From the Web

[Cruncher Pete]

From APC:

   
Samantha Rose Hunt25 March 2009, 11:00 PM (1 day 17 hours ago.)
When Microsoft sued TomTom for patent violations in its Linux-based navigators, it probably didn't figure what would happen next.

Microsoft sued TomTom earlier this month for patent violations around TomTom's use of the FAT32 file system in its Linux-based navigators. Although TomTom is one of the world's leading brands of navigator, it's still a minnow-sized company compared to Microsoft, and the tech community speculated that it probably lacked the resources to fight.

That is until now. TomTom has joined the OIN (Open Invitation Network), which is an intellectual property company which was formed to promote the various open-source Linux platforms by creating a collaborative ecosystem and community amongst members. Among the members of the group are Novell, IBM, Sony and Red Hat.

With OIN on its side, it automatically has the support of Linux Defenders, a group sponsored by various Linux organisations which pulls out all the stops to stop frivolous patent-warfare lawsuits against Linux. The organisation is backed by the SFLC (Software Freedom Law Center) and the Linux Foundation, as well as OIN.

TomTom has also taken the fight right back to Microsoft, and has issued a countersuit against Microsoft for the violation of four of its patents in the Microsoft Streets and Trips program. (Honestly, why does 'big-tech' always sue over patents like this ... the outcome is so predictable. A whole lot of money gets spent on lawyers, and they end up writing a cross-licencing deal.)

One thing about open source is that it works to promote open development, and after years of fighting governments over monopolistic bully tactics, Microsoft is quite possibly treading on some very thin ice around antitrust issues if it continues to attack companies that use Linux in its attempt to shut down its open-source competitor.

Put simply: it's Microsoft prerogative to continue this, but although Linux may look like the weakling of the class financially, there's a hell of a lot of money riding on its ongoing freedom and success -- just look what happened to SCO.

[Cruncher Pete]

From CNETNews:

Intel's Nehalem-architecture chips will now try to make their mark in servers, after their debut in desktops last November.

On Monday, Intel is rolling out new Nehalem-based Xeon processors targeted at servers using up to two processors. Nehalem offers some important firsts for Intel, including an integrated memory controller for better performance, hyper-threading for up to 16 virtual cores (which improves multitasking), and Turbo Boost Technology, which dynamically increases the processor's frequency (speed), as needed.

The announcement will be anticlimactic to some extent. Apple has already announced a new Mac Pro using the Nehalem Xeon 3500 and 5500 processors and last month Intel discussed how Nehalem will be used in new "Willowbrook" servers in mega data centers.

But fresh announcements are due on Monday from the largest server suppliers in the world, including IBM. "If you thoroughly maximize the capabilities of Nehalem, generation to generation you can get something like two times the performance capability," said Alex Yost, vice president IBM BladeCenter. "We did install a bunch of early systems at key clients on Wall Street and I am very encouraged," he said. IBM is the largest server supplier in the world based on revenue, holding about a 33 percent share of the market, according to Gartner.

Dreamworks has also been a high-profile early adopter of Nehalem. Prior to Nehalem, Dreamworks had to wait overnight to get a animation rendering project completed but this can be done almost in real time with the new processor, according to Intel and Dreamworks.

Analysts don't expect Nehalem to cause seismic shifts in chip market share because Intel processors already claim a disproportionate chunk of the server market. "We expect only an incremental upside on a unit basis," said Ashok Kumar, an analyst at investment bank Collins Stewart. More importantly, Kumar is closely watching Cisco's entry into the server market. "If the Cisco relationship opens up new market opportunities, that's where the upside will be."

The new servers coming from IBM include deliver lower wattage requirements that can slash energy costs up to 50 percent, according to a company statement. The IBM servers also support more memory, storage, and I/IO (input-output) for cloud-computing customers.

The new IBM systems using the Xeon 5500 Series are the IBM System x3650 M2 and x3550 M2--which offer computing speeds up to 6.4 giga transfers per second--the IBM BladeCenter HS22, and the IBM System x iDataPlex dx360 M2.

IBM is also announcing Systems Director 6.1 for managing both physical and virtual resources based on a web-based interface with integrated wizards and tutorials. Big Blue also said it is offering the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, a next-generation BIOS (basic input-output system) that provides a consistent BIOS across IBM's server portfolio and allows for more detailed remote-configuration option

[Cruncher Pete]

From PC World:

A jury in Rhode Island found Microsoft guilty of patent infringement, ordering it to pay US$38 million to Uniloc, the patent holder.

Initially filed in 2003 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, the suit alleges that Microsoft's product activation system infringes on a patent held by Uniloc.

The jury decided that the patent is valid and that Microsoft willfully infringes it.

The software giant still thinks otherwise and intends to appeal the decision. "We believe that we do not infringe, that the patent is invalid and that this award of damages is legally and factually unsupported. We will ask the court to overturn the verdict," the company said in a statement.

Microsoft's product activation process aims to reduce piracy by requiring people to activate their software, tying it to a particular machine in the process. Users can then reinstall the software repeatedly on that machine, but can't share the software with other people and PCs.

Uniloc sells technology that software developers use to offer flexible licensing terms, such as trial periods

[clownius]

Microsoft infringe a patent. Shock horror who would think that fine upstanding Microsoft the champions of patent rights worldwide would do such a tthing

[Cruncher Pete]

From PC World:

A federal judge late Friday refused to restore class-action status to the Vista Capable lawsuit, handing Microsoft Corp. its second major victory in the case in the last two months.

U.S. District Court Judge Marsh Pechman denied a motion by the plaintiffs to recertify a smaller group of consumers in the suit that has accused Microsoft of misleading PC buyers in 2006-07 by letting computer makers slap the "Vista Capable" sticker on machines that could run only Home Basic.

Her order was the second since Feb. 18 denying class-action status to the lawsuit, and limits the plaintiffs' options to appealing her decision or moving forward with a trial of the half-dozen individual claims.

It was also the second time in as many months that Pechman's ruling went Microsoft's way. By rejecting class action status, Pechman again narrowed the pool of potential plaintiffs from thousands to the six now involved. That, in turn, would dramatically slash Microsoft's financial exposure -- which had been estimated as high as $8.5 billion -- if it eventually loses the case.

On Friday, she dismissed plaintiffs' arguments to grant class-action status to two new groups: people who had purchased PCs during Microsoft's Express Upgrade program and those who bought Vista Capable machines that wouldn't run the new operating system's Aero graphical user interface.

"Plaintiffs proposed Express Upgrade class suffers from the same flaws as its original deception-theory based Vista Capable class," Pechman wrote in her order, referring to the upgrade program Microsoft ran with its OEM partners from October 2006 to March 2007 to give PC buyers free or discounted copies of Vista. "As before, Plaintiffs underlying claim is that they were deceived by the Vista marketing campaign. Because evidence relating to each Plaintiffs' consumer choice is not amenable to class-wide analysis, an Express Upgrade class is inappropriate."

She also rejected the plaintiffs' move to create a new class out of consumers who bought Windows XP systems that later would be able to run only the lowest-priced version of Vista, Home Basic. For much of the two-year-old case, lawyers for the plaintiffs have argued that because Home Basic lacked many of the flashy features Microsoft had promoted in Vista -- most importantly, the Aero interface -- it was not really Vista.

"[Plaintiffs' claims] all center on the claim that computers lacking WDDM compatibility cannot achieve full Vista Basic functionality," said Pechman. "This is only potentially deceptive in the contest of Microsoft's 'Vista Capable' label. Without the label there is nothing deceptive or unfair about selling non-WDDM compatible computers. Because the fulcrum of Plaintiffs' claim is the label and because the label is most accurately characterized as an affirmative representation, Plaintiffs case does not 'primarily' allege omissions."

WDDM, or Windows Display Driver Model, is the display driver standard Microsoft introduced in Vista. The new standard has played a prominent part in the case; Internal Microsoft e-mails released by the court revealed arguments within the company before it decided to ditch WDDM as a requirement for Vista Capable PCs. Other insider e-mails showed that Microsoft seemed to relent on the WDDM requirement because of pressure from Intel Corp., which during 2006 was still selling large numbers of graphics chip sets that could not handle Vista drivers, though they could run Windows XP's.

The plaintiffs have claimed that Microsoft kept the decision to ditch WDDM a secret from consumers, who then could not know that some of the PCs with Vista Capable labels would not be able to run the new operating system's full feature set. Microsoft has countered that it made clear to potential buyers that Home Basic would omit some features that would be included in the more expensive editions.

Microsoft declined to comment Saturday on Pechman's order.

Previously, attorneys for the plaintiffs have said that they would appeal Pechman's decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit if it went against their clients. They were not available for comment today.

In her order, Pechman told lawyers for both parties to decide whether they wanted to reset a trial date for the six individual claims, or if they wanted to wait until an appeal is made and resolved.

[Cruncher Pete]

From APC Magazine:

David Flynn23 April 2009, 7:09 PM (1 hour 46 minutes ago.)
AMD's ambitious roadmap stretches from the six-core 'Istanbul' due for a June launch to a 12-core superslab for servers and workstations by next year.

Here's yet another sign that we've swapped the megahertz wars for the core wars. AMD wants to double its already ambitious core count from six to 12 on server and workstation processors within the next 12 months.

During this week's earnings announcement the company revealed that it had not only brought forward the release of its six-core Istanbul processor to June, but wanted to ship eight-core and 12-core processors by early next year.

However this 12-core beast, known by the oddball codename of "Magny-Cours", will be built by strapping together a pair of six-core Instanbul chips. The following year AMD expects to shift from a 45nm to 32nm process.

On the mobile side of the fence, AMD recommitted to its strategy to chase the potentially explosive market for 'thin and light' consumer notebooks.

CEO Dirk Meyer said that the company's Yukon 'ultrathin notebook' platform – which aims to partner budget-priced silicon with ATI graphics sufficient for 1080p HD video and low-impact 'casual gaming' – would move to dual-core by the middle of this year.

The double-barrel chip, dubbed Congo, would be offered to notebook manufacturers alongside the single-core Neo.

This sets AMD on a collision course against Intel's release of its 'Ultra' processor, which has the exact same market in its sights. The processor, and several 'thin and light' Ultra-class notebooks from leading brands including Asus and HP are tipped for the spotlight at Taiwan's Computex trade show in the first week of June.

[Cruncher Pete]

A web tool that "could be as important as Google", according to some experts, has been shown off to the public.

Wolfram Alpha is the brainchild of British-born physicist Stephen Wolfram.

The free program aims to answer questions directly, rather than display web pages in response to a query like a search engine.

The "computational knowledge engine", as the technology is known, will be available to the public from the middle of May this year. More from Here...

[Mike Mitchell]

Now that sounds interesting. I'm sure Google hates me.

edit: The above link refers to a similar system called Start. So I posed a few test questions to Start to see what it "thought". I like the lack of committal:

===> Is Tibet a Chinese province?
Unfortunately, I don't know whether or not Tibet is a Chinese province.  

I don't think computer scientists deal at all well with philosophical questions.

[Cruncher Pete]

From UTube:


In view of one of our project dealing with LHC (large Hedron Collider) I thought that you might be interested in the theory surrounding this subject.  Please click on the above to view it on UTube.

[yoda]

Ramsey@home board set up and post moved here

[WikiWill]

From Wired.com:


On Jan. 15, 2009, a few Canadian geese with bad timing became snarge, a steely pilot became a hero, and the world became fascinated with images of a jet splashing into the Hudson River and then floating calmly as passengers crowded its wings.

But until now, few people have seen the equally surprising pictures of the second half of this story: when a salvage team used the biggest floating crane on the East Coast to pluck the ill-fated Airbus A320 from the frigid water.

[JohnG]

Just finished watching a "PBS Frontline" documentary on Bernard Madoff. Great watching for anyone who has been following.

[Cruncher Pete]

A Free Program called Ultimate Windows Tweeker (UWT) gives control over more than 130 Vista Settings.  You might care to read more about UWT and or Download the Program here

[Cruncher Pete]

If you wish to buy a Netbook but do not like the OS that is installed on the coomputer, now you have a choice.  Read all about it here

[yoda]

Certainly no powerhouse (just a single core Atom N270) and IMHO overpriced, but at least it's a step in the right direction.