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Tags: ibm blade servers, kyle ohme

Millions of computers throughout the world featured the screensaver, Santa’s Workshop, during the holiday season. Initially launched in 2000 in flash format it was the top downloaded Christmas screensaver of all time. Santa’s Workshop has now gone 3D.

“The latest 3D technology was used to develop Santa’s Workshop 3D ScreenSaver and The Santa Claus 3D ScreenSaver,” said Robert Weber, CEO of Freeze.com. “What a difference six years makes in the world of technology.” The screensavers continue to be available free to enchant users the world over.

Santa’s Workshop 3D ScreenSaver comes alive as the elves are busy assembling gifts and writing cards. A 3D train moves the gifts around the workshop while a squirrel in a wheel delivers the power needed. One little elf stops to warm his hands at the roaring fireplace. Santa paces around anxious for his big night. The light-hearted Santa music and workshop sounds make the scene come alive. Santa’s Workshop 3D ScreenSaver is the most realistic Santa screensaver on the Internet–a Christmas must-have.

Or download The Santa Claus 3D ScreenSaver. Utilizing the same 3D technology Santa Claus’ big night comes alive. Watch as the 3D sleigh and reindeers fly through the snowy skies over mountains and rooftops to land on snowy roofs. Santa slips inside to a delightful, cozy family room with a roaring fireplace and decorated tree. Santa unloads his glittering gifts and is off. The picturesque, snowy window is the perfect place to wave good bye.

As millions of families enjoyed Santa’s Workshop during the past six years, millions more will enjoy Santa’s Workshop 3D and The Santa Claus 3D screensavers.

Click below to see screenshots from these screensavers.

Santa #1 | Santa #2 | Workshop #1 | Workshop #2 | Workshop #3 | Workshop #4

Tags: screensavers, santa, santa screensaver, robert weber, freeze.com

Sun continues OpenSparc push
OpenSparc, Sun Microsystems Inc.’s initiative to rally support around the UltraSparc T1 chip by releasing its architecture to the open source community, has seen 3,500 downloads since starting last year, according to Sun. The company is giving away software tools to help developers create derivatives of the chip.

Open source communities are usually formed around software, though there are examples of vendors sharing the architecture of their processors. IBM has Power.org that is meant to build support for its Power processors, which are part of its System p and System i machines. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) has a Torrenza program that aims to encourage other companies to build coprocessors to improve performance of AMD’s Opteron chip.An Italian company, called Simply RISC, has created a single-core derivative of the eight-core UltraSparc chip that is meant for mobile devices, such as PDAs and digital cameras. Tom Kucharvy, president of Boston-based research firm Summit Strategies Inc., said he doesn’t anticipate many UltraSparc derivatives outside of the embedded space.

The company also announced today that another Linux distribution, called Gentoo Linux, will support the UltraSparc T1 processor on the T1000 and T2000, and has an install CD to help users with the process. Earlier this year, another Linux distribution called Ubuntu became available on Sun’s UltraSparc T1 processor-based servers. It was Ubuntu’s first jump into the server market.

Ardence updates OS and application streaming software
Ardence Inc. has updated its operating system (OS) and application streaming software to include a Linux and Windows reboot and personalities that can be injected into servers to let them deviate from a common image. The feature allows a certain level of uniqueness to each server using a common image, much in the same way different people in an office environment have similar software on their desktop computers but have settings that allow them to send documents to local printers.

The Waltham, Mass.-based company allows users to provision their servers depending on what workloads are busy for that moment. For example, one of Ardence’s customers, Freeze.com, is able to stream its OS and applications over the network to its blade servers. When traffic is heavy to its Web site, it can provision servers with the OS and applications that deal with Web-facing traffic. At other times, those same blades can be used for billing or payroll applications.

The software supports applications on Linux and Windows platforms. New features of Ardence 4.0 include:
* Allowing a common software image for different hardware types
* Blocking data to or from USB ports
* Redesigning of the system administration

The software costs $600 per server and is available this week.

Hoffman releases server and network equipment cabinets

Hoffman has new cabinets meant to hold LAN and WAN equipment, as well as servers and telephone equipment. The Akona, Minn., company said the cabinets are made of heavy gauge steel that can protect the equipment inside from impact and the effects of heat.

It said the cabinets have more cabling space on the side panels and a thermal design meant to dissipate heat from networking equipment quickly.

(Article from http://www.searchdatacenter.com By Mark Fontecchio, News Writer, October 3, 2006)

Tags: opensparc, ultrasparc, ardence, freeze.com,

Three IT executives from very different industries are leveraging technologies, such as provisioning, knowledge databases and virtualization, to help reduce complexity in their organizations.

Speaking at Network World’s IT Roadmap conference held in Chicago Tuesday, the three executives participated in a panel discussion about the technical and managerial issues they face today and going forward. The three speakers were among the 50 Network World Enterprise All Stars of 2005 — companies recognized for exceptional use of technology.

One area where all three speakers said technology has made an impact on their organization is in automating or simplifying tasks that would otherwise fall on staff shoulders.

Coppin State University in Baltimore manages roughly 6,000 user accounts, including students, faculty, and employees. Adding new accounts and managing existing ones are mundane tasks that are best done by automation, not staff, says Ahmed El-Haggan, vice president of IT and CIO of the university.

“We found provisioning systems helps us; we set the rules and it just works,” El-Haggan says. By building intelligence into the system, the university removes the need for staffers to get involved, he says.

At Nook Industries, a manufacturer of linear-motion components based in Cleveland, learning the company’s product portfolio well enough to be able to sell to customers can take up to one-and-a-half years for new employees, says CEO Chris Nook.

To help shrink that window, the company is building knowledge databases that act as learning tools for products such as screw jacks, which have 45,000 basic configurations and millions of potential combinations.

Kyle Ohme, director of information technology with Freeze.com in Waite Park, Minn., which hosts a number of Web sites for downloading desktop software, says the virtualization of his company’s server structure has helped reduce complexity significantly.

Three years ago, the company embarked on a project to design and build an on-demand structure to support its growing Web sites. Today, the company can roll out or swap-out a server or storage component in a matter of minutes. This model has allowed Freeze.com to reduce at least two full-time server administrator positions to focus on other issues, says Ohme.

Network World’s next IT Roadmap conference (http://www.networkworld.com/events/itroadmapdall06/) will be held in Dallas on Sept. 13.

 (Article from http://www.computerpartner.nl, June 28, 2006)

To read the full article online, click here.

Tags: technology, freeze.com, kyle ohme