Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Hayden Says Stuxnet Was, ‘A Good Idea’; Mentions Potential for Blowback
March 2nd, 2012Via: CBS: Could the Stuxnet virus that sabotaged the Iranian nuclear program be used against the U.S. infrastructure or other high profile targets? A retired American general who was the head of the Central Intelligence Agency when Stuxnet would have been created calls the cyber weapon a “good idea,” but warns it is out there […]
U.S. Court Approves Warrantless Searches of Cell Phones
March 2nd, 2012Via: Reuters: U.S. police can search a cell phone for its number without having a warrant, according to a federal appeals court ruling. Officers in Indiana found a number of cell phones at the scene of a drug bust, and searched each phone for its telephone number. Having the numbers allowed the government to subpoena […]
Internet and Blackberry Services Down at Pentagon
March 2nd, 2012Via: Herald Sun: THE US military’s Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) shut down access to the internet and Blackberry service while work was being done to fix an unspecified problem, yesterday. The shutdown, which came around 10:00am local time, meant that no one in the Pentagon had internet access. Many military downrange, including combatant commands, […]
Speech-Jamming Gun [???]
March 1st, 2012Via: ExtremeTech: Japanese researchers have created a hand-held gun (pictured above) that can jam the words of speakers who are more than 30 meters (100ft) away. The gun has two purposes, according to the researchers: At its most basic, this gun could be used in libraries and other quiet spaces to stop people from speaking […]
The Madness of Dmitry Itskov
February 29th, 2012Hopefully, consciousness is nonlocal and these lunatics have no chance of success. Otherwise… Well, let’s just say that I don’t want to find out what the Cheney daemon has in mind for me, when it emerges from my virtual bedroom closet, wearing a bozo wig and clown suit. What could possibly go wrong? Along these […]
Windows 8 Consumer Preview Presentation
February 29th, 2012I’m watching the live presentation that’s happening in Barcelona and it looks like Windows 8 is going to be using a cloud based log-in feature that is going to sync settings, and a lot of other stuff, across devices. I have no idea if there’s an opt out to let it function as a standalone […]
Google Once Considered Issuing Digital Currency
February 29th, 2012Via: IT World: Google once considered issuing its own currency, to be called Google Bucks, company Chairman Eric Schmidt said on stage in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress Tuesday. At the end of his keynote speech, Schmidt hit on a wide array of topics in response to audience questions. “We’ve had various proposals to […]
IBM Breakthrough May Make Practical Quantum Computer 15 Years Away Instead of 50
February 28th, 2012Via: New York Times: I.B.M. is jumping into an area of computing that has, until now, been primarily the province of academia: the quest to build a quantum computer. A computer that took advantage of the oddities of quantum physics could solve in seconds certain problems that would occupy present-day computers for billions of years. […]
U.S. Air Force Developing “Optionally-Manned” Nuclear Bomber
February 27th, 2012Via: The Diplomat: The Air Force has been working on a bomber since 2006, according to most reports, with the aim of first complementing then replacing the existing fleet of 150 B-52, B-1 and B-2 bombers, the oldest of which date from the early 1960s. Then-U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates suspended the bomber development […]
Swarms Of Autonomous Micro-Air-Vehicles Modeled On Insects
February 27th, 2012Via: NPR: Do bees, swarms of bees, make you nervous? Maybe not. Maybe they remind you of honey, flowers and warm summer days. You stay out of their way and they stay out of yours. What if, however, the bees weren’t bees at all but hundreds (or thousands) of autonomous microbots, facsimiles of the real […]
