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American consumers prepared to pay more for clean energy

sina — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:44:04 +0000

The average US consumer is prepared to pay $162 more for a national clean energy standard (NCES) that would require 80 percent clean energy by 2035, according to researchers at Yale and the George Mason University. This equates to a 13 percent increase in the 2009 average annual household energy bill of $1,250. However, for such a bill to pass through Congress, the increase would have to be restricted to about $50, the researchers found.

In a survey of 1010 US citizens, respondents were asked, among other questions, whether they would support or oppose a national clean energy standard that would require 80 percent of the US’s electricity to be generated from clean sources by 2035. At random, respondents received one of three “technological treatments” or definitions of clean energy that included renewable energy sources alone, renewable sources plus natural gas, and renewable sources plus nuclear power. (President Obama’s 2011 “80 percent by 2035″ NCES proposal allowed for natural gas as a clean energy source.)

(With all the technology currently using electricity to run, will it benefit us or hurt us to be forced to pay more to run those devices?)

[Read entire article here]

DDR4 memory is coming soon—maybe too soon

sina — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:23:49 +0000

There isn’t even an official standard for DDR4, the next generation of computer memory technology. But memory manufacturers are already shipping samples of the first DDR4 memory units, and preparing to produce them en masse. On May 7, Micron joined the field, announcing it had released its first fully functioning DDR4 memory product for testing.

Micron says its product, a 4-gigabit x8 DDR4 memory unit developed in partnership with its Taiwanese partner Nanya, will ship on a variety of memory module configurations by the end of the year. (Micron also announced that it is also developing x16 and x32 DDR4 memory components, but didn’t give a timeframe for them.) And Micron’s competitors in the space are also preparing to ship their own DDR4 modules in that time. That means that memory modules based on the faster, more power efficient technology could start shipping on servers (where its benefits are in the greatest demand) by 2013—if there are any CPUs ready to handle them.

[Read entire article HERE]

LTE’s future: A scramble for spectrum, and creative data caps

sina — Fri, 11 May 2012 15:25:06 +0000

This is a great article about the next generation of mobile telephony (LTE). Whether you call it 4G, LTE, or 4G LTE, this new standard will bring mobile computing to the forefront of many Americans’ lives.

[Read the article HERE]

Microsoft joins Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium to develop new DRAM standard

sina — Wed, 09 May 2012 22:26:10 +0000

Intel unveiled its Hybrid Memory Cube at IDF late last year, and the company hasn’t wasted time moving forward with this new DRAM architecture; it even created an alliance dedicated to standardizing and implementing the technology. Now Microsoft wants in on the action: the outfit just announced that it will lend its clout to the Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium. To jog your memory, HMC technology promises seven times the efficiency of current DRR3 memory modules and is being vaunted by Intel et al. as the solution for monster systems requiring lower power usage and higher bandwidth. Redmond’s joining a well-attended party; IBM, Micron, Samsung and many others are already members of the consortium.

[Read the entire article HERE]

New 802.1aq standard promises to improve Ethernet efficiency

sina — Tue, 08 May 2012 18:53:22 +0000

Yesterday the IEEE announced an update to the 802.11 WiFi standard, and today it’s promptly moving on to the Ethernet side of things. The association just approved the 802.1aq Shortest Path Bridging standard, which will streamline the management and build-out of networks by using the latest-gen VLAN with a higher service capacity. Basically, a larger scale for more efficiency and less errors.

[Read the whole article HERE]

Educators Work To Better Integrate Technology Into The Classroom

sina — Mon, 07 May 2012 21:40:10 +0000

American university professors do not teach education students a universal, tried-and-true method for how to incorporate technology in their classroom instruction. That the digital revolution evolves at a rapid pace and that technology has become so subject-specific means universities cannot address these shifts and create a standard curriculum. As a result, educators have become more resourceful and ingenious in their teaching, professors say.
[Read More Here]

UC Berkeley freshman shows us his ridiculously automated dorm

sina — Fri, 04 May 2012 22:55:46 +0000

If only I had this technology while I was in college. The advancements in computers have given our nation’s youth all the advantages of the world. See what this UC Berkeley freshman used his knowledge of technology for. Read the story here and see the video below.

The A/B Test: Inside the Technology That’s Changing the Rules of Business

sina — Tue, 01 May 2012 18:00:00 +0000

…Over the past decade, the power of A/B testing has become an open secret of high-stakes web development. It’s now the standard (but seldom advertised) means through which Silicon Valley improves its online products. Using A/B, new ideas can be essentially focus-group tested in real time: Without being told, a fraction of users are diverted to a slightly different version of a given web page and their behavior compared against the mass of users on the standard site. If the new version proves superior—gaining more clicks, longer visits, more purchases—it will displace the original; if the new version is inferior, it’s quietly phased out without most users ever seeing it. A/B allows seemingly subjective questions of design—color, layout, image selection, text—to become incontrovertible matters of data-driven social science.

[Read The Entire Article Here]

Intel’s “tick plus:” third generation Core “Ivy Bridge” processors hit the market

sina — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:13:56 +0000

The first few models of Intel’s third generation Core processor, codenamed Ivy Bridge, were launched today, combining faster performance with lower power consumption thanks to Intel’s cutting-edge 22 nm manufacturing process.

Since 2007, the microprocessor giant has been using a model it describes as “tick-tock.” Each “tick” is a die shrink and introduction of a new manufacturing process, each “tock” is the introduction of a new processor architecture. Ivy Bridge is a “tick,” taking the 32 nm “Sandy Bridge” architecture and scaling it down to 22 nm. But Ivy Bridge goes further than past ticks—it includes an extensively improved GPU architecture, leading Intel graphics architect Tom Piazza to describe it as a “tick plus.”

[Read More Here]

Mac Flashback trojan exploits unpatched Java vulnerability, no password needed

sina — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:02:55 +0000

Developers behind the Flashback trojan for the Mac have updated it to exploit a vulnerability in the Java software framework that has yet to be patched for machines running Mac OS X, an antivirus firm warned on Monday.

Flashback.K, as the latest variant is called, is able to hijack Macs even when users don’t enter an administrative password. Instead, it does this by exploiting a critical Java vulnerability classified as CVE-2012-0507, F-Secure researchers wrote in a blog post. Although Oracle released a fix for the security threat in February, a patch has yet to be released for OS X users. That’s because Apple distributes Java updates itself and the company has yet to make one for the specific flaw, or indicate when it plans to do so.

[Read More Here]