Week in review: Microsoft in the crosshairs

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Taking Intel's advice and fixes can trim about 10 watts of power consumption off a modern dual-processor server, said Dirk Hohndel, chief technologist of Intel open-source technology center. That's not a gargantuan amount--until you consider that if done correctly it's free power savings, that each watt of server energy saved cuts another 1.3 watts from air conditioning (according to Intel figures), and of course that 10 watts per server is a lot when multiplied by the thousands of servers that populate larger data centers.

Perhaps, the most interesting news was Otellini's goals for Intel over the rest of the decade. The company plans to ship a generation of processors on its 45-nanometer manufacturing technology by 2009 that come with graphics integrated right onto the processor, similar to what rival Advanced Micro Devices has planned for its Fusion chips. Intel will be investing in a joint venture with KDDI, a Japanese telecom company, with plans to build a WiMax network in Japan. And as expected, Intel talked up its low-power chips for MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices), with plans to reduce the power consumption of its handheld computer chips by a factor of 10 compared with the Silverthorne processor, expected next year.

Meanwhile, Intel and others plan to release a new version of the ubiquitous Universal Serial Bus technology in the first half of 2008, a revamp the chipmaker said will make data transfer rates more than 10 times as fast by adding fiber-optic links alongside the traditional copper wires. Intel is working with fellow USB 3.0 Promoters Group members Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments, NEC and NXP Semiconductors to release the USB 3.0 specification in the first half of 2008, Gelsinger said.

Moon shot
Weeks away from the 50th anniversary of space flight, a group of aerospace engineers, space entrepreneurs and astronauts met at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., to reflect on the past and discuss the coming 50 years of space exploration. The two-day conference, called 50 Years in Space, is marked by the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik on October 4, 1957. Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, astronaut and former U.S. senator, called that event an "intellectual earthquake" for science and the first trigger of interest in space.

More than that milestone, early space flight paved the way for decades of technological innovation and scientific discovery and brought about a multibillion-dollar space industry. Scientists believe that new technology and knowledge about the universe will easily push us further in the years to come.

However, a fight was inadvertently launched over NASA's role in the space program. If it were up to Burt Rutan, the aerospace engineer known for building a suborbital rocket plane that won the Ansari X Prize, NASA wouldn't be developing a spacecraft to return man to the moon by 2020. That government mission has already been accomplished and a repeat performance is "silly," Rutan said.

"Taxpayer-funded NASA should only fund research and not development," Rutan said. "I think it's absurd they're doing Orion development at all. It should be done commercially," he said, referring to the name of the lunar spacecraft. Of course, Rutan has a big stake in commercial development of spacecraft. As founder and president of Scaled Composites, he develops rockets for future commercial space tourism.

But for those still planning to go to the moon and win $20 million in the Google Lunar X Prize, NASA has added new lunar imagery to Google's Moon Web site, a photographic display of the moon with information graphics about the Apollo landings.

The updated moon site includes higher-resolution lunar maps and additional content from the Apollo missions, including panoramic images, audio and video clips, and descriptions of the astronauts' activities, according to NASA. The site also features detailed charts of different regions of the moon "suitable for use by anyone simulating a lunar mission," the space agency said.

Also of note
The New York Times has finally given up on the Web-subscription model , announcing Monday that the newspaper's online site will no longer charge for any content...President Bush's nominee to replace departing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has a history of sticking up for the electronic-surveillance powers expanded by the controversial USA Patriot Act...Mozilla Foundation is creating a subsidiary for its e-mail client Thunderbird with $3 million and beginning plans to significantly expand its programming staff.

[FutureGuy]

They failed to understand..

..the MS thrives under competition, just ask Sony. MS didn't climb to the top of the console market (in terms of console games sold www.vgchartz.com) because it had any kind of monopoly in that market. EU's dicision is political, MS is a US company.

[Penguinisto]

Eh?

Actually, no. MSFT (in the case of Xbox) climbed to #2 (still quite a distance behind the Nintendo Wii) because of two factors:

1) they could throw a shedload of money at Xbox, take losses the whole time, and not have to worry about it (yet).

2) Sony screwed up. The PS2 was a raging success due to decent pricing, good games, and solid performance. The PS3 flopped because it was over-priced, had few games going for it, and can't seem to compete with the (Still selling) PS2, let alone the Xbox.

3)Halo, which MSFT bought and made Xbox-only for a very long time. w/o it, the xbox would've went the same way as the Zune a very long time ago.

Neither is innovation, but a combination of luck and money. Meanwhile, Nintendo is beating the crap out of MSFT in the console market.

Try again? ;)

/P

[olinz]

American Incompetence

I am no big fan of Microsoft either,what with everything they've pulled over the years :-)But this is simply a case of more American Incompetence!
Why in the world should Americans be helping foreign entities(legal or not)rip at segments of our biggest economic exports?Perhaps this helps explains why the trade deficit is slowly approaching the trillion dollar mark(and why Canadian and American dollars will soon be equal).
This is just another example of why America is decling in general;we are basically tearing ourselves apart!
I hate to be pessimistic,but it sure seems this way!One day in the future,people will view this time in American history as the generation('s) that sold America out!

[bcroner]

I applaud the EU

The EU upheld law and order, as opposed to the US system in the same circumstance upholding corruption and deceit. The EU has proven its lands to be more inviting to those who wish to live a life where there is no breakdown of law and order on behalf of corruption and deceit. You can't buy off the EU. This is a lesson and a precedent. No money is big enough to bribe off the interests of the regulators of the economy of Europe. I wish I could live out there.

[Too Old For IT]

MS Should Have Made Euro-only Products

While the new OS / Office / whatnot is in beta, take it and their checkbook to Neelie Kroes, ask her what she needs to make her happy, and make a Euro version. No Media Player? Not a problem. No browser? Sure, no big deal. No slick APIs that actually work. Absolutely! Office suite that doesn?t' integrate with itself. Outstanding! Leave behind a few million for Neelie's slush fund? Just the cost of doing business overseas.

Then sell MS-Whatever/Euro for the same price as the real deal, and see just how many get sold. No, wait: Neelie probably would want only the Euro version forced on European consumers. Can't have any freedom of choice in her socialist worker's paradise.

[balonga]

MS should be stopped

I quote from your article
<<<to protect its local technology companies against any international competition through law, instead of quality and innovation, the same way they do with agricultural products, chemicals, etc.," wrote one reader the CNET News.com TalkBack forum. ">>>
but the reader to be fair should have added THE SAME WAY THAT USA DO WITH for example SOUTHAMERICAN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS

But the main thing is that MS should be stopped in pretending to own the world an be over the rights and laws : just look their privacy invading software inserted in their products.

Also MS software policies should be revised in order to get better universal standards in computing and not the childish bug full staff that MS imposes and sells.

USA consumers should learn from CE to defend themselves.