The New Nation - Internet Edition

The time is ripe for grid computing

Peter Thomas

Given today's economic reality, companies must maximise the utilisation of their existing IT resources. Grid computing techniques work towards this by helping companies consolidate their hardware, eliminating islands of under utilised computers to create centralised pools of computing and allocate resources to meet corporate objectives.

At its highest level, grid computing is computing as a utility. Companies should not have to care where their data resides, or what computer processes a request. Employees should be able to request information or computation and have it delivered - as much as they want, whenever they want. This is similar to the way electric utilities work. You do not know where the generator is, or how the electric grid is wired, you just ask for electricity and you get it. The goal is to make computing a utility - a commodity - and ubiquitous.

This concept of utility computing is gaining mindshare among IT organisations. The number of inquiries Oracle receives about grid computing is increasing. We are also seeing more customers carrying out pilot projects, or using grid computing as part of their IT strategy.

Grid techniques can allow organizations to align their computing resources with the priorities of their business. Grid computing offers tremendous advantages - lower costs and greater throughput. But, achieving these gains could be costly, and time consuming. Software vendors need to provide the infrastructure that enables their users to easily adopt these Grid techniques.

Oracle has been involved in grid computing for years, as both an end-user and a vendor. We think that makes us unique among the major software vendors.

As a grid user, Oracle uses a grid to develop its database product. It allows us to allocate resources to specific development projects when we need to. It gives us much more computing power than any other alternative computing investment would give us. We believe that using a grid gives us competitive advantages in our industry: Quality, productivity, and time to market.

As a grid vendor, we think we can help customers gain the same kinds of benefits we've gained from grid computing. Products that support grid computing now, and in the future, are the same Oracle products available today: Oracle9i Database, Oracle9i Application Server, and the technology stack built on top of them. In essence there are no additional costs for current Oracle customers to move to Oracle grids.

Oracle has key grid technology differentiators - such as Oracle9i Database with Real Application Clusters, Oracle Streams, and Oracle Transportable Table spaces, among many others.

In the future, Oracle will include additional grid features in our products that will be available as organisations upgrade to newer product versions. Oracle grid customers can feel confident their investment in Oracle technology will be leveraged as the grid evolves. Our strategy will be to continue to offer integrated software.

We think grid computing is the next big thing, and we think that it is already starting to happen.

[Peter Thomas is the Senior Director, Oracle9i Application Server, Oracle Asia Pacific]

Microsoft, Sony in blu-ray-for-Xbox talks

Microsoft Corporation and Sony officials are in talks that could lead to a version of the Xbox video game console equipped with a Blu-ray high-definition DVD player.

Sony Electronics U.S. president Stan Glasgow revealed the discussions at a media dinner last week in San Francisco, according to an account of the event published by London's Financial Times. Glasgow said his company is also engaged in talks aimed at adding Sony Blu-ray to devices made by Apple, according to the paper.

Microsoft found itself without a high-definition video partner last month after HD DVD developer Toshiba said it would drop the format. Toshiba's announcement followed commitments by virtually all major Hollywood studios to back Blu-ray.

Days after Toshiba formally pulled the plug on HD DVD, Microsoft said it would discontinue an external Xbox 360 drive that supports the high-definition movie format.

Microsoft had been selling an HD DVD player as a $129 add-on for the Xbox 360. Existing units are now selling for less than half of that on eBay.

The death of HD DVD puts Microsoft in a quandary. Sony's PlayStation 3 console features a built-in Blu-ray player. With HD DVD no longer viable, Microsoft needs to find an alternate high-definition format for the Xbox.

The company could itself move to Blu-ray. But it might also reject its rival's technology and focus instead on offering high-definition downloads through its Xbox Live online content service.

Microsoft already sells a limited selection of HD television and movie downloads on Xbox Live, which boasts more than 10 million members.

In the meantime, Microsoft has said that HD DVD's discontinuation won't hurt Xbox 360 sales -- insisting that it's games, and not movies, that dictate console sales.

(Paul McDougall, InformationWeek )

iPhone 2.0 best for corporate package

Apple is readying significant enhancements to the software in its iPhone handset for later this year. The company takes cues from both the business and consumer worlds, finally letting third-party developers in on the action to bring games, utilities, and other apps to the phone.

These impending changes promise to radically transform the daily experience for iPhone users. Based on what we've seen of Apple's Microsoft Exchange integration and our first-hand look at the new development kit, here's what you can expect to see when the upgrade becomes available in June.

Within a few minutes after the initial wave of iPhone hysteria ran its course, business users began debating whether the iPhone was really ready to take on the corporate enterprise. The general consensus: it wasn't, owing to incomplete networking and security tools, and an inability to support the nearly ubiquitous Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol that keeps handsets connected to the central server. But the phone's widespread appeal kept interest alive in the business world, and Apple has responded bybuilding Exchange ActiveSync directly into the phone, and revamping the iPhone's native e-mail and calendar apps. In addition, the company has added Cisco IPsec VPN support.

What does all this mean to you? If you're an IT professional, it could mean a lot. (At present,IT types are ambivalent about whether to trust the iPhone on their networks.) But even if you're not a network admin, or your company doesn't want to support iPhones, the update could still make your iPhone more functional at work: It makes it easy to configure your own corporate e-mail.

Apple recently demonstrated the phone's upcoming Exchange ActiveSync features, and even in its beta form the software looks simple enough for moderately savvy end users to set up without necessarily needing to call up their company's IT department. Like existing iPhones, the updated devices will display a selection of e-mail services to choose from. If a user selects Microsoft Exchange from that list--as opposed to, say, Gmail or Yahoo--the interface will present a standard Exchange settings menu.

From there, all you'd have to do is copy your login info and settings from your desktop or laptop's Outlook preferences and you'd be ready to receive push e-mail from the server, schedule and accept meetings, and browse the company's shared contact list as you would from the computer at your desk.

The basic Exchange features will be accessible to pretty much anybody with access to an Exchange server. However, some advanced features, such as the ability to remotely wipe the company's data off a misplaced handset or to use VPN, would clearly require your IT department's involvement.

VPN is particularly noteworthy: If your job involves a lot of work from the road, using sales leads, templates, or other data stored on a corporate server, you need VPN access. With Cisco IPsec VPN on the iPhone, getting to that data could prove a whole lot easier.

Currently, the iPhone's L2TP and PPTP VPN software requires users to get a lot of hands-on assistance from their corporate help desk to get a remote connection to their company's network (that is, if they're willing and able to do so). The popular Cisco VPN software should streamline VPN connections, requiring little more than a passcode from the end user once the device is configured. Setting up your VPN connection with IPsec will still require some help from your IT person, but it will make their job a lot easier.

Source: Washington Post

Nokia model N82 in market

Operating Frequency

WCDMA2100 (HSDPA), EGSM900, GSM850/1800/1900 MHz (EGPRS)

Automatic switching between bands and modes

Dimensions

Volume: 90 cc

Weight: 114 g

Length: 112 mm

Width: 50.2 mm

Thickness (max): 17.3 mm

Memory Functions

Up to 100MB internal dynamic memory* for messages, ringing tones, images, video clips, calendar notes, to-do list and applications

Hot swappable microSD memory card slot

*Dynamic memory means that the available memory is shared between dynamic memory functions. When any of these functions is used, there is less available memory for other functions which are also dependent on dynamic memory.

Power Management

Battery: Nokia Battery (BP-6MT) 1050mAH

Talk time: up to 190 minutes (WCDMA),up to 260 minutes (GSM)

Stand-by time: up to 210 hours(WDCMA),up to 225 hours (GSM)

Still images: up to 290 pictures (with flash)

Video capture: up to 110 minutes (VGA, 30fps)

Video call: up to 120 minutes

Video playback time: up to 200 minutes (VGA, 30 fps)

Music playback time: up to 10 hours(offline mode)

*Operation times may vary depending on radio access technology used, operator network configuration and usage.

Display

2.4" LCD QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) TFT color display with up to 16.7 million colors

User Interface

Operating system: S60 software on Symbian OS

User interface: S60 3rd edition, Feature Pack 1

Automatic screen rotation

Call Management

Logs: keeps lists of your dialed, received, and missed calls

Voice dialing (with Speaker independent name dialing (SIND)) and voice commands

Nokia Push to talk (PoC)

Messaging

E-mail (SMTP, IMAP4, POP3), MMS, SMS

Data Transfer*

WCDMA HSDPA 2100 MHz with simultaneous voice and packet data (PS max speed DL/UL= 3.6Mbps/384kbps, CS max speed 64kbps)

Dual Transfer Mode (DTM) support for simultaneous voice and packet data connection in GSM/EDGE networks. Simple class A, multi slot class 11, max speed DL/UL: 177.6/118.4 kbits/s

EGPRS class B, multi slot class 32, max speed DL/UL= 296 / 177.6 kbits/s

GPRS class B, multi slot class 32, max speed DL/UL= 107 / 64.2 kbits/s

*Actual achieved speeds may vary depending on network support.

Video

Video

Video Features

Video player - supports MPEG4, AVC/H.264, H.264, H.263, WMV, RV

OMA DRM 2.0/1.0 & WMDRM support for video

Resolution: MPEG4 VGA @ up to 30 fps scaled to QVGA on device or VGA in TV-out mode

Transfer your videos from compatible PC: Windows Media Player, USB mass-storage file transfer or Nokia Nseries PC Suite using full-speed USB 2.0 connectivity

Video Center

Pre-configured video services and dynamic expansion with new services

Video podcasting: find, subscribe, download, view with mobile device

RealPlayer media player

Full-screen video playback to view downloaded, streamed or recorded video clips

Supported video formats: MPEG-4, H.264/AVC, H.263/3GPP, RealVideo 8/9/10

Imaging

Imaging

Imaging and video

Up to 5 megapixel (2592 x 1944 pixels) camera, Carl Zeiss Optics: Tessar™ lens, MPEG-4 VGA video capture of up to 30 fps

Direct connection to compatible TV via TV-out or wireless LAN/UPnP

Front camera, CIF (352 x 288 pixels) sensor for video telephony

Video call and video sharing support (WCDMA network services)

Integrated xenon flash

Slideshow from gallery

One-click upload of photos & videos to web

Nokia XpressPrint: direct printing via USB(PictBridge), Bluetooth connectivity (BPP), and WLAN (UPnP) or via online printing

Mobile Video

Video resolutions: up to VGA (640 x 480 pixels) at 30 fps

Recording indicator

Audio recording: AAC (AMR for MMS)

Digital video stabilization

Video file format .mp4 (default), .3gp (for MMS)

White balance, scene and color tone setting

Zoom: Digital up to 10x (VGA up to 4x)

Front camera: CIF (352 x 288 pixels) sensor for video telephony

On-device video editing

Mobile Photography

Image resolution: up to 5 megapixels (2592 x 1944 pixels)

Color tone: normal, sepia, black & white, negative, vivid

Zoom: digital up to 20x (5 megapixel up to 6x)

Xenon flash

On-device photo editing

Camera Specifications

Sensor: CMOS, 5 megapixel (2592 x 1944)

USB 2.0 via Micro USB interface and mass storage class support to support drag and drop functionality

3.5 mm stereo headphone plug(Nokia AV Connector)and TV out support (PAL/NTSC)

Nokia Nseries PC Suite connectivity with USB, and Bluetooth wireless technology

Local synchronization of contacts and calendar to a compatible PC using compatible connection

Remote over-the-air synchronization

Send and receive images, video clips, graphics, and business cards via Bluetooth wireless technology

5 megapixel camera . Xenon flash and Carl Zeiss optics

Panoramic pictures with installed Panoman application

Built in assisted GPS and Maps, Wi fi connectivity

One click upload to web