Shipments of Windows servers hit all time high

According to new data from IDC, not only do Windows servers control the most dollar share of the server market, but more servers running Windows were shipped in Q4 of 2010 than in any previous quarter.

From the IDC report:

Microsoft Windows server demand was positively impacted by the x86 server market refresh as hardware revenue increased 16.8% year over year. Quarterly revenue of $6.3 billion for Windows servers represented 42.1% of overall quarterly factory revenue. The 1.5 million server shipments are the highest quarterly total ever reported for Windows servers.

The 42.1% of total revenue figure is an increase from the same quarter in 2009 when Windows servers controlled 41.6% of the dollars spent. Over the same year, Linux servers grew their dollar share while Unix servers dipped.

The first service pack for Windows Server 2008 recently came out, something that might spur its adoption, giving Windows servers potential momentum to continue its current spate of gains.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2011/03/02/shipments-of-windows-servers-hit-all-time-high/

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Shipments of Windows servers hit all time high

According to new data from IDC, not only do Windows servers control the most dollar share of the server market, but more servers running Windows were shipped in Q4 of 2010 than in any previous quarter.

From the IDC report:

Microsoft Windows server demand was positively impacted by the x86 server market refresh as hardware revenue increased 16.8% year over year. Quarterly revenue of $6.3 billion for Windows servers represented 42.1% of overall quarterly factory revenue. The 1.5 million server shipments are the highest quarterly total ever reported for Windows servers.

The 42.1% of total revenue figure is an increase from the same quarter in 2009 when Windows servers controlled 41.6% of the dollars spent. Over the same year, Linux servers grew their dollar share while Unix servers dipped.

The first service pack for Windows Server 2008 recently came out, something that might spur its adoption, giving Windows servers potential momentum to continue its current spate of gains.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2011/03/02/shipments-of-windows-servers-hit-all-time-high/

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Squeezing More Energy Out of Batteries

Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) has developed a new printing technology that promises to pack more energy into batteries for electric vehicles. By printing a striped pattern of energy storage materials and highly conductive materials, researchers at PARC are making electrodes that are much thicker than those in conventional batteries. These could increase battery storage capacity by 10 to 30 percent while costing little more to manufacture, says Scott Elrod, director of the Hardware Systems Laboratory at PARC. The technology could also apply to metal-air batteries that could store far more energy than anything on the market today.

The biggest challenge for electric vehicles remains bringing down the size and cost of their batteries. For them to compete with conventional vehicles, some experts estimate, battery costs must come down by about 75 percent. And if the batteries could store more energy, automakers could use fewer of them, thus saving money. 

In conventional lithium-ion-battery manufacturing, electrode materials are applied in the form of slurry to metal foils. The thickness of the electrode is limited by the rate at which lithium ions can diffuse out of the material to reach an electrolyte. In PARC's new approach, the electrode material, together with a highly conductive material (the company isn't specifying what), will be forced through a flat print nozzle. The nozzle will align the materials and draw them in alternating stripes, each potentially as thin as a human hair.

The conductive material would give the lithium ions more paths along which to travel, allowing the electrode to be thicker while maintaining its ability to deliver bursts of power quickly, and without impairing the battery's ability to store energy. About half of a conventional lithium-ion battery is made up of materials that store no energy. Every layer of electrode material requires a separator of metal foil and polymer film. With thicker electrodes, fewer layers would be required, increasing the battery's energy density.

The work is still at an early stage, but the basic printing concept has been proved with a method PARC developed for printing thin silver lines on solar cells; these are being commercialized by a major solar manufacturer, Elrod says. The PARC researchers have so far only run simulations to determine the potential energy increases in batteries.

A number of hurdles will need to be overcome in developing the technology. For example, the conductive materials must be compatible with the electrode material and with the electrolytes in the cell, to ensure long battery life. The viscosity of the electrode paste and curing methods used will need to be optimized to ensure that print heads don't clog and the materials don't crack.

Eventually, the method could be adapted for metal-air batteries, in which the electrode material would be in contact with the air. The researchers would print electrode materials together with a hydrophobic air-transport material such as Teflon.

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Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=f9ad9c789b79fc098ef796d1c4ab4306

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A Tax Cut May Carve Into the Budgets of 19 States

The tax-cut package the president signed in December is best known for extending the Bush-era tax rates for two years and giving a one-year payroll tax cut to most Americans. But it included a business tax cut that could blow a hole in state budgets: a provision allowing businesses to deduct the full value of new equipment purchases from their taxes through 2011.

That cut, intended to spur the economy by encouraging businesses to spend more money on equipment, could end up costing 19 states as much as $5.3 billion in lost revenue over the next few years, according to the report, by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research organization based in Washington.

The 19 states stand to lose money because they link their state tax laws to federal tax law. So the newly allowed federal tax deductions that businesses in those states take will lower their taxable incomes, which would in turn have the effect of driving down state corporate and income tax collections.

The change could cost Illinois, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and other states hundreds of millions of dollars of lost revenue unless they decide to enact laws decoupling their state tax laws from the federal ones, the report said. When similar cuts have been passed before, it noted, many states have chosen to break with federal laws.

But some states do not intend to do so this time. In Pennsylvania, which the report estimated could lose $833 million in revenues over the next few years, the state?s Department of Revenue announced last month that it had settled on a ?business-friendly? interpretation of the law that could benefit as many as 117,000 corporate taxpayers.

The department said the new policy would not affect Pennsylvania?s revenues in the long run because companies would simply be taking full deductions now, rather than spreading them out over several years. But this is a hard time for Pennsylvania to give large tax breaks up front: the state faces an estimated $4 billion deficit in the coming fiscal year.

The unexpected tax change is just one example of how difficult it can be for states to perform one of their most important tasks: guessing how much money they will collect in the coming year, so they will know how much will be available to spend.

Those educated guesses, known as revenue estimates, were the subject of another report released Tuesday by the Pew Center on the States and the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. It found that errors in those revenue estimates have grown progressively worse during the last three fiscal crises, and that during the first year of the Great Recession states overestimated the amount of money they expected to collect by $49 billion, leading to difficult midyear budget cuts. Some states were off by more than 25 percent, it found.

During periods of economic growth, the report found, states tend to underestimate tax collections, resulting in surpluses at the end of the year. But states tend to underestimate the severity of economic downturns: then, they usually come up with overly optimistic estimates of how much they expect to collect. The report warned that ?as forecasting revenue accurately becomes more difficult, states have a tougher time balancing their budgets to provide taxpayers the services they expect and ensuring the long-term fiscal health of the state.?

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=269f8bd25a051f27f43dabcfd6f4afc2

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A Tax Cut May Carve Into the Budgets of 19 States

The tax-cut package the president signed in December is best known for extending the Bush-era tax rates for two years and giving a one-year payroll tax cut to most Americans. But it included a business tax cut that could blow a hole in state budgets: a provision allowing businesses to deduct the full value of new equipment purchases from their taxes through 2011.

That cut, intended to spur the economy by encouraging businesses to spend more money on equipment, could end up costing 19 states as much as $5.3 billion in lost revenue over the next few years, according to the report, by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research organization based in Washington.

The 19 states stand to lose money because they link their state tax laws to federal tax law. So the newly allowed federal tax deductions that businesses in those states take will lower their taxable incomes, which would in turn have the effect of driving down state corporate and income tax collections.

The change could cost Illinois, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and other states hundreds of millions of dollars of lost revenue unless they decide to enact laws decoupling their state tax laws from the federal ones, the report said. When similar cuts have been passed before, it noted, many states have chosen to break with federal laws.

But some states do not intend to do so this time. In Pennsylvania, which the report estimated could lose $833 million in revenues over the next few years, the state?s Department of Revenue announced last month that it had settled on a ?business-friendly? interpretation of the law that could benefit as many as 117,000 corporate taxpayers.

The department said the new policy would not affect Pennsylvania?s revenues in the long run because companies would simply be taking full deductions now, rather than spreading them out over several years. But this is a hard time for Pennsylvania to give large tax breaks up front: the state faces an estimated $4 billion deficit in the coming fiscal year.

The unexpected tax change is just one example of how difficult it can be for states to perform one of their most important tasks: guessing how much money they will collect in the coming year, so they will know how much will be available to spend.

Those educated guesses, known as revenue estimates, were the subject of another report released Tuesday by the Pew Center on the States and the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. It found that errors in those revenue estimates have grown progressively worse during the last three fiscal crises, and that during the first year of the Great Recession states overestimated the amount of money they expected to collect by $49 billion, leading to difficult midyear budget cuts. Some states were off by more than 25 percent, it found.

During periods of economic growth, the report found, states tend to underestimate tax collections, resulting in surpluses at the end of the year. But states tend to underestimate the severity of economic downturns: then, they usually come up with overly optimistic estimates of how much they expect to collect. The report warned that ?as forecasting revenue accurately becomes more difficult, states have a tougher time balancing their budgets to provide taxpayers the services they expect and ensuring the long-term fiscal health of the state.?

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=269f8bd25a051f27f43dabcfd6f4afc2

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AMD: Llano is better at multi-tasking than Sandy Bridge

AMD is gaining a few backers just above the netbook segment with the E and C-series APUs, bringing solid performance and graphics to small laptops without having to sacrifice too much battery life. Soon, these chips will be joined by the A-series, codenamed "Llano", which is aimed squarely at mainstream notebook and desktop PCs. Naturally there's plenty of anticipation to see how they fare against Intel's Sandy Bridge competition and today AMD is offering a little glimpse.

In a recent post at the company's Fusion Blog, director of the client technology unit Godfrey Cheng starts off by explaining that they have given much more importance to parallel processing in their Fusion APUs rather than focusing on classic x86 performance like their blue competitor. Cheng notes that AMD's processors aren't exactly x86 slouches, but the difference in performance among different brands of chips in classic x86 workloads is virtually indistinguishable for an average user. Instead he argues that AMD sees more value in GPU performance and the ability to multitask.

"We are no longer chasing the Phantom x86 Bottleneck," says Cheng. "AMD continues to invest in x86 performance. With our Bulldozer core and in future Bulldozer-based products, we are designing for faster and more efficient x86 performance; however, AMD is seeking to deliver a balance of graphics, video, compute and x86 capabilities and we are confident our APUs provide the best recipe for the great majority of consumers."

To back his words the video above compares a shipping Intel Core i7-2630QM Sandy Bridge mobile processor against a quad-core "A8-3510MX". AMD hasn't provided any specific details regarding the chip, but the video mentions it is built on top of the company's Llano architecture and packs an on-die Radeon HD 6620M graphics core.

Both chips are put through a series of tests on similar systems to showcase their multi-tasking ability and performance as well as their power consumption. As you can see, the A-series Fusion APU fares quite well. Of course we'll reserve judgment until we can run one through our usual set of tests, and see if the difference in raw x86 performance for more traditional tasks is as negligible as AMD claims, but so far it looks to be a very promising product.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/42637-amd-llano-is-better-at-multi-tasking-than-sandy-bridge.html

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Squeezing More Energy Out of Batteries

Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) has developed a new printing technology that promises to pack more energy into batteries for electric vehicles. By printing a striped pattern of energy storage materials and highly conductive materials, researchers at PARC are making electrodes that are much thicker than those in conventional batteries. These could increase battery storage capacity by 10 to 30 percent while costing little more to manufacture, says Scott Elrod, director of the Hardware Systems Laboratory at PARC. The technology could also apply to metal-air batteries that could store far more energy than anything on the market today.

The biggest challenge for electric vehicles remains bringing down the size and cost of their batteries. For them to compete with conventional vehicles, some experts estimate, battery costs must come down by about 75 percent. And if the batteries could store more energy, automakers could use fewer of them, thus saving money. 

In conventional lithium-ion-battery manufacturing, electrode materials are applied in the form of slurry to metal foils. The thickness of the electrode is limited by the rate at which lithium ions can diffuse out of the material to reach an electrolyte. In PARC's new approach, the electrode material, together with a highly conductive material (the company isn't specifying what), will be forced through a flat print nozzle. The nozzle will align the materials and draw them in alternating stripes, each potentially as thin as a human hair.

The conductive material would give the lithium ions more paths along which to travel, allowing the electrode to be thicker while maintaining its ability to deliver bursts of power quickly, and without impairing the battery's ability to store energy. About half of a conventional lithium-ion battery is made up of materials that store no energy. Every layer of electrode material requires a separator of metal foil and polymer film. With thicker electrodes, fewer layers would be required, increasing the battery's energy density.

The work is still at an early stage, but the basic printing concept has been proved with a method PARC developed for printing thin silver lines on solar cells; these are being commercialized by a major solar manufacturer, Elrod says. The PARC researchers have so far only run simulations to determine the potential energy increases in batteries.

A number of hurdles will need to be overcome in developing the technology. For example, the conductive materials must be compatible with the electrode material and with the electrolytes in the cell, to ensure long battery life. The viscosity of the electrode paste and curing methods used will need to be optimized to ensure that print heads don't clog and the materials don't crack.

Eventually, the method could be adapted for metal-air batteries, in which the electrode material would be in contact with the air. The researchers would print electrode materials together with a hydrophobic air-transport material such as Teflon.

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Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=f9ad9c789b79fc098ef796d1c4ab4306

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The never ending battle over Twitter followers

Less than two years ago, no one on Twitter had more than a million followers.

Back then, CNN?s Twitter account was in the lead for ?most followers?, and guess what? It wasn?t even run by the company. At the time, Ashton Kutcher, who was even behind Britney Spears, challenged CNN in a competition to reach the coveted million follower milestone.

Kutcher put serious effort in, going so far as to purchase billboard ads, and quickly became the first person on Twitter with a million followers. Although Kutcher?s follower base continued to grow, less than a year later Britney Spears surpassed Kutcher again. With 4.9 million followers she was the ?Queen of Twitter? in May last year.

Meanwhile, Twitter was growing rapidly as a service. Fast forward to present time and having a million users isn?t as impressive as it once was; non-celebrities, who you may never have heard of could have over a million followers, particularly if they are in an industry specific role.

So what?s happening in the trenches now then?

Kutcher isn?t even in the top 5 anymore. In November of last year, he was passed by a 16 year old boy named Justin Bieber. The moment Bieber passed Kutcher:

?Graph by Twitter Counter?

One month ago, President Obama left Kutcher in his dust, placing Kutcher at #6. Don?t feel too sorry for the guy; he still maintains a healthy 6,367,134 followers.

But let?s have a look at the top 5. Everyone is climbing, with Kim Kardashian at 6.4 million followers and Obama with 6.7 million followers closing the reigns. The top 3 consist of Britney Spears with 6.9 million followers, Justin Bieber with 7.5 million followers and Lady Gaga as the new Queen of Twitter with 8.3 million followers.

?Graph by Twitter Counter?

Who?s the next number 1?

Things can change fast in Twitter-country and what you might have noticed in the graph above (and in all other media) is the rise of Justin Bieber. The 16 year old seemed to come out of nowhere on Twitter, racing passed Obama, the president of the U.S. in October and Ashton Kutcher in November last year, gaining a staggering +440,000 followers between the moment he waved at Obama and laughed at Kutcher.

Bieber moved on to leave Britney Spears in the dust a month ago and is now rocketing towards Lady Gaga to take her crown. And we use rocketing here deliberately, because when you look at the graph below on growth ratio, it?s clear this guy is on fire.

?Graph by Twitter Counter?

When will he be crowned the King of Twitter? Well, he is currently growing steadily 1.5 times faster than Lady Gaga, ? so if he gains 6,203 followers a day more than the diva and the difference between them is 742,602 followers, it should take another 119 days for him to become the new King of Followers.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2011/03/02/the-never-ending-battle-over-twitter-followers/

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Zotac intros Brazos-powered barebones Zbox AD02

With various manufacturers shipping Brazos-based Mini-ITX HTPC motherboards, AMD's new platform was bound to be offered in a more complete package. It seems Zotac has done the honors, announcing one of the first compact barebones systems powered by AMD's E-series Accelerated Processing Unit (APU). The new Zbox AD02 comes in two versions and is outfitted with the 1.6GHz dual-core E-350 APU.

The E-350 has an on-die Radeon HD 6310 graphics core and there's no mention of a PCIe x16 slot for expansion cards. The AD02 has two DDR3-1066 SODIMM slots and room for one 2.5-inch storage drive. Connectivity includes four USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports, HDMI and DVI-I-out (VGA with included adapter), a 6-in-1 card reader, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and 7.1-channel audio with optical S/PDIF.


Meanwhile, if you don't want to buy the RAM and storage separately, Zotac offers the Zbox AD02 Plus with 2GB of memory and a 250GB HDD. Neither product page seems to mention pricing or availability, but for reference, the CULV SU2300/Ion-powered Zbox HD-ND22 is currently available for $270. You can compare Fusion's performance to the Intel/Nvidia competition with our Asus E35M1-M Pro review.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/42632-zotac-intros-brazos-powered-barebones-zbox-ad02.html

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5 Design Contract Templates to Get Your Business Started

5 Design Contract Templates to Get Your Business Started

Freelancers need contracts. Going in without one often ends painfully?freelancers may find their clients have disappeared off the face of the earth, and their checkbook has gone with them. It?s a scenario that is all too common.

Unfortunately, getting a contract together can be pricey business if you go to a lawyer and have one drawn up. While that may be the best way to get a contract that?s tailored for the specifics of your business, there are a bunch of contract templates around the web that you can use while you?re getting started.


1. The Shane and Peter Inc. Contract


?So, when the day comes in which the client understands thing one way and our contract said something else, who is actually correct? Technically our contract is the final word. It is a valuable safety net. But that is its secondary purpose. When it comes down to running a long term healthy business, working with a client is much like being married. It is a long running set of compromises. My wife often says things to me (while I am focused and working) which I never hear. Later when we find ourselves arguing, who is at fault? Is it her fault for thinking I was engaged when I clearly was not? Was it my fault, as I did not take the time to stop what I was doing and giving her my full attention. In one short word: Yes. But does it actually matter whose fault it is? Not really. What is vital is that communication resumes.?


2. The Mayhem Studios Contract



3. The AIGA Contract


?It does not take a one-size-fits-all approach, and it is not an extensive pre-printed document where you simply fill in the blanks. Instead, this agreement acknowledges that most design firms develop their own custom proposal document for each project and are looking for an appropriate set of terms and conditions to attach to it. When put together and signed, the custom proposal document and its attached terms and conditions comprise the binding agreement with the client. With this in mind, the focus of the AIGA Standard Form of Agreement is on those terms and conditions.?


4. The Reencoded Contract


?A good contract is necessary to every freelance web designer. Without a contract, there?s no legal requirement for the other party to pay you upon completion of work (at the very least difficult to prove). Here are important parts to include in your own web design contract.?


5. Andy Clarke?s Contract Killer


?Maybe you?re a gun for hire, a one man army with your back to the wall and nothing standing between you and the line at a soup kitchen but your wits. Maybe you work for the agency, or like me you run one of your own. Either way, when times get tough and people get nasty, you?ll need more than a killer smile to save you. You?ll need a killer contract too.?

About the Author

Joel Falconer is the Australia Editor at TNW, based near Brisbane. Having worked as an editor at various startups, Joel is interested in web publishing, design, shiny Apple gadgets and MMO gaming. Follow Joel on Twitter.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/dd/2011/03/02/5-design-contract-templates-to-get-your-business-started/

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