IBM Develops Computer Chip That Acts Like a Brain

Artificial Intelligence is something that science fiction movie directors love to utilize. Many directors have envisioned a future with robots and things that can act and behave like humans. However, something like that has always been out of reach for us, until now.



IBM recently introduced a new experimental neurosynaptic computer chip that emulates brain function in areas like cognition, perception and action. According to statements from IBM, these new chips will use algorithms and silicon circuitry in order to recreate spiking neurons and synapses in the brain.



These new chips will be embedded into cognitive computer software companies. These computers will not be programmed to do certain actions, like the computers you and I use everyday. Instead, these devices will learn through experiences., create hypotheses and remember outcomes.



According to Project Leader for IBM Research Dharmendra Modha, "These chips are another significant step in the evolution of computers from calculators to learning systems, signaling the beginning of a new generation of computers and their applications in business, science and government."



The chips are being designed and created by IBM, who is working alongside multiple university collaborators. DARPA, or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has already awarded $21 million in funding to IBM for the research as part of Phase 2 of the Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics, or SyNAPSE (I hope they pay their anagram creators handsomely) project.



SyNAPSE is a project that was designed to create a computer system that will analyze complex information from multiple sensors and adapt itself automatically based on its interaction with the environment. Regardless, this technology is extremely impressive and, albeit, rather scary. If they are already making computer chips that can think, I wonder how long it will be before they make ones that will subsequently take over humanity? I guess we will just have to wait and see.

What Is Multiplexing

What is CAD - Computer Aided Design

Source: Government Technology - IBM Computer Chip Mimics Human Brain Function

Read More

1:01 AM | 0 komentar

Firefox 6 Ready for August 16 Release

Mozilla states that it is on track to release Firefox 6 next week according to notes posted on the company's website. Developers have signed off on Firefox 6 and also anticipate no problems that could delay the release date of August 16 for the most recent upgrade to Mozilla's web browser according to meeting notes.



According to the notes, "On track with a few bugs still remaining. No concerns for Tuesday." Mozilla has used a new rapid-release schedule ever since the spring of this year. This new schedule delivers a new version of Firefox every six weeks, a move that many analysts and critics are comparing to the same one Google uses to update its Chrome browser for the last year.



Firefox 5 was released back on June 21, six weeks ago next Tuesday. Mozilla is already working on Firefox 7 and plans on releasing it on September 27. In addition to that, if the rapid-release schedule works like it is supposed to, Firefox 8 will become available on November 8 with Firefox 9 becoming available on December 20.



Firefox 6 includes multiple, noticeable changes to the browser, including highlighting domain names in the address bar. Both Google Chrome and Internet Explorer 9 do a similar thing by making domain names boldfaced. In addition to that, Firefox 6 also reduces start-up time when users rely on Panorama, the multi-tab organizer for Firefox.



Some users, however, are upset by the change of pace for Mozilla and Firefox including corporations like IBM, which have installed the open-source browser on tens of thousands of Windows PCs. However, that has not frightened Mozilla, who has not backed off of the rapid-release schedule at all. Though, in response to enterprise complaints and concerns, Mozilla has established a committee in order to take feedback from users.



As well as releasing Firefox 6 next week, Mozilla also plans on releasing Firefox 3.6.20, an update that will include security patches and other fixes to the 2010 edition retained by nearly 1 in 3 users of Firefox. When Firefox 6 ships, users running Firefox 4 or Firefox 5 will be offered the newest edition via the browser's update mechanism that is triggered when the "About Firefox" dialog is opened.

Charts and Graphs - From Best Information

What is a Computer Network

Create MySQL Database - At The Control Panel

As of the end of July, only 11% of Firefox users were still running Firefox 4 and 48% were running Firefox 5. What do you think? Are you excited about the release of Firefox 6? What are your thoughts on Mozilla's new rapid-release schedule? Let me know in the comments section below.



Source: Computer World - Mozilla on track to ship Firefox 6 next week

Read More

9:08 AM | 0 komentar

Java Standard Edition 7 Finally Released by Oracle

Oracle has finally shipped Java Platform Standard Edition 7, otherwise known as Java SE 7, in what is the first major update to the programming language in over five years. Oracle let news of this out in a company announcement yesterday. This is also the very first release of Java SE under the ownership of Oracle.

According to Oracle Chief Java Programming Architect Mark Reinhold in a webcast earlier in the month, "We all know for various business and political reasons that this release has taken some time."

According to an estimate by Oracle, some 9 million developers from around the globe use Java. Tiobe Software also estimates that Java is the most widely used programming language in the world, bumping off C and obliterating C++ with twice as many users. Over 3 billion devices around the world run Java and it is deployed by 97% of enterprise desktops worldwide. In addition to that, the Java runtime is downloaded over a billion times each year.

Since Oracle acquired Java as part of its January 2010 acquisition of Sun Microsystems, the company has come under a lot of scrutiny from a plethora of different quarters for its management. Back in December, the Apache Software Foundation withdrew its participation from the Java Community Process, stating that Oracle did not govern Java as a truly open specification. Oracle has also sued Google for "inappropriate use of Java" in Google's Android mobile OS.

According to Senior Director of Engineering for Red Hat's Middleware Business and Red Hat's Primary Liaison for the JCP Mark Little, however, "The new release is solid, though it is more of an incremental release than anything else."

The new version of Java addresses many of the trends that have overtaken the field of computer programming over the past 10 years. It offers increasingly improved support for the growing number of non-Java dynamic languages that are web design to run on Java Virtual Machine. In addition to that, it also features an API for simplifying the task of running a program across multiple processor cores. Also, the range of actions that programs can take with file systems has been vastly improved as well.

Source: Computer World - Oracle releases Java SE 7

Read More

4:03 AM | 0 komentar

Google Discontinuing Toolbar Support for Mozilla Firefox

Things between Firefox and Google have taken a turn for the awkward. Since its inception, Mozilla has always received a lot of funding from the search giant. However, analysts have been expecting Google to drop out of that role ever since the company launched its very own web browser, Google Chrome. Ever since Chrome was released and those analysts made their predictions, they have all been sorely disappointed, until now.

Google has just announced that the company will no longer include support for new versions of Firefox with its Google Toolbar. Many analysts' predictions have finally come true though this may spark another prediction, one that announcse that a new browser war has just been started.

However, that seems highly unlikely. The main reason Google is dropping support is due to the fact that Firefox already offers a lot of the benefits that the Google Toolbar offers, whether it be natively or through the immense amount of add-ons that Firefox offers.

Google is being very courteous about the dropping of support. The company will continue to offer Google Toolbar for older versions of Firefox and even created a webpage that was designed to help former users of Google Toolbar find similar functions in Firefox 5 and later versions yet to come. The Google Toolbar Blog has the full announcement if you are interested.

What do you think? Are you upset about Google dropping Google Toolbar support on later versions of Firefox? Or does the browser have enough of its own features to fill the gap? If you really can't live without the Google Toolbar, you can always switch to Google Chrome. It works well enough for me to work on every day.

The Best Rap Songs

Privilege Car Insurance

How To Save On Auto Insurance

Source: MaximumPC - Google Dumps Toolbar Support For Firefox

Read More

4:37 AM | 0 komentar

Cutting Costs Sees an Increase in Profits for Dell

Good news recently came out of Dell as the computer company reported that its net income for the last quarter nearly tripled as Dell benefited from lower computer component costs and growth in certain areas of its more profitable product lines.

Dell's shares rose 5% in extended trading, beating analysts' adjusted net income estimates but coming a bit short of revenue estimates. For Dell's first three months, which ended on April 29th, Dell earned $945 million, which equals about $0.49 per share, which was higher than the $341 million, $0.17 per share of last year.

If you exclude one-time items, Dell earned $0.55 per share which easily beat the numbers expected by Wall Street. Analysts polled by FactSet estimated adjusted earnings of $0.43 per share. Revenue rose only 1% to $15.02 billion from $14.9 billion last year, which was short of the predicted $15.4 billion. Product revenue remained the same at $12.1 billion with services revenue rising 6% to $3.0 billion.

Dell's consumer section, which accounts for nearly 20% of the company's revenue, dropped 7% to $3.0 billion as well. Consumer demand also fell more than anticipated and in an interview, CFO Brian Gladden attributed some of the cause to "the market for consumer PCs being saturated in developed countries." He also added that "while tablet computers are still a small portion of the PC market, there's clearly an impact for them on consumer demand for traditional PCs."

Revenue from large enterprises increased by 5% to $4.5 billion with revenue from small and medium-sized businesses increasing 7% to $3.8 billion. Public sector revenue, on the other hand, saw a decline of 2% to $3.8 billion. Dell saw the biggest gain in servers and networking. In this category revenue rose 11% to $2.0 billion. Sales of desktop PCs fell 8% to $3.3 billion with mobile PCs rising 3% to $4.7 billion.

Dell has been working hard to increase their proportion of server computers, data storage devices and technology consulting services sold. According to Dell, these areas are more profitable than the company's base PC business. However, compared with one year ago, most of Dell's product categories accounted for nearly the same percentage of revenue and computers for consumers, and businesses continued to make up over half of Dell's revenue.

However, Dell's gross margin, which is still an indicator of the efficiency of Dell's business, came in at 22.9% which was higher than the 20.4% expected by analysts from Reuters. Dell's strategy of focusing on more profitable areas of business and cutting back on lower-margin offerings is working extremely well according to Gladden.

Andy Hargreaves, an analyst for Pacific Crest, thinks that Dell's gross margin is "impressive" and stated that "Dell should be able to keep it up for now." Hargreaves also stated, "They do have the potential to sustain margins long-term, but in order to do so they have to drive toward more services-oriented businesses."

Taking a look at this current quarter, Dell is predicting that revenue will rise by a percentage in the mid-single digits over the first quarter, slightly faster than its seasonal 2% to 3% growth. Analysts are expecting somewhere around $16 billion. Dell continues to expect revenue to grow 5% to 9% for the full fiscal year which implies a total of $64.6 billion to $67 billion with analysts expecting around $64.4 billion.

Dell saw shares rise $0.86, or roughly 5.4%, to a total of $16.76 in extended trading. The stock finished regular trading down $0.10 to $15.90.

Osteopathic Medical School

A Law Office Or Law Offices

Cash Money Settlement

Your Computer is Infected Virus

Source: The Associated Press - Dell profit jumps as computer maker cuts costs

Read More

1:54 AM | 0 komentar