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Hardware

CPU DB: Looking At 40 Years of Processor Improvements 113

Posted by timothy from the why-in-my-day-we-didn't-have-binary dept.
CowboyRobot writes "Stanford's CPU DB project (cpudb.stanford.edu) is like an open IMDB for microprocessors. Processors have come a long way from the Intel 4004 in 1971, with a clock speed of 740KHz, and CPU DB shows the details of where and when the gains have occured. More importantly, by looking at hundreds of processors over decades, researchers are able to separate the effect of technology scaling from improvements in say, software. The public is encouraged to contribute to the project."

Comment Re:Finally (Score 1) 375

by mantis2009 (#37278490) Attached to: Windows 8 Desktop 'Just Another App'?

This move to modularity is probably overall good, however, does the optional Windows 8 legacy UI remind anyone else of 1995? Remember when you stared the Windows 95 GUI by typing "win.exe"? And, of course, whenever possible, you tried to run applications from DOS without the Windows GUI sucking up performance. There was a (sometimes) significant performance penalty for running Windows "app" on top of DOS.

If the 1995-esque performance penalties are there for running explorer.exe on top of the new Windows 8 Metro UI, that will be bad news.
Crime

Submission + - FBI Shuts Down Major Scareware Gang, Arrests 2 (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: The FBI has made a major dent in the huge scareware and rogue antivirus problem that has been plaguing Internet users for years now, arresting two people and seizing dozens of computers, servers and bank accounts as part of a large-scale coordinated operation in twelve countries.

The operation, which involved authorities in the United States, Germany, France, Latvia, the UK and several other nations, was designed to disrupt the scareware ecosystem that has been preying on users' security fears in an effort to scam them out of millions of dollars in licensing fees for useless or outright malicious software.
Businesses

Valve's Newell: One-Price-For-Everyone Business Model 'Broken' 374

Posted by Soulskill from the more-expensive-for-jerks dept.
Fysx writes with recent comments from Valve co-founder Gabe Newell about how he thinks the traditional video game business model is flawed: "The industry has this broken model, which is one price for everyone. That’s actually a bug, and it’s something that we want to solve through our philosophy of how we create entertainment products. What you really want to do is create the optimal pricing service for each customer and see what’s best for them. We need to give customers, all of them, a robust set of options regarding how they pay for their content. An example is – and this is something as an industry we should be doing better – is charging customers based on how much fun they are to play with. Some people, when they join a server, a ton of people will run with them. Other people, when they join a server, will cause others to leave. We should have a way of capturing that. We should have a way of rewarding the people who are good for our community."

Submission + - Fukushima "illegal information" will be censored (japanfocus.org) 2

Submitted by dgilzz
dgilzz writes: The [japanese] government charges that the damage caused by earthquakes and by the nuclear accident are being magnified by irresponsible rumors, and the government must take action for the sake of the public good. The project team has begun to send “letters of request” to such organizations as telephone companies, internet providers, cable television stations, and others, demanding that they “take adequate measures based on the guidelines in response to illegal information. ”The measures include erasing any information from internet sites that the authorities deem harmful to public order and morality.

Comment Re:No, sounds like only in America (Score 1) 332

by mantis2009 (#35732316) Attached to: Which Grad Students Are the Most Miserable?

This is an important distinction -- why does the wealthiest country in the history of the world (today's US) have "miserable" scholars? Public funding is crucial in determining what (and even whether) scientific research is undertaken. The current political environment in the United States, which sees the debate between Democrats and Republicans reduced to how much public spending to cut, is generally hostile to research funding. This will inevitably lead to a decrease in the number of people who pursue Ph.D.'s in the US.
Crime

Submission + - Epsilon breach affects JPMorgan Chase, Capital One (net-security.org)

Submitted by Orome1
Orome1 writes: The recent Play.com breach has been tied to the attack that its marketing communications firm Silverpop — a company that services over 105 customers, among whom are Walgreens and McDonalds — suffered last December. But the latest breach will likely have the biggest impact, because marketing services provider Epsilon — the largest one in the world — has notified its customers of a breach that likely compromised all of their mailing lists. Among Epsilon's customers are US Bank, JPMorgan Chase, TiVo, Capital One, the Home Shopping Network, LL Bean Visa Card, Ritz-Carlton Rewards, Best Buy, Disney Destinations, Walgreens, and many more.

Comment "School 2015" (Score 1) 375

by mantis2009 (#32982772) Attached to: The Oldest Timestamp On a File I Created and Still Have Is...

The oldest file on my computer is a story I wrote for English class in junior high school, when I was about 14 years old. Entitled "School 2015," I describe a fantastic futuristic computerized world where all schoolwork and basic life tasks were accomplished with the help of computers. Not making this up -- when computers have something to say in this world I invented, they announce themselves by saying, "BING!"

Comment Re:Just to point out... (Score 4, Informative) 95

by mantis2009 (#32876122) Attached to: New Google Research On Social Networks

Separating friend lists on Facebook as you describe doesn't support all of the functions mentioned in the slideshow. For example, posting comments on Facebook photos goes out to all people with permission to see your comments on photos. The slideshow suggests allowing different comments to be seen by different groups of friends. In the current Facebook implementation, your friends either have permission to see all your comments on all photos, or none.
Google

Submission + - New Google Research on Social Networks (slideshare.net)

Submitted by mantis2009
mantis2009 writes: Paul Adams, a senior user experience researcher at Google has posted a slideshow from a recent presentation that gives insightful research into how people use social networking technologies. The presentation describes several shortcomings of existing technology, and it highlights specific modalities that current technology (ahem, Facebook) gets wrong. Adams concludes that social networking applications are a "crude approximation" of real-life social networks. "People don't have one group of friends," Adams research in several different countries shows that in reality, most people have between four to six groups of friends. He argues that social networking applications need to be built with that reality in mind.

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