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?

A modified approach to fabrication of magnetic memory elements may lead to a new generation of stable, ultra-high-capacity hard drives.

The weekly roundup of Generation-Y and student news & resources you may have missed.

Why should you pay for your porn instead of downloading it illegally? Because the consequences of doing so could be costly.

Satellite broadcaster clashes with US TV networks over a set-top box that strips ads out of recorded programmes

India's ultra-modern plan to ID a billion people

I didn’t work hard to make Ruby perfect for everyone, because you feel differently from me. No language can be perfect for everyone. I tried to make Ruby perfect for me, but maybe it’s not perfect for you. The perfect language for Guido van Rossum is probably Python. - Yukihiro Matsumoto, aka Matz, creator of Ruby

In God we trust, all others we virus scan. - Author Unknown