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What the Fax?

Apr05
by on April 5, 2019 at 2:05 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Podium


Every nation has its quirks, and it could be argued that the U.S. has more than its fair share, but what stands out the most to me – as a tech journalist who recently made the move across the pond – is that in many ways, the nation of Silicon Valley is still stuck in the 90s. Take cheques (or checks as you Yankees would call them) for example. In England it had been years since I’d last seen one of those things, much less written one. Up until five years ago our in-laws might have used them to give…

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Bioware’s overworked Anthem developers aren’t alone, and that’s the problem

Apr05
by on April 5, 2019 at 1:10 am
Posted In: Around the Web, gaming


We recently discovered a new perpetrator of the dreaded “crunch culture” of video game development — the legendary Bioware. When Kotaku‘s Jason Schreier wrote an article about the struggles during development of Anthem, the studio lashed out, before privately admitting that maybe it does have problems. The whole account is almost a microcosm of the problems with believing in the value of crunch, and why it just doesn’t work. The article, titled “How BioWare’s Anthem Went Wrong,” cited numerous Bioware employees who reported health problems as a result of the rough schedule needed in the months pre-launch to get Anthem out the…

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Researchers developed algorithms that mimic the human brain (and the results don’t suck)

Apr05
by on April 5, 2019 at 12:33 am
Posted In: Around the Web, artificial intelligence


A pair of researchers recently developed a method for successfully conducting unsupervised machine learning that closely mimics how scientists believe the human brain works. These biologically-feasible algorithms could provide an alternate path forward for the field of AI. IBM researcher Dmitry Krotov and John J. Hopfield, inventor of the associative neural network, developed a set of algorithms that teach machines in the same loose, unfettered way humans learn. Their algorithms allow machines to learn in an unsupervised manner – without using the shortcuts (biologically-infeasible methods) that modern deep learning does. A lot of ancient AI research – conducted in the…

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Windows 10’s next update will give you more freedom to upgrade when you want

Apr04
by on April 4, 2019 at 9:00 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider


It’s a good idea to update your computer. Updates keep you safe from ever-evolving malware and sometimes include cool new features. But updates can break things too. That’s why some users have been annoyed at Microsoft’s stringent update policies with Windows 10, especially considering how frequently the OS is updated. After the last big Windows update caused many users to lose files, Microsoft realized maybe it’s not such a great idea to practically force users to install updates so quickly. Aside from regular security updates and bug fixes, Microsoft releases two major Windows updates per year. It’s a lot. With…

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