Author: kenmay

Quad Lasers Deliver Fast, Earth-Based Internet To the Moon

A joint project involving NASA and MIT researchers had demonstrated technology that could supply a lunar colony with broadband via lasers (“faster Internet access than many U.S. homes get”) and has already demonstrated its worth in communications with spacecraft. From ComputerWorld’s article: “The Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) kicked off last September with the launch of NASA’s LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer), a research satellite now orbiting the moon. NASA built a laser communications module into LADEE for use in the high-speed wireless experiment. LLCD has already proved itself, transmitting data from LADEE to Earth at 622Mbps (bits per second) and in the other direction at 19.44Mbps, according to MIT. It beat the fastest-ever radio communication to the moon by a factor of 4, 800.” Communicating at such distances means overcoming various challenges; one of the biggest is the variability in Earth’s atmosphere. The LLCD doesn’t try to power through the atmosphere at only one spot, therefore, but uses four separate beams in the New Mexico desert, each aimed “through a different column of air, where the light-bending effects of the atmosphere are slightly different. That increases the chance that at least one of the beams will reach the receiver on the LADEE. Test results have been promising, according to MIT, with the 384, 633-kilometer optical link providing error-free performance in both darkness and bright sunlight, through partly transparent thin clouds, and through atmospheric turbulence that affected signal power.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Quad Lasers Deliver Fast, Earth-Based Internet To the Moon

Prosecutors: ex-LulzSec hacker “Sabu” helped authorities stop 300+ cyberattacks

The much delayed sentencing of former LulzSec hacker-turned-FBI informant Hector “Sabu” Monsegur is set to take place next week. But before any decisions are made public, new court documents  (PDF) show Monsegur has helped the feds disrupt more than 300 attacks against targets ranging from the US military to NASA, Congress to private companies. “The amount of loss prevented by Monsegur’s actions is difficult to fully quantify, but even a conservative estimate would yield a loss prevention figure in the millions of dollars,” the document stated. The tale of Sabu’s arrest and LulzSec’s fall: FBI still needs Hector “Sabu” Monsegur, sentencing delayed (again) “Literally” the day he was arrested, hacker “Sabu” helped the FBI LulzSec leader “Sabu” worked with FBI since last summer FBI names, arrests Anon who infiltrated its secret conference call Inside the hacking of Stratfor: the FBI’s case against Antisec member Anarchaos All the latest on the unmasking of LulzSec leader “Sabu,” arrests Stakeout: how the FBI tracked and busted a Chicago Anon Doxed: how Sabu was outed by former Anons long before his arrest Anonymous attacks security firm as revenge for LulzSec arrests “Everything incriminating has been burned”: Anons fight panic after Sabu betrayal Monsegur assisted in high-profile hacks of security firm HBGary and others as a member of LulzSec, a sect of Anonymous. He began cooperating with the FBI in June 2011 after his arrest at the Jacob Riis public housing complex in New York City. His work for the feds began immediately . Eventually Monsegur  helped the government build cases  against numerous Anonymous hackers, including Stratfor hacker Jeremy Hammond . He apparently also assisted the government in its  investigation of Wikileaks . According to the  New York Times , prosecutors filed the new documents because they are asking Judge Loretta A. Preska for leniency in light of Monsegur’s “extraordinary cooperation.” Sentencing in Monsegur’s case is currently scheduled for Tuesday in a Federal District Court in Manhattan. But while some of the other hackers in the LulzSec saga have faced steep penalties (for example, Hammond is serving a 10-year sentence), the government has asked for Monsegur to only be sentenced to time served— just seven months . Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Prosecutors: ex-LulzSec hacker “Sabu” helped authorities stop 300+ cyberattacks

Viewdns.info Combines Tons of Internet Troubleshooting Tools Into One Web Page

When you are trying to troubleshoot internet connection issues, knowledge is power. Viewdns.info consolidates 21 different tests on one handy page. Read more…

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Viewdns.info Combines Tons of Internet Troubleshooting Tools Into One Web Page

​1PasswordAnywhere Lets You Access Your 1Password Vault on The Web

1Password is one of our favorite password managers , and it can sync to all your devices via Dropbox. Once you sync your vault of passwords, 1Password actually lets you access them on any device—without installing the app. Read more…

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​1PasswordAnywhere Lets You Access Your 1Password Vault on The Web

New Middleware Promises Dramatically Higher Speeds, Lower Power Draw For SSDs

mrspoonsi (2955715) writes “A breakthrough has been made in SSD technology that could mean drastic performance increases due to the overcoming of one of the major issues in the memory type. Currently, data cannot be directly overwritten onto the NAND chips used in the devices. Files must be written to a clean area of the drive whilst the old area is formatted. This eventually causes fragmented data and lowers the drive’s life and performance over time. However, a Japanese team at Chuo University have finally overcome the issue that is as old as the technology itself. Officially unveiled at the 2014 IEEE International Memory Workshop in Taipei, the researchers have written a brand new middleware for the drives that controls how the data is written to and stored on the device. Their new version utilizes what they call a ‘logical block address scrambler’ which effectively prevents data being written to a new ‘page’ on the device unless it is absolutely required. Instead, it is placed in a block to be erased and consolidated in the next sweep. This means significantly less behind-the-scenes file copying that results in increased performance from idle.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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New Middleware Promises Dramatically Higher Speeds, Lower Power Draw For SSDs

Wireless broadband can reach the moon, and maybe Mars

Prescott Pym Aside from air, water and fresh vegetables, what would need to survive on the moon? One thing that would likely of feature high on the list is a decent, reliable wireless internet. And thanks to a group of researches from MIT and Nasa this kind of connectivity could be within the realms of possibility. Between them, the two organizations have demonstrated for the first time that data communication technology is capable of providing those in space with the same kind of connectivity we enjoy on Earth, and can even facilitate large data transfers and high-definition video streaming. To do this it uses four separate telescopes based at a ground terminal in New Mexico to send the uplink signal to the moon. A laser transmitter that can send information as coded pulses of invisible infrared light feeds into each of the telescopes, which results in 40 watts of transmitter power. Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Wireless broadband can reach the moon, and maybe Mars

Milan building will pioneer smog-eating cement

When the Milan Expo opens next year, the centerpiece building will be a masterpiece of sustainable engineering. Designed around the idea of an urban forest, the new Palazzo Italia will generate its own electricity, and will be clad in materials specifically designed to clean the surrounding air. The designers, Nemesi & Partners, are using photocatalytic cement – basically, concrete that’s been mixed with titanium oxide. When the building material comes into contact with ultraviolet light, the titanium oxide reacts with nitrogen dioxide in the air, converting the pollutant to a salt that can easily be washed away. The building will open in time for the Expo’s launch next May, and we’re already planning to book a trip over so that we can spend a day sniffing the air next to the building. Filed under: Misc Comments Via: The Creators Project , GizMag Source: Nemesi Studio , Italcementi

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Milan building will pioneer smog-eating cement

Century-Old Time Capsule Mystery Finally Solved

Last year, a church congregation in Grand Ledge, Michigan cracked open a time capsule from 1912 filled with all the usual suspects: photos, newspapers, and newsletters. Basically, it had all the boring stuff you’d expect a church to put in their time capsule in 1912. But there was one single mystery item: a neat little package wrapped in brown paper . It was quite the puzzler. Until now. Read more…

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Century-Old Time Capsule Mystery Finally Solved

Star Wars with Chinese characteristics

Jeff writes, “Chinese historian Maggie Greene has recently written about one of the strangest treasures in her collection: a Chinese comic book version of Star Wars from 1980 , which she aptly describes (with scans to prove it!) as ‘a fascinating document’ that includes images she thinks may reveal ‘a fanciful imagining’ of life in a then dimly understood America or generalized West. Read the rest

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Star Wars with Chinese characteristics