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Cyberstalking is more traumatic than being stalked in person, says APA study

2011-08-10T10:44:00.002+09:00

Cyberstalking can cause you more emotional stress and trauma than being stalked or harassed in person, according to a presentation at the American Psychological Association’s Annual Convention. The report went on to say that cyberstalking is on the rise and the victims, mostly women, have to go through a high level of stress, anxiety and many other mental disorders.

“Increasingly, stalkers use modern technology to monitor and torment their victims, and one in four victims report some form of cyberstalking, such as threatening emails or instant messaging,”says Elizabeth Carll, Ph D, who conducted the study. “The impact is more devastating due to the 24/7 nature of online communication, inability to escape to a safe place and global access of the information," she adds.

Carll however suggests that these technologies can also be used to prevent harassment. One of the measures can be the making use of GPS tracking devices on offenders compulsory, according to Carll. “Imagine a cell phone application that can tell you if someone threatening you is nearby,” Carll states, “That could be life-saving.”

Carll also highlights the figures of the US Dept. of Justice that says that nearly 85,000 adults, mostly female, are cyberstalked each year. The presentation says nearly 40 percent of women have gone through abuse via social media such as harassing text messages and distressful posts related to them. Some 20 percent of cyberstalkers use to social networks to stalk their victims.

Carll's research on South Korean students revealed that some 36 percent of them had been bullied online at least once in the previous year. According to the study, the cyberbullying has also taken toll on the mental health of the students. The students suffered several mental disorders such as stress, loneliness and anxiety. A number of students faced a tough time while recovering from the effects of cyberbullying.

Apple releases iOS 5 beta 5; 'Speech-to-Text' feature revealed

2011-08-10T02:03:00.002+09:00

Days after its official announcement, Apple has released the fifth beta version of its iOS 5 to the developers. The release of new beta version has gained an extensive media coverage across the world. The most notable and talked about feature in the fifth beta version is the improved compatibility between the iOS devices and hearing aids.

MacRumors in its report claims that the fifth beta version of the operating system comes with some notable fixes but excludes major additions. The addition of new features has been avoided perhaps to make space for a new feature called “Nuance-powered speech-to-text” capability.

9To5 Mac in its report says that the OS features a microphone button that is placed just next to the spacebar key on board and one needs to tap it to use. After the feature is activated, an image of mic is displayed on the screen until one is speaking. After one is done with speaking, the spoken text will appear in the text space.

The report further states that the new feature is in the testing phase and it is not necessary that it will appear in the final and official iOS 5. Moreover, the report quotes a source as saying that the new feature will be available only for for the iPhones and iPod Touch. However, 9to5Mac plays safe by saying the feature can also come to the iPads.

Source: iOS 5′s Nuance-powered speech-to-text feature revealed (screenshots)

ARM (Advanced RISC Machines) Processors

2011-08-08T22:14:00.000+09:00

By now, there would be a very small segment of the mobile community that would not have heard anything about the Android OS by Google. This OS seems to be giving many proprietary vendors a run for their money and the owners many a sleepless nights. But did you know as to what does android depend on for its good performance apart from its robust code? What makes it run so smooth and yet amazingly fast without costing you a fortune? What drives the Android? The answer is ARMs, Advanced RISC Machines, previously known as Acorn RISC Machines.

Introduction

History

ARM Architecture

ARM Registers

Current Scenerio & Future

History

ARM machines have a history of living up to the expectations of their developers, right from the very first ARM machine ever developed. It all began in the 1980s when Acorn Computers Ltd., spurred by the success of their platform BBC Micro wished to move on from simple CMOS processors to something more powerful, something that could stand strong against the IBM machines launched in 1981. The solutions available in the market like the Motorola 68000 were not powerful enough to handle graphics and GUIs leaving only one option with the company, make their own processor.

Inspired by the making of 32 bit processors by some undergraduates at Berkeley and a one man design center Western Design Center, Phoenix, Steve Furber and Sophie Wilson of Acorn Ltd. set out to make their own processors. Sophie developed the instruction set and simulated it on the BBC Basic which convinced many in the company that it was not just anything half hearted shot aimed in darkness. With the support and permission of the then CEO Hermann Hauser, the ARM project formally took off in 1983 with VLSI Technology as their silicon partner, to produce an ARM processor with latencies as low as that of the 6502. The first ARM core dubbed as ARM1 was delivered by VLSI Technology in 1985. This processor used in conjunction with the BBC Micro helped in the development of the next generation called ARM2. 1987 saw the release of ARM Archimedes.

Acorn floated a new company Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. solely dedicated for ARM core development. In 1992, Acorn won the Queen’s Award for Technology for the ARM. Apple and ARM collaborated to develop the ARM6 cores on which the Apple Newton PDAs were based. Later, the technology was also transferred to Intel over a settlement of lawsuit. Intel further modified it and developed its own high performance line XScale, now sold to Marvell. ARM Inc. is involved with developing cores primarily while its licensees make microcontroller and processors, the most popular being the ARM7TDMI machines. Some prominent licensees of ARM machines are Alcatel Lucent, Apple, Atmel, Cirrus Logic, Freescale, DEC, Intel, LG, Marvell, Microsoft, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sharp, ST microelectronics, Symbios Logic, Texas Instruments, VLSI Technology, Yamaha, Zilabs etc.

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ARM Architecture

ARM 490T core structure

ARM machines have a 32 bit Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) Load Store Architecture. The relative simplicity of ARM machines for low power applications like mobile, embedded and microcontroller applications and small microprocessors make them a lucrative choice for the manufacturers to bank on. The direct manipulation of memory isn’t possible in this architecture and is done through the use of registers. The instruction set offers many conditional and other varieties of operations with the primary focus being on reducing the number of cycles per instruction featuring mostly single cycle operations.

All instructions in the ARM ISA are conditional with the normal execution instructions also being accompanied by condition AL. There are 14 conditions available excluding AL. The instruction set added many feathers to its cap as and when the generations grew. The transistor count has also increased substantially from 30000 in ARM2 to about 26 million in Cortex-A9 ARM. An additional Thumb architecture was developed to support 16-bit instruction models on the otherwise 32 bit ARM machines. No matter the added advantage of increased code density which was about 65% of the original ARM code, this resulted in a little performance drop in the ARM machines. This drop was somewhat balanced with Thumb 2 which was a major extension over the Thumb ISA.

In Thumb 2, the compiler automatically selects a mixture of 16 bit and 32 bit instructions. It is to be noted that only the instruction set changes from 32 bit to 16 bit, the core continues to operate at 32 bit. The evolution of ARM v7 cores saw the development of Thumb Execution Environment (Thumb-EE) which offered dynamic coding by compiling the code moments before or during execution itself. Thumb feature is basically another Instruction Set running on the same platform. Another Instruction set, to execute Java codes on ARMs was developed soon and was named Jazelle. These three Instruction sets are now the three states on an ARM core and to shift from one state to another, directives like ARM, THUMBX and THUMB are given to the assembler. The evolution of ARM architectures is shown in the figure below:

The nomenclature of ARMs is based on the type and features used in it. For example in ARM7TDMI, ‘T‘ stands for Thumb, ‘D’ and ‘I’ together comprise the on chip debugging facilities and ‘M’ signifies support for an enhanced multiplier and support for 64-bit results. ARMx7z like the ARM1176JZ-S indicates AXI bus, physically mapped caches and MMU, has version 6Z architecture. In this way, there is a naming convention for ARM devices.

ARM architectures used various stages of pipelining to enhance the flow of instructions to the processors. This allows several operations to be performed simultaneously which would otherwise be performed serially. For example, the ARM7TDMI used 3 stages, ARM9TDMI uses 5 stages and the ARM10TDMI use 6 stages of pipeline to speed up delivery and faster clocking. Cores up to ARM7 followed a Von Neumann type architecture which is essentially memory mapped architecture. ARM9 and its successors shifted to Harvard Architecture which is port mapped. They also provide a robust debugging environment like the Embedded ICE Logic which connects with the external world through a Test Access Port or a standard IEEE 1149.1 JTAG connection. This helps shorten the development cycle.

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ARM Registers

In general ARMs have 37 registers arranged in partially overlapping banks, with separate register banks for each processor mode thus providing rapid context switching for special operations. The various modes in an ARM can be summarized in the figure below.

Each register is 32 bits in size. The registers are roughly divided into:

30 General Purpose Registers: Only 15 GPRs are visible any one time depending on the mode of operation and are numbered R0-R12, Stack Pointer and Link Register. While the stack pointer is essentially used by the compliers like those of C/C++, its use as any other GPR is deprecated. Link register stores return addresses in subroutines or exceptions depending on the mode of operation.

Program Counter: Loads the address of destinations on branching operations and may be manually set while doing subroutine calls.

Application Program Status Register: It contains a copy of flags from the ALU to check if the conditional instructions were executed.

Current Program Status Register: It holds various information regarding APSR, current processor mode, interrupt flags, execution state bits etc.

Saved Program Status Register: In case an exception is detected, this register holds the values of the CPSR.

The ARM and Thumb instruction sets can be broadly classified into the following functional groups.

1. Branching and Control Instructions: Instructions like subroutine calls, looping and changing the state between ARM and Thumb fall under this category of instructions.

2. Register Load and Store instructions: Loading the values of single registers to and from the memory are covered under this type of instructions. The values may be 32 bit word, a 16-bit half word or an 8 bit unsigned value.

3. Multiple Register Load and Store Instructions: Facilitate the to and fro movement between the contents of the multiple registers, used in block operations and stack operations.

4. Data Processing Instructions: Operations like addition, subtraction or bitwise logic on the contents of the registers are performed by this type of instructions.

5. Status Register access Instructions: These instructions primarily move the contents between the status registers and the GPRs.

6. Coprocessor Instructions: These provide a general framework to extend the ARM architectures.

Anyone with a prior knowledge of basic microprocessor architectures will recognize the striking resemblance between the various classifications and also the instruction set. However there are a few features which cannot be customized by the user himself in ARMs and the job is left to the compiler itself. With the evolution of the Cortex machines, the processors have been now divided into 3 profiles based on the type of application they handle:

1. Application profile: These are application specific processors like the Cortex-A8 which feature Memory management support (MMU) and high performance at low power.

2. Real-time profile: Made for real time processors like the Cortex-R4 which has a protected memory (MPU), and low latencies required for real time applications.

3. Microcontroller profile: These devices are meant for mobile devices like the Cortex-M3. Predictable behavior is the main priority with low gate count and finds use in embedded specific applications.

Starting with the old ARMs working at slow cycle speeds, the machines have eventually evolved into high performance machines offering better battery performance and less power consumption. A brief chart of a few architecture families is shown below.

The ARM9 worked on 130-220 MHz clocks typically, which grew to 225-333MHz in ARM10, 412 MHz in ARM11, 600MHz in ARM Cortex A8 and to 1 GHz in the ARM Cortex A9 line of architectures. Each generational leap is marked with drastic performance improvements just like a generational jump in Pentium machines.

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Current Scenario & Future

ARM has found wide acceptance among the mobile device manufacturers with more that 98% devices being shipped having at least one ARM core. At least 90% of the embedded 32 bit processors are based on ARM. They find use in a multitude of applications ranging from consumer electronics like PDAs, mobile phones etc. and hand held gaming consoles to networking solutions like routers. ARM based customizable microcontrollers developed by licensees like the AT91CAP9 Atmel find use in DSP devices as in FPGAs. ARM processors offer the best MIPS per watt, MIPS per Dollar and best code density in the industry with the smallest die sizes with contemporary RISC processors.

Applications in robotics like the ARM Rubik’s Speedcuber are gaining popularity. With the rising popularity of smart phones as their market penetration increases, the ARM cores are gaining more popularity with giants like Google, HTC, Nokia, Adobe, Acer, Nvidia, Motorola, LG and many others all set to standardize the ARM processors for the operating system Android. Over 1.15 billion ARM chips have been placed in tablets and smart phones. Dual cores like the LG Optimus 2X have started using the latest in the line Cortex cores to deliver more performance in reduced space requirements. Microsoft has recently confirmed that the next version of windows will have ARM architecture support. Sources claim that Apple is in process of replacing the Atom processors with ARM cores. With each milestone that the ARM processors achieve, they are being pitted against the x86 platforms. With the exceptional growth in the market share and popularity of ARMs over a very short span of time, ARM architecture seems to be a very promising venture for the present and the future. ARMs have certainly provided powerful arms to our advanced digital products and the dream to make them available to public at affordable pricing.

Introduction to Hacking

2011-08-08T21:58:00.000+09:00

The unceasing quest of human mind has conceived to almost all crucial inventions of the world. Hacking dates back its inception to the same human urge to know and hence explore things. Hacking is a practice of peeping into the extreme technical details of any computer application, program, or the whole system in order to extend its capabilities or alter its functionalities. People who rightly follow this practice of hacking are termed as ‘hackers’. A hacker’s vision towards solving any technical problem is undoubtedly beyond the perception of any normal computer expert. The open-source coding has been very beneficial for hackers to test and invent out of their passion for programming, say UNIX is the best example.

This practice can either be ethical or unethical. The activity where one breaks into the system but do not violate its security and credentials is called Ethical Hacking. Ethical hackers aim to bring into the administrator’s notice, vulnerabilities and voids in the system thereby, improvising the robustness and security. They are purely tech-geeks with immaculate programming skills and hands-on knowledge on both computer hardware and software. On the other hand, there are people who can though break into systems, get access to secured accounts but their actions are usually unauthorized while they make a backdoor entry into your system. These people (often misinterpreted as hackers) are called as ‘crackers’. They try and crack passwords, security codes, etc using various hacking softwares which are already available. Such softwares are meant to break the code using millions of trials programmed into it by other hackers.

While hacking can prove really useful when companies hire hackers to keep a check on the security of their network and transactions, it may be equally harmful even to an individual operating his/her personal computer sitting at home.

Footprinting

What is the first step one would take before seeking admission in a university or college? Quite unanimously, it must be a primary research about the institute. Footprinting is an analogous step which hackers take before gaining access into any network. The systematic footprinting of an organization enables attackers to create a complete profile of an organization’s security posture like system architecture, network blocks and IP addresses exposed on the Internet. Hackers gain reconnaissance of the target following a sequence of steps as:

1. Open Source Footprinting- The first step a hacker takes is to visit the website of a potential target. He then looks for contact information of the administrators which may help in guessing the password or in Social Engineering.

2. Network Enumeration- This is the next step in gaining information where the hacker tries to identify the domain names and the network blocks of the target network.

3. Scanning- Once the network block is known, the next step is to spy for active IP addresses on the target network. The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is a good alternative for identifying active IP addresses.

4. Stack Fingerprinting- Once the hosts and port have been mapped by scanning the target network, the final footprinting step can be performed. This step is called stack fingerprinting. This is the process of determining the operating system and different version of services running on target hosts.

There are different ways a hacker can attack a system in order to gain access which may be:

· A backdoor program entry.

· Through unauthorized executable files called viruses and worms

· Phishing

· Password Cracking

· Denial-of- Service (DoS) attack , or

· Fake web pages

· The TRINOO Attack

In a backdoor program entry the hacker gets access to your programs, files, personal details, browsing details etc and easily make all sort of possible changes to them like editing, deleting, copying. And alas! The user whose machine is at compensation may not even realize that he is been hacked. Such backdoor entries are installed on the targeted machine usually through alluring user executable files called ‘Trojan’. Well the art of hacking lies in designing these malicious programs called Trojan which aims at monitoring and controlling the target computer unofficially.

Hacking through viruses and worms is quite self-explanatory and is the most common way to infect a target machine. Viruses and worms both are malicious programs that can affect your system but there is a slight difference in the way they affect the system. A virus, like the human viruses is attached with the executable files and programs and has ability to travels from one system to another. The important characteristic of a virus is that it affects your system or files only if you run or open the malicious program. Whereas worm is a sub category of viruses that can replicate themselves and travels from one system to another with other files and data. Worms do not need any human interaction to affect your system i.e. they can affect your system even if you do not run or open the malicious program. For example a worm can send a copy of itself to everyone listed in your email address and then by replicating itself again and send to everyone from your receivers address book. Hence it can affect an entire network very rapidly and is more dangerous form of viruses.

Phishing

Phishing is another smart hacking technique used as a baited trap by hackers to steal your personal details like name, address, passwords, credit card numbers, etc. Hackers create phishing sites with familiar logos, mottos and graphics which are fake web pages but look similar to their own bank or usual surfing stuffs and excite users to enter their personal details. They may even mail you fake messages demanding to recover your lost details. Again a trap..!! So users, beware of such baits. Do not respond to any such mails and do check for a lock sign in the URL before entering your personal details. Legitimate websites always use this sign to indicate a secure connection.

Password Cracking is the easiest way to gain access to a system. There are two modes of password cracking; online and offline. In online guessing attempt, the attacker uses a login prompt, tries one or more legal login names and begins to try and guess passwords for these login names. Some UNIX systems store the encrypted version of every user’s password in a world readable file. In offline mode, the hacker use these encrypted files to guess the password.

A denial-of-service attack is an attempt to make the computer or internet resource unavailable to the intended users. ‘SMURF’ is a well- known type of DoS attack which is based on an attacker’s ability to spoof IP source address. Any system that uses IP address as a means of authentication can be compromised by an attack known as IP address spoofing. The attacker sends a request for return packet to the intermediate network’s broadcast address. From where, the request is automatically relayed to all the machines on the network. These machines then send reply back reply with a return packet. However, in the original attack packet, the attacker replaces his/her own true address with the address of the original victim. The victim machine hence is flooded with many such replies which in turn increase traffic at the victim’s site. Consequently, the target machine is forbid to perform any useful activity.

Putting it all together: When all the above attacks are put together, a full-fledged ambush is generated. One such attack is the distributed denial-of-service attack or DDoS. DDoS attacks render a host useless by flooding it with maliciously derived traffic from many attacking machines. These attacks have fetched a lot of media attention in the recent past when popular Internet websites like Yahoo! and eBay undergone temporary shutdown posterior to such an attack. Trinoo is software that creates a network of master and daemon machines to launch a DDoS attack. DDoS attacks may pose significant threats to machines connected to internet. This is due to the distributed nature of this attack.

The practice of hacking is not limited to computers alone but the cellular lines or mobile phones are target as well. Hackers worldwide have designed mobile hacking softwares called Bluetooth Hack Softwares. Once this software is installed in the target phone, the hacker can get full access to the remote mobile phone like access to phone book, messages, internet, making calls, restore factory settings, etc.

In the current scenario, at this stage talking about cyber attacks and cyber crime is totally inevitable. Any unlawful activity, wherein the computer is used as an instrument to perform or perpetuate the crime is registered under cyber crime. Ever since the inception of internet (initially known as ARPANET) in 1969, the use of computers to access internet has increased at a huge pace and hence had increased the sophistication of technical hackers over cyber crime. Initially, when internet came into force only a little provision was made to trace or track cyber attacks for internet security. Under the assumption of a benign user, no provision was made for the cryptographic authentication of the information contained in IP packets. But the current cyber threat environment is far beyond the original design parameters of the internet. Currently, the internet is subject to millions of cyber attacks and crimes worldwide. Some of the recent cyber attacks are listed below:

. The first ever industrial cyber attack (on Siemens) was discovered in July, 2010 using a computer worm called Stuxnet. It is also found to be the first computer malware program ever which contains a PLC rootkit. A rootkit is a group of utilities that aids in setting up backdoors for the rooted machine for future access and abet to capture network’s internal information.

. As reported by Google Inc, it became the victim of a cyber attack on its operations in China in 2010 that resulted in the theft of its intellectual property.

. Recently in 2011, Sony reported an unauthorized theft on Sony’s Playstation Network which stole names, address and credit card data of around 77 million account holders on the network.

. Other cyber crimes include credit card scandals, cyber squatting, phishing, child pornography, etc.

To keep a check on the increasing cyber crimes all over the world, Internet Service providers are employing various techniques to strengthen security in their networks. Several traceback techniques have been introduced to trace the approximate source of such attacks. Every technique has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Backscatter traceback technique is primarily useful for spoofed attacks where the attackers use source addresses from the private IP address space. Centretrack techniques, Hop-by-Hop tracebrack, ICMP are some other techniques also used.

Apart from the unauthorized accesses, hacking has many advantages which results from the endless efforts of computer geeks who keep exploring the system to extend its capabilities like speeding up your computer by increasing the memory available through the Ready Boost option on a flash drive,caching the most visited websites for fast internet access and many more.

Huawei brings out world's first plug and link data card "HiLink E353"

2011-08-07T21:07:00.002+09:00

Are you fed up of a hectic dial-in process, driver installation or configuration while using a new data card? Say thanks to Huawei, now you will soon have a data card that connects to the Internet just 15 seconds after inserting it into the port. The new data card from the China-based Huawei is called “HiLink E353”, which the company says is the world's first plug and link data card.

"Leveraging revolutionary 4th generation data card technology, the HiLink series is poised to change the data card industry landscape...we believe that it will not only enhance consumers' user experience, it will also enable operators to reduce backend development and maintenance costs and speed up UI customisation, enhancing the competitiveness of their products,” The Mobile Indian quotes Wu Shimin, president of mobile broadband, Huawei Device, as saying.

According to Huawei, “HiLink E353” does not need any driver installation or manual configuration, making the process faster by nearly 75 percent as compared to other data cards in the market. The company further states that the new data card is the first EDGE/GPRS/GSM-compatible product in the Huawei HiLink series that supports HSPA+ network with 21Mbps downlink.

The HiLink will come in the third quarter of 2011 and debut in Turkey. According to reports, the data card will come in India in the fourth quarter of this year

DPDT Switch - Insight

2011-08-02T21:24:00.000+09:00

DPDT stands for Double Pole Double Throw switch. By using this we can change the polarity of the applied voltage. It is used in situations where we need different outputs. It has 3 states ON, OFF, ON. The difference between the two ON states is that the polarity of both the states is opposite with respect to each other. That’s the reason why it can drive a DC motor in both the directions. It can also switch an AC motor but it can’t change the direction of the motor. Since, AC motor will run in the same direction irrespective of the polarity therefore, it can only be used for switching ON and OFF an AC motor but not for changing its direction.

Above image shows a diagrammatic representation of DPDT switch.

Let’s take a closer look into the DPDT switch. The switch as a whole is enclosed in a metallic case as shown below.

There are 3 holes in the metallic case. These holes are used to hold the switch in a particular state. This is done by using a ball bearing and spring which is explained later. The state of the switch is changed by a slider whose image is shown below.

There is ball bearing coming out of the slider. This ball bearing along with the spring, which pushes it outwards fits itself into the holes of the metallic case. So, by using them the switch attains different states. Hence, the ball remains in three different holes corresponding to three different states.

There are 8 pins provided in this DPDT switch. These 8 pins are engraved in a board like structure. These pins are connected inside to metallic plate like structure. These plates connection in different configurations results in change in the polarity. These 8 pins are engraved in the board which is shown below.

Inside this board these pins are connected to a thin metallic plate like structure. These plate like structures when connected to each other in different configuration changes the polarity. The image of these plates is shown below.

When the slider is moved from outside different connections of these plates are formed. The connections are formed by connecting these plates . For making different connections sliding clips are used which are shown below.

Image indicating how clips are used to make contacts between plates.

These clips are fitted into the space provided in the slider. These clips, when slide over the metallic plates, result in different configurations. These different configurations give different polarity.

Google open-sources LevelDB, a non-relational database

2011-08-02T20:59:00.002+09:00

Non-relational databases are seeing a lot of interest these days as alternative to relational / SQL-based databases. While they are not exact equivalents, not replacements, non-relational databases are simply better suited for certain kinds of data, and today there is a plethora of options for those looking for a NoSQL solution. Google has just added yet another to this field.

LevelDB is a key-value storage engine written in C++, and its source code has now been released under a BSD-style license. Google designed LevelDB as a building block for a higher-level storage system, and it will in fact form the basis for the IndexedDB API – a new web standard for using apps that need a database – in future versions of Google Chrome.

Unlike MySQL or even non-relational databases such as MongoDB and CouchDB, LevelDB is not a server that multiple clients can connect to and operate remotely or even locally. It is a library included in your application to give it support for LevelDB as a data store, similar to SQLite.

You can find out more about LevelDB, and also download its source code from its project page on Google Code.

Anonymous says hacked U.S. government cyber supplier

2011-08-02T20:58:00.002+09:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hackers with the loose-knit group Anonymous said on Friday they had broken into the network of U.S. government contractor Mantech International Corp and posted some NATO-related correspondence online.

Anonymous, tweeting as AnonymousIRC, offered the correspondence between Mantech and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as proof of the breach. Two involve NATO contracting offices, and one discusses deploying staffers to an unnamed "NATO Theater of Operations" for what appears to be tech services.

Mantech, which claims the U.S. Defense, State and Justice Departments among its clients, declined to comment. It offers cyber security among its services.

Hackers associated with Lulz Security and Anonymous have claimed responsibility for cyber attacks on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Senate, Sony Corp websites and the website of Murdoch's British newspaper group, News International, among others.

Authorities made some arrests in connection with the breaches, including a teenager detained at a house in the remote Shetland Islands, off Scotland's northeast coast.

There have also been other arrests in Britain and in the United States.

The group has urged supporters to boycott eBay Inc's PayPal electronic payment service, or to close existing accounts. It has previously attacked PayPal to show opposition to the service's refusal to process payments to WikiLeaks, the website founded by Julian Assange that published copies of secret U.S. government diplomatic cables.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Gary Hill)

Study: dumb people use Internet Explorer

2011-08-02T20:57:00.001+09:00

Here comes the flame war. According to a new report, dumb people are more likely to useInternet Explorer than smart people. It's a finding so apparently defamatory that the company responsible for the statement is allegedly being threatened with a lawsuit by inflamed Internet Explorer aficionados.

Online psychometric testing company AptiQuant, based out of Canada, turned its analytical skills to a group of more than 100,000 individuals in an effort to determine the IQ scores associated with various Web browser users. Over a period of around four weeks, the company gave a Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) to users looking for free online IQ assessment tests, then recorded the results and browsers used for all participants above the age of 16.

AptiQuant's report notes that the only statistically significant difference in IQ scores occurred between Internet Explorer uses and their counterparts. There was not a significant difference in IQ scores between non-IE browser users, even though these users, in aggregate, reported a higher average IQ score than IE users.

Across the board, the average IQ scores presented for users of Internet Explorer versions 6 through 9 were all lower than the IQ scores recorded for Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Camino, and Opera users. Humorously enough, those using Internet Explorer with the Chrome frame built-in actually ranked third in IQ scores among this browser list. Opera users reported the highest average IQ score – hovering around the 120 to 130 range, which is a bit higher than the WAIS test's population mean of 100 (and standard deviation of 15).

"In addition, the results were compared to another unreleased study of a similar nature undertaken in year 2006. The comparison clearly suggests that more people on the higher side of IQ scale have moved away from Internet Explorer in the last 5 years," reads the report.

Although AptiQuant does get a little heavy-handed against Internet Explorer in its report, suggesting that the "nuisance" browser should be "eradicated," the company has been quick to note that its findings only indicate a one-way relationship between IQ scores and browser use. Perhaps, in part, prompted by alleged threats of a lawsuit against the company by upset Internet Explorer fans.

"I just want to make it clear that the report released by my company did not suggest that if you use IE that means you have a low IQ, but what it really says is that if you have a low IQ then there are high chances that you use Internet Explorer," said CEO Leonard Howard.

Source: Study: Dumb People Use Internet Explorer

Android captures nearly 50 percent of global smartphone market

2011-08-02T20:53:00.001+09:00

Over the years we have seen a number of mobile phone makers such as HTC, LG, Samsung and Motorola adopting Google's Android platform. The popularity of Android is evidently still growing, with single-device iOS platform as its nearest competitor. According to an estimate released by research firm Canalys, the Android platform has grabbed almost 50 percent of the global smartphone market and enjoys dominance in the Asia-Pacific market. Canalys says that Android is the top most platform in 35 of the 36 countries, resulting in a market share of nearly 48 percent.

Apple's iOS holds the second spot with a market share of 19 percent. It is notable that Apple's iOS has overtaken Nokia'sSymbian platform during the quarter. In the meanwhile, echoingearlier reports about the current status quo of smartphone manufacturers, Canalys stated in their estimate that Samsung has surpassed Nokia, riding high on the popularity of its flagship Galaxy S II. However, the overall performance of Samsung could have been better, as Canalys VP and Principal Analyst Chris Jones, pointed out:

“Samsung has failed to fully capitalize on Nokia’s weakened state around the world, as the Finnish company rides out a challenging transitional period. It’s the best placed vendor to grow at Nokia’s expense, taking advantage of its global scale and channel reach, but it hasn’t yet done enough to capitalize on this, particularly in emerging markets.”

Meanwhile, the research firm adds that Android is the number one platform in terms of shipments since Q4 2010. It is also the “strongest growth driver” with shipments of Android-based of smartphones surging by 379 percent in last one year. Popularity was boosted by a number of Android-based products from various vendors such as HTC, LG, Motorola, Sony Ericsson andSamsung. Android devices have performed really well in countries like South Korea where the OS holds some 85 percent share, while in Taiwan, it is nearly 71 percent.

'Stegobot' sneaks into your computer through Facebook images

2011-08-02T20:49:00.002+09:00

Imagine someone stealing information from your computer while you are uploading an image onFacebook. An unbelievable and scary thought isn't it? It's terrifying but with the latest computing hacking techniques, it's quite possible. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology in New Delhi, India havecome up with “Stegobot”, a new generation botnet, which attaches itself to Facebook profiles and gains access to the user's confidential data such as e-mail passwords while uploading Facebook pictures. Researchers said that Stegobot was developed to show how easy it could be for a hacker to exploit Facebook photos upload feature to sneak into the user's computer.

Stegobot initially gains access to computers through the usual channels such as infected attachments or directs to malware-laden content. After gaining access, Stegobot applies a technique called “steganography” to conceal data in the image files without affecting the picture's appearance, explainsNewScientist.

The botnet incorporates the information into any image you are uploading on Facebook. And then it waits for one of your friends to see your profile. Stegobot can then infect your computer even if your friend has not clicked on the corrupted image. In case your friend is also infected with the botnet, then any photo they upload will also pass on the stolen data. And the relaying of the data can eventually land into the hands of a botmaster, who will be then able to access your identity.

"If one of your friends is a friend of a friend of the botmaster, the information transfers hop by hop within the social network, finally reaching the botmasters," New Scientist quoted Amir Houmansadr, a computer scientist at the University of Illinois who worked on the botnet.

The research related to Stegobot is quite significant as this threat is virtually undetectable. Of late we have seen a spate of cyber attacks across the world. Whether it has been a governmentwebsite or the IMF network, everything online seems vulnerable. Techniques such as Stegobot have only strengthened the contemporary need for more secure and foolproof methods to safeguard online identity.

Source:: Stegobot: a covert social network botnet

Acer Iconia Tab A100 rumoured to be launched this month

2011-08-02T20:48:00.000+09:00

The launch of the Acer Iconia Tab A100 has been speculated for a while. The device wassupposed to be launched in May globally and in June in India but evidently, that did not happen. Now Engadget reports that the seven inch tablet will hit shelves in the US by this month's end, with an expected price of nearly $300.

[Acer Iconia Tab A500 - Review]

The Engadget report says that the launch of Acer Iconia Tab A100 was delayed due toHoneycomb compatibility issues. The A100 sports an Nvidia Tegra 2 dual core 1GHz processor along with 512 MB of RAM.

Meanwhile, there has been no word on release date of A100 in India, but we expect it by September.

The report also talks about couple of new Aspire notebooks – 15.6-inch 5750Z and 17.3-inch 7739Z . The two notebooks, slated to arrive this month, feature 4GB of DDR3 RAM (upgradable to 8GB), 500GB of storage, and Intel Pentium processors. Both Acer devices have been priced at USD 475.

Dell launches Streak 10 Pro Honeycomb tablet in China

2011-08-02T20:46:00.000+09:00

Dell has launched its 10-inch Streak tablet in China, called the Streak 10 Pro. It is only expected to be launched in other international territories later this year, possibly along with the Windows-based Latitude ST. Dell has given the Streak 10 Pro a promotional price of 2,999 yuan, or roughly Rs. 21,000,

We last saw the device in a roadmap leak back in April, and the specifications of the Android 3.1 Honeycomb tablet (with Dell Stage UI) have remained much unchanged since then – it bears a dual core 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of inbuilt storage (expandable up to 32GB), a 5MP rear camera, a 2MP front camera, microUSB port, and a 10.1-inch 1280x800 pixel display.

Weighing in at 700 grams, the Dell Streak 10 Pro has a thickness of 12 millimetres. It has a 24.1WH battery, capable of delivering up to 12 hours. It also comes with a dock that features multiple USB ports (with USB host functionality), HDMI video out, and an Ethernet port. Dell has also put Dell Divide UI onboard, a workspace tool to separate work and personal sections

Google optimises its search page for tablets

2011-08-02T20:44:00.002+09:00

Google, the search giant which is at large also popular for its multifarious apps and cloud services, is now focusing on improving its design, looking to adopt a unification by design trend that was kickstarted with Google+. And now the Internet company has announced it would be optimising Google search experience for tablets. The new and improved search experience will be soon rolled out to iPad and Android 3.1+ tablets across 36 languages.

The new and touch-friendly version of Google Search comes with some notable changes for the tablet form factor. One of the significant changes is the layout of the search results pages. The size of the page contents such as text, buttons and other tap friendly apps has been increased. They now are faster and easy to browse. The search result page can also be viewed in portrait and landscape mode as well.

The nav bar at the left hand side has been replaced with an array of touch-friendly apps at the top. Users can now easily shcuffle between the options such as results, video, images and other options. Google has also improved image search as now one can have enlarged image previews. Continuous scroll and speedy loading of image thumbnails also enhance the viewing experience

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Mozilla working on Firefox-based alternative to ChromeOS

2011-07-27T21:48:00.002+09:00

Mozilla has launched a new project called “Boot to Gecko” that aims to create an alternative toChrome OS that is based on Mozilla’s own rendering engine Gecko.

Why would Chrome OS need a competitor? Since has essentially become the new Window-Internet Explorer combination that Mozilla has been working to break (with much success) since its inception. Chrome OS as it is only runs Google Chrome, and does not support installing any third party browsers, or in fact any native apps at all. This isn’t as much of a problem since any standards-compliant browser will render content the same; however Google Chrome also includes some APIs that only web apps installed through Google’s Chrome Web Store can use. In essence currently Chrome OS devices run a single OS, a single browser, use a single store, all by a single company. Again, this in itself isn’t wrong, since both Chromium OS and Chromium are open, and one need not use the Chrome Web Store for using web applications on Chrome OS. Alternatives need to be created, and that what Mozilla is looking at.

Mozilla’s Boot to Gecko project is still in its infancy, having been unveiled very recently, however there are already some goals that Mozilla has defined that it will strive for (according to theMozillaWiki page):

New web APIs: build prototype APIs for exposing device and OS capabilities to content (Telephony, SMS, Camera, USB, Bluetooth, NFC, etc.)
Privilege model: making sure that these new capabilities are safely exposed to pages and applications
Booting: prototype a low-level substrate for an Android-compatible device
Applications: choose and port or build apps to prove out and prioritize the power of the system.

Mozilla does not want to allow native applications to run in this OS, but instead wants to “find the gaps that keep web developers from being able to build apps that are --- in every way --- the equals of native apps built for the iPhone, Android, and WP7.”

As a base, Mozilla will use core Android Linux stack (without their Java stack and APIs) since that is seeing great support from different hardware vendors, and will likely run on many more platforms that Mozilla is targeting.

As expected Mozilla will work in the open, with the source code available at all time in their GitHub repository. Mozilla’s aims are to take any additions they make to the appropriate standards group, such that any other projects similar to Mozilla’s Boot to Gecko project could use the same and be perfectly compatible.

As we have said before we feel Firefox is a much better base as an OS, than Chrome, thanks to its unlimited extensibility. The bad news is that it is unlikely that this extensibility will be exposed in Mozilla’s new OS; the good news is, it won’t need to be, sine Mozilla intends similar capabilities to be available to all web apps on all browsers.

Difficult time ahead for RIM as it axes 2,000 jobs

2011-07-27T21:47:00.000+09:00

As it struggles to maintain the popularity of its BlackBerry smartphones, Research in Motionannounced on Monday that it was going to axe nearly 2,000 employees, about 11 per cent of its workforce, this week. The massive layoff comes days after RIM made the announcement regarding the job cuts. RIM had then said that the layoffs were needed to improve the financial situation of the company.

Apart from the layoff, the BlackBerry makers have announced a major shuffle in the management. Thorsten Heins is the new COO, Product and Sale, while Patrick Spence is taking on the role of Managing Director, Global Sales and Regional Marketing.

“As part of this broad effort, RIM is reducing its global workforce across all functions by approximately 2,000 employees. RIM intends to notify impacted employees in North America and certain other countries this week,” RIM says in a press release.

RIM says the layoffs were part of its cost optimisation programme, which is focussed on “eliminating redundancies and reallocating resources to focus on areas that offer the highest growth opportunities and alignment with RIM’s strategic objectives”. The company says that the reduction in workforce was important for its long-term survival and success.

“The remainder of the global workforce reductions will occur at a later date subject to local laws and regulations. All impacted employees will receive severance packages and outplacement support,”

According to estimates, the entire restructuring process is likely to cost RIM nearly USD 200-250 million. RIM's massive layoff comes in the backdrop of stiff competition with Apple in smartphone and tablet segment. The BlackBerry makers have apparently lost their hold to iPhone and Android devices in the US market. RIM's latest attempt to compete with Apple in tablet market with itsPlayBook didn't help much.

Google Code adds support for Git

2011-07-27T21:45:00.000+09:00

In a short time since its creation, Git has managed to become one of the most popular version control systems. Git was originally created by Linus Torvalds as a version control system for theLinux kernel, however since then has found broad acceptance in the open source community. Especially thanks to services such as GitHub that make it incredible easy (and free) to host open source project, and to fork / clone / merge them.

Now Google has introduced support for Git has a version control option for projects hosted on Google Code. Previously they only supported Subversion (a centralized VCS), and Mercurial (a distributed VCS) for version control. Initially Google has only implemented Mercurial since it was easier to migrate to from Subversion, and had better HTTP performance characteristics and protocol compared to Git. However they feel Git has improved a lot since then.

Like their implementation of Mercurial, their Git implementation is based on Python as well. For this they have used an open source project called Dulwich, which is an implementation of Git in Python. Git was originally written mostly in C.

Since Google added support for creating project clones, and tracking / merging these clones, it has become a pretty good alternative for GitHub. However unlike GitHub, Google Code only allows hosting open source projects for free, they have not commercial plans for closed source software like GitHub does, so the project development has to be open from the start.

Hidden Facebook app for iPad discovered

2011-07-27T21:43:00.000+09:00

Even as Facebook's mobile app for the iPhone runs well on the iPad, the social networking giant has not yet announced its official iPad app. A dedicated app for iPad would help take advantage of extra screen space on the iPad. But it seems Facebook's much awaited and talked about iPad app is on its way. The folks at TechCrunch have found that codes of the latest Facebook iOS app already have an iPad user interface.

It's notable that Internet has been long abuzz with speculations of a dedicate Facebook app for iPad. The company presently offers full-fledged smartphone apps for different OS such as iOS andAndroid. The iPad users however needed to access Facebook via Safari browser. Soon after the iPad was launched, rumours cropped up frequently regarding a Facebook iPad app.

TechCrunch said on its blog that it had discovered various Facebook features in that iPad app. The blog claimed that it was able to access news feed, chat with friends, Places and many other features. TechCrunch went on to dub the app as “spectacular”.

The rumor was fueled when Facebook announced last month that it was going to come up with “something awesome”. However, the awesome announcement turned out to be Skype-powered video chat service. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said earlier this month that the video chat service was first of what it dubbed as company's "launching season 2011."

screenshot of reported iPad app

Facebook users can now opt out of 'Tag Suggestions' feature

2011-07-27T21:39:00.000+09:00

Facebook has made it easier for people to opt out of the “tag suggestions” or "face detection" feature after Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen raised privacy concerns. Facebook has launched an online ad campaign informing users about updating their privacy settings and option to opt out. The “tag suggestions” feature is based on a facial-recognition software that identifies users in images and links. Jespen had earlier told the social networking company that giving users option to opt out of that “tag suggestions” feature could be a critical component of consumer privacy.

One round of ads ran earlier this month, resulting in more than 400 million Facebook impressions on U.S. Facebook users’ home pages. “For any users who opt out, any facial recognition data collected will be deleted,” Jepsen said.

“Facebook has made significant changes that will provide better service and greater privacy protection to its users, not only in Connecticut, but across the country,” Jepsen said. “The company has been cooperative and diligent in its response and I look forward to working with them in the future to make sure Facebook users’ privacy is protected, which I believe is our shared goal.”

Meanwhile, Facebook says on its blog, “If for any reason you don't want your name to be suggested, you will be able to disable suggested tags in your Privacy Settings. Just click "Customize Settings" and "Suggest photos of me to friends." Your name will no longer be suggested in photo tags, though friends can still tag you manually. You can learn more about this feature in our Help Center.”

Amenbo - The five fingered mouse !

2011-07-27T21:16:00.002+09:00

If you are one of those who love unusual gadgets, the five fingered mouse would not fail to grip your attention. Named Amenbo by Double Research and Development Company, this device is quite dramatic and interesting. With a device fixed for resting the palm along with five mice fixed with wire ribbons for fingers, you would enjoy working on your laptop/computer now. The interesting device is not just a candy for eyes but also provides comfort to the user.

Apart from comfort, Amenbo offers comfortable time at the 3D space which is missing with the regular mouse with limited 2D functionality. The company claims this mouse to be apt for gamers. This unusual mouse not just has smart 3D image recognition mechanism but also ability of sensing the finger pressures due to sensors fitted in all its finger panels. The mechanism is not that of a touchscreen but the device identifies user’s fingers being a part of his hand and tracks the movements with ease. Manipulation of CAD data and 3D models is the USP of Amenbo. You do not have to attach 3D and ordinary mouse for working on CAD data, Amenbo takes care of it. The mouse packages the dual functions for the convenience of users.

The company is not just offering bizarre mouse to the users, it also claims that it might use the technology in its production of Robotics. The company plans to use the five fingers Amenbo technology for their robots. The regular robots are being operated from either two or three fingers but the company would allow the users to use the five fingers while operating the robot’s hand. This Japanese company is surely leaving no stone unturned to create a benchmark in the world of technology.

CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamp) - Insight

2011-07-25T21:51:00.001+09:00

CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamp) converts electrical energy to radiant energy. They are energy efficient and use better technology as compared to conventional tube lights and bulbs. It has two components:

a) A glass tube filled with argon and mercury vapor & coated with a layer of fluorescent material.

b) An electronic ballast circuit.

A 25 Watt CFL is shown in the above image.

The above image shows the circuit for electronic ballast. This circuit takes a 220 V input from external power source and sends a current into the fluorescent tube as output. We can divide the circuit in two parts. Supply section and starting circuit. Supply section contains a coil, fuse, a bridge rectifier using diodes and a filtering capacitor. Starting section includes a diode, a capacitor, resistance and DIAC (DIode for Alternating Current).

A closer look to its component can be viewed in the image.

The circuit has two terminals – Cathode and Anode which are inserted into the ends of the fluorescent tube. When the power is supplied to the circuit, Cathode is heated enough to emit the electrons into the tube. These electrons travel through the tube and reach another end of the tube where they are received by anode.

A filament is shown in the above image, both end contains the same filaments.

Working: The tube is filled with Argon and mercury vapors. When power supply is given to the CFL, filament attached with the cathode heats up and emits electrons in the tube. This ionizes the argon and mercury vapor particles. The ionized particles emit ultra violet radiations which strike with the fluorescent layer of material coated on the tube. In turn, fluorescent material spread a white light which lights up the room.

Toshiba launches low-cost LCD TVs, gears up for production in India

2011-07-24T12:17:00.003+09:00

Toshiba India has announced it will start production of LCD TVs in India by the end of the year, assuring customers of better priced televisions, apart from the socio-economic implications of the move. Toshiba is also opening a new R&D centre in Gurgaon, which will look at developing India-centric products.

Speaking about the plans of local production, Wu Tengguo, Director of Digital Products at Toshiba India, said: "We intend to start making LCD TVs in India soon, which are currently imported from our factories in Indonesia."

American blogger spots fake Apple Stores in China

2011-07-24T12:17:00.000+09:00

Piracy is not such a surprising phenomenon in the tech world. But seems things have gone to whole new level as few people in China have set up fake Apple Stores! An American bloggerclaims she has seen as many as three fake Apple stores in Kunming city of China. To vindicate her claims, the blogger has even posted pictures of the stores, their staff and other relevant information on her blog - BirdAbroad. She also mentions her conversations with the staff, many of whom apparently believed they are working for the US-based firm.

The shops looked like a real Apple store at first glance. Even employees donned blue T-shirts and chunky ID lanyards. The interior had winding staircase and upstairs seating area, which looked like an Apple store. However, the blogger adds on closer inspection she found the store did not seem to have that required high standards. The stairs were poorly construed, while the walls weren't painted properly. And the most notable one was the shop front where it was written “Apple Store”. "Apple never writes 'Apple Store' on its signs - it just puts up the glowing, iconic fruit," wrote BirdAbroad.

The blogger did some more research, finding out that these Apple stores were not mentioned on Apple's list of official resellers, and that the only official Apple stores in China are in Beijing and Shanghai. It is however unclear whether the fake store sold Apple products, counterfeit products, binned units, or goods from a grey market source. The blog post mentioned the post on fake Apple Stores has been a huge hit on the Internet with some 500,000 visitors visiting the blog in last 48 hours.

Google to wind down Google Labs soon

2011-07-24T12:15:00.002+09:00

Google has announced that it is going to wind down its Labs initiative as the company aims to its streamline product portfolio and concentrate on development efforts. The Google Labs website is a platform for all the early stage product prototypes and allows end users can try out without any guarantees of their future existence.

"While we've learned a huge amount by launching very early prototypes in Labs, we believe that greater focus is crucial if we're to make the most of the extraordinary opportunities ahead," wrote Bill Coughran, senior vice president for Research and Systems Infrastructure, in a blog post.

It may be recalled that Google's co-founder Larry Page had talked about the company being amidst chopping down its wide palette of products and services, phasing out the ones which could not taste success such as Google Health and Google PowerMeter.

Google's move to retire Google Labs has already sparked debate whether the Internet company has done the right thing. Considering the fact that Google has always touted its policy of launching new products and letting the users lay their hands on them.

“In many cases, this will mean ending Labs experiments—in others we’ll incorporate Labs products and technologies into different product areas. And many of the Labs products that are Android apps today will continue to be available on Android Market. We’ll update you on our progress via the Google Labs website,” further says Coughran.

It's notable that Google Labs was often touted as as the playground for its curious users. The Labs also served as incubator for some really popular Google products such as Google Maps, Google Readers and Google Groups.

There are more than 50 experimental products listed on Google Labs. After Google Labs goes offline, many will disappear, while some will be included into existing products. However, there's no word on which of the products will disappear and which ones will survive. Moreover, date for shutting down Google Labs has not been mentioned.

The company says the most of the Android apps on the Labs will be transferred to the Android Market. Google also makes it clear that its product-specific Labs sites, like Gmail Labs, Google Maps Labs and Search Experiments are not going to be affected.

“We don't have any plans to change in-product experimentation channels like Gmail Labs or Maps Labs. We'll continue to experiment with new features in each of our products,” says Google on its blog.

Simmtronics introduces India's first Solar PC

2011-07-24T12:14:00.002+09:00

Simmtronics Semiconductors has announced the launch of solar-powered desktop PCs in India, starting from Rs. 29,999. The solar-powered PC comes with a 74W solar panel, to be placed outside, and with batteries that apparently can store up to 3-4 days of charge, and run for ten hours in a row without sunlight.

In terms of specifications, the Simmtronics Solar PC is a low-end computer, a Linux-based meant for basic usage scenarios, like productivity, multimedia, and browsing. The specifications of the computer are similar to some of the Simm PC we saw in the recent past – 1.6GHz VIA C7 CPU, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, keyboard and mouse, and a 15.6-inch LED monitor. It comes with charge controller, SMF battery, and AC inverter.

Calling it the Simmtronics Solar PC, Simmtronics claim it is India’s first solar-powered operated computer, making it the first Indian company to launch such products nationwide. It will be available at authorized channel partner.