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Graphics

Haswell Integrated Graphics Promise 2-3X Performance Boost 133

Posted by timothy
from the more-better-cheaper-faster dept.
crookedvulture writes "Intel has revealed fresh details about the integrated graphics in upcoming Haswell processors. The fastest variants of the built-in GPU will be known as Iris and Iris Pro graphics, with the latter boasting embedded DRAM. Unlike Ivy Bridge, which reserves its fastest GPU implementations for mobile parts, the Haswell family will include R-series desktop chips with the full-fat GPU. These processors are likely bound for all-in-one systems, and they'll purportedly offer close to three times the graphics performance of their predecessors. Intel says notebook users can look forward to a smaller 2X boost, while 15-17W ultrabook CPUs benefit from an increase closer to 1.5X. Haswell's integrated graphics has other perks aside from better performance, including faster Quick Sync video transcoding, MJPEG acceleration, and support for 4K resolutions. The new IGP will support DirectX 11.1, OpenGL 4.0, and OpenCL 1.2, as well." Note: Same story, different words, at Extreme Tech and Hot Hardware.
Open Source

Pushing Back Against Licensing and the Permission Culture 320

Posted by Unknown Lamer
from the who-has-time-for-caring-these-days dept.
kthreadd writes "Luis Villa has an interesting discussion on the topic of not licensing at all, what he calls POSS or Post Open Source Software. With a flood of new hackers flocking to places like GitHub which doesn't impose any particular requirements for hosted projects, the future of Open Source may very well be diminishing. Skip licensing, just commit to GitHub. What legal ramifications will this have on the free and open source community going forward?" From the article: "If some 'no license' sharing is a quiet rejection of the permission culture, the lawyer’s solution (make everyone use a license, for their own good!) starts to look bad. This is because once an author has used a standard license, their immediate interests are protected – but the political content of not choosing a license is lost. Or to put it another way: if license authors get their wish, and everyone uses a license for all content, then, to the casual observer, it looks like everyone accepts the permission culture. This could make it harder to change that culture — to change the defaults — in the long run. So how might we preserve the content of the political speech against the permission culture, while also allowing for use in that same, actually-existing permission culture?"

Comment: Re:mac (Score 1) 732

by Aliotroph (#40125873) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How To Shop For a Laptop?

No. At leat not in the version of Boot Camp I'm running. The trackpad configuration options are limited. You can disable the tap and you can independently disable two-finger tap.

Looking closely at that configuration screen gives me the impression it was written in a hurry. The checkbox to disable two-finger tapping says "secondary tap." There's no other description and no indication if that affects the two-finger scrolling behaviour.

+ - The older we get, the less we know (cosmologically)->

Submitted by dsinc
dsinc writes "The universe is a marvelously complex place, filled with galaxies and larger-scale structures that have evolved over its 13.7-billion-year history. Those began as small perturbations of matter that grew over time, like ripples in a pond, as the universe expanded. By observing the large-scale cosmic wrinkles now, we can learn about the initial conditions of the universe. But is now really the best time to look, or would we get better information billions of years into the future — or the past? New calculations by Harvard theorist Avi Loeb show that the ideal time to study the cosmos was more than 13 billion years ago, just about 500 million years after the Big Bang. The farther into the future you go from that time, the more information you lose about the early universe."
Link to Original Source
It's funny. Laugh.

+ - Truly Alternative Science Careers->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Slashdot has picked up previous "Experimental Error" columns, but this one might be the funniest yet. Can't find work in this bad economy, in your chosen scientific field? What is to be done? How 'bout trying a career in Lysenkoism, diluvial geology, or political science?"
Link to Original Source
Piracy

+ - Rackspace: SOPA 'Is a Deeply Flawed Piece of Legis->

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes "Cloud based hosting service provider Rackspace has joined the ever expanding list of companies that are opposed to the US Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). In a blog post, Rackspace CEO Lanham Napier, said that the controversial bill, which will get its final vote before the House Judiciary Committee, will do more harm than good, punishing innocent users in the process. "The SOPA bill, as it stands, is a deeply flawed piece of legislation. It is bad for anyone who uses the Internet, including Rackspace, the more than 160,000 business customers that we serve, and the tens of millions of retail customers that they serve. It is bad for job creation and innovation," Napier wrote."
Link to Original Source
Technology

+ - Why Zoe Zuul can't get work

Submitted by
LastDawnOfMan
LastDawnOfMan writes "I just woke up from a dream where my wife wanted to apply for work at a company she found, and it was the typical "We only accept online applications" scenario. She asks me how that works and I reply "You fill out the application on a web page, just like you would fill one out on paper, and the first qualified person whose last name starts with 'A' gets the job." The idea startled me enough to wake me up and have me pondering whether it was true. In this age of commodified employees and 500+ applicants for jobs, does Andy Aardeman have a big advantage over Zoe Zuul? Should we be changing our last names to start with "A" like businesses do for yellow pages listings, which is why there are a zillion businesses called "AAA"-something? Does anyone out there know enough about HR processes to know if this would help a person get hired more easily?"
Android

+ - What Forbes Blogger Todd Hixon Doesn't Know About ->

Submitted by sfcrazy
sfcrazy writes "I was not surprise when I saw a Forbes headline "Android: The Consequence Of Open" because Forbes is a known anti-Linux outfit. They were the ones who gave Microsoft the platform to spread the FUD that Linux infringes upon their patents which was blown away in a long article. I was not surprised when I found that Forbes story was based on a TechCrunch story written by an Apple fanboy called MG Seigler who writes made up anti-Android blogs when there is nothing good to write about Apple."
Link to Original Source

+ - SPAM: WLCI Innovation in education..Is technology the an

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "In 1994, IBM posed a deceptively simple set of questions to district superintendents and chief state school officers: Is there a long-standing barrier to school improvement that you think can be addressed by emerging technology to accelerate the pace of reform and support student achievement? What have you always wanted to do for students, teachers or parents that might finally be possible? What are the critical levers for change that could be enhanced through technology?"
Link to Original Source
Businesses

+ - Prospects Darken for Solar Energy Companies

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes "Although global demand for solar power is still growing — about 8% more solar panels will be installed this year compared with 2010 — bankruptcies, plummeting stock prices and crushing debt loads are calling into question the viability of the solar energy industry that since the 1970s has been counted on to advance the world into a new energy age. Only a handful of manufacturers are now profitable in the face of too much capacity, which has contributed to a plunge in prices as government subsidies have been curbed. Prices for solar panels started 2011 near $1.60 per watt, but a buildup of inventory forced manufacturers into a fire sale toward the end of the second quarter that has pushed prices to near $1 per watt now. "The prices that we're seeing today are likely not covering manufacturing costs in many cases," says Ralph Romero, director in management consulting for Black & Veatch, which provides engineering and due diligence consulting services to solar manufacturers. With at least seven solar-panel manufacturers filing for bankruptcy or insolvency in the last several months and six of the 10 largest publicly traded companies making solar components reporting losses in the third quarter, public-market investors are punishing the solar sector, sending shares down nearly 57% this year and although winners are expected to emerge eventually, the question is how much more carnage there will be before that happens. "The fact of the matter is, nobody really knows which solar companies will be pushed out of business or be forced to merge," writes industry analyst Rodolfo Avalos. "Nobody also knows how long it will take for the solar industry to improve even when the forecasted solar global demand for the next 5-10 years is quite promising.""
The Courts

NH Supreme Court To Rule On Bigfoot Video Shoot In Public Park 166

Posted by timothy
from the and-further-your-honor-arrrgghhhhhghghg dept.
alphadogg writes with this excerpt from the Boston Globe: "On a whim two years ago, performance artist Jonathan Doyle paraded around the bustling peak of New Hampshire's Mount Monadnock in a $40 Bigfoot costume from iParty. He thought his deadpan video interviews with hikers describing their Bigfoot sightings would be worth a few chuckles on YouTube, and might boost the profile of his other artwork. But the staff at Monadnock State Park found the Yeti act abominable. When Doyle returned with friends to shoot a sequel, the park manger quashed the production and ordered Doyle off the mountain, insisting he needed a state permit to film a movie in the park. Bigfoot stepped up with a lawsuit, alleging that the park's permit regulations are unconstitutional. The New Hampshire Supreme Court next month will hear Doyle's complaint. Though many elements of the dispute border on the absurd, the case raises some serious free speech issues."

This is for all ill-treated fellows Unborn and unbegot, For them to read when they're in trouble And I am not. -- A. E. Housman

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