The One Laptop Per Child Project wants to be as efficient as a commercial organization, and to that end is searching for a new CEO and reorganizing departments, the nonprofit organization's chairman said on Wednesday.
The need for a CEO and improved efficiency stem from OLPC operating "almost like a terrorist group, doing almost impossible things," and the need to be managed "more like Microsoft," Chairman Nicholas Negroponte said in an interview with BusinessWeek.
OLPC has reorganized into four operating units -- technology, deployment, market development, and fundraising and administration -- over the past month, Negroponte told BusinessWeek. He will continue as chairman.
As part of the reorganization, the nonprofit also plans to unload more Linux OS development to Red Hat and Windows OS development to Microsoft, Negroponte said. Negroponte told the IDG News Service in January that OLPC was working with Microsoft to develop a dual-boot system to put both Linux and Windows on the nonprofit's XO laptops.
That will help OLPC focus more on "developing prototypes and other new concepts" related to learning, Negroponte told BusinessWeek.
OLPC has been plagued with problems since it launched the effort to develop a US$100 XO laptop for children in developing countries three years ago. OLPC has struggled to realize the ambitious vision of developing the laptop, facing delays, rising costs and reduced orders. Critics charge that OLPC's broken distribution and support models led to reduced orders from governments, its target customers.
In January, OLPC lost Chief Technology Officer Mary Lou Jepsen, who started an organization to commercialize OLPC's technology, including the screen and battery. A few days later, Intel said it was quitting OLPC after the nonprofit insisted that Intel abandon its effort to develop and distribute Classmate PC, a rival low-cost laptop. OLPC later said that it would welcome Intel back to the effort.
OLPC officials were not available for comment about the search for a CEO.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Novell's de Icaza criticizes Microsoft patent deal
Open-source pioneer and Novell Vice President Miguel de Icaza Thursday for the first time publicly slammed his company's cross-patent licensing agreement with Microsoft as he defended himself against lack of patent protection for third parties that distribute his company's Moonlight project, which ports Microsoft's Silverlight technology to Linux.
Speaking on a panel at the MIX 08 conference in Las Vegas, de Icaza said that Novell has done the best it could to balance open-source interests with patent indemnification. However, if he had his way, the company would have remained strictly open source and not gotten into bed with Microsoft. Novell entered into a controversial multimillion dollar cross-patent licensing and interoperability deal with Microsoft in November 2006.
"I'm not happy about the fact that such an agreement was made, but [the decision] was above my pay grade; I think we should have stayed with the open-source community," de Icaza said. He was speaking on a panel that also included representatives from Microsoft and open-source companies Mozilla and Zend.
De Icaza is a well-known technology prodigy from Mexico City who cofounded the GNOME open-source project and whose company Ximian was purchased by Novell in 2003. He remains one of the company's most well-respected and best-known open-source proponents.
De Icaza's comments came as he received questions from an audience member about the Moonlight project, Novell's open-source project to bring Microsoft's Silverlight to Linux. Silverlight is cross-browser runtime for building and delivering applications on the Web.
During the discussion, de Icaza explained that while anyone who downloaded Moonlight from Novell was protected by the company's licensing of Silverlight codecs from Microsoft through the company's own cross-licensing agreement. Mike Schroepfer, vice president of engineering from Mozilla, then raised the question that if he downloads and then distributes the code for Moonlight, would he get the patent protection?
"There is a patent covenant for anyone that downloads [Moonlight] from Novell," answered de Icaza, who then acknowledged that "as to extending the patents to third parties -- you have to talk to Microsoft."
This answer led Schroepfer to point out the inconsistency between having products that are called open source but are "patent-encumbered." "There are a lot of complicated IP patent-licensing restrictions," he said. "Even if you have open-source [products], you can't get the end result you're interested in."
Schroepfer said that Mozilla does not have any patents or any form of indemnification for anything in its products that may violate other company's patents -- something de Icaza said certainly must be the case.
"We are as protected or unprotected as anyone else," Schroepfer said. "It's a fairly equal scenario."
De Icaza shot back that it was "unfair" of Schroepfer to paint Novell as the only company protected by patent covenants, as many companies have signed licensing agreements not only with Microsoft, but also with other companies such as IBM that have a large patent portfolio.
He also said that while it's commendable that Microsoft is attempting to be more open by allowing other companies more access to application programming interfaces, discussion and haggling over OSes and patents slows the industry as a whole's move to fully take advantage of new Web 2.0 business models, as Google has.
"The patent piece is such a small piece of it," de Icaza said. "I don't think Windows and Linux are relevant in the long term. They might be fantastic products ... but Google has shown itself to be a cash cow. There is a feature beyond selling corporate [software] and patents ... it's going to be owning end users."
Microsoft touts Silverlight as a cross-platform technology that will run on any browser or OS platform -- such as Windows, Mac or Linux. However, instead of offering a version for Linux itself, it has chosen to let Novell do it through the Moonlight project.
Keith Smith, director of product management for Microsoft, said that Microsoft decided to let Novell port Silverlight to Linux rather than do it themselves because of Novell's expertise with the Linux OS. Novell already had the Mono open-source .NET implementation project as well, which also factored into the decision, he said.
The choice has drawn ire from open-source diehards who were displeased with Novell's decision to sign a cross-licensing agreement with Microsoft in the first place. A Web site called "Boycott Novell" decried Moonlight as a Microsoft "pet project" and criticized the company's decision not to port Silverlight to Linux itself.
Speaking on a panel at the MIX 08 conference in Las Vegas, de Icaza said that Novell has done the best it could to balance open-source interests with patent indemnification. However, if he had his way, the company would have remained strictly open source and not gotten into bed with Microsoft. Novell entered into a controversial multimillion dollar cross-patent licensing and interoperability deal with Microsoft in November 2006.
"I'm not happy about the fact that such an agreement was made, but [the decision] was above my pay grade; I think we should have stayed with the open-source community," de Icaza said. He was speaking on a panel that also included representatives from Microsoft and open-source companies Mozilla and Zend.
De Icaza is a well-known technology prodigy from Mexico City who cofounded the GNOME open-source project and whose company Ximian was purchased by Novell in 2003. He remains one of the company's most well-respected and best-known open-source proponents.
De Icaza's comments came as he received questions from an audience member about the Moonlight project, Novell's open-source project to bring Microsoft's Silverlight to Linux. Silverlight is cross-browser runtime for building and delivering applications on the Web.
During the discussion, de Icaza explained that while anyone who downloaded Moonlight from Novell was protected by the company's licensing of Silverlight codecs from Microsoft through the company's own cross-licensing agreement. Mike Schroepfer, vice president of engineering from Mozilla, then raised the question that if he downloads and then distributes the code for Moonlight, would he get the patent protection?
"There is a patent covenant for anyone that downloads [Moonlight] from Novell," answered de Icaza, who then acknowledged that "as to extending the patents to third parties -- you have to talk to Microsoft."
This answer led Schroepfer to point out the inconsistency between having products that are called open source but are "patent-encumbered." "There are a lot of complicated IP patent-licensing restrictions," he said. "Even if you have open-source [products], you can't get the end result you're interested in."
Schroepfer said that Mozilla does not have any patents or any form of indemnification for anything in its products that may violate other company's patents -- something de Icaza said certainly must be the case.
"We are as protected or unprotected as anyone else," Schroepfer said. "It's a fairly equal scenario."
De Icaza shot back that it was "unfair" of Schroepfer to paint Novell as the only company protected by patent covenants, as many companies have signed licensing agreements not only with Microsoft, but also with other companies such as IBM that have a large patent portfolio.
He also said that while it's commendable that Microsoft is attempting to be more open by allowing other companies more access to application programming interfaces, discussion and haggling over OSes and patents slows the industry as a whole's move to fully take advantage of new Web 2.0 business models, as Google has.
"The patent piece is such a small piece of it," de Icaza said. "I don't think Windows and Linux are relevant in the long term. They might be fantastic products ... but Google has shown itself to be a cash cow. There is a feature beyond selling corporate [software] and patents ... it's going to be owning end users."
Microsoft touts Silverlight as a cross-platform technology that will run on any browser or OS platform -- such as Windows, Mac or Linux. However, instead of offering a version for Linux itself, it has chosen to let Novell do it through the Moonlight project.
Keith Smith, director of product management for Microsoft, said that Microsoft decided to let Novell port Silverlight to Linux rather than do it themselves because of Novell's expertise with the Linux OS. Novell already had the Mono open-source .NET implementation project as well, which also factored into the decision, he said.
The choice has drawn ire from open-source diehards who were displeased with Novell's decision to sign a cross-licensing agreement with Microsoft in the first place. A Web site called "Boycott Novell" decried Moonlight as a Microsoft "pet project" and criticized the company's decision not to port Silverlight to Linux itself.
Panel: Who should bear cost of tomorrow's broadband?
As the volume of Internet traffic grows explosively, driven by factors like rampant demand for online video, a new question is arising: Who will get the bill for the mega-sized data-pipes of the future?
A panel of industry executives and analysts mulled that question and related issues during a keynote event Thursday at the Cebit conference in Hanover, Germany.
"One person's broadband is somebody else's narrowband. ... What was classified as broadband just a few years ago is definitely narrowband today," said Dan Bieler, an IDC analyst who moderated the discussion.
Observers have predicted that while the Web's infrastructure is quickly becoming more robust, richer, higher-traffic content will accordingly help fill the additional bandwidth.
In fact, the amount of information created, captured and replicated on the Internet will grow to nearly 1,000 exabytes over the next several years, from less than 200 exabytes in 2006, according to a slide Bieler showed. An exabyte is a billion gigabytes.
The situation has led to tensions between providers of bandwidth-munching services -- as well as P-to-P (peer-to-peer) file-sharing networks -- and the network providers who build out the underlying infrastructure. The long-simmering "net neutrality" debate has centered on whether all types of traffic should be treated equally by network providers.
Nadahl Shocair, CEO of Boomtel Networks -- a company working on an Internet-based telephone system, complete with its own numbering system and prefix of '100' -- suggested there is a fundamental shift occurring on the planet, one that goes well beyond a tussle over costs between related industries.
"Humanity is binding together into a complex ecosystem ... a connected, planetary community," he said, and it "keeps demanding better, faster and free."
"I think the carriers in about 10 to 15 years will turn into pure gatekeepers. They own the pipe, they own the network," Shocair added at one point. "Who will pay for this at the end of the day? The consumer will, in one way or another."
Frank Rosenberger, chief marketing officer of Vodafone, the mobile telecom, suggested something has to change.
"I think there are fair ways to distribute this cost between the benefactors on the one side and those who provide the benefit on the other side," Rosenberger said. "How many videos would YouTube have distributed if they needed to charge customers for these videos?" he asked.
Marco Boerries, executive vice president of Yahoo's Connected Life division, predicted a mutually beneficial outcome for service and infrastructure providers, and said his company already has relationships with more then 50 telecoms, including Vodafone. "When you have a partnership, everyone should focus on their strengths. Yahoo is not going to run a network or go into billing," Boerries remarked.
"Yes, we have tough questions to tackle," he added. "The same questions happened with move from dialup to broadband. I am confident those questions will be answered."
A panel of industry executives and analysts mulled that question and related issues during a keynote event Thursday at the Cebit conference in Hanover, Germany.
"One person's broadband is somebody else's narrowband. ... What was classified as broadband just a few years ago is definitely narrowband today," said Dan Bieler, an IDC analyst who moderated the discussion.
Observers have predicted that while the Web's infrastructure is quickly becoming more robust, richer, higher-traffic content will accordingly help fill the additional bandwidth.
In fact, the amount of information created, captured and replicated on the Internet will grow to nearly 1,000 exabytes over the next several years, from less than 200 exabytes in 2006, according to a slide Bieler showed. An exabyte is a billion gigabytes.
The situation has led to tensions between providers of bandwidth-munching services -- as well as P-to-P (peer-to-peer) file-sharing networks -- and the network providers who build out the underlying infrastructure. The long-simmering "net neutrality" debate has centered on whether all types of traffic should be treated equally by network providers.
Nadahl Shocair, CEO of Boomtel Networks -- a company working on an Internet-based telephone system, complete with its own numbering system and prefix of '100' -- suggested there is a fundamental shift occurring on the planet, one that goes well beyond a tussle over costs between related industries.
"Humanity is binding together into a complex ecosystem ... a connected, planetary community," he said, and it "keeps demanding better, faster and free."
"I think the carriers in about 10 to 15 years will turn into pure gatekeepers. They own the pipe, they own the network," Shocair added at one point. "Who will pay for this at the end of the day? The consumer will, in one way or another."
Frank Rosenberger, chief marketing officer of Vodafone, the mobile telecom, suggested something has to change.
"I think there are fair ways to distribute this cost between the benefactors on the one side and those who provide the benefit on the other side," Rosenberger said. "How many videos would YouTube have distributed if they needed to charge customers for these videos?" he asked.
Marco Boerries, executive vice president of Yahoo's Connected Life division, predicted a mutually beneficial outcome for service and infrastructure providers, and said his company already has relationships with more then 50 telecoms, including Vodafone. "When you have a partnership, everyone should focus on their strengths. Yahoo is not going to run a network or go into billing," Boerries remarked.
"Yes, we have tough questions to tackle," he added. "The same questions happened with move from dialup to broadband. I am confident those questions will be answered."
Microsoft buys U-Prove technology
Microsoft hopes to beef up online privacy with the acquisition of the U-Prove technology, the company announced on Thursday.
U-Prove was developed by Stefan Brands at Credentica as technology that allows Internet users to disclose only the minimum amount of personal information when conducting electronic transactions as a way to reduce the likelihood of privacy violations. U-Prove also employs cryptography to prevent systems from pulling together information about users from various sources.
Microsoft did not disclose a purchase price for the technology. Brands has joined Microsoft's Identity and Access Group along with his colleagues from Credentica, Greg Thompson and Christian Paquin.
Microsoft plans to integrate U-Prove into Windows Communication Foundation and CardSpace. WCF is built on the .Net framework and allows programmers to build and run connected systems. CardSpace is also technology built on .Net that developers use to build software and Web sites that are less susceptible to common identity attacks like phishing. CardSpace is used in sites that support shopping, banking and bill payment.
In a blog post, Brands said that since he developed the U-Prove technology in the 1990s, he has turned down many buyout offers and venture capital investment opportunities because he thought the business model behind the technology wasn't strong enough. However, the demand for this type of security technology has grown, he said. In addition, Microsoft makes an ideal driver of the technology because it can influence both the client and the server sides of applications, he said.
U-Prove may be particularly interesting in medical applications, military systems and identity outsourcing, wrote Kim Cameron, Microsoft's chief architect of identity and access, in a blog post. U-Prove "is the equivalent in the privacy world of RSA in the security space," he wrote.
U-Prove was developed by Stefan Brands at Credentica as technology that allows Internet users to disclose only the minimum amount of personal information when conducting electronic transactions as a way to reduce the likelihood of privacy violations. U-Prove also employs cryptography to prevent systems from pulling together information about users from various sources.
Microsoft did not disclose a purchase price for the technology. Brands has joined Microsoft's Identity and Access Group along with his colleagues from Credentica, Greg Thompson and Christian Paquin.
Microsoft plans to integrate U-Prove into Windows Communication Foundation and CardSpace. WCF is built on the .Net framework and allows programmers to build and run connected systems. CardSpace is also technology built on .Net that developers use to build software and Web sites that are less susceptible to common identity attacks like phishing. CardSpace is used in sites that support shopping, banking and bill payment.
In a blog post, Brands said that since he developed the U-Prove technology in the 1990s, he has turned down many buyout offers and venture capital investment opportunities because he thought the business model behind the technology wasn't strong enough. However, the demand for this type of security technology has grown, he said. In addition, Microsoft makes an ideal driver of the technology because it can influence both the client and the server sides of applications, he said.
U-Prove may be particularly interesting in medical applications, military systems and identity outsourcing, wrote Kim Cameron, Microsoft's chief architect of identity and access, in a blog post. U-Prove "is the equivalent in the privacy world of RSA in the security space," he wrote.
iPhone opens to Exchange e-mail
Enterprise bans on iPhones may be lifted with the announcement on Thursday that the iPhone will support Microsoft Exchange e-mail.
When the iPhone initially came out, some enterprises banned workers from using it for fear of security problems that could come with users accessing their corporate e-mail from the devices. But with Apple's licensing of ActiveSync, Exchange e-mail can be securely pushed out to iPhones.
Apple joins a host of other prominent phone makers, including Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola, among ActiveSync licensees.
The Exchange capability is being released as part of a beta of the iPhone 2.0 on Thursday to hundreds of companies. Apple expects to ship the new software as a free update to iPhone customers in late June.
It apparently took a long time for the rival companies to hammer out the agreement. Microsoft started talking to Apple about licensing ActiveSync before the launch of the iPhone last year, said Terry Myerson, corporate vice president for Exchange, in a statement.
In addition to e-mail, ActiveSync will allow iPhone users to sync calendar items and contacts from their Exchange accounts to their phones. In addition, the iPhone will support the remote wipe feature of ActiveSync, so if a user loses the phone, sensitive data can remotely be erased from the device.
E-mail is likely the first of many enterprise applications that Apple will support in the iPhone, said Stephen Drake, an analyst at IDC. "This is the start," he said.
He doesn't expect that the iPhone Exchange capability will significantly affect sales of other dominant mobile e-mail platforms like BlackBerry or Windows Mobile. "This raises the level of interest," he said.
Plus, despite all the buzz about mobile e-mail, the use of it now is quite small. There are hundreds of millions of e-mail boxes and 3 billion phones in the world, yet the number of mobile e-mail subscribers is in the double-digit millions, he said. "There's plenty of room to grow. I don't think anyone will be taken out by this," Drake said.
The agreement should also give a boost to Exchange. "It's just making Exchange more sticky and ubiquitous," Drake said.
When the iPhone initially came out, some enterprises banned workers from using it for fear of security problems that could come with users accessing their corporate e-mail from the devices. But with Apple's licensing of ActiveSync, Exchange e-mail can be securely pushed out to iPhones.
Apple joins a host of other prominent phone makers, including Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola, among ActiveSync licensees.
The Exchange capability is being released as part of a beta of the iPhone 2.0 on Thursday to hundreds of companies. Apple expects to ship the new software as a free update to iPhone customers in late June.
It apparently took a long time for the rival companies to hammer out the agreement. Microsoft started talking to Apple about licensing ActiveSync before the launch of the iPhone last year, said Terry Myerson, corporate vice president for Exchange, in a statement.
In addition to e-mail, ActiveSync will allow iPhone users to sync calendar items and contacts from their Exchange accounts to their phones. In addition, the iPhone will support the remote wipe feature of ActiveSync, so if a user loses the phone, sensitive data can remotely be erased from the device.
E-mail is likely the first of many enterprise applications that Apple will support in the iPhone, said Stephen Drake, an analyst at IDC. "This is the start," he said.
He doesn't expect that the iPhone Exchange capability will significantly affect sales of other dominant mobile e-mail platforms like BlackBerry or Windows Mobile. "This raises the level of interest," he said.
Plus, despite all the buzz about mobile e-mail, the use of it now is quite small. There are hundreds of millions of e-mail boxes and 3 billion phones in the world, yet the number of mobile e-mail subscribers is in the double-digit millions, he said. "There's plenty of room to grow. I don't think anyone will be taken out by this," Drake said.
The agreement should also give a boost to Exchange. "It's just making Exchange more sticky and ubiquitous," Drake said.
House panel kills controversial copyright provision
A U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee has stripped out a provision in a copyright enforcement bill that would have increased fines for compilation CDs containing pirated music by 10 times or more.
Critics of the original version of the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO IP) Act had complained that one provision would assess fines for each separate copyright work on a compilation work such as a CD, meaning the fines for a 10-song compilation CD would range from US$7,500 to $1.5 million, instead of the current $750 to $150,000. But the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property voted on Thursday to approve an amendment that stripped out the controversial provision.
Critics, including online civil rights group Public Knowledge, had complained that the compilation provision in the original bill would have gone too far with new penalties. The compilation provision would have treated each song on a compilation CD as a separate copyright violation, instead of treating the entire CD as one copyright violation, as is the practice now.
"We are pleased that the subcommittee deleted from the bill the section ... that would have allowed multiplied damages for infringement of a compilation far beyond any reasonable levels," Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn said.
The compilation provision in the original bill raised too many questions, said Representative Howard Berman, a California Democrat and subcommittee chairman. Lawmakers need "more time to identify the appropriate legislative solution," he said during a hearing to amend the bill.
Several lawmakers, including Representative Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat representing part of Silicon Valley in California, praised sponsors of the bill for removing the compilation provision. "I was concerned that [the compilation provision] would stifle innovation by exposing American business to uncertain, and potentially crushing, liability," she said.
The PRO IP Act would still increase other penalties for copyright infringement, including a doubling of damages in counterfeiting cases, with the maximum penalty for a counterfeiting offense rising to $2 million. The bill would create an Office of U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative in the White House, and would create an intellectual-property division in the U.S. Department of Justice.
Lofgren and Representative Robert Scott, a Virginia Democrat, said they still have concerns about the bill. The White House intellectual-property office's mandate is unclear, and could end up going after legitimate businesses, Lofgren said. The amendment approved by the subcommittee softened a provision that would allow for forfeiture of devices and property used to create counterfeit goods, the bill could still allow law enforcement authorities to seize devices that were used without the owner's consent, Lofgren said.
The forfeiture provision also appears to create a new form of seizure, in civil lawsuits involving copyright claims, Scott added. Scott had no objections to property seizure in criminal copyright cases, where the defendants have been charged and convicted, but the new civil forfeiture provision "starts to raise flags," and could result in overly aggressive seizures of property, he said.
Public Knowledge's Sohn said she was happy to that the forfeiture provision was amended to require that the U.S. Department of Justice show a "substantial connection" between the property it wanted to seize and the infringing activity. "This change would protect against a defendant having property taken by the government, such as a car or a home, which has only the most tangential relationship to infringing activity," she said.
Several lawmakers praised the bill, saying stronger penalties and better coordination of intellectual-property enforcement are needed in the U.S. Intellectual property makes up about 45 percent of the gross domestic product in the U.S., and protecting intellectual property is critical to maintaining a strong U.S. economy, said Representative Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican.
Copyright violations are "easy and massive" and cost the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars each year, Smith said. "Our response to these losses must be proportionate to the harm inflicted," he said.
Critics of the original version of the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO IP) Act had complained that one provision would assess fines for each separate copyright work on a compilation work such as a CD, meaning the fines for a 10-song compilation CD would range from US$7,500 to $1.5 million, instead of the current $750 to $150,000. But the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property voted on Thursday to approve an amendment that stripped out the controversial provision.
Critics, including online civil rights group Public Knowledge, had complained that the compilation provision in the original bill would have gone too far with new penalties. The compilation provision would have treated each song on a compilation CD as a separate copyright violation, instead of treating the entire CD as one copyright violation, as is the practice now.
"We are pleased that the subcommittee deleted from the bill the section ... that would have allowed multiplied damages for infringement of a compilation far beyond any reasonable levels," Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn said.
The compilation provision in the original bill raised too many questions, said Representative Howard Berman, a California Democrat and subcommittee chairman. Lawmakers need "more time to identify the appropriate legislative solution," he said during a hearing to amend the bill.
Several lawmakers, including Representative Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat representing part of Silicon Valley in California, praised sponsors of the bill for removing the compilation provision. "I was concerned that [the compilation provision] would stifle innovation by exposing American business to uncertain, and potentially crushing, liability," she said.
The PRO IP Act would still increase other penalties for copyright infringement, including a doubling of damages in counterfeiting cases, with the maximum penalty for a counterfeiting offense rising to $2 million. The bill would create an Office of U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative in the White House, and would create an intellectual-property division in the U.S. Department of Justice.
Lofgren and Representative Robert Scott, a Virginia Democrat, said they still have concerns about the bill. The White House intellectual-property office's mandate is unclear, and could end up going after legitimate businesses, Lofgren said. The amendment approved by the subcommittee softened a provision that would allow for forfeiture of devices and property used to create counterfeit goods, the bill could still allow law enforcement authorities to seize devices that were used without the owner's consent, Lofgren said.
The forfeiture provision also appears to create a new form of seizure, in civil lawsuits involving copyright claims, Scott added. Scott had no objections to property seizure in criminal copyright cases, where the defendants have been charged and convicted, but the new civil forfeiture provision "starts to raise flags," and could result in overly aggressive seizures of property, he said.
Public Knowledge's Sohn said she was happy to that the forfeiture provision was amended to require that the U.S. Department of Justice show a "substantial connection" between the property it wanted to seize and the infringing activity. "This change would protect against a defendant having property taken by the government, such as a car or a home, which has only the most tangential relationship to infringing activity," she said.
Several lawmakers praised the bill, saying stronger penalties and better coordination of intellectual-property enforcement are needed in the U.S. Intellectual property makes up about 45 percent of the gross domestic product in the U.S., and protecting intellectual property is critical to maintaining a strong U.S. economy, said Representative Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican.
Copyright violations are "easy and massive" and cost the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars each year, Smith said. "Our response to these losses must be proportionate to the harm inflicted," he said.
iPhone ready to take on BlackBerry with enterprise push
Apple on Thursday announced a strong push to help companies incorporate the iPhone into their enterprise environment, putting RIM's popular BlackBerry handheld devices squarely in its sites. The changes will come in a forthcoming release of iPhone software.
iPhone takes on the BlackBerry
During an event held at the company's Cupertino headquarters, Apple senior vice president of product marketing Phil Schiller announced the company's plans. "We've been hard at work trying to understand what it takes to bring the iPhone out across the enterprise," he told guests.
The list of features that Apple describes as important to enterprise end users includes "push-based" e-mail, calendar info and contact management; additional support for Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) including Cisco IPsec; and two-factor authentication, certificates and identities.
"Enterprise-class" Wi-Fi with WPA2/802.1x support and tools to enforce security policies were also mentioned. Schiller indicated that IT managers are also looking to help deploy iPhones, set them up automatically, and, perhaps most importantly, wipe the devices when necessary.
"That's a long list of important features," said Schiller. "They say if we just did these things, it would really help adoption in the enterprise. And we're doing all of these things in the next release of the iPhone software."
Removing risk of service downtime
"We have licensed the ActiveSync protocol [from Microsoft]," said Schiller. This will enable Apple to build support for Microsoft Exchange directly into the iPhone -- a huge request from iPhone users, he said.
Schiller outlined the method that many organizations use, which is dependent on BlackBerry server communication -- an imperfect method that has recently led to widespread service outages. An ActiveSync-based method will enable the iPhone to talk directly with Exchange servers in the enterprise, all while still using the same mail, calendar and contact information that's built into the iPhone.
Schiller demonstrated the new capabilities, including e-mail push services and the ability to remotely wipe an iPhone.
iPhone takes on the BlackBerry
During an event held at the company's Cupertino headquarters, Apple senior vice president of product marketing Phil Schiller announced the company's plans. "We've been hard at work trying to understand what it takes to bring the iPhone out across the enterprise," he told guests.
The list of features that Apple describes as important to enterprise end users includes "push-based" e-mail, calendar info and contact management; additional support for Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) including Cisco IPsec; and two-factor authentication, certificates and identities.
"Enterprise-class" Wi-Fi with WPA2/802.1x support and tools to enforce security policies were also mentioned. Schiller indicated that IT managers are also looking to help deploy iPhones, set them up automatically, and, perhaps most importantly, wipe the devices when necessary.
"That's a long list of important features," said Schiller. "They say if we just did these things, it would really help adoption in the enterprise. And we're doing all of these things in the next release of the iPhone software."
Removing risk of service downtime
"We have licensed the ActiveSync protocol [from Microsoft]," said Schiller. This will enable Apple to build support for Microsoft Exchange directly into the iPhone -- a huge request from iPhone users, he said.
Schiller outlined the method that many organizations use, which is dependent on BlackBerry server communication -- an imperfect method that has recently led to widespread service outages. An ActiveSync-based method will enable the iPhone to talk directly with Exchange servers in the enterprise, all while still using the same mail, calendar and contact information that's built into the iPhone.
Schiller demonstrated the new capabilities, including e-mail push services and the ability to remotely wipe an iPhone.
'Intelligent' 3-D animation for security, architecture?
If you've watched "The Lord of the Rings" or many other visual effects-driven Hollywood films, you have seen Massive Software's 3-D animation software at work.
The New Zealand company's technology is the reason why the hordes of orcs and warriors who cross swords in the screen versions of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic tales do so in such a remarkably lifelike, non-uniform way.
The software allows developers and designers to give 3-D characters -- dubbed "agents" in Massive's parlance -- the ability to react to their surroundings based on factors including sight, touch and hearing. When scaled into a crowd, the agents interact with each other, creating a more realistic result.
The company is showcasing its software at Cebit in Hanover, Germany, this week. The appearance at Cebit represents the company's "soft launch" into new potential areas of business, which for now include engineering, architecture and robotics, according to CEO Diane Holland.
Massive sees the software being used for safe-building design, disaster scenarios, traffic and municipal planning, and possibly for scientific research into the behavior of species.
At heart, the software is an "AI authoring system," Holland said. "There is no actual, wired-in AI that comes in Massive. It's a blank canvas, because we wanted to use it for any kind of character and didn't want it to be constrained whatsoever by some predetermined AI."
A number of the program's tools center on 3-D design tasks like the characters' appearance, but the agents' AI (artificial intelligence) characteristics get fined-tuned through a node-based interface called a "Brain Editor."
Massive also employs fuzzy logic to make characters' reactions more natural "than the on/off robotic results of binary logic," the company's Web site notes, as well as "rigid body dynamics," which the site describes as "a physics-based approach to facilitating realistic stunt motion such as falling, animation of accessories, and projectiles."
Massive claims it can run simulations using hundreds of thousands of simple agents. "Large numbers of more complex agents, such as typical humanoid agents, can be done in multiple passes, by simulating agents in groups of about 10,000 to 20,000, with each subsequent group able to see and react to the previously simulated groups," its site states.
Anticipating its push into new verticals, the company added a 'memory' capability to its software, Holland said. Agents running within a short film or TV clip don't need to recollect much, she said, "but when we're talking about a 45-minute fire-evacuation scenario, you've got to have them be able to remember 'what was the exit I came in, where did i come from, what sign did I see,' and that sort of thing."
While Holland stressed the extensibility of the Massive platform, the company sees a need for some prebuilt agents. They will have a "pedestrian" model ready for market within a year, she said.
"We realized that architects don't have the time to build all these characters and put them in," she said. "They can certainly modify it, but we've got some basic behaviors that are already built in."
It's unclear how many markets Massive's technology could serve, according to Holland. "If you can accurately simulate what we as human beings think and do, [the possibilities are] absolutely endless."
For example, someone planning a grocery store could build a simulation using the behavior and motion patterns of retail customers to determine how best to place certain products on the shelves, she said.
In the meantime, the software is helping power a robot, Zeno, now in development as a consumer product.
The New Zealand company's technology is the reason why the hordes of orcs and warriors who cross swords in the screen versions of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic tales do so in such a remarkably lifelike, non-uniform way.
The software allows developers and designers to give 3-D characters -- dubbed "agents" in Massive's parlance -- the ability to react to their surroundings based on factors including sight, touch and hearing. When scaled into a crowd, the agents interact with each other, creating a more realistic result.
The company is showcasing its software at Cebit in Hanover, Germany, this week. The appearance at Cebit represents the company's "soft launch" into new potential areas of business, which for now include engineering, architecture and robotics, according to CEO Diane Holland.
Massive sees the software being used for safe-building design, disaster scenarios, traffic and municipal planning, and possibly for scientific research into the behavior of species.
At heart, the software is an "AI authoring system," Holland said. "There is no actual, wired-in AI that comes in Massive. It's a blank canvas, because we wanted to use it for any kind of character and didn't want it to be constrained whatsoever by some predetermined AI."
A number of the program's tools center on 3-D design tasks like the characters' appearance, but the agents' AI (artificial intelligence) characteristics get fined-tuned through a node-based interface called a "Brain Editor."
Massive also employs fuzzy logic to make characters' reactions more natural "than the on/off robotic results of binary logic," the company's Web site notes, as well as "rigid body dynamics," which the site describes as "a physics-based approach to facilitating realistic stunt motion such as falling, animation of accessories, and projectiles."
Massive claims it can run simulations using hundreds of thousands of simple agents. "Large numbers of more complex agents, such as typical humanoid agents, can be done in multiple passes, by simulating agents in groups of about 10,000 to 20,000, with each subsequent group able to see and react to the previously simulated groups," its site states.
Anticipating its push into new verticals, the company added a 'memory' capability to its software, Holland said. Agents running within a short film or TV clip don't need to recollect much, she said, "but when we're talking about a 45-minute fire-evacuation scenario, you've got to have them be able to remember 'what was the exit I came in, where did i come from, what sign did I see,' and that sort of thing."
While Holland stressed the extensibility of the Massive platform, the company sees a need for some prebuilt agents. They will have a "pedestrian" model ready for market within a year, she said.
"We realized that architects don't have the time to build all these characters and put them in," she said. "They can certainly modify it, but we've got some basic behaviors that are already built in."
It's unclear how many markets Massive's technology could serve, according to Holland. "If you can accurately simulate what we as human beings think and do, [the possibilities are] absolutely endless."
For example, someone planning a grocery store could build a simulation using the behavior and motion patterns of retail customers to determine how best to place certain products on the shelves, she said.
In the meantime, the software is helping power a robot, Zeno, now in development as a consumer product.
Google-DoubleClick approval expected in Europe
The European Commission is expected to approve Google's planned acquisition of Internet advertising company DoubleClick in the coming weeks, according to people following merger reviews by Europe's top competition authority.
The Commission ruling on the deal is the last remaining obstacle, after shareholders approved it and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission gave its go-ahead in December.
The Commission has until April 2 to reach a decision on the deal, so there doesn't appear to be time to block it now. If officials conducting the investigation of the deal were planning to block or substantially change it, they would have to send Google an official statement of objections. The company would then have the opportunity to propose remedies to meet the concerns of the regulators. If that failed, Google would be invited to argue its case face-to-face with Commission officials; then the Commission's planned ruling would have to be discussed at a meeting of national competition regulators from the 27 member states.
"If they had problems with the deal, they would have sent Google formal notice of the fact by now. There doesn't appear to be time to go through all the motions needed in order to block a deal," said one lawyer who has had hands-on experience with European merger reviews.
Neelie Kroes, the commissioner in charge of competition, said last month that privacy concerns raised by the deal would not be considered by her team of officials investigating the deal, and she stressed that the deal would be judged purely on how it may impact fair competition.
When it notified the European competition authority about the deal last September, Google claimed that its activities didn't overlap at all with DoubleClick's. Google described itself as a provider of online advertising space, and DoubleClick was described as a "supplier of technology for the delivery, management and reporting of display ads to advertisers, ad agencies and web publishers."
Nevertheless, the Commission opened an in-depth probe of the deal last November to see whether without this transaction, DoubleClick would have grown into an effective competitor to Google in the market for online ad intermediation.
Competition spokesman at the Commission, Jonathan Todd, declined to comment on the investigation Thursday.
Google wasn't immediately available to comment.
The Commission ruling on the deal is the last remaining obstacle, after shareholders approved it and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission gave its go-ahead in December.
The Commission has until April 2 to reach a decision on the deal, so there doesn't appear to be time to block it now. If officials conducting the investigation of the deal were planning to block or substantially change it, they would have to send Google an official statement of objections. The company would then have the opportunity to propose remedies to meet the concerns of the regulators. If that failed, Google would be invited to argue its case face-to-face with Commission officials; then the Commission's planned ruling would have to be discussed at a meeting of national competition regulators from the 27 member states.
"If they had problems with the deal, they would have sent Google formal notice of the fact by now. There doesn't appear to be time to go through all the motions needed in order to block a deal," said one lawyer who has had hands-on experience with European merger reviews.
Neelie Kroes, the commissioner in charge of competition, said last month that privacy concerns raised by the deal would not be considered by her team of officials investigating the deal, and she stressed that the deal would be judged purely on how it may impact fair competition.
When it notified the European competition authority about the deal last September, Google claimed that its activities didn't overlap at all with DoubleClick's. Google described itself as a provider of online advertising space, and DoubleClick was described as a "supplier of technology for the delivery, management and reporting of display ads to advertisers, ad agencies and web publishers."
Nevertheless, the Commission opened an in-depth probe of the deal last November to see whether without this transaction, DoubleClick would have grown into an effective competitor to Google in the market for online ad intermediation.
Competition spokesman at the Commission, Jonathan Todd, declined to comment on the investigation Thursday.
Google wasn't immediately available to comment.
Cisco router comes with a water cooler
When Cisco Systems introduced its latest big line of routers on Tuesday, it threw in something that's never come in a major platform from the company before: Fun.
The launch of the ASR1000 series of WAN (wide-area network) edge routers was accompanied by a Facebook group, a product demonstration in the virtual world Second Life and a series of online video commercials that feature Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and other fairy-tale figures as IT managers. To top it all off, Chairman and CEO John Chambers introduced the product in an online video event where viewers could post questions as he talked.
This was a departure for Cisco, an IT giant traditionally known for dull blue-green racks of Ethernet ports and fine-print fact sheets listing interface speeds and acronyms. But since late 2006, the San Jose, California, company has seemingly been looking south to Hollywood for inspiration. It launched TelePresence, a big-screen, high-definition form of videoconferencing, and acquired collaboration and social-networking companies.
Cisco's idea was that a networking vendor should help enterprises collaborate and reach their customers, and that social-networking technology will creep into business through the back door. If employees are going to congregate online instead of in person, why not sell the virtual water cooler?
For the ASR1000 launch, the company used all its traditional marketing tools, such as press briefings, direct e-mail and product data on its Web site. But it added several Web 2.0 pieces to reach a wider audience and also show what the new, high-powered router is needed for.
At Cisco's virtual campus in Second Life, the company gave a stage presentation and then led participants into a building with visual demonstrations of the ASR1000, including one in which more than 150 current Cisco routers morphed into a single ASR1000, showing off its space-saving qualities. The initial event drew 60 or 70 participants, according to Doug Webster, director of service-provider marketing. Typical of Second Life, it wasn't exactly a buttoned-down audience.
"It was an interesting situation, talking about the power of the Quantum Flow Processor to people without their clothes on," Webster said.
The Facebook group, "Cisco Support Group for Uber User Internet Addicts," had about 550 members worldwide by Wednesday afternoon, and though a good chunk of them identified themselves as Cisco employees, many were affiliated with other companies, universities, or just themselves. In the group's forum, there were only seven discussion topics, and only one of those, "Submit Your Top Signs of an Internet Addict," had more than 10 entries. But the participants on that board seemed to be having fun. "You search for Wi-Fi hotspots when planning a family camping trip," wrote Clinton Schaff, a University of Southern California alumnus in Los Angeles. A Cisco moderator compiled a Top 20 list of those addiction signs.
The group's page also directs visitors to Edge Quest, which may or may not be the world's first routing video game.
Tony Bates, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Service Provider Group, appears in sunglasses as Network Commander Bates and warns players: "The future of the worldwide network is relying on you." Then they fly a sleek spacecraft, the back end of which looks surprisingly similar to an ASR1000.
Cisco's prerecorded launch event, which was repeated four times in 20 hours to reach people in different time zones, featured about half an hour of presentations by Chambers, other Cisco executives and customers. About 7,000 people participated, Webster said.
Questions were moderated, but by using the format, Cisco bravely opened itself up to a real-time dialog with users. "Is this all marketing talk or is he going to say something that makes sense?" wrote one viewer, who called himself Ryan. The moderator pointed Ryan to a Web page full of product specifications. But most questions were pointed and technical. The company clearly had found its audience.
"Is this router appropriate for an environment with multiple full BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) feeds?" one observer asked. Yes, Cisco replied, and provided a link to a page with test results.
The event came off smoothly but exposed at least one pitfall of the medium.
"Why is this product so loud?" one observer asked after a close-up shot of an ASR1000. "Is that the live noise from the fan?" another wrote.
"The noise may be enhanced due to the sensitive nature of the microphones used for the filming," Cisco replied.
"We think the audience can give us a little dramatic leeway for things like that," Webster said.
The launch of the ASR1000 series of WAN (wide-area network) edge routers was accompanied by a Facebook group, a product demonstration in the virtual world Second Life and a series of online video commercials that feature Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and other fairy-tale figures as IT managers. To top it all off, Chairman and CEO John Chambers introduced the product in an online video event where viewers could post questions as he talked.
This was a departure for Cisco, an IT giant traditionally known for dull blue-green racks of Ethernet ports and fine-print fact sheets listing interface speeds and acronyms. But since late 2006, the San Jose, California, company has seemingly been looking south to Hollywood for inspiration. It launched TelePresence, a big-screen, high-definition form of videoconferencing, and acquired collaboration and social-networking companies.
Cisco's idea was that a networking vendor should help enterprises collaborate and reach their customers, and that social-networking technology will creep into business through the back door. If employees are going to congregate online instead of in person, why not sell the virtual water cooler?
For the ASR1000 launch, the company used all its traditional marketing tools, such as press briefings, direct e-mail and product data on its Web site. But it added several Web 2.0 pieces to reach a wider audience and also show what the new, high-powered router is needed for.
At Cisco's virtual campus in Second Life, the company gave a stage presentation and then led participants into a building with visual demonstrations of the ASR1000, including one in which more than 150 current Cisco routers morphed into a single ASR1000, showing off its space-saving qualities. The initial event drew 60 or 70 participants, according to Doug Webster, director of service-provider marketing. Typical of Second Life, it wasn't exactly a buttoned-down audience.
"It was an interesting situation, talking about the power of the Quantum Flow Processor to people without their clothes on," Webster said.
The Facebook group, "Cisco Support Group for Uber User Internet Addicts," had about 550 members worldwide by Wednesday afternoon, and though a good chunk of them identified themselves as Cisco employees, many were affiliated with other companies, universities, or just themselves. In the group's forum, there were only seven discussion topics, and only one of those, "Submit Your Top Signs of an Internet Addict," had more than 10 entries. But the participants on that board seemed to be having fun. "You search for Wi-Fi hotspots when planning a family camping trip," wrote Clinton Schaff, a University of Southern California alumnus in Los Angeles. A Cisco moderator compiled a Top 20 list of those addiction signs.
The group's page also directs visitors to Edge Quest, which may or may not be the world's first routing video game.
Tony Bates, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Service Provider Group, appears in sunglasses as Network Commander Bates and warns players: "The future of the worldwide network is relying on you." Then they fly a sleek spacecraft, the back end of which looks surprisingly similar to an ASR1000.
Cisco's prerecorded launch event, which was repeated four times in 20 hours to reach people in different time zones, featured about half an hour of presentations by Chambers, other Cisco executives and customers. About 7,000 people participated, Webster said.
Questions were moderated, but by using the format, Cisco bravely opened itself up to a real-time dialog with users. "Is this all marketing talk or is he going to say something that makes sense?" wrote one viewer, who called himself Ryan. The moderator pointed Ryan to a Web page full of product specifications. But most questions were pointed and technical. The company clearly had found its audience.
"Is this router appropriate for an environment with multiple full BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) feeds?" one observer asked. Yes, Cisco replied, and provided a link to a page with test results.
The event came off smoothly but exposed at least one pitfall of the medium.
"Why is this product so loud?" one observer asked after a close-up shot of an ASR1000. "Is that the live noise from the fan?" another wrote.
"The noise may be enhanced due to the sensitive nature of the microphones used for the filming," Cisco replied.
"We think the audience can give us a little dramatic leeway for things like that," Webster said.
IT jobs "very sexy indeed" says Commissioner Reding
The European Union's information society commissioner Viviane Reding has an idea how to make up the shortfall of 300,000 skilled information and communication technology personnel in Europe: encourage more women to enter the industry.
"We have to convince young women that ICT isn't just for geeks. IT jobs can be very sexy indeed," Reding told journalists at the Commission's briefing Thursday.
Women accounted for 58 percent of all graduates in the EU in 2004, up from 55 percent in 1998. However, the proportion of female computer science graduates fell by 4 percent during the same period, Reding said.
"Looking at engineering, even though the total number of graduates is rising and the share of female engineering graduates is growing, women still only accounted for 19 percent of the total number of graduates in this field in 2004," Reding said.
The Commissioner met representatives of prominent ICT companies Wednesday and together they agreed to launch a European code of best practice for women in ICT within a year.
"We have to convince young women that ICT isn't just for geeks. IT jobs can be very sexy indeed," Reding told journalists at the Commission's briefing Thursday.
Women accounted for 58 percent of all graduates in the EU in 2004, up from 55 percent in 1998. However, the proportion of female computer science graduates fell by 4 percent during the same period, Reding said.
"Looking at engineering, even though the total number of graduates is rising and the share of female engineering graduates is growing, women still only accounted for 19 percent of the total number of graduates in this field in 2004," Reding said.
The Commissioner met representatives of prominent ICT companies Wednesday and together they agreed to launch a European code of best practice for women in ICT within a year.
Gates falls to world's third richest on Forbes list
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates fell to third place on Forbes' 2008 list of the world's richest people after 13 years at number one, due largely to Microsoft's bid for Yahoo, Forbes said Wednesday.
The magazine, which puts out annual lists of the world's richest people, blamed Gates' decline to the slide in Microsoft shares from the day before the company announced a US$44.6 billion offer to buy Yahoo, Jan. 31, to the day Forbes calculated stock prices into its rich list valuations, Feb. 11.
Had Microsoft shares not declined so much, Gates would have been in a close race with investing mogul Warren Buffett for the top spot on the list, Forbes said.
Buffett took over as the world's richest man this year with an estimated $62 billion fortune, while Mexican communications industry leader Carlos Slim Helu came in second with $60 billion, Forbes said. Gates' fortune was valued at $58 billion.
Microsoft helped put Mark Zuckerberg, the youngest ever billionaire on Forbes' list. The founder of popular social networking Web site Facebook is worth $1.5 billion, according to the magazine, based on a calculation involving Microsoft's $240 million investment last year for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook.
Zuckerberg ranked 785th overall on the Forbes list.
Other American technology industry leaders toppled down the rich list. Larry Ellison, CEO and founder of Oracle, fell to 14th place on the Forbes list, from 11th last year, while Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen tumbled to 41st place from 19th place last year.
Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page retained their titles as the richest young people on the Forbes list, coming in at $18.7 billion and $18.6 billion, respectively. They ranked 32nd and 33rd overall.
The remaining top 10 richest people in the world are mainly in heavy industry and commodities, according to Forbes. The next three richest men are all from India. Fourth place, Lakshmi Mittal, is a steel magnate, while fifth place Mukesh Ambani is in petrochemicals and his brother, sixth place Anil Ambani, is in power and communications. Oleg Deripaska of Russia made much of his fortune in aluminum, putting him in the ninth spot.
Retail titans took two of the top 10 spots. Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad of Sweden took seventh place on the list, while the founder of German discount store Aldi, Karl Albrecht, took tenth. Indian real-estate developer KP Singh came in eighth on the list.
The magazine, which puts out annual lists of the world's richest people, blamed Gates' decline to the slide in Microsoft shares from the day before the company announced a US$44.6 billion offer to buy Yahoo, Jan. 31, to the day Forbes calculated stock prices into its rich list valuations, Feb. 11.
Had Microsoft shares not declined so much, Gates would have been in a close race with investing mogul Warren Buffett for the top spot on the list, Forbes said.
Buffett took over as the world's richest man this year with an estimated $62 billion fortune, while Mexican communications industry leader Carlos Slim Helu came in second with $60 billion, Forbes said. Gates' fortune was valued at $58 billion.
Microsoft helped put Mark Zuckerberg, the youngest ever billionaire on Forbes' list. The founder of popular social networking Web site Facebook is worth $1.5 billion, according to the magazine, based on a calculation involving Microsoft's $240 million investment last year for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook.
Zuckerberg ranked 785th overall on the Forbes list.
Other American technology industry leaders toppled down the rich list. Larry Ellison, CEO and founder of Oracle, fell to 14th place on the Forbes list, from 11th last year, while Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen tumbled to 41st place from 19th place last year.
Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page retained their titles as the richest young people on the Forbes list, coming in at $18.7 billion and $18.6 billion, respectively. They ranked 32nd and 33rd overall.
The remaining top 10 richest people in the world are mainly in heavy industry and commodities, according to Forbes. The next three richest men are all from India. Fourth place, Lakshmi Mittal, is a steel magnate, while fifth place Mukesh Ambani is in petrochemicals and his brother, sixth place Anil Ambani, is in power and communications. Oleg Deripaska of Russia made much of his fortune in aluminum, putting him in the ninth spot.
Retail titans took two of the top 10 spots. Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad of Sweden took seventh place on the list, while the founder of German discount store Aldi, Karl Albrecht, took tenth. Indian real-estate developer KP Singh came in eighth on the list.
Retailers boost notebook sales
The trend toward users buying notebook computers instead of desktop PCs is helping boost market share for companies that have a strong retail presence, such as Hewlett-Packard and Acer, according to analysts.
The trend is dovetailing with the interests of retailers because notebooks deliver a better profit margin and take up less shelf space than desktops, said John Jacobs, director of notebook research at DisplaySearch. The falling prices of notebooks are also attracting buyers. A notebook with plenty of storage, graphics and performance can be bought for US$999, and prices continue to fall, Jacobs said.
Until a few years ago, 70 percent to 80 percent of the laptops shipped were to enterprises, but now it's equally split between enterprises and consumers, Jacobs said. That has raised the importance of retail stores to computer makers, redefining the distribution strategy of companies like HP, Acer and Dell, Jacobs said.
HP outpaced Acer and Dell in notebooks shipped in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to research from DisplaySearch released on Wednesday. HP shipped 6.6 million notebooks, growing 42 percent from the previous year and representing a 20.1 percent market share. Acer overtook Dell for second place, shipping 5.25 million units, growing 32 percent with a 15.9 percent market share. Dell shipped 4.64 million units, growing 32 percent, with a 14 percent market share. In the fourth spot was Toshiba, followed by Lenovo, Fujitsu-Siemens, Sony and Asus. Apple was ninth, shipping 1.34 million units, growing 38 percent over the previous year.
Overall, notebook shipments totaled 33 million in the fourth quarter of 2007, growing 41 percent.
Acer used a strong retail and channel presence in Europe and Asia to increase its notebook shipments and overtake Dell, Jacobs said. Acer recently acquired Packard Bell and Gateway to expand its presence in Europe and North America. Dell has, to a degree, neglected its retail strategy by placing far more focus on enterprises, Jacobs said. However, Dell is signing more retailers and placing products on more shelves, which could boost the company's notebook shipments.
During a recent conference call, Dell CEO Michael Dell said that notebooks are outselling desktops six to one, and that the company's PC sales are getting a boost from the retail strategy it introduced last year. Dell is now selling PCs in about 10,000 retail stores worldwide. Most of Dell's retail sales have been in the U.S., though the company's agreements with European retailers are starting to take effect, Dell said. The company signed up European retailers including Carrefour and Tesco to sell PCs.
Dell's retail strategy took off in the fourth quarter of 2007 and will expand this year, said David Daoud, research manager at IDC. HP sold 2.67 million PC units in the U.S. through retail in the fourth quarter of 2007, much larger compared to Dell, which sold 225,000 PCs. Dell is witnessing an uptick with every quarter, and its growing retail presence could bite into HP's numbers this year, Daoud said.
Dell rules online notebook sales, but the strength of HP and Acer in stores pushed them ahead of Dell in market share, Daoud said. Consumers tend to research online but are increasingly going to retail outlets to buy notebooks.
Retailers prefer notebook PCs because of better margins, DisplaySearch's Jacobs said. Retailers are also finding better margins in selling notebook accessories, such as backpacks, and components, such as extra memory, Jacobs said.
Moreover, the days of users blindly buying notebooks online have slowed -- buyers need to touch, feel and customize a notebook to their liking before buying it. "It's critical to have that look-and-feel, that touch presence. At the end of the day, the physical experience is very important," Jacobs said.
Desktops are more about configuration -- the processor, memory and graphics card -- than notebooks, which have more style, IDC's Daoud said. People want mobile products that represent them, and notebooks fit that profile, Daoud said. PC makers have been slow at paying attention to style and customization of laptops, which could be a potential growth area, he said.
Offering notebooks also brings more customers into retail outlets such as Best Buy and Staples, which have better exposure by offering more brands, Daoud said.
The trend is dovetailing with the interests of retailers because notebooks deliver a better profit margin and take up less shelf space than desktops, said John Jacobs, director of notebook research at DisplaySearch. The falling prices of notebooks are also attracting buyers. A notebook with plenty of storage, graphics and performance can be bought for US$999, and prices continue to fall, Jacobs said.
Until a few years ago, 70 percent to 80 percent of the laptops shipped were to enterprises, but now it's equally split between enterprises and consumers, Jacobs said. That has raised the importance of retail stores to computer makers, redefining the distribution strategy of companies like HP, Acer and Dell, Jacobs said.
HP outpaced Acer and Dell in notebooks shipped in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to research from DisplaySearch released on Wednesday. HP shipped 6.6 million notebooks, growing 42 percent from the previous year and representing a 20.1 percent market share. Acer overtook Dell for second place, shipping 5.25 million units, growing 32 percent with a 15.9 percent market share. Dell shipped 4.64 million units, growing 32 percent, with a 14 percent market share. In the fourth spot was Toshiba, followed by Lenovo, Fujitsu-Siemens, Sony and Asus. Apple was ninth, shipping 1.34 million units, growing 38 percent over the previous year.
Overall, notebook shipments totaled 33 million in the fourth quarter of 2007, growing 41 percent.
Acer used a strong retail and channel presence in Europe and Asia to increase its notebook shipments and overtake Dell, Jacobs said. Acer recently acquired Packard Bell and Gateway to expand its presence in Europe and North America. Dell has, to a degree, neglected its retail strategy by placing far more focus on enterprises, Jacobs said. However, Dell is signing more retailers and placing products on more shelves, which could boost the company's notebook shipments.
During a recent conference call, Dell CEO Michael Dell said that notebooks are outselling desktops six to one, and that the company's PC sales are getting a boost from the retail strategy it introduced last year. Dell is now selling PCs in about 10,000 retail stores worldwide. Most of Dell's retail sales have been in the U.S., though the company's agreements with European retailers are starting to take effect, Dell said. The company signed up European retailers including Carrefour and Tesco to sell PCs.
Dell's retail strategy took off in the fourth quarter of 2007 and will expand this year, said David Daoud, research manager at IDC. HP sold 2.67 million PC units in the U.S. through retail in the fourth quarter of 2007, much larger compared to Dell, which sold 225,000 PCs. Dell is witnessing an uptick with every quarter, and its growing retail presence could bite into HP's numbers this year, Daoud said.
Dell rules online notebook sales, but the strength of HP and Acer in stores pushed them ahead of Dell in market share, Daoud said. Consumers tend to research online but are increasingly going to retail outlets to buy notebooks.
Retailers prefer notebook PCs because of better margins, DisplaySearch's Jacobs said. Retailers are also finding better margins in selling notebook accessories, such as backpacks, and components, such as extra memory, Jacobs said.
Moreover, the days of users blindly buying notebooks online have slowed -- buyers need to touch, feel and customize a notebook to their liking before buying it. "It's critical to have that look-and-feel, that touch presence. At the end of the day, the physical experience is very important," Jacobs said.
Desktops are more about configuration -- the processor, memory and graphics card -- than notebooks, which have more style, IDC's Daoud said. People want mobile products that represent them, and notebooks fit that profile, Daoud said. PC makers have been slow at paying attention to style and customization of laptops, which could be a potential growth area, he said.
Offering notebooks also brings more customers into retail outlets such as Best Buy and Staples, which have better exposure by offering more brands, Daoud said.
Intel to deliver six-core Xeon processor this year
Intel on Wednesday confirmed that it would ship the six-core Xeon processor in the second half of this year, putting to rest rumors about the processor's actual ship date.
Speculation about the shipping date of the processor, code-named Dunnington, surfaced last month after an Intel presentation detailing the processor was leaked by Sun Microsystems. The presentation, which showed that the chip would ship in the second half, was available on Sun's servers, but was later pulled off.
The Dunnington chip will be part of Intel's Xeon MP 7000 series of processors and will allow a four-processor server to have up to 24 cores, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said during a speech at Intel's investor conference in Santa Clara, California, on Wednesday. It will be part of the Caneland server platform, which also includes the Clarksboro chipset.
Otellini also reaffirmed that Intel was on schedule to release chips based on the Nehalem microarchitecture, a successor to Intel's Core microarchitecture, later this year. Otellini in the past said that Nehalem would deliver better performance-per-watt and better system performance through its QuickPath Interconnect system architecture. Nehalem chips will also include an integrated memory controller and improved communication links between system components, Otellini said.
Nehalem processors will include multithreading and up to eight cores per chip, Otellini said. A multithreaded octo-core system will make for a very powerful machine and could expand Intel's presence in niche segments like high-performance computing (HPC), he said. The PC version of the Nehalem chip will mix CPU cores and graphics cores to deliver improved system performance, Otellini said. Nehalem chips will be manufactured using the 45-nanometer process.
The company will follow up Nehalem with the Westmere microarchitecture in 2009 and Sandy Bridge in 2010, Otellini said. Otellini indicated that work has begun on microarchitectures to succeed Sandy Bridge, but that code-names had not been assigned. By 2011, he said chips will be manufactured using the 22-nm process.
Intel will make a real leap into the HPC segment with the Larrabee platform, which will have lots of cores, lots of threads and deliver performance "bar none," Otellini said. The platform will be delivered in the late-2009-to-2010 time frame, Otellini said.
Otellini also reaffirmed that the Menlow platform for ultraportable devices would ship next quarter. The Menlow platform is a set of components, including the low-power processor code-named Silverthorne and Poulsbo chipset, that run ultramobile devices. The Silverthorne chip, manufactured using the 45-nanometer processor, will be upgraded and moved to the 32-nanometer processor next year.
Intel earlier this week assigned the brand name Atom to its Silverthorne and Diamondville chips. The Menlow platform for ultramobile computers was renamed Centrino Atom. The Diamondville is a low-power chip targeted for use in inexpensive laptops.
While Intel is increasingly focused on mobile devices and notebooks, it isn't giving up on desktops. The company is working on technology called "Remote Wake-up," which makes a desktop an Internet-attached storage device. Typing a URL into a remote Web browser wakes up a desktop from deep sleep mode, allowing users remote access to files on the desktop. Intel is working on this technology, company officials said, but did not provide a release date.
Speculation about the shipping date of the processor, code-named Dunnington, surfaced last month after an Intel presentation detailing the processor was leaked by Sun Microsystems. The presentation, which showed that the chip would ship in the second half, was available on Sun's servers, but was later pulled off.
The Dunnington chip will be part of Intel's Xeon MP 7000 series of processors and will allow a four-processor server to have up to 24 cores, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said during a speech at Intel's investor conference in Santa Clara, California, on Wednesday. It will be part of the Caneland server platform, which also includes the Clarksboro chipset.
Otellini also reaffirmed that Intel was on schedule to release chips based on the Nehalem microarchitecture, a successor to Intel's Core microarchitecture, later this year. Otellini in the past said that Nehalem would deliver better performance-per-watt and better system performance through its QuickPath Interconnect system architecture. Nehalem chips will also include an integrated memory controller and improved communication links between system components, Otellini said.
Nehalem processors will include multithreading and up to eight cores per chip, Otellini said. A multithreaded octo-core system will make for a very powerful machine and could expand Intel's presence in niche segments like high-performance computing (HPC), he said. The PC version of the Nehalem chip will mix CPU cores and graphics cores to deliver improved system performance, Otellini said. Nehalem chips will be manufactured using the 45-nanometer process.
The company will follow up Nehalem with the Westmere microarchitecture in 2009 and Sandy Bridge in 2010, Otellini said. Otellini indicated that work has begun on microarchitectures to succeed Sandy Bridge, but that code-names had not been assigned. By 2011, he said chips will be manufactured using the 22-nm process.
Intel will make a real leap into the HPC segment with the Larrabee platform, which will have lots of cores, lots of threads and deliver performance "bar none," Otellini said. The platform will be delivered in the late-2009-to-2010 time frame, Otellini said.
Otellini also reaffirmed that the Menlow platform for ultraportable devices would ship next quarter. The Menlow platform is a set of components, including the low-power processor code-named Silverthorne and Poulsbo chipset, that run ultramobile devices. The Silverthorne chip, manufactured using the 45-nanometer processor, will be upgraded and moved to the 32-nanometer processor next year.
Intel earlier this week assigned the brand name Atom to its Silverthorne and Diamondville chips. The Menlow platform for ultramobile computers was renamed Centrino Atom. The Diamondville is a low-power chip targeted for use in inexpensive laptops.
While Intel is increasingly focused on mobile devices and notebooks, it isn't giving up on desktops. The company is working on technology called "Remote Wake-up," which makes a desktop an Internet-attached storage device. Typing a URL into a remote Web browser wakes up a desktop from deep sleep mode, allowing users remote access to files on the desktop. Intel is working on this technology, company officials said, but did not provide a release date.
Microsoft debuts IE 8, aims for CSS interoperability
Microsoft on Wednesday released a host of developer technologies aimed at creating rich Internet applications (RIAs), including a beta of the next version of Internet Explorer (IE) that the company hopes will promote the development of applications that have the same look and feel across different browsers.
Technologies that developers can now get their hands on include betas of Internet Explorer 8, Silverlight 2 and Expression Studio 2. Silverlight 2 is an update to Microsoft's cross-browser software for building and delivering multimedia applications on the Web, and Expression is Microsoft's graphic and Web-design suite. Microsoft released updates of the products at its annual MIX 08 conference, which kicked off in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
IE 8 made its public debut at the show in a demonstration by Dean Hachamovitch, IE general manager at Microsoft. In particular, he seemed keen to show uniformity of application experiences between IE 8 and competing browsers Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari.
Microsoft developed IE before some Web standards, such as CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and RSS, were developed, and so older versions of the browser don't support them. When IE took off as the de facto standard, developers would write applications to work with IE rather than to support Web standards. Microsoft also was lax in updating IE to meet the demands of standards because there was little competition in the browser market for years.
With the release and subsequent popularity of open-source browser Mozilla Firefox three years ago, IE's need to stay current with Web standards -- so that Web pages could be developed once to look the same across all browsers -- became more important. When Microsoft developed IE 7, released in October 2006, the company had good intentions and decided to improve support of Web standards with the new release.
However, Web sites that were created for older versions of IE didn't work properly on IE 7, and applications developed for IE 7 didn't work the same way on Firefox and Safari. This is a problem that Microsoft is determined to remedy with IE 8, Hachamovitch said Wednesday.
"We want to get the Web pages to look the same on all the browsers," he said. "IE 8 will interoperate with Web content in the most standards-compliant way it can."
Microsoft aims to achieve this goal in two ways. One is to support Cascading Style Sheets 2.1 (CSS), the latest version of the standard that is still in development, in IE 8. CSS is a standard technology, the specification of which is overseen by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), for separating the appearance of a Web page from the content. It is the standard supported by all the major browsers.
"Today, differences between browsers simply waste too much developer time," Hachamovitch said. "Real-world interoperability begins with CSS support."
The CSS problem is not unique to Microsoft IE, said Greg DeMichillie, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft. He said there are different levels of support for CSS in different browsers -- "that's why you get these buggy sites where the pictures don't line up."
The reason all browsers don't support CSS in the same way is that the standard, as it's written in the W3C, is complicated, and there isn't a formal test suite to show how an application written according to the CSS standard should work in a browser, DeMichillie said.
And because of the differences in browser support for the standard, developers writing applications for the Web still have to test them on different browsers to ensure they look the same once rendered online, DeMichillie said. For developers, "it is a serious problem," he said.
The other way Microsoft plans to help solve the interoperability problems is by working with the W3C to make sure the standard itself inspires uniformity across browsers. To this end, Microsoft is submitting 702 test cases for testing CSS implementations in browsers to the W3C CSS working group, and is making them available to developers through a BSD license.
"We want to make sure we are interoperating the standard the same way developers are," Hachamovitch said.
While the CSS problem "is not going to disappear overnight," Directions on Microsoft's DeMichillie said anything Microsoft can do to help remedy the situation "is a good thing."
The IE 8 beta is available on Microsoft's Web site, as are both the Silverlight 2 and Expression Studio 2 betas.
Technologies that developers can now get their hands on include betas of Internet Explorer 8, Silverlight 2 and Expression Studio 2. Silverlight 2 is an update to Microsoft's cross-browser software for building and delivering multimedia applications on the Web, and Expression is Microsoft's graphic and Web-design suite. Microsoft released updates of the products at its annual MIX 08 conference, which kicked off in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
IE 8 made its public debut at the show in a demonstration by Dean Hachamovitch, IE general manager at Microsoft. In particular, he seemed keen to show uniformity of application experiences between IE 8 and competing browsers Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari.
Microsoft developed IE before some Web standards, such as CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and RSS, were developed, and so older versions of the browser don't support them. When IE took off as the de facto standard, developers would write applications to work with IE rather than to support Web standards. Microsoft also was lax in updating IE to meet the demands of standards because there was little competition in the browser market for years.
With the release and subsequent popularity of open-source browser Mozilla Firefox three years ago, IE's need to stay current with Web standards -- so that Web pages could be developed once to look the same across all browsers -- became more important. When Microsoft developed IE 7, released in October 2006, the company had good intentions and decided to improve support of Web standards with the new release.
However, Web sites that were created for older versions of IE didn't work properly on IE 7, and applications developed for IE 7 didn't work the same way on Firefox and Safari. This is a problem that Microsoft is determined to remedy with IE 8, Hachamovitch said Wednesday.
"We want to get the Web pages to look the same on all the browsers," he said. "IE 8 will interoperate with Web content in the most standards-compliant way it can."
Microsoft aims to achieve this goal in two ways. One is to support Cascading Style Sheets 2.1 (CSS), the latest version of the standard that is still in development, in IE 8. CSS is a standard technology, the specification of which is overseen by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), for separating the appearance of a Web page from the content. It is the standard supported by all the major browsers.
"Today, differences between browsers simply waste too much developer time," Hachamovitch said. "Real-world interoperability begins with CSS support."
The CSS problem is not unique to Microsoft IE, said Greg DeMichillie, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft. He said there are different levels of support for CSS in different browsers -- "that's why you get these buggy sites where the pictures don't line up."
The reason all browsers don't support CSS in the same way is that the standard, as it's written in the W3C, is complicated, and there isn't a formal test suite to show how an application written according to the CSS standard should work in a browser, DeMichillie said.
And because of the differences in browser support for the standard, developers writing applications for the Web still have to test them on different browsers to ensure they look the same once rendered online, DeMichillie said. For developers, "it is a serious problem," he said.
The other way Microsoft plans to help solve the interoperability problems is by working with the W3C to make sure the standard itself inspires uniformity across browsers. To this end, Microsoft is submitting 702 test cases for testing CSS implementations in browsers to the W3C CSS working group, and is making them available to developers through a BSD license.
"We want to make sure we are interoperating the standard the same way developers are," Hachamovitch said.
While the CSS problem "is not going to disappear overnight," Directions on Microsoft's DeMichillie said anything Microsoft can do to help remedy the situation "is a good thing."
The IE 8 beta is available on Microsoft's Web site, as are both the Silverlight 2 and Expression Studio 2 betas.
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