If someone is trying to sell you 4G wireless these days, don't believe them.

10101 ~ -< ))) "802.16" ((( >- ~ 10101

The truth is, neither WiMax nor LTE (Long-Term Evolution) qualify as 4G (fourth-generation) technologies, according to the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R). On Thursday, the group announced it had finished its assessment of submissions for the 4G standard, also called IMT-Advanced. Based on that group's decision, to really be selling 4G, carriers will have to get going with one of two future technologies, called LTE-Advanced and WirelessMAN-Advanced. The latter, also known as IEEE 802.16m, will form the basis of WiMax Release 2.

The IEEE 802.16 Working Group is the IEEE group for Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANs), in particular Part 16: Air Interface for Fixed Broadband Wireless Access Systems. The working group develops standards and recommended practices to support the development and deployment of fixed broadband wireless access systems.

Ubuntu 10.10 multitouch support demo

Ubuntu 10.10 for netbooks and tablets: the new uTouch gesture support.

While some folks have panned the new Unity interface for netbooks in the latest release of Ubuntu Linux, there is one kind of nifty new feature included in Ubuntu 10.10 for netbooks and tablets: the new uTouch gesture support.

Unity includes a multitouch gesture library, which lets you perform actions like expanding and moving windows, launching multiple windows, and minimizing and maximizing windows. The framework supports up to 4 finger touch input.

Canonical has released a demo video showing just some of the new uTouch features included in Ubuntu 10.10′s Unity interface.

Google Apps for Education hits 10 million user milestone

Paul Darbyshire  May 28, 2010

Google is announcing at EDUCAUSE today that, four years after introducing Google Apps for Education, it now has 10 million active users at universities and K-12 schools worldwide. Active users are people within Google Apps domains who have signed on within the last 7 - 30 days and include students, staff, alumni, and even parents (in some K-12 settings), depending upon how the schools have rolled out the services.


The evolution of the Google Apps suite of cloud-based communication and collaboration tools really has been nothing short of extraordinary. Apps relatively easy to deploy ready to go live within 2 weeks.

As part of this sustained momentum, we’ve seen the number of active Google Apps for Education users double since last fall, with more than 2 million new users coming on board since May alone; not to mention the emerging growth we’re now seeing in the K-12 space.

With all of this obvious demand and utilization, why is Google giving Edu Apps away for free?

1. The more Google Apps users the company has, the more it can refine and develop features, get feedback, and otherwise improve the product that it sells in other markets.
2. Google Apps for Education doesn’t deliver ads to students (or can be limited to education-related ads). However, students accustomed to Apps will be more likely to use Gmail and consumer Apps in their personal lives, broadening Google’s advertising base.
3. Similarly, students who have come to depend upon the collaboration and easy content creation tools in Apps during college will look Premier Apps when they enter the workforce. What better way to build a generation of highly-educated users who demand cloud-based tools like those in Apps from their employers (or who incorporate them in their own businesses)?
4. The more people (whether students, staff, or parents) associate Google with the cloud and productivity, the stronger Google’s brand.

It’s a win for everybody.

Bring your Windows XP PC over to your Windows 7 PC for FREE in a few simple steps!

VMware: VMware Workstation Zealot

If you are planning to move to Windows 7, you can use these tools on your own to get the same results. Below are the simple steps I followed to make the move to Windows 7.

(Click on pictures to enlarge)

1) Download VMware Converter .

2) Install VMware Converter on the Windows PC you would like to virtualize to run in Windows 7. I recommend using the default setting.

3) Run VMware Converter after installation. Click the “Convert Machine” button in the tool bar to start the wizard.

4) Conversion Wizard Step 1: The source type should be “Powered-on Machine” and specific powered-on machine should be set to “This local machine”. Click Next.

5) Conversion Wizard Step 2: Destination type should be “VMware Workstation or Other VMware virtual machine.” The VMware Product selected should be “VMware Workstation 6.5”. Give your virtual machine a name, it can be anything, I chose “My XP PC”. Choose a location to save the virtual machine. I selected an external hard drive to make it easier to copy it to the new PC. You can save it to the new PC over the network, but for this example, I wanted to keep it simple.

6) Conversion Wizard Step 3: In the “Devices” section click “edit” and increase the memory to 512MB. This can be increased up to 1024MB if your new machine has 4 GB or more memory.

7) Conversion Wizard Step 3: In the “Networks” section click “edit”. Most people will see multiple network adapters (NICs) listed. Typically the NICs listed are wired ethernet, WiFi, and a (FireWire/iLiVnk/1394) port. Select “NAT” in the drop down list box under Connection Type next to the ethernet and WiFi network adapters. If you are unsure, select NAT for all

8) Conversion Wizard Step 4: Click “Finish”

9) Sit back and let VMware Converter do its thing. The “Status” column will let you know when its done.

10) While VMware Converter is running, return to your Windows 7 PC and download and install VMware Player.

11) Download VMware Player.(you may be prompted to enter your account information you used/created in step 1)

12) Install VMware Player on your Windows 7 PC.

13) I recommend using the default settings.

14) Once the installation is complete, you will need to restart your PC.

15) Now VMware Player is ready to go.

16) Once VMware Converter has completed the conversion process,you are ready to move your Windows XP PC to your Windows 7 laptop.

17) If you stored the virtual machines to an external hard drive as I did, you can run your Windows XP virtual machines from the external hard drive or copy the virtual machine to your new Windows 7 PC’s hard drive. I copied it to the “Documents” folder on the Windows 7 PC. With the large hard drives found on most new PCs, I recommend copying it to your new machine’s internal hard drive so you can quickly access applications and files as need. If you start to use the Windows XP virtual machines less and less, I would move it to an external hard drive to keep it as a backup in case you need it.

18) Now we are ready to run our Windows XP machines with VMware Player in Windows 7. Click the VMware Player icon to open up the program.

19) Click “Open a Virtual Machine”.

20) Find the file with the name you gave your virtual machine in step #5, select it and click “Open”.

21) Now you will see the Windows XP Machines start to boot up.

22) Once you see the Windows XP desktop in VMware Player, go to the “Virtual Machine” menu and select “Install VMware Tools”. Follow the installation prompts to install and allow it to reboot once finished.

23) Now you are ready to go! You can now access any files or run any applications from your old PC. If you would like to move a file to your Windows 7 PC, just drag the file to your Windows 7 desktop. Read the Getting Started Guide for more details on how to setup and run VMware Player.

24) I hope you found this useful. If you would like to learn more or get some additional questions answered, please visit our VMware Player community forum.

Integrated User And Radio Management In A Wireless Network Environment - Patent 7382756

Integrated User And Radio Management In A Wireless Network Environment - Patent 7382756 -

Finland - Education reform - Helsinki University

Pasi Sahlberg, of Helsinki University, in his own words, on the stunning success of teachers and students in Finland, and the secret to how they give all of its children the best education possible.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Marvell unveils faster 802.11n chip for 450Mbps WiFi data rates

Marvell this week unveiled a new 802.11n solution that utilizes a 4x4 architecture on a single-die. Calling it a world-first, Marvell says the new Marvell Avastar 88W8764 comes with four independent transmit-receive RF chains and Tx beamforming capability. With support for three Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) spatial data streams, the 4x4 solution is capable of cranking data speeds up to 450Mbps--50 percent higher than current 300Mbps solutions.

Yahoo Unveils HTML5 Webmail App for the IPad

HTML5 Webmail app for iPad

Following in the footsteps of rival search and mail giant Google, Yahoo on Tuesday released an iPad-optimized version of its mobile mail Website, bubbling with HTML5 goodness.

Released in the wake of Yahoo's redesigns for the iPhone, iPod touch, and Android devices, the iPad version uses the ever-familiar two-column layout in both portrait and landscape to display your inbox in addition to the currently selected message.

The company has enabled full search capabilities, Smart Folders, and optimized viewing of photos and attachments. Previews of emailed photos will appear directly in the message, with an option to enlarge to their original size. And if you need to check an old message outside of Wifi or 3G range, local caching allows users to view and search messages offline.

Current Yahoo users can try this new Webmail app by going over to http://mail.yahoo.com on their iPad. The company's actively asking for suggestions for future versions, so if you feel like sending some feedback their way, go for it.

For more Macintosh computing news, visit Macworld.

webOS Hurricane Tablet on Track for 2011?

As has been gossiped since HP hit the Palm scene, new reports this week are adding even more credence to the webOS tablet drumbeat. Engadget is reporting that during an all-hands internal employee meeting this past Monday, HP Personal Systems Group VP Todd Bradley (and former Palm CEO) confirmed and disclosed a few small details about such a project.

webOS Hurricane Tablet mockup on Track for 2011.

The mythical webOS tablet is indeed in the works and is known internally under the code name "Hurricane" as has oft been whispered and even strongly hinted at via the PalmPad trademark filling. Furthermore the device is on track for a Q1 2011 release target.

Apple, Microsoft top vulnerability ranking

Top Three with most number of reported vulnerability per year. Apple took the first place, followed by Oracle and Microsoft. Other vendors in top 10 Vmware, Cisco, Mozilla and ever Google.

 Security firm Secunia has just released its Half Year Security Report (.pdf), which I downloaded to examine further. Unlike many of the sponsored studies that get passed around these days, the 19-page, .pdf report from Secunia draws upon an independent and respected database of actual vulnerabilities, tagged using a consistent (and pretty well defined) vulnerability criticality classification.

And guess which vendors took the top three spots with the most number of reported vulnerabilities per year?

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) took the first place, followed by Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Other vendors in the top 10 list include Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) Systems (no surprise on this I suppose), VMware, Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), Mozilla and even Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).

Read more: Apple, Microsoft top vulnerability ranking - FierceCIO:TechWatch http://www.fiercecio.com/techwatch/story/apple-microsoft-tops-vulnerability-ranking/2010-07-16?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal#ixzz0tsHH4tzP

Hackable home media system features touchscreen controller -Linux Device

Raumfeld System

The Raumfeld System pools digital music from
(Universal Plug and Play (UPnP)  set of networking protocols The goals of UPnP are to allow devices to connect seamlessly and to simplify the implementation of networks in the home (data sharing, communications, and entertainment) derived from plug-and-play, a technology for dynamically attaching devices directly to a computer. UPnP devices are "plug-and-play" in that when connected to a network they automatically announce their network address and supported device and services types, enabling clients that recognize those types to immediately begin using the device.
(Audio and Video) AV/DLNA ( Digital Living Network Alliance)  compatible devices on a home network, including Macs, PCs, NAS (networked-attached storage) devices, or UPnP-based Internet radio appliances. It then streams all this content via Wi-Fi to the system's speakers.
Its algorithms enable the synchronous and lossless transmission of audio files over a standard wireless LAN. This patent-pending technology supports high quality and fully synchronized music playback in many rooms, claims the company. The Raumfeld System can be a free-standing digital music system or work in conjunction with existing stereo equipment via the Connector, the company adds.


The system includes a touchscreen Controller, two types of speakers, and the Connector unit, as well as a Base unit that acts as a Wi-Fi access point and media server. The controller, speakers, and Connectors are all equipped with Marvell's 624MHz PXA310 (Monahans-LV) system-on-chip (SoC), as well as 128MB of RAM and 128MB of flash memory, says Raumfeld. Each of these units is also said to supply 802.11b/g Wi-Fi connections. In addition, the Controller and speakers feature large analog volume controls.

Are you ready for HTML 5?

(HTML5) XX Hyper Text Markup Language 5 

The WHATWG (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group) started developing HTML5 in June 2004. (Read how HTML5 got to that point at Dive into HTML5 by Mark Pilgrim.) By January 2008, a joint effort between the WHATWG and the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) resulted in the publication of the W3C Working Draft. The W3C Candidate Recommendation is due in 2012, with the W3C Recommendation due in 2022.

This would be the point where most people go: "Huh?"

Yes, 2022 is in the future...12 years in the future, to be exact. However, no one has to wait until the final recommendation to start using HTML5. In fact, Google has been using HTML5 for its search and mail application since mid-2009, and the Google PacMan page (created to celebrate PacMan's 30-year anniversary) was created with HTML5 elements. One thing to note, though, is that Google's pages are not valid HTML5.

So why would you want to start using HTML5 now? And what do you have to watch out for? The answers, as always, are "It depends."

Pros

I think the following features will help with HTML5's adoption rate.

New DOCTYPE - Over the years, I have only met a handful of people who have memorized one of the HTML or XHTML DOCTYPES. That's because they look like:

And:

The new HTML5 DOCTYPE is easy to type and easy to remember:

That's it. And adding it to an HTML file is all that's needed to make an HTML5 page.

Semantic areas - Some folks don't care about semantics in any version of HTML. (In this case, "semantics" means that the name of the area matches its purpose. For example, do you know when you should use the CSS class "BoldRed"? How about "warning"? What about a div called "left" as compared to a div called "content"?)

For those who care about semantics, HTML5 addresses them with areas called header, nav, article, section, aside, and footer--you still need CSS to position them, though. All browsers except IE recognize these new areas, and IE will recognize them if you use a script to define them. (Remy Sharp has defined a script for this purpose; read about it at HTML5 enabling script.)

Read more: Are you ready for HTML 5? - FierceContentManagement http://www.fiercecontentmanagement.com/story/are-you-ready-html-5/2010-05-25#ixzz0tsFoyy7i

Liquid-cooled search results

 Google has a newly-issued patent for dual-sided liquid-cooled motherboards. Are they ramping up density instead of building new data centers?
Patent 20080158818
Here’s the basic idea:

• The mobo has the hot components on 1 side and the less hot on the other.
• The liquid cooling unit is sandwiched between 2 mobos.
• Disks are on the outside of the sandwich, as is the DRAM.
• Fans are mounted on the outside to air cool the external low thermal load components.
• The hot stuff is next to the cold stuff.

Here’s a drawing from the patent:

The round holes in this side view are for the liquid coolant.
The patent was filed in December 2006.

Obama Patent Office approves, then nixes trademarks for marijuana

United States Patent and Trademark Office.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, some creative souls at the USPTO created a new category of trademarkable item: “Processed plant matter for medicinal purposes, namely medical marijuana”.
Now, as it turns out, selling pot is a federal crime. So creating a new category of trademark specifically for marijuana was, well, ill-advised. As it turns out, the USPTO created this new category on April 1, 2010. Yep, April Fool’s Day.

Read More at :  
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/government/obama-patent-office-approves-then-nixes-trademarks-for-marijuana/9210?tag=nl.e620

HyperMac Stand props up iPad; extends battery life by 16 hours

Ready to prop up an iPad in either landscape or portrait positions, there are two rubberized slots that holds the tablet at either 18 or 45-degree angles, depending on what you’re doing. (For example, if you want to type on the touchscreen or just watch a movie.)
The shining feature is really the 40-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which can extend the iPad’s battery life by a whopping 16 hours. (You charge the stand via mini-USB.) Users can monitor how far the battery has charged up by the 5-stage lighted LED indicator.
The HyperMac Stand is available now for $129.95. Pricey for an accessory, but at least it sounds useful.

Digital Audio outs Wi-Fi connected Tuner:

The Tuner

"Grace Digital Audio has released its latest home Internet radio, the Tuner. It streams Pandora, Sirius and users' music collections, along with 30,000 Internet radio stations, podcasts and on-demand Wi-Fi radio content. There is both an Ethernet jack and Wi-Fi built-in."