] On Monday, Orion Multisystems, a start-up company based
] in Santa Clara, California, was to announce a desktop
] computer for engineers and scientists who want more
] computing power than is easily available from Fry's, the
] local retail chain for personal computers. Orion is
] building a computer the size of a pizza box, intended for
] a single engineer or scientist, that will have 12
] processors yet consume about the same amount of power as
] a standard desktop personal computer.

[ Presumably a 12 node transmeta box... seems like a neat idea, if it can find a market... that's a hell of a workstation. -k]

IHT: PC maker bets on personal power

So this leaves universities somewhat alone. This isn't meant to be self-serving, but it plays nicely into the change in higher education -- it has to become more research university-oriented than just classroom affairs.

Q&A With Nicholas Negroponte

[ Thinking about jumping into BioTech now that your IT jobs are gone? Might want to reconsider...

-k]

Testing the offshore waters / Biotech firms experiment with moving work overseas

] "Why is Steve afraid of opening up the iPod?" he asked in
] a telephone interview. "Steve is showing a high level of
] fear that I don't understand."

[ Or maybe Steve realized that Real is a marginal brand these days, and that his plans have been working just fine to date without making the iPod a general purpose media player. We all know the strategy. iTunes Store sells iPods which sell Macs. It may not work, but I don't think Real content is gonna help either way. Am I just being a snob? Do people still care about Real? -k]

RealNetworks Seeks a Musical Alliance With Apple (or Else!)

] Diana Farrell, director, McKinsey Global Institute,
] said, “People in the US are looking at it as a job
] issue. They are not economists and therefore, they
] don’t necessarily see the whole picture. What’s going
] to happen is that offshoring is actually going to
] benefit US businesses even more than India.” She said
] it was a profoundly new way of doing things and would
] change the structure of organisations. Offshore was
] about global wealth creation and integrating economies,
] she explained, adding that it would create more
] high-value jobs in the US than people could imagine today.

[ i. don't. belive. you. -k]

Outsourcing to add 22 mn US jobs

] Music Industry Piracy Investigations this morning raided
] the offices of P2P companies Sharman Networks and
] Brilliant Digital Entertainment, along with the homes of
] key executives and several ISPs.

!!!

UPDATE: MIPI raids Sharman Networks, Brilliant Digital Entertainment: ZDNet Australia: News: Business

] Once a day, an Internet "Motoman" rides a cherry red
] Honda motorcycle slowly past the school. On the passenger
] seat is a gray metal box with a short fat antenna. The
] box holds a wireless Wi-Fi chip set that allows the
] exchange of e-mail between the box and computers.
] Briefly, this schoolyard of tree stumps and a
] hand-cranked water well becomes an Internet hot spot.

[ that may be the coolest creative use of wireless technology i've seen... it's like the futuristic retro you see in scifi sometimes. very very cool. -k]

Rural Cambodia, Though Far Off the Grid, Is Finding Its Way Online

] Computer and printer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ.N said
] on Thursday it will soon sell a digital music player
] based on Apple Computer Inc.'s AAPL.O popular iPod player
] and announced plans for a home "entertainment hub."

!

i don't know how to think about this. intelligent cross promotion or clone fiasco? brain... can't... function...

Reuters | HP to Sell Own Version of Apple iPod Music Player

] [Real] has created a jukebox that will play all the media
] formats used by its own and other song stores--including
] secure downloads from the iTunes store.

it uses QT in the background. apparently it's native format is also AAC, though probably with a different DRM wrapper.

the potentially major coup here is that Real player should work in Linux since it's all based on their common Matrix platform. This could be the first of the new generation to work in linux. Of course, since RealPlayer is an all-in-one audio/video player, they could move towards movie distribution as well.

However:
] The company concedes that, like its rivals,
] it doesn't expect profits from the song store
] itself, since the cost of licensing music,
] distribution and credit card fees reach close
] to the retail price of the songs themselves.
]
] But Real hopes that exposing consumers to digital
] music though the relatively familiar pay-per-song
] model will ultimately whet appetites for the
] all-you-can-eat model of its $10 per month Rhapsody
] service.

i'm still undecided on the validity of this approach. i have no interest in what is effectively a choose-your-own-adventure radio service, but perhaps other people will?

Real offers new tech, song store | CNET News.com

] Good thing the economy is rebounding, because it will
] have to absorb another 5,000 good jobs exported to India
] and China.

IT is only gonna get worse from here...

Daily Kos || Political Analysis and other daily rants on the state of the nation.