Berkeley Lab Director Paul Alivisatos formally kicked off the Lab’s Carbon Cycle 2.0 initiative on Monday, February 1, 2010, with a presentation titled “A Call to Action - Berkeley Lab Addressing Global Needs.” Consisting of two hour-long talks by Director Alivisatos and by Bill Collins, head of Berkeley Lab’s Climate Sciences Department, the presentation was the first in a symposium that continues through February 4, aimed at “informing, inspiring and helping to organize” the Berkeley Lab community to become involved in the Carbon Cycle 2.0 initiative and help make it a success.
“We’re faced with a situation in which carbon emissions from human activity are large enough to influence the natural carbon cycle, and as a consequence we have to find a way where our own carbon cycle is as balanced as nature’s,” said Alivisatos, who presented a compelling introduction to the many ways that the Carbon Cycle 2.0 initiative can connect and bolster the impact of the Lab’s basic and applied research. “Right now we are emitting more carbon in the atmosphere than can be removed through natural processes. This is a huge problem facing the nation and the world.”
Starting with its founding by Ernest Lawrence, Berkeley Lab has a tradition of helping our nation solve big problems through science, Alivisatos said. The scope and scale of innovation that will be needed to meet this challenge is “breathtaking,” he said, but “I am confident that, if Berkeley Lab's talented scientists and operations staff organize around Carbon Cycle 2.0, our positive impact in the world will increase dramatically.”
Carbon Cycle 2.0 is aimed at helping to ensure maximum impact for Berkeley Lab research results by providing “better communication and mutual education between the fundamental and applied sciences,” he explained. There are multiple components to balancing the carbon cycle and, like the pieces of a puzzle, these components must be correctly fitted together to provide a solution. For example, it will not be enough to devise highly efficient solar cells without also being able to evaluate the consequences of covering millions of acres of land with those cells. Nor will it be enough to devise cost-effective means of capturing enormous amounts of carbon emissions without also determining safe means of sequestering that carbon.
“The scale of the carbon cycle problem makes it different from any other problem we’ve tackled at this Laboratory,” Alivisatos said. “It won’t be enough to show that something can be done on a laboratory scale, we’ve got to show it can be done on a global scale.”
In closing, Alivisatos stressed the urgency of restoring balance to Earth’s carbon cycle when he stated: “We’re not running out of oil, we’re running out of atmosphere.”
Bill Collins followed with a succinct summary of the scientific underpinnings of global warming and Berkeley Lab’s research in climate change, including major expertise in modeling in areas such as physics-based projections of abrupt climate change.
Collins noted that the supercomputing power available to support the Lab’s modeling work allows detailed characterization of climate change effects down to the level of individual county-sized regions. This should help increase the precision of forecasts about the expected increase in severe weather events such as regional heat waves.
In keeping with the Carbon Cycle 2.0 vision of better integration between the multiple components of the carbon cycle problem, Collins stressed the need for “lateral and bilateral communication” between climate and energy researchers. He also echoed the warning of Alivisatos on the influence of carbon emissions from human activity.
“We need to create an Earth System Model that takes into account the impact of human interactions as well as energy-climate interactions,” he said. “We can then apply this model to the coupled physical, ecological and human system.”
The Lab’s vision for the future in climate modeling revolves around three areas, Collins said: climate forcing, climate prediction, and climate mitigation, including a Lab-wide Center for Biological Sequestration.
Source: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, 1/02/10
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dimanche 21 février 2010
Cloud computing: market overview
Following a string of acquisitions, new product development and vendor chest pounding this year, the cloud collaboration wars are shaping up to be a key competitive battleground. Cloud computing providers are fortifying their positions, aiming to be one-stop shops for enterprises to shed internal infrastructure and move to online collaboration and communications. With this market focused heavily on software capabilities, and a healthy ecosystem of smaller players and startups filling in the gaps, watch this space carefully for more consolidation and acquisitions.
Cloud collaboration has now expanded beyond the core of e-mail communications to include social networking, group content creation and management, presentation sharing, project management, integrated voice and video, calendaring, scheduling and more. Let’s take a look at the big players and other possible entrants.
Microsoft
Microsoft is the undisputed legacy king of enterprise communications with its Exchange mail platform, which continues to hold ground in some part because so many users have been weaned on the Outlook interface. Now Microsoft has put its marketing muscle behind its Business Productivity Online suite which includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Live Meeting, and Office Communications Online. Microsoft hosts these services, but sells them directly and through partners.
Anxious to defend its turf, the company has launched a competitor-focused website WhyMicrosoft.org which explicitly details the benefits of the Microsoft offering over IBM, Google Apps, OpenOffice, and interestingly, Cisco. The installed base, breadth of platform, and user-addiction factors are likely to favor Microsoft for the short term, but its leading position is by no means guaranteed.
IBM
In January, IBM hit the PR accelerator when it announced that Panasonic had chosen LotusLive, planning to eventually convert 380,000 employees to web-based mail. Claiming it as the industry’s largest cloud-computing contract, the deal gives IBM and LotusLive a renewed lease to play in the cloud collaboration space, and according to reports, also includes other online collaboration offerings such as calendars, web meetings, file sharing, and social networking. Few companies have the size and scope of IBM to help enterprises of this size manage these implementations worldwide, so expect to see IBM continue with global deals that wrap LotusLive into a giant package of outsourced IT services.
Google
Perhaps the most exciting cloud collaboration offering from a product perspective is Google Apps, which includes Mail, Docs, Groups, Sites, and Video. While certainly lagging in some of the functionality delivered by Microsoft, Google continues to add new features at a blistering pace. The company has its own enterprise customer roster and has been actively promoting Google Apps through its Gone Google campaign.
While traditionalists claim that Google’s offerings lack the sophisticated capabilities of Exchange or Office, many see them as light years ahead on the collaboration side. Anyone who has jointly edited a Google Doc should be able to attest to that. And as the world seems to move
While traditionalists claim that Google’s offerings lack the sophisticated capabilities of Exchange or Office, many see them as light years ahead on the collaboration side. Anyone who has jointly edited a Google Doc should be able to attest to that. And as the world seems to move away from the benefits of fancy font formatting to the speed and efficiency of easy sharing, Google might be in the best position to capitalize on the cloud collaboration race. But perhaps the dark horse is Google’s mobile strategy. Android and the NexusOne phone already appear to be more innovative than Windows Mobile competition, and the integration with Google Apps could dramatically accelerate business adoption.
VMware / Zimbra
VMware boldly entered the cloud collaboration race when it acquired Zimbra in January. Largely hidden within Yahoo! from its initial acquisition, Zimbra will now get the support needed to emerge on the grander stage. The Zimbra Collaboration Suite has one of the most interesting deployment models in the industry. By providing compatitibility with a variety of mail clients such as Outlook and Apple Mail, Zimbra leaps over the competition by eliminating the troublesome issue of asking users to give up their familiar mail program interfaces.
It should be noted, too, that the top three executives listed on the VMware leadership page have a combined 47 years of experience at Microsoft. These folks know how Microsoft profited from communications and collaboration products, and are likely to be in a good position to chip away at that market position.
Others
Without a formidable e-mail offering, many of the other collaboration players are relegated to fill in elsewhere. Oracle plans to develop Oracle Cloud Office following the OpenOffice aquisition through Sun to integrate desktop, web and mobile interaction. And Cisco will approach the market through its unified communications offerings and WebEx products.
Let’s also remember that collaboration habits are changing. As we move away from e-mail to other communications mechanisms like instant messaging, Facebook, and Twitter, perhaps the dominance of the e-mail core will evaporate. Salesforce.com is taking this approach with the introduction of Chatter, leapfrogging the e-mail playing field entirely to social communications.
Meanwhile, the open source and freeware worlds are waking up to the promise of online collaboration, and there are many free, standalone cloud collaboration products. We covered many useful ones here.
There is still a long road to hoe for many users to give up their affinity for Microsoft Outlook and Office. But it appears that now, more than ever, cloud collaboration could turn the tides toward a new slate of solutions.
Source: GigaOm, 21/02/10
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Cloud collaboration has now expanded beyond the core of e-mail communications to include social networking, group content creation and management, presentation sharing, project management, integrated voice and video, calendaring, scheduling and more. Let’s take a look at the big players and other possible entrants.
Microsoft
Microsoft is the undisputed legacy king of enterprise communications with its Exchange mail platform, which continues to hold ground in some part because so many users have been weaned on the Outlook interface. Now Microsoft has put its marketing muscle behind its Business Productivity Online suite which includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Live Meeting, and Office Communications Online. Microsoft hosts these services, but sells them directly and through partners.
Anxious to defend its turf, the company has launched a competitor-focused website WhyMicrosoft.org which explicitly details the benefits of the Microsoft offering over IBM, Google Apps, OpenOffice, and interestingly, Cisco. The installed base, breadth of platform, and user-addiction factors are likely to favor Microsoft for the short term, but its leading position is by no means guaranteed.
IBM
In January, IBM hit the PR accelerator when it announced that Panasonic had chosen LotusLive, planning to eventually convert 380,000 employees to web-based mail. Claiming it as the industry’s largest cloud-computing contract, the deal gives IBM and LotusLive a renewed lease to play in the cloud collaboration space, and according to reports, also includes other online collaboration offerings such as calendars, web meetings, file sharing, and social networking. Few companies have the size and scope of IBM to help enterprises of this size manage these implementations worldwide, so expect to see IBM continue with global deals that wrap LotusLive into a giant package of outsourced IT services.
Perhaps the most exciting cloud collaboration offering from a product perspective is Google Apps, which includes Mail, Docs, Groups, Sites, and Video. While certainly lagging in some of the functionality delivered by Microsoft, Google continues to add new features at a blistering pace. The company has its own enterprise customer roster and has been actively promoting Google Apps through its Gone Google campaign.
While traditionalists claim that Google’s offerings lack the sophisticated capabilities of Exchange or Office, many see them as light years ahead on the collaboration side. Anyone who has jointly edited a Google Doc should be able to attest to that. And as the world seems to move
While traditionalists claim that Google’s offerings lack the sophisticated capabilities of Exchange or Office, many see them as light years ahead on the collaboration side. Anyone who has jointly edited a Google Doc should be able to attest to that. And as the world seems to move away from the benefits of fancy font formatting to the speed and efficiency of easy sharing, Google might be in the best position to capitalize on the cloud collaboration race. But perhaps the dark horse is Google’s mobile strategy. Android and the NexusOne phone already appear to be more innovative than Windows Mobile competition, and the integration with Google Apps could dramatically accelerate business adoption.
VMware / Zimbra
VMware boldly entered the cloud collaboration race when it acquired Zimbra in January. Largely hidden within Yahoo! from its initial acquisition, Zimbra will now get the support needed to emerge on the grander stage. The Zimbra Collaboration Suite has one of the most interesting deployment models in the industry. By providing compatitibility with a variety of mail clients such as Outlook and Apple Mail, Zimbra leaps over the competition by eliminating the troublesome issue of asking users to give up their familiar mail program interfaces.
It should be noted, too, that the top three executives listed on the VMware leadership page have a combined 47 years of experience at Microsoft. These folks know how Microsoft profited from communications and collaboration products, and are likely to be in a good position to chip away at that market position.
Others
Without a formidable e-mail offering, many of the other collaboration players are relegated to fill in elsewhere. Oracle plans to develop Oracle Cloud Office following the OpenOffice aquisition through Sun to integrate desktop, web and mobile interaction. And Cisco will approach the market through its unified communications offerings and WebEx products.
Let’s also remember that collaboration habits are changing. As we move away from e-mail to other communications mechanisms like instant messaging, Facebook, and Twitter, perhaps the dominance of the e-mail core will evaporate. Salesforce.com is taking this approach with the introduction of Chatter, leapfrogging the e-mail playing field entirely to social communications.
Meanwhile, the open source and freeware worlds are waking up to the promise of online collaboration, and there are many free, standalone cloud collaboration products. We covered many useful ones here.
There is still a long road to hoe for many users to give up their affinity for Microsoft Outlook and Office. But it appears that now, more than ever, cloud collaboration could turn the tides toward a new slate of solutions.
Source: GigaOm, 21/02/10
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
IBM develops higher efficiency solar cell
While IBM is primarily known for its information technology products, the company has recently begun expanding into the alternative energy market. So far, that change has mainly taken the form of a new ad campaign. But IBM is now backing those words up with action, by unveiling a groundbreaking solar cell, 40 percent more efficient than any similar cells.
The cells operate at a power conversion efficiency of 9.6 percent. And while that isn't that high, the cells use only common elements like copper, zinc, tin, sulfur, and selenium. By comparison, the most efficient common earth element solar cell on the market today only operates at 6.7 percent efficiency.
By shying away from the rare earth elements employed by so many other solar cells, IBM hopes to both keep the cost of their cells down, and prevent reliance on foreign sources for rare earth elements.
Ultimately, IBM plans to lease the technology to other companies, rather than getting into the solar manufacturing business.
Source: PopSci, 11/02/10
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
The cells operate at a power conversion efficiency of 9.6 percent. And while that isn't that high, the cells use only common elements like copper, zinc, tin, sulfur, and selenium. By comparison, the most efficient common earth element solar cell on the market today only operates at 6.7 percent efficiency.
By shying away from the rare earth elements employed by so many other solar cells, IBM hopes to both keep the cost of their cells down, and prevent reliance on foreign sources for rare earth elements.
Ultimately, IBM plans to lease the technology to other companies, rather than getting into the solar manufacturing business.
Source: PopSci, 11/02/10
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Overblog: chiffres clés
Sur Overblog qui héberge 1 million de blogs, seulement 20.000 d'entre eux font l'essentiel de l'audience.
Un bon blog attire en moyenne 20.000 visiteurs uniques par mois.
Source: L'Ordinateur individuel, décembre 2009, interview avec Frédéric Montagon, fondateur d'Overblog
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Un bon blog attire en moyenne 20.000 visiteurs uniques par mois.
Source: L'Ordinateur individuel, décembre 2009, interview avec Frédéric Montagon, fondateur d'Overblog
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
samedi 20 février 2010
Nexus One: Goggles permet la traduction en temps réel
La vidéo parle d'elle-même. Hermut Neven, ingénieur en chef pour Google Goggles prend en photo avec un Nexus One une phrase dans un menu de restaurant rédigé en allemand.
L'image est transmise à un serveur Google où un logiciel OCR va la transformer en texte puis l'envoyer vers le service Google Traduction qui affiche le résultat en anglais sur l'écran du terminal. Tout cela n'a pris que quelques secondes.
Bientôt 52 langues
L'application n'en est pour le moment qu'au stade du prototype et ne fonctionne qu'entre l'allemand et l'anglais. Mais Google annonce qu'il compte à terme l'associer aux 52 langues prises en charge par son système de traduction.
A l'origine, Goggles permet de lancer une recherche visuelle à partir de la photo d'un objet ou d'un lieu prise avec un smartphone.
Intégré au Nexus one, l'application sert aussi à ajouter des contacts dans le carnet d'adresse en photographiant une carte de visite. (Eureka Presse)
Source: Zdnet, 19/02/10
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
L'image est transmise à un serveur Google où un logiciel OCR va la transformer en texte puis l'envoyer vers le service Google Traduction qui affiche le résultat en anglais sur l'écran du terminal. Tout cela n'a pris que quelques secondes.
Bientôt 52 langues
L'application n'en est pour le moment qu'au stade du prototype et ne fonctionne qu'entre l'allemand et l'anglais. Mais Google annonce qu'il compte à terme l'associer aux 52 langues prises en charge par son système de traduction.
A l'origine, Goggles permet de lancer une recherche visuelle à partir de la photo d'un objet ou d'un lieu prise avec un smartphone.
Intégré au Nexus one, l'application sert aussi à ajouter des contacts dans le carnet d'adresse en photographiant une carte de visite. (Eureka Presse)
Source: Zdnet, 19/02/10
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
vendredi 19 février 2010
Un iPhone consomme 3 fois plus de bande passante qu'un Blackberry
La question de la saturation des réseaux mobiles due à l'explosion du trafic data était au centre de beaucoup de discussions lors de cette édition 2010 du Mobile World Congress.
En Angleterre, par exemple, l'iPhone a plusieurs fois encombré le réseau 3G de l'opérateur O2 au point de rendre impossible l'émission et la réception d'appels. L'opérateur a indiqué à Reuters que le trafic de données avait été multiplié par 18 cette année. Chez Vodafone, il a bondi de 300% en deux ans et représente 70% du trafic global de l'opérateur.
Même constat aux Etats-Unis : "Le trafic a été multiplié par cinq et on voit se multiplier les problèmes d'appels perdus, de connexions non disponibles à certaines heures", souligne Jeff McDowell, vice-président Business Segment Marketing de RIM rencontré à Barcelone.
En attendant la LTE...
"Le problème est que la progression physique des réseaux ne suit pas la croissance exponentielle du trafic, les opérateurs doivent réagir assez vite", enjoint le responsable qui comme beaucoup d'observateurs estime que le LTE (Long Term Evolution ou 4G) peut être une solution.
Seul problème, les réseaux très haut débit mobile sont encore loin d'être déployés. Alors en attendant, quelles sont les alternatives ? Certains opérateurs, comme Vodafone, s'essayent aux accès privilégiés (avec des abonnements "premiums" qui assurent un accès au réseau optimisé). Mais Jeff McDowell estime que les fabricants de terminaux ont également leur rôle à jouer.
"Les smartphones représentent 'seulement' 20% du marché, mais ce chiffre pourrait doubler très vite. Les terminaux doivent donc être moins gourmands en bande passante."
Produire des smartphones moins gourmands
Et de préciser avec malice : "Les modèles BlackBerry compressent déjà les pages Web bien plus que la concurrence. Ainsi, la consommation en bande passante d'un iPhone équivaut à celle de trois BlackBerry utilisés en même temps !"
Reste que l'expérience de l'internet mobile depuis un BlackBerry est encore bien inférieure à celle d'un iPhone, d'où une consommation de data moins importante. Le nouveau navigateur de RIM pourrait alors changer la donne et rendre plus gourmands les terminaux du canadien...
Rappelons qu'en France, sur cette question de la congestion des réseaux, les opérateurs affichent une certaine sérénité en expliquant que leurs investissements dans les réseaux permettent de voir venir. Mais certains ajustements sont nécessaires. SFR va ainsi mettre à jour ses équipements pour digérer cette montée en charge.
Source: Zdnet, 18/02/10
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
En Angleterre, par exemple, l'iPhone a plusieurs fois encombré le réseau 3G de l'opérateur O2 au point de rendre impossible l'émission et la réception d'appels. L'opérateur a indiqué à Reuters que le trafic de données avait été multiplié par 18 cette année. Chez Vodafone, il a bondi de 300% en deux ans et représente 70% du trafic global de l'opérateur.
Même constat aux Etats-Unis : "Le trafic a été multiplié par cinq et on voit se multiplier les problèmes d'appels perdus, de connexions non disponibles à certaines heures", souligne Jeff McDowell, vice-président Business Segment Marketing de RIM rencontré à Barcelone.
En attendant la LTE...
"Le problème est que la progression physique des réseaux ne suit pas la croissance exponentielle du trafic, les opérateurs doivent réagir assez vite", enjoint le responsable qui comme beaucoup d'observateurs estime que le LTE (Long Term Evolution ou 4G) peut être une solution.
Seul problème, les réseaux très haut débit mobile sont encore loin d'être déployés. Alors en attendant, quelles sont les alternatives ? Certains opérateurs, comme Vodafone, s'essayent aux accès privilégiés (avec des abonnements "premiums" qui assurent un accès au réseau optimisé). Mais Jeff McDowell estime que les fabricants de terminaux ont également leur rôle à jouer.
"Les smartphones représentent 'seulement' 20% du marché, mais ce chiffre pourrait doubler très vite. Les terminaux doivent donc être moins gourmands en bande passante."
Produire des smartphones moins gourmands
Et de préciser avec malice : "Les modèles BlackBerry compressent déjà les pages Web bien plus que la concurrence. Ainsi, la consommation en bande passante d'un iPhone équivaut à celle de trois BlackBerry utilisés en même temps !"
Reste que l'expérience de l'internet mobile depuis un BlackBerry est encore bien inférieure à celle d'un iPhone, d'où une consommation de data moins importante. Le nouveau navigateur de RIM pourrait alors changer la donne et rendre plus gourmands les terminaux du canadien...
Rappelons qu'en France, sur cette question de la congestion des réseaux, les opérateurs affichent une certaine sérénité en expliquant que leurs investissements dans les réseaux permettent de voir venir. Mais certains ajustements sont nécessaires. SFR va ainsi mettre à jour ses équipements pour digérer cette montée en charge.
Source: Zdnet, 18/02/10
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Fallbrook 50M$ IPO: transmission innovator
Warren Hogarth, an investor at venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, spoke Thursday at an industry event and said, "It won't do the industry any service if we put companies out that run up in the first 3 months and then collapse soon afterwards." Hogarth added that "companies are filing [for IPOs] and there is optimism for those companies, but there is also a pervasive sense of caution," concluding: "It's earnings that matter."
We repeat: "It's earnings that matter."
Which brings us to Fallbrook Technologies of San Diego, a start-up that is building an innovative transmission for vehicles and wind turbines. The company had $11.7 million in losses in the nine months through Sept. 30, 2009, and a net loss of $10.6 million in 2008, which was up from a $6.6 million net loss in 2007 and a net loss of $6.3 million in 2006.
The startup just filed for a $50 million IPO. Here's a link to the SEC filing, the S-1.
Those losses fly in the face of Hogarth's message, but are quite consistent with the recent streak of VC-based greentech IPO filings:
The only two companies on this list that are actually making profits pulled their IPOs on account of "market conditions." None of the other IPO hopefuls have turned a profit.
Source: Greentech Media, 19/02/10
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
We repeat: "It's earnings that matter."
Which brings us to Fallbrook Technologies of San Diego, a start-up that is building an innovative transmission for vehicles and wind turbines. The company had $11.7 million in losses in the nine months through Sept. 30, 2009, and a net loss of $10.6 million in 2008, which was up from a $6.6 million net loss in 2007 and a net loss of $6.3 million in 2006.
The startup just filed for a $50 million IPO. Here's a link to the SEC filing, the S-1.
Those losses fly in the face of Hogarth's message, but are quite consistent with the recent streak of VC-based greentech IPO filings:
The only two companies on this list that are actually making profits pulled their IPOs on account of "market conditions." None of the other IPO hopefuls have turned a profit.
Source: Greentech Media, 19/02/10
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
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