China’s Tianhe-1A supercomputer, capable of carrying out more than 2,507 trillion calculations a second (2.507 petaflops), is claimed to be the most sophisticated supercomputer ever built. Made with more than 7,000 graphics processors and 14,000 Intel chips, the supercomputer is performs almost twice (47% faster) the speed of the next fastest supercomputer, XT5 Jaguar at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the US, that can carry out 1.75 petaflops per second.

The supercomputer is located in China’s National Center for Supercomputing in Tianjin. It is operational and currently works for the local weather service and the National Offshore Oil Corporation. The processors are kept in 103 refrigerated cabinets weighing a total of more than 155 tonnes.

The US is still the leader in having most supercomputers with more than half of the world’s top 500 supercomputers. Japan is told to be developing another machine, named K Computer, to be faster than Tianhe-1A. (source – Nvidia)

This post is a follow up to my previous post on rude and polite signboards. This temporary signboard in 39st NW, Calgary, Canada is the only signboard, I have seen, to be polite enough to add a ‘Please’ in it!

I would love to hear from you on the issue of making the signboards more polite like this one!

Microsoft has launched its web version of Office and e-mail to compete with Google’s similar offering, Google Apps.

Google Apps includes online word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation and costs $50 per year for business customer. Microsoft’s basic service will cost slightly more at $72 a year.

The new service will replace Microsoft’s previous similar offerings with various names like Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), Office Live Small Business, and Live@edu. The basic version of Office 365 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint for collaboration, Exchange for e-mail, and Lync for communications.

Microsoft Office is far much better in terms of what it can do but it’s Microsoft’s way to enter the field a bit late and offer the service slow. It took seconds to open Google’s Docs but Office 365 is taking ages to open. I know, it is a new service, still in Beta, and they should be changing stuffs and polishing things – but, I was never a fan of Microsoft websites when speed is concerned.

A tiny guy with long name – Khagendra Thapa Magar, has just turned 18 today, on October 14, 2010.

To hand over his 18th birthday present, the title of the World’s Shortest Man, Guinness World Records Book team has gone to Nepal.

I wrote about Khagendra back in 2007 when He Pingping, the shortest man then, met the tallest man of that time Bao Xishun. At that time, he was told to be only 50 cm tall. It sure is a very slow growth rate at 17 cm in three years, as he measures 67 cm now.

Happy Birthday and Congratulation for the record, Khagendra !

Microsoft has unveiled Windows Phone 7, its new mobile platform, with five new handsets for AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile, on October 11, 2010. The OS will come in the European markets as soon as Oct. 21 followed by US launch in November and next year.

AT&T and T-Mobile will begin shipping Windows Phone 7 handsets in November. Similar devices from Sprint and Verizon will be available next year.

AT&T’s Windows Phone 7 devices include the HTC Surround, the Samsung Focus, and the LG Quantum. T-Mobile’s Windows device are HTC HD7 and the Dell Venue Pro. Sprint’s sole model HTC 7 Pro will be released early next year with Windows Phone 7 installed in it.

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Windows Phone 7 – the Zune phone has finally arrived

Google is expecting to enter into a new business – robotic car. The secret project was announced today after completion of 140,000 miles of test driving.

The self-driving cars "use video cameras, radar sensors, and a laser range finder" to drive along the traffic. Google’s data center is used to process the information gathered by the car and map details. 

Although the cars can drive by themselves, the robotic cars during the test drive have trained safety driver behind the wheel. The driver can take control of the vehicle in emergency situations. A software operator on the passenger seat monitor the driving software. The local police are also told about the test drive in advance.

Here is a video of the robotic car in action on the road. The video is unofficial and is recorded by a blogger, Robert Scoble. In one of the comments, Scoble says : “Wow, I didn’t realize this is a self-driving car. Explains why they didn’t like me filming it and why they braked so suddenly to avoid my camera.”

Today, Motorola announced that it has filed suit against Apple for patent infringement. In this contest, a Guardian‘s colorful flow-chart showing who is suiting who in the mobile industry, looked interesting.

Are these companies playing kids’ games? It looks like, the companies sue when they can’t beat the company in the receiving end.

I loved the another version of the same diagram better:

After 5 months of its initial announcement, today Google has announced that it has inked deals with major TV broadcasting companies including NBC, HBO, NBA and Turner Broadcasting (TNT, CNN, Cartoon etc.)

Google’s new website google.com/tv, launched today, will offer information about the features of Google TV and apps for it upcoming Google TV. Another blog site, is also launched today to offer news and announcements about the Google TV.