Collider halted until next year...

The incident was probably caused by a faulty connection between magnets

The Large Hadron Collider near Geneva will be shut off until spring 2009 while engineers probe a magnet failure.

The incident on 19 September caused a tonne of liquid helium to leak out into the experiment's 27km-long tunnel.

Officials said the time required to fully investigate the problem precluded a re-start before the lab's winter maintenance period.

The collider is built to smash protons together at huge speeds, recreating conditions moments after the Big Bang.

Scientists hope it will shed light on fundamental questions in physics.

"Coming immediately after the very successful start of LHC operation on 10 September, this is undoubtedly a psychological blow," said Robert Aymar, director-general of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), in a statement.

But he praised the skill and preparation of the teams involved in building the particle accelerator.

High priority

A spokesman for Cern told BBC News it was unclear at this stage when the collider could re-start operations after the lab's regular winter shut-down - which is partly done to save money on electricity during this period of peak demand.

A number of factors could affect when the lab re-opened, including prolonged cold weather.

The LHC has been in construction for some 13 years

"It's usually around late March or early April that we start re-commissioning the whole accelerator chain. The LHC being at the end of that chain," said James Gillies, Cern's director of communications.

"It will take us a while to get beams injected into the LHC, but I think it's fair to say this will be the priority for next year's start-up."

The accelerator chain prepares the beams of protons to be fired through the machine to make possible the collisions that physicists will use to study the make-up of our Universe.

The problem occurred last weekend, when a failure, known as a quench, caused around 100 of the LHC's super-cooled magnets to heat up by as much as 100 degrees.

The fire brigade were called out after a tonne of liquid helium leaked into the tunnel, which straddles the French-Swiss border.

Helium spill

The machine has more than 1,200 "dipole" magnets arranged end-to-end in the 27km-long, ring-shaped tunnel that houses the LHC.

These magnets carry and steer beams of protons which will whizz around the machine at close to the speed of light.

At allotted points around the "ring", these beams cross paths, smashing together near four massive "detectors" that monitor the collisions for interesting events.

Cern said the most likely cause of the equipment failure was a faulty electrical connection between two of the accelerator's magnets.

This connection melted during testing of the machine and caused a huge leak of super-cool helium.

This helium is used to chill the magnets to a temperature of 1.9 kelvin (-271C; -456F) - which is colder than deep space.

This makes the magnets "superconducting", allowing them to generate the large magnetic fields required to steer the beams while at the same time consuming relatively little power.

A quench occurs when part of a superconducting magnet heats up and causes superconducting properties to be lost.

Hot spot

Cern has procedures in place to deal with quenches before they damage equipment, but in this instance a hot spot in the machine got out of control.

"It does seem that all the systems that are supposed to protect the machine in cases like this worked as far as we can tell. But obviously something went wrong," said Mr Gillies.

"The engineers have decided that in order to find out what really happened, they are going to have to go into the machine."

One of the LHC's eight sectors will now have to be warmed up so an inspection can be carried out.

Mr Gillies told BBC News that this was likely to take a week, and that engineers would then have a much better idea of how to fix the fault.

Each particle accelerator is a unique machine, so Cern says that teething troubles were to be expected with such a complex machine at the cutting edge of technology.

"Events occur from time to time that temporarily stop operations, for shorter or longer periods, especially during the early phases," said Cern physicist Peter Limon.

Source: BBC News

NASA Taps IBM iDataPlex for New Supercomputer...

NASA is planning to use IBM’s iDataPlex server array to build a new supercomputer that will help the federal space agency collect data from satellites that are observing both the Earth and deep space. When the high-performance cluster is complete, this NASA supercomputer will offer a top performance of 42 teraflops. To build this supercomputer, IBM will use Intel’s quad-core Xeon processors.

NASA is turning to IBM and its iDataPlex server array to build a new supercomputer that can execute 42 teraflops and will help collect data from a series of satellites that observe both the Earth and the universe.

On Sept. 23, IBM is planning to announce that it will build the new supercomputer at the NASA Center for Computational Science, in Greenbelt, Md. When complete, this cluster-style supercomputer based on the iDataPlex array will offer a top performance of 42 teraflops and use 1,024 quad-core Intel Xeon processors. NASA is then planning to combine this new system with the existing Discovery supercomputer at NCCS, which will then offer a combined performance of 67 teraflops.

In addition to collecting a range of data from observational satellites, the new supercomputer cluster is slated to help NASA with its climate and weather modeling as well as creating simulations to explain cosmic phenomena such as black holes.

IBM is known for its range of supercomputers, including the well-known Blue Gene systems and its recent Roadrunner system at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, which broke the petaflop mark. With clusters built around the iDataPlex system, IBM uses more industry-standard hardware, including Intel processors and InfiniBand switches.

When IBM first announced iDataPlex, Big Blue presented the array as a way for companies to use x86-based hardware to build data centers that can support a cloud computing infrastructure. However, IBM has announced a series of contracts with companies that will put iDataPlex to use as a supercomputer.

In addition to NASA, the University of Toronto has contracted with IBM to build Canada’s most powerful supercomputer using iDataPlex, which will create a system that offers a performance of 360 teraflops. Microsoft is also using a system based on iDataPlex that will test its HPC (high-performance computer) operating system HPC Server 2008.

In the case of NASA, Herb Schultz, a marketing manager with IBM’s Deep Computing division, said the NASA requirements for this supercomputer are similar to the needs of those companies developing their own cloud infrastructure or building out a business based on Web 2.0 technology.

“If you look at HPC requirements and the emerging requirements of Web 2.0, whether it’s social networking or gaming, there are a lot of similarities and a lot of it has to do with being able to scale out in a cost-effective manner,” said Schultz. “They also need to manage their power and cooling constraints and they need something that is incrementally global and something that is standard and running Windows or Linux on an x86 platform … For the kind of work NASA needs, it’s not too different than what we first talked about when we introduced iDataPlex.”

At the same time, IBM had to take into account NASA’s requirements for power and cooling as well as fitting the computer into a constricted space.

“When it comes to supercomputers, it used to be performance, price performance and can you run my codes,” said Schultz. “Now, it’s basically customers are asking that the system works underneath a certain power consumption threshold or they ask what are your flops per watt and can I put this in here without rearranging my data center.”

With the iDataPlex cluster for NASA, IBM is offering a number of power and cooling technologies including the company’s Rear Door Heat Exchanger, which is a series of sealed tubes within the cabinet that are filled with chilled water that helps cool the heated air before it comes out of the servers. IBM also rotated the racks within a typical iDataPlex array cabinet, which creates an environment that is wide but not deep, and allows the company to squeeze more servers into the system while leaving room for switches.

The new NASA supercomputer will also take advantage of IBM’s xCAT (Extreme Cluster Administration Toolkit) management software and the company’s General Parallel File System, which will allow the cluster to create and maintain large file sets based on the amount of data the cluster can process.

IBM Institutes New Tech Standards Policy...

IBM on Tuesday released a policy the company plans to follow when interacting with any technical standards organization. The policy, Big Blue claims, is being instituted to ensure that any technical standards organization in which IBM participates assures that electronic devices and software programs are developed in order to interact with one another.

The new standards policy comes after IBM voiced its dissent in an apparent dig at Microsoft in April when the International Organization of Standards (ISO) agreed to fast track Open Office XML for international standardization. OOXML, used by Microsoft's Office 2007 productivity suite, is a competitor of the OpenDocument Format (ODF), which IBM supports.

IBM has said the fast-track approval process was inadequate in light of the complexity of OOXML (more than 6,000 pages of code), and exposed flaws in the standardization process. "People now have some sense that there are no brakes on putting the wrong standards though some existing processes," Bob Sutor, IBM's executive vice president of standards, wrote at the time.

Yet even with IBMs protests, the ISO and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) approved the ISO/IEC DIS 29500, the official moniker given to the publication of the OOXML specification.

IBM's policy update comes after the publication of ISO/IEC DIS 29500 which may have prompted Big Blue to facilitate an online discussion forum between 70 independent experts in the fields of law, academia, standards, government and public policy. The conversation, which was conducted over the summer of 2008, brought the computer manufacturer to adopt the following standards when interacting with open technology standards groups, such as the ISO.

The tenets of IBM's new policy are to:

• Begin or end participation in standards bodies based on the quality and openness of their processes, membership rules, and intellectual property policies.

• Encourage emerging and developed economies to both adopt open global standards and to participate in the creation of those standards.

• Advance governance rules within standards bodies that ensure technology decisions, votes, and dispute resolutions are made fairly by independent participants, protected from undue influence.

• Collaborate with standards bodies and developer communities to ensure that open software interoperability standards are freely available and implementable.

• Help drive the creation of clear, simple and consistent intellectual property policies for standards organizations, thereby enabling standards developers and implementers to make informed technical and business decisions.

"Common, open and consensus-based technology standards from reputable standards bodies help ensure that each of us can easily purchase and interchangeably use computing technology from multiple vendors," Bob Sutor, IBM vice president of open source and standards, said in a statement. "The ways in which they are created and adopted provide reasonable assurances that disparate products will work with one another, and withstand the test of time."

IBM's policy is effective immediately.

University of Pune ties up with Intel...

The University of Pune (UoP) and semiconductor giant Intel India on Monday announced a joint initiative in order to create a specialised workforce in Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) layout design, required by the semiconductor industry.

The programme aims at tapping talented postgraduate and undergraduate science students and generating awareness about the opportunities that exist for basic science passouts, in specialised fields like VLSI design.

Initially, the focus will be on M.Sc students from UoP’s department of electronic science (DoES) and undergraduate students will later be covered later in areas such as custom layout for integrated circuits (IC) design.

VLSI refers to the process of creating integrated circuits by combining thousands of transistor-based circuits in a single chip. The semiconductor industry is a major user of this process to create products that have wide-ranging applications across the industry.

While trained manpower employability for India’s VLSI design industry is pegged at 7.80 lakh by 2015, the industry continues to grapple with a huge demand-supply gap for competent professionals.

As part of its corporate social responsibility activity, Intel runs a dedicated higher education (IHE) progamme that focusses on technology curriculum, research with universities, student programmes and technology entrepreneurship. It is through IHE that Intel got into the country’s ‘first-of-its-kind tie-up’ involving a university electronic science department.

While the tie-up was jointly announced by Pandit Vidyasagar, director, UoP’s board of college and university development, and Manav Subodh, corporate affairs head for Intel India’s south-west region — the foundation was laid last year when UoP DoES and Intel started a pilot project to train 10 M.Sc students in VLSI layout design.

Senior DoES faculty member S.V. Ghaisas said, “Intel helped us install the Cadence software tools required for IC mask design studies, which is a key stepping stone to advanced learning in VLSI design.” The select students underwent a six-month special internship programme at Intel’s India headquarters in Bangalore as well as at other companies like Sasken, he said. “Barring one student, who went for MS studies abroad, the rest got jobs at leading companies,” said Ghaisas.

Interacting with reporters, Subodh conceded that joint initiatives like these needed to be scaled up further to meet the huge manpower requirement. “What we have attempted here is to explore the niche areas where the universities have a strength and work towards structured programmes,” he said. The idea was also to retain the interest of basic science students in such niche areas, he added.

On his part, Vidyasagar said that the tie-up forms a key element of the UoP’s thrust on greater industry-institute interaction. “We want such joint initiatives to work as sort of integrated finishing schools that ensure direct employability for students,” he said.

Source: The Times of India

Lift could take passengers straight into space...

Japanese scientists are attempting to build a lift that will take passengers 62,000 miles into space.

The project could see the realisation of a vision that has inspired science fiction writers for generations.

	A Nasa image of how a 'space elevator' might look

The lift's carriages, which will themselves require new feats of engineering, would move up and down 22,000 mile-long cables.

Those cables would need to be stronger and lighter than any material ever woven.

They would be anchored to the ground and disappear into the sky, eventually reaching a satellite docking station orbiting above the Earth.

Scientists hope that as well as carrying human passengers, the carriages could also haul huge, solar-powered generators that could power homes and businesses back on Earth. It could also remove barrels of nuclear waste, dumping them into space.

"Just like travelling abroad, anyone will be able to ride the elevator into space," Shuichi Ono, chairman of the Japan Space Elevator Association, told The Times.

Japan's promise to spend £5 billion on the project has sparked swift reaction from other quarters: several competing space lift projects are now believed to be under way, with Nasa among those involved.

An international conference is to be held in Japan in November, aiming to draw up a detailed timetable for the machine's production.

One of the biggest challenges is expected to be producing a fabric for the lift's cables. It must be extremely light while also resilient enough to resist the various matter that it will be struck by in space. It is expected that an answer will be found in carbon nanotubes - microscopic particles woven into fibres.

Professor Yoshio Aoki, a director of Japan's Space Elevator Association and a professor of precision machinery engineering at Nihon University, said the cables would need to be 180 times stronger than steel. It would also need to four times stronger than the strongest carbon nanotube fibre ever produced, he added.

On the question of how the lift's carriages will be powered, Prof Aoki said: "We are thinking of using the technology employed in our bullet trains.

"Carbon nanotubes are good conductors of electricity, so we are thinking of having a second cable to provide power all along the route."

It is thought the concept of the lift was first envisioned by the great sci-fi writer Arthur C Clarke, in his 1979 book The Fountains of Paradise.

India to Reach for the Moon Next Month...

Chandrayaan is all set to make history; taking India to the moon...

If everything goes as planned, any of the days starting October 19th to 28th would be remembered as a red-letter day for us Indians. Our very first, homespun lunar probe, Chandrayaan is all set to make its first voyage to our nearest celestial body -- the Moon on these tentative dates -- depending on the weather conditions then. If the weather plays spoil sport, the mission will need to be postponed to December. In any case, a successful mission will no doubt put India in the elite club of counties who have been able to send missions to moon.

Chandrayaan is still undergoing tests and is yet to clear the vibration and acoustic tests, which it would be subjected to later this week. These tests will simulate the conditions that the probe will need to bear at the tine of launch. These include high-temperatures, vibrations during take off and not to mention, the tremendous noise that is expected of a typical rocket launch.

Chandrayaan will carry as many as 11 payloads -- five from India, three from the European Space Agency (ESA), one from the Bulgarian Space Agency (BSA) and two from NASA, making it a truly global initiative. The two-year mission will be invaluable as the Chandrayaan is programmed to orbit the Lunar surface and digitally map it. It will also send information on the traces of the composition of the lunar surface apart from looking for atomic minerals such as thorium and uranium. The probe is also equipped with high-resolution cameras which could help shed some light on the existence of water on the moon.

A modified (rather upgraded) PSLV launch vehicle will be used to transport the probe to the lunar orbit. Due to the modifications, the PSLV C-11 will have a lift-off weight of 316 tonnes, which is much higher than the "standard" 294-ton version. Additionally, the payload capacity too has been increased from 1600 kg to 1800 kg. The PSLV has been the most successful launch vehicle for ISRO till date. It also holds the record for sending as many as 10 satellites simultaneously during its last mission. This time round, it is all set to break its own record by carrying 11 different payloads.

Undoubtedly, the Indian space program has come a long way since its initial stages when the first rocket transporter happened to be a bicycle, which carried the 9 kilo rocket to the "launch pad"! That was back in 1963 when visionaries like Vikram Sarabhai and APJ Abdul Kalam laid the foundation of what has become one of the greatest success stories of India.

Helium Leak Shuts Down LHC For Two Months...

After last week’s transformer failure, a new hardware malfunction has stopped the LHC dead in its tracks. This time, the electrical link between two of the particle accelerator’s massive 30-ton superconducting magnets has failed, causing a magnet quench event. Due to having to warm up the section of the tunnel containing the magnet in order to conduct repairs, and then cool it back down to its -271°C operating temperature, these repairs will take at least two months.

Technical setbacks have plagued the Large Hadron Collider ever since it was started on September the 10th, including a transformer failure which shut down its cooling plant, which was only repaired on Thursday. Immediately afterwards, on Friday, during a test, one of the bus bar connections which linked cables between the magnets failed, and melted thus causing roughly a ton of liquid helium to leak into one of the tunnel sections. The fire brigade had to be called to handle the situation. "It seems to be a badly made connection – but this all has to be confirmed once we have had the chance to take a look at it," said James Gillies, director of communications at CERN.

The rather large dipole magnets that are used to steer protons around the Large Hadron Collider’s circular tract, are superconductive. What this means is that scientists have taken advantage of a property of matter by which its electrical resistance is lowered to naught when cooled very close to absolute zero. This allows much more current to be passed through the magnets, giving them much more force in steering the supercharged particles, which can run at up to 7 terra-electron-volts.

Non-superconductive magnets simply would not be strong enough to handle the proton beams, which would steer off-track, hitting the collider pipe walls. These particles, at such energy levels, can melt through several feet of steel in nanoseconds, so you don’t want those out of control.

Getting the magnets to and out of such low temperatures however – colder than outer space – takes a while however, and were it not required to use superconducting magnets, the repairs would only take a few days. This way, it will at least take two months, dangerously narrowing the window of opportunity in which to conduct the collision tests. This is because the LHC facility shuts down during the winter to save on energy costs. If they don’t get the problem fixed by then, there won’t be any collision until 2009.

CERN physicists are not very worried though, and are calling this an expected setback as the LHC, which is arguably the most complex machine ever built, has been in construction for 20 years and has so far cost more than $8 billion, and such hitches have been very probable since the beginning.

"If you keep an eye on the big picture, we've been building the machine for 20 years. The switch-on was always going to be a long process," said Gillies, who went on to say that "A year or two down the line, this moment will be a distant memory, and we'll be running smoothly."

The LHC’s Gala Inauguration party, set for October 21, will still take place, according to Dr. Gillies.

Android Era Set To Begin...

When Google unveiled its Android mobile software platform last November, it was clear that the search giant had broader ambitions than just a gPhone.

The Linux-based open source platform and the Google (NSDQ: GOOG)-backed Open Handset Alliance are seeking to merge the openness of the Internet with the mobile space. These lofty goals potentially make Android a major disruption in the mobile communications industry. However, multiple questions remain.

One thing for certain, T-Mobile will officially announce the first Android-powered handset Sept. 23. While details aren't official, FCC filings suggest the Dream (or G1) will sport a large touch-screen that flips out to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard.

The smartphone is expected to have built-in Wi-Fi, GPS, and will be capable of using T-Mobile's expanding 3G network. It's expected to be on sale in mid-October, and the handset will undoubtedly have an entire industry watching it.

Google's Dream

Android Market's open content distribution system will help users find, purchase, download, and install content onto their Android-powered devices.

For Google, Android is all about getting mobile users on the Internet where the search giant can use its expertise to provide a better user experience. The operating system is royalty-free so hardware manufacturers can potentially spend their money on better hardware or on research and development.

Additionally, Google wants to make it easier for mobile users to download and add applications to their mobile devices like they can on a PC. The open-source nature will potentially allow others to improve the software, like with the desktop Linux.

Strategy Analytics predict the Android smartphone will capture 4% of the U.S. smartphone market in the fourth quarter. This represents about 400,000 units sold, and it is a healthy figure considering the handset's not expected to go on sale until the middle of the quarter.

According to Chris Ambrosio, executive director of Strategy Analytics, the Dream's price point will be an important factor of adoption, and The Wall Street Journal recently reported the first Android handset will debut for $199.

Ambrosio said there appears to be a large level of interest within the industry, but the mass-market appeal is currently lacking. That should change after T-Mobile's official announcement, as the carrier will probably put great efforts to market the first Android-powered handset.

Jason Spero, VP of marketing for AdMob, said there hasn't been a clear marketing push for Android. Despite recent crossover, Spero said the BlackBerry is primarily marketed as the best for the mobile workforce, and the iPhone is marketed as a consumer device.

"It's important for the group of people delivering Android devices to articulate a value proposition for a core audience," Spero said.

Despite this, analyst firm Gartner recently estimated Android will account for 10% of the smartphone market by 2011. But, analysts said the first generation of devices may not capture the public's interest like an iPhone.

"The G1 is the first device coming to market supporting Google's operating system Android," said Roberta Cozza, Gartner's principal analyst, in a statement. "Although this will give us a taste of what the platform will be able to do, we are expecting some limitations given this is the first device."
While the Android OS will eventually be on a slew of devices from Sprint, LG and Samsung, it's inevitable that the Dream will be compared to Apple's iPhone.
This comparison is not exactly fair as every aspect of the iPhone was developed primarily by a single company, whereas the Dream's hardware was made by HTC, and its software comes from more than one OHA members.

Even though it has similar features, the Dream probably won't offer the same "wow" factor that the iPhone did, industry experts said. But as popular as the iPhone is, it still accounts for a relatively small percentage of the overall handset market.

Shawn Bohonos, CEO of Routeme2 Technologies, recently saw his application named a finalist in Google's Android Developer's Challenge. He said the platform and the industry consortium will lead to innovation in the mobile arena.

"A similar comparison is the CDMA vs. GSM debate, when initially CDMA was able to innovate more quickly than GSM since it was developed by a small group of companies," Bohonos said. "GSM, on the other hand was developed by a consortium, which did not yield itself to rapid development, but over time, it was able to achieve better economies of scale and adoption than CDMA, thereby driving end user costs down."

Applications

The success of Apple's App Store, which is on pace for a billion downloads sometime in 2009, has shown the hunger for mobile applications. These mobile programs will be a critical driver in adoption of Android devices.

But Google is taking a different approach to the distribution of these apps, and its Android Marketplace will have fewer restrictions than Apple's. For example, Apple pre-approves all applications in its store and takes a 30% cut of any sold. Google said its Android Market will feature a YouTube-like system for publishing, distributing, and commenting on apps, and the search giant won't take any of the revenue.

Some developers are already praising Google for its open approach with both the market, and its SDK.

"The fact that Android apps can be developed in Java means that existing Java ME applications are easier to port to Android than to the iPhone, since code can be reused, whereas for the iPhone it needs to be rewritten in another language," said Bohonos. "Thus, the barrier to entry of Android has dramatically reduced the skills required to get up and running on mobile devices."

Ambrosio said the debate over a closed or open distribution method is not as important as the support offered and the interest it can generate for your brand. Because of this, he sees the Android Market as critical to Google because it enables them to tie their online offerings to mobile.

"Apple is much more into selling boxes," said Ambrosio. "For Google, more than any single handset or device, it's important to get the app store right."

The Android platform seems squarely aimed at the consumer market, but some figure it could eventually be Google strongest move into the enterprise market.

As more companies rely on Web-based mission-critical software, Ambrosio sees Google's strengths in that area as a major advantage for Android devices. But he expects Google to target the consumer market first, and eventually make a strong push for the enterprise.

A recent study by J. Gold Associates suggests that most companies will take a wait-and-see approach with Android, though.

The report said Research In Motion (NSDQ: RIMM) will remain the dominant player in the United States for enterprise smartphones, with nearly 60% of the market in 2011. This will be followed by Windows Mobile, Apple's iPhone, Symbian, and Palm. The report estimated Android will garner a relatively small 4.8% of the market in three years.

A Crowded Market

Cracking the mobile market won't be easy, as companies like RIM, Windows Mobile, Symbian, and Apple won't give up their market share without a fight. Many companies are emphasizing their experience in the mobile space as Nokia, the largest manufacturer of smartphones in the world, recently upped the ante in the software war by buying out Symbian in June and creating the SymbiaFoundation with the goal of making Symbian an open source OS. Executives believe the company's "mobile DNA" will enable the OS to remain dominant.

"I think that the fact there is a mature platform that is being introduced in an open source environment kind of changes the game," said David Rivas, head of technology management atNokia (NYSE: NOK)'s S60, in an interview with Reuters. "The choices up until then were: You could go with proprietary and mature, or you could go with immature and free. Now there is a choice that is free and mature."

he Last Microsoft Ad Strategy: The Disco Mom...

Microsoft has morphed its weird Gates-Seinfeld ads into new, "I'm a PC" ads--short video clips submitted by the general public, each saying what they do and telling the world that they are a PC. This is a direct attack on Apple's "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC" ads, where the two characters symbolize the platforms.

These dingbat Microsoft ads kind of miss the point. The people don't symbolize anything. They say who they are and that they are a PC, which makes no sense whatsoever because they are not PCs. They are people. They use a PC, but they are NOT a PC, unless they are mentally deranged.

he differences between the Apple and Microsoft campaigns actually aren't so subtle, but this seems lost on Microsoft. Apple uses humans in a kind of transmogrified sense to represent the two platforms and speak for them in a way unflattering to Microsoft. Microsoft finds happy users who are willing to say they are a PC for no apparent reason.

This is dumb. That said, a friend of mine thinks it is brilliant, because anytime you engage the public by exploiting the public itself, you always have a winner. People love to see themselves on TV, and Microsoft promises that they will.

I'm not convinced, since only a few hundred at most will get in on these ditties, and it amounts to very little effect overall. And I notice that on the main page Microsoft has duplicates already. Two Ballmers are clearly seen with duplicates all around him. So the whole thing is something of a scam from the beginning.

I did notice something curious in my own behavior, however. I was clicking on some of the people and stumbled upon some shapely woman standing in a bikini saying that she was a Disco Mom. I'm not sure what that means, but she was attractive and worth looking at. A few of the other women were compelling enough to click on, too. This told me that the site is boring except for the possibility of spotting a pretty girl. "That's it!" I thought to myself. The never-fails, find-a-pretty-girl trick.

Just line the Web site with the prettiest girls you can find, all extolling the virtues of the PC and what it does. You know, the really shallow crap Playboy traditionally promotes in its centerfold profiles. Dumb "who really cares?" stuff.

I can assure you that the first "I'm a PC and I'm a stripper!" will get some serious attention. Let's see, Microsoft can make hay with the aerobics instructor, yoga instructor, second-grade teacher, Ellen Feiss (beep-beep-beep-beep), every B-movie actress in Hollywood, singers, dancers, and even showgirls! Just go for the cheesecake; Vista will fly off the shelves and the stock will skyrocket. People will click like crazy, watching all the advertisements to see what new hubba-hubba girl will appear next.

Now, if there were some way to take this idea over the top, here is my suggestion for the furtherance of the campaign and the cheesecake idea: Find the hottest women who will submit videos. And to balance things, find a few guys, too. They end up on the TV commercial, say that they are a PC, and give out their phone number. "I'm a Vegas showgirl and I'm a PC. Call me at my number (flashes on screen) for more information about me."

A computerized phone system answers all the inbound calls and the showgirl (or Disco Mom or whomever you called) answers the phone with a recording. "Hi, I'm Rhonda the Vegas showgirl and I'm a PC. I'm 5' 11" tall, 135 pounds, and my measurements are 36-24-36…and I love being a PC. In fact I'm just crazy about being a PC, and I make sure I'm always up-to-date with the newest software from Microsoft. You should, too. You really should! If you want a special offer from me to you, just press 1 on your touch-tone phone…." It can go on like this with all sorts of come-ons and follow ups.

Microsoft can sell upgrades, get people on the mailing list—whatever. This is direct sales at its best. Right now on that Microsoft ad site there is zero incentive to even click the Buy or Downloads button at the top. Most people won't even see them unless coaxed to look.

The company has a potential goldmine here if it cares to exploit it. But that wouldn't be politically correct, would it? Actually, I think the Disco Mom will be the end of it. But the gold is there to be mined.

Intel vPro Technology Looks to Better Secure, Manage Corporate Desktops...

The latest version of Intel’s vPro technology for desktops, formally codenamed “McCreary,” adds new management and security features that should make it easier for IT managers to fix and monitor a fleet of corporate desktops. Intel is also enhancing vPro with new features called Dynamic Virtual Client, which will allow various virtualization technologies to work with and take advantage of Intel’s vPro features.

Intel is sprucing up its vPro management and security technology for corporate desktops by adding new features, including allowing PCs to “call” an IT administrator for help. Intel is also working with partners and ISVs to improve the ability to create a virtual desktop infrastructure by using vPro technology.

Intel announced the latest enhancements to its vPro Technology Platform during a Sept. 22 event. The latest version of Intel’s vPro Technology – formally called “McCreary” – includes support for Intel's newer duel- and quad-core Core 2 desktop processors. There is also a new chip set – the Intel Q45 Express – and the 82567LM Gigabit Network Connection.

The vPro Technology, which Intel first introduced for desktops in 2006 and then for laptops in 2007, is essentially a chip bundle designed to make it easier for IT departments to manage and secure a large corporate fleet of PCs. Intel has been partnering with companies such as Symantec and LANDesk to provide the security and desktop management software.

The updates Intel announced this week around vPro represent another incremental step as the chip giant looks to convince more of its customers to begin using the technology that has been include with their corporate desktops. Roger Kay, an analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates, believes that enterprises will still need about 25 percent of the fleet to have Intel vPro installed within the desktops before its makes economic sense to invest in the management features.

“My sense now is that there are a slightly higher proportion of enterprises that have met the [vPro] criteria and Intel is starting to get some adoption,” said Kay.

At the same time, Intel is hoping that by adding more features, it can entice its customers to look at and invest in the vPro Technology platform.

The features that Intel introduced this week include the ability for the IT department to connect with and fix a PC, whether the desktop or notebook is inside or outside the corporate firewall. The new set of technologies also allows an administrator to contact the PC whether the machine is fully functioning or if it has been damaged and the operating system is no longer working or has been crippled.

Within this out-of-band technology, Intel has added two features. The first is Remote Alert, which allows a PC to call the IT department on its own without notifying the user first. The second is Remote Scheduled Maintenance, which allows the IT manager to schedule maintenances checkups automatically.

In addition, Intel has added a tool called Access Monitor, which keeps a log of activities within an individual PC and can also determine and stop a virus or malware. Intel is also adding support for Microsoft’s Network Access Protection or NAP, which helps determine the health of PC attached to the network. (vPro also supports Cisco Systems Network Admission Control or NAC.)

The fact that Intel is offering its own desktop and laptops management does not mean that it’s the only choice IT department have if they decide they need this level of protection. For its part, Advanced Micro Devices, which just released its first complete desktop platform earlier this year, is supporting and pushing DASH (desktop and mobile architecture for system hardware) standards as a better and more open way to secure PCs.

While Intel’s vPro is proprietary, the company also supports DASH as well.

However, Intel is looking ahead toward a future where more and more companies might decide to create and invest in a virtual desktop infrastructure. Some of the companies that are pushing the VDI model include VMware, Citrix and Microsoft.

To that end, Intel also introduced a program called Dynamic Virtual Client. This allows Intel to work with ISVs and other virtualization providers to offer a way for a VDI environment to work with and take advantage of vPro Technology and other features such as Active Management Technology and Trusted Execution Technology.

The Dynamic Virtual Client technology works as an application delivery system. The technology creates a secure container and then this container can deliver the operating system and application to a client, while allowing IT to control the data from a central location.

For example, Intel vPro will work with Microsoft’s Application Virtualization v4.5 – formally SoftGrid – to allow for remote waking and updating of a client with the virtual application cached within the client’s drive. This allows IT to push an update without notifying the user and saves power by allowing for a central way to wake up and shut down PCs.

“The world is rapidly turning into a mix or real and virtual systems,” said Kay. “One adaptation of vPro is to handle the virtual world better. When vPro was first introduced two years ago, virtualization for the desktop was still pretty rare. In order to adapt, Intel has to work with the virtual versions of things. With what ever client session is going on, some subset of vPro has to work with this [VDI] and allow it to come up on a console.”

Finally, Intel is also moving toward making vPro available for small and midsized businesses (SMBs) with 25 or less PCs. For SMBs, Intel is providing Remote PC Assist Technology, which helps a business connect with a service provider that will then use the out-of-band technology to monitor and updates that businesses desktop and notebooks.

IBM Scientists Unlock the Secret of the Kondo Effect...

Scientists at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA have forged a breakthrough in understanding an intriguing phenomenon in fundamental physics: the Kondo effect. They report their findings today in the scientific journal Nature Physics.

The Kondo effect, one of the few examples in physics where many particles collectively behave as one object (a single quantum-mechanical body), has intrigued scientists around the world for decades. Now, using a technique that was developed by the same team in 2007, the IBM researchers have shown, for the first time anywhere, that it is possible to predict when the Kondo effect will occur -- and to understand why.

The key turns out to be in the geometry of a magnetic atom's immediate surroundings. By carefully studying how this geometry influences the magnetic moment (or "spin") of the atom, the emergence of the Kondo effect can now be predicted and understood. This result represents a major advancement in fundamental physics.

The achievement is one of the latest in IBM's more than two decades of nanotechnology leadership and exploration of the world of magnetism at the atomic scale. Starting with the invention of the Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) in 1981, IBM has been at the forefront of research aimed at expanding our abilities to investigate and manipulate individual atoms.

A look at the Kondo Effect

When a single magnetic atom is located inside a metal, the free electrons of the metal 'screen' the atom. That way, a cloud of many electrons around the atom becomes magnetized. Sometimes, if the metal is cooled down to very low temperatures, the atomic spin enters a so-called 'quantum superposition' state. In this state its north-pole points in two opposite directions at the same time. As a result, the entire electron cloud around the spin will also be simultaneously magnetized in two directions.

For more information about IBM, please visit www.ibm.com

Large Hadron Collider experiment delayed due to helium leak...

Img: LHC superconducting magnets. Credit LHC-2/flickr

A helium leak, which has disabled the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment on the French/Swiss border, is likely to take two months to repair.

European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) scientists said in statement released on the weekend that they had detected a helium leak on Friday which they believed was most likely caused by a faulty electrical connection between two magnets.

The connection had "...melted at high current leading to mechanical failure" said the statement, though CERN insisted that at no time was there any danger to people.

The organisation said they thought the problem should be fixed in a few days once accessible, though added the sector where the problem occurred will have to be warmed up above its operational absolute zero in order for repairs to be carried out.

"A number of magnets raised their temperature by around 100 degrees," said James Gillies, spokesman for CERN. "We have now to warm up the whole sector in a controlled manner before we can actually go in and repair it."

The $10 million atom smasher would then need to cooled back to absolute zero to re-start operations.

The world's largest, and most expensive, atom-smashing experiment, will attempt to recreate the conditions experienced in the Universe just one trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. Physicists are hopeful the LHC experiment will go some way to answering many questions including uncovering evidence of the elusive Higgs boson, or "God particle", the theoretical particle which would explain how matter gets its mass.

CERN are expecting a "minimum" down time of two months.

IBM to enter solar cell arena...

Following the IC slowdown, New York is turning its attention towards solar, especially in the Hudson Valley.

Several smaller solar start-ups have set up shop in Hudson Valley, which is just outside New York City. But the area may get a huge boost, as IBM Corp. is reportedly looking to enter the solar-cell fray.

Encompassing nine counties that stretch 150 miles from just outside New York City nearly to Albany, the Hudson Valley is the fastest growing part of New York State.

IBM may enter the market on its own or with a partner. The company has announced several solar technology breakthroughs, but has yet to enter the merchant solar market.

Frank Falatyn, vice chairman of the Solar Energy Consortium in Hudson Valley, said a ''very large company'' is interested in moving into the market, but he declined to elaborate. Many speculate about IBM's intent. Falatyn is also president of Fala Technologies Inc., which offers turnkey engineering and manufacturing services.

Many hi-tech companies in Hudson Valley are moving into solar amid huge demand for the technology. For example, Prism Solar Technologies Inc. recently announced that it has received the first equipment for its 60 megawatt holographic film production line in Tucson, Arizona.

In Ulster County, just outside New York City, the company will shortly open a plant. It will be developing and manufacturing proprietary holographic optical film technology as well as photovoltaic modules incorporating its Holographic Planar Concentrator (HPC) technology.

The company estimates that it will bring more than 140 jobs within three years into the community, and more than 400 jobs within five years. Prism has raised more than Rs.36.43 crore ($8.5 million) dollars primarily from venture capital firms and expects to be announcing an agreement on a manufacturing site in Ulster County in the near future.

Another start-up, Solar Thin Films Inc., a developer of manufacturing equipment for the production of "thin-film" amorphous silicon photovoltaic modules, has recently signed an agreement with Ulster County, New York, for the establishment of a solar module manufacturing plant.

The facility will represent Solar Thin Films' first amorphous solar module manufacturing plant in the United States.

The company will utilise solar module manufacturing machinery produced by Kraft Electronikai Srt., based in Budapest, Hungary, a subsidiary of Solar Thin Films. The company anticipates that, once established, the facility will be capable of establishing six lines of equipment capable of producing 36 megawatts of module power.

In addition, Solar Thin Films will also use its new Ulster County location for research into the enhancement of amorphous silicon module efficiency as well as the development of copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) panels. The parties believe that the new facility will create a substantial number of new jobs in Ulster County over the next five years.

Is IBM next? IBM has developed technology in the arena. Recently, for example, IBM said it has managed to squeeze 230W of power on to a centimeter square of solar panel using concentrator photovoltaics. The energy was then converted to 70W of usable electric power, the best power efficiency yet achieved, the company claimed.

The IBM researchers used a very thin layer of a liquid metal made of a gallium and indium compound that they applied between the chip and a cooling block. Such layers, called thermal interface layers, transfer the heat from the chip to the cooling block so that the chip temperature can be kept really low.

IBM and Japan's Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co. Ltd. (TOK) recently said they are collaborating to establish low-cost methods for bringing solar cells to the market. TOK and IBM have agreed to develop processes, materials, and equipment suitable for the production of solar cells, based on copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) technology.

Expecting Google’s Android Launch...

T-Mobile is expected to be the first carrier offering a phone based on Google's Android platform, set to be announced next Tuesday. Android, which will become open source around the time the first Android handset comes out, is intended as an easier platform for developers to work with.

The device is developed and manufactured by HTC, and called the Dream.

A press event will take place on Tuesday, September 23, at which the first smartphone running Google's Android operating system will be announced. However, the invite doesn't promise that this product will be released next week. T-Mobile USA is now in beta testing, which is designed to slash the time and effort required to get an application on the fourth-largest U.S. mobile operator's phones.

Android represents the basis of the new device which also comes with a new Linux-based operating system for smartphones being developed by Google and a group of partners. This will be strongly tied to Google online services, and may even by advertiser supported.

Rumor has it that the Dream will be priced at $199 if bought with a two-year service contract. Among the Dream's features will be a large touch-screen, a track-ball for navigation and a swivel-out full keyboard, the Journal said. It will also run several Google applications, such as Maps, and feature an online market place that has the same properties as Apple's Store.

"We expect Android will eventually offer a compelling range of mobile applications emphasizing Google's online assets, such as advertising, mapping and search," Neil Mawston, director at Strategy Analytics, wrote in a report released Friday.

An Einstein fridge that can run without power?

Scientists at Oxford University are working on a 1930 invention by Albert Einstein to develop an environmentally friendly refrigerator which they claim will run without electricity.

Previous researches have suggested that modern fridges emit greenhouse gases called freons and as a result damage the environment. Now the Oxford team is developing appliances that can work without electricity and thereby reduce the gases.

In fact, they have already completed a prototype of a type of fridge patented in 1930 by Einstein and his colleague, the Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard, 'The Observer' reported. The design was partly used in the first domestic refrigerators before more efficient compressors became popular in the 1950s. It avoids the need for freons and instead uses ammonia, butane and water and takes advantage of the fact that liquids boil at lower temperatures when air pressure is lower.

"If you go to the top of Mount Everest, water boils at a much lower temperature than it does when you're at sea level and that's because the pressure is much lower up there," lead scientist Malcolm McCulloch said.

At one side is the evaporator, a flask that contains butane. "If you introduce a new vapour above the butane, the liquid boiling temperature decreases and, as it boils off, it takes energy from the surroundings to do so. That's what makes it cold," he said. Pressurised gas fridges based around Einstein's design were replaced by freon-compressor fridges partly as they were not very efficient.

But, according to the British scientists, by tweaking the design and replacing the types of gases used it would be possible to quadruple the efficiency of the refrigerators that could well be the GenNext appliances.

Source: Business Standard

Palin E-Mail Hack Underlines Webmail Vulnerabilities...

The recent attack that invaded Governor Sarah Palin’s e-mail account and her privacy drew attention to public web-based e-mail systems’ inherent vulnerabilities, due to the relatively simple way in which Gov. Palin’s account was broken into.

The attacker, who goes by the handle Rubico on blogs and forums, and who is suspected of being a 20-year-old student from Tennessee, has posted on 4chan.org forums an account of how he gained access to Sarah Palin’s yahoo account using the Yahoo password recovery form and publicly available information.

Now, Gov. Palin is a public person, therefore it is easier to obtain personal information about her using sites such as Wikipedia. But even if your personal history is not a matter of general attention, public records or social networking websites, like Facebook for instance, make it relatively easy for someone to obtain enough information to give the correct answers to “security questions” asked by the password recovery systems of public websites.

Alternatives to these relatively easy to guess questions are using secondary e-mail addresses to send one’s password to, or simply lying about your details in the account details. Most web users are conditioned to tell the truth in such forms, and will do so without a second thought, possibly jeopardizing their privacy.

Even though no saucy details were unearthed by Gov. Palin’s e-mail hack, the act embarrassingly proves the point of those who criticized the vice-presidential candidate for using a public e-mail address to conduct state-business: they’re simply not secure enough right now.

The public scandal – it always seems to take one for any overdue change to happen – will most likely prompt web-mail companies to re-think the way they handle security. But until then, if you think your privacy is safe when using them, think again.

Apple recalls defective Iphone power adapters...

APPLE has ordered a recall of its ultracompact USB power adapters.

The adapters, originally packaged with the Iphone 3G, apparently contain flimsy metal prongs that are susceptible to snapping.

According to Apple, the broken prongs could "remain in a power outlet, creating a risk of electric shock".

The flawed adapters were reportedly sold in the U.S., Japan, Canada, Mexico and South America. Club Cupertino recommended that customers in the affected countries stop using their adapters "immediately" and exchange them for new ones. The company also confirmed reports of "detached" prongs but emphasised that they had caused no known injuries.

The once-shiny fruit has been seriously tarnished by serious 3G network woes and critical OS X security vulnerabilities.

As the Inquirer previously reported, a San Diego man has sued Apple and US wireless partner AT&T over their failure to deliver promised network performance for the Iphone 3G.

In addition, Le Pomme was recently forced to fix a shocking total of 33 bugs, 9 of which enabled remote code execution in OS X (Leopard).

Govt. to chalk out strict norms for Wi-Fi security...

With terrorists using open Wi-Fi networks to communicate, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Department of Information and Technology (DIT) are working out steps to check this practice.

Investigations into the recent bomb blasts at Ahmedabad and Delhi showed widespread use of wireless technology.

A DIT official said the department was in talks with the DoT and some action in terms of general guidelines, instructions and advisories could be expected soon.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is also looking at various measures taken globally to make such networks secure.

The discussion between the telecom regulator and the DoT also revolves around carrying a campaign by the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to educate their customers on security measures related to Wi-Fi.

An official of the cyber security wing of the DIT, the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), said the ISPs should provide features like passwords and their protection.

Open networks are easy to access as the most widely used default password for Wi-Fi open network is 1234.

ISPs, however, denounce this point saying Wi-Fi routers are easily available in the market and it is the customer who should take care to protect his passwords.

The unsecured networks should be made secure by customers themselves for their own security. All an ISP can do is educate the user to be more careful on passwords for Wi-Fi technology, said Rajesh Chharia, president, Internet Service Providers Association of India.

Source: Business Standard

Helium leak forces two-month shutdown at LHC...

The world's largest particle collider has been shut down for at least two months due to a large helium leak stemming from an incident Friday, officials said.

The Large Hadron Collider is a gigantic particle accelerator located in a nearly 17-mile-long circular tunnel along the French-Swiss border about 330 feet underground. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research, also known as CERN.

The collider was officially launched on September 10 when the first particle beam was successfully sent around the full circuit. On the heels of an earlier malfunction due to a faulty transformer, CERN said Friday's incident was most likely caused "by a faulty electrical connection between two magnets, which probably melted at high current leading to mechanical failure." At no time was there any risk to people, CERN added.

Although a full investigation is still underway, CERN announced Saturday that the section of the tunnel will have to be "warmed up" for repairs, which means the LHC will be down for at least two months.

The LHC experiments involve accelerating two beams of subatomic particles--called hadrons--in opposite directions to more than 99.9 percent the speed of light. Smashing the beams together will create showers of new particles for physicists to study using special detectors.

The result is expected to push forward theories of particle physics and the fundamental building blocks of all things. The LHC was designed primarily as an attempt to product the "Higgs boson," a hypothetical particle whose observation would help confirm some of the predictions in the Standard Model of physics. Other currently theoretical particles may also be observed for the first time, including microscopic black holes.

Some have theorized that the black hole experiments could go wrong with catastrophic results, but CERN has done extensive safety analysis and has repeatedly denied any such threat.

Intel India team lofts a ‘sixer’...

The world’s first six-in-one processor has been completely designed and developed in India.

Engineers of the Design Enterprise Group at the Bangalore development centre of chipmaker Intel have crafted the latest Xeon processor, used to fuel high-end, server-type computers.

The 7400-series has 1.9 billion transistors on board to drive six separate cores or computing units. That means after dual and quad processors, we are now offered one chip doing the job of six.

Better performance

Code-named ‘Dunnington’ during its development (the joke among Intel geeks is that it should be renamed DunninIndia), the chip delivers one-and-half times more performance and power savings than earlier Xeon processors, R. Ravichandran, director-sales, Intel South Asia, said at the unveiling of the chip here last week.

Having designed the chip from scratch, the Intel India team also carried out “post-silicon validation,” making sure the design translates into a smooth manufacturing process when it is handed over to the silicon foundry.

Expertise in product design

Intel India president Praveen Vishakantaiah, who personally led the Dunnington team in its formative period, says: “We have achieved considerable expertise in product design and the proof of this is in today’s launch of the world’s first six core x86 processor, which has been completely designed here.”

Terascale chip

The India centre of Intel was also a key partner last year in delivering the world’s first terascale experimental chip capable of one trillion operations per second.

Source: The Hindu