Friday, August 15, 2008

Wuala Launches Social Grid Storage In Public Beta Tomorrow

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/q38f8FUMp6g/

This has to be some kind of record - a startup launching a public beta on the day it said it would. Wuala, the P2P ’social grid storage’ startup from Switzerland, launches its public beta tomorrow at www.wua.la. Users will be able to simply click on a button on the site to start the service (it’s a Java app). That’s it. You can drag-and-drop stuff into it for file backup, photo and video sharing, or making files available publicly.

Here’s a more detailed description, from our post on the company last month:

The underlying core tech behind Wuala is based on research conducted at ETH Zurich (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). The files are held in tiny encrypted pieces distributed across the "Wuala Grid" of users, and mirrored on Wuala's servers - so you don't have to rely on other users being online to access your data. Users start with 1 GB of storage but can get as much as they want, either by trading idle disk space or by buying additional storage. You start off with 1GB of free storage, and then if you want more, you can make more space available on your own hard drive for other Wuala members. But users don't have to trade storage - you can buy extra storage, like 100GB is 100 Euros. All files are encrypted on the user's computer and the user chooses who gets access to which folder. No one else - including Wuala - gets to see the files. None of the fragments of files from other people stored on your computer are executable. Unlike Web storage, you can drag and drop files into Wuala on or offline.

Wuala competes in the storage space with Xdrive or Box.net, but it has a number of significant differences. The files are held in tiny encrypted pieces distributed across the “Wuala Grid” of users, and mirrored on Wuala’s servers. Unlike Web storage, you can drag and drop files into Wuala on or offline. TechCrunch UK broke the story about Wuala back in October last year. Last month, the site offered a sneak preview to the public.

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Hello World! AppJet Opens Browser-Based JavaScript School

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/edc0ntyep5A/

AppJet, the Y Combinator-funded startup that lets users build web applications from their browsers, has opened a new set of lessons that guide novice users through the basics of programming. The lessons focus on JavaScript, one of the world’s most popular programming languages, and have been written to be accessible to students who have never programmed before.

Co-Founder Aaron Iba says that the lessons will likely take a new programmer a few weeks to work through at a moderate pace, depending on how much time is spent on the interactive demos (each lesson provides a fully functional program that can be modified). There are currently 24 lessons available, with more on the way. After skimming through the first few lessons, I managed to put together a program slightly more complex than “Hello world!”, which you can find here.

This online school is significant because it offers a very low barrier to entry for novices who are looking to get their feet wet and start programming. Nearly every programming tutorial requires some kind of software prerequisite, be it a downloaded client or a server, which can be both expensive and difficult to set up for a new user. Conversely, AppJet requires no software, allowing users to edit, debug, and run code through a browser interface. Because of this low barrier, AppJet may well see an influx of new students who they can convert to regular members.

Besides the lessons launching today, AppJet offers web developers a way to create and host web applications free of charge. The site appeals primarily to users in the long tail, who may not want to spend money on a web server just to host a number of small applications that are only accessed once in a while. Iba says that since its launch in December, AppJet has seen over 1900 applications published, with another 4000 under development (though many of these will likely never be completed).

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Intel's Z-P230 PATA SSD: now in bite sized mini-card flavor

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/364783161/

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First off, we just want to sincerely thank Intel for not making this confusing at all. Not only does the new mini-card Z-P230 PATA SSD boast the same model name and mostly the same specifications as the netbook-focused Z-P230 PATA SSD (scratching your head yet?), but as you've probably gleaned by now, it's rocking the same name, too. The 8-gram device (compared to 11-grams on its similarly same-named sibling) was designed to fit into tiny laptops and comes in 4GB / 8GB capacities with a 16GB version landing in September. All angst aside, it is pretty cute.

[Via PCWorld]
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Intel appeases haters, reveals USB 3.0 controller specification

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/364786536/

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What's with all the hate, guys? For months now, AMD, NVIDIA and a host of other caps-locked companies have been harshing on the chip maker for withholding critical information in relation to the USB 3.0 controller specification. At long last, Intel can finally throw up its left hand and ask those pundits to talk to it, as the outfit has finally unveiled the Extensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) draft specification revision 0.9 in support of the USB 3.0 (SuperSpeed USB) architecture. The spec hopes to provide a "standardized method for USB 3.0 host controllers to communicate with the USB 3.0 software stack," and it's being made available under RAND-Z (royalty free) licensing terms "to all USB 3.0 Promoter Group and contributor companies that sign an xHCI contributor agreement." So, are we all happy now?
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AOC's new Envision Series of HD LCDs for small spaces

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/364991736/

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Are you a tech-savvy urban dweller? AOC would like to have a word. The budget TV builder has a trio of new HD "Envision" LCDs in miniscule sizes ranging from 19-inches to 32-inches. The L19W861 starts 'em out at $299 and is designed to double as a computer monitor with its 1440 x 900 resolution. The 26-inch L26W861 and 32-inch L32W861 both sport a less exciting 1366 x 768 resolution, but equally compelling price points at $499 and $599, respectively. All three displays offer HDMI, PC input with audio and ATSC / Clear QAM tuners.
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NVIDIA ships out beta OpenGL 3.0 drivers in record speed

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/365142161/

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While boasting a fraction of DirectX usage in the gaming market, OpenGL hasn't been sitting around while Microsoft eats its lunch. Long favored as a foundation for cross platform games like World of Warcraft, and historically used by id Software to famous effect, the API just hit the 3.0 in a major reworking of the library. NVIDIA has had a hand in the API, and has wasted no time in releasing graphics drivers for the newly minted standard. The beta code supports GeForce 8000 series cards or higher on the desktop and laptop sides, and implements all of OpenGL 3.0 and the GLSL 1.30 shading language with just a few exceptions. Naturally, users won't be getting much out of this right off the bat, the beta drivers are mainly meant for developers looking to build software that takes advantage of 3.0, but it's nice to see a GPU builder hand-in-hand with a next gen graphics API and supporting it out of the gate on existing cards. And would you look at those screenshots!
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Supercomputer Huygens beats Go professional: no one is safe

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/365392234/

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You know how Go nerds are always going on about how magical they are since supercomputer AI hasn't yet cracked the ancient board game, and rarely beats even an average Go player? No? Maybe those are just our nerdy friends. Well, those folks can wipe the smug grins off their faces as they're faced with the sobering reality of defeat: Dutch supercomputer "Huygens" has defeated a human Go professional in an official match at the 24th Annual Congress of the game Go in Portland, Oregon. The newly-minted supercomputer was aided by the recently-developed Monte-Carlo Tree Search algorithm and a whopping 60 teraflops of processing power. Poor Kim MyungWan -- who managed to beat the computer in three "blitz" games leading up to the actual match, and probably won't be hanging up his Go hat just yet -- didn't stand a chance.

[Via Tech Digest]
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Sony wrangles Cell chip into ZEGO BCU-100 video rendering system

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/365220907/

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Not that most of us are on the hunt for 1U server blades to build a rendering farm out of, but it's always fun to see Sony's PS3 hardware put to a use that actually earns Sony money. The Cell-based ZEGO BCU-100 includes the PS3's RSX graphics processor and is designed for processing HD video. Sony plans to work with software developers to take advantage of the unique architecture, and will be launching 'em later this year in the States. No word on price.

[Via Electronista]
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Intel's "mainstream" 80GB and 160GB SSDs ready to launch with mainstream price?

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/365489730/

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Looks like Intel, the bid bad daddy of silicon, is about to unleash its first consumer oriented SSDs into the market. While Intel's 1.8- and 2.5-inch 80GB and 160GB SSD plans were pretty thoroughly detailed in those May leaks, Expreview has slapped up an honest-to-goodness slide which looks like it came straight from the Intel deck. Assuming it's authentic, then we now know that Intel's 2.5-inch X25-M and 1.8-inch X18-M SSDs top out with a 240MBps sustained read and 70MBps write. That's just a bit slower than the blazing Micron RealSSD C20 but still seriously quick and hopefully priced for the mainstream audience they are targeting. Dell, for example, sells a 128GB Samsung SSD for $450 -- surely Intel can beat that cost per Byte... right Intel? We're guessing that the enterprise-class 32GB and 64GB X25-E SSDs will feature some of that Micron co-developed "world's fastest" SLC NAND in order to achieve that ridiculous 240MBps / 170MBps read / write speed at what's expected to be an equally ridiculous price. The 80GB X25-M and X18-M are expected to launch in Q3 (so any day now) while the 160GB solid state slab should break free for consumers in Q1 (not Q4 2008) of 2009. Expect to hear more on these next week as Intel kicks off another International Developers Forum.

[Via TG Daily]
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