blue

The University of Illinois' National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) has contracted with Cray to provide the supercomputer for the National Science Foundation's Blue Waters project. That computer will tap AMD's new 16-core processor.

Blue Waters will be composed of more than 235 Cray XE6 cabinets based on the AMD's Opteron 6200 Series processor (formerly code-named "Interlagos") and more than 30 cabinets of a future version of the recently announced Cray XK6 supercomputer with Nvidia Tesla graphics processing units (GPUs), Cray said. All of this will be combined into a single, powerful hybrid supercomputer.

The … Read more

Blue Coat Systems has confirmed that its devices were being used by Syria to censor the Web and said it is investigating how they got into that country despite a strict U.S. trade embargo, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

The appliances were "transmitting automatic status messages back to the company" Blue Coat executives told the newspaper.

"Blue Coat says it doesn't monitor where such 'heartbeat' messages originate from," according to the report. "Computer code reviewed by the Journal indicates that Syrians were also using other Blue Coat products, raising questions about how … Read more

Many times problems arise in our systems that, though similar to those others are experiencing, are unique to our setups.

For example, some users may find that when using their systems the computer suddenly shows a blue screen. In some instances this may require restarting the computer and in others it may result in an automatic restart or a forced log-out, losing the system's data. Unfortunately blue-screen issues are rather general symptoms that can include numerous possible causes.

This type of problem is likely rooted in the handling of graphics or in critical processes that handle the log-in session, … Read more

Polycom dives into videoconferencing on tablets, Asus unveils a new line of Ultrabooks, Twitter to get "tweet" trademark, and Facebook launches an iPad app -- finally.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

In 1971, Esquire's Ron Rosenbaum set out in search of a story about a small and little-known underground group of hackers who had figured out how to outwit Ma Bell to make free phone calls. It was the first article to publicize the antics of the (now legendary) "Captain Crunch," as well as the exploits of the phone phreakers, as they were called.

The piece was also notable in that it fired the imagination of one Steve Jobs, who, along with his partner Steve Wozniak, proceeded to build the so-called "blue boxes" used to make … Read more

Those of you who want to check out an Android app without an Android device can now run that app on your PC thanks to a program from the folks at BlueStacks (download).

The software, dubbed the BlueStacks App Player, has just hit the alpha stage, meaning a test version of it is now available for anyone to download. The basic player lets you run several preloaded apps, install up to 26 others, and sync apps from an Android phone to your PC.

I installed the App Player on a PC running Windows 7. The installation failed the first time … Read more

My office today is a bar overlooking the historic Taos plaza in New Mexico and my Internet access comes courtesy of tethered Verizon 3G (don't tell!) service. That's all because my normal ISP has been out of commission since early this morning thanks to a major satellite malfunction that's also impacting all sorts of services, from ATMs to flights in Canada's northern territories.

Telesat's Anik F2 satellite experienced a "technical anomaly" beginning at about 3:30 a.m. PT today, according to a release from the Ottawa-based company. The anomaly is reportedly that … Read more

The BlueAnt Embrace on-ear headphones ($200) look luxurious and, if you don't mind, adult. I sometimes think a lot of today's headphones are designed to look cool to 15-year-olds, with boosted bass and highs designed to dazzle young ears. The Embrace's demeanor is more, shall we say, reserved?

Maybe it's the all-black color scheme and lack of flash that first appealed to me, but then I fell in love with the thickly padded headband and pillowlike ear cushions. My ears and head appreciate being coddled like this. The sound mimics the Embrace's look and feel: … Read more

"Poor Windows 8. You totally crashed out, but you're so adorable. I just can't be mad at you." That may be the new reaction to operating system failure when Windows 8 finally reaches the masses.

Chip Hazard posted a picture on Facebook of the new Blue Screen of Death from Microsoft's latest version of the Windows operating system. It features a prominent emoticon sad face on the familiar blue expanse of sorrow.

The new BSoD also delivers the simple message, "Your PC ran into a problem that it couldn't handle, and now it needs to restart."

It tells you briefly what the error was about so you can search for more information on what happened to upset Windows so much. Hint: it probably found out you've been spending time with an iPad.

This change may be part of a bid by Microsoft to get more in tune with a younger crowd, the sort of kids who won't get it when Windows spews out a list of obscure error codes. Everybody understands a sad face.

In the past, the appearance of the BSoD has been met with vulgar curses, strangled cries of frustration, and the hammering of fists on keyboards. Now, you may hear, "Awww. What a cutie-pie. Can you restart for Mommy? Come on, you can do it!"… Read more