Geek With Laptop

Charles Thacker gets the prestigious Turing Award

Jac — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:05:19 +0000

It’s not often that a hardware expert gets the Turing Award, in fact it has only happened once before, but this year it goes to computer scientist Charles Thacker.

Thacker is currently a researcher with Microsoft but his portfolio extends back to the 1970’s.

He has been accredited with helping to design and build what we now consider to be the first ever modern personal computer. Whilst with Xerox his work led to the development of Alto, which had a screen, and a graphical user interface.

He was the co inventor of the Ethernet technology which is still widely used for networking computers today.

Thacker was involved in developing the early prototypes of desktop work stations and the tablet PC and has 29 patents in computer and networking systems under his belt.

The Turing award is named after Alan M Turing the British Mathematician and is funded by Intel and Google. This “Nobel prize in computing” is awarded to those who have made outstanding contributions to the field of computer science.

“Google is pleased to join in honouring Charles Thacker for his far-reaching role in the birth of one of the most important technologies in the 20th century,” said Alfred Spector, Vice President of Research and Special Initiatives at Google Inc.

“His contributions made possible the style of computing that we enjoy today, and we are proud to be a sponsor of the ACM Turing Award to encourage continued research in computer science, and the related technologies that depend on its continued advancement.”

Past recipients of the award have included Douglas Engelbert in 1997 for future interactive technologies and inventions (computer mouse), Alan Kay in 2003 for ideas the root of object orientated programming languages and Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn in 2004 for Internetworking.

Thacker will receive a $250,000 prize and will attend a special banquet in June but he said he would probably donate the money to the University of California, Berkeley.

On hearing the news “I was flabbergasted” said Thacker in an interview.

“I frankly never expected to get the award, because it wasn’t given to people like me. Most of the people who have gotten the Turing award in the past few years are software people or theoreticians. There are scant few people who have actually built some hardware.”

It’s well deserved Mr Thacker.

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2011 will see biggest hard drive change in decades!

Jac — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:00:26 +0000

There hasn’t been a great deal of news about it so far but soon our hard drives will never be the same again.

At the moment, our hard disc drives are formatted into 512 byte size blocks and have been that way for years but as from the first quarter of next year hard drive suppliers will start shipping hard drives with 4 K disc sizes.

All hard drive suppliers have agreed to adopt the 4 K size by the end of January next year through the International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association (IDEMA).

IDEMA has set up BigSector dot org which is a “consortium of leading storage industry software and hardware companies formed to provide the industry with guidance and support for implementing larger physical sector sizes” says the site.

“Disk drives with larger physical sectors allow enhanced data protection and correction algorithms, which provide increased data reliability.

“Larger physical sectors also enable greater format efficiencies, thereby freeing up space for additional user data. These improvements will result in better user experiences” BigSector explains.

Basically the larger size means we will be able to have bigger hard drives that are more secure, more efficient and more reliable.

Although 512 bytes has been perfectly ok up till now, this size is no longer appropriate when hard drives can hold so much more data than they could before.

“The technology has changed but that fundamental building block of formatting has not” said David Burks, a product marketing manager for storage firm Seagate reported the BBC.

Ok so the larger size sounds great and yes there will be a few teething problems, there always are with new technology. However, one in particular is how the larger hard drive sizes might affect Windows XP users.

Windows XP was released before it was decided to up the block size of hard drives to 4 K so technically isn’t “4 K aware” whereas Windows Vista, Windows 7, X Tiger, Snow Leopard and the Linux kernel released after September 2009 are all 4 K compliant according to the BBC report.

“All other things being equal you will have a noticeable hard drive reduction in performance” said Mr Burks who reckoned it could slow it down by as much as 10 percent.

Those who are building their own computers or swapping a hard drive for one with the new format are apparently the users who are most likely to experience problems.

Britain wants to mandate microchips for man’s best friend

Jay — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:30:31 +0000

Not content with wiring garbage bins to monitor how much waste British families produce, now officials in the U.K. want have another plan that has privacy advocates’ knickers in a twist: They want to force dog owners to microchip their pets and buy insurance in an effort to crack down on canine aggression.

Britain has nearly 8 million dogs. Weapons are tightly controlled in the U.K., which seems to have a problem with dogs trained to inflict harms on people to make up for it.

Making dog owners buy insurance will sanction all of them — even those who are law-abiding citizens — while criminals will continue to do what they do and simply ignore the law.

“But I don’t think it will actually happen,” Big Brother Watch’s Alex Deane wrote on the privacy advocacy group’s website. “You can tax us to high heaven, you can authorise bullying policemen to push us from pillar to post – people in this country just take it. But any man who messes with the great British pet is a fool – they simply won’t manage to enforce this one.”

As for the microchips — a standard method of tracking beloved pets when the become lost — theier compulsory use has the potential to lead to bigger problems than occasional dog attacks.

“While the question of how to reduce the number of stray dogs on Britain’s streets is pressing, this solution is yet another example of the state’s desire to accrue ever more information on its citizens (and their pets),” wrote Big Brother Watch’s Dylan Sharpe. “Databases, such as the one proposed, give countless people in local authorities easy access to very personal data; which is in itself often far more dangerous than the initial problem.”

Windows Mobile 7 makes a clean break

Jac — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:00:55 +0000

Microsoft is making a clean break with their new Windows 7 operating system for mobile phones to such an extent that current applications will not work. Is this level of incompatibility a good thing?

Charlie Kindel who is a member of Microsoft’s Windows 7 development team says it is in order to allow the new operating system, which is due out later this year, to be as user friendly as possible.
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“For us, the cost of going from good to great is a clean break from the past” said Kindel.

“It’s different from what we’ve done in the phone space before and it’s different from other phones” he says.

It’s an ambitious but risky move on Microsoft’s part but then again I suppose if they want to stand out from the crowd and compete on a serious level in the increasingly popular SmartPhone world they have to do something different, which they have, they started from scratch.

“Different is often good. Especially when it’s different for good reasons” said Kindel.

“Windows Phone 7 Series is different because we reset everything we were doing to focus on end user experience. This extends directly to the developer platform.”

“If you are a Silverlight or XNA developer today you’re gonna be really happy” says Kindel.

That may be so but talking about developers, current 6.5 developers will surely be wondering whether they should ditch 6.5 and start developing for Windows Mobile 7 instead.

Microsoft has said they won’t be abandoning Windows Mobile 6.5 and it will remain in their portfolio (who knows for how long) but with a shiny new operating system supposedly just around the corner Windows 6.5 might be considered just a tad outdated will it not?

Anyway, when the new operating system does arrive later this year forget about backwards compatibility there are some real treats in store for users.

Microsoft are planning to offer games that can be played across multiple devices which means you could start your game on your Xbox and then when you have to go out you could continue your game on your Windows Mobile.

Not only that but if you take your laptop with you then you could play it on that too. What we’re talking about here is one single game that can be played on three different systems, on the Xbox, on Windows and on Windows Mobile.

Now that is cool!

Shut up and talk! Technology that enables silent conversations

Jac — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:05:08 +0000

Sounds completely crazy but researchers at an electronics show have been demonstrating technology that will allow you to hold silent conversations on your mobile phone. Really!

The implications of it are pretty cool especially if you are like many others who are fed up of being forced to listen to other people’s mobile phone conversations when out and about.

If you’ve ever had to endure a bus, train or plane trip next to someone who is incessantly chatting on their phone you’ll know what an absolute nightmare it can be.

The idea for the new technology came when Professor Tanja Shultz of the Karsruhe Institute of Technology had to endure such a journey on public transport.

“I was taking the train and the person sitting next to me was constantly chatting and I thought ‘I need to change this’” the professor told BBC News. “We call it silent communication.”

Sounds blissful!

The technology works by measuring the electrical signals produced by our muscles when we talk, a technique known as electromyography.

The beauty of it is we don’t have to actually utter the words audibly for the technology to pick up these signals and use them to produce synthesised speech on another phone.

Basically all you have to do is silently mouth what you want to say and the person you are ‘talking’ to on the other end of the phone gets to hear your words. Ok so it’s not quite the same as hearing your voice but who cares.

A prototype of the technology was recently on display at the CeBIT electronics show in Germany and involved placing a number of electrodes on a user’s face in order to capture the signals.

These signals were then recorded, amplified, transmitted to a laptop via Bluetooth where software then ‘translated’ them into text which was then spoken by a speech synthesiser.

You just knew it wouldn’t be as simple and straightforward as lip reading didn’t you?

It’s still early days but the technology does have massive implications for the future, not just for cutting out annoying chit chat on the train but as Professor Shultz pointed out, for people who have lost their voice through illness or accidents, or for translating foreign languages.

“You could speak in your mother tongue and the text could be translated into another language” she said. “The person that you are communicating with would then hear the synthesised voice in the other language.”

Sounds great!

Londoners – your garbage may be watching you

Jay — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:24:53 +0000

The British government has placed millions of microchips in garbage bins to monitor the volume of waste, leading a privacy advocacy group to say it stinks.

Most of the devices have yet to be activated — as sure sign of their inevitable unpopularity, the group Big Brother Watch says.

The Associated Press recently interviewed its director Dylan Sharpe, who said: “They are waiting for the political climate to change before they start using them” — a reference to possible fines in the future for families that throw away large amounts of trash.

Local government frames it instead as a tool to reward households that reduce waste.

The chips are plugged into the British information grid, which includes widespread closed-circuit cameras and an extensive DNA database. It’s a controversial but effective system for tracking people’s movements that proponents say is vital to counterterrorism efforts, and detractors decry as Orwellian and a “nanny state.”

Blippy brags your credit card purchases for you

Jay — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:54:05 +0000

If you’ve got it, flaunt it.

That’s the philosophy behind Blippy, a Silicon Valley company that lets you automatically share your credit card purchases with the online world. It’s a lot like posting status updates or photos to Facebook, only potentially more revealing about your personal financial resources. You can even sign in using your Facebook or Twitter accounts.

The service also works with online stores like iTunes, Amazon, Netflix, StubHub and GoDaddy. If you sign up, your purchases are displayed — with product images, where applicable — in a constant stream on the Blippy.com homepage.

Blippy was the subject of a monologue recently by Comedy Central TV personality Stephen Colbert. It’s just part of a trend of information overload that has included the geo-social networking service Foursquare, which lets users “check in” and earn points as they visit various locations and was recently shown to be a potential lure for home robbery by the Dutch website PleaseRobMe.

It’s tough to imagine the few people still living off plastic wanting to share their credit card history with the world, so I see this becoming more of a way to catalog their song downloads, movie rentals and concert attendance.

What do you think? Is this too much information — or in this plugged-in world, is there even such a thing as too much information?

Internet Access as a fundamental right

Jac — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:05:20 +0000

A recent survey conducted by GlobeScan for BBC World Service involving more than 27,000 respondents spanning 26 different countries revealed that 87 percent of users think Internet access is a “fundamental right of all people”.

Most of the respondents who had internet access believed that the Internet has had a positive impact on their lives with four out of five saying it had brought them greater freedom. However what about those who haven’t got access?

“The right to communicate cannot be ignored” Dr Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), told BBC News. “We have entered the knowledge society and everyone must have access to participate”.

We know the EU is committed to providing universal access to broadband and a few countries have gone as far as making it a legal right with others planning to do so soon.

The UK is lagging behind somewhat as the government want speeds of at least 2 Mb for everyone in the country by 2012, which is embarrassingly slow as well as too little too late.

There’s no denying that we need the Internet to participate fully in society today, but it also involves costs that not everyone can afford so many people are still excluded and this is a concern for all world leaders.

We mustn’t forget that access to the internet also means we need to purchase a device such as a desktop computer, a laptop, a netbook, or maybe a SmartPhone and not everyone has the means to do so despite the efforts of companies pretending to supply laptops and phones for ‘free’.

Even the Queen has got involved and in her annual Commonwealth Day message she said it “still remains an unaffordable option for too many of our Commonwealth citizens”.

People who have never used a computer or the net will have to get to grips with technology they don’t understand and for some the mere mention of a virus will be enough to scare them off forever.

How do governments ensure we all have Internet access, particularly in rural areas where companies are reluctant to go? This is an ongoing global issue.

There is also the question of whether the internet should be regulated, and if so, to what extent? I mean if Internet access really is a fundamental right then how can they simply decide to disconnect us if we don’t play by the rules?

We’ve come a long way in a short space of time but we still have a long way to go and many challenges to overcome before we see universal internet access across the planet.

Will that day ever come? I find it hard to believe when we still haven’t got universal access to water sorted yet.

Intel offering cash incentives for Atom developers

Jac — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:05:08 +0000

Intel has introduced a range of cash incentives and prizes designed to lure potential application developers to produce apps for their AppUp store which provides applications for Netbooks.

“The netbook has become one of the most popular consumer devices in the market today, but its true potential has been limited by applications that are not optimized for its mobility and smaller screen size” said Intel.

True, Netbooks are already fun and cheap and easy to use but they don’t offer users the same range of applications that a laptop does.

“The Intel Atom Developer Program Million Dollar Development Fund is a fund set up by Intel to address this challenge” said Intel.

“And to help accelerate innovation in software applications for Intel® Atom™ processor-based products, starting with netbooks, and eventually supporting SmartPhones, consumer electronics and more devices”.

You’ve got to admit, with a stash of suitable apps to choose from, Netbooks would offer greater appeal than they do already and they’re planning to produce apps for SmartPhones and other devices too. Cool.

However, the AppUp store has a long way to go before it can join the ranks of say the Apple App Store or the apps available for the Android platform as far as numbers are concerned, AppUp only has around a hundred or so. Still, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of ambition.

Intel has said the fund is available to individual and student developers as well as companies “to support development of groundbreaking applications for the netbook platform”.

So here’s what Intel are offering from what they are calling their “Million Dollar Development Fund”.

The Fast Track 2010 offers potential developers the opportunity to earn $500 if they submit an application before the end of this month. Between the 1st April and 15th April 250 will be chosen to receive the cash.

As part of the Dollars for Downloads 2010 incentive, if you submit an app before the end of this month then again between the 1st April and the 14th April 100 applications will be selected to receive $2 per download. This will last for four months up to a maximum of $5,000 for free apps and $25,000 for paid ones.

The second phase of their Intel Atom Developer Challenge is due to start on 9th March and this will see prizes awarded in multiple categories.

Intel said they will offer even more incentives over the coming months.

Facebook launches payments between friends service

Jac — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:00:17 +0000

Social Networking site Facebook is now offering its users the opportunity to share cash with each other, real cash that is.

You can send and receive small payments via a Facebook application called Buxter and the company behind Buxter that will process the transactions is online payments company ClickandBuy.

Setting it up is easy. If you already have a ClickandBuy account, and millions of people across the globe do, then all you have to do to take advantage of the service is set up your Buxter account on Facebook.

If you don’t have a Click and Buy account then you need to set one up before you can load cash in or out of your Buxter account.

Transactions on the Buxter system are limited to a maximum of 50 euros or less and are free to process between friends although there are small fees (minimum of 2 euros) for transferring money out of Buxter and into your bank.

You can’t make purchases from anywhere though; you will only be able to ‘trade’ with your friends on Facebook.

To send cash to a friend you simply select your friend’s name from a drop down menu and enter the amount you want to send. Easy!

“People share their statuses, their information and their pictures on Facebook so the question is why not share money there too?” said Christian von Hammel-Bonten, senior vice president at ClickandBuy.

He hopes people will use the service to share expenses for things like cinema tickets and restaurant bills or small gifts; it’s not designed for anything more than that.

“We’re not trying to compete with national banking systems. This is not somewhere to pay your gas or rent” he said.

To receive any cash you send to a friend they just have to accept the Buxter application and enter an email address.

That friend will then be free to transfer the money to any of their friends or into their bank account if they wish.

“Buxter is the application that will see Facebook members use the platform not just as a way to stay in touch, but also as a fast, easy and secure way to exchange money or buy and sell products or services” said Charles Fraenkl, chief executive of ClickandBuy.

The only currencies offered by the service at the moment are US dollars and Euros but support for the UK pound will be added in the coming weeks.

It will be interesting to see how many Facebook users end up using it.