Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
Pre Crime: Software Could Influence Sentencing Recommendations and Bail Amounts
August 24th, 2010Via: ABC News: New crime prediction software being rolled out in the nation’s capital should reduce not only the murder rate, but the rate of many other crimes as well. Developed by Richard Berk, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, the software is already used in Baltimore and Philadelphia to predict which individuals on […]
Toshiba Increases Drive Capacity by 5X; ETA 2013
August 18th, 2010Don’t drink the water, eat the food or breathe the air, but… Via: PC World: Toshiba will detail a breakthrough in data storage later Wednesday that it says paves the way for hard drives with vastly higher capacity than today. The breakthrough has been made in the research of bit-patterned media, a magnetic storage technology […]
DARPA Driving Development of Exascale Computers
August 11th, 2010Via: BBC: Computers that can perform a quintillion calculations per second are being planned by the US military. The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) has awarded the first grants to firms it wants to build so-called exascale computers. These will be far more powerful than current top supercomputers which manage just over one petaflop […]
Berkeley: Sensor Package Models Building Interiors
August 11th, 2010Shrink it down so that it fits on the remote controlled cyborg beetle. Uhh, yeah. Via: ABC: Researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a laser backpack that scans its surroundings and creates an instant 3D model. It can make video games more realistic and buildings more energy efficient. They are driving to discover a model […]
Cisco’s Sub Second Melt Up and Identifying Crop Circles in the High Frequency Market Data
August 5th, 2010WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. Last week, Cisco (CSCO) was halted because the new “circuit breaker” rule kicked in. The price had moved more than 10% in five minutes (ABC/Reuters): Trading in Cisco Systems Inc shares was briefly halted on Thursday after triggering a circuit breaker. […]
After Armageddon
August 1st, 2010I doubt that there’s going to be any escape from the emerging machine world and we will probably see autonomous terminator robots before some plague takes down the global prison system of governments and the corporations that they serve. The scenario in Jericho seems more probable to me than the one below, but both pieces […]
Automated Debt-Collection Lawsuits Engulf Courts
July 26th, 2010Great innovations in the bucket shop economy. Via: New York Times: As millions of Americans have fallen behind on paying their bills, debt collection law firms have been clogging courtrooms with lawsuits seeking repayment. Few have been as prolific as Cohen & Slamowitz, a Woodbury, N.Y., firm that has specialized in debt collection for nearly […]
Killer Drones Get Stealthy
July 20th, 2010Via: Wired: Today’s killer drones are sitting ducks. Loud, slow-moving, and simple to spot, any air defense more potent than a militant with an AK is liable to take one of the robotic planes down. But the next generation of unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) won’t be the airborne equivalent of fish in a barrel. […]
Boeing Unveils Phantom Eye Hydrogen-Powered Spy Plane
July 14th, 2010Via: BBC: Boeing has unveiled its unmanned hydrogen-powered spy plane which can fly non-stop for up to four days. The high-altitude plane, called Phantom Eye, will remain aloft at 20,000m (65,000ft), according to the company. The demonstrator will be shipped to Nasa’s Dryden Flight Research Center in California later this summer to prepare for its […]
South Korea Deploys Killer Robots Along Border with North
July 13th, 2010Via: Telegraph: South Korea has deployed sentry robots capable of detecting and killing intruders along the heavily-fortified border with North Korea, officials said on Tuesday. Two robots with surveillance, tracking, firing and voice recognition systems were integrated into a single unit, a defence ministry spokesman said. The 400 million won (£220,000) unit was installed last […]
