Gr8Apes - Slashdot User

Submission + - Genetics used to improve crop production, naturally. (bbc.com)

Submitted by Gr8Apes on Wednesday February 08, 2017 @05:08PM

Gr8Apes writes: Scientists have successfully decoded the genome of quinoa, a hugely popular "super-food" because it is well balanced and gluten-free. They have pinpointed one of the genes that they believe control the production of saponins (bitter toxic compounds that protect the plant from predators) which can facilitate the breeding of plants without saponins resulting in sweeter seeds without having to process them. The scientists also believe that the genetic understanding now gained will allow them to breed shorter, stockier plants that don't fall over as easily, and that these benefits could be gained without the use of genetic modification.

Submission + - Before I Can Fix This Tractor, We have to fix the DMCA. (slate.com)

Submitted by Gr8Apes on Monday January 18, 2016 @09:34AM

Gr8Apes writes: How many people does it take to fix a tractor? When the repair involves a tractor's computer, it actually takes an army of copyright lawyers, dozens of representatives from U.S. government agencies, an official hearing, hundreds of pages of legal briefs, and nearly a year of waiting. Waiting for the Copyright Office to make a decision about whether people like me can repair, modify, or hack their own stuff. why do people need to ask permission to fix a tractor in the first place? It’s required under the anti-circumvention section of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Even unlocking your cellphone required an act of Congress to make it legal.

A few changes that would significantly help: Make the opposition show that an exemption is absolutely unnecessary. Congress should make exemptions permanent.

Submission + - Google let root certificate for Gmail expire (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Gr8Apes on Tuesday April 07, 2015 @01:45PM

Gr8Apes writes: The certificate for Google's intermediate certificate authority expired Saturday The certificate was used to issue Gmail's certificate for SMTP, and the expiration at 11:55am EDT caused many e-mail clients to stop receiving Gmail messages. While the problem affected most Gmail users using PC and mobile mail clients, Web access to Gmail was unaffected. Guess Google Calendar failed to notify someone.

Submission + - Virtual boss keeps workers on a leash. (cnn.com)

Submitted by Gr8Apes on Monday February 03, 2014 @11:04AM

Gr8Apes writes: Hitachi has created a "perfect virtual boss"

"Hitachi, the big electronics company based in Japan, is manufacturing and selling to corporations a device intended to increase efficiency in the workplace. It has a rather bland and generic-sounding name: the Hitachi Business Microscope (paywalled).

But what it is capable of doing ... well, just imagine being followed around the office or the factory all day by the snoopiest boss in the world. Even into the restroom."

We may pine for the privacy of Orwell's 1984....

Submission + - AMD's Barcelona to outpace Intel by 50%

Submitted by Gr8Apes on Monday April 23, 2007 @10:32AM

Gr8Apes writes: AMD is upping the performance numbers for Barcelona by stating that "Barcelona will have a 50% advantage over Clovertown in floating point applications and 20% in integer performance 'over the competition's highest-performing quad-core processor at the same frequency'". AMD also claims that the new 3.0 GHz Opterons beat comparable Intel Xeon 5100 series processors in three server-specific benchmarks (SPECint_rate_2006, SPECint_rate2006, SPECompM2001) by up to 24%.

Submission + - Major Broadcasters hit with $12M Payola Fine

Submitted by Gr8Apes on Tuesday March 06, 2007 @12:28AM

Gr8Apes writes: Listeners and Indies may rejoice according to a just breaking story. According to the AP story:

Four major broadcast companies would pay the government $12.5 million and provide 8,400 half-hour segments of free airtime for independent record labels and local artists, The Associated Press has learned.

Submission + - AMD's showcases Quad-Core Barcelona CPU

Submitted by Gr8Apes on Friday February 09, 2007 @08:45PM

Gr8Apes writes: AMD has showcased their new 65nm Barcelona quad-core CPU. It is labeled a quad-core Opteron, but according to Infoworld's Tom Yeager, is really a redefinition of x86. Each core has a new vector math processing unit (SSE128), separate integer and floating point schedulers, and new nested paging tables (to vastly improve hardware virtualization). According to AMD, the new vector math units alone should improve floating point operation by 80%. Some analysts are skeptical, waiting for benchmarks. Will AMD dethrone Intel again? Only time will tell.

Submission + - THG reviews Intel's Quad core CPU!

Submitted by Gr8Apes on Monday September 11, 2006 @10:55AM

Gr8Apes writes: TomsHardware reviews Intel's new Kentsfield quad core processor From the article:
Compared with the already not-too-shabby Intel Core 2 Duo/Extreme, the Core 2 Quadro can give performance a mighty tweak — but only for specific applications. In the best-case scenario, performance can even be doubled.

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