Topic: Computer Hardware
Solid-state drives or SSD's are much better than electromechanical drives such as the Hard Disk Drive or HDD. Low boot-up time, no audible clicks or spinning noise, low access time, less power consumption, no vibration -- these are only some of the advantages that SSD's offer. Hacker and technologist Artur Bergman tells us about them. Artur is the VP of Engineering and Operations and Wikia. Warning: This talk contains strong language and may not be suitable to listen to at work.
Collective intelligence, man-machine symbiosis, real time feedback loops from sensors… Such concepts are harbingers of a new cooperation between humans and machines. In this university podcast, media expert Tim O'Reilly discusses how lessons from technology can apply to sustainable global development. He spoke at the USRio+2.0 Conference hosted at Stanford.
Kirk Skaugen presents Intel's perspective on the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of internet data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage. He does not use this dry definition of web analytics, but instead points out that 245 exabytes of data were sent over the internet in 2010, more than for the entire history of the web. It included forty-hours of YouTube video uploaded per minute, 200 million tweets a day, and 7.5 billion photos uploaded per month. Quality and speed are increasing, and costs are shrinking.
For robotics to become ubiquitous, the key is a simple efficient connector. Organic chemistry is a simple self-reconfiguring process which inspired Tom Larkworthy to emulate it in self-reconfigurable robots. Larkworthy's pragmatic work focuses on a lattice arrangement, a hexagonal metamorphical robot with a simple set of local motion constraints. Per Sjöborg and Larkworthy discuss how gender, simplicity and limits contribute to efficiency in self-reconfigurable robots.
From 40 million users in 2007 to more than 500 million today, Facebook's growth has thrown up enormous challenges in scaling of its computing infrastructure. Jonathan Heiliger, the Vice President of Technical Operations at Facebook, discusses web performance, operations and the evolution of Facebook's computing architecture over the last several years. Amidst various other topics, he focuses on the company's transition from PHP to HipHop for PHP (HPHP) and the Open Compute Project.
If Moore's Law is the basis of your religion, Johnny Lee of Google warns that you might find what he has to say heresy: Convergence won't happen in consumer electronics. In fact, he says the darwinism of free-market competition drives diversification among device species. The mouse and keyboard remain the stalwarts of the productive machine, while computer capacity increases the function of devices large and small.
In a recent WIRED article introducing Chrome Frame, it's mentioned that IE7, issued in 2006, is the only approved browser at Morgan Stanley. Ben Fried, CIO at Google, says it's time for the rearguard of IT to step up the pace. Cloud computing and personal technologies are pulling at enterprise IT from both ends. Security remains the most critical issue for IT. But the opportunities are better than ever if IT can adapt.
According to the Supermechanical website, "Twine is a wireless module tightly integrated with a cloud-based service. The module has WiFi, on-board temperature and vibration sensors, and an expansion connector for other sensors." Developer John Kestner describes the device and its development. He reviews how it works, what decisions were made in its design, and how It allows you to connect things to the Internet. He also discusses the community that is working to make the product better.
As personal computers have become an everyday part of our lives, consumers and businesses have to deal with the issues and problems of technology. Robert Stephens created the Geek Squad as a way to help people correct computer problems quickly and easily. When Best Buy bought his company, he became CTO of the retail giant. He talks about his background, what led him to create Geek Squad, and how he developed a business model that depended on a flat fee structure, rather than hourly rates.
Modular self-healing self-directing robots that can work together independently to achieve tasks... This sounds like something out of a Science Fiction film. Per Sjoborg talks with Dr. Chih-Han Yu of the Computer Science department at Harvard University about ground-breaking work inspired by biology. Dr. Yu discusses his work with mechanical locomotion and artificial intelligence, the future of robotics research, and experimental methods of building robots that can cope with uncertainty.
