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Cloud

Submission + - HyperDex Warp: Fully Distributed ACID Transactions for Big Data

Submitted by rescrv
rescrv writes: Cornell researchers just announced HyperDex Warp, the first key-value store to provide fully-distributed ACID guarantees. Warp enables applications to perform updates on multiple objects in a transactional manner. Is this the first step in a trend where NoSQL bridges the gap to RDBMSes?
Security

Submission + - Nearly a third of all computers are infected with malware (net-security.org)

Submitted by
Orome1
Orome1 writes: "PandaLabs released its annual security report which details an extremely interesting year of data theft, social networking attacks and cyber-warfare. The most devastating news? 31.98 percent of all computers scanned around the world had malware. In 2012, Trojans dominated the threat landscape more than ever before. Three out of every four malware infections were caused by Trojans (76.56 percent). One of the reasons for this growth was the increased use of exploit kits such as Black Hole, which are capable of exploiting multiple system vulnerabilities to infect computers automatically without user intervention. Viruses came second (8 percent), whereas worms dropped to third place accounting for 6.44 percent of all infections."
The Military

Submission + - Supercomputer Designer Asked to Improve Robo-Bugs (slashdot.org)

Submitted by
Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: "The man who designed the world’s most energy-efficient supercomputer in 2011 has taken on a new task: improving how robo-bugs fly. Wu-chun Feng, an associate professor of computer science in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, previously built Green Destiny, a 240-node supercomputer that consumed 3.2 kilowatts of power—the equivalent of a couple of hair dryers. That was before the Green500, a list that Feng and his team began compiling in 2005, which ranks the world’s fastest supercomputers by performance per watt. On Feb. 5, the Air Force’s Office of Scientific Research announced it had awarded Feng $3.5 million over three years, plus an option to add $2.5 million funding over an additional two years. The contract’s goal: speed up how quickly a supercomputer can simulate the computational fluid dynamics of micro-air vehicles (MAVs), or unmanned aerial vehicles. MAVs can be as small as about five inches, with an aircraft close to insect size expected in the near future. While the robo-bugs can obviously be used for military purposes, they could also serve as scouts in rescue operations."
Canada

Submission + - Sony Rootkit Redux: Canadian Business Groups Lobby For Right To Install Spyware (michaelgeist.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Michael Geist reports that a coalition of Canadian industry groups, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Marketing Association, the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association and the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, are demanding legalized spyware for private enforcement purposes. The potential scope of coverage is breathtaking: a software program secretly installed by an entertainment software company designed to detect or investigate alleged copyright infringement would be covered by this exception. This exception could potentially cover programs designed to block access to certain websites (preventing the contravention of a law as would have been the case with SOPA), attempts to access wireless networks without authorization, or even keylogger programs tracking unsuspecting users (detection and investigation).
Open Source

Submission + - Can closed source software transition to the GPL successfully? (networkworld.com)

Submitted by colinneagle
colinneagle writes: Open Source guy Bryan Lunduke has experienced the difficulties of migrating a successful closed source project to an open license first-hand, but still believes — or at least wants to believe — that it can be done.

Case in point: LiveCode's new Kickstarter campaign to raise about $550,000 to help put their Hyper-Card-like software development tool for Linux, Windows and Mac under an open license.

At the time this was written, they were roughly 20% of the way to their fund-raising goal with 22 days left. So it seems tight...but entirely possible.

The question is, will it be successful in the long term even if it reaches its Kickstarter goal?
Businesses

Submission + - Help! I Don't Want To Write Computer Code Anymore! (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruh
jfruh writes: "After years of college and professional training, you've got a steady, paying job as a computer programmer — and you realize that you don't enjoy it, and want to do something, anything else for a living. What's your next step? Career advisor Eric Bloom has some tough questions you need to ask yourself in order to make a plan. One of the most important involves making sure that you're moving towards something you really want, not just away from pain."
Android

Submission + - "More Than Just Dreamers" Backing Ouya Console as Major US Retailers Show Suppor (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by
DavidGilbert99
DavidGilbert99 writes: "There were a lot of people who doubted the Android-based Ouya console would ever see the light of day, despite racking up more than $8 million in funding from Kickstarter.

It must therefore give CEO Julie Urhman great pleasure to say: "This announcement is that we now have more than just dreamers behind us, we have established companies that do their due diligence that believe there's an opportunity for bringing great content back to the television."

Urhman is speaking about the support of major US retailers Best Buy, Target and Gamestop who will stock the $99 console from June. It is also available to pre-order on Amazon (US only I'm afraid) and those early believers who supported the project on Kickstarter will get one as soon as next month."
Security

Submission + - Researchers devise new attack techniques against SSL (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: The developers of many SSL libraries are releasing patches for a vulnerability that could potentially be exploited to recover plaintext information, such as browser authentication cookies, from encrypted communications.The patching effort follows the discovery of new ways to attack SSL, TLS and DTLS implementations that use cipher-block-chaining (CBC) mode encryption. The new attack methods were developed by researchers at the University of London's Royal Holloway College. The men published a research paper and a website http://www.isg.rhul.ac.uk/tls/ on Monday with detailed information about their new attacks, which they have dubbed the Lucky Thirteen. They've worked with several TLS library vendors, as well as the TLS Working Group of the IETF, to fix the issue.
DRM

Submission + - Microsoft, Netflix, Google Propose Inclusion of DRM in HTML5 (paritynews.com)

Submitted by ParityNews
ParityNews writes: Microsoft, Netflix and Google have put forward a proposal in the HTML Working Group seeking standardization of DRM in HTML5. DRM is not a good idea at all and doesn’t help solve the problem of piracy on the web and this is what Manu Sporny, a member of the HTML WG and founder of a startup that built a DRM enabled peer-to-peer, legal content sharing network believes. According to Sporny “TL;DR: The Encrypted Media Extensions” (DRM in HTML5) is not the solution to the problem of “opportunistic or professional piracy.”
Crime

Submission + - Hacker Faces 105 Years In Prison After Blackmailing 350+ Women (ibtimes.com) 1

Submitted by
redletterdave
redletterdave writes: "According to the 30-count indictment released by the Central District of California early this morning, 27-year-old hacker Karen "Gary" Kazaryan allegedly hacked his way into hundreds of online accounts, using personal information and nude or semi-nude photos of his victims to coerce more than 350 female victims to show him their naked bodies, usually over Skype. By posing as a friend, Kazaryan allegedly tricked these women into stripping for him on camera, capturing more than 3,000 images of these women to blackmail them. Kazaryan was arrested by federal agents on Tuesday; if convicted on all 30 counts, including 15 counts of computer intrusion and 15 counts of aggravated identity theft, Kazaryan could face up to 105 years in federal prison."
Power

Submission + - Interactive Map Shows When Solar Gets Competitive in U.S. (ilsr.org)

Submitted by
indros13
indros13 writes: "A new interactive map illustrates how much solar photovoltaic power could be installed at prices competitive with retail electricity (without subsidies) over the next decade in all 50 U.S. states. Move the slider to see the impact of falling solar prices, as well as the huge impact of current tax incentives.

Full disclosure: I did the research behind the map and I think it's a very useful tool for planning our energy future."
Programming

Submission + - 8 Irresistible Programming Contests (smartbear.com)

Submitted by
Esther Schindler
Esther Schindler writes: "Baseball players can compare their excellence by looking at statistics. Developers... not so much. It's hard to know how good you are unless you go head-to-head with other programmers, which is one reason that programming competitions are fun. So, too, is the money you might win, or the career bragging rights, or, as Steven Vaughan-Nichols points out in 8 Contests and Challenges You Can't Resist, you might get to contribute to a NASA project. Wouldn't that look cool on your resume?"
NASA

Submission + - NASA: Feb. 15 asteroid fly-by will buzz Earth closer than many satellites (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "NASA says an asteroid about half the size of a football field will blow past Earth on Feb 15 closer than many man-made satellites. NASA added that while the asteroid, designated 2012 DA14 has no change of striking Earth, since regular sky surveys began in the 1990s, astronomers have never seen an object so big come so close to our planet."
The Internet

Submission + - Free Wi-Fi: The Movement to Give Away Your Internet for the Good of Humanity (vice.com)

Submitted by
pigrabbitbear
pigrabbitbear writes: "We are strangely territorial when it comes to our wireless networks. The idea of someone siphoning off our precious bandwidth without paying for it is, for most people, completely unacceptable. But the Open Wireless Movement wants to change all that.

“We are trying to create a movement where people are willing to share their network for the common good,” says Adi Kamdar, an activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “It's a neighborly thing to do.”

That's right, upstanding citizen of the Internet, you can be a good neighbor just by opening your wireless network to strangers--or so the line goes. The ultimate vision is one of neighborhoods completely void of passwords, where any passerby can quickly jump on your network and use Google Maps to find directions or check their email or do whatever they want to do (or, whatever you decide they can do)."

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