Time traces

For the second consecutive year, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va., tops U.S. News & World Report’s list of America’s best high schools. The school, which focuses heavily on math and science education, bested more than 21,000 other public high schools in 48 states for the honor.

Of the 21,069 public high schools examined by U.S. News and its partner in the project, School Evaluation Services, 1,925 were recognized for considerably outperforming their state’s standards. In that group, there were 604 schools that also were found to be doing an excellent job of preparing students for college-level coursework.

California leads the nation this year with 209 high schools that earned recognition, followed by Texas (151 schools), New York (105 schools), Ohio (87 schools), Michigan (74 schools) and Illinois (71 schools). Nebraska, Oklahoma and the District of Columbia did not have sufficient information for their high schools to participate fully in the analysis.

The ranking is based on a three-step process that examines how well a school serves its entire student body (average students, disadvantaged students and college-bound students). This is the second year U.S. News has ranked high schools.

Best of the best
Known as “TJ” to its students and faculty, Thomas Jefferson is a magnet high school that draws its students from among the best that suburban Washington, D.C., has to offer. The competitive academic environment at the school both challenges and rewards its student body. The students “feed off of each other and create a kind of synergy for thinking,” says Thomas Jefferson principal Evan Glazer. TJ students are also able to take advantage of such high-tech course offerings as DNA Science II and Advanced Optics with Research Applications.

Other top schools
This emphasis on math and science education is shared by many of the schools that made the U.S. News list this year — ranging from suburban Los Angeles’ California Academy of Mathematics and Science (No. 26) to Lincroft, N.J.’s High Technology High School (No. 4).

Improving students’ performance in math and the sciences is one of the key challenges the nation’s high schools face as they prepare students to compete in the global work force. Once a leader in teaching these disciplines, the United States now is far behind other countries. Out of 30 industrialized nations, America ranks 25th in math and 21st in science.
Economists estimate that the nation’s economy would grow by 4.5 percentage points over 20 years if America caught up to the leaders. “In a global economy, the best jobs are not going to go to the best in your class but to the best in the world,” says Gary Phillips, a chief scientist for the American Institutes for Research in Washington, D.C.

Internet Explorer dominates the Web browser market, but are that many people so in love with it? Meanwhile, the Flash player dominates its segment because lots of people find it to be a terrific. So might Adobe one day decide that the next logical step is to try its hand at building its own Web browser?

Turns out that’s not such a crazy idea. Following the completion of Adobe’s acquisition of Macromedia in 2005, the company’s brass actually toyed with the idea.

“We looked at making our own browser,” said Adobe’s chief technology officer, Kevin Lynch, in an interview leading up to this week’s Adobe Max conference. “We thought about how to advance the capabilities of the Web.”

At first blush, that sounds like a fit with the message Adobe attaches to Flash as a technology to foster delivery of “applications, content, and video to the widest possible audience.” But the idea ultimately failed to persuade management that it was wise to commit the resources (and in the process pick another fight with Microsoft.) “Our primary interest is to build a great platform upon which others can build great applications,” Lynch said. “There are enough browsers in the world.”

For Adobe, the temptation was to create a product that would do a better job of enabling its technologies on client systems. But Lynch said the green light hinged on whether an Adobe browser would win wide enough distribution. As even Google is discovering, that’s not an easy goal to achieve.

“It’s brave of (Google) to come out with a browser,” he said. “I love to see innovation. But will Chrome get 80 or 90 percent reach? I don’t see how that’s possible.”

HP last week upped the ante on heterogeneous storage virtualization by unveiling a platform that pools storage across HP and non-HP arrays. The HP StorageWorks SAN Virtualization Services Platform, dubbed SVSP, is for users of Fibre Channel storage-area networks and incorporates HP StorageWorks Modular Smart Array (MSA) and the HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA).

The SVSP enables online data migration, thin provisioning, improved storage utilization and data replication. Based on software from LSI, SVSP is an out-of-band, split-path virtualization technology – in SVSP data flow is separated from the management process, thus facilitating the ability to handle larger workloads.

The SVSP makes use of a QLogic switch as a data mover. A separate management server is part of the package. SVSP supports EMC Clariion, IBM Fast and DS4000, SGI’s storage systems and Sun’s FlexLine and 6000.

SVSP competes with IBM’s SAN Volume Controller and EMC’s Invista as well as controller-based virtualization approaches from vendors such as Hitachi Data Systems. HP at present has controller-based heterogeneous replication in its high-end XP product line.

Earlier this year, TheInfoPro set its sights on storage virtualization – the research firm estimates that 35% of Fortune 1000 companies are using the technology. This figure, TheInfoPro says will increase to 50% by 2009.

The package is expected to be available in December. A starting package of 4TB will be $43,900.

While wireless LANs are often viewed as being a totally separate entity from the WAN, it’s critical that WAN managers have a good knowledge of the entire network. One of the ways that you can get a great feel for the major trends in WLAN implementation is from the study, “WLAN Deployment Trends: Networks, Devices, Security”, which reports on the penetration of Wi-Fi-enabled devices, customers’ primary concern regarding WLANs, and the deployment status of 802.11n.

The report, now in its fifth year, is authored by Joanie Wexler, who also pens Network World’s Wireless newsletter. The first module from the report titled “Wi-Fi Attitudes Shift,” provides an overview of the WLAN as a whole. For instance, so far as deployment is concerned, Joanie points out that “Nearly half of survey respondents (47%) said that 51% to 100% of their employee populations are equipped with a Wi-Fi-enabled device, such as a laptop, smartphone or personal digital assistant (PDA). This figure is a measurable jump from last year, when just 34% said that half or more of their companies’ employees possessed Wi-Fi devices.”

The second module of the study is titled “WLAN Deployment Trends: Networks, Devices, Security.” This module points out, among many other more detailed findings, that security remains the primary concern regarding WLANs. Again, quoting Joanie, “47% of respondents cited ‘general security concerns’ as one of the two biggest challenges to scaling Wi-Fi deployments throughout most or all of their organizations. In a fairly distant second place were reliability and stability concerns related to Wi-Fi’s operation in unlicensed spectrum (31%).”

The deployment status of 802.11n is the focus of the just-released third module. In this segment of the report, a rapid acceptance of 11n is found to be underway, even though there are many nagging concerns. “Wi-Fi infrastructure and client upgrade costs” and “Waiting for final standards and standards-based products” were seen as the primary obstacles that were cited more than twice as often as other factors.

Both this report and the IP Telephony Management report are being released in progressive modules. As additional modules become available, we’ll be sure to let you know about

Fans at the new Yankee Stadium will have an “immersive” video experience in which 1,100 high-definition screens will keep them glued to the game even when they are not at their seats.

Such was the promise this week from Cisco and the New York Yankees as they discussed the $15 million to $16 million technology infrastructure and potential for the fan experience at the stadium, slated to open in April 2009.

From a Yankees widget on their mobile phone or PDA, fans will be able to view the game from different angle around the stadium, launch instant replays, access statistics specific to the game situation, and interact with other fans in a community of shared interest, Yankees and Cisco officials said.

“This is where high-tech is going,” Cisco CEO John Chambers said during the press conference. “We’re changing the fan experience. Video is the key word here.”

Added Hal Steinbrenner, co-chairman of the Yankees, “We’re working on fan amenities which will be second to none. The fan experience is of utmost importance to us. They will be amazed at a lot of the things available to them.”

There will be no TVs in the new Yankee Stadium, just 1,100 high-definition IPTV monitors that will provide various views, angles and information on the game — before, during and after — with content pushed to the monitors as appropriate. Along with the live game broadcast, monitors will be capable of simultaneously providing up-to-date sports scores, Yankees trivia, news and weather from a single viewing screen.

At the conclusions of games, these monitors will let the Yankees the direct patrons to the nearest exits and provide traffic information. In the event of an emergency, all stadium monitors can be mobilized to display evacuation instructions.

On non-game days, these same monitors can be used to display customized content and information for special events such as conferences, weddings and other group activities.

The infrastructure will be “completely wireless, top to bottom;” players will have touch screen computers at their lockers; and Cisco’s high-definition TelePresence virtual conferencing system will be installed at a library in the Bronx to allow students to interact with Yankee players.

“Yankee Stadium will be in a constant state-of-the-artness,” said Yankee Chief Operating Officer Lonn Trost in a statement that would make Yogi Berra proud.

Cisco officials say the stadium will be the most technologically advanced stadium in the country, if not the world. They said Cisco technology is used in 60% of the sporting venues in North America, including the new Cisco Field being built in Fremont, Calif. 

Fans in luxury suites can view the game from different angles by manipulating the touch screen of Cisco IP phones (compare unified communications products) in those suites. They will also be able to order concessions and Yankees merchandise for delivery to the suite.

Over time, fans will be able order food from their seats through their mobile phones, and high-definition screens on the exterior of the stadium will show what’s going on inside, Cisco officials said.

Cisco and the Yankees began discussions two and a half years ago on the technological infrastructure and application for the  stadium, which is replacing the venerable, 85-year-old “House the Ruth Built.”

“We had to have the best capabilities” in fan amenities at the new ballpark,” Trost said. “We had to step up and allow the fan experience to be improved.”

“This is the front edge of what sports and entertainment will be like” in the future, Cisco’s Chambers said. Like Star Trek…that’s where we’re going to go. This will change all of sports.”

Cisco said it is in active discussions with other sports franchises about upgrading their stadium fan experience with similar capabilities.

Microsoft has denied paying a Nigerian contractor $400,000 in a bid to battle Linux’s movement into the government sector.

Media reports alleged that Microsoft had proposed paying the sum to a government contractor under a joint marketing agreement last year in order to persuade the contractor to replace Linux OS with Windows OS on thousands of school laptops

Although a joint marketing agreement was drafted to document the best practices for using technology in education, it was never executed, said Thomas Hansen, regional manager for Microsoft West, East and Central Africa. It became clear, he added, that one customer wanted a Linux OS.

“As such, the joint marketing agreement became irrelevant; no such marketing agreement was ever agreed to, and no money was ever spent,” he said.

Apart from the fact that Linux is freely distributed, it’s functionality, adaptability and robustness has made it the main alternative for proprietary Unix and Microsoft operating systems. Governments in Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa have deployed Linux in departments and schools, but Hansen said that Microsoft has strong relationships with the governments in these countries.

“From our standpoint, those governments, and indeed every customer, should always decide which software solutions meet their needs most appropriately. We strongly believe that governments must carefully consider all costs of acquiring and using a PC, along with the benefits of widespread application availability, maintenance, and training,” he said.

Hansen emphasized that studies have shown that the Windows platform often costs the same as or less than Linux when the total cost of ownership is considered.

“Further, when the full range of user benefits are taken into account, such as the wide range of applications available, familiarity, and ease-of-use, Windows is often a much better overall value,” he said.

Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) has been proposed as a standard by IBM, Microsoft and EMC as a way of using Web services for sharing content between a variety of content repositories. While the process of turning CMIS into a standard has just started with the submission of CMIS to the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, it holds promise as a means of increasing the adoption of unified communications.

The basic problem that CMIS is attempting to solve is a serious one. Today, users employ a number of data repositories to do their work: e-mail systems; instant messaging systems; collaboration tools; CRM systems; production databases; and a host of additional tools, each of which typically have their own data stores. Further, most of these systems each have their own interface that IT must deploy and configure, and that end users must learn. This drives up IT and help desk costs and requires users to spend time learning a number of interfaces

What CMIS hopes to achieve is improved productivity by allowing individuals to learn and use a single interface through which they access the various data repositories they need to do their work. The benefits of such an approach include easier access to data for individuals, since they need learn only one interface to access various content repositories; easier deployment for IT because they are managing a more unified system; and less work for application developers who can develop a single interface for accessing all of the repositories that people need to do their work.

CMIS is a very good idea and one that should permit organizations and users to become more efficient as the proliferation of content repositories continues to expand.

Microsoft has extended the availability of Windows XP on new PCs by six months, the company confirmed Friday.

Computer makers that “downgrade” machines from Windows Vista Business or Vista Ultimate to Windows XP Professional will be able to obtain media for the latter through the end of July 2009, a Microsoft spokeswoman said Friday.

The new date is a change in policy. Previously, Microsoft had planned to halt XP Professional media shipments to major computer makers after Jan. 31. 2009.

“As more customers make the move to Windows Vista, we want to make sure that they are making that transition with confidence and that it is as smooth as possible. Providing downgrade media for a few more months is part of that commitment,” the spokeswoman said in an e-mail.

The Jan. 31, 2009 date is also the last day when smaller companies, dubbed “system builders,” will be allowed to purchase Windows XP licenses to install on the machines they assemble. The system builder deadline has not changed, the spokeswoman added; It remains next Jan. 31.

To confuse matters, some PC makers have long claimed that they would provide XP downgrades on new computers past the Jan. 31 deadline. Last June, for example, Hewlett-Packard Co. talked of a July 2009 cut-off. “HP…will continue to offer this option on its business systems through at least July 30, 2009,” a company spokesman said almost four months ago.

The Microsoft spokeswoman clarified the situation. “The [downgrade] rights don’t go away,” she said via instant messaging in response to follow-up questions. “It’s all about having the media on hand. It’s always been okay to use what you’ve got.”

Microsoft sent Windows XP into semi-retirement last June when it stopped selling the aged operating system at retail, withdrew Windows XP Home from use on new PCs and allowed XP Professional to be installed as a Vista downgrade.

The latter tactic takes advantage of Vista’s end-user licensing agreement (EULA), which allows users — and in their stead, computer makers — to install Windows XP Professional while also providing media for Vista for a possible upgrade later. More than a third of all new PCs are being downgraded to Windows XP, according to data from a Florida company that operates a community-based performance testing network.

It’s also possible that XP will be widely available long after July 31, 2009. “Downgrade rights do not expire,” Microsoft’s spokeswoman said Friday.

The longer availability puts Microsoft in an unusual position; the new timeline will make it possible for users to purchase XP-powered PCs through next July, just months before Microsoft plans to roll out Windows 7, the successor to Vista.

Angie Gonzalez, of Datacore, and I had a conversation about how virtual storage complements any type of virtual processing solution. Nearly all virtual server-based solutions gain a great deal of benefit when a supporting virtual storage strategy is also deployed. Why is that?

• Virtual storage solutions iron out incompatibilities among storage subsystems making it possible for a workload to move from one place to anotfher without also requiring IT administrators to reconfigure storage systems on the fly.
• Virtual storage solutions can make it more easily possible to select the storage subsystem based upon the performance requirements of the application, overall polices and operational events.

Until fairly recently, only the largest of organizations could afford sophisticated virtual storage systems. Datacore has been doing its best to bring this type of technology to the midmarket for nearly 10 years.

What is your organization doing to complement its virtual processing solutions with virtual storage solutions?

Dell reports its fiscal second quarter results on Thursday after market close and analysts are turning optimistic about the company’s turnaround prospect amid better consumer notebook designs, emerging market revenue and solid server sales growth.

Dell is expected to report fiscal second quarter earnings of 36 cents a share on revenue of $15.95 billion, according to Thomson Reuters. Dell doesn’t provide financial guidance, but Wall Street is expecting earnings of 41 cents a share on revenue of $16.7 billion for the third quarter.

Analysts have been turning increasingly upbeat about Dell’s prospects and IDC’s server statistics on Wednesday only reinforced that general idea that the company is on the right path.

Here’s the crib sheet ahead of the earnings report:

Server sales expected to be better than expected. Cowen & Co. Louis Miscioscia said in a research note that Dell’s server revenue should be about $1.7 billion, but could hit $1.87 billion with revenue growth of 15 percent. That incremental revenue could add as much as a penny a share to earnings. HP also reported strong server gains and Dell has been gaining on its larger rival.

SMB and emerging market gains. Small business and emerging markets are the growth engines for Dell. In fact, if Dell beats estimates it will most likely because of those two markets. Miscioscia is among the more bullish on Wall Street and projecting revenue of $16.2 billion, well ahead of the consensus outlook. Dell recently unveiled four SMB focused Vostro PCs for emerging markets with limited configurations. Dell also launched a new Latitude lineup focused on business users.

Cost cutting progress. Analysts across the board are closely Dell’s progress in cutting operating expenses and expect more layoffs from the company. However, cost cutting is likely to be offset by aggressive pricing in the quarter. Toss in marketing for new products and Dell may be cutting operating expenses only to hold the gross margin fort at best. “Our estimates reflect an 18.1% gross margin, down 187 bps year over year, due to aggressive pricing, commodity pricing returning to normalized levels and increased sales through retail channels,” said Cross Research in its earnings preview.

Retail channel shelf space. Dell in recent quarters has stormed the channel, but it’s not clear that it is gaining shelf space. UBS analyst Maynard Um notes:

Our recent retail channel checks indicate no shift in PC shelf space across major retailers, with HP dominating and Dell still having fairly limited SKUs in many major US retailers. While recognizing our retail checks are not representative of the global market, we feel these checks provide a decent idea of regional channel presence. Given recent product introductions and its strategy, we believe Dell’s presence in the US retail channel could increase in the coming quarters.

In addition, Dell is likely to talk up its consumer sales and its penchant for design. Dell has made a lot of progress toward its goal of generating product lust.
Some color on Dell’s software plans. Dell has quietly building up its software business especially for software as a service. It is also developing on Salesforce.com’s force.com platform and tweaking Vista to make it more palatable. Although the focus will obviously be on hardware any incremental color on Dell’s software plans could be notable.

Analysts generally expect Dell to tout its retail gains ahead of its peak consumer selling season and a positive tone from CEO Michael Dell, who recently bought a big chunk of stock. Dell is still a work in progress, but appears to be headed in the right direction.