technology

Swiss solar-powered plane to make first cross-US flight

"An innovative solar-powered aircraft is set to launch Friday from California on a flight across the United States, the first of its kind aiming to showcase what is possible without fossil fuels. The experimental Solar Impulse plane -- with the wingspan of a Boeing 747 but the weight of a small car -- bears 12,000 solar cells. By day, the cells power the plane's electric motors while also charging batteries, so the plane, unlike other solar aircraft, can keep flying all night. The project was launched more than a decade ago, after inveterate adventurer Bertrand Piccard, 54, nearly ran out of fuel on his historic non-stop round-the-world balloon flight." Continue reading →

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That 3D-Printed Handgun You’ve Been Waiting For Is Here

"Remember when Defense Distributed's Cody Wilson promised to unveil an entirely 3D-printed handgun made of ABS plastic with the firing pin its only metal part? Well, he's apparently done it. Forbes's Andy Greenberg was given a sneak peek of the result, and it looks and appears to be quite an achievement. If all goes well, the plans will be unveiled at Defcad.org next week." Continue reading →

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Read more about the article What Happened When One Man Pinged the Whole Internet

What Happened When One Man Pinged the Whole Internet

"You probably haven’t heard of HD Moore, but up to a few weeks ago every Internet device in the world, perhaps including some in your own home, was contacted roughly three times a day by a stack of computers that sit overheating his spare room. In February last year he decided to carry out a personal census of every device on the Internet as a hobby. '[It] drew quite a lot of complaints, hate mail, and calls from law enforcement,' he says. But the data collected has revealed some serious security problems, and exposed some vulnerable business and industrial systems of a kind used to control everything from traffic lights to power infrastructure."

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‘The Single Most Valuable Document In The History Of The World Wide Web’

"Twenty years ago this week, researchers renounced the right to patent the World Wide Web. Officials at CERN, the European research center where the Web was invented, wrote: 'CERN relinquishes all intellectual property to this code, both source and binary form and permission is granted for anyone to use, duplicate, modify and redistribute it.' It's a dull sentence from a dull document. But that document marks the moment when the World Wide Web entered the public domain — a moment that was central to creating the Web as we know it today. Could the Web have been patented? And how would the world have been different if it had?" Continue reading →

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Authors, composers want 3.4% of every Belgian’s Internet bill

"Content owners in nearly every country have tried various strategies to get compensation for losses due to piracy. But copyright owners in Belgium have a bold new tactic: go after Internet service providers in court, demanding 3.4 percent of the fees their customers pay for Internet service. The lawsuit has been brought by the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers, and Publishers, known as Sabam. The group's claim is similar to the blank-media levy that exists in Canada. It seems to be based on the assumption that a particular medium is used to break copyright law, and therefore all the users of that media should rightly be required to pay a tax." Continue reading →

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FinFisher spyware used by governments is disguised as Firefox; Mozilla not happy

"FinFisher, also known as FinSpy, is a piece of malware developed by Gamma International and sold to governments of 36 different countries (the US included) to monitor the activities of computer users. The spyware was originally designed to aid with criminal investigations, but there have been reports that say it has been used for more than just to catch criminals, such as to monitor the activities of dissidents or [insert label here]. Mozilla, the maker of the popular Firefox browser, has issued a cease-and-desist letter to Gamma International because Mozilla alleges FinFisher is packaged to look like the Firefox browser." Continue reading →

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High-frequency stock traders turn to laser networks, to make yet more money

"Financial traders are now turning to high-speed laser networks between stock exchanges, to decrease latency by a few milliseconds, to squeeze a few more trillion dollars per year out of high-frequency trading (HFT). Perseus Telecom recently completed a microwave link between London and Frankfurt that reduced the round-trip latency to just 4.6 milliseconds — almost halving the 8.35-millisecond round-trip for the London-Frankfurt fiber link. The microwave network cost between $13 and $26 million to build, but for the financial trader who uses it could earn billions." Continue reading →

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Uh-oh: AT&T and Comcast are ecstatic about the FCC’s new chairman

"The same President who said 'I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over' when he was running for office has given the FCC's top job to a former lobbyist. Wheeler donated $38,500 to Obama's election efforts and helped raise additional money for Obama by becoming a 'bundler,' arranging for large contributions from other donors after hitting legal limits on personal contributions. Not surprisingly, the cable and telecom companies that Wheeler springs from are ecstatic about the nomination. Wheeler led the NCTA from 1979 to 1984 and the CTIA from 1992 to 2004." Continue reading →

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Engineers build bug-eyed camera that sees the world as flies do

"Taking their cue from Nature, engineers have built a camera using stretchable electronics that scans the world like a fly’s compound eye — with a wide field of view and no distortion, they said Wednesday. The digital device, which has a multitude of tiny, pliable lenses like those found in ant, beetle, and lobster eyes, also allows for a near-infinite depth of field and high motion sensitivity, the team wrote in the journal Nature. 'We’ve figured out ways to make cameras that incorporate all of the essential design features of eyes found in the insect world,' study co-author John Rogers of the University of Illinois’ engineering department told AFP." Continue reading →

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Companies That Protect Your Data From the Prying Eyes of Government

"The winners, that is those who require a warrant before giving up information and who also inform you of government requests, are: Dropbox; Foursquare; LinkedIn; Sonic.net; SpiderOak; Twitter; WordPress. The companies that roll over and immediately give up information and also don't notify you that you are the subject of a government request: Amazon; Apple; AT&T; Comcast; MySpace; Verizon; Yahoo. Google and Microsoft require a warrant before they provide information about you, but don't notify you that you are the subject of a government request." Continue reading →

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