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Power

MIT Unveils First Solar Cells Printed On Paper 125

Posted by timothy from the let's-give-them-some-post-unveiing-privacy dept.
lucidkoan writes "MIT researchers recently unveiled the world's first thin-film solar cell printed on a sheet of paper. The panel was created using a process similar to that of an inkjet printer, producing semiconductor-coated paper imbued with carbon-based dyes that give the cells an efficiency of 1.5 to 2 percent. That's not incredibly efficient, but the convenience factor makes up for it. And in the future, researchers hope that the same process used in the paper solar cells could be used to print cells on metal foil or even plastic. If they're able to gear efficiencies up to scale, the development could revolutionize the production and installation of solar panels."
Graphics

NVIDIA Shows Off "Optimus" Switchable Graphics For Notebooks 102

Posted by Soulskill from the that's-some-prime-namespace dept.
Vigile writes "Transformers jokes aside, NVIDIA's newest technology offering hopes to radically change the way notebook computers are built and how customers use them. The promise of both extended battery life and high performance mobile computing has seemed like a pipe dream, and even the most recent updates to 'switchable graphics' left much to be desired in terms of the user experience. Having both an integrated and discrete graphics chip in your notebook does little good if you never switch between the two. Optimus allows the system to seamlessly and instantly change between IGP and discrete NVIDIA GPUs based on the task being run, including games, GPU encoding or Flash video playback. Using new software and hardware technology, notebooks using Optimus can power on and pass control to the GPU in a matter of 300ms and power both the GPU and PCIe lanes completely off when not in use. This can be done without being forced to reboot or even close out your applications, making it a hands-free solution for the customer."

Comment Re:The problem is not an efficient algorithm (Score 1) 421

by dpuu (#30039988) Attached to: What Computer Science Can Teach Economics

Being human, some computer scientists and economists probably do make unwarranted assumptions. But the fact that humans can alter the rules of the game might not be relevant here: if there is an underlying meta-game whose rules constrain how the rules can be altered, then that is the model who's Nash equilibrium is sought. It seems, to me, unlikely that this will be an infinite regress: humans are ultimately restricted by the laws of physics. Even though any model of that meta-game would probably to too complex to be represented as any arrangement of all the subatomic particles in a human brain, it would be interesting if it were possible to characterize any of its properties mathematically.

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