You ask, they answer: Dell
Post your questions on the computing giant's green track record - it will be online until 5pm Friday to answer Bamboo boxes , low-energy PCs and tree-planting are just three of the ways computing heavyweight Dell says it is limiting its ecological footprint. This week, Dell joins us on You ask, they answer to answer your questions on its eco-credentials - just post yours below. Want to know more about its recycling scheme for PCs and peripherals
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You ask, they answer: Dell
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in web furore over bogus rape claim
• False allegation spreads across internet after leak • Story garners 1m hits before prosecutor steps in The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, was himself the subject of a rapidly spreading online story when news cascaded across the internet for several hours at the weekend mistakenly saying he was being sought in Sweden on rape charges. Before Stockholm's chief prosecutor made clear on Saturday afternoon that Assange was in fact neither charged with rape nor due to be arrested, the story had spread, generating more than 1,200 articles, available through internet news search, that received more than 1m hits. "It was 7am when a friend who is Swedish and has been out on the net told me about the allegations," Assange told Stockholm daily newspaper Aftonbladet, which has hired him as a columnist : "It was shocking. I have been accused of various things in recent years, but nothing so serious as this." He said none of his sexual relations had ever been built on anything other than totally consensual activity. The preliminary allegation, made on the Friday night, and not further investigated at that stage, was apparently leaked by police to a tabloid in Stockholm, which published dramatic claims on Saturday morning that Assange was to be arrested. The Swedish Prosecution Authority todaysaid an "on-call" prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for Assange late on Friday only to see it revoked the next day by a higher-ranked prosecutor, who found no grounds to suspect him of rape. "The prosecutor who took over the case had more information, and that is why she made a different assessment than the on-call prosecutor," said Karin Rosander, a spokeswoman for the authority. One of two women involved told Aftonbladet in an interview published today that she had never intended Assange to be charged with rape. She was quoted as saying: "It is quite wrong that we were afraid of him. He is not violent and I do not feel threatened by him." In her interview, she dismissed the idea, seized on by many conspiracy theorists that 'dirty tricks' lay behind the rape allegations, because of WikiLeaks' defiance of the US government. She said: "The charges against Assange are of course not orchestrated by the Pentagon." Swedish prosecutors said today that a decision would be taken early this week whether to continue investigations into lesser possible charges against the nomadic Assange, which he also denies. Some of WikiLeaks' computer servers are currently based in Sweden, and he has sought to shelter under Sweden's journalistic source protection laws for the organisation's crusade to promote worldwide leaking of information. Assange and his co-activists at WikiLeaks have refused US defense department demands that they cease publishing thousands of leaked military documents about the US war in Afghanistan, and making accusations of murder of civilians. US generals have accused WikiLeaks of wholesale leaking that does too little to protect informants and the identities of Afghan villagers who co-operated with US and British forces. Assange has riposted that it is US soldiers who have "blood on their hands" and he is seeking to edit sensitive files before posting them on-line. A former US army intelligence analyst, Bradley Manning, is in military custody at Quantico, Virginia, accused of turning over to outsiders a huge quantity of classified material which subsequently appeared on WikiLeaks. Bradley reportedly told fellow computer enthusiasts that he was horrified by what he found. WikiLeaks Sweden Digital media Internet Computing David Leigh guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in web furore over bogus rape claim
My bright idea: Dennis Shasha: Nature can improve our computers
The professor of computer science believes the next great leap in computing will be programming machines to behave in almost evolutionary ways Robots on Mars that can fix themselves and computers built from DNA: not science fiction but the work of scientists at the forefront of computing. Dennis Shasha, 55, is a professor of computer science at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and the author, with Cathy Lazere, of Natural Computing: DNA, Quantum Bits and the Future of Smart Machines (Norton), a survey of research in fields as disparate as engineering and medicine. This New Yorker sees an emerging common theme: that the future of computing lies in a synthesis with nature. What can computers learn from biology? We should look at the history of the two fields and how surprising it is that they should come together. Computing was really born of physics and of this "clean-room" mentality – and a lot of computing is still like that. When one tries to control every bit of accuracy and tries to ensure that nothing could possibly go wrong – well, this is very different from the messiness of nature. But as computers become more mobile and autonomous – either they can gain their own power from the environment or they have a long battery or are wireless – their problems become quite different. Instead of problems being algorithmic, which means they can be expressed as a recipe – you do one step and then the next and you finally arrive at an answer – now their problem can be: how do I survive? If the problem is how do I survive, then all of the survival mechanisms that organic nature uses become relevant. And robots that can repair themselves are an example of this? In the history of space travel, it's been easier to build a computer program to guide a spaceship to Mars than it has been to build a robot that can navigate the terrain there with anything like the skill of goat. A professor of robotics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) called Rodney Brooks saw a problem with what's known as the "monarch" model: sensors provide data to some kind of higher intelligence, which in turn figures out a model of the world before sending a set of decisions to a set of actuators (wheels, for instance). But it's very hard to construct a model of the real world. Brooks thought that the real world is its own best model, and that it's much better to have very low-level intelligences, which can work together. One intelligence may say: "Do not collide with anything" – something fundamental to avoid a bad outcome – whereas another one may say: "Explore as much as possible." But if that one conflicts with the first one, than the first one wins. And so on. As a result, in the 80s, Brooks was able to construct very simple robots that didn't need much computing power but which were able to achieve things that other robots couldn't. He suggested sending lots of little robots to Mars, which should just be let go, as opposed to highly controlled robots, which would be very expensive, could easily break and would in fact be very hard to control over all that distance
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My bright idea: Dennis Shasha: Nature can improve our computers
How the internet is altering your mind
A new book claims the amount of time we spend on the internet is changing the very structure of our brains – damaging our ability to think and to learn Like nearly all the Guardian's content, what you are about to read was – and this will hardly be a revelation – written using a computer connected to the internet. Obviously, this had no end of benefits, mostly pertaining to the relative ease of my research and the simplicity of contacting the people whose thoughts and opinions you are about to read. Modern communications technology is now so familiar as to seem utterly banal, but set against my clear memories of a time before it arrived, there is still something magical about, say, optimistically sending an email to a scientist in southern California, and then talking to him within an hour. But then there is the downside. The tool I use to write not only serves as my word processor and digital postbox, but can also double as – among other things – a radio, TV, news-wire portal and shop. Thus, as I put together the following 2,000-ish words, I was entertained in my more idle moments by no end of distractions. I watched YouTube videos of Manic Street Preachers, Yoko Ono, and the Labour leadership candidates. Via Amazon, I bought a £4.99 teach-yourself-to-spell DVD-Rom for my son, which turned out to be rubbish.
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How the internet is altering your mind
Apple manager denies bribery charge
Executive pleads not guilty in US court to charges that he took bribes from Asian suppliers in return for inside information An Apple executive pleaded not guilty last night to charges that he took bribes from Asian suppliers in return for inside information. Paul Devine, a global supply manager at the company, is accused of accepting more than $1m (£639,000) in kickbacks over several years from manufacturers keen to supply accessories for iPhones and iPods. He was arrested last Friday, and appeared in federal court in San Jose in handcuffs yesterday to face 27 charges including money-laundering and wire fraud
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Apple manager denies bribery charge
Updating PCs in a small business | Ask Jack
Kate Sellers runs a small business with an ageing fleet of computers. She'd like to replace some stragglers, but can she speed up the rest? I run a small business with an ageing fleet of computers. We're looking to replace the three or four that are really struggling (at a guess they must be at least five years old, but could be older) and we'd like to keep the cost down. We don't need monitors and we need Microsoft Office; presumably it is cheaper to buy it bundled with the system. The default option would be Dell, but we were disappointed with our last purchase – a Vista machine that is subject to frequent slowdowns and crashes. Do you have any recommendations
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Updating PCs in a small business | Ask Jack
Concert pianist Lang Lang: ‘I feel left behind all the time’ | Celebrity squares
Concert pianist Lang Lang wishes he could spend more time practising video games What's your favourite piece of technology, and how has it improved your life? The new 3D television – I just got the Sony Bravia, and it's really cool. I can play games and watch football games in 3D – I watched them during the World Cup. You enjoy the distance and the way the third dimension works – you feel like you are inside that world. When was the last time you used it, and what for? I watched the games of the World Cup – many games were shown in 3D, as was the final. What additional features would you add if you could? I believe that with 3D TV, in addition to watching football and playing video games, we need to do live-streaming of events, such as concerts, in 3D. Do you think it will be obsolete in 10 years' time? Maybe we'll have 4D TV by then? Who knows – probably. We will have everything in 3D in 10 years, such as computers and so on. And by then, we won't need the glasses to watch 3D TV any more. What always frustrates you about technology in general? Sometimes technology is developing much faster than our abilities – we have to learn how to use it all the time. But the good news is that technology is helping us to get faster results
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Concert pianist Lang Lang: 'I feel left behind all the time' | Celebrity squares
Lithium: the gift of Pachamama | Raquel Gutiérrez
Evo Morales has a plan for Bolivia's lithium – but will those who brought him to power agree to it? In the south-western province of Nor Lipez in Bolivia lies the world's largest deposit of lithium. The vast and spectacular Uyuni salt flats sit 3,600 metres above sea level. They are shaped like an inverted cone, 400 metres deep, in which layers of salts have sedimented, interwoven between layers of mud and brine, in which the mineral salts have dissolved. In recent years, lithium's commercial value has risen astronomically. The development of laptops and mobile phones has depended on lithium batteries, and demand has grown to the point where it is now profitable to exploit the mineral even when it is found in a place as remote and inaccessible as this. Uyuni is in the department of Potosí, the site of the legendary Cerro Rico (rich hill), which supplied the Spanish colonial regime with silver for 200 years. Mining continued there in the 20th century, particularly after the Bolivian revolution of 1952 which nationalised the mines, creating among the Bolivian people the collective belief that they were now the owners of huge potential wealth that would never again be exploited by "foreign interests". So strong was this belief that the first attempt to exploit lithium commercially, in 1992 – 10 years before the wave of popular uprisings in defence of Bolivia's natural resources which would culminate in the election of Evo Morales – led to a period of protests across the region, and the then government of Jaime Paz Estenssoro was forced to break its contract with the Lithco corporation. Today, the potential exploitation of Bolivian lithium exposes contradictions within Morales's government, and the possibility of social conflict, as multilayered as the salt lake itself. On the one hand, Morales decreed in 2008 that the state would take full control of the exploitation of lithium. A new arm of the Bolivian Mining Corporation was set up with the aim of constructing a plant for the mineral's exploitation. On the other hand, since 2009 the Bolivian government has begun negotiations with foreign companies with a view to signing contracts for its industrial production. Interested parties include the Japanese firms Mitsubishi and Sumitomo .
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Lithium: the gift of Pachamama | Raquel Gutiérrez
Ki Fit: The fitness gadget that has it all
Forget heart-rate monitors and pedometers, the Ki Fit is the only fitness gadget you need, says Kate Carter. But beware: it's addictive What is it? The Ki Fit is a nifty little device, worn on the arm, that monitors your activity throughout the day and night, collating information on how many calories you've burned, how much activity you've taken, and even how much you have slept. How does it work? The sensors in the armband measure different body responses. Your motion is tracked by an 'accelerometer' , while the extent of your activity is measured by your 'galvanic skin response' - which in layman's terms means how much you sweat. Your skin temperature is also measured, along with 'heat flux' and the number of steps you take. You can input what you've eaten into the food diary, allowing you to balance what you've consumed with what you've expended (or gain/lose weight if that's your goal). It measures your sleep duration and efficiency and shows your physical activity, and whether it was sedentary, moderate or vigorous
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Ki Fit: The fitness gadget that has it all
Chinese province bans adults looking at youngsters’ mobiles
Adults banned from searching children's computers or phones under a new law passed in Chongqing, southwest China It is a ruling that teenagers around the world will regard with a certain amount of envy. Parents in one Chinese city are to be prevented from snooping on their children's online activity and text messages. Adults, including family members, are banned from searching through children's computers or phones under a new regional law passed in Chongqing, southwest China, state media reported today. The regulation outlaws snooping into their emails, text messages, web chats, and browser history. The regulation is designed to protect the rights of children, but is surprising given widespread concern in China about excessive internet use among young people and their access to unsuitable material. Psychologists have sought to have internet addiction listed as a clinical disorder and treatment camps have sprung up across the country. The Chongqing Evening Post described the new regulation, adopted on Friday by officials in Chongqing, as the first of its kind in the country. Other Chinese media said it expanded an existing national rule. But both experts and children doubted whether it would have an impact in practice. Lu Yulin, a professor at the China Youth University of Political Science, told China Daily that children were unlikely to take their parents to court
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Chinese province bans adults looking at youngsters' mobiles