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Comment: Re:Yes, and 16k is enough for anyone too (Score 1) 331

The problem with basing figures for raytracing on current hardware is that none of it is designed for rays. GPUs are designed to be good at rasterization, and ray tracing has different hardware requirements. CPUs aren't particularly good at it either. The 7-hour scene might render many times quicker if it uses hardware designed for the job it is doing, rather than shoehorning it in to an inefficient architecture.
IBM

IBM Launches Parking Meter Analytics System 111

Posted by samzenpus
from the nickel-and-dime-analytics dept.
itwbennett writes "It's not just a parking spot, think of it as a 'revenue-producing asset,' says Vinodh Swaminathan, IBM's director of intelligent transportation systems. Working with San Francisco-based startup Streetline, IBM has launched a system designed to help cities ease parking congestion and collect more parking fees. Streetline's remote sensors can determine if a parking space is taken by a car, whether a customer has paid, and how much time is left on the meter. And IBM's business intelligence software parses the data and generates reports and statistics for government managers. Drivers can benefit too: A free mobile phone app can help locate available parking spaces."

Comment: Re:Dead on. (Score 1) 470

by plastbox (#34821228) Attached to: Is Mark Zuckerberg the Next Steve Case?

I see this argument again and again, and quite frankly I have to agree with Zuckerberg. People are dumbasses! Not the people you refer to though, but rather the people constantly making said argument.

How much do you think it costs to host a site like Facebook? Servers, storage, electricity, bandwidth.. Facebook is massive, and the simple fact of the matter is they have to generate income to sustain their existence, regardless of your blind ideologies.

That being said, I'm not a huge fan of ads or information gathering, but I'd rather have a small text-based Google ad informing me about online electronics stores, robotics and other somewhat interesting stuff than the huge Flash obscenities of old!

Comment: Re:we need more studies (Score 1) 207

by plastbox (#34820844) Attached to: Scientists Find Tears Are the Anti-Viagra
Far more interesting (and relevant) is the effects of hormonal prevention on women's libidos. I don't recall which studies I'm thinking about exactly, but it is a well established fact that women ovulating find high levels of testosterone (e.g. muscles, dominant behavior, general manlyness) attractive while women on the other side of the hormonal scale (pregnant, menstruating, etc.) find typical "female" features more attractive. If a female body is in "get baby!"-mode, she prefers manly men who can protect her offspring as well as contribute good genes. If it's in "has baby!"-mode, she prefers the emotionally available, "soft" man. Hormonal prevention works by tricking the female body into thinking it's pregnant all the time. The result? Tokyo Hotel is hot, burly, hairy men have fallen out of fashion. Seriously.. look at teens these days. The guys generally considered attractive are the semi-anorexic ones with no hair except the neatly styled stuff on their heads. Ask your mother and grandmothers about their taste in men and the answer is likely to be "Butch and if possibly, hairy!". True story!

Comment: Re:This is actually pretty cool (Score 1) 231

by plastbox (#34122912) Attached to: Chip Allows Blind People To See
I would have you check out Sensory Substitution. I feel I'm ranting on about this every time something like this comes up and no one cares. Why is that? The TVSS (Tactile Visual Substitution System by WiCab) provides its users with a 20x20 grayscale image and the Forehead Retina System provides 512 taxel (tactile pixel) vision, all with no surgery. In addition, the BrainPort (also by WiCab) can be hooked up to an accelerometer to provide a sense of balance to people who's inner ears have been damaged. Hell, one can even add new sensory information through some existing channel (f.ex. FeelSpace), and the brain will integrate it thanks to sensomotoric correlations. The blind can already see. We've had the needed technology since Dr. Bach-y-Rita started experimenting with cameras, solenoids and sensory substitution in the 60's.

The real purpose of books is to trap the mind into doing its own thinking. -- Christopher Morley

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