Dell to Reveal the 64-Bit ARM Based Copper Server

                                            

This week the officials of Dell will be presenting their version of an ARM-based low-power microserver running the Fedora Linux distribution.  The demonstration will take place on October 29 at the Techcon 2013 in Santa Clara, California. The expectation  for the Dell demonstration is the focus will be on the 64-bit ARM computing in the data center, including dense,low-power microservers.



For example, Calxeda officials announced Oct. 28 that they will unveil the next generation of the company's 32-bit EnergyCore systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) as well as details of a new line of 64-bit chips expected next year. ARM executives for the past several years have eyed the microserver space as a growth opportunity for its low-power SoC designs, which now are primarily found in mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets.

Much of the attention in recent months has been on Hewlett-Packard's Project Moonshot portfolio of small, highly energy-efficient servers aimed at hyperscale environments running workloads such as Web hosting and cloud services. HP officials in April unveiled the first of the Moonshot servers, which run on Intel's 64-bit Atom platform, with the promise of adding systems powered by ARM-based chips from the likes of Advanced Micro Devices, Calxeda and Marvell Technologies.

However, Dell also has been working ARM-based microservers in its "Copper" efforts, and like other OEMs and chip makers, see advantages of the ARM architecture not only in compute but also storage and networking.

"Dell began developing microserver technology back in 2007 and has worked closely with select Dell DCS hyperscale customers to understand their workloads, expectations and requirements," Robert Hormuth, executive director of platform technology and architecture for the office of the CTO at Dell, wrote in a post on the company's blog. "We believe the 64-bit ARM-based processor demonstrates promise for storage and Web front-end environments, where advantages in dollars per gigabyte, watts per gigabyte, performance per dollar and performance per watt are critical."

The Dell system will be powered by Applied Micro's 64-bit ARM-based X-Gene SoC and will run Fedora, with PMC's 16-port, 12G-bps SAS storage solution running Dell storage arrays.

"This is a key milestone for customers seeking to run real-world workloads on 64-bit ARM technology," Hormuth wrote.

The microserver space is expected to be one of several key areas of competition between ARM and Intel. ARM officials see the growing demand for faster, more energy-efficient systems in the data center as a natural fit for their low-power technology. ARM's architecture now is 32-bit, but the company is expected to begin licensing its upcoming 64-bit ARMv8-A technology next year. Applied Micro already has developed a 40-nanometer version of its X-Gene 64-bit ARM SoC, and will begin sampling its 28nm version in the first half of 2014.

Dell and other OEMs believe 64-bit capabilities will be critical to the success of ARM in the data center, but Hormuth said Dell has been using the 32-bit SoCs to its advantage.

"As the ARM server ecosystem is in its early stages, Dell's focus has been on addressing today's market realities—that is, enabling developers and customers to create code and test performance with 32-bit ARM servers," he wrote. "However, as we have been discussing with customers and analysts, 64-bit will be required for broad-based adoption and we are currently developing architectures based upon 64-bit solutions."

Dell plans to deliver a proof-of-concept server based on Applied Micro's 64-bit ARM technology in early 2014. The OEM began seeing Copper servers with Web and hyperscale customers in May 2012.

In addition, in hopes of growing the ecosystem around 64-bit ARM, Dell in October 2012 donated its"Zinc" ARM-based server concept to the Apache Software Foundation. The Zinc system runs on Calxeda's EnergyCore chips.

Dell also is making the Copper and Zinc systems available remotely through its Austin Solution Center hosting site and the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas, where they can be accessed by academic developers.

"Our current priority is supporting application development and testing of the ARM-based server ecosystem, and we will bring a 64-bit ARM-based server to general availability when customer and ecosystem readiness are aligned," Hormuth said.
 http://www.serverwatch.com/server-news/dell-to-demo-64-bit-arm-based-copper-server.html

Verizon Foundation is Giving Future Application Developers an Opportunity to Show their Stuff.

                                         prweb.com



If you know any middle and high school students that just love web app technology then this is will be a great challenge for them to participate.


The Verizon Foundation, in partnership with the Technology Student Association, has opened the 2013-2014 Innovative App Challenge, giving middle and high school students across the country a chance to develop a concept for a mobile app and bring it to market.

The mobile app design competition aims to engage students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects and empower them to create STEM-related app concepts that solve real-world problems in their community or school. Students have a chance to win Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablets courtesy of Samsung Telecommunications America, cash grants of up to $20,000 for their school, and the opportunity to team up with app development experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab to build and bring their apps to life. Verizon will help winning teams bring their app to the Google Play store, available for download.


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The fastest-growing careers in the United States are STEM-related, yet the country is not graduating enough young professionals in these fields to meet this need. As a result, as many as 3 million STEM jobs have gone unfilled, according to STEMconnector’s “2013 EdTech – Revolution in Education” report.

To address this issue, the Verizon Foundation and TSA launched the inaugural Innovative App Challenge last October. More than 1,000 schools from every state and Washington, D.C., registered for the competition, and 471 teams submitted app concepts. The competition engaged more than 3,000 boys and girls from major cities to rural areas including many underserved communities. Nearly 60 percent of the winning team members were girls.

Justina Nixon-Saintil, director of education and technology programs for the Verizon Foundation, said: “We created the Verizon Innovative App Challenge to encourage students to collaborate, get creative and use their STEM knowledge to come up with powerful answers to local, everyday problems. The inaugural challenge provided all that and more, as we saw some amazing app concepts and heard inspirational stories from students and teachers. We’re eagerly awaiting the fresh, innovative ideas that the student teams will bring to the second challenge.”

What’s New in 2013 – More Ways to Win

This year, the Verizon Innovative App Challenge offers more chances to win for teams of five students in grades 6-12 with a faculty advisor. The winning teams, which will be chosen by an expert panel of judges, will include:

• Twenty-four Best in Region winners from the West, Midwest, South and East. Each Best in Region school will receive a $5,000 cash grant plus virtual training on coding and support from the MIT Media Lab’s app development experts to help it build its app concept.
• Eight Best in Nation winners, selected from the pool of Best in Region teams. Best in Nation schools will receive an additional $15,000 cash grant, and each winning team member will receive a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet. Additionally, the MIT Media Lab will provide onsite and virtual training on coding and support to the Best in Nation teams as they develop their apps, and Verizon will help bring their apps to the Google Play store. The Best in Nation winners will present their apps in person – on their new tablets – at the 2014 Technology Student Association National Conference in Washington, D.C., next June.

• Three special Best in Category winners, which will be recognized for their app concepts to help solve problems in education, healthcare or energy management – focus areas for the Verizon Foundation.

Submissions will be accepted now through Dec. 3. Teams can submit their app ideas, access tips and instructional videos on app design, and learn more about the Verizon Innovative App Challenge atwww.verizonfoundation.org/appchallenge.

http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/eastex/living/verizon-foundation-launches-app-challenge-for-middle-and-high-school/article_2922238a-2afb-5c8a-b2f5-c5f07ae9e801.html

Need Some Direction to Improve Your Responsive Web Design?

                                               bradfurdfrostweb.com

Knowing how responsive web design can be frustrating at times we have provided some tips from sources that will help you in your endeavors.


1. Why use Responsive Web Design?

RWD is a cheap option; you can re-purpose your existing desktop layout to ensure it works well on a smaller mobile device. If you’re developing a new site, there are few reasons not to use RWD.

However, are you considering RWD because it’s an inexpensive way to tick a few business strategy objectives? You can certainly implement a mobile layout within a few hours but will it be useful? It’s usually obvious when a responsive design has been added as an afterthought. It may be better to stick with a good desktop layout than undermine your online presence.

2. Consider the Context, but…

…avoid stereotypes.

Historically, designers considered desktop viewers to be static and smartphone users to be roaming. A train company would typically highlight ticket buying on desktop devices and station directions on mobile devices. There are a couple of problems with this approach:
the boundaries have become blurred. People use whatever device is practical e.g. they may surf the net on a phone while watching TV.
RWD reveals nothing about the context. Device resolution is a crude assumption especially when you consider the high-density displays offered by modern phones and tablets.

If static and roaming users have different contexts, it may be preferable to provide separate mobile sites or apps which have dedicated functions.

3. Distill Your Content

Why do people visit your site? What’s important to those users? What’s their typical journey? Without these answers, you’ll be tempted to throw everything on the home page. That may be possible on a large display but you’ll struggle when switching to a mobile layout.

The best option: think small-screen first, then
…
4. Design Upwards

Once you have a design for the smallest practical screen, you can work upwards in a series of media query breakpoints.

While there are no strict rules, breakpoint steps should not be large — perhaps no more than 200 pixels. However, each step need not be a major re-flow such as additional columns; it could be a font-size change, floating images or another simple tweak.

5. Keep it Fluid

Ideally, your design should be fluid between breakpoints — not fixed. While fixed layouts are easier to comprehend and code, they’re too fragile for RWD (refer to Is Your Responsive Web Design too Fragile?)

Ideally, even your media queries should use proportional units such as %, em and rem instead of pixels.

6. Never Compromise

RWD should never be used to offer a watered-down version of your website. In some cases, you should consider additional facilities on mobile devices such as geo-location and off-line support. Keep it simple and easy to use:
don’t use browser sniffing
don’t disable zooming
don’t hide content.
7. Only Performance Matters

RWD may be cheap to implement but it should be planned from the start. Applying RWD to a site serving 1Mb+ pages will never result in an optimal experience on devices operating over a mobile network.

Considerations In Building a DIY Website Builders for Responsive Design

1) Some hosting facilities offer DIY building software and even offer free domain name registration. Be careful when taking on this sort of package. Find out who controls the domain name. Is it the client or the hosting facility? It can be difficult to secure or move the domain name if the facility owns or controls the domain name.

2) DIY builders are low cost – but are sometimes limited in terms of layout, graphics along with limited features and functionality. What initially seems like a good idea can end up being a frustrating experience.

3) When using a DIY site builder – the software will build an interface and internal web pages from some available templates, which is not always a bad thing. But the designs are usually considered "proprietary", and more often than not, they are tied into the back-end database which is owned by the facility. Then it can be difficult, if not impossible to move a site if desired.

4) Updating ones site can be a rewarding experience. It can also be a time-consuming exercise. It's best to first ask the question; how much time does the website maintenance take and could the time be better spent on building the business instead.

5) Usually the overall design can be “acceptable”. But is “acceptable” good enough? Remember, it’s the company’s “brand” that is at stake and one never gets a second chance at a good first impression.

So, there are many things to consider when building the company website including the design, layout, ease of moving a site if necessary, scalability and much, much more. More often than not, it's better to out-source the development to experienced developers and end up with a better business website. Consider talking to a local web design company in the area to answer any questions that might be important when making that decision.

IFM Web Services offers Responsive Web Design, website analysis, SEO Press releases, Search Optimization and Facebook pages for businesses. Located in the Toronto area (GTA), IFM has helped business achieve an effective online presence and has helped clients as far away as Bermuda and Mexico. For more on Social Media, SEO or Web Design for businesses, visit IFM at http://www.ifm.ca

http://www.sitepoint.com/7-responsive-web-design-tips/

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/10/prweb11255072.htm

Why is it Important to Know If Your Website Was Built in Open or Closed Source Code

Realizing that most website owners are just happy that their site is functioning well and looks great. Have these businesses ever realized that they need to educate themselves about the technology on the back side of their website?

Craig Reardon has some great advice to give on the subject.

There are three really important questions smaller business operators need to know about their website technology: Who recommended the website technology you are currently using? How impartial was that recommendation? And why is it important anyway?

The answers to these lie in a debate the software industry has been battling out for decades now. That of ‘open’ versus ‘closed’ source development code.

Before you click over to something a little more interesting than computer code, it’s important that you read on. Because not knowing the difference can greatly impact your expenses, your sales and even your reputation.

The open source community method

By definition, ‘open’ source means that software and now web developers are able to access the computer programming of the software or website in question and alter it to create new functionality.




The closed proprietary alternative
On the other hand, ‘closed’ source software or technology does not allow ordinary developers to access the development source code in this way. Typically companies create such software and deliberately ‘close’ the source code so that only they can modify it.

This is not just for purely profit motives. Closing the code in this way allows you to control the quality of the software by preventing ‘enthusiasts’ from inadvertently creating faulty or insecure programming code, which of course can compromise the software brand and reputation.

As a result, any issue you have with the software is generally directed back to the company who provided it, sometimes via licensed local developers. As in any manufactured product, warranties and service level agreements cover any fault that might occur to your program.

Packaged, branded technology

The best analogy to this community versus company scenario lies in your standard book-keeping programs. In the very early days of personal computing, you could hire a programmer to develop or ‘write’ a book-keeping program for you. Because ‘off the shelf’ book-keeping systems were still new (and we are talking 25 years ago or more) your only real option was to pay the hourly rate for a programmer or developer to create it for you.

But because computer code can easily be duplicated in much the same way music now can, it made sense for the developer in question to make the software available to others for a price much lower than having to re-create it each time.

So very quickly entrepreneurial developers packaged up their programs and mass produced and marketed them, much like MYOB, Quicken, etc do today.

Whilst you pay an initial and usually ongoing license fee to purchase and use closed software, you also get teams of trained professionals ensuring its upkeep and quality control – particularly in an industry renowned for disgruntled or otherwise meddlesome hackers constantly trying to create havoc.



Famously, this battle of Open vs Closed was fought out between Microsoft and Apple when it came to the way they licensed their operating systems and software. Microsoft’s ‘open’ approach allowed pretty much anyone with any development nous to incorporate its operating system into its hardware, regardless of its quality, and in so doing allowing the market for it to flourish. And it’s the reason why it held up to 94% of the operating system market at one point.

The core of Apple

On the other hand, for all but a few years Apple completely closed its operating system to outside providers so as to control the complete product in much the same way that many car manufacturers do. Whilst this approach came very close to ensuring its demise at one point, it eventually led to hugely successful vertical integration possibilities as is now being realised by its hardware, operating system, iTunes, app store, etc, products.

Actually, Apple may not have happened at all if co-founder Steve Wozniak had his way. He wanted the original Apple 1 to recoup only the cost of the hardware, add a small profit margin and essentially give away the operating system before Steve Jobs talked him out of it – a decision that took the fledgling business out of the hobbyist market into the consumer market, with revolutionary results.

But coming back to website technology, business operators can now choose from an open source website platform or a closed proprietary one – something that few actually realise or are even alerted to by their web professional.

The cost of freedom

But whilst an open approach may provide developers with all the freedom they need to be able to create pretty much any kind of website, it also creates the potential for a number of problems that closed systems don’t.

These relate to quality, upgrades, maintenance, security, other improvements and the cost of each of these.

But whilst an open approach may provide developers with all the freedom they need to be able to create pretty much any kind of website, it also creates the potential for a number of problems that closed systems don’t.
These relate to quality, upgrades, maintenance, security, other improvements and the cost of each of these.

Unlike a license with a closed or proprietary provider, there is no obligation on the part of your web developer to ensure that your website platform is kept up to date with all the various ongoing maintenance requirements web technology require.

So, say browsers such as Internet Explorer or Chrome alter their operational specifications? Your developer must keep up with these (regular) changes and ensure your website meets them; whereas proprietary providers do this regular maintenance as a matter of course – because at some point you have paid for it.

So what has all this background information got to do with you as a smaller business operator? As it now turns out, plenty.

http://www.smartcompany.com.au/technology/34246-is-your-website-built-in-open-or-closed-source-code.html

New Services and Updates Will Be Revealed By SAP at the Tech Ed Conference

                                          www.telegraph.co.uk




The following article was written by Chris Kanaracus/IDG News Service

SAP is unveiling a series of enhancements, services and deployment options for its HANA in-memory computing platform in hopes of enticing more partners and customers to begin building software products with the technology.

Some 1,000 startups are already using HANA to create applications, according to SAP executive board member Vishal Sikka, who heads all development, in an interview prior to this week's Tech Ed conference in Las Vegas.

[ Download InfoWorld's Big Data Analytics Deep Dive for a comprehensive, practical overview of this hot topic. | Cut to the key news for technology development and IT management with our once-a-day summary of the top tech happenings. Subscribe to the InfoWorld Daily newsletter. ]

That uptake was no doubt helped by a venture fund and heavy-duty marketing campaign SAP has used to court developers for HANA. But SAP is also increasing the number of tools and services for HANA-based programming efforts.

A seventh service pack for HANA, which will be announced at Tech Ed, includes a series of developer-friendly updates, including the ability of HANA to write to external data stores such as Oracle databases; Hadoop integration; and customizable text-analysis dictionaries.

On the systems administration front, the service pack includes improvements for high availability and disaster recovery as well as better patching and monitoring tools, according to SAP.

Customers and partners will also soon have more ways to deploy HANA, which has been sold in appliance form on hardware from a number of vendors.

An IaaS (infrastructure as a service) offering based on HANA is now in private beta, with general availability expected early next year, SAP said. Customers would port their HANA licenses to SAP's cloud and purchase instances ranging in size from 128GB to 1TB of RAM.

SAP is also increasing the maximum size of HANA One, which is available through Amazon Web Services, from 256GB to 1.2TB. Many SAP customers and partners asked for the increase, Sikka said.

He demurred when asked whether customers would have any specific advantages by choosing SAP's HANA IaaS versus HANA One. "The main point is the choice," Sikka said. "Obviously there are lots of customers that have their own clouds, but a lot of them want a freedom to do things on our cloud, and other public clouds."

There are now more than 2,200 HANA customers, according to Sikka. The database became generally available in 2011. SAP executives have called HANA the fastest-growing product in company history, with total revenue expected to top €1 billion ($1.4 billion) soon.

SAP is hoping its customers that are now using rival databases such as Oracle's to run SAP applications will port their implementations to HANA. Tech Ed will give it an opportunity to sell the benefits of HANA to a developer-heavy audience that is already invested skills-wise in other technologies.

Meanwhile, during his keynote on Tuesday Sikka is also expected to discuss a new set of SAP design services, wherein designers will work alongside customers to create more compelling user interfaces and applications.

In addition, attendees will get an update on Fiori, a set of bite-sized mobile applications that tie into SAP flagship Business Suite ERP applications, which was announced in May. Another 150 Fiori applications will be released this year, according to Sikka.

Tech Ed continues through Thursday in Las Vegas.

Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology

http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/sap-set-preach-the-hana-gospel-developers-22925

"Ghost" the Open-Source Blogging Platform is Now Open to the Public

The open-source blogging platform Ghost, which launched privately just three weeks ago to its 6,000 Kickstarter backers, is now open to the public. The new service aims to make a name for itself by focusing on just blogging, in other words simplifying what the oh-so complex WordPress has become.

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/10/14/open-source-blogging-platform-ghost-opens-public-hopes-take-wordpress-simplification/ 

Why Macaw Web Design Tool for Programmers is Different

Web developers are always looking for new tools to make it easier to complete the project at hand on time for the customer.  The creators of the web design Mccaw is stating that this tool can streamline Web production into on single app.




Calling itself “the code-savvy Web design tool,” Macaw creators Tom Giannattasio and Adam Christ say the software is designed to push HTML as the “standard deliverable at every stage of the process – from conception to deployment.”

The tool was created as an experiment about a year ago to “solve the gap between design tools and the browser.” The two did so by creating an application which enables a fluid design process but also helps developers get the exact code they need. With Macaw, Giannattasio and Christ say the software can speed the production process for both Web designers and developers, easing collaborations.

In the sneak peek video, Giannattasio and Christ walk users through creating a simple blog page with Macaw. Users can design a blog page much like one would ordinarily create in Photoshop or Illustrator. During the process, users can make various design decisions, such as keeping the background image fixed or leaving a logo absolute positioned. Users can also define how things should function using the tool panel on the app.


Once the site is laid out exactly as envisioned, all the user has to do is assign names to each element, much like developers give ID’s and classes to HTML codes. Finally, the finish product can be exported the site as HTML and CSS files. Macaw does all the work of creating a clean HTML markup, consolidating CSS codes, and organization elements in a way that’s readable and identifiable.



The Macaw creators say the tool is intended to help find the balance between simplicity and speed when it comes to Web development. Macaw features a fluid canvas – an added bonus for responsive Web design – that allows for better use of typography options and increased user interactivity.

The features don’t stop there. “We have some intuitive features that have never been seen before in a design tool,” the duo teases. “We’re hopeful people will say to themselves ‘Why hasn’t anyone done it this way before?’”
http://thenextweb.com/dd/2013/10/12/macaw-web-design-tool-programmers-hits-kickstarter/