Compelling graphic in the New York Times.
Daily Archives: February 27, 2008
When in Rome…
After photos of Barack Obama in a turban are circulated in the US – part of a smear campaign against him by the Clinton camp, the senator claims – the Guardian had the idea of digging out other photos of politicians following the when-in-Rome dress code. There are particularly fetching snaps of Dubya and Putin wearing Vietnamese ao dai silk tunics, and of Bill Clinton looking fluthered in a Gujarati turban.
Thanks to Pete for spotting it.
The mainframe lives!
The concern with energy costs and environmental impacts of cloud computing is increasing. Here’s Technology Review an IBM’s new mainframe.
IBM Corp. rolls out a new mainframe computer Tuesday boasting a 50 percent performance boost and dramatically lower energy costs than its predecessor.
The new System z10, with a starting price at about $1 million, comes as IBM focuses on lowering the price tag for running its storied line of data-crunching workhorses.
The Armonk, N.Y.-based company said it designed the new machine to help companies and government agencies that rely on mainframes — usually for critical data processing such as bank transactions or census statistics crunching — save money on energy bills and better handle a flood of Internet information.
IBM says that the new machine was designed to appeal to cost-conscious companies looking to consolidate the number of servers in their data centers.
The z10’s capacity is equivalent to 1,500 servers based on the popular x86 design, IBM says, though it has 85 percent lower energy costs and takes up 85 percent less space than the batch of x86 servers.
EU fines Microsoft £680m
Small change, really. This from guardian.co.uk…
The EU today imposed a record €899m (£680m) fine on Microsoft for charging “unreasonable” prices to rivals for access to its dominant software.
The fine, the largest imposed on a single company, brings the total levied on the world’s leading software group close to €1.7bn in the past four years.
Neelie Kroes, EU competition commissioner, who said she had no pleasure in imposing the fine, told journalists she could have charged Microsoft €1.5bn in the latest penalty.
The fine, representing 60% of the maximum, reflects the 488 days – until October 22 2007 – in which Microsoft refused to comply with the commission’s March 2004 anti-trust ruling.
Denying vindictiveness, she insisted the new penalty was “reasonable and proportionate” and should be “a clear signal to the outside world and especially Microsoft that they should stick to the rules”.
“Microsoft is the first company in 50 years of EU competition policy that the commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an anti-trust decision,” she said. “I hope that today’s decision closes a dark chapter in Microsoft’s record of non-compliance.”