Commercial quantum computer available now

And, not surprisingly, it's much faster than conventional computers, but only for a specific type of problem.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23519?cmpid=NLC%7CNSNS%7C2013-GLOBAL%7Cdn23519&utm_medium=NLC&utm_source=NSNS&utm_content=dn23519     / commercially available quantum computer D-Wave company Burnaby Canada spooky action of quantum mechanics non-mainstream method adiabatic quantum computing quantum bits qubits zero one values 0 and 1 at the same time theoretically offering much faster computing speed truly quantum the qubits must be linked via the quantum property of entanglement entangled Catherine McGeoch Amherst College Massachusetts consultant D-Wave hardware is optimisation problem minimising minimizing minimize minimise solution complicated equation variables practical applications image recognition machine learning colleague Cong Wang Simon Fraser University, Burnaby problem D-Wave Two computer 439 qubits superconducting niobium loops solve problem high-end desktop computer 3600 times faster best conventional algorithm problem CPLEX performance problems conventional regular computers McGeoch results ACM International Conference on Computing Frontiers Ischia Italy number-crunching Jeremy O'Brien of the University of Bristol, UK strange but highly optimised way of calculating that does not rely on entanglement repeat experiments confirm quantum effect generic computers perform device dedicated solving specific problem McGeoch step would be to build a conventional processor optimised for this task for a fairer comparison says O'Brien algorithms classical system solutions rapidly improvey slowly converge on the best answer D-Wave's computer best solution almost instantly classical algorithm D-Wave team now convincing customers new kind of device solve problems more efficiently academic benchmarking developing real-world applications Williams /

Why drones aren’t that important to you

Credit: Centives

http://www.Centives.net/S/2013/why-drones-arent-that-important/     / technology military civilian purposes stealth passenger jets expensive huge capital investments pilot ground controlling aircraft satellite uplink small drones commercial small range photograph photo videos fuel helicopter transform world express helicopter industry purposes concerns FBI /

Samsung Galaxy S4 review: Jack of all trades, master of one

Credit: Boy Genius Report

http://bgr.com/2013/05/08/samsung-galaxy-s4-review-redux-software-services/     / Android phone cell mobile smartphone screen pixel density retina display glossy plastic previous model buttons technology 1.9GHz quad-core quad core processor 2GB RAM 13 megapixel rear camera 2 front camera 4G LTE, 802.11 a b g n ac NFC 2,600 mAh battery noise cancellation barometer RGB light sensor gesture sensor, temperature sensor humidity gyroscope proximity sensor accelerometer thinner lighter  stretch my hand tap targets slimmer bezel surrounding display Air View stylus hover mouse over S pen s-pen preview Air Gestures interact infrared sensor screen ear wave your hand ear proximity sensor Smart Pause head flagship smartphone mode mobile cell phone battery 2100 2600 mAh milliamp hour Amp LiIon lithium ion screen technology size 4.8 4.99 inch touch Android Google carrier broadband mobile Apple iPhone 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD screen 4.99-inch FHD display with 1080p resolution 13MP camera quad core processor  wireless charging removable battery microSD slot Exynos 5 Octa processor eight cores uses four at a time /

How long it takes hackers to crack your password with brute force methods

How long?

Depends.

For weak passwords, minutes.

For strong passwords, thousands of years.

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2011/02/how-long-it-takes-hackers-to-crack-your-password/ / security verify verification alphabetic numeric punctuation spaces eight characters remember random mix mixture upper lower case number numbers numerals punctuation symbols dictionary word English foreign alphabet secret reveal Fast Identity Online Alliance FIDO /

PayPal says it's time to ditch passwords & PINs

How many online services do you have accounts with?  How many passwords?  How many unique passwords?  How many passwords can you remember? 

For many reasons, most people have weak passwords & reuse the same password on different sites.  PayPal says passwords aren't cutting it any more — time for something new.

http://www.macworld.co.uk/digitallifestyle/news/?newsid=3446582

How to construct a strong password
http://www.lockdown.co.uk/?pg=password_guide / security verify verification alphabetic numeric punctuation spaces eight characters remember random mix mixture upper lower case number numbers numerals punctuation symbols dictionary word English foreign alphabet secret reveal Fast Identity Online Alliance FIDO /

Casetop "laptop" uses your smartphone as its brains (video)

Credit: Gizmag

Your smartphone has lots of processing power (4 cores common, 8 in the new Galaxy S4) & storage (at least 4 GB, 64 GB removable in some).  In practice, the biggest barrier to productivity on a smartphone is the user interface: screen & keyboard are too small.

Solution: Casetop adds an 11 inch screen & full size keyboard to your smartphone (iPhone, Android or Blackberry). User interface problems solved. And it charges your phone while it's connected.  Casetop is a Kickstarter project.

Cost: Apart from the screen, all of the expensive parts are already in your smartphone, so you can have Casetop for only $250.

Why is this a fabulous idea? Full size (well, 11 inch) screen, full size keyboard & BIG (!) battery for your smartphone. You could even downsize your smartphone (say S4 replacing Note 2) for a saving on purchase price & a more convenient size phone.

One more thing: funding target is $300,000, not $3 million as indicated in the Gizmag article.

http://www.gizmag.com/livi-design-casetop/27418/

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lividesign/casetop-every-phone-becomes-a-laptop / memory Bluetooth HDMI island keys Apple IBM Android iOS iPhone smart phone Samsung HTC Blackberry Microsoft Windows /

Do you remember?

Probably not.

Despite most people's perception, a memory is not like a snapshot; more a flawed reconstruction.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303815404577334040572533780.html / memory remember flawed changed reconstruction justice injustice /