1. World’s top supercomputer from ‘09 is now obsolete, will be dismantled
Roadrunner, formerly the world's fastest supercomputer, is being decommissioned today.
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Five years ago, an IBM-built supercomputer designed to model the decay of the US nuclear weapons arsenal was clocked at speeds no computer in the history of Earth had ever reached. At more than one quadrillion floating point operations per second (that's a million billion, or a "petaflop"), the aptly named Roadrunner was so far ahead of the competition that it earned the #1 slot on the Top 500 supercomputer list in June 2008, November 2008, and one last time in June 2009.
Today, that computer has been declared obsolete and it's being taken offline. Based at the US Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Roadrunner will be studied for a while and then ultimately dismantled. While the computer is still one of the 22 fastest in the world, it isn't energy-efficient enough to make the power bill worth it.
"During its five operational years, Roadrunner, part of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program to provide key computer simulations for the Stockpile Stewardship Program, was a workhorse system providing computing power for stewardship of the US nuclear deterrent, and in its early shakedown phase, a wide variety of unclassified science," Los Alamos lab said in an announcement Friday.
2. Scant Brain Power Behind Massive DDoS Attack
One of the largest denial of service attacks in the history of the Internet didn't take rocket science to execute. The offensive was conducted over several days last week after the anti-spam group Spamhaus placed a Dutch hosting service, located in a former NATO bunker, on a blacklist reserved for spammers. A group calling itself STOPhaus is claiming responsibility for the series of attacks which, at their height, reached bandwidths of 300 Gbps. A 10 Gbps attack will bring most websites down.
3. What the iWatch Could Be if Apple Still Had Guts
Steve Jobs was a guy who took big risks. The iPod was a big risk. The iPhone was even bigger, given that the market was dominated by companies like Nokia and BlackBerry, which had locked up the carriers in many regions. The iPad was riskier still, given what a failure the Windows tablet had been. Now that Steve isn't at Apple anymore, the company's investors and folks like Steve Wozniak are losing hope for the firm. However, with the recent patent application for a curved display, I think Apple could do something truly amazing -- but I doubt that Cook will do it.
4. Gamers Get Hardcore on Razer's Edge
Razer's Edge is now shipping, preinstalled with Steam software, Valve's online gaming delivery and management service, which offers access to more than 2,000 titles. "It is certainly an impressive device, one that is really an all-in-one computer with a touchscreen," said Lewis Ward, IDC research manager for gaming. "It can play the hardcore titles that gamers want to play, and in this way is much richer as a gaming machine than what the iOS or Android devices now offer."
5. Billionaire wants to create cyborgs
In science fiction, one of the most popular concepts is the cyborg. Now, a billionaire is determined to make it a reality.
6. Ubuntu 13.04 Will Disable Dash Online Search by Default: Mark Shuttleworth
Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu, has finally listened to critics and EFF and said that the much controversial online search feature of Dash will be disabled by default in Ubuntu 13.04, which will be released later this month.
7. Bitcoin value triples in a month to all-time high of more than $100
At the end of February, bitcoins hit an all-time trading high of just over $33. That suddenly looks like chump change, with the value of bitcoins today moving past $100.
You can see nearly real-time changes in the value of bitcoins at Coinlab and track the currency's steady rise over the past month at Blockchain. We've seen the value go up and down today, fluctuating between $99 and $105. The new high is remarkable given that bitcoins were only worth about $13.50 at the beginning of this year.
The total value of the nearly 11 million bitcoins in circulation (its "market cap") has also soared past $1 billion, after being at less than $50 million one year ago:
Roadrunner, formerly the world's fastest supercomputer, is being decommissioned today.
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Five years ago, an IBM-built supercomputer designed to model the decay of the US nuclear weapons arsenal was clocked at speeds no computer in the history of Earth had ever reached. At more than one quadrillion floating point operations per second (that's a million billion, or a "petaflop"), the aptly named Roadrunner was so far ahead of the competition that it earned the #1 slot on the Top 500 supercomputer list in June 2008, November 2008, and one last time in June 2009.
Today, that computer has been declared obsolete and it's being taken offline. Based at the US Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Roadrunner will be studied for a while and then ultimately dismantled. While the computer is still one of the 22 fastest in the world, it isn't energy-efficient enough to make the power bill worth it.
"During its five operational years, Roadrunner, part of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program to provide key computer simulations for the Stockpile Stewardship Program, was a workhorse system providing computing power for stewardship of the US nuclear deterrent, and in its early shakedown phase, a wide variety of unclassified science," Los Alamos lab said in an announcement Friday.
2. Scant Brain Power Behind Massive DDoS Attack
One of the largest denial of service attacks in the history of the Internet didn't take rocket science to execute. The offensive was conducted over several days last week after the anti-spam group Spamhaus placed a Dutch hosting service, located in a former NATO bunker, on a blacklist reserved for spammers. A group calling itself STOPhaus is claiming responsibility for the series of attacks which, at their height, reached bandwidths of 300 Gbps. A 10 Gbps attack will bring most websites down.
3. What the iWatch Could Be if Apple Still Had Guts
Steve Jobs was a guy who took big risks. The iPod was a big risk. The iPhone was even bigger, given that the market was dominated by companies like Nokia and BlackBerry, which had locked up the carriers in many regions. The iPad was riskier still, given what a failure the Windows tablet had been. Now that Steve isn't at Apple anymore, the company's investors and folks like Steve Wozniak are losing hope for the firm. However, with the recent patent application for a curved display, I think Apple could do something truly amazing -- but I doubt that Cook will do it.
4. Gamers Get Hardcore on Razer's Edge
Razer's Edge is now shipping, preinstalled with Steam software, Valve's online gaming delivery and management service, which offers access to more than 2,000 titles. "It is certainly an impressive device, one that is really an all-in-one computer with a touchscreen," said Lewis Ward, IDC research manager for gaming. "It can play the hardcore titles that gamers want to play, and in this way is much richer as a gaming machine than what the iOS or Android devices now offer."
5. Billionaire wants to create cyborgs
In science fiction, one of the most popular concepts is the cyborg. Now, a billionaire is determined to make it a reality.
6. Ubuntu 13.04 Will Disable Dash Online Search by Default: Mark Shuttleworth
Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu, has finally listened to critics and EFF and said that the much controversial online search feature of Dash will be disabled by default in Ubuntu 13.04, which will be released later this month.
7. Bitcoin value triples in a month to all-time high of more than $100
At the end of February, bitcoins hit an all-time trading high of just over $33. That suddenly looks like chump change, with the value of bitcoins today moving past $100.
You can see nearly real-time changes in the value of bitcoins at Coinlab and track the currency's steady rise over the past month at Blockchain. We've seen the value go up and down today, fluctuating between $99 and $105. The new high is remarkable given that bitcoins were only worth about $13.50 at the beginning of this year.
The total value of the nearly 11 million bitcoins in circulation (its "market cap") has also soared past $1 billion, after being at less than $50 million one year ago:
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