technology

Tor: The Onion Router

"With the ever expanding surveillance systems being employed in the United States and around the world, the ability to use the internet anonymously is becoming increasingly important, especially for activists, or anyone who is not okay with your Search Engine provider, ISP (Internet Service Provider) and your government knowing everything about your internet use. Here, I will go into brief detail about the technical aspects of Tor, give reasons why you should use Tor and finally guide you through the installation of the Tor browser and how to contribute to the network by setting up a relay." Continue reading →

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Don’t Make it Easy for Governments to Compile Your Digital Dossier – Part II

"The Onion Router (Tor) was originally a research project of the US Naval Research Laboratory and was developed as a third generation anonymity software. Today, the Tor Project is an open source application and is used worldwide by private citizens, the military, journalists, law enforcement officers, and activists. Tor is arguably one of the most anonymous Internet anonymizers available. As the above diagram illustrates, users, via a Tor client, make a random connection to the first of three remote servers. The remote servers can be operated by anyone – virtually anywhere in the world. The three servers, also known as nodes, are encrypted." Continue reading →

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The Top 10 Companies With The Best Business Outlook According To Employees

"Following Google’s I/O conference and its share price breakthrough this week, it looks like techies and shareholders may not be the only ones feeling the energy around the company’s business. We look at the Top 10 Companies with the Best Business Outlook, according to employees, and Google stands out at number one – 86% of employees believe the company’s business outlook will improve in the next six months. The online company review survey that employees voluntarily and anonymously complete includes the question: 'Do you believe your company’s business outlook will get better, stay the same or get worse in the next six months?'" Continue reading →

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Bitcoin more powerful than fastest supercomputers

"The power of all the computers networked together to maintain the digital currency's system far exceeds the combined processing strength of the top 500 most powerful supercomputers. Easily. The matchup isn't even close. At any given moment, Bitcoin's peer-to-peer network contains thousands of computers linked together to generate more than 1,000 petaflops of raw computing power. To put that in perspective, the world's fastest supercomputer, Titan, runs at less than 18 petaflops. The Bitcoin network is sucking down nearly $200,000 a day in electricity costs. That's stunning for an 'economy' that sprang into being just four years ago." Continue reading →

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Cold fusion reactor independently verified, has 10,000 times the energy density of gas

"Against all probability, a device that purports to use cold fusion to generate vast amounts of power has been verified by a panel of independent scientists. The research paper, which hasn’t yet undergone peer review, seems to confirm both the existence of cold fusion, and its potency: The cold fusion device being tested has roughly 10,000 times the energy density and 1,000 times the power density of gasoline. Even allowing for a massively conservative margin of error, the scientists say that the cold fusion device they tested is 10 times more powerful than gasoline — which is currently the best fuel readily available to mankind." Continue reading →

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New lithium-ion battery design: 2,000 times more powerful, recharges 1,000 times faster

"Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a new lithium-ion battery technology that is 2,000 times more powerful than comparable batteries. According to the researchers, this is not simply an evolutionary step in battery tech, 'It’s a new enabling technology… it breaks the normal paradigms of energy sources. It’s allowing us to do different, new things.' In real-world use, this tech will probably be used to equip consumer devices with batteries that are much smaller and lighter — imagine a smartphone with a battery the thickness of a credit card, which can be recharged in a few seconds." Continue reading →

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Bio-engineered kidney offers new hope to patients suffering renal failure

"Researchers in the United States on Sunday said they had bio-engineered a kidney and transplanted it into rats, marking a step forward in a quest to help patients suffering from kidney failure. The prototype proves that a 'bio-kidney' can work, emulating breakthroughs elsewhere to build replacement structures for livers, hearts and lungs, they said. The team transplanted the organ into living rats from which a kidney had been removed. The new kidney started filtering blood and producing urine through the ureter as soon as the bloody supply was restored, and there was no evidence of bleeding or clots." Continue reading →

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Breakthrough process turns skin cells into protective brain cells

"Researchers explained that a new process allows them to take common skin cells and engineer them to morph into myelinating brain cells that help protect the nervous system and keep it function properly. In diseases like multiple sclerosis, the myelin layer of cells that coat nerves gets destroyed, and scientists have worked for years trying to figure out how to make it regenerate. Now, it looks like researchers at Ohio’s Case Western Reserve University have figured out how to do just that in rats, and they’re aiming to replicate their results with human cells next." Continue reading →

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Spiny parasitic worm helps doctors devise patch to keep skin grafts in place

"A parasitic worm that latches onto the intestines of fish by inflating its head has led to a remarkable invention for keeping skin grafts in place, even when the surface of the wound is wet. US researchers devised a patch studded with tiny cone-shaped needles as a replacement for surgical staples, a potential source of tissue damage and infection. The needles are made of a stiff core made of plastic and a tip that is rigid when dry but swells up on contact with water in surface tissue. Within 10 minutes, the tips are plumped up and secure the patch firmly on the skin, clamping grafts on burns and other injuries." Continue reading →

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NASA taps 3-D printer firm for ‘Star Trek’-style food replicator

"U.S. space agency NASA has tapped 3-D printer firm Systems & Materials Research Corporation (SMRC) to create the first-ever 'Star Trek'-style food replicator using 3-D printing technology. According to Quartz, NASA gave the company a six month, $125,000 grant contract to focus on developing 3-D printers that use cartridges full of carbohydrates, protein powders and oils that can be combined in layers to produce food. Grocery stores could be gradually transformed to ultra-cheap cartridge retailers while non-nutrient edible products are phased out by market forces." Continue reading →

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