Two New Devices Give Presentations Some Portability

Digital projectors are the best way to get the biggest possible image for a PowerPoint presentation or a movie. But the projectors are often pretty big themselves, with even most "pocket projectors" too big to stuff into the typical pocket or laptop bag.


That is changing. A new miniature-chip technology from Texas Instruments called pico is making digital projectors truly portable, instead of merely luggable. For the past couple of weeks, I've been using two of the first pico-based projectors on the market, Dell's M109S and Optoma's Pico PK-101.

The products are designed for different customers with different needs. Dell positions the 13-ounce M109S as a notebook companion, best suited for work presentations. The four-ounce Optoma projector is designed more as an iPod or digital-camera accessory for watching movies and slide shows on the go.

View Full Image
The Dell M109S
Dell

The Dell M109S
The Dell M109S
The Dell M109S

Their portability requires compromises, most obviously in brightness and image resolution. The Dell and Optoma projectors, respectively, support 50 and 11 lumens -- a standard measure of projector brightness. That's far dimmer than top-notch projectors that offer several thousand lumens. So neither product excels in well-lighted rooms, where overhead and ambient lighting overpower their images. You can compensate somewhat for this weakness by placing the devices closer to the surfaces onto which they're projecting -- for example, a wall. But the darker the room you use, the better.

At about the size of a candy bar, the $399 Optoma device is the smaller of the two projectors and the one with the most intriguing possibilities for expanding the tiny screen sizes of mobile devices like the iPod.

It's powered by a rechargeable battery that Optoma says lasts for an hour on full brightness or two hours on a power-saving setting (the projector comes with two batteries). The projector has a tiny speaker, but people who want decent sound will need to use headphones or external speakers.

In theory, the Optoma device is small enough to bring along on a camping trip to show a film on the side of a tent, or to a restaurant, where you could inflict a vacation slide show on dinner mates by projecting onto a napkin or tablecloth.

I tested it on a recent airplane flight by projecting an episode of "Mad Men" from an iPod touch onto the back of the seat in front of me. The seat was a dark blue with embossing on it, so it didn't work very well. It's best to project onto an unmarked, light-colored surface. The quality of the image was better when I lay in bed one night, projecting a video onto a white ceiling.

Even under the most favorable circumstances, however, I found the images from the Optoma projector very dark, muddling the outlines of characters and action on screen. Although Optoma says you can get up to a 60-inch image from the projector, 45 inches was about as big as I could make the image before it got too fuzzy.

Optoma says the projector will ship with an iPod-compatible connector cable when it goes on sale in the U.S. on Dec. 15, though the unit I tested didn't come with one. I connected the device to my iPod touch using a $50 cable from Apple.

Compared with the Optoma device, the $449 Dell M109S is a behemoth, yet it's still only about the size of a short stack of drink coasters. Most projectors weigh at least a few pounds, if not more, which is big enough to make them a hassle to carry around. I barely noticed the Dell projector inside my laptop bag.

Unlike the Optoma projector, the Dell M109S has to be plugged into an electrical outlet to work. It comes with an unsightly set of connectors for plugging the projector into a video source, such as the VGA port found on most laptops and a composite video plug that is standard on DVD players. I was, however, able to plug my iPod touch into the Dell projector using the $50 Apple cable.

And unlike the Optoma, the Dell doesn't have speakers. To get sound for a movie, you'll need headphones or speakers, like those on a laptop.

Despite its extra bulk, the Dell M109S literally outshines the Optoma projector. It produces a bright image that I found very watchable, even if it wasn't high-definition. I projected the movie "James and the Giant Peach" onto an interior wall of my house, creating an image that was about 7 feet, measured diagonally.

The Dell M109S includes a capability called keystone correction, a standard feature in most projectors that adjusts a projected image to give it the proper dimensions, rather than the trapezoidal shape that results when a projector is angled upward. The Optoma projector doesn't have this feature. To get a normal rectangular movie image, I had to hold the projector level, toward the projection surface.

For business travelers who do presentations or for people who want to create a theater-like experience in a hotel room, vacation house or against a sheet in the backyard, the Dell projector would be a good fit. For now, the Optoma projector is a good idea that needs refinement.

SonicWall beefs up storage offerings

New hardware for its Continuous Data Protection line
Tim Greene (Network World) 08 December, 2008 07:54:00



SonicWall is revamping the hardware for its storage appliances, giving them much more capacity from the top of the line to the bottom.

The four new Continuous Data Protection (CDP) models, available December 15, replace the four original models which the company is no longer selling. SonicWall has not set formal end-of-life details for them.

Two of the new boxes are designed for small and midsize businesses with 400GB of storage. The other two, with up to 4.25TB of RAID 5 storage, are designed for central corporate sites to back up smaller appliances. They can also be used by value-added resellers as part of a backup-in-the-cloud service, SonicWall says.

The old CDP models stored 160GB to 600GB.

CDP devices can restore data from block-level changes to entire hard drives, and the company claims end users can make the fixes themselves without the intervention of IT administrators.

CDP client software runs on each machine to be backed up. It continuously backs up changes to the file system. Since buying the technology with the purchase of Lasso Logic in 2005, SonicWall has rewritten the firmware for the appliances to harden it.

The new models and their base prices are: CDP110 at US$2,000; CDP 210 at $3,500; CDP 5040 at $9,000; and CDP 6080 at $12,000.

Hitachi GST, Intel team up for solid-state drives

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and Intel are teaming up to produce solid-state drives for servers and workstations, the companies said Tuesday.

SSDs based on flash memory chips are faster and consume less power than disk drives, and because they don't have moving parts they can also be more reliable. Although SSDs are more expensive than disk drives, the high-speed, low-power characteristics they offer are particularly useful in high-end applications, such as data centers.

Under terms of the deal, drive maker Hitachi GST will only use NAND flash chips obtained from Intel in its high-end SSDs. The two companies will jointly develop drives that use Serial Attached SCSI and Fibre Channel interfaces, with products expected to hit the market in 2010, they said. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Intel will continue to sell SSDs for laptops and desktop PCs, which use the SATA interface, under its own brand.

Intel's flash chips are manufactured by a joint venture with Micron, called IM Flash Technologies (IMFT). The joint-venture company doesn't sell to third-party customers, with all of its output going to Micron and Intel.

LoJack For Your Laptop

by Erick Schonfeld on December 2, 2008

It was only a matter of time before a location tracking app found its way into laptop security software. Laptop Cop, which lets you remotely control your computer and delete files if it is stolen, now has a geo-location feature based on WiFi-hotspot triangulation technology from Skyhook Wireless. It is the same technology that is used in the iPhone (along with GPS and cell-tower triangulation) to determine your location for geo-aware apps. Now you can tell the cops exactly what door to knock on, more or less.

Laptop Cop costs $50. It does come with those other features as well. But if you want the same Lojack service for your laptop without paying, you can download MyLoki for free. It is a browser add-on from Skyhook that broadcasts the location of your laptop. And anyone can always check your personal MyLoki page to see where your is laptop (which is supposed to be a proxy for you, but not when it’s been stolen).

It won’t be too long before all of your devices will tell you where they are.

Update: There’s another laptop recovery service from GadgetTrak for Macs that also uses Skyhook. In addition to the WiFi positioning, it also uses the Mac’s built-in camera to to take a picture of the perp and sends it to your Flickr account.

Greenpeace Slams Apple Over "World's Greenest Family of Notebooks" Claim

Worker harder, Jobs, if you want our lovin' say ecoactivists

Every season seems to bring new claims by Cupertino's Apple Corp. of its leaps-and-bounds advances in being more environmentally friendly. And every season brings a scathing report from Greenpeace on how far the company has yet to grow.

Perhaps Steve Jobs and company were tempting fate when Apple announced in a recent series of ads that the MacBooks were "the world's greenest family of notebooks", referencing their power saving use of Intel processors and their halogen and plastic free construction. Unsurprisingly, Greenpeace was there to punch a hole in Apple's dreams as it delivered its environmental report card full of less-than-glowing things to say about Apple's big claims.

While Apple deserves credit for eliminating brominated flame-retardants (BFRs) and other toxic plastics and managing relatively low power consumption, Greenpeace says the company's lack of providing a timeline in phasing out other potentially harmful compounds used in the laptops and their production is one of its key problems. Another significant shortcoming is Apple's failure to create environmental impact reports and tackle the problem of tech trash, it states.

Greenpeace gives Apple a failing rating -- 4.3 out of 10 (PDF). Writes Greenpeace, "[Apple]needs to commit to phasing out additional substances with timelines, improve its policy on chemicals and its reporting on chemicals management."

Apple's spokesperson declined to comment on the criticism, saying merely that customers should check out the "Apple and the Environment" section of the company's website if they want information on the company's environmental policy.

EE Times: Latest News 3-D memristor chip debuts

PORTLAND, Ore. — Memristors technology got a boost recently from Hewlett-Packard Labs, which described the first 3-D memristor chip at a conference in Berkeley, Calif.

The Memristor and Memristive Systems Symposium was co-sponsored by the University of California, the Semiconductor Industry Association and the National Science Foundation. HP Labs (Palo Alto, Calif.) provided details of a prototype chip designed by HP researcher Qiangfei Xia that stacked memristor crossbar memory cells on top of a CMOS logic chip.

"Xia used imprint lithography to add a memristor crossbar on top of a CMOS logic circuit," said HP Labs Fellow Stan Williams, inventor of HP's memristive memory technology. "He has built an integrated hybrid circuit with both transistors and memristors." Williams and HP colleague Greg Snider previously proposed an FPGA in which configuration bits were located above CMOS transistors in a memristor crossbar.

Memristor crossbars include two titanium dioxide layers between two perpendicular arrays of metal lines. One layer of titanium oxide is doped with oxygen vacancies, making it a semiconductor. The adjacent layer is undoped, leaving it in its natural state as an insulator.

When a crossbar junction is addressed by simultaneously applying a voltage to one crossbar line on the top and bottom layers, oxygen vacancies drift from the doped to the undoped layer. This causes it to begin conducting, turning "on" the memory bit. The bit can again be turned "off" by changing the current direction, whereupon oxygen vacancies migrate back into the doped layer.

According to Williams, HP Labs' memristor-based FPGA demonstrates that a CMOS fab can make integrated memristor/transistor circuits in three dimensions.

Also at the symposium, Snider unveiled a design that used memristors in their analog mode as synapses in a neural computing architecture. Memristor crossbars are the only technology that is dense enough to simulate the human brain, Snider claimed, adding that the HP Labs crossbars are ten times denser than synapses in the human cortex. By stacking crossbars on a CMOS logic chip, variable resistance could mimic the learning functions of synapses in neural networks.

HP Labs and Boston University were recently awarded a contract by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to build the first artificial neural network based on memristors.

Also at the conference, Massimiliano Di Ventra of the University of California at San Diego described how memristors can explain biological learning in amoebas. Amoebas learn to change their behavior in a manner that can be explained by an LC circuit and a memristor.

Di Ventra also presented evidence that microscopic memristive elements are present in unicellular as well as multicellular organisms.

Pentagon Bans USB Drives After Virus Hits Computers

Michael Barkoviak - November 24, 2008 4:14 AM

Pentagon officials admitted an undisclosed virus has hit some Pentagon and DoD computers, which has forced officials to confiscate flash drives and ban the use of external hardware drives until further notice.

"We are aware of a global virus for which there are some public alerts on," said Pentagon spokesperson Bryan Whitman. "And we've seen some of this on our networks. And we're taking steps to identify and mitigate the virus."

Pentagon officials did not disclose which virus has infected government computers, or whether or not it has spread to classified computer networks.

The Pentagon computer network is made up of around 17,000 networks and seven million individual computers. Pentagon computers are scanned for weaknesses millions of times each day by foreign computer users, Pentagon officials admitted.

A November 17 Air Force internal memo issued the "immediate suspension" of flash drives used on any computer hooked up to both classified and unclassified computer networks. The mandatory collection of USB flash drives is underway, with the possibility the drives will not be returned to their owners after the security check is complete.

China has been ruled out as the source of the Pentagon's latest security issue; although it's possible Russia or attackers from another Eastern European nation are involved in the security breach.

There's a growing concern of foreign-based computer attackers, especially from Chinese and Russian attackers, who have reportedly attacked computers in the United States, United Kingdom, France, and other nations. The attacks normally are to help gain access to classified information and to test government security in an effort to better coordinate larger scale attacks in the future.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also has created new rules for DHS employees who attempt to use portable storage devices and flash drives connected to work computers.

Verbatim First to Market with LightScribe-certified 8x DVD+R DL Media

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Oct 09, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) --
Leveraging many of the same technologies that set the standard for high-speed DVD+R Double Layer (DL) disc performance, reliability and compatibility, Verbatim(R) Americas, LLC, announced today the world's first LightScribe(R) 8X DVD+R Double Layer (DL) discs. At 8X speed, the industry's fastest DVD DL burning speed, an entire 8.5GB single-sided disc can be filled to capacity in 15 minutes or less. Verbatim will begin shipping LightScribe 8X DVD+R DL discs in November.
Verbatim and its parent company, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM), have consistently been at the forefront in developing DVD+R DL technologies and LightScribe media coating. Verbatim was also the first company to release DVD+R DL discs and LightScribe media worldwide.
LightScribe certified, Verbatim's new double layer media is fully compatible with LightScribe-enabled drives, duplicators and the latest software licensed by Hewlett-Packard Company (HP). When combined, the same drive that burns content to the data side of the disc can be used to burn silkscreen-quality monochrome labels directly on the label side of the discs. The discs are produced with LightScribe Media Version 1.2 coating technology on the label side to provide enhanced contrast for photos, graphics, images and text. Verbatim's new DVD+R DL discs deliver LightScribe direct-to-disc labeling quality and convenience without requiringany software or firmware upgrades.
By offering compliance that exceeds the DVD+R DL standard, users also have the assurance that Verbatim's new LightScribe media is compatible with the new multi-format drives and duplicators that support 8X DVD+R DL technology and most DVD playback devices.
The increased storage capacity required by digital content--especially HD video, and the volumes of Internet content that are being downloaded are driving the demand for higher-capacity storage. With two recording layers on a single side, Verbatim's new LightScribe 8X DVD+R DL media nearly doubles the storage capacity of a DVD from 4.7GB to 8.5GB. The higher capacity will enable businesses, content developers and consumers to store up to 3.5 hours of DVD-quality videos, about one hour of HD video or 8.5GB of data without having to flip the disc. The capacity and 8X performance that these discs provide also make them ideal for backups and archiving.
Since its launch early in 2005, LightScribe's adoption rate has grown substantially. Today, most of the major optical drive manufacturers include LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling technology with their burners. LightScribe also recently reported that the direct disc labeling technology is now licensed by over 80 electronics and software companies worldwide, including many disc publishing systems manufacturers.
Availability
Verbatim LightScribe 8X DVD+R DL media will be offered in 10-disc spindles with hanger boxes. The media will be available in the US in November through leading retailers, Internet resellers and distributors.
Verbatim also offers the industry's broadest range of premium-quality LightScribe CD and DVD-R/+R media products, including 80MIN/700MB 52X LightScribe CD-R media, 4.7GB 16X LightScribe DVD-R media, 4.7GB 16X LightScribe DVD+R media and Color-background LightScribe 16x DVD-R and DVD+R media in vibrant shades of red, orange, yellow, blue and green.
About Verbatim
Verbatim's businesses in the Americas, Europe/Middle East/Africa and Asia Pacific regions are wholly owned subsidiaries of Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co., Ltd. MKM's parent company, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC), is Japan's largest chemical company.
Verbatim develops and markets innovative, high-quality products for storing, moving and using digital content. Known for its leadership in the optical, magnetic and flash storage and related accessories markets, the company provides reliable, unique technologies and products that are highly sought after and broadly distributed worldwide. For more information, contact Verbatim Americas, LLC, 1200 W.T. Harris Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28262, (800) 421-4188. In Europe, Verbatim Ltd., Prestige House, 23-26 High Street, Egham, Surrey, TW20 9DU, UK, (+44) 1784 439 781. In Japan, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co., Ltd., 4-1-23, Shiba Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8415, (+81) 3-5454-3972. Or, visit the web site at www.verbatim.com and select the country of your location.
Depending on the hardware and software used.
Verbatim is a registered trademark of Verbatim Americas, LLC. Other company and product names contained herein are trademarks of their respective companies. Specifications subject to change without notice.

SOURCE: Verbatim Americas, LLC

Ink-jet printer for a new heart?

TOYAMA, JAPAN: The technology is the same as that of the simple inkjet printer found in homes and offices, but Japanese scientist Makoto Nakamura is on a mission to see if it can also produce human organs.


The idea is for the printer to jet out thousands of cells per second – rather than ink droplets – and to build them up into a three-dimensional (3-D) organ.

"It would be like building a huge skyscraper on a micro level using different kinds of cells and other materials instead of steel beams, concrete and glass," he said.

Ultimate goal

"Ultimately I hope to make a heart," said Nakamura, professor at the graduate school of science and technology for research at the state-run University of Toyama.

While Nakamura says it would take him some 20 years to develop a heart, the feat could pave the way to mass produce "good hearts" for patients waiting for transplants. A heart made of cells originating from the patient could eliminate fears that the body would reject it.

In the emerging field of organ printing, Nakamura bills his work as the world's finest printed 3-D structure with living cells.

The technology works a bit like dealing with sliced fruit: an organ is cut horizontally, allowing researchers to see an array of cells on the surface.

Sliced fruit

If a printer drops cells one by one into the right spots and repeats the process for many layers, it creates a 3-D organ. Much like a printer chooses different colours, the machine can position different types of cells to drop.

Nakamura has succeeded in building a tube with living cells. It measures one millimetre in diameter and has double walls with two different kinds of cells, similar to the three-layer structure in human blood vessels.

He has also made a smaller single-wall hydrogel tube that measures one-tenth of a millimetre – as narrow as human hair.

The tubes are made by a 3-D inkjet bioprinter that Nakamura's team developed in a three-year project completed earlier this year at Kanagawa Academy of Science and Technology, a foundation based southwest of Tokyo.

The printer can adjust where to drop cells in the order of one-thousandth of a millimetre and produce a tube at a speed of three centimetres (1.2 inches) per two minutes.

Nakamura's motivation is simple: if there are not enough organs for the people who need them, then scientists should make them.

Treating children with heart problems day and night as a paediatrician, he realised there are children who do not respond to conventional treatment or whose condition is too serious to treat.

"I just had to watch them die"

"I just had to watch them die," he said. "Clinical doctors can't give them treatment that isn't in textbooks. I clung to the hope that medicine will make progress and save more lives in the future."

Then 36, Nakamura thought he "shouldn't just wait" and left a decade of clinical work to be a researcher, in hopes of contributing to medical progress.
Now 49, he is married to a former nurse and has five children.

Nakamura dismisses the idea of printing brains or trying to create new life. "I'm not envisioning making superhuman cyborgs. There are simply lives that could be saved if there are organs," he said.

He spent years researching artificial hearts but mechanical organs are not yet reasonable alternatives for donor organs. Problems include their inability to generate energy by themselves, make hormones or fight infection.

Bioprinting with stem cells

One day Nakamura found that droplets from inkjet printers were about the same size as human cells, which are as small as 10 micrometres in diameter each, or one-100th of a millimetre. He bought a home-use Seiko Epson printer in 2002 and tried to eject cells with it. But the inkjet nozzle got clogged.

He rang up the company's customer service, telling the operator that he wanted to print cells, an idea she politely turned down. Nakamura did not give up and eventually reached an Epson official who showed interest and agreed to give him technical support.

In 2003, Nakamura confirmed that cells survived even after the printing process, becoming one of the first researchers in the world to unveil a 3-D structure with real living cells using inkjet technology.

To prevent the droplets from drying out and to help cells form a 3-D structure, Nakamura puts cells in alginate sodium and jets them into a calcium-chloride solution.

In the future, Nakamura also said the technology could pave the way for bioprinting with stem cells – which could go into building healthy new organs. "I really don't know what the future possibilities are, but this technology will be needed in the future to find where to position stem cells," he said.

Order your Optical Discs Here !

SONY optical discs on promotion this month !

SanDisk launches world’s largest capacity micro memory cards

16GB of storage capacity.
Ross Catanzariti (Good Gear Guide) 01/10/2008 10:40:00

SanDisk this week announced the launch of the world’s largest capacity microSDHC and Memory Stick Micro (M2) cards — the first cards of their kind to offer 16GB of storage.

The microSDHC cards will support most new mobile phones and a range of MP3 players including SanDisk’s own Sansa range, while the M2 cards are compatible with Sony Ericsson’s new generation of mobile phones.

"Handsets have become far more than just phones — they’ve become mobile jukeboxes, mobile offices, even mobile movie theatres”, said Avi Greengart, research director for mobile devices at Current Analysis. “16GB gives consumers the ability to carry their digital content with them and still have room to do more with their mobile phones."

SanDisk’s 16GB mobile memory cards come with a five-year limited warranty and will initially be available at Crazy John’s stores in October.

The 16GB microSDHC card will be available for an RRP of $141, while the 16GB M2 card has an RRP of $188.

Programming for multicore chips a challenge

Adding cores could create challenges for programmers writing code that lets applications work effectively with multicore chips.

Agam Shah
PC World
Wednesday, April 2, 2008; 11:19 AM

Adding more cores is desirable to meet growing computing demands, but it could create more challenges for programmers writing code that enables applications to work effectively with multicore chips.

As technology develops at a fast rate, a challenge for developers is to adapt to programming for multicore systems, said Doug Davis, vice president of the digital enterprise group at Intel, during a speech Tuesday at the Multicore Expo in Santa Clara, California. Programmers will have to transition from programming for single-core processors to multiple cores, while future-proofing the code to keep up-to-date in case additional cores are added to a computing system.

Programming models can be designed that take advantage of hyperthreading, which enables parallel processing capabilities of multiple cores to boost application performance in a cost-effective way, Davis said. Intel is working with universities and funding programs that will train programmers to develop applications that solve those problems, Davis said.

Intel, along with Microsoft, has donated $20 million to the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, to train students and conduct research on multicore programming and parallel computing. The centers will tackle the challenges of programming for multicore processors to carry out more than one set of program instructions at a time, a scenario known as parallel computing.

Beyond future-proofing code for parallelism, adapting legacy applications to work in new computing environments that take advantage of multicore processing is a challenge coders face, Davis said. Writing code from scratch is the ideal option, but it can be expensive.

"The world we live in today has millions of lines of legacy code ... how do we take legacy of software and take advantage of legacy technology?" Coders could need to deliver what's best for their system, Davis said.

Every major processor architecture has undergone quick changes because of the rapid rate of change as described by Moore's Law, which calls for better application and processor performance every two years, but now the challenge is to deliver performance within a defined power envelope. Power consumption is driving multicore chip development, and programmers need to write code that works within that power envelope, Davis said.

Adding cores to a chip to boost performance is a better power-saving option than cranking up clock frequency of a single-core processor, Davis said. Adding cores increases performance, but cuts down on power consumption.

In 2007, about 40 percent of desktops, laptops and servers shipped with multicore processors. By 2011, about 90 percent of PCs shipping will be multicore systems. Almost all of Microsoft Windows Vista PCs shipping today are multicore, Davis said.

Intel is also working on an 80-core Polaris chip, which brings teraflops of performance.

"We're not only talking about terabit computing, but the terabyte sets [of data] we can manage." Davis said. Users are consuming and storing tremendous amounts of data now, and in a few years, the amount of data should reach zettabytes, Davis said.

The next "killer" application for multicore computing could be tools that enable the real-time collection, mining and analysis of data, Davis said. For example, military personnel using wearable multicore computers are able to simulate, analyze and synthesize data in real time to show how a situation will unfold. Doing so is viable and doesn't create risk for military personnel, Davis said.

"These types of applications have taken weeks to do ... now these types of applications are literally running in minutes," Davis said.

As cores are added, the performance boost may also enable more applications, Davis said. The oil and gas industry will demand one petaflop of computing capacity in 2010, compared to 400 teraflops in 2008, to cost-effectively collect seismic data, compare it to historical data and analyze the data. Compared to the past, oil and gas explorers can collect and analyze data much faster now, Davis said.

Remote BackUp Services -

From Woodland Hills,California :
03-12-08 :
WHAT IF DISASTER WERE TO STRIKE YOUR BUSINESS ?


HOW MUCH IS YOUR BUSINESS DATA WORTH ?







It's more than just electric charges on a magnetic-medium;
it's the lifeblood of your business. It holds all of your budgets,
your product design, contracts, sales info, emails and all the other business
correspondence that makes your business successful.

WestCoastComputer is proud to partner with IBackup Solutions,

the leader in remote backup solutions.

PC World says about IBack, "Of the 17 services we tried, our favorite backup service is IBackup."
PC Magazine's Editor's Choice says about this service, "very intuitive and the best of the bunch"


LEARN MORE & FREE TRIAL .


With IBackup for Windows, you can backup/restore interactively or schedule regular online backups for Windows desktops, laptops and servers. It has the look and feel of the native Microsoft Windows Explorer coupled with powerful scheduling and logging features.

IBackup for Windows automatically selects critical data (like Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, My Documents, Financial Files and other Office files) with its file selection wizards for backup. Advanced features include Open file Backup, System State backup, MS SQL Server, MS Exchange Server and Oracle Server backups.



General Features

Incremental and compressed backups that greatly reduce the network bandwidth usage by transferring only the modified portions of a file


· 128-bit Secure Socket Layer encryption during transmission
· Backup/restore using mirror and relative path options more
· Easy-to-use wizards for interactive backups, restores and scheduling
· Provision to restore from the earlier Snapshots of files maintained in the IBackup account more.
· Provision to regulate Internet bandwidth usage with the Bandwidth Throttle feature more

Scheduling Features


*
Automatic Selection of most common user data and application data types
*
‘Automatic Power off’ option after a scheduled backup (Works with Windows 2000/NT/XP)


Advanced Features


*
Supports Open file Backup for most common application data types more
*
Allows backup of critical system related components using ‘System State Backup’
*
Ability to backup MS SQL Server databases without stopping the database services more



*
Online backup of MS Exchange Server databases and Mailboxes without interrupting the running MS Exchange Server services more



*
Ability to backup Oracle Server databases without stopping the Oracle Server database services more
*
Supports one-way Sync from local machine to IBackup account


System Requirements


*
Windows Vista, XP, 98, Me, NT/2000, Windows 2000 (Servers), Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2003 Web Edition
*
Internet Explorer 5.0 and higher
*
64 MB RAM, 10 MB Free Hard Disk space for installed program, 20 MB or more recommended for local caching



LEARN MORE & FREE TRIAL













****************************************************

****************************************************

Businesses to gain from DIY hard drive rescue

John E. Dunn, Techworld
03 March 2008

Data rescue specialist Retrodata has announced what it claims is the first device for recovering damaged hard disk platters that can be successfully used by non-experts.

Called the System P. EX (for "platter extraction system"), the 75-kilogram device uses laser-guided positioning to help it accurately extract platters from any 3.5 inch hard drive with minimal user intervention. What's unusual element is that such devices normally require highly skilled operators, whereas the System P. EX can be used by a relative novice at a data recovery company.

According to Retrodata, the benefit for corporates is that it will allow smaller data recovery companies to compete against the often expensive services offered by larger companies, which could help to drive down prices.

The UK-based company won’t release photographs of the product until it has been fully patented, but did say that it would work on any drive with up to five platters, possibly more. It would also accommodate drives with internal shock-absorption damping of a type that might physically defeat rival systems.

"Only the largest of data recovery companies have tools available that even allow this process to take place," said Retrodata’s Duncan Clarke, who also invented the machine.

The System P. EX is slated for release next month, at an approximate cost of £3,500 ($6,950) per unit. This includes a 10-year warranty excluding the cost of occasionally replacing precision components within the machine.

Asked whether hard disk recovery was really as critical as it once was, Clarke responded that the "age of ubiquitous backup" was a myth.

"Let me assure you that even multinational corporates are capable of either forgetting to back up, or their backups are corrupt. There would be no such thing as "data recovery" if everyone backed up," he said.

"Some companies willingly pay £10,000 to have critical data recovered; factor in emergency turnaround, and this figure can be doubled or trebled."

Last November, Retrodata made itself unpopular with Apple after publicising an unusually large number of failures it was encountering in Seagate 2.5 inch SATA drives found in laptops such as the MacBook or MacBook Pro.

"Apple is being utterly irresponsible and should launch a product recall," Clarke said at the time.

Intel Montevina platform to be named Centrino 2

Monica Chen, Taipei; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES [Monday 18 February 2008]

Intel is planning to rename its brand name for the upcoming notebook Montevina platform to Centrino 2 in order to clear up confusion for consumers, according to sources at notebook makers.

Intel has used the brand name Centrino for four generations of its notebook platforms including Carmel, Sonoma, Napa and Santa Rosa. Although the technology and specifications have continued to improve, the unchanging brand name has left consumers unable to identify the differences, which has also lowered recognition in the market.

Notebook makers agree with Intel's decision, since they believe most consumers are not familiar with the specifics of each platform and codename. The new marketing strategy should give consumers the feeling of a tangible upgrade and will hopefully spur replacement demand.

Intel is set to launch the Centrino 2 platform in Computex Taipei 2008 along with six 45nm notebook CPUs, all with a 1066MHz FSB. Core speeds will range between 2.26-3.06GHz and prices between US$209-851 in 1000-unit tray quantities.

Intel will then launch seven 45nm SFF (small form factor) notebook CPUs, similar to those used in Apple's MacBook Air and soon other ultra-portable notebooks, in the third quarter of this year.

In additional news, Intel shipped over 100 million notebook CPUs in 2007. Shipments are expected to increase to 123 million units by the end of 2008. The company also expects to ship 145 million, 169 million, and 195 million notebook CPUs in 2009-2011, respectively.

Intel declined to respond saying it cannot comment on unannounced products.

DAT72 TAPE FACTORY PROMOTION .

• Stock Up and Save this month on all DAT72 tapes.

• Always New & Factory Sealed tape for your important files .

• For 30 day open terms; fax your purchase order to:310-455-1805

• For quantity pricing, please call 800-270-9885 x 202 or email sales@westcoastcomputer.com

January '08 is Optical Disc month ---

Take advantage of outstanding values on your optical disc requirements.
All products factory new & sealed & 100% guaranteed by the manufacturers.



For help with your order, or for 30-day open billing, please email -sales@westcoastcomputer.com

9 Items:
Sony -part# EDM 5200-B -R/W Magneto Optical, 5.25 in.5.2GB 2048 B/S (8X)

Sony R/W Optical Disk 5.25 in , 5.25GB
Item Number: EDM5200B
Learn More Your Price: $36.44 Add to Cart
Sony ~part # EDM-8600 ~ R/W Magneto Optical, 5.25 in.8.6GB 2KB B/S (14X)

SONY R/W Optical disk 5.25 in. 8.6GB 2KB B/S (14X)
Item Number: EDM8600B
Learn More Your Price: $54.14 Add to Cart
Sony # EDM-9100-R/W Magneto Optical, 5.25 in .9.1GB 4 KB/S (14X)

Purchase Orders Accepted with OPEN terms from Medical Facilities. Fax your PO# today to: 1-310-455-1805
Item Number: EDM9100-C
Learn More Your Price: $57.93 Add to Cart
Sony ~EDM2300B ~ R/W * Magneto Optical Disc * 5.25 in.* 2.3GB * 512 B/S (4X)

Sony EDM-2300B Magneto Re-Writable Optical Disk 5.25 in. 2.3GB
Item Number: EDM2300B
Learn More Your Price: $23.82 Add to Cart
Sony --part # EDM 2600 * R/W Magneto Optical*5.25 in.ISO 2.6GB 1024 B/S (4X)

Sony rewriteable optical discs.
Item Number: EDM2600B
Learn More Your Price: $22.60 Add to Cart
Sony # EDM1200B---* MOD * 5.25 1.2GB

R/W Magneto Optical, 5.25 in.ISO 1.2GB 512 B/S (2X)
Item Number: EDM1200B
Learn More Your Price: $24.77 Add to Cart
Sony ~part # EDM4100 ~ R/W Magneto Optical, 5.25 in.4.1GB 512 B/S (8X)

Sony MOD R/W Magneto Optical, 5.25 in. 4.1GB 512 B/S (8X)
Item Number: EDM4100
Learn More Your Price: $38.81 Add to Cart
Verbatim ~part#89108~ 5.25 Inch 1.2GB Re-writable Optical Disc

VERBATIM 5.25 Inch 1.2GB Re-writable Optical Disc
Item Number: 89108
Learn More Your Price: $21.23 Add to Cart
Verbatim -part#87895-OPTICAL DISK 5.25 RW 600MB 512B/S

Verbatim 5.25" MO disks are ideal for desktop publishing, medical imaging, legal and financial applications, and multimedia creations.
Item Number: 87895
Learn More Your Price: $20.19 Add to Cart

Can't find what you're looking for? Call us toll-free at 800-270-9885
or send us email to sales@westcoastcomputer.com

Broadcom wins case

Broadcom wins case

BY REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ,

•

Comment on this

•

Quick print

•

Personal archive

•

Send to a friend

•

Send a sms

[ Los Angeles | Reuters News Service, 2 January 2008 ] - A federal judge in California ruled on Monday that wireless chip maker Qualcomm must immediately stop selling third-generation, or 3G, WCDMA cellular chips that infringe on the Broadcom patents.

US district judge James Selna ruled, however, that Qualcomm can continue to sell some chips which designs infringe three patents held by rival Broadcom through January 2009.

Qualcomm also is restricted to selling only cellular chips it was offering as of 29 May 2007 when a Santa Ana, California jury found it infringed on the Broadcom patents, and only to customers it had as of that date.

A Qualcomm spokeswoman said the company's attorneys were reviewing the ruling and had no immediate comment.

In a statement, Broadcom general counsel David Dull said the company was "pleased with today's ruling".

"Broadcom should not have to compete against companies that use Broadcom's own patented technology against us, and this injunction puts a stop to Qualcomm doing just that," Dull said.

WCDMA mobile wireless technology provides higher data speeds to mobile and portable wireless devices than most North American networks.

Qualcomm also must pay mandatory royalties to Broadcom for the chips it sells during the "sunset period", ending 31 January 2009.

The judge set royalties at 6% for a patent covering video compression for mobile phones and at 4.5% for another covering simultaneous communications between different types of networks.

He ordered Broadcom and Qualcomm to negotiate a royalty for a third patent covering walkie-talkie-style technology, or be prepared to brief the court on an appropriate royalty at a 29 February 2008 hearing.

Sprint Nextel plans to put that feature, which it called QChat, in phones in the first quarter of 2008 using Qualcomm chips.

Selna ruled that after the "sunset" date, Qualcomm is permanently barred from infringing the three Broadcom patents.

Broadcom had asked the judge to impose 18-month mandatory licence fees for two of the infringed patents for a limited set of Qualcomm products and to bar Qualcomm from selling chips used for the QChat feature.

Qualcomm had offered to pay three times the amount of a "reasonable royalty" so it could continue using Broadcom's patented technology with no injunction.

Selna also ordered the companies to file a joint report before the February hearing about how they plan to handle Qualcomm's attempts to "design around" the infringing chips.

IBM filing 10 patents every day

IBM filing 10 patents every day 12:03PM, Wednesday 2nd January 2008

IBM is the most prolific patent creator in the IT industry, filing on average 10 patents per day, according to a recent IEEE Spectrum study.

The study reveals that in 2006, the last year for which complete figures are available, IBM filed 3,651 patents, an average of ten per day. Hewlett Packard followed, filing 2115, with Toshiba and Microsoft rounding out the leader board.

Alongside reporting the number of patents filed, the study also rates them by quality, taking into account the company's previous patent activity and innovation. According to this rating, Microsoft actually tops the "patent power" index, despite filing less than half the number of IBM in 2006.

Engineers at many companies are now actively encouraged to file patents for any work in new areas, in order to avoid patent lawsuits and intellectual property disputes.

The OLPC Foundation has recently been on the end of such a dispute, with its laptop for developing nations temporarily banned from sale in Nigeria pending a legal decision on a patent infringement case.

Matthew Sparkes