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Submission + - Scientists Make a Light Switch Controlled By Individual Photons (vice.com)

Daniel_Stuckey writes: Researchers from MIT, Harvard, and the Vienna University of Technology have worked together to develop an optical transistor that is sensitive to light at a quantum level.

Transistors are the electrical “switches” that make both information storage and logical operations possible in computers. Normally, electricity flows through them at either higher or lower voltages to give them values of 1 or 0. The 1s and 0s, which are called bits, combine with other bits in specific patterns to establish information, which software then manipulates procedurally.

This transistor uses light instead of electricity, and it functions according to quantum mechanics. Specifically, its design takes advantage of both wave and particle descriptions of light that interacts with two reflective mirrors. When light passes through the two mirrors the transistor is "on" with a value of 1, and when it does not it is "off" with a value of 0.

Submission + - The Dangers Of Beating Your Kickstarter Goal (itworld.com)

jfruh writes: In March of 2012 legendary game designers Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert ran a Kickstarter to design a new adventure game, asked for $400,000, and came away with more than $3.3 million. Their promised delivery date was October 2012. Now it's July 2013, and the project still needs cash, which they plan to raise by selling an "early release" version on Steam in January 2014. One possible lesson: radically overshooting your crowdfunding goal can cause you to wildly expand your ambitions, leading to a project that can't be tamed.

Submission + - Sent to jail because of a software bug.

toshikodo writes: The BBC is reporting a claim that some sub-postoffice workers in the UK have been sent to jail because of a bug in the accounting software that they use. Post Office admits Horizon computer defect. I've worked on safety critical system in the past, and I am well aware of the potential for software to ruin lives (thankfully AFAIK nobody has been harmed by my software), but how many of us consider the potential for bugs in ordinary software to adversely affect those that use it?

Submission + - The Black Underbelly Of Windows 8.1 'Blue' 3

snydeq writes: Changes in Microsoft's forthcoming upgrade to Windows 8 reveal the dark underbelly of Microsoft's evolving agenda, one that finds pieces of Windows 8 inexplicably disappearing and a new feature that allows Microsoft to track your local searches cropping up, InfoWorld's Woody Leonhard reports. 'As Windows 8.1 Milestone Preview testers push and prod their way into the dark corners of Windows 8.1 "Blue," they're finding a bunch of things that go bump in the night. From new and likely unwelcome features, to nudges into the Microsoft data tracking sphere, to entire lopped-off pieces of Windows 8, it looks like Microsoft is changing Windows to further its own agenda.'

Submission + - Secure Boot Coming to SUSE Linux Servers (serverwatch.com)

darthcamaro writes: UEFI Secure Boot is a problem that only desktop users need to worry about right? Well kinda/sorta/maybe not. SUSE today is releasing SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP3 which will include for the first time — support for UEFI Secure Boot. Apparently SUSE sees market demand for Secure Boot on servers too.

Our market analysis shows that UEFI Secure Boot is a UEFI extension that does not only cover desktops, but might very well also be deployed and even required on server systems going forward," Matthias Eckermann, Senior Product Manager at SUSE said. /blockquoteL


Submission + - Hackers Make the Appellate Case for Weev

USSJoin writes: Andrew Auernheimer (or Weev, as he's often better known) is serving a 41-month sentence under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The case is currently on appeal to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals; his lawyer filed the appellate brief last week. Now, a group of 13 security researchers, led by Meredith Patterson, and including include Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, Space Rogue, Jericho, Shane MacDougall, and Dan Kaminsky, are making their own thoughts heard by the court. They are submitting a brief to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals that argues that not only is Weev's conviction bad law, but if upheld, it will destroy independent security research, and perhaps the rest of consumer safety research as well. (Disclaimer: I am one member of the group.)
Network

Submission + - Fujitsu's New Data Transfer Protocol 30 Times Faster than TCP (paritynews.com) 1

hypnosec writes: Japan based technology giant, Fujitsu, has announced a new data transfer protocol that is capable of transferring data up to 30 times faster than that of currently used Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). The new technology, which is a proprietary, has been developed through a software-only approach and is based on User Datagram Protocol (UDP) that is used in streaming media. Even though UDP is a stateless protocol, Fujitsu’s technology has been developed such that it can differentiate between dropped packers and those which haven’t managed to reach the intended destination. Fujitsu carried out tests between US and Japan and the results were amazing – a 30 times improvement over TCP communications in data transfer throughput and a reduction in packet delivery latency to a sixth of previous levels.

Submission + - Copyright law claims first victim in NZ (nzherald.co.nz)

An anonymous reader writes: The first music pirate stung under new file-sharing laws has been fined $616 but "didn't realise" the actions were illegal.

The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) — which represents music studios — took an unnamed offender to the Copyright Tribunal last year for sharing songs on the internet — a track by Barbadian pop-star Rihanna on two occasions and the other by Nashville band Hot Chelle Rae.

In a decision released today, the tribunal found in RIANZ's favour and ordered the offender (who was a Telecom customer) to pay a penalty $616.57.

Education

Submission + - Does US Owe the World an Education at its Expense?

An anonymous reader writes: 'Right now, there are brilliant students from all over the world sitting in classrooms at our top universities,' President Obama explained to the nation Tuesday in his pitch for immigration reform. 'They are earning degrees in the fields of the future, like engineering and computer science...We are giving them the skills to figure that out, but then we are going to turn around and tell them to start the business and create those jobs in China, or India, or Mexico, or someplace else. That is not how you grow new industries in America. That is how you give new industries to our competitors. That is why we need comprehensive immigration reform." If the President truly fears that international students will use skills learned at U.S. colleges and universities to the detriment of the United States if they return home (isn't a rising tide supposed to lift all boats?) — an argument NYC Mayor Bloomberg advanced in 2011 ('we are investing millions of dollars [actually billions] to educate these students at our leading universities, and then giving the economic dividends back to our competitors – for free') — then wouldn't another option be not providing them with the skills in the first place?

Submission + - Reminder: Sign the Carmen Ortiz/SAaron Swartz petition. 2

MouseTheLuckyDog writes: Just a reminder for those pushing for the removal of Carment Ortiz. Sign the petition and get your friends to sign it too.

I believe the pettion was put up after the limit was raised to 100,000 and as of now it only has 50,600 and has recently been going up but very very slowly.
Databases

Submission + - Using Big Data to Tame Cancer (informationweek.com)

CowboyRobot writes: "According to the U.K.'s Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), Big data could turn cancer into a "manageable" disease. A new facility, the Tumor Profiling Unit, has been set up with $4.7 million (£3 million) of public donations to explore vast datasets of cancer samples to better understand how these cells can adapt to become resistant to treatment. What's still missing is an expansive DNA database to better identify which genes are responsible for which cancers. Such a database could lead to new treatment techniques. For example if we know that two types of cancer share the same genetic cause, a drug used for one may also be used for the other."
Bug

Submission + - Researcher Finds 40-50 Million Devices Hackable Due To UPnP Bugs (forbes.com)

Sparrowvsrevolution writes: H.D. Moore of Rapid7 has discovered a set of security flaws in three different implementations of the set of common (and notoriously troublesome) networking protocols known as Universal Plug and Play, or UPnP. For nearly the last six months, he's been scanning the Internet for devices made vulnerable by those UPnP bugs, and has discovered somewhere between 40 and 50 million routers, printers, servers and other devices susceptible to some sort of hacker compromise via the public Internet. At least some routers from every major vendor are vulnerable. And 23 million of the devices could be completely taken over and used as Linux machines capable of attacking the rest of a victim's internal network.

Moore recommends that users disable UPnP on their networking gear and other devices immediately, and that ISPs even go so far as to push new firmware to consumers' home routers.

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