CycoChuck - Slashdot User

Embedded Microchips In Virtually Everything 186

Posted by kdawson on Sunday January 27 2008, @12:08AM
from the minority-report-by-other-means dept.

Microsoft CRM recommends a long AP article laying out the nightmare scenario of RFID chips in everything tracking not only things but people. The darker possibilities of a technology capable of enabling ubiquitous surveillance are not news to this community, but it's not so common to see them spelled out for a wider audience. "Microchips with antennas embedded in virtually everything you buy, wear, drive and read, allowing retailers and law enforcement to track consumer items and consumers wherever they go. Much of the radio frequency identification technology that enables objects and people to be tagged and tracked wirelessly already exists and potentially intrusive uses of it are being patented, perfected and deployed... [A director at FTI Consulting] said:] 'It's going to be used in unintended ways by third parties — not just the government, but private investigators, marketers, lawyers building a case against you.'"

AMD ATI FireGL V7600 Pro Graphics Unveiled-> 1

Submitted by

MojoKid

on Monday November 26 2007, @12:20AM

MojoKid writes "AMD recently announced a new offering in their Workstation Graphics lineup, dubbed the FireGL V7600. This new professional graphics card uses the same massive R600 core that drives AMD's consumer-level Radeon HD 2900 lineup. The GPU is comprised of over 700 million transistors and is based on an 80nm manufacturing process. The V7600 runs at a far lower clock speed however, as ATI's utilities report the card operates at a 507 MHz core frequency, compared to the 750+ MHz clock speeds at which their 3D gaming-targeted R600 products run. The 3D Studio Max, Maya and general SPEC Viewperf numbers with the new FireGL V7600 definitely look promising."
Link to Original Source

First Evidence of Another Universe? 2

Submitted by blamanj on Sunday November 25 2007, @10:37PM

blamanj writes "Three months ago, astronomers announced the discovery of a large hole at the edge of our universe. Now, Dr. Laura Mersini-Houghton thinks she knows what that means. (Subscription req'd at New Scientist site, there's also an overview here.) According to string theory, there are many universes besides our own. Her team says that smaller universes are positioned at the edge of our universe, and because of gravitational interactions, they can be observed, and they're willing to make a prediction. The recently discovered void is in the northern hemisphere. They contend another one will be found in the southern hemisphere."

More evidence that XP is Vista's main competitor-> 3

Submitted by

Ian Lamont

on Sunday November 25 2007, @09:35PM

Ian Lamont writes "Computerworld is reporting that Windows XP Service Pack 3 runs MS Office 10% faster than XP SP2 — and is "considerably faster" than Vista SP1. XP SP3 isn't scheduled to be released until next year, but testers at Devil Mountain Software — the same company which found Vista SP 1 to be hardly any faster than the debut version of Vista — were able to run some benchmarking tests on a release candidate of XP SP3, says the report. While this may be great news for XP owners, it is a problem for Microsoft, which is having trouble convincing business users to migrate to Vista: 'Vista's biggest competition isn't Apple or Novell or Red Hat; it's Microsoft itself, it's XP, [Forrester Research analyst Benjamin Gray] said. So enamored of XP are businesses that Microsoft may feel obligated to extend the operating system's mainstream support past its current April 2009 expiration date. ... He attributed the lowered expectations to a lack of detailed information about Vista in 2006; too-high prices for PCs with 2GB of memory, which is essentially the minimum needed for Vista, according to company managers; and a larger-than-expected number of incompatible applications.'"
Link to Original Source

Kvetching about Leopard Server-> 0

Submitted by

jammag

on Sunday November 25 2007, @09:33PM

jammag writes "John Welch reviews the Leopard server and finds it impressive — but not perfect. Many of his minor complaints center around user interface issues (ironically for Apple), like the hassle involved with configuring Server Admin, and the cumbersome user list in the Directory App. He suggests an Outlook Web Access, or OWA layer, for Leopard server's groupware. His bottom line: "Overall, Mac OS X 10.5 Server is a big improvement, but it's not completely done yet.""
Link to Original Source

Torvalds on where Linux is headed in 2008 0

Submitted by Stony Stevenson on Sunday November 25 2007, @08:59PM

Stony Stevenson writes "In this new interview, Linus Torvalds is excited about solid-state drives, expects progress in graphics and wireless networking, and says the operating system is strong in virtualisation despite his personal lack of interest in the area.

From the article: "To get some perspective on what lies ahead in 2008, we caught up with Linus Torvalds via email. His responses touched on the Linux development process, upcoming features, and whether he's concerned about potential patent litigation."

Torvalds on Linux biggest strength: "When you buy an OS from Microsoft, not only you can't fix it, but it has had years of being skewed by one single entity's sense of the market. It doesn't matter how competent Microsoft — or any individual company — is, it's going to reflect that fact. In contrast, look at where Linux is used. Everything from cellphones and other small embedded computers that people wouldn't even think of as computers, to the bulk of the biggest machines on the supercomputer Top-500 list. That is flexibility. And it stems directly from the fact that anybody who is interested can participate in the development, and no single entity ends up being in control of where it all goes."

Wireless N news and info-> 0

Submitted by

markrob

on Sunday November 25 2007, @08:12PM

markrob writes "With technology moving as fast as it is, the next big thing in the world of wireless networking is Wireless N, or 802.11n. Most of the big names in home networking all have solutions utilizing this technology. Could the hype actually be justified? Apple has recently claimed that 802.11n can perform 5 times faster and increase the broadcast range by as much 2x that of 802.11g, the industry standard as of now. This is due to multiple input multiple output technology, or MIMO. Netgear advertises a maximum speed of up to 300mbps. The current throughput for 802.11g is 25mbps. However, these numbers are just based on the physical data rate. A more realistic expectation could be closer to 150mbps, still a marked improvement over Wireless G. With performance up to 5 times that of the current standard and increased range, Wireless N will be perfect for those struggling with latency issues using 802.11g."
Link to Original Source

Torvalds On Linux In 2008 0

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 25 2007, @08:10PM

An anonymous reader writes "Linux Torvalds has engaged in a middling-length email interview with InformationWeek's Charlie Babcock, in which he outlines his objectives for 2008, takes a jab at Microsoft and also says he's not much worried about patent litigation. On next year's plans: "The situation in graphics and wireless networking devices — both of which have been somewhat weak spots — is changing, and I suspect that will be a large part of what continues to happen during 2008 too." On Microsoft: "I simply don't use Microsoft products, not because I hate them, but because they aren't interesting to me." On legal: "I really don't think there is anything real behind that whole intellectual property FUD machine." Torvalds is also very interested in SSDs (solid-state drives), and says they're a game-changer when it comes to reducing latency."