Loading ...Personality conflict
Prepping for an upcoming Network World feature, I had a fascinating conversation with Andrew Hillier, CTO of Richmond Hill, Ont.-based CiRBA. CiRBA writes virtualization analysis software that brings together configuration, attribute and utilization information for analysis using rule sets. Very funky stuff.
The subject of compute personalities came up in the discussion (or, more accurately, workload personalities). There are a finite number of these archetypes, according to Hillier, based on memory, read/write, I/O, CPU, etc., activity. A data warehousing system, for example, is predominantly read activity, with periodic bursts of write activity. OLTP has a more balanced read/write ratio. (Heavy duty number crunching, like calculating pi to the 10 kajillionth decimal place, doesn’t have much of either, but the CPU is pretty absorbed in the task.)
So one approach to virtualization, says Hillier, is to shack up complementary system on the same box, thus avoiding processes that spike at the same time and have a conflict over system resources. Makes sense. It’s the Odd Couple approach to virtualization; you can be reasonably sure that when Felix wants the duster, Oscar isn’t using it.
But there are other ways to make resources go further, says Burton Group’s Chris Wolfe. For example, identical VM images running similar tasks could share ROM pages, with the according performance and resource economy effects. (Call it the Conjoined Twin model.)
Both good arguments for some virtualization analysis software.
BTW, both Network World Canada and Computerworld Canada have new home pages within the IT World Canada site. Visit them.
Posted on January 16th, 2008 by Dave Webb and filed under Computer Science | No Comments »Add to: del.icio.us | Digg IT | Furl | Google | magnolia | StumbleIT | Wink | Yahoo! Technorati
Loading ...Not the death of WiMax
Sprint Nextel and Clearwire have walked away from a partnership that would blanket a third of the U.S. population in WiMax access, but it’s a bump in the road, not a major detour. (Or, as Iain Grant of SeaBoard Group puts it, “It’s certainly not the death of WiMax.”)
With no one in the driver’s seat at Sprint — CEO Gary Forsee having been nudged out a month ago — it shouldn’t be a surprise that the brakes might be applied to a deal this big for now. Expect both parties to be back at thetable some time soon. And don’t expect this to slow momentum in Canada toward more WiMax pilots and rollouts. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on November 13th, 2007 by Dave Webb and filed under Computer Science | No Comments »Add to: del.icio.us | Digg IT | Furl | Google | magnolia | StumbleIT | Wink | Yahoo! Technorati
Loading ...The technology that refuses to die
by Bradley Hughes, Senior Analyst, IDC Canada -
The first fax machine was invented in 1861 and, amazingly, the need for fax capabilities is still demanded by business today.
In the first half of 2007, the market for MFPs (or All-in-Ones) with fax capabilities has grown 25% from the first half of 2006. This is happening in a situation where the MFP market itself has only grown 5% over the same period of time. Meaning that nearly 40% of MFPs shipped in Canada in the first half of 2007 had fax capabilities.
Now there is a chance that end-users are finally realizing that there are fax capabilities within many MFP models (IDC does not track the stand-alone fax market) but the tenacity of fax technology and the fact that it is still relevant is incredible.
For some reason, scanning & emailing (or scanning to email) just isn’t cutting it. Perhaps people like hearing that familiar fax squelch when a connection is made. Or they enjoy that lonely time standing in front of the fax ensuring it goes through properly. I don’t know but to heck with the notion of the paper-less office, we’ve got to at least get to the fax-less office first.
Posted on September 28th, 2007 by Brad Hughes and filed under Computer Science | 2 Comments »Add to: del.icio.us | Digg IT | Furl | Google | magnolia | StumbleIT | Wink | Yahoo! Technorati
Loading ...Intel goes tick tock
By Joaquim P. Menezes -
“Our tick-tock strategy” – is how Intel CEO, Paul Ottelini, described his company’s game plan to alternate the latest silicon technology, with a new microprocessor architecture.
Otellini’s presentation at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco was calculated to impress.
And some of the stuff he outlined did sound impressive.
For instance Otellini held up a plate-size wafer containing what he said were the world’s first 32-nanometer (nm) semiconductors.
There’s a huge gee-wiz element to this technology.
32-nm enables the creation of transistors so small that more than 4 million of them could fit on the period at the end of this sentence.
Okay we’re impressed. But what’s the practical benefit of this super-shrink technology?
Intel is going to produce 32 nm-based commercially available chips in two years, and in the meantime, it says it will start shipping the industry’s first mass-produced microprocessors based on 45-nm technology Nov. 12.
So what’s the deal here?
Are we just witnessing another phase in the ongoing game of one-upmanship between Intel and arch-rival AMD, which has also announced plans to produce 45-nm and 32-nm chips in mid-2008 and 2010 respectively.
Posted on September 19th, 2007 by Joaquim Menezes and filed under Computer Science | No Comments »Add to: del.icio.us | Digg IT | Furl | Google | magnolia | StumbleIT | Wink | Yahoo! Technorati
Loading ...Unconventional RFID - The HP Smart Shelf
Radio Frequency Identification or RFID is usually thought of as an asset/inventory-management technology, and that indeed is one key way the technology is used today.
However, other non-conventional but fascinating applications of RFID are possible, and a group of us witnessed some of these during a media visit to the HP Canada’s RFID Labs (they call it the RFID Customer Experience Centre) located at the company’s headquarters in Mississauga, Ont.
John Keogh, Director, RFID & Supply Chain Solutions, HP Canada, who conducted the demo, clarified that this “Centre” is not an R&D lab in the strict sense of the term, but rather an Applications lab.
“The focus is on how you actually apply the technology.”
Most applications showcased in the lab, Keogh noted, were not developed in a vacuum but in response to specific business needs of HP customers. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on September 12th, 2007 by Joaquim Menezes and filed under Computer Science | No Comments »Add to: del.icio.us | Digg IT | Furl | Google | magnolia | StumbleIT | Wink | Yahoo! Technorati
Loading ...What a wonderful - HDMI 1.3 - world
By Joaquim P. Menezes
Remember Louis Armstrong belting out in that gruff voice: “I see trees of green…red roses too…”
“I see skies of blue….. clouds of white…” “The colours of the rainbow…so pretty in the sky…”
Were Armstrong around today - and if he owned a High Definition Multimedia (HDMI) 1.3 compliant device and media - he would be able to see all those colours and objects – green trees, blue skies, white clouds, resplendent rainbows – with amazing vividness, all their subtle tonal variations, and intricate nuances.
What’s so hot about HDMI version 1.3 – the specification that was released in June 2006?
Most of the hype surrounding this spec relates to its support of what in technical terms is referred to as “Deep Colour.”
Posted on September 10th, 2007 by Joaquim Menezes and filed under Computer Science | No Comments »Add to: del.icio.us | Digg IT | Furl | Google | magnolia | StumbleIT | Wink | Yahoo! Technorati
Loading ...iPhone unlocked – but is it a big deal?
By Joaquim P. Menezes -
Worldwide efforts to unlock the iPhone – untethering it from the AT&T Network – appear to have been motivated by two main factors - “fortune” and fame.
The latter was clearly the impulse at work in the case of George Hotz, the New Jersey teen who succeeded last week in completely unlocking the device, using what’s dubbed as a “hardware hack” (temporarily installing a piece of hardware into the device, during the process of unlocking it).
By Friday, the 17-year old confirmed to several publications that he had unlocked the iPhone, and was using it on T-Mobile network – the only other major US carrier, besides AT&T, with i-Phone-compatible technology.
Hotz has posted a blow-by-blow account of the unlocking process on his site.
In one of his many media interviews, he also said he does not want people using his technique to make money.
Well given that the “10 steps” to unlocking the iPhone tutorial Hotz has published on his site is rather complex – a great many iPhone users may be reluctant to try out his procedure.
Their reluctance is likely to be reinforced when they read Hotz’s rather ominous cautionary message at the start of the tutorial: “you may brick your iPhone using this tutorial – you are WARNED.”
Heck – that’s quite a risk to take when it could compromise a device on which you’ve just forked out at least $US499.
So what’s the other option? I guess using someone that will - for a small fee - do the job for you.
In fact the buzz is that with the iPhone unlocking strategy now in the public domain, a small but fairly lucrative industry will spring up offering at least a couple of services:
• Unlocking your iPhone for a reasonable fee
• Shipping unlocked iPhones – purchased in the U.S. – overseas
Certain legal matters may have to be sorted out before this happens (will talk about this in my next blog), but it’s likely that in the not-to-distant future we’ll see a lot of these “unlock your iphone for a fee” providers spring up - in the virtual and real world.
One of these providers - Belfast, Northern Ireleand-based Uniquephones is already doing a reasonably lucrative business providing “unlocking” services to owners of a broad range of wireless handsets –including Motorola, Sony, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Panasonic, LG etc.
Uniquephones has developed a software “unlock” for the iPhone, but says legal considerations are currently keeping it from offering this service to the public.
A six-minute video posted on the iphoneunlocking.com blog shows John McLaughlin, the founder of Uniquephones, unlocking the iPhone. The video hit the Web a couple of days ago.
Stay tuned for more on this…
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Loading ...Gourmet Coffee and Web video – a winning blend
By Joaquim P. Menezes -
The explosive potential of Web 2.0 tools to build brand and boost revenues was brought powerfully to my attention during a conversation I had with my colleague at IT World Canada, Jorge Umana.
Jorge and I take the same GO bus, and during our ride to the office he told me how social networking over the Web is working wonders for his family-run business.
Posted on August 20th, 2007 by Joaquim Menezes and filed under Computer Science, Web 2.0, messaging, social networking | 1 Comment »Add to: del.icio.us | Digg IT | Furl | Google | magnolia | StumbleIT | Wink | Yahoo! Technorati
Loading ...‘Smart’ project needs smarter implementation
By Joaquim P. Menezes -
Updated on August 15 at 3:46 -
I had to waste a good deal of energy – and time – trying to sign up for this “smart energy conversation” program.
A few days ago I received a letter from my hydro supplier - Milton Hydro – describing what, on the face of it, seems like a cutting-edge Web-based home energy management system.
Posted on August 14th, 2007 by Joaquim Menezes and filed under Computer Science | No Comments »Add to: del.icio.us | Digg IT | Furl | Google | magnolia | StumbleIT | Wink | Yahoo! Technorati
Loading ...Pop! Goes the Weasel
By Joaquim P. Menezes -
Remember those nasty little things called pop up ads?
Remember how they could ruin your online browsing experience (especially the serial pops), destroy your trend of thought as you tried to get some online research done, raise your blood pressure, and lead to other sundry hazards.
Then came the pop up blockers –now standard with most mainstream browsers – and beleaguered PC users got some respite. But if you thought you’ve see the last of the ol’ pops – think again! How does that Bryan Adams song go?: Wherever you go, whatever you do, I will be right here, waiting for you Guess what. The pop ups will be waiting for you any day now – on your mobile phone. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on August 9th, 2007 by Joaquim Menezes and filed under Computer Science, Software, cell, messaging, mobile, wireless | 1 Comment »
