Google – Project 10 to the 100th

Google wants to know if you have an idea that can improve the lives of as many people as possible. And it wants to know before Oct 20.

“These ideas can be big or small, technology-driven or brilliantly simple — but they need to have impact,” the king of search on the Internet said.

Google has US$10mil (RM33mil) to turn five of the best ideas it receives into reality.

It will first identify 100 best ideas and then ask Google users to vote on which ones should be funded. Their votes will result in a shortlist of 20, which a panel of judges will further distil to five.

The call is part of Google’s 10th birthday celebrations and known as Project 10^ 100 (pronounced Project 10 to the 100th).

“We have learned over the last 10 years at Google that great ideas can come from anywhere,” it said in a statement to the press.

“We want to extend to the world the idea that great ideas come from all angles.”

Google said it knows that there are countless brilliant ideas that need funding and support to come to fruition. It cited some examples of cool ideas.

There’s a team of two implementing a solution to help the millions of people who laboriously carry on their heads five-gallon buckets of water over long distances, it said.

The team has designed The Hippo Water Roller — a relatively inexpensive 24-gallon container that can be easily wheeled on the ground.

Another cool idea, said Google, is to have communities tacking on WiFi devices to public buses so they can detect and send stored e-mail messages as the buses travel through unconnected areas.

Visit http://www.project10tothe100.com/ for more details.

How to participate?

1. Send your idea by October 20th.

Simply fill out the submission form. <——click here to fill up the form

2. Voting on ideas begins on January 27th.

3. Google will help bring these ideas to life.

Project 10 to the 100th consist of 8 categories:

Category Descriptions

Here are the categories in which we’ll be considering ideas.

• Community: How can we help connect people, build communities and protect unique cultures?
• Opportunity: How can we help people better provide for themselves and their families?
• Energy: How can we help move the world toward safe, clean, inexpensive energy?
• Environment: How can we help promote a cleaner and more sustainable global ecosystem?
• Health: How can we help individuals lead longer, healthier lives?
• Education: How can we help more people get more access to better education?
• Shelter: How can we help ensure that everyone has a safe place to live?
• Everything else: Sometimes the best ideas don’t fit into any category at all.

Cisco Systems on Windows Server 2008

Enterprises can now buy a networking appliance from Cisco Systems that runs basic Windows Server 2008 functions, a product designed for use in branch offices, Cisco and Microsoft announced Wednesday.

he companies said in February that they were working on a way for enterprises to run Windows Server 2008 services locally at a branch office on Cisco’s Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) networking appliance. The alternative for many companies is either to use a full Windows Server at every branch, which could be overkill, or run all functionality centrally, which could result in slow performance for branch workers.

With the new product, called Windows Server on WAAS, branch offices can host services locally including Active Directory, Microsoft Print Services, Microsoft Domain Name System Server and Microsoft Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Server. That can improve performance for branch workers and reduce costs related to wide area network connectivity and branch systems management. An IT administrator can remotely manage the Windows Server functions using Microsoft System Center.

Cisco used embedded virtualization technology in its appliance to enable Windows Server 2008 to run on it.

Some companies that had early access to the product describe their experiences on a Web site set up by Microsoft and Cisco. Farm Credit Services of Mid-America had 180 Windows Servers companywide, including one in nearly every branch, said Jim Curtis, director of infrastructure. His goal with Windows Server on WAAS is to move most of the branch servers to the company’s data center to make better use of a small infrastructure support staff.

He currently runs Active Directory centrally, but once the appliance setup is complete he could move Active Directory to the branches as a read-only function, improving log-in times for workers and mitigating potential security issues, he said.

The product is one example of Cisco and Microsoft working together while they also compete in other markets, such as unified communications.

Pricing for Windows Server on WAAS starts at $10,000, including the hardware and the software license. Other configurations with more storage are also available.

Microsoft Has Weakness???

In many ways, Microsoft has little to worry about, at least not for now. Sure, they are losing market share steadily, but for their lead to be toppled it would take years and years, or would it?

Microsoft’s agreements with major OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) such as Dell and HP are highly confidential (which is a warning sign in itself), but by most accounts, the agreements give Microsoft a lot of power over these OEMs. This is part of what gives Microsoft so much power. As long as OEMs continue to sell Windows exclusively, which Microsoft essentially ensures with their agreements, they have a large part of the market all to themselves. These strangle-hold agreements may also be a weakness, though.

From the information we have, it appears that Microsoft controls OEMs not by making them love Microsoft, but by threatening them with increased licensing costs, something that could quickly kill any OEM. What this means is that most OEMs probably wish Microsoft has less of a monopoly. In fact, both Dell, by selling Ubuntu on some notebooks, and HP, with their rumored custom version of Linux, have indicated this.

It appears that Dell, HP, and others probably have two options: restrict their Linux stuff to remote areas of their businesses, or declare a revolution by offering Linux on all their computers. I suspect that any single OEM that tried this would get killed, but if several major OEMs did it together?

Let’s look at the pros and cons from the perspective of OEMs:

• PRO: Good chance of toppling Microsoft’s power, freeing them of restrictive licensing deals.
• PRO: Reduce costs by cutting out Windows licensing fees all together.
• CON: Potential technical problems and initial negative customer response.
• CON: Some possibility of getting absolutely crushed. In this case, the company in question could probably recover, but not without losses.

While we do not know exactly how bad the license with Microsoft is, it seems unlikey that any major company would take the risks involved. If I were Microsoft, I would, however, be somewhat concerned. If OEMs did “revolt,” Microsoft would be in deep trouble. Arguably, despite the low probability, this is Microsoft’s most immediate threat. Could it ever happen? Would it work?

Intel’s New SATA Solid-State Drive to Ship

Last month, Intel tossed its hat into the ring that is solid-state with the announcement of a series of flash drives. The company unveiled that it would start with 80 and 160 GB MLC drives and 32 and 64 GB SLC drives before following up with larger designs in 2009.

Today Intel released price points and a few other details for its Intel Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drive, or X25-M. The 80GB drive uses NAND flash technology and will available this week for $595. According to this CNET News article, that works out to about $7.43 per gigabyte. Most other drives cost around $3.50 per gigabyte.

One reason for the price could be the drive’s performance. PC World reports the X25-M blew away the competition in its lab tests.