Latest Web Bloggers Give Cooking: WSJ

PORTALS By LEE GOMES

Generic food blogs are the scrambled eggs of culinary blogging. They require little in the way of skill and next to nothing in terms of equipment -- just a digital camera and a broadband connection.

A particular kind of food blog, however, has become the genre's Canard a la Presse Tour d'Argent. These are "cook-through" blogs, in which someone picks a cookbook and then doesn't stop cooking and blogging until the dishes for every recipe have been washed and put away.

The necessary ingredient: You need to be a little crazy.

Carole Blymire, a Washington, D.C., public-relations consultant, for example, has been writing "French Laundry at Home" since last year. With no real cooking experience beyond Thanksgiving dinner, she is tackling the 130 or so recipes in Thomas Keller's "French Laundry Cookbook," which may be the most technically challenging American cookbook ever written.

No matter, says Ms. Blymire, "I just opened it up and said to myself, 'Let's see what happens.' "

The site has become a huge hit in the food blogosphere, winning awards and attracting 4,000 to 5,000 visitors a day. It also has become the template for many other such cook-along blogs, with pictures of the dish at various stages of development and a rating of the final result. Personal asides are often folded in as well. (These are, after all, blogs.) Ms. Blymire uses a Miss Smartypants persona and often brags of her two loves: New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and bacon.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Latest Web Bloggers Give Cooking: WSJ

Tall tales: Economist

May 22nd 2008
From The Economist print edition

The rollercoaster, rags-to-riches story of a remarkable animation studio

PIXAR'S characters—whether the heroic toys of “Toy Story”, the father and son fish of “Finding Nemo”, the insects in “A Bug's Life” or the rat-chef of “Ratatouille”—are full of yearning; for a child to play with, a lost family member, or to become something that seems far out of reach. The small company that imagined them is just the same. Right from the beginning, Pixar, officially a computer-hardware business, secretly dreamed of a more creative life making feature films.

Ed Catmull's ambition at school had been to become an animator at Disney, but he gave up because he couldn't draw. Computer animation, he realised, having graduated in computer science and physics, could be a way to overcome this. So Mr Catmull brought together a small group of people to form a computer-graphics group, which later became Pixar. Their early attempts were uninspiring, however. Two years in the making, the 1977 film, “Tubby the Tuba”, looked bad and the story did not work. Mr Catmull and his colleagues quickly realised that fancy technology was not enough, and that story-telling was just as vital to computer animation as to the hand-drawn sort. Under John Lasseter, a young animator rejected by Disney, Pixar started to develop a new kind of cartoon, which eschewed fairy-tale plots and entertained adults as well as children...

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Tall tales: Economist

Here we go again?: Economist

May 22nd 2008

From The Economist print edition

A new boom in cable-laying—but this time it is rational

EVEN as data centres pop up all over the globe to support “cloud computing”, another construction boom is taking place below the waves. After years without much investment in undersea fibre-optic cables, dozens of new cables will be constructed over the next three years, at a total cost of about $7.1 billion, according to TeleGeography, a market-research firm (see chart). And this is likely to be an underestimate, since other projects are being planned.

You may be thinking: will they never learn? This new investment boom comes only a few years after a spectacular telecoms crash. In the late 1990s internet gurus convinced financial markets that worldwide data-traffic would double every 100 days; this led them to bet billions building global fibre-optic networks. In 2001 alone, network operators such as Global Crossing spent nearly $13.5 billion laying undersea cables. But when the deluge of traffic failed to materialise, the boom swiftly turned to bust...

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Here we go again?: Economist

Microsoft demos 'touch Windows': BBC

By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, in Silicon Valley

Microsoft's next operating system (OS) will come with multi-touch features as an alternative to the mouse.

It is hoped the successor will have a better reception than the much-maligned Vista OS, released last year.

Scheduled for release in 2009 the new fingertip interface lets users enlarge and shrink photos, trace routes on maps, paint pictures or play the piano.

"The way you interact with the system will change dramatically," said Microsoft chairman Bill Gates.

Speaking at the All Things Digital conference in San Diego, the Microsoft Chairman said Windows 7 would incorporate new forms of communication and interaction.

"Today almost all the interaction is keyboard-mouse. Over years to come, the role of speech, vision, ink - all of those things - will be huge."

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Microsoft demos 'touch Windows': BBC

Down on the server farm: Economist

May 22nd 2008 | SEATTLE

From The Economist print edition

The real-world implications of the rise of internet computing

EVEN when the sky is blue over Quincy, clouds hang in the air. The small town in the centre of the state of Washington is home to half a dozen huge warehouses that power the global “computing clouds” run by internet companies such as Yahoo! and Microsoft. The size of several football pitches, these data centres are filled with thousands of powerful computers and storage devices and are hooked up to the internet via fast fibre-optic links.

Yet even more intriguing than the buildings' size is their location. Quincy is literally in the middle of nowhere, three hours' drive from the nearest big city, Seattle. But it turns out to be a perfect location for data centres. As computing becomes a utility, with services that can be consumed from everywhere and on any device, ever more thought is being put into where to put the infrastructure it needs...

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Down on the server farm: Economist

Buy our stuff, save the planet: Economist

May 22nd 2008

From The Economist print edition

The internet could become as ungreen as aviation. A self-serving solution beckons

IN COMPUTING, buzzwords are in most cases just that. But the latest, “cloud computing”, stands for a real trend: computing is increasingly being supplied as a service over the internet (depicted as a “cloud” in many charts). Still, there is something wrong with the term.

It implies that by moving into the ether, computing is becoming weightless, with no connection to the resource-constrained real world. In fact the opposite is true. The corollary of more computing in the sky is more and bigger data centres on earth. These are warehouses packed with humming electronic gear, and in particular thousands of servers, the powerful computers that crunch and dish up data. The biggest facilities are the size of half a dozen football pitches and house as many as 80,000 servers (see article). They are huge energy hogs...

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Buy our stuff, save the planet: Economist

Doctor on call: Economist

Mobile-phone microscopes
May 15th 2008 | BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA
From The Economist print edition

Simple accessories could turn mobile phones into useful medical devices

ROBI MAAMARI stares intently at the screen of his mobile phone. The student is not squinting to tap out yet another daft text message, but looking carefully for the faint blue dots that are the tell-tale diagnostic signature of malaria.

Mr Maamari is a member of a research team led by Dan Fletcher, a professor of bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, which has developed a cheap attachment to turn the digital camera on many of today's mobile phones into a microscope. Called a CellScope, it can show individual white and red blood cells, which means that with the correct stain it can be used to identify the parasite that causes malaria. Moreover, by transmitting an image directly over the mobile network, the CellScope could greatly help with the remote diagnosis and monitoring of many illnesses.

The project, which began as a challenge by Dr Fletcher to his undergraduate students to turn their mobile phones into microscopes, gained momentum when they came up with some practical designs. Although the first prototype covered a tabletop, the latest uses commercially available lenses fitted inside a tube that snaps directly onto the phone. One end has a clip for holding a sample slide, and different levels of magnification are possible. The team thinks the attachments, if mass-produced, could be made smaller and tougher, and sell for less than $100.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Doctor on call: Economist

'$100 laptop' platform moves on: BBC

By Jonathan Fildes
Science and technology reporter, BBC News

An independent effort to develop the software originally designed for the $100 laptop has been launched.

Sugar Labs will take the laptop's innovative interface, known as Sugar, to the "next level of usability and utility", according to its founders.

It is intended that the free software will be made available on other PCs, such as the popular Asus Eee.

The launch comes after the announcement that the group behind the $100 laptop has joined forces with Microsoft.

The deal means that One Laptop per Child (OLPC) will now offer the low cost laptops with Windows XP, as well as an open source alternative...

For more on this article, please click on the following link: '$100 laptop' platform moves on: BBC

From literacy to digiracy: Economist

May 16th 2008
From Economist.com

Will reading and writing remain important?

THE Macintosh has a lot to answer for. The first time your correspondent clapped eyes on its graphical user interface (GUI), he realised the game was up. The use of icons instead of written words seemed the final admission that we had given up trying to read and write, and had entered a post-literate age.

The Apple Macintosh wasn’t the first computer to have a GUI based on windows, icons, menus and pointing devices (known collectively as “wimp”). Back in the early 1970s, Xerox pioneered most of the wimp features with its legendary Alto personal computer for researchers, and later its Star computer for office use.

But Apple brought the dumbed-down pictorial interface to the rest of the world. And once Microsoft followed suit, by grafting a friendly Windows face on its crusty old MS-DOS operating system, it became the norm.

No question, without a wimpy GUI, computers would never have become as popular as they are today. The command-line interface—with its forbidding prompt and blinking cursor—required mastering a whole catechism of arcane instructions that only a priesthood of computerdom could cherish.

When “root@computername:~# shutdown -h now” could be replaced by a simple click of a mouse to switch off a computer, novices of all ages and backgrounds could climb aboard the digital bandwagon...

For more on this article, please click on the following link: From literacy to digiracy: Economist

Greetings from Pakistan: NetSol Delivers Solid Gains for US Investors: SeekingAlpha.com

My biggest percentage gainer of the year is from…Pakistan? Hard to believe, but NetSol (NTWK), a Pakistani business process outsourcing and lease management software company, is up 90% from where I bought it less than two months ago!

Apple lines up iPhone Asia deals: BBC

Apple has signed deals with four mobile phone networks in the Asia-Pacific region, and the firms will offer the iPhone in their respective markets.

SingTel will sell the gadget in Singapore, while Bharti Airtel will introduce it in India.

Globe Telecom has the rights to the iPhone in the Philippines, and Optus will offer it in Australia.

The iPhone was launched in the US and Europe last year. Apple chose a single network provider in each country.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Apple lines up iPhone Asia deals: BBC

Cores of the problem: Economist

May 14th 2008

From Economist.com

The latest processing chips require a new approach to writing software

Picture from Intel

COMPUTER makers talk a lot about a coming wave of software that will change the way people behave towards their machines. Rich three-dimensional virtual worlds and multimedia applications that mimic the experience of a live concert in a living room will, they say, become commonplace. But there is a problem. Although hardware makers are producing PCs, laptops and portable devices with ever increasing processing power, the software industry is falling behind in its capacity to write programs that can make use of all this power.

Everyone is familiar with how Intel, AMD and other chipmakers churn out faster and faster processors. But in the past few years the design of these chips has changed. Instead of making chips faster by making their components smaller and running them at higher speeds, makers have started building multiple processing engines, or “cores”, onto each chip. Each core can run at a lower speed, which requires less energy and produces less heat, and the overall number-crunching power of the chip continues to increase...

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Cores of the problem: Economist

Web 2.0 debates internet's future: BBC

By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

Opening up internet programming was a central theme of Web 2.0

San Francisco's Web 2.0 Expo conference brought together thousands of people responsible for crafting the future direction of the internet, and the world of applications - or apps - was front and centre.

Everyone from Microsoft to Yahoo to MySpace was on a mission to woo developers to create exciting applications for their devices.

Jennifer Pahlka of Techweb, one of the conference's co-chairs, said the carrot these big Silicon Valley companies were dangling to entice developers to get involved was that of openness and allowing people to devise programmes without constraints.

"Yahoo was talking about opening up advertising platforms, Mozilla was talking about opening up the mobile web and John Zittrain from Oxford University was talking about openness to drive innovation and creativity so we don't go into this closed system where every application has to be approved by someone else," said Ms Pahlka.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Web 2.0 debates internet's future: BBC

Ex-gambler turns software ace: BBC

By Michael Dempsey

Business reporter, BBC News

Like all successful businessmen, Yuchun Lee is passionate about his experience of making money. The 42-year-old Taiwanese-American gushes about "big players", "advanced techniques" and "ace tracking".

None of these exotic terms relate to Unica, the software house based in Waltham, Massachusetts, that he founded in 1992.

Mr Lee is reminiscing about gambling tactics and his time with the Amphibians, a gang of top-grade students and graduates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Amphibians took on casinos and other gambling dens using a disciplined mathematical model of card-counting to lower the odds in their favour.

Today, their exploits form the backdrop for 21, the Hollywood movie starring Kevin Spacey and based on the book Bringing Down The House by Ben Mezrich.

The card-counting technique works only in blackjack, where the player bets against the casino, hoping to be dealt cards that add up to 21...

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Ex-gambler turns software ace: BBC

Take two: Economist

May 1st 2008

From The Economist print edition

Michael Dell pioneered a new business model at the firm that bears his name. Now he wants to overhaul it

"THE second time round, the stakes are twice as high, particularly in the unforgiving world of computing. Bosses who take the helm again at firms they founded can either polish a gilded reputation, as Steve Jobs did after taking up the reins again at Apple, or they can tarnish one, the likely fate of Jerry Yang of Yahoo!, who will probably see the firm sold to Microsoft less than a year after taking over.

So why, after three years of relative distance as chairman of the board, did Michael Dell take charge again early last year at Dell, the company he had founded in his dorm room at the University of Texas at the age of 19? “When you start a company, it's a very personal thing,” answers Dell, who is now 43. “I will care about what happens to the company even after I'm dead. I just can't let it go.”

Mr Dell's tenacity seems to be paying off. His firm, which used to be the world's biggest maker of personal computers, but had lost its crown to Hewlett-Packard, is beginning to regain market share. In the first quarter, it made 15.7% of PCs sold globally, compared with 14.8% a year ago, according to IDC, a market research firm. But there is still much to do if he is to achieve his goal of turning his company, commercially speaking, from a Texan unilateralist into a global multilateralist.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Take Two: Economist

Scope exists for boosting IT ties with Canada: Dawn

By Latafat Ali Siddiqui

TORONTO, May 2: There is a big scope of cooperation between Ottawa and Islamabad in the field of information technology, said the leader of Pakistan’s IT delegation here on Thursday.Headed by Aon Ashraf Rana, Director, Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), the 21-member delegation comprised representatives of 16 leading Pakistani IT and software development companies.The delegation visited Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto where they met parliamentarians and officials of leading Canadian IT firms and banks.While in Toronto, the delegation met John Wilkinson, the Provincial Minister for Research and Innovation, and Dr Shafiq Qaadri and Yasir Naqvi, members of Ontario’s Provincial Parliament.The delegation also attended a reception hosted by Canada-Pakistan Business Council (CPBC).Ashraf Rana told Dawn that Pakistan was making rapid progress in the field of information technology. “Our fast growing IT industry will be worth $11 billion in 2011,” he said.He also said Pakistan had been promoting the brand image of its IT industry globally through participation in trade fairs and specialised exhibitions.These fairs and exhibitions, he added, provide an interactive platform to PSEB member companies to practically demonstrate their capabilities and simultaneously promote Pakistan as an “attractive outsourcing gateway of the global IT industry”.Speaking at a reception held here in honour of the delegation, Pakistan’s Consul General Tassaduq Hussain said his country was an attractive destination for IT services, especially for outsourcing as IT and telecommunication were among the fastest growing sectors in Pakistan.

Original Link: http://www.dawn.com/2008/05/03/ebr20.htm

AT&T to cut iPhone price by $200, says report: Computerworld

Apple won't object, adds analyst

By Gregg Keizer

"April 30, 2008 (Computerworld) AT&T Inc. will subsidize $200 of the purchase price for new iPhones this summer, according to a story posted by Fortune today, reducing consumers' out-of-pocket expense for the popular device to as low as $199.

Apple Inc. may not publicly say "thanks" to its wireless partner, a researcher said, but it could hardly object. "Apple will be saying 'Okay with us if you want to increase our sales' to AT&T if they do this," said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst at Technology Business Research Inc."

For the complete article, please click on the following link:
AT&T to cut iPhone price by $200