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Comment I don't know a good title for this (Score 1) 1448

Personally, I don't care what he said. I read a book, not the author's comments. Books & Movies are entertainment. I read Game of Thrones without knowing anything about the author. I still know nothing about him. I read Ender's Game and liked it. The only aspect of Orson Scott Card that I care about is that he is a good author. The movie looks awesome so far and that's all I care about. I don't care whether or not Card believes in Pastafarianism or anything else. To the best of my knowledge, he didn't let his personal views seep into his books, so I don't care what he believes. (In terms of determining whether or not to read his books.)
Robotics

Giant Robotic Jellyfish Unveiled by Researchers 43

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, an anonymous reader writes in with news about a giant robot jellyfish. As if there weren't enough real jellyfish around to trigger our thalassophobia, researchers at Virginia Tech have created Cryo -- an eight-armed autonomous robot that mimics jelly movement with the help of a flexible silicone hat. The man-sized jellybot altogether dwarfs previous efforts, hence the upgrade from small tank to swimming pool for mock field tests. And unlike the passively propelled bots we've seen recently, Cryo runs on batteries, with the researchers hoping to better replicate the energy-efficient nature of jelly movement to eventually increase Cryo's charge cycle to months instead of hours. That's also the reason these robotic jellyfish are getting bigger -- because the larger they are, the further they can go."
Democrats

Democrats Crowdsourcing To Vote Palin In Primaries 1128

SharpieMarker writes "In what could be the most extreme and influential crowdsourcing project ever, Democrats are beginning to organize to purposely vote for Palin in the 2012 Republican primaries. Their theory is by having Palin as an opponent, Obama will have the best odds at winning reelection. Recent polls have shown that Obama comfortably leads Palin by 10-20 points, but Obama is statistically tied with Romney and barely ahead of Huckabee. They even have a state-by-state primary voting guide to help Democrats navigate various states' rules for voting Palin in Republican primaries."
Data Storage

Submission + - Samsung '3D' Memory Coming, 50% More Dense (computerworld.com)

CWmike writes: Samsung on Tuesday announced a new 8GB dual inline memory module (DIMM) that stacks memory chips on top of each other, which increases the density of the memory by 50% compared with conventional DIMM technology. Samsung's new registered or buffered (RDIMM) product is based on its current Green DDR3 DRAM and 40 nanometer (nm)-sized circuitry. The new memory module is aimed at the server and enterprise storage markets. The three-dimensional (3D) chip stacking process is referred to in the memory industry as Through Silicon Via (TSV). Samsung said the TSV process saves up to 40% of the power consumed by a conventional RDIMM. Using the TSV technology will greatly improve chip density in next-generation server systems, Samsung said, making it attractive for high-density, high-performance systems.
AMD

Submission + - AMD Releases Three New Low-Cost CPUs

WesternActor writes: With its new Fusion APUs coming out in about a month, you wouldn't think AMD would still be tweaking its processor lineup. But it released three new processors today—the Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition, the Phenom II X2 565 Black Edition, and the Athlon II X3 455—to balance out its price-performance offerings. The Black Edition CPUs with their unlocked multipliers are probably the most interesting, particularly the Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition which has six cores, runs at 3.3 GHz, and costs only $265. As the name implies, the 1100T represents only a minute increase in clock speed over the 1090T. It even has the same amount of L2 and L3 cache (3MB and 6MB, respectively), is based on the same 45nm production process, and is designed for the currently standard AM3 socket. Given that 1090T got the downward nudge in price to $235, however, the 1100T offers slightly better performance for less money.
Open Source

Submission + - Ex-Sun CEO to Ellison: avoid death by open source (theregister.co.uk)

gearystwatcher writes: Former Sun CEO Scott McNealy talks to The Reg on where things went wrong and acquisition by Oracle: "We probably got a little too aggressive near the end and probably open sourced too much and tried too hard to appease the community and tried too hard to share," McNealy said. "You gotta take care of your shareholders or you end up very vulnerable like we got. We were a wonderful acquisition — we got stolen for a song at the bottom of the Dow."
Google

Submission + - Google Unveils Android 'Honeycomb' Tablet

adeelarshad82 writes: Google Mobile Platform VP Andy Rubin unvieled the very first Android "Honeycomb" tablet. While very few specs were released about the device, it is said to be a sleek, black, Motorola tablet that is roughly 10-inches and runs NVidia dual core CPU. The device has a very clean homepage and the app page looked almost Apple iPad-like. Infact the Gmail app looked almost exactly like Gmail on the iPad. According to Andy Rubin, Honeycomb should release sometime next year and most major OEMs planning on building Android tablets have expressed interest in using this version of the Android platform.
Books

Kindle Allowing Chinese Unfettered Access To Web 138

jcl-xen0n writes "Apparently, some Chinese Kindle owners have discovered that they are able to access banned sites such as Twitter and Facebook without a problem. The article speculates that Amazon may be operating a local equivalent to Amazon Whispernet with a Chinese 3G provider. Professor Lawrence Yeung Kwan, of the University of Hong Kong's electrical and electronic engineering department, told the paper that mainland internet patrols might have overlooked the gadget (perhaps because they consider it solely a tool to purchase books). How long before Kindle traffic is locked down?"

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