Tech News

In its early years, information theory was dominated by research on error-correcting codes: How do you encode information so as to guarantee its faithful transmission, even in the presence of the corrupting influences engineers call "noise"? Recently, one of the most intriguing developments in information theory has been a different kind of coding, called network coding, in which the question is how to encode information in order to maximize the capacity of a network as a whole. For information theorists, it was natural to ask how these two types of coding might be combined: If you want to both minimize error and maximize capacity, which kind of coding do you apply where, and when do you do the decoding?

Scientists have taken Alan Turing's work to its next logical step, translating her 1993 discovery into an adaptable computational system that learns and evolves way much more like our brains do.

Facebook options trading is set to begin on May 29, less than two weeks after the company is expected to go public, according to the ISE. Other U.S.-based exchanges will likely join up later.

The patent situation in the technology sector is terrible, and we must fix it. Let business get back to making tech people can use, and not going to court to defend the natural evolution of tech.

A jury has retired to consider claims that Google wilfully infringed patents belonging to Java developer Oracle.

Sina Corp, China's largest internet portal and media website, posts a loss in the first three months of the year.

The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That’s where we come in; we’re computer professionals. We cause accidents. - Nathaniel Borenstein

I don’t know what the language of the year 2000 will look like, but I know it will be called Fortran. - CA Hoare, 1982