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Comment Yahoo Needs Neither Microsoft Not Google (Score -1, Insightful) 214

by MOBE2001 (#23771005) Attached to: Yahoo Ends Talks With Microsoft, Embraces Google Instead
Jerry Yang did the right thing, in my opinion. He must hold on to his core search and advertising business. However, he would do well to diversify as soon as possible. Consider that both Microsoft and Intel have been riding on last century's legacy technology (x86 and Windows) for a long time. That sweet ride can't last forever. Now that the industry is transitioning from sequential processing to massively parallel computing, and given that neither Microsoft nor Intel have delivered on the real promise of multicore processors, Yahoo has the opportunity of a lifetime to sneak behind those two slow-moving behemoths and steal their pot of gold. Someone should tell Jerry before it's too late. Multicore processors is where the real action is at. Whoever solves the parallel-programming/multicore-design problem will rule the computer industry in this century.
Programming

Submission + - Panic in Multicore Land (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
MOBE2001
MOBE2001 writes: "There is widespread disagreement among experts on how best to design and program multicore processors. Some, like senior AMD fellow, Chuck Moore, believe that the industry should move to a new model based on a multiplicity of cores optimized for various tasks. Others (e.g., Anant Agarwal, CTO of Tilera Corporation) disagree on the ground that heterogeneous processors would be too hard to program. Some see multithreading as the best way for most applications to take advantage of parallel hardware. Others (Agarwal) consider threads to be evil. The only emerging consensus seems to be that multicore computing is facing a major crisis. [...] In a recent EETIMES article titled "Multicore puts screws to parallel-programming models", AMD's Chuck Moore is reported to have said that "the industry is in a little bit of a panic about how to program multicore processors, especially heterogeneous ones." Full article: Nightmare on Core Street."
Biotech

Submission + - Snortable Drug Keeps Monkeys Awake

Submitted by sporkme
sporkme writes: A DARPA-funded research project at UCLA has wrapped up a set of animal trials testing the effects of inhalation of the brain chemical orexin A, a deficiency of which is a characteristic of narcolepsy. From the article:

The monkeys were deprived of sleep for 30 to 36 hours and then given either orexin A or a saline placebo before taking standard cognitive tests. The monkeys given orexin A in a nasal spray scored about the same as alert monkeys, while the saline-control group was severely impaired. The study, published in the Dec. 26 edition of The Journal of Neuroscience, found orexin A not only restored monkeys' cognitive abilities but made their brains look "awake" in PET scans. Siegel said that orexin A is unique in that it only had an impact on sleepy monkeys, not alert ones, and that it is "specific in reversing the effects of sleepiness" without other impacts on the brain.
Researchers seem cautious to bill the treatment as a replacement for sleep, as it is not clear that adjusting brain chemistry could have the same physical benefits of real sleep in the long run. The drug is aimed at replacing amphetamines used by drowsy long-haul military pilots, but there would no doubt be large demand for such a remedy thanks to its apparent lack of side-effects.
Math

Where Do the Laws of Nature Come From? 729

Posted by kdawson from the you-say-anthropic-i-say-platonic dept.
mlimber writes "The NYTimes science section has up an interesting article discussing the nature of scientific laws. It comes partly in reply to physicist Paul Davies, whose recent op-ed in same paper lit up the blogosphere and solicited flurry of reader responses to the editorial page. It asks, 'Are [laws of nature] merely fancy bookkeeping, a way of organizing facts about the world? Do they govern nature or just describe it? And does it matter that we don't know and that most scientists don't seem to know or care where they come from?' The current article proceeds to survey different views on the matter. The author seems to be poking fun at himself by quoting Richard Feynman's epigram, 'Philosophy of science is about as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds.'"
Robotics

Submission + - Fudan Intelligent Robot (shanghaidaily.com)

Submitted by martinsslaves
martinsslaves writes: Shanghais' Fudan University have made some considerable progress in their endeavors in learning robots, with their new "Fudan Intelligent Robot" looking a whole lot more polished than their previous Fudan-1 model. The goal is for the robot to learn new tasks by following voice commands, which the researchers hope could eventually allow the robot to help the elderly or become a "good household mate" for families. Among other things, the bot can currently can plot out its own map of its surroundings and remember specific locations and, of course, change TV channels at your command (or, as you can see above, even serve as a TV itself).
Businesses

Submission + - Silicon Valley - the new Detroit? (mercurynews.com)

Submitted by fiannaFailMan
fiannaFailMan writes: The San Jose Mercury News is speculating about Silicon Valley's potential for becoming the Detroit of a future electric car industry. Among the valley's strengths is an ability to adapt to rapidly changing business environments and develop new business models, something that the Big Three can hardly be accused of. On the downside, it's a capital-intensive business and isn't like raising $40 million and having an IPO. Apparently there are five companies in the valley already pursuing electric car technology, most notably Tesla.

Last week's announcement by Shai Agassi, a former SAP executive based in Palo Alto, that he's raised $200 million for a company that will try to revolutionize the electric car industry is the latest sign of this region's growing role in one of the hottest sectors of the automotive industry.
Communications

Submission + - New GPS Navigator shows Traffic Jams Ahead

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The New York Times is running an article on Dash Express, a new navigation system for automobiles that not only receives GPS location data, but broadcasts information about its travels back to Dash over a cellular data network where it is shared with other users to let them know if there are slowdowns or traffic jams on the road ahead and propose an alternate route. The real benefit of the system isn't apparent until enough units are collecting data so Dash distributed over 2,000 prototype units to test drivers in 25 large cities. The continuous two-way reporting lets the system measure how fast traffic travels on a given road, and use that information to compile a highly detailed and accurate database of traffic information so Dash units can warn each other through the network the second they hit a traffic slowdown."
Robotics

Submission + - Robotic Cannon Looses Control, Kills 9, 14 Wounded 1

Submitted by
TJ_Phazerhacki
TJ_Phazerhacki writes: "A new high tech weapon system demonstrated one of the prime concerns circling smarter and smarter methods of defense last week — an Oerlikon GDF-005 went wildly out of control during live fire test exercises in South Africa, killing 9. Scarily enough, this is far from the first instance of a smart weapon "turning" — the biggest concern seems to be finding the glitches in the system instead of reconsidering automated arms altogether. Sarah Connor, where are you?"
Wii

Wii 'Popularity Bubble' to Burst? 426

Posted by Zonk from the it's-a-big-one dept.
A combination of industry and developer observations has prompted Tech.co.uk to wonder if the Wii's overwhelming popularity is due to end sometime soon. This is based on a report from Japanese business newspaper The Nikkei, which published an article recently entitled 'Software Houses Miscalculate Audience, Demand For Wii'. "The report goes on to discuss the likelihood that many Wiis are gathering dust in owners' cupboards, citing one software house president as saying, 'People bought it out of curiosity, and it's likely a lot of them haven't used it.' Given that September saw Wii sales fall sharply in Japan for the second consecutive month, it seems reasonable to speculate that the bubble inflated by the novelty factor is starting to deflate, but writing Nintendo off at any stage is a perilous course to steer." Is this just worrying, or is there validity to this?
Intel

Intel Salivates Over Virtual World Processing Demands 52

Posted by Zonk from the put-your-tongue-back-in-your-mouth dept.
CNet has up an article looking at the lucrative virtual world market for processor companies. An Intel developer forum held in San Francisco this week highlighted the opportunities for selling hardware to both consumers and vendors in the VW marketplace. "[Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner] showed statistics that indicated a PC's processor bumps up to 20 percent utilization while browsing the Web, while its graphics processor doesn't even break above 1 percent. But running Second Life--even with today's coarse graphics--pushes those to 70 percent for the main processor and 35 to 70 percent for the graphics processor, he said. The Google Maps Web site and Google Earth software pose intermediate demands. Running a virtual worlds server is vastly more computationally challenging, though, when compared with 2D Web sites and even massively multiplayer online games such as Eve Online. An Eve Online server can handle 34,420 users at a time, but Second Life maxes a server out with just 160 users."
User Journal

Journal Journal: How to Design a Fine-Grain Self-Balancing Multicore CPU

Journal by MOBE2001

The most important question a CPU designer must ask himself or herself is, what is the purpose of the CPU? Most people in the business will immediately answer that the purpose of the CPU is to execute sequences of coded instructions. Sorry, this is the wrong answer. This definition is precisely what got us in the mess that we are in. Read full article.
Programming

Journal Journal: COSA vs. Erlang

Journal by MOBE2001

The functional programming language Erlang is rightfully touted by its supporters as being fault-tolerant. COSA shares all the fault tolerance qualities of Erlang but this is where the similarities end. The COSA philosophy is that nothing should fail, period. There are software applications where safety is so critical that not even extreme reliability is good enough. In such cases,

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