Facebook now wants a say in computer hardware
April 9, 2011 by Trend PK
Filed under Technology
PALO ALTO: Facebook, the world’s largest social network, wants to get in on computer hardware as well.
The company that revolutionized social networking on the Internet has teamed up with some of tech hardware’s biggest names — Hewlett Packard Co, Dell Inc, Advanced Micro Devices, and Intel Corp — to launch the “open compute project.”
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the project aims to offer specifications and designs for more power-efficient computers that are specifically geared toward running Internet services, shared openly with other companies.
“What we found over time is that a lot of the stuff that the mass manufacturers put out wasn’t exactly in line with what we needed and what other social apps needed,” Zuckerberg said at a media event at Facebook’s Palo Alto, California headquarters on Thursday.
By sharing design specifications, he said he hoped to increase availability and demand for the specialized servers.
Dell will build servers based on those technical specifications, while Synnex Corp will act as overall vendor for the systems. The technology will power servers in the social network’s first custom-built data center, in Prineville, Oregon. Until now, Facebook has leased data centers for its infrastructure.
With more than 500 million users, Facebook is the world’s No. 1 Internet social network and is increasingly challenging established Web companies like Google Inc and Yahoo Inc as a top destination for Web surfers and a compelling advertising channel for marketers.
The technical infrastructure that powers websites such as Facebook, on which more than 30 billion photos, videos and other types of content are shared by users every month, play a key role in a service’s performance.
According to Facebook, the new servers will be 38 percent more energy efficient and cost 24 percent less than off-the-shelf products used to power its service. AGENCIES
11 missing persons are in Intel agencies custody, SC told
In a quite surprising development, the counsel of the intelligence agencies told the Supreme Court on Thursday that the 11 people, who got disappeared from Adiala Jail, are in the custody of intelligence agencies for the sake of grilling.
The confirmation came during the course of hearing of a case related to the 11 persons accused of terrorist activities and who went missing after High Courts acquittal verdict from Adiala Jail premises.
A three- member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Khalil ur Rehman Ramday resumed hearing. The counsel of the agencies Raja Irshad apprised the Court that the 11 people were involved in the murder of a three-star army general besides suicide attacks on GHQ and ISI offices and added that they were held under the Army Act.
The apex court ordered the counsel to file a written reply in the court and deferred the case till tomorrow.
These accused were arrested on allegations of attack on former president Pervez Musharraf, possession of suicide jackets, GHQ Hamza case and attack on Kamra.
Rehman Malik Assures Punjab of Intel Sharing
News Trends: Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Friday pledged to flush out the terrorists from the country, adding that there back has been broken as several of them have been nabbed.
Briefing the media after holding a meeting with leaders of Jammat-e-Islami Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Syed Munawar Hassan, Rehman said that intelligence information would be shared with Punjab to root out terrorists altogether.
He ruled out presence of any foreign agency in Pakistan. There is no presence of Blackwater or any other foreign agency in the country, he reiterated, adding that action will be taken within 24 hours if provided evidence in this regarding. Malik said that no compromise would be made on the countrys sovereignty. About his meeting with JI leaders, he said that the overall law and order situation came under discussion. I have sought help and guidance of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) in the wake of growing attacks on shrines, he added.
JI leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed said that those carrying out bombings on shrines would be identified. Speaking on this occasion, JI chief Munawar Hass said, There are reports about the presence of Blackwater and other foreign agencies in the country.
Gta Vice City Free Download
September 19, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under Technology
Minimum System Requirements
-System: 800 MHz Intel Pentium III or 800 MHz AMD Athlon 1.2GHz Intel Celeron or 1.2 GHz AMD Duron processor or equivalent
-RAM:128 MB RAM
-CD-ROM: 8X CD-ROM
-Video Memory: 32 MB VRAM
-Hard Drive Space: 915 MB
-Sound Board: Yes
-DirectX: DirectX v9.0
Recommended System Requirements
-System: Intel Pentium IV or AMD Athlon XP processor or equivalent
-RAM: 256 MB RAM
-CD-ROM: 16X CD-ROM
-Video Memory: 64 MB VRAM
-3D Sound Card: Yes
sara bareilles
May 12, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
Sara Bareilles tries to avoid sophomore slump with new single, “King of Anything
From love song to kiss off: Sara Bareilles is back and she no longer has a shred of interest in wooing you; this time she wants you to put you in your place but good.
On “King of Anything,” her new single out today, she ups the melodic peppiness that propelled “Love Song” into her breakthrough hit. Take a jaunty piano tune, throw in some hand claps, just enough quirkiness to make the tune stand out but not alienate, and a strong vocal performance with attitude and you have all the makings of a sunny, catchy adult contemporary hit. Though she sounds sweet, she’s telling her boy to get lost. “Who died and made you king of anything?,” she asks. Clearly, not her.
“King of Anything” is the first single from “Kaleidoscope Heart,” her sophomore album for Epic, which will come out in 2010. The pop jury is out on Bareilles: “Love Song” was a huge hit in 2007, in part because of its placement in a Rhapsody commercial, but none of the subsequent singles from “Little Voice” received significant pop airplay. That should change with “King of Anything.
Singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles had one of the best (and catchiest) hits of 2007 with her multi-platinum debut smash “Love Song”, and now she’s trying to do it all over again with her latest offering “King of Anything”, lifted from her forthcoming album.
It’s another infectious piano-based pop ditty in the same way that “Love Song” was, with Sara slagging off a bad boyfriend in the most upbeat and melodic way possible.
No matter how good the song is though I have a feeling that Sara is destined to become the next Jennifer Paige, Anna Nalick or Meredith Brooks, but if she’s really lucky she could scrape in as another Vanessa Carlton,
steam for mac
May 12, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
Steam for Mac Debuts Today
With that hotly-anticipated May 12th release date just around the corner, you might be wondering how Steam on Mac will perform. You’re in luck, because some of our favorite Mac news sites have just finished testing the software’s closed beta. The verdict? It’s practically the exact same as the Windows version, except there’s almost nothing to buy. Save for the Growl-like notifications at the top of the screen, the UI is all but indistinguishable, and as promised,data and purchases (if playable) automatically carry over in their entirety from your Windows Steam account. Team Fortress 2 even has cross-platform capability, allowing Mac users to play online with their Windows counterparts, though several journalists noted you might want to invest in a two-button wheel mouse if you don’t want to be found out. Source Engine performance on Mac wasn’t quite as good as on Windows in tests using the exact same hardware (thanks, Boot Camp), but admirably comes close nonetheless; Electronista was able to maintain a similar framerate in Portal just by disabling two levels of anti-aliasing. Not all Mac users will be able to partake in these games, 
however; though a MacBook Pro with a discrete 512MB GeForce 8600M card could run them well and a GeForce 9400M laptop managed on low settings, those with only integrated Intel graphics chips might find themselves in for a painful surprise
On subsequent Wednesdays, additional collections of Mac titles will become available, each designed to highlight specific functionalities of Steam on the Mac.
The first collection of Mac titles will demonstrate “Steam Play,” which allows customers to purchase a game once and play it on all Steam supported platforms. Gamers who have previously purchased games on Steam will find them available in their account on the Mac as they are released.
Portal, in addition to supporting Steam Play, will be the first of Valve’s Source engine based games available on the Mac. Native OS/X support for the Source engine is also available immediately to licensees for use in their games.
Among the initial titles available on Wednesday will be Runic Games’ critically acclaimed Torchlight. “We’re very excited to be bringing Torchlight to the Mac,” said Max Schaefer, co-founder of Runic Games. “Having Steam for the Mac solves so many problems for us as a developer. We look forward to our future games coming out on the Mac as well.”
In addition to bringing the online functionality of Steam to the Mac, Valve will also make its Steamworks suite of publishing and development tools available on the Mac platform. These include product key authentication, copy protection, auto-updating, social networking, matchmaking, anti-cheat technology, and more. The features and services available in Steamworks are offered free of charge and may be used for both electronic and tangible versions of games.
Pakistan Taliban group claims NY bomb
May 2, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
WASHINGTON: An Internet video purportedly from a Pakistani Taliban group, Tehreek-e-Taliban, claimed responsibility for the car bomb attempt in Times Square in New York, the US monitoring service SITE said Sunday.
Posted on YouTube, the video said the attempted bombing was in revenge for the recent killing of two top Al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq, US drone strikes in Pakistan and US treatment of a Pakistani neuroscientist, SITE said.
“Congratulations to the Muslim Ummah on the jaw-breaking blow to Satan”s USA. We, Tehreek-e-Taliban, with all the Pride and Bravery, TAKE full responsibility for the RECENT ATTACK IN THE USA,” an English message on the video said.
AFP was unable to independently view the video on YouTube. The video apparently was posted on YouTube early Sunday by Taliban News, but a service message said it had been removed because of a “use violation.”
SITE said the video contained an audio message from Qari Hussein Mehsud, a Tehreek-e-Taliban official, that was played over anti-American images with English subtitles.
The group said the attempted attack was to avenge the killings of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayub al-Masri, the top two leaders of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, in an air and ground assault last month near the city of Tikrit, SITE said.
It also said it was in revenge for “the recent rain of drone attacks in the tribal areas and the abduction, torture and humiliation of our most respected innocent sister Dr. Aafia Siddiqui.”
There are, however, “significant credibility questions as to authenticity of this video,” said IntelCenter”s Ben Venzke, a private contractor working in support of the US and European intelligence communities.
Saying the video needed to be investigated further, Venzke added that “if the claim is confirmed this would mark the first attack by the TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban) against a target in the US, which the group has been threatening to do.”
SBP amends guidelines for freight forwarders
KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday amended its guidelines for freight forwarders, which some exporters claim, give rise to the theft of export consignments.
Now name of the actual owner of the goods will appear in trade documents along with that of freight forwarder, transferring goods from the producer to the buyer, a circular issued by the central bank said.
“The master bill of lading, issued in name of the freight forwarders will now carry the name of exporters and details of the export consignment,” it said. Earlier, the shipping line was responsible for issuing the master bill of lading in the name of the freight forwarder.
Besides, the trade documents, including the house bill of lading, will be sent to the bank of the buyer by the exportersí bank, leaving no chance of any misappropriation, a senior central bank official said.
The State Bank made amendments in the guidelines, following hue and cry by the textile exporters over incidents of theft by the freight forwarders.
The freight forwarders are responsible for delivering goods from the factory to the buyerís chosen destination in a foreign country.
The Pakistani exporters have failed to realise the changes occurred in the way of doing international business.
Global buyers such as Wal-Mart, Nike, Gap and Levi Strauss want direct agreement with the freight forwarders, who, according to them, provide value-added services.
Oil extends gains, climbs above 86 dollars
SINGAPORE: Oil prices extended gains in Asian trade Thursday, boosted by improving demand and strong company earnings results in the United States, the world”s biggest energy user, analysts said.
New York”s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May rose 25 cents to 86.09 dollars a barrel.
Brent North Sea crude for May was up 30 cents to 86.45 dollars.
A strengthening economic recovery in the United States and signs that oil demand was picking up there helped spur investor interest in the oil and other markets.
“The economic indices and (earnings) results from American companies are very good so a lot of money is coming into oil and the stock markets,” said Ken Hasegawa, an energy desk manager with brokerage firm Newedge in Japan.
US firm Intel, which is the world”s biggest computer chip maker, said Tuesday that its first quarter net profit rose nearly four-fold to 2.4 billion dollars.
The company also said it plans to hire more than 1,000 employees this year, highlighting its optimism for the chip market.
American financial giant JP Morgan Chase on Wednesday also reported a 55 percent jump in earnings to 3.3 billion dollars in the first quarter.
Hasegawa said robust company earnings results led to buoyant investor sentiment, noting that the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), the world”s largest commodity futures trading platform, posted record trading volumes on Tuesday.
New York crude could be heading for the “upper side towards 90 dollars”, Hasegawa said from Tokyo.
Oil prices were also supported by the US Department of Energy”s (DoE) weekly stockpiles report which showed a surprise drop in crude supplies, indicating stronger demand.
The DOE said crude inventories had dropped by 2.2 million barrels last week, confounding analysts” forecast for an increase of 1.1 million barrels.
alcoa
April 12, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
U.S. stocks advanced on Monday as anticipation of solid first-quarter corporate earnings buoyed sentiment along with an announcement of an emergency aid plan for Greece.
Asian Markets
Investors were anxious, however, waiting to see if corporate results would be enough to move stocks higher, given Wall Street’s recent strong run.
The S&P 500, which is up 7 percent since the start of the year, rose to within one point of the 1,200 level, seen as an area of technical resistance. The Dow, meanwhile, traded above 11,000 after briefly topping that level on Friday for the first time since September 2008.
Aluminum company Alcoa Inc (AA.N) gained 1.9 percent to $14.68. The Dow component kicks off the first-quarter reporting period with results after the bell. Analysts expect the company to post a first-quarter profit of 10 cents per share, reversing its loss in the same period last year of 59 cents a share.
“More than anything we’re moving ahead of the earnings reports,” said Tim Smalls, head of U.S. stock trading at brokerage firm Execution LLC in Greenwich, Connecticut. “We’ve seen this before. Then it will be the ‘buy on rumor, sell on news’ (trade).”
Helping to relieve worries about sovereign debt that could have repercussions through other parts of the continent, euro zone ministers signed off on a 30 billion euro ($40 billion) rescue package for Greece on Sunday. But they stressed that Athens had not yet asked that the plan to be activated.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was up 19.73 points, or 0.18 percent, at 11,017.08. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index .SPX was up 2.77 points, or 0.23 percent, at 1,197.14. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC was up 4.32 points, or 0.18 percent, at 2,458.37.
Other companies expected to report this week are Intel Corp (INTC.O), Google Inc (GOOG.O), General Electric Co (GE.N) and JPMor
