Amazon’s huge $600M cloud contract with CIA now up in the air

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Back in March, it appeared Amazon had hit a home run with a $600 million cloud computing deal with the CIA. Now, though, the Seattle online giant could be left with nothing. IBM, a company with longstanding partnerships with government agencies, protested the contract and now the CIA is reviewing a recommendation by the Government… Read More…

Cray-Z speed: Meet the world’s fastest supercomputer from Seattle-based Cray

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We wrote about the latest supercomputer creation from Seattle-based Cray a few weeks ago, and now it’s official: Titan is the world’s fastest computer. Titan, an open science computer located at the U.S Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, took first place in the Top500 list of the fastest supercomputers that was released today at the SC12… Read More…

SpaceCurve raises $2.7M for ‘big data’ service, names CEO

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SpaceCurve, a Seattle startup that’s developing new ways to analyze location-based services, social media chatter and other information, has raised $2.7 million and named John Slitz as CEO. Investors in the round, a portion of which was previously reported by GeekWire, include Reed Elsevier Ventures, Divergent Ventures, Musea Ventures and others. Slitz is the former… Read More…

Microsoft patent ranking slips in 2011 as IBM retains the crown

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You can measure technology companies in all sorts of ways — from revenues to market value to employees. Another data point is patent filings. And, in that category, Microsoft is losing ground, according to a report released this week by IFI Claims Patent Services. The Redmond software giant fell three slots to sixth place in… Read More…

Stats: iPad rules as mobile shopping rises on Christmas

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Christmas is traditionally a day for opening gifts, not buying more stuff, but that appears to be changing thanks to our increasingly mobile and connected world. New statistics from IBM’s retail tracking service provide clues about how we spent our Sunday on the couch. Here’s the rundown. Online sales grew by 16.4 percent over Christmas… Read More…

Guest Post: Is Seattle the center of supercomputing?

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Supercomputers were once the exclusive province of government spy agencies, research labs and academics. The top computer makers were the only vendors. Things have changed since Seymour Cray introduced the first machine at Control Data in 1965. One of the biggest changes is how many of the vendors are now in the Seattle area. With… Read More…

Watson in Seattle: Tips from Ken Jennings on beating IBM’s supercomputer

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A scaled-down version of IBM’s Watson will be in Seattle starting this weekend for the SC11 supercomputer conference, giving attendees a chance to match wits with the machine that made a name for itself on television competing against Jeopardy! champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter last year. As it happens, we had Jennings as a… Read More…

Chart of the Week: IBM > MSFT

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Apple made headlines when it surpassed Microsoft in market value, the stock market’s measure of a company’s overall worth. And now it’s IBM’s turn. The venerable technology company overtook Microsoft in market value for the first time since 1996 yesterday, based on closing share prices, according to Bloomberg News, which has a detailed analysis of… Read More…

Chart: The PC isn’t dead, it’s just another one of our devices

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Today is the 30th anniversary of the unveiling of the IBM PC, one of the landmark moments of the digital revolution. This week has brought a whole bunch of retrospectives and analysis about the evolving role of the personal computer in our lives. IBM, which actually exited its PC business six years ago, calls this the “Post… Read More…

IBM is now bigger than Microsoft (at least in market value)

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Microsoft rose to prominence in the early 1980s, largely based on a deal to brings its operating system to IBM computers. Microsoft later became the largest software maker in the world. And IBM? It missed one of biggest shifts in tech. But things change. And now, in an amazing twist, IBM has surpassed Microsoft in… Read More…

Q&A: ‘Final Jeopardy’ author Stephen Baker on Watson, IBM, the future of e-books and the fate of humanity

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Stephen Baker is the journalist and author who traced IBM’s Watson project from its inception and development all the way through its TV duel with Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter on Jeopardy earlier this year. He’s in Seattle this week as part of a tour for his book, “Final Jeopardy” – speaking on the Microsoft campus… Read More…