Week 1 Blog 3: Attraction Of Windows 7 To Netbook Users

Microsoft is going to release Windows 7 Starter operating system by changing their first strategy towards it. The first strategy was that by running this operating system, the user was only able to run three applications at the same time. Now, by making the changes, this operating system is not limited to the number of applications that it can run simultaneously. One reason they had their first strategy was to have users to buy the upgrades for that edition. Which I believe Microsoft comes to the point that they are making mistake. Not only they will not gain any money but they will lose customers. Windows 7 especially Starter Edition is going to become one of the operating system that is being used in the Netbooks. As we know Netbooks are being used to connect to Internet and use some of the services such as web browsing, emailing, and having access to the remote access web based applications. Also they were only able to run simple operating system such as Windows XP and Linux. Netbooks are not able to handle intensive resource operating system such as Windows Vista.
Mr. LeBlanc, a Windows communications manager at Microsoft, mentioned that all editions of Windows 7 have been designed to run on the broadest range of hardware. Microsoft Beta have to test all editions on computers with the following characteristics 1 GHz processor, 1 GB of system memory, 16 GB of available disk space, Support for DX9 graphics, DVD-R/W Drive, Internet access. This shows Windows 7 operating system can be used on the very basic machines as same as Netbooks. But as Mr. LeBlanc said starter edition has only the subset of higher level editions. The list of things that Windows 7 Starter does not include has been mentioned in the article. In case of I as a buyer of operating system will not buy starter edition because it cannot support the switch users without having the user to log off.
In conclusion, I believe others operating system which were being used in the Netbooks can be replaced by Windows 7 but not the starter edition because it still have some problems that users will concern.

Source:
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Windows/Microsoft-Makes-Windows-7-Even-More-Attractive-to-Netbook-Users-454809/

Other Sources:
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/01/microsoft-to-google-we-already-offer-that-see-windows-live.ars
http://www.channelinsider.com/c/a/Tech-Analysis/Windows-7-Starter-Edition-Right-or-Wrong-Choice-for-Microsofts-Netbook-Play-868189/

Week 1 Blog 2: Designing more efficient data centers

IBM’s new next-generation data center seems to be all about more efficient management of waste so that the energy needed is cut down by 50 percent. An on campus gas-powered turbine will be providing electricity for the data center machines as well as the cooling services. Some of the power savings will come from simple and logic design changes, such as the heat generated by the runtime of the turbine being used to heat the buildings on campus. The $12.4 million, 6,000-square-foot data center however will not stop there. Since the output of the turbine is DC, the entire data center will run on DC voltage. This will create some obstacles for the hardware being adapted to run on DC voltage, but it will also eliminate the power loss associated with the DC to AC conversion in other similar data centers. According to another article I found, data center energy consumption has more than doubled since 2000. This is a very big step in bringing forth 21st century solutions to a problem that keeps growing. To explain why it was that IBM chose the University of Syracuse to partner with, they pointed at the fact that it requires a multi-disciplinary mindset in order to tackle the green IT issue. From a software standpoint, the data center will feature a completely virtualized design. This will allow for applications and workloads to be dispatched more efficiently in real time allowing for better management of power. I think that from a software design perspective, virtualization will however add an overhead in processing speed which might actually back fire in energy efficiency if utilized in a very busy data center such as those that Google has throughout the world. Moreover, it is important to note that while the data center features such as the heating of other buildings from the turbine generated heat fits nicely in this environment, it wouldn’t fit in environments where the data center is the only building on campus. For example an isolated data center building wouldn’t be able to take advantage of this design. As a conclusion, I think that this is a step in the right direction, more research and exploration needs to be done to solve the green IT problem.

Source:
http://www.reuters.com/article/gwmTechnology/idUS73610767920090529

Other sources:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197006210

Week 1, Blog 1 : Restriction of Windows Live Messanger On The Embargoed Countries

Microsoft recently is blocking its Messenger ,Windows Live Messenger service, to the five embargoed countries such as Cuba, Syria, Iran, Sudan and North Korea. On Friday Cuba criticized Microsoft on blocking its instant messaging service. This is the truly “harsh”treatment of Washington on banning these countries on transfer of technology. As one of the director of Windows Live Product Management said “This is not a new change”, Microsoft had made that changes since last year with the last product release of Windows Live Messenger. I, one of the users of this product, agree that this is the harsh treatment towards this countries. Because we have some citizens or non citizens in United States that are from these countries, and Messenger is the easiest way of communication with their families or friends in their countries. Also, we shouldn't’t think of Windows Live Messenger for the citizens, the tool to only communicate or entertain themselves . But if we think of it, citizens of USA that are born in those countries and can speak in those languages can outsource some of their work especially on the software side to those countries. Therefore, Windows Live Messenger would be the best way to communicate by creating the group. General speaking, why when two governments have problems with each other, the people of those countries should not improved in technology. Not only United States blocked some services toward these countries, but the government of the embargoed countries use “filters on the Internet to block pages that contain pornography or are considered a threat to national security.” So both sides, restricts people to have a correct use of technology. Even though, Cuban government uses Windows operating system and other Microsoft programs on many of its computer , but it is working toward replacing them with open-source programs. Also, benefits of open source software is one of the subjects that has been taught in high schools.
Toward the issues of blocking usage of messenger for embargoed countries, one solution is mentioned in other article. User can change the home location which is located under registration information to the new country or region that is not under the name of those five countries. Because Microsoft make decisions based on the profile information opposed to IP addresses. If this is the case blocking Messenger from Microsoft wouldn’t work well.

Original document:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i56hsOdkf0riZRU-x7LbBqG2XN9AD98G9D801

Other sources:
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/05/microsoft-blocks-messenger-in-us-embargoed-countries.ars