In Mike Shuey’s line of work, turning off a computer means losing up to 3 million processing hours—a few weeks of work, gone in an instant. But new computer code has allowed Shuey and his staff to slow down campus supercomputers when they reach about 85 degrees Fahrenheit by about 30 percent—meaning researchers wouldn’t have to start from scratch after a complete shutdown.
In the business sector, companies have been using predictive analysis for years to improve performance, predict stocks, or take action and change direction when troubling trends appear. They gather data from a variety of sources and use modeling to pinpoint disturbing developments, identify where things might be headed, and make appropriate changes.
Texting among adults is on the rise, with more than 72 percent of those over 18 using the technology—but their usage still pales in comparison to texting among teenagers, who send an average of five times as many texts as their adult counterparts, PC Magazine reports.
In the business sector, companies have been using predictive analysis for years to improve performance, predict stocks, or take action and change direction when troubling trends appear. They gather data from a variety of sources and use modeling to pinpoint disturbing developments, identify where things might be headed, and make appropriate changes.
Officials at Northern Arizona University are reminding students that faculty members have the choice to use new electronic scanners that track class attendance at the campus’s largest lecture halls, but some students continue their vocal opposition to the technology as the fall semester gets underway.
Cell phones, which in the last few years have become full-fledged computers with high-speed internet connections, can make the tiniest windows of time entertaining, and potentially productive. But scientists point to an unanticipated side effect, reports the New York Times: When people keep their brains busy with digital input, they are forfeiting downtime that could allow them to better learn and remember information, or come up with new ideas.
August 25, 2010 | Posted in
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The internet is calling into question one of academia’s sacred rites, reports the New York Times: the peer- reviewed journal article.
For students entering college this fall, eMail is too slow, phones have never had cords, and the computers they played with as kids are now in museums.
It is a typical morning on campus, with students heading to class and professors and staff arriving for work, when suddenly there is an emergency. It could be a flood, a gas leak, or an intruder on campus. How quickly can the campus notify the community? How many people can the campus reach in those critical minutes immediately following an emergency?
Harvard pulled ahead of Ivy League rival Princeton in the latest edition of the influential U.S. News & World Report university rankings, while a stronger emphasis on graduation rates—a reflection of the new national scrutiny that issue has received in recent months—drove other changes in the Top 10, reports the Associated Press.
August 17, 2010 | Posted in
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