JohnShen Lee
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Ride through Google’s Cloud
15 hours ago
Google animation shows what happens when Gmail users press send. Behind the scenes are secured and energy-efficient data centers designed to optimize server usage and end-user performance.
Your Gmail box lives somewhere in the jumble of servers, cables, and hard drives known as the “cloud” but it often migrates in search of the ideal location. Google today released an animation that answers the question: what happens when I press send on Gmail? The company created the interactive feature called The Story of Send to highlight the security and relatively low energy footprint of its data centers. The graphics repeat Google’s estimate that its data centers use 50 percent less energy than a typical data center and 30 percent of their data center energy is supplied from renewable sources, including wind and solar. But in an interview, company representatives disclosed that Google has rearchitected its cloud infrastructure in a way that optimizes its computing resources and improves energy efficiency. They declined to say when the switch was made, but indicated this shared-resources architecture has been in place for some time.
Data centers typically have a redundant fail-over system to ensure data and servers are available for customers. Rather than mirror each data center to another location like it, Google has designed a “one to many” failover system, explained Sabrina Farmer, engineering manager of Gmail. That means if there’s a failure in one location, the load is distributed to many data centers. Treating all of its data centers as a common pool of resources also means that an individual Gmail or Google Apps account isn’t tied to a specific location. How often a person uses e-mail, mail volume, and location of the user determines the master and back up “slave” account, Farmer said.
Her corporate e-mail is nearby in Silicon Valley but her personal Gmail is actually hosted in Europe because it provides the optimal performance, she said. Engineers track data, such as average response time, and make changes to where customer accounts are stored to improve performance. Over 90 percent of Gmail e-mails are delivered within five seconds and more than 50 percent arrive in less than a second. It’s an efficient use of compute resources because Google doesn’t need to have a full standby system in each of its many locations. The architecture also allows Google to fully use its available resources, rather than have thousands of idle servers.
“The fact that we don’t have to have spares is a significant cost savings to running the product,” she said. “It was a major change in how we manage resources and distribute load.” Representatives declined to attach a figure to efficiency savings but said it was significant and driven by the company’s push to improve efficiency and lower its carbon footprint. Farmer said engineering behind the move was significant but the company can now better tweak application performance by moving user accounts among locations. ”We look at users’ activity constantly and if we find you will perform better by moving your account, we will,” she said.
Here come 5G Wi-Fi (802.11ac) in detail!!
1 day ago
by JohnShen
in Technology
What you should know about the next generation of Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ac, and how it would change your wireless network. Now that you can actually buy the first wireless networking products that use 802.11ac,Buffalo’s router and media bridge, it’s time you learned about the this new wireless standard. While the “ac” designation definitely does not mean “air conditioning,” I can say for sure that 802.11ac is cool. And by cool, I mean fast. That’s the biggest difference about 802.11ac compared with previous wireless standards. But first let’s see how similar it is. 802.11ac supplements 802.11n
802.11ac (aka 5G Wi-Fi) is the next step after 802.11n (aka N or Wireless-N, which is currently is the most popular Wi-Fi standard). It’s backward-compatible with N, meaning that a 5G Wi-Fi router will support N clients and 5G Wi-Fi clients will also be able to connect to an N router. Wireless-N, in turn, is backward compatible with the rest of the wireless standards, including 802.11g, 802.11b, and 802.11a. That means you can replace a router at home right now with a 5G Wi-Fi router and existing wireless devices, such as your laptop, iPad, iPhone, and so on, no matter how old, and they will still connect to your network the way they have always worked. To have the devices to work at the speed of 5G Wi-Fi, however, both the clients and the router need to support 5G Wi-Fi.
Clients like desktop and laptop computers will be able to upgrade to 5G Wi-Fi via add-in PCIe cards, Mini-PCI cards, or USB adapters. Later this year, mobile devices and computers with built-in 5G Wi-Fi support will be available. Similar to Wireless-N, 802.11ac, for now, comes in three tiers, based on the number of streams. The more streams, the more bandwidth a device can handle. For example, Wireless-N has caps of 150Mbps with single-stream, 300Mbps with dual-stream, and 450Mbps with three-stream. 5G Wi-Fi connections are set to be about three times faster, starting with 450Mbps in single-stream, 900Mbps (dual-stream) and 1.3Gbps (three-stream). So technically, 5G Wi-Fi is the first wireless standard that breaks the gigabit barrier. However, also similar to Wireless-N, via my preliminary testing with the Buffalo’s AirStation WZR-D1800H wireless router (the review of which will be posted soon), the actual real-world speeds of 5G Wi-Fi vary depending on the environment and distance. Even in the optimal settings, they will be much lower than the ceiling speed. Still, in my trials, they have been consistently much faster than N.
| 802.11n (Wireless N) | 802.11ac (5G Wi-Fi) | |
|---|---|---|
| Backward-compatible with | 802.11g, 802.11b, 802.11a | 802.11n |
| Frequency bands supported | 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz | 5Ghz only |
| Band availability on hardware | Both single and dual-band | Always dual-band (with N on the 2.4Ghz band) |
| Tiers | Single-stream, dual-stream, three-stream | Single-stream, dual-stream, three-stream |
| Ceiling speeds | 150Mbps, 300Mbps, 450Mbps | 450Mbps, 900Mbps, 1,300Mbps |
| Availability | Currently the most popular | Now, with more in coming weeks. Devices with built-in adapters expected by the end of 2012 |
How 802.11ac is different from 802.11n
The biggest difference, other than the improved speeds, that 802.11ac has over Wireless-N is the fact that 5G Wi-Fi works solely on the 5Ghz band and supports channel width, for now, up to 80Mhz (as opposed to 20Mhz of N). To make 802.11ac hardware truly backward-compatible with N devices, which are available in both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands, all 5G Wi-Fi devices will come with 802.11n on the 2.4Ghz band. In other words, when you buy a 5G Wi-Fi wireless router, it will have 802.11ac on the 5Ghz band and 802.11n on the 2.4Ghz band and will be able to operate both at the same time. This goes the same for 5G Wi-Fi clients; they will also support N on the 2.4Ghz band.
What is 802.11ac good for?
Everything. I can’t imagine how the faster connection speed would hurt you. However, the new standard is especially good for high-def streaming within a local network. In a recent demo, Netgear showed that it could instantly play back four different 1080p movies wirelessly to four HDTVs using 802.11ac connections, something not possible with Wireless-N. 802.11ac clients are also supposed to offer much better battery life than N clients. This is mostly thanks to the improved speed. The fact that 5G WiFi clients can finish transmitting the same amount of data in just around 1 third of the time, compared to N clients, translates into less energy being used. When continuously used in the same duration, an N client and a 5G WiFi client would require about the same amount of juice, however.
Will Apple support 802.11ac?
Yes, rumor has it that Apple will be among early adopters of 802.11ac. This means that future devices, such as notebooks or tablets, from the company will have built-in support for 5G Wi-Fi. This also means there will be newer versions or new networking devices, such as Time Capsule or Airport Base Station, that support 802.11ac. According to Broadcom, the maker of the current 802.11ac chipsets, overall, the adaption of 802.11ac is expected to be much faster and widespread than that of 802.11n.
Should I get an 5G Wi-Fi router now?
If you already have an N router at home, there’s no need to. However, if you’re in the market for a high-end dual-band router, there’s no reason not to get a 5G Wi-Fi router. This is because a 5G Wi-Fi router is basically a true dual-band N router with support for 5G Wi-Fi on the 5Ghz band. That said there’s no dis-benefits in getting one even you currently don’t have any hardware at home that supports 5G WiFi. This is especially true considering that 5G Wi-Fi routers are just slightly more expensive than a high-end N dual-band router. In fact, Buffalo’s AirStation WZR-D1800H router costs just $180, about the same price as the high-end true dual-band Wireless-N Asus RT-N66U. The upcoming 5G Wi-Fi routers from Netgear also come with similar pricing. However, there’s more you want from a wireless router than just Wi-Fi speed. If you’re one of those who also need a router with lots of features, maybe you should wait for a while. In the meantime, I’ll do my best to tell them apart.
Facebook’s bankers saved an IPO, kept shares above $38
1 day ago
Every time, Facebook looked like it would break below the $38 a share initial price, millions of bids showed up. Coincidence? Facebook’s IPO was a roaring success — for Facebook. Investors aren’t quite sure what to make of it after Facebook’s underwriters repeatedly stepped in to make sure shares didn’t fall below the $38 mark. The social networking giant priced its shares at $38 and raised about $16 billion in what was a perfect price. Facebook’s IPO was perfectly priced because the company raised everything it could and left no premium for investors. An IPO is mispriced if it rockets to the moon and the company could have raised more. Facebook’s IPO lacked fireworks, but raked in dough. Its shares finished the trading day at $38.27, up 0.71 percent. So in other words, Facebook’s IPO was a lot of hype for a gain of just a few pennies. But the far more interesting endpoint to Facebook’s IPO is that it needed help from its plunge protection team — 33 underwriters determined to make sure the offering didn’t break below the $38 price.
To understand how bankers supported the Facebook IPO, all you had to do is watch the Level II quotes — a stock system designed to show you underlying bid and ask prices — to see how millions of bids appeared every time Facebook hit $38. Coincidence? Not quite. There weren’t zillions of people waiting for Facebook shares at $38. But investment banks were unloading every bullet they had to keep FB at least treading water. The Wall Street Journal reported that underwriters stepped up to protect Facebook shares. After all, no investment bank worth anything wanted the biggest tech IPO ever to break. Now it’s unclear how long Facebook’s plunge protection team will be in place. Investment banks avoided an embarrassing first day break of Facebook shares, but Monday could be a different story. Here’s the day in Facebook shares.
However, investors are not buying Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) today because they believe it is fairly valued, so what is the point of the comparison? Bear with me for a moment. Let’s say Facebook investors want to receive 15 percent a year over the next five years. In that case, Facebook’s market capitalization has to double in five years, to $200 billion. Conveniently, $200 billion happens to be Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s valuation today. Since both companies are in the advertising business and have very similar cost structures, all Facebook has to do over the next five years is achieve Google’s current sales level, which is a meager $40 billion (for purposes of this discussion, we’ll ignore Google’s $40 billion pile of cash, or about $100 a share, compared with Facebook’s few billion, though that would only further make my point here). For an investor to double his or her money over the next five years, all Facebook has to do is increase its revenues tenfold.
That sounds doable at first glance. When your name defines what social networking means, and when you have 900 million users, nothing seems unconquerable. Still, increasing revenues tenfold may become a difficult undertaking for Facebook. First of all, there is a user fatigue. I find that as the novelty of Facebook wears off, I spend less and less time logged in to my page. (Interestingly, I find that I use Twitter more and more every day, because I strictly use it as part of my research process). One can argue that it may just be me, but a study undertaken by a web research company last fall shows that users are indeed getting Facebook fatigue. In addition, Facebook is a productivity drain, and employers will likely start blocking employee access to Facebook during businesses hours, which will further decrease the time spent on it.
In theory, Facebook is an advertiser’s dream. Since we openly share our age, sex, education, employment, travels, likes, etc., for the first time ever, a retailer can market to an incredibly specific demographic: a 38-year-old male, in Denver, married with children, with a graduate degree, who “likes” Ayn Rand. The precision of target marketing offered by Facebook is simply incredible. But while you can charge a lot more money for delivering a display ad with sniper-rifle precision, this money will be wasted if your precisely selected audience simply ignores your ads. It doesn’t matter whether you deliver ads with a sniper rifle or a 12-gauge shotgun, if users don’t notice them, precision carries little value. It seems our brains have gradually adapted to ignoring display ads — I personally cannot recall a single display ad from Facebook.
Finally, it is hard to maintain your competitive advantages when you don’t know who your competition is. Facebook competition is likely to be nonlinear (e.g., not Google+ or Myspace-like networks). Instead, it will probably be another activity that competes our time away from Facebook. I have no idea what it will be — maybe it’s not even born yet. Of course, in the short term, it doesn’t really matter what Facebook revenue or cash flows are. Investors are ignoring them. Facebook stock can probably double in the first five trading days, rather than five years. After the company goes public, its shares will trade for a while like a beachfront property that was frequented by Elvis, and little details like cash flow won’t matter. But the honeymoon will eventually end. It always does, and Facebook will then start trading like an unsexy apartment building — based on cash flows. That is when reality will set in and the stock will come down to earth, hard.
Pemimpin UMNO Mengamuk
Naib Ketua Umno Kampar Isytihar keluar parti
BATU GAJAH: Naib Ketua Pemuda Umno Kampar, Sdr Zamhuri Md Zin hari ini mengisytiharkan dirinya keluar parti dan tidak mahu lagi dikaitkan lagi dengan parti itu. Tindakan tersebut adalah disebabkan parti yang telah memerintah lebih 50 tahun itu gagal menjaga orang melayu dan tidak lagi releven. ”Saya hari ini mengisytiharkan keluar Umno setelah lebih 27 tahun bersama parti itu,” katanya. Menurutnya, rasuah didalam pertadbiran Barisan Nasional amat berleluasa dan ditahap yang membimbangkan. Beliau yang juga seorang pengusaha pasir telah ditipu dan dinafikan haknya setelah membayar cukai dan premium kepada kerajaan. ”Saya bayar cukai RM20 125 seperti prosidur yang ditetapkan oleh kerajaan tetapi apa yang saya dapat hanya tanah liat, bukannya pasir,” ujarnya. Ahli Majlis Daerah Kampar itu sangat kesal dengan tindakan kerajaan yang menganiaya serta menindasnya sedangkan beliau adalah ‘orang kuat’ menyokong kerajaan.
“Nak bagi rasuah, ajak makan, pergi karaoke, bagi amoi (pelacur) dari siam barulah nak bagi luluskan pasir, dan Ketua Umno Bahagian, Dato’ Radhi Manan sebentar tadi menelefon dan mengatakan pasir yang dipohon sudah diluluskan. ”Sudah terlambat, saya tetap dengan pendirian saya akan keluar umno dan saya tidak akan toleh ke belakang. ”Dah lama saya bersabar dan hari ini saya tekad keluar Umno dan bersama-sama Pakatan Rakyat,” ujarnya. Zamhuri yang juga Ketua Cawangan Umno Changkat Tin menyatakan bahawa lebih 100 ahli di cawangannya akan mengikut jejak langkah beliau. Sementara itu, Mantan Menteri Besar, Dato’ Seri Nizar Jamaluddin ketika bersama-sama dalam pengisytiharan itu mengalu-alukan hasrat beliau. Mohammad Nizar menjelaskan, di zaman pemerintahan Pakatan Rakyat selama 11 bulan, Zamhuri pernah memohon pasir dan diluluskan. ”Walaupun dia Umno tetapi Pakatan Rakyat luluskannya kerana itu hak dia sebagai penjual pasir. ”Kalaulah orang kuat Umno pun mereka tidak boleh tolong, inikan lagi orang Pakatan Rakyat. Justeru, beliau menyeru ahli Umno yang lain turut bersama-sama mengikut jejak langkah Zamhuri dan menyertai perjuangan Pakatan Rakyat.
Apple slips out new OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion beta
3 days ago
Apple on Wednesday supplied its developers with an updated version of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Developer Preview 3, the pre-release build of the forthcoming Mac operating system update.
Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
Apple slips out new OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion beta, leaves 2007 MacBook Pro in a momentary lurch. The software update is now available in the Mac App Store. People familiar with the latest build said it is identified as “12A206J.” Apple has reportedly informed developers that MacBook Pro model released in mid-2007 are not compatible with the new build. The issue is expected to be resolved with a future update. People familiar with the build also said that an error occurs when using Fast User Switching, in which the desktop may appear white for several seconds. Problems are also said to remain with the share menu related to Mail and Twitter in the pre-release build.
Issues are also said to remain from the previous build, including the fact that Notes no longer sync with iTunes, and Java applets may not work in Safari. Apple also reportedly informed developers that QuickTime screen recordings can be corrupted when using machines with Nvidia graphics processing Wednesday’s update is the second issued for the third developer preview of Mountain Lion; the last update was supplied to developers on May 1. OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Developer Preview 3 was first supplied to Apple’s development community in April.The second preview of Mountain Lion came about a month before, in mid-March. Mountain Lion is scheduled to go on sale on the Mac App Store this summer. More on the next version of the Mac OS X operating system will be shown off at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, which will kick off on June 11 in San Francisco, California.
Army veterans flex their arses at Ambiga’s house
A group of retired armed forces personnel held ‘butt exercises’ in front of the residence of Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan in Bukit Damansara early this morning.
Bersih 3.0 – The Conspiracy
6 days ago
Stop asking why Police acted so cruelly and merciless during the Bersih 3.0 Rally as there could only be ONE reason:
They did it on purpose, to create chaos and make Bersih 3.0 looked ugly. There are many conspiracies , no one knows who is right or wrong…IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU BELIEVE!
Credits: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kiangalaxy/221000607938459
TE4P Nite May Is Here!
1 week ago
Time fly so fast two month had over. Next coming thursday will be our monthly sharing session on tech and creative topic. Before i proceed to more information sure you all ant to know more about TE4P? What is TE4P all about? Here it’s TE4P is stand for Tech Events 4 Penang. Where they talk and discuss about technology stuff such as Internet, programming, social media, graphic, design, videography, photography and other possible related topic. Every one know that Penang is a boring place! So that they TE4P organize this event cause they wanted to do more Tech Events happenings in Penang to boost the industry here up and all the way up north and to expend it bigger.
It is a casual event where all of us hangout with cup of coffee where we meet up with the group of members here to meet up together and join the TE4P Nites sharing session.TE4P is the monthly gathering organized by TE4P to share about technology stuff for Penang friend. Where the knowledge are more on how to use Social Media and Social Media Networks Platform to do the business marketing over the net. This event also for the members to meet up face to face beside online meeting in the online group. Is a good chances to know each other thru the event where normally cant be done thru online.
Event: TE4P Nite
Date: 24 May 2012
Time: 8pm to 11pm
Venue: Starbucks, E-Gate, Auto-City
So what is the topic we gonna talk on this coming TE4P Nite? Below are some of the topic they going to cover on the coming TE4P Nite:
1. Mobile Apps for Biz (How to Utilise the apps)
- Four Square
- Instagram
- Twitter
2. Upcoming Tech Events for Penang
- My CoCoaHeads Penang
- BarCamp Penang
Who are on twitter just Hashtag: #te4pNite and many people are wonder is the event are free? YES! It’s free. But you just need to pay for a cup of coffee from Starbucks. Here is the Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/303426993071352/
MyCoCoaHeads Penang is Back!!
1 week ago
Hey Guys. Remember the previous event of MyCoCoaHeads Penang? Where Penang host it the first time for iOS & Mac Development on April. Which i attend after my friend name Khoo Kah Lee had invited me to attend iOS & Mac Development Seminar at Switch, Queensbay Mall, Penang. The organizer for this event is Lau Heng Kar. The speakers on this event are from MyCocoaHeads. Here goes the story of MyCocoaHeads.
MyCocoaHeads founded since 2006. MYCocoaheads is a meet up team of Mac and iOS users, designers, developers, marketers, and startup entrepreneurs. MyCocoaHeads are the first Asian chapter of CocoaHeads Organization, putting Malaysia on the map as the 3rd country to have CocoaHeads! They having a meet up on the 3rd Thursday of every month, with talks, and networking sessions aimed at end users, designers, developers, marketers, and startup entrepreneurs working on Mac or iOS (iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad) devices. MyCocoaHeads Membership are open and free to anyone interested in or using the Mac and iOS devices.
MyCocoaHeads Penang which held the iOS & Mac Development Seminar at Switch, Queensbay Mall was really awesome! Thank You to Khoo Kah Lee for inviting me to join the event. Hope that MyCocoaHeads will organize this event monthly. Those people who had miss it, dont worry, come and join us for the next MyCocoaHeads Event. Now its MyCocoaHeads Penang is back on May for the second meetup! If you are interested in iOS Development & Mac Development like creating apps for iPhone and iPad, or want to meet up with great iOS Developer from Penang, come over to join us at MyCoCoaHeads Penang happening on 31th May 2012. The venue are at InfoTrek inside Queensbay Mall (1F-78) Behind Hush Puppies, Beside Queensbay Mall Management Office) Click the link for more details about the events. https://www.facebook.com/events/294193760664450/
The Previous MyCoCoaHeads Penang 2012 Photos:
