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Submission + - Scientists Develop Solar Cell That Can Also Emit Light

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Scientists at the Nanyang Technological University have developed a solar cell that not only converts sunlight into electricity but also emits light as electricity passes through it. Tuning the composition of the solar cell enables it to emit different wavelengths of light, and because it is only about 1 micrometer thick, the material is semi-translucent and therefore could potentially be used in windows. The solar cell is comprised of the semiconducting mineral perovskite, which has been studied as a replacement for silicon in solar panels since 2009. Perovskite solar cells are not yet as efficient at energy conversion as silicon solar cells, but gains in this area of development coupled with cheaper manufacturing costs (10-20 cents per watt projected as opposed to 75 cents per watt with silicon solar panels and 50 cents per watt with fossil fuels) make perovskite a popular subject matter in the solar cell industry.

Submission + - Ebola Outbreak in Guinea Kills At Least 59 (cnn.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: An outbreak of the highly contagious and horrific Ebola virus has occurred in Guinea, killing at least 59 people so far. Outbreaks of the African virus are rare but deadly. According to CNN reporting, local authorities are isolating the virus to prevent further spread and UNICEF is actively working to provide aide to contain the outbreak.

Submission + - Los Angeles Cops Argue All Cars in L.A. Are Under Investigation (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Do you drive a car in the greater Los Angeles Metropolitan area? According to the L.A. Police Department and L.A. Sheriff's Department, your car is part of a vast criminal investigation.

The agencies took a novel approach in the briefs they filed in EFF and the ACLU of Southern California's California Public Records Act lawsuit seeking a week's worth of Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) data. They have argued that "All [license plate] data is investigatory." The fact that it may never be associated with a specific crime doesn't matter.

This argument is completely counter to our criminal justice system, in which we assume law enforcement will not conduct an investigation unless there are some indicia of criminal activity. In fact, the Fourth Amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution exactly to prevent law enforcement from conducting mass, suspicionless investigations under "general warrants" that targeted no specific person or place and never expired.

ALPR systems operate in just this way. The cameras are not triggered by any suspicion of criminal wrongdoing; instead, they automatically and indiscriminately photograph all license plates (and cars) that come into view. This happens without an officer targeting a specific vehicle and without any level of criminal suspicion. The ALPR system immediately extracts the key data from the image—the plate number and time, date and location where it was captured—and runs that data against various hotlists. At the instant the plate is photographed not even the computer system itself—let alone the officer in the squad car—knows whether the plate is linked to criminal activity.

Taken to an extreme, the agencies' arguments would allow law enforcement to conduct around-the-clock surveillance on every aspect of our lives and store those records indefinitely on the off-chance they may aid in solving a crime at some previously undetermined date in the future. If the court accepts their arguments, the agencies would then be able to hide all this data from the public.

Submission + - Pine Tree is Largest Genome Ever Sequenced (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Using a single pollinated pine seed, researchers have sequenced the entire genome of the loblolly pine tree--and it's a doozy. The tree's genome is largest ver sequenced: 22.18 billion base pairs, more than seven times longer than the human genome. The team found that 82% of the genome was made up of duplicated segments, compared with just 25% in humans. The researchers also identified genes responsible for important traits such as disease resistance, wood formation, and stress response.

Submission + - OpenSUSE 13.2 To Use Btrfs By Default

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: OpenSUSE has shared features coming to their 13.2 release in November. The big feature is using Btrfs by default instead of EXT4. OpenSUSE is committed to Btrfs and surprisingly they are the first to use it by default of major Linux distributions, but then again they were also big ReiserFS fans. Other planned OpenSUSE 13.2 features are Wayland 1.4, KDE Frameworks 5, and a new Qt5 front-end to YaST.

Submission + - Security Industry Incapable of Finding Firmware Attackers (threatpost.com)

Submitted by BIOS4breakfast
BIOS4breakfast writes: Research presented at CanSecWest has shown that despite the fact that we know that firmware attackers, in the form of the NSA, definitely exists, there is still a wide gap between the attackers' ability to infect firmware, and the industry's ability to detect their presence. The researchers from MITRE and Intel showed attacks on UEFI SecureBoot, the BIOS itself, and BIOS forensics software. Although they also released detection systems for supporting more research and for trustworthy BIOS capture, the real question is, when is this going to stop being the domain of research and when are security companies going to get serious about protecting against attacks at this level?

Submission + - Quantum rewrites the rules of computing

Submitted by rlinke
rlinke writes: The CEO of a quantum computing company walked onto a stage at MIT and stood in front of an audience of professors, engineers and computer scientists.

Vern Brownell, CEO of D-Wave Systems Inc., looked out at the crowd and said, "I cannot explain how quantum computing works."

Was he heckled? Did attendees get up and leave? No.

No one in the audience stirred. There was no murmuring. Nobody laughed. No sidelong glances. Nothing.

Quantum computing is just that confusing. Some of the world's best physicists don't understand how it works.

Submission + - Waves Spotted On Titan (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by minty3
minty3 writes: Planetary scientists believe they have observed waves rippling on one of Titan’s seas. The findings, presented on March 17 at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, describes how the Cassini spacecraft captured images of sunlight glinting off the Punga Mare, suggesting they are not reflective sunlight but waves.

Submission + - Malware Attack Infected 25,000 Linux/UNIX Servers (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: Security researchers from ESET have uncovered a widespread attack campaign that has infected more than 25,000 Linux and UNIX servers around the world.

The servers are being hijacked by a backdoor Trojan as part of a campaign the researchers are calling 'Operation Windigo.' Once infected, victimized systems are leveraged to steal credentials, redirected web traffic to malicious sites and send as much as 35 million spam messages a day. "Windigo has been gathering strength, largely unnoticed by the security community, for more than two and a half years and currently has 10,000 servers under its control," said Pierre-Marc Bureau, security intelligence program manager at ESET, in a statement.

There are many misconceptions around Linux security, and attacks are not something only Windows users need to worry about. The main threats facing Linux systems aren't zero-day vulnerabilities or malware, but things such as Trojanized applications, PHP backdoors, and malicious login attempts over SSH.

ESET recommends webmasters and system administrators check their systems to see if they are compromised, and has published a detailed report presenting the findings and instructions on how to remove the malicious code if it is present.

Submission + - UK government wants "unsavoury" web content to be removed (gizmorati.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The UK minister for immigration and security, James Brokenshire has called for the government to do more to deal with “unsavoury”, rather than illegal, material online. So to put it simply he wants the removal of...

Submission + - Bill Gates: Snowden is No Hero!

Submitted by hcs_$reboot
hcs_$reboot writes: In a lengthy interview from Rolling Stone, Bill Gates, among many other subjects, is asked: "Do you consider [Snowden] a hero or a traitor?". The Microsoft founder answers: "I certainly wouldn't characterize him as a hero (...) You won't find much admiration from me".
What about Government Surveillance? "The government has such ability to do these things. (...) But the specific techniques they use become unavailable if they're discussed in detail"
Rolling Stone retorts that Privacy can be an issue, "We want safety, but we also want privacy" says the journalist. Bill Gates's tells his main priority focuses on stopping the bad guys: "let's say you knew nothing was going on. How would you feel? I mean, seriously. I would be very worried. Technology arms the bad guys with orders of magnitude more [power]. Not just bad guys. Crazy guys."

Submission + - The paranoid's survival guide: Protect your privacy on social, mobile

Submitted by rlinke
rlinke writes: Is privacy dead? Not by a long shot. While you can't control everything that's out there about you, there's quite a bit you can do to reduce your data footprint — or at least avoid adding to it. For this series, Computerworld asked nine privacy experts for tips and tricks they use for keeping their own personal data profiles on the down low.

Whether your goal is avoiding tracking by marketers, ensuring your personal safety or protecting yourself from government surveillance, there are steps you can take to minimize your exposure both online and off, these professionals say.

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