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+--- Thread: Microsoft shelves Feb security updates + Smartphone CPUs put desktops to shame + RF (/thread-3374.html)
Microsoft shelves Feb security updates + Smartphone CPUs put desktops to shame + RF - C C - Feb 15, 2017
Microsoft shelves all February security updates
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3169617/windows-pcs/microsoft-shelves-all-february-security-updates.html
EXCERPT: Microsoft today took the unprecedented step of postponing an entire month's slate of security updates for Windows and its other products just hours before the patches were to begin rolling out to customers.
"We discovered a last-minute issue that could impact some customers and was not resolved in time for our planned updates today," Microsoft said in a post to the MSRC (Microsoft Security Research Center) blog. "After considering all options, we made the decision to delay this month's updates."
Today was set as Patch Tuesday, the monthly release of security fixes from Microsoft. Normally, Microsoft issues the updates around 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET). Although Microsoft did not time stamp its blog post, the SAN Institute's Internet Storm Center (ISC) pointed out the delay at 8:22 a.m. PT (11:22 ET)....
Smartphone CPUs put desktops to shame
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3167617/mobile-wireless/smartphone-cpus-put-desktops-to-shame.html
EXCERPT: Fighting severe size and power constraints, the makers of smartphones have achieved levels of ingenuity not seen on the desktop. This results in mobile devices that not only have multiple cores, but multiple sizes and types of cores.
For instance, phone component maker Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 820 system on a chip (SoC) for mobile devices has two types of central processor, explains Cisco Cheng, Qualcomm's manager of technical marketing. Plus, it has graphics, camera, sensor, location, peripheral, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, signal, wireless modem, and memory processors or controllers, each able to handle its task more efficiently than the CPU could. (In November, Qualcomm announced its successor, the Snapdragon 835, adding high-speed charging to the mix.)
The resulting class of increasingly powerful mobile technology will almost certainly start showing up on the desktop -- and perhaps even converge with desktop systems....
Richard Feynman and The Connection Machine
http://blog.longnow.org/02017/02/08/richard-feynman-and-the-connection-machine/
EXCERPT: One of the most popular pieces of writing on our site is Long Now co-founder Danny Hillis’ remembrance of building an experimental computer with theoretical physicist Richard Feynman. It’s easy to see why: Hillis’ reminisces about Feynman’s final years as they worked together on the [url=]Connection Machine[/url] are at once illuminating and poignant, and paint a picture of a man who was beloved as much for his eccentricity as his genius....