The Khronos group has released versions 4.0 and 3.3 of the OpenGL spec, the latest version of the cross-platform, royalty-free 2D and 3D graphics I used on all major desktop operating systems, including Mac OS X. It also serves as the basis for OpenGL ES for smart phones and the upcoming WebGL standard for Web browsers.

OpenGL 4.0 brings support for more advanced features like geometry tessellation as well as tighter integration with the OpenCL language, in order to match Microsoft’s competing DirectX 11 I. This release continues to grant programmers the option of working with a smaller, streamlined “Core” I focused on modern features in lieu of the bloated, backwards compatible appropriately dubbed “Compatibility” I, first introduced in OpenGL 3.2. The full specification is available at the OpenGL registry.

Among the benefits OpenGL 4.0 brings to software developers are two new shader stages to allow the graphics card (GPU) to handle the previously processor-intensive task of geometry tessellation. It also grants the GPU the ability to draw data generated by OpenGL—or external Is, such as OpenCL—without any intervention from the CPU. This helps reduce the load on your computer’s processor by sharing the work with the graphics card—that means easier programming for game developers and better performance for you.

Granted, we won’t see OpenGL 4.0 supported until the next generation of graphics hardware hits the market, so even if you buy a new Mac today, you’re unlikely to see the benefits of all of OpenGL 4.0’s new features and improvements. But never fear, that’s what the OpenGL 3.3 specification is for. OpenGL 3.3 seeks to retrofit some features of the OpenGL 4.0 to run on today’s hardware. That specification can also be found on the OpenGL registry.

Nvidia has already promised OpenGL 4.0 support for its upcoming Fermi-based graphics hardware, and competing graphics card maker ATI, as strong contributors and supporters of the spec, is highly likely to support it as well.

It is unknown exactly when Mac OS X users will see the benefits of OpenGL 4.0. Today, Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard only support OpenGL 2.1 in full, and Snow Leopard only supports a subset of OpenGL 3.0. But it is a given that the benefits of OpenGL 4.0 will filter down to OpenGL ES for iPhones, iPads, and smartphones, as well as the upcoming WebGL spec, meaning better graphics on all platforms. And hopefully soon.

SAN FRANCISCO () –
Sony on Wednesday unveiled a hotly anticipated motion-sensing controller that it hopes will fuel new interest in its PlayStation 3 videogame consoles.

PlayStation Move wands will hit the market in time for the year-end holiday shopping season and aim to tap into a zest for motion-sensing controls that made Nintendo Wii consoles marketplace superstars.

Sony Computer Entertainment America took the wraps off Move and a set of games geared for the controllers, at a private event held near a Game Developers Conference taking place here this week.

“We like to think this is the next generation of motion gaming,” said PlayStation Network senior vice president of marketing Peter Dille.

“Nintendo has done a great job of introducing motion gaming to the masses. We think the migration path for the Wii household to the PS3 household is pretty natural.”

Sony did not disclose exact pricing details, but said it would offer a Move controller bundled with a videogame and an Eye camera that synchs to PS3 consoles for less than 100 dollars.

Move controllers were reminiscent of small black flashlights topped with brightly colored orbs.

The devices let PS3 play be controlled with swings, jabs and other natural movements instead of toggle-and-button commands that have been trademarks of play on PS3 and rival Xbox 360 consoles by Microsoft.

While Wii consoles have a relatively low price of 200 dollars, they have been criticized as lacking the vivid graphics and complex play mechanics of Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles with more processing power.

Move melds Wii-style motion control with more muscular hardware, according to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter.

“It’s the Wii HD,” said Pachter. “Too bad Sony beat Nintendo to it. It is exactly what you want from a Wii HD: super processing power.”

Microsoft is getting into the motion-sensing controller game with a Project Natal release slated for later this year.

Natal will let Xbox 360 players control in-game action with pure body motion, eliminating the need for wands or other hand-held gadgets, according to early glimpses at the technology provided by Microsoft.

“I think Natal is more appealing than any of these things because it requires only you, no peripherals,” Pachter said while discussing Wii and PS3 motion-sensing controls.

A cut last year in PS3 price to 300 dollars and releases of blockbuster titles such as “Uncharted 2: Among Thieves” and “Killzone 2” for the console are credited with fueling new momentum in sales of the consoles.

“We’ve got a lot of wind at our back,” Dille said. “As a matter of fact we are having a hard time keeping hardware in stock.”

Accessories sold to augment move will include a “sub-controller” for maneuvering characters in more intense shooter games such as “SOCOM 4,” which will be completely playable with Move, according to Sony.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Cathleen Griffin usually feeds her passion for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race through the Internet, but next week she’ll travel to Alaska for the first time to see the winner cross the finish line in the old gold rush town of Nome.

“I just can’t imagine being there,” said the Sebago, Maine, resident. “It’s something that a person only dreams about.”

Most faraway fans — and they are legion — aren’t so lucky as to be there in person for even part of the 1,100-mile race. So Iditarod buffs from around the world rely on their computers to experience the next best way to track a trail that crosses two mountain ranges then goes along the dangerous sea ice up the Bering Sea shore on Alaska’s western coast.

They follow the race through the Iditarod Web site and other online venues, such as a forum provided by the Bering Strait School District. They watch footage of the race and tap Iditarod discussion forums and blogs to talk about current standings, favorite mushers, dropped dogs, love or frustration over the Iditarod’s satellite team tracking system, even who could play defending champion Lance Mackey in a movie.

“Although I’m here in Maine and the Iditarod is so far away, you want to have some connection,” said Griffin, who has a six-dog team herself. “To have dogs brings you so much closer to the experience.”

Much of the online buzz is focused on the front-runners and speculation over who will be the first in Nome: Veteran musher John Baker of Kotzebue grabbed the lead Wednesday as the first musher to leave the ghost town of Ophir, more than 660 miles from the finish line. Canada’s Hans Gatt, who won the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race in February, was the first to reach Ophir and was followed by Cim Smyth of Big Lake, but Baker beat them all out. The next to leave nearly five hours later was Dallas Seavey, the 22-year-old son of 2004 winner Mitch Seavey of Seward. Mackey, of Fairbanks, was running 14th in his attempt for a fourth consecutive win. Rookie musher Kathleen Frederick of Willow became the sixth musher from the original field of 71 to scratch. She quit the race Wednesday at the Rohn checkpoint because of equipment problems.

The jockeying for the lead remains fluid until mushers begin taking a mandatory 24-hour layover and two eight-hour rests, keeping fans hovering over their computers. At least a couple dozen mushers were taking their 24-hour stop in Takotna, considered by many to be one of the friendliest villages along the trail and renown for the feast Jan Newton has headed up since 1974, one year after the race began. Newton said those taking their layover there Wednesday included Mackey, Mitch Seavey, four-time winner Jeff King of Denali Park and the race’s only five-time winner, Rick Swenson of Two Rivers.

Students across the nation study the race in school programs incorporating various subjects, including math, science and language arts. At Summit Christian School in West Palm Beach, Fla., computer lab teacher John Frizzell uses the Iditarod to teach elementary school students how “the Internet is the best outlet for some events in our world.”

Students watch videos from the Iditarod site and practice working with numbers and other data. Each class also gets to choose a competitor they believe will win, with fifth-graders getting first dibs on a name.

“Of course, Lance Mackey is now the musher that ALL the classes want to pick,” Frizzell said in an e-mail.

Fans aching to talk about their obsession directly with like-minded enthusiasts or send their favorite competitors a “musher gram” can always call 907-248-MUSH, staffed by volunteers round the clock. They might talk to someone like “rookie” volunteer Janice Lowers from Burbank, Calif., a longtime fan who finally made it here to watch the ceremonial and competitive starts.

Before that, Lowers went the computer route to follow the Iditarod, but she said Wednesday there’s no comparison to seeing it up close.

“My goodness, if you don’t have it bad before you watch it in person, you’re completely bitten by the bug when you do,” she said. “I already know I’m coming back next year.”

Still, the computer is the next best way for those who have no choice but to monitor the race from afar. Just ask the fans who frequent the Race Talk forum from within Alaska, the lower 48 and other countries, including Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Nadia Hancock of Queensland, Australia, has been following the Iditarod since she honeymooned in Whistler, British Columbia, in 2008 and experienced a sled dog adventure. Last year she began subscribing to the Iditarod Insider, which for a fee offers videos of the trail and the virtual progress of mushers, whose sleds are rigged with tracking devices.

“The live tracker is amazingly addictive,” Hancock said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “I was up in the early hours of many mornings.”

After tracking the Iditarod for years from Winchester, Va., Doug Kiracofe finally had to see it in person. Kiracofe and his wife, Rhonda, just returned home after watching the start of the race during their first trip to Alaska. Besides the two starts, the couple attended a pre-race banquet where they chatted with many of the mushers.

“It was just phenomenal,” Kiracofe said of their Iditarod exposure. “My wife told me on the plane back, ‘Well, now you’ve got me hooked, too.’”

___

On the Net:

http://www.iditarod.com

BEIJING () –
Google said Thursday that it was in talks with China on the future of the US Internet giant in the Asian nation, after the firm threatened to leave over cyberattacks and state web censorship.

“We are indeed in active discussions with the Chinese government but we are not going to engage in a running commentary about those conversations,” Google China spokeswoman Marsha Wang told .

“We’ve been very clear that we are no longer going to self-censor our search results.”

The comments came after a top Google executive told US lawmakers Wednesday that the company was prepared to leave China, the world’s biggest online market, if it was forced to continue censoring its web search engine.

“Google is firm in its decision that it will stop censoring our search results for China,” Google vice president and deputy general counsel Nicole Wong told the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.

“If the option is that we’ll shutter our .cn operation and leave the country, we are prepared to do that,” she said at a hearing on the relationship between Internet technology and aiding democratic activists around the world.

In response to Wong’s testimony, Chinese state media quoted academics as saying that Google “should be no exception” in China’s campaign to clean up the Internet.

Xinhua quoted Chen Zhonglin, a delegate at the current session of the National People’s Congress in Beijing, saying that all countries had the right to scrutinise the Internet to protect the state and its citizens.

“Restrictions on the Internet may be different among countries, but the specifics should be decided by a country itself,” Xinhua quoted Chen, dean of the Law School of Chongqing University, as saying.

“From a legal point of view, Google, as a search engine, should be responsible for its search results,” Chen told Xinhua.

Feng Fei, a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council, was quoted as saying that China was “not alone in the world in exercising rights of Internet supervision.”

“China’s supervision is not targeted at Google or any other foreign company,” Feng said. “Actually, whether Google leaves or not, there will be little impact on China.”

Google threatened in January to leave China over what it said were cyberattacks aimed at its source code and at the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists around the world.

Google has since continued to filter results on its Chinese language search engine, Google.cn, and posted ads for dozens of positions in China, which has the world’s largest number of Internet users at 384 million.

IT software behemoth CA has acquired yet another company as it moves to provide its emerging enterprise customers and managed-service providers with cloud-computing support. CA acquired Redwood City, Calif.-based Nimsoft, its fourth acquisition in the cloud-computing space, in a cash purchase valued at $350 million, CA announced Wednesday.

Nimsoft, a provider of monitoring systems used in data centers, is the fourth company that CA, formerly Computer Associates, has acquired in the past nine months. CA plans to integrate Nimsoft’s assets into its cloud products and solutions business.

The acquisition, expected to close by March 31, will enable CA to tap into Nimsoft’s more than 300 managed-service customers such as Hitachi, Barclays Capital, and Amway and its emerging enterprise customers (with revenues between $300 million and $2 billion).

Perfect Marriage or Bad Move

Nimsoft’s reporting and monitoring technology has been used in public cloud services such as Google Apps for Business, Amazon Web Services, and Salesforce.com. Its technology has also been used in internal applications and in both physical and virtual server environments.

CA’s new acquisition is only one piece to its larger cloud-computing puzzle. CA acquired Cassatt, NetQoS and Oblicore, and last month announced plans to acquire 3Tera.

While Nimsoft attracted a solid customer base, it was having difficulties keeping up with the fast-moving market. Nimsoft hired both engineers and sales people, but not fast enough, according to CEO Gary Read.

“We were already hiring additional sales people and engineers as fast as we could, but there is a natural limit to how rapidly you can scale a business without breaking those things that are important to us, customer satisfaction being the top of the list,” Read said.

When he was approached by CA, Read said, he was hesitant to begin any talks. That changed once CA told Nimsoft executives that the company was committed to Nimsoft’s innovative efforts.

A Different Company

Since announcing the acquisition late Wednesday, Nimsoft has received negative feedback from people who worry that CA will run Nimsoft’s products into the ground and that customers will suffer as a result of the acquisition.

“OK, I hear you,” Read responded on his official blog. “And you know what, if this were many years ago I would agree with you. Back when I was a sales executive in late 90s, taking customers away from CA was easy because they were not well liked at all.”

“But it’s 2010 and CA is a different company,” Read added. “Nimsoft is a great company and will continue to be great company inside CA.”

Read and most of Nimsoft’s 120 employees will make the transition to CA.

While CA has been aggressively acquiring cloud-computing companies, it still has its work cut out.

“Now, it isn’t all unicorns and rainbows,” said Drue Reeves, vice president and research director with the Burton Group. “CA has work to do to integrate these pieces into a product suite and convince customers that heterogeneous cloud management is the way to go and they are still missing a few ingredients because they are absolutely going to experience some competition in the cloud-management arena.”

We’ve talked about the glory and promises of OnLive in the past—it’s the online gaming system that promises to let you play your favorite games whenever, wherever, and on whatever device you want. Now the gaming revolution has a street date, too: June 17, 2010.

At launch, OnLive will be available to Mac and PC users via a browser plug-in that will let them play games hosted from OnLive’s servers. OnLive also promises that public availability of its MicroConsole device, which will let you play games on your TV, will be announced later this year and other devices will be added subsequently. OnLive also allows for multiplayer between all of its users, regardless of platform.

In addition to the hardware and software, OnLive is a service: like other online gaming services, you’ll get gamer tags, profiles, the ability to make lists of friends, and chat—but the kicker is that all of this is done via live video. (That’s potentially a little off-putting to anybody who’s spent time on a service like Xbox Live—sometimes you want to kick back and play a game without feeling like you’re delving into the world of Chatroulette.)

Of course, services come at a cost. OnLive will run $15 per month, though deals such as multi-month pricing will be announced before the service officially launches in June. In addition, you’ll have to rent or purchase the titles that you want to play, though the company has not discussed specific pricing yet.

Now under new management, MySpace is looking to reinvent itself and rise like a Phoenix from the ashes. The once dominant social networking site fell from nearly 70 percent of the social networking market, to only 30 percent in less than a year, and was plummeting on the verge of extinction.

One of the ways that MySpace is looking to build some relevance again is through the Microsoft Outlook social connector feature–giving it some new business credibility it has always lacked. MySpace beat its social networking rival Facebook to the punch to integrate its member information and updates into Microsoft Outlook. Facebook and Windows Live integration is still listed as “coming soon”.

Its been a while since MySpace has been mentioned in the same breath as social networking leaders Facebook and Twitter. But, new co-presidents Jason Hirschhorn and Mike Jones have ambitious plans to rebrand and rebuild MySpace not only to where it once was, but beyond. Currently around 100 million members, MySpace has set a goal–with no specified timeline per se–of reaching 300 million plus.

To be honest, I have a MySpace account–or is it had? It is out there, but it has been probably more than a year since I have logged in to or cared about what was going in MySpace. The fact that the account was still out there–live, but stagnant–raises a number of security concerns which I’ll save for another article, but the bottom line is that I am one of the defectors that MySpace is looking to reconnect with to extend its reach even farther.

The Microsoft Outlook social connector may be a key element of rebuilding membership. Like the LinkedIn social connector, installing the MySpace social connector inserts MySpace as an option for social network integration. It also creates a separate contacts page with entries for each of your MySpace friends.

According to the FAQ page set up by MySpace, “MySpace for Outlook allows you to see your MySpace friend status and activity updates right inside Outlook, without having to log in to MySpace in a browser.”

The description continues “The activity updates can be seen every time a friend’s email is selected, or when you open the MySpace Contacts page and open a contact in Outlook. From the MySpace Contacts page, you can email your MySpace friends directly from Outlook. Email sent to their MySpace Mail address will show up in their MySpace Mail account on MySpace. Hyperlinks in the activity updates allow you to quickly jump to see the activities, such as posting a new picture, recording a new video, recording a new song, or making a new friend, all with a simple click.”

Getting the full value of the integration may require a little effort, though. When I tried to log in to my MySpace account, I found that I had set it up using an e-mail address that I still have, but rarely use. It would seem that many of my MySpace friends fall into that same boat. Because the MySpace data does not reflect the e-mail address(es) currently being used by my MySpace friends, the MySpace link and status updates does not automatically appear for new messages or events.

What you need to do in order to complete the integration and get the value of incorporating your MySpace network with Outlook is add the current email address(es) used by your contacts onto the MySpace contact entry. Once you do that, Outlook and MySpace will recognize that the contact is one and the same and the integration magic can occur.

You can add contacts from Outlook into your MySpace social network with a couple clicks, and any new friends added within MySpace are automatically populated and synced with Outlook.

It is definitely a good approach for MySpace. Leveraging a dominant messaging platform like Outlook to remind people that MySpace is out there and facilitate reconnecting with old MySpace friends, as well as providing a simple method of adding new contacts and expanding the sphere of the MySpace social network seems like a solid strategy.

That said, I don’t feel like I need more social networks. I am already maintaining Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter–which is part of why I left my MySpace account stagnant so long. While integrating with Outlook brings MySpace into the business environment, my perception of MySpace is still as a social networking site for junior high school students more than business professionals.

If I meet new contacts, I am much more likely to add them to my Facebook and/or LinkedIn networks, and I don’t see any value in having the same network of contacts in both Facebook and MySpace.

So–while I applaud the MySpace Social Connector and appreciate the concept of integrating my social networks with my primary messaging platform–the growth, or survival, of MySpace depend more on the other rebranding initiatives the new leadership is working on.

Good luck.

Tony Bradley is co-author of Unified Communications for Dummies
. He tweets as @Tony_BradleyPCW
. You can follow him on his Facebook page
, or contact him by email at tony_bradley@pcworld.com
.

BOTNET AMPUTATED: An Internet provider thought to be helping spread malicious software was taken down, apparently cutting criminals off from millions of personal computers under their control.

SHORT VICTORY: Less than a day later the criminals still were able to reconnect with the computers in their remote-controlled botnet, which makes use of malware known as “ZeuS.”

HOW SO?: Some services exist solely to host malicious content, and when their connections to the Internet are severed, it’s often easy to find another provider willing to sell a new connection.

LONDON – In a victory for the concept album, Britain’s High Court on Thursday ordered record company EMI Group Ltd. to stop selling downloads of Pink Floyd tracks individually rather than as part of the band’s original records.

The prog-rock group sued the music label, saying its contract prohibited selling the tracks “unbundled” from their original album setting.

Pink Floyd lawyer Robert Howe said the band was known for producing “seamless” pieces of music on albums like “Dark Side of the Moon,” “The Division Bell” and “The Wall,” and wanted to retain artistic control.

EMI claimed the clause in the band’s contract — negotiated a decade ago, before the advent of iTunes and other online retailers — applied only to physical albums, not Internet sales.

Judge Andrew Morritt backed the band, saying the contract protected “the artistic integrity of the albums.”

He ruled that EMI is “not entitled to exploit recordings by online distribution or by any other means other than the complete original album without Pink Floyd’s consent.”

The judge ordered EMI to pay the band’s legal costs and said he would rule later on how much the company must pay in damages.

The judge also ruled on a second issue, the level of royalties paid to the band. That section of the judgment was made in private after EMI argued the information was covered by commercial confidentiality.

A spokesman for EMI said the company was considering its response to the ruling.

The band’s spokesman said Pink Floyd had no comment.

Pink Floyd signed with EMI in 1967 and became one of its most lucrative acts, with its back catalog outsold only by The Beatles.

Online sales make up an increasing portion of music companies’ profits, and are a growing area of dispute.

The surviving members of The Beatles have yet to agree a deal to allow their music to be sold online.

Hard-rock band AC/DC also has withheld its music from iTunes, saying the group is not interested in selling individual tracks.

NEW YORK – A New York judge has declared a second mistrial in the case against a New Jersey blogger charged with threatening federal judges.

The Brooklyn trial of Hal Turner was halted Wednesday after the judge received a series of notes from jurors saying they were hopelessly deadlocked. They had been deliberating since Monday afternoon.

A third trial was scheduled for April 12.

The case stems from an Illinois appeals court decision upholding the dismissal of lawsuits challenging handgun bans in Chicago and Oak Park, Illinois. The same day, the 47-year-old North Bergen, N.J., man wrote on his blog that three judges “must die.”

The judges all testified at trial that they felt threatened. Turner took the stand to say his rants were an FBI-sanctioned ruse to “flush out” dangerous members of his audience.