Category: reader

Sand-Based Anode Triples Lithium-Ion Battery Performance

Zothecula (1870348) writes “Conventional lithium-ion batteries rely on anodes made of graphite, but it is widely believed that the performance of this material has reached its zenith, prompting researchers to look at possible replacements. Much of the focus has been on nanoscale silicon, but it remains difficult to produce in large quantities and usually degrades quickly. Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have overcome these problems by developing a lithium-ion battery anode using sand.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Sand-Based Anode Triples Lithium-Ion Battery Performance

Self-Guided Bullets That Change Course Midair Are Now Terrifyingly Real

The military masterminds at DARPA have just changed everything you think you know about bullets. Meet the Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance, or EXACTO , a .50 caliber bullet that maneuvers itself midair to stay locked on target . Here’s footage of the first live test : it sure as hell looks like the technology works. Read more…

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Self-Guided Bullets That Change Course Midair Are Now Terrifyingly Real

Chinese Hackers Infiltrate Firms Using Malware-Laden Handheld Scanners

wiredmikey (1824622) writes “China-based threat actors are using sophisticated malware installed on handheld scanners to target shipping and logistics organizations from all over the world. According to security firm TrapX, the attack begins at a Chinese company that provides hardware and software for handheld scanners used by shipping and logistics firms worldwide to inventory the items they’re handling. The Chinese manufacturer installs the malware on the Windows XP operating systems embedded in the devices. Experts determined that the threat group targets servers storing corporate financial data, customer data and other sensitive information. A second payload downloaded by the malware then establishes a sophisticated C&C on the company’s finance servers, enabling the attackers to exfiltrate the information they’re after. The malware used by the Zombie Zero attackers is highly sophisticated and polymorphic, the researchers said. In one attack they observed, 16 of the 48 scanners used by the victim were infected, and the malware managed to penetrate the targeted organization’s defenses and gain access to servers on the corporate network. Interestingly, the C&C is located at the Lanxiang Vocational School, an educational institution said to be involved in the Operation Aurora attacks against Google, and which is physically located only one block away from the scanner manufacturer, TrapX said.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Chinese Hackers Infiltrate Firms Using Malware-Laden Handheld Scanners

Judge orders unmasking of Amazon.com “negative” reviewers

A federal judge has granted a nutritional supplement firm’s request to help it learn the identities of those who allegedly left “phony negative” reviews of its products on Amazon.com. The decision means that Ubervita may issue subpoena’s to Amazon.com and Cragslist to cough up the identities of those behind a “campaign of dirty tricks against Ubervita in a wrongful effort to put Ubervita at a competitive disadvantage in the marketplace .” (PDF). According to a lawsuit by the maker of testosterone boosters, multivitamins and weight loss supplements, unknown commenters  had placed fraudulent orders “to disrupt Ubervita’s inventory,” posted a Craigslist ad “to offer cash for favorable reviews of Ubervita products,” and posed “as dissatisfied Ubervita customers in posting phony negative reviews of Ubervita products, in part based on the false claim that Ubervita pays for positive reviews.” Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Judge orders unmasking of Amazon.com “negative” reviewers

The E-Label Act may rid your future gadgets of FCC logos

Let’s try something really quickly: pull your phone out, flip it over, and maybe squint at it a bit. Chances are you’ll see a series of FCC-mandated pictograms emblazoned there, little images you’ve probably never paid attention to before. If US senators Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Virginia) get their way though, those curious icons may soon become a thing of past . Instead, the pair wants to replace those etchings with more informative digital equivalents that users can peek at if they so chose. Alas, your gadgets might not be completely clean if the bill passes — there are still those pesky CE labels to gaze upon. Anyway, it wasn’t long before the FCC released a set of guidelines for what should be displayed and how… but of course it did. FCC commissioner Michael O’Rielly wrote a blog post pushing to make e-labels a thing months ago. Why are these folks getting so worked up over digital vs. physical labels? There’s the design argument, for one. No longer will your shiny smartphone or terrific tablet be marred by oblique symbols. Manufacturers won’t have to worry about the very process of etching tiny logos on everything they make either, and Rockefeller thinks that’ll mean ultimately mean “lower device costs for consumers” too. We’re looking forward to seeing how right these folks may or may not be, but (just like anything involving US law-making) it’ll take a while to see anything concrete. Filed under: Mobile Comments Source: The Hill

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The E-Label Act may rid your future gadgets of FCC logos

FCC Approves Plan To Spend $5B Over Next Five Years On School Wi-Fi

itwbennett writes: The Federal Communications Commission, in a 3-2 party-line vote Friday, approved a plan to revamp the 17-year-old E-Rate program, which pays for telecom services for schools and libraries, by phasing out funding for voice service, Web hosting and paging services, and redirecting money to Wi-Fi. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler had proposed a $5 billion budget for Wi-Fi, but Republican commissioners and some lawmakers had questioned where the money would come from. Still, the E-Rate revamp (PDF) approved Friday contemplates a $1 billion-a-year target for Wi-Fi projects “year after year, ” Wheeler said. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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FCC Approves Plan To Spend $5B Over Next Five Years On School Wi-Fi

Dropbox will now sync large files a bit faster, thanks to streaming sync.

Dropbox will now sync large files a bit faster, thanks to streaming sync. As the name suggests, streaming sync enables large files to overlap the upload and download phases so that downloads can begin while uploads are still in progress. The update will roll out to desktop clients soon. Read more on the Dropbox blog . Read more…

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Dropbox will now sync large files a bit faster, thanks to streaming sync.

The Best Free and Cheap Apps in the App Store Sixth Anniversary Sale

Apple has gotten in the wonderful little habit of discounting some of its most beloved App Store fare for its birthday, and this year is no different. In honor of the sixth anniversary of the App Store, Apple developers have kindly discounted a whole slew of gems for you. We’ve picked out the best of the bunch. Read more…

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The Best Free and Cheap Apps in the App Store Sixth Anniversary Sale

California Oil Spill Turns Out to Be a Freakishly Massive Amount of Fish

Earlier this week in La Jolla, California, what appeared to be a massive oil spill in the water began creeping towards the beach. However, closer inspection revealed that the inky cloud was not a batch of Exxon-Mobil’s finest at all, but an enormous school of fish. Specifically, anchovies. (more…)

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California Oil Spill Turns Out to Be a Freakishly Massive Amount of Fish

Peer Review Ring Broken – 60 Articles Retracted

blackbeak (1227080) writes The Washington Post reports that the Journal of Vibration and Control’s review system was hijacked by a ring of reviewers. 60 articles have been retracted as a result. “After a 14-month investigation, JVC determined the ring involved “aliases” and fake e-mail addresses of reviewers — up to 130 of them — in an apparently successful effort to get friendly reviews of submissions and as many articles published as possible by Chen and his friends.’On at least one occasion, the author Peter Chen reviewed his own paper under one of the aliases he created, ‘ according to the SAGE announcement.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Peer Review Ring Broken – 60 Articles Retracted