OLPC project looks for CEO to make it "more like Microsoft"
By Ryan Paul
March 07, 2008 - 08:56AM CT

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) founder Nicholas Negroponte has revealed that he is looking for a CEO to take on the primary leadership role for the organization. This change comes during difficult times for the OLPC Project, which has suffered from serious setbacks in recent months.

An ambitious endeavor that emerged from MIT's renowned media labs, the OLPC Project seeks to produce low-cost laptops intended for bulk sale to governments and designed for use by students in developing countries. The project has been afflicted with delays, rising prices, unexpected competition, and litigation.

After dropping support for the project earlier this year, Intel is pushing its own Classmate PC, which could compete with OLPC in some markets. OLPC also faces a rather dubious $20 million lawsuit from a Nigerian company called LANCOR, which accuses OLPC of infringing on its multilanguage keyboard patent. OLPC has also seen numerous delays, and the price has climbed from $100 to $188.

Some critics speculate that the project's ivory tower roots could be working against its success. Negroponte's desire to bring in someone with business sense to become the CEO reflects OLPC's ongoing transition away from its academic origins—a change that is, perhaps, inevitable when taking a product out of the lab and putting it into the hands of users.

Ars Technica
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Advice for Apple iPhone start-ups
by Stefanie Olsen
March 6, 2008 7:09 PM PST

High-flying venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers placed a $100 million bet on Apple's iPhone on Thursday by creating the iFund. KPCB partner Matt Murphy will manage that gamble, by heading up a team that will invest in game-changing applications for the mobile Internet.

His group will include KCPB co-founder John Doerr and Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy, along with high-ranking advisers from Apple. CNET News.com talked to Murphy late Thursday about his new charge and the significance of the iFund. Following is a brief excerpt of the interview, but the entire Q&A will be posted here Friday.

Is this a novel fund for KCPB? Murphy: Essentially, it's a big signal from us that we want to allocate dollars and a lot of resource to an area like this and the reason why is that platforms don't come around that often. The PC, the Internet, Java. Thinking about how enormous the mobile Internet can become, we felt we wanted to do more to signal to entrepreneurs that we wanted to work with them. And (we wanted to) do it with a company with by far the biggest platform for the mobile Internet right now.

How will you choose and vet companies? Murphy: On the Apple Web site, there's a button for developers to submit business plans. We've done that in a structured way. Generally, when people submit plans to Kleiner, they send us an email and it might include a PowerPoint. But with this one, we're trying to make it more structured with a link from Apple or from KCPB home page and those will come in.

CNET Blogs
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US computer science drought may be bottoming out
By John Timmer
March 07, 2008 - 05:03AM CT

Each year, the Computing Research Association does an enrollment survey of US-based, PhD-granting academic computer science programs. For the last five years, the number of undergraduate students involved in these programs has been plunging.

Fans of CS should take heart, however—the latest survey shows that the declining numbers may have finally leveled off. Those figures were extracted from a survey performed by the Higher Education Research Institute. The CRA's take on the numbers is pessimistic, noting that the hangover from the recent lack of interest in CS has caused a continued drop in the total number of people that have chosen it as their major.

But that drop hides a difference in the 2007 data: for the first time since the dot-com bubble burst, more students chose computer science as their major than in the previous year (although the increase is less than a percent). New enrollments of CS majors had peaked in 2000, with 16,000 freshmen nationwide picking a major that, at the time, seemed to promise challenges, excitement, and the possibility of retiring young.

As the bubble burst, that number dropped slowly for a couple of years, then dropped quite a bit faster as the decade wore on. By 2005, less than 8,000 new students were opting for CS degrees; due to the lag between declaring a major and graduating, the total number of degrees granted peaked in 2004, but dropped by over 40 percent in the past three years.

Ars Technica
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US rural broadband: you can get it, but you can't afford it
By Nate Anderson
March 06, 2008 - 10:06PM CT

The US Internet Industry Association, a trade group representing Internet companies and ISPs, has just released a report on broadband deployment in rural America. Actually, "report" is too generous; the document simply rehashes some numbers on US broadband that we have covered before here at Ars.

But the paper raises a point worth mentioning: don't confuse broadband adoption and deployment. Most US citizens can get some form of broadband access But those in rural areas are less likely to pay for it than those in urban areas. The USIIA points to several stats on broadband availability in the US. At least one person in 99 percent of US ZIP codes has access to an Internet connection over 200kbps, for instance.

Now, that's not a terribly impressive statistic for multiple reasons, but better are the findings that 79 percent of those with a home phone (which is nearly everyone in the US, thanks to the Universal Service Fund) could get DSL. In addition, 96 percent of all households who can get a cable signal can purchase Internet access through their cable provider (though cable reaches many fewer homes than do phone lines).

None of these statistics is new, but USIIA is right to point out that the deployment of broadband lines in recent years has grown reasonably comprehensive. As to the actual use of broadband services, though, the numbers are lower, and there's still a substantial gap between urban residents and rural residents.

Ars Technica
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by John Morris
March 6th, 2008

Asus announced yesterday a new version of its Eee PC at the CeBIT tradeshow. The subnotebook has won a lot of good press and it seems a few fans. But when it comes to the operating system, the wow hasn’t started now. . .and apparently it won’t anytime soon. Among other changes, the Eee PC 900 is now available with Windows, but it’s XP not Vista.

That’s not a huge surprise given the hardware limitations and pricing of the Eee PC. But with similar products trickling into the market and Intel making a big push with its new Atom processor family, I’ve been wondering how quickly Microsoft would move to develop a lightweight version of Vista to compete with the Linux variants showing up on mobile Internet devices and low-cost laptops. Now we’ve got part of the answer.

At the Asus press event, a Microsoft executive reportedly said Vista was not an option because of Asus’s other requirements. “We couldn’t go the Vista route,” said Thomas Bauer, Microsoft’s general manager for manufacturer relations in Europe. “We are in close discussions with Asus [regarding] how to take that forward… in regards to the Windows 7 Europe timeframe.” In other words, it isn’t going to happen with Vista, period.

The Eee PC 900 has several hardware updates including a larger 8.9-inch display with a higher resolution, double the memory (1GB), as much as 12GB of flash storage, a larger keyboard, a better Webcam, and optional Bluetooth and WiMax modules. Both the Linux and Windows versions of the Eee PC 900 will be more expensive than the current models.

by Ina Fried
March 6, 2008 11:35 AM PST

LAS VEGAS--I was intrigued to read that Microsoft was moving ahead with a project that will enable users to carry around all of their Windows information with them on a flash drive. I pressed Microsoft on the subject and was able to get confirmation of the Startkey project as well as a few details.

"Microsoft is introducing software (code-named Startkey) that will make it easy for users to securely replicate their current Windows PC environment, including applications, music, photos, videos, personal settings and passwords on a flash-based portable storage device," the company said in a statement. "This environment will then be accessible on Windows-based computers--effectively turning any PC into their own PC."

This effort dates back to an agreement Microsoft made in May with SanDisk in which the two companies agreed to work together on a hardware-software combo that would replace SanDisk's U3 Smart Technology. As expected, Microsoft is working on the software end, while SanDisk is working on hardware and security aspects.

Microsoft said on Thursday that it believes the product will be of use to users worldwide, which I take to mean Microsoft sees both rich-world and developing market uses. When it made the announcement last year, Microsoft and SanDisk said the joint products were expected in the second half of 2008 and that the two companies would look to license their efforts to other hardware makers.

Asus Eee PC 900: The wow starts. . .later?
by John Morris
March 6th, 2008

Asus announced yesterday a new version of its Eee PC at the CeBIT tradeshow. The subnotebook has won a lot of good press and it seems a few fans. But when it comes to the operating system, the wow hasn’t started now. . .and apparently it won’t anytime soon. Among other changes, the Eee PC 900 is now available with Windows, but it’s XP not Vista.

That’s not a huge surprise given the hardware limitations and pricing of the Eee PC. But with similar products trickling into the market and Intel making a big push with its new Atom processor family, I’ve been wondering how quickly Microsoft would move to develop a lightweight version of Vista to compete with the Linux variants showing up on mobile Internet devices and low-cost laptops. Now we’ve got part of the answer.

At the Asus press event, a Microsoft executive reportedly said Vista was not an option because of Asus’s other requirements. “We couldn’t go the Vista route,” said Thomas Bauer, Microsoft’s general manager for manufacturer relations in Europe. “We are in close discussions with Asus [regarding] how to take that forward… in regards to the Windows 7 Europe timeframe.” In other words, it isn’t going to happen with Vista, period.

The Eee PC 900 has several hardware updates including a larger 8.9-inch display with a higher resolution, double the memory (1GB), as much as 12GB of flash storage, a larger keyboard, a better Webcam, and optional Bluetooth and WiMax modules. Both the Linux and Windows versions of the Eee PC 900 will be more expensive than the current models.

Could an AOL merger save Yahoo's bacon?
By Anders Bylund
March 06, 2008 - 10:00AM CT

The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal both think that Time Warner's AOL unit would make a swell partner for Yahoo as the company looks for ways to get away from Microsoft's unwelcome advances. While I still think that a Yahoo-News Corp. deal makes more sense, it's always good to keep your options open.

Much like the News Corp. option, Time Warner could essentially spin off a unit that isn't core to its expertise and daily operations (and that it no longer wants), combine the outcast with Yahoo, and gain a serious ownership stake in the two-headed online veteran. Such a deal wouldn't cost a lot of money, because there's a tit-for-tat exchange of business ownership.

After becoming a major shareholder, Warner would probably put a couple of representatives on Yahoo's board of directors to get greater insight into the business and some degree of control. Neither News Corp. nor Time currently share any directors with Yahoo. In fact, there are public signs that point to board changes in the near future, as Yahoo just extended the deadline to submit nominees for the annual board election.

That move certainly wasn't designed to give Gates and Ballmer more time to mull over their hostile takeover options. So Time Warner certainly could step up and rescue Yahoo from its romantic quandary, while unloading an unhealthy AOL division to someone who knows that industry better. For Yahoo, that would turn one of its largest Web portal rivals to the dark side of the Force.

Ars Technica
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EU could approve Google-DoubleClick merger next week
by Elinor Mills
March 5, 2008 3:42 PM PST



European regulators are planning to grant approval for Google's proposed $3.1 billion takeover of DoubleClick, possibly on March 11, according to a Bloomberg report. And that would be approval without conditions, three sources familiar with the matter told the news service. Google was given the go-ahead by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in December, but has been waiting for European regulators to act.

CNET Blogs

Sync Your Google And Outlook Calendars
by Elinor Mills
March 5, 2008 4:43 PM PST

Online calendars are great but the problem is you tend to have one at work and a separate personal one. Now you can see events in both calendars at once, at least if you are using Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook.

Google released Google Calendar Sync on Wednesday, which allows you to sync up those two calendars. The tool gives you control over which direction you want the synchronization to go as well as how often you want it to happen. The software was easy to install, and I was able to see the Outlook items in my Google Calendar but not the other way around for some reason. Oh well. Once I get this figured out it sure will be useful.

There are other Outlook calendar sync tools, but most aren't free. Jotlet announced two-synchronization with Outlook and its calendar last year. Another interesting one is Calgoo, a Java-based app that syncs online and offline calendars, including Google and Microsoft. Google Calendar Sync lets you sync your Google Calendar with your Microsoft Outlook calendar.

Ars Technica

by Ina Fried
March 5, 2008 10:37 AM PST

REDMOND, Wash.--Aiming to build on the metaphor popularized by Wikipedia, a pair of Microsoft researchers have built Micropedia, an internal wiki cataloging every person and project within the company. Microsoft researcher Steve Ickman said while the company's internal SharePoint site is great for some uses, there are some features that the Wikipedia engine has that are missing in Microsoft's product.

One big thing is the engine's ability to archive. On the SharePoint site, typically only the current status of a project is shown. "Once it's gone, it's gone," Ickman said of the SharePoint site. Micropedia, on the other hand, retains a sense of history, noting a past project and who worked on it, even if it involved people no longer at the company. "I am a huge fan of wikis," he said. To populate the site, Microsoft Research's Tom Laird-McConnell mined the company's directory, creating a page for each employee as well as a page for each project that someone is or has been working on.

The site allows anyone in the company to comment on a person or project and also displays in a separate pane any information found on the public Wikipedia. Laird-McConnell said that by making the Wiki available company-wide, it would be easier for people in one part of Microsoft to know what those in other parts of the company are doing. Microsoft's current tools are largely organized by teams and are heavily permission-based. "There's very little cross-collaboration," he said.

The Micropedia approach is similar conceptually to a tool used within Google where any employee can see what any colleague is working on. For now, fewer than a dozen people, all in research, are using Micropedia, but its creators would like it to see it used throughout the company.

Thunderbird 3.0 to begin ascent next month: what to expect
By Ryan Paul
March 05, 2008 - 09:25AM CT

The Thunderbird development community aims to release the first alpha of Thunderbird 3 next month. Plans began to take shape yesterday during the very first Thunderbird weekly status call meeting, at which developers discussed potential features and other issues of relevance.

Early plans for Thunderbird 3 first emerged last month when the Mozilla Foundation announced the official launch of Mozilla Messaging, a new subsidiary that will focus on communication software. Although the Mozilla Messaging team is still getting situated in its new nest in Vancouver, CEO David Ascher has already jumped into action. He announced the status call meeting in a blog entry on Monday, and expressed interest in taking the first steps towards the Thunderbird 3 alpha.

"Tomorrow at 9:30 AM PST (1730 UTC) is the first weekly status call for Thunderbird (well, first that I know of)," wrote Ascher on Monday. "It'll be chaotic and unstructured I'm sure, but we'll figure it out over the next few weeks. One of the big topics for discussion will be how to structure the work towards our first alpha of 3.0, which won't be feature complete by any means, but should be a good first step towards releasing a stable Thunderbird build."

Thunderbird 3 will use Gecko 1.9, a new version of the rendering engine that serves as the foundation for the Mozilla platform. Gecko 1.9, which has also been instrumental in the making of Firefox 3, offers a number of very significant improvements, including a new Cairo-based rendering backend and support for JavaScript 2. Improving the Thunderbird user interface is another very high priority for version 3.

Ars Technica
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By David Chartier
March 04, 2008 - 11:10PM CT

Manufacturers and software developers increasingly see portable computing in our future. Thin clients and public terminals that draw personal settings from remote profiles are one approach, and the portable app movement spearheaded by SanDisk's U3 technology and flash drives is another. Riffing off SanDisk's concept of "bring it all with you," reports now say that Microsoft is extending SanDisk's approach to the rest of Windows with a new "StartKey" product.

By the end of the year, StartKey portable flash drives could store a user's Windows profile, applications, and settings, or even an entire bootable installation. Microsoft's plan is to provide a complete suite of tools for consumers and developers to help push the portable computing paradigm into the mainstream. In addition to USB flash drives, StartKey technology could work on other flash memory types like SD cards, or any other new storage format of the week.

An SDK will be provided to developers so they can enable their own applications to plug into the platform and go portable. While U3 currently allows users to bring apps like Firefox on a USB keychain, including all their bookmarks, passwords, and history, Microsoft's SmartKey would extend this same functionality to the rest of Windows. Users will be able to bring their desktop wallpaper, applications, contacts, data, and preferences on a flash storage device and turn any compatible Windows machine into their own personal workspace.

But therein lies one catch to Microsoft's plan. While U3 drives can typically work despite PC-level security measures or limited user accounts, StartKey's functionality will likely require Windows PCs to have the inevitable patches installed in order to work. It is entirely possible that many company IT departments and university labs won't be too keen on giving users such free reign over the applications and data they use, so StartKey could face some adoption opposition from those markets.

MS Missing The Cloud With Windows On A USB Stick
By David Chartier
March 04, 2008 - 11:10PM CT

Manufacturers and software developers increasingly see portable computing in our future. Thin clients and public terminals that draw personal settings from remote profiles are one approach, and the portable app movement spearheaded by SanDisk's U3 technology and flash drives is another.

Riffing off SanDisk's concept of "bring it all with you," reports now say that Microsoft is extending SanDisk's approach to the rest of Windows with a new "StartKey" product. By the end of the year, StartKey portable flash drives could store a user's Windows profile, applications, and settings, or even an entire bootable installation.

Microsoft's plan is to provide a complete suite of tools for consumers and developers to help push the portable computing paradigm into the mainstream. In addition to USB flash drives, StartKey technology could work on other flash memory types like SD cards, or any other new storage format of the week. An SDK will be provided to developers so they can enable their own applications to plug into the platform and go portable.

While U3 currently allows users to bring apps like Firefox on a USB keychain, including all their bookmarks, passwords, and history, Microsoft's SmartKey would extend this same functionality to the rest of Windows. Users will be able to bring their desktop wallpaper, applications, contacts, data, and preferences on a flash storage device and turn any compatible Windows machine into their own personal workspace.

Ars Technica
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Ex-Wikipedia staffer harpoons Wales over expenses
By Cade Metz
March 5, 2008 00:10 GMT

A former employee of the Wikimedia Foundation has taken Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales to task over the way he handled his expenses. On Saturday morning, the very public breakup of Wales and former Fox News pundit Rachel Marden sparked a blog post from onetime foundation exec Danny Wool.

"At one point, [Wales] owed the Foundation some $30,000 in receipts, and this while we were preparing for the audit," the post reads. The Wikimedia Foundation relies on public contributions and grants to fund its operations, and all contributions qualify as charitable deductions.

According to Wool, this $30,000 went unpaid until another Foundation employee or board member threatened to leak the problem to Wikipedia's community of volunteer editors. "His credit card was taken away from him, and he was told he had to pay that back," Wool told The Reg. Wales returned about $7,000 of the money, Wool says, but the rest is unaccounted for.

In an IM conversation with The Associated Press, Wales denied that his Foundation credit card was taken away, saying it was his decision to stop submitting receipts for reimbursement.With his post, Wool also claimed that Wales asked the Foundation to reimburse him for some rather expensive items, including a dinner for four at a Tampa, Florida steakhouse.

The Register
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