Linux : Powering the Fastest Supercomputers

There are fast computers, and then there are Linux fast computers. Every six months, the Top 500 organization announces "its ranked list of general purpose systems that are in common use for high end applications." In other words, supercomputers. And, as has been the case for years now, the fastest of the fast are Linux computers.

As Jay Lyman, an analyst at The 451 Group points out, Linux is only growing stronger in supercomputing. "When considered as the primary OS or part of a mixed-OS supersystem, Linux is now present in 469 of the supercomputer sites, 93.8% of the Top500 list. This represents about 10 more sites than in November 2007, when Linux had presence in 91.8% of the systems. In fact, Linux is the only operating system that managed gains in the November 2008 list. A year ago, Linux was the OS for 84.6% of the top supercomputers. In November 2008, the open source OS was used in 87.8% of the systems. Compare this to Unix, which dropped from 6% to 4.6%, mixed-OS use which dropped from 7.2% to 6.2% and other operating systems, including BSD, Mac OS X and Windows, which were all down this year from the November 2007 list."

Microsoft is proud that a system running Windows HPC Server 2008 took 10th place... behind nine supercomputers running Linux. Even then, this was really more of a stunt than a demonstration that the HPC Server system is ready to compete with the big boys.

Read full article at : PCWorld

Fedora 10 Released !

The Red Hat-sponsored Fedora Project on Tuesday released Fedora 10, the latest version of the free Linux-based operating system, with a wide range of improvements in areas such as virtualization management, networking, boot time and security.

The release also bundles in OpenOffice 3.0, the most recent edition of the open-source productivity suite.

The new virtualization features include the ability to manage virtual hosts and storage remotely, which should appeal to network administrators with fragmented teams. "These features combine to make administration of remote hosts much easier, even in cases where direct physical access is limited or non-existent," the Fedora Team said in a recent blog post on Red Hat's Web site.

Users can now also share their Internet connection with others, and Fedora 10 can also start up faster, thanks to a new graphical boot system dubbed Plymouth.

Security improvements include the addition of SecTool, an auditing and detection kit.

Red Hat has also enhanced PackageKit, a software installation and updating system that debuted in Fedora 9.

"In Fedora 10, PackageKit now detects when the user opens an audio or video media file, and offers to search for codecs used to play that file," the Fedora Team said in a blog post. "With the user's authorization, it searches all the software repositories configured on the Fedora 10 system, installs what is needed, and the media begins to play." Down the road, this capability will be extended to areas like fonts and applications.

In addition, Fedora 10 has a revamped audio system that uses less power; support for "a vast array" of Webcams; improved printing capabilities; and "support for more hardware than any other operating system."

From : Yahoo! Tech News

Brain-like Computers

IBM has announced it will lead a US government-funded collaboration to make electronic circuits that mimic brains.

Part of a field called "cognitive computing", the research will bring together neurobiologists, computer and materials scientists and psychologists.

As a first step in its research the project has been granted $4.9m (£3.27m) from US defence agency Darpa.

The resulting technology could be used for large-scale data analysis, decision making or even image recognition.

"The mind has an amazing ability to integrate ambiguous information across the senses, and it can effortlessly create the categories of time, space, object, and interrelationship from the sensory data," says Dharmendra Modha, the IBM scientist who is heading the collaboration.

"There are no computers that can even remotely approach the remarkable feats the mind performs," he said.

"The key idea of cognitive computing is to engineer mind-like intelligent machines by reverse engineering the structure, dynamics, function and behaviour of the brain."

From : BBC News

Microsoft to Offer Free Anti-Virus Solutions

In a surprise move, Microsoft has announced it will offer a free anti-virus and security solution from the second half of next year.

It will stop selling OneCare, its all-in-one security and PC management service, from the end of June 2009.

The new software, code-named Morro, will be a no-frills program suited to smaller and less powerful computers.

The software will be free to download and will support Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

From : BBC News

Ubuntu on Mobiles

Mobile phone chip designer ARM has announced an
alliance with the makers of the Ubuntu open source software.

The deal will produce a version of the operating system for small net-browsing computers known as netbooks.

It marks a departure for ARM, which before now has been best known for designing the chips inside smartphones and feature phones.

The new operating system for ARM-powered machines looks set to be available in April 2009.

Extracted from: BBC News

Exclusive on TroopTube

TroopTube is the new online video site designed to help military families connect and keep in touch while miles apart. The site is designed for easy use, so you can quickly upload videos and share the simple joys of each day with each other, either privately or with the whole world.

Visit TroopTube at : http://www.trooptube.tv/

Obama and Social Networks

Like a lot of Web innovators, the Obama campaign did not invent anything completely new. Instead, by bolting together social networking applications under the banner of a movement, they created an unforeseen force to raise money, organize locally, fight smear campaigns and get out the vote that helped them topple the Clinton machine and then John McCain and the Republicans. ...

Source : The New York Times

Do you know Reflection?

Find a good article at developer.com with Java examples. Enjoy reflection!

Hiring in IT industry slows down 40-50 percent

Indian IT Industry is witnessing a fall down in the rate of recruitment, a key indicator of the industry's growth. It is estimated that hiring on an overall basis is down by 40 to 50 percent compared to last year. Hiring across companies, especially the small and mid-sized, has entered into a lull with momentum certainly being downcast, reported The Economic Times.

Recruitment has taken a nasty blow during the last three months. Given the high dependence of the Indian IT industry on the U.S. economy, companies are increasingly taking a cautious route towards hiring. ........

Source : http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/40256

Adobe Flex - Create engaging, cross-platform rich Internet applications

Flex is a highly productive, free open source framework for building and maintaining expressive web applications that deploy consistently on all major browsers, desktops, and operating systems.

Source : http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/