Comment Re:Memo taken down. But there's a backup copy. (Score 1) 506
Thank you for posting a backup copy. It's pretty alarming that the original was taken down, whether one agrees with the text of the article or not.
Submission + - Microsoft Prepares to Push Kinect Everywhere Windows Is (technologyreview.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Technology Review has an update on Microsoft's effort to push Kinect gesture control technology beyond the XBox console and make it a standard Windows computer accessory. Microsoft has sold Kinect for Windows hardware to developers since February and now products based on it are appearing, such as GestSure's system for surgeons in the operating room. Microsoft won't say when it will begin selling Kinect for Windows hardware directly to consumers, but seems poised to do so once enough developers have readied applications.
Submission + - Increasing wireless network speed by 1000%, by replacing packets with algebra (extremetech.com)
MrSeb writes: "A team of researchers from MIT, Caltech, Harvard, and other universities in Europe, have devised a way of boosting the performance of wireless networks by up to 10 times — without increasing transmission power, adding more base stations, or using more wireless spectrum. The researchers’ creation, coded TCP, is a novel way of transmitting data so that lost packets don’t result in higher latency or re-sent data. With coded TCP, blocks of packets are clumped together and then transformed into algebraic equations that describe the packets. If part of the message is lost, the receiver can solve the equation to derive the missing data. The process of solving the equations is simple and linear, meaning it doesn’t require much processing on behalf of the router/smartphone/laptop. In testing, the coded TCP resulted in some dramatic improvements. MIT found that campus WiFi (2% packet loss) jumped from 1Mbps to 16Mbps. On a fast-moving train (5% packet loss), the connection speed jumped from 0.5Mbps to 13.5Mbps. Moving forward, coded TCP is expected to have huge repercussions on the performance of LTE and WiFi networks — and the technology has already been commercially licensed to several hardware makers."
Submission + - New quantum computing record set by recycled photons (newscientist.com)
CelestialScience writes: A recycling technique has enabled a quantum computer to carry out a quantum calculation known as Shor's algorithm on a larger number than ever before.The benchmark algorithm exploits quantum mechanics to simplify the factorisation of numbers into their prime components — a hard task for classical computers when the numbers get large. Until now, the largest number factorised using Shor's algorithm was 15. Now Anthony Laing at the University of Bristol, UK and colleagues report in Nature Photonics that they used a recycled photon to factorise 21 — still far too small and trivial to spook cryptographers, who rely on the difficulty of factorising large numbers for their widely-used techniques. But a record nonetheless.
Submission + - All five Star Trek Captains together (shadowlocked.com) 1
An anonymous reader writes: Just after half past seven on the evening of Friday 19th November, history was made at the Destination Star Trek London event at the capital's ExCel centre; when Captains Archer (Scott Bakula), Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), Sisko (Avery Brooks), Picard (Patrick Stewart) and James T. Kirk (William Shatner) appeared together on a European stage for the first time.
This momentous event, which had occurred just once before, at the Wizard World Comic Con in Philadelphia, USA in June, not only lived up to the expectations of fans who had dreamed of this moment for years, but exceeded them by a good light-year.
[Recap of the event at the link]
This momentous event, which had occurred just once before, at the Wizard World Comic Con in Philadelphia, USA in June, not only lived up to the expectations of fans who had dreamed of this moment for years, but exceeded them by a good light-year.
[Recap of the event at the link]
Submission + - The 4G data cap that's broken in 5 mins (pcpro.co.uk)
Barence writes: "The tariffs have been announced for Britain's first 4G network and they include a data cap that customers will break within five minutes.
EE's high-speed data service will start from £36 a month — or £21 a month SIM-only — although the lowest package's 500MB download limit might put data-focused early adopters off. With EE claiming average network speeds of up to 12Mbits/sec, that means users could theoretically exceed their cap in just over five minutes of full-speed downloads — or a little over ten seconds a day.
There are no unlimited data deals."
EE's high-speed data service will start from £36 a month — or £21 a month SIM-only — although the lowest package's 500MB download limit might put data-focused early adopters off. With EE claiming average network speeds of up to 12Mbits/sec, that means users could theoretically exceed their cap in just over five minutes of full-speed downloads — or a little over ten seconds a day.
There are no unlimited data deals."
Submission + - 3d model support comes to MediaGoblin (mediagoblin.org)
paroneayea writes: "MediaGoblin and LulzBot have teamed up to bring 3d model support to MediaGoblin! The announcement shows off a live demo of the new feature... it uses Blender on the backend to render stills and thingiview.js to show realtime webgl previews. This means MediaGoblin is becoming more useful for 3d artists and people interested in 3d printing, especially those looking for a free-as-in-freedom alternative to Thingiverse."
Submission + - Apple, ARM, and Intel
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Jean-Louis Gassée writes that Apple and Samsung are engaged in a knives-out smartphone war but when it comes to chips, the two companies must pretend to be civil because Samsung is the sole supplier of ARM-based processors for the iPhone. So why hasn’t Intel jumped at the chance to become Apple’s ARM source? "The first explanation is architectural disdain," writes Gassée. "Intel sees “no future for ARM“, it’s a culture of x86 true believers. And they have a right to their conviction: With each iteration of its manufacturing technology, Intel has full control over how to improve its processors." Next is pride. Intel would have to accept Apple’s design and “pour” it into silicon — it would become a lowly “merchant foundry“. Intel knows how to design and manufacture standard parts, but it has little experience manufacturing other people’s custom designs or pricing them. But the most likely answer to the Why Not Intel question is money. Intel meticulously tunes the price points for its processors to generate the revenue that will fund development. Intel’s published prices range from a “low” $117 for a Core i3 processor to $999 for a top-of-the-line Core i7 device. Compare this to iSuppli’s estimate for the cost of the A6 processor: $17.50. Even if more A6 chips could be produced per wafer — an unproven assumption — Intel’s revenue per A6 wafer start would be much lower than with their x86 microprocessors. In Intel’s perception of reality, this would destroy the business model. "For all of Intel’s semiconductor design and manufacturing feats, its processors suffer from a genetic handicap: They have to support the legacy x86 instruction set, and thus they’re inherently more complicated than legacy-free ARM devices, they require more transistors, more silicon. Intel will argue, rightly, that they’ll always be one technological step ahead of the competition, but is one step enough for x86 chips to beat ARM microprocessors?""
Submission + - NASA achieves data goals for Mars rover with open source software (opensource.com)
caseyb89 writes: "Open source projects Nginx, Railo CMS, and GlusterFS are powering Mars Curiosity's big data crunching. "Taken together, the combination of cloud and open source enabled the Curiosity mission to provide beautiful images in real time, not months delayed; at high quality, not "good enough" quality. A traditional, proprietary approach would not have been this successful, given the short time to deployment and shifting requirements that necessitated the ultimate in agility and flexibility.""
Submission + - Microsoft urges businesses to get off XP (windows.com)
An anonymous reader writes: It's approximately 11 years since Windows XP was unveiled, and this week Microsoft was still at it trying to convince users that it's time to upgrade. A post on the Windows For Your Business Blog calls on businesses to start XP migrations now. Microsoft cites the main reason as being that support for XP ends in April 2014, and "most new hardware options will likely not support the Windows XP operating system." If you run Windows Vista, Microsoft argues that it's time to "start planning" the move to Windows 8. As this article points out, it's not uncommon to hear about people still running XP at work.
Submission + - Google threatens French media ban (bbc.co.uk)
another random user writes: Google has threatened to exclude French media sites from search results if France goes ahead with plans to make search engines to pay for content.
In a letter sent to several ministerial offices, Google said such a law "would threaten its very existence".
French newspaper publishers have been pushing for the law, saying it is unfair that Google receives advertising revenue from searches for news. French Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti also favours the idea. She told a parliamentary commission it was "a tool that it seems important to me to develop".
In a letter sent to several ministerial offices, Google said such a law "would threaten its very existence".
French newspaper publishers have been pushing for the law, saying it is unfair that Google receives advertising revenue from searches for news. French Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti also favours the idea. She told a parliamentary commission it was "a tool that it seems important to me to develop".
Submission + - Twitter Censors German Neo-Nazis (techweekeurope.co.uk)
judgecorp writes: "Twitter has censored a neo-Nazi group, blocking Besseres Hannover (Better Hannover) a group accused of promoting race hate. This is the first time Google has used its power of blocking users in specific countries, announced back in January. Although blocked in Germany the group is visible to the rest of the world."
Submission + - User Tracking Back on iOS6 (sophos.com)
connor4312 writes: Apple got caught with its hand in the cookie jar when privacy experts protested the use of a universal device identifier, or UDID, to track the online preferences of iPhone and iPad users. Enough is enough, right? Well, maybe not. It looks like device tracking is back with iOS 6, courtesy of a new tracking technology: IDFA, or identifier for advertisers.
Submission + - Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal available today (geek.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The six month cycle that Canonical adheres to for Ubuntu releases has come around again today. Ubuntu 12.10 ‘Quantal Quetzal‘ has been released. There's a whole range of new features and updates, but here's the most important:
- WebApps — treats online services as if they are desktop apps (Gmail, Twitter, Facebook)
- Online Services — control logins to all your services from a single window and get them integrated into search results (e.g. GDocs for file searches)
- Dash Preview — right click any icon, get a detailed preview of what it is
- Linux kernel 3.5.4, GNOME 3.6, Nautilus 3.4, latest Unity
- No more Unity 2D, fallback is the Gallium llvmpipe software rasterizer
- Default apps (Firefox 16.01, Thunderbird 16.01, LibreOffice 3.6.2, Totem, Shotwell, Rythmbox)
- Full disc encryption available during install
- Single, 800MB distribution for all architectures
Download should appear today at some point.
- WebApps — treats online services as if they are desktop apps (Gmail, Twitter, Facebook)
- Online Services — control logins to all your services from a single window and get them integrated into search results (e.g. GDocs for file searches)
- Dash Preview — right click any icon, get a detailed preview of what it is
- Linux kernel 3.5.4, GNOME 3.6, Nautilus 3.4, latest Unity
- No more Unity 2D, fallback is the Gallium llvmpipe software rasterizer
- Default apps (Firefox 16.01, Thunderbird 16.01, LibreOffice 3.6.2, Totem, Shotwell, Rythmbox)
- Full disc encryption available during install
- Single, 800MB distribution for all architectures
Download should appear today at some point.
Submission + - Windows 8 Tells Microsoft About Everything You Install (nadim.cc)
musicon writes: "According to Nadim Kobeissi, Windows 8 is configured by default (using a new featured called Windows SmartScreen) to immediately tell Microsoft about every app you download and install. This is a very serious privacy problem, specifically because Microsoft is the central point of authority and data collection/retention here and therefore becomes vulnerable to being served judicial subpoenas or National Security Letters intended to monitor targeted users. This situation is exacerbated when Windows 8 is deployed in countries experiencing political turmoil or repressive political situations.
Additionally, it may be possible for a 3rd party to intercept SmartScreen’s communications to Microsoft and thus learn about every single application downloaded and installed by a target."
Additionally, it may be possible for a 3rd party to intercept SmartScreen’s communications to Microsoft and thus learn about every single application downloaded and installed by a target."
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