Well, we just got ourself a new feature! With Meshcentral.com, you can access the command prompt of any Windows, Mac OSX and Linux computers from our web based terminal. Works in any browser. It's useful when you need to do advanced operations. It's especially useful for Linux machines where the command prompt is really powerful. So, the new feature is that you can now drag & drop a text document, up to 10k in length into the terminal and the text will be "typed" into the terminal window just like if you typed it on the keyboard. You can how have a bunch of script files ready to go and, when you need them, just drap and drop on the terminal to save you a lot of typing!

This feature working in FireFox, Chrome and Safari. It should work in IE10 when that comes out, but for right now, no IE support.

Enjoy!
Ylian
meshcentral.com

For beginning  Android game developers, it is very common that they get lost  frequently and do not know where to  start and get their hands wet. Especially when they get problems that they can not resolve by themself, and be jealous about the free game engine  such as Cocos2d-iphone  that iphone developers have. Some start to complain that game development on Android platform is too difficult, and not even a decent game engine is handy to use.  Some even think that  using the Java language to develop games has lower ROI.

In fact,  in the real world, as Android is becoming possibily the only strong competitor against Apple IOS or even pass it,  there are for sure a lot resource that are available to Android developers, including quite a lot of Game Engines. Here I will introcude  the eight common Android game engines for Android game developers (Notes: fee based, low downloads counts, Not Open Sourced and the game engines that  I personally do not know (-_-) are not included here.).

1  Angle

Angle is a specifically designed for the Android platform, agile and suitable for the rapid development of 2D game engine based on OpenGL ES technology development. The engine are written in Java code, and you can replace the inside to achieve according to your needs. The drawback is that there are not enough documentations, and the codes available for download contains limited  sample tutorials.

The minimum operating environment requirements is unknown.

Project Address: http://code.google.com/p/angle/

2  Rokon

Rokon a the Android 2D game engine developed based on  OpenGL ES technology, the physics engine is the Box2D-, and therefore able to achieve some of the more complex physical effects.  The latest version is 2.0.3 (09/07/10). Overall, the biggest advantages of this engine is that  its development documentation is complete and comprehensive. And the author of the project responds to bug report and feedbacks quickly and provid fixs and solution. As a result, this framework is currently the most widely used, and lots of developers call it it called it iPhone version of Cocos2d  (logic, and coding style, did looks very similiar). Several Android Game framework are developed based on this frame (fee based, membership download only) . So we do not stereotype the claims that Fee-based engines are good good, open sourced and free are bad.

The minimum operating environment requirements for the Android 1.5.

Project Address: http://code.google.com/p/rokon/

3  LGame

LGame is a  Java game engine developed by China Android developers. It has two version: Android and PC (J2SE), the highest version is  0.2.6 (31/07/10). The underlying graphics LGrpaphics packaged with   Graphics API provided by J2SE and J2ME (PC version uses the Graphics2D package, the Android version of Canvas emulation for rendering). As a result, developer can directly apply J2SE or J2ME development experience . The Android version has built-in Admob interface,  and there is not need to configure the XML befort you directly hard-code Admob advertising information.

In addition to the basic sound, graphics, physics, Wizard and other common components of the engine, it alos has built-in IoC, xml, http, and other commonly used Java components package. The drawback is that   the jar size is relatively big, the PC version jar size has exceeded 1.2MB, while the Android version is around 500KB. In addition, the engine is also built-in  the J2ME Wizard class and related components that support 1:1 rending, the vast majority of J2ME games can be ported to Android or PC version. The only shortfall is that the author of the project is a very lazy guy, development documentation promised last year still not complete, and only  game example is available  for download.

The minimum operating environment requirements for the Android 1.1.

Project Address: http://code.google.com/p/loon-simple/

4  AndEngine

andengine is also an OpenGL ES technology-based Android game engine, physics engine is the same as the Box2D (standard III). The framwork is average on performance, and lack of development documentation. However, it has a lot of code  examples.

Download (no jar download, source code can be extracted using svn): http://code.google.com/p/andengine/

The minimum operating environment requirements is unknown.

Project Address: http://code.google.com/p/rokon/

5 libgdx

Libgdx is a game engine developed using OpenGL ES technology, and support 2d Game development for Android platform, the rendering was done by physical engine using Box2D. From the perspective of performance, it is a very power game engine for Android, the drawback is that the Wizard and other relate componments are  not simple enough and user friendly, and documentations are also underdeveloped.

The minimum operating environment requirements is unknown.

Project Address: http://code.google.com/p/libgdx/

6 jPCT

jPCT is a standard based on OpenGL technology development, 3D graphics engine (PC environment for the OpenGL, Android OpenGL ES), based on the Java language, has a powerful Java 3D solutions. The engine and LGame (This is a 2D game engine) is similar to, with a PC (J2SE) and Android two development versions.

jPCT of one of the biggest advantage is its amazing backwards compatibility. In the PC environment, jPCT can even run in the JVM1.1 environment, because the graphics rendering jPCT internal interfaces fully comply with all the Java 1.1 specification (and even the Microsoft VM has disappeared, even the old Netscape 4 the VM is no exception ).

The minimum operating environment requirements for the Android 1.5.

Project Address: http://www.jpct.net/jpct-ae/

7 Alien3d

Alien3d is a very small volume Android 3D game engine based on OpenGL ES technology development. In order to compress the volume, according to different functions using a multi-jar release (to include alien3d-engine.jar the alien3d-tiled.jar the alien3d-sprites.jar the alien3d-shapes.jar alien3d-particles2d.jar), in fact, it The core file is only about 40KB, the sum of all the relevant jar is less than 150KB.

The minimum operating environment requirements for the Android 1.5.

Project Address: http://code.google.com/p/alien3d/

8 Catcake

Catcake is a cross-platform Java 3D graphics engine, support for the PC (J2SE) and the Android environment running (has been the iPhone version of Planning). All the outstanding performance of the engine in the ease of use and operational performance, support for game development, such as wizard animation, audio processing and video playback.

The minimum operating environment requirements for the Android 1.6.

Project Address: http://code.google.com/p/catcake/

Today at Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in Brazil, Intel announced that the Intel® Software Partner Program and four Intel® Software Network developer communities are launching in Portuguese. The Intel Software Network provides hundreds of technical documents and guidance on how to maximize software performance on Intel® architecture. The Intel® Software Partner Program helps companies develop and market commercial applications optimized for Intel® technologies.

Each community has a local community manager who will work with developers across the country to help build best-in-class solutions and end-user experiences.

• George Silva: Community manager for Ultrabook™, Consumer Client, and Android* Developer Communities
• Jomar Silva: Intel® vPro™ Developer Community
• Luciano Palma: Server Community and Parallel Programming Developer Community

Opportunities for Brazilian Software Companies to Partner with Intel
The Intel Software Partner Program will provide local marketing and sales support to drive campaigns with Brazil’s 300,000+ independent software vendors and 73,000+ software and services companies. Launching the program in Portuguese is an important step to connecting with Brazilian software companies for these new campaigns.

Future Investments in Brazil
Intel’s software programs are focused on building strong businesses through best-of-class products. In 2012, Intel will grow its in-country foot print as well as its corporate support teams to drive programs with universities and technology parks.

Intel® Secure Key, was previously code-named Bull Mountain Technology. It is the Intel name for the Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures instruction RDRAND and its underlying Digital Random Number Generator (DRNG) hardware implementation. Among other things, the DRNG using the RDRAND instruction is useful for generating high-quality keys for cryptographic protocols.

The Bull Mountain Software Implementation Guide has been renamed: (here is a brief summary of the guide)

The Digital Random Number Generator Software Implementation Guide is intended to provide a complete source of technical information on RDRAND usage, including code examples. Included in this document are the following additional sections:

Section 2 of the Guide contains the following information: Random Number Generator (RNG) Basics and Introduction to the DRNG. This section describes the nature of an RNG and its pseudo- (PRNG) and true- (TRNG) implementation variants, including modern cascade construction RNGs. We then present the DRNG's position within this broader taxonomy.

Section 3 provides a DRNG Overview. In this section, we provide a technical overview of the DRNG, including its component architecture, robustness features, manner of access, performance, and power requirements.

Section 4 shows RDRAND Instruction Usage. This section provides reference information on the RDRAND instruction and code examples showing its use. This includes RDRAND platform support verification and suggestions on DRNG-based libraries.

The document is designed to serve a variety of readers. Programmers who already understand the nature of RNGs may refer directly to section 4 for RDRAND instruction reference and code examples. RNG newcomers who need some review of concepts to understand the nature and significance of the DRNG can refer to section 2. Nearly all users will want to look at section 3 which provides a technical overview of the DRNG.

Download the Intel® Digital Random Number Generator (DRNG) Software Implementation Guide.

We're excited to be part of this years HTML5 Conference in San Francisco. Although its only one day we want to make the best of it.

So come meet and hang with the Intel team you just might walk away with a shiny new Ultrabook ;-)

Come by the Intel table from 9-5pm:
Test drive an Ultrabook, check out our HTML5 tools for packaging and monetizing apps via AppUp, learn more about our developer program and enter our drawing for an brand new Ultrabook.

Attend our HTML5 Session: Using QR Codes and HTML5 on Ultrabooks™
Room & Time TBD
This session is a technical introduction to QR codes and how you can use them in your HTML5 applications. We'll also demonstrate several tools that Intel is creating to enable HTML5 developers to rapidly build and sell applications thru the Intel® AppUpSM center. Then Adam Chromicz from hotstudio.com will talk about how they moved StoryPlay, a graphically intense HTML5 application, to the Ultrabook™.

Connect with us at the Casual Mixer @ 5pm
Our technical engineers and community managers will be hanging out during the cocktail mixer and want to learn more about your apps and how you would like to see our program support HTML5.

For more information on this event, check out the official event site: http://html5devconf.com. Also learn more about developing apps for Ultrabooks from our Ultrabook Community.

See ya there :-)

You can find the updated sample here.

The changes, listed below, are detailed in this pdf.

1. Added optimization for temporal anti-aliasing (TAA) when using motion blur, which decreases the time this pass takes by approximately 40%.
2. Corrected the velocity scale factor so that if the pixel in the last frame was 1 pixel away it is attenuated by 1⁄2. Previously a constant scale factor was used, which was chosen for the default resolution.
3. Added a zoom box for viewing scaled portions of the screen.
4. Added a basic TAA mode that does no velocity scaling so any ghosting issues can be found.
5. Improved pause mode that correctly renders the previous and current frames to show TAA artifacts clearly in basic mode.
6. Added a motion blur toggle so that the effect of motion blur and TAA can be properly considered.
7. Added a symmetric TAA toggle.
8. Changed pause key from Space to P.

One of the big features of Meshcentral.com is it's remote file manager. Being able to manage, upload and download files using any web browser is pretty powerful. Today, we improved this feature a lot by adding drag & drop support. You can now take one or more files from a folder on your local computer and drag & drop them into the web browser. The selected files will then be uploaded one by one to the target computer. This feature is especialy nice since, in the past, you could only select one file to upload at a time. This is the first time you can drag a bunch of them all at once. Note that this feature works in: FireFox, Chrome and Safari. It does not yet work in Internet Explorer.

Now, I can't take all the credit for this feature, my new summer intern Sathvik just got started on Monday and this is this first feature to make it on the site.

All in all, this makes easier than ever to remotely access your files remotely and over the web. I hear lots of stories of people that use this feature to access home files while traveling.

Update (5/12/2012): When you use the "upload" button you can now select multiple files and all files will be uploaded at once. Just put in the feature now.

Enjoy!
Ylian
meshcentral.com

For decades, smart programmers have used both in their applications, using C where it made sense and Fortran where that made sense. This was made easier by vendor-specific extensions to Fortran that dealt with things such as case-sensitive names and pass-by-value. Extensions such as %VAL and LOC have become so ingrained into the Fortran culture that many are astonished to find that they are non-standard.

Fortran 2003 added a whole class of features for “C interoperability” to the standard, finally enabling mixed-language programming in a reasonably portable manner. I am not aware of any other major programming language standard that has extended a hand in this manner. While many Fortran programmers have warmly embraced the new features, there’s still a lot of confusion about them, and I thought it was time to try to explain the new landscape.

This is a big topic, so I am going to split it up across several posts.

Interoper-what?

First, some definitions.  The Fortran standard talks about interoperability with a “companion C processor”. (In Fortran-speak, “processor” means something that understands and runs code written in the language. For the most part, you can substitute “compiler”, but keep in mind that the compiler operates in an OS and CPU environment that may affect its behavior.) Each Fortran implementation is free to choose which C is its “companion”.  For Intel Fortran, that is Microsoft Visual C++ on Windows, and gcc on Linux and OS X. What about Intel C++?  That is also compatible with Visual C++ on Windows and gcc on Linux and OS X, so Intel Fortran will also interoperate with Intel C++.

Note that the standard says “companion C processor”, not “companion C++ processor”.  In particular, the standard references the C99 standard, or ISO/IEC 9899:1999 to be specific. The companion processors may also build C++ code, but standard interoperability assumes C. You can use C++, but must stick to what is compatible with C when interoperating with Fortran.

What is meant by “interoperability” here? F2008 says it thusly: “Fortran provides a means of referencing procedures that are defined by means of the C programming language or procedures that can be described by C prototypes…, even if they are not actually defined by means of C. Conversely, there is a means of specifying that a procedure defined by a Fortran subprogram can be referenced by a function defined by means of C. In addition, there is a means of defining global variables that are associated with C variables whose names have external linkage.”  To this, I will add that there are also means to declare Fortran variables, data structures and enumerations that correspond to similar declarations in C.

Fortran provides four major “tools” for enabling interoperability with C.  These are:

• Restrictions on which Fortran types are considered interoperable
• The BIND(C) language-binding-spec
• The ISO_C_BINDING intrinsic module
• The VALUE attribute

I frequently see people refer to all of the interoperability tools as “ISO_C_BINDING”, but this is not correct; one can use the interoperability features without using the module.

Interoperable data types

The core concept of interoperability is that something should work the same way in Fortran as it does in C. While Fortran and C each support many of the same basic data types, not everything translates cleanly.

One difference is that Fortran has the concept of “kinds”, whereas C considers these somewhat distinct types. For example, consider the Fortran INTEGER type.  C has numerous integer types, from short int to long long int, and some specialty types such as intptr_t. These may or may not have corresponding kinds in Fortran.  For each of the C integer types which might be interoperable, ISO_C_BINDING declares a named constant (PARAMETER) giving the kind number for the implementation’s equivalent INTEGER kind.

For example, there’s the simple C int type.  This corresponds to INTEGER(C_INT), where C_INT is defined in ISO_C_BINDING.  In Intel Fortran, the value is always 4, as a C int corresponds with Fortran INTEGER(4), but some other Fortran may use different kind numbers.  Using the named constant ensures portability.

More interesting is the C intptr_t type.  This is an integer that is large enough to hold a pointer (address). In Intel Fortran, this would be INTEGER(4) when building a 32-bit application and INTEGER(8) for a 64-bit application.  Intel Fortran provides different copies of ISO_C_BINDING for various platforms so you always get the right one.

Note that Fortran has no unsigned integer types, so there are no constants for C’s unsigned types. Such types are not interoperable.

You might wonder what happens if there is a “kind” of C type not supported by the Fortran implementation. The answer is that the named constant for that type is defined as -1, so you’ll get a compile-time error if you try to use it. We’ll see a use of this shortly.

Similarly, there are constants defined for REAL, COMPLEX, LOGICAL and CHARACTER.   For REAL, the standard offers the possibility of a C long double type. This is implemented in different ways by various C compilers on various platforms supported by Intel Fortran.  In gcc on 32-bit Linux, long double is an 80-bit floating type, as supported by the X87 instruction set.  Intel Fortran doesn’t support this, so there, C_LONG_DOUBLE is -1. gcc on OS X, however, defines it as a 128-bit type that is the same as Intel Fortran’s REAL(16), so C_LONG_DOUBLE is 16 there.  And on 64-bit Linux, or on Windows, long double is treated the same as double, so C_LONG_DOUBLE is 8.  As long as you use the constants for kind values and the corresponding types in C, you’ll match.

LOGICAL and CHARACTER need special treatment when it comes to interoperability.  The Fortran standard says that LOGICAL corresponds to C’s _Bool type, and defines a single kind value C_BOOL, which is 1 in Intel Fortran. But Intel Fortran, by default, tests LOGICALs for true/false differently than C does.  Where C uses zero for false and not-zero for true, Intel Fortran defaults to treating even values as false and odd values as true. If you are going to use LOGICAL types to interoperate with C, be sure to specify the –fpscomp logicals (/fpscomp:logicals) option, which changes the interpretation to be C-like.  This is included if you use –standard-semantics (/standard-semantics) – I recommend using this option any time you use Fortran 2003 (or later) features.

Now we come to CHARACTER. C does not have character strings, at least not in the way Fortran does.  Really.  It has arrays of single characters, so this is how you must represent things in Fortran.  There is a kind value defined, C_CHAR, corresponding to the C char type. But only length 1 character variables are interoperable.  I’ll talk more about that when I come to procedure arguments, but just know that it is not as dire a situation as you might think.

Derived types can also be interoperable, and that will be discussed next time when I talk about BIND(C).

There are other restrictions on interoperable variables. Scalar variables are interoperable only if their type parameters (kind and length) are interoperable (see above), they are not a Coarray, do not have the POINTER or ALLOCATABLE attribute (this may change in the future, I’ll talk about that in another post), and if character its length is not assumed nor defined by a non-constant expression. (Wait, I thought you said only length 1 was interoperable!  Patience, grasshopper…)

Arrays are interoperable if the base type meets the scalar variable requirements above, if it is explicit shape or assumed-size, and is not zero-sized. Furthermore, assumed-size arrays are interoperable only with C arrays that have no size specified. There are some additional rules on rank, in particular, C arrays with rank greater than 1 are not interoperable because they are “arrays of arrays”.

To be continued…

The next post will be dedicated to BIND(C), in all its manifestations.  “C” you then!

Intel Developer Forum (IDF) is coming to Brazil for the first time in Intel history!

We're partnering with members of the Intel® Software Partner Program in our booth and sessions, and we're extremely excited to meet other software developers and ISVs in Brazil. If you’re not attending in person, we’ll make sure to keep you updated on the announcements and excitement online in both Portuguese and English. Check out of our upcoming software sessions below and the full IDF Brazil website for full event details.

Next week, we’ll meet the Intel Software team in Brazil, share some exciting news from IDF, and announce some new opportunities for developers to partner with Intel!

Pre-IDF Activity on May 14:

• Gaming roundtable: Intel representatives, CEOs, Software developers, Game Associations, professors and investors will meet to discuss the game industry in Brazil

Intel Software Booth Demos:

• Totvs* & Pixeon* - Success Stories, Intel® Software Partner Program
  Totvs is a leader in emerging markets, one of the largest ISVs in Latin America, and the world's 6th largest ERP developer. Totvs offers a wide variety of vertical solutions for virtually all sizes of companies, allowing growth in different market segments. In the booth, Totvs will showcase how they benefited from partnering with the Intel® Software Partner Program and Intel® Software Network.

  Pixeon, a Brazilian ISV of approximately 50 people, was founded in 2003 and specializes in digital medical imaging. Its solutions provide high quality imaging for diagnosis and speed to generate medical reports (“laudos”), as well as technologies that allow visualization and analysis through the internet using mobile devices. Pixeon joined the Intel Software Partner Program in early 2012. Through the Intel Software Partner Program, Pixeon has made performance improvements that impact user experience and making it better and more productive. Pixeon continues to work with Intel development tools to improve their software and incorporating new technologies into their products.

• McAfee®: Complete Cross-Device Protection
  McAfee offers extensive protection for all your devices to safeguard you wherever you connect. This comprehensive protection is always on, protecting every facet of your digital life. It delivers a worry free online experience from the latest malware protection to keeping your kids away from inappropriate content. Incorporated in McAfee's consumer portfolio is McAfee Mobile Security that will locate, lock, or wipe a lost or stolen device.
• Improve Cloud Efficiency and Manageability with Intel® Intelligent Power Node Manager
  Power takes a large part in Cloud Operation TCO. This demo will show how to take advantage of the Intel® Intelligent Power Node Manager to monitor and control the power cost of your cloud in an intelligent way. In the Cloud System, power and thermal information is retrieved from host servers through Intel® Intelligent Power Node Manager. Based on predefined policy, the Cloud System makes use of the power information both for resource monitoring and power control, as well as intelligent VM scheduling and life-cycle management. The demo also shows the application of this technology in top cloud vendors.
• Intel AppUp(SM) Developer Program
  Get the most out of your PC and Ultrabook™ with apps and digital content from the Intel AppUp(SM) center. Discover how to create apps with the free resources found in the Intel AppUp(SM) Developer Program.
• Intel® Software Network - Developing optimized Windows applications for Intel Platforms
  Learn about performance analysis and how to improve your overall user experience on PC systems. Tutorials and sessions will be given throughout the day. Both Intel and Microsoft* tools will be showcased.
• Using the Yocto Project* Open Source Hob GUI for Embedded Linux OS Image Creation
  See the Hob graphical user interface in action as it’s used to create a personal NAS device on an Intel® Atom™ based platform. Hob is an efficient customization tool which provides several well defined processes to efficiently assist users with varied experience levels to quickly create a Linux OS image using the Yocto Project. This tool will allow those with limited Linux skills to easily generate a target board image, while providing more depth to hackers and experienced Linux users.
• Android* Ice Cream Sandwich Demo Running On An Intel® Z2460™
  This is an Android* Ice Cream Sandwich demo running on an Intel® Z2460™ processor. This demo shows the value added software optimizations done by the Software and Services Group at Intel to improve Dalvik* execution by orders of magnitude, smooth 1080P video playback, best-in-class HTML5, and power optimizations that take advantage of the silicon to provide fast, responsive, all day performance.
• Creating Robust, Scalable, High Performance Software with Intel® Parallel Studio XE
  Intel® Parallel Studio XE Unites Development Tools for Improving Application Performance and Code Robustness For the Latest Generation of Multicore Processors via these Industry-Leading Components: Intel® Parallel Advisor – Threading assistant tool which provides step-by-step proposals for simplifying the transition from serial applications to parallel ones Intel® Composer XE – Optimizing compilers and high-performance libraries for the latest generation of processors Intel® Inspector XE – Powerful thread and memory error checker Intel® VTune™ Amplifier XE – Advanced performance profiler with hotspot and threading analysis

IDF Software Sessions on May 15:

• Rethinking Information Security
  Jose Antunes
  Bruno Domingues
  The security paradigm is changing, just in the last decade the cybercrime growth in a two digits rate year by year. The main reason is the cybercrime motivation, profit, stole of intellectual property and hacktivism. Today, Intel and McAfee, combine software and hardware capability to combat IT security threats, allowing consumers and organizations take full advantage of connected computing experience in a secure way.

• Intel Business Client Solutions: Intel® vPro™ Technology and Intel® Small Business Advantage
  Marcio Paulino
  Edison Rodrigues
  This session will delve into the powerful new 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ vPro™ processor family and the innovations we are delivering for business customers to “compute with confidence” via enhanced security, simplification/automation, and solutions. This session will illustrate how key stakeholders including end users, SI/ITO’s and Channel MSP’s implement solutions based on Intel vPro technology and unlock the full value of the platform. Additionally, this session explores strategies and tactics for winning with the brand new Intel® Small Business Advantage (Intel® SBA) platform in 2012. Intel SBA is a purpose built platform that delivers out-of-the box value to enhance security and productivity and is targeted for the fast growing commercial segment of small businesses that lack a formal IT department.

• Develop Optimized Microsoft* Windows* 7 or Windows 8 Applications on Intel® Platforms
  Miguel Ferreira
  Luciano Palma
  Intel brings you the technology to deliver amazing experiences on Windows* running on a tablet, an Ultrabook™ or a desktop. This session will show how to optimize your current applications for the Windows* platform and how to get ready for building optimized Windows 8 applications with Intel® Software Tools and Technologies. Make your application even more attractive, with better performance, enhanced security and greater graphics experience.
• Cross Platform Development with HTML5
  Eugeni Dodonov
  Jomar Silva
  Developing cross-OS, cross-device applications has been a challenging problem for many years. HTML5 is the key and being an open standard, it is a great choice for interoperability. HTML5 comprises of a set of web standards that enable innovation on web apps, from rich user interfaces through advanced networking, multimedia resources. This session will introduce HTML5 and its new features and cover its role in the next generation of mobile and desktop based apps. Another topic is PhoneGap, an Open Source Software that allows you to author native mobile apps created with HTML5 web technologies using a single codebase and deliver apps for multiple mobile platforms. Included is a demonstration on how to create an HTML5 Applications using PhoneGap and, using PhoneGap Build Services, enable a remote compile and deployment to multiple platforms.
• Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI): Foundation Technology for Next Generation Platforms
  Luis Pollo
  Fadi Zuhayri
  Topics in this session include:
  • UEFI technology overview
  • Latest UEFI specifications news and industry adoption
  • Microsoft* Windows* 8 UEFI requirements
  • Intel® UEFI Development Kit 2010 SR1 features and capabilities for implementing UEFI 2.3.1 specifications
  • UEFI Development and training resources

*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Let's say that someone I follow has a page of “Hardware, You Gotta Have.” If I see a photo of a new Ultrabook™, I might be inclined to click on that photo to get more information from the original website. It is in those traffic clicks where lies the possible advantage of Pinterest to your company. Pinterest is yet another possible way to drive consumers to your website.

Quite frankly, the platform is so new that the jury is still out on whether or not Pinterest is helpful for generating leads. But this is what we know so far: people are flocking to Pinterest and creating all sorts of groups which are then attracting the attention of lots of other people. And when people are interested in something on the internet, that means there is an opportunity to get involved and to get your marketing message heard.

As an example of how a software company effectively uses Pinterest to engage its audience, take a look at Microsoft’s Pinterest page. Not only does this page highlight new apps, software, and some of the latest products and services, but if you look through the “pins,” you’ll also see links to things like “Foods that boost you immune system” and pictures of the Microsoft main campus. This diverse visual combination results in a page that both sells product and gives value to its audience by presenting “nice to know” information right alongside the important marketing information. It all works together in grabbing the potential customer’s attention.

For now, what should your company do about Pinterest?

Set up a page and let your presence be known
When you set up your Pinterest page, you'll be asked to invite others to follow you (usually from your email list) go ahead and invite everyone you think would be interested. Just the fact that you are willing to give Pinterest a try might be enough to get someone interested in your company.

Click here to sign up for Pinterest.
http://pinterest.com/landing/

Don't spend a lot of time on it
I know, I know, it sounds a little counter-intuitive but Pinterest is new and still has some problems, most notably regarding image copyright. For now, set up your account. Do searches and follow those who have similar likes and interests, but resist the urge to spend huge amounts of time creating lots of groups. Like some other Social Media platforms, this could fizzle out fairly quickly. Have everything in place, though, in case it doesn't.

Have outstanding graphics on your site that someone might be inclined to pin
People can't pin your image if there is no image to pin. Not only should you have an outstanding graphic on your landing page but you should put a little “Pin this” tag near the graphic to remind people to pin it. The more people who grab the image, the more people are going to see it and possibly click back to your website.

Use Pinterest to check out who is pinning your site
Pinterest can be used for customer demographics. Do a few searches on your name and your images to see the types of people who may be pinning your company to their pages. Are they who you had hoped would grab the images? If not, do you need to rethink your image and perhaps use another one that might be more attractive to your desired demographic?

A quick way to search on Pinterest is to go to: www.pinterest.com/source/YOURWEBSITE

Find the people on Pinterest who are interested in your field and start following them
Like people share like things, and eventually learn to trust each other. If you follow the people who have an interest in your field, you will establish yourself as a member of that community and soon others in that community will start to follow you.

What have you heard about Pinterest? Do you see the use of collected images drawing traffic to your site? Have you seen good examples of Pinterest accounts highlighting software?

In a sequential program, it is not a big problem since the calculation order is exactly specified so the result is predictable and repeatable. The situation is not so clear in parallel programming.

To make the example parallel, I used the parallel_reduce template function from Intel® Threading Building Blocks (Intel® TBB):

std::vector<float> arr( N, 1.0f/(float)N );
float sum = tbb::parallel_reduce( tbb::blocked_range( arr.begin(), arr.end() ), 0.0f,
    []( const tbb::blocked_range& r, float sum ) {
        return std::accumulate( r.begin(), r.end(), sum );
    },
    std::plus<float>() );
std::cout << sum << std::endl;

As in the examples above, the code calculates the sum of N fractions, but it uses multiple processor cores if available. As it is well known, we face a disappointing fact of different results being possible for different orders of calculations. If we run it 10 times and N=1000 we will get something like this:

0.999991
1
0.999999
0.999996
0.999998
0.999998
0.999998
1
0.999997
0.999998

It’s worth mentioning that the result differs from run to run! In spite of the fact that the developer specifies the calculations – when it is calculated in parallel the order of calculation gets out of control.

On the other hand, it is not as bad as all that. Although the OS operates on threads and fills the application with indeterminism, it is still possible to manage the order of calculations. One of the new features of Intel TBB 4.0 is the parallel_deterministic_reduce template algorithm. The algorithm has the same interface as parallel_reduce except that it does not allow you to specify a partitioner. (For parallel_reduce it is possible to pass a partitioner as the last argument.) We will discuss why this restriction exists later. But for now, let’s replace the parallel_reduce with parallel_deterministic_reduce and look at how the result changes:

std::vector<float> arr( N, 1.0f/(float)N );
float sum = tbb::parallel_deterministic_reduce( tbb::blocked_range( arr.begin(), arr.end() ), 0.0f,
    []( const tbb::blocked_range& r, float sum ) {
        return std::accumulate( r.begin(), r.end(), sum );
    },
    std::plus<float>() );
std::cout << sum << std::endl;

Again run it 10 times:

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

The key point here is that the result is the same from run to run.

The sources of non-determinism in parallel_reduce derive from partitioning and body splitting. Let’s consider each of these subjects:

• Partitioning. The simple_partitioner determines exactly how many and which subranges are created. It splits the iteration range until each subrange is smaller than a given grain size. Thus the behavior only depends on the range size and grain size specified by the developer. However, other types of partitioning in Intel TBB are non-deterministic: to improve performance of the algorithms, range splitting provided by these partitioners depends on run-time stealing events, which we cannot predict.

• Body splitting. For performance reasons parallel_reduce minimizes body copies: it splits the body only when consecutive subranges are processed by different threads. Thus body splitting, like “advanced” partitioning, also depends on non-deterministic task stealing.

The example shows that parallel_reduce is really inapplicable for non-associative operations like floating point arithmetic. To achieve a repeatable result from a reduction with non-associative operations parallel_deterministic_reduce has been developed. From the considerations of partitioning (given above), it follows that only the simple_partitioner can be used for parallel_deterministic_reduce; and thus, no choice of an alternative partitioner is possible. Consequently, parallel_deterministic_reduce always challenges us with choosing an appropriate grain size. And smart body splitting has been disabled for the sake of deterministic behavior, so for each subrange a new body is created. This fact complicates the challenge of grain size selection even more: on the one hand, a small grain size increases the number of body copying and overall overhead, but on the other hand, a big grain size may lead to imbalance and underutilization. Fig. 1 shows the relative performance of parallel_deterministic_reduce (simple_partitioner with various grain sizes) in comparison with parallel_reduce (auto_partitioner with default grain size). An appropriate grain size provides the same performance of parallel_deterministic_reduce as parallel_reduce, - but an incorrectly chosen grain size may lead to significant performance degradation, as shown in Fig.1 at the extremes of the grain size axis.

Fig.1. Comparison of parallel_reduce (auto_partitioner) and parallel_deterministic_reduce (simple_partitioner) on Pi calculation example.

To demonstrate the split-join order behavior of parallel_deterministic_reduce, a small example is given with range [0, 20) and grain size = 5, similar to examples for parallel_reduce in the Intel TBB Reference manual:

A tree of subranges

For each right node a new body is created by the body split constructor. The slash marks (/) in the tree show where the body split is performed. Thus, for the current example the parallel_deterministic_reduce will always produce 4 subranges and 4 different bodies associated with them. Each of these subranges may be executed in parallel. When both children of a node finish, the corresponding bodies are merged: the right child body “added” to the left child body (in our examples via the std::plus<float>() binary function).

To conclude, parallel_deterministic_reduce provides a deterministic number and deterministic sizes of subranges, and it exactly defines which pairs of subranges are merged. It’s important to note that a repeatable result obtained with parallel_deterministic_reduce may still be different from that obtained via serial execution. Moreover, the results may be different for various grain sizes, since range splitting depends on the grain size. Also, the algorithm is not targeted to improve the accuracy of calculations. The exact result of 1 in the above example of fraction sum calculation has been obtained by chance. For other examples the algorithm can cause a decrease in accuracy. Overall, parallel_deterministic_reduce is not a replacement to parallel_reduce but an alternative solution for those who need repeatability.

Search engine optimization, commonly referred to as “SEO,” is the practice of making changes to your website, and improving your website’s authority, to influence your site’s ranking on major search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. When your website appears at the top of search engine result lists for a specific query, you generate targeted traffic to your website or blog.

The concept of search engine optimization can sometimes appear to be nothing short of complex and overwhelming—but it doesn’t have to be. Fundamental best practices associated with search engine optimization (SEO) are easily understood and can be applied regardless of technical knowledge or direct experience with optimizing websites, blogs, or digital assets.

Consider the following SEO fundamentals before starting any search engine optimization program:

1. Know your audience. Before you can optimize your website, you first need to have a good understanding of your target audience. Even though the concept of audience identification or segmentation may seem more akin to general marketing practices, it’s an essential step before starting any SEO campaign. This information is essential for planning your site architecture, URLs, and keyword selection. With a fundamental understanding of your audience, what they buy, and how they research products and services online, you have a much better opportunity to develop, organize, and position your site for relevant keywords and top search engine rankings.

2. Know yourself. What is your company’s unique selling proposition? When browsers see similar results after an initial search, organic listings related to your site should be unique and stand out from your list of competitors. By understanding how to position your company and products properly, you can develop a website to reflect these unique qualities.

3. Begin with the end in mind. Before building your site or updating it to meet the demands of today’s optimization standards, consider your audience, unique value proposition, and website goals. Some websites are designed to be informational, others serve as a place for customers to gain access to information, tools, and resources, and finally, some websites are designed for eCommerce. Regardless of how you choose to develop your site, think through the navigational process of website browsers, prospects, and future customers. The most important information should be easily accessible and organized to lead prospects down the path to purchase.

After you’ve thought through the fundamental aspects of your search engine optimization program, the next step is to begin the journey of website optimization. Although SEO does have a large number of factors to consider, the plan of attack should always begin by focusing on on-page optimization followed by off-page optimization.

On-page optimization is the process of organizing a website and developing it in a manner that allows search engines to easily access the site, find rich, original content that focuses around a particular subject (silos), and create a positive user experience that includes fast load times, ease of use, and social sharing.

Once a site has been built and meets the standard of on-page best practices, it’s time to turn your attention to off-page optimization. Keep in mind, however, that on-page optimization is never truly complete. Updates should be made regularly to reflect changes to the Google algorithm, and new, unique content should also be generated on a regular basis. This includes published content and user-generated content.

Off-page optimization is the practice of developing quality inbound links to your website, blog, and other digital assets. There are dozens of techniques for building quality inbound links, and you should always research and learn which techniques have the greatest impact on organic rankings. The goal of off-page optimization should be the long-term development of links that include keyword phrases you are trying to optimize for.

Search engine optimization is an essential part of any online business or offline business seeking to attract new customers. Consider how your target market gathers information and makes purchases. Once you understand their motivations and preference, it’s time to get serious about SEO.

Myth 1: Software Localization is simply translation
Many executives do not realize the level of effort involved in software localization, dismissing it as simply translation.

For many years now, advances in internet technologies, development tools, authoring tools and platforms, have expanded the use of different file formats and build environments. Software applications and manuals are no longer based only on Microsoft resource files or Word documents. Java, XML, ASP, .NET, RESX, HTML, as well as many other formats, have become standard in many applications and products.

Furthermore, with the continued trend toward the convergence of technologies, companies are marrying software, hardware, mechanics, chemistry, biology and other sciences to develop high-end solutions.

Translators are now expected to understand all these different technologies and file formats, and accurately translate only what is needed, without modifying tags, links or code. If errors are made, a significant amount of debugging time is needed to fix and build the international products.

Localization is both an art and a science. Do not underestimate the efforts needed or short-circuit the process. It takes experienced engineering and translation professionals to properly implement an efficient translation-reuse process and localize your product.

Myth 2: Anyone who knows a second language can perform translation tasks
Would you hire anyone who speaks English to be your Tech Pubs writer, or anyone who knows a computer language to be your programmer? Translators are professionals with years of schooling and translation experience. They earn their living doing translations. Most live in the countries that they are translating for and are natives of the language they translate into. They have an excellent command of the languages they translate from and into to ensure consistent, accurate and timely work. Recruiting amateurs to do translation work, even if they know your product or technology well, will lead to inferior results and product delays.

Myth 3: Lower per-word translation rates reduce costs
In localization, it is often the long-term costs that matter the most. Software, help, docs and other texts related to products are constantly changing. With each product release, the localized material needs to be updated and synchronized with the source. Lower upfront translation costs do not necessarily mean lower long-term costs. The following are key factors that contribute to long-term costs:

1. Process: Is the latest and most efficient translation-reuse process being implemented? If Translation Memory (search-engine and database) tools are not used, updates will be very time consuming and costly.

2. Maintenance costs: Vendors who have lower translation rates may have steep penalties built into fuzzy matches (similar but non-identical matches), repeats and 100% matches. This creates steep overhead costs each time a new revision of your product needs updating.

3. Quality: Although low quality translation will have lower initial costs, the long-term costs are significant. Post-translation changes are very costly, particularly if you have incurred production costs for layout, desktop publishing, quality-assurance, duplication or printing.

4. Ownership: Do you own your translation memories and databases? If you pay for the work, you should own it all.

Myth 4: A language review cycle is not necessary
To the untrained eye, a translated text appears final regardless of the quality or state it is in. Just as you see the value in having your source files edited by a second writer, or your software code reviewed by a second developer, the translated text should also be fully checked by a second translator. In the case of translation, the editing cycle will require not only reading through the translated text, but also verifying it against the source. Many vendors with lower rates, or higher overhead, will cut corners on editing in an effort to turn a profit. They may not ask a second translator to edit the text and instead perform “cursory checks”, which only require the editor to quickly read through the translated text without ensuring that it accurately represents the source. Always ask your translators or translation vendor what level of editing they perform after translation.

Myth 5: The vendor that provides the best translation sample offers the best quality
Asking a localization vendor to provide a translation sample is often mistakenly accepted as a lead method to measure vendors’ quality standards. Although in theory the concept makes sense, in reality, it is far from optimal. First, there are a lot more tasks involved in localization, than simply translation. Second, translation samples are often done by the most qualified translators who may or may not participate in the actual translation, once your project is awarded. If a sample is requested, you need to make sure that:

1. The vendor knows how to manage, parse, prepare, reuse, compile, desktop-publish and QA the required files.

2. The translator translating the sample will be the lead translator on the project.

Since this cannot always be guaranteed due to scheduling or other factors, it is often more reliable to check vendors’ references, experience, reputation and track record.

Request How to Plan and Budget for Localization and Translation Projects?

Nabil Freij is the author of Enabling Globalization and the president, founder, and owner of GlobalVision International, Inc. (www.globalvis.com), a Software Localization and Translation specialist. He is trilingual and holds an MSEE from Brown University and an MBA from Bryant University. Freij has worked for 25 years in the hardware, software, and localization industries. He has traveled the world and lived in five countries. He is frequently published and quoted. Nabil is married and has two children. He currently resides in Palmetto, FL. Mr. Freij can be reached at nabil@globalvis.com . You can read his blog at: http://blog.globalvis.com.

]]>