Comment Re:Only makes sense (Score 1) 197
A modern DDR3 part at 800 MBit/s x 16 bits/part = 12.8GBit/s
Granted, you add a lot more complexity to your board, but DRAM is not going away
Comment Re:Uh.. no (Score 1) 705
Not just drives, but many electrical component failures are from inrush current at power on (similar to lightbulbs burning out when switched on)
Comment Re:Return to discrete components? (Score 1) 38
This chip has 496 transistors, a modern FPGA has on the order of 1,000,000,000.
ARM Powered OLPC XO-1.75 Laptop Is Faster Than X86 229
Charbax writes "Not only is power consumption halved to less than two Watts and price of the motherboard reduced, the performance of the next generation OLPC Laptop is actually better for running full Fedora Linux compared to x86. Here's a video interviewing OLPC's CTO, Edward J. McNierney, where he explains how and why OLPC's world class engineers are making this change of CPU architecture. If OLPC XO-1 threatened Intel enough to start the netbook market and has reached two million poor kids in third-world countries thus far, XO-1.75 may help start the ARM-powered Linux laptop market. Do you think Fedora/Sugar will do, or should OLPC attract Chrome OS and Android solutions for education to get faster help from the big boys of Silicon Valley in bringing Linux software successfully to the next billion PC/laptop users?"
Amazon To Launch 'Amazon Appstore For Android' 222
angry tapir writes "Amazon is preparing to open an Android app store to compete with Google's Android Market, and has launched a beta portal where developers can submit applications for Android-based smartphones. The applications will be sold on the Amazon Appstore for Android, which the company expects to launch later this year. At launch, the Appstore will be available for customers in the US, and it will be compatible with Android 1.6 and higher. Users will be able to shop for applications from their PCs, which isn't possible with the existing version of Android Market, or from their smartphones, and pay with their existing Amazon account."
Comment Re:Insilvent? So what? (Score 1) 252
Postal Employee: "May I help you?"
Kramer: "Yeah, I'd like to cancel my mail."
Postal Employee: "Certainly. How long would you like us to hold it?"
Kramer: "Oh, no, no. I don't think you get me. I want out, permanently."
Newman: "I'll handle this, Violet. Why don't you take your three hour break?
Oh, calm down, everyone. No one's cancelling any mail."
Kramer: "Oh, yes, I am."
Newman: "What about your bills?"
Kramer: "The bank can pay 'em."
Newman: "The bank. What about your cards and letters?"
Kramer: "E-mail, telephones, fax machines. Fedex, telex, telegrams,
holograms."
Newman: "All right, it's true! Of course nobody needs mail. What do you
think, you're so clever for figuring that out? But you don't know the half of
what goes on here. So just walk away, Kramer. I beg of you."
Supervisor: "Is everything all right here, Postal Employee Newman?"
Newman: "Yes, sir, I believe everything is all squared away. Isn't it, Mr.
Kramer?"
Kramer: "Oh, yeah. As long as I stop getting mail!"
A Third of World's Spam From One Russian Man 233
DaveNJ1987 writes "The FBI believes that one third of the world's spam messages are being generated by one 23-year-old Russian man. Oleg Nikolaenko of Moscow is being blamed for operating the Mega D botnet that sent spam emails from over 500,000 infected computers."
Stable Roentgenium Claimed Found In Gold 160
eldavojohn writes "Amnon Marinov, a physicist specializing in super heavy elements, claims that a stable isotope of roentgenium is commonly found alongside gold, just in very small quantities that we could not measure before. To prove this, he boiled gold in a vacuum, postulating that as the gold evaporated, the roentgenium should remain. He did this for two weeks and then passed the resulting mess through a mass spectrometer and was left with several peaks that could be explained away except for one. Marinov lead the team that found the first super heavy 122 thorium isotope in nature a few years back and now claims that, despite all indications that this super heavy element shouldn't exist longer than a few seconds, he has found a stable isomer of roentgenium in nature. Is he on to something, or overlooking a simpler explanation in his quest for evidence of the island of stability long theorized by physicists?"
Comment Homebrew == Unsigned code (Score 1) 1
I'm all for fair use of personal hardware, but can he really argue that modifying the DVD firmware enables homebrew? I thought those hacks just bypassed the media authentication checks (not allowing unsigned code). The hacks to allow unsigned/homebrew code were the king kong shader/jtag exploits right? Or do those also require custom DVD firmware to run?
Submission + - xbox modding trial goes wonky, (wired.com) 1
mrbongo writes: Opening statements in the first-of-its kind Xbox 360 criminal hacking trial were delayed here Wednesday after a federal judge unleashed a 30-minute tirade at prosecutors in open court, saying he had “serious concerns about the government's(TM) case.” Makes for a nice read.
Submission + - Apple wins patent on glasses-free 3D projector (idg.com.au)
angry tapir writes: "Apple has been awarded a U.S. patent for a display system that would allow multiple viewers to see a high-quality 3D image projected on a screen without the need for special glasses, regardless of where they are sitting. Entertainment is far from the only field in which 3D can enhance the viewing experience: others include medical diagnostics, flight simulation, air traffic control, battlefield simulation, weather diagnostics, advertising and education, according to Apple's U.S. patent 7,843,449 for a 3D display system."
Comment Re:Two eyes are better than one (Score 1) 106
CMOS sensors light gathering capabilities fall off over increasing wavelength.
Silicon's quantum efficiency at NIR is much lower than visible. There's not a
huge range of NIR to play in without QE falling off.
IR diodes don't emit light over a single wavelength. Not only do they shift long with
temperature, but the rated wavelength is really an average of the range the wavelength
drifts over.
Very tight bandpass filters tend to drift shorter in wavelength off axis.
Submission + - How to get back into software development 3
luv2sled writes: I have a CS degree and about 5 years of software development (mostly in Java and UI development). Unfortunately, it's been a few years since I've used any of these skills. For the last 7 years, I have been working in Product Management/Development. I have found this work to be less than satisfying and would like to move back to software development. Any suggestions on how to make this transition?
Submission + - Kuwait Ban of DSLR Cameras turns out to be a Hoax (kuwaittimes.net) 3
Voulnet writes: The Kuwait Times, the newspaper that started the false rumor of Kuwait banning DSLR cameras, has posted an update saying that after investigation, it turned out that they didn't verify their information, and issued a retraction: "On Saturday, November 20, 2010 the Kuwait Times published an article titled 'Multi ministry camera ban frustrates artists' in which incorrect information was provided. The newspaper regrets failing to verify the information. The article wrongly stated that a ban on DSLR cameras was implemented by the Ministries of Information, Social Affairs and Finance. This information is false. In a follow up investigation, it was proved that no such ban has been issued. We regret this error and deeply apologize for any inconvenience caused"
