Aug 20

BCS Data Centre Specialist Group

By admin 24x7 Management And Support, cloud computing, design concepts, disaster-recovery, it-management, operating systems & collaborative tools No Comments »

The Data Centre environment provides the foundation for the reliability, availability and security of systems and networks that power the world’s economy. The consumer’s drive for 24/7 availability of goods and services places increasing pressure on the availability of the facilities, systems and networks that provide these services. Underpinning the service reliability is the provision of a suitable, stable and reliable operating environment. The Data Centre is this environment.

As applications, data and infrastructure grow they have an increasing impact on the Data Centre and in turn an increasing impact on the environment. Business and consumer demands for richer functionality and interfaces are driving more complex applications which create demands on processing and data storage that can outstrip performance growth. This brings increased power and cooling requirements for the Date Centre. The economic and environmental impacts of this growth now require serious consideration.

The IT industry as a whole has charged forward without much attention paid to its impact on the environment. Among today’s hot topics are the inefficiencies found within Data Centres, including the facilities themselves and the IT equipment they house. One of the key areas the DCSG is focused on is working with the UK, EU and North American legislative bodies to ensure our industry is properly focused on driving the changes required to become more efficient with our use of energy.

Whilst there are many individuals in our industry with useful knowledge and experience in Data Centre engineering, their information is not easily accessible. The DCSG has been formed to create a forum for open and honest discussion, information sharing and evaluation of Data Centre-related issues and technologies.

What does the future of the Data Centre look like and just how critical a role will it play in business, the environment and the economy?
The DCSG aims to hold around twelve meetings/events per year that will focus on the hot topics of the moment and provide a forum for communication while further fostering professionalism through the industry.

Zahl Limbuwala FBCS CEng CITP MIET

DCSG Founder & Chairman

Data Centre Specialist Group.

May 20

Google To Launch Amazon S3 Competitor ‘Google Storage’ At I/O

By jeromewagner SOA, cloud computing, disaster-recovery, document-management, green-it, insights, network-security, offsite-backup, operating systems & collaborative tools No Comments »

Amazon’s cloud storage services are going to be getting another major competitor this week: Google.

We hear that this week during its I/O conference, Google will be announcing a new service that is a direct competitor with Amazon’s S3 cloud storage. Google’s service will be called Google Storage for Developers, or ‘GS’. We believe it will be available in a private beta initially.

We also hear that the service will be positioned to make it very easy for existing S3 customers to make the switch to Google Storage.Features will include a REST API, the ability to use Google accounts to offer authenticated downloads, and data redundancy. Developers will be able to use a command line tool to manage their data, and there will be a web interface as well.We’d previously reported that Google was looking to expand its cloud service offerings, but that it would primarily be focused on ‘value-added’ services that took advantage of technology Google has been using internally, like its translation tools and video processing.

We’re hearing that such value-added services will not be part of this launch, but it is highly likely that they will be coming in the future. And that’s the key here — competitors will have a hard time matching the array of technologies and infrastructure Google has spent years developing.

via Google To Launch Amazon S3 Competitor ‘Google Storage’ At I/O.

May 19

Google Wave opens doors to public, asks old friends for new chance

By jeromewagner communication-standards, online tools, operating systems & collaborative tools No Comments »

Google Wave opens doors to public, asks old friends for new chance.

By Ross Miller posted May 19th 2010

To think, it was about this time last year that Google first unveiled its collaboration tool Wave, and today the company’s taking out the invitational step and opening it to the public at large — which begs the question, did anyone not have an invite that wanted one at this point? It’ll also be now available in the enterprise-centric Apps suite for no extra charge.

On the developer side of things, expect some more open source code be unleashed, including most importantly the rich text editor. Can’t say we’ve really dug around in the service ourselves since its beta launched, but co-creator Lars Rasmussen tells us we should be giving it another go. He further acknowledged that they’ve got some work to do on educating users on the best ways to use the service, which at this point seems to be mid- and small-scale collaboration. To that end, expect some new tutorial videos, and with any luck, some amusing animation.

via Google Wave opens doors to public, asks old friends for new chance — Engadget.

May 10

Canonical unveils new ‘Unity’ desktop environment at Ubuntu Developer Summit | Ubuntu

By admin MobileOS, OS, Ubuntu, cloud computing, operating systems & collaborative tools No Comments »

Previews ‘Ubuntu Light:’ an implementation of Unity Targeted at OEMs for ‘instant-on’ computing

Ubuntu Developer Summit, La Hulpe, Belgium, May 10, 2010: Canonical today unveiled a new desktop environment called ‘Unity’ at the Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS) in Belgium. Unity will be the desktop environment for Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition, released in October 2010, and is available today to developers building applications for the netbook environment.

Unity is designed for netbooks and related touch-based devices. It includes a new panel and application launcher that makes it fast and easy to access preferred applications, such as the browser, while removing screen elements that are rarely used in mobile and netbook computing.

In parallel, Canonical announced Ubuntu Light, an implementation of Ubuntu that is based on Unity and intended for the dual-boot ‘instant-web’ market. This pared-down version of Ubuntu features chat, IM, browser and media player applications and is aimed at PC manufacturers seeking an ‘instant-web’ experience that complements Windows on consumer PCs.

Ubuntu Light distinguishes itself by connecting the user to the web, with a running browser, in under 10 seconds. The product includes a media player and tools to integrate with Windows to access music files, photos, etc. This is a new market for Ubuntu and research into the requirements for this market drove many of the design principles for Unity.

PCs equipped with Ubuntu Light offer users immediate access to the web and personal content – photos, music and documents. For mobile users, or simply for cases where the simplified interface of Ubuntu is more appropriate, Ubuntu Light saves time associated with a full Windows boot and login. Ubuntu Light can be used on a standalone PC or notebook without Windows, but it is particularly designed for dual-boot environments, where it is installed alongside Windows and presented as an option at boot.

More here

Apr 08

iPhone OS 4 unveiled, adds multitasking, shipping this summer

By admin MobileOS, communication-standards, operating systems & collaborative tools No Comments »

By Paul Miller posted Apr 8th 2010 1:43PM

Breaking News

Just a bit more than a year after we first laid eyes on iPhone OS 3.0, Apple is back with the latest big revision of the OS that powers the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

iPhone OS 4 is shipping this summer iPad in the fall, and the developer preview will be out today. iPhone 3GS and new-gen iPod touch will get all the features, but some features wont make it to the iPhone 3G, original iPhone, and older iPod touches. The biggest new feature is multitasking, which Apple says is going to be the “best” implementation in the smartphone space, though its obviously not the first.

App switching is activated by double tapping the home button, which pulls up a “dock” of currently running apps, and Apple claims it can do this without hurting battery life or performance for the front app.

Unfortunately, this multitasking wont be available for devices older than the 3GS and new iPod touch. Multitasking is just one of seven different new “tentpole” features, including Game Center, enhanced Mail, and more…

via iPhone OS 4 unveiled, adds multitasking, shipping this summer — Engadget.

Mar 24

Navigating 13.3 gigapixels on a 22 megapixel display wall

By admin cloud computing, design concepts, insights, it-projects, operating systems & collaborative tools No Comments »

Navigating 13.3 gigapixels on a 22 megapixel display wall.

Tor-Magne Stien Hagen, Daniel Stødle and Otto J. Anshus, University of Tromsø, Norway In collaboration with Eirik Helland Urke, gigapix.no

Gigapixel images are great. The level of detail, the scope of the images and the sheer amount of data they represent are all fascinating. Viewing them in an enjoyable and efficient manner is another issue entirely. As digital cameras get better and computers become faster, stitching ever larger images becomes possible. In late 2009, a 26 gigapixel image of Dresden in Germany was published online, and currently a gigapixel-image of Paris is the worlds largest gigapixel image.

However, looking at these or pretty much any other gigapixel image online, you are faced with a small viewer confined to your browser window. Can we do better?I work at the Display Wall laboratory at the Department of Computer Science, University of Tromsø located in Northern Norway. The Display Wall lab is home to a 22 megapixel display wall, constructed from 28 projectors and driven by a display cluster of about 30 nodes 28 to do the actual graphics, and another few to do other tasks. Each projector creates a 1024x768 resolution image, which when tiled together with the others form a 7168x3072 resolution display.

During the Fall and Winter of 2009, we contacted Eirik Helland Urke, who had recently published a gigapixel image of Tromsø on his website, www.gigapix.no. You can navigate that image for yourself here albeit with the previously stated “in a tiny browser window” caveat. A fellow graduate student of mine, Tor-Magne Stien Hagen, went to work on building a viewer for gigapixel-scale images on the display wall. We combined his WallScope system with my Interaction Spaces system for device- and touch-free interaction with the display wall, and the result was a very smooth and enjoyable experience for navigating very, very high-resolution images.

More technical details will follow as we have time to write them down. We also have a paper coming up -- stay tuned.

via Navigating 13.3 gigapixels on a 22 megapixel display wall.

Mar 19

Windows Phone 7 Series: the complete guide

By jeromewagner MobileOS, insights, media-tools, operating systems & collaborative tools No Comments »

After Windows Phone 7 Series grand unveiling at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress last month, Microsoft has circled back over the last several days during GDC and its own MIX10 conference to fill in many of the holes in this story — in particular, details around the app development ecosystem and how third parties can take full advantage of it have been focal points. Of course, it makes sense: a modern smartphone is only as good as its software catalog, and Redmond’s clearly keen to show that it knows how very true that is. XNA — the technology that underpins Zune games and a host of Xbox content — figures prominently into the equation, but Silverlight is a huge, unavoidable component as well, making development for WP7S devices a starkly different experience for studios and independent code monkeys than in versions prior. We’re going to be periodically updating this post as we get new info on the platform, but for now, follow the break for everything you need to know — so far — about Microsofts latest and greatest mobile platform.

via Windows Phone 7 Series: the complete guide — Engadget.

Mar 01

The State of the Internet Infographic Video

By admin cloud computing, communication-standards, design concepts, insights, operating systems & collaborative tools No Comments »

via YouTube -- State of The Internet.

Feb 15

Wholesale Applications Community

By admin 24x7 Management And Support, MobileOS, cloud computing, communication-standards, operating systems & collaborative tools No Comments »

Wholesale ApplicationsCommunity

Will establish a simple route to market for developers and provide them with access to a customer base of over 3 billion customers.

The alliance aims to unite a fragmented marketplace by involving players from all related industries to create a community based on openness and transparency to the benefit of all.

We believe our model presents the most compelling format on the market where developers will thrive and customers will reap the benefits of greater choice.

Who’s involved?

A number of the world’s leading telecommunications operators and device manufacturers are launching an open global alliance, that will establish a simple route to market for developers and provide access to the latest and widest range of innovative applications and services to as many customers as possible worldwide.

Together, we have signed a memorandum of understanding with the aim of building an environment or ’wholesale applications community’ where innovative applications can be developed irrespective of device or technology.

The new alliance, which represents more than three billion customers worldwide is inviting players from across the ICT industry, not only operators and developers, but also handset manufacturers and internet players to join forces to create an initiative based on openness and transparency. We believe this model presents the most compelling format on the market where developers will thrive and customers will reap the benefits of greater choice. Furthermore, the GSMA is supporting this initiative.

Membership

The members currently include América Móvil, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, China Mobile, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KT, Mobilkom Austria Group, MTN Group, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, Orascom Telecom, Softbank Mobile, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor Group, Telia Sonera, SingTel, SK Telecom, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, VimpelCom, Vodafone and Wind, as well as Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson device manufacturers.

We expect this list to grow and we are inviting players from across the ICT industry, not only operators and developers, but also handset manufacturers and internet players to join forces.

Role and purpose of the alliance

The primary role and objective of the alliance is to create a ’wholesale applications community’ that will establish a simple route to market for developers, in turn, providing access to the latest and widest range of innovative applications and services to as many customers as possible worldwide. This alliance will deliver scale unparalleled by any application distribution ecosystem in existence today.

What this means for customers

For customers this means a broader choice of innovative applications and services available on a wider choice of devices than ever before.

What this means for developers

For the developer, particularly small developers, the alliance will create an environment in which they can flourish and create applications in a straight-forward and effective manner. Today, the route to market for developers is challenging requiring them to approach multiple operators. The alliance will provide a single gateway for developers to access a vast potential customer base (over two billion with limited cost to the developer and this in turn will provide the maximum possible return on investment for them.

In addition, the alliance will utilise existing technical standards, rather than creating new ones to allow developers to access operators’ assets, for example network capabilities or API’s (Application Programming Interfaces) more easily. In practice this means that developers will only have to create one version of their application and this can be used on multiple types of devices and operating systems (such as Symbian, Android, Windows etc) which is not the case today.

via Home | Wholesale Applications Community.

Feb 15

Windows Phone 7 Series is official, and Microsoft is playing to win

By admin MobileOS, operating systems & collaborative tools No Comments »

Windows Phone 7 Series.

Get used to the name, because its now a part of the smartphone vernacular… however verbose it may seem. Today Microsoft launches one of its most ambitious if not most ambitious projects: the rebranding of Windows Mobile.

The company is introducing the new mobile OS at Mobile World Congress 2010, in Barcelona, and if the press is anything to be believed, this is just the beginning. The phone operating system does away with pretty much every scrap of previous mobile efforts from Microsoft, from the look and feel down to the underlying code — everything is brand new.

7 Series has rebuilt Windows Mobile from the ground up, featuring a completely altered home screen and user interface experience, robust Xbox LIVE and Zune integration, and vastly new and improved social networking tools. Gone is the familiar Start screen, now replaced with “tiles” which scroll vertically and can be customized as quick launches, links to contacts, or self contained widgets.

The look of the OS has also been radically upended, mirroring the Zune HD experience closely, replete with that large, iconic text for menus, and content transitions which elegantly and dimensionally slide a user into and out of different views. The OS is also heavily focused on social networking, providing integrated contact pages which show status updates from multiple services and allow fast jumps to richer cloud content such as photo galleries.

The Xbox integration will include LIVE games, avatars, and profiles, while the Zune end of things appears to be a carbon copy of the standalone devices features including FM radio.Besides just flipping the script on the brand, the company seems to be taking a much more vertical approach with hardware and user experience, dictating rigid specs for 7 Series devices a specific CPU and speed, screen aspect ratio and resolution, memory, and even button configuration, and doing away with carrier or partner UI customizations such as Sense or TouchWiz. Thats right — there will be a single Windows Phone identity regardless of carrier or device brand. Those new phones will likely look similar at first, featuring a high res touchscreen, three front-facing buttons back, start, and perhaps not shockingly, a Bing key, and little else.

Carrier partnerships are far and wide, including AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange, SFR, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telstra, T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone, while hardware partners include Dell, Garmin-Asus, HTC, HP, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Qualcomm.

Were told that we likely wont get to see any third-party devices at MWC, though Microsoft is showing off dev units of unknown origin, and the first handsets are supposed to hit the market by the holidays of this year.We had chance to go hands-on with a device before the announcement, and weve got some detail to share on just what the experience is like, so click here to read our hands-on impressions with lots of pics and video on the way!.

via Engadget.

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