Items tagged with computers
Devil Mountain Software has been featured in IDG articles before, as a firm that offers performance testing based on its Exo Performance Network (XPNet). Nothing wrong with that, except for the fact that one of IDG's writers, Randall Kennedy, is actually the CEO of Devil Mountain Software...
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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,"...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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 the Turing Test, in...
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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...
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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 this point, it...
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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...
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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 and intuition, especially...
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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 computer systems....
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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 top technology...
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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...
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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...
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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 of quantum computing....
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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...
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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...
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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 or damage electronics,...
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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...
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