World's Fastest Supercomputer Belongs to...China

$88 Million.  That's the cost of the world's fastest supercomputer.  It is named Tainhe-1a and will be used for large scale scientific calculations.

Previously at #1 was the Cray XT5 Jaguar at the U.S. National Center for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Labs.


Sources:
"The World's Fastest Supercomputer Now Belongs to China", Stan Schroeder, Mashable, 10/29/2010.

I'm Not Talking Quilting - 10/12 Patch Tuesday Biggest Ever!

Each week, the technology community and Microsoft have a day dedicated to patching.  For the non techies reading this, the day of the week is affectionately called "Patch Tuesday".  

Microsoft notified companies this week that they will issue 16 Security Bulletins that fix 49 security vulnerabilities.

If 16 Security Bulletins (in 1 week!) or 49 vulnerabilities sounds high to you, it is.  This is considered the biggest patch Tuesday ever.  

Out of the 49 vulnerabilities 4 are critical & 10 are important.  

If you are wondering what the critical means, in this case, all of the holes in the Windows software allow a hacker to gain control of your machine.





Sources:


"October 2010 Patch Tuesday will come with most bulletins ever", Ars Technica, Emil Protalinski, October 7, 2010.


"Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for October 2010, Published: October 07, 2010,
Microsoft Security Bulletins to be issued: October 12, 2010".  www.Microsoft.com