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Comment Re:Neuromorphic CPUs (Score 2) 320

While processing speeds are certainly linked to Moore's law, it is really only about the bi-yearly doubling of the transistor count while keeping prices roughly the same. Increasing the amount of cores and adding more on-die memory are easy ways to keep Moore's law going.

...well, easier than decreasing the half-pitch below 12nm.

By the way, Moore's law applies to memory density and CCD properties as well, neither of which appear to be close to their limits.

Censorship

ACTA Is Backta, New Round of Talks Start Today 73

An anonymous reader writes "Negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement resume today in Lucerne, Switzerland, with the ninth round of talks. The Toronto Star highlights the mounting opposition to the deal from developing world countries such as India and China, while Michael Geist has posted a video of a recent lecture that provides background on the agreement and where things currently stand."

Comment Re:The End Of The Abandonware Golden Age? (Score 3, Interesting) 147

Unlikely...

The titles you see appearing in places like GOG and Steam are almost all well-known big titles by companies that still exist. This is only a very small part of what most abandonware websites offer. There's a huge number of great games that never gained any real following due to various reasons, or are owned by companies which no longer exist now.

In short, the real meaning of "abandonware" is exactly what its name implies: software which can be considered abandoned, preferably because there is no (clear) copyright holder anymore.

Then again, I can probably be considered biased, since I am webmaster of an abandonware site myself :)
Emulation (Games)

Submission + - Project of the month on SourceForge.net: DOSBox (kingofgng.com) 1

KingofGnG writes: "DOSBox, the emulator designed to run DOS games on modern operating systems (and not necessarily on a PC), has been chosen as project of the month for May 2009 on the open source platform SourceForge.net. It's the latest award granted to a software that "simply does what it is supposed to do", as the authors state, and that after having summed up more than 10 millions downloads is ready for an update awaited since almost two years."
Businesses

Interest Growing For Pre-Paid Game Cards 70

Worlds in Motion is running an interview with GMG Entertainment, a company finding success marketing pre-paid "digital currency cards" used online for games and other entertainment services. Customers and retailers alike are enjoying the simplicity and utility of the cards, and GMG suggests that this segment of the industry will only continue to grow: "I estimate this year that you'll see EA enter this space for some of their games, and a few other big names are absolutely interested. In fact we're in final negotiations with a couple of recognizable names. We tend to estimate the size of the total pre-paid gaming card business when we do our numbers, and this year we're looking to something between $75-100 million dollars in sales across North America. We see that going to $250-300 million in 2009 and being in the region of a half-billion by 2010. We see this market growing dramatically in the next two to five years."
The Internet

Belgian ISP Scores Victory In Landmark P2P Case 76

secmartin writes "Belgian ISP Scarlet scored an important victory in the first major European test of copyright law. The interim decision forcing them to block transfers of copyrighted materials via P2P has been reversed, because the judge agreed with Scarlet that the measures the Belgian RIAA proposed to implement proved to be ineffective. A final decision is expected next year."
It's funny.  Laugh.

XKCD Improving the Internet ... Yet Again 204

netbuzz writes "Comic creator Randall Monroe suggested in a recent xkcd strip that YouTube comments would be better — or, more precisely, less idiotic — if only those posting them were forced to hear their words read aloud first. Well, YouTube has gone and made this "audio preview" a reality, albeit an optional one. And, it's not the first time that xkcd has contributed to the betterment of the Internet, as those who are familiar with last year's "Internet census" and its use of a Hilbert curve may remember."
Earth

Submission + - Reaction Engines plan Mach 5 airliner (vnunet.com) 2

What is? writes: "A British company has designed an eco-friendly airliner that could make a trip from London to Sydney in under five hours. Reaction Engines has received funding from the European Space Agency to design the plane as part of the Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies project. The A2 airliner would be capable of carrying 300 passengers at speeds of up to Mach 5."

Feed Wired: Lake Erie UFOs Are Stars on YouTube (wired.com)

Residents living on the shores of Lake Erie are filming mysterious lights in the sky -- so many lately that news and documentary crews are investigating Lake Erie's UFOs. But YouTube may be behind the lake's newfound infamy.


Microsoft

Submission + - Office 2003SP3: Old file formats, now unavailable! 3

time961 writes: "In Service Pack 3 for Office 2003, Microsoft has disabled support for many older file formats, so if you have old Word, Excel, 1-2-3, Quattro, or Corel Draw documents, watch out! They did this because the old formats are "less secure", which actually makes some sense, but only if you got the files from some untrustworthy source.

Naturally, they did this by default, and then documented a mind-bogglingly complex workaround (KB 938810) rather than providing a user interface for adjusting it, or even a set of awkward "Do you really want to do this?" dialog boxes to click through. And, of course, because these are, after all, old file formats, many users will encounter the problem only months or years after the software change, while groping around in dusty and now-inaccessible archives.

One of the better aspects of Office is its extensive compatibility mechanisms for old file formats. At least the support isn't completely gone—it's just really hard to use. Security is important, but there are better ways to fulfill this goal.

This was also covered by the Windows Secrets newsletter, although I can't find a story URL for it."

Feed Engadget: Verzio launches two dual-SIM handsets, one with 3G (engadget.com)

Dual-SIM phones are still pretty rare 'round these parts, but those of you who need the two-line action in Asia might want to check out Verzio's new Duplii and Twinn handsets. Verzio says the Duplii (pictured) is the first triband 3G hadset with dual-SIM slots, but it would be pretty respectable even without the two cards, with a 2 megapixel camera, 2.2-inch display, and media playback capabilities. The EDGE-only Twinn packs is basically the same, only in slider form minus the 3G. Both are on sale now in the Philippines, but apparently they'll be in the rest of Asia sometime in 2008.

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