Sun to open public grid

Sun Microsystems is to open the public portion of its hosted grid computing service next week, enabling anyone to access massive amounts of computing power through their Web browser, reports eWeek.

The $1-per-CPU-hour service was the cornerstone of the Sun Grid initiative it announced early last year, but security and other concerns have delayed public access to the service until now.

In the past, only large enterprises could reserve a portion of the grid for their use, but according to Sun, with the opening of the new public section next week, anyone with Internet connectivity will be able to access thousands of CPUs to run their workloads.

Sony has unveiled several products that will feature Blu-Ray high-definition DVD drives, but none will be available before July.

News.Com says Sony has released details of a Blu-Ray disc player, a Vaio RC desktop with a recordable Blu-Ray drive and an internal Blu-Ray disc drive for PCs. However, the company`s Blu-Ray momentum has slowed in recent weeks with problems in finalising the standard delaying the release of Sony`s PlayStation 3 until November.

Blu-Ray discs can store much more data than conventional DVD media and are designed to accommodate high-definition content, but format wars with the rival HD DVD standard to become the accepted format for high-definition recording could make consumers cautious to commit.

Windows XP is officially running on Intel-based Macs, thanks to some clever work by a coder called "Narf" who tweaked Windows installation files, according to a PC World staff blog posting.

As a reward for winning the competition, Narf collects donations of around $14 000 contributed to a site called Windows XP on Mac by users wanting a useable hybrid machine.

The posting says a dual boot solution is now available and ArsTechnica has published details on the procedure to get XP running.

California prison officials have begun using global positioning system (GPS) ankle bracelets to track known gang members, reports News.Com.

The report says San Bernardino east of Los Angeles this week became the first city in California to use the GPS satellite navigation system to track high-risk parolees known to belong to street gangs.

Six California counties began using GPS to monitor sex offenders in 2005 and some have already been arrested for violating parole after they were tracked to off-limits areas.