Windows 7 Service Pack 1: What's inside

Leakers seem to have gotten their hands on what may be the final Windows 7 Service Pack 1/Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 builds.
(I had heard rumors that Microsoft had put the finishing touches on SP1 in December, but don’t know for sure whether that is true.)
Microsoft officials are not saying whether the latest leaked version is the “real” SP1 release-to-manufacturing version. As usual, the advice to customers is to wait for the official Microsoft-provided SP1 before deploying to avoid potential malware and security risks.
Unlike previous first service packs of Windows — which were an absolute must-have for many business users before they’d even think about deploying the latest Windows variant — the coming SP1 feels a bit anti-climactic. (At least on the client side.)
Microsoft officials have said not to expect any new features in Windows 7 SP1. (There was a Microsoft blog post last year that acknowledged there would be some “feature enhancements” in SP1 around federation services, audio devices and printing.) They’ve also said to expect a couple of new virtualization updates in the server version of SP1, specifically RemoteFX and a dynamic-memory adjustor for Hyper-V.
RemoteFX is a new graphics acceleration platform that is based on desktop-remoting technology that Microsoft obtained in 2008 when it acquired VDI vendor Calista Technologies. The new Hyper-V feature in SP1 will dynamically adjust memory of a guest virtual machine on demand.
For months, Microsoft execs have been telling business users there is no need to wait for SP1 to begin their Windows 7 deployment processes. Quite a few have heeded this call, with Forrester Research estimating that 10 percent of business PCs in North America and Europe already were running Windows 7 as of last fall. Forrester said at that time that 90 percent of those users it surveyed eventually planned to move to Windows 7.
I’ve asked Microsoft officials when MSDN, TechNet, volume and other customers should expect the final SP1 build and was told the company had nothing more to share at this time.

Virginia based CSC outbids HCL for $600 Million ArcelorMittal IT deal

In a deal considered as one of Europe’s biggest IT contracts, steel conglomerate ArcelorMittal will be upgrading their IT infrastructure. Priced at $600 Million, the 5 year contract to consolidate the steel giant’s IT systems across Europe was closely competed.
Global heavyweights in the field such as IBM, HP, Capgemini were bidding along with Computer Science Corporation (CSC), Wipro and HCL. Earlier rumors placed Wipro as the front runner since Wipro was already in a 5 year contract with ArcelorMittal working on unifying their messaging systems. However, it came down to HCL and CSC in the end with CSC outbidding HCL.
CSC has close to 25,000 employees in India and quite a bit of the new ArcelorMittal contract is expected to be done in India. CEO of Outsourcing and Investment advisory firm Tholons, Avinash Vashishtha gave a few reasons as to why CSC is a better choice for Arcelor Mittal:

• CSC’s presence in Europe helps them navigate through the outsourcing laws which HCL cannot.
• CSC will be able to provide packaged solutions for applications development whereas HCL will have to develop applications specifically for ArcelorMittal.

According to Avinash Vashishtha, it will cost CSC less compared to HCL for deploying these systems. As part of the contract, CSC will be maintaining ArcelorMittal’s data centers to increase efficiency. ArcelorMittal is expected to reduce costs by upto 20-30% once the systems are in place

The History of Electric Vehicles

Between 1832 and 1839 (the exact year is uncertain), Robert Anderson of Scotland invented the first crude electric carriage. A small-scale electric car was designed by Professor Stratingh of Groningen, Holland, and built by his assistant Christopher Becker in 1835. Practical and more successful electric road vehicles were invented by both American Thomas Davenport and Scotsmen Robert Davidson around 1842. Both inventors were the first to use non-rechargeable electric cells. Frenchmen Gaston Plante invented a better storage battery in 1865 and his fellow countrymen Camille Faure improved the storage battery in 1881. This improved-capacity storage battery paved the way for electric vehicles to flourish.
France and Great Britain were the first nations to support the widespread development of electric vehicles in the late 1800s. In 1899, a Belgian built electric racing car called "La Jamais Contente" set a world record for land speed - 68 mph - designed by Camille Jénatzy.
It was not until 1895 that Americans began to devote attention to electric vehicles after an electric tricycle was built by A. L. Ryker and William Morrison built a six-passenger wagon both in 1891. Many innovations followed and interest in motor vehicles increased greatly in the late 1890s and early 1900s. In 1897, the first commercial application was established as a fleet of New York City taxis built by the Electric Carriage and Wagon Company of Philadelphia.
The early electric vehicles, such as the 1902 Wood's Phaeton (top image), were little more than electrified horseless carriages and surreys. The Phaeton had a range of 18 miles, a top speed of 14 mph and cost $2,000. Later in 1916, Woods invented a hybrid car that had both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor.  

By the turn of the century, America was prosperous and cars, now available in steam, electric, or gasoline versions, were becoming more popular. The years 1899 and 1900 were the high point of electric cars in America, as they outsold all other types of cars. Electric vehicles had many advantages over their competitors in the early 1900s. They did not have the vibration, smell, and noise associated with gasoline cars. Changing gears on gasoline cars was the most difficult part of driving, while electric vehicles did not require gear changes. While steam-powered cars also had no gear shifting, they suffered from long start-up times of up to 45 minutes on cold mornings. The steam cars had less range before needing water than an electric's range on a single charge. The only good roads of the period were in town, causing most travel to be local commuting, a perfect situation for electric vehicles, since their range was limited. The electric vehicle was the preferred choice of many because it did not require the manual effort to start, as with the hand crank on gasoline vehicles, and there was no wrestling with a gear shifter.
While basic electric cars cost under $1,000, most early electric vehicles were ornate, massive carriages designed for the upper class. They had fancy interiors, with expensive materials, and averaged $3,000 by 1910. Electric vehicles enjoyed success into the 1920s with production peaking in 1912.
The decline of the electric vehicle was brought about by several major developments:

• By the 1920s, America had a better system of roads that now connected cities, bringing with it the need for longer-range vehicles.
• The discovery of Texas crude oil reduced the price of gasoline so that it was affordable to the average consumer.
• The invention of the electric starter by Charles Kettering in 1912 eliminated the need for the hand crank.
• The initiation of mass production of internal combustion engine vehicles by Henry Ford made these vehicles widely available and affordable in the $500 to $1,000 price range. By contrast, the price of the less efficiently produced electric vehicles continued to rise. In 1912, an electric roadster sold for $1,750, while a gasoline car sold for $650.

Pillete, the new concept of Bluetooth headset

Pillete, the new concept of Bluetooth headset is so tiny, it’s almost invisible to the untrained eye when you are wearing it. So you don’t have to worry anymore about looking like Robocop when walking down the street with it, but you have to consider the possibility of people starting to think you’ve lost your marbles and you’re talking to yourself.
The downside is the fact that people have different sized ears and the device might be too small and slip out or to big and not fit. People who often use earphones will tell you I’m right. But once they’ll figure out a way to make the Pillete adjustable, this design will be the future of all headsets.

I, for one, welcome our Linux Penguin, Jeopardy Overlords

“I’ll take evil, science-fiction computers for $2,000,” Alex. OK, we’re not quite there yet, but in the early going, IBM’s Watson supercomputer beat Jeopardy super-champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in a practice round. And, what is Watson running? Linux, of course.
There’s nothing surprising about that. The fastest of fast computers have long used Linux In the latest TOP 500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, 459 of the Top 500 supercomputers were running Linux.
Watson is made up of ten racks of IBM POWER 750 servers running Linux, and has 15Terabytes of RAM; 2,880 3.55GHz POWER7 processor cores and operates at 80 Teraflops. You’re not going to find one of these at your local Best Buy.
Watson isn’t just an ordinary supercomputer though crunching linear equations, the Linpack Benchmark, at ever faster speeds. By comparison, that’s easy. No, IBM has been working on Watson for almost four years on solving the problem of ‘understanding’ natural language questions.
Sure if you ask a question Google just the right way, it will give you the right answer. But, as Stephen Chapman explains in his story on how to become a Google search ninja, you need to ask questions in a way that Google understands, which is far more complex and precise than the way you’d ask a person a question.
Expert systems, which have been around for decades, can answer natural language questions, but only within a narrowly-defined field. No one thought a machine could do well at “Jeopardy!” because there’s just too much trivia-just like human contestants Watson isn’t allowed to hunt for answers on the Internet-and Jeopardy’s clues are mini-puzzles in themselves that require “understanding” before you can come up with the right question to their answers.
Deep Blue, IBM’s chess-playing computer that beat then world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six game match in 1997 had a far easier task. Chess is, after-all, a game played on a board with 64-squares and a limited, strict set of rules. Jeopardy or any English-language trivia game though can touch on any subject and is played within a language that even native-speakers can have trouble mastering.
Watson, though, thanks to many man-years of programming and engineering, is up to the challenge. Watson may not win, this time around, in the real matches which will be aired on February 14, 15, and 16, but eventually it will. This doesn’t mean though that we can start fearing the Terminator’s Skynet or 2001: A Space Odyssey’s HAL. Instead, we can start looking forward to Star Trek-style Library Computer Access/Retrieval System (LCARS) computers where all we need do is talk to our computers to get our answers and perhaps, in time, even “Tea, Earl Grey, Hot.“

Solar Cars

 

High-efficiency photovoltaic (PV) cells located 

on top of the Sojourner vehicle generated 16 watts

NASA

 During the 1990s, regulations requiring an approach to "zero emissions" from vehicles increased interest in new battery technology. Battery systems that offer higher energy density became the subject of joint research by federal and auto industry scientists.
Solar cars were first built by universities and manufacturers. The sun energy collector areas proved to be too large for consumer cars, however that is changing. Development continues on solar cell design and car power supply requirements such as heater or air-conditioning fans.

Solar Car Races

Hans Tholstrup and Larry Perkins were the first solar car racers who completed a Solar Trek from Perth to Sydney, Australia in 1983. In the 1987 race, the GM Sunraycer completed the 3010 km trip with an average speed of 67 kmh, setting the scene for an extensive research and development program among the teams.

Infographic: Get Ready for LTE

 The next generation of wireless network is coming, and it will be fast. We’ve been excited about Long Term Evolution networks and their speed gains for years, and they are finally rolling out in the U.S. in a big way this year thanks to Verizon Wireless and AT&T. For more on the technology, what is does and how it will affect you, check out our handy infographic.