing similar losses throughout the Western world in places like Canada, the U.K., and Norway. Could American audiences finally be turning on the social network?
When asked about the report, a Facebook spokesman told PCMag that, "From time to time, we see stories about Facebook losing users in some regions. Some of these reports use data extracted from our advertising tool, which provides broad estimates on the reach of Facebook ads and isn't designed to be a source for tracking the overall growth of Facebook. We are very pleased with our growth."
Facebook itself may not put a lot of stock in the numbers, but it tellingly didn't offer any of its own. Absent official statistics, industry observers tend to believe the report.
"I think the data to be correct." says Lou Kerner, a social media analyst with Wedbush Securities, a Los Angeles-based investment bank. "As Facebook starts to get near 50 percent penetration in a lot of these countries, the growth starts to slow. A little bit of fatigue sets in. Older people who sign up don't get as much value as younger people do, so they tend not to stick around. They come and they go."
So assuming the data is correct, why is Facebook losing U.S. customers? There are a few possible explanations:
1. Seasonal Changes
One of the simplest explanations for the change is that it's just a normal blip in Facebook's seasonal cycle. Every spring, many college students graduate, and while their Facebook profiles don't get deleted, their Internet habits can change rapidly, especially when suddenly faced with the prospect of selling themselves to potential employers. Inside Facebook notes that "short-term factors" like this may be obscuring overall trends.
"May starts the seasonally slow period for social networks," says Kerner. "Kids have finals and leave school, so they get out of their social networking routine."
2. The Privacy Envelope Has Been Pushed Too Far
This is the favorite go-to theory for pundits, since everybody likes to talk about privacy when Facebook makes headlines. It makes sense on paper: Facebook makes some change or introduces a service that appears to make the site less private or secure, everybody makes a big deal about it, and Facebook (typically) goes ahead and does it anyway. Then everyone starts to theorize when users will begin leaving en masse in defiance.
The theory overlooks the inconvenient fact that through all of Facebook's privacy shenanigans (and there have been many), its user base has grown massively, and the most recent hullabaloo over the site's new facial-recognition abilities is small potatoes compared to controversies of the past. To suggest that the Facebook finally hit the last straw on privacy over the last month assumes users just started caring about the issue.
"I don't think this is a Facebook problem as much as it's a privacy on the Internet problem," says Kerner. "I think more than driving people away, it's stopping people from coming."
3. Facebook's Time Has Come
It's probably inevitable: Somehow, someday, Facebook will start to decline, just like its predecessors MySpace and Friendster. Its users will slowly lose interest, moving on to other networks and platforms (possibly Twitter, or whatever emerges from Apple's iCloud). It seems impossible given Facebook's colossal user base and rapid growth, but it would be far from the first complacent empire that fell.
The problem with the theory is that it completely ignores another, more important statistic: user engagement. According to Alexa, people visiting Facebook are actually visiting 40 percent more pages per visit than they were just three months ago. That's not the picture of a disinterested populace ready to pack its bags for the 140-character wilds of Twitter.
"Facebook's page views per user have continued to grow very rapidly on a global basis," says Kerner. "Before you see an decline in users, you see a decline in engagement. Unique users don't become highly engaged and drop off—they use it less and less and then drop off."
So Facebook's users are spending more time on the site than ever, though the overall number of users may be declining slightly, at least in North America and few other places. Still, when your market penetration is as deep as Facebook's, it's going to be difficult to avoid the occasional downward arrow.
Kerner admits, "Facebook isn't for everybody." That's certainly true, though it's just as certain that everybody has at least heard of it. Even if the company launched an all-out marketing campaign tomorrow to try and recruit new users to make up for those who left, I suspect it would have little effect. The people who want to be on Facebook are there, and those who aren't probably never will be (or never should have been).
As for the six million users who left in the last month, they're probably similarly divided: some are just taking a break and will be back, while the others probably weren't the sharing type in the first place. That's not something the social network would like, but if there were a "Live With It" button, it's an easy click.
Monday, June 13, 2011
OS X Lion vs. Windows 8: Feature by Feature
Microsoft and Apple, the two leading consumer desktop operating system makers, have shown us the future of their software. Here's how they stack up.
Last October at an event on the Apple Cupertino campus called "Back to the Mac," the world got its first peek at the stylish tech firm's next desktop operating system, dubbed "OS X Lion." CEO Steve Jobs explained that the success of the company's iPad tablet was a major driver in adding features to Lion. More details were demonstrated at this year's WWDC. And just last week at D9, the world got its first peek at what the company has code-named "Windows 8," in a demo by Microsoft's Windows President, Steve Sinofsky. That operating system, too, it turns out, was heavily influenced by a smaller-form-factor OS—Windows Phone 7.
But the similarities don't end at the two future desktop OS's mobile influencers. Both Lion and Window 8 will make heavy use of touch interfaces, but with a big difference, as you'll see in the slideshow below. Both will have an App Store, both have full screen app views, and both offer new ways to switch among and navigate within apps.
There are, of course, important differences between Microsoft and Apple's overall OS strategies, as outlined by Peter Pachal in "Mac OS X Lion vs. Windows 8: Who Will Win the Post-PC World?" It all hinges on tablet support. Pachal points out that Apple is aligning its tablet and phone OSes, and keeping the desktop OS separate, though mobile-influenced. Microsoft, on the other hand, is creating one OS for tablets and desktops, while keeping the phone OS separate—for now, anyway. Microsoft may even have its ideas for a grand unified OS for all devices. Keep in mind that Lion, which is due for release next month, is much further along in the development process. Windows 8, on the other hand, isn't coming out until next year, so we haven't gotten as full a picture of the latter MCITP Training .
Clearly, the tablet and mobile worlds have begun to impact the desktop OS in a major way. This begs the question: Can the desktop survive? Once you see all the powerful goodies these new system software heavyweights bring to the table, however, you'd be hard pressed to make a case for the irrelevance of the desktop computer. Click through the slideshow to see whether you disagree, and to see which looks better to you: Windows 8 or Apple's OS X Lion.
Last October at an event on the Apple Cupertino campus called "Back to the Mac," the world got its first peek at the stylish tech firm's next desktop operating system, dubbed "OS X Lion." CEO Steve Jobs explained that the success of the company's iPad tablet was a major driver in adding features to Lion. More details were demonstrated at this year's WWDC. And just last week at D9, the world got its first peek at what the company has code-named "Windows 8," in a demo by Microsoft's Windows President, Steve Sinofsky. That operating system, too, it turns out, was heavily influenced by a smaller-form-factor OS—Windows Phone 7.
But the similarities don't end at the two future desktop OS's mobile influencers. Both Lion and Window 8 will make heavy use of touch interfaces, but with a big difference, as you'll see in the slideshow below. Both will have an App Store, both have full screen app views, and both offer new ways to switch among and navigate within apps.
There are, of course, important differences between Microsoft and Apple's overall OS strategies, as outlined by Peter Pachal in "Mac OS X Lion vs. Windows 8: Who Will Win the Post-PC World?" It all hinges on tablet support. Pachal points out that Apple is aligning its tablet and phone OSes, and keeping the desktop OS separate, though mobile-influenced. Microsoft, on the other hand, is creating one OS for tablets and desktops, while keeping the phone OS separate—for now, anyway. Microsoft may even have its ideas for a grand unified OS for all devices. Keep in mind that Lion, which is due for release next month, is much further along in the development process. Windows 8, on the other hand, isn't coming out until next year, so we haven't gotten as full a picture of the latter MCITP Training .
Clearly, the tablet and mobile worlds have begun to impact the desktop OS in a major way. This begs the question: Can the desktop survive? Once you see all the powerful goodies these new system software heavyweights bring to the table, however, you'd be hard pressed to make a case for the irrelevance of the desktop computer. Click through the slideshow to see whether you disagree, and to see which looks better to you: Windows 8 or Apple's OS X Lion.
8 Twitter Facts You May Not Know
Think you know Twitter? These little tidbits may redefine the way you regard the micro-blogging service.
Twitter Has All Your Tweets
No, the social micro-blogging platform doesn't just have the few hundred you can see at any given time through Twitter.com. It actually has every single one by every single Twitter member, and all are stored at some undisclosed location. Can you see them? No, not right now. Costolo said Twitter simply lacks the time and resources to surface them—at least for now. I suspect that we'll eventually see full-tweet-search as a premium (for pay) service at some point in the not-too-distant future. I'd pay one lifetime fee of $35 for access. I'm sure others would, as well.
You May Not Fully Understand How Twitter's Social Impact Works
During the so-called Arab spring, Twitter and other social networks have played a supporting role. Costolo, though, said he learned from the new Tunisian government that Twitter not only helped the revolution self-organize, but fueled revolutionary passion through access to Tweets of support from the outside world, including people not even remotely involved with the revolution.
Twitter is the World
Twitter Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board Jack Dorsey waxed rhapsodic last week about the true nature of Twitter. His takeaway from the Arab spring uprisings is that there are real people behind all of that data (by data I assume he meant the 1s and 0s that make up tweets). Twitter, he said, has the potential "to put the entire world in your pocket." True, though I'd contend that the Internet, in general, already accomplished a similar feat. Yet, it's the real-time nature of Twitter that gives information delivered via Twitter its immediacy. Some people consider the 140-character limit restrictive, but without it, most people's posts would be far longer and probably less timely, significantly lessening their impact. Ultimately, while the man who created Twitter can see its enormous socio-political potential, he has trouble defining it. "You ask 100 people 'what is the world?' and you'll get 100 different answers, and the same is true for Twitter. Twitter is the world MCTS Training ."
Twitter Has All Your Tweets
No, the social micro-blogging platform doesn't just have the few hundred you can see at any given time through Twitter.com. It actually has every single one by every single Twitter member, and all are stored at some undisclosed location. Can you see them? No, not right now. Costolo said Twitter simply lacks the time and resources to surface them—at least for now. I suspect that we'll eventually see full-tweet-search as a premium (for pay) service at some point in the not-too-distant future. I'd pay one lifetime fee of $35 for access. I'm sure others would, as well.
You May Not Fully Understand How Twitter's Social Impact Works
During the so-called Arab spring, Twitter and other social networks have played a supporting role. Costolo, though, said he learned from the new Tunisian government that Twitter not only helped the revolution self-organize, but fueled revolutionary passion through access to Tweets of support from the outside world, including people not even remotely involved with the revolution.
Twitter is the World
Twitter Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board Jack Dorsey waxed rhapsodic last week about the true nature of Twitter. His takeaway from the Arab spring uprisings is that there are real people behind all of that data (by data I assume he meant the 1s and 0s that make up tweets). Twitter, he said, has the potential "to put the entire world in your pocket." True, though I'd contend that the Internet, in general, already accomplished a similar feat. Yet, it's the real-time nature of Twitter that gives information delivered via Twitter its immediacy. Some people consider the 140-character limit restrictive, but without it, most people's posts would be far longer and probably less timely, significantly lessening their impact. Ultimately, while the man who created Twitter can see its enormous socio-political potential, he has trouble defining it. "You ask 100 people 'what is the world?' and you'll get 100 different answers, and the same is true for Twitter. Twitter is the world MCTS Training ."
Sunday, June 12, 2011
The Innovation Bracket
It is time for May Madness. OK, there might not be as much fanfare as the college basketball version of the brackets, but think of this as a second chance at redemption after all those red marks littered your NCAA picks this past March.
The Network World staff has selected 32 of the top innovative minds in the technology industry in the past 25 years. It is now up to you, the reader, to determine who moves onto the next round. There will be a daily poll pitting industry execs and the brackets will be updated each day.
So what segment of the tech industry will come out on top? Will the young pups of social media like Mark Zuckerberg or Twitter's Biz Stone come in and steal the thunder from stalwarts like Bill Gates or IBM's Lou Gerstner? Who believes that software is the main innovation in the tech industry or is it hardware. There could be some interesting matchups down the road with someone like Joe Tucci of EMC going against Oracle's Larry Ellison. How will open source hold up?
Brackets of tech industry's most innovative person
Click to see: Brackets of tech industry's most innovative person
Reconnect with your inner Dick Vitale and make some predictions below in our comment section. Am I allowed to call Zuckerberg a "Diaper Dandy," as the boisterous ESPN announcer would say? Or is Steve Jobs a PTPer? (Prime Time Player for those of you not up on your Vitale speak.)
Make your voice heard each day and vote in our poll below. Let the games begin.
TODAY'S MATCHUP: Paul Otellini vs. Lou Gerstner
Both Paul Otellini and Lou Gerstner took down the young, up and comers in the first round. In this social networking world, apparently word did not get out to the hoards of friends on Facebook and Twitter followers as Biz Stone and Mark Zuckerberg were taken down by the old guard. How will Intel stack up against IBM in this next round of innovators?
Who is the most innovative tech exec in the past 25 years?
ROUND 2, MATCH 7: It appears the votes felt Steve Jobs was the brains behind the Apple corporation as seen with its resurgence since he returned from exile. Jobs was ousted in 1985, only to return in 1996 and in so doing taking the company to new heights with the advent of the iPod, iPad and iPhone. They met in 1971, when their mutual friend, Bill Fernandez, introduced 21-year-old Wozniak to 16-year-old Jobs. Jobs managed to interest Wozniak in assembling a machine and selling it. Wozniak left Apple once he determined that he wanted to create technology on his own more than in an organized structure of a corporation.
ROUND 2, MATCH 6: Scott McNealy extracted his revenge, in resounding fashion with 85% of the vote against former boss Larry Ellison. This is one of two really intriguing matchups in the second round. McNealy goes along his way as the head of Sun for many years. Pretty much on top of the world for his niche market until one day Oracle and Larry Ellison swoop in and buy Sun. At that point McNealy's life changed, he became a small fish in a big pond. It didn't take long for Ellison's persona to overshadow McNealy, leading to him leaving the joined company.
The Network World staff has selected 32 of the top innovative minds in the technology industry in the past 25 years. It is now up to you, the reader, to determine who moves onto the next round. There will be a daily poll pitting industry execs and the brackets will be updated each day.
So what segment of the tech industry will come out on top? Will the young pups of social media like Mark Zuckerberg or Twitter's Biz Stone come in and steal the thunder from stalwarts like Bill Gates or IBM's Lou Gerstner? Who believes that software is the main innovation in the tech industry or is it hardware. There could be some interesting matchups down the road with someone like Joe Tucci of EMC going against Oracle's Larry Ellison. How will open source hold up?
Brackets of tech industry's most innovative person
Click to see: Brackets of tech industry's most innovative person
Reconnect with your inner Dick Vitale and make some predictions below in our comment section. Am I allowed to call Zuckerberg a "Diaper Dandy," as the boisterous ESPN announcer would say? Or is Steve Jobs a PTPer? (Prime Time Player for those of you not up on your Vitale speak.)
Make your voice heard each day and vote in our poll below. Let the games begin.
TODAY'S MATCHUP: Paul Otellini vs. Lou Gerstner
Both Paul Otellini and Lou Gerstner took down the young, up and comers in the first round. In this social networking world, apparently word did not get out to the hoards of friends on Facebook and Twitter followers as Biz Stone and Mark Zuckerberg were taken down by the old guard. How will Intel stack up against IBM in this next round of innovators?
Who is the most innovative tech exec in the past 25 years?
ROUND 2, MATCH 7: It appears the votes felt Steve Jobs was the brains behind the Apple corporation as seen with its resurgence since he returned from exile. Jobs was ousted in 1985, only to return in 1996 and in so doing taking the company to new heights with the advent of the iPod, iPad and iPhone. They met in 1971, when their mutual friend, Bill Fernandez, introduced 21-year-old Wozniak to 16-year-old Jobs. Jobs managed to interest Wozniak in assembling a machine and selling it. Wozniak left Apple once he determined that he wanted to create technology on his own more than in an organized structure of a corporation.
ROUND 2, MATCH 6: Scott McNealy extracted his revenge, in resounding fashion with 85% of the vote against former boss Larry Ellison. This is one of two really intriguing matchups in the second round. McNealy goes along his way as the head of Sun for many years. Pretty much on top of the world for his niche market until one day Oracle and Larry Ellison swoop in and buy Sun. At that point McNealy's life changed, he became a small fish in a big pond. It didn't take long for Ellison's persona to overshadow McNealy, leading to him leaving the joined company.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Google And Microsoft Prepare For Cloud Battle
The cloud is the new battleground for office productivity applications and Google's new updates to its widely-used Google Docs suite shows that Google is serious about becoming the go-to office application offering despite the stranglehold by rival Microsoft Corp.
Google on Monday hosted roughly 400 CIOs at an enterprise cloud event dubbed Atmosphere. There, the Mountain View, Calif. crew highlighted how enterprises can take advantage of cloud computing and leverage it in their business through Google offerings like Google Apps and Google Docs.
Google also revealed new features and functions in its Docs suite of cloud-based, or Web-based, applications that offer online word processing, presentation, spreadsheet, drawing and forms applications. The updates to the underlying Google Docs infrastructure include speedier performance, real-time collaboration and easier document uploading.
While the Google Docs updates may not seem sexy, they are a strategic and calculated attack against Microsoft and its Microsoft Office suite, Google's main office productivity application foe. And the Docs refresh marks another move by Google to woo users away from the old guard to its cloud offerings.
For its part, Microsoft plans to release Office 2010 next month to the business world. Microsoft Office 2010 is expected to feature updated versions of Microsoft's popular Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other applications. But Microsoft is no longer playing just the desktop application game; Office 2010 ups the ante by including Office Web Apps, which are cloud-based versions of many of Microsoft's now-famous applications that give users the ability to store, edit and share documents online.
The Google Docs updates and their timing, as Microsoft readies to unleash Office 2010 in May, mark another chapter in the often contentious competition between the search giant and software behemoth, one that has snowballed as the cloud came into its own and Google Docs started making hay versus Microsoft's desktop-based offerings.
Docs has an advantage on pricing, as the Web-hosted office productivity suite is free for consumers and light users and offered as part of Google Apps, Google's collaboration and communications suite which offers enterprises access to its full list of cloud applications for $50 per user per year.
Meanwhile Microsoft Office 2010's cloud offerings are currently available in a free beta. Microsoft has said it will offer free, ad-supported Web versions of Office applications, but the regular versions of Office 2010 will cost anywhere between $100 and $500 and those versions will feature more robust access to the cloud versions without advertising MCTS Online Training
MCITP Online Training .
Despite Google's progress, Microsoft still holds the mindshare, as Office has become synonymous with productivity apps from word processing to spreadsheets. Google Docs has only been in the game some three years and while it has made waves, dethroning the leader is an uphill battle.
Only time will tell who will be the victor as Google and Microsoft play back and forth in the cloud, but as it stands now the cloud is Google's to lose.
Google on Monday hosted roughly 400 CIOs at an enterprise cloud event dubbed Atmosphere. There, the Mountain View, Calif. crew highlighted how enterprises can take advantage of cloud computing and leverage it in their business through Google offerings like Google Apps and Google Docs.
Google also revealed new features and functions in its Docs suite of cloud-based, or Web-based, applications that offer online word processing, presentation, spreadsheet, drawing and forms applications. The updates to the underlying Google Docs infrastructure include speedier performance, real-time collaboration and easier document uploading.
While the Google Docs updates may not seem sexy, they are a strategic and calculated attack against Microsoft and its Microsoft Office suite, Google's main office productivity application foe. And the Docs refresh marks another move by Google to woo users away from the old guard to its cloud offerings.
For its part, Microsoft plans to release Office 2010 next month to the business world. Microsoft Office 2010 is expected to feature updated versions of Microsoft's popular Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other applications. But Microsoft is no longer playing just the desktop application game; Office 2010 ups the ante by including Office Web Apps, which are cloud-based versions of many of Microsoft's now-famous applications that give users the ability to store, edit and share documents online.
The Google Docs updates and their timing, as Microsoft readies to unleash Office 2010 in May, mark another chapter in the often contentious competition between the search giant and software behemoth, one that has snowballed as the cloud came into its own and Google Docs started making hay versus Microsoft's desktop-based offerings.
Docs has an advantage on pricing, as the Web-hosted office productivity suite is free for consumers and light users and offered as part of Google Apps, Google's collaboration and communications suite which offers enterprises access to its full list of cloud applications for $50 per user per year.
Meanwhile Microsoft Office 2010's cloud offerings are currently available in a free beta. Microsoft has said it will offer free, ad-supported Web versions of Office applications, but the regular versions of Office 2010 will cost anywhere between $100 and $500 and those versions will feature more robust access to the cloud versions without advertising MCTS Online Training
MCITP Online Training .
Despite Google's progress, Microsoft still holds the mindshare, as Office has become synonymous with productivity apps from word processing to spreadsheets. Google Docs has only been in the game some three years and while it has made waves, dethroning the leader is an uphill battle.
Only time will tell who will be the victor as Google and Microsoft play back and forth in the cloud, but as it stands now the cloud is Google's to lose.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Windows Identity Foundation
Overview
Identity Challenges
Most developers are not security experts and many feel uncomfortable being given the job of authenticating, authorizing, and personalizing experiences for users. It’s not a subject that has been traditionally taught in computer science curriculum, and there’s a long history of these features being ignored until late in the software development lifecycle.
It’s not surprising nowadays to see a single company with tens or hundreds of web applications and services, many of which have their own private silo for user identities, and most of which are hardwired to use one particular means of authentication. Developers know how tedious it is to build identity support into each application, and IT pros know how expensive it is to manage the resulting set of applications.
One very useful step toward solving the problem has been to centralize user accounts into an enterprise directory. Commonly it’s the IT pro that knows the most effective and efficient way to query the directory, but today the task is typically left up to the developer. And in the face of mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships, the developer might be faced with accessing more than one directory, using more than one API.
In the Microsoft .NET Framework, there are lots of different ways of building identity support into an application, and each communication framework treats identity differently, with different object models, different storage models, and so on. Even in ASP.NET, developers can get confused about where they should look for identity: should they look at the HttpContext.User property? What about Thread.CurrentPrincipal?
The rampant use of passwords has led to a cottage industry for phishers. And with so many applications doing their own thing, it’s difficult for a company to upgrade to stronger authentication techniques.
A Better Solution
One step toward solving these problems is to stop building custom identity plumbing and user account databases into every new application that comes along. But even developers who rely on a central enterprise directory still feel the pain of mergers, acquisitions, and external partnerships, and may even be blamed for poor performance that is actually due to another application bogging down the directory with inefficient queries. The claims-based solution described in this paper avoids asking developers to connect to any particular enterprise directory in order to look up identity details for users. Instead, the user’s request arrives with all of the identity details the application needs to do its job. By the time the user arrives with these claims, the user has already been authenticated, and the application can go about its business without worrying about managing or finding user accounts.
Factoring authentication out of applications leads to many benefits for developers, IT pros, and users. Simply put, there are less user accounts for everyone to manage, and the resulting centralization of authentication makes it easier to upgrade to stronger authentication methods as they evolve, and even federate identity with other platforms and organizations.
The topics in this section will help you, as a developer, to understand the claims-based identity model and take advantage of it using Windows® Identity Foundation (WIF), the new framework from Microsoft that is focused on identity.
What is Windows Identity Foundation?
WIF is a set of .NET Framework classes; it is a framework for implementing claims-based identity in your applications. By using it, you’ll more easily reap the benefits of claims-based systems described in this guide. WIF can be used in any Web application or Web service that uses the .NET Framework version 3.5 SP1 or later.
WIF is just one part of Microsoft’s Federated Identity software family that implements the shared industry vision for an interoperable Identity Metasystem. Federated Identity comprises four components: Active Directory® Federation Services (AD FS) 2.0 (previously known as “Geneva” Server), Windows® CardSpace™ 2.0 (previously known as “Geneva”), Windows Azure Access Control Services, and WIF. Together, these four components form the core of Microsoft’s new claims based access platform. You can refer to the Windows Identity Foundation Web site at the Security Developer Center on MSDN for more information about WIF as well as the other three components. The white paper “Introducing ‘Geneva’” also provides an overview on the full set of Geneva technologies. For an introduction to creating applications using WIF, see Programming Windows Identity Foundation (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=210158) by Vittorio Bertocci (published by Microsoft Press). As of this writing, WIF, AD FS 2.0, Windows Azure Access Control Services, and the Beta 2 release of CardSpace™ 2.0 are available for download.
The topics in this section talk about the claims-based identity model, what problems it can solve, and how you can use Windows® Identity Foundation (WIF) to take advantage of it.
Identity Challenges
Most developers are not security experts and many feel uncomfortable being given the job of authenticating, authorizing, and personalizing experiences for users. It’s not a subject that has been traditionally taught in computer science curriculum, and there’s a long history of these features being ignored until late in the software development lifecycle.
It’s not surprising nowadays to see a single company with tens or hundreds of web applications and services, many of which have their own private silo for user identities, and most of which are hardwired to use one particular means of authentication. Developers know how tedious it is to build identity support into each application, and IT pros know how expensive it is to manage the resulting set of applications.
One very useful step toward solving the problem has been to centralize user accounts into an enterprise directory. Commonly it’s the IT pro that knows the most effective and efficient way to query the directory, but today the task is typically left up to the developer. And in the face of mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships, the developer might be faced with accessing more than one directory, using more than one API.
In the Microsoft .NET Framework, there are lots of different ways of building identity support into an application, and each communication framework treats identity differently, with different object models, different storage models, and so on. Even in ASP.NET, developers can get confused about where they should look for identity: should they look at the HttpContext.User property? What about Thread.CurrentPrincipal?
The rampant use of passwords has led to a cottage industry for phishers. And with so many applications doing their own thing, it’s difficult for a company to upgrade to stronger authentication techniques.
A Better Solution
One step toward solving these problems is to stop building custom identity plumbing and user account databases into every new application that comes along. But even developers who rely on a central enterprise directory still feel the pain of mergers, acquisitions, and external partnerships, and may even be blamed for poor performance that is actually due to another application bogging down the directory with inefficient queries. The claims-based solution described in this paper avoids asking developers to connect to any particular enterprise directory in order to look up identity details for users. Instead, the user’s request arrives with all of the identity details the application needs to do its job. By the time the user arrives with these claims, the user has already been authenticated, and the application can go about its business without worrying about managing or finding user accounts.
Factoring authentication out of applications leads to many benefits for developers, IT pros, and users. Simply put, there are less user accounts for everyone to manage, and the resulting centralization of authentication makes it easier to upgrade to stronger authentication methods as they evolve, and even federate identity with other platforms and organizations.
The topics in this section will help you, as a developer, to understand the claims-based identity model and take advantage of it using Windows® Identity Foundation (WIF), the new framework from Microsoft that is focused on identity.
What is Windows Identity Foundation?
WIF is a set of .NET Framework classes; it is a framework for implementing claims-based identity in your applications. By using it, you’ll more easily reap the benefits of claims-based systems described in this guide. WIF can be used in any Web application or Web service that uses the .NET Framework version 3.5 SP1 or later.
WIF is just one part of Microsoft’s Federated Identity software family that implements the shared industry vision for an interoperable Identity Metasystem. Federated Identity comprises four components: Active Directory® Federation Services (AD FS) 2.0 (previously known as “Geneva” Server), Windows® CardSpace™ 2.0 (previously known as “Geneva”), Windows Azure Access Control Services, and WIF. Together, these four components form the core of Microsoft’s new claims based access platform. You can refer to the Windows Identity Foundation Web site at the Security Developer Center on MSDN for more information about WIF as well as the other three components. The white paper “Introducing ‘Geneva’” also provides an overview on the full set of Geneva technologies. For an introduction to creating applications using WIF, see Programming Windows Identity Foundation (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=210158) by Vittorio Bertocci (published by Microsoft Press). As of this writing, WIF, AD FS 2.0, Windows Azure Access Control Services, and the Beta 2 release of CardSpace™ 2.0 are available for download.
The topics in this section talk about the claims-based identity model, what problems it can solve, and how you can use Windows® Identity Foundation (WIF) to take advantage of it.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
How Microsoft made the Touch Mouse
Microsoft actually built a multi-touch mouse before Apple; at CES last year Stephen Bathiche, the head of the Microsoft Applied Sciences team, told TechRadar how his team designed a capacitive mouse and announced their research prototype at a conference a month before Apple announced the Magic Mouse.
The Microsoft hardware team has taken another year to turn that prototype into a mouse they're happy with, collaborating with researchers in the Applied Sciences team and the innovation development team at Microsoft Research in Cambridge (many of whom worked on projects like Microsoft Surface).
Hrvoje Benko of the Applied Sciences group showed TechRadar a selection of the prototypes from the three years he's been working on the 'Mouse 2.0' project. (Benko is behind the Lightspace project that uses a camera and projector "to make any surface, any wall - any body part! - into a Surface.")
Touch mouse prototypes
CONCEPTS: Five different ideas for Mouse 2.0 - FITR mouse, Touch Mouse, the articulated franken-mouse, the hemisphere mouse and the mouse that shines a laser on your desk
The idea was to combine the good old mouse - which has been around since the early 1960s without much change in the way you use it - with the multi-touch features of Microsoft Surface. You can touch, grip and gesture with your whole hand, but the mouse reduces all your dexterity to a single cursor and right-click.
The Mouse 2.0 concepts went through several different kinds of touch sensors. A curved mouse made from acrylic sheet and an infrared camera (using the Frustrated Internal Total Reflection technique Perceptive Pixel uses for touch screens where the touch of a finger is detected because it allows reflected internal light out of the surface layer) looked good but could only sense the tips of your fingers.
Putting a diffused illumination infrared camera in a half sphere produced an unusual shape that had too much internal reflection and while it made users more creative in the way they used gestures it also made their hands get tired.
An articulated mouse made from the innards of two mice bolted together, with knobs for two of your fingers sticking out at the front, was accurate and comfortable - but only allowed two-touch gestures.
One design with an infrared laser and camera detected your fingers touching the desk surface around the mouse, but only worked well if it was just the right size for your hand.
More like a mouse
In the end, the team picked a multi-touch mouse using a capacitive sensor, because that lets you have gestures without abandoning the familiar mouse shape (the sensor is small and you don't need to fit in a camera; it's not too expensive, either, because it's printed onto plastic using conductive ink).
"The benefits of the mouse are that it's comfortable and precise," Benko told us. "We didn't want to come up with something that meant people have to change the way they use the mouse. You can still point and click."
But when you click, it's not a button that's moving; it's the whole mouse (and that's more to give you feedback than to detect the click). "The whole surface of the mouse is a button so when you right-click and left-click it's really the same - but we detect where you click and that's what determines the click," he explained.
Touch mouse prototypes
PROTOTYPES: Some of the many stages of designing the Touch Mouse, from the 3D printed (but fully working) first CAD prototype to the almost-finished wireless mouse. The diamond pattern is the multi-touch sensor - which is covered in later prototypes
Clicking and gesturing on the mouse surface is very comfortable thanks to the textured surface, which is a grid of tiny laser-etched dots. "This mouse will be used a lot", boasts Benko, "so we used laser etching; you cannot rub this off."
The mouse has a matte surface on purpose. "We spent a lot of time optimising the surface top coat. It's not glossy - try moving your fingers on a glossy surface for more than a few minutes; it gets really tiring," he points out.
And the dots are there for two reasons. "They showcase where the sensor is, and they make the surface a little bumpy, so if you have oily fingers you can still make the gestures because it has some tactile feel to it."
Touch mouse prototype
INSIDE: The multi-touch grid senses your fingers, the optical sensor works like any other mouse and the microswitch at the front is the mouse button
The shape of the mouse went through many different iterations and hundreds of protoypes, some with radically different designs; individual features that were popular with testers were combined into the final version. And the way that the touch surface on the mouse recognises gestures is based on how the hundreds of testers moved their fingers.
"We thought about how to define the gestures - move your finger this many millimetres up and you trigger the gestures. We decided to record a whole bunch of people doing them; we had folks with really giant hands, people with really small hands, male, female, left-handed, right-handed. We asked them to do things like 'put two fingers down and move up' and we used that to define how we recognise that gesture."
How many fingers make sense?
You scroll by dragging your fingers over the top surface but you can do more than scroll up and down; move your fingers from side to side and you scan scroll and pan across a window.
In a long document you can flick your finger up, down or across and then tap to stop scrolling when you get to the right page. Using two fingers to scroll controls your current window; move to fingers up to maximise a window or restore the previous size, two fingers down to minimise or restore a window - and two fingers to the side uses Aero Snap to fit to half the screen.
Use three fingers and you control all your windows; move three fingers up to open the revamped version of the task viewer in the IntelliPoint software, move three fingers down to minimise your windows and show the desktop.
"I'm a firm believer that the most dextrous finger on your hand is your thumb," jokes Benko - so you can swipe your thumb on the side of the mouse and move back and forward between web pages in the browser or slides in PowerPoint or images in Photo Gallery (it works in any app that has back and forward buttons).
Touch mouse grid
TOUCHABLE: The grid of dots is laser etched into the Touch Mouse; the texture makes it easier to grip and less tiring to use
A little glowing indicator on screen shows you that you've used your thumb so you don't get confused (avoiding a problem that showed up in early testing when users sometimes didn't realise when their fingers were making a gesture) and this is a huge timesaver that immediately feels natural.
There aren't any gestures that use more fingers even though the mouse knows where they are. "We can see all five fingers", Benko explained, "but it's hard to keep even four fingers in place." The limitation is not what the mouse can detect but whether more complex gestures would be easy enough to use.
"We can actually detect 20 touch points," he told us, adding that his team wrote the underlying sensor code "and the actual underlying infrastructure is fairly similar to the code that's running in the Surface touch processing."
Touch mouse
SIZE IS EVERYTHING: The gestures you can make on a mouse are limited by the size available - the Touch Mouse is big enough for most hands
The signal processing that the mouse does can encode lots of individual points on the touch surface at the same time but, as he put it, even though the touch surface goes almost to the very edge of the mouse "we have a real limitation with space and with your hand."
You can turn off gestures you don't use and switch the mouse to be left or right handed, but you can't make up your own gestures.
"We spent a lot of time optimising the gesture set so you can do these three different functions. Given the amount of time it took us to nail this experience," he suggests it might not be easy to design your own unique gesture that won't be mistaken for anything else. "You don't want to have the crosstalk problem: is it this gesture or is it that gesture?"
The future for the Touch Mouse
The team is thinking about more ways to use the multi-touch sensors, though. "We've thought about the authentication aspect," Benko told us enthusiastically; the way you move your fingers is often unique enough to identify you, so just gesturing on the mouse could be enough to log you in or load preferences for a different user if someone else uses your mouse.
"It would be really cool to do simple things - like we can totally detect handedness and we could switch the settings automatically. It would be really interesting - but at this point we're still nailing the basic experience. We want to come out with a great experience at launch."
Now that the Touch Mouse is almost done (it will be on sale in May), Benko's team is experimenting with what else they can do with multi-touch. "We've built some different mice with this type of sensor," he told TechRadar, mentioning one particularly intriguing idea we hope we get to see at CES 2012. "We've wrapped the capacitive surface around a pen and used it as a sensor."
Read more: http://www.techradar.com/news/computing-components/how-microsoft-made-the-touch-mouse-920742#ixzz1Oh4d4YPj
The Microsoft hardware team has taken another year to turn that prototype into a mouse they're happy with, collaborating with researchers in the Applied Sciences team and the innovation development team at Microsoft Research in Cambridge (many of whom worked on projects like Microsoft Surface).
Hrvoje Benko of the Applied Sciences group showed TechRadar a selection of the prototypes from the three years he's been working on the 'Mouse 2.0' project. (Benko is behind the Lightspace project that uses a camera and projector "to make any surface, any wall - any body part! - into a Surface.")
Touch mouse prototypes
CONCEPTS: Five different ideas for Mouse 2.0 - FITR mouse, Touch Mouse, the articulated franken-mouse, the hemisphere mouse and the mouse that shines a laser on your desk
The idea was to combine the good old mouse - which has been around since the early 1960s without much change in the way you use it - with the multi-touch features of Microsoft Surface. You can touch, grip and gesture with your whole hand, but the mouse reduces all your dexterity to a single cursor and right-click.
The Mouse 2.0 concepts went through several different kinds of touch sensors. A curved mouse made from acrylic sheet and an infrared camera (using the Frustrated Internal Total Reflection technique Perceptive Pixel uses for touch screens where the touch of a finger is detected because it allows reflected internal light out of the surface layer) looked good but could only sense the tips of your fingers.
Putting a diffused illumination infrared camera in a half sphere produced an unusual shape that had too much internal reflection and while it made users more creative in the way they used gestures it also made their hands get tired.
An articulated mouse made from the innards of two mice bolted together, with knobs for two of your fingers sticking out at the front, was accurate and comfortable - but only allowed two-touch gestures.
One design with an infrared laser and camera detected your fingers touching the desk surface around the mouse, but only worked well if it was just the right size for your hand.
More like a mouse
In the end, the team picked a multi-touch mouse using a capacitive sensor, because that lets you have gestures without abandoning the familiar mouse shape (the sensor is small and you don't need to fit in a camera; it's not too expensive, either, because it's printed onto plastic using conductive ink).
"The benefits of the mouse are that it's comfortable and precise," Benko told us. "We didn't want to come up with something that meant people have to change the way they use the mouse. You can still point and click."
But when you click, it's not a button that's moving; it's the whole mouse (and that's more to give you feedback than to detect the click). "The whole surface of the mouse is a button so when you right-click and left-click it's really the same - but we detect where you click and that's what determines the click," he explained.
Touch mouse prototypes
PROTOTYPES: Some of the many stages of designing the Touch Mouse, from the 3D printed (but fully working) first CAD prototype to the almost-finished wireless mouse. The diamond pattern is the multi-touch sensor - which is covered in later prototypes
Clicking and gesturing on the mouse surface is very comfortable thanks to the textured surface, which is a grid of tiny laser-etched dots. "This mouse will be used a lot", boasts Benko, "so we used laser etching; you cannot rub this off."
The mouse has a matte surface on purpose. "We spent a lot of time optimising the surface top coat. It's not glossy - try moving your fingers on a glossy surface for more than a few minutes; it gets really tiring," he points out.
And the dots are there for two reasons. "They showcase where the sensor is, and they make the surface a little bumpy, so if you have oily fingers you can still make the gestures because it has some tactile feel to it."
Touch mouse prototype
INSIDE: The multi-touch grid senses your fingers, the optical sensor works like any other mouse and the microswitch at the front is the mouse button
The shape of the mouse went through many different iterations and hundreds of protoypes, some with radically different designs; individual features that were popular with testers were combined into the final version. And the way that the touch surface on the mouse recognises gestures is based on how the hundreds of testers moved their fingers.
"We thought about how to define the gestures - move your finger this many millimetres up and you trigger the gestures. We decided to record a whole bunch of people doing them; we had folks with really giant hands, people with really small hands, male, female, left-handed, right-handed. We asked them to do things like 'put two fingers down and move up' and we used that to define how we recognise that gesture."
How many fingers make sense?
You scroll by dragging your fingers over the top surface but you can do more than scroll up and down; move your fingers from side to side and you scan scroll and pan across a window.
In a long document you can flick your finger up, down or across and then tap to stop scrolling when you get to the right page. Using two fingers to scroll controls your current window; move to fingers up to maximise a window or restore the previous size, two fingers down to minimise or restore a window - and two fingers to the side uses Aero Snap to fit to half the screen.
Use three fingers and you control all your windows; move three fingers up to open the revamped version of the task viewer in the IntelliPoint software, move three fingers down to minimise your windows and show the desktop.
"I'm a firm believer that the most dextrous finger on your hand is your thumb," jokes Benko - so you can swipe your thumb on the side of the mouse and move back and forward between web pages in the browser or slides in PowerPoint or images in Photo Gallery (it works in any app that has back and forward buttons).
Touch mouse grid
TOUCHABLE: The grid of dots is laser etched into the Touch Mouse; the texture makes it easier to grip and less tiring to use
A little glowing indicator on screen shows you that you've used your thumb so you don't get confused (avoiding a problem that showed up in early testing when users sometimes didn't realise when their fingers were making a gesture) and this is a huge timesaver that immediately feels natural.
There aren't any gestures that use more fingers even though the mouse knows where they are. "We can see all five fingers", Benko explained, "but it's hard to keep even four fingers in place." The limitation is not what the mouse can detect but whether more complex gestures would be easy enough to use.
"We can actually detect 20 touch points," he told us, adding that his team wrote the underlying sensor code "and the actual underlying infrastructure is fairly similar to the code that's running in the Surface touch processing."
Touch mouse
SIZE IS EVERYTHING: The gestures you can make on a mouse are limited by the size available - the Touch Mouse is big enough for most hands
The signal processing that the mouse does can encode lots of individual points on the touch surface at the same time but, as he put it, even though the touch surface goes almost to the very edge of the mouse "we have a real limitation with space and with your hand."
You can turn off gestures you don't use and switch the mouse to be left or right handed, but you can't make up your own gestures.
"We spent a lot of time optimising the gesture set so you can do these three different functions. Given the amount of time it took us to nail this experience," he suggests it might not be easy to design your own unique gesture that won't be mistaken for anything else. "You don't want to have the crosstalk problem: is it this gesture or is it that gesture?"
The future for the Touch Mouse
The team is thinking about more ways to use the multi-touch sensors, though. "We've thought about the authentication aspect," Benko told us enthusiastically; the way you move your fingers is often unique enough to identify you, so just gesturing on the mouse could be enough to log you in or load preferences for a different user if someone else uses your mouse.
"It would be really cool to do simple things - like we can totally detect handedness and we could switch the settings automatically. It would be really interesting - but at this point we're still nailing the basic experience. We want to come out with a great experience at launch."
Now that the Touch Mouse is almost done (it will be on sale in May), Benko's team is experimenting with what else they can do with multi-touch. "We've built some different mice with this type of sensor," he told TechRadar, mentioning one particularly intriguing idea we hope we get to see at CES 2012. "We've wrapped the capacitive surface around a pen and used it as a sensor."
Read more: http://www.techradar.com/news/computing-components/how-microsoft-made-the-touch-mouse-920742#ixzz1Oh4d4YPj
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
New tool shows would-be emailers if you're swamped on Gmail
A Georgia Tech researcher is taking aim at email overload with a new tool that shows people thinking about messaging you just how swamped your Gmail account is in real time.
Assistant Professor of Computing Eric Gilbert’s research project, taking the form of the freely available “Courteous.ly” service that does require you to allow access to your email account (initially the service only works with Gmail).
“I think we’re really good at the etiquette part when we have the cues that allow us to be polite,” said the School of Interactive Computing's Gilbert, in a statement. “Courteous.ly helps manage expectations and lets people choose to send mail when it’s best for you.”
MORE NETWORK RESEARCH: Follow our Alpha Doggs Facebook page and Twitter feed
The service works by periodically checking a user’s email load based on parameters set by the user, such as unread messages in your inbox or how much mail you’ve sent recently. Courteous.ly comes up with a sense of what constitutes light, normal and heavy load for the user after analyzing the user’s mail system for 12 hours.
It then updates the status of your email load, which can be accessed via a link in your email signature. Gilbert is trying to figure out a way to avoid even the step of clicking on that link in the future. He’s also pondering development of widgets that users can post on their blogs or websites to show people how busy they are.
courteous.ly from courteous ly on Vimeo.
The work at Georgia Tech complements separate efforts by Google itself to make email more efficient for its Gmail customers. Last month, Google said it would start rolling out an interface module that displays contextual information about people involved in a message's thread.
Google competitors, such as Yahoo, aren't standing still either, continuing to upgrade their messaging services, too (also see our Tech Debate on Gmail vs. hosted Microsoft Exchange).
Of course managing incoming email is only part of the battle. Organizations flooded with email also need to figure out how to archive it once they get it, and we've recently tested a bunch of products that address that issue as well (See: Sorting through email archiving tools)
Assistant Professor of Computing Eric Gilbert’s research project, taking the form of the freely available “Courteous.ly” service that does require you to allow access to your email account (initially the service only works with Gmail).
“I think we’re really good at the etiquette part when we have the cues that allow us to be polite,” said the School of Interactive Computing's Gilbert, in a statement. “Courteous.ly helps manage expectations and lets people choose to send mail when it’s best for you.”
MORE NETWORK RESEARCH: Follow our Alpha Doggs Facebook page and Twitter feed
The service works by periodically checking a user’s email load based on parameters set by the user, such as unread messages in your inbox or how much mail you’ve sent recently. Courteous.ly comes up with a sense of what constitutes light, normal and heavy load for the user after analyzing the user’s mail system for 12 hours.
It then updates the status of your email load, which can be accessed via a link in your email signature. Gilbert is trying to figure out a way to avoid even the step of clicking on that link in the future. He’s also pondering development of widgets that users can post on their blogs or websites to show people how busy they are.
courteous.ly from courteous ly on Vimeo.
The work at Georgia Tech complements separate efforts by Google itself to make email more efficient for its Gmail customers. Last month, Google said it would start rolling out an interface module that displays contextual information about people involved in a message's thread.
Google competitors, such as Yahoo, aren't standing still either, continuing to upgrade their messaging services, too (also see our Tech Debate on Gmail vs. hosted Microsoft Exchange).
Of course managing incoming email is only part of the battle. Organizations flooded with email also need to figure out how to archive it once they get it, and we've recently tested a bunch of products that address that issue as well (See: Sorting through email archiving tools)
Monday, June 6, 2011
Google Doodle Honors 92nd Birthday of 'Busytown' Creator Richard Scarry
Google's Sunday homepage doodle honors what would have been the 92nd birthday of childrens' book author Richard Scarry.
The doodle features a scene from "Busytown," a fictional world created by Scarry, which is inhabited by well-known characters like Postman Pig, Huckle Cat, Sergeant Murphy, and Lowly Worm. Click through the main doodle, and the smaller homepage doodle on the top left replaces the "l" in Google with Lowly Worm.
Scarry was born in Boston in 1919, and his comfortable childhood is reflected in the more than 300 books he produced during his life, according to a biography published by Sterling Children's Book. He attended the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, but was later drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II. He was sent to North Africa, where he was the art director, editor, writer and illustrator in the Morale Services Section of Allied Forces HQ.
Richard Scarry doodle
Scarry worked at various magazines after the war, but also pursued freelance work as an illustrator; he drew the pictures that went alongside the text for childrens' books. His first book, "Great Big Car and Truck Book," was published in 1951 by Little Golden Books. Simon and Schuster published five more that same year.
Scarry's first best seller, however, came in 1963 with "Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever." The book featured pages chock full of items for young children to discover; more than 1,400 in all.
Scarry is known for books featuring anthropomorphic animals living in the fictional Busytown. As he explained to Publishers Weekly, "children can identify more closely with pictures of animals than they can with pictures of another child. They see an illustration of a blond girl or a dark-haired boy, who they know is somebody other than themselves, and competition creeps in. With imagination—and children all have marvelous imagination—they can easily identify with an anteater who is a painter or a pig who transforms from peasant to knight."
Lowly Worm
Scarry's characters have not been confined to books. The "Best Ever" series was made into animated videos. The world of Busytown was also made into an animated series, "The Busy World of Richard Scarry," which ran on Nick. Jr. from 1995 to 2000.
Scarry and his family re-located to Gstaad, Switzerland in 1972, where Scarry worked until his death in 1994. His books have sold over 200 million copies in 30 languages.
Google, meanwhile, has made headlines for its own in-house homepage doodles, including an interactive undersea-themed drawing in honor of author Jules Verne's 183rd birthday and 17 holiday-themed doodles that were live for two days in December. Recently, Google.com also featured 16 homepage doodles in honor of what would have been the 76th birthday of children's author Roger Hargreaves, who wrote the Mr. Men and Little Miss series, and dancer/choreographer Martha Graham.
Recently, it was revealed that Google obtained a patent for its popular homepage doodles, covering "systems and methods for enticing users to access a Web site."
California second grader Matteo Lopez was recently selected as the winner of this year's Doodle 4 Google competition. His space-themed doodle was featured on the Google homepage on May 20, and he took home a $15,000 college scholarship and a $25,000 technology grant for his school.
For more on Google's doodles, see the slideshow below.
The doodle features a scene from "Busytown," a fictional world created by Scarry, which is inhabited by well-known characters like Postman Pig, Huckle Cat, Sergeant Murphy, and Lowly Worm. Click through the main doodle, and the smaller homepage doodle on the top left replaces the "l" in Google with Lowly Worm.
Scarry was born in Boston in 1919, and his comfortable childhood is reflected in the more than 300 books he produced during his life, according to a biography published by Sterling Children's Book. He attended the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, but was later drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II. He was sent to North Africa, where he was the art director, editor, writer and illustrator in the Morale Services Section of Allied Forces HQ.
Richard Scarry doodle
Scarry worked at various magazines after the war, but also pursued freelance work as an illustrator; he drew the pictures that went alongside the text for childrens' books. His first book, "Great Big Car and Truck Book," was published in 1951 by Little Golden Books. Simon and Schuster published five more that same year.
Scarry's first best seller, however, came in 1963 with "Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever." The book featured pages chock full of items for young children to discover; more than 1,400 in all.
Scarry is known for books featuring anthropomorphic animals living in the fictional Busytown. As he explained to Publishers Weekly, "children can identify more closely with pictures of animals than they can with pictures of another child. They see an illustration of a blond girl or a dark-haired boy, who they know is somebody other than themselves, and competition creeps in. With imagination—and children all have marvelous imagination—they can easily identify with an anteater who is a painter or a pig who transforms from peasant to knight."
Lowly Worm
Scarry's characters have not been confined to books. The "Best Ever" series was made into animated videos. The world of Busytown was also made into an animated series, "The Busy World of Richard Scarry," which ran on Nick. Jr. from 1995 to 2000.
Scarry and his family re-located to Gstaad, Switzerland in 1972, where Scarry worked until his death in 1994. His books have sold over 200 million copies in 30 languages.
Google, meanwhile, has made headlines for its own in-house homepage doodles, including an interactive undersea-themed drawing in honor of author Jules Verne's 183rd birthday and 17 holiday-themed doodles that were live for two days in December. Recently, Google.com also featured 16 homepage doodles in honor of what would have been the 76th birthday of children's author Roger Hargreaves, who wrote the Mr. Men and Little Miss series, and dancer/choreographer Martha Graham.
Recently, it was revealed that Google obtained a patent for its popular homepage doodles, covering "systems and methods for enticing users to access a Web site."
California second grader Matteo Lopez was recently selected as the winner of this year's Doodle 4 Google competition. His space-themed doodle was featured on the Google homepage on May 20, and he took home a $15,000 college scholarship and a $25,000 technology grant for his school.
For more on Google's doodles, see the slideshow below.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Is your IT job indispensable? Then no vacation for you
Consultants? That's probably your best bet, but to paraphrase a wise saying: A problem has increased by an order of magnitude before the consultant has had a chance to get his pants on. Yes, bringing a boatload of consultants in to address an emerging issue may in fact result in problem resolution, but it'll take far, far longer to fix than if the primary care admin was there to begin with.
Could complete, readily available documentation be the key? Perhaps, but only in a limited fashion. Recurring problems that have been accurately documented with steps to resolve the problem can certainly help when a key admin is out of contact, but once a problem stretches outside the boundaries of a known issue, it all reverts to square one.
We're left with the fact that there exists in every IT organization one or more indispensable people who find themselves trapped by their own expertise. On the other side of that coin is a point I made last week about the Terry Childs case -- people with such a deep level of knowledge of the infrastructure are sometimes considered as a threat to the organization if they leave under any circumstances.
What's the solution? Unfortunately, there isn't one. When computing infrastructure reaches a certain point of complexity, there will always be one wizard who can work his or her magic to solve problems and return things to a stable situation. They're resigned to being the backstop, occuping the desk at which the buck stops, and ideally they're well compensated for such duties. The business just better hope it can reach the wizard by phone when all hell breaks loose.
Could complete, readily available documentation be the key? Perhaps, but only in a limited fashion. Recurring problems that have been accurately documented with steps to resolve the problem can certainly help when a key admin is out of contact, but once a problem stretches outside the boundaries of a known issue, it all reverts to square one.
We're left with the fact that there exists in every IT organization one or more indispensable people who find themselves trapped by their own expertise. On the other side of that coin is a point I made last week about the Terry Childs case -- people with such a deep level of knowledge of the infrastructure are sometimes considered as a threat to the organization if they leave under any circumstances.
What's the solution? Unfortunately, there isn't one. When computing infrastructure reaches a certain point of complexity, there will always be one wizard who can work his or her magic to solve problems and return things to a stable situation. They're resigned to being the backstop, occuping the desk at which the buck stops, and ideally they're well compensated for such duties. The business just better hope it can reach the wizard by phone when all hell breaks loose.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
8 security considerations for IPv6 deployment
Although vendor-written, this contributed piece does not advocate a position that is particular to the author's employer and has been edited and approved by Network World editors.
Feb. 3, 2011, came and went without much fanfare, but it was a milestone for Internet stakeholders, whether they knew it or not. On that Thursday, the last available IPv4 addresses were allocated by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Though some Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) have a reasonable inventory of IP addresses that could last another year or two, the days of "new" IPv4 address allocations are largely over.
Now that we're out of IPv4 allocations, it's time to get serious about adopting the next generation of Internet Protocol, IPv6. With a 128-bit address space (compared to IPv4's 32-bit space), IPv6 can accommodate the ongoing and exponential growth of the Internet, which currently is adding about a million new devices every hour. In fact, compared with the 4.3 billion IP addresses that IPv4 allows, IPv6 will enable another 340 trillion, trillion, trillion addresses -- enough to accommodate global Internet demand for the foreseeable future.
IN DEPTH: As IPv4 disappears, transition poses hazards
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Coupled with the continued deployment of DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC), IPv6 will ultimately provide the stable and secure base for the future Internet. But for the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 to be successful, everyone from infrastructure operators and service providers to application developers and users will have to work together on a range of activities, including:
• supporting and developing IPv6 capabilities and establishing functional IPv4 parity;
• debugging issues with new IPv6-only software and applications;
• refining interworking and transitional co-existence with IPv4.
A crucial part of that effort will involve security. IPv6 represents new territory for most Internet stakeholders, and its rollout will introduce some unique security challenges. While the following list is by no means comprehensive, it does point to eight considerations and problem areas that the industry will need to address as IPv6 adoption continues. Because we're still in the early stages, the solutions to some of these risks will only come after real-world use leads to proven best practices.
* Translating from IPv4 to IPv6, transactions may become vulnerable. Because IPv4 and IPv6 are not "bits on the wire" compatible, protocol translation is seen as one path to wider deployment and adoption. Translating traffic from IPv4 to IPv6 will inevitably result in mediating transactions as they move through the network. Think of a mail sorter at a post office transfer facility that must open every IPv4 envelope to put each letter in an IPv6 one to ensure it reaches the correct address, at times changing content in the documents contained within in order to coincide with the new IPv6 external envelop information. Each time this happens, an opportunity arises for a poor implementation or a bad actor to tickle or exploit a potential vulnerability. Additionally, it compromises the end-to-end principle by introducing middle boxes that must maintain transaction state and complicates the network. In general, security staff should pay attention to security aspects of all translation and transition mechanisms (to include tunneling), and only enable such mechanisms explicitly after they have been thoroughly evaluated.
Feb. 3, 2011, came and went without much fanfare, but it was a milestone for Internet stakeholders, whether they knew it or not. On that Thursday, the last available IPv4 addresses were allocated by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Though some Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) have a reasonable inventory of IP addresses that could last another year or two, the days of "new" IPv4 address allocations are largely over.
Now that we're out of IPv4 allocations, it's time to get serious about adopting the next generation of Internet Protocol, IPv6. With a 128-bit address space (compared to IPv4's 32-bit space), IPv6 can accommodate the ongoing and exponential growth of the Internet, which currently is adding about a million new devices every hour. In fact, compared with the 4.3 billion IP addresses that IPv4 allows, IPv6 will enable another 340 trillion, trillion, trillion addresses -- enough to accommodate global Internet demand for the foreseeable future.
IN DEPTH: As IPv4 disappears, transition poses hazards
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Coupled with the continued deployment of DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC), IPv6 will ultimately provide the stable and secure base for the future Internet. But for the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 to be successful, everyone from infrastructure operators and service providers to application developers and users will have to work together on a range of activities, including:
• supporting and developing IPv6 capabilities and establishing functional IPv4 parity;
• debugging issues with new IPv6-only software and applications;
• refining interworking and transitional co-existence with IPv4.
A crucial part of that effort will involve security. IPv6 represents new territory for most Internet stakeholders, and its rollout will introduce some unique security challenges. While the following list is by no means comprehensive, it does point to eight considerations and problem areas that the industry will need to address as IPv6 adoption continues. Because we're still in the early stages, the solutions to some of these risks will only come after real-world use leads to proven best practices.
* Translating from IPv4 to IPv6, transactions may become vulnerable. Because IPv4 and IPv6 are not "bits on the wire" compatible, protocol translation is seen as one path to wider deployment and adoption. Translating traffic from IPv4 to IPv6 will inevitably result in mediating transactions as they move through the network. Think of a mail sorter at a post office transfer facility that must open every IPv4 envelope to put each letter in an IPv6 one to ensure it reaches the correct address, at times changing content in the documents contained within in order to coincide with the new IPv6 external envelop information. Each time this happens, an opportunity arises for a poor implementation or a bad actor to tickle or exploit a potential vulnerability. Additionally, it compromises the end-to-end principle by introducing middle boxes that must maintain transaction state and complicates the network. In general, security staff should pay attention to security aspects of all translation and transition mechanisms (to include tunneling), and only enable such mechanisms explicitly after they have been thoroughly evaluated.
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