Tag Archives: Computer

Watch The Macintosh Feature In Eighties Computer Talk Show

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1deed 250px Macintosh 128k transparency Watch The Macintosh Feature In Eighties Computer Talk Show

Computer Chronicles used to be a computer talk show on local television in the San Francisco Bay Area. It proved popular so it expanded nationally, and eventually overseas. Wired has unearthed a 1985 episode where it discussed the Macintosh, the latest computer of the time.

It features a couple of members from the original Mac design team, as well as some demos of the Mac’s graphics power. There’s also an interview with Larry Tesler, who was part of the Xerox PARC team, the technology that inspired the Mac. So sit back, grab some popcorn, and watch the episode below.

1deed iOboTABtthA Watch The Macintosh Feature In Eighties Computer Talk Show

MiiPC: Portable Android Desktop Computer For All Ages

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Kickstarter has just launched its latest project with the aim of making kids have their own small PC in order to surf the Internet, play games, watch videos, and do their homework. Dubbed as MiiPC, the minuscule PC is a simple and yet effective device for families to have a better and safer control of their online activity.

Created by the ZeroDesktop, Inc. developers, the MiiPC is meant to address the main challenge posed by kids using the Internet which is ‘addictiveness.’ In the past, kids are blocked from accessing certain websites by employing traditional hardware or software-based methods. However, it does not provide a surefire solution as kids have become smarter enough to go to their favorite social networks and video sites making their parents feel desperate and helpless than ever.

MiiPC is a compact personal PC that runs on an Android OS. It can be easily connected to a PC or a TV monitor which instantly transforms it into a ‘super’ central station for entertainment, media, and even learning. With a specially designed connectivity feature of large screen usage, the MiiPC promises to provide an authentic keyboard and mouse user experience.

Small and yet powerful, the MiiPC features the latest version of Jelly Bean 4.2 OS from Android. Users can surf their favorite websites, play online games, watch good videos, edit important documents, run Android apps and many other things that people do on the traditionally big and heavy PC. You can even bring it anywhere and enjoy watching movies with your family and friends as it has a built-in HDMI output for easy connection with a big screen TV. Moreover, you can set up multiple user accounts for each member in your family if having a private MiiPC desktop would make everyone happy.

Other features include a companion mobile app designed for the parents, built-in time management, real-time monitoring, and a host of free bundled software (KingSoft Office Suite, eReader, Splashtop2, etc.). Technical specs include a Marvell New Armada dual core processor of 1.2GHz, a RAM of 1GB, internal storage of 4GB, WiFi, Ethernet, Bluetooth 4.0, 2 USB 2.0 ports, and jack for the speaker and mic.

Customers can get their MiiPC for an early bird discounted price of $ 89 through Kickstarter. It will have its first production run on May-June 2013.

Apple’s Lightning Digital AV Adapter is Actually a Tiny Full-Fledged Computer!

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2e661 Lightning Digital AV Thumb Apple’s Lightning Digital AV Adapter is Actually a Tiny Full-Fledged Computer!

Apple’s Lightning Digital AV adapter may look ordinary enough on the outside – but some investigative work done by iOS developer Panic reveals that there’s more to this little adapter than meets the eye. Thanks to some quick hacksaw work, Panic reveals that the adapter actually packs its own ARM system-on a chip. Yes, that’s right – it’s actually a tiny, fully-functional computer!

2e661 chip 1 1024x755 Apple’s Lightning Digital AV Adapter is Actually a Tiny Full-Fledged Computer!

Panic, via 9to5Mac):

You would not believe how incredibly tiny those components are on the left. Smaller than anything we’ve seen, electronics-wise. [...]

Your eyes don’t deceive you — that tiny chip says ARM. And the H9TKNNN2GD part number on there points towards RAM — 2Gb worth.

In short: it appears the Lightning Digital AV Adapter has a SoC CPU.  So, AirPlay (or AirPlay-like MPEG streaming) makes a lot more sense now.

While Panic initially thought that the device could function as an Apple TV-like AirPlay receiver, but according to a commenter on the post, who claims to be an Apple engineer, the device isn’t an AirPlay receiver at all (:

Airplay is not involved in the operation of this adapter.

The reason why this adapter exists is because Lightning is simply not capable of streaming a “raw” HDMI signal across the cable. Lightning is a serial bus. There is no clever wire multiplexing involved. Contrary to the opinions presented in this thread, we didn’t do this to screw the customer. We did this to specifically shift the complexity of the “adapter” bit into the adapter itself, leaving the host hardware free of any concerns in regards to what was hanging off the other end of the Lightning cable. [...] 

Certain people are aware that the quality could be better and others are working on it. For the time being, the quality was deemed to be suitably acceptable. Given the dynamic nature of the system (and the fact that the firmware is stored in RAM rather then ROM), updates **will** be made available as a part of future iOS updates. When this will happen I can’t say for anonymous reasons, but these concerns haven’t gone unnoticed.

Regardless of how the adapter works, the $ 50 premium no longer seems as outrageous as it did before – that $ 50 is getting you a tiny, fully functional computer! The comment also notes that Apple could easily update the adapter in the future to support full 1080p output, which it currently is not capable of.

Pretty cool stuff!

Office 2013 Can’t Be Installed To Another Computer — What?

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Clearly, Microsoft’s Office 2013 cannot be installed to another computer and thus when that computer passes out  – so does the software.

microsoft office 2013 Office 2013 Cant Be Installed To Another Computer What?

Even Microsoft itself has already confirmed the reports that its Office 2013 is single-licensed and that it is loyal to just one PC. That said, the likes of Office Home & Student 2013, unlike the Office 10, are single outright copies which cannot be appointed to another machine. In other words, one needs to buy another copy if he/she wants to install the software on a new PC.

Apparently, the company has applied the same license agreement on both its OEM and retail Office 2013 copies unlike its Office 2010 wherein users are allowed to install another copy of the software on another device if they bought the retail version (while OEM Office 2010 users can only use the software on one licensed device).

Again, the authentic license of Office 2013 can only settle in one system, either a desktop or a laptop. Whenever there’s a system crash, the only solution of recovering the Office is to fix the computer since the copy of the software can be reinstalled on that same computer.

Many were obviously surprised by this new ruling from Redmond. However, some pundits do believe that the company is doing it so that users will shift to Office 365 subscription. Is it time to move on? Tell us what you think in the comment section.

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Titan Is The New Fastest Super Computer In The World

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The United States now has the distinction of having two of the most powerful computers in the world. And if that accomplishment isn’t enough, the Titan supercomputer has been deemed the fastest computer in the world and has earned it a place at the top of a list compiled Professor Hans Muer of Mannheim. The other four premier supercomputers are the Sequoia BlueGene/Q at Lawrence Livermore National Library, Fujitsu’s K computer at the Riken Institute, Kobe, Japan, the Mira BlueGene/Q at Lemont and the JUQUEEN BlueGene/Q in Germany. This Top 500 list was recently released at the SC12 Supercomputing Conference at Salt Lake City, Utah.

titan supercomputer tesla gpu Titan Is The New Fastest Super Computer In The World

The Titan Supercomputer is one awe-inspiring creation that has proven it’s a more than worthy successor of the Jaguar. The Titan functions via a colossal 18,688 NVIDIA Tesla K20X GPU accelerators and holds the best performance record of 17.59 petaflop per second, a feat that’s equal to 17,590 trillion calculations per second. Mind you, this is not an empty claim. Titan’s performance has been checked by Linpack, a renowned benchmark system.

The Titan supercomputer was able to hit this remarkable performance by using the Tesla K20x GPUs with existing CPUs. Supercomputers usually just rely on CPUs since they’re designed to handle a few instructions. However, CPUs can’t handle many instructions or jobs all at the same time. On the other hand, GPUs are usually slow at working out single computations but are perfect for doing several processes all at once. Combining both created the best possible core in which to carry out different computing processes. According to NVIDIA, its Tesla K20X accelerator is the crown jewel of their advanced computing line and boasts that it can give optimal computing performance every time. Using NVIDIA’s Tesla K20X and GPU accelerators have brought the Titan 30 petaflops and more over the past month, making it faster than the combined computational capabilities of the 10 fastest supercomputers of 2011. Plus, the Tesla K20X GPU is also three times as energy-efficient as the older accelerators.

The $ 100-million Titan supercomputer is currently the pride and joy of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and is used to do research on biofuels, climate change and to develop energy-efficient vehicles. The Titan is managed by the research labs of America’s Department of Energy. Interestingly enough, third parties who need a supercomputer can rent the Titan.

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