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Phoenix666 writes:

Oracle insists it really is going to sell computers powered by Sparc M7 processors – the same chips it started talking about in 2014.

On Monday, Big Red breathlessly unveiled hardware powered by the beefy microprocessor, and on Tuesday, its supremo Larry Ellison lauded the 64-bit CPU's security defenses.

One of these defenses certainly caught our eye: the ability to tag regions of memory so software hijacked by hackers cannot read or write data it isn't supposed to. This should, we're told, render vulnerabilities such as Heartbleed useless to attackers – more on that in a moment.

[...] The M7 has a defense mechanism called Silicon Secured Memory (SSM) which seems incredibly similar to Oracle's Application Data Integrity (ADI) technology.

ADI works like this: when an application requests some new memory to use via malloc(), the operating system tags the block of memory with a version number, and gives the app a pointer to that memory. The pointer also contains the version number, which is stashed in the top four bits. (A 64-bit pointer doesn't use all 64 bits: the most significant bits are usually all 1s or 0s, and can be used to store metadata.)

Whenever a pointer is used to access a block of memory, the pointer's version number must match the memory block's version number, or an exception will be triggered. The version numbers are checked in real-time by the processor with a tiny overhead – an extra one percent of execution time, according to Oracle's benchmarks.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

The last line of a 17th century poem by John Donne prompted Louise Noble's quest. "Women," the line read, are not only "Sweetness and wit," but "mummy, possessed."

Sweetness and wit, sure. But mummy? In her search for an explanation, Noble, a lecturer of English at the University of New England in Australia, made a surprising discovery: That word recurs throughout the literature of early modern Europe, from Donne's "Love's Alchemy" to Shakespeare's "Othello" and Edmund Spenser's "The Faerie Queene," because mummies and other preserved and fresh human remains were a common ingredient in the medicine of that time. In short: Not long ago, Europeans were cannibals.

[...] "The question was not, 'Should you eat human flesh?' but, 'What sort of flesh should you eat?' " says Sugg. The answer, at first, was Egyptian mummy, which was crumbled into tinctures to stanch internal bleeding. But other parts of the body soon followed. Skull was one common ingredient, taken in powdered form to cure head ailments. Thomas Willis, a 17th-century pioneer of brain science, brewed a drink for apoplexy, or bleeding, that mingled powdered human skull and chocolate. And King Charles II of England sipped "The King's Drops," his personal tincture, containing human skull in alcohol. Even the toupee of moss that grew over a buried skull, called Usnea, became a prized additive, its powder believed to cure nosebleeds and possibly epilepsy. Human fat was used to treat the outside of the body. German doctors, for instance, prescribed bandages soaked in it for wounds, and rubbing fat into the skin was considered a remedy for gout.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Samsung has announced an 18.4" Android tablet called the Samsung Galaxy View. It packs in a 1.6 GHz octa-core SoC, 2 GB of RAM, 32 or 64 GB of storage, and a MicroSDXC slot. The resolution is only 1920×1080. The tablet will weigh 2.65 kg (5.842 lbs).

From AnandTech:

It's pretty obvious just by looking at the specs that the Galaxy View is a unique device. It sports an enormous 18.4" LCD display, with a 1080p resolution. This certainly isn't near as sharp as the screens you'll get on recent smartphones and tablets, but you're also more likely to use the Galaxy View at a farther distance. However, you are ultimately limited by the length of your arms because you need to touch the display, and so a higher resolution probably would have been beneficial, and I would imagine if the Galaxy View ends up being successful to any degree that we'll see an improved display on the next generation.

With that large display comes a very big and heavy chassis. At 2.65kg it is by far the heaviest Android device I have ever seen, apart from perhaps some AIO desktops that include an Android partition for whatever reason. In order to make the Galaxy View easier to handle Samsung has actually build in a kickstand of sorts, and a handle which can be used to carry it around. It honestly seems a bit comical, but then again so have other past devices like the original Galaxy Note, and perhaps it will eventually be normal to see people walking down the street carrying a giant tablet at their side.

[...] Samsung hasn't announced pricing or availability for the Galaxy View yet, but with it now being official those details shouldn't be far off.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Using a simple set of loudspeakers, scientists have figured out a way to levitate and rotate objects in midair. If perfected, this "sonic tractor beam" could find uses ranging from treating kidney stones to creating artificial gravity on the International Space Station.

Scientists have used sound to levitate objects before. That feat isn't surprising, as sound is a wave of pressure strong enough to move your eardrum. However, instead of audible sound, sonic levitation utilizes higher ultrasonic frequencies that are beyond the range of human hearing. When blared from loudspeakers in the right configuration, these sound waves can combine to form a sonic scaffolding called an interference pattern—a sort of a force field that can hold a small object aloft.

[...] The algorithm works by constructing the best possible interference patterns, one that not only keeps the bead floating, but lets it twist and move with some freedom. The interference pattern comes about by adjusting the precise synchronization, or "phases," of the waves leaving the various speakers. By setting the phase differences just right, the researchers make the waves combine to reinforce one another in some places and cancel out one another in other places. In that way they create a complex 3D pattern of high and low pressure regions, which the authors call an "acoustic hologram," that can support the bead against the pull of gravity. As the algorithm tunes the phases, the interference pattern and resulting hologram change, enabling researchers to move the bead around.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Zhongwei Chen, a chemical engineering professor at Waterloo, and a team of graduate students have created a low-cost battery using silicon that boosts the performance and life of lithium-ion batteries. Their findings are published in the latest issue of Nature Communications .

Waterloo's silicon battery technology promises a 40 to 60 per cent increase in energy density, which is important for consumers with smartphones, smart homes and smart wearables.

The environmentally safe technology could also make dramatic improvements for hybrid and electric vehicles. The findings could mean an electric car may be driven up to 500 kilometres between charges and the smaller, lighter batteries may significantly reduce the overall weight of vehicles.

Current lithium-ion batteries normally use graphite anodes. The Waterloo engineers found that silicon anode materials have a much higher capacity for lithium and are capable of producing batteries with almost 10 times more energy.

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

Bruce Schneier's blog talks about the recent hack of CIA director John O. Brennan's AOL account (among others) and says when it comes to social engineering attacks:

The problem is a system that makes this possible, and companies that don't care because they don't suffer the losses. It's a classic market failure, and government intervention is how we have to fix the problem.

It's only when the costs of insecurity exceed the costs of doing it right that companies will invest properly in our security. Companies need to be responsible for the personal information they store about us. They need to secure it better, and they need to suffer penalties if they improperly release it. This means regulatory security standards.

Schneier goes on to suggest the government should establish minimum standards for results and let the market figure out the best way to do it. He also partly blames consumers because they demand any security solutions be easy to use, ending with:

It doesn't have to be this way. We should demand better and more usable security from the companies we do business with and whose services we use online. But because we don't have any real visibility into those companies' security, we should demand our government start regulating the security of these companies as a matter of public safety.

Related: WikiLeaks Publishes CIA Chief's Personal Info

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

Russian scientists are currently training macaques to solve puzzles and use a joystick for a planned 2017 trip to Mars:

Each day a team, led by Inessa Kozlovskaya, trains the monkeys to control a joystick and hit a target highlighted by a cursor.

When they complete the task successfully they are rewarded with a sip of juice.

Once they have mastered this task the macaques will be trained to solve simple mathematical tasks and puzzles.

At the end of their training the creatures should be capable of completing a daily schedule of tasks on their own.

[...] Macaques typically have a lifespan of around 25 years, so it is hoped there is enough time to train them properly and for them to survive the six-month trip to Mars, added the team.

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

"Indistinguishability obfuscation" is a powerful concept that would yield provably secure versions of every cryptographic system we've ever developed and all those we've been unable to develop. But nobody knows how to put it into practice.

Last week, at the IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, MIT researchers showed that the problem of indistinguishability obfuscation is, in fact, a variation on a different cryptographic problem, called efficient functional encryption. And while computer scientists don't know how to do efficient functional encryption, either, they believe that they're close — much closer than they thought they were to indistinguishability obfuscation.

Theorists quickly proved that ideal obfuscation would enable almost any cryptographic scheme that they could dream up. But almost as quickly, they proved that it was impossible: There's always a way to construct a program that can't be perfectly obfuscated.

For years, the idea of indistinguishability obfuscation lay idle. But in the last few years, computer scientists have shown how to construct indistinguishability-obfuscation schemes from mathematical objects called multilinear maps. Remarkably, they also showed that even the weaker notion of indistinguishability obfuscation could yield all of cryptography.

http://scienceblog.com/80939/is-a-new-basis-for-all-cryptography-at-hand/

[Also Covered By]: http://phys.org/news/2015-10-basis-cryptography.html

[Source]: http://news.mit.edu/2015/secure-foundation-any-cryptographic-system-1028

[Paper]: https://eprint.iacr.org/2015/163.pdf [PDF]

Original Submission

Runaway1956 writes:

There is a particularly devious type of malicious software that locks users out of their own computer systems until an individual agrees to pay a ransom to the hackers. In these cases, the FBI has surprisingly suggested just ponying up the dough.

It's not the type of advice one would typically expected from the FBI, but that's exactly what was recommended by Joseph Bonavolonta, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's CYBER and Counterintelligence Program Boston office.

"The ransomware is that good," said Bonavolonta at the 2015 Cyber Security Summit in Boston, as quoted by Security Ledger. "To be honest, we often advise people just to pay the ransom."

https://www.rt.com/usa/319913-fbi-pay-ransomware-hackers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Yeah, it's RT, but I did a search, and that or similar headlines popped up on dozens of news sites. I clicked a couple of them, and the stories match. Try this one,
https://thehackernews.com/2015/10/fbi-ransomware-malware.html

Personally, I can almost certainly afford to nuke and reinstall, unless they get my RAID array. Then - I'd have to think hard.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Twitter reported a rise in revenue for the three months to September but the pace of growth in active users was the slowest since it joined the stock market in 2013.

Twitter had 320 million average active monthly users, up from 316 million the previous quarter, below investor hopes.

The social networking site reported revenues of $569m, up 58% from $361m during the same period last year.

The company's shares fell 11% after the results announcement.

Revenues up, active users up, shares down.

Original Submission

tt0085333 writes:

The wireless update of vehicles to Version 7.0 of Tesla software enabled properly equipped cars to steer, switch lanes, and manage speed on its own. A number of Tesla drivers immediately took to the road to test the limits of Autopilot—taking their hands fully off the wheel and seeing how far the car could drive itself down highways, country lanes, and suburban streets.

That led to dangerous situations and near accidents, as evidenced by videos made by drivers (while driving) and posted to YouTube.

Original Submission

VanderDecken writes:

The CBC reports:

Also covered at phys.org. An abstract (with figures) is available; full article is pay-walled.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Rehearsing information immediately after being given it may be all you need to make it a permanent memory, a University of Sussex study suggests.

Psychologists found that the same area of the brain activated when laying down a memory is also activated when rehearsing that memory.

The findings, published on Oct. 27, 2015 in the Journal of Neuroscience, have implications for any situation in which accurate recall of an event is critical, such as witnessing an accident or crime.

The study showed that the brain region known as the posterior cingulate—an area whose damage is often seen in those with Alzheimer's—plays a crucial role in creating permanent memories.

This region not only helps us to recall the episodic details of an event but also integrates the memory into our knowledge and understanding, which makes it resistant to forgetting.

Original Submission

"gewg_" writes:

El Reg reports

A father who shot down a drone that was hovering over his family home in Kentucky has been cleared of all charges.

Dad-of-two William Merideth thought the quadcopter was spying on his daughters in their yard in Hillview and blasted the gizmo out of the sky with a shotgun. That earned him the title "Drone Slayer" from pro-privacy quarters.

Merideth was arrested shortly after in July and charged with criminal mischief and wanton endangerment.

He appeared before the Bullitt County District Court on Monday this week and after a two and a half hour hearing, Judge Rebecca Ward dismissed the case against him.

"I was in my right to protect my family and my property", said Merideth.

The judge agreed, telling the court: "He had a right to shoot at this drone."

David Boggs, who owned the downed drone, was hoping to get the cost of the machine in compensation and said he will ask the Commonwealth's Attorney's office to take the case to a grand jury--or consider pursuing a civil case against Merideth.

Previous: Man Arrested for Shooting Down Drone Flying Over His Property

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Visions of cars that drive themselves without emitting a bit of pollution while entertaining passengers with online movies and social media are what's taking center stage at the Tokyo Motor Show.

Japan, home to the world's top-selling automaker, has a younger generation disinterested in owning or driving cars. The show is about wooing them back. It's also about pushing an ambitious government-backed plan that paints Japan as a leader in automated driving technology.
...
some automakers at the show are packing the technology into what looks more like a golf cart or scooter than a car, such as Honda Motor Co.'s cubicle-like Wander Stand and Wander Walker scooter.

Instead of trying to venture on freeways and other public roads, these are designed for controlled environments, restricted to shuttling people to pre-determined destinations.

A prescient Soylentil observed here last year that one day soon driving your own car will be illegal. That might bear out.

Original Submission