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Bill Gates: Being very rich is 'the same hamburger'

Let's talk money and hamburgers.

Sometimes you can spend a lot of money on a hamburger, sometimes very little. For example, at the Four Seasons in San Francisco, you can pay $18 for a very nice hamburger with exquisite french fries.

It is spectacularly better than the ones at the Golden State Warriors games, where, please believe me, the burger and fries are almost the same price as the Four Seasons and of a similar quality to the team in 2002. (And 2003. And 2004.)

These--and several other--thoughts on the finance/hamburger axis have been occupying my mind because of a fascinating speech and Q&A session yesterday at the University of Washington featuring Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

The way the Seattle Times records it, one enterprising listener asked Gates how she could become as blindingly rich as him.

Gates explained that money hadn't been his goal. He just loved what he was doing. Even better, he could involve his friends in this thing he loved. Soon, he had more money than he knew what to do with. Which he described as "a responsibility."

But here's the meat of it.

Clouds, open source, and new network models: Part 3

The most common question I get from those I brief about OpenStack's new network service is "How does Quantum relate to software defined networking?"

Especially confusing to many is the difference between these kinds of cloud networking services and the increasingly discussed OpenFlow open-networking protocol.

In part 1 of this series, I described what is becoming an increasingly ubiquitous model for cloud computing networks, namely the use of simple abstractions delivered by network systems of varying sophistication. In part 2, I then described OpenStack's Quantum network service stack and how it reflected that model.

Software defined networking (SDN) more

Thai floods drown Sony Alpha cameras

Incessant flooding in Thailand is affecting many people, as well as another area of consumer electronics in addition to hard drives: Sony's upcoming high-end NEX-7 and A65 cameras, as well as some lens kits.

Sony's manufacturing plant in Ayutthaya has stopped production after torrents of water damaged the facility, the company said in a statement. The situation is so bad that the company is shifting production to another Sony factory southwest of Ayutthaya in the Chonburi province. Crave Asia visited the Ayutthaya facility last year and shot several pictures.

Beware of Orbitz and 'deceptive' practices

commentary Frequent fliers beware. Consider this a sort of travel warning.

Orbitz, the beleaguered service that aggregates air and hotel fare so users can compare prices via the Web, has again been caught trying to dupe customers.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced on Monday that Orbitz was hit with a $60,000 fine for violating rules prohibiting "deceptive price advertising." Seems the DOT imposes rules on how airfare prices can be displayed online. Orbitz and rivals, such as Travelocity and Expedia, are required to post the full price of an airline ticket in their ads. Hiding or more

MC Hammer launches legit search engine

It has long been my personal dream to see Google's Larry Page wearing brightly patterned trousers and dancing uncontrollably.

I may have to make do with a man who will happily wear brightly patterned trousers and dance launching a search engine.

This is precisely what occurred today at the Web 2.0 Summit when the legend that is MC Hammer presented WIREDoo, a little engine that could go far. For its motto appears to be "deep search." (Or, perhaps, "relationship search.")

How did Hammer define deep search? Put succinctly, better search. This doesn't necessarily mean better than Google. more

Will the cloud change programming?

The early preview of Dart, a new alternative to JavaScript for Web programming unveiled by Google earlier this week, is the latest entrant into the pantheon of programming languages. As such, it's hardly a rarity. There are hundreds of programming languages--perhaps thousands if experimental and academic variants are included. That said, the number of widely used languages is much smaller, numbering perhaps in the dozens, with fewer still broadly relevant to general-purpose server operations and Web software.

In fact, what's so notable about the computer programming language landscape over time isn't so much its diversity and adaptability, more

HP's solution to the death of print media: Buy more ink

HP today announced a partnership with Conde Nast that will deliver a handful of its most popular magazines (Allure, Details, Epicurious, Wired, Self, Golf Digest, etc.) to your home. Well, more specifically to your printer.

The press release shapes it as a "new digital content distribution medium that merges rich content and digital-to-print service," which really just means that readers can schedule automatic digital content delivery straight to HP's Web-connected printers, which will then use lots of ink to print out excerpts from magazines...in full color. This is the content solution that will save the print industry? Check your calendars; it's not April.

3D TV? No thanks. More resolution? Yes, please!

I rarely root against specific technologies, but I cheerfully admit to actively disliking a "breakthrough" that TV companies have been irrationally exuberant about for the last couple of years: 3D TV.

The glasses are pricey and uncomfortable, the effect hurts my eyeballs, 3D content is in short supply, and the whole idea is dependent on gimmicky effects like stuff flying out at the audience, not anything that improves a movie's ability to tell stories. Basically, 3D doesn't make TV more realistic--it makes it much, much less so. Sorry to be a downer.

But I am enthusiastic about another more

Toshiba ultra-thin AT700 tablet wows Ceatec crowds

MAKUHARI, Japan--Toshiba has underlined its commitment to boosting its tablet business with a 10.1-inch Android slate it calls the thinnest and lightest in the world.

People are lining up here at Ceatec 2011 outside of Tokyo to check out the Regza AT700, which runs on Android 3.2, is 7.7mm (0.3 inches) thick, and weighs 558 grams (1.23 pounds).

Toshiba also announced a 7-inch version, the AT3S0, at 12.1mm thick and weighing 379 grams (0.83 pound).

Like the company's Thrive tabs, the AT700 and AT3S0 run version 3.2 of Android, have 1GB of memory, 1,280x800-pixel resolution, and Resolution+ upscaling technology to improve low-resolution video.

The reason those TVs no longer qualify is because Energy Star made its requirements more strict this time around compared to the earlier version, designated 4.2, which has been in effect since April 30, 2010. According to Energy Star:

Televisions that meet the new ENERGY STAR Version 5.3 requirements are on average more than 40 percent more energy efficient than conventional models. Larger sets must meet even more stringent levels to qualify as ENERGY STAR. A 60-inch TV will be on average 60 percent more efficient than a conventional model.

In addition to increasing the stringency of the requirements for all screen sizes, the new version incorporates a "hard cap" of 108 watts regardless of screen size. That cap effectively disqualifies most plasma TVs larger than 50 inches, and many other large-screen DLP and non-LED LCD-based sets.