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China

Submission + - China enhances military capabilities with UAVs (patexia.com)

Submitted by
ericjones12398
ericjones12398 writes: "Last month, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) published several photos of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on a frigate as it crossed from the East China Sea into the strait of Osumi. The UAV, which was photographed in operation by a Japanese surveillance aircraft, was not owned by the United States or Israel — two major players in this segment of the aerospace industry. It is the property of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Interestingly, this unnamed UAV — which has never been seen before — was being deployed on a Chinese Type 054A missile frigate which, unlike an aircraft carrier, does not have a landing strip.
This UAV sighting is very much in alignment with the findings of a recent report published by The Teal Group. The Teal Group, a US beltway aerospace and defense research firm, has projected the worldwide unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) market to double over the next decade. This means that the current worldwide expenditures of $6.6 billion are expected to exceed $89 billion within ten years. China plans on being part of this trend, and The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has an immediate vested interest in the military application of such technologies. Traditionally, the PLA has been a long-time supporter of UAV technologies and has partnered with such firms as the Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC) to both reverse engineer and develop their own UAV related technologies."
Security

Submission + - New Jersey Mayor and Son arrested for nuking recall website (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by phaedrus5001
phaedrus5001 writes: The mayor of West New York, New Jersey was arrested by the FBI after he and his son illegally took down a website that was calling for the recall of mayor Felix Roque (the site is currently down).
From the article: "According to the account of FBI Special Agent Ignace Ertilus, Felix and Joseph Roque took a keen interest in the recall site as early as February. In an attempt to learn the identity of the person behind the site, the younger Roque set up an e-mail account under a fictitious name and contacted an address listed on the website. He offered some "very good leads" if the person would agree to meet him. When the requests were repeatedly rebuffed, Joseph Rogue allegedly tried another route. He pointed his browser to Google and typed the search strings "hacking a Go Daddy Site," "recallroque log-in," and "html hacking tutorial.""
Cellphones

Submission + - Cellphone Vibration Syndrome, Other Signs of Tech Addiction (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes: "It turns out that the phantom cellphone vibration syndrome is fairly common. Ask around. See if you can find someone who believed the smartphone in their pocket was vibrating but found when they checked, there was nothing new. No call. No text. There's a growing body of research on phantom vibrations and many of the other problems associated with technology obsession, all of which is explored by Larry Rosen, a professor of psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills, in his new book, 'iDisorder'. Rosen, who earned his bachelors degree in mathematics before getting a Ph.D in psychology, examines technology's impact on our lives. His book, which combines the latest research with his own experience, anecdote and observation, warns about obsessive technological use and offers practical advice for keeping tech at bay. Rosen talks to Computerworld's Patrick Thibodeau about some of the issues associated with unhealthy, or least unreasonable, levels of tech obsession."

Submission + - Video Maps: Driving directions in video (vidteq.com) 1

Submitted by
amarpal
amarpal writes: "Although google maps and other maps have made it to India and you can indeed see finer details, drivings directions using these maps is still a nightmare. I came across vidteq: http://www.vidteq.com/ They have actually driven through roads in Bangalore (now Bengaluru) and have taken videos. And when you specify your stat and end points, it actually provides the video navigation. Pretty cool concept.

On a different note, I wonder if these guys could do it, what was wrong with google street view when they were stopped by the local authorities; read this: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-13853251"
Google

Submission + - Google Lifts The Veil On Copyright Takedowns: Reveals Detailed Data On Who Reque (techdirt.com)

Submitted by
TheGift73
TheGift73 writes: "As part of Google's ongoing Transparency Report efforts, today the company has released a whole new section on copyright takedowns, containing a huge amount of information on the many takedown requests Google receives. It focuses specifically on the takedowns for search links, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them add other areas later. As you may recall, we were among those who were victimized by a bogus takedown, and a key post about SOPA that we had written was missing from Google search for about a month.

The new transparency platform lets you dig in and see quite a few details about exactly who is issuing takedowns and what they're removing from search. It's using data since last July (when Google set up an organized web-form, so the data is consistent). It may be a bit surprising, but at the top of the list? Microsoft, who has apparently taken down over 2.5 million URLs from Google's search results. Most of the the others in the top 10 aren't too surprising. There's NBC Universal at number two. The RIAA at number three (representing all its member companies). BPI at number five. Universal Music at number seven. Sony Music at number eight. Warner Music doesn't clock in until number 12.

There's also data on which sites are most frequently targeted, which (not surprisingly) lists out a bunch of torrent search sites and file lockers and such. Don't be surprised to see some try to claim that this is an accurate list of "rogue sites" that Google should block entirely. However, if you look carefully at the data, Google also highlights the percentage of pages on those sites for which they've received takedowns, and the vast majority of them are well below 1%. In other words, no one has complained about well over 99% of the pages on these sites. It seems pretty drastic to suggest that these sites are obviously nothing but evil, when so many of their pages don't seem to receive any complaints at all."
Android

Submission + - Microsoft Wins Yet Another Mobile Patent Case (cnet.com)

Submitted by
benfrog
benfrog writes: "Microsoft has won a legal battle in Germany over Google/Motorola (right after Google spent $12.5 billion to acquire Motorola and its patents) that would allow Microsoft to enforce a ban on Android products in Germany. According to Cnet, this "could signal an end to at least one long-running dispute between Microsoft and Android players" forcing Google to negotiate a settlement with Microsoft as HTC and Samsung already have."

Submission + - Good inexpensive LCD panel for embedded projects? 3

Submitted by
michael_cain
michael_cain writes: "I've been asked (by family, friends) to consider several small embedded controller projects. A good starting point for all of them would be a backlit LCD graphics module with touch screen pre-mounted in a plastic enclosure with enough room behind the display for a custom circuit board. 320-by-240 pixels, 3.5 to 4.5 inch diagonal measure, monochrome is sufficient (but color is always cool), easily driven by an AVR or PIC type microcontroller. And priced at a reasonable point for a hobbyist! Anyone seen anything like this? Anyone else interested in such a widget?"
Space

Submission + - Starships powered by antimatter could approach the speed of light (tech-stew.com) 3

Submitted by
techfun89
techfun89 writes: "With the increased focus on extrasolar planetary systems, there will be an increased focus on getting there to better look for sciences of life, even sentient life.

Recently, physicists Ronan Keane and Wei-Ming Zhang wrote a paper and studied on antimatter propulsion. Their latest results from computer simulators have shown that at least one key component in creating a working antimatter propulsion engine is that of highly efficient magnetic nozzles. Their studies have shown that these nozzles need to be efficient and that it is feasible to make them this way using our current technology.

Keane and Zhang also outlined how the particles would avoid a matter/antimatter annihilation as they exit the engine. Their technique relies on charged pions that result from proton-antiproton collisions. A nozzle that emits a strong magnetic field could channel the emitted charged particles into a focused stream of charged pions accelerating them to make an even stronger thrust.

Past calculations showed the nozzle's efficiency was only 36 percent, but Keane and Zhang redesigned the nozzles to be 85 percent efficient, making the a speed of around 70 percent the speed of light possible, given a pion exit speed of 80 percent of the speed of light. Such a speed gets us to Proxima Centauri 4.3 light years away in 6 years."
NASA

Submission + - NASA to future lunar explorers: Don't mess with our Moon stuff (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: NASA today gently reminded any future Moon explorers that any relics of its Apollo missions or other US lunar artifacts should be off limits and are considered historic sites. NASA issued the reminder in conjunction with the X Prize Foundation and its Google Lunar X Prize competition which will use NASA's Moon sites guidelines as it sifts through the 26 team currently developing systems and spacecraft to land on the Moon.
The Internet

Submission + - Sales of unused IPv4 addresses gaining steam (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
netbuzz
netbuzz writes: "A growing number of U.S. carriers and enterprises are hedging their bets on IPv6 by purchasing blocks of unused IPv4 addresses through official channels or behind-the-scenes deals. There is certainly no shortage of stock, as these address brokers have blocks available that range from 65,000 to more than a million IPv4 addresses. And it’s not just large companies and institutions benefiting, as one attorney who’s involved in the market says he represents a woman who came into possession of a block of IPv4 address in the early ‘90s and now, “She’s in her 70s, and she’s going to have a windfall.’’"
Science

Submission + - It Seems That Volcano-Triggered Mega Tsunamis Won't Obliterate New York (txchnologist.com)

Submitted by
MatthewVD
MatthewVD writes: "In 2000, geologists told the BBC that the volcano Cumbre Vieja on the Canary Island of La Palma could eventually collapse into the Atlantic Ocean and unleash a tsunami, cinematic in scope, with 80-foot waves that would wipe out the U.S. East Coast. New models show that a smaller collapse , which is much more likely, would send waves only 16-18 feet to the U.S. — a much less catastrophic prospect."
Open Source

Submission + - Why Open Compute is a Win for Rackspace (datacenterknowledge.com)

Submitted by 1sockchuck
1sockchuck writes: Cloud provider Rackspace is looking to the emerging open source hardware ecosystem to transform its data centers. The cloud provider spends $200 million a year on servers and storage, and sees the Open Compute Project as the key to reducing its costs on hardware design and operations. Rackspace is keen on the potential of the new Open Rack program, and its buying power is motivating HP and Dell to develop for the new standard — partly because Rackspace has also been talking with original design manufacturers like Quantra and Wistron, It's an early look at how open source hardware could have a virtuous impact on the server economy. “I think the OEMs were not very interested (in Open Compute) initially,” said Rackspace COO Mark Roenigk. “But in the last six months they have become really focused."
Moon

Submission + - Neil Armstrong gives rare interview (cpaaustralia.com.au) 1

Submitted by pcritter
pcritter writes: In a rare coup for accountant's association CPA Australia, CEO Alex Malley interviews Neil Armstrong, whose dad worked as an Auditor, bringing him back 4 decades to the pinnacle of the space race. Neil reveals that "I thought we had a 90 per cent chance of getting back safely to Earth on that flight but only a 50-50 chance of making a landing on that first attempt". The 4 part video series is now posted on CPA Australia's website.
Education

Submission + - Google to fund British computer science teachers (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by
nk497
nk497 writes: "Last year, Eric Schmidt slammed British computer science teaching, saying the UK was wasting its computing heritage — since then, the Government has agreed to re-examine how the subject is taught. "Rebooting computer science education is not straightforward," Schmidt said. "Scrapping the existing curriculum was a good first step — the equivalent of pulling the plug out of the wall. The question is now how to power up." To help, Schmidt has now promised funding from Google to train 100 teachers as well as give classrooms Raspberry Pis, via charity Teach First."

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