Archive for the 'Technology' Category
GM Hiring 1,000 Engineers to Expand Electric-Vehicle Offerings
November 30th, 2010Via: Bloomberg: General Motors Co., the maker of the Chevrolet Volt gasoline-electric car, will hire 1,000 engineers in Michigan to help expand the automakers’ lineup of electric- drive vehicles. The hiring will increase GM’s workforce of electric-vehicle engineers by 50 percent to about 3,000, said Rob Peterson, a spokesman for the Detroit-based company. GM, which […]
NAB Computer Debacle Finally Fixed
November 30th, 2010*shaking head* Via: PerthNow: THE last of millions of National Australia Bank (NAB) customers left cashless and embarrassed by a massive computing failure have had their accounts restored. NAB said today that the remaining 19,155 affected customers could now access money in their accounts – six days after the debacle began. Accounts are all up […]
COMCAST DEMANDS PAYMENTS FROM LEVEL 3 TO DELIVER CONTENT TO ENDUSERS
November 30th, 2010Grim. Via: Level 3 Communications: Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) today issued the following statement, which can be attributed to Thomas Stortz, Chief Legal Officer of Level 3: “On November 19, 2010, Comcast informed Level 3 that, for the first time, it will demand a recurring fee from Level 3 to transmit Internet online […]
Iran Admits Uranium Enrichment Centrifuges Hit by Malware
November 29th, 2010Via: AFP: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad admitted Monday that “several” uranium enrichment centrifuges were damaged by “software installed in electronic equipment,” amid speculation Iran’s nuclear activities had come under cyberattack. “They were able to create problems on a limited basis for some of our centrifuges by software installed in electronic equipment,” Ahmadinejad told reporters when asked […]
Boeing to Mass-Produce Record-Breaking 39.2 Percent Efficiency Solar Cell
November 29th, 2010“Mass-produce” in this context probably means for use in utility scale concentrator-type applications. Via: Gizmag: When it comes to solar cells, everyone is chasing the highest conversion efficiency. Although we’ve seen conversion efficiencies of over 40 percent achieved with multi-junction solar cells in lab environments, Boeing subsidiary Spectrolab is bringing this kind of efficiency to […]
Recruiting Robots for Combat
November 28th, 2010Via: New York Times: The Maars robots first attracted the military’s interest as a defensive system during an Army Ranger exercise here in 2008. Used as a nighttime sentry against infiltrators equipped with thermal imaging vision systems, the battery-powered Maars unit remained invisible — it did not have the heat signature of a human being […]
U.S. Shuts Down Web Sites in Piracy Crackdown
November 27th, 2010They’re just arbitrarily hijacking sites via DNS now. They could redirect any .com, .net or .org site’s traffic to their takedown page. They could do it to Cryptogon or any other site using these top level domains. What other TLDs can the U.S. Government arbitrarily hijack? Via: New York Times: In what appears to be […]
Insurance Companies Using Electronic Data About Lifestyle and Purchasing Habits to Generate Risk Profiles
November 26th, 2010Via: Wall Street Journal: Life insurers are testing an intensely personal new use for the vast dossiers of data being amassed about Americans: predicting people’s longevity. Insurers have long used blood and urine tests to assess people’s health—a costly process. Today, however, data-gathering companies have such extensive files on most U.S. consumers—online shopping details, catalog […]
Next Step for Body Scanners Could be Trains, Boats, Metro
November 24th, 2010Via: The Hill: The next step in tightened security could be on U.S. public transportation, trains and boats. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says terrorists will continue to look for U.S. vulnerabilities, making tighter security standards necessary. “[Terrorists] are going to continue to probe the system and try to find a way through,” Napolitano said […]
U.S. Launches Giant Eavesdropping Satellite
November 23rd, 2010Via: AFP: The United States has placed in orbit a vast reconnaissance satellite reputed to be the largest eavesdropping device ever launched into space. The largest unmanned American launch vehicle, the Delta-4 Heavy rocket, roared into the the night sky in Cape Canaveral, Florida on Sunday carrying the mysterious satellite on a mission dubbed NROL-32. […]
