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Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft's Surface Specifications and Photos (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft Surface is a tablet ultra-portable PCs designed to work with Windows RT and Windows 8 operating systems. Two versions will be available featuring ARM and Intel CPUs and the display is a 10.6", 16:9 widescreen HD Display (RT version) or Full HD Display (Pro version).
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Unvailes New Ipad Challenging Tablet (nytimes.com)

Submitted by SchrodingerZ
SchrodingerZ writes: Microsoft today unveiled its newest piece of technology; The Surface Tablet, a tablet computer meant to challenge the popular Ipad computers created by Apple. The company showed off a tablet that is about the same weight and thickness as an iPad, with a 10.6-inch screen. "The device has a built-in “kickstand” that allows it to be propped up for watching movies, and a thin detachable cover that will serve double duty as a keyboard." The tablet will run a version of Microsoft 8 with the intention of companion hardware being used for innovations on the product. The presentation of the new tablet was to the way in which Apple traditionally opens a new product; giving the media only a few days notice and withholding the exact location of the announcement until only hours before presenting. The announcement thus far has not affected Microsoft stock.
Amiga

Submission + - How Icaros Desktop brings the Amiga experience to x86 PCs (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "Icaros Desktop is an effort to build a modern Amiga-compatible operating system to standard x86 hardware. It's a distribution built atop AROS, which is an open source effort to create a system compatible at the API level with the AmigaOS 3.x series. I recently had a chat to the creator of Icaros, Paolo Besser, about the creation of the OS and why Amiga continues to inspire people today."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft announces Surface tablet, with kickstand and fold-out keyboard (extremetech.com) 7

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "At its much-discussed “big unveil” this evening, Microsoft did indeed launch a tablet — but rumors that the device would showcase a Barnes & Noble partnership were misplaced. Instead, Microsoft showed a vision for a next-gen PC that combines the portability of a tablet with a minimalistic fold-out keyboard and integrated kickstand. Microsoft’s idea for the tablet (confusingly called Surface) is a device that integrates a better keyboard option than typing on the screen without adding size or weight. That’s where the new keyboard — which doubles as a screen cover — kicks in. At 3mm thick, it adds virtually nothing to the device’s size, but it opens up a world of inputs. There are two covers available — the Touch Cover (very thin) and the Type Cover (with proper, tactile keys). Microsoft is touting the device’s magnesium body, vapor-deposited construction, full PC functionality, and additional features like being the first tablet to showcase a 2×2 MIMO wireless antenna. Windows RT (ARM) and x86 versions are both in the works, with the x86 version apparently having a higher quality screen. No word on hardware specs yet; Microsoft is claiming it “rivals the best ultrabooks” and uses less power than the Core i5. I'm a little bit dubious on that front — and also dubious about how Microsoft's hardware partners will receive this new, rather competitive offering..."

Comment Re:It would kill potato yields (Score 1) 165

The process doesn't necessarily brighten the sky, it actually reflects some percentage of the incoming light back out into space, but in the process it makes the light much more diffuse, creating the visual conditions described. I'm not sure the additional, diffuse light that would persist after sunset would significantly change the situation for potatoes. Testing would be order, which is the kind of thing that is going on here. It's good to understand what the consequences of such a scheme would be so they can be weighed against the alternatives (continued, significant global warming).

Comment He's not a customer, he's a vendor (Score 1) 259

by ComfortablyAmbiguous (#35057292) Attached to: Facebook-Deprived Man Sues For $500K
This suit makes a lot more sense if you view Facebook users the way Facebook views them; not as customers, but as vendors. Facebook's customers are the people that they sell data to. The users are simply vendors, selling their personal data in exchange for the social networking provided by Facebook. The suit simply claims that the user in question was not paid.
Books

Google Books Makes a Word Cloud of Human History 127

Posted by Soulskill from the trends-for-books dept.
An anonymous reader writes "From Ed Yong at the Not Exactly Rocket Science blog: 'Just as petrified fossils tell us about the evolution of life on earth, the words written in books narrate the history of humanity. The words tell a story, not just through the sentences they form, but in how often they occur. Uncovering those tales isn't easy — you'd need to convert books into a digital format so that their text can be analyzed and compared. And you'd need to do that for millions of books. Fortunately, that's exactly what Google have been doing since 2004.' Yong goes on to explain that the astounding record of human culture found in Google Books offers new research paths to social scientists, linguists, and humanities scholars. Some of the early findings (abstract), based on an analysis of 5 million books containing 500 billion words: English is still adding words at a breathtaking pace; grammar is evolving and often becoming more regular; we're forgetting our history more quickly; and celebrities are younger than they used to be. You can also play with the Google Books search tool yourself. For example, here's a neat comparison of how often the words Britannica and Wikipedia have appeared."

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The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny ..." -- Isaac Asimov

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