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The system may also include storage nodes configured to store replicas of the objects, where each replica is accessible via a respective unique locator value, and a keymap instance configured to store a respective keymap entry for each object.

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I read on Wednesday that Sun Microsystems plans to release open-source application programming interfaces for its soon-to-launch cloud services. The obvious question in my mind is, why wouldn’t Sun just support Amazon’s APIs, which have become the de facto standard?

The short answer is that Amazon filed a very broad patent titled “Distributed storage system with Web services client interface” related to its Simple Storage Service (S3), and it’s not clear if the company will eventually take legal action against those using the APIs in their own products.

I can’t see a reason why Amazon wouldn’t take the step of making their APIs actual standards. Besides the goodwill, it would also mean that their own services would be accessible to every other system. For now, however, its patent application states the following:

Sun is absolutely doing the right thing in avoiding the risk of Amazon’s patent attempt (though it’s surprising that it couldn’t do some kind of covenant deal) as well as creating true open cloud standards. But the Amazon APIs are the dominant force–in fact, the only real option for the cloud. Unless they become legitimate standards, cloud access will potentially end up in a morass of competing APIs and methods.

A distributed, Web services-based storage system. A system may include a Web services interface configured to receive, according to a Web services protocol, a given client request for access to a given data object, the request including a key value corresponding to the object.

For the given object, the respective keymap entry includes the key value and each locator value corresponding to replicas of the object. A coordinator may receive the given client request from the Web services interface, responsively access the keymap instance to identify locator values corresponding to the key value and, for a particular locator value, retrieve a corresponding replica from a corresponding storage node.

United States Patent Application 20070156842
Distributed storage system with Web services client interface

We can argue all day about the U.S. patent system being broken, but the point is that Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are locked into the platform, and if the patent is granted, users may well end up without an alternative.

The most recent iPaq, the HP iPaq 910c Business Messenger, launched this summer. CNET reviewed the phone and found it to be a well-stocked, messaging-centric smartphone for mobile professionals, but said it faces stiff competition from the likes of HTC, Samsung, and Motorola.

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CNET Networks)

Aiming to push its hardware beyond the corporate world, Hewlett-Packard will release a new version of its iPaq smartphone that will also be marketed to consumers, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The HP iPaq 910c Business Messenger is getting a younger sibling, according to reports.

Though definitely better known for its laptops and desktop PCs, HP isn’t new to smartphones. The company has released several models in the past, including the HP iPaq hw6945 Mobile Messenger and the HP iPaq 510 Voice Messenger (the first Windows Mobile 6 smartphone). Both were geared mainly toward businesses, and both garnered their share of favorable reviews from users.

We don’t have many details yet (iPaq App Store?), but the latest iPaq apparently will sport a touch-screen and keypad and will run on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system, according to sources cited by the WSJ. The phone will likely hit Europe by the end of this year, with a broader release to follow.

Fellow PC maker Dell, meanwhile, has been hinting of its own plans to enter the smartphone realm. And up-and-coming PC maker Acer of Taiwan said earlier this year that it has a smartphone on deck for the end of this year or early 2009.

I also found that IE 8 felt slower to load, and it’s definitely slower to run: IE 8 RC1 clocked a SunSpider JavaScript test at 9,874 ms, compared with
Firefox 3.1 beta 2’s 3,212 ms. Granted, the release candidate is faster than IE 8 beta 2’s 12,395 ms. All of these were tested on a
Windows Vista Pentium 4 with 2 GB of RAM.

Accelerators are links that cut out the steps needed to blog, tweet, or use Facebook.

The problem is that high-traffic Web sites that don’t cause problems in other browsers still don’t play well with IE 8, necessitating this “compatibility” fix. Maybe Internet Explorer can get around to being Web standards compliant in IE 9.

Opening a new tab was an exercise in boredom served with a layer of frustration, too, as the CTRL+T hot key froze IE 8 and took more than 30 seconds. The e-mail button, which brings your e-mail client to the front or opens it if it’s closed, respects your default client choice. However, switching to the privacy browsing feature InPrivate opens a new window based at the top of your screen–regardless of where you’ve had IE living.

The address bar will pull matches from your history and favorites list as you type, but that’s still an extra step that I’ve moved away from.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

What has been improved in the RC is stability. Users who experienced persistent and irritating browser crashes should expect to see a much more stable browsing environment. The Compatibility feature has been automated to a large degree, which means that the browser will detect and re-render Web sites designed for IE 7 that wouldn’t otherwise load properly in IE 8.

Despite the time that Microsoft has spent developing IE 8, they’ve proven to be reluctant to react to market-wide browser changes. Users who notice similarities between how Firefox, Chrome, and Opera look, feel, and operate, will be struck by how dissimilar IE 8 is. The lack of a smart URI bar stood out for me in particular. Although you can search in IE 8 from the location bar, it won’t take you directly to a page in IE 8. Search for “CNET Download” in Firefox, and you’ll be taken directly to download.com. Search for it in IE 8, and you’re given a list of results from your preferred search engine.

If you’ve been using Internet Explorer 8 betas up until now, you’ll probably enjoy finally getting a release candidate. Overall, there’s nothing stunningly different here, so don’t expect a massive shift in browser usage patterns from IE 8.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

Photos: Internet Explorer 8 RC 1

Users can force-add sites to the Compatibility script in IE 8 RC1.

One aspect of InPrivate has changed. You can now turn on InPrivate Blocking on the Menubar under Safety, even when InPrivate hasn’t been activated. This allows you to surf with a stricter level of third-party site security. It’s not entirely clear what it can or can’t block, though. It doesn’t seem to block ads, but it can block news tickers.

Microsoft has yet to announce a timeline for the stable release of IE 8, nor is a version currently available for the Windows 7 beta. A full list of changes is available in the IE 8 Release Candidate 1 changelog.

If you’ve played around with the previous beta versions of
Internet Explorer 8, there’s not much new in today’s IE 8 Release Candidate 1. The feature improvements from IE 7 haven’t changed: Web slices, InPrivate browsing, and Microsoft’s new add-on system known as Accelerators remain the big-ticket items. Security enhancements include the SmartScreen Filter, which warns you in advance if other users have reported an URL as suspicious.

Users can finally force-add a Web site to be re-rendered by the Compatibility script. Under Tools, click on Compatibility View settings to add or remove a site. You can also disable the script by unchecking the box for using updated lists from Microsoft that appears at the bottom of the settings window.

Ted Ts'o, new CTO at the Linux Foundation

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Ted Ts'o)

On Thursday, the Linux Foundation announced Ted Ts’o as its new CTO, a man with serious street cred amongst the Linux elite. Ts’o is known as the first North American Linux kernel developer and has been with IBM since 2001, focusing on real-time Linux.

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Ts’o will be on loan from IBM for two years and will focus on the Linux Standards Base, Open Printing, and other projects. He should be a great asset to the Linux Foundation.

With Markus Rex returning to Novell, it was only a matter of time before the Linux Foundation would name a new chief technology officer. What wasn’t as clear, however, was the stature of the person that would replace Rex.

So did the stirrings about an acquisition come from simple wishful thinking on the part of Project Playlist or is Van Natta looking to get out of the RIAA lawsuit by buying a music service with licensing agreements in place?

File this one as improbable, but it’s interesting that this rumor continues to crop up. Project Playlist, a little known start-up with 9 million monthly visitors, is supposedly kicking the tires on social media site iMeem, according to music industry sources.

More recently, the company named Owen Van Natta, Facebook’s former chief revenue officer, as CEO. Van Natta is also an investor in the company. The company also recently raised an additional round of funding.

So why is this acquisition scenario still being passed around the music industry?

The alleged acquiree, iMeem, which has 20 million monthly visitors, denied the rumors are true. “Project Playlist buying us is like us buying Apple. This is just not accurate,” said Matt Graves, iMeem’s spokesman and a longtime straight shooter.

Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Project Playlist, a company that provides an embeddable music player used at MySpace and Facebook, is primarily known for being accused last April of copyright violations in a lawsuit filed by the Recording Industry Association of America.

“It’s sort of unusual for (Congress) to set aside money like that,” McGuire-Rivera said. “We will be watching these grants very carefully.”

Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps on Tuesday addressed hundreds of potential applicants for broadband stimulus funds.

The FCC, which is charged with formulating a strategy for nationwide broadband deployment within one year, will also kick off a process of public inquiry for that project at its next public meeting on April 8.

The officials at Tuesday’s meeting acknowledged that numerous issues that will impact the grant awarding process remain unclear. For instance, the broadband stimulus funds were expressly approved for “unserved” and “underserved” locations, but those terms remain undefined.

President Obama’s economic stimulus package dictated that all of the money set aside for broadband will have to be allocated to worthy projects by September 30, 2010. To meet that goal, the federal government will need the help of “the best and the brightest,” Mark Seifert, one of the people responsible for the broadband funds, said Tuesday.

“I invite you to work very hard–and very fast–to reach our goals,” said Seifert, a senior adviser to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the federal agency responsible for distributing $4.7 billion in grants for broadband.

The Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service, which is responsible for distributing $2.5 billion in grants, loans, and loan guarantees for broadband, plans to start making its funds available within the next 60 days. After that first notice of availability, the RUS will have at least two more grant application periods.

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Stephanie Condon/CNET)

“It’s going to have to happen very fast,” said Bernadette McGuire-Rivera, an NTIA administrator. “Everyone needs to work together to make sure we do this and we get it right.”

McGuire-Rivera said that these are the sorts of issues the request for information and the public meetings are intended to resolve. In the meantime, the stimulus bill was prescriptive enough that prospective grant recipients “can start working on your grant application as soon as you walk out the door,” she said.

The NTIA on Tuesday, in conjunction with the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Agriculture Department, held the first in a series of meetings to engage the public in a discussion about ways to distribute the broadband grants and loans. The agencies decided on this format to solicit public input after receiving more than 2,000 requests for individual meetings from states and other groups interested in the funding.

Before a crowd of hundreds packed into an auditorium at the U.S. Commerce Department, the agencies announced they are holding six more public meetings–four in Washington, one in Las Vegas, and one in Flagstaff, Ariz.–between March 16 and March 24 to give the public a chance to influence how the broadband grant and loan programs are shaped. The agencies also released on Tuesday a formal request for information (PDF) soliciting input on a range of topics including the role of the states in the grant programs, selection criteria for grant awards, financial contributions from grant applicants, broadband mapping, and benchmarks to evaluate the success of the programs.

“This will be a truly inclusive process,” acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps said at the meeting. “The goal of our national strategy must be to bring value-laden, high-speed broadband to all our citizens, no matter who they are or where they live…’All’ must mean everyone.”

As the agencies configure the grant and loan programs, they will be obligated to consult with the states, establish open-access principles, and create a database of all the grant applications. The stimulus bill also set aside $10 million specifically for audits and oversight of the broadband programs.

WASHINGTON–Two government agencies have 19 months to distribute $7.2 billion in stimulus funds for broadband deployment projects in all 50 states–and already thousands of potential grant recipients are knocking at their doors.

The NTIA plans to make grants available in three rounds. The first notice of availability will be published sometime between April and June, with subsequent grant application rounds taking place around October of this year, and then between April and June of 2010. The agency is required by the stimulus bill to award at least one grant per state.

There’s really not a clear answer. And the entrance of two huge tech players into the space–Google’s Latitude and Yahoo’s Fire Eagle–has given location-based networking some validation. It’s also possible that one of them will be the company to come up with the standard that will help level the playing field and allow different services to coexist much like cell carriers in the text-messaging space. Or, perhaps location-based networking will better mirror microblogging: a few years ago, there were several competing services like Pownce and Jaiku in addition to Twitter that are now either defunct or effectively afterthoughts.

Perhaps it’s fitting that in one of the festival’s last panels on Tuesday afternoon, a handful of executives and high-level developers from the location-awareness space got together for a discussion called “Using GPS and Location to Enhance Social Networking.” The big question: Do all these disparate services have to get interoperable?

After years of carrier restriction, text messages “came up with a standard, and last year there were 1.9 trillion text messages sent worldwide, and it’s a total cash cow,” Marchioro said. “Internet messaging, 10 to 15 years after it was invented…is a bunch of independent networks and there’s no monetization model. So that would argue that if we’re going to have a bunch of location-based social networks, they might want to interoperate.”

Moderator Tom Marchioro, the location-based services architect at GPS navigation company Garmin, brought up an analogy to text messaging and Web-based IM, two early social-media technolgoies that took very different routes.

Not all the panelists seemed to be on board.

AUSTIN, Texas–There’s Loopt, Brightkite, Whrrl, FourSquare, Rummble, uLocate, Google Latitude, Yahoo Fire Eagle, and goodness knows which other ones we haven’t heard of yet. The location-based mobile networking space has been front and center at this year’s South by Southwest Interactive Festival as hundreds of tech enthusiasts from around the country have been eager to find their friends and learn what’s happening.

John Adams, from Twitter’s operations team and who hinted that the microblogging service “hopes to have more services that are location-based in the future,” said that it could be technically difficult as well. “Different services have different methods for identifying, storing, and locating different privacy data,” he said. “With Brightkite, they have a much higher level of granularity around your location data…and it’s very different to translate that between both systems.”

“We would love to be able to work with the other social networks out there, (but) some of the challenge with that is that your social graphs tend to be very different across different social networks,” said Martin May, founder of Brightkite.

One more thing on a slightly unrelated note: Adams did touch upon the “How is Twitter going to make money?” question. “We are looking at commercial accounts. We see a lot of potential in adding that service that (lets) you know you’re talking to Shaq or that you know you’re talking to a certain celebrity, and to weed out impersonation,” he said, “without imposing fees on existing free services.”

Breaking: Twitter to start selling “I’m Famous For Real” badges! Money problem solved!

One panelist, Bryan Jones of Mobile Blast, brought up the OSLO Accord, a project raised at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which hopes to bring an OpenID-like standard to location sharing.