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2013-03-30T22:28:00.001-07:00

Linux Foundation Training Prepares the International Space Station for Linux Migration | Linux.com

Digg wants to fill the Google Reader-shaped hole in your heart

2013-03-28T13:34:00.001-07:00

Digg wants to fill the Google Reader-shaped hole in your heart:

Digg revealed details about a forthcoming RSS reader in a blog post today. The service will perform much like Google Reader in that it will aggregate content from various feeds, but Digg said it also hopes to “add value to the sources of information” by integrating services like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, reddit, and LinkedIn. The ultimate goal is to make all of these items easier to peruse and organize in an online reader. “We likely won’t get everything we want into [version one], but we believe it’s worth exploring,” wrote Digg.
The post also outlined how the company had long planned to build something like Reader, but it didn't actively pursue the idea until Google told the world about Reader's “imminent shutdown." Digg softly announced its own RSS intentions in a blog post last week, and an overwhelming number of responses encouraged the company's decision to push forward with the plan.
Digg said that although the project will be a huge undertaking for its small team, it’s confident it can ship a veritable replacement for Reader. Digg will work with its users to ensure that the product is up to their standards, and it invited those who are interested to join a mailing list as development begins. The company is also explicitly seeking developers who “want to lend a hand.”

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Troika quer redução de preços na energia e telecomunicações

2013-03-25T12:04:00.001-07:00

Troika quer redução de preços na energia e telecomunicações: O responsável pela equipa do FMI para Portugal explicou à agência que o principal objetivo na área de preços da eletricidade, telecomunicações e outros sectores de bens não transacionáveis é que estejam em linha e comecem a cair à medida que a concorrência aumenta ou a procura cai. “Até agora não o estamos a ver e isso é muito desapontante. Se não responderem às condições económicas penso que definitivamente teremos de olhar para o que o se passa e revisitar as reformas”, afirmou em entrevista telefónica.

Este são sectores que o grupo formado pela Comissão Europeia, Banco Central Europeu e Fundo Monetário Internacional (conhecido como a Troika) já tinha eleito como uma das prioridades, com imposições na área das terminações móveis que levaram a reduções de preços, entre outras medidas. Na altura a associação de operadores, Apritel, preparou mesmo um documento onde realçava que algumas medidas podiam por em causa a sustentabilidade financeira das empresas.

Abebe Selassie admitiu à Lusa que a missão esperava que as reformas fossem mais profundas, como estava inicialmente previsto nesta matéria, mas mesmo assim elogia o Governo e afirma que este fez o que pode com as limitações que tinha.

"Um primeiro conjunto de reformas foi acordado e realizado ao abrigo do programa no ano passado. Não foram até onde gostaríamos que tivessem ido, mas o Governo tentou fazer o máximo que podia face a todas as considerações que tinha de tomar", disse o responsável pela missão.

O FMI defende que Portugal precisa de ter uma economia muito competitiva e dinâmica, e neste campo, as empresas dos sectores de eletricidade e telecomunicações têm de dar o seu contributo.

Escrito ao abrigo do novo Acordo Ortográfico

2013-03-24T21:01:00.001-07:00

Riding the Booster with enhanced sound - YouTube

Killing hackers is justified in cyber warfare, says NATO-commissioned report

2013-03-21T06:52:00.001-07:00

A landmark document created at the request of NATO has proposed a set of rules for how international cyberwarfare should be conducted. Written by 20 experts in conjunction with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the US Cyber Command, the Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare analyzes the rules of conventional war and applies them to state-sponsored cyberattacks.

Unsurprisingly, the manual advises that attacks must avoid targets such as hospitals, dams, and nuclear power stations in order to minimize civilian casualties, but also makes some bold statements regarding retaliatory conduct. According to the manual's authors, it's acceptable to retaliate against cyberattacks with traditional weapons when a state can prove the attack lead to death or severe property damage. It also says that hackers who perpetrate attacks are legitimate targets for a counterstrike.

"THERE'S PLENTY OF LAW THAT APPLIES TO CYBERSPACE."

Project leader Professor Michael Schmitt, the Chairman of the International Law Department at the United States Naval War College, tells The Guardian that countries "can only use force when you reach the level of armed conflict," explaining that in most cases the appropriate response to a cyberattack would be digital retaliation. "Everyone talks about cyberspace as though it's the wild west," says Schmitt, "we discovered that there's plenty of law that applies to cyberspace."

fonte

lool que cenario

2013-03-09T18:15:00.001-08:00

Portugal.The Man - Evil Friends [Official Music Video] from Portugal The Man on Vimeo.

2013-03-09T18:12:00.001-08:00

Jazz that nobody asked for from Benny Box on Vimeo.

You Should Probably Start Caring About Quantum Computing Now

2013-03-09T18:03:00.001-08:00

You Should Probably Start Caring About Quantum Computing Now:

Since the words started entering the tech community vocabulary in the not-too-distant past, quantum computing has remained a spectre. It's a change-everything technology of the future, shooting out research news in short bursts, but it's come together rather poorly in the public awareness. The big names that drive the tech narrative--Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc.--aren't so much driving quantum research and, hence, no narrative. A new special issue of Science suggests it's time for that to change: the quantum computing revolution is real, and it's getting close.
Let's recap the general quantum computing idea. In classic, present-day computing, information is carried by electrical charge representing either a "1" or "0." A bit. That's a very, very small unit of information. It's tiny enough that computing has been able to more or less faithfully adhere to Moore's law since its inception, doubling processor speed roughly every two years.
The charge-based universe has limits though and performance gains aren't what they used to be. It's become impossible to maintain that steady rate of improvement using single processor systems, and pushing computers farther has meant threaded and parallel processing. (How many cores does your computer have?) We're on a theoretically endless trajectory of stacking processors now, which could take on whole new dimensions in the future when that stacking becomes distributed across different computers in a network--a crucial realization of the cloud.
But there remains a physical, unavoidable limit in classical computing that is just the limit imposed by the size of electrons vs. the size of electrical components. ("Size" and electrons is a difficult idea, but let's just pretend for now it isn't.) Sooner or later, you hit a wall where past it, you can no longer control electrons sufficiently for computing. This is where quantum computing comes in. Instead of using charge to transmit information, quantum information uses a different particle property: spin. Welcome to the world of spintronics. Spin is a highly unique property in that instead of just transmitting just either a 1 or a 0, it can do both at once in different combinations (see illustration). It's pretty weird, but potentially handy.
From Science:

A quantum-mechanical object with two energy levels at its disposal can occupy either of those two levels, but also an arbitrary combination (“superposition”) of the two, much like an electron in a two-slit experiment can go through both slits at once. This results in infinitely many quantum states that a single quantum bit, or “qubit,” can take; together with another strange property of quantum mechanics—entanglement—it allows for a much more powerful information platform than is possible with conventional components.

Right now, researchers are realizing two big gains in quantum computing, both absolutely crucial in bringing the whole idea to reality. The problem is that handling qubits, the quantum bit of information, is pretty tough. To use them practically will require whole new algorithms and architecture, and we'll need ways of controlling the highly tempermental qubits without destroying them. Qubits have a habit of decohering easily. Basically, the slightest disturbance will cause a quantum system to fall out of whatever state it was in and become practically meaningless, with no hope of recovery. Imagine a mail carrier having to balance every message on a fingertip--and all of those messages are made of glass.
Or maybe messages made of ice would be more appropriate. Handling qubits at normal room temperatures has been impossible until now. In fact, systems have had to be held at near absolute zero to keep qubits intact. But research out this year from researchers at Stanford and IBM found that by using diamond-based materials, it'd be possible to run a tabletop system without compromising qubit integrity. It won't be the only idea for solving the temperature problem but, so far, it's out ahead.
The other major advance also has to do with coherence. You could say that qubits don't especially want to be qubits and, under normal conditions, will stop being weird and start acting like normal classical bits. Researchers over the past few years have demonstrated that it's possible to keep qubits together for several seconds with the help of good ol' silicon. Granted it's a highly pure form of silicon developed only recently, but it is still fundamentally the same stuff that computers rely on now.
What's more, research done at Princeton by Stephen Lyon and his team (published in 2012 in Nature Materials) demonstrated that by using this highly pure form of silicon, it's possible to control the spin state of billions of electrons. Working with large numbers of qubits has been on ongoing challenge of quantum computing research. Most work so far has involved just a few at once (as much as 84), whereas successful computing could require thousands or millions. Note that controlling the spins of billions of electrons is not the same thing as harnessing billions of electrons into a quantum computer, but it's something nonetheless.
We now return you to your awesomely powerful, amazingly compact classical computer, soon to be obsolete.
Reach this writer at michaelb@motherboard.tv.

So We're 3D Printing Replacement Skulls Now

2013-03-08T10:26:00.001-08:00

So We're 3D Printing Replacement Skulls Now:

An example of what the OsteoFab tech can do, via OPM

Forget Cousin Eddie and the metal plate in his head, this is the future. A man recently became the first person to have part of his skull replaced with made-to-fit pieces that were 3D printed. How's that for high tech?
As I expect is the case with any easily-used distributed technology (cough the internet), 3D printing's popularity has been fueled by vice. With dildos, bongs, guns, and a moon base to stash 'em in, a casual observer might think the 3D printing world is run by a bunch of horny drug addicts that are scared of the government. But the truth is that all of the above just show how mighty of a manufacturing technology 3D printing actually is.
The advantage of a 3D-printed skull is obvious: Rather than trying to hand-shape a polymer replacement piece for a patient with skull trauma–which means you can't necessarily press a mold–a 3D-printed fragment can be mapped exactly to a patient's skull. In fact, Oxford Performance Materials, the Connecticut company who's developed the technology, does just that. OPM's OsteoFab device uses skull scans–MRI or CT scans will do–to precisely construct skull patches using a polymer that OPM says has twice the compressive strength of what's currently used, and which fresh bone can actually grow on.
OPM received FDA approval to use its tech on February 18, and by March 4 the first OPM implant was used on a live patient, which reportedly replaced a large portion of the patient's skull. OPM has said that the tech could be used to replace up to 75 percent of a patient's dome. (If you're a 3D printer geek, OPM uses an EOSINT P800 laser-sintering machine from the German company EOS.)
Apparently somewhere between 300 and 500 US patients a month need skull implants, which means 3D-printed parts could be hugely beneficial. But that's hardly the end of the road. OPM has said previously that it plans on developing bone replacements for all the piece of your skeleton, and not just your dome. That's an incredible thought, but hey, it doesn't seem outlandish. Show of hands: Who wants to replace their wimpy old bones with a kick-ass, 3D-printed polymer?
@derektmead

Scientists Found a Genetic Switch to Reverse Aging in Neurons

2013-03-07T17:32:00.001-08:00

Scientists Found a Genetic Switch to Reverse Aging in Neurons:

Another day, another step towards that elusive fountain of youth—thanks, this time, to a new study that claims scientists have effectively reversed the effects of aging in neurons.
Just last week, a study out of Italy revealed that neurons—specifically mouse neurons—could live much longer than usual when transplanted into a longer-living organism. Or, as we put it here at Motherboard, that “Brain Cells May Live Longer When Not Tied to Their Weakling, Mortal Flesh.” Brain cells, the study suggested, don’t have built-in expiration dates like the rest of our cells. It was promising news, we quipped, for those of us who hope to live forever as brains in a jar.
But what good is a brain that lives forever if that brain is an old fuddy duddy? Brains become increasingly “set in their ways” the older they get because it is increasingly difficult for neurons to form new connections as they age. As children and adolescents, our brains are very malleable; as adults, they become more rigid. It’s why children learn new languages better than adults do, and perhaps why only 3 percent of Sean Hannity’s viewership is under 30.
According to a study published this week in the journal, Neuron, researchers at the Yale School of Medicine isolated a gene in mice that allowed them to reverse that change. Called the Nogo Receptor 1, the gene is responsible for shutting down neuronal plasticity once an organism reaches adulthood. Once scientists identified it, they were able to block it. And when they blocked it in old mice, the mouse brains became malleable again, just like when the mice were adolescents.
“It suggests we can turn back the clock in the adult brain and recover from trauma the way kids recover,” said neurologist, Stephen Strittmatter, the paper’s senior author, in a Yale news release. And, indeed, this is exactly what the researchers found in the mice they studied. Aged mice who had their Nogo Receptor 1 genes blocked mastered complex motor tasks and recovered from brain injuries more quickly than mice who hadn’t—which is to say, more like adolescents did.
Aside from what this does to advance Ray Kurzweil’s theory that human immortality is only 40 years away, the research has more promising, immediate implications. Discoveries like this may lead to advances in how we help recovering stroke victims, for example, whose brains could use some extra connective ability.
The Nogo Receptor also impairs memory loss. A malleable brain forgets things a little more easily. That may mean little Tommy sometimes forgets to wash his hands, but it also means he’s quicker to forget stressful memories. Temporarily blocking that receptor, researchers suggest, could one day prove useful in treating post-traumatic stress disorder. As more and more troops come home from Afghanistan over the next few years, these findings—along with other promising advances in PTSD therapy, like new research involving psychedelic drugs —could prove invaluable.

Lead image via MeZu

Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault Debate the Ideal Future Society in 1971

2013-03-07T17:31:00.001-08:00

Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault Debate the Ideal Future Society in 1971:

Behold: Noam Chomsky advocates for his particular vision of how society should organize itself most equitably in the future, and Foucault shoots it down.
It's 1971 in the Netherlands, and the two big brains are meeting up for a major televised debate (the transcript of which will later be turned into a book, On Human Nature). The ensuing discussion spans topics of justice, human nature, and power. The whole thing has been posted on YouTube, though mostly without subtitles, so you better be up on your French. The relevant bits here see Chomsky outlining his preference for anarcho-syndicalism, or revolutionary industrial unionism.

Chomsky envisions a society free of "coercive institutions" like banks or a central government, one led by boss-less worker collectives that share decision-making power. Wikipedia's anarcho-syndicalism page is pretty thorough, and it's a good place to learn the basics. That or Rudolf Rocker's eponymous, definitive treatise on the subject. Regardless, Foucault thinks that the same corrosive forces of power would manifest themselves even in such an egalitarian society, and he poo-poos the whole business.

Either way, it's fascinating. Chomsky's syndicalist society of the future certainly hasn't come any closer to fruition, of course; the American social fabric is more deeply stratified and inequitable. Yet there's merit, as he says, to simply laying out an idealistic vision; one which imagines the impossible to eke room out for the plausible. Here's the whole thing.

Bill would force cops to get a warrant before reading your e-mail

2013-03-06T20:38:00.001-08:00

Bill would force cops to get a warrant before reading your e-mail:

Last fall we wrote about how easy it probably was for the FBI to get the e-mails it needed to bring down CIA chief David Petraeus over allegations of infidelity. Under the ancient Electronic Communications Privacy Act, passed in 1986, the police can often obtain the contents of private e-mails without getting a warrant from a judge.
A bipartisan group of legislators has introduced a bill to the House of Representatives to change that. The bill would require the police to get warrants before reading users' e-mails in most circumstances and would also repudiate the view, advanced by the Obama administration last year, that the police can obtain information about the historical location of your cell phone without a warrant. The new legislation, proposed by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and supported by Reps. Ted Poe (R-TX) and Suzan DelBene (D-WA), would extend privacy protections for both e-mail and location privacy.
"Fourth Amendment protections don’t stop at the Internet," Lofgren said in an e-mailed statement. "Establishing a warrant standard for government access to cloud and geolocation provides Americans with the privacy protections they expect, and would enable service providers to foster greater trust with their users and international trading partners."

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Leaked screenshots for Galaxy S III update also hint at eye-tracking

2013-03-06T20:37:00.001-08:00

Leaked screenshots for Galaxy S III update also hint at eye-tracking:

Samsung Galaxy S III users may feel like their handsets will be rendered antiquated once the purported Galaxy S IV is announced, but rumors indicate that users will have access to some of the same features included in Samsung's forthcoming smartphone.

Leaked screenshots published by SamMobile from the as-of-yet unreleased Android 4.2.1 Galaxy S III update show several features that may come standard with the next Galaxy smartphone. Features like Samsung Smart scroll and Smart pause appear to be available in the update's Settings menu. Smart scroll will reportedly track the user's eye movement and scroll the content on the screen up so that users won't have to swipe. Smart pause will apparently allow a device to pause video when it detects that the user's head is not directly facing the screen. Other screenshots detail the ability to make adjustments to these various features, including how fast the handset should scroll the page and whether the motion sensor should determine vertical head movements for setting the scroll speed.

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The Dream of Terabit Wireless Can Come True, Thanks to Graphene

2013-03-06T13:57:00.001-08:00

The Dream of Terabit Wireless Can Come True, Thanks to Graphene:

Speed-happy scientists have spent years trying to solve the problem of slow data transfers. Sure, we're not living in the world of 14kbps modems and clunky cables that need to be screwed into your computer, but scientists struggled to reach the mind-boggling milestone they've long been lusting after: the terabit transfer. But no more: Terabit speeds have been achieved recently, and now it appears that terabit transfers could work wirelessly.
A team of researchers at Georgia Tech just published plans for a wireless antenna made out of everybody's favorite futuristic material, graphene, that can handle terabit transfers through the air. That's extra impressive since it was just one year ago — to the day, almost — that IBM announced the first ever terabit data transfer using fiber optic cables that literally twisted light beams to speed up the data.
The innovation sparked a small wildfire of activity as scientists tried to one-up each other and win the fastest transfer award. At the moment, a team of German scientists are in the lead, having perfected a method that fires a laser through fiber optic cables at a rate of 2.5 terabits per second, the equivalent of about 1,000 DVDs.
The new graphene antenna can make these blistering data transfer speeds wireless. Since electrons move through graphene with almost no resistance, there's a lot of promise for using the stuff to make tiny but incredibly powerful transmitters.
"Antennas made of graphene can be made much smaller in all dimensions than a metal wire antenna," Phaedon Avouris, a graphene expert at IBM, explained to the MIT Technology Review. "It can be made to be on the order of a micrometer or a few nanometers." The blueprints that the Georgia Tech team supports terabit transfers at range of about one meter. It's not going to provide WiFi to an entire office anytime soon but would enable you to transfer the entire contents of a computer to a smartphone simply by waving the device in front of a sensor.
Before you go get all tangled up in the limitations of this hot new antenna, let me reiterate that the ability to transfer a terabit of information in one second is incredible and potentially world-changing. Moving information around the world takes time. It delays business deals. It stalls progress on research projects. It makes you stare at status bars. Terabit transfers would eliminate all that trouble. If people freak out about Google's gigabit Internet, imagine how they'd react to technology that's literally 1,000 times as fast. And just think of all the movies you could download in the blink of an eye.

The Swiss' Giant Satellite Claw Will Burn Space Junk in the Earth's Atmosphere

2013-03-04T09:58:00.001-08:00

The Swiss' Giant Satellite Claw Will Burn Space Junk in the Earth's Atmosphere:

The Swiss plan on playing a debris-clearing claw game in space. Image above and graphic below via EPFL

The United States is in the midst of a satellite crisis: of the 24 primary information-gatherers we currently have locked in orbit, only six are expected to last out the decade. Weather forecasters and government agencies are concerned, because the satellite blackout would leave a major gap in how well we can predict—and prepare for—extreme events like hurricanes.
But it's also a reminder that there are about to be a couple dozen more dead satellites circling the earth, and that the orbital graveyard up there is getting packed pretty tight—and that we should be giving more thought to what becomes of derelict satellites.
After all, there are about 19,000 pieces of space debris larger than 5 cm currently being tracked by NASA—debris that multiplies when other debris collides. Still with me? For instance, in 2009, a Russian satellite smashed into an American one, and a thousand new bits of debris were born.
Clearly, that debris makes it much more difficult to launch and maintain new satellites, and it's proved a major headache for the International Space Station, too, which has had to adjust orbit to dodge space junk. There's now way around it: eventually we're going to have to clean up the floating mess. Which is exactly what a new Swiss uber-satellite intends to do.

Called CleanSpace One, the monster has been dubbed the "janitor satellite." It's been designed to match a defunct satellite's orbital plane, grip it with a giant mechanical claw, and pull it back down into the Earth's atmosphere. Both satellites would then burn up upon reentry. We can only assume that the process will look something like this.

The Swiss scientists hope to launch CleanSpace One on its trial mission in under five years. The first target is the Swisscube, Switzerland's first working satellite, which was put into orbit in 2009, and completed its imaging mission in 2011. Even though the first CleanSpace One will disintegrate upon re-entry, the Swiss are planning a whole family of space janitors. Eventually, they may be able to dispose more than one satellite at a time.

It's a worthy project, and an aim that should see more consideration and investment. The possibilities of what we can do in orbit are only expanding: private enterprises now aim to establish orbital mining bases, tourism hubs, and more, more, more satellites. To make room for it all, space-faring nations and businesses are going to have to start running a tighter orbital plane up there—governments and corporations should be responsible for decommissioning their satellites themselves, designing satellites that self-destruct, or looking for more sustainable solutions.
Otherwise we're just going to have to hire these Swiss bots to grab all those dying satellites one by one and pull them down into a fiery earthbound grave. Next up: a vacuum satellite that can suck up all the smaller but still-deadly space junk.

Gaze Into These 244 Clocks and Be Revived

2013-03-03T16:30:00.001-08:00

Gaze Into These 244 Clocks and Be Revived:

You don’t necessarily need 288 clocks to tell the time, but you do if you’re design studio Humans Since 1982 and you’re creating your kinetic installation A Million Times. It’s a larger iteration of an idea they first explored in The Clock Clock—this time a bank of analog clocks form a digital timepiece, text, and pattern display.

Controlled by an iPad and powered by 576 electrical engines, the clock’s hands rotate to create waves and surges of lines as straight rows turn into rippling shapes that form words and images out of the hypnotic motion of the clock faces.
From its minimalist design it creates a spellbinding effect and if you have the money, you can even take the piece home with you, which will be presented at Design Days Dubai/Victor Hunt Gallery from 18th to 21st March 2013.

@stewart23rd
Originally posted at the Creator's Project.

Virus Venn Diagram

2013-03-03T07:03:00.001-08:00

Virus Venn Diagram:

Surdocegueira – Wikipédia, a enciclopédia livre

2013-03-02T20:51:00.001-08:00

Surdocegueira – Wikipédia, a enciclopédia livre

Governo promete para breve avanços na criação do Centro Nacional de Cibersegurança

2013-02-28T10:35:00.001-08:00

Governo promete para breve avanços na criação do Centro Nacional de Cibersegurança: Está em fase final de apreciação o processo que levará à constituição de um Centro Nacional de Cibersegurança e a "breve trecho" serão aprovadas medidas em Conselho de Ministros para dar seguimento ao processo. A garantia foi deixada hoje por Luís Marques Guedes, secretário de Estado da presidência de conselho de ministros.

Questionado pelo TeK relativamente aos ataques ontem revelados pela Kaspersky a várias entidades públicas, incluindo em Portugal, o responsável não deu detalhes sobre o impacto do ataque considerado pela empresa de segurança como altamente sofisticado.

No entanto, garantiu que o tema da cibersegurança tem estado na agenda do Governo e que o processo de constituição de um Centro Nacional de Cibersegurança continua em marcha, dando seguimento ao trabalho realizado pela comissão instaladora nomeada para definir a estrutura do novo centro.

O Centro Nacional de Cibersegurança é uma das peças da Estratégia Nacional de Segurança da Informação que tem vindo a ser definida pelo Governo. A sua constituição foi anunciada em fevereiro do ano passado, com a indicação de que a estrutura seria lançada no prazo de um ano.

Em abril o Governo anunciou a nomeação de uma comissão instaladora que, até junho, tinha de apresentar um modelo e todas as medidas e instrumentos necessários à respetiva implementação.

Desde então não foram comunicados novos avanços no processo. Na Agenda Portugal Digital, apresentada no final do ano, prevê-se contudo a criação de "um centro de reporte de incidentes e de gestão de situação operacional agregada das redes e serviços de comunicações eletrónicas", mas a medida só está prevista para 2016.

Recorde-se que ainda no início do mês a Comissão Europeia revelou os traços gerais de uma nova estratégia de cibersegurança para a região.

Uma das medidas previstas é a definição, em todos os países da União, de uma entidade responsável pela estratégia de cibersegurança. A estrutura deve ser dotada de meios e recursos financeiros próprios e atuar ao nível da prevenção e resposta aos riscos e incidentes de segurança detetados.

Escrito ao abrigo do novo Acordo Ortográfico

Cristina A. Ferreira

IBM Patented a One Atom-Thick Graphene Transistor That Works 1,000 Times Faster Than Silicon

2013-02-27T19:11:00.001-08:00

IBM Patented a One Atom-Thick Graphene Transistor That Works 1,000 Times Faster Than Silicon:

Next stop, the singularity. IBM has just won a patent for a brand new single atom graphene transistor that will allegedly “transmit electrical pulses 1,000 times faster than silicon.” And if that doesn’t give rise to ultra-intelligent, super-efficient autonomous A.I., then man, I don’t know what will.
The tech blogs are heralding the patent as a lifeline for Moore’s law, which for decades now has correctly described the fact that the number of transistors we can fit on a computer chip has doubled every two years, allowing them to get faster, faster.
IBM took to its Tumblr to celebrate the patent, giving itself a pat on the back/PR blast and claiming that this “could give a jolt to the rate that our computers and electronics improve—and uphold Moore’s Law for decades to come.”
Here’s the abstract of patent #8,344,358 in full:

A graphene-based field effect transistor includes source and drain electrodes that are self-aligned to a gate electrode. A stack of a seed layer and a dielectric metal oxide layer is deposited over a patterned graphene layer. A conductive material stack of a first metal portion and a second metal portion is formed above the dielectric metal oxide layer. The first metal portion is laterally etched employing the second metal portion, and exposed portions of the dielectric metal oxide layer are removed to form a gate structure in which the second metal portion overhangs the first metal portion. The seed layer is removed and the overhang is employed to shadow proximal regions around the gate structure during a directional deposition process to form source and drain electrodes that are self-aligned and minimally laterally spaced from edges of the gate electrode.

And one of the renderings filed:

Figure 1 is a "vertical cross-sectional view of an exemplary structure after formation of a graphene layer," which would appear to be the top layer, while figure 1A is a bird-eye view of the same structure. It appears that IBM expects a graphene chip to be a multi-layer device–which makes sense considering the graphene layer is only an atom thick–but it's in the graphene layer that the magic happens. The properties of graphene allows for the creation of what are called graphene field effect transistors, which (this is hopelessly simplified, of course) are powered by self-aligned electron gates that can work at extremely high frequencies—as high as 100 GHz, according to the filing, although there are still technical challenges to get to that point sustainably.
Nonetheless. I am suddenly painfully aware of how crappy and insufficient my 2010-era processing power is, now that I know it could be going 1,000 times faster. I am still aware of page load times, and it is already 2013. What a gyp.
Most of us can hardly even conceive of what a computer that fast might possibly be able to do, especially for humble consumer purposes. Guess we’re going to find out, tho—fingers cross for something closer to legit AR utility on mobile devices or gonzo VR fun and further from autonomous robo-domination. Either way, things are going to get interesting.

Top image

The New $20 Nokia Phone’s Battery Lasts a Month, Is Ideal for Post-Apocalyptic Environs

2013-02-27T19:09:00.001-08:00

The New $20 Nokia Phone’s Battery Lasts a Month, Is Ideal for Post-Apocalyptic Environs:

When the lights go out, and the whole of human civilization is plunged into a pre-industrial dystopia, there are three gadgets above all that science fiction has definitively proven we’ll need:
1. A flashlight
2. A means of durable long-distance communication
3. A radio, to search for signs of distant life, naturally.
At a cost of just $20, the new Nokia 105 rolls all three into one. It is the first bona fide anti-zombie apocalypse mobile phone. It will be the Finnish telecom giant’s cheapest offering yet, and its battery will last up to a month on standby on a single charge—when the outlets are dry, your iPhone is useless in like 8 hours, even if you’re not playing Angry Birds.
The 105 also comes equipped with a flashlight and an FM radio, though no internet access. Clearly, it is a worthy investment for zombie-fleeing humans everywhere.

However, in these pre-apocalyptic times, Nokia is targeting a different demographic—the 2.7 billion people in China, Indonesia, India, and Africa the company estimates do not yet own a mobile phone at all.
CNET gives the phone a pretty favorable review, generally praising its functionality given the rock-bottom price, and noting that it’s expressly designed to persist in non-urban environments: “fewer joints and openings also do a better job protecting internals from the elements.” The cheap phones may prove to be a boon for modernizing economies, if service plans can be held in check and kept affordable.
Meanwhile, advanced societies have come to rely on the rapid information exchange enabled by mobile phones—and as we’ve seen, it doesn’t take total Armageddon to throw them into dysfunction. Hurricane Sandy showed how even denizens of the highest-tech cities in the world can easily be thrown into disarray, basic services going unprovided, forced into forming massive queues in coffee shops and department stores if the lights go out. And as long as we continue to rely on old-fashioned, centralized power, those lights are at constant risk of going out—whether from extreme weather events or, someday, hackers.
As such, keeping an additional phone around the house, for use in case of an incipient dystopia, long suggested by (surprise) phone companies and tech pundits, is looking like an increasingly pragmatic idea. Can’t say the new Nokia phone will actually do the trick, as I haven’t yet actually seen one outside of a screenshot. But I’d be glad to have light, radio, and a month-worth of phone availability when the power goes out and the warlords show up.

So o mini preço nao vende Trangénicos

2013-02-26T04:02:00.001-08:00

A Plataforma Trangénicos Fora avaliou os dez maiores hipermercados para aferir onde existem mais produtos transgénicos. Só o Minipreço se revelou livre deste tipo de produtos. Leia mais em http://expresso.sapo.pt/so-o-minipreco-nao-vende-alimentos-transgenicos=f789298 Conhece a aplicação Expresso.pt Android? Pode fazer o download desta e de outras aplicações em http://mobile.sapo.pt/smartphones .

The gaping hole in Obama's plan to stop Chinese hacking

2013-02-22T18:49:00.001-08:00

The gaping hole in Obama's plan to stop Chinese hacking:

The word “China” appears 120 times in the Obama administration’s just-released report, “Administration Strategy on Mitigating the Theft of U.S. Trade Secrets,” on combatting cyber-espionage against U.S. business. Of course, Chinese hacking is a threat to more than just American businesses: the Washington Post reports today that just about every powerful institution in the District, from federal agencies to think tanks to, yes, media organizations “have been penetrated by Chinese cyberspies.”

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Contribuintes pedem faturas em nome de membros do governo

2013-02-22T10:40:00.001-08:00

Contribuintes pedem faturas em nome de membros do governo:
Anda a circular pela Internet uma lista com diversos números de identificação fiscal de membros do atual governo. O objetivo desta "partida" é incentivar os contribuintes a passarem as suas faturas com os dados, em forma de protesto.

Nos últimos dias tem circulado, por mensagens de telemóvel, email e pelas redes sociais, uma lista com alguns dos números de identificação fiscal (NIF) de membros do governo, como Paula Teixeira da Cruz ou Pedro Passos Coelho. A iniciativa serve para incentivar os utilizadores, que são contra as multas a aplicar a quem não pedir fatura, a fazê-lo mas em nome de um ministro, para levar a uma eventual investigação às suas contas.

Tal acontece porque os prestadores de serviços de restauração, por exemplo, (entre outros serviços sujeitos a IVA), têm de emitir a fatura com os dados dos contribuintes, mas não têm forma nem competência para fazer a fiscalização dos mesmos. Esta "partida" não é, no entanto, isenta de responsabilidades. Dar o número de outra pessoa pode constituir, afinal de contas, um crime de falsas declarações.

Esta "rebeldia" dos contribuintes surge após a entrada em vigor da obrigatoriedade de emissão de faturas, em janeiro, com multas para quem não o faça. Desta forma, as faturas são, de facto, pedidas, mas em nome de um político e não em nome próprio. Para além disso, diz a mensagem que circula pela Net, se o valor das faturas apresentadas em nome de, por exemplo, Vítor Gaspar, for superior aos seus rendimentos, este poderá vir a ser alvo de uma investigação executada pelo Fisco.

A ideia parece ter surgido de um movimento independente de cidadãos com presença assídua nas redes, o movimento Revolução Branca, e espalhou-se um pouco por todo o lado. Segundo divulga o semanário Sol, o Sindicato dos Trabalhadores dos Impostos já terá mesmo tido conhecimento deste "passa-a-palavra" há pelo menos duas semanas.

Scammers Extort BitTorrent Users Posing as Law Enforcement

2013-02-22T10:36:00.003-08:00

Scammers Extort BitTorrent Users Posing as Law Enforcement:
Over the years we have seen plenty of scam artists trying to make a few bucks off BitTorrent users and other file-sharers, but the stunt that’s being pulled off by the “Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency” tops them all.
Disguised as copyright trolls, the unregistered outfit is targeting file-sharers across the United States with copyright infringement claims and threats of criminal prosecution.
Victims of the scheme receive a letter in which they are notified about alleged copyright infringements that took place through their Internet connection. The letter is sent to their home address and lists an IP-address and the files that were downloaded without permission.
“We work with law enforcement agencies and strategic partners around the world to enforce copyright laws, and to help prosecute individuals and companies who violate these laws,” the group introduces itself in the letter.
To escape civil and criminal prosecution the account holder is asked to settle the issue for $495, or else. Others report slightly lower claims but the threats are the same. Pay up now or you might face criminal action and millions of dollars in fines.
“You may face serious potential criminal and/or civil charges filed against you. If you are arrested for felony criminal copyright infringement you will be fingerprinted, photographed, and held in jail until you are arraigned in court,” the letter reads.
“If you act promptly you will help avoid being named as a Defendant in a potential criminal and/or civil lawsuit that can result in a felony criminal conviction causing imprisonment, and/or fines of up to several million dollars,” it adds.
The company suggests that it works with law enforcement and represents a wide variety of copyright holders, including popular artists such as Skrillex and Cee Lo Green, but it appears that the company is just acting on its own.

Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency

According to information obtained by SJD the accusations are not made up. This means that the IP-addresses were indeed “caught” sharing the files listed in the letter. However, it is a mystery how the “Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency” obtained the home addresses of the subscribers.
Regular copyright trolls get the subscriber information through a subpoena they obtain from court, but there is no sign of any legal action tied to these claims.
This leads us to worrying possibility that the “Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency” may have contacts working at one or more Internet Providers. These would be able to look up the addresses of the account holders in question, bypassing the legal system.
As can be seen from the image below the company urges their victims to send money to a virtual office in Washington. However, the company itself doesn’t appear to be registered under the name it’s using.

Pay up

Although the scale of the scam is unclear, several letter recipients have posted messages on the Internet in recent days. While some people appear to recognize it as a scam, there are probably many more who didn’t, and paid up.
As it turns out, however, all signs indicate that the “Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency” are the criminals here, possible facing several years jailtime for fraud, extortion and racketeering. That is, if they are caught and convicted.
Interestingly enough, the public attention seems to have frightened them, as a few hours ago they suddenly claimed to have ceased their operations.
“Effective immediately, the Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency has ceased operations. Please disregard any notices you received from us, and please do not send us any payments,” a message on their website reads.
While this is good news for the people who still have to pay up, the persons behind the scheme shouldn’t be able to get away with this so easily. We encourage everyone who received a letter to contact the police and their Internet provider, urging them to look into the matter.
Source: Scammers Extort BitTorrent Users Posing as Law Enforcement