Venom Moving Forward

Scifiwire had a chance to talk with Paul Wernick about the status of the Venom movie spin-off.  Wernick confirmed that a script has indeed been turned into Sony:

We’ve written two drafts of Venom, and the studio has it, and they’re pushing forward in whatever ways they push forward

When asked when the film might go into production while vague, he had this to say:

We’re not sure, [but] we’ve turned in our two drafts

No word on casting yet or how this might be integrated into the events that transpired in Spiderman 3.

Sony Electronics Inc. Dedicates New Green San Diego Based Headquarters

Sony Electronics Inc. USA brought employees, government officials, community members, building partners and representatives of San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), Mitsubishi Electric & Electronics, Inc. and HelioPower together to celebrate the opening of their new 455,000 square foot “green” headquarters in San Diego. The building, constructed in two years, was built with an emphasis on employee comfort and energy efficiency. A 160-kilowatt (kW) DC Mitsubishi Electric panel solar power system was collaborated under the SDG&E Sustainable Communities Program and was installed by California-based solar integration company, HelioPower. The solar power system was installed on the employee parking structure, utilizing an innovative and attractive design which averted the need for space allocation for a large central inverter.

The Sony Electronics building will house 1,400 of the company’s 2,000 area employees. It was designed to exemplify the best in energy conservation technologies. Energy saving strategies include the solar power system on the parking structure, energy efficient air conditioning and heating and the use of recycled materials in the carpeting and furniture. Drought-resistant landscaping was also used and all the construction debris was recycled. The building’s design and construction process incorporated many environmental features according to the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification requirements.

“Sony is committed to reducing our impact on the environment,” said Greg Aveni, facilities director for Sony Electronics. “We are doing this by implementing methods to reduce energy-use, such as installing solar panels for our new San Diego building and waste from our day-to-day operations, while at the same time finding ways to develop more energy-efficient products.”

The Sony Electronics project is one of many San Diego-based energy-efficient projects on which SDG&E has collaborated. The utility supports energy- efficient and sustainable programs for commercial construction, and provides cash incentives and technical assistance to builders wanting to build energy-efficient buildings. In addition, SDG&E works with these builders to develop utility-owned solar panels for their projects that provide this renewable, solar energy back to the local community.

“Sony Electronics’ forward-thinking approach to energy efficiency and renewable energy in their daily business practices is something their employees and our community can be proud of,” said Alex Kim, director of customer innovations for SDG&E.

The 160kW DC installation consists of 867 Mitsubishi Electric 185-watt photovoltaic (PV) modules and is expected to produce 230,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. In addition to the clean energy created by the solar panels, Mitsubishi Electric’s eco-friendly modules use 100-percent lead-free solder and are manufactured according to strict environmental standards.

“We’re proud to be a part of Sony Electronics’ new headquarters building and commend them for designing an innovative and low-impact facility for their employees. This is an excellent example of a building that can gain immediate benefits from solar power,” said Gina Heng, general manager of Mitsubishi Electric’s photovoltaic division.

Designing and building the PV system on the Sony Electronics’ structure was a yearlong engineering project that involved electrical, structural and utility engineers. By working closely with all relevant parties, solar power system installer, HelioPower, was able to design a system that met Sony Electronics’ needs and SDG&E’s requirements for an aesthetic, highly productive and safe PV system. One of the innovations was to meet the requirements for a covered parking structure with the solar power system installation. HelioPower was also able to integrate the 160 kW DC array with 21 field-distributed SMA inverters; eliminating the need for a large central unit for which space was not available.

“Connecting the output of a PV power plant to the utility side of the meter is a complex process. Rigorous utility interconnection standards must be followed as a separately derived service entrance is our point of connection to the SDG&E electrical grid,” explained Jonah Liebes, vice president of operations for HelioPower.

“Unlike many installations, this is not a ‘Net Metered’ solar system. As such, the energy from the solar system by-passes the Sony Electronic meter and is funneled directly into the utility grid and distributed locally. Sony and their neighbors will certainly use the renewable energy collected by the system, but indirectly via the SDG&E grid.”

Here is the current Google map satellite view for the building.

View Larger Map

The Sony Electronics building is located at 16530 Via Esprillo, San Diego, CA 92127.

Uncharted 2 Pushes PS3 to Limits

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves continues to be a run away hit for Sony and Naughty Dog. In an interview with Game Trailers, Amy Hennig comments on many aspects of what makes the game so unique, notably the processing power and storage of the PS3.

Along with revamping the games engine and the graphics engine the Blu-ray storage was one of the crucial factors allowing the game to have such a large scale. The storage capability (presumably a BD-25) allowed the designers to include more data than would have been possible otherwise (even though she states  that with all that space it was still a challenge).

One of the key aspects however is the processing power of the PS3. Amy stated that initially the SPU’s inside their respective SPE’s were running about 30% capacity. This was due to more working being done by the PPE (and possibly the RSX) and less by the SPU’s. Now however more work is being done by the SPU’s themselves which are primarily designed for heavy number crunching but can process other types of data as well (which is inline with tip1 for Cell/BE best practices) and the percentage of usage has been “maxed out” which is assumed to be 100% (although she didn’t actually state a hard number). This allows the PPE to focus on rich backgrounds, other processing elements and to route data to the SPE’s. No mention of the RSX was made at all, so I am curious as how that is being integrated in to the programming model, maybe at some point I can interview Amy and ask her some questions about that. Click on the image below which will take you to the interview. To hear her tech related comments, fast forward to about 3:46.

It’s safe to say we are looking possibly at our first second generation PS3 title. As more and more developers become familiar with the Cell BE we can expect more good things on the PS3 console in the future. Having played the multiplayer demo, the sheer number of things happening on the screen at any given time and the level of detail associated with them is quite impressive.

Interview with Dr. Gaurav Khanna, A Pioneer In The PS3 Supercomputing Field

Dr. Gaurav Khanna is a brilliant Astrophysicist from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth who works on different problems in theoretical and computational astrophysics. To assist him on some of his processor intensive work, he has built a supercomputing cluster out of 16 PS3’s called the gravity PS3 Gravity Grid. He is a pioneer in the PS3 supercomputing field, and his shared his knowledge on building clusters at ps3cluster.org.

I had a chance to interview Dr. Khanna, and we talked about how this all got started, cluster speed and his thoughts on the lack of OtherOS support in the revamped PS3 line. Immense thanks to Dr. Khanna for being extremely personable, easy to talk to and for answering all of our questions

Being one of the pioneers in this PS3 cluster field, how do you think using the PS3 in this way has changed the landscape of research?

The PS3 has definitely significantly impacted various areas of computation-based research. Perhaps the best example of this is Stanford’s Folding@Home project that is nearing 10 petaflops, of which PS3s contribute an important fraction. And then there are dozens of small clusters at various universities like mine.

In my case in particular, I have been able to do calculations that I simply couldn’t do before. And that makes the whole approach invaluable to me, of course. But beyond what I have been able to do, the thought that one should seriously evaluate commodity gaming hardware (consoles and graphics cards) for high-performance scientific computing is leading towards a transformation of the supercomputing industry.

Prior to being able to utilize the PS3, how you were able to accomplish your research?

Academic researchers in the US have access to supercomputing facilities through various federal agencies (such as the NSF, NASA etc). To obtain supercomputing time, one submits a proposal to the federal agency, which is peer-reviewed and prioritized. Alternatively, one can rent supercomputers at the rate of $1 per CPU per hour. To give you an idea, a single black hole research simulation of interest to me, can take 5,000 — 10,000 CPU-hours. And to explore a problem in depth, one would want to do several dozen such simulations, at the very least!

Yes, I have used such facilities before for my black hole astrophysics research and continue to do so. They are an awesome resource and are managed very well. But, since they are heavily shared facilities they often have long queues and strong restrictions on their usage. I realized that for a specific, computationally intensive, black hole research problem that I was working on, I simply did not have the supercomputing time available to me for a thorough study. It was mainly for this reason, I started looking into “creative”  solutions.

It’s an amazing concept to use the PS3 in a cluster the way you are. Can you walk us through how you first got involved with Sony on this project and how it came to fruition Was it difficult to “cell” this idea?

Thanks. Well before the PS3 was released in 2006, IBM and Sony had already released a lot of information on the Cell BE — its exceptionally strong performance and incredible potential. I have never had an interest in gaming, but I happened to come across an article about the Cell BE in 2005 and started wondering about the possibilities of using the PS3 for my computational research. When the PS3 was released in late 2006 and it was made available as an “open platform” there was no reason to not get one immediately and actually try things out — except for the long lines at Best Buy, of course! My wife braved those long lines and shortages and actually managed get me one for Christmas. You can imagine how I spent that winter break; and no, its wasn’t spent playing Motorstorm!

Once I realized the potential of Cell BE by experimenting with it on my own research codes, I realized that I would only need a small sized PS3 cluster to be able to complete the computationally intensive simulations that I was having trouble doing otherwise. Envisioning that I would be laughed at if I asked a research funding agency to buy me a few gaming consoles, I decided to try my luck directly with Sony, instead.

Talking to Sony about a proposal like this one wasn’t easy. Its very easy to contact a Sony representative and talk; but explaining what I really needed was extremely difficult. I believe the biggest challenge was getting the right person within Sony to appreciate what I wanted to do. And Sony is a BIG company. After trying for many months, I managed to get that right person, who happened to be in Sony R&D. Once that happened, it took no time at all. I was amazed by their responsiveness and their interest. I am still in touch with many of the people within Sony that helped me along the way and pointed me in the right direction. Without their help and interest, my cluster wouldn’t have happened.

How fast is this PS3 Cluster?

I currently have a cluster with 16 PS3s. On my research codes, my cluster performs comparably to a cluster of approximately 100 cores of a high-end Intel Xeon processor. What is particularly interesting is not just the overall performance, but its extremely low cost. It is about ten (10) times more cost effective than a traditional compute cluster. Moreover, it is a dedicated resource. It is not shared, there are no restrictions, and I don’t have to write proposals and get reviewed etc. or pay money to make use of it . All these things help enhance my research productivity significantly.

How many years or months do you think you’re research has been accelerated by using the PS3 cluster?

As I mentioned before, without it I actually wouldn’t have been able to do some of the simulations I needed — simply because of the available supercomputing time I had and due to some of the restrictions involved. So, to me it has been an indispensable resource.

I have been able to publish four (4) research articles based on the data generated by the cluster, and expect many more to come in the future

What are your thoughts on the lack of OtherOs support in the latest version of the PS3?

I am simply devastated by this decision. I understand that the decision was made to cut developmental cost. I think it is extremely unfortunate that Sony had to do this.

Given the $299 price point, do you think more researchers would have been able to expand their work if OtherOs support had not been removed?

Absolutely! The price drop made the cost effectiveness of a PS3 cluster even higher (over a factor of 10) when compared to traditional compute clusters, and the Slim model consumes significantly less power as well. I would have immediately looked into increasing my PS3 cluster size (if I hadn’t run out of room in my lab!).

Lastly, do you think it would be wise for Sony to consider restoring OtherOs support, even if just on a 1 to 1 basis?

Without a doubt! I think there are a number of options that Sony will always have to restore the OtherOS support. Short of simply reversing their decision, they could sell a PS3 Linux Kit at the price of a game perhaps? Of course, there are many other viable options. I am extremely hopeful that PS3 Linux will survive. I’m keeping my fingers crossed

Again, many thanks to Dr. Khanna for his time. I actually felt smarter just talking to him

Sony Pictures Entertainment Launches Redesigned Sony Pictures Web Museum

Sony Pictures Entertainment today announced the launch of its completely re-designed museum web site offering a look at the studio’s storied lot and productions ranging from “On the Waterfront” to “Spider-Man.” In an effort to preserve the rich history of the company’s studio facilities, which span 44 acres in the “Heart of Screenland,” Sony Pictures established a web-based museum along with an annex in the lobby of the Sony Pictures Plaza building at its world headquarters in Culver City.

The web museum maintains one of the most comprehensive collections of hundreds of early film photos and clips in its Theatrical Library. Hundreds of video clips of classic movies like “It Happened One Night,” “His Girl Friday,” “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Gandhi” as well as more recent hits like, “Hancock” are available to be streamed from the site. The site also features contemporary works including rare glimpses at the making of special effects from films such as “Hancock” and “Da Vinci Code.” The new design offers easier navigation to sections dedicated to Filmmaking, Visual Effects and Animation, Film Preservation, the studio’s history as well as Culver City.

A public display dedicated to the museum is open in the Sony Pictures Plaza lobby building at 10000 West Washington Blvd. in Culver City, California.

What To Expect From Sony At CEATEC Japan 2009

Sony will be presenting its latest, industry leading digital AV products and technologies at “CEATEC JAPAN 2009“, to be held at Makuhari Messe convention center, Chiba city from October 6th to 10th. Sony’s booth will consist of four themes: “3D entertainment”, “Network Field”, “Display Technology”, and “Ecology”. Sony will be exhibiting a range of products and services that deliver new user experiences, in addition to advanced technologies that have both been adopted in products, and others with high potential for use in future products.

Within “3D Entertainment”, there will be demonstrations highlighting Sony’s latest achievements in the development of 3D technologies. Visitors will be able to experience the full range of Sony’s strengths across both its electronics and content businesses, with the 3D compatible “BRAVIA” LCD TV (scheduled for commercial launch in 2010), forming the centerpiece of these demonstrations.

The “Network Field” area will demonstrate the interoperability between Sony products such as TVs, Blu-ray disc, and VAIO, highlighting the enjoyment that this connectivity can deliver.

At the “Display Technology” and “Ecology” areas, there will be reference exhibits of various future technologies, as well as the others that have already been incorporated in BRAVIA LCD TVs, such as Sony’s “Motionflow 240Hz” high frame rate technology, and the “presence sensor” energy-saving feature that automatically turns the screen on and off depending on the presence of viewers in the room.

3D Entertainment
[ 3D compatible "BRAVIA"LCD TV, scheduled for commercial launch in 2010 (reference exhibit only) ]
- Total of eight units to be exhibited, showcasing 3D movie, game and sports content.

[ 240frame/sec high frame rate single lens 3D camera (reference exhibit only) ]
- Demonstration of single lens 3D camera capable of filming 3D content at a frame rate of 240 frame/sec, considered the closest speed to the human eye.

[ Digital cinema projector for professional use, optimized for 3D projection ]
- Sony’s “SRX-R220″ incorporating US company RealD’s 3D digital cinema system to deliver both high resolution 4K 2D projection, and also 3D images in a single projection unit.

Network Field
[ Enjoying network connectivity of BRAVIA LCD TVs ]
- Sony’s ZX5 series realizes slim-line design through the use of an edge-lit LED backlight, and also incorporates wireless transmission technology enabling it to be beautifully mounted on a wall. (52inch and 46inch)
- Demonstration of the quick and easy purchase of content using “acTVila Video Full” feature, with remote control incorporating FeliCa port for electronic payment.
- “Sony RoomLink” to seamlessly enjoy content stored on DLNA compatible products, connected via LAN network within the home.

[ "TransferJet" (reference exhibit only) ]
- Demonstration of Sony-developed interoperable wireless transfer technology, including transmission of pictures taken using digital still camera to digital photo frame, and the download of video content to mobile phones.

[ Blu-ray disc recorders ]
- Demonstration of functionality enabling content stored on Blu-ray recorder to be forwarded to mobile devices such as PSP®(PlayStation®Portable) and Walkman.

[ New Series of "VAIO" Personal Computer (reference exhibit only) ]
- Thin and light “VAIO X” series. New model delivering true mobility.

[ Sony's proprietary face detection technologies incorporated in products such as "Handycam" and "Cyber-shot" ]
- Introduction of new, advanced face detection features, and use with digital signage (reference exhibit only)

[ Potential of PlayStation®3 (PS3®) as an interactive digital signage player (reference exhibit only). ]
- Demonstration of digital signage based on graphical effects and image processing technology that leverages the processing capability of PS3.
- Eye-catching multi-screen display, realized through the synchronization of multiple PS3 units.

Display Technology
[ High frame rate "MotionFlow" ]
- Demonstrating the smooth playback of fast moving images realized by increasing the number of frames from 60Hz/sec to 240Hz/sec.

[ Flexible Organic EL display (reference exhibit only) ]
- Demonstration of prototype 2.5inch flexible OLED screen with 0.2mm thinness that incorporates a flexible organic thin film transistor to drive its display.

Environment
[ Demonstration of "presence sensor", which automatically turns the TV screen on and off depending on the presence of viewers in the room. This function cuts approximately 50% of power consumption compared to standard usage. ]

Sony Should Probably Stop Referencing Nigeria Altogether

In the last few months Sony has made several negative references to the country of Nigeria, and many are criticizing the company for doing so. The references are indirectly related to each other and happened in two seperate divisions of Sony, but occurred so close to one another it became an odd coincidence. The first knock was found within a recent PS3 price cut commercial, where a blogger named Bernie confronts Sony over the $299 price cut. In response, the Sony actor replies, “$299? Bernie you can’t believe everything you read off the Internet. Otherwise I’d be a Nigerian millionaire by now.”

Sony reworked the advertisement, which features no mention of Nigeria, but instead features this line: “You can’t believe everything you read on the internet. That’s how World War I got started.” Great Sony, now you’re going to piss off World War I.

Another offensive portrayal was found in District 9, the summer science-fiction blockbuster about an alien refugee camp in South Africa. The movie is drawing protests from government officials in Nigeria over its portrayal of Nigerians, The Associated Press reported. Dora Akunyili, the country’s information minister, has asked movie houses in Abuja, the nation’s capital, to stop screening the film because it depicts Nigerians as gangsters and cannibals.

“We are not happy about it because it portrays Nigeria in bad light.”

Akunyili said she has asked Sony for an apology and wants them to edit out references to Nigeria and to the name of the main Nigerian gangster Obesandjo, whose name closely resembles that of former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.

“We have written to the producer and distributor of the film, Sony Entertainment, expressing our displeasure and demanded an apology,” she said. “We have asked that the areas where Nigeria and Obasanjo are mentioned should be edited from the film.”

Essence Of Sony VAIO Wallpaper Collection

VAIO is a sub-brand for many of Sony’s computer products. It was originally an acronym for Video Audio Integrated Operation, but since 2008 amended to Visual Audio Intelligence Organizer to celebrate the brand’s 10th year anniversary. The branding was created by Timothy Hanley to distinguish items that encompassed the use of consumer audio and video, as well as being conventional computing products. VAIO, while aiming to create new value is always close to people, easy to use, and designed as a functional product that is beautiful. The VAIO logo also represents the integration of analog and digital technology. The ‘VA’ represents an analog wave and the ‘IO’ represents digital binary code.

I often visit Japanese Sony websites for interesting content, and upon looking at Sony Japan’s MyVAIO website I noticed an interesting wallpaper collection dubbed “Essence Of VAIO Design.” I thought that some of you would enjoy this – they will update it once each month and I shall do so as well. Photos are by Yukio Shimizu, who does photos for Sony Design.

Here are some fresh new Vaio wallpapers for your computer:

Vol. 3 – Green LED:

Vol. 2 – Isolation Keyboard:

Vol. 1 – VAIO Logo:

Zombieland Now Showing In Theaters

Zombieland is an American zombie comedy horror, written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick and directed by Ruben Fleischer. The film is distributed by Columbia Pictures (a Sony Pictures company) and was released today. The film is rated R for horror violence/gore and language. The film takes place within a post-apocalyptic context, beginning with a narrative from Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), a college student from Austin, Texas, who is on his way to Columbus to see if his parents are alright, who explains a few of his “rules” for surviving the zombie apocalypse. After surviving a few zombie attacks, he encounters Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), whose life goal is to find the last Twinkie on Earth.

As they are searching a grocery store for Twinkies, they meet two girls, Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). Through a con, the girls get their weapons and car. Later, the girls use their own weapons to get another car they found. After a small fight, Columbus convinces them that it’s better to stick together. Wichita informs Columbus that Columbus, Ohio is destroyed and completely overrun by zombies. They decide to drive towards Pacific Playland, an amusement park that is supposedly zombie-free. on the way, they go to Hollywood, and decide to sleep at the house of Bill Murray. They meet Murray, who at first seems to be zombified, but it’s just make-up so that he can fit in with the zombies and play golf. Murray decides to scare Columbus and Little Rock, but Columbus doesn’t know it’s a joke and shoots Murray, killing him. After a proper funeral for Murray, the girls leave for Pacific Playland. Columbus decides to go after Wichita, who he has developed feelings for, and Tallahassee joins him. When the girls arrive at Pacific Playland, they turn on all the rides and lights, unintentionally attracting all the nearby zombies. A huge battle ensues, and as the girls are about to run out of ammo, Tallahassee and Columbus arrive and help them kill all the zombies. After all the zombies in the area are dead, Little Rock finds a Twinkie and gives it to Tallahassee, making Columbus realize that this is the only family he needs.

Reviews have been favorable, with a 89% approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert gave the movie 3 out of 4 stars. Here’s another trailer I found:

Sony Creates Single Lens 3D Camera Capable Of 240FPS

Sony has announced the development of a single lens 3D camera technology capable of recording natural and smooth 3D images of even fast-moving subject matter such as sports, at 240fps (frames per second). This technology combines a newly developed optical system for single lens 3D camera which captures the left and right images simultaneously, together with existing high frame rate (HFR) recording technology to realize 240fps 3D filming. Sony will demonstrate a prototype model incorporating this technology at “CEATEC JAPAN 2009”, to be held at Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba city, Japan, from October 6th.

In existing half mirror 3D camera systems with separate lenses for the left and right eyes, the parallax range is adjustable, enabling the depth of the 3D images to be modified. However, when operating the zoom and focus functions of such systems, the sensitivity of the human eye, in particular to differences in the size and rotational movement of dual images, as well as any vertical misalignment or difference in image quality has meant that complex technology has been required to ensure that each camera lens is closely coordinated, and there are no discrepancies in the optical axis, image size, and focus. The introduction of a single lens system resolves any issues that may occur as a result of having different optical characteristics for each eye. Furthermore, by using mirrors in place of shutters, incoming light can now be simultaneously separated into left and right images and recorded as it reaches the parallel light area (the area where diverging light from the point of focus on the subject matter becomes parallel) of the relay lens. The separated left and right images are then processed and recorded with the respective left and right image sensors. As there is no difference in time between when the left and right eye images are captured, it is possible for natural and smooth 3D images to be captured, even of scenes involving rapid movement.