49031917
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
After signing a $30 million iPad deal with Apple in June, the Los Angeles School Board of Education has revealed the full extent of the program that will provide tablets to all students in the district. CiteWorld reports that the first phase of the program will see pupils receive 31,000 iPads this school year, rising to 640,000 Apple tablets by the end of 2014. Apple previously announced that the initiative would include 47 campuses and commence in the fall.
48914739
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Slate has an article: The Eye of Sauron Is the Modern Surveillance State . Although the insights provided are not necessarily unique, and echo the observations of some like Bruce Schneier, Glenn Greenwald and Chris Hedges, they do illustrate them nicely, through an unexpected allegorical reading of Tolkien's familiar epic. The gist is that unlike most dystopian fantasy — especially the explicitly political variety — Tolkien understood that the minions of absolute power were untrusted by that power, itself. It's also worth reading for the defense of the fantasy-epic genre, which offered Tolkien the opportunity to explore themes like the "distinction between omnipotence and omniscience," that were under-examined in modern idioms, but relevant to Tolkien from a theological interest and connected to the experience under tyranny.
46890209
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Do you remember McCoy's Medical Tricorder from classic 'Trek? The capability of this device is rapidly approaching reality, via a research team at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Using a cradle and app for the iPhone, they've developed a biosensor to detect toxins, proteins, bacteria, viruses and other molecules. The wedge-shaped cradle contains a series of optical components, similar to those in larger and more expensive laboratory devices. The cradle is able to utilize the phone’s built-in camera and processing power as a platform to replace the benchtop equipment. "We’re interested in biodetection that needs to be performed outside of the laboratory," said team leader Brian Cunningham, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and of bioengineering at the U. of I. The team demonstrated sensing of an immune system protein, but the slide could be primed for any type of biological molecule or cell type. The researchers are working to improve the manufacturing process for the iPhone cradle and are working on a cradle for Android phones as well.
46744107
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Google continues raising hackles as the company calls into question the commitment to open source roots from which it grew and often promoted. Developer Ken Kinder: "...It seems reasonable to believe that, unlike Eric Schmidt, Larry Page does not believe in open standards or an open Internet. Google has, in just a few short months, dropped support for open standards en masse, including RSS, XMPP, iCal/CalDav, and Podcasts. Additionally, other services are being forcefully “integrated” into Google+, which has no complete public API and no interoperability with other systems. Google, is, in other words, the new AOL: A silo separate from the open web, with very limited interoperability." Kinder's considered and thoughtful blog entry poses a number of alternatives to the services from Google, especially those consumed from Android devices. "I’m trying to pick services... where there’s a clear and predictable business relationship between me and the provider. Moving from Google Calendar to Yahoo Calendar solves very little... because Yahoo’s business interests are exactly the same: advertising and consumer lock-in."
46743135
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
From the Earl-Grey-Hot Dept.
NASA granted $125,000, to Systems & Materials Research Corporation, to create a prototype universal food synthesizer. First stop? Pizza. Pizza is an obvious candidate for 3D printing because it can be printed in distinct layers, so it only requires the print head to extrude one substance at a time. If eating something produced in the same kind of 3D printers that are currently being used to make everything from jet engine parts to fine art doesn’t sound too appetizing, that’s only because you can currently afford the good stuff, says founder, Anjan Contractor. Anticipating the needs of a global population, Contractor envisions every kitchen with a 3D printer, with customized, nutritionally-appropriate meals synthesized one layer at a time, from cartridges of powder and oils they buy at the corner grocery store. The NASA award for a “pizza printer” is still at the conceptual stage. It works by first "printing" a layer of dough, which is baked at the same time it’s printed, by a heated plate at the bottom of the printer.
46742719
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Asked last week, at a Senate hearing, how long the war on terrorism will last, Michael Sheehan, the assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, answered, “At least 10 to 20 years.” A spokeswoman, Army Col. Anne Edgecomb, clarified that Sheehan meant the conflict is likely to last 10 to 20 more years from today. This is additional to the 12 years this conflict has already been pursued. Members of the Senate panel expressed shock that Sheehan envisioned such a broad, long war, unconfined by defined and measurable objectives or any territorial limitation. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) declared that the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF), was specifically bounded to al-Qaida as then defined, for the 9/11 attacks. The AUMF does not contain the words "associated forces", repeatedly invoked in the session by Pentagon chief lawyer, Robert Taylor. John McCain (R-Ariz.), protested the Pentagon’s interpretation of the AUMF. "None of us could have envisioned authority [to strike] in Yemen and Somalia," McCain said.
46384737
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Yesterday, the Senate began debating creation of a national biometric database including virtually every adult in the U.S. Buried in the more than 800 pages of the bipartisan legislation, is language mandating the creation of the innocuously-named “photo tool,” a massive federal database administered by the Department of Homeland Security and containing names, ages, Social Security numbers and photographs of everyone in the country with a driver’s license or other state-issued photo ID. The "Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act" is aimed at curbing employment of undocumented immigrants. Employers would be obliged to look up every new hire in the database to verify that they match their photo. “The most worrying aspect is that this creates a principle of permission basically to do certain activities and it can be used to restrict activities,” says David Bier, an analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute. “It’s like a national ID system without the card.”
46189601
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Bruce Schneier, security expert (and rational voice in the wilderness), explains in an editorial on CNN, why "Connecting the Dots" is a "Hindsight Bias". In heeding calls to increase the amount of surveillance data gathered and shared, agencies like the FBI have impaired their ability to discover actual threats, while guaranteeing erosion of personal and civil freedom. "Piling more data onto the mix makes it harder, not easier. The best way to think of it is a needle-in-a-haystack problem; the last thing you want to do is increase the amount of hay you have to search through. The television show 'Person of Interest' is fiction, not fact."
46015389
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Silicon chips are unarguably at the basis for nearly every aspect driving today's global economy. The advanced fabrication technology that enables 14-nanometer etching — now poised to drive the next wave in 2014 — is held by just four companies. "The fabs in which microchips are made, ...cost billions of dollars. And they make the microchips on which all nearly all advanced smartphones, PCs, servers, and other critical pieces of IT infrastructure depend." This level of investment for nano-scale manufacturing is possible today from Intel, Samsung, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), and GlobalFoundries, the last of which announced today that it aims to be the world’s leading contract chip manufacturer by both volume and revenue. Almost every new electronic device in the next year will use chips fabbed in one or more of these factories, meaning greater dependency than ever on just a handful of manufacturers. What does this mean for supply chain capacity and the possibility for increased risk of constraint and disruption?
45978945
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
A government task force is preparing legislation that would pressure companies such as Facebook and Google to enable law enforcement officials to intercept online communications as they occur. "The importance to us is pretty clear," says Andrew Weissmann, the FBI’s general counsel. "We don’t have the ability to go to court and say, 'We need a court order to effectuate the intercept.' Other countries have that." Under the draft proposal, a court could levy a series of escalating fines, starting at tens of thousands of dollars, on firms that fail to comply with wiretap orders, according to persons who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. "This proposal is a non-starter that would drive innovators overseas and cost American jobs," said Greg Nojeim, a senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology. "They might as well call it the Cyber Insecurity and Anti-Employment Act."
45977107
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center says, "Alarm bells should be going off," after a FOIA request that returned more than 1,000 pages of internal government documents. "Those documents show the National Security Agency and the Defense Department were deeply involved in pressing for the secret legal authorization, with NSA director Keith Alexander... The Justice Department agreed to grant legal immunity to the participating network providers in the form of what participants in the confidential discussions refer to as '2511 letters', a reference to the Wiretap Act codified at 18 USC 2511 in the federal statute books. An industry representative told CNET the 2511 letters provided legal immunity to the providers by agreeing not to prosecute for criminal violations of the Wiretap Act. It's not clear how many 2511 letters were issued by the Justice Department." EPIC staff attorney Amie Stepanovich says the banner the government proposed is so broad and vague that it would allow ISPs not only to monitor the content of all communication, including private correspondence, but also potentially hand over the monitoring activity itself to the government. She also notes that the banner notice would be one-sided since it would be given only to the employees of participating companies.
43988491
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
The White House ceremony confirming and swearing John Brennan as the new Director for the CIA contained rich and bitter symbolism. By his own selection, Brennan chose to swear his oath on a manuscript copy of the U.S. Constitution, drawn from the George Washington presidential archive. "Director Brennan told the president that he made the request to the archives because he wanted to reaffirm his commitment to the rule of law as he took the oath of office as director of the CIA,” The fly in the ointment is that this copy of the Constitution, with Washington's handwritten marginalia, pre-dates including the protections from the Bill of Rights, required by states to ratify the document as foundation law for the nation. Given the recent record of CIA activity in the last two administrations, is possible another intention is being heralded?
42571531
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Blogger Adam Howard, at Port3000, has a post about Google's exposure of thousands of publicly accessible printers. "A quick, well crafted Google search returns "About 86,800 results" for publically accessible HP printers." He continues, "There's something interesting about being able to print to a random location around the world, with no idea of the consequence." He also warns about these printers as a possible beachhead for deeper network intrusion and exploitation. With many of the HP printers in question containing a web listener and a highly vulnerable and unpatched JVM, I agree that this is not an exotic idea. In the meanwhile? I have an important memo for all Starbucks employees. ;-)
42442021
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Researchers with the European Food Safety Authority discovered variants of the Cauliflower mosaic virus 35S in the most widely harvested varieties of genetically-modified crops, including Monsanto's RoundupReady Soy and Maze. According to researchers, Podevin and du Jardin, the particular "Gene IV" is responsible for a number of possible consequences that could affect human health, including inhibition of RNA silencing and production of proteins with known toxicity. The EFSA is endorsing "retrospective risk assessment" of CaMV promoter and its Gene VI sequences — in an attempt to give it a clean bill of health. It is unknown if the presence of the hidden viral genes were the result of laboratory contamination or a possible recombinant product of the resultant organism. There are serious implications for the production of GMO for foodstuffs, given either possibility.
41183667
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
"Is that the Singularity in your pocket" Dept:
Ray Kurzweil confirmed today that he will be joining Google as Director of Engineering this Monday, December 17, to work on new projects involving machine learning and language processing.
“I’m thrilled to be teaming up with Google to work on some of the hardest problems in computer science so we can turn the next decade’s ‘unrealistic’ visions into reality.” said Kurzweil. Peter Norvig, Google's director of research, said "We appreciate his ambitious, long-term thinking, and we think his approach to problem-solving will be incredibly valuable to projects we're working on at Google."
Kurzweil is famous for his breakthroughs in OCR, computer speech synthesis and digital music creation — as well as his theory of “The Singularity,” that point when technology is sufficiently advanced that it contests and surpasses human intelligence.
