New innovative service provides the solution for the progression of networking towards the next level by providing private, secure Personal Networks and Legacy Management. This evolutionary online presence features an emphasis on the user and not a social public network. (PRWeb Nov 22, 2008)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/11/prweb1648354.htm

Netlog, Europe’s leading social networking platform, has launched an application for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch. Members can download the Netlog application onto their iPhone or iPod touch to keep in touch with their network of friends wherever they go.

At the SC 08 show that ends today in Austin, I was struck by how much the lines between supercomputing and corporate computing have blurred. The show even had a panel on high-performance computing and cloud computing! But after visiting with vendors of all types and sizes, I realized that since supercomputers can be built with commodity chips and networking gear, high-performance computing isn’t really about the hardware like it was back in the days of Cray. Today it’s all about the software.

Heck, IBM’s Roadrunner, currently the fastest supercomputer in the world, runs on AMD x86 chips and the Cell processor found in millions of PlayStation 3 gaming consoles. But it’s the software that integrates those two types of chips together that make the computer interesting. And software is what will enable HPC systems to keep moving out of the scientific niche into corporate offices and even into workstations for traders and researchers.

Reza Rooholamini, director of engineering at Dell, reinforced his boss’s keynote, in which Dell talked about the fourth wave of supercomputing. He pointed out that the next generation of supercomputers would rely most on manageability and other software features to attract customers. That will enable Dell to drive high-performance computing to the level of workstations and smaller professional nodes. “Our strategy from the inception…was how can we take this high-end expensive technology and make it available,” Rooholamini says. “This fourth wave is a focus on manageability, scalability, high availability and tools automation.”

This sentiment was echoed by John Lee, V-P of the Advanced Technology Solutions Group with Appro, a company that builds and delivers custom-high performance computers to customers ranging from Renault to Lawrence Livermore National Lab. Lee said the HPC market is attracting new customers who don’t have the experience or inclination to build and customize their own machines. When it comes to programming and operating HPC systems those corporate customers also lack the free labor provided by students who work at labs or universities, meaning the software and services piece of the equation is more important.

“Instead of a government lab where they understand the bleeding edge, now we’re talking to financial institutions and gas and oil guys who know they are behind the curve and so they rely on the vendors to make sure it will run fine,” Lee says.

So while there will always be niche players such as SiCortex, which is building custom semiconductors for the HPC set, it’s far more likely that the key to growing the market for these systems will be software — a fact underscored by Microsoft’s entry into the space in 2005 and bolstered by the software giant’s push into a desktop supercomputer offered by Cray. “Thirty-three years ago people asked Bill Gates ‘Why are you getting into computers?’” said Jeff Weirer, a senior product manager at Microsoft. “At that time Bill Gates had a vision of a PC on every desk and this is really just the evolution of that vision.”

As HPC moves downstream, plenty of vendors are lining up to make supercomputing look pretty much like personal or corporate computing. Since few people could really define a supercomputer outside of the types of jobs it does, those vendors appear to be succeeding.

At the SC 08 show that ends today in Austin, I was struck by how much the lines between supercomputing and corporate computing have blurred. The show even had a panel on high-performance computing and cloud computing! But after visiting with vendors of all types and sizes, I realized that since supercomputers can be built with commodity chips and networking gear, high-performance computing isn’t really about the hardware like it was back in the days of Cray. Today it’s all about the software.

Heck, IBM’s Roadrunner, currently the fastest supercomputer in the world, runs on AMD x86 chips and the Cell processor found in millions of PlayStation 3 gaming consoles. But it’s the software that integrates those two types of chips together that make the computer interesting. And software is what will enable HPC systems to keep moving out of the scientific niche into corporate offices and even into workstations for traders and researchers.

Reza Rooholamini, director of engineering at Dell, reinforced his boss’s keynote, in which Dell talked about the fourth wave of supercomputing. He pointed out that the next generation of supercomputers would rely most on manageability and other software features to attract customers. That will enable Dell to drive high-performance computing to the level of workstations and smaller professional nodes. “Our strategy from the inception…was how can we take this high-end expensive technology and make it available,” Rooholamini says. “This fourth wave is a focus on manageability, scalability, high availability and tools automation.”

This sentiment was echoed by John Lee, V-P of the Advanced Technology Solutions Group with Appro, a company that builds and delivers custom-high performance computers to customers ranging from Renault to Lawrence Livermore National Lab. Lee said the HPC market is attracting new customers who don’t have the experience or inclination to build and customize their own machines. When it comes to programming and operating HPC systems those corporate customers also lack the free labor provided by students who work at labs or universities, meaning the software and services piece of the equation is more important.

“Instead of a government lab where they understand the bleeding edge, now we’re talking to financial institutions and gas and oil guys who know they are behind the curve and so they rely on the vendors to make sure it will run fine,” Lee says.

So while there will always be niche players such as SiCortex, which is building custom semiconductors for the HPC set, it’s far more likely that the key to growing the market for these systems will be software — a fact underscored by Microsoft’s entry into the space in 2005 and bolstered by the software giant’s push into a desktop supercomputer offered by Cray. “Thirty-three years ago people asked Bill Gates ‘Why are you getting into computers?’” said Jeff Weirer, a senior product manager at Microsoft. “At that time Bill Gates had a vision of a PC on every desk and this is really just the evolution of that vision.”

As HPC moves downstream, plenty of vendors are lining up to make supercomputing look pretty much like personal or corporate computing. Since few people could really define a supercomputer outside of the types of jobs it does, those vendors appear to be succeeding.

This article is part of the Open Web Awards, an open, international contest for the best websites and services.

So far, voting in the Blog Plugins category is neck and neck between two services with very similar functions: ShareThis and AddThis. The two plugins make it easy for your blog’s readers to bookmark your site and submit it to social news sites like Digg and Reddit. Several other plugins that help publishers increase page views and engagement are still in the running though. Here’s a quick look at the 10 finalists:

AddThis – Plugin for bookmarking your blog posts and submitting them to social news sites. Recently acquired by Clearspring.

Apture – Links specific words or phrases on a web page to multimedia content like music, video, and Wikipedia entries.

CommentLuv – Lets commenters attach a link to their most recent blog post to their comments.

Leevigraham – Developer of several popular plugins for features like polls, multi-language support, and custom forms.

Ninja Zoo – Plugin for selling your own custom designed products.

Outbrain – Lets users rate blog posts and suggests similar content from your blog and elsewhere.

Plista – Shows similar stories or products.

ShareThis – Lets your readers bookmarks posts and share with friends. Also provides analytics on their sharing habits.

Snap – Adds a “preview” function to the outgoing links on your blog.

Zemanta – Automatically adds links, pictures, and tags to your blog posts.

Now it’s time to vote for your favorite blog plugin in the first of two voting rounds. You can vote for one company per day until midnight on November 30th.

Mashable Open Web Awards

Feel free to embed this widget on your own blog or website by clicking the “Grab This” button! For a timeline, rules and information on our 100 blog partners, please visit the Open Web Awards site.

You got through? Congratulations! Did you know you can create a custom version of our voting widget above to post to your company blog or website? Just visit the Open Web Awards Widget Creator and check the box to preset a category or company. This means your fans only need to enter an email address to vote - simple!

Want others to vote for your favorite site? Of course you do! Why not leave a comment here and on any of our international partner blogs encouraging other readers to add their support? The more you promote your candidate across these blogs, the more likely it is for your site to proceed to the finals!

The Open Web Awards is made possible by our sponsors. By supporting the Open Web Awards, these companies reward and encourage innovative web technologies. We can’t thank them enough for sharing our passion: building great web companies.

“PartnerUp brings small business and social networking together to create a community where entrepreneurs find the people, resources and information to grow their businesses.”

“iStockphoto is the world’s leading image market and a revenue-sharing social network. Browse 3.5 million images and videos starting at $1 or become a contributor.”

“With Quintura’s advanced visual-based search and analytics solution, content publishers can increase site usage while creating new ad revenues”

“Infinite and Instant, Zazzle is the only on-demand retail platform for consumers and major brands, offering billions of retail quality, one-of-a-kind products, most of which are produced within 24 hours.”

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