Throughout the computer industry companies of all sizes, from garage startups to Microsoft, are bracing for the possibility that their future will be in the hands of people like Sean Whetstone! The computers that Whetstone brought in for his employees aren't the traditional metal boxes that sit next to desks or under monitors. They are "virtual" computers. Each employee has a keyboard and a screen, but the processors making the calculations and deciding what color goes in each pixel are far away, inside a big computer at Reed's main data center in London.
Switching to virtualized desktops is often expensive at the outset because the networking software is complicated. But the maintenance costs are a lot lower. When something goes wrong--say, a computer has a software error--Whetstone doesn't need to send someone from tech support out to the employee's desk. Instead, a technician simply logs on to the main computer and tinkers with the program running there. Whetstone expects to save 20%, or $2.4 million a year, off his technology expenses.
Next year will likely be the start of a large upgrade for PCs as big companies switch to Windows 7, Microsoft's latest operating system. With about halfbillion workplace computers around the world and $3 trillion spent each year on corporate computing, that ordinarily would mean a lot of purchase orders for big, brawny new hardware.
Desktop virtualization, however, threatens to break that pattern. Instead of spending $1,000 for a system with the latest Intel chip and a fast hard drive, a company might get by with a virtualized PC running on a screen, keyboard and network connector costing in all only $150. The corporate customer gets the promise of lower support costs plus the security and simplicity that come from having data in one carefully guarded place.
A burgeoning virtualization industry is pushing the technology as the next big thing in computing. Large tech companies like Microsoft and Cisco are bracing themselves in case it turns out to be just that. "In the entire computer industry, no topic is of greater interest right now than desktop virtualization," says Mark Margevicius, analyst at research firm Gartner. "Everyone, everywhere is asking about it."
Desktop virtualization is Act II of a tech shift that began earlier in the decade involving the servers that labor behind the scenes, running databases and hosting Web sites. While crucial to a company's operations, servers tend to be busy only in spurts, spending much of their time sitting idle. At the start of the decade, when a new breed of software made it possible to make one piece of hardware act as if it were several servers, companies embarked on a wave of server consolidation. By next year, estimates Gartner, half of all serverbased computing will be on virtual machines.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Scientist infects himself with computer virus!
London, May 27 (ANI): Dr Mark Gasson, a cybernetics expert at the University of Reading, has become the first human to be infected with a computer virus. Gasson has had a computer chip implanted in his hand which is programmed to open security doors to his lab. The chip also ensures that only he is able to switch on and use his mobile phone.
But the British boffin deliberately infected the chip with a computer virus. It was then automatically transmitted to affect to the lab security system. "Once the system is infected, anybody accessing the building with their passcard would be infected too," he told Sky News. The virus on his chip is benign. But malicious computer code could give criminals access to a building.
But the British boffin deliberately infected the chip with a computer virus. It was then automatically transmitted to affect to the lab security system. "Once the system is infected, anybody accessing the building with their passcard would be infected too," he told Sky News. The virus on his chip is benign. But malicious computer code could give criminals access to a building.
On shoes that may harvest pounding of walking to power mobile phones-
Tue, Feb 16, 2010
Washington, Feb 16 (ANI): Princeton University engineers have developed power-generating rubber films that could be used to harness natural body movements such as breathing and walking to power pacemakers, mobile phones and other electronic devices. The material, composed of ceramic nanoribbons embedded onto silicone rubber sheets, generates electricity when flexed and converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. Shoes made of the material can harvest the pounding of walking and running to power mobile electrical devices.
Placed against the lungs, sheets of the material could use breathing motions to power pacemakers, obviating the current need for surgical replacement of the batteries which power the devices. The Princeton team is the first to successfully combine silicone and nanoribbons of lead zirconate titanate (PZT), a ceramic material that is piezoelectric, meaning it generates an electrical voltage when pressure is applied to it. Of all piezoelectric materials, PZT is the most efficient, able to convert 80 percent of the mechanical energy applied to it into electrical energy.
"PZT is 100 times more efficient than quartz, another piezoelectric material. You don't generate that much power from walking or breathing, so you want to harness it as efficiently as possible," said Michael McAlpine, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, at Princeton, who led the project.
The researchers first fabricated PZT nanoribbons - strips so narrow that 100 fit side-by-side in a space of a millimeter. In a separate process, they embedded these ribbons into clear sheets of silicone rubber, creating what they call "piezo-rubber chips." Because the silicone is biocompatible, it is already used for cosmetic implants and medical devices.
Washington, Feb 16 (ANI): Princeton University engineers have developed power-generating rubber films that could be used to harness natural body movements such as breathing and walking to power pacemakers, mobile phones and other electronic devices. The material, composed of ceramic nanoribbons embedded onto silicone rubber sheets, generates electricity when flexed and converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. Shoes made of the material can harvest the pounding of walking and running to power mobile electrical devices.
Placed against the lungs, sheets of the material could use breathing motions to power pacemakers, obviating the current need for surgical replacement of the batteries which power the devices. The Princeton team is the first to successfully combine silicone and nanoribbons of lead zirconate titanate (PZT), a ceramic material that is piezoelectric, meaning it generates an electrical voltage when pressure is applied to it. Of all piezoelectric materials, PZT is the most efficient, able to convert 80 percent of the mechanical energy applied to it into electrical energy.
"PZT is 100 times more efficient than quartz, another piezoelectric material. You don't generate that much power from walking or breathing, so you want to harness it as efficiently as possible," said Michael McAlpine, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, at Princeton, who led the project.
The researchers first fabricated PZT nanoribbons - strips so narrow that 100 fit side-by-side in a space of a millimeter. In a separate process, they embedded these ribbons into clear sheets of silicone rubber, creating what they call "piezo-rubber chips." Because the silicone is biocompatible, it is already used for cosmetic implants and medical devices.
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