Cisco is adding another company to its enterprise-focused Web communication products. Jabber Inc. (the company ) is in the process of being acquired.
Jabber (the standard) originally presented in May 2006 is a widely-accepted set of Linux-based, open source streaming XML protocols and technologies that enable any two entities on the Internet to exchange messages, presence, and other structured information in close to real time. Jingle (originally Google Talk’s effort to integrate SIP-based VoIP with the XMPP specification) is a new set of extensions to the Jabber protocols for use in VoIP, video, and other peer-to-peer multimedia sessions.
Jabber Inc. provides instant messaging software that supports different devices and applications, and allows users on different networks (Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger) to connect and communicate with each other. Their presence and messaging technologies could be integrated into Cisco's WebEx Connect and Unified Communications platforms.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Google Android Developer Challenge - Winning Mobile Apps
The Google Android Developer Challenge (round 1 of 2) to encourage the developer community to build outstanding mobile apps for the Android platform has concluded and winning apps can be previewed at http://code.google.com/android/adc_gallery/ . A brief rundown on the some of the ones that appeal to me:
Using the always-on and location awareness features and Google Maps integration, Cab4Me enables calling a taxi to any location worldwide with a single click. You do not need to know the number of the local cab company. You do not need to enter or even know the address you want to be picked up at. You do not need to place a call. I want it to work in Cambridge and Berlin, especially on cold, rainy nights when there are public transit strikes.
PicSay is an image editor for your mobile phone camera. Photos can be enhanced with color correction,
highlighting, or distortion effects, you can add word balloons and titles to them and then share them via e-mail, your blog, or photo sharing sites. PicSay uses reverse geocoding via Android's location API to provide address information that can be used as text for a picture--instant (and customized) birthday cards, spontaneous dinner invitations, remarkably silly dog moments captured and documented!
No more uninformed, impulse buying with GoCart to help me gather as much information as I need to make smart, informed purchase in realtime in realplace with a bridge to online--"users can scan the barcode of a product in a store using their phone’s built-in camera. Once scanned, it will search for all the best prices on the Internet and through the inventories of nearby, local stores. After scanning a product, users can also read online reviews or create price alerts to help monitor price drops. Ah! No more walking through Frys, encountering the wireless keyboard section, memory being jogged that you need a new one (can't get my speech recognition software to run on Vista), thinking this looks nice and the price is right and then purchasing it at the counter along with the blank DVDs that you originally stopped it to buy, then wondering on the way home what the Amazon reviewers have to say about it or if you could have gotten it cheaper at Best Buy - which is also on your way home. And, as the developer suggests, using the wish list function to build a list for brainstorming gift ideas for the holiday season.
Using the always-on and location awareness features and Google Maps integration, Cab4Me enables calling a taxi to any location worldwide with a single click. You do not need to know the number of the local cab company. You do not need to enter or even know the address you want to be picked up at. You do not need to place a call. I want it to work in Cambridge and Berlin, especially on cold, rainy nights when there are public transit strikes.
PicSay is an image editor for your mobile phone camera. Photos can be enhanced with color correction,
highlighting, or distortion effects, you can add word balloons and titles to them and then share them via e-mail, your blog, or photo sharing sites. PicSay uses reverse geocoding via Android's location API to provide address information that can be used as text for a picture--instant (and customized) birthday cards, spontaneous dinner invitations, remarkably silly dog moments captured and documented! No more uninformed, impulse buying with GoCart to help me gather as much information as I need to make smart, informed purchase in realtime in realplace with a bridge to online--"users can scan the barcode of a product in a store using their phone’s built-in camera. Once scanned, it will search for all the best prices on the Internet and through the inventories of nearby, local stores. After scanning a product, users can also read online reviews or create price alerts to help monitor price drops. Ah! No more walking through Frys, encountering the wireless keyboard section, memory being jogged that you need a new one (can't get my speech recognition software to run on Vista), thinking this looks nice and the price is right and then purchasing it at the counter along with the blank DVDs that you originally stopped it to buy, then wondering on the way home what the Amazon reviewers have to say about it or if you could have gotten it cheaper at Best Buy - which is also on your way home. And, as the developer suggests, using the wish list function to build a list for brainstorming gift ideas for the holiday season.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Our Multicore Future - a Ramble
The August hiatus has come and gone, and Silicon Valley is heating up - it seems like SV runs on an academic calendar with September being the fresh beginning a new year.
Earlier this summer I used the phrase "our multicore future" and was challenged about my certainty of its impact on our computing and communications infrastructure for the coming decade and beyond. So this sent me back to 1999 to re-read a chapter I had written for a book published by PwC where I discuss the collision of Moore’s Law with the laws of physics and its implications for future computing architectures.
The 20th century semiconductor approach to making smaller and more powerful transistors is scaling – reducing all the dimensions proportionally—to increase the number of transistors and increase the speed of the circuit. However, once the feature size of a transistor is scaled to below the sub-micron domain, the properties that control the operation of the device begin to change and limit further miniaturization. These fundamental limits are imposed by the laws of physics and thermodynamics -- where microprocessors can get no faster and electronics can get no smaller -- and potentially bring to a close the phenomenal 40 year economic ride that had given us some much innovation and has so dramatically changed our world.
How do we transition from the past to the future? What will intervene between the computing architecture of the past and the potential architectures of the future - molecular, optical, quantum or DNA computing? What will the worldwide semiconductor industry devise to sustain the multi-billion dollar investment the design and manufacturing infrastructure? What might extend Moore's Law for several more orders-of-magnitude? This is where our multicore future could take center stage.
The challenges are many -- particularly on the hardware side with interconnect technology between/among cores and on the software side with new programming paradigms required to harness the power of multicores -- and I will be pointing out new relationships and developments and writing small vignettes on this topic in the weeks and months to come.
PwC: PricewaterhouseCoopers Technology Forecast 2000. "Beyond the forecast: technologies in the 21st century.”
Earlier this summer I used the phrase "our multicore future" and was challenged about my certainty of its impact on our computing and communications infrastructure for the coming decade and beyond. So this sent me back to 1999 to re-read a chapter I had written for a book published by PwC where I discuss the collision of Moore’s Law with the laws of physics and its implications for future computing architectures.
The 20th century semiconductor approach to making smaller and more powerful transistors is scaling – reducing all the dimensions proportionally—to increase the number of transistors and increase the speed of the circuit. However, once the feature size of a transistor is scaled to below the sub-micron domain, the properties that control the operation of the device begin to change and limit further miniaturization. These fundamental limits are imposed by the laws of physics and thermodynamics -- where microprocessors can get no faster and electronics can get no smaller -- and potentially bring to a close the phenomenal 40 year economic ride that had given us some much innovation and has so dramatically changed our world.
How do we transition from the past to the future? What will intervene between the computing architecture of the past and the potential architectures of the future - molecular, optical, quantum or DNA computing? What will the worldwide semiconductor industry devise to sustain the multi-billion dollar investment the design and manufacturing infrastructure? What might extend Moore's Law for several more orders-of-magnitude? This is where our multicore future could take center stage.
The challenges are many -- particularly on the hardware side with interconnect technology between/among cores and on the software side with new programming paradigms required to harness the power of multicores -- and I will be pointing out new relationships and developments and writing small vignettes on this topic in the weeks and months to come.
PwC: PricewaterhouseCoopers Technology Forecast 2000. "Beyond the forecast: technologies in the 21st century.”
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