2018 Wholesale Gold-Plated Jewelry blogs

The wraps are off the worst-kept secret in the tech industry: Cisco Systems’ move into blade servers. But what’s interesting is that Cisco isn’t being shy about how it wants to compete with Hewlett-Packard.

As expected, Cisco will launch its foray into blade servers, but The Wall Street Journal has an interesting take. The paper notes how former partners are now trying to nail each other as the tech industry matures.

HP also has its own networking gear that could ultimately threaten Cisco.

The good news is that this big scrum is likely to mean better pricing for customers.

From here out you can view the tech industry in terms of tectonic plates shifting without any lubrication. You’ll have a handful of cash rich giants vying for market share and new growth markets.

The Journal quotes Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior saying:

That’s why Cisco’s Monday launch will be notable because of its partners as well as the product details. IBM is teamed with Juniper. Brocade bought Foundry Networks. And Cisco’s blade launch will include partners such as BMC, EMC, VMware, and Microsoft.

This was originally published at ZDNet’s Between the Lines.

We’re going to compete with HP. I don’t want to sugarcoat that. There is bound to be change in the landscape of who you compete with and who you partner with.

Update 3:30 p.m. PST: To include updated layoff figures and percentages.

As expected, the Recording Industry Association of America, the lobbying group of the four largest music labels, has laid off between 20 and 25 workers, or about 20 percent of the RIAA’s workforce, according to music industry sources.

“Like so many other businesses and organizations in this economy, the difficult times required us to find a way to fulfill our mission with fewer employees,” an RIAA spokesman said via e-mail. “We’ll continue our work to defend our rights, to expand the marketplace, and to achieve parity across platforms.”

In addition to the layoffs, the RIAA eliminated some positions through attrition, the sources said. In all, 31 of the company’s 104 employees, or just under 30 percent, were either laid off or quit recently and will not be replaced. The RIAA leadership remains unchanged. My sources say CEO Mitch Bainwol and President Cary Sherman have contracts extending through the end of 2010.

According to the sources a poor economy and the music industry’s declining revenues led to the layoffs. The Motion Picture Association of America, the trade organization that represents the largest film studios also recently reduced staffing.

Back in December, when the RIAA announced that no longer would the industry focus on suing individuals for illegal file-sharing, sources told CNET that the top labels would soon slash the RIAA’s budget. The group is now focusing on enlisting the help of Internet service providers in thwarting piracy.

Digital Music News first reported the news.

According to two music industry sources, the layoffs happened earlier this month and most occurred at the RIAA’s regional offices.

Research In Motion’s co-CEOs could be facing a hefty fine for their involvement in yet another stock options-backdating scandal.

Like many technology companies over the last decade, RIM was found to have awarded backdated stock options to executives, including Balsillie and Lazadis. As many as 40 percent of those awards were assigned an improperly chosen grant date designed to inflate the value of the award. That’s legal in the United States, if properly disclosed and accounted for, but that rarely happened.

(Credit:
RIM)

The two executives have already repaid RIM for the gains they incurred improperly, as well as the legal costs of defending the actions.

RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie

The Globe and Mail reports that the Ontario Securities Commission–the Province of Ontario’s SEC–is considering imposing fines of up to C$100 million ($79 million) on RIM’s Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazardis as punishment for allowing stock options backdating to occur on their watch. Balsille would have to pay the majority of the fine, according to the report, which, if it reachs $100 million, would be a record for Canada.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET News)

(Credit:
Apple)

The final word goes to CNET laptop editor Matt Elliott, who says, “They’ll sell a lot more MacBooks and fewer Pros.”

The new "brick" body construction.

Manufacturing process aside, the actual silhouettes of the systems aren’t changing much–some observers were hoping for a more radial re-imagining. The MacBook Pro, for example, looks substantially similar, with minor changes to the ports (Mini DisplayPort) and other features (battery meter on the side, easier-to-access hard drive bay).

The GeForce 9400 M combines a chipset and GPU, which will hopefully be a big improvement over the Intel integrated graphics found in most MacBooks today. It certainly won’t match dedicated gaming laptops (and
Mac gaming is still in a sorry state), but we’ve long decried the sad state of integrated graphics, and in fact, have long given up on finding a decent 3D gaming test to run on systems with integrated graphics. (Note that a dedicated 9600M GT graphics card–with either 256MB or 512MB of graphics memory–will be available in the MacBook Pro.)

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET News)

We’ll be bringing you new reviews, videos, benchmarks, and hands-on impressions of the new MacBooks later this week, so stay tuned.

Also interesting to note is that 128GB SSD drives will be available in both the 15-inch and the aluminum 13-inch models, although they’ll likely have a hefty premium.

The new aluminum 13-inch MacBook looks just like a shrunken-down MacBook Pro and costs $1,299 or $1,599.

The MacBook Air likewise looks physically the same, but adds a 128GB SSD option (Sony’s got an ultraportable Vaio with a 256GB SSD and an optical drive), and a Mini DisplayPort. We had hoped Apple would take this opportunity to really revamp the Air, which is a product people love conceptually, but are less fond of in real-world applications.

We were impressed with the build quality of the MacBook Air, and hearing that it’s made of few individual pieces than other laptops makes sense. But the 13- and 15-inch systems always seemed plenty sturdy to us, so we’re not sure if this will be a big selling point for casual consumers.

The most obvious of these is the so-called brick manufacturing process, whereby instead of building a frame and overlaying the chassis, Apple is taking the process used in the making the MacBook Air and expanding it to other MacBooks. The brick comes from a 2.5-pound piece of aluminum (in the case of the Air), which is literally whittled down to 0.5 pounds, meaning the internal frame is part of the same piece of metal as the chassis.

It may not be $800, but reducing the entry-level price for the regular 13-inch MacBook to $999 is a smart move, and crosses an important psychological barrier. But we can’t imagine too many people will want the old white plastic design (couldn’t they have at least made the $999 model black?) after they see the sleek new metallic version–which looks just like a shrunken-down MacBook Pro (and costs $1,299 or $1,599). Note that the $999 model also lacks the new Nvidia chipset, the glass trackpad, and the edge-to-edge glass-covered display seen on the new Pros and more expensive 13-inch models.

Multitouch gestures aren’t exactly new–we’ve seen them on the MacBook Air, and they were added to the last round of MacBook Pro upgrades. But one of the biggest physical changes to the new Apple laptops is the inclusion of what is being called a “multitouch glass trackpad.”

The revamped MacBook Pro will come in 15- and 17-inch sizes.

For complete coverage of the Apple notebook news, see “Apple polishes up its MacBook line.”

Tuesday’s announcement of new and updated MacBook laptops from Apple could never have lived up to the hype of the past several weeks.

While switching to Intel CPUs a couple of years ago was a huge breakthrough in terms of mainstream appeal for Macs, Apple is moving away from Intel motherboard chipsets in favor of a new one from Nvidia.

We got quite used to using gestures on the Air (as well as the
iPhone and
iPod Touch), and the idea of a bigger (reportedly 39 percent) touchpad is always a good idea–too many PC makers include tiny touchpads that require several swipes to get your cursor across the screen. The big questions are: Will software makers take advantage of it? And will users get used to not having a physical button to click?

After endless predictions about tablets, touch screens, and cheaper (some would say recession-friendly) products, from an $800 MacBook to an Apple Netbook, the end result was instead a solid list of upgrades and improvements, with a few noteworthy innovations and a few interesting developments that may get lost in the “Where are the $800 MacBooks?” shuffle. Here’s our take on what the new developments mean for you.

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Hi5 is one of the world’s largest social networks, with over 56 million monthly visitors. It’s a company that demands maximum scale and performance from its infrastructure.

The rest is history. Hi5 is now getting better performance on its PostgreSQL deployment and using less hardware. Sure, it’s paying EnterpriseDB for the service, but saving money in the process.

As such, it’s no surprise that Hi5 recently opted to go with PostgreSQL as supported by EnterpriseDB.

However, the real story in Hi5’s decision is its work with EnterpriseDB. The Web 2.0 world has traditionally adopted open source heavily…and paid little to nothing for it. Hence, the real news here is one Web 2.0 company’s realization that buying support for open-source software makes a lot of sense/cents.

That’s extreme performance, and stands as a continued testament to open source and its increasingly routine ability to deliver significant performance at a lower cost, just as Red Hat announced earlier today in its Linux benchmarks.

PostgreSQL? Isn’t that an open-source database? It can handle that load?

Indeed.

A key challenge and requirement for Hi5 is that the social-networking site cannot be taken offline for maintenance. The company’s PostgreSQL databases must deliver exceptional stability and performance 24 hours per day, seven days per week, 365 days per year to serve users around the globe. Any issues must be resolved in real time, with the system still running.

Hi5 runs hundreds of PostgreSQL servers in one of the world’s largest commercial OLTP PostgreSQL installations. All Hi5 subscriber data, including user profiles, metadata associated with user photos, and comments, is stored on the company’s PostgreSQL databases…In June 2008, the PostgreSQL-based system delivered more than 18.5 billion page views, serving nearly 11 million visitors to the site every day.

In Hi5’s case, it was already using PostgreSQL before it selected EnterpriseDB to offer services around its PostgreSQL deployment. EnterpriseDB did a quick review with Hi5, discovered that its PostgreSQL deployment wasn’t optimized, and convinced Hi5 that it could improve PostgreSQL’s performance.

Yes, there are likely some Web 2.0 outfits that really can scale MySQL, PostgreSQL, Linux, etc. as well as anyone can, but guess what? They’re probably not you. Most companies could use some help: support, consulting, training, etc. Save while you spend. It’s really not complicated.

(Credit:
Asus)

That said, people seem to really love these little guys, and the Eee PC 900 has earned high marks from CNET and users alike. This model features an 8.9-inch screen, 20GB solid-state drive, 1.3-megapixel Webcam, and Linux operating system–all wrapped in a 2.2-pound package measuring just 8.9 inches by 6.5 inches by 0.9 inch. Travel-friendly it is.

Find more deals, coupon codes, and bargains on CNET’s Shopper.com.

The rebate deal (PDF) runs through the end of October, so you’ve got plenty of time to research the Eee before buying. I’ll admit this is a very attractive price point, but I’d still be more inclined to pay $400-500 on a full-fledged notebook. Agree? Disagree? Inquiring cheapskates wanna know.

Are you looking for a lightweight, ultraportable PC that’s easy on the wallet? Mwave.com has the Asus Eee PC 900 20G for $294 (after a $65 mail-in rebate). Ground shipping will run you about $11.

In case you’re not familiar with the Eee PC, it’s one of the new breed of “Netbooks” that have become incomprehensibly popular in recent months. I say that because I’m not a fan–I prefer a full-size screen and keyboard, and enough processing power to do more than just check e-mail and cruise the Web.

TPI Composites raised $20 million in a series B round from GE’s investment arm, Landmark Growth Capital Partners, NGP Energy Technology Partners, and Angeleno Group.

In a statement, managing director of GE Energy Financial Services Kevin Walsh said that the investment fits GE’s Ecomagination program and underscores the ability for the wind power industry to create jobs.

Indian Wells, Calif.–General Electric is investing in a manufacturer, TPI Composites, that once made fiberglass boats but now has moved into making wind turbine blades and other industrial goods.

The company makes composite materials for wind turbines, military vehicles, and other transportation applications. Its manufacturing process allows it to make materials that are strong and light, according to the company. It currently supplies turbine blades for some of GE’s wind turbines and Mitsubishi Power Systems.

(Credit:
GE)

GE, which makes $14 billion in its Ecomagination business of environmentally themed products, has invested in a number of smaller renewable energy technology companies, including solar concentrator maker Soliant Energy.

“We’ve had sporadic interruption of online banking service. It doesn’t impact customer information, just the ability to access it,” she said. “We are continuing to correct the error. The site should return shortly.”

The site had been down for several hours as of midday Pacific time, according to Burke.

One colleague, who made it only halfway through logging in to the Bank of America site before it timed out, got an e-mail a short time later with the subject line: “Remember how convenient it is to bank online?” The e-mail provided instructions for how to reset the password if you have had problems logging in because you forgot your online ID or password.

Tara Burke cited “temporary systems issues” and declined to say what the cause was or whether it was related to Bank of America’s proposed purchase of Merrill Lynch or other recent turmoil on Wall Street.

It’s unclear if the e-mail is an unfortunate auto response to the temporary site outage or if it is just really bad timing.

The Web site for Bank of America was down on Monday for some customers, a spokeswoman for the bank said.