i-Technology News Desk

Red Hat Pits Itself Against VMware

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 23:00:00 EDT

Watching VMware stock and its market cap spike since it IPO'd must have had Red Hat positively pea green with envyWatching VMware stock and its market cap spike since it IPO'd must have had Red Hat positively pea green with envy - so green in fact that it's gonna try taking VMware on by pushing the Xen virtualization integrated in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Red Hat's new goal is to underpin 50% of the world's servers by 2015. And since virtualization is projected to take over the world by then that's a lot of Xen virtualization - and there's no extra cost in it like there is with VMware since it's bundled with RHEL. (Red Hat's telling people they'll save $20,000-$30,000 a server.) Red Hat claims it's got its first 18,000 virtualized servers - although it's a little fuzzy about whether those 18,000 are actually in production - anyway, it's confident they'll get there eventually after all the testing and evaluating is done.

Beyond Words and Wires…Recovery Begins

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:05:00 EDT

In the aftermath of the horrific events of September 11, 2001, the entire nation came together to mourn the loss of those who died and suffered, and to plan a way to recover as a society as best we could. No words that I could write here would be adequate to convey how awful the atrocities were to witness or even to watch unfold on TV. Nor can mere words ever do justice to the extraordinary scenes of overwhelming human bravery and the endurance of the human spirit.

.NET Developer ThinkGeo Releases Map Suite 3.0

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:00:00 EDT

ThinkGeo is excited to announce the release of Map Suite Web Edition 3.0 Beta 1, the next generation of its professional ASP.NET GIS server control. Web Edition 3.0 has been re-engineered from the ground-up to help .NET developers create more efficient, more powerful and more attractive Internet and Intranet GIS applications.

Skyway Software & Atomikos Partner in Java EE App

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:30:00 EDT

Skyway Software announces a strategic partnership with Atomikos, a firm monitoring transaction processing (TP) activities in today’s software development and delivery activities.

Axceleon Releases Cloud Computing 'CloudFuzion' & 'EnFuzion3D'

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:00:00 EDT

Axceleon, a company involved in high performance cloud computing solutions for computational grids, clusters and render farms, announced the introduction of its new global workflow, pipeline and "seamless rendering" product named CloudFuzion.

Cascada Mobile Launches Breeze Apps

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:00:00 EDT

Following the launch of its Breeze mobile application development and distribution platform, Cascada Mobile is officially launching Breeze Apps, an online portal for finding and downloading free applications to mobile phones. The Breeze Apps portal makes it easy for anyone with a Java-capable mobile phone to discover new and innovative applications which they can download and install for free. Supported by more than 2 billion phones in the market today, Java is the most commonly used programming language for mobile phones.

Coverity Introduces Software Readiness Manager for Java

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:30:00 EDT

Coverity, Inc. announced the availability of Coverity Software Readiness Manager for Java. The product allows development managers, release managers and executives to objectively assess the release readiness of their critical code by combining essential data from multiple sources including Prevent, Coverity's static analysis product. Software Readiness Manager helps development teams deliver high-integrity code that successfully meets quality standards to align product development with business goals.

Dell Unlikely to Get Cloud Computing Trademark

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:00:00 EDT

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has reversed course on its earlier move to grant Dell trademark rights to the term "cloud computing." Dell received a preliminary notice on July 8 saying it could have the trademark, but it was withdrawn on Thursday.

Microsoft Money Heads to Cloud Computing

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:30:00 EDT

Microsoft has taken another step into its cloud computing future, revealing that it will no longer ship retail versions of its Money Plus personal finance package. Instead, the product will move to "100 percent online distribution" and will be updated when required, not on the previous schedule of once a year.

Java T-Mobile to Create App Store for 'Everyone'

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:30:00 EDT

T-Mobile has confirmed in the US that it is working with developers to create an Apple like App Store for all, not just some of its handsets.

AT&T Aims Cloud Computing Services at Big Companies

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:00:00 EDT

As Michael Phelps and other members of Team USA look to make history at the Olympics this week, the U.S. Olympic Committee expects fans to mob its Web site, seeking news and video from Beijing. To ensure that there are no glitches, the site is using AT&T 's new utility computing service to provide temporary Web server capacity. As the latest entrant into cloud computing, AT&T is aiming its managed computing, networking, security, and storage service at big companies. By positioning the service as part of its established hosting offerings, AT&T is trying to reassure companies that are still hesitant to take the leap to cloud computing.

Rackspace: Wall Street Does Cloud Computing

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:30:00 EDT

Wall Street gave a nod to cloud computing as San Antonio, Texas-based Rackspace Hosting on Friday opened for trading on the New York Stock Exchange following its initial public offering, Thursday.

VMware's New Global Virtualization Services

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:00:00 EDT

VMware, Inc. announced new educational services and certification programs designed to help IT professionals build world-class virtual environments. The programs are designed for varied positions, including systems administrators, design architects, operators and managers who are interested in enhancing their knowledge and skills of VMware Infrastructure for datacenter and desktop environments. New education offerings include the VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX) and Live Online and Flex Online courses.

Virtualization - Microsoft Prepares for End of Windows with Midori

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 10:00:00 EDT

With the Internet increasingly taking on the role of the PC operating system and the growing prevalence of virtualization technologies, there will be a day when the Microsoft Windows client OS as it's been developed for the past 20-odd years becomes obsolete. Microsoft seems to be preparing for that day with an incubation project code-named Midori, which seeks to create a componentized, non-Windows OS that will take advantage of technologies not available when Windows first was conceived, according to published reports.

Build N-Tier Applications with WPF, AJAX, Silverlight, LINQ, WCF

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:45:00 EDT

The advent of .NET 3.5 marks a turning point in how .NET developers approach programming. "It is our belief that .NET 3.5 in general, and Silverlight in particular, will change programming more significantly than anything that has come from Microsoft for a least a decade," state bestselling author Jesse Liberty and industry expert Alex Horovitz in the preface to their new book, Programming .NET 3.5 ( O'Reilly, US $44.99 ).

U of Michigan Develops Cloud Computing Antivirus System

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:45:00 EDT

Antivirus software on your personal computer could become a thing of the past thanks to a new "cloud computing" approach to malicious software detection developed at the University of Michigan.

Zeus and Ntractive Join to Market SaaS

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:00:00 EDT

Zeus Technology, a leading provider of application delivery controller software announced that ZXTM (Zeus Extensible Traffic Manager) has been selected by NTractive as part of its infrastructure to manage its hybrid web application, Elements SBM.

Real-Time Java Aonix Supports VxWorks

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:45:00 EDT

Aonix, the provider of the PERC product line for embedded and real-time Java developers, announces the release of PERC Ultra 5.1 cross development and target support on Wind River's VxWorks 6.6 real-time operating system and Wind River Workbench development suite. With more than 1 million field systems in markets such as aerospace, defense, telecommunications, industrial control and robotics, PERC Ultra well suits the broad real-time market leadership of VxWorks. These joint solutions will enable developers to take advantage of Java language capabilities while ensuring that critical deterministic behavior requirements can still be met.

SUSE Real-Time 10 Ensures Java Workloads

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:04:00 EDT

Enabling customers to run their time-critical business applications faster, and with more reliability and predictability, Novell announced SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 10 is now certified on select IBM BladeCenter hardware and supported by IBM WebSphere Real Time middleware. Utilizing best-of-breed products, Novell's real-time operating system and IBM's real-time Java hardware together ensure enterprises running latency-sensitive applications have the highest possible performance and availability across their entire solution stack.

MyEclipse Java Tool Goes Green

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:32:00 EDT

Genuitec, LLC, the leading provider of the popular MyEclipse integrated development environment (IDE) and a founding member of the Eclipse Foundation, announced their commitment to being a company with a near-zero carbon footprint.

Xandros, Viyya Partner- Cloud Computing Brought to Mobile Linux

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:13:00 EDT

Viyya Technologies Inc., a developer and marketer of advanced web-based content management applications, announced a strategic partnership with Xandros, Inc., the leading provider of custom OEM Linux solutions, next-generation Linux desktop and server products, and advanced cross-platform Windows-Linux management tools. The agreement gives Xandros exclusive rights to bundle Viyya technology with Xandros' custom OEM solutions to meet the needs of the growing number of users of Linux-based internet connected desktop and mobile devices.

AJAX-based Synology Receives Award

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:06:00 EDT

Synology Disk Station DS207+ scores 5 out of 5 in the categories of features, performance, value for money, and overall evaluation, receiving the Editor's Choice award from Personal Computer World Magazine, UK. After a prudent testing on 8 popular 2-bay NAS servers on the market, the editor, Mr. Paul Monckton, gave the DS207+ the following verdict: "Stunning performance and a mind-boggling level of functionality, yet simple to use.”

DataSynapse Survey Reveals Cloud Computing Results

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:04:00 EDT

DataSynapse, Inc., a world leader in dynamic application service management software for the next-generation data center, today announced the results of a market survey which cited High Performance Computing edging out Virtualization as the most important IT initiative over the next 12 months. The survey, conducted through an independent third-party with 100 senior IT executives spanning Financial Services, Communications & Media and the Public Sector, surprisingly ranked Green IT initiatives as last.

Cloud Computing ELASTRA Closes $12 Million

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:34:00 EDT

ELASTRA Corporation, the leading provider of software for configuring, deploying and managing complete application systems in public and private compute clouds, today announced it has closed $12 million in Series B financing. The round was led by Bay Partners, with new participation from Amazon.com, Inc. and continued participation from Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. Neal Dempsey of Bay Partners will be joining ELASTRA’s board. ELASTRA will use the funds to accelerate customer growth and further develop its software for public and private cloud computing.

Sony Ericsson Unveils James Bond's Latest Phone

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:16:00 EDT

Sony Ericsson is launching a limited edition Titanium silver C902 Cyber-shot phone as used by James Bond in the eagerly awaited QUANTUM OF SOLACE which will be released worldwide November 2008. The new mobile phone will make sure you are ready for any challenge, immersing you into the world of a secret agent with interactive 007 content and a spy-style game.

A New Blog Site Launched to Monitor Turkish Airlines

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:15:00 EDT

The purpose of this blog is not to discourage people from flying Turkish Airlines, which is a fine company and generally provides fine service, but rather share constructive criticism with the airline and give them a chance to improve their services in a very competitive global industry they operate.I will be posting my entries live, on the road from my blackberry and as it happens, as I am either flying Turkish Airlines, or doing business with the company. So as you receive new blog entry email alerts, I will probably be still at the scene of my latest blog post.

iPhone 3G - MobileMe vs. Live Mesh

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 04:00:00 EDT

So how does this relate to MobileMe? MobileMe is, according to Phil Schiller's keynote, 'Exchange for the rest of us'. What this means is that using MobileMe, you will receive push contacts, push e-mail, and push calendar notifications. This will work with any MobileMe-aware application, including Outlook on the PC and iCal, Mail, and Address Book on the Mac and iPhone. This also includes the old iDisk functionality which allows you to share files among all of your devices using file synchronization technologies. iDisk works, but don't ever try to code directly on an iDisk folder with Xcode unless you have a back-up. Hopefully this peculiarity has been fixed in MobileMe.

iPhone 3G and First Third-Party iPhone Apps

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:15:00 EDT

Up to this point, the iPhone has been a device for gadget fanatics and big spenders, while shortcomings like the price and lack of 3G have limited the addressable market considerably. By adding 3G, GPS and enterprise support and lowering the starting price, Apple has just dramatically expanded the addressable market for the iPhone, such that it now has at least some claim to be a mainstream device. The big increase in available countries will further add to the potential market size, and Apple should now have no problems reaching its near-term goals for iPhone sales. The bigger question now is whether it will be able to keep up with demand.

Red Hat Named "Platinum Sponsor" of Virtualization Conference & Expo

Thu, 29 May 2008 14:30:00 EDT

Red Hat is a trusted open source provider. Red Hat offers enterprise customers a long-term plan for building infrastructures on the quality and innovation of open source. Combining open source operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, together with applications, management, and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions, including the JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite.

Steve Jobs Loses His Mind - Sues "The Big Apple"

Tue, 27 May 2008 21:15:00 EDT

Friday morning the local Fox television station in New York City broke the news - Apple was suing New York City. Six out of 100 of their viewers thought Apple had the right to sue the City, but 94 out of 100 viewers are now calling for New Yorkers to drop Apple and its products, including the iPhone and Macs. New Yorkers are pissed off! New York City, universally known as The Big Apple, is facing a lawsuit from Steve Jobs' Apple Computer Inc. for, of all things, copyright infringement.

Dell Unveils Virtualization Lineup

Fri, 09 May 2008 13:45:00 EDT

Dell announced its broadest lineup of dedicated virtualization solutions ever. More than a dozen new servers, tools, and services simplify the deployment and management of virtualization in Enterprises of any size.

Apple Buys PowerPC Chip House, Confusing Everybody

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:00:00 EDT

Apple has finally bought PA Semi, the fab-less low-power PowerPC start-up that supposedly swooned when Apple switched from the PowerPC Intel. What Apple's going to do with it now become fodder for the speculators. The iPhone uses an 32-bit ARM-derived chip that Intel would love to displace with its newfangled Atom processor.

AJAX World - Curl Launches Adobe AIR Competitor

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:30:00 EDT

Curl announced the beta release of Curl Nitro, the code name for an extension of the Curl Rich Internet Application (RIA) platform which offers enhanced desktop capabilities required by today's enterprises. The Nitro extension simplifies the process of installing and managing Curl applications accessed via a browser as well as directly from the desktop. Curl Nitro is the only platform for both traditional RIA and Desktop RIA that provides enterprise-level security, high performance and support for large data sets.

Motorola Invests in VirtualLogix' Real-Time Virtualization

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:00:00 EDT

Motorola, which needs all the help it can get, has invested some undisclosed amount of money in VirtualLogic, the company that can put multiple operating systems concurrently in embedded devices like cell phones and infrastructure equipment complements of real-time virtualization. Cisco, Intel and Texas Instruments as well as Atlas Ventures and DFJ Esprit have also invested in the start-up.

Is the Silverlight Adoption Rate Artificially Inflated?

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:45:00 EDT

Silverlight 2.0 is a freaking phenomenal RIA development environment and I would actually, at this point, put the development experience in Silverlight 2.0 above and beyond Flex. I can do more faster and have it look better and run more efficiently in Silverlight 2.0 than I can in Flex. BUT, when you're looking for case studies, look for ones where the person or organization who adopted Silverlight did so of their own volition, without being approached by Microsoft. I'm interested in hardcore, unbiased opinions from people who have been in the trenches doing their own coding, not watching Microsoft consultants do the coding for them. There are plenty of case studies like that out there, you just have to look past the shiny bouncing balls that are the Olympics and the Oscars and all the other crap that probably cost Microsoft a hojillion dollars in marketing funds and incentives.

Adobe Reorgs: Mandels and Ramadan Gone, Lynch in Charge of the Whole Magilla

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:15:00 EDT

Told ya Adobe was gonna reorganize and put its mobile/devices operation in with its platform operation in the name of moving to a single technology platform and runtime for PCs, handsets and consumer devices. Adobe's new CTO Kevin Lynch, the creator of AIR, is basically in charge of the whole magilla now. Gary Kovacs, VP of product management and marketing for the mobile and devices business, will be general manager of the unit, reporting to Lynch, replacing Al Ramadan, who is leaving.

Early Notes on GoogleApps

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:15:00 EDT

Now, what Google announced is really exciting! I'm not kidding. It's even better than I hoped. Yes, it's only Python, but IBM's PC-DOS was only BASIC and Pascal when it first came out, and it didn't matter. Yeah, I preferred C, but I coded in Pascal because that's what you had to do to get an app running. What you're going to see here that you've never seen before is shrinkwrap net apps that scale that can be deployed by civillians. That's a mouthful, but that's what's coming. Why? Because here is a standardized platform that can be stamped out in the billions of units. Maybe Google can't do it, but the perception is that they can. Who is willing to stand up and say Google hasn't nailed scaling? What PCs did in the 80s, Google is doing now. PCs took the black magic out of owning a computer.

Adobe Wants to Be on the iPhone and Will "Reorganize" Its Mobile and Device Business Unit

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:45:00 EDT

Rumor has it that in the next few weeks Adobe is going to 'reorganize' its Mobile and Device business unit where its Jobs-criticized Flash Lite lives and send the engineers to go work with the larger platform effort and Flash proper, which Jobs has also criticized. Presumably, Adobe is going to do what it takes to appease Jobs. It does want to be on the iPhone and needs Apple's help.

Zimbra Expands Mobile E-mail to Java-Enabled Devices

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:30:00 EDT

Zimbra announced the availability of its ZimbraME (Java Mobile Edition) client and source code for businesses. Users of any Java-enabled mobile phone will have access to the industry's most complete collaboration solution. The ZimbraME client provides Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) Open Source and Network Edition users worldwide with free access to the Zimbra experience with e-mail and calendar on mass-market Java-enabled mobile phones. This extends Zimbra's reach of services to the broadest range of devices available in the market and builds on Yahoo!'s e-mail and mobile Web services and as a key starting point for consumers.

Adobe Puts Out AIR for Linux

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 05:30:00 EDT

Adobe has put an alpha pre-release of AIR for Linux up in hopes, it says, of getting feedback from the community, not to mention winning adherents. It's English-only. The company also joined the Linux Foundation to encourage the growth of RIA technologies on Linux, it said. The company says Linux developers can use HTML, AJAX, Flash and Flex to build rich Internet applications (RIAs) that deploy to desktops across operating systems.