Windows 7 In Six Different Versions

If you thought that Microsoft learned all its lessons with Vista, you'll soon be disappointed. Despite the fact that the Windows 7 beta is getting mostly positive reviews, revelations that Microsoft plans to release six different flavors of Windows 7 left many in the tech world stupefied and wondering why.

Microsoft confirmed the multiversion release of Windows 7 to various sources including Gizomodo and Paul Thurrott of Windows Supersite. However, Microsoft has not released any official statement to the public regarding this decision.

Many have been critical of Microsoft's decision to release multiple versions of Windows Vista. The move created consumer confusion as to what version might be best to buy. It also created compatibility issues with both software and hardware when people wanted to upgrade from XP to Vista. Lastly, many saw the strategy of multiversions of Vista as a self-serving way for Microsoft to charge vastly different prices for different versions of Vista with little benefit to end users.

We don't know about pricing or availability (although some speculate Windows 7 will be available early next year), but here is a breakdown of what we do know and the differences between the versions of Windows 7.

First off, all users of XP and Vista will be able to upgrade their OS license to Windows 7. The catch is the upgrades will have to be a clean installation of Windows 7, meaning you'll have to reinstall programs and back up and replace data.

Windows 7 Starter Edition

The Starter Edition (SE) is mainly aimed at emerging market and netbook users. With SE, customers will be able to run only three applications at the same time but will benefit from user interface (UI) improvements such as the new taskbar and JumpLists. Also, users will be able to join a Home Group (to share media files over a local network).

Windows 7 Home Basic

The Home Basic Edition (HB) is basically the equivalent of Vista's Media Center edition and will allow the use of unlimited applications at the same time, while bringing further UI enhancements such as live thumbnail previews and 'enhanced visual experience.' Additionally, HB enables advanced networking support like Internet connection sharing (including over wireless) and provides the Mobility Center (power management for laptops).

Windows 7 Home Premium

The Home Premium (HP) version will bring all the visual goodies of Windows 7 like the Aero Glass UI and the advanced window navigation. Besides touchscreen implementations (handwriting recognition, multitouch), the Home Premium edition also brings improved media format support and enhancements to Windows Media Center and media streaming.

Windows 7 Professional

The Professional edition of Windows 7 brings along more security and networking features like the Encrypting File System, advanced network backup and joining managed networks with Domain Join. Also, the Pro version supports location-aware printing.

Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate

Whether you're a home user or a business, the Enterprise and Ultimate editions (probably differentiated by price in the end) will bring a similar set of advanced features like bitLocker data protection for internal and external drives, DirectAccess for corporate networking based on Windows Server 2008 R2, and will lock unauthorized software from running with AppLocker.

My guess is that Microsoft will market aggressively the Home Premium and Professional editions for home users while netbook users should aim for the Starter version. Microsoft also recommends business users to use either the Professional or the Enterprise edition

A planet like Earth discovered

French scientists have discovered the smallest planet yet located out of our solar system, a celestial find less than twice the size of Earth and which orbits a Sun-like star.

The so-called exoplanet may be rocky like Earth but its temperature is so high it could be covered in lava or water vapour, according to findings from a mission led by the French Space Agency.

"This discovery is a very important step on the road to understanding the formation and evolution of our planet," Malcolm Fridlund of the European Space Agency, which is participating in the mission, said Tuesday.

"For the first time, we have unambiguously detected a planet that is 'rocky' in the same sense as our own Earth."

About 330 exoplanets have been found orbiting other stars besides the Earth's sun, most of which are gas giants with characteristics similar to Jupiter and Neptune.

The new find -- called COROT-Exo-7b -- is different. It orbits closely around its star once every 20 hours, with a high temperature between 1,000 and 1,500 Celsius.

Astronomers using an orbiting telescope made the discovery when the planet passed its sun, dimming the light from the star as it moved in front of it, the team said.

Scientists say the discovery is important because recent measurements have indicated the existence of planets of small masses but their sizes remained undetermined until now.

Most exoplanets have been spotted using indirect measurements, mostly looking at their effects on the gravitational fields of their suns. 

In this case, the researchers said they were able to directly measure the size of the surface of the planet, which may be rocky like Earth and covered in liquid lava.

It may also belong to a class of planets thought to be made up of water and rock in almost equal amounts, they said.

A Supercomputer with processing power of two million laptops

Among the breed of warehouse-sized calculators known as supercomputers it will be the new king: an almighty machine capable of performing twenty thousand trillion calculations every second.

IBM is developing the Sequoia supercomputer for the US Government, a machine with the processing power of two million laptops.

Today’s fastest supercomputers would seem sluggish in comparison, while past supercomputers would resemble so many rusting Commodore 64s in school jumble sales.

Sequoia, due to be installed in the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California in 2011, is to perform the calculations and simulations required to test America’s nuclear stockpile.

In its spare time it may be required to investigate the human genome, predict the possible outcomes of climate change, chart the path of tornados and discover new sources of energy.

Any assessment of the speed and power of the proposed machine requires the sort of eye-watering numbers usually reserved for space scientists and Zimbabwean bankers.

According to IBM, given an entire day, the Sequoia could match the output that 120 billion men with calculators might achieve in 50 years. The company estimates that it will be more powerful than today’s 500 most powerful supercomputers combined, and 15 times faster than the fastest of their kind.

While previous supercomputers required warehouses the size of football fields, Sequoia will fit handily inside a large house. Its 1.6 million microprocessors will slot inside 96 refrigerator-sized racks, taking up no more than 3,422 square feet.

As for electricity, it will require a mere 6 megawatts a year: equivalent to the power consumed by 500 American homes. If this does not sound particularly efficient, consider that for every watt of energy used, it will perform 3,000 calculations, against 200 calculations per watt managed by supercomputers today.

The main purpose of the Sequoia programme will be to allow nuclear scientists to determine whether weapons will work as required under the National Nuclear Security Administration stockpile stewardship programme.

“The problem we have with the nuclear stockpile is similar to one you might have at home with a car you’ve kept in the garage for 20 to 30 years,” Mark Seager, assistant department head for advanced technology at Lawrence Livermore, told PC World. “How do you carefully maintain the car so that when you go to start the car, you can be very confident it will start?”

Google Earth 5.0 takes everyone deep in Oceans and up above to Mars

While most people and Swiss police were busy snooping in other’s backyards and fields, using Google Earth as telescope, Google was busy adding layers of the hydrosphere and new features to the mapping software.

So what has it got for all of us? Now Google Earth users have a chance to “dive into the new Google Earth” as the oceans are now not just the big blue part of the globe with “low-resolution shading to suggest depth”.

One can explore the depth of the water bodies as Google is now presenting a more detailed ocean floor with the help of dozens of ocean scientists and advocates and National Geographic, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the US Navy, Scripps Oceanography, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution amongst many others.

The mapping software will now show historical imagery depicting imagery from the past, from over decades back that show the changes in the landscapes with time. For example, clicking on the clock icon in the Google Earth toolbar while flying south from San Francisco while show the transformation of Silicon Valley from a farming community to what it is now, the tech capital of the world!

Another cool feature is “Touring”. This feature will let users create sharable, narrated, fly-through tour to share the layers they have created with others and guide them through the explorations by simply clicking the record button and putting across directions to the destinations.

Well, well, well, not only Google Earth is giving away a close up of the Earth’s oceans that cover two thirds of the planet, it is also making Mars come close to you. In collaboration with NASA, Google is now offering access to 3D maps of the planet Mars! The maps will consist of high-resolution images of the planet’s terrain in 3D and annotations displaying landing sites amongst other features.

Laptop for just Rs.500 only!

India looks set to announce a low-cost laptop today which could be as cheap as 500 rupees ($10), according to the Times of India. That's one-tenth the price of the so-called $100 laptops Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child Project is aiming for. Laptops built by OLPC, which currently cost twice as much as the $100 target, are seen as too expensive by the Indian government. The cost is not quite down to $10 yet, but Indian officials say once large-scale production begin, it will be. OLPC XO laptop review The '$10 laptop' - which will have 2GB RAM, Wi-Fi capabilities and will run on 2W of power - has been under development for several years. Several groups have been working on the project, including students at Vellore Institute of Technology, scientists in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and IIT-Madras. "At this stage, the price is working out to be $20 but with mass production it is bound to come down," Higher Education Secretary R P Agarwal told The Times. The laptop is part of a government project called the National Mission on Education.