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Sun Microsystems

Sun Super Computer May Hit 2 Petaflops 134

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the coming-out-swinging dept.
Fletcher writes to tell us that Sun Microsystems has revealed their "Constellation System", a new supercomputing platform that the company hopes will put them back in the running for top dog in the supercomputer race. "The linchpin in the system is the switch, the piece of hardware that conducts traffic between the servers, memory and data storage. Code-named Magnum, the switch comes with 3,456 ports, a larger-than-normal number that frees up data pathways inside these powerful computers. 'We are looking at a factor-of-three improvement over the current best system at an equal number of nodes," said Andy Bechtolsheim, chief architect and senior vice president of the systems group at Sun. "We have been somewhat absent in the supercomputer market in the last few years.'"

Feed Google's EyeBox counts eyes in public (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Digital Cameras


Not content just tracking you when you're surfing the web, Google announced plans today to count eyeballs in physical spaces. Big G is partnering with a company called Xuuk to distribute the EyeBox, a palm-sized camera that can record how many times viewers look at billboards or products in brick-and-mortar stores. The $1000 camera isn't the world's most high-tech gadget -- it simply shines a beam of IR light and counts how many times it sees redeye in the ensuing images, indicating that the subject was looking right at the camera -- but it's a big upgrade over previous systems, which cost over $25,000 and required subjects to remain perfectly still. Xuuk says the EyeBox works up to 32 feet away and doesn't require any sort of calibration, and that it collects no data other than how many times people have looked at a particular object. The simplicity of the system, however, means that each billboard or product requires its own separate Eyebox for tracking. While we're not sure advertisers are going crazy to drop a cool grand per billboard, we're certainly not going to underestimate their love of counting eyeballs, or Google's ability to turn viewing statistics into cold, hard cash. We're also curious to hear if the camera can see through sunglasses -- cause we're about to start wearing ours 24/7.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Slashdot.org

Submission + - Nadir of Interest Resulting in Moderator Points?

Submitted by
Velocir
Velocir writes: "I've noticed that whenever I get Moderator points there will be few-to-no stories that I am interested in, or know about, enough to fairly moderate. Quite often this results in my precious, hard-earned points going to waste, which always frustrates me. Is there anyone out there who can explain this odd iteration of Murphy's Law?"
Wireless Networking

Air Force Jams Garage Doors 335

Posted by kdawson from the all-your-doors-are-belong-to-us dept.
SonicSpike points us to a Chicago Tribune article reporting that in Colorado the Air Force is jamming garage doors. In a joint U.S.-Canadian operation, they were testing communications on a frequency that would be used by first responders in the event of a threat to homeland security. From the article: "But the frequency also controls an estimated 50 million garage door openers, and hundreds of residents in the area found that theirs had suddenly stopped working... Technically, the Air Force has the right to the frequency, which it began using nearly three years ago at some bases. Signals have previously interfered with garage doors near bases in Florida, Maryland, and Pennsylvania."
Science

UK Lab Traces Polonium To Russian Nuclear Plant 413

Posted by kdawson from the couldn't-make-it-up dept.
reporter writes "British authorities had identified polonium 210 to be the radioactive poison that killed Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian spy who defected to Great Britain. Now, according to a disturbing report, the authorities have identified the source of the poison to be Russia. Bloomberg ominously reports, 'Scientists at the U.K.'s Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston, west of London, have traced the polonium 210 found in London to a nuclear power plant in Russia, the capital's Evening Standard newspaper reported today. Officials at the establishment didn't return calls.' A cold chill just fell on relations between Russia and the West." In another twist to this developing story, the shadowy Italian security consultant who dined with Litvinenko has also fallen ill with radiation poisoning.

Bionic Bugs To Fight Terrorists 417

Posted by Zonk from the really-strong-swatter dept.
dptalia writes "Israel is looking to create a small robot, no larger than a hornet to follow, film, and kill terrorists. It's just one of a series of weapons the country is considering as an alternative to conventional technologies. Other ideas floating around include gloves that would give their user 'bionic strength', and ultra-miniaturized sensors to detect explosives on suicide bombers." From the article: "The research integrates nanotechnology into Israel's security department and will find creative solutions to problems the army has been unable to address, Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres told Yedioth Ahronoth. 'The war in Lebanon proved that we need smaller weaponry. It's illogical to send a plane worth $100 million against a suicidal terrorist. So we are building futuristic weapons,' Peres said."

Physicists Promise Wireless Power 411

Posted by CmdrTaco from the having-a-hard-time-buying-it dept.
StrongGlad writes "The tangle of cables and plugs needed to recharge today's electronic gadgets could soon be a thing of the past. Researchers at MIT have outlined a relatively simple system that could deliver power wirelessly to devices such as laptop computers or MP3 players. In a nutshell, their solution entails installing special 'non-radiative' antennae with identical resonant frequencies on both the power transmitter and the receiving device. Any energy not diverted into a gadget or appliance is simply reabsorbed. The system currently under development is designed to operate at distances of 3 to 5 meters, but the researchers claim that it could be adapted to factory-scale applications, or miniaturized for use in the 'microscopic world.'"

Global Warming Debunker Debunked 676

Posted by kdawson from the you're-getting-warmer dept.
Earlier this month we ran an article linking Christopher Monckton's attempt to discredit global warming. The submitter asked plaintively, "Can anyone out there go through this piece and tell me why it might be wrong?" George Monbiot has now done so. From the article: "This is a dazzling debunking of climate change science. It is also wildly wrong... In keeping with most of the articles about climate change in [the Sunday Telegraph], it is a mixture of cherry-picking, downright misrepresentation, and pseudo-scientific gibberish. But it has the virtue of being incomprehensible to anyone who is not an atmospheric physicist... As for James Hansen, he did not tell the US Congress that temperatures would rise by 0.3C by the end of the past century. He presented three possible scenarios to the US Senate — high, medium, and low. Both the high and low scenarios, he explained, were unlikely to materialise. The middle one was 'the most plausible.' As it happens, the middle scenario was almost exactly right. He did not claim, under any scenario, that sea levels would rise by several feet by 2000." And on the political front, the only major ally for Pres. Bush's stand on global warming, Australia's Prime Minister John Howard, is now willing to look at carbon trading.
Education

New Zealand To Allow 'Text-Speak' On Exams 421

Posted by CowboyNeal from the beginning-of-the-end dept.
ScentCone writes "New Zealand's Qualification Authority (which sets testing standards for the public schools) is confident that those grading papers will understand the meaning of students' responses, even if they use phone/IM-style text-speak. From the article: 'credit will be given if the answer "clearly shows the required understanding," even if it contains text-speak.' Many teachers are not amused, and critics say that the move will devalue NZ's equivalent of a high school diploma." Not to mention that graders will need to be restrained so they don't gouge their own eyes out. While in the medium of text messages, some shorthand might be in order, but I didn't realize that world paper, pencil, and ink shortages were so severe so that text-speak is necessary everywhere.

Survey of Super Massive Black Holes Completed 169

Posted by Zonk from the now-we-know-where-not-to-go dept.
eldavojohn writes "NASA has announced the completion of a survey of nearby supermassive black holes. Every galaxy that revolves around a supermassive black hole within 400 light-years of our own galaxy has been cataloged. From the article: 'Called active galactic nuclei, or AGN, these black holes have masses of up to billions of Suns compressed into a region about the size of our solar system. The all-sky census, performed using NASA's Swift satellite over a nine-month period, detected more than 200 nearby AGN.' I'm starting to feel very lucky to have grown up in the Milky Way Galaxy."

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