| Physicist uses math to get out of a traffic ticket, publishes findings Apr 17th 2012, 17:29  When most folks get ticketed for running a stop sign, most people wind up writing the court a check. UC San Diego physicist Dmitri Krioukov wrote a mathematical paper instead. Rather than throw his fallible human opinion on the mercy of the court, Krioukov uses a series of equations and graphs to prove that the accusing officer confused his car's real space-time trajectory "for a trajectory of a hypothetical object moving at approximately constant linear speed without stopping at the stop sign." In other words, the officer was wrong, but Krioukov stresses that it isn't the officer's fault. "This mistake is fully justified," he writes, pointing to the math. "As a result of this unfortunate coincidence, the O's perception of reality did not properly reflect reality." And to think, you probably never thought you'd use this kind of math in the real world. Physicist uses math to get out of a traffic ticket, publishes findings originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink  Wired, Physics Central |  Cornell University Library | Email this | Comments | | Gmail down for many, Hotmail users feel free to gloat (update: back for some!) Apr 17th 2012, 17:07  Having trouble accessing your Gmail? You're not alone. Far from it, as a matter of fact. Widespread reports of "Temporary Error 500" are sweeping the Twittersphere and, indeed, many fine members of Engadget are seeing the above when attempting to log in. We've seen numerous outages of Google's insanely popular email service in the past but this one seems to take the cake. Google reports that it is "investigating reports of an issue with Google Mail." You can check out the source link for more information -- or just keep on hitting F5. Update: Seems to be working again for some, and Google has posted an update: "Google Mail service has already been restored for some users, and we expect a resolution for all users in the near future. Please note this time frame is an estimate and may change." Gmail down for many, Hotmail users feel free to gloat (update: back for some!) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Google Apps, Twitter | Email this | Comments | | ARM announces new quad-core Cortex-A15 Hard Macro variant Apr 17th 2012, 16:52  It's pretty much a year to the day that we reported the possibility of a quad-core Cortex-A15 from ARM, and look what just came across the wire! It's the Cortex-A15 Hard Macro -- the first design from ARM we're aware of that packs four A15 cores. The Hard Macro edition is of particular interest as it aims to help manufacturers bring products to market more quickly and at a lower cost. The chip variant runs at 2GHz, with performance of over 20,000 DMIPS if you were wondering. Notably, it operates with the same power usage of the A9 hard macro, which should mean it's got good efficiency credentials, and it's the first in the family to be based on 28nm process. There's no indication where we might see this turning up, but with the firm spilling the full details at the IEEE Symposium later this week, we're sure we'll find out soon enough. Continue reading ARM announces new quad-core Cortex-A15 Hard Macro variant ARM announces new quad-core Cortex-A15 Hard Macro variant originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Electronista | ARM | Email this | Comments | | Apple eMate 300 prototype pops up on eBay, buy it now for $8,500 Apr 17th 2012, 16:32  At this point we kind of just expect vintage Apple machines to surface on eBay: just last month we came across a WALT prototype, followed by a Macintosh 128k a few days ago. Now, the fresh face at eBay's auction party is Apple's eMate 300, which is said to be in "good working order" and showing no signs of wear. There's no bidding war going on at the moment, but there is a "Buy it now" option that's got the laptop priced at a whopping $8,500. Of course, you're likely to get your money's worth, with a 25 MHz ARM 710a RISC processor, a 480 x 320 display and an almighty stylus pen -- all while being powered by Cupertino's Newton OS. Think this is worth adding to your fancy collector's shelf? We'll let you chew on that while you pore over the sell-off page. Apple eMate 300 prototype pops up on eBay, buy it now for $8,500 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Ubergizmo | eBay | Email this | Comments | |
