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Submission + - 'It's a graveyard': The software devs leaving Greece for good (zdnet.com)

Submitted by TheHawke
TheHawke writes: "In the last three years, almost 80 percent of my friends, mostly developers, left Greece," Panagiotis Kefalidis told ZDNet. He's now a software developer in Vancouver, Canada. "When I left for North America, my mother was not happy, but... it is what it is."

Submission + - Supercomputing Cluster Immersed in Oil Yields Extreme Efficiency (datacenterfrontier.com)

Submitted by 1sockchuck
1sockchuck writes: A new supercomputing cluster immersed in tanks of dielectric fluid has posted extreme efficiency ratings. The Vienna Scientific Cluster 3 combines several efficiency techniques to create a system that is stingy in its use of power, cooling and water. VSC3 recorded a PUE (Power Usage Efficiency) of 1.02, putting it in the realm of data centers run by Google and Facebook. The system avoids the use of chiillers and air handlers, and doesn't require any water to cool the fluid in the cooling tanks. Limiting use of water is a growing priority for data center operators, as cooling towers can use large volumes of water resources. The VSC3 system packs 600 teraflops of computing power into 1,000 square feet of floor space.

Submission + - China's Unsettling Stock Market Collapse (theatlantic.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The Shanghai index is firmly in bear market territory, down 28.6% since the June peak, while the tech-heavy Shenzhen Composite has fallen 33.2%.

There were also signs on Friday that the stock market turmoil is beginning to reverberate beyond China. The Australian dollar, often traded as a proxy for China growth, is down 1.2% to a six-year low of US$0.7539. The 21st Century Business Herald, a Chinese daily newspaper, on Friday quoted multiple futures traders as saying they had received phone calls from the China Financial Futures Exchange instructing them not to short the market.

China's financial titans are attempting to set up a "market stabilization fund." This doesn't sound good.

Submission + - Older Athletes Have a Strikingly Young Fitness Age

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Older Athletes Have a Strikingly Young Fitness Age. "Older athletes can be much younger, physically, than they are in real life, according to a new study of participants in the coming Senior Olympics. The study found that the athletes' fitness age is typically 20 years or more younger than their chronological age, providing a clear inspiration to the rest of us to get out and start moving more."

What's most striking is that most of them hadn't exercised vigorously their entire lives, but rather started late in life.

Submission + - Some consumers habitually pick losers

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: If you’re still crying into your pillow at night over the demise of the Zune MP3 player or Crystal Pepsi, take a long, hard look into the mirror: Your shopping habits might have foretold the doom of your favourite, discontinued products. At least, according to a group of researchers pointing the finger at certain early adopters. In a study published in the Journal of Marketing Research, researchers identified particular kinds of consumers whose preferences can predict products that will flop, calling those folks “harbingers of failure.” “Certain customers systematically purchase new products that prove unsuccessful. Their early adoption of a new product is a strong signal that a product will fail.”

Submission + - Brain-Inspired "Memcomputer" Built, Could Surpass Quantum Computers (sandiegouniontribune.com)

Submitted by DorkFest
DorkFest writes:

Inspired by the human brain, UC San Diego scientists have constructed a new kind of computer that stores information and processes it in the same place. This prototype "memcomputer" solves a problem involving a large dataset more quickly than conventional computers, while using far less energy...Such memcomputers could equal or surpass the potential of quantum computers, they say, but because they don't rely on exotic quantum effects are far more easily constructed.

The team, led by UC San Diego physicist Massimiliano Di Ventra published their results in the journal Science Advances.

Submission + - Wired Shares "Tech Time Warp" Video from 1996 (wired.com)

Submitted by destinyland
destinyland writes: On a day when America looks back on those who came before, Wired is remembering a pioneering technology magazine named Mondo 2000 — and sharing video of its editors' legendary appearance on a mid-90s PBS series, "The Internet Cafe". When its host questioned them about cyberpunk, they turned the interview into an ironic media stunt by providing a live, sneering cyberpunk model named Malice (wearing a fake neural implant on his head), as the words "real cyberpunk" jokingly flashed on the bottom of the screen. "At a time when few people outside academia had access to the internet, Mondo 2000 was many a wannabe hacker's introduction to the online world," Wired remembers fondly, even acknowleding that they'd "borrowed" their own magazine's design motif from Mondo 2000, in those early years before ISPs started popularizing consumer internet access.

Submission + - Frank Herbert's Dune, 50 Years On (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This October will be the 50th anniversary of Frank Herbert's massively popular and influential sci-fi novel Dune. The Guardian has written a piece examining its effects on the world at least, and how the book remains relevant even now. Quoting: "Books read differently as the world reforms itself around them, and the Dune of 2015 has geopolitical echoes that it didn’t in 1965, before the oil crisis and 9/11. ... As Paul’s destiny becomes clear to him, he begins to have visions 'of fanatic legions following the green and black banner of the Atreides, pillaging and burning across the universe in the name of their prophet Muad’Dib.' If Paul accepts this future, he will be responsible for 'the jihad’s bloody swords,' unleashing a nomad war machine that will up-end the corrupt and oppressive rule of the emperor Shaddam IV (good) but will kill untold billions (not so good) in the process. In 2015, the story of a white prophet leading a blue-eyed brown-skinned horde of jihadis against a ruler called Shaddam produces a weird funhouse mirror effect, as if someone has jumbled up recent history and stuck the pieces back together in a different order."

Submission + - Why Electric Vehicles Aren't More Popular (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ars takes a look at a recent report from the National Academy of Sciences into the reasons why more people aren't driving electric vehicles. Of course infrastructure issues are a part of it — until charging stations are ubiquitous, the convenience factor for using a gas-powered car will weigh heavily on consumers's minds. (Despite the prevalence of outlets at home and work, where the vast majority of charging will be done even with better infrastructure.) But other reasons are much less intractable. Simply giving somebody experience with an EV tends to make the fog of mystery surrounding them dissipate, and the design of the car counts for a lot, too. It turns out car buyers don't want their EVs to look different from regular cars.

Submission + - When Nerds Do BBQ 1

Submitted by Rick Zeman
Rick Zeman writes: On this 4th of July, the day that Americans flock to their grills and smokers, Wired has a fascinating article on a computerized smoker designed by Harvard engineering students. They say, "In prototype form, the smoker looks like a combination of a giant pepper mill, a tandoori oven, and V.I.N.CENT from The Black Hole. It weighs 300 pounds. It has a refueling chute built into the side of it. And it uses a proportional-integral-derivative controller, a Raspberry Pi, and fans to regulate its own temperature, automatically producing an ideal slow-and-low burn."

After cooking >200 lbs of brisket fine-tuning the design, the students concluded, "“Old-school pitmasters are like, ‘I cook mine in a garbage can,’ and there’s a point of pride in that,” Parker says. “A lot of the cutting edge is when you take an art form and drag it back onto scientific turf and turn it into an algorithm. I don’t think we’ve diluted the artistic component with this."

Submission + - Pilot error caused Air Algerie crash .. (yahoo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: 'Two judges .. found the "failure to activate the anti-icing system" of the plane's motors was the main cause of the crash .. the McDonnell Douglas 83 jet ran into trouble after the crew did not activate the system, causing the failure of certain sensors.'

"As of February 2013, the MD-80 series has been involved in 61 incidents, including 31 hull-loss accidents, with 1,330 fatalities of occupants." ref

Submission + - How much did your biggest "tech" mistake cost?

Submitted by NotQuiteReal
NotQuiteReal writes: What is the most expensive piece of hardware you broke (I fried a $2500 disk drive once, back when 400MB was $2500) or what software bug did you let slip that caused damage? (No comment on the details — but about $20K cost to a client.)

Did you lose your job over it?

If you worked on the Mars probe that crashed, please try not to be the First Post, that would scare off too many people!

Submission + - Noted Star Trek Actor Embroiled In Controversy Doubles Down On Racist Remarks (washingtontimes.com)

Submitted by cold fjord
cold fjord writes: The Washington Times reports, "Gay activist and former “Star Trek” supporting actor George Takei doubled down on his “clown in blackface” attack on Supreme Court Clarence Thomas on Thursday night and implied that the jurist was a race traitor for not striking down state marriage laws last week. In a Facebook post, Mr. Takei said that blackface is not racist and/or that it is acceptable for an outsider to tell a black man that he is a racist caricature. He also used an analogy that would imply that Justice Thomas is actually white. “‘Blackface’ is a lesser known theatrical term for a white actor who blackens his face to play a black buffoon,” Mr. Takei wrote on his Facebook page Thursday evening. “In traditional theater lingo, and in my view and intent, that is not racist. It is instead part of a racist history in this country.” In addition to being used by white actors, blackface was also sometimes used by black actors on stage and film to look darker than they were and/or to play even-more-racist-than-usual caricatures. Mr. Takei also continued his criticism of Justice Thomas’s dissent in Obergefell vs. Hodges, and added another racial angle to it. In his Thursday night Facebook post, Mr. Takei said this opinion also proved Justice Thomas was no longer really black."

Submission + - The 2015 Nexus 5 will be built by LG (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: The Nexus range of smartphones has proved a popular way to get a fairly high-end handset running stock Android at a decent price. Previous models have (largely) sold well, and there is always eager anticipation surrounding the next release. One thing people are always keen to know is just who is going to be making the handset.

According to a new report, it is LG who will be responsible for the 2015 Nexus 5. A spokesperson said that the device is to be based on a yet-to-be-seen prototype rather than the LG G4. Based on previous launches, it's safe to assume that the release will coincide with the launch of the next version of Google's mobile operating system, Android M.

Submission + - Assange Makes Plea For Asylum After Leaking Details Of NSA Spying On French Pols (nypost.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The NY Post reports, "Assange wrote a letter to French President Francois Hollande published in Le Monde on Friday, appealing to France’s history as a beacon for the repressed. He noted that WikiLeaks recently revealed that the US National Security Agency spied on Hollande and his two predecessors and leading French companies. Hollande quickly said “no.” In a statement, his office noted that Assange is under a European arrest warrant and his life is not in imminent danger. ... French Justice Minister Christine Taubira suggested in a televised interview last week that she would be open to the idea. ... Assange has spent three years in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London ... In his letter to Hollande, Assange said that the mother of his youngest child is French. He said he is restricted to a space of 5.5 square meters (60 square feet), lacking access to “fresh air, sun as well as any possibility to go to a hospital,” and noted that police say round-the-clock surveillance of him has cost $17.6 million." — 9News adds, "... In his open letter ... Assange described himself as a "journalist pursued and threatened with death by the United States' authorities as a result of my professional activities" ... "only France now has the ability to offer me the necessary protection against, and exclusively against, the political persecution that I am currently the object of". Such an offer of protection would be a "humanitarian and symbolic gesture" and send a message of encouragement "to journalists and whistleblowers around the world". Assange said in his letter he had not seen his youngest child or the child's mother, who are both French, for five years. "I have had to keep their existence secret up to today in order to protect them," he wrote. " — also noted: "WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has denied filing a request for asylum in France "

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