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?

Researchers who applied computer analysis to a database of movie scripts think they may have found the secret to a memorable movie line - use familiar sentence structure but incorporate distinctive words or phrases, and make general statements that could apply elsewhere.

"We believe Apple could ultimately capture 10 percent of the market within 1-3 years after launch".

With the Release Preview due in a few weeks, there are still many questions about Windows 8 and Windows RT. They look similar--and share a lot of the same code under the hood--but there...

Apple's boss, Tim Cook, turns down a payout worth about $75m (£48m) that he was due from the technology giant's upcoming dividend.

A grid of 25,000 "invisibility cloaks" shows how to slow light down and spread out its constituent colours in an advance dubbed "trapping a rainbow".

I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We’ve created life in our own image. - Stephen Hawking

Treat your password like your toothbrush. Don't let anybody else use it, and get a new one every six months. - Clifford Stoll