As CNET’s David Carnoy reported last week, Amazon just dropped the price of the refurbished Wi-Fi Kindle to $99.99. And if you want the 3G model, you can snatch it up for just $129.99. These are the non-ad-supported versions, FYI.

Pretty nice deal, right? They may be refurbs, but they carry the same one-year warranty as new Kindles.

But speaking of “new Kindles,” it’s a poorly kept secret that Amazon will soon unveil one–maybe two. And that begs the question: even at $99.99, is the current Kindle a good deal?

A year ago, I’d have said absolutely. Now, I’m not so sure. The non-touchscreen Kindle is kind of a pain to use, and it’s a pretty limited device–especially compared with something like the Nook Color, which is great not just for books, but also for magazines, apps, and even tablet duty.

(Update: The $179 refurbished Nook Color I wrote about last week? Mine arrived from 1 Sale A Day in about three days. And it looks and operates like new. I’m loving it.)

I know there are die-hard Kindle fans out there, and I’m not here to dis the device. Indeed, I’ve been a rabid e-book fan since PalmPilot days. But I think the days of the monochrome, non-touchscreen e-reader have passed, and I can’t see spending money on one.

What are your thoughts? Are you jumping at the chance to score a Kindle for under $100? Or do you agree that this is, in a way, throwing good money after bad? Let’s hear from you in the comments!

Bonus deal #1: Sony is once again offering the refurbished BDP-S270 Blu-ray player for $59.99 shipped. Among other things, the player can stream Netflix, Pandora, and the like. I bought one a few months back, and it’s been great.

Bonus deal #2: You know I love me a good Wi-Fi laser printer. OfficeMax has the Samsung ML-1865W Wi-Fi laser printer for $49.99, plus sales tax in most states. Add a box of paper clips or something to pad your cart to over $50, in which case shipping is free.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13845_3-20089414-58/should-you-buy-the-$99-kindle/#ixzz1URvQOq5N

at JTRT , Kaluthara.

Unveiled today at the Annual Meeting of National High Performance Computing (HPC China 2010) in Beijing, Tianhe-1A is the world’s fastest supercomputer with a performance record of 2.507 petaflops, as measured by the LINPACK benchmark.

Tianhe-1A was designed by the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) in China, and it is already fully operational. To achieve the new performance record, Tianhe-1A uses 7,168 Nvidia Tesla M2050 GPUs and 14,336 Intel Xeon CPUs. It cost $88 million; its 103 cabinets weigh 155 tons, and the entire system consumes 4.04 megawatts of electricity.

Tianhe-1A ousted the previous record holder, Cray XT5 Jaguar, which is used by the U.S. National Center for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratories. It is powered by 224,162 Opteron CPUs and achieves a performance record of 1.75 petaflops.

According to Nvidia, Tianhe-1A will be operated as an open access system to use for large scale scientific computations.

(October 13, Washington, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Google revolutionized the way we search online. Now the internet giant is looking to revolutionize the way we drive.

Google hooked up models of the Toyota Prius with artificial intelligence software that lets them drive themselves. “The seemingly all-conquering Google has announced that it’s road-testing cars that steer, stop and start without a driver,” Time Magazine reports. “The cars use video cameras on the roof, along with radar sensors and a laser range finder to ‘see’ other traffic.”

Driverless cars seem odd, but Google thinks they’ll be a huge benefit. “Our goal is to help prevent traffic accidents, free up people’s time and reduce carbon emissions by fundamentally changing car use,” Sebastian Thrun, a Google software engineer, states in the company blog.

So far, the new software has been successful. “With someone behind the wheel to take control if something goes awry and a technician in the passenger seat to monitor the navigation system, seven test cars have driven 1,000 miles without human intervention and more than 140,000 miles with only occasional human control,” says the New York Times. “The only accident, engineers said, was when one Google car was rear-ended while stopped at a traffic light.”

Although these cars appear safer, Jalopnik questions their legality — though admits there’s no law barring their existence. “According to California officials, there are no laws that would bar Google from testing such models, as long as there’s a human behind the wheel who would be responsible should something go wrong,” writes Jalopnik.

Californian drivers may spot a Google Prius on the road, but if you live elsewhere, it’ll be a long time before you see a motorist reading behind the wheel while their car drives.

Before you shop, make sure you check out the U.S. News rankings of this year’s best cars. Also, be sure to check us out on Twitter to stay on top of the latest car discounts and incentives.

Here is another article by Sebastian Thrun, Distinguished Software Engineer on the Google Car

Larry and Sergey founded Google because they wanted to help solve really big problems using technology. And one of the big problems we’re working on today is car safety and efficiency. Our goal is to help prevent traffic accidents, free up people’s time and reduce carbon emissions by fundamentally changing car use.

So we have developed technology for cars that can drive themselves. Our automated cars, manned by trained operators, just drove from our Mountain View campus to our Santa Monica office and on to Hollywood Boulevard. They’ve driven down Lombard Street, crossed the Golden Gate bridge, navigated the Pacific Coast Highway, and even made it all the way around Lake Tahoe. All in all, our self-driving cars have logged over 140,000 miles. We think this is a first in robotics research.

Our automated cars use video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to “see” other traffic, as well as detailed maps (which we collect using manually driven vehicles) to navigate the road ahead. This is all made possible by Google’s data centers, which can process the enormous amounts of information gathered by our cars when mapping their terrain.

To develop this technology, we gathered some of the very best engineers from the DARPA Challenges, a series of autonomous vehicle races organized by the U.S. Government. Chris Urmson was the technical team leader of the CMU team that won the 2007 Urban Challenge. Mike Montemerlo was the software lead for the Stanford team that won the 2005 Grand Challenge. Also on the team is Anthony Levandowski, who built the world’s first autonomous motorcycle that participated in a DARPA Grand Challenge, and who also built a modified Prius that delivered pizza without a person inside. The work of these and other engineers on the team is on display in the National Museum of American History.

Safety has been our first priority in this project. Our cars are never unmanned. We always have a trained safety driver behind the wheel who can take over as easily as one disengages cruise control. And we also have a trained software operator in the passenger seat to monitor the software. Any test begins by sending out a driver in a conventionally driven car to map the route and road conditions. By mapping features like lane markers and traffic signs, the software in the car becomes familiar with the environment and its characteristics in advance. And we’ve briefed local police on our work.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 1.2 million lives are lost every year in road traffic accidents. We believe our technology has the potential to cut that number, perhaps by as much as half. We’re also confident that self-driving cars will transform car sharing, significantly reducing car usage, as well as help create the new “highway trains of tomorrow.” These highway trains should cut energy consumption while also increasing the number of people that can be transported on our major roads. In terms of time efficiency, the U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that people spend on average 52 minutes each working day commuting. Imagine being able to spend that time more productively.

We’ve always been optimistic about technology’s ability to advance society, which is why we have pushed so hard to improve the capabilities of self-driving cars beyond where they are today. While this project is very much in the experimental stage, it provides a glimpse of what transportation might look like in the future thanks to advanced computer science. And that future is very exciting.

“We wanted the Windows Phone to be delightful across a range of hardware devices, through a range of scenarios, and a [range] of different software experiences,” Ballmer said.

The company wanted to make Windows Phone 7 “always delightful” and “wonderfully mine,” he said, emphasizing the way that users will be able to customize the user interface. “Everyone should look at the phone and represent themselves on the device,” he said.

Microsoft has already owned up to one curious omission from the first release of Windows Phone 7. The OS lacks copy and paste functions: Microsoft plans to add them in the first update, due for release next year. Apple drew heavy criticism for leaving those same functions out of the first few versions of its iPhone software.

Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president, Windows Phone Program Management, said the unique features of WP7 phones takes “all the capability of Web services and puts that in the phone experience…We tried to build a smart design where the phone anticipates things you need.”

WP7 builds on the concept of grouping items and data in a phone on a home screen called “hubs,” and inside those hubs provides live “tiles.” Under the “People” hub, for example, a person’s status change in Facebook would be automatically updated inside the live tile, placed where a user wants it on the phone, such as the home screen.

Belfiore announced an array of capabilities with WP7 phones, including voice search. Using the TellMe service, he was able to say, “Search for Alaska Flight 7″ and then get back a live Web update on the status of the flight. It took two tries over the network in the demo center, however.

The company has partnered with many phone makers and wireless carriers to bring Windows Phone 7 handsets to consumers in early November, Ballmer said at the OS launch event in New York City.

Sixty mobile operators will be offering it in 30 countries, Ballmer said.

The operators include América Móvil, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Movistar, O2, Orange, SFR, SingTel, Telstra, Telus, T-Mobile USA and Vodafone.

Nine different phones, from HTC, Dell, Samsung and LG Electronics, were announced today. Five of them will be available in the U.S. in November.

The phones will be able to take video, access social media applications, gaming and access streaming movies and TV shows, Ballmer said.

Michael Gartenberg, a Gartner analyst, said Microsoft “showed it can play” in the smartphone arena with the announcement. “Now they have to build on it.”

Gartenberg said the various Microsoft Office integrations in WP7 will be important to workers needing smartphones. “Don’t underestimate the power of Office, since it means the phones work with Sharepoint servers. Microsoft has natural ties to the enterprise, but the enterprise isn’t the group of people who buy smartphones.”

He said that links between the WP7 phones and Xbox live will be a differentiator, as well as the general support for gaming, with features like high resolution screens. EA was also announced as a partner, helping Microsoft reach the coveted gaming community.

Independent analyst Jack Gold said that despite Microsoft’s launch, he was pessimistic that Microsoft can win back its enterprise base of customers, or get a high number of apps deployed to WP7 in the next few months. He also predicted there wouldn’t be many Verizon Wireless WP7 devices in the short term.

In Europe, Orange plans to launch three Windows Phone 7 devices. The HTC 7 Mozart, which will be exclusive to Orange, will be available in France, the U.K., Spain, Poland, Switzerland, Romania, Portugal and Austria. The Samsung Omnia will be available in France, the U.K. and Switzerland, with the LG Optimus 7 available in France about six weeks ahead of other operators, Microsoft said. The phones will be available first in the U.K. and France.

T-Mobile said it will distribute the HTC HD7 in the U.S. in mid-November, in time for the year-end holiday shopping season. The phone has a 4.3-inch touchscreen display and has includes Netflix, T-Mobile TV, Xbox LIVE and Zune software. AT&T will be launching Samsung’s Focus smartphone on Nov. 8 in the U.S.

Released in 1981 by the Osborne Computer Corporation, the Osborne 1 is considered to be the first true portable computer – it closes-up for protection, and has a carrying handle. It even has an optional battery pack, so it doesn’t have to plugged into the 110VAC outlet for power.

While quite revolutionary, the Osborne does have its limitations. For example, the screen is only 5″ (diagonal) in size, and can’t display more than 52 characters per line of text. To compensate, you can actually scroll the screen display back and forth with the cursor keys to show lines of text up to 128 characters wide.

The Osborne was designed with transportation in mind – it had to be rugged and able to survive being moved about. That’s one reason that the screen is so small – a larger and heavier screen would be more susceptable to damage.

The two pockets beneath the floppy drives work great for floppy disk storage, although the Osborne modem also fits perfectly in the the left pocket and plugs into the front-mounted “modem” port.

Designed as a true portable computer system – it can be considered airline carry-on luggage, and it will fit under the passenger seat of any commercial airliner.

Here is the Osborne without the case – now you know the real reason the screen is so small. There’s not much room left with those two full-height floppy drives.
While the Osborne was a good deal at $1795, it also came bundled with about $1500 of free software:

The Osborne was a huge overnight success, with sales reaching 10,000 units a month.
In September 1981, Osborne Computer Company had its first US$1 million sales month.

Available options include the Osborne DATACOM modem.

Also available is the Double-Density Disk Drive Option. This is an additional circuit board which must be installed inside the system.

Seen above is the second release of the Osborne portable. It has a sturdier case and a slightly different look – double-density floppy-drives are optional.

Intentional or not, the “new” Osborne has a very military-like appearance, with its square face, dark blue color, and its many knobs and compartments.

In 1982, the Osborne Computer Company announced a successor, the Executive model OCC-2 (seen here to the right), with a larger screen and a cooling fan.

Shortly thereafter, they announced the next system, the Vixen, a portable running the CP/M operating system.

Unfortunately, potential customers stopped buying the Osborne 1, waiting for the Executive and the Vixen, which wasn’t even ready to ship yet. Additionally, the new Kaypro II was now available with a larger screen for less money. Osborne sales plummeted and Osborne quickly ran out of money and filed for bankruptcy in September of 1983.

It probably wasn’t the company’s fault, since by this time most of the serious computer users were gravitating towards the new IBM PC, which had already been available since 1981.

Anything that wasn’t IBM compatible was bound to fail. In 1983, the Compaq Portable came out – a portable computer similar to the Osborne, except that it was IBM compatible and ran MS-DOS. It was a great success.

Osborne 1 Introduced: April 1981 Price: US $1,795 Weight: 24.5 pounds CPU: Zilog Z80 @ 4.0 MHz RAM: 64K RAM Display: built-in 5″ monitor 53 X 24 text Ports: parallel / IEEE-488 modem / serial port Storage: dual 5-1/4 inch, 91K drives OS: CP/M

//

 

Released in 1981 by the Osborne Computer Corporation, the Osborne 1 is considered to be the first true portable computer – it closes-up for protection, and has a carrying handle. It even has an optional battery pack, so it doesn’t have to plugged into the 110VAC outlet for power.

While quite revolutionary, the Osborne does have its limitations. For example, the screen is only 5″ (diagonal) in size, and can’t display more than 52 characters per line of text. To compensate, you can actually scroll the screen display back and forth with the cursor keys to show lines of text up to 128 characters wide.

The Osborne was designed with transportation in mind – it had to be rugged and able to survive being moved about. That’s one reason that the screen is so small – a larger and heavier screen would be more susceptable to damage.

The two pockets beneath the floppy drives work great for floppy disk storage, although the Osborne modem also fits perfectly in the the left pocket and plugs into the front-mounted “modem” port.

Designed as a true portable computer system – it can be considered airline carry-on luggage, and it will fit under the passenger seat of any commercial airliner.

Here is the Osborne without the case – now you know the real reason the screen is so small. There’s not much room left with those two full-height floppy drives.
While the Osborne was a good deal at $1795, it also came bundled with about $1500 of free software:

CP/M System

CP/M Utility

SuperCalc spreadsheet application

WordStar word processing application with MailMerge

Microsoft MBASIC programming language

Digital Research CBASIC programming language

The Osborne was a huge overnight success, with sales reaching 10,000 units a month.
In September 1981, Osborne Computer Company had its first US$1 million sales month.

//
Available options include the Osborne DATACOM modem.

The Osborne modem and COMM-PAC software gives you access to more than 200 electronic bulletin boards across the country (well, in 1982, that is).

Data transfer rate is 300 baud.

The modem fits in the diskette pocket below floppy drive A.

It fits in both the original “tan case” and the newer “blue case” Osborne (see below), but the diskette pocket in the “blue case” is smaller, so the eight alignment tabs must be ‘carefully snapped off’.

Also available is the Double-Density Disk Drive Option. This is an additional circuit board which must be installed inside the system.

Doubles the amount of data storage per diskette.

Recognizes these formats:
– Osborne 1 single density – 92K per diskette
– Osborne 1 double density – 182K per diskette
– Xerox 820 single density – 82K per diskette
– Cromemco single density – 80K per diskette
– IBM Personal Computer (CP/M-86 format) – 156K per diskette
– DEC VT-180 – 171K per diskette

---

Seen above is the second release of the Osborne portable. It has a sturdier case and a slightly different look – double-density floppy-drives are optional.

Intentional or not, the “new” Osborne has a very military-like appearance, with its square face, dark blue color, and its many knobs and compartments.

//
In 1982, the Osborne Computer Company announced a successor, the Executive model OCC-2 (seen here to the right), with a larger screen and a cooling fan.

Shortly thereafter, they announced the next system, the Vixen, a portable running the CP/M operating system.

Unfortunately, potential customers stopped buying the Osborne 1, waiting for the Executive and the Vixen, which wasn’t even ready to ship yet. Additionally, the new Kaypro II was now available with a larger screen for less money. Osborne sales plummeted and Osborne quickly ran out of money and filed for bankruptcy in September of 1983.

It probably wasn’t the company’s fault, since by this time most of the serious computer users were gravitating towards the new IBM PC, which had already been available since 1981.

Anything that wasn’t IBM compatible was bound to fail. In 1983, the Compaq Portable came out – a portable computer similar to the Osborne, except that it was IBM compatible and ran MS-DOS. It was a great success.

Related Links Osborne Computer Corporation from Classic Computer Magazine Archive 15 Years Ago in BYTE From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Osborne Computer Libraries The inventor of the mobile computer dies…

History of the Osborne Computer Corporation 1971: In November, Intel released the 4004, the first microprocessor chip. Documentation manuals were written by Adam Osborne who later founded the Osborne Computer Company. 1980: March – At the West Coast Computer Faire, Adam Osborne approaches Les Felsenstein with the idea of starting a computer company. 1981: January – Osborne Computer Corporation is incorporated 1981: April – Adam Osborne, of Osborne Computer Corporation, introduces the Osborne 1 Personal Business Computer at the West Coast Computer Faire 1981: September – Osborne Computer Company has its first US$1 million sales month. 1982: August – Microsoft releases Multiplan for the Apple II and the Osborne I. 1982: In the first 8 months since its introduction, 11,000 Osborne 1 computers ship. 1983: March – Osborne Computer introduces The Osborne Executive and the Executive II portable computers. 1983: September – Osborne Computer Corp. files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Source: Chronology of Events in the History of Microcomputers

Adam Osborne

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: The World First Portable Computer ]]>

e-Swabhimani 2010

e-Society Excellence – Recognizing excellence in digital
content creation.

Nominations open for e-Swabhimani 2010
a stepping stone to the World
Summit award 2011.
www.eswabhimani.lk

Who can nominate?
we invite nominations from individuals and organizations who have developed creative
content and practices using ICT for governance, business and livelihood.
inclusion health, education, culture and heritage,
news and media environment

e-Swabhimani winners will receive:
The e-Swabhimani Trophy
Publicity in the National Media
Exclusive Right to Using award logo on personal stationery and products
Products will be showcased at all local and regional events.
Products will be promoted both online and offline
Products will be featured in the e-Swabhimani

Award Categories:
e-Business and commerce
e-Culture and entertainment
e-Learning and education
e-Enterprise and livelihood
e-Science and environment
e-Governance
e-Health
e-Inclusion
e-Localisation
e-News
M-Content

Nominations close on 15th August 2010
For more info: www.eswabhimani.lk

Contact details:
Information and Communication Technology
Agency of Sri Lanka
160/24 Kirimandala Mawatha, Colombo 05
Tel: 011 2369 099
Fax: 011 2368 387
email: content@icta.lk

ICTA partners with Etisalat, hSenid to promote mobile application development

The Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), which functions under the aegis of the Presidential Secretariat, was  hosted the first-ever South Asian Mobile Content Conference in Colombo on 10 and 11 June 2010. And they launched Sri Lanka’s first ever Mobile Application Zone (www.appzone.lk).

The one-day conference was followed by a half-day workshop on mobile application development, and provided practical guidance to the best minds in Sri Lanka on developing useful mobile applications.

“We are trying to bring the best Sri Lankan talent to the mobile content development field in South Asia, which will be a multi-million dollar market in the future,” ICTA Chief Operating Officer, Reshan Dewapura said.

Over 25 high-level speakers all-around the world was shared their views and strategic consideration on topics such as: Mobile Content Market Trends and Development, Mobile Applications, Enabling Rich Content to Mobile Consumers, Mobile Content Marketing and Revenue Modules in the Mobile Applications.

“The conference and the workshop was covered the latest business models and strategies from content, carriers, handsets and technology companies focused on consumer content. We are very pleased to have Etisalat and hSenid as strategic partners for this nationally important event,” Dewapura added.

Etisalat, one of the largest mobile operators in Sri Lanka, together with hSenid, a world renowned Sri Lankan software developer, are pro-actively participating in this first ever conference and workshop of this nature.

Etisalat Lanka CEO, Dumindra Ratnayaka said: “Consumer demand for mobile downloads is set to triple in the next few months, and there is much more in the pipeline.”

“With Asian carriers and key players warming up to the idea of a home-grown industry, this is the right time to have a conference on mobile content in Sri Lanka. We are happy to partner with ICTA in this,” he added.

hSenid is delighted with the opportunity of having Etisalat as its strategic partner for this regionally important event. The company looks forward to working closely with Etisalat in this booming industry in the future.

“hSenid Mobile, a company that develops next generation cutting edge telco solutions, is extremely happy and excited by the growing mobile application development that is happening around the world. Mobile application development is undoubtedly the next wave in the mobile technology domain, and hSenid Mobile is glad to be a part of enabling in the mobile world,” hSenid CEO, Dinesh B Saparamadu said.

The conference and workshop was followed by the mBillionth 2010 Award (http://mbillionth.in/) jury where an eminent group of experts from Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan will select the best mobile content in South Asia.

The Kin 1 and 2 run a special version of the Windows Phone OS–not Windows Phone 7 or even version 6.5–so many of the core Windows Phonefeatures aren’t available in the Kin OS.

Designed for young, socially-connected audiences, the Kin OS makes sharing and uploading content and keeping in touch with friends simple via an intuitive, visually-pleasing interface. You can share videos, photos, links and other content by simply dragging-and-dropping your content to a designated sharing area called the “Kin Spot,” then selecting who you want to send it to, or where you want to upload it.

Similar to Motorola’s MotoBlur interface for Android, Kin is a cloud-based OS. When you capture photos or videos on your Kin phone, they’re automatically uploaded to the Kin server. You can log into your Kin account on your PC to view and share your media.

The Kin phones also have the Zune HD player for media playback, a refreshing change from the dull-as-dirt Windows Media player found on older Windows phones. The Zune HD player will be compatible with both PC and Macs.

More advanced users, however, might be turned off by some of the limitations within the operating system. There’s no photo or video editing software built in to the OS, and no universal inbox and no calendar support. Another strange omission: No support for photo or video uploads to Twitter. The browser doesn’t support Flash Lite or Silverlight, either.

And while the phones have a fair amount of built-in memory, there’s no expandable memory support.

Made by Sharp for Microsoft, the Kin 1 and 2 are designed with heavy messaging in mind. The Kin 1 is a squat, square phone and is reminiscent of the Cricket TXTM8 with a vertical slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It has a smaller display, a 5-megapixel camera with a flash and 4 GB of built-in memory.

The Kin 2 has a larger display and a horizontal slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It has an 8-megapixel camera with flash as well as 8GB of built-in memory.

Check back for a hands-on, video and slideshow of the Kin 1 and 2 as well as more details about pricing and specs.