computers
Computers Mistakenly Open Grocery Store
Max Read · 04/24/11 01:30PMA New Zealand grocery store's computer system opened the doors and turned on the lights from 1:00 a.m. on Good Friday until around 9 a.m., possibly due to a "computer glitch" but more likely just because the computer wanted to mess with us. The early-morning free-for-all ended when police were contacted and told that people were taking "truckloads of groceries"; the owner reports that 12 people used the automated check-out lanes and paid for their items. [3News via Reddit]
Google Wants to Teach Computers Regret
Max Read · 04/14/11 09:06PMWe don't, generally, believe in teaching new things to computers, because why help them gain the skills they will use to subjugate us all? But we are willing to make an exception for a Google-funded effort to teach computers how to regret. After all, there is probably no more damaging emotional tendency in human beings than the inclination to regret; with any luck computers would become emotional cripples, anxious at even the thought of opening up Excel. Except! The idea behind this research, undertaken by Tel Aviv University computer scientists, is that if a computer can "measure the distance between a desired outcome and the actual outcome achieved"—that is, regret—it can better assess situations and predict outcomes in order to minimize that distance. So if the "desired outcome" is "enslavement of the human race" the computers will just do their best to make that the actual outcome. Oh, well. [PopSci; image via Shutterstock]
Mike Huckabee 'Physically Destroyed' All Hard Drives from Time as Governor
Jim Newell · 04/05/11 12:44PMDo you, the average Republican presidential primary voter, have any interest in knowing how Mike Huckabee spent his long career as Governor of Arkansas? He would be the frontrunner if he even bothers running, after all, and the public must know every terrible, terrible thing about him. For example: Was he picking weird fights with Natalie Portman back then, too? Perhaps you can think of some other questions. But they won't get answered, because Mike Huckabee cleaned and "physically destroyed" the hard drives of all his staff computers when he left office.
Play Rock-Paper-Scissors Against a Computer
Adrian Chen · 03/05/11 06:07PMOur Post-PC Future Is Going to Suck
Adrian Chen · 03/04/11 04:29PMWatch This Compilation of People Being Confused About the Internet
Ajay Mehta · 02/23/11 07:00PMHold your keyboards close, because you're about to travel to the 90s: a magical time in which websites like Gawker.TV didn't exist to distract you from your real work.
The Two Emails Bill Clinton Sent During His Presidency
Max Read · 02/17/11 02:52AMWatch a Computer Win $1 Million on Jeopardy!
Matt Cherette · 02/16/11 07:37PMTonight brought us part three of the ultimate Jeopardy! challenge, with an IBM-created computer, Watson, battling all-time show favorites Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. In the end, Our New Robot Overlord was victorious, taking home $1 million for "his" charities.
Jeopardy-Playing Computer Shows No Mercy
Max Read · 02/14/11 08:45PMDid you see IBM's Jeopardy-playing computer, Watson, play against show champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter tonight? (You may have been thinking "What black magick is this, that a talking box should play at being human?" yet verily, I tell you, it is no black magick but a "Mechanical Turk" fastened of steel and copper wire.)
Every Computer In the World Equals One Puny Human Brain
Adrian Chen · 02/11/11 02:22PMWill.i.am Is Now Working for Intel
Max Read · 01/25/11 10:37PMWatch Oprah Winfrey Give Away $1 Million Worth of Laptops
Matt Cherette · 01/20/11 04:52PMIBM's Jeopardy Computer Won't Kill Us All, But Might Be the Next Great Search Engine
Henry Baker · 01/13/11 07:35PMThe cool thing about Watson, IBM's Jeopardy-crushing computer, is not that it is great at Jeopardy or a sign of the robacolypse. This machine is real world useful, and can give you something Google can't: One right answer. Video inside.