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<title>Haaze.com / ziminsircom / Published News</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 09 Nov 2010 08:10:22 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
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<title><![CDATA[Call of Duty: Black Ops: Not-so-modern warfare]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=call-of-duty-black-ops-not-so-modern-warfare</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=call-of-duty-black-ops-not-so-modern-warfare</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 09 Nov 2010 08:10:22 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ziminsircom</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=call-of-duty-black-ops-not-so-modern-warfare</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Activision)Somewhere between the Greatest Generation and Generation X lies a vast expanse of American history. Though World War II is safely enough in the past to explore freely, and our current war on terror close enough to inspire (occasionally uncomfortable) ripped-from-the-headlines games (and plenty of movies, books, and television), that great middle section has been largely unexplored by interactive entertainment--until now. While a mighty stroke of the virtual pen, the Call of Duty series has single-handedly brought everyone's attention to the Cold War era. But this is not the Cold War of John le Carre or James Bond' instead the brutal small-arms firefights and squad skirmishes feel more like today's unconventional warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan, just redesigned for a different decade. It's modern warfare, just in a slightly less modern package. What's in the Call of Duty: Black Ops Prestige Edition (photos) Not that there's anything wrong with that. Often, the most effective way to tell a story is through time-shifting and indirect symbolism' it's pretty much the foundation of the narrative experience. Interestingly, this particular setting is uniquely underused in video games--compared even with the Civil War or various ancient conflicts. I'm not sure there's an adequate explanation as to why there have been so few Vietnam-era games (and even fewer Korean War games)' perhaps the baby boom generation controlling the purse strings of game developers and publishers felt it off-limits, or inaccessible to younger gamers who had not lived through the tumultuous era. In this case, however, it makes perfect sense. While the Modern Warfare games (also part of this Call of Duty series) managed to walk the line between cartoon action and potentially offensive realism, a somewhat similar game from earlier in 2010, Medal of Honor, generated a lot of negative heat for its portrayal of U.S. forces engaged in all-too-real modern-day shoot-outs with the Taliban. In comparison, this is no &quot;Apocalypse Now&quot; or &quot;Platoon&quot; (or even &quot;The Green Berets&quot;)' it's Cold War action in the Michael Bay mold, as big and explosive as games get, with all the telltale signs of big budgets and focus groups. At the same time, one has only to see a brutal torture scene early in the game to feel its connection to current events. Unlike the black-and-white patriotism of the WWII-era Call of Duty games, there are shades of gray here which, while historically appropriate for the era, also clearly reflect current-day sensibilities. No doubt, many players will remain unaware of these threads, happy instead to lose themselves for a few hours in both the cinematic story and the separate-but-equal online competitive game, which comes off much more like a futuristic sports league than actual military combat. The gameplay mechanics don't feel that much different than other recent Call of Duty entries, which is more of a compliment than anything else. The actual running and shooting (and occasional driving and flying) is sharp and responsive, and even the interactive menus are a treat, with Easter eggs and in-the-know jokes. If this is your kind of thing, you already know it, and likely already have logged significant game time within 24 hours of Black Ops' release. Call of Duty: Black Ops (screenshots) Have the Call of Duty games become a highly commoditized formula Of course they have, but that doesn't mean it's not still a well-made piece of consumer entertainment, and one of the slickest, most engaging games of the year. What's your take Sound off in the comments section below, or vote in our poll. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Lifting of blogger's story triggers online furor]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=lifting-of-bloggers-story-triggers-online-furor</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=lifting-of-bloggers-story-triggers-online-furor</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 05 Nov 2010 07:10:02 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ziminsircom</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=lifting-of-bloggers-story-triggers-online-furor</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A magazine accused of publishing a blogger's story without permission has seen a dramatic rise in the number of its Facebook friends, although they're not all that friendly.The tale of writer Monica Gaudio hit the Web on Wednesday after she reported that her story, &quot;A Tale of Two Tarts,&quot; was apparently lifted and published by the print magazine Cooks Source with her byline, but without her knowledge or any compensation. After tracking down the editor at the magazine, Gaudio asked for an apology on Facebook and in the magazine, as well as a $130 donation to the Columbia School of Journalism.Instead, she said she received a rather unexpected response from the editor, Judith Griggs, quoted in-part below:&quot;But honestly Monica, the Web is considered 'public domain' and you should be happy we just didn't &quot;lift&quot; your whole article and put someone else's name on it! It happens a lot, clearly more than you are aware of, especially on college campuses, and the workplace. If you took offense and are unhappy, I am sorry, but you as a professional should know that the article we used written by you was in very bad need of editing, and is much better now than was originally. Now it will work well for your portfolio. For that reason, I have a bit of a difficult time with your requests for monetary gain, albeit for such a fine (and very wealthy!) institution. We put some time into rewrites, you should compensate me! I never charge young writers for advice or rewriting poorly written pieces, and have many who write for me... ALWAYS for free!&quot;After Gaudio went live on her blog page with details of the transaction, and other blogs picked it up, it didn't take long for the viral nature of the Internet to take hold. Cooks Source's Facebook page, which had only around 100 &quot;friends&quot; beforehand, took on a whole new popularity, though probably not in the way the magazine wanted.(Credit:Facebook)From among the more than 3,800 friends who have since &quot;liked&quot; Cook Source's Facebook page in order to vent their comments, many have been telling the magazine just what they think of it, while others have attacked Griggs both personally and professionally. Beyond the Facebook page, stories about the incident have hit top news sources and a host of blog posts.Faced with the torrent of nasty comments, Griggs or at least someone with access to the magazine's Facebook page, offered a response that just seemed to anger people even further:&quot;Well, here I am with egg on my face! I did apologize to Monica via email, but apparently it wasn't enough for her. To all of you, thank you for your interest in Cooks Source and Again, to Monica, I am sorry--my bad! You did find a way to get your 'pound of flesh...' we used to have 110 'friends,' we now have 1,870...wow! ...Best to all, Judith&quot;The frenzy has apparently forced Cooks Source to set up a new Facebook page after claiming that its old one was hacked. The magazine is also cautioning that any posts on its new page considered libelous will be removed.Beyond the harm to the magazine's reputation, what legal issues does the incident raise Does Gaudio have a case if she decided to take legal action against Cooks Source&quot;The author does have a copyright in her work. That's without question,&quot; New York copyright attorney Alex Chachkes told CNET. &quot;The question then is whether the magazine has an argument that their copying is fair use. Fair use is actually a pretty complicated analysis.&quot;But Chachkes took issue with Griggs' claim that anything on the Internet is considered public domain. &quot;It's not correct to say that just because something is on the Internet, it's public domain,&quot; he said. &quot;Time Magazine publishes things on the Internet. I don't think anyone's going to say that you can take a Time Magazine article and republish it with or without the byline and then sell it in your own magazine.&quot;Still, Gaudio might face a tough time if she did want to pursue a legal case against the magazine, according to Chachkes. &quot;You know the saying 'Don't make a federal case out of it.' She would have to make a federal case out of it. It would have to be an action of copyright infringement.&quot;Ultimately though, the magazine's trashing on the Internet is likely to be far more damaging than any legal or civil action it might ever face. &quot;You know, the Internet's a funny thing, Chachkes said. &quot;You tell people 'Imagine you're speaking simultaneously to your friends and to your grandmother.' Everything's published to everybody.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Austin companies, join us Nov. 19 for feedback and drinks at Austin Ventures]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=austin-companies-join-us-nov--19-for-feedback-and-drinks-at-austin-ventures</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=austin-companies-join-us-nov--19-for-feedback-and-drinks-at-austin-ventures</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ziminsircom</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=austin-companies-join-us-nov--19-for-feedback-and-drinks-at-austin-ventures</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Got an awesome tech productWell, if you&amp;'re based in the Austin, Texas region, join VentureBeat and DEMO for a meetup at one of Austina4a4s most respected venture capital firms, Austin Ventures.On Nov. 19., wea4a4ll be inviting up to 10 companies that are contemplating launching products at DEMO (either at the upcoming Spring event in February in Palm Desert, or at DEMO Fall 2011 back in Silicon Valley) to present their ideas and get feedback on their products.Location isAustin Venturesa4a4 offices at 300 West 6th Street.Youa4a4ll have the  opportunity to meet with senior partners at Austin Ventures and also to meet me and other members of the DEMO team. Each  presentation will get at least 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of  feedback.Wea4a4ve had similar events around the country, partnering with what we think are the best firms in each location. They include theFoundry Group, Benchmark,Kleiner Perkins, Madrona and others.If youa4a4re a company interested in coming,please fill out this form.  If youa4a4re selected as one of the 10, wea4a4ll follow up immediately with  more information about the presentation and who will be there, etc.The night before, wea4a4ll all head out for cocktails  at Six Lounge, which will be open to the entire Austin tech scene, from  6:30 to 9 p.m. Spread the word &amp;8212' leta4a4s bring the house down! Wea4a4ll be  buying drinks there for the first 50 people who show up. Please register here for that.Look forward to seeing you in Austin!Next Story: Amazon.com&amp;'s secret retail empire Previous Story: Three tactics to speed company growthPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: DEMOCompanies: Austin Ventures          Tags: DEMOCompanies: Austin VenturesMatt Marshall is editor and CEO of VentureBeat. Follow him on Twitter at @mmarshall, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Google struggling to define Chrome OS as launch approaches]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-struggling-to-define-chrome-os-as-launch-approaches</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-struggling-to-define-chrome-os-as-launch-approaches</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ziminsircom</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-struggling-to-define-chrome-os-as-launch-approaches</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Google may have announced its Chrome OS operating system a year and a half ago, but it looks like the companya4a4s executives are still wrapping their heads around its significance and potential. At least, thata4a4s what I took away from a New York Times article about the OS.Acer recently told Engdadget that it wona4a4t be releasing Chrome OS devices until 2011 but that Google has something up its sleeve for December of this year. The Times says that&amp;'s when Google plans to release a Google-branded Chrome device, which will be manufactured by another company.With the launch so close, youa4a4d think Google would have a clear message about how the operating system fits into its product lineup, particularly since it already has Android. At almost every Google press event involving Android and/or Chrome, someone will inevitably ask how Android stacks up against Chrome OS. At first, it seemed like they were obviously different, since Android was developed for mobile phones while Chrome was built for netbooks (low-end laptops). Still, Google has suggested that it wants to take both operating systems beyond their initial devices, for example with Android-based tablets.Back in June, even Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer admitted confusion about Chrome vs. Android. Ray Ozzie, who was then the companya4a4s chief software architect, argued that Chrome was a bet on the future, because ita4a4s all about the Internet cloud, while Android is more old-fashioned.Herea4a4s chief executive Eric Schmidta4a4s latest attempt at an answer &amp;8212' ita4a4s from the Times article but echoes statements he made at the Web 2.0 Summit last week:We dona4a4t want to call the question and say this one does one thing, this one does another. So far the model seems to be the Android solution is particularly optimized for things that involve touch in some form and Chrome OS appears to be for keyboard-based solutions.Thata4a4s one answer, I suppose, but it lacks the pizazz of Ozziea4a4s visionary language, and it also doesna4a4t have much to do with the initial pitch of Chrome as an operating system fully based in the cloud &amp;8212' i.e., one where everything resides online, and there are no applications or files on your computer &amp;8212' suggesting the keyboard bit is almost an afterthought.Why the switch Ia4a4m guessing that on the one hand, Google doesna4a4t want to pitch Android as an anti-cloud operating system, and on the other hand, the company might have a hard time selling Chrome OS on the no-native-apps angle (at one point in the article, Google&amp;'s Sundar Pichai said people&amp;'s first impression of Chrome OS will be, &amp;''It&amp;'s just a browser,&amp;'' to which he says, &amp;''Exactly.&amp;'') when app-dominated operating systems like Android and Applea4a4s iOS are on the rise.Previous Story: Report: Windows Mobile was for work, Windows Phone 7 is for funPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: Android, Chrome OSCompanies: GooglePeople: Eric Schmidt, Sundar Pichai          Tags: Android, Chrome OSCompanies: GooglePeople: Eric Schmidt, Sundar PichaiAnthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[High Court ruling implies headlines are copyright &8211' we&'re one step away from links]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=high-court-ruling-implies-headlines-are-copyright-8211-wersquore-one-step-away-from-links</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=high-court-ruling-implies-headlines-are-copyright-8211-wersquore-one-step-away-from-links</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ziminsircom</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=high-court-ruling-implies-headlines-are-copyright-8211-wersquore-one-step-away-from-links</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The UK&amp;'s High Court has ruled that news monitoring agencies will have to pay publishing companies to use their web content, effectively re-classifying headlines as separate literary works subject to copyright.The moves follows a legal battle between the Newspaper Licensing Agency, owned by eight of the UKa4a4s largest newspaper groups, and Meltwater, a news monitoring agency. Although cutting agencies like Meltwater pay the NLA a fee for reproducing full-length articles, this case was supposed to clarify the limits of the NLA&amp;'s licensing scheme. Meltwater didn&amp;'t like its clients needing to have a licence from the NLA for the use of mere headlines and short extracts from its service. Instead the case has ruled that similar aggregation sites that charge for a service will have to pay for those headlines.Meltwater plans to appeal against the decision, but if it&amp;'s upheld, you can expect a wave of more legal actions. And thus the fabric of the UK&amp;'s online publishing industry will start to break down. Well done High Court.Technically, that won&amp;'t affect blogs or search sites since they don&amp;'t charge. But it&amp;'s not far away from some publishers claiming that because those links are monetised in some other way, that they can charge for their use since the headlines and, therefore the links to those, are copyright.Meltwater makes the point that  the ruling will mean that &amp;''simply browsing copyright-protected content made freely available on the internet will infringe copyright if it is read without a rightsholder licence.&amp;'' Quite.Needless to say the NLA is very happy as the total UK market for online news monitoring is worth around a4s10 million and &amp;''publishers should earn a fair share of revenues from paid-for monitoring.a4 This is all they are arguing over A measly a4s10m How pathetic. It shows how desparate some newspaper publishers are.I hope the courts see sense in this.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[What TechCrunch Staffers Want Yammer to Spend that $25 Million on&nbsp'(TCTV)]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=what-techcrunch-staffers-want-yammer-to-spend-that-25-million-onnbsptctv</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=what-techcrunch-staffers-want-yammer-to-spend-that-25-million-onnbsptctv</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ziminsircom</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=what-techcrunch-staffers-want-yammer-to-spend-that-25-million-onnbsptctv</guid>
<description><![CDATA[It&amp;'s no secret that we like Yammer here at TechCrunch. We gave the company the top TechCrunch50 honors a few years back, we use the product pretty obsessively for in-house communication, and Mike even uses it as a reporting tool.But we could like it a lot better&amp;8230'In part two of our interview with David Sacks we ask him what he&amp;'s going to spend that new $25 million in venture capital on, and we oh-so-humbly suggest a few things we&amp;'d like for him to spend it on. (Spoiler alert: Jason Kincaid is going to be the happiest.)I forgot to make my request, which is for a &amp;''dislike&amp;'' button. I asked Sacks over email and he said, &amp;''You want to tell people you dislike them What kind of operation is Arrington running over there&amp;'' As he said in the first part of our interview, the Yammer feed is like looking in a corporate mirror.CrunchBase InformationYammerInformation provided by CrunchBase<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Windows Phone 7 ships 1.5M units in first six weeks]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=windows-phone-7-ships-1-5m-units-in-first-six-weeks</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=windows-phone-7-ships-1-5m-units-in-first-six-weeks</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ziminsircom</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=windows-phone-7-ships-1-5m-units-in-first-six-weeks</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Shedding some light on the mystery of Windows Phone 7 sales, Microsoft today announced it sold more than 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices to carriers and retailers in the mobile-phone platform&amp;'s first six weeks on the market.The number was revealed in a mock interview with Windows Phone 7 head of marketing Achim Berg. His language is worth paying attention to &amp;8212' Berg was careful to say the number was based on units shipped by manufacturers, meaning it doesn&amp;'t represent actual activations by consumers. Still, it&amp;'s more information than we&amp;'ve had previously, and it&amp;'s enough to tell us that WP7 hasn&amp;'t been a complete flop.Windows Phone 7 launched in the US on November 8, and in Europe several weeks earlier on October 21. VentureBeat&amp;'s Dean Takahashi reviewed a few Windows Phone 7 devices and concluded that the platform, while late to the party, is good enough to win over some iPhone users. In my own testing, I&amp;'ve found the platform to be surprisingly robust, and it&amp;'s clear that Microsoft is off to a stronger start than Android was two years ago.We still don&amp;'t have first-day sales for WP7, but I&amp;'m sticking to my guns that those numbers don&amp;'t really matter &amp;8212' Microsoft is prepared to dump as much money into the platform as necessary to put it on the mobile map.Berg also mentioned that WP7 just recently hit a milestone of 4,000 available apps, and that it currently has over 18,000 developers working on developing apps for the platform. That&amp;'s impressive growth, as it took Android around 5 months to reach that same number of apps, research firm IDC points out. It&amp;'s widely known that Microsoft pumped a significant amount of money into courting developers and that it has worked closely with many developers to ensure that their apps are as close to perfect as possible.Via ZDNetNext Story: On the GreenBeat: Wind turbines could help crops, Trilliant expanding to Asia Previous Story: Cloud Engines raises $15M to turn old hard drives into private cloud serversPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: Android, mobile operating systems, mobile platforms, smartphones, Windows Phone 7Companies: IDC, MicrosoftPeople: Achim Berg          Tags: Android, mobile operating systems, mobile platforms, smartphones, Windows Phone 7Companies: IDC, MicrosoftPeople: Achim BergDevindra Hardawar is VentureBeat's lead mobile writer and East Coast correspondent. He studied philosophy at Amherst College, worked in IT support for several years, and has been writing about technology since 2004. He now lives in Brooklyn, New York. You can reach him at devindra@venturebeat.com (all story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com), and on Twitter at @Devindra.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Intel&'s billion-dollar mistake: Why chip flaws are so hard to fix]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=intelrsquos-billion-dollar-mistake-why-chip-flaws-are-so-hard-to-fix</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=intelrsquos-billion-dollar-mistake-why-chip-flaws-are-so-hard-to-fix</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ziminsircom</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=intelrsquos-billion-dollar-mistake-why-chip-flaws-are-so-hard-to-fix</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Chips are the brains of everything electronic. And like anything generated by software programs and high-tech factories, they can have flaws. Intel learned this the hard way today as it announced that it had a bug in a companion chip for its popular Sandy Bridge graphics-processor chips for PCs. The mistake will cost the company $300 million in lost sales and $700 million in repairs &amp;8212' making it the biggest such problem the company has ever seen.It&amp;'s certainly a huge shock to the supply chain for personal computers, and it shows just how vulnerable the electronics industry is, given its reliance on a small number of very large suppliers. If this happened to any other company in the supply chain, it could have caused some serious disruption. But Intel has been able to figure out the problem and recover quickly from it. Still, it raises the question: Why are these chip flaws so deadlyOne reason is that Intel&amp;'s sheer size. The company makes about 80 percent of the processors used in personal computers. It has three major chip factories manufacturing its mainstay chips at any given time, and is in the process of adding a fourth. Those chips can churn out the chips by the millions per quarter. If there is a mistake in the chip design and it isn&amp;'t caught early, the flaw can propagate through tens of millions of chips very quickly. The sheer volume of shipments is the reason why this $1 billion flaw is the biggest in Intel&amp;'s history, compared to the $400 million Pentium bug in 1994.Intel dodged a bullet in a big way here. The flaw is in a chipset &amp;8212' a companion chip that handles input-output functions in a PC &amp;8212' that is made in one of the company&amp;'s five-year-old factories, not one of its brand-new ones. The chipset goes with Sandy Bridge, which combines microprocessor and graphics functions in a single chip. Sandy Bridge has been hugely successful for Intel and has been designed into 500 PCs. Luckily, the company caught the problem relatively early. By comparison, the Pentium chip had already been shipping for some time before a math bug was brought to Intel&amp;'s attention back in 1994. Stephen Smith, an Intel vice president, said in an interview that about 8 million of the flawed chips have already been shipped to PC manufacturer customers and perhaps only 500,000 are in the hands of users. That&amp;'s actually less than a day&amp;'s worth of PC shipments, in the grand scheme of things.Another reason that chip flaws can be disastrous is that it takes so long to make each chip from beginning to end. The typical process takes about two to three months, starting with a bare circular wafer of silicon. Chip makers build structures on top of the wafers by adding and erasing layers. The chips are baked at high temperatures, cleaned, and washed. Then they are shipped to another assembly factory where they are sliced into individual chips and packaged. The process involves dozens of steps.Smith (pictured right) said that Intel lucked out in another sense. The flaw can be fixed in the upper metal layers of the process. That means that it can make the changes in chips in the midst of the factory &amp;8212' only by changing some of the last layers added to the chips in the process &amp;8212' and still get those chips shipping to customers within about four weeks.&amp;''When we looked at the issue and the engineers understood the problem, we saw we could make an easy fix in the upper metal layers, rather than deal with changes to the entire production line,&amp;'' Smith said.Since there are hundreds of millions or sometimes billions of electronic components on each multi-layer chip, the complexity of today&amp;'s modern chips is enormous. A typical design will look like a multi-level city on the scale of Manhattan. Each chip takes the work of hundreds of skilled engineers, each working with design software that automates the processing of design.In this case, Smith said there was a circuit-level error in a couple of the connections between a couple of transistors, which are the basic building blocks of electronic circuitry. Intel discovered the flaw fairly quickly, after receiving returned units from a PC maker which saw failures in some machines shipped to customers.Anandtech described the flaw in more detail here: &amp;''The problem in the chipset was traced back to a transistor in the 3 gigabit per second PLL clocking tree. The aforementioned transistor has a very thin gate oxide, which allows you to turn it on with a very low voltage. Unfortunately in this case Intel biased the transistor with too high of a voltage, resulting in higher than expected leakage current. Depending on the physical characteristics of the transistor the leakage current here can increase over time which can ultimately result in this failure on the 3Gbps ports. The fact that the 3Gbps and 6Gbps circuits have their own independent clocking trees is what ensures that this problem is limited to only ports 2 &amp;8211' 5 off the controller.&amp;''Sometimes, changing software will enable programs to get around the flaw. But that still takes a lot of work, since it means software companies have to issue patches for every piece of software that runs on the chips. Some types of chips allow for software updates as well, making changes to the micro code of that runs on a chip or in the BIOS (startup software) of a PC already out in the field. But that&amp;'s not the case with the Intel chip set, code-named Cougar Point.A chip set serves as a traffic cop for the PC, handling tasks that the main Sandy Bridge chip doesn&amp;'t, such as input-output functions. In this case, the Cougar Point chip set had a flaw. The chip set&amp;'s ability to handle Serial-ATA (SATA) ports could potentially degrade over time. That would mess up hard disk drives or DVD drives in the PC. Since those systems are critical, Intel had to fix the hardware.To fix the problem, Intel&amp;'s engineers have to fix the design with their automated design software. They then simulate the new design to make sure they don&amp;'t create any new errors. Then the circuit design has to be re-translated to a physical layout, which is like going from a construction blueprint to an actual guide for a tool handler. After that translation is done and checked for errors, the changes have to propagate through the production system, including changing the masks, or templates, that are used to print patterns on the surfaces of chips. Intel had to change some of its masks here, but it didn&amp;'t have to start over from scratch.The reason that the delay is so expensive, amounting to $300 million in lost revenue for the quarter, is that Intel can&amp;'t ship its Sandy Bridge microprocessors &amp;8212' which have been designed into more than 500 computers &amp;8212' if it can&amp;'t ship the chip sets that go with them. Currently, Intel is making quad-core Sandy Bridge processors and the company is delaying the launch of its dual-core Sandy Bridge processors as it works through the fix. Also, Intel has to gradually ramp up production for a period of time before it starts running on all cylinders again.The $700 million repair cost suggests there is a lot of inventory already in the hands of PC customers. But manufacturers have a few options in how they fix the problem. The Series 6 Serial-ATA ports degrade over time. In three years, there&amp;'s a five percent chance a failure will happen. If the PC manufacturer only uses ports 0 and 1 in their machine designs, they can actually ship PCs with the flawed chips, since only ports 2 through 5 are subject to failure. If the PC manufacturers want to replace their chip sets entirely, then that is where Intel incurs replacement costs.It could have been much worse for Intel, given how many chips it ships. The company is lucky that the problem was discovered early. The bottom line is that fixing a chip design error is like remaking a stone carving, since changing hardware isn&amp;'t nearly so easy as fixing software.Next Story: Affectiva wins government backing to measure your emotions online Previous Story: On the GreenBeat: Think&amp;'s electric car gets recalled, Khosla bets against lithium-ion car batteriesPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: chip, chip factory, maskCompanies: IntelPeople: Stephen Smith          Tags: chip, chip factory, maskCompanies: IntelPeople: Stephen SmithDean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat. Have news to share Launching a startup Email: tips@venturebeat.comVentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[MiaSole reportedly raises $125M for solar, IPO question hangs]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=miasole-reportedly-raises-125m-for-solar-ipo-question-hangs</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=miasole-reportedly-raises-125m-for-solar-ipo-question-hangs</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ziminsircom</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=miasole-reportedly-raises-125m-for-solar-ipo-question-hangs</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Thin-film solar panel maker MiaSole has reportedly raised $125 million in sixth round of equity financing.The round values the company at less than half it was in 2008, dropping from a $1.2 billion pre-money valuation in 2008 to a $550 million valuation today, according to a source cited by VentureWire.The company has been said to be preparing for an IPO this year (and was last reported to be looking to raise $100 million, so if this report is correct, it beat that goal). It was also recently sued in a patent infringement suit. MiaSole&amp;'s investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield &amp;038' Byers, VantagePoint, and Firelake Capital Management.Silicon Valley solar panel companies had a buoyant period of investor interest around 2008, when companies like Solyndra, MiaSole and NanoSolar were able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars. Times have since gotten tougher. Solyndra shut down its first factory ahead of schedule in order to cut costs. Some solar companies (not all venture-backed) like Evergreen, Tessera and SpectraWatt have been forced to layoff workers and shut down projects and plants, and others, like Applied Materials and Suntech&amp;'s thin-film lines, were closed entirely.MiaSole&amp;'s ability to raise this much in this environment is certainly a good sign, and even the lowered valuation is still a good one. The company recently reported reaching a bar-setting CIGS efficiency rate of 15.7 percent. And despite some struggles in solar, solar companies in thin-film and the CIGS technology that MiaSole makes  have seen a lot of good news recently, with Stion, SoloPower and AQT Solar all announcing plans to build solar factories.Makers of CIGS panels, named for their ingredients of copper, indium, gallium, and selenide, are expected to cut costs drastically and improve efficiency in the next few years, bringing it closer to the efficiency rates of the dominant (and currently Chinese-dominated) crystalline silicon technology. Its customers include SolarCity, Wal-Mart, Chevron, and Juwi.Next Story: Twitter shows UberMedia whoa4a4s boss with UberTwitter suspension Previous Story: Interactive TV has finally happened &amp;8212' just not on TVsPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: cigs, Solar, thin film solarCompanies: Firelake Capital Management, Kleiner Perkins, Miasole, VantagePoint          Tags: cigs, Solar, thin film solarCompanies: Firelake Capital Management, Kleiner Perkins, Miasole, VantagePointIris Kuo is the VentureBeat's lead GreenBeat writer. She has reported for The Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong, Houston Chronicle, the McClatchy Washington Bureau and Dallas public radio. Iris attended the University of Texas at Dallas and lives in Houston. Follow Iris on Twitter @thestatuskuo (and yes, that's how you  pronounce her last name). Have news to share Launching a startup Email: tips@venturebeat.comVentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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