Microsoft pulls XP SP3 over corruption fears

Researchers at Hewlett-Packard have developed a working unit of a memory circuit that has existed in theory for 37 years, which could ultimately replace RAM and make computers more intelligent by tracking data it has retained.

The technology, called memristor, could allow computers to make decisions by understanding past patterns of data it has collected, similar to human brains collecting and understanding a series of events.
For example, a memristor circuit could be capable of telling a microwave the heating time for different food types based on the information it has collected over time, said Stanley Williams, senior fellow at HP.
A memristor circuit requires lower voltage and less time to turn on than competitive memory like DRAM and flash, Williams said. “Because it [uses] less voltage and less time, of course, it uses much less power,” Williams said. Denser cells also allow memristor circuits to store more data than flash memory.
Through prototypes, HP is trying to show circuit designers what memristor is capable of doing. “What we have done is confirmed a concept for a new electronic device that was originally proposed nearly 40 years ago,” Williams said.
Memristor is the fourth fundamental circuit element, joining the other three – resistor, capacitor and inductor – that had been known for 150 years, Williams said. The element has properties that cannot be duplicated by any combination of the other three elements, Williams said.
“It is as fundamental to electronic engineering as a chemical element is to chemistry or an electron is to physics,” Williams said.
In a 1971 academic paper, Leon Chua, a mathematician and professor at the University of California at Berkeley, wrote that memristor would have properties similar to a synapse in a brain. The synapse makes connections between two neurons, and the more often a signal is sent to a synapse, the stronger the synapse gets.
“That is a very different type of behaviour than anything that had been observed before in circuit elements,” Williams said.

AXE,M TECH ADS

An advertisement for a job recruiting company in Berlin, Germany. Depicting people working in the vending machines, ATMs, it delivers the message that ‘Life is too short for the wrong job’

Stickers were placed in selected car park locations and car workshops where the product is sold in Malaysia. It delivers the message that M-Tech Plasma HID Lights are 300% brighter than regular headlights. The burn effect sticker from the headlights really leaves an impression.

This controversial idea was done in Dubai by Sandeep Fernandes and Husen Baba Khan for the male deodorant, Axe. The mouse pad that every guy needs.

Loss of big Verizon contract lowers EDS quarterly profit

DALLAS, Texas — Electronic Data Systems Corp.’s quarterly profit fell 13 percent, hurt by the loss of a key customer, and the operator of corporate computer systems gave a disappointing outlook for early 2008.

EDS shares fell more than 5 percent in after-hours trading.

EDS on Wednesday reported net income of $189 million, or 36 cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31. That was down from $217 million, or 40 cents per share, a year earlier.

The company said that adjusted earnings, excluding the costs of 2,400 employees taking early retirement, totaled $295 million, or 55 cents per share, versus a comparable calculation of $254 million, or 47 cents, a year ago.

Analysts, who usually exclude restructuring costs from their estimates, expected profit of 57 cents, according to Thomson Financial.

Chairman and Chief Executive Ronald A. Rittenmeyer said the fourth-quarter results were solid, “but clearly we realize it’s not good enough.”

Revenue rose 2.2 percent, to $5.83 billion, below the $5.88 billion forecast by analysts.

Sales in the Americas fell, however, by 8 percent, and operating profit in the region dropped 28 percent. The company said this was driven mostly by the loss of work for Verizon Communications Inc., which decided to handle its own technology work. EDS disclosed last year the early end of the contract, which called for EDS to get $5 billion to $7 billion in revenue from 1999 through 2009.

EDS said it would earn about 5 cents per share in the current quarter, which ends March 31. Analysts had predicted 29 cents, although it appeared that 8 cents of the difference resulted from the cost of early retirements.

The company forecast first-quarter revenue of $5.1 billion to $5.3 billion, also below Wall Street’s expectation.

For 2008, EDS repeated that revenue would grow 2 percent and earnings would reach $1.35 per share. Analysts had projected $1.62, but company officials said analysts were failing to exclude 30 cents in restructuring costs.

The company had issued similar forecasts three months ago. Rod Bourgeois, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., said it was positive that the company didn’t lower its outlook in the face of concern about a slowing economy.

Rittenmeyer said some contracts that EDS hoped to sign in late 2007 were pushed into the new year. But the Plano-based company is “relatively comfortable” it can avoid damage if the U.S. economy slows because half its revenue comes from overseas and more than one-third from work for U.S. and U.K. government agencies.

For all of 2007, EDS earned $716 million, or $1.35 per share, up from $470 million, or 89 cents, in 2006. Revenue rose 4.1 percent, to $22.13 billion.

EDS is often credited with inventing the information-technology outsourcing business, but there are now many low-cost operators, some in India, competing for that work. EDS has responded by moving into faster-growing fields such as helping companies manage software and perform back-office functions like accounting and personnel.

The company has also moved nearly one-third of its 139,000 jobs to low-cost countries such as India.

Shares rose 27 cents, to $19.61, in regular trading before the report was released. In extended trading, they fell 82 cents, or 4.2 percent, to $18.79.

China snows show world faces new disasters – UN

GENEVA – China’s devastating snowstorms and cold of the past month show that the world must prepare for new types of disasters caused by what was once called freak weather, United Nations experts said on Wednesday.

The experts said the Chinese events, which Beijing says affected some 100 million people and are likely to cost at least $7.5 billion, underlined the need for greater global cooperation on global weather forecasting

A truck driver peers through a hole in his ice-covered windshield while waiting for help on the road in Shaoguan, South China’s Guangdong Province, February 2, 2008. [Xinhua]

“So-called freak weather is becoming more common, and reducing vulnerability to unexpected extremes must be a top priority for governments,” said Salvador Briceno, head of the UN’s disaster relief agency ISDR.

Separately, World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) chief Michel Jarraud, said the freeze that swept China from the north to its normally near-tropical southern provinces underlined the need for better seasonal climate predictions.

“The world needs to strengthen existing mechanisms that predict climate events and then ensure that this information is made available to all, especially to the benefit of people in developing countries,” Jarraud said.

China’s Meteorological Administration says the January extremes probably developed out of a La Nina – or low sea- surface temperatures – in parts of the Pacific in the second half of last year combined with unusual weather from the west.

More of the Same

It is also warning that the country, now recovering as skies clear and power is restored from the freeze which killed scores of people, must be ready for more of the same as a result of global climate change.

Briceno said in a statement from ISDR headquarters in Geneva that China’s sufferings underscored the need for all governments to build infrastructure that can withstand previously unthinkable weather.

“When billions of dollars in potential losses are balanced against the low costs of prevention in the future, the choices should be clear,” he said. Most countries could expect to face similar situations in the coming years, he added.

Jarraud, speaking at a news briefing, said it was essential to ensure better seasonal – as well as short- and long-term climate predictions if lives were to be saved and economies protected as weather patterns change.

Speaking after a three-day meeting of specialists on weather and disaster relief from a wide range of disciplines and international and national agencies, he said it was also vital to ensure better transmission of forecasts around the globe.

The meeting was called to prepare for a UN World Climate Conference in Geneva in the second half of next year which will focus on the science underpinning seasonal predictions – an area in which Jarraud said there had been too little investment.

The conference, following two predecessors in 1979 and 1990 which set up key bodies on climate change will decide what science is needed over the next decade to provide reliable forecasting and urge governments to support it, he said

Apple iphone Voted as Coolest Gadget of the Year

T-Mobile’s latest Windows Mobile smartphone bucks the utilitarian integument of other devices and dons some sharper duds. It’s about the size of a BlackBerry Pearl, and should tempt enterprise and consumer users alike.

If ever there were a Windows Mobile smartphone to get some cross-over appeal, the HTC Shadow for T-Mobile is it. T-Mobile apparently gets that design is an increasingly important distinction when it comes to smartphones. If you were to line up every smartphone on the market, you’d see very little real differentiation, especially between ones with qwerty keyboards. The Shadow is different.

It has style in spades. A large, glossy screen. Nice metallic finishes, and a small form factor that will slip into a pocket as easily as a briefcase. Not only does it look good, it works well, too.

T-Mobile, HTC, and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) developed a user interface overlay that sits on top of Windows Mobile 6. This overlay is what most people will use to access content and applications on the phone. It is a very good UI, and lets you almost forget that the Shadow is a WM6 smartphone. It uses a combination of a spin dial and sliding icons to interact with the phone in a much more enjoyable and intuitive way than I’ve seen on other WM6 devices.

There are some foibles, though. It comes with Wi-Fi, but, shockingly, no UMA client to take advantage of T-Mobile’s Hotspot@Home service. The UMA client is a no brainer, it should have been on there. And there are no headset jacks. If you don’t have stereo Bluetooth headphones, or a funky miniUSB headset adapter, you won’t be able to listen to your Windows Media Player tunes while on the go. And of course it remains stuck on T-Mobile’s EDGE network. (T-Mo, you really need to get that 3G network up and running.)

These aside, the Shadow is a solid little smartphone that can easily double as a daily workhorse and fashionable Saturday night phone at the same time.

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