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Businesses

Submission + - Anonymous Leaks Bank Of America 'Secrets' (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by
redletterdave
redletterdave writes: "Hacker collective Anonymous released 16 gigabytes of data, code and software on Thursday related to Bank of America, Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters and others, claiming that Bank of America had employed security firms to 'spy and collect information on private citizens.' From the Anonymous press release: 'We release the received files in full to raise awareness to this issue and to send a signal to corporations and Governments that this is unacceptable.'"

Submission + - Moscow's speed cameras 'knackered' by MYSTERY malware (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by
iComp
iComp writes: "Malware has infected a Russian police computer network, knackering speed cameras in and around Moscow, according to reports.

Broadsheet daily Izvestia reckons a server operated by the Office of Traffic Police was infiltrated by an unidentified Trojan. The infection disabled parts of the cops' Arrow-ST system used to monitor key highways in and around the Russian capital, we're told.

Cleaning up the mess has been complicated by the transfer of a government contract for the equipment's maintenance: SK Region, the supplier of the kit, handed the reins over to IntechGeoTrans earlier this year.

The cameras should bring in 100 million roubles ($3.2m) per month in speeding fines, but the network apparently hasn't been working properly for at least two weeks. Some reports suggested it went wrong as early as the start of February.

All this has sparked a massive political row: politicians blamed IntechGeoTrans for not sorting out the problem, but the company claimed it inherited a system in a state of chronic disrepair."
Politics

Submission + - Texas Declares War on Robots (robots.net) 2

Submitted by Mr_Blank
Mr_Blank writes: Organizations like the EFF and ACLU have been raising the alarm over increased government surveillance of US citizens. Legislators haven't been quick to respond to concerns of government spying on citizens. But Texas legislators are apparently quite concerned that private citizens operating hobby drones might spot environmental violations by businesses. Representative Lance Gooden has introduced HB912 which proposes: "A person commits an offense if the person uses or authorizes the use of an unmanned vehicle or aircraft to capture an image without the express consent of the person who owns or lawfully occupies the real property captured in the image. ('Image' is defined as including any type of recorded telemetry from sensors that measure sound waves, thermal, infrared, ultraviolet, visible light, or other electromagnetic waves, odor, or other conditions.)" Can you foresee any unintended consequences if this proposal becomes law?
Security

Submission + - Tech Guru Warns Of Internet "Disaster" (infowars.com)

Submitted by
helix2301
helix2301 writes: "Speaking to Wired’s Michael V. Copeland at the TED 2013 conference currently taking place in Long Beach, Hillis argues that because so many interconnected systems are now reliant on the world wide web, “We’re setting ourselves up for disaster, like we did with the financial system.” Pointing to examples like the Stuxnet virus, US military data being routed through China, and the threat of a massive denial of service attack targeting the entire web, Hillis advocates building a second backbone that would kick in like a back-up generator “when the internet is in trouble.”"
Technology

Submission + - NYC's Trash-Sucking Tubes May Be Upgraded, Expanded (vice.com)

Submitted by derekmead
derekmead writes: When urban planners were trying to turn New York’s Roosevelt Island from a haven for the disabled and the mentally ill into a liveable city, they gotutopian. Lying beneath their plans was an unusual technology: a series of tubes that literallysuck garbage from buildingsat speeds up to 60 miles per hour to a central collection point, where the trash is taken off the island by truck or barge. Theoretically, that eliminates the emissions and traffic caused by giant garbage trucks, and makes trash sorting easier.

Now, more than thirty years after the “AVAC,” or Automated Vacuum Collection System, was installed, Envac, the Swedish company that built it, is exploring how to upgrade it and even extend the system to other parts of the city. Under a new feasibilitystudyconducted by City University and funded by two city agencies, the easiest option would be to stretch the current system south, to cover the new technology campuses being built on Roosevelt Island by Cornell University and the Technion.

Other potential trash tube candidates include the Coney Island boardwalk, in a new housing development there, and near Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan. There, according to Envac’s new proposal, the tubes could ride underneath the infrastructure of the High Line, the hip railway-cum-park that floats along the neighborhood’s increasingly hip river-side edge.
HP

HP Creates First Hybrid Memristor Chip 155

Posted by timothy from the stitch-in-time dept.
An anonymous reader writes "HP researchers have built the first functioning hybrid memristor-transistor chip. Lead researcher Stanley Williams and his team built the very first memristor — the '4th fundamental element' of integrated circuits after resistors, capacitors and inductors — back in April. Memristors can remember their resistance, leading to novel electronic capabilities. The new FPGA circuit uses memristors to perform tasks normally carried out by (many more) transistors and is therefore smaller, more power efficient and cheaper to make, HP says. Memristors could also turn out to be a more compact, faster alternative to flash memory."

Consumer Problems with Blu-ray and HD-DVD 403

Posted by Zonk from the have-to-buy-fifth-element-again dept.
bart_scriv writes "Business Week looks at the upcoming Blu-ray and HD-DVD product launches and predicts problems and confusion for consumers. In addition to anticipated difficulties in distinguishing between the two formats, some studios will be using copy protection that will intentionally down grade the picture. When combined with Sony's plans to upconvert based on hardware configuration and the fact that most HD TVs aren't capable of displaying either format at full resolution, early adopters may be getting a lot less than they bargained for. As the article suggests, it may be that 'the best bet for either format to gain acceptance now lies with next-generation game consoles.'"

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