Technical Journal

Week 5 Blog 3: Automatic Analyzing Songs Using Machine Learning Algorithms

2009-06-27T19:37:00.000-07:00

Automatic analyzing songs
Computers have made big changes in musical industry. Right now, people can find music by their title, type of genre, name of artist, but they are not able to recommend a good tune. There are plenty of recommendation systems for music listener. For example iTunes recommends songs to the user based on comparing the collection of other user. Now researchers are using machine learning algorithms, “in combination with a Facebook game, to classify music based on the automated analysis of the songs.” The researchers want their system to be able to not only tag songs with title or artist but they will be able to tag by genre, instrument, and descriptive words. Researchers are gathering information by using a game called Herd It. I believe in order to encourage people to play this game, they will award users points when they tag songs in a similar way to other user’s tagging. Using most of machine learning algorithms, in order to give the satisfy results, required lots of sample data. Once the data is collected, first they group the songs, it’s given the same tag by users and then applies a statistical analysis to the waveform patterns, and they will look for common feature between the songs with same tag. The researchers believe that the system has commercial potential. The system expected to take an unfamiliar song, from anywhere, and suggest appropriate tag and similar music. Lots of companies who were even trying to reach to this goal long time ago, before this research like Pandora, the Internet radio site, has done this but 100% manually by getting help of their users. Other company like the Echo Nest is working on automatic analysis of music. They are transforming the waveform patterns of songs based on what is familiar to human ear and then combining that information with tagging information gleaned from blogs and other posted on the Internet. Then they apply machine learning algorithm to identify feature of songs that are associated with specific tags. As researchers expect the automatic analyzing the song will increase as the demand for song is going up and sites will encourage users to tag and find new music in order for the researchers get the better results in their field of research by using machine learning algorithms. I as one of the user who do not listen to music that often or not looking for any special or new music that are coming out because of not being familiar with singer’s name or the albums. I believe this research and the system that are coming up with will encourage me to look for music and listen to it. Because I believe this system even help the user to save the time and make decision much faster. The usage of this algorithms will make searching much faster and gives more accurate recommendation.

Source:
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/22894/page2/

Other Sources:
http://webhome.cs.uvic.ca/~gtzan/mir_course/papers/FXPAL-PR-02-171.pdf

Week 5 Blog 2: Installation of Windows Update Without User Permission

2009-06-26T22:01:00.000-07:00

Windows surprised lots of their users by downloading windows updates without asking any permission. The people who are get surprised are the ones who had set up the operating system to ask them for permission before installing any updates or patches. Lots of users who have mentioned above noticed after June 9th, their computers start windows updates and set of security patches when they are rebooting or turning on their computers. This will happen when windows determine new patches, then sometimes it will show update icons in the task bar. That’s the case when you are rebooting or turning on, those update will be installed without caring about the permission part. I believe this bug should be solved and windows should not be able to decide to install the updates. One of the reason, that I agree with, is that Microsoft released numerous versions of patches on the same date. And in one of the article mentioned, the extra demand for downloading patches and updates, may have caused some downloads to be incomplete. Also Microsoft Support Document admits that “incompletes downloads are known to disable the notification icon and possibly the approval dialog that's supposed to appear during shutdown.” Microsoft manager denied the updates issues were a bug. Paul Pottorff, a senior product manager with the Windows Update team, said "[But] If there is only a throttled update, they shouldn't be notified. If there are any other available updates, they should be notified. The presence of a throttled update does not prevent Automatic Updates from notifying users about other not-throttled updates. Furthermore, this behavior has been the same for a long time and hasn't even been touched for more than 9 months." This problem of updating without permission is not something new and the same kind of problem had happened on 2007. In the article there are some notes on how to control windows updates. I believe since windows had that update, their teams should be familiar with this kind of bug and try to avoid having that bug in the patches.

Source:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/167352/is_windows_installing_updates_without_permission.html

Other Sources:
http://windowssecrets.com/2009/06/25/01-Windows-may-install-updates-without-asking
http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2009/06/is_windows_installing_updates.php

Week 5 Blog 1: Speeding Genome Sequencing by Using Sudoku Method

2009-06-26T20:38:00.000-07:00

Scientists at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have discovered a new method of pooling a multitude of DNA samples for sequencing. DNA sequencing is the process of deterring the exact order of the billions of chemical building blocks called bases that make up DNA. The new method, scientists come up with, called DNA Sudoku. This method named like this because of the math game; also, it is using the same algorithm to speed up sequencing DNA. The DNA Sudoku method allows short combinations of polynucleotide with bases, T, C, A, G, to be combined and sequenced simultaneously. The sequencing is done by comparing the letter order to the correct order of known human genome. The last methods, algorithms, were not able to analyze genome sequences in a short amount of time and actually they were only able to do one sequence of DNA at a time. The Sudoku method is a big improvement on current techniques and algorithms that can ideally only combine hundreds of samples. Hannon, a genomic expert and leader of the team for Sudoku approach, said that “the technique can be used to analyze specific regions of genomes form a large population to identify those who carry genetic mutations that may cause genetic disease.” These days, the new methods that are coming out are concerning two approaches for genome sequencing speed and the cost. This method as the team leader, Hannon mentioned is cost effective. He exampled a project for other researchers that cost $10 million, for his researcher group the same size of project will cost between $50,000 to $80,000. One of the reasons that are getting done faster and cheaper is that each pool of samples needs to be tagged with barcode versus the traditional method for sequencing high number of DNA samples, each sample had to be first tagged with a barcode. “The Sudoku method is currently ideally used on genotype analyses that need only short segments of an individual's genome. Clinical applications for the new method could be for HLA typing, which is a diagnostic tool for predicting the risk of organ transplant, cancer, and autoimmune disease.” As the other article mentioned, researcher’s competition are based on how to analyze human genomes faster and cheaper. Therefore, this group of researcher made a lot of competitions for themselves. If the researchers use this method, Sudoku, to sequence genomes, I believe the number of gene sequences, that has been discovered till now, will be increased much faster.

Source:
http://www.dailytech.com/Scientists+Use+Sudoku+to+Speed+Genome+Sequencing/article15526.htm

Other Source:
http://venturebeat.com/2008/02/10/pacific-bio-lifts-the-veil-on-its-high-speed-genome-sequencing-effort/
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/faq/seqfacts.shtml

Week 4 Blog 3: New patch for webOS released

2009-06-21T19:35:00.000-07:00

Palm Pre, or the iPhone killer is it is known by the media these days, it’s a very intuitive and easy to use device. The operating system that it uses is webOS, a new operating system for Palm. When it was released, Palm promised customers that it would release free product updates for its operating system. This was met with skepticism due primarily to the fact that Palm’s updates were very far apart and very infrequent. However, Palm seems to be keeping its promise, release the second update in 2 weeks. That’s right, Palm Pre has been out now for about 2 weeks and webOS is on version 10.0.3, after being updated twice. The new update does not contain anything major, such as new software, but it contains a couple of reconfigurations as to how the Smartphone synchronizes with the Exchange mail server and Google’s web services. Some minor bug issues that were opened were also addressed with this patch. This updated was pushed to Palm Pre users Friday so the next few days everyone will be able to have this installed in their Palm Pre. One of the interesting features of webOS seems to be the way that the updates work, you can double click on an application called Updates and it retrieves the new patches automatically. Because Pre is Wi-Fi enabled, even for those who do not have a data plan with the carrier is possible to get the patches. One of the major progressions for Palm as a company with this new operating system is the way that they handle updates. Before webOS, Palm’s updates would require that the user lose everything they had store on the phone. With webOS, upgrades are easy, the new binaries install over the old ones without erasing any user data. One thing is for sure, the more I read about Palm Pre, and the more I can’t wait until my contract expires so that I can get one.

Source:
http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=15360

Other sources:
http://www.palm.com/us/products/phones/pre/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebOS

Week 4 Blog 2: New Patch for Java flaw on Mac OS X After a Long Time!

2009-06-21T18:59:00.000-07:00

On May, apple give a new patch for updating java just for Mac users, but this had some java flaws in it, which lots of the hackers and security researchers start posting blogs and the data over the Internet. Also the security firm Intego, which makes security software for Macs, warned “users of a java flaw in OS X Java distribution which could allow java applets to execute malicious code.” The vulnerability also affected any other products or programs like java development kit, Sun’s JRE, and all the application that share the same core classes as Java SE and the J2SE. This was the big issue for the ones who were using the java applications every day. These days most of the websites include java features, especially applets, which could place the Mac user’s in dangerous of spyware. Therefore, for the solution at that time before the update version came out, security companies are suggesting Mac users to disable java on their browsers. As in one of the article mentioned “Security vendor SecureMac also advises Mac users to disable Java in their Web browser until Apple fixes the issue. “This vulnerability could be exploited to perform 'drive-by-downloads' commonly used as a means to infect computers with spyware, or any arbitrary command with the permissions of the executing user,” a company note on the SecureMac site reads. “All a user has to do is visit a web page hosting a malicious Java applet to be exploited.”” When programmer didn’t find any update to solve this issue, they have started to complain about that, Mac OS X security issues are ignored if the severity of the issue is not adequately demonstrated. Finally, one month later, apple release a patch for Java on OS X 10.5 and 10.4. Also Apple described that Mac OS X in update version 4 has improved “its reliability, security and compatibility for Java SE 6, J2SE 5.0 and J2SE 1.4.2 on Mac OS X 10.5.” This wasn’t the only time that Apple gave the update after a very long time and place user’s security in danger. There have been some flaw in QuickTime video player and DNS which after months these issues had been solved. Comparing all the big companies like Microsoft, Adobe, and Apples which are competing with each other, they have given dozens of patches or updates within last month. So we expect these companies to have a delay in giving the updates out but six months for this kind of vulnerability that had mentioned earlier is not acceptable.

Source:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Apple-Fails-to-Patch-Java-Vulnerability-112185.shtml

Other Sources:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Apple-Fails-to-Patch-Java-Vulnerability-112185.shtml

http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/971

Week 4 Blog 1: Microsoft Security Essential

2009-06-21T16:01:00.000-07:00

Microsoft is scheduled to get launch its new free antimalware service beta version on Tuesday. This version is going to be available for US, Brazil and Israel in English. The complete version of Microsoft Security Essentials is going to be available later this year. The service will protect user’s PC on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. This product will be replaced with the current antivirus that Microsoft is offering called Windows Live OneCare. Currently Windows Live OneCare cost $49.99 a year for limited download on three computers but the free version of antivirus is going to be replaced with that one. Therefore it is estimated that to stop Live OneCare on June 30th. Symantec and McAfee, one of the most popular ones which are covering all the materials we have to care regarding the security of our PC and even ourselves over the Internet, are contending that Microsoft Security Essential , free product, will likely not provide the quality of technologies that they offer in the security suites. Some applications such as firewalls, data loss prevention, backup and recovery, and encryption technologies are not going to be offered on Microsoft Security Essential. I believe that this free version cannot compete with other security vendors. This version is going to be for the ones who are able to afford having antivirus and save their computers from viruses, Trojans, worms, and so on. I think if these security vendors have fear of Microsoft, they should have the fear of any other companies that they are offering free version of antivirus like AVG. I personally had tried the AVG free, and I was really happy with it. It almost provides the necessary features that I need in order to protect my computer. Also “executives at AVG, a security company with a free antivirus offering, maintained that Microsoft's impending release of Security Essentials would not threaten their core business.” Because as in the articles mentioned, AVG first tries to attract customers by offering free version. Then it starts to convince their customer that they need more than the basic version. Overall I think as soon as the complete version of Microsoft Security Essentials came out, I will start using it since I don’t have any antivirus because of some internet issues that I had when I was protecting my computer with Symantec.

Source:
http://www.crn.com/security/218100201;jsessionid=ZR4V2F5HHO0MUQSNDLPSKH0CJUNN2JVN

Other source:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10268040-83.html

Week 3 Blog 3: iPhone Hacking

2009-06-14T18:36:00.000-07:00

The organizers of a computer security conference called CanSecWest challenged attendees to break into any one of five smart phones, among them iPhone. Few researchers attempt to hack the devices, especially iPhone, but there was no succeed. Two researchers who have previously found vulnerabilities in the security of the iPhone. And Apple disclosed and issued a patch for dozen such security holes in the device last November. Those two researchers will present a way to run no approved code on Apple’s mobile device at the Black Hat Security Conference. Many of the researchers simply refuse to work on that simply because the flaw has been exploited. Charles Miller, a principal analyst at Independent Security Evaluators who is one of those two researchers, said that “"If you want to attack iPhones, you have to be able to run code to do whatever it is you want to do," Maybe that is grabbing credentials, maybe it is listening into phone calls, maybe it is turning on the microphone. Who knows? But this all requires that you be able to run code.” Miller had found the places where changing permission is allowed on the factory iPhones. These parts give the hacker or researcher more freedom to code generic and reliable second stage attacks. Apple is restricting the data that can be executed in the memory; also requires the program to be cryptographically signed by Apple. One of the security features of code signing is to provide security when deploying. Also every code signing implementation will provide some sort of digital signature mechanism to verify the identity of the author or build system, and a checksum to verify that the object has not been modified. Even though Miller found that how to solve this problem for the programmers or users. “Apple failed to prevent unauthorized data from executing. This means that a program can be loaded into memory as a non executable block of data, after which the attacker can essentially flip a programmatic switch and make the data executable.” The result of the research is not going to be given to outside environment after he was sure that the issues have not been solved in the new iPhone 3.0. He is going to mention the strengths and weaknesses of the security, so cell phone user can make decision to what device we should use and how we should use them. Also his research could make the way for the developer to skip the signature part and distribute the program to the users. I personally as one of the cell phone users will not chose iPhone, because of this issue. I as the programmer will find it much easier to use Windows Mobile.

Source:
http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/22782/page2/

Other Sources:
http://www.macworld.com/article/132675/2008/03/iphone_sdk_jailbreak.html
http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Code-Signing.html

Week 3 Blog 2: Microsoft Browser Offer Fails to Impress Europe

2009-06-14T16:18:00.000-07:00

On 2004, Microsoft had some issue with the European commission based on the windows media player. They were claiming that by having windows media player already installed on the operating system, and then there would be no choice for competitors to show off their products like real player. Therefore, Microsoft shipped N version of Windows XP and vista in order to comply with the European’s commission. But this solution didn’t work because they were offering the full version in parallel.
Opera, a Norwegian browser initiated the complaint on December 2007, and asked the commission to deal with Internet Explorer (IE) as they did with Media Player. Therefore, according to the complaint on Thursday, June 11th 2009, Microsoft offered to give the version out without having Internet Explorer on it. The new version for European country would be Windows 7 E version. “But the commission in a statement, dismissed the offer, saying the move could not further its goal of promoting browsers that compete with Internet Explorer.” But the most important reason for rejection of this offer is that the European commission did not want to repeat a mistake, when Microsoft ordered the software maker to sell a N version of windows which is without its media player. Commission is deciding on idea to suggest Microsoft to distribute windows with competing Web browsers installed and then allow retailers, computer makers or even customers to decide from a “ballot screen” menu which browsers to install. The ballot screen options, or in other words the web browsers candidates are Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari, Google’s Chrome, and Opera beside Internet Explorer.
As in the other article Microsoft mentioned, it needs start telling OEMs by the end of this week what exactly they expect in Windows 7, so they can begin the software engineering work necessary to have their windows 7 PCs available in stores on that day. Microsoft is moving forward with a collaborative tone: "We will continue to discuss browser issues and other matters with the Commission. But even as the Commission processes continue, we know we need to have a clear plan in place to address the “bundling” issue in Europe because, at the end of the day, the obligation to comply with European competition law belongs to Microsoft alone".
I agree with the complaint that Opera made on this situation. But there is a case if a customer receives the PC without any web browser installed, and he doesn’t have enough knowledge to use the computer. Then how this problem is going to be solved for him. I as one that I almost tried every web browsers, I personally more comfortable to use IE and Google chrome than the others. Even it was very hard for me to choose which browser to use. I prefer to have IE already installed than the others. Also the E version is not going to work as the commission mentioned too in case of selling the complete version in parallel.

Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/13/technology/companies/13euro.html?ref=world

Other Sources:

http://www.dailytech.com/Windows+7+Will+Ship+Without+Internet+Explorer+in+European+Markets/article15305.htm

http://www.euractiv.com/en/infosociety/new-eu-competition-case-looms-microsoft/article-169118

Week 3 Blog 1: Wireless Power Harvesting for Cell Phones

2009-06-14T05:26:00.000-07:00

Nokia is developing technology that could draw enough power from ambient radio waves, so we don't need to charge the battery. Ambient electromagnetic radiation, the sort of stuff that is given off by our WI-FI transmitters, Mobile phone antenna and even giant TV mast, could be harnessed and converted into sufficient electrical power to top our battery simply as we walk. The Nokia devices will work as the same principle as a crystal radio set by converting electromagnetic waves into an electrical signal. The way that crystal set radio works, it uses no power. The circuit consists of an inductor (called a coil), a variable capacitor, a germanium diode, a filtering capacitor and finally very high impedance headphones. Rouvala, a researcher from the Nokia Research Centre, in Cambridge, U.K, said that the prototype needs to harvest 50 milliwatts of power in order to charge the phone with power. With today's technology, the prototype is able to harvest only three to five milliwatts. Therefore, as it mentioned in the article, Nokia needs a wideband receiver to capture signals from between 500 megahertz and 10 gigahertz; a range to cover many different radio signals. As it mentioned other universities are working on different projects related to use the power that the device is capable of harvesting from ambient RF.

"Earlier this year, Joshua Smith at Intel and Alanson Sample at the University of Washington, in Seattle, developed a temperature-and-humidity sensor that draws its power from the signal emitted by a 1.0-megawatt TV antenna 4.1 kilometers away. However, this only involved generating 60 microwatts.

Smith says that 50 milliwatts could require around 1,000 strong signals and that an antenna capable of picking up such a wide range of frequencies would cause efficiency losses along the way." It has been mentioned that it is possible to see this capability in the cell phones within three to four years. According to the other article this technology is not going to be used only for Nokia but it should be used for any other devices which are capable of working with the less power. Nokia plans to use this technology in combination of other energy-harvesting approaches like solar cells that could be embedded in the outside case of handset.

This technology, harvesting ambient electromagnetic radiation and converting to electrical power, would be the best one for most of the cell phone users. I personally will get the phone that has this technology so I wouldn't need to carry the cell phone charger with myself, since sometimes I will forget to charge it. But there is a question regarding that, is this technology depends on the atmosphere condition or not? Some researchers on the ambient radiation, in Hong Kong, agreed that the radiation level will be changed depends on the weather condition. According to the rain, wind, tropical cyclone, and even seasonal changes make changes to the radiation level. Therefore, I believe it's not going to work perfectly for all over the world.

Source:

http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/22764/

Other Sources:

http://www.dailytech.com/Nokia+Prototype+Generates+Power+from+Ambient+Radiation/article15382.htm

http://www.weather.gov.hk/radiation/tidbit/200512/ambient_radiation_level_e.htm#

http://www.streettech.com/archives_DIY/crystalSet.html

Week 2 Blog 3: Is Palm Pre Taking Over iPhone?

2009-06-07T14:29:00.000-07:00

In the new era, there sexist a lot of hand held computers super smart touch screen computers, which iPhone is the king. On Saturday June 6, 2009, the new smart phone called Palm Pre came out which is a touch screen phone. This article is giving the advantages and disadvantages of this phone in compare to the existence smart phones especially iPhone. Palm gives out this phone with the new operating system called webOS which in contrast with other smart phones like “iPhone, Google’s new Android phone operating system, and the modern BlackBerry models from Research in Motion, it does more than making phone call or browsing internet. It’s like a platform like a PC, capable of running a wide variety of sophisticated third party programs, or apps, from social networking gateways to games to business tools.” This phone has a Wi-Fi capability. Also, it is in the same range of rice like the other smart phones $200. One of the biggest advantages of Palm Pre over iPhone is having the physical keyboard. I believe that attract more customers who are iPhone’s fan to it. One of the reasons that I as a smart phone user didn’t chose iPhone, is having the virtual-keyboard screen. “The Pre also features an elegant new take on the multitouch user interface. It uses a card metaphor. Each program, or window, appears in virtual cards on the screen, and you can flip through them and zoom in to use one, or quickly dismiss one by flicking it up and off the screen. An individual email, or contact, can occupy its own card. And, unlike on the iPhone, the Pre can simultaneously run any programs you choose.” The other big feature, it automatically can merge similar contact from disparate sources, like Google and Face book, same thing applies for the calendars. Also, with the wireless capability that it has, it can automatically sync in air with Google’s calendar or Microsoft exchange. Pre features a wireless backup service, which stores copy of data on a server plan, in case if you need to recover them. Also in the other article mentioned that Pre makes use of a Low-Temperature Polysilicon (LTPS) LCD display. Another interesting thing about this phone is that developer designed it so makes iTunes recognize it as the iPhone or iPod. But when it comes for using the Apps store, and downloading the application; it is possible to get problem like losing everything and you’ll be force to recover the phone in order to use Wi-Fi and the applications. One of the reasons is that developers are still working on that; also, they already mentioned that it is not complete. By considering the advantages and disadvantages of this phone over other smart phones, I will look for this new phone to buy it after they fix the issues they have now with downloading and so on. But the final decision depends on how new iPhone is going to be presented. Also because I am a little bit biased toward Microsoft, I have to wait for Windows mobile 7.

Source:

http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20090603/palms-new-pre-takes-on-iphone/

Other Source:

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/13123/new-media/will-palm-pre-shake-up-smart-phone-status-quo

Week 2 Blog 2: Bing New Microsoft Search Engine Or Google

2009-06-06T20:32:00.000-07:00

Microsoft launched new search Engine called Bing on Wednesday. “Bing suffers from some handicaps, starting with one whose initials happen to spell out: "But It's Not Google." Yet it works fairly well as a general-purpose search engine, outperforms competitors in a couple of areas and makes a major contribution to mobile Web searching.” This artsy site (mouse over the home page’s images) seems to handle most routine queries as well as other search sites. Bing is trying to compete with other search engines especially Google and yahoo. In this article the most concentration is on the differences between Bing and Google. I personally tried to search some keywords with both Google and Bing. In some cases you will get the better results, right to the point, than Google. As the article mentioned some generic terms can confuse Bing. In this case the term should be enclosed in quotes in order to get the good results. But on the other hand, Google’s result will direct to right point. One of the interesting features that Bing offers is showing the preview of each pages text when you take the mouse over the search results from the right sides. But this feature will not be shown if you float mouse over from any other side. Bing uses the “geolocation “technology, but it is not able to correctly locate it on map. Therefore Google is still the best search engine for this particular feature. Like other sites, Bing offers search for images and videos. But it still not able to as much result as Google provide. That also applies for searching News. It locates “far fewer items than Google News.” Bing, Microsoft, is trying to attract more people in the shopping search tool. It provides the feature for retailers to offer rebates to their buyers who click through this search result. Also Microsoft buys the travel search benefits from the Farecast site, in order to give much better result for airfares routing. As some other features that in other article have been mentioned, Microsoft is trying to compete with Google. Therefore, Microsoft is held talks with Yahoo! Inc. to combine both companies and present more attractive search engine to the advertisers. The traffic through Yahoo! provides more query data, helps Microsoft to refine the search engine and generate more results. Google’s point of view toward the new search engine is that it encourages the search engine companies to work harder and come up with new features for the users. Overall as my experience of using Bing.com as a search engine, I personally get better result for searching basic terms in Bing than Google. But I still prefer using Google for getting variant results through search. As Chief Executive Officer Ballmer said, “Microsoft is trying to get it right”. I think whenever Bing gets complete and provide valuable results, I will mostly use Bing.

Source:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/06/AR2009060600019.html

Other Sources:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aLz.RKYje3lg

Week 2 Blog 1: Using Cell Phones Coupon and RFID Tags

2009-06-06T18:36:00.000-07:00

For the last two weeks, Diary Queen offered the customer the RFID tags, each with peel-off adhesive strips, which can be attached on back of cell phone, wallet, and watches or anything that customers always have with them. So you can not miss it or misplace it when it’s the actual time to use it. These tags give the differing purchase histories of each customer. Also the tags will serve as digital coupons as well as makeshift CRM/loyalty programs. These tags are working as trial and it has been tested only at one location in Rochester. Customers can use the tag only if they have it activated. They can activate it by texting the number which goes to the system controlled by an Indianapolis RFID vendor called Tetherball and associates the tag with the customer’s identification. Coupon recommendations get modified when purchases are made and the CRM database expands. Then customer will receive the coupon on their cell phone. These tags can be scanned by the contactless readers which communicate with both Tetherball and the chain’s payment processor. They are trying to find the way to use the texted coupons and pay by using the cell phone and having the track of first data which is the number that is associated to the RFID tag. (Self-checkout) One of a mobile marketing company in Chicago, Samplesaint Inc., has developed the technology that lets the supermarkets scan the image of the coupons from the cell phone.(the bar code is designed small so it can fit on any mobile phone’s screen. In my idea according to the article since all the supermarket’s items are going to hold the GS1 DataBar, even for poultry items (which the DataBar for this item can hold the expiration date, and gives warning if it was expired). Then the both idea, offering the RFID tag to the customer and the way to do check out and using the coupon images on the cell phones, can decrease the mistakes that impacts the profit margins of that supermarket. Also this way will save a lot of time for the customers. But this idea is only true if supermarkets provide enough scanners for the customers.

Source:
http://www.storefrontbacktalk.com/payment-systems/dairy-queens-mobile-coupon-experiment-look-ma-no-phone/2/

Other sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/business/07novel.html?_r=1&ref=technology
http://www.avidian.com/crm/crm-database.aspx

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

2009-05-31T19:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-31T14:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-31T08:52:00.000-07:00

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