Industry Standard Breaking News

The New York Times reports off Facebook photos for the front page

Venture Beat — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:51:33 -0500

Ah, the sweet state of journalism today.

Tweets and Facebook are infiltrating the hallowed reporting of the Gray Lady, as a Facebook photo made the front-page of the newspaper’s Web site today. Admittedly, the report raises rather serious questions about the safety of U.S. President Barack Obama. The story is about a couple, Michaele and Tarek Salahi, who somehow got into a state dinner with the prime minister of India Manmohan Singh all without being on the guest list.

The New York Times has based stories entirely off social media before. They reported on a Twitter backlash in the U.K. earlier this month, ignited when a user named brumplum criticized British actor Stephen Fry.

This particular case raises interesting questions about where reporting is headed. Is reporting off tweets and Facebook too superficial? (We’ve certainly been guilty of it before at VentureBeat.) Or does it enable a news media organization to have broader access than before to a more diverse and authentic range of voices?

Fast-growing sync service Dropbox reveals $6M of new-ish funding

Venture Beat — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:10:31 -0500

It has been a good few months for Dropbox, a startup that that backs up and synchronizes your files — after crossing the 1 million user mark seven months ago, its audience has now tripled to 3 million. While publicizing those growth numbers, the San Francisco company also revealed that it has raised $6 million in a first round of institutional funding.

GigaOm first reported the funding based on a regulatory filing, but much of the information in that initial report was wrong, Dropbox said. For one thing, the company actually raised the money more than a year ago, in October 2008, and but didn’t share the news at the time. Dropbox said it stayed quiet because it was negotiating for the dropbox.com URL and didn’t want to broadcast how much money it had, plus the company’s executives were more interested in building the product rather than drumming up publicity.

The round was led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Accel Partners.

As for that growth, chief executive Drew Houston said Dropbox’s success has been driven to a large extent by its simplicity — you don’t have to learn a new interface to use the service, you just move files into Dropbox folders and they’re automatically backed up and synchronized across devices.

“Making sure to nail the experience for mainstream users is really our focus,” he said.

Over the next few months, the company’s will be rolling out more features for sharing and collaboration, he added. Dropbox also released an iPhone application in September that has been downloaded more than 100,000 times. The service is available in free and pay versions, and although Houston declined to offer specifics on the paid side, he said it’s “ramping up along with everything else.”

Prior to the last year’s round, Dropbox raised a seed round of $1.2 million in convertible debt from Sequoia and Amidzad Partners. (Amidzad has also invested in VentureBeat.)

Competitors include Syncplicity and SugarSync.

Metasploit releases IE attack, but it's unreliable

IDG News Service — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:23:04 -0500

Developers of the open-source Metasploit penetration testing toolkit have released code that can compromise Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, but the software is not as reliable as first thought.

The code exploits an Internet Explorer bug that was disclosed last Friday in a proof-of-concept attack posted to the Bugtraq mailing list. That first code was unreliable, but security experts worried that someone would soon develop a better version that would be adopted by cyber-criminals.

The original attack used a "heap-spray" technique to exploit the vulnerability in IE. But for a while Wednesday, it looked as though the Metasploit team had released a more reliable exploit.

They used a different technique to exploit the flaw, one pioneered by researchers Alexander Sotirov and Marc Dowd, but Metasploit eventually pulled its code.

"The bug itself is unreliable," Metasploit developer HD Moore said in a Twitter message Wednesday. The Metasploit code tried to exploit the flaw in two ways, one of which was "problematic," and the other of which was the heap-spray technique that had already been ineffective.

Microsoft said via e-mail Wednesday afternoon that it was "currently unaware of any attacks in the wild using the exploit code or of any customer impact."

That's good news for IE users, as a reliable attack would affect a lot of people. The two versions of the browser that are vulnerable to the flaw -- IE 6 and IE 7 -- are used by about 40 percent of Web surfers.

The company has issued a Security Advisory that offers workarounds to guard against the flaw. According to Microsoft, the newer IE 8 browser is not affected by it.

The flaw lies in the way IE retrieves certain Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) objects, used to create a standardized layout on Web pages. Concerned IE users can upgrade their browser or disable JavaScript to avoid an attack.

Fring launches video VoIP for mobile

Venture Beat — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:50:29 -0500

Fring, which started out offering a VoIP client for mobile phones has added the ability to make and receive video calls from mobile phones, letting you see your friends as you talk to them — for free.

As with the VoIP client, you have to be a Fring user, or “fringster,” as CEO Avi Schechter calls them, to download the video client. Fringsters can then talk to friends outside of Fring via various services, including Skype, Twitter, Facebook, last.fm, Google Talk, and AIM through a combined friend list. Fring makes money through banner ads and other advertising mechanisms. Schechter says the ads are not very intrusive. Fringsters can use the mobile client to live chat, update profiles, and share files.

“This is a natural extension of what people are doing on the mobile internet,” said Schechter. “Until now, lots of communication has been traditional, whether SMS or voice calls, and we believe bringing Internet communications to mobile will benefit mobile users with new experiences.”

Fringsters span about 200 countries, are 20-30 years old on average, and skew mostly male, as with most VoIP services. But Schechter says this profile is changing quickly. The majority of users have come from Western Europe so far, but there are more and more US users downloading the service, especially now that it is on the iPhone.

While you might think operators would feel threatened by such a service, Schechter says they are not because they are interested in pushing higher-end smartphone devices into the market from which they get a higher ARPU. They’re also interested in making mobile central to users’ lives. Most mobile operators in Europe and Asia have some kind of video calling experience available to users, but Fring enables users to combine their AIM buddy list or Skype friends or Twitter followers with this mobile video calling capability without being tied to a computer as you are with Skype’s video calling, for example.

Seesmic focused on video conversations when it launched in 2008, but it has now shifted towards being a Twitter client.

Fring has also been working closely with phone manufacturers, including Nokia, whose Ovi store they participate in, and operators, including O2 in Slovakia and Mobilkom in Austria.

Although Fring won’t disclose the total number of downloads of their VoIP application, Schechter said they have half a million activations per month on smartphones only, and the average user uses the service for 4 hours per day. (They define an activation as a user who downloads the service to a mobile phone for the first time.)

Fring video calls are currently available on Nokia X6, N97 mini, N97, 5800, N95 8G and N95 devices as well as Symbian, Android, Windows Mobile, J2ME and Linux devices, and the company plans to launch video calling on the iPhone (the VoIP app is already available on the iPhone, but it does not yet include video). Schechter said they’d like to further expand the service but are focusing on higher-end handsets in an effort to ensure users the full experience of video.

Fring is headquartered in Israel but has offices in London and Washington DC. The company completed its third round of financing in April of this year. Its main shareholders are two Israel-based funds, Veritas Venture Partners and Pitango Venture Capital, Boston-based Bridge Venture Partners and South African fund VenFin Limited, as well as private investor Yossi Vardi, the founding investor of ICQ.

The company is focused on carrying its existing feature set to additional platforms and mobile phones and devices but also has a somewhat ambitious plan of launching new clients or services as frequently as monthly, according to Schechter.

I’m an iPhone user, so I wasn’t able to test the new service out on my phone, but from the company’s demo (see video below), it looks like the service works well, even if the quality isn’t quite stellar.

Podcast: Black Friday Deals, Tips, Gotchas, and Gripes

IDG News Service — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:33:12 -0500

In this special Thanksgiving episode of the PC World podcast, editors Tim Moynihan, Mark Sullivan, Ginny Mies, and Patrick Miller tell you everything they know about Black Friday tech deals, tricks, pitfalls, and problems.

Download the podcast here.

You might not even need to leave your house to find the best Black Friday shopping deals. Ginny Mies talks about some great Web sites for rounding up the best tech bargains, and offers a few words of warning about deals that look too good to be true.

Patrick Miller is used to scouring the Web for the hottest tech deals of the week, and he's pinpointed some trends to look out for this holiday shopping season. Which products represent the best bargains, and which "deals" aren't really deals at all? Find out in this week's podcast.

And finally, Mark Sullivan has some steam to let out of his ears regarding mail-in rebates. Not only are they a pain, but they often artificially drive down the advertised price for tech products. Can the mail-in madness end? Sullivan says that it's up to consumers.Read more about Black Friday deals, shopping tips, and myths on PC World:

Top 10 Black Friday Websites

A Gamer's Guide to Black Friday

Five Tips to Shop Black Friday and Cyber Monday Securely

8 Tech Tools For Black Friday Deals

Skip the Crowds: Online Shopping Tips for Black Friday

The Insider's Guide to Black Friday Bargains

10 Fascinating Facts about Black Friday

7 Hot Black Friday Laptop and Netbook Deals

Apple to Offer Black Friday Deals

Have some Black Friday advice of your own? You can reach us at podcast@pcworld.com and review our podcast on iTunes. Also, you can subscribe to the weekly PC World Podcast either on iTunes or via the PC World RSS feed.

Hulu U.S. video streams soar by nearly 50 percent in October, Google’s YouTube flat

Venture Beat — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:25:23 -0500

Video viewing habits are continuing their shift online as more than half of people in the U.S. watched video on the Internet in October, according to comScore.

Hulu is rising rapidly. The video portal for professionally produced content attracted 47 percent more views over the month, at about 850 million views in October compared to 583 million views in September. The site’s also stickier: the average user is watching about 20 videos, up from 15.

That growth may have come at the expense of its contributors: Fox’s views were down month over month. (Fox’s owner News Corp. is a partial owner of Hulu and has been grumbling lately about getting users to convert to a paid model in 2010.) Older companies like Viacom Digital, Yahoo!, and Turner Network also declined in raw views.

At the same time, Google and YouTube’s views were pretty much flat at 10.5 billion streams in October compared to 10.4 billion streams the previous month. Of course, YouTube’s global numbers are larger — the company said it was serving more than 1 billion videos a day globally.

Facebook becomes a force in online video

The other interesting thing to note is Facebook’s emergence as a force in video. The company is now one of the top 10 online video sites in the country with 245 million views and counting.

Facebook has been behind a number of recent video collaborations — the company has partnered with CNN and ABC to let users comment and chat alongside live video streams. It’s also partnered with Hulu to build a player inside the Facebook environment, allowing users to watch full episodes, post them to their profiles and comment on them with friends. Watch this space — Facebook’s use case for entertainment and socializing with friends most directly rivals that of YouTube’s.

Five reasons to partition a disk

IDG News Service — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:47:49 -0500

When you get a new Mac, it comes with one startup drive (a hard disk or, in a few cases, a solid-state disk) named "Macintosh HD." This arrangement is perfectly fine for most of us, but it's not your only option. If the need arises, you can split that disk up. Any internal (IDE or SATA) or external (FireWire, USB, or eSATA) disk can be reorganized into one or more volumes called partitions.

Each partition appears on your Desktop as an independent disk, and you can even mix and match formatting methods from one partition to the next on the same disk. You can use Disk Utility (found in /Applications/Utilities) to repartition a drive, although doing so normally requires erasing the entire drive in the process. You can also choose from several third-party utilities, such as Prosoft Engineering's $99 Drive Genius 2 and Coriolis System's $45 iPartition that can change a drive's partitioning without erasing it.

I know some people who have partitioned their Macs' hard drives for decades, but can't really give a good reason for doing it. Partitioning can waste space and even decrease your hard drive's performance. So why would you ever bother? Here are five good reasons:

1. To switch between versions of OS X

If your Mac is capable of running multiple versions of OS X (for example, you have an early Intel-based iMac that can run Tiger, Leopard, or Snow Leopard), you can partition your drive so that you can use more than one. Divide your disk into one partition for each version of OS X, and then install the operating systems separately. When you need to run a different version of the operating system--say, for testing, or to use older software that won't run under a newer OS--open the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences, select the partition you want, and click on Restart.

2. To use Boot Camp

If you use Boot Camp Assistant (built into OS X 10.5 Leopard and later) to run Windows on your Mac, it creates a special partition just for your Windows installation. Unfortunately, Boot Camp Assistant won't work if your disk is already partitioned, so if you intend to use Boot Camp, you'll have to stick to just two partitions (one each for Windows and OS X).

3. To repair disk problems

If your startup volume develops disk errors, you may need to run a repair program (such as Disk Utility) from another volume in order to fix them. That other volume could be an external hard drive or a bootable DVD. But another option is to keep a small partition on your main disk that includes a bootable copy of OS X and a repair utility or two. When trouble strikes, you can boot up from this volume and fix some problems without having any secondary media at all.

4. To share your iPhoto library

If you want to share a single iPhoto library between two or more user accounts on the same Mac, one way to do so, per Apple's advice, is to move it to a volume where ownership is ignored. That can't be your main startup volume, but it could be an external disk--or another partition of your internal disk.

5. To manage backups efficiently

I recommend maintaining two kinds of backups. The first is bootable duplicates of your entire disk, using a program such as Bombich Software's Carbon Copy Cloner (donation requested) or Shirt Pocket Software's $28 SuperDuper!. The second is versioned backups (which store copies of your files as they appeared at many points in time) using Apple's built-in Time Machine or any of numerous other backup utilities. You don't need to keep two different hard drives around for your two types of backup. Instead, use partitions. For example, if you have a 1TB internal disk, you could buy a single 2TB external drive, divide it into two 1TB partitions, and then put your bootable duplicate on one while using the other for versioned backups.

Joe Kissell is the senior editor of TidBits and the author of numerous e-books about OS X.

Attacks appear imminent as IE exploit is improved

IDG News Service — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:36:05 -0500

Hackers working on the open-source Metasploit project have spiffed up a zero-day attack on Microsoft's Internet Explorer, making it more reliable -- and more likely to be used by criminals.

Security experts have been worried about the flaw since it was first disclosed on the Bugtraq mailing list Friday. But the original demonstration code was unreliable and has not been used in real-world attacks.

"The Metasploit exploit that was released last night will be more reliable against certain attacks than the initial exploit," said Ben Greenbaum, senior research manager with Symantec, in an interview Wednesday.

As of Wednesday morning, Symantec had not seen the exploit used in Internet-based attacks, but security experts say this type of code is for a very popular hacking technique called a drive-by attack. Victims are tricked into visiting Web sites that contain malicious code where they are then infected via the browser vulnerability. Criminals also place this type of code on hacked Web sites in order to spread their attacks.

On Monday, Microsoft published a Security Advisory on the flaw, offering some workarounds for the issue. It affects IE version 6 and version 7.

Microsoft's latest IE 8 browser is not affected by the bug, which has to do with the way that IE retrieves certain Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) objects, used to create a standardized layout on Web pages.

Concerned IE users can upgrade their browser or disable JavaScript in order to avoid an attack.

To improve the exploit, the Metasploit team used a technique borrowed from two well-known security researchers, Greenbaum said. "The initial exploit used heap-spraying technology," he said. "It's kind of like a shotgun attack, where you try a lot of things at once and hope one of them catches."

The latest attack uses a .net dlll memory technique developed by Alexander Sotirov and Marc Dowd. "This will be much more reliable than the heap-spraying technology," he added. "There's really no question about it."

Tesla eyes Downey, Calif. for Model S assembly plant

Venture Beat — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:32:12 -0500

Tesla Motors may have finally picked a site for its new Model S Assembly plant — an announcement that has been awaited with bated breath by California politicians and those in the advanced vehicle industry for months. While the company has yet to confirm the selection, the city of Downey, Calif., likes its chances — its mayor has gone as far as to say the deal is 99.9 percent done.

Today, the issue is under consideration by the Downey City Council, which may or may not approve a memorandum of understanding from the Industrial Realty Group, according to local newspaper the Downey Patriot. The site in question is 80 acres and only about 15 miles away from downtown Los Angeles (about 17 minutes driving time). About 20 of the acres included in the deal are owned by the city of Downey.

The land has formerly been used by Rockwell International and Boeing to build spacecraft. Right now, it is the home of Downey Studios, a film and television production house. If Tesla does take up residence there, it will be the first time car assembly has taken place in Southern California since General Motors closed its plant in 1992.

Mayor Mario Guerra says that “the deal points have all been agreed to,” but that a formal announcement of the town’s selection probably won’t come until next week. Tesla had also been considering an old Boeign factory in Long Beach.

This could be a major boon for the town and those surrounding it, like Compton, Alhambra and Cerritos. The plant — to be built and opened with up to $365 million of the stimulus loans received from the Department of Energy — is slated to employ between 1,200 and 1,500 people.Downey itself has fallen on hard economic times after high-tech manufacturing jobs moved away.

Production is supposed to start by the end of 2011, with each Model S costing $57,400. With tax credits and other rebates, the price could be as low as $50,000 for consumers. Even though its two years away, almost 2,000 people have already pre-ordered the sleek battery-powered sedan.

Tesla’s headquarters and smaller assembly operations are currently located in San Carlos, Calif., but will soon move to the Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto.

Study: Hybrid cars hit more pedestrians

Venture Beat — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:29:19 -0500

According to a recently released National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study, hybrid-electric vehicles are up to twice as dangerous to pedestrians as traditional cars.

The effect is at its worst in the city, when HEVs are almost silent. Near-silent vehicles are harder to detect, hindering a pedestrian’s ability to avoid collisions. A rumbling V-8 lets you know it is coming. Electric vehicles offer no such warning. The American Council of the Blind has issued a number of press releases in recent months warning of the danger that HEVs pose. There is also a bill with 139 lawmakers on board that would force the Department of Transportation to establish safety standards around “non-visual warnings” for vehicles.

Out of the vehicles in the study:

8,387 were hybrids, of which 77 had struck a pedestrian — this works out to a 0.9 percent incidence rate
559,703 vehicles were traditional gas-burners, which struck 3,578 pedestrians, which works out to a 0.6 percent incidence rate

Electric vehicles are thus determined to be 50 percent more dangerous to pedestrians. Of the pedestrian accidents, it was almost a fifty-fifty break on under or over 35 mph, with one-third of accidents not including speed limit information.

In accidents involving bicyclists, the numbers get worse:

0.3 percent of standard cars on the road hit a bicyclist
0.6 percent of HEVs hit a bicyclist
Out of the speed limit data available, 25 of 34 collisions were in a 35 or under zone, suggesting that city streets are the most dangerous places to be a cyclist

Pressure from the ACB and others has spurred a new controversy in the electric-vehicle field. Nissan, Ford and Chevrolet are all trying to determine what, if any, “non visual signals” will be included in their EV models. Tesla has said that it has no intention if implementing “fake noises,” as it has delivered 700 vehicles and the quiet power train is consistently noted as a plus. The Fisker Karma will include a “distinctive audio signature … reflective of the car’s advanced technology.” Whether this means a Jetsons like bubbling whir or cutting-edge dance beats remains to be seen.

Nissan and Ford are still on the fence, not having firm plans either way. According to Ford’s hybrid division head Nancy Gioia, “if we all do it differently, we will confuse the heck out of the consumer.”

Representative Edolphus Towns, a New York Democrat, has introduced a bill that would require the Department of Transportation to establish non-visual warning requirements for HEVs. So far it has 139 supporters.

Public reception for the idea has been mostly negative on the Internet, with people citing the quiet of EV power trains as a decisive advantage not to be canceled by artificial noises.

TVDeck creates a TV Guide for web video

Venture Beat — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:22:01 -0500

TVDeck, a new site that launched its public beta test yesterday, aims to help Internet users find some of the best and most interesting videos among the massive amounts posted on the web.

TVDeck does this by aggregating the feeds, in a way somewhat similar to Alltop, of all the best shows online. There are a huge number of podcasts, video series, and the like out there, but the company says it’s only looking for the highest quality. Videos are sorted into categories like Technology, Sports, Business, and Men.

You can drill down into specific categories, too: If you choose “Men,” you then get to pick from things like Travel, Personal Finance, Wine, NFL, and more. Once you’ve found exactly the genre you’re looking for, a list of recent episodes from shows that might interest you appears. You can read about the episodes, or just go straight to the one you want to watch.

There are all sorts of interesting sharing features, as well as a surprisingly large number of shows available for watching completely on demand — you can see what’s popular, what’s brand new, and tell the whole world about it. You can also save feeds to My Deck, which gives you a personal hub for all your online viewing needs. You’re even able to add feeds TVDeck doesn’t already have, so TVDeck can be your one-stop shop for whatever you watch.

TVDeck certainly isn’t the only player in this field: sites like Clicker, SideReel and OVGuide are all trying to make finding video online easier. What’s unique about TVDeck, though, is that it’s the only site that’s geared toward online video – created online, shared online, and viewed exclusively online.

What’s really interesting about TVDeck is the trend it’s trying to ride. The traditional ways of watching TV and video, like most other old media, appears to be on its way out. A recent Morgan Stanley study came up with more than a few telling numbers about the watching habits of Americans.

According to the report, DVR and digital viewership are now larger than DVD sales, and DVD sales are predicted to drop 40% by the end of next year. More and more people are watching on TiVo or online, at their own leisure and with many more choices. More and more people every day are also accessing their entertainment from mobile devices, which traditional movies and TV have never figured out how to serve.

High-quality internet video appears poised for a boom at network television’s expense. Without the simplicity of channels and the TV Guide, though, all that video is going to be much harder to find.

TVDeck is both a filter and a finder, at once ignoring the bad shows and helping you find what you’re looking for among the good ones. As the world turns digital, and the computer becomes a TV, users are going to need a lot more of that.

Five Tips to Shop Black Friday and Cyber Monday Securely

IDG News Service — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:02:24 -0500

This Friday is Black Friday--officially kicking off the 2009 holiday shopping season. Online attackers and malware developers know how to capitalize on current events, and the rush to find great holiday bargains offers a prime opportunity to exploit eager shoppers. Here are five tips to help you shop online securely.

1. Start with the Basics. I realize that it seems redundant and cliché, but the first step in protecting yourself and your computer this holiday season is to make sure your computer is patched and secure .

Make sure you have applied any applicable patches and updates for your operating system and Web browser in particular. Also, ensure you have antivirus and antispyware protection installed and running and that they are up to date.

2. Shop on Secure Sites. Erin Earley, from Swedish anti-spyware company Lavasoft, says "Look for the padlock icon or a URL that starts with https://. That means your transaction is encrypted."

When you are shopping at big name sites like BestBuy.com or Target.com there is less need for concern. However, the quest for holiday bargains often extends beyond major retail chains to more obscure sites.

3. Control Your Credit. One of the biggest concerns with online shopping is the possibility of an attacker intercepting your credit card details and maxing out your credit. If you follow the first tip you will greatly decrease the chances of this happening, but some shoppers are still apprehensive.

There are a couple of alternatives you can use to shop online and protect your credit at the same time. Lavasoft's Earley suggests "If you're hesitant to enter your credit card details online, consider using a separate credit card, or use an "e-card" solution that gives you the ability to create a temporary card number to be used just once or with a spending limit."

4. Fake Holiday Bargains. Fred Touchette, a senior security analyst with AppRiver points out that one of the most popular holiday scams is to lure consumers with fake holiday bargains. Attackers are especially likely to focus on the most popular and hard-to-find items since those are more likely to catch the attention of desperate consumers.

Touchette says the fake product scams are typically promoted via spam email. He suggests that you "always do your research. If you don't recognize a company, don't order anything from them until you're sure they really exist."

5. Bank / PayPal Phishing. With the huge spike in shopping for the holiday season its almost a sure thing that you've made a purchase with a credit card somewhere--either online or in real life at a brick and mortar retail establishment. Attackers know this and know how to capitalize on it.

AppRiver lists both bank phishing attacks and PayPal (or eBay) phishing attacks on its list of the top holiday shopping scams. Watch out for poor spelling or grammar--signs that virtually ensure the message is fake, and remember that your financial institution will never ask you for personal information, account information, or passwords via email.

Touchette further recommends "Avoid following links that are provided for you in an email, especially if you are unsure of the sender. A frequent trick from spammers during the holidays is a link to a fake eBay or PayPal log-in page. Rather than follow links in emails, type it directly into your browser."

I don't know if its just me, but it seems that holiday shopping has reached a frenzy early this year. Black Friday has been stretched into Black November and retailers look like they will be aggressively promoting holiday bargains throughout the holiday season--not just this Friday.

Follow these tips to make sure your online holiday shopping goes smoothly and you can enjoy your holidays in peace.

Tony Bradley tweets as @PCSecurityNews, and can be contacted at his Facebook page.

Ruckus Wireless intros wireless broadband alternative to 3G

IDG News Service — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:52:18 -0500

With the recent approval of the 802.11n band for WiFi transmission, Ruckus Wireless, a WiFi solutions provider, launched recently a viable option to wireless broadband that could compete head-on with 3G wireless networks, company executives claimed Wednesday.

Aptly dubbed "Wireless Broadband Access" (WBA), the vendor's end-to-end solution builds on a stable WiFi platform--which doesn't require radio frequency licensing unlike 3G--in generating wireless access for broadband users.

"Conventional approaches are not enough anymore," alleged Bart Burstein, vice president for business development and product management, Ruckus Wireless. "Fixed line is becoming too costly, especially in terms of installation and monthly dues."

With the WBA solution, Burstein said operators and broadband providers can offer a scalable and stable Internet access to its customers at one-fifth the cost of WiMax, touted as the next-generation wireless broadband access technology.

"Wimax entails huge investments on base stations, transmitters and licenses," Burstein said. "Our products are less expensive even if they require installation of more native devices."

Ruckus Wireless' solution leverages its stable of WiFi products built on a "Smart WiFi" antenna platform which, the company claims, offers better range, performance and reliability.

Compared to conventional WiFi routers that dispel signal sporadically across a predetermined range, Burstein said the Smart WiFi's signal is very direct and targeted, "like a concentrated flashlight."

More importantly, the Smart WiFi antenna can detect the locations of the device, even if it keeps on moving. "If something is blocking the path of the signal to the device, it will find a way around it," Burstein noted.

In the area of range, speed and penetration, WBA is in a good position to compete as well. Burstein noted how through Smart Meshing, which uses a number of Access Points that receive and transmit WiFI signals to other APs over a determined area, WiFi signal can be achieved strongly up to about 100 meters. Smart Meshing, he added, likewise make scalability possible.

"WiFi's low radio frequency, coupled with our strong CPE (customer premise equipment) acting as a receiver, allows signal to penetrate thick walls," Burstein noted, adding that the 802.11n backhaul system allows transmission speeds of up to 600mbps, making wireless broadband possible.

GreenBeat: Ultimate media roundup — pics, videos, slides and more

Venture Beat — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:50:12 -0500

At this time last week, we were just about to kick off our inaugural GreenBeat conference focused on the Smart Grid. We’re thrilled to still be receiving valuable feedback and new ideas for the event next year. To provide our readers — including those who couldn’t make it out this time — with a taste of the GreenBeat experience, we’re providing some photos and videos here, as well as the presentations made by our lineup of speakers.

One of the most exciting best practices gleaned from this year’s conference was our partnership with FORA.tv. The company was able to capture some of the agenda’s best material on video. You can find all the footage on http://fora.tv/partner/VentureBeat. But we’ve embedded the videos for you below. FORA.tv was the service we used to livecast GreenBeat while it was happening, for those of you had a chance to check the stream out.

John Doerr opening keynote and Q&A session

Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers in conversation with Matter Network’s John Gartner

Vinod Khosla expressing his skepticism of the Smart Grid

Ed Lu discussing how Google plans to get in on the Smart Grid trend

Laura Ipsen laying out Cisco Systems’ strategy for becoming a Smart Grid leader

We’ve also posted the PowerPoint presentations fielded from the program on the event’s web site, http://www.greenbeat2009.com, but here they are again in case you want to download them for reference:

Green Beat 09 Visions of the Smart Grid Panel

Green Beat 09 Utility Experiences With Smart Energy

Green Beat 09 Innovation Competition Set1

Green Beat 09 Innovation Competition Set2

Green Beat 09 Executive Cliimate Change Survey

Green Beat 09 Consumers and Efficiency Panel

One of the major reasons we host big industry events like GreenBeat is to bring all the right stakeholders into the same room. We’re pleased to hear that valuable relationships were forged and potential deals kickstarted at the conference. To give you an idea of who was there, and what you can expect from future green VentureBeat productions, here are some choice photos taken by our staff of photographers.

Greentech Media editor in chief Michael Kanellos (center) speaks with conference attendees in between sessions. [Photo credit: Cheng Saechao]

Technologist and environmentalist Mary Vincent (far right) meets with other attendees over drinks. [Photo credit: Cheng Saechao]

Claremont Creek Ventures managing director Nat Goldhaber and entrepreneur in resident Jenna Raby (center) at the Southern California Edison-sponsored cocktail reception. [Photo credit: David Lin]

Bryce Lee, managing director at Credit Suisse (left), and Don Wood, managing director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, discuss where private capital will flow in the Smart Grid business during the “Follow the Money” breakout panel. [Photo credit: David Lin]

Greentech Media senior analyst Eric Wesoff presents data collected on venture capital investment in the Smart Grid. [Photo credit: Cheng Saechao]

Famed investor Vinod Khosla explains to VentureBeat Matt Marshall why he hasn’t found a good investment in the Smart Grid business yet. [Photo credit: David Lin]

Andy Tang, senior director of the smart energy web for PG&E (left), delivers his vision of the Smart Grid in 2015, before Phil Mezey, COO of Itron North America. [Photo credit: David Lin]

If this were last Thursday night’s episode of 30 Rock, keynote Al Gore might be saying, “Quiet, a whale is in trouble! I must go!” [Photo credit: David Lin]

Innovation Competition co-winners Seth Georgion of Locust Storage (left) and Gary Fromer of CPower. [Photo credit: Cheng Saechao]

Cisco Systems Smart Grid guru Laura Ipsen met with conference attendees during the Southern California Edison-sponsored cocktail reception on Thursday night. [Photo credit: David Lin]

In crisis, cost-cutting not a priority of Asian call centers

IDG News Service — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:49:48 -0500

Keeping customers satisfied, and not cutting costs, is the top priority of Asian contact centers despite the economic uncertainty that swept the globe last year, data from a benchmarking report by IT services provider Datacraft showed Thursday.

At least 22.5% of companies surveyed by the firm prioritize growing value with existing customers as their most important commercial driver, with cost cutting only ranking fourth, with only 12.5% of respondents saying it is their top priority.

The Datacraft Benchmarking Survey 2009, now on its 12th year, is a an end-user-focused resource for industry decision makers, which covers the full breadth and depth of managing a contact center. For this year, 554 respondents from over 36 countries were surveyed about the working conditions and operational procedures in their respective contact centers.

"Asian contact centers are not much focused on cost savings, but on strategic decisions aimed at keeping customers," said Nagi Kasinadhuni, general manager, converged communications and customer interactive solutions, Datacraft.

With companies struggling to stifle the impact of the recent crisis, Kasinadhuni said most firms are on their toes to keep their current base of customers. "Companies can't afford to lose customers, and call centers are realizing the need to focus on keeping the customers satisfied," he explained.

Because of this, data revealed that most companies are putting a premium on improving the quality of their service (38.4%) and optimizing their processes (11.7%) to ensure the call process is shorter. Rationalizing platforms (25%) and unifying customers' view towards a single, accessible channel (38.7%) also came out as an emerging trend in keeping customers satisfied.

But customers are hardly the only set of people that contact center managers need to carefully handle in order to ensure quality of operations. Agents who interact with customers, according to Kasinadhuni, are also key ingredients towards success in the industry.

Right now, there exists in the Asian region an attrition paradox, where annual agent attrition rate persists at a high 23.3%--higher than the overall 21.1%--despite contact center firms' continuing efforts to keep their agents motivated through free shifts, flexible working hours and opportunities for training.

"Call center operators need to look into increasing their staff's salaries, which remains at the lowest margin, comprising only 54.4% of operational budget, compared to the UK's 69%," Kasinadhuni suggested. Similarly, staff retention sits surprisingly at the bottom of contact center priority issues, with only 3.6% of the respondents ranking it as a top issue.

Check Point to Offer New Levels of Security Controls

IDG News Service — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:46:40 -0500

New developments from Check Point combined with the acquired technologies will provide businesses granular control over application usage and enable security administrators to prevent threats associated with the use of certain Internet applications. Check Point will offer this new level of security controls as a Software Blade that will be available for all gateways.

"I'm pleased to announce today's acquisition. This will allow us to continue to elevate the level of Internet security and strengthen our market and technology leadership," said Gil Shwed, chairman and chief executive officer at Check Point. "As the Internet and its use evolved, Check Point has ensured businesses remain securely connected. This granular application control will enable better use of Web 2.0 technologies safely and securely."

"Acquiring FaceTime's application database allows Check Point to create a solution, which enables enterprises to monitor, control and diffuse network traffic, including those from Web 2.0 applications," said Charles Kolodgy, research director for Security Products at IDC. "This development reinforces Check Point's leading-edge in the industry and takes the firewall beyond just providing security," he added

"We are continuing to re-invent the Internet firewall," continued Shwed. "Adding the world's largest application classification database is a natural extension of our Software Blade architecture, demonstrating the power of our architecture and solution."

Pricing and availability for this new software blade will be announced in 2010.

Fujitsu and NetApp to Expand Global Partnership

IDG News Service — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:45:04 -0500

Fujitsu and NetApp have announced that they would deepen their partnership globally and jointly develop integrated products and services. The announcement was made at VISIT 2009, Fujitsu's IT fair. The move should enable their customers to drive greater value and efficiencies from their IT infrastructures, said Fujitsu.

The relationship will leverage NetApp's work in storage management software. The move will boost Fujitsu's comprehensive resource management framework, which its year-old dynamic infrastructure push is based on. Part of the alliance is the full integration of NetApp V-series with Fujitsu ETERNUS storage systems.

Elaborating on the relationship, Kai Flore, President and CEO, Fujitsu Technology Solutions, said that there were two ways a service provider could quickly grow it's expertise: M&As and tight alliances. Buying up companies, he said, introduced integration difficulties, which is why Fujitsu decided to go down the alliance route. "From our perspective, NetApp has a very successful portfolio. With NetApps, we can provide first-class service to our customers," he said.

The companies also announced their intention to implement a global joint go-to-market strategy involving complementary products.

It is not clear how this new relationship will affect Fujitsu's ongoing partnership with EMC.

DEMO Spring: Looking for cool tech products — in 7 categories

Venture Beat — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:42:44 -0500

I’m pleased to announce the latest plans by DEMO:

First, we’ve identified 7 technology sectors that will serve as the primary themes for product launches at the next DEMO in Palm Springs on March 21-23.

Second, we’ve created a brand new DEMO Mentor Program, which will connect 6 winning teams of students with business plans with members of the DEMO Alumni community.

I believe both of these changes will help make DEMO even more exciting and useful for everyone involved — attendees, investors, press and corporate development executives.

The sectors we’re focusing on for the next DEMO are the following:

Social and Media
Health and Life Science
Clean and Sustaining
Cloud
Enterprise
Mobile
Consumer

We’re looking for companies that are targeting their products in these specific areas. Here’s why: As we gear up for the next DEMO, we’ve been thinking a lot about the best way to format things. On the one hand, DEMO without question is the leading event for companies launching emerging technology products (companies such as Salesforce, TiVo, Palm, ETrade, Adobe, Google and Symantec have all either launched their companies or products there there — just to name a few).

On the other hand, the pace and complexity of innovation right now is just mind-boggling. The tech ecosystem is noisy. So these 7 sectors are a way of providing focus to the event, making it more valuable to the companies and attendees. We’ll be drawing on advice from experts in each of the sectors to make sure we’re discovering and efficiently evaluating the very best companies. Yes, we’ll still have an “other” category, so if you want to launch, say, the slickest ice-cream making machine in the world, we’ll still have a place for you!

As for the DEMO Mentor Program, the 6 finalist teams will be chosen based on the quality of their business plan and character of the team. They’ll be invited to the DEMO conference and given the opportunity to showcase their plan in the DEMO Pavilion and participate in the conference at no charge. The conference producers will also make official introductions to DEMO Alumni, who will be available to advise each team as they evolve their plans into real businesses. This competition officially kicks off December 1, 2009. Stay tuned for more information on this in the next few days.

We’re also going to travel across the nation next month. We’re inviting anyone interested to join us — the DEMO organizers, DEMO Alumni attendees and demonstrators along with local entrepreneurs and venture capitalists — for a casual evening of cocktails and conversation in one of the following 4 meet-ups scheduled for December. For complete information and/or to sign-up, please visit the city link most convenient below:

San Francisco, CA, December 2 – The Mighty Bar
Seattle, WA, December 3 – Barca
New York City, NY, December 10 – 3 Ten Lounge
Austin, TX, December 14 – J Black’s Lounge
Atlanta, GA, December 16 – The Palomar Hotel

Stay tuned to additional DEMO news at:

Facebook: http://www.demo.com/fbdemo
LinkedIn: http://www.demo.com/linkedin
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/demotweets http://www.twitter.com/mmarshall

Meanwhile, the applications have already started rolling in, and it is time for VentureBeat team members to meet the next wave of entrepreneur applicants. Begin your application here.

Top 5 Black Friday Gotchas

IDG News Service — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:40:18 -0500

So Black Friday is coming--but not all that glitters is gold. While those who mine the long lists of post-Thanksgiving sale items will surely find some gems, prudent shoppers will be sure to do their homework and read the fine print--which, as usual, may serve up a few lumps of coal.

We consulted with a group of shopping experts, and the consensus is to treat Black Friday sales like any others, because this year especially, they probably will be. Here are some of the top pitfalls to avoid.

Cheap Cheap Stuff

That 32-inch set going for $300 or the $10 kitchen appliance sounds like a steal--but you or the gift recipient might not be that thrilled with it in the long run. Some of the super-low prices designed to get you in the door are low because the merchandise is cheaply made.

What does this mean? DealNews.com CEO Dan de Grandpre says low-end manufacturing manifests itself in different ways depending on the product. An appliance's engine might burn out quickly; a cheap netbook might have a small hard drive or too little RAM (and no expandability) compared with the full-blown notebook next to it on the shelf. The TV may not have great image quality or, in the case of an LCD set, a good refresh rate (60Hz vs. the smoother motion capabilities of newer 120Hz or 240Hz sets). And don't expect supercheap connected TVs or Blu-ray players, either.

The best defense here is to do your research. Ask about an advertised deal--especially if you see no specific model number. If it's a third-tier or no-name brand, beware--it's hard to tell what you're getting because sometimes these models won't have been reviewed. At least ask for specific model numbers because many manufacturers are starting to make low-end products just to avoid being shut out of the game. These products may or may not meet your needs, but the point here is to avoid an unpleasant surprise because of ignorance.

Rebate Games

One popular Black Friday ploy is to show an item's price--after (sometimes multiple) mail-in rebates. I got caught up in one such rebate game last year: I wrote about a mouse going for $5, and a reader pointed out that you had to pay more like $30 to walk out of the store with the thing. (A variant of this is the supercheap netbook that requires committing to a two-year broadband plan at $70 a month.)

Such details are invariably in the fine print, which is sometimes difficult to see--especially if you're relying on Web reports on various Black Friday Web sites and don't have the actual newspaper ad in front of you.

Even if you're aware that mail-in rebates are involved, Jim Willcox, Consumer Reports' senior editor for electronics, says that you should be honest with yourself about how diligent you will be in following up with the paperwork involved. It's well known in marketing circles that rebate offers are going to cost manufacturers less than actual discounts or price cuts, because a certain percentage of buyers simply won't send in for them. If you're likely to be in that group, then you're not getting the advertised deal. (And of course, mail-in rebates are particularly problematic for items you intend to give as gifts, since getting the rebate typically involves providing a copy of the receipt as well as the UPC code from the packaging.)

The Doorbuster Dilemma

Some of the best advertised prices in Black Friday ads are for so-called doorbusters--items the vendor typically labels "quantities limited," meaning they might run out before you get into the store. But even if you're able to snag the product, a sales person might try to convince you that you'd really rather spend more for a better product (see "Cheap Cheap Stuff," above), on which the store will make more money. "They'll actually denigrate the cheaper TV," Consumer Reports' Willcox says.

Again, advance research is the best defense--if you're getting up at 2 o'clock in the morning to get a specific doorbuster, it behooves you to make sure you really know and want the product. Don't fall into the old bait-and-switch trap--or the related pitfall of impulse buys that you haven't researched. Make a list and stick with it. And make sure your deal is really a deal. Some of the deals we've seen don't represent as a deep a discount as we've seen in the past. Sure, a $1200 55-inch HDTV is a good price, but is the 42-inch HDTV from a lesser brand an even better deal?

Buy Now or Later?

You'll definitely find deals on Black Friday. But that doesn't mean you won't find them later, too, in the run-up to Christmas--so don't panic if you oversleep and can't be part of the first wave of shoppers in Costco, Target, Wal-Mart, or any other Black Friday mecca.

"Prices may go up after Black Friday but they rarely return to where they were before," says Consumer Reports' Willcox. And some product categories may well get cheaper in the not too distant future. DealNews' De Grandpre and iSuppli HDTV analyst Riddhi Patel both suggest that some TV shoppers might do better to hold off.

"It's not necessarily a good day to buy high-end HDTVs," De Grandpre says, adding that while low-end sets will likely be as cheap as they'll ever be on Black Friday, prices for better sets might come down closer to Christmas or right afterwards. Patel says that larger-size sets, particularly, might go on sale closer to the Super Bowl. TV analysts at DisplaySearch echo this perspective. (See "HDTVs for the Holidays: No Bad Time to Buy" for more.)

Store Policy Changes

Finally, Black Friday shoppers should also be on guard for changes in general store policies, such as suspended price-match guarantees or tighter return policies. For example, you might not have the same window of time for returning an item, and a pledge to match a lower advertised price might not be honored within the same time frame.

Willcox says it's not uncommon for stores to do this for doorbuster items especially, so ask the sales staff. Again, you don't want a gift recipient to be stuck with something neither you nor they can return.

Apple posts guidelines on 27-inch iMac’s Target Display mode

IDG News Service — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:13:42 -0500

If you happen to own one of the new 27-inch iMacs, you may have heard that you can also use it as an external display for your other computers and devices (DVD players, for example). Although the process is as straightforward as connecting another computer to your iMac via its Mini DisplayPort port, the fact that Mac OS X keeps running in the background while it is in Target Display mode makes it just a trifle more complicated a setup than your average monitor.

(Note that the instructions are for computer-to-iMac connections--adapters and converters for other devices aren't available yet and Apple says it's leaving it up to 3rd parties to provide such adapters.)

To assist you with setting up your 27-inch iMac (owners of the 21.5-inch version need not apply) as an external display, Apple has published a support document that walks you through the simple process and helps you figure out how to operate the Mac while it is in Target Display mode. The most important tip Apple mentions is that the keyboard shortcut Command + F2 allows you to toggle Target Display mode on and off. (If you're not sure where to buy Mini DisplayPort adapters and cables, Monoprice is a good place to start.)

Your iMac needs to be on and running before you can use it as an external display. When it is in Target Display mode, the copy of Mac OS X on your iMac remains fully functional in the background. However, it does not intercept any input from the mouse and keyboard, except for the display brightness and volume controls and the media playback keys. The iSight camera and USB and FireWire ports also remain inaccessible to the external source. Check out Apple's support document for more details.

Racist image tops Google search results for Michelle Obama

IDG News Service — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:12:31 -0500

The top-ranked result for U.S. first lady Michelle Obama on Google's image search engine Wednesday was a racist caricature that depicted her with the face of a chimpanzee, just below a link to a suggested Google search for the terms "Michelle Obama Monkey."

By late in the day the image had been removed, but not by Google.

"Apparently, the person who posted it decided to remove it," said a Google spokesman, in response to an e-mail query.

The same image of Obama, which was hosted on Google's Blogger service, appeared among the top image results on Google for at least two weeks, according to user complaints on Google's help forum.

The Obama caricature did not appear among the top image results for "Michelle Obama" on Microsoft's rival Bing search engine.

The image also did not appear among image results when users search for "Michelle Obama" on its main search engine, only on the results produced by the image search engine.

"Google views the integrity of our search results as an extremely important priority. Accordingly, we do not remove a page from our search results, or images from our Google Images results, simply because the content is in very poor taste or because we receive complaints concerning it," a Google employee named Jem wrote on the forum last week.

Google's image search results rely "heavily on computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page's relevance to a given query," Jem wrote, adding that Google does remove images from its results when they violate Google's Webmaster Guidelines, the company is required to do so by law, or at the request of the webmaster responsible for the image.

The same message is contained in a company notice titled "Offensive Search Results" that appears as a sponsored result when users search for an image of Michelle Obama on Google.

"We apologize if you've had an upsetting experience using Google. We hope you understand our position regarding offensive results," it said.

A Google spokeswoman did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking information about how the Obama caricature became the top-ranked image result on the company's search engine.

One possibility is that the user who posted the image managed to game Google's search algorithm, perhaps by using large numbers of inbound links to boost its ranking on the search engine. However, gaming the search engine in this way would violate Google's Webmaster Guidelines, prompting the company to remove the image from its results. Since that hasn't happened, it suggests other factors may be involved.

(Additional reporting by Marc Ferranti in the IDG News Service New York bureau.)

Sept. 11 pager messages published online

IDG News Service — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:10:00 -0500

The pager message is from a woman near a pay phone near 38th Street in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. The woman says her children were evacuated, but she's trying to find them. She tells her husband she loves him.

It's one of more than half a million Sept. 11 pager messages obtained by secret document publisher Wikileaks, all of which are gradually being published on the Internet Wednesday. Wikileaks hopes that they will shed some light on the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil, an incident that continues to arouse heated debate in the U.S.

"This is a historic day ... and a day that has a lot of historic questions," said Daniel Schmitt, a Wikileaks spokesman. "So whatever helps to understand what happened on that day is important for everyone."

"It's a precise second-by-second record of how the event unfolded," he said.

Wikileaks began publishing the messages at 3 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday and will release them in small batches for about 24 hours, Schmitt said. The group hopes that posting them in increments will make the messages easier to analyze.

Many of the messages were sent by people operating in some sort of official capacity -- emergency responders, IT staffers and members of the military -- Schmitt said. "The ratio of official information in that capacity is quite high," Schmitt said. "You can see JP Morgan systems going down, Goldman Sachs systems going down … all these people being called into conference calls."

Pagers were widely used to send text messages in the U.S. during the 1980s and 1990s, but they have now been eclipsed by the mobile-phone networks' SMS (short message service) system. Unlike parts of the mobile networks, however, pager networks kept functioning during the Sept. 11 attacks.

In total, Wikileaks will publish 573,000 pager messages sent nationwide over four carriers: SkyTel, Metrocall, WebLink and Arch (the last three are now owned by USA Mobility).

The messages were handed over to Wikileaks by an anonymous source. It's not clear how they were obtained, but Schmitt says that this is one of the more worrying aspects of the leak: the fact that this pager information is being logged by someone and is obtainable.

Crunching data on the cheap

IDG News Service — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:03:09 -0500

Data-warehousing software systems are expensive, but many enterprises have nonetheless been willing to dig deep, betting that analytics will provide new insights into their business and a competitive advantage.

In a report released earlier this year, research firm IDC predicted the data-warehousing platform market will grow from roughly US$7.9 billion in 2009 to about $10.8 billion in 2013.

The good news for IT shops that want to get started in analytics, but don't have the budget right now, is the recent emergence of free software options that pack fairly serious data-crunching firepower.

In October, Greenplum announced a Single Node Edition of its MPP (massively parallel processing) database. MPP architectures split up data workloads into multiple pieces that are managed independently on an array of servers.

The Single Node version can be used in production mode on one x86 server with up to two CPU sockets and unlimited cores. It can also be deployed in a single virtual machine with up to eight virtual cores. There is no storage cap. Single Node Edition can also be tied back into a broader Greenplum implementation.

Also in October, Calpont released InfiniDB Community Edition, an open-source, column-oriented database. The columnar method can in many cases greatly reduce disk I/O demand compared to systems that store data in rows, and also achieve higher levels of compression, said analyst Curt Monash of Monash Research.

InfiniDB Community Edition is also limited to a single server, but has no cap on CPU count, the number of cores, memory, data volume or concurrent users.

Calpont also has a commercial edition of InfiniDB, now in early adopter stage, that allows users to scale out the system to multiple servers.

InfiniDB Community Edition follows the release last year of another open-source columnar data-warehousing platform from Infobright. The latter may have an edge for now over InfiniDB in terms of community support; Infobright recently said the software has been downloaded more than 15,000 times.

Ultimately, though, these free data-warehousing options have their limits and likely usage scenarios, according to Monash.

"If you have a single analyst or small team of analysts doing early exploratory querying against some terabytes of data or less, then these products are likely to do the job," he said.

Companies may also not have the budget to procure anything else, or can't get funding without conducting an initial proof of concept, Monash added.

"There certainly are workloads for which they are insufficient, and you'll have to pay money for a product that will do the job for you," he said. "But if you want to get more value out of your data, these free products could be a great place to start."

Flightcaster raises $1.3M for better flight prediction

Venture Beat — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:15:58 -0500

Flightcaster, a company that licenses flight prediction data to travel agencies and even mobile app developers, has brought in $1.3 million in a first round of funding. Based in San Francico, it is backed by Tandem Entrepreneurs and Sherpalo Ventures.

Founder Institute: Seattle has the most promising entrepreneurs

Venture Beat — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:08:13 -0500

As The Founder Institute (the entrepreneur training program developed by TheFunded’s Adeo Ressi) expands to cities around the country, it’s gathering some provocative data about how aspiring startup founders stack up in different regions. Specifically, the institute says that in the latest batch of applicants, Seattle’s entrepreneurs have the highest chance of success.

The institute asks applicants to provide a full LinkedIn profile and to answer two questions: “Why do you think you can be an entrepreneur?” And “What are you passionate about?” From that information, Ressi says he worked with a social science researcher to develop a system that predicts entrepreneurial success. Here’s how Ressi described the test in an interview with VentureBeat:

With this test, with greater accuracy than 95 percent of published social science research, we can predict the following two things: First, the quality of the idea that you will develop in the program — we don’t actually ask you for the idea when you apply, because everybody knows as an entrepreneur, your idea will change. And the second thing is how you will perform at building your business during the four months of the program, which we think is a proxy for how you will perform building your business. Some famous entrepreneurs have asked me to take the test.

Ressi says the institute has enrolled 100 founders in five programs across the country. Here’s how the average scores compare between the programs:

Seattle (2.72 / 5.00)

Silicon Valley (2.66 / 5.00)

New York (2.54 / 5.00)

Washington DC (2.42 / 5.00)

San Diego and Orange County (2.26 / 5.00)

So if there’s an explosion of successful startups in Seattle in the next few years, we can credit Ressi with prediction. (Not that the region is suffering from a drought of entrepreneurs right now …)