10 Computers That Changed Everything

70-year-old cosmologist losing ability as facial nerves deteriorate

(NEWSER) - Computer chip-maker Intel is hunting for a new technology to help Stephen Hawking communicate better, reports AP . The 70-year-old scientist currently uses a device that runs pulses in his right cheek through a voice synthesizer, but his facial nerves have deteriorated to the point where he can speak only about one word per minute. More»

Walt Mossberg looks back on two decades of reviews

(NEWSER) - Remember when revolutionary dial-up modems arrived on the computer scene or when America Online debuted? Walt Mossberg does, and the Wall Street Journal tech reviewer looks back on 20 years' of columns. Some of the milestones he picks out:

• His first line in 1991: "Personal computers are just too hard to use, and it's not your fault."
• First "pocket" phone: In 1992, he called Motorola's MicroTac Lite the first pocket-size mobile. It was an inch thick, weighed under half-a-pound—and cost about $2,000.

Economists try to put a value on PCs in America

(NEWSER) - You can scope out the price tag of a Mac or PC at any given electronics hawker, but how much are computers really worth to us? Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta actually tried tackling that question, and they came up with $500 billion—or, on average about $1,700 per person. That's equal to about 5% of total consumer spending in 2009, reports the Wall Street Journal . More»

Jeopardy ! king discusses his epic battle with the computer

(NEWSER) - Going into his Jeopardy! match against IBM’s Watson supercomputer, champ Ken Jennings saw himself as humanity’s representative, "the Great Carbon-Based Hope against a new generation of thinking machines," he writes for Slate . But victory wasn’t to be: Watson played Jeopardy much like a top-ranked human. (Quipped Jennings: "It's very smart, very fast, speaks in an uneven monotone, and has never known the touch of a woman.") But, Jennings writes, "unlike us, Watson cannot be intimidated.” More»

Face-off airs tonight with Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter

(NEWSER) - Tonight, IBM’s Watson computer will go head-to-head with Jeopardy legends Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in the first of three matches. Do they stand a chance against the machine? Definitely, writes Greg Lindsay for Fast Company . He’s an actual human who’s beaten the computer three times, thanks in part to smart use of Daily Doubles. He found that Watson had some advantages (in terms of the buzzer, it was consistent; "buzz too early, you see, and you’re locked out for a split second") but categories with "semantic difficulty" gave Lindsay the upper hand. "Sure enough, Watson was bewildered by clues such as 'X marks the spot, man, when this guy opens his peeper' ('What is cyclops?')." More»