Wireless networking has changed the way we are able to access data in our homes and offices. Today we can move around the home while downloading documents and file without interrupting access to the internet. In the past, an internet connection meant using wires.
Like most things in the technology world, wireless networking is always looking to gain speed and while the 802.11n specification was only ratified this year there are already new specifications in the works. One of the specs in the works from the Wi-Fi Alliance is 802.11ad. This specification is in the very early stages of development, but promises much higher bandwidth than current specifications and will operate on the 60 GHz spectrum.
The Wireless Gigabit Alliance has completed the specifications for its WiGig technology that promises to deliver enough bandwidth for wireless connections up to 7Gbps. The standard is written but is undergoing editing and IP review before it is made available to partner companies.
The specification is designed to operate on the 60 GHz frequency band, which is unlicensed. The spec will allow the transfer of high bandwidth content such as HD video. The technology is designed to be complementary to WiFi and while no formal ties to the WiFi Alliance are in place, the WiFi Alliance has said that the two specifications should be complementary to each other.
WiGig will come to market in 2011 if all goes well with technologies like HomePNA, HomePlug, Multimedia over Coax, Ultrawideband, and Wireless Home Digital Interface. Originally, the WiGig specification was to be available to members this quarter, but the alliance has not yet set out requirements for Adopter memberships for those who only want integrate the technology into their gear. The specs are already available to member companies who helped develop the specification.
WiGig was originally envisioned as a technology that would allow the transmission of video and other content within the same room for use in streaming video wirelessly from a computer to a display and other uses. The specification was expanded with the use of beam forming technology to be able to operate around a home. WiGig will be backwards compatible with WiFi. Many of the designing companies who worked on WiGig are WiFi firms as well.
Ali Sardi from WiGig Alliance said, “The majority of silicon makers in the WiGig group are Wi-Fi developers, so you can bet when they designed this new spec they were not going to throw out everything they did in the past.”
I’ve got an e-mail lately from a reader which reads,
“Hey dude, I’ve been looking for a solution to copy files from a remote Windows PC to a Linux PC without installing any free programs. My company only has PuTTY on Windows XP and I can’t seem to use scp like how we usually use it on unix consoles. Thanks a mil! — Ramesh”
Wow. I’ve got readers. LOL.
Anyway Ramesh, a big HI from me and thank you for the question (can’t seem to find good articles to blog these days). You can try Google-ing for the answer but seems like not many have the right answer.
Nonetheless, yours truely have a simple solution. You won’t need PuTTY for this but you’d probably need firewall permissions to allow a similar program (which is just an executable - hence no installation) through to the network. This program is called PSCP. Download the executable (.exe) from the link and launch your command line. Get to the working directory where you have saved your PSCP executable.
To copy a file from Windows to Linux, type in your command line:
pscp <windows directory where the file exists> username@linuxMachineAddress:<path>
The command line will ask for your password and just watch your files get transfered.
The other way around will be much easier. You’ll need PuTTY (or any Windows SSH client) for this. Log into your SSH account and let the magic begin. To copy files to your Window machine just type:
There you go! There are other options for transferring data over SSH but it requires installation at the host machine (which you may not have access to). Using PSCP just simplifies this matter.
Windows 7 comes with an option that allows an Administrator to easily allow/prevent other users (with no admin rights) to run executable programs. This works well especially if you share your PC with guests and you would not want them to run unnecessary programs. Or it could be just to prevent your less tech-savvy Dad from accidentally running tons of applications.
By disabling access to programs, users will need to input an admin password whenever they try to run these programs. Therefore, you’ll have a generally “safe” computing environment. For example, if you are not keen in letting guest users to access the web, you can limit the guest’s account access to FireFox or Internet Explorer. And that is it!
Here is how you go about setting up a protected environment using Windows 7 ‘parental controls.’ Make sure you have a normal user account without administrator rights. This account will be the one that has restricted programs. Next, setup parental control on the created account (you will need to log into an admin account for this).
Go to: Control Panel -> User Account and Family Safety -> Parental Controls -> ‘Created Guest User Account’ .
Under the heading Parental Controls, check the option‘On, enforce current settings.’ Click on‘Allow and Block Specific Programs‘
After clicking the link, you’ll be brought to a screen where most of the installed programs can be located. Deselect the programs that you don’t want your guest users to run. Be sure to know the relationship between programs (some applications may invoke another, causing unwanted conflicts). And when you’re done, just click OK! It is as simple as that. Now you can be assured that your guest users will not misuse the programs in your PC.
With the recent release of Ubuntu 9.10 - Karmic Koala, there have been posts on problems getting the Huawei USB dongles to work. After doing a simple search, it seems that this problem lies with a bug in the kernel and bug fixes are on the way. For the meantime, here are two ways to get the Huawei USB dongles to work.
The first way is the easiest: Let the kernel recognise the USB device on system start-up. This is done by attaching the USB dongle before the boot-up of the OS. The network manager should be able to detect the USB device thereafter.
The second work around, as taken from here involves removing the conflicting device drivers that comes with the dongle - the USB storage drivers. Firstly, you have to remove the USB storage device drivers,
sudo rmmod usb-storage
** If rmmod vomits you this error message,
ERROR: Module usb_storage is in use
unmount the storage device from your desktop first before running the rmmod program. That should circumvent the error messages.
The vendor ID and product ID can be found by typing lsusb into command shell which gives you a list of USB device IDs in a format of xxxx:yyyy (where xxxx is your vendor ID and yyyy is your product id). The USB device should be available at the network manager now. However, there are some reports that the second method may only work for some USB modem only.
As of the time of writing, a release has been committed but not yet released. Let’s hope that it’ll come out soon enough. Cheers!
P.S. I am using Huawei E169 USB modem. I have tried the first method and it seems that it consistently works (several times now). The second method works for E220.
I noticed something fishy on Facebook a couple minutes ago. A few of my friends posted this message on their profile update on Facebook, via their mobile phone.
I’m 8 1/2 pounds lighter thanks to the FREE trial pack of this new colon cleanser that I got! visit ExpressColon.net to get yours! efO
There are variants of this message. The bulk of the message, including the site’s name, is the same, except the last three letters. A Google search of the site does not return any results. A simple search on the popular online social network site returns several hits. And these profile updates were made within the past 2 hours or so. My conclusion would be that this update were done without the author’s knowledge and could be a potential virus on the mobile phone.
Looking at the profiles, it seems that the mobile phone affected is an iPhone. Well, I’ll need to double confirm this as soon as I manage to contact them. Could this be the first iPhone viral infection?
Looking through the list, some of these gadgets brought back bitter-sweet memories. Remember those days when it was unbearably funny to see your friends talking on their cool “N-Gage”? No doubt the concept of a portable gaming mobile phone was plausabile but what’s with placing the phone’s microphone at the side of the device? What a concept engineering blunder!
Click here to view the list of the top 25 tech flops of the decade taken from zdnet.com.
In my opinion, Microsoft Windows Vista should be in that list. And if it was a Singapore version, SingtelMioTV has to be in that list too! The programs aired are just so - sucky.
The race to fast boot times is on, with MontaVista making the latest headlines. The embedded Linux vendor announced in the United States Tuesday its latest system is able to boot in one second, and released a video demonstrating a vehicle dashboard system going from cold boot into a “fully operational” state in that time.
The one-second timing may not be directly translatable to a desktop Linux OS environment, however, because booting a full-fledged OS requires additional drivers and processes to be launched.
Meanwhile, Intel’s netbook Linux OS, Moblin, too is eyeing fast boot-up times. It recently partnered Phoenix Technologies which produces a fast-boot technology called HyperSpace, promising to bring the technology to the Moblin project.
The software consists of a stripped down Linux environment with a browser and Wi-Fi software, meant to go from boot-up to the Web quickly.
According to reports, Moblin integrating HyperSpace should be able to go from powered off to the Web in less than 10 seconds.
The rumors may be getting closer to the truth, or vice versa, as a report surfaced from Taiwan today that Apple plans to releases its much discussed tablet computer this October. Guesstimated pricing: $800.
The Taiwanese site InfoTimes reports (in Chinese) that the device will have a 9.7-inch touchscreen, making it a tad smaller than most netbooks but adding touchcreen features and iPod mystique.
October would be a reasonable time for such an announcement, since Apple would be unlikely to announce much before availability in its stores, and such an announcement would be close enough to Christmas for the tablet to become 2009’s hot gift item–at least for Apple fans.
InfoTimes sources its report to various supposed parts and manufacturing partners, which adds some weight to the rumor. As is usual, Apple won’t say anything about new products and its partners also remain officially mum, at least if they want to remain an Apple partner.
The InfoTimes report is in broad agreement with earlier reports of an Apple tablet, then supposedly due in 2010. If the device is due in the next 9 months, October is a good choice for a release date.
Target market? The safe guess is that the tablet would be an oversized iPod touch, aimed primarily at entertainment users. However, for those used to sending email and doing other “work” on their iPhones, the tablet might be a pleasant step up, at least in terms of the size of its virtual keyboard.
While this is still the stuff of rumor, it seems to be circling in on something. The price makes sense, as does what little is heard of the specifications. Apple will want to have a hot new product for the holidays and a big-screen iPod makes a lot of sense as portable video gains in popularity.
This isn’t the MacPad tablet computer that I’d like to see–I want a real keyboard–but the current rumor doesn’t rule it out, either. And it may be that an Apple tablet computer and an iPod on steroids are better as separate devices.
Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition and Athlon II X2 250 target the mainstream
AMD’s Athlon II CPU die
Intel and AMD have both been touting their capabilities in the multi-core race. Each semiconductor company has been showing four core, six core, and even eight core CPUs in their bids to impress the buying public. Decreased manufacturing costs due to smaller process geometries means that they can make these multi-core CPUs cheaply, but still charge large markups for these extra cores.
Unfortunately, Windows XP and Windows Vista don’t handle all these cores efficiently. Most software is still single-threaded, which means often means that only two or three cores are fully utilized, if that. Multi-threaded games and software that is designed for four or more cores is on its way, but right now dual core processors are the way to go for most users.
This has been reflected in each company’s sales strategies and their successes. Although Intel talks a lot about quad-core CPUs, over eighty percent of Intel’s sales are dual core or single core CPUs. AMD, on the other hand, has bet heavily on quad-core CPUs with the original Phenom launch and now the Phenom II series of CPUs. Unfortunately for AMD, Intel’s Core 2 Duo lineup is still incredibly popular, as consumers are choosing higher-clocked dual core CPUs versus AMD’s quad-cores.
AMD has been working hard on their 45nm Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) transition, and they are now ready to take on Intel in the mainstream dual core marketplace. AMD is launching two new Phenom II X2 dual core processors, as well as a more affordable Athlon II X2 dual core processor.
The AMD Athlon II X2 250 has two cores running at 3GHz with a 65W Thermal Design Power (TDP), a reduction of 30W from the Athlon X2 CPUs built on the 65nm process. It has 2MB of L2 cache, but will not have any L3 cache in order to differentiate it from the Phenom II X2 CPUs. It is manufactured using the AM3 package and designed for DDR3, but will use AM2+ motherboards with DDR2. Memory support includes DDR2 DIMMs up to 800MHz (PC2-6400) and DDR3 DIMMS up to 1066MHz (PC3-8500). AMD did this specifically to reduce the upgrade costs for its customers who don’t want to change their platform completely. All that is needed is a BIOS upgrade from the motherboard manufacturer.
The Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition runs at 3.1GHz, but the multiplier is unlocked. Each core will have 512KB of L2 cache, but will have access to a large L3 cache. It will have an 80W TDP and use the AM3 socket. A Phenom II X2 545 clocked at 3GHz is supposed to come later with a 65W TDP. Both will support DDR2 DIMMs up to 1066MHz (PC2-8500) and DDR3 DIMMS up to 1333MHz (PC3-10600).
Key to AMD’s success will be pricing and positioning. Instead of going for Intel’s high end dual core processors such as the top selling Core 2 Duo E8400, AMD is positioning the Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition at $102 against the Intel Core 2 Duo E7400. Likewise, the Athlon II X2 250 will be priced at $87, against the Core 2 Duo E5400 at $113.
Higher end models such as the Phenom II X3 720 at $125 and the Phenom II X4 810 at $175 will continue to compete against Intel’s high-end dual core CPUS such as the Core 2 Duo E8400, which sells for $163.
All prices listed are either MSRP or OEM pricing. Street prices at retail stores and at online e-tailers are likely to be lower.
AMD beat its time to market estimates for “Istanbul”
The sluggish global economy has meant that not only were consumer computer sales down, but sales in the enterprise computing space for servers and data center computers were down significantly as well. The only thing for chipmakers like AMD and Intel to move ahead with new processors that offer more performance with power savings that help offset the cost of upgrading to new hardware.
Last week, Intel previewed its 8-core Nehalem EX server CPUs set to launch in the second half of 2009. AMD is now hitting the market with its new high-end 6-core x86 server processors codenamed Istanbul. The Istanbul Opteron processor is aimed at server markets with four or more sockets. AMD points out that the Istanbul processors are ready to go now, months before Intel is expected to begin shipping its Nehalem EX CPUs.
AMD’s Istanbul CPUs are expected to start shipping this week and many of the top OEMs will be rolling out server systems powered by Istanbul processors. AMD was able to beat its original time to market estimation for Istanbul, something that will go a long way towards erasing memories of the troubled launch of the AMD Barcelona line of processors.
AMD reports that the Istanbul processors will give users a 30% increase in performance per watt with an overall performance improvement of 40 to 50% all within the same price and thermal envelope of its predecessor.
The Istanbul processors also come with other new technologies like HT Assist. AMD’s John Fruehe wrote in a blog post, “[HT Assist] can give you much better throughput over the HyperTransport technology connections by reducing the amount of traffic generated by the processors in seeking the shortest path to data that they need.”
HT Assist is a feature eWeek reports will make servers using the new technology more appealing to companies in the high performance computing space.
Analyst John Spooner from Technology Business research said, “The trend we’re seeing is that there is a certain percentage of customers who are looking to scale down from a RISC/Itanium/mainframe-type machines to the high end of the x86 market. These customers are moving into top-of-the-line four-way and higher x86 servers.”
