4899557
submission
ericatcw writes:
Google's Android may enjoy the hype, but an increasing number of key industry players say the mobile OS isn't ready for ARM netbooks, aka smartbooks. Nvidia is the most recent to declare Android unfit for duty, stating its preference for Microsoft's Windows CE, which an Nvidia exec praised for having a "low footprint" and being "rock solid." Nvidia is busy optimizing its multimedia-savvy Tegra system-on-chip for Windows CE. Such improvements won't arrive for at least a year to Android, which has an inflexible UI and poor graphics support for devices larger than a smartphone, says Nvidia. Other firms echoing similar criticism include ARM and Asustek.
4676655
submission
ericatcw writes:
It was reported on Slashdot last week that Microsoft had cut access to its Windows Live Messenger instant messaging service to citizens of 5 countries with whom the U.S. has trade embargoes. Now it turns out that Google and, apparently, AOL have taken similar actions. According to a lawyer quoted by Computerworld, even free downloaded software are viewed as 'exports' by the U.S. government — meaning totally-in-the-cloud services such as e-mail may escape the rules. Either way, there appear to be a number of ways determined citizens of Syria, Iran and Cuba can get around the ban.
4668745
submission
ericatcw writes:
Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang claimed last week that Intel was selling its Atom processor plus its graphics chipset to netbook makers for just $25, versus $45 for the Atom alone. That, Huang argued, was "unfair" and effectively locking Nvidia's competing Ion chipset out of the netbook market, though he also says he has no plans to sue. That's wise, says one anti-trust legal expert, Michael Cooper, who says Intel is not violating any U.S. anti-trust laws with its prices, even if they are "predatory" and less than what it costs Intel to make the chips. According to Cooper, a former anti-trust prosecutor for the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission turned private practice lawyer, "Intel is not obligated" to even sell the Atom chip to Nvidia.
4500157
submission
ericatcw writes:
JavaScript, so ubiquitous on today's AJAX-heavy Web sites, can slows down most popular sites today, says a Google performance guru. Steve Souders, the creator of the popular, free Yslow diagnostic tool, says that too many sites load too many JavaScript files at the beginning, creating a bottleneck, since browsers can't render or download anything else at the same time. New browsers such as Internet Explorer 8 can do "parallel downloads" of JavaScript, but it only partly solves the problem, says Souders, who calls for JavaScript and CSS files to be rewritten.
4145643
submission
ericatcw writes:
"SQL or MapReduce?" For many, Google's data-crunching technology — which sorts through more than 20 petabytes of data a day to build its index of the World-Wide Web — has already surpassed the relational database for scalability and speed. Not so, say researchers led by database legend Michael Stonebraker and Microsoft Technical Fellow, David DeWitt, who released a study Tuesday showing that databases, when run in parallel clusters, can still outperform MapReduce and its open-source cousin, Hadoop, between 3.1 to 6.5 times. The study (downloadable here) puts some meat on controversial arguments put forth by Stonebraker and DeWitt in a blog last year. Its findings, as well as its methodology, is sure to arouse skepticism among MapReduce fans.
4030647
submission
ericatcw writes:
For 30+ years, the PC industry has been as obsessed with under-the-hood performance: MIPs, MHz, transistors per chip. Blame Moore's Law, which effectively laid down the Gospel of marketing PCs like sports cars. But with mobile PCs and green computing coming to the fore, enter ARM, which is challenging the Gospel according to Moore with chips that are low-powered in both senses of the word. Some of its most popular CPUs have 100,000 transistors, fewer than a 12 MHz Intel 286 CPU from 1982 (download PDF). But they also consume as little as a quarter of a watt, which is why netbook makers are embracing them. It's "megahertz per milli-watt,"that counts, according to ARM exec Ian Drew, who predicts that 6-10 ARM-based netbooks running Linux and costing just around $200 should arrive this year starting in July.
