|
|
Archive for May, 2011
Thursday, May 26th, 2011
 Regardless of which computer publication you are reading, or which family members you’re rubbing shoulders with, the chances are you’ve come across the Stubborn Windows XP User. Now there’s nothing wrong with being a devotee of anything. You name it, you can find a club for it. There’s a club for Canadian Tire Money, for Pete’s sake.
But being a real devotee is different from simply being ignorant and miserly when it comes to your computer, for there comes a time when real problems suddenly jump up and bite you. Microsoft’s Vista and Windows 7 operating systems are a good deal easier to use than XP. That can be a subjective judgment, of course, but you should know that the two newer OS’s are known to be more secure than XP, too. And more stable, and that’s something you ought to consider as you plug away typing a response on the keyboard of your sluggish and dangerous XP computer.
It gets worse. Your RAM for your XP is two generations older than the current RAM in laptops, DDR3. Computing publications always advise you that the best way to improve your performance is to add more RAM. With XP, there’s only so far you can go-two gigabytes of RAM, to be precise. Then, too, if your hard drive fails, would you like to buy a new one and install it yourself? So you get another drive. Now, if you do replace that drive successfully with the kind of drive that will work with your motherboard, your new drive will not be “4K-aware.”
Basically, starting in January of this year, new drives should be shipping with 4K-aware formats. Instead of being divided into 512 byte-sized partitions, the new drives are divided into divisions of about eight times that size. The newer drives will be faster. You’ll be able to cram more on them. They won’t crash as often. Then again, perhaps that’s the least of your worries: your new drive may be incompatible with the old technology in your motherboard.
But if you insist on holding on to that XP laptop, you will have something to worry about that’s far, far worse than a new drive that won’t work: if you don’t buy Windows 7 now (if you are not a Mac or Linux user-and if you’re reading this, you likely aren’t), you’ll probably end up stuck with the disaster that will be called “Windows 8.” What’s going to be wrong with Windows 8? Well, pretty much everything. The interface is as ugly as hell. Unless you really, really like the Office ribbon. That task bar? It’ll be a space-hogging ribbon in Windows 8. Not only that, but the ideas for the platform are to be shared with Microsoft’s OS for phones. Do you really want a tiny phone-OS-like operating system powering your laptop computer with its heavy, obnoxious ribbon?
The real deal-breaker, though, is that Windows 8 is to be released in a 128-bit format. When Vista was released, Microsoft walked into the biggest disaster since, well, since something awful happened somewhere. Nobody was ready for Vista 64-bit machines. (Microsoft still isn’t ready, judging by the disparity in speed between its speedy 32-bit and molasses-slow 64-bit versions of Internet Explorer 9.) If you pass up on Windows 7-a relatively lean OS that is MS’s best Windows OS to date-you’ll have to settle for a worse-than-Vista, confused and confusing Windows 8 when you really do have to buy a new computer.
The question, then, isn’t why to keep Windows XP; it’s what kind of laptop you’re going to buy in the n2ext few months. Quite simply, you can’t afford not to buy one. When you’re zipping along with your DDR3 RAM and your 500GB (minimum!) 4-K aware hard drives running a user-friendly and attractive Windows 7 interface, you’ll be thanking me. Friends, let’s keep that ancient Windows XP for the curators of computing museums.
Source
Posted in Industry Stories | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
 SANTA CLARA, Calif.–CEO Paul Otellini said today that Intel is embarking on a big shift in focus, moving its center of gravity to the most power-efficient devices.
Otellini said that Intel, long the heavyweight in processors for PCs, will move its “center” from the power range–measured in wattage–of mainstream laptops to small mobile devices like ultraportable laptops, smartphones, and tablets, as well as devices such as smart TVs. Otellini was speaking at the Intel investor meeting at the company’s headquarters here.
“We’re shifting from 35-watt to 15-watt…the center is increasingly about ultramobility,” said Otellini. “Every device has to be always on and always connected,” he said. Today, a device with a 15-watt processor is typically an ultrathin laptop like the MacBook Air.
On the power efficiency front, as CNET reported earlier, Intel is developing a 22-nanometer “Silvermont” Atom chip architecture that will be followed by a 14-nanometer design dubbed “Airmont.”
Devices using those chips and more mainstream Intel processors will be always connected, Otellini said, alluding to smartphones.
He also addressed tablets–a hot topic. “We’re on track for 35 designs [tablets]…Android, [Intel's] MeeGo,” he said. “The tablet race is nowhere near finished. It’s not just about tablets but about convertibles [that is, notebook-tablet hybrids]. There’s going to be a lot of experimentation [over the next few years].”
He had less to say about smartphones. “No big announcement from Intel on smartphones today,” he said. “Phones in first part of next year…an area of intense focus for us.” Those phones will be based Intel’s “Medfield” Atom processor.
One industry source familiar with Intel’s smart phone plans, said he had expected Intel to make a smartphone announcement and that the lack of any near-term specifics was “a disappointment.”
Otellini added that Intel is shopping the Nokia smartphone “reference design”–a prototype that Intel uses as a vehicle for new chips–to several customers, after its relationship with the handset maker fell apart because of Nokia’s newly formed partnership with Microsoft.
Intel Executive Vice President David “Dadi” Perlmutter showed two new reference designs. One was a smartphone, the other a 7-inch tablet. Both devices that Perlmutter showed were thin. Though exact dimensions were not disclosed, they were both as thin as the thinnest smartphones and tablets currently on the market.
The challenge for Intel is to get these slick designs converted into real products that consumers want and buy.
Posted in Industry Stories | No Comments »
Monday, May 16th, 2011
 Congratulations to William R. Jenkins, III (Chip), Chief Executive Officer, Director of The First State Bank!
He is the WINNER of a new Apple iPad 2 from the Percento Technologies drawing at the 2011 Texas Bankers Association Annual Meeting – Conference in Austin, texas.
Thank you to everyone who joined our drawing.
Financial Technology Support
Posted in Banking Technology, Cool Technology, Financial, Percento | No Comments »
Thursday, May 12th, 2011
 The White House today sent Congress a proposed cybersecurity law designed to force companies to do more to fend off cyberattacks, a threat that has been reinforced by recent reports about vulnerabilities in systems used in power and water utilities.
This proposal seems designed to prod the legislative branch to enact by the end of the year some variety of cybersecurity legislation, which has been stalled by concerns about privacy, Internet “kill switches,” and overreaching regulation. One proposal from Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.), for instance, would have explicitly given the government the power to “order the disconnection” of specific networks or Web sites.
Details remain hazy — the White House said the actual text won’t be released until this evening — but the proposal seems to veer in a less regulatory direction than some of its predecessors. A summary provided by the administration suggests the plan relies more on mandating disclosures of vulnerabilities, including significant data breaches, than on top-down regulation of the sort that applies to, say, the securities industry.
During a conference call with reporters this morning, administration officials who spoke on background and declined to give their names characterized their proposal as a way to provide the correct incentives for businesses.
But, said a Department of Homeland Security official, if “industry does not come forward” with an “appropriate” standard, the draft legislation would give the government the power to “pick one, to create one, to modify one and choose that one. We believe that won’t be necessary.”
The scope of the department’s regulatory powers is also unclear. While the legislation would generally track existing definitions of what businesses are “critical infrastructure” or not, using criteria such as risk and consequences of an attack, the full extent of the authority “has not been defined yet,” the official said.
Congress has been holding hearings aimed at drafting cybersecurity legislation for at least two years, and the topic has been discussed for nearly a decade. In 2002, for instance, the Bush administration unveiled a cybersecurity plan that was also aimed at influencing members of Congress as they considered related laws. (See CNET’s comparison of some of the proposals from 2003 and 2009.)
Reports of computer intrusions launched by China that purportedly targeted companies in the oil and energy industries have accelerated discussions of what new laws, if any, are necessary. Those intrusions appear to have been done with the purpose of espionage, not sabotage, in mind, akin to experiences of its own that Google disclosed early last year. Meanwhile, the Stuxnet worm illustrated how remote attacks could be performed.
A fact sheet from the White House says the proposal includes national data breach reporting to help in “standardizing” the existing state laws, increased penalties for computer crimes, a focus on “critical infrastructure cybersecurity plans,” and civil liberties protections.
Source
Posted in Percento | No Comments »
Thursday, May 12th, 2011
 Apple, along with Pandora Media and The Weather Channel, have been named in a lawsuit alleging that the companies did not disclose the fact that personal data–specifically location–was being shared with third-party advertising networks.
The suit, filed yesterday in the U.S. District Court in Puerto Rico by Lymaris Rivera Diaz and picked up by The Loop, closely resembles an existing suit from December. That one targeted the same companies as well as other app makers for being able to trace an iPhone or iPad using the unique device identifier, or UDID, which is akin to a serial number in that it cannot be changed.
“Because the UDID is unique to each iPhone and iPad, it is an attractive feature for third-party advertisers looking for a means of reliably tracking a mobile device users’ online activities,” the new suit says. “Because the UDID is not alterable or deletable by a iPhone or iPad user, some have referred to the UDID as a ‘supercookie.’ This description aptly summarizes the desirability of access to the UDID from an advertising perspective.”
The suit takes aim specifically at Apple–as the maker of the device and the mechanism for running and installing applications–for not letting users control access to this piece of user information.
“Unfortunately, however, unlike with browser cookies, Apple does not provide users any way to delete or restrict access to their devices’ UDIDs. Traditional efforts to prevent Internet tracking, such as deleting cookies, have no effect on Apps’ access to an iPhone’s or iPad’s UDID,” it says.
Along with basic user information, the suit also highlights location, specifically the database stored on the device that became a target of interest last month. Apple says this information is used as part of a crowd-sourced database of cell towers and Wi-Fi access points, which lets iOS devices determine their location in a more efficient manner.
Diaz’s complaint focuses on the fact that the location data is stored across backups and between device migrations in an unencrypted format. Apple has since addressed several of those claims as part of a software update that went out to users a week ago and before the suit was filed. Apple has also said that it intends to fully encrypt that database on the device itself in the next major system software update.
The lawsuit seeks class action, and names 10 yet-unnamed defendants the suit says will be “specifically identified and named as discovery progresses and their roles in the wrongdoing at issue is revealed.” It also seeks damages, restitution, and an injunction against Apple for collecting any data attached to UDIDs.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Representatives for Pandora and The Weather Channel declined to comment.
Posted in Percento | No Comments »
Monday, May 9th, 2011
Congratulations to Larry J. Callais, President and Chief Executive Officer of MC Bank!
He is the WINNER of a new Apple iPod-Touch from the Percento Technologies drawing at the 2011 Louisiana Bankers Association Annual Meeting – Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana .
Thank you to everyone who joined our drawing.
Financial Technology Support
Posted in Percento | No Comments »
Saturday, May 7th, 2011
 The IT services market bounced back from the effects of the global recession to record a 3.1 percent increase in revenue to $793 billion last year, from $769 billion in 2009, according to a new report from Gartner.
Released earlier this week, the study revealed that the majority of end-user spending in the market went toward software support, pushing this sector to clock the highest growth at 6.6 percent. Process management and hardware support saw weaker results, where both segments grew at 1 percent less than projected.
Consulting, development, and integration services performed slightly better than expected as organizations that held back on investments began investing again last year, particularly in the second half of 2010, Gartner said.
Source
Global IT Outsourcing Company
Posted in Information Technology Consulting | No Comments »
Thursday, May 5th, 2011
 Percento Technologies is exibiting to the Louisiana Bankers Association 111th Annual Convention & Exposition, open to member and non-member bankers, associate members, exhibitors and sponsors, is being held this week at the The Ritz Carlton in downtown New Orleans.
Hundreds of bank CEOs, directors, executive vice presidents and senior management decision-makers will gather for educational programs, networking events, and an extensive exhibit hall.
Percento is giving away a iPod Touch by drawing, to be held at 5:00 PM Friday afternoon. Winner to be announced here on the Percento Blog.
Posted in Percento | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011
 Cisco launched its Cisco Containerized Data Center on Monday aimed at enterprises that need a quick, flexible, and mobile data center.
The new Containerized Data Center is targeted to network customers who need a fast and flexible way to expand, complement, or replace traditional brick and mortar data centers, Cisco said.
Cisco follows the likes of Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Dell, Microsoft, and Oracle that already offer portable data centers. These mobile data centers are typically 20- to 40-foot containers packed with networking equipment that can easily be transported and modified with different components according to a client’s needs.
“In this modular space and by building the containerized data center, we can differentiate and deploy different systems to different scales and equipment and combinations, so we have the flexibility to create more personalized data centers for customers,” said Brian Koblenz, CTO for modular datacenters at Cisco, in an interview.
Cisco’s Containerized Data Center, the first in a series of modular data center products that Cisco plans to offer, is a 40-foot, ISO-standard steel shipping container with 16 data center racks (eight on each side), each supporting 25 KWh of power. The data center are has a chilled water cooling system situated at the bottom of the container. Other portable data center’s cooling systems are located above the servers, which creates a potential hazard for the equipment if the water leaks, according to Koblenz.
Cisco’s new portable data centers can be used by government and commercial organizations for rapid deployment of mobile computing, disaster recovery, war zones, and support in remote areas, but they are can also be used as a complimentary data center for any organization. Industries Cisco is seeing a demand for these portable data centers include healthcare, oil and gas, education, and various aspects of government including the military.
During the economic downturn, Cisco saw many customers looking for a cost-effective and flexible data storage solution, said Keith Siracuse, manager and product marketing engineer at Cisco.
“To build traditional data center it takes a long time in terms of planning and approval, as well as getting capital for the buildings,” Siracuse said in an interview. “This technology fits a more dynamic market model than the traditional brick and mortar data center and the recent economic downturn pushed folks to look into it more.”
The Cisco container includes the Cisco Data Center Operations 360, which monitors rack temperature and offers real-time monitoring and historical reports for analysis. The software enables users to set the desired temperature range for each rack and it automatically adjusts fan speeds and water flow accordingly.
With power consumption an increasing concern with data centers, Cisco promotes the Containerized Data Center’s power savings compared with more traditional data centers. It’s data center has a power usage efficiency (PUE) of less than 1.25, whereas brick and mortar data centers typically have a PUE of 1.6 to 3.0. The lower the PUE, the more effective power is delivered to IT equipment and at a lower cost.
While Cisco created its portable data center to house its own products, its open platform allows users to utilize other technologies. Once an order is placed for the data center, it takes between 72 to 120 days to implement, Cisco says.
Source
Posted in Industry Stories | 3 Comments »
|
|
