Computers

Massimo Banzi launched a $69 Arduino board that plugs do-it-yourselfers into the cloud using a Wi-Fi chip from Qualcomm Atheros running a custom variant of Linux.View the full article HERE.

[PJ: The leader so far is XMonad. Here's a page that explains how to use XMonad with KDE (or Gnome).] - Hacker News

Bitcoin is not going away, the digital currency's developers say, and they're craving more technically savvy people to support its use."Our bottleneck is not new code, it's code review and testing," said Gavin Andresen , chief scientist at the Bitcoin Foundation, which provides most of the core backend development for the currency.The foundation, which currently just has two full-time staff members, wants more help on the coding side as it eyes future Bitcoin-related services like enhanced security features on mobile wallets.Ideally, the foundation would bring on a lead quality assurance and project manager full-time, Andresen said, but having other code-savvy people who could test and review new features for Bitcoin is also key. Many of the development projects can be found on the GitHub hosting service.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Despite our strong differences on some issues, CPP members have, over the course of three years, collectively decided that it would be beneficial to articulate some principles of a "good" copyright law, to analyze respects in which existing copyright law does or does not comport with these principles, and to recommend changes to copyright law that would bring it into greater conformity with the principles. Making changes recommended in this Report would overcome some dysfunctions we perceive in current law and put it on a sounder normative foundation. Even where we disagree, recording the nature of our disagreements could advance discourse on copyright issues by others. Some changes recommended in this Report can only be brought about by legislative action, while others can be accomplished through common law evolution. We hope that this Report will contribute to a wider and more effective conversation about how to improve copyright law and policy. We further hope that this Report will lead to follow-on activities to assess, refine, and implement our recommendations. We end this preamble with one last observation. Too much discourse about copyright law in the past fifteen years has been burdened by rhetorical excesses and an unwillingness to engage in rational discourse with those having differing perspectives. The CPP has proven that it is possible for persons of good will with diverse viewpoints and economic interests to engage in thoughtful civil discourse on even the toughest and most controversial copyright issues. - Pamela Samuelson, Berkeley Technology Law Journal

At Google I/O 2013 we learned that Google Maps is getting a major overhaul on both iOS and Android. Expect better navigation, a night time world view, and a new design. [PJ: It's all fascinating, but if you only have time for a brief look, choose the very end, the real-time clouds and the Milky Way.] - YouTube

ECS has launched its new range of Intel 8-Series Motherboards, which will begin shipping in Q2 2013.

Google CEO Larry Page takes the stage at Google IO for a 35 minute question and answer. He doesn't hold back about how he feels about Microsoft so you know it's he's having an honest moment with his community. - YouTube

The GeForce GTX 780 is all but officially announced. Even though NVIDIA showed the card off at GeForce eSports in China we should expect an official announcement next week on May 23rd. In the meantime it looks like we have some more leaked photos of the card and also the GeForce GTX 770. Both leaked shots are from NVIDIA AIB partner PNY.PNY GeForce GTX 780Nothing special here. It looks like PNY will be using the same reference cooler that we have seen on all other shots of the GeForce GTX 780. The GeForce GTX 780 would be based on a cut down version of the GK110 core codenamed “GK110-300-A2?. Unlike the GeForce GTX Titan that has 14 streaming multiprocessors and 2688 cores the GTX 780 will have 12 streaming multiprocessors and 2304 cores. The included 3 GB of GDDR5 memory will operate along a 320/384 bit memory bus. The card is expected to use the same cooler as the one on the GeForce GTX Titan.PNY GeForce GTX 770As you can see here the GTX 770, at least PNY’s version will use the same cooler that was found on the GeForce GTX 680. We have seen photos of an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 with the same cooler as the Titan though. The GeForce GTX 770 will make use of a refined GK104 core, which has the codename GK10425 A2. It will be clocked a little higher than the original GK104-400 core and will have some minor improvements. It will feature 1536 CUDA cores and 2/4 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit bus. These are the same specs we saw on the previous generation GeForce GTX 680 card. The expected performance is to be about 5-10% percent faster than the GeForce GTX 680 and will cost around $399-$449.Check out our graph below that shows the difference between the cards.GeForce GTX TITANGeForce GTX 780GeForce GTX 770GPUGK110-400GK110-300GK104-425CUDA Cores268823041536TMUs224192128ROPs484832Memory6GB GDDR53GB GDDR52GB/4GB GDDR5Interface384-bit384-bit256-bitBase Clock837 MHz863 MHz1046 MHzBoost Clock876 MHz902 MHz1085 MHzEffective Memory Clock6008 MHz6008 MHz7008 MHzMSRP$999$499 – $999$449Release DateFebruary 18thMay 23rdMay 30thNext week should be an exciting week!Source: HardwareMX | News Archive

The Pick 6 Reuters: New CEO vows Intel will be more responsive in mobile push Apple CEO: "We're going very deep" with US manufacturing CBS News: Dismal first quarter illuminates Dell's challenges PCWorld: New tablet boots Ubuntu Linux, Android, and Windows 8 Mozilla's Brendan Eich: C is for cookie Reuters: New Xbox more than a game console for Microsoft Read more...

"IsoHunt is in the process of requesting review by the United States Supreme Court," isoHunt lawyer Ira Rothken informs TorrentFreak. "The right to a jury trial is protected by the US Constitution and shouldn't be usurped by gestalt rules which provide little guidance on how search engines should conduct themselves." "Here the court has left the world wondering what type of causation analysis ought to be done - if a search engine has done some alleged bad things five years ago are they still responsible today with a different interface for all user infringements under a civil inducement theory?" the California-based attorney questions. "There needs to be guidance on legal standards and rules beyond Judges acting in a balkanized and ambiguous manner. The status quo will have a chilling effect on internet development and lead to wasteful civil litigation," Rothken concludes. - TorrentFreak