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Intel

Intel Targets AMD With Affordable Unlocked CPUs 207

EconolineCrush writes "For years, AMD has catered to gamers and enthusiasts with mid-range Black Edition processors whose unlocked multipliers make overclocking easy. Intel has traditionally reserved unlocked multipliers for its ultra-expensive Extreme CPUs, but it has now brought the feature to affordable models that compete directly with AMD's most popular processors. The Core i5-655K and Core i7-875K have two and four cores, respectively, and they're priced at just $216 and $342. It appears that both will easily hit speeds in excess of 4GHz with air cooling. Surprisingly, even at stock speeds, the i7-875K offers better performance and power efficiency per dollar than just about any other desktop CPU out there."

Comment Humans are *not* good at such games--see Sudoku (Score 2, Insightful) 322

NP-hard just means you (most likely) need an exponential search. Maybe you want to take this as evidence that human creativity is needed, but that's a stretch. Humans don't do better than computers on NP-hard problems. In fact, they almost certainly do worse, because if you cannot skip the search part, computers are tremendously faster at that. See how quickly a human solves a sudoku, vs. a computer. Even though it's NP-hard (for arbitrary dimensions).

Of course the whole thing depends on the base of the exponent. It's true that many hard problems are hopeless for computers while humans do detect some patterns and make some progress. (E.g., searches for mathematical proofs.) But the games listed have pretty well-defined, fairly small search spaces.

Plus, the proof for NP-hardness is for arbitrary sizes, not the usual dimensions that humans play the game at. Computers are hands down better at that.

Comment Escolar is sold widely in the US (Score 1) 554

It probably makes for a better story to say it's a "toxic fish banned in Italy and Japan", but Escolar is sold widely in quality food markets in the US. Our local quality supermarket (Market of Choice in Oregon--an awesome chain) used to carry it in volume and maybe still does. I recall my wife informed them of the symptoms. She found out the fish was the cause from the Escolar Wikipedia page, by the way.

In any case, "toxic" is a misleading, even if technically it's true (I don't know the scientific def of the term). It's a fish that's sold in many countries, it does not cause permanent damage despite the disturbing symptoms, and if I recall correctly few people experience these symptoms and not when consumed in moderation.

Comment Harvard? Frustrating name dropping. (Score 1) 105

The exact same project done at most universities would at best get a reference of "scientists do XYZ". Harvard does it (or MIT, even more) and not only it's more likely to get promoted, it also gets the headline "Harvard researchers do XYZ". Slashdot is for intelligent people (ok, mostly). We shouldn't be feeding the hype cycle.

Comment Re:Best Reason So Far (Score 2, Interesting) 289

Keep in mind that lower weights are correlated with Alzheimer's. (In a separate comment--sorry--I complained that the current study introduces bias by excluding people who already showed signs of dementia.)

        http://www.understanding-alzheimers.com/articles/Linking-Alzheimers-to-Weight-Loss.html

"The September 2005 study, which stemmed from longitudinal research done on the aging process in 820 members of the Catholic clergy since 1993, found that a decrease in BMI significantly increased the chances of developing Alzheimer's disease. Even maintaining the same BMI was linked to a significantly increased chance of developing the disease compared to those seniors who experienced an increase in BMI."

So, if you are older, think twice before dieting for the purpose of "helping" your brain.

Comment It could be precisely the opposite! (Score 1) 289

The "correlation is not causation" maxim is doubly applicable here, because their sample is purposely biased. They only studied 70+ year olds who did *not* show any sign of dementia. But there is a well-established correlation between lower body weight and Alzheimer's:

  http://www.understanding-alzheimers.com/articles/Linking-Alzheimers-to-Weight-Loss.html

"The September 2005 study, which stemmed from longitudinal research done on the aging process in 820 members of the Catholic clergy since 1993, found that a decrease in BMI significantly increased the chances of developing Alzheimer's disease. Even maintaining the same BMI was linked to a significantly increased chance of developing the disease compared to those seniors who experienced an increase in BMI."

In other words, it is possible they included overweight people who might otherwise, were they not overweight, have suffered from Alzheimer's. In contrast, they may have excluded slimmer people with reduced brain tissue because these have already started showing signs of dementia.

These are *very* tricky correlations and it is irresponsible to suggest anything like causation.

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