D-Wave sells first commercial quantum computer to Lockheed Martin

Who found ten million dollars to drop on the first commercially available quantum computer? Lockheed Martin, it seems, as the aerospace defense contractor has just begun a "multi-year contract" with the quantum annealing experts at D-Wave to develop... nothing that they're ready or willing to publicly discuss at this time. This "strategic relationship" marks the second major vote of confidence in D-Wave's technology, after Google built image detection algorithms for the company's processors a couple years back. Or, perhaps Lockheed Martin just wants a new shiny black toy for the Skunk Works labs. PR after the break.

Continue reading D-Wave sells first commercial quantum computer to Lockheed Martin

D-Wave sells first commercial quantum computer to Lockheed Martin originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 May 2011 02:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Slashdot, NextBIgFuture  |   | Email this | Comments

METHODE ELECTRONICS MENTOR GRAPHICS IMS HEALTH IMATION

Adblock Plus developer pokes holes in Mozilla's new add-on performance tests

Wladimir Palant, developer of the most popular add-on in the world, Adblock Plus, is also an active contributor to the Planet Mozilla blog community. Over the last few days, in response to Mozilla's new name and shame list of slow add-ons, Palant has been investigating whether Mozilla's testing methods are actually accurate.

Rather surprisingly, it turns out that Mozilla's numbers could be significantly wrong -- and if they're not wrong, the factors that Mozilla uses to tabulate an add-ons final score should definitely be made more transparent.

In the first set of tests, Palant shows that FlashGot's position in the top 10 is probably due to a fault in Mozilla's testing setup, and that add-ons can perform very differently depending on which operating system they're being tested on. In the second analysis, Palant uncovers an irregularity that doesn't seem to have an obvious cause -- but it could be due to an I/O bottleneck on Mozilla's test machines. Basically, even though performance testing of Read It Later is disabled because of a bug, it still (somehow!) manages to record a 14% slow-down on Windows 7.

Palant concludes both analyses by scolding Mozilla for going public with the performance data before its testing methods had been confirmed accurate. It definitely looks like Mozilla has been more than a little reckless, considering the importance of Firefox's add-on ecosystem.

Adblock Plus developer pokes holes in Mozilla's new add-on performance tests originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 05:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

ON SEMICONDUCTOR NVIDIA NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS NOVELLUS SYSTEMS

T-Mobile G2x experiencing reboot issues, Gingerbread may be the remedy (update)

Ready for a good story? Gather around, kids, we have an intriguing one to share. The T-Mobile G2x is enjoying its share of controversy this week as concerns arose about the phone experiencing random reboots. Our saga began on Wednesday, as we received tips about the G2x getting pulled from stores due to "quality concerns." We confirmed no inventory was in stock, but T-Mobile emailed us denying there was any reason for this other than high demand. With the phone being so popular, that's fair enough, right? Not so fast.

As it turns out, our tale doesn't stop there. A well-worded statement was sent out explaining, "a small percentage of customers have commented about possible improvements and we are working with LG to deliver a software update." A bit of a far cry from confirming reboot issues (or bugs of any kind, for that matter), but it is refreshing to hear some sort of acknowledgement at least. T-Mobile didn't get specific on what those "possible improvements" may entail, but the carrier also reiterated plans to bump the flagship phone up to Gingerbread "by summer" -- possibly tackling the bugs at the same time. The end to our story has yet to be written, but we sure hope it's a happy one.

Update: TmoNews just posted a screenshot (shown after the break) that shows a resolutions sheet to help employees troubleshoot a few customer concerns about the G2x. The list includes overheating, rebooting, low battery life, and WiFi handoffs. Now, it's important to note that this isn't T-Mobile acknowledging these as known issues; the company is just receiving enough calls on them that it needed to add these to the list of standard support responses.

Continue reading T-Mobile G2x experiencing reboot issues, Gingerbread may be the remedy (update)

T-Mobile G2x experiencing reboot issues, Gingerbread may be the remedy (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 May 2011 09:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink PC Mag, TmoNews  |  Twitter (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments

VIEWSONIC VERISIGN VERIFONE HOLDINGS VEECO INSTRUMENTS

Line Grapefruit is a tricky Flash "path" game

Okay, see that snaking line coming in from the right on the screenshot? That's you. And see those large round circles? Those are supposedly grapefruits, only they won't sit still - they keep moving up and down and cutting across your path. And if you touch one, you die!

That's what you have to deal with in Line Grapefruit. But that's not all - you're also on a time limit. In fact, you have a very limited amount of time to make it through the "path" (for lack of a better word). You need to snake your way through the winding trail without touching anything. The good news is that a grapefruit only kills you if it touches the end of the line - once you've made it past the grapefruit, nothing happens if it crosses the path you've made.

This is not an easy game, but it's quite unique - I can't recall seeing another game quite like it.

Line Grapefruit is a tricky Flash "path" game originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

GOOGLE FORMFACTOR FISERV FIRST SOLAR

Massive Anchor From Blackbeard's Flagship Raised From Wreckage [Video]

What you're seeing is the 3,000 pound anchor from Blackbeard's flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, being raised off the coast of North Carolina. The wreck was found a few years back, but discoveries are still being made. Even swords. More »

AMPHENOL ANIXTER INTERNATIONAL APPLE COMPUTER APPLIED MATERIALS

Sniffing Out a Scam: Real-Time Detection's Role in Battling Data Breaches

The email industry is under a prolonged and targeted attack. Going back almost a year now, service providers and their clients have been the focus of so-called spear-phishing (targeted phishing) and other intrusions that have resulted in large-scale direct and indirect data breaches. It's scary stuff, and the worst of it is far from over.

SPANSION SONUS NETWORKS SONIC AUTOMOTIVE SKYWORKS SOLUTIONS

Daily Crunch: Drop-Off Edition

Videos: Brainwave-Controlled Cat Ears ?Necomimi? Gameboys? Innnnnn? Spaaaace Smithsonian Announces Art Of Video Games Exhibition Winners An Atari 810 Disk Drive For MicroSD ? Built To Scale LA Noire To Ship On Three Discs For 360, One For PS3

FISERV GOOGLE GRUPO IUSACELL HARRIS