Blacklaw - Slashdot User

Submission + - Computing Pioneer Tony Sale Dies Aged 80 (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Blacklaw on Tuesday August 30, 2011 @10:35AM

Blacklaw writes: Tony Sale, computing pioneer and the man behind the rebuild of the Colossus machine at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park, has died aged 80.

Submission + - Tech educators Point Schmidt at Success in School (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Blacklaw on Monday August 29, 2011 @06:10AM

Blacklaw writes: Eric Schmidt's announcement last week at the MacTaggart Lecture that Britain is "throwing away [its] great computing heritage" by ignoring computing in education was a wake-up call for the industry and the education sector alike. But the Google chairman isn't the only one thinking that way: 24 hours prior to Schmidt's speech, an industry and educational summit was taking place that aimed to address that exact issue.

Submission + - Raspberry Pi Takes Aim at the Education Market (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Blacklaw on Monday August 29, 2011 @06:09AM

Blacklaw writes: Attendees of the Educating Programmers Summit found themselves treated to a demonstration of the Raspberry Pi single-board computer by co-creator Eben Upton. Based on chips from Upton's day job at Broadcom, the Raspberry Pi is an entirely functional computer which will hit a retail price of just $25 in its basic incarnation — addressing one of the issues preventing the teaching of programming in schools today.

Submission + - JEDEC Reveals DDR4 DRAM Enhancements (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Blacklaw on Tuesday August 23, 2011 @12:00PM

Blacklaw writes: The new DDR4 standard includes an increase in maximum theoretical performance to 3.2 gigatransfers per second per pin, from the 1.6GT/s per pin of DDR3. However, the group admits that DDR3 looks like smashing the originally set 1.6GT/s maximum, meaning that DDR4 could have its upper limit raised still further before the standard becomes set in stone.

Submission + - Intel digs deep for SRAM radiation tests (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Blacklaw on Tuesday August 16, 2011 @07:40AM

Blacklaw writes: Intel has been testing some of its chips in a rather novel environment, 2,150 feet below the surface of the Chihuahuan Desert in New Mexico, in order to get to the bottom of errors caused by radiation.

Submission + - Google faces GPL breach claims over Android code (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Blacklaw on Tuesday August 16, 2011 @07:39AM

Blacklaw writes: Google's purchase of Motorola Mobility might give the company a raft of patents which it can use to defend Android from the likes of Apple and Microsoft, but the company's failure to obey the terms of the GPLv2 could leave the company without a product to defend.

Submission + - Google Buys Motorola's Mobile Arm For $12.5B (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Blacklaw on Monday August 15, 2011 @08:11AM

Blacklaw writes: Google is to purchase Motorola Mobility in a deal worth around $12.5 billion, giving the company its first own-brand smartphone entity and spelling an end to hardware partnerships for the Nexus range.

Submission + - UK BBM user arrested for promoting a water fight (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15, 2011 @05:42AM

An anonymous reader writes: Under the banner headline "Police reassure residents they are working to keep county safe", Essex police proudly proclaimed that they arrested a 20-year-old man from Colchester who "allegedly sent messages from a Blackberry encouraging people to join in a water fight."

Having also made a number of arrests of people sitting at home on Facebook Acting Assistant Chief Constable Mason wrote: "Police will continue to monitor social networking sites for unlawful activity."

Meanwhile, rioters rampage through British streets largely devoid of police presence

Submission + - IBM Celebrates the PC's 30th Birthday - and Demise (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Blacklaw on Friday August 12, 2011 @04:36AM

Blacklaw writes: Computing giant IBM is today celebrating the 30th anniversary of its seminal PC — launched today in 1981 as the IBM PC 5150 and costing $1,565 for a 4.77MHz Intel 8088 with 16KB of RAM and a 160KB floppy drive — at a time when the company has been out of the market for nearly seven years and its leaders are increasingly looking toward the 'post-PC' era.

Submission + - Cameron Threatens To Shut Down UK Social Networks (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Stoobalou on Thursday August 11, 2011 @09:10AM

Stoobalou writes: In a move worthy of China's communist regime, UK PM David Cameron wants to shut down social networks whenever civil unrest rears its head in Britain's towns and cities.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Cameron said, "Everyone watching these horrific actions will be struck by how they were, organised via social media.

"Free flow of information can be used for good. But it can also be used for ill. So we are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality."

Submission + - Twitpic Founder Clones Twitter with Heello (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Blacklaw on Thursday August 11, 2011 @08:57AM

Blacklaw writes: Twitpic founder Noah Everett has responded to the news that Twitter is rendering his creation obsolete with a Photobucket-powered image hosting service of its own, by creating a new service called Heello.

Submission + - New USB Specification Promises 100W of Power (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Blacklaw on Wednesday August 10, 2011 @05:26AM

Blacklaw writes: The group behind the USB 3.0 specification has announced a tweak which could lead to impressive new devices, including large-format displays, printers, and even laptops that are powered entirely from a USB port.

Submission + - Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Banned from Europe (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Blacklaw on Tuesday August 09, 2011 @01:50PM

Blacklaw writes: Apple has been granted an injunction on sales of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1, preventing the device from being launched in Europe until the conclusion of legal action following claims that Samsung had copied Apple's iDevice designs.

Submission + - Google Garden Party bags cash for Bletchley Park (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Blacklaw on Friday August 05, 2011 @10:18AM

Blacklaw writes: Google's partnership with Bletchley Park, which began when it donated $100,000 towards the purchase of offprints of noted polymath and former codebreaker Alan Turing at auction for display in the museum, entered a new phase this week with the launch of the Google Garden Party in order to raise money for the restoration of Block C.

Submission + - Congo Start-up Looks To Create a Tablet for Africa (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Blacklaw on Thursday June 30, 2011 @12:14PM

Blacklaw writes: While major manufacturers are dipping their toes in the tablet market opened up by Apple's iPad, smaller companies are looking towards niches that the big players might overlook. Thinq_ interviews Vérone Mankou, founder of African start-up VMK, who is looking to make a tablet more in-tune with the needs of Africa.

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