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Feed Science Daily: Unleashed Computer Power (sciencedaily.com)

Supercomputing-like performance could be available for countless scientific applications through an approach that exploits the power of reconfigurable computing using field-programmable gate array. In a recent demonstration researchers tripled the speed of a popular biomolecular simulation package using standard programming languages on a system offered by SRC Computers.
Supercomputing

Submission + - Students build supercomputers from bits, pieces

spudnic writes: "The LSU Center for Computation and Technology and Chief Scientist Thomas Sterling developed the free summer boot camp as a pilot program to expand statewide as early as next year. "They literally assembled these themselves and loaded the software," said Sterling, pointing to the computer monitors and the stacks of computing nodes on top each other. "They built these from bits and pieces, so it's really hands-on experience." "I can't live in an ivory tower and assume we'll be delivered a steady stream of students," said Sterling, who is best known for creating the Beowulf supercomputing cluster — a group of usually identical computers working together — while at NASA."

Feed Science Daily: Computer Scientists Shed Light On Internet Scams (sciencedaily.com)

Computer scientists have found striking differences between the infrastructure used to distribute spam and the infrastructure used to host the online scams advertised in these unwanted email messages. This discovery should aid in the fight to reduce spam volume and shut down illegal online businesses and malware sites. 94 percent of spam-advertised online scams are hosted on individual Web servers.

Feed Science Daily: Satellite Tracking Will Help Answer Questions About Penguin Travels (sciencedaily.com)

Scientists plan to attach satellite tracking devices to the backs of six penguins then trace their movements using satellites and the Internet. The idea is to plug a critical gap in the knowledge of the Magellanics' annual life cycle, their movements on the journey from their winter feeding grounds back to their breeding colonies along the southern Argentina coast and the Islas Malvinas, or Falkland Islands.

Comment Re:I have always said (Score 4, Insightful) 371

I would have to emphatically disagree. I've always thought that the Thrawn trilogy was some of the best Star Wars writing out there, and it would have made a great conclusion to Lucas's original idea of a trilogy of trilogies if it had been done back in the 80s or 90s when it was still possible to use the original actors.
User Journal

Journal Journal: My life will conclude

Using my intuition
I sense the screams of
our mutual frustration

Hate me
When I tell you to go
When Donts love you anymo'
When Do-es bear colors of broken rain
Of pain

Bleed you to death, tis only fair
They suffer at our hands
When we fuck her
When we suck her
And laugh about in sick disgust

User Journal

Journal Journal: making love

Sitting here forcing lines
word forms of silent minds
singing along my silly songs
the paper clowns are dancing in the rain

The paper clowns are washing their sins
painting my life in blue and purple
shades of your delayed image
bells and broken keys that open doors
to hollow empty rooms

Google

Submission + - Google's Bosworth: Why AJAX Failed, Then Succeeded

An anonymous reader writes: eWEEK has a story on a talk from former-Microsoft developer Adam Bosworth (now VP for Google) entitled "Physics, Speed and Psychology: What Works and What Doesn't in Software, and Why." Bosworth depicts issues with processing, broadband, natural language, human behavior, and dishes on Microsoft. From the article:
"'Back in '96-'97, me and a group of people... helped build stuff that these days is called AJAX,' Bosworth said. 'We sat down and took a hard look at what was going to happen with the Internet and we concluded, in the face of unyielding opposition and animosity from virtually every senior person at Microsoft, that the thick client was on its way out and it was going to be replaced by browser-based apps. Saying this at Microsoft back in '96 was roughly equivalent to wandering around in a fire wearing matches,' he said. 'But we concluded we should go and build this thing. And we put all this stuff together so people could build thin-client applications.'...
Drawing on the lessons he learned from the initial failure of AJAX, Bosworth admonished developers to think about user activity. 'Ask what the frequency is,' he said. 'Unless an app is used over and over each day, make it simple, even if more clicks [or] pages are required.' Also, 'Ask how long it takes to execute a requested task,' he said. 'If it takes more than 2 seconds, consider not providing the task or splitting it up into small, user-controlled tasks.' Moreover, 'sites where people don't go a lot don't need AJAX-style UIs [user interfaces],' Bosworth said. 'If we started building AJAX for AJAX's sake we wouldn't be doing our customers any favors.'"
User Journal

Journal Journal: Recent means to move air molecules around

Killswitch Engage, As Daylight Dies: Meh. HJ has a really good range, comparable to the mighty Burton C. Bell of Fear Factory, but can't quite manage a proper deathgrunt, so sometimes he's screeching. Diverges into math-core at times. The single ("My Curse") is reasonably indicative of the rest of the record. Should appeal VERY MUCH to the kids looking to appear tougher than their My Chemical Romance/Fallout Boy guy-liner buddies.

User Journal

Journal Journal: Twitter 4

If you're into that sort of thing,
http://twitter.com/neurobashing

So, yeah.

User Journal

Journal Journal: Lazyweb: Gym Fees 10

When we move, I need to join an actual gym (our apt complex has a nice, albeit small, "fitness center" which I have used extensively, as well as a pool).

The pool part is covered by HOA fees for our local development (well, technically not, but ... oh nevermind, suffice it to say the pool angle is covered). What I need to do now is find a place to work out.

User Journal

Journal Journal: adherents of the repeated meme 2

Lately we have some continually repeated memes/catch phrases around here. The top 3:

1. in response to questions about one's condition or well-being, "All sex nuts and retard strong."
2. In response to ... just about anything, "So's your face!"
3. As a greeting, or all-purpose response to anything: "Let's fuck some WHORES!"

We're terribly small-minded.

Comment Re:Alternative? (Score 1) 379

PokerStars recommends that U.S. players use ePassporte for all their money transfer needs, as they are not accepting any transfers to or from NETeller or CentralCoin. I assume other poker sites are giving similar advice.

plus, there's always paper checks.

For the last year or so, I've been a professional online low-stakes poker player, and thanks to this asinine crusade launched by the Department of Justice, I'm soon to be out of a job. It simply blows me away that the horse-racing lobby was successful in exempting online horse tracks from the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, attached to the Port Security Bill of 2006 at the last possible moment), while games of skill like poker, operated by enormous legitimate corporations, are snatched from my fingers as though I was a child playing with matches.

This whole thing smacks of everything that is wrong with the US legal system. Although I can still play online and withdraw money, the casual players that were my bread and butter are either going to stop playing, or more likely, never start. The chilling effect will be what kills online poker.

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