Items tagged with COM
Practical optical computing is like unicorn hunting to researchers. It promises all sorts of wonderful effects like superfast speeds and less waste heat. But messing about with photons instead of electrons posed challenges that seemed insurmountable, especially the limit on the size of the conduit needed to carry it. Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have come up with a way to at least partially overcome this hurdle by compressing light to fit inside spaces formerly thought impossible. Not only would compressed light make possible smaller optical fibers, but it could lead to huge advances in the field of optical computing. Many researchers want to link electronics and optics,...
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IBM Invests Nearly $400 Million on Cloud Computing Centers in U.S. and Japan TOKYO and RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC - 01 Aug 2008: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a massive expansion of its cloud computing capabilities, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to create two ultra-sophisticated delivery centers that will power the cloud-like computing model that the next era of computing will demand.Revolutionary Data Center in North Carolina IBM will spend $360 million to build its most sophisticated, state-of-the-art data center at its facility in Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina. Built from the ground-up with IBM's New Enterprise Data Center design principles, the center will provide...
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The Antikythera Mechanism was salvaged out of a shipwreck in 1900. It's the original HotHardware -- the first known example of an analog computing device. Scientists estimated it was made in 100 BC. Researchers are still trying to find out exactly what the device can do, and identify who might have made it, but according to an article in the journal Nature, newly deciphered markings on the crusty old thing's dials suggest it was likely made in Syracuse, a Sicilian city that was then a colony of the Greek city of CorinthThe mechanism’s connection with the Corinthians was unexpected, the researchers said, because other cargo in the shipwreck appeared to be from the eastern Mediterranean, places...
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It certainly wouldn't be a deal-breaker (or maker) to us, but if you still can't get a Nintendo Wii (and annoyingly, it's still in short supply), and you're interested in signing your life away for two years to Comcast, this could be the deal for you.On Monday, hot on the heels of the announcement that Comcast will soon receive a slap on the wrist --- and hopefully, an order to stop throttling P2P --- Comcast announced that new subscribers to their Comcast Triple Play package will receive a complimentary Nintendo Wii system.Triple Play is what it sounds: three services: high-speed Internet, digital cable, and digital voice. Currently in my area this upgrade would run us $69 / month. ...
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Since last Tuesday, we've sat on the sidelines as others have questioned Apple's openness about Steve Jobs and discussed the terse answer Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO gave to Ben Reitzes (Lehman Brothers) when asked about Steve Jobs' health. "Ben, Steve loves Apple. He serves as the CEO at the pleasure of Apple's board and has no plans to leave Apple. Steve’s health is a private matter."We'll admit, at first, we thought, sure, it really is a private matter. But to be honest, we'll also admit right off the bat, some of us here at HH own AAPL stock as well. So we have a financial interest in the "health" of Apple stock. While, of course, the price drop between the announcement of the iPhone...
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When it comes to high-end gaming rigs, few companies have been able to achieve the stellar reputation that VoodooPC had with its enthusiast desktops and laptops. VoodooPC had a penchant for building speedy systems with the latest high-quality components, and packaging it all together in sexy looking designs. It's no wonder that HP acquired VoodooPC in 2006 and began integrating VoodooPC's innovations and approach to system design with its own HP-branded enthusiast systems--culminating in the popular HP Blackbird 002 gaming rig--utilizing what HP calls "VoodooDNA." Rahul Sood, the vocal founder of VoodooPC, announced yesterday in his blog the end of VoodooPC as we know it:"It's been announced...
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VISUAL COMPUTING INDUSTRY LEADERS LINE UP TO SPONSOR NVISION 08Christie, EVGA, HP, Microsoft, and PNY Technologies Head Up Key Sponsorships of First-Ever Visual Computing Mega-Event SANTA CLARA, CA–JULY 22, 2008–NVIDIA today announced the key sponsors for NVISION 08, the premier event for visual computing professionals and enthusiasts. Leading the list of sponsors and key contributors for the conference are Christie Digital Systems, EVGA, HP, Microsoft, and PNY Technologies. NVISION 08 will be held August 25-27, 2008 in San Jose, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley, and will serve as a gathering point to share, learn, and create for this important industry which is redefining all aspects...
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Gaming controllers, be it a gamepad, joystick, wheel or mouse, are some of the central defining elements of any gaming experience. Any gamer with a modicum of experience knows how a bad controller or control scheme can completely ruin the experience of playing an otherwise excellent game. Judging from the huge variety of input devices available, we put a high value on the kind of immersiveness that a good controller-to-game match can create. While game controllers come in all shapes, sizes and colors, the input technologies they feature are surprisingly universal. Nearly all game controllers receive some or all of their input from various switches of some type. More advanced controllers...
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OCZ lays claim to being the first company to bring a "brain-computer" interface to the retail market and they have aimed it squarely at the gamer. The device is called the NIA, which is an acronym that stands for Neural Impulse Actuator, and instead of buttons, sticks, gyroscopes or motion sensors, it reads the body's natural biosignals and translates them into commands that can be used to control PC games. No question, it's a pretty wild product. Go now and see....
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Intel Statement on Latest European Commission Action SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Intel Corporation today issued the following statement in response to allegations contained in the new Statement of Objections (SO) issued by the European Commission: We're naturally disappointed the Commission has decided to issue a new SO. The issuance of a second SO suggests that the Commission supports AMD's position that Intel should be prevented from competing fairly and offering price discounts which have resulted in lower prices for consumers. We will evaluate this newest SO and respond fully, but it's clear that the allegations stem from the same set of complaints that our competitor, AMD, has been making to regulators...
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Earlier we reported a court decision that handed over all YouTube user data to Viacom. As we know Viacom and YouTube are enmeshed in a lawsuit over copyrighted material uploaded to YouTube. The information was to assist Viacom in its case, but it was unclear why they needed user data to prove the amount of copyrighted material uploaded or viewed.It seems (perhaps?) common sense prevailed, or maybe it was The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) chiming in (thank you), indicating that this was a clear violation of the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA).Either way, Viacom and YouTube have come to an agreement. On Monday, in a blog post, YouTube said: We are pleased to report that Viacom,...
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Last night we attended the Digital Life Press Preview event in New York City. One product that caught our attention was AOC's new 2230Fm display. As a 22-inch, HD flat-panel display there is nothing necessarily earth-shattering about its design. But what tripped us up was the marketing tag for the device: "No PC Required." Huh? Product Specifications:• Digital Media Player• Digital Photo Frame• 720p through 1080p HD Compatible• USB 2.0 HUB• 4-in-1 memory card reader• Digital Input DVI-D & HDMI with HDCP• Low profile integrated speakers• Contrast Ratio 20,000:1 (dynamic)• Glare screen – provides higher color saturation • Plug...
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Microsoft on Tuesday released a new tool designed to allow customers to see whether their hardware and software will work properly with Windows Vista. Actually, you remember that before Vista even launched they had such a tool, so is this time-travel?Nope, on Tuesday Microsoft launched the Windows Vista Compatibility Center. Or at least, they were supposed to. What you get if you go to the site is a simple "The Windows Vista Compatibility Center will be launching soon, please check back!" message. At least, at the time of this writing, late Tuesday night.While that's bad enough, the fact that Microsoft sees the need to launch a site 18 months after the OS itself was launched...
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Sometimes journalists don't just report the news, they become a part of it. Such is the case with New York Time reporter Saul Hansell. Back in May, Hansell reported on a spat between Google and the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) trade group over Google's refusal to add a link to its privacy policy on the Google homepage. The NAI felt that such a link was part of it charter, and Google was applying to become a member of the NAI. Google, on the other hand, was adamant about keeping its homepage as sparse as possible and didn't want to mar its clean page with even one more word. Three days later, Hansell reported that he stumbled upon a California Law that implies that Goolge must link to...
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Google has been ordered to turn over their logs of user activity on their YouTube site to Viacom. Viacom is suing Google over copyright infringement, and wishes to see how many YouTube users actually look at Viacom copyrighted material on the video service, then compare it to the amount of traffic any given non-copyrighted video might garner, in order to prove that Google is making money off Viacom's Intellectual Property, and assess potential damages. As you might expect, privacy mavens are up in arms over a judge ordering that usernames, IP addresses and logs of videos viewed for everyone who's ever logged onto YouTube. When it initiated legal action in March 2007 the firm {Viacom]said it had...
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You've probably heard the buzz-word "Cloud Computing" tossed around recently. Cloud Computing is the next big thing in remote and distributed computing and is very much in fashion now for many industry bellwethers like IBM, Sun, Amazon, Google and storage giants like EMC. You don't have to have a degree in IT to see it coming together. If you've played around with Gmail or Google Docs, even as an end user, you've already seen the beginnings of something big, really big. As with any budding new market however, there are a lot more questions than answers these days, perhaps because the possibilities are seemingly infinite. Let's take a quick gander at...
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Nintendo's Wii console game is an interesting piece of technology, and a fascinating business phenomenon as well. While Nintendo's competitors produced consoles as powerful and versatile as they could, charged a small fortune for them, and still didn't make much money on them, the Wii concentrated on simple, fun, intuitive gameplay, introduced an innovative controller, and made money hand over fist even though they had the cheapest console. But let's face it. The minute you saw that controller, everybody had the same idea: I want a lightsaber! LucasArts has finally decided to make themselves and Nintendo even richer, and all of us living room Jedis happy, with Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber...
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Tired of playing Trogdor and Freebird over and over? Maybe help is on the way. Representatives of the remaining Beatles are in discussions with the makers of both the Guitar Hero and Rock Band video games. Activision and MTV Games are after a deal for the most sought-after catalog of music ever. A final deal would be worth several million dollars, according to a person familiar with the talks, and could be reached in a matter of weeks. However, it would have first to win the blessing of both Apple Corps, the company established by the band to oversee its business interests, and EMI, the UK music group that owns the Beatles master recordings. Both declined to comment.The surviving Beatles and...
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The Data Center, HotHardware's new community for IT professionals, is sponsored by Dell's Future of Storage. This article is part of our ongoing series of topics and discussions related to IT, Enterprise Storage and related storage technologies. When it comes to Supercomputing, historically, the top dog on the circuit has been IBM's BlueGene/L with its 478+ teraflop (trillions of floating point ops/sec) horsepower, at the ready for solving some of the world's most critical problems and calculations. Applications, like those being researched at the US Department of Energy, take enormous resources. As is the case with the DOE's research in simulation of how nuclear materials will age...
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Ask the trivia question: What was the first computer? Most people would immediately answer: ENIAC. But ENIAC wasn't really the prototype of the modern computer, as it couldn't be reprogrammed to perform different tasks without taking it apart and rewiring it. A much more likely candidate for the first computer that resembles what we think of today when we say "computer" was a British behemoth called "Baby," and it's sixty years old today.The memory gave programmers a total of 1024 bits, or 128 bytes, to play with. This had to store both the program and all of the data to be crunched. By comparison, a modern 1GB DRAM chip can store around 8 billion bits. However, the size of the memory did not...
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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 is worth less. It's apparently not a problem this year, as estimates for the total value of PCs sold worldwide for the year are growing at a brisk rate, and there's a rosy outlook for revenue through 2012.IDC now expects shipments to rise 15.2 percent over last year, compared with a 2008 forecast of 12.8 percent growth that the Framingham, Mass.-based firm made in March.Stamford,...
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You probably recall AOL's 2006 leak of search user data, which actually was more like a flood. AOL published the search logs of 650,000 subscribers, which eventually resulted in some heads rolling, after the smoke cleared. Why not take a tack from Law and Order and rip a story from the headlines, eh? And that's what director Michael Alltop did.The show--which opened Wednesday and runs through June 22--is based on a now infamous real-life search log that included queries ranging from "purple lilac," "happy bunny pictures," and "square dancing steps" to "cut into your trachea," "pee fetish," and "Simpsons incest." And that's just for starters."It was something that captured my imagination and seemed...
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