Microsoft is Bringing SQL Server to Linux

SQL Server, Microsoft’s flagship relational database product, is now available on Linux in the form of an early private preview, with a full launch planned for mid-2017.

Until now, SQL Server was strictly a Windows product, but as Scott Guthrie, Microsoft’s executive vice president of its cloud and enterprise group, writes today, the company has decided that it’s time to bring it to Linux as well.

“SQL Server on Linux will provide customers with even more flexibility in their data solution,” Guthrie writes. “One with mission-critical performance, industry-leading TCO, best-in-class security, and hybrid cloud innovations — like Stretch Database which lets customers access their data on-premises and in the cloud whenever they want at low cost — all built in.”

Microsoft says it plans to open up access to SQL Server on Linux as it gets closer to general availability.

Today’s announcement comes three days ahead of Microsoft’s planned SQL Server 2016 event in New York. Guthrie says Microsoft plans to announce a number of new features around SQL Server 2016, including better in-memory database, R, and data warehousing support, as well as new mobile apps for business intelligence.

Microsoft says it currently uses the SQL Server 2016 codebase to power more than 1.4 million SQL databases in its Azure cloud. SQL Server 2016, which is currently available as a public preview, will become generally available later this year.

Not too long ago, today’s announcement would have been unthinkable. Over the last few years, though, and especially under its new CEO Satya Nadella, the company has started to open up more of its services and put a stronger emphasis on open source.

Today’s announcement also fits into Microsoft’s overall emphasis on hybrid deployments. Microsoft already runs Linux in its cloud and recently announced a major partnership with Red Hat, for example. If it wants SQL Server to remain relevant, it needs to bring it to more platforms — including those that it previously regarded as competitors. On Linux, after all, products like MySQL, MariaDB and PostgreSQL are also vying for a very similar slice of the market.

Enflux, a smart body-tracking workout outfit, launches on kickstarter

There’s a new body-tracking workout outfit that looks to compete with the likes of Athos and other workout-tracking sensors that’s launching on Kickstarter today.

Enflux, a Y Combinator-backed company, is starting a Kickstarter today for its sensor-laden workout outfit (that can even go in a washing machine). And it’s basically all thanks to a series of running injuries CEO Doug Hoang suffered in the months following his work on sensors for racing cars.

“it was really talking with [my co-founders] at the same time, they have extensive experience in exercise,” Hoang said. “‘You can do this,’ they said, so I had these motion sensors we developed, I could strap them to my legs that measure yaw, pitch and roll. I didn’t even have a car back then so it was a little misalignment of the problem, but when I started training for triathlons it was like, ‘this is the next big thing.'”

Enflux’s equipment consists of a shirt and pants that are loaded with sensors that track your form as you work out. The goal is to help people get the right form down and serve as a sort of personal trainer that works on your smartphone. There’s an avatar on your phone that lets you review your exercises, as well as a series of stats that help you understand whether or not you’re getting the exercise right.

There’s going to be a big challenge for Enflux: the tech is about a year out from shipping, including getting the full sign-off on its patents. That could open the door for other competitors to beat the company to the market with similar — and potentially superior — products. But Hoang, with a background in engine design, says the approach of each company is a little different.

Originally the equipment consisted of a bunch of strap-on sensors that sit on your body, but now those sensors are being placed into an actual shirt and pants. They sit pretty tight on the body, and Hoang says the equipment has around a two-week battery life. There are ten sensors in total that sit around the body to translate movement to a smartphone app that then records all that.

The company is working with around 500 personal trainers to help establish a baseline of the right form and style of workouts, and the company continues to add new exercises with the help of those personal trainers and experts. Over time, it’ll also collect data on how people exercise and tweak the process to better tailor exercises to people with different styles and body types.

All this is designed to be focused on your form and give you feedback in an attempt to prevent injury and help people progress in their training. Many runners can probably relate to Hoang and find this useful: knee injuries are among one of the most annoying problems that can keep you off the trail, and it can sometimes be prevented by other exercises and fixing running form, Hoang says.

The other goal is that the company wants to begin partnering with other services — ones like, potentially, MyFitnessPal — to better integrate with the whole fitness and health experience. Right now Enflux doesn’t have any specific plans, but hopes to “play nice” with other services, Hoang said.

Enflux is going up against some serious competition — especially for a product that’s still a year from launch. Athos, another smart apparel company, has raised $51 million, most recently in a round led by Social+Capital. And there are other trackers looking to work as wearables like Atlas.  Atlas, too, ran a successful campaign on Indiegogo where the project raised more than $600,000.

One interesting note is that Hoang will be moving to Taiwan in order to better manage the complicated relationship that hardware companies often have with manufacturers. For example, the first shipment of sensors that they received weren’t working because they just weren’t getting the spec exactly right in production. Hoang will be a mobile CEO, which may be challenging for the company, but likely necessary in order to ensure that the process goes smoothly.

“It’s always gonna be like that, because we’ve failed often and they know the tech well,” Hoang said. “That’s why we’re putting this a year out is a year out of making small tests of every process we go through before we do the full order.”

Teenagers Reacts to Windows 95 - can't imagine

The majority of teenagers alive today weren’t alive in the 90s, meaning the oldest version of Windows they’re likely to be familiar with is Windows XP. If that tidbit makes you feel old, you might not want to watch the latest React video from Fine Brothers Entertainment, in which a bunch of teenagers are exposed to the wonders of mid-90s computing and Windows 95 for the first time in their lives. They’re not impressed. 

It starts with first impressions. “The fact that the monitor is bigger than the actual computer itself says a lot” said Daniel, 17 years old, who is young enough to only have vague memories of monitors and TVs that aren’t flat. “I’ve no clue what year this is from, but I feel like it was before the year I was born,” said Geneva, age 18, after seeing the mid-90s Dell. Her math checks out. 

The design flaws we all got used to are evident right away. When asked to turn on the computer, everyone hit the big button on the monitor and waited, something we all probably remember doing at some point. When the computer was turned on, the reactions kept coming. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard a computer make these sounds before in my life,” said Morgan, age 19, making anyone who felt nostalgic upon hearing the floppy drive click instantly feel 10 years older.

 Then the teens waited for the BIOS screen to go away. “This is taking a while,” said Karan Brar, reminding the entire planet what life was like back in ancient times when computers took five minutes to start up and Pterodactyls savaged our cattle. 

Things don’t get much better when the operating system’s boot screen is revealed. “95, as in, like, 1995?” asked Alicia, age 16, who has no memories of the 90s but will be able to vote in just two years. Then the operating system finally booted. “Everything looks so dull and ancient,” said Brar. “It seems more rough, the edges are more sharp, it’s a little more impersonal,” said Nora, age 18, who judging by that comment might have a future as a graphic designer.

But perhaps the hardest thing to understand for the teens was the lack of wireless connectivity. “How do you get on the Internet if there’s no Wi-Fi?” asked Alicia, as though the question itself were nonsense. When the produced tried to explain dial-up, things got even more confused. “You’d have to use your phone to go on Internet,” one teen said, while actually miming a smartphone in her hand. It shows just how much the meaning of the word “phone” has changed in the course of a generation. 

The process of connecting to dial-up did not impress anyone, either. “God this is such a pain in the ass,” said Daniel, age 17. It was, Daniel. It was. 

It’s easy to judge teenagers for not knowing their history, but realistically it’s not their fault. Anyone reading this likely never had to crank their car in order to start it, and probably wouldn’t know where to start if presented with a vehicle requiring that. 

“It’s not my fault I was born after this,” said Nora, age 18. She’s right, of course: time marchers forward, and kids have no control over when they’re born. We think this whole thing is a fascinating example of how computer and OS design has evolved over the years.

RIP, Ray Tomlinson - The Creator of EMAIL, dies at 74

A computing legend who 'changed the way the world communicates' has died.

RAY TOMLINSON, the man who invented email as we know it today and picked the @ symbol for email addresses, passed away at the age of 75 following an apparent heart attack Saturday morning, according to reports.

Hard to believe but 'the godfather of email' has passed away.

His death was confirmed by Mike Doble, director of corporate PR at Tomlinson's employer Raytheon.

"A true technology pioneer, Ray was the man who brought us the email in the early days of networked computers," Doble said in a statement confirming Tomlinson's death.

The Internet reacted with sadness over the death of Tomlinson, who became a legend for his invention in 1971 of a system that allowed a user on one network to send a message to other computer users on other networks.

"Thank you, Ray Tomlinson, for inventing email and putting the @ sign on the map. #RIP," Gmail tweeted yesterday.

Tomlinson Introduced @ in Email Address

At the time of his invention, Tomlinson was working on ARPANET – predecessor of the modern Internet – at research and design company Bolt Beranek and Newman (now BBN Technologies).

Tomlinson used @ symbol in the email address in order to separate the username from the host name.

By the 1990s email had become a pillar of the Internet and Tomlinson was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2012, though he could not say what the very first email sent back in 1971 actually said.

Tomlinson said in an interview with the New York Times in 2009 that the email was just random strings of text, saying:

"I sent a number of test messages to myself from one machine to the other. The test messages were entirely forgettable and, therefore, forgotten."

Thanks to Tomlinson's invention that powers over a Billion and a half users communicating across the traditional barriers of time and space. #RIPRayTomlinson

PlayStation 4 is Bringing Console Gaming Streaming To PC and Mac

Sony PlayStation is the bestselling gaming console of the current generation devices. The PlayStation 4 has maintained its superiority over competitors like Xbox and Nintendo by regularly offering big updates that improve the user’s gaming experience. Today marks another big step towards improving console gaming. Sony has revealed that the upcoming PS4 firmware update will make PS4 playable on PCs and Macs via streaming. Currently, the streaming feature called Remote Play can also stream games on the PS TV and PS Vita.

Those familiar with Sony products must be aware that Sony offers a Remote Play feature for its Sony Xperia devices. The feature allows those with Xperia products to stream PlayStation games to their phone or tablet over WiFI and play them via the standard PlayStation controller.

The upcoming version 3.50 software update for PS4 will add the ability to “Remote Play” PS4 games on a home computer, effectively turning a laptop or desktop with mediocre specs to a remote PlayStation powered gaming machine.

Not so long ago, Microsoft announced that Xbox One gamers will be able to stream games to PC thanks to the updated Xbox app. That feature was, for obvious reasons, limited to Microsoft Windows PCs and not Apple devices. This new announcement is just in time to nullify Microsoft’s superior feature.

This addition is not a reply to Microsoft’s screen sharing feature. President of Sony Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, had made the announcement a while back. In November last year, he tweeted “Some people asked if we plan to provide Remote Play function to PC, and yes, we are indeed working on an official application for PC/Mac”.

Sony says the feature will not be available in the beta release of the 3.50 update. So early adopters won’t be able to test the feature in advance. However, the company’s blog post says “you can look forward to it soon”.

There are several others inclusions in the major update. It brings online friends notifications, which will let the gamers know when their friends are online to play games. To complement the feature, users will now be able to appear offline (invisible) when they are gaming alone or busy with something else. The Play Together feature will allow friends to join game parties or start new games together in more simpler manner.

Sony’s also bringing scheduled updates to PS4 which will make the process of organising future game meetups much easier. Dailymotion is being added to the Share feature and users will be able to check their storage using PlayStation Plus. Sadly, there is still no support for external storage devices.

The beta version of the update has been released while the stable release should be coming soon after.