NewsScan Daily, 15 October 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 15 October 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        'Big Mac' May Snag No. 2 Supercomputer Spot
        Transmeta Technique to Fight Transistor Leakage
        China Could Surpass U.S. in PC Market by 2010
        Text-Messaging Market Opportunities in China
        New Standard to Support 'Utility Computing'
        Online Dating Checks Out the Real World

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: Robert Baden-Powell

'BIG MAC' MAY SNAG NO. 2 SUPERCOMPUTER SPOT
The new "Big Mac" supercomputer housed at Virginia Tech may earn the 
distinction of being the second most powerful supercomputer on the planet, 
following Japan's gargantuan Earth Simulator. The Big Mac, which is 
actually 1,100 dual-processor Power Mac G5s strung together -- boasts a 
theoretical peak speed of 17.6 teraflops, although its final score on the 
Linpack Benchmark won't be officially announced until Nov. 17. "They're 
getting 80% of the theoretical peak," says Jack Dongarra, one of the 
compilers of the Top 500 Supercomputer Sites. "If it holds, and it's 
unclear if it will, it has the potential to be the world's second most 
powerful machine." The current No. 2 machine --the ASCI Q, built by 
Hewlett-Packard for the Los Alamos National Laboratory -- is based on 
8,000Alpha processors and operates at 13.8 teraflops. The Big Mac is one of 
the few supercomputers in the world to be built entirely from off-the-shelf 
components and cost only $5.2 million. By comparison, the Earth Simulator, 
which is composed of more than 5,000 processors operating at 35.6teraflops, 
cost $350 million. (Wired.com 15 Oct 2003)
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60821,00.html

TRANSMETA TECHNIQUE TO FIGHT TRANSISTOR LEAKAGE
Transmeta has developed a software technique to prevent a common problem in 
the semiconductor industry: the leakage from tiny transistors occurring 
when they shrink to sizes that can be measured in terms of handfuls of 
atoms. Computer industry analyst and consultant Richard Doherty called the 
Transmeta announcement of this development "a bold statement, particularly 
at a time when Intel is mute," but added that he would feel more 
comfortable about it after other manufacturers are able to confirm 
Transmeta's new software approach. The ability to control leakage could 
lead to increased manufacturing yields and the creation of more 
energy-efficient PCs and other products. Noting that the Transmeta solution 
was made through software rather than hardware, David Ditzel, the company's 
founder and chief technical officer, says: "If you're a semiconductor 
company you try to solve all problems through hardware approaches. The 
interesting thing about Transmeta as a company is that we have a culture of 
inventions that are interdisciplinary." (New York Times 15 Oct 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/10/15/technology/15NANO.html

CHINA COULD SURPASS U.S. IN PC MARKET BY 2010
Intel Asia-Pacific chief John Antone predicts that the fast-growing China 
market could outpace the U.S. in PC sales by 2010. China sales are expected 
to rise to 13 million PCs this year, topping Japan's 12.7 units, and 
vaulting into second place behind the U.S., which is expected to come in at 
about 50 million units. Including Japan, Asia now accounts for 51% of 
Intel's sales and that percentage is increasing. "It's now a little bit 
above the midpoint and will probably continue to grow. As that percentage 
goes up, sequential increases will likely slow down because it's gotten to 
be such a big part of our revenue. Emerging-market growth -- the biggest of 
which is China -- relative to mature markets is going to continue to be 
faster," says Antone. (Reuters/CNet 15 Oct 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-1006_3-5091384.html?tag=nefd_top

TEXT-MESSAGING MARKET OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA
Text-messaging services in China have become wildly popular, to the extent 
that 200 billion text messages will be sent this year through cell phones 
across China. Internet analyst Nathan Midler for the research firm IDC says 
the explanation is rather simple: "It's cheaper than actually making a 
phone call." Midler also suggests a simple answer to the question of why 
the U.S. technology companies have missed a great marketing opportunity in 
China: "Why have companies like AOL and Yahoo not succeeded in China? The 
simple answer is that the barrier to entry is pretty significant." (Knight 
Ridder/San Jose Mercury News 13 Oct 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7011275.htm

NEW STANDARD TO SUPPORT 'UTILITY COMPUTING'
About two dozen technology companies are backing a new standard called Data 
Center Markup Language (DCML), designed to support "utility computing" and 
allow companies to automate more of the functions of running computer 
systems that use incompatible equipment and software from different 
vendors. EDS and software company Opsware have proposed the new standard, 
and its supporters include Computer Associates, BEA Systems, and Akamai 
Technologies. In recent years, many companies have shifted their data 
centers to Internet-based systems, and have assembled large IT staffs to 
handle their increasingly complex systems that often can't talk to each 
other. EDS vice chairman Jeff Heller says the new standard will help meet 
demands from corporate and government customers to operate their call 
centers faster, better and cheaper. (USA Today 14 Oct 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-10-14-utility-computing_x.htm

ONLINE DATING CHECKS OUT THE REAL WORLD
Faced with stiffer competition and stagnant growth, online matchmaking 
services are moving into real world activities, offering members such 
add-ons as expert advice, mixers and singles trips. Market leader Match.com 
recently unveiled Match.com Advisors, which offers users a network of 
dating, relationship and marriage counselors at prices ranging from 65cents 
to $4.99 a minute. The strategy aims to plug a hole in the online 
matchmaking business model -- once a member finds a compatible mate, he or 
she drops out of the service. "I would say Match.com is going to be less 
and less about a pure-play online-dating site and more and more of a site 
about dating and relationships and connecting with people," says Match.com 
president Tim Sullivan. Meanwhile, Match.com also offers "gender-balanced" 
trips to both domestic and exotic locations, and competitors Lavalife and 
MatchNet PLC host regular get-togethers in cities around the U.S. Jupiter 
Research says that while online personals revenue more than doubled in 2001 
from a year earlier, it was up only 76% in 2002 and the research firm is 
predicting flatter growth of 38% this year and 27% next year. (Wall Street 
Journal 15 Oct 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106604977347786700,00.html (sub req'd)

*****

FLASH CARD
      "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front 
only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had 
to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." 
(Henry David Thoreau)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: ROBERT BADEN-POWELL
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the British army officer Robert 
Stephenson Smyth, 1st Baron of Baden-Powell (1857-1941), who upon returning 
as a hero from the South African War founded the Boy Scouts and later, with 
his sister Agnes, the Girl Guides.
      Baden-Powell first distinguished himself as a military man in 1884 by 
his use of observation balloons in the war taking place in Bechuanaland and 
the Sudan. Then during the South African War he won renown for holding out 
for 214 days against much larger Boer forces laying siege to the British 
garrison at Mafeking. After the war he recruited and trained the South 
African constabulary, after which he returned to England in 1903 and, as 
inspector general of cavalry, he set about establishing the Calvary School 
at Netheravor, Wiltshire. He was promoted to lieutenant general in 1907, 
and retired from the army in 1910. Upon retirement he devoted all his time 
to the Boy Scout movement that emerged with his encouragement during the 
later years of his army service.
      Baden-Powell was born at Oxford, the seventh son of a geometry 
professor. He failed the entrance exam to Oxford, but passed the army exam 
and was posted to the 13th Hussars in India in 1876. Over time he saw duty 
not only in India but in Rhodesia, South Africa, the Sudan, and Zululand. 
He developed a special competence for scouting and reconnaissance, 
publishing his ideas in a series of small military textbooks, including the 
popular 1898 book, "Aids to Scouting." When he learned that his scouting 
textbook was being used for training boys in woodcraft, he set up a trial 
boy scout training camp on Brownsea Island, off Poole, Dorset, and used the 
experience to write a training manual specifically for his young scouts.
      Elsewhere throughout England Boy Scout troops began to emerge and in 
response to this movement Baden-Powell issued "Scouting for Boys" in 1908. 
When he retired from the army in 1910, he spent all his time promoting the 
Boy Scout movement and helping his sister and his wife, Olave, with the 
Girl Guides program that had been created to bring scouting into the lives 
of young girls. In 1916 he organized the Wolf Cubs in Great Britain (Cub 
Scouts in the United States) for boys under the age of 11. In 1920  the 
first international Boy Scout Jamboree was held in London, and Baden-Powell 
was acclaimed chief scout of the world.
      Made a baronet in 1922 and a baron in 1929, Baden-Powell spent his 
last years in Kenya for his health and died there at Nyeri in 1941. He 
published his autobiography, "Lessons of a Lifetime," in 1933.

See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0963205412/newsscancom/ref=nos 
im for Baden-Powell's "Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in 
Good Citizenship" -- or look for it in your favorite library. (We donate 
all revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy programs.)

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