iStockphoto guarantees its collection

Starting today, iStockphoto, the micropayment royalty-free image, video, and audio provider, will legally guarantee its entire collection from copyright, moral right, trademark, intellectual property, and rights of privacy disputes for up to $10,000. The new iStock Legal Guarantee, delivered at no cost to customers, covers the company's entire 5 million-plus collection. Recently however, Vivozoom, another microstock company, took a similar action to guarantee its collection. Additional coverage for an Extended Legal Guarantee totaling $250,000 is available for the purchase of 100 iStock credits. "Our first line of defense has always been-and continues to be-our rigorous inspection process," said Kelly Thompson, chief operating officer of iStockphoto. "The Legal Guarantee is simply an added layer of protection for our customers, many of whom are using microstock more than ever before." Although common for traditional stock houses, such legal guarantees have not been standard in microstock because of the low prices. iStock says that files purchased and used in accordance with its license will not breach any trademark, copyright, or other intellectual property rights or rights of privacy.

And, if a customer does get a claim, iStock will cover the customer's legal costs and direct damages up to a combined total of $10,000. iStock customers can increase their coverage for legal fees and direct damages up to a combined total of $250,000 by purchasing the Extended Legal Guarantee via the iStock credits (which costs between $95 and $138). iStock expects that this program will be popular with a very small percentage of sophisticated media buyers with very specific needs, and considers it to be a value-added service to customers rather than a major source of revenue.

Intel: Don't look for one device to do it all

Business people and consumers looking for one electronic device that can take care of all their needs have false hopes, according to researchers at Intel Corp. Genevieve Bell , an Intel Fellow and director of user experience, explained that an all-in-one device - that includes a phone, an Internet connection, a pager, a camera, a calendar, a GPS system and other capabilities - probably couldn't do anything exceptionally well. But scientists at Intel's research facility in Pittsburgh say they do expect that personal devices will one day become ... well, much more lovable.

And, she added, if a person lost the device that did all those tasks, he or she would have a really bad day. "I'm not sure any device can carry all that weight," Bell told Computerworld in an interview at the Pittsburgh lab. "I would love to get to a world where I only have one device. But it would just never work. Your handbag would weigh less. I think we'll actually have more devices." Bell said that replacing laptops, smartphones, pagers and other everyday systems with a single device simply is too much convergence. "Thinking we'll have one device that does everything is like our fetish with having paperless offices," she added. "It's jut not going to happen. As human beings, we are never just one thing.

The problem with convergence is we converge around the object and not the experience. We are employees. We are children. We are partners. We are members of churches and social groups. My phone doesn't know any more about me today than it did the day I got it.

We'll need different devices for different things." Intel CTO Justin Rattner added that while there likely won't be an all-in-one device, new more personalized systems should be emerging from development labs soon. "It's going to be about getting devices that know me," said Rattner. "That's something we think is really important. Think of the calendar in your phone as a soft sensor. He also expects that next-generation phone will recognize traffic jams on his work route and then send an alert that he needs to leave early and provide alternate routes. " Devices need to become more like personal assistants," he added. "They need to become more assertive. The device should understand [from items posted in its calendar] what my day is like and whether I need vehicle navigation or I need to read something before an important meeting. [The cell phone] has all this information and it still doesn't do all that much for me." Rattner said he looks forward to a time when an embedded camera in cell phones can recognize the owner, and whether someone else tries to use it. That's one way these devices will become more lovable." Andrew Chien, vice president of research at Intel and director of future technologies research at Intel Labs, said he wants to one pick out the devices he'll need for the day much like he picks out his clothes. "One of the reasons why we have mixed feelings about our devices is that they should be more like my wardrobe," he explained. "I go to the closet and pick out my clothes. I should have the best devices and know they're going to work together." The more seamlessly devices can work together, the more specialized they can become, Chien said.

We're going to get to a world where people can pick the best device for whatever function without worrying about them working together. Instead of needed data being stored in a single device, that information should be easily shared between devices so they can each offer strong functionality. But people are less in love with many of the devices that deliver the Internet to them. And that connectivity and shared data would make Rattner's vision of smart digital assistants come to life. "Will your phone directory information be in your earpiece or your handset or in your laptop or your shoe heel?" asked Chien. "It shouldn't matter where it is." Bell said the goal is to develop devices that can fend off viruses, hold a long charge, fit our bodies better and can take the punishment doled out when rolling around in the bottom of a handbag. "People love, love, love the Internet," Bell said. "It's an integral part of our lives. We need to develop devices that people can love too."

Juniper’s enterprise business hums in Q3

Juniper Networks (JNPR) can thank its enterprise business for third-quarter results that exceeded expectations. Profits came in at $122.5 million, or 23 cents per diluted share, an increase of 21% quarter-over-quarter but a decrease of 28% from the third quarter of 2008. Still, the results were better than the $800 million in revenue and 21 cents per share earnings Wall Street was expecting. For the period ended Sept. 30, Juniper recorded revenue of $823.9 million, an increase of 5% sequentially but a decrease of 13% from the same period a year ago. And that's due to a 10% sequential growth in Juniper's enterprise business, which was "better than expected," according to Juniper CFO Robyn Denholm.

Johnson added that the IBM-branded Juniper products offered under a recent OEM arrangement are now available. Juniper's answer to Cisco in the data center: Stratus Project CEO Kevin Johnson said those results for the enterprise business represent "a starting point for a level of momentum" Juniper believes it can achieve in that market. "Our vision of the data center architecture of the future is resonating," Johnson said in a conference call with analysts. Juniper's EX LAN switching line, which debuted in the first half of last year, accounted for $50 million in sales in the quarter and is on a $200 million annual run rate. The MX debuted in 2006. The SRX firewall, which was unveiled a year ago, is on a $100 million annual run rate. The MX series Ethernet router, deployed mostly in carrier networks but also in some enterprise data centers, is on a $400 million annual run rate. Together, the EX, MX and SRX product lines accounted for $180 million of Juniper's $634 million in product revenue in the quarter. "We are executing better, and that's coming mainly from the US," Johnson said of the enterprise results in the quarter.

We're share takers in the enterprise market, we've got a lot of upside. Sales were particularly strong in the US federal government marketplace. "We will continue to throttle up execution globally. As the economy improves, enterprise investments will improve, but at a slower rate than service providers. "The level of buzz with customers in the enterprise continues to grow," Johnson added. "It's indicative of our opportunity. SLT revenue was a record for the quarter at $229 million, Denholm said, an increase of $11 million from 2008's Q3. In general, Juniper sees the economy and its business improving. "Our visibility has improved in key areas of our business," Johnson said. "We're in an economic recovery. But we've got to execute and engage with customers." Juniper experienced increased sales of its Service Layer Technology products – traditionally enterprise security and WAN acceleration gear – to service providers in Q3 as well. The pace varies across geographies" with improvements domestically, stabilization in Asia and a slower uptick in Europe.

For the fourth quarter, Juniper expects revenue of $860 million to $895 million, and earnings per share in the 23 cents to 26 cents range.

Startups trying to change the SAP consulting game

A pair of startups, including one led by a former top SAP executive, are betting that SAP customers want more flexible ways to purchase consulting services and find answers to problems. The main difference between Vivido and traditional consulting contracts is that customers can purchase help a la carte, and can get it faster, he said. Greg Tomb, who was CEO of SAP North America before leaving the vendor early this year, recently formed Vivido Labs, which offers remote help-desk service provided by a roster of experienced SAP professionals, Tomb said. A large systems integrator may demand a minimum length of engagement or be unable to immediately put qualified help on the job, he said.

The system works well for the experts, many of which are veterans and "tired of traveling," Tomb said. "It gives them the ability to make extra money and get in front of new customers. ... These people love working through the hard problems," he added. About 1,000 SAP consultants have expressed an interest in working with Vivido, but the company has selected an initial group of about 400 for now, according to Tomb. Following feedback from initial customers, Vivido is now tweaking its platform to ensure customers can name a preferred consultant if desired, rather than be assigned one randomly from a group specializing in a particular area, Tomb said. However, a customer that is just about to hit the switch on an implementation might want to call in Vivido's experts to serve as a last-minute extra set of eyes, he added. Vivido is focusing on customers whose SAP implementations are already up and running and need help with configuration issues or other "post-go-live" problems, Tomb said.

In addition to remote help, Vivido is attempting to build up a large repository of white papers, how-to guides and other information relating to specific areas of SAP software. Meanwhile, startup CumulusIQ, based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is taking a somewhat different approach to remote support. The materials undergo a thorough vetting process by a team of SAP "scholars," according to Tomb. Customers submit questions to the company's "SAP Help Desk in the Cloud," after which an answer is "crowdsourced" by a virtual team of consultants. "You could potentially have 20 experts looking at an SAP issue anytime day or night, whereas with a traditional dedicated help desk, you might only have one person helping you at a time," cumulusIQ CEO Monty Kalsi said in a blog post. We're going to recover into a different world," he said. "Part of what's changing is stuff around systems integrators and consulting in the enterprise space. Vivido and CumulusIQ are creatures of the recession and its pending aftermath, according to Jon Reed, an independent analyst who tracks the SAP jobs market. "Basically, when you look at the impact of this economy, business models are never going to return to the way [they] were.

Companies want more innovation."

NASA spacecraft crash into the moon

NASA' Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellites (LCROSS) took dead aim and crashed into the moon around 7:31 am ESD. Watching the results on NASA TV, scientists were pleased with the impact of the two satellites. LCROSS is made up of two spacecraft. The impact of the $80 million LCROSS satellites into the moon was to create what the space agency hopes is an ice-filled a debris plume that can be analyzed for water content.

The first, known as the heavy impactor Centaur separated from the main LCROSS satellite at 9:50 EDS and rocketed toward the moon's surface, burrowing at least 90ft into the moon's surface and throwing up an estimated 250 metric tons of lunar dust. NetworkWorld Extra:10 NASA space technologies that may never see the cosmosTop 10 cool satellite projects According to NASA, as the debris field should rise above the target area, known as the Cabeus crater, and is exposed to sunlight, any water-ice, hydrocarbons or organics will vaporize and break down into their basic components. Following four minutes behind, the remaining LCROSS spacecraft flew through the debris plume, collecting and relaying data back to Earth before it too crashed into the lunar surface, burrowing in about 60ft, NASA stated. These components primarily will be monitored by the visible and infrared spectrometers. The spacecraft's visible camera will track the impact location and the behavior of the debris plume while the visible radiometer will measure the flash created by the Centaur impact, NASA stated. The near-infrared and mid-infrared cameras will determine the total amount and distribution of water in the debris plume.

The LCROSS science payload consists of two near-infrared spectrometers, a visible light spectrometer, two mid-infrared cameras, two near-infrared cameras, a visible camera and a visible radiometer. While previous space missions have found some water in the moon's dirt, LCROSS is expected to definitively answer how much water might be there. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which launched with LCROSS June 18, will observe the plumes, as will the Hubble Space Telescope and observatories on Earth. In the end the idea is that should the US or others ever try to establish a human outpost on the moon, the might be able to use the water present on the moon rather than having to transport it up there. Click here to view a photo of the microchip containing the names as engineers prepare to install it on the spacecraft.

NASA also notes that through the agency's "Send Your Name to the Moon" initiative, the spacecraft carries a microchip with nearly 1.6 million names submitted by the public. If all goes well, the LCROSS mission would be a huge boost for NASA which has been under the gun of late. NASA is still struggling to develop a solid business case-including firm requirements, mature technologies, a knowledge-based acquisition strategy, a realistic cost estimate, and sufficient funding and time-needed to justify moving the Constellation program, witch includes the two main spaceflight components, the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle and the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, forward into the implementation phase, the GAO stated. In September, the Government Accountability Office slammed the future of the manned space flight program. In addition, the recent Review of United States Human Space Flight Plan Committee said in its preliminary report on the future of NASA said: '[NASA] is perpetuating the perilous practice of pursuing goals that do not match allocated resources.

It really is rocket science. Space operations are among the most complex and unforgiving pursuits ever undertaken by humans. Space operations become all the more difficult when means do not match aspirations." Want to compare network applications products? The committee's report was bleak too but ultimately how its results are interpreted will determine the future of any manned space flights. Visit the IT Product Guides now.