28 July 2010

Intel integrates optical connections in a chip

Intel has integrated optical transmitters (lasers) in silicon chips. Together with existing (and new high speed) optical receivers this will allow chips to communicate directly through optical connections.
In the medium term this can signal the end of electronical chip wiring.




27 July 2010

Joda Time Presentation

Joda time is an alternative to java.util.Date and java.util.Calendar. An introduction.

The national cloud

Google has launched Google Apps for Government. It is a variant of its cloud application suite (mail, calendar, docs, ...) that is guaranteed to store its data in the US. Similar services for other countries may follow. It is clear that one country does not want to store its data in another country for security reasons.
It is interesting to see if this service will also come to Google App Engine and commercial applications.
It may remove an important legal hurdle: the country where an application's are stored will determine the laws that will be applied to them and under which jurisdiction actions on your data can be ordered.
Note that although Google guarantees where your data are stored, it does not guarantee where your application runs.