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It’s a commonly held belief among software developers that avoiding disk access in favor of doing as much work as possible in-memory will results in shorter runtimes. The growth of big data has made time saving techniques such as performing operations in-memory more attractive than ever for programmers. New research, though, challenges the notion that in-memory operations are always faster than disk-access approaches and reinforces the need for developers to better understand system-level software. These findings were recently presented by researchers from the University of Calgary and the University of British Columbia in a paper titled When In-Memory Computing is...

Maxell reportedly pledged to bring out a 300GB optical holographic disk system late next year. Will this finally be the affordable high capacity backup system we have been waiting for? Apparently the drive will transfer at up to 20MB/sec - this means that 300GB data could be written in as little as 4 hours and ten minutes - however due to lead-in and other delays 5 hours is a more reasonable guess as to how long it will take to back up 300GB.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Two computer disks that supposedly disappeared last summer, prompting a virtual shutdown of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, in fact never existed, according to a report released Friday. In a harshly worded review that described severe security weaknesses at the nuclear laboratory, the U.S. Energy Department concluded that bar codes were recorded for the disks but that the disks themselves were never created. A separate FBI investigation supported that finding, according to the report. “The weaknesses revealed by this incident are severe and must be corrected,” said the report. As punishment for the problems, the Energy Department...

<p>Technology not taxation!</p> <p>That's the battle cry of the Canadian computer industry in a war of words being waged among groups representing the nation's music, technology and retail industries.</p> <p>The dispute centers around fees collected from technology companies to reimburse the music industry for losses incurred by music copying and swapping.</p>