Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Yes, Mildred, Your Cell Phone Is Used to Track Your Position on the Ground
August 24th, 2014Keep in mind, what they’re talking about here is just the mobile network information. Most phones have GPS radios built in now, so I’d assume that the position data is accurate to within a couple of meters when the observers are the Five Eyes states. What I don’t know is how often they activate the […]
Bots on Patrol: Mobile Security Robot to be Mass Produced
August 22nd, 2014Via: Factor: In a move that will rock the job security of night watchmen everywhere, the world’s first commercially available security robot is set for mass production in the US. Designed by Denver-based Gamma 2 Robotics, the robot will now be manufactured entirely in the States, with a process that can be scaled up to […]
Despite FAA Setbacks, Amazon Prime Air Makes Notable Engineering, NASA And Aerospace Hires
August 21st, 2014Via: TechCrunch: Something big is going on with Amazon Prime Air, the e-commerce giant’s research project focused on delivering packages in 30 minutes or less using unmanned drones. … Prime Air is shaping up to be more than a marketing stunt, it seems. The company recently scored a few notable hires for this project, including […]
Amazon Expands Its Cloud Services to U.S. Military
August 21st, 2014Via: DefenseOne: Amazon Web Services has become the first commercial cloud provider authorized to handle the Defense Department’s most sensitive unclassified data. Today’s announcement that AWS has achieved a provisional authority to operate under DOD’s cloud security model at impact levels 3-5 is a major win for the company, as it allows DOD customers to […]
Russia Forces Its Popular Bloggers to Register — Or Else
August 20th, 2014Via: Bloomberg: Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking names. Potentially thousands. The former KGB colonel, concerned with how social media can be used to undermine his authority, this month expanded his regulation of media to the blogosphere, requiring those with at least 3,000 daily readers to register their real names and contact information. So far, […]
Navy Conducts First Series of Drone and Manned Fighter Jet Operations
August 19th, 2014Via: Los Angeles Times: The U.S. Navy said its jet-powered, bat-winged X-47B drone has conducted carrier deck operations and performed maneuvers alongside an F/A-18 fighter jet, marking the first time manned and unmanned aircraft have operated together on the same carrier. Navy officials hailed the test flights of the experimental drone, which were completed Sunday […]
NSA BIOS Backdoor a.k.a. God Mode
August 18th, 2014Via: Infosec Institute: This article is the first part of a series on NSA BIOS backdoor internals. Before we begin, I’d like to point out why these malwares are classified as “god mode.” First, most of the malware uses an internal (NSA) codename in the realms of “gods,” such as DEITYBOUNCE, GODSURGE, etc. Second, these […]
Gyroscopes in Your Phone Could Let Apps Eavesdrop on Conversations
August 15th, 2014Via: Wired: In the age of surveillance paranoia, most smartphone users know better than to give a random app or website permission to use their device’s microphone. But researchers have found there’s another, little-considered sensor in modern phones that can also listen in on their conversations. And it doesn’t even need to ask. In a […]
DARPA Uses Preteen Gamers to Beta Test Tomorrow’s Military Software
August 15th, 2014Via: Vice: Sieg Hall doesn’t look like much from the outside. Located at the University of Washington, the building was constructed in the 1960s, when it was a focal point for Vietnam-era antiwar protests. Before renovations were carried out it had become so dilapidated that students had a tradition of taking home chunks of rock […]
The Kilobot Project: A Low Cost Scalable Robot System for Demonstrating Collective Behaviors
August 15th, 2014Here’s one for your This-Will-End-Badly file folder. Via: Harvard: In current robotics research there is a vast body of work on algorithms and control methods for groups of decentralized cooperating robots, called a swarm or collective. These algorithms are generally meant to control collectives of hundreds or even thousands of robots; however, for reasons of […]
