Geoffrey Hinton’s work in back propagation and deep learning are an incremental improvement over the overly simplistic neural networks of the 90s, but "real progress", not even close. His focus on Bayesian networks has failed to deliver just like the symbolic AI that preceded it. Until AI researchers like Hinton get over their obsession with mathematical constructs with no foundation in biology, we will never have true AI. To succeed, we will need to will need to borrow from nature's engine of intelligence, the neocortex.

This is exactly what Kurzweil argues in “How to Create a Mind”. He describes the brain as a massively parallel pattern recognition machine. At the core of the neocortex are millions of hierarchically arranged pattern recognition modules working together to model and predict our environment. By using the neocortex as a model for new AI systems Kurzweil has a chance to make some "real progress" at Google.

This is a great move for Google's AI research, since their current Director of Research,Peter Norvig, comes from a mathematical background and is a strong defender the use of statistical models that have no biological basis.[1] While these techniques have their use in specific areas, they will never lead us to a general purpose strong AI.

Lately Kurzweil has come around to see that symbolic and bayesian networks have been holding AI back for the past 50 years. He is now a proponent of using biologically inspired methods similar to Jeff Hawkins' approach of Hierarchical Temporal Memory.
Hopefully, he'll bring some fresh ideas to Google. This will be especially useful in areas like voice recognition and translation. For example, just last week, I needed to translate. "We need to meet up" to Chinese. Google translates it to (can't type Chinese in Slashdot?)
, meaning "We need to satisfy". This is where statistical translations fail, because statistics and probabilities will never teach machines to "understand" language.

Leaders in AI like Kurzweil and Hawkins are going to finally crack the AI problem. With Kurzweil's experience and Google's resources, it might happen a lot sooner than you all expect.

[1] http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/06/norvig-vs-chomsky-and-the-fight-for-the-future-of-ai

They should have waited until they could get the cost down with 512MB of RAM. Having used both the 256 and 512 Model B, I found that no amount of tweaking could make the 256 model run a web browser acceptably on a Linux desktop. Modern Linux desktops and browsers have gotten too bloated. LXDE is painfully slow, while KDE and gnome desktops are just downright unable. The 512 model has no such issue.

"This trait spans multiple games, cards, and operating systems, "
First of all the article only tests 2 cards accross Win7 and Win8. Considering that Win8 is basically just Win7 SP2, it's hardly fair to make that statement. Micro-stuttering an issue that mainly affects multi-GPU cards. Both Nvidia and ATI have had issues with this in their SLI and Crossfire cards. You can read more about it here:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1317582

I've worked extensively with ATI, Nvida, and Intel Linux laptops and unfortunately there is no ideal solution. First, you need to decide whether you need open source or proprietary drivers. Proprietary drivers give vastly superior performance and expose the most OpenGL features. If you want support for the life of your laptop, be aware that manufactures will drop support after a few years as was done with my ATI X1800.

The open source drivers tend to give the solid 2D experience and have great support for wayland and compiz. You also don’t have to worry about kernel updates breaking your drivers. With open drivers forget about and serious gaming. OpenGL performance is still terrible compared to proprietary drivers. Intel has the best open source drivers. If you need more performance than an integrated GPU can deliver, ATI has the 2nd best open drivers.
TL:DR Propriatary -> Nvidia, Open -> Intel or ATI

As a web developer, I would love to see FF support WebP. As an end user, I wish the UI was responsive and it took advantage of more than 1 of the cores in my multi-core CPU. Do they even make single-core CPUs anymore?

Sounds like his was an older and even Cheaper model. My 10" screen did not require a stylus and was definitely a capacitive touch screen. Besides being low resolution, something like 1024x800, the main issue I had with the screen was related to the poor quality of the charger. According to these guys:
http://www.arcfn.com/2012/10/a-dozen-usb-chargers-in-lab-apple-is.html
It's a big problem with counterfeit and low quality chargers

Notice username was also the same. Right after I posted on Ars, I saw it made Slashdot. Copy/Paste. It's China; that's how we do it here. Since I've actually spent some time playing with one of these Allwiner based tablets, I thought I'd share my experience. Sorry for the lack of originality on the repost.

I live in Shenzhen, and here in China you can pick up these Allwiner based tablets for about $100-$125 USD. My buddy couldn't resist a bargain and bought one a few weeks ago. I was surprised how well it worked out of the box. Decent performance browsing heavy pages, and the all the 3D games I could throw at it ran smoothly. That Allwiner blows the Rasberry’s CPU out of the water.

Initially, I was tempted to get one. Then I started noticing the problems. The accelerometer hadn't been properly calibrated or mounted at the factory, meaning some racing games you have to hold the device at a 20 degree angle to drive straight. When the battery started getting low, I plugged it in to its proprietary charger only to find out the touch screen doesn't work when charging.

Then about a week later my buddy said the screen popped out after he left it charging overnight. Turns out the battery had swollen up. All these issue point to shoddy cheap components and lack of testing and QC. With only $100 to spend, suggest a used Kindle or Nexus 7.

This reminds me of one of my roommates in college, who never took or needed to take any drugs. He was top of our class, dual majoring in Astrophysics and Quantum Mechanics at an Ivy League school. One day I saw him lying in his bed throwing torn papers in the air, while laughing like something out of American Beauty. When I asked what's up, he continued and said something about the elegant beauty of the laws that govern our universe. By the end of the semester, episodes like this didn't even faze me.

Back in the stone ages or dark ages, I’m not sure this kind of mental state was good for survival, let alone his ancestor's reproductive opportunities.

MIPS and ARM are very similar Instruction Set Architectures. While I've only taking a cursory look at the new ARM64, it doesn't seem as clean as MIPS64. So with the same level of optimization, MIPS should be able to get a better performance per watt and higher IPC. SiByte had working MIPS64 CPUs 12 years ago. MIPS used to dominate the TOP500, but recently Intel has left them in the dust. So I don't see how Samsung is going to do any better with ARM.

Then again, if x86 can become the IPC leader, any ISA has a shot. Samsung is going to need a few Jim Keller's of their own to pull this feat off.

Colorado and Washington passed marijuana legalization for recreational use. We gained a little more freedom in some states.
I don’t even smoke pot or tobacco. But It's clear that prohibition does nothing but make criminals rich and overcrowd our jails with non-violent citizens.

Sorry, "ARE why". I didn't get any sleep last night and forgot Slashdot still lacks an edit button.

Big daring projects like the Apollo program and Mars Curiosity, is the reason why I love NASA so much. It's one of the few Federal programs I would actually like to see expanded. They do so much with so little. I hope whoever wins this next election finds a way to expand their budget.

“We tend to hear much more about the splendors returned than the ships that brought them or the shipwrights. It has always been that way. Even those history books enamored of the voyages of Christopher Columbus do not tell much about the builders of the Nina the Pinta and the Santa Maria or about the principle of the caravel. These spacecraft their designers builders navigators and controllers are examples of what science and engineering set free for well-defined peaceful purposes can accomplish. Those scientists and engineers should be role models for an America seeking excellence and international competitiveness. They should be on our stamps.” Carl Sagan,

"It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes."
-Josef Stalin
With the election this close, I really hope it's the voters, not fraud, that decides the next president..