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CompTIA to Recognize RFID+ Certified Professionals at RFID Journal Live! 2008

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On-site training also available at sixth annual conference.

Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. (Vocus/PRWEB ) April 9, 2008 — The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), the world’s leading provider of vendor-neutral certifications for technology professionals, will reward individuals with CompTIA RFID+ certification in a special way at next week’s RFID Journal Live! conference.

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RFID Journal Live! 2008, the world’s largest RFID conference and exhibition is scheduled for April 16-18 at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, Nev. CompTIA will exhibit in Booth 559.

RFID professionals who have earned their CompTIA RFID+ certification are invited to visit CompTIA in Booth 559 to receive a “CompTIA RFID+ Certified” lapel pin. All they need to do is show their CompTIA identification card that is presented to everyone who passes a CompTIA certification exam, including RFID+.

For IT professionals interested in obtaining this valued industry certification, an on-site certification preparation course will be offered at RFID Journal Live! RFID4U, a leading provider of RFID training courses, will deliver the fast-track training. Individuals who participate in the on-site training and pass the exam can obtain their “CompTIA RFID+ Certified” lapel pin by visiting Booth 559 and showing their exam score report For more information on CompTIA RFID+ training at RFID Journal Live! visit http://www.rfidjournalevents.com/live/certification.php.

The CompTIA Radio Frequency Identification (RFID+) certification validates the knowledge and skills of technical professionals who work with RFID technology.

According to Patrick Sweeney II, chief executive officer of ODIN technologies, a leader in RFID engineering and integration services and automation software, attaining CompTIA RFID+ certification “shows end users they’re dealing with high quality engineers with all the knowledge and skills to design and implement an effective RFID solution.”

“It also creates a threshold for what new hires need to know when we bring them aboard,” he added. “If they’ve already earned CompTIA RFID+, that’s a good indicator that they can provide quality service to customers.”

For more information on CompTIA RFID+, visit CompTIA at Booth 559 at RFID Journal Live! in Las Vegas, or go to http://certification.comptia.org/rfid/.

About CompTIA
The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is the voice of the world's $3 trillion information technology industry. CompTIA membership extends into more than 100 countries and includes companies at the forefront of innovation; the channel partners and solution providers they rely on to bring their products to market; and the professionals responsible for maximizing the benefits organizations receive from their technology investments. For more information, visit www.comptia.org.

Contact:
Steven Ostrowski
Director, Corporate Communications
CompTIA
630-678-8468
sostrowski @ comptia.org

Poll: Web Delivers Poor Content

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More than 88 per cent of Internet users believe they are served poor content on the Web, according to an online poll conducted by Webcopyplus. Subsequent interviews with web users revealed multiple common concerns.

Vancouver, BC (PRWEB) April 3, 2008 — More than 88 per cent of Internet users believe they are served poor content on the Web, according to an online poll conducted by Webcopyplus.

When asked to rate the overall quality of content on the Web, poll respondents selected the following options:

1. Poor — 88.5 per cent
2. Satisfactory — 9.8 per cent
3. Good — 1.5 per cent
4. Excellent — 0.2 per cent

A total of 480 Internet users participated in the web writing firm's online poll during a four-month period that ended in April of 2008.

Subsequent interviews with web users revealed multiple common concerns, including:

 

  • "It takes too long to find the information I'm looking for."
  • "I have a high-speed Internet connection, but many websites are too slow to load."
  • "Confusing menus."
  • "So many generic pictures that I don't need to see."
  • "Busy designs are irritating."
  • "I don't like being forced to watch intros or videos."
  • "The need to download additional software to view a site."
  • "Too much writing on websites that doesn't interest or help me."
  • "Poor writing makes me question a website's credibility."
  • "Aggressive sales pitches…don't tell me to buy; tell me why I should buy from you."
  • "Small text that's too hard to read."
  • "Inadequate contact information."

Relevancy and Speed Top Concerns

The most common complaint from web users was that it takes too long to find relevant information.

Rick Sloboda, Senior Web Copywriter at Webcopyplus, says there are several contributing factors to this issue, including poorly planned information architecture, and ineffective web writing, designs and images.

"Businesses that take the time and resources to arrange website navigation, information and links according to their target audiences' needs promote positive online experiences," said Sloboda. "When website visitors get what they desire, tasks get completed and businesses benefit."

The second biggest complaint from Internet users surrounded slow load times. Even with the increasing popularity of high-speed Internet connections (broadband penetration in 2007 according to Internet World Stats: US 21.9%; UK 23.1%; Canada 23.7%), slow-loading web pages continue to be a sore spot for people who research products or services online.

In fact, slow load speeds topped the list in a 2007 Webcopyplus poll, in which 51.2 per cent of users suggested "slow load times" would likely drive them away from a website, over weak web copy (42.2 per cent) and poor visual presentation (6.6 per cent).

Consumers Rule the Web

Websites should be streamlined and optimized — stripped of any unnecessary graphics or web writing, suggests Sloboda.

"That means designers must put function before form," he said. "And web writers must write for the target audience — not for themselves or even their clients."

To be sure, the Internet has come a long way since 1969, when UCLA and Stanford Research Institute relayed the first message over the earliest form of the Internet. But, the fact is, almost nine out of 10 web poll respondents feel they are being under-served.

People no longer look to the Web as a novelty, noted Sloboda. "It's about task-driven research, not random surfing," he said. "Today's Internet users seek value, not amusement."

According to Sloboda, the solution is clear: simple, fast-loading and functional websites that offer relevant content.

"Perhaps as web technologies mature, the industry will put less emphasis on website mechanics and more on quality content that respectfully caters to the true master of the Web," he said. "And that would be the consumer."

PaperWorld3D Releases Open Source Code

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New game engine framework allowing for development of real time Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming (MMOG) and applications via the Flash platform.

Santa Clarita, CA (PRWEB) April 3, 2008 — The founders of Influxis and Red5Server announced today the PaperWorld3D source code is now open to the public. PaperWorld, which leverages open source projects PaperVision3D and Red5, allows for rapid creation of MMOG 3D environments deployable over the Adobe Flash Player 9.

Influxis and Red5Server have been sponsoring the PaperWorld project since December 2007. The project is led by Trevor Burton, an experienced flash game developer, and John Grden, a founding member of other open source projects including Papervision3D and Red5.

A preview teaser website has been up for a few weeks at www.paperworld3d.com describing the capabilities of PaperWorld3D and an open call for interested developers to sign up for beta testing. The site includes videos from a recent presentation at the Flash in the Can (FITC) event in Amsterdam showing Burton and Grden describing the PaperWorld environment and demonstrating a "fly-through" of a multi-player spaceship game in PaperWorld. It also features a blog with updates and information regarding how it works.

A blog is now central to the homepage of the updated website. The new website, which can be found at http://www.paperworld3d.com, includes updated information such as detailed tutorials, demos, downloads, links to GoogleCode, and more blog entries explaining PaperWorld, what can be done with it, how to get started, and a vision for where it is headed in the immediate future.

"We are very excited to see this new technology released to the Flash industry," said Richard Blakely, CEO of Influxis. "PaperWorld3D gives Flash developers the ability to easily create multi-user 3D environments, and considering that this is a LGPL open source project, there is really no limit to where this will go." Richard also stated that he expects to see new forms of "multi-user 3D advertising" and new business opportunities built around "virtual economies."

About Red5Server:
Red5Server is a specialist Red5 hosting and support solution for mission-critical and large-scale Red5 based applications.
Red5Server is a product of two industry leaders in their respective fields, Infrared5 and Influxis. http://www.red5server.com

About Influxis:
Influxis is a company specializing in Flash Media Server and RTMP based technologies. Visionaries of the server since its advent, Influxis was founded in 2002 with the belief that Flash Media Server software could 'change the way designers think.'
Specialized Adobe FMIS hosting services worldwide. http://www.influxis.com

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Vista SP1 Upgrade Eliminates Need to Buy Full Version, Says Windows Secrets

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Vista SP1 Upgrade costs much less than Full Edition

Seattle, WA (PRWEB) April 3, 2008 – Microsoft customers can install the "upgrade edition" of Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) on any PC without having to purchase a "full" version of Microsoft Vista, according to an article in today's Windows Secrets Newsletter. Associate editor Scott Dunn says users can take advantage of a trick to upgrade to Windows Vista SP1 regardless of whether any older version of Windows is running on their machines, which can result in cost savings.

"The latest upgrade edition of Windows Vista SP1 allows the upgrade to be installed and activated even if consumers don't currently have any previous version of Windows running," says Dunn. "This is a great cost break, because the Vista SP1 upgrade edition is around $100 cheaper than the full version, depending on your country and what retail version of Vista you buy."

The upgrade "trick" involves installing an unactivated version of Vista from the product DVD. The user then launches setup from within Vista, reinstalls using the operating system's "upgrade" option, and enters the product key.

This procedure was originally published in February 2007 by Windows Secrets editorial director Brian Livingston. He explained then that the earlier, "gold" release of Vista allowed upgrades without requiring an existing version of Windows or even a CD of an older Windows operating system to be present. Fourteen months later, the download trick continues to work with the Vista SP1 upgrade edition.

"The fact that the company has not taken steps to remove the upgrade trick from Vista SP1 leads us to believe that Microsoft executives knowingly support the trick," said Livingston. "I think the feature was deliberately included to make it unnecessary for more advanced and price-sensitive users to ever buy the full version. There is no ethical dilemma with people using a feature that Microsoft has specifically programmed into Vista."

Instructions for performing the Vista SP1 upgrade trick, as well as a table illustrating the cost savings by country and version, can be found at Windows Secrets.

About Windows Secrets
WindowsSecrets.com publishes a weekly e-mail newsletter with more than 275,000 subscribers. Published since 2003, the newsletter reveals tips and tricks to get the most out of Microsoft Windows. For more information, visit www.WindowsSecrets.com.

Microsoft BSOD Screen Saver v3.2 Released

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(TheForceField.net ) April 1, 2008 — Microsoft Corporation announced release of the latest version of its famous (or infamous, depending on your sense of humor) BlueScreen Screen Saver to the public.

Actually, it was released November 1, 2006 but that is irrelevant. It's a screen saver. It's a BSOD. It's a BSOD screen saver – and it's from Microsoft. Amuse your friends. Amaze your enemies. Make new enemies from friends, or make new friends out of enemies, all courtesy of Microsoft.

The screen saver displays different errors depending on the operating system, according to Technet. It replicates disk errors in Windows NT 4 (someone still uses NT4?), a Windows 2000 splash screen in Windows 98 and Windows 2000, the Windows XP splash screen in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 splash screen in, you guessed it – Windows Server 2003. Blue screens cycle and simulate reboot every 15 seconds. The screen saver requires DirectX to run in Windows 98.

Best of all, it's free, and you can't beat free. 

You can download the screen saver  at Microsoft Technet .

OpenOffice.org Releases version 2.4

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(TheForceField.net ) March 28, 2008 — The OpenOffice.org Community announced the release of OpenOffice.org 2.4 yesterday. According to a press release, OpenOffice.org 2.4 is the eleventh and latest release of the 2.x series initially launched in the fall of 2005 and offers some major improvements over previous releases including a few new features and bug repairs to existing components.

OpenOffice.org Logo

New features to the office suite include an option to print hidden and place holder text for hyperlinks in the word prcessor called Writer,  a "smart move and copy" for blocks of cells in the Calc spreadsheet,  improved usability in Draw and new 3D transition effects in the Microsoft Powerpoint-like presentation program known as Impress. The database application, Base, now supports Microsoft Access 2007,  MySQL, Oracle/jdbc and native (HSQL) databases. Numerous other features and enhancements are also included in the new release.

According to the press release, the next major version, OpenOffice.org 3.0, is due for release sometime in the autumn of 2008. In a telephone interview with The Force Field, Louis Suarez-Potts, OpenOffice.org Community Manager, said there would likely be a few more updates to OpenOffice.org 2.0 before the release of version 3.0 later this year.

"Pre-alpha versions of 3.0 are already available", Suarez-Potts said, "but they are not ready for regular users." 

OpenOffice.org supports the ODF (OpenDocument Format) as well as legacy Microsoft Office file formats. The Office suite is released under the GNU/GPL and is freely available.

OpenOffice.org v2.4 is available at www.openoffice.org . 

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PC Market is Deteriorating According to Latest ChangeWave Surveys

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The U.S. economic slowdown has led to a pullback in PC spending by both consumers and corporations, according to two recent ChangeWave surveys. In terms of manufacturers, Apple (AAPL) remains relatively strong, while Dell (DELL) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) look weaker going forward.

Rockville, MD (PRWEB) March 27, 2008 — The U.S. economic slowdown has led to a pullback in PC spending by both consumers and corporations, according to two recent ChangeWave surveys.

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A late February survey of 4,427 consumers found only 8% saying they'll be purchasing a laptop in the next 90 days — a record low for the past 12 months in a ChangeWave consumer buying survey.

A similar low for the year was seen in desktop PCs, with just 6% of consumers saying they'll be buying one.

On the corporate side, a February ChangeWave survey found planned PC purchases also slowing sharply, with just 73% of 2,204 respondents reporting their company plans on buying laptops in the next quarter — down 4-pts from a year ago. The same pattern was also seen for corporate desktops (70%), with planned purchases down 5-pts to a 12-month low.

"The decline in PC sales going forward is yet another symptom of these recessionary economic times," said Tobin Smith, founder of ChangeWave Research and editor of ChangeWave Investing. "The economy is sneezing, and even normally resilient sectors like PCs are catching a bad cold."

(Detailed charts on PC buying trends, along with additional ChangeWave findings can be downloaded at changewave.com/pcs).

The Effects On Computer Manufacturers:

The slowdown in PC purchasing is hitting some manufacturers harder than others.

APPLE: Planned purchases of Apple (AAPL) computers remain relatively strong, even in the slower buying environment. Apple remains the leader among consumers who plan to buy a laptop (31%) over the next 90 days — only 2-pts below the all-time high recorded in ChangeWave's previous survey in January. Similarly, Apple planned desktop computer purchases (28%; down 1-pt) are close to record levels.

Importantly, Apple's consumer market share is up more than 50% from a year earlier. Moreover, corporate Mac purchases are also near record highs, with laptops (7%) unchanged from previously and desktops (6%) down just 1-pt.

In terms of customer satisfaction, Apple continues to set the standard among corporate respondents who use the Leopard operating system — with 53% saying they are Very Satisfied with the software. In comparison, Windows XP Pro has a 40% Very Satisfied rating and Microsoft Vista Business hardly registers at all with just 8%.

DELL: After a small gain in planned consumer purchases in a January ChangeWave survey, Dell (DELL) is once again losing momentum going forward.

Planned laptop purchases (28%; down 2-pts) and desktop purchases (32%; down 4-pts) are down markedly from the previous survey. Moreover, corporate planned buying of Dell PCs is also down, with desktops (32%; down 3-pts) and laptops (32%; down 1-pt) falling to new lows.

HEWLETT-PACKARD: In a surprise finding, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) also shows weaker PC sales going forward, including a drop in consumer planned buying of desktops (18%; down 5-pts) and laptops (19%; down 2-pts). On the corporate side, planned purchases for H-P desktops (17%) have fallen 1-pt, while laptops (14%) have dipped 2-pts.

One mitigating factor for H-P is that nearly 70% of their sales occur outside the U.S., where the current slowdown is likely having less of an impact. Note that our ChangeWave surveys focus mainly on the U.S. market.

When we asked respondents living outside the U.S. about Hewlett-Packard planned purchases, H-P registered higher market share numbers for corporate laptops (17%), corporate desktops (20%) and consumer desktops (22%).

To sign-up for real-time email alerts from ChangeWave on emerging trends in technologies and companies, visit changewave.com/hotwire.

About ChangeWave:
ChangeWave runs a proprietary network of more than 15,000 highly qualified business, technology, and medical professionals in leading companies of select industries — credentialed experts who spend their everyday lives working on the frontline of technological change. ChangeWave surveys its members on a range of business and investment research and intelligence topics, collects feedback from them electronically, and converts the information into proprietary quantitative and qualitative reports.

Complimentary Information Technology Resources

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New Windows XP SP3 beta Available

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(TheForceField.Net ) March 26, 2008 — Microsoft released a new Windows XP SP3 RC to the public yesterday. Dubbed Windows XP Service Pack 3, Release Candidate 2 Refresh, the new RC is the second to be released publicly and  may be the last before the official release of Windows XP SP3.

The release was announced on a Microsoft Technet forum yesterday by MSFT moderator Chris Keroack.  "The purpose of RC2 Refresh is to validate improvements to the Windows Update experience with Service Pack 3.", Keroack said in the post. "Therefore, this beta release will be available only on Windows Update, in English, German and Japanese. Beyond fixes for common Windows Update issues and the inclusion of support for HD Audio, there are no substantial differences between this beta release (build 5508) and XP SP3 RC2 (build 3311)"

Keroack said the application used to download RC2, the previous beta,  would also be used to download RC2 Refresh. The application is available from the Microsoft Download Center . He also said that if Windows XP SP3 RC1 or RC2 were previously installed it would first need to be removed before installing Windows XP SP3 RC 2 Refresh.

Keroack stressed that although it is a public beta, he recommend it for use by IT professionals, developers and other tech-savvy individuals and not for production use.

Microsoft indicated Windows XP Service Pack 3 would be released in the first half of 2008. Some industry analysts have predicted a release in mid-April.

More information on Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate 2 Refresh may be found on the Windows XP TechCenter . 

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Sun Awarded $44M DoD Contract to Develop Microchip Interconnect System

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DARPA Project Advances Chip Communications Via Proximity and Optical Connections to Create Potential for Virtual Supercomputer From Network of Low-Cost Chips

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (Business Wire EON/PRWEB ) March 24, 2008 — Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAVA) today announced that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded Sun $44.29 million funding for a five and a half-year research project focused on microchip interconnectivity via on-chip optical networks enabled by Silicon photonics and proximity communication. Part of DARPA's Ultraperformance Nanophotonic Intrachip Communication program, the project commences with an incremental delivery of $8.1 million to Sun Microsystems' Microelectronics and Laboratories divisions. For more information on research projects at Sun, visit http://www.research.sun.com.

Building on research done under DARPA's High Productivity Computing Systems program, Sun's new project will accelerate the development of lower cost, high performance and high productivity systems. The project presents a unique opportunity to develop supercomputers through interconnecting an array of low-cost chips, with the potential to overcome the fundamental cost and performance limits of scaling up today's large computer systems. By providing unprecedented high bandwidth, low latency, and low power interconnections between the parallel computing chips in such an array, this research project will help enable a broad class of companies and organizations to utilize applications with high compute and communication requirements, such as energy exploration, biotechnology and weather modeling.

News Image “Optical communications could be a truly game-changing technology — an elegant way to continue impressive performance gains while completely changing the economics of large-scale silicon production," said Greg Papadopoulos, chief technology officer and executive vice president of research and development for Sun. “Congratulations to Sun Labs and Microelectronics teams for their constructive creativity and for driving innovation into the semiconductor marketplace."

Sun's program combines optical signaling with Proximity Communication, its key chip-to-chip I/O technology, to construct arrays of low-cost chips in a single virtual “macrochip.” Such an aggregation of inexpensive chips looks and performs like a single chip of enormous size, thus extending Moore's Law; it also avoids soldered chip connections to enable lower total system cost. Long connections across the macrochip leverage the low latency, high bandwidth, and low power of silicon optics, and through this program Sun and DARPA will research technologies to dramatically further reduce the cost of these optical connections. The result is a virtual supercomputer.

“DARPA’s UNIC (Ultraperformance Nanophotonic Intrachip Communications) program will demonstrate high performance photonic technology for high bandwidth, on-chip, photonic communications networks for advanced (≥ 10 trillion operations/second) microprocessors. By restoring the balance between computation and communications, the program will significantly enhance DoD’s capabilities for applications such as Image Processing, Autonomous Operations, Synthetic Aperture Radar, as well as supercomputing,” said Dr. Jag Shah, program manager in DARPA's Microsystems Technology Office.

Accelerating Innovation to Extend Moore's Law

The historic accuracy of Moore's Law, which predicts a periodic doubling of the number of transistors that can cost-effectively build on a single chip, is partly behind the impressive growth of microprocessor performance over the last 30 years. Today, though, continued improvements are slowing down, as power and size constraints limit the growth of chip clock frequencies. Boosting computer performance by accumulating hundreds or thousands of cores per chip allows users to exploit massively parallel execution, but it also requires large increases in the number of transistors on a chip, and hence an unconstrained continuation of Moore's Law. However, as Dr. Gordon Moore himself predicted long ago, economic limits on the global financial investment in semiconductors are now slowing down Moore's Law.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Sun Microsystems develops the technologies that power the global marketplace. Guided by a singular vision — "The Network is the Computer" — Sun drives network participation through shared innovation, community development and open source leadership. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com.

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.