Archive for the 'Technology' Category
X-37 Variant Might Carry Astronauts
October 12th, 2011Via: Wired: The Air Force’s mysterious X-37B “space plane” is only on its second, eight-month-plus orbital mission, ostensibly conducting science experiments. But manufacturer Boeing has already drawn up plans for a major upgrade to the nimble, 29-foot-long robot — one that could more than double the vehicle’s size and make room for up to six […]
AOL Launches New Unmanned ‘Lights Out’ Data Center
October 12th, 2011They role all the hardware issues into batch jobs that get dealt with by contractors. I wonder how many years it will be before they build Ikea warehouse style data centers, where robots will actually pull and replace the defective server units? You could have a data center the size of a couple of football […]
VeriSign Demands Website Takedown Powers, No Court Order Necessary
October 11th, 2011Via: Register: VeriSign, which manages the database of all .com internet addresses, wants powers to shut down “non-legitimate” domain names when asked to by law enforcement. The company said today it wants to be able to enforce the “denial, cancellation or transfer of any registration” in any of a laundry list of scenarios where a […]
Adobe Photoshop Upcoming Feature: Unblur
October 11th, 2011*Gasp*
Time Capsule With Over 100-Year-Old Germs Found At Former Bellevue Hospital Medical College
October 9th, 2011Via: CBS: In 1897, a time capsule was sealed up and hidden away in the cornerstone of what was Bellevue Hospital Medical College in Manhattan. Now, it has been found. A few weeks ago, that building at East 26th Street and 1st Avenue was demolished. The contents of the time capsule were recovered and they’re […]
Chaos Computer Club Describes Possible German Government Spyware
October 9th, 2011Update: German Officials Admit Using Spyware on Citizens Via: MSNBC: A Germany-based hacker group claims a German government-created Trojan horse program is capable of secretly spying on Web users without their consent. The group says on its Web site that it obtained and analyzed a piece of software that is supposed to be a “lawful […]
‘Steve Jobs, The Pioneer Of The Computer As A Jail’
October 8th, 2011Via: Stallman: Steve Jobs, the pioneer of the computer as a jail made cool, designed to sever fools from their freedom, has died. As Chicago Mayor Harold Washington said of the corrupt former Mayor Daley, “I’m not glad he’s dead, but I’m glad he’s gone.” Nobody deserves to have to die – not Jobs, not […]
Homeland Security Moves Forward with ‘Pre-Crime’ Detection
October 8th, 2011Via: Cnet: An internal U.S. Department of Homeland Security document indicates that a controversial program designed to predict whether a person will commit a crime is already being tested on some members of the public voluntarily, CNET has learned. If this sounds a bit like the Tom Cruise movie called “Minority Report,” or the CBS […]
FBI to Launch Nationwide Facial Recognition Service
October 8th, 2011Via: Nextgov: The FBI by mid-January will activate a nationwide facial recognition service in select states that will allow local police to identify unknown subjects in photos, bureau officials told Nextgov. The federal government is embarking on a multiyear, $1 billion dollar overhaul of the FBI’s existing fingerprint database to more quickly and accurately identify […]
Computer Virus Hits U.S. Drone Fleet
October 8th, 2011Via: Wired: A computer virus has infected the cockpits of America’s Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots’ every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over Afghanistan and other warzones. The virus, first detected nearly two weeks ago by the military’s Host-Based Security System, has not prevented pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from […]
