ted

To call TED "elitist" makes it sound like snobbery. Not so.

Instead, imagine a gathering peppered with dozens of futurists, artists, CEOs, and scientists--plus a few more folks who defy categorization. They get all together for several days (February 3 to 7) to listen to mind-blowing talks about everything from population trends to sea creatures. It is an intellectual Mardi Gras. The presentations are filmed, and they're so compelling that they almost instantly go viral online.

This is the annual TED or the Technology, Entertainment, Design conference (those in-the-know just call it "TED"). Think World … Read more

With Markus Rex returning to Novell, it was only a matter of time before the Linux Foundation would name a new chief technology officer. What wasn't as clear, however, was the stature of the person that would replace Rex.

On Thursday, the Linux Foundation announced Ted Ts'o as its new CTO, a man with serious street cred amongst the Linux elite. Ts'o is known as the first North American Linux kernel developer and has been with IBM since 2001, focusing on real-time Linux.

Ts'o will be on loan from IBM for two years and will focus … Read more

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), arguably the world's most influential gathering of creative thinkers, is coming back to Europe - and staying. TEDGlobal 2009, the companion to the TED conference in California, is to be held in Oxford, UK, July 21-24, 2009, and every year after that.

TED curator Chris Anderson says that one of the main reasons to return to Oxford (after a tentative trial in 2005) is the more convenient time zone for simulcasts of the conference program to the growing TED communities in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.

TEDGlobal 2009 was officially announced at London's … Read more

At the recent Dumbo Art Under The Bridge Festival in Brooklyn, N.Y., I heard two rather amazing sound installations.

OrganicInterfaces is a collective of artists, scientists, engineers, and musicians and their installation, Mocean was a truly enveloping sound experience. Their Web Site describes it this way, Mocean is a site-specific sculptural sound environment. It consists of a large water tank and a forest of antique organ pipes...digital technology translates the (water's) ripple patterns into sounds played by the repurposed organ pipes, establishing a relationship between water and sound. For the DUMBO Art Festival, we used a 12-foot diameter swimming pool and some new technologies, expanding the range of possible interactions and sculptural interventions..."

At the DUMBO show, Mocean was located in a small warehouse garage, open to the street. Flat stones were placed in the pool to serve as a path for people to walk over. The organ pipes hanging from the ceiling were tuned to different pitches and their sounds were complex and surprisingly musical. I listened for quite a while and found the sound absolutely mesmerizing.

Actually, the best part was watching how different people reacted to the sound as they walked over the stones. Some realized their movements changed the sound, and they "played" the organ pipes by swaying their arms and moving about. Little children were the best; they were totally uninhibited about making weird sounds.

Then there was Ted Southern's sidewalk sound show. … Read more

Microsoft wants SQL Server to scale new heights, and it is hoping an add-on code-named Kilimanjaro will help.

Due out in the first half of 2010, Kilimanjaro improves SQL Server 2008 with a series of business intelligence enhancements to the database. Microsoft, stressed though, that Kilimanjaro is not the next version of SQL Server, which is due out two to three years after SQL Server 2008. SQL Server 2009 was released earlier this year.

"You should think about this as new capabilities, not a refresh or upgrade," said Microsoft Vice President Ted Kummert, who heads the SQL Server … Read more

Facebook's appointment of Ted Ullyot as its first general counsel might spook some in freewheeling Silicon Valley: he served as chief of staff to former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and as an associate counsel to President George W. Bush.

But in an interview Monday with CNET News, Ullyot said that his past resume will make it easier for the fast-growing social network to deal with Washington insiders--because he used to be one himself.

"Having served in the executive branch in Washington and also in the judicial branch, I have a pretty good understanding of those issues,&… Read more

Facebook has hired the former chief of staff to onetime U.S. Attorney Alberto Gonzales as its general counsel, according to the Los Angeles Times. Ted Ullyot, currently a Washington, D.C.-based partner for the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, will relocate to the Bay Area and join the Palo Alto social network next month.

He appears to have been hand-picked by Elliot Schrage, the former Google executive who joined Facebook as vice president of communications and public policy this spring, and Sheryl Sandberg, another Google alum who now serves as the company's chief operating officer.

Ullyot "… Read more

Microsoft said on Wednesday that it has finished work on SQL Server 2008, the latest version of its database software.

The software maker in a statement said it has reached the "release to manufacturing" stage, meaning that it has finalized the code for the software.

Although its release was delayed from its initial target, Microsoft said it was able to meet its goal of having a new version within 24 to 36 months from the release of SQL Server 2005.

SQL Server 2008 comes in a number of editions, ranging from the free SQL Server 2008 Express to … Read more

Last I heard, Ted Waitt was kicking back somewhere in a posh part of Southern California, living the high life that came his way from starting Gateway. I wonder what he thought about the news that his old company no longer would be selling computers directly to the public.

Along with Dell, Gateway was one of the two companies most responsible for popularizing the idea of buying computers over the phone. But this week's about-face only put a long-expected coda on the final chapter of this story.

Now owned by Acer, Gateway lost its way years ago. Despite frequent … Read more