(Credit: CC Dullhunk)

The idea, sponsored by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, is to have a therapist on video inside the spaceship. No, not a live therapist available 24 hours a day for a cut-price fee. Instead, this is recorded video with voice, perhaps not entirely dissimilar to the one at your local energy provider that tells you “por Espanol oprima ocho”.

Which is why a digitally shrunk shrink is an extremely worrisome idea. I know there are advertisers who claim that the computer is personal again. But no computer can be quite personal enough.

You get otherworldly for a while, but, as some children on vacation will tell you, floating can get old very quickly.

Now NASA has had a brainwave that it hopes will send soothing waves through astronauts’ brains.

The presumably soothing recorded voice will be clever enough to help astronauts work out what is making them miserable, employing a technique called problem-solving treatment.

America has long been able to prove that constant and open-hearted conversation with a stranger is the way to truly lasting and holistic mental health.

This will help the astronaut, in absolute privacy, come to terms with him (or her) self and his (or her) negative state of mind.

In any case, there is one other little problem. Because of privacy issues, no one will know which astronauts used the computer shrink and which didn’t.

Dear Computer, I only became an astronaut because I thought it would please my Mommy.

Machines can’t do everything. Really they can’t.

How can anyone, let alone an astronaut, possibly reveal the dream about the goat, the golf club, Copacabana Beach, Anne Hathaway, Alan Greenspan, Hillary Clinton, Ari from Entourage, several of the cast from 300 and an open-top Chrysler Sebring to a mere computer?

And there surely must be a plethora of psychologists, especially given these recessionary times, who would be prepared, in the interests of scientific progress and a fabulously healthy fee, to be an astronaut’s little mental helper in his (or her) and our quest for the ultimate discovery.

As I understand it, the astronaut types into his computer: “I just don’t know what the meaning of it all is” and the computer will ask useful questions such as “Meaning? What do you mean?”

A question worth asking is whether many of these astronauts were already a bit weird before they floated off into space. And I’m not even including the ones who wear diapers whenever they slip into a jealous rage.

I am all for helping astronauts. Given that space missions will increase in length as we explore our galaxy of water-bearing planets, it will take a peculiarly robust mind and body to tolerate the sheer inhuman stress of the task.

Please forgive me, this is making me miserable. I need to lie down now.

Is being an astronaut really all that much fun?

No, it seems quite clear that NASA should provide a personal shrink (and perhaps masseur, too) in the spacecraft for every long-haul astronaut. Yes, it would increase the numbers on the trip. But it would also increase the possibility of positive human interaction leading to a life-affirming atmosphere beyond the atmosphere.

Full video after the jump.

Some guys are into
cars, some gamble, or blow the budget on high-end kitchens. Me, I’m an audiophile. I’ve met a lot of really intense tech geeks over the years, but this masterful YouTube video by Ken Barnes takes it to the extreme. The members of The Audiophile Club of Athens show off their stuff. It’s a truly gorgeous video, lavishly produced and the short interviews are well done.

Discovered through LinuxToday.

It’s time to open it up.

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This isn’t just a Sun problem. Michael’s comment speaks to a much broader problem as more and more open source goes corporate: How do you encourage development as a corporation?

I think one of the sad things we see at the moment is the decreasing amount of interest in investing in OpenOffice.org. So we see Sun cutting back their developer count on OpenOffice.org, while we still see them demand ownership for all of the code, which kinda retards other people investing in it….

OpenOffice.org (download for Windows | Mac) has a range of problems: Monolithic architecture, declining interest in fat-client software, etc. But it’s primary problem may be its corporate ownership, as Michael Meeks, long-time OpenOffice developer and Novell employee, notes:

This is much easier for non-profits like the Linux Foundation, Mozilla, Eclipse, etc., even when the contributors are overwhelmingly corporate in nature. It’s more palatable to contribute to a community than a company.

Yes, companies do receive contributions, but they tend to come from partners and customers, and not as much from the organic, unaffiliated community. Is this a bad thing?

I’m not sure it matters. That’s just the way it is. But I understand Michael’s point, and think that OpenOffice.org is not strategic enough to Sun to justify keeping it under its corporate guidance any longer. It needs to be given a foundation’s guidance, and a foundation’s ability to attract outside development. OpenOffice.org has largely been an effort between Sun and Novell for too long.

The approach is reminiscent of buying processed food rather than raw ingredients in grocery stories, a practice that can be convenient for buyers but that also boosts profit margins for suppliers. Thomas preferred to express the idea as “adding more value to the complete value chain.”

“We’re going to provide 1.4-micron pixels that are equal to if not greater (in quality) to 1.75 micron pixels. And 1.75 is better than 2.2,” Thomas said. “Clearly, if you just shrink the pixel and you don’t make enhancements to the other stuff around it, you’re not going to get what you want. We’re absolutely focusing on more than just shrinking the pixel.”

The sensor itself has VGA resolution–640×480 pixels–and its dimensions are the teensy 1/11 format, Thomas said. The camera modules will be shipping in samples in the second quarter and will be in production “shortly thereafter,” Thomas said.

For example, Aptina will have a dedicated sales force and get new options for finding manufacturing capacity to build its products, Thomas said. “We’re able to respond more quickly to our customers’ needs.”

And Aptina has a new chip using the process, a 9-megapixel model of the “1/2.3″ format that’s very common in compact cameras.

Aptina Imaging now can assemble image sensors, lenses, and other components into a camera phone package. The integration happens earlier in the manufacturing process, when the sensors are still part of their silicon wafer, than is typical today.

Teensy cell phone cameras–now prepackaged
On the mobile-phone side of the business, Aptina announced a significant development, a much greater degree of integration that means the manufacturing fab will produce not just image sensors but full-fledged camera modules. Lenses and other components are attached directly to the silicon wafer, and mobile-phone manufacturers can buy the whole module instead of just the sensor from one company and other components from another.

The company also said its first chips using 1.4-micron pixels will be in production this summer. And it’s begun making engineering samples of chips with 1.2-micron pixels that will be on sale in 2009.

(Credit:
Micron)

Most significant in the near term is a refinement of the company’s existing process for sensors whose pixels measure 1.75 microns (millionths of a meter) across. The new version improves quantum efficiency (the ability to detect small amounts of light), fill factor (the amount of the pixel that’s devoted to capturing light rather than electronics), and dark current (electronic noise that occurs even when there’s no actual light to generate a signal in the sensor).

(Credit:
Micron)

New products, but are smaller pixels better?
Aptina also has several new product developments for its image sensors.

The new subsidiary is based in San Jose, Calif., a Silicon Valley location that’s a long way from Micron’s Boise, Idaho, headquarters. It will employ several hundred of Micron’s 19,000 employees, Micron said.

Memory chipmaker Micron Technology has launched its image-sensor business as a more independent division called Aptina Imaging, a move the company believes will improve its flexibility and business potential.

“We’re always open to exploring other options for our business, but we’re not commenting beyond that,” spokeswoman Kirstin Bordner said about the possibility of a spin-off.

Aptina Imaging's new logo

Making pixels smaller means more can be put on a single chip of a fixed size, or more smaller, cheaper chips can be used to reach a certain megapixel count. But there’s a possible penalty: smaller pixels can produce more image noise. Bucking the trend, Nikon’s new D3 SLR has comparatively gargantuan 8.45-micron pixels and works well in low-light conditions even at a sensitivity setting of ISO 6,400.

Thomas said Micron is making sure image quality is level or better as it goes to smaller pixels, though.

The camera package measures just 4×4x2.5mm–a significant notch smaller than conventional phone packages. Aptina hopes this means it will be adopted in the hundreds of millions of low-end phones sold today that still don’t have cameras.

Thomas wouldn’t comment on two interesting business possibilities, however: whether Micron might be packaging Aptina for sale or spin-off and whether Aptina might use other fabrication facilities besides Micron’s.

Aptina Imaging's camera module, shown in front, back, and side views to the upper left, measures 4×4x.2.5mm. A conventional phone camera module is at the lower right.

“We need the additional flexibility and identity to be able to grow the way the markets we see are growing,” said Shane Thomas, director of product marketing for the imaging business.

(Credit:
Micron)

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Looking at the turnoff to Pittsburgh’s Oakridge Lane on Google Street View, though, shows a street sign but no obvious private road warning–meaning that, perhaps, any sign didn’t exist when the Google van drove by.

The lawsuit, filed in Allegheny County court on April 2, claims there was a private road sign on their street that Google should have honored. It claims that Google’s “reckless conduct” has “exposed plaintiff’s private information to the public.”

In general, of course, photographs taken of homes from the public street (or the air) are perfectly legal and protected by the First Amendment’s freedom of the press. Barbra Streisand learned this when she sued a California aerial-mapping site–but was forced instead to write a check to the defendants for $177,107.54 in legal fees and court costs. I wouldn’t be too surprised if this lawsuit turns out much the same way.

A Pittsburgh couple is suing Google because photographs of their home are appearing on the company’s street view service.

Nick Donofrio, executive vice president of Innovation and Technology and a 44-year veteran of Big Blue, is retiring on October 1, 2008. He will not be replaced directly, Palmisano said, but John Kelly, senior vice president of IBM Research, and Linda Sanford, senior vice president of IBM enterprise on demand transformation, will now report to the CEO.

(Credit:
IBM)

Bill Zeitler, senior vice president and group executive of the Systems and Technology Group, will retire August 1. He spent 39 years as an IBM employee and launched the AS/400. He will be replaced by Bob Moffat, currently senior vice president of Integrated Operations and a 30-year IBMer.

Nicholas M. Donofrio

IBM CEO Sam Palmisano announced a series of retirements and appointments among his executive staff. It continues IBM’s tradition of promoting from within.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Oracle dabbled in the identity space with database access controls and a network directory. But it really wasn’t considered a player in this space.

• Identity management is a business–not an IT–initiative. Back in the 1990s, identity management was all about technology tools to manage user provisioning and security. Now it’s about mapping employees and outsiders to business processes, managing user roles, and meeting regulatory compliance mandates. When identity management evolved from a set of IT tools to a business application, deal sizes skyrocketed.

• Identity management projects can be huge. Identity management is like ERP in that it means years of process definition, role creation, custom development, and systems integration. This is right up Oracle’s alley.

Once again, common wisdom was completely wrong. While others struggle or abandon this space, Oracle has vaulted to a leadership position. In fact, my sources tell me they see Oracle in every large deal these days. The fact is that Oracle saw the identity management space as strategic and invested accordingly to become a market leader because:

Oracle isn’t alone in this space. IBM still kills it on product and services. Identity is one of CA’s healthiest businesses. Novell has great technology, and Microsoft is a sleeping giant. These guys won’t lie down, but Oracle went from nowhere to become a market leader in three years. That won’t change in the future.

• Identity management is middleware. Oracle wants to own identity middleware just like it wants to own application integration middleware. Identity is the glue between users, applications, and distributed systems.

IBM researchers have reportedly demonstrated technology that will increase hard drive capacity 100-fold, as well as offer major improvements in energy consumption (leading to much longer battery life) and better reliability. Production is estimated in seven to ten years.

(Credit:
Apple)

Today’s
iPod lineup contains no product advertised to hold 5,000 songs, so I’m not sure where the 500,000 figure came from. In fact, the current highest-capacity iPod is 160GB, and is advertised as being able to hold 40,000 songs. So this shorthand would imply a hard drive size of just under 2TB–only 12.5 times bigger than today’s largest iPod.

Of course, few people would use a portable hard drive of that size solely to store music–movies, games, and applications will probably take up most of that space. Still the idea that we’ll be carrying terabytes of data in our pocket in a few short years explains why Apple, Microsoft, Google, and the rest of the industry are focusing so much attention on mobile computing.

The reports summarizing the researchers’ findings, which were published in Science (subscription required), use the shorthand “500,000 songs on a portable MP3 player” to describe the advance.

In seven years, we'll be measuring hard drive capacity for portable devices in terabytes.

Although SaaS development platforms like SalesForce and Coghead have gotten a lot of attention, this market has so far been remarkably closed and proprietary. The Platform as a Service leader, SalesForce, has both a draconian hosting policy (host your apps and data anywhere, as long as it’s with us!) but also a proprietary language (who needs Java when you’ve got Apex!?).

Disclosure: I am an advisor to Bungee Labs.

In all the hype around Software as a Service (SaaS) as a way to bring down prices and drive value to the customer, one thing is conveniently overlooked: SaaS is the ultimate lock-in platform.

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Google already has open-source Gears, and is also increasingly opening up its App Engine. Over time, Google will determine this market, and its stance is increasingly open. Open source, open APIs, and open data.

Who will drive this move to open? Well, Chris clearly feels that his company, Wavemaker, will be among them (though I have money on Bungee Labs to help fuel this move, as well: Bungee is not nearly as closed as Chris’ post would suggest). But the real driver of this will be Google.

As Chris Keene, CEO of Wavemaker, suggests, however, SaaS may well succumb to the same forces that are driving software to open up:

Moving forward, the same trends driving open source adoption everywhere else in the industry will ultimately drive SaaS adoption of open source, particularly by ISVs whose business plan does not include a low multiple sale to their proprietary hosting provider. Future SaaS platforms will converge with traditional tools, offering on-demand development based on traditional programming languages with built-in tools for mash-up based development for basic users.

After the job the original Crysis did on even high-end gaming PCs, it didn’t surprise us when we heard from PC vendors requesting that we adopt the supposedly optimized, more forgiving Crysis: Warhead as a high-end gaming test. We’ve also heard from EA that it recognizes the problem for testers and that a solution could be forthcoming. In the meantime, we’ll be scouting for other new games that aren’t quite as high maintenance. Far Cry 2, we’re looking at you.

Our hopes and dreams, as represented by Crysis: Warhead.

We’ve negotiated frustrating Windows DRM in the past, but our PC testing efforts have never been thwarted by an individual gaming title. Our problem is that in order to use an application as a system test, we need to install it on every PC that comes through CNET Labs. As much as we’d like to stay current and adopt a Crysis: Warhead benchmark, we can’t take the chance that on the sixth, twelfth, or eighteenth system some random EA customer service rep will deny our reactivation request.

Spore isn’t the only new PC game from Electronic Arts to come with a frustrating DRM scheme. Crysis: Warhead, the follow-up to last year’s Crysis, has a similar five-install limit. We know PC gamers hate DRM, and you’ve certainly not been shy about making your complaints known. As gamers ourselves, we share your outrage. We’re also feeling the pain as reviewers.