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Submission + - How Facebook could accidentally make its engineers into military targets (thebulletin.org) 1

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: Adam Henshke and Patrick Lin write that because of a lack of clear rules for cyberwarfare, technology workers could find themselves fair game in enemy attacks and counterattacks. 'If they participate in military cyberoperations—intentionally or not—employees at Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Sprint, AT&T, Vodaphone, and many other companies may find themselves considered “civilians directly participating in hostilities” and therefore legitimate targets of war, according to the legal definitions of the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols.' This is a fascinating read about the myriad questions that cybersecurity raises--among them: Would nations ever target Google engineers if a cyberattack was launched with gmail? Could a company be justified in launching it's own military operations if it were under cyberattack from a hostile country? Great read.

Submission + - New Game Sharpens Secure Coding Skills

Submitted by dinscott
dinscott writes: Game of Hacks, a game for software developers and security professionals, presents players with vulnerable pieces of code and challenges them to identify the application layer vulnerability as quickly as possible and even has a 2-player mode allowing developers to battle head-to-head. Additionally , developers can add their own questions and vulnerable code to the game, in any programming language highlighting any vulnerabilities, meaning that the game’s scope grows as more users join. The game is available for desktop, tablet and mobile.

Submission + - Fears that Japanese Anime Producer Studio Ghibli May be Shutting Down (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The hugely influential and popular animation studio might have made its last film following confirmation it is taking a break in production.

The studio, responsible for classics such as Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro and Princess Mononoke, is said to be considering its future following the retirement of it Hayao Miyazaki and box office failure of its most recent films.

Toshio Suzuki, the general manager of Studio Ghibli, told Japanese television: "On what to do with Studio Ghibli's future, it is by no means impossible to keep producing [movies] forever.

"However, we will take a brief pause to consider where to go from here."

Submission + - China confirms of new generation of ICBM (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: China's ownership of a new intercontinental ballistic missile said to be capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads as far as the United States is confirmed by state-run media

The DF-41 is designed to have a range of 12,000 kilometres (7,500 miles), according to a report by Jane's Strategic Weapon Systems, putting it among the world's longest-range missiles

It is "possibly capable of carrying multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles", the US Defence Department said in a report in June, referring to a payload of several nuclear warheads. It also quoted a Chinese military analyst as saying: "As the US continues to strengthen its missile defence system, developing third generation nuclear weapons capable of carrying multiple warheads is the trend"

China's previous longest range missile was the DF-5A, which can carry a single warhead as far as 12,000 km, according to Jane's. The DF-5A had its first test flight in 1971, and has to be fuelled for around two hours prior to firing, limiting its effectiveness as a weapon, according to analysts

Submission + - New frontier of Arm Race - Hypersonic Vehicles (freebeacon.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: A new arm race has commenced.

The United States was first to develop near-space strike vehicles. Under the Prompt Global Strike program back when Bush was still the POTUS, the X-51, a scramjet powered hypersonic vehicle by Boeing, the HTV-2, a glide strike vehicle, and the X-37 space plane launched atop a rocket were developed

Now the Russian and the Chinese are getting into the act and are betting heavily on their own hypersonic weapons in an attempt to close the gap, and even trying to surpass what US has achieved so far

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said July 3 that Russian missile manufacturers must master the technology for both precision-guided and hypersonic weapons. Moscow has set a goal of 2020 to build its first hypersonic missile prototype

The Chinese military is working on a jet-powered hypersonic cruise missile in addition to an advanced high-speed glide warhead that was tested earlier this year

Large numbers of Chinese military writings in recent years have focused on hypersonic flight. The Chinese report outlines in technical detail how a scramjet-powered cruise vehicle operates at speeds greater than Mach 5 and discusses how to integrate airframe design with scramjet propulsion

The scramjet cruise vehicle was described in a technical military journal called Command Control & Simulation. The article was published by the 716 Research Institute of the state-run China Shipbuilding Industry Corp., China’s largest maker of warships, submarines, and torpedoes. China’s hypersonic weapons are among the most secret programs within the Chinese military, along with anti-satellite weapons and cyber warfare tools

Larry Wortzel, a former China-based military intelligence officer, said Chinese hypersonic arms are what Beijing calls “assassins’ mace” weapons that will give China a strategic edge in any future conflict with the United States. “China is continuing with a number of programs to develop what Beijing considers to be ‘assassins’ mace’ weapons that defeat conventional defenses, including these hypersonic strike vehicles,”

Submission + - Was America's #1 Rocketeer a Communist Spy? The FBI thought so.

Submitted by IMissAlexChilton
IMissAlexChilton writes: Frank Malina masterfully led the World War II effort to build U.S. rockets for jet-assisted takeoff and guided missiles. As described in IEEE Spectrum, Malina’s motley crew of engineers and enthusiasts (including occultist Jack Parsons) founded the Jet Propulsion Lab and made critical breakthroughs in solid fuels, hypergolics, and high-altitude sounding rockets, laying the groundwork for NASA’s future successes. And yet, under suspicion by the Feds at the war’s end, Malina gave up his research career, and his team’s efforts sank into obscurity. Taking his place: the former Nazi Wernher von Braun. Read “Frank Malina: America’s Forgotten Rocketeer”. Includes cool vintage footage of early JPL rocket tests. Disclosure: I am a staff editor with IEEE Spectrum.

Submission + - NASA seeks private telecommunications provider for Mars missions. (gizmag.com)

Submitted by braindrainbahrain
braindrainbahrain writes: NASA is seeking information on private businesses to provide telecommunications services to/from Mars. Seems that MAVEN (the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution space probe) is going to be the last spacecraft orbiting Mars for a while and when its gone, there will be no one left to relay communications between Earth and surface probes and rovers. Hence the need and opportunity for the private sector to step in and offer this service.

Submission + - NASA seeks private telecommunications provider - to communicate with Mars (fbo.gov)

Submitted by braindrainbahrain
braindrainbahrain writes: NASA is seeking information on private businesses to provide telecommunications services to/from Mars. Seems that MAVEN (the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution space probe) is going to be the last spacecraft orbiting Mars for a while and when its gone, there will be no one left to relay communications between Earth and surface probes and rovers. Hence the need and opportunity for the private sector to step in and offer this service.

Now's your chance to contact your favorite VC to invest in this new adventure in the private space industry!

Comment Wrong date, should be 2084 (Score 1) 564

Clearly, he got the date wrong: Inspired for his never ending quest for progress, in 2084 man perfects the Robotrons, a robot species so advanced that man is inferior to his own creation. Guided by their ineffable logic, the Robotrons conclude: The human race is inefficient and therefore must be destroyed. Because of a genetic engineering error, you possess superhuman powers. Your mission is to stop the Robotrons and save the last human family.

Submission + - Can Computers Beat the Game of Go?

Submitted by the_newsbeagle
the_newsbeagle writes: Artificial intelligence programs seem to eventually beat humans at every game we've taught them to play: checkers, chess, Jeopardy, etc. But the ancient game of Go remains a challenge, and lately there's been a lot of attention paid to the AI researchers trying to master it. Wired recently described the tense man vs machine Go matches, and IEEE Spectrum explains the statistics-based algorithm that may soon allow Go programs to triumph over human grandmasters.

Submission + - 2600 Distributor Withholds Money, Magazine Future in Limbo (2600.com) 1

Submitted by themusicgod1
themusicgod1 writes: According to 2600, their distributor (Previously known as "Source Interlink", now recently renamed to "TEN: The Enthusiast Network") has decided to consolidate its resources and is keeping the money retailers paid for the last two issues of the quarterly magazine. 2600, in the meanwhile, is still busy trying to organize the upcoming HOPE X conference. However, according to the link: In the worst case scenario, being ripped off at this level would make it almost impossible for us to continue publishing. We would have to make a lot of painful choices and cut back on things for no reason other than some outside company's mismanagement. Our readers have supported both our print and digital publications and we've been doing quite well overall.

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