For a PC user, nothing chills the heart like the "Blue Screen of Death" in Windows. It means the computer has crashed. Although crashes are as old as computers, some UK researchers may be taking the first steps toward sending blue screens to the same graveyard where 5.25-inch floppy disks are buried. The boffins at University College in London (UCL) have made something they're calling a "systemic computer" that they say taps into the chaos found in nature to enable a computer to heal itself. A chief cause of computer crashes, according to the researchers, is the way computers process the instructions in the programs they run. They do that sequentially, a step at a time. Disturb that sequence, and the computer jumps the track and crashes.
Intel has scaled back plans for the next version of Itanium in a move that raises questions about the future of the 64-bit server chip, used primarily in Hewlett-Packard's high-end Integrity servers. In a short posted quietly to its website on January 31, Intel said the next version of Itanium, codenamed Kittson, will be produced on a 32 nanometer manufacturing process, like the current version of Itanium, instead of on a more advanced process, as it had previously planned. Intel has also shelved a plan announced only a few months ago to make Kittson socket-compatible with its Xeon server chips, which would have reduced costs for both Intel and HP, the main seller of Itanium systems. Kittson will now plug into the same socket as the existing Itanium 9300 and 9500 chips, Intel said. "The modular development model, which converges on a common Intel Xeon/Intel Itanium socket and motherboard, will be evaluated for future implementation opportunities," Intel said.
The popular social-news site Reddit said it will now accept bitcoins, following blogging platform WordPress in embracing the four-year-old virtual currency. Reddit, which lets users submit and vote on popular Web content, already uses PayPal and Google Wallet for its "Gold" service, which gives users a range of editing tools and an option to turn off advertisements. The Gold service costs US$3.99 a month or $29.99 a year. Accepting bitcoin will allow the site to take payments from anywhere in the world, according to Reddit's . Bitcoin is , a Japan-based exchange.
Microsoft had a chance to make things easier for power users in 2013, but it didn't. All the training wheels are still there, and you have to hunt and peck to get rid of them. That's why, for example, every time you type an email address, it gets underlined, bolded, discolored, and set up as a link. In Word click File, Options. Under General, you can show paragraph marks, tabs, and object anchors—all crucial to understand formatting. In the Proofing area, click the AutoCorrect Options box and uncheck the settings you don't like. In Excel, click File, Options, and under Proofing, click the button marked AutoCorrect Options. And so on.
over U.S. skies within the next two decades. That could rub a lot of people the wrong way because of privacy concerns, so Washington is taking action. There’s a new bill in the House of Representatives that aims to legislate exactly how drones can be used. The bill ( ) specifies that the government would need a warrant to collect information in a private place using a drone. As for public spots, the government would have to give prior notice about drone surveillance via a media outlet, government web site or with physical signage in the area. The bill also spells out that drones cannot be armed by private parties and law enforcement entities, although the military can include weapons on its UAVs.
Google is seeking a greater retail presence with plans to open stand-alone shops in big cities, with the first ones expected to launch in time for the busy holiday shopping season. It could be a smart move given that major competitors that sell mobile operating systems, cell phones or other electronic gadgets, including Apple, Microsoft and Sony, already have a wide array of stores across the country. , which have already logged thousands of miles on American roadways. While Google already has Chromebook dedicated areas within many U.S. Best Buys and U.K. retailers where you can try out its browser-based notebook before buying it, the new stand-alone Google stores will have a wider reach.
Facebook said Friday it had been the target of a sophisticated hacking attack but that it had no evidence any user data had been compromised. The attack comes two weeks after Twitter asked 250,000 of its users to being hacked. Facebook said its systems were targeted last month when a handful of employees visited a mobile developer website that had been compromised. The website allowed malicious code to be installed on the employees’ laptops, Facebook said in a . It said the laptops were fully patched and running up-to-date antivirus software. “As soon as we discovered the presence of the malware, we remediated all infected machines, informed law enforcement, and began a significant investigation that continues to this day,” Facebook said.
Bioware made it big riding on the back of Baldur's Gate, and its success became the basis for add-ons, sequels and spin-offs that established Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk as legends in the gaming industry. A mix of undiluted 2 edition D&D rules along with party combat dynamics, well-paced leveling and a strong, character-driven narrative produced an experience so satisfying, its remains a benchmark other RPGs are measured against. Overhaul Games, fresh off the slick remake of MDK2 HD, aimed its sights considerably higher in the Bioware back catalog and produced a long-requested and highly anticipated update to this crown jewel of gaming. Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition ($20, buy-only) introduces official native high-resolution visuals, new story content, multiplayer support and a gladiator-style combat mode for quick action. It delivers on these promises, but like most translations, something of the original spark is lost in the process. Overhaul Games, who started out life as a division of online game distributer Beamdog, petitioned Bioware for over a year before being given access to the sacred Infinity Engine source code, the lifeblood from which Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale and Planescape flowed. What followed were hundreds of bugs fixes and improvements as the engine was refitted for modern OS and hardware environments along with visual upgrades to the artwork and interface graphics. The technical improvements are largely successful. The game runs in crisp high resolution without lag and supports widescreen monitors natively, feats the original game can only perform with substantial end-user modification. Engine improvements from later games in the series, such as Shadows of Amn, have been retroactively fitted so additional class kits and subraces are available to round out character creation. The experience cap has also been raised, giving a little headroom for point gobbling multiclass builds. Gameplay is largely the same, with characters arrayed on the right side of the screen, mode selections to the left, and actions across the bottom. Control is more like an RTS game than a traditional action RPG, focusing on mob attacks using a pause-go command flow to issue orders to your party or relying on AI. Quick slots let you pick preferred weapons or items via function keys and despite its age, the ergonomics of the layout are easy to appreciate. In some ways, they surpass the radial menu paradigm Bioware used for the subsequent Neverwinter Nights series.
Time is on your side, at least according to Mick Jagger. (Think: song lyric.) But it rarely seems that way when you get to the end of the day and realize you didn't have nearly enough of it. Where on earth does the time go? ". Number one? You guessed it: email. Thirty-three percent of survey respondents spend 1-2 hours per day dealing with email, while 22 percent spend more than two hours. In an eight-hour day, that's a full fifth of your time devoted solely to your inbox. Next up? You guessed it again: the Web. Fully 80 percent of those surveyed admitted to spending at least two hours per day surfing the Internet. Granted, some or all of that might have been work-related, but there's no denying the distracting siren song of Facebook, YouTube, Amazon, and other non-work destinations.
It's official. be releasing new Radeon desktop GPUs "from top to bottom" in 2013, though you won't be seeing the next-gen Radeon 8000 series graphics cards until late in the year. Instead, the company will be firmly focused on the Radeon 7000 series cards currently available on the market for the first half of 2013, company officials told journalists during a conference call. That doesn't mean that AMD will be sitting on its heels until the holidays, however. Officials said we can expect to see some new 7000-series GPUs released during the first half of the year, though they wouldn't provide any juicy details beyond that. Why stick with a generation of graphics cards that was first introduced more than a year ago, at the finish line of 2011? AMD officials say that their current Radeon 7000 series has GPU leadership over Nvidia's GTX GeForce 600 series in terms of performance—especially given the recent launch of the beastly , which sports dual Radeon 7970 GPUs and 6GB of RAM. Also, despite its long-ago launch, the Radeon 7000 series is actually gaining traction. AMD says that the Radeon HD 7000 series' January 2013 sales volumes were higher at any point in 2012, including the holiday season. "With sales volumes continuing to ramp, it would be premature to launch a new series," officials said.
Ein Himmelskörper wie der Meteorit von Tscheljabinsk könnte jederzeit auch eine Grossstadt treffen, sagen ehemalige US-Astronauten. Sie fordern von der Nasa deshalb Investitionen in ein Warnsystem.
Teilchenphysiker Günther Dissertori erklärt, weshalb die Cern-Forscher die Arbeit am Large Hadron Collider (LHC) für zwei Jahre stoppen. Und zu welchen Erkenntnissen die Experimente bereits geführt haben.
Es war das zweite Himmelsspektakel an einem Tag: Der Asteroid 2012 DA14 ist an uns vorbeigezogen. Um 20.24 Uhr am Freitagabend passierte er die Erde, nun entfernt er sich wieder.
Die Organentnahme nach dem Herztod ist in der Schweiz umstritten. Dennoch werden am Universitätsspital Zürich solche Transplantationen regelmässig durchgeführt.
In der russischen Region Tscheljabinsk sind Bruchstücke eines Meteoriten niedergegangen. Niemand hat den Einschlag vorausgesehen. Der Astronom Michael Geffert erklärt, weshalb das so ist.
Forscher in den USA, in Russland und am Bodensee entwickeln drei Möglichkeiten, eine Kollision mit einem Asteroiden zu verhindern.
Berner Forscher simulieren am Computer die Kollision von Himmelskörpern. Die Resultate verblüffen und helfen mit, die Entstehung des Planetensystems zu verstehen.
Nach drei Jahren Betrieb ohne Unterbruch fährt das Cern den weltgrössten Teilchenbeschleuniger herunter und rüstet ihn auf. Langweilig sollte es den Forschern bis dahin aber nicht werden.
Heute wurde bekannt, dass Bundesrat Ueli Maurer die Patrouille Suisse abschaffen will. Für all jene, die diesen Entscheid bedauern: Dieses Video zeigt nochmals das Können der Mannschaft.
Einheimische Arten sterben durch eingeschleppte Pflanzen langsam aus. Sie bilden zwar zunächst Standort-Inseln, werden aber dadurch langfristig verdrängt. Forscher sehen nun eine Lösung für diese Entwicklung.
Wintersportler, die ins Revier des alpinen Schneehasen eindringen, gefährden das Überleben der Tiere. Dies zeigte eine Studie, an der sich der Tierpark Goldau beteiligte.
Für die junge Swissair waren Luftbilder ein wichtiges Geschäft. Ihre Fotografen hielten jahrelang Gletscher, Siedlungen und Fabriken fest. Erstmals ist ein Teil der Aufnahmen nun online verfügbar.
Gab es auf dem Roten Planeten je Wasser? Die Weltraumforscher könnten in dieser Frage nun einen entscheidenden Schritt weiter sein. Curiosity hat erstmals einen Gesteinsbrocken angebohrt und eine Probe entnommen.
Viele Frauen unter 25 haben keine Lust mehr, täglich Hormone einzunehmen, um eine Schwangerschaft zu verhüten. Grund ist nicht nur die erhöhte Thrombosegefahr.
Neugeborene, die permanent weinen, können ihre Eltern in die Verzweiflung treiben. Forscher raten, mit dem Schreibaby eine Schreiambulanz aufzusuchen.
Wissenschaftler der Universität Zürich planen einen neuen Freisetzungsversuch mit gentechnisch verändertem Weizen. Dies, obwohl die Forscher bis vor kurzem für ihre Arbeit keine Zukunft sahen – zumindest nicht in der Schweiz.
In einer Woche rast ein Asteroid an der Erde vorbei – näher als manche Satelliten. Astrophysiker Ben Moore erläutert, wieso uns ein solcher jederzeit treffen könnte und was im Notfall zu tun wäre.
Wer Softdrinks konsumiert, hat ein höheres Diabetes-Risiko als Fruchtsaft-Trinker, das zeigt eine neue Studie. Das Erstaunliche dabei: Lightprodukte scheinen noch ungesünder als die gezuckerte Brause.
Bertolt Meyer stand Modell für den «Bionic Man»: Einen Roboter, der aus künstlichen Körperteilen besteht. Warum er schockiert war, als er sein Alter Ego zum ersten Mal sah, und was ihn zur perfekten Vorlage macht.
An der grössten Flugshow Asiens in Bangalore treffen sich Kunstflugstaffeln, Militärvertreter und Rüstungsindustrie. Vor den Augen des Publikums gehen die Piloten dabei auch einmal auf Kollisionskurs.