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Thursday, 2 October 2008 2:05 PM
Original article located at: The Official Google Blog
At Google, we have a saying: "launch early and iterate." While this
approach is usually limited to our engineers, it apparently applies to
our mailroom as well! As you may have read in the blogosphere, we hit
"send" a bit early on a comic book introducing our new open source
browser, Google Chrome. As we believe in access to information for
everyone, we've now made the comic publicly available -- you can find
it
here. We will be launching the beta version of Google Chrome tomorrow in more than 100 countries.
So
why are we launching Google Chrome? Because we believe we can add value
for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web.
All
of us at Google spend much of our time working inside a browser. We
search, chat, email and collaborate in a browser. And in our spare
time, we shop, bank, read news and keep in touch with friends -- all
using a browser. Because we spend so much time online, we began
seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if we started
from scratch and built on the best elements out there. We realized that
the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive
applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What
we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for
web pages and applications, and that's what we set out to build.
On
the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and
simple. To most people, it isn't the browser that matters. It's only a
tool to run the important stuff -- the pages, sites and applications
that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome
is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want
to go.
Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a
browser that runs today's complex web applications much better. By
keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox", we were able to prevent one
tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue
sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also
built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next
generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's
browsers.
This is just the beginning -- Google Chrome is far
from done. We're releasing this beta for Windows to start the broader
discussion and hear from you as quickly as possible. We're hard at work
building versions for Mac and Linux too, and will continue to make it
even faster and more robust.
We owe a great debt to many open
source projects, and we're committed to continuing on their path. We've
used components from Apple's WebKit and Mozilla's Firefox, among others
-- and in that spirit, we are making all of our code open source as
well. We hope to collaborate with the entire community to help drive
the web forward.
The web gets better with more options and
innovation. Google Chrome is another option, and we hope it contributes
to making the web even better.
Click here to view the original article.
Filed Under: News
Wednesday, 30 July 2008 4:57 PM
Read the full article from Brisbane Times...
GOOGLE has snatched what is believed to be its biggest single client in the world - the NSW Department of Education - away from its rival Microsoft to claim up to 1.3 million new users of its free email product.
The NSW Director-General of Education, Michael Coutts-Trotter, said the department had exploited its size to get the best deal for students and teachers, who will each receive customised Gmail accounts.
"Our new email contract was so big that global players like Google were prepared to put together a world-class package of services for the children and young people in NSW public schools," he said.
The acting Minister for Education, John Hatzistergos, said the new system would cater for 1.3 million users and be in place by the end of the year.
The $9.5 million, three-year contract with the Google partner SMS Management and Technology will displace the department's previous $30 million contract with Microsoft partner Unisys, which ran over five years.
Although Google offers Gmail to education providers free, SMS Management and Technology said there were significant costs associated with providing tight security and integrating the email system with the department's existing portal.
"This will be one of the biggest Gmail deployments in the world," said its spokesman, Matthew Kaufman, who said Macquarie University had also recently signed up for Gmail.
The US-based information technology analyst Matthew Cain, from Gartner, said it was no secret why Microsoft and Google are "assiduously courting" the .edu community with free email services.
"If the vendors can get students to sign up for email accounts, the hope is they will then use those accounts for life," Mr Cain said. "Students, alumni, staff and faculty all represent a highly desirable demographic that advertisers will pay top dollar to reach."
The department's chief information officer, Stephen Wilson, said there would be no advertising on the new email accounts, which would be supported by tough filtering and security software.
Students will be able to log on from home. But whereas each had access to 35 gigabytes of memory on their account previously, they now have six gigabytes.
"I think we are the largest single-enterprise user of Gmail," Mr Wilson said.
"[The deal is] a first in Australian education and a lot of other states are very interested."
Click here to view the original article...
Filed Under: News
Wednesday, 9 July 2008 9:30 AM
Taken From the Seagate Website
To address the growing consumer need for storage in the home, Seagate
(NYSE: STX) today announced the Maxtor® Central Axis™ network drive, a
network storage drive that can be used by the whole family. This latest
drive from Seagate provides a terabyte of storage that every computer
in the home can back up to. In addition to media streaming capabilities
for video, photos and music, the new Maxtor Central Axis network drive
also includes an easy-to-use remote access service that allows people
to easily and securely retrieve content stored on their network drive
through any Internet browser.
A concept once only reserved for the small business and enterprise
space, networked storage is increasingly becoming a viable option for
multiple-computer homes. According to Yankee Group's 2008 Device
Survey, of those who purchased network routers for the home, 75.9% did
so with the intent of providing multiple computers with access to the
Internet. The challenge of these multi-computer households is the
ability to share and back up files from each computer. Maxtor Central
Axis network drive allows for each computer in the home to be
automatically backed up, so important files and precious memories are
sheltered from virus infections or disc drive failures. Sharing files
from computer to computer is easy when there is one repository for any
file that you would like to share. Additionally, since the storage
device is connected to the router and not formatted for an individual
computer, files can be accessed and stored from both Mac OS X and
Windows operated PCs.
"The days of external storage simply
serving as an extension to a full hard drive are over - the era of
personal digital content has seen to that," said Josh Martin, senior
analyst of Yankee Group's Media and Entertainment devices. "Survey data
indicates that over 41% of recent external storage buyers did so to
back up their data not because they ran out of room on the primary
computer. With the emotional connection people have to their photos and
videos, I believe the trend will only continue."
The Maxtor
Central Axis network drive liberates content that was once trapped on
individual computers. This easy to use solution enables multimedia file
sharing from every computer in the home as well as from common
entertainment devices, which are DLNA compliant, such as Microsoft®
Xbox® 360™ and Sony® PlayStation® 3™. Watching home movies, viewing
pictures of the last family vacation and listening to music can now all
be enjoyed in the living room through networked console players instead
of having guests crowd around a computer monitor in the den or a small
laptop computer screen. This storage device helps put your digital
entertainment back in a room where the whole family can enjoy it.
"Our Central Axis solution is a snap to set up and use for nearly every
member of the family. Any household with a network would benefit from
having a way to back up every PC in the home and share files between
them," said BenHur Castor, director of product line management for
Seagate's Consumer Solution Division. "Back up is essential to make
certain photos, videos and other important files live beyond the life
of an individual computer. The Central Axis network drive provides a
complete solution for back up storage as well as file sharing in the
home and from the road."
In addition to providing networked
access to important files, Maxtor Central Axis network drive provides a
way to easily share and access files when you are not on the network.
With the ever-growing dependence on access to information and digital
content, whether that be multimedia content, spreadsheets or
business-related documents, you'll find there are times when you'll
need to access these files remotely. Retrieving content that is saved
to a network drive when you are not local to the network has always
raised concerns about security and complexity. Most applications
involve installing software on the computer accessing the drive. Many
remote access applications also require a breach in a firewall, leaving
the network and your data open and vulnerable to attack.
With
Maxtor Central Axis, you can easily log into the remote access service
from an Internet browser to securely access and share the files stored
on the networked storage drive. There are no applications to download
or plug-ins required. Central Axis establishes a secure connection to
the service without the need to disable firewalls. All that is needed
to access the drive from any Web browser is a username and password.
Read the full article.....
Filed Under: News
Tuesday, 24 June 2008 3:17 PM
Taken from the Australian IT website
ONLY laptop suppliers will be eligible to
jostle for $56 million worth of NSW government funds as part of the
national schools PC program, leaving desktop and thin client suppliers
lamenting.
NSW has decided to supply high school students solely with laptops due to their portability and features.
"The portability of laptops provides students with flexible learning
options," a state Department of Education and Training spokesperson
said.
Independent and Catholic schools in NSW would receive $4.8 million and $13.8 million, respectively.
"The department intends to release a call for expressions of
interest with detailed requirements for a specialist educational
laptop."
The tender would be made available once negotiations with the commonwealth had been finalised, the spokesperson said.
The funds have been allocated on paper but the Iemma Government and
other state governments are said to be concerned about the operating
costs of managing and maintaining the computers.
Among the main points raised with federal Education Minister Julia
Gillard is who will pick up the tab for electricity, software
licensing, security and technical support.
The department, like its counterparts in other states, is using its bulk-buying power to negotiate better rates from suppliers.
"If individual schools bought computers off the shelf they would pay at least double the price," the spokesperson said.
"The department's solution ensures schools of an integrated system
with the best educational outcome and the best value for the
investment."
Industry heavyweight Intel and laptop manufacturer Asus welcomed
NSW's plan. Intel Australia chief Philip Cronin said the Government had
made the right decision, as laptops consumed far less energy than
desktops.
"With laptops you can get a 50 per cent reduction in power
consumption," Mr Cronin said. "I'm not at all surprised that NSW has
chosen this path."
He said laptops would eventually replace textbooks as more curriculum went online.
Several schools in NSW, Victoria and Queensland have been testing a
low-cost, rugged and colourful ultra-portable PC, dubbed Classmate,
designed by Intel and assembled by local vendor Optima, since late last
year.
The Classmate PC trials incorporate Intel's global teacher-training
program, which aims to educate teachers in how to use information
technology to meet curriculum requirements.
Asus Australia also has a few of its popular Eee PC sub-notebooks on trial in Queensland.
Asus business development manager Michael Serdiuk said the feedback
had been positive, but NSW's decision to embrace laptops was a massive
boon.
"We built the Eee PC for the education market so we'll be very keen to partake in the tender process," Mr Serdiuk said.
When the $500 Eee PC was launched it only ran on Linux but the
company has since added a Windows flavour to the mix, which would
please large Microsoft users such as the NSW education department.
"The ultra-low form factor of laptops and sub-notebooks is more
favourable than desktops. Space is a premium, so that would be an
immediate saving," Mr Serdiuk said.
Virtualisation specialist VMware, whose software powers thin clients, was unfazed by the department's decision.
VMware was banking on thin clients supplied by partner Sun
Microsystems to impress government officials, but local head Paul
Harapin said state governments would ultimately opt for a mix of
laptops, desktops and thin clients.
Read the full article....
Filed Under: News
Tuesday, 24 June 2008 3:08 PM
Taken from the Australian IT website
GOOGLE has edged out some of the biggest brands in the
enterprise IT services market to pick up another major contract win in
Australia's education sector.
Google partner SMS Management and Technology has emerged as the leading
bidder to supply the NSW Department of Education with 1.5 million
student email services using a customised version of the search giant's
Gmail service, Acting NSW Minister for Education and Training John
Hatzistergos said.
"This commitment is a further demonstration of the NSW Labor
Government's commitment to equip teachers and students with the best
possible means to compete successfully in the constantly evolving world
of information technology," he said.
NSW education department chief information officer Stephen Wilson
said the department was yet to finalise its contract with SMS but
confirmed that it had lodged the winning bid.
SMS will be the prime contractor alongside Google and Telstra to fulfil the contract, valued at $9.5 million over three years.
The department rejected bids from Hewlett-Packard, Telstra
subsidiary Kaz, and incumbent provider Unisys, to award the contract to
SMS.
It's understood that the contract will be one the largest private deployments of Gmail in the world.
The win is Google's second major victory in the academic sector
after Macquarie University signed up for Gmail in September last year.
It could have massive implications for the Australian software market,
as it places Gmail's online word processing software, Google Docs, in a
strong position to challenge Microsoft's Office software suite in the
education sector.
Mr Wilson said the agency had no plans to switch on Google's online word processing software at this stage.
"We haven't made any decision there. This contract was just email," Mr Wilson said.
SMS chief executive Tom Stianos said the trend towards providing software as a service was "unstoppable".
However, the Gmail deployment at Macquarie University hasn't been without controversy.
Gmail is hosted offshore and the university chose not to extend the
service to staff due to concerns that it would generate excessive
bandwidth bills retrieving messages.
The education department's Gmail roll-out will increase current
email storage allocated to students by a multiple of 170 times from
35MB to 6GB.
The department is also deploying extra security filtering, which will be carried out locally.
"You have to remember we're the largest consumer of internet traffic in NSW by a long way.
Read the full article......
Filed Under: News
Monday, 23 June 2008 11:48 AM
Taken from the Nvidia Website.
Imagine instead of taking over five hours to convert a video for your iPod, it only takes 35 minutesi.
Imagine using your PC to simulate protein folding to help find a cure
for debilitating diseases. Imagine that your PC can dramatically
accelerate everyday tasks, and deliver an exciting visual experience in
the process. Today that imagination becomes a reality now that the
leader in visual computing technologies, NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA), has
introduced its new family of GeForce® GTX 200 graphics processors
(GPUs)-which includes the GeForce GTX 280 and GeForce GTX 260
GPUs-taking graphics beyond gaming and gaming beyond anything that's
ever been possible before on a consumer computing platform.
"The advances NVIDIA continues to make in visual computing are simply
incredible, and we are excited to be one of the first companies in the
world to offer the technology in the new Exhilaration Edition of the
award-winning HP Blackbird 002," said Rahul Sood, chief technology
officer, HP Voodoo Business Unit. "Exceptional graphics quality and
performance is important to our customers, and now the GeForce GTX 200
GPUs are bringing something else into the mix. By using the GPU to
enhance everyday applications such as video encoding and manipulating
photos, HP Blackbird 002 is one of the most cutting-edge PC platforms
ever designed."
Graphics Beyond Gaming
One of the most powerful processors in
the PC is the GPU. Rendering 3D images in real-time is just about the
most mathematically intensive task your PC will ever undertake, but
it's not the only one. As PC applications become increasingly visual,
many ordinary tasks will benefit from the graphics horsepower provided
by the GPU, including encoding and playing high-definition videos,
editing photos, getting driving directions off the Internet, or simply
running a new operating system like Windows Vista.
"Millions of users around the world know how time consuming it is to
convert their home videos for use on video sharing sites such as
YouTube or for downloading to popular media players such as the iPod,"
said Sam Blackman, CEO of Elemental Technologies. "Elemental has
developed the BadaBOOM™ Media Converter, a consumer video application
scheduled for release in August. By taking advantage of the massively
parallel, general-purpose computing architecture of a GeForce GPU, we
are able to transcode high-quality video 18 times faster than with
CPU-only implementations. This unprecedented performance scaling is the
reason why we have made sure that our RapiHDTM Video Platform takes
advantage of NVIDIA GPUs."
By recognizing that the value of a GPU transcends gaming, an increasing
number of applications are also being written that use the GPU for
straight, non-graphical computational tasks. For example, Stanford
University's distributed computing computational program Folding@Home,
combines the computing horsepower of millions of consumer GPUs to
simulate protein folding to help find cures for diseases such as
Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. With the computing processing power of the
GeForce GTX family, applications such as Folding@Home and others can
run upwards of 140 times faster on an NVIDIA general-purpose parallel
processor than on some of today's traditional CPUs.
Gaming That's Beyond
The CUDA general-purpose parallel processing mode will usher in a new
generation of ultra realistic games. Developers can use the
supercomputing power of the "CUDA Computing" mode to simulate
realistic, physically accurate effects then render beautiful images
using the "GeForce GPU" mode. NVIDIA GPUs are also the only ones to
support PhysX™ technology, the world's most pervasive physics engine
that is already delivering dynamic 3D realism to more than 140 games
across multiple platforms, and is being used by more than 25,000
developers worldwide. With PhysX, developers can incorporate effects
such as rigid body dynamics, collision detection, and cloth simulation
that dramatically change the way the games are played and how the
on-screen stories unfold, and then accelerate those effects using the
processing power of the GPU.
Read the full article...
Filed Under: News
Monday, 16 June 2008 9:12 AM
Toshiba's New 1.8-inch HDD Achieves 160GB, the Industry's Largest*1 Storage Capacity for Drive with a Serial ATA Interface
Taken from the Toshiba website.
Toshiba Corporation today announced a new line-up of 1.8-inch hard
disk drives (HDD) adopting a serial ATA interface, including the
industry's first*1 drive of this type with a capacity of 160 gigabytes.
The new 160GB drive, MK1617GSG, and an 80GB drive, MK8017GSG, will
enter mass production in August.
Toshiba's new 1.8-inch HDDs
boost interface speed to 1.5Gbps and offer a rotation speed of 5,400
rpm, faster than the current generation of Toshiba 1.8-inch HDD
(MK1214GAH, parallel ATA, 120GB). By realizing the industry's first
160GB 1.8-inch drive with a serial ATA interface, Toshiba assures that
mobile PCs will be able to meet the most demanding user needs.
The new MK1617GSG drive is more environmentally efficient than
Toshiba's current MK1216GSG (120GB) model, and raises energy
consumption efficiency, as defined under the Japanese legal standard,
to 0.00281W/GB, a 25% improvement. The drive improves the maximum
internal data transfer rate by approximately 17%, and supports faster
data access in reading and writing that enhances overall performance.
Alongside Toshiba's 1.8-inch HDD of 80GB and 120GB serial ATA interface
drives already in the market, the new drives will provide product
manufacturers with a broad line-up that supports diverse applications.
The new drives will also contribute to achievement of environmentally
conscious products in full compliance with the EU's RoHS directive*2.
Read the full article....
Filed Under: News
Monday, 26 May 2008 10:26 AM
Web users 'getting more selfish'
Original article taken from BBC News.
Web users are getting more ruthless and selfish when they go online, reveals research.
The annual report into web habits by usability guru Jakob Nielsen shows people are becoming much less patient when they go online.
Instead of dawdling on websites many users want simply to reach a site quickly, complete a task and leave.
Most ignore efforts to make them linger and are suspicious of promotions designed to hold their attention.
Instead, many are "hot potato" driven and just want to get a specific task completed.
Success rates measuring whether people achieve what they set out to do online are now about 75%, said Dr Nielsen. In 1999 this figure stood at 60%.
There were two reasons for this, he said.
"The designs have become better but also users have become accustomed to that interactive environment," Dr Nielsen told BBC News.
Now, when people go online they know what they want and how to do it, he said.
This makes them very resistant to highlighted promotions or other editorial choices that try to distract them.
"Web users have always been ruthless and now are even more so," said Dr Nielsen.
"People want sites to get to the point, they have very little patience," he said.
"I do not think sites appreciate that yet," he added. "They still feel that their site is interesting and special and people will be happy about what they are throwing at them."
Web users were also getting very frustrated with all the extras, such as widgets and applications, being added to sites to make them more friendly.
Such extras are only serving to make pages take longer to load, said Dr Nielsen.
There has also been a big change in the way that people get to the places where they can complete pressing tasks, he said.
In 2004, about 40% of people visited a homepage and then drilled down to where they wanted to go and 60% use a deep link that took them directly to a page or destination inside a site. In 2008, said Dr Nielsen, only 25% of people travel via a homepage. The rest search and get straight there.
"Basically search engines rule the web," he said.
But, he added, this did not mean that the search engines were doing a perfect job.
"When you watch people search we often find that people fail and do not get the results they were looking for," he said.
"In the long run anyone who wants to beat Google just has to make a better search," said Dr Nielsen.
Click here to view the original article.
Filed Under: News
Tuesday, 18 March 2008 11:36 AM
SANTA CLARA, CA-FEBRUARY 21, 2008-NVIDIA®
Corporation, the world leader in visual computing technologies, has
unveiled the first graphics processing unit (GPU) of its
next-generation GeForce® 9 Series that may offer the largest
single-generation performance jump in the Company's history. Introduced
today, the NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT GPU delivers up to 116%[i] more performance than its predecessor at a price below $199.
"After going to all the GeForce LANs and seeing the rigs that gamers
play on, we wanted to kick off the GeForce 9 with the perfect GPU for
gamers," said Ujesh Desai, general manager of GeForce desktop GPUs at
NVIDIA. "The first product to be introduced in the GeForce 9 family
gives gamers the horsepower to play cutting-edge DirectX 10 games at a
price they will love and can afford."
A point has been reached in PC gaming where the graphics horsepower requirements to play popular games such as Call of Duty 4 and Unreal Tournament 3
at high-definition resolutions such as 1900x1200 and above, with
high-image-quality features enabled, may have outpaced a lot of the
installed hardware. Until now, graphics processors capable of
delivering playable frame rates at those stressful settings have cost
in excess of $400. With the GeForce 9600 GT GPU, immersive gaming with
incredible graphics is now within the reach and budget of PC gamers for
less than $199.
"NVIDIA continues to innovate in hardware technology so that game
enthusiasts and consumers can fully experience the incredible graphics
offerings in Microsoft's operating systems, including Windows Vista,"
said Kevin Unangst, senior global director of Games for Windows,
Microsoft. "The new GeForce 9600 GT GPU further extends NVIDIA's
ability to deliver improved DirectX 10 performance on Windows Vista at
an affordable price point, so that anyone and everyone can have an
amazing gaming experience."
The new GeForce 9600 GT GPU shows an improved performance-per-watt
ratio compared to its predecessor as well as improved compression
efficiency. In addition to 64 stream processors-each individually
clocked at a blazing-fast 1625 MHz-and a 256-bit memory interface
running at 900 MHz, the GeForce 9600 GT GPU is designed for the new
PCIe 2.0 bus standard and features backwards compatibility with the
original PCIe standard.
The GeForce 9600 GT GPU also improves high-definition video playback on everyday PCs by leveraging NVIDIA PureVideo®
HD technology to deliver high-quality playback of HD DVD and Blu-ray
movies. The new programmable video-processing engine takes on all of
the high-definition H.264 video decoding, freeing the CPU to perform
other tasks, while significantly reducing power consumption, heat, and
noise. Spectacular picture clarity and vibrant color is achieved with
advanced video processing technology
.
Filed Under: News
Monday, 10 March 2008 10:20 AM
Dear Valued Clients,
We understand that a new website will mean a different way of doing things, so we have put together an easy to follow user guide.
Click on the link (
TechFlare v3 - Instructions.pdf (922.43KB)) to download the instructions for some of the more common facilities on the website.
NOTE: If you already have an account on the old website, you can still log-in to this new website with it. However, you will have to click on the "Forgot Password" link to be sent a new password.
Filed Under: News
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