What follows might not be of much interest to Mac users as they live on a
planet apart. They're artists, so they're fabulously rich. And, if they're
so rich, it's because they know about value, as Steiner puts it. Spending
twice on an Intel Mac as on an equivalent Intel PC is surely a great
investment. I mean 20 years later, you find yourself still relying on the
good old Mac as a server. Jolly explained all this. No wonder their credit
cards are all clean!
But, in the real world or, should I rather say, the outside world, things
are very different. So I thought that, just from an artistic point of view,
you might want to just skim through what follows.
Job loss: Worst in 34 years
Employers slashed 598,000 more jobs in January as unemployment rate climbed
NEW YORK (CNN Money.com) -- Employers slashed another 598,000 jobs off of
U.S. payrolls in January, taking the unemployment rate up to 7.6%,
according to the latest government reading on the nation's battered labor
market.
The latest job loss is the worst since December 1974, and brings job losses
to 1.8 million in just the last three months, or half of the 3.6 million
jobs that have been lost since the beginning of 2008.
The loss since November is the biggest 3-month drop since immediately after
the end of World War II, when the defense industry was shutting down for
conversion to civilian production.
January's job loss was also worse than the forecast of a loss of 540,000
jobs from economists surveyed by Briefing.com
<http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/06/news/economy/jobs_january/>
U.S. jobless rate hits 25-year high
Fri Mar 6, 2009 4:36pm EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. unemployment rate rose to a 25-year high of
8.1 percent in February as employers, buckling under the strain of a severe
recession, axed 651,000 jobs, government data showed on Friday.
<http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE52517Z20090306?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNew s>
On March 3rd, though, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said, "What's particularly
interesting about netbooks is the price point. Eventually, it will make
sense for operators and so forth to subsidize the use of netbooks so they
can make services revenue and advertising revenue on the consumption.
That's another new model that's coming."
<http://blogs.computerworld.com/google_ceo_hints_google_linux_netbooks_may_be_comi ng>
The "NVIDIA is secretly working on an x86 chip" rumor that Charlie at the
Inquirer has been flogging since at least 2006 has just been given a major
boost, and by none other than NVIDIA itself.
A bit-tech.net reporter was in the audience at a recent Morgan Stanley
Technology Conference, when NVIDIA VP Mike Hara seemed to indicate that the
company is considering developing a x86 CPU for the mobile space sometime
in the next two years.
I've always been a major doubter of the NVIDIA-produced x86 rumors, though I
know at least one other tech reporter besides Charlie who's sold on the
story. But Hara's remarks make it fairly clear that the company is indeed
headed in this direction.
Based on what Hara said, it seems that NVIDIA would be looking to do a
Tegra-like SoC design, but one that pairs an x86 core with an NVIDIA GPU
(as opposed to Tegra's ARM + GPU pairing).
<http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2009/03/sizing-up-a-possible-nvidia-made-x86-processor.ars>
Android on NetBokks?
But it's the news that Android will soon be ported to netbooks that has
generated the most buzz in recent weeks. According to reports, Freescale
Semiconductor is working on microprocessors that run the operating system.
Chip maker Qualcomm also plans to help push Android onto netbooks. And
Asustek, which pioneered the netbook segment, is also working on an Android
netbook.
The idea could fly, given that many of the tools people use on their
computers are now available online - e-mail, office applications such as
word processing and spreadsheets, and calendaring. With extensive 3G
coverage across developed markets and in many developing markets, working
online is not the challenge it was a couple of years ago.
Getting Android onto netbooks could be the first step in Google taking
direct aim at Microsoft's core business of desktop operating systems.
Microsoft has every reason to fear what's happening.
<http://free.financialmail.co.za/09/0306/technology/atech.htm>
The BENQ netbook and EeeBuntu.
The BENQ 10? netbook or Joybook lite, as BenQ call it comes in a pretty blue
with a stylized joy book lite design cross hatched across the cover. It
comes with an Intel Atom processor 512 Gig of Ram and a 160 Gig hard drive,
I added 1 Gig of RAM (giving it a total of 1.5 Gig a maximum of 2 Gig is
possible) and installed EeeBuntu, which I had been testing on a Virtual
Machine.
The machine has 3 USB port a LAN port comes with 802.11 wireless and
Bluetooth, this model doesn't have built in 3G capability, and a Video
socket to connect an external monitor. The machine is a bout the size of a
large clutch purse, and will fit into most handbags. It gets about 2 hours
on the standard rather small battery pack. There's also a built in webcam.
The screen is nominally 1024 by 600, with EeeBuntu the screen size is stated
as 1024 by 576 or 16:9 aspect ratio which according to EeeBuntu on my VM
was 1024 by 600, so it's a bit strange . On the other hand it doesn't seem
any different than the screen size on the VM. The screen is clear and
bright even on battery.
The machine takes just over a minute to boot to a full desktop, from cold,
EeeBuntu was booting to a full desktop on the VM on my big laptop in 1
minute 40 seconds, interestingly with a faster processor, maybe the
optimization for the Atom accounts for that.
<http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/116744/index.html>
ARM debuts Sparrow multicore netbook processor
We've had our eyes peeled for ARM Cortex-based netbook news, and now among
the action this week at MWC '09 we're getting our first look at Sparrow, a
Cortex A9 processor aimed squarely at netbook manufacturers.
<http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/16/arm-debuts-sparrow-multicore-netbook-processor/>
Samsung picks Via Nano CPU for its NC20 Netbook
Samsung Electronics is adopting the Nano processor from Via Technologies for
its NC20 Netbook.
The NC20 is set to be Samsung's successor to the NC10, which, like most
Netbooks on the market, has an Intel Atom central processing unit.
The new Samsung NC20 Netbook
(Credit: Via Technologies)
Via's Nano chips are its first 64-bit, superscalar processors in its x86
platform portfolio. When coupled with the Via VX800 system media processor,
a Nano chip supports full Microsoft DirectX 9.0 3D graphics,
high-definition video and audio playback, and up to 4GB of DDR2 system
memory.
The Samsung NC20 will feature the 1.3GHz Via Nano CPU and a 12.1-inch
display with 1,280x800-pixel resolution. At 3.4 pounds, it will be a tad
heavier than its 2.8-pound, 10.2-inch NC10 predecessor.
The Netbook will come equipped with Wi-Fi (802.11g) and Bluetooth wireless
connectivity, and a six-cell battery that provides up to 6.5 hours on a
full charge. You'll be able to choose between a regular SATA hard drive or
a solid-state drive for storage. Other than that, the computer will also
have an integrated 1.3-megapixel Webcam, a 3-in-1 memory card reader, and
three built-in USB ports.
The Samsung NC20 will be available for purchase soon, with an estimated
price of about $650 that will vary with configurations.
<http://news.cnet.com/samsung-picks-via-nano-cpu-for-its-nc20-netbook/>
Yawn... I wonder what all this fuss is about. Hasn't master Jobs -- ça ne
s'invente pas un nom comme ça! -- already explained that all this is just
cheap stuff that Apple will never get into? Sleep tight, Apple shares are
doing good. (But I wonder how much Jobby is buying these days...)
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