Clemson University ecologist Gene Eidson hopes soon to be able to monitor from his computer screen water conditions at any point along the Savannah River as it meanders hundreds of miles from Upstate South Carolina to Jasper County.
He's the lead researcher on the Intelligent River project, which recently created a wireless sensor that can monitor and transmit environmental information, and the corresponding software to make the data available online, in real time.
At roughly the size of a Rubik's cube, the sensor, called a "Mote stack," can collect and transmit myriad data, including temperature, dissolved oxygen and the presence of foreign particles.
"The Mote stack and the software are going to revolutionize the way we monitor the environment," Eidson said.
Clemson already has patented the sensors, software and the buoy system that will hold them in the water. And it's meeting with companies now to explore licensing agreements for producing them commercially.
Researchers currently monitor about 120 miles of the river with an older, slower type of technology, Eidson said. But he hopes that within about two years, the university will replace the older technology with the new wireless model, and will cover the entire expanse of the river. "Our goal, as a team, is to create the first automated river."
The marriage of technology and the natural world allows researchers to communicate with the river, Eidson said. "In reality, you're giving the environment a voice."
And the wireless monitoring techniques potentially are so useful that researchers already are exploring other uses for them including: an Intelligent Farm, where farmers might look to their computer screens to learn which sections of their fields need tending; and an Intelligent Brick, which could monitor the internal conditions of a building.
When the systems are up and running, Eidson said, some of the data will be available free to the public and some will be available only to subscribers.
Brian Sheehan, director of sustainability for the city of Charleston, said a team from Charleston, including employees from the planning and public service departments and members of the city's Green Committee, plans to meet with Eidson later this month to learn more about the technology. A lot of cities are working with companies that supply environmental data, he said. But he likes the idea of working with a public university because it might be more open with the data it collects, he said.
Sheehan said the city hasn't made any commitment to Clemson or any other company for environmental data. But real-time monitoring seems to be "the wave of the future," he said. "There's no end to the usefulness you could get from that kind of system."
Filling the canyon
The technology already is fully operational monitoring the city of Aiken's iconic green parkways.
A hard rain in Aiken used to force massive amounts of stormwater contaminated with oil, dirt, fertilizer, litter and animal waste through one large pipe that was 10 feet in diameter. The water gushed out with such force it at times shot 80 feet through the air before hitting the ground, Eidson said.
Over the past few decades, it carved a canyon 70 feet deep in the Hitchcock Woods. The contaminated stormwater flowed into the Sand River and on to the Savannah River.
Eidson, who's from the Aiken area, and city leaders worked together on a $3.3 million project to both improve the city's drainage systems and install wireless sensors from the Intelligent River project along the parkways to continuously monitor them. "This whole parkway is wireless," he said.
With more porous surfaces on portions of the roads along the parkways and water- collecting indentations called "rain gardens" and "bioswales" in them, much less stormwater drains into the rivers. And the researchers can keep an eye on conditions online, Eidson said.
One day earlier this month, Clemson research specialist Chris Bellamy stood on a spot on the parkway and accessed the conditions of the ground beneath his feet from his android phone.
Eidson said years down the road, the canyon likely will fill in again.
Farms and Bricks
Bellamy spends much of his time on an experimental farm at Clemson's Edisto Research & Education Center in Blackville, about 30 miles outside of Aiken. Researchers there already monitor environmental factors at several spots. But the technology they use requires them to manually download the data. Bellamy hopes soon to begin using some of the wireless technology from the Intelligent River project. "If we had that, you could see this on your computer in Charleston," he said.
The technology has the potential to give farmers information that would enable them to use water and pesticides more efficiently, he said. The result could be better managed, more cost-effective farms.
Eidson said researchers, as a test, also have made a brick with a Mote stack inside and placed it in the air passage of building. He thinks that one day Intelligent Bricks could monitor buildings, including giving early warnings of termites.
He also said systems could be set up to notify users by phone, email or twitter if something was environmentally out of line. "One day this might call you up and tell you the conditions of the Charleston Harbor," Eidson said. "It opens a world we have never had before. Five years ago, we wouldn't have been having this conversation."
By Diane Knich
Apr 30, 2011
Apr 29, 2011
Technology 2011 : Memory Tester :: LRDIMM ,RDIMM Memory Module Burn-In Heater-Box System
Memory Module Tester maker CST Inc, has announced a new test system and test method of significantly reducing the number of DDR3 memory modules which will suffer from ELF (early life failures). “Early Life Failure” describes the malfunction of memory chips long before their expected end of life.
CST inc, calls the new process - "ABT" or “Accelerated Burn-in Technology.” This process is designed for memory modules to be subjected to near "Boiling-point" or the under influence of Heat-Stress in a controlled Heater Box, including bouncing the memory bus voltages during testing.
In memory testing theory, by adding "Heat Stress" and "Bouncing" the supply voltages during memory testing , this process will accelerate and force marginal/weak dram chips to fail very early at the factory before they are shipped to the end-customers. Premature component failure can be described using a “Bath-Tub curve” - see illustrations.( See above)
The "ABT-1000" Heater Box System provides a unique and cost-effective approach to testing memory modules up to 90 Degree C. This compact system is ideal for "bench top" applications and includes an integrated thermal heater box using - Halogen Lamp technology for rapid heat ramp-up and precision temperature control for Heat and Cool down.
The "ABT-1000" Heater box sits right on the top of the Eureka2 , SP3000 or EZ-SPD Programmer and is capable of testing a single module or up to hundreds of DIMM modules per production shift , if the testers is interfaced with CST 's RoboFlex3 Pick and Place Handler System.
The DIMM memory modules are slotted onto Heavy Duty Yamaichi test sockets with CST’s own designed burn-in testing software and user interface. The "ABT-1000" Burn-In Heater Box is able to elevate temperature up to 90 degrees Celsius in a matter of seconds with burn-in time for as short of 15 minutes or for of as long as 24 hours for aging modules.
CST Inc, understands the effectiveness of temperature stressing Dram Memory components with high temperatures and variable voltages, which can result to memory modules that never fails before the End of Life.
The new “ABT-1000" Burn-In Heater Box is targeted for the memory module manufacturers and large memory distributors. It is indeed the lowest cost Burn-in test system and the easiest to use in its class.
An advanced PC software on both the Eureka2 and SP3000 is required for interfacing with a PC via the USB port for controlling the Heater Box. The "ABT-1000" Burn-In Heater Box can be interfaced with CST 's RoboFlex3 Automatic Handler for mass volume production testing.Common applications for use of the system include research and development, product engineering, quality assurance, or for production test.
CST inc, calls the new process - "ABT" or “Accelerated Burn-in Technology.” This process is designed for memory modules to be subjected to near "Boiling-point" or the under influence of Heat-Stress in a controlled Heater Box, including bouncing the memory bus voltages during testing.
In memory testing theory, by adding "Heat Stress" and "Bouncing" the supply voltages during memory testing , this process will accelerate and force marginal/weak dram chips to fail very early at the factory before they are shipped to the end-customers. Premature component failure can be described using a “Bath-Tub curve” - see illustrations.( See above)
The "ABT-1000" Heater Box System provides a unique and cost-effective approach to testing memory modules up to 90 Degree C. This compact system is ideal for "bench top" applications and includes an integrated thermal heater box using - Halogen Lamp technology for rapid heat ramp-up and precision temperature control for Heat and Cool down.
The "ABT-1000" Heater box sits right on the top of the Eureka2 , SP3000 or EZ-SPD Programmer and is capable of testing a single module or up to hundreds of DIMM modules per production shift , if the testers is interfaced with CST 's RoboFlex3 Pick and Place Handler System.
The DIMM memory modules are slotted onto Heavy Duty Yamaichi test sockets with CST’s own designed burn-in testing software and user interface. The "ABT-1000" Burn-In Heater Box is able to elevate temperature up to 90 degrees Celsius in a matter of seconds with burn-in time for as short of 15 minutes or for of as long as 24 hours for aging modules.
CST Inc, understands the effectiveness of temperature stressing Dram Memory components with high temperatures and variable voltages, which can result to memory modules that never fails before the End of Life.
The new “ABT-1000" Burn-In Heater Box is targeted for the memory module manufacturers and large memory distributors. It is indeed the lowest cost Burn-in test system and the easiest to use in its class.
An advanced PC software on both the Eureka2 and SP3000 is required for interfacing with a PC via the USB port for controlling the Heater Box. The "ABT-1000" Burn-In Heater Box can be interfaced with CST 's RoboFlex3 Automatic Handler for mass volume production testing.Common applications for use of the system include research and development, product engineering, quality assurance, or for production test.
Apr 28, 2011
Technology 2011 : How new technology drives health costs!!
Very Important : News From Reuter.
----------------------------------------------
Heart devices known as drug-eluting stents have added as much as $1.57 billion to U.S. health costs since their introduction in 2003, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
The study offers an illustration of how new technology can drive health costs, the researchers said in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Stents, made by companies such as Boston Scientific, Abbott Laboratories, Medtronic Inc and Johnson & Johnson, are wire-mesh coils used to prop open arteries narrowed by fatty deposits called plaque.
Many models release drugs over time that help prevent scar tissue from building up and blocking the artery.
When they were first introduced to the U.S. market, they were approved mostly for use in previously untreated blood vessels, but their use quickly expanded.
Now, according to some estimates, more than half of all drug-eluting stents are used in so-called off-label indications -- uses beyond the scope of their original approval.
Dr. Peter Groeneveld of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and colleagues wanted to see what kind of impact the introduction of a new medical technology such as drug-eluting stents could have on health spending.
They studied data from more than 2,000 people covered by the federal Medicare insurance program for the elderly between 2002 and 2006. The team looked at both direct procedure costs and indirect costs associated with the treatment.
They found that drug-eluting stents may have added $1.57 billion in annual Medicare expenditures.
Dr. Rita Redberg, editor of the journal, called the increase "staggering."
"It is time to clearly define what the value of this extraordinary investment has been in terms of patient benefits and study the harms and determine if we are getting good value for this outlay," she wrote.
Several studies have shown that adding the drug coating to stents helps reduce the need for repeat procedures that were common with earlier, bare metal stents.
The study did not account for increased drug costs, which may have added to the overall increase. Sanofi-Aventis' anti-clotting drug clopidogrel or Plavix is typically prescribed after a stent is implanted to keep patients from developing blood clots.
"This analysis contributes to understanding the cost-increasing effects of technology because the cost effects of drug-eluting stents were measured beyond the price of the new technology itself," the researchers wrote.
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
----------------------------------------------
Heart devices known as drug-eluting stents have added as much as $1.57 billion to U.S. health costs since their introduction in 2003, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
The study offers an illustration of how new technology can drive health costs, the researchers said in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Stents, made by companies such as Boston Scientific, Abbott Laboratories, Medtronic Inc and Johnson & Johnson, are wire-mesh coils used to prop open arteries narrowed by fatty deposits called plaque.
Many models release drugs over time that help prevent scar tissue from building up and blocking the artery.
When they were first introduced to the U.S. market, they were approved mostly for use in previously untreated blood vessels, but their use quickly expanded.
Now, according to some estimates, more than half of all drug-eluting stents are used in so-called off-label indications -- uses beyond the scope of their original approval.
Dr. Peter Groeneveld of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and colleagues wanted to see what kind of impact the introduction of a new medical technology such as drug-eluting stents could have on health spending.
They studied data from more than 2,000 people covered by the federal Medicare insurance program for the elderly between 2002 and 2006. The team looked at both direct procedure costs and indirect costs associated with the treatment.
They found that drug-eluting stents may have added $1.57 billion in annual Medicare expenditures.
Dr. Rita Redberg, editor of the journal, called the increase "staggering."
"It is time to clearly define what the value of this extraordinary investment has been in terms of patient benefits and study the harms and determine if we are getting good value for this outlay," she wrote.
Several studies have shown that adding the drug coating to stents helps reduce the need for repeat procedures that were common with earlier, bare metal stents.
The study did not account for increased drug costs, which may have added to the overall increase. Sanofi-Aventis' anti-clotting drug clopidogrel or Plavix is typically prescribed after a stent is implanted to keep patients from developing blood clots.
"This analysis contributes to understanding the cost-increasing effects of technology because the cost effects of drug-eluting stents were measured beyond the price of the new technology itself," the researchers wrote.
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Technology 2011 : Tokina showcased its TM55Z1038AIPN CCTV camera lens at ISC West 2011
By employing advanced technology with sophisticated handling and better features, Tokina has succeeded in bringing to market high quality and performance camera lenses that break previous concepts.
Tokina makes industrial application lenses for world-famous optical and electronics companies. As CCTV lenses have become complex, Tokina has kept up to date with their demanding requirements. So, you can get the "today" high performance zoom and vari-focal lenses to meet your business needs.
Tokina uses aspherical glass elements in many of its varifocal lenses. Thus, Tokina has succeeded in producing advanced quality and supporting high sensitivity cameras.
Tokina makes industrial application lenses for world-famous optical and electronics companies. As CCTV lenses have become complex, Tokina has kept up to date with their demanding requirements. So, you can get the "today" high performance zoom and vari-focal lenses to meet your business needs.
Tokina uses aspherical glass elements in many of its varifocal lenses. Thus, Tokina has succeeded in producing advanced quality and supporting high sensitivity cameras.
Children Impregnate her Mother - Only In Indonesia - POLEWALI MANDAR
Children Impregnate her Mother
Only they who know the actual event.
Let us not judge them.
But, let this be a warning to us humans.
Shocking news came from a village in Polewali Mandar, West Sulawesi. A mother with eight children are now seven months pregnant.
Reportedly, the father of the baby in the womb it is her eldest son himself.
The father who migrated to Malaysia for five years did not provide a living for his wife and eight children.
Allegedly, the conditions that lead to deviant sexual behavior of custom and religion.
Initially, Rani (40) denied the suspicions of the neighbors. However, a growing belly distended Rani could not hide him disgrace the family. Rani originally reasoned himself raped a young village. Having already made disgrace to himself and his family, Rani confessed to killing the man and pile in center field. However, the reason for Rani did not immediately ease the mistrust of citizens and its neighbors.
Fear of being dragged to the police station for reasons to kill someone, the mother of eight children of this re-make a new excuse. Rani admitted he had knocked a man from Endrekang Regency, South Sulawesi. At that Rani also claim to be raped while working as a laborer in the rice harvest in Enrekang.
Residents and local village government officials also urged Rani for a man who had impregnated herself responsible for the fetus in kandugannya. As a result, several weeks later Rani came with a man who claimed to be the father of the child in her womb. This is indicated by a letter from KUA Enrekang marriage complete with photographs of both. Suspicions were redah citizens at the time.
Having had subsided more than five months, residents and neighbors Rani back suspicious. This stems from the recognition of one of his child victims as young as four years. Child victim told her mother's relatives and neighbors if Emang, his eldest brother, had long been sharing a room.
The story is tilted back into the gossip of the neighbors and residents sekampungnya. Some residents also urged the local hamlet and village officials to clarify the news was bad.
After a long interrogation in a row of village officials, Rani finally admitted if the seven-month old fetus in her womb is an act Emang, her eldest son.
The recognition that not only makes the sensation of the neighbors. Local village officials had heard the narrative as if struck by lightning Rani.
The story is told by the local hamlet village head, Sulaiman, on Wednesday (4/28/2011), who claims to have time to panic because of the imagined risk of maternal and child behavior was later after the story is widespread recognition.
"I and other village officials were puzzled to find a solution. This is not a problem of young people impregnate his girlfriend, a simple solution, but this child impregnate the mother, "said Sulaiman.
The narrative also recognized Emang surprisingly, the oldest son who had been working as a construction worker who support their families.
When village officials were consulted to find a solution to this unofficial partner, suddenly Rani and Emang disappeared from home and hometown. Rani disappeared last Friday afternoon, while Emang left home and her sisters since Saturday morning.
Rani seven children who on average are still small now live scattered in a number of his relatives who are willing to hold them.
Village chief suspect Rani and Emang panic and anxiety due to fear of a target batty relatives of citizens and neighbors who feel they have polluted the act of their homeland.
However, Rani recognition is not necessarily true. Although his eldest son had been admitted, it is not impossible that the denial be Rani same as two previous cases.
Only they who know the actual event.
Let us not judge them.
But, let this be a warning to us humans.
Shocking news came from a village in Polewali Mandar, West Sulawesi. A mother with eight children are now seven months pregnant.
Reportedly, the father of the baby in the womb it is her eldest son himself.
The father who migrated to Malaysia for five years did not provide a living for his wife and eight children.
Allegedly, the conditions that lead to deviant sexual behavior of custom and religion.
Initially, Rani (40) denied the suspicions of the neighbors. However, a growing belly distended Rani could not hide him disgrace the family. Rani originally reasoned himself raped a young village. Having already made disgrace to himself and his family, Rani confessed to killing the man and pile in center field. However, the reason for Rani did not immediately ease the mistrust of citizens and its neighbors.
Fear of being dragged to the police station for reasons to kill someone, the mother of eight children of this re-make a new excuse. Rani admitted he had knocked a man from Endrekang Regency, South Sulawesi. At that Rani also claim to be raped while working as a laborer in the rice harvest in Enrekang.
Residents and local village government officials also urged Rani for a man who had impregnated herself responsible for the fetus in kandugannya. As a result, several weeks later Rani came with a man who claimed to be the father of the child in her womb. This is indicated by a letter from KUA Enrekang marriage complete with photographs of both. Suspicions were redah citizens at the time.
Having had subsided more than five months, residents and neighbors Rani back suspicious. This stems from the recognition of one of his child victims as young as four years. Child victim told her mother's relatives and neighbors if Emang, his eldest brother, had long been sharing a room.
The story is tilted back into the gossip of the neighbors and residents sekampungnya. Some residents also urged the local hamlet and village officials to clarify the news was bad.
After a long interrogation in a row of village officials, Rani finally admitted if the seven-month old fetus in her womb is an act Emang, her eldest son.
The recognition that not only makes the sensation of the neighbors. Local village officials had heard the narrative as if struck by lightning Rani.
The story is told by the local hamlet village head, Sulaiman, on Wednesday (4/28/2011), who claims to have time to panic because of the imagined risk of maternal and child behavior was later after the story is widespread recognition.
"I and other village officials were puzzled to find a solution. This is not a problem of young people impregnate his girlfriend, a simple solution, but this child impregnate the mother, "said Sulaiman.
The narrative also recognized Emang surprisingly, the oldest son who had been working as a construction worker who support their families.
When village officials were consulted to find a solution to this unofficial partner, suddenly Rani and Emang disappeared from home and hometown. Rani disappeared last Friday afternoon, while Emang left home and her sisters since Saturday morning.
Rani seven children who on average are still small now live scattered in a number of his relatives who are willing to hold them.
Village chief suspect Rani and Emang panic and anxiety due to fear of a target batty relatives of citizens and neighbors who feel they have polluted the act of their homeland.
However, Rani recognition is not necessarily true. Although his eldest son had been admitted, it is not impossible that the denial be Rani same as two previous cases.
Technology 2011 : Strategic Technologies for 2011
Gartner, Inc. today highlighted the top 10 technologies and trends that will be strategic for most organizations in 2011. The analysts presented their findings during Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, being held here through October 21.
Gartner defines a strategic technology as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt.
A strategic technology may be an existing technology that has matured and/or become suitable for a wider range of uses. It may also be an emerging technology that offers an opportunity for strategic business advantage for early adopters or with potential for significant market disruption in the next five years. As such, these technologies impact the organization's long-term plans, programs and initiatives.
“Companies should factor these top 10 technologies in their strategic planning process by asking key questions and making deliberate decisions about them during the next two years,” said David Cearley, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.
“Sometimes the decision will be to do nothing with a particular technology,” said Carl Claunch, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “In other cases, it will be to continue investing in the technology at the current rate. In still other cases, the decision may be to test or more aggressively deploy the technology.”
10 strategic technologies for 2011 include:
Social Communications and Collaboration.
Social media can be divided into: (1) Social networking —social profile management products, such as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and Friendster as well as social networking analysis (SNA) technologies that employ algorithms to understand and utilize human relationships for the discovery of people and expertise. (2) Social collaboration —technologies, such as wikis, blogs, instant messaging, collaborative office, and crowdsourcing. (3) Social publishing —technologies that assist communities in pooling individual content into a usable and community accessible content repository such as YouTube and flickr. (4) Social feedback - gaining feedback and opinion from the community on specific items as witnessed on YouTube, flickr, Digg, Del.icio.us, and Amazon. Gartner predicts that by 2016, social technologies will be integrated with most business applications. Companies should bring together their social CRM, internal communications and collaboration, and public social site initiatives into a coordinated strategy.
Cloud Computing.
Cloud computing services exist along a spectrum from open public to closed private. The next three years will see the delivery of a range of cloud service approaches that fall between these two extremes. Vendors will offer packaged private cloud implementations that deliver the vendor's public cloud service technologies (software and/or hardware) and methodologies (i.e., best practices to build and run the service) in a form that can be implemented inside the consumer's enterprise. Many will also offer management services to remotely manage the cloud service implementation. Gartner expects large enterprises to have a dynamic sourcing team in place by 2012 that is responsible for ongoing cloudsourcing decisions and management.
Fabric-Based Infrastructure and Computers.
A fabric-based computer is a modular form of computing where a system can be aggregated from separate building-block modules connected over a fabric or switched backplane. In its basic form, a fabric-based computer comprises a separate processor, memory, I/O, and offload modules (GPU, NPU, etc.) that are connected to a switched interconnect and, importantly, the software required to configure and manage the resulting system(s). The fabric-based infrastructure (FBI) model abstracts physical resources — processor cores, network bandwidth and links and storage — into pools of resources that are managed by the Fabric Resource Pool Manager (FRPM), software functionality. The FRPM in turn is driven by the Real Time Infrastructure (RTI) Service Governor software component. An FBI can be supplied by a single vendor or by a group of vendors working closely together, or by an integrator — internal or external.
Mobile Applications and Media Tablets.
Gartner estimates that by the end of 2010, 1.2 billion people will carry handsets capable of rich, mobile commerce providing an ideal environment for the convergence of mobility and the Web. Mobile devices are becoming computers in their own right, with an astounding amount of processing ability and bandwidth. There are already hundreds of thousands of applications for platforms like the Apple iPhone, in spite of the limited market (only for the one platform) and need for unique coding.
The quality of the experience of applications on these devices, which can apply location, motion and other context in their behavior, is leading customers to interact with companies preferentially through mobile devices. This has lead to a race to push out applications as a competitive tool to improve relationships and gain advantage over competitors whose interfaces are purely browser-based.
Video.
Video is not a new media form, but its use as a standard media type used in non-media companies is expanding rapidly. Technology trends in digital photography, consumer electronics, the web, social software, unified communications, digital and Internet-based television and mobile computing are all reaching critical tipping points that bring video into the mainstream. Over the next three years Gartner believes that video will become a commonplace content type and interaction model for most users, and by 2013, more than 25 percent of the content that workers see in a day will be dominated by pictures, video or audio.
Next Generation Analytics.
Increasing compute capabilities of computers including mobile devices along with improving connectivity are enabling a shift in how businesses support operational decisions. It is becoming possible to run simulations or models to predict the future outcome, rather than to simply provide backward looking data about past interactions, and to do these predictions in real-time to support each individual business action. While this may require significant changes to existing operational and business intelligence infrastructure, the potential exists to unlock significant improvements in business results and other success rates.
Social Analytics.
Social analytics describes the process of measuring, analyzing and interpreting the results of interactions and associations among people, topics and ideas. These interactions may occur on social software applications used in the workplace, in internally or externally facing communities or on the social web. Social analytics is an umbrella term that includes a number of specialized analysis techniques such as social filtering, social-network analysis, sentiment analysis and social-media analytics. Social network analysis tools are useful for examining social structure and interdependencies as well as the work patterns of individuals, groups or organizations. Social network analysis involves collecting data from multiple sources, identifying relationships, and evaluating the impact, quality or effectiveness of a relationship.
Context-Aware Computing.
Context-aware computing centers on the concept of using information about an end user or object’s environment, activities connections and preferences to improve the quality of interaction with that end user. The end user may be a customer, business partner or employee. A contextually aware system anticipates the user's needs and proactively serves up the most appropriate and customized content, product or service. Gartner predicts that by 2013, more than half of Fortune 500 companies will have context-aware computing initiatives and by 2016, one-third of worldwide mobile consumer marketing will be context-awareness-based.
Ubiquitous Computing.
The work of Mark Weiser and other researchers at Xerox's PARC paints a picture of the coming third wave of computing where computers are invisibly embedded into the world. As computers proliferate and as everyday objects are given the ability to communicate with RFID tags and their successors, networks will approach and surpass the scale that can be managed in traditional centralized ways. This leads to the important trend of imbuing computing systems into operational technology, whether done as calming technology or explicitly managed and integrated with IT. In addition, it gives us important guidance on what to expect with proliferating personal devices, the effect of consumerization on IT decisions, and the necessary capabilities that will be driven by the pressure of rapid inflation in the number of computers for each person.
Storage Class Memory.
Gartner sees huge use of flash memory in consumer devices, entertainment equipment and other embedded IT systems. It also offers a new layer of the storage hierarchy in servers and client computers that has key advantages — space, heat, performance and ruggedness among them. Unlike RAM, the main memory in servers and PCs, flash memory is persistent even when power is removed. In that way, it looks more like disk drives where information is placed and must survive power-downs and reboots. Given the cost premium, simply building solid state disk drives from flash will tie up that valuable space on all the data in a file or entire volume, while a new explicitly addressed layer, not part of the file system, permits targeted placement of only the high-leverage items of information that need to experience the mix of performance and persistence available with flash memory.
Gartner defines a strategic technology as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt.
A strategic technology may be an existing technology that has matured and/or become suitable for a wider range of uses. It may also be an emerging technology that offers an opportunity for strategic business advantage for early adopters or with potential for significant market disruption in the next five years. As such, these technologies impact the organization's long-term plans, programs and initiatives.
“Companies should factor these top 10 technologies in their strategic planning process by asking key questions and making deliberate decisions about them during the next two years,” said David Cearley, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.
“Sometimes the decision will be to do nothing with a particular technology,” said Carl Claunch, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “In other cases, it will be to continue investing in the technology at the current rate. In still other cases, the decision may be to test or more aggressively deploy the technology.”
10 strategic technologies for 2011 include:
Social Communications and Collaboration.
Social media can be divided into: (1) Social networking —social profile management products, such as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and Friendster as well as social networking analysis (SNA) technologies that employ algorithms to understand and utilize human relationships for the discovery of people and expertise. (2) Social collaboration —technologies, such as wikis, blogs, instant messaging, collaborative office, and crowdsourcing. (3) Social publishing —technologies that assist communities in pooling individual content into a usable and community accessible content repository such as YouTube and flickr. (4) Social feedback - gaining feedback and opinion from the community on specific items as witnessed on YouTube, flickr, Digg, Del.icio.us, and Amazon. Gartner predicts that by 2016, social technologies will be integrated with most business applications. Companies should bring together their social CRM, internal communications and collaboration, and public social site initiatives into a coordinated strategy.
Cloud Computing.
Cloud computing services exist along a spectrum from open public to closed private. The next three years will see the delivery of a range of cloud service approaches that fall between these two extremes. Vendors will offer packaged private cloud implementations that deliver the vendor's public cloud service technologies (software and/or hardware) and methodologies (i.e., best practices to build and run the service) in a form that can be implemented inside the consumer's enterprise. Many will also offer management services to remotely manage the cloud service implementation. Gartner expects large enterprises to have a dynamic sourcing team in place by 2012 that is responsible for ongoing cloudsourcing decisions and management.
Fabric-Based Infrastructure and Computers.
A fabric-based computer is a modular form of computing where a system can be aggregated from separate building-block modules connected over a fabric or switched backplane. In its basic form, a fabric-based computer comprises a separate processor, memory, I/O, and offload modules (GPU, NPU, etc.) that are connected to a switched interconnect and, importantly, the software required to configure and manage the resulting system(s). The fabric-based infrastructure (FBI) model abstracts physical resources — processor cores, network bandwidth and links and storage — into pools of resources that are managed by the Fabric Resource Pool Manager (FRPM), software functionality. The FRPM in turn is driven by the Real Time Infrastructure (RTI) Service Governor software component. An FBI can be supplied by a single vendor or by a group of vendors working closely together, or by an integrator — internal or external.
Mobile Applications and Media Tablets.
Gartner estimates that by the end of 2010, 1.2 billion people will carry handsets capable of rich, mobile commerce providing an ideal environment for the convergence of mobility and the Web. Mobile devices are becoming computers in their own right, with an astounding amount of processing ability and bandwidth. There are already hundreds of thousands of applications for platforms like the Apple iPhone, in spite of the limited market (only for the one platform) and need for unique coding.
The quality of the experience of applications on these devices, which can apply location, motion and other context in their behavior, is leading customers to interact with companies preferentially through mobile devices. This has lead to a race to push out applications as a competitive tool to improve relationships and gain advantage over competitors whose interfaces are purely browser-based.
Video.
Video is not a new media form, but its use as a standard media type used in non-media companies is expanding rapidly. Technology trends in digital photography, consumer electronics, the web, social software, unified communications, digital and Internet-based television and mobile computing are all reaching critical tipping points that bring video into the mainstream. Over the next three years Gartner believes that video will become a commonplace content type and interaction model for most users, and by 2013, more than 25 percent of the content that workers see in a day will be dominated by pictures, video or audio.
Next Generation Analytics.
Increasing compute capabilities of computers including mobile devices along with improving connectivity are enabling a shift in how businesses support operational decisions. It is becoming possible to run simulations or models to predict the future outcome, rather than to simply provide backward looking data about past interactions, and to do these predictions in real-time to support each individual business action. While this may require significant changes to existing operational and business intelligence infrastructure, the potential exists to unlock significant improvements in business results and other success rates.
Social Analytics.
Social analytics describes the process of measuring, analyzing and interpreting the results of interactions and associations among people, topics and ideas. These interactions may occur on social software applications used in the workplace, in internally or externally facing communities or on the social web. Social analytics is an umbrella term that includes a number of specialized analysis techniques such as social filtering, social-network analysis, sentiment analysis and social-media analytics. Social network analysis tools are useful for examining social structure and interdependencies as well as the work patterns of individuals, groups or organizations. Social network analysis involves collecting data from multiple sources, identifying relationships, and evaluating the impact, quality or effectiveness of a relationship.
Context-Aware Computing.
Context-aware computing centers on the concept of using information about an end user or object’s environment, activities connections and preferences to improve the quality of interaction with that end user. The end user may be a customer, business partner or employee. A contextually aware system anticipates the user's needs and proactively serves up the most appropriate and customized content, product or service. Gartner predicts that by 2013, more than half of Fortune 500 companies will have context-aware computing initiatives and by 2016, one-third of worldwide mobile consumer marketing will be context-awareness-based.
Ubiquitous Computing.
The work of Mark Weiser and other researchers at Xerox's PARC paints a picture of the coming third wave of computing where computers are invisibly embedded into the world. As computers proliferate and as everyday objects are given the ability to communicate with RFID tags and their successors, networks will approach and surpass the scale that can be managed in traditional centralized ways. This leads to the important trend of imbuing computing systems into operational technology, whether done as calming technology or explicitly managed and integrated with IT. In addition, it gives us important guidance on what to expect with proliferating personal devices, the effect of consumerization on IT decisions, and the necessary capabilities that will be driven by the pressure of rapid inflation in the number of computers for each person.
Storage Class Memory.
Gartner sees huge use of flash memory in consumer devices, entertainment equipment and other embedded IT systems. It also offers a new layer of the storage hierarchy in servers and client computers that has key advantages — space, heat, performance and ruggedness among them. Unlike RAM, the main memory in servers and PCs, flash memory is persistent even when power is removed. In that way, it looks more like disk drives where information is placed and must survive power-downs and reboots. Given the cost premium, simply building solid state disk drives from flash will tie up that valuable space on all the data in a file or entire volume, while a new explicitly addressed layer, not part of the file system, permits targeted placement of only the high-leverage items of information that need to experience the mix of performance and persistence available with flash memory.
Technology 2011 : What to Buy? and When? : UPGRADE
Among the questions I get from readers every year, the most frequently asked is: “Should I wait for X processor before I buy a motherboard?” I suspect that many of you thinking about pulling the trigger on a new machine are mulling this over yourselves. As always, my advice depends on the platform you’re looking at and what your current needs are. Let’s get into the guidance.
LGA1366 = HOLD For desktop use, the most stable platform today is Intel’s LGA1366. As the only Intel desktop socket capable of taking a hexa-core today, the company has no plans to retire the original Nehalem socket right now. It’s home to the wickedly fast Core i7-980X, and I suspect it will see at least another product bump in the coming year. The LGA1366’s run will end late next year, however, when Intel releases the enthusiast version of Sandy Bridge, which will utilize the new LGA2011 socket. This still gives you six or eight months before the 1366 gets retired. Gamers looking for a stable, upgradeable platform should look here.
LGA1156 = SELL With LGA1155 destined for arrival early next year, my recommendation is to wait for the new socket at this point or to buy an LGA1366 socket if you are concerned about longer-term upgrades. LGA1156 fans, don’t take it too hard. It’s still a wonderful platform and with the excellent price-to-performance ratio of LGA1156 parts, I think its fine for someone who isn’t obsessive-compulsive about the socket becoming obsolete.
AM3 = SELL AMD buyers should carefully weigh their options right now. AM3 will be replaced by AM3+ early next year. AM3+ boards will work with AM3 procs, but AM3+ procs will not work in AM3 boards. So should you wait? Unless your circumstances include replacing a dead system now or some requirement that you spend the cash now, I say it’s a good idea to wait on a new motherboard purchase. While AM3 has a little more life left than LGA1156, it’s still not long for this world.
Motherboards
New features, new sockets, same ol' ATX
We’ll see no major shifts in form-factor for mobos in 2011. Expect ATX to hang tough. Instead, look to PCI-E 3.0, USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, and the socket itself.
It’s a given that native SATA 6Gb/s support will become the standard on new chipsets in 2011. AMD already has SATA 6Gb/s in its current 890FX/GX chipsets and Intel will join the party when its P67 and H67 chipsets are released early next year with consumer and mainstream Sandy Bridge chips. What’s the difference between native SATA 6Gb/s and what you have on the board you purchased last year? Your board uses a discrete ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) to enable SATA6Gb/s, and thus only a few ports support the higher bandwidth. Native support means more of your SATA ports will run at the higher speed setting.
This Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7 sports Intel's new LGA1155 socket, which makes LGA1156 obsolete.
It’s likely both Intel and AMD chipsets will support PCI Express 3.0 in the next year. PCI-E 3.0 essentially doubles the speed of PCI-E 2.0 using a pretty clever trick. Even though PCI-E 3.0’s throughput moves only 8 gigatransfers per second versus PCI-E 2.0’s 5GT/s, PCI-E 3.0 banks 20 percent in encoding bandwidth to double the actual data transfer rates. Don’t worry—PCI-E 3.0 is backward compatible, and since PCI-E has been incredibly low on drama, we expect this transition to go smoothly.
If only USB 3.0 could go as quickly and smoothly. Native USB 3.0 will be noticeably absent from Intel’s new P67 and H67 chipsets due early next year. AMD’s own new 890GX also does not support USB 3.0 and it’s not clear if the upcoming 900-series chipset will support it either.
Don’t be fooled or discouraged, however. USB 3.0 will become the standard. In fact, Intel finally released a USB 3.0 internal-cable spec that will standardize motherboard USB 3.0 headers. Because the pin-out on USB 3.0 is different than USB 2.0, most cases have relied on using pass-through cables to get USB 3.0 ports onto the front.
Socket Update
Big changes await folks who use Intel’s workhorse LGA1156 socket. When the Sandy Bridge series of CPUs launch early next year, we’ll see a new and incompatible LGA1155 socket. That won’t make your existing Lynnfield or Clarkdale machine suddenly worthless, but there’s very little chance you’ll be able to drop in a fast new Sandy Bridge proc.
The good news is that LGA1366 owners won’t get pushed overboard at the same time. Don’t get us wrong, the platform is still a dead man walking, but at least it looks like LGA1366 will get one more CPU update in 2011. However, by the end of next summer, expect Intel to introduce its LGA2011 socket for enthusiast-class Sandy Bridge chips.
AMD fans have had it easier with motherboard upgrades, enjoying a relatively painless migration from Athlon 64 all the way to Phenom II X6. AMD will continue this trend with AM3+ by allowing you to run an older AM3-based Phenom II as well as the company’s upcoming Bulldozer chip in an AM3+ board. It’s important to note that Bulldozer chips will not work in existing AM3 boards, so if you’re buying an AM3 board today, you will probably top out on Phenom II X6. AMD’s new Fusion combo GPU/CPU part will also require a new socket since the chip will incorporate integrated graphics functionality, which will require additional pins to the CPU socket.
The long and the short of it is that 2011 will be a turbulent year for builders who have an eye toward longevity. Just remember to keep it in perspective. A new socket and CPU doesn’t make your Phenom II X6 or Core i7 stop working. It just limits your ultimate upgrade path.
from : www.maximumpc.com
LGA1366 = HOLD For desktop use, the most stable platform today is Intel’s LGA1366. As the only Intel desktop socket capable of taking a hexa-core today, the company has no plans to retire the original Nehalem socket right now. It’s home to the wickedly fast Core i7-980X, and I suspect it will see at least another product bump in the coming year. The LGA1366’s run will end late next year, however, when Intel releases the enthusiast version of Sandy Bridge, which will utilize the new LGA2011 socket. This still gives you six or eight months before the 1366 gets retired. Gamers looking for a stable, upgradeable platform should look here.
LGA1156 = SELL With LGA1155 destined for arrival early next year, my recommendation is to wait for the new socket at this point or to buy an LGA1366 socket if you are concerned about longer-term upgrades. LGA1156 fans, don’t take it too hard. It’s still a wonderful platform and with the excellent price-to-performance ratio of LGA1156 parts, I think its fine for someone who isn’t obsessive-compulsive about the socket becoming obsolete.
AM3 = SELL AMD buyers should carefully weigh their options right now. AM3 will be replaced by AM3+ early next year. AM3+ boards will work with AM3 procs, but AM3+ procs will not work in AM3 boards. So should you wait? Unless your circumstances include replacing a dead system now or some requirement that you spend the cash now, I say it’s a good idea to wait on a new motherboard purchase. While AM3 has a little more life left than LGA1156, it’s still not long for this world.
Motherboards
New features, new sockets, same ol' ATX
We’ll see no major shifts in form-factor for mobos in 2011. Expect ATX to hang tough. Instead, look to PCI-E 3.0, USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, and the socket itself.
It’s a given that native SATA 6Gb/s support will become the standard on new chipsets in 2011. AMD already has SATA 6Gb/s in its current 890FX/GX chipsets and Intel will join the party when its P67 and H67 chipsets are released early next year with consumer and mainstream Sandy Bridge chips. What’s the difference between native SATA 6Gb/s and what you have on the board you purchased last year? Your board uses a discrete ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) to enable SATA6Gb/s, and thus only a few ports support the higher bandwidth. Native support means more of your SATA ports will run at the higher speed setting.
This Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7 sports Intel's new LGA1155 socket, which makes LGA1156 obsolete.
It’s likely both Intel and AMD chipsets will support PCI Express 3.0 in the next year. PCI-E 3.0 essentially doubles the speed of PCI-E 2.0 using a pretty clever trick. Even though PCI-E 3.0’s throughput moves only 8 gigatransfers per second versus PCI-E 2.0’s 5GT/s, PCI-E 3.0 banks 20 percent in encoding bandwidth to double the actual data transfer rates. Don’t worry—PCI-E 3.0 is backward compatible, and since PCI-E has been incredibly low on drama, we expect this transition to go smoothly.
If only USB 3.0 could go as quickly and smoothly. Native USB 3.0 will be noticeably absent from Intel’s new P67 and H67 chipsets due early next year. AMD’s own new 890GX also does not support USB 3.0 and it’s not clear if the upcoming 900-series chipset will support it either.
Don’t be fooled or discouraged, however. USB 3.0 will become the standard. In fact, Intel finally released a USB 3.0 internal-cable spec that will standardize motherboard USB 3.0 headers. Because the pin-out on USB 3.0 is different than USB 2.0, most cases have relied on using pass-through cables to get USB 3.0 ports onto the front.
Socket Update
Big changes await folks who use Intel’s workhorse LGA1156 socket. When the Sandy Bridge series of CPUs launch early next year, we’ll see a new and incompatible LGA1155 socket. That won’t make your existing Lynnfield or Clarkdale machine suddenly worthless, but there’s very little chance you’ll be able to drop in a fast new Sandy Bridge proc.
The good news is that LGA1366 owners won’t get pushed overboard at the same time. Don’t get us wrong, the platform is still a dead man walking, but at least it looks like LGA1366 will get one more CPU update in 2011. However, by the end of next summer, expect Intel to introduce its LGA2011 socket for enthusiast-class Sandy Bridge chips.
AMD fans have had it easier with motherboard upgrades, enjoying a relatively painless migration from Athlon 64 all the way to Phenom II X6. AMD will continue this trend with AM3+ by allowing you to run an older AM3-based Phenom II as well as the company’s upcoming Bulldozer chip in an AM3+ board. It’s important to note that Bulldozer chips will not work in existing AM3 boards, so if you’re buying an AM3 board today, you will probably top out on Phenom II X6. AMD’s new Fusion combo GPU/CPU part will also require a new socket since the chip will incorporate integrated graphics functionality, which will require additional pins to the CPU socket.
The long and the short of it is that 2011 will be a turbulent year for builders who have an eye toward longevity. Just remember to keep it in perspective. A new socket and CPU doesn’t make your Phenom II X6 or Core i7 stop working. It just limits your ultimate upgrade path.
from : www.maximumpc.com
Apr 26, 2011
Mystery UFO in Jerusalem - 2011
A GLOWING orb filmed hovering over the skyline of Jerusalem has left UFO experts dumbfounded.
The circular object was seen descending slowly over the holy city's iconic Dome of the Rock before flickering and shooting skyward like a rocket.
Similar clips have been seen before and debunked as hoaxes.
But this latest sighting has proved more difficult to dismiss — as it was recorded from FOUR different perspectives.
Some UFO enthusiasts believe the videos - which have taken the internet by storm - are final proof that aliens exist, while others say the unidentified object was the Hebrew god Elohim.
Adding to the mystery is the fact that flying over the Dome of the Rock landmark — an ancient Islamic shrine — is forbidden.
Two witnesses at the Armon Hanatziv panoramic lookout near Mount Zion filmed the object at 1am on Saturday.
A little after one minute into the clip, the object descends slowly, almost to ground level.
The craft hovers there for a short while and then flickers before shooting upwards at an incredible speed.
Former Ministry of Defence UFO investigator Nick Pope said: "If these are real, they are some of the most incredible videos ever shot.
"If they are not, then this is a very well-planned and co-ordinated hoax designed to eliminate elements of doubt.
"The way it shoots up into the sky suggests it is unmanned, because no living thing could survive those kinds of G-forces.
"We know the Israeli army has some very high-tech drones at its disposal. If this is one, it is one of the most advanced pieces of technology created by man."
Another set of observers also uploaded their mobile phone footage to YouTube on Saturday.
They wrote: "Have fun debunking this one."
In their video, the American tourists can be heard saying: "We've seen them in Mississippi like this."
Two other clips filmed from different viewpoints were posted online.
Sceptics have noted the views come from perspectives that could make nearby objects seem farther away and faster-moving.
Others say the whole thing was faked and have prepared several alternative versions of the videos which they say prove they are not real.
These include stabilised versions in which the brightness and contrast have been increased, which they claim highlights a major flaw of perspective.
Another is motion-tracked, and apparently shows the UFO "bouncing around like crazy" — which, say the sceptics, shows the makers had trouble inserting it into the scene.
Apr 25, 2011
Video of 'Alien' in Siberia
There's a new UFO crash video making the rounds titled, "Dead Alien Found in UFO Hotspot in Russia," and it shows two Russian men finding what appears to be a dead extraterrestrial alien near a tree stump in a snowy field in Irkutsk, Siberia.
In the video, the alien looks to be about two or three feet tall, with a large head and long, thin limbs. It's gotten over 1 million hits so far, with many commenters asking if it could be the real thing. A message on the YouTube video, which was uploaded about a week ago, states that "Your government is lying to you about UFO & alien visitation."
It seems clear that someone's lying, all right.
Even without getting our hands on what is probably a rubber doll, there are several signs that this video is a hoax. The first is the way the video was shot; it opens with what is called an "establishing shot." This is a common filmmaking technique to let the viewers know where the scene is taking place.
The Russian alien video clip begins, inexplicably and improbably, with a wide shot of a snow-covered rural area and what appears to be a factory in the distance. The handheld camera then pans right to find the cameraman's companion nearby, and then to a snowy trench leading to what appears to be the small alien creature. It's clear that the filmmakers knew the alien was there, and didn't just "discover" it on cue. Furthermore, the actors, who speak in Russian, can be heard laughing, and their tones do not suggest that they just stumbled upon a genuine alien body.
Besides that, the scene doesn't even match up. The camera follows a snow trench leading to the alien (suggesting a spacecraft crash), yet no space vessel is seen. Instead, it's just the alien, seemingly posed for dramatic effect—indeed, one of its legs appears to have been torn off in the crash—as if it had been flying under its own power when it suddenly dropped from the sky.
In the video, the alien looks to be about two or three feet tall, with a large head and long, thin limbs. It's gotten over 1 million hits so far, with many commenters asking if it could be the real thing. A message on the YouTube video, which was uploaded about a week ago, states that "Your government is lying to you about UFO & alien visitation."
It seems clear that someone's lying, all right.
Even without getting our hands on what is probably a rubber doll, there are several signs that this video is a hoax. The first is the way the video was shot; it opens with what is called an "establishing shot." This is a common filmmaking technique to let the viewers know where the scene is taking place.
The Russian alien video clip begins, inexplicably and improbably, with a wide shot of a snow-covered rural area and what appears to be a factory in the distance. The handheld camera then pans right to find the cameraman's companion nearby, and then to a snowy trench leading to what appears to be the small alien creature. It's clear that the filmmakers knew the alien was there, and didn't just "discover" it on cue. Furthermore, the actors, who speak in Russian, can be heard laughing, and their tones do not suggest that they just stumbled upon a genuine alien body.
Besides that, the scene doesn't even match up. The camera follows a snow trench leading to the alien (suggesting a spacecraft crash), yet no space vessel is seen. Instead, it's just the alien, seemingly posed for dramatic effect—indeed, one of its legs appears to have been torn off in the crash—as if it had been flying under its own power when it suddenly dropped from the sky.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)