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We all (should) know that power/energy is best controlled at the system level, ie. in how applications interact. But there's not much guidance on how developers should write software for energy efficiency. One team in Sweden are developing tools to support this analysis and have demonstrated...
A team at the University of Arkansas are working on methods to increase security against attacks through the CAN. This is in part based on message authentication (between components on the CAN) and in part based on detecting replay attacks.
http://ualr.edu/news/2016/08/12/keep-cars-safe-hacking/
Following Intel recent layoff of 11k staff. Sign of rough times to come, or just a sign that big tech is maturing?
Cisco Systems to lay off about 14,000 employees: CRN
| Reuters
We're all aware that math literacy in the US is well below where it needs to be for a competitive economy. We're less clear on what to do about it, other than promoting STEM courses, which seems in part a triumph of hope over experience. One controversial viewpoint is to move away from hoping...
Saw this - a little surprised, but not an area in which I am expert. Idea is to use the USB interface to do debug rather than using JTAG. Certainly might be cheaper, but I can think of downsides too.
Still debugging the JTAG way? Time to try the USB way... • UltraSoC
Superconductivity (zero resistance thanks to quantum behavior) is normally limited to exotic materials at temperatures near absolute zero. Looking for materials which exhibit this effect at higher temperatures has been a holy grail search, still barely getting beyond a few tens of degrees above...
China has a huge baby boom population nearing retirement and, thanks to the one child policy, not nearly enough youngsters to staff an expanding economy or support social security etc for the aged. Talk now about China needing to pursue a very active immigration policy or get left behind. This...
Lost in the excellent posted performance for Google as a whole is increasing losses for OtherBets ($859M in this quarter versus $802M in the previous quarter). Well on-track to lose $1B per quarter. I have to believe if Alphabet ever stumbles, even a little bit, OtherBets is going to be in big...
The FCC is aggressively demanding progress in blocking robocalls. About time. Whatever solutions appear, whether they go in our phones or in service provider centers, this should provide new business.
U.S. asks phone companies to provide 'robocall' blocking technology
| Reuters
What is interesting is that (a) Intel is still viewed by the markets as a leading indicator and (b) other important tech stocks such as QCOM and Microsoft have reported good results. Is Intel on a glide path to being dropped as a leading indicator?
Wall St. cools as Intel, transport results...
The article below has nothing to do with tech, but it does have a lot to do with business dynamics when companies become completely dominant in a market for consumer products. Point being that we consumers are fickle. We like strong brands only for a while. Once they have become commonplace, we...
For years we've thought of solar as primarily a small-scale method to generate power - on home rooftops, for small businesses and for remote installations. And the economics have been sort of OK but not great, typically requiring tax incentives to motivate buyers. But now it seems large scale...
Seems like the Israeli tech machine, famous for driving multinational R&D but also increasingly for home-grown tech (mobileye, Wix, etc) is struggling to expand given a slowly-growing tech-savvy employment pool. Multiple factors are cited - small population, lack of interest in tech from...
Surprised nobody posted this yet (did I miss it?). Tesla is being investigated for a fatal crash between a Tesla driver, apparently watching a Harry Potter movie, and a semi truck. Later followed by videos of various people in Teslas in bad situations (sleeping driver, terrified Granny) in...
A reminder that it's not all about neural nets. Fuzzy-logic based ALPHA took on an experienced fighter pilot in a flight simulation trials and beat him. As explained in a WIRED article, the goal is not to replace fighter pilots but rather to act as an adviser, leveraging AI ability to process...
The ACM Bulletin just provided a reminder of one of the earliest paper in EDA - a 1958 publication by Paul W. Case and others from IBM on methods to record, check and print circuit diagrams. An interesting read for anyone interested in the history of EDA...
Microsoft just released .NET Core 1.0 to run on Linux and OS X (Mac), but also as open source. To save anyone getting worked up about the evil empire having an ulterior motive, of course they have an ulterior motive. They see the open-source movement taking off and either have to buy in or get...
This is thought to be part of slimming down and concentrating focus on the server business. Odd in a way since security is especially important to servers. Still I imagine the larger retail security market could be a drag on specialized server needs. Either way, another sign of more modesty in...