60281283
submission
coondoggie writes:
One of the iconic research facilities in the world — Bell Labs — today said it would offer $100,00 in prizes for researchers that have innovative ideas that can alter the information and communications technology field by a factor of 10. If that sounds pretty wide open, it is, as the lab is looking for all manner of advanced ideas in areas from web applications, cloud services, cryptography, network mathematics and security to software-defined networks, sustainability, wireless systems and coding theory.
60132491
submission
coondoggie writes:
NASA today said it would fund the technology fixes required to make its inoperative Kepler space telescope active again and able to hunt for new planets and galaxies. Kepler you may recall was rendered inoperable after the second of four gyroscope-like reaction wheels, which are used to precisely point the spacecraft for extended periods of time, failed last year ending data collection for the original mission. The spacecraft required three working wheels to maintain the precision pointing necessary to detect the signal of small Earth-sized exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system, orbiting stars like our sun in what's known as the habitable zone — the range of distances from a star where the surface temperature of a planet might be suitable for liquid water, NASA stated.
60128271
submission
coondoggie writes:
he US Office of Naval Research this week offered a $7.5m grant to university researchers to develop robots with autonomous moral reasoning ability. While the idea of robots making their own ethical decisions smacks of SkyNet — the science-fiction artificial intelligence system featured prominently in the Terminator films — the Navy says that it envisions such systems having extensive use in first-response, search-and-rescue missions, or medical applications.
60050809
submission
coondoggie writes:
Future autos leased by the federal government will be equipped with some advanced high-tech safety technology in an effort to test the equipment in real-life situations. The General Services Administration (GSA) and the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said they would team up on the program to further develop high-tech driver and vehicle safety technology.
60047615
submission
coondoggie writes:
Funny piece of an interview with George R. Martin on Conan last night. The "Game of Thrones" author was asked if he worries about computer virus' ruining his 1,000 page tomes. Martin's answer: He doesn't because he prefers to write on a DOS computer running WordStar 4.0. Well, who doesn't?
59960773
submission
coondoggie writes:
What can, or perhaps more importantly should be done to control access to and prevent more debris from building up in the space around Earth? A Congressional hearing last week tried to add a popular movie-related theme to the issues with a session called: "Space Traffic Management: How to Prevent a Real Life 'Gravity.'" "Gravity" in a nutshell is a movie about what happens to a group of astronauts whose mission is destroyed by orbital debris.
59837001
submission
coondoggie writes:
The world's first purpose-built commercial space base will be the site of the first space flights with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic. Those flights could begin by the end of the year but no official date has been established. The spaceport is near the town of Truth or Consequences in New Mexico — west of the White Sands Missile Range and will ultimately be its own little city with emergency services, restaurants and other amenities. Reuters noted that inaugural flight into suborbital space, for those who have who have made reservations, cost $250,000. Take a look around:
59791121
submission
coondoggie writes:
A New Jersey scam artist was sentenced to 12 years ain prison this week after admitting to being the mastermind behind a sophisticated fraud system that used identity theft, credit card fraud and other nefarious means to obtain $4 million, the FBI said.
59770743
submission
coondoggie writes:
Computers are certainly part of everyday life of course so it isn't totally surprising how many hiccups they can cause. Some glitches are merely annoying others well, are true head-scratchers.
59632201
submission
coondoggie writes:
The network used to secure connectivity between spacecraft operating in low Earth orbit, such as the International Space Station, Hubble Space Telescope and a variety of other commercial and government spacecraft, faces a number of technical and monetary challenges in the next few years.
59585669
submission
coondoggie writes:
Refueling aging satellites that were never meant to be refueled is the goal with a emerging NASA system that could save millions. NASA this week said since April 2011, engineers have been working to build robotic satellite servicing technologies necessary to bring in-orbit inspection, repair, refueling, component replacement and assembly capabilities to spacecraft needing aid.
59560275
submission
coondoggie writes:
hile most of the attention to future spacecraft seems to focus attention on what the exterior of the ship looks like, Boeing and Bigelow Aerospace this week offered a look at what the interior of their respective systems.
59500557
submission
coondoggie writes:
Phishing attacks coming from fraudsters acting like your phone company are again on the upswing according to a new warning from the FBI and its partner agency the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). According to the IC3: "Individuals receive automated telephone calls that claim to be from the victim's telecommunication carrier. The IC3 released an advisory about this scam in May 2013. Since then, the attacks have increased and recently, victims have reported receiving SMS texts with a similar phishing message encouraging them to go to web sites to claim their reward."
59494497
submission
coondoggie writes:
It was certainly the stuff of Urban Legend only this time it quite a bit more. The story goes that Atari, facing huge losses and an even bigger hit to its reputation in 1984 buried what amounted to the gaming industry’s Edsel – the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial game. The company supposedly buried “millions” of ET.. cartridges in the desert. Years later in an effort to prove this story was true, Microsoft’s Xbox group set out to find and dig the cartridges up as part of a documentary it is producing with Fuel Entertainment and Lightbox called “Signal to Noise.” Over the weekend the quest was wildly successful indeed finding the Atari stash buried in a long-closed Alamogordo dump.
59155315
submission
coondoggie writes:
It sounds like a good idea — develop an online system of publically reporting and disseminating problems or incidents stemming from the use of unmanned aircraft in the public airspace.
In practice you'd have to wonder if such a system would get used much because it seems like the system has just a few caveats.
