Kalray shows the products at RSA

Kalray shows the products at RSA

Kalray – a French designer and provider of low-power, high-performance processors – is looking at American market as new opportunity for its growth.

The French company was established in 2008 as a spin-off from CAE (Atomic Energy Commission) to create the processors for embedded critical application market. As this market is still strong in 2014 the Board of Kalray appointed the new management of the company and implemented the new more market oriented strategy. Eric Baissus, who founded OpenPlug in 2002, one of the most successful European embedded software companies in wireless domain, became Kalray’s CEO.  Gilles Delfassy who is presently the President of the Supervisiory Board manages the operations. Eric Bantegnie is responsible for software technology area. This is a good match to the experience of the executive team.

The management team continues a relationship with CAE.  The company decided to address the market of mission critical real time applications and determined that a many core processor to be a solution. The target market was data centers, which was a continuing opportunity.  They also identified a new opportunity appears in self-driving  cars. Now, with the product poised to serve those two markets: data centers and self-driving cars, Kalray sees the opportunity to also be used for a storage controller.

Kalray was presenting the technical aspects of their product at the Linley Data Center Conference that took place in Santa Clara at the beginning of February and is going to be showing it in application with customer products at upcoming RSA conference in San Francisco, February 29 – March 4.

 

Fathom presents The Maltese Falcon

Fathom presents The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 film noir written and directed by John Huston which marked Huston’s directorial debut. His screenplay was based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammet, the great American mystery writer known for his hard-boiled detective stories and the creation of one of cinema’s most enduring characters, Sam Spade, the detective in The Maltese Falcon played by Humphrey Bogart.  Co-starring with Bogart was Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet as Kasper Gutman, the “Fat Man,” who at 61 years old and 300+ pounds was making his film debut which won him a much-deserved Oscar nomination.

Interestingly, Bogart, Lorre and Greenstreet were to be reunited a year later in another Hal Wallis production:  Casablanca.  Ironically, Huston initially offered the role of Sam Spade to George Raft who turned it down because of the “inexperience” of the director.

And indeed as a director new to the craft, Huston made every effort to create an innovative, evocative and professional work on every level of production and he succeeded famously.  For example, he planned every second of every shot to the most minute detail, shot-for-shot setups making sketches of every scene.*  Much to Hal  Wallis’ delight, the film came in on time and under budget and proved to be an instant success at the box office.

John Huston (1906 – 1987) of course went on to write the screenplays for the 37 films he directed, many of which are today considered classics.  In addition to The Maltese Falcon he created The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Key Largo (1948), The African Queen (1951) and many others.

One of the outstanding innovations of The Maltese Falcon was the  brilliant cinematography of Arthur Edeson who was influenced by German Expressionism brought to America by German cinematographers during the 1920’s, a production style  which is apparent in Edeson’s use of below eye-eye-level shots (for example, the low angle shots of Sidney Greenstreet when discussing the Maltese Falcon) and strong angular compositions combined with low lighting to create menacing shadows, all in black, white, and shades of gray.

Another innovation and by-product of Expressionistic technique shared with Orson Wells’ Citizen Kane which also premiered in 1941, was the low camera shots showing for the first time the ceilings of rooms in which the action was taking place, a commonplace today, but revolutionary for its time.  Alfred Hitchcock, who in turn influenced Francois Truffaut, was to employ many of these Expressionistic techniques in his seminal films.

Huston’s film is the third version of the novel, the first having been attempted in 1931 with the same title and the second, titled Satan Met a Lady, starring Bette Davis was offered as a light comedy.  By common consensus, Houston’s “Falcon” justifiably stands out as the true classic and a lasting cinematic treasure.

 

by Lidia Paulinska and Hugh McMahon 

Polaroid’s web camera Cube Plus

Polaroid’s web camera Cube Plus

If there is company that perfectly finds the balance between technology and art, it is Polaroid. A few years ago, Polaroid introduced a life style web camera Cube that competed with GoPro. But unlike the competition, Polaroid gave their product a modern design enhanced with pastel, rainbow colors that have this optimistic and vibrant energy matching the life style of young generation. The people who want to take pictures and videos then immediately share them with friends.

The Cube Plus that was released recently is an updated, advanced version of original Cube and has a Wi-Fi capability. So it can be connected to a smartphone or to a tablet. That allows to use smartphone or tablet as your view finder and send videos and photos through an app. Both for Android and Apple devices.

It can take 8MP still pictures and 1440p/1080p/720p videos. The image stabilization function reduces the likelihood of taking blurry photos and videos that often take place with hand-holding cameras. The Cube Plus takes this headache away. The amateur photographers can also enjoy taking pictures/videos being away from the camera. Magnetic function on the top and the bottom allows to mount Cube on a helmet, on the bike, on the snowboard and supports any active, life style of the amateur photographers.

When video recording, the Cube Plus supports better sound recording than the original Cube. The new microphone captured, even by the small size device, sound that is powerful and allows to enjoy not just images but also dialogs and talks during the actions.

Overall it is great product for great price that can enhance our social media sharing of our active life style stories.

Laura Whitmore about Women’s International Music Network

Laura Whitmore about Women’s International Music Network

January, NAMM 2016 – The Women’s International Music Network was founded in 2012 and it came about in an organic fashion, stated Laura Whitmore, its founder. As a journalist, she interviewed many female musicians and she came across the same stories again and again. One story literally blew her mind. Whitmore heard from a 70-years old female performer. After 50 years playing guitar, she still opens her performance with a killer guitar instrumental just to show right away that she knows what she is doing with her instrument. After f- i-f-t-y years, she still feels like she has to prove herself – said Laura stressing the number of years. There always are people who see female musicians as someone’s girlfriend and people who don’t believe that they can set up their own gears.

Those women have to prove themselves over and over again. There are definitely attitudes and discrimination – stated Laura – and women do not have full voice in the industry. She does not necessary feel that woman musicians are different than men, but there are concerns and issues that female musicians face than guys don’t. Her reporting on female musicians drove the development of the Woman’s International Music Network. In just a few years of existence. It has expanded and grown to encompass international outreach, expanding from operations in the US.

Laura is also the founder and host of the She Rocks Awards, now in its fourth year as a part of NAMM. The event is dedicated to paying tribute to woman who display leadership and stand out within the music industry. In the same way as The Women’s International Music Network, The She Rocks Awards event was developed naturally and organically from the curiosity to know other women in the industry. Laura who worked as a journalist and PR professional in the music for over 30 years, admitted that she did not know many women from that area, so she wanted to create an event for them to gather. Then someone told her – why not give those women the awards for their exceptional accomplishment? That how The She Rocks Awards started. The first year debuted as a breakfast event and then became the cornerstone, widely attended evening event with well-known music stars performing. Icons from this arena get recognition, and share their wonderful stories. The event also includes a silence auction and giveaways. The event sparkles with energy for a fun girl’s night out.

 

 

The Met Live: Franco Zeffirelli’s Turandot

The Met Live: Franco Zeffirelli’s Turandot

January, Fathom events – Franco Zeffirelli’s classic production of Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot  was presented by the Metropolitan Opera on January 30, 2016 and seen throughout the world in cinemas in 70 countries on six continents, compliments of Fathom events: “The Met: Live in HD” series.

Puccini’s final opera was first presented at Teatro alla Scala in 1926, two years after he had died, leaving an unfinished score. Zeffirelli has succeeded brilliantly in spinning this rather improbable fairytale (but aren’t all fairytales improbable) into a beautifully super-stylized Chinese fable with a mies-en-scene complete with enormous pagodas and richly imposing court scenes complimented with characters magnificently and lushly costumed and all of this imposing spectacle more than adequately filling the challenging 60’ x 60’ yawn of the Met stage’s proscenium.

Regarding the musical component of this total theatre equation, Soprano Nina Stemme was well matched to the extraordinary vocal demands of the title role.  Her Turandot was strong and compelling, almost Wagnerian in it’s scope.  Ably succeeding in thawing this iconic ice queen was heroic tenor Marco Berti in the role of the indomitable Calaf, answering as he did the three riddles that guaranteed Turndot’s ultimate affection.  And finally, Anita Hartig’s moving interpretation of the self-sacrificing Liu was informed by a delicate, lyrical pathos complimenting the hopelessness of her unrequited love for Calaf.

But ultimately it’s all about the music, isn’t it? For after all, the audience, 4,000 strong (it’s the largest opera house in the world) leave the auditorium humming that famous Act III show-stopper “Nessun dorma” and of course the very word auditorium does mean “hearing place.” But is it in fact just for listening?  Perhaps not, for as we know the word theatre is from the Latin theatron meaning “seeing place.”  So it’s actually all about both “hearing” and “seeing” … all about both Puccini and Zeffirelli! And what a wonderful “hearing” and “seeing” experience this Turandot was!

 

by Lidia Paulinska and Hugh McMahon