The Transmission Control Protocol is like a crossing guard for the internet, regulating traffic to keep things flowing. Sure, engineers are constantly working to improve it, but it’s manmade, so there’s always room for human error. But researchers at MIT have created a computer system that could fix all that—and make the internet two to three times faster.
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The whole “Keep Calm and [X]” trend has been a fun little meme for merchandisers everywhere, ever since the now-public domain WWII slogan was rediscovered. But a seller on Amazon might have taken the opportunity too far. So far, in fact, that Amazon found itself having to take down some offers for a “Keep Calm and Rape Her” shirt. Ew. More »
There are all kinds of people who’d want to know if a movie will be a hit before it comes out. Companies who are throwing down money on advertising, you before you let yourself get excited. Well according to researchers at Tottori University, there’s a mathematical equation out there that can do a pretty good job of just that. More »
There’s a certain aspect of human creation, a quaint sort inconsistent imperfection, that most of us tend to think is exclusive to us meatbags. Turns out it’s not; computers can emulate that too, and these weird-looking cartoon faces you could swear were drawn by a five-year-old prove it. More »
Most battery advances concentrate on improving hardware, but researchers from the University of California San Diego have developed new algorithms that can cut lithium-ion battery charge times in half. More »
There are over 90000 people waiting for a transplant kidney in the United States, so it’s rather disheartening when you learn that last year, 2600 kidneys were harvested and subsequently discarded. Sure, some of those organs might not be suitable for transplant, but at least some of them were perfectly good kidneys. In an expose published by the NYTimes, they reveal an anecdote about a kidney from a fit 36-year-old man which was thrown away because a nationwide computer search failed to come up with a match. Remember, there are over 90000 people waiting for a transplant. Medical experts think that over half the kidneys discarded could be used, and they blame it on an outdated computer matching program.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Algorithm predicts wayward drivers, Algorithm sniffs out graffiti artists,
A prototype weed-seeking automaton could change the way seven billion humans eat, as well as help to end industrial agriculture’s reliance on toxic herbicides and itinerant labor. More »
We hear about this issue all the time: tech companies, even the big guns, have trouble attracting and retaining women. Interestingly enough, Google has taken the least human and most nerdiest possible route to tackling this gender issue—algorithms. More »
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