	April
	Newsletter
	Issue 53

Included in this months issue:

US boffins fashion quantum-computing bit out of SQUID

Ridley Scott talks up 'nasty' Alien prequel

Pros and Cons of BlackBerry Enterprise Server

Express Research In Motion's new mobile exchange platform -- the free BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express, -- strengthens RIM's position in the smartphone market while meeting the needs of mobile IT who view the full version as "overkill," according to one analyst.The BES Express version, available in March as a mobile download from RIM (NASDAQ: RIMM), erases the fees associated with the full version of BES, which costs $2999 per server and $99 per CAL. The light version will also provide more flexibility, as it works with any BlackBerry on any data plan, compared to BES, which currently requires an enterprise data plan.BES Express has some features and functions disabled that are available on the full version, but for many organizations, BES Express provides everything needed to deploy and manage a fleet of BlackBerrys.

By Michelle Megna

US boffins fashion quantum-computing bit out of SQUID

Federal boffins in the States say they have fashioned another building block which could be of use in assembling the postulated hard-to-understand but applecart-busting quantum computers of tomorrow.

In essence, the so-called "rf-SQUID-Mediated Coherent Tunable Coupling Between a Superconducting Phase Qubit and a Lumped Element Resonator" is just what it sounds like - a radio-frequency superconducting quantum interference device used in effect as a dimmer switch linking a single quantum bit of information ("a qubit") to a resonant cavity employed as a quantum data bus.

A qubit, unlike a boring old normal bit, is not simply 1 or 0 - it could be either or any value in between, just as a cat in a box may be dead, alive or in some sort of undead waveform zombie state. The curious nature of the qubit arises from the fact that it is held in the form of a single microwave photon - as any fule kno, this means that uncertainty theory dictates that one cannot determine anything about it without without changing the very thing one wishes to know.

That's about as far as our quantum physics knowledge goes here on the Reg you-call-that-a-supercomputer-check-this-out desk. But it's well known that that if it were possible to build a computer which used qubits instead of regular ones, various cunning calculations would be possible. For instance, crypto considered uncrackable today could be cracked: it might also be possible to develop superconductors which worked at much higher temperatures, which might in turn lead to many other amazing things.

By Lewis Page

Sony to stop selling floppy disks from 2011

Sony has signalled what could be the final end of the venerable floppy disk.

The electronics giant has said it will stop selling the 30-year-old storage media in Japan from March 2011.Earlier this year Sony stopped selling the disks in most international markets due to dwindling demand and competition from other storage formats.The slow death of the "floppy" or "diskette" began in 1998 when Apple decided not to include a floppy drive in its G3 iMac computer.Since then various other firms have stopped support for floppy disks on the majority of machines, including computer giant Dell in 2003.Computing store PC World said that it would stop selling them in 2007 when stocks ran out.However, Sony has continued to sell the disks, and continues to ship them in the millions.Now, the firm - which claims to have produced the first 3.5in (9cm) disks in 1981 - has decided to halt sales completely faced with competition from online storage and portable USB drives.

From BBC Technology News

Ridley Scott talks up 'nasty' Alien prequel

Sir Ridley Scott has been talking up his Alien prequel, promising a "really nasty" 3D treat which he described as "the dark side of the moon".The movie will be set in 2085, five years before the original, and will see the protagonists "first come across this thing on a planet called Zeta Reticuli". Scott teased to Screen International: "Were the aliens designed as a form of biological warfare? Or biology that would actually go in and clean up a planet?" He added: "And it will ask who was that guy in the first film lying in a chair with his chest blown outwards when they first go into the giant spacecraft."The 72-year-old director insisted his project will challenge James Cameron'sAvatar in terms of 3D spectacle. He said: "Jim's raised the bar and I've got to jump to it. He's not going to get away with it."

Microsoft's Office Web Apps - Google killing not included

The most intriguing piece of an otherwise predictable Office 2010 - which volume customers can get as of Tuesday - is Office Web Apps. These are the first ever, in-browser versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote from Microsoft. They represent a significant break with the past for a suite that's been one of Microsoft's cash cows and resolutely stuck on the desktop, albeit with growing attachments to the server in recent years. Microsoft's Web Apps will officially arrive with Office 2010 on May 12, and they come in two guises. The consumer version will be available on SkyDrive, part of Windows Live, and on Facebook through the just-announced docs.com, while businesses can install Office Web Apps as an add-on for SharePoint 2010. Even the free SharePoint Foundation is sufficient, though you do need a volume license for Office, and it is this version that I tested.

By Tim Anderson

US Airforce secret spaceplane launched successfully

The US Air Force successfully launched its pocket-size X-37B robot space plane into orbit last night, on a mission whose nature and duration remain classified. With the imminent departure of the Space Shuttle, the little wingship will soon be the only orbital craft capable of runway landing - and perhaps other things. The X-37B took off inside a payload fairing on top of an Atlas V launcher from Space Launch Complex 41, part of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station rather than NASA's co-located Kennedy Space Centre, at 01:52am UK time this morning. United Launch Alliance, providing the launcher, said the takeoff was successful.All details of the X-37B's mission are classified, though the air force did say it intends to use the little spaceplane to develop "concepts of operations" for re-usable spacecraft, and that this first mission will be mainly about seeing whether the craft itself works properly. Officials have also suggested that they are as interested in how fast the wingship can turn around between missions as in what it can actually do in space.

By Lewis Page

UK despatches first Galileo flight payload

Europe's Galileo satellite-navigation system has passed a major milestone in its development.

The payload for the first spacecraft in the operational constellation leaves its Portsmouth, UK, factory on Monday for final preparations in Italy.Proto-flight Model 1 includes all the equipment needed to generate and transmit location and timing data to users on the ground and in the air.The final works and testing in Rome will get it ready for launch next year."We should be ready for an April flight and this is a very significant step towards that achievement," said Dr Mike Healy, the head of navigation at EADS Astrium, the company contracted to integrate the components of the payload

.Pathfinder role

Proto-flight Model 1 will be part of the In-Orbit Validation (IOV) exercise that initiates the EU project.Four spacecraft will be flown in a mini-constellation in the sky to prove the European system can deliver the promised performance.The rest of the satellites, known as the Full Operational Capability (FOC) spacecraft, will then follow soon afterwards. An initial 14 FOC spacecraft have already been ordered, with many more expected.Galileo will work alongside GPS. It is expected to improve substantially the availability and accuracy of timing and navigation signals delivered from space.Users should get quicker, more reliable fixes and be able to locate their positions to within one metre compared with the current GPS-only error of several metres.

By Jonathan Amos


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