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Graphics

Five Nvidia CUDA-Enabled Apps Tested 134

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the need-for-speed dept.
crazipper writes "Much fuss has been made about Nvidia's CUDA technology and its general-purpose computing potential. Now, in 2009, a steady stream of launches from third-party software developers sees CUDA gaining traction at the mainstream. Tom's Hardware takes five of the most interesting desktop apps with CUDA support and compares the speed-up yielded by a pair of mainstream GPUs versus a CPU-only. Not surprisingly, depending on the workload you throw at your GPU, you'll see results ranging from average to downright impressive."
Portables

Does Dell Know What Women Want In a Laptop? 669

Posted by kdawson from the fashion-don't dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Finding the right approach for gender-specific marketing can be really tricky, said Andrea Learned, a marketing expert and author of Don't Think Pink — What Really Makes Women Buy. So when Dell recently took the wraps off a new Web site called Della, geared toward women, featuring tech 'tips' that recommended calorie counting, finding recipes, and watching cooking videos as ways for women to get the most from a laptop, a backlash erupted online, as both women and men described the Web site as 'ridiculous' and 'gimmicky.' Della's heavy emphasis on colors, computer accessories, dieting tips, and even the inclusion of a video about vintage shopping 'seems condescending to women consumers,' says Learned. Instead, Dell should have emphasized function and figured out ways to sell the netbooks that weren't clichéd and reliant on gender stereotypes. 'Some brands go too far with the girlie stuff,' Learned says. 'Della's marketing strategy sounds like it's advertising a purse. There's a level of consumer sophistication they're missing.'"
First Person Shooters (Games)

Duke Nukem For Never 565

Posted by samzenpus from the let-god-sort-'em-out dept.
PLSQL Guy writes "Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms is shutting down, according to Shacknews. They cite 'a reliable source close to the company,' who said the developer is finished and employees have already been let go. It looks like all of the Duke Nukem Forever jokes are turning into reality; DNF might turn out to be the ultimate vaporware after all." 3D Realms' webmaster, Joe Siegler, confirmed the closing, saying that he didn't know about it even a day beforehand. Apogee and Deep Silver, who are working on a different set of Duke Nukem games (referred to as the Duke Nukem Trilogy) say they are not affected by the problems at 3D Realms.

Comment Re:So which is it (Score 2, Interesting) 541

by gustgr (#27852957) Attached to: Star Trek's Warp Drive Not Impossible

You were faster than me, I was about to link the paper. IIRC it had something to do with instability for the energy requirements if you take into account not only relativist effects, but also quantum effects. I did not read TFA, but maybe it's just going along with the hype of the new Trek movie.
Operating Systems

Europe Funds Secure Operating System Research 376

Posted by kdawson from the software-heal-thyself dept.
narramissic writes "A Dutch university has received a $3.3 million grant from the European Research Council to fund 5 more years of work on a Unix-type operating system, called Minix, that aims to be more reliable and secure than either Linux or Windows. The latest grant will enable the three researchers and two programmers on the project to further their research into a making Minix capable of fixing itself when a bug is detected, said Andrew S. Tanenbaum, a computer science professor at Vrije Universiteit. 'It irritates me to no end when software doesn't work,' Tanenbaum said. 'Having to reboot your computer is just a pain. The question is, can you make a system that actually works very well?'"
Space

NASA Names Space Station Treadmill After Colbert 383

Posted by Soulskill from the running-man dept.
willith writes "The SF Chronicle reports on the results of the International Space Station Node 3 naming contest (which we previously discussed). Comedian and fake-pundit Stephen Colbert conducted a bombastic write-in campaign and repeatedly urged his show's fan base (the 'Colbert Nation') to stuff the ballot box with his name, which resulted in 'Colbert' coming in first in the write-in contest with almost a quarter-million votes. Although the Node 3 component will not be named 'Colbert' — NASA has instead chosen to call it 'Tranquility' — one of the Node 3 components will bear the honor: the second ISS treadmill, which will be installed in Node 3, will be named the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill. The formal announcement was made on the air yesterday at 22:30 EDT on the Colbert Report by astronaut Sunita Williams."
First Person Shooters (Games)

Submission + - First Movie of Individual Carbon Atoms (lbl.gov) 2

Submitted by Bojangles
Bojangles writes: Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), working with TEAM 0.5, the world's most powerful transmission electron microscope, have made a movie that shows in real-time carbon atoms repositioning themselves around the edge of a hole that was punched into a graphene sheet. Viewers can observe how chemical bonds break and form as the suddenly volatile atoms are driven to find a stable configuration. This is the first ever live recording of the dynamics of carbon atoms in graphene. In case the site gets slashdotted, there are direct links to the videos.
Linux Business

"We're Linux" Finalists Announced 133

Posted by timothy from the penguin-suits-get-all-the-hot-girls dept.
Last month, we mentioned the Linux Foundation's contest asking people to illustrate the idea "We're Linux"; Now, ruphus13 writes "Over 90 entries were received, and the finalists are now out. From the article, 'The contest was spawned from the idea that other software companies were paying millions of dollars to celebrities for endorsements, while Linux was promoted and shared by enthusiastic, passionate, actual users. Contestants were given a simple directive: tell the Linux Foundation what Linux is for you, why you use it, and why you'd encourage others to do the same. Humor and professional production quality weren't required — it just had to be genuine.' Details on the finalists can be found on the Linux Foundation Video site here."
Media

Boxee Launches New API 69

Posted by Soulskill from the take-that-hulu dept.
A recent post on the boxee blog announces the release of a new, fully documented API that will allow developers to create and share new apps and plugins. "The new boxee API enables developers to build sophisticated applications (such as the Pandora and RadioTime apps) using a set of API calls in Python and writing the GUI using XML. ... Users can install new applications via the boxee App Box, the beginnings of our app store. Unlike other app stores, boxee does not want to be a gate keeper (or bottleneck) in deciding which applications are published so anyone can become a publisher." A complete description is available at their developers page. I'm sure this will help in their ongoing battle with Hulu.

Comment Idiocray in its uttermost level (Score 1) 252

by gustgr (#27354565) Attached to: Proposal Suggests UK Students Study Wikipedia and Twitter

Why would such technologies require orientation from educators? They are ridiculously easy to use. Most children today are quite comfortable with the Internet, not rarely much more comfortable than their parents and/or teachers. Spending quality school time on teaching a kid how to "tweet" is stupidity.

What would be necessary and even critical is to teach the kids how to NOT use the net and give them a general guidance regarding the web, i.e. how to use a rational judging sense while reading what they have found, how to avoid wasting time while looking for useful blogs and content in general, or even how to improve your productivity by not posting comments on /. ;-)

Comment Re:Your choice (Score 4, Insightful) 958

by gustgr (#27313895) Attached to: How Do You Deal With Pirated Programs At Work?

including the conversations you have regarding your findings and the solutions you're offering.

You, sir, has just revealed the fastest way to get canned. I'm not saying it is the wrong thing to do, but I really believe his boss would not appreciate having his words written to stone by an employee. He may even see this as blackmail or something, which would make the case much much worse.

Comment Re:Remember pen based computing? (Score 1) 74

by gustgr (#27313003) Attached to: Sun's CEO On FOSS and the Cloud

I'm afraid the end users don't have much of a conscious choice once the big companies starts really pushing the Cloud down their throats, since they won't stopping using this or that service because it went Cloud. They may be pissed and all but most will just adapt, as it has been happening already. I personally have serious concerns regarding my critical and sensitive data being stored in a place I can't physically access.

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