Friday, April 28, 2006

LWN: [discuss] 4level page tables merged into mainline

LWN: [discuss] 4level page tables merged into mainline: "The new layout gives 47bit (=128TB) virtual address space to each process."

64-bit computing in theory and practice - The Tech Report - Page 2

64-bit computing in theory and practice - The Tech Report - Page 2: "Current AMD64 processors allow up to 40 bits of physical address space, or one terabyte, and up to 48 bits of virtual address space, or 256TB. Initial versions of WinXP x64 will support as much as 128GB of physical RAM and up to 16 terabytes of virtual memory. "

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

My Way News - Internet2 Network Aims to Boost Capacity

My Way News - Internet2 Network Aims to Boost Capacity: "In the new network, Internet2 will have the cables all to itself. Operators will initially be able to transmit data using 10 colors, or wavelengths, of light over a single cable, giving the network a capacity of 100 Gbps. Eventually, Internet2 hopes to transmit on 80 wavelengths"

CMP vs. SMP on Intel's Platform: Comparing Low-Level Memory Characteristics in RightMark Memory Analyzer

CMP vs. SMP on Intel's Platform: Comparing Low-Level Memory Characteristics in RightMark Memory Analyzer: "The real read and write memory bandwidth was tested in two modes � with enabled hardware prefetch, which is a normal processor mode, and with disabled hardware prefetch on the one hand"

CMP vs. SMP on Intel's Platform: Comparing Low-Level Memory Characteristics in RightMark Memory Analyzer

CMP vs. SMP on Intel's Platform: Comparing Low-Level Memory Characteristics in RightMark Memory Analyzer: "The real read and write memory bandwidth was tested in two modes � with enabled hardware prefetch, which is a normal processor mode, and with disabled hardware prefetch on the one hand"

Articles and Links

Articles and Links: "Calpont has implemented what would otherwise be the database via 'SQL on a chip' and all data is held in memory"

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

How to Get Up Right Away When Your Alarm Goes Off

How to Get Up Right Away When Your Alarm Goes Off: "you can�t trust yourself to make intelligent, conscious decisions the moment you first wake up"

APA Press Release: Groups Perform Better Than The Best Individuals At Solving Complex Problems

APA Press Release: Groups Perform Better Than The Best Individuals At Solving Complex Problems: "'We found that groups of size three, four, and five outperformed the best individuals and attribute this performance to the ability of people to work together to generate and adopt correct responses, reject erroneous responses, and effectively process information,' "

Monday, April 24, 2006

B2 Report: Sun's Hail Mary pass - Apr. 24, 2006

B2 Report: Sun's Hail Mary pass - Apr. 24, 2006: "Sun needs to cut 10,000 to 12,000 jobs � 27 percent of its workforce of 39,000 � to get its costs in line with the rest of the industry"

McNealy--an engineer's witty patron | CNET News.com

McNealy--an engineer's witty patron CNET News.com: "Scott McNealy, one of the longest-serving and best-known CEOs of Silicon Valley, announced Monday that he was stepping down as chief executive of Sun Microsystems. "

Say what? A look back at McNealy zingers | CNET News.com

Say what? A look back at McNealy zingers CNET News.com: "'Technology has the shelf life of a banana.' "

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Andy on Enterprise Software: January 2006

Andy on Enterprise Software: January 2006: "SAP MDME will prove as problematic as the original SAP MDM, which is down pushing up the daisies in a software cemetery near Walldorf. A2i was a poor choice as a platform for a general purpose MDM tool that SAP needs, and this realization will start to sink in when customers start to try it out."

Product Review: A2i xCat 4.0

Product Review: A2i xCat 4.0: "A2i comes from a background of supporting large industrial catalogs that may have hundreds of thousands of items. The xCat is a high-performance, highly scalable product.
xCat combines several functions, including a front end to a SQL database, a data mining and presentation tool, a table creation and formatting tool, media management and consolidation tools, and a catalog creation tool. It takes data from one or more sources, including SQL databases, documents stored on a server, media files stored on a server, and data presented through Web services or XML. Print, Web, and CD-ROM catalogs can be created easily. The data can be sorted by a wide variety of categories to create specialized catalogs. Graphics can be standardized for the type of catalog, and searches can be preconfigured for the end-user.
A few of xCat's tools perform their specialized functions so well that they would be noteworthy as separate products. The data mining tool quickly and easily refines databases with over 500,000 entries, narrowing a very large multivendor product database to allow users to find specific items in less than a second."

SAP - Press Release

SAP - Press Release: "Founded in 1993 and based in Los Angeles, California, A2i, Inc. develops and markets xCat�, the industry-leading platform for enterprise-wide product content management and cross-media catalog publishing. As a result of the transaction, SAP acquires an experienced team with deep domain expertise and a world-class solution with proven success in a wide range of verticals including industrial goods, manufacturing, automotive, medical and retail. True to the strategy of SAP NetWeaver as one unified platform, the A2i xCat solution will become a fully integrated part of the SAP NetWeaver stack, eliminating the need for customers to engage in technology integration projects."

Reuters Business Channel | Reuters.com

Reuters Business Channel Reuters.com: "Chief Executive Paul Otellini said in a statement that 'PC growth rates have moderated over the course of the past few quarters"

Hmm, what lies are Non-Dr. Paul telling today...

PC Shipments Rise 13 Pct. in 1st Quarter - Yahoo! News

PC Shipments Rise 13 Pct. in 1st Quarter - Yahoo! News: "Computer shipments rose at a faster-than-expected 13 percent worldwide in the first quarte"

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Microsoft extends Visual Studio handout program | The Register

Microsoft extends Visual Studio handout program The Register: "The worldwide population of non-professional developers is estimated to number some 18m individuals, compared to 14m professional programmers."

Why Your Employees Are Losing Motivation : HBS Working Knowledge

Why Your Employees Are Losing Motivation : HBS Working Knowledge: "Most companies have it all wrong. They don't have to motivate their employees. They have to stop demotivating them."

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

SAP steals BEA's thunder | The Register

SAP steals BEA's thunder | The Register: "'increasingly common' for customers and ISV partners of BEA to dump WebLogic and adopt SAP's NetWeaver Application Server - previously known as In-Q-My."

SAP launches customer-partner program | CNET News.com

SAP launches customer-partner program CNET News.com: "That was reiterated by Zia Yusuf, the recently named executive vice president of the NetWeaver platform ecosystem. "

Interview: Andrey Savochkin

Interview: Andrey Savochkin: "Andrey Savochkin leads the development of the kernel portion of OpenVZ, an operating system-level server virtualization solution. In this interview, "

Monday, April 17, 2006

Bouyancy Control

Bouyancy Control: "Ideally, inflating the BC should only be necessary on the surface (for flotation), for wet suit compensation, and for emergency ascents. However, because wet suit compression will alter buoyancy at depth, it is often necessary to add a little air to compensate and re-establish neutral buoyancy. From that point of the dive, buoyancy should be controlled mainly by breathing. (It will also be necessary at the end of the dive to dump out any air added to the BC, in order to prevent too rapid an ascent.)"

Bouyancy Control

Bouyancy Control: "A typical 80 cu. ft. aluminum scuba tank filled with air is negatively buoyant by 2-3 lbs., but when near empty the same tank will be 2-3 lbs. positively buoyant. (80 cu. ft. or air weighs about 6 lbs.)"

Scuba Diving Pattaya - Dive Thailand | PADI Courses | PADI Open Water Course Details

Scuba Diving Pattaya - Dive Thailand PADI Courses PADI Open Water Course Details: "Open Water Dive One "

Practical Buoyancy Control

Practical Buoyancy Control

Torpedo Tours

Torpedo Tours: "Torpedo Tours
Hear the latest about what's happening in the ocean off the Kona Coast of the Island of Hawaii"

JDL : Referral Certifications

JDL : Referral Certifications: Make sure you bring your completed paperwork and medical forms when you come to Kona.
COSTS: $275.00 plus tax

Completed Referral Paperwork
Completed Medical Form (Dr's signature required in some cases) For a copy of the Medical Form e-mail or call us with your fax number or click here for the pdffile to print
Log Book
2 passport size photos
Own mask, snorkel, fins and timing device(Rental gear is available

Customize a New XP Installation

Customize a New XP Installation: "How can I customize a new Windows XP installation?"

Disk Cleanup Tool Stops Responding While Compressing Old Files

Disk Cleanup Tool Stops Responding While Compressing Old Files: "Locate, and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches"

Friday, April 14, 2006

The lies told by corporations who practice enterprise architecture

The lies told by corporations who practice enterprise architecture: " If you are interested in enterprise architecture, you would want to accomplish the following:



Facilitate change management by linking strategic requirements to systems that support them and by linking the business architecture to application architecture

Enable strategic information to be consistently and accurately derived from operational data

Promote data sharing in hopes of reducing data redundancy and maintenance costs

Improve productivity through component and service development, management and reuse

Reduce software development cycle time by providing tools, models, catalogs of services, etc

Rigorous and standardized way to evaluate commercial products and services

Construct the extended enterprise where customers and business partners interact electronically

Unify regulatory and legal compliance efforts

Gain discipline around common IT security practices"

� Your pedestal is showing : Pensieri di un lunatico minore

� Your pedestal is showing : Pensieri di un lunatico minore: "Not all problems are knowable. Until you accept this perspective, you will continually pursue the perfect to the deficit of the good. I have watched hundreds of projects implode with the obsession over �scaling� and other enterprisey distractions when often they were irrelevant to the task at hand. Something today that works will always be better than a gold-plated Cadillac tomorrow."

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Journal of Pervasive 64bit Computing

Journal of Pervasive 64bit Computing: "CEO Hector Ruiz was asked about Intel's next generation product line, Dr. Ruiz responded: 'It will be interesting to see the things we are going to do later, which again will continue to force them (Intel) to react and figure out what to do next... We don't intend to in any way, shape or form, give any leeway in our leadership relative in product and technology'.

On a similar question, Dirk Meyer, former lead architect of DEC Alpha, AMD Athlon, AMD Opteron, now AMD's President & COO, stated that AMD will introduce 'high capability' products later this year.

AMD plans to reveal more of its technology roadmap on June 1, 2006."

IDC - Press Release

IDC - Press Release: "The rapid transformation of the x86 marketplace into a segment that is 64-bit enabled continued with x86-64 based systems accounting for 78.8% of all x86 server spending, with factory revenue for x86-64 systems more than doubling year over year.
'The number of AMD and Intel-powered dual core systems each grew by more than double on a quarter-over-quarter basis,' said Jed Scaramella, research analyst, Worldwide Server research. 'Given customers' intense focus on performance as well as power, heat, and cooling issues in their datacenters, the move to incorporating dual core processors is a natural move as users look to lower costs and increase computing capacity.' "

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Monday, April 10, 2006

IBM says Kilocore technology will outrun today's mobile processors | TG Daily

IBM says Kilocore technology will outrun today's mobile processors TG Daily: " Kilocore1025 at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose. The blueprint showed a central PowerPC that was complemented by 1024 (that is one thousand and twenty four) 8-bit 'processing elements' on a single and - according to IBM - low-cost die."

SEOmoz's Web 2.0 Awards

SEOmoz's Web 2.0 Awards

The Eggcorn Database

The Eggcorn Database: "This site collects unusual spellings of a particular kind, which have come to be called eggcorns. Typical examples include free reign (instead of free rein) or hone in on (instead of home in on), and many more or less common reshapings of words and expressions: a word or part of a word is semantically reanalyzed, and the spelling reflects the new interpretation. "

Science of Pickles: What Is Pickling?

Science of Pickles: What Is Pickling?: "Pickling is a global culinary art. If you were to go on an international food-tasting tour, you�d find pickled foods just about everywhere. You might sample kosher cucumber pickles in New York City, chutneys in India, kimchi in Korea, miso pickles in Japan, salted duck eggs in China, pickled herring in Scandinavia, corned beef in Ireland, salsas in Mexico, pickled pigs feet in the southern United States, and much, much more. "

BetaNews | Microsoft Makes Gains in Server Share

BetaNews Microsoft Makes Gains in Server Share: "With more than 80 million Web sites on the Internet, Microsoft now claims a 25.2 percent share, up 4.7 percent from March. Apache still leads by a wide margin, however it was down close to 6 percent to 62.7 percent. Sun remained a distant third, down slightly to 2.36 percent."

10 Stupid Mistakes Made by the Newly Self-Employed

10 Stupid Mistakes Made by the Newly Self-Employed: "Paper contracts are still important, especially when dealing with larger corporations where people come and go. But don�t make the mistake of assuming that the contract is the deal. The contract is only the deal�s shadow. The real deal is the relationship"

Wait until June before you buy your Macinteltosh

Wait until June before you buy your Macinteltosh: "Macinteltosh ": The next one -- Itanic etc.

The Blogging of the President

The Blogging of the President: "Median 2005 pay among chief executives running most of the nation's 100 largest companies soared 25% to $17.9 million, dwarfing the 3.1% average gain by typical American workers, USA TODAY found in its annual analysis of CEO pay."

Sunday, April 09, 2006

CPI analysis on POWER5, Part 1: Tools for measuring performance

CPI analysis on POWER5, Part 1: Tools for measuring performance: "Cycles per instruction (CPI) is the measurement for analyzing the performance of a workload."

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Introduction: Why Lisp?

Introduction: Why Lisp?: "If you think the greatest pleasure in programming comes from getting a lot done with code that simply and clearly expresses your intention, then programming in Common Lisp is likely to be about the most fun you can have with a computer. You'll get more done, faster, using it than you would using pretty much any other language"

Neowin.net - IBM offering $20,000 for Exchange users to switch - IBM offering $20,000 for Exchange users to switch

Neowin.net - IBM offering $20,000 for Exchange users to switch - IBM offering $20,000 for Exchange users to switch: "IBM is offering $20,000 to customers to switch from Microsoft Exchange to IBM's Lotus Notes and Domino platform, part of a new 'Migrate to the Penguin' program, which is part of IBM's 'Move2Lotus' program."

OK, I'll switch. Send me my 20K now...

Red Hat, Intel plan 17 development centers | CNET News.com

Red Hat, Intel plan 17 development centers CNET News.com: "Intel and Red Hat announced plans Tuesday to open more than a dozen centers where customers and business partners can make sure their software works well on Linux and the latest hardware. "

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

My Way News - Apple Unveils Software to Run Windows XP

My Way News - Apple Unveils Software to Run Windows XP: "Shares in Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) surged Wednesday after the computer maker unveiled software to help owners of its new Intel-based Macs run not only its own operating system but also Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s rival Windows XP system."

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Stelath Bomber in Google Maps - Plant 42 in Palmdale, California

Google Local - Plant 42 in Palmdale, California

Bad hardware

Bad hardware: "In 2008, global market for PC will be some 300M pieces. Currently, Intel produces some 200M and AMD close to 50M each year. My question is the following: Can Intel double its sell until 2008?. No, of course not even their CEO would fly cannon ball at each IDF. Except people will buy more than one PC for their home. Can AMD double its sell until 2008? Yes, it can.
After second source fab at Chartered and two existing fabs, AMD could produce and sell 100M PC processors alone in 2008. So what? Intel share of PC market will fell from current 80% to some 65% in the year 2008 and AMD's could rise to 33%"

Below Expectation rating for Paul Otellini of Intel

Intel's latest annual SEC filing http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/50863/000095013406005369/f12968prpre14a.htm#113 provides a big surprise in the summary of total compentation for Intel corporate officers:
Paul Otellini (PSO) gets a 79% increase in total compensation and 35% increase in salary!!

Wow, he must be doing really well, and must have gotten a great rating (Outstanding, Exceeds Expectations, ?) in whatever counts as the Focal process for upper-managment at Intel. (After all if the focal process works to weed out undesirables in the common ranks, we better be using it on our executive staff too, right?)

But a 35% increase in salary is very large. You can't even that with an Outstanding rating, so he must have gotten a really good target market adjustment!

Lets examine this a bit.

What about a target market adjustment? In 2004, the average CEO of a major company received $9.84 million in total compensation http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/paywatch/. Ok, Intel likes to pay near the average, so this makes sense, Intel needs to get PSO a pay bump up a bit so he doesn't feel bad when he talks to his fellow CEOs on the golf course.

But Intel does not care about pay with respect to market average, in general, but only pay at companies it compete with. After all, Paul can't really go off and run any old company, just ones in market segments he has some knowledge about. So, we should look at averages over Intel competitors, not over the whole market.

Whose is Intel's chief competitor? AMD of course. So, what about AMD? Dr. Hector de J Ruiz has been CEO of Advanced Micro (AMD) for 3 years, Total Compensation in 2004: $2.3 mil

So AMD has an experienced CEO (3 years vs. Otellini 9+ months) who is expanding his company's market segment share, with products that beat Intel products in most common performance benchmarks. And that CEO is making far less than Otellini. Gee, maybe Intel should hire Ruiz! They could offer to double Dr. Ruiz's total compenstation & it would still cost Intel less than keeping Non-Dr. Paul.

Hmm, lets examine Paul's Exceeds Expectations message a bit. First what are his recent responsibilities for Intel?

1998-2002: VP of Intel Archiecture Group
Jan 2002: Promoted from VP in charge of the microprocessor division to President and COO
May 2005: Took charge of Intel as CEO

How has Intel done while Non-Dr. Paul was in charge? First, what about that basic indicator, stock price? Lets see:

Today: $19.64
May 2005: $25.93
Jan 2002: $34.48

Looks like a steady drop since PSO got more and more responsibility.

So what did Intel get while non-Dr. Paul was head of architecture group? Itanium, or as the industry knows it , Itanic, an architecture failing to gain any significant market share while Intel continues to pour money into it. Intel behind AMD to a x86 product with 64bits, Intel behind on launch of Dual Core processors, Intel behind AMD to on-chip memory contollers (and under our current roadmap, continuing to be behind on this key technology initiative by years, something non-Dr. Paul is still too uneducated enough to fix, even with his increased power at CEO).

And what do we get once he becomes CEO:

Jan 18th 2006: Intel executives said Tuesday that they expected to lose about one point of market share to AMD during a disappointing fourth quarter. http://news.com.com/AMD+market+share+soars+in+PCs/2100-1003_3-6028349.html

Otellini's nine-month tenure as CEO has been marked by missed projections, product delays and customer defections. Intel will probably slice prices by as much as 50 percent to regain sales, according to analysts. (http://worcester.pressdemocrat.com/businesswire/html/BusinessAtNoon20060303.html)

Hmm, clearly a Below Expectation message, certianly not an Exceeds Expectation message.

So, how does Intel justify the raises to PSO when clearly he is BE or IR and his total compenstation already exceeds the compenstation of the CEO of Intel's chief competitior?

AMD Bulks Up

AMD Bulks Up: " Intel began shipping microprocessors with 65-nanometer circuitry at the end of 2005, something AMD says it will begin doing at Fab 36 later this year."

Former Oracle president: Software landscape has changed - Yahoo! News

Former Oracle president: Software landscape has changed - Yahoo! News: "Currently, 85 percent of revenues are concentrated among 15 companies, with three companies making most of the profit. And one company, Microsoft, generates most of that profit"

AMD producing 65 nano chips at Fab 36

AMD producing 65 nano chips at Fab 36: "on track to begin shipping 65 nanometre CPUs in the second half of 2006, with the whole fab converted to the shrink by the middle of next year"

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Eugene's Blog - What programmers do

Eugene's Blog - What programmers do: "Those guys forgot that they deal with complex systems. Do not spend your time polishing a detailed design � it will be wrong anyway. No, I don't believe in 'do not design' mantra of some gurus. If you go to a battle, you have to have a strategy, but you have to have some smarts and experience to go tactical when you started coding."

Saturday, April 01, 2006

MilkenInstitute.Org > Publications > Best Performing Cities 2005: Where America's Jobs Are Created and Sustained

MilkenInstitute.Org > Publications > Best Performing Cities 2005: Where America's Jobs Are Created and Sustained: "The 2005 winners have similar characteristics: strong and growing service sectors, a robust recovery in tourism, growing populations and an increase in the number of retirees. As evidence, six metros in the top 20 come from the Southwest, including three in California (Riverside, Santa Barbara and Santa Ana) and two in Arizona (Tucson and Phoenix). The other is Las Vegas. "

IGDA - Articles - Why Crunch Mode Doesn't Work: 6 Lessons

IGDA - Articles - Why Crunch Mode Doesn't Work: 6 Lessons: "It comes down to productivity. Workers can maintain productivity more or less indefinitely at 40 hours per five-day workweek. When working longer hours, productivity begins to decline."

Build Your Own Web 2.0 Application Using Fluff and Hot Air [Other Promotions]

Build Your Own Web 2.0 Application Using Fluff and Hot Air [Other Promotions]: "Be Agile in your Company Vision
In fact, there's no need to even have a vision. If you've executed your promotion strategy correctly, people won't care what your application does -- they'll be so dazzled by the flashy site and use of cutting-edge technologies that they'll forget that they've never actually used the thing.
Not having a vision makes you more adaptable. If you want to take your application in a different direction, you'll find it much easier to do so if you haven't committed yourself to any particular path."

Sandals and ponytail set cramp Linux: ZDNet Australia: News: Software

Sandals and ponytail set cramp Linux: ZDNet Australia: News: Software: "The lax dress code of the open-source community is one of the reasons behind the software's slow uptake in commercial environments"