Human beings are creatures of habit, it seems safe to say, and tend to have a hard time embracing change. So it has been no great surprise to see the widespread shock and dismay -- mixed, still, with considerable excitement -- over the decision to make Unity the next desktop Ubuntu's default interface. Yes, for those who missed it, Natty Narwhal -- or Ubuntu 11.04 -- will not use the distribution's longtime GNOME Shell as the default desktop interface. Rather, it will feature the 3D and multitouch-enabled Unity, which just appeared in the netbook edition of Maverick Meerkat.
2. A Nexus Two Smartphone From Samsung? Fuhgeddaboutit!
Samsung is reported to be working on the Google Nexus Two smartphone that will run Gingerbread, the latest version of the Android operating system. The buzz is that Samsung will unveil the phone at a press conference it called for Nov.8. However, Samsung's website indicates it will debut the Focus, a Windows Phone 7 handset, on that date. The Nexus Two rumor originated with Gizmodo, which reported details gleaned from an insider, and published its own rough mockup of the device.
Samsung is reported to be working on the Google Nexus Two smartphone that will run Gingerbread, the latest version of the Android operating system. The buzz is that Samsung will unveil the phone at a press conference it called for Nov.8. However, Samsung's website indicates it will debut the Focus, a Windows Phone 7 handset, on that date. The Nexus Two rumor originated with Gizmodo, which reported details gleaned from an insider, and published its own rough mockup of the device.
The Panoramio community enables you to share your photos and explore them on Google Earth, Google Mapsand other places. If you’ve never geo-tagged a photo, watch this video to learn how easy it is to add photos to the Panoramio layer in Google Earth.
Now you can add some excitement to your photo project and enter your photos to the monthly Panoramio Geotagged Photo Contest! Starting this month, we’ll be giving away the new Casio Hybrid-GPS camera EX-H20Gto the winner of each category (Scenery, Heritage, Travel and Unusual Location). The Panoramio community reviews all of the submissions and votes for what they consider to be the best each month.
Casio’s new Hybrid-GPS camera combines a GPS engine with autonomic positioning made possible by a motion sensor. This makes geotagging easy—both outdoors and indoors.
If you haven’t joined the Panoramio community yet, try it out and don’t forget to participate in our monthly contest. To enter your photo, click on “Submit to the contest” and choose a category. Good luck and we can’t wait to see your photos!
There is no doubt that the complexity of managing IT continues to grow. Transaction volumes are ever-growing, applications are interwoven with Web services, and workers are adopting the newest mobile devices-du-jour. The impact of social media and the Web continues to vex IT security managers. Then there's the case of enterprise software, which runs the business. Enterprise software technology has become a staple of large organizations over the last 20 years, but there's no evidence that managing these systems is getting any easier for CIOs and IT managers.
5. Superfast SSDs are coming, but will they be used the right way?
Intel, Dell, IBM, EMC, and a host of other component makers and OEMs have announced a partnership aimed at developing a standard interface for PCIe-hosted solid-state disks. If the group has its way, we'll eventually be ditching the SATA bus entirely for SSDs that are hosted directly on PCIe. Why does this matter? Because PCIe-based SSDs arebrain-meltingly fast. And right now, they're also wallet-bustingly expensive, even for enterprise customers.
While the new standards won't immediately bring down prices, they'll pave the way for more widespread adoption that can let economies of scale kick in. The group aims to create a new, standardized drive connector for PCIe SSDs; it will also specify features, like hot-plug capability, and a 2.5" form factor.
Intel, Dell, IBM, EMC, and a host of other component makers and OEMs have announced a partnership aimed at developing a standard interface for PCIe-hosted solid-state disks. If the group has its way, we'll eventually be ditching the SATA bus entirely for SSDs that are hosted directly on PCIe. Why does this matter? Because PCIe-based SSDs arebrain-meltingly fast. And right now, they're also wallet-bustingly expensive, even for enterprise customers.
While the new standards won't immediately bring down prices, they'll pave the way for more widespread adoption that can let economies of scale kick in. The group aims to create a new, standardized drive connector for PCIe SSDs; it will also specify features, like hot-plug capability, and a 2.5" form factor.
6. IE9 Preview 6 available, now with secret Beta UI
Microsoft demoed the latest developer preview of IE9 during the PDC 2010 keynote. Much like earlier previews, this one doesn't have much in the way of a UI. It's effectively a toolbar and the new rendering engine. The engine is wicked fast, however, and Microsoft has a number of demos that really put it through its paces.
The lack of UI is kind of a bore, so we asked how to make it more useful (and Microsoft told us). If you'd like to make it look and act like the beta (including all the chrome and new UI features), we have instructions. But first... a video!
7. Chinese Supercomputer Blazes Path to Glory
Microsoft demoed the latest developer preview of IE9 during the PDC 2010 keynote. Much like earlier previews, this one doesn't have much in the way of a UI. It's effectively a toolbar and the new rendering engine. The engine is wicked fast, however, and Microsoft has a number of demos that really put it through its paces.
The lack of UI is kind of a bore, so we asked how to make it more useful (and Microsoft told us). If you'd like to make it look and act like the beta (including all the chrome and new UI features), we have instructions. But first... a video!
7. Chinese Supercomputer Blazes Path to Glory
China has unveiled the world's fastest supercomputer, the Tianhe-1A, at a high-performance computing conference in Beijing. The Tianhe-1A has a Linpack benchmark performance of 2.507 petaflops, according to Nvidia, whose Tesla M2050 graphics processing units were used in the supercomputer. Linpack is a software library for performing numerical linear algebra on computers written to test supercomputer speeds in the 1970s. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory claimed the record in November 2009 with its Cray XT supercomputer, nicknamed "Jaguar."
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