Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Friday, August 15, 2008

Intelâs Remote Wake Gives PCs a Super Poke

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/364881169/

It isn’t quite earth-shattering, but Intel is introducing a technology that could make computers more useful. The company has developed ways to power up PCs remotely, allowing people to, say, retrieve files, according to the Wall Street Journal. Intel calls this Remote Wake, and it will work on forthcoming desktops with a new chipset that will have the new software embedded in the memory. Apparently, this will be much easier to use than the current options.

Intel is working with Jajah, CyberLink, Orb Networks and Pando Networks. Because of Remote Wake, a PC will also be able to make and receive calls over the JAJAH network and wake up from sleep mode to receive a call. This is improvement over the current scenario, where you can’t quite use your PC as your phone, because when it’s in sleep mode, you miss the calls. Pando’s service could deliver video at a dedicated time to a PC after waking it up remotely, an option that could make Pando quite viable as a desktop-oriented content delivery network.

If you are an expert on remote access and have some opinions about Remote Wake, please share your opinions with us.

Wuala Launches Social Grid Storage In Public Beta Tomorrow

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/q38f8FUMp6g/

This has to be some kind of record - a startup launching a public beta on the day it said it would. Wuala, the P2P ’social grid storage’ startup from Switzerland, launches its public beta tomorrow at www.wua.la. Users will be able to simply click on a button on the site to start the service (it’s a Java app). That’s it. You can drag-and-drop stuff into it for file backup, photo and video sharing, or making files available publicly.

Here’s a more detailed description, from our post on the company last month:

The underlying core tech behind Wuala is based on research conducted at ETH Zurich (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). The files are held in tiny encrypted pieces distributed across the "Wuala Grid" of users, and mirrored on Wuala's servers - so you don't have to rely on other users being online to access your data. Users start with 1 GB of storage but can get as much as they want, either by trading idle disk space or by buying additional storage. You start off with 1GB of free storage, and then if you want more, you can make more space available on your own hard drive for other Wuala members. But users don't have to trade storage - you can buy extra storage, like 100GB is 100 Euros. All files are encrypted on the user's computer and the user chooses who gets access to which folder. No one else - including Wuala - gets to see the files. None of the fragments of files from other people stored on your computer are executable. Unlike Web storage, you can drag and drop files into Wuala on or offline.

Wuala competes in the storage space with Xdrive or Box.net, but it has a number of significant differences. The files are held in tiny encrypted pieces distributed across the “Wuala Grid” of users, and mirrored on Wuala’s servers. Unlike Web storage, you can drag and drop files into Wuala on or offline. TechCrunch UK broke the story about Wuala back in October last year. Last month, the site offered a sneak preview to the public.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Hello World! AppJet Opens Browser-Based JavaScript School

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/edc0ntyep5A/

AppJet, the Y Combinator-funded startup that lets users build web applications from their browsers, has opened a new set of lessons that guide novice users through the basics of programming. The lessons focus on JavaScript, one of the world’s most popular programming languages, and have been written to be accessible to students who have never programmed before.

Co-Founder Aaron Iba says that the lessons will likely take a new programmer a few weeks to work through at a moderate pace, depending on how much time is spent on the interactive demos (each lesson provides a fully functional program that can be modified). There are currently 24 lessons available, with more on the way. After skimming through the first few lessons, I managed to put together a program slightly more complex than “Hello world!”, which you can find here.

This online school is significant because it offers a very low barrier to entry for novices who are looking to get their feet wet and start programming. Nearly every programming tutorial requires some kind of software prerequisite, be it a downloaded client or a server, which can be both expensive and difficult to set up for a new user. Conversely, AppJet requires no software, allowing users to edit, debug, and run code through a browser interface. Because of this low barrier, AppJet may well see an influx of new students who they can convert to regular members.

Besides the lessons launching today, AppJet offers web developers a way to create and host web applications free of charge. The site appeals primarily to users in the long tail, who may not want to spend money on a web server just to host a number of small applications that are only accessed once in a while. Iba says that since its launch in December, AppJet has seen over 1900 applications published, with another 4000 under development (though many of these will likely never be completed).

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Intel's Z-P230 PATA SSD: now in bite sized mini-card flavor

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/364783161/

Filed under: Storage

First off, we just want to sincerely thank Intel for not making this confusing at all. Not only does the new mini-card Z-P230 PATA SSD boast the same model name and mostly the same specifications as the netbook-focused Z-P230 PATA SSD (scratching your head yet?), but as you've probably gleaned by now, it's rocking the same name, too. The 8-gram device (compared to 11-grams on its ~~similarly~~ same-named sibling) was designed to fit into tiny laptops and comes in 4GB / 8GB capacities with a 16GB version landing in September. All angst aside, it is pretty cute.

[Via PCWorld]

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Intel appeases haters, reveals USB 3.0 controller specification

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/364786536/

Filed under: Peripherals

What's with all the hate, guys? For months now, AMD, NVIDIA and a host of other caps-locked companies have been harshing on the chip maker for withholding critical information in relation to the USB 3.0 controller specification. At long last, Intel can finally throw up its left hand and ask those pundits to talk to it, as the outfit has finally unveiled the Extensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) draft specification revision 0.9 in support of the USB 3.0 (SuperSpeed USB) architecture. The spec hopes to provide a "standardized method for USB 3.0 host controllers to communicate with the USB 3.0 software stack," and it's being made available under RAND-Z (royalty free) licensing terms "to all USB 3.0 Promoter Group and contributor companies that sign an xHCI contributor agreement." So, are we all happy now?

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