The Web site of Amazon.com Inc., the largest online retailer, went down at 10:37 a.m. Pacific time, according to a post on an Amazon discussion forum for sellers.
About 1:30 p.m. Pacific time, the site seemed to be slowly coming back online.
The post entitled "Amazon Un-Planned Event (06/06)" says, "We are currently investigating an issue that has impacted the availability of the Amazon.com website. Engineers are actively engaged in resolving this issue and we will provide an update once the issue is resolved. We appreciate your patience during this time."
Amazon did not respond to requests for comment.
Attempts to log on to Amazon.com were initially met with this error message: "We're sorry! An error occurred when we tried to process your request. Rest assured, we're already working on the problem and expect to resolve it shortly. If you were trying to make a purchase, please check Your Account to confirm that the order was placed. We apologize for the inconvenience."
During that time, the home page appeared to be available using Amazon's secure Web site but the links on that page weren't working.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
HP Shakes up Research Labs, Places 'big Bets'
Hewlett-Packard is forging ahead with a revamp of its research labs that it hopes will put cutting-edge developments into its products much faster.
The shake-up, publicly announced in March, comes after an analysis that found its 23 research labs were spread too thin, tackling some 150 projects simultaneously. Now, the labs will only take on 20 to 30 "big bets," technologies that HP believes will meet the next wave of business IT demands, said Prith Banerjee, director of HP Labs.
HP threw open the doors to its Bristol, England, lab on Thursday, home to 100 researchers working on projects such as plastic replacements for the glass in flat-panel displays and the semantic Web, a way of labeling information that enables better searching on the Internet.
HP is one of the few companies that still funds extensive research, said Banerjee who quit as dean of the college of engineering at the University of Illinois in Chicago to take the HP job last August. The old way the lab was organized "made sense for its time" but didn't enable research to be incorporated quickly into products, he said.
Martin Sadler, director of the systems security lab and an 18-year labs veteran, said "we kind of drifted a little bit."
As few as two people could propose and approve a research project, Banerjee said. That's changed. Now researchers draw up 25-page proposals that are floated before an internal review board composed of technologists, lab directors and a new group -- marketing and product development experts.
It marks a closer link with the business side, one that Banerjee said is similar to how venture capital funds decide what technologies to invest in. "Our gut tells use it's the right approach," he said. "You have to be sure you don't make the wrong bets."
The new strategy for HP's labs hasn't resulted in higher turnover in an environment where competitors such as Microsoft, Google and IBM vie for talented researchers and engineers. "If people are grumpy, it's over the little things, nothing substantive," Sadler said.
The selected projects are centered around five themes: how to manage an ever-increasing amount of data; Web-based services; digitizing analog content; developing "intelligent" infrastructure that requires less human management; and sustainability, which looks at the environmental impact of IT.
HP lab directors, which get about $150 million of the company's $3.6 billion research and development budget, won't reveal exactly what projects they're working on. But they will describe the IT landscape that has made those areas a priority.
HP's newest lab, in St. Petersburg, Russia, is focused on managing information, which can encompass data mining, how to label information properly and even how it should be presented to the end user. The lab was sited in St. Petersburg due to the strong mathematics research programs in the city's universities, said its director, Vladimir Polutin, who was in Bristol.
Most stored information is unstructured data that's not easily searchable, he said. His lab is looking at how data models, or ontologies, can be created into order to connect disparate but related information on servers. Another focus is developing technology that can create timelines out of data, which could be of particular importance for products related to compliance issues.
"Who knew what when," is not an easy issue for current information management systems, Polutin said.
On the sustainability theme, HP is building a toolkit and composing methodologies that enterprises can use to calculate the carbon footprint of complex chains of technology, said Chandrakant Patel, director of the sustainable IT ecosystem lab. For example, it would help a telecom calculate emissions based on different choices of infrastructure, such as switches.
"Hopefully, we will be forced to pick the product with the lowest carbon footprint," Banjeree said.
The "intelligent infrastructure" work is the domain of Sadler's lab. Among the topics researchers are working on are how to make infrastructure easier to install and configure with fewer people. Many IT components, such as firewalls, databases and middleware, each require a specialist to set up. Without that requirement, IT costs could be driven down, Sadler said.
HP has also started an initiative to do more with research that doesn't make it into products. The Technology Transfer Office looks at product development and licenses intellectual property to third parties. The office will also reach out to venture capital groups.
The shake-up, publicly announced in March, comes after an analysis that found its 23 research labs were spread too thin, tackling some 150 projects simultaneously. Now, the labs will only take on 20 to 30 "big bets," technologies that HP believes will meet the next wave of business IT demands, said Prith Banerjee, director of HP Labs.
HP threw open the doors to its Bristol, England, lab on Thursday, home to 100 researchers working on projects such as plastic replacements for the glass in flat-panel displays and the semantic Web, a way of labeling information that enables better searching on the Internet.
HP is one of the few companies that still funds extensive research, said Banerjee who quit as dean of the college of engineering at the University of Illinois in Chicago to take the HP job last August. The old way the lab was organized "made sense for its time" but didn't enable research to be incorporated quickly into products, he said.
Martin Sadler, director of the systems security lab and an 18-year labs veteran, said "we kind of drifted a little bit."
As few as two people could propose and approve a research project, Banerjee said. That's changed. Now researchers draw up 25-page proposals that are floated before an internal review board composed of technologists, lab directors and a new group -- marketing and product development experts.
It marks a closer link with the business side, one that Banerjee said is similar to how venture capital funds decide what technologies to invest in. "Our gut tells use it's the right approach," he said. "You have to be sure you don't make the wrong bets."
The new strategy for HP's labs hasn't resulted in higher turnover in an environment where competitors such as Microsoft, Google and IBM vie for talented researchers and engineers. "If people are grumpy, it's over the little things, nothing substantive," Sadler said.
The selected projects are centered around five themes: how to manage an ever-increasing amount of data; Web-based services; digitizing analog content; developing "intelligent" infrastructure that requires less human management; and sustainability, which looks at the environmental impact of IT.
HP lab directors, which get about $150 million of the company's $3.6 billion research and development budget, won't reveal exactly what projects they're working on. But they will describe the IT landscape that has made those areas a priority.
HP's newest lab, in St. Petersburg, Russia, is focused on managing information, which can encompass data mining, how to label information properly and even how it should be presented to the end user. The lab was sited in St. Petersburg due to the strong mathematics research programs in the city's universities, said its director, Vladimir Polutin, who was in Bristol.
Most stored information is unstructured data that's not easily searchable, he said. His lab is looking at how data models, or ontologies, can be created into order to connect disparate but related information on servers. Another focus is developing technology that can create timelines out of data, which could be of particular importance for products related to compliance issues.
"Who knew what when," is not an easy issue for current information management systems, Polutin said.
On the sustainability theme, HP is building a toolkit and composing methodologies that enterprises can use to calculate the carbon footprint of complex chains of technology, said Chandrakant Patel, director of the sustainable IT ecosystem lab. For example, it would help a telecom calculate emissions based on different choices of infrastructure, such as switches.
"Hopefully, we will be forced to pick the product with the lowest carbon footprint," Banjeree said.
The "intelligent infrastructure" work is the domain of Sadler's lab. Among the topics researchers are working on are how to make infrastructure easier to install and configure with fewer people. Many IT components, such as firewalls, databases and middleware, each require a specialist to set up. Without that requirement, IT costs could be driven down, Sadler said.
HP has also started an initiative to do more with research that doesn't make it into products. The Technology Transfer Office looks at product development and licenses intellectual property to third parties. The office will also reach out to venture capital groups.
Speck has announced a full portfolio of cases specifically designed for the iPhone 3G. Fashioned by Speck’s top designers and highlighting the compan
Speck has announced a full portfolio of cases specifically designed for the iPhone 3G. Fashioned by Speck’s top designers and highlighting the company’s trademark style, the first two products are the ToughSkin and the SeeThru. Images of the new cases can be found at http://www.speckproducts.com/content/iphone-downloads “We’re thrilled to release our new designs simultaneously with the iPhone 3G,” said Irene Baran, CEO of Speck Products. “Our focus is simple – create cases that offer personality and durability for Apple’s elegant new iPhone.” ToughSkin protects your iPhone from all but the roughest of handling. The rugged rubberized case sports a distinct, textured pattern that protects the iPhone from accidental bumps and drops without adding bulk or limiting access to buttons and controls. The bottom of the case flips back for easy docking and the removable belt clip offers the freedom to carry your iPhone however you please. ToughSkin will be available in July for $34.95.
How Apple is killing the unlocked iPhone market
During Apple’s introduction of the iPhone 3G, CEO Steve Jobs quipped that the company had debuted the iPhone in six countries, but knew the device was being used in “many more,” drawing subdued laughter from his keynote audience. Jobs was referring to the massive, hitherto unstoppable market for iPhone unlocking — a proces that allows the devices to be run on unauthorized wireless carriers. With the debut of the iPhone 3G, however, Apple is using multi-pronged leverage to sharply mitigate the utility of and access to unlocked devices from this point forward. Apple’s relationship with the unlocking community has been ambivalent. Unlockers cost Apple millions in subscription-derived revenue that the company shares with authorized carriers, but have also played a vital part in growing the iPhone market. Owners of unlocked, first-generation iPhones represented the epitome of early adoption — customers who try current technology ahead of the wave, influencing buying decisions in their peers and stoking demand ahead of Apple’s official entry into a given market. They were, collectively, an international beacon of sorts, offering Apple market assessment and revenue with no associated marketing or support costs. Both Apple COO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer have acknowledged this benefit, even though each “locked” first-generation iPhone brought Apple somewhere between $288 - $432 in monthly subscriber fees from the worldwide mobile carriers with which Apple partners. The unlock market also proved lucrative for grey-market entrepreneurs who bought dozens of iPhones to resell as carrier-agnostic in international markets. With the iPhone 3G, however, Apple has transitioned its partnership model to a more traditional format: wireless companies pay an up-front subsidy to Apple, allowing iPhones to be sold at a discounted rate, and eschew the monthly stipend, instead keeping the entire monthly subscriber yield to themselves. This arrangement results in what is presumably a smaller profit for Apple on each iPhone (the company previously charged full price for each unit in addition to reaping the monthly stipend) and requires an up-front financial commitment from wireless carriers, but will also allow deeper market penetration because of the reduced price point. The iPhone 3G will start at $199, compared with $399 for the first-generation phone. The new carrier model has also forced a different method of acquisition for customers, who must now activate iPhones at the time of purchase rather than at their leisure through iTunes as with the first-generation devices. This, in theory, means that would-be unlockers will have a much tougher time getting their hands on contract-free devices to unlock. In the case of first-generation phones, Apple used a technical tack to thwart unlockers. Each successive firmware revision for the devices included revisions that undid or nullified extant unlock methods. The hacker community dutifully responded, however, in some cases unlocking new firmware revisions before Apple had a chance to release the updates to the general public. Eventually the unlock process was refined to a single-click mechanism that worked with all iPhone firmware revisions. In the case of the iPhone 3G, the hurdles for unlockers are of a wholly different nature. In addition to the aforementioned contractual roadblock, unlockers face more serious foes: supply and demand. Apple plans to make the iPhone 3G available in over 70 countries in the next few months, largely eliminating the need for unlocked devices in those markets. While some users will undoubtedly still desire unlocked devices for their ability to utilize different carriers in different countries at reduced voice and data expense, the insatiable demand for contract-free phones will be no more. There’s another reason unlocked iPhone 3Gs will be prove less desirable, at least in the US. T-Mobile, which has seen a flood of unlocked, first-generation iPhones move to its network, uses a one-of-a-kind 3G spectrum that (upon initial analysis) will not be compatible with the iPhone 3G. That means an iPhone 3G might be able to work on T-Mobile’s slower data networks but not take advantage of the faster data rates afforded by other carriers. “It’s a cat-and-mouse game,” Jobs said last year, referring to the iPhone unlock market. “We try to stay ahead. People will try to break in, and it’s our job to stop them breaking in.” It seems certain that hackers will immediately begin work on methods of overcoming the iPhone 3G’s technical locking mechanisms. Apple’s carefully orchestrated market pressure, however, may make their efforts for naught.
How to Recover Deleted Files with Free Software
Ack! The computer ate my term paper! We've all been there at some point. You delete an important file, somehow it skips your Recycle Bin altogether, and for all practical purposes, it's disappeared into the ether. But before you hit the big red panic button, there's a very good chance that your file is still alive and kicking somewhere on your hard drive—you just need to know how to find it. With the right tools, finding and recovering that deleted file can be as simple as a few clicks of your mouse.
Part I: The Overview
Ok, so you've lost an important file. Don't panic. Take a breath, and let's see if we can find it. Before you go into full-on file recovery mode, make sure you double-check the folder you had saved it in and the Recycle Bin or Trash. Still nothing?
1. Stop What You're Doing
When your operating system deletes a file, all it really does is mark the space on your hard drive that your file occupies as free space. It's still there, but your computer is now perfectly happy to write new data on top of it—at which point the file recovery process becomes a lot more difficult. That means you should do as little computing as possible until you find the file you're looking for, since every time you save a new file—every time your computer writes information to your hard drive—your chances of recovering the file go down. Continue Reading Here.
Part I: The Overview
Ok, so you've lost an important file. Don't panic. Take a breath, and let's see if we can find it. Before you go into full-on file recovery mode, make sure you double-check the folder you had saved it in and the Recycle Bin or Trash. Still nothing?
1. Stop What You're Doing
When your operating system deletes a file, all it really does is mark the space on your hard drive that your file occupies as free space. It's still there, but your computer is now perfectly happy to write new data on top of it—at which point the file recovery process becomes a lot more difficult. That means you should do as little computing as possible until you find the file you're looking for, since every time you save a new file—every time your computer writes information to your hard drive—your chances of recovering the file go down. Continue Reading Here.
With iPhone 3G, Next Cellphone Battle Will Be Apple vs. Google
Sure, Apple's next-gen iPhone still looks pretty, and the iClones will follow from the old guard of handsdet makers. But even if Steve Jobs is playing nice with the cellphone market, PM's resident geek says it's the software, stupid. Here's how Google Android could really take down iPhone 2.0 in the upcoming code wars. Apple didn't reinvent the phone. But it came close with the iPhone, creating an entirely new breed of mobile device—and promptly selling 6 million of them. In other words, the first iPhone wasn't the Sputnik of cellphones, but it may have been the Apollo 11.
A year later, as Apple launches its second-generation iPhone, the competition must realize that time is running out. If someone doesn't build a comparable touchscreen phone—right now—then the iPhone could become more than a historic success story. It will be unassailable, and the concept of an iPhone killer will become as mythical and useless as that other holy grail of consumer electronics: the iPod killer.
While companies like Samsung, LG and Motorola are used to fighting it out over handset design and built-in features, dutifully serving a range of niche customers while stumbling toward the next RAZR, beating the iPhone will mean excelling in an arena where phone makers have generally failed: software.
A year later, as Apple launches its second-generation iPhone, the competition must realize that time is running out. If someone doesn't build a comparable touchscreen phone—right now—then the iPhone could become more than a historic success story. It will be unassailable, and the concept of an iPhone killer will become as mythical and useless as that other holy grail of consumer electronics: the iPod killer.
While companies like Samsung, LG and Motorola are used to fighting it out over handset design and built-in features, dutifully serving a range of niche customers while stumbling toward the next RAZR, beating the iPhone will mean excelling in an arena where phone makers have generally failed: software.
Magnetic RAM is Faster, Uses 90% Less Power
IBM and Toshiba are looking toward the next generation of RAM. They want it to be faster, of course, but they're also hoping to score two of the biggest unobtained prizes in RAM:
Instant Boot
Unpowered Storage
Instant boots save energy in several indirect ways. It promotes powering down computers at night, as the powering up becomes less inconvenient. Unpowered storage decreases power use dramatically because the RAM can continue to hold data without having to constantly pull from the power supply. Toshiba estimates that the MRAM will use about 10% less energy per megabyte than today's RAM.
Unfortunately, MRAM currently has problems operating at a wide variety of temperatures. The inside of a computer has a pretty wide temperature range. Toshiba says that they have overcome this problem, and they expect MRAM to take over the market by 2015.
Instant Boot
Unpowered Storage
Instant boots save energy in several indirect ways. It promotes powering down computers at night, as the powering up becomes less inconvenient. Unpowered storage decreases power use dramatically because the RAM can continue to hold data without having to constantly pull from the power supply. Toshiba estimates that the MRAM will use about 10% less energy per megabyte than today's RAM.
Unfortunately, MRAM currently has problems operating at a wide variety of temperatures. The inside of a computer has a pretty wide temperature range. Toshiba says that they have overcome this problem, and they expect MRAM to take over the market by 2015.
Microsoft Site Leak Hints at 2009 Release for Office 14
A leak on a Microsoft Web site referring to a product in the Office suite hints at a 2009 release for the next version of the productivity suite, currently code-named Office 14.
On Monday, Microsoft revealed a podcasting kit for Office SharePoint Server, the portal product in the Office family, with an accompanying question-and-answer article on its Codeplex site for developers that includes information about the product.
The site made reference to Office SharePoint 2009, which hints that the next version of Office will be named Office 2009 and released that year. Microsoft has not officially revealed a timeline for Office 14.
The site no longer has a reference to SharePoint 2009, however. Once the reference was reported on, Microsoft changed the wording on the site to erase it. In addition, the author of the post tacked on a note to the blogger who first reported about the information, saying the Q&A was a transcript from a conversation with customers and was not accurate about the name of the next version of Office.
"I honestly have no idea how the next release of SharePoint will be named, I promise," said the note, which was signed "Ludo" for Ludo Fourrage, a Microsoft group product manager. "Thanks for your interest in PKS." PKS, or Podcasting Kit for SharePoint, is an open-source initiative that helps customers develop and deploy podcasts using SharePoint.
Microsoft has released scant details about Office 14, the follow-up to the current Office 2007 software, and its release date is not one of them.
Last month, the company said it would support the latest specification for the XML-based file format Open Office XML (OOXML) in Office 14. OOXML is a rival to Open Document Format; both have been approved as international standards by the International Organization for Standardization, although OOXML's approval is being contested by some countries' standards bodies.
On Monday, Microsoft revealed a podcasting kit for Office SharePoint Server, the portal product in the Office family, with an accompanying question-and-answer article on its Codeplex site for developers that includes information about the product.
The site made reference to Office SharePoint 2009, which hints that the next version of Office will be named Office 2009 and released that year. Microsoft has not officially revealed a timeline for Office 14.
The site no longer has a reference to SharePoint 2009, however. Once the reference was reported on, Microsoft changed the wording on the site to erase it. In addition, the author of the post tacked on a note to the blogger who first reported about the information, saying the Q&A was a transcript from a conversation with customers and was not accurate about the name of the next version of Office.
"I honestly have no idea how the next release of SharePoint will be named, I promise," said the note, which was signed "Ludo" for Ludo Fourrage, a Microsoft group product manager. "Thanks for your interest in PKS." PKS, or Podcasting Kit for SharePoint, is an open-source initiative that helps customers develop and deploy podcasts using SharePoint.
Microsoft has released scant details about Office 14, the follow-up to the current Office 2007 software, and its release date is not one of them.
Last month, the company said it would support the latest specification for the XML-based file format Open Office XML (OOXML) in Office 14. OOXML is a rival to Open Document Format; both have been approved as international standards by the International Organization for Standardization, although OOXML's approval is being contested by some countries' standards bodies.
Yahoo Launches Neighborhood Information Service in India
Yahoo has rolled out its neighborhood information service, called Local, in India, making it the third country to get the service after the U.S. and U.K., a company spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
The service, which is in a beta test phase, was launched in four cities -- Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai. Yahoo plans to introduce Local to other cities depending on feedback from the initial rollouts.
The services on Yahoo Local have been modified to meet local requirements, the spokeswoman said. Some of the new features include walking and driving directions, fare information for three-wheeled "auto rickshaw" taxis and local listings for plumbers, cable TV providers and milkmen.
The site is also integrated with SMS (Short Message Service), which allows users to send their friends information such as road directions from a PC to a mobile phone, the spokeswoman added.
India has emerged as a key market for Internet companies, which are rolling out local versions of some of their main products and services.
In May, Google launched an Indian version of YouTube, while a month earlier MySpace launched an Indian version of its social networking site. Some Internet companies, including Yahoo, have sites and services such as e-mail and instant messaging in local Indian languages.
The content for Yahoo Local comes from local and international providers, the spokeswoman said.
The service, which is in a beta test phase, was launched in four cities -- Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai. Yahoo plans to introduce Local to other cities depending on feedback from the initial rollouts.
The services on Yahoo Local have been modified to meet local requirements, the spokeswoman said. Some of the new features include walking and driving directions, fare information for three-wheeled "auto rickshaw" taxis and local listings for plumbers, cable TV providers and milkmen.
The site is also integrated with SMS (Short Message Service), which allows users to send their friends information such as road directions from a PC to a mobile phone, the spokeswoman added.
India has emerged as a key market for Internet companies, which are rolling out local versions of some of their main products and services.
In May, Google launched an Indian version of YouTube, while a month earlier MySpace launched an Indian version of its social networking site. Some Internet companies, including Yahoo, have sites and services such as e-mail and instant messaging in local Indian languages.
The content for Yahoo Local comes from local and international providers, the spokeswoman said.
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