Comment Re:What about the other .3% ? (Score 0) 432
who cares, it was stolen from SCO
Submission + - Faster Chips Are Leaving Programmers in Their Dust (nytimes.com)
mlimber writes: The New York Times is running a story about multicore computing and the efforts of Microsoft et al. to try to switch to the new paradigm: "The challenges [of parallel programming] have not dented the enthusiasm for the potential of the new parallel chips at Microsoft, where executives are betting that the arrival of manycore chips — processors with more than eight cores, possible as soon as 2010 — will transform the world of personal computing.... Engineers and computer scientists acknowledge that despite advances in recent decades, the computer industry is still lagging in its ability to write parallel programs."
It mirrors what C++ guru and now Microsoft architect Herb Sutter has been saying in articles such as his "The Free Lunch Is Over: A Fundamental Turn Toward Concurrency in Software." Sutter is part of the C++ standards committee that is working hard to make multithreading standard in C++.
It mirrors what C++ guru and now Microsoft architect Herb Sutter has been saying in articles such as his "The Free Lunch Is Over: A Fundamental Turn Toward Concurrency in Software." Sutter is part of the C++ standards committee that is working hard to make multithreading standard in C++.
Submission + - Beautiful Code interview (safaribooksonline.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Safari Books Online has just posted an interview with Andy Oram and Greg Wilson, the two editors who put together the recent O'Reilly book, Beautiful Code. "Beautiful Code" features 33 different case studies about challenging coding scenarios from some of today's most high-profile developers and OS project leaders. There's also a new Beautiful Code web site based on the book where many of the authors are blogging about their work and coding practices.
Submission + - BitTorrent Closes Source Code (slyck.com)
An anonymous reader writes: "There are two issues people need to come to grips with," BitTorrent CEO Ashwin Narvin told Slyck.com. "Developers who produce open source products will often have their product repackaged and redistributed by businesses with malicious intent. They repackage the software with spyware or charge for the product. We often receive phone calls from people who complain they have paid for the BitTorrent client."
As for the protocol itself, that too is closed, but is available by obtaining an SDK license.
Submission + - An Optical Solution For an NP-Complete problem? (opticsexpress.org)
6 writes: Tobias Haist and Wolfgang Osten have proposed a novel idea for solving the traveling salesman problem...
We introduce an optical method based on white light interferometry in order to solve the well-known NP-complete traveling salesman problem. To our knowledge it is the first time that a method for the reduction of non-polynomial time to quadratic time has been proposed. We will show that this achievement is limited by the number of available photons for solving the problem. It will turn out that this number of photons is proportional to NN for a traveling salesman problem with N cities and that for large numbers of cities the method in practice therefore is limited by the signal-to-noise ratio. The proposed method is meant purely as a gedankenexperiment.
We introduce an optical method based on white light interferometry in order to solve the well-known NP-complete traveling salesman problem. To our knowledge it is the first time that a method for the reduction of non-polynomial time to quadratic time has been proposed. We will show that this achievement is limited by the number of available photons for solving the problem. It will turn out that this number of photons is proportional to NN for a traveling salesman problem with N cities and that for large numbers of cities the method in practice therefore is limited by the signal-to-noise ratio. The proposed method is meant purely as a gedankenexperiment.
Submission + - New Explanation for the Industrial Revolution (hughpickens.com)
Pcol writes: "The New York Times is running a story on Dr. Gregory Clark's book "A Farewell to Alms" with a new explanation for the Industrial Revolution and the affluence it created. Dr. Clark, an economic historian at the University of California Davis, postulates that the surge in economic growth that occurred first in England around 1800 came about because of the strange new behaviors of nonviolence, literacy, long working hours and a willingness to save. Clark's research shows that between 1200 and 1800, the rich had more surviving children than the poor and that this caused constant downward social mobility as the poor failed to reproduce themselves and the progeny of the rich took over their occupations. "The modern population of the English is largely descended from the economic upper classes of the Middle Ages," Clark concludes. Work hours increased, literacy and numeracy rose, and the level of interpersonal violence dropped. Around 1790, a steady upward trend in production efficiency caused a significant acceleration in the rate of productivity growth that at last made possible England's escape from the Malthusian trap. Why did the Industrial Revolution first occur in England instead of the much larger populations of China or Japan. Clark has found data showing that their richer classes, the Samurai in Japan and the Qing dynasty in China, were surprisingly unfertile and failed to generate the downward social mobility that spread production-oriented values."
Submission + - Lenovo to sell, support SLED on ThinkPads (arstechnica.com)
Pengo writes: Lenovo has announced that they will begin selling T-series ThinkPads with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 preinstalled beginning sometime during the fourth quarter. In addition to supplying the hardware support, Lenovo will also handle OS support for ThinkPad customers, with Novell providing software updates. 'Unlike Dell, which has targeted its Linux offering primarily at the enthusiast community, Lenovo's SLED laptops are targeted at the enterprise. Whether they are running Ubuntu, SLED, or some other distribution, the availability of Linux preinstallation from mainstream vendors increases the visibility of the operating system and gives component makers an incentive to provide better Linux drivers and hardware support. If Lenovo is willing to collaborate with the Linux development community to improve the Linux laptop user experience, it will be a big win for all Linux users, not just the ones who buy laptops from Lenovo.'
Submission + - Microsoft Cuts Vista Price to $66 in China (itworld.com)
narramissic writes: "Microsoft this week cut the retail price of Windows Vista Home Basic in China by 67% — from 1,521 renminbi to 499 renminbi ($65.80). This is a steep discount compared to what users in the U.S. and elsewhere are charged for the software. The reason for the price reduction? Battling piracy, of course. The new pricing 'narrows the price gap between original versions of Microsoft's software and pirated copies,' making it that much easier for consumers to do the right thing."
Submission + - Google shows cell phone prototype to vendors
taoman1 writes: Google Inc. has developed a prototype cell phone that could reach markets within a year, and plans to offer consumers free subscriptions by bundling advertisements with its search engine, e-mail and Web browser software applications, according to a story published Thursday in The Wall Street Journal.
Submission + - Firefox and IE still not getting along (heise-security.co.uk)
juct writes: "A new demo shows how Firefox running under Windows XP SP2 can be abused to start applications. For this to work, however, Internet Explorer 7 needs to be installed. This severe security problem promises another round in the "who-is-to-blame-war" between Mozilla and Microsoft. Mozilla currently is leading the race for a patch, as they have one ready in their bugzilla database."
Submission + - BitTorrent Comes to the Cell Phone (slyck.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Finally, a BitTorrent interface for the mobile phone. Dubbed uTorrent mUI, the web user interface allows the end user to control torrent downloads remotely. The interface still lacks the ability to add torrents, however bringing BitTorrent capabilities to the cell phone is a giant step forward.
Submission + - Sophisticated Computer Crime Uncovered (reuters.com)
Ichabod writes: Sophisticated computer criminals stole data from UniSys, Booz Allen, L-3 Communications, Hewlett Packard and Hughes Network Systems. It sounds like they used a combination of social hacking, undetected low-profile malware (reportedly NTOS.exe), compromised Yahoo accounts to steal, encrypt and store sensitive data. An international investigation appears imminent.
Yes, unfortunately Reuters calls the criminals "hackers" further blackening the once-revered title.
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1 638118020070717
Submission + - Scientists develop 40% efficient solar cells
gtada writes: A story published on Physorg.com states 'Scientists from Spectrolab, Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing, have recently published their research on the fabrication of solar cells that surpass the 40% efficiency milestone — the highest efficiency achieved for any photovoltaic device. Their results appear in a recent edition of Applied Physics Letters.' How much longer until we all have paneled roofs?
Submission + - Parallels 3.0 Announced, 3D graphics included (blogspot.com)
99BottlesOfBeerInMyF writes: For some time now a lot of us having been waiting to see who managed to bring 3D graphics to a Windows emulation/virtualization solution. It looks like Parallels is going to be the winner. They announced today an RC of Parallels 3.0, the final to be available "in a few weeks." For anyone else tired of bootcamp or rebooting to play a Windows game, it look like the answer is finally here.
I'm not counting out VMWare entirely. Obviously it will depend on how soon they can catch up and the relative quality of the solutions, but there is some serious first-mover advantage here. There is also some speculation on the forums that Parallels is rushing this out in order to sell product before Apple steals their thunder with virtualization support in Leopard (but I think that a bit unlikely). In any case, it looks like one more roadblock for switchers has just been knocked down.
I'm not counting out VMWare entirely. Obviously it will depend on how soon they can catch up and the relative quality of the solutions, but there is some serious first-mover advantage here. There is also some speculation on the forums that Parallels is rushing this out in order to sell product before Apple steals their thunder with virtualization support in Leopard (but I think that a bit unlikely). In any case, it looks like one more roadblock for switchers has just been knocked down.
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