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next-20140725: linux-next

Latest Linux Kernel - Fri, 2014-07-25 03:08
Version:next-20140725 (linux-next) Released:2014-07-25
Categories: FLOSS

VIDEO: Illegal child migration to US soars

BBC World - Fri, 2014-07-25 02:41
In the last eight months alone, nearly 60,000 children have crossed the border illegally into the United States, in the hope of a better life.
Categories: News

VIDEO: Soldiers clear Taiwan plane wreckage

BBC World - Fri, 2014-07-25 02:27
Soldiers and recovery teams are continuing to clear the wreckage from a plane crash on a Taiwanese island that killed 48 people.
Categories: News

ADATA Launches XPG V3 DDR3 Range

Anandtech - Fri, 2014-07-25 02:24

Despite the talk surrounding the introduction of DDR4 to the market, the volume product for the foreseeable future is still DDR3. We have done a number of memory scaling articles in the past [1,2,3], but due to the resurgence of growth in the gaming segments over the last several quarters, there is still a demand for high speed DRAM, especially those that match the style of the build if the user or gamer wants to show it off at an event. This has caused some of the enthusiast DRAM manufacturers to re-launch their high end modules under new names and new skins, with the option of customization. This lies at the heart of ADATA’s new XPG V3 DDR3 range.

The finned array for the heatsinks can be removed, similar to other high end ranges, and replaced with a custom color. ADATA is saying that the first batches of these modules for retail will include a second set of fins, so users can select between gold and red. There are plans to launch other colors in the future.

Launched SKUs will first be available in gold/red, in either 2x4 GB or 2x8 GB kits, with the following speeds:

DDR3-1600 9-9-9-24 1.50V
DDR3-1866 10-11-11-30 1.50V
DDR3-2133 10-11-11-30 1.65V
DDR3-2400 11-13-13-35 1.65V
DDR3-2600 11-13-13-35 1.65V
DDR3-2800 12-14-14-36 1.65V
DDR3-2933 12-14-14-36 1.65V
DDR3-3100 12-14-14-36 1.65V

All kits will support XMP 1.3, use 8-layer PCBs with 2oz copper to improve signalling, and Thermal Conductive Technology (TCT), which is a fancy way of saying that the DRAM chips themselves are in contact with the heatsink, so the heatsink may be hard to remove depending on the bonding.

With the high frequency modules, it is always worth noting that these are designed for use with Ivy Bridge and Haswell CPUs, and the quality of the memory controller will determine the maximum speed possible. All the Ivy Bridge and Haswell CPUs I have tested, at stock, will easily do DDR3-2933, and should find DDR3-3100 OK as well with a small base frequency overclock. Overclocking the CPU may reduce the peak memory frequency possible, and thus if running an overclocked system, a balance may be needed as well as the expertise/guide to manage that balance. This is true with any high speed memory, not just the ones here, such as our reviews of the TridentX style or ADATA's own XPG V2 DDR3-2800.

ADATA has offered us a review sample which should arrive shortly. Stay tuned for the review. I am currently awaiting a full list of MSRPs and will update the news when it arrives.

Source: ADATA

Gallery: ADATA Launches XPG V3 DDR3 Range

Categories: Tech

VIDEO: The toughest cop on Wall Street

BBC World - Fri, 2014-07-25 02:20
Benjamin Lawsky, Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services, is known as the toughest cop on Wall Street.
Categories: News

VIDEO: 'You can hear the bombs and missiles'

BBC World - Fri, 2014-07-25 01:08
More than 800 people have died in the latest outbreak of violence in the Middle East, and despite calls for a ceasefire, the fighting continues.
Categories: News

VIDEO: West Bank Gaza protests turn deadly

BBC World - Thu, 2014-07-24 23:54
At least two Palestinians have been killed during a West Bank march protesting against Israel's military operation in Gaza.
Categories: News

VIDEO: Left behind in 'dead' Ukraine city

BBC World - Thu, 2014-07-24 23:10
The BBC's Natalia Antelava speaks to residents in the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, the last stronghold of pro-Russian separatists, to gauge how the conflict is affecting their lives.
Categories: News

VIDEO: 'Fluffy' dinosaur theory sparks debate

BBC World - Thu, 2014-07-24 22:10
All dinosaurs were covered with feathers or had the potential to grow feathers, a study published in the journal, Science, suggests.
Categories: News

Outlook grim for orbiting Russian zero-G sex geckos

ARS Technica - Thu, 2014-07-24 17:51

Russian space agency Roscosmos issued a number of statements earlier today indicating that their Foton-M4 satellite is in trouble. According to Russian state-owned news agency ITAR-TASS, the scientific research satellite with its payload of experiments is still sending back telemetry, but it's unresponsive to commands sent from the ground. In a separate report, ITAR-TASS quotes a Roscosmos representative as saying that Foton-M4 is designed for "durable autonomous operation," but the lack of ground control jeopardizes the experiments slated to be carried out on board the Foton-M4—not to mention the health of its living cargo.

A day gecko. Paul Ritchie Foton-M4 was launched on July 19 carrying five geckos—small lizards that favor tropical and subtropical climates (and, apocryphally, sell insurance). The lucky lizards—one male and four females—were sent into their 575-kilometer low earth orbit in order to study the effect of microgravity on their reproductive habits, with scientists monitoring their behavior through a video downlink to the ground.

The lizards aren’t joining the 357-Mile High Club alone; the satellite is carrying an additional biological payload of flies, plant seeds, and assorted microorganisms, along with 850kg of scientific instrumentation to support 22 experiments.

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Categories: Tech

Outlook grim for orbiting Russian zero-G sex geckos

ARS Technica - Thu, 2014-07-24 17:45
Diagram of the Foton-4M satellite. Roscosmos/RussianSpaceWeb

Contact lost with satellite containing five suddenly unlucky lizards

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Russian space agency Roscosmos issued a number of statements earlier today indicating that their Foton-M4 satellite is in trouble. According to Russian state-owned news agency ITAR-TASS, the satellite is still sending back telemetry, but is unresponsive to commands sent from the ground. In a separate report, ITAR-TASS quotes a Roscosmos representative as saying that Foton-M4 is designed for "durable autonomous operation," but the lack of ground control jeopardizes the experiments slated to be carried out on board the Foton-M4—not to mention its living payload.

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Categories: Tech

Chubby Checker, HP settle penis size app trademark suit

ARS Technica - Thu, 2014-07-24 16:45

Musician Chubby Checker, best known for his 1960 smash hit cover version of The Twist, has settled the lawsuit he brought against Hewlett-Packard in 2013, according to the Hollywood Reporter. In the suit the singer claimed trademark infringement after HP included a penis size estimating application, "The Chubby Checker," in its WebOS store.

Rock and roll icon Chubby Checker, real name Ernest Evans, sued HP for half a billion dollars, claiming not only that it infringed his trademark but also that HP violated the Communications Decency Act. The Communications Decency Act claim was dismissed by the courts in August 2013, but the trademark claim was allowed to proceed and was due to go to trial this coming October.

The application worked by asking for a man's shoe size and thereby providing an estimate of his penis size, a process that likely lacks rigorous scientific validity. The app was withdrawn from the WebOS App Catalog in 2012 after HP received a cease and desist demand from Evans' lawyers. The $0.99 application was downloaded fewer than 100 times during its time on the market, leaving HP with a profit of no more than $30.

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Categories: Tech

PSA: Destiny beta no longer requires pre-order to access

ARS Technica - Thu, 2014-07-24 16:30

Last week, Bungie and Activision unveiled a beta version of their upcoming online shooter game Destiny, which first launched on PS3 and PS4 consoles. Xbox 360 and Xbox One players had to wait until yesterday to join in. Beta access for users across all consoles had a catch: it required a Destiny pre-order (or luckily snagging a beta download code via social media).

That changed on Thursday when Bungie opened the game's beta doors to all console players, so long as they were subscribed to their system's paid subscription service (Xbox Live Gold or PlayStation Plus). The announcement came barely an hour ahead of the game's doors being swung wide open, telling players they merely needed to log in to their consoles' normal download stores to find their free beta download.

The launch comes on the heels of a limited alpha test in June. From our brief experience, the beta contains a more expansive world to explore, a better introductory sequence, and more stable online play—along with a chance for players to compare performance between older and newer console generations. (Our time with the PS3 version, for example, handled surprisingly well, in spite of a remarkably lower screen resolution, fewer foliage/skybox details, and smudgy anti-aliasing methods.)

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Categories: Tech

VIDEO: Water ATMs bring clean water to Delhi

BBC World - Thu, 2014-07-24 16:20
The authorities is Delhi are piloting water dispensing machines to bring clean water to residents.
Categories: News

Unconfirmed report says Google has just bought Twitch for $1 billion

ARS Technica - Thu, 2014-07-24 15:31

After months of speculation, a report has linked Google to a $1 billion acquisition of the video-streaming site Twitch.tv. VentureBeat's Wednesday report went so far as to call the deal "confirmed," but it didn't list an exact price, announcement date, or other key details, relying solely on "sources familiar with the matter."

The deal, originally reported by Variety in May, may seem like a small drop in the bucket for Google. YouTube racks up more than one billion monthly viewers compared to Twitch's 45 million. But the gaming-focused Twitch enjoys an edge thanks to dedicated features like internal console apps, screencasting, and live chat. The acquisition looks particularly attractive in the wake of e-sports' recent rise in Western popularity.

Though Twitch was founded by co-creators of Justin.tv, another streaming site, no report has mentioned whether the originating video-streaming site will be involved in the deal. If that amount remains around $1 billion, it'll be quite the coup for investors who have only sunk roughly $35 million into Twitch thus far.

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Categories: Tech

Who’s banned from editing Wikipedia this week? Congress

ARS Technica - Thu, 2014-07-24 15:21
The Rayburn office building for the US House of Representatives. Cliff

Most members and staffers of the US House of Representatives won't be able to edit pages on Wikipedia for more than a week. Administrators of the popular Web encyclopedia have imposed a 10-day ban on the IP address connected to Congress' lower house.

The ban comes after a series of wild "disruptive" edits that appeared following the creation of @congressedits, a bot that monitors anonymous edits from congressional IP addresses and announces them to the world via Twitter. The account was created just over two weeks ago and already has more than 23,000 followers.

Wikipedia editors explained their castigation for the IP address 143.231.249.138 on the user talk page. The 10-day edit ban follows a one-day ban imposed earlier this month, which apparently didn't do the trick.

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Categories: Tech

Amazon stock plunges after $126 million quarterly loss

ARS Technica - Thu, 2014-07-24 15:10
The Kindle Fire tablet. amazon

Despite Amazon's recent launch of the Fire Phone, Kindle Unlimited, and HBO on Amazon Prime, the company struggled to turn a profit last quarter.

Amazon announced Thursday that it lost $126 million in quarterly earnings. The company’s stock price was down more than seven percent in after-hours trading.

The losses show that Amazon may be overstretched at the moment. The company made $274 million in 2013 and nearly $3 billion in total profits from 2009 through 2013.

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Categories: Tech

VIDEO: Close-up: MH17 crash investigation

BBC World - Thu, 2014-07-24 15:01
MH17 crash investigation expected to be long and complex in attempt to piece together exactly what happened.
Categories: News

“Magic Helmet” for F-35 ready for delivery

ARS Technica - Thu, 2014-07-24 14:30
Rockwell Collins and Elbit Systems' joint—a helmet that can see through planes without making the pilot throw up. Lockheed Martin

This week, Lockheed Martin officially took delivery of a key part of the F-35 fighter’s combat functionality—the pilot’s helmet. The most expensive and complicated piece of headgear ever constructed, the F-35 Gen III Helmet Mounted Display System (HMDS) is one of the multipurpose fighter’s most critical systems, and it's essential to delivering a fully combat-ready version of the fighter to the Marine Corps, the Navy, and the Air Force. But it almost didn’t make the cut because of software problems and side effects akin to those affecting some 3D virtual reality headsets.

Built by Rockwell Collins ESA Vision Systems International (a joint venture between Rockwell Collins and the Israeli defense company Elbit Systems), the HMDS goes way beyond previous augmented reality displays embedded in pilots’ helmets. In addition to providing the navigational and targeting information typically shown in a combat aircraft’s heads-up display, the HMDS also includes aspects of virtual reality, allowing a pilot to look through the plane. Using a collection of six high-definition video and infrared cameras on the fighter’s exterior called the Distributed Aperture System (DAS), the display extends vision a full 360 degrees around the aircraft from within the cockpit. The helmet is also equipped with night vision capabilities via an infrared sensor that projects imagery inside the facemask.

The helmet is an essential part of the aircraft’s cockpit. Some pilots have called the helmet's austere touchscreen Panoramic Cockpit Display “the most naked cockpit in history“ because of its lack of switches and other physical instrumentation. (“Not true,” said Lockheed Martin F-35 Pilot Vehicle Interface lead Michael Skaff in a presentation he gave on the cockpit. “The Wright flyer had fewer switches.”) When combined with the cockpit’s built-in voice recognition capabilities, the helmet will allow the pilot to track everything in the aircraft’s sphere of visibility.

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Categories: Tech

Court allows use of “stingray” cell tracking device in murder case

ARS Technica - Thu, 2014-07-24 13:55
Vincent Desjardins

The Supreme Court of Wisconsin has upheld the warrantless use of cell phone tracking devices, better known as "stingrays.” In a narrow decision published on Thursday, the court found that while the Milwaukee police did not specifically have a warrant to use the stingray to locate a murder suspect, it did have a related judicial order that essentially served the same purpose.

This 2009 murder case is one of the rare, high-level court decisions that directly speaks to the legality of the use of stingrays, which are often used to track suspects’ phones and, in some cases, intercept calls and text messages. However, stingrays also capture related information on all other cell phone users who happen to be in physical proximity to the target.

The court order specifically approved “the installation and use of a trap and trace device or process,” and "the installation and use of a pen register device/process," and “the release of subscriber information, incoming and outgoing call detail…and authorizing the identification of the physical location of a target cellular phone.”

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Categories: Tech
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