Tag: article

FCC Wants To Trial Shift From Analog Phone Networks To Digital

An anonymous reader sends word that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has given the go-ahead for telecommunications companies to start experimenting with an IP-based telephone protocol. From the article: “The experiments approved by the FCC would not test the new technology – it is already being used – and would not determine law and policy regulating it, FCC staff said. The trials would seek to establish, among other things, how consumers welcome the change and how new technology performs in emergency situations, including in remote locations. ‘What we’re doing here is a big deal. This is an important moment, ‘ FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said. ‘We today invite service providers to propose voluntary experiments for all-IP networks.’ The move in part grants the application by AT&T to conduct IP transition tests as companies that offer landline phone services seek to ultimately replace their old copper wires with newer technology like fiber or wireless.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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FCC Wants To Trial Shift From Analog Phone Networks To Digital

$499 3-D Printer Drew Plenty of Attention at CES (Video)

3-D printing is far from new, but a $499 3-D printer is new enough to get a bunch of people to write about it, including someone whose headline read, CES 2014: Could 3D printing change the world? XYZPrinting, the company behind the da Vinci 1.0 printer, has some happy-looking executives in the wake of CES. They won an award, and their booth got lots of attention. This is what trade shows are all about for small and/or new companies. Now the XYZ Printing people can go home and pump out some product — assuming they got a lot of orders (and not just attention) at CES. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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$499 3-D Printer Drew Plenty of Attention at CES (Video)

A Beginner’s Introduction to Overclocking Your Intel Processor

If you want to squeeze every last ounce of processing power out of your new computer or aging system, overclocking is a great—if slightly nerve-racking—option. Here are some simple guidelines for safely overclocking your processor. Read more…        

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A Beginner’s Introduction to Overclocking Your Intel Processor

Lasers Unearth Lost ‘Agropolis’ of New England

sciencehabit writes “Hidden ruins are customary in the wild jungles of South America or on the white shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Now, researchers have uncovered a long-lost culture closer to Western civilization — in New England. Using aerial surveys created by LiDAR, a laser-guided mapping technique, the team detected the barely perceptible remnants of a former ‘agropolis’ around three rural New England towns (abstract). Near Ashford, Connecticut, a vast network of roads offset by stone walls came to light underneath a canopy of oak and spruce trees. More than half of the town has become reforested since 1870, according to historical documents, exemplifying the extent of the rural flight that marked the late 1800s. Some structures were less than 2 feet high and buried in inaccessible portions of the forest, making them essentially invisible to on-the-ground cartography.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Lasers Unearth Lost ‘Agropolis’ of New England

End of Moore’s Law Forcing Radical Innovation

dcblogs writes “The technology industry has been coasting along on steady, predictable performance gains, as laid out by Moore’s law. But stability and predictability are also the ingredients of complacency and inertia. At this stage, Moore’s Law may be more analogous to golden handcuffs than to innovation. With its end in sight, systems makers and governments are being challenged to come up with new materials and architectures. The European Commission has written of a need for ‘radical innovation in many computing technologies.’ The U.S. National Science Foundation, in a recent budget request, said technologies such as carbon nanotube digital circuits will likely be needed, or perhaps molecular-based approaches, including biologically inspired systems. The slowdown in Moore’s Law has already hit high-performance computing. Marc Snir, director of the Mathematics and Computer Science Division at the Argonne National Laboratory, outlined in a series of slides the problem of going below 7nm on chips, and the lack of alternative technologies.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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End of Moore’s Law Forcing Radical Innovation

Intel’s Knights Landing — 72 Cores, 3 Teraflops

New submitter asliarun writes “David Kanter of Realworldtech recently posted his take on Intel’s upcoming Knights Landing chip. The technical specs are massive, showing Intel’s new-found focus on throughput processing (and possibly graphics). 72 Silvermont cores with beefy FP and vector units, mesh fabric with tile based architecture, DDR4 support with a 384-bit memory controller, QPI connectivity instead of PCIe, and 16GB on-package eDRAM (yes, 16GB). All this should ensure throughput of 3 teraflop/s double precision. Many of the architectural elements would also be the same as Intel’s future CPU chips — so this is also a peek into Intel’s vision of the future. Will Intel use this as a platform to compete with nVidia and AMD/ATI on graphics? Or will this be another Larrabee? Or just an exotic HPC product like Knights Corner?” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Intel’s Knights Landing — 72 Cores, 3 Teraflops

How the Circumference of Earth Was Accurately Estimated 2000 Years Ago

Born around 276 B.C. in Cyrene, Libya, Eratosthenes soon became one of the most famous mathematicians of his time. He is best known for making the first recorded measurement of the Earth’s circumference, which was also remarkably accurate. (And, yes, people at that point had known for some time that the world wasn’t flat, contrary to popular belief .) Read more…        

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How the Circumference of Earth Was Accurately Estimated 2000 Years Ago

Overstock.com Plans To Accept Bitcoin

SonicSpike writes “Overstock plans to become the first big U.S. online retailer to accept Bitcoin, as Patrick Byrne, the company’s libertarian chief executive, warms to the virtual currency as a refuge from government control. Mr Byrne told the Financial Times that Overstock planned to start accepting Bitcoin next year – possibly by the end of the second quarter – a decision that he said was driven mainly by his own political philosophy. ‘I think a healthy monetary system at the end of the day isn’t an upside down pyramid based on the whim of a government official, but is based on something that they can’t control, ‘ Mr Byrne said.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Overstock.com Plans To Accept Bitcoin

Data Broker Medbase200 Sold Lists of Rape & Domestic Violence Victims

McGruber writes “During her testimony (PDF) at a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing Wednesday about the data-broker industry, Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, revealed that the Medbase200 unit of Integrated Business Services Incorporated had been offering a list of ‘rape sufferers’ on its website, at a cost of $79 for 1, 000 names. The company, which sells marketing information to pharmaceutical companies, also offered lists of domestic violence victims, HIV/AIDS patients, and ‘peer pressure sufferers.’ In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Integrated Business Services Incorporated President Sam Tartamella initially denied that his company maintained or sold databases of rape victims. After the Journal provided him a link to the ‘rape sufferers’ page, he said he would remove it from Medbase200’s website and denied ever having sold such a list. The page was removed later Wednesday.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Data Broker Medbase200 Sold Lists of Rape & Domestic Violence Victims

Next-Gen Windshield Wipers To Be Based On Jet Fighter "Forcefield" Tech

cartechboy writes “It looks like the old-school windshield wiper is about to be replaced by new technology — but not until 2015. British car-maker McLaren is apparently developing a new window cleaning system that is modeled from fighter jet tech. The company isn’t revealing exactly how it will work, but the idea comes from the chief designer simply asking a military source why you don’t see wipers on jets as they land. Experts expect McClaren to use constantly active, high-frequency sound waves outside the range of human hearing that will effectively create a force field across a car’s windshield to repel water, ice insects and other debris. Similar sound waves are used by dentists to remove plaque from teeth.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Next-Gen Windshield Wipers To Be Based On Jet Fighter "Forcefield" Tech