Magnetic logic makes for mutable chips

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A research group based at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in Seoul, South Korea, has developed a circuit that may get around these problems. The device, described in a paper published on Nature’s website on 30 January, uses magnetism to control the flow of electrons across a minuscule bridge of the semiconducting material indium antimonide (S. Joo et al. Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature11817; 2013). It is “a new and interesting twist on how to implement a logic gate”, says Gian Salis, a physicist at IBM’s Zurich Research Laboratory in Switzerland.

via Magnetic logic makes for mutable chips : Nature News & Comment.

This seems like a revolutionary discovery if it can be manufactured relatively easily.  And then there’s this:

But Johnson notes that magnetism is already catching on in circuit design: some advanced devices are beginning to use a magnetic version of random access memory, a type of memory that has historically been built only with conventional transistors. “I think a shift is already under way,” he says.

Free SIP/VoIP client for Android

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For Google™ Voice users, Sipdroid can now create a new, free PBXes account that is automatically linked to an existing Google™ Voice account. The new feature requires Android 2.0, or above, and Google’s app connected to your Voice account.

via sipdroid – Free SIP/VoIP client for Android – Google Project Hosting.

Just found this site and sipdroid looks like an interesting VOIP solution for a tablet wifi.  Will download to see how it works.

The Forgotten Secrets Of The Enterprise Giants: Virality, Word Of Mouth, And Other Radical Experiments

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Did you know that Salesforce initially launched with an activity-based pricing model, where the first two seats were perpetually free? It was designed to get critical mass in a company to soften it up for an inside sales call — and it worked great. This was their sales model up to about $17 million in sales, until the dot-com crash wiped out fundraising opportunities right at a moment when they had high customer churn combined with a major spend on inside sales, creating a cashflow nightmare.

via The Forgotten Secrets Of The Enterprise Giants: Virality, Word Of Mouth, And Other Radical Experiments | TechCrunch.

If there’s one lesson that the old school continuously fails to teach, it is stop listening to the so-called (and self-styled) experts. Do your own research, talk to the original sources, and just go out and build your crazy thing.

Brogrammer Killed The Requirements Engineering Star

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Writing functional and technical specifications – even for simple programs – is a vital skill, forcing programmers to think through what it is they want to do before they start doing it. They’re also invaluable for the generation (or two) of programmers who may need to modify or update your code after you’ve moved on. Trying to make even simple changes to a program without introducing new bugs requires a detailed understanding of what the program or function is supposed to do and how it was written. Without proper documentation, that job becomes much, much harder, Lamport says.

via Brogrammer Killed The Requirements Engineering Star.

Interesting read as well as the two featured comments.

Why We Should Build Software Like We Build Houses

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Architects draw detailed plans before a brick is laid or a nail is hammered. Programmers and software engineers don’t. Can this be why houses seldom collapse and programs often crash?

via Why We Should Build Software Like We Build Houses | Wired Opinion | Wired.com.

This analogy made me laugh because software doesn’t have to fight gravity or -20F temperatures or whatever else planet Earth has in store for a physical structure.  The gist of this article however seems to be that every software project should start with and needs a solid foundation of requirements.  Shout out to system engineering!

Update:  Here’s an interesting comment from slashdot and a shout out to awk.

If builders built houses the way programmers built programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.
Gerald Weinberg

Trivia: Gerald Weinberg is the “w” in awk. Sadly, things haven’t changed much since back when.

Cheers,
Dave

Steam Box’s biggest threat isn’t consoles, it’s Apple

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That’s Valve’s goal for the Steam Box, its own Linux-based gaming hardware which will bring Steam’s Big Picture mode to living room televisions at an affordable price point. Valve is also teaming up with several hardware manufacturers, who are also trying to put together the most attractive hardware at the most attractive price, in order to make the PC platform’s jump to the living room as painless as possible.

via Gabe Newell: Steam Box’s biggest threat isn’t consoles, it’s Apple | Polygon.

I’d like to see more numbers.  Having Apple at the high end and Linux at the low end seems like an OK solution and everyone makes money.

How Lytro is Shifting Our Perspective on Photography

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What’s amazing is how quickly the technology is evolving. There’s no second-generation Lytro yet though it’s safe to assume the Mountain View, CA-based company is working on one. But because light field photography is mostly about computation, not optics or electronics, Lytro can make its existing camera more powerful simply by upgrading the software used to process light-field images.

via How Lytro is Shifting Our Perspective on Photography | Xconomy.

Supersized Wind Turbines Head Out to Sea

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The new turbines generate six megawatts of power in good wind. Several companies are designing 10- and even 15-megawatt machines with 100-meter blades. These blades would reach two-thirds of the way to the roof of the Empire State Building. The push to supersize wind turbines is part of an effort to reduce installation and maintenance costs, which can be far higher than the cost of the turbines themselves. The pictures in this slideshow give a sense of just why installation is so costly.

via Supersized Wind Turbines Head Out to Sea | MIT Technology Review.

Got an iPhone? You probably pay over $100 on your monthly bill

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When it comes to monthly bills for various smartphone platforms, iPhone users are paying the most, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. In a recent analysis shared with AllThingsD, 59 percent of iPhone users are paying more than $100 per month for calls, texts, and data.

via Got an iPhone? You probably pay over $100 on your monthly bill | Ars Technica.

RSA, IBM Bet On Big Data Analytics To Boost Security

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“So think of a host beaconing out to a C2 (command-and-control) site on a regularly scheduled basis,” he tells Dark Reading. “If an analyst can isolate the suspect host, they can eyeball a graph to see that they’re reaching out to this host regularly. But with a big data approach, you can create a rule that computes and analyzes the interval between sessions and determines whether we’re talking about normal human activity, or machine-generated — which is innocuous — or scheduled activity like malware might do.”

via RSA, IBM Bet On Big Data Analytics To Boost Security – Dark Reading.

I recently caught a piece of malware on a PC on my open wifi doing something similar.