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?

New memory chips that are transparent, flexible enough to be folded like a sheet of paper, shrug off 1,000-degree Fahrenheit temperatures -- twice as hot as the max in a kitchen oven -- and survive other hostile conditions could usher in the development of next-generation flash-competitive memory for tomorrow's keychain drives, cell phones and computers, scientists say.

Microsoft will hear in a month's time whether the European Commission fined the company excessively for failing to comply with an earlier antitrust fine.

Finding good apps for the iPad just got a lot easier with these 10 cool apps.

Diablo 3's publisher says it has become the fastest-selling PC-based videogame despite launch glitches.

The inventor of the television remote control has died at the age of 96, his former employer has said.

Less than 10% of the code has to do with the ostensible purpose of the system; the rest deals with input-output, data validation, data structure maintenance, and other housekeeping. - Mary Shaw

A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history - with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila. - Mitch Ratcliffe