IBM's new supercomputing chip mimics the human brain with very little power

IBM's new supercomputing chip mimics the human brain with very little power

Joseph Volpe

Engadget

A lot has changed in the three years since IBM first unveiled a prototype of its human brain-inspired SyNAPSE (Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics) chip. That single-core prototype has now been significantly scaled up, leading to a new, production-ready SyNAPSE chip that blows past its predecessor with 1 million neurons, 256 million synapses and 4,096 neurosynaptic cores, all the while only requiring 70mW of power. Though the numbers are impressive, it's what they translate to that holds even greater prominence: the ability for devices to process various sensory data in parallel just like the human brain, by merging memory and computing.

Traditionally, faster processing has always meant greater power consumption, but IBM's new SyNAPSE chip flips that paradigm on its head. To give you some perspective of just how low-powered this supercomputing chip is, IBM's Chief Scientist Dr. Dharmendra S. Modha says it requires power equivalent to that of a battery from a hearing aid. It's an achievement that's merited IBM the cover of the journal Science; it also has the potential to drastically alter conventional approaches to computing. In fact, the new SyNAPSE chip is so disruptive to the current computing landscape that IBM's created a new programming language to go along with it and an educational outreach program called SyNAPSE University. It's no wonder why the project received $53 million in funding from DARPA.

IBM hasn't publicly announced any partnerships to leverage its new SyNAPSE chip yet, though discussions are surely taking place. Currently, the company's been able to build a programmable, working board with 16 of these chips working in concert -- that represents 16 million neurons capable of processing instructions that, Modha says, would traditionally be carried out by "racks and racks of conventional computers." Again, this is all done at an extremely low-powered state, which means the chips produce way less heat. It's not hard to imagine some of the immediate benefits this could bring to consumers: for instance,  mobile phones that run for days and can process extreme amounts of environmental data.

But Modha sums up the magnitude of IBM's new SyNAPSE chip best with this simple analogy: "You can carry our board in your backpack. You can't carry four racks of conventional computers in your backpack."

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Yahoo to join Google to create spy-free email systems: WSJ

Yahoo to join Google to create spy-free email systems: WSJ

Reuters

Yahoo Inc said it will join Google Inc to create a secure email system by next year that could make it nearly impossible for hackers or government officials to read users' messages, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The move comes as large technology companies unite to beef up their defenses against government intrusion and hacking, most notably after Edward Snowden exposed last year the National Security Agency's mass surveillance programs.
Google, Microsoft and Facebook Inc moved to encrypt internal traffic after revelations by Snowden that the spy agency hacked into their connections overseas. The companies have also smaller adjustments that together make sweeping collection more difficult.
Yahoo has altered its email process so users adopting encryption type messages in a separate window, preventing even Yahoo from reading the messages as they are typed, the Journal said.
Yahoo officials could not be reached immediately for comment.
Earlier Thursday, Google said it was encouraging website developers to make their sites secure for visitors by using site encryption as one of the factors to determine search ranking.

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Selena Gomez Refuses to Talk About Justin Bieber and Orlando Bloom

Selena Gomez recently got into a minor fender bender thanks to an unruly photographer, and now she's had another dramatic altercation with the paparazzi. 

When asked to chime in about Justin Bieber and Orlando Bloom's controversial brawl, she totally slammed her car door in the photog's face!

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The Robots Are Coming, But Are They Really Taking Our Jobs?

The Robots Are Coming, But Are They Really Taking Our Jobs?

Adrienne LaFrance

The Atlantic

Here's what we can agree on: The robots are coming. They're coming to your house, to your doctor's office, to your car, and to your favorite coffee shop. By 2025, technologists believe artificial intelligence will permeate wide swaths of day-to-day life.
And, obviously, these robots are going to take some human jobs. Machines have been displacing humans this way for centuries. What's less clear is whether the overall economic and employment picture for humans will be bleaker or brighter as a result.

In a survey the Pew Research Center published today, nearly 2,000 technologists, engineers, and other experts were "deeply divided" on how advances in artificial intelligence will change the economy. On one hand, giving robots some human jobs will free up humans to focus on things that only we can do. Then again, while some highly-skilled workers will thrive in this robot-filled future, many, many others are likely to be forced into lower-paying jobs at best—"or permanent unemployment at worst."

And the experts are fairly evenly split on what this will mean for society. About 48 percent of them said they believe robots will have displaced "significant" number of blue-collar and white-collar workers in the next 10 years, which will widen the income gap, exacerbate unemployment, and make life generally worse for a lot of people. But 52 percent of those surveyed predict that robots won't displace more jobs than they create by 2025. While many existing jobs will be turned over to the machines, this cohort says, "human ingenuity will create new jobs, industries, and ways to make a living, just as it has been doing since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution."

The latter view is a common refrain in the technology sector. When machines replace humans, humans are better off, the argument goes. “Historically, technology has created more jobs than it destroys," Google's Vint Cerf told Pew, "and there is no reason to think otherwise in this case. Someone has to make and service all these advanced devices.”
And yet, just because an industry survives a major transition doesn't mean the workers who are trained in the old way of doing things emerge unscathed—especially for those who don't have the skills or experience to adapt to new systems. In other words, humans may have figured out a way forward after the Industrial Revolution, but many of them suffered before society as a whole benefitted from the widespread innovation spurred by all that change.

"There is great pain down the road for everyone as new realities are addressed," said Mike Roberts, president emeritus of ICANN. "The only question is how soon.”

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Microsoft increases IE security, starts blocking old ActiveX controls

Microsoft increases IE security, starts blocking old ActiveX controls

Reuters 

As part of Microsoft's ongoing effort to improve the security of its Internet Explorer browser, the company has started blocking outdated ActiveX plugins from being enabled.

ActiveX controls have been a feature of Internet Explorer for a very long time and help in enabling interactive content through the browser. Most third-party plugins such as Adobe Flash and Java make use of ActiveX to present content. However, it has been observed that these controls often have security vulnerabilities which can be exploited by hackers. Recently, Microsoft has started working on making IE secure and is now shifting its focus towards third-party plugins which can compromise the browser.
According to Microsoft, Java exploits comprised 84.6% to 98.5% vulnerabilities throughout 2013. Although, the plugins have been updated to fix the vulnerabilities, users sometimes ignore the updates, leaving the system at risk.
In order to prevent such security risks, Microsoft will start blocking outdated ActiveX controls starting August 12th on the following platforms:
Trusted network zones and local intranet will be excluded from the blacklist and controlled test environments can install the controls as well. A complete list of the outdated ActiveX controls has been published by Microsoft. Server administrators should check out the documentation provided at source.

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U.S. Homeland Security contractor reports computer breach

U.S. Homeland Security contractor reports computer breach

Reuters

WASHINGTON - A company that performs background checks for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday it was the victim of a cyber attack, adding in a statement that "it has all the markings of a state-sponsored attack."
The computer breach at Falls Church, Virginia-based US Investigations Services (USIS) probably involved the theft of personal information about DHS employees, according to the Washington Post, which first reported the story.
DHS said it had suspended all work with the company amid an investigation by the FBI. A "multi-agency cyber response team is working with the company to identify the scope of the intrusion," DHS spokesman Peter Boogaard said in a statement.
"At this time, our forensic analysis has concluded that some DHS personnel may have been affected, and DHS has notified its entire workforce, out of an abundance of caution, to advise them to monitor their financial accounts for suspicious activity," he said, adding that employees whose data had likely been compromised would be informed.
The Office of Personnel Management had also suspended work with USIS, the Post said, adding that government officials do not believe the breach has affected non-DHS employees.
"We are working collaboratively with OPM and DHS to resolve this matter quickly and look forward to resuming service on all our contracts with them as soon as possible," USIS said in the statement on its website. (http://www.usis.com/Media-Release-Detail.aspx?dpid=151)
"We will support the authorities in the investigation and any prosecution of those determined to be responsible for this criminal attack," it said.
"Experts who have reviewed the facts gathered to-date believe it has all the markings of a state-sponsored attack," the company said.
USIS says it is the biggest commercial provider of background investigations to the federal government, has over 5,700 employees and provides services in all U.S. states and territories, as well as abroad.

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Selena Gomez's Cute New Adidas NEO Designs Are Perfect for Back-to-School

Credit: Courtesy of Adidas NEO

We know it's still summer and thinking about going back to school already can be the absolute worst. But how much more amazing does the first day back seem when you get to brainstorm all the endless outfit ideas that you can wear for the occasion?

Selena Gomez's new Fall/Winter Adidas NEO collection launched today, and when we were flipping through the line's stylish lookbook, we couldn't help but dream of rocking the incredible pieces this autumn.

 Sel looks absolutely gorgeous modeling the collection's cute outfits, sporty shoes, and sassy accessories, and it almost makes fans wish the colder weather would get here sooner!

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Rixton's Jake Roche Defends Justin Bieber

Even though Justin Bieber has gotten a lot of flack for his tiff with Orlando Bloom — and the way heresponded on Instagram — there are plenty of people defending his actions. While his bestie Cody Simpson has obviously supported him, Justin has some other people in his corner who you wouldn't expect!

Rixton's Jake Roche told The Daily Star that he thinks everyone should lay off Justin.

“Justin is a great lad and really good to us," he said. “When you meet someone, you realize [these incidents are] not fair and all blown out of proportion.”

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Gmail Now Works With Addresses With Non-Latin Characters

Gmail Now Works With Addresses With Non-Latin Characters

Darrell Etherington

TechCrunch 

Google has taken a step towards globalizing its Gmail service today, with new support for non-Latin characters and accented characters. Google is adopting an email standard introduced by the Internet Engineering Task Force in 2012 to make this happen, and expresses this will encourage broad adoption of the new standard across other email providers in the future.
The new standard is already available for Gmail, and will come to Calendar in the near future, but that doesn’t mean that Gmail users can create emails using those characters just yet – for now, support is limited to sending and receiving from others with email addresses containing those characters (including hiragana and katakana) but Google still plans to roll out support for account creation with the new standard, too.
It’s a simple change, but a welcome one for anyone trying to communicate with people who don’t necessarily communicate exclusively in English. Google points out that under 50 percent of the world’s population uses Latin characters for their native alphabet, so with the company setting its sights on connecting the next billion users, it’s not too surprising to see them make this small but noteworthy gesture

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UberPool Lets You Split Uber Fares With Other Passengers Along The Same Route

UberPool Lets You Split Uber Fares With Other Passengers Along The Same Route

Kyle Russell

TechCrunch 

In the ongoing war between Uber, Lyft, and all of the other me-too ride-sharing services, competitors are looking for any way they can better utilize their supply of drivers and reduce costs for their riders. Today, Uber is announcing UberPool, a new feature that will let you pick up other riders on the way to your destination and split the bill.
While the feature should do a lot to cut costs for passengers, not everyone will want to ride with a stranger in addition to the driver picking them up; Uber notes that the new feature also serves as a kind of “social experiment.”
Since there’s not much data about how people will react to the new service, Uber isn’t going to release UberPool across every market it serves. Starting August 15, the feature will roll out in a beta run in the San Francisco Bay Area. Uber also notes that the company’s “friends at Google” will be joining the beta as early adopters, as they “share [Uber's] vision of a more energy-efficient world with less traffic congestion and pollution in our cities and are excited to be early adopters of UberPool.” This signals continued cooperation between the companies following Google integrating Uber into Google Maps for iOS and Android.
Getting more riders into a single car to make rides cheaper isn’t exactly a novel idea. Last month we covered Hitch, a ride-sharing service whose biggest differentiator from Uber and Lyft was the fact that it tries to use software to maximize the number of passengers in a single car to increase driver utilization and reduce prices for riders.

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Google Maps Now Lets You Explore Mars And The Moon, If You Know Where To Click

Google Maps Now Lets You Explore Mars And The Moon, If You Know Where To Click

Greg Kumparak

TechCrunch 

Hey, you! Want to explore the surface of Mars?
No problem! All we need is a few billion dollars, a couple hundred of the world’s brightest minds, and for someone to get around to solving that pesky “massive levels of radiation” problem.
On second thought, that might take a while. Until then, Google Maps will have to do.
Just in time for the 2nd anniversary of the Curiosity rover touching down on Martian soil, Google has tucked 3D, explorable versions of Mars and the Moon right into Maps. Shootin’ across the galaxy in Google Maps is pretty easy, as long as you know where to click.
Here’s how to get there:

1. First, head over to Google Maps
2. Down in the bottom left, you should see an icon that lets you put the map in “Google Earth” mode. Click that.
3. Wait for the once-flat map to load in 3D. Then start zooming out. Zoom out as far as you can
4. Once you’re zoomed all the way out, just wait a second. Options for “Moon” and “Mars” should appear at the bottom of your screen, as pictured above.
5. (If nothing shows up, you might have the “Explore” tab closed. Click the pair of upward arrows in the bottom right to expand the Explore drawer.)
Note: You need to be in the “new” version of Google Maps for this to work. If you’ve switched yourself back to the classic version, you’ll have to switch back temporarily.

And for those looking to explore both space and time, here’s how to use Google Maps to sneak into the TARDIS
Google Maps on Google

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Blood app 'can detect diseases'

Blood app 'can detect diseases'

BBC News 

A team has developed an app and small lens add-on that allows blood-cell analysis via a smartphone
The app, called Athelas, won a prize at a coding event held by the prestigious start-up hub Y Combinator.
The team says it can detect diseases such as malaria and cancers in seconds, through so-called predictive cell counting.

But experts warned of the difficulty of reproducing the quality of medical labs results using just a smartphone.
Users take a picture of their blood using the lens attachment, which is then sent to the app's servers, and the results are then sent back to them.

Team leader Tanay Tandon said in his submission: "For more than two centuries, cell morphology - or the practice of viewing/analysing a person's blood in order to diagnose conditions - has been the primary way to approach medicine.

"Yet, despite the critical nature of blood analysis to the medical industry - the process has hardly changed from its long, expensive form for 150 years."

Mr Tandon added that in "rural areas, the tech will really shine, providing previously unavailable diagnostic skills through the power of artificial intelligence and computer vision".
'Create more confusion'

But experts in the field are not so convinced by the reality of using a smartphone to detect and diagnose.
"This app will create more confusion then alleviate anxiety," Dr Amar Safdar, the director of transplant medical diseases at New York University's Langone Medical Center, told the BBC.

"The major limitation for this approach is that most viruses require electron microscopic exams to see them."
Using the example of the current outbreak of Ebola - which has killed more than 800 people in western Africa and is spreading partly through air travel - Dr Safdar said that patients in the early stages of illness might not have large enough quantities of the Ebola virus in their peripheral blood to be diagnosed.
The threat of false positives, or incorrect results, was another concern.

"I've no problem with it in principle - but in reality, these need to be carefully calibrated around the right type of diseases," Dr Mike Chapman, of the University of Cambridge's Department of Haematology, told the BBC, adding that some diseases were easier to detect than others.

"In a laboratory diagnosis, there is a lot of regulation that goes on behind the scenes to make sure that your results are meaningful."

Dr Chapman added that he was aware of instances where people took a smartphone picture of a microscopic image of their blood and sent it to an expert.

The Athelas app won a prize as Y Combinator held its first "hackathon" last weekend, where teams come together and are invited to create software together in a limited amount of time.

Mr Tandon won an interview with YC to be in its next batch of start-ups. The California-based accelerator counts billion-dollar start-ups such as Airbnb, Reddit, and Dropbox among its alumni

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