Are you a geek? Walyou is about tech and gadgets, but also geek culture. Let’s take a look at the Evolution of the Geek to see where you fit into our community.
The word geek is said to originate from the word “gecken,” which back in the 16th century meant fool. …
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The Evolution of the Geek [Infographic]
The trouble with pesky Photon, at least as far as ultra-fast optical computing is concerned, is that he keeps coming back. If a data-carrying beam of light collides with reflections bouncing around between the components of a chip, it can suffer enough interference to make people yearn for the good old days of electrons. What’s needed is the optical equivalent of a diode, which only allows light to pass one way, and that’s exactly what researchers at Caltech and the University of California claim to have developed. As you’ll see in the photo after the break, their metallic-silicon optical waveguide allows light to travel smoothly from left to right, but it breaks up and dissipates any photons traveling in the opposite direction. This is all good, because there’s no point having futuristic 50Gbps optical interconnects if our CPUs lag behind. Light up the source link for a fuller explanation.
Continue reading Optical ‘diode’ lends hope to photonic computing, rayguns
Optical ‘diode’ lends hope to photonic computing, rayguns originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Aug 2011 15:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Researchers from Taiwan have developed an eco-friendly type of electronic paper. The rewritable i2R e-paper uses heat to store images, isn’t backlit and does not consume electricity. More
In the five months since a tsunami and 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit Japan, we’ve seen various technology companies struggle to get their manufacturing operations back in order, but Sony appears to be the first to introduce a product seemingly inspired by the disaster itself. The outfit's Japanese division just announced the ESSP-2000, a 90kg (198-pound)battery whose 2.4kWh of power should keep businesses and government agencies afloat for at least a few hours in the event of a blackout or natural disaster. All told, the battery can support a maximum load of 1000VA, and can recharge to 95 percent in about two hours — not bad, considering the capacity of this thing. Sony also went with olivine-type lithium-ion iron phosphate batteries, which it says will last ten years. With a price of ¥2 million ($25,700), this battery's clearly not meant to be a savior for home users, though for businesses it could be a small price to pay for an uninterrupted power supply.
Sony intros 200-pound battery to power businesses, government agencies during a blackout originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Aug 2011 11:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The time has come for me to put together a new PC. The Core 2 Duo E6700 I bought within a few weeks of its release is now five years old, and though it’s served me well, when it comes to playing the latest games and building software in Visual Studio, it’s just not that quick. Both the processor and my video card, a Radeon HD 4830, need replacing with something newer and better. The October release of Battlefield 3 has finally pushed me over the edge: I need a new computer to play that game in all its glory.
This is going to be a major upgrade. I’m going to keep my hard disk, beloved Dell clicky keyboard, and twin Dell U2410 monitors, but everything else is going to go; motherboard, CPU, RAM, video card, TV tuner, optical drive, and case are all up for replacement. Optical drive, too; I have enough old games on CD and DVD that ditching optical media isn’t really viable yet.
Many of the component choices are easy enough. But when it comes to processors and motherboards, I’m flummoxed. Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors have the clear performance lead, so they’re the natural choice for any system build. But then I fall foul of Intel’s pricing scheme; which one should I buy?
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What processor should I buy? Intel’s crazy pricing makes my head hurt