Archive for July 26th, 2012

Dash for Gold at London 2012 Olympics

Thursday, July 26th, 2012

Dash for Gold is a free and interactive online app that provides intuitive dashboards to analyse past and present medal counts to enable anyone to predict outcomes at sports competitions.

Try out Dash for Gold to predict the results of events in the London 2012 Olympics.

Try out Dash for Gold to predict the results of events in the London 2012 Olympics.

Dash for Gold is the result of collaboration between Actuate and KXEN.

Actuate produces Business Intelligence software while KXEN is its Big Data partner provides predictive analytics software for business users.

Dash for Gold enables users to leverage Business Intelligence and predictive analytics to discover hidden trends that can be used to help predict performance and outcomes in sports competitions.

The app includes predetermined dashboards but allows users to perform their own analytics.

The app can be used by everyone to analyse competition results (not just the Olympics) since 1900 against 52 years of world statistics to hypothesize which statistics are determinants of medal success.

Dash for Gold, which covers sporting history for every competing country, is available as a mobile app, with a comprehensive browser version in English, French, German and Simplified Chinese.

People using Dash for Gold will be able to analyze massive data sets, via an intuitive user interface and also have the ability to share and publish their findings. No prior experience with analytics is necessary to find answers to questions such as:

  • Which country has won the most medals in your favorite sports?
  • Does the host nation have a home field advantage?
  • Does your country send better men or women to major global sporting competitions?
  • Does per capita wine consumption affect who stands on the podium?

Gigapixel image for London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony

Thursday, July 26th, 2012

Super high-resolution image will capture each of the 70,000 spectators in detail. The 20-Gigapixel photograph will be uploaded and spectators will be able to zoom in, locate and tag themselves.

Getty Images is the official Photographic Agency for the London 2012 Olympic Games which opens tomorrow.

Getty Images is the official Photographic Agency for the London 2012 Olympic Games which opens tomorrow.

Ahead of tomorrow’s Olympics Opening Ceremony in London, Getty Images and Fujitsu have announced that they will be snapping a gigapixel photograph of the event, enabling spectators – all 70,000 of them! – to zoom in, find and tag themselves.

This is the camera set up that Getty Images’ gigapixel photographer Henry Stuart will be using at London 2012 Olympics. It’s a Nikon D800. (Photo credit: Henry Stuart)

This is the camera set up that Getty Images’ gigapixel photographer Henry Stuart will be using at London 2012 Olympics. It’s a Nikon D800. (Photo credit: Henry Stuart)

Images of such a high resolution usually take days to upload but thanks to leading-edge speed and performance of the Fujitsu CELSIUS R920 workstation, the image will be available to view on www.gettyimages.com overnight – up to 12 times faster than previously possible.

This will be the 13th consecutive Olympics for which Getty Images has been appointed as the Official Photographic Agency to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

SolarWinds Web Help Desk to boost IT management

Thursday, July 26th, 2012

SolarWinds has announced today that it is launching the SolarWinds Web Help Desk. Prices for the IT Help Desk solution start at US$495.

SolarWinds has announced today the launch of the SolarWinds Web Help Desk.

SolarWinds has announced today the launch of the SolarWinds Web Help Desk.

SolarWinds Web Help Desk is a boost to the growing portfolio of IT Management products from SolarWinds, which provides powerful and affordable IT management software for companies.

SolarWinds Web Help Desk highlights:

  • Easily perform help desk ticketing support and management operations from a single, centralized web-console, purpose-built for IT processes and organizations.
  • Automate change management operations with powerful and customizable change management functionality.
  • Simplify asset management for both hardware and software assets through a centralized IT Asset Repository.
  • Leverage the extensive KnowledgeBase Engine for capturing and sharing ITSM best practices and solutions.

SolarWinds Web Help Desk is a cross-platform, web-based solution that allows IT professionals to remove complexity from their IT service processes and to improve service to their end-users through practical, flexible tools.

Read the press release below for more details.

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