Items tagged with 'computers'
China's Mandated Site-Blocking SW is Pirated
We wrote earlier about China's new censorship moves with regards to PCs, mandating that new PCs there have site-blocking software installed, or at least provided via an included CD. Ironically, though not surprisingly, it turns out that the filtering software, "Green Dam-Youth Escort," contains pirated code.According to... Read More
WSJ: China Requiring Site-Blocking SW on All PCs
While it's no secret that China blocks web sites that it doesn't want its citizens to view, the Wall Street Journal is reporting an escalation in this censorship. The WSJ reports that China plans to require that all PCs sold in the country as of July 1st be equipped with software that blocks access to certain Web sites.... Read More
Google CEO to grads: "Turn off your computers"
Perhaps a couple of decades ago, someone like Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt would have been urging college graduates at their commencement to turn on computers, learn the latest technology, spur us forward.This being now, Schmidt instead suggested to graduates at University of Pennsylvania and Carnegie Mellon University... Read More
Organic computing - the Cylons are coming?
New research out of the University of Manchester in Britain appears to herald the imminent creation of the Cylon race. It appears the structure for computer processors will switch from silicon to carbon, just like people, perhaps, eventually. It's not news that graphene (carbon in sheets an atom thick) conducts electricity... Read More
Oops! AVG Virus Scanner Crashes Computers
Many techs will agree: antivirus programs can be a hassle. Mostly, the issues tend to stem from slower performance and similar issues that result from using an antivirus program. Still, it’s a bit of a lesser of two evils deal: you can risk getting a virus, or you can deal with lags in performance. Usually, you can count... Read More
Intelligent Computers Put To The Test
Researchers are planning to conduct an experiment at the University of Reading to see if humans can be fooled into thinking they are talking with another human, when in fact they will be talking with a machine. The experiment is a homage to mathematician, logician and cryptographer Alan Turning, who originally proposed... Read More
2008 Is Booming For Personal Computers
You run into an interesting problem if you're a computer manufacturer. You're supposed to make your units better and faster all the time, of course, but overall the price you charge for your rigs generally gets cheaper. That means you could sell more units year over year and still end up with less revenue because each unit... Read More
Ants Invade Houston, Eat Computers
Sounds like a science fiction movie doesn't it? But it's not.The newly recognized species is believed to have arrived in a cargo shipment through the port of Houston. Scientists are not sure exactly where the ants came from, but their cousins, commonly called crazy ants, are found in the Southeast and the Caribbean."At... Read More
MIT: Menopausal Women Potential Supercomputers
Researchers at MIT have developed chip architecture that runs on 70 percent less voltage than a conventional processor. The savings in power consumption would have profound effects on the battery life you could expect from portable devices. They may even require only movement and body heat to power chip-enabled sensors... Read More
Computers To Take On Top Poker Players
Computers have gotten to the point where they can routinely decimate the best human players at many games, but most of those games can be boiled down to simply analyzing x number of moves in advance and seeing which move(s) result in the highest probability of success. What about games that might use a bit of instinct... Read More
HLS Computers Have Security Issues
Care to guess how many computer viruses, thefts, hacker break-ins, and other security issues the Department Of Homeland Security has suffered over the past 2 years? If you guessed over 800, you're a right! "In one instance, hacker tools for stealing passwords and other files were found on two internal Homeland Security... Read More
FAA Computers Are Too Old For Vista
A few government agencies and even a couple of large corporations have decided to delay purchasing Vista for the time being with reasons of (but not limited to) security, support, and high hardware requirements. Apparently the agency in charge of the airways in the U.S. falls into the last category:"An internal memo from... Read More
Welcome To Scotland Where Everything Is Green, Even The Supercomputers
It looks like the trend of making more energy efficient PCs has spread from common laptops, desktops and servers, all the way up to supercomputers. The system is designed for defense and scientific research. "Called Maxwell, the computer has been built at the University of Edinburgh and uses field programmable gate... Read More
Can Computers Decide When Humans Should Live Or Die?
According to researchers, a simple formula calculated by a computer could be more effective then asking loved ones whether or not to 'pull the plug'. The program predicted the wishes of a patient accurately 78% of the time where as surrogates only made accurate decisions 68% of the time. Besides being more accurate... Read More
Quantum Computers Becoming Reality?
We've all heard of bits and bytes. Ever hear of a qubit? So it goes like this. Bits, as we traditionally know them, are either in a 1 or 0 state. Right, well, a qubit exists in a quantum state. So for example, it can be either 1 or 0 or both or somewhere in between. This is the crux... Read More
Computers 2, Grandmasters 0
First Gary Kasparov loses his match with IBM's Deep Blue, and now Vladimir Kramnik loses to Deep Fritz... "BONN, Germany (AP) - World chess champion Vladimir Kramnik lost his final game in a match against computer program Deep Fritz on Tuesday, ceding a hard-fought Man vs. Machine series 4-2. Kramnik, seeking a final... Read More
Supercomputers Crunching Potato Chips, Proteins & Nuclear Bombs
If you've ever wondered what some of today's top supercomputers are up to, this article on CNN explains many of the more common applications. Some of them are used for tasks like forecasting weather, designing safer more fuel-efficient cars, mapping DNA, exploring the cosmos and even calculating the curvature... Read More
Kitty Litter and Computers
Do you own a cat/s and have computers? If you do, then you may want to take a look at this interesting article which talks about the dangers of litter dust near computers. Dust, especially clay dust, is a very real threat to electronics. Clay is naturally capacitive and conductive. In addition to its ability to short... Read More
Dell to sell AMD-based computers after Alienware purchase
With the acquisition of Alienware, Dell will sell computers with chips from Advanced Micro Devices. The deal closes in about 30 to 45 days.Alienware will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary, and Alienware CEO Nelson Gonzalez said that the deal will not affect its relationship with AMD. Granted, circumstances can change,... Read More
Your Opinion Of Apple's Windows 7 FUD Ads?