Global Secure Systems has said that a Russian’s firm’s use of the latest NVidia graphics cards to accelerate WiFi ‘password recovery’ times by up to an astonishing 10,000 per cent proves that WiFi’s WPA and WPA2 encryption systems are no longer enough to protect wireless data.

David Hobson, managing director of GSS, claimed that companies can no longer view standards-based WiFi transmission as sufficiently secure against eavesdropping to be used with impunity. He also said that the use of VPNs is arguably now mandatory for companies wanting to comply with the Data Protection Act.

He said: “This breakthrough in brute force decryption of WiFi signals by Elcomsoft confirms our observations that firms can no longer rely on standards-based security to protect their data. As a result, we now advise clients using WiFi in their offices to move on up to a VPN encryption system as well.

“Brute force decryption of the WPA and WPA2 systems using parallel processing has been on the theoretical possibilities horizon for some time - and presumably employed by relevant government agencies in extreme situations - but the use of the latest NVidia cards to speedup decryption on a standard PC is extremely worrying.

“The $64,000 question, of course, is what happens when hackers secure a pecuniary advantage by gaining access to company data flowing across a WPA or WPA2-encrypted wireless connection. Will the Information Commissioner take action against the company concerned for an effective breach of the Data Protection Act.”

Bookmark To:

UPDATE: While Microsoft discussed plans to install solar panels at the San Antonio data center during Monday’s media event, the system won’t be operational in the near future. “While it is indeed sunny quite a bit of the time in San Antonio, the economics for solar are not yet a good fit for this facility,” said Mike Manos, general manager of Global Foundation Services for Microsoft. ”As solar technology advances, we anticipate that solar may become a more viable option within a few years. As a result, we have enabled our building to accept the technology and weight of solar panels when the technology matures.”

The only data center currently powered entirely by PV solar power is AISO (Affordable Internet Services Online), which operates a 1,500 square foot facility in Romoland, California. AISO powers its data center with 120 solar panels that generate DC power, which is then run through an inverter and stored in batteries.

The disparity between PV solar energy output and the power needs of data centers is best illustrated by existing solar power projects installed by Microsoft and Google in Silicon Valley. In April 2006 Microsoft built a solar panel array at its Silicon Valley Campus in Mountain View, Calif. consisting of 2,288 tiles with a peak capacity of 480 kilowatts. Four months later Google unveiled an even larger solar project on the rooftops of the Googleplex up the road in Mountain View. Google’s system featured 9,212 solar panels with a peak generating capacity of 1.6 megawatts.

By some estimates it takes up to 100,000 square feet of solar panels to generate 1 megawatt of power. Microsoft’s San Antonio data center is 477,000 square feet, which means that if the company covers a substantial section of the rooftop with solar panels it could ultimately generate several megawatts of power. That’s still a fraction of the 50 megawatts of utility power allocated for the massive facility.

Scalability isn’t the only issue hindering the use of PV solar power in data centers. In a recent presentation on renewable energy, Google energy guru Bill Weihl said PV solar is far more expensive than every other renewable energy alternative, costing 25 cents a kilowatt hour and more.

That doesn’t mean solar power has no future for data centers. Google has made several investments in solar thermal power, which used the sun’s heat - rather than its light - to generate energy. Solar thermal is cheaper to generate than PV solar (although still more expensive than coal) and has been used in “utility scale” installations in the Mojave Desert with capacity of up to 500 megawatts
Source

Bookmark To:

Due to a risk of electric shock, Apple has encouraged customers to discontinue use of the faulty adapter until their new adapters arrive. Users are encouraged to charge their phone by connecting to their computers or using a standard-sized USB power adapter if they have one.

Replacement adapters will begin shipping starting October 10 to users who register at Apple’s website, or you can wait and exchange your adapter at an Apple store starting that same day. You will need your iPhone’s serial number to complete the registration, but once registered Apple will send you the replacement adapter and packaging to send your old adapter back to Apple.

Apple reports this flaw has only affected a small number of users and no injuries have been reported.

Bookmark To:

• iTunes 8
  Kevin Rose has been Twittering and blogging this week about new visualization features being added, but in addition, Apple is expected to add a “Genius” feature which automatically builds playlists from songs in your library that have similar features, like a Pandora for music you already own. Of course, Genius also includes recommends music you don’t already have and lets you purchase it from the iTunes store, via a handy sidebar. Also expected to be added are HD movie downloads, and a new Grid view that is speculated to be similar to the view used by the Zune desktop software.
• iPhone 2.1
  Doesn’t it seem like only a couple of months ago we were excited about 2.0? Well, Apple is already set to release a significant upgrade. The most talked about feature expected to be included is a Push API, which will allow developers of third party applications to deliver updates to the iPhone without the user actually being in the application. This is expected to be a huge boost to IM software on the platform, as well as numerous other applications. Apple is also including additional features that were not even released to developers, which as of yet no one seems to know what that will be. One can always hope for copy & paste.
• 4th Generation iPod Nano
  Are you a big fan of the fatty Nano? Well, you better hurry up and get yours quick because it’s expected to be replaced with a taller, more slimmed down version (think Zune 4/8) that you’ll turn on horizontal to view video content on. Spy Photo from Engadget.

Of course, with Apple, all of this is speculation and in the end it could just be a giant ploy to have a party to take attention away from the upcoming “its not a laser” mouse product from Microsoft.

Bookmark To:

So you have a laser printer. Now you need toner for it. You have found that it is not always available at your local technology supply store. Most stores carry some brands of toner, but not always your brand, and not always Laser Printer Toner. Now what? Is there an easy way to solve this dilemma?

All signs point to YES – as long as you go online to Super Warehouse! With over 50,000 brand name products in stock for your technology needs, you will find not only your laser printer toner, but many additional necessities as well.

Super Warehouse offers Toner for brands from A to X – Apple to Xerox – and over 2 dozen brands in between. This is in addition to all the printer cartridges, ink tanks, refill sets, maintenance sets, and a multitude of other supplies.

Laser printer toner is not difficult to find at Super Warehouse. In fact, they stock well over a dozen laser printers, and their accompanying toners. Find your respective laser printer toner by browsing through the compiled lists or use the handy search feature.

If you are specifically looking for HP Laser Toner, you are in luck at Super Warehouse. You find your laser toner in black and the typical colors of cyan, magenta, and yellow. Not only that, but Super Warehouse offers great savings with a variety of bundles of laser toner cartridges, which include all the colors.

Super Warehouse actually divides the site into specific brand mini stores, such as their Hewlett Packard (HP) store. Instead of sifting through all the other brands, go to the HP store to find your Hewlett Packard Toner (HP toner). Not only will you find toner, but a ton of other HP supplies including notebooks, laptops, monitors, scanners, and digital cameras.

In these economical times, what could be better than Cheap Laser Toner? TA-DA! Super Warehouse to the rescue! While their supply of in stock cheap laser toner is limited, you may be in luck if you have the particular brand of laser toner listed among their 2600+ items. Some examples of cheap laser toner products include the Mita black toner cartridge for only $4.99; Brother yellow toner cartridge for only $6.99; Toshiba black toner cartridge for only $12.99; and MANY more! Hurray for Super Warehouse!

CLICK ONLINE AT SUPERWAREHOUSE.COM OR CALL US TOLL-FREE US 1.800.814.5410 Int’l 858.764.8900 M-F 5am-6pm PST • Sat 9am-3pm PST

Bookmark To:

Belkin N1 Vision

Belkin has entered the Indian market with one of the first products-the N1 Vision router. It might be a utility, but belkinhas managed to make it look like a lifestyle product. the design is very good and stands out amongst all the routers you might come across today. Unilink most routers, the N1 stands vertically, but the stand is stable and has rubber padding at the base the stop it from sliding around. There is a small screen on the front, which show data speeds of all the users connected to the router, both wired and wirelessly. There are buttons that can be used to navigate through the interface and the display can also used as a clock as well.

When it’s come to performance, it works pretty well on the wired ports. We recorded speeds of 7.36 Mbps for a single large file. For random files, the speeds were around 6.92 Mbps. The wireless tests revealed the weakness of the N1 Vision. The wireless performance was pretty appalling-2Mbps is the best it could do over a distance of some 10 feet. The software interface has all the features that a router firmware should have-Internet connectivity configuration, VPN, security, etc. The interface is more user-friendly then those on most well known routers. One thing you notice is the long waiting period for the router to restart every time you change a setting.
The price for the Belkin N1 Vision-Rs 11,699-is much higher then mainstream home routers. Although this router will look nice in your living room, it’s definitely not something you can rely on for performance.

Bookmark To:

The Canon PowerShot A720 IS is an upgrade to the A710 IS, which was a very good point-and-shoot camera-one of the best that we saw during our comparison test lest year. The most prominent change in the A720 IS, is it’s resolution. It is now an 8 Megapixel camera as posed to the 7.1 MP A710. The picture quality has stayed pretty much the some too. The ISO level on this camera goes up to 1600. The A710 IS had a maximum of 800. The amount of grain beyond 800 is pretty bad and should be avoided as fer as possible. The zoom lens is decent and theres no serious degradation of quality at maximum zoom.

The colors- as with all other Canons-are vary neutral and not exaggerated. The images aren’t too high on contrast so there’s a smooth balance between the dark and the bright areas. This makes for some good portrait photography. The flash is pretty powerful too and the slow sync mode works rather well in illuminating the background in shots with the flash on Macro shots are fairly easy to shoot and it’s possible to get extremely close to the object. The A720 IS now has a face detection feature , which works well and tracks people through darker areas as well.
The movie quality is decent and actually usable in low light situations . there are no sudden jumps in exposure while moving from bright areas to dark ones. Image stabilization evens out the bumps and the zoom works well, although a little aggressively, in the movie shooting mode. The A720 IS, is incrementally superior to the A710 IS. The problem with the A720 IS, is not so much to do with the camera itself, but with the other cameras even from canon itself in the same price bracket. The SX100 is more or available for the same price in the market and comes with a 10X optical zoom. If any, the A720 IS’s only advantage is that of being a little more compact then the SX100 IS.

Bookmark To: