Archive for January, 2010
Google Founders Brin and Page To Sell 10 mln Shares
Google Inc founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin plan to sell about 10 million of the company’s shares over the next five years, the company said in a regulatory filing on Friday.
Page and Brin currently own about 57.7 million shares of Google’s Class B common stock — roughly 18 percent of Google’s outstanding capital stock and about 59 percent of the voting power of Google’s outstanding capital stock. If the two founders both sell 5 million shares as planned, they would own about 47.7 million shares, which would represent around 15 percent of Google’s outstanding capital stock and 48 percent of the voting power of Google’s outstanding capital stock. Page is currently Google’s president of products and Brin is its president of technology.
Quick Look: Notebook Performance With Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
We’ve already looked into the performance differences between Windows Vista and Windows 7 in a desktop computing environment. Although many people would recommend using Windows 7 not only for new PCs, but also notebooks as well, it might not make sense to change the operating system on existing systems.
The notebook question was particularly interesting for us. Which of the latest Windows versions provides the best performance on notebooks? And does the Windows version have a noticeable impact on battery life? Both questions can be answered with a “yes.”
There should be little performance difference between similar operating system versions. Windows XP is popular because it is rather sleek and fast. Windows Vista has the opposite reputation, although it introduced several new features that potentially increase performance. For example, SuperFetch loads the most-wanted applications in the background, utilizing all available system RAM, to make them available quickly. ReadyBoost utilizes a fast USB 2.0 thumb drive to provide additional random access memory for applications. ReadyDrive introduced support for HHDDs (Hybrid Hard Drives), although this feature was never used.
And finally, there is Windows 7, which generally provides better performance.
WINDOWS XP
We used a Dell Latitude D630 notebook and three identical 2.5” Seagate Momentus 7200.2 hard drives to install all three Windows versions: Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Thus armed, it was time to run a little analysis.
We’ve already looked into the performance differences between Windows Vista and Windows 7 in a desktop computing environment. Although many people would recommend using Windows 7 not only for new PCs, but also notebooks as well, it might not make sense to change the operating system on existing systems.
The notebook question was particularly interesting for us. Which of the latest Windows versions provides the best performance on notebooks? And does the Windows version have a noticeable impact on battery life? Both questions can be answered with a “yes.”
There should be little performance difference between similar operating system versions. Windows XP is popular because it is rather sleek and fast. Windows Vista has the opposite reputation, although it introduced several new features that potentially increase performance. For example, SuperFetch loads the most-wanted applications in the background, utilizing all available system RAM, to make them available quickly. ReadyBoost utilizes a fast USB 2.0 thumb drive to provide additional random access memory for applications. ReadyDrive introduced support for HHDDs (Hybrid Hard Drives), although this feature was never used.
And finally, there is Windows 7, which generally provides better performance.
We used a Dell Latitude D630 notebook and three identical 2.5” Seagate Momentus 7200.2 hard drives to install all three Windows versions: Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Thus armed, it was time to run a little analysis.
WINDOWS VISTA
We performed an in-depth comparison of Windows XP and Windows Vista in 2007. This revealed that there were no significant performance differences, but still some minor disadvantages associated with Windows Vista.
Our current Vista installation also includes all updates available as of November 10, along with the drivers listed on the test setup page. We left all Vista default settings unchanged. You’ll find the settings to the “balanced” power scheme.
WINDOWS 7
We were surprised to see such diverse results. Keep in mind that the test notebook was the same in all three runs and that we used very comparable power schemes (balanced/portable). Windows XP with Service Pack 3 clearly provides the highest application performance, and Windows 7 doesn’t seem so superior anymore. We can only assume that Windows 7 tries to be conservative on performance in an effort to maximize battery life. Let’s look at the MobileMark 2007 runtime results now. Our assumption seems to be true. Windows 7 does indeed provide the highest runtime of the three operating systems, while the fastest setup, based on Windows XP with SP3, actually provided the least endurance on battery. The difference isn’t really significant, but on a notebook like the one we used (with powerful 9-cell battery) the runtime variance between Windows XP and Windows 7 was as much as 28 minutes. This is quite a lot if you imagine trying to finalize a presentation on a transatlantic flight.
Extreme P55: Four LGA 1156 Motherboards Over $250
With better efficiency and more aggressive Intel Turbo Boost binning, LGA 1156-based processors could be the right choice for some high-end machines. We look at a few premium motherboards that make these builds possible. Do they best Intel’s X58 platform?
Nothing But The Best?
What defines a high-end system? Many proclaimed enthusiasts have expressed to us that the LGA 1156 platform simply wouldn’t be a suitable starting point for them, simply because it’s not designed to host a large number of high-bandwidth devices, such as graphics cards. And yet, most games don’t need more than a single Radeon HD 5970 to play at super-high settings. Moreover, not every high-end user wants to play games all day, and companies like EVGA and MSI have a workaround for those whose graphics desires exceed what Intel’s mid-range platform was really designed to do.
Setting aside the debate over P55′s suitability for hosting multiple graphics cards, a few key advantages that could put a shiny new LGA 1156-based processor into the hands of a high-end user include higher efficiency, higher stock performance via improved Intel Turbo Boost ratios, better overclocking, and reduced heat output for those who desire a quiet workstation build (there’s a reason Intel came to market with its Xeon 3400-series CPUs, after all).
Today’s contenders for P55 supremacy run the gamut from a $250 gamer’s board with advanced overclocking features to a $280 premium model with all the latest interfaces and a $340 product that supports a nearly insane number of up to six graphics cards. Our next page details the features that each motherboard boasts in an effort to overcome the mainstream market stigma associated with P55-based platforms.
YouTube Introduces Movie Rentals
YouTube has taken its first tentative steps into the movie rental business and confirmed rumors that have been circulating for some time.
Google’s video sharing site, YouTube, is currently sponsoring the Sundance Film Festival. Yesterday, the YouTube team announced that starting tomorrow, titles from Sundance 2010 and Sundance 2009 would be available for rent for U.S. Youtube users.
While there are only five titles on the bill (including “One Too Many Mornings,” “Homewrecker,” and “Children of Invention”), and these are only available for rent through Sunday, January 31, the YouTube team says a small collection of rental videos from other U.S. partners across different industries, including health and education, will be made available in the weeks ahead.
“These are early days and in the coming weeks we’ll also invite a small group of partners across other industries, in addition to independent film, to participate in this new option. Anything that brings more content to the YouTube community is a good thing.”
In addition to all of this, YouTube is putting out the call for more independent filmmakers to join the rental program as part of their “Filmmakers Wanted” campaign at the festival.
It’s not yet clear if this kind of move will eventually spread to include titles from Hollywood studios. Certainly there’s nothing of the sort hinted at in the post but wouldn’t it be nice, eh?
Twitter Cuts Feature on Site Over Security Flaw
Twitter has temporarily disabled one of the features on its website after a security researcher warned of a programming flaw that left the login credentials of its users vulnerable to hackers.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said in an email that the company had temporarily cut off access to a feature that lets users display Twitter updates on their websites by using Flash technology. “Our team has disabled the Flash widget while we look into the problem,” Stone said. Mike Bailey, a senior security analyst with Foreground Security of Orlando, Florida, said that the problem exploits a widely known vulnerability in Adobe Systems Inc’s Flash programming language. Adobe has told programmers how to address the vulnerability, which was first discovered in 2006, Bailey added, but noted the operators of many websites have failed to respond to those warnings. The microblogging site’s huge popularity has made it a prime target for hackers looking to spread malicious software to Twitter’s millions of users. “As simple as the attack is, I’ve been finding them all over the place,” Bailey said. Officials with Adobe declined to comment. A hacker last month briefly hijacked the Twitter site and redirected it to one that claimed to represent a group calling itself the Iranian Cyber Army. That high-profile attack – by a perpetrator who stole credentials to the account that Twitter uses to route its traffic — did not compromise credentials of any Twitter users. Bailey said his analysis of the Twitter site showed that it could have been vulnerable to attacks for more than a year, but that it was impossible to know whether hackers had actually exploited the Adobe flaw. He is scheduled to discuss his research on the Twitter flaw at the Black Hat DC security research conference in Washington, which begins on Feb. 2.