25154438
submission
derGoldstein writes:
Ars has an article up about the two latest "papers demonstrating that, if you change the way the graphene stacks, you obtain a voltage-controlled bandgap ... Between these two papers, a fairly complete understanding of the bandgap behavior in three layer graphene has been obtained, leaving only the challenge of making the stuff".
23102732
submission
derGoldstein writes:
Intel will again offer CPU upgrades through software. In the past, the upgrades gave you HyperThreading and more L3 cache. This time upgrades will actually increase CPU frequency: "Intel® Upgrade Service offers three different upgrades on second generation Core processors: Intel® Core i3-2312M processor, Intel® Core i3-2102 processor, and Intel® Pentium® G622 processor". The page provides benchmarks of the 3 upgrade options.
23082050
submission
derGoldstein writes:
Project PyPy is an alternative implementation of Python, with the main advantage being a Just In Time (JIT) compiler which speeds up your code considerably. They've announced the first public release of jitviewer, which is a visualization tool that helps you understand how your code is being compiled by PyPy's JIT, all the way down to assembly. If you just want to see how it looks and play with it, they've setup an online demo — just select a file, and click "Show Assembler".
23067118
submission
derGoldstein writes:
This year Microsoft kept signaling that it's going back to lower-level code with a C++ renaissance. It would give C++ programmers the same priority that was, up until now, reserved for .Net programmers. They even launched a new show about it on their Channel9. Now Google wants to appeal to native programmers with their Native Client for Chrome. It seems that both companies want to cover both the higher-level JavaScript and lower-level C/C++. I dare hope this will give seasoned C/C++ programmers a place along JavaScript programmers at the web development table.
23057312
submission
derGoldstein writes:
From the Google blog: "Today we’re adding games to Google+. With the Google+ project, we want to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to the web. But sharing is about more than just conversations. The experiences we have together are just as important to our relationships. We want to make playing games online just as fun, and just as meaningful, as playing in real life." Isn't it funny that they phrase it as though this was their original realization?
22923184
submission
derGoldstein writes:
Discovery is pointing to an ongoing study by Sophia Vinogradov, professor of psychiatry at UC-San Francisco, who is "trying to determine whether computer-based cognitive remediation, a type of brain training through video game-like programs, is effective for treating schizophrenia ... In a handful of blinded and randomized trials with computer-based training, Vinogradov has reported cognitive improvements for both recently diagnosed patients and those living with the disorder for several years. So far, treatment — such as 50 hours of training over a 10-week period — has shown great promise for patients when compared to control groups".
22921434
submission
derGoldstein writes:
From npr: "Speaking with The Associated Press on the sidelines of the website's annual conference, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said the nonprofit company that runs the site is scrambling to simplify editing procedures in an attempt to retain volunteers". According to Wales: "We are not replenishing our ranks ... It is not a crisis, but I consider it to be important." Despite Wikipedia's wide-reaching popularity, Wales said the typical profile of a contributor is "a 26-year-old geeky male" who moves on to other ventures, gets married and leaves the website.
22656136
submission
derGoldstein writes:
From DigitalTrends: "An amateur astronomer recently discovered what has been confirmed to be one of the best looks yet at a planetary nubula, the last, gassy breath of a dying star. The nebula, named Kronenberger 61 after the enthusiast who discovered it, will offer insights into the future and death of our own sun."
22648626
submission
derGoldstein writes:
Discovery posted an interesting story of how X-rays that are used by astronomers for determining the various chemical abundances inside stars could also potentially be used for more effective radiation therapy: "radiation treatment is a coarse instrument at best, since it destroys surrounding healthy cells as well as cancerous tumors. Much research is underway for targeted methods to reduce the collateral damage and attack just the cancer cells, including embedding nanoparticles inside tumors. ... Nahar and Pradham envision a prototype device capable of generating x-rays at the key frequencies to trigger a flood of low-energy electrons in platinum and gold, based on their computer simulations. Gold or platinum nanoparticles would amass naturally in cancerous tumors in the body, and could then be zapped with the focused x-ray beam."
22638672
submission
derGoldstein writes:
AllThingsD points to a study about mobile gamers' spending habits: "a new study conducted by Flurry, an analytics provider for mobile games on Apple and Android devices, provides a fairly compelling argument as to why a developer should continue to give away his or her games for free ... After evaluating the spending habits of 3.5 million consumers across both iOS and Android, Flurry found that among those who pay for in-app transactions, greater than five percent will spend more than $50, which rivals the amount paid at retail for top console and PC games. "
22634740
submission
derGoldstein writes:
Ben Delarre shared his story with Make about the origins and future of Circuitbee, a service that allows you to embed schematics on websites: "CircuitBee is like YouTube for your circuit schematics. You upload your Eagle or KiCAD schematics, we crunch the numbers and create an online embeddable version of your schematic. You can pan and zoom, and mouse over components in your circuits for more details ."
The service is still in alpha at the moment, so there are still a few things to iron out. But if you've ever shared circuit designs by exporting huge JPGs, you should really check out CircuitBee
22633218
submission
derGoldstein writes:
From DiscoveryNews: "Scientists have found evidence of volcanoes on the far side of the moon.
The new discovery, reported in the journal Nature Geoscience is a rare example of volcanism on the lunar surface not associated with asteroid, meteor or comet impact events. ... They focused on an area containing numerous domes, some more than six kilometers high.
The domes featured steeply sloping sides which Jolliff and colleagues interpret as, "volcanic in origin and formed from viscous lava." "
22614674
submission
derGoldstein writes:
New Scientist has a great video up detailing every step of how the latest Mars rover will reach its target and get deployed. It's drastically different than the bouncing air-bag delivery system previously used.
