Android OS Live CD

Android OS on a live CD, give it a try,
Android OS Live CD, LiveAndroid, For Your PC | VOIP IP Telephony
Tags: Android OS Live CD, LiveAndroid, Google Android, T-Mobile G1, Google Android Developer Phone

Intel Acquires Wind River For $884 Million

ANTA CLARA, Calif., June 4, 2009 – Intel Corporation has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Wind River Systems Inc, under which Intel will acquire all outstanding Wind River common stock for $11.50 per share in cash, or approximately $884 million in the aggregate. Wind River is a leading software vendor in embedded devices, and will become part of Intel’s strategy to grow its processor and software presence outside the traditional PC and server market segments into embedded systems and mobile handheld devices. Wind River will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel and continue with its current business model of supplying leading-edge products and services to its customers worldwide.

"This acquisition will bring us complementary, market-leading software assets and an incredibly talented group of people to help us continue to grow our embedded systems and mobile device capabilities," said Renee James, Intel vice president and general manager of the company’s Software and Services Group. "Wind River has thousands of customers in a wide range of markets, and now both companies will be better positioned to meet growth opportunities in these areas."

"Our combination of strengths will be of great benefit to Wind River’s existing and future customers," said Ken Klein, Wind River Chairman, president and CEO. "As a wholly owned subsidiary, Wind River will more tightly align its software expertise to Intel’s platforms to speed the pace of progress and software innovation. We remain committed to continuing to provide leading solutions across multiple hardware architectures and delivering the same world-class support to which our customers have grown accustomed."

The acquisition will deliver to Intel robust software capabilities in embedded systems and mobile devices, both important growth areas for the company. Embedded systems and mobile devices include smart phones, mobile Internet devices, other consumer electronics (CE) devices, in-car "info-tainment" systems and other automotive areas, networking equipment, aerospace and defense, energy and thousands of other devices. This multi-billion dollar market opportunity is increasingly becoming connected and more intelligent, requiring supporting applications and services as well as full Internet functionality.

The board of directors of Wind River has unanimously approved the transaction. It is expected to close this summer, subject to certain regulatory approvals and other conditions specified in the definitive agreement. Upon completion of the acquisition, Wind River will report into Intel’s Software and Services Group, headed by Renee James.

Tags: INTEL, windriver, embedded systems

Google Flies In A Very CLOUDy Sky

Google has offered an explanation about it's service disruption yesterday that made many people wonder about the cloud computing. It all boils down to a routing issue.
Official Google Blog: This is your pilot speaking. Now, about that holding pattern...

Tags: Google Outage, Cloud Computing

Intel Fined $1.45 Billion By European Commission In Antitrust Case

Intel was fined a staggering 1.06 billion euros ($1.45 Billion) fine on Wednesday by The European Commission for abusing its dominance in the computer chip market to exclude its only serious rival, Advanced Micro Devices.
Following is the Introductory remarks at press conference given by Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Competition Policy

Brussels, 13^th May 2009

Ladies and gentlemen,

I want to talk to you today about an antitrust decision that is focussed on consumer choice and innovation.

The Commission's decision finds that Intel abused its dominant position on the market for computer chips known as "x86 central processing units" in violation of Article 82 of the EC Treaty. This violation lasted for more than five years – from late 2002 to the end of 2007.

These x86 chips are the key hardware component of a computer – in other words, your computer won't work without these chips.

Throughout the period covered by the decision, Intel held at least 70% of the worldwide market in these chips.

The fact that Intel had such a large market share is not a problem in itself. What is a problem is that Intel abused its dominant position. Specifically, Intel used illegal anti-competitive practices to exclude essentially its only competitor, and thus reduce consumer choice, in the worldwide market for x86 chips.

The Commission has ordered Intel to cease the illegal practices immediately, to the extent that they are still ongoing, and to refrain from these and any equivalent practices in the future. The Commission will be monitoring Intel’s compliance closely.

For this abusive behaviour, the Commission has fined Intel 1.06 billion euros.

Frustrating innovation

The Commission finds that Intel did not compete fairly, frustrating innovation and reducing consumer welfare in the process.

Whenever dominant companies use their market position to exclude competitors, innovation suffers – and consumers are harmed because they are denied choice.-.

The Commission has found that Intel excluded its competitor in two ways:

1. through illegal loyalty rebates
2. by paying manufacturers and retailers to restrict the commercialisation of competitors' products.

These illegal actions were designed to preserve Intel's market share at a time when their only significant rival - AMD - was a growing threat to Intel's position. This threat was widely recognised by both computer manufacturers and in Intel's own internal documents seen by the Commission.

The computer manufacturers involved are Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and NEC. The retailer involved is Media Saturn Holdings, the parent company of Media Markt.

Rebates

Naturally, the Commission favours strong, vigorous price competition, including by dominant firms. However, Intel went beyond normal price competition by giving rebates to computer manufacturers on the condition that they bought all, or almost all, of their CPUs from Intel.

Intel also made direct payments to a major retailer – Media Markt - on the condition that it stocked only computers with Intel CPUs.

Not all rebates are a competition problem – often they will lead to lower prices for consumers in the long term as well as the short. But the Intel rebates in this case were a problem because of the conditions that Intel attached to its rebates. Moreover, the Commission has examined closely whether an efficient competitor could have matched these rebates. These conditions, to buy less of AMD's products or to not buy them at all, prevented AMD from competing with Intel on the merits of its products. This removed the possibility of genuine choice for consumers and undermined innovation.

Just to give you one example: in one case, a computer manufacturer took up only a small part of an offer by AMD of free CPUs because acceptance of all the free CPUs offered would have led that computer manufacturer to breach the conditions of its agreement with Intel and to lose rebates on all its much more numerous Intel purchases.

Everyone but Intel was worse off in this anti-competitive scenario.

But rebates are only part of the story.

Pay-for-delay

Intel made direct payments to computer manufacturers to halt or delay the launch of products using their rival's chips, and to limit their distribution once available.

The Commission has specific, documented examples, of Intel paying other manufacturers to, for example, delay the launch of an AMD-based PC by six months, and to restrict the sales of AMD-based products to certain customers.

Why is pay-for-delay wrong?

Because it was aimed at preventing a competitor from selling its products on their merits, again restricting genuine choice for consumers and undermining innovation.

Concealment

The Commission Decision contains evidence that Intel went to great lengths to cover-up many of its anti-competitive actions. Many of the conditions mentioned above were not to be found in Intel’s official contracts.

However, the Commission was able to gather a broad range of evidence demonstrating Intel's illegal conduct through statements from companies, on-site inspections, and formal requests for information.

Concluding remarks

The Commission's investigation has uncovered serious wrongdoing in the x86 computer chip market.

Given that Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for over five years, the size of the fine should come as no surprise.

I am very grateful for the interest and support that both BEUC (the European Consumers' Association) and UFC Que Choisir (French consumers' association) have shown in intervening on the side of the Commission in this case. This goes to show the widespread discontent at Intel's behaviour and the priority the Commission places on consumers and their welfare.

Finally, I would like to draw your attention to Intel's latest global advertising campaign which proposes Intel as the "Sponsors of Tomorrow."

Their website invites visitors to add their 'vision of tomorrow'. Well, I can give my vision of tomorrow for Intel here and now: "obey the law".

Tags: Sponsors of Tomorrow, vision of tomorrow, BEUC, UFC Que Choisir, INTEL, AMD, EU, European Commission, antitrust law

Naked Astronomy

M42, This cosmic nursery measures 30 light-years from side to side, and contains dozens of newborn baby suns.

According to this press release, you will be able to roam the milkyway and other far away galaxies in your bathing suite (summer is coming) or naked!

“Astronomers and enthusiasts have used our technology for years, but thanks to Otto and our new design, anyone can have a powerful telescope and an expert astronomer available at home whenever they want,” says Michael Paolucci, founder of Slooh. “Otto unveils the space stories and science behind the views that our technology feeds to the world.”

New York, March 30, 2009—Slooh is well known among astronomy enthusiasts for providing a space camera that offers unprecedented access to real-time views of the ever-changing night sky. Now, the company is unlocking space for those who never dared explore beyond our terrestrial world by introducing Otto, the Night Watchdog for the Milky Way Galaxy as their guide.

“Astronomers and enthusiasts have used our technology for years, but thanks to Otto and our new design, anyone can have a powerful telescope and an expert astronomer available at home whenever they want,” says Michael Paolucci, founder of Slooh. “Otto unveils the space stories and science behind the views that our technology feeds to the world.”

This comes just in time for the 100 Hours of Astronomy, a worldwide event aimed at bringing everyone the same sense of wonderment felt by Galileo when he first looked through a telescope 400 years ago.

Slooh also added two new telescopes to its worldwide network. The new sites in Chile and Australia complement the telescopes that have operated in Europe continuously since 2003. The complete network now offers space enthusiasts 24 hour views of the night sky from their computer screens.

Available online at Slooh.com and retail channels across the country, including, in nearly every Toys“R”Us store, Slooh fulfills the common yearning to see and capture images from space. A true space camera, Slooh and Otto guide users on quests to see and record the best current views of the night sky with tailored missions happening every few hours.

Otto’s night missions such as "Lunar Risings: The Phases of the Moon,” and "Starburst: The Birth, Life & Death of a Star" guide and shape exploration and discovery for kids and parents through telescopes situated at some of the world’s finest observatories. These missions use the same high-caliber images and patented technologies that have made Slooh critical to astronomical discovery.

Pricing and Availability

Slooh adventures are available for as little as $14.99 for 150 minutes of missions with each mission lasting about five minutes. Mission books can be found at Toys“R”Us stores or online at www.slooh.com.

Tags: slooh, astronomy

Wolfram|Alpha, A Computational Engine For Your Web Searches.

I have been a fan of Mathematica ever since high school and used it throughout my university years and even to date, I continue to use it. Mathematica is a well received application or a computational platform as many refer to it as.
There is some thing new from the Wolfram Research, the company that gave us the Mamthematica, a Web-based "computation engine"--Wolfram Alpha-- Alpha accesses databases that are maintained by Wolfram Research, or licensed from others, and deploys formulas and algorithms to compute answers for searchers.
When I read the test done by Technology Review, I had to smile, typical mathematica, to the point.
I know O will have a permanent bookmark to Wolfram Alpha.
You can read Technology Review article to get detailed information on Google and WolframAlpha comparison.

Tags: Wolfram, Mathematica, WolframAlpha, computation engine, Google and WolframAlpha comparison

Cloud Computing The Google Way!

When We speak or think of enterprise computing we always think of enterprise hardware. multi core processors, terabytes of high end storage and globs of memory.
Then we get our software on these heavy handed structures and run happily for about a year and in most cases six months as new better hardware comes around and our software begin to lag. So we rinse and repeat.
It seems Google is doing this in a bit of different way. The difference is that Google build its system from ground up, on low cost hardware. It is their software infrastructure that scales and manage to run on every possible hardware solution thrown at them.
Google work with the premise that even the best and most expensive hardware have a limit of not being 100% reliable. So they make their software the resilient one.
There is one good story that I read at Google Enterprise blog which explains very well the Google Enterprise architecture. I learned about it of course at Google official blog. You will find the links to both below.
Official Google Enterprise Blog: What we talk about when we talk about cloud computing
Business in the cloud

Tags: Cloud Computing, Google, enterprise computing

Linus Torvalds has released Linux 2.6.29.

The most obvious change is the (temporary) change of logo to Tuz, the Tasmanian Devil. But there's a number of driver updates and some m68k header updates (fixing headers_install after the merge of non-MMU/MMU) that end up being pretty noticeable in the diffs. The List Entry

The new features include the inclusion of Kernel Modesetting, Btrfs, Squashfs, Support of 4096 CPUs, "Tree RCU": scalable classic RCU, WiMAX, Wireless Access Point mode support, eCryptfs filename encryption, Filesystem freeze Memory controller swap management and other improvements, Ext4 no journal mode, OCFS2 metadata checksums,Staging drivers, and other features. Kernal Newbies.

Tags: Linux 2.6.29, Tux, Tuz, Kernel Modesetting, Btrfs, Squashfs, Support of 4096 CPUs, "Tree RCU": scalable classic RCU, WiMAX, Wireless Access Point mode support, eCryptfs filename encryption, Filesystem freeze Memory controller, swap management

SheevaPlug, Make Every Wall Plug A Computer Node

Perhaps this is an easy way to build a multinode grid computer. If you do not have enough plug points you can get those monstrous power extenders and plug in 10 or 20 of Sheevaplugs.
Marvell®’s SheevaPlug™ is a plug computer — an embedded computer that plugs into the wall socket and can run networkbased services that normally require a dedicated personal computer. Featuring a 1.2GHz Marvell Sheeva™ CPU with 512MB of flash memory and 512MB of DDR2 memory, the SheevaPlug provides ample processing power and resources to run any embedded computing application. Network connectivity is via Gigabit Ethernet; peripheral devices can be connected using USB2.0. Software for the SheevaPlug includes multiple Linux distributions and follows the open-source model, making the SheevaPlug an ideal platform on which to develop or port any application. The SheevaPlug development kit contains the SheevaPlug as well as all of the software tools needed to develop applications for the platform.
Marvell

Tags: SheevaPlug, plug computer, Marvell, Grid Computing, Linux

Linux Defenders To Protect Interests Of OSS Community.

Open Invention Network^SM (Another way to fight Patents!), an intellectual property company that was formed to promote Linux by using patents to create a collaborative environment has now unveiled a new program called Linux Defenders, with the aim of making prior art more readily accessible to patent and trademark office examiners. It also fore see an increase the quality of granted patents and aid to eliminate or revoke poor quality patents.

Following is the press release about Unveiling of Landmark 'Linux Defenders' Program;

Durham, NC (December 9, 2008) - Open Invention Network (OIN), a collaborative enterprise that enables open source innovation and an increasingly vibrant ecosystem around Linux, today unveiled the Linux Defenders program, which is designed to make prior art more readily accessible to patent and trademark office examiners, and increase the quality of granted patents and reduce the number of poor quality patents.

"Linux Defenders offers the Linux and broader open source community a unique opportunity to harness its collaborative passion, intelligence, and ingenuity to ensure Linux's natural migration to mobile devices and computing,>" said Keith Bergelt, chief executive officer of Open Invention Network. >"This landmark program will benefit open source innovation by significantly reducing the number of poor quality patents that might otherwise be used by patent trolls or strategics whose behaviors and business models are antithetical to true innovation and are thus threatened by Linux.>"

Co-sponsored by the Software Freedom Law Center and the Linux Foundation, Linux Defenders is a first-of-its-kind program which aims to reduce future intellectual property concerns about meritless patents for the Linux and open source community. The program is designed to accomplish this by soliciting prior art to enable the rejection of poor quality patent applications; soliciting prior art to enable the invalidation of poor quality issued patents; and soliciting high quality inventions that can be prepared as patent applications or defensive publications.

The Linux Defenders program is expected to enable individuals and organizations to efficiently impact the patenting process by enabling the contribution of relevant prior art, and by creating defensive publications which will establish a body of new prior art. The prior art can be used by examiners to screen patent applications more effectively and ensure only truly novel ideas are patented. The net effect of higher patent quality will be to provide greater freedom for the open source community to build on the Linux platform. Linux has enjoyed adoption in many industries and market segments around the world, and this program will help facilitate future progress in the expansion of the Linux footprint. Use of Linux Defenders is free of charge to contributors of prior art or inventions, and the hosting of defensive publications on databases accessible by patent and trademark office examiners around the world is borne by the program's sponsors. The Linux Defenders website is located at http://www.linuxdefenders.org.

"A large number of poor quality patents have the potential to stifle innovation," said Eben Moglen, chairman of the Software Freedom Law Center. "The Software Freedom Law Center is pleased to co-sponsor Linux Defenders with the goal of ridding the world of patents that unscrupulous organizations use to cripple the innovation inherent in freely redistributable, open source software."

"This is an important program that will give the community additional confidence in the code they develop," said Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation. "The open source community is getting an IP rights tool that will limit distractions created from organizations that like to play the FUD game. We enthusiastically encourage the Linux and open source communities to contribute to Linux Defenders."

"We are pleased to be working with Open Invention Network, Software Freedom Law Center and the Linux Foundation, as Linux Defenders is a natural extension of our 'Peer to Patent' and 'Post Issue' platforms and our explicit goal of working with industry to address core issues effecting the integrity of the patent system," said Mark Webbink, executive director of the Center for Patent Innovations at the New York Law School.

A Note on Defensive Publications
Defensive publications, which are endorsed by the United States Patent & Trademark Office as an IP rights management tool, are documents that provide descriptions and artwork of a product, device or method so that it enters the public domain and becomes prior art. This powerful preemptive disclosure prevents other parties from obtaining a patent on the product, device or method. It enables original inventors to ensure that they have access to their inventions by preventing others from later making patent claims against them. It also means that they do not have to shoulder the cost of patent applications.

The Defensive Publications program, a component of Linux Defenders, enables non-attorneys to use a set of Web-based forms to generate defensive publications. It relies on substantial participation from the open source community using a "Wiki"-like contribution model. OIN plans to work with participants to ensure that each defensive publication is an effective disclosure. The completed defensive publication will be added by OIN to the IP.com database, which is, in turn, used by IP attorneys and the patent and trademark office to search for prior art when examining patent applications.

About Open Invention Network
Open Invention Network^sm is a collaborative enterprise that enables innovation in open source and an increasingly vibrant ecosystem around Linux by acquiring and licensing patents, influencing behaviors and policy, and defending the integrity of the ecosystem through strategic programs such as Linux Defenders. It enables the growth and continuation of open source software by fostering a healthy Linux ecosystem of investors, vendors, developers and users.

Open Invention Network has considerable industry backing. It was launched in 2005, and has received investments from IBM, NEC, Novell, Philips, Red Hat and Sony. For more information, visit www.openinventionnetwork.com.

Media-Only Contact:
Ed Schauweker
Ketchum for Open Invention Network
ed.schauweker@ketchum.com
703-963-5238

Tags: Open Invention Network, Another way to fight Patents, Linux, OSS, Linux Defenders