Antikythera computer may be even older than thought
New detective work suggests that the ancient mechanism for simulating planetary motions and predicting lunar eclipses was built in the 2nd century BC I thought my capacity for sheer jaw-dropping amazement at the Antikythera mechanism had been well and truly exhausted – until last night. The puzzling instrument is a clockwork computer from ancient Greece that used a fiendishly complex assembly of meshed cogs to simulate the movement of the planets, predict lunar eclipses and indicate the dates of major sporting events. The clockwork technology in the device was already known to be centuries ahead of its time, but new evidence suggests that the enigmatic machine is even older than scientists had realised. "It is the most important scientific artefact known from the ancient world," said Jo Marchant, who has written a compelling book on the find called Decoding the Heavens . "There's nothing else like it for a thousand years afterwards." First, a quick recap. The Antikythera mechanism was discovered by sponge divers in 1901 who chanced upon the wreck of a Roman vessel off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera. The ship was filled with bronze statues, pottery and glassware – booty that had been plundered from across the ancient Greek world. At first no one noticed the corroded lump of cogs among the treasures, but the mechanism has since attracted the, at times, obsessive interest of a small group of scientists . What we now know about the mechanism and its purpose is a fascinating tale of scientific rivalry, low-down skulduggery and eventual glory. There is much still to learn about where the machine came from, who made it and what it was for, but the best guess seems to be that it was more must-have executive toy than useful gadget. It modelled the state-of-the-art astronomy of the time: a universe with the Earth at the centre with planets following circular orbits that included apparent wobbles called epicycles . The mechanism was probably not used for navigation but perhaps served more as a beautiful representation of an ordered, clockwork universe. "Something to elevate the spirit and get closer to God or the true meaning of things," as Marchant put it during her talk at the Royal Institution in London last night . So what about the new stuff? Research from Prof Alexander Jones of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York , which has yet to be published, suggests that rather than dating from the 1st century BC the Antikythera mechanism may in fact have been constructed in the preceding century
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Antikythera computer may be even older than thought
Antikythera computer may be even older than thought
New detective work suggests that the ancient mechanism for simulating planetary motions and predicting lunar eclipses was built in the 2nd century BC I thought my capacity for sheer jaw-dropping amazement at the Antikythera mechanism had been well and truly exhausted – until last night. The puzzling instrument is a clockwork computer from ancient Greece that used a fiendishly complex assembly of meshed cogs to simulate the movement of the planets, predict lunar eclipses and indicate the dates of major sporting events. The clockwork technology in the device was already known to be centuries ahead of its time, but new evidence suggests that the enigmatic machine is even older than scientists had realised. "It is the most important scientific artefact known from the ancient world," said Jo Marchant, who has written a compelling book on the find called Decoding the Heavens . "There's nothing else like it for a thousand years afterwards." First, a quick recap. The Antikythera mechanism was discovered by sponge divers in 1901 who chanced upon the wreck of a Roman vessel off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera. The ship was filled with bronze statues, pottery and glassware – booty that had been plundered from across the ancient Greek world. At first no one noticed the corroded lump of cogs among the treasures, but the mechanism has since attracted the, at times, obsessive interest of a small group of scientists . What we now know about the mechanism and its purpose is a fascinating tale of scientific rivalry, low-down skulduggery and eventual glory. There is much still to learn about where the machine came from, who made it and what it was for, but the best guess seems to be that it was more must-have executive toy than useful gadget. It modelled the state-of-the-art astronomy of the time: a universe with the Earth at the centre with planets following circular orbits that included apparent wobbles called epicycles . The mechanism was probably not used for navigation but perhaps served more as a beautiful representation of an ordered, clockwork universe. "Something to elevate the spirit and get closer to God or the true meaning of things," as Marchant put it during her talk at the Royal Institution in London last night .
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Antikythera computer may be even older than thought
Celebrity squares: Film director Johnny Kevorkian loves gadgets but finds it frustrating to have to keep upgrading
Film director Johnny Kevorkian loves gadgets but finds it frustrating to have to keep upgrading What's your favourite piece of technology, and how has it improved your life? Without a doubt the iPod. It's a genius invention – imagine fitting your entire record collection on a small device that fits in your top pocket. My second (if I'm allowed!) is the Blu-ray player – I feel like I've been blind for years, watching standard definition DVDs. For a director it's such a buzz to see that your film is being seen in the best quality imaginable, as you always intended it to be. I think the technology can still be pushed and we are still at the early stages of this, but it's a good start. When was the last time you used it, and what for?
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Celebrity squares: Film director Johnny Kevorkian loves gadgets but finds it frustrating to have to keep upgrading
‘Gumblar’ PC virus is targeting Google users, warn experts
Concern grows as malware mutates and infects websites A computer virus that targets Google users is mutating rapidly, turning it into what some are calling the biggest threat to online security today. The worm, known as Gumblar, attacks computers through vulnerabilities in some version of Adobe's PDF reader and Flash player software. Once it infects a victim's PC, it silently redirects the user's Google search results to sites that download more malware onto the machine or allow criminals to conduct "phishing" attacks to steal login details for banking, social networking and websites. Gumblar has begun to spread through websites where passwords or software have previously been compromised, so that visitors to the sites are unwittingly infected without realising it – a so-called "drive-by download exploit". Infected PDF documents and Flash films on the site attack the victim's PC. Although Gumblar has been known about some time, its activity has increased rapidly in recent weeks.
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'Gumblar' PC virus is targeting Google users, warn experts
Q+A: The European commission and the Intel fine
When did these anticompetitive activities happen? Beginning in October 2002 and continuing to December 2005 in the case of the computer manufacturers Dell, Hewlett Packard, Acer, Lenovo and NEC; from October 2002 to December 2007 in the case of Media Saturn Holdings, owner of the German retail chain Media Markt. What did Intel do? It offered rebates to the computer makers if they purchased between 80% and 100% (it varied between manufacturer) of the central processing units (CPUs) that are the "brains" of the machine from Intel. For the retailer, it paid it to sell only Intel-based computers. What's wrong with that? The specific exclusion of AMD, Intel's principal rival in the market for CPUs. Intel says that it was a straightforward business deal where it was offering a discount for bulk-buying. The commission ruled that Intel's existing dominance meant that, in effect, the bulk discount actually meant "the computer manufacturer had no choice but to buy from Intel" – because so few would not have been anyway. Would I have noticed the effects? Almost certainly not, unless you had some specific reason to want a computer with an AMD processor. The effect of Intel's tactics was that AMD products became hard to find. But because their processor ranges work almost identically, it simply grew Intel's share of the market
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Q+A: The European commission and the Intel fine
Microsoft revenue drops for first time in 23 years
The world's biggest software company, Microsoft, has suffered its first drop in revenue since it went public in 1986 as the global economic downturn savages its once indestructible sales of computer operating systems. Microsoft tonight revealed revenue of $13.65bn for the three months to March, a drop of 6% on the same period last year, as business customers trimmed their spending on technology packages such as Windows and Microsoft Office. The company's chief financial officer, Chris Liddell, offered a bleak forecast for the year ahead: "While we'd all like to think the economic recovery will be soon and painless, we unfortunately think it will be slow and painful." Net profit at Microsoft fell by 32% to $2.98bn, hit by write-downs of $420m in the value of investments and severance charges of $290m to cover job cuts. In January, Microsoft announced that it was shedding 5,000 staff in its first ever large-scale redundancies. By the end of the quarter, the company's workforce had dropped by 800 and Liddell said savings were progressing faster than anticipated. But in a downbeat assessment of prospects, Liddell described conditions as "the most difficult economic environment the company has faced in our 30-year history"
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Microsoft revenue drops for first time in 23 years
Oracle and Sun: Who bought what?
Oracle and Sun: Who bought what?
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Oracle and Sun: Who bought what?
Naomi Alderman: Bored out of my mind by Sony’s Home
A world without goals – whether real or virtual – is pointless. Which Sony has finally realised with the launch of Xi What are virtual worlds for? The idea of being able to use a computer to access an imaginary world has been a staple of science fiction since the film Tron, but it's been less clear what you'd do once you were in a computer-generated world; that is, if you weren't having to battle a devious enemy on a Light Cycle. When the crew of the Enterprise weren't getting trapped in their holodecks due to a totally unexpected weekly malfunction, they used the devices for roleplay.
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Naomi Alderman: Bored out of my mind by Sony's Home
BT faces multimillion pound writedown on NHS computer upgrade
Huge writedown expected next month, along with news of thousands of job losses BT Group will next month become the third major contractor in as many years to take a multimillion pound writedown on its work with the government's crisis-stricken £12.7bn overhaul of the NHS computer system. The writedown at BT's struggling Global Services division is expected to be accompanied by news that thousands more jobs will be lost as BT is forced to slash costs. Some reports have suggested that more than 10,000 jobs could go, though BT described the figure as "speculation". Meanwhile analysts believe that annual contributions to BT's pension scheme will need to at least double, to between £500m and £1bn. The challenges facing the group have put its dividend in doubt. The National Programme for IT – the largest non-military computer project on record – has already lost two of its four regional contractors , Accenture and Fujitsu. Both quit contracts similar to BT's work in the London region, writing off hundreds of millions of pounds. A poor-performing BT contract to install NHS computer systems in the capital will be the main element in a £1bn-plus package of writedowns when the company reports full-year results next month. Global Services last year announced a £336m provision against 15 of its 17 contracts, but the two remaining deals – widely believed to be the NHS and Reuters – are thought to be the most troublesome. The NHS-related writedown comes despite BT two weeks ago winning highly lucrative bolt-on deals, including a contract to manage IT systems at eight hospital trusts across the south of England installed by Fujitsu before the Japanese firm quit
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BT faces multimillion pound writedown on NHS computer upgrade
Conficker worm explained: What is a botnet?
Conficker worm may be aimed at creating a botnet – a network of compromised computers controlled by criminals The motive behind the Conficker worm may not be known, but it may be aimed at creating one of the largest existing examples of a so-called "botnet" – a huge network of compromised computers that can be controlled remotely to act together simultaneously. Criminals use botnets to conduct illicit activity – such as sending spam emails or bringing down computer networks – while being able to hide their identities. Many of the largest botnets are still operational – among them Kraken, a network of compromised machines consisting of around half a million computers worldwide. One of the most active botnets, known as Srizbi, consists of around 450,000 computers that have been compromised by a program of the same name. The network received a blow last year when the servers that hosted it were taken down – but Srizbi is still able to send up to 60bn spam messages every day. Last year investigators shut down a botnet known as Mega-D, which was largely run out of America. According to estimates by the US Federal Trade Commission, at its height Mega-D was responsible for sending as much as 35% of the world's spam email – largely to advertise fake herbal pills. One of the most famous networks, Storm, has been in existence for at least two years and is used to conduct a variety of criminal activities. Experts dispute the size of Storm's network – with estimates varying from around 150,000 computers into the millions – but despite the fact that it is one of the most well-known examples of a botnet, its creators have never been found. Data and computer security Internet Computing guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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Conficker worm explained: What is a botnet?