technology - "computer"

An American computer game designer reached space Sunday, fulfilling a long-deferred childhood dream that began with the flight ...

In an era of dazzling battery-powered portable devices including iPods, computers and cell phones, it's hard to imagine what it's like to be unable to catch the news and entertainment anytime and anywhere we want. But millions of people who own portable televisions, including those who depend on them when they flee their homes or lose power during hurricanes and other emergencies, may soon return to the dark ages.

BartlebyScrivener writes 'A New York Times Op-Ed quoting Freeman and George Dyson wonders if Wall Street geeks and 'quants' outsmarted themselves with computer algorithms to create the current financial debacle: 'Somehow the genius quants — the best and brightest geeks Wall Street firms could buy — fed $1 trillion in subprime mortgage debt into their supercomputers, added some derivatives, massaged the arrangements with computer algorithms and — poof! — created $62 trillion in imaginary wealth. It's not much of a stretch to imagine that all of that imaginary wealth is locked up somewhere inside the computers, and that we humans, led by the silverback males of the financial world, Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson, are frantically beseeching the monolith for answers.'' The quoted essay from George Dyson is available at Edge. of this story at Slashdot.

vile8 writes 'With the high gas prices and ongoing gas gouging in my hometown many people are trying to find a reasonable way to save gas. One of the things I've noticed is people driving exceptionally slow, 30mph in 45mph zones, etc. So I had to take a quick look and find out if driving slow is helpful in getting better mileage. I know horsepower increases substantially with wind resistance, but with charts like this one from truckandbarter.com it appears mileage is actually about the same between 27mph and 58mph or so. So I'm curious what all the drivers out there with the cool efficiency computers are getting ... of specific interest would be the hemis with MDS; how do those do with the cylinder shutoff mode at different speeds?' Related: are there any practical hypermiling techniques that you've found for people not ready to purchase a new car, nor give up driving generally? of this story at Slashdot.

Paderborn, Germany- A ride on the oldest stretches of New York's subway is no further away than a quick trip to the video game store, thanks to World of Subways - a new simulator program. The game allows players to manoeuvre between New York City and...

Hanover - Ten years ago, a computer with a built-in CD burner was a big deal. Owners could be sure to broader their circle of friends and music collection. A few technological leaps later meant it only took half an hour to burn a CD. Another few leap...