Thursday, August 29, 2013

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Intel's Broadwell will mean a new mobo is needed

Posted: 29 Aug 2013 03:45 AM PDT

Fashion bag maker Intel has decided to break backwards compatibility and its forthcoming Broadwell chips will need a new motherboard.

This will be irritating to those who splashed out on the new 22nm Haswell processors which have only been available to buy since June this year.

According to Geek,  the focus is already shifting to Intel's next generation of chips and 9-series chipset.

Broadwell will see Intel move to a 14nm manufacturing process with the chips expected to arrive in the second half of next year, but that means that the new 8-series motherboard you buy  today will be out-of-date even if it still has the same LGA 1150 chip socket.

The 9-series chipset will incorporate a few compatibility breaking changes. This includes a 1.05V requirement for V_PROC_IO, support for a new type of power supply, and a different chip topology requiring a modified THRMTRIP output buffer.

But it is also possible that Intel will implement a Haswell chip refresh next year that will add support for the 9-series chipset changes. This means that the motherboard you buy this year will be old news.

The message is that if you buy a computer now you have to be ready to keep your PC exactly as it is for two to three years. If that is the case you will not lose any sleep over this news as Broadwell will be standard when you upgrade. But if you want to keep your PC fairly current it is probably better that you wait until next year. Buying Haswell with an eye on upgrading to a Broadwell processor could turn out to be damn pricey. 

New Zealand bans software patents

Posted: 29 Aug 2013 03:42 AM PDT

The Kiwi government, which has been famous for rolling over for the US government and big business, has surprisingly decided to outlaw software patents.

According to ITWire,  after five years the Kiwis have finally passed a new Patents Bill that will effectively outlaw software patents.

It was not easy and there was a lot of lobbying from multinational patent trolls who wanted to keep their business alive.

Commerce Minister Craig Foss welcomed the modernisation of the patents law, saying it marked a "significant step towards driving innovation in New Zealand".

In a statement, Foss said that by clarifying what can be patented, New Zealand businesses more flexibility to adapt and improve existing inventions, while continuing to protect genuine innovations.

The Patents Bill was first drafted in 2008 and in 2010, the Commerce Select Committee recommended a total ban on software patents. However a government committee reversed that plan in August there was an outcry.

The theory was that the changes had been made to accommodate the US as New Zealand is involved in negotiations with Washington to sign a treaty known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.

Although the US has been anti-troll, it is also pro-copyright and this has led some trade negotiators to defend software patents with the same vigour as they so Hollywood blockbusters.

Yet the feeling is that patents do not work for software. It is almost impossible for technology companies to create new software without breaching some of the hundreds of thousands of software patents that exist, often for obvious work.

Still it does mean that there will be one class of troll which will not be able to audition for the next Peter Jackson flick. 

HP monoblocks deal has rivals scratching their nadgers

Posted: 29 Aug 2013 03:36 AM PDT

Rivals are baffled at what the maker of expensive printer ink, HP is doing setting up a deal to make its monoblocks in Foxconn's St. Petersburg factory.

Monoblock computers, where the monitor is united with the processor, motherboard, hard drive and other components are popular in Russia, particularly with government departments.

But Russian factories have not really been the same since the collapse of communism and using them to make electronics is expensive.

An HP spokesman Konstantin Kimelman, PC Category Country Manager in Russia, said that in early 2013, Russia imposed 10 percent import duties on desktop PCs and monoblocks.

This resulted in a price increase in the market, explains. Launching production in Russia reduces the dependence of prices on currency exchange rates, shortens delivery periods by 2-3 times, and makes the computers more accessible for public institutions that are required to purchase equipment produced domestically.

But according to Russia behind the Headlines  that is remarkably short term thinking at least as far as Lenovo is concerned.

Gleb Mishin, general manager of Lenovo in Russia, the CIS and Eastern Europe flogs monoblocks in Russia and he points out that setting up a manufacturing operation to avoid paying duty is silly.

Russia is being forced to cave in to the demands of the World Trade Organisation. The tarrifs are set be lowered from 10 percent to five percent in 2014 and, ultimately, completely cancelled.

The costs of the tariff are much lower than the cost of production in Russia. This is high because Foxconn will still have to import components. Only five percent of components can be locally sourced.

It is possible to save a bit of cash on travel costs, but it looks like the main reason is because HP's main customers for monoblocks are government departments. Shipping from a Russian address is to be touted as supporting local industry and more likely to be signed off by politicians. So there is probably some method in HP's madness after all. 

Microsoft is a tale of two cities, claims spinner

Posted: 29 Aug 2013 03:35 AM PDT

Top Volester Frank Shaw has told Microsoft's critics that they are way off the mark and he is prepared to quote Charles Dickens to prove it.

Shaw is Vole’s top spinner and he had a bit of a rant  about all the "writers and pundits" who suggest the sun has set on the glorious Microsoft empire.

In the post, he references the classic movie Rashomon as well as research on confirmation bias and quotes from Charles Dickens' book A Tale of Two Cities ("It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.")

Shaw's argument is that the naysayers are viewing the company through the wrong lens and incorrectly suggesting it is entering the worst of times as a result.

Looking at the coverage of Steve Ballmer’s retirement, he noticed that there are a few common themes.

One approach has been to focus exclusively on some of Microsoft’s consumer businesses, and then judge it harshly while ignoring the successes Microsoft have had elsewhere. Another approach has been to go a step further, and criticise Volish myopia, he wrote.

Shaw claimed that there is a single, narrow frame through which the writers and pundits view the industry itself.

He then rambled on about how the company's strategy is to cater to a broad range of technology needs, regardless of whether it's designing for use at work or home, with groups or individuals.

Of course he believes Microsoft has a bright future even if its longtime CEO is leaving, its tablet efforts are struggling and the PC business it was founded on is still in decline.

"So when people see the 'worst of times' while we see the best still ahead of us, we know it’s simply because we’re not looking through the same frame or the same time horizon," he writes.

What he did not say is that it is partly his fault.  As Vole’s chief spinner he is expected to set the agenda and make sure that the press and pundits are looking in the right frame.    This has been something that Microsoft has been bad at doing, particularly over the last five years. 

Apple has stolen any positive press that is going and nothing has been done to attempt to get them back onside.  As a result, many of the press will write off Volish projects before they have a chance.   It has not helped that Ballmer and his team have admitted that they are desperately copying Apple’s business model.

A pro-Apple press wants Microsoft to fail, because it makes Jobs’ Mob look good, while Vole is the comedic bungler.  The fact that Microsoft allowed itself to be positioned in that place was Shaw’s fault.

On the face of it there is no product really that Microsoft has released which deserved the pasting it got.  The Zune, the Surface Tablet, even Windows 8, were not bad and should have done much better.  Some of them, like Windows 8, failed because they were trapped in Redmond’s own belief that it could force users to do something they didn’t want, but other things were based on this need to copy Apple without doing the same level of marketing and brown-nosing.  The Surface, for example, came out far too expensive and too late.  As a result it was torn to pieces by the press. 

If it had entered the market for about $200 less, there would have been nothing the press could have complained about.  If it had been pushed to schools, as it is now, it would have done extremely well and Microsoft would have been established in the market.

What Vole did was Apple’s trick of saying “here is an expensive tablet, buy it”.   At the moment the press is largely programmed to say “compare to Apple and kill” so of course it failed.

Had Shaw prepared the ground, and he did have time, he could have had several key press men on side at the launch.  Had he convinced Ballmer that it was suicide to try and copy Apple without actually being Steve Jobs, then this would have been “a far, far better thing that he did, than he have ever done” it would have been a far, far better blog that he had written than he had ever known.

The men (and a woman) who would be Queen Microsoft

Posted: 29 Aug 2013 03:32 AM PDT

After King Steve "there's a kind of hush" Ballmer announced that he will be abdicating to get a bit of peace and quiet there has been much talk about who would take the crown.

While everyone has so far talked about an outsider taking the job, it is more likely that if Vole wants to continue down the path of this devices and services strategy they will have to get an insider to do it for them.

An outsider would want to change that strategy and forge the company in a bold new direction. They would also wanted to end the Game of Thrones between the various parts of the company which has been crippling the company for years.

Reuters has prepared a list of Insiders who could do everything that people in Microsoft would want.

Satya Nadella, who works in the cloud and enterprise department, has served Vole for 21 years. He knows the inner workings of the company, and where all the bodies are buried. Nadella is well placed in the more important areas of servers, data centres and online services and was promoted to run the newly created 'cloud and enterprise' unit. In other words he is the 'services' person behind the devices and services side of Microsoft's new vision.

His problem is that he once worked as a vice president in the Office unit and might not have the ability to bang the heads together of the Windows and Office factions. In Microsoft these two kingdoms hate each other's guts and have been at war for years.

Another potential candidate is Tony Bates, who is the head of corporate strategy. He is new at the company and came as CEO of t'Skype,.

He can provide the internet-centric, consumer-focused technology that Microsoft is pants at. Ballmer put him in charge of corporate strategy and relations with developers and PC makers. Bates' weakness is that he has not been at Microsoft long enough to know how to deal with the odd flaming missile that comes his way and lacks software experience.

Another name is Terry Myerson, who is a big cheese in the operating systems department. Like Bates, his web software company was bought by Microsoft in the late 1990s. Ballmer appointed him to run the full range of operating systems at Vole which is sort of like the Grand Vizier role.

However he was unable to make the Windows Phone unit a big player in the smartphone market.

Then there is Qi Lu, who is in charge of Bling and other Internet business. He comes from Yahoo and is a big name in the online search and advertising area. He even has 20 US patents with his name on them. He now runs the 'applications and services' group, which is in charge of putting Microsoft's established software businesses, like its Office suite, onto the Web. He was pivotal in Ballmer's cunning plan. Of course he has the albatross of the Bing search engine which cost Microsoft billions of dollars without threatening Google dominance.

The only woman on the list is a rank outsider, one Julie Larson-Green, who is in charge of the Xbox gaming console and Surface tablet

She has been a Volette for 20-years and was an acolyte of recently beheaded Windows chief Steven "Little Finger" Sinofsky. She led the re-design of Windows and Office. She is in charge of the 'devices and studios' unit, and is tainted by the lack of success of the Surface tablet and her close involvement with Windows 8.

Then there is Eric Rudder, who is the R&D man. He has been in the background of Vole for 20 years and is an uber-techie.

He is the nearest the company has to a big thinker in the mould of Bill Gates, however he has never been a business unit leader and would probably end up with his head on a pole if he tries to play the Game of Thrones.

Kevin Turner, who is Microsoft's Chief Operating Officer for the last eight years, is a pretty good bet in that he is similar to Ballmer. The former Wal-Mart Stores exec is the King of Sales and is an archetypal salesman and motivator. He does not have any engineering background, which could be a liability. 
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