The Cuts

Researchers at Hewlett-Packard have developed a working unit of a memory circuit that has existed in theory for 37 years, which could ultimately replace RAM and make computers more intelligent by tracking data it has retained. The technology, called memristor, could allow computers to make decisions by understanding past patterns of data it has collected, similar to human brains collecting and understanding a series of events. For example, a memristor circuit could be capable of telling a microwave the heating time for different food types based on the information it has collected over time, said Stanley Williams, senior fellow at HP.

A memristor circuit requires lower voltage and less time to turn on than competitive memory like DRAM and flash, Williams said. “Because it [uses] less voltage and less time, of course, it uses much less power,” Williams said. Denser cells also allow memristor circuits to store more data than flash memory. Through prototypes, HP is trying to show circuit designers what memristor is capable of doing. “What we have done is confirmed a concept for a new electronic device that was originally proposed nearly 40 years ago,” Williams said. Memristor is the fourth fundamental circuit element, joining the other three — resistor, capacitor and inductor — that had been known for 150 years, Williams said. The element has properties that cannot be duplicated by any combination of the other three elements.

Qwest Communications International Inc. on Thursday introduced DSL plans with faster download speeds, including one that is the fastest DSL service from a major U.S. phone company. Qwest is charging $104.99 per month for a download speed of 20 megabits per second. For 12 mbps, it is charging $51.99 per month. The prices are $5 lower when combined with local phone service. The plans will be available in 23 of Qwest’s top markets, the company said. By the end of the year, they will be available to 2 million customers. Download speeds on DSL, or Digital Subscriber Lines, from other companies generally top out at 10 or 12 megabits per second. L

ike Qwest’s plans, those speeds are only available in some areas, where the local phone company has drawn optical fiber closer to homes to shorten the distance the signal is carried by copper phone lines. Qwest said it is committed to spending up to $300 million to upgrade its network by drawing fiber into neighborhoods. Verizon Communications Inc. has chosen a different route, drawing fiber all the way to customers’ homes. While its fastest DSL service provides 7 mbps downloads, its fiber Internet service clocks in at 50 mbps. Cable companies also have been boosting their speeds. Earlier this month, Comcast Corp. introduced 50 mbps service for $150 per month in Minnesota’s Twin Cities region, where Qwest is the dominant phone company. A check on Qwest’s Web site indicated that the 12 and 20 megabit services are available in Minneapolis.

A computer hacker testified on Wednesday that a News Corp unit hired him to develop pirating software, but denied using it to penetrate the security system of a rival satellite television service. Christopher Tarnovsky — who said his first payment was $20,000 in cash hidden in electronic devices mailed from Canada — testified in a corporate-spying lawsuit brought against News Corp’s NDS Groupby DISH Network Corp. The trial could result in hundreds of millions of dollars in damage awards. NDS, which provides security technology to a global satellite network that includes satellite TV service DirecTV, denies the claims, saying it was only engaged in reverse engineering — looking at a technology product to determine how it works, a standard in the electronics industry.

After an introduction by plaintiff’s attorney Chad Hagan as one of the “two best hackers in the world,” Tarnovsky told the court that he was paid on a regular basis by Harper Collins, a publishing arm of News Corp, for 10 years. Tarnovsky said one of his first projects was to develop a pirating program to make DirectTV more secure. But lawyers for DISH Network claim Tarnovsky’s mission was to hack into DISH’s satellite network, steal the security code, then flood the market with pirated smart cards costing DISH $900 million in lost revenue and system-repair costs. Smart cards enable satellite TV converter boxes to bring in premium channels. The trial is expected to last another two to three weeks.

Today is April 24th, and you may ask, what significance does that have? Well, today is the anticipated release date of Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. As is customary for Linux distributions, Ubuntu 8.04 includes incremental updates to many of the software packages that make up the system, from low-level details like the window manager and graphics subsystem, all the way up to the bundled OpenOffice.org productivity suite.



The new release is also the first to ship with the Firefox 3.0 browser, which is currently still in late-stage beta testing. This is widely touted as the savior of Linux, as it will bring Linux to the masses. I tried some of the earlier versions a few years ago, when I was building a tv tuner system, but opted for a Windows based machine. Nonetheless, if you are a Linux fanboy, you might want to give this distribution a shot. It is free to download, or you can request a copy be mailed to your physical address.

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

Designer Erik De Nijs has put a keyboard in pants. A KEYBOARD IN PANTS!