Drei kalifornische Unternehmer entwickeln derzeit eine Box, die Online-Werbung für immer verbannen soll. Adtrap soll bei der Markteinführung 120 Dollar kosten und für Modifikationen offen sein. Dadurch soll das System von den Nutzern ständig aktualisiert werden und gegenüber Gegenmassnahmen der Werbeindustrie immun sein. "Für einen Aufpreis von zwölf Dollar können wir die Box auch ins Ausland versenden", schreiben die Gründer. Derzeit suchen die Kalifornier die finanzielle Unterstützung der Kickstarter-Gemeinde.
2012 ist das Jahr des 100. Geburtstages des englischen Informatikpioniers Alan Turing. Der geniale Mathematiker hat sich grosse Verdienste erworben als Schöpfer der (universellen) Turingmaschine und als Kryptoanalytiker (Knacken der mit der Enigma verschlüsselten Funksprüche der deutschen Marine).
Rund 16 Mio. aller Briten wissen nicht, wie man das Internet nutzt und können mit Suchmaschinen, E-Mails, webbasierten Applikationen und sozialen Netzwerken nichts anfangen. Zu diesem Ergebnis kommt das Marktforschungsinstitut Booz & Company, das die Internet-Kompetenz der Briten untersucht hat.
Physiker der Johannes Kepler-Universität (JKU) in Linz ist es offenbar gelungen, einen Kristall zu züchten, der in Zukunft den Bau von deutlich schnelleren Computern ermöglichen soll.
Der Smartphone-Hersteller Research In Motion (RIM) hat bekannt gegeben, dass die ersten beiden Blackberry 10 (BB10) basierten Smartphones am 30. Januar 2013 verfügbar werden.
Die Swisscom kontert auf die Offensive der UPC Cablecom beim Digitalfernsehen und bietet ihren Kunden, die über ein DSL-Internet-Monatsabo verfügen, mit "Swisscom TV light" nun ebenfalls kostenloses Digital-Fernsehen an, wie das Unternehmen ankündigt.
Samsung dreht an der Preisschraube für jene Prozessoren, die das koreanische Unternehmen für seinen Konkurrenten Apple produziert. Wie MarketWatch unter Bezug auf einen Insider berichtet, muss der US-Konzern nun 20 Prozent mehr Geld für die Hardware hinlegen.
Der ägyptische Investors Naguib Sawiris hat der Telecom Italia ein Angebot für den Einstieg in das Unternehmen vorgelegt. Dies teilte Telecom Italia auf Anfrage der Mailänder Börsenaufsichtsbehörde Consob mit. Gerüchte über das Interesse Sawiris hatten die Aktien der Telecom Italia zuletzt beflügelt. Am Montag legten sie um sechs Prozent zu.
Die Deutsche Telekom verstärkt ihren Kampf gegen Cyberangriffe. Vorstand Reinhard Clemens wirbt für eine neue IT-Sicherheitstruppe in der deutschen Wirtschaft und ruft die Wettbewerber zur Gründung eines neuen Unternehmens auf.
Die Schuldenkrise hat die auf Geldautomatenlösungen spezialisierte Paderborner Wincor Nixdorf offenbar fest im Griff. Die Investitionszurückhaltung der Wincor-Kunden - Banken und Handel - sowie Restrukturierungskosten in Höhe von 40 Millionen Euro liessen den Gewinn im Bilanzjahr 2011/12 einbrechen, wie Wincor am Montag mitteilte.
Dupple writes in with some news from the team at the Large Hadron Collider. "Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider have detected one of the rarest particle decays seen in Nature. The finding deals a significant blow to the theory of physics known as supersymmetry. Many researchers had hoped the LHC would have confirmed this by now. Supersymmetry, or SUSY, has gained popularity as a way to explain some of the inconsistencies in the traditional theory of subatomic physics known as the Standard Model. The new observation, reported at the Hadron Collider Physics conference in Kyoto, is not consistent with many of the most likely models of SUSY. Prof Chris Parke, who is the spokesperson for the UK Participation in the LHCb experiment, told BBC News: 'Supersymmetry may not be dead but these latest results have certainly put it into hospital.'"
First time accepted submitter RNLockwood writes "Political.com reports that several petitions to secede from the Union have been created at the White House site, We The People, for many states; all since Obama's re-election. Texas and Louisiana lead the list with Texas needing only 7,000 more signatures to qualify for a White House response, probably less now as more Americans have become aware of the petitions. It would be interesting to see a comparison done of these petitions and the Post Election Racist Tweets Map."
thomst writes "Tim Wogan reports that chemical engineer Zhenan Bao of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, and her team have increased the conductivity of a self-healing polymer by incorporating nickel atoms. The polymer they have produced is sensitive to applied forces like pressure and torsion (twisting) because such forces alter the distance between the nickel atoms, changing the electrical resistance of the polymer. Their work is published online in the November 1 issue of Nature Nanotechnology (abstract here, full article paywalled). Now Bao and her team are working on making the polymer more flexible."
New submitter thn writes "John McAfee, who started the antivirus software giant named after him, has been accused of murder in Belize and is wanted. McAfee had taken to 'posting on a drug-focused Russian message board...about his attempts to purify the psychoactive compounds colloquially known as "bath salts,"' Gizmodo wrote. The scariest aspect of this story may be the fact that an entire lab was constructed for John McAfee's research purposes. Because of his efforts to extract chemicals from natural chemical plans McAfee was able to justify his experiments in a country that is largely unregulated."
benrothke writes "Advanced persistent threat (APT) is one of the most common information security terms used today and it is an undeniably real and dangerous menace. Wikipedia notes that APT's usually refer to a group, such as a foreign government, with both the capability and the intent to persistently and effectively target a specific entity. The term is commonly used to refer to cyber threats, in particular that of Internet-enabled espionage using a variety of intelligence gathering techniques to access sensitive information, but applies equally to other threats such as that of traditional espionage or attack. Every organization of size and scope is a target, and many of the world's largest firms and governments have been victims. In Reverse Deception: Organized Cyber Threat Counter-Exploitation, Dr. Max Kilger and his co-authors provide an effective counterintelligence approach in which to deal with APT. The good news is that the authors provide an effective framework. The bad news is that creating an effective defense is not an easy undertaking." Keep reading below for the rest of Ben's review.
dotarray writes "Valve's Gabe Newell has confirmed that they are building the Source 2 engine, but haven't yet had the game to roll it out with. From the article: 'If you're not smiling yet, you'll definitely be doing so after you hear how the announcement was made. It was Gabe Newell's birthday on November 3rd, and 4Chan's /v/ (videogames) board decided to pay him a surprise visit. In addition to an enormous birthday card signed by many of /v/'s regulars, they also gave him an an actual Mann-Co crate, which he had to pay $2.50 to unlock in order to receive the gift of a combat helmet similar to the one worn by the Team Fortress 2 soldier. Irony at its best.'"
miller60 writes "The new Top500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers is out, and the new champion is Titan, the new and improved system that previously ruled the Top500 as Jaguar. Oak Ridge Labs' Titan knocked Livermore Labs' Sequoia system out of the top spot, with a Linpack benchmark of more than 17 petaflops a second. Check out the full list, or an illustrated guide to the top 10."
Zothecula writes "Ever wanted a life-like miniature of yourself or loved ones? Now's your chance, thanks to Omote 3D, which will soon be opening what's described as the world's first 3D printing photo booth in Harajuku, Japan. There, visitors will have their bodies scanned into a computer, a process which takes about 15 minutes. Then the company prints your statuette on their 3D color printer in one of three sizes."
YokimaSun writes "This may be one of those projects that will get trounced on soon enough like the great Bleemcast Project, but a group of developers calling themselves the PPSSPP Project have released the first PSP Emulator for the Android OS, the emulator lets you play PSP Games with a touchscreen which was something PSP owners had wanted for years. At the moment games that are playable are Puzzle Bobble Deluxe, Puyo Pop Fever & Pinball Fantasies. The emulator has also been released for Windows and BlackBerry."
Nerval's Lobster writes "The use of a Red Team and penetration testing can strengthen an organization's security posture. But how does a Red Team member actually think like an attacker, and use that mindset to exploit security vulnerabilities? Gillis Jones works for WhiteHat Security, where his job rests within the TRC (Threat Research Center). It's here that he performs hands-on site assessments, which involve manually confirming all the issues reported by an automatic scan of a particular Website or application. His job includes checking the application's POST and GET requests for reflection of any inputs. He also checks for Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), which includes stored, reflected, and DOM XSS vulnerabilities. Those checks let him determine the Website’s basic security posture. If user input isn’t encoded or sanitized, that’s a good indicator of other problems. And if that’s the case, then Jones (or someone like him) will move on to checking for SQL Injection (SQLi) vulnerabilities and other issues."
hypnosec writes "Kim Dotcom has revealed that Megaupload's successor Mega, which is reportedly launching on January 20, 2013, will be operating through a new domain name Mega.co.nz. Through a tweet Dotcom announced that Mega has found a new home and that the new domain name is protected by the law. Dotcom also revealed that lobbyists won't be able to do anything about this as "judges are not influenced by politics in New Zealand". Recent announcements about Mega's domain – Me.ga didn't go as planned following a decision by the Government of Gabon to suspend the domain name. Dotcom had announced at the time that despite the blockage, Mega would launch as planned."
EthanV2 writes "The Wall Street Journal cites a report which quotes a 'person familiar with negotiations between the two tech giants,' apparently confirming this special price hike for Apple. The source said: 'Samsung Electronics recently asked Apple for a significant price raise in (the mobile processor known as) application processor. Apple first disapproved it, but finding no replacement supplier, it accepted the [increase].'"
Hugh Pickens writes writes "The WSJ reports that widespread disruptions to Google in China over the weekend halting use of everything from Google's search engine to its Gmail email service to its Google Play mobile-applications store underscore the uncertainty surrounding Beijing's effort to control the flow of information into the country, as well as the risks that effort poses to the government's efforts to draw global businesses.The source of the disruptions couldn't be determined but Internet experts pointed to China's Internet censorship efforts, which have been ratcheted up ahead of the 18th Party Congress. 'There appears to be a throttling under way of Web access,' says David Wolf, citing recent articles in foreign media about corruption and wealth in China spurred by the party congress and the fall of former party star Bo Xilai, 'that's their primary concern, people getting news either through Google or through its services.' Beijing risks a backlash if it were to block Google outright on a long-term basis, says Wolf and such a move could put Beijing in violation of its free-trade commitment under the World Trade Organization and make China a less-attractive place to do business. 'If China insists in the medium and long term of creating another Great Firewall between the China cloud and the rest of the world, China will be an increasingly untenable place to do business.'"
The screenwriter of Toy Story 3, and Little Miss Sunshine, Michael Arndt is writing the script for Star Wars: Episode VII according to Lucasfilm. From the article: "...The new movie has just entered pre-production and is slated to be released in 2015. It was announced just last month as Disney acquired Lucasfilm, but there’s still no word on what the major plot points of the new chapter will entail. However, Vulture reports that 'the studio’s brass want to bring back the three central characters of the original Star Wars: a much older Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo. No deals are in place with any of the original actors, though our source did say it had high ambition to sign up Mark Hamill, and EW recently reported that Harrison Ford was open to the idea of returning.'"
Barence writes "A British man has been arrested for posting a picture of a burning poppy on Facebook. The poppy is a symbol of remembrance for those who died in war, and the arrest was made on Remembrance Sunday. 'A man from Aylesham has tonight been arrested on suspicion of malicious telecommunications,' Kent police said in a statement after the arrest. 'This follows a posting on a social network site of a burning poppy. He is currently in police custody awaiting interview.' The arrest has been criticized by legal experts. 'What was the point of winning either World War if, in 2012, someone can be casually arrested by @Kent_police for burning a poppy?' tweeted David Allen Green, who helped clear the British man who was prosecuted for a joke tweet threatening to blow up an airport."