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Robots that pick up and sort objects may improve warehouse efficiency
Sorting and organizing may not always be the most difficult tasks, but they can certainly get tedious. And while they may seem like prime examples of something we might like robots to do for us, picking up, recognizing and sorting objects is actually a pretty difficult thing to teach a machine. But researchers at MIT and Princeton have developed a robot that can do just that and in the future, it could be used for things like warehouse sorting or cleaning up a disaster area.
Netflix's new 'My List' replaces queues, lets users worldwide bookmark their favorites
Netflix's Watch Instantly streaming service in the US started with the same queue-based experience users were familiar with from its disc-by-mail rentals for bookmarking titles to watch later. But, internationally, the option has never existed. Now the experience is changing everywhere, as Netflix replaces the old queues with "My List." Outside the US subscribers will notice the biggest change, as they're able to curate their own viewing lists instead of relying solely on search or the service's automatically generated genre lists. Otherwise the selection process is mostly the same as we've come to expect, with a "+ My List" button single click adding it to the list of up to 500 items in each user's profile. My List should pop up on individual accounts over the next couple of weeks, check after the break for a breakdown of all the incoming changes and a quick video preview.
Microsoft Research team shatters data sorting record, wrenches trophy from Yahoo
Bruise inducing high-fives, anyone? They're handing them out in Redmond, according to one mildly injured researcher, after breaking a data sorting record Yahoo set in 2009. The ruckus surrounds a benchmark called MinuteSort, which measures how much data can be sorted in 60 seconds. Microsoft's Distributed Systems group utilized a new file system architecture, dubbed Flat Datacenter Storage, over a full bisection bandwidth network to burn through the competition. Not only did the nine-person crew best the old record nearly by a factor of three, it gave itself a handicap -- sorting 1,401 GB of data at 2 GB/s over a remote file system, forcing the system to crunch data at a slower speed than the technique is capable of. It's not all about bragging rights, however, Bing has its eye on the newfangled file system in hopes of boosting its RPM. Microsoft suspects the tech could also pick up the pace of machine learning and churn through large data sets in a jiffy. You can catch Microsoft Research's detailed explanation in all its glory at the source. Update: Commenter Mark Streich points out that while 2 GB/s may sound fast, it's certainly not speedy enough to sort 1,401 gigabytes in a single minute. To achieve that performance, simultaneous input and output speeds could hit 2GB/s on each computer used.
Google+ updated with photo album organizer, batch delete and sorting functionality in tow
Suffice it to say, if you're still using Google+ you've probably noticed that it hasn't exactly had an expansive feature set for organizing photo albums. According to Isaac Sparrow, a self-described "engineer on the Google+ Photos team," a great number of folks have expressed the desire for better functionality in this area. Thankfully, in response, he also announced some a quartet of features that have just been set live on the site to help you keep your candids in check. Within the Options menus of your albums you'll now find an Organize tab which'll let you select and delete a multiple images, move and copy them to other albums and resort them by date or any order you choose. Sure, it's far from the likes of Facebook's Timeline, but we'd imagine anyone with backlog of photos on the site will surely appreciate the new digs. You know the drill -- hit the links below for all the details.
iTunes Tip: sort by Album is smarter than you think
The most useful tips are sometimes the easiest to pull off, and this one from ryerye at Mac OS X Hints definitely falls into that camp. It turns out that iTunes' Album column can also sort with "Album by Artist" and "Album by Year." That second option is especially nice, since it's actually a 'Sort by Artist by Album Year.' All you need to do is keep clicking on the Album column to get whichever option you prefer; no extra modifier keys and no obscure tricks, though no documentation either, as far as I can tell.
