Comment ET transporter (Score 1) 123
If they can make it last longer than 6 minutes to fly over the cliff.
Submission + - New Drug May Reverse Autism Symptoms (thefutureofthings.com)
Iddo Genuth writes: "Researchers from the University of San Diego in California have used a newly discovered function of an existing drug, to reinstate cell communications in a mouse model of autism, reversing the symptoms of the disorder and giving hope for millions of children worldwide."
Submission + - Decade-old espionage malware found targeting government computers (arstechnica.com)
alancronin writes: Researchers have unearthed a decade-long espionage operation that used the popular TeamViewer remote-access program and proprietary malware to target high-level political and industrial figures in Eastern Europe.
TeamSpy, as the shadow group has been dubbed, collected encryption keys and documents marked as "secret" from a variety of high-level targets, according to a report published Wednesday by Hungary-based CrySyS Lab. Targets included a Russia-based Embassy for an undisclosed country belonging to both NATO and the European Union, an industrial manufacturer also located in Russia, multiple research and educational organizations in France and Belgium, and an electronics company located in Iran. CrySyS learned of the attacks after Hungary's National Security Authority disclosed intelligence that TeamSpy had hit an unnamed "Hungarian high-profile governmental victim."
TeamSpy, as the shadow group has been dubbed, collected encryption keys and documents marked as "secret" from a variety of high-level targets, according to a report published Wednesday by Hungary-based CrySyS Lab. Targets included a Russia-based Embassy for an undisclosed country belonging to both NATO and the European Union, an industrial manufacturer also located in Russia, multiple research and educational organizations in France and Belgium, and an electronics company located in Iran. CrySyS learned of the attacks after Hungary's National Security Authority disclosed intelligence that TeamSpy had hit an unnamed "Hungarian high-profile governmental victim."
Comment Re:Not getting into the chip *making* business (Score 1) 108
Maybe good for TI, but not sure about other companies/products that depend on the OMAP. Amazon after all has not yet demonstrated they are a good R&D/chipset company. It's also (not yet) one of their core businesses. Unless you're developing a one-off product with not too much plans for future evolution, would you develop it based on a chipset that has an unknown future? Will Kindle requirements become the main driving force of future OMAP updates?
Amazon has the money to take a snapshot of the OMAP design now, but do they have the drive to continue to invest R&D to make future revisions (OMAP5/6/7/8) that others depending on OMAP may want? Will the current state be the technological peak of OMAP?
Comment Need to change the name... (Score 1) 163
From TRU's website: "Over 6,000 free downloadable apps available in the Tabeo Store"
Google search for "Tabeo Store" and most results are not kids friendly at all!
As for the tablet itself, it would be quite useful if their app store is already optimized for kids app and their bundled apps are full versions of fun and education apps.
Comment Re:How inconvenient for TSA (Score 1) 121
How can TSA help with cyber attacks/hacker issues on railroads. Are they going after railroad workers and IT staffs to make sure they follow security protocols; then station TSA staffs at train control room doors?
Comment Re:Why I care as a developer (Score 2) 99
This is in terms of application developer. The x86 for Android is much faster than the one with ARM emulation, but is the ARM emulation speed that much of a hinder for usual development?
What about the actual application usage by end-users? Will the x86 Android phone come with an ARM emulator to run applications that has native ARM libraries (at least until there are enough generic or x86-specific Android apps)?
Comment Re:so? (Score 1) 770
Unless the OS level it comes with is buggy or lacking some features that one is let to believe it'll be fixed because Android is so open... but then again, some of the official OS updates for older Android devices are half-baked...
Comment Re:Upgrades. (Score 1) 770
Even if you move up to Gingerbread, some official releases (e.g. HTC EVO 4G) still doesn't have the up-to-date version of it that supports Google Talk video chat.
Comment Re:Think of it as 4.0.2 (Score 1) 599
If only they started this versioning convention before FF gained popularity with people/companies coding based on it, this wouldn't have been a problem.
Comment Re:Status bar? (Score 1) 181
It was horrible at the top. The space used in the URL box for that was way too short for screening the link before clicking on it...
Comment Or too many article dupes (Score 1) 356
Google search results are driving me crazy sometimes. Not sure if it's Google's through or "article duplicator" sites. Search for recent tech articles (e.g. specific CES product details) and it just comes back with many hits of the exact same article duplicated by many not-so-legit looking websites. I wish they have a "site blacklist" user feature where I can tell it to not bother returning results from that site ever again.
A few months/a year back, there were those *.info domains search hits too. Some sort of dynamic page generation that aggregates pieces of paragraphs with the search term. The whole article seems randomly composed, taking sentences from unrelated articles and mixing them up so that it "looks" complete... until you start reading through it and figured it doesn't make sense...
Google, please give me an "unlike"/"thumbs down" button for your search results, so that these junk site can forever disappear from my search radar... Equivalent to "Adblock" like or an option to "prompt for cookies" so I can manually get rid of it!
Results on specific tech question searches on the other hand are pretty good (e.g. gcc issues, etc.)...
Submission + - BAE Develops Laser Defense For Ships (ibtimes.com)
RedEaredSlider writes: Ships plying the waters where piracy is a danger, such as the coast of Somalia or Southeast Asia, may soon have a laser weapon — a non-lethal one — to defend themselves with.
Developed by BAE Systems, the laser beam isn't intense enough to damage anything — not even the eye. But aimed at a pirate vessel it does show that they have been seen at distances up to 2 kilometers (about 1.2 miles). Usually, that might drive them off, as a big part of a pirate attack is the element of surprise.
At closer distances, the laser would disorient people, making it much harder to take aim with a weapon. "The effect is similar to when a fighter pilot attacks from the direction of the sun. The glare from the laser is intense enough to make it impossible to aim weapons like AK47s or RPGs, but doesn't have a permanent effect," said Roy Evans, BAE Systems capability technology lead for laser photonic systems.
Developed by BAE Systems, the laser beam isn't intense enough to damage anything — not even the eye. But aimed at a pirate vessel it does show that they have been seen at distances up to 2 kilometers (about 1.2 miles). Usually, that might drive them off, as a big part of a pirate attack is the element of surprise.
At closer distances, the laser would disorient people, making it much harder to take aim with a weapon. "The effect is similar to when a fighter pilot attacks from the direction of the sun. The glare from the laser is intense enough to make it impossible to aim weapons like AK47s or RPGs, but doesn't have a permanent effect," said Roy Evans, BAE Systems capability technology lead for laser photonic systems.
Submission + - NASA Pitches Heavy Lift Vehicle to Congress (spacenews.com)
BJ_Covert_Action writes: Well, Congress demanded, last year, that NASA develop a budget plan and proposal for a new heavy lift vehicle in light of the Ares V cancellation. Recently, NASA gave Congress just what they wanted. On January 11th, Douglas Cooke pitched an interim report to Congressional members detailing the basic design concepts that would go into a new heavy lift vehicle. Congress required that the new heavy lift vehicle maximize the reuse of space shuttle components as part of its budget battle with President Obama last year. As a result, NASA basically copy-pasted the Ares V design into a new report and pitched it to Congress on the 11th. The proposed vehicle will require the five segment SRB's that were proposed for the Ares V rocket. It will utilize the SSME's for it's main liquid stage. It will reuse the shuttle external tank as the primary core for the liquid booster (the same tank design that is currently giving the Discovery shuttle launch so many problems). And it will utilize the new J-2X engine that NASA has been developing for the Ares V project as an upper stage. In other words, NASA proposed to Congress exactly what Congress asked for.
The catch is, NASA also admitted that they will not be able to complete the proposed rocket on the budget that Congress has given them. Neither will they be able to finish the rocket on time. Finally, NASA has commented that a current study being conducted by 13 independent contractors is still being conducted to determine if there is a better design out there that NASA has, 'overlooked.' NASA has stated that, should that study finds any alternate, interesting designs then, they will need to consider those seriously.
The catch is, NASA also admitted that they will not be able to complete the proposed rocket on the budget that Congress has given them. Neither will they be able to finish the rocket on time. Finally, NASA has commented that a current study being conducted by 13 independent contractors is still being conducted to determine if there is a better design out there that NASA has, 'overlooked.' NASA has stated that, should that study finds any alternate, interesting designs then, they will need to consider those seriously.
Submission + - Microsoft To Disable Windows Phone 7 Unlocking
Alex writes: In the first update to Windows Phone 7, Microsoft is planning to block ChevronWP7, which allowed users to unlock any retail Windows Phone 7 device for application side-loading without having to pay $99 per year for a WP7 marketplace account. The update, which is slated for release this month, will also introduce copy and paste functionality, among other improvements. ChevronWP7 was discontinued less than a week after its release about two months ago. ChevronWP7's three developers, Long Zheng, Rafael Rivera, and Chris Walsh were approached by Brandon Watson, Director of Developer Experience for Windows Phone 7, and decided to kill their app.
