Archive for the ‘news & announcements’ category
Short, on-Chip Light Pulses Will Enable Ultrafast Data Transfer Within Computers
Electrical engineers generated short, powerful light pulses on a chip — an important step toward the optical interconnects that will likely replace the copper wires that carry information between chips within today’s computers. University of California, San Diego electrical engineers recently developed the first ultra compact, low power pulse compressor on a silicon chip to [...]
Methane-Powered Laptops? Materials Scientists Unveil Tiny, Low-Temperature Methane Fuel Cells
Making fuel cells practical and affordable will not happen overnight. It may, however, not take much longer. With advances in nanostructured devices, lower operating temperatures, and the use of an abundant fuel source and cheaper materials, a group of researchers led by Shriram Ramanathan at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) are [...]
EFF Tool Offers New Protection Against ‘Firesheep’
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has launched a new version of HTTPS Everywhere, a security tool that offers enhanced protection for Firefox browser users against “Firesheep” and other exploits of webpage security flaws. HTTPS secures web browsing by encrypting both requests from your browser to websites and the resulting pages that are displayed. Without HTTPS, [...]
Tab stacking in Opera 11
Tabbed browsing, one of the essential features in all browsers, has evolved yet again thanks to its long-time pioneer. Opera 11 beta introduces tab stacking, a better way to organize your open tabs. Traditionally, tabs were opened side-by-side, but now people using Opera can stack their tabs, grouping them by site or by theme. Tab [...]
Controlling screen cursors with thoughts
Using a new brain-computer training approach, 14 volunteers learned in only six minutes how to move a screen cursor with their thoughts. Near-instant feedback helped the people quickly master some of their own brain responses. The findings were presented at Neuroscience 2010, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, held in San Diego. Researchers [...]
What Factors Contribute to the Success or Failure of Software Firms?
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, news about 20-somethings becoming billionaires from the sale of their software companies flooded the media, giving the impression that a good idea was all it took to succeed in the software industry. Jennifer Shang, an associate professor of business management in the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, along [...]
‘Space-Time Cloak’ to Conceal Events
The study, by researchers from Imperial College London, involves a new class of materials called metamaterials, which can be artificially engineered to distort light or sound waves. With conventional materials, light typically travels along a straight line, but with metamaterials, scientists can exploit a wealth of additional flexibility to create undetectable blind spots. By deflecting [...]
New Standard Proposed for Supercomputing
A new supercomputer rating system will be released by an international team led by Sandia National Laboratories at the Supercomputing Conference 2010 in New Orleans on Nov. 17. The rating system, Graph500, tests supercomputers for their skill in analyzing large, graph-based structures that link the huge numbers of data points present in biological, social and [...]
‘Racetrack’ Magnetic Memory Could Make Computer Memory 100,000 Times Faster
Imagine a computer equipped with shock-proof memory that’s 100,000 times faster and consumes less power than current hard disks. EPFL Professor Mathias Kläui is working on a new kind of “Racetrack” memory, a high-volume, ultra-rapid non-volatile read-write magnetic memory that may soon make such a device possible. Annoyed by how long it took his computer [...]
Three New Android Vulnerabilities Released
Smartphone security has become a popular topic amongst security researchers, with three new vulnerabilities released in the last two weeks alone. Speakers at BlackHat Abu Dhabi, HouSecCon, and Intel’s Annual Security Conference have released new vulnerabilities in Android that allow attackers to execute arbitrary code or install apps without user intervention. Last week, Alert Logic [...]
Updated Software Uses Combination Testing to Catch Bugs Fast and Easy
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have released an updated version of a computer system testing tool that can cut costs by more efficiently finding flaws. A tutorial on using the tool accompanies the new release. Catching software “bugs” before a program is released enhances computer security because hackers often exploit [...]
Bjoern A. Zeeb receives second Itojun Service Award at IETF 79 Meeting
source – Internet Society Monthly Newsletter: The second Itojun Service Award was presented today at this week’s Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) meeting in Beijing, China. Bjoern A. Zeeb received the award for his dedicated work to make significant improvements in open source implementations of IPv6. IPv6 is the next generation of Internet protocol that [...]
Quantum Computers Easier to Build: Can Tolerate Faulty or Missing Components, Researchers Say
Quantum computers should be much easier to build than previously thought, because they can still work with a large number of faulty or even missing components, according to a study published in Physical Review Letters. This surprising discovery brings scientists one step closer to designing and building real-life quantum computing systems — devices that could [...]
Hyper-Texting and Hyper-Networking Pose New Health Risks for Teens
Texting while driving can be a deadly combination for anyone. Yet, new data reveal that the dangers of excessive texting among teens are not limited to the road. Hyper-texting and hyper-networking are now giving rise to a new health risk category for this age group. Scott Frank, MD, MS, lead researcher on the study and [...]
Turbo charge your Android Opera Mobile 10.1 beta
source: Android users now have a new choice when it comes to browsers. Today, Opera Software announced that Opera Mobile 10.1 beta is available in the Android Market for free, providing the many millions of Android users better browser performance and an improved user experience. Android users are known to appreciate speed and functionality. They [...]
Computer Program Recognizes Human Emotions from Conversation Analysis
Researchers from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid’s Facultad de Informática have developed a computer program capable of human emotion recognition from automated voice analysis. The application analyses the sound measurements of a conversation, output by another purpose-built program. Then, based on the rules described in the new application, it is able to identify the emotions [...]
Computer Scientist, Student Design Software to Combat Hacking Using Keystroke Anti-Spoofing Technique
One of the serious threats to a user’s computer is a software program that might cause unwanted keystroke sequences to occur in order to hack someone’s identity. This form of an attack is increasing, infecting enterprise and personal computers, and caused by “organized malicious botnets,” said Daphne Yao, assistant professor of computer science at Virginia [...]
Russian government to invest in open source desktop
The Russian government is planning to invest 150 million rouble (about 3.5 million Euro) in developing an secure open source desktop for public administrations, a Russian business newspaper reported on Wednesday and confirmed by the AFP news agency. According to the news item in Vedomosti, the government wants to reduce it’s dependence on single vendor [...]
Govt must stop breaking procurement rules and move to open source
The Portuguese Association for Free Software (Ansol) is urging the government to stop buying proprietary software licences without a public tender, and to switch to free and open source software. The advocacy group uncovered that five public administrations in 2009 spent more than 120 million Euro in total on proprietary software licences for operating systems [...]
Free Technology Academy and Free Software Foundation partner
Free Software Foundation (FSF) News: The Free Technology Academy (FTA) and the Free Software Foundation (FSF) announced today their partnership in the FTA’s Associate Partner Network. The Network aims to expand the availability of professional educational courses and materials covering the concepts and applications of free software and free standards. The FTA consists of an [...]
New Software Brings Facial-Recognition Technology to Mobile Phones
Scientists at The University of Manchester have developed software for mobile phones that can track your facial features in real-time. Eventually it will be able to tell who the user is, where they are looking and even how they are feeling. The method is believed to be unrivalled for speed and accuracy and could lead [...]
Linpus announces support for MeeGo™ on the connected TV platform
Linpus Technologies, Inc., an open source solutions provider based in Taipei, Taiwan, has announced support for MeeGo™ on the connected TV platform. With this development, the smartTV solution, which was originally targeted at devices powered by the Arm processor, will also run on devices powered by the Intel® Atom™ processor. Linpus Technologies is the developer [...]
Gemalto Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Over Android
Gemalto N.V., a digital security outfit based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, just announced that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the United States against Google, HTC, Motorola, and Samsung for use of Gemalto’s security products in the Android operating system, Dalvik virtual machine and associated development tools and products. According to the Gemalto, the [...]
Voice Phishing: System to Trace Telephone Call Paths Across Multiple Networks Developed
Phishing scams are making the leap from email to the world’s voice systems, and a team of researchers in the Georgia Tech College of Computing has found a way to tag fraudulent calls with a digital “fingerprint” that will help separate legitimate calls from phone scams. Voice phishing (or “vishing”) has become much more prevalent [...]
Blind Inventors Develop Free Software to Enable the Blind to Use Computers
For many blind people, computers are inaccessible. It can cost upwards of $1000 to purchase “screen reader” software, but two blind computer programmers have solved this problem. Queensland University of Technology (QUT) graduate James Teh and business partner Michael Curran developed a free, open-source program, called NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access), which provides a synthetic voice [...]
Over a hundred schools using open source
More than a hundred schools across Finland are using open source for all of their desktop PCs, according to Opinsys, an open source services provider. The company assists ninety schools in 28 municipalities with the maintenance of PCs and laptops running Ubuntu Linux. Tens of other schools are managing similar PCs themselves, according to Mikko [...]
Italy to begin an open source competence centre
Italian public administrations considering to use open source can turn to a competence centre specialised in this type of software. The centre, which will be opened tomorrow, aims to foster the development and adoption of open source software. “The Italian Competence Center is a no-profit no-loss consortium, operating on a national scale and addressed to [...]
Children hospitals saving money by using open source
Italian children hospitals are saving money by using the ‘Smart Inclusion project’ using open source technology and offering access to for instance medical data and e-learning applications. According to a statement from the Ministry for Public Administration and Innovation, hospitals can save about 1000 Euro per PC and about 500 per thin client. The project [...]
Citizens ask e-government project to use open source and standards
Two hundred Romanians have signed a petition urging Gabriel Sandu, the Minister for Communications and Information Society, to support open source software on e-government projects. They also ask him to use open standards and to make government data public electronically. The petition was organised by APTI, a Romanian Association for Technology and Internet. It was [...]
Government procurement agency approves use of open source
The Portuguese government agency for public procurement has published a list of open source applications it deems suitable for use by public administrations. The selected open source applications are now part of the official software catalogue published by Portugal’s procurement authority, the Agência Nacional de Compras Públicas, ANCP. Included on ANCP’s list are the database [...]
Open source desktops manage shared office space ministries
Twenty desktop PCs running the Ubuntu Linux distribution are used to manage the services at a shared office building in the Hague for all Dutch ministries, since the beginning of this month. The shared office building, called Rijkskantoor Beatrixpark, facilitates ministries working together on temporary projects, and offers the ministries extra office space when needed.
EFF Asks Illinois Appellate Court to Block Unmasking of Anonymous Online Critic
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Media Freedom and Information Access Practicum (MFIA) at Yale Law School filed a friend-of-the-court brief today urging the Illinois Court of Appeals to block the unmasking of an anonymous online critic of a local political candidate. The critic, commenting on a story on the website of a suburban [...]
New System Makes Household Communication Networks More Versatile
Household network communications is developing so quickly that it is necessary to adapt and change in order to take advantage of the new services and meet the broadband needs that they require. With this objective, a group of UC3M researchers have presented a new proposal for architecture for Residential Gateway or RGW, which is a [...]
Galician government launches a promotion campaign on open source
The government of Galicia, one of Spain’s autonomous regions, wants to boost the use of free and open source software by its public administrations and citizens. The regional ministry for Modernisation and Innovation aims to bring together its previous initiatives on open source, it explains in a statement published on 27 January. Previous initiatives on [...]
Open source to fix mandatory e-government’s service
At least three open source projects in the Czech Republic are working to allow platform independent access to the government’s electronic message service. The mandatory service, called ‘Datove schranky’ (Data boxes) is currently only accessible on computers running Microsoft’s proprietary operating system. The open source development projects started following an appeal by a group of [...]
Valencia migrates three open source GIS tools to OSOR
The ministry of infrastructure and transport in Valencia, one of Spain’s autonomous regions, last week began migration of three of its open source Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications and projects to the European Union’s Open Source Observatory and Repository (OSOR). The applications, gvSIG Carreteras, gvSIG Sandbox and gsSIG Mobile, are currently hosted on the gvSIG [...]
Intel Lifts the Hood on its “Single-Chip Cloud Computer”
Chips that can simulate a supernova or predict a hurricane are yesterday’s goal, if Intel’s recently unveiled 48-core research chip is any indication. Today’s goal is squeezing all the simple but extensive work of a data center onto a single chip. Big IT firms have huge, sophisticated networks of servers, says Justin Rattner, Intel’s chief [...]
Patent Office Grants EFF Request for Reexamination of Dangerous VOIP Patent
Another Big Win for EFF’s Patent Busting Project San Francisco – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has won reexamination of an illegitimate patent on voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) that could cripple the adoption of new VoIP technologies. A company named Acceris Communications Technologies, now C2 Communications Technologies, was awarded the bogus patent for hardware, software, and [...]
Administrations sponsor extension of open source network monitoring tool
Several public administrations in Spain are sponsoring the development of Zorb, an open source extension to Nagios, an open source network monitoring tool. Zorb allows users to fine-tune the processing of events generated from the monitored instances, hosts and services. Zorb has just been published on the OSOR Forge. The development of Zorb is made [...]
Danish state administrations to use ODF
The Danish parliament and the Danish minister for Science this morning agreed that the Danish state administrations should use open standards, including the Open Document Format (ODF), starting on 1 April 2011. A formal vote on the agreement is planned for next Tuesday. Talking to the Danish parliament this morning, Science minister Helge Sander said [...]
Open Source GIS systems to be used by Spanish Wine makers
Wine makers in Spain will soon be able to use the gvSIG open source geographic information services developed in a large part with the help of several of Spain’s public administrations. The gvSIG association announced on 18 January to start working together with a Spanish provider of commercial GIS services. The two will develop and [...]
Police considers moving to open source
The Polish Police force wants to increase its use of free and open source software in order to cut costs, announces Andrzej Trela, Deputy Chief of Police and responsible for logistics, in an interview in the Police force’s monthly newsletter, published on 15 January. The Deputy Chief expects moving to open source will not be [...]
MPAA and RIAA Seek Net Neutrality Copyright Loophole
Last week the MPAA and RIAA submitted their comments in the FCC’s net neutrality proceeding. As anticipated in EFF’s comments, the big media companies are pushing for a copyright loophole to net neutrality. They want to be able to pressure ISPs to block, interfere with, or otherwise discriminate against your perfectly lawful activities in the [...]
Public sector should use open standards
The Commissioner-designate Neelie Kroes wants the public sector to increase its use of open standards, she said in her appearance before a European Parliament committee on 14 January. “Digital society depends on open standards and interoperability, and with this in mind, public organisations must practise what they promote. If they don’t use open standards, why [...]
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