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Submission + - European Data Cloud

Submitted by mrspoonsi
mrspoonsi writes: Given the fallout from recent NSA spying allegations, Michel Barnier the EU's internal marketing commissioner stated "enough is enough" and wants to develop a European Data Cloud. With Europe's deep pockets, could the NSA's actions cost US corporations as viable alternatives to services currently run by US companies are developed?

Submission + - AMD's Radeon R9 290X Launched, Faster Than GeForce GTX 780 For Roughly $100 Less (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: AMD has launched their new top-end Radeon R9 290X graphics card today. The new flagship wasn't ready in time for AMD's recent October 8th launch of midrange product, but their top of the line model, based on the GPU codenamed Hawaii, is ready now. The R9 290 series GPU (Hawaii) is comprised of up to 44 compute units with a total of 2,816 IEEE-2008 compliant shaders. The GPU has four geometry processors (2x the Radeon HD 7970) and can output 64 pixels per clock. The Radeon R9 290X features 2816 Stream Processors and an engine clock of up to 1GHz. The card's 4GB of GDDR5 memory is accessed by the GPU via a wide 512-bit interface and the R290X requires a pair of supplemental PCIe power connectors—one 6-pin and one 8-pin. Save for some minimum frame rate and frame latency issues, the new Radeon R9 290X's performance is impressive overall. AMD still has some obvious driver tuning and optimization to do, but frame rates across the board were very good. And though it wasn't a clean sweep for the Radeon R9 290X versus NVIDIA's flagship GeForce GTX 780 or GeForce GTX Titan cards, AMD's new GPU traded victories depending on the game or application being used, which is to say the cards performed similarly.

Submission + - 4K Ultra HD Likely to Repeat the Failure of 3D Television

Submitted by tvf_trp
tvf_trp writes: Fox Sports VP, Jerry Steinbers, has just announced that the broadcaster is not looking to implement 4K broadcasting (which offers four times the resolution of today's HD), stating that 4K Ultra HD is a "monumental task with not a lot of return". Digital and broadcasting specialists have raised concerns about the future of 4K technology drawing parallels with the 3D's trajectory, which despite its initial hype has failed to establish a significant market share due to high price and lack of 3D content. While offering some advantages over 3D (no need for specs, considerable improvement in video quality, etc), 4K's prospects will remain precarious until it can get broadcasters and movie makers on board.

Submission + - Robot 'Anklebot' helps stroke patients to walk.

Submitted by rtoz
rtoz writes: MIT professor Neville Hogan and his colleagues in the Newman Laboratory for Biomechanics and Human Rehabilitation have measured the stiffness of the ankle in various directions using a robot called the “Anklebot.” This measured data could aid in rehabilitation from strokes, other motor disorders.

Hogan and his Team developed the Anklebot as an experimental and rehabilitation tool.

The robot is mounted to a knee brace and connected to a custom-designed shoe. As a person moves his ankle, the robot moves the foot along a programmed trajectory, in different directions within the ankle’s normal range of motion. Electrodes record the angular displacement and torque in specific muscles, which researchers use to calculate the ankle’s stiffness.

The team has tested the Anklebot on stroke patients who experience difficulty walking. In daily physical therapy sessions, patients are seated in a chair and outfitted with the robot. Typically during the first few sessions, the robot does most of the work, moving the patient’s ankle back and forth and side to side, loosening up the muscles, “kind of like a massage,” Hogan says. The robot senses when patients start to move their ankles on their own, and adapts by offering less assistance.

Submission + - German summons US ambassador over NSA spying of Chancellor Angela Merkel

Submitted by rtoz
rtoz writes: German summons the US ambassador over claims that the US monitored German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone.

Foreign minister Guido Westerwelle will personally meet US envoy John Emerson.

Previously, U.S President Barack Obama had denied the spying of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone calls when she made call to Obama for asking about the reports of NSA spying of her phone calls.

And, Germany’s defense minister said that Europe can’t simply return to business as usual in its relations with Washington following allegations that U.S. intelligence may have targeted Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone — though he stressed that ties will remain stable.

Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere told ARD television the alleged surveillance would be “really bad” if confirmed. “The Americans are and remain our best friends, but this is absolutely not right,” he said.

Few days back, France called in the U.S. ambassador to protest at allegations in Le Monde newspaper about large-scale spying on French citizens by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).

Comment Re:bbc? (Score 1) 429

by severn2j (#45067533) Attached to: Fusion Reactor Breaks Even

Granted, few general-purpose new sources are particularly good when it comes to their coverage of science, but the BBC does have a bit of a reputation for being above average--a reputation which seems to be rather undeserved, as far as I can tell.

I agree that the BBC doesn't really deserve the good reputation it has and I think it has it because in an era of such bad journalism, its easy to look good.

Comment Re:Goodbye Windows (Score 1) 313

by severn2j (#42927697) Attached to: Valve Officially Launches Steam For Linux
While I agree with most of your post, I'm not sure where your SPISPOPD info comes from. The name came from a joke on a newsgroup discussion about Doom's name in the weeks before its release in 1993, while the Smashing Pumpkins formed in 1988, five years earlier. In fact they even added samples from Doom in one of their songs in reference to the joke. http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/SPISPOPD http://www.trilobite.org/spispopd/

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