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Technology

The First Photonic Quantum Computer Is About To Come To Market – You Read That Right

If you've read anything about computers for the last 25 years, you've read the hype about quantum computing and how it is going to be better and faster and with less heat and replace conduction-based chips and it will generally be awesome. And then nothing happens outside a lot of arXiv papers and some physics magic published in journals. Quantum computing has basically gotten the best marketing...

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Ray Tracing Is Back Again. Is It Real This Time? Nvidia Thinks So

Ray tracing has been a hot topic since...well, at least 350 B.C. in the western world, when Aristotle described his camera obscura and wrote that the eye is 'a darkened chamber awaiting light.' Da Vinci was fascinated by it, as was Descartes. And of course Einstein wanted to understand light quanta.In the 1990s, software and hardware companies began to tout it, but like Atari Jaguar's claim it...

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If Biased Algorithms Are Everywhere, Does That Mean They Are Ineffective?

In 2018, you can guess the politics of many people by which newspapers they read, and you could also do that 100 years ago. Certainly some people, like me, read both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times but if someone defaults to MSNBC or Fox News, you can estimate their voting record with high levels of accuracy.read...

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If Biased Algorithms Are Everywhere, Does That Mean They Are Ineffective?

In 2018, you can guess the politics of many people by which newspapers they read, and you could also do that 100 years ago. Certainly some people, like me, read both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times but if someone defaults to MSNBC or Fox News, you can estimate their voting record with high levels of accuracy.read...

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Watt a Box: KFC Lunch Will Also Charge Your Phone

KFC is launching a 5-in-1 meal with a built in power bank so you can charge your phone while you eat lunch. Watt a Box is designed to offset the drop in discretionary spend brought on by the moribund economy. One way to gain a competitive advantage over other companies is to introduce a feature they don't have. And that feature is a phone that won't die during chicken.Sorry, US diners, right now...

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23andMe is Monetizing Your DNA The Way Facebook Monetizes “Likes”

If you paid 23andMe to take a look at your DNA, maybe you wanted to know more than why you like cilantro or are related to Genghis Khan, maybe you thought you were advancing science.Well, you are, in the same old way marketers have long advanced science - by selling information about customers. In this case, the DNA information of 1.2 million people, sold to more than 13 drug companies. Genentech...

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