IBM researchers have cooked up a quick medical diagnostic testing system based on a silicon chip that can get by on a small sample and test for multiple diseases.
The breakthrough to be announced Tuesday means that physicians can test a patient immediately following a heart attack to improve survival rates. The test checks for disease markers, proteins that can be detected in blood using "capillary action force." In a nutshell, capillary forces refer to the tendency of a liquid to rise in narrow tubes or be drawn into a small opening.
The IBM Research-Zurich findings will be detailed in the December issue of the Royal Society of Chemistry. (See reprint PDF.)
Read more of "IBM researchers speed up medical diagnostic testing via chip" at ZDNet's Between the Lines.
Compuware announced Monday that it has completed the buyout of Web optimization company Gomez, bringing aboard the acquired firm's 272 employees into a new Web Performance division.
As an application and testing firm, Compuware provides enterprise customers with tools to optimize the performance of their server-based applications. Gomez helps its customers monitor and manage the performance of their Web sites and Web-based applications.
Compuware believes that the addition of Gomez, first announced in October, will allow it to provide a wider range of services to help customers test and optimize both in-house and Internet-based applications.
The deal has also garnered praise from some industry analysts. A recent IDC report "Compuware Expands SaaS Portfolio With Gomez Acquisition" sees the Gomez/Compuware marriage as a good match with plenty of upside.
"We're thrilled to welcome the Gomez team to Compuware," said Compuware President and Chief Operating Officer Bob Paul in a statement. "Together, Compuware and Gomez will--through a solution that features rapid time-to-value, ease of use and real-time answers--give IT and business executives the optimal application performance they need to drive brand image, customer loyalty and revenue."
Compuware said it will keep the Gomez brand, technology, and business model but look to integrate its new purchase in such areas as sales and marketing. Gomez CEO Jaime Ellertson will remain and serve as president of Gomez, the Web Performance division of Compuware.
Compuware expects the acquisition to add to operations this year.
Intel said Thursday it is consolidating its manufacturing operations in China and moving 2,000 jobs out of Shanghai.
"We are consolidating our manufacturing operations in China consistent with actions we announced a couple of weeks ago," Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said Thursday.
Intel said on January 21 that it would close chip plants to align its manufacturing capacity to current market conditions. At that time, Intel said between 5,000 and 6,000 employees would be affected.
"Assembly and testing facilities will be closed in in Pudong outside of Shanghai. This will take place between now and the second quarter of 2010," Mulloy said.
The action will move 2,000 jobs out of Shanghai. "There are two other sites. We have a large assembly test site in Chengdu in western China and the capacity is moving there. We also have a new fab (manufacturing facility) under construction in Dalian," he said. "The affected employees will be offered jobs at one of those sites."
"On the fab, we expect to begin production in the second half of 2010. It is a new fab at a new site, something we've not done in decades, so we will take our time in staffing and put extra training in place for employees. Right now the workforce in Dalian is relatively small but will ramp in the coming 18 months," he said.
For those who don't want to relocate to the other sites a standard severance package will be offered, he said.
Mozilla, the organization behind Firefox, plans to expand a forthcoming program called Test Pilot to supply developers with detailed usage patterns not just about the open-source Web browser, but also Thunderbird and other projects.
(Credit:
Mozilla)
Mozilla unveiled Test Pilot last March, describing it as a plan to get usage feedback from a full 1 percent of Firefox users, not just the technically sophisticated early-adopter crowd. On Tuesday, Mozilla's Aza Raskin fleshed out the Test Pilot details, though it remains in concept form only for now, with Mozilla trying to hire a project leader.
"It's not just Firefox that needs a usability lab. Thunderbird needs one. SeaMonkey needs one. Every Mozilla Labs project needs one. Test Pilot is a platform--starting as a Firefox extension--on top of which anything can be put through usability-testing boot camp," Raskin said.
Test Pilot will be an on-demand system: rather than recording data constantly, it sends the minimum amount of data back to Mozilla servers in response to a specific question when it's asked. Such test results will shared openly.
One big issue for such program is privacy. Here's what Raskin shared about the matter:
Security and privacy is of the utmost importance when dealing with user data. Just like Firefox, Test Pilot will always honor your privacy. Data is only reported in anonymous aggregate, with anything personally identifiable stripped out. Transparency is built in--all collected data is available to the public.
Even anonymized data can be revealing, though, as AOL found after it released search data to researchers. Although names had been removed, search data revealed enough to identify some people, and AOL's chief technology officer and two others lost their jobs after the matter.
One big difference with Test Pilot, though, is that Mozilla plans to release only collective data, not an individual's data. "We'll only collect aggregate anonymized data, publish all results under open-content licenses, and review every test to make sure your privacy is held sacred," Raskin said.
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