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Submission + - Computer restoration memorial prize launched (bbc.co.uk) 2

Submitted by
peetm
peetm writes: "The BBC is reporting that the life of pioneering computer conservationist Tony Sale is to be commemorated with an award for the best computer restoration project.

Mr Sale is best known for the mammoth Bletchley Park project that resulted in the re-creation of the Colossus computer (the original Colossus cracked messages sent by Hitler's generals during World War II). Further information can be found here"

Submission + - Alan Turing papers on code breaking released by GCHQ (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
peetm
peetm writes: "Two 70-year-old papers by Alan Turing on the theory of code breaking have been released by the government's communications headquarters, GCHQ.

It is believed Turing wrote the papers while at Bletchley Park working on breaking German Enigma codes.

A GCHQ mathematician said the fact that the contents had been restricted "shows what a tremendous importance it has in the foundations of our subject"."

Submission + - The Spanish link in cracking the Enigma code (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
peetm
peetm writes: "A pair of rare Enigma machines used in the Spanish Civil War have been given to the head of GCHQ, Britain's communications intelligence agency. The machines — only recently discovered in Spain — fill in a missing chapter in the history of British code-breaking, paving the way for crucial successes in World War II.

Enigma machines, developed originally in Germany in the 1920s, were the first electromechanical encryption devices and would eventually carry the country's military communications during World War II. The cracking of that code at Bletchley Park would play a key role in shortening the war and saving countless lives."

Submission + - D-Wave Announces Commerically Available Quantum Computer (forbes.com)

Submitted by
peetm
peetm writes: "Computing company D-Wave has announced that they’re selling a quantum computing system commerically, which they’re calling the D-Wave One. The D-Wave system comes equipped with a 128-qubit processor that’s designed to perform discrete optimization operations. A qubit is the basic unit of quantum information – analogous to a bit in conventional computing. For a broader understanding of how qubits work, check out Ars Technica‘s excellent guide."
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - GCC 5 could be modular like LLVM (gnu.org)

Submitted by
ndogg
ndogg writes: "There are talks underway by the GCC developers that GCC 5.0 could be modularized like LLVM, and its different components be split up, and put into libraries. Doing so would be a massive undertaking (some saying it's probably practically impossible), which would mean that GCC 5.0 release would be very long in the making. There would be likely sacrifices to performance, and optimizations during the process."
Education

Submission + - UK School's ICT to be replaced by computer science (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
peetm
peetm writes: "It seems that the UK government has at last come to its senses and has announced the scraping of (a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_and_communications_technology">ICT in schools — which in the UK means playing about with Word and Excel etc. By the way, that came as a shock to most students – they thought ICT meant using Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, sadly, when they became enlightened they also switched off. But who can blame them really – one or two years of Powerpoint, Word, Excel! Yuck. So anyway, it’s being scrapped – and about time too – and is to be replaced with computer science lessons (deliberate lowercase). However, what about those kids (and let’s face it – we’re talking about the majority) who won’t be able to cope with even lowercase cs? How to prepare them for the real world?"
Cloud

Submission + - Facebook Starts Displaying Ads In The News Feed

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As expected, Facebook has started displaying ads in users' News Feeds. You may not be seeing them yet as the company is rolling them out gradually, like it does for all its changes.

These new ads are marked as "Featured," which could be confusing given that Facebook has always used the word "Sponsored" for its ads. Currently, Facebook uses the verb "feature" for making content on a user’s Timeline bigger and more prominent.

Last month, a Facebook spokesperson said the company hoped to "show people no more than one Sponsored Story in their News Feeds per day." This is no longer the case, as Facebook now says you may see more Featured stories "if you visit your News Feed a lot."

Submission + - 1TB SSD swiss army knife - coming to a store near (theverge.com)

Submitted by
gruenz
gruenz writes: "While it is a press release — and it is expensive, I am yet to find a person who doesn't want one in 1TB version! ;-) Its available with between 64GB and 1TB of storage, and is capable of 220MB/s read speeds and write speeds up to 150MB/s. It has Victorinox's security software on board, which encrypts and backs up data, and also provides private browsing and safe syncing of bookmarks and passwords. Comes with USB and eSata."
Microsoft

Submission + - Windows 3.0 Launch

Submitted by
peetm
peetm writes: "I've just moved house and as everyone knows this involves re-discovering ‘weird stuff’ you forgot you had. One of the things I found was an old Sanyo Dictaphone loaded with a microcassette. Turns out it was a recording of the Windows 3.0 launch held at the City Center Theater on West 55th Street (New York) on May 22 1990.
The audio quality leaves a lot to be desired but the content is interesting and gives a flavour of the computing world just prior to the beginnings of the World Wide Web."

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