Eric Smalley - Slashdot User

Submission + - 'World Shaker' Crossbreeds Processor With Memory C (wired.com)

Submitted by

Eric Smalley

on Tuesday January 31, 2012 @12:26PM

Eric Smalley writes: "Processors include a small amount of cache memory, which reduces the number of times the processor has to fetch data from main memory, but Venray goes further. It puts the processor and main memory on the same chip. It’s called processor-in-memory, or PIM, and it’s not exactly a new idea. Fish and others have been pursuing the idea for decades. But its time may finally have come.

In today's world, biomedical research and other Big Data applications that juggle enormous amounts of information are butting up against that memory wall, and if we’re to achieve personalized medicine --" where we tailor drugs and other treatments to an analysis of an individual’s genetic makeup --" we need chips that can push through that wall."

Submission + - Chinese Crunch Human Genome With Videogame Chips

Submitted by

Eric Smalley

on Sunday January 08, 2012 @04:08PM

Eric Smalley writes: "The world’s largest genome sequencing center once needed four days to analyze data describing a human genome. Now it needs just six hours. The trick is servers built with graphics chips — the sort of processors that were originally designed to draw images on your personal computer. They’re called graphics processing units, or GPUs — a term coined by chip giant Nvidia. This fall, BGI — a mega lab headquartered in Shenzhen, China — switched to servers that use GPUs built by Nvidia, and this slashed its genome analysis time by more than an order of magnitude."

Submission + - 'Badges' Earned Online Pose Challenge to Tradition (chronicle.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 08, 2012 @03:44PM

An anonymous reader writes: Educational badges, which seem like a playful riff on Boy Scout skill patches, pose an existential crisis for colleges and universities. If students can collect credentials from MITx and Khan Academy and other free Web sites, why go to a campus?

Submission + - I live in China, let me tell you what life is like (reddit.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 08, 2012 @01:57PM

An anonymous reader writes: Imagine having no Google, no Youtube, no Facebook, no Vimeo, no Twitter...being forced to use Bing to search, no accessing any sites hosted on blogspot or wordpress, Gmail having intermittent outages, sites using Google Analytics taking ten times longer to load, Dropbox only working on occasion, and no other file sending services.

Imagine that there are equivalents of these sites that are state-owned and controlled: a search engine that only returns government approved sites, a censored twitter where you must register with your real name and passport number, and an internet radio site that is forced to play "red" songs celebrating the government. Imagine that these government-sanctioned alternatives are shoddily and hastily assembled and have none of the quality or convenience the originals had.

Submission + - Kenya Eyes Nuclear Power Development. (voanews.com)

Submitted by

Snirt

on Sunday January 08, 2012 @01:03PM

Snirt writes: "Kenya is seeking to develop a viable nuclear energy program within the next 15 years to meet its growing energy demands. A government commission formed last year is conducting a feasibility study and the University of Nairobi is setting up programs to train people for the nuclear program. Critics say they're concerned about plant worker safety and the risk of environmental contamination.
Some 86 percent of Kenyans do not have access to electricity, relying on firewood and kerosene to meet their energy needs. Electricity is expensive(1$=KES 90), and the supply is limited."

Submission + - 'Seamless computing' ties all your gadgets togethe (cnet.com)

Submitted by

Eric Smalley

on Wednesday August 31, 2011 @10:25AM

Eric Smalley writes: "Imagine if you could cut and paste information among your smartphone, tablet, smart table, and big screen. Better yet, what if you could flick objects from one device to another? Software developer Nsquared has tied together a Windows Phone 7, Slate tablet, Microsoft Surface smart table, and Kinect-controlled big screen into one seamless computing experience."

Submission + - Traffic App Could Change Driving Forever (time.com)

Submitted by schwit1 on Wednesday August 31, 2011 @10:15AM

schwit1 writes: Researchers from MIT and Princeton have developed a smartphone application called SignalGuru that uses the camera from a dashboard-mounted smartphone to capture images of traffic lights. Once the images are captured, they're analyzed to detect whether the lights are green, yellow or red and then that data is passed along to other nearby SignalGuru users.

Using the resulting data, the app can relay to a particular driver how quickly he or she will need to drive in order to make the next light. If the next light is already red, the driver can coast up to it slowly instead.

Submission + - Your phone will soon recognize things it sees (cnet.com)

Submitted by

Eric Smalley

on Wednesday August 31, 2011 @10:15AM

Eric Smalley writes: "Mobile-browser maker Layar is about to make augmented reality all that you thought it could be. The company has added visual search to its augmented-reality browser. Point your phone's camera at an object in the real world and an appropriate digital activity will occur on your handset."

Submission + - Facebook Patents Private Profiles (zdnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31, 2011 @09:52AM

An anonymous reader writes: Facebook has patented a “System and method for managing information flow between members of an online social network.” That’s the official title for patent number 8,010,458. Of course, Facebook as well as other social networks has been using this technology for a long time now, although Palo Alto’s is arguably the most complex.

Submission + - T-Mobile may offer signal boosters to fleeing subs (bgr.com)

Submitted by zacharye on Wednesday August 31, 2011 @09:04AM

zacharye writes: T-Mobile intends to offer cellular signal boosters to customers looking to switch carriers due to poor reception at home, according to T-Mobile watcher TmoNews. The move appears to be part of a new program intended to slow service quality-related cancellations, which are apparently a significant problem for the nation’s No. 4 carrier. Beginning on September 7th, T-Mobile will seemingly begin offering in-home signal boosters “when a customer triggers for cancellation of service due to poor in-home coverage,” according to a purported leaked internal memo to T-Mobile staff...

Submission + - How to hack the HP TouchPad (itreviews.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31, 2011 @08:51AM

An anonymous reader writes: Getting hold of HP's discounted $99 (£89) TouchPad is tough, but if you're one of the lucky few to get your hands on greatest bang-for-buck purchase of 2011, there are ways to boost the capabilities of the device still further.

ITReviews.com's step-by-step guide covers WebOS performance tweaks, overclocking and installing unapproved third-party apps on the Touchpad

Submission + - Fingertip vibrator boosts your sense of touch (cnet.com)

Submitted by

Eric Smalley

on Friday August 05, 2011 @08:22AM

Eric Smalley writes: "Combine the words "vibrator," "touch," and "heightened sensitivity," and the subject is obvious, right? A tricked-out glove that heightens your sense of touch.

The glove, developed by Georgia Tech researchers, includes a tiny vibrator that sits on the side of your finger. Turn the vibrator so low that you don't quite notice it vibrating, and voila, your fingertip is more sensitive to touch."

Submission + - FBI: Arrested Gang Talks Using Game Network (publicintelligence.net)

Submitted by smitty777 on Friday August 05, 2011 @07:50AM

smitty777 writes: PI found an FBI memo that discusses how members of the Bloods gang in the Bronx are using the Play Station Network to communicate with each other, even though they are under house arrest. This would definitely contravene the rules imposed by the US Courts, which severely restricts communication with the outside world. Achievement unlocked!

Submission + - Wikipedia is losing contributors (npr.org)

Submitted by derGoldstein on Friday August 05, 2011 @07:14AM

derGoldstein writes: From npr: "Speaking with The Associated Press on the sidelines of the website's annual conference, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said the nonprofit company that runs the site is scrambling to simplify editing procedures in an attempt to retain volunteers". According to Wales: "We are not replenishing our ranks ... It is not a crisis, but I consider it to be important." Despite Wikipedia's wide-reaching popularity, Wales said the typical profile of a contributor is "a 26-year-old geeky male" who moves on to other ventures, gets married and leaves the website.

Submission + - Hacker details wireless attack on insulin pumps (extremetech.com)

Submitted by

MrSeb

on Friday August 05, 2011 @07:05AM

MrSeb writes: "At the Black Hat conference, security researcher Jerome Radcliffe has detailed how our use of SCADA insulin pumps, pacemakers, and implanted defibrillators could lead to untraceable, lethal attacks from half a mile away. Radcliffe, who is a diabetic with a wireless, always-attached insulin pump, was slightly worried that someone might hack his pump, meddle with its settings, and kill him — and so, in true hacker fashion, he has spent the last two years trying to hack it himself. Unfortunately, he was very successful."

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