Analysis: Loner creates Garbo, just for people who "want to be left alone."
By Dan Tynan, Mar 31, 2009
Like many people, Randy Hallet is fed up with the Facebooking of the planet. Unlike most, he's decided to do something about it. The 30-something Webpreneur has created what he calls "the anti-social network." Hallet declined to speak by phone, though he did agree to an interview via Twitter. He tweeted: "I'm fed up with Web 2.0. I moved 3000 miles to get away from some of these people. Now I have to see what they had for lunch every day." Many people feel pressure to participate in social networks, even when they don't really want to, Hallet explained. The next thing they know, photos of them wearing nothing but body paint and Spock ears have been broadcast to complete strangers. It damages both their reputations and their psyches, he laments. So Hallet created "Garbo." Named for the 1930s film star turned recluse, Garbo allows users to quietly de-friend everyone in their Linked-In, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Digg, and other social networks without anyone noticing. New friend requests sent on any of these existing services will be greeted with a one-line response: "I want to be left alone."
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Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Windows 7 to Usher in $200 Netbooks
by Marcus Yam March 31, 2009
Microsoft held a meeting with OEMs to discuss Windows 7 (what else?) and the topic of netbooks naturally came up. While we know that there will be six different SKUs of the OS, we don’t yet know at which price point each will sit. What we do know, however, is that Windows 7 Starter Edition will be the cheapest one, which will be no doubt the option for OEMs looking to build the cheapest netbook running a Windows. Microsoft thinks that netbooks at the entry level could hit a new low price point -- something netbooks have been slowly moving further away from with ballooning feature sets. “We have a couple of the OEMs continuing down a path to be very aggressive on price. It puts the pressure on everyone. We're anticipating opening price points to reach about $200 at least in the US market this holiday season,” said Mark Croft, the director of OEM Worldwide Marketing, according to a TechRadar story.
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Microsoft held a meeting with OEMs to discuss Windows 7 (what else?) and the topic of netbooks naturally came up. While we know that there will be six different SKUs of the OS, we don’t yet know at which price point each will sit. What we do know, however, is that Windows 7 Starter Edition will be the cheapest one, which will be no doubt the option for OEMs looking to build the cheapest netbook running a Windows. Microsoft thinks that netbooks at the entry level could hit a new low price point -- something netbooks have been slowly moving further away from with ballooning feature sets. “We have a couple of the OEMs continuing down a path to be very aggressive on price. It puts the pressure on everyone. We're anticipating opening price points to reach about $200 at least in the US market this holiday season,” said Mark Croft, the director of OEM Worldwide Marketing, according to a TechRadar story.
Read more here -->Link
Nvidia hoodwinks reviewers again with mythical GT275s
Tame hacks don't tell tales
By Charlie Demerjian March 31, 2009
IF YOU THOUGHT Nvidia's spectacularly successful strategy in renaming the G92 to the GTS250, then seeding reviewers with ringers was low, you will love what it is doing with the 275. Yes, the company can go lower. The official specs are 240 'cores', and clocks are at 633/1404/1134MHz for GPU, processor and memory respectively. Yawn. GDDR3 of course, no GDDR5 now or until the GT300 cores, the GT200 can't do it, but that is old news. Things are going to suck for NV on a die area board layers, and therefore cost for the rest of the year. So, what is the sleazy part? Where to begin, where to begin. The first one is that there is no GT275 card or ASIC, in fact, as of CeBIT, the Nvidia partners didn't know it existed, mainly because it didn't. This 'planned' card wasn't planned, and is what you call a reaction. Take a sticker, slap it on an existing card, and blow different fuses. We hear there will be only 5,000 or so made, just enough to seed the tame press and put a few on Newegg. Cards in this price range normally have initial shipments more than 10 times that, and go on from there. When you don't have something to counter a competitor, make something up, lose money on each, and claim the high ground, just not in the ethical sense of the word.
Read more here -->Link
By Charlie Demerjian March 31, 2009
IF YOU THOUGHT Nvidia's spectacularly successful strategy in renaming the G92 to the GTS250, then seeding reviewers with ringers was low, you will love what it is doing with the 275. Yes, the company can go lower. The official specs are 240 'cores', and clocks are at 633/1404/1134MHz for GPU, processor and memory respectively. Yawn. GDDR3 of course, no GDDR5 now or until the GT300 cores, the GT200 can't do it, but that is old news. Things are going to suck for NV on a die area board layers, and therefore cost for the rest of the year. So, what is the sleazy part? Where to begin, where to begin. The first one is that there is no GT275 card or ASIC, in fact, as of CeBIT, the Nvidia partners didn't know it existed, mainly because it didn't. This 'planned' card wasn't planned, and is what you call a reaction. Take a sticker, slap it on an existing card, and blow different fuses. We hear there will be only 5,000 or so made, just enough to seed the tame press and put a few on Newegg. Cards in this price range normally have initial shipments more than 10 times that, and go on from there. When you don't have something to counter a competitor, make something up, lose money on each, and claim the high ground, just not in the ethical sense of the word.
Read more here -->Link
Broadcom looks to replace HDMI with Ethernet
Broadcom today announced BroadSync HD, an end-to-end high-def video solution using only Cat 5 cabling.
By Tim Conneally March 31, 2009
Wireless streaming of high-definition video must still be very far off. While it does exist in various forms today, one of the premier members of the Wireless HD Consortium, Broadcom, is proposing a new streaming video interface standard which focuses on HD over Ethernet. Called BroadSync HD, the standard is Broadcom's own custom implementation of the 802.1 Audio-Video Bridging (AVB) standard for streaming and syncing video over standard Cat 5 cables with RJ45 connections (a.k.a., Ethernet). Broadcom said today it has assembled an end-to-end solution for A/V transmission combining Ethernet switches, end-point devices, physical layer devices and software, and is currently working to bring the technology to market.
Read more here -->Link
By Tim Conneally March 31, 2009
Wireless streaming of high-definition video must still be very far off. While it does exist in various forms today, one of the premier members of the Wireless HD Consortium, Broadcom, is proposing a new streaming video interface standard which focuses on HD over Ethernet. Called BroadSync HD, the standard is Broadcom's own custom implementation of the 802.1 Audio-Video Bridging (AVB) standard for streaming and syncing video over standard Cat 5 cables with RJ45 connections (a.k.a., Ethernet). Broadcom said today it has assembled an end-to-end solution for A/V transmission combining Ethernet switches, end-point devices, physical layer devices and software, and is currently working to bring the technology to market.
Read more here -->Link
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