Tag: computers

Launching live theatre into the 22nd century

We’ve become accustomed to seeing real and virtual actors (or at least extras) blended with real and virtual sets in the movies. Now it’s being done live on stage: Using new techniques that merge the Internet 2 with traditional stage theatre, the University of Central Florida, Bradley University in Illinois and the University of Waterloo …

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This sounds like the setup for a science fiction story…

…but it’s real: A web-based “expert system” that helped users prepare bankruptcy filings for a fee made too many decisions to be considered a clerical tool, an appeals court said last week, ruling that the software was effectively practicing law without a license. (Via KurzweilAI.Net.)

The return of Commodore

My first computer was a Commodore 64, bought ca. 1981 for (if I remember correctly) $895 Canadian, plus $595 for the 1541 floppy disk drive. (It came with a plastic Apple core on a string to wear around your neck, the Apple II being the main competitor for the C64 when it launched.) I used …

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Who needs a flash drive…

…when you’ve got DNA? Japanese scientists say it might be possible to use DNA to store text, images, music and other digital data for thousands of years inside living organisms. Masaru Tomita and colleagues at Tokyo’s Keio University say data encoded in an organism’s DNA, and inherited by each new generation, could be safely archived …

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Quantum computer unveiled…

…and it works! It’s slow, and there’s some question how well this approach can be scaled up, but it definitely worked. Hey, it even solved a Sudoku puzzle!

First quantum computer running commercial applications

D-Wave Systems Inc. says it will demonstrate it on February 13. But get this: This is the core of a new quantum computer to be unveiled by D-Wave Systems, says Steve Jurvetson, Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a leading venture-capital firm. “It is attached to a Leiden Cryogenics dilution fridge, ready to begin a …

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A machine that knows what you intend to do…

…before you do it. These findings also raise hope for improvement of clinical and technical applications. Already today the first steps are being made in easing the lives of paralyzed patients with computer-assisted prosthetic devices and so-called brain computer interfaces. These devices focus on reading out the movement the patient intends to – but is …

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I haven’t been playing many computer games recently…

…but obviously I should: Video games that contain high levels of action, such as Unreal Tournament, can actually improve your vision. Researchers at the University of Rochester have shown that people who played action video games for a few hours a day over the course of a month improved by about 20 percent in their …

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I’ve got nothing against Macintosh computers…

…but I still thought this “I hate Macs” rant from the Guardian was very funny. (Be sure to read the tag. And the first comment.)

Storing an entire image on a single photon

It gets into that whole wave/particle quantum thing: a team led by associate professor John Howell at the University of Rochester passed a single photon through a stencil bearing the letters UR. But since a photon is both a particle and a wave, as a wave, it passed through the entire stencil and thus captured …

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I can see clearly now…

…my transistors are transparent: Imagine a car windshield that displays a map to your destination, military goggles with targets and instructions displayed right before a soldier’s eyes or a billboard that doubles as a window. Only in science fiction you say? Northwestern University researchers report that by combining organic and inorganic materials they have produced …

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I still have a soft spot in my heart for Commodore 64s…

…so I enjoyed this article from the Globe and Mail. I hadn’t heard the acronym TPUG in years. It brought back a lot of memories. Through the 1980s I had two C64s, then a C128 (which lasted me until I bought my first PC in 1993), and the only formal computer course I ever took …

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