iTnews: Ferromagnet imaging technique could enable 'spintronic' devices

As a journalist at iTnews:

Researchers have developed a new method of studying tiny magnets that could yield high-density memory based on the emerging field of spintronics.

By implanting tiny “ferromagnets” onto processor chips, researchers expect to create small electronic devices and computers that never need to boot up.

Ferromagnets are magnets made of ferrous metal such as iron, and are used in common items such as refrigerator magnets.

According to experimental physicist Chris Hammel, ferromagnets are central to incorporating memory directly into the basic logic elements at the heart of a computer.

“Ferromagnets offer high density memory -- that is a means of storing a great deal of information in a small volume without the problem that the information is lost when the computer is turned off,” said Hammel, who developed the new imaging technique at Ohio State University.

“This could mean computers that don't need to boot; or even more exciting prospect of being able to alter the way your computer operates on the fly and without the configuration being lost when the computer is turned off,” he told iTnews.

Historically, researchers have been unable to image the insides of tiny ferromagnets due to their size and the strong magnetic fields they emit.

The new technique combines three different kinds of technology: magnetic resonance imagery (MRI) similar to the technology used for medical purposes; and two related techniques, ferromagnetic resonance and atomic force microscopy.

Dubbed “scanned probe ferromagnetic resonance force microscopy”, or scanned probe FMRFM, it involves detecting a magnetic signal using a tiny silicon bar with an even tinier magnetic probe on its tip.

The probe captures a two dimensional cross-section of an object as it passes over a material, resulting in a curved bowl-shaped image.

Using the new technique, Hammel is measuring the properties of disk-shaped magnets that measure only two micrometres in diameter.

“MRI is fundamentally in applicable to ferromagnets because of the strong interactions between electronic spins that make the material magnetic,” Hamel explained.

“We became interested in applying this [scanned probe FMRFM technique] to the tiny ferromagnets that are used for memory or for spintronics,” he said.

Hammel and his team hope to contribute to the development of an instrument that could be sold and used routinely in laboratories.

Further developments need to occur before the technique enables new devices and spintronics-based technology.

“We need our technology to become commercially available and we need spintronics to merge with silicon,” Hammel explained. “This advance is underway and I expect significant progress in the next decade.”

“Spintronics and memory have been moving very fast; we believe that a new imaging tool such as we have discovered could hasten this progress dramatically.”

“I think we will see this technology impacting computing units included in niche applications such as cell phones within five to ten years,” he said.

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iTnews: Telstra installs 3D TV for purpose-built advertising

As a journalist at iTnews:

A 3D TV in Telstra’s newly-opened Executive Briefing Centre is said to be the first commercial installation of three-dimensional content and technology in Australia.

The 52-inch display allows viewers to engage with 3D content without having to wear polarising glasses, and is expected to attract the attention of consumers in busy retail environments.

Telstra’s 3D TV is located in the reception area of its Melbourne facility and displays a short loop made of 15- to 60- second purpose-built, 3D video clips.

Telstra CEO, Sol Trujillo, is said to feature prominently on the display explaining the benefits of Telstra’s Next G and Next IP network, as well as what the telco calls ‘Next Dimension Working’.

Other content clips include sponsor product launch clips, brand messaging, and Telstra education messages.

3D content is created and supplied by Telstra’s Retail Media Solutions partner, Prime Digital Media.

According to PDM Creative Director Julie Frikken, 3D content production requires scenes to be designed with differing views, using calculated image offsets to create a visual environment similar to that the eye processes everyday.

Images then are split into multiple views for replay on the purpose-built 3D display panels.

“The animator needs to be something of an ophthalmologist as well to understand and master these techniques,” she told iTnews.

“Background, mid-ground and objects projected beyond the screen surface effects are achieved by careful image placement, scaling, dimensional offsets and colour usage.”

“If structured well you will see objects in a true dimensional space,” she said.

3D viewers are nothing new, Frikken explained, noting the evolution of technology from red and green coloured glasses in the 1950’s to polaroid-filtered glasses that are currently in use.

The 3D TV achieves what she called the ‘holy grail of 3D’, which is 3D without the use of glasses.

The 3D effect is achieved by using a precision laser-etched lens to combine multiple images, in a similar manner to how a 3D postcard creates depth from having viewers move the picture to view separate images.

Frikken estimates the cost of a 42-inch 3D TV unit to range between $10,000 to $15,000 depending on features and manufacturer.

Due to the cost of content production, she expects the technology to remain in the realm of retailers, brands and organisations, and not be accessible to consumers for some time.

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iTnews: Online study suggests new genre of search engine queries

As a journalist at iTnews:

An academic analysis of users of Yahoo Answers has led to speculations of a new genre of online questions that are more tailored to social forums than traditional search tools.

By analysing one month of activity on the Web site, the researchers found that users of the Web site tend to favour constrained discussions with other people, rather than seeking information directly from the Internet.

“There are gobs and gobs of useful information on the web,” said Lada Adamic, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Information and first author of the study.

“Search tools allow one to, in principle, access a fair portion of it with relative ease. Yet, just as one may turn to a colleague for an answer to a question rather than search through a book, millions of individuals are flocking to online question/answer forums to seek answers directly from others. Part of the reason is the social aspect of online question/answer forums.”

Researchers examined the most popular 300 of approximately 1000 categories on the Web site, representing more than 91 percent of the content on the site. Topics studied include: jokes and riddles; philosophy, religion and politics; marriage and divorce; physics; programming; chemistry; and celebrities.

Inquiries that sought factual answers about topics such as biology, repairs and programming tended to receive fewer replies, while categories such as fashion and baby names received comparatively long answer threads that included advice and common-sense expertise.

Similarly, categories seeking opinion like politics and religion, for which there is no single answer, tended to attract many answers as well.

The study concluded that the span of knowledge shared on Yahoo Answers is broad, but generally not very deep.

"A lot of the use of Yahoo Answers is being driven by these constrained kinds of discussions," said Mark Ackerman, associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Information who co-authored the study.

"People are working against the medium. They're creating a new response pattern. Perhaps there's a new online genre that's particular to Yahoo Answers."

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iTnews: EMC faces cloud computing 'frienemies'

As a journalist at iTnews:

As some of the fog surrounding the elusive cloud computing phenomenon evaporates, vendors are fast moving into the emerging territory.

Analysts attribute the cloud computing push to a rise of data-intensive applications, data centre pressures, and mobile and networking technologies.

And with technology behemoths such as Google, Microsoft and IBM leading the charge, cloud computing could be shaping up to be an industry-changing technology.

According to EMC’s Vice President of Technology Alliances, Chuck Hollis, cloud computing is not a fad -- it is the way of the future.

“Cloud is probably the most exciting thing happening in IT today, and also the most scary,” he said.

“For us, cloud is the natural evolution of the decomposition of IT.”

Speaking at the EMC Inform forum in Sydney last week, Hollis likened the current state of technology to how power was distributed among manufacturers in during the industrial revolution.

Just as manufacturers moved from using on-site power plants to nationwide power grids in the past, Hollis expects technology companies to move from on-premise solutions to cloud-based distributed computing power in the near future.

Already, consumers and businesses should be familiar with the concept of cloud computing through the Google search engine, which gives users access to Google’s powerful search servers via the internet, Hollis pointed out.

Enterprise uptake of cloud computing is also said to be enabled by the recently-popular concept of virtualisation, which enables organisations to dynamically balance server load and resources.

By providing a standardised service that looks and performs similarly for multiple users, cloud-based solutions are expected to produce economies of scale, reduce purchasing costs, and simplify IT maintenance.

“We believe that virtualisation in all its forms is fundamentally changing the economics of computing,” Hollis said.

“There is a business value created by giving IT organisations what they need, when they need it.”

“Whereas historically, we’ve thought in terms of buying technology, now it makes sense to consume it over the wire,” he said.

“We can’t go back to how things were before.”

According to Gartner Research Fellow and Vice President David Cearley, vendor dominance in the cloud computing market will be decided by which platform is most successful at attracting independent software vendors and developers.

Speaking at an Emerging Trends and Technology Roadshow in Sydney earlier this year, Cearley named Amazon, Google, Facebook, Salesforce, Microsoft, and IBM as vendors that are leading the charge towards computing in the cloud.

Just as Microsoft won a majority of the software market share by establishing Windows as the primary ecosystem for Independent Software Vendors to develop new software and applications, Web service providers currently are battling to establish dominance in the cloud computing market, he said.

“Vendors are battling for ultimate control of business computing in the next decade,” he said. “Proper use of the infrastructure stack and related Web services will be key for ‘megavendor’ success.”

But EMC’s Hollis expects competition in the cloud computing arena to be less of a winners-versus-losers game as it is an opportunity for competitors to support and build on each other’s successes.

Hollis named Google as a cloud computing market leader in the consumer arena, and Microsoft as a leader in the SMB market.

He described both Google and Microsoft as “partners” and “frienemies” in a “co-opetition” (corporative competition) for the cloud.

EMC could provide long-term information management for Microsoft’s cloud computing services, he said for example.

“In my view, it’s not going to be about which cloud; it’s [the future] going to be all the clouds,” he said. “I think there’s going to be multiple clouds for different markets.”

“Just like in the technology world where no one vendor has everything, in the cloud, it may not be the case of ‘ether/or’ as much as it is ‘and’,” he said.

Gartner predicts that by 2012, 80 percent of Fortune 1000 enterprises will be paying for some cloud computing services, and 30 percent will be paying for cloud computing infrastructure services.

But despite the potentials of cloud computing, industry spectators expect there to remain a demand for on-premise technology for certain business-critical applications.

Hollis described the difference between “core functions” and “context functions”.

Core functions were said to include: securing strategic advantage for an organisation; obtaining market differentiation; and protecting customers’ confidentiality.

Context functions were described as “basic IT housekeeping tasks”, such as maintaining databases and ensuring all systems are up and running.

“IT is getting clogged with all these things that have to get done and nobody wants to do,” he said.

“On that other [context] list, we think you’re going to get your cloud services to do that,” he told partners and customers at the forum.

According to Steve Leonard, Asia Pacific President of EMC, Asia is likely to lead the push towards cloud computing.

In developing markets such as India, Leonard expects the evolution of technological services to echo the development of telecommunications infrastructure.

India has leapfrogged the need for wired communications infrastructure by deploying wireless access points and mobile services instead, he explained.

Similarly, cloud computing could give start-up organisations the option to consume technology over the wire, bypassing the need for costly software and hardware purchases.

“We think that Asia generally would be leading this in terms of a trend,” Leonard said. “India will be a major provider and domestic consumer of cloud services in the next two to three years.”

If cloud computing takes off in the Asia Pacific region, the Australian economy could stand to gain by housing vendors’ data centres and positioning itself as an exporter of information.

Leonard highlighted market maturity and the opportunity to leverage an English-speaking market in an Asian location as attractions for organisations looking to invest in data centres in Australia.

“We certainly would see Australia as a potential exporter of knowledge,” he said, mentioning that EMC currently is “in discussions with governments” about potential locations for its data centres.

Hollis explained that EMC’s decision of where to locate its data centres relies heavily on government policies surrounding the export of information.

Likening current data transfer restrictions to European trade restrictions in the past, Hollis said cloud computing service providers require the ability for information to move transparently across borders to ensure uninterrupted, reliable service.

“Before we see mainstream adoption of cloud, you need to be able to trust that it’s going to be there when you need it,” he said.

“The cloud is not theoretical; there are people out there making money from it today,” he concluded. “The future is here; it’s just not evenly distributed.”

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iTnews: Enterprise networking: are your decisions your own?

As a journalist at iTnews:

Enterprise network managers should regain control of their purchasing decisions, analysts say.

According to Gartner Vice President and Analyst Mark Fabbi, enterprises have become increasingly reliant on vendor recommendations when purchasing network equipment.

If vendors exert too strong an influence on enterprise purchasing decisions, organisations could lose sight of business requirements and waste money on unnecessary features, he warns.

“Over the years, we see a number of vendors across different industries increasingly control the decisions of their customers,” he said. “Enterprises really need to take back control of their own decisions.”

Gartner has produced a Vendor Influence Curve to determine how organisations approach technology purchases.

Five different approaches were identified: misers, who are influenced solely by price; tacticians, who consider a number of tactical vendors; leaders, who choose a vendor based on business requirements; optimists, who are influenced by a primary vendor partner; and followers, who treat a vendor as their trusted advisor.

Decisions made by misers were said to be of least benefit to the organisation and vendor. Leaders are expected to be of greatest benefit to the organisation and moderate benefit to the vendor.

Followers are of little benefit to the organisation and great benefit to the vendor, Fabbi said, adding that such organisations “pay dearly for the privilege of not having to make a decision”.

As networking equipment has increased in complexity during the past half-decade, Fabbi speculates that organisations have opted to “fly to safety” and hand over the reins of decision-making to large, influential networking incumbents.

If organisations continue to unconditionally trust their vendor advisors, Fabbi warns that hardware prices will become disproportionately high, and organisations are likely to end up with networking services and features that they don’t need.

“Enterprises will waste $130 billion buying the wrong network technologies and services during the next five years,” he predicts. “Literally, you can’t run your business that way.”

“The problem with enterprise networks is that they see networking equipment as highly complex and customised … the reality of the matter is that equipment is now standardised and we should expect to see vendor margins go down as they try to remain competitive.”

While previous networks have been built on the pillars of making connectivity “bigger” and “faster”, Fabbi said modern networks should be designed around location, users, applications, devices, and activity.

He urges organisations to take purchasing decisions into their own hands by understanding business requirements, reviewing multiple vendors and establishing a vendor bidding process to obtain the most competitive prices.

“The discipline of actually evaluating technology is a lost art,” he said. “We have to re-establish that.”

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iTnews: Can 'soul-less' robots make us weep?

As a journalist at iTnews:

A study of technology’s role in music therapy has found robot musicians wanting.

Researchers studied the electric brain responses of twenty non-musicians who listened to classical piano sonatas played either by a computer or a musician.

By investigating how the vegetative nervous system responds to music, researchers aimed to research music-therapeutic applications for the treatment of diseases.

Computerised music was found to elicit an emotional response during unexpected chords and changes in tonal key.

However, listeners responded far more strongly to recordings of human performances.

Stefan Koelsch, a psychologist involved in the study at the University of Sussex, attributed the difference in listeners’ responses to the ability of human musicians to perform with musical expression, which is evidenced by variations in loudness and speed.

Likening the study’s findings to how the brain forms meaning from language, Koelsch speculates that the brain could be looking for musical meaning from human performers and not computers.

“Humans played with expression -- variations in tempo and loudness – [while] computers played the notes without expression, which sounds like a robot or so,” Koelsch said.

“When humans play, then the meaning of the music does not only arise from the musical material composed by the composer, but also by the means of musical expression due to the performance of the player,” he explained.

While Koelsch noted that the researchers did not use computer software designed to emulate human performances in their study, he does not expect computers ever to be able to perform in a similar manner to musicians.

“Computers do not have a soul,” he said. “I believe that only the soul can give the music the full meaning -- but this is rather philosophical, of course.”

According to John Judge of Australian research organisation NICTA, musical expression is one of several challenges in the development of robotic musicians.

Judge recently led a collaborative effort between NICTA and the University of NSW to build a robotically-operated, computer-driven clarinet, which last month won first place in the international Artemis Orchestra competition.

The robotically-operated clarinet was eight months in the making, and involved a completely embedded computer system with the human interface achieved via a USB-attached keyboard, LCD screen and LEDs.

“There’s a few challenges for robotic musicians,” Judge told iTnews.

“The first barrier to overcome is to competently play the musical instruments. Once you can play the instrument competently, it’s [musical expression] another huge leap all by itself,” he said.

The Artemis Orchestra competition is an annual contest for technical students to showcase the capability of embedded systems.

Winning entrants from the 2008 event include a clarinet from NICTA/UNSW, an acoustic guitar from the Netherlands, and a piano from Finland.

“There was such a huge improvement [from entrants this year],” Judge said. “It was a larger improvement than we all expected; entries were actually quite pleasant to listen to.”

“The entrants into the competition last year may have been quite difficult to listen to for extended periods of time,” he explained, delicately.

Judge described 2008 competition entrants as “good amateur players”. To reach the level of human performers, a robotic musician would have to interpret the music in a human-like manner.

And while there is software that could mimic musical expression using artificial intelligence or by adding an extra processing set to interpreting sheet music, Judge expects such performances still to fall short of those of human musicians.

“When you go to the Opera House and listen to someone play, they’re not mechanically reproducing what’s on the page; they’re interpreting the music for performance,” he explained.

“I think there are some people who would regard human musicians as having a dialogue with the audience when they perform.”

“Can a robot ever play like a human? I don’t really know,” he said. “That gets a little too philosophical for me to answer.”

In the lead up to Artemis Orchestra 2009, NICTA is sponsoring final year engineering student projects from the University of Queensland and the University of Adelaide.

The NICTA/UNSW clarinet is expected to be one of four projects that will be considered by NICTA for entry into the international contest.

Engineers currently are working on improving the musical competency of robotic musicians.

In future, Judge expects that robotic musicians could be able to manipulate an unmodified instrument in more ways than is possible with a human, which could enable human musicians to investigate technical aspects of performance like fingerings.

“Building machines to play musical instruments allows us to investigate musical instruments in new ways,” he said. “It [findings] can actually feed back to human musicians.”

“No one’s approached this project with the assumption of replacing human musicians,” he said.

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iTnews: BMC touts process automation for IT

As a journalist at iTnews:

“IT is the last bastion of manual labour in the enterprise,” declared BMC Software’s vice president of software consulting, Mary Nugent.

In Sydney for BMC’s Business Advisory Forum this week, Nugent explained how a rise in demand for standards and regulatory compliance has created a market for process automation technology.

The rapid growth of the IT industry during the previous decades has contributed to what Nugent described as a siloing of processes, infrastructure, and functions.

Process automation could allow organisations to visualise and improve their infrastructure, and free up staff for more stimulating, innovative job functions, she said.

“There is kind of a refresh going on in IT right now; customers have taken the idea of management as far as they can, and now you can really see the momentum increase [for automation],” she told iTnews.

“There’s a lot of things that we can do in IT that are low hanging fruit for automation,” she said, highlighting workflow engines as an example.

BMC typically consults with organisations in the banking, telecommunications, and retail industries to determine how work is being done, the overall needs of the business, and the perspective of the IT department.

Consultants are then able to suggest and deploy process automation technology.

For example, Nugent described BMC’s recently-acquired Run Book Automation Platform, which uses “predictive intelligence” to promote a more efficient use of labour and drive alignment to business objectives.

The platform detects IT issues and assesses them against a dynamic threshold before notifying staff. The tool also is able to remediate certain issues automatically.

Citing a need for IT professionals to become more aware of the overall needs of the business, Nugent warned of the costs associated with indiscriminately “throwing manpower at a problem”.

While she noted a cultural aversion to process automation from IT staff who fear being made redundant, Nugent said such barriers could be overcome with team building exercises and by motivating staff with more stimulating tasks.

“When you look at business and IT, there’s a bit of a disconnect,” she said. “It’s been a long time since IT has really documented how things get done.”

“Throwing labour at it [problems] will run out of steam,” she said, noting a skills shortage in the IT industry currently.

“It’s [process automation] not about putting people out of their jobs; it’s about freeing up manpower for innovation,” she said.

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