Archive for March, 2008

Brian Dettmer’s insanely creative Book Autopsies

Tuesday 25 March 2008 @ 9:03 am

Certainly one of the most creative concepts I’ve seen in a long time. What a kick ass idea. Here’s more pictures and information about the artist if you’re interested.

[Thanks for sharing the link, Jeff]

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Sigma 50mm f/1.4: A new standard?

Tuesday 25 March 2008 @ 9:03 am

Sigma bolsters its top-end EX range with the announcement of a HSM focusing-motor-equipped 50mm f/1.4 lens. Offering a moderate telephoto field of view on APS-C cameras, Sigma’s DG designation means it will also work as a standard lens on full-frame digital cameras. We believe this is the first time a 50mm f/1.4 lens has been offered with a ring-type focus motor. Pricing and availability information to follow as soon as we have it.

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Sun To Offer Ubuntu Linux Based Servers

Tuesday 25 March 2008 @ 9:03 am

Good news for all Debian / Ubuntu Linux fans. Sun has started to offer Ubuntu Linux based servers. Sun has systems competitively priced for small and medium businesses. Ubuntu is based upon rock solid Debian core. Look like Red hat and Novell going to have some nice competition. Sun offers x64-based systems certified for Ubuntu Linux:
* x64 Rack Servers

* Blade Servers

* x64 Workstations

* Workgroup Disk Storage

* Tape Automation

=>Sun SMB Product Page (Via Arun’s blog)

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Speed Up Windows’ Shutdown [Windows Tip]

Tuesday 25 March 2008 @ 9:03 am

Windows guy Dennis O’Reilly points out a few Windows registry tweaks that will make your PC “close shop like it’s late for the bus ride home.” These modifications will shorten the amount of time Windows waits around before killing hanging applications, and will set your PC to automatically stop running tasks. If Windows takes a little too much time to shut itself down, these may be for you; of course keep in mind that registry tweaks shouldn’t be done lightly or without a full backup.

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Environmental-Fi: Rain Forest Sensor, Solar Monitor

Tuesday 25 March 2008 @ 9:03 am

Two from the ecological files today: In Costa Rica, a UCLA group is using Wi-Fi and fiber optic to provide canopy-level monitoring of microclimates that are typically hard to track. The top of the rain-forest canopy–in the La Selva Biological Station in this case–has a very different set of conditions than at the base. One measurement particularly of interest is the rate of CO₂ leakage from the rain forest to see how the gas is passed in different areas, especially where there gaps due to tree falls.

Meanwhile, back in the U.S., solar-gear maker Xantrex has added a Wi-Fi-based gateway to relay information about solar-panel performance in home installations. An embedded Web server provides information, or it can be retrieved and logged on a networked PC. It seems like the power draw from this device shouldn’t be very high, but it’s not noted.

Copyright ©2008 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.

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In-Flight Calling Launches on Emirates

Tuesday 25 March 2008 @ 9:03 am

Emirates airline says they’re the first commercial airline to allow in-flight calls: An A340 in Emirates fleet is hooked up with Aeromobile’s technology–an on-board picocell–that places calls via satellite backhaul at a hefty rate. The estimate was $2.50 to $3.50 per minute last year, although it depends on the carrier used. Carriers set the ultimate rate; Aeromobile, just the wholesale rate. Text messaging is supported. As with all such systems, flight crew can pull a switch to disable mobile use; and there will be quiet periods, typically at night. Emirates uniquely had existing demand for seat-back phones-Arab News says 7,000 calls per month are made–which makes sense given their demographic. They’ll add GPRS data later in the year.

The BBC article describes Aeromobile’s satellite and picocell kit as “a system which stops mobiles from interfering with a plane’s electronics,” which is mistaken. Rather, a picocell ensures that any potential, not yet seen possibility of out-of-band emissions from mobile devices causing interference would be mitigated, because the picocell allows a cell phone to use the lowest possible signal power.

The system will cost $27m to deploy across the fleet. A second plane, this one a Boeing 777-300, is already retrofitted and will be up and running soon.

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Viewdle Funded by KIT Capital, Partners with ROO

Tuesday 25 March 2008 @ 8:03 am

Viewdle, a startup developing facial recognition technology for video, has received an unspecified amount of funding from KIT Capital. As part of the deal, Viewdle will partner up with ROO, another KIT portfolio company focused on IPTV broadcasting.
The partnership will provide ROO with full and exclusive access to Viewdle’s white label technology. Both companies […]

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The DOJ Finally Realizes That A Sirius/XM Radio Merger Isn’t a Serious Threat to Anyone

Tuesday 25 March 2008 @ 8:03 am

Finally, more than a year after the deal was first announced, the Department of Justice approved the merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio. This deal took longer to review than Google’s DoubleClick acquisition. And it is not over yet. The FCC still has to put its stamp of approval on […]

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Apple’s Software Update on Windows (which … [Safari]

Tuesday 25 March 2008 @ 8:03 am

Apple’s Software Update on Windows (which comes with iTunes) is now automatically including Apple’s Safari browser, even if you didn’t have it installed before. Windows users, how do you like having Safari forced on you? The Mozilla CEO doesn’t like it.

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Linux Ramback: Use a Terabyte of RAM

Tuesday 25 March 2008 @ 8:03 am

An experimental new design for Linux’s virtual memory system would turn a large amount of system RAM into a fast RAM disk with automatic sync to magnetic media. Most servers comes with 2-16 GB ram installed but not with a terabyte of installed memory (for 1TB+ ram go with IBM / Sun E25k server line). There is a new kernel patch called Ramback:

Ramback is a new virtual device with the ability to back a ramdisk by a real disk, obtaining the performance level of a ramdisk but with the data durability of a hard disk. To work this magic, ramback needs a little help from a UPS. In a typical test, ramback reduced a 25 second file operation to under one second including sync. Even greater gains are possible for seek-intensive applications. The difference between ramback and an ordinary ramdisk is: when the machine powers down the data does not vanish because it is continuously saved to backing store. When line power returns, the backing store repopulates the ramdisk while allowing application io to proceed concurrently. Once fully populated, a little green light winks on and file operations once again run at ramdisk speed.

However, this solution depends upon UPS:

If line power goes out while ramback is running, the UPS kicks in and a power management script switches the driver from writeback to writethrough mode. Ramback proceeds to save all remaining dirty data while forcing each new application write through to backing store immediately.