Bye Bill, Bye XP, Hello Pixar

Last Friday was Bill Gates Last Day at Microsoft.

Today, Monday June 30 is
Windows XP's LAST DAY.

If you need it tomorrow, you have to buy Vista First and then Downgrade to Windows XP.

http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200827/1356/XP-is-dead-No-more-dodging-the-Vista-bullet

However, those prospective computer buyers absolutely unwilling to embrace Vista do still have a few ‘last gasp’ options open to them when it comes to legally taking receipt of Microsoft’s seven-year-old operating system.

One solution for business customers is to purchase either the Ultimate or Business versions of Windows Vista, both of which allow the user to perform a software downgrade that reverts back to XP Professional; while another ‘out’ is to purchase a computer from the ultra low-cost sub-notebook hardware category (think the ASUS Eee PC), to which Microsoft has granted XP an initial two-year availability reprieve.

The old operating system will also be made available through January 31 of 2009 via small custom computer system builders.

Pixar's newest CGI Movie "Wall-E"

keeps the tradition going of Opening at number 1 at the Box Office.

Variety has the Numbers:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117988255.html?categoryId=13&cs=1

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Wingman, checking the Tech Sites, Like:

http://www.dailyrotation.com/

http://www.engadget.com/

BEEp-BEEP, Roadrunner is TOP500 Computer

MANNHEIM, Germany; BERKELEY, Calif. & KNOXVILLE, Tenn.—

With the publication of the latest edition of the TOP500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers today (Wednesday, June 18), the global high performance computing community has officially entered a new realm

—a supercomputer with a peak performance
of more than 1 petaflop/s
(one quadrillion floating point operations per second).

The new No. 1 system, built by IBM for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory and named “Roadrunner,” by LANL after the state bird of New Mexico achieved performance of 1.026 petaflop/s

—becoming the first supercomputer ever to reach this milestone.

At the same time, Roadrunner is also one of the most energy efficient systems on the TOP500.

A look at the Top500 List is Here:

==========================
http://www.top500.org/list/2008/06/100
==========================

Wingman out on a Petaflop...

Rocks Clusters: Next Step, No Hardware!!!

==========================================
Listened to a TWIT podcast this weekend.
It was on the FLOSS Weekly program.
FLOSS stands for Free Libre Open Source Software,
and it was episode 30 and well worth a listen.
===========================================

http://www.twit.tv/FLOSS
Running time...: 1:00:44
Download MP3 file
June 28th, 2008

FLOSS Weekly 30: Rocks

Hosts: Randal Schwartz and Leo Laporte

Guests: Philip Papadopoulos and Greg Bruno of Rocks
===========================================
http://www.rocksclusters.org/wordpress/
===========================================

ROCKS, in simple terms, is the scripts for the Anaconda Setup program (Red Hat Linux Installer),
that tells it what pieces of hardware you have and what computational needs will be required for your project. You fill in the blanks and then feed it to Anaconda

and it creates the Cluster for you.

What could be easier?

============================================

As mindboggling as all this stuff was, the Kicker was the direction Rocks was working on:

Virtualization.

Very soon, Rocks will be able to send it's script to a "CLOUD Storage Space", like Amazon's S3,

and create a cluster virtually...

That's right! No Local Expensive Hardware required!

Think about that.

This is made possible because of Open Source Software.

Until next time,
Wingman way out.

I Love The Buzz of Twitter in the Morning

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/twitter.htm

Looking at the "How Stuff Works" site, one can't but be amazed at the popularity of Twitter.

Created by Evan Williams, that gave us Blogger (The Blogging App I Use). Blogger was eventually bought by Google and Williams went with it. There he met and worked with Biz Stone and the two decided to leave Google and create something New.

That something New was Odeo.

Odeo is a podcasting service company. According to Williams, he didn't have a personal interest in podcasting, and under his guidance, the company temporarily lost focus. However, one of Odeo's products was just beginning to gather steam: Twitter, a new messaging service. Stone gave Twitter its name, comparing the short spurts of information exchange to the chirping of birds and pointing out that many ring tones sound like bird calls [source: San Francisco Chronicle].

As the service became a more important part of Odeo, Stone and Williams decided to form a new company with Twitter as the flagship product. Williams bought out Odeo and Twitter from investors, then combined the existing company and service into a new venture called Obvious Corporation. Jack Dorsey joined the team and began to develop new ways for users to interface with Twitter, including through computer applications like instant messaging and e-mail. In March 2006, Twitter split off from Obvious to become its own company, Twitter Incorporated.

Well, to make a great Big Story shorter, Twitter had legs and caught on. The Apps listed here is an indication of how well this little App is doing.

=======================
Third party Apps for Twitter:
=======================

Twitterlicious: For PCs
http://www.twitterlicious.com/

Twitterific: For Macs
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/email_chat/twitterrific.html

OutTwit: For Outlook
http://www.techhit.com/OutTwit/

Tweet Scan: For searching public Twitter Posts
http://tweetscan.com/main.php

Twessenger: Integrates with Live Messenger 8.1
http://kunal.kundaje.net/twessenger/

Twittervision: Integrates into Google Maps
http://twittervision.com/
and Flickervision
http://flickrvision.com/

Flotzam: Integrates with Facebook, Flickr and blogs
http://flotzam.com/

iTunes to Twitter: For Mac computers, broadcasts the title of a song currently playing on his or her network.
http://twitterapps.co.uk/category/itunes/

TwitterBox: Twitter App that works inside Second Life.
http://twitterbox.uptodown.com/en/

=========================

Some of my Twitter "Tweets" are on the Top Left Corner.

I'm on Twitter as:
Bigbopper

Yeah, It's Cool.
Wingman

The Vid Chips Wars Heat Up Again.

======================= Graphic: Ati Radeon Graphics =======================

AMD (and that means: ATI graphic division) bests Nvidia with gtaphics chip Strategy. Source Link Here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-9978746-64.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

=======================

AMD bet on a new approach to graphic chip design and it appears to be paying off.
From Nanotech: The Circuits Blog at CNET News.com, comes a report from analyst Jon Peddie.

This could put AMD's ATI graphics chip unit on top again--or at least on equal footing with Nvidia, the graphics leader over the last few years.

Test reports on AMD's and Nvidia's newest graphics chips are pouring in. Both companies are racking up good scores.

========================

Like I KEEP SAYING, competition is GOOD. Very GOOD.
The Juice Bag powers all your digital stuff at the beach $250.00

http://www.geeksugar.com/319418


Wingman, happy.

========================

Goodbye Windows XP, We Hardily Knew Ye!

June 23, 2008:
Today Microsoft formally informed customers that it would pull the plug on "VISTA"..(I'm sorry, I Meant Windows XP!)

After all those Apple vs. Vista commercials, we Know Windows doesn't have a Sense-of-Humor.

But fortunately Joe Wilcox of eWeek's MICROSOFT WATCH blog, does. He thinks it's about time.

Let's put a Jackie Gleason Hardy Har- har here.

Of course, he's being Paid for His Opinion.

That's also the reason the "NEWS" has become so Crappy Lately.

More Later, Wingman...

Mozilla Firefox, On A Stick

Did You just struggle through getting the latest version of Firefox Browser 3.0? Yeah, the Big Download Tuesday got me too, and the demand shut down the Mozilla servers for a while. But I Was able to snag a copy. Wish you could take your Firefox Browser with you? Well you can, at Portable apps they have downloadable Firefox editions that you can load onto a USB flash drive, and be happy whereever you go.

Get your copy at: http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable





Here's a T-Shirt that radiates bars when you get near a WiFi Hotspot. You know you want want one... Only $29.99 at ThinkGeek, linked here: www.thinkgeek.com


And for those of you that say money is no object, how about an $1800.00 KEYBOARD?

Michael DELL has one, how about You?

Here's a close-up of what you're paying for:

Ooooo, pretty!

Yeah, each Key is programmable with an icon or picture of your choice, This lets you adapt the keys to whatever specialty program you're running; say like Photoshop, or whatever.

Pricey, yes but in a few years from now all keyboards will look like this...

Wingman, still just a Geek.

PS. I didn't put a link in for the Keyboard.

Really!

All Right NEWEGG!

ASUS EAH4850/HTDI/512M Radeon
HD 4850 (Source: Newegg)

(These are the cards I've been blogging about in the last week or so. The GigaFlop version for integration with HPC systems like the TOP500 iron, retails for $1000.00 and has 1 terabite of ram on board...Wingman.)

Newegg has HD 4850 cards from Sapphire, MSI, Gigabyte, ASUS, and Diamond available for purchase now. The Sapphire Radeon HD4850 retails for $199.99 and has a $20 mail-in rebate. The Sapphire card appears to lack any software or games bundled with the card.

Likewise, Newegg has an ASUS HD 4850 card for a low $169.99 after a $30 mail-in rebate.

Specs show that all cards contain 800 stream processing units, 512MB of GDDR3, a 256-bit memory interface and support for Crossfire. Core clock speed for the cards is 625MHz. Despite the significantly increased number of stream processors on the 4850 compared to the 9800 GTX+, NVIDIA maintains that the GTX+ significantly outperforms the 4850. Hands-on reviews will provide the tale of the tape.

The HD 4850 wasn't expected to hit store shelves until June 25.

========================================
Link:
http://www.dailytech.com/AMD+Radeon+HD+4850+Now+Available+to+Purchase+Priced+as+Low+as+170/article12157.htm
=======================================

I Love competition, don't you?

Wired magazine has an interesting article about
New Science's use of Super Data Crunching
Computers expanding role in Research...
Wingman, out.

Need A New "YMAIL" email address?

=============================

link solid:
http://www.dailytech.com/Yahoo+Offering+Email+Accounts+Under+Two+New+Domains/article12144.htm =============================

According to DailyTech, citing AP:
Yahoo mail has been losing new customers to Google’s Gmail service. According to the AP, Gmail added 30 million users in the last year and has about 101 million users total. Yahoo mail currently has about 266 million users and Microsoft has about 264 million users. Both Yahoo and Microsoft’s mail offerings are growing at a slower rate than Gmail.

...

To address this point Yahoo announced today that starting around 12:00 pm they will begin registering new email address under the domains “ymail” and “rocketmail”.

The purchase of Four11 Corp back in the late 1990’s included the Rocketmail domain.
...
The new email domains will offer the same features as accounts using the Yahoo email domain. Users wanting to get a new email account can sign up at:
mail.yahoo.com
==================================

Also from DailyTECH


===================================
Link Solid:
http://www.dailytech.com/Update+AMD+Preps+Radeon+4850+Launch+for+June+25/article12118.htm
===================================
Hardware: Update:
AMD PREPS Radeon 4850 Launch for June 25
This is the other side of the coin of:
AMD Firestorm in the Wind
on my previous Blog
===========================

Wingman out, and ahead of the Pack.

IBM-Built Supercomputer No. 1 in TOP500

Link: http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/other/display/20080618184059_IBM_Built_Supercomputer_No_1_in_TOP500.html

=================================
According to (http://www.xbitlabs.com/):
=================================

IBM's hybrid supercomputer, codenamed Roadrunner, built for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Los Alamos National Lab, burned its way into the TOP500 Supercomputer record book today as the most powerful system in the world. Its sustained performance of 1.02 petaflops (1.02 quadrillion calculations per second) - using the standard Linpack benchmark. It is the first general-purpose computer to reach this milestone. The new performance record represents more than twice the computational power of the reigning TOP500 champ, Lawrence Livermore's Blue Gene/L supercomputer. (based on AMD Opteron)

This "hybrid" architecture, which optimizes the strength of multiple types of processors, is an IBM hallmark.

...

But this system is powered by mix of IBM PowerXCell 8i Cell Broadband Engine processors – derived from chips that power today’s most popular videogame consoles - and 6,562 AMD Opteron Dual-Core processors.

...

Although IBM selected AMD processors for their performance leader, 374 systems (74.8 percent) out of Top 500 list now using Intel processors.

Moreover, the number of systems using Intel Harpertown and Clovertown quad-core chips showed the fastest growth rising in six months from 102 to 252 systems.

=============================
From Engadget:
=============================

When you're looking to set a record this is how you do it. Not only has IBM's Roadrunner supercomputer come on-line, it's now the world's fastest -- twice as fast as the old BluGene/L champ -- and churning through 1.026 quadrillion calculations per second.

The $133 million supercomputer achieved the milestone with the help of 12,960 "improved" Cell processors (yes, like those powering your PS3) and a smaller number of AMD Opteron processors -- 116,640 processor cores in total.

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending upon your perspective), Roadrunner is for military use only so you'll have to solve the traveling salesman problem on your own time.

While not quite into Exaflop territory, we're definitely on the way.

[Thanks, Chris S.]

================

Thanks Xbitlabs and Engadget.

Wingman tweaking his processors...

Sidenote: Even with the crash, Firefox 3.0 hit 8 million downloads in 24 hours.
Yeah, I was one of them...

Firefox 3

Downloaed Firefox 3

Extracted Firefox to Directory

Got It during the Record Hunt...

Then the Website couldn't keep up with the traffic...Crash...Boom!

There goes the record....Anyway I got the Latest Firefox 3 and testing it Slooow-ly..

Wingman Firefoxing.

Pledge to Download Firefox 3.0

Waiting in line to download the Firefox 3.0 at 10:00 a.m. pacific time.

Just to break a new Guinness Record for Software downloads in one Day.

Just finished installing the BETA version for a quick spin. I don't like to jump-into things if I can help it.

What a Geek I am...

The BETA seems a little snappier.

I'll get an Email when it's time to download the Release Version of 3.0.


Wingman, pushing bits.

Just an AMD Firestream in the Wind?

Pix:
Site: http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2006/11/16/ati-firestream-amd-stream-board-revealed

==========================================

The newly named "AMD Stream Processor" packs a peak power of 375 GFLOPS, easily slaying any single CPU in the world today.

Or tomorrow, for that matter.

Based on your typical ATI Radeon A1900 board with the old and loud cooler.

The "Stream Processor" comes running at a clockspeed similar to that used on X1900XT series of cards.

The board packs 1GB of GDDR3 memory-512MB located at the front and 512MB at the back of the PCB.

$1,000 Firestream 9250 breaks teraflops barrier

WHOA!

Link:
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2

Father's Day and Sailing the Horns of Plenty

I spent Father's Day morning watering the grass as I listened to my wife's portable MP3 player and some of her music. One of the songs: Dancing Bear by the Mama's and Papas has some clever lines:

(From Lyrics and Songs.com--http://www.lyricsandsongs.com/song/31650.html)

Dancing Bear
by Mamas and Papas

I wouldn't want to be a chimney sweep
All black from head to foot
From climbing in them chimneys And cleaning out that soot.
With a broom and ladder and pail,
The darkened walls I scale -

And far..and high...I see a patch of sky.

I'd rather be the gypsy (I'd rather be the gypsy)
Whose camped at the edge of town - (Camped at the edge of town)
The one who has the dancing bear
That follows him around.
And he lifts his big foot up; He puts his big foot down
And bows...and twirls... And dances 'round and 'round.

I found I was a cabin boy last night as I did dream -
Bound upon a magic ship for a land I'd never seen.
And the moon she filled our sails; And the stars they steered our course;
And on our bow there was a golden horse.

The queen eats fruit and candy; the bishop nuts and cheese
And when I am a grown man, I'll taste just what I please -
The honey from the bee, the shellfish from the sea,
The earth, the wind, a girl, someone to share these things with me.

I wouldn't want to be a chimney sweep, etc...
(I'd rather be the gypsy, etc...) (I dreamed I was a cabin boy, etc...)


I also visited one of my favorite Linux Sites, the one that showcase's the latest programs that are mostly free, mostly open source and a great site to taste a new piece of software.

The site is called Freshmeat: http://freshmeat.net/

Unless you close your eyes, you can never be bored with Linux.

The software available from Freshmeat Daily (I don't advise going there daily...It's better to pace yourself and learn to pick and choose stuff you're really interested in or curious about.) will make you feel like that cabin boy exploring a software world of goodies.

Wingman, indulging...

------------------------------------------------------

"Wait Til Next Year...."

"Wait Til Next Year..."

After yesterday's unseemly finish, a fresh crop of one-liners come to mind:
"The Fat Lady is Clearing Her Throat..."

"Boy, Was Barkley Wrong..."

"Stoke 'em up Auerbach."

"It Must Be The Beans, Not the Tacos..."

"Sports writers are having a Field Day."

Wingman, down and out...

WWDC: Worldwide Developers Conference

WWDC 2008: What's in store for Apple

=====================================================
Live Links Plus: http://news.cnet.com/WWDC-2008-Whats-in-store-for-Apple/2009-1041_3-6240894.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news
=====================================================
The End of the Speculation.
Today we See and Hear (and for the lucky few that were able to get tickets) FEEL what Apple has for All of US at the Conference.

Steve Jobs will announce the goodies at his Keynote Address (around 9:00).

Most of the Buzz has been about a New iPhone, but iMac speculation has also been heavy.

If you're near a computer, the links above should keep you informed.

Tah, tah
It's Apple Time.

Windows XP is NOT Dead...

Long Live Windows XP

PC World article on:
"How to Get and Keep Windows XP After June 30"
is linked Here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,146330/article.html

The Heart of Windows is still beating....

Wingman out.

Is Network News Still Relevant?

Newspapers are dying on the Presses, Ad dollars migrating to the Web. Local Newscasts are visual regurgitators of the Times, both New York and Los Angeles. And Network News are Glorified pulpits for Anchor Celebs that shuffle commentators faster than Johnny did on the "Tonight Show".

Even the venerable 60 minutes has become a ticking bomb of a newscast. Whatever happened to the Cronkites and the Brinkley's?

CNN has become a fireman with a camera chasing the latest catastrophe with silly YouTube styled clips.

The problem my friends is focus. And the focus is not news, it's advertisers. And everyone has something to sell, and the pitchmen and women are like the carpetbaggers of old. Prancing for the fast buck and then off to the next marketing hero.

It's better to go offshore, like the BBC to get a better perspective about is important for me to know about here in the States.

And the Web, without a 2.0 nailed to it, is still the best way to get access to it. And BBC podcasts are just a click away.

Right now, on GMA, someone is actually interviewing Adam Sandler.

Now that's news worthy...

Wingman way out.

Twitter Effect: Did New Media Do Hillary In?

From the beginning of the campaign it appeared that the Obama Team was more Tech savy than the Hillary Team. Internet, text messaging and even Twitter played a resounding role in this campaign.

I personally found it easy to "follow" Obama on Twitter. I tried the same for Hillary and was dismayed by the number of choices that seemed scatter-gun rather than focused.

A few days after following Obama, I received a Twitter that Obama was "Following Me". That simple action, was a stroke of genius. And a deft realization of the Power of New Media.

Not many are aware of the social gathering tools, such as Twitter, and how to use them to best advantage. It appears the Obama Team did, and used it a a critical point in the campaign.

New Media (the Internet, and Social Networking) will beat Old Media every time, and points to the need to be New Media savy.

elobopper at : mediacircus2.blogspot.com

Pringles Can Designer Dies, Buried in a Pringles Can

==============================================

This story can only be filed under Apropos:

According to slashdot.org, the Designer of the Pringles Can recently died and in nccordance with his Last Wishes, was buried in a Pringles Can.

You really can't make this stuff up...

link:http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/01/0023244&from=rss

==============================================

The Solid-State Chips will Fall!

C/Net:Solid-state drive prices to DIVE

link:http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9956136-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

==============================================

C/Net: NASA to put Buzz Lightyear on International Space Station
Disney Disney Disney...Now this may be a real Buzz-Kill.

Go ahead, follow the link and See The Video!

link:http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-9956563-52.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

==============================================

At The Conferences:

like Google's I/O Developer Conference

in San Francisco this week.

C/Net: Google Docs Attracting More Developers

Catch the video of Kara Tsuboi's chat with Jonathan Rochelle, product manager of Google Docs.

==============================================
TECH HIGHLIGHTS Culled by Wingman
==============================================