Oracle to halt development of Sun virtualization technologies
Summary: Oracle will soon be announcing that it's discontinuing development of its Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, Sun Ray software and hardware, and Oracle Virtual Desktop Client product lines.
Oraclehas decided to stop development on its Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), Sun Ray Software and Hardware, and Oracle Virtual Desktop Client product lines. Some Oracle partners, which received the news over the weekend, are not happy with this change.
These products enable customers to manage, deploy, and provide users with access to server-hosted desktop operating systems on nearly any client device. They were picked up by Oracle as part of its 2009 acquisition of Sun.
In the same document, Oracle said, "Going forward, Oracle's desktop portfolio investments will be focused on continued development and new enhancements to both Oracle Secure Global Desktop and Oracle VM VirtualBox software." Secure Global Desktop is another server-based VDI program, and VirtualBox is a popular desktop virtualization program.
Oracle partners don't care for this move. According to one disgruntled partner, Oracle could have handled this change better. "Announcing the death of yet another product via a hard-to-find support document ... I would have appreciated a more honest and open approach."
In addition, the partner expressed unhappiness about how Oracle had handled this virtualization line since Oracle's takeover of Sun. "Despite being the owner of Oracle VDI, Sun Ray, and Oracle VM, Oracle refused to integrate those three. So up to this day you cannot use Oracle VM as a hypervisor. You can use Hyper-V, you can use VMware, you can use that special version of VirtualBox that shipped with Oracle VDI ... but Oracle VM? Nope. How ridiculous is that??"
Still, he added, "The idea behind Oracle VDI and Sun Ray is excellent: You have a device on your desk without any mechanical parts and MBTF [mean time between failure] is around 22 years ... All you need now is plenty of servers with enough CPU cores, RAM, enough disks for IOPS [input/output operations per second] and storage space ... and all your desktops live there, centrally in the server room."
Another Oracle partner said, "This is very disappointing and troubling for the healthcare and banking verticals, which has heavily invested and integrated Sun Ray desktops for its security and mobility."For the time being, Oracle will continue to support the existing software and hardware and renew licenses.
"We would like to assure new and existing customers that technical support for these products will continue uninterrupted as they are today. Customers may also continue to renew existing support contracts or purchase new licenses. Exact time-frames for a last order date for Oracle Sun Ray client devices will be announced shortly."
Still, this is a blow for Oracle system integrators, value-added resellers (VARs), and any enterprise that had committed to this VDI stack.
Apple awarded new Liquidmetal patent
Summary: A new patent awarded to Apple could pave the way for a whole host of devices -- iPhones, iPads, iPods, iWatches -- made from the high-tech, super-touch amorphous metal alloy.
Liquid Metal Rock
Interest in the high-tech, super-touch amorphous metal alloy
called Liquidmetal spiked back in August of 2010 when Apple gained an exclusive licensed to the product. Was this going to herald in a new era of Liquidmetal iPhones, iPads, Macs, and iPods?
Well, short of making the SIM eject tool for the iPhone out of this wonder material, Apple has done nothing with Liquidmetal. Part of the problem with Liquidmetal is making it in significant enough volumes for mass market devices.But this could change.
United States patent 8485245, titled "Bulk amorphous alloy sheet forming processes," which was awarded to Apple on July 16, outlines a process that could operate non-stop for 10 to 15 years and output 6000 kilometers of Liquidmetal a year in thicknesses between 0.1 to 25 millimeters and widths up to 3 meters. The process outlined to output Liquidmetal is similar to the "float glass" process used for making window glass.
This, according to the patent, could "be valuable in the fabrication of electronic devices" such as iPhones, iPads, iPods, laptops, and even "a device such as a watch or a clock".
(Source: Apple)
I've come into contact with Liquidmetal in the past, as part of the casing for a super-strong Sandisk Cruzer Titanium USB flash drive. The casing of this drive took an insane amount of punishment and survived. I stamped on it, ran my office chair over it, drove over it, threw bricks at it, hit it with a baseball bat and it just wouldn't break. In fact, I could barely put a scratch in it.
There's no doubt in my mind that Liquidmetal is tough stuff. Now that it seems that Apple has cracked the problem of making it in large volumes, we could see some interesting things done with it.
Source of the data breach appears to be the country's National Revenue Agency A mysterious hacker has stolen the personal details of millions of Bulgarians and has emailed download links to the stolen data to local news publications. The data's origin is believed to be the country's National Revenue Agency (NRA), a department of the Bulgarian Ministry of Finance. In a message posted on its website on Monday, the NRA said it was working with the Ministry of the Interior and the State Agency for National Security (SANS) to investigate the hack. "We are currently verifying whether the data is real," said the NRA. Hours after this article's publication, the Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior confirmed the hack . HACKER STOLE 110 DATABASES, LEAKED 57 According to reports from local media [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ], who received part of the data, the hacker said they stole the personal details of over five million Bulgarians, of the country's total populatio
It finally happened. Today, all 500 of the world's top 500 supercomputers are running Linux. Linux rules supercomputing. This day has been coming since 1998, when Linux first appeared on the TOP500 Supercomputer list . Today it finally happened: All 500 of the world's fastest supercomputers are running Linux . The last two non-Linux systems, a pair of Chinese IBM POWER computers running AIX, dropped off the November 2017 TOP500 Supercomputer list . Overall, China now leads the supercomputing race with 202 computers to the US' 144. China also leads the US in aggregate performance. China's supercomputers represent 35.4 percent of the Top500's flops, while the US trails with 29.6 percent. With an anti-science regime in charge of the government, America will only continue to see its technological lead decline. When the first Top500 supercomputer list was compiled in June 1993 , Linux was barely more than a toy. It hadn't even adopted Tux as its masc
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