steam_cannon - Slashdot User

Submission + - Say NO to software patents (whitehouse.gov) 1

Submitted by hAckz0r on Friday September 23, 2011 @02:01PM

hAckz0r writes: The WhiteHouse.gov ( https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petitions ) now has an online petition to stop the USPTO from issuing any more software patents. One must register first with the petition site, wait for the confirming email, login, then locate the "Open Petitions" menu to go to the list of petitions. Scroll down to the one called "Direct the Patent Office to Cease Issuing Software Patents", and then do what you think is right. They need 3,428 petitions total to make it meaningful, and has logged 1,572 as of my entry.

Submission + - Particles found to break speed of light (reuters.com)

Submitted by

steam_cannon

on Friday September 23, 2011 @10:56AM

steam_cannon writes: "Research at OPERA (run jointly by CERN) suggests that neutrinos can travel faster then light. The experiment was run over three years with a total of 15,000 beams of neutrinos fired from CERN and detected at the research facility. This research hasn't been fully confirmed/accepted yet and is now being reviewed by peers. If this research turns out to be correct this would mean there are exceptions of holes in special relativity and may even point to significant changes in our understanding of physics."

Submission + - MIT Working On 1km sq. Graphene Printing Press (talkingpointsmemo.com)

Submitted by surewouldoutlaw on Friday September 23, 2011 @10:46AM

surewouldoutlaw writes: Hot on the heels of the news that research into the wonder nano-material graphene is being funded by the NSF, MIT says it is working on an industrial-size graphene printing press for synthesizing sheets as large as 1-km square. The current record is 76 cm sq.

Submission + - Microsoft clears up Linux confusion over Windows 8 (msdn.com) 1

Submitted by CSHARP123 on Friday September 23, 2011 @08:18AM

CSHARP123 writes: Redhat employee Matthew Garrett speculated that OEM machines that ship with copies of Windows 8 may lock out support for Linux installations. Garrett highlighted Microsoft’s new Secure Build OEM requirements for Windows 8 systems. Microsoft chose to directly respond to confusion surrounding its Windows 8 Secure Boot feature on Thursday.

Tony Mangefeste on Microsoft’s Ecosystem team revealed that Microsoft is working closely with its OEM partners to improve the security experience of Windows. “Microsoft supports OEMs having the flexibility to decide who manages security certificates and how to allow customers to import and manage those certificates, and manage secured boot,” says Mangefeste. ”We believe it is important to support this flexibility to the OEMs and to allow our customers to decide how they want to manage their systems.” Mangefeste believes the customer is ultimately in control of their PC. “Microsoft’s philosophy is to provide customers with the best experience first, and allow them to make decisions themselves. We work with our OEM ecosystem to provide customers with this flexibility.”

Comment Fuzzy Logic (Score 1) 153

by steam_cannon on Wednesday August 18, 2010 @10:57AM (#33288538) Attached to: Chips That Flow With Probabilities, Not Bits

Sounds like this hardware would be useful for Fuzzy Logic based AI applications. Fuzzy logic is useful for decision making and automating processes where multiple variables affect a range of possible reactions. Like when the cup you grab with your hand turns out to be very light because your girlfriend drank all your juice. When you initially grab the cup you start off with too much muscle activation and then adjust quickly at first then more slowly based on new sensory data. From common experience we know our grip strength isn't a function of one or zero but a range of activation that changes based on the ranges of other inputs. This is something Fuzzy Logic is good at and possibly something this chip would be good for too.

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