Comment Re:Strange names (Score 4, Informative) 276
According to this paper, they are called bgrep and bdiff.
John Carmack Not Enthused About Android Marketplace 163
An anonymous reader writes "During an in-depth and informative interview, Doom creator and id Software co-founder John Carmack opines on iOS game development, the economics of mobile development vs. console development, why mobile games lend themselves to more risk-taking and greater creativity, and finally, why he's not too keen on the Android Marketplace as a money-making machine. '...I'm honestly still a little scared of the support burden and the effort that it's going to take for our products, which are very graphics-intensive.'"
1928 Time Traveler Caught On Film? 685
Many of you have submitted a story about Irish filmmaker George Clarke, who claims to have found a person using a cellphone in the "unused footage" section of the DVD The Circus, a Charlie Chaplin movie filmed in 1928. To me the bigger mystery is how someone who appears to be the offspring of Ram-Man and The Penguin got into a movie in the first place, especially if they were talking to a little metal box on set. Watch the video and decide for yourself.
Submission + - Google Freight Train Drops Chrome 6 Preview (conceivablytech.com) 1
An anonymous reader writes: Chrome 4 is the official version of Chrome at this time, Chrome 5 is still in its beta version and there is already a Chrome 6 preview. Is it just me or is this an insanely fast upgrade pace? Google has changed the version number of its browser from 2 to 3 to 4 within the past year and will soon launch Chrome 5. It may not make a lot of sense to users, but it surely makes sense for Google: It appears that that the fast upgrade rate creates the perception of an always fresh browser that invites more and more people to install the browser. I wonder how long Google can sustain this rate. Oh, in case you wonder, there is no hardware acceleration in Chromium 6 and no obvious feature additions yet. ConceivablyTech has a first look and charts that visualize Chrome's update cycles.
Submission + - 1 Molecule Computes 1000s Times Faster Than PC (popsci.com) 1
alexhiggins732 writes: A Single Molecule Computes Thousands of Times Faster than Your PC
A demo of a quantum calculation carried out by Japanese researchers has yielded some pretty mind-blowing results: a single molecule can perform a complex calculation thousands of times faster than a conventional computer.
A proof-of-principle test run of a discrete Fourier transform — a common calculation using spectral analysis and data compression, among other things — performed with a single iodine molecule transpired very well, putting all the molecules in your PC to shame.
A demo of a quantum calculation carried out by Japanese researchers has yielded some pretty mind-blowing results: a single molecule can perform a complex calculation thousands of times faster than a conventional computer.
A proof-of-principle test run of a discrete Fourier transform — a common calculation using spectral analysis and data compression, among other things — performed with a single iodine molecule transpired very well, putting all the molecules in your PC to shame.
Submission + - Ceph: A Linux petabyte-scale distributed file syst
An anonymous reader writes: A recent addition to Linux's impressive selection of file systems is Ceph, a distributed file system that incorporates replication and fault tolerance while maintaining POSIX compatibility. Explore the architecture of Ceph and learn how it provides fault tolerance and simplifies the management of massive amounts of data.
Submission + - NASA space habitat research goes undersea (nasa.gov) 1
PSandusky writes: "NASA is preparing to make use of Aquarius, the underwater laboratory off Key Largo, for an extended period of time to research the effects of isolation in habitats situated in extreme environments. Planned areas of research include extravehicular activity logistics and crew health and performance. According to NASA's factsheet, the mission will include some communication with schools and social media sites. (Found via Ars Technica's Twitter feed.)"
Lack of Manpower May Kill VLC For Mac 398
plasmacutter writes "The Video Lan dev team has recently come forward with a notice that the number of active developers for the project's MacOS X releases has dropped to zero, prompting a halt in the release schedule. There is now a disturbing possibility that support for Mac will be dropped as of 1.1.0. As the most versatile and user-friendly solution for bridging the video compatibility gap between OS X and windows, this will be a terrible loss for the Mac community. There is still hope, however, if the right volunteers come forward."
Submission + - BlueHippo scam collected $15M, only shipped one PC (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Turns out that those Blue Hippo commercials advertising financing for computers and other electronics for anybody, regardless of credit, were way more sleazy than you thought. The FTC brought this fraud down, but not too soon.
Comment IT is boring unless you are at the top (Score 2, Insightful) 752
This is especially true the lower you are on the ladder. When you are entry level, you are probably doing help desk most of the time along with setting up new machines. Sure, when you get that eight core computer in, the computer is probably pretty exciting to check out and play around a bit while you install what is needed, but after a few installs, it's simply repetitive -- just like all the other computers you have set up and will continue to set up. Maybe you get to write reports. You'll definitely awe your friends with how you successfully joined 10 tables to create your latest report.
I think IT gets more exciting and interesting when you reach the point where you are creating solutions to new problems. There is a great deal of responsibility but a much greater feeling of reward and satisfaction. I think the saying about the lead dog having the best view is true and not just in IT.
I enjoyed reading the comment where someone said that IT is like janitorial work.
