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COMPUTERS 
October 25, 2019 MIT MEDIA LAB PROMISED SYRIAN REFUGEES FOOD COMPUTERS THAT COULD GROW ANY PLANT—BUT THEY DIDN’T WORK
Personal food computers (PFCs) developed by the Open Agricultural Initiative in MIT’s Media Lab and sent to Syrian refugee camps in Amman, Jordan have been revealed to be nonfunctional, according to an article published by IEEE Spectrum. The machines had been delivered to the United Nations World Food Programme which planned to give the computers to […]
CLOTHING August 7, 2019 Digital ‘clothes’ could be the next big Instagram hit
Hip Scandinavian fashion retailer Carlings knew it had to make a big impression when it launched its first online store in 2018 — years after most other apparel brands. Carlings has more than 200 physical stores in Norway, Finland and Sweden and is known for its wide range of jeans and casual clothes. When it […]
ELECTRONICS July 22, 2019 U.S. electronics makers worry sales to Chinese firms could fall more
U.S. chip and components manufacturers are nervous about the U.S. trade position with China because many Chinese companies buy and use many billions of dollars of U.S.-made electronics products every year. Simply put, U.S. chipmakers don’t want to lose the enormous Chinese market to sell chips into, analysts said in recent interviews. The lucrative Chinese market […]
ELECTRONICS June 14, 2019 The Sun Can Release ‘Superflares’ Which Could Disrupt Electronics on Earth. Should You Be Worried?
Superflares erupted from the Sun could disrupt electronics across the Earth, causing widespread black outs and shorting out communication satellites in orbit, scientists warn. Astronomers probing the edges of the Milky Way have in recent years observed superflares — huge bursts of energy from stars that can be seen from hundreds of light years away. […]
COMPUTERS April 5, 2019 Running LEDs in reverse could cool computers
The quest to find more efficient methods for cooling computers is almost as high on scientists’ agendas as the desire to discover better battery chemistries. More cooling is crucial for reducing costs. It would also allow for more powerful processing to take place in smaller spaces, where limited processing should be crunching numbers instead of […]
COMPUTERS February 15, 2019 Computers could write full, and wrong, news stories
A research group backed by Silicon Valley heavyweights has released a paper showing that technology that can generate realistic news stories from little more than a headline suggestion is poised to advance rapidly in the coming years. OpenAI, the group backed by LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, among others, was founded to research how to make […]
ELECTRONICS December 2, 2017 New High-Speed Quantum Encryption Could Thwart Hackers: Study
Scientists have developed a high-speed encryption system that can protect against the common security attacks, even if the equipment has flaws that could make it vulnerable to leaks. The system is capable of distributing encryption codes at megabit-per-second rates, five to 10 times faster than existing methods and on par with current Internet speeds when […]
COMPUTERS November 9, 2017 Quantum computers could crack Bitcoin, but fixes are available now
An international group of quantum boffins reckons Bitcoin could be broken by the year 2027. The researchers from Singapore, Australia and France say that scenario represents the worst case, and would see a quantum computer able to run Shor’s algorithm against the cryptocurrency’s protective elliptic curve signature quicker than the 10 minutes Bitcoin needs to […]
COMPUTERS October 9, 2017 Your computer could be being used to mine for cryptocurrency
Your computer may be harvesting cryptocurrencies without your permission thanks to a large number of popular websites reportedly being infected with malware that uses visitor’s computers to mine cryptocurrencies. According to a BBC report, a scan of some of the most popular websites on the web found hundreds to be harbouring malicious mining code. Mining cryptocurrencies require […]
COMPUTERS October 4, 2017 ARTIFICIAL SYNAPSES COULD LEAD TO BRAINIER, SUPER-EFFICIENT COMPUTERS
BRAINS, BEYOND THEIR signature achievements in thinking and problem solving, are paragons of energy efficiency. The human brain’s power consumption resembles that of a 20-watt incandescent lightbulb. In contrast, one of the world’s largest and fastest supercomputers, the K computer in Kobe, Japan, consumes as much as 9.89 megawatts of energy—an amount roughly equivalent to the […]
NEWS August 11, 2017 Could China’s Uber for Trucks Pave the Way to Similar Service for Small U.S. Haulers?
There seems to be an Uber for everything these days, and the trucking industry is no exception. Take China, for example. Truck Alliance, Inc., an online trucking logistics company that provides services to truckers and shippers in China, has earned the reputation “Uber for trucks” due to its similarity to the popular ride-hailing service. The […]
COMPUTERS August 3, 2017 Exactly what could quantum computers do?
They picked a knotty problem – understanding how the enzyme nitrogenase allows plants to use nitrogen from the atmosphere to make their own fertilizer – something that is unknown. Computers available today, said EHT chemistry professor Markus Reiher can calculate the behaviour of simple molecules quite precisely, but not nitrogenase , which is too complex. […]
