This blog was posted on behalf of Greg Fagan, Intel Corporate Affairs. Follow him on Twitter

Intel is sponsoring this year’s Maker Faire Education Day- held two days prior to the weekend event- where students get a tour of the grounds at Maker Faire while exhibitor booths and workshops are being setup. They’ll see the sights and hear the sounds of select “Makers”, while participating in activities and previewing their demonstrations.

Employee volunteers from across Intel will lead approximately 1500 students on their tours as part of the Intel Involved volunteer program. Intel and the Intel Foundation invest more than a $100 million a year in science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs because Intel believes that the next generation of innovators needs those skills as the basis for critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving. As leaders in the maker-movement, Intel believes those young innovators are the key to solving global challenges in our future.

What’s exciting is that some of our very own Makers will be manning the booth on Education Day. Many of Intel’s brilliant minds will be sharing projects they’ve made at work and home; including electric vehicles, 3-D printing projects, wearable electronics, and even renewable energy generators. Intel’s history is deeply rooted in “making things” and continues to be the core of our company culture. These internal ambassadors inspire the rest of us to think critically and creatively, and I enjoy working alongside them every day – though, some mornings it is a bit odd pulling in behind an electric tricycle.

Meet some of Intel’s Makers on Thursday, May 17 from 11:00am – 2:00pm. Preview tours are ninety-minutes with staggered start times.

For more information about the event, visit the Maker Faire web site.

“Intel is a company built by people who dreamed big and made the future with their own hands. We believe in a world of innovation and a world of possibilities. Maker Faire shares these values as well as Intel’s commitment to hands-on learning that inspires student interest in design, technology, engineering, and science. We look forward to partnering on Education Day to put the power of innovation in the hands of as many young people as possible.” -Genevieve Bell, Director, Interaction & Experience Research Intel Labs

Have an Objective

If you don’t know what you want, it’s hard for the reader to evaluate or it appears that you might take any job. If you are focused, it is easy to assess whether your skills, education and experience support your goal.  (

Typical Objective: Challenging job where I can use and enhance my skills in a business setting.

Better Objective: Compensation/Benefits Analyst position using my Human Resources experience and coursework to improve a large organization’s bottom line.

Use keywords

Corporate recruiters can’t even read the hundreds of resumes that come into our databases. We must use keywords to narrow down the candidate pool to a reasonable number. If you are missing related technical/functional words (or misspell them!) a real person may never dig your resume out of the “black hole” known as an Applicant Tracking System.

I once asked a candidate, while looking at his resume, “What are your greatest strengths?” He responded that he was 1) a good public speaker, 2) very detail-oriented, and 3) very strong with MS Excel macros.

I immediately commented that none of those words/phrases were listed on his resume. How do you expect to get a call, based on your resume, if your very best skills/qualities, aren’t even included?

Use numbers to show results

Most resumes I see provide a laundry list of “tasks”. What catches my attention is results. For example, if a candidate used to sell mobile phones:

Typical description:                                                               Accomplishments

Sold phone to business users                               Sold $5,000 of product every three months

Provided customer service                                                  Averaged sales of 110% of quota

Followed up on client prospects                                        Achieved 95% rating in client satisfaction surveys

The items in the left column give me no indication of the quality of the candidate’s performance. The items in the right hand column make me want to quickly interview the candidate!

List Awards/Certifications

Include all certifications and awards/recognitions that you have received that are still relevant. If you would like to talk about them in a potential interview, and can still perform the skills you used to achieve the awards, include them on your resume.

For example, if you received an award 10 years ago for being an outstanding trainer, and you can still perform that function today, include it on your resume- and be prepared to talk about it in the interview!

Highlights, not entire History

If you have no experience, include your best coursework and community/volunteer activities. If you have extensive experience, omit the oldest or least relevant positions.

A good rule of thumb would be to include your last 10-15 years experience, or your last 3-4 positions.

Now resume tips can vary slightly from recruiter to recruiter, to get another perspective, here’s a part 1 and part 2 of past posts that offer good advice too! By following these key tips, you can stand out from the crowd when being considered for a position. Help the recruiter or hiring manager find your resume, then give them a reason to call you for an interview!

The 11-year wait is over. Last night Intel and select PC makers supported Blizzard’s successful midnight launch of Diablo(R) III in Irvine, CA.

Diablo III is the most pre-ordered game ever on Amazon* (per International Business Times*) and today’s news reports cite continued overwhelming demand.

Intel helped Blizzard bring Diablo III to life via the use of Intel® Graphics Performance Analyzers (Intel® GPA). PC gamers with the latest Intel processor-based PCs can also explore the visually striking world of Diablo III.

Bobby Kotick, Activision Blizzard CEO, kicks off launch party

Intel is promoting the launch with select PC makers who are making special offers available, and the chance to win a custom Diablo III laser-etched gaming machine (contest open until June 29).

iBUYPOWER* laser etched prize PC on stage

A new page has launched covering these offers, the contest, and how we helped bring Diablo III to life. The new Intel gaming site also launched this week.

~150 Blizzard developers signing for fans

Good times for the 1,500+ attendees at the Irvine Spectrum Center last night, as you can see below.

Diablo® is a registered trademark of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Well, we just got ourself a new feature! With Meshcentral.com, you can access the command prompt of any Windows, Mac OSX and Linux computers from our web based terminal. Works in any browser. It's useful when you need to do advanced operations. It's especially useful for Linux machines where the command prompt is really powerful. So, the new feature is that you can now drag & drop a text document, up to 10k in length into the terminal and the text will be "typed" into the terminal window just like if you typed it on the keyboard. You can how have a bunch of script files ready to go and, when you need them, just drap and drop on the terminal to save you a lot of typing!

This feature working in FireFox, Chrome and Safari. It should work in IE10 when that comes out, but for right now, no IE support.

Enjoy!
Ylian
meshcentral.com

There is a reason why enterprises are looking for devices which can do it all. I was reading a security research report the other day, which suggested that attackers are moving up the stack to the application layer since it is so easy to hack into applications nowadays; especially with the applications moving to the cloud, thus introducing new vectors of attack, including a whole layer of API/ XML threats (if you are still bound to XML/SOAP and can’t free yourself). Most of the organizations that I see don’t have the same solid security at the application level as they do at the network level. This discrepancy developed over last few years as more and more applications came out with new technologies exposing themselves to newer threats. Plus there is no unified standard amongst developers when they develop application level security.

The network security we have today is not “application aware”. This means that API/XML and other application level threats go right through the regular network defenses that you’ve built up over years. Many people think that if they use REST or JSON then they are not as prone to attacks as those who are using SOAP/XML/ RPC, which is a funny thought.

Add this to the fact that when your applications move your enterprise boundary to go to a cloud, they are exposed to hackers 24×7 waiting to be attacked.  This leaves you subject not only to direct attacks on your application, but also to bounces off another application that is hosted in a multi-tenant environment. So your new “firewall” should be able to inspect, analyze application traffic, and identify threats. But the issue doesn’t stop here; you also need to analyze for viruses, malware and the “intention” of the message (and its attachments) as they pass through. Most times the issue with Firewalls inspecting traffic is that they look at where information is going (port and maybe an IP address), but not what the message is intended to do. There is a reason why injection attacks such as SQL Injection, XSS, Xpath injection all became so popular.

Now there is another issue, and this relates to the way applications are built nowadays. In the olden days you controlled both the client, the server, and even the communication between them to an extent. Now we expose APIs and let others build interfaces, middleware, and the usage model as they see fit. Imagine a rookie or an outsourced developer developing a sub-standard code and putting it out there for everyone poke and prod for weaknesses.  As we all know, the chain is as strong as the weakest link. A problem arises because it is hard to figure out which is your weakest link. So application-aware firewalls can not only inspect, analyze or control traffic to applications, but also utilize inherent knowledge allowing them to work at a deeper level too.

This gives you freedom to move the necessity of application level security from your applications/ services/ API to a centralized location, so your developers can concentrate on what they are supposed to do – develop the services that matter to your organization and not worry about other nuances, which can now be left to the experts.

This is where Intel/McAfee comes into play. We have solutions that can help you build solid applications/services/ APIs and insulate and abstract the ancillary services in a centralized or de-centralized location, and manage them globally. Our solutions allow you to abstract application security, mobile middleware, data mediation, message transformation, message routing, Quality of Service, Service Level based enforcements, protocol mediation, application firewalls, Web App Firewalls (WAFs), etc. in a standards-based fashion thereby freeing your developers.

Check out our solution set Intel ESG (Enterprise Service Gateway), McAfee MSG (McAfee Service Gateway), McAfee MWG (McAfee Web Gateway), Intel API Gateway which will all help you take your Enterprise and Cloud services to the next level.

http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/Expressway-Service-Gateway/

http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/Cloud-Service-Brokerage-API-Resource-Center/

http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/REST-Web-Services-API-Security/

http://www.mcafee.com/us/products/services-gateway.aspx

http://www.mcafee.com/us/products/web-gateway.aspx

Andy Thurai — Chief Architect & CTO, Application Security and Identity Products, Intel

Andy Thurai is Chief Architect and CTO of Application Security and Identity Products with Intel, where he is responsible for architecting SOA, Cloud, Governance, Security, and Identity solutions for their major corporate customers. In his role, he is responsible for helping Intel/McAfee field sales, technical teams and customer executives. Prior to this role, he has held technology architecture leadership and executive positions with L-1 Identity Solutions, IBM (Datapower), BMC, CSC, and Nortel. His interests and expertise include Cloud, SOA, identity management, security, governance, and SaaS. He holds a degree in Electrical and Electronics engineering and has over 20+ years of IT experience.

He blogs regularly at www.thurai.net/securityblog on Security, SOA, Identity, Governance and Cloud topics. You can find him on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/andythurai.

Intel’s annual “Mobile Etiquette” survey, published this past week, revealed information on the current state of mobile manners and behaviors related to how people are sharing online via their mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, netbooks, laptops and Ultrabook devices).

Eighty-one percent of U.S. adults believe mobile manners are becoming worse (compared to 75 percent of U.S. adults surveyed by Intel a year ago), and 92 percent of U.S. adults wish people practiced better mobile etiquette in public (that number remained steady compared to a year ago).

This year, Intel’s annual “Mobile Etiquette” survey looked a bit deeper into what and how people are sharing and consuming information online via their mobile devices. The survey revealed positive news (we all love our devices and being connected anytime, anywhere), but it also raised some issues related to digital sharing and the idea of over-sharing (information overload anyone?).

Sixty-five percent of U.S. adults admit feeling better connected with and informed about their family and friends regardless of where they are because they are able to connect online through photo sharing, video chatting, etc. with their mobile devices. Living a state away from my immediate family and being on the road often for business travel, I have to say this is one of my very favorite things about having mobile Internet-enabled devices – I can easily keep in touch with family and friends and be up to date on what is happening in their lives.

On the flip side, it seems U.S. adults (according to the Intel survey) are also becoming annoyed by what they feel are digital (over)sharing pet peeves, including: people who constantly complain (59 percent), people who post inappropriate/explicit photos (55 percent), and people who share information that they would consider to be private (53 percent). Sadly, I can think of numerous examples just from today of people I heard talking on their smartphone sharing information about a recent visit to the doctor (something I would consider to be very private) as well as someone who I am connected with via my personal social networks who is a notorious “Debbie Downer” and constantly complaining – even about the smallest things in life.

Share with us… What do you believe is the biggest Mobile Etiquette faux pas or Digital (Over)Sharing pet peeve? On the positive side of things, what’s your favorite thing about being able to share and consume information on the go via your mobile devices? Do you believe people are finding ways to strike a balance in using their mobile devices in positive ways to stay connected, or have you also experienced some folks in your circles who are known as over-sharers?

As an innovator behind the technology powering mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, netbooks, laptops and Ultrabook systems) and mobile lifestyles, Intel is on a continued quest to understand consumers’ changing mobile usage models, how it impacts consumers’ lives, and how technology should evolve in the future. This drives Intel innovation to create the technology experiences that people desire and love.

For more information related to Intel’s 2012 “Mobile Etiquette” survey findings, please check out Intel’s news release titled, “Intel Survey Finds ‘Digital Over-Sharing’ is Leading Mobile Etiquette Faux Pas.” Hear a discussion about the most latest Intel survey findings by listening to the recently-held audio conference call held with Intel Fellow Dr. Genevieve Bell.

For beginning  Android game developers, it is very common that they get lost  frequently and do not know where to  start and get their hands wet. Especially when they get problems that they can not resolve by themself, and be jealous about the free game engine  such as Cocos2d-iphone  that iphone developers have. Some start to complain that game development on Android platform is too difficult, and not even a decent game engine is handy to use.  Some even think that  using the Java language to develop games has lower ROI.

In fact,  in the real world, as Android is becoming possibily the only strong competitor against Apple IOS or even pass it,  there are for sure a lot resource that are available to Android developers, including quite a lot of Game Engines. Here I will introcude  the eight common Android game engines for Android game developers (Notes: fee based, low downloads counts, Not Open Sourced and the game engines that  I personally do not know (-_-) are not included here.).

1  Angle

Angle is a specifically designed for the Android platform, agile and suitable for the rapid development of 2D game engine based on OpenGL ES technology development. The engine are written in Java code, and you can replace the inside to achieve according to your needs. The drawback is that there are not enough documentations, and the codes available for download contains limited  sample tutorials.

The minimum operating environment requirements is unknown.

Project Address: http://code.google.com/p/angle/

2  Rokon

Rokon a the Android 2D game engine developed based on  OpenGL ES technology, the physics engine is the Box2D-, and therefore able to achieve some of the more complex physical effects.  The latest version is 2.0.3 (09/07/10). Overall, the biggest advantages of this engine is that  its development documentation is complete and comprehensive. And the author of the project responds to bug report and feedbacks quickly and provid fixs and solution. As a result, this framework is currently the most widely used, and lots of developers call it it called it iPhone version of Cocos2d  (logic, and coding style, did looks very similiar). Several Android Game framework are developed based on this frame (fee based, membership download only) . So we do not stereotype the claims that Fee-based engines are good good, open sourced and free are bad.

The minimum operating environment requirements for the Android 1.5.

Project Address: http://code.google.com/p/rokon/

3  LGame

LGame is a  Java game engine developed by China Android developers. It has two version: Android and PC (J2SE), the highest version is  0.2.6 (31/07/10). The underlying graphics LGrpaphics packaged with   Graphics API provided by J2SE and J2ME (PC version uses the Graphics2D package, the Android version of Canvas emulation for rendering). As a result, developer can directly apply J2SE or J2ME development experience . The Android version has built-in Admob interface,  and there is not need to configure the XML befort you directly hard-code Admob advertising information.

In addition to the basic sound, graphics, physics, Wizard and other common components of the engine, it alos has built-in IoC, xml, http, and other commonly used Java components package. The drawback is that   the jar size is relatively big, the PC version jar size has exceeded 1.2MB, while the Android version is around 500KB. In addition, the engine is also built-in  the J2ME Wizard class and related components that support 1:1 rending, the vast majority of J2ME games can be ported to Android or PC version. The only shortfall is that the author of the project is a very lazy guy, development documentation promised last year still not complete, and only  game example is available  for download.

The minimum operating environment requirements for the Android 1.1.

Project Address: http://code.google.com/p/loon-simple/

4  AndEngine

andengine is also an OpenGL ES technology-based Android game engine, physics engine is the same as the Box2D (standard III). The framwork is average on performance, and lack of development documentation. However, it has a lot of code  examples.

Download (no jar download, source code can be extracted using svn): http://code.google.com/p/andengine/

The minimum operating environment requirements is unknown.

Project Address: http://code.google.com/p/rokon/

5 libgdx

Libgdx is a game engine developed using OpenGL ES technology, and support 2d Game development for Android platform, the rendering was done by physical engine using Box2D. From the perspective of performance, it is a very power game engine for Android, the drawback is that the Wizard and other relate componments are  not simple enough and user friendly, and documentations are also underdeveloped.

The minimum operating environment requirements is unknown.

Project Address: http://code.google.com/p/libgdx/

6 jPCT

jPCT is a standard based on OpenGL technology development, 3D graphics engine (PC environment for the OpenGL, Android OpenGL ES), based on the Java language, has a powerful Java 3D solutions. The engine and LGame (This is a 2D game engine) is similar to, with a PC (J2SE) and Android two development versions.

jPCT of one of the biggest advantage is its amazing backwards compatibility. In the PC environment, jPCT can even run in the JVM1.1 environment, because the graphics rendering jPCT internal interfaces fully comply with all the Java 1.1 specification (and even the Microsoft VM has disappeared, even the old Netscape 4 the VM is no exception ).

The minimum operating environment requirements for the Android 1.5.

Project Address: http://www.jpct.net/jpct-ae/

7 Alien3d

Alien3d is a very small volume Android 3D game engine based on OpenGL ES technology development. In order to compress the volume, according to different functions using a multi-jar release (to include alien3d-engine.jar the alien3d-tiled.jar the alien3d-sprites.jar the alien3d-shapes.jar alien3d-particles2d.jar), in fact, it The core file is only about 40KB, the sum of all the relevant jar is less than 150KB.

The minimum operating environment requirements for the Android 1.5.

Project Address: http://code.google.com/p/alien3d/

8 Catcake

Catcake is a cross-platform Java 3D graphics engine, support for the PC (J2SE) and the Android environment running (has been the iPhone version of Planning). All the outstanding performance of the engine in the ease of use and operational performance, support for game development, such as wizard animation, audio processing and video playback.

The minimum operating environment requirements for the Android 1.6.

Project Address: http://code.google.com/p/catcake/

Today at Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in Brazil, Intel announced that the Intel® Software Partner Program and four Intel® Software Network developer communities are launching in Portuguese. The Intel Software Network provides hundreds of technical documents and guidance on how to maximize software performance on Intel® architecture. The Intel® Software Partner Program helps companies develop and market commercial applications optimized for Intel® technologies.

Each community has a local community manager who will work with developers across the country to help build best-in-class solutions and end-user experiences.

• George Silva: Community manager for Ultrabook™, Consumer Client, and Android* Developer Communities
• Jomar Silva: Intel® vPro™ Developer Community
• Luciano Palma: Server Community and Parallel Programming Developer Community

Opportunities for Brazilian Software Companies to Partner with Intel
The Intel Software Partner Program will provide local marketing and sales support to drive campaigns with Brazil’s 300,000+ independent software vendors and 73,000+ software and services companies. Launching the program in Portuguese is an important step to connecting with Brazilian software companies for these new campaigns.

Future Investments in Brazil
Intel’s software programs are focused on building strong businesses through best-of-class products. In 2012, Intel will grow its in-country foot print as well as its corporate support teams to drive programs with universities and technology parks.

Intel® Secure Key, was previously code-named Bull Mountain Technology. It is the Intel name for the Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures instruction RDRAND and its underlying Digital Random Number Generator (DRNG) hardware implementation. Among other things, the DRNG using the RDRAND instruction is useful for generating high-quality keys for cryptographic protocols.

The Bull Mountain Software Implementation Guide has been renamed: (here is a brief summary of the guide)

The Digital Random Number Generator Software Implementation Guide is intended to provide a complete source of technical information on RDRAND usage, including code examples. Included in this document are the following additional sections:

Section 2 of the Guide contains the following information: Random Number Generator (RNG) Basics and Introduction to the DRNG. This section describes the nature of an RNG and its pseudo- (PRNG) and true- (TRNG) implementation variants, including modern cascade construction RNGs. We then present the DRNG's position within this broader taxonomy.

Section 3 provides a DRNG Overview. In this section, we provide a technical overview of the DRNG, including its component architecture, robustness features, manner of access, performance, and power requirements.

Section 4 shows RDRAND Instruction Usage. This section provides reference information on the RDRAND instruction and code examples showing its use. This includes RDRAND platform support verification and suggestions on DRNG-based libraries.

The document is designed to serve a variety of readers. Programmers who already understand the nature of RNGs may refer directly to section 4 for RDRAND instruction reference and code examples. RNG newcomers who need some review of concepts to understand the nature and significance of the DRNG can refer to section 2. Nearly all users will want to look at section 3 which provides a technical overview of the DRNG.

Download the Intel® Digital Random Number Generator (DRNG) Software Implementation Guide.

We're excited to be part of this years HTML5 Conference in San Francisco. Although its only one day we want to make the best of it.

So come meet and hang with the Intel team you just might walk away with a shiny new Ultrabook ;-)

Come by the Intel table from 9-5pm:
Test drive an Ultrabook, check out our HTML5 tools for packaging and monetizing apps via AppUp, learn more about our developer program and enter our drawing for an brand new Ultrabook.

Attend our HTML5 Session: Using QR Codes and HTML5 on Ultrabooks™
Room & Time TBD
This session is a technical introduction to QR codes and how you can use them in your HTML5 applications. We'll also demonstrate several tools that Intel is creating to enable HTML5 developers to rapidly build and sell applications thru the Intel® AppUpSM center. Then Adam Chromicz from hotstudio.com will talk about how they moved StoryPlay, a graphically intense HTML5 application, to the Ultrabook™.

Connect with us at the Casual Mixer @ 5pm
Our technical engineers and community managers will be hanging out during the cocktail mixer and want to learn more about your apps and how you would like to see our program support HTML5.

For more information on this event, check out the official event site: http://html5devconf.com. Also learn more about developing apps for Ultrabooks from our Ultrabook Community.

See ya there :-)

I was fortunate enough this past weekend to be the guest of an IAA winner at the ceremony in San Francisco.  It was a great weekend, the sun shined the whole time and I even got a little sunburn walking around SF on Saturday.  The events around the ceremony were fantastic and well-coordinated.  I never truly understood the importance of these awards until this past weekend.  Sure, I knew they were the Intel’s highest honor, but I just never really GOT it until last weekend.  You couldn’t swing a laptop bag without hitting a Vice President in the Fairmont on Friday or Saturday, so I knew that our senior management recognized its significance.

But what was amazing about the weekend was not swapping stories over dinner with Executive Vice Presidents about the challenges of raising kids and working at Intel.  It wasn’t seeing which of the Executives was the last to leave the dance floor on Saturday night.  It wasn’t watching the executives who were asked to don all types of costumes in their video presentations (Harry Potter and a Cloud stand out as highlights.)

The award winner and the “Plus one” (author)

What did amaze me were the brilliant things the people at this company do every day. The regular people you see in the cafes and hallways who push the limits of science and business in ways that no one else in the world does or can do.

I was also amazed by the humanity of the people in our company as I got teary-eyed while Tom Kilroy gave a big hug to every one of the winners of the Intel Hero Award (for their work after the tsunami in Japan) while they received about a 5 minute standing ovation from the other attendees.

I was amazed by how excited I got listening to the awards being presented and watching our leaders discuss the impacts of those accomplishments.

I’ve been at Intel since 1999 and it was probably the most excited I’ve been about Intel at an Intel meeting/event in a very long time.  Not just for what we’ve accomplished in the past few years, but what we will accomplish over the next few.  We are really good at what we do and we do it better than anyone in the world.

As I told a number of people at the events that weekend, that even though I was an Intel employee, I was just the “plus one” to my partner who won an IAA. But I could not help being an excited employee listening to the remarkable things the people at this company do every day, much of which I don’t understand beyond the most basic level (who am I kidding? I don’t understand A LOT of how we do what we do. I still think it requires some sort of magic to put a billion of anything on a tiny piece of silicon).  I was excited to work at the same company with these geniuses; I was excited about what the future holds not only for Intel, but for the world in general.  And proud to be a small part of what Intel does to change the world.

Thanks to the people who put this event together, thanks to the people who won the award for what they’ve done and to the other 100,000 of us who do what we do but may not win IAA’s.

The IAA is a pretty big deal and the people who win them have done remarkable things, but Intel does a good job of recognizing people in other ways from our Intel Quality Award (which I have one as part of HR some years back) to instant recognition from your colleagues and peers and a number of other levels of recognition in between.

…and for the vast majority of us who haven’t won an IAA.  I highly recommend doing so, as Intel puts on a pretty decent party.

The Intel Foundation is committed to Intel ISEF because we believe these students represent the most valuable resource we have on the planet and the competition is just one of the ways we are empowering them to create a better future for us all.

This year’s projects offer inspiration for our collective futures with projects ranging from robotic advances in prosthetic limb control, to paint capable of harvesting solar energy, to devices that can predict earthquakes. I’m confident the solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems reside in the minds of these 1500 young people in Pittsburgh this week.

This year, we are making Intel ISEF available to communities around the world through a LiveCast [Monday, May 14th at 7pm EST, and Tuesday, May 15th at 2pm EST]. No matter where you are, you can follow these inspiring stories and projects on this blog and on our Twitter handle @Intelinvolved. We are excited to host the opening keynote presentation by former three-time finalist and now inventor and entrepreneur, Ben Gulak. He is truly a role model for young scientists that want to make a difference in the world.

Winners will be announced this Friday, May 18^th – check back on this blog for updates.

You can find the updated sample here.

The changes, listed below, are detailed in this pdf.

1. Added optimization for temporal anti-aliasing (TAA) when using motion blur, which decreases the time this pass takes by approximately 40%.
2. Corrected the velocity scale factor so that if the pixel in the last frame was 1 pixel away it is attenuated by 1⁄2. Previously a constant scale factor was used, which was chosen for the default resolution.
3. Added a zoom box for viewing scaled portions of the screen.
4. Added a basic TAA mode that does no velocity scaling so any ghosting issues can be found.
5. Improved pause mode that correctly renders the previous and current frames to show TAA artifacts clearly in basic mode.
6. Added a motion blur toggle so that the effect of motion blur and TAA can be properly considered.
7. Added a symmetric TAA toggle.
8. Changed pause key from Space to P.

One of the big features of Meshcentral.com is it's remote file manager. Being able to manage, upload and download files using any web browser is pretty powerful. Today, we improved this feature a lot by adding drag & drop support. You can now take one or more files from a folder on your local computer and drag & drop them into the web browser. The selected files will then be uploaded one by one to the target computer. This feature is especialy nice since, in the past, you could only select one file to upload at a time. This is the first time you can drag a bunch of them all at once. Note that this feature works in: FireFox, Chrome and Safari. It does not yet work in Internet Explorer.

Now, I can't take all the credit for this feature, my new summer intern Sathvik just got started on Monday and this is this first feature to make it on the site.

All in all, this makes easier than ever to remotely access your files remotely and over the web. I hear lots of stories of people that use this feature to access home files while traveling.

Update (5/12/2012): When you use the "upload" button you can now select multiple files and all files will be uploaded at once. Just put in the feature now.

Enjoy!
Ylian
meshcentral.com

We think this problem will only worsen as Enterprises continue their rapid adoption of APIs. It seems clear that SOAP, while capable of Enterprise grade authentication through X.509 and SAML, will be left behind as the “Skinny jeans Facebook generation” puts the final nail in SOAP’s coffin.

The Dilemma

Among our own customers and the stories we’ve heard, Enterprises are left with a dilemma with four horns concerning the protection of REST APIs:

(a) Use mutual authentication with client-side SSL
(b) Use HTTP authentication (password or digest) with server-side SSL
(c) Use OAuth, either 3-legged or 2-legged
(d) Use a de-facto standard or “roll your own”

Each option has challenges and benefits. In particular, the challenges balance time to market and time to value (which I term developer friction), security, and manageability. The success of an API is directly related to it’s perceived ease of access and the amount of friction involved in using it.  An Enterprise will get more value out of an API that is actually used versus one that lies dormant. At the same time, however, as APIs become a new tunnel into the Enterprise, security and manageability cannot be sacrificed for the sake of adoption.

 Current Options and Challenges

Let’s consider the options and “score” each of them.  In option (a), most developers would rather shoot themselves than deal with client-side X.509 certificates, especially after experiencing the apparent ease of use of OAuth as evidenced by SaaS providers such as Salesforce.com and social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. To compound this, the issue of key rotation and certificate management is a weighty burden to deal with from an Enterprise perspective. Echoes are heard from the grave, “But this year, will be the year of PKI!” Now, the “Year of PKI” conjures up not a picture of a secure Enterprise, but an enterprise fraught with wasteland scenes of Armageddon.

 SSL with Mutual Auth Score:

• Security: High
• Friction: Extremely High
• Management Burden: Extremely High
• Developer Attitude: I hate my life
• Result: A secure API that nobody uses has lowered value to the Enterprise

In option (b), HTTP Authentication with server-side SSL, we’ve overloaded an interactive web-authentication mechanism developed in 1996 and tried to marry it to the API economy of 2012.

Well, you say…. At least it is a standard – and we console ourselves by the fact that it is a protected channel. The issue here of course is the proliferation and management of passwords.

Security is reduced because we’ve coded in a username and password and we’re probably using the same username and password for multiple applications and not telling management about it. Security is low when the password is in the clear and somewhere around medium-low when digests are used, depending on your perspective on rainbow tables. Friction is high because eventually I’ll need to (or should) rotate that password if I have even a rudimentary password policy

 HTTP Basic Auth with SSL Score:

• Security: Medium-Low
• Friction: High
• Management Burden: High
• Developer Attitude: Really? We’re doing this? 
• Result: An API with a “hackish” authentication method and suspect security. 

In option (c), OAuth, developers will cheer but problems remain. First and foremost, traditional 3-legged OAuth is an authorization protocol that puts permission control in the hands of a user, who ostensibly owns an asset they are expressing authorization for.

In the traditional Enterprise context, however, control should be given to administrators, not users. Most users don’t own Enterprise assets, the Enterprise owns their own assets. With X.509 certificate authentication models, administrators can revoke permissions easily by revoking a certification while OAuth delegates permissions to users. This is why OAuth works well for social websites – content is owned by users.

One solution to this is to use 2-legged OAuth or some organic variation such as xAuth, which is notionally similar to SAML in that it allows the exchange of a username/password for an access token.  Note: If xAuth is still OAuth why is it called something different? Answer: It is different (?)

2-legged OAuth has advantages over the previous option in that it stops the proliferation of passwords, which is a good thing, but the failure of the OAuth 2.0 specification to carefully define what 2-legged OAuth entails is a bit worrisome for both security and interoperability.

Third, depending on the specific OAuth data flow, such as the authorization code flow, implicit grant flow, or client credential flow, these all have varying levels of security and friction associated with them. The most secure OAuth data flows involving a confidential client demand strong client authentication….. …with a public/private key pair (ssshhh!!).

Finally, as history has taught us, never place all your bets in the security of a protocol. Many of us were shocked at the late 2009 news of a critical man-in-the-middle attack on SSL. If we count the Netscape days to the time of the vulnerability, the protocol was battle tested in industry for 14 years before the vulnerability was found. Some would argue that OAuth just hasn’t been around the block long enough.

OAuth Score

• Security: Medium (or Low, depending on your view of history)
• Friction: Medium-Low
• Management Burden: Medium
• Developer Attitude: I love my job, it’s like Facebook
• Result: An API that uses a rapidly emerging protocol and avoids the use of passwords with low developer friction

In option (d), roll your own, we’ve seen a number of solutions that involve API keys or shared secrets along with authenticators like HMAC-SHA1. Amazon web services (AWS) is a famous example of this approach, and many of our own customers have copied this approach as a best practice.

These solutions have the advantage over HTTP Basic Authentication in that they don’t shoe-horn themselves into an outdated standard designed for another purpose. The flip-side is that these aren’t official standards. The idea is to use an HTTP header to store the credentials in a bespoke way defined by the Enterprise. The security model here is essentially the same as username and password, except for the fact that  we’re calling it an API key to make it sound like it’s not a password. Management burden is increased here because interoperability outside the organization is reduced.

“Roll Your Own” Score:

• Security: Medium-Low
• Friction: Medium
• Management Burden: Medium-High
• Developer Attitude: Eh, It’s not OAuth, but at least I don’t have to deal with X.509 certificates
• Result: A reasonable, albeit non-standard solution to API authentication. Friction is reduced but password or shared secret proliferation remains a problem

Appease your Developers

One approach to solving the API access mechanism dilemma is to reject the dilemma and have it all. This can be done with a front-end or security intermediary that, much like a diligent mediator can make both sides happy. In this model, a front-end proxy is used on top of existing APIs, essentially retrofitting them for OAuth without having to get into the ‘weeds’ of actually modifying enterprise APIs. Everything is done on the wire at network layer 4 and above.

To take one example, if you are an Enterprise with REST APIs that use mutual SSL authentication, you don’ t have to enforce this fact on your developers. Instead, have a gateway handle it for you. You can give your developers a choice – they can fall on the sword of X.509 if they’d like, or use OAuth.

Conceptually, it looks like this:

In the previous diagram the gateway handles the OAuth dance for incoming clients and maps the identity to a username from Active Directory. Then, the gateway initiates a mutual SSL connection to the Enterprise REST API and sends the username of the original requestor over this secure channel in an HTTP header. Simple.

Developers are happy because the Enterprise is now “living in the 21^st century” and the  enterprise application developers are happy because they don’t need to  retrofit something that already works, and the security architects are happy because they can manage it all on a security gateway with a few clicks and drop downs. Party down!

A thumbnail screen shot is shown from the “AAA” Policy from Intel® Expressway Service Gateway:

While there are a few more settings required, particularly to enable the full OAuth dance, as well as exception handling, the screen shot shows that the main credential mapping can be done with selectors and not code. This helps bridge the gap between Enterprise Applications and new emerging standards. At Intel we think this gateway or proxy model is a superb answer for solving some of these real challenges. After all, Enterprises can’t wait for the standards to catch up with the new generation of developers.

Intel was an official sponsor of the 2012 Mom 2.0 Summit held in Miami, FL last weekend that brought together 450 top mom bloggers and influential female leaders in food, parenting, entertainment, politics, technology, social change, business, travel, design and home.

As an early Mother’s Day celebration (FRIENDLY REMINDER: Mother’s Day is this Sunday!), Intel wanted to celebrate all of the “Ultra Mom” attendees. For the Mom 2.0 Summit closing party sponsored by Intel, attendees were invited inside the gates of the famed Versace Mansion in South Beach to not only experience the incredible elegance of the Villa but also the ultra-sleek, ultra-responsive, and equally elegant Intel-inspired Ultrabook devices.

Intel-inspired Ultrabook Devices in Versace Mansion Shower Rotunda

Ultra-sleek and ultra-responsive Ultrabook devices inspired by Intel overlooking the patio and pool area at the Versace Mansion

Intel ice sculpture inside the Versace Mansion Villa

For a chance to win an Intel-inspired Ultrabook device (an Intel Core i5-powered HP Folio13 Ultrabook, to be exact), attendees shared with us what type of “Ultra Mom” they are – exhausted, tropic, hysterical, uptight, fun, and so many more! Ultimately, the winner who took home the new Ultrabook device is “Ultra ‘Rocker’ Mom” JennyLee!

Congratulations to the "Ultra 'Rocker' Mom" - winner of the HP Folio13 Ultrabook!

Happy Mother’s Day to all this Sunday! Please share with us… What type of “Ultra Mom” are you?

Tell us: What type of "Ultra Mom" are you?

For decades, smart programmers have used both in their applications, using C where it made sense and Fortran where that made sense. This was made easier by vendor-specific extensions to Fortran that dealt with things such as case-sensitive names and pass-by-value. Extensions such as %VAL and LOC have become so ingrained into the Fortran culture that many are astonished to find that they are non-standard.

Fortran 2003 added a whole class of features for “C interoperability” to the standard, finally enabling mixed-language programming in a reasonably portable manner. I am not aware of any other major programming language standard that has extended a hand in this manner. While many Fortran programmers have warmly embraced the new features, there’s still a lot of confusion about them, and I thought it was time to try to explain the new landscape.

This is a big topic, so I am going to split it up across several posts.

Interoper-what?

First, some definitions.  The Fortran standard talks about interoperability with a “companion C processor”. (In Fortran-speak, “processor” means something that understands and runs code written in the language. For the most part, you can substitute “compiler”, but keep in mind that the compiler operates in an OS and CPU environment that may affect its behavior.) Each Fortran implementation is free to choose which C is its “companion”.  For Intel Fortran, that is Microsoft Visual C++ on Windows, and gcc on Linux and OS X. What about Intel C++?  That is also compatible with Visual C++ on Windows and gcc on Linux and OS X, so Intel Fortran will also interoperate with Intel C++.

Note that the standard says “companion C processor”, not “companion C++ processor”.  In particular, the standard references the C99 standard, or ISO/IEC 9899:1999 to be specific. The companion processors may also build C++ code, but standard interoperability assumes C. You can use C++, but must stick to what is compatible with C when interoperating with Fortran.

What is meant by “interoperability” here? F2008 says it thusly: “Fortran provides a means of referencing procedures that are defined by means of the C programming language or procedures that can be described by C prototypes…, even if they are not actually defined by means of C. Conversely, there is a means of specifying that a procedure defined by a Fortran subprogram can be referenced by a function defined by means of C. In addition, there is a means of defining global variables that are associated with C variables whose names have external linkage.”  To this, I will add that there are also means to declare Fortran variables, data structures and enumerations that correspond to similar declarations in C.

Fortran provides four major “tools” for enabling interoperability with C.  These are:

• Restrictions on which Fortran types are considered interoperable
• The BIND(C) language-binding-spec
• The ISO_C_BINDING intrinsic module
• The VALUE attribute

I frequently see people refer to all of the interoperability tools as “ISO_C_BINDING”, but this is not correct; one can use the interoperability features without using the module.

Interoperable data types

The core concept of interoperability is that something should work the same way in Fortran as it does in C. While Fortran and C each support many of the same basic data types, not everything translates cleanly.

One difference is that Fortran has the concept of “kinds”, whereas C considers these somewhat distinct types. For example, consider the Fortran INTEGER type.  C has numerous integer types, from short int to long long int, and some specialty types such as intptr_t. These may or may not have corresponding kinds in Fortran.  For each of the C integer types which might be interoperable, ISO_C_BINDING declares a named constant (PARAMETER) giving the kind number for the implementation’s equivalent INTEGER kind.

For example, there’s the simple C int type.  This corresponds to INTEGER(C_INT), where C_INT is defined in ISO_C_BINDING.  In Intel Fortran, the value is always 4, as a C int corresponds with Fortran INTEGER(4), but some other Fortran may use different kind numbers.  Using the named constant ensures portability.

More interesting is the C intptr_t type.  This is an integer that is large enough to hold a pointer (address). In Intel Fortran, this would be INTEGER(4) when building a 32-bit application and INTEGER(8) for a 64-bit application.  Intel Fortran provides different copies of ISO_C_BINDING for various platforms so you always get the right one.

Note that Fortran has no unsigned integer types, so there are no constants for C’s unsigned types. Such types are not interoperable.

You might wonder what happens if there is a “kind” of C type not supported by the Fortran implementation. The answer is that the named constant for that type is defined as -1, so you’ll get a compile-time error if you try to use it. We’ll see a use of this shortly.

Similarly, there are constants defined for REAL, COMPLEX, LOGICAL and CHARACTER.   For REAL, the standard offers the possibility of a C long double type. This is implemented in different ways by various C compilers on various platforms supported by Intel Fortran.  In gcc on 32-bit Linux, long double is an 80-bit floating type, as supported by the X87 instruction set.  Intel Fortran doesn’t support this, so there, C_LONG_DOUBLE is -1. gcc on OS X, however, defines it as a 128-bit type that is the same as Intel Fortran’s REAL(16), so C_LONG_DOUBLE is 16 there.  And on 64-bit Linux, or on Windows, long double is treated the same as double, so C_LONG_DOUBLE is 8.  As long as you use the constants for kind values and the corresponding types in C, you’ll match.

LOGICAL and CHARACTER need special treatment when it comes to interoperability.  The Fortran standard says that LOGICAL corresponds to C’s _Bool type, and defines a single kind value C_BOOL, which is 1 in Intel Fortran. But Intel Fortran, by default, tests LOGICALs for true/false differently than C does.  Where C uses zero for false and not-zero for true, Intel Fortran defaults to treating even values as false and odd values as true. If you are going to use LOGICAL types to interoperate with C, be sure to specify the –fpscomp logicals (/fpscomp:logicals) option, which changes the interpretation to be C-like.  This is included if you use –standard-semantics (/standard-semantics) – I recommend using this option any time you use Fortran 2003 (or later) features.

Now we come to CHARACTER. C does not have character strings, at least not in the way Fortran does.  Really.  It has arrays of single characters, so this is how you must represent things in Fortran.  There is a kind value defined, C_CHAR, corresponding to the C char type. But only length 1 character variables are interoperable.  I’ll talk more about that when I come to procedure arguments, but just know that it is not as dire a situation as you might think.

Derived types can also be interoperable, and that will be discussed next time when I talk about BIND(C).

There are other restrictions on interoperable variables. Scalar variables are interoperable only if their type parameters (kind and length) are interoperable (see above), they are not a Coarray, do not have the POINTER or ALLOCATABLE attribute (this may change in the future, I’ll talk about that in another post), and if character its length is not assumed nor defined by a non-constant expression. (Wait, I thought you said only length 1 was interoperable!  Patience, grasshopper…)

Arrays are interoperable if the base type meets the scalar variable requirements above, if it is explicit shape or assumed-size, and is not zero-sized. Furthermore, assumed-size arrays are interoperable only with C arrays that have no size specified. There are some additional rules on rank, in particular, C arrays with rank greater than 1 are not interoperable because they are “arrays of arrays”.

To be continued…

The next post will be dedicated to BIND(C), in all its manifestations.  “C” you then!

Intel Developer Forum (IDF) is coming to Brazil for the first time in Intel history!

We're partnering with members of the Intel® Software Partner Program in our booth and sessions, and we're extremely excited to meet other software developers and ISVs in Brazil. If you’re not attending in person, we’ll make sure to keep you updated on the announcements and excitement online in both Portuguese and English. Check out of our upcoming software sessions below and the full IDF Brazil website for full event details.

Next week, we’ll meet the Intel Software team in Brazil, share some exciting news from IDF, and announce some new opportunities for developers to partner with Intel!

Pre-IDF Activity on May 14:

• Gaming roundtable: Intel representatives, CEOs, Software developers, Game Associations, professors and investors will meet to discuss the game industry in Brazil

Intel Software Booth Demos:

• Totvs* & Pixeon* - Success Stories, Intel® Software Partner Program
  Totvs is a leader in emerging markets, one of the largest ISVs in Latin America, and the world's 6th largest ERP developer. Totvs offers a wide variety of vertical solutions for virtually all sizes of companies, allowing growth in different market segments. In the booth, Totvs will showcase how they benefited from partnering with the Intel® Software Partner Program and Intel® Software Network.

  Pixeon, a Brazilian ISV of approximately 50 people, was founded in 2003 and specializes in digital medical imaging. Its solutions provide high quality imaging for diagnosis and speed to generate medical reports (“laudos”), as well as technologies that allow visualization and analysis through the internet using mobile devices. Pixeon joined the Intel Software Partner Program in early 2012. Through the Intel Software Partner Program, Pixeon has made performance improvements that impact user experience and making it better and more productive. Pixeon continues to work with Intel development tools to improve their software and incorporating new technologies into their products.

• McAfee®: Complete Cross-Device Protection
  McAfee offers extensive protection for all your devices to safeguard you wherever you connect. This comprehensive protection is always on, protecting every facet of your digital life. It delivers a worry free online experience from the latest malware protection to keeping your kids away from inappropriate content. Incorporated in McAfee's consumer portfolio is McAfee Mobile Security that will locate, lock, or wipe a lost or stolen device.
• Improve Cloud Efficiency and Manageability with Intel® Intelligent Power Node Manager
  Power takes a large part in Cloud Operation TCO. This demo will show how to take advantage of the Intel® Intelligent Power Node Manager to monitor and control the power cost of your cloud in an intelligent way. In the Cloud System, power and thermal information is retrieved from host servers through Intel® Intelligent Power Node Manager. Based on predefined policy, the Cloud System makes use of the power information both for resource monitoring and power control, as well as intelligent VM scheduling and life-cycle management. The demo also shows the application of this technology in top cloud vendors.
• Intel AppUp(SM) Developer Program
  Get the most out of your PC and Ultrabook™ with apps and digital content from the Intel AppUp(SM) center. Discover how to create apps with the free resources found in the Intel AppUp(SM) Developer Program.
• Intel® Software Network - Developing optimized Windows applications for Intel Platforms
  Learn about performance analysis and how to improve your overall user experience on PC systems. Tutorials and sessions will be given throughout the day. Both Intel and Microsoft* tools will be showcased.
• Using the Yocto Project* Open Source Hob GUI for Embedded Linux OS Image Creation
  See the Hob graphical user interface in action as it’s used to create a personal NAS device on an Intel® Atom™ based platform. Hob is an efficient customization tool which provides several well defined processes to efficiently assist users with varied experience levels to quickly create a Linux OS image using the Yocto Project. This tool will allow those with limited Linux skills to easily generate a target board image, while providing more depth to hackers and experienced Linux users.
• Android* Ice Cream Sandwich Demo Running On An Intel® Z2460™
  This is an Android* Ice Cream Sandwich demo running on an Intel® Z2460™ processor. This demo shows the value added software optimizations done by the Software and Services Group at Intel to improve Dalvik* execution by orders of magnitude, smooth 1080P video playback, best-in-class HTML5, and power optimizations that take advantage of the silicon to provide fast, responsive, all day performance.
• Creating Robust, Scalable, High Performance Software with Intel® Parallel Studio XE
  Intel® Parallel Studio XE Unites Development Tools for Improving Application Performance and Code Robustness For the Latest Generation of Multicore Processors via these Industry-Leading Components: Intel® Parallel Advisor – Threading assistant tool which provides step-by-step proposals for simplifying the transition from serial applications to parallel ones Intel® Composer XE – Optimizing compilers and high-performance libraries for the latest generation of processors Intel® Inspector XE – Powerful thread and memory error checker Intel® VTune™ Amplifier XE – Advanced performance profiler with hotspot and threading analysis

IDF Software Sessions on May 15:

• Rethinking Information Security
  Jose Antunes
  Bruno Domingues
  The security paradigm is changing, just in the last decade the cybercrime growth in a two digits rate year by year. The main reason is the cybercrime motivation, profit, stole of intellectual property and hacktivism. Today, Intel and McAfee, combine software and hardware capability to combat IT security threats, allowing consumers and organizations take full advantage of connected computing experience in a secure way.

• Intel Business Client Solutions: Intel® vPro™ Technology and Intel® Small Business Advantage
  Marcio Paulino
  Edison Rodrigues
  This session will delve into the powerful new 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ vPro™ processor family and the innovations we are delivering for business customers to “compute with confidence” via enhanced security, simplification/automation, and solutions. This session will illustrate how key stakeholders including end users, SI/ITO’s and Channel MSP’s implement solutions based on Intel vPro technology and unlock the full value of the platform. Additionally, this session explores strategies and tactics for winning with the brand new Intel® Small Business Advantage (Intel® SBA) platform in 2012. Intel SBA is a purpose built platform that delivers out-of-the box value to enhance security and productivity and is targeted for the fast growing commercial segment of small businesses that lack a formal IT department.

• Develop Optimized Microsoft* Windows* 7 or Windows 8 Applications on Intel® Platforms
  Miguel Ferreira
  Luciano Palma
  Intel brings you the technology to deliver amazing experiences on Windows* running on a tablet, an Ultrabook™ or a desktop. This session will show how to optimize your current applications for the Windows* platform and how to get ready for building optimized Windows 8 applications with Intel® Software Tools and Technologies. Make your application even more attractive, with better performance, enhanced security and greater graphics experience.
• Cross Platform Development with HTML5
  Eugeni Dodonov
  Jomar Silva
  Developing cross-OS, cross-device applications has been a challenging problem for many years. HTML5 is the key and being an open standard, it is a great choice for interoperability. HTML5 comprises of a set of web standards that enable innovation on web apps, from rich user interfaces through advanced networking, multimedia resources. This session will introduce HTML5 and its new features and cover its role in the next generation of mobile and desktop based apps. Another topic is PhoneGap, an Open Source Software that allows you to author native mobile apps created with HTML5 web technologies using a single codebase and deliver apps for multiple mobile platforms. Included is a demonstration on how to create an HTML5 Applications using PhoneGap and, using PhoneGap Build Services, enable a remote compile and deployment to multiple platforms.
• Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI): Foundation Technology for Next Generation Platforms
  Luis Pollo
  Fadi Zuhayri
  Topics in this session include:
  • UEFI technology overview
  • Latest UEFI specifications news and industry adoption
  • Microsoft* Windows* 8 UEFI requirements
  • Intel® UEFI Development Kit 2010 SR1 features and capabilities for implementing UEFI 2.3.1 specifications
  • UEFI Development and training resources

*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Let's say that someone I follow has a page of “Hardware, You Gotta Have.” If I see a photo of a new Ultrabook™, I might be inclined to click on that photo to get more information from the original website. It is in those traffic clicks where lies the possible advantage of Pinterest to your company. Pinterest is yet another possible way to drive consumers to your website.

Quite frankly, the platform is so new that the jury is still out on whether or not Pinterest is helpful for generating leads. But this is what we know so far: people are flocking to Pinterest and creating all sorts of groups which are then attracting the attention of lots of other people. And when people are interested in something on the internet, that means there is an opportunity to get involved and to get your marketing message heard.

As an example of how a software company effectively uses Pinterest to engage its audience, take a look at Microsoft’s Pinterest page. Not only does this page highlight new apps, software, and some of the latest products and services, but if you look through the “pins,” you’ll also see links to things like “Foods that boost you immune system” and pictures of the Microsoft main campus. This diverse visual combination results in a page that both sells product and gives value to its audience by presenting “nice to know” information right alongside the important marketing information. It all works together in grabbing the potential customer’s attention.

For now, what should your company do about Pinterest?

Set up a page and let your presence be known
When you set up your Pinterest page, you'll be asked to invite others to follow you (usually from your email list) go ahead and invite everyone you think would be interested. Just the fact that you are willing to give Pinterest a try might be enough to get someone interested in your company.

Click here to sign up for Pinterest.
http://pinterest.com/landing/

Don't spend a lot of time on it
I know, I know, it sounds a little counter-intuitive but Pinterest is new and still has some problems, most notably regarding image copyright. For now, set up your account. Do searches and follow those who have similar likes and interests, but resist the urge to spend huge amounts of time creating lots of groups. Like some other Social Media platforms, this could fizzle out fairly quickly. Have everything in place, though, in case it doesn't.

Have outstanding graphics on your site that someone might be inclined to pin
People can't pin your image if there is no image to pin. Not only should you have an outstanding graphic on your landing page but you should put a little “Pin this” tag near the graphic to remind people to pin it. The more people who grab the image, the more people are going to see it and possibly click back to your website.

Use Pinterest to check out who is pinning your site
Pinterest can be used for customer demographics. Do a few searches on your name and your images to see the types of people who may be pinning your company to their pages. Are they who you had hoped would grab the images? If not, do you need to rethink your image and perhaps use another one that might be more attractive to your desired demographic?

A quick way to search on Pinterest is to go to: www.pinterest.com/source/YOURWEBSITE

Find the people on Pinterest who are interested in your field and start following them
Like people share like things, and eventually learn to trust each other. If you follow the people who have an interest in your field, you will establish yourself as a member of that community and soon others in that community will start to follow you.

What have you heard about Pinterest? Do you see the use of collected images drawing traffic to your site? Have you seen good examples of Pinterest accounts highlighting software?

Recently Intel/McAfee Service Gateway (ESG/MSG) have seen a lot of activity and interest in providing API services in/from the cloud. One of the major issues, faced was that the log, which is stored in the cloud, might contain information that is sensitive or a compliance issue, especially when you offer this as a service (SaaS) and exposed 24×7 to the hackers in the cloud. While this detailed logging may not be an issue for the enterprise customers that keep the actual log information in a centralized secure storage, most times this becomes an issue when you offer a multi-tenant environment and share resource with other users.  In order to provide more control to the customers in the cloud, we introduced a new log redaction feauture, which can be used either in the enterprise version or in the cloud version. This helps customers with sensitive information such as PAN data (especially with credit card information), personal data PII, names, addresses, SS#, DOB and other pertinent information including passwords in verbose modes. Intel’s solution allows that data to be removed/masked with ease and it is user definable, both for patterns and for masking specifics.

I was talking to a customer of mine few days ago on this very topic and I told them how cool this is. He replied, “I think our system is very secure and we have taken ‘extra measures’ given that they deal with multiple compliance standards and issues.” So I suggested to perform a log spider scan. He called me 2 days later panicked with what he found. If you don’t know whether you should worry about this or not there are spider scan tools available on the net, just Google it and see what your logs tell you. If you don’t like what you see don’t blame me .

While most customers take extra care of their transactional messages, I have seen a lot of customers a bit lax in regards to logging and administrative interfaces. I recently blogged about an incident with a customer with exposed data in the logs which you can read here.

Our solution allows them to tighten their logs up multiple notches. It comes with about 30 or so pre-defined filters, with an option for customers to build more on their own, using a simple visual tool. It can be applied to any level of logs including the most verbose levels. The masks are user defined and are flexible. Once you turn them on, define them, there is no need to restart your system, it is always on after that until you explicitly turn it off. What is even cooler is that the logs would be instantly cleaned once you push the config, and the push is cluster wide into all node points. Imagine the power of controlling the sensitive log data in all edge devices (whether Enterprise edge or extended to the cloud) in one push of a button.

In reality, the logging system normally logs the content given from many different underlying components, such as from input server, invocation agent, runtime workflow, mediation engine, security engine, etc. This makes it complicated to manage with so many components. For instance, when you log things from the input side (at some verbose log levels, such as detailed trace), it can log the wire data which can be anything (imagine that most solutions out there log everything that comes on the wire for auditing purposes). So it is very hard to prevent the sensitive data from being logged without special handling, contrary to what you may think.

Imagine if you are dealing with PCI, HIPAA, etc and have an edge device to define, saying I need my logs to be cleaned of said sensitive data and define masking/encryption on transactional data as well. You can be sure that from your edge inside, or going out, your message and logs are all cleaned to your satisfaction and for compliance.

If you need more information on this or on our solutions in general please check out www.intel.com/go/identity or reach out to me.

Andy Thurai — Chief Architect & CTO, Application Security and Identity Products, Intel

Andy Thurai is Chief Architect and CTO of Application Security and Identity Products with Intel, where he is responsible for architecting SOA, Cloud, Governance, Security, and Identity solutions for their major corporate customers. In his role, he is responsible for helping Intel/McAfee field sales, technical teams and customer executives. Prior to this role, he has held technology architecture leadership and executive positions with L-1 Identity Solutions, IBM (Datapower), BMC, CSC, and Nortel. His interests and expertise include Cloud, SOA, identity management, security, governance, and SaaS. He holds a degree in Electrical and Electronics engineering and has over 20+ years of IT experience.

He blogs regularly at www.thurai.net/securityblog on Security, SOA, Identity, Governance and Cloud topics. You can find him on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/andythurai.

The program allows you to work between 22.5-36 hours   a week and you can adjust your schedule according to your university classes. Students who are pursuing a university degree are eligible for this program which provides you an opportunity to work part-time and gain quality career experience. In order to qualify for this program, you have to be in (at least) your second year and must be enrolled and attending classes while working at Intel.  When you complete your degree, if you had a good experience, we’ll help you look for full-time opportunities at Intel as well!

I started my career through this program, as a student worker, and it opened up a world of possibilities.  When I finished my degree in 2007, I already had 2 years of experience—how great is that? And now I’m almost at the 7-year mark! I was working on the Engineering department and learned a lot from Intel Engineers regarding to Product health indicators, although I don’t have an engineering background it help me to create a very good network within the area. After a year as a student worker, I moved to the staffing department as a part time student too and was in this area where I had the opportunity to become a full time employee. Currently I am supporting the recruitment process for open positions in Costa Rica and Mexico and it has been a great experience also.  I am really grateful about the opportunities I had at Intel and look forward to my future at Intel.

We are constantly opening student positions in different areas such as Finance, engineering, human resources; information technology, etc. For more information on the program guidelines and how to apply, visit our Costa Rica Student Center!

Don’t live in Costa Rica? We have established this program at our sites in Mexico, Brazil and Colombia — check out the Student Center for details!

In a sequential program, it is not a big problem since the calculation order is exactly specified so the result is predictable and repeatable. The situation is not so clear in parallel programming.

To make the example parallel, I used the parallel_reduce template function from Intel® Threading Building Blocks (Intel® TBB):

std::vector<float> arr( N, 1.0f/(float)N );
float sum = tbb::parallel_reduce( tbb::blocked_range( arr.begin(), arr.end() ), 0.0f,
    []( const tbb::blocked_range& r, float sum ) {
        return std::accumulate( r.begin(), r.end(), sum );
    },
    std::plus<float>() );
std::cout << sum << std::endl;

As in the examples above, the code calculates the sum of N fractions, but it uses multiple processor cores if available. As it is well known, we face a disappointing fact of different results being possible for different orders of calculations. If we run it 10 times and N=1000 we will get something like this:

0.999991
1
0.999999
0.999996
0.999998
0.999998
0.999998
1
0.999997
0.999998

It’s worth mentioning that the result differs from run to run! In spite of the fact that the developer specifies the calculations – when it is calculated in parallel the order of calculation gets out of control.

On the other hand, it is not as bad as all that. Although the OS operates on threads and fills the application with indeterminism, it is still possible to manage the order of calculations. One of the new features of Intel TBB 4.0 is the parallel_deterministic_reduce template algorithm. The algorithm has the same interface as parallel_reduce except that it does not allow you to specify a partitioner. (For parallel_reduce it is possible to pass a partitioner as the last argument.) We will discuss why this restriction exists later. But for now, let’s replace the parallel_reduce with parallel_deterministic_reduce and look at how the result changes:

std::vector<float> arr( N, 1.0f/(float)N );
float sum = tbb::parallel_deterministic_reduce( tbb::blocked_range( arr.begin(), arr.end() ), 0.0f,
    []( const tbb::blocked_range& r, float sum ) {
        return std::accumulate( r.begin(), r.end(), sum );
    },
    std::plus<float>() );
std::cout << sum << std::endl;

Again run it 10 times:

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

The key point here is that the result is the same from run to run.

The sources of non-determinism in parallel_reduce derive from partitioning and body splitting. Let’s consider each of these subjects:

• Partitioning. The simple_partitioner determines exactly how many and which subranges are created. It splits the iteration range until each subrange is smaller than a given grain size. Thus the behavior only depends on the range size and grain size specified by the developer. However, other types of partitioning in Intel TBB are non-deterministic: to improve performance of the algorithms, range splitting provided by these partitioners depends on run-time stealing events, which we cannot predict.

• Body splitting. For performance reasons parallel_reduce minimizes body copies: it splits the body only when consecutive subranges are processed by different threads. Thus body splitting, like “advanced” partitioning, also depends on non-deterministic task stealing.

The example shows that parallel_reduce is really inapplicable for non-associative operations like floating point arithmetic. To achieve a repeatable result from a reduction with non-associative operations parallel_deterministic_reduce has been developed. From the considerations of partitioning (given above), it follows that only the simple_partitioner can be used for parallel_deterministic_reduce; and thus, no choice of an alternative partitioner is possible. Consequently, parallel_deterministic_reduce always challenges us with choosing an appropriate grain size. And smart body splitting has been disabled for the sake of deterministic behavior, so for each subrange a new body is created. This fact complicates the challenge of grain size selection even more: on the one hand, a small grain size increases the number of body copying and overall overhead, but on the other hand, a big grain size may lead to imbalance and underutilization. Fig. 1 shows the relative performance of parallel_deterministic_reduce (simple_partitioner with various grain sizes) in comparison with parallel_reduce (auto_partitioner with default grain size). An appropriate grain size provides the same performance of parallel_deterministic_reduce as parallel_reduce, - but an incorrectly chosen grain size may lead to significant performance degradation, as shown in Fig.1 at the extremes of the grain size axis.

Fig.1. Comparison of parallel_reduce (auto_partitioner) and parallel_deterministic_reduce (simple_partitioner) on Pi calculation example.

To demonstrate the split-join order behavior of parallel_deterministic_reduce, a small example is given with range [0, 20) and grain size = 5, similar to examples for parallel_reduce in the Intel TBB Reference manual:

A tree of subranges

For each right node a new body is created by the body split constructor. The slash marks (/) in the tree show where the body split is performed. Thus, for the current example the parallel_deterministic_reduce will always produce 4 subranges and 4 different bodies associated with them. Each of these subranges may be executed in parallel. When both children of a node finish, the corresponding bodies are merged: the right child body “added” to the left child body (in our examples via the std::plus<float>() binary function).

To conclude, parallel_deterministic_reduce provides a deterministic number and deterministic sizes of subranges, and it exactly defines which pairs of subranges are merged. It’s important to note that a repeatable result obtained with parallel_deterministic_reduce may still be different from that obtained via serial execution. Moreover, the results may be different for various grain sizes, since range splitting depends on the grain size. Also, the algorithm is not targeted to improve the accuracy of calculations. The exact result of 1 in the above example of fraction sum calculation has been obtained by chance. For other examples the algorithm can cause a decrease in accuracy. Overall, parallel_deterministic_reduce is not a replacement to parallel_reduce but an alternative solution for those who need repeatability.

Search engine optimization, commonly referred to as “SEO,” is the practice of making changes to your website, and improving your website’s authority, to influence your site’s ranking on major search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. When your website appears at the top of search engine result lists for a specific query, you generate targeted traffic to your website or blog.

The concept of search engine optimization can sometimes appear to be nothing short of complex and overwhelming—but it doesn’t have to be. Fundamental best practices associated with search engine optimization (SEO) are easily understood and can be applied regardless of technical knowledge or direct experience with optimizing websites, blogs, or digital assets.

Consider the following SEO fundamentals before starting any search engine optimization program:

1. Know your audience. Before you can optimize your website, you first need to have a good understanding of your target audience. Even though the concept of audience identification or segmentation may seem more akin to general marketing practices, it’s an essential step before starting any SEO campaign. This information is essential for planning your site architecture, URLs, and keyword selection. With a fundamental understanding of your audience, what they buy, and how they research products and services online, you have a much better opportunity to develop, organize, and position your site for relevant keywords and top search engine rankings.

2. Know yourself. What is your company’s unique selling proposition? When browsers see similar results after an initial search, organic listings related to your site should be unique and stand out from your list of competitors. By understanding how to position your company and products properly, you can develop a website to reflect these unique qualities.

3. Begin with the end in mind. Before building your site or updating it to meet the demands of today’s optimization standards, consider your audience, unique value proposition, and website goals. Some websites are designed to be informational, others serve as a place for customers to gain access to information, tools, and resources, and finally, some websites are designed for eCommerce. Regardless of how you choose to develop your site, think through the navigational process of website browsers, prospects, and future customers. The most important information should be easily accessible and organized to lead prospects down the path to purchase.

After you’ve thought through the fundamental aspects of your search engine optimization program, the next step is to begin the journey of website optimization. Although SEO does have a large number of factors to consider, the plan of attack should always begin by focusing on on-page optimization followed by off-page optimization.

On-page optimization is the process of organizing a website and developing it in a manner that allows search engines to easily access the site, find rich, original content that focuses around a particular subject (silos), and create a positive user experience that includes fast load times, ease of use, and social sharing.

Once a site has been built and meets the standard of on-page best practices, it’s time to turn your attention to off-page optimization. Keep in mind, however, that on-page optimization is never truly complete. Updates should be made regularly to reflect changes to the Google algorithm, and new, unique content should also be generated on a regular basis. This includes published content and user-generated content.

Off-page optimization is the practice of developing quality inbound links to your website, blog, and other digital assets. There are dozens of techniques for building quality inbound links, and you should always research and learn which techniques have the greatest impact on organic rankings. The goal of off-page optimization should be the long-term development of links that include keyword phrases you are trying to optimize for.

Search engine optimization is an essential part of any online business or offline business seeking to attract new customers. Consider how your target market gathers information and makes purchases. Once you understand their motivations and preference, it’s time to get serious about SEO.

It all boils down to three steps: follow, engage, connect. And they’re done a little differently depending on what network you are on. Allow me to demonstrate…

The Obvious Choice: LinkedIn

LinkedIn* is hailed as the professional networking site, and with good reason. Whether you are job hunting or not, keep your LinkedIn profile updated and use it to connect with anyone and everyone you come across during your career.

• Follow: Companies have their own profile pages on LinkedIn where you can “follow” them to get the latest news and updates. (Example: this is the Intel page.) Company pages give you an overview of what’s happening, connections you have to the company and career opportunities. Whether you’re interested in hearing about the latest and greatest from a brand that you’re a fan of or you’ve picked an ideal employer and are simply waiting for the right opportunity,  following a company page is the first step. If you can’t find a company page, search for groups associated with a specific employer. Proceed with caution though, there are some groups that aren’t “officially sanctioned” by the company but it’s pretty easy to figure that out once you poke around. 
• Engage: If someone came up to you and said something, would you just walk away from them? Usually someone says something to you to start a conversation. The same applies to discussions or status updates. They’re there for you! Whether you like it or not, if you have something to say or ask, do so! That’s the beauty of social media: it gives everyone a chance to engage. Most companies also have their moderation policies listed so you know what to expect.
• Connect: Did you get into a really good discussion with an employee? Find a recruiter who encourages people to connect with him or her? LinkedIn profiles  have a section called “Contact <NAME> for:” where the user will list all the reasons they are open to connecting with people for. Read the profile, decide if your request fits one of the reasons they are open to, and send (or don’t send) an invite. If you do send an invite and you don’t know the person too well, it’s a good idea to include a message introducing yourself and why you’d like to keep in touch. If the person declines your invitation, there’s a reason for that–let it be and move on.

Myth 1: Software Localization is simply translation
Many executives do not realize the level of effort involved in software localization, dismissing it as simply translation.

For many years now, advances in internet technologies, development tools, authoring tools and platforms, have expanded the use of different file formats and build environments. Software applications and manuals are no longer based only on Microsoft resource files or Word documents. Java, XML, ASP, .NET, RESX, HTML, as well as many other formats, have become standard in many applications and products.

Furthermore, with the continued trend toward the convergence of technologies, companies are marrying software, hardware, mechanics, chemistry, biology and other sciences to develop high-end solutions.

Translators are now expected to understand all these different technologies and file formats, and accurately translate only what is needed, without modifying tags, links or code. If errors are made, a significant amount of debugging time is needed to fix and build the international products.

Localization is both an art and a science. Do not underestimate the efforts needed or short-circuit the process. It takes experienced engineering and translation professionals to properly implement an efficient translation-reuse process and localize your product.

Myth 2: Anyone who knows a second language can perform translation tasks
Would you hire anyone who speaks English to be your Tech Pubs writer, or anyone who knows a computer language to be your programmer? Translators are professionals with years of schooling and translation experience. They earn their living doing translations. Most live in the countries that they are translating for and are natives of the language they translate into. They have an excellent command of the languages they translate from and into to ensure consistent, accurate and timely work. Recruiting amateurs to do translation work, even if they know your product or technology well, will lead to inferior results and product delays.

Myth 3: Lower per-word translation rates reduce costs
In localization, it is often the long-term costs that matter the most. Software, help, docs and other texts related to products are constantly changing. With each product release, the localized material needs to be updated and synchronized with the source. Lower upfront translation costs do not necessarily mean lower long-term costs. The following are key factors that contribute to long-term costs:

1. Process: Is the latest and most efficient translation-reuse process being implemented? If Translation Memory (search-engine and database) tools are not used, updates will be very time consuming and costly.

2. Maintenance costs: Vendors who have lower translation rates may have steep penalties built into fuzzy matches (similar but non-identical matches), repeats and 100% matches. This creates steep overhead costs each time a new revision of your product needs updating.

3. Quality: Although low quality translation will have lower initial costs, the long-term costs are significant. Post-translation changes are very costly, particularly if you have incurred production costs for layout, desktop publishing, quality-assurance, duplication or printing.

4. Ownership: Do you own your translation memories and databases? If you pay for the work, you should own it all.

Myth 4: A language review cycle is not necessary
To the untrained eye, a translated text appears final regardless of the quality or state it is in. Just as you see the value in having your source files edited by a second writer, or your software code reviewed by a second developer, the translated text should also be fully checked by a second translator. In the case of translation, the editing cycle will require not only reading through the translated text, but also verifying it against the source. Many vendors with lower rates, or higher overhead, will cut corners on editing in an effort to turn a profit. They may not ask a second translator to edit the text and instead perform “cursory checks”, which only require the editor to quickly read through the translated text without ensuring that it accurately represents the source. Always ask your translators or translation vendor what level of editing they perform after translation.

Myth 5: The vendor that provides the best translation sample offers the best quality
Asking a localization vendor to provide a translation sample is often mistakenly accepted as a lead method to measure vendors’ quality standards. Although in theory the concept makes sense, in reality, it is far from optimal. First, there are a lot more tasks involved in localization, than simply translation. Second, translation samples are often done by the most qualified translators who may or may not participate in the actual translation, once your project is awarded. If a sample is requested, you need to make sure that:

1. The vendor knows how to manage, parse, prepare, reuse, compile, desktop-publish and QA the required files.

2. The translator translating the sample will be the lead translator on the project.

Since this cannot always be guaranteed due to scheduling or other factors, it is often more reliable to check vendors’ references, experience, reputation and track record.

Request How to Plan and Budget for Localization and Translation Projects?

Nabil Freij is the author of Enabling Globalization and the president, founder, and owner of GlobalVision International, Inc. (www.globalvis.com), a Software Localization and Translation specialist. He is trilingual and holds an MSEE from Brown University and an MBA from Bryant University. Freij has worked for 25 years in the hardware, software, and localization industries. He has traveled the world and lived in five countries. He is frequently published and quoted. Nabil is married and has two children. He currently resides in Palmetto, FL. Mr. Freij can be reached at nabil@globalvis.com . You can read his blog at: http://blog.globalvis.com.

In my last blog I talked about adding iPad Retina display to Meshcentral.com. Well, I made two more improvements on that same topic. First, the new high DPI support now includes Internet Explorer. If you set the zoom factor on IE to 150% or more and go to Meshcentral.com, you will see the high resolution graphics. Seconds, I expended support for high DPI displays and iPad retina displays to the Meshcentral.com mobile application. It's accessible at: https://meshcentral.com/m.

On iPhones and iPad's, you can go to that URL and "Add to Homescreen". You will get a high resolution iOS icon, a splash screen and a really nice web application to monitor your devices. The application looks just wonderful on the new iPad's display.

Ylian
meshcentral.com

Encore une fois, 4 speakers à l'affiche : SYLVAIN WEBER, MARTIN GORNER, MATHIAS DESLOGES, ANTOINE ROGLIANO.

Date: Mercredi 16 Mai 2012 a partir de 19h30

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Encore une fois, 4 speakers à l'affiche : SYLVAIN WEBER, MARTIN GORNER, MATHIAS DESLOGES, ANTOINE ROGLIANO.

Date: Mercredi 16 Mai 2012 a partir de 19h30

read more

The Intel AppUp show for developers "Show 23": this episode ends Bob and Rhonda’s adventure at SXSW Interactive Screenburn 2012. In this episode they feature Intel LANFest, which was held during Screenburn. In the first half of the show, Rhonda talks with Intel engineer, John Zitterkopf, about LANFest. For this event, attendees had the opportunity to win a brand new custom Ultrabook™ device. Watch the second half of the show to see who won!

read more

The Intel AppUp show for developers "Show 23": this episode ends Bob and Rhonda’s adventure at SXSW Interactive Screenburn 2012. In this episode they feature Intel LANFest, which was held during Screenburn. In the first half of the show, Rhonda talks with Intel engineer, John Zitterkopf, about LANFest. For this event, attendees had the opportunity to win a brand new custom Ultrabook™ device. Watch the second half of the show to see who won!

read more

Intel will be co-hosting a booth with Total Immersion, where we’ll challenge attendees to compete on a multi-player augmented reality racing track using an Ultrabook™!

If you’re going to be at the conference, drop us a comment below and let us know. If not, give us some homework – what do you want to know about augmented reality?

We’ll make sure to report back to you after the conference!

When I was little, I loved math and reading. I was very shy and numbers and books did not require me to speak. I had an incredible 4^th grade teacher, Mrs. Warrior, who encouraged me to enter the Mathaton, a school wide math problem solving competition, I placed fourth; I still have that medal.

My parents encouraged my nerdy pursuits. I joined the Mathematics Engineering and Science Achievement club (M.E.S.A) in middle school. By the time I reached my senior year in high school, I was in the National Honor Society, the 2^nd chair clarinetist in the marching band, the recording secretary for Student Council, a state qualifying track athlete and received the honor of being named Most Effective Attorney at the State Mock Trial competition. For spring break my senior year, I was selected as one of the high school seniors to fly to Florida and job shadow N.A.S.A engineers. I was ecstatic to return from that trip to find that I was a finalist in the National Society of Black Engineer’s scholarship and that I had been accepted to Northwestern University’s Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. I do not say these things to brag, I am simply laying the ground work for the next chapter. I had confidence. I loved school. I loved learning. I was an “all around” student.

A few of the awards I amassed in High School

I was put on academic probation my freshman year in college and nearly failed out of school. How did that happen?

When I got to Northwestern, I took the same approach I always take to life—dive right in. I joined several student groups, the University Marching band, was helping produce a radio show, performing in a dance troupe, maintaining a work study job, and did I mention the parties? It was great! I remember sitting in 400 person Chemistry and Calculus classes thinking…am I the only one NOT getting this? It had always been so natural, was this supposed to be so much work? I sat silently not asking questions for fear that someone would discover I did not really belong. I never went to office hours, did not attend the tutoring available (my pride wouldn’t let me, I was always the student tutoring others –it’s how I made my money in high school!); I was over-extended on every front.

When I received my first quarter grades, Chemistry – D, Calculus – D, and a letter informing my parents that I was to be put on academic probation and had two quarters to turn it around, I was devastated. I cried all night. I had NEVER failed at anything. I didn’t know what to do, so I did more of the same my 2^ndquarter, with the same results. I knew that I had one more quarter to pull it together or my big dreams of becoming an engineer would be dead.

I went to see my academic advisor and we had a very real discussion about whether I thought I was capable of continuing in the engineering curriculum. Several of my friends had transferred to the College of Arts and Sciences. I knew that if I ran from this, I would be afraid to tackle anything in life. I really did enjoy programming, I couldn’t say the same for Chemistry, but I knew that I could be successful, I just wasn’t sure how. I told my advisor that I was going to stay the course.

I did some serious house cleaning that final quarter of my freshman year. I quit the band. I cleared my social calendar, I discovered tech tutoring, and I went there–every night. I did extra problems, I was assigned a mentor, 2 in fact, and I took only 3 instead of 4 classes my 3^rd quarter. I was in every office hour. I asked questions in class, even with the fear of being seen as the stupid one, and was surprised to know that other people in the room were wondering the same thing. When I received my 3^rd quarter grades, I was SO excited – B, B+, A! I had avoided being kicked out of school, but more importantly, I had learned how to tap into the resources available to me.

Graduation day - I did it!

A few months ago, I heard about the Stay With It program, and it struck a chord with me. The program is focused on reducing the attrition rate for students in engineering programs across the country by giving them hands on experience earlier in their coursework, providing them with the tools: tutoring, mentoring, early immersion; that they need to perform successfully.

This summer, Intel will host ”The Ultimate Engineering Experience,” a series of engineering “boot camps” at all of our major sites, to better equip engineering students. I have already signed up to volunteer, because were it not for the people who took the time to pour into me, I would not be here. I have been where these students are, I know how tough it can be, and I’m here to tell you: YOU CAN DO IT! There’s a world of opportunity that your engineering degree will bring you, at Intel and elsewhere. Your skills, expertise and ideas will help shape the future of technology and our world. Stay with it!

Let’s look at two input devices here, the toggle and the pulse (or as I would have liked to have called them, the switch and the clock). A toggle sends a signal of high or low, toggling between the two states, every time it is “toggled” or flipped. A pulse continually alternates between the high and low states at a given duration. The toggle class is implemented as follows:

class toggle {
    graph& my_graph;
    signal_t state;
    overwrite_node < signal_t > toggle_node;
 public:
    toggle(graph& g) : my_graph(g), state(undefined), toggle_node(g) {}
    toggle(const toggle& src) : my_graph(src.my_graph), state(undefined),
                                toggle_node(src.my_graph) {}
    ~toggle() {}
    // Assignment ignored
    toggle& operator=(const toggle& src) { return *this; }
    sender < signal_t > & get_out() { return toggle_node; }
    void flip() {
        if (state==high) state = low;
        else state = high;
        toggle_node.try_put(state);
    }
    void activate() {
        state = low;
        toggle_node.try_put(state);
    }
};

The toggle is represented internally by an overwrite_node, because it simply needs to keep track of one most-recent state. As an input device, it doesn’t receive output from any other items, so it has no explicit input ports, only actions (flip, activate) which can alter the output state. The output port can of course be acquired via get_out, so that the toggle can be used to send signals into a circuit.

The pulse class is a little more interesting:

class pulse {
    class clock_body {
        size_t& ms;
        int& reps;
        signal_t val;
    public:
        clock_body(size_t& _ms, int& _reps) : ms(_ms), reps(_reps), val(low) {}
        bool operator()(signal_t& out) {
            rt_sleep(ms);  // our own portable sleep function
            if (reps>0) --reps;
            if (val==low) val = high;
            else val = low;
            out = val;
            return reps>0 || reps == -1;
        }
    };
    graph& my_graph;
    size_t ms, init_ms;
    int reps, init_reps;
    source_node < signal_t > clock_node;

public:
    pulse(graph& g, size_t _ms=1000, int _reps=-1) :
        my_graph(g), ms(_ms), init_ms(_ms), reps(_reps), init_reps(_reps),
        clock_node(g, clock_body(ms, reps), false)
    {}
    pulse(const pulse& src) :
        my_graph(src.my_graph), ms(src.init_ms), init_ms(src.init_ms),
        reps(src.init_reps), init_reps(src.init_reps),
        clock_node(src.my_graph, clock_body(ms, reps), false)
    {}
    ~pulse() {}
    pulse& operator=(const pulse& src) {
        ms = src.ms; init_ms = src.init_ms;
        reps = src.reps; init_reps = src.init_reps;
        return *this;
    }
    sender < signal_t > & get_out() { return clock_node; }
    void activate() { clock_node.activate(); }
    void reset() { reps = init_reps; }
};

This class is based on the source_node. It generates a signal, alternating between low and high, every ms milliseconds. There is also an option to repeat the alternation a certain number of times and then stop, which is useful for designing simulations that use a clock but also terminate. The source_node body sleeps for a duration before flipping the signal and sending it. It doesn’t begin sending signals immediately, but requires activation. In the case of a non-infinite clock (reps is set), once the pulse object has run for the given number of repetitions, it can be reset and reactivated to use it again.

Next, we discuss two output devices, the LED and the digit. The LED is simply a tiny light that is on while the signal it is receiving is high, and off when the signal is low. For simple text display, the LED looks like this: (*) when it is on and ( ) when it is off. The digit device receives a four-bit input and displays a single hexadecimal digit. For simulations, both devices have the option of continuously displaying their state as it changes, or a silent mode, which displays only when a display method is called.

class led {
    class led_body {
        signal_t &state;
        string &label;
        bool report_changes;
        bool touched;
    public:
        led_body(signal_t &s, string &l, bool r) :
            state(s), label(l), report_changes(r), touched(false)
        {}
        continue_msg operator()(signal_t b) {
            if (!touched || b!=state) {
                state = b;
                if (state != undefined && report_changes) {
                    if (state) printf("%s: (*)\n", label.c_str());
                    else printf("%s: ( )\n", label.c_str());
                }
                touched = false;
            }
            return continue_msg();
        }
    };
    graph& my_graph;
    string label;
    signal_t state;
    bool report_changes;
    function_node < signal_t, continue_msg > led_node;
 public:
    led(graph& g, string l, bool rc=false) : my_graph(g), label(l), state(undefined),
        report_changes(rc), led_node(g, 1, led_body(state, label, report_changes))
    {}
    led(const led& src) : my_graph(src.my_graph), label(src.label), state(undefined),
        report_changes(src.report_changes),
        led_node(src.my_graph, 1, led_body(state, label, report_changes))
    {}
    ~led() {}
    led& operator=(const led& src) {
        label = src.label; state = undefined; report_changes = src.report_changes;
        return *this;
    }
    receiver < signal_t > & get_in() { return led_node; }
    void display() {
        if (state == high) printf("%s: (*)\n", label.c_str());
        else if (state == low) printf("%s: ( )\n", label.c_str());
        else printf("%s: (u)\n", label.c_str());
    }
};

The led class contains a simple function_node that has no meaningful output (we use a continue_msg to indicate this) and thus no successors. Another way to implement this would be with an overwrite_node, but we would lose the report_changes functionality. Similarly, the digit class also cannot have successors, but we reused the gate base class to implement it, since it has multiple bits of input and needs to update its state whenever one of the inputs changes.

class digit : public gate < four_input > {
    using gate < four_input > ::my_graph;
    typedef gate < four_input > ::ports_type ports_type;
    typedef gate < four_input > ::input_port_t input_port_t;
    class digit_body {
        signal_t ports[4];
        unsigned int &state;
        string &label;
        bool& report_changes;
    public:
        digit_body(unsigned int &s, string &l, bool& r) : state(s), label(l), report_changes(r) {
            for (int i=0; i < N; ++i) ports[i] = undefined;
        }
        void operator()(const input_port_t::output_type& v, ports_type& p) {
            unsigned int new_state = 0;
            if (v.indx == 0) ports[0] = std::get < 0 > (v.result);
            else if (v.indx == 1) ports[1] = std::get < 1 > (v.result);
            else if (v.indx == 2) ports[2] = std::get < 2 > (v.result);
            else if (v.indx == 3) ports[3] = std::get < 3 > (v.result);
            if (ports[0] == high) ++new_state;
            if (ports[1] == high) new_state += 2;
            if (ports[2] == high) new_state += 4;
            if (ports[3] == high) new_state += 8;
            if (state != new_state) {
                state = new_state;
                if (report_changes) {
                    printf("%s: %x\n", label.c_str(), state);
                }
            }
        }
    };
    string label;
    unsigned int state;
    bool report_changes;
 public:
    digit(graph& g, string l, bool rc=false) :
        gate < four_input > (g, digit_body(state, label, report_changes)),
        label(l), state(0), report_changes(rc) {}
    digit(const digit& src) :
        gate < four_input > (src.my_graph, digit_body(state, label, report_changes)),
        label(src.label), state(0), report_changes(src.report_changes) {}
    ~digit() {}
    digit& operator=(const digit& src) {
        label = src.label; state = 0; report_changes = src.report_changes;
        return *this;
    }
    void display() { printf("%s: %x\n", label.c_str(), state); }
};

Because digit inherits from gate, it reuses gate’s get_in methods to connect to the ports of a digit object.

Here’s an example code to test out the four-bit adder. First, create a graph:

graph g;

Then, create the four-bit adder, some toggles with which to set the inputs to the adder, and a digit and an LED to display the output:

four_bit_adder four_adder(g);
std::vector < toggle > A(4, toggle(g));
std::vector < toggle > B(4, toggle(g));
toggle CarryIN(g);
digit Sum(g, "SUM");
led CarryOUT(g, "CarryOUT");

Next, connect our toggles to the input ports of the adder, and connect the adder’s output ports to the display devices:

for (int i=0; i<4; ++i) {
    make_edge(A[i].get_out(), four_adder.get_A(i));
    make_edge(B[i].get_out(), four_adder.get_B(i));
    make_edge(four_adder.get_out(i), Sum.get_in(i));
}
make_edge(CarryIN.get_out(), four_adder.get_CI());
make_edge(four_adder.get_CO(), CarryOUT.get_in());

Almost ready to go, activate all the switches at the low state so that everything starts at zero:

for (int i=0; i<4; ++i) {
    A[i].activate();
    B[i].activate();
}
CarryIN.activate();

Now I can start flipping toggles. I’ve set digit and led to display only when requested by default, because I don’t want to see all the changes before this circuit reaches a steady state. Let’s try 8+5:

A[3].flip();
B[0].flip();
B[2].flip();

Wait for the circuit to reach a steady state:>/p>

g.wait_for_all();

Now display the results:

Sum.display();
CarryOUT.display();

And here they are:

SUM: d
CarryOUT: ( )

And with that, I’ll wrap up this blog by saying that the logic simulation example code is available as an example in Intel® TBB 4.0 Update 4, and that it has several other interesting features, like push button and constant signal input devices, NAND and NOR gates, and a D-latch circuit example. Please let us know of other interesting use cases for the or_node and any other feedback you’d be willing to give.

Developing and Optimizing for Atom Processor-Based Platforms
Presenters: Ashok Emani, Rekha Raghu and Dave Valdovinos
Date: May 15, 4:00-5:15pm

In this session, you will learn about developing Android applications for Intel Atom processor-based tablets and smartphones. This session will address porting native libraries using x86 NDK, tips and tricks for identifying and removing performance bottlenecks, and identifying optimization opportunities to make your apps run best on Intel Atom-based tablets and smartphones.

In addition, attendees will learn how to develop multi-platform apps with techniques that has been applied to a real life application. Attendees will also learn about valuable technical resources available to developers through the Android Developer Community at www.intel.com/software/android. Attendees should have a basic understanding of Android app development.

Tips, Tools and Technology for Android on Intel Architecture
Presenters: Josh Doss, Ashok Emani, Margaret LaBrecque and Dave Valdovinos
Date: May 17, 11:45am-12:15pm

Get on the ground floor of creating amazing apps for the mobile technology of tomorrow. When you optimize your app for Android on the Intel Architecture platform, you are opening the door to a new world of opportunities.

In this session, you will learn about the Android Gingerbread and ICS x86 emulator image add-ons and how to use them in conjunction with the Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager, allowing the emulator to run at near native speed. In addition, learn how the Intel Graphics Performance Analyzer for Android can help optimize games, media, and other graphics-intensive applications. Finally, get tips on how to create NDK-based Android apps for Intel Atom processor-based devices.

And also many other activities such as: Some amazing demonstrations on our booth (#700) and also a short presentation as part of the "Lightning Talks".

Demos:
1. Android Developer Community program
The team from the Intel® Developer Community for Android* will be on-hand to present, demonstrate and answer questions about the valuable resources available on this site.

2. Key apps on a smartphone or tablet
A demonstration of Android apps that have been enabled for Intel® Atom™ processor based devices including smartphones and tablets.

3. Intel® GPA for Android
A demonstration of the Intel® Graphics Performance Analyzer (GPA) for Android. GPA is an easy-to-use suite of optimization tools for analyzing and optimizing games, media, and other graphics intensive applications.

4. X86 emulator and HW acceleration manager
A demonstration of the performance of an app on Android ICS using the Intel® Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager (Intel® HAXM). Intel® HAXM allows for faster Android emulation on Intel VT enabled systems.

Lightning Talk:
Device compatibility and App launch anxiety on Intel Atom processor based smartphones
Presenter: Hemanth Kumar
Date: Tuesday, May 15, 5:30 pm (As part of the Android Lightning Talks.)

To begin with, I’ll first construct a one-bit full adder as in Figure 2 below:

Figure 2

The inputs are A and B, and a Carry-in bit, and the output is the sum S, and a Carry-out bit. Here is the code for the one_bit_adder class:

class one_bit_adder {
    broadcast_node < signal_t > A_port;
    broadcast_node < signal_t > B_port;
    broadcast_node < signal_t > CI_port;
    xor_gate < two_input > FirstXOR;
    xor_gate < two_input > SecondXOR;
    and_gate < two_input > FirstAND;
    and_gate < two_input > SecondAND;
    or_gate < two_input > FirstOR;
    graph& my_graph;
    void make_connections() {
        make_edge(A_port, FirstXOR.get_in(0));
        make_edge(A_port, FirstAND.get_in(0));
        make_edge(B_port, FirstXOR.get_in(1));
        make_edge(B_port, FirstAND.get_in(1));
        make_edge(CI_port, SecondXOR.get_in(1));
        make_edge(CI_port, SecondAND.get_in(1));
        make_edge(FirstXOR.get_out(), SecondXOR.get_in(0));
        make_edge(FirstXOR.get_out(), SecondAND.get_in(0));
        make_edge(SecondAND.get_out(), FirstOR.get_in(0));
        make_edge(FirstAND.get_out(), FirstOR.get_in(1));
    }
public:
    one_bit_adder(graph& g) :
        my_graph(g), A_port(g), B_port(g), CI_port(g), FirstXOR(g),
        SecondXOR(g), FirstAND(g), SecondAND(g), FirstOR(g)
    {
        make_connections();
    }
    one_bit_adder(const one_bit_adder& src) :
        my_graph(src.my_graph), A_port(src.my_graph), B_port(src.my_graph),
        CI_port(src.my_graph), FirstXOR(src.my_graph), SecondXOR(src.my_graph),
        FirstAND(src.my_graph), SecondAND(src.my_graph), FirstOR(src.my_graph)
    {
        make_connections();
    }
    ~one_bit_adder() {}
    receiver < signal_t > & get_A() { return A_port; }
    receiver < signal_t > & get_B() { return B_port; }
    receiver < signal_t > & get_CI() { return CI_port; }
    sender < signal_t > & get_out() { return SecondXOR.get_out(); }
    sender < signal_t > & get_CO() { return FirstOR.get_out(); }
};

This implementation is almost a straightforward translation of the gates and their connections into the flow graph format. The one complication is the addition of the broadcast_nodes for each of the input ports. The reason for this is simply to enable connection to a single port from outside of the adder. Since each of the inputs is connected to two gates inside of the one_bit_adder object, there is no single port associated with them automatically. Adding the broadcast_nodes enables us to provide the methods get_A, get_B and get_CI that each return a single port capable of receiving data. So, in looking at the diagram above, you can think of the three broadcast_nodes as standing in for the black junction circles that the three inputs are connected to directly.

To make the four_bit_adder class, simply chain together a set of four one_bit_adders and connect the Carry-out port of each adder to the Carry-in port of the next adder, as shown in Figure 3 below:

Figure 3

This time, the class is even more straightforward to implement, because no broadcast_nodes are needed; every input already has exactly one internal connection.

class four_bit_adder {
    graph& my_graph;
    std::vector < one_bit_adder > four_adders;
    void make_connections() {
        make_edge(four_adders[0].get_CO(), four_adders[1].get_CI());
        make_edge(four_adders[1].get_CO(), four_adders[2].get_CI());
        make_edge(four_adders[2].get_CO(), four_adders[3].get_CI());
    }
 public:
    four_bit_adder(graph& g) : my_graph(g), four_adders(4, one_bit_adder(g)) {
        make_connections();
    }
    four_bit_adder(const four_bit_adder& src) :
        my_graph(src.my_graph), four_adders(4, one_bit_adder(src.my_graph))
    {
        make_connections();
    }
    ~four_bit_adder() {}
    receiver < signal_t > & get_A(size_t bit) {
        return four_adders[bit].get_A();
    }
    receiver < signal_t > & get_B(size_t bit) {
        return four_adders[bit].get_B();
    }
    receiver < signal_t > & get_CI() {
        return four_adders[0].get_CI();
    }
    sender < signal_t > & get_out(size_t bit) {
        return four_adders[bit].get_out();
    }
    sender < signal_t > & get_CO() {
        return four_adders[3].get_CO();
    }
};

Here, the constructor makes a vector of exactly four adders, and connects the Carry-out ports to the Carry-in ports as appropriate. The multi-bit inputs and outputs have port access methods that take a bit as a parameter. So for example, to get the input port for bit 2 of input B, you would use get_B(2).

In Part 3, I will present some interesting input and output devices to add to the logic simulation library, and with those, I’ll put together a small simulation that shows the four_bit_adder in action.

It’s not about the chip.

If it was, I’d have no idea what to say. I studied philosophy, not engineering. Before I began working at Intel nearly two years ago, I could barely tell the difference between CPUs and GPUs and chipsets and platforms and gigahertz and megahertz.

It’s not about the devices. 

If it was, then my friends and family would look at me with sarcastic glances. Yes, they would tell me, your Ultrabooks look really cool, but aren’t they just slimmer laptops? And wait, what about MacBook Airs? And where are all these smartphones and tablets with Intel Inside that you keep telling me about?

It’s not about the brand.

If it was, then I could work at Coca-Cola* or BMW* or Red Bull* or McDonald’s* or WalMart* and not notice much of a difference. People know who we are. We make a lot of money. People love our brand. Our brand is among the world’s valuable. But that is not why I evangelize about Intel.

It’s about our stories.

Like the story of Bonnie , a former director in Intel’s Digital Health Group now at Intel-GE Care Innovations, who drove over 500 miles from Loomis, CA to the Yucca Valley to hand-deliver an Intel Reader to an 86-year old family friend suffering from macular generation free of charge – all made possible because of DHeG’s commitment to ‘pay it forward’.

Like the story of marketing manager Yoshie, who in a time of crisis following Japan’s tsunamis rallied together an Intel team to connect refugees with their loved ones through WiMax-connected Classmate PCs.

Like the story of Angie , a formerly frustrated, worn-out, ready-to-quit teacher in Arizona whose work and life were revitalized through the Intel Teach program and the power of technology-infused learning – and who Intel later recognized as one of the 20 most inspiring educators in the US.

Like the story of our dear friend will.i.am, who is globetrotting around the world, helping to change the way we experience music.

These are not my stories. I did not personally live them. But actually, they are my stories, in the sense that they are weaved together as one larger Intel story – of connecting and enriching lives,  of creating meaningful technological experiences, and  of enabling a better future through these experiences. It’s not about what they do, or what I do. It’s about what we do.

It’s about the fact that I don’t have to make promises about what Intel plans to do or wants to do – it’s about what we have already done. Yes, it’s about connecting and enriching the lives of people we’ve yet to reach, but it’s also about the lives of people we already have.

I am extremely fortunate in that it is literally in my job description to be an Intel ambassador and tell stories – to help educate and inspire our employees, to help them understand why it is that we do what we do – changing the world through our technology. But the privilege does not rest with me – whether one is an engineer, or marketer, a manufacturing technician, IT analyst – we are all here for the same reason. And we can all tell these stories. We can all claim ownership.

And it is not because we want to build better-performing products than our competitors, or raise our stock price, or create the next popular ‘it’ gadget. That stuff is nice, but don’t answer the question of ‘why’.

Why do I get up every morning to come to Intel? Bonnie is why. Yoshi is why. Angieis why. Will.i.am is why. I come to work because I am excited to hear about and pass on the stories of how we take one simple element – silicon – and we change the course of lives, and of history.

Being an ambassador and advocate is simple. It’s about storytelling. It’s about pride. It’s about the sense of accomplishment you feel when you sit back and reflect on all the brilliant work your colleagues have done – the great work done long before you arrived and the great work that will continue long after you’ve departed.

It’s about reflecting on your time at Intel long after you retire, passing down stories to your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren: “This is how we changed the world. And this was why we changed the world.” And that, is why I come to work everyday. Why do you?

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Cinco de Mayo is coming up around the corner, here are two apps to download and  use for the special occasion. One to teach kids Spanish and one to download recipes and  learn to cook the whole enchilada!

If you have kids and want them to learn Spanish, give 

What are you cooking for Cinco de Mayo?

Find it with the recipe app CookIt 123:

Also visit the Intel AppUp Store for other great PC apps

Consider an AND gate. In its simplest form, it takes two inputs, and produces a single output. The first thing that comes to mind to represent this is the flow graph function_node: it could take a pair as input, and a body that computes the logical AND operation on the items in the pair, and puts out the result as its output. That might work, but let’s think a little more about how such a gate might receive its two input signals: a function_node takes a single argument, so I’d have to group the two inputs together. However, both inputs will be coming from different senders, and may not be available at the same time. Should I preface the function_node with a join_node? Possibly, but there’s still a limitation with a join_node: it gathers together the inputs and when it has received the full complement, it then sends them along as a tuple. But this still isn’t exactly the behavior I want. What I really want is when either of the inputs becomes available, the function_node should be told about it, because it will need to change its output value when any of its input values change.

Thus, the first decision about gates is this: Gates are responsive: when any input changes, the gate will check if its output needs to change. To simplify this a little, and make our flow graph have to do a little less work, I’ll make this second decision: Gates are lazy; a gate will send data to its output port only when that data differs from the previous value sent to that output port. This will certainly reduce the number of tasks doing redundant work in the graph.

So, on the input side, something reports changes on any input port, and on the output side, something produces output, or not, depending on if the output value has changed. Neither of these behaviors corresponds exactly to a function_node. However, the new feature multifunction_node (formerly the Community Preview feature (CPF) multioutput_function_node) can certainly meet the output needs: it can optionally produce an output. For the input, if the title of this blog hasn’t given it away already, my choice is the or_node. The or_node will pass along any input it receives on any input port at any time, giving exactly the responsiveness I need. The or_node is currently a CPF in Intel® TBB.

Figure 1

Figure 1 illustrates this basic logic gate design. Note that the or_node takes a variable number of inputs – no need to limit it to two – and the multifunction_node takes a body that produces either no output or one output. In general, the multifunction_node can produce zero or more outputs of varying types, but for the gate implementation, zero or one output will suffice. Let’s take a look at the actual code for this, the gate template class.

First, I set up a type signal_t to represent the signal data being transferred. Since I’m allowing the gates to fire only when the output state changes, it helps to have an additional undefined state for initialization.

typedef enum { low=0, high, undefined } signal_t;

Next, I define a few potential input configurations to gates. I could go all out and add eight_input gates, but I couldn’t dredge up a use for them from the dark and rarely-visited corner of my brain where I keep the knowledge leftover from a digital logic course so many years ago.

typedef tuple < signal_t > one_input;
typedef tuple < signal_t, signal_t > two_input;
typedef tuple < signal_t, signal_t, signal_t > three_input;
typedef tuple < signal_t, signal_t, signal_t, signal_t > four_input;

Now I’m ready to set up the gate template.

template < typename GateInput >
class gate {
protected:
    typedef or_node < GateInput > input_port_t;
    typedef multifunction_node < typename input_port_t::output_type, tuple < signal_t > > gate_fn_t;
    typedef typename gate_fn_t::output_ports_type ports_type;
public:
    static const int N = std::tuple_size < GateInput > ::value;

    template < typename Body >
    gate(graph& g, Body b) : my_graph(g), in_ports(g), gate_fn(g, 1, b) {
        make_edge(in_ports, gate_fn);
    }
    virtual ~gate() {}
    virtual gate& operator=(const gate& src) { return *this; }
    sender < signal_t > & get_out() { return output_port < 0 > (gate_fn); }
    receiver < signal_t > & get_in(size_t port) {
        return gate_helper < N > ::get_inport(in_ports, (int)port);
    }
protected:
    graph& my_graph;
private:
    input_port_t in_ports;
    gate_fn_t gate_fn;
};

The class is templated by the input configuration, GateInput, so for example, I would pass in two_input if I wanted to make a gate with two inputs. Then I define two types. First, input_port_t, which is the type of the or_node that that I’ll pass the input configuration to, as specified by GateInput. Second is gate_fn_t, which is the multifunction_node that takes the output from the or_node, performs the function of the gate, and outputs a single signal_t (or nothing). These types are used to declare the actual graph nodes in_ports and gate_fn, in the private section of the class above.

The gate constructor initializes the two graph nodes, making them belong to a graph g that is passed in as a reference parameter. Additionally, the constructor takes a function object b that performs the actual logical operation on the inputs to the gate, and determines what the new output will be. So in the case of an AND gate, I would pass in a function object that computes a logical AND operation. The constructor also completes this small component by connecting the two graph nodes with the make_edge function.

In order to connect this gate to other components, I’ve provided methods to access the input ports and the output port. get_in takes a port number and returns a reference to an input port capable of receiving data, i.e. a receiver& in the flow graph jargon. It uses the gate_helper::get_inport function shown below to extract the input port to the or_node. get_out returns a reference to the output port of the multifunction_node which is capable of sending data, i.e. a sender&.

template < int N >
struct gate_helper {
    template < typename TupleType >
    static inline receiver < signal_t > & get_inport(or_node < TupleType > & in_ports, int port) {
        if (N-1 == port) return input_port < N-1 > (in_ports);
        else return gate_helper < N-1 > ::get_inport(in_ports, port);
    }
};
template <>
struct gate_helper < 1 > {
    template < typename TupleType >
    static inline receiver < signal_t > & get_inport(or_node < TupleType > & in_ports, int port) {
        return input_port < 0 > (in_ports);
    }
};

Now that I have a building block for creating a wide variety of logic gates, I’ll use it for designing an AND gate. When creating the derived class and_gate, the main purpose is to define the functor that gets passed to the gate_fn object inside the gate base class. and_body computes a logical AND operation over all the inputs to the gate, including undefined inputs, so the function is not completely trivial.

template < typename GateInput >
class and_gate : public gate < GateInput > {
    using gate < GateInput > ::N;
    using gate < GateInput > ::my_graph;
    typedef typename gate < GateInput > ::ports_type ports_type;
    typedef typename gate < GateInput > ::input_port_t input_port_t;
    class and_body {
        signal_t ports[N];
        signal_t state;
        bool touched;
    public:
        and_body() : state(undefined), touched(false)
            for (int i=0; i < N; ++i) ports[i] = undefined;
        }
        void operator()(const typename input_port_t::output_type& v, ports_type& p) {
            ports[v.indx] = or_output_helper < N > ::get_or_output(v);
            signal_t new_state=high;
            size_t i=0;
            while (i < N) {
                if (ports[i] == low)
                    new_state = low; break;
                else if (ports[i] == undefined && new_state != low)
                    new_state = undefined;
                ++i;
            }
            if (!touched || state != new_state) {
                state = new_state;
                std::get < 0 > (p).try_put(state);
                touched = true;
            }
        }
    };
 public:
    and_gate(graph& g) : gate < GateInput > (g, and_body()) {}
    and_gate(const and_gate < GateInput > & src) : gate < GateInput > (src.my_graph, and_body()) {}
    ~and_gate() {}
};

The and_body keeps track of the states of the gate’s input ports and output port. These are all initially undefined. The operator() for and_body receives the or_node output in parameter v, which indicates that data was received on one of the input ports. The input port that received data is specified in v.indx. Accessing the data from that port is a little more challenging, as the entire input tuple is passed in v.result. I wrote a helper function or_output_helper::get_or_output to select the v.indx-th port of the tuple v.result. This value is used to update the locally stored state of the appropriate port, and then the new output state is calculated. The new state is checked to see if it differs from the old state, and if so, the new state is sent out on the appropriate output port of the multifunction_node (which in this case, since there is only one output, is always port zero). Note also that the very first time a gate receives data, i.e. when touched is false, the new state is sent out even if it is not different from the initial state. This is useful when the gate is a part of a larger circuit. It allows any initial settings on input ports to propagate through the graph and register at any possible output devices that might exist.

The helper function that extracts the or_node output is as follows:

template < int N >
struct or_output_helper {
    template < typename OrOutputType >
    static inline signal_t get_or_output(const OrOutputType& out) {
        if (N-1 == out.indx) return std::get < N-1 > (out.result);
        else return or_output_helper < N-1 > ::get_or_output(out);
    }
};
template <>
struct or_output_helper < 1 > {
    template < typename OrOutputType >
    static inline signal_t get_or_output(const OrOutputType& out) {
        return std::get < 0 > (out.result);
    }
};

Given an AND gate, it’s easy to see how to make OR gates and any other sort of basic logic gate from the base class gate.

As the or_node is currently a Community Preview feature, it’s a good time to have a look at it and give us your feedback.

In Part 2 of this blog, I’ll show you how to put together a variety of basic logic gates to make a four-bit adder.

In the last week, I got myself a "new iPad" with retina display. It's really a wonderful display and moving forward, there probably will be a lot more high DPI displays available for tablets and laptops. When visiting web sites, the fonts and CSS elements of the web page look sharp, but the images are a little washed out because they are stretched to the higher DPI. Well, I just spent a few hours working on improving Meshcentral's look on the new iPad. When detected, higher resolution images are used and I changed the top logo on the site to something that would render better.

The result is a really good looking web site on the new iPad. I can tell what images have been updates and which have not. I have not gone thru the entire site, but many of the more important element have been upgraded. In the future, HTML will have to include some way to detect high-DPI displays, for now, the new iPad is detected specifically, so only that device will get the improved graphics on that page. Moving forward, I will look at opportunities to extend this feature to all displays that can benefit. Also, for any other device, the normal graphics are loaded, so the pages are not any larger in size.

Enjoy!
Ylian
meshcentral.com

I had a privilege of a preview to our integration between the Enterprise Service Gateway (ESG) and McAfee DLP (Data Loss Prevention) and it was amazing. I am so excited and wanted to share with you some of those features and what you can expect in coming releases.

McAfee DLP is a data leakage solution that safeguards business critical information by scanning the network for sensitive data and ensuring that it doesn’t leak outside the corporate network. It also offers pre-configured policies for HIPAA, PCI, etc.

ESG is a Swiss army knife, which can be used as a secure gateway, XML Firewall, application level gateway, identity mediator, Web Service proxy, edge security device, etc.

Obviously this applies only to data in motion and not for data at rest. What is more interesting is that it is policy driven and can be identity based or role based. Now, that is powerful.

The ESG is in the line of traffic and sends the messages to DLP to find out if any part of the message is considered sensitive. If the message is considered sensitive then it can be terminated. Keep in mind it could apply as a reverse proxy as well for the incoming messages if you want messages containing certain sensitive information to enter your enterprise for compliance, auditing reasons.

 As you can see, integrating with a DLP is as simple as dragging the DLP action item and dropping it in the palette.  Once you’ve done this, enter the host/port and any other relevant information and your workflow is DLP activated. Essentially this means all of your edge devices can be connected to one central place to scan for outgoing sensitive information to stop sensitive data leaks. Now imagine the power of that. All of your edge devices – whether it is Application Firewalls, Web Gateways, XML Firewalls – can all be connected to a central place, which can scan your outgoing (and incoming if necessary) messages for sensitive information based on corporate policies and compliance requirements.

The great thing is you can start building policies as needed. McAfee DLP has functionality is known as capture. Using McAfee capture technology you can not only look for data, but you can capture all the data that is going out.  The captured data helps you see real world patterns of data usage and possibly replay this history to adjust and refine your scans.  This provides the comfort and confidence that you are aware of planned and new threats as they evolve.

We integrated with McAfee DLP, not just to show off that we are part of a bigger security organization, but also because this is a top notch solution available in the market. As you can see in the picture below by Gartner and Forrester the analysts agree.

I hope you will be as excited as I am when you see this solution in action and see how easy it is to configure and use (and re-use).

If you need more information on this or on our solutions in general please check out www.intel.com/go/identity or reach out to me.

Andy Thurai — Chief Architect & CTO, Application Security and Identity Products, Intel

Andy Thurai is Chief Architect and CTO of Application Security and Identity Products with Intel, where he is responsible for architecting SOA, Cloud, Governance, Security, and Identity solutions for their major corporate customers. In his role, he is responsible for helping Intel/McAfee field sales, technical teams and customer executives. Prior to this role, he has held technology architecture leadership and executive positions with L-1 Identity Solutions, IBM (Datapower), BMC, CSC, and Nortel. His interests and expertise include Cloud, SOA, identity management, security, governance, and SaaS. He holds a degree in Electrical and Electronics engineering and has over 20+ years of IT experience.

He blogs regularly at www.thurai.net/securityblog on Security, SOA, Identity, Governance and Cloud topics. You can find him on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/andythurai.

Don’t miss the chance to learn how to optimize your app for Android on the Intel Architecture.

We'll be providing two great technical sessions for those interested in developing with Android OS on Intel Architecture:

• Developing and Optimizing Android Applications for Intel Atom Processor Based Platforms, Tuesday May 15, 4:00-5:15pm
• Tips, Tools and Technology for Android* on Intel® Architecture, Thursday May 17, 11:45am-12:15pm

And here’s the best part: our community members can save $200 on their conference pass! The only thing needed is to enter the discount code "Intel" when you register.

And of course we’ll be looking forward to meeting you at the booth #700 where we have even more surprises awaiting.

Start today to create amazing apps for the mobile technology of tomorrow!

The idea of creating videos can be daunting with all of the equipment to remember on top of thinking about what it is you’re shooting.

Here are some tips to ease the video production process:

What to Shoot
The first step in video production is to know what you want to shoot. Video is an effective tool because it invokes emotion or teaches the audience something new. The most effective videos tell a story, but what story could you tell? Here are some story ideas for your future videos:

• Demo your product
• Three top tips for using your product
• Client testimonials
• A behind the scenes look at the company
• Sneak peek at your upcoming product
• How-to video on using your product

Getting Started
Video equipment is getting less expensive. If you’re just starting out, pick up a low-cost HD camera and tripod.

Picking your location is almost as important as what you are shooting. Here are some ideas to keep in mind:
• Think about the background: If you can help it, stay away from a wall. Find a background that is visually interesting and can help tell the story. Depth in the background will highlight the subject and keep the audience interested.
• Use your ears: If the room sounds like a church hall, your audio will too. Look for rooms with carpet or furniture that will dampen the echo effect.

Setup
Keeping the camera steady is key to a comfortable viewing experience. The most important piece of equipment other than the camera is the tripod. If you need to improvise, use a table or podium.

When your equipment is ready, record a short test video to check for sound, batteries, framing and lighting. With all systems checked, you are ready for takeoff, and you’ll have confidence that the video is being recorded to the best quality.

Help Your Subject Help You
Work smart, not hard. Think about the final product while shooting your video. Leave the camera recording for four seconds before and after every shot for editing. Before you begin filming, ask the interviewee to answer the questions in complete sentences; speak loudly, slowly and clearly; and leave a space between each answer. These tips will cut the editing time down and you’ll have a better video in the end.

Take the Shot
Framing a beautiful shot will greatly increase the production value. Use the rule of thirds whenever you have a subject in the shot. For example, place your subject on the left side of the frame, then stand on the right side of your camera, so the subject is looking across the frame rather than at the camera. With an interesting background and using the rule of thirds, your video will go from a homemade video to a professional documentary-quality interview.

The most effective videos are 30 seconds or less. If this is too short for your subject, don’t worry, the second most effective videos are 1:30 and longer.

Save Yourself with B-Roll
B-roll is the extra footage you can use to cutaway to when you have editing cuts. Good b-roll should be footage that relates to what your subject is talking about. Try to have at least two shots of b-roll for every question you ask. If you’re not asking questions, for every main shot you should have at least 10 b-roll shots.

Be Social and Share
Your video needs a home to link to. Create a company YouTube account to host your videos. Make it easy for your audience to find your video by using specific keywords that relate to your video. Include the keywords in the title, description, key search terms field and for any extra social media posts you use to promote the video. From there, you can embed your video to any of your other sites with a quick copy and paste.

Wherever your audience goes, so should your video. Promote your video on Pinterest, Facebook page, Facebook tabs, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Google Adwords and your website.

Try these tips to create a video of the story you want to tell in one of the most engaging ways possible. Premier Elite Partners and Premier Partners in the Intel(R) Software Partner Program also have access to Wooshii, a video and animation production service.

There are two modes of use for this feature: basic mode and expert mode. Basic mode is straightforward and not much more complex than using a mutex. Expert mode requires some understanding of how the aggregator works, and additional coding, but can enable additional performance improvements. In this blog, I will first illustrate how to use the aggregator in the basic mode. Then I’ll give a brief overview of how the aggregator works, followed by an example of how to use the aggregator in the expert mode. Finally, I’ll examine the performance of the aggregator and suggest approaches to help decide whether or not to use it.

Side-by-side Comparison of Basic Aggregator Usage with Mutex Usage

In this simple example, I’ll compare the usage of a mutex with an aggregator to lock push and pop operations on a serial priority queue object of type std::priority_queue. This example uses C++1x features, such as lambdas, but one could use function objects instead. Fair warning: I’m interspersing code snippets below, because this blog format doesn’t allow for side-by-side code comparison. Please don’t try to use both a mutex and an aggregator to protect the same code.

First, declare the priority queue. I'll use a simple integer priority queue here:

typedef int value_type;
typedef priority_queue < value_type, std::vector < value_type > , compare_type > pq_t;
pq_t my_pq;

Declare a mutex to protect my_pq:

spin_mutex my_mutex;

Alternatively, declare an aggregator to protect my_pq:

aggregator my_aggregator;

Declare an element to push/pop from queue:

value_type elem = 42;

Now, push an element on the queue using the mutex:

{
    tbb::spin_mutex::scoped_lock my_lock(my_mutex);
    my_pq.push(elem);
}

Or, push the element on the queue using the aggregator and a lambda expression:

my_aggregator.execute( [&my_pq, &elem](){
    my_pq.push(elem);
} );

Pop an element off the queue using the mutex:

bool result = false;
{
    tbb::spin_mutex::scoped_lock my_lock(*my_mutex);
    if (!my_pq.empty()) {
        result = true;
        elem = my_pq.top();
        my_pq.pop();
    }
}

Pop an element off the queue using the aggregator:

bool result = false;
my_aggregator.execute( [&my_pq, &elem, &result](){
    if (!my_pq.empty()) {
        result = true;
        elem = my_pq.top();
        my_pq.pop();
    }
} );

How the Aggregator Works

As we see above, the usage of the aggregator in basic mode is trivially different from using a mutex. However, it is clearly working in a different way. In order to execute a critical section, you pass it to an aggregator via the execute method. When the execute method returns, the critical section has been executed, but how this happened is hidden inside the black box of the aggregator.

Looking at the header file aggregator.h that defines the aggregator, these details become clear. To use the aggregator in expert mode, you should have some familiarity with the header file, and I'll guide you through the most important features in the rest of this blog.

First note that aggregator inherits from a class aggregator_ext that takes a template parameter. Aggregator instantiates that template parameter with a simple handler defined in the header, handler_type = internal::basic_handler. We will discuss this more later.

The execute method of aggregator takes a function body as parameter, and encapsulates body in a basic_operation object, which inherits from aggregator_operation. Aggregator_operations are sent to the aggregator_ext’s mailbox where they may concurrently accumulate while they await execution. One thread, the active handler, i.e. the first thread to place an aggregator_operation in the empty mailbox, will grab all the operations that have accumulated there, effectively emptying the mailbox. It will then go through all the operations that it grabbed, and serially execute the function bodies stored in those objects. The mechanism used to execute function bodies is specified by aggregator_ext’s template parameter, which in the default case is called basic_handler.

This basic_handler is straightforward in its functioning: it is passed the list of aggregator_operations, and it loops through this list and handles each item. It makes use of a few methods on aggregator_operation to do this properly: next is used to traverse to the next operation in the list, start prepares the operation to be handled, and finish is called after the operation is handled to inform the thread waiting on the execution of the operation that the operation is completed. When all operations are handled, the active handler thread can leave the aggregator, since its own call to execute has been satisfied in the process.

The details of the synchronization that make this all possible can be found in aggregator.h. We won’t explain them fully here, because we already have enough information to proceed to use the aggregator in expert mode. It is enough to know that threads hand over critical sections to the aggregator, and one of these threads will execute all the operations serially on behalf of the other threads as a single critical section.

Using the Aggregator in Expert Mode

I’ll use the same example as before, allowing threads to safely push and pop to a serial std::priority_queue. The expert mode of aggregator allows the user to pass any sort of data in to the aggregator as an aggregator_operation via the process method (note the different method name – we were using execute in basic mode), along with an aggregating function object that is called by the active handler to perform the serial execution of operations. In this case, I’ll pass data about a push or pop operation to the aggregator via process, and provide a custom function object to perform the operations.

First, create a class derived from aggregator_operation to hold the operation data.

class op_data : public aggregator_operation {
public:
    value_type* elem;
    bool success;
    bool is_push;
    op_data(value_type* e, bool push=false): elem(e), success(false), is_push(push) {}
};

Then, create a handler to pass in as the aggregator’s template parameter:

class my_handler_t {
    pq_t *pq;
public:
    my_handler_t() {}
    my_handler_t(pq_t *pq_) : pq(pq_) {}
    void operator()(aggregator_node* op_list) {
        op_data* tmp;
        while (op_list) {
            tmp = (op_data*)op_list;
            op_list = op_list->next();
            tmp->start();
            // handle tmp here
            if (tmp->is_push) pq->push(*(tmp->elem));
            else {
                if (!pq->empty()) {
                    tmp->success = true;
                    *(tmp->elem) = pq->top();
                    pq->pop();
                }
            }
            // done handling tmp
            tmp->finish();
        }
    }
};

Now, to create an aggregator, use the aggregator_ext type name and pass this handler’s type in as the template parameter, and initialize the handler and pass it in as an argument to the constructor:

aggregator_ext < my_handler_t > my_aggregator(my_handler_t(my_pq));

To perform a push, simply create the op_data node with the push information and pass it to process:

op_data my_push_op(&elem, true);
my_aggregator.process(&my_push_op);

And to perform a pop:

bool result;
op_data my_pop_op(&elem);
my_aggregator.process(&my_pop_op);
result = my_pop_op.success;

When to use Aggregator and why use Expert Mode?

A good way to start is to compare the performance of your code using your current locking mechanism to a version of your code that uses an aggregator instead. In practice, we (developers of TBB) have often found that a mutex is sufficient and outperforms aggregator when contention on the critical region is low. For higher contention, we often find that the use of the aggregator is justified.

The aggregator provides most of its performance improvements in hot cache execution of operations on a single thread. (Recall the active handler?) Thus, the more concurrent contention on your critical region, the larger the aggregations will be that are assembled, and the greater the benefits of executing operations with a hot cache on a single thread.

If you do find that the basic aggregator improves your code’s performance, consider moving to the expert level. To begin with, you can simply transform your code as I’ve shown in the expert example above. This should result in better performance over the basic interface. The reason for this is that, in the basic interface, the function object or lambda expression you wish to execute and all the references to data that you want that code to access are stored on the stack of the thread that originated the operation. Referring back to the basic example, this means that for each operation, we look up a different reference to the same priority queue. But, in the expert example above, note that we store just a few data references in the aggregator_operation, and the code to execute the operation and references to the shared data (my_pq) are local to the aggregating functor and only need to be looked up once to handle all the operations in an aggregation. This enhances the hot cache effect by reducing the quantity of non-local stack accesses.

The expert-level usage of aggregator shown above is quite straightforward. However, you are free to handle operations in the aggregating handler in whatever manner you like. Consider the aggregation of operations an opportunity to develop new and interesting serial algorithms. This gives you a unique opportunity to make use of a kind of lookahead capability: you know the set of operations that you need to perform. For example, Intel® TBB’s concurrent_priority_queue handles the operations in two passes, performing some of them and postponing others, because some orderings of operations are more efficient than others. The only rules for processing operations in the aggregating handler are that they should all be handled, and, in some cases, there should be some serial sequence of the operations that achieves the same result (i.e. sequential consistency).

I’d like to hear about your experiences using aggregator, so if you get a chance, give it a try, and let me know how it went! You can comment here, or better yet, start a discussion on the Intel® TBB forum.

Generalizations:

PowerPoints:  Tech-savvy folks tend to provide too much information, usually with the intention of adding substance to (all!) of the knowledge they share (#overload).  While, non-tech individuals tend to not provide enough substance to their information (#underload?).  And the worst part?  Tech and non-tech people alike are usually guilty of creating over-cluttered, distracting, and hard-to-follow PowerPoints (when used).  What do I mean?  My idea of a good PowerPoint is one that:

1. Is understood sans presenter/creator’s explanation with the least amount of information used
2. Is minimalistic and focuses attention on the storyteller
3. Is either A or B, or a combination thereof—NOTE: ratio of A to B is highly dependent on the purpose of the presentation and audience

Using social media is no different, yet with something so intangible, how do you go about creating these measurable goals?

You start with the basics – the big picture goals, such as:
• Increase fan or follower base
• Drive traffic to the company website
• Build/increase your company’s e-mail subscriber list
• Reach new clients through relationship building

With these high-level goals, you now have to determine your specific goals. I can’t say what your goals should be since I’m not familiar with your company or what your definition of success is. You or your management team have to decide what numbers to strive for. I can, however, give you some suggestions on how you might start tracking the goals mentioned above.

Increase fan or follower base –
This assumes you are already on Twitter or Facebook. Take a note of how many fans and followers you have today. Then decide what number you want to strive for, and in what time period. If you’re a medium-size company, expecting 135,000 followers could be a stretch, but if you have 10,000 followers already, getting to 30,000 in 4 months may be appropriate.

With a social media tool, such as any mentioned in the last post, you can set up your Twitter account to automatically follow all those who follow your company, and by doing that, you can gain more exposure.

Drive traffic to the company website –
Get access to the analytics for your website traffic. If you don’t have the details already, contact your website manager or use Google Analytics (mentioned below). You want to look at how many people are visiting your site, but more important, how long they are staying on your site, which pages they are visiting, how many visitors opt-in to your newsletter or subscribe to your blog, and so on.

Once you have a baseline of where you are, you can determine where you want to be. A refresh of the website content or redesign of the landing page may be in order. Check the numbers on a weekly basis to see if your changes are working, or if you might need more website changes.

You also want to use social media platforms that allow you to include your website link with any posts. Most social media platforms have this functionality.

Build/increase your company’s e-mail subscriber list –
You’ll need to know the size of your e-mail list today before you can set a goal for how large you want to grow the list.

LinkedIn is a great tool for this bullet point because you can capture, download, and utilize the contact information of those you have “linked” with. At a minimum you will get names, e-mail addresses, company names, and locations for all your contacts.

An engaging opt-in page on your company’s website or Facebook landing page can capture e-mail addresses (at a minimum), or full contact information (if you offer the right incentive). One important note is to make sure you receive opt-ins for your newsletter and are compliant with the CAN-SPAM act.

Reach new clients through relationship building –
Google+ and Twitter are good platforms for the softer goal of building relationships because of the ease in having conversations through live streaming comments.

Google+ also gives you the ability to ‘circle’ people into categories for focused advertising or feedback, and it has “hangouts” where you can live-chat with one or more people at any time. Although it’s difficult to put a measurable goal on relationships, making the right connections and having useful interactions will lead to the bottom line at some point.

Building relationships isn’t all about pushing your product into the masses, it’s having conversations in person or through social media that give people something interesting to consider and comment on. And in order to be successful, it has to be two-way communication. So, no matter what platform or tool you use, there needs to be the back and forth with people, which takes time, effort, and planning.

Setting up ways to track results for your goals is the next task. There are many tools out there, and what you choose will depend, again, on what your ultimate target is.

• Google Analytics lets you track sales and conversions against the goals you’ve set for your company; track e-mail campaigns and keywords; create customized reports
• Facebook Insights gives you data on such things as the content viewers are reading and interacting with per individual post or consolidated way, demographic locations of the activity (if available from the user’s page)
• Hootsuite (mentioned in the last post on Twitter management tools) lets you incorporate Google Analytics and Facebook Insights in a dashboard. You can analyze social media traffic; follow conversations around your brand name; create custom reports

If you’re already on some platforms and they are giving you a positive return on your investment, refresh your profile. If you’re new to a platform, don’t hesitate to get started, because it does take time to gain traction.

When you first become a ‘manager’, you stopped working by yourself and started working through people and with people (although we started to work harder and longer, I must admit). But there’s an interesting thing I’ve noticed – if the number of people reporting to you grows more or less linear, the number of people you can potentially influence grows exponentially. And if you remember my idea about the value of chance, then you’d agree that the probability of having a “good” chance meeting an important person grows as your informal network grows. What’s interesting is the fact that you never (never!) know when and where you can meet the “right” person for the task you’re working on (or may be working on in the future). As an example I can recall a case when I helped one of our sales guys to solve a problem by connecting him to a person still working for the company I worked at before joining Intel. Another example is your school and college mates – I happened to find a great lawyer among my ex-classmates, he helped me and saved a lot of my money – thanks to the fact I attended our 10^th Graduation Anniversary.

Another great thing about networking is career growth. And I’m not actually talking about your own, though that’s great too. I mean the career shifts of the people in your network. That’s why it’s important to maintain your network and keep in touch with people you know as the time goes. So today my call to action includes two things:

a) build your network by all means, as long as you feel comfortable with them (attend events and chat with people, connect online, ask your friends to share some of their contacts, etc.), and

b) maintain you network by “pinging” its members from time to time. Sending them Birthday wishes (or calling them on important occasions) is a simple yet powerful network-maintenance trait.

This is where many social networks may serve you well. Try using them for their direct purpose – building and maintaining your social network. But do it with caution – mind your own privacy and be respectful of other’s right to privacy.

People's architecture is usually tilted towards what they are experienced with. The architecture is based on a paradigm and people usually continue from there. A most prominent paradigm 20 years ago was Procedural Programming. Today Object Oriented Programming is the dominant one. This means that people start they system design with OOD and then ask "what's next?". In attempt to pull people from automatically using OOD I had a post called Flaws of Object Oriented Modeling, and a followup called Flaws of Object Oriented Modeling Continue.

The truth is usually in between A and B. In this case the truth is 'all of the above'. There are many programming paradigms to employ in a single application. Failing to do so will damage: Code manageability, Response to changes in requirements, Flow management, Ability to integrate a new UI, and more. There is a long argument between OOP supporters and Procedural Programming supporters. Once in every some while someone would step in and say that you should use more esoteric things such as MVC, Aspect Oriented Programming, Pipeline, etc. Too often you would hear people suggesting what they just read about or learned about during a single session in an event. People will always want to try new things and show you that they know something special. There are other cases of course in which people are really experienced with several paradigms or are experienced with a specific paradigm and can immediately spot where it best applies. This is what you should be paying attention to.

What I am really looking for is a collection of Paradigm Patterns. Just as you would use a Design Pattern as a programming technique, I suggest that you also employ a Paradigm Pattern as a design technique. So where do we find these patterns? Google doesn't know...

There is a list of paradigms in Wikipedia (see Programming Paradigms) but it is only a list and not a pattern. A pattern should have a clear definition of how you identify where it applies, and a clear definition of how to use it. Either I am starting a new collection or someone reading these lines would comment with a reference, I will now try to create a rough list based on my own personal experience.

The items below are short and simple so that we don't need a full definition of the paradigm in order to understand the pattern. Obviously I will start with OOP and Procedural Programming and we'll build it from there.

First of all let's start with the definition of a paradigm: Programming Paradigm defines the boundaries of programming and design. From this paradigm we derive the definition of software Components, Interfaces, Programming Rules, and others. For example: there is a difference between how C# code is divided into DLL files than the way a C++ code is divided into DLL files. A C# DLL has a class as an Interface and a C++ DLL prefers global functions as an Interface. The decision when to use a goto in your C++ code is derived from the programming paradigm.

Object Oriented Programming

OOP is very commonly used because it allows developers to work on the same project without any interactions between them.
Use: When you have multiple programmers who can't understand each other, for example one is managing an SQL database and another is doing audio processing. OOD works great for Top Level Design.
Don't: When you have several developers who need to share implementation specifics, for example if you need to write a keyboard driver don't break it into fragments which hide implementation specifics from a developer working on the driver.

Procedural Programming

This paradigm is used for dividing a process into procedures. For example your day is a process. What you do from the time you park the car until you start reading emails is a procedure.
Use: When there is a complex operation which includes dependencies between operations and a need for clear visibility of different application states ('SQL loading', 'SQL loaded', 'Network online', 'No audio hardware', etc). This is usually appropriate for application startup and shutdown.
Don't: When there are many simple independent tasks to perform. Also don't use to manage UI.

Model View Controller

This paradigm is used often by developers who don't even know it exists. The idea behind it is the clear division between View: the data representation to the user; Model: the data / document / storage / a virtual representation of a storage (using business logic); and the [Controller] which is the user's interaction with the system. All this basically means that there is separation between how the data is represented to the user, from what the user can do with the data, from what the data really looks like. An example is Microsoft Word: The view is a text document, the controller allows printing, and the storage can be an rtf file, a doc file, or an XML based docx file.
Use: Almost anytime you provide UI. Employing this paradigm allows very rapid integration of a completely new UI and fast responses to changes in UI requirements.
Don't: If there is no UI, or when there is very close coupling between what the UI can do and the business logic (usually when creating a UI engine).

Distributed

You don't really need to use servers to have a distributed model. This paradigm states that there is no dependency between components just as with OOP, but with addition that there is also no dependency of infrastructure and object-to-object interaction should be kept to minimum.
Use: Whenever different platforms or infrastructures are used and when components are completely independent of each other. For example the interaction between User Mode and Kernel Mode is usually Distributed.
Don't: When data sharing has huge overhead, for interconnected modules, and between UI and Business Logic.

Pipeline

A Pipeline is usually made of several software components which are completely independent from each other. In this model there is usually a single data object sent from one component to the next. Most pipelines can operate completely asynchronously which makes it best for audio and video playback. Arranging components from left to right, too often a Pipeline has more than one component on a segment. For example decoding MPEG Audio frame and MPEG Video frame are two separate tasks which are independent of each other so they are both performed on the same timeslot of the Pipeline.
Use: When little or no UI interaction takes place, with Audio and Video playback and encoding, and when you have a chain of operations each dealing with a different technology. For example: Read XML file, Search items, Create Records, Save to SQL server.
Don't: When having multiple input types or events because there should be a different Pipeline for every type of input. Also when there is no clear correlation between Event and Response.

Layers

This paradigm divides the system into components just like OOP, with a huge difference - the system is divided into coherent layers. Each layer may employ OOP or Procedural internally but between layers there is a clear and simple interface. The ground rule is that requests only go from top to bottom, so a component within a lower layer cannot call a component within a higher layer. The only way to be serviced by a higher layer is by starting a new process / request. Usually the layers behave as a Distributed Pipeline.
Use: When OOP can be divided into Layers, when creating a system that has UI and hardware interaction, and in very large scale systems. Example: Windows NT (and Windows 8) Kernel.
Don't: Inside a Pipeline, in a small application or component, and don't create a Layer Engine inside a Layer.

Sounds like enough for now. You are welcome to comment with any thought.

Alonzo, Washington, DC Area Veteran:

• What made you sign up for an Intel Vet mentor? I attended a job fair in Dumferries, VA where it was recommended that I attend a workshop held at the Woodbridge Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) for vets, which is how I learned about the Intel VET workshop. Ever since attending, it has changed a little part of me each day.
• How do you feel having a mentor has helped you (i.e. Resume building, interview coaching, general transition questions, etc.)? The mentor program has been a great help. I have not found a job yet, but it has been great to talk with someone who listens and understand what I’m going through.
• Has having a mentor helped you with your job search and have you been able to secure a job since attending the Intel VET workshop? Since being matched with my mentor, who is located in CA, we’ve talked about every three to four weeks about how the job search is going. I thank Intel and all of the other organizations that are trying to help us Vets.

Last week you may recall our focus on getting the school’s systems running smoothly and working closely with Jean-Claude, the computer lab manager. After that, we moved to our next major objective: to provide extensive training to the teachers with the goal of integrating technology more deeply into the classroom.

To start things off, we organized a teacher training party at Mary the principal’s apartment and invited all the teachers for food and games on our first Sunday in Mirebalais.

We used LEGO Education’s WeDo Robotics kits as an icebreaker. The second grade teacher Moise was joined by his 8 and 10 year old sons, who provided much needed expertise in LEGO assembly. After that we used the Intel Learning Series Classroom Management software to deliver a quiz on what we had covered. The teachers appreciated how this software lets you do real time assessments in the classroom.

Programming LEGO robots with the teachers

We were struck by how motivated the teachers are. Many of them traveled a long distance for the party; in Jean Claude’s case, he had a two hour journey home, in the pouring rain, on his motorbike!

The following week, we continued working closely with the teachers, providing follow up training on a variety of software and content. The teachers love BrainPOP, which provides educational videos on a variety of subjects in English and French. We watched first graders learn how caterpillars turn into butterflies, while second graders got lessons in arithmetic. More importantly, the teachers practiced searching for relevant lessons and developed appropriate usage models for Haiti, such as playing a video with a projector, and pausing for Creole translation.

Working with Romain, 1st Grade Teacher

Previously I wrote about the Waterford Early Learning program, which contains thousands of lessons that students take individually with headsets. But Waterford didn’t forget about the teachers. In fact they created a powerful reporting tool that closely tracks the progress of individual students. A teacher can see that Christophe is doing well in letter recognition, or that Francine needs extra instruction in counting.

We also reviewed the science sensors and software donated last year by PASCO. These USB-powered probes can be used to perform science experiments with very simple materials like a cup of water, which is great in an environment like Haiti where not all supplies are readily available.

In addition to training, our team focused our final days on the unglamorous task of documentation. Our tri-lingual team was able to document important processes in English, French and Creole, and we even shot videos showing step by step how to connect, boot and shut down the Critical Links server.

On our last day, we received the best reward for our hard work, as the second graders demonstrated the LEGO robots that they created. The students called each other “Engineer Joseph” or “Engineer Whitney” which was so inspiring. These children are beginning to see a bright future ahead of them!

We also were treated to a message on the blackboards that said “Thank you Intel, please come back.” We would love to! In return, we would like to thank all the teachers and the students at L’Ecole de Choix for this wonderful experience.

Last week you may recall our focus on getting the school’s systems running smoothly and working closely with Jean-Claude, the computer lab manager. After that, we moved to our next major objective: to provide extensive training to the teachers with the goal of integrating technology more deeply into the classroom.

To start things off, we organized a teacher training party at Mary the principal’s apartment and invited all the teachers for food and games on our first Sunday in Mirebalais.

We used LEGO Education’s WeDo Robotics kits as an icebreaker. The second grade teacher Moise was joined by his 8 and 10 year old sons, who provided much needed expertise in LEGO assembly. After that we used the Intel Learning Series Classroom Management software to deliver a quiz on what we had covered. The teachers appreciated how this software lets you do real time assessments in the classroom.

Programming LEGO robots with the teachers

We were struck by how motivated the teachers are. Many of them traveled a long distance for the party; in Jean Claude’s case, he had a two hour journey home, in the pouring rain, on his motorbike!

The following week, we continued working closely with the teachers, providing follow up training on a variety of software and content. The teachers love BrainPOP, which provides educational videos on a variety of subjects in English and French. We watched first graders learn how caterpillars turn into butterflies, while second graders got lessons in arithmetic. More importantly, the teachers practiced searching for relevant lessons and developed appropriate usage models for Haiti, such as playing a video with a projector, and pausing for Creole translation.

Working with Romain, 1st Grade Teacher

Previously I wrote about the Waterford Early Learning program, which contains thousands of lessons that students take individually with headsets. But Waterford didn’t forget about the teachers. In fact they created a powerful reporting tool that closely tracks the progress of individual students. A teacher can see that Christophe is doing well in letter recognition, or that Francine needs extra instruction in counting.  

We also reviewed the science sensors and software donated last year by PASCO. These USB-powered probes can be used to perform science experiments with very simple materials like a cup of water, which is great in an environment like Haiti where not all supplies are readily available.

In addition to training, our team focused our final days on the unglamorous task of documentation. Our tri-lingual team was able to document important processes in English, French and Creole, and we even shot videos showing step by step how to connect, boot and shut down the Critical Links server.

On our last day, we received the best reward for our hard work, as the second graders demonstrated the LEGO robots that they created. The students called each other “Engineer Joseph” or “Engineer Whitney” which was so inspiring. These children are beginning to see a bright future ahead of them!

We also were treated to a message on the blackboards that said “Thank you Intel, please come back.” We would love to! In return, we would like to thank all the teachers and the students at L’Ecole de Choix for this wonderful experience.

Attend our May 10^th webinar featuring Intel, McAfee, and tech analyst & CTO, Dan Woods for an advanced perspective on what you should do to ensure API Security, specifically as related to Authentication, DLP, and Validation Controls.

For more information about Intel Expressway Service Gateway — with free webinars, tutorials and expert blogs on securely exposing Web Services in the Cloud, please visit us at: www.intel.com/go/identity

-Mike

I recently attended a symposium, co-sponsored by TACC and Intel, at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) in Austin where the programming of two many-core devices were discussed. One was a research chip designed to push some limits and allow interesting research on a device that lacks many things a product would require. The research chip is known as Intel’s Single-Chip Cloud Computer (SCC). The other many-core device was, a prototype of our new Intel Many Integrated Core (MIC) Architecture, the Knights Ferry co-processor. The deadline for papers precluded inclusion of results from pre-production Knights Corner co-processors which will be the first Intel MIC co-processor products. There was a lot of whispering in the hallways about the excitement of starting work with Knights Corner co-processors.

The papers, and the half day tutorial, at the “TACC-Intel Highly Parallel Computing Symposium” all had strong elements relating to familiar parallel programming challenges: scaling and vectorization. This is because both devices are built on Intel Pentium processor cores hooked together with their design for a connection fabric on the same piece of silicon.

Simply put, they are both SMP on-a-chip (symmetric multi-processors) devices, with somewhat different design goals.

At Intel, we have been convinced that putting a familiar generally programmable SMP on-a-chip is a good idea. It has a familiarity in programmability which proves to have many benefits. SCC was built for research into many facets of highly parallel devices. Knights Corner is designed for production usage and is optimized for power and highly parallel workloads. Knights Corner is well suited for HPC applications that already run on SMP systems. Presenter after presenter who talked about using the prototype Knight Ferry mentioned how applications “just worked."

I like to say, “Programming is hard, and so is parallel programming.” It follows that making an SMP or an SMP on-a-chip get maximum performance may not quite be rocket science, but it is no walk in the park. So, there was plenty of room for the papers to discuss the challenges of tuning for any SMP system.

What was really striking was how optimizations for Knights Ferry co-processors were applicable to SMP systems in general. Several authors commented on how their work to get better scaling or better vectorization for Knights Ferry also improved the performance of the same code compiled to run on an Intel Xeon processor based SMP system.  This performance-reuse is very significant, and one presenter exclaimed “Time spent optimizing for MIC is time well spent because it optimizes your code for non-MIC processors at the same time.”

All the papers and presentations (including my keynote) are available on-line now at http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/ti-hpcs12/program

Here are some notes from a few of the talks:

Dr. Robert Harkness, gave an engaging talk entitled “Experiences with ENZO on the Intel Many Integrated Core Architecture.” I enjoyed his comment that “we always programming for the future” because they “never have enough compute power.” He looked at multiple programming models, but had the best results using the “dusty” MPI based program that he had running on an SMP before Knights Ferry. He did his work on MPICH 1.2.7p1 because Intel did not supply an MPI with the Knights Ferry systems. He said it was obsolete but very easy to build and use. He reported that one person (not a dedicated programmer) was able to build everything (a quarter million lines of code) in a single week without any application source code modifications at all. The week, it seems, was spent hunting down libraries and recompiling them including MPICH. His results scaled very well.

His conclusions (from slide 30 of his presentation) were: “Intel MIC is the best way forward for large-scale codes which cannot use the existing GPGPU model (even with directives).”

A talk by Theron Voran, with the National Center of Atmospheric Research, looked at using Knights Ferry for Climate Science. He started by saying "We have large bodies of code laying around. We don't want to rewrite in new languages for restrictive architectures." He had several good introduction slides including a comparison of accelerators vs. multicore and many-core devices.

Here the challenges of vectorization offered opportunities for future work. Compiler hints, loop restructuring and relate activities should enhance performance on Xeon-based and MIC-based SMP systems, as well as work on improving scalability on more and more cores. Even with these challenges, the authors noted “Relative ease in porting codes” (recompiling) and the belief that computational capabilities of MIC will be worthwhile.

Ryan Hulguin, with the University of Tennessee, looked at CFD solvers on Knights Ferry. He looked at two methods, one based on Euler equations (for inviscid fluid flows) and another based on the BGK model Boltzmann equation (for rarefied gas flows). Performance results showed OpenMP to be effective on Knights Ferry, and that the SMP programming challenges of vectorization and having good concurrency held true on Knights Ferry as well.

A talk on Dense Linear Algebra Factorization, from David Hudak at the Ohio Supercomputing Center, talked about Heterogeneous Programming Challenges. David is a Wolverine working in a Buckeye world. My heart goes out to him. I really enjoyed his separation of short-term issues that distract us from the real long-term challenges that will stay with us.

The talk compared a QR factorization implemented in OpenMP with a Cilk Plus implementation. Both performed well. The authors emphasized that guidance to Vectorize and use lots of tasks, proved to work.

I’ve written more than I set out to write, so I’ll stop here. The SCC related papers were very interesting as well, ranging from Tim Mattson’s overview of the program to papers showing research results from investigations using SCC. The other MIC related papers are all worthy as well, including an excellent paper on early experiences with MVAPICH2 doing Intra-MIC MPI communication. Amazing things you can do on an SMP on-a-chip… it runs a real Linux after all!

It is very common for demos to start with an ‘ssh’ (shell) to one of the Knights Ferry processors… and then running the application natively from the command line. SMP on-a-chip, indeed.  Too bad I can’t convince Intel to name it that.  Even if I did, it would probably be chipSMP™ model 8650plus XS. Nevermind, Knights Corner is fine by me.

The papers and talks can be at http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/ti-hpcs12/program

Professor James Paul Gee, himself an expert on the topic of games and learning, shared this vision with Intel today during a thought provoking lecture.

Professor Gee talked about Foldit, an intriguing puzzle game that suggests this future has already arrived. In Foldit, players without any formal scientific training manipulate proteins to find the lowest energy shape. He cited a study showing that people could find the ideal shape better than a supercomputer 7 out of 10 times, even though there are billions of ways to fold a protein.

Besides being a kind of maddening and addictive alternative to Sudoku, this game can also help to develop drugs that target proteins in an optimal way. Think about that missed opportunity the next time you see someone scrutinizing a book of puzzles at the airport.

If tapping into collective intelligence through games can have world-changing implications, it’s logical to ask how to extend this approach to formal education. Not so fast, cautions Professor Gee. Unfortunately, he argues, our schools are stuck in a paradigm that favors memorizing information to pass a test.

But, he does see promising embers starting to glow, such as Quest To Learn and Institute of Play.

Professor Gee outlined the three requirements for any game to be successful in achieving learning. First, it should have an interesting problem statement. In other words, the problem the player is asked to solve should be difficult, interesting, and even addicting.

Second, the game needs what he calls an “affinity space.” Think of this as the social network component of any game. As an example, he talked about communities of people who discuss games such as The Sims, where players modify the game by creating custom worlds, scenarios, and even Mohawks as shown in the photo.

And finally, a game should have an educational toolkit that provides what you need to know in order to advance in the game. This is, where many of today’s games fall short, and where professional educators need to play an active role.

By combining these elements, a game developer hopes to escape the Pareto Principle, whereby 10% of participants are absorbed in advancing in the game and actively creating content, with the other 90% taking a more passive, consuming role. This is obviously essential in a classroom environment.

These insights tie directly into the Intel Learning Series and how Intel designs its purpose-built education platforms like the classmate PC and the studybook, our new tablet design. We strive to create devices that allow students to engage in a variety of learning activities through mobility, ruggedness and relevant software and content. 

From now on I’ll be thinking more carefully about the three factors that Professor Gee mentioned and look forward to seeing games that can appeal to students, drive learning, and advance our education system.

60 Second Insights looks at how advances in mobile technology and consumer mobile device usage models affect a wide variety of industries, including art, business, culture, social networking, exploration, design, photography, film, music and more. Viewers get a quick glimpse of how thought leaders from a variety of industries and backgrounds leverage mobile technology to innovate and ultimately impact consumers’ lives and the ways in which they use technology.

Check out the videos that showcase executive opinions on mobility devices: what people are looking for in their device, the future of mobile devices and how the overall category of devices is shifting and changing.

The videos feature Tony Salvador from Intel, Prith Banerjee of HP, Jim Kovach of CrowdOptic and Lucas Buick from Hipstamatic. Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks.

Rastogi, who joined Intel Capital in 2010 and has an extensive management and consulting background, shared some straightforward, practical advice for ISVs going through the process of applying for venture funding.

What kind of advice would you give business ventures applying for funding with Intel Capital?
Vibhor Rastogi: Provide as much information as possible. I know some of the ISVs are hesitant about providing financial data, but your financials are not disclosed to anyone and we are open to signing an NDA if the applicant wishes. Applicants should also strive to provide a clear and concise description of the product or service offering, and the problem it addresses in their business plan.

What are your priorities as you’re reviewing submissions?
VR: The ability of the company to generate meaningful revenues in three to five years post-investment is absolutely the top priority. Investors usually like to know that the company is participating in a large, rapidly growing market segment and can generate a meaningful return to the investor via a public offering or a strategic acquisition. We are also looking for clear evidence of a differentiated product or service. If a company has patents pending or granted or has licensed valuable IP, they should include this information as well.

How important is the team behind the product/service?
VR: This is also very important. Investors need to know who is driving the business. Applicants should include relevant details on the executive team, such as their prior professional successes. Prior entrepreneurial experience adds to the credibility of the management team. Knowing the executive team and their passion for solving big problems that will change the world for the better is important to investors.

Should applicants include projected sales numbers?
VR: Sales forecasts in early stage companies have quite a bit of uncertainty and most investors understand that. At the end of the day, what makes companies win in the marketplace is a defensible competitive position which is acquired through a combination of a stellar team, unique product or service offering and top notch execution. There is no substitute for market and customer research, so applicants need to know that it’s very easy for any investor to tell if someone has not done their homework.

Rastogi added that all applications are subject to the same rigorous review and approval process that all potential Intel Capital investments must go through. While submitting an application doesn’t guarantee your business will receive an investment from Intel Capital, following this advice and other best practices for completing an application could better position your company and technology for investment funding with Intel Capital.

Stay tuned for an upcoming live webinar open to all members of the Intel® Software Partner Program. While only Premier Elites can apply to Intel Capital, all Intel Software Partners are able to attend to learn more about venture funding and Intel Capital with Vibhor Rastogi. In the meantime, keep in touch with the latest Intel Capital news by following @IntelCapital on Twitter.

What does this mean for you?? – Up to twice the HD media and 3-D Graphics performance, significant processor performance and you get stunning visuals experiences from mainstream gaming to HD video editing.

This Ivy Bridge processor isn’t just for gamers and media enthusiasts, it’s for everybody. In the coming months the 3^rd Generation Intel Core processors will be available to power a new wave of systems ranging from Ultrabook™ devices, all-in-one (AIO) platforms,  servers, intelligent systems in retail (aka digital signage), healthcare and other industries.

Speaking of healthcare, I got a huge kick the other day visiting the doctors office as all the staff  had Intel based computer technology at their fingertips. It was cool to see them continuously enter in all my vitals and health statistics, not just for me but all the patients, every step of the way a computer was involved, and the high blood pressure machine was connected directly to the laptop. It is truly cool to see what amazing things people do with technology.

OK, back to 3rd Generation, I took an excerpt out of the press release that describes some of the ground breaking technology and what it means for you.

“Tick-Plus” – The Intel Advantage
The performance gains found in the new processors are due in part to the groundbreaking, three-dimensional structure of the new Intel transistors. Until today, computers, servers and other devices have used only two-dimensional planar transistors. Adding a third dimension to transistors allows Intel to increase transistor density and put more capabilities into every square millimeter of these new processors. Intel has once again re-invented the transistor and delivered an unprecedented combination of performance and energy efficiency, thus sustaining the pace of technology advancement and fueling Moore’s Law for years to come.

In a nutshell or transistor, we get better performance with our technology. This new processor packs a huge punch. From the great visual experience  to performance with Intel Quick Sync Video 2.0 technology built into the new processors, people can also convert their videos up to two times faster than even last year’s processors. And up to 23 times faster than PC’s just three years old.

So the net/net – 2x better gaming and 2x better video transcoding with Intel HD Graphics and Intel QUick Sync Video respectively. Also, HD Graphics now supports hundreds of popular gaming titles and supports DirectX11 (for the geeky gamers).

Last but not least, the new products are on 22nm processor technology- meaning the stuff is getting wicked small, with amazing performance and battery life improvements.

Here are some fun facts about 22nm:

• More than 6 million 22nm tri-gate transistors could fit in the period at the end of this sentence.
• A 22nm tri-gate transistor’s gates that are so small, you could fit more than 4000 of them across the width of a human hair.
• If a typical house shrunk as transistors have, you would not be able to see a house without a microscope. To see a 22nm with the naked eye, you would have to enlarge a chip to be larger than a house.
• Compared to Intel’s first microprocessor, the 4004, introduced in 1971, a 22nm CPU runs over 4000 times as fast and each transistor uses about 5000 times less energy. The price per transistor has dropped by a factor of about 50,000.
• A 22nm transistor can switch on and off well over 100 billion times in  one second. It would take you around 2000 years to flick a light switch on and off that many times.

Please check out this cool 3rd Gen video and let us know how excited you are about Hard Core, Quad Core.

3^rd Gen Intel®Core™ Overview Animation 

“The Only Thing More Amazing Than Our Technology is What You’ll do With It”

As this document is one of our most often viewed articles on our Community, if you have any thoughts about improvements or additions, I would love to hear them.

Please post any questions or comments onto our developer's forum.

For a long time now, Meshcentral.com has been able to handle having a mesh of computers shared between many web accounts. Sadly, there was no good way to add and remove user access to a mesh. You had to use the MeshConnector tool which was Windows only, etc. Well things just god a lot better! I added the new account add/remove feature so you can now create a mesh and control which user get access to it. You can also set the user privilages: "administrator" and "viewer".

To add user access, go to the account tab, click on a mesh. At the bottom of the page you see the list of users that can view or access computers on this mesh. Click the add link to add new users or the trash icon to remove them.

Just make sure to grant access to the correct user. Also, I don't have more granular access control, so you can't grant access to only one computer, just the entire mesh. But hopefully, I will be working on that in the future.

Enjoy!
Ylian
meshcentral.com

In support of the recent announcement of the 3^rd Generation Intel® Core™ Processors, Intel has released the Intel® SDK for OpenCL* Applications 2012. For the first time, OpenCL* developers using Intel® architecture can utilize compute resources across both Intel® Processors and Intel® HD Graphics Driver 4000/2500

From a person who, for the last couple of years has closely followed the emergence of the OpenCL standard, this announcement was something worth waiting for.  Less than a year ago, on this blog, I posted the news that the Intel® OpenCL SDK 1.1 gold  was released,  This was the first production OpenCL implementation from Intel targeting Intel® processors on Windows* OS. This current announcement is special, the Intel SDK for OpenCL Applications 2012 now supports not only the CPU but also the Intel HD Graphics 4000/2500 for Windows* 7 users.  We’ve come a long way in a year.

OpenCL on the 3^rd Generation Intel® Core Processor Family extends Intel’s line of tools and APIs on Intel platforms and adds interoperability with other graphics APIs like DirectX*, OpenGL* and Intel® Media SDK, directly on the Intel HD Graphics device.

So what else is new in this release?

• A Single OpenCL* platform enables shared context for OpenCL applications running on both the CPU and Intel HD Graphics 4000/2500. The OpenCL platform with both CPU and HD Graphics devices is available seamlessly on the Intel® HD Graphics Drivers.
• Interoperability with the Intel Media SDK with no memory copy overhead
• Improved performance for OpenCL applications running on Intel® Xeon® Processors and Intel® Core™ Processors. This CPU support is also available for Linux* OS developers.
• Intel® SDK for OpenCL* applications development tools includes an offline compiler and a step-by-step OpenCL Kernel debugger (for CPU) integrated in Microsoft Visual Studio* 2010 integrated development environment.
• 10 OpenCL code samples, three of them new, are now available for independent download.

The list above is just a sample of what is available with this new SDK. I recommend you read the product brief or watch the introduction video to get started with this new SDK.

Download the SDK for free at www.intel.com/software/opencl and begin optimizing your applications for the 3^rdGeneration Intel® Core™ Processors today.

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter at @IntelOpenCL

At CES2012 will.i.am expressed that when he grew up, music was made in a studio then played on records, but how cool it is that today music is created on computers and played on computers. I've been thinking about this idea. Can the Ultrabook be versatile for other work/create/play scenarios. So why not game development? How well can you both create and play games on an Ultrabook?

Here's the task I've challenge the Ultrabook to complete
- Create concept art
- Model game objects from concept art
- Code sample game
- Play sample game

Conceptualizing:
So first I set out to find is there a low cost to free sketch application I can use to start testing my app idea. I tried a number of applications but eventually settled on an open source app called MyPaint. MyPaint has been developed for mobile devices and PCs and allows for input using drawing tablets and styluses.

I found MyPaint to be exceptional allowing me to control brush pressure and styles. I have just as much control if not more with MyPaint then paper and pencil. The ability to quickly zoom and provide detail, change colors on the fly and undo make sketching a breeze. I finished a set of doodles to get some ideas out. I believe with an app like MyPaint, the Ultrabook can have you sketch and illustrate virtually anything. The only limitation is the skill of the artist.

Doodling with MyPaint

Within the set of doodles you'll see I scribbled a spaceship, which is based on a vector arcade game I had developed a year ago. I then decided to take the idea further and sketch out a more detailed 3D version of the craft. The Ultrabook made is very easy for me to quickly bang out these idea. I did these over a few hours over a weekend, when I had spare cycles. Never powering down the Ultrabook, I was able to jump right into my app faster than I could on my mobile device.

MyPaint Detailed Ship Sketch

Modeling:
Next step was to model the object in 3D. I needed an application that would allow me to work with shape primitives and do some boolean subtraction especially to create the shell body of the craft. I looked for a number of simple modelling applications then realized I needed to use something subtancial So I settled on Blender, an open souce 3D application that is on par with 3DS and Maya and used to produce cinematic level 3D films and animations.

Creating the ship was quick and simple. Again I really never shut down my Ultrabook. Like a mobile device I could pick up, press a key and boom I'm in and working in Blender. Having immediate access to a power app like this is SUPER convenient. With Blender I was able to easily create the craft using spheres and boxes. I figure the easiest way to create the body section was to create an elongaged sphere and intersect it with a cylinder. I then used the Boolean feature to cut away the part where the cylinder intersected the sphere. That created the bowed shape of the mid section of my craft. I then applied some procedural textures to give it a real world look.

Ship Rendered From Blender

Development:
Now came a decision on how to code an application using this ship. I first considered HTML5 and exporting Blender images as 2D PNG files, to create a top down arcade shooter. I've used Canvas before and I figure that would be pretty simple to do. But in the end I realized a 2D HTML5 app could be built on nearly any device. So, decided to create a 3D game to push the limits of the Ultrabook. So I drove head first into Unity. Good thing, it allows for Javascripting so I didn't have too far to learn how to code for it.

Unity installed like a charm and imported my Blender files, but my procedural maps did not come over. I quickly learned about UV Mapping, to create the Normal (Bump) maps and Texture (image) maps for each section of my craft. After bringing in the texture maps I was able to show off my craft in Unity.

Unity Ship

Now to control the ship in my game I would need to add some javascript. I first created simple script to transform the X & Z position of my craft depending on what arrow keys I hit. But I then thought, I'm not taking advantage of the physics engine and really only animating the ship. So I re-coded the inputs to add Force physics to the object. I then added some barriers to the scene with collision component, to interact with the ship via the physics engine. Here's my sample script attached to my ship. With this in place and the ship set with a RigidBody component it properly react to any object with physics.

Ship Movement Script

I then coded a smooth camera follow script based on a sample version provided by Unity. I adjusted the script to allow for X & Z variation in the camera, allowing the camera to follow behind as the ship accelerates away, then to catch up and hover over the ship when at rest. And thus I have the basics of my game. I found I could run in full resolution at a 60 frames per second frame rate. My ship renders nicely with textures and shadows. My ship zips with my camera in tow, rotating and swinging left and right to align to my object

I could do more, to spawn enemy ships, create missiles, add audio events, particle effects and explosions, but that's just an iteration of the work completed. I'm pretty satisfied that Ultrabooks can be used for gaming work, create, and play. Here's a video of the game in process.

Based on my experience I think the Ultrabook is a pretty compelling device, and not just for game developers. You can play the same scenario out for just about any profession, hobby or interest. From will.i.am's perspective he sees the Ultrabook as great professional music studio, and as today's new ghetto blaster. Ultrabooks, as amazing work/create/play devices, have broad potential for app usage across all sorts of interests. For developers this translates to an opportunity.

***

For more information on developing Ultrabook apps for distribution and monetization via Intel AppUp, visit our Ultrabook Community

I used to feel the same way...albeit with a latent desire to learn it as I wish I knew Latin. Then one day I found myself out of options on my SIMD code generation project. The compilers were great, but making progress was like building a ship in the bottle. I was playing a game I know you've played too: "Let's Guess What the Compiler Will Do"!

I got tired of that game and bit the bullet. I did ASM dumps and tried to understand them. At first it appeared to me as a chaotic mess...like stars to someone who's never learned the constellations. As time went on though I found Orion! And Ursa Major too! Sideribus apparuit! That is, the patterns jumped out and became easy. Before I knew it, diving into ASM became part of my routine.

I want to share my know-how with you. Each post I'll give you a program and take apart the ASM that we care about using the Intel® C++ Compiler for Linux*. I guess I'll expect you to have a basic understanding of ASM, registers and the like...though I won't expect much. Stay tuned!

There are third-party tools available to help you track statistics, schedule tweets, manage multiple accounts, moderate posts, and a lot more. Most tools have a free version, or offer free trial, but even those with small fees are worth the investment – if they deliver the information you need, of course.

For viewing, tracking, and managing data, here are a few options:

• HootSuite.com – A multi-column application that allows you to view a lot of conversations in a glance. You choose the categories you want to view and how they should appear on the screen so you can focus on what matters to you and your company the most. You can create various reports and have them emailed to you. If you have a team of people posting, you can view data by team member(s). Scheduling tweets individually or in bulk keeps you and your team productive for one, or several, Twitter accounts. This tool requires an individual login and password. It has a lot of features in its free version, so if you don’t connect to other platforms (Facebook, a blog, and so on) the free version may be all you need. Intel® Software Partner Program members can also access a free introductory webinar on social media management with HootSuite.
• TweetDeck.com – This also offers the multi-column layout for watching different categories such as @ mentions, particular search queries, hashtag (#) mentions, and more. You choose the parameters for what you want to view from one or multiple Twitter accounts. Also offers the ability to queue tweets to post at future times. You can use the global filter option to remove content you don’t want to see in the feeds; whether it’s specific Twitter accounts, words, or hashtag terms, you can save time by viewing only what is important. This tool requires an individual login and password. Totally free.
• SocialOomph.com – Similar to Hootsuite in all it offers, but without the multi-column layout. You have the ability to schedule individual and bulk tweets on one screen for one or multiple Twitter accounts. The straightforward interface lets you monitor @ mentions and retweets. You have the option to vet followers and friends and set up the account to auto-follow whoever follows your company. There is a handy sidebar menu option to get statistics on any Twitter account you manage. This tool requires an individual login and password. It has a long list of free features, so you may not need the paid version.

It can’t hurt to give any or all of these applications a try to help you manage your Twitter marketing campaigns, especially since all of them have free versions or risk-free trials.

The information you get from using the tools can help you reach more people, stay organized, and reach your company’s targeted goals. And speaking of goals, the next post will offer guidance on creating measurable goals for social media, so you’ll see how the tools mentioned here can be used in your strategy to market your software.

Our customers can take advantage of continuous chip improvements with the easily upgradeable software appliance form factor. Intel Expressway Service Gateway outpaces IBM DataPower by 6x to 10x in a direct “apples to apples” comparison at a fraction of the total cost.

Read this performance comparison report to learn all about it:

For more information about Intel Expressway Service Gateway — with free webinars, tutorials and expert blogs on securely exposing Web Services in the Cloud, please visit us at: www.intel.com/go/identity

Cross-posted from my blog on the Yocto Project site. Please go there for lots of great embedded Linux information.

Here in Hillsboro, Oregon, we have an open office area, and I really wanted a monitor set up which would display the status of our Yocto Project autobuilder for all to see. Since

I have a little embedded system in my office, our project's Build and Release Engineer, Beth Flanagan, offered to set it up for me. I thought that was a pretty brave offer, given that we're in the final dance of our Yocto Project v1.2 release. So I really appreciate it!

The system is some pre-release hardware which Darren Hart has been working on to get a BSP together. The box itself has a bunch of radios, but to make this exercise relatively easy, we just plug it into an ethernet port. The little box is designed mostly for "headless" applications not requiring a monitor, but it does have a couple of HDMI ports, so we just plugged the display in.

The display is just the Grid View of our autobuilder, so you can build your own display. There are other views as well, but this is a nice one for me to get an idea of what's going on. We did discover a number of interesting issues here like some gaps in our web browser support in our standard build profiles. We're looking into this, and some other issues we discovered.

I also fully realize that showing a static web page refreshing periodically is a pretty boring thing for a powerful processor to do. We should probably run some analytics or video transcoding or something. I just hate the thought of idle hands!

As you can tell from the photo, at the moment I took the snap, our BSP builds were all failing. A moment later they all came up green. Go figure. Darren and Beth say it is really easy for all of the builds to come up green - just a .css change!

We recently had a huge phone announcement: the first smartphone with Intel inside, the XOLO X900, was announced in India and it is now available to purchase! (Another reason to visit India? I think so ;-) ). And we’re excited to announce another one today: the Jobs at Intel Mobile App is available to download on your Android* device and iPhone* from Google Play and iTunes.

Don’t rub your eyes—you read that right: we’ve created an app for your phone that will keep you in the loop about careers at Intel and new job opportunities! There’s been an explosion of smartphone usage around the world (according to a MobiThinking study, there are 1.2 billion mobile web users worldwide and mobile searches have quadrupled in the last year!), so we knew we wanted to make the search easier for you. Especially as we, as a company, develop technologies for smart phone and tablets, it makes sense to connect with our future talent with these technologies.

So why would you download the app? Here’s why:

• Job Alerts: Do you know when new job matches open up? With the app, you can get alerts! The app includes a daily feed of all of our job postings. You can search on job categories such as job title, keywords or location to narrow down the list. Your searches can be saved in search history or added to a list of favourites and you’ll receive alerts based on recent and saved searches. This is a notification you won’t want to miss!
• Apply: Whether it’s through a job alert or through a search, once you’ve found a job opening that matches, you’ll want to apply! Openings can be emailed so you can complete the application or you can share it with a friend.
• Connect with Us: Finding a job is more than finding an opening that matches your interests and skills, it’s about finding a culture where you not only fit in, but can grow and thrive. Watch our Life at Intel videos, read our Jobs at Intel blog posts and follow our updates from Twitter and Facebook, all within the application.

Exciting stuff eh? This is just one of the ways we want to get you connected to the opportunities that lie ahead at Intel. Intel is now available IN and ON your mobile device! So, what are you waiting for? Download the app and let us know what you think!

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Finding a solution is a daunting challenge; yet it is also an opportunity to wholeheartedly embrace. The challenge is complicated. Yet, rather than spinning on the declines, hanging on to notions that STEM graduates will become extinct, Intel has shifted focus to finding bright spots and hoping to get energy around the good stuff that is making an impact.  And in this case, it’s happening right here in our very own back yard.

Bright Spot #1 –Introducing kids to STEM in a fun and non threatening way will hook them! Just last week, we spent time with the Carl Hayden High School (Falcon Robotics) team in Phoenix. They are just one of the many teams that Intel supports via mentors, donations and competitions. Over the years they have repeatedly won the right to attend the US First international championship in St. Louis, and are recognized as one of the top robotics teams in the world. 

Their mentors will tell you that despite so many things that are stacked up against them, such as being from an underserved community or parents who never made it beyond sixth grade, nothing stands in their way. As soon you walk into their robotics cave, it is game on – the place is humming with high energy, passion and commitment. The kids are electing to stay every day from 3-6pm because of the small things. This amounts to over two thousand hours of hands on technical experience over their high school career.

What stands out most aren’t the big things. It is the small things that are going right that matter the most.  Below are just a few of the small things that stand out about these kids:

1.      Kids are working on things that they love and are given the freedom to “play.” 

2.      The afterschool program creates a sense of community.  Immediately you notice you are in a family-like environment. 

3.     A caring teacher that expects all of them to do well; we felt it as soon as he opened his mouth to talk about the kids. He maintains an inventory of kids in that room, what they are doing now, their hopes and aspirations, and for those that had graduated; he could tell you about them too. When somebody cares, lives can be changed.

4.     Trust is very visible and the ability to fail is widely accepted. No fixed answers but a “just try stuff” attitude is the tone of the instructor.

Intel is a proud sponsor of competitions like this because we know these amazing kids will be inspired in unique ways. These kids are more likely to go to college, twice as likely to major in sciences and, for girls, are four times more likely to study math and science – and that’s good for all of us.  This program is a bright spot.

What bright spots you have experienced while working with kids and STEM?

It’s launch day here at Intel for the 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ processors, and to mark the occasion, I wanted to share the top 5 features in these processors, codenamed Ivy Bridge.

Intel® Visual Technology – You don’t just get one, but a whole suite of video technologies that enable images to look sharper and more crisp. With built-in visuals, you’ll experience deeper, richer color and real-life seamless video and audio. You’ll have HD goodness for movies and Internet videos, as well as great results with casual and mainstream gaming. In two words: smooth and stunning.

Intel® Clear Video HD Technology – This technology enables 1080p HD video playback for streaming web content and Blue-Ray. You get lifelike video playback that makes the most of the content you watch.

Intel® Wireless Display (WiDi) – When you purchase a laptop with 3rd Generation Intel Core processors, you can stream content from your laptop to your TV with no wires. No more crowding around a small screen to share your latest web video. Say yes to full HD and surround sound. Plus, you get access to Intel® Insider for premium movies.

Intel® Quick Sync Video – Creating and editing video just got easier. You’ll have much faster times for synchronizing and sharing your videos. Click through to learn how it’s now twice as fast with Ivy Bridge processors. We even have a demo video available for you to see the difference.

Intel® HD Graphics – You’ll get incredible experiences with 3D casual gaming, as well as fully immersive gaming on titles that are optimized for Intel HD Graphics. We’ve got a whole list of games optimized for Intel processors.

If you want to compare processors or find specific information, we have pages on 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i5 Processors and  3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7 Processors with links to more tools, resources and data sheets.

What are the top features you’ve been waiting for with 3rd generation Intel® Core™ processors?

will.i.am, apl.de.ap and the Ghetto Blasterz take on Seoul for the Ultrabook Project.

The Ultrabook™ Project with will.i.am is a digital travelogue with great content for you to explore. We’ve just added articles and pictures from Seoul for you to enjoy. Plus, if you’re just joining us, you can visit Tokyo or Mexico City content to get up to date on all that has happened and experience the music, fashion and culture from these cities.

Music Party

While in Seoul, will.i.am, 2NE1, DJ Poet and DJ Ammo performed for an enthusiastic crowd. In Korea, K-Pop is what’s hot.

Fashion

JuYoung, the designer for Resurrection and will.i.am do an interview together for W magazine. Then, will.i.am and 2NE1 do a fashion shoot for L’Homme Officiel magazine as will.i.am models some of his favorite Resurrection outfits.

U. S. Embassy Stop

At the U.S.  Embassy, will.i.am speaks with middle and high school kids who’ve struggled with bullying. will.i.am shares his own childhood struggles with bullying and how he overcame them. It’s an important moment for them and for will.i.am.

The Ultrabook Project Content

The Seoul content in the Ultrabook Project enables you to get a front row seat to experience all that happened on the Ultrabook Project tour in Seoul. You can click in to read the articles and enjoy the photos now. Check out The Ultrabook Project with will.i.am.

will.i.am enjoys Seoul’s B One Lounge Club with his Ultrabook™ Project collaborators CL and Park Bom members of K-pop band 2NE1.

1. (Intel(r) AMT 8.0) Ivy Bridge processor with Intel(r) VT and Intel(r) TXT
   1. Intel(r) Core(tm) i5 Processor or Intel(r) Core(tm) i7 Processor
   2. For KVM support, processor must have Integrated Graphics.
2. PCH: Panther Point (Q77, QS77, QM77)
3. TPM 1.2: Can be removed to meet certain import restrictions
4. Intel(r) VT-x capable BIOS (Disabled by default, can be enabled)
5. Intel(r) VT-d capable BIOS (Disabled by default, can be enabled)
6. Intel(r) TXT  capable BIOS (required)
7. TPM 1.2 Capable BIOS
8. Intel(r) AMT 8.0 Capable BIOS
9. Intel(r) ME Firmware 8.0 with Intel(r) AMT 8.0
10. Intel(r) Wired LAN: (Lewisville 82579 LM)
11. Intel(r) Wireless LAN: Taylor Peak 2X2 - Intel(r) Centrino(rm0 Advanced-N 6205
12. Intel(Management and Security Status Icon (Recommended; not required)
13. Intel(r) Anti-Theft Technology: Optional

There is a handy website that can be used as a reference for Intel Processors and what technologies they support:  ark.intel.com.  (it will not be fully updated until some time after the launch event in Q2 of 2012.)  This link will take you to an i7 processor spec.  Here are some screen shots of what you will see:

In order to determine if a particular i5 or i7 processor will support Intel(r) AMT, a look at the "Advanced Technologies" is required:

When purchasing a system from an OEM Website, it may be necessesary to look at the specs and dig a little deeper than your shopping cart in order to ensure your system has all of the right components (not all Core i5 and Core i7 support Intel AMT and those that do may not all support KVM.)

If you have any questions regarding Intel(r) AMT Technology, please post your question on our Developer's Forum.

Woohoo, neue features! Das Intel AppUp^TM Encapsulator Team hat die neue Version 2.0 Alpha heraus gegeben, welche verbesserte html5 und CSS3 Unterstützung liefert. Momentan sind beide Versionen (Intel AppUp^TM encapsulator 1.0 beta & 2.0 alpha) erhältlich und einsetzbar.

HTML5 Kompatibilitätsscore

Die 2.0 Alphaversion nutzt nun unter der Oberfläche Chrome 17 und die HTML5test.comErgebnisse haben sich verbessert von 377 von insgesamt 500 möglichen Punkten und befindet sich damit auf Augenhöhe mit anderen Browsern und gibt WebApp Developern eine solide Platform für ihre Anwendungsentwicklung.

read more

Woohoo, neue features! Das Intel AppUp^TM Encapsulator Team hat die neue Version 2.0 Alpha heraus gegeben, welche verbesserte html5 und CSS3 Unterstützung liefert. Momentan sind beide Versionen (Intel AppUp^TM encapsulator 1.0 beta & 2.0 alpha) erhältlich und einsetzbar.

HTML5 Kompatibilitätsscore

Die 2.0 Alphaversion nutzt nun unter der Oberfläche Chrome 17 und die HTML5test.com Ergebnisse haben sich verbessert von 377 von insgesamt 500 möglichen Punkten und befindet sich damit auf Augenhöhe mit anderen Browsern und gibt WebApp Developern eine solide Platform für ihre Anwendungsentwicklung.

read more

When you hear the name Mexico City, you typically think about its rich culture and proud heritage, but Mexico City has a little-known secret you may be interested to learn: Mexico holds some amazing, and fun, world records.

In fact, Mexicans are obsessed with breaking Guinness World Records. In 2009 alone, they broke or challenged the records for the most mariachi musicians ever gathered in one place, the largest meatball ever cooked, the biggest cheesecake ever baked, the largest group make-out session, the most varieties of tequila on display, and the most people dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” at once.

It’s amazing that Mexicans have achieved so many Guinness World Records. This NY Times article shares more details, or you can search the Guinness World Records web site.

Will.i.am and the Black Eyed Peas hold a world record, too. Their song, I Gotta Feeling, is the #1 downloaded song of all time on iTunes.

Check out more on will.i.am in the Ultrabook Project.